This book is one of the 2 most desirable and collectible books on classical guitars (the other one is: Collection of Fine Spanish Guitars from Torres to the Present by Urlik, Sheldon). The figures are superb and the text informative. The hard cover edition is better in the following senses:

1. The hard cover edition is a limited edition (6000 copies only).
2. It is like a textbook which can be opened fully on its back. Easy for reading and scanning.
3. It's got a hard protective slipcase

However, getting the softcover edition might be your choice for its price and availability.

If you are a lover of guitars, specifically classical guitars, you owe it to yourself to purchase this book. There is nothing else like it. Great photography, details on some of the best guitars from some of the best makers...Romanillos, Smallman, Bernabe...They are all here. Inclusively, the book covers players (Williams, Bream, Segovia) as well as an in depth look at wood and the guitar market today. Great stuff and at ..., an incredible bargain.

Any lover of the classical guitar cannot help but appreciate this gorgeous collection of instruments, as well as the way in which they are displayed on the pages. Filled with information about the guitars and their construction, the luthiers, and which players'CDs you can hear them on, I highly recommend this fine edition. I take issue only with the subtitle "A Complete History", as the guitars are based on a single collection of instruments, owned by Russell Cleveland, and not necessarily what any other person would consider "Complete". That fact does not diminish my enjoyment of this exquisite book one bit.

Written by a woman in 1823, Ourika is a fascinating short work set during the French Revolution. Ourika is an attractive, intelligent young black woman who was rescued as a child from slavery. She is raised as any wealthy white child would have been. She excels in her pursuits and charms all. By chance, she discovers who she is, and what it means to be black. The truth changes her. This work raises many questions, and provides some haunting insights into human nature. Highly recommended

These are the fictional memoirs of Ebenezer Le Page, who writes about his life from the time he is a young boy to present, possibly till the day before he died. At a first glance, he led a very uneventful life, in that he never left his island, and was a simple farmer and fisherman. However, this is an example of how human nature is endlessly fascinating: the little and big fights between the members of his family, his observations, in retrospect, about what went wrong with this and that other person, the what ifs, his love life, his mom, his devoted sister, the horrible German occupation of Guernsey, and finally his decision over who would be the heir of his money and land. This is one of the best books i've read this year. There is so much history, insight, wisdom and humor in these pages that makes this one of those must-read-at-all-costs books. I would love to go to Guernsey and visit the sights.

It was like a book that, at first, I'd never heard of, and I was destined to read. I was on a sales trip, visiting the Channel Islands on a whistle stop tour, but still wanted to take my family with me to share the sights of Guernsey. We were waiting to catch the ferry home, having lunch in a pub in the centre of town and for some reason or other, I got talking to a gent who was visiting the Island, simply to put a place to the names described in a book he had just read. The Book of Ebenezer Le Page. He assured me that if I ever came upon this book and read it, I would love it. The following weeks, back on 'the mainland', during other sales trips, covering all other towns, I would just pop into second hand book stores to see (even though I had no idea what the book looked like.) I was in Lyme Regis, again I went into a book store and I felt compelled to ask them if they had a copy of the book. It only turned out that this particular book store specialised in books by John Fowles, The writer of the forword. The particular book was out of print, but YES they had copies. "Hard back or paper back", they offered. Well, needless to say, I have just finished the book and I am now left with a sadness at almost having left a friend behind. At least I had the fortune to share a piece of Ebenezer Le Page's life.

I loved this book, me!

I grew up on that little island, barely 5 miles long and 4 miles wide, but a whole country unto itself! The place defies the physics of Geography! It's tiny, but it's vast too. Like the story of our friend Mr. Ebenezer Le Page, the simplicity of the lives of the inter connected characters, colourful and quirky, defies the closeness of the shores.

GB Edwards' posthumous writings capture the essence of the folk and the place as well, possibly better, than any book about anybody, anywhere. I highly encourage anyone who reads this story to find out as much about Guernsey as possible, perhaps even go there (visit Victor Hugo's house), then read it again for the first time.

Utterly enchanting! Haunting! Simply brilliant!

A writer at the end of his prime visits Alexandria for a restful break. As he sits in an easy chair in a pension run by his
old friend, he sees two worlds juxtaposed: in the first he recalls his own past, his heady days of idealism and political
activisim; in the second he examines his life against those of the other, younger, guests at the pension. He tries to
reconcile his own views and visions and dreams with those that he sees around him. Touched with a despairing sense
of terminal nostaligia, he manages to re-examine his own life in its entire context -- and still be able to smile.

It was a fascinating read. The place,the time and the characters-- only mahfouz can write a book this way

No one, but Naguib Mahfouz can depict internal pain and human struggles with such elegance.

this isnt the best versoin of cinderella i've heard!
but it is all i could find for a school project
if there was any good pictures from the book that i could have down loaded it would get 5 stars

the Book was good but i do wish they showed the picuter of the second ball whith cinderella in her gown

Cinderella lived with her two step-sisters. They gave her the nickname Cinderseat. They were really mean to her and made her do things for them. The king's son was to give a ball and everyone was invited. When the day came Cinderella began to cry and her godmother appeared and made her get a pumpkin, which she turned into a coach. She then turned mice into horses, and a rat into a coachman. Then dressed her in a beautiful dress and glass slippers. When she arrived she danced with the prince, but she had to leave before midnight. She left without telling anyone her name or anything. The next night they went to another ball and she left right before midnight in rags, and left one glass slipper behind. He checked around trying the slipper on everyone. When Cinderella tried it on it fit her perfectly, and the prince realized she was the mysterious girl he had danced with before and they were to be married. I think this is a good story for kids to read, because Cinderella was really nice to her step-sisters who were always so mean to her after everything.

Fowles analyses and gives his very educated opinion on all aspects of life, from religion to sex, from education, to philosophy and politics.

It is a must for all who want to know how the author of "The French Lieutenant's Woman" sees the world.

When I read this at 19 years of age I was thoroughly moved by it. It opened my thinking from teenager to grown-up. Now, 20 years later, I will probably find it naive or pretentious, but the 5 start stars are well deserved it you read this at the right moment in life.

. . . or maybe two thousand. I am another person who read this book because a friend had read it, and was so enthusiastic about it that I could not bear not knowing what she was talking about. That was two months ago. I've read it twice since then, and started college, and any myriad of other things.

In brief: It's a traditional tale; young man of means (Charles) is engaged to socially acceptable, safe young woman (Tina). He meets enigmatic, enticing other woman; finds her incredibly attractive; his life changes utterly and completely because of this. (Sounds a bit like _The Age of Innocence_.) Ah, but as a reviewer said about another eminent author, describing the plot does not begin to describe the novel. The plot is to the book as noodles are to tuna noodle casserole: important, but not half of it.

The book is set in Victorian England; it is rife with philosophical speculation, but not in such a way as to make you feel that you are reading a textbook. He sets forth Charles's experiences and his changing worldview in such a sensible way, letting you draw Charles's conclusions with him. Fowles does an amazing job of showing you his mind, as well as those of lesser characters.

Which brings me to another point. Even if you do not like the philosophical side of it, TFLW is worth reading for the language and the style. It is written in Victorian English, with a strange twist of modernity (mid-twentieth century and ageless modernity). Fowles is amazing at showing-not-telling (as the English teachers counsel) and his descriptions will blow you away.

On top of all that, it is a good story. It is not a happy story, really, but it is not, in truth, depressing. It's romantic, it's elating, it's sad, it's powerful . . . It is the kind of story you want to reread immediately. Which I did.

Yep, this is it: a true twentieth century masterpiece.

The first time I read this at the age of 16, I stayed up most of the night to finish it, as I had with _The Magus_. I got the heroine mixed up in the personal mythology of my mind with my high school girlfriend, Joni Mitchell, Anais Nin, and all that is eternally mysterious and wonderful about women.

Having read the book three or four more times, I am much better able to appreciate the ideas -- existential, Darwinian, Marxist -- that fit into the web of a rollicking good story. This is a novel that punches the head as unerringly as the heart.

And don't forget the element of PLAY: Fowles has said this novel was written by a man who was very tired of novels and the usual constraints under which they were written. So there are THREE endings: a false, everything-tidied-up-as-it-would-have-been-in-a-true-Victorian-novel ending about two-thirds through the book; and two opposing endings at the finish.

Fowles reportedly even wrote a farcical chapter in the style of Alice in Wonderland in which the narrator chases after the hero with an axe ... but his wife and other advisors made him leave it out. I hope we will someday get to see that one.

Why did the latest publisher put a cute blonde on the cover! (I'm assuming she is NOT meant to depict the secondary love interest, Charles's fiancee.) This is almost as bad an aesthetic decision as casting Meryl Streep in the movie version, though she made an admirable attempt to be Sarah. Try to get a copy with the original cover art -- a choppy woodcut of a brunette with a distant gaze -- and that will get you launched into the story in the right mood.

Though the story in this novel takes place in the Victorian era of England in 1869, it was written a century later, allowing the author and the reader to view the entire time period in retrospect, and make several observations on the age as it pertains to the story he tells. That story involves a young gentleman, Charles, engaged to a suitable young lady, Ernestina, the daughter of a successful tradesman. Charles becomes intrigued by the local outcast Sarah, also known (most euphemistically) as "The French Lieutenant's Woman," and they share an attraction that defies his social station and, as a societal outcast, her lack of one.

Throughout the novel, Fowles inserts information about the era, and highlights in particular the hypocrisy of sexual attitudes and roles. Charles and Sarah find themselves victims of these restrictions, and as such their romance is doomed from the start. Charles convinces himself that he has a truly selfless motive in attempting to help Sarah, whom he sees as a victim, and ends up weaving a web of deceit to himself and others as he fails to see himself falling in love with her. As the novel progresses, one can read in the comments about Victorian standards, commentary about our own modern age. By holding this bygone age up to our own, Fowles shows us how far we've come, and how little we've left behind.

To enhance the immersive storytelling, the prose is written in a style reminiscent of the Victorian authors themselves. In fact, in one section where Fowles points out such contradictions as the fact that in this age when lust was a forbidden topic, one in every sixty houses in London was a brothel, the paragraph might easily be read as "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." But even in this emulation, he uses more modern literary methods, such as giving a false ending more than a hundred pages before the real end, and inserting himself as a character in the story. These feats are done with expertise and flair, and though they are jarring at first, it quickly becomes apparent that even the tricks are part of the story.

Held up against the story of the upper-class Charles is the subplot of Sam, his manservant. Sam also has his own romance with Mary, a maid in Ernestina's aunt's household. The societal standards for Charles and for Sam are compared and contrasted throughout the book, creating an intriguing duality of storytelling, which leaves the upper-class Victorians looking somewhat the worse for comparison.

If you don't mind a novel that's hard to put down, and very tempting to re-read as soon as you've finished, I strongly recommend The French Lieutenant's Woman.

The Collector was John Fowles's first published novel. It is the tale of a misunderstood nerd named Fred Clegg, a clerk and butterfly collector who wins a substantial sum of money, and Miranda, the beautiful young art student he becomes obsessed with. The first section of the book is written from Fred's point of view, and you get a good view inside the mind of the insane as he makes it seem reasonable, almost inevitable, when he kidnaps her and keeps her prisoner in his hidden basement. Even though it is obvious that he is mad, the reader can't help but feel some sympathy for him, even as he deteriorates into his criminal acts.

The suspense of the novel is very well done, and from the beginning, it's hard to put the book down. Fred tells Miranda his name is Ferdinand, because he thinks the name sounds more sophisticated and exotic. So we have Ferdinand and Miranda. Get it? We got it. Evidently, so did Miranda, because in the second section of the novel we get her point of view, and she refers to him as Caliban in the journal she keeps during her captivity.

Much is made of the class difference between the two in their own point of view narratives. Fred kidnaps Miranda because he doesn't have a chance with girls of her type, and in her captivity, she comes to know him, and they have a strange relationship of jailer and prisoner, tormentor and victim. As she comes to know him, she finds herself almost seeking his company as the only human being she has seen since he took her. But she is still held prisoner, as much a part of his collection as the butterflies pinned to his display trays.

The pacing of the book is so quick, it was over before I knew it. The writing is intense, and the point of view of the captive and captor are both explored in a startlingly realistic, in-depth character study, examining human emotion, connections, religion, art, and the driving need for freedom. The ending is foreshadowed from the beginning, so although it's not really a surprise, the suspense of following the events from both perspectives keeps the reader riveted.

A gripping masterpiece novel by talented storyteller, John Fowles, The Collector proves to be a worthwhile read. A tantalizing tale about a psychotic butterfly collector who kidnaps a young beautiful girl and traps her in the basement of his house, this novel's plot is both interesting and gripping as a somewhat spellbinding psychoanalytical thriller.
Set in London, The Collector unravels as an insightful novel because it divides the book up into two main sections with different narrators. The first is told from the point of view of the kidnapper, Clegg, who is a mild-mannered, dangerously wealthy psychopath, who is intensely fascinated with women, in particular, a bold art student, Miranda. The latter half of the novel is told through the diary entries of Miranda during her imprisonment in Clegg's basement cell, where she desperately tries to escape from throughout the course of novel.
This particular arrangement of telling the story is attributed to the brilliance and sheer talent of Fowles, a widely celebrated author who allows the reader to observe the thoughts and actions of an estranged kidnapper and also sift through the pages of Miranda's diary, where she pours her soul and energy into her morals, thoughts, emotions, and plans for escape onto paper-- making her come alive, both as a good-hearted human being in an impossible situation, and also as the ill-fated victim and "beautiful butterfly" that Clegg has collected and stored as his own.
In fact, Clegg's character is so unique and puzzling that at times you don't know who to feel sorry for-the helpless victim, Miranda, who is subjected to unthinkable treatment for no fault of her own, or for Clegg, a thoughtful and lonely man, whose desires and vulnerabilities lead him to a path of mortal destruction.
From Clegg's intriguingly twisted thoughts and notions about society, life, wealth, and women, to Miranda's not-so-humble opinions of art, culture, social upbringing, and romance, the characters never fail to leave the reader with an assortment of thoughts to digest while progressing through the plot.
The main portion of the plot consists of the interaction between Miranda and Clegg, prisoner and kidnapper, and the various issues the two deal with and are exposed to due to the clear definitive difference in personalities, social classes and status, education, personal interests, and moral upbringing.
The book follows the plans of both parties, desperately clinging to their own very separate hopes and ambitions that inevitably lead them to no good. While matters of sex, trust, betrayal, love, art, and culture are debated between the two, the forced relationship wears thin on both ends, and Miranda's eventual condition is what finally ends her imprisonment in Clegg's dungeon-like cell.
The novel definitely hits on some core issues still prevalent in today's society while showing the distorted mind of Clegg and the tortured mind of Miranda's, making this novel all the more engaging.

The Collector has got to be one of the finest psychological studies I have read to date. Based around the relationship between Frederick Clegg and his prisoner, Miranda Grey, a middle-class college art student with whom Clegg has become obsessed. Far better than any detective or crime thriller, Fowles revels in highlighting the fine line between the captive and the jailer.

Having kidnapped Miranda as she walks home from school, Clegg then proceeds to worship and idolise her, placing her on a
pedestal and lavishing her with gifts and whatever material objects she desires. The only desire he refuses is that of freedom. Like the butterflies he collects and studies, Miranda cannot be released back into her natural habitat. The most powerful aspect of their relationship is that despite her many escape attempts, brutal attacks and efforts at seduction, Frederick never gives up in his persuading her that she loves him.

The novel is set in two parts, firstly is Clegg's recollection then is the personal, first-person narrative from Miranda, both of which are incisive in their observation and painstaking in the manipulation of the audience's emotion.

Probably the most hard-hitting aspect of this novel is that whilst it can be treated as fiction, contemporary society does contain people who engage in such acts and self-delusion. Fowles has created a work of genius that could easily apply to many of the documentaries of today, simply wonderful.

Unless one is an English major, I'm baffled as to why people try to tear this little masterpiece apart. To summarize this complex novel as quickly as possible, I would say it's mainly about love, betrayal, and reform. Nicholas, despite falling madly in love with Alison, takes it upon himself to be unbelievably cruel to her. As a result, the rest of the novel is devoted to morally instructing him. Through this instruction, Fowles uses elements of fantasy, drama, and suspense. The best part of the book is that one will always be asking oneself, "What is the significance of that?" Luckily, Fowles always supplies the answer. At times, I just stared at the pages increduously due to how brilliant these "lessons" are. As the people stated below, once you start reading this book, you'll have to finish it. I had to drop a star from its rating, however, because it was slightly drawn out. Moreover, the ending frustrated me a little bit. Other than that, I feel that this is one of the finest novels I have ever read.

John Fowles describes The Magus, published in 1965, as his first novel. The protagonist is Nicholas Urfe, a young, middle-class Englishman, an Oxford graduate. The book begins in England, describing Nicholas' confused affair with Alison. They part and Nicholas takes a job teaching at a private boys' school on a beautiful Greek Island, Phraxos. On one of his island wanderings, he comes across a remote villa, owned by Conchis, the Magus or magician of the story. Conchis, an elderly man with enormous wealth, hypnotic presence, and mysterious background, entices Nicholas into a series of surreal, often fascinating, often bewildering events, the reality and meaning of which continually elude both Nicholas and the reader. Alison reappears in the story along with many new and mysterious characters, most notably a phantom-like young woman with whom Nicholas falls in love.

In an illuminating foreword, written in 1976, Fowles acknowledges the "obvious influence of Jung." Jung theorized that human behavior is based on archetypes -- characters or patterns found in humankind's collective unconcious, embodied in its myths. One of the more fundamental archetypes is the character of The Magician - a archetype related to the shaman, or trickster, or even the divine fool -- an entity capable of moving between worlds and manipulating reality. The Magus explores this archetype both through the character of Conchis, but also through the author himself who plays trickster to his readers, with plot twists, misdirection, and ambiguity. The character Nicholas is a curious blend of archetypal patterns -- the emotionally regressed adolescent, the sophisticated intellectual, the callow seducer of women, the "mark" ensnared by his own stupidity and questionable motives. The object of Nicholas' idealized love might easily be viewed as his anima, a term Jung uses to describe the man's interior female.

I had some problems with this book. Like many other reviewers, I found that it sometimes seems overwritten. Also,it is filled with obscure and distracting literary allusions and untranslated passages in non-English languages. (More tricks?) Nevertheless, I found the book remarkable in several respects. For me, the most stunning feature of the novel was Fowles' ability to so effectively, vividly, evoke the "soul of place" of Phraxos, and the island's profound impact on the character of Nicholas. The island itself evokes the archetype of the magical wilderness, a place of haunting natural beauty and dark secrets like the psyche itself. Fowles' prose conjurese a sense of profound grief, which I suspect harkens back to the lost enchantment of ancient Greek pagan culture and its mythopoetic richness. It's interesting to note that, while Fowles disavows the notion that this is a biographical work, he reports that he spent a short period teaching at a private boarding school on a similar Greek island, Spetsai. There, by the way, he encountered a villa on which he based "Bourani," the mystical villa of his story. Fowles also notes that this is a book that especially invites readers to project their own meanings and interpretations. Like many Trickster works of art, the reader finds himself both provoked and thrilled. The Magus' manipulation of Nicholas seems at once benevolent and at other times sadistic and unconscionable. One of the variations of the Magus archetypal is the magician as guru-teacher, e.g. the Zen master or Don Juan in the Castaneda works, who ruthlessly manipulate their students in order to bring enlightenment.

I am almost certainly like any other reader in projecting my own subjectivity onto this complex and often mesmerizing tale. For me, the point can be found late in the book, when Nicholas stumbles across a fable left behind after Conchis departs - a story of a young prince who lives in a kingdom with "no islands, no princesses and no God." Without depriving the reader of finding and reading the fable for him or herself, I'll simply say that, for me, Fowles could have ended the book with the fable (or even simply told the fable rather than writing the book). The point of the fable: There is no truth beyond magic and, with that realization, we all can become magicians.

This is one of those books I feel has no concrete meaning; you basically can take the story and piece the puzzle together in your own way. "The Magus" reads quickly, since the first 2/3 of the book are a puzzle. Throughout this time, I was guessing everything possible as to what was really going on in Phaxros with Conchis and the twins involved. However much as I was not pleased with the outcome of their games, the chase was indeed the best part.

Fowles has a superb grasp of the English language (and other languages as well, which may upset people reading the book as much of the French and Greek is not translated). His vivid setting discriptions enhanced this novel; I felt as though I was back in Greece again. His intelligence with so many aspects -- philosophy, classical literature, languages, history -- sometimes was overwhelming, especially for a little college student like myself ;)

"The Magus" should be read for entertainmnent as much as for a philosophical challenge.

This book takes the form of interviews and narrative regarding the disappearance of a missing noble man. Others have complained about the slack use of UFO imagery - to me this is not important as the main character, Rebecca, is seen and treated as an outcast from the start. An unbelievable story unfolds and playswith ideas of what we consider to be religious or infernal. The characters are skillfully shaped by Fowles tofit the time - while we, the twentieth century readers, canmake judgements about the visions described in the book, the characters themselves are as confused and disturbed as we would be in the same situation. An excellent novel that encourages the reader to take all religious experiences with a pinch of salt...

Like some of the other reviewers, I've read John Fowles other books, such as The Collector, The Magus, The Black Tower, etc., but this one surpasses them all.
As is often the case, I believe, bad reviews of good books tell much more about the reviewer than the book. You must approach this book with a modern, open-mind - otherwise, it will take you to the pillory for your own beliefs and prejudices (as it should do).
What struck me first about this book was how similar - yet far surpassing - it was to Ian Pears' bestseller An Evidence of the Fingerpost. What Pears attempted was gran, is grand, but years before Fowles had trumped him in scope, style, and largesse of thinking. And also I believe in sustaining that elusive quality "mystery," while painting extraordinarily true portraits of characters and time period.
The few reviewers who gave a nod to Fowles "SCI-FI" aspect missed the boat entirely. Fantasy it may be, but hardly sci-fi; rather it is more in the vein of William Blake's visions. One cannot approach Fowles complex concepts with the simplicity of a McDonalds-fed mind, one should be rather a gourmet of fine ideas and prose, then you can truly appreciate what he has accomplished with A Maggot. Liberal thinkers, feminists, open-minded religious believers - these will find themselves entranced by this book. Patriarchal, conservative, narrow-minded bigots and smarmy sycophants will find themselves here, too, but in a most cruelly sharp portrait that will anger them to no end, I believe. Bravo, Fowles!

As both a Friend and a scientific UFO investigator, I was amazed at Fowles ability to describe an event we would interpret technologically, through the eyes of an uneducated eighteenth century woman. Other readers may regret Fowles inclusion of the "SciFi" material, but that was reason for the book, along with the display of the Church of England as despot. Who knows how many Christian sects and other religions were influenced by scientifically unexplainable events that continue to occur today.