A real-life Beauty and the Beast. Only in de Borchgrave's breathless memoir, the male lead isn't a monster with a noble soul but a nobleman with a monstrous soul—and the love scenes are strictly adults-only. In 1977, the author (nÇe Heller), a young Barnard graduate living a ``fast-track'' life in Manhattan, falls into a gothic romance: ``I was aware of the tall, handsome man in the [airplane] seat next to me...telling me that he was Jacques de Borchgrave''- -a.k.a. Baron de Borchgrave, son of one of Belgium's noblest families. Before long, Sheri is sharing the baron's suite in St. Tropez, succumbing to his sweet nothings: ``Now that I've seen your body on the beach, your soft curves...I want to caress those curves...Sheri, I desire you furiously.'' The castles and a life of indolent luxury don't turn off Sheri, either, and soon she's tying the knot, despite reservations—especially about the breast- enlargement surgery that Jacques insists she have. When Sheri postpones the surgery, the baron explodes in a rage, but calms down long enough for her to learn that she's only the latest of several women he's planned to mutate into a Stepford wife. It takes months longer to learn of his yen for sex games—revealed as Sheri watches a nude swimming party devolve into an orgy; catches the baron in bed with his sister; and is coerced into having sex with three women at once. But Jacques has such impeccable manners (``His expertise and elegance in handling utensils was like great theater'') that it's going to take more—like rages that verge on homicidal mania—for her to split. Ironically, the baron puts a bullet into his head before a divorce comes through, and now Sheri is a baroness for life. For a blue-blooded bodice-ripping morality tale, this isn't half bad. (Photos—not seen)
Pub Date: Sept. 8, 1993
ISBN: 0-525-93637-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1993
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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