THIS BOOK IS DEFINITELY NOT OUT OF PRINT. IT IS SOLD IN ALL MAJOR BOOKSTORES IN AUSTRALIA.

An outstanding biography of one of Australia's most enigmatic modern writers, told with enthusiasm and realism. Sharon Clarke brings to life a man who was tossed in the ocean of inner turmoil, trying to come to terms with rejection and isolation, struggling to self-discovery.

this is a really great book. when sabrina ends up with this troll harvey has to swordfight to get her back.....will they come out alive? .......

I met this book in University and used it during three years. It gives a very thorough idea of what English syntax, grammar and semantic are in a very easy way. It can be used buy someone who has never heard of this things but the level goes high increasingly. The semantic part may be a bit complicated to neophytes but it is easyly attainable with a bit of effort.

Being used to books of this type, in my University days, I can say that this book is the best I have encountered in this particular field of my English studies. It is written for non-English speakers, making it easier to understand the theorical concepts. However, as I said before, it is not a swallow book.

If someone has problems with English syntax or grammar in general I heartily recommend this book.

Sabrina Van Fleet is a wealthy teenaged girl who is away at boarding school in England when she learns her parents have died in a car crash. She returns to her home in Maine to live with relatives. There she learns her "Uncle" Viktor is really an ancient ancestor. Cursed to become a vampire 200 years ago, he now wants to turn Sabrina so that she can be his servant. Sabrina, her boyfriend Eric, and a group of their friends must stop Viktor before it is too late. I think teens who enjoyed books by L. J. Smith and Janice Harrell would like this book.

This book is wonder and a treasure trove of musical ideas from around the planet. For example, how many music historians are aware of how the Native Amercians used song to identify each of their tribes?
Mr. Titon has provided very interesting facts about music making from many world cultures. He has also produced a 3 CD sound compilation of musical examples for this book that is indispensible.
If you're tired of today's bland market of music that has sadly squashed historical music making of any kind, this book is an excellent journey into the world's most basic roots of song and music.

Yvain is a beautiful tale of love and courtly society by the greatest storyteller of medieval France, presented here in a very clear (and relatively cheap) translation. Particularly fine is the way this fantasy presents 12th-century aristocratic values, especially as the title character is torn between love of a woman and love of honor in his very masculine society. I have used this translation several times in undergraduate history classes on the Middle Ages--it works extremely well.

With aunt Hildas hiccups changing objects into something else its not hard to guess that it means TROUBLE!!! Refrigerators into cows, sofas into swing sets and school lunches into pheasant under glass. Oh dear! But Sabrina's history books into Benjamin Franklin or 'Ben' for short is going to far. Now Sabrina has to retrieve him back when Salem loses him. It could only happen to Sabrina!!!

This is the funniest Sabrina book I have read,it's hilarious!!

Aunt Hilda has the hiccups, and they are out of control! Hic! The refrigerator turns into a mule! Hic! Now, the sofa is a garden swing! It is okay until her history books disapear and Benjamin Franklin is in it's place! Now, Sabrina is chasing "Ben" all over westbridge. Before Sabrina knows it, Ben is hanging with a motorcycle gang and getting tatoos. But Sabrina's history texts are in 1776 with events all laid out for our fathers if Sabrina can't figure out how to get Ben back to his time. Sabrina's life will never be the same. This was a fantastic book and I think you should read it.

I bought this as research material for codes of conduct. The feel of the book shows the writers background in the clergy, the book focuses more on the traditional courting behavior than on love itself. Its wonderful as a complex example of a code of conduct, but sheds little light in the direction of true relationships. Very interesting as a period piece, its seems to be more reflective of the romantic visions of the middle ages than the reality.

This is a must read if you are at all interested in medieval life. Aside from being the premiere treatise on "courtly love," there are interesting historical issues raised by this book.

For example, in the section "What persons are fit for love," Capellanus says that "Age is a bar, because after the sixtieth year in a man and the fiftieth in a woman...passion cannot develop into love..." The conventional wisdom holds that most people did not live much past 40 in those days. Evidently Capellanus ran across a few people in their 50s and 60s, in addition to his encounters with nuns. (You will have to read the book to find out more)

Andreas Capellanus, chaplain at the court of Countess Marie de Champagne, daughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine, wrote this treatise on courtly love in the 12th century--ostensibly to educate a friend--and thus set a new standard for lovers. Capellanus' work may have been intended as a satirical reworking of Ovid's Ars Amatoria, or it might have been influenced by the Arabic views of love in The Dove's Neck-Ring by Ibn Hazm a Mozarabic writer of the 11th century. Whatever his intent, his work, The Art of Courtly Love, influenced the aristocracy's ideas of social relationships, and the portrayal of male-female roles in romantic literature, well into the Renaissance. In a series of conversational examples between men and women of various classes together with a list of rules of love, Capellanus draws distinctions between the relationship of marriage and the relations between true lovers. Within the context of courtly love the true lover is required to pay homage to and do the bidding of his ladylove above all else. True love according to Capellanus does not exist between husband and wife, but is a state sought by all outside of the marriage bed. He states, attributing the sentiment to "M., Countess of Champagne", that "Love cannot acknowledge any rights of his between husband and wife". This attitude is understandable in a society where marriages were contracted for position and fortune.

In one of the sets of rules for lovers set forth by Capellanus he states that "No one should be deprived of love without the very best of reasons". This would justify romantic relationships of which women were otherwise deprived. Before modern times, love was rarely a factor in choosing a spouse, and yet it is perhaps the strongest force that drives mankind. Capellanus both acknowledges and rationalizes the power love holds over men and women alike. The path to true love is never easy, and the rules of courtly love would have it that where there is love there, too, is suffering. It is by his great distress that the beloved can see how greatly the lover loves. Although love that suffers chastely and from afar is held in esteem, Capellanus also says that kisses and embraces are "indications that love is to follow" and should not be overdone if the lover is not sincere. This seems to acknowledge the human need for sexual action to follow seduction. Appropriate action with gifts and flattery is described by Capellanus in his dialogs for seducing the beloved. Care must be taken in the choice of gifts, since by the rules of courtly love exchange of valuable objects debases the relationship and lovers may only accept those "little gifts" "useful for the care of the person" or "pleasing to look at" as long as there is no "avarice" involved. This rule led to the carrying by knights of tokens or "favors"--gifts of their ladies--in tournaments throughout the Middle Ages. Seduction has four steps according to Capellanus: first should come the offer of service (or if by a lady the giving of hope to the suitor), followed by the granting of kisses and the embrace--in which a couple may even lie down together nude, having no actual sexual congress, with no blame attached. If the final fourth step is taken, yielding to sexual relations, the lover is committed and can not withdraw from the relationship with honor for any less reason than a seriously dishonorable action on the part of his or her partner. These elements of courtly love appear again and again in literature of the Middle Ages from Chaucer's "Knight's Tale" to Malory's Morte D'Arthur.

Perhaps the most interesting influence in Capellanus' life is that of Eleanor of Aquitaine, queen of England and wife to King Henry II. Eleanor was already instrumental in the production of early courtly romances, especially the Arthurian tales. Wace dedicated his "Brut" to her, Thomas of Britian wrote his "Tristram" at her instigation and Chretien de Troyes wrote his Lancelot romances from material given him by her daughter Marie. Eleanor's life reads much like one of these romances. Duchess of Aquitaine, she married Louis, the king of France, at a young age, and produced two daughters Marie and Alix. She met Henry II, six years her junior, before he became king of England and then divorced Louis, on a consanguinarity technicality, to marry him. The rumor was that she and Henry, like Lancelot and Guinevere, met secretly while she was still legally married to Louis. When Henry later tired of her she again took up regency of the Aquitaine for her son Richard, and with her daughter Marie held liberal and literary courts where troubadours sang and courtiers waited upon ladies. Together Eleanor and Marie set a standard of chivalrous manners that changed the behavior of all knighthood. As a pastime these highborn ladies held "courts of love" wherein they tested the behavior of lovers, by the standards set in Capellanus' treatise, vindicating those they found to be "true lovers" and pronouncing penances for those found lacking. If not for the influence of the strong minded Marie de Champagne and the formidable Eleanor--women who wanted more of love than the usual marriage of convenience--Capellanus might have been relegated to the obscurity of the Church's proscribed text list, and our standards of romance might be very different today.

Not too bad for a chick play. Guys stay away from this one.

CRIMES OF THE HEART tells the story of three sisters reuniting together after the youngest of the trio (Babe) shoots her husband and is on the verge of being sent to prison. The story takes place deep in the south in Hazlehurst, Mississippi.

The writing in this play is superb. It captures the spirit of each of the young women splendidly. However, moving as the story is, it isn't quite poetical and thereby misses perfection.

Nevertheless, CRIMES OF THE HEART is an enjoyable piece of theatre displaying the daffy complexity of women seen through the lives of three sisters.

I just finished playing Lenny in a college production of this play. It was the most fun I've ever had in any role! I have two sisters myself, and Henley's depiction of that kind of relationship is incredibly real. There are some great scenes and monologues for acting practice, too--one, two, or three women, and a couple for one man and one woman. I recommend it to anyone.