Kermode, who introduced the English-speaking world to French post-structuralist theory when he was teaching at the University of London, is far less interested in such effete and rarified (not to say, obtuse!) things than in relating his childhood, youth and early adulthood to the later course his life took. Born on the linguistically isolated island of Mann, his recollections of those early years suggested nothing of the extraordinary literary-critical future that awaited him. His service in the Royal Navy puts to rest the common conviction that anyone who served in that war must be a hero. On the contrary, he considered the whole outing a total waste of time (something that anyone who's served in the military will recogize as fundamentally correct!). A narrow measure of his prodigious critical output may be found in another AMAZON offering of Kermode's: _The Uses of Error_

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has any interest whatsoever in both upper and servant class life at the turn of the century. It is an extremely insightful book, written during the 1970's, when many of the servants were still alive. In the book, the author includes many excerpts from interviews and letters received from former servants. It covers virtually every base in-depth. The chapters are well divided. There is a chapter on servants' uniforms, pay, recruitment, heirarchy,living conditions, duties, and sexual relationships. It covers the lives of servants who lived and worked from about 1870 to 1930. It is extremely detailed, filled with facts, yet it is written in a charming manner that makes it a delight to read. I had a difficult time putting it down! Not in Front of the Servants is a must read for anyone with any interest whatsoever in servants' life.

Notes On Directing is a collection of wisdom gathered by Frank Hauser (Director of the Oxford Playhouse for sixteen years) and Russell Reich (Artistic Associate at the Circle Repertory Company, New York) over a lengthy directing careers. Hauser and Reich offer invaluable tips on how directors can help their actors better get into character, internalizing a script, performing their roles efficiently (without micromanaging), and a great deal more. Each individual tip is straightforwardly and usefully presented. Useful for theater directors at all levels of experience and expertise, Notes On Directing is especially recommended for the novice director in school and community productions as an easy-to-grasp supplementary instructional and reference resource.

This is not a novel, this is not poetry, this is nothing but art. In a very short text, Flaubert has managed to flow out feelings described with an unforeseen accurateness that makes us relate closer not only to the author but also to ourselves, for here, for the first time, do things we have felt for so long, go under names.

The book Nuggets of Wisdom is a book with a little of everything for everyone.Thought provoking, mind enhancing ponderables that reach out to young and old alike. A super "bathroom" book, that can be read in its entirety or in small "nuggets". Highly recommended!

For those of us who have ever dreamed of an older, beautiful prince charming, this is the book. It's the story of Nya, whose father sends her to London to live with her aunt and uncle following the death of her mother and brother. There, the thirteen-year-old Nya falls in love with Simon, a sailor who is twice her age. And the plot unfurls......

Lawrence Graver's thorough investigation of the controversy surrounding Anne Frank and the play based on her diary is as intense as a page-turning mystery novel. Graver weaves the tale of bringing Anne Frank's world-famous diary to the stage, and casts an overlooked player in a major role. Meyer Levin, a Jewish writer relatively well-known in the 1950s, and one of the most successful Jewish writers to write about Jewish themes at that time, was the first to review Anne Frank's diary in the States. In fact, he was instrumental in getting the diary published, and he forged a friendship with Otto Frank. The friendship turned sour as Levin fought for rights to compose the stage script for 1955's "The Diary of Anne Frank." In a legal battle that lasted thirty years, Levin vs. Frank lost Levin his rights to the script he felt best represented Anne--and her Jewishness. Frank and Doubleday sided with the well-known Hacketts--who would win a Pulitzer for their then-loved, now-criticized Everyman version of Anne's diary--and staged the play to rave reviews around the world. Levin took his script to Israel, fighting legal battles in court even to stage it there. Graver does an excellent job of exposing the story and the personalities of all its characters, including Lillian Helman. But Graver rightly shies away from demonizing Levin and canonizing Frank, or vice versa. His loyalty is first to accuracy, and an account that could easily become polarized by a mission to perpetuate the saintliness of Anne Frank and her family comes off as more complex and, ultimately, more informative.

This book is absolutely an A+. Of all of the required texts I have purchased this year, this one is by far the best. It is very well written. The information is detailed enough without overwhelming a third year student. The book provided short and manageable chapters that could be read and digested quickly. The questions at the end were a life-saver come test time.

i'm sad to see no one else has reviewed this book, so though it's been a while since i read it & my copy is lost in storage somewhere, i'll try to do this fine little story the justice it deserves: In this fast-reading autobiographical story our author Frank, in his younger days, enlists a young naval student for an ambitious foul-weather sail from England to Iceland in a 13' open dinghy. In the small but rich genre of dinghy cruising (which in the spirit modernity, i hereby rename "microcruising"), this is a must read. adding to the charm is frank's occasional mention of his girlfriend Margaret, who he later married, and who many years later wrote the bible of microcruising, the hugely instructional 'Dinghy Cruising'. Finally, if you like this book it seems impossible you would not also like Robert Manry's "Tinkerbelle," the cleanly told story of a flatlander who singlehands his dinghy from the US to England.

Oceans is an excellent book starting with the "anatomy" of the ocean and ending with creatures and the future. I carried this book around with me for days jumping to where I left off every chance I got. It's a sensational guide to the mysterious deep!