A well-researched, wonderfully told story of two women of their times.
An in-depth dual biography of two accomplished spinsters who never met.
British author Veevers works for the Wordsworth Trust and, as Anna Dean, writes popular historical mysteries featuring Dido Kent as a savvy detective in Georgian England (A Place of Confinement, 2012, etc.). In this entertaining biography, written in an intimate, personal style, the author employs a chronological narrative to explore the different ways in which these two women responded to the obstacles presented by Georgian society. They “were not simply products of their time. They made choices in their lives, and it was those choices which defined them.” Veevers uses Austen’s Dashwood sisters from Sense and Sensibility as markers: Jane (1775-1817) was more “cautious” and sensible like Elinor, while Dorothy (1717-1855), with her eagerness in everything, sorrows or joys, was “impetuous” like Marianne. Dorothy was an orphan who was separated from her brothers early on, while Jane’s life was more stable, allowing her to spend more time with her much-loved brothers. Jane had more formal education, but they were both intelligent, well-read, and loved to write. Jane had her novels, Dorothy her letters, poetry, and journals. The Austen family members were traditional Anglicans; Dorothy lived in more freethinking households. In an age when marriage was seen as a must for women, Jane, although she had her suitors, was never in love. Dorothy, Veevers writes, believed it “would be ‘absurd’ for her to think of marriage.” When her beloved poet-brother William married Mary Hutchinson in 1802, they all lived together in Dove Cottage. William “attempted to bind her to him more firmly than ever.” Veevers is adamant that there is “nothing to suggest that [Dorothy’s love for him] was—at its beginning—a sexual attraction.” Their close friend Thomas De Quincey was quick to deny it, as well. William was the “emotional centre” of Dorothy’s world.
A well-researched, wonderfully told story of two women of their times.Pub Date: April 3, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-68177-678-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Pegasus
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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