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Book reviews for "Norman,_Charles" sorted by average review score:

Norman Rockwell: 332 Magazine Covers
Published in Hardcover by Tuttle Shokai, Inc. (1997)
Author: Charles S. Finch
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Amazing
To say that you can spend hours browsing through this wonderful collection is an understatement. This is a book that can be savored over a lifetime.

It shows the progression of Rockwell's art from his early, almost Victorian style covers, to his most famous illustrations, to his political portraits. It always annoys me that people claim he is an illustrator, not an artist. Simply because these pictures tell a story should not detract from their artistic merit.

This volume has them all. From the beautiful, awkward, girl at the Mirror, Doctor's appointment and countless others that are not as well known, but still great! So many of these paintings allow us to learn more about America (Can you get much more American than Norman Rockwell?). His GI- Willie Gillis is truly everyman during WWII. We seem enjoying a hometown newspaper, on leave, with his comrades, and finally as a student on the GI Bill. So many ideas are timeless. The chronicle of a day in the life of a boy or girl seem to embody childhood. Commuters on a platform captures the rise of suburbia. THe one of a son sitting with his father and dog about to leave for college captures that bittersweet moment on the cusp of adolescence.

The sunlit, yet dusty, Marriage Liscense is generally recognized as art, but others should be too. I hope that with the recent Rockwell exhibets a new generation of Americans will appreciate this wodnerful artist who captured so much of our lives!

This is a great addition to any collection- you will never tire of looking through it!

A Collector's Item
If you can only have one Norman Rockwell book, look no further. This is the quintessential Norman Rockwell. You can spend hours and hours looking at the illustrations and still not fully grasp all the subtle nuances - like the cameo paintings within the painting; the relections in the mirror; the advertisements in the folded newspapers; and so on. I have only found one inconsistency. In "The Clock Mender" some areas in the painting make an abrupt departure from his trademark quasi-realistic style. It reminds me of Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon". Was Rockwell cleverly introducing "Surrealism" into this particular painting, in an inverted Salvador Dali sort of way? Or was the original painting simply damaged and then retouched by someone else? It would make delightful reading if Mr Finch, or anyone else, could offer an explanation.

From Kelvin


The Other 1492: Jewish Settlement in the New World (Charles Scribner's Sons Books for Young Readers)
Published in School & Library Binding by Atheneum (1989)
Author: Norman H. Finkelstein
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Fascinating reading. Enlightening.
This is a readable, interesting account of the events that led to the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. Although listed in the juvenile literature section, it is a mature and fascinating text.

insightful, clearly organized
This book accurately portrays the other 1492, not the discovery of America, but the persecution of the Jewish people of Spain. Finkelstein intellegently lays out the facts of the historical events of the time in a way which both young readers and adults can comprehend. The book was mentioned in the New York Times book review several years ago and is a must read for any history buff.


Selected Poems from Les Fleurs Du Mal
Published in Paperback by University of Chicago Press (Trd) (1999)
Authors: Norman R. Shapiro, David Schorr, and Charles P. Baudelaire
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The finest translation of Baudelaire in English
This bilingual edition (masterfully translated by Norman Shapiro) carefully transposes the French originals into a formal, poetic English idiom, which captures both the meaning and the music of Baudelaire, the fallen angel and champion of evil. Though conventional in terms of his metrics and poetic forms, Baudelaire is arguably the first great Modernist poet. One dives into the murky miasmata of these pages to discover a world of perverse pleasures, wrathful and sordid imagery and unregenerate vice glorified by one of its most eloquent spokesmen. Baudelaire, a tortured personality, in which profound guilt is contraposed with carnal lust, Satanism, delight in cruelty and a longing for hell, is one of the towering giants of modern European literature. His poetry is a bitter fruit that few can savour with impunity.

By far the best treatment Baudelaire has received in English
Shapiro manages to capture Baudelaire's essence without sacrificing his form. These versions read like English poetry. They are the best I have read--and I have read them all, past and present. Highly recommended for admirers of Baudelaire and students of the craft (and art!) of literary translation.


Dickens, a Life
Published in Hardcover by Oxford Univ Pr (1985)
Authors: Norman Ian MacKenzie and Jeanne MacKenzie
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Dickens, the man behind words.
Being a lover of fine literature, the world of Charles Dickenshas always held a special place in my heart. It's a place and a timeuniquely his own. I had always know that much of what he wrote about was autobiographical. But not until reading MacKenzie's work did I have a full understanding of the man. She starts with his rough origins, which strongly reflect the world of David Copperfield, takes us through his early working years, his personal life, and lastly, his physical decline. The book gives us insights into the man, and fleshes him out like so many of his characters. MacKenzie describes his jealousy of other writers, his struggle to financially care for his extended family, describes the plays he painstakenly put on with his family and friends, details the summer vacations with his family, his reading tours of America, and, most importantly, his writing. His serialzied novles became the number one source of entertainment in the English speaking world. Crowds would gather on American docks, waiting for the English ships to unload the next installment of his latest novel. Families would gather around and read the work aloud, living and dying with each plot twist. MacKenzie shows how Dickens himself agaonized over every plot twist. The characters would become like family members to him. Bringing harm to them would often bring tears flowing from his eyes as he read the just finished installment to his family and friends. It's well worth the effort to try and find.


E.E. Cummings: The Magic-Maker
Published in Paperback by Little Brown & Co (Pap) (1973)
Author: Charles Norman
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by (true) lovers of cummings it must be read
norman (friend of cummings) has created this exquisite work in the true style of cummings, holding the interest of any true cummings lover endlessly; this book gives a true feeling of fullness and (character and content) - do love it as i do...


The Human Brain and Spinal Cord: A Historical Study Illustrated by Writings from Antiquity to the Twentieth Century (Norman Neurosciences, No 2)
Published in Hardcover by Norman Publishing (01 October, 1996)
Authors: Edwin Clarke and Charles Donald O'Malley
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Evergreen (un libro que no envejecerá)
The Human Brain and Spinal Cord es un libro que nunca deberé retirar por obsoleto del armario de la oficina. Sus descripciones anatómicas del sistema nervioso central son materia superlativa.
Por ejemplo, el capítulo Brain localization contiene descripciones de primera mano por Galeno, Nemesio de Emesa, Avicena, Vesalio, Descartes, Willis, Prochaska, Gall, Rolando, Flourens, Bouillaud, Aubertin, Broca, Spencer, Jackson, Hitzin, Ferrier, Bartholow, Sherrington y ... suma y sigue.
La edición es ciudada y sobria. La diagramación es elegante y los tipos son claros. La calidad se aprecia al leer la materia y no por el uso de destacadores "didácticos".
Edición limitada a 750 ejemplares. Fascinación para quienes, como yo mismo, somos bibliómanos y neurólogos.


Human Nervous System: Structure and Function
Published in Hardcover by Humana Press (2003)
Authors: Charles R. Noback, Norman L. Strominger, and Da Ruggiero
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Good intro to the human CNS
This reference has been a widely used university text introducing the human nervous system. Chapters on neurophysiology and neurodevelopment are followed by a consideration of sensory and motor functionality, and examination of components of the central nervous system.


Intimate Journals (Syrens Series)
Published in Paperback by Penguin USA (Paper) (1996)
Authors: Norman Cameron, Charles P. Baudelaire, and Richard Howard
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A crystalline fragment of aesthetic sensibility.
This is the document of a poet consecrating himself to memory. His attempt to maintain perspective; his aesthetic self objectification that is repeatedly shattered when he looks into society; his Catholocism, his ennui, his mistress, his mother...all these cast a definitely "intimate" hue to the pages that are essential for any reader wishing to come to terms with Baudelaire's psyche: to see why his self-destruction was inseparable from his creations. For they were both necessary symptoms of his sensibility - an immaculately modern sensibility. The fragmented nature of the writings prevents the work from actually being a "work" - it is more like an authentic gesture, an unpremeditated act of self revelation. A fascinating and ultimately harrowing document from a poet - nothing more.


Bleak House (Penguin English Library)
Published in Paperback by Viking Press (1971)
Authors: Charles Dickens, Norman Page, and Norma Page
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Deep, dark, delicious Dickens!
"There is little to be satisfied in reading this book"?? I couldn't disagree more. Bleak House left a profound impression on me, and was so utterly satisfying a reading experience that I wanted it never to end. I've read it twice over the years and look forward to reading it again. Definitely my favorite novel.

I don't know what the previous reviewer's demands are when reading a novel, but mine are these: the story must create its world - whatever and wherever that world might be - and make me BELIEVE it. If the novelist cannot create that world in my mind, and convince me of its truths, they've wasted my time (style doesn't matter - it can be clean and spare like Orwell or verbose like Dickens, because any style can work in the hands of someone who knows how to use it). Many novels fail this test, but Bleak House is not one of them.

Bleak House succeeds in creating a wonderfully dark and complex spider web of a world. On the surface it's unfamiliar: Victorian London and the court of Chancery - obviously no one alive today knows that world first hand. And yet as you read it you know it to be real: the deviousness, the longing, the secrets, the bureaucracy, the overblown egos, the unfairness of it all. Wait a minute... could that be because all those things still exist today?

But it's not all doom and gloom. It also has Dickens's many shades of humor: silliness, word play, comic dialogue, preposterous characters with mocking names, and of course a constant satirical edge. It also has anger and passion and tenderness.

I will grant one thing: if you don't love reading enough to get into the flow of Dickens's sentences, you'll probably feel like the previous reviewer that "...it goes on and on, in interminable detail and description...". It's a different dance rhythm folks, but well worth getting used to. If you have to, work your way up to it. Don't start with a biggie like Bleak House, start with one of his wonderful short pieces such as A Christmas Carol.

Dickens was a gifted storyteller and Bleak House is his masterpiece. If you love to dive into a book, read and enjoy this gem!

Magnificent House.
This is the second book by Dickens I have read so far, but it will not be the last. "Bleak House" is long, tightly plotted, wonderfully descriptive, and full of memorable characters. Dickens has written a vast story centered on the Jarndyce inheritance, and masterly manages the switches between third person omniscient narrator and first person limited narrator. His main character Esther never quite convinces me of her all-around goodness, but the novel is so well-written that I just took Esther as she was described and ran along with the story. In this book a poor boy (Jo) will be literally chased from places of refuge and thus provide Dickens with one of his most powerful ways to indict a system that was particularly cruel to children. Mr. Skimpole, pretending not to be interested in money; Mr. Jarndyce, generous and good; Richard, stupid and blind; the memorable Dedlocks, and My Lady Dedlock's secret being uncovered by the sinister Mr. Tulkinghorn; Mrs. Jellyby and her telescopic philanthropy; the Ironmaster described in Chapter 28, presenting quite a different view of industralization than that shown by Dickens in his next work, "Hard Times." Here is a veritable cosmos of people, neighbors, friends, enemies, lovers, rivals, sinners, and saints, and Dickens proves himself a true master at describing their lives and the environment they dwell in. There are landmark chapters: Chapter One must be the best description of a dismal city under attack by dismal weather and tightly tied by perfectly dismal laws, where the Lord Chancellor sits eternally in Lincoln's Inn Hall. Chapter 32 has one of the eeriest scenes ever written, with suspicious smoke, greasy and reeking, as a prelude to a grisly discovery. Chapter 47 is when Jo cannot "move along" anymore. This Norton Critical is perhaps the best edition of "Bleak House" so far: the footnotes help a lot, and the two Introductions are key to understanding the Law system at the time the action takes place, plus Dickens' interest in this particular topic. To round everything off, read also the criticism of our contemporaries, as well as that of Dickens' time. "Bleak House" is a long, complex novel that opens a window for us to another world. It is never boring and, appearances to the contrary, is not bleak. Enjoy.

Nothing bleak about this...
After years without picking up a novel by Dickens (memories of starchy classes at school), I decided to plunge into "Bleak House", a novel that had been sitting on my bookshelf for about ten years, waiting to be read. Although I found it heavy going at first, mainly because the style is so unfamiliar to modern readers, after about ten pages I was swept up and carried off, unable to put the hefty tome down until I had finished it. This book is a definite classic. The sheer scope of the tale, the wit of the satire (which could still be applied to many legal proceedings today) and the believable characters gripped me up until the magnificent conclusion. One particularly striking thing is the "cinematic" aspect of certain chapters as they switch between different angles, building up to a pitch that leaves the reader breathless. I can't recommend "Bleak House" too highly. And I won't wait so long before reading more Dickens novels.


The Bounty Trilogy
Published in Hardcover by Little Brown & Company (1982)
Authors: Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
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A magnficent story of wonder, adventure, and leadership.
This book is, quite simply, a fabulous trilogy of novels. It deals, of course, with the two-year voyage of HMS Bounty from England to Tahiti, the captaincy of Captain William Bligh, the mutiny against him, and the aftermath. This is an unforgettable story, beautifully told, well-written, and fast-paced.

I have read reviews here and there that claim this book is written at a "young adult" level. Not so. This is a complex story that only seems to be easily told because the author has mastered the ability to write with utter clarity, and without sacrificing style. As one who reads all day for a living (attorney) I have learned to appreciate authors who can write well. Nordhoff does this--the reader never loses the storyline because it is well told. The novels proceed with the precision of a laser beam but with a poetic, wistful, thoughtful tone that is a delight to read. This book has class.

The story of the trip to Tahiti and the mutiny which takes place early on the return voyage are wonderfully told. The ONLY possible criticism is that this story is not terribly true to the facts of the actual mutiny. The protagonist, Roger Byam, is an imaginary person. By the way, this novel is the source for the first of the Mutiny on the Bounty movies starring Charles Laughton.

The other two novels in the trilogy deal with the voyage by Captain Bligh and those of the crew who remained loyal to him, and the aftermath of the mutiny when the mutineers settle on Pitcairn Island. Both stories are first-rate.

Persons interested in a somewhat more accurate depiction of what happened on the Bounty voyage, as well as a ripping good movie, will want to see "The Bounty" starring Mel Gibson (Fletcher Christian) and Anthony Hopkins (Captain Bligh).

The Bounty Trilogy is a book anyone who enjoys adventure will want to read and own.

amazing!
I read these stories while at sea on a British research vessel. If you've ever been to sea, or have ever wanted to, you'll probably enjoy reading this trilogy. Nordhoff and Hall write in plain, unelaborate English, so the phrasing never gets in the way, and you can concentrate on all the colorful characters and incredible events. The first two (and half of the third) books are written in first person, putting you right into the action and events, making you think about what you would do in the situations as they arise.

This trilogy has it all: adventure, drama, comedy, history, life at sea, love and loss. It's hard to believe this all really happened. I've given this book to two of my friends already, and they both liked it. You'll probably like it, too.

Wonderful books
I give my highest praise to these books. They are far better than current "adventure" stories because of the struggles they had to endure. I found all three books in the trilogy to be excellent (Mutiny on the Bounty, Men Against the Sea, and Pitcairns Island). My favorite one was Pitcairns Island. In all the books I have ever read, this is the first book that ever actually sent a chill up my spine. I won't give the story away, but you will not believe what happens in that book. It's absolutely thrilling and fascinating!


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