A very good book.

This is by no means a review. I find Bloom stimulating in all his various books even if frequently obscure and discursive. He incites me to want to know more. This book is no different. Don't know much about Kabbalah? Well, don't look here for answers (Bloom himself encourages you to seek out Gershom Sholem's work in the field). Instead you'll find insights into reading and interpretation, for this is what Bloom's entire oeuvre is really about--how we discover meaning in all aspects of human endeavor.

This book is a wonderful tease on one hand--name-dropping in an esoteric field is always interesting and makes me want to search out those "formidable" authors--and an attempt to fill in some of the gaps in Bloom's readers' knowledge--he's been talking Kabbalah from the beginning and in this dedicated volume you begin to really understand its hold on him.

Short and sweet and worth the effort.

I still have my incredibly beloved and beat-up copy from college days at Syracuse University; along with my "Complete Works of Shakespeare" (ed. Bevington)and Lumiansky's translation of "Canterbury Tales," this is one of those books I'll NEVER let go; if I had it with me on a desert island, I wouldn't mind being alone for a few years. It's got everything you could ask for from English lit., with excellent footnotes and introductory materials. A real treasure trove, and a must for anyone who really wants to start digging into the major Western writers -- yeah, those dead white guys; not so popular anymore -- just the ones who hold up the pillars of Western civilization!

A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams is one of the best plays that I have read in years. First adapted to film in 1951, by Oscar Saul. I must recommend this play to all theatre directors out there and say that this would be a very large hit.

Once again, I say that A Streetcar named desire is one of the best plays I have read.

i thought it was a good book....and would recommend this to any body who is into adventure

what doesn't this book have. action, adventure, excitement, war, it has everything. it's written in an easy to understand language (tho' that doesn't necessarily mean that you'll pick up on the symbolism that golding put into everything). and you definately get a totally different perception of the book as you get older (this is my third reading of it, and each time, i get something different from it). i think this should be required reading and that everyone should own a copy.

As always we see the "Love at first sight" theme. The nice change is the character Don John, who seems to merely have been placed into the story. The reader gets no explaination of his past, but we can conclude that he is determined to ruin the lives of the other characters. This allows the story to make many unfessable turns making it a great comedy

Have been trying to get this book for a long time, so I am highly satisfied.

Would not hesitate to use this bookselling team. They are courteous, caring and quick.

I first read this wonderful novel as a teenager while waiting for the movie starring Gregory Peck to be released that same summer. Again and again over the intervening decades since have I pulled down my hard-bound copy to read in whole or in part on a rainy afternoon because of its sheer drawing power. In today's complex world one tends to lose perspective as to how explosive, provocative, and sensational the issues of cross-race rape was in the early 1960s when Miss Lee's novel was originally published. Yet despite the sizzling if subdued sexual content and the divisive issues surrounding the book, it quickly rose to best-seller status and easily delivered the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Harper Lee with this, her first novel.

It is probably the character of Atticus Finch who deserves most of the credit for the novel's enduring popularity. Seldom has such a quietly heroic figure been so favorably and memorably described in such loving detail in an American novel as is fortyish Atticus Finch, the highly principled and somewhat befuddled widower-lawyer trying his level best to raise his two young children alone in the midst of the deep South during the early years of the Depression. As daughter Scout remembers, there was little that Atticus couldn't charm or talk his way out of. And, as played by Gregory Peck in the memorable movie, this thoughtful, moral, and courageous man became a model of modern American manhood for all who read or watched his story unfold.

Of course, the other characters are also lovingly and carefully drawn and described, and the way in which the importance and relevance of the mockingbird parable is sown at a number of different levels with a number of different characters is also one of the enduring treasures found within the pages of this book. Whether considering Tom Robinson, Boo Radley, Scout, Jem, or Atticus himself, we all come to better understand the ways in which all the individuals' stories and fate are intricately and inextricably interwoven with each other and into the fabric of a particular time and place.

Thus, we see the degree to which Atticus relies and depends on their black governess, and the degree to which he is concerned for her welfare as well. On the other hand, we watch as Bob Ewell acts despicably to mistreat people of color. There are volumes of wisdom herein regarding the treatment of human beings and the problems associated with trying to live in any particular place at any specific time. So well and accurately drawn are the characters of this fable of the life and times of Scout Finch in "To Kill A Mockingbird", that one can only hope it continues to be widely read and appreciated as a modern American classic.

Having re-read To Kill a Mockingbird several times since childhood (including this special edition). A southern tale of a widowed Atticus Finch raising his two children, Jem and Scout, in a community where people help each other and often times hurt one another. It is a beautiful story of family, childhood friendships, playful summers, injustice, hate, and love. Some have speculated that Truman Capote, cousin of Harper Lee, actually wrote this classic tale. I believe that Ms. Lee simply shared her wonderful childhood experiences with us. Thank you Harper! The writer Anais Nin has a wonderful quote that captures the personalities of Jem, Scout and Dill as portrayed by Harper Lee. "The people I find irresistable are those in whom the child was not killed. The qualities of openness, trust, inquisitiveness, tenderness, eagerness, enthusiasms...come from the child in us and are the source of charm. The laughter and smile that do not calculate, the spontaneity that is not arrested." For those who haven't learned why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird...READ THE BOOK.

This is one of my all time favorite book as well as my favorite movie. I think that those of us who have read the book love the fact that narrator as well as one of the main characters is a little girl named Scout. The story is seen through her eyes and this makes the book more enjoyable as well as easy to understand. Sometimes she's funny and witty, other times she's very intelligent and through out the story she's just trying to understand the world around her. Atticus Finch, Scouts father, is a wonderful character because he shows his love and respect for his children as well as for everyone else. He shows he has moral values rather than social ones when he defends a black man being accused of having raped a white women. This shows that no matter how bad or how wrong things are, there is always someone willing to stand up for what they believe, and that there are good people in the world. This took alot of courage on Atticus's part considering they lived in the South. And although he loves both his children dearly, he seems to have a special bond with Scout. He teaches her that a person doesn't really understand someone else until they've walked in their shoes. That is excellent advice no matter who you are or how old. What is also highly interesting, and very original to this story, is the mystery behind Boo Radley. He's one of the main characters in the story yet he never really appears in person. In the first half of the story the children talk so much about him that they make jokes and at some points make him sound like a monster, not knowing that in the end he's the one who saves the day. I believe that what I love the most of this story is that it isn't a love story or an action/adventure kind of story, but one that tells the experiences that all of us can learn from. They're experiences we see happen sometime in our lives. Justice and injustice, prejudice in the society we live in, and courage and respect for other human beings. Anyone and everyone can relate and learn from this story, this is why it's a wonderful story for anyone to enjoy.