A great Magus discussing his mentor...Israel Regardie writes authoritatively about Aleister Crowley,the man he knew better than any other.However,this is no simple biographical endeavor:the book is rich in information about the inceptive years of the Golden Dawn and the tremenduous formative influence that this magical order exerted upon Crowley.Practising magicians or the simply curious about the controversial figure of Crowley will not only find their misconceptions shattered,but they will also get an education in High Magic and its relevance for our time.Spicy and humorous at times,Regardie makes a strong case for Crowley as a great mystic,pioneer,and Adeptus of the highest order.Written with a great economy and sense of balance,this is the only work available that correctly contextualizes Aleister Crowley while avoiding the ludicrous tabloid trash that provided so much fodder for mediocre biographers of the past...A great introduction to Crowley and the Magical Path.Light in extension!

This is a good unbiased book on The mega therion. Regardie's views and interpretation of the Book of the Law are especially interesting. Regardie's background in psychology and his neutral position on crowley made it a very worthy read. Reading Crowley's auto you could tell his flaws had to have developed from his childhood. Regardie does a good job of pointing this out. For anyone curious about Crowley and his philosophy this book is great. This book helped me understand his autobiography a little better as well. If your interested in Crowley start with this book and then get your hands on his autobiography. Its really a good book

The Eye in the Triangle is subtitled, 'An Interpretation of Aleister Crowley' and Regardie explores the inner being on several levels; decomuntary, psychological and magically. he decoments Crowley's life and through his often complex writings decipher the inner meanings relating directly to psychology and magic to reveals Crowley's innner life and create a sincere portrait of a genius. regardie skilfully weaves the strands together to show how Crowley's thought emerged. Although Regardie relies to heavily on psychology to compare mystical experience to. The above review is against thelema has it descends into dogma, created through a mish mash of orientalism.

The Valley of the Shadow by Erich Anton Helfert is a narrative autobiographical history of the author's childhood experiences in Czechoslovakia, focusing on the years 1945 and 1946. The book chronicles the tragic decision to expel most of the minority German speaking population from Czechoslovakia after WWII. The book describes some of the most outrageous aspects of the expulsion including the confiscation of the German's property and most of their personal belongings in the process of the deportation. The author lived in Aussig on the Elbe (now called Usti nad Labem) in north Bohemia and he includes in one chapter a description of a dramatic and violent post-war conflict between the German and Czech speaking population in the city. This story is another descriptive example of how the Allies and the newly liberated peoples emerging from Nazi rule were over-zealous in meting out punishment and revenge against the Germans in the closing stages of the war and thereafter. A balanced biography describing some of the day-to-day experiences of the expelled population would be a very welcome addition since this is a chapter in history that we should understand and never repeat. Unfortunately The Valley of the Shadow overlooks all of the most important facts that led up to the expulsion and the book is filled with inaccuracies. The book begins with the post-war expulsion itself and then flashes back to the closing weeks of the war. Nowhere in the book does Helfert have anything to say about the six years that the Nazis brutally ruled conquered Czechoslovakia. Most educated sources estimate that 200,000-300,000 Czechoslovak citizens were killed by the Nazis in the war years, that under the rule of the Nazis the Czech population was not allowed to attend University due to their 'inferior' slavic status, etc. The war years under this regime were an era of indescribable terror and it was significantly worse in neighboring eastern countries such as Poland. In the book the author's family (Helfert's parents were Nazi party members) speaks critically of Czechoslovakia in the pre-WWII years prior to the invasion of the German army. The key fact is that the German and Czech speaking populations in pre-WWII Czechoslovakia enjoyed democracy, which was the first for these peoples in their history. Prior to the formation of the Czechoslovak nation in 1918 the populations of Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia lived in the autocratic Austrian Empire, with some preferences shown to the German speaking population since the empire was ruled from Vienna. Unfortunately in the 1930s almost all of the German speaking population rejected Czechoslovakia and the democracy that had been formed, instead deciding that Hitler's promises of another great German Empire in the east, with a privileged status over the 'inferior' slavic (ie Czech and Slovak) and jewish populations was more important than democracy. The Valley of the Shadow neglects or distorts facts both general and specific. Nowhere in the book does Helfert discuss the general fact that the expulsions occured all over Central and Eastern Europe, in Poland, the Baltic States, Hungary, etc. The expulsions did not occur only in Czechoslovakia and they were encouraged by the victorious Allies (ie especially the communist USSR but also the UK and the US). The expulsion decision was made by Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt at the Yalta Conference and later further defined and confirmed in Potsdam in 1945. Unfortunately the nations in this region became over-zealous in the expulsion and many German speakers were harmed and some were even killed in the process. Also, specifically when the author describes the violent conflict in Aussig in July 1945 he fails to point out that fighting between German Nazi sympathizers (so called Werewolves at the time) and Czechs continued for months after the war. The unfortunate riot occured in this violent climate. The Czech population believed that the explosion at the refinery was the work of Nazi sympathizers. I cannot recommend The Valley of the Shadow because it lacks balance and misleads the uneducated reader. A more balanced and accurate narration of the events in this tragic period would have been much more effective in generating sympathy for the expellees and help us understand that indiscriminate revenge including violence and the dipossession of property, even following the most brutal, dehumanizing and violent oppression, is unacceptable. For those of you interested in a very good, balanced and accurate general description of this tragic time period, I suggest you read Die Vertriebenen, Hitler's letzte Opfer by Hans Lemberg and K. Erik Franzen.

According to the estimates of the Goverment of Germany and many mainstream historians such as William Shirer at least 12 million Germans and an untold number of Poles, Ukranians, Russians and citizens of the Baltic states were expelled from their homes in the wake of World War II. Almost 3.3 million Germans were expelled from the Sudatenland, the rest being expelled principaly from East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia. This land was carved up by Joseph Stalin. He took part for himself including Northern East Prussia and the city of Koenigsberg, today Kaliningrad. The rest was given to Poland as partial compensation for lands taken by Stalin when he invaded Poland in September 1939, after making a secret pact with Hitler. These lands were than "awarded" to Stalin by the victorious Allies in 1945. Most of the German civilian casualties in these expulsions were women, children and the elderly. There was neither plebecite nor self-determination for any of the peoples involved. The loftly principles of Great Britian and France, going to war to ensure "Poland's Territorial integrity" as well as the aims of the Atlantic Charter signed by the U.S. were discarded. Hitler's methods of ethnic cleansing and forced deportations of civilians that were condemned, justly so, as war crimes at the Nuremberg Trials were embraced by his enemies after the war. The history of the brutal acts of Hitler's regime has been told and hopefully will never be forgotten. This book "Valley of the Shadow" attempts to shed light on events that today are seldom discussed and carefully avoided in many academic circles as well as some history books in the west. My father was born in the German Sudatenland in the town of Graslitz, (than under Austria) in 1918. His people were denied self-determination promised by the treaty of Versailles and by fiat forced to live as second-class citizens in a new multi-ethnic state, Czechoslovakia, created by the Allied powers after World War I. The swift and final dissolution and separation of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia ten years ago is certainly evidence that the Germans were not the only group unwilling to live under Czech rule. The president of the Czech Republic, Vaclev Havel, has called on his people to critically examine their own history. He, amid a storm a criticism from some of his people, among others, has apologized for the expulsions, calling them a war crime. It is time for those who read books that painfully recount tragic events to decide whether they themselves truly reject Hitler's methods or embrace them selectively. I hope this book engenders discussion and thought provoking debate as well as further study of World war II and its terrible toll on the Sudaten Germans along with millions of others who suffered and died at the hands of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. Christian Anton Lehrer, M.A.

I feel very greatful to the author for telling his families story to us. My mother was a child when her family was given the choice to either leave or die. Her parents avoided talking about the terrible journey on foot from the Sudentenland to Germany. The few fragments I know from their tragedy resonate with the story E. A. Helfert has documented in his sensitive and enlighting book. He has experienced the terrors caused by mens irresistible urge of indiscriminate revenge and his story is a warning from history. Yet his story is also one of hope and faith in the good qualities of human mankind. And when these qualities manage to surface in the midst of terror and dispair then they appear like loving miracles. I wished that more people of his generation would write down their lifes' story, so the younger generation can break this cycle of revenge and make miracles.

This book is truly horrible. Merzel spends most of the book making the following points:

1. you must never criticize your teacher 2. if the teacher commits actions that seems "immoral" they are just to bring you to enlightenment 3. you have to give up home and family to practice zen

Funny to think that Merzel and Joko Beck are both Dharma heirs of Maezumi Roshi, since they are exact opposites. Don't buy this book! Read Joko instead.

This book sets back Zen in America to the dark ages...

BEYOND SANITY AND MADNESS : The Way of Zen Master Dogen. By Dennis Genpo Merzel. 276 pp. Boston : Charles E. Tuttle Co., Inc., 1994.
ISBN 0-8048-3035-5 (Pbk).

Zen Master Dogen (1200-1253), founder of the Soto sect and perhaps the most brilliant mind Japan has ever produced, is a true giant of Asian thought. Comparable in religious intensity to the great medieval Rhineland mystic Meister Eckhart (d. cir. 1327), he was also philosophic genius whose works are of an astounding richness and profundity.

Studies of Dogen's writings tend to be of two kinds. On the one hand we have works by distinguished academics such as William R. LaFleur, Carl Bielefeldt, Hee-Jin Kim, Thomas P. Kasulis, Masao Abe, and Francis H. Cook whose main focus of attention is Dogen's rich philosophic content. All of these scholars are well worth reading, and a handy collection of their articles will be found in LaFleur's 'Dogen Studies' (University of Hawaii Press, 1985).

Then there are the practising Zenists such as Kosho Uchiyama Roshi, Taezan Maezumi Roshi, and the present writer, Dennis Genpo Merzel, men who are perhaps drawn more to Dogen for what he can teach them about practice. But whether of a practical or more theoretical bent, anyone who is in any way working to improve our understanding of Dogen and to disseminate his thought more widely deserves our gratitude.

Dennis Genpo Merzel, who is the founder of Kanzeon Sangha and the Abbot of Kanzeon Zen Center Utah, tells us that his book "does not offer any sort of scholarly analysis of Dogen Zenji's teaching, but rather discusses the essential features in his vision of Zen training and practice" (p.xii). To this end he has modified earier translations of three Dogen texts and written a basic commentary to each. The texts are:

1. GAKUDO YOJINSHU - 'Points to Watch in Practicing the Way,' (tr. Yuho Yokoi) which deals with basic points concerning Zen training.

2. YUIBUTSU YOBUTSU - 'Only Buddha and Buddha,' (tr. Tanahashi and Brown) on transcendental wisdom and its transmission from teacher to student.

3. BODAISATTA SHISHOBO - 'The Four Benevolent Ways of the Bodhisattva,' (tr. Kosen Nishiyama) which elucidates the practice of _dana_ or giving (almsgiving; loving words; beneficial actions; identification with others as the expression of compassion).

Genpo Sensei's elementary commentary is preceded by a very interesting brief Introduction by Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi Roshi (from whom I have borrowed a few words), and the book is rounded out with three appendixes which repeat the texts (but this time minus commentary), a Glossary of Zen Terminology, and a brief Bibliography.

It seems to me that this book would be of use to those who are are coming to Dogen for the first time, and who would like a simple and straightforward account of his basic thought. One way such readers might tackle a first reading of this book would be to read the complete texts in the appendixes first, referring to the commentary only as needed. Afterwards, those who would like to learn more about Dogen's vision of Zen practice might care to take a look at the following somewhat fuller treatment :

HOW TO RAISE AN OX : Zen Practice as Taught in Zen Master Dogen's Shobogenzo - Including Ten Newly Translated Essays by Francis Dojun Cook. Foreword by Taizan Maezumi Roshi. 216 pp. Los Angeles, California : Center Publications, 1978 and reprinted.

A more general approach to Dogen, and one which gives an even wider selection of writings, will be found in :

MOON IN A DEWDROP - WRITINGS OF ZEN MASTER DOGEN. Edited by Kazuaki Tanahashi. Translated by Robert Aitken, Philip Whalen, et al. 356 pp. San Francisco: North Point Press, 1985 and reprinted.

But whether you read Dogen as mediated by Genpo Sensei or Cook or Tanahashi or some other Zenist or scholar, you should certainly read some Dogen, if only to appreciate what Kazuaki Tanahashi meant when he stated that the time is ripe for Dogen to become part of the common human heritage. He really is that wonderful.

I have quite a collection of books about Buddhist teachings and the teachers, mostly from the Theravada traditions. Until I read this one, Dogen and Zen was very much a mystery to me. Next to "The Three Pillars of Zen" by Kaplan Roshi, it has provided insight where I had none before.

I am fortunate enough to live in the very same city as the author Genpo Roshi, abbot of the Kanzeon center, and it did play a role in my electing to visit the center. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to understand the writings of Dogen, and to learn a bit more about Zen.

The stories are good, but the names are long and confusing and also some stories become confusing with the choice of words chosen by the author. Overall, though, a good book.

One problem with this Dover edition is the footnotes refer back to previous identical footnotes. This stops the flow of reading because the reader has to page back. There's no reason not to just repeat the footnote. Chekhov presents even these long-named Russian characters as individuals with defined personalities. The plot is simple or nonexistent. It serves only as background for character development. I'd be reading along and all of a sudden stop dead by a thought so authentic and original that I'd have to highlight it. Then reread it. Then think about it. That's the singular trait which makes Chekhov a writer worth reading.

If you want a short indroduction to Chekhov, this Dover Thrift Edition is a great value. This edition uses older translations because in order to offer such an unbelievable value, the editor must use text that is not copyright protected. I found the translations used to be readible and I enjoyed the character development. Chekhov is not O'Henry ... i.e, the stories in this book do not have tremendous plot development and surprise or ironic twists. Rather, he seeks to give a slice of life in the Tzarist Russsia of his day. Four of the stories are slices of life of fairly well off members of Russian society or, at least, Russian upper middle class. One, appropriately entitled "The Peasants" is indeed a story about the lives of peasants. I enjoyed all of the stories but, my favorite was "The Lady With the Toy Dog," which explored the age old phenomenon of extramarital affairs and the tragedy of forbidden love. Chekhov explores the chraracters' emotions, in this story, without being judgmental one way or the other. Another engaging story is "The Black Monk" which explores happiness in one's delusions as opposed to unhappiness in the real world (or was the main character's vision a delusion at all?). Like I say, the translations are not the latest and only five stories are included but this is a five star value. The book has made me interested (when I have more time) to explore a larger volume of Chekhov's stories so, this edition has fulfilled its task well.

Basically I picked this book up hoping that it would have the hard-to-find play, "Wild Honey," the closest Chekhov ever came to being Noel Coward. Not here! Ivanov - not here! The Bear - Not Here! While the essays are here and several insightful writings - to call this book "THE PLAYS" is an utter falsehood, not when there is so much missing.

Though this is not the fullest collection of Chekhov's work, it offers wonderful criticism and discussion on four of his greatest plays. The book intrigued me as a Norton Critical Edition--filled with notes, essays, and articles on one of the greatest authors of the genre. While not the complete works, arguably the best representation of Chekhov's drama available.

Review of Anton Chekhov: A Life. Donald Rayfield. NY: Henry Holt, 1997. 603 pp.

There are many good biographies of Chekhov available, and if a person has not read any,I would suggest another before reading Donald Rayfield's Anton Chekhov: A Life. Rayfield says that he has received access to much previously classified information. Unfortunately this loads his biography with an over-abundance of undigested detail, as if we were reading Chekhov's engagement calendar for each year or an encyclopedia of the minutiae of Chekhov's life. The material needs to be pruned down and focused. No where do I feel a biographer's point of view towards his subject -- unless it be to include as many facts as possible. And although it is interesting to read about the lives of those with whom Chekhov was most closely involved, we do not need to learn about every tart he slept with or every family problem encountered by one of his brother's wives. When these influence his writing, they are an interesting bonus, when they do not, a stronger hand at selection would have been appreciated. Indeed, the most interesting parts of the biography to me were those areas which showed how Chekhov transformed the details of his life into his work. However, too little of these connections were shown, and too many details were simply superfluous. I also miss the author's awareness of Chekhov's ironic humor, and I feel disappointed at the lack of discussion of the short farces. I recommend this book for Chekhov affectionados rather than for Chekhov novices.

BARBARA MACKEY, Ph.D. University of Toledo

This is a book that grows and grows on the reader. At first I was put off by the book's clumsy style and by the brutality (really unforgivable) of Chekhov's father Pavel. Then I got "hooked" on Anton's fierce ambition joined to his extraordinary sweetness of temper; until, when he contracts TB and finally marries Olga Knipper, I was wholly sympathetic to him, his milieu, and his struggle to create masterpieces like THE CHERRY ORCHARD. A friend said of him, "Why are such precious contents locked up in such a frail vessel?" (p. 581). The author provides little interpretation of personalities and events; rather, he uses letters (thousands of them) to create, like a mosaic, the rich beauty of Chekhov's personality and the flowering of his genius. Highly recommended. -- Michael Squires, Ph.D.

The seven scientists profiled here are

Craig Venter in genomics

Susan Greenfield in neuroscience

Geoffrey Marcy in astronomy

Polly Matzinger in immunology

Saul Perlmutter in cosmology

Gretchen Daily in ecology

Carl Woese in mircobiology.

Ted Anton, who is a professor of English at DePaul, interviewed all the subjects with the possible exception of Carl Woese--at least his name alone is conspicuously absent from the acknowledgments pages. (Perhaps they had a falling out.) The result is a somewhat breezy, understandably limited, People-like introduction to their work, personalities and lifestyle. There is an introduction and a concluding chapter.

What we can learn from this book is that science as it is practiced today is a highly social and political enterprise where those who would make it big must learn to toot their horn. Indeed, what these seven scientists have in common, aside from their great energy, is a gift for public relations. Some, like Susan Greenfield and Gretchen Daily, have a brash, aggressive style more often seen in the world of business than in the world of science. Venter, the founder of Celera, a company with a lot of venture capital behind it as it sequences the human genome, has meshed the two worlds so completely that he is as much an entrepreneur as he is a scientist. We see here too that success in science today requires an inter- and multi-disciplinary approach as envisioned by E.O. Wilson in Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, a book twice cited by Anton. We can also see that a successful scientist has to be an effective communicator, almost an administrator, in this age of surplus information.

Anton's style is occasionally vivid, sometimes careless and all too quickly done. It appears that he had some sort of deadline to meet along with length restrictions. In some cases he may not have followed up properly. I was annoyed at some points with partial information. For example, on page 84 he is telling the story of Polly Matzinger's accidental involvement with a Private or Sergeant Duffy, a police officer who borrows her car to do some police work. But Anton never makes it clear what happened to Duffy or whether he was a detective or not. Or, on page 85 where Matzinger, in her cocktail waitressing days, tells UC animal behaviorist Robert Schwab that she "never understood why a raccoon did not impersonate a skunk to scare off predators." I didn't get that one. (How?) And Anton doesn't explain. Also, on page 136 Anton recalls a bet between Paul Ehrlich of The Population Bomb fame and economist Julian Simon, Simon betting that the prices of five commodities would not rise over a ten year period. Simon wins the bet, but Anton does not tell us what the commodities were!

I was also displeased by some of the carelessness. Ernest Rutherford is "Earnest" Rutherford in the index and on page 150. Paul Ehrlich becomes Paul "Erlich" on page 137. On page 144 the bacterium tuberculosis is described as a virus! And on page 145 Anton is summing up Gretchen Daily's work in Costa Rica: "They were getting good results, finding that even a small amount of preserved forest...will preserve significantly greater species diversity that would have been expected. The possibility of maximizing tradeoffs was there, if only one knew where to look." After I got past the typo "that" for "than" I still did not know what "tradeoffs" Anton was talking about. Tradeoffs between what and what? I suspect some text was cut and the remaining wording not adjusted.

On the plus side, Anton has the ability to bring his characters to life with concrete details about their habits and their struggles, Geoff Marcy seeing a therapist for depression, Susan Greenfield giving up smoking as a marriage agreement, Polly Matzinger as a Playboy bunny who amassed $500 in parking tickets while sporting a bumper sticker reading "Commit Random Acts of Kindness." He can also be effective with figures of speech, as on page 134 where he is talking about "the vagaries of global warming": "If done improperly, the simplest climate forecasts spaghettied into infinite complexity." Or on page 132 where he is making the point that most microbes don't culture well or easily, so that most "biological work concentrated on the few weeds, like Escherichia coli, that could be studied in pure culture." Occasionally, Anton is able to catch the essence of an idea in a short expression, as on page 173 where he sums up one of Gretchen Daily's ideas: "the predators of insects will count for you the number of insects in an ecosystem."

I wonder if Anton had planned a larger book, perhaps one with photographs of the scientists in the field or in their lab, but for some reason a book that had to be abandoned. At any rate this book could have been outstanding had it been better edited and copyread, had it included photographs of the scientists (one picture here would indeed be worth a thousand words) and had Anton included short bibliographies of the published work of his seven scientists. As is, I think this might be valuable for those people thinking of starting a career in science, or for those just beginning their careers. Anton makes it clear that the talents required to rise to the top are often extraneous to the day-to-day work of the scientist, and that would be a good thing for someone just starting out to know.

This is the best collection of its kind I've ever read, and one of the 10 best non-fiction books I've ever read on any topic. I ran across this book as part of my research on creative organizations and people, and was stunned by the quality. The scientists are quirky and fascinating, and Anton's writing and editing is as good as it gets. Anton is the Red Smith of science writers.

As an actor dealing with navigating the dangerous world of Chekhov on the stage, I am always looking to find whatever information I can on the landscape of his work. I read Rayfield's Biography of Chekhov which was quite thorough and very informative (if difficult to get through) and I picked up this one to take me a bit more into his view of Chekhov. This is a realy solid book, full of wonderfully well-thought ideas peppered with his knowledge and research, and it really helped to put some perspective on the piece. The danger is that it is Rayfield's perspective, and at times his opinions override the play as a whole. As a research tool, I'd highly recommend it for actors -- he illuminates some pretty sticky spots and gives some real useful angles on the text, as well as sharing the histories in performance and criticism. But it is all his own ideas, which are well to be respected, but he's deeply attached to making sense of the plays relative to what he's found in Chekhov's life, and THAT can be distracting and problematic. It was for me. Thankfully, he's quite clear about his opinions -- they are more than obvious. So despite those minor distractions, I would highly recommend it for anyone wanting to dig a little deeper into Chekhov's world.

I enjoyed reading the play. But, I found it to be a very simplistic and mundane piece of literature. Overall, I enjoyed the simplicity and down-to-earth form of the play quite fascinating.

In 1984, The Ecco Press published a handsome thirteen-volume edition of The Tales of Chekhov that contained the respected, if somewhat dated, English translations of Constance Garnett. The original thirteen volumes were subsequently supplemented by two additional volumes, "The Unknown Chekhov: Stories and Other Writings," translated by Avrahm Yarmolinsky (a volume which is still in print under the auspices of another publisher) and the book I review here, "Notebook of Anton Chekhov," translated by S. S. Koteliansky and Leonard Woolf.

Chekhov's stories are, of course, classic examples of the genre. In writing those stories, he was known (not surprisingly) to draw on numerous incidents from his everyday life. As Vladimir Nabokov relates in his "Lectures on Russian Literature," interpolating and quoting from an article on Chekhov:

" 'Do you know how I write my short stories?' [Chekhov] said to Korolenko, the radical journalist and short story writer, when the latter had just made his acquaintance. 'Here's how!' 'He glanced at his table,' Korolenko tells us, 'took up the first object that met his eye--it happened to be an ash tray--placed it before me and said: "If you want it you'll have a story to-morrow. It will be called 'The Ash Tray.' " ' And it seemed to Korolenko then and there that a magical transformation of that ash tray was taking place: 'Certain indefinite situations, adventures which had not yet found concrete form, were already beginning to crystallize about the ash tray.' "

Chekhov regularly recorded seemingly mundane daily incidents in notebooks and diaries and later referred to them in writing his stories. It is from this material that Koteliansky and Woolf have drawn in compiling the short (146 pages) collection of materials titled "Notebook of Anton Chekhov." While hardly an exhaustive collection of these materials, it is a useful little volume that illustrates some of Chekhov's writing habits.

The diary excerpts are a mere twelve pages from Chekhov's 1896 diary. The notebook excerpts are 130 pages from the notebooks written between 1894 and 1896. As the translators note in their short introduction to this collection, "[the] volume consists of notes, themes and sketches for works which Anton Chekhov intended to write, and are characteristic of the methods of his artistic production. If he used any material, he used to strike it out in the note-book."

While unfortunately out of print, "Notebook of Anton Chekhov" is a fascinating companion to Chekhov's stories, a little glimmer of insight into how Chekhov created the remarkably drawn pictures of nineteenth century Russian life that still enchant readers today.

In 1984, The Ecco Press published a handsome thirteen-volume edition of The Tales of Chekhov that contained the respected, if somewhat dated, English translations of Constance Garnett. The original thirteen volumes were subsequently supplemented by two additional volumes, "The Unknown Chekhov: Stories and Other Writings," translated by Avrahm Yarmolinsky (a volume which is still in print under the auspices of another publisher) and the book I review here, "Notebook of Anton Chekhov," translated by S. S. Koteliansky and Leonard Woolf.

Chekhov's stories are, of course, classic examples of the genre. In writing those stories, he was known (not surprisingly) to draw on numerous incidents from his everyday life. As Vladimir Nabokov relates in his "Lectures on Russian Literature," interpolating and quoting from an article on Chekhov:

" 'Do you know how I write my short stories?' [Chekhov] said to Korolenko, the radical journalist and short story writer, when the latter had just made his acquaintance. 'Here's how!' 'He glanced at his table,' Korolenko tells us, 'took up the first object that met his eye--it happened to be an ash tray--placed it before me and said: "If you want it you'll have a story to-morrow. It will be called 'The Ash Tray.' " ' And it seemed to Korolenko then and there that a magical transformation of that ash tray was taking place: 'Certain indefinite situations, adventures which had not yet found concrete form, were already beginning to crystallize about the ash tray.' "

Chekhov regularly recorded seemingly mundane daily incidents in notebooks and diaries and later referred to them in writing his stories. It is from this material that Koteliansky and Woolf have drawn in compiling the short (146 pages) collection of materials titled "Notebook of Anton Chekhov." While hardly an exhaustive collection of these materials, it is a useful little volume that illustrates some of Chekhov's writing habits.

The diary excerpts are a mere twelve pages from Chekhov's 1896 diary. The notebook excerpts are 130 pages from the notebooks written between 1894 and 1896. As the translators note in their short introduction to this collection, "[the] volume consists of notes, themes and sketches for works which Anton Chekhov intended to write, and are characteristic of the methods of his artistic production. If he used any material, he used to strike it out in the note-book."

While unfortunately out of print, "Notebook of Anton Chekhov" is a fascinating companion to Chekhov's stories, a little glimmer of insight into how Chekhov created the remarkably drawn pictures of nineteenth century Russian life that still enchant readers today.

Schmidt presents a 'smooth' translation of Chekhov including his insertion of '(Beat)'s. However it is not faithful to the TIME and CONTEXT of Chekhov's Russia. TIME: Chekhov's language often reflects the social customs of the period and manner with which to approach communication. It's not always meant to be economical or direct (although he is direct in his day). So an 'updated' translation which flows quickly will flatten these nuances. CONTEXT: One has to understand the development of Theater in Russia in his time. His plays are not meant for melodramatic performances (prior to his time) or 'Method' acting (our time). Hence, a translation written for performances today will be colored by the directorial style preferred today. It is important to take that into consideration. By these standards, then no translation is acceptable. However if you find one that will generously tell the reader the difficulties in translating, present the various versions, include historical resources, notes and essays, and have plenty of footnotes. Then you are likely to have a good idea. I recommend Bristow's translation from Norton.

PS - I'm reviewing this from the point of view of a director. For actors or literature students or everyday readers, it is obviously a different matter.

This translation, which incorporates the original vernacular seamlessly into a contemporary translation, is by FAR the finest translation of Chekhov's plays (especially *Uncle Vanya*) I have ever read, or am likely to. As a professor of dramatic literature, I will never again teach Chekhov without assigning my students this fine edition--may it long stay in print.

introduced me to the wonder of chekhov. it's alive. "fresh" is definitely an apt description. read cherry orchard through and then start again at the beginning. hoofa!