If you buy this book, definately get an illistrated edition! The fairy images are gorgeous and worth treasuring. The story itself is beautiful: How Peter fell out of his tram, was taught by the birds to fly and finally returned home to find the window locked to him.

This book is very imaginative and well written. James Barrie tells the history side of Peter Pan that most people do not know about. Each chapter tells a different story about Peter Pan's life in the garden. There are stories about Peter Pan living in the trees with the birds, to stories about how the fairies trick the humans who come to visit Kensington Gardens. This book is both funny and sad at parts, and will make you wonder if you were actually owned by a bird at sometime!

Anna Sewell's novel Black Beauty is a timeless classic for readers of all ages, but has a main demographic of females from the age 9 to 16.
The story takes place in 19th century England. IT follows the life and experience of a horse named Black Beauty. The horse is born on a farm and sold at the age of four. His first owner Squire Gordon is a great loving man. Black Beauty is treated with respect and dignity. The story follows the horse as he is then sold from owner to owner. He becomes neglected and abused by carriage owners. A loving and gentle man finally purchases Black Beauty. He cares about the horses and treats them well. Black Beauty is finally happy as a carriage horse when tragedy strikes. His owner is struck with illness and is forced to sell the horse. Black Beauty is sold to a poor owner and is neglected. He longs to go back home to squire Gordon's farm and live a happy life once again.

The book is uniquely enough from the horse's point of view. This helps children connect with the horse, and makes the book more interesting and easy to follow along with. The heart breaking tale of a horse's life that will readers leave on the edge of their seat wanting to keep reading, dying to find out what happens next. The book goes into detail about how animal abuse used to be in the early 1900's. Older children have and will continue to enjoy this book for generations to come.

What girlhood would be complete without reading this tearjerker classic? As a child, there wasn't much I loved more than books, horses and a good cry -- and this provided all three.

For those of you who don't know the story, Black Beauty is horse in England during the 19th century. He begins life with a loving master, but due to circumstances is sold several times -- to owners both kind and cruel.

Sewell, a Quaker woman, wrote this book (first published in 1877) to enlighten the public. Horses at the time were often beaten, starved and overloaded. Sewell's book, however, became a catalyst for change and ushered in a new way of thinking about the treatment of animals.

Since pictures & illustrations are as much a part of a child's imagination as the written word, then this book beautifully combines both, with the abundant B&W line illustrations by illustrator Lucy Kemp-Welch, in addition to the 12 colour plates included - all in keeping with the time period this novel is set in. A wonderful edition to any child's library. I've been reading horse-topic related books for as long as I can remember; but the very 1st horse story that left an indelible impression on me was ANNA SEWELL's " BLACK BEAUTY ".

It really openend my eyes as to the abuse and cruelty - and majestic fraility - that these wonderful creatures suffer at the hands of their human counterparts.

Ms Sewell opted to write this book from " the horse's point of view " and she was one of the very few authors that was able to pull this off with such great success.

This book also, laid the cornerstone for the ASPCA aims and goals, and brought to light the conditions and treatment of working horses in 20th century London, England ( and elsewhere ).

The story is such a wonderful tale of a horse's life from start to finish; told with a quiet dignity and warmth - and serves as a successful analogy also, as to how humans should interact with one another.

This book also laid the cornerstone for my interest and love of horses, and further spurred my interest in reading about all things Equine.

From there, and I went on to read all of Walter Farley's "The Black Stallion" series ( I used to collect the hardcover editions), and Marguerite Henry's books, and National Velvet(which really wasn't about a horse per se, but more about a little girl who's dreams come true), and anything else I could get my horsey-hungry hands on!

I now keep a copy of Anna Sewell's "Black Beauty" in my library at home, and have given a copy to my daughter to read.

This is a tale that sensitizes the reader to the plight of horses at the hands of their human caregivers, trainers, etc - all told from the horse's mouth ( so to speak )..!

And lest we think that the inhumane treatment of horses has abided since this book was written - one only has to follow the controversy surrounding the use of "Premarin", or abusive training methods of gaited horses, or the Thoroughbred racing industry, or rodeo...etc.

There is still much to be gleaned about the exploitation and abuse of animals from this book - which will always remain a timeless classic.

Kim C. Montreal, 05/2000

The play goes along very similar lines as that of the shakespear play measure for measure as both show selfabsorbtion is a paramount factor though it does seem like a rewrite is does has its own high points especially Mosca a very funny character.

I had expected Jonson's plays to be difficult and certainly less rewarding than Shakespeare. Surprisingly, despite the passage of four centuries, the humor in "Volpone" remains natural and entertaining today. I have now read several other comedies by Ben Jonson, but "Volpone" remains my favorite.

I did have difficulty getting started with "Volpone". The rather long dedication, the argument, and the prologue all took their toll. To make matters worse, I was completely confused and lost in Act One, Scene One, by a "Pythagorean satire", entertainment provided by Volpone's eccentric servants, Mosca, Nano, Andrrogyno, and Castrone. (I later learned that Jonson may have added this literary satire for special performances at Oxford and Cambridge. Apparently Jonson knew his scholars well, as "Volpone" was well-received at both universities.)

Fortunately, Scene One is not representative of the play, and I had little difficulty thereafter with either the plot or the humor. Unlike Shakespeare, Ben Jonson's characters seldom reflect on their motivations in soliloquies or insightful dialogue. We meet characters without great complexity. Once we know them, we find that they remain in character and behave predictably. This does not mean his characters are shallow or uninteresting. I even found myself somewhat sympathetic for the unscrupulous Volpone, Mosca, Voltore, Corbaccio, and Corvino. They are all villains, just not particularly villainous villains.

Even though the characters behave predictably, the plot is anything but predictable. The confusion builds throughout the play and I had no idea how Jonson was going to resolve the situation in Act Five. I quite enjoyed "Volpone" and I would like to have an opportunity to see it on stage someday.

I did find one aspect of "Volpone" to be disconcerting. I was taken aback by Volpone's house servants, the dwarf Nano, the eunuch Castrone, and the hermaphrodite Androgyno. These individuals, occasional targets for humor, play rather unimportant roles and are sometimes deleted from modern productions.

Ben Jonson was a talented playwright that had the historical misfortune to be a younger contemporary of Shakespeare. He is quite familiar to literary scholars and English literature majors, but for most of us he remains in the shadow of Shakespeare.

You can find several good editions of "Volpone", either alone or in collections. I recommend "Volpone or, The Fox", edited by David Cook, and published by Routledge in London. It was published in 1962, but has been reprinted many times. I benefited greatly from Cook's introduction and footnotes. This softcover book is printed on high quality paper.

Another widely available source is the inexpensive Oxford World's Classics, "The Alchemist and Other Plays" by Ben Jonson. The introduction and footnotes by Gordon Campbell are quite good.

I am a fan of Dover Thrift Editions, but I don't recommend the Dover "Volpone" 1994 edition for a first reading of Jonson as the footnotes are sparse.

I came upon this play and Ben Jonson by the back door. I was watching a movie titled "The Honey Pot" with Rex Harrison. His character Cecil Fox after observing this play used the outline for his own purposes. So naturally I have to read the play to see what the movie is mimicking.

I have several copies of "Valpone" (the fox) to compare information on Ben. This is a review of the "New Mermaids Series" I have several of their series. They give you all the background information and any annotation needed. They make the information interesting enough that you feel that Ben Jonson is in the room with you. I am sure some people would not want to be in the same room. I was surprised to find that William Shakespeare acted in some of Ben's plays.

The play is well written and has many levels to it. If it did not have so many footnotes I would be in trouble. It reads like an English play yet has parts that would make Stephen King blush.