A brilliant collection of twenty-six essays from various academic hands, votive offerings presented to the eminent Boswell scholar, Professor Frederick Pottle. Oddly enough there's nothing at all on Boswell, though there are two studies of Johnson. The underlying theme investigates the changes in England's literary temper during the 18th century and the early years of the 19th, ranging from the urbane didacticism of Pope to the more oracular moods of Wordsworth and the other Romantics. The best pieces are general appreciations: Martin Price on the playfulness and preciosities of the "picturesque" in art, nature, and poetry, and M. H. Abrams' concluding paper on the style and structure of the lyric meditation. Blake's subversive metrics and unorthodox Christianity, the varying modes of self-consciousness in Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats, the diction of Words-worth and Burns, reconsideration of Collins and Gray's Elegy, the development of the dramatic line in Pope and Johnson- these make up the more particularized excursions, each in its way showing how an elegant melancholic sensibility took on certain crises, what's usually termed "dejection" or the loss of a spiritual or personal wonder. A must.
Pub Date: June 15, 1965
ISBN: 0195008022
Page Count: 585
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1965
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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