This is a beautiful book. I expected that, but there isn't an index, so it is difficult for me to see at a glance what else I might learn from this book. The notes are extremely brief, mainly to give page numbers in MEMORIES, DREAMS, REFLECTIONS by C. G. Jung much more than any of his other works, or to give page numbers in the two volumes of his letters, plus THE FREUD/JUNG LETTERS, and the compilation published by The Analytical Psychology Club of San Francisco, Inc. in 1982, C. G. JUNG, EMMA JUNG, TONI WOLFF. In the contents at the beginning, we find that in Part 1, Wounded, there are two pages for "Toni," and in Part 2, Healer, pages 101-05 for "Helpers: Emma, Toni," and in Part 3, Of the Soul, pages 141-47 for "Answer to Job" and pages 169-172 for "Toni," who died suddenly in her sleep at the age of 65. The caption of the picture on page 170 states, "Although Jung tried to get Toni Wolff's scientific writings published after her death in 1953, as yet they remain unpublished." But sometimes things change faster than photo captions, and Jung managed to write an introduction "When Toni's STUDIES IN JUNGIAN PSYCHOLOGY was published." (p. 171). Jung destroyed "Toni's letters to him and his to her."

Shortly before Walter Kaufmann died in September, 1980, he finished work on the third volume of DISCOVERING THE MIND, which he called FREUD VERSUS ADLER AND JUNG. As a philosophy professor, Kaufmann sought sound scholarship, innovative science, a well-organized writing style, and the sort of penetrating self-knowledge that he was used to from all the work he did on Nietzsche. The first page of section 70 of his book, page 397, explains how Jung achieved success without being particularly profound, by failing in ways that enhanced his popularity, a strategy that ultimately might be considered more professional than scientists can claim to be. He quotes Jung as someone who, "much more even than Adler, became a guru" to a group that expects professionalism above all: "About a third of my cases are not suffering from any clinically definable neurosis, but from the senselessness and aimlessness of their lives. . . . Over two thirds of my patients are in the second half of life."

As a mere philosophy professor, Kaufmann never benefited from having a consistent publisher for his own work, though coming out in paperback made it possible for his translations of Nietzsche to be fully successful. Most of his page 397 is about books. "Among Jung's patients were wealthy American women, eager to do something for the cause. Eventually, the publication of his collected works, in English and German, was subsidized, and the volumes were produced very beautifully and underpriced, and then also made available in extremely attractive paperbacks." Though CARL JUNG: WOUNDED HEALER OF THE SOUL/ AN ILLUSTRATED BIOGRAPHY by Claire Dunne (who was born in Ireland, lived in Australia, and founded two Australian multicultural radio stations) is not entirely the work of women, it is as attractive as any that could describe itself as "--the book is itself a work of art, the kind of enduring tome which is picked up again and again for the pleasure of the eyes as well as that of the mind." (back cover, Olivier Bernier, "who directs the Van Waveren Foundation, was the first to acknowledge the manuscript with a publication development grant." Acknowledgments, p. 218).

The picture on page 104 which shows Freud and C. G. Jung standing, with Emma Jung and Toni Wolff seated in front of them at the Third International Psychoanalytic Congress, 1911, also shows an arm of Lou Andreas-Salome at the edge of the picture by Freud, as more of the same picture is displayed on page 136 in JUNG A BIOGRAPHY by Gerhard Wehr, translated from the German by David M. Weeks. The latter, hefty biography of Jung, for whom "the superindividual was paramount" (Wehr, p. 4) has an index of names on pages 539-549, with the number of listings for Toni Wolff taking 2 lines as only a few names, like Alfred Adler, Jesus Christ, and Friedrich Nietzsche do. Sigmund Freud and Aniela Jaffe each need 3 lines in the index of Wehr's book, which seems to devote much more to Jung's work than to his life. People who are more interested in what kept Jung motivated should see the picture of Toni Wolff on page 50 of Claire Dunne's book, dated December 1930. I'll bet she was about 44 years old then, when Jung was 55, and thought she was only 42. Some people aren't good with numbers, at that age, but people who are likely to buy this book don't have to be adept at math.

This wonderfully illustrated, spiritual biography of one of psychology's most original thinkers will be welcomed with enthusiasm by Jungian scholars and students. This penetrating examination of the man and his ideas which helped revolutionize psychology and our understanding of the mind is multidimensional and highly recommended.

With 150 color and B&W illustrations, including some never before seen paintings from Jung's "Red Book," this biography is extremely reader-friendly and gorgeous. It's written in succinct chapters, and the artwork is stuff I'd like to frame. It's available in hardcover and softcover. Jung LIVES in this book as a human being struggling to become who he is meant to be at the deepest level...just like us.

Alma Schindler - the goddess, the muse, the center of attention ... How did she manage that? How did she become an obsession of so many genial men, a thing of admiration of the Secessionist Vienna? But simply - she was a remarkable woman. And also, happened to be pretty and at the right place at the right time, born into an artistic family. It was said that she had a hearing defect. She would move closer to her companion in order to hear better. Men found that irresistible.

One would expect her to be vain and conceited. Through her diary, we entered her mind - she is none of that. At least, not more than any of us. She is an insecure girl. She has fears, doubts about herself, she loves passionately... Alas, her anti-Semitic feelings are shocking. At first, she is quite tolerant and objects anti-Semitic sentiments. Then she changes. One can only find the reason in propaganda being already pretty aggressive. She lives among Jewish families, loves Jewish men and marries two of them. Why then? And how did it happen that she married Mahler so quickly?

"Please God, give me some great mission, give me something great to do!" She could have been quite a good artist. Her drawings show certain talent that could have been developed into something much more. She could have taken drawing classes and maybe, her mission would have been even greater. But she pursued music even though it
seemed that she lacked the talent - not one of her opera impressions on the notepaper correspond to the real score. She never composed a great opera she dreamed of. But she left her mark in the history of arts and love.

This book is a great document. The correspondence between the authors just adds to the value. I only wish there were more photos of Alma as well as letters that she received. It would have been nice to read passionate words of her admirers. At the end, instead of an epilogue, there should have been a short biography. And a word of two about her sisters and mother would have been valuable. What happened to her sister Maria? I guess I need to start searching.

As a long-term diary writer myself I was interested in Mahler-Werfel's diary and the manner in which the voice of the nineteen-year old woman is expressed (and the next two years of her life). Often when I reread my own writings I cringe at my ideas and philosophies when I was young and it takes some time for me to empathise with myself and regain a feeling for the person I was. One of the great features of these diaries is that they truly express the voice of the nineteen-year old, they have not been edited to provide a more sophisticated voice. Perhaps Mahler-Werfel cringed a bit at herself in the way I do, perhaps that is why she never published these diaries during her lifetime, although we do know she gave it some consideration. But I think it is important that we heed the voice expressed in youthful writings because it reassociates us with the people we once were, and hopefully gives us greater empathy with the youth of today.
The most challenging aspect of these diaries is Mahler-Werfel's revelations of her growing sexual awareness with its contradictions, rapid changes of view, hesitancies, self criticism, and intemperate admissions. This is emotional and at times erotic writing. While we can allow Mahler-Werfel the licence to say what she wants about herself, it is less readily acceptable that she describes the behaviour of her partners - some of them quite historic figures. But this is the voice of youth going through very tumultuous personal times. Most people move through these times with varying degrees of ease and distress. Mahler-Werfel's writing reminded me of Wedekind's play 'Springtime Awakening'. The awakening is not satisfactory for all - and is sometimes disastrous. For Mahler-Werfel we can only speculate.
Mahler-Werfel associated with many great artistic figures - in the times of these diaries there are Gustav Klimt, Alexander Zemlinsky and Gustav Mahler. Her reflections on these figures make them more alive than many histories. For her, they were living pulsing human beings and we see them in that way.
But was Mahler-Werfel extraordinary herself? I find it hard to decide. She obviously was not your average woman of the time, and yet it is possible to see her as just a spoilt rich girl who happened to have a pretty face. In her diaries she speaks of writing a song (lied) in a day, playing the whole of Tristan on the piano in an evening. And yet her musical examples noted in the diary are so poorly notated and often so inaccurate that it is hard not to think she had little genuine talent. Perhaps someone else completed the lieder from her tenuous musical ideas. But equally possible is that she was a real talent and, as popular history tells us, was suppressed by Mahler in their marriage. To me, however, there is another reading in that marriage to Mahler enabled her to renounce her musical ambitions, which she knew would never match those of Mahler no matter how hard she worked. To be fair about her musical notation however, we need to remember that all her writings border on the unreadable (perhaps that was deliberate - a sort of code?) although the single-minded line drawings she included are quite fine in a limited way (are they all of pretty Alma herself?).
Another way to judge her musical astuteness is her reviews and critiques of the many concerts she attended. At first look they seem to match the views of the day - wildly supportive of Wagner, dismissive of Bach, Saint-Saens and even Mozart. Was she just copying the view of the day? But then there are the changes of view - suddenly the opinion on Mozart changes, she starts to see some flat spots in Wagner. This does seem to suggest self-awareness in her musical views and even if it is selective acceptance of different critical opinion she shows a capability to make the change. There is one final thought that came to me as I read the diaries - perhaps her influence was so great (it certainly wasn't trivial) that she went some way to actually forming the critical view of the day.
I was immensely fascinated by these writings. If you are interested in human development and artistic creativity I recommend you do not overlook them. One thing is certain - Mahler-Werfel was an impassioned writer as a young woman.

Alma Mahler was a fascinating woman and this diary gives an unique insight into her personality and those she knew. Her growing years, developing both emotionally and in personality come through as does her determination and zest for life. Her time with Gustav Mahler is fascinating and sheds an interesting light into his character and fears at this time. A fascinating read.

The monumental biography of Mahler by Henri de la Grange has been available in French for some years, and the latest volume to appear in English is part of an ongoing project to make the work available to a wider audience. It is unique in the sheer mass of factual detail it presents, especially as regards contemporary critical reaction to Mahler's works and conducting. There is new material on William Ritter, an early admirer who left some colorful accounts of Herr Mahler in person; a

detailed physical description of Mahler by Alfred Roller, a Hofoper associate; and much other information that will be new and interesting even to long-standing Mahlerites who thought they knew it all.

However, de la Grange's almost exclusive focus on the externals of Mahler's life works to the detriment of the inner life, and this is the major shortcoming of his biography. There is little probing of the wellsprings of the mighty Mahlerian will that powered a colossal productivity, nor of the fierce vitality coexisting with neuroses. Nor, surprisingly, is much explanation offered as to why a tyrannical ascetic like Mahler would suddenly decide to marry someone half his age, a decision that took even his closest friends completely by surprise. Why didn't he stay single, or marry someone his own age, such as the devoted and musical Natalie Bauer-Lechner?

This question is important because it bears on the crucial one: Would Mahler have succeeded in solving the central problem of his last years -- keeping reality at bay in order to maintain the inhuman intensity needed to complete his unique artistic mission -- without the tension generated by this inappropriate (but for him richly symbolic) and largely sexless marriage, for which he, and to some extent also Alma's parents, were guilty? Did he feel this guilt and at a certain level feed on it? de la Grange draws a blank on these questions. Here Alma's book "Gustav Mahler, Memoirs and Letters" is a better source, though one has to read between the lines.

de la Grange clearly dislikes Alma and would minimize her role. He also worships Mahler and will not permit him the slightest fault. Two examples: He cannot conceive that the hero may have had a congenital heart defect, it must have been acquired from throat infections. He omits to mention that Mahler's idolized mother Marie was born lame and with a defective heart. According to Alma, who'd have no reason to make this up, all the children were handicapped by the mother's heart disease; there is also anecdotal evidence provided by Bruno Walter and others. Another example: de la Grange will not admit that the finale to the Seventh may be a miscalculation, however interesting. Thus he advances a tortured argument to turn black into white, and puts himself in the position of an "apologist nervous to the point of obduracy" (Adorno's words). In the process, he

completely ignores evidence that Mahler himself was uncomfortably aware of the problem (see the foreword by Redlich to the Eulenberg pocket score of the Seventh).

Mahler is a Freudian figure if ever there was one, and one can argue that the ideal of the eternal feminine, as symbolized by the composite Alma/Marie, became crucial to Mahler's sense of purpose, a major engine of his drive to create. Toward the end, he was psychologically completely dependent on her, even to the point of spouting nonsense regarding her abilities as a composer -- this, from the stern, inflexible director of the Hofoper! (The sad spectacle of Berlioz and his second wife Marie Recio comes to mind as another example of great-composer weakness.) That he had a mother fixation is attested by many, including Alma and Freud, and this would account for his lack of sexual interest; according to Alma, sex played only a very small part in his life. In any case, artistically the union was a brilliant success, even the marital crisis at the end serving to spur him on to new heights -- witness the Tenth Symphony with its impassioned marginalia addressed to Alma. With perfect timing, death then supervened to carry him off at the peak of his powers.

Although the music has lost none of its power and can speak for itself, there is still an unsatisfied need for a different kind of Mahler biography, one that is better balanced and probes the psychology of the man. For hagiography aside, Mahler's maladjustment was staggering even for his time, the hothouse atmosphere of fin-de-siecle Vienna just barely making his unique kind of greatness tenable. A great tortured artist on the scale of a Gustav Mahler is inconceivable today, our time doesn't allow it; we've been there, done that. He would be cured or killed at once, and in either case silenced. And for you computer game programmers out there, take heart -- in addition to a "Freudian" biography, there may be material here for an oeuvre of another sort perhaps more congenial to our age -- a soft-core computer game called "Let's cuckold Mahler". In any case, the music remains.

I had read the previous volume 2 of the life of Mahler several years ago and had anxiously awaited the issuance of this, the third in a four part series with high expectations.

I have not been disappointed. The extensive detail, expansive footnoting, and thorough research that went into this work is evident from the very first paragraph.

Highly recommended for any serious Mahler enthuasist.

Much as Mahler himself towers over Romantic era composer, so does La Grange tower over all other Mahler biographers. Not that Mitchell et. al. don't do a fine job, they do. But for comprehensive detail and deep probing and understanding of Mahler's life and music, La Grange is simply at the highest peaks. This latest installment of his massive series sustains his high standards of research, realiability and readability and for all you devoted Mahlerians out there is a must read. For those curious about Mahler, this is actually not a great place to start; the cost alone to read these three books, so far, on Mahler is a bad investment if you don't yet worship his music! There are many single books that give a good overview of his life as a companion to his music, if not a real guide. For those of you, try Cooke or Kennedy, for the rest, worship here!

Herling has written a really great boo

After reading the three superlative novellas that make up this book, I can only wish that more of Gustaw Herling's work will soon be translated from the original Polish. He is a writer of rare and wonderful talents.

The three novellas that make up "The Island" are both beautiful and harrowing. They all take place in Italy, but in very different parts of Italy. The one unifying thread running through all three is that, despite life's pain, loneliness and despair, we endure. There is an unquenchable hope in almost all human beings and it lives on until we take our last breath.

The title novella, "The Island," is set on the beautiful Isle of Capri, just off the Italian coast near the village of Sorrento. "The Island" contains a "story within a story," and it is the inner story that is perhaps the more interesting of the two.

The "story within a story" in "The Island" takes place during the 17th century in a Carthusian monastery called "the Certosa." The monks have become the antithesis of all they profess to believe and, not wishing to lose either their riches or their good health, they bar their doors to all sufferers when plague ravages the island.

When the priests ministering to the suffering villagers die, however, four Carthusian monks decide to take their place and, in this way, atone for the sins of the monastery. For reasons I won't reveal (I don't want to spoil the story), they decide to travel across the island bearing the sculpture known as the Pieta dell'Isola. Suffice it to say that the images this conjures of Calvary are nothing short of stunning.

The plague ends, of course, and the monastery is eventually restored, but all is never as it had been. Something has been lost, but something quite beautiful has also been gained.

The story that enfolds the above is a love story of sorts that involves a mason and a young girl. At the center of this romance is a horrific accident that changes the course of their love. But is it an accident? Was it only chance that brought it about?

The denouement of this wonderful (and very moral) story is far too intricate to summarize in a quick review and it might spoil the ending for future readers as well. Let's just say that "The Island" is an unforgettable story of both beauty and pain and one that will change forever the way I look at Capri.

"The Second Coming" is a novella of point and counterpoint. It is the story of the agonized last years of the reign of Pope Urban IV, a man whose life has become so filled with suffering that he wishes for little more than to die, a feat he cannot seem to accomplish. It is also the story of the miracle of the Eucharist, however, this particular miracle is not accomplished in any way the reader will anticipate.

"The Second Coming" contains an ingenious plot twist that is reminiscent of the second coming of Christ. This is a medieval tale (13th century) that takes place in the town of Orvieto. Once you read the story, you will understand why I say that it is perfectly placed.

"The Tower" takes place in the hauntingly beautiful Val d' Aosta, a section of the Italian Alps just south of Switzerland, and a place filled with verdant valleys and glacial peaks. "The Tower" may very well be the best novella in the book and the most haunting.

"The Tower" is the first person narration of a Polish officer who comes to Aosta in the summer of 1945, intending to rest in the home of a friend after the Italian campaign.

The house had originally belonged to a retired teacher from Turin, a teacher who is now dead. On a table near a window, the Polish officer finds a volume of Xavier de Maistre, "Lepreux de la Cite d'Aoste," and on the wall he sees an engraving of a rectangular tower in Aosta where the leper in Maistre's books was confined. Interested, the Polish officer decides to investigate the leper's story and in so doing, he finds out much about the death of the teacher from Turin. This story, too, involves a tragedy and a large sculpture and, perhaps, a miracle.

All three of these novellas are haunting, beautiful, harrowing and, ultimately, compassionate. They all contain point and counterpoint, visions of both light and dark. These are not simple tales; they are multilayered and complex and convoluted, and it may take more than one reading to fully absorb them. I don't recommend reading all three at one sitting. Herling offers us far too much richness for that.

Herling's prose is both perfect and beautiful, in a spartan sort of way. We remain a little detached from the novellas, a little aloof, and that is probably good. There is so much emotion in these stories that a bit of detachment seems almost necessary.

These novellas are tales of extreme suffering, perhaps the most extreme suffering any human being can endure, yet all three manage to be heartbreakingly beautiful as well. Anyone who doesn't read this book is cheating himself; anyone who does, will come away forever changed.

This collection of three long stories offers what no reader should expect to encounter in a book published in 1994: an old-fashioned work of literature. The author is a 74-year old Polish expatriate whose other book, "A World Apart," is his first-person account of his experiences in a Soviet slave labor camp. "The Island" is a book that could have been written only by a person who endured a living hell. Herling's characters are society's outcasts: a leper locked in a tower, a priest without a congregation, a Medieval blasphemer strung up in a cage. The stories depict the ability of people to survive with dignity in the most miserable circumstances. "The Island" enthralls with its storytelling and its view of the human condition, of the author's devotion to perseverance even when all is unutterably lost. You will feel yourself a wiser person when you finish reading this book.

This provided an excellent introduction to Jung for me (a lay person) but it could use a pointer to some follow-up at the end. It leaves the reader with the thought: "Where do I proceed from here?", directly into the mass of Jung's works?

This book is based on a lengthy taped series by Stein given at the Chicago Jung institute. The lectures are truly outstanding! Somehow, though, the book is only about 90% outstanding. That's still a strong recommendation! Stein is one of my favorites of the current generation of Jungian analysts. He also has a seminary degree, and (in true Jungian style) his best works focus on the psychology of religion. In this book, Stein intelligently explains many of the basic (and some not-so-basic) Jungian concepts. Even if you're familiar with these, Stein's perspective is worth examining. He has a number of unique things to say about some of these ideas.

The taped series is still available from the Chicago Institute, if you prefer audio. There's also another long audio series by Stein which is equally (if not more) profound---"A Psychological Interpretation Of The Bible." Much as I like Edward Edinger's Jungian books on Biblical themes, this other series by Stein is even better! Someday, hopefully, it will find its way into print.

...to Jung's often complicated thought. The description of the structure and dynamics of the Self was particularly clear and readable. Recommended. -- Craig Chalquist, M.S., creator of the Thineownself self-exploration site.

...but a tiring survey of previous typologies that must be read before you get to Jung's version.

Jung's theories are absolutely amazing. Anyone who is interested in psychology should read this book!

A deep look at the mechanisms of the "psychic functions". Surely instructive for layman with its analysis of human behaviour in everyday life. This work best explores the Jung's concept of the unconscious and proves that his concept is far from being a mystical one as some critics wrote. It also gives a historical perspective of the thoughts of some great thinkers (Schiller, William James and some others )on the problem of psychological types.

The best thing about Meyrink's novels, and particularly about "The Green Face", is that the depth of its meanings goes beyond one single interpretation. It's very true that it deals with tantric love, and also with the "Wandering Jew" legend, but it has other hidden deep significances, like the mystic conception of life as it's taught in the Upanishads, Buddhism or Taoism. There is also a big chain that links Meyrink's images with avant-garde Expresionism; and it finally could be seen as the anticipating view of a totalitarian Europe under Nationalsocialism projecting its shadow in a sombre and sinister Amsterdam, which is the new disguised shape of Prague described by Kafka, and by Meyrink himself in "The Golem". The content of the novel is finally enriched by references to Jewish Cabalistic experience, Egyptian ancient religion and to African Vudu. It's a very complex novel, full of symbols and allegories, difficult to understand but definitely worth the trouble.

This is a tantric story about trust and love. But love in the way known only by tantric people. Is about spiritual path, and how can one rise other if there is love and trust.

Gustav Meyrink's "The Green Face" is an exhilarating vision of apocalypse. First published in 1916, the novel sets its action in the near future of post-war Amsterdam, a city brimming with displaced people and with a stifling atmosphere of unrelenting tension. At this critical time appears an enigmatic being named Chidher Green, the mythical Wandering Jew.

Meyrink reworks and amplifies the legend of the Wandering Jew (a being fated to walk the earth from the days of Christ till the end of time), portraying his Chidher Green as a harbinger of cataclysmic change both for the novel's protagonist, Fortunatus Hauberrisser, and for Amsterdam in general. The story begins with Hauberrisser encountering Chidher Green in a magic shop one day, oblivious to his identity. Soon after, Hauberrisser finds a peculiar chain of old memories and chance encounters erupting around him. As in a house of mirrors, this one image of a bronze-green face suddenly appears around every corner. The face becomes a sort of totem of meditative contemplation (drawing associations with Zen Buddhism). Finally, Hauberrisser and his companions reach a consensus over the phenomenon's significance: If one were to attain a spiritual state in which this face manifested internally, a unique form of transcendence would then be achieved.

When all is said and done, Fortunatus Hauberrisser does not prove to be one of Meyrink's most memorable characters. However, it is also true that his protagonists are often intended as ciphers. If this novel is Meyrink's "Book of Revelation," then Hauberrisser is certainly his Saint John, valuable largely for his role as privileged witness to the spirit world's mysteries.

Also, the route Hauberrisser must take through the story is Meyrink's familiar path of enlightenment-a moment of sudden spiritual awareness followed by a period of isolation, which at last leads to promises of a mystical marriage. Though this path echoes through Meyrink's other work, it would be a mistake to imagine he is simply repeating himself or relying on a formula here. Meyrink has a very distinct vision of the soul's progress; and it is this intense conviction that again manifests so clearly in "The Green Face."

"At the beginning, when we make our first, hesitant attempts, it is like a mindless groping in the dark, and sometimes we do things that resemble the actions of a madman and for a long time seem to lack all consistency. It is only gradually that the chaos forms into a countenance, in whose varying expressions we can read the will of destiny. At first they are grimaces, but that is the way it is with all great matters."

Gustav Klimt is amazing. I love his work and I have most recently become more intrigued by his ideas and sketches. If you like Klimt, check out Auguste Rodin, and Egon Schiele also. They all have similar sketch stylizes and imagery. I am an art major and I specialize in painting portraits, so Klimt's sketches are a natural way for me to go. I love his work so I loved this book but as another reviewer stated, the images were too light. The drawings were awfully faint and on gray paper, I would have liked them to be printed darker or at least on white paper. Also there were a lot of his major sketches for his masterpieces missing that I've found in other books. Over all it's a very good book for a nice price.

What more is there to it? Maybe that's all art's good for: giving you a hard time. I thought the reproductions in this book were a little faded and that's why i gave it four stars and not five, as the drawings deserved. Also, i did not found some drawings i was sure to find here. Great if you want an introduction to Klimt, the explicit erotic artist.

this is an amazing book! as an amateur graphic artist, this has been an invaluable reference and inspiration to me. all of the drawings are of figures, mostly women, mostly naked. they were largely done without direction to his models while they lounged around his loft so they are very intimate, sensual, and sometimes erotic.
his style is so lucid, i can stare at the images forever. the line is so smooth and light(usually pencil, sometimes charcoal), that the images seem like stencils. the body is basically a contour drawing and then the hair is captured in typical art nouveau style, with stylized strands moving in one direction.
i can't say enough about this book. the work is so simple and stunning...when i try to relate what it means to me, i can't think of a thing to say.

This book assisted us in the redesign of our home in the craftsman tradition. A good reference for us to formulate our ideas, and for our architects to see what we liked. Worth the price

A series of articles with illustrations from the original "The Craftsman" magazine. Includes both houses and furnishings. A must for Arts and Crafts enthuisiasts.

This is a reprint of a house plan catalog from 1909. These books are actually exact reprints of original plan books from the turn of the century (1880-1925, roughly). Dover adds little or no modern explanations, just presenting the catalog as it was. So when one looks to review these books, one isn't really judging the modern-day publisher, or editing, or writing. The only modern element is the accuracy of reproduction- in some cases, if pages in the originals that Dover found are damaged or torn, that page is reproduced in the original with the tear, smudge, blot, or hole showing. So to judge the books, one has to compare each one to others of its kind, and then to decide whether the material in it is thorough and complete according to the standards of its time. Since there are several dozen of these catalogs published by Dover, we have the basis for such a comparison.

Stickley and the Craftsman school of design are well known. Many people own bungalows, or admire them even if they don't own them. What getting a book such as this does, is give a person insight into the details of the lifestyle of the time, of the philosophy of the architects/designers, and so on.

This particular book is one of my favorites. As with other Stickley catalogs, it includes several essays. The first one is "The Simplification of Life: A Chapter from Edward Carpenter's book called 'England's Ideal'". This essay resonates today, with people who are looking to get away from some of the modern excesses of possessions and displays of wealth, to a simpler life. There is also a review of another book, with quotes from it: "The Art of Building a Home" by Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin.

One of the features of this catalog is that along with the exterior view and floor plan of every house, there is an extensive written description. For many of the houses there are drawings of the interior, with suggestions for furnishings. There are also examples of what types of light fixtures one might use. The written descriptions, in some cases, even include alternate ways to finish the house to save money or to adapt it to a particular type of location. Most of the illustrations are drawings/paintings; there are a few photographs, but not many. The drawings of the interiors include wallpapers and curtains. One illustration even shows a Craftsman piano! There are some concrete/cement houses, including ones mixing concrete with wood construction.

There are a few houses in the book without indoor bathrooms, which is not unusual for the period, but most have a full bath, and some have two bathrooms. Almost all have extensive built-ins: sideboards, bookcases, benches and settles, shelves. There are illustrations of the kitchens; while built-in kitchen cabinets as we know them now were not common at the time, these illustrations show kitchens furnished with the cabinets and tables that were common, and show the placement of stoves, water heaters, etc. There are also some wonderful examples of inlaid decorative wood flooring, and large sections on Craftsman furniture, metal work, and fabrics and needlework.

One of my favorite things in the whole book is "Two Inexpensive but Charming Cottages for Women Who Want Their Own Homes." It's difficult for us to imagine now, how radical an idea that was - that women might want to own their own homes without necessarily getting married. Recognizing that even if she works, a woman's income at that time would be significantly less than a man's, Stickley designs these homes to be economically built. He describes how two or three single women might manage to share such a home, making it more affordable. Very forward-thinking for the time!

In sum: this is more than just a plan book; the only bad point is that if this is your first exposure to plan books, then the subsequent ones you read will seem plain and lacking by comparison. Definitely should be in the collection of anyone interested in turn-of-the-century architecture or restoring houses.

There's much to give away about this book, but it is hard to get the plot straight once you've finished. Although the prose itself is quite straightforward and not experimental, the first-person narration seems to jump from the conscious to the under- or sub-conscious. It tells the myth of the Golem, an artificial creature created in the XVI century by Rabbi Loew in the ghetto of Prague to protect the Jewish community from destruction and injustice, but the myth is told from a very original perspective. Athanasius Pernath is a jeweler and restorator with faint memories of his past, who lives in the ghetto and experiences a series of strange (very strange) adventures involving crime, romance, estranged relationships and contact with the Golem himself. The most wonderful thing about this book is the atmosphere, the dark, tense environment and the beautiful depictions of Prague and its different neighborhoods, especially the ghetto.

The characters are all strange and enticing, but the plot is superbe, difficult and mysterious. It is a fascinating book even if could not be considered strictly a literary masterpiece. It is gloomy, spooky and enigmatic, indeed very gothic, and lovers of literature with strange, mystical situations will enjoy it.

The legend of the "Golem" had its origin in Jewish folklore and mysticism, and its reading ranges from a methaphysical interpretation to a child's tale. From the first perspective the Golem is seen as a mystical attempt to experience "imitato dei," God's power of creation and the transcendental nature of the ritual; on a more legendary perspective the Golem is seen as a man-like creature who was created by rabbi Loew from Prague, to protect the ghetto community from persecution and injustice. In Meyrink's novel, the Golem is used as a symbolic device, in an exploration of the problem of identity.

Considered a masterpiece of fantasy and expressionism, Meyrink's "The Golem" is an oneiric novel with a strong religious gothic tone, a mirror of Meyrink's intellectual pursuit and involvement in occultist movements. The main character and narrator, Athanasius Pernath drifts in a state of hypnagogia, his memory blocked from the past, desperately in search of his own identity -- "Who am I?" In his quest, the Golem will take Athanasius into an inner journey, in a shift from consciousness to unconsciousness. Meyrink also introduces the mystic and cabbalist concept of the "secret of intercalation" (Ibbur), a combination of God's determinative and guiding hand and of man's freedom of choice and responsibility.

It is a novel with a phantasmagorial plot and visionary settings, where characters are drifted by a reality outside their understanding. Some readers might find the journey altogether weird, abstract and surrealist. However, the magic of Meyrink resides exactly in an artistic vision which embodies infinite interpretations. His own words best illustrates his own perspective of life: "when men arise from their beds, they think they have shaken off sleep and they know not that they have fallen victim to their senses and are in the grip of a much deeper sleep than the one they have just left."

I spent last several days comparing Mitchell's and Pemberton's translation to the German original for a project I'm working on and I strongly recommend Mitchell's version. Pemberton's is quite inaccurate and contains many errors which dull the impact of Meyrink's prose. There is not enough space here for a detailed comparison but as an example just try to figure out the layout of Pernath's and Savioli's apartments (that iron door!) based on Pemberton's translation: "if one unlatched the iron door to the basement - quite easy from above - it was possible, through my room, to reach the staircase..." In fact the door is quite easy to unlatch not from above but from the other side (that is, inside Savioli's studio) and then it is possible to reach the staircase by walking a corridor along (or past) Pernath's room, not through it.