Vital and knowledgeable biography of the noted son of a Genoese weaver, distilled from a four-volume work (Cristoforo Colombo) by Taviani, president of the Italian Senate. In contrast to Felipe Fernandez-Armesto's Columbus (p. 980), a real sense of the explorer's life as a fated adventure permeates this biography, beginning with Columbus's childhood in Genoa, the era's center of cartography and cosmography. As a teenager, Columbus smells the Orient for the first time on the Mediterranean island of Chios; shipwrecked after a bloody sea-battle in 1476, he takes the event in stride: ``The Lord our God miraculously sent me here so I could serve your highness....'' Taviani's asides are flavorful: Norsemen, he says, did not colonize North America because ``they did not find...potentates or lords whom they could massacre and whose goods they could seize''; Columbus falls in love in church because ``only in the half-light of a church could one stare at a nice girl without causing a scandal.'' (The girl is a full-blooded noble, well connected if impoverished.) The explorer's professional career and nautical genius are well detailed—endless voyages, endless accumulation of data and ideas, endless pursuit of honors. In the British isles, Columbus learns of the Norse discoveries; on the Atlantic, he learns about the trade winds, his knowledge of which established classic trade routes. When it's time to hustle, Columbus is canny and effective: Duke Don Luis de la Cerda Medicanelli sympathizes with ``Columbus's prudence and good sense...considering irrelevant any expenses deemed necessary, the more so as Columbus asked very little for himself.'' It's such a good deal that Ferdinand and Isabella take over, and Columbus plunges into the adventure that adds a hemisphere to the known world and introduces yaws—a ferocious new venereal disease—to Europe. A solid, well-written (and well-translated) account in which the man steps free of the research, complete with aspirations and appetites. (Ten full-color maps—not seen.)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-517-58474-3
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1991
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
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.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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