Reading this book again, as I usually do on New Years Day, I started having an ether image of Doctor Faustroll, Poet and 'Pataphysician, meeting Dr. Norem, Personality Psychologist. Not to debate, but to discuss. I feel that Alfred Jarry and the good Dr. Faustroll would both understand and find etherially amusing the absurd title of her book -- the positive power of negative thinking. And they could help explain to the rest of us how psychology works. That would be nice. Or perhaps we need 'Patapsychology to stand above Freud's Metapsychological Papers. In any case, we need Dr. Faustroll to be perceptive.

This is a very great book, but I could hardly recommend it. Would you enjoy it? I think it is skies above the Ubu books in its range of vision, and I certainly didn't see any baboons with gluteal musculature grafted to their cheeks starring as commentator in those more famous works . . . well, I don't know what to say this "sort of thing" is exactly . . . if you are unfamiliar with this man (a drinker in the line of Rabelais, except I would say he was much more sincerely dedicated, a scholar, a scientist, a metaphysical swine, a bicycler, an eccentric above the heavyweights of French nincompoops, a novelist, -- also he did decent woodcuts, too) and his work then I would recommend the Supermale as a better beginning. If that is indeed your brand of entertainment, than hoist this flag up on the mast of your soft and sticky palm that never picked an axe to chop a block or made a fist to fight for your principles nor did anything else in all your life except to pick up another foreign book we can all be grateful for to have been translated, and sail it gently down the seas of your eyes until you land where you were looking for . . . this is a traveler's book.

Faustroll is a Hallucinogenic cross between Lewis Carroll & Jules Verne. Magnificently dense style of a prose poem, images as strange as Lautremont's. It also reminded me of Flann O'Brien's Third Policeman, the only book that has done that.

By my Green Candle !! Jarry is very difficult to translate from the French, so be sure to read and compare various translations to really get the feel, if you don't read French. Well worth the effort, and this volume is a fine place to start.

This is a school joke that has evolved into an epic! McLeish's translation takes a lot of liberties and sometimes many things are lost. On the other side, he possesses great wit and through compensation, his work comes out as one of the best translations!

Alfred Jarry is the grandfather of modern day surrealism, and the Ubu trilogy is a great, twisted work of genius. It reads like Shakespeare crossed with a slasher film. It's also a great parody of anything you can think of, and it is quite hilarious. The Ubu trilogy deals with the epic rise and fall of Pa and Ma Ubu, as they become Kings of several European countries, get involved in murder more than once, fight in wars, have deadly encounters with bears in caves, and even voluntarily become slaves. Great stuff! If you like Samuel Beckett, then you have to check out Jarry too!

An exceptional and comprehensive overview of the life of Pa Ubu himself! This book is very well researched and written (and illustrated!) with a sense of humor that Jarry would have appreciated. "Man With An Axe" is by far the best source of biographical info on Jarry in English. Jarry fanatics (especially those that cannot read French) should look no further.

Sometimes you can find this book with great used prices. I just picked up another copy since they are getting harder to find. It is a must read for anyone in the Marriage, Family and Child Therapy Field, for Social Workers, Psychiatric Technicians, Psychologists, Doctors, Psychiatrists and Nurses alike.
The Author: Dr Alfred P. French is a Genius--He is a TRIPLE Board Certified Psychiatrist--- This Book gets 5 STARS here. Visit his web site at [...]

Sometimes you can find this book with great used prices. I just picked up another copy since they are getting harder to find. It is a must read for anyone in the Marriage, Family and Child Therapy Field, for Social Workers, Psychiatric Technicians, Psychologists, Doctors, Psychiatrists and Nurses alike.
The Author: Dr Alfred P. French is a Genius--He is a TRIPLE Board Certified Psychiatrist--- This Book gets 5 STARS here. ...

Some of the most bizarre and surrealistic work's ever written, and incorporateing symbolism, anarchy, nihilism, and even a bit of hyper-exestentialism, these play's ,with their manic energy and intense insanity, manage to confuse the reader into a state of dream-like confusion. They portray wildly exaggerated character's, often vile and deranged, who move about in a meaningless world ; one where senseless behaivor, demented humor, and unexpected associations are the norm. It's nihilism taken to it's extreme with a perfect blend of fantasy, comedy, and absurdity. These plays take us on a journey where rules are nearly non-existent. All limits, rationality, and logic are pushed to the breaking point until destroyed completely and we're liberated from the chains of reason. Any fan of the strange or unusual should get this book and check their sanity at the door.

I read this book in Spanish, and wanted to review it in English, but it seems that it either does not exist in this language, or simply that Amazon does not have it. Anyway, I want to review it.

I think this book should have become fashionable again in the 90's, since it is about a young man at the end of the Nineteenth century, a grunge-type, writing about the "sickness of the century": disillusion with the world. De Musset, in the introduction, defines the "sickness of the century" as this: absence of moral values, and liberty perverted into libertinage. In this autobiographical work, Musset is Octavio, an 18-year old fellow who has an older mistress, an unstable and sometimes hysterical woman. Octavio, who leads a dissipate life, is disappointed when news break that his lover leads a dissipate life (with several other lovers). So, disappointed, he turns to prostitutes and alcohol.

When at last he comes to his senses, he abhores his lifestyle and retires to the countryside. He falls in love with a widow who is his neighbor. But when he declares his love, she flees. He follows her, and then start a turbulent love affair. By the end, he understands that the affair is doomed, and retires once again to the countryside, knowing that he suffers from the sickness of the century: emotional imbalance.

Absolutely adequate to this age, don't you think?

lE LIVRE de de Musset incarne le génie litéraire de son auteur qui est l'un des grands as du romantisme francais .De musset , qui s'est longtemps imposé par son style maniériste , fait montre ici de sa capacité de se réapproprier l'éspace vécu pour en livrer le cru d'une facon admirable et plein de résonances littéraires qui classent parmi les plus grands poétes et écrivains francais

Although Abenaki Warrior is filled with interesting information, I was appalled by the ignorant, racist comments that the author inserted throughout the book - comments obviously with no basis in fact. For example "...the Indian mind did not recogize such complex emotions as conscience and guilt." This and MANY other similar comments and insulting "conclusions" about "savages" etc. made it difficult to complete the book or lend any credibility to the factual information in it. A good, sensitive editor should have excised these remarks. The author should be ashamed.

I am a really admirer of the American Indian History, and I am countinuosly searching for books and other material that can be useful at the purpose to find out any news on it; in this optic I have read with pleasure the Kayworth's book. Undoubtedly well documented from an historical point of view, the author does not limit himself to present the life of one of the most notable Indian War Chiefs, detailing with plenty of particulars the most salient aspects of it (i.e: his visit to the KING LOUIS XIV in France and his life as a ferocious Abenaki warrior), but, also, presenting him from a perspective dictated by his human being, his thoughts as an old man, as a banished by his tribe, and, above all a man near to his death having, at least, the consolation of his new family that love him. In add, I was struck by the real Escumbuit's friendship with the French official Marin,sincere and truthful; it is presented us also together with several imaginary dialogues that, nevertheless are trying to explain us two different worlds, two different thoughts that are doing their best at the purpose to perfectly understand each other. I absolutely recommend to read this book to all that are thinking like me that the Indians are the unique thing that they have to be: men with their emotions, lovers of their way to life and above all of their earth.

England and France competed for control of the new world for more than 100 years. Caught in this mealstrom were the native americans who were destined to loose there land no matter which side they joined. Alfred Kayworth chronicles the life of Escumbuit an Abenaki Indian from the Pigwaset tribe living in Maine. Escumbuit, born in 1665, becomes active in the war as a French ally against the English settlers from 1688 through 1708 when he is wounded and retires among a group of displaced indians living on Big Island Pond in Southern New Hampshire. His adventures carry him from New Brunswick Canada down to Haverhill and Andover, Mass. His exploits and fame were such that the King of France , Louis XIV, brought Escumbuit to Paris, knighted him and gave him a silver sword and lifetime pension. He spent a year in Paris as a guest of the crown being wined and dined by the elite. He died in 1727. One of the islands in the pond is called Escumbuits Island.It is from this reference to the island that the author first encounters the name Escumbuit. His research resulted in a fascinating book, written in novel form, containing both fact and fiction. The Abenakis left no written record, but Escumbuits exploits as a French ally and an English enemy were such that there are documents written by contemporary individuals on both sides praising or vilifying him. The gaps in the historical record are filled in from the authors imagination, but are based on Abenaki culture as he came to know it through his research. He clearly delineates fact from fiction in foot notes and bibliography. He also peppers the book with facts not directly associated with the subject of the book, such as the aborted invasion of Boston and the east coast by a French fleet and army in 1697. The author does not preach or judge the charaters about whom he write. He tells his story letting events flow without coloring them with his 20th century cultural bias. I read the book in a couple of sittings, enjoying it from cover to cover. I wonder how many other stories like this are out there about this ignored part of our heritage.

This is an excellent presentation of historical events by a contemporary.

This is one of the better biographies of Voltaire, and would be useful to those who have never studied the man and those who are quite familar with him. In addition to providing a fairly thorough outline of the events of Voltaire's life (it would require a massive, multivolume work for a complete picture of the man), this book also properly puts Voltaire in the context of the 18th Century Enlightenment, of which he was the brightest light.
While highly-researched and scholarly, it is also very readable and does not descend into the pedantic writing style so many academics are guilty of. Both the professional scholar and the interested layperson would find this work valuable.