As a descendant of William L. Manly, and as an avid reader of history, the book appealed to me. It is a tale of raw survival and heroism, as well as a testament to the pioneering spirit of people from our American past. It is also a book of human triumph over one of Mother nature's most trying environments on Earth. The easy-going narration of the events in William L. Manly's life draw you into the scenery, the essence of the beautiful, yet enigmatic desert which lures yet imposes such harsh demands on the body and soul. It seemed that the nearly intolerable conditions that William and his fellow pioneers endured were a kind of "Offering" to the desert, which is one of Mother nature's testing grounds of the human spirit.

First hand account of pioneers crossing the American west in 1849. Epic and heroic in scope, Manly describes hardships and an America nearly lost to history. Where it survives is in the deserts and wastelands of Utah, Nevada and California. One will never be able to travel these regions without thinking of Manly, Rogers and the Bennet-Arcane party.

Jean and I edited the Heyday Books edition of Manly's monumental work. This edition has foreward by Dr. Limerick and Jean and I added a preface, 400 notes, an epilogue, and an index. We, of course, are biased and think this is the best edition of his book. Needless to say, the original edition is the best. We hope you enjoy Manly's words and our additions.

This is a strange mixture and I have to admit to very much disliking it when I first picked it up. It is a translated version of what was originally a French work and the English to me seemed a bit florid and dramatic. I am not sure if that is the translation or if the French naturally write in that style. I would however recommend people who are interested in Napoleon to persevere - it is a strange sort of book but worth the read.

I say this for two other reasons - firstly because Kauffmann has read just about every primary source about Napoleon's exile on St Helens - a tiny island pretty much in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and secondly because Kauffmann knows first hand about captivity.

After reading this book a little = and not enjoying it I read the author biography - this man spent some years as a captive in Beirut in the 1980's. Returning to the book I started to realise that this is more than just a book about Napoleon, or about a travellogue to the island. This is a story about captivity and its psychological side. Kauffmann is very clearly the right man to write about it. The oppression of captivity overwhelms the writing sometimes. Kauffman clearly found the place oppressive - he keeps talking of the town itself squeezed between two mountains - it is one of his repetitive themes and I get the sense that if he didn't sail out there expecting to dislike the place, his dislike of it coloured his later writings about it.

I think this book could just as easily be named 8 days on St Helens as the book is divided into chapters for each day. So his trip is dealt with chronologically - the information about Napoleon ducks and dives - often with seemingly little logic to it. However if you are looking to learn about Napoleon's last years they are touched on - more so Napoleon as a man is revealed. His impatience (he drove each day on the island in a carriage with two wives of his officers - but went at such high speed as to throw them around - a demonstration of power?) his arrogance.

There are also interesting insights into the man prior to his captivity - for instance I never knew Napoleon couldn't speak perfect French - (he spoke it badly and confusingly at times - muddling his words and pronunciations). However I don't think Kauffman explains anything new to most scholars of Napoleon. He mentions that Napoleon considered going to America before settling for surrendering to the English - why did he change his mind?

So you can read this book on many different levels - a story of St Helens, a mixed bag of Napoleonic history, or a story of captivity. All have different merits in this - but they are all mixed together. I don't know that I would recommend making a special trip to get it - but worth reading if you haven't much else to do.

I read this book on a flight to France, and was mesmerized by the author's lapidary prose and his ability to bring to the reader a keen sense of loneliness and desolation. According to the author, Napoleon spent a good deal of his last six years trying to figure out what went wrong at Waterloo...the sort of torment worthy of Greek mythology. Feeling broken and forgotten, the former emperor, to quote General McArthur, "faded away", dying as much of depression as of physiological causes.

A few days after finishing the book, I visited Napoleon's tomb at the Hotel des Invalides in Paris. It's very grand, and I'm sure he would have loved it. Enshrined, perhaps even resurrected, in this manner, Napoleon has the last laugh.

I am not disparaging the earlier reviews of this book. But, I found the theme to be one of reconciliation. Kauffmann used his trip to reconcile the mythical glory of Napoleon's reign with the factual emptiness surrounding his imprisonment. Along the way, he found other aspects that needed reconciliation. The "Saints" enjoy the benefits of their status with the United Kingdom, yet don't appreciate them. The French consul's father had a productive life in France, yet chose to live as a recluse in St. Helena. The consul paints flowers that grow on a desert island. And Napoleon's former tomb is a lush contrast to his living quarters at Longwood. There are also failed attempts at reconciliation, such as Napoleon's frequent attempts to understand how he lost at Waterloo. Behind all these attempts is the almost silent struggle by Kauffmann to reconcile his own experiences as a captive with those that Napoleon endured.

It's a very ambitious project that Kauffmann undertook. Fortunately, he pulled it off with incredible elegance. His descriptions of St. Helena and Longwood give a vivid image of the bleakness of both settings. Addtionally, his reflections on Napoleon's deteriorating condition are very poignant. Non-fiction does not ususally make one reflect on such things as the effect of isolation on a soul and the need for reconciliation in one's life. The fact that Kauffman has made a book that tackles such issues in an intelligent manner makes it one which everyone should read.

a read worth your time. this book takes so many turns...just when you think you know who done it, something happens to change your mind. a total shock in the end as to who it really was.

This is the second Patricia MacDonald book I have read (the other being Lost Innocents) and I enjoyed it just as much, if not more than the first. I could not put this book down. I was determined not to close it until I devoured the very last page. The story is about a women whose husband is murdered. The police think she is the killer but do not have the evidence to arrest her. Throughout the story you meet a plethora of shady characters, each one convincing you that he/she is the actual killer. You do not know for sure until the very end. I highly recommend it.

I worked in all the area covered in the book produced by The Discovery Writers, even building a home just north of Lolo. Because of this familiarity I was more than a little excited waiting for this book from The Discovery Writers. I was not disappointed.

This valley is, or at least was, one of the most beautiful in beautiful western Montana. As presented by the above writers as well as Bernard DeVoto it didn't, however, appear that way to the Corps of Discovery.

Of credit due The Discovery Writers the most must be for their intensive and extensive efforts in bringing together the works of so many different sources of information regarding the expeditions travel through the Bitterroot.

Of additional interest is the differences of opinion as to what was said when, where and by whom. The above from The Discovery Writers work, and a quick perusal of Devoto's Down the Lolo Trail in The Journals Of Lewis and Clark

The Editor's note regarding the viewpoint of, and the information taken from, the native people was well taken. GOOD FOR THEM.

The detail work as shown in Chapter Three - Members Of The Expedition - shows their dedication to detail GOOD FOR THEM.

The time taken from their busy lives and the effort needed to complete this work to me appears mind-boggling GOOD FOR THEM

All told a good piece of work.

I read this book after hearing it recommended on NPR. It was hard when coming to the book to disassociate Kauffmann's incredible and horrible experiences as a hostage in Beirut from my appreciation of the book itself. Every piece of ennui, every flat, sad phrase seemed to take me back to the chair in which he was blindfolded and chained for three years. I think it would be impossible not to attribute some significance to his past, but it is something Kauffmann fails to address in any way at all. (It is mentioned only in passing on the book jacket.)

What we find instead is a troubled man coming to terms with a troubled place. But here his insights aren't very deep. He seems utterly amazed that this place, so far away from anywhere, is still France. This is an glimpse into the Gallic mindset that perhaps only an Englishman could appreciate. He also feels very impressed with being there. He seems to pinch himself a lot. Wow, I am in Kerguelen! Apparently, it's windy.

His attempts at a back story -- his attempts to show why this place has haunted him for so long are unconvincing and rather dull. He includes what history he could find about the place, but, sadly, there isn't so much. For an example of this type of writing at its finest, I would check out Bruce Chatwin's In Patagonia and Kevin Patterson's excellent The Water Inbetween. Both of these books come from similar emotional places, but engage the reader in more interesting and varied ways.

This book is neither a travelogue (in the usual sense), a natural history treatise, nor a serious historical overview of the French islands of Kerguelen (also called Desolation Island.) Although there are some evocative phrases that approach description (for example, "it's the land of 'the eternal late autumn.'"), author Jean-Paul Kauffmann never seems to get around to actually describing much more than the ever present wind.

Why travel to Kerguelen? Well, there's a rock arch. And a failed explorer. And it's difficult to get to. But overwhelmingly, one gets the feeling that the author made this journey because he couldn't think of anything better to do.

Not that that's a bad idea, mind you. But once he's arrived, he doesn't seem particularly interested in either noticing details or passing them on. His historical snippets of earlier explorers are truncated and flimsy. And he seems completely uninterested in the other human beings whom he encounters. Perhaps it's because most of them are scientists.

I betray my interest in natural history by pointing out that every time Jean-Paul Kauffman gets to an interesting fact or description of this most remote of all places on earth, he punts it by either declaring that science has taken the poetry out of nature-- the man has obviously never read Loren Eiseley-- or adds it as an unexplained addendum ("...the meteorite lying amid the ruins is like the dead soul of Port Jeanne d'Arc..." Hey, wait a minute, what meteorite?)

Despite its flaws, or possibly because of them, this book entices you to learn more. One hopes that the next adventurer to Kerguelen arrives with an actual sense of adventure and the descriptive power to pass it on.

The author makes a pilgrimage to the islands in the southern Indian Ocean which have been called the most desolate on earth since their discovery in 1772. His travelogue, The Arch Of Kerguelen, explores the islands, their wildlife, and their history in an intriguing study.

With reservations I bought this book hoping that it would offer something fresh in the way of book conservation tips, shelving systems, organization, or even a pleasant excursion into the slightly mad world of book collecting. I was more tired than disappointed then, though a bit of both, to find that this is a far too breezy compendium of advice better gleaned from any number of more interesting sources. Readers would be better served to turn back to the masters of the genre---writers like Vincent Starrett, Christopher Morley, or John Carter, for the lore and practise of book collecting, and to the Bro-Dart catalogue for the tips on maintaining a collection. All in all, I thought this was a lackluster effort.

With respect, I think I can bridge the widely-divergent opinions of the two other reviews on this page by saying that the usefulness of this title depends greatly on what kind of bibliophile you are, what goals you have for your personal library, and how seriously you take your books. Certainly, other writers have covered this ground with more specialization and/or style (I found the author's "breezy" tone somewhat annoying at times). But if you're a book lover who's just starting to think about taking better care of your collection -- or discovering that people have actually written books about collecting books -- then this guide probably isn't a bad place to start.

This Booklover's Guide covers a wide range of topics -- everything from auditing your collection, to deciding what and how to collect, to classification and storage, to repair (including serious stuff like rebinding and chemical cleaning). And there are sections on archives, professional librarians, the history of the book, and more. In short, more information, probably, than most casual readers will probably need. If, like me, the major classification in your library is "Stuff I Like," and your main motive in collecting the books is the hopeful optimism that someday you'll have read them all, then a good deal of the information here may be of less use to you. On the other hand, if you have a serious collection of old or rare titles, signed first editions, or other reasons to have a real interest in long-term preservation, then this might not be a bad place to get started.

One thing I can't criticize is the author's obvious love of books and book collecting. This title is a good introduction to the universe of bibliophilia. If you're already an experienced traveler in that universe, you probably don't need this book. But if you're a new arrival or casual tourist, this guide could come in fairly handy. You may never use most of the information here, but that's probably true of any Fodor's guide too.

First of all, I could not disagree more with the prior reviewer. I found this book in question, i.e., The Bloomsbury Review Booklover's Guide : A Collection of Tips, Techniques, Anecdotes,Controversies & Suggestions for the Home Library by Particia J. Wagner (Editor), et al to be quite usefull. THe table of contents is very well done. The foreword and introductionary chapters are written with clarity and brevity. The little cartoons that come with each chapter are a blast. All in all, a stupendous guide to collecting and starting a private library. Higly Recommended.