Word: narcissus
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...concentrated, then, on the three short novels and five longer ones which are most congenial to his critical methods: "The Secret Sharer," "The Shadow Line," "Heart of Darkness," The Nigger of the Narcissus, Lord Jim, Nostromo, The Secret Agent and Under Western Eyes. The method involves three great concerns--for prose style, for narrative technique and for the psycho-mythical element. The combination is not as confining as it sounds; a closely argued and integrated discussion of the first five novels cited above on these three bases covers them with commendable through-ness. Indeed, the chapters on Nigger and Lord...
...literary voice of Rumer (Black Narcissus) Godden is soft, gentle and low, and so are her subjects-sensitive children, nuns, quietly contented families and the timeless tranquillities of India and England. It is always something of a shock when her characters come upon the worm of experience in the apple of innocence. But find it they do. After that Author Godden usually chucks the reader under his chin and reminds him that the world of man really began with a little knowledge of good and evil...
...times before he accepts anything. However poor, he never begs, except for cigarettes. No one hawks pictures of the Parthenon or dirty postcards to tourists ("The Greek approach to sexual matters is so direct that perhaps they cannot imagine the possibility of vicarious lechery"). The tutelary Greek deity is Narcissus: a Greek cannot resist being photographed and will disgorge photos of himself on the slightest pretext...
This charming book consists of impressionistic sketches of the sprawling Asian subcontinent done in the pale pastel shades of life rather than its raw primary colors. Filtered through Author (Black Narcissus) Godden's genteel mem-sahib vision, India becomes a setting instead of a place, Hindus and Moslems become figures in a tapestry instead of people, and life moves to the lute strings of poetry instead of the purse strings of necessity. As a free versifier, Author Godden ranks somewhat below another run-of-the-pagoda poet, Emperor Hirohito...
...begin with, Huston picked players who were not only presold to the public but pre-studied in their parts as well. Deborah Kerr played a nun in Black Narcissus ; Robert Mitchum has done no fewer than four tours of duty as a cinema serviceman. Under Huston's sharp eye, they both give good standard performances. Actress Kerr, whose makeup man went a bit too far with the cloistral pallor, sometimes looks as if she had cut her veins as well as her hair; but Actor Mitchum, even though as usual he does nothing but slob around the screen...