This is one of the most comprehensive documents in the history of architectural design. J.N.L. Durand's infatuation with design methods and classification marked the beginning of a new rational architecture. This magnificent work of architectural literature must be read and reviewed by every person involved in the fields of architecture and urbanism. Mr. David Pritt's translation is impecable and must be seen as a welcome addition to the architectural confusion of the last twenty years.

When I first read this book when I was a senior in high school and read it for my French class, I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy this book. I'd heard so much about it. After reading it I can say that I love this book so much, no wonder Le Petit Prince is on some French currency! I've read this book in English and French, and I'd have to say that the French is sooo much better if you know French. It's not all that difficult to understand if you are at a beginning level. This is a great book and is worth every penny in both languages!

I do not read a lot of books. I have only read what was assigned to me throughout school and the occasional NY Times bestseller. A friend of mine gave me this book as a gift one day, she said I would enjoy it. She was right - I loved it. I didn't read it right away, but when I did I couldn't put it down. I am not an emotional person, or at least I never thought of myself as one, but this book made me look at myself and it broke my heart. I related with the character of the pilot and I felt as though the Little Prince was talking to me. The book helped me realize that I had forgotten a lot of things since childhood, like the meaning of friendship. The book also reminded me of what love really is. It made me realize what "grown-ups" really are, children who lost their innocence. The greatest thing about the book is that it is universal. It's message is simple: "love has no prejuducies, never dies and always forgives." It is a children's story but it is something all adults should read. There are few books that can do what this "children's story" can do. It will make you laugh, break your heart and make you think about what really is important in your life.

- Jeff

I read this book in its portuguese version when I was stil living in Brazil (my home land); french, when I started learning it as well as spanish . Despite all "nuances" of each language the book keeps its majesty. Everytime I read it I think it was not written for children. In Le Petit Prince, St. Exupery made life wonderful, beyond comprehension.

This is a wonderful book for the person that loves military history and insightfulness

A very intresting first hand account of a young soldiers rise through the wars and rank to become a general. Associated with different calvary units, he comes in and out service to Napoleon and ADC to many great generals and marshals. Some action but alot of interaction.

What we didn't know until Sylvia Murrs detective-like analysis of manuscripts: the late Abbé (1766-1848) had a ghostwriter - he owned an older manuscript of the Ex-Jesuit Coeurdoux (+ 1691-1779), a brilliant scholar of Indian customs and lifelong observer of his exotic environment. Dubois added to his model many sociological and ethnical observations - a real teamwork ...
The book is of outstanding interest - both authors lived in all more than 90 years in a continent whom they tried to understand - not in vain.
This book represents in a certain sense the key to Indian manners and customs the Indians themselves sometimes seem to have lost ...
* In 2002 came out a German translation with commentary

This quirky, witty, wise and subtlety bigoted account of Indian ethos is an important record of how culture missionaries viewed Hindu society and customs. Useful, but needs to be read carefully.
In the course of more than 30 years as a missionary among the people of India, Abbe Dubois found ample opportunity to observe and record Hindu practices. His first manuscript on Hindu religion and sociology, written in French, was completed in 1806. This comprehensive, annotated translation of Dubois's 1815 thorough revision of his work was completed by Henry K. Beauchamp in 1897 and revised in 1905. It offers a rare glimpse of a little known culture, and is a unique historical document of anthropological interest.
The first of three parts begins with a finely delineated view of Indian society, including commentary on the origin, divisions, and "advantages" of the caste system; the mythical origin of the Brahmins; descriptions of gurus or Hindu priests; and an explanation of the ceremonies of the Brahmins and other castes. Part 11 describes the four states of Brahminical life. It features discussions of the rules of conduct and etiquette; external and internal defilements; marriages between Brahmins and other Hindus; fasting; religious tolerance; Hindu ornaments; Brahmin wives and rules of conduct for married women; conditions of widowhood and funeral ceremonies; and samples of Hindu fables, tales, and poetry.
The final part considers, among other topics, the Hindu religion, including its feasts, temples, principal gods, and worship of animals and inanimate objects; the administration of civil and criminal justice; and the Hindu military system. Six appendices with supplementary information on distinctions of caste, rules of conduct, and other topics conclude this monumental work, a certain source of fascination for students. scholars, and anyone intrigued by Indian life and culture.
Dover (2002) unabridged republication of the third English language edition, published by Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1905. Prefaces. Prefatory Note by Max Muller. Editor's Introduction. Index. 6 Appendices. 1 blackand white illustration. xxxiv+741pp. 533k x 8'1/2. Paperbound.

A classical account on India - fresh, vivid, humorous, sometimes partially, but in many respects until this very day an excellent indtroduction in Indian thought and behaviour!
What we didn't know until Sylvia Murrs detective-like analysis of manuscripts: the late Abbé (1766-1848) had a ghostwriter - he owned an older manuscript of the Ex-Jesuit Coeurdoux (+ 1691-1779), a brilliant scholar of Indian customs and lifelong observer of his exotic environment. Dubois added to his model many sociological and ethnical observations - a real teamwork ...
The book is of outstanding interest - both authors lived in all more than 90 years in a continent whom they tried to understand - not in vain.
This book represents in a certain sense the key to Indian manners and customs the Indians themselves sometimes seem to have lost ...
* In 2002 there came out a German translation with commentary

Many years ago I read the classic Chinese novel "Chin Ping Mei" in which overindulgence in sex, wine, and food occurs so regularly that by the end of the hundreds of pages, the reader is glutted and uninterested in more. This, people say, was the Buddhist message of the novel-that the sensual, material world is meaningless. MANON LESCAUT reminded me of that novel because the single moralizing theme-the wasted life of a talented young aristocrat who falls madly in love with a girl of dubious character-dominates so completely that nothing else really matters. The various characters, while potentially interesting, are never built up much, due to subordination to the moral lesson. No matter how many times the beautiful Manon betrays her impetuous lover, he forgives her and indulges in his passion more than ever. His father and friends despair. Jail, murder, betrayal, gambling, prostitution, and eventual exile are only some of the results this passion delivers. The denouement of the novel occurs in far-off New Orleans, about which, it seemed to me, the author had absolutely no idea. An opera was later written based on this minor classic of French literature. I could not say that it is a wonderful piece of writing, nor that many readers will thrill to its ups and downs. You can read it in a short while; it will hold your attention and you will have the satisfaction of being able to say you read it. But, at the end of the day, French literature offers a lot more than MANON LESCAUT.

The Abbe Prevost was the first translator of Richardson's novels in France, as well as a precursor of the Romantic movement. This tale was the inspiration for two famous operas (Massenet and Puccini) as well as a forerunner of many formulaic love stories that came after. One has to remember that this was written in the earlry part of the 18th Century, and there was not any formula before it, at least in terms of the heroine. Manon is the anti-heroine, the woman-in-red, the Eve that gives her partner over to the fates as a result of her easily-compromised sensibility.

She can't turn down her creature comforts, even when it means sacrificing her "true love," her Romeo, for an older, but more solvent, lover, in instance after instance.

Manon is one of the first unsympathetic heroines in literature (let's forget about Eve if we can) , a precursor of Emma Bovary in many respects. Let's also remember that she appears in during the , "golden age" of sentimental fiction in France and Europe generally (the ealry 1700s) . Women are depicted in this era as archetypically virtuous and angelic, or unambiguously sexual (thinking particularly of the late Restoration English stage). What we have in Manon is an amalgam, neither entirely saint, nor entirely sinner. She is the Madonna and the Magdaleine, part angel, part succubus, but an entirely new persona on the European literary stage. This is the reason that she had such an impression on the European artistic imagination. She represents a new dichotomy, a new figure that represents what Henry Adams would have suggested as a representation of the sacred and the profane, the mud and the cathedral.

Great book. The best of what French literature has to offer. A story of deceit, love, devotion and dedication.

Perhaps the book got better, but I had better things to do with my time. I put the book down after only two chapters because I found it boring and pretentious.

The author has a basic misunderstanding of the motives of de Baif and the political realities of that time. The inability of the author to grasp the actuality of de Baif's real circumstances has led to a book which owes more to fantasy than fact.

The complete failure of the book to express the workings of political patronage at that time has again led it up a cul-de-sac from which there is no return.

This book will be of no interest to any real political or social historian and indeed may actually compromise the perceptions of political or social students seeking enlightenment.

The factual basis of the book is frequently faulty will glaring errors and omissions.

I do not endorse this book

This book is really awful to read.
There is first the author's inexplicable need to quote extensively in French thruout this book. I don't read French and fail to understand why the author writes in English and quotes extensively in another language. Then it struck me - he is a learned man, being educated in the humanities in English, French and presumably, Latin as well (says so in his background).
then there is his use of words which do not even occur in any dictionary, thesaurus or great books on organised words that I consulted. I guess that he was making a synedochic point about words and grammar.
Finally, his analysis on the one famous painting about the battle of Eylau bu Gros and that green clad Prussian soldier with the wild look in the corner of the painting. Ah, that I understand except that he got it wrong. That's a russian soldier being depicted.
He'll need to brush up on his military history if he wants a career outside of art criticism.