If you're interested in the life of Edward John Trelawny, you'll have to look elsewhere. Suffice it to say that Tre' (as his friends knew him) was a privateer, a scoundrel, a lover of poetry, a freedom-fighter and a loyal friend of the most prolific literary talents of the romantic period. "Records of Shelley, Byron and the Author" is an account, not of Trelawny's extraordinary life & adventures, but of the two men that helped make that life so extraordinary. In his own words, he tells of the secret lives of Byron and the Shelley's, their romp through sunny Italy and the tragic death of Percy in the coast of Spezzia. The tale continues as Tre' follows Byron to the bloody civil war in Greece, where Byron too dies. To his credit, though, it is never "Trelawny's tale", but "Byron and Shelley's tale" as told by Trelawny. This deep, insightful book shows the poets as only a close friend could. Yet throughout, one can not help but love Trelawny himself: the man who supported the impoverished Mary Shelley to her dying day... the man who bought a slave for $10,000 only to set him free... the man who reached into the embers of Shelley's pyre, withdrawing his heart. If you love the poetry of Byron and Shelley & have even a passing interest in the men behind the legends, then Trelawny's memoirs are a must-read.

Our son has always been afraid of snakes - until he read SNAKE CAMP. Now, while he's not exactly a snake charmer yet, he is interested in overcoming his fear of snakes. This is a funny, very clever book that also has a very important message.

As a researcher I have found this book to be an excellent guide for my work. State of the Art is great in helping to know what to look for in doing mall interviews, focus groups and mail studies. It give excellent explanation of sampling, designing questionnaire and everything relevant to the research industy. I would highly recommend this book for newcomers to the world of research as well as to the experienced researcher.

I have used an earlier edition of this book to get some background for academic work. Very thorough and very clear.

This is one of the better Victorian pattern books reprinted by Dover. It consists of 100 plates covering designs from small homes to a large brick mansion, and several auxilliary building designs. The book also includes several example contracts for finishing some of the homes; with carpenters', masons', and plumbers' specifications.

The designs themselves are fairly detailed; with cross sections, interior, and exterior details. One of the best features is the superimposed cross sections on fretwork details; showing how many of these complicated peices are constructed from simple boards.

If you are intrested in Victorian buildings, for whatever reason, I suggest buying this book. Although not exstensive the the number of designs covered, only twenty, it offers one a good source of information. This book is far more detailed than the later Woodward's also reissued by Dover, and most later pattern books. If you enjoy the books by Vaux or Downing you should find this a nice addition to your library.

This book is the life story of a fictitious Edwardian English nobleman, illustrated with pictures cut out from a store catalogue. The result is hilarious and entirely bizarre -- somewhere between Edward Lear and Monty Python.

Well ahead of its time, 'What A Life!' has gained a small but devoted following. My copy is closely guarded.

This is a really great book for kids who love horses - and our kids do! Now, our kids want to save all the wild horses in the world. They've read this book over and over.

If you are a serious student of the occult this book is a must! Each and every character and movement has a place in the understanding of the Mystical Dance in which we are all involved. "Zanoni" and "Mejnour" will teach you the harmonic scales, however your ears must be finely attuned to their music. This a great Rosicrucian novel! loreto

First, I liked Vol I very much. I like Vol II, although it's a lot wordier than it needs to be: sort of like floating down the Rhine on a barge with periodic stops near objects of great interest, at which time something happens to break the progress (think of all the Germans on the barge starting to sing when they approach the Loreli Rock). Still and all, a good read with much detail about the period.

The annoying part has to do with constant references to incorrect detail, speciifcally, the British Peerage and other hereditary and non-hereditary titles. Cline is all over the place, and it's confusing and distracting to an otherwise interesting plot. Cline is obsessed with earls, barons and baronets, and that and other titles are strewn about with abandon, sometimes landing upon one character, sometimes upon another, always at random. There is Hugh's uncle, the Earl of Danvers, Hugh's father, the Baron of Danvers, the evil Marquess of Bilbury (or more precisely, his son, who is frequently referred to as the Marquess as well). Then there is Hugh himself, who is alternatively referred to as Hugh or Mr. Kenrick, a baronet, and a banneret.

Here's how it works:

1) earls outrank barons. Despite what Cline asserts, they always have, and there are fewer of them. Earls were the great magnates from the time of William I; they were the greater barons, if you will. Think of Willian (the) Marshal in Henry III's reign; think of the Percys (Earls of Northumberland); think of Talbot, Earl of Shrewsburg; think of Warwick the "King Maker." Read Shakespeare.

2) Cline makes a big deal about earls being created by Letters Patent, which he implies makes them less than barons. All peers came about in one of three ways: a) in the early feudal period by grants of land which were deemed to constitute an earldom or a barony, b) after the rise of Parliament, by Writs of Summons to Parliament in the particular style of baron or earl, c) Letters Patent - which didn't become much used until the late 14th century, and have pretty much been the only method used since Henry VIII's time.

3) While not impossible, it would be highly unlikely that the brothers Kenrick (Hugh's uncle and his father) could be respectively, an earl and a baron. If they were, Hugh's father would have to have been created such by the king, and he, himself, would have been a peer and a member of the House of Lords, just as his brother is. Otherwise, as the younger son of an earl, Hugh's father's title is 'The Honourable' and nothing more. Also, if the king did give him a title, it wouldn't be Baron of Danvers when there is already an Earl of Danvers. It would be 'Baron Kenrick of X in the County of Y', as only earls and above get to be Earl 'of Danvers' or Marquess (in the 18th century spelled Marquis) 'of Danvers' or Duke 'of Danvers.' He'd also be referreed to as Lord X, not Baron X, unless he were a Baron of the Exchecquer, which is not a peerage title, but an office.

4) Hugh is not anything more than Hugh Kenrick, Esquire, as the son of a baron. He is not "my lord," not a baron himself, not a baronet and not a banneret (which is a kind of superior knight, who for great martial prowess and because he was able to attract a large number of knights to fight with him, had the privilege to having the points of his pennon cut off to form a banner - thus the name. This was not an hereditary title, and , as I recall, not conferred at all after about the late 15th century).

5) The estate of a baron is called a barony, not a baronetcy, which is the estate of a baronet. Moreover, one is not a baronet of a particular place, which is reserved to peers. Baronets came into existence in ca. 1621, when James I needed money to colonize Nova Scotia. He sold them to the gentry, originally without the prefix 'Sir', but later with. When they got their 'Sir' their wives got to be 'Lady' and they sold like hotcakes.

The trouble with period pieces is that have to be accurate, or we nit-picking purists get cranky. If Cline had either not gotten carried away with all of this erroneous information, or done the research better in this one area, people like me wouldn't have become so worked up about it and we could have lost ourselves in an otherwise good story with an engaging writing style.

WPB

Where to begin? First, it's easier to be a critic than a writer (for one thing, you don't have to write as much). Second, I enjoyed the first volume in the series, and this one is pretty well written, too. I like the concept, and the period is likewise interesting.

What is naggingly annoying about a book dealing with (in this case) an upper-class protagonist are the misstatements in the first part of the book regarding the English upper classes and how they got to be that way by the mid-18th century.

First, Cline has this thing about barons, and he consigns earls to a kind of lesser status after the Norman Conquest "because they were created by Letters Patent." Not true. William's principal vassals were earls (a title taken from the Saxons in lieu of count, which was a continental term). To be sure, there were greater and lesser barons (as a generic term), but the earls were always in the former category, and it had nothing to do with Letters Patent: it had to do with land and men. The great magnates were earls. Think of William (the) Marshal during the reign of Henry III in the 12th century, the Percys (Earls of Northumberland), Talbot (Earl of Shrewsbury), and Warwick the "King Maker" during the 15th centure. Indeed, creations by Letters Patent were not used to any degree until the late 14th century under Richard II, and didn't really come into vogue until the Tudors. Most men were called to Parliament under Writs of Summons.

Second, Cline makes a point the the Earl of Danvers' title (by Letters Patent) had a limitation to heirs male as if this were something special. Virtually all such grants were in fee tail male (male primogeniture), although most of the barons by Writ were were in fee tail general (women could inherit if there were no males). Why mention it if you're not going to get it right? Also, he keeps referring to "baronetcys" when he means to say "baronys." Baronets are not barons, they are one step below, being the first level of hereditary title. They are not peers, and didn't exist until the reign of James I (ca. 1620), who needed the money (he sold the titles to the untitled gentry) to colonize Nova Scotia. Originally, they weren't even called "Sir," just baronet. James didn't sell enough of them, so he had to give them a handle to add to their names. Sales surged, especially as their wives got to be called "Lady."

Lastly, while it was not completely uncommon in the higher levels of the peerage for a younger son to get a title of his own, it didn't happen as a matter of course, so Hugh's father would not be a baron (a peer himself) simply because his father (or his brother) was a earl. He'd be an "Honourable," which is the courtesy style accorded to an earl's younger son. As a younger son, and especially if he were a baron (as we are told) he could not engage in "trade" as directly as Cline suggests without losing social status. He could certainly manage the estates (or anything to do with land and like property) and even have private arrangements with smugglers, but dealing with "Cits" (as the London merchant class was known) would have to be far more circumspect.

It wouldn't have taken much more time to consult somebody about these nagging innacuracies,. If you're going to write historical fiction, you'd better get it correct, otherwise people like me will gripe instead of immersing ourselves in the story.

...brillantly plotted with heroic characters and beautifully written.

Jack Frake (book one in the series) and Hugh Kenrick (this book)are true heroes comparable to any in the works of Ayn Rand and Victor Hugo. Hollywood should start producing movies of these books now.

All good writing is timeless and one of the many virtues of this book is that it shows there is very little difference between the power-seekers who controlled the UK then and those in power now-the detail may have changed the principles remain the same. Cline has also shown us the British Aristocracy in its essence for the period rather than in what would have been long uninteresting, unnecessary detail-this being a work of fiction and not a historic treatise.

I have already read both parts twice and am immensely looking forward to book three (due November 2003) and the rest of the series.

"ViVa," by E.E. Cummings, is a collection of 70 poems numbered with Roman numerals. The afterword by George James Firmage notes that an earlier edition of the book (one riddled with errors) was published back in 1931.

"ViVa" shows Cummings to be one of the most distinctive and inventive poets in the English language. He uses a lot of eye-catching, and apparently made-up, words: "fasterishly," "infrafairy," "uneyes," "firsting," "nonglance," etc. In many of his poems he experiments with punctuation, word structure, word order, and capitalization in startling ways--he's like a sculptor playfully molding the English language into strange new shapes.

But I must admit that I found some of his poems too experimental--to the point of incomprehensibility. Still, even his most impenetrable poems are stimulating in odd ways. Many poems imitate people's speech; some raise theological questions. There is a sadness to much of the book in the form of poems that touch on the despair, loneliness, and dislocation of modern life. But these are balanced by some truly striking and beautiful love poems. There is also a satirical element present in the book.

When Cummings' experiments succeed, he really dazzles; consider poem XXXVIII, where the words seem to really dance and crackle across the page. His imagery at its best is fresh and invigorating. "ViVa" is not an easy read, but it's a remarkable work from a true original.

While I was not familiar with many of the works of e.e.cummings, I heard a poem used in a scene in the movie"Hannah and Her Sisters". A beautifully touching love poem"Somewhere I have never travelled". It affected me so deeply I had to find out who wrote this piece.I researched it and found it in Viva. This collection by e.e.cummings is so intensely beautiful,complex and challenging,you may think your'e in over your head. It is not for just its lyrical complexity but even the way it is typed it is a puzzle worthy to piece together and watch its beauty unfold in your hands.If you love poetry on levels beyond the rhyme this is the reason to get Viva. Viva la difference!Exquisitely done.