William Blake was the messiah of the imagination; in poem after poem he reached the everlasting gospel of the intellect and will; a once-in-a-lifetime "original", he lived and died virtually unknown, unhonored. Since the 20th century, however, he's become the grand prix of the illuminati, a legendary figure whose message to mankind is full of, for some, visionary greatness, for others, mystical gibberish. Sarold Bloom, one of Yale's up-and-coming faculty men, clearly belongs with the rooters, and his critique, an elaborate, eminently enthusiastic examination of all the verse, but most especially Milton, Jerusalem and The Four Zoas, should prove a sell-out with Blake scholars and fans. According to Bloom, Blake was insistently apocalyptic rather than biblically prophetic; his tapestry melded the symbolic lands of Beulah and Eden, the transformation of Innocence and Experience, the fall and resurrection of Man, the union of Good and Evil, those creative Contraries. As the forerunner of phenomenological psychology he synthesized the haunted state of lost mythic connections between man and nature, man and himself. Blake's debt to Boehme, Swednborg and Neoplatonism is noted, as is the author's to Northrope Frye, among others. A complex, challenging commentary.
Pub Date: March 8, 1963
ISBN: 0801490987
Page Count: 454
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1963
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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