As a former criminal trial attorney, I loved this little novel about the chronical of a very colorful American family, and about the real courtroom wars in our criminal justice system. But I thought the novel was also the story of a "great one" coming into his own, unadorned, straight at you. Refreshing and funny...often spellbinding. I loved the apparently direct-from-the-courtroom arguments. The author's own voice adds a wonderfully real edge. Listen to this one, you'll love it. We need another soon.

Hal Dockins Jackson MS.

Buddy Lemann's description of Louisiana law couldn't have been any more acurate! His descriptions of past cases were wonderfully worded. He did an excellent job of presenting the legal world in layman's language. I truly enjoyed learning the deepest secrets of his clients and stratagies! I can't wait for the next book!

Any lawyer tired of tomes and in need of some comic relief will enjoy Arthur "Buddy" Lemann's "Hail to the Dragon Slayer", a memoir of selected cases handled by the successful New Orleans criminal defense lawyer over several decades.

Criminal defense lawyers all have survival mechanisms and strategies to contend with the stress which results from being responsible for protecting clients' liberty and from engaging in that particular kind of battle known as the trial. Buddy tells us about his--mythmaking and humor. The delusions of gradeur need a framework--the defense lawyer as Ivanhoe is a good one, especially for the Southern lawyer. We still look for damsels in distress. (Lawyers I know west of the Mississippi seem to prefer the cowboy archetype. You've all seen the "Gunfighters Don't Charge By The Bullet" poster.) But while what we do requires the energy of myths, at the end of the day we need a good laugh to bring us back to ear! th.

The Carlos Marcello (local allged mafioso) and the Dino Cincel (alleged pedophile priest) are the most famous of the cases. Buddy tells good stories, succinctly, unabashedly, and always with that twinkle in his eye. While weaving his knight theme though his trial tales, he also reveals some things about himself which certainly have some bearing on his skill as a trial lawyer. He admits to (or boasts about) being a sinner, which gives him something in common with both defendants and jurors. Let the judge and the prosecutor be holier than thou.

The dragons Buddy tells of fighting and sometimes slaying are the ones criminal lawyers have a license to duel--the king, the church, all authority. Years of such combat spawn a virulent form of cynicsm. Buddy reminds us that a good laugh is the antidote, and that the justice system must have some redeeming qualities, or dragons would never get slain.

His childhood adversary was that bastion of authoritarianism, the Catho! lic Church. The early duelling prepares him for his career! . He writes:

"I still remember the great agony of trying to make it from Friday's confession to Sunday's communion. But I soon learned how to beat the system. By confessing on Friday to uncommitted sins and throwing in one whopper to cover the scam, I could march up to the rail on Sunday mornings under the watchful eye of parents and priests with a clear conscience. Again, I sided with the sinners. It was also my first lesson in imunity."

Irreverent and sometimes politically incorrect, Dragon Slayer is a hoot. War stories were always my favorite part of CLE anyway.

As time passes, the novels of Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) seem to gain in freshness, stature and influence. He lived long enough to see his modest reputation fade, in contrast to that of many of his famous novelist contemporaries. Nowadays the situation seems to be reversing.

Of special merit, amongst his huge output, are the so-called Barsetshire ("clerical") novels, and the so-called Palliser ("political") novels. Of the former, the last and longest is "The Last Chronicle of Barset". Not only are there fresh concerns, complications and current affairs introduced here, but there are also fond and final appearances of people and places encountered in the earlier Barsetshire novels. Everybody's favourite literary virago, Mrs Proudie, is again denouncing and dominating everybody. Trollope even contrives to create a character who has the temerity to say to her, "Peace, Woman!"

There are the innumerable characters of marriageable age, whose names are perhaps more memorable than their characters, whose charming dialogues and relationship problems are deftly laid out and interwoven. Above all, there is master story-teller Anthony Trollope, admitting finally that for him Barset has been a real place, a place where he as been induced to wander too long by his "love of old friendships, and by the sweetness of old faces".

Superb TV and radio adaptations of Trollope's Barsetshire novels have appeared in recent years. His novels read aloud well, too, and audio cassette readings, some of them unabridged, can provide endless hours of rich listening pleasure.

THE LAST CHRONICLE OF BARSET is one of the great novels in the English language, and yet it is not widely read. The reason for this is obvious: it is the LAST novel in the Barsetshire series of novels, and a relatively small number make it all the way through the previous five volumes. This is a shame, because while all the previous novels are quite excellent and thoroughly entertaining, the final novel in the series is a work of an entirely different level of magnitude.

This novel is also one of the darkest that Trollope wrote. The moral dilemma in which Crawley finds himself would seem to belong more readily to the world of Dostoevsky than Victorian England.

Can this novel be read on its own, without reading the novels that precede it? Yes, but I do feel that it is best read after working through the other books in the series first. This is hardly an unfortunate situation, since all the books in the series are superb (with the exception of the first novel, THE WARDEN, which, while nice, is merely a prelude to the far superior five novels that came after it). Many of the characters in THE LAST CHRONICLE appeared first as characters in the other novels, and the central character of the book, Crawley, himself appeared earlier.

Trollope is...one of the most entertaining writers the English language has produced. At this point I have read around 20 of his novels, and fully intend to read more. But of all his books, this one might be his finest. The only two that I feel are close to the same level are his incredible books THE WAY WE LIVE NOW and HE KNEW HE WAS RIGHT (possibly the finest work on excessive jealousy since OTHELLO). Anyone who loves the English novel owes it to him or herself to read as many of these volumes as possible. My recommendation would be to read first the six novels in the Barsetshire Chronicles, and then to move on to the other two novels I mentioned. If still hooked, then try his other major series of novels, variously known as the Political novels or the Palliser novels or the Parliamentary novels, which begin with CAN YOU FORGIVE HER?

How one man could hold in his mind so much of his age, and then relate it back to us peopled with so many and varied characters in--how many? 20?-- interconnected novels of surpassing richness of detail and sagacity of moral observation, is a great mystery of human psychology.

"The Last Chronicle of Barset" is surely one of the most successful and satisfying of the whole Barset and Palliser series, illustrating perhaps better than any of the former Trollope's admirable gift for creating multi-dimensional characters that are as recognizable to us today as they were in his time.

We're not boat fans but really enjoyed the photography. Beautiful boats and lots of color, b/w and historic action and promo pics. Great

At the National Boating History Symposium in Cincinnati, Ohio on March 17, 2001, "Gar Wood Boats: Classics of a Golden Era," was selected as The Classic Boating Book-of-the-Year for 2001 by the National Boating Museum, Washington, DC. This prestigious selection is made annually to the book that contributes significant original research and valuable historic information related to boat building, design and performance. As the author of this book, I am pleased to share this information with potential readers.

A Wonderful Portrayal of Classic Wooden Boating A one of a kind historic journey with Gar Wood, one of the pioneers of motorized wooden boating. The author's insight and knowledge of the subject is quite evident in page after page of the book. The pictures and illustrations are exquisite and beautiful to look at. This is a must read for anyone who loves classic boating, boating in general and American history, as you are taken on an epic journey with one of America's leading industrialists of a Golden Era. My kudos to the author for a job well done and express my hope that boaters across the nation will add this tome to their maritime libraries!!!

Anthony Arthur depicts the journey of the Bushmasters in WWII with great detail and passion. This book takes those of us from our everyday lives, and provides an oppurtunity to relive the incredible journey of the "American Jungle Warriors". This book includes pictures, and stories of men who died or survived the courageous journey of the Bushmasters. Arthur provides great visual tools and details to provide you with an understanding of the timeline and location of the Bushmaster's journey. I was almost in disbelief as a read the detailed descriptions and stories as to what these soldiers endured and the courage they displayed and the conditions of which they survived. Some of the stories in this book will leave you feeling disturbed. However, I feel that the horrors of what these men survived is necessary to grasps the extent of their courage and dedication to our country. This book is tribute to the men who served our country, and those that died for our country. I recommend this book to anyone who searches for an understanding and appreciation for our country's history.

This book was great, although it didn't tell about the quest for the holy grail. The whole book is full of action.

Apte and Monier-Williams are the most frequently used Sanskrit-English Dictionary, but Macdonnell has a number of advantages. Apte is a bit scruffy, MW is too big. Macdonnell's vocabulary is very comprehensive - it is rare that one has to go to Monier-Williams for a word not in Macdonnell, and unlike MW, it is strictly alphabetical, which make it very much easier to use. It is a handsome and easy-to-read production, unlike Apte. One tip for users - a whole page was omitted from the original 1923 edition as exists as an Addendum at the front of the book - if you can't find a word beginning with prac-, that is where it will be!

I seem to remember Arthur Miller dismissing the notion that this Book is biographical, but it certainly reads that way....
One can not help but draw comparison to marilyn monroe from
the maggie character...in a most unfavorable way.
The main character's relationship with the various characters in this book reveal Arthur Millers feelings about his own Life...it's almost like a comment on his marriage to the movie legend and an explanation what happened to her.
As a Marilyn fan i find this to be an interesting read and a glimpse into Arthur Miller's side of it all.

An explicit play of the mind, with diction in the place of fiction, the trumpery of illusion forced into an epithalamion of sorts.

Everyone's read Death of a Salesman and The Crucible, myself included... but in my opinion, this play is Miller's most exceptional work! It is presented in a much less formulaic, more postmodern arrangement than his other works. He tackles goodness and sin in a manner uniquely his own, examining what modern man must seek out in life. He offers a hope for humankind which can only be achieved by the acknowledgement that we all exist "after the fall" from innocence and the necessity of each of us to relearn to live and to love in our way.

This book did not quite meet my expectations. Since I have more reason to criticize I shall start my review by listing the flaws.

First thing that strikes me as a mistake is the fact that the works are not arranged in any order, but rather just thrown in at random. Although the authors make it clear in the introduction that this was done deliberately it still strikes me as a poor decision.

Next, neither one of the two authors is an art historian. Too bad, because a lot of the works merit better descriptions.

In my opinion the authors included too many works by LeRoy Neiman, and at the same time failed to include some very important works of art that should really have been included to make this book complete. LeRoy Neiman also wrote the Foreword, which is fine, except that he made a big mistake in his description of the world famous painting "The Cheat with the Ace of Clubs" by Georges de La Tour. He says, "Women gambling pops up frequently in this collection. Georges de La Tour's painting of a woman being cheated..." The famous painting in question shows a young man being cheated by small conspiratorial group of two women and a man. How could such big mistake slip through the cracks and end up in print? Sloppiness?

While at the subject of La Tour's masterpiece, "The Cheat with the Ace of Clubs". The authors do mention that this painting is a virtual clone of another work by the same artist, "The Cheat with the Ace of Diamonds", however they did not include a color plate of the other one. Why not? Furthermore the authors have totally failed to provide an accurate description of this masterpiece. According to the authors this painting is about a cheat switching cards. Yes, a cheat is seen holding out two aces behind his back, however there is more to it; the main foundation for this painting is a moral essay on the three main temptations of the 17th century - women , gambling and wine. A quick glance into a few art books would have made this fact known to the authors.

Although the authors did note that the above-mentioned work was strongly influenced by Caravaggio's "The Cardsharpers", they failed to include any paintings by Valentin de Boulogne, a celebrated artist, also influenced by Caravaggio, and the only one said to come close or even surpass Caravaggio's talent. The two masterpieces by Valentin that should have been included are "Cardsharpers" and "Soldiers Playing Cards and Dice" (aka "The Cheats").

Other paintings that should have been included are works by Theodor Rombouts, such as "Card and Backgammon players" (aka "Fight Over Cards"), and two renditions of "The Card Players". The exclusion of the above-mentioned works makes this book incomplete.

As I had already mentioned, the descriptions of the paintings tend to be a bit incomplete, sometimes inaccurate, and often tend to focus on irrelevant subjects. For example, in the description of "The Dice Playes" by Georges de La Tour, which was painted in 1650, the authors slip away to a description of an event that happened in 1984 when a Texan (unnamed) made a one million Dollar bet at the Craps table, at Binnion's Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas. Although this is undoubtedly a good story, what does that have to do with the painting that La Tour painted in the 17th century?

As an example of an inaccurate description I could mention the Carl Kronberger's "Surprised". At first glance one can see a scene in which three card players, seated under a bridge are distracted by a carriage that happens to be passing over the same bridge. The authors are attempting to guess which three-handed game of card the players could be playing. However, what they failed to notice is that the players are seated on top of their bags, around a make-shift table, and that there is an abandoned fourth bag over which the absent fourth player laid his hand of five cards to rest. Furthermore this fourth player left his wager (a few coins) on the card table. At the same time he is seen begging for change, hat in hand, on top of the bridge, as the rich man seated in the carriage in tossing spare change into the man's hat. The painting obviously shows an interrupted four-handed game, and not a three-handed game, as the authors are guessing.

On the good note, I still find the book interesting. It is probably the best gaming-related art book with good color reproductions. Despite its flaws it is till obvious that the authors did do a substantial amount of research and I do recommend this book for anyone interested in gaming and/or gambling, and art.

I bought this as a gift, and I only had time to thumb through it. I figured that I would write a quick note since it has not been rated and others might at least want an idea.

This book is full of interesting and colorful art work. From card games to horse racing it has it all. If you think you will be interested you will like it. I was very happy with the purchase.

What could have driven Edmund Wilson to betray his friend Vladimir Nabokov? Why was Mark Twain so remarkably mean-spirited toward Bret Harte, going to great lengths to ruin Harte's reputation?

Why did F.R. Leavis indulge in character assassination of C.P. Snow? How could a man so celebrated, so revered as Ernest Hemingway let himself be upset by Gertrude Stein, an old woman who had once been his mentor and friend?

What demons drove Truman Capote to the miserable death that Gore Vidal called "a good career move"? Why did Lillian Hellman bring a libel suit against Mary McCarthy, accusing her of slander and defamation of character? What caused Norman Mailer to physically assault Gore Vidal at a cocktail party in 1974?

Anthony Arthur's latest work, Literary Feuds: A Century of Celebrated Quarrels from Mark Twain to Tom Wolfe, is filled with gossip and vitriolic attacks.

Some of our most illustrious writers have tried to destroy the reputations of their enemies, using wit, humor, sarcasm, invective, and the occasional right cross to the jaw.

For example, consider these quotations taken from Arthur's work:
Ernest Hemingway: "Gertrude Stein was never crazy/Gertrude Stein was very lazy."
Sinclair Lewis: "I still say you [Theodore Dreiser] are a liar and a thief."
Theodore Dreiser: "He [Sinclair Lewis] is noisy, ostentatious, and shallow. . . . I never could like the man."
Mary McCarthy: " Every word she [Lillian Hellman] writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the.'"
Gore Vidal: "It is inhuman to attack [Truman] Capote. You are attacking an elf."

It would be a mistake, however, to think Literary Feuds is only a book of juicy gossip. Anthony Arthur, an accomplished literary historian and critic, demonstrates his expertise in literary history and criticism.

Arthur, who was a Fulbright Scholar and for many years has taught writing and literature at California State University, Northridge.

In the eight essays of this book, Arthur draws on a lifetime of reading and teaching the works of 16 cantankerous writers whom he describes.

Arthur scatters insightful comments throughout the work. For example, "As every teacher of literature knows, comedy and satire are harder to teach than tragedy and melodrama; everyone can feel, but not everyone can think."

Provocative quotations also abound. For example, Gore Vidal, a "born-again atheist," opines, "The great unmentionable evil at the center of our culture is monotheism."

One should not be too eager to search for "opposites" when investigating literary feuds. It does seem, however, that many of the literary artists described in this book are "opposites" in their temperaments, worldviews, politics, or aesthetic tastes.

Those who espouse "realism" or "naturalism" are at cross-purposes with those who champion "idealism" or "romanticism." Rural sentiments clash with urban mentalities; elitism and populism collide.

The outstanding cause of these feuds, however, was pride and the competitive spirit. Mark Twain knew he was a better writer than Bret Harte and could not abide critics who lumped them together as belonging to the same echelon.

Of course, one must not discount that green-eyed monster of envy--the jealousy and bitterness of an outdistanced rival over the fame and financial success of a rival.

Commendable for their style and substance, these true tales of feuding wordsmiths are fascinating, behind-the-scenes glimpses of our (mostly) 20th-century American literati.

Anthony Arthur is the author of Deliverance at Los Banos and Bushmaster, both narrative histories of World War II, and of The Tailor-King: The Rise and Fall of the Anabaptist. He lives in Woodland Hills, California.

Anthony Arthur presents eight literary feuds in chronological order: Mark Twain and Bret Harte, Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein, Sinclair Lewis and Theodore Dreiser, Edmund Wilson and Vladimir Nabokov, C.P. Snow and F.R. Leavis, Lillian Hellman and Mary Mccarthy, Truman Capote and Gore Vidal, and Tom Wolfe and John Updike.

Arthur is an excellent writer, and it is great fun to read his elegant prose about badly behaved literary types. I was familiar with some of the authors discussed but not all, as I was familiar with some of the animosities but not all of them. Arthur turns a beautiful phrase and has a knack for finding illustrative, sometimes toxic quotes. One good thing about fights between scribes -- they leave lots of luscious things in writing!

The eight disputes are interesting by virtue of the characters or the topic or both, and the author does a fine job of describing the people involved and laying out the foundation and history of each quarrel. Moreover, he makes insightful comments about the disagreement or the relative merits of the protagonists. I thoroughly enjoyed these tales of intelligent people behaving poorly.

--That is, resplendently at their conniving, back-stabbing, vainglorious best.

Anthony Arthur's polished and scholarly accounts of eight famous literary feuds beginning with Mark Twain and Bret Harte, and ending with Tom Wolfe and John Updike, come across as fairly expressed and finely observed. True, with my fabled ability to read between the lines, I can see in places where perhaps the good professor favors one side or the other. Indeed, part of the fun of reading a book like this is discerning where the author's sympathies lie. (You might want to discern for yourself.) But for the most part Professor Arthur lets the chips fall where they may and keeps a balanced keel through the straits of the tempest-tossed tussles while knavishly enjoying himself like an after-the-fact provocateur.

Notable are Arthur's physical descriptions of the gladiators, usually quoting contemporary sources. Thus the young Truman Capote, who is squared off against Gore Vidal, is "unnaturally pretty, with wide, arresting blue eyes and blond bangs" (p. 161) while Vidal is "Tall and slender, Byronically handsome...luminous and manly" (p. 159). (Uh...nevermind.) Sinclair Lewis, who fights with Theodore Dreiser (physically on one occasion--or at least Dreiser is reported to have slapped Lewis), has a "hawkish nose" and a "massive frontal skull...reddish but almost colorless eyebrows above round, cavernously set, remarkably brilliant eyes..." (p. 49) Dreiser, self-described, has "a semi-Roman nose, a high forehead and an Austrian lip, with the edges of my teeth always showing...." (p. 56) The effect of these descriptions along with Arthur's bright and lively (and very careful) style is to make the literary warriors especially vivid and to impress upon us just how human they are.

Arthur however is at his best in coming up with really juicy quotes to illustrate the matters of contention. Thus Lillian Hellman dismissed Mary McCarthy (Chapter 6) as merely "a lady magazine writer" (p. 141) while McCarthy charged in an interview with Dick Cavett that Hellman "is tremendously overrated, a bad writer, and a dishonest writer..." whose every written word "is a lie, including AND and THE" [my capitalization, p. 143], causing the fur to fly. More civilized was the exchange between Edmund Wilson and Vladimir Nabokov where Wilson expresses his disappointment with Nabokov's novel, Bend Sinister: "You aren't good at...questions of politics and social change, because you are totally uninterested in these matters and have never taken the trouble to understand them." Nabokov replies: "In historical and political matters you are partisan of a certain interpretation which you regard as absolute." (pp. 90-91) (They're just sparring: it heats up later on.)

One of the most interesting bits in the book is from page 32 in which it is asserted that Ernest Hemingway learned part of his style from Gertrude Stein (feud number two) by copying her gerund-driven, run-on sentence constructions. What is especially amusing is that Arthur gives a sentence from Stein and then a similar one from Hemingway--"ing's" flying. The effect was bad in Gertrude Stein, and, although improved in Hemingway, it was still bad. Arthur's book is full of these delightfully sly bits of satire.

He also likes to slip in a few literary jokes. For example, British Don F. R. Leavis, who is in combat with C.P. Snow over the famous "Two Cultures," is characterized as saying of his "fellow Fellows": "They can all go to hell. Of course, some should go before the others. One has a responsibility to make discriminations." (Quoted from Frederick Crews, p. 116) Also: "J.B. Priestley...called Leavis a sort of Calvinist theologian...who makes one feel that he hates books and authors...not...from exceptional fastidiousness but...[as a] result of some strange neurosis, as if he had been frightened by a librarian in early childhood." (p. 118)

All in all, a most entertaining and informative read from a fine prose stylist.

While the threat posed to modern society by religious fundamentalism has been underscored by the events of September 11, "The Tailor-King" reminds us that suicidal craziness is not limited to some extreme readers of the Koran. This book is about the Anabaptist Kingdom that appeared in the prosperous North German city of Muenster in 1534-35, with disastrous results for everyone involved. A century later, from 1618-48, the Thirty Years' War would be the ultimate expression of European Christian religious and political madness and it is ironic that the treaty that ended it, the Peace of Westphalia, was signed in the City Hall in Muenster, ushering in an era of peace and prosperity on the continent.

Muenster is a solid, bourgeois kind of place and in the 16th Century it seemed equally so. An important trading centre, it showed its considerable wealth in its merchants'mansions and warehouses, its churches and impressive cathedral. The beginning of the Reformation saw the city split into Catholic and Lutheran interests, but it continued to function until a group of Anabaptists, regarded as heretics for their insistence on adult baptism, gradually seized control of the town. Eventually they drove out the majority of other believers and the ranks of Muenster swelled with Anabaptists from other areas, particularly Holland. A charismatic leader, a former baker named Jan Matthias, was one of these. He had been called to Muenster by Jan van Leyden, another Dutch Anabaptist, and a group led by a wealthy local merchant. Together they declared war on the local Prince-Bishop and were rewarded with a siege of their fortified town. Deemed heretics by pretty well everyone, Catholic and Lutheran, the Anabaptists were determined to hold out, seize the countryside and establish a New Kingdom of Zion.

Anthony Arthur describes the Company of Christ as starting off as a well-disciplined, effective organization and he gives us some background on the Anabaptist movement, which was divided into pacificists (Mennonites and similar groups) and the militants. As the siege wears on, the Company of Christ takes some strange directions. From a city council, it moves to a Council of Elders and then to essentially a religious dictatorship.. Property is to be held only in common, criticism is rewarded with summary death. All the church towers are destroyed. Jan Matthias challenges the Bishop's army to single combat, with foreseeable results, and Jan van Leyden takes over. He now makes polygamy obligatory and arranges to crown himself King. The people starve, when their leaders are not personally murdering them, and those who try to leave are killed by the Bishop's soldiers outside. The whole thing comes crashing down when the Anabaptists are betrayed and the city taken. Jan van Leyden and the other most senior leaders are tortured to death and their corpses put on display in cages that are still to be seen on St. Lambert's Church in Muenster. Interestingly, the cages are original, but the church itself is not.

This book is only 244 pages, but although Mr. Arthur has looked at many sources it is clear that he has had to make an effort to flesh the book out. There are some diversions into Freud and theories that the Company of Christ was a sort of proto-Nazi organization and a long digression into the biblical story of Judith and Holofernes. I doubt that the Anabaptists were particularly Nazi-like, but exhibited many of the characteristics of a totalitarian system, more similar to Chinese Communism in its most irrational phases. And irrational it truly was-reading this book, one cannot reconcile the good burghers of Northern Germany, with their dull but solid reputation, with this lot of passionate crazies. It is a fascinating story even though one senses the whole time that it can only end one way. Of particular note is the enthusiasm with which people are put to death, often in very imaginative and quite unpleasant ways, and by both sides. The Anabaptists, as they roll onwards into madness and calamity, are treated by the author with more sympathy than the Establishment figures opposing them. Receiving particular scorn is the Prince-Bishop, Franz von Waldeck, who is portrayed as incompetent, venal and luckless.

It may seem strange to us today that adult baptism, with its element of free will, could be the subject of such rage between Christians but one need only look at the fine points argued by religious fanatics today with deadly passion to understand that the more things change, the less they do.

This is a good, original story of radicals in the Reformation movement taking a town over and transforming it into a theocracy.
Munster had a uneasy alliance of Catholics and Lutherians who tolerated each other. The radical Anabaptists took over the town
and forced Catholics and moderate elements to leave the city. The Prince Bishop which ruled Munster opposed them. Two Jans
transformed the city into a Nazi like state. I agree with the review that the final chapter was a stretch in how it related to modern movements. Arthur wanted to say that history repeats itself. The final chapter could have been cut down. Also in the beginning, more focus could have been given the Anabaptist beliefs. A good short read.

The Tailor King is a masterful account of what happened both inside and outside the ancient walls of sixteenth-century Munster when Protestant religious fervor transformed otherwise intelligent and rational men into irrational creatures capable of unbelievable brutality. Readers beware - the graphic descriptions and concrete imagery bring the sixteenth-century fully alive. The characters in this book could easily populate a wide-screen, action-filled film. The author's meticulous research and gift for storytelling combine to create a rare pairing of erudition and page-turning readability. Like the narrator who seizes the wedding guest in Coleridge's "The Ancient Mariner," the author seizes the reader's attention and does not let go. His calm journalistic voice only heightens the "you are there" quality of the book. And his occasional strokes of subtle dry wit surprise and delight. This is living history at its engrossing best. The carefully annotated illustrations, culled from archives and museums in Germany, highlight events in the story and are a unique bonus. A well told story from first page to last!