This is a fair, balanced, but too dry account of the trial and execution of Louis XVI. All the facts are there, but none of the drama. The book also suffers from the propensity to summarize rather than describe events. The author seems reluctant to delve too deeply into details, assuming we've all heard the story before. Thus the drama never seems to come alive; the whiff of the textbook hovers over its pages.
On the positive side, Mr. Jordan has no axes to grind and maintains a scrupulous objectivity. Suprisingly, it is only Louis himself who has the power to elicit an emotional response, albeit restrained, from our author. Chapter four, his portrait of Louis' life in the Temple, provides a touching portrait of the King, enhanced by the inclusion of the famous sketch of the King in profile shortly before his death.

One starting out on a study of Napoleon can do no better than this work by the master,
David Chandler. Clear and concise , well-paced and appropriately sprinkled with art of the era and good solid maps. A short, select bibliography is appended. The author's final chapter, "Napoleon and his Art of War," is well worth the price of the volume alone as it synthesizes his findings from his magnum opus, The CAMPAIGNS of NAPOLEON. I recommend purchasing this book and following it up with Gates' The NAPOLEONIC WARS, Esdaile's The WARS of NAPOLEON, and Connelly's BLUNDERING to GLORY. Afterwards pick up Chandler's lifework CAMPAIGNS.

To start out, the book is cute .. cute .... I mean so cute I'm gonna absolutely vomit!

This is a two parter, one from the women's point of view, and, yup you guessed it, turn the book over and upside down and 'voila' you now have an erotic book from the ma's point of view... yeeeeeechhhh

If you have seen the animated movie Monsters Inc I would think this book must have been inspired by that film since it is full of doors, doors and more doors behind which a short erotic (so they say) happening occurs to the hero or heroine depending on which side you picked up the book ...

At the end of each chapter you are given a coice of continuing the read OR go to one of the other suggested doors(chapters) .... needless to say each chapter of course starts with the main character being chased or walking down a long corridor ...

sorry .... if some of the doors would have provide real erotic scenes I may have accepted the concept but the book left me dead and feeling pretty dumb for kicking out the cash .....

All right then, I think we're all agreed that this isn't the book to read if you're prowling for the psychological depths and serious tone Mme. Reyes laid out for us in "The Butcher". Having said this, however, I think the book stands well on its own merits. In a strictly technical sense, it can't be easy to design a novel that gives the reader two plot options at the end of every chapter and then rewrite the whole thing from the viewpoint of the opposite gender. (Which gender did she start out with first? One wonders.) And rest assured, not all the "doors" you open will lead to particularly pleasurable experiences. There's one chapter in particular involving a monstrously obese woman and chickens. (I'll leave it at that!)

But such bizzare, jarring interludes help to give the book a diverse, interesting texture and, conversely, I found some of the vignettes wonderfully playful and entertaining in a dreamy, surreal fashion. One has to admire the author for the fecundity of her imagination. There's this delightful, voyeuristic promenade beneath a transparent sidewalk, for instance. (As it turns out, not all those women up there chose to wear "knickers" beneath their dress.) Indeed, at its best, the book has the same refreshingly unusual tone of some of Fellini's more lighthearted cinematic romps. ("City Of Women" comes to mind)

The book is wonderful mind-candy, a tangy-sweet, undemanding french pastry of a read, perfect for unwinding at the begining of the weekend and, by all means, take the time to read at least parts of it out loud with some one you love. Who knows? Some interesting "doors" of your own might open.

Alina Reyes has won the reputation of being a literary voice in erotic fiction. Her books are poetic and provocative at the same time. Having read The Butcher, I know that Reyes writes her sensuous stories with a touch of magical realism. She has done the same thing with Behind Closed Doors.

This book is broken into two sections. It is shown from the female and male perspective. You enter the Kingdom of Eros -- a labyrinth of erotic adventures that you experience by choosing which door to enter. There is no real plot in this novel, except that there are lots of quirky symbolism in the chapters -- or rather, doors. I particularly enjoyed "The Man at the Window." I love its symbolic message.

This is a great and entertaining book. You should not, however, take this book seriously. Despite the symbolism, Behind Closed Doors is meant to be a fun and sensuous read. Enjoy!

After reading the various pros and cons of this book, I thought I would take it for a spin from my local library. Unfortunately, for the author, he runs off the road in the first two pages. In this short space, he talks about how terrible it was that when Napoleon fell from power the great personal freedom(???) that the French people had was lost, onerous reparations that France had to pay, and how great social institutions were dismantled. Those three statements alone are enough to show that this author should be stopped for WWI (Writing While Intoxicated). As an example of the great personal freedom that the French people had he mentions that people were able to rise due to merit. Hmmm, I guess being a relative of Napoleon is meritous since that's all it took to become the king of Spain - even when Joseph didn't want to be the king of Spain. Titles and estates were given hither and yon simply for being a good general in the rape and pillage of innocent countries. Maybe the author meant free speech, but no there was none. Newspapers were closed. A printer *in another country* was kidnapped to France and executed for having the audacity of printing a anti-Napoleon pamphlet. Napoleon was the sole arbiter of plays, music, newspapers, etc.
The state was everything... the individual, nothing. Elections were fixed, his assistants virtual slaves. His secretary of ten years asked to leave due to health problems. His house was stripped, his reputation ruined, his ability to earn a living destroyed simpley because he wished to leave a job. Maybe he meant freedom of property or commerce. Confiscatory taxes were used to supply the army. If taxes didn't cover it, then you would supply a loan at the point of sword. If you asked for repayment... another sword point would meet you. After the taxes, the loans, and simple confiscation they would come and take what they needed including your son. In Poland, Napoleon got a mistress by threatening the countries nobles. Even if you weren't French, you could conscripted in to their army. There was no freedom of commerce. If you traded with England for anything, anywhere in the world, you were an enemy. Napoleon was genius, but a heartless, flawed, faithless and incredibly malicious and cruel genius.

As with this authors other work on Napoleon there are some mistakes, but given the sloppy level of "scholarship" that abounds in Napoleonic studies this work is hardly a candidate for historiological oblivion - despite the best efforts of the more hysterical and strident readers/guardians of the "truth"

The author's take on Bonaparte is realtively one-sided, but, so what? That's not a crime. Perhaps buyers of this book could place it at one end of their shelf and Alan Schom's "biography" at the other with the truth falling in-between? Either way, more reading is always better than less. Buy this book and enjoy it, it's not bad.

A Reader

Hamilton-Williams places an entire new slant on the subject of Naploeons fall and uses his many sources well ( and provides warnings when the sources are not trustworthy ) most of his conclusions are viable on the evidence provided and well written. Half his problem are that a large amount of his conclusions destroy the assumptions that a large portion of Napoleonic historians make and like to continue to make and hence the backlash against him. His view of Napoleon essentially brought down from within is one that is gaining more and more acceptance and anyone who is prepared to cope with his partisan approach to the issue will enjoy and learn from this book.

With regards to emphasis the book leans heavily on the undercurrents, political manouverings of this period and thus provides a fresh look on an overwritten subject. Excellant

Poor illustration, lengthy text,and not very well updated

The author can not explain the molecular aspects of biological processes well. The figures were fine but there are so many books that are far better than this. The author seriously needs to take some writing classes. I had to use another book in conjunction with this one, inorder to make sure I got the concepts correct. Compared to the other book, Eckert Animal Physiology is nothing!

I have been teaching University-level physiology for over 10 years. I have used at least a dozen books, from the "essentials" to the "encyclopedic". For a one-semester course on physiology that emphasizes recurring mechanisms from a cellular and organ-level perspective, with a great introduction to ecological physiology thrown in, Eckert cannot be beat. In my experience, the vast majority of students respond better to Eckert's illustrations than to the endless flow charts that appear in most of the other books. It nicely fills the niche between "just the basics" essentials texts (which are simply not rigorous enough for biology majors) and the "every little detail" encyclopedic texts that most students find bewildering. If I had to learn animal physiology from just one textbook, this would be it; and I'd save the cell & molecular details from one of THOSE specialty texts instead. The ONLY criticism I have about Eckert is its nearly complete lack of consideration of the immune system.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who waited excitedly for this book only to discover that it was in French! Why is it even advertised in English?

I am incredibly frustrated to have anticipated this book, to have ordered it to be sent to my parents' house in Missouri, and to have had my mother ship it to me in Paris, where I live, only to find that it is a French translation. I should have paid more attention to the publisher, but ... everyone thought it was a new book! Bad advertising, fellas.

I thought this was a new book about Sedaris's further hilarious struggles with the French language, so I bought one copy for myself and another for my dad. Guess what? It's the French translation of "Me Talk Pretty One Day". I hope I can return them.

This is not a book to cheer you up. It purports to be a family story, the occasional gatherings of seven brothers at the home of their aging parents. But there's no glow, no real sense of understanding. Instead it has all the pettiness of family squabbling, too many tears in general, and all the dreariness of old age. It's written in short, choppy, irresolute sentences. It's not a book you quit in the middle, anymore than you would leave the room when a somewhat tiresome neighbor comes to call, but - as with the neighbor - you can't help but be glad when it's over.

I was expecting a detailed account of wines each of the domaines had to offer. Rather, it is a tour guide for potential visitors to the area. While I recognize - and fully agree with - the way the each of them are rated, but is it current?

Although very detailed, this book is geared more toward those taking frequent or extended trips on the canals of France. It's also aimed at boat owners (primarily those coming from Great Britain)as opposed to vacation boat renters. The detail is more on the navigation end of things. I guess I was looking for something geared more for the casual tourist who rents a boat for a week or so and needs details on towns, shops and services along the canals.