An Impersonation of Angels


Book Description

Brown's biography is the fullest, the most ambitious close-up of Le Petit Cocteau's seven decades to appear in English. Brown evidently scoured all libraries, periods, and sources (including Cocteau's correspondence and the various memoirs of his friends), giving the reader the incidents, events, and revelations of one of the foremost creative minds of the surrealist, avant-garde, and Dadaist movements; and one of the most influential figures in early 20th-century art as a whole. An Impersonation of Angels is of unequivocal importance.







Jean Cocteau


Book Description

This is a comprehensive, original and accessible account of all aspects of Jean Cocteau's work in the cinema. It is the first major study in English to appear for over forty years and casts new light on Cocteau's most celebrated films as well as those often neglected or little known.




The Collected Works of Harold Clurman


Book Description

(Applause Books). For six decades, Harold Clurman illuminated our artistic, social, and political awareness in thousands of reviews, essays, and lectures. His work appeared indefatigably in The Nation, The New Republic, The London Observer, The New York Times, Harper's, Esquire, New York Magazine , and more. The Collected Works of Harold Clurman captures over six hundred of Clurman's encounters with the most significant events in American theatre as well as his regular passionate embraces of dance, music, art and film. This chronological epic offers the most comprehensive view of American theatre seen through the eyes of our most extraordinary critic. 1102 pages, hardcover.




A Theology of Nonsense


Book Description

There is within all theological utterances something of the ridiculous, perhaps more so in Christianity, given its proclivity for the paradoxical and the childlike. Few theologians are willing to discuss how consent to the Christian doctrine often requires a faith that goes beyond reason. There seems to be a fear that the association of theology with the absurd will give fuel to the sceptic's refrain: 'You can't seriously believe in all that nonsense.' Josephine Gabelman considers the legitimacy of the sceptic's objection and explores the possibility that an idea can be contrary to rationality and also true and meaningful using the systematic analysis of central stylistic features of literary non sense such as Lewis Carroll's Alice stories. Gabelman sets up a nonsense theology by considering the practical and evangelical ramifications of associating Christian faith with nonsense literature and, conversely, the value of relating theological principles to the study of literary nonsense.Ultimately, Gabelman says, faith is always a risk and a strictly rational apologetic misrepresents the nature of Christian truth.




Jokes from Above: The Last Heaven Guard's Comical Chronicles


Book Description

In "Jokes from Above: The Last Heaven Guard's Comical Chronicles," prepare to embark on a side-splitting journey into the celestial realm of laughter. Meet the Last Heaven Guard, a heavenly being tasked with maintaining the cosmic balance of humor. But there's a catch - this angelic guardian has a knack for finding himself in hilariously absurd situations. As the Last Heaven Guard is introduced, readers are whisked away to the whimsical world of heavenly hilarity. From the uproarious training camp, where angelic antics are taught with precision, to the high-flying escapades that take place in Cloud City, the comedic chaos is unrelenting. When mischievous prankster pixies wreak havoc on the heavenly realm, the Last Heaven Guard must embark on a side-splitting quest to restore order. Along the way, readers are treated to a comedy showdown like no other as the Last Heaven Guard faces off against the mischievous pixies in an uproarious battle of wits. The laughter continues to soar as the Last Heaven Guard finds himself in the midst of a riotous rebellion during the heavenly stand-up comedy competition. With a parade of cosmic comedians, outrageous punchlines, and a touch of divine wit, this uproarious event becomes an unforgettable highlight of the celestial realm. But the comedic calamities don't end there. From a cloud caper catastrophe to the laughter-filled celestial council, the Last Heaven Guard's journey is filled with hilarious encounters and unexpected twists. With each chapter, the comedy escalates, culminating in the ultimate comedy show, where the Last Heaven Guard must deliver the performance of a lifetime to save the very essence of humor itself. "Jokes from Above: The Last Heaven Guard's Comical Chronicles" is a rib-tickling adventure that guarantees an out-of-this-world laughter experience. Packed with puns, slapstick humor, and witty banter, this comedic novel promises to leave readers rolling on the floor, reaching for tissues to wipe away tears of laughter. Prepare for a hilarious romp through the heavens and beyond, where even angels can't help but crack up.




George Platt Lynes


Book Description

George Platt Lynes: The Daring Eye is a life of the gregarious American portrait, dance, fashion, and male nude photographer whose career spanned the late 1920s to 1955. From age 18, Lynes entered the cosmopolitan world of the American expatriate community in Paris when he became acquainted with the salon of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. Intending to pursue a literary and small press publishing career, Lynes also began photographing authors like Stein, Jean Cocteau, André Gide, and Colette. Soon, he turned exclusively to photography, establishing himself as one of the premier fashion photographers in the Condé Nast stable, documenting the early ballets of George Balanchine, and pursuing his private obsession with seductive images of young male nudes almost never published in his time. Lynes's private life was as glamorous and theatrical as his images with their brilliant studio lighting and dramatic Surrealist set-ups. Barely out his teens, he met the publisher Monroe Wheeler who was already in a relationship with the emerging expatriate novelist Glenway Wescott. The peripatetic threesome maintained a polyamorous connection that lasted some 15 years. Their New York apartment became a mecca for elegant cocktail and name-dropping dinner parties. Their ménage-à-trois complicates our understanding of the pre-Stonewall gay closet. This biography, drawing upon intimate letters and an unpublished memoir of Lynes's life by his brother, writer and editor Russell Lynes, paints a portrait of the emerging influence of gays and lesbians in the visual, literary, and performing arts that defined transatlantic cosmopolitan culture and presaged later gay political activism.




Angels in Early Medieval England


Book Description

In the modern world, angels can often seem to be no more than a symbol, but in the Middle Ages men and women thought differently. Some offered prayers intended to secure the angelic assistance for the living and the dead; others erected stone monuments carved with images of winged figures; and still others made angels the subject of poetic endeavour and theological scholarship. This wealth of material has never been fully explored, and was once dismissed as the detritus of a superstitious age. Angels in Early Medieval England offers a different perspective, by using angels as a prism through which to study the changing religious culture of an unfamiliar age. Focusing on one corner of medieval Europe which produced an abundance of material relating to angels, Richard Sowerby investigates the way that ancient beliefs about angels were preserved and adapted in England during the Anglo-Saxon period. Between the sixth century and the eleventh, the convictions of Anglo-Saxon men and women about the world of the spirits underwent a gradual transformation. This book is the first to explore that transformation, and to show the ways in which the Anglo-Saxons tried to reconcile their religious inheritance with their own perspectives about the world, human nature, and God.




Classicism of the Twenties


Book Description

This title defines the theory and practice of 'classicism' as practised in the 1920s by a number of composers, writers, and artists, setting it off against other movements of the period that are customarily grouped together under the general heading of 'modernism'. It argues that classicism is a more precise term than neo-classicism during this period, since every classicism from antiquity to the present shares certain common qualities as well as characteristics of its own time.