An overwrought biography of Spain's famous monarch, by historian Liss (Visiting Fellow/Johns Hopkins Univ.). Liss contends rather successfully that Isabel was far more than a Great Lady who took a shine to Columbus. Her tale begins here as an endless series of petty schemes around the weak King Enrique (who preceded Isabel), plunging the reader into a hallucination of sycophants, perversion, murder most foul, groveling courtiers, and human greed. Lurid detail piles up. The gay Enrique—was his penis operational? How about sperm quality? Could he master his distaste and...engender? This is the gossip's view, with a period-piece tone that overwhelms any sense of cultural context, social evolution, or economic realities. Before the ``surreptitious royal wedding'' comes the classic meeting of Fernando of Aragon and Isabel of Castile: ``[Fernando] came to Valladolid from Duenas, secretly, with only three retainers, and entered the house by a postern gate....As they entered the room, Cardenas excitedly pointed him out to [Isabel]...that is he, that is he!'' Clearing this too-dense thicket of detail and supposition, we eventually get to a plump, warlike Isabel who eschews fun at Lent, prays conspicuously, manipulates her husband expertly via the machinery of the chivalric code, and does to the Moors more or less what Elizabeth did to the Armada. Isabel expels the Jews with equal dispatch and greater profit, and Columbus, it seems, was all in a day's work—part of building an empire. A realist, this Isabel, and a better stylist than Liss, who has a problem subordinating details. Writing about war casualties, Isabel wastes no royal words: ``The dead weigh on me heavily, but they could not have gone better employed.'' (Twelve photos, maps- -not seen.)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-15-507356-8
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1992
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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