In this enchanting book, Alexander (One Dry Season, 1989) chronicles her journeys to the exotic places that inspired Coleridge's masterpiece ``Kubla Khan.'' In 1797 or 1798, in an opium-induced reverie, the poet wrote of Xanadu, with its ``walls and towers...girdled round,'' its ``caves of ice,'' its ``mighty fountain,'' and ``Mount Abora.'' Yet the poem's most arresting images are based not on actual visits made by Coleridge, but on written accounts of them penned by others—from Marco Polo to 18th-century American botanists. Thus, Alexander offers as much an exploration of actual geographical terrain as a wide-ranging account of the textual sources that inspired the poet (whom she artfully dubs an ``armchair Odysseus''). Using the poem as her map, she ventures through Inner Mongolia to the ruins of Shangdu (the proper name for Xanadu), Kashmir, Ethiopia, northern Florida, and finally to the poem's literal place of origin on the southwest coast of England. However, she often finds disappointment at the end of her journeys; the legendary Xanadu is little more than ``the bare bones of [a] ruined vanished city.'' But, she muses consolingly, ``I am not convinced that the map of...our tracks...adequately and completely describes the terrain we trod. The truest manifestation...may be that which none of us will ever see.'' Written in robust prose, her book is full of delightful and surprising details about the places today, and she poses thoughtful questions about the nature of experience: Does the real world ever live up to our imaginings, the fantastic visions of our minds and the accounts wrought from them? Though Alexander's journeys sometimes fall below her expectations, the same could scarcely be said of her fine book. The Way to Xanadu is a testament to one woman's dauntless intellectual curiosity and an exquisitely crafted paean to a great poem and to the timeless march of human inquiry and imagination.
Pub Date: June 14, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-41900-4
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1994
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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
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