As first, I must clear some possible misunderstanding. I'm referring to a book by Hermann and Georg Schreiber called in German "Versunkene Städte - Ein Buch von Glanz und Untergang", in English: "Sunken cities - A book of glitter and downfall". The book, as you read, was published in 1922, when in Vienna, Austria, Georg Schreiber was born to a father called Hermann Schreiber, who was a librarian (his first son, also Hermann, was then two years old). If this book was written by their father, I apologize for inconvenience, I had no opportunity to check this fact out. The book I am referring to was published by Paul Neff Verlag in 1955 and is very pleasant for reading. The book itself is divided into three sections named Elements, Gold and War. It covers various cities all over the world, some of them are proven to have existed in the past, other live as even greater legends. Since they have visited some ancient ruins they are describing, I believe that there is no necessity to doubt about the archaeological facts stated in the book. The authors (both brothers have written this book) have added much of the volume to the living in this cities, which is much more speculative and not necessarily true, but is written with a lot of feeling and style. Therefore I didn't decide to take away any stars from them due to this dreaming. I have a Slovenian translation of this work, in which due to printing costs photographies are reduced to half of amount in original work. Still some photos (in black & white) are impressive. Everyone who is interested in ancient history should read this book and take out of it whatever he wants. Many things are not proven, but very nicely narrated. Many cities existed, yet there's no trace of them. This book is food for soul; if you take it that way, it is excellent.

Just like other masters of German philosophy, Hegel is notorious for the inaccessibility. Kant, Husserl, Heidegger, all call for reader to master the history of Western philosophy before deciphering their works. When it comes to Hegel¡¯s ¡®Phenomenology of the Mind¡¯, the author¡¯s demand on reader goes too far. Every chapter in the part of ¡®Consciousness¡¯ is, in fact, the history of philosophy with no referring any specific names. Moreover, ¡®Introduction¡¯ is not at all introducing reader into anything. It¡¯s the recapturing of the whole work. It must be the most difficult part in the book. So it¡¯s incomprehensible until you reads through the final page of the book. Reading Hegel is like swimming through wet sand. Moreover, Hegel published absolutely nothing preceding ¡®Phenomenology of the Mind¡¯. This fact compounded the difficulty immensely. So much so that one is forced to regard that complex work so something that sprung full-grown, like Athena, from the head of Zeus.

But with Lukacs¡¯s help, you can manage to read Hegel with much more ease. I think Hegel¡¯s contemporary readers had no such difficulty in reading his works. Kant¡¯s propositions and the problem of British empiricism and continental rationalism were the common sense to them. But that kind of knowledge should be obtained, to us, with hard work through reading history of philosophy. Moreover, we can¡¯t sense the historical events like French revolution as vividly as Hegel and his contemporaries felt. We can¡¯t share the same horizon with Hegel. To overcome such obstacles, Hegel¡¯s time should be reconstructed. To do so, Lukacs traced back unpublished manuscripts from Hegel¡¯s gymnasium days to just before writing ¡®Phenomenology of the Mind¡¯. And that, he links Hegel¡¯s personal history to his contemporary events, to show why Hegel thought so. Lukacs¡¯s illustration is easy and graphic enough to grasp who Hegel is. It¡¯s the touch of master. As you know Lukacs is a celebrated Hegelian Marxist philosopher. He opened up the track Frankfurt school and other Hegelian Marxists followed. This book is so much aged. Lukacs wrote this book when he escaped from the hand of Nazi to Moscow. But I haven¡¯t heard of any big name with Hegelian trait since World War II. Only Marxist reads Hegel now. And in the field of philosophy, Hegel and Marxism is out of fashion. So you can¡¯t expect any master like Lukacs write a intellectual biography on Hegel. If you try Hegel, this book is ¡®must¡¯.

Not a "complete collection" of his work, although it does claim to reproduce all of his 'major' oils. It would seem that, given he died before the age of 30, his entire known work or paintings could have been reproduced in one book. Nevertheless, this book does represent a more complete collection that I have seen in any other Schiele books to date. I have been hanging out to get a good book of his work, and finally purchased when I saw this one in a bookshop. In other publications, the colour balance of some works has been a little different (for example I have seen more vibrant/colourful versions of the family squatting).

...and very frame-worthy prints! Also, a very good range and variety of his works.

Jammed with photos of Schiele, the different subjects and styles from his short career, and background information. This book also serves as a biography in many ways. Schiele's style is full of life's decay and resurrection. His work is only seen as being decadent because we have alienated ourselves so completely from nature and human nature. The natural decay of life is only ugly when one thinks one is above it all or removed from the process. His young nude girls have a silken decadence that glimpses into our natural beauty and being. Instead of turning from the mirror when one sees something less than what one wants to see, Schiele turns the spotlight on until the image is engraved into our psyche. The power of his colors and strokes and images are second to none. He's controversial. But so is Darwin. He tells us things we don't want to hear or see.

W. G. Sebald's "The Rings of Saturn" is categorized as a work of fiction, although it is often difficult to discern what is, in fact, imagined and what is real. Dreamlike, mysterious, sublime, enigmatic, strange--all these adjectives appropriately have been used to describe Sebald's remarkable work of literary, philosophical and historical imagination.

"The Rings of Saturn" is a first person narrative of the author's year-long ramble through East Anglia beginning in August, 1992. It is a "ramble" not only in the physical sense--a walker's tour and observation of the natural surroundings and history of the land--but also in the mental sense, being a series of historical, philosophical and psychological digressions triggered by everything Sebald sees and experiences on his journey. The landscapes are, thus, both interior and exterior. They are also landscapes that exist not only in the present, but extend back into the past and forward into the future; both natural and mental history become trans-temporal, the ground for a dreamlike ponderousness that, at times, takes the reader's breath away.

"The Rings of Saturn" is, in many ways, a dark relation of the author's experience, for he "became preoccupied not only with the unaccustomed sense of freedom but also with the paralysing horror that had come over [him] at various times when confronted with the traces of destruction, reaching far back into the past, that were evident even in that remote place." He ends up, at the end of his journey--"a year to the day after [he] began his tour"--in a total state of immobility in a Norwich hospital. It is here that the book begins, that Sebald "began in [his] thoughts to write these pages."

Filled with grainy and sometimes mysterious, disturbing and imaginatively illustrative black and white photographs of the narrator's thoughts and experiences, "The Rings of Saturn" is equally fertile in flights of imaginative and historical reflection. Thus, the author's stay in the Norwich hospital leads to a digressive exploration of the obscure writings of the seventeenth century writer Thomas Browne, whose skull was at one time kept in the hospital's museum, an old-time cabinet of wonders. This, in turn, runs into a discursis on Rembrandt's painting, "The Anatomy Lesson". Reaching the seaside leads to an exploration of the history of herring fishing. The dim recollection of a PBS documentary on the life of Roger Casement, a recollection floating in the narrator's mind as he drifts off to sleep, leads to a detailed exploration of Joseph Conrad's experiences in the Belgian Congo, where Conrad had briefly encountered Casement.

The digressions go on and on. "The Rings of Saturn" is, in a sense, like being in the mind of Sebald during the course of time, a mind experiencing reality, dreaming illusion, and speculating on nature, man, literature, and time. The imaginary becomes real; the real, imaginary. Thus, tracts of Borges are cited as authority, treated as valid scientific works, when Sebald discusses time. "The denial of time, so the tract on Orbius Tertius tells us, is one of the key tenets of the philosophical schools of Tlon. According to this principle, the future exists only in the shape of our present apprehensions and hopes, and the past merely as memory."

Conflating the real and imaginary, the historical and the fictional, "The Rings of Saturn" represents an obsessive and powerful work of literature, a narrative that shows the uncanny ways in which imagination can be used to connect our lives with the world and with the past, even though "we know that we shall never be able to fathom the imponderables that govern our course through life."

W. G. Sebald's "The Rings of Saturn" is categorized as a work of fiction, although it is often difficult to discern what is, in fact, imagined and what is real. Dreamlike, mysterious, sublime, enigmatic, strange--all these adjectives appropriately have been used to describe Sebald's remarkable work of literary, philosophical and historical imagination.

"The Rings of Saturn" is a first person narrative of the author's year-long ramble through East Anglia beginning in August, 1992. It is a "ramble" not only in the physical sense--a walker's tour and observation of the natural surroundings and history of the land--but also in the mental sense, being a series of historical, philosophical and psychological digressions triggered by everything Sebald sees and experiences on his journey. The landscapes are, thus, both interior and exterior. They are also landscapes that exist not only in the present, but extend back into the past and forward into the future; both natural and mental history become trans-temporal, the ground for a dreamlike ponderousness that, at times, takes the reader's breath away.

"The Rings of Saturn" is, in many ways, a dark relation of the author's experience, for he "became preoccupied not only with the unaccustomed sense of freedom but also with the paralysing horror that had come over [him] at various times when confronted with the traces of destruction, reaching far back into the past, that were evident even in that remote place." He ends up, at the end of his journey--"a year to the day after [he] began his tour"--in a total state of immobility in a Norwich hospital. It is here that the book begins, that Sebald "began in [his] thoughts to write these pages."

Filled with grainy and sometimes mysterious, disturbing and imaginatively illustrative black and white photographs of the narrator's thoughts and experiences, "The Rings of Saturn" is equally fertile in flights of imaginative and historical reflection. Thus, the author's stay in the Norwich hospital leads to a digressive exploration of the obscure writings of the seventeenth century writer Thomas Browne, whose skull was at one time kept in the hospital's museum, an old-time cabinet of wonders. This, in turn, runs into a discursis on Rembrandt's painting, "The Anatomy Lesson". Reaching the seaside leads to an exploration of the history of herring fishing. The dim recollection of a PBS documentary on the life of Roger Casement, a recollection floating in the narrator's mind as he drifts off to sleep, leads to a detailed exploration of Joseph Conrad's experiences in the Belgian Congo, where Conrad had briefly encountered Casement.

The digressions go on and on. "The Rings of Saturn" is, in a sense, like being in the mind of Sebald during the course of time, a mind experiencing reality, dreaming illusion, and speculating on nature, man, literature, and time. The imaginary becomes real; the real, imaginary. Thus, tracts of Borges are cited as authority, treated as valid scientific works, when Sebald discusses time. "The denial of time, so the tract on Orbius Tertius tells us, is one of the key tenets of the philosophical schools of Tlon. According to this principle, the future exists only in the shape of our present apprehensions and hopes, and the past merely as memory."

Conflating the real and imaginary, the historical and the fictional, "The Rings of Saturn" represents an obsessive and powerful work of literature, a narrative that shows the uncanny ways in which imagination can be used to connect our lives with the world and with the past, even though "we know that we shall never be able to fathom the imponderables that govern our course through life."

Tomorrow is the first death anniversary of W G Sebald. On behalf of his adoring readers I wish to pay homage to this astonishing writer whose sublime novels are the noblest artefacts of the literary conscience of our times and a gift to humanity. Sebald has left us the true literary masterpieces of the 1990s and the inaugural texts of tomorrow's fiction. A postmodern-existentialist, Sebald channeld a deep drift of pensive introspection into pathbreaking narratives of elegiac wisdom and enchanting beauty that explain who we are in time,history and the cosmos. An account of a walking tour of Suffolk undertaken in 1992,The Rings of Saturn dizzly spirals beyond walking the ephemeral earth where "it takes just one awful second, I often think, and an entire epoch passes" into a celestial contemplation that soars to include everything and exclude nothing and reach a heaven of "a time when the tears will be wiped from our eyes and there will be no more grief or pain, or weeping and wailing." As he travels through the Suffolk countryside, Sebald unifies numberless people, places and events that are normally scattered in time and space into the ulitimate epiphany of the eternity of a moment and the infinity of a place that comes streaming into his consciousness in a narrative annunciation like " the rays of the sun...that used to appear in religious pictures symbolizing the presence above us of grace and providence." While "it seems a miracle that we should last so much as a single day," it is an imponderable enigma that our hopeless ephemerality allows us companionship in consciousness with countless centuries. Befitting a novel about the mystery of Oneness, Sebald's title is mystically grand and suggests that the writing of his novel is not different from the occurrence of the rings of Saturn. Can we walk in eternity? Can we walk to eternity. Sebald has.

As noted by other reviewers, this reading of Hegel is a post-Nietzsche, post-Marx, post-Heidegger one (meaning it incorporates or synthesizes these post-Hegel, though influenced-by-Hegel, strains of thought). It is therefore scorned by some Hegel 'purists' like Mr. Trejo below. However, having read quite a few commentaries on and interpretations of the Phenomenology I can say that this one is the most well-written, in the sense that it illuminates some very difficult Hegelian concepts (like "Spirit" or Geist itself) in a searingly direct manner. I have also never read another writer so convincing in their argument as to Hegel's essential rightness in his description of the Concept which brings closure to the riddle of Western metaphysics.

I would agree with the 'purists' in not taking this book as the 'definitive' interpretation of Hegel - it can't excuse not reading Hegel in the original, or other commentaries - but I would call it essential within the spectrum of Hegelian thought.

Interestingly, this book shows Hegel, though famously critical of Kant, to be essentially the extender of the Kantian philosophy to it's logical conclusion which is the completion of the Concept of Experience, identified as Time itself (ZeitGeist). That is, Human Time, initiated by Human Desire, as the Absolute Subject constructing itself rationally via reflection on it's Object-negating activity or creativity, not in the classical notion of a rational Time as existing somehow outside or independently of a Subject).

Kojeve's reading however, though convincing in it's demonstration of anthropologically necessary Historical development toward Hegelian 'harmony' between Subject and Object, leaves out Hegel's attempt at the absolute identity of the Object itself. This can be read in two ways that Kojeve touches on. First, in the truer-to-Hegel sense that the Object is necessarily different from the Subject to ensure the ability of the Subject to realize itself as Self, as free Subject of Object-negating, creative, activity. Another way to read this is as simply Kojeve's dismissal of Hegel's Philosophy of Nature and it's more cosmic attempt at spiritualizing the notion of matter. Either way, as many Hegel commentator's have noted, one is left, though certainly further enlightened as to the nature of subjectivity, with a sense that there is still something 'out there' and unknown, ala Kant's 'thing-in-itself'. This can be understood as the Heidegger-influenced side of Kojeve's reading.

My own conclusion at the moment is that both Hegel and the existentialist school following him ala Heidegger and Kojeve can be understood as essentially philosophers of subjectivity in the Western tradition who have rationally illuminated, but also exhausted the questioning of the Self about it's nature. As our great contemporary philosopher in the Continental tradtion Jurgen Habermas has noted, it's high time to move beyond the philosophy of monological subjectivity. For fresh thinking in this area and where to pick up the pieces after Hegel, Heidegger, Kojeve, etc. (rather than taking the nihilistic road of 'post-modernism') I highly recommend Habermas's _The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity_. Habermas as successor to this line of thought is convincingly stated in the opening chapter "Modernity's Consciousness of Time and It's Need For Self-Reassurance" and in his call for moving on to a paradigm of "Intersubjectivity" and Reason understood anew as Communicative Action.

As noted by other reviewers, this reading of Hegel is a post-Nietzsche, post-Marx, post-Heidegger one (meaning it incorporates or synthesizes these post-Hegel, though influenced-by-Hegel, strains of thought). It is therefore scorned by some Hegel 'purists' like Mr. Trejo below. However, having read quite a few commentaries on and interpretations of the Phenomenology I can say that this one is the most well-written, in the sense that it illuminates some very difficult Hegelian concepts (like "Spirit" itself) in a searingly direct manner. I have also never read another writer so convincing in their argument as to Hegel's essential rightness in his description of the Concept which brings closure to the riddle of Western metaphysics.

I would agree with the 'purists' in not taking this book as the 'definitive' interpretation of Hegel - it can't excuse not reading Hegel in the original, or other commentaries - but I would call it essential within the spectrum of Hegelian thought.

Interestingly, this book shows Hegel, though famously critical of Kant, to be essentially the extender of the Kantian philosophy to it's logical conclusion which is the completion of the Concept of Experience, identified as Time itself (ZeitGeist). That is, Human Time as the Absolute Subject constructing itself rationally via reflection on it's Object-negating activity (creativity in transforming the given or present), not in the classical notion of a rational Time as existing somehow outside or independentaly of a Subject.

Kojeve's reading however, though convincing in it's demonstration of anthropologically necessary development toward Hegelian 'harmony' between Subject and Object, leaves out Hegel's attempt at the absolute identity of the Object itself. This can be read in two ways that Kojeve touches on. First, in the truer-to-Hegel sense that the Object is necessarily different from the Subject to ensure the ability of the Subject to realize itself as Self, as free Subject of Object-negating, creative, activity. Another way to read this is as simply Kojeve's dismissal of Hegel's Philosophy of Nature and it's more cosmic attempt at spiritualizing the notion of matter. Either way, as many Hegel commentator's have noted, one is left, though certainly further enlightened as to the nature of subjectivity, with a sense that there is still something 'out there' and unknown, ala Kant's 'thing-in-itself'. This can be understood as the Heidegger-influenced side of Kojeve's reading.

My own conclusion at the moment is that both Hegel and the existentialist school following him ala Heidegger and Kojeve can be understood as essentially philosophers of subjectivity in the Western tradition who have exhausted the questioning of the Self about it's nature. As our great contemporary philosopher in the Continental tradtion Jurgen Habermas has noted, it's high time to move beyond the philosophy of the monological subject. For fresh thinking in this area and where to pick up the pieces after Hegel, Heidegger, Kojeve, etc. (rather than taking the nihilistic road of 'post-modernism') I highly recommend Habermas's _The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity_. Habermas as successor to this line of thought is convincingly stated in the opening chapter "Modernity's Consciousness of Time and It's Need For Self-Reassurance" and in his call for moving on to a paradigm of "Intersubjectivity" and Reason understood anew as Communicative Action.

As noted by other reviewers, this reading of Hegel is a post-Nietzsche, post-Marx, post-Heidegger one (meaning it incorporates or synthesizes these post-Hegel, though influenced-by-Hegel, strains of thought). It is therefore scorned by some Hegel 'purists' like Mr. Trejo below. However, having read quite a few commentaries on and interpretations of the Phenomenology I can say that this one is the most well-written, in the sense that it illuminates some very difficult Hegelian concepts (like "Spirit" itself) in a searingly direct manner. I have also never read another writer so convincing in their argument as to Hegel's essential rightness in his description of the Concept which brings closure to the riddle of Western metaphysics.

I would agree with the 'purists' in not taking this book as the 'definitive' interpretation of Hegel - it can't excuse not reading Hegel in the original, or other commentaries - but I would call it essential within the spectrum of Hegelian thought.

Interestingly, this book shows Hegel, though famously critical of Kant, to be essentially the extender of the Kantian philosophy to it's logical conclusion which is the completion of the Concept of Experience, identified as Time itself (ZeitGeist). That is, Human Time, initiated by the emergence of specifically Human Desires (i.e.; for recognition), as the Absolute Subject which constructs itself rationally via reflection on it's Object-negating or given-negating activity or creativity, not in the classical notion of a rational Time as existing somehow outside or independently of a Subject).

Kojeve's reading however, though convincing in it's demonstration of anthropologically necessary Historical development toward Hegelian 'harmony' between the Subject and it's Object, leaves out Hegel's attempt at the absolute identity of the Object itself. This can be read in two ways that Kojeve touches on. First, in the truer-to-Hegel sense that the Object is necessarily different from the Subject to ensure the ability of the Subject to realize itself as Self, as free Subject of Object-negating, creative, activity. Another way to read this is as simply Kojeve's dismissal of Hegel's Philosophy of Nature and it's more cosmic attempt at spiritualizing the notion of matter. Either way, as many Hegel commentator's have noted, one is left, though undoubtedly further enlightened regarding the nature of subjectivity, with a sense that there is still something 'out there' and unknown, ala Kant's 'thing-in-itself'. This can be understood as the Heidegger-influenced side of Kojeve's reading.

My own conclusion at the moment is that both Hegel and the existentialist school following him ala Heidegger and Kojeve can be understood as essentially philosophers of subjectivity in the Western tradition who have rationally illuminated, but also thoroughly exhausted the questioning of the Self about it's nature. As our great contemporary philosopher in the Continental tradtion Jurgen Habermas has noted, it's high time to move beyond the philosophy of monological subjectivity. For fresh thinking in this area and where to pick up the pieces after Hegel, Heidegger, Kojeve, etc. (rather than taking the nihilistic road of 'post-modernism') I highly recommend Habermas's _The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity_. Habermas as successor to this line of thought is convincingly stated in the opening chapter "Modernity's Consciousness of Time and It's Need For Self-Reassurance" and in his call for moving on to a paradigm of "Intersubjectivity" and Reason understood anew as Communicative Action.

This is a fantastic child's book! It is gorgeously illustrated with mysterious, lush, beautiful night scenes; the text is rhythmic, soothing, subtle poetry of the highest quality. I've been reading this book to my niece for three years and she loves it still! When she was four I'd read it to her and she would get to "read" the refrain "And if the moon could talk" each time it appeared. When she was five and six she'd read it with ever-increasing ease as she learned to read; now that she's seven we alternate pages, but she still has her favorite parts she will not allow me to read--she insists on having those pages to herself. We imagine we live in the beautiful town, assigning houses to grandma, uncles, cousins. This is a book to treasure!

This is a great bedtime book, along the lines of Goodnight Moon but much better. My 2-year old son loves it and I'm sure he'll contine to find it interesting for several years. Great pictures, great text, charming, mind-expanding.

Night is falling and inside a house a little girl is getting ready for bed. Her father reads to her, her mother tucks her in. She sees and hears all the familiar, comforting house sights and sounds, closes her eyes and begins to dream. Outside, the moon is watching over the world. And if the moon could talk, it would tell of woodland creatures hurrying home for supper and sand blowing in the desert, waves crashing on the shore, birds safe in their nests and lion cubs safe with their mother. It would talk of stars coming out to shine on the world and a little girl curled up with her stuffed rabbit, fast asleep. And if the moon could talk, it would whisper, Good Night..... Kate Banks has written a lovely, simple bedtime story full of imagery and magic, pre-schoolers will want to hear again and again, night after night. Her soothing, understated text is beautifully complimented by Georg Hallensleben's lush and expressive artwork and together they've authored a story that will capture your youngster's imagination as he/she are lulled gently to sleep. And If the Moon Could Talk is a must for all home libraries and is sure to become a classic in the years ahead.

I thought that this book would be a little more "enlightening" after reading so many rave reviews. I, however, found that this book was more appropiate for someone with children. Much advice, etc. was directed toward dealing with the every-day obstacles, trials, and tribulations of every day, parental life. I still liked it, and I will probably read it again, and concentrate more on the mantras.

Here in Manhattan it's not unusual to go to one of the yoga studios that now seem almost as prevalent as McDonald's, only to get overpowered by the stench not of sweat but of ego and one-upsmanship (up-yogiship?). It's like "Any pose you can hold, I can hold better." Worse, I've left class, or home practice, only to wait for the train or bus in a fit of impatience. I've meditated only to find myself procrastinating over doing something that needs to be done--six months ago. In short, I've practiced a lot of hatha yoga and meditation, and benefited from it, but there was no carry over into my life. Which is what it's supposed to be about, not an end in itself. And the Sutra's of Patanjali are nice, poetic semi-haikus but forget about applying them on the A train. Here comes Iyengar veteran Lasater with a book on integrating yoga into everyday life so you don't leave it all on the sticky mat. Every chapter deals with handling different emotional qualities, from developing courage to conquering fear and impatience. Lasater gives examples from her life. It's reassuring to read how an accomplished yogi and teacher struggles with the same issues. And the yogic methods she's found to overcome them. This book is an excellent complement to the standard books on the technique of yoga. Don't let the title fool you. This isn't a soft-headed New Age primer full of platitudes. This is a how-to manual full of practical guidance. So good it should come with a karma-back guarantee.

This book was exactly what I was looking for. It integrates Yoga practice (not poses or hokey stuff) into everyday meaningful life lessons. It is very insightful and offers ways to gain and incorporate this insightfulness into your life.

Isabelle, the pig lives alone and is often lonely and bored. What she likes doing best is going to the museum, sitting on the red velvet chair and looking at her favorite picture. It is the painting with the beautiful, little boy angel at the bottom. One day, the little angel speaks to Isabelle and then takes her on a special tour of the museum...just the two of them. It's their secret. Thierry Magnier has written a lovely, sensitive story of two unusual friends who find a way to take care of each other. This simple story is beautifully illustrated by Georg Hallensleben's lush and expressive paintings. Together, they have created the perfect book...quiet, understated text combined with stunning artwork. Isabelle and the Angel will capture your youngster's imagination. This is a story your kids will want to read again and again and a book that is sure to become a classic.

I bought this book because my daughter's name is Isabelle. This is a beautiful picture book with a good story for ages 2-4. I think the story is simple enough to hold an interest for children this age. Love this book.

I fell in love with the cover picture, and the sweet smile on the face of the baby pig! The story is very sweet, and the illustrations are wonderful -- especially Isabelle. Her personality shines through on every page. I'm buying this book for all the children on my Christmas List!

This is an excellent and engrossing account of a complex, flawed, difficult, passionate, honest, immensely talented and hugely underrated actor, author and playwright.
The book provides a superb overview of his life, and provides a counter-balance to the only other completed (to date) biography, the rather more subjective view of his former manager John French.
Robert Shaw's brilliance as a performer and writer was underpinned by the early experience of his father's tragic suicide; the resultant fiery over-competitive will to succeed was best channelled in performances that displayed his talent for supreme intensity backed by intelligence. On this form Shaw commanded the camera; witness his scene-stealing in From Russia with Love and Jaws - then witness again in his other works; this is Gold standard British talent that is yet to be fully appreciated by his profession and public...this book helps redress the balance a bit and lets us know what we are now missing.

My wife bought me this biography because she knows how big of a Robert Shaw fan I am. However, before reading this book, my knowledge of Shaw was limited to his work in the movies. I had no idea he was a brilliant writer as well as a father of ten. After reading this biography I read one of his books, The Man in the Glass Booth and realized how big of a talent he was with writing. It was mentioned several times in his biography that he enjoyed writing more than he enjoyed acting. It also tells about his time doing Shakespeare and there is a section about his time spent acting in Jaws. This is truly an exceptional biography about an exceptional actor/writer.

When I saw Mr Shaw for the first time (in Jaws)I was about nine years old.
Now I'm twenty and Shaw was far before mine time but I feel that he can learn me how to life because this great biographie from a man who I love and dream about.
I'm sure that I'm the most fanaticus of the "Shaws-fan" from the Netherlands.
I have a private archief from this unique person and I dream about him and think most of the time how sweet he was for childeren.
Mr Shaw is deep in my heart because I discover his live and read this colourful biographie and I will thank Garmean and Gaston for this great great great book, thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!
This book is the most best biography because the spirit that Shaw in his short live had give this book the most power.

(sorry for my bad english I think)

Love you all Gilian Schmidt,

the Netherlands

In my search for better understanding the history of India or better yet, the search for the roots of vedic civilization this book has been my first stepping stone. This book is filled with facts and dates and its own interpretations that guide the reader through to discovering that Indic/vedic civilization is infact the oldest and largest populated civilization of the world, dating back to over 3000 B.C.

It debunks the theory of Aryan invasion. I am totally convinced that Aryans were not some European race that came down to India and suddenly started writing books, prose and vedas, and moved away from their nomadic & barbaric ways.

It has helped me towards the confirmation that Sumerian civilzation (currently the cradle of civilization) was a small 15000 village, as opposed to the Indic civilization at the same time being 300,000 ppl strong. A metropolis compared to Sumer.

Interesting and must read for anyone interested in getting their facts right about 3000 BC area. It is very relevant information to this day.

Although this monumental work may seem far from complete to some, it contains a lot of sound evidence and good insights into a more accurate and believble history of ancient India. The authors did cover a great deal in the space of this book and tied it all together in a consistent and integrated manner.

Although it may take a few more years of archeological digging and the translating of ancient works to further the clearer picture effectively begun by these authors. This book will be a sound basis for rethinking of the real history of this Holy land. They have made a great use of most 20th century (and earlier) discoveries and data to support their views. They did this with the courage to tread a new path of invesigation. This is a great improvement upon the long held myths that were concocted by European scholars who still thought their culture was the origin and geographical center of God's great creation. Many do not realize that the rest of the world was not caught up in flat earth ideas.

I don't think we have heard the last of these three authors, and look forward to any future work they may produce along these lines..

This groundbreaking work could be considered as one of the 20th centuries-great contributions and scholarship on the history of humanities true historical progressions. The authors, Frawley, Kak, and Fuererstein have given us the cream of their accumulated erudition in this revealing study of Indian civilizations amazing gifts to the civilized world. It gives a refreshing and sound look at concepts that for too long have been incorrectly bent by the western mind views. This book will go far in helping to correct so many erroneous ideas about India and civilizations past in general, that have been in circulation far too long. It deals with many important matters concerning the flow of civilized knowledge and change, and symbology between India, the Middle East, Europe, and North Africa.

The reader will gain many new insights regarding who did what in the global picture over the last 10,000 years, an excellent resource for students doing oriental, historical and anthropological research. I found this book very concise and believable, written in a simple style that the average reader will appreciate as well.

Also recommended: Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramahansa Yogananda(x SRF Publishers), also supports many of the concepts put forth in this work and will extend your appreciation of India's contributions, especially in the spiritual area.