1 comments about Cleopatra (Penguin Classic Biography).

1. Ernle Bradford does for Cleopatra what did Robert Caro is doing for LBJ. The myth of the lady is immense, but Bradford goes right to primary sources and does his best to correct our misapprehensions about her by pointing out that we know so little first hand about Cleopatra. Some dispute she existed. Bradford makes no such claim, and he is in a position to know, having spent many years immersed in the lore of the Ptolemies.
   
   Cleopatra was the daughter of Ptolemy the XIIth, and I imagine now that I have read Bradford describing their relationship, that he, Ptolemy, was rather like Emma's father in the famous novel by Jane Austen. He was a garrulous old fool in love with the sound of his own voice, rather pathetic if you looked at him the wrong way, and his daughter probably learned a lot about diplomacy just trying to stay on his good side, just like Emma 1700 years later. And like Emma, part of her problem was that the tools she had used to deal with a difficult father were not as appropriate when it came time to deal with the adult men in her life. Emma had Mr. Knightley, but Cleopatra had real rulers to deal with: first Caesar, the playboy prince of the Western world, a man so civilized that he was said to have been bisexual, and then Antony, who was more of a man's man, sort of an Ernest Borgnine type according to Ernle Bradford's clever summing up of the man. Cleopatra had children by both of them, but neither of them could totally trust her, just as her father could not bring himself to be close to her, preferring to play merrily on his flute all day while slaves fanned him with ibis feathers.
   
   At eighteen she was already a queen, and as we know, her life was short, tragically short. Many who knew her from afar judged her harshly, but those who came close to her were enchanted by her beauty and the elegance of her speech. (Bradford reports that her verbal agility was high, and that she picked up languages with ease.) We know she had a sense of humor, for who else would have thought about rolling herself up in a carpet to be delivered to Caesar? So vividly does Bradford bring these movers and shakers to life that by book's end we forget they are not our own intimates. As Shakespeare said, "Precious friend, hid in death's dateless night." And that's where she is now, hid in death's dateless night where she gains not in age nor loses a drop of her mortal beauty.

No comments about Richard the Lionheart: King and Knight.

No comments about Henry VIII (Very Interesting People).

5 comments about Music's Modern Muse: A Life of Winnaretta Singer, Princesse de Polignac (Eastman Studies in Music) (Eastman Studies in Music).

1. A wonderful, well-researched history of a great patron of the arts in France during the latter part of the 19th and the early 20th century. The author takes us on an exquisite trip through the period in history when literature, art and music were French and France was the center of the artistic universe. You can only be jealous of the heroine of this history - the daughter of sewing machine inventor Isaac Singer - who could have been the ultimate name dropper. Degas, Picasso, Proust, Diaghilev, Stravinsky, Turgenyev, Rubinstein, Balanchine, and on and on and on. She even managed to hire Poincare, later the Prime Minister, as her lawyer, and attended the wedding of the parents of Price Ranier of Monaco, whose father was a relative of her husband. Through painstaking research involving what must have been thousands of letters, newspaper articles, diary pages and other sources, the author has turned her years of work into a readable story of the development of modern classical music. It would have been easy to get lost in the Princesse's lesbian sexual preference to the detriment of the story. Luckily, the author, although she makes reference to the issue when it is important, does not get confused by the pop psychologist's attempt to turn everything into sexual warfare. For that effort, and for the painstaking research, Ms. Kahan deserve great praise and our undying gratitude.



2. I picked up this book at a book signing by the author at Lincoln Center in New York City this past winter. It seemed an interesting read about an interesting woman. This was not the case. The book reads more like a student's college paper than a biography. Mistakes and typos abound! The book also needed the talents of a good editor as the author can be frequently redundant. True, the book has some great pics, but they are often marred by poor reproductions. True, Ms. Singer did lead a fascinating life in Paris during the belle epoque, but she seems to be one of those people who were famous simply because of the artists they knew and not because they ever truly contributed anything. She held salons, but often paid no attention to the famous guests she was entertaining. The author dances very nimbly around the fact that her subject was not a very well-like woman, even by some of her closest confidants. And her husband, despite numerous protests by Ms. Kahan to the contrary, was a composer of dubious talents. It all reads like one of those stories where the wife has a ton of money and spends it to promote the mediocre talents of a loved one, then basks in whatever adulation is received, like a battleaxe of a stage mom that no one can say no to. The book is also rife with tons of filler - party guest lists, a cataloging of music played here, there and everywhere, an overlong bibliography. I am very certain that Ms. Kahan did an immense amount of research while writing this book, but not for one moment does its subject come to life. Ms. Singer appears like one of those folks who happen to be in the right place at the right time and became famous for all the wrong reasons. Doubtless the woman did something for the cause of music, but the book, and Ms. Kahan's writing style, is dry as a bone. The book is also exorbitantly overpriced.



3. It's tough writing about someone you admire. It makes you let down your critical guard, makes you a bit too forgiving of things you ordinarily would not be. This is the big flaw of Kahan's book for me. Kahan goes out of her way to portray Winnaretta Singer as largely apolitical in a politically fraught climate. Given Singer's close acquaintances with people like Poincaré, Anna de Noailles and the rest, this is hard to believe. I'm not saying Singer was clearly of the Right or the Left; like several members of Parisian high culture at the time, Singer's politics couldn't be placed conveniently in one type or another. But this isn't the same as apolitical. It's one thing to shun politics; it's quite another to hold ambiguous political beliefs.

   For example, Kahan writes: "By this point Ezra Pound had already begun to write his pro-Fascist manifestos; [Olga] Rudge showed them to Winnaretta, who found them 'very well done *indeed*.' The most generous interpretation here is that Winnaretta, adamantly apolitical, only wanted to compliment Rudge's lover."

   Yes, that's a very generous interpretation. A less generous one would be that there were things in Pound's tracts that Singer found appealing. It's only understandable that Kahan would shy away from such readings, though; no one likes Fascism. But we don't have to label Winnaretta Singer a Fascist just because she liked Pound's Fascist texts. We can say that, like many intellectuals, Singer was attracted to *some* of the tenets of Fascism. Disturbing, yes, but probably closer to the truth than Kahan's black-and-white portrayal.

   Another example: "The recital at Winnaretta's was, in fact, a run-through for the grand concert that Rudge and Münch would give at the Fascist Institute of Culture in Genoa in November of 1934. [P] Winnaretta seemed completely oblivious to the implications of being involved in crypto-Fascist musical activities. It was surely due more to a form of willful blindness than to any political stance on her part."

   Again, being willfully blind is not the same as being apolitical. To be apolitical is to refuse to participate; to be willfully blind is to refuse to criticize. If Singer was as smart as Kahan says (and I think she was), then it's doubtful that Singer would have been "completely oblivious" to anything.

   Avoiding clear-cut, black-and-white understandings of history is the hardest thing to do. Many times it feels like evasiveness; it makes the scholar feel like he or she is skirting the issue. I'm sure there were many things about Winnaretta Singer that were politically and morally admirable; but I find it hard to believe that a Princesse operating in such a Right-wing institution as the postwar Parisian haute culture would be this thoroughly innocent of the faults that were so prevalent among her fellow aristocrats.




4. This is a rigorous, lengthy and joyous account of the complex and remarkable life of Winnaretta Singer. One cannot but appreciate and be refreshed by the dual perspective of Kahan, a scholar and a distinguished concert pianist well known for her dedication to new music. Kahan attractively presents history through stories -- all meticulously documented. In Music's Modern Muse, Kahan offers a tome to performers and composers, particularly the up-and-coming, and to all lovers of art who care about the "modern" in art history. The photographs and appendices (particularly the documentation of selected salon concerts) are quite extraordinary.



5. Sylvia's Kahan's bio of Winnaretta Singer-Polignac is a real romp. If you are at all interested in French culture at the turn of the century (the salons, the music and art, the lesbians), it's an absolute must. A really fun read and EVERYBODY is in it! (If you have read Proust, this is almost like reading Proust all over again.) The book is wonderfully written, with just the right balance between story-telling and scholarship. As in all biographies, the subject dies at the end, but one is not always sorry. When finishing this book I was saddened and felt that I had lost a friend whom I had gotten to know well.

1 comments about In Private-In Public: The Prince and Princess of Wales.

1. This is a beautiful full color picture book that gives many pages of respectable information that focuses on Diana, Charles and their two precious children, when they were small.

   It covers Diana and Charles' activities, hobbies, trips, adventures, and their life being the parents of William and Harry when they were small.

   I bought this book in 1987, and it has held up beautifully. You can see Diana coming into her own, as well as her devotion to her husband and children. From pony rides to speaking engagements, charitable work, and life both at home and abroad, you will find a most beautiful portrayal in this book.

   Highly recommended as a treasure for your library.

3 comments about Queen Victoria's Grandchildren.

1. "Queen Victoria's Grandchildren" is not particularly long-- about 130 pages-- but it is large-format (about 8 1/2 by 11 inches). It is a photographic tribute to Queen Victoria's grandchildren. It has been divided into sections, one section for each of the grandchildren. These vary in length from one page to five pages. Except for two grandchildren who died in very young infancy, at least one photograph-- usually more-- is included with each section. I've read a lot of books on Queen Victoria and her various offspring, and many of the photos are new even to me. There is a slight bias, of course, to the more-photographed grandchildren. (A lot of photographs of King George V, Queen Marie of Rumania, and Empress Alexandra of Russia, etc.) But two or three pictures are included of all of them, including the ever-elusive ones who died in childhood (except for the two babies). I especially enjoyed finding a picture of the ever-elusive Prince Frederick (Frittie) of Hesse.

   The text serves more as a synopsis of the person's life to provide background for the pictures; there are no real analyses or insights. The writing is usually very simplistic, but get this book for the pictures.




2. This book provides a wonderful history of the grandchildren of Queen Victoria. As well as being detailed and interesting, this book is also rich in photos of the royal family. Through this book, the reader can gain clear insights into this fascinating family and their unique personalities and how their intermarriage linked all of the houses of Europe together. A helpful family tree is also included, and I liked the format of this book, the way it was divided into sections.



3. This book provides a wonderful history of the grandchildren of Queen Victoria. As well as being detailed and interesting, this book is also rich in photos of the royal family. Through this book, the reader can gain clear insights into this fascinating family and their unique personalities and how their intermarriage linked all of the houses of Europe together. A helpful family tree is also included, and I liked the format of this book, the way it was divided into sections.

1 comments about Philippe, Duc D'Orleans: Regent of France.

1. Knowing nothing about this historical personage or his period, I was pleasantly surprised with the intriguing, contradictory character of Philippe, the nephew of Louis XIV, and Regent for King Louis XV. The author relied heavily on primary sources to describe the Regent and his times, particularly on the letters of his mother (the second duchesse d'Orleans, Elizabeth Charlotte) and Saint Simon's writings. Since both famous writers were close to the Regent, there are lively sketches of Philippe. It is a balanced biography; the Regent's controversial personal life is addressed, too. The author establishes the background carefully, describing Louis XIV's overly long reign at its end; the old, rigid court at Versailles, the King's control of the nobility, the "liberal" movement towards Paris, the problems encountered by Louis XIV's grandson as the first Bourbon king of Spain, military and economic problems. Then, the Regency: politics and coup, social issues, and fiscal reforms. The author also presents cultural affairs (the arts) with great sensitivity. There is an excellent genealogy table and "cast of characters" preceding the text; also, a few pages of illustrations. This is an engrossing biography with useful"extras."

1 comments about Catherine of Aragon.

1. Mattingly sets forth in very lucid prose the amazing and seldom told story of a woman noble in character as well as birth. Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, is the first wife of England's Henry VIII. Though a foreigner, to the end she is deeply loved by the English people. But that does not save her from Henry's machiavellian machinery when she fails to produce a male heir to secure the Tudor dynasty. Although she eventually loses the battle, we see a woman of lion-like courage, refusing to buckle in an age of moral compromise. Her stubborn dedication to both church and country, and her deep love for her husband, make her a spiritual example to Catholics & Protestants alike. One wonders if there is any other figure of her time who comes off half so glowing. In a word, integrity! This is the English Reformation told from Catherine's perspective-- a fascinating tale and well worth the read.

No comments about The Reign of Henry the Eighth, Volume 1.

1 comments about Kingship: The Politics of Enchantmant (New Perspectives on the Past).

1. Oakley takes up an impossible task in this book: to present the history of "sacred kingship" from the beginning to the present. And yet, in a brief span, readers get a clear sense of the interconnections between the divine will and human will across the millennia.
   
   One of the best elements of the book is Oakley's choice of examples. He chooses from the thousands available those social and religious contexts which represent a range of the possibilities, while revealing the patterns that link them together. A relatively unknown gem accessible to readers of all backgrounds.