In Gogol's time in Russia corruption was found in every arm of the government. Petty bureaucrats often pocketed money that was intended for public works. The play exposes backwater greed and corruption by showing how thoroughly ingrained bribery and lobbying are in to the culture of smalltime government officials.

The plot of the play is quite ingenious. Khlestakov, a clerk of some sort, but on the whole an entirely unimportant person in the government, is in town at the tavern. He's on the verge of getting kicked out since he's rung up a huge bill. Just when he's thinks all's lost the Lord provost shows up, pays his bill and start treating him like he's the cat's pajamas. Slowly Khlestakov realizes that the towns people think he's an all important Government Inspector and are desperate to bribe wine and dine him so he gives a good report to Petersburg.

This play is a critical social statement about corruption told though the humorous device of a farce. By making light of the faults of our leaders we may be able to raise awareness of the problem of corruption and effect measures that will lead to change.

Russell F. Weigley writes that "anyone seriously interested in U.S. military history should benefit from this small but encyclopedic book. General readers, buffs, reenacters, students and professionals should all be able to make use of it. In every way the authors deserve commendation for making an apparently modest little book into a volume of exceptional usefulness."

This book is an excellent resource for the politico who follows Tennessee politics or is just interested in the politics of an historically complicated and ever-changing state!

Having grown up around Tennessee politics from birth, I can honestly say that this book hits all the points. I wish the undergraduate university I attended in Tennessee had offered a course on Tennessee Politics and used this book to teach from. If any poly sci professors are reading this, do it! It will be such a great class!

Awesome, in-depth coverage of why Tennesseans vote the way they do is a theme throughout.

- Memphis, Tennessee

This is a great read for today's corporate watchers (think Enron, Qwest, Tyco, WorldCom). After WWII, the early speadsheet types, geeks, nerds and whiz kids went on a roll in the 1950s and 1960s. They created holding companies (we call it today "synergy") like the electrical and railroad guys did a generation (30 years) earlier. The names were great: Teledyne, Litton, LTV, etc. The holding company or parent owned lots of divisions or profit centers. Think of it as a mutual fund, like the Sage of Omaha has today. Government contracts, the cold war, all helped them grow. They flew Braniff 707s and AA Convair 990s between LA and Dallas and NYC, drank martinis, dressed like the movie "Down with Love." They used computers to figure out market share and P&L, big IBM and Sperry Univacs. Like all parties it ended with Vietnam going south, Nixon taking away the punch bowl and the NYSE dropping. Like the 1920s, the 50-60s needed this book and many will be done, all the same as this one, on the Roaring dot.com 1990s, with the same nonsense: holding companies, synergy and over paid executives. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

This is a very good collection of Wolverine stories where Wolverine goes through some sort of metamorphosis/extreme hardship. If you happen to be somewhat of a Wolverine scholar you will fondly remember these battles with Weapon Alpha, Sabertooth, and the Silver Samurai, to name a few. If you are just getting into Wolverine, you will definately want to pick this up, as it collects some of the most memorable moments of Wolvie's career. Collects issues: Uncanny X-men 109,172,173, Wolverine Limited Series (Miller, Frank) #4, and Wolverine Vol. 1 issues 41,42,75.

I have made four trips to Australia using various versions of this guide. You have to remember that it started off as a backpacker's/ alternative travel guide and has kept the strengths (in depth coverage of offthe beaten track areas) as well as the weaknesses (concentrates on low end travellers) of that approach. It needs to be not just revised and updated but also completely rewritten from scratch. The book is also geared to the traveller who is already in Australia. For example, it is extremely sparing in giving out email addresses and, after all these editions, still does not give the Australian postcodes for places. In its attempt to cover the entire country, it has also gotten very bulky and inconvenient.

I like Lonely Planet and its guides, but I think that it is time for them to either abandon or change the focus of this country-wide guide. In the meantime, I am relying on their series of Australian State guides for my next trip.

CHECKED IN THE STAFF WERE AMAZING VERY HELPFULL POLITE AND READY TO SERVE YOU AND FULL OF HELPFULL KNOWLEDGE ON ALL THE LOCAL TOURS IN THE AREA AS WELL AS OTHER TOURS IN AUSTRALIA CLEAN AND VERY AFFORDABLE GAMES ROOM TV/CABLE SWIMMING POOL THE BEST THING ABOUT THE HOSTEL IS THAT IT WAS ONLY FIVE MINSTO THE CITY AND THEY GAVE YOU A FREE MEAL EVERY NIGHT AT A RESTURANT COME NIGHT CLUB VERY GOOD PLACE GO AND HAVE A LOOK OR JUST PHONE THEM ON (07)40410249 FROM TWO HAPPY POMMS BACKPACKING AROUND THE WORLD MY RATING FOR THE PLACE IS 5 STARS

Because Australia is so big.. and there is just so much to see no single book can possibly cover the whole country. That's why lonely planet has published so many titles pertaining to this country.

I think the intention of this book is to give insight into what is available where... then select the relevant lonely planet guide for the area that most interests you.

A lot of people don't know what is where in Aus, as an outline to learn... I think this book serves anyone very very well.

It's much cheaper to buy this book.. and choose where you want to find out more about... than buying the complete series of lonely planet guides in the Australia range.

After presenting "Origin of Marvel Comics" and "Son of Origin of Marvel Comics," Stan Lee decided to forgo "The Return of the Son of Origin of Marvel Comics" and go instead with "Bring on the Bad Guys: Origins of the Marvel Comics Villains." This is actually something of a problematic effort because where as you can simply go to issue #1 of "The Fantastic Four" for the origin of the Fantastic Four, or "Amazing Fantasy" #15 for the story of how Spider-Man came to be, the origin of a super villain is usually tossed off in a couple of flashback panels. That means the results are going to be a bit uneven in this collection.

The goal was to try and focus on the key super villain for each Marvel superhero, which means Doctor Doom for the Fantastic Four, the Green Goblin for Spider-Man, the Red Skull for Captain America, and so on and so forth. For those who want to know specifically what Marvel comics are reprinted in "Bring on the Bad Guys" here is the list of what you will find inside: (1) "Prisoners of Doctor Doom" from issue #5 of "The Fantastic Four" and "Origin of Doctor Doom" from the 1964 FF Annual, both by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby; (2) the first fateful meeting of Doctor Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts, and the Dread Dormammu from issues #126 and #127 of "Strange Tales" by Lee and artist Steve Ditko; (3) three installments of the "Tales of Asgard" from issues #112, #113 and #115 of "Journey into Mystery" telling the story of how Loki became the bad boy of Norse mythology and a full fledged fight between him and the Mighty Thor from #115, all from Lee and Kirby; (4) the Captain America halves of three issues of "Tales to Astonish" by Lee and Kirby telling the origin of the Red Skull; (5) issue #40 of "The Amazing Spider-Man" with the famous confrontation between the unmasked Spider-Man and the Green Goblin, courtesy of Lee and John Romita (Sr.); (6) two Hulk stories from "Tales of Suspense" featuring ol' Greenskin against the Abomination from Lee and Gil Kane; and (7) a confrontation between the Silver Surfer and Mephisto, with artwork by John Buscema (you have figured out by now that Stan Lee wrote all of the stories contained within this book).

As you would imagine the Doctor Doom stories and pretty good, the Spider-Man tale is a classic, and the rest are a matter of choice. The Red Skull trilogy would be my personal choice as the best of the rest. As much as my appreciation for the way Ditko drew Spider-Man has grown over the years I have just never really liked his work on Dr. Strange. In the end, it is Jack Kirby's artwork that dominates the book more than anything else and the thing that stops this from being a truly great collection of Marvel reprints is the fact that the focus on origins effectively prevents Lee from providing some of the greatest stories facing these seminal villains.

Some people here have called the artwork in this book clunky & not very good when compared to the Artwork in Comics today. These people don't know what they are talking about. How do I come to that conclusion? Because I once said the same thing to the owner of a comic book store. Not just any comic book store, but one which dealt specificaly with buying and selling vintage comic books. I remember saying that the Steve Ditko artwork on the first 38 Original Spiderman issues was terrible. I'll never forget..the owner had this incredulous look on his face, and told me that this was "Comic book Art" and not "Let's draw something as realisticaly as possible Art!" With that in mind, I went home and looked at the Steve Ditko Spiderman issues again and came to slowly realize......"I must have been crazy!....He's absolutely right!" For myself, this is part of the genious of "Bring on the Bad Guys!". And this is especaily true of my personal favorites in this book.....the origins of Doctor Doom, Loki, and of course.....Thee Red Skull! What fun they must have had in creating these classics!

I'd argue, "sure." Here in Bring BACK the Bad Guys we witness the origins/first appearances of famous baddies Galactus, The Mandarin, Kingpin, Kang/Rama Tut and others. We are treated to a reprinting of GIANT-SIZE AVENGERS #2, which alone may be worth this book's price since it is virtually impossible to find anywhere. The other reprints are enjoyable (except for Fin Fang Foom's -- what the heck is HE doing in here?), especially a Professor X-Magneto flashback tale.

The book was a dissapointment for me. I am a big Dr Doom fan and expected a lot better. I thought about returning it, but i usually keep the comics i buy, just to add to my collection. The highlight of the entire book seems to be the fight between the thing and the doc in the battle of the baxter building. Other than that it was a let-down. The writing in some of the stories did dissapoint me at times and devaluated my image of the charater of Dr Doom. In one story, when Doom refered to two bombs he had set, he replied: "my subjects!!----I forgot!!" It may seem my complaint is over the top, but the Doom we all know would never admit to a fault. This is but one example of one the times i felt let down by the writers. Additionally, since the book featured more footage of the fantastic four than Dr Doom, it probably should be called Doom V the FF, at the least!Overall, I wasn't too impressed with the book but I guess if you are a true Dr Doom fan, you probably better see for yourself, afterall, you can always return it. As a final note, i will say to any Dr Doom fan who has not read Triumph and Torment, you must read this book to see Doom at his finest...

JACK KIRBY IS STILL THE KING OF COMIC BOOKS!!! Yes, I hate to admit it, but I agree with most of the other reviewers that the writing in this graphic novel reprint of some old FANTASTIC FOUR stories is not Kirby's best work--or even the best Dr. Doom appearances, because those were issues 57-60!!!--but even a Kirby collection at 80% is still better than 90% of other comic books, and so I rate this graphic novel 4 stars.

But Kirby's artwork--inked by INKER SUPREME JOE SINNOTT, THE MOST UNDERRATED MAN IN THE HISTORY OF COMIC BOOKS JUST FOR HIS INKING OF JACK KIRBY'S WORK!!!--in reprinted issues 84 through 87 is...FANTASTIC!!! And that's not just the way they drew Dr. Doom, but also Mr. Fantastic, The Torch, The Thing, the supporting characters, the scenery, and of course, the women!!!

I've bought a lot of graphic novels over the years--including the first ever printed, THE ORIGINS OF MARVEL HEROES--but I'd probably rank THE VILLAINY OF DR. DOOM #2 after that, because...

JACK KIRBY IS STILL THE KING OF COMIC BOOKS!!!

Chari Krishnan RESEARCHKING

This includes some of the greatest Doom-FF battles of all time. The Lee-Kirby classic where the FF take on Doom without their powers is one of the most exciting stories in their history (a complaint is that the pages in this volume were switched around). However, some complaints. They could have used the story where Doom steals the Silver Surfer's powers or FF #200 (Reed vs Doom). The stories also appear to have some panels cut out. This volume has great stories and artwork by Lee, Kirby, and Byrne but this volume could have been so much better.

Being a long time fan of DC comics, the Big, Red S, and the Batman (I'm into my sixth! decade, now), I found this piece to be a nostalgic tour-de-force! It was great to see Superman and The Bat-man in the days of the vigilantes and I reveled in the way that they aged "normally" through the ensuing decades. The story did have the feel of being a little cut-up as we dropped in for a single episode every ten years, but something had to be sacrificed to cover the panorama of the Heroes' lives as they stretched out over nearly a millenium. By reading other reviews, after my purchase by the way, I get the idea that there may be a follow-on (may already be a follow-on). This book recommends itself so well, that I will try to latch onto any sequels!

John Byrne set out with the idea of showing how comicbook characters (Superman, Batman, and their respective casts) might have developed if the characters were allowed to age real time. It starts with the two heroes meeting in 1939, and it presents additional chapters set at the 10 year intervals. Each chapter is written and drawn in the style of the comics of that decade - thus the styles vary from chapter to chapter. John does an excellent job capturing each era. In reading this book, one might feel that a lot of story happens "off panel" - since each chapter only shows one point in a year and happens 10 years after the previous chapter. This was part of John's intention as well. The whole idea was to tell a story while outlining events. The hope is for more of the stories and other years to be filled in with follow on projects. And it appears that DC has green-lighted for John to do Generations II which should hit stores in 2001.

Wow. The wait was worth it. Originally published as a 4-issue series, DC did the right thing by collecting this in trade format. "Generations" is a very enjoyable story which deals with Batman and Superman in real-time: in other words, they were introduced in 1939 and age accordingly over the next century. So, instead of Bruce Wayne continuously being Batman, as he has for over 60 years (through retcons, Crisis, etc.), he ages, and the mantle is passed to others. Superman has to deal with a similar situation, for even if he doesn't age as a human does, Clark Kent has to. The best feature of the book is following these two heroes throughout the 20th century, and seeing their secret identities play a greater role in shaping their lives. They behave more like normal people.

It amazes me that John Byrne was able to cover a staggering amount of material in just 4-issues, but he pulls it off very smoothly. Also, the story is loaded with Golden/Silver-Age references, and each decade manages to capture the atmosphere of what comics were like at that time, so if you enjoyed the pre-Crisis versions of these heroes, this is the book for you.

As a fan of Wonder Woman, i support any work that includes her. Bryne's novel is to the point. It isn't much different from his writing in comics but still is a good story. I thought that the book was good in having a more realistic view towards the large issues that are brought up. The only problem that i have with the book is the fact that it is written omnisciently. It would have been better if it were all told through wonder woman's eyes. Like a previous reviewer, i too would like more detailed action scenes.

I don't need to talk about the plot because previous reviewers have already done that job. At first, I was going to give this book 3 stars, but after reading the other WW novel, Mythos, I said, "OMIGOSH! The one by John Byrne was a better read!" There's a scene in this book where a priest of the Judeo-Christian religion gets to interview Athena, the goddess of wisdom of the ancient Greeks. She honestly and humbly admits that the gods were not responsible for the creation of man. And that the gods did not create the souls of the Amazons (including that of Diana) but that these souls had already been existing before; the gods merely had them reincarnated into the Amazon nation. This led the priest to believe that his Judeo-Christian God was the ultimate source of all life. What a beautiful confirmation of his faith! The only thing that unsettles me is Athena's indifference to the name of Jesus. If you were to come across this scene, you will notice that Athena knows little about Jesus, despite the fact that Christianity had helped sculpt Western civilization. I know that it would have been silly to have Athena convert to Christianity and leave Mt. Olympus for Mt. Zion, but I wish Byrne had made her speak a little more about the goodness that this divine personality had contributed to the world, regardless of Christianity's superceding the ancient Greek religion. I wish she had more reverence towards Jesus; she certainly can't compare herself to Him in terms of holiness. There are some myths that portray her as being silly, not at all befitting a goddess of wisdom (e.g., Arachne, the Trojan War).

I only found this book by accident. After reading Wonder Woman: Gods and Goddesses I was shocked. This book is wonderful! I was not a great Wonder Woman fan, but this book changed that. Mr. Byrne's story is very engaging. We learn a lot about the heroine, and about the world as it may be if such a heroine were to exist. The story elements dealing with society's fears and insecurities translate very well to our world. I was always a fan of Mr. Byrne's comics work, but I have learned to love his novel as well. This book ranks with the best books of this genre.