Weekly Reader/Gareth Stevens:Animal Opposites
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Nan A. Talese, 1992. Nan A. Talese 1992 First Edition Stated Fine/Fine DJ Editorial Reviews From MacNeil, co-anchor of the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour on PBS-TV, has always seemed an earnest,… Más…
Nan A. Talese, 1992. Nan A. Talese 1992 First Edition Stated Fine/Fine DJ Editorial Reviews From MacNeil, co-anchor of the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour on PBS-TV, has always seemed an earnest, traditional sort, and that's the kind of first novel he has written. It is also, however, warm-hearted, has a thoroughly original background and setting, and offers an offbeat romantic triangle focusing on an unusually appealing heroine. The story begins with a bang--literally, as a munitions blows up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1917 in what will be the biggest, most destructive man-made explosion until the atomic bomb. Picking up the pieces in the well-evoked ruined city are young parson Peter Wentworth, an ambitious man in an unhappy marriage, and Stewart MacPherson, a psychiatrist just beginning to treat shell-shocked returning soldiers. The two read a diary accidentally lost in the wreckage, belonging to Julia Robertson, a young, unconventional woman whose beauty and self-acknowledged sensuality ensnares each of them in turn. Such narrative suspense as MacNeil provides involves which man she will choose after her husband dies a hero's death at the front. But this leisurely, rather creakily plotted novel does not strive for suspense; it is a portrait of a narrow provincial society in its first stirrings of doubt regarding many previously fixed notions: patriotism, religion, cowardice, honor. As such, it brings Halifax and its anguish sensitively to life, and in Julia Robertson creates the kind of woman who will always set men dreaming. 1992 From Kirkus ReviewsPBS newsman MacNeil's first novel is about sex and war and love and loyalty and civic calamity in early 20th-century Halifax. It's intelligent, balanced, polished, and as you might expect; the high artistry is a very pleasant surprise. In the middle of WW I, as the citizens of Halifax, Nova Scotia, struggle to keep faith in King and empire despite disproportionate casualties among Canadian troops, there is a domestic disaster on the scale of the San Francisco earthquake or the Chicago fire: A French loaded with munitions and fuel catches fire and explodes, leveling the north end of the city. In the ensuing confusion the diary of Julia Robertson, a beautiful young matron, falls into the hands of Peter Wentworth, an ambitious Anglican clergyman, who reads the through and becomes obsessed with the writer without, at first, knowing who she is. Julia, whose army officer husband has been two years at the front, has set down explicitly her sexual history and feelings. The diary and the disaster combine to do serious damage to all of Peter's careful constructions of faith and honor. He passes the to his boyhood friend Stewart MacPherson, a budding Freudian analyst, who becomes every bit as interested in the author as Peter but in a much healthier way. Before things sort themselves out, Stewart has a go at straightening out a shell-shocked soldier; Peter's marriage nearly disintegrates and his career skyrockets; and Julia copes with her husband's heroic death and last disturbing letters. A very sharp examination of a bitter time in a modest place. MacNeil writes wonderfully well and has a great deal to say about intelligent, middle-class people trying to sort things out in the face of calamity. -- ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. LARGE HEAVY ITEM.. First Edition Stated. Hardcover. Fine/Fine DJ. No Exp., Nan A. Talese, 1992, 5, London: Severn House Publishers Ltd. Very Good/Very Good. 1985. First Edition. Hard Cover. 8vo 0727820524 Dust jacket complete, unclipped. Original cloth boards with bright gilt titling on spine. No ownership marks. Numerous illustrations. 210 pages clean and tight. This collection of William Warde Fowler's work represents English rural literature at its very best and his gentle observations on nature have a universal appeal to any lover of our countryside and our wildlife. Warde Fowler concentrated on the village of Kingham where he lived for many years, and on Oxford where he was a classical don. This selection covers the years from 1884, when he first started writing for The Oxford Magazine, through to the First World War, by which time he had written six books and numerous articles. His abiding interest was in birds and, it is of the habits and of the lives of these which he writes so beautifully. But his range was wide and in pieces such as `In Praise of Rain' we experience to the full his great powers of observation and descriptive writing. `It is rain, the gentle constant rain of the ocean, that has moulded his (an Englishman's) country into hill and dale, and made his roads twist and turn, mount and descend, ever giving him fresh scenes as he moves along them. It is this gentle rain, not coming in seasonal deluge, but spreading itself in fair proportion over the whole year, that has given such constant variety to his landscape, and has given himself the unconscious eye of an artist in contemplating it, and suiting to it the works of his hands. The approach of rain, the passing of rain, the rain over and gone - all these phases having an educating power on his eye and mind, though he be unconscious of it. They-are beautiful in themselves, and the changes they work in the atmosphere and on the earth keep his outdoor mind alive and stirring.' There is humour and the human touch in all his writing and E.V. Lucas, writing in 1913, compared Fowler's last book, Kingham Old and New with Thoreau's Walden, and Cranford and gave it as an example of the very best in rural literature. `This book is human to the core, and more than merely human, it has personality and underlying tenderness and sense of the best in life that makes it literature. Between the lines on every page one catches glimpses of one who loves his fellow men, and has acquired rich stores of sunny wisdom and sympathy from an observant life of tranquil delight in nature, books and neighbours.' Gordon Ottewell was born in Swanick, Derbyshire, and worked underground as a mining surveyor for almost ten years before training as a teacher. In 1964, he was appointed Headteacher of Kingham village school, in Oxfordshire. It was during this time that he fell under the spell of the nature writings of William Warde Fowler. His other books include Journey From Darkness (a mining story for children), Wildlife Walks in the North Cotswolds and A Cotswold Quiz Book. ., Severn House Publishers Ltd, 1985, 3, London: Futura. Good+. 1988. Reprint; First Printing. Paperback. Mass Market PB . Some reading and cover creases, light shelf and edge wear, small open tear to rear endpaper, some foxing to endpapers and edges of reading block. ; First UK paperback edition, first printing. Nice tight copy, no names inside. Wrap around cover artwork uncredited. ; The Patteran Trilogy; Vol. 3; 512 pages; They were destined to meet - the gentle, beautiful Eve Nevill and the striking, red-haired Sev Carew. His gypsy grandmother, Meridiana predicted it. It is in Taunton that Eve first sees Sev, a soldier in uniform on leave from the local barracks, and she too catches his eye in her powder-blue dress. Posted to India he is haunted by her memory and vows to return one day, to Taunton and to Eve... ., Futura, 1988, 2.5, New.Grade Level: Preschool, Kindergarten, First GradeProduct #: WR88270Sample PagesIn this beautifully illustrated leveled reader animals introduce early curriculum concepts to young learners. The animal world, with its amazing variety of shapes, sizes, and colors has a unique appeal for children. Minimal text and bold, eye-catching graphics present opposites in a simple, captivating style that bolster skills.Children will discover a world of opposites through the animals that inhabit this delightful book, such as big and small, fast and slow, morning and night, and more. Vibrant illustrations of familiar creatures delight young readers, and strong illustration-text match promotes sight recognition of words.24 pages, full-color illustrations, paperback, 7" x 7"., 6<
