"superfluous man " (Russian : Lishny Chelovek) : a character type whose frequent recurrence in
19th-century Russian literature is sufficiently striking to make him a national archetype. He is
usually an aristocrat, intelligent, well-educated, and informed by idealism and goodwill but
incapable, for reasons as complex as Hamlet's, of engaging in effective action.
-Encyclopaedia Britannica

In his great autobiography, Memoirs of a Superfluous Man, Albert Jay Nock meant that he was
superfluous because his ideas, particularly his belief in freedom, had become so outmoded at the time
he was writing--the 1940s. But the original superfluous men were Russian nobles, who led utterly
meaningless lives of leisure, while peasants worked their land, servants took care of them, and
autocratic government mostly ignored them. They were felt to be superfluous because they had so
little to do and made so little contribution to Russian culture. For the most part though, they were
treated, in literature anyway, as kind of tragic heroes, as Russian Hamlets.

Thus, in Ivan Turgenev's novella, The Diary of a Superfluous Man, the young protagonist,
Tchulkaturin, humiliates himself in a romantic entanglement and a resulting duel, all the while
conveying the sense that there's nothing else really left for him to do with himself. Turgenev's
portrayal of this hopeless character combines tragicomedy with social criticism, but it is certainly more
sympathetic than not.

As always, Turgenev is the most accessible of Russian authors; the Constance Garnett translation is
very readable; and it is blessedly short. Even if you're, understandably, intimidated by Russian
novelists, you'll enjoy it.

GRADE : B+

The Diary of a Superfluous Man is a diary of a fictional 30 year old man written during the last two weeks of his life. The dying man, Tchulkaturin, is exceptionally introspective and obssessed with his sense of failure and inferiority. His heated sensibilities stifle his will. He was a particular type in Russian literature, especially hated by the reformers of the day. In their eyes, he made no social contribution--hence, the term "superfluous".
The Diary is not just a negative romp of a self-pitying aesthete. True, there's much complaints, hysteria, and sentimentality, but it's relieved by Tchulkaturin's amusing self-awareness. Likening himself to a useless fifth horse on a carriage, dragged along by life, he says, "But, thank goodness, the station is not far off." It was said that his birth was the "forfeit" his mother paid in the card game of life. Turgenev's ironic humor and relentless yet light-hearted social criticism add sharp levity.
Tchulkaturin supports his self-assessment as superfluous with the "folly" of his life, a failed three week love affair which he claims was his only happiness. Through this vehicle Turgenev explores the themes of love, passion, illusion and will versus weakness, which is also the focus of the companion story, First Love.
Tchulkaturin remembers bliss and humiliation, but he did take action. We see that no one wants to be rescued from passion, not even Tchulkaturin. Does it matter whether he reached his goal? The townspeople eventually esteemed him--perhaps he did make a social contribution and wasn't, afterall, a superfluous man. Irony upon irony and no answers.
In his small room, confronting death, Tchulkaturin realizes that none of the pathetic facts of his life matter. Yet he laments he has "gained sense" too late. He sees what things have had meaning for him. No matter how small, he wants to hold onto them--he wants to live. The tragedy is that Tchulkaturin is universal, not superfluous. He, like most of us, come to realize that it is part of the human condition to feel that happiness and life seem to have hardly begun when nearly over.
At the end of the diary, after Tchulkaturin has died, Turgenev adds another ironic touch that doubles as a social comment and as a device to force the infinitely unvarnished and necessary view that life goes on however it will, regardless of how we may think we have lived.
First Love is the story of an adolescent who falls in love with the same woman as his father. It sensitively portrays the transformation of a child to a young man, precipated by his first passion. The unusual triangle intensifies the suspence as we wonder how the son will find out who his rival is--he knows there is one. His inevitable realization deepens his emotional life and his understanding of the complexities of human life.
The story has an episodic structure from which the poetry and drama effortessly unfold, showing the son's growing love and helpless flip-flopping from child to man.The parlor games portentuously hint at the untold subplot. No character is wasted. Each has a distinct purpose for plot development and highlighting the boy's predicament.
Turgenev's incomparable nature depictions have such a clarity of vision that vivid and penetrating images automatically arise in the mind's eye whether he uses them to symbolically presage events or to reflect a character's emotional state. Or, Turgenev can use his visions of the expansive beauty of nature in opposition to the character's emotional condition to distance us from it to show human insignifcance in the face of the vastness of existence.
The pairing of The Diary with First Love is good. Each is a meditation on life, love and death. The juxtaposition of the two love stories, the neurotic dying man, the intelligent, passionate young son, and the powerful, archetypal father stimulate profound thought: How should life be lived--passionately or safely? Why to we cling to life so, no matter how we perceive it? Who decides whose life is superfluous and whose is meaningful? What are the criteria? Is any life meaningful? Does it matter how we have lived if we can discard our regrets and wonder at the paradoxical smallness and greatness of life? Is any significance we attach to life a mere crutch to face life or a crutch to face death? Each rereading of the stories reveals more perspectives and more layers of meaning.

You heard me. Read the headline over again, and then do what it says.

Written for Malaysia, this book skimps on very little when it comes to tropical gardening.

Writer acknowledges that Malaysia's seasons (Hot/Wet and Hot/Very Wet) are not necessarily the same as, say, Indonesia's or Hawaii's. Therefore, the section on cacti and succulents is a bit scant. And I wished for a little more variety in palms. What nearly makes up for this is the completeness of all the other categories... shrubs, flowering plants, foliage plants, water plants, so on. Amazing detail is given for each plant and, often, its variations. Holtum can always be relied upon to comment on, say, a plant's success at high altitude or near the sea.

Lots of suggestions for how a plant should be used in relation to other species or what size garden it requires. But no landscaping sketches... this is all imparted through the text and sometimes photos. With each listing, the reader will be able to learn rates of growth, most appropriate methods of propagation, etc. Photos excellent but not always inserted RIGHT next to the appropriate text, and sometimes a plant is listed/written about in more than one place (without any good note to this fact). All in all, though, it's a useful reference book without extraneous chit chat.

Bonus for Indonesia and Malaysia: along with plants' common English name and Latin name, we get the Malay name (usually same as Indonesian). Extremely useful for dealing with local suppliers.

I have been very happy with this huge and generally well organized book. None of the gorgeous looking Periplus or smaller tropical plant books come close to the usefulness of this book.

This is a rather large book specifically written for gardeners in tropical regions of the world such as Malaysia and Singapore. It contains numerous plant photos and descriptions as well as basic gardening information relevant to those in tropical climates

However, it is a valuable resource for those growing tropical plants outside of these climates as well due to the number of photos and descriptive information on each plant. The book covers such topics as tropical climates, garden planning, pests, disesases and weeds in addition to information on topics such as bonsai.

I found some of the reading to be a bit in-depth for the typical indoor grower and was hoping to find plant by plant propagation information instead of a chapter of general information on the subject but as a plant reference book, you cannot go wrong with this one.

Finally a book about tropical plants for people living in the tropics. The main focus is on ornamental plants, however there are also informative sections on fruits, vegetables and garden care. The information is detailed, practical and, as I have discovered, accurate. In my opinion the style is very easy to read. The many photographs are invaluable for selecting appropriate plants. Originally the book was written for Malaysia and Singapore. However, my experience has been that the advice is also appropriate for Caribbean conditions.

Ivan was a friend of mine at the time he wrote this book. It was a radical change from the natural history books he had written in the 30's and 40's. He was an extraordinary individual who chose to see beyond the commonplace. I think one needs to read this book in the context of his earlier writings.

The chapter on the Atlantic Cedar forest stems from information my wife JoAnn and I brought to him. His interpretation far exceeded what I saw, yet I cannot honestly say it was in any way false or manipulated. I enjoyed the book almost as much as I enjoyed the man. Gerard Bentryn

This one of Mr.Sanderson's last books.And it doesn't disappoint.It deals with various Forteana and is almost like a 3rd book to the "Things" series by him.Amongst the subjects dealt with are:materials from the sky,spontaneous human combustion,sea monsters,petrification,eggs,native rain making/stopping,etc.I would recommend this book as well as the 2 earlier books that are extremely similar,"Things"and "More Things".

I am a pranormal investigator out of South Florida, and recently I was at a highschool durring an investigation. There was supposedly a ghost in the main library of the school. While running my emf meter near the book shelves, I found Ivan's book...interested I asked the librarian if I could take the book to read, and she said to me that I could have the book...after nothing turned up in the library I took the book home and read it...it's the best book I've read on the subject..I'd like to commend Ivan on the great writting.

This text book is outstanding in terms of clear pictures and detailed descriptions. It exhibits numerous color photos which help remember the clinical signs and appearances of common infectious diseases. On the other hand, the text excellently outlines and explains the underlying theory and treatments. This book takes a modern approach to teach Microbiology by introducing the contents in a system based mannar. This is very different from the traditional way of teaching the subject in which the materials are delivered species by species. I think this way is more clinically relevant and thus, suits the needs of health care students.

Medical Microbiology would be an excellent reference book for any microbiologist. It contains general information about any bacterium you can imagine as well as overviews of the diseases various bacteria cause. Symptoms, complications, diagnosis, and treatment options are covered in detail. The book also contains wonderfully vivid pictorial accounts of the bacteria and their various modes of pathogenicity. A fascinating, well-organized text of sophisticated microbiology!

At least a very "biologically correct" textbook of microbial diseases, I'm going to translate it only for fun, for me and for my italian entourage; and so many beautiful pictures that I never seen before in a similar text in Italy. I'd like to translate it for publication if possible. Antonio Angioi (microbiologist), Sassari, Italy

John Simon has always been an acerbic critic. Gore Vidal once characterised him as a 'literary gangster', a critic with his flick knife always at the ready. Those who find the Simon style bracing will thoroughly enjoy "Paradigms Lost", a collection of articles written for "More" and "Esquire" magazines in the late 'seventies. There is plenty of fire here. The single most brilliant essay in the collection seizes upon fellow film critic Rex Reed. Simon finds Reed the most exalted film critic in the country; he leaves him, approximately five hundred words later, a tattered mess. Simon's clean and supple prose sets its jaws about the neck of Reed's flabby metaphors and bites down.It is one of the most brilliant hatchet jobs in a throughly distinguished carving career. Yet, despite Simon's intemperance, I found this collection to be fuelled by love rather than hate: love for language. Simon's targets are those who would see the English languge become a morass of jargon and inaccuracy. He resents those who believe that people should be encouraged to speak 'the language of the streets' rather than being coached in the fundamentals of English grammar and syntax. The majority of Simon's jeremiads are directed at 'educators' who appear to believe that they should not 'educate'; and he is unfailingly witty and accurate in his denunciations. There will be those who find in Simon a certain reactionary edge. It is true that most of his targets are from the progressive, liberal side of politics. Exclusion, however, is not his aim. While his enemies would fracture schooling along a whole range of pidgin-divides, Simon extolls the beauties of 'Standard English', and he insists that it be made available to all. To avoid creating linguistic ghettos, he urges the fostering of a single, coherent means of communication. Street dialect can retain its status as a second language for use among the cognoscenti, but its place is outside the classroom. That nobody in authority seems to be listening infuriates him; but Simon's message is not one of embittered resignation. Repeatedly he urges that people concerned with language, people who deem it a virtue to say exactly what they mean with the minimum of ornament and fuss, go out and spread the word. Only by fighting the obfuscatory tendencies of others can the English language continue to remain a tool for efficient communication. As a polemic, the collection is first-rate; as a guide to write and speak by, it is equally sound; as a reading experience it is thoroughly enjoyable - stylishly written and cogently argued.

I needed to cite Simon in a paper I was writing on the origins of linguistic prescriptivism. In particular, his quote, "the lapses of the great ones do not make a wrong a right" is a superb response to the advocates of singular "they" and similar illiteracisms. When challenged, these types tend to bolster their arguments with references to such use by Bronte, Austen, et al., yet even the descriptivist _Webster's Dictionary of English Usage_ offers Simon's comment as a nod to the purist camp. I decided to investigate Simon's _Paradigms Lost_ to learn a bit more about this man and his ideas and found the book to be a totally engaging and insightful read. Some of the material (the book is a compilation of essays) is dated insofar as a knowledge of who his targets are is necessary to appreciate his literary criticism thoroughly. If you are familiar with Gore Vidal and Rex Reed you are in his intended audience. My only quibble with the author is that, being a non-native speaker, he occasionally criticizes a common usage that is vibrant and offers a correct but lukewarm alternative; he can be overly picky. This is, after all, a man who will critique a 500-page work with comments such as "I found a split infinitive on page 453, but otherwise the book was fairly well written." Like Mencken and Buckley, Simon truly enjoys the lesser-known and exotic word and few will leave _Paradigms Lost_ without having acquired some useful additions to their vocabularies and a better knowledge of where the battle lines have been drawn in a number of skirmishes on the usage front. Grammar mavens: This is a must for your bookshelf.

This is a very highbrow and uncompromising examination of our declining standards. Simon is one of the most astute theater and film critics currently writing. His understanding of English is truly awe-inspiring (and don't forget that it's something like his third or fourth language). You may feel chastised while you read it, but if you care about the future of the English language, you will agree that Paradigms Lost is indispensable.

Well, we have been receiving updates in the Penguin Guide a lot. This latest offering is well up to the standard, and many new releases and a considerable amount of new repertoire are covered here. However, I cannot quite give this book full recommendation because they do not quite understand what sort of playing is poor value and what is not. They think that an hour is not good value at premium price but is definitely good value at mid-price. Also, they have criticised some recordings unfairly, such as the Abbado Dvorak New World, which is actually a better performance than they say so. But overall, I find this book slightly disappointing and I cannot recommend it fully.

For any collector of classical music this book is a must have resource. Keeping ahead of, or even up with the amount of classical recordings in today's market is a near impossibility, but with some help from Penguin you can at least make an attempt to. I find some disagreement with some choices and know that I find they leave out some of what I consider to be good recordings, but it's mainly just personal taste, I have never been unhappy with a recording I purchased based in the recomendation of the Penguin staff.

As has been the case ever since I began reading these wonderful guides in the late 80s, this volume updating the complete 1999 compilation of the Penguin Guide is comprehensive, entertaining, and highly informative. It contains reviews of thousands upon thousands of new and reissued CDs, which are full of wit and insight and which are up to the authors' usual high standards. The separate alphabetical listings on invididual performers, which unfortunately were omitted from the 1999 guide because of lack of space, are incredibly valuable.

I have used this book on several times, teaching an undergraduate managerial econ. course with 25-35 students. The overall reaction was good, most students understood the contents and felt that the text concentrated on usable tools, not just abstract economic models. The book may need supplementation for some types of students, something that allows them to do their own empirical or quasi empirical applicatons of some of the tools (e.g., a demand study using Excel).

Let's say that you are not an economist, you are just a business man as I am, when you are ask about microecomics maybe you can still recall something from the university days... but what if you are ask about a soundly pricing policy? usage of elasticities? cost curves? marginal cost/revenues? Do you still feel comfortable with what you recall from university? Maybe not, like me. If you are wondering about having a single book of microeconomics, this book is the one you are looking for (it is also great for MBAs).

As an undergraduate Economics minor, general manager of a software company, and current MBA candidate, I consider Png's Managerial Economics work an essential addition to any business leader's library - especially anyone required to make key, informed decisions in the presence of scarce resources.

Dr. Png's Managerial Economics is head and shoulders above comparable managerial economics texts due to Png's use of relevant, real-world examples that drive home the course fundamentals. Dr. Png's content combines the science of Economics with the tenets of business strategy, providing the student with the key perspective needed to make intelligent business decisions in today's ever-changing business environment.

Instead of plodding over-explanation or over-simplification like many comparable texts, Dr. Png's work delivers the course concepts with informed clarity. Instead of feeling stupefied or unworthy after reading each chapter of the text, I increasingly gained a sense of knowledge and understanding as I progressed. This is the great difference between Dr. Png's work and the other comparable texts I have used: instead of feeling mystified, I finished the book with a higher degree of workable, usable economic know-how, that I have already incorporated into my every-day decision making

I highly recommend Dr. Png's Managerial Economics (2nd. Ed.) text to any student of business or anyone simply interested in keeping current with cutting-edge economic thought.

As many books written before computers the exercises in this book crumble before a program as Mathematical Explorer by Wolfram [Here at Amazon for 75 bucks]. In fact most are done with no strain on a hand calculator [I use an old Hewlett Packard 48g which you can buy here but hasn't been made, new, for years] . So, basically, all you are learning from the exercises is how to program your computer or calculator .

The author uses a style which presents a calculation without explaining how to do it for 70 more pages. I presume this is to make one 'think for themselves' but I will dream on what I choose not what someone thinks that I should.

By reason of its organization this is a hard book for self study. The facts are there, however. Although I have no alternative there must be one.

Two weeks ago I ordered about 10 math books from Amazon, and this book is the only one I have been reading-- I just cannot stop reading it.
It is not difficult to understand and it has very interesting problems. The title fits the book very well. Although I am taking statistics class in school, my understanding of combinations and permutations was very shallow before I started reading this book. I really appreciate the author. Thank you, Prof. Ivan Niven. I hope there are more math books like this one. And I wish our math textbooks can be this fun. Highyly recommend it to anybody who loves having fun with math.

There are few books which can even come close to the lucidity and simplicity with which Ivan Niven explains the basics of combinations and permutations.He even puts forth difficult topics like Generating Polynomials in the most simple and understandable fashion.No doubt this is a prescribed book at Harvard!! It has personally helped me in preparing and coming out successful for admission to the Indian Institute of Technology institutes,which is one of the toughest examinations in the world . The book is suitable for anyone who wants to understand the maths involved in making a choice.This will be of great help for High School students, Under Graduates,Graduates and teachers of Mathematics.A gem from Ivan Niven.

If you are looking for a book to bridge the gap between a beginner at linux and an admin this the the book to buy. And that is precisely the problem. This book assumes a fair amount of knowledge about linux. if you do have this level of knowledge, this book will bring you up to the level of a beginner admin, at which point you will have to go out and buy books on topics like Apache, Networking and so on. If however, you are prepared to read through some 1000 pages, and then an armful of other books, HOWTOs and man pages you will not be disappointed.

I would suggest this book to all Red Hat users who are bored with the beginner books and are looking to expand their knowledge of linux. The system admin information contained in this book is useful in the "real world". Thumbs up!

Exceptionally informative, well presented and very highly recommended, Red Hat Linux System Administration Unleashed shows readers how to configure and manage a Linux system to keep it running optimally in a 24x7 environment. The book covers advanced topics such as RAID, customizing the kernel, and hacker security. Readers will also learn the issues and skills related to running Red Hat Linux with other operating systems, internetworking Linux in a network setting with a large user base. Intermediate - Advanced, 1100 pages.

_Rudin_ is a good novel by Ivan Turgenev, but altogether non-essential, unless you want to read all of his works.

The character Rudin is a fortunate young man in 1860s Russia, a man around thirty years of age, in the prime of his life. He is very much a superfluous man, like the man Turgenev wrote of in his shorter story "A Superfluous Man." He is all talk and no action. He has high-minded ideals but can not transfer them into deeds.

I suppose Turgenev saw many young Russian men of his generation who served as the basis for Rudin, the character. Natalya, Rudin's love interest, at least has the fortitude to translate her ideals into actions, but she is offered fewer possibilities by Russian society. She comes off more sympathetically than the title character, but she is female, and therefore a minor character in a Turgenev work. I found her more interesting, and similar to the female main character in _Oblomov_ by Goncharov.

The political edge on this novel is not nearly so sharp as that on _Fathers and Sons_. Mostly this seems a personal and emotional novel, rather than a political novel. A student wanting a general grounding in the major novels of Russian Literature can probably skip _Rudin_. On the other hand, if you read _Fathers and Sons_ and found that book very rewarding, you may want to take a peek at _Rudin_, to see what another (earlier) novel by Turgenev is like.

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Rudin is the lead character in this short novel, which reads like a play set in mid nineteenth century Russia. He enters into a provincial society peopled by the usual array of grand dames, eccentrics, local radicals, and beautiful / eligible debutant-daughter, with whom he (believes he) falls in love.

Whilst the characters and setting is characteristic of many European novels of the time, the story takes an unexpected turn. Rudin is a fateful character, and one whose shallowness and egotism is exposed by the young daughter who he seduces. Turgenev manages to present Rudin as a sympathetic character albeit imbued with the resignation that he is a 'superfluous man' (cf. 'A Hero of Our Times' by Lermontov)

The book is well written and deserves a place in the canon of nineteenth century Russian novels . Particularly recommended for anyone who has read Fathers and Sons.

This is a simple parable, told within a beautiful story. We meet Rudin through several people's eyes and learn much more about him from the differences others see in him than we learn directly. It is facsinating to see the interplay between the man's fantasies and his facade. You are left with very profound and troubling unanswered questions about your own life and our tenuous connections to "reality." This is a powerful volume for anyone who is seriously and sincerely examining their own motives, especially if you are dissatisfied with your current conclusions.