At the end of this splendid autobiographical travel book, the author explains his compulsion to travel to his Brahmin companion "It's the pull of the world. I spent most of my childhood on my own, and some of it was in the mountains of Wales. I would go exploring with the idea in my head that the farther I was from home the better it would be. The next valley would always be wilder. The lake would be bottomless, and I would find a mysterious ruin, and there would be ravens instead of crows in all the trees. Now it's not just the Black Mountains of Dyfed, but the world." In this book that pull takes him to a bleak, windswept ancient fort in a bay in South West Wales where he writes; to Cuba where he meets an expatriate American official executioner, former Macy employee; to the exquisite countryside of Vietnam of the 1950's; to Bangkok and its sex industry; to Brazil and, in concert with one of the great photo-journalists in history Don McCullin, recalls their expose to the world of the genocide against tribal peoples of Brazil, and demonstrates the power of writing and the good that can come therefrom. His opinions include his opposition to the destructiveness of Protestant fundamentalist sects as missionaries and disdain for the barbarians of Essex in the 1960's riding to the local hunt willy nilly over gardens. His insights are sometimes revalatory - he analyses some speeches of Castro and finds them sprinkled with jokes and quotes from Burke, Rousseau, Juvenal, and Shakespeare and claims Castro is the greatest orator since Demosthenes. This contrasts remarkably with the impression I gained from the American press over the years who simply described his speeches as interminable and boring. What a difference an open mind can make to a perspective on the world. His travel companions included Lord Snowden who is revealed somewhat as a spoiled and moody but talented adolescent. His writing skill I would compare to Somerset Maugham but without the snobbery and sarcasm. He is one of the most graceful and skilled travel writers in the language. Pervading all is his sense of graciousness, humanity, and generosity of spirit. The World, The World is a wonderful read.

I discovered Norman Lewis through an article by that other great travel writer Pico Iyer in his "Tropical Classical" collection. "The World, the World" is an excellent introduction to an extraordinary travel writer, man whose life has to be read about to be believed. This is a man totally in tune with his times both at home and abroad (his description of his English village is as powerful as his writing on Cuba and the plight of the Amazonian Indians). There's also a great deal of humour here, particularly when Lewis describes his travels with Lord Snowden in Peru. Highly recommended.

What a treat this book was! I discovered Norman Lewis years ago --and have read most of his novels (which I will now go back and re-read). He makes travel as exciting and involving as, of course, it is and along with Pico Iyer makes everyday that I sit behind my desk or hit my computer one less day of adventure or learning. He manages to be so modest about his achievements and his innante curiousity while presenting a panorama of travel thst is as interesting as any travle writing I have ever read --and it makes you thirst for more and more detail about his experiences throughout the world..highly recommend this for anyone who has the slightest essence of wanderlust!

I am always browsing Amazon and I have never taken the time to write a review, but this book deserves it! I have read many books on WWII and Italy and this is the only one that made me REALLY feel like I was there. Excellent writing and shocking details. Must read!

This is quite possibly the best book about World War II AND the best book about Italy you're likely to find... Full of striking telling detail from the opening confusion of the Allied invasion on the beaches of Salerno (the author, a young British intelligence officer posted to Italy behind his knowledge of Spanish, finds himself under fire in a wilderness of typewriters and other randomly strewn office equipment) to the improbable eruption of Vesuvius (and the Neapolitans' belief, amply demonstrated by historical prededent, that otherwise inexorable flows of lava could be stopped by the relics of Catholic saints)... Lewis is a master observer of the particular and this book, written after a mid-1950s perusal of his old wartime notebooks following publication of half a dozen other volumes, shows off his unmatched gift for quiet understatement. The residents of Naples were reduced to medieval conditions of famine and hygiene and were heartily sick of the war in 1944, prostitution was rampant with young girls often the only employables in a family, electric lines and even manholes were plundered for their scrap value. A clandestine mail service between Naples and still-Nazi-occupied Rome was a particular vexation to Lewis and his intelligence collegues, especially as some of Naples' most prominent citizens (including a midget gynecologist who was able to use both hands for non-incision internal surgery, and who specialized in restoration of virginity), were among the amateur postmen. The doings of Lucky Luciano and other characters on the late-WWII scene in Italy, and the incredible bungling and callousness of the occupation authorities are ably chronicled. Don't miss this one.

The photos and text paint a beautiful and picturesque tribute to this isolated and historic area.

It visually took me back to my three wonderful years among the gentle people and remote countryside!

A must have addition to any true lover of this faraway land of the pagodas.

Norman Lewis is, well, one of English literature's living treasures. Which is rather surprising given that practically all his books are out of print. Alec Waugh, no stranger to such things, called him "the best travel writer since Marco Polo." Here you have him on audio cassette - by now a rather quaint medium. But if this is the only way to encounter what Anthony Burgess called Lewis's "edible prose," then by all means go for it. With luck (and a little spittle, as the saying goes), Lewis will be required reading within another generation. I should live so long.

Books by Norman Lewis are still bought avidly by English book readers even on the streets of India but are not very popular in America. The basic speed reading strategies are not that many and are not that difficult to master. For some unknown reason, it is not even offered as a class in most high schools and colleges! Imagine all the hours you will save if you could finish your required reading in half the time or less?

In 1989, I was preparing to take the GRE test to come to America and was intimidated by all the reading material I had to go through in order to prepare for the test. Then, as I was passing one of those street sellers that are such a common sight in India, I saw a copy of this book and the title caught my attention. I decided to make this my first book to read so I could finish the rest of the books faster. The strategy paid off and I increased my reading speed from 100 words per minute to over 2000 words per minute in less than 6 months! In the process, my engineering grades picked up as I was not only reading faster but also retaining complex material better. Needless to say, I did fantastic on my test scores and came to America to attend graduate school in 1991.

The basis behind the author's theory is that speed reading, high concentration and material retention are all linked. You can't do one without the other very effectively. So, if you start reading fast, you are forced to concentrate and this increases retention. The high concentration that is induced when you try to read faster results in some interesting physiological changes in the brain where the memory of what you are reading gets etched more permanently than the times when you don't have high concentration. This is not explained in the book, but I came to that conclusion after I became curious about what makes the book's techniques so effective and researched deeper into the subject. I don't want to go too much into the book's techniques because I think they are more effective if you read them directly from the book for the first time.

Since then, I have purchased several other books on speed reading but I still find this to be the best book on the subject. My perception may be skewed because I had already increased my reading speed to the physical limits of how fast my eyes could move. But the reason I like this book is because Norman Lewis does not make any ridiculous claims and his methods are very simple, common-sense techniques that are easy to follow. In some of the other books, I found a few of the techniques to be so silly that I never even tried them.

People who meet me and eventually learn about my reading speed always ask me how I was able to make such a dramatic change. When I tell them about this book, they try finding it at the local bookstore and are never able to find it! So, I end up parting with my copy and picking up a new one the next time I visit India. I am glad that one can find this book on Amazon.com now. I can tell my friends to get a copy from here.

Your reading speed tends to drop over time if you don't relearn these techniques once every few years. Of course, people with glasses will see results that are less dramatic than people without glasses due to the restriction in their field of vision. But everyone benefits from these solid, proven techniques. I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did and recommend it to your friends that are interested in sharpening their brains.

This book reveals the scandalous abuse of indigenous tribes from all over the world but especially South American. It leads one to believe that all US non-conforming off-the-wall religious sects should be banned from all foreign travel. I thought that such barbarity in the name of religious conversion had ended centuries ago. This book should be serialised in a broadsheet newspaper of repute so that it can be brought to general attention the criminality of the US missionaries. All South American governments should prohibit their activity and put an end to their preying on innocent people of the world

To prepare for going to Istanbul to attend the engagement party of my oldest son to the lovely Özlem, I thought it might be helpful if I could speak a word or two of Turkish.

There isn't a better book than this one on the market (actually, I don't think there are any other elementary Turkish language books ON the market). It is a great little book, with actual lessons laid out at the end of each chapter. You're given several sentences to translate from English to Turkish and vice-versa.

I would have given it five stars, but the downside is they don't tell you that you MUST have a Turkish dictionary at hand. I didn't realize this until I was in Istanbul trying to do my homework.

There's a short dictionary in the back of this book, but it is Turkish to English (which makes it hard to look up some of the words you're supposed to translate from English to Turkish - and some words just aren't there).

The CD tape I bought simply wasn't enough, so I added this book. (You absolutely need a CD, though, so you can understand the pronounciation -- extremely important in this language!

Highly recommended.

Almost 10 years ago I went to Turkey for the first time as an exchange student with the Rotary Club. I was living with a Turkish family and I was determined to learn the language. One day I met another American woman in Turkey who spoke fluent Turkish. She sent me home with this book and a few words of advice. "Elementary Turkish" is truly a classic in the world of Turkish language acquisition. The book proved to be extremely helpful to me, especially as it gave me grammatical categories for all of the words and phrases that I was learning from the Turks around me. Lewis Thomas understands the language well, and his book explains it in very readable, but challenging lessons. After receiving the book, I spent about an hour with it every day for around 3 months. It was an integral part of my Turkish language acquisition.

Now as a fluent Turkish speaker, I use this book often to help train people who are going to Turkey, either long-term or short-term. In some of the vocabulary lists and colloquial expressions it is somewhat dated, but overall this short textbook is still the best. It is packed with helpful vocabulary and language lessons and exercises. It can be used either to study over a long period of time (as I did), or to peruse for vocabulary and basic grammar (as I have used it to train others).

If you have no exposure to spoken Turkish, buy this book along with one of the many cassette tape courses available. If you plan on learning Turkish in Turkey, then this book is all you need.

This was my first text book in Turkish (some 28 years ago). Despite many new and innovative techiniques in language teaching and acquisition, this little charmer is still one of my favorites.

If one takes one's time to work through the exercises step-by-step -- the result will be an excellent basic command of Turkish sentence structure and verb system. Professor Thomas has a very systematic style which I appreciate as a student (especially when learning by oneself)

Alas, no one has taken the opportunity to make recordings of the examples or exercises. This would make a great package -- Hint, hint if the publisher is reading.

Anyway, affordably priced and fairly complete in itself (except for the lack of audio), you can't lose if you want to learn Turkish!

This book was required reading for a college course I took in 1976. How I wish I had read it during High School, it certainly would have helped me in life and in the SAT's. It is so much easier to learn word roots the way Lewis teaches, than memorizing words, that way you will always know the words. My son is now in 6th grade and is studying Greece. In conjunction, his English teacher had the class learn the Greek roots. I found my old copy of Word Power, which really impressed upon my son how beneficial learning vocab this way is. I am delighted that the book is still in print and have purchased my son his own copy.

This book is not only very effective for building a strong vocabulary, but it also teaches the reader the etymology of words, their usages, and how a person can determine the meaning/usage of a new word just by examining the word itself. This book was given to me by my ninth grade English teacher many, many years ago. I wore the copy he gave me out and had to buy a new one. It has been an invaluable tool for me not only when I write but in conversation as well. Norman Lewis will teach you how to know if you are using corrects words in your sentences, how to pronounce and spell words correctly, and how to speak with grammatical accuracy. This is a book that you will refer to for many years to come. Furthermore, it is a book that is actually a fun tool from which to learn. To give you an idea of the contents in the book, it consists of a section that tests your current vocabulary to see where you are right now, another section deals with building a vocabulary database, there is a section that deals with how to talk about personality types, actions, Doctors, various practitioners, science and scientists, liars and lying, actions, and various speech habits, etc. Each section is vital to your overall vocabulary strength (even though this does not seem to be the case). Every chapter/section has exercises that force you to put into practice what you have been learning (this is a must). Thus, overall this is a very effective vocabulary builder (as the front cover totes).

The methods Norman Lewis uses to teach vocabulary are fun, refreshing, and LASTING! As a senior in high school, I found this book every bit as interesting as one might expect from a novel. To this day, I remember the chapter on the various medical practitioners. But even more amazing, when I see them in print, I can, to this day, remember whether I learned them from WORD POWER MADE EASY. The most helpful hints for me were the foreign language roots. Learning those helped me uncover the meaning of other words based on those roots. Also Lewis' little vignettes for each word are memorable. My favorite, even now, is the one describing a 'phrenologist'. Try it! You'll love it!

I personally prefer Lewis' "Word Power" books, but I've noticed students do not stay with them--due to the length as well as piling on of information, especially etymological details. The present volume, on the other hand, represents an optimal compromise between comprehensiveness and depth. Lewis' progressive exercises help motivate the reader and provide a sense of accomplishment. Recommended for anyone who wishes to sharpen grammatical and vocabulary skills. Moreover, Lewis shows sufficient awareness of the differences between "prescriptive" and "descriptive" usage to be acceptable to traditionalist as well as modern grammarians.

to speak english very fluently with other and to know it to use very wel

This is a good play, but it does not match Shakespeare's other history plays. In my opinion too much of the play revolves around a doting mother who wants to see her underage son on the throne even though he is very incapable of ruling. Furthermore, any intelligent observer can see that the King of France only wants Arthur on the crown because a child would be a lot easier to manipulate than the shrewd King John. Remember, John WAS NOT a usurper. Richard the Lionhearted named John as the heir to the crown! On the positive side, Richard I's illegitimate son is a powerful and convincing character. John is an interesting 3 dimensional character. At times he comes off as harsh and cruel. But he also shows himself at times to be to be a strong and competent king. And at times we can feel sorry for him. Shakespeare also manages to squeeze some comical touches in. I feel that to appreciate this play as much as possible, you must realize that Richard I named John the heir to the crown. I also feel you must understand that John did prove himself to be a competent king. (Unlike his unfairly blackened reputation in "Robin Hood.")

the Oxford Shakespeare has been touted as 'a new conception' of Shakespeare, but is in fact merely an update of the cumbersome old Arden editions. Like these, 'King John' begins with a 100-page introduction, divided into 'Dates and Sources' (full of what even the editor admits is 'tedious' nit-picking of documentary evidence); 'The Text' (the usual patronising conjecture about misprints in the Folio edition and illiterate copyists); 'A Critical Introduction', giving a conventional, but illuminating guide to the drama, its status as a political play dealing with the thorny problem of royal succession, the contemporary legal ambiguities surrounding inheritance, the patterning of characters, the use of language (by characters as political manoeuvring, by Shakespeare to subvert them); and an account of 'King John' 'In the Theatre', its former popularity in the 18th and 19th century as a spectacular pageant, the play distorted for patriotic purposes, and its subsequent decline, presumably for the same reasons. The text itself is full of stumbling, often unhelpful endnotes - what students surely want are explanations of difficult words and figures, not a history of scholarly pedantry. The edition concludes with textual appendices.
The play itself, as with most of Shakespeare's histories, is verbose, static and often dull. Too many scenes feature characters standing in a rigid tableau debating, with infinite hair-cavilling, issues such as the legitimacy to rule, the conjunction between the monarch's person and the country he rules; the finer points of loyalty. Most of the action takes place off stage, and the two reasons we remember King John (Robin Hood and the Magna Carta) don't feature at all. This doesn't usually matter in Shakespeare, the movement and interest arising from the development of the figurative language; but too often in 'King John', this is more bound up with sterile ideas of politics and history, than actual human truths. Characterisation and motivation are minimal; the conflations of history results in a choppy narrative. There are some startling moments, such as the description of a potential blood wedding, or the account of England's populace 'strangely fantasied/Possessed with rumours, full of idle dreams/Not knowing what they fear, but full of fear'. The decline of the king himself, from self-confident warrior to hallucinating madman, anticipates 'King Lear', while the scene where John's henchman sets out to brand the eyes of the pubescent Pretender, is is full of awful tension.
P.S. Maybe I'm missing something, but could someone tell me why this page on 'King John' has three reviews of 'Timon of Athens'? Is somebody having a laugh?

Many people feel that this play of Shakespeare's is either unfinished or a poor effort. But I do not think this is accurate or fair. The reality is that many people can never find a middle ground. It is actually (in my opinion) quite common for people to only be able to see things from one extreme or the other. Despite Apemantus' cynical nature, there is no denying that whatever his faults are, HE DOES HAVE RIGHT ON HIS SIDE when he tells Timon: "The middle of humanity thou never knewest,/ but the extremity of both ends...." (4.3.342-343). Critics also tend to think Apemantus is unlikable, but are we missing a crucial point? I can not help but think Shakespeare is commenting on the fact that more people DON'T have a concept of reality. Apemantus refuses to join in the delight when Timon thinks highly of his false friends. Apemantus is aware of reality and no one wants to hear it. In my opinion Timon and Apemantus are VERY TRUE to life. In addition, the roll of Flavius is very touching. He can not dessert his master even when he knows (or thinks) Timon has nothing. Finally, I can not over estimate the mastery of Shakespeare when first Timon has money, he can not do enough for his so called friends and when he has nothing they dessert him. When Timon through fate gains a second fortune, he does not turn back into what he was, but rather he uses his 2nd fortune to destroy Athens. It is interesting that Shakespeare derived this play on the legend of 'Timon the Manhater,' and decides to take it a step further and show how he got there. And how much more realistic could Shakespeare have made this than by first showing Timon as a 'manlover?' Many people feel Timon should have somehow found the middle of humanity, but if he had, that would have defeated the whole purpose of this excellent play.