One part celebration, one part history, two parts manifesto, Bernard DeVoto's The Hour is a comic and unequivocal treatise on how and why we drink — properly. The Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author turns his shrewd wit on the spirits and attitudes that cause his stomach to turn and his eyes to roll — warning: this book is not for rum drinkers. DeVoto instructs his readers on how to drink like gentlemen and sheds new light on the simple joys of the cocktail hour. Daniel Handler's introduction to this reprint of the 1950s classic provides a humorous framework for the modern reader.
The Hour: A Cocktail Manifesto
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"[The Hour] has long been regarded as a classic . . . Strait is the gate and narrow is the way to Mr. DeVoto's magic cocktail kingdom."—The New York Times
"DeVoto insists in delightfully snooty language that there are only two cocktails, the slug of whisky and the perfectly-measured martini." —The New Yorker Book Bench blog
"In terms of the cult of happy hour, this may be the best tome ever written, and if you like to shake and stir at all, it is an essential volume to keep on your bar cart."—The Daily Beast
"[The Hour] is a celebration of good plain bourbon and rye, and of the martini, America's gifts to the world."—The Boston Globe
"Witty and chattily informative. . . "—The Baltimore Sun
"Bernard DeVoto's The Hour, first published in 1948, is a paean to the restorative powers of a quiet drink at the end of the working day. . . it is almost a cocktail in itself, being at once soothing and refreshing."
— Michael Dirda, The Washington Post
". . .immensely quotable, curmudgeonly but smart—think Dorothy Parker's stern eye mixed with the sass of Mark Twain, and a jigger of Christopher Hitchens thrown in for good, boozy measure."—Rachel Brown, The Atlantic
"An impassioned, funny, and timeless celebration of the best things that can be found in a bottle." —The New Yorker's Book Bench
"DeVoto was never less than eloquent, but he toed pure poetry with his description of 6 pm."
—The Austin Chronicle
“Bernard DeVoto’s book is delightful for the language alone.”
—Kansas City Star
"DeVoto's wit has aged like a slug of the Finest bonded bourbon."
—Molossus.com
"With spirit and wit, the book educates us in drinking etiquette and reminds us of the glories of gin, whiskey and the iconic martini. The Hour teaches us how to drink like ladies and gentlemen. Read, learn and savor, as you should!" —Zink magazine
"The Hour dwells on cocktail principles and DeVoto is a cocktail purist."—BlogCritics.org
"Filled with sly, snide with as dry as a classic martini."—AuthorMagazine.org
"A quirky classic. . . a thoroughly amusing polemic about that magical hour when day turns into night, work ends, and the best meal of the day is on the horizon."—Tablehopper.com
"The Hour is not simply a piece of humorous cultural patriotism either. It is a manual of witchcraft, a book of spells and observances." —Wallace Stegner, author of Angle of Repose
"If in the well and truly made martini DeVoto finds "water of life" and the blessing to the spirit, so also DeVoto's The Hour brings to its readers the breath of life and a vision of themselves made generous, indomitable and wise." —Lewis Lapham
“In an age when all that was old seems to be new again, Bernard DeVoto’s The Hour couldn’t have made a more timely reappearance. This book reminds me of one of the joys of being an adult—cocktail hour!” —Graydon Carter
"Witty…a great weekend host gift.”—Liquor.com
"Pride of place goes to a reissue of The Hour: A Cocktail Manifesto, righteously written by the critic, Twain scholar, and eminent historian Bernard DeVoto. First published in 1948, The hour is meant to be savored in one wing-chair sitting."—Slate.com
"DeVoto insists in delightfully snooty language that there are only two cocktails, the slug of whisky and the perfectly-measured martini." —The New Yorker Book Bench blog
"In terms of the cult of happy hour, this may be the best tome ever written, and if you like to shake and stir at all, it is an essential volume to keep on your bar cart."—The Daily Beast
"[The Hour] is a celebration of good plain bourbon and rye, and of the martini, America's gifts to the world."—The Boston Globe
"Witty and chattily informative. . . "—The Baltimore Sun
"Bernard DeVoto's The Hour, first published in 1948, is a paean to the restorative powers of a quiet drink at the end of the working day. . . it is almost a cocktail in itself, being at once soothing and refreshing."
— Michael Dirda, The Washington Post
". . .immensely quotable, curmudgeonly but smart—think Dorothy Parker's stern eye mixed with the sass of Mark Twain, and a jigger of Christopher Hitchens thrown in for good, boozy measure."—Rachel Brown, The Atlantic
"An impassioned, funny, and timeless celebration of the best things that can be found in a bottle." —The New Yorker's Book Bench
"DeVoto was never less than eloquent, but he toed pure poetry with his description of 6 pm."
—The Austin Chronicle
“Bernard DeVoto’s book is delightful for the language alone.”
—Kansas City Star
"DeVoto's wit has aged like a slug of the Finest bonded bourbon."
—Molossus.com
"With spirit and wit, the book educates us in drinking etiquette and reminds us of the glories of gin, whiskey and the iconic martini. The Hour teaches us how to drink like ladies and gentlemen. Read, learn and savor, as you should!" —Zink magazine
"The Hour dwells on cocktail principles and DeVoto is a cocktail purist."—BlogCritics.org
"Filled with sly, snide with as dry as a classic martini."—AuthorMagazine.org
"A quirky classic. . . a thoroughly amusing polemic about that magical hour when day turns into night, work ends, and the best meal of the day is on the horizon."—Tablehopper.com
"The Hour is not simply a piece of humorous cultural patriotism either. It is a manual of witchcraft, a book of spells and observances." —Wallace Stegner, author of Angle of Repose
"If in the well and truly made martini DeVoto finds "water of life" and the blessing to the spirit, so also DeVoto's The Hour brings to its readers the breath of life and a vision of themselves made generous, indomitable and wise." —Lewis Lapham
“In an age when all that was old seems to be new again, Bernard DeVoto’s The Hour couldn’t have made a more timely reappearance. This book reminds me of one of the joys of being an adult—cocktail hour!” —Graydon Carter
"Witty…a great weekend host gift.”—Liquor.com
"Pride of place goes to a reissue of The Hour: A Cocktail Manifesto, righteously written by the critic, Twain scholar, and eminent historian Bernard DeVoto. First published in 1948, The hour is meant to be savored in one wing-chair sitting."—Slate.com
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
29 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Seeing only one negative review, I felt it necessary to point out that this book was written in 1948, and should not be taken so seriously. take it for what it is, a classic book on cocktails from a Mark Twain Scholar who has his opinons on how drinks should be made and enjoyed. Enjoy the book and think of the days of black and white TV shows about the nuclear family when dad came home and mom mixed him a perfect Martini. This is history.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By M. Swenson
Format:Hardcover
Shaking your head over "martinis" which are mere sugary cocktails in martini glasses? Or worse yet, *gasping* in horror over belly shots? Looking forward to that first civilized sip of whiskey as you put a harried work day to an end? I highly recommend the intoxicating writing of Bernard Devoto's "The Hour: A Cocktail Manifesto." Originally published in 1948, this slim volume, now in reprint (with an excellent forward by Daniel Handler), is an absolute delight.
A Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner, Mark Twain expert, writer for many years for Harper's Magazine, and a curmudgeon to the core, Devoto has crafted an elegant paean to "the violet hour," "an hour of diminishing, of slowing down, of quieting" to sip a gin martini - one of only two cocktails he countenances (the other a slug of whiskey.) Discussing his favorites, Devoto is truly rhapsodic - "art's sunburst of imagined delight becoming real" - and offers suggestions for the place ("a martini is a city dweller, a metropolitan") as well as what to hum as one mixes the first batch ("neither barbershop nor jazz, between the choir and the glee club.")
Equally quotable is his skewering of his dislikes: "Nothing can be done with people who put olives in martinis, presumably because in some desolate childhood hour someone refused them a pickle;" "Hot drinks are for people who have had skiing accidents, though it is an open question whether anyone who skis is worth giving liquor to or his life worth saving;" or on the topic of Daiquiris -"Mainly it is drunk as all sweet liquors are, in a regressive fantasy, a sad hope of regaining childhood's joy at the soda fountain."
Some question the extent to which this is satire. Bernard Devoto's wife, Avis, was a good friend of Julia Child. I am in the midst of reading the women's correspondence in "As Always, Julia," Joan Reardon, editor. Upon first meeting, Julia won Bernard's admiration after drinking down two or three of his martinis without turning a hair. On the other hand, Avis notes that Bernard is quite the oenophile, being very good at the parlor game of identifying the vineyard and the year. I believe The Hour was written in good fun. You'll have as much fun or more when you read it.
A Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner, Mark Twain expert, writer for many years for Harper's Magazine, and a curmudgeon to the core, Devoto has crafted an elegant paean to "the violet hour," "an hour of diminishing, of slowing down, of quieting" to sip a gin martini - one of only two cocktails he countenances (the other a slug of whiskey.) Discussing his favorites, Devoto is truly rhapsodic - "art's sunburst of imagined delight becoming real" - and offers suggestions for the place ("a martini is a city dweller, a metropolitan") as well as what to hum as one mixes the first batch ("neither barbershop nor jazz, between the choir and the glee club.")
Equally quotable is his skewering of his dislikes: "Nothing can be done with people who put olives in martinis, presumably because in some desolate childhood hour someone refused them a pickle;" "Hot drinks are for people who have had skiing accidents, though it is an open question whether anyone who skis is worth giving liquor to or his life worth saving;" or on the topic of Daiquiris -"Mainly it is drunk as all sweet liquors are, in a regressive fantasy, a sad hope of regaining childhood's joy at the soda fountain."
Some question the extent to which this is satire. Bernard Devoto's wife, Avis, was a good friend of Julia Child. I am in the midst of reading the women's correspondence in "As Always, Julia," Joan Reardon, editor. Upon first meeting, Julia won Bernard's admiration after drinking down two or three of his martinis without turning a hair. On the other hand, Avis notes that Bernard is quite the oenophile, being very good at the parlor game of identifying the vineyard and the year. I believe The Hour was written in good fun. You'll have as much fun or more when you read it.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By henri
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
To those of us who enjoy a retro cocktail and the finest hour of the day; this work should be on your shelf.
As bracing as a bourbon straight up with a tall glass of ice water on the side after a long day, this is a most enjoyable read.
As bracing as a bourbon straight up with a tall glass of ice water on the side after a long day, this is a most enjoyable read.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
At times, utterly hilarious, great to see this side of DeVoto
What it there to do with people who put olives in martinis. They must have been deprived of pickles as a child.
Published 1 hour ago by Devon
5.0 out of 5 stars
Witty writing about cocktails
And stay away from the rum!
Superbly written little book without any fuss or fat. Bernard makes the cocktail hour a seemingly epic experience for the heroic man of the... Read more
Superbly written little book without any fuss or fat. Bernard makes the cocktail hour a seemingly epic experience for the heroic man of the... Read more
Published 2 months ago by John Buflod
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Hour of Congeniality
I was absolutely taken by The Hour; DeVoto's writing is incredibly passionate. There is the essence of curmudgeon throughout the book, but the sarcasm is immediately evident, and... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Xenophon
4.0 out of 5 stars
great fun!
What an entertaining read! If you enjoy a good cocktail, and the ritual of mixing a drink and sharing them with friends then you will enjoy this book. Read more
Published on August 28, 2010 by E. Gilligan
1.0 out of 5 stars
.
Let's concentrate on the chapter entitled 'The Enemy,' shall we?
Mr. DeVoto, I couldn't agree with you more. Read more
Mr. DeVoto, I couldn't agree with you more. Read more
Published on July 12, 2010 by Christy Leigh Stewart
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