While Middlemarch is a thoroughly Victorian novel, Daniel Deronda looks forward to the modern period in its focus on the individual. The text primarily focuses on two individuals--Daniel Deronda and Gwendolyn Harleth. Their lives are entertwined from the first chapter in which Daniel observes, with a certain amount of disdain, a serpentine Gwendolyn gambling. By the end of the text, both characters have been transformed from the characters you meet at the beginning through self-discovery. Daniel discovers the secret of his birth while Gwendolyn is tragically disillusioned by her unfortunate marriage. The novel foreshadows the modern period's treatment of the individual searching for his identity and his place in an intolerant society.

Daniel Deronda is a moving account of the parallel yet different personal sagas experienced by two extraordinary characters: Daniel Deronda (the perfect "sensitive" man, way before his time) and the superb and brilliantly realized Gwendolyn Harleth. They are both insiders - one a well-bred but recently impoverished beautiful girl, the other a dazzlingly handsome and intelligent man whose birth is shrouded in mystery. As with numerous George Eliot novels, the hero and heroine would seem destined to marry, but don't. Yet they both achieve something greater: a realization of the inner state of unconditional love that Eliot considered the highest ideal of humanity.

George Eliot's last novel is nothing less than extraordinary. The most obvious thing is that most of it is a thumpingly good read, especially the first third - witty,lively and devoid of Eliot's sometimes irritating commentaries (Eliot has an amazing mind, and her comments can both fascinate and slow the speed of the narrative). We seem to be in a decaying world of Jane Austen, with a descendant of her Emma Wodehouse - silly, headstrong, egotistical yet alluring Gwendolen Harleth.

The tension heightens when Gwendolen finally marries Grandcourt, and both she and the reader realise she has made the most ghastly mistake. Brilliantly, Eliot portrays in disturbing detail the psychological twists and turns of the relationship, as the 'powerful' Gwendolen finds herself trapped by a silent sado-masochist. Grandcourt is actually shown to do very little out of place - which is the achievement - and we are left to imagine what Gwendolen must be going through in the bedroom. We become enmeshed in her consciousness - not always a pleasant experience. It is a brave novel for its time.

The rest of the novel concerns the eponymous Daniel, his discovery of his identity as a Jew, and his final mission to devote himself to his race. It is thought-provoking, and interesting, and much has been said about how the way the novel is really two stories. The problem really is that the Gwendolen part is so well done that a reader feels disappointed to leave her and join the less enthralling Daniel.

The ending doesn't quite thrill as other moments of the book do, and there is an over-long section relating the conversation of a philosophy society, but, thanks to Gwendolen and Grandcourt, it stands out as one of the most memorable pieces of literature in English. Take away the 'Daniel' part and it is Eliot's masterpiece - and great material for the cinema. Maybe it's because she played the aforementioned Emma, but Gwyneth Paltrow could do a fantastic job as Gwendolen - just imagine her playing the great scene where the melodramatic diamonds arrive on her wedding night, and she goes beserk and throws them around!

If you love the Theater, you will enjoy most of this book of the Musical Cats. The book delivers on the "dialogue" of the musical, which, of course, is right out of "Old Possum's Book of Pratical Cats." You also get some of the insights from those who made the musical happen. There are some good costume sketches, but the photographs leave a lot to be desired. Taken under performance conditions, most of the photos are too blurred or too dim for the quality of the rest of the book. The book is still a treasure for those who have seen the musical, and an overview for the unfortunate who has not.

All songs include pictures. Writings by people originally involved with the production. Shows many interesting items such as Costuming and Original drawings.List of all actors shown in the book.

This book is great for people who have never seen CATS live or who have only seen it in its' new video form (nov. 98). It's got great pictures for those who are interested in costume design, as I am, but also a summary of the plot to help people new to the musical along. And of course, any CATS fan would love to add this to their collection!

I just finished reading this book for my Victorian Lit class, and I am incredibly inpressed with it. In the book, George Eliot tells about the lives of the residence of Hayslope, a farming community around 1800. The book has a riveting plot that includes romance, betrayal, and murder. More importantly, however, the book has a strong moral; it is sure to leave an impression in the mind of even the most cynical reader. Eliot, herself, summed the book up best in asking, "Shall I ever write another book as true as 'Adam Bede'?"

I just finished "Adam Bede," turning to the novels of George Eliot after a long stint of reading only Thomas Hardy. A long-time fan of Hardy's work, I thought him to be my favorite English author -- George Eliot, however, has proven to be quite the challenger to Hardy for a place in my heart.

"Adam Bede" is the tale of simple people making their way in the world, each of them encountering hardship and sorrow along the way. Eliot's style is immediately engaging: she addresses the reader directly, and it seems like she is behind the scenes everywhere, pulling up a curtain to reveal vignettes in the lives of her characters. She forces the readers, almost, to fall in love with Adam immediately -- the strong, righteous man whom the story will carry along its rocky path. Similarly, Dinah emerges immediately as the source of peace and goodness in the novel, and it is always refreshing when, in times of turmoil, she appears.

I was bothered by only one element of the story, but I think it is rather easily overlooked: Adam's unrelenting love for Hetty. Eliot gives little background as to why his feelings for her are so strong, and all we really know of her personality is that she is incredibly vain because she is incredibly beautiful. Adam never struck me as a character who would fall for such a "surface" woman. His final choice for a wife (which I will not reveal in case amazon.com surfers haven't read the book yet) seems much more appropriate.

All in all, the journey through this book is a most rewarding one. I look forward to my next Eliot read!

George Eliot weaves a simple story of love, suffering, and goodness. While the plot is hardly complex (boy loves girl, another boy gets girl, unhappiness abounds - also reused in Mill on the Floss), the manner in which Eliot develops her characters and their emotions and actions ring as true and resoundingly as a bell. It's so clear, so obvious, but also moving and textured. You feel Adam's absolute love for vain little Hetty, Dinah's calming grace, Arthur's good intentions, Lisbeth's fretting nature. Eliot draws you in with her honest observations of life in a country town, without the background becoming a dominant factor. The near idyllic life the characters lead is a healthy contrast to the town's emotional upheaval.

Adam is an upright, genuine character, and not as perfect as he seems. If his love for Hetty seems unfounded at times, it only serves to highlight how dangerous delusions can be. All the "sinners" are ultimately redeemed by truth - true love, true friends, true promises, and true acceptance. Religion plays a significant part in the novel, but don't let that deter you. It's so much more than that - Adam Bede is truly one of the few works that encompass a world of humanity between two covers.

AB reminded me of Tess of the D'Ubervilles a bit, but there is no villain here, just flawed, honest people in search of unattainable dreams. In the process of trying to get a bit of happiness, they stumble and bleed, but ultimately find something truly worth having. Bittersweetness is Eliot's trademark for good reason.

George Eliot's first full novel is obviously a bit less polished than her later works, but you see the wonderful command she has over language and expression. The book, the people, the story all come alive with her touch. A rare read that has something to say and says it beautifully.

I thought this was quite a good detective story with many interesting twists. Generally speaking I felt it was a very good story and was very well told. The main characters are well drawn and have a level of complexity (i.e., the Chinese soldiers are not monolithically and uniformly evil) that made them seem quite realistic. Although the plot did seem to meander at times, I didn't mind all that much as the pauses tended to focus on some interesting aspect of Tibetan culture.

As far as the criticisms I've read concerning how the book depicts Tibetan Buddhism, all I can say is that there are many, many varieties of Tibetan Buddhism - some of which are extremely esoteric derivatives of standard Buddhist doctrine. So it may not be as far off as some think.

The thing I appreciated the most about this book is that it tells a story that focuses the reader's attention on the illegal and brutal Chinese occupation of Tibet and subsequent destruction of much of Tibetan culture. The entire plot takes place against this appalling backdrop, which unfortunately is not fictional. If this book helps to heighten readers' awareness of the Chinese government's ongoing atrocities against the Tibetan people, then it will have served a purpose far greater than simply having told a good story.

When I started to read The Skull Mantra, I was not happy with the author's apparent lack of understanding of Tibetan Buddhism, which I practice. Just having Buddhists refer to their "soul" and having them kneel to pray made me cringe, and I hated to see Tibetan Buddhist practice reduced to reciting mantras. But after finishing the book in record time (the plot left me no other choice), I wonder whether the technical errors reflect ignorance so much as an attempt to allow uninitiated readers to relate to the feelings of the characters. Where it really counts, the book faithfully represents the deeper currents of Tibetan Buddhist thought. This is especially true in the conclusion, which starkly presents the way in which different cultural backgrounds find resolutions for the same problem (I'm trying not to give too much away here!). Yes, the foreign words and concepts make the book hard to read for those who are completely unfamiliar with the background. But if you want to read a great mystery that also introduces you to a culture worth knowing and an international conflict worth knowing about, this is it.

This is an amazing first novel.

Through his central character, Chinese political deportee and Tibetan prison detainee Shan Tao Yun, Pattison presents a compelling murder mystery which begins with the discovery of a headless corpse and a gold cigarette lighter at the site of a on road-building project. Pattison constructs a rich depiction of the tragedgy of Tibet today, the clash of race, religion and culture which threatens to eradicate an entire people and thousands of years of history, tradition and human experience. Throughout the story there is shown a Buddhist awareness of the value of any single life and the ripples of its impact on everything around it.

Pattison doesn't short change the reader on character development. Through Shan's experience of each moment, the landscape of Tibet itself emerges from setting to a character in the story.

The pacing is excellent. With the revelation of each blossom in this flower of a mystery, Pattison never releases the sense of urgency, the awareness of hidden threat to each character. Everyone has something obvious and something hidden to lose. Every action of every other character puts someone else further at an unexpected risk. Often that risk determines whether someone lives one more day. No one is immune to the threat of ruin, disappearance, erasure. No one is what he or she seems, and I was pulled expertly away from presumptive character judgments about each one from one chapter to the next.

I learned a great deal about Chinese politics, Buddhism, favored nation development deals, without having to stop to think about learning while devouring the story. I've found myself researching more on Buddhism, recent Chinese political history, and the current events of business between the US and China from having read this mystery.

This complexity and depth, a revelation of new real-world information is what I think of when I want a great read in a mystery. The mental images the Skull Mantra evokes will haunted me long after the last page was been turned.

What a great movie this could become in the right caring hands. It could easily be as much of a classic film as _Smilla's Sense of Snow_ from the novel of the same name by Peter Hoeg.

If you don't want a shallow whodunnit, this book is for you!

Russell Kirk's The Conservative Mind is a catalog of the thoughts of men, both British and American, whom Kirk regarded as eminent (albeit sometimes obscure) conservatives. They range in historical sequence from Edmund Burke (1729-1797) to contemporary scholars. Although this book is not an instruction manual for conservative politicians and activists, it will provide conservatives with both a clear understanding of conservatism's basic principles and a cogent defense of those principles. One of the major insights that this book offered was the central role of religion in society: Revealed religion is the source of Western morality; law was created to enforce that morality; the state enforces the law, so the state is an instrument of religion. Another insight was the hubris of nineteenth and twentieth century reformers, who thought that they could legislate happiness and freedom, but who instead created industrial slums and domineering central governments. The overall tone of the work is pessimistic, often despairing: the repeated theme is that from an idyllic, aristocratic, agricultural society united under Christianity the world has decayed to a lonely, atomized, atheistic, cold-blooded industrial society. In the face of such decline, the conservative can only try to salvage or resurrect bits of traditional society -- manners, customs, faith in Providence, etc. Again, the book is of limited practical value: The author's aim is merely to define conservatism, which he does explicitly only in chapter one. He offers neither explicit criteria for distinguishing desirable from undesirable change, nor strategies for forestalling the latter. The book is difficult both because Kirk provides no biographical information about his subjects and because he assumes a detailed knowledge of history. The author's style is literary rather than academic. When he outlines another author's work, it's not always clear where the summary ceases and Kirk's comments begin. Despite these shortcomings, no one should call himself a conservative until he has read this book and understands the principles that he's defending.

One of the important things about this book is that it examines conservative thinkers who weren't primarily known as politicians or political thinkers (e.g. Scott and Eliot). I appreciated Mr. Kirk's lucid examination of the keepers of the conservative flame. I also found it eye-opening as to the relationship between conservatives and what are known today as libertarians (exemplified by the struggles in the Republican party between its social-conservative wing and its supply-side, libertarian wing). The intellectual foundations of this conflict make a great deal of sense when laid bare by Mr. Kirk. His treatment of Burke is one of the finest I have seen and his study of southern thinkers prior to the Civil War deftly balances Hofstadter's in "The American Political Tradition".

Later, when reading a biography of Gladstone, I found that I understood the conflicts between himself and Disraeli (and, in some instances, members of his own party) with far more precision than I would have without this book as a background.

Finally, it should be read simply because people should be introduced to the heritage that informs their conservative impulses. Battles are often lost simply because people do not believe they have the intellectual high-ground - when, in fact, they do. This book is a new round of combat in the struggle of freedom - the struggle that is never lost, says Mr. Kirk, because it is never won. That's a refreshing and often needed perspective.

A fine piece of intellectual history and a resounding answer to Mill's quip that "the conservatives were the stupid party".

Kelly Whiting

Excellent tome! This is THE conservative's Bible. Kirk is an historian of ideas,and more especially, the conservative ideas of 'prescription', 'prudence', and a politics that looks to a nation's ancestors for guidance in legislating for one's posterity. Kirk's classic expostion on the apostles of conservatism from Burke to our own times is an essential edition to anyone's library who regards himself as a serious student of political science. Unfortunately, the reading is monotonous at times, as Kirk's narrative is limited to discussing conservatism in different contexts. A touch of Boorstin's flair is needed. For instance, a little biography on each of the characters whom he discusses would be helpful to the general reader. Nevertheless, a great reference book for graduate students of history or political science.

This gripping expose' captures the feel of America in 1919. Author Elliot Asinof shows how the White Sox players (rather, infielder Chick Gandil) first approached the gamblers, and how the fixed World Series proceeded amidst threats, misunderstandings and double-crosses. We also read about the player's 1921 trial for conspiracy, noting that the gamblers escaped unscathed. I liked the author's portraits of conspiring players Eddie Ciccotte and Shoeless Joe Jackson (who's guilt seems modified), the unfairly banished Buck Weaver, and innocent teammates like Ray Schalk and Eddie Collins. Asinof correctly co-indicts baseball's reserve clause and Sox owner Charles Comiskey. The cold-hearted Comiskey precipitated the scandal by grossly underpaying his talented athletes in that already low-wage era. One senses parallels to modern college point-shaving scandals; bitter athletes fixing scores to grab a slice of the pie unfairly denied them.

Since this book first appeared in 1963, free agency boosted player salaries, the missing grand jury confessions surfaced (in offices of Comiskey's late attorney), and this book's movie plus FIELD OF DREAMS brought the scandal to recent light. One thing hasn't changed; the underdog White Sox still have been in just one one World Series (which they lost)in all the years since 1919.

In its time (1965) this book really blew the lid off the long-sanitized version of the Black Sox scandal available to the public. Its readability, depth and refusal to glorify any of the participants are what make it the starting point for any baseball lover seeking the true story of the whole sordid affair. Its placement in greater historical context is especially well done; the reader is reminded that it did not occur in a vacuum. WWI was just over, Prohibition was coming, and the dominant national mood was 'we're very noble, we won the Great War' (all historical debatability of that point aside). Game-throwing was nothing new to baseball, as Asinof points out, but the idea that a full third of a team would throw a World Series was a body blow to what had become somewhat of an egotistical nation.

While some new information has come to light in the last thirty-five years, it has only supplemented what Asinof learned--to my knowledge none of it has been refuted. Considering the number of basements and old offices likely cleared out in the intervening time, and at least one definitely pertinent discovery that I'm aware of (the Grabiner notes), this is quite an accomplishment. Recommended both as baseball history and as a portrait of a lusty, turbulent time.

This book changed my entire philosophy behind the "Black Sox" scandal and the other related stories of that time frame. Asinof gives not only an accurate description of the 1919 World Series and its aftermath, but also delves into the other scandals of that era, making the reader further understand the circumstances surounding scandalous baseball. He brings new considerations to readers who have previously misunderstood and or misread about the times of Shoeless Joe and the other ball players of that time. After reading his book I find that most of the further reading I have done on the topic has been inaccurate or misleading. My personal desire to learn and eventually write on the topic of my favorite Black Sox player ultimately came from this wonderful book. I rate this book nothing less than the best; 5 stars. A great read for any sports enthusiast!

I have used this guide for 25 years. It is excellent for casual North American birders. It is compact, inexpensive and covers all birds normally found in North America. It has good illustrations of all birds one would normally encounter and good descriptions of the birds. It has some outstanding features found in no other birding guide such as heads of all sparrows on two facing pages so that they are all right there together where they can be easily compared. It has the same layout for winter peeps and fall warblers. This feature in itself makes the book worth having.

How they can sell this book at such a low price is beyond me. Lots of quality here.

Look at the cover with the buntings: it's not just some recycled art from the interior, but a specially painted picture just for the cover. This is part of the value that the authors offer you.

More importantly, the illustrations really capture what the birds look like in real life -- to my mind better than other paintings in guides and a thousand times better than photos -- and the text is clear and to the point.

Sections that showcase winter plumage of gulls or peeps or that illustrate the heads of warblers or sparrows have the page numbers right next to each picture so you can just whip over to bird in question if you need more information.

I especially like the fact that the range maps are right next to the bird's picture so you don't have to thumb to some inconvenient map index the back of the book only to find that the bird is never present in your area. Everything is right there to help you make a quick identification.

"Birds of North America" is a truly excellent guide. It may not be the most comprehensive, but it certainly is the most useful. It's probably the all-around greatest birding field guide out there. The illustrations are very well done, and the size of the book is easily manageable. This book is detailed enough to accomodate all but the most demanding and professional birders, but user-friendly enough to not overwhelm the amateur.

Those interested in military and civilian affairs, as we have all become to some degree as of late, should be enormously appreciative for Cohen's having looked beyond the water's edge for examples of leadership - this is rare in too much of American scholarship. The book gives full and equal chapter space to describe and evaluate Lincoln, Clemenceau, Churchill, and Ben-Gurion - all powerful, and determined leaders regardless of whether one subscribes to their politics or not. As Clausewitz wrote in 1834: "War is nothing but a continuation of politics with the admixture of other means." Yet, in many industrialized democracies we face a seeming wane of confidence in our civilian leaders' abilities to guide the "dogs of war" to a proper and honorable victory. Cohen addresses the nature of these leaders, in their capacity to achieve victory as civilian commanders; however, we take for granted their capabilities and uniqueness as individuals - could we expect the same from George W. Bush as was demonstrated by Clemenceau or Churchill?
The study seems flawed in some minor, but irritating aspect as a result of this. We do not create the rule, merely because it has proven successful in four remarkable instances.
I digress though, and would make the potential reader aware that the book ought to be read (should your interests be piqued by the intricacies of diplomacy, government and war), to gain a greater understanding of true leaders, and the manner in which they face the high-stakes challenges that ultimately test their lives' preparedness, guile, and determination. When one knows little of military affairs, and much of politics, it takes a dogged individual to tell those who know much of military affairs, and little of politics that they will go so far and no further upon the battlefield. It takes a lucky individual to be successful in such affairs. The text loses a star for this singular, but ultimately profound flaw, and garners four for its adept and lucid explanations of these four courageous and politically clear-minded men.

Eliot Cohen shows that the Pentagon's preferred model of civil-military relations--namely that the civilian leadership should leave war to the generals--does not make for a successful policy. By profiling four supremely successful war leaders--Lincoln, Clemenceau, Churchill and Ben Gurion--he demonstrates that they all took a very active hand in the conduct of war, and that they were often right, and the generals were often wrong. Whereas when political leaders have deferred to the generals--for instance in the original Bush administration's determination, made at the urging of Gen. Powell, to end the ground war in the Gulf after 100 hours--the results have often been far from satisfying. Not only is this an important argument, highly relevant to today's policy debates, but Cohen also offers interesting profiles of four very different leaders. I was particularly interested in the discussion of Clemenceau and Ben Gurion, since I know less about them than about Churchill and Lincoln. This is a book that all our leaders should read.

This well researched book will have an impact on civilian-military relations as long-lasting as Samuel Huntington's "Soldier and the State," published fifty years ago but still a landmark. The author examines four examples of excellent democratic leadership of the military during wartime: Lincoln, Clemenceau, Churchill, and Ben-Gurion. These four break the current "normal theory of civil-military relations," which holds that civilian leaders should set political goals and leave the details of implementation to the neutral competence of military professionals. The "normal theory" is currently the predominant orthodoxy: Lyndon Johnson meddled in Vietnam military matters, irretrievably messing up that effort; George H.W. Bush set the goals in the Persian Gulf and left the military unimpeded to execute policy. The four supreme commanders Cohen expounds upon break the current orthodoxy: they were deeply involved in military matters, Churchill to the point of driving his generals nuts with questions about the details of operations. If anything, the author argues, Lyndon Johnson was not involved enough, failing to question Westmoreland's attrition strategy. Cohen's books will have significant impact and will be debated in U.S. war colleges for years to come. He significantly contributes to the quality of the debate on civil-military relations. He also brings new life to the question: what exactly is the military profession? Huntington and the traditional definition describe it as the management of violence for political ends. Yet many military work their entire careers in support fields which aren't directly related to combat, and even military who spend their entire careers in combat forces often are only in combat a small percentage of their service time. Cohen's discussion on this topic of the essence of the military profession will start a new and much-needed debate on this topic. There are a dozen or so typesetting errors in this edition which confuse the reader. But the big picture is that it's a stellar performance which will impact discussion on the role of the soldier and the statesman for years to come, and is a must read for anyone interested in military affairs, the Civil War, World War II, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf War, and the future of the civilian-military relationship. As one person commented, if he could recommend one book for President George W. Bush to read in the current terrorist war crisis, this would be it. Trying to save on my book-buying, I read my public library's copy of this book. Then I bought my own copy because it will be a classic referred to again and again in future debates.

This book has useful (though not terribly complete) introductions to each of the plays, focusing mainly on comparing various Folio and Quarto editions of the plays. It also contains some nice pictures, though I wish the Latin in them were translated or shown at a legible size. It has very nice appendicies nothing the first appearances of all the characters in the plays, and a timeline showing what historical events were occuring in relation to works written by Shakespeare and events in his life, as well as to plays by other playwrights and other literature produced at that time. The pages are relatively thin and the print small. However (this referes to the '74 edition, maybe they have changed it since then) the plays are a royal pain to read. The pages are about a foot high and the notes are at the bottom. There is no marking to indicate whether a line has a note, so the reader must read a line or two, glance down at the notes, read another few lines, look at the notes again, and so on. Were it not for this major annoyance, this would be a very good (and very complete) edition of Shakespeare's works.

This one-volume edition of Shakespeare's works is the most complete I found on the market: it includes "The Two Noble Kinsmen", Shakespeare's addition to "Sir Thomas More" (with photographical reproduction of the pages believed to be in his handwrite), the currently hot debated poem "A Funeral Elegy by W. S." and, above all, "The Reign of King Edward III", a new play recently accepted in the canon by many authoritative editors (Arden, Cambridge, Oxford). The text of each work is carefully edited and accompanied by helpful glossarial notes, a textual discussion with short bibliography, and an impressive collation which allows the reader to find variant readings and emendations. An exhaustive critical introduction precedes each play and poem, dealing with authorship, date, sources, textual differences between quarto and folio texts, and of course the principal thematic issues. What makes this a superb edition - and indeed a real "companion" to Shakespeare studies! - is the great amount of subsidiary material, including a general introduction - focusing on Shakespeare's life, art, language, style, and on the Elizabethan historical and theatrical background - and a series of useful essays on various themes: critical approaches to the plays and poems, philological issues, history of the plays on the stage, television and cinema. There are also many interesting documents, synoptic tables, glossaries, indexes, illustrated tables (both coloured and b&w) , the reproduction of the introductory pages of the First Folio of 1623, and a rich bibliography. I personally consider this book a must have for every teacher, scholar, or simply amateur of the greatest of all poets. Buy it!

While I sympathize somewhat with the review below -- the introductions do quibble a bit over the differences between Folio and Quarto versions, the exact source material etc. -- I found this to be an excellent version of the complete works. The essay before each play is very helpful toward understanding the literary context of the play--they _do_ talk about the characters and the action of the play, in a way that nicely complements the text. The illustrations (some black and white, some color) are also interesting and helpful. The book contains both a general introduction, which is accessible, if slightly daunting, to a reader who might not be intimately familiar with all of the plays, serving to excite interest at least. It also contains an essay on 20th century Shakespeare criticism, which introduces many of the newer movements in Shakespeare criticism that are not included in the general introduction (which focuses more on the Elizabethan historical period, and more immediate reactions to the plays). The footnotes, while they are not indicated on the line itself, are located on the same page. In looking at several other editions, I found that footnotes were sometimes actually endnotes--i.e. located in one section at the end of the play, which would be very disruptive to reading. Happily, this is not the case in this edition.

The book, as the title claims, includes all of Shakespeare's plays, Sonnets, and poems. The appendices include many other interesting tidbits that help shine some light on old Billy's life, including his will, in which he enigmatically bequeathed a "second-best bed" to his wife. Other documents are included, often with explanations to help the reader to understand (as the documents are printed verbatim, the Elizabethan spelling and punctuation is a slight impediment).

Overall, I found this to be the best of the paperback and hardcover editions I examined.

Karl von Clausewitz's (1780-1831) masterpiece On War, has deservedly been translated into most major languages. The Everyman's Library Edition of On War introduced by Peter Paret is the perhaps most widely acclaimed English edition.

Long recognized as the classic the strategic principles of armed conflict, the book continue to influence military thinking. On War is an attempt to reach an understanding of the nature of war itself. The Prussian general defines war as violence intended to compel the opponent to fulfill the will of the proponent. Violence is the means; submission of the enemy is the object.

The ultimate goal of war is political - armed combat is the means to a political end, without which war becomes «pointless and devoid of sense». Another key thought is that the total defeat of the adversary is the essence of war. A critique often heard against this strain of thought is that Clausewitz's focus on decisive battle and over strategic maneuver invites bloodbath.

The book is experiencing a renaissance in the post-Cold War era -reading it may well help to explain the phenomenon of war also in the years to com

Karl von Clausewitz's (1780-1831) masterpiece On War has deservedly been translated into most major languages. The Everyman's Library Edition of the work - introduced by Peter Paret - is the perhaps most widely acclaimed English edition.

Long recognized as the classic the strategic principles of armed conflict, the book continue to influence military thinking. On War is an attempt to reach an understanding of the nature of war itself. The Prussian general defines war as violence intended to compel the opponent to fulfill the will of the proponent. Violence is the means; submission of the enemy is the object.

The ultimate goal of war is political - armed combat is the means to a political end, without which war becomes «pointless and devoid of sense». Another key thought is that the total defeat of the adversary is the essence of war. A critique often heard against this strain of thought is that Clausewitz's focus on decisive battle and over strategic maneuver invites bloodbath. This can also serve to illustrate why the book has carried relevance over the centuries. -It focuses on the -how's of war rather than considerations that are bound to be influenced by Zeitgeist.

The book is experiencing a renaissance in the post-Cold War era -reading it may well help to explain the phenomenon of war also in the years to come.

I have the Regnery edition- "War, Politics, and Power," but this edition surmising Clausewitz's writings seems more widely available. So I offer my review on his writings and recommend this book. This book was widely disseminated in Red China, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union.

Essentially, this book contains the best writings of the German military theorist. Clauswitz, the Prussian Sun Tzu, effectively brought the concept of total war into acceptability. Gone our the days Antonie Henri Jomini's chilvarious code of conduct and honor- Civilians will not only be subject to attack - they'll bear the brunt of the battle in an age of total war. Several points are made- which are crucial to surmising Clausewitzian theory- 1) "War is the continuation of state policy by other means;" 2) "All war is based on the art of deception;" 3) "No one starts war... without first being clear in his mind what he intends to achieve by the war and how he intends to conduct it;" 4) War is "an act of force to compel our enemy to do our will." 5) "If the enemy is thrown off balance, he must not be given time to recover. Blow after blow must be struck in the same direction: the victor, in other words, must strike with all his strength... by daring to win all, will one really defeat the enemy."

To me this work is valuable in its historical context- and as an ardent student of military history.