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EVELYN WAUGH

Name: EVELYN WAUGH
Author: Martin Stannard
ISBN: 0-393-03412-7

THE LATER YEARS, 1939-1966

by Martin Stannard ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1992

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The second and final installment of Stannard's monumental, definitive biography (Evelyn Waugh, 1987) of one of the 20th century's most accomplished—and, apparently, misanthropic— writers. Stannard (English/Univ. of Leicester) incorporates hundreds of previously unpublished documents and unreported interviews in picking up Waugh's tale on the eve of WW II. Britain plunges into the war, and Waugh wangles his way into one of the elite (i.e., aristocrat-led) military units. Thus, army life did nothing to temper Waugh's all-pervasive hauteur. His military career, however, was little short of disastrous, as the writer—surly, snobbish, and almost perpetually soused—was deemed unfit to command a regiment, a fact that rankled and eventually embittered him. With war's end, Waugh's most subtly wrought novel, Brideshead Revisited, was published to widespread acclaim both in Britain and the US. Royalties poured in, and the author was launched on a spendthrift's path to penury. The Loved One, a satire of America's bizarre funerary fashions, proved an even greater success in 1948, and soon Waugh was moving in exalted circles. His fellow-Catholic author Graham Greene was an intimate; Thomas Merton confided in him; Ian Fleming's wife, Ann, according to Stannard no slouch herself at backbiting, kept Waugh supplied with vicious gossip. An especially engrossing section here deals with Waugh's bout with psychosis, during which he heard voices accusing him of worthlessness and perversity. Stannard's depiction of his subject's unconventional home life is equally revealing. A no-holds-barred yet ultimately moving portrait of a major literary talent. (Photographs—not seen.)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1992

ISBN: 0-393-03412-7

Page Count: 512

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1992

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.