A fascinating intermingling of philosophy and dramaturgy, both in the name of existential commitment. Though Sartre's fundamental concepts—liberty, situation, negation—are famous, their particular relevance to the plays he's been presenting since the Forties has always been cloudy. So it is good that a compilation of his theatrical reflections—mostly short essays, lectures, interviews—is now available. The knotty brilliance so formidable in Being and Nothingness or Saint Genet is absent, but the basic conflict is still the same: individual rights vs. "bourgeois morality." The bourgeois, of course, is the bugbear throughout, whether identified as fascism, materialism, capitalism, God, or Hugo, the "hero" of Dirty Hands, "a young bourgeois idealist who does not understand the imperatives of concrete action." With the staging of The Flies during the German occupation, Sartre sounded his general formula: immerse men in universal and extreme situations "which leave them only a couple of ways out, arrange things so that in choosing the way out they choose themselves, and you've won—the play is good." By the time of the Cold War, however, Sartre deserted metaphysical biases for political shibboleths, favoring a "people's theater" demystifying the hypocritical values of a class society and condemning "bourgeois theater"—including the dramas of Beckett and Ionesco which take for granted an unalterable "incommunicability" between men—as "reactionary." As can be seen, Sartre's arguments are not always coherent, but the book is important nevertheless.
Pub Date: May 1, 1976
ISBN: 0394492471
Page Count: 372
Publisher: Pantheon
Review Posted Online: Oct. 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1976
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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