Gael Cresp's Tale Of Gilbert Alexander Pig presents a whimsical take-off on the three little pigs: here Gilbert has a coveted trumpet and the wolf not only wants to knock down his house, but wants to toot the horn himself. A hilarious encounter pits the two against one another.

This critical anthology collects various approaches that register the changes in contemporary theory pertinent to the thinking of the nation. There are no less than nine different critical responses exploring the equivocal significance of narratives of identity, origin and progress in the cultural formation of the nation. As Prem Poddar puts it in the Introduction, "such a redescription of the nation works to acknowledge the complexities of cultural difference by raising the question of translation" (8). And in the same way, according to Homi Bhabha, translation involves both persistence and change such that the discourses around the nation are both "lost and returned, superseded and restored" (9).

Because the volume encompasses a wide range of theoretical approaches that move back and forth from the western topographies of Denmark and Canada to the cultural specificities of South Africa, Sri-Lanka and India, Meena Alexander's refreshing cross-breeding of critical and creative writing over the issue of cultural translation is appropriately the opening essay of this collection. In Alexander's paper the fluid diasporic world within which she must carve a space to live goes hand in hand with her woman's body that she cannot escape.

In his fascinating essay entitled "Europe's Violence: Some Contemporary Reflections on W. Benjamin's Theories of Fascism", Graham MacPhee discusses Benjamin's engagement with the aesthetic as a part of his examination of the consequences of technological modernity for the social and political forms bequeathed by the Enlightenment. By relating Benjamin's essay on German fascism to Kant's "Perpetual Peace", MacPhee attempts to show how Benjamin's oeuvre offers resources in reformulating the parameters of the nation "through its exploration of the recognition and negotiation of violence both within and beyond the borders of nation-state" (25). If MacPhee's reading of Benjamin's work is taken to mark the emergence of a new global topography in the aftermath of the first War World, Neluka Silva's essay on literary representations of contemporary Sri Lankan politics seeks to explore individual, collective and gendered identities in relation to nationhood. Through an acute examination of different genres and various Sri Lankan literary texts written in English, Silva wishes to show the construction of ethnic identities as inextricably linked to the nationalist rhetoric of the Sinhalese state on one hand and to the separatist discourse of the Tamil Tiger guerilla force on the other.

Two interesting essays deal with issues connected to nationalist identity and post-colonial experience. Lars Jensen focuses on the position of contemporary Canadian and Australian writer in relation to the idea of space as a shaping force in constructions of national identity. After examining numerous literary texts as examples of post-colonial literature, Jensen concludes that Canadian and Australian writing's relation to the center -be it national or geographical - can only be fluid and process-oriented, constantly changing to the interpretations of history. This argument is taken further by David Johnson in his analysis of a particular ethnic minority, the Griqua in South Africa, and their claims to the South African government for recognition. By providing three versions of colonial history that deal with questions of origin and the possible deprivations the Griqua might have suffered because of colonialism and apartheid, Johnson argues that while the post-colonial critic will focus on "the historically defined discursive systems" constituting Griqua national identity the South African member of the parliament has until recently refused to include Griqua ethnicity in the South African rainbow nationhood.

Where Johnson offers a close reading of key colonial Griqua texts in order to disclose the violence included in the category of the nation, Hans Hauge undertakes an original comparison of South African and Danish literary history. He concludes by claiming to have found neo-Kantian echoes in post-colonial discourse and by identifying Edward Said's Orientalism as an Arab postmodern text.

A more telling take on Danish history is presented Prem Poddar and Cheralyn Mealor. Through a meticulous postcolonial reading of Peter Høeg's novel Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow, the critics provide a seminal, much-needed, and fascinating account of Danish nationalism. Poddar and Mealor view Smilla as a critique of Danish imperialism and Danish colonization of Greenland while at the same time they reveal the text's ambivalence in its treatment of Danish national identity. Read in this light, Høeg's novel becomes a paradigmatic text exploring the interrelated issues of colonialism, nation and migrancy.

Mahesh Daga's reading of vernacular archives seeks to demonstrate the ambiguities and confusions surrounding the use of the Indian term jati as nation during the closing decades of 19th century. More than questioning the uncritical translatability of such terms, Daga aims to demonstrate that the changes occurring in vocabulary of public discourse are "symptomatic of crucial changes in the conception of nation itself" (205).

Echoing the volume's opening essay, Caroline Bergvall's final paper seeks to explore questions of translation and translatability. Through an examination of texts written across several national languages, Bergvall argues that while translation from one language to another encourages notions of linguistic transparence and humanist universalism, plurilingual writing (writing that takes place across and between languages) operates "against the grains of conventional notions of translatability and intelligibility" (248). Moreover, by problematising the contemporaneity of hyphenated identities cross-lingual textuality foregrounds issues of personal and cultural memory and locatedness.

While the theoretical and methodological sophistication of Translating Nations may be lost on a reader who is not conversant with the related discourse, anybody interested in contemporary critical approaches to the nation should become acquainted with the volume.

Rare photographs and comprehensive text about the wooden architecture of Russia that can be found in one place nowhere else!

The Young Guard rests upon a fabric of true events culled from the life of an underground organization of Young Communist League members which was active in the town of Krasnodon during the German occupation. Forty-five young boys and girls were shot by the Nazis in the dungeons after excruciating torture. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was posthumously conferred by the Soviet government upon the leaders of this valiant group, Oleg Koshevoi, Ulyana Gromova, Sergei Tulenin, Lyubov Shevtsova and Ivan Zemnukhov.

Aeschylus' trilogy is very enjoyable reading. It would be fun to see these plays performed. It's too bad that so many of Aeschylus' plays did not survive. The only reason this is not a 5 star rating is that the translation was awkward in just a few places. 4.5 stars is probably the correct rating.

All of the Grene/Lattimore translations I've read have been excellent, but this edition of the Oresteia stands out. Lattimore renders the chori of 'Agamemnon' so hauntingly that they hardly seem translated. The first chorus in particular, with its long sections punctuated by the refrain, "Sing sorrow, sorrow: but good win out in the end" is the best I've ever seen. It makes me shiver.

Greek similies are often tortured in translation, but not in this edition: "the sin / smoulders not, but burns to evil beauty. / As cheap bronze tortured / at the touchstone relapses / to blackness and grime, so this man / tested shows vain..." The poetry is an achievement in itself.

Aeschylus is recognised as the father of tragedy and achieves something new in the Oresteia trilogy which won him another first prize in the Dionysia 458 BC. Born some time near the end of the sixth century in Eleusis - home of the mysteries, he fought at Marathon and probably at Salamis too and died in Gela in Sicily.

Although written in the fifth century the play itself is set in the depths of Mycenean history at the time of the Trojan War (probably c. 1220 BC - the traditional date of 1184 being unacceptable in the context of LH IIIB archaeology. Unlike in Homer's Iliad (written some 300 years earlier) Agamemnon's Court is in the city of Argos. The play fits the traditional spark for the Trojan War in the affairs of Helen whereas in reality it may have had more to do with competitive markets in the weaving industry or disputed fishing rights. Lattimore uses some unconventional spellings and I have stuck with these.

The play recounts the curse of the House of Atreus which fell when Atreus slaughtered two of Thyestes' sons and fed them to him. The wife of Agamemnon's brother, Menelaus - Helen of Troy - is with Paris and Agamemnon plans to take an army to Ilium to recapture her. Before departing he sacrifices his daughter, Iphigenia (Iphigeneia) and then sets sail. Aeschylus now dissolves the next 7-10 years to the point of Agamemnon's return with Cassandra, the captive princess and prophetess of Troy - a reminder logic is almost constantly the subject rather than the master of divination. But Clytaemestra (Clytemnestra) now has Thyestes' only surviving son, Aegisthus as her lover and King and she bludgeons the victorious Agamemnon to death in the bath beneath a cloak which envelops him in the same way as the sustained conceits of entrapment and the coiled viper constrain the metaphysical dimension of the first two thirds of the trilogy. Electra, Agamemnon's surviving daughter has to hide her loyalty to her father "in a dark corner, as you would kennel a vicious dog" until Orestes (her brother) returns (in Clyteamestra's words) to "this swamp of death" disguised as a native of Phocis to announce his own death.

In 'The Libation Bearers' (Choephoroe) Orestes slays both Clytaemestra and Aegisthus and the genetic interlinkages metamorphose a revenge drama into a tragedy as in 'Hamlet'. The final play, the Furies (Eumenides) is the reconciliation of revenge and justice seen in the rise of Athens, civilisation, balanced thought, dissolution of irrational hatred and the Aeropagus Court. In this we also have to see the kairos of the triumph of the Olympians over the Titans but within a context of divine compromise as the Olympian gods are unable to completely bury the barbarism of their own genesis. In effect, the underlying motif here is the same as in 'Prometheus Bound' with the violent dynamic being reflected in the gradual change in Greece towards a more settled social organisation.

But the beauty of the trilogy is not merely in its recital of this piece of legend. Rather it is in its unique lyric quality and the power of its extended conceits. The play is riddled with images of animal entrapment and coiled vipers. Even Clyteamestra sees the vision in a dream in which she gives birth to a viper - an image in which Orestes clearly sees himself ("No void dream this, it is the vision of a man").

The first two plays are driven by 'philos-aphilos' and by a quest for justice or right against right. Helen acts as a substrate for all the evils committed in the trilogy - the sacrifice of Iphigenia to Artemis (no war but for Helen) - although Vellacott raises the issue of divine will here - Clyteamestra's 'godless' slaughter of her husband and rightful King, and Orestes' vengeance for his father's murder in the Eumenides. I feel the legendary context in which Clytemnestra's former husband is killed by Agamemnon in battle and Cassandra's hints at the King's brutality should be brought into play here. But the devoured ghosts of Thyestes's offspring also hang over the drama raising issues (alongside Iphigenia) regarding the sacrifice of youth. Offspring sacrifice was unheard of in the Mediterranean basin of the fifth century with the exception of Punic-Phoenician settlements. But this had not always been the case and again we see the birth of 'classical' Greece from its less than ideal parenthood, always slightly ashamed of its past - there is now plenty of evidence that the early worship of Artemis involved human sacrifice in some places. Delphi was also originally sacred to Artemis before being taken over by Apollo in the eighth century. And the sacrifice image also acts as something rather radical for Aeschylus - an almost revolutionary denunciation of the destruction of Achaean (by implication, also Attican) youth through unnecessary warfare. Goldhill has pointed out, there are also gender specific elements within the pattern of slaughter first noted in the text by Cassandra.

The Eumenides provides something completely new - an end to the ethos of attempting to ensure public welfare through private blood feud. As Lattimore puts it, by the Eumenides we are not merely to see, we are to understand. The role of Athens is emphasised by Athena's negotiated compromise between Apollo / Orestes on the one hand and the Furies - she becomes the symbol of Hellenism against the barbarity of the nation's roots. Even the Furies are converted from something hideous to something beautiful by this new, sanitised version of Athena. And we have to put the whole 'Athens section' in the context that the 'polis' was more than merely 'city'; it was the complete framework for everyday life.

In his day Aeschylus was known for adventurous stage set designs from which we have drawn the phrase 'deus ex machina' but it was Aristophanes who was wise enough to see that the playwright has also created "towering structures out of majestic words".

This is one of those books that's the literary equivalent of potato chips. There's really not much value to it, but it sure does taste good! The story is one that you won't want to put down, a noble (good to the core) executive rescues a kidnapped abused little girl and sets out to return her to her family. I kept wondering why he didn't call the cops instead and his excuse (that she would probably be put in foster care for awhile) didn't totally fly with me, but I went with it. Along the way they are pursued by the head of a child selling ring who's armed and dangerous. The unthinkable keeps happening and if you stop to think about it you'll laugh because everything that can go wrong for this guy does, but it's darn interesting and a quick ride!

I picked this book up at the library the other day, it only took me 3 days to read it!! Where as normally a couple of weeks. I could'nt put it down!! Its full of suspence, and just when you think he's finally on his way to bring Lisa back something happens again!!

This is a book you can't put down until it's finished and then you wish it wasn't over. The hero is so good and noble but still a very real person. I recommend this book to everyone.

I bought this book as a present for my husband who happens to be a major Seinfeld fan. The book was terrific! It has black and white photos of the casts last days on the set with their comments. This book is perfect for all heavy duty Seinfeld fans. Crys

This is a great book... wonderful pictures! From "Hello Newman!" to watching Kramer run into Jerry's apartment, but from KRAMER'S side... These are all execellent pictures and excellent moments. Each of the cast members ideas and thoughts about the serious. Plus, you get pictures of EVERYONE, even Babu, Soup Nazi, Mr. Pit, the Constanzas, the Susan's parents, and many more...

Seinoff (1998 Harperperennial Library, written by Jerry Seinfeld, Michael Richards, and David Hume Kennerly) A photojournalists dream; to be the only photographer on the set during the week of the Final episode taping. This was Kennerly's assignment, and he completed it extremely well, capturing some of the quiet/secret moments fans rarely, if ever, get a glimpse of. Cover to cover black and white photos of the cast and crew, the sets and props, and this is only half of the book. Along with the photos are some of the best, most sensitive, most revealing quotes from Jerry, Michael, Jason and Julia that have ever appeared in print. This is only the 2nd 'coffee table book' that's worthy to sit on my coffee table. (Kramer wrote the first one.)

The beautifully illustrated DK duo cover characters, costumes, and weaponry in the Visual Dictionary, while the Cross Sections book dissects vehicles and spacecraft. Want to know how a light saber really works or what the interior of an Imperial Stormtrooper's helmet looks like? It's all in here. The most remarkable thing about the books is the amount of thought that's been expelled on the workings of things that don't even exist. The DK books are seriously cool and exceedingly browsable. Though aimed at kids, don't be surprised to see plenty of adults flipping through them also.-Michael Rogers, "Library Journal"

It is nice to see new images of the costumes and props. They could have easily used an old picture of the cantinia band instead of taking the time to seach for the costumes or they could have used a drawing to show the inside of a lightsaber instead of taking the time and money to build one, but they didn't. They went that extra mile to be creative. It is not a rehash of old information. These are the problems I had with the Star Wars Encyclopedia. Do not be turned away by the fact that they have labeled this as a young reader book. I am a 29 years old Naval Officer and I thought it was great. A must have reference book.

Star Wars the Visual Dictionary is actually more than just a dictionary. It has excellent photos from the Lucasfilm Archives including a few from scenes that were cut. In a way, this book is similar to From Star Wars to Indiana Jones: the Best of the Lucasfilm Archives, but instead of being production notes, it treats the technical objects as if they were real. Arrows point to various parts of things like Boba Fett's armour. I wonder if some of the props were enhanced for this book because there are photos of the inside mechanics of a lightsaber and a stormtrooper helmet, which wouldn't have been neccessary for the movies. The layout of the book is much like the Eyewitness series with very clear individual photos of objects instead of just a rectangular, stale layout. A lot of information is packed into theh 64 pages and as far as I can tell, nothing was left uncovered. I've got to hand it to the research team who worked on this book. I deffinitely recommend it for kids or adults.

The first half of this book is full of promise, suspense and thrills. Unfortunately, the second half does not deliver. As other reviewers have noted the book had a lot of action. The author wrote his characters out of problems in either overly simplistic ways or by simple ignoring them. Many characters behaved in ways that lacked believability.

I just finished reading Shadow Down. I bought the book because I enjoy aviation thrillers and technothrillers. By profession I'm a commercial pilot. Before that I was a Navy fighter jock who put in many hours of combat time in the cockpit of an F/A-18 during the Gulf War. I thought Shadow Down was a real good book. It came on strong, built up speed and momentum in the middle part and finished with a slam-bang conclusion in the final chapters. The book's premise is that the Russians have reverse-engineered or at least copied the American F-117A Stealth fighter and that one of these radar-evading aircraft was downed in Iran by a near-miss from a high-tech SAM and its pilot captured. One of the reasons the Russian stealth was lost, incidentally, was a counter-stealth radar system which I also thought was a nice twist and was portrayed very credibly.

The Iranians have now got the plane and are trying some reverse-engineering of their own. The Russians want the aircraft back and plan to send in Spetsnaz, or their special forces commandos, to find the aircraft, rescue the pilot and either destroy or fly it back out. The Americans want to make sure the Russians don't fumble the op, and have their own strategic reasons for wanting the plane out of Iran as fast as possible. A joint operation by U.S. Delta Force and Russian Spetsnaz commandos is assembled. But the Israelis also want to get their hands on the stealth and stage a grab for it using their own specialist troops.

After a lot of twists and turns, which make for some outstanding action scenes, the Russian plane is recovered. But the ending had more twists and a number of real surprises and I won't spoil it by giving it away.

To sum it all up, Shadow Down's a fast-mover that should be on every action fan's reading list.

I found Shadow Down to be an interesting and entertaining action novel that kept my interest as it went along and built up to an exciting conclusion. The technical side of the book was well-researched, including all of the different aspects about the F117, and I also thought that having Russian Spetsnaz team up with American Delta Force was handled well. I'd recommend this book for anyone interested in escapist military or adventure reading.

This is an excellent book for those who wish to study the original language, and Anglo-Saxon verse. The editor does not include a lot of distracting material, nor are there deep discussions of the theological, allegorical, sociological, etc etc, implications of the poem.

Instead, what you have is a book which has the original text on the left pages, and glosses on right pages. Not 100% of the words are glossed, such as "and". The glosses are all standardized as nom. singular nouns and inf. verbs. This means that the reader should know, or perhaps will learn from reading, the grammar of the language.

A lot of people seem to know about Beowulf, but have no clue what it is. A lot people also consider Old English to be some quaint "high mode" of english, spoken by Knights in Shining Armor.

Some are "forced" to study the poem, in school. And there are those who want to study the poem, for whateve reason.

This book should be useful to all who are interested, or need to be interested.

Hi! I am a freshman in high school. I too, have suffered through countless reading the required books/poetry for Honors English. Beowulf really got my attention. It is a beautiful poem and the language is mellifluous to read aloud. The composer cut out a lot of fluff that many poets thrith on. It was short and to the point, but had strong themes to leave me spellbound afterwards. It is a beautiful epic poem.

Professor Alexander is quite simply the world's greatest authority on Old English Literature, and this edition of Beowulf brings the poem to life. I am not interested in the audio version - David Rintoul may be very good but all he did was read it. The only things to be praised here are the masterful editing skills or Prof. Alexander. All I can say is he must have gone to Oxford University.