The Duke of Rivas by Gabriel Lovett (review)

Book Reviews Though he apologizes on occasion to scholars for repeating some material that will not be new to them, Kernan need not apologize to the majority of his readers who will, I think, appreciate his synthesis of a vast amount of specialist information into a slim but persuasive account of Shakespeare's strikingly modern understanding of the artist's problems and limited successes. SIDNEY GOTTLIEB, Sacred Heart University Stephanie Kraft. No Castles on Main Street: American Authors and Their Homes. Chicago: Rand McNaIIy & Co., 1979. 239 p. In Poets' Homes (1879), Richard Stoddard celebrated the ability of writers like Bayard Taylor both to bring culture to America and to achieve the "good life" through their writing. While shallow and naive. Poets' Homes had a thesis. Unfortunately, no thesis informs Kraft's book. While the Foreword bows toward "regionalism" and the importance of a "sense of place" in American literature, the book explores neither of these issues in a detailed or sustained way. Relying on the standard sources, Kraft's sketch of an author and her judgment of his or her works are conventional: e.g., The Marble Faun "reads in parts like a museum catalog"; Dickinson's life was circumscribed; Main Street was an "enigma" to Sinclair Lewis. Further, the only principles that determined which authors were included in the book were Kraft's attempts to make the "geographical distribution" of writers "as nearly equal as possible," to "balance" male and female, fiction and non-fiction writers, and to find homes important to a writer's community. Thus Kraft's thirty writers range from Hawthorne to James Whitcomb Riley, from Dickinson to Laura Ingalls Wilder. And although the publisher's blurb claims she writes "finely wrought prose," Kraft's writing is not always happy, as when she describes St. Paul as "one of the two twin cities near bluffs over the Mississippi, which is the home of Basil Duke Lee." Twin cities, by definition, come in two's; and it is St. Paul, not the Mississippi River, that is Basil's home. In short, except for its photographs, Kraft's book is of little interest. Always striking and sometimes haunting, the photographs, rather than Kraft's prose, speak eloquently of "regionalism" and a "sense of place." OLIVER H. EVANS, Creighton University Gabriel Lovett. The Duke of Rivas. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1977 160 p. $10.95. Gabriel Lovett's work entitled The Duke of Rivas is a well-written and thoroughly researched study of one of the most important figures of Spanish romanticism. Professor Lovett sets about informing the reader of his evaluation of the man and his work by first offering a concise explanation of Spanish romanticism in order to place Rivas's work in clearer perspective . This invaluable introductory material is followed by a careful analysis ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW281 Book Reviews of all the major works as well as less important material such as the later lyrics and the prose sketches which contain some compositions that deserve comment. Furthermore, the author closely examines Rivas's own most important statement concerning aesthetic matters found in the Prologue of his Romances históricos. All in all this book represents a solid introduction to Angel de Saavedra, the Duke of Rivas, for it is well conceived, clearly written, and conscientiously documented. By translating the pertinent passages from Spanish to English, Professor Lovett attracts those readers who are interested in Spanish romanticism but are not acquainted with the language. LEONARD T. PERRY, CIemson University Mary Stuart Mackey, and Maryette Goodwin Mackey. The Pronunciation of 10,000 Proper Names. New Edition. Detroit Gale Research Co., 1979. 329 p. The Pronunciation of 10,000 Proper Names features correct or closely approximate pronunciations for difficult-to-pronounce proper names in Arabic, French, German, Spanish, and eighteen other languages, including classical Greek and Latin. The first edition of this useful reference work included just over 10,000 proper names, and Gale has here reprinted the popular new edition of 1922, which lists about 12,000 proper names, a 20% bonus over the title's promise. The prefatory matter explains the various sigris, marks, and abbreviations used in the alphabetically ordered word list, and also discusses particular features...