Some 26 extracts from the New Yorker and other magazines, along with the Master's drawings, all go to prove that he is no one-dog man. He writes about pugs, spaniels, airedales, collies, bull terriers, scotties, foxhounds, poodles and bloodhounds, as well as others whose are not so clear cut, and he returns to Ohio to add to the frolic and frenzy of his own earlier days with Mother and the family. Dogs there are who bite, who run households, dogs who make a career of getting lost, those who raise families, those he has owned, known or done research on. Of the last there is the Albert Payson Terhune collie that was killed by a tourist, the Roosevelt dog that topped priorities aboard a plane, the bloodhound that was dog show champion and others, but there are stories of the terribly peculiar things that happened in the Thurber household when four footeds were forerunners of trouble. Respect and affection accompany his drolleries and a nicer way to go to the dogs you can't imagine.
Pub Date: Sept. 28, 1955
ISBN: 0671792199
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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