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THE TASTE OF CONQUEST

Name: THE TASTE OF CONQUEST
Author: Michael Krondl
ISBN: 978-0-345-48083-5

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THREE GREAT CITIES OF SPICE

by Michael Krondl ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 30, 2007

Many separate strands of this compelling story deserve to be pursued further by more focused historians.

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A muddy walk through the history of Venice, Lisbon and Amsterdam, whose heydays were all linked to the lucrative spice trade.

Food writer Krondl (Around the American Table: Treasured Recipes and Food Traditions from the American Cookery Collections of the New York Public Library, 1995, etc.) debunks the myth that spices were used over the centuries to mask rancid food. He attempts to understand the demand that prompted Europeans to explore and conquer the world. Spices were a luxury, often used as payment and literally worth their weight in gold. Coming from exotic places few could reach, they represented the aroma and taste of paradise. Fantastic profits could be made in the spice trade. With its strong links to the Byzantine Empire, Venice muscled in on the Mediterranean route, and soon “pepper was the lubricant of trade.” The Crusades spread the taste for spices, but the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453 effectively sealed the Venetians’ routes. Soon the Portuguese made incursions. King João I sent out looting caravels for West African gold and melegueta pepper; Portuguese explorers braved the seas around the Cape of Good Hope in search of Prester John and Indian black pepper. Vasco da Gama made a momentous advance for the Portuguese by establishing a route from Lisbon to the Spice Islands in the South Pacific. When the Portuguese crown fell to Philip II of Spain in 1580, the prosperous Dutch, inspired by Jan Huyghen van Linschoten’s how-to on the spice trade, took up the slack through the corporate arms of the East India Company. Krondl scrambles and dodges to cover an enormous amount of ground, from spice wars and slavery to disease and the use of spices for medicinal purposes. Trying to do too much, he produces a loose, unscholarly text that many will find difficult to digest.

Many separate strands of this compelling story deserve to be pursued further by more focused historians.

Pub Date: Oct. 30, 2007

ISBN: 978-0-345-48083-5

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2007

Categories:

HISTORY | WORLD | 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.