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THE CONDEMNED OF ALTONA

Name: THE CONDEMNED OF ALTONA
Author: George Leeson
ISBN: 0393008894

translated by George Leeson & by Jean-Paul Sartre & translated by Sylvia Leeson ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

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Sartre writes plays as if they were detective stories and this latest play is no exception to the rule. It moves within a high velocity of mystery designed to keep the audience awake at all costs. There are five principal characters — a German industrialist, his two sons, a daughter and a sister-in-law, but there is sufficient plot to accommodate a host of others. The hero of the play is one of the sons, Franz Gerlach, who represents the innocence of Germany betrayed by the terror of Hitler. He returned from the Russian front to cloister himself for thirteen years in his room. Here he had once harbored a Jew, fleeing from a pre-war concentration camp. His father has six months to live and now attempts to persuade the mad son to return to life. Gerlach's other children, the son destined to inherit the family fortune, and the daughter carrying on an incestuous affair with Franz, live under the domination of the man in the room. The main plot resolves itself when Franz confronts his father and, regaining his sanity, admits his guilt in the Nazi terror: he had been a torturer and his father was an informer. Both destroy themselves and the incestuous sister enters the room of guilt to commence her penance as the play ends. Fast moving, with considerable action and psychological revelation, The Condemned of Altona is a play in the European style. It has only one weakness — common to most modern European plays. The playwright, although affirming a love for humanity in the abstract, never seems to display any compassion towards his characters. Still it is exciting reading and should be better theater.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: 0393008894

Page Count: 178

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: Oct. 4, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1961

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.