I can't agree with the previous reviewer that this book is a prescription for living -- lying, cheating, fraud, deception, cruelty, and murder hardly appeal to me as a model for my personal life. Nor do I agree that the word virtu completely captures the essence of the work. But, the translation is excellent, and the supporting material is wonderful. Norton critical editions are generally good, but this one excels. I read it voraciously from cover to cover.

Though much maligned through the centuries, Machiavelli's The Prince has certain practical applications, even to such travellers and dreamers as myself, who follow the scent of impossible visions to the place where they grow, like fruit on a tree, to partake of their strange savor. Robert M. Adams' is the best translation of this work into English, because of a simple device. The center of Machiavelli's work is the cluster of ideas represented by the Italian word "virtu." The translator demonstrates that this word can, depending on its context, mean many things in English: strength, ability, courage, manliness, ingenuity, character, wisdom, or virtue. To translate "virtu" with one single word as many have done is vague and confusing. Therefore Adams, with one simple device, has made the text much more accessible to the reader: wherever the term "virtu" appears in the original work, he places it in brackets beside the term he has chosen to stand in for it, in English. For example, speaking of the influence of Luck on human affairs in Chapter 25 (my favorite chapter, because of its beautiful imagery) Adams translates the Italian "Similmente interviene della fortuna; la quale dimostra la sua potenzia dove non e ordinata virtu a resisterle; e quivi volta li sua impeti dove la sa che non sono fattie gli argini e li ripari a tenerla" as "So with Fortune, who exerts all her power where there is no strength [virtu] prepared to oppose her, and turns to smashing things up wherever there are no dikes and restraining dams." Thus does Adams lead the reader to a better understanding of the work.

I myself discovered this translation after a sedentary life, and it made all the difference between how I lived my life then, and how I live it now. I read it when I was in the hospital recovering from Dr. Voronoff's glandular rejuvenation technique, long touted as a means to renew one's energy. The infusion of new life into my tottering body, and the concepts in this book, motivated me to leave behind my sorry existence and travel the world. I always keep this work by my side throughout my journeys, and its magic word "virtu" has gotten me out of many difficult situations, even as it was the force that allowed me to get into them in the first place. Virtu was my wisdom, when I was unofficially detained by close mouthed bureaucrats in the Balkans, who eventually let me continue my travels because of my clever diplomacy; I muttered "Virtu!" to myself as I clambered for forty hard days up the steep slopes of the Andes in search of unclassified protozoa; virtu was my strength, when I fought and killed in self defense the leader of a tribe of Geladas, and became their new alpha male. I would never have done any of these things--indeed, I would not be here writing this--had I not read this work. It has been an inspiration to me, and the principle of virtu is one the most powerful tools in the bag of tricks I have developed as I have travelled the world.

this book is brilliant. it captures perfectly the obsession of the french decadent movement with the female and what the male will do to control "woman." I will not give away any details of the story, but i must say the female as vampiric, hysterical, and simply put, sick, is what the character of thomas edison in this novel tries to put an end to by making his own version of "the female" that will be better suited to the world and society, but actually selfishly, to the needs of the male, and in particular mr. edison in the novel. it is a brilliant novel and i recommend THE DECADENT READER, from which i read this novel, it contains more unknown and unfortunately unread literature from this extremely fascinating movement at the end of the nineteenth century.

This little known novel is a masterpiece of Decadent literature (a brief movement localized in France around the turn of the last century that was influenced mainly by the poetry of Baudelaire and the theories of evolution put forth by Darwin). It tells the story of a fictionalized Edison who builds a female cyborg to exist in place of the unattainable love object of a tortured young man. She is animated by the spirit of a ghost and has the appearance of a Venus statue. Villiers, in the decadent tradition, lauds artifice above "nature," writing characters who traverse the world of illusion as that which is more real than real, a world in which appearance and the material are everything. This book might be of particular interest to feminists: Villiers only writes women as artifical beings, hysterics, ghosts, objects of fetishism. This book is a must read for any one interested in metaphysics and the rhetoric of "image" versus "being."

Two adventuresome boys decide to visit a haunted house and unexpectedly encounter a growling monster. Even though they are trapped in the tower and frozen with fear, they try Conflict Resolution to solve their dilemma. Can they trust themselves to solve the problem and get out of the haunted house in one piece? The author, Dr. Bob Billings is a retired Professor Emeritus of American Literature and wrote the story for his grandson, Adam.

The story is about a eleven year boy named Adam.Young Adam was A minstrel who is wating for his father to come.When finaly Roger his father comes to take him.But on the way on the roads from the thirteenth century england.Jenkin comes and takes Adams dog nick.Roger and Adam are in for the adventure of thier life.

The Almanac Of African American Heritage features people, places, times and events which shaped black culture and is written by four Afro-American professionals of education and counseling. From the earliest slave ships to cross the Atlantic to modern times, this explores dozens of black trail blazers over the centuries.

This book is not out-of-print. Information about its availability may be obtained from its authors at LeeMedals@aol.com .

This is an amazing book. Perhaps the only one of its kind. In 320 pages with 640 high resolution black & white photos, the authors cover the medals of over 200 societies.

Colonial descendant societies, Revolutionary War societies such as the Daughters/Sons of the American Revolution, Civil War societies like the Grand Army of the Republic and the Daughters of the Confederacy, are all well represented in these pages.

Medals from more obscure groups such as the Order of the White Crane and the Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York are also represented.

The emphasis of the book is definitely on military and lineage societies rather than on Masonic or other fraternal organizations such as the Odd Fellows or Knights of Columbus.

Information about each pictured medal is included along with a potted history about the issuing society. Why the medal was issued, who it was presented to, and changes or variations if known are described.

If you have an old society medal saved as a keepsake in your family or if you have a photograph of an ancestor wearing a medal , this book may help you identify the organization to which they belonged.

This is an important collection of essays for the serious photographer and for anyone interested in the art of photography. This book is destined to become a classic and will be read a hundred years from now. Adams' many excellent books of his own photography are testimony to the validity of what he writes about. I have read these essays over and over again and continue to learn. Robert Adams is one of the few photographers whose writing matches his photography.

Ms. Provost is a gifted writer who provides a clear, concise guide to a complicated Federal program.

Well...to read Bacchylides (in Robert Fagles'
translation) after having read Pindar (in C.M. Bowra's
translation--Penguin Classics) is to read (for me)
shorter, fresher, clearer poetry.
Yet, strangely, in his "Introduction" Fagles finds
it necessary to defend Bacchylides against the greater
fame and tradition of admiration for Pindar -- but
Fagles does a very good job of making his case for
Bacchylides (and, of course, the poetry speaks
in translation in favor of Bacchylides as well).
Interestingly, Bowra has written the "Foreword" for
Fagles' edition of Bacchylides. Bowra says that
Bacchylides is hard to translate -- but the advantage
for Fagles is that Bacchylides has had few translations,
since the remains of his poetry were not known to
modern times until 1896. Bowra says that since Fagles
is not hampered by so many previous earlier versions
of translations, he makes almost a fresh start, and
with unusual courage, judgment, and creative insight

has produced a work which is both a faithful translation
of Bacchylides as well as a work of art in its own right.
That is high praise indeed, from one classical translator
to another.
In his "Introduction," Fagles admits early on that
the usual perception of Bacchylides has been that he
was considered "a dull and slight, or, a sweet and
sometimes charming practitioner of the kind of poetry
which Pindar created with profundity and magnificence."
But Fagles won't let that unfair judgment go...so
Pindar is by far the greater poet, is he? --well,
Bacchylides handles the genre differently, with his
own distinct virtues, and he is interested in different
things from Pindar. Fagles says that Bacchylides does
not consider himself to be a prophet as Pindar did.
Bacchylides stands back from his work and "prefers to
consider himself a craftsman." The element of
narrative (as in Homer) is more important to Bacchylides
than in Pindar. Fagles says, "Bacchylides lacks the
inwardness of Pindar...He is cooler, brighter, more
objective." Fagles says that in narrative grace and
crisp elegance, Bacchylides is the superior to Pindar.
This volume is divided into sections of different
types of poems: Epinician Odes [14] (to honor victorious
athletes in the various games held in ancient Greece--
Isthmian Odes, Olympian Odes, Pythian Odes, Nemean Odes);
Dithyrambs [15-27] (concerning various mythic figures--
The Sons of Antenor, Heracles, Theseus [2 poems], Io,
Idas, Cassandra, Pasiphae, Chiron) -- Fragments, Fragments
of Uncertain Genre, and Doubtful Pieces.
There is also a section of "Notes" in the back to
explain some aspects of the poems.
Though Bacchyides' sentences tend to be a bit more
complete, to me personally, I get the same freshness
from reading Fagles' renderings of these poems in
their short, clear impact after reading the rather
turgid Pindar (in translation), as I get when
I read Emily Dickinson after having had enough
of a dose of bombastic, droning, tedious
Walt Whitman in his longer, "prophetic"
pieces. Walt can be glorious, mystic, intimate,
delicate -- but he can also be tiresome.
Try Bacchylides for a refreshing easement.
_______________
Men can maneuver no hold
Over wealth or stubborn war
Or the feuds that rock a state --
But raking her clouds from land to land,
Destiny -- that Pandora -- ranges.
-- Bacchylides.
* * * * * * * * *

I spent endless hours looking for a job once I graduated from college. A few times I wanted to give up and just stay home. But a college friend of mine told me about this book and my luck changed. I revised my cover letter and resume and the next thing I knew I got three interviews and three offers. Thank you Bob for helping me land the job of my dreams!!!