As I read this play, my family is in the process of moving a thousand miles away from the farm where I grew up. Though I am so far away from the Russian culture and time of this play, the themes of place, tradition, and inevitable change resonated inside of me, and I am grateful to Chekhov for the way he has handled them.

The Cherry Orchard is a play about change, and the symbolism is pretty easy to recognize. What makes it stand apart, I think, from a thousand other plays on the same theme is its wonderful sense of comedy, of smiling sadness. Chekhov all his life insisted it was a comedy. As the Cherry Orchard slips away from the Ranevskys, they seem to smile at its going. As they are unable to change their habits -- still lending money they don't have, still spending extravagantly -- they quietly laugh at their own foolishness. The change comes, and they leave, heartbroken -- but embracing the change at the same time, only feebling struggling against it. One feels saddest, in the end, for Lopakhin, the new owner of the Cherry Orchard. He seems to believe he has bought happiness and friends, but is quickly discovering the emptiness of money and possessions, as no one wants to borrow from him, and no one seems to pay him much heed at all.

Chekhov paints with a fine brush, and I appreciate that. There is no thunderstorming, no ranting and raving in this work. There is a fine and subtle, sad and comedic portrayal of a family and a place encountering change. It is a heartbreak with a smile.

The translation, though the only one I've read, seems good. It is easy to follow and rich in simple feeling.

if you'd like to discuss this play with me, or recommend something i might enjoy, or just chat, e-mail me at williekrischke@hotmail.com.

Anton Chekhov's play "The Cherry Orchard" has been published as part of the Dover Thrift Edition series (that's the version I read before writing this review). No translator is credited for this edition. According to the note at the start of the book, the play was initially presented by the Moscow Art Theatre in 1904.

The play takes place on the estate of Madame Ranevsky, the matriarch of an aristocratic Russian family that has fallen on financial hard times. She faces the possible loss of her family's magnificent cherry orchard.

The play is populated with interesting characters: Lopakhin, a wealthy neighbor whose father was the serf of Madame Ranevsky's father; Firs, an aged servant who longs for the "old days"; Trophimof, a student with lofty ideas; and more. There is a great deal of conflict among the characters.

"The Cherry Orchard" is about people dealing with very personal conflicts and crises while larger socioeconomic changes are going on around them. The orchard of the title is a memorable image that is well handled by Chekhov. The play contains some really effective dialogue, such as old Firs' reflection on the apparently lost art of making dried cherries. This is definitely one classic play that remains compelling.

The Cherry Orchard was me first experience with Chekhov, and I was surprised at the depth in this 49 page play. By no means would I considered myself a "literary expert," but this was very readable and you can pull a lot of the deeper meanings and its context in Russian history by yourself. I was confused at a couple people who write that the simply couldn't understand it and it put them to sleep! It's not THAT tough! If I could understand and appreciate it, almost anyone can!

What I like most about Chekhov is that he doesn't simplify his characters. He's a realist in this sense. Lopahkin and Trophimof each have admirable and detestable characteristics, just like you and I. While it may be set in the tumultuous period prior to the Russian revolution, the ideas and the discussions this play provokes are timeless.

Highly recommended!

the illustrator of the maps is Brian Mckean, not Dave Mckean. i haven't read the book but if you arelike me and buy basically anything woth dave mckeans name on it, pass this one by.

I didn't realise this book was out of print. It seemed to be everywhere at one point! I can only say it deserves to be reprinted as soon as possible. Moorcock's introduction is a wonderful introduction to Sinclair full of a kind of amiable contempt for most of Sinclair's less talented but generally more famous contemporaries. McKean has done a good job, but one of the main points of interest in this book is that it's what Peter Ackroyd acknowledges as his main influence on Hawksmoor. Profound, witty, idiosyncratic, it's a wonderful start to Sinclair!

I purchased this book to help explain the real Saint Nicholas (as opposed to Santa Claus) to my son. I vascilated quite a bit on whether to return the book or keep it.

The author's choice of content is a bit unusual for my needs. The book starts by explaining that Nicholas was born to older parents who were wealthy and charitable. Next it mentions the parents' death (with an illustration I'd rather have been skipped, more on that below) and Nicholas' continuation of his parents' charity. The book continues with some events of Saint Nicholas' life with nice detail: saving the three daughters from slavery, his entry into the priesthood, his intervention during the stormy voyage, his appointment as bishop, the legend of the schoolboys, and his suffering in Roman prison for his convictions. His adoption as patron saint of various groups is mentioned in context. In the Author's Note, written more for parents than children, the author mentions the connection between Saint Nicholas and our present day Santa Claus.

The style of the illustrations is very nice. A "pieced" stained glass effect, it suits the material very well. Most of the illustrations represent the text nicely. The one exception is the page where the death of Nicholas' parents from the plague is mentioned. Here we see a large black cloud filled with scary-looking skeletons that appear to lurch in the direction of the boy Nicholas. Nicholas looks frightened even though his uncle's arm is around him. Before it's next use, I will glue the pages together and just skip it entirely. The dealth of Nicholas' parents can easily be incorporated into the next page where the book speaks of Nicholas' being his parents' heir and continuing their charity.

The book does a nice job of covering the life of Saint Nicholas, but it's nothing special.

We found the book beautifully written and illustrated. It is legendary as well as factual, but his life is presented in a most touching and informative way.

I liked this book it had some good tips and how-to advice.
I also loved Twelve Step Plan To Becomming An Actor in LA
It is a work book which guides you through your first year.
Itis written by a therapist,so it also teaches YOU how to take care of yourself emotionally, which is Key. Buy them both and have an edge over the competition

The first two chapters of "Agent Technology" provide an informative introduction to the field of this branch of artificial intelligence and to the content of the book. The third chapter should have been the capstone of the introductory material, but fell short for its failure to illustrate a key point. Included in the third chapter was a poorly constructed chart that attempted to demonstrate the extent of integration required in a service order processing system. Had the chart been functionally oriented, the reader might have effortlessly identified the number of redundant systems, the degree of functional dispersal over unique systems, and even the tortuous trail taken by a customer to simply fill an order. The chart would then have illustrated precisely why that chapter, "Agent Software for Near-Term Success," is critical to understanding the proposed role of agents in today's complex systems.

A chapter on the concept of cooperating agents was excellent. It proposed a body-head-communicator metaphor for agent intellectual construction, then developed that metaphor through a language supporting some essential semantic primitives, resulting in the definition of generic agent types for any cooperative network of agents. The body performs domain-dependent functions; the head manages problem solving, and the communicator, of course, communicates with the external world. That chapter concluded with two easily visualized examples: a calendar assistant and a car parking assistant.

The chapter "Building Agent Based Systems in Telecom Networks" was too general. Although relevant to agent technology, most of the content was generally applicable to ANY agent construct, and did not seem specifically useful within telecom networks, as promised by the title of the chapter. A more apropos title for this particular chapter would have been "Mobile Agents," which is a section in that chapter and seemed more accurate.

My recommendation is the reader should initially familiarize himself with the field by reading the first two introductory chapter of "Agent Technology." Further chapters may be read as independent articles, depending on the interest or needs of the reader.

Since independence most African governments have been, in the authors' words, authoritarian and "neopatrimonial". Why was there an outburst of democracy in these nations during the early 1990s, followed by a slide back toward authoritarianism? To answer this question, the authors survey democratization theory, and they compare the African experience to democratization in Latin America and Eastern Europe. The authors' answer to the above question, very simply put, is that beneath the appearance of democratization, all the structural sources of authoritarianism persisted -- and still persist today.

This book seems to be one of the books looking forward in future. I think it is useful who is interested in knowing the concept in Agent Technology for distributed application development.

Short, concise, to-the-point information with wonderfully reproduced portaits of Flagg's work. Flagg had his thumb on the nation's pulse and stayed a few steps ahead of its desires and passions. His work has inspired countless partriots and Americans alike. It did then, does still today, and this book ensures it will tomorrow.

The writers of this collection of essays may represent different religions, but they represent one thought: globalization is bad. Their idea is not so much to subvert greed but to subvert capitalism, which they would see as being the same thing. This is less about personal responsibility than corporate greed. On the surface, while the essayists may be coming from various points of view, in fact, they have one. Far from promoting diversity and having a dialogue, this book does the opposite. It tells but one story, and one side of that story. It says that capitalism causes poverty, and that something else must take its place. All right. So, what is it? And how will it work?

In the last 200 years, many religious groups have tried to start their own economic societies, usually based on some kind of communalism. And most of these have disappeared. The grand experiment of the Soviet Union and other forms of forced communalism also collapsed from their own weaknesses and failings.

What these writers offer is the usual Ivory Tower approach, somehow trying to persuade or even force the rest of us into their way of thinking and living. All without a lot of details of how this would work out for Joe and Jane Lunchbucket in Peoria.

As I noted, this is less about individual greed and more about the effect, real and perceived of large international companies. I offer three reasons that the writers shy away from individual accountability. First, if ordinary people really read this kind of stuff, they might begin to feel threatened, and they might get politically involved and start to speak up for themselves. The Ivory Towerists loathe that. They want a world run by "experts" like themselves. Second, someone might ask about individual and local responsibility in poor countries. As in, what are they doing about it, besides waiting for the next handout, or the next bit of graft? Then, finally, they're great with the ideas, but poor in the execution. Either they haven't thought that far, cannot see that far, or don't want to let us, the unwashed, in on their Grand Plans.

This is a must read for those who look around and see world poverty and ask what we could do about it. This book is important because it represents a very powerful idea that is widely popular among academics and "anti-poverty" activists. We need to know what everyone is thinking in this area, and not just read stuff that we agree with.

This text is not appropiate for any for introductory class to neuroscience at any level (whether grad or undergrad). The depth and detail leaves the reader confused at best. Perhaps it is suitable for an advanced gradute seeking to remedy any detail oriented holes. For all others, it is a precursor to a headache.
The smart money would go with the Kandel who clearly defines
his purpose at the outset of his classic book.
(I notice that the reviewer ,who bestowed the text 4 stars, and the author both call San Diego their home.)

To me as bibliophiliac and a cognitive psychologist interested in neurobiology, this is the textbook of choice and an object of desire. It is very up-to-date and well-written. Although some people have detected some lack of coherence in this work, I find it refreshing that the sections recognizably come from different research teams with somewhat different points of emphasis, but without anyone pushing his own scientific interests on the expense of those of the readers. This also guarantees that it is not only an accumulation of facts but has also interesting theoretical discussions by leading researchers. It is optimal for readers having at least some laypeople knowledge about biology, medicine, or neuroscience, and just want to know more (possibly everything), or who require a thorough and citable review of a certain topic. Readers completely new to the field may find it difficult to pick out the information suited for a beginner level - a less voluminous book would be more helpful for them. I would rather not recommend it for undergraduates courses. I would also prefer a somewhat stronger emphasis on cognitive neuroscience - after all, a few hundred pages more would do no harm...!

This book is a veritable tour de force from leading researchers in the area of neuroscience. It is comprehensive in scope going from modern molecular and cellular neuroscience to cognitive and behavioral neuroscience. Includes strong sections on developmental neuroscience, sensory and motor neuroscience, and regulatory systems. The book is extremely well and attractively produced; the graphics are superb. Exceptional value for money. It has been written by leading scholars involved in teaching neuroscience at the graduate level (although it may be suited to advanced undergraduates and academic medical students). Definitely the leading book in the area; required reading for professional neuroscientists and academic clinicians.