Read this book to discover Dante the man, the pilgrim and the poet. Then go read his greatest poem. He’s well-worth the...
Dante expert Shaw (Emeritus, Italian Studies/Univ. Coll. London; editor: Dante: Monarchy, 1996) explains The Divine Comedy so easily and simply, she eliminates all trepidation in anyone daunted by his masterpiece, “the greatest poem of the Middle Ages and perhaps the greatest single work of Western literature.”
To understand Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) the pilgrim, you must first understand Dante the poet. Originally a politician, Dante was exiled from his native Florence in 1302, an event that brought his poetry to maturity. The Divine Comedy was not a theological work but rather a poem by a man exploring his personal and cultural memories on a journey of life. As the author sings the praises of Dante, readers will come to understand the genius of his work. The first vernacular work in the Florentine dialect, Dante’s 100 cantos, more than 14,000 lines of poetry, are in a rhyme scheme of his own invention called terza rima—a series of three line tercets, with the end word of the second line in one tercet supplying the rhyme for the first and third line of the next. It not only generates the next tercet; it makes the poem absolutely tamper-proof. Shaw exposes the profound depth and art of poetry that encompasses so much more than language and rhythm. Dante avoided writing in Latin, as was the custom, in order to appeal to the masses. He did use a little Latin, however, and also invented words in the new and entirely flexible Italian to fit into his rhyme scheme. Shaw also includes a helpful glossary, timeline and an “excursus on metre.”
Read this book to discover Dante the man, the pilgrim and the poet. Then go read his greatest poem. He’s well-worth the exploration, and Shaw is a Virgil-like guide.Pub Date: Feb. 10, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-87140-742-9
Page Count: 398
Publisher: Liveright/Norton
Review Posted Online: Nov. 6, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2013
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
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
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