The presence of Moliere only manages to overlap these other comedies.Taking this into account,TURCARET is a very readable play.Behind its comedy it hides various controversial issues of the time.It is definately worth reading once. I do need some information,however,on who do you think is the central character of TURCARET.If you have any opinions or any critical guide on this play please let me know as soon as possible. THANK YOU.

This book covers the whole history of the Order of the Templars.
The Order was in fact an exception in the social organization of the Middle Ages: it combined two (of the three) orders: the first one (the nobility) and the second one (the clergy). This situation gave the Templars a very privileged status (for taxes for instance), but also ignited big envies.
They were pioneers on different fronts. First, in finances: their headquarters in Paris were practically a central bank for Europe; all kingdoms had a line of credit there. They invented for instance the bill of exchange. Secondly, in commerce. They were in fact the first capitalists in Europe. They didn't keep their money in the bank, but invested heavily and with profit in agriculture to provide food for the crusaders.

Unfortunately, this book is too superficial and not always clear-cut. Demurger gives the facts, the battles, but he doesn't clearly explain the financial organization or the trial proceedings.
He admits also very reluctantly, as if the honour of France was at stake, that the French king Philippe le Bel destroyed the Order only for financial reasons. We know from other work that the king contracted a very big loan from the Order, just before their persecution. If he could, with the help of the pope, condemn them, he didn't have to repay the money. Into the bargain, he could confiscate their possessions in France.

A better work is 'Der Prozesz gegen die Templer' by M.J. Krück von Poterzyn, but that work covers only the period of the trial.

One should re-name this book: Useless - a Form Guide.

This book claims to introduce a whole new perspective of 20th- century art which has so far been repressed. We are led to believe that it is necessary to add a third and foreign element into the conceptualization of art. The basis on which this whole endeavour is anchorred is the philosophical "Informe" of Georges Bataille. However, the arguments presented by the authors are weak as the whole book is stuffed with analyses purporting to reveal the operational tool of "informe". Any attempt at explaining the original intentions of Bataille's "informe" is so brief and convenient so as to get the reader lost in its adjectival superfluity. There is never any attempt to explain the introduction of "informe" into art and its necessity. The authors make claims to be liberating our thinking from the semantic and that this project is only the beginning. I am only too happy to wish for a clearer and thoroughly convincing argument the next ti! me.

Georges Bataille was a provocative thinker. Associated freely with the Surrealists, playing around with the fascists, Gnostics, psychoanalysis and eroticism, he managed to create a highly explosive cultural blend which proves influential in our times, like a real time-bomb should. Was he really that quasi-Postmodern thinker some interpreters try to make him look? Anyway, he wrote some of the most intellectually challenging texts and supplied exquisitely enjoyable concepts which present-day artists still can not truly exhaust. The book "Formless" provides an equally provocative reading of Bataille projected against some Modern and Postmodern artifacts, which the French thinker never really saw. It is anachronistic, it is puzzling, sometimes quite enjoyable. Problem is, it does not add to our understanding of neither Bataille, nor, for example, Andy Warhol. It shows that Rosalind Krauss and Yve-Alain Bois can write complicated and intricate pieces on virtually anything, citing from Bataille and/or the so-called "French theory" to interesting effect. But this is not an art history book, it is rather a kind of artifact of its own right. Personally I do not regret that I bought it, but I can imagine people who would be disappointed.
I think in Thomas Pynchon's "V" there is a passage where two thugs planning to steal Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus" from the Uffizi go to the museum and stare at the painting. They see a nude woman, a maid who is trying to cover her up with a cloak, and an excited male god at the left who is trying hard to blow the cloak away and keep Venus nude. Well, this does not add to our understanding of Botticelli, but provides amusing reading and serves Pynchon's point nicely. Something similar happens with "Formless": it is entertaining but tells us mostly about personal excitements and idiocyncrazies of the two intellegent people who wrote this collection.

This is a crap book. Don't buy it. I have 3 books by this author, all published by CUP, and I swear I will never and ever buy his fourth book. This is the worst book I've every read. There are several common weak points of his books -- confusing symbols, lack of explanations on those necessary issues and lengthy B.S. on those simple issues. Numerous typing errors make the matter worse. This book spend a chapter talking about old fashion of moving averages, such as Spencer 7-point and 15-point. It almost goes into the field of graduation. What's the point? The chapters on ARIMA are also rubbish. My feeling is that the author lacks sense in statistics, all he saw are just mathematics. On the whole, this book is just on the wrong field, at the wrong time and with the wrong title.

When you study an econometrics PhD. In France, you can't avoid reading books of Gourieroux: it's the national hero of econometrics. In fact, when you discover all the research he has done, you have to admit it's a brilliant person. But his books aren't particularly clear. They are made for mathematicians (the only students in my classroom that appreciate this book aren't economists; the rest of us, simple mortals, use more friendly books, such as Davidson and Mackinnon, Greene, Enders and Hamilton). What can I say? It's a very complete book: seasonality is deeply treated, ARIMA models are studied profoundly and, you can even find a spectral analysis chapter and another of the Kalman filter. But they are pretty hard to understand. The notation is complex, more than necessary. There are lots of equations and little explanations. If you are a mathematician, this book will satisfy your needs; it's rigorous and fairly complete (even if the selection of topics it's not the ideal one, I think); if you are not, you should better go to Hamilton's manual. If what you want is a cookbook of time series, then buy Enders.

This book is a graduate level introduction to time series econometrics. By introduction I mean that it covers a large amount of material, from stationary ARMA models to cointegration, without going too deep into details, although it requires strong mathematical and statistical background. The aim of this book was to be a source of references for applied researches and a textbook for graduate level courses. So in this respect it's similar to Hamilton's "Time Series Analysis". I think that as a textbook Hamilton's book works better, because the derivation of many results in it is more detailed. On the other hand, Gourieroux and Monfort treatment of many topics is more advanced. Gourieroux and Monfort provide much more information, for example, on uses of frequency domain. They also included a chapter on fractional processes.

I have dined in all of Alain Ducasse's Paris establishments{including the just opened Plaza Athenee location}as well as his Monte Carlo establishment and consider him a genius however, with the overblown pretension of the New York restaurant and now this book, one has to ask can even a genius spread himself too thin. The two real cookbooks by Ducasse are treasures, this book is not worth the price or the trouble. It is basically the Master's musings about his sources and philosophy of freshness and source....nice filler in a real cookbook but,not worth or worthy of a whole book. Save your money for a real Ducasse cookbook.

Imagine my surprise when I opened the book and started looking for recipes,and found not a single one. The "tips" mentioned in the Amazon blurb consist of terse, extremly general,single line comments as to what sort of technique or garnish to use for the item at hand. The products discussed come from single vendors that most chefs, not to mention the home cook, will be hard pressed to get hands on. It would be nice if the man touted by some as the greatest chef in the world gave some specific ideas what he would do with the great products of this country. Alas, not a whisper. Other chefs,such as Alice Waters and Thomas Keller, do an admirable job extolling the virtues of American products and provide great ideas of how to play with them. This book seems like the first half of his L'Atelier book,wihout the culinary clues. If you're looking for a "cookbook",this is not it. I'm not sure what value the book holds,except as a peek at obscure vendors and a glimpse into a chef's thoughts.

This book should be an inspiration to both professional chefs and home cooks alike. It is beautifully written and photographed and conveys M. Ducasse's enjoyment of the abundance of the United States in it's many forms. To miss the inclusion of recipes is to miss the point. Of course the book is pointing out the bounty that is utilised at the restaurant, but it is there for all of us to enjoy and use. There are many, many farms across the U.S. similar to the ones profiled in the book, in every community. Many people just don't know that they are there. I would hope that this book is an inspiration to people to patronize their local food producers and to seek out farmers, fishermen, ranchers, cheesemakers et al who make it their life's work to produce something of quality for all to enjoy. Rarely has a chef written a book that is not entirely about themselves, to promote the work of others. And this chef is not even from this country.

"The Avengers hinted at a world of miraculous transformations hidden beneath the ordinary and the overlooked."

This is a book that wanted to be a video compilation. I don't have a scrap of fact for this assertion save that it would clearly make more sense as a frustrated boxed set: short 'interview' pieces by stars and fans, inadequate in a book, might be delivered to camera; exhaustively detailed synopses of episodes the authors really just want to show to us; even the photos which are the book's main attraction point to a visual, rather than a literary, aim. Originally published as 'Chapeau Melon et Bottes de Cuir' ('Bowler Hat and Leather Boots'), this is perhaps the best-looking book on 'The Avengers' so far, yet has a strangely unprofessional feel; the writing style is more that of an old-fashioned fan magazine than a book. Other features seem short and slapdash, such as an episode guide with too many similarities to that in Dave Rogers' 'The Ultimate Avengers' - for example, neither can distinguish a local from a Westminster by-election in 'November Five', and the financial mistake in 'Death of a Batman' crops up here too! Their thirteen 'selection box' episodes are just inferior substitutes for videos or repeats, recounted at lifeless length; almost everything but the dialogue is given, complete with minute details of scenery and still the odd stupid mistake (such as missing out the main red herring in 'The Cybernauts'). They reflect little of the series - nothing with Ian Hendry or Honor Blackman (the series' real groundbreaker), but eight from the single colour Diana Rigg season. Yes, I think the black and white Rigg and the colour Thorson seasons are a better mix of the silly and the sinister, but if the authors had made comments on their choices they might communicate some of their enthusiasm to the reader. Sadly, the width of coverage without the added depth of performances, music and dialogue gives little idea of why 'The Avengers' was special - instead bringing you perilously close to boredom. There are suddenly several 'Avengers' books around, and more variety with the Movie - though I still reckon Lily Savage makes a better Mrs Peel than Uma Thurman! The best episode guides are in Dave Rogers' 'The Complete Avengers'; for background information, try his aforementioned 'The Ultimate Avengers', despite the largest number of typos ever; the most readable is Patrick Macnee's 'The Avengers and Me', which looks great too (even if it's not quite so unputdownable as his autobiography 'Blind in One Ear'); the best 'feel' for the series, with dialogue quotes and reviews, is Cornell, Day and Topping's 'The Avengers Dossier', despite my not agreeing with all their opinions (particularly their attacks on Linda Thorson's wonderful Tara King). My liberal hatred of monopoly notes this is the only one with no involvement by Rogers - unless you count his helping get its original version withdrawn, which is why the current re-release has been nicknamed 'The Avengers Unpulped'! So what's the unique selling point here? The photos. Some are previously unpublished, and I love the one on page 67. Otherwise, I'd only recommend it to beginners and completists. It simply isn't "the definitive Avengers guide" its publicity claims, and if you've seen a fair number of episodes and want a book about the series, it might be pretty but it's not the best one for you.

I'm going to have to agree with the other readers. This book had excellent pictures. But the writing was not up to par. The other Avenger books are far more interesting. Still, if you collect all Avenger memorabilia, you might as well add this book to your collection.

If you're an Avengers fan, you'll want this book for the pictures. If you just want one book, then get the Complete Avengers.

This book covers the essential information for studying for Exam 70-098; However, while this book & MCSE Training Guide are both from New Riders there are many contradictions between the two. Recommend that you carefully use this book along with the MCSE Training Guide from New Riders

This book is a Windows 95 prep which has been rebadged as 98. The authors didn't do as thorough a job as they should have. For example, QIC 40 is repeatedly mentioned as a supported backup device. This is true for 95 but not 98. Also, NETSETUP is the focus of some installation material in the practice tests even though it is not used in 98. New utilities like MS Batch 98 and DBSET.EXE are not mentioned. The book has much good material and I learned some interesting facts but I needed another guide to correct the factual errors where the authors hadn't updated the Windows 95 material to 98. Without the incorrect information, I would have given it four stars.

Think back to high school and those awful mid-term exams, you have to study 10 books just to pass the exam in history. In computers it's basically the same way, so what makes this book useful? Alain Guilbault takes you on a certification study ride that makes passing the exam easier.

Over 500 hundred questions are included in the book, broken down into chapters. The book is one giant set of questions, with explanations and topics for further review. The author puts everything into one neat little package and gives it to you.

You have each objective of the exam covered completely and the questions are not as easy as you think. This book makes a handy reference to have and if you're serious about passing the exam, this is the first step in success.

Couple this book with another title from New Riders, Microsoft Windows 98 Next generation training, and the combination is hard to beat. Stop putting off advancement, get a copy of the book today before the exam is retired at the end of the year.

I am not even through the first chapter and it is so littered with errors I'm afraid to read the rest of the book.

Following is a fundamental error in the explanation of the Servlet Lifecycle from page 4:
"The container loads the servlet class (if it isn't already loaded), instantiates the servlet with request and response objects, calls the servlet's init method, then calls it's service method,..."
The request and response objects are passed to the service method - they are not part of servlet instantiation.

On page 19 he provides a summary listing getNamedDispatcher() as a method of ServletRequest - it is actually a method of ServletContext.

Here's a doozie from the overview on page 3 that also demonstrates his articulate writing style:
"Going the other way, the container wraps the response parameters with the HttpServletResponse object, which is passed back to the container."

Let's look an one of his examples. On page 16 while discussing Context, he suggests using a login servlet to set an application-level attribute "productColor". Lame.

I wonder how much I could get for it at the recycler...

I wonder if this book was even proof-read. There are numerous errors of a technical nature, even in the answers to the practice questions. The book credits a technical editor, who should be ashamed of himself. Aside from the errors, the author's writing style is awkward and at times hard to discern.

Skip it.

I used this along with the author's Training Guide to pass the exam. I liked how the book is arranged according to Sun's exam objectives. This book is exactly what it states - a cram version for the exam - so don't expect the comprehensive material you'll find in the Training Guide. For those that are advanced - this book might be all you need. However, I needed both books ( I consider myself an intermediate/advanced level java programmer), so I would recommend getting both books.

I found too many errors/typos/inconsistancys between the textand the appendices. Almost too much information smashed into smallspace. Not up to the quality of other Putnam titles. END

Touraine's over-reliance on authors that are never mentioned makes it impossible for the reader to unpack his jargon. He uses philosophical terms like "Subject" and "History" without clearly specifying their conceptual origin, e.g., Hegel, Weber, Comte? Touraine is tying together too vast a territory, making it hard for the reader to untie the knots.