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GOEBBELS

Name: GOEBBELS
Author: Ralf Georg Reuth
ISBN: 0-15-136076-6

by Ralf Georg Reuth ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1993

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Impressive, well-translated (from the German) life of the notorious Nazi propaganda chief and anti-Semite, much of it drawn from new sources. To tell the story of Goebbels—a leading architect of Nazi style, and the man perhaps closest to Hitler—Reuth (a reporter for the Frankfurter All-gemeine Zeitung) uses material uncovered from Staasi files and personal papers owned by a Swiss attorney. Goebbels's nightmarish childhood in a poor, hard-working Roman Catholic family is nicely explicated, and the author shows how the boy—repeatedly ill and rejected by schoolmates and his mother (who considered her son's clubfoot to be a divine punishment)— discovered books while in the hospital for a failed operation. Reuth captures Goebbels as a young, liberal socialist and aspiring writer, willing to lie and steal, fascinated with drama, his work dominated by Nietzsche and Spengler and his personal life dominated by a taste for women above his station. Similarly, the author captures post WW-II Germany, and how this desperate country—in which no kind of ability, industry, or talent was a guarantee against poverty—nurtured Goebbels's search for a savior who could galvanize the stricken Volk and satisfy his own personal longings as well. Hitler is shown doing with Goebbels what he did with all his followers—giving the future propaganda minister belief and energy, then stripping him of convictions and reducing him to a slave (albeit an effective one), whose campaign to launch a pro- Nazi newspaper proved to be a master-stroke of media manipulation generations ahead of its time. Before long, Goebbels, who'd studied under Jews he liked and respected, became under Hitler's rule the ``twisted dwarf'' of Kristallnacht. A harrowing account that focuses clearly on the man and his long degeneration rather than on his politics. (Thirty-three b&w photographs—not seen)

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1993

ISBN: 0-15-136076-6

Page Count: 480

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1993

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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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

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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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.