For Tolstoi, this qualifies as an "O. Henry surprise-type ending" since you aren't expecting the wealthy merchant to sacrifice his own life for that of his lowly serf. This seems especially true since Tolstoi gives you several examples throughout the story of how the master undervalues his loyal servant.

For example, Tolstoi tells you that he is underpaid even for a serf. Also, his shrewd master always manages to manipulate and maneuver the servant into buying his goods from him, instead of from the store in the village, by making it look like he is doing him a favor in the process. This way he can overcharge for everything and thereby takes back what little money he is paying his servant anyway. The servant is well aware of this but is resigned to the situation.

Another interesting thing is how they get into a life-threatening situation in the first place. The workaholic merchant decides to press on at night in a severe blizzard, rather than remain safe in a farmhouse they have happened on in the snow, because he is impatient to get on to his next deal, and doesn't want to miss out on a possible opportunity.

I thought the time-obsessed businessman was primarily a late 20th century invention, but not so. The wealthy landowner and businessman regards even a few lost moments of time as unacceptable, and so they venture out into the fatal storm. They get lost in the driving and trackless snow on the way to the next town.

Tolstoi describes this poignantly. At several points, the master is certain they have come back to where they started and so are just going in circles, but the snow is coming down so hard that the horse carriage's tracks have already been covered up, and so he can't be sure. At that point he realizes the situation is hopeless.

Finally, the master parks the horse and carriage under a tree and they huddle together and try to survive until morning. But only the servant survives, his wealthy master in the end sacrificing his own life for that of his servant, by deciding to keep his servant warm instead of himself.

I, too, have to disagree with this 'english class' in their dull-assesment of this story. This must be a very young class of students who haven't experienced enough of human nature to fully appreciate and understand the complexity and beauty of the 2 characters in this wonderfully touching story. This is the first story that has ever made me weep openly while reading. The second, also by Tolstoy, was Strider: The Story of a Horse. If you liked Master and Man, you must find this one! That's why I'm here today; looking to replace my lost copy.

I felt I had to respond to the above comment by saying that this is a masterfully written short story and a moving account of a Master who makes the ultimate sacrifice, whether knowing it or not, to his lowly, faithful servant. The story contrasts well the attitudes and lives of rich masters and their voluntary slaves.

Phil Moony inherits two precious things from his father, a cat and a car. He desparately wants to ditch the cat, but as the story opens, every time he works up enough nerve to do so, he backs down. Finally, the cat is one step closer to being laid to rest, but it is stolen, and the vet chosen to do the dasterdly deed ends up dead instead.

This is a charming, witty story filled with terrific dialogue, colorful characters and delightful mayhem.

Fast reading. Wonderful writing and dialogue.

Cris

THE MAN WITH MY CAT follows THE MAN WITH MY NAME as second in Paul Engleman's Phil Mooney series.

Phil Mooney use to be a paramedic field officer with the Chicago Fire Department, but now it looks like he has taken up amateur sleuthing to fill his time. In this mystery, Phil has inherited his father's Maine coon feline named of Phull. I have to say, if I had a cat with as many nasty habits as Phil claims this one does, I would give it to my nearest enemy as a payback. Although Phil has been tempted to do far worse to Phull, he has talked himself out of it each time; the cat, like the car he now drives, belonged his late father. For putting up with the cat, his quick-witted wife Frankie says he should change his name from Phil to Phool. When Phil takes Phull to a vet, the cat is catnapped. With his bad habits, I would of said good riddance, and Phil is tempted to do the same, except that he loathes the person he suspects. Catnapping soon turns to politics, murder and mayhem.

Paul Engleman's presentation of the seedy side of law and politics is very well done! He doesn't write too strong or too colorful in this subject as our most popular suspense authors do these days. He does get right to the heart of it and leaves no stone unturned. In Phil and Frankie's struggle to fight back I found myself, like many will, identifying with them and cheering them on. The characters in THE MAN WITH MY CAT are well defined and remarkable. The plot seemed to be well thought and took many imaginative directions.

Light-hearted and witty, Paul Engleman's "The Man with My Cat" features wisecracking duo, narrator Phil Mooney and his writer wife, Frankie. Phil, on the outs with the Chicago political machine (see his first Moony novel, "The Man With My Name") has some time on his hands and only one job to do - get rid of the cat, inherited from his father, whose spraying habits have doomed him to neutering at the very least.

But someone steals his unwanted cat from the vet's office and then someone murders the vet. There's a lot of personality and politics before getting to this point and some slapstick and quick thinking in getting to the solution. The mystery is fun but the star attractions here are Phil and Frankie and Engleman's clever, sparkling writing.

I am a big Paul Shepard fan but this book was a disappointment. The book starts off well investigating the thesis that natural selection has left the human mind with a set series of developmental events that must take place between childhood and adulthood by which the child comes to understand its place in both the human community and the natural world. This sequence was built into human psychology during hundred of thousands of years of living as hunter-gatherers. When we adopted large-scale agriculture a mere 10.000 years ago this sequence was radically disrupted as the sphere of the childs interaction with both the naturl world around it and it human community was contracted drastically. Many of the ills of modern life stem from this disruption.
Shepard presentation of his basic thesis is compelling. But he then goes on to psycho-historical explorations of how this disruption takes different shapes in different historical epochs. This constitutes the bulk of the book. The psycho-history pieces I found unsatisfying, full of very broad generalizations about the psychological effect of various cultural trends. There is no way to tell what is just psychobabble and what is not. If you are new to Shepard I would recommend the Tender Carnivore instead, or for a nice summary of his whole line of thought Coming Home to the Pleistocene.

For those interested in studies of western culture's destructive relationship with nature, this treatise from Paul Shepard is certainly a rewarding read, though I recommend it with some reservations. Shepard starts with the Mother Earth concept and takes it to great psychological lengths, then applies this psychology to all of mankind. It's certainly a radical thesis, but it's worth thinking about. In what he calls variously ontogenetic regression, unaltered immaturity, and other labels, Shepard makes the case that humans have been torn from their true mother, the Earth, as the unfortunate outcome of modern civilization and social constructs. Thus, society behaves in pathological ways similar to what can be seen from children who are torn away from their mothers before the onset of maturity. Therefore, our society's attitude toward nature is perpetually immature, underdeveloped, and undernourished, with all the destructiveness and disrespect that results from such a dysfunctional childhood.

While this thesis has its various strengths and weaknesses that can be discovered by the reader, there's not enough meat to it to round out an entire book, even a very short one like this. Shepard's most glaring weakness is in psychology, as he offers little more than extremely basic Freud (with the associated sexism and dubious ideas on infancy and childhood), and then makes unconvincing attempts to extend this psychology to society as a whole. Meanwhile, Shepard's writing gets buried in academic dogma that is a real slog for non-professors who don't speak in non-stop technical jargon all day. Watch for arcane terms like methectic, kerygmatic, neoteny, or autochthonous; along with brain-drain sentences like "...amputate and cauterize pubertal epigenesis because they would further transform the relationship of the infant to its mother." Add all this to Shepard's rather self-righteous speculations and you are in for an exasperating read, although the basic thesis of this book definitely offers food for thought.

This is a really impressive, powerful and inspiring book, which investigates neurotic behavior of the individual and collective societies as a result of alienation and separation fom our natural impulses, nature itself and our "co inhabitants" of the planet earth.Those interested in further investigating these themes are advised to check out John Zerzan's excellent "Against Civilization"(surely a pun on Huysmans classic portrayal of dissatisfied and empty urban neurosis, "Against Nature"), a collection of essays devoted to the "wrong thnking" and negative effects of civilization and the disastrous implications of man's separation from nature. In a similar vein, his "Elements of Refusal" should find a sympahetic readership amongst those impressed by Shepard's work. Gregdada from Korea.

This book is good, but...some of the stories shouldn't be in it, and others that should be in it aren't. The JMS stories, which are critically acclaimed and heralded by fans are deserving, but it should also include Amazing Spider-Man # 37-39, just to finish out the storyline. The Jenkin's story, (The Big Score), was not the best thing Jenkin's had done, and should be replaced by his Mime silent issue. And the Ultimate DD/Punisher story arc was rather stupid, and should have been replaced by Jenkin's amazing Fusion story arc. However, the Coming Home story is nice, the Kingpin story spectacular, and the Flowers for Rhino story touching. If you'd rather go with the paperback additions, get ASM: Coming Home, PPSM: One small Break, ASM: Revelations, and SM's Tangled Web vol. 1.

Here, in one loaded volume, are some of the best told stories of any kind, in the last year. Whether these stories were told in comics, film, novels or television, very few matched this level of excellence.
Seriously. The script/screenplay/text and the art/cinematography/visuals I would put up against any type of media this year, or the last.
This represents a great value, as you get quite a few issues in a handsome volume.
The now-famous "issue 36" should be mandatory reading for anyone with at least one eyeball. It could possibly be the single best artistic/creative response to September 11th seen yet. There are images in the story as haunting as any from the site itself.
This is a book you'd be proud to own. And if this happens to be your first dip into modern comics, I envy your upcoming experience.

This book is an argument for the proposition that Jesus Christ did not exist as a man and that the tradition of his life was made up. The argument in the book is a reasonably familiar one and has been advanced by other sceptics. Basically there is very little historical evidence for the existence of Christ. Mentions of him by contemporary authors are both ambiguous and probably forgeries. The Gospels themselves are probably written about a hundred years after his death.

Cutner suggests that the creator of Christianity is Paul. His letters are the first surviving material to suggest the existence of Christ. Paul of course never met Christ but had visions of him. Cutner suggests that the construction of the Christian myth has been based on religious concepts that were current at the time. Krishna, Dionysius, Krishna and Osiris all had similar careers. That is being divine personages, born as men, killed and then risen from the dead. The story of Christ seems derived from these similar legends. Cutner does not explain the mechanics of the process he just suggests that it is the overwhelming likelihood.

The structure of the book is to look at the evidence for Christ in the ancient authors and in the bible. The material and approach is similar to another book The Christ by Remsberg. Of the two, Remsbergs book is probably better written and is a much clearer exposition of the theory. This book however has a chapter looking at Jewish sources and it also has a chapter dealing with the response to the Myth theory of Jesus.

The book is not bad but it appears to have been written some time ago. The forward of this version suggests a publication date of 2000 but the style suggests that it is much older. I preferred Remsberg. Still this is interesting for its greater discussion of the Jewish material.

In 1950, mythicist Herb Cutner published his excellent work, "Jesus: God, Man or Myth?," which not only explores the mythical nature of Jesus Christ but also provides a rare and much-needed summarization of the debate between mythicists and historicizers over the past few centuries. Contrary to popular belief, the idea that Jesus Christ is a mythical character is not new: In fact, the questioning and doubting of the gospel tale started at the beginning of the Christian era and has been continued by thousands, if not millions, since then. The historicization and carnalization of the Christ character was fought by the Docetic Gnostics, and the disbelief was addressed by early orthodox Christians as well, including the writers of the canonical epistles of John. Indeed, 1 John 4 condemns as "antichrists" those "spirits" who do not confess that "Jesus Christ has come in the flesh," as does 2 John 7. Many, says 2 John, have contested the historicity of Jesus Christ, even by his day.

The writings of early Christians also verify that Christ was perceived by the Pagans as a typical sun god, an idea that came to fruition in the works of French scholar Charles Dupuis at the end of the 18th century, when he wrote his multivolume "Origine de tous les cultes." Dupuis was followed by Count Volney, another brilliant French mythicist, and the floodgates opened, with the German School of biblical criticism kicking into full gear, the Dutch throwing their hats into the arena, and the British making a tremendous impact that is likely responsible for the extremely low rate of church attendance in Britain today. Particularly notable among the British were Godfrey Higgins, Rev. Robert Taylor, Gerald Massey and JM Robertson, although Higgins was apparently a "sincere Christian" and not a mythicist in the strictest sense of the word. The German school culminated in the excellent works of Arthur Drews, while the French also produced Couchoud and Dujardin. The mythicists made such inroads that by the end of the 19th century the Right Reverend JP Lundy acknowledged the bulk of their arguments as truthful - up to the point where they claimed Christ to be a myth. Lundy was not at all alone in his acknowledgement of the Pagan origins of Christianity; indeed, some decades later Christian apologist Sir Arthur Weigall composed his work "The Paganism in Our Christianity," in which he repeatedly admitted the unoriginality of the Christian fable but declared nevertheless that Christ's Passion, at least, really did happen and was a miracle.

In his remarkable book, Cutner not only provides an abstract of the debate to his day but also establishes - or reestablishes - a number of the most important contentions and facts exposed by mythicists and other Bible critics, including the fact that the four canonical gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, appear nowhere in the historical/literary record until the end of the second century, despite the claims and wishful thinking of Christian proponents, many of whom, unbelievably, still maintain that these gospels were written by the apostles/disciples themselves and are "eyewitness accounts." These apologist assertions are simply wrong, as has been demonstrated repeatedly over the centuries by the ablest of scholars and scientists, many of whom were Christians.

It has always mystified believers and assorted other historicizers that the story of Jesus Christ appears in no contemporary historical record. Of at least 40 writers of the first several decades of the Christian era, including philosophers and historians, not one mentions Christ, Christians or Christianity. With such a suspicious development concerning a man who "supposedly shook up the world," apologists have been forced to resort to a few pitiful and inadequate "references" in non-Christian sources dating to decades later. Cutner provides an astute analysis of the purported references to Jesus in secular literature, including supposed Jewish "testimony" such as the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus and the Talmud. In the first place, the authors of these texts are not witnesses at all, having lived many decades to centuries after the supposed advent of Christ. Secondly, it is evident that (non-Christian) Jews of the second century had no clue as to any "historical" Jesus.

Having established that there is no evidence of a "historical Jesus," Cutner proceeds to the Christian mythology at the center of the debate, reiterating the solar-mythos thesis, with its virgin birth and so many other motifs found within Christianity. Regarding astrology or astrotheology and biblical stories and rituals, Cutner remarks:

"...Nearly all the solar deities had a Virgin for a mother... The birthday of Jesus, like that of Mithra and other solar gods, was about December 25, and his twelve Apostles certainly correspond to the twelve signs of the Zodiac. When Jesus (who was the Sun of Righteousness) was 'crucified,' the Sun naturally died; it was eclipsed. And of course, Jesus rose with the Sun on the day of the Sun. It would have been out of the question for him to rise on any other day - say on Moon-day. 'Every detail of the Sun Myth,' says R.A. Proctor, the famous writer on astronomy, 'is worked into the record of the Galilean teacher.' It could hardly have been otherwise." (144)

Cutner ends his book with a further discussion of the history of the debate between historicizers and mythicists, a very necessary and revealing synopsis. He details the arguments on both sides, including further responses to various claims by proponents and opponents as the controversy progressed over the decades and centuries. It is important to note that the arguments put forth today against the mythicist perspective are the same as those used in the past, even though they have been thoroughly addressed and refuted many times. "Jesus: God, Man or Myth?" is a valuable work which handily shows that the subject has been hotly contested behind the scenes and over the heads of the masses, who are almost completely unaware of its existence, to the point where mythicists today are considered oddities who seemingly pop up out of nowhere, a false impression, to say the least.

Acharya S, author "The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold" and "Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled."

This book is very exciting. It is especially good if you like baseball cards. It's about a group of kids who live in a small town. It was built for their parents company and they all will be moving soon. After they buy baseball cards at a garage sale they find out they are worth a lot of money. They split all the cards except for the most valuable card in which they decide to give to the last man living there. It was one of those books where you want to put yourself in their situations. If you're into books where there is always something going on then this is the book for you. I read this book for a book report and like it a lot.

This is a really good book that keeps you on the edge of your seat. It is an adventurous and breathtaking book. I couldn't put it down. It is one of the best books I've read. It kept me wondering who was going to be the last man not to move and what their reward was going to be.Yea!

Pony Man is a fast paced action adventure novel with an interesting plot and an unusual ending. Hard to put down....I spent the night reading the book to get to the end.

Hard to put down! Hoping there will be a sequel soon!!

"Rat Man in Paris" is about Etienne, a man living in Paris, in poverty, who begs the streets in a strange manner. He exposes a live rat to people who pass on the street, in the hope they will pay him something out of pity, or perhaps out of revulsion, to make him go away. He lives in a small apartment in squalid conditions. He meets Sharli, a sympathetic young woman, who takes kindly to him, almost mothering him.

Etienne is affected by a memory which boils to the surface now and again, of his parents killed by Nazis when he was a boy. He has heard that a Nazi war criminal is to be held in a prison nearby, and acts more wildly than ever. He tries to draw attention to his story, as if trying to exorcise the demonic memory of his childhood by proxy, by condemning this Nazi. Etienne cannot even be entirely sure this particular Nazi actually had anything to do with his parents, but he rants on the street about him nonetheless, fantasizing about vengeance, and wondering in psychic agony, how can this Nazi receive three meals a day in prison, while I starve? He feels the need to stage an event so spectacular it will engulf his painful past in the same flames which once engulfed his family's future.

Will Etienne cause a stir? Will he settle his conscience? Will Sharli help? Will she suffer as a result of his infatuation? Will his crusade end badly? Will it end at all? The reader will learn in due time. The book is interesting and generally well written, but Sharli, Etienne's female companion, is not as fleshed out as one might like. It is unclear why she is attracted to this strange character, why she wishes to be with him at all. Nonetheless, Paul West has a vibrant imagination, and his book deserves a look.

The superb historical novelist Paul West's greatest accomplishment is this short, unsentimental yet oddly moving love story between a Parisian vagabond and the young woman who (against all bourgeois judgement) cleans him up and falls strangely in love with him in occupied Paris. Loosely inspired by stories of sightings of a real life character who wandered the city of lights with a trained rat during the war, West's gritty, twisted love story is among the best three novels I have read from the 1980s, along with White Hotel and Libra. A strange, rewarding read.

A Self Made Man was a very well written book.
The emotion that was there was fabulous, it was funny, interesting & sad but most of all, for me it was heart warming.

The book gives a very good account of a day to day life of a female to male transsexual, the ups and downs.
The best thing i found was that Paul was really honest and didn't hide the not so good parts of being an FTM.

I would say that the only thing missing from this book was some finer detail....How did he choose the name Paul? Who did he first go to in a medical capacity for help? Were they any good? How long from that point did it take to start testosterone?
I think in a book of this nature the whole point is to try to help others in that situation, which it does, however as i have detailed, i don't think there was enough info about the lead up to starting testosterone.

Paul Hewitts, A Self Made Man gave me the courage to believe that it was time that the little boy that had been inside me for 28 years should come out and breathe for the first time.

So, come on Paul, whats been happening since then? It's time for another!!!!

This book was as inspirering as it confronts the transition between women and women. Paul Hewitt writes a very honest and from the heart account of his early life, his loves and the steps which led him to change his gender, and fulfill what he ahd always beleived himself to be. I read this book as recommended by a friend, this book is very importnat to the FTM transsexual community it has been ground breaking in the way Paul has addressed differcult issues.

I would highly recommend this book for anybody who needs advice and additude from a very confident writer and person.

The book fills my world with hope and admiration every time I read it.

The only way that I would improve this book would be to MAKE IT LONGER. And Paul if you are reading this it would great to see and read a follow up, perhaps telling the stories of how you see yourself in 10 years, your surgery and of course the neverending stream of women in your life.

Paul is a credit to the male community and may he and his fellow FTM's live in peace and happiness. I admire him greatly for putting his feelings on paper. Thanks Paul

My review copy of this one has more dog ears than the local kennel, and even though I'm married I'll be using the romantic tips I've bookmarked to keep my husband guessing...and smiling. Great fun mixed with romantic tips and seductive seductions means you can't go wrong with this light, romantic reading. Give it to, or read it for, someone you love right now!