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THE HOUSE

Name: THE HOUSE
Author: Stephen Gardiner
ISBN: 1-56663-480-6

ITS ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION

by Stephen Gardiner ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 13, 2002

A fine train of architectural thought that needs airing and a bit more sunlight in order to gain a wide audience. (112...

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A dry historical survey of the forces and influences that have shaped what we call home.

Gardiner (Epstein, 1993, etc.) manages to draw a fairly straight line from the cave to Le Corbusier, looking for the common threads that insured shelter and warmth but that also found local expression by way of geography, religion, and custom: the “cosmic orientation” of Chinese homes being a good example. Privacy, some form of order, and protection of possessions are needs as obvious as walls in early dwellings, with builder/designers then starting to play with space—as in the asymmetrical homes of the Japanese—and different materials and appearances. Gardiner discerns conscious efforts early on to relate humans to architecture, a trait certainly well established by the time the pyramids were built and the people of the Indus designed “the plan of the town to the rhythm of living.” Most interesting to Gardiner is the to-and-from of architectural references, the extraction of embryonic ideas and their infusion with new or customary twists: the Renaissance looking back to the Classical, or Palladio taking the fundamentals but not the bulk from classic Greek architecture. The common referents—and how they were put to such wildly disparate use—of Wright and Le Corbusier are also testimony to this looking back to see more clearly ahead. The great structural weakness here is the very lack of enthusiasm and awe (the adoption of timbered framework, thousands of years ago, by the Anatolians was “the obvious solution”) and a certain sniffiness, which is discouraging because when Gardiner loosens the corset strings—as in his discussion of the work of contemporaries like Charles Correa, Jorn Utzon, and Derek Walker—he betrays a real sense of excitement.

A fine train of architectural thought that needs airing and a bit more sunlight in order to gain a wide audience. (112 photographs and drawings)

Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2002

ISBN: 1-56663-480-6

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Ivan Dee/Rowman & Littlefield

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2002

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.