Superbly written view of the class struggle in 19th century Paris. Goriot buys his daughters up in social standing with their doweries but pays even more dearly in the end. As the suspense builds so does the realization of the inevitable outcome. Balzac presents a realistic view of the era, at times funny and at times full of promise but in the end squarely melancolic. The dialogue is crisp. Definitely worth the read.

Having read this book cover to cover, it is difficult to understand how this man obtained the Proffessorship he currently enjoys at London's premier academic institution. Nevertheless, the book itself is clear enough, a good exposition of British strategic policy. Interesting particularly on colonial policy, he finds a mixture of continuity and change between the Glorious Revolution and First World War. Don't read it for fun, don't read it for bangs, but as an academic resource it rates highly. Not just quite highly enough to justify that prestigious chair...

First off, this new edition of "Candide" has numerous virtues, not the least of which is the amazing erudition invested in the explanatory footnotes that run the length of Voltaire's text. Wootton puts his (and others') knowledge of this masterpiece to good use, and his clarifications are invaluable, helping both to situate Voltaire's thought in the context of his own life and culture, and to resurrect some of the more historically specific humor that has, sadly, been bled away by the last two and a half centuries. Why is it funny, for example, that Voltaire sends his naive protagonist first to the Bulgars? Wootton tells you.

Second, the wealth of contextual material is great for enlarging the reader's understanding of the intellectual climate that Voltaire is critiquing. The Leibniz summary chosen is a bit opaque (small bits of the "Theodicee" would have worked better towards explaining the basics of Leibniz, or at least Voltaire's merciless version of Leibniz), but the portions of Pope and the excerpts of Voltaire's correspondence are enlightening.

The translation is, by and large, very good. We lose a little humor (which always happens in translation), as when the baron's wife is said, due to her weight, to be "regarded as a person of substance" (2); Voltaire here says that, due to her weight, she "s'attirait par là une très grande considération [attracted great consideration]," a wee comical nod to Newtonian physics that must be seen as the first scientific pun of many to come.

This is minor, but another moment of the translation gives me great pause, and, judging from Wootton's impassioned introductory defense of his decision, it must have given him greater pause. Most translations of "Candide" have reliably rendered the famous final lines as "we must cultivate our garden," or something to that effect. Very few have dared omit the word "garden." Wootton delivers it as "we must work our land," and he defends his choice with a well-reasoned appeal to Voltaire's cultural context and correspondence, and claims further that the great symbolic appeal of the "Garden of Eden" image was largely behind the traditional rendering of the line as "we must cultivate our garden." The problem with his defense is not just that Voltaire's line bluntly (and literally) reads "il faut cultiver notre jardin [we must cultivate our garden]," but that the Garden of Eden resonance of which Wootton is so wary is not imported by the reader but rather quite present in "Candide," and even in Wootton's translation of "Candide." When, on page 3 of this translation, Candide is "driven out of the Garden of Eden," he begins a motion that will eventually cycle him back, older and wiser, to a different garden, one drained of religious specificity but not resonance. By tampering with Voltaire's last line, Wootton's translation robs the narrative of its aggressive insistence on this return.

This is fairly nit-picky stuff, though, and any reader can keep the translation difficulties squarely in mind, since Wootton makes--to his credit--no attempt to conceal them. So what you have, in the end, then, is a largely faithful and superbly readable rendition of a work that does not fail, to this day, to make us think, laugh, and feel ashamed. Unpalatable social insitutions like slavery fall under Voltaire's sharp attack, as does the particular cruelty of which organized religion has shown itself capable. The guileless protagonist is back in vogue (see the tributes to Candide in Boyle's "Tortilla Curtain" and Groom's "Forrest Gump"), as candid as ever. For [the price], that's a lot of bang for your buck.

This book consists of biographies/medical histories of the three dictators Napoleon, Hitler and Stalin. Of the three, perhaps Napoleon comes across as the better man, but considering the other two that he is compared against, that is not much of a compliment.
What struck me about all three men was their utter ruthlessness and greed for power. Napoleon sacrificed his army in hopeless wars without any remorse, along with Hitler and Stalin. But Hitler and Stalin also participated directly in the murder of innocent civilians for reasons that only could make sense to someone hungry for power and paranoid to the extreme.
Dr. Neumayr reviews their lives, their physical ailments, and to a certain extent their mental health. But by no means is this a book that rambles on with page after page of suppositions and hastily drawn conclusions. To be sure, the mental health of all three is questioned, but were they insane? After reading about the millions of lives that these men took, and the misery caused for their countries, it is even more chilling to know that they knew exactly what they were doing.
All three paid the price for their murder, deceit and immorality. Dr Neumayr examines their physical health, and toward the end of their lives they all suffered from many physical ailments, some directly caused by the stress that their ambitions placed on them. But the suffering they had was as nothing compared to the suffering they caused.
I have also read Dr. Neumayer's three-volume biography/medical history of the great classical music composers. If your interest in famous people goes beyond learning a few facts about their lives, then these books will certainly be of interest to you. Highly recommended!

When I picked this book from the shelf I was immediately entranced by the extraordinary illustration of an elephant named Elmer. It wasn't so much that I thought my daughter would enjoy the read, I knew I would. Elmer is a character that I'd never encountered before, but the idea of a patchwork elephant struck me as simple but brilliant. Anyway, last Wednesday evening my daughter became the testing ground for this work. She was delighted the moment the book was opened. On the first page we see our patchwork elephant against the backdrop of rainbow colours. And what is he thinking? You can tell from the gorgeous red hearts which represent his thoughts that he is truly in love with colour. His colourful and amusing journeys, which would delight any child, include seeing a snowman, balancing fruit on his trunk and eating a popsicle at the beach. This book can be enjoyed by a very young child with the attention getting colours and shapes and by the same child when they later reach the reading stage. Having read Elmer's Colours I've now determined to track down the other titles in the series.

Elmer's day is a wonderful book for toddlers. My son loves this book because he can "read" a word on every page. Elemr looks different from normal elephants with his multi-colored skin, however many ordinary-looking elephant are also depicted. I think that although this book will not be a favorite for a long time, it is great for 1 1/2 years olds because they like the simple drawings, bright colors, and the familiar context.

I just got this for a friend of mine, and I'm pleased I get to enjoy it for a few days before I have to give it up. Just looking at the book makes me wish I was back in France--anywhere in France...

It's a great book, well made, with gorgeous photographs. Organized regionally, the recipes all come from traditional local French tradition (so the author claims, and I see no reason to doubt her). Most of them are relatively simple and straightforward, and require little 'Cordon Bleu' technical knowledge. And all of this stuff is delicious!

Some minor points--but perhaps not minor to everyone. It's quite a shame that the book has no pictures of the food or of how to prepare the recipes, but this is really minor. However, for the American market (they must have considered that market, since all temperatures are in ºF also), it would have been nice had the author given us more options with ingredients. For instance, I can't get creme fraiche here, and a reminder of how to make it would be very useful. Also, I am sure one could find substitutes for, for instance, the various local cheeses she uses. Most of the recipes involving cheese I can't make, since cheese-options in the South are basically limited to Velveeta and (processed) Cheddar, and a few imports. But which ones to use?

That is why I can only rate the book with four stars: it limits my options. Surely this does not apply to a European buyer, but hey, I'm not in Europe, am I? Still, I am looking forward to hours of cooking and eating using Mme. Tilleray's book. If you need me, I'll be in the kitchen, fattening up.

Bellos' big, exhaustive raccount of the life and works of one of France's most contreversial modern writers is a thorough insight, both into the family background, the struggles of a writer trying to make a living, and the works themselves. Perecs' books, peppered with clues, quizzes and games, are reinterpreted, giving the reader a new incentive to go back to the texts to more fully understand the author, as essentially a "normal" man.

Originally titled "Camus for Beginners", this concise biography combines personal information, short excerpts, and vivid cartoons to illuminate the man behind the modern literary myth.

Although I had read The Fall, The Plague, The Stranger, and a few collections of essays a decade earlier, I had only a vague memory of Camus' actual life and conflicts. This fine book, which I read in less than two hours, remains a solid primer. Both longtime admirers of Camus and undergraduate students forced to read his celebrated novels should find this brief work a valuable investment of time.

It's also worth noting that cartoons are often read by adults in Europe. The format provides readers with a superficial, yet accessible and non-threathening, way to enter into academic and philosophical discussions. College and high school teachers of French, literature, and philosophy would benefit from adding this book to their students while assigning any novel by Camus.

This is a good Agatha Christie style mystery, though I was able to correctly determine the guilty party halfway through the book (something I fail to do when reading Poirot...so this should provide for you a good gauge of the book's mystique). What is remarkable about this book, and what I think was omitted above in the reviews, is that it was written by the real life editor of The Friends of Marcel Proust and Combray society's bulletin, Elyane Dezon-Jones. Her descriptions of Proust's home make you feel like you are really there. When this book was first published, in French, it caused a stir amoung the Society's members, most notably with association's real life Secretary. Can you guess who the book's first murder victim was...?