The 20th century's idle genetic experiments have created a hostile second race - human/lion hybrids known as 'leos' (cleche, but it works ^_^). And in the wake of civil wars, the American government has collasped, leaving its successor the Union for Social Engineering - a fanatical group struggling to bring together the splintered shards of government and bring the leos back under man's dominion. A very hard book to understand, with both its futrisitic feel and, ironically, laughable scenes that flaunt their datedness. Records? TV stations that sign off? Reynard, the sole human/fox hybrid in the story, having a clone that is EXACTLY the same as him (Then again, they were naive back then). However, the story does have some good adventure scenes and fasinating characters, from Painter the leo to Sweets, the dog with human intelligence. :-)

A shocking vision of the future involving half human,half lion mutants,one of them, Painter,is one of the main characters in this novel.

New Essays on Winesburg, Ohio is a refreshing collection of critiques that are essential for both gaining a critical understanding of the text. All essays are comprehensive in style but do not lack in content. Whether you want to gain new insight on the psychological troubles of Wing Biddlebaum, or the quasi-hero of the Modern Era -- George Willard, or develop your own new angles on the representative town of the old norms, New Essays on Winesburg, Ohio is essential.

While in college, I read this book several times! I used it as a resource for my book New Readings of Winesburg, Ohio. Anyone who wants to write a paper on Sherwood Anderson or teach Sherwood Anderson needs to read this book! It provides a variety of perspectives and shows how Winesburg, Ohio invites many different readings.

John W. Crowley deals competently with the historical shift in understandings of alcoholism, from the temperance-led view of moral deficit to the illness concept of the 'alcoholism movement'. Whilst covering some of the same ground as Tom Dardis' s seminal work 'The Thirsty Muse', this book nevertheless raises some interesting insights into the lost generation of American writers and their antecedents. Possibly it is most compelling where it considers the context of the era, as characterized by the collective post traumatic stress precipitated by the Great War and the unique restrictions of the Prohibition years. What Crowley adds to this well-worn ground is his linkage to socially constructed gender roles in turmoil - though his account is not unproblematic in its approach. 'The White Logic' usefully rehearses the prevalent psychoanalytic view of that time in discourses treating alcoholism as a dysfunction of repressed homosexuality. Indeed, Crowley almost alludes to male alcoholism as a 'feminised' or emasculated space. He also highlights the extremes socially allocated the female drinker, the either/or paradigms of (un-sexed) lesbian or (over-sexed) slut. Rather than developing this aspect of the argument farther, the book falls foul of its own trap in its inclusion of only one female writer - Djuna Barnes - arguably selected as representative of both these polarities.

'Drunk narratives' by WD Howells, Jack London and John O'Hara - plus the obligatory Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald works - are deftly utilized. The author's selection of texts does appear to hamper a fruitful line of inquiry into the rise and drink-related decline of each individual writer's creativity. O'Hara's 'Appointment at Samarra', for example, is a first novel, whilst 'Tender is the Night' is a later work from an established writer in the grip of his addiction and already on a creative downward spiral. The most commendable chapter is chronologically the last. Crowley's method of inflecting literary text with biographical context is at its best here in his examination of Charles Jackson's 'The Lost Weekend'. It marks the ascendance of the 'illness concept' which still remains dominant, largely due to the medicalization of alcoholism and the prevalence of Alcoholics Anonymous, post World War II. Crowley also traces the increasing willingness of Hollywood to engage with narratives promoting alcoholism-as-illness. This is a strategy which of course accelerates after the successful transition of Jackson's novel to screen in 1945 - but with its ending changed to accommodate Hollywood's appetite for upbeat resolution.

Overall, 'The White Logic' is a comprehensive survey - perceptive and accessibly written. It runs the risk though of leaving the reader with a somewhat reductive impression - distilling modernism itself to a privileged class monologue, in the spuriously heroic pursuit of absolution through dissolution.

John Crowley's study of alcohol and gender in Modernist fiction is, I think, the most aware of the numerous books which are considered fundamental reading in this field. Where Tom Dardis' _The Thirsty Muse_ is too limited in its scope and completely fails to acknowledge the arean of gender within the context of alcohol and addiction, Crowley's scholarship takes the woman alcoholic into consideration, by including a chapter on Djuna Barnes. Too, some of the other texts within this area, like Gilmore's _Equivocal Spirits_, Newlove's _Those Drinking Days_, and Goowin's _Alcohol and the Wirter_ fail in their attempts to provide a comprehensive or inclusive anaolysis of the ways that alcohol has functioned in the lives and the works of twentieth century writers.

Certainly, Crowley's addressing of gender within this field is not unproblematic. Providing Djuna Barnes as a mere foil to his dicussion of the masculinity and homosociality he discusses London, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald seems dismissive of the important issues women's writing and women's alcoholism provoke. Nonetheless, Crowleys seems light years ahead of the predecessors.

The book itself is easy reading, his prose style critical and literary critic-esque enough to garner professional respect while still remaining lively and interesting and non sleep-inducing.

Daemonomania is the third of (presumably, hopefully) four novels, each containing a section dealing in some way with three astrological houses. Reader's new to this series, see below, are urged to scour the internet and find used copies of "Aegypt" and "Love & Sleep" so you can appreciate the magnitude and quality of this story.

Reading this book is like eating chocolate truffles, it's so rich dense and detailed that it must be savoured slowly.

Pierce Moffet, the imperfect Fool, Parsifal, the protagonist, has the discovered writings that suggest that the World jumps in quantums, that certain things, like Alchemy, were posible at some time in the past, but then the World (or History) changes, shifts gears, reaches another quanta, and Magical things once possible become only impossible stories. Pierce intuits that another World change is happening (maybe in book four), but he, The Doubting Thomas, is not sure if he really believes any of this. He is a historian, author, renaissance and occult scholar (much like Crowley himself). He has been hired to write a book which will prove/or and tie all these ideas together.

Then there is Beau Brachman, another character, the contemporary Magus.

There are two other story lines from the 1500's, those of John Dee and Giordano Bruno. These stories, woven into the other are even more fantastic, were it not for the fact that they are appearently "extracts from the dairies , works and letters of John Dee and are quoted more of less verbatim". Dee was astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I, who, with Edward Kelly, claimed to have conversations with and Angel (or demon) Madimi who told him how to make gold, and gave him a wind to command, which he conjured and used to destroy the Spanish Armada! After he made gold!

Giordano Bruno, who Dee meets repeatedly and quarrels with, said that sun was the center of the solar system, the earth revolved around it and the the universe was full of other stars, like our sun, with inhabited planets. He got burned at the stake for his views by the Catholic Church.

But this, 400 odd years ago, was the Last World shift, the end of Dee's Universe, the begining of Bruno's (and ours!)

So, will Pierce Moffat be the patient donkey who ushures in the New World? What will happen? Tune in for book four! Crowleys book is brillant in places, complex, rewarding and confusing. I found myself thinking I might understand what he meant but never quite sure. It's chock full of Latin, alchemical, occult and astrological symbolism. He descibes unusual moods states of mind which are, well, extremely introspective. He writes of the intersection of the mundane world with a fantastic one as he did in "Little/Big". Things seen out of the corner of the eye which disappear when you look directly at them. Dreams, fugues, fits, imaginings, memories, maybe-they-were-maybe-they-weren't.

However, it must be stated that John Crowley has killed off his most interesting characters Dee, Edward Kelly, and Bruno in this, book three. Does Crowley have enough plot left for another book? Let's hope the concluding book four comes soon. But writing of this quality can't be rushed, I guess.

Daemonomania, third installment in the eventual quartet begun in Aegypt and continued in Love and Sleep, covers the autumn of the numinous 1979 John Crowley has been so carefully chronicling since 1985 or so. It's nearly Halloween in Faraway Hills, and we pick up with Pierce Moffat & company, John Dee & Giordano Bruno included, right where we left them.

Daemonomania is very much of a piece with its equally allusive and mysterious predecessors. It certainly contains all the strengths and weaknesses of the previous books -- if you loved them, you will love this; if you exited Love & Sleep angry about the lack of narrative progress, well, matters have not greatly improved.

But these books are almost a genre to themselves; dense, mythic, intricately detailed and stunningly beautiful, steeped in occult learning and emotional wisdom. Proceeding synchronistically rather than literally to make emotional sense of magic (in every sense of the word), they seem me among the most ambitious and rewarding novels of the past two decades.

Reviews below draw comparisons to Eco's Foucalt's Pendulum, but I think the more apt parallel is to a novel I often think my favorite -- Mark Helprin's Winter's Tale. Like Winter's Tale, Crowley's opus defiantly rejects a reasonable "what just happened?/where is this going?" query at every turn, yet renders the question moot with gorgeous, transcendent writing and abundant good humor. Though Crowley's tone is as adult and intellectual as Helprin's is child-like and matter of fact, the books share an exceedingly rare literary magic.

Don't worry so much about the plot -- just read.

Daemonomania was worth the wait. I have enough faith in Crowley's craftmanship to believe that the multiple threads initiated in Aegypt and sustained through Love and Sleep and the present book will be resolved effectively in the final novel (if we all live so long, he to write, I to read it). The pacing of the plot and character development are paradoxical -- leisurely, and as always with Crowley revealed in minute details of language and juxtaposition, yet the total effect of these tiny strokes is a tremendous force of urgency. I reread the previous two novels just before reading this one (it has after all been some years since Love and Sleep), and the sense of flow was quite powerful. The lapidary writing, and the wonderful Crowley dialogue provide a lot of pleasure to the reader who loves great prose. Few resolutions are provided, and I suppose that this novel, of the three so far, will be least effective as a stand-alone, but then I think that Crowley has clearly commited himself to the tetralogy project, and the extended plotting that this implies. The construction of a multi-volume work can take various forms. In the mode used by Robertson Davies and Joyce Cary, members of the core cast of characters take turns as protagonist or supporting actor(s). In the approach taken by Crowley ( as with, for example, Tolkien and Tolstoy), there is one long story -- there is internal structure, to be sure, and demarcations and episodes -- but all the elements weave a complete fabric. I have to note that over the course of these novels, I have found myself changing my attitudes about almost all the characters at one time or another, as the narrative reveals more of them, in their concerns and actions, and in relationship to the other players in the drama. I don't know if Crowley planned this kaleidescopic effect, or if it's an epiphenomenon, but either way this is a remarkable work of art.

This was an interesting and intelligently written account of the life of a very strange but fascinating individual. It would be interesting, if he were alive today, to see if his lifestyle and thoughts would come across as acceptable and normal in todays world. He seemed to be a brave, athletic and intellectual person who may have been almost on the verge of some great magical and spiritual goals and discoveries, but never quite reaching those goals. Although some have labeled him 666 and the Beast, Crowley did not come across to me as being Beastly at all. He did strike me as being slightly insane, eccentric and very self absorbed. He started off in life with way too much time on his hands with his mind drifting off in too many directions in which most of us don't have the time or money to do; which does make his lifestyle difficult to relate to. The book seemed to drag on in places. His mountain climbing antics I found to be fascinating although stretched and drawn out. He was way out there; no doubt;... makes for interesting reading. Strange people are interesting to read about.

Because his folowers have granted him godlike status while his critics have dismissed him as a crackpot, it's a bit difficult to explain to those who have not heard of A.C. why this book is such a great read.

Aleister Crowley(1875-1947) recounts his life and the pride he took in being a genius (he had memorized The Bible before he was seven), a poet, an adventurer, a world renowned mountain climber, a blindfold chess master, a lover, a sorcerer, and The Chosen Prophet of the Ancient Gods of Egypt!

But, above all: an English Gentleman.

Unfortunately his compatriots, like queen Victoria on a celebrated occasion, were not amused. The newspapers depicted him as a satanic, devil worshipping maniac. A charge which was somewhat unfounded and rather ironic since this was the man that satanic devil worshipping maniacs were too scared to mess with.

He was a passionate artist with a flair for danger, an extreme of the spiritual and the sensual, a cross between between St. John of the Cross and the Marquis de Sade. Only Rasputin could match him as a true historical figure that seems too improbable to have existed.

Neither man would be 'believable', even in lurid work of fictional melodrama. Yet they lived.

And A.C. topped Rasputin in possesing (or being possed by) a savagely sarcastic sense of humor which took no prisoners. Say what you will of him but one must grant him a remarkable talent for making enemies everywhere.

W.B. Yeats wanted him expelled from The Golden Dawn (The most influential Rosicrucian/Freemasonic lodge of the 19th century) on the grounds that 'a mystical society should not have to serve as a reform school for juvenile delinquents.' For his part, The Magus informs us that Yeats was full of black, bilious rage, because he, Crowley was by far the greater poet.

He once remarked that it was interesting that such a small county as Stratford had given England her two greatest poets, for one must not forget Shakespeare . . .

A.C. founded his own temple of 'life, love, and liberty' after his wife had a vision while visiting a museum in Cairo. The year was 1904 and the gods were ready to annoint an English Gentleman to bear forth their message to humanity and usher in a new era which would replace Christianity, as Christianity had replaced the crumbling faiths of the Roman Empire.

Thus 'The Book of the Law' came to be written (or dictated?) Its main tenet was "Do What Thou Wilt.'

Apparently Isis or Horus were fans of the novels of Rabelais, since that was the motto inscribed in his fictional abbey.

And, in all likelihood Rabelais probably got it from St. Augustine's maxim: "Love, and do what you will".

And if you can name which Greek philosopher thought it up first, treat yourself a trip to Cairo and listen closely to your inner voice. . .

It would hardly be surprising to be told that AC was reared in an ultrafundamentalist Christian sect and thus, he rebelled with vengeance.

What is surprising is that the quest for 'The Holy Grail' never left him, even as he climbed the Himalayas, seduced countesses, hobnobbed with Rodin, and made life quite interesting for anyone around him.

A fascinating look at a strange man and his times recounted with humor, sorrow and faith.

Regardless of other reviewers comments about Crowley's mountain-climbing adventures, and other travels, I thoroughly enjoyed every minute detail ! Obviously, his mountain climbing experiences and world travel helped him to develop his "Will," which enabled him to become the most famous Occultist in history. Every time I had a spare moment, I sat down with this "Autohagiography" and poured over the pages until I found myself in a delimma.....only 6 pages until it is finished. More ! More !

Two years ago, I would not have imagined I would be reviewing Crowley books. Most of the information about this man seems to have been written by people who took all the myths surrounding Crowley seriously, or preferred to inform the reading public of the Controversial / Tabloid exploits Crowley was *supposedly* involved with. However, despite various Occult Researchers' whimsical attitude toward truth vs. tabloid money-making rumors, this book reveals Crowley as a MAN, not a "Beast."

To read the Confessions is to read of a Poetic Young man, who happened to be born into a society Indoctrinated with ridiculous concepts that his level of Intelligence simply could not submit to. The Subversive, Slave-like religion of his birth pushed him to explore other fields of interest and to study Comparative Religion. Reading his autobiography, it is obvious that he was simply too intelligent to be kept down in the mire of "Because."

This man thought for himself and lived for himself--despite society's ridiculous posturing and false "morality."

Basically, Crowley "tells it like it is," instead of adopting the complacent, indoctrinated attitude of his era and contrymen.

There is very little "Occult" information in this book--in fact, he mostly writes about his Mountaineering, Poetry and World Travel throughout most of these "Confessions." The occult-related incidents often seem to be thrown-in as an after-thought, as-if he would much-rather be remembered as a Poet.

Personally, I learned quite a lot about Anthropology from this collection of Travels in India, China, South America, etc. It is such a shame that the intellectual level of society (or lack thereof) cannot comprehend Great Men. Crowley was extremely well-educated--therefore, it is unlikely that younger generations will comprehend even a fourth of the material in this autobiography. Well-read individuals will be thrilled to add the Confessions to their library !

Don't be frightened by propagandists and money-mongers--this book was written straight from the Horus' mouth and sets the record straight.

A collection of four novellas from John Crowley, perhaps best known as the author of Little, Big. I admire Crowley's writing, although, like Howard Waldrop's, I often don't follow everything that's going on. In particular in this volume, I was lost in the time travel story, "Great Work of Time." History was never one of my strong suits, so I guess I shouldn't wonder why I'm not that attracted by alternate history. "In Blue" and "Novelty" were both reminiscent of stories that I had previously read in SF, but done with an artistic frame of mind.

For me it was "The Nightengale Sings at Night" that made this collection worthwhile. One of the hoariest clichés of SF is the Adam and Eve story, and although "Nightengale" has Adam and Eve in it, it is nowhere near the cliché. That's because the starting point of this story is the creation--that same moment in Genesis--whereas the cliché ends at the creation. Crowley, although "explaining" an aspect of the creation myth here, is also being slightly satirical in his exploration of it. In all, it makes for a wonderful story.

This collection of four stories by John Crowley covers a wide range of themes and styles. Here's the breakdown by story.

The Nightingale Sings at Night is Crowley's version of a Creation and Fall myth that is clever and cute but lacking the depth of meaning and rich textures that I've grown accustomed to in his writing.

Great Work of Time is a strong entry with vivid descriptions that evoke the proper mood for the times and places we're shown. Crowley presents a unique concept for time travel and the "effects" of altering the past. But he falls into the same trap many writers before him have in writing time traveling stories: eventually he over explains his idea in pages of exposition. Crowley is such a talented writer I felt he could easily have written these portions instead as events in the story, subtly building the air of mystery he so successfully achieves in the rest of the narrative. Some of these passages read more like notes to himself than useful story devices and the overall effect is that this tale would be a good candidate for a rewrite in an expanded and more fleshed out form. The all too brief glimpse into the future shows us a wonderfully distorted world inhabited by strange creatures, but we never learn much about them. I really wanted more. Overall, what's present is classic Crowley, but seems somehow unfinished.

With the story In Blue, Crowley departs from sensuous descriptions in favor of a more sparse style to evoke the sterile world in which his characters move (reminding me of a Kubrik film). Every event that happens and thought that Hare has adds to his breakdown in a believable way. But what I still have not reconciled is Crowley's attitude towards this world. At first it all appears a set up for an indictment of the catch-22 logic of this mild mannered dystopia, but what are we to think when Hare eventually finds his place in the Revolution? I'll be mulling this one over for some time to come.

And in Novelty we see possibly the kernel of inspiration for the Aegypt books. There are strong parallels between the writer character in Novelty and Pierce Moffett, both impotently trying to convey mystical deep meanings that seemingly lose their impact once expressed. This one was a little hard to get into at first. For me, writers writing about (not) writing ranks up there with films about filmmaking. Can it be well done? Yes, but it still seems too self-involved. Novelty is rather short, though, and by the end I was engrossed, mainly because the writer character gets around to describing what he wants to write instead of describing how he can't get around to writing. In fact, these passages read more like poetry than prose and coalesce beautifully.

I highly recommend this book for Crowley fans. But for those unfamiliar with him, Otherwise: Three Novels might be a better place to start. Engine Summer alone is worth the price of admission.

Includes Great Work of Time, In Blue, Why the Nightengale Sings at Night, and the title peice, Novelty. Everything here is very good, in particular the first two selections. In Blue did not do much for me and Novelty, which is a look into Crowley's creative thought process, while interesting, is not something I would recommend to a casual reader. Anyway, I loved the stories and would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Crowley's longer fiction.

A small press short story collection from Crowley that I had to request through Inter-Library Loan. Just seven stories, nothing longer than 6,000 words, but richer by far than the sparseness of the type on the pages. In "The Green Child," Crowley tells an anti- fairy tale, wherein the fairies visit our world and lose their ability rather than the other way around. "Missolonghi 1824" uses the style of the tall tale to explore a being from the past in a somewhat more recent past. The best story by far is the title story, a mystery about sex in a small town. "The Reason for the Visit" is somewhat pointless if you don't know anything about Virginia Woolf, like me. The fatalistic "Her Bounty to the Dead" is my next pick in this volume; the ending is as sudden as a car crash, and just as inevitable. I had read both "Snow" and "Exogamy" before in other pages (likely Datlow and Windling's Year's Best volumes). I liked "Snow" even more than I remembered. It's rare for Crowley to write such a straightforward science fiction tale, and this is one of the best. It even has a Neal Stephenson-like flavor. I hated "Exogamy," which is too much like the recent pointless drivel that Ellison has been producing. All in all, worth checking out from the library, but wait for a publisher to realize a sure thing and do a Complete Short Fiction of John Crowley before mortgaging the house to find this rare volume.

Only 1,000 copies of this collection were printed in its trade edition, so it's hard to find. It contains the following stories: "The Green Child," a retelling of a medieval legend; "Missolonghi 1824," about Lord Byron; "Antiquities," an Edwardian traveller's tale; "The Reason for the Visit," about a visit from Virginia Woolf; "Her Bounty to the Dead," a ghost story; "Snow," an SF story; and "Exogamy," a modern fable.

I started reading this book with great expectations of an intellectual stroll through history. On the whole, the essays contained in this book were disappointing, although (as one should expect) there is an uneven quality of entries.

First off, the reader should be aware that the book does not, in general, provide "alternative history;" instead, it is a compilation of important moments in world history (with weight on US history). Perhaps it should have been called (as is another, regrettably unread, book on my shelf) "Turning Points in World History." Some of the essays are excellent - inspired and thought-provoking (e.g., the first essay by W McNeill on ancient Jerusalem). Others are silly - the first such, by Lapham on Teutoburg, induced me to do a web search to discover his credentials (he hadn't appeared to have given it much thought). Some were infuriating (why did I waste my time?): for example, McPherson's essay on the "Lost Orders" in the Antietam campaign (OK, here comes the rant). Sure, this was a random, low-probability event that had a major effect on the war, and could easily had turned out otherwise. But McPherson (a highly regarded historian) goes on to speculate that, absent the discovery of the orders, the 1862 campaign would have been similar to the 1863 MD-PA campaign, with the Confederates moving north as far as Harrisburg and the Susquehanna, then concentrating (from the north and west) at Gettysburg; while the Union army, shielding Washington, moved up from the southeast (OK...). But then he supposes that the armies somehow switch positions, with the Union army attacking the Confederates from the north and west at Gettysburg!?!

Well, I know it's just for fun, but I'd like to see the authors put a little bit more into it. As it is, I can recommend this book for its entertainment value, and occasional nice essay. But, most of the time, you could probably do better yourself.

Who hasn't wondered about a decision not taken or the string of uninterrupted causation that is required for any single person to exist? Think about your own life: the chain of events which resulted in your parents meeting; how you ended up in your current job; the college you attended; you never attended college; or how you met your current significant other. We are all shaped by historical choices, both ones made by ourselves, and those made on a scale that can alter history.

"What If?" gathers some of the world's foremost military historians to offer hypothetical counterfactuals, including: What If Alexander the Great had died in battle at the age of 21, before he had built an empire? What if the American Revolution had resulted in disaster? What if certain key battles in the American Civil War had changed? This is fun reading as it is always interesting to consider alternative paths not taken or paths unavailable by happenstance.

This book contains a number of excellent examples of counterfactual speculation, with only a few medicore essays. The authors examine how individual actions can have an impact as can the whims of weather.

This is an enjoyable book and, because of the broad area of military history, invites the potential for sequels. For example: One counterfactual I've always wondered about occurred in December of 1814 here in my home town of New Orleans. A prosperous son of Creole planters was awakened by the sound of British troops landing at the back of his plantation. Young Mr. Villere jumped out the window and headed for New Orleans, dodging a shot from a British sentry. Villere arrived in New Orleans and spread the alarm. Gen. Andrew Jackson gathered his forces and launched a surprise attack on the British. The British, unsure of the forces facing them, slowed their advance to give time to consolidate their forces. This gave Jackson time to throw up some defenses on the plains of Chalmette. Within 2 weeks the British had been defeated after suffering enourmous casualties attempting to storm Jackson's fortifications.

But what if the British sentry had not missed young Mr. Villere? Had the British continued their advance it is conceivable that these veterans of the Peninsular campaign could have won the Battle of New Orleans. Today people only remember that the Battle of New Orleans was fought after a peace treaty had been signed. But the treaty had not yet been ratified. Further, in the treaty the British recognized the status of borders prior to the war. But Britain had never recognized the Louisiana purchase, as the Spainish had violated a treaty with Britain when Spain secretly sold Louisiana to France. Britain could have attempted to keep New Orleans. This would have meant a widening of the war. It also begs the following question: Would there have been sufficient British troops to win at Waterloo?

As you can see counterfactual speculation leads to a never ending string of alternative possibilities. But it is enjoyble to speculate, as is "What If?"

What if George Washington had been captured on Long Island in 1776 and summarily executed by the British?? What if Robert E. Lee and his forces had achieved a decisive victory at Gettysburg in 1862? What if the Normandy Invasion (D Day) had failed in 1944? Your guess is as good as mine but the guesses of eminent historians are much better. Specifically, David McCullough, James M. McPherson, and Stephen E. Ambrose, respectively, who ask "What if?" in reference to these key situations in military history. Others speculate on, for example, "The Immolation of Hernan Cortes" (1521), "The Repulse of the British Fireships" (1588), "How Hitler Could Have Won" (1941), and "China Without Tears" (1946). Robert Crowley has done a masterful job of editing this anthology of essays. You may disagree with many of the answers to the repeatedly asked question "What if?" but I am certain you will be entertained as well as informed while reading this splendid book. My hunch is that the eminent historians had at least as much much fun formulating their speculations as readers now have when sharing them.

Well, I can not say that W.D. Howells was another Nathaniel Hawthorne. But what I can say is that his "The Rise of Silas Lapham" is A LOT better than some books that were made famous (probably for political reasons). Do not expect the superb images and construction of Hawthorne. But what we CAN expect is a timeless message about society. At first Silas is a rich money grubbing monster. (Just think of Dickens' Scrooge.) He finds ways to cut his friends out of deals, alienates his family with the want of more money, and even gets his wife upset. Ah, but later things go bad, and he starts losing money. This is when the human side of him begins to show and he becomes a very sympathetic character. In my opinion, to enjoy this even more, you must assume that before the book opens, he WAS a good and decent man. Once he ran into immense wealth, he grew detestable. So while, this is not exactly a masterpiece, the degeneration of Silas and his return to humanity is ample material to carry this book and place it in the American Museum of Literature.

These days Howells is usually overlooked in favor of the more overtly urbane Henry James or the grittier Stephen Crane or Theodore Dreiser. That's a shame, since Howells at his best is a more varied and thought-provoking author than any of them. The Rise of Silas Lapham is Howells at his best. The title is quite ironic, of course, but ultimately spot-on, as Howells' nouveau-riche bumpkin is redeemed only in losing it all. Lapham is keenly drawn, alternately frustrating in his bluster and affected pompousness and endearing in his genuine (if sometimes poorly expressed) love for his family. Other characters are not so fortunate; one of his daughters remains mostly a cipher, and both Mrs. Lapham and Bromfield Corey, the rich scion of society whose favor Lapham so earnestly covets, are dangerously close to stock characters. Howells excels at elaborate descriptive prose focused on intricate detail, sometimes to the point of exhaustion. Some elements of the plot may seem quaint to modern readers, but Howells does not treat them with condescension. The Rise of Silas Lapham is definitely a book of its time. Perhaps it is so rewarding because his time and ours are not necessarily so different as we think.

I've had William Dean Howells' "A Modern Instance" and "The Rise of Silas Lapham," like many, many other books on my bookshelf for a long time. A recent meeting of a reading group of mine finally allowed me to make the time to read Howells' 1885 work, "Silas Lapham". I am extraordinarily glad I did. From the start of the novel, we are drawn into the world of late 19th century Boston, post-Reconstruction America, where newly rich industrialists attempt to enter the society life of old money. Howells crafts an extraordinarily realistic look at the American Dream gone awry.

"The Rise of Silas Lapham" begins with an interview that a local newspaperman is doing of Colonel Silas Lapham, a mineral paint tycoon. Lapham's account of his rise from the backwoods of Vermont to his marriage, to service in the Civil War, to his propagation of a successful mineral paint business is chronicled and gives us a taste of the effort and perseverance necessary for his rise, as well indicating the possibility of some potential failings, especially with regard to his one-time partner, Milton Rogers. We soon learn that Mrs. Persis Lapham aided a society woman in distress the year before, and the return of her son, Tom Corey, from Texas, signals another sort of ambition on the part of the Lapham daughters, Irene and her older sister Penelope. The rest of the novel plays out the ways in which the Laphams try to parley their financial success into social status - and how the Laphams are affected by the gambit.

Howells explores a number of significant cultural issues in "Silas Lapham": isolationism, social adaptability, economic solvency among all classes, personal integrity and familial ties, and the relationship between literature and life. The fact that the story is set about 20 or so years after the end of the American Civil War sets an important and subtle context that runs throughout the novel and inflects all of the thematic elements. The ways that the characters interact, the way that the society functions, even though the majority of the novel takes place in Boston, is importantly affected by the fact that Reconstruction is drawing to a close, Manifest Destiny is in full swing, and ultimately, America was at a point of still putting itself together and trying to view itself as the "United" States.

Howells' treatment of the social interactions between the industrially rich Laphams and the old moneyed Coreys underscores the difficulty in creating and maintaining a national identity, especially when the people even in one northern city seem so essentially different. The romance story involving the Laphams and Tom Corey is obviously an important element of the story, and Howells does an amazing job of not allowing the romance plot to become as overblown and ludicrously sentimental as the works of fiction he critiques in discussions of novels throughout his own work. "The Rise of Silas Lapham" questions the nature of relationships, how they begin, how they endure - the contrast between the married lives of the Coreys and the Laphams is worth noting, as is the family dynamic in both instances.

I'm very pleased to have gotten a chance to read this novel. Generally when I say an author or a work has been neglected, I mean that it's been neglected primarily by me. Having turned an eye now to Howells, I am very impressed with the depth of his characterization, the ways he puts scenery and backdrop to work for him, the scope of his literary allusions, and his historical consciousness. This is certainly a great American novel that more people should read. It may not be exciting, but it is involving, and that is always an excellent recommendation.

I loved Crowley's Aegypt, a wonderful compound of life, art, and magic (specifically hermeticism.) Although written in Crowley's beautiful style this novel was a severe disappointment. The lyrical life-affirming optimism of the preceding novel was wholly absent, replaced by a dismal elegaic pessimism. The book's structure is kind of clumsy too - it's a loosely related set of chunks of stories which while interesting in themselves don't flow well together. It's interesting to speculate that the novel's grim tone is related to the murder of Crowley's friend and professor of hermetic studies Ioan Culianu, who was assassinated, evidentally for political reasons, in 1991. Giordano Bruno, the Renaissance hermeticist, is a principal subject of Crowley's novel and his life bears parallels to Culianu's.

A 4 book work in progress, starting with "Aegypt". Dealing with 2 plots, one in the current time (Pierce Moffat), one in the past (Bruno). Bruno discovers, in the middle ages, the 20th century explanation of how the universe works, speaks out about it and gets persecuted by the Inquisition. John Dee talks to an angel thru his "shew" stone.

The sections for the books are the latin names of the houses of the zodiac. We can therefore look forward to another 2 books with 3 houses each. This is a hurculean effort. Lets hope John Crowley doesn't run out of plot before he runs out of houses. It took about a decade between the publishing of book one and two. Lets also hope that he will not need 40 years to finish the story. The quality is too good.

The first sequel to AEgypt, Love & Sleep chronicles lovelorn and adrift Pierce Moffett as he stands upon the cusp of a magical change in history. Simultaneously, we view the brief encounter between Giordano Bruno and John Dee at Mortlake in the late 16th century, Pierce's own childhood in the Cumberland mountains, and begin to see deeply into the lives of Pierce's two roses (Rose Ryder and Rosie Rasmussen). This book seems to have been unpopular with some Crowley fans, perhaps because it almost entirely lacks any sort of action, and is instead a lyrical, brooding meditation on change and age. It is also true that some of the Renaissance scenes are over-long, windy, and at times do not quite ring true. Further, it is a sequel, and what's more will have two more sequels of its own; the third book in the series, Daemonomania, is already out, but who knows when book 4 will appear? Although I would grant all these criticisms, it is Crowley's graceful prose that makes this book such an extraordinary achievement. AEgypt was a bit unfocused, seemingly unsure where it was going; Love & Sleep takes wing and soars. Crowley's ear for modern speech is exceptional, and he also manages to clutch us emotionally without ever dipping into maudlin or pathos. Furthermore, the way he weaves together oddities of Renaissance magical history and mythology with the modern world is breathtaking --- Bobby Shaftoe's werewolf father is hauntingly real, human, and deeply felt. For me, this is Crowley's best book since Little, Big, but it's certainly not for the quick reader. Love & Sleep requires a good deal of effort and time from the reader, and we must be prepared to surrender to the homely, slow pace of the prose.