Mirror for Princes

by Tom De Haan and Haan Tom De

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 039456359X
• ISBN13: 9780394563596
• Release Date: June 1988
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
• Length: 421 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

I Searched for YEARS for this book...

after having read and loved it almost eleven years ago. All I can do is quote the author here..."I so much more than merely love her. More than a hurricane merely blows or the sun merely shines..."Those lines have stuck in my brain for eleven years. DeHaan is brilliant at metaphor and it's both a joy and an anguish to read. Now I can't wait to order it and finally own it for myself...

I Keep Rereading It

Wonderfully disjointed, just like it is meant to be as a remembered life. Makes me cry and feel and dread and love.

Simply wonderful

I hate to say anything is The Greatest, but this simply is the greatest story I have ever read. A haunting, sustained meditation on the two things in life that matter - Love and Death. Tom de Haan's writing is of the highest caliber. Equal to any of the Classic writers I have read. I couldn't recommend this book more. Also, de Haan's other book A Child of Good Fortune, set in the same time and place, is another very good read, though a bit lesser of a work than this one.

Emotional in a Refined and Explosive Way

This book is one of my favorite fantasy books, and I hesitate to categorize it so strictly, as the only fantastical element is that the protagonist is a prince in a fictional kingdom that vaguely reminds me of a historical Russia. The main character is a young man, the third son of a great and cruel king, growing up in a seriously warped and dysfunctional family, where hatred isn't the main reason behind all the warping, but love. Everyone in the family is vulnerable to strong passion and overwhelming love. And hate, its sister. Reyhnard, the prince, loves his brothers and his beautiful, mirror sister. And he hates his wife, a lush, evil and ambitious woman, Beulah, one of those rare characters in literature that grows beyond the confines of print. I had so much fun hating her, because she is a gorgeously drawn character. In fact, the greatest virtue of this book are the engrossing and beautifully realized characters. The theme is one of obsessive love. Romantic tradition dictates that we die for our loved ones, but reality is different. In real life, when loved ones die, we mourn and learn to live with loss and maybe one day love again. In this book, love is such an over-powering emotion that it can give absolute purpose. The characters in this book commit a love that can cripple and kill your soul, it's so beautiful and necessary and depressing. I loved this book. I liked to read it in small amounts, little sips, in nice and pretty and comfortable places, where my body was as content as my mind. I know it's out of print, but haunt libraries, is all I can say. Totally worth it.

One of the best books I've ever read

What a pity that it is out of print. I remember this as my favorite book of all time. Beautiful and ugly, horribly tragic and wonderful at the same time, it is a work that has stayed with me over the years.It takes place in a mythical kingdom, told by the third son of the king. Feeling he'll never become king himself, he tells of his beautiful, tragic brothers and his love for his twin sister, undiscovered until they had reached adulthood. And his horrible, ambitious and unscrupulous wife, who enjoys the power of kingship far more than he.Hauntingly told, with emotion and feeling, this book lingers. I really hope it goes back into print soon. I'd love to read it again.