I recently watched both "The Shawshank Redemption" (with Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman) and "Stand By Me" (with River Phoenix, Jerry O'Connell, Wil Wheaton and Corey Feldman) and this prompted me to dig out my old copy of Different Seasons. Most people are surprised when they learn that those movies were based on novellas by horror master, Stephen King, but he shows that he's not just into scaring the heck out of you.

The story cycle bases one novella per season, and each follows characters on a journey, whether it's one of hope, descent into corruption, coming of age, or life through offspring.

"Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" takes place over decades, as a prison inmate retains his spirit and soul, while breathing life into a dark institution, and whose patient nature finally leads him to freedom. The story is told in first person from the point of view of old Red, the guy who can get you things, about Andy Dufresne, a young banker jailed for the murder of his wife and her lover.

One of King's great strengths is creating a believable voice for his characters, and as you read this tale, it is like Red is talking to you. Other King strengths are providing back story and creating a world in which these characters live, one with a past, present and future, and it makes them three dimensional. One of King's flaws is going off on tangents and digressions a bit too often, but he always comes back to the story.

'The Body' (basis for 'Stand By Me') is a coming of age story about four small town boys on the cusp of entering Junior High School. On the Friday before Labor Day, they set off to find the body of a missing boy. One of the four boys, Vern Tessio, overheard his brother talking to a friend about the dead body.

The characters fall into several categories: Gordon LaChance, who narrates the story as an adult, is the dreamer/writer whose older brother died earlier that year. Chris Chambers is athletic, tough but smart. wise beyond his years and the white sheep in a family of black sheep. Teddy Duchamp is the psycho wiseguy who wears thick glasses and hearing aids as the result of his war veteran father putting his head to a stove. Vern Tessio is the least intelligent, but plays a key symbolic part as the one tells the others about the body and also is the first to spot it.

Along their journey, the boys encounter adventures, such as Milo Pressman the junkyard operator and his dog, Chopper. There is a run across a high trestle as a train bears down on them, a swim in a culvert full of leeches, and a night in the dark woods with screaming wild animals. When they eventually reach the boys, they have a run in with a group of teenage hoods from their town. A major difference from the movie, is that this story details the aftermath of the confrontation after the boys return to town.

King does a nice balancing act with his adult narrative and pre-adolescent dialogue, making each voice unique and fleshing out each boy's character to make them multi-dimensional. All four experience growth, but Gordon and Chris take this growth with them as they get older. Don't let people drag you down. There's a lot more to this story than just kids looking for a dead body.
My bumps here are again that King goes off on tangents and digressions, some to fill in background and history for the characters, but sometimes really straying far from the course. At one point he takes nearly a page to say that someone is dead, where 'The kid was dead. The kid wasn't sick, the kid wasn't sleeping.' Would probably have sufficed.

I won't go into a lot of detail about the other two stories. 'Apt Pupil' is about a boy who discovers a Nazi war criminal living in his town, and blackmails the old man into telling him stories about the war in exchange for not blowing the whistle on him. The stories the boy hears slowly lead him into senseless acts of violence. In 'The Breathing Woman' a 'disgraced woman is determined to triumph over death.'

These four stories combine to make an interesting cycle, and demonstrate that Stephen King has writing talents that stretch beyond his horror work.

Reta hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, was a great short story by stephen king. I enjoyed reading this book and even watching the movie. I was suprised how much the book grabed my attention and how I didn't ever put it down.

I just love Stephen King's books, okay? I've read them all, except RIDING THE BULLET, because I'm on the computer enough already, and I personally like to have a book with paper pages to pour over while I'm on a plane or a couch or a beach.

So I have read King--in hardback--for years. I always buy his books as soon as they are published. Then I buy them in paperback for tote-ability. They don't weigh as much, and therefore don't load me down when I'm walking mile-long concourses, nor hurt my stomach when I am (re)-reading them on the beach.

To me, all of his books are marvelous. But SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION is his best story EVER.

This story is actually one of four in King's book, DIFFERENT SEASONS. And it is actually entitled "HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL RITA HAYWORTH AND THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION." Preceding the story, there is a single page with a single sentence which says, "It is in the tale, not he who tells it." Oh, and this tale does tell itself, but if King had not put it down for us, (pen to paper, so to speak) we would never have had the gift of this masterpiece to even consider.

When you realize the King of Horror has written a work that would catapult most authors into the galaxy of writers' stardom, and that it is just one of his many, many works, you just have to appreciate what a great WRITER King is. Sound silly? Well, as we all know, there are best-selling authors out there who are not particularly good writers. King sets this story down with a writing skill so superior that it is difficult to imagine something more perfectly written.

Of course I saw the movie, and it was fairly true to the book. But not until you let the actual words of this story envelope you and enthrall you do you get the full-tilt emotional fulfillment of reading a thoroughly engrossing story.

King does a beautiful job of giving us the substance of the characters, both in the realm of the facade a prisoner must maintain to survive, and of the inner anguish a prisoner struggles against to stay whole. We get to know the two main characters -- Andy and Red -- inside and out, and this is what makes the book so very compelling.

And I have never, ever, read a story in which the last sentence takes my breath away, causes my heart to beat faster, and makes my eyes tear, as this story does.

Some of the scenes are hard to take--particularly the prison rape scenes--but they are necessary for us to understand just what makes the wrongly-incarcerated Andy Dufresne so unique. And if he were not so unique, if his character were not so brilliantly disected in King's writing, there would be no story at all. Events happen around Andy, but what happens inside Andy is what gives this story wings.

I hope you will read this tale. I hope you will be inspired by it. I hope you will be as enthralled by the writing as I am. I hope you will love it, for your own sake.

This book is a must for anyone with a child. I have worked in a daycare and also am an education major. All the children I have read this book to have fallen in love with Froggy and his dressing mishaps. Even two year olds request "Froggy snow!" during book time. This is also great for younger elementary students who love to read this book and have it read to them. Watch out for the laughter!

I read this book to my pre school class and they just loved it, especially when Froggy forgets his underwear. We bought copies of this book to give to all of the children for christmas. My daughter Melissa is going to graduate in May with a teaching degree so I am buying this book to give to her so she can share this story with her class. Great Great Book for young children

My three year old little boy Nicklas loves this book to death he thinks it the greatest book he has ever heard me read to him, he likes reading it over and over again. He loves the noises the clothes make when froggy puts them on. And he also loves when the mother frog yells for froggy and asks himm if he forgot to put something on, ands how embarassed froggy gets when he forgets to put on his underwear.

The book is the definitive source on the Guadalcanal campaign. It covers all three aspects (air, land, sea) of the 6 month campaign in detail. It is obvious the Mr. Frank has done his homework and it was very refershing to see that Japanese sources were also used extensively. This is something that is sorely lacking in other books that discuss campaigns in the Pacific.

He provides interesting breakdown tables of casualties after each major battle. I especially liked the way the author analyzes mistakes that were made by both sides. His critiques of Adms. Ghormley and Fletcher was especially interesting. The final concluding chapter was als very excellent as it gives a good tactical and strategic summary of the whole campaign.

The only minor quibble I had was with the comparatively short (comapred to the land and sea) coverage on the air aspects. More personal details on the airmen who particpated would be better since the author himself stated that control of Henderson Field was instrumental to the Japanese inability to resupply their land forces, and the eventual win. The daily listing of air casualties over-claimed/suffered by both sides gets a bit numbing after a while.

Thoroughly researched, and utilizing both American and Japanese field reports, Frank has written the definitive account of America's first offensive struggle of WW II. The seven naval engagements are given the same detail attention as are the multiple land clashes. Most vivid among the latter were the days and nights along Edson's ridge and the Battle for Henderson's Field. Of particular interest were the accounts of the taking of Gavutu, Tanambogo and Tulagi, adjacent islands that several works overlook altogether. This invasion should never have succeeded; we lacked both air and naval superiority, two prerequisites for any amphibious assault. In those first few months, when the enemy could have swatted us like an annoying bug, he hesitated and committed resources piecemeal, a mistake the Japanese would make over and over. The monumental strategic importance of the Solomons seems to gradually dawn on each side as the campaign progressed. Unusual for a book of such detail, from the Tenaru to Edson's Ridge to the final escape of the decimated remnants of the Japanese defenders sixth months later, the action never slows. A liberal sprinkling of front line troops' reflections would have made this a truly remarkable read. Admittedly, I've been spoiled by Ambrose.

After the Americans defeated the Japanese at the battle of Midway, an offensive was planned for the Solomon Islands. The primary target was the island of Guadalcanal. In this book, Mr. Frank describes the landings and the capture of Henderson Field in vivid detail. I was also impressed with his descriptions of the fateful battle of Savo Island, where the Allies lost 4 heavy cruisers to an inferior Japanese force. Admiral Fletcher's decision to remove the carriers is discussed, along with the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, where the 5 Sullivan brothers died on the U.S.S. Juneau.

Perhaps the most interesting part of this book to me was how Mr. Frank not only provides the American viewpoint of the battle, but also the Japanese viewpoint. It was interesting to read about how aircraft and casualty claims were greatly exaggerated by both sides. I also felt that the final chapter was interesting in the way that everything was summarized for the reader. I have been reading books about the Pacific war since I was in the 4th grade, and this is the most comprehensive account of the entire Guadalcanal campaign that I have come across. This book is a must read for any World War II reader.

Gerold Frank's biography is probably the single most comprehensive book written concerning Judy Garland: meticulously researched, debunking many myths, and richly detailed, it is certainly a standard for any one seriously interested in Garland. Even so, I have several issues with the book.

My single greatest complaint about the book is that Frank often seems to include detail for the sake of detail, and at times these details don't seem to make any cohesive statement. That aside, while Frank places Garland under a microscope, he never really quite delivers any sense of the world in which she moved; consequently, we never really have any background against which we may judge her. There is no context.

These are serious flaws, and while the book is certainly readable and enjoyable, I do not think it is one to which the average reader would return, nor would I particularly recommend it to any but the toughest of hard-core Garland fans.

Gerold Frank has taken a subject of innumerable facets, a larger-than-life personality, and an almost indescribable talent and has put the history of her life to words as no writer before or since has been able to accomplish. Judy Garland, one of the silver screen's most beloved stars, is accurately and honestly conveyed in this biography. Frank's style is unique: when he tells of the tradgedies or failures of the star, he is not incriminating against the subject. Frank's book is one as written by an observer, sometimes voyueristically so. His thorough research bring Garland through in all her glory: as the vaudeville headliner, the little girl on the rise to stardom, the MGM superstar, loving wife and mother, and the sometimes self-destructive woman, taken from this earth too soon by the disease brought on by a lifetime of pills, but most of all, the woman trying to find her place in the world and the love she always craved and needed. Judy Garland is a human being, not a media figure, in this book. Gerold Frank is to be well commended for his excellent portrayal of Judy Garland, and readers will also be delighted or surprised by the informative tidbits along this Yellow Brick Road into the life of the great Judy Garland.

This is a very well written book. There is a lot of interesting and detailed information that I have not heard about before. This book sets the facts straight through primary sources. Gerold Frank spoke to Judy's children, husbands, friends, fellow cast members, and even to her doctors. He is the only author that Judy's family and friends completely cooperated with. This was very informative; and it is a real page-turner, unlike so many biographies that merely present fact after fact, or promote fictitious legends. This book sorts through all of this. It is, I believe, one of the best biographies yet written about Judy Garland. A definite must have:)

Cancer Ward is often overshadowed by its predecessor, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, and its successor, the immense memoir, The Gulag Archipelago. While the worldly impact of those two works is perhaps greater, the aesthetic power of Cancer Ward is stronger than both of those works. The story is poignant and powerful, reaching out and probing deeply into the essential questions that are never answered by not only Soviet society, but western culture as a whole. The religious message that emerges is stunning and unique, recalling the works of Dostoyevsky. Overall, this is an excellent book, and any reader who enjoyed One Day or Gulag will be blown away by this work.

Those were the words that Dorothy used to describe Oz after waking up in the bosom of her family. The same intense feeling came over me while reading this book, a task that spanned several years, as I often put it aside for other things, always returning, drawn by the power of the author's prose in opening his world to us. The realness of Solzhenitsyn's worlds makes him perhaps the most accessible Russian novelist. As he described the village where Kostoglotov, the protagonist, lived, or in recounting how Ruasov, the villian/fellow victim ruined lives while justifying his actions, a vivid portrait fills the reader's imagination.
The human struggle to find hope and beauty in the most tragic of settings is what this novel evokes so well. Soviet medicine, cancer, a Zek fresh from the Gulag, and in a twilight turned dawn, Solzhenitsyn finds for his semi-autobiographical protagonist happiness, not only in winning victories against a malignant tumor, but in thoughts of perhaps one more summer to live, with nights sleeping under the stars, of three beech trees that stand like ancient guardians of an otherwise empty steppe horizon, a dog that shared his life there, and of a young nurse and spinster doctor, both of whom he hoped at times to love.
The picture one often got (accurately) of the Soviet Union was of greyness, gloom, uniform drabnes, and of a totalitarian police state. This book serves to remind the reader that, despite such circumstances, even desparately sick human being might still seek, and find, happiness in his own, private world. Along with that, Solzhenitsyn never lets us forget the utter corruption of the Soviet state, often in the person of Ruasov, an ailing bureaucrat who has managed to turn personnel management into an exquisite art form, as an instrument of psychological torture, slowly administered.
Of all Solzehenitsyn's works, this is my favorite. The people one encounters are vividly real, and the ending isn't what one would think (or hope), but is fitting, nonetheless.
-Lloyd A. Conway

At first Cancer Ward exposes the dull horror of succombing to the terminal illness -- the x-ray therapy, the injections, the pain. These treatments seems particularly archaic by today's standards, and help to intensify the despair. But long before the middle of the book, the characters - a group of a dozen or so men in the ward - begin to drive the narrative. They argue party affiliations and politics with a false bravado, trying to believe these things matter, that they'll leave the Ward alive. But it is Kostoglotov (who may have been an inspiration for Kesey's Randall McMurphy, from One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest) who becomes the life of the novel. A prisoner of the State and a desperately ill man, he nonetheless continues to live fully in the Ward, persuing nurses, ruminating on the nature of illness and exile, and daring to hope. The reader dares to hope, too, as Kostoglotov shows flickering indications of health. A fabulously engaging book - and, inthe bargain, one of the only pieces of fiction that will make you consider a healthier lifestyle

This is "Icon," which is book one of three, all of which are now available. Even though all three discuss all eras of his life and career, this Icon book is probably the best one to start with, since it shows many of the works that made him famous.

This book has a bunch of the Edgar Rice Burroughs paperback cover paintings, (Tarzan, John Carter of Mars, etc.), and Conan the Barbarian covers, too. The text explains how the Frazetta paintings on the paperback book covers were responsible for outrageously high sales of these paperback books. This is probably what Frazetta is most famous for, these paperback covers that started a trend of sci-fi fantasy paintings that were as brutally dangerous as they are beautifully painted.

This book discusses Frank Frazetta's early childhood art, how he got into illustrating and comic books, comic strip work ghosting Lil' Abner for Al Capp, being wooed by Hollywood stars, doing movie posters during different decades, etc.

All three books discuss the same eras, but with different details and commentary from different friends and associates. There are also plenty of insightful quotes from Frank in all three books, which explain his outlook concerning his artwork and doing business with his artwork over 5 decades.

I remember Frazetta best for his Molly Hatchet album covers, which are both in this "Icon" book, but they are credited to the original paperback covers that they were first commisioned for, so Molly Hatchet is not mentioned.

To me, a kid in the 1970's, Frazetta was recognized as an expert in his own category, but his work was not common to come across. So I am very pleased with all three books in this trilogy, that finally brings most of his career together in three nicely made art books.

All three of these books are very informative and nice additions to any fans personal library. If you like Frazetta at all, then you should be quite pleased with "Icon," "Legacy," and "Testament."

Certainly one of the 20th century's most influential artists, Frank Frazetta has finally been given the showcase his work deserves. Featuring virtually all of the paintings that made him a legend among artists and fans alike (Conan, Tarzan, et al), "Icon" also includes a stack of previously unpublished and uncollected art, photographs, and some fascinating commentary by Fenner and Frazetta himself. From drawing comics for EC to ghosting "Lil Abner" for Al Capp to painting movie posters for Clint Eastwood, Frank Frazetta has proven again and again that he is one of the most exciting creators in the history of fantasy art. Often imitated, never equaled, Frazetta is the best and "Icon" is a *must have* book!

any lover of great fantasy art will be thrilled by this collection of paintings by the grand master, Frank Frazetta. Simply a genius with a brush or pencil, this book includes all his great works, wonderfully reproduced!!!

Though I first read this book nearly 50 years ago, it still remains one of the best books I have ever read. Adults may feel that it is a kid's book, and of course it is perfect for kids, but believe me, it can be enjoyed by people of any age. All you need is love of a good story. For many years Ozma was my heroine--I dreamed that I would meet her somehow, somehow be transported like Dorothy to the Land of Oz. Though these dreams faded, I still often think that this book might be the favorite book of my life. Dorothy's new adventures, the rescue expedition from Oz that crosses the Deadly Desert, and the spooky confrontation between good and evil in the caverns of the Nome King. The Oz characters have accompanied me through life. Try them---you will never forget them.

Ozma of Oz is the 3rd book in The Wizard of Oz series and follows The Land of Oz. In this book, you will be reunited with many well-loved characters and be introduced to characters you will soon love.

Dorothy, who was not in the last book, again comes into this story. After being shipwrecked, she and Billina, a yellow hen, arrive on land. They wander around to see where they are and discover a new friend, Tik-Tok, a wind-up, mechanical man. They also find a castle. Inside, lives the family of Ev, who have been captured by the evil Nome king. Only a princess who can change her heads lives inside. Dorothy, Billina, and Tik-Tok decide to rescue the Ev family with the help of Ozma. --I won't mention who Ozma is because you may not have read The Land of Oz. You will find out in a later review.--

I would highly suggest this book, along with The Land of Oz because of the adventures and fun.

After Baum's success with the first book, he penned the sequel "The Marvelous Land of Oz". It was a decent book, but it was missing one important element. Dorothy. He corrects that oversight in this one, and the book (and the rest of the series) is all the better for it. Dorothy makes her second trip to Oz, this time with her chicken Billina (don't worry, Toto would also return in later volumes) and the action is non-stop. If you planned on reading the series and had a tough time getting through book 2, don't stop. They keep getting better and better as Baum develops into a first-rate author. Read them in order and don't stop until you've finished book 14 (and then even dip into the books by other authors, none are as inspired as Baum's, but some of them are pretty good).

And if you've read all the Oz books and are looking for other titles that are just as magical and just as inspired, try the Chronicles of Narnia, King Fortis the Brave or Abarat. All will introduce you to other magical worlds that are every bit as fun to visit as Oz.

The book "Dorothy and the Wizard of OZ," is a great book,and should be recommended for anyone who likes to read. It starts out when Dorothy and Zeb are riding in a buggy, and then this huge earthquake comes, causing a big crack in the earth to form. they fall inside the earth, and end up landing in what we know as "munchkin City", but in the book it is called "The Glass City". They meet the munchkins, and then take off for the wizard. They get there, and then this sorcerer comes out, and starts talking them, as he turns into a funny looking thorny man. the wizard finds the sorcerer and cuts him in half. They take the cut in half sorcerer, and barry him in the vegetable garden. The prince of the vegetable kingdom, tells Dorothy to go and find him a princess. So she does. One night while the wizard and Dorothy are sleeping, they get a visit from the evil Mangaboos. They wernt goin to let them go, but then they did. They then went through a mountain, and came put on the other side, which was the Mangaboos's kingdom. While they were there, they ran into a man they called The Braided Man of Pyramid Mountain. The man then lead them to the Wooden gargoyles. They then made a great escape from them. After a few more stunts took place, all the old friends reunited. The wizard then did another trick, and then Zeb went back to the ranch, and after Dorothy gave them a kiss, and said goodbye, she was gone in a madder of seconds.

In this book the three main characters are, Dorothy, the wizard, adn Zeb. Dorothy was a little girl, who liked to take risk, and liked to have fun, but be careful about it at the same time. In this book, she was about eleven years old, she had blonde hair, and wore a shirt little white dress. instead of a dog, she onwned a cat named Eureka. The cat isn't mentioned very much, until the very end. Zeb is Dorothy's cousin, and he is pretty quite during the book. He is mentioned, and helps take care od buisness, and helps them get out of situations when they are in danger, or are trapped by somebody bad. In this book he is about thirteen, or so and does not talk very much. The wizard is very very talkitive. He likes to help people through times, and he likes to be in charge over everything. He knows alot about the land, and what is there, and what can happen. He is about in his fortys, but still is a great wizard, he helped out Dorothy from the funny looking thorney sorcerer by cutting him in half. In my opinion I think this book is really good, but can get a little confussing. So you have to pay atention to all of it, and read it when your not buissy, other wise it wont make any since.

NOTE: This is not the edition of the book I would have liked to review. I just didn't see it anywhere. This review is based on the Del Rey edition.

Dorothy and the Wizard In Oz is the 4th book in The Wizard of Oz series.

In this story, Dorothy and Zebediah (Zeb), her second cousin, fell into the middle of the earth though a crack. When they landed, they were in a city. The rest of the story is the trying to get out of the middle of the earth.

There is one really neat thing that happens in this book. As many of you remember, whether you read the book or saw the movie, the Wizard of Oz floated away in a hot-air balloon. Well, in this book, the Wizard lands in the city where Dorothy and Zeb are. He must have been floating for a really long time!

As I have for all of the books in this series, I suggest this book for those who like to read for fun and don't mind a little major fantasy. (Like when Dorothy and Zeb fall through the earthquake to the center of the earth, they could've never survived!)

L. Frank Baum, who wrote the Wizard of Oz, a little before WWI, the famous tale of Dorothy and her delightful friends that was immortalized in the 1939 film starring Judy Garland, did not stop writing the adventures of Dorothy. In later years, he wrote further exploits, as Dorothy returns to the magical realm time and again, meeting with her old friends the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, etc but encountering newer evils, i.e. Mombi the witch. The only other film drawn from these later novels is the 1980's film "Return to Oz" starring Faureza Balk as Dorothy, a less popular film. I highly recommend the Oz books, all of them, though you might want to check their chronological and consecutive order, for they are excellent works of fiction and fantasy, and in fact, the very first "fantasy" series of its time. Baum did what Tolkien would later do in his extensive Lord of the Rings novels and what C.S. Lewis did in his Narnia Chronicles, the first book being the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. These works of fantasy are excellent. In this particular story, we again meet Dorothy (formerly Pip, a young Kansas boy, a sort of male counterpart to Dorothy, had adventures in Oz) who has been living with her cousin Zeb in California. While riding on a buggy, an eathquake takes Dorothy and Zeb deep underground and they are transported back to Oz. We are introduced to characters that will appear in other Oz novels, including the benevolent enchantress and ruler of Oz, Ozma, who took over the land after the incident involving the phony Wizard in The Wizard of Oz. The rest is history. Dorothy will forever live in our hearts, and the Oz will forever be linked with innocence, with magic, and with childhood. I still enjoy reading these novels, and everyone should also, and be caught up once again in L. Frank Baum's immortal epic.

John May has written one of the best Bj books in years. While much of the content is new and seemingly difficult to comprehend, May does a fine job in boiling down advanced advantage-play techniques into understandable language. Luckily, May is a player and he understands what advice to give real players of the game. he thankfully does not fill up the book with endless charts and graphs to show off his genius. Instead, he explains most of the difficult concepts in clear English.

I would say that some of the techniques written about in this book would be very tough for players to use in a casino without a great deal of practice. However, some card cutting techniques I have already used and they do work!

Blackjack players who are looking to add to their bag of tricks some really great maneuvers will want to have this book in their libraries.

John May is an elite blackjack player and this book gives you information that I have not read anywhere else. While it does discuss and explain the theory of card counting, the revolutionary stuff that is advertised on the cover concerns methods of play such as glim, stacker, ace tracking and the like. Some of these are "do-able" by mere mortals like myself and some seem extremely hard to pull off.

I think the book is very well written and organized and May's writing flows. He explains very difficult concepts in a way that is understandable. I believe this is one of the top books ever written on blackjack and is definitely worth buying.

This book blew my mind. John May is one hell of a blackjack expert. I don't think I've read anything quite like this. His approach to the game is that just about anything the casinos come up with, we players can counter, be it the shuffling procedure, the dealing of the cards, even those shuffling machines. This book is about advantage play with a vengeance! I think if you already know how to count cards and are looking for the icing on the cake, this is the book for you.

The Waste Land, published in 1922 and considered one of the major works associated with modernism. This poem deals despairingly with the state of post-World War I society, which Eliot saw as sterile and decadent. Numerous references to religious imagery, mythology and literature of the past are used ironically to point out the comparative emptiness of Eliot's time.

T.S. Eliot wrote "The Waste Land" against the backdrop of a world gone mad-- searching for reason inside chaos, and striving to build an ark of words by which future generations could learn what had gone before, T.S. Eliot explores that greatest of human melancholy-- disillusionment. This is a difficult poem, but one well-worth exploring to its fullest. The inherent rhythms of Eliot's speech, the delightful, though sometimes obscure, allusions, and intricate word-craft, create an atmosphere of civilization on the edge-- in danger of forgetting its past, and therefore repeating it. In the end, only the poet is left, to admonish the world to peace, to preserve the ruins of the old life, and to ensure that future generations benefit from the disillusions of the past.

"Prufrock" is perhaps the best "mid-life crisis" poem ever written. In witty, though self-deprecating and often downright bitter, tones, Eliot goes on a madcap but infinitely somber romp through the human mind. This is a poem of contradictions, of repression, of human fear, and human self-defeat. Technically, "Prufrock" is brilliant, with a varied and intricate style suited to the themes of madness, love, and self-doubt.

Buy this. You won't regret it. If you're an Eliot fan, you probably have it anyway. If you're not, you will be when you put it down.

The Waste Land is sometimes considered to be the greatest poem of the twentieth century. This collection from Dover (at an amazing price) includes this and several other of Eliot's poems. The Waste Land, however, is considered to be his masterpiece, his 'epic,' in a sense. In fact, it is interesting to compare Eliot's bleak vision of a land of waste to other, earlier epics.

The poem is in some sense a warning, in another sense a cry of despair. The image of the wasted land, of the spiritually degenerate human race, is depressing, yet the poem ends with a glimmer (albeit faint) of hope--salvation is possible, however unlikely. I am no expert on this poem, and like most people understand only fragments of it, but what I have gained from the poem I have found to be very enlightening, and very stirring.

Eliot draws many references from the old legend of the Fisher-King, and an idea of what this legend is about (in all its many forms) is useful in interpreting the poem. This is undoubtedly one of the classics in both English literature and modernist writings, and very worthwhile for anyone who is willing to take the time to study it.