Structuralist rhetoric tailored to the "little narcissisms, psychological paltrinesses" of a lover. Though he keeps Goethe's Werther at hand like a margin, Barthes mostly forsakes his beloved "pleasure of the text" to dissect any lover's agony down into what he calls "figures" or tropes: jealousy, languor, dependency, crying, dedication, all those shifting states you're washed by daily when in love. As always with Barthes (and translator Howard), there is fearless use of opacity ("The subject who is under the ascendancy of the Image-repertoire 'offers' nothing in the play of the signifier. . .")—no Joan Walsh Anglund trifle this, you may be assured. But it does have its endearing side: Barthes sets out and at least three-quarters succeeds in limning every disquieted symptom of the Sweet Sickness. If you can step around the gummy terminology, you can watch his passionate attempt to coax out what love's not-here-and-not-thereness keeps caged and moaning. Barthes demands that criticism be active; well, here it really sweats. Probing.
Pub Date: Aug. 29, 1978
ISBN: 0374532311
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Hill and Wang/Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1978
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
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
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