If DeWees’ goal is to encourage “a bookshelf full of new titles,” she succeeds in planting the seed that there are many...
Debut author DeWees brings back to life seven Victorian women writers with the hope of proving them worthy of shelf space alongside Austen and the Brontës.
The British women of this book lived from the mid-1700s to the late 1800s, a time when society expected them to find husbands and not do much else. But these were no ordinary women; all had "broad disregard for convention…an unabashed sense of self-worth.” Some wrote because their situations forced them to, after bad marriages left them unsupported (Charlotte Turner Smith). Others did it because they were compelled by their beliefs, whether political or personal, in protest against the negative connotations of "spinsterhood.” Mary Elizabeth Braddon wrote in search of a successful career and, despite the rage of critics, made a fortune. Catherine Crowe penned one of the first detective novels complete with a “resourceful, industrious, lionhearted” female lead. Sara Coleridge wrote Phantasmion, considered by some as the first fairy-tale novel in English. What DeWees does best is reveal the interesting lives and strong characters of these oft-forgotten writers, proving to readers that there were many more successful Victorian women writers than the handful that populate syllabi. The most memorable chapters belong to Mary Robinson, who left a loveless marriage to become a commanding actress and mistress to the Prince of Wales, using her fame to become a definitive cultural voice of her time, and to Coleridge, whose gripping story reveals a constant struggle against the binding duties of motherhood and marriage. Virginia Woolf summed up Coleridge’s tragedy well: “She meant to write her life. But she was interrupted.” While some chapters blend together and the accomplishments become indistinguishable, this book succeeds at making readers aware of the gaps in our knowledge of British literature. Read this not as serious literary criticism but as an appreciation of writers who deserve to be remembered.
If DeWees’ goal is to encourage “a bookshelf full of new titles,” she succeeds in planting the seed that there are many treasures out there waiting for a second chance.Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-239462-0
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Perennial/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 7, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2016
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.
The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.
Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-88146-5
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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