After the brief introduction, the book begins with a discussion about "Dickensian" elements in original books, and their relations to visual media. The agrument at first is a bit too general and obvious, but you should just read on. After the third chapter the writer speeds up his discussion, giving well-researched comments on the films, backed up quotations from various materials. Though the materials might not look rare in the eyes of those who are already versed in film history -- autobiographical writings, comtemporary reviews, the synopsis, etc. -- they help those who do not have knowledge on movie history to gain the historical viewpoint to glance back the current of many films.

Chapters 2-4 are devoted to discussion on the silent films. It is now a nearly impossible thing to make a perfect survey about this era, because many of the films are lost forever (the reason is explained by the words of director Frank Llyod in the book), and considering that fact, Mr. Pointer did a very good job, even though the argument often seems to lack in power, relying on second-hand knowledge. But that cannot be helped.

After Chapter 5, the discussion is about "talkies," and the book gets better and better as you read. His discussion covers the films until the 1993 "Edwin Drood," and, instead of displaying tedious scene-to-scene analysis which might have done harm to the book by its slow tempo, he gives each film concise summery of its characteristics and his opinions about it, which may disagree with yours, but mostly fair and to the point. Mr. Pointer does not neglect the more recent TV products, and gives fair judgement on them. There is even a section where the author deals with parodies! (such as British cult TV series "Avengers" -- remember Mrs. Emma Peel?")

The book also contains a list of films (until BBC's "Martin Chuzzlewit"), which is now superceded by our internet source like imdb. Of more interest is the cluster of clear stills (21 in all) which includes a rare one that shows Charles Laughton as Mr. Micawber in the 1935 "David Copperfield." After one-week shooting, he left the film, and as you know, W.C. Fields took the part. Though not a perfect book, since so many have been released after its publication, "Charles Dickens on the Screen" is a good book to know more about the area of filmed classics, which should be given more attention from both academic and non-asademic people.

This book has a clearly written style that is easy to understand. The illustrations are placed near the aproriate text and referenced in the text.

This book contains many useful references for most of the car's systems. However I believe that more information and illustrations should have been included in the Body and chassis chapter which was quite short and bare. The illustrations in this chapter needed a little more detail especially on how the model years differed.

In addition, therre was virtually no information included on the turbocharger included in two model years and how their exhaust systems differed.

All in all a very good looking reference with a great deal of information. Thanks Chilton!

--Steve

This cocktail book is a very accessible book. It avoids two common problems of other books: 1) most cocktail books contain too many recipies and it is nearly impossible to find the drink you want to mix; 2) every other cocktail book I have seen is perfect bound and does not lay flat on the counter making it very difficult to hold the book in one hand and mix the drink in the other. The coil binding for this book makes it possible to lay flat on the counter and frees up both hands to mix your beverage!