edited by Pippa Harris ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1992
Tactfully edited by Noel Olivier's granddaughter, these passionate, vivid, and poignant letters between the young poet sentimentalized after his death in WW I and the schoolgirl who became Britain's first female pediatrician re-create the commonplaces of romantic love in the fragile, doomed world of English country literati during the early 1900's. The letters—134 of the surviving 170—begin in the spring of 1909, when Brooke, son of a Rugby schoolmaster, was studying at Cambridge, and Olivier, daughter of a colonial governor of Jamaica, was attending the liberal Bedales school. From the badinage of the early letters—the self-conscious wit, the negotiations of where, how, and with whom they should meet—the correspondents progress to issues of character and feeling and then, suddenly, to Brooke's declaration of love. Olivier—reserved, inexperienced, more concerned with sports than sweethearts—is frightened by his intensity even as Brooke is convinced that they are destined for each other. Idealistic but nonpolitical, intelligent but not intellectual, the letters depict young people concerned with their pleasures—traveling, attending the theater and concerts, visiting- -and review the emotional turmoil of their friends, as well as the camping trips they shared with James Strachey, John Maynard Keynes, Leonard Woolf—who were to become the Bloomsbury group. Their meetings leave Brooke ecstatic, Olivier confused. They experiment with being apart, with being with others; vacillate between feeling ``high-souled'' and ``scuffling, dirtied, hurt''; and share their dreams: He conquered the world with a steamroller, and she had a virgin birth. They part, reluctantly—Brooke to join the war but dying, like Byron, of an infection in Greece before battle, and Olivier to attend medical school, marry a doctor, and bear five children. The original sonnets, the wistful photos (32 pages b&w), the editorial notes and narratives included here are useful and illuminating; but, as emotional and psychological history, the letters stand on their own—powerful, authentic, universal.
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-517-59090-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1992
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by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996
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
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by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955
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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developed by Ludwig Bemelmans ; illustrated by Steven Salerno
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