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THE SIREN

Name: THE SIREN
Author: Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
ISBN: 1-86046-022-4

AND SELECTED WRITINGS

by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 31, 1997

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A gathering of fiction and nonfiction pieces by di Lampedusa (18961957), best known as the author of The Leopard, a magnificently dramatic tale closely drawn from the author's own aristocratic world in Sicily at the turn of the century. This volume is exciting for the insight it provides into the evolution of that masterpiece through the original text of a previously abridged memoir, ``Places of My Infancy.'' The collection also includes ``The Professor and the Siren,'' an enchantingly sensual, fablelike story, and two other short stories, ``Joy and the Law'' and ``The Blind Kittens'' (the latter is the remaining fragment of an unfinished novel). The memoir evokes the author's Sicilian childhood and home, which he loved with ``utter abandon'' until that life vanished with the Risorgimento. Di Lampedusa reminisces about the the palace-size 18th-century house (``a self-sufficient entity . . . a kind of Vatican as it were'') and about the garden, ``brim full of surprises.'' By contrast, ``Joy and the Law'' is a tale that chronicles morality and honor, set against the corruption that then dominated Sicily. The story also hints, in its style, at di Lampedusa's admiration for Dickensian narrative. The collection's centerpiece, however, is a sampling of his short essays (appearing in English for the first time) about his favorite literary icons, including Austen, Stendhal, and Shakespeare, written as notes to lectures he intended for a small group of students. These essays are intuitive and highly anecdotal, yet thoroughly informed. Literature was di Lampedusa's consolation, as his wife observed, for any moment ``when he saw something disagreeable.'' He might, indeed, as translator Gilmour comments, have ``sacrificed ten years of his life . . . for the privilege of meeting Sir John Falstaff.'' This gem of a volume offers delightful glimpses of a writer worthy of attention well beyond the university circles that have until now adulated him.

Pub Date: Oct. 31, 1997

ISBN: 1-86046-022-4

Page Count: 185

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1997

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE PROFESSOR AND THE SIREN
by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa ; translated by Stephen Twilley

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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.