This book is a classic. A real monument of culture, produced by this philological mind of the twentieth century. Its pages have consistently revealed the powerful medieval literature, totally breaking the idea of a dead age to literature. His commentary on St. Augustine`s Confessions (chap.IV, rethoric), as well as the excerpt of St. Augustine`s work that he brings to us, are pearls of the literary critic. We can hardly find nowadays an erudit of this kind.
Yes, his work has a lot of problems, maybe even some errors and some avoidable historicism. Yes, his work is an old one. Yes, his bergsonian introduction is boring. Yes, some of his interpretations are doubtful.
But you can`t really pass through the Middle Ages without reading this classic.

In this juicy, lively memoir of the Boston poetry scene in the 1950's, Davison dishes the dirt not only on himself but also on such luminaries as Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton and Robert Frost. The decade of the 1950's was a time of delirious creativity for these poets perched on the threshold of fame and notoriety, and at the center of the vortex sat Robert Lowell, brilliant teacher, mentor and model of the wounded artist. Davison's group portrait shows men dominating these mythologized poetic years with the women cajoling, wheedling and flirting to be noticed, and then, once they had the men's attention, stepping forward with fierce work to be taken seriously. As readers will see, Plath and Sexton were up to any challenge and left behind for posterity both their great works and tales of their wild vamping exploits. Although Davison makes no secret that everybody in the group drank like fish and acted out with impunity, he ultimately celebrates those years as the apex of his social and creative life, a time populated by people of immense charisma and talent. The book is simply a love letter to the difficult geniuses of one of the great moments in 20th century American literary history.

This is a terribly intimate book that says much about the experience of being a male in our violent culture. The question it raised for me is: How can a man who conforms to the masculine imperative to remain detached from pathos, to remain callous to the pain and death of gentle innocent creatures, manage a psychological confrontation with the unexpected death of his own young son? Certainly, the author does not state this dramatic question explicitly. This is a book, after all, that says what it has to say poetically. But the question lurks behind every stitch in the fabric of Robert Peters powerful story. Masculinity may prepare one for battle, for danger, for risk, but it does not prepare one for an ordinary afternoon to rip the life out of one's own child. And so the question is, what happens to toughness when one loses a son?

The book's poetic answer to this question of masculinity and caring builds itself gradually out of zigzagging wafts of seemingly disconnected recollections, recollections that, weave themselve into a psychologically coherent picture. Then, through this experiential picture the reader sees what happens: such a masculine man learns to feel and cherish the warmth of his love, to recognize and accept own his own tenderness -- and so the dying son bequeaths his father a gift.

But this book is more than a psychological tale about the author. It is story to be experienced deeply by the reader and those with the courage to read this shocking book will, I believe, end up more in touch with their own tenderness.

..Lois Shawver
author of And the Flag Was Still There

What a perfect way to tour the State of Florida. I had no idea there were so many Historical Lighthouses in our beautiful State of Florida. Thank-You Roger Poulin

At last a book on globalisation that avoids vague generalisations and dismal futurology. Robert Went presents the main economic arguments from an accessible, non-dogmatic Marxist perspective. This book would be a great tool for anyone involved in anti-globalisation mobilisations.

This book is a beautifully written, purple-prosed account of Oscar Wilde's life from the height of his fame as an aesthete to his tragic death in a seedy Paris hotel. Reilly has succeeded in capturing the style of Wilde in his speaking and in the book's descriptive passages, and his writing gives life to people like Constance (Wilde's wife), Robbie Ross, and Bosie, and their lives seperate from Oscar are shown in interesting detail. Each character is given real depth and motivation. I normally do not like "Fictionalized Biographies," but this one is moving and well-written.

Every student coming out of Art School needs to know what is in this book. You can learn it in school, or you can learn it on the job, but if you design anything, you will eventually need to learn what is in this book. Lots of illustrations that explain esoteric concepts very well.
Buy it, read it and learn it-you will save money in the long run.

I am a student of Dr Lavender's and the book was on the reading list for his course at the Central School of Speech & Drama. I purchased the book tentatively considering selfish factors such as sales and authorial royalties. However despite this initial reticence and cynicism this is a thoroughly researched and crafted piece of theatrical commentary.

Lavneder focuses on three of the great contemporary theatrical visionaries and places their working methods under a sharlply focused scholarly microscope. His remarks on Brook's working methods are particularly insightful when reading The Shifting Point concurrently.

This is a fine piece of work and one that any student of directing, contemporary theatre practice or indeed Shakespeare would do well to read.

Andy didn't pay me to say write this. Go buy it!

"Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Man, the Image and the World: A Retrospective by Peter Galassi, Robert Delpire" is an essential purchase for anyone with more than a passing interest in photography.

As the images and essays in this retrospective of HCB's work make clear, Cartier-Bresson invented 35 mm photography as a visual form. What studying, or even browsing through this massive collection makes clear is that despite being known as a "photographer," Cartier-Bresson is not being disengeuous when he eschews that descriptive: he is not a photographer; he is an artist whose primary tool for about 50 years was a camera. But he wasn't "taking pictures," he was creating art, and happened to use a camera to do it.

A careful examination of this collection of images leaves one with the impression is that the reason HCB has had such an enormous impact on the history of photography in many different forms - including "street photography," "photojournalism," and "documentary photography," is the fact that he is one of the great artists of the 20th century.

Even if you think you know all Cartier-Bresson's work; even if you own all the books in which most of these photos originally appeared over the past 50 years, "Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Man, the Image and the World: A Retrospective" is a book worth owning because of the overview it provides, and because of the insightfulness of several of the essays included.

What a wonderful book! I couldn't imagine such an espectacular book about one of my favourite paiters: Rubens. It's a very nice printed book, with plenty of images from the Maria dei' Medici Gallery of the Musée du Louvre. The text is wonderful. A "Must" book if you are in love with the Flemish paintings of the XVII century. Don't loose this opportunity!