With all the books published on the Civil War, it's hard to
find something NEW, but this book brings to light a collection of soldiers' letters unpublished since the Civil War. Not only are the letters themselves new and fresh to
Civil War scholars and enthusiasts, but Bill Styple has done
an excellent job of editing them. The Civil War is presented
in a new light. One of the best Civil War books in many years; if you like to read about the Civil War, buy this book!

This book is a great addition to the serious Civil War reader's library. Being able to read the battle descriptions, thoughts and feelings of those who actually participated in the war is always enlightening, bringing the reader a different reality than that of the historian who writes about the Civil War with the benefit of hindsight and without the benefit of personal experience. The compilation of letters in this book - in chronological and logical order - brings alive the crucial battles in the Eastern theatre of the Civil War. The only slight deficiency is that very few letters from the Eastern soldiers fighting in Western armies are included. My suggestion: have this book at hand and read what the soldiers had to say about a specific event or battle immediately after reading narrative descriptions of the same event or battle by today's leading historians, for a complete view. Overall, a wonderful book and highly recommendable to the "advanced" Civil War reader.

Except for the end of the book, which is clotted up with the Norton Critical Editions usual stinky baggage of festering academic critiques--except for this, the book's a fine one.

There are unquestionably people who won't appreciate Swift's style (check out the customer comments for Gulliver's Travels); but there will also be people who don't appreciate good food, good drink and healthy exercise--all you can do is leave them to their folly and continue apace.

No English language writer has ever matched Swift's chainsaw tongue. His misanthropic rage, vented in Gulliver's Travels, hacks away at the tender, maggoty, easily severed parts of pretense and hypocritical morality.

Nor does Swift anywhere ask for quarter, as he gives none. Those who don't like his reading are free to continue in their superficiality or their ignorance, and his definition of satire--a looking glass in which people see every face but their own--remains the definitive statement of the art.

Swift's lessons on writing are also direct and easy to grasp: write simply. His acid wit eats through everything it touches: academia, politics, literature, modernism...it's a bitter pill, especially if you are one of the few who sees your own face in the mirror.

The collection of Swift's poems are needless; his poetic skills were forgettable. The inclusion of Tale of a Tub, and the Battel of the Books, as well as his major essays, definitely makes this edition worth buying.

Since the age of 12 (I'm in my 30's now), I have tried to absorb everything Shakespeare. Even though I have trepidations about film adaptations of the Bard's work, I had to see this film based on the prodigious talent of Emma Thompson. I'm glad I gave into my gut instinct, for her portrayal of Beatrice is so natural and glorious, you will actually get swept away with her performance and believe that she actually IS Beatrice!

Most of the supporting cast is also wonderful. Hats off to the performances by Denzel Washington (Don Pedro), Richard Briers (Seigneur Leonato), Brian Blessed (Seigneur Antonio), Michael Keaton (Constable Dogberry), and a absolutely stunning performance by Kate Beckinsale (Hero). The exceptions in the casting are Keanu Reeves (Don John), Robert Sean Leonard (Claudio) and...yes...Kenneth Brannagh (Benedick). Fortunately Reeves' role is small. Leonard's performance seems too contrived, to the point of distraction. And even though this is Brannagh's baby, Brannagh himself portrays the role of Benedick with a smugness that is a bit nauseating. If you read the play, Benedick is not smug at all. Though I enjoy Brannagh's other work, he seems to use Shakespeare as a way to show superiority. I have seen this in other actors, and find such action reprehensible. Shakespeare wrote plays for people to enjoy and to indugle in escapism...not to give people an excuse to be a snob.

Having said that, this film is very enjoyable, and I've actually had friends become Shakespeare addicts after seeing this particular film. I, personally, particularly love the Tuscan locations, and the costuming is wonderful! No over-the-top lacey outfits in this film, but rather those that would be suited to the climate. This adds another depth of reality that pulls you into the story.

If you are a fan of Shakespeare, or any of the aforementioned actors, this movie is a must-see. It's actually one of the very few film versions of a Shakespeare play that I own. This particular interpretation allows the viewer to become comfortable with Shakespeare's style, thus creating an interest in his other work. Well worth the purchase. And yes, it's VERY funny!

"Much Ado About Nothing" is a beautifully made, performed, and directed film by the incomparable Kenneth Branaugh. This film includes an all-star cast that give wonderful performances and draw you into the lives of the characters. The plot is somewhat complicated, so I'll give a general version. The film is basically about love, misunderstanding, scandal, revenge, virtue, and bravery. That's a lot for one film, but believe me, it's all in there!

Kenneth Branaugh, Emma Thompson, Denzel Washington, Keanu Reeves, and Michael Keaton give excellent performances in this film that you wouldn't want to miss. Although the film is a period piece and the Shakespearean language is used, you will have no difficulty understanding it perfectly.

The scenery and landscape in this film are exquisite as well. I never thought there could be such a beautiful, untouched place like that on earth. I would suggest watching the film just for the beautiful landscape, but it's the performances and the story that you should really pay attention to.

Anyone who loves Shakespeare would absolutely love this film! Anyone who loves Kenneth Branaugh and what he has done for Shakespeare in the past 10 or 15 years will appreciate this film as well! There isn't one bad thing I can say about this film. Definitely watch it, you won't be disappointed!!!

One of the problems with Shakespeare's comedies, an English professor once told me, is that they are not funny. Now, this is not to say that Shakespeare was a bad comedy writer, or that this professor had no sense of humour. In fact, quite the opposite--he had turned his sense of humour and love of humour into an academic career in pursuit of humour.

What he meant by the comment was, humour is most often a culture-specific thing. It is of a time, place, people, and situation--there is very little by way of universal humour in any language construction. Perhaps a pie in the face (or some variant thereof) does have some degree of cross-cultural appeal, but even that has less universality than we would often suppose.

Thus, when I suggested to him that we go see this film when it came out, he was not enthusiastic. He confessed to me afterward that he only did it because he had picked the last film, and intended to require the next two selections when this film turned out to be a bore. He also then confessed that he was wrong.

Brannagh managed in his way to carry much of the humour of this play into the twentieth century in an accessible way -- true, the audience was often silent at word-plays that might have had the Elizabethan audiences roaring, but there was enough in the action, the acting, the nuance and building up of situations to convey the same amount of humour to today's audience that Shakespeare most likely intended for his groups in the balconies and the pit.

The film stars Kenneth Brannagh (who also adapted the play for screen) and Emma Thompson as Benedict and Beatrice, the two central characters. They did their usual good job, with occasional flashes of excellence. Alas, I'll never see Michael Keaton as a Shakespearean actor, but he did a servicable job in the role of the constable (and I shall always remember that 'he is an ass') -- the use of his sidekick as the 'horse' who clomps around has to be a recollection of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, where their 'horses' are sidekicks clapping coconut shells together.

I'll also not see Keanu Reeves as a Shakespearean, yet he was perhaps too well known (type-cast, perhaps) in other ways to pull off the brief-appearing villian in this film.

Lavish sets and costumes accentuate the Italianate-yet-very-English feel of this play. This film succeeds in presenting an excellent but lesser-known Shakespeare work to the public in a way that the public can enjoy.

This is a nice book, though a bit tough for the unknowledgable person. This is supposed to be a general biology book, used by people without any prior knowledge of biology too, but I somehow don't know if they'll find it too easy. But other than that one drawback, i think that the rest of us will appreciate this book for what it's worth. It's nicely written, with a lot of illustrations and explainations. There are also many references to websites and stuff, so it's additionally useful. Depending on the book bought, there are some nice extras too. My version had a nice and very useful CD-ROM, with a lot of pictures and animations, and practice tests and etc. It also came with a free one year subsciption to an online biology website that was one of the best I've ever seen. Otherwise the subscription costs a lot. The text book by itself was good too, and I really had no need to read any outside material, I found it perfectly good. Everything considered, I really liked this book.

The title I give to my critique of this book is not a joke. I'm really serious about the phenominial ability of this fine textbook to be able to explain the concepts of biology so clearly. This wonderful textbook from Neil A. Campbell is a great biology textbook that explains the concepts of basic biology clearly and throughly. I love the way it touches on various subjects such as DNA,transcription, translation etc... in preparation for the student when he gets to higher level biology classes.

If a student uses this textbook he\she will be very prepared for other classes such as biochemistry, ecology and even some organic chemistry because this book is SO good in expressing the fundementals of basic biology and relating those fundementals to other sciences and disciplines. Additionally this awesome textbook has clear, colorful and beautiful art and photographic illustrations with EXCELLENT explanations underneath them that can help the student understand biological processes and mechnisims. I'm in pharmacy school right now and I still use this book as a reference guide for some basic concepts in biology that I may have forgotten.

It is big, fat and chock-full of great information on the basic concepts of biology. Don't let the large size of this book intimidate you. It is big for a reason. It is big because Neil Campbell and his collegues care about the making sure the student is exposed to what he needs to know in order to advance into higher levels of biology, chemistry, medical and pharmacy school.

An EXCELLENT BOOK!!! This book explains the hardest concepts of fundemental biology so well that even a drunk in a bar can understand it throughly. A great book.

It's a 5th edition book. From the looks of it, I don't think these guys need to make a 6th edition book unless they need to update it with new biological discoveries.

I used this book this past summer in order to place out of College Bio I and II through a CLEP exam. Through independent study from this book and its companion CD I was able to place out in the 97th Percentile.

There is a reason why this book is still continued to be used today in classrooms as it is on its sixth edition. The authors use of layout in the book is well thought out and organized. His vast use of pictures, graphs, and tables streamline with the text of the book. In addition, the companion CD and web site provide the reader with an even greater study guide-- using interactive flash programs and video to further explain biological processes.

Further, in addition to the basic Biology taught in classrooms, this book goes one step further and explains some advancing fields in the Biology Profession. For example, chapter 20 covers the use of computers in analyzing biological data and gives prime examples from the current Human Genome Project. Further, every section of this book covers an interview with a specific individual in that profession. Such, if one is not aware of what exact field one wish's to pursue, interviews that cover some of the daily activities of these individuals are provided.

I would recommend this book for anyone who is seriously interested in Biology.

Sam Hall's kid is having to grow up on his own. His mother is a victim of a serious mental illness that renders her totally insubstantial as a parent and/or gaurdian--when she's not in the hospital. Sam Hall is the town vagabond--the kind of guy who lives on the edge, is constantly on the move, so immeresed in his own schemes and shennanigans he's hardly got time for his kid. As a result Sam's boy essentially raises himself and spends his time wondering how his parents ever got this way, while flip flopping form the "care" of one parent to the other.

What makes this book work is that, flawed as the characters are, Russo nevertheless infuses them with the souls of real people. We can bemoan the fact that Sam's a lousy dad, and not that great a person overall, but it's hard to get too worked up about it as the fact is you kind of like the guy. In fact, this novel abounds in characters who are unsavory yet so brilliantly drawn and presented, we feel we know them well, warts and all.

Additionally, Russo is a master at rendering the landscape of the small town, painting a picture that isn't all that attractive yet abounds in appealing context and situations--that is, he makes Mowhawk feel like home feels, regardless of where you grew up.

In the end, what one is left with is a story--a rarity thses days. The novel is funny, sad, insiprational, gross and absorbing--in short, it's a lot like real life. What makes it an extraordinary story is that Russo pulls from it the extrordinary revelations about life, love, loyalty, stupidity, passion and loss that we ought to get out of our own lives but somehow don't.

A truly remarkable book.

The Risk Pool is a stellar read. I greatly enjoyed it and would reccomend it to readers of all genres. For those not familiar with Russo's writing style, he cleverly combines the more serious moments in life with a wonderful sense of humor as is seen throughout this novel. There are so many wonderful examples of clever comedy in the book that to mention one would not suffice to say just how good it is. Russo has a strong command of tone in relation to the book's humor. Also, he provides us with many interesting and often unusual family situations- the character of Sam Hall (Ned's father) is most often at the center of such circumstances. Another wonderful facet to Russo's novel is his depiction of the make-believe Central New York town of Mohawk. It is as if the town is real- maybe even Russo's birthplace- that is how vivid and wonderful his imagery of Mohawk is. Nonetheless, such conclusions are for the rest of the reading public to decide- once again, it is truly a wonderful book.

After the slim tragedy of Mohawk, Richard Russo really exploded with Risk Pool. This is a long, satisfying, involved book covering the length of a relationship between father and son. It's populated by Russo's typical denim-collar roustabouts and academic escapees--a population with whom I doubt I'll ever tire.

Personally I'm a huge fan of this kind of large, quasi-Dickensian fiction. It creates a world you can enter and enjoy for longer than just the day or three it takes to read most novels these days. This is more poignant than either Nobody's Fool or Straight Man, but I think it carries its weight/drama very well. And it left my wife in tears, so it's definitely got the power to grip you emotionally. I can't recommend highly enough.

Peter Massie's Dreadnought is a very fine history of the naval arms race that began with the ascension of Kaiser Wilhelm II to the throne of Germany, and ended with the battle of Jutland.

Massie's book includes wonderful details of the people involved, from the Kaiser and his strained relationship with his English mother and with his grandmother, Queen Victoria, to Prince (and then King) Edward's love affair with ships, to the great admirals who had the vision of what the modern battleship should look like, von Tirpitz for the Germans and Sir John ("Jacky") Fisher for the English. Massie gives excellent details of the ships' design and construction, and of the battles in each country to get them funded -- the German army begrudged the expenditure and saw the battleships as a dangerous adventure, and British politicians such as Lloyd George and Churchill, who were interested in social reform, regretted their expense (Churchill, however changed his mind when he saw the growing German naval threat, and as First Lord of the Admiralty, sped up the modernization of the fleet in time for the war.).

This is a good book to help understand the naval strategy of the times, and of the general atmosphere of Europe before the frist war.

My only complaint with the book is that it ends too soon -- I would love to see Massie give an account of Jutland, the major sea battle of World War I, in which the ideas of Fisher and von Tirpitz were tested in actual battle -- as the book is, we never see the great ships actually employed in battle. I would also have liked to see Massie's opinion on Fisher's return to the Admiralty during the war under Churchill, and his abandonment of Churchill when he could not face the potential destruction of the ships at the Dardanelles -- which was a cause of Churchill being driven from office. I would also have like to see Massie's opinion of whether Churchill or Fisher's judgment was the correct one.

But these are minor criticisms -- this is a very fine work of history, and is an excellent basius for understanding the naval arms race that was one of the proximate causes of the First World War.

Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War examines the first arms race of the twentieth century, that of the modern battleship. Robert Massie lays out the development of the Dreadnought-class battleship and its implications, beginning with Queen Victoria's ascension to the throne and ending with the declaration of World War I. The focus is on the monarchies and constitutional governments, and the book closes with the sequence of declarations of general European war in the summer of 1914.

Interestingly, the book does so from a biographical perspective. Virtually every word is focused on giving the reader a clear picture of the personalities involved, from the Queen herself to Kaiser Wilhelm (referred to unfailingly as William in the book), from Cecil Rhodes to Prince Bismarck. This makes the book somewhat more readable, but leaves the reader with the impression that the arms race (and thus the War) is entirely due to individual personalities. Very little time or attention is given to broader social developments, reducing the citizenry of each nation to little more than observers, often even less given the secrecy behind many of the developments.

Kaiser Wilhelm is especially closely considered, making it clear that, at least in part, his own inferiority complex and vacillation between Anglophilia and Anglophobia led to Germany's near-inexorable march towards war. At times, he desired nothing more than the acceptance and respect of his grandmother and uncle (Victoria and Edward VII); at others, he would repudiate any possible tempering influence they might have had. After Bismarck, one chancellor after another rotated through the government, serving at the Emperor's pleasure (due to Bismarck's design in the constitution). Still, the volatile Emperor was occasionally easily manipulated by experienced politicians without realizing it. In most cases, this maintained peace and allowed the danger of war to pass.

Particular attention is also given to Admiral Jacky Fisher, whose reforms in the British Navy at the close of its heyday are still seen in modern navies all over the world. During the great sail-to-steam conversion, it was his focus on gunnery and simulation of wartime situations that kept his Navy at the top of the game. Realizing the importance of speed in naval operations, he continued to push for steam vessels even when this was still controversial. The development of the modern battleship is due in large part to his driving force, constantly seeking to defend his island nation.

Dreadnought does a fine job of illustrating the developments, both military and political, that led to the declaration of one of the most important wars of the last century, little-discussed though it may be. While Dreadnought spends practically no time on the war itself, gaining familiarity with this era of history leads to a sense of sadness at the loss of the world's innocence nearly one hundred years ago.

... is a motto of Baron Fisher of Kilverstone, brilliant and notorious First Sea Lord of the British Admiralty, Jackie Fisher. Fisher is the hero of Robert Massies colossus "Dreadnought : Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War". Fisher, unlike any other man, was responsible for creation of the revolutionary new battleship class, which overnight made all the other Navy in world obsolete, and assured the preeminence of the British navy in the future Great War. Fisher predicted that the future battle of Armageddon will be played out between German and British fleets in 1916, and that Admiral Jellicoe will preside over the British fleet. So it was on May 31, 1916 at the Battle of Jutland, the battle which decided the Naval history of the Great War.

Massie's book starts 40 years before the battle, and traces the political development in British Empire and on the Continent. We see the rise of Prussian, and then German militarism, starting with Bismarck unification, through the war of 1871, the rise of Kaiser William II, and the construction of the German Navy by admiral Tirpitz. We witness, the middle and closing years of Victorian Area, battles for the survival of the German Empire. Massie provides an excellent overview of the complex Continental diplomacy and a set of alliances, which allowed Germany to develop into the preeminent European power; and the historical realization on the part of Britain, that the policy of "Splendid Isolation" will not work in the 20th Century.

I simply could not put this book down for a week it took me to digest all 1007 pages of it! Highly recommended.

I spent seven years in the Smalltalk environment figuring (parts) of this stuff out for myself. You don't have to - buy Martin's book and shave at least a few years off the learning curve. Refactoring is an indispensable part of software development. Like it or not, whatever you write today will be "wrong" sometime in the future. You need to have techniques for transitioning to the "right" stuff. Refactoring provides you with a wealth of small tools that can make the transition easier.

Not only that, having confidence that you can refactor your code later (supported by relentless testing) actually relieves some of the pressure you feel when you write the code the first time. Get it working, then get it right. Don't panic. Don't sweat. Enjoy your work like you did when you started (remember?). Let Refactoring guide the way.

A practical guide for any OO developer, no matter what language you are working in, though you need enough familiarity with Java to read the examples.

This is a book that will change the way you view code - as you are writing it and when you are maintaining it.

While the examples are written in Java (and a couple of the refactorings seem to be Java-isms) this is a book that should change the way you look at your code - no matter what language you use.

If you look at any code at all - if you are author, maintain or review code in any language - you should get this book, read it, and leave it on your desk.

Like many fundamentally good ideas, refactoring seems so simple that one wonders why we didn't think of it before. Fact is, refactoring has been happening for years (decades) but Fowler is one of the first to make this process accessible.

If you are a very experienced developer, this book will help you put some of your own practice into words, to explain it to other developers on your team. You will probably learn a few new wrinkles as well.

If you are a less experienced developer, this book can help you to become better at your craft. You'll find out some of the "tricks of the trade" used by the best developers (those who produce the most reliable, most maintainable code).

I spent seven years in the Smalltalk environment figuring (parts) of this stuff out for myself. You don't have to - buy Martin's book and shave at least a few years off the learning curve.

Refactoring is an indispensable part of software development. Like it or not, whatever you write today will be "wrong" sometime in the future. You need to have techniques for transitioning to the "right" stuff. Refactoring provides you with a wealth of small tools that can make the transition easier.

Not only that, having confidence that you can refactor your code later (supported by relentless testing) actually relieves some of the pressure you feel when you write the code the first time. Get it working, then get it right. Don't panic. Don't sweat. Enjoy your work like you did when you started (remember?). Let Refactoring guide the way.

A practical guide for any OO developer, no matter what language you are working in, though you need enough familiarity with Java to read the examples.

Saying this book isn't good is like saying the sky isn't blue or grass isn't green. Stanek is someone who has worked in Internet and Web development for over ten years. His way cool sites are all over the WWW. In addition to his books, I see his work in magazines all the time. Like the current issue of PC magazine where he writes about energizing your web pages. He's got the competition on the run with this one. I've retired my old Teach Yourself HTML and now rely only on Web Publishing Professional. This is the most complete Web publishing reference I hav ever found. I checked dozens of books before finding this gem but none of those books could answer all my questions about Web publishing beyond ordinary HTML. I was pleasanty surprised to find that this book answered all my questions. The tips and advice found throughout are tops and I recomend this book heartily. Covers HTML, VRML, CGI, JavaScript, VBScript, Java, ActiveX, graphics, GIF animation, multimedia, shockwave

In a field that is chocked full of stale and boring books on HTML, Web Pubishing Unleashed is a welcome breath of fresh air. The writing is intelligent, fun and easy to read. When an author can take difficult subjects like frames and tables and make them easy to follow and interesting, you know you've truly found something wonderful!

If I had to name the top 5 reasons to buy this book, I would say this about Web Publshing Unleashed:

1. Inside you'll find extensive coverage of the basics with emphasis on sound design. The strong emphasis on design is definitely refreshing.

2. The book features terrific coverage of advanced page layout and design. Not only covers tables, frames, cascading style sheets and much more, but discusses it intelligently while providing great insights, terrific examples and tons of inspirational ideas you can take and use at your own Web site.

3. The best scripting reference I've found. Covers CGI, JavaScript and VBScript. The CGI chapters and the VBScript chapters are definitely something to check out.

4. Wonderful tips, advice and discussion on graphics and multimedia. The wealth of tips in the graphics and multimedia sections are worth the price of the book alone! Covers how to make bigger, better and faster loading graphics; how to create great animated images; how to add soundtracks and inline video; how to use shockwave; and lots more.

5. Web Publishing Unleashed is the most thorough web publishing book I've ever read. I use it whenever I work with my Web site. In fact, I used to help me build my Web site, which incidentally was recently featured at Project Cool http://www.projectcool.com/ -- Steven

Saying this book has it all is an understatement! Web Publishing Pro Reference is jam packed with goodies! My favorite chapters are those that deal with HTML, ActiveX and VBScript. I've used these chapters to create several Web sites including one that was recently voted as the Hot Site of the Day and Cool Site of the Week. I couldn't have done it without this book.

The first thing you'll see when you purchase the book as that the author is an exception to the rule. He's a computer book writer that REALLY works in the profession and has for over 10 years. He develops Web sites. He teaches Web publishing and design. His background in Windows, UNIX and Mac environments clearly shows through in his work.

Web Publishing Pro Reference starts with a look at developing and planning Web sites and intranets, then moves directlyl into creating and designing pages. Excellent coverage of HTML basics, tables, frames and style sheets. When you factor in all the author's tips on design, these are the best I've seen anywhere. Unlike many other publishing books this one doesn't stoip with the basics. It goes on and on. Sort of like the energizer bunny. Lots of great stuff on creating/designing/optimizing images. Cool discussions of online audio, online video, shockwave. The CD is cool too. I've adopted many of the tools as my must use tools for developing.

This play is great! I've always liked Shakespearean comedy and tragic romance, and I didn't want to read this play at first, but when I did--it got me.

For those who want to read a play full of word play, appearance and reality in the world and for you, irony and Christian innuendoes, Macbeth is for you. The word play, especially the surprising comparison of murder with "Tarquin's ravishing", and the really effective ones like ambition with drunkeness, will make you read it again and again. There is a haunting soliloquy in Act 5 that Macbeth gives about life--it's famous and most would have heard of it, but nothing beats reading it together with the play.

Behind every successful man there is a woman, and behind every tragic hero there should be a tragic heroine. Lady Macbeth will repulse you and gain your pity. Don't despise her, folks, she just squashed her femininity thinking it was the best thing to do. She wouldn't have to ask evil forces to take away her human compassion if she didn't have any to begin with.

A must-read, and must-savour.

"Macbeth," the play by William Shakespeare, is definitely one literary classic that still holds its own as a vital and engaging piece of art. Despite being a stage play, it also works superbly as a reader's text apart from a theatrical setting.

The plot begins thus: Scottish warrior Macbeth is told by three witches that he is destined to ascend the throne. This fateful prophecy sets in motion a plot full of murder, deceit, warfare, and psychological drama.

Despite being a lean play, "Macbeth" is densely layered and offers the careful reader rewards on many levels. Woven into the violent and suspenseful story are a host of compelling issues: gender identity, the paranormal, leadership, guilt, etc. In one sense, the play is all about reading and misreading (i.e. with regard to Macbeth's "reading" of the witches' prophecies), so at this level the play has a rich metatextual aspect.

Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's most unforgettable tragic characters. His story is told using some of English literature's richest and most stunning language.

While I was basically familiar with Shakespeare's Tragedy of Macbeth, I have only recently actually read the bard's brilliant play. The drama is quite dark and moody, but this atmosphere serves Shakespeare's purposes well. In Macbeth, we delve deeply into the heart of a true fiend, a man who would betray the king, who showers honors upon him, in a vainglorious snatch at power. Yet Macbeth is not 100% evil, nor is he a truly brave soul. He waxes and wanes over the execution of his nefarious plans, and he thereafter finds himself haunted by the blood on his own hands and by the ethereal spirits of the innocent men he has had murdered. On his own, Macbeth is much too cowardly to act so traitorously to his kind and his country. The source of true evil in these pages is the cold and calculating Lady Macbeth; it is she who plots the ultimate betrayal, forcefully pushes her husband to perform the dreadful acts, and cleans up after him when he loses his nerve. This extraordinary woman is the lynchpin of man's eternal fascination with this drama. I find her behavior a little hard to account for in the closing act, but she looms over every single male character we meet here, be he king, loyalist, nobleman, courtier, or soldier. Lady Macbeth is one of the most complicated, fascinating, unforgettable female characters in all of literature.

The plot does not seem to move along as well as Shakespeare's other most popular dramas, but I believe this is a result of the writer's intense focus on the human heart rather than the secondary activity that surrounds the related royal events. It is fascinating if sometimes rather disjointed reading. One problem I had with this play in particular was one of keeping up with each of the many characters that appear in the tale; the English of Shakespeare's time makes it difficult for me to form lasting impressions of the secondary characters, of whom there are many. Overall, though, Macbeth has just about everything a great drama needs: evil deeds, betrayal, murder, fighting, ghosts, omens, cowardice, heroism, love, and, as a delightful bonus, mysterious witches. Very many of Shakespeare's more famous quotes are also to be found in these pages, making it an important cultural resource for literary types. The play doesn't grab your attention and absorb you into its world the way Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet does, but this voyage deep into the heart of evil, jealousy, selfishness, and pride forces you to consider the state of your own deep-seated wishes and dreams, and for that reason there are as many interpretations of the essence of the tragedy as there are readers of this Shakespearean masterpiece. No man's fall can rival that of Macbeth's, and there is a great object lesson to be found in this drama. You cannot analyze Macbeth without analyzing yourself to some degree, and that goes a long way toward accounting for the Tragedy of Macbeth's literary importance and longevity.

Jealousy is perhaps the ugliest of emotions, an acid that corrodes the heart, a poison with which man harms his fellow man. Fortunately for us, Shakespeare specializes in ugly emotions, writing plays that exhibit man at his most shameful so we can elevate ourselves above the depths of human folly and watch the carnage with pleasure and awe.

In "Othello," the "green-eyed monster" has afflicted Iago, a Venetian military officer, and the grand irony of the play is that he intentionally infects his commanding general, Othello, with it precisely by warning him against it (Act 3, Scene 3). Iago has two grievances against Othello: He was passed over for promotion to lieutenant in favor of the inexperienced Cassio, and he can't understand why the Senator's lily-white daughter Desdemona would fall for the black Moor. Not one to roll with the punches, he decides to take revenge, using his obsequious sidekick Roderigo and his ingenuous wife Emilia as gears in his transmission of hatred.

The scheme Iago develops is clever in its design to destroy Othello and Cassio and cruel in its inclusion of the innocent Desdemona. He arranges (the normally temperate) Cassio to be caught by Othello in a drunken brawl and discharged from his office, and using a handkerchief that Othello had given Desdemona as a gift, he creates the incriminating illusion that she and Cassio are having an affair. Othello falls for it all, and the tragedy of the play is not that he acts on his jealous impulses but that he discovers his error after it's too late.

It is a characteristic of Shakespeare that his villains are much more interesting and entertaining than his heroes; Iago is proof of this. He's the only character in the play who does any real thinking; the others are practically his puppets, responding unknowingly but obediently to his every little pull of a string. In this respect, this is Iago's play, but Othello claims the title because he -- his nobility -- is the target.

As a play, "Othello" encompasses many things but more than anything else it is a study of pure evil. Although Othello is an accomplished professional soldier and a hero of sorts, he is also a minority and an outcast in many ways. As a Black man and a Moor (which means he's a Moslem), Othello has at least two qualities, which make him stand out in the Elizabethan world. He is also married to a Caucasian woman named Desdemona, which creates an undercurrent of hostility as evidenced by the derogatory remark "the ram hath topped the ewe".

Othello's problems begin when he promotes one of his soldiers, Michael Cassio as his lieutenant. This arouses the jealousy and hatred of one of his other soldiers, Iago who hatches a plot to destroy Othello and Michael Cassio. When Cassio injures an opponent in a fight he is rebuked, punished, and subsequently ignored by Othello who must discipline him and teach him a lesson. Iago convinces Desdemona to intervene on Cassio's behalf and then begins to convince Othello that Desdemona is in love with Cassio.

This is actually one of the most difficult Shakespeare plays to watch because the audience sees the plot begin to unfold and is tormented by Othello's gradual decent into Iago's trap. As with other Shakespeare plays, the critical components of this one are revealed by language. When Othello is eventually convinced of Cassio's treachery, he condemns him and promotes Iago in his place. When Othello tells Iago that he has made him his lieutenant, Iago responds with the chilling line, "I am thine forever". To Othello this is a simple affirmation of loyalty, but to the audience, this phrase contains a double meaning. With these words, Iago indicates that the promotion does not provide him with sufficient satisfaction and that he will continue to torment and destroy Othello. It is his murderous intentions, not his loyal service that will be with Othello forever.

Iago's promotion provides him with closer proximity to Othello and provides him with more of his victim's trust. From here Iago is easily able to persuade Othello of Desdemona's purported infidelity. Soon Othello begins to confront Desdemona who naturally protests her innocence. In another revealing statement, Othello demands that Desdemona give him "the ocular proof". Like Iago's earlier statement, this one contains a double meaning that is not apparent to the recipient but that is very clear to the audience who understands the true origin of Othello's jealousy. Othello's jealousy is an invisible enemy and it is also based on events that never took place. How can Desdemona give Othello visual evidence of her innocence if her guilt is predicated on accusations that have no true shape or form? She can't. Othello is asking Desdemona to do the impossible, which means that her subsequent murder is only a matter of course.

I know that to a lot of young people this play must seem dreadfully boring and meaningless. One thing you can keep in mind is that the audience in Shakespeare's time did not have the benefit of cool things such as movies, and videos. The downside of this is that Shakespeare's plays are not visually stimulating to an audience accustomed to today's entertainment media. But the upside is that since Shakespeare had to tell a complex story with simple tools, he relied heavily on an imaginative use of language and symbols. Think of what it meant to an all White audience in a very prejudiced time to have a Black man at the center of a play. That character really stood out-almost like an island. He was vulnerable and exposed to attitudes that he could not perceive directly but which he must have sensed in some way.

Shakespeare set this play in two locations, Italy and Cypress. To an Elizabethan audience, Italy represented an exotic place that was the crossroads of many different civilizations. It was the one place where a Black man could conceivably hold a position of authority. Remember that Othello is a mercenary leader. He doesn't command a standing army and doesn't belong to any country. He is referred to as "the Moor" which means he could be from any part of the Arab world from Southern Spain to Indonesia. He has no institutional or national identity but is almost referred to as a phenomenon. (For all the criticism he has received in this department, Shakespeare was extrordinarlily attuned to racism and in this sense he was well ahead of his time.) Othello's subsequent commission as the Military Governor of Cypress dispatches him to an even more remote and isolated location. The man who stands out like an island is sent to an island. His exposure and vulnerability are doubled just as a jealous and murderous psychopath decides to destroy him.

Iago is probably the only one of Shakespeare's villains who is evil in a clinical sense rather than a human one. In Kind Lear, Edmund the bastard hatches a murderous plot out of jealousy that is similar to Iago's. But unlike Iago, he expresses remorse and attempts some form of restitution at the end of the play. In the Histories, characters like Richard III behave in a murderous fashion, but within the extreme, political environment in which they operate, we can understand their motives even if we don't agree with them. Iago, however, is a different animal. His motives are understandable up to the point in which he destroys Michael Cassio but then they spin off into an inexplicable orbit of their own. Some have suggested that Iago is sexually attracted to Othello, which (if its true) adds another meaning to the phrase "I am thine forever". But even if we buy the argument that Iago is a murderous homosexual, this still doesn't explain why he must destroy Othello. Oscar Wilde once wrote very beautifully of the destructive impact a person can willfully or unwittingly have on a lover ("for each man kills the things he loves") but this is not born out in the play. Instead, Shakespeare introduces us to a new literary character-a person motivated by inexplicable evil that is an entity in itself. One of the great ironies of this play is that Othello is a character of tragically visible proportions while Iago is one with lethally invisible ones.

Othello relects the true meaning of a tragedy both in its content and its structure.Tragedy is 'a story of exceptional calamity produced by human actions, leading to the death of a man in high estate.'The downfall of Othello is caused by his own actions, rather than by his character, or rather the two work in unison to create the stage for his downfall.
This is what captured my attention when I read this play.It is very profound to realize the fact that Shakespeare uses Iago to set this stage on which Othello is a mere player.
I love the character of Iago. His total confidence, the superiority that he feels when psychoanalysing human nature, his rational thinking and intellectualism sways the reader to think: 'Wow, this is a compelling and sophisticated man we're dealing with here!'
However, my admiration of Iago does not in anyway undermine my love of Othello. His poetic and calm demeanor makes the reader feel the pity and terror for him when he falls from grace (catharsis). Yet, we are made to understand that the reason why he is made to appear a gullible and ignorant fool to some readers is that he does not have any knowledge of a delicate, domesticated life. Venetian women were foreign to him. This tragic flaw in Othello added to the circumstances used by Iago to destroy him.
The meaning, and hence the tragedy of the play is conveyed through the use of Shakespeare's language, style, literary devices and imagery. Without these dramatic effects, readers would never be able to enjoy the play as much, although the dialogue is at times difficult to decipher.
I thoroughly enjoyed Othello and it is my hope that more people find it enticing as I have. I would be delighted to contribute more of my reviews to that effect.