Russian Symbolism seems to be a peculiar literary movement at first glance. But Russian Symbolists inherited very much from German romantics. I'm also a student of Russian Symbolism, especially of Ivanov's heritage, like the author. I was captivated by this book. This fascinating book has become for me a model of my research (especially the chapter 10 is splendid!): a "mirror" of what I think about Ivanov. An excellent book both for specialists and for simple literature lovers.

A trenchant investigation of an essential subject. Rarely have I encountered such a profound treatment of this highly intriguing subject. The book is a must for anyone interested in German-Russian literary relations.

This handbook is perfect for the second year psychiatric resident on an inpatient service, or the mental health practicum/intern student in a community mental health center. The authors review basic concepts of psychotherapy and then apply them to the individuals with serious mental illnesses seen in these settings.

As a teaching attending, I found this book to really fill the gap left by the residents' overly abstract "Introduction to Psychotherapy" course. Many interactions with patients/clients are potentially psychotherapeutic and this book gives readers numerous examples.

Angelika Rauch's "The Hieroglyph of Tradition" is a detailed engagement with major German philosophical thinkers, among them, Kant, Novalis, Freud, Benjamin, and Gadamer; these are brought into relation with French thinkers like Lacan, Kristeva, Lyotard, and Derrida. The topic that aligns these thinkers is the question of affective memory and how it is preserved, shaped, and interpreted by (literary) language. Rauch argues that tradition is part of an ongoing epistemological process in which language, the body, experience, imagination, desire, and affect are closely related to tradition as a formative process. She argues that in the case of figures like Kant, Novalis, Benjamin, and Freud we can see the importance that memory plays in terms of processes of cultural signification and how tradition is mediated by questions of subjectivity. Tradition in Rauch's theory concerns a transference of experience into language in which language is an interface between personal mind and cultural history. Fundamental to her work is a psychoanalytic examination of affect and the body and how both get translated into rhetorical figures of language that allude to forgotten experiences and fantasies. Her reading of the prostitute as an allegory of modernity in the context of Benjamin shows how the use of gender and the body are crucial to an understanding of history, allegory, and experience. Her interpretations of Lacan via Gadamer and Derrida via Benjamin are among the many highlights of this very informative book that, at bottom, tries to take a second look at a conventional notion like tradition by analysing how it actually works on the mind as a handing over of experience from the past to the present, from one generation to another, from an other to the self.

I rediscovered the Life of Jesus through the CD-Rom and I must say that is it really well done. The content is huge and the Interface very well designed. Get the program for your children!

While this book is not the most exhaustive and technical book around, this is a GREAT book for those that are new to FrontPage97. While other books may provide a wealth of hard-core technical data, they tend to gloss over one very important subject...how to use the product at all. This book, on the other hand, will walk you through FrontPage97 from beginning to end and show you (step-by-step) how to use FrontPage97. The book also spends a fair amount of time walking you through the configuration and use of Microsoft Personal Web Server and FrontPage's Web Server - which are necessities that other book (at least that I looked at) didn't cover too well. A little more detail could have been spent going more in depth on advanced topics such as database connectivity. That being said, though, this book at least had a fairly good section on database connectivity to get you started. Most other FrontPage books I glanced through completely left it out or glossed over this (potentially complicated) subject entirely. Even with some minor deficiencies, this book is an outstanding book for probably 75% of all normal users. Only advanced sys-admin's and web applications developers will crave more info. For the rest of us mortals, this book will definitely satisfy you. All-in-all, after about 1-2 hours with this book, I was able to do things with FrontPage97 that amazed me. If you're new to FrontPage97, this book is definitely worth buying

Novalis can be seen as one of the very first German poets who abandoned the classic German way of writing. "Hymns to the night" in particular is a collection of poems characterised by a mysterious dark lyricism and an accult atmosphere, blended in a way that cannot possibly provoke, annoy or "puzzle" ANY reader. On the contrary, Novalis' unique way of writing sounds like ones' beautiful ancient prayer to ones' ancient Gods

The German culture can be said to oscillate between two extremes. The first is the predisposition to obsessively systematize and classify life's experience into knowledge with a calm and indifferent demeanor. The second is the reverse tendency to discard the rational and dive off into the realm of the fantastic and the perverse, the moody and the emotionally erratic. Novalis presents a fascinating case study in paradoxically representing both of the tendencies. His "Hymns to the Night" are filled with despair, longing, and a visionary quality that sort of puts one into a trance when reading. However hidden beneath this highly charged emotional atmosphere are layers of allegory and thought. Hence what we have here is that unique poem which combines a very human story of loss, sorrow, and grief with intriguing philosophical meditations on love, [end of life], religion, resurrection, and the relation of mind and body. Much more could be said and should be said. But additional details would spoil the joy of discovering the beauty of the poem on your own....

I bought this book not sure whether or not it was translated. I found that it was all in German, however it looks beautiful on the bookshelf and it smells different than American new books so I kept it. I later found the translated version here at amizon. Just search for HENRY VON OFTERDINGEN instead of Heinrich.

What a shame that this book has gone out of print! While Forstman's reading of Schleiermacher relies a bit too heavily on the (I think) misguided notion that Schleiermacher's primary influence was Romanticism, overall the book provides a good, solid, well-researched look at the interaction between Schleiermacher and the Early Romantics (who were his friends and even roommates in the very early 19th century). Forstman does a good job with the geneaology, expertly connecting some of Schleiermacher's more significant contributions to theology, philosophy, and hermeneutics with Romanticism. Anyone who is interested in Schleiermacher and/or German Romanticism will enjoy this book.

On the strength of rave reviews, I bought and read "The Blue Flower." It strikes me as the sort of book that only the British can write and only the critics (and other authors) can really love. The book is unquestionably finely written, and Penelope Fitzgerald is unquestionably a writer of extraordinary talent. I found it impossible, however, to become actively engaged as a reader when the main character is an early nineteenth century romantic poet in love with a 14-year-old girl with whom he has absolutely nothing in common. The girl's lack of intelligence, lack of experience, lack of education, and lack of any strong traits of character make her so unlikely a love object that I found I could not sympathize with Fritz, much less identify with his woes

"The Blue Flower" recently won the outer book critics circle award and it is well-deserved. Eventhough it may be considered a short novel the material presented is enormous. For such a complicated piece, Ms. Fitzgerald does not waste a single word, nor a single punctuation mark and her thoughts, as complicated as they are, are presented neatly without any extemporaneous circumstances - that, in itself, is masterful. The novel is based on the life of Fritz Von Hardenberg who later became the great poet and philosopher, Novalis. Under the guise of his father he is trained to be a businessman. Studying at the top universities, Fritz realizes his true passion for poetry and philosophy. He meets 12 year old Sophie Von Kuhn on a visit with a friend of his father who he is staying with to study administration for his business career. Upon meeting Sophie ("in a half-hours time" according to Fritz) she becomes his "true philosophy" and he falls in love. This relationship may seem peculiar, even wrong. But in the hands of Penelope Fitzgerald this relationship seems justified. Sophie represents what the great philosophers teach us thru their writings - she is the guiding spirtual force which leads us to question romance and the search for the meaning of life. Fritz even engraves Sophie's engagement ring with the inscription "Sophie be my guardian spirit." Like all great romances, tragedy results not only for their relationship but for them as well. The title "The Blue Flower" is a story Fritz is writing; he reads his opening chapter to various people. "What is the meaning?" he asks. People respond, but is there an answer? Is Sophie the blue flower? Philosophers extrapulate life and love in trying to find the meaning which governs our existence. Our lives are subject to questions and interpretaions which often need to revisited. No doubt, reading of "The Blue Flower" will have to be revisited to explore further the art of life and love. Isn't life about interpretation and soul-searching? Bravo, Ms. Fitzgerald!

The reviewer who wrote you either love this book or hate it is right. Those who hate it seem to do so because it did not live up to their preconceived notions of what "a great book" should be. Obvious plot development, blatant character growth, a quick rundown of history ... if those are the only reasons you read, definitely don't get this book. I thought it was a light, wonderful collection of vignettes that brought the world of late 18th century Germany to life. *But* I wasn't reading to see how Sophie would develop into a girl worthy of a great poet's love. At the risk of sounding like a snobby "real" reviewer, let me recommend the kind of readers who will like this book: (in the words of the late Iris Murdoch, another British novelist) "someone who likes a jolly good yarn and enjoys thinking about the book as well, about the moral issues." The key is putting in a little mental effort of your own.

A typical attempt at explaining Microsoft software. The book passes up the opportunity to present an introduction to "meat and potatoes" programming in VBA for the idea that "The thicker the book the better." The author & publisher (Sybex) seemed more concerned with typeset and layout than substance and solid presentation of programming VBA for MS Access. ...even this shows a real lack of commentment when Tables that belong in the text appear on the CD-ROM. My honest advice - save your fifty bucks and save another poor tree from having to be abused with such slop.

An excellent Introductory book to start programming in Access VBA . I certainly learned quite a bit from it and recommend it wholeheartedy to anyone who wishes to get his feet wet with VBA.

An ideal reader of this book should have quite some knowledge of table, query, form and report design, but no macro and module design experience. That's when this book is a real eye-opener. It assumes no previous knowledge of VBA and it starts of with basic things--Access and DAO object model, introduction to events, etc. Then, it went on to identifiers(i.e. how do you reference fields, controls, etc), and only THEN it goes on to programming techniques like if..then and other decision structures, a heavy chunk of DAO, a bit of SQL, and some other useful stuff. What's not excusable, however is that this book has some typos not only on the pages, but in the code. Although the mistakes are correctable with some common sence, this has prevented the book from receiving 5 stars from me.