The title notwithstanding, this is not Clarke's answer to Orwell or a yeasty catalogue of predictions; rather, it's a collection of recent addresses, articles, and miscellany. Yes, some of the pieces address the future in Clarke's ebullient terms—the "spring" of the title. By 2030 he predicts permanent space labs, wrist telephones, a lunar base, commercial fusion power, manned planetary exploration, space cities, and robot interstellar probes. His old favorite, the space elevator (literally a cable from earth to a stationary-orbit base), makes its appearance several times, with the didactic point that it was independently invented by several creative minds. Clarke's own role in the development of communication satellites is worthy of attention. These, he feels, are the vehicles that can make the world truly a global village, and he takes pride in what they have meant to his adopted country, Sri Lanka. Some pieces pertaining to the sci fi genre provide a little novelty. Clarke reports on his exchange of letters with a doddering George Bernard Shaw, and reviews a number of writers who contributed to space and fantasy writing before the present bonanza—among them Lord Dunsany, Olaf Stapledon, David Lasser. Leonard Woolf comes up for separate attention as the author of Village in the Jungle, which Clarke lauds as an extraordinary portrait of Singhalese life that's become a classic in the native tongue. (Woolf was an assistant government agent in Ceylon before Virginia and Bloomsbury.) There are other, more personal references to childhood, to friends, literary agents, and the colorful folk at N.Y.'s Chelsea Hotel. In all: a fragmented omnium-gatherum, disappointingly heavy with familiar items.
Pub Date: Feb. 17, 1983
ISBN: 0586061940
Page Count: 268
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1983
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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