A memoir of the late British Fascist leader by his novelist son Nicholas Mosley (Judith, 1990, Serpent, 1989, etc.) may seem problematic, but as a biography of a controversial father by a loving and cleareyed son it is surprisingly charming. The Mosleys, it seems, were a very rum lot. Both Sir Oswald's father and grandfather lived apart from their wives, supposedly, in the case of his father, because of the man's insatiable and promiscuous sexual habits. Though Sir Oswald's own marriage to the daughter of Lord Curzon, the British foreign secretary, seems to have been a loving one, it was characterized by constant infidelities; Sir Oswald seems to have made love not only to most of his wife's friends but to her sister and her stepmother as well. He entered Parliament as a Conservative at age 22, became an Independent, then a Labor candidate, and was appointed to Ramsay MacDonald's cabinet in his 30's. He was regarded as one of the finest orators in the House of Commons, and as a possible future prime minister. But this was during the Depression, and Sir Oswald, to the left of the Labor Party, seems to have been appalled at the failure of Labor to honor its promises. It was at this point that he—perhaps influenced by his extraordinary impact on crowds and by the burgeoning of Fascism in Europe—seems to have gone wrong, and to have lacked the ordinary prudence to correct his mistake. The result was a fiasco, a dwindling following, and three years of imprisonment without trial at the start of WW II, followed by two years under house arrest. This is the inheritance with which the son seeks to grapple, and it is a tribute to his honesty and insight—as well as to the rakish recklessness and demonic ability of his subject—that it's hard to resist a measure of sympathy for one who has hitherto been regarded as beyond the pale.
Pub Date: June 3, 1991
ISBN: 0-916583-75-9
Page Count: 585
Publisher: Dalkey Archive
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1991
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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