We are an IT company engaged in the development of electronic commerce/distributed database software that is designed to support both government and commercial supply-chain management business- to-business operations. In this brave new world of network infrastructures, firewalls, security requirements, etc., the need to stay current with technology change is critical. The Electronic Commerce, Third Edition provides a source of knowledge that helps fulfill this need. The authors have produced a book that is easy to read and understand, and yet, provides just the right amount of technical detail to do justice to the subject at hand. The following chapters provide the right level of information to help IT managers and software engineers make sound strategic and tactical decisions regarding business-to-business implementation decisions; (2) Security Technologies, (4) Protocols for the Public Transport of Private Information, (9) Strategies, Techniques, and Tools, and (10) E-Commerce Environments and Future Directions.

A detailed and complete reference on e-commerce. This book covers the whole gamit of electronic commerce. Going from concepts through complete set-up and on to implementation and beyond. Excellent coverage on payment systems and everyone's #1 priority - security. A complete and detailed table of contents and appendix make quick searches a breeze. Complimenting the book itself is an enclosed CD which, along with many resources and helpful links, is chock full of technical setup procedures and protocol. A very complete book on e-commerce. Read it or be left behind!

If, at my last job, we had had access to this book with its compilation of the many technologies that are critical to e-commerce, we would have been spared months of research, technical errors and frustrations, and costly delays in implementing our dotcom. Fortunately, I can now use this information in my current project. Having up-to-date reference material combined in one book is not only a major time-saver; it is also far more readable and understandable than most technical information I had already collected and tried to assimilate on my own into a cohesive and fail-safe plan.

Even for someone who is building a non-commercial site (without requirements for SSL, firewalls, encryption, and the complex security needed for electronic payments), I thoroughly recommend reading Chapter 10 at the very least, with all of its valuable pointers and concrete examples of both good and bad. If more sites complied with these, I would find navigating the web a far more pleasant experience than it has come to be over the past few years.

I read John Ridley's first novel, 'Stray Dogs' and was pleased. Beyond that, however, it didn't blow me away. It was nasty, compact and smartly written, but in the end I deemed it merely servicable. Thank God I picked up his sophmore effort to show me exactly how much Ridley has grown as a writer. Love is a Racket is smarter, funnier, edgier, more densely plotted and filled with a cast of deeply written characters. Plus, the ending was brilliant; both unexpected, and, if you think about it, the only way the whole thing could have ended up. All great writers get better with age; it's part of the evolution of their craft. With a second book this good, I can't wait for the release of Mr. Ridley's next book, 'We All Smoke in Hell.'

John Ridley's new novel put's him right up there in the company of America's greatest crime writers. His first novel, "Stray Dogs", was a smart, nasty little noir, all full of twists and turns that kept Ridley and his book at least one step ahead of the reader, but in "Love is a Racket" he tells a great story and he creates some of the most memorable characters you'll meet in any recent fiction. He's also got a wonderfully sly sense of humor . This is a novel where someone's always the brunt of a con or a good joke, the reader included. (Yep, and when you've been fooled by a master -- and Ridley is a master -- it's surprising how good it feels.) Read "Love is a Racket" and you'll be reminded that Elmore Leonard's just a pit stop on the way to better stuff.

John Ridley gets better with every book I read. I look forward to his novels with baited breath. I read Stray dogs (it became the movie Uturn, I believe) anyway The book was soo much better than the movie and then Love is a racket blew me away with the action and the things that can happen when you least expect it and then Everyone smokes in hell came out and I liked that even more, if he keeps it up he will be the only author I like enough to buy hardcover! if you like Quentin Tarantino movies you will like John Ridley's books even more. He is one of the best thriller/action fiction writers of his time.

This classic guide was the first of its type, and thus probably got more people into birding than any other book. Peterson uses ink drawings to show the important "field marks" for identifying species. The downside to these drawings is that they tend to idealize the birds, showing them in perfect postures and making the field marks more prominent than they really are. Many competitors, such as the Audubon Guide and the Stokes Guide, use photographs instead. Photographs give a more accurate portrayal of the subtleties of color and pattern in plumage, but there are always those poor shots in a photographic guide that are blurry or show the bird at a bad angle. Whether you decide that a guide based on drawings or photographs is best for you, I would strongly suggest that you pick up an audio recording of birdsongs, such as "Birding by Ear," or the "Field Guide to Eastern/Central Bird Songs," both put out by Peterson's. As any experienced birder will tell you, the ear is just as important as the eye, especially in summer, when birds are often hidden by foliage.

The Peterson Field Guide to Eastern Birds is the best such guide you will find. The nice thing about birds and birding is that there are few enough species out there that you can get virtually all of them in one regional guide.

This book is outstanding. It relies on illustrations rather than photographs to show markings and other details used to ID birds in the field. I find that photos are often sub-standard, not showing characters essential for identifying birds due to the position of the bird, markings of the individual chosen for inclusion in the book, etc.

In this book each entry includes a bird's common and scientific names, a brief physical description of the body and coloration, a drawing(s) of the bird, a brief description of habitats where they are likely to be seen, a blip about their geographic distribution, notes on their song, and reference to similar species (if any). The entry also refers the reader to a map number that shows the summer and winter ranges for each bird.

This is "the bird book" to have for birds that live east of the Rockies for the novice and experienced birder alike. If you've never had much luck figuring out which birds you are looking at try this book.

5 stars all the way!

Note: if you travel much throughout the USA, you ought to pick up the Peterson Guide to Western Birds as well -- it is the sister book to this one. With both of those books in hand you will be in good birding shape.

Alan Holyoak, Dept of Biology, Manchester College, IN

I looked at nine or ten bird books over the weekend before finally deciding on this one. I like it's compact size, durable cover and it's very complete index. The most important reason for my decision, however, is the fact that it shows pictures of both male and female birds where the female bird's plummage and head differ from that of the male. None of the other books I checked showed female birds or only showed them in very rare instances. I also like this book because it shows most birds in both standing or swimming positions and also in flight. There are also occasional drawings of chicks.

The text that accompanies the pictures is necessarily brief but covers: Latin and common names, description, food, range, migratory pattern, habitat, voice and similar species. Also included is a "Systematic Checklist" so you can keep a "life list" of all the birds you've seen. There is a guide to identifying birds by visual categories (swimmers, birds of prey, waders, perching birds, etc), size, tail and wing patterns. The last part of the book contains maps illustrating each bird's range which makes it easy to compare the habitat of, for example, an Olive-Sided Flycatcher with an Acadian Flycatcher.

Obviously this is a guidebook and not the type of book you sit down and read through, but I have found myself reading the entries for the often amusing "voice" sections. Here's the one for the Chestnut-Sided Warbler: "Song, similar to Yellow Warbler's; 'see see see see Miss Beech'er' or 'pleased pleased pleased to meet'cha;' penultimate note accented, last note dropping." Hey, someone who knows what "penultimate" really means!

Khayyam's poetry is a beacon of honesty and courage in a writing form rife with the romantic,silly and childish.Poetry has almost exclusively been the domain of the mystifiers and the pretentious.Khayyam's message is looked down upon by the people who don't have the courage to be pessimists and instead hide behind their daddy in the sky or in some metaphysical womb.Khayyam, like Lucretius,looked honestly around him and drew the conclusions we all know deep down to be true but are usually to weak to admit.Khayyam knew life was an absurdity and the greatest absurdity was not to enjoy yourself and do and think as you please.After all, this is the REAL religion that the world has always adhered to,whatever its pretenses to the contrary.After reading Khayyam almost all other poets seem insipid by comparison.Every poem is exquisite and has the ring of truth.Never mind if Fitzgerald's translation is not faithful to the original Persian;the miraculous,yet simple truth of Khayyam comes through just the same.If you buy one book of poetry in your life make this book the one.

I first read this work of art a month ago, and many times after that. My parents were surprised that I, being 14 years of age, liked it, although I think anyone with a bit of an understanding towards life would enjoy it. Being Persian myslef, and knowledgable towards the history of Omar Khayyam and his time,I read this book in Persian, English and French. Although I think that without doubt anyone who is able to should read the Persian edition, the English translation did not lose the touch and certain charm of the works. Don't underestimate your children either. I mean hey, give it a shot, they might like it!

This beautifully illustrated edition of Omar Khayyam's classic poem is a gem. The illustrations complement the lyrical imagery of the poem. Two editions of Fitzgerald's translation are included, with the second including additional quatrains, and representing a mature and slightly darker reading of the poem. The introduction contains a lot of interesting information, but don't be misled. Far from being a work of skepticism, this beautiful poem reflects deep-thinking belief.

The chapters (10-13) on RDS made this book well worth it for me, since true client-side recordsets were integral to the suceess of a particular intranet project I was on (don't hold your breath waiting for any useful documentation from Microsoft on RDS). Some of your own experimentation is necessary as you expand out further from the RDS examples they give. They could have taken RDS a bit further than they did, but what they gave was still helpful to me. Everything they do cover is well-represented with code examples.

I kind of thought the amount of space devoted to ADO was excessive, since if you're trying to implement RDS, you probably already know much of the ADO they teach here. Some of that space would have been better used to expand on RDS a bit.

The included ADO 2.0 reference (Appendix A) and RDS 2.0 reference (Appendix B) are useful, and the sections on Oracle are helpful if your code has to work against Oracle backends.

One other note: In books like this, I rely on the index a lot to quickly get to topics I need. The index in this book is pretty bad. If you want to reference things for future use in this book, buy yourself a highlighter pen.

Bottom line, if you need to use RDS, bite the bullet (kind of expensive) and get this book. For ADO, however, you might want to look elsewhere.

I had developed 2 projects using ADO and ASP before, now I have a third. This time I decieded to get more information about this matter and bought this book which I found of great help. If you really are an experienced user you don't need this book, but if you are new or intermediate get this book, you wont't be dissappointed. It is worth the money I spent. BUY IT. I am getting all I need to build my third project.

I am an Internet Engineer for a Fortune 500 company. I recently designed and implemented an enterprise-level customer service Intranet application. This book provided many thorough explanations and examples of advanced ADO features.

I made heavy use of disconnected recordsets and data shapes, both of which I did not know how to use before reading this text. These methods allowed me to store recordset objects in session variables (remember, this was an Intranet application so I could dictate the client browser) and thus greatly reduce the load on the back-end database.

Criticisms are few and far between. I found a few nit-picky errors, nothing major. I also would have appreciated a chapter with tips on creating MTS COM objects, but I realize that topic can span an entire book (and it has).

I appreciated this book so much that after I had purchased and expensed a copy for my department's reference library, I went back and bought another copy for my personal collection. It definitely earns a five star rating.

This is an excellent book. I have already recommended it to my character animation class at the School Of Visual Arts.

Mastering Maya Complete 2 is a well rounded, well written presentation of maya that goes far beyond simple instruction. The authors offer that (unfortunately) rare commodity in books of this type: insight.

It is obvious that the authors have sorted through maya's extensive tool set and found what works ELEGANTLY. We are the beneficiaries.

It explains every tool and function. Most importantly it has "real world" tutorials to show how each tool fits into the modeling, animation, rendering, and effects workflow.

The offical maya manual explains functions well, but leaves you guessing as to when those functions can be actually used. I suppose that is part of the challenge of being a 3d artist, but if you're lazy like me and like to be held by the hand of professionals instead of wasting many hours/days experimenting, get this book. you'll cover ALOT of ground in very little time(compared to A/W's expensive maya encyclopedia).

I'm looking forward for the 3.5 Complete revision from the authors!

This book is like having a certified alias instructor right next to you! I literally created an animation--complete with particles--within an hour of reading this book. Unlike the manuals, that bog you down with "do this, do that" techniques; this book takes you by the hand and explains everything in a coherent manner; it gives you real-life examples, the way you would use it in a real-time project setting. Excellent, excellent book if you're a beginning to intermediate Maya user--it far exceeded my expectations; my only regret is not having found out about this book sooner. BUY IT, READ IT, USE IT!

Every time I read this book I gain an incredible amount of energy. It is unbelievable that someone I don't even know can translate his passion for life to me in a book. It is hard to put this book down. Books like this should be required in school because it unleash a human's desire to success in a positive way. You will discover all your inner potentials and wonder why you never knew it before. Yes, there is a better YOU to be discover and if you dream big (in a positive way). Someday. you will find success. This book will show you how to get there.

I first read this book when I borrowed it from a friend. Since that time, I have bought it for myself, as well as at least 5 of my friends! What I lvoe most of all about it is that you don't have to read it from beginning to end. You can skim the table of contents and find what you need! Just flip to the fear section, for example, and get over it! I am an actor and bring the book to my auditions sometimes. I think it's really great and I highly recommend it.

This book can help ANYONE achieve anything they ever desired, period. As an already sucessful person, I have dismissed the entire self-help industry as garbage appealing to those who have no inherent desire to be the creative force in their own lives. I picked up this book because the author, McWilliams shared my political ideology and I admired him greatly (unfortunately he is now dead). What I found in this book is rationality applied consistently throughout. The presentation of the material, and his selection of quotes simply boggle anyone's mind. The sucessful or unsucessful or not. "Do or do not. There is no Try." Its all so inherently obvious when you read this book! You are not in opposition to yourself, you've just got a mindblock! BUY THIS BOOK. It will fundamentally change ANYONE's life.

In this work, Peter Kreeft portrays a meeting of C.S. Lewis, John F. Kennedy and Aldous Huxley in the afterlife (all three died on November 22, l963). C.S. Lewis engages first Kennedy and then Huxley in a debate on the divinity of Christ. The conversation goes on for 114 pages with C.S. Lewis clearly making his points -- that Christ was either divine or a charlatan or insane. Lewis goes on to debunk any possibility of Christ being a charlatan or insane, ergo Christ is God. Kreeft has wonderful ideas and constructs nice logical proofs. However, I was expecting something deeper than an argument that could be summarized in two sentences.

My strongest criticism of this book is that it completely misses the point where the real-life Lewis's teachings overlap with those of the real-life Huxley: that the one true God is no respecter of persons and that God is equally accessible to all, regardless of culture, upbringing or background. Both men taught that all of mankind comes to God on equal footing; that no religion, culture or class of men has an advantage over the others. At one point in BETWEEN HEAVEN AND HELL, Kreeft's Lewis actually shoots down arguments that the real-life Lewis propounded.

I felt that Kreeft glossed over some of the greatest religious controversies faced by modern man. In doing so, Kreeft unwittingly undercut the points he was trying to make. I'm turning back to my studies of C.S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley. I strongly recommend Lewis's MERE CHRISTIANITY (upon which Kreeft based his Lewis arguments) and a collection of 28 essays by Huxley called HUXLEY AND GOD. By the way, Kreeft's Kennedy has very little to offer either intellectually or where matters of faith are concerned in this book.

One final note: the last page and a half of this book is stunning in its beauty and truth. Kreeft's epilogue is also worth reading.

John F. Kennedy, C. S. Lewis, and Aldous Huxley all died on November 22, 1963. What if they all met after death, somewhere between heaven and hell? That's the premise of this engaging and intriguing book by philosophy professor Peter Kreeft.

Written in the form of a Socratic dialogue, Kreeft's book casts Lewis as a Christian theist, Kennedy as a modern humanist and Huxley as an Eastern pantheist. The three interact and challenge one another's worldviews, examining and testing each other's beliefs to see what is true about life after death and the meaning of life.

This book is ideal to read with a few other friends, be they believers, skeptics or seekers. It will provide lively discussion and ample food for thought.

Between Heaven & Hell has a subtitle which reads, "A Dialog Somewhere Beyond Death with John F. Kennedy, C.S. Lewis & Aldous Huxley". Yes, this is a fictional trialog in "limbo" of the most important question in human history - Who is Jesus Christ? Many people are unaware that JFK, Lewis and Huxley all died within hours of each other on November 22, 1963. It seems the assassination of President Kennedy from either the grassy knoll or from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository somehow managed to overshadow the deaths of the other two men. Go figure!

Much of the fictional discussion between these three characters revolves around their own writings although Kreeft employs a bit of literary license for the sake of argument. The fact that Kreeft is a Catholic doesn't affect the content of this book since the argument is essentially Lewis' straight, or "mere" Christianity. The position of JFK is that of a humanistic Christian in the sense of emphasizing "horizontal" social activity rather than "vertical" religious experience...religion without revelation. Kennedy portrays his view of Christ as that of a man become god. Huxley doesn't get the air time that Lewis and JFK get, but his contribution is significant. He represents the eastern pantheist position and reinterprets Christianity as a form of the universal philosophy of pantheism. In this view, Jesus was one of the great sages of history along with Buddha, Socrates, Confucius, Mohammed and the rest. Employing the Socratic method of question and answer, Kreeft slowly but surely uses Lewis' arguments to refute the views of Jesus being a lunatic, liar or just a great moral teacher. Once this is done, He argues that Jesus was God in the flesh, just as He claimed to be. Approximately the last third of the book focuses on the reliability of the gospel accounts which record the claims of Christ.

I found this book to be a very enjoyable read, especially the Socratic method that Kreeft employs. Although I don't criticize Kreeft for making the most out of the historical situation, I'll just say that the only theological disagreement I had with this book was the immediate destiny of the three men being "limbo" which I'm sure is only used by Kreeft as a setting for the discussion. The argument from Lewis was very thought-provoking and required honesty with the end result being much clearer thinking concerning the person of Christ, not to mention his inescapable conclusions which were drawn. I found it very interesting how he would ask of the opposition very pointed, yet fair questions. I was glad to find that the rabbit trails were quickly discounted so the reader can follow the arguments more easily. Throughout the discussion, Kreeft continually reminds the reader that as Christians, we don't try to win arguments for ourselves (I use "argument" in the technical sense of presenting evidence in favor of one's position). It doesn't matter who wins or loses. Truth is what we all must submit to, not someone's ability to debate.We present evidence in favor of the truth and truth must win the battle.

Booz.Allen & Hamilton consultants John Harbison and Peter Pekar make a compelling case for the following:

(1) Strategic alliances have consistently produced a return on investment that is 50% more than the average on investment that the companies produce overall.

(2) There is a positive correlation between experience in alliances and return on investment per alliance. In other words, there is an experience curve that one needs to go through.

The ambitious goal of this book is captured by its title: provide leaders with a repeatable, pragmatic framework for alliance planning and implementation. Through this framework, the experience curve might be shortened.

The framework is based on the authors' consulting experiences as well as surveys of more than five hundred major corporations.

From a Board of Director perspective, alliances create value but how the investment community reacts to alliances will vary depending on the structure of the alliance and the industry within which the alliance is formed. Pages 85-86 offer a useful framework for Board members when questioning CEOs about alliance efforts.

Based on our own experiences in developing an alliance of international firms offering senior level career consulting services as ours, we think the book is a useful addition to your bookshelf.

But it is a dry, abstract book.

In relation to our own experience, we think the authors did not devote enough space to the unanticipated pleasant and unpleasant conceptual leaps that one must make in day-to-day alliance work. The term "transfer of technology" does not capture these unanticipated leaps.

For example, we had certain expectations about an alliance we formed in 1987.

These expectations materialized but only weakly.

On the other hand, the alliance created opportunities we had not planned for. These opportunities included leveraging our participating in the original alliance to yet another alliance that was even more fruitful. The alliance forced us to create new services and gained leverage in areas unrelated to the original alliance objectives.

We call these events happy surprises.

Both the happy surprises and the unhappy surprises are worthy of more mention.

They are one of the reasons to enter alliances.....and one of the reasons to be careful about them!

I have been following Harbison's and Pekar's work for over a decade. I have also attended their annual alliance conference in NYC sponsored by the conference board. For those not familiar with their work, they have completed 10 alliance studies covering the top 1,000 global companies as well as a recent study sponsored by the Association of Corporate Growth of the top small & medium size firms in the U.S. and Europe. Their work is the cutting edge. We have passed out copies to our executive core. I highly recommend this book which discusses just the tip of their work and is based on a number of their studies. To become more familiar with their thinking, I would suggest the reader also go to the web site "smartalliances.com" to read some of their latest Viewpoints on the subject. Simply, they are the leaders in this area. Being an executive in a major high tech firm that does mutiple alliances, I can state that no other consulting firm or academic institution has amassed such a wealth of information or experience on this important subject.

After reading "Smart Alliances", any business executive will have gained valuable insight into the fast growing world of strategic alliances. This book provides an easy to read yet detailed look at what makes an alliances work and what does not. The insights are reliable as they are drawn from current direct feedback from top executives of companies in the Fortune 500, the Business Week top 1,000 and more. The book explores the real opportunities and challenges that alliances create, explores various domestic and international case studies, and develops an eight-step road map for alliance success. It provides guidance for significant organizational challenges such as the management of alliance legal and governance issues and the challenge of institutionalizing alliance capabilities for repeatable success. This book stands alone as a road map to any company considering the development of strategic business initiatives with complementary organizations.

In 1980 less than 2% of revenues driven by the top 1,000 US firms came from alliances where as today (1997) more than 21 % of revenues are alliance driven. Through the strategic sharing of resources and risk, companies who develop successful alliances are clearly producing higher returns on earnings than those who are not.

'As you like it' is one of those Shakespearean plays that is considered 'great' by critics, but never really found true popular acclaim, perhaps due to the absence of charismatic characters (the romantic hero is particularly wet) or compelling dilemmas.

It shares many features with the great comedies - the notion of the forest as a magic or transformative space away from tyrannical society ('A Midsummer night's dream'); the theme of unrequited love and gender switching from 'Twelfth night'; the exiled Duke and his playful daughter from 'The Tempest'. But these comparisons only point to 'AYLI''s comparative failure (as a reading experience anyway) - it lacks the magical sense of play of the first; the yearning melancholy of the second; or the elegiac complexity of the third.

It starts off brilliantly with a first act dominated by tyrants: an heir who neglects his younger brother, and a Duke who resents the popularity of his exiled brother's daughter (Rosalind). there is an eccentric wrestling sequence in which a callow youth (Orlando) overthrows a giant. Then the good characters are exiled to Arden searching for relatives and loved ones.

Theoretically, this should be good fun, and you can see why post-modernist critics enjoy it, with its courtiers arriving to civilise the forest in the language of contemporary explorers, and the gender fluidity and role-play; but, in truth, plot is minimal, with tiresomely pedantic 'wit' to the fore, especially when the melancholy scholar-courtier Jacques and Fool Touchstone are around, with the latter's travesties of classical learning presumably hilarious if you're an expert on Theocritus and the like.

As an English pastoral, 'AYLI' doesn't approach Sidney's 'Arcadia' - maybe it soars on stage. (Latham's Arden edition is as frustrating as ever, with scholarly cavilling creating a stumbling read, and an introduction which characteristically neuters everything that makes Shakespeare so exciting and challenging)

Anyone with a working knowledge of Shakespeare's plays knows that As You Like It is a light, airy comedy. It is clearly not one of Shakespeare's greatest plays. As You Like It is more obscure than famous. Even amongst the comedies it comes nowhere close to the popularity of plays such as A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest, or Twelfth Night. That said, it is a treasure in its own right. This is so, if for nothing else, because it contains one of the greatest pictures of a woman to be found in Shakespeare's works, excluding the Sonnets.

Ah, sweet Rosalind. In her are encapsulated so many ideas about the nature of woman. She is first pictured in a rather faux-Petrarchan manner. This quickly fades as an intelligent woman comes to the fore. While the intelligence remains, she is also torn by the savage winds of romantic love. Rosalind, in all her complexity and self-contradiction, is a truly modern female character.

Most of the women in Shakespeare's tragedies and historical plays are either window dressing (as in Julius Caesar) or woefully one-sided (Ophelia, Lady Macbeth). This is not the case with Rosalind. Rather than being marginalized, she is the focus of a good chunk of the play. Instead of being static and [standard], she is a complex evolving character.

When Rosalind first appears, she outwardly looks much like any other lady of the court. She is a stunning beauty. She is much praised for her virtue. Both of these elements factor in the Duke's decision to banish or [do away with] her.

Rosalind falls in love immediately upon seeing Orlando. In this way she at first seems to back up a typically courtly idea of "love at first sight." Also, she initially seems quite unattainable to Orlando. These are echoes of Petrarchan notions that proclaim love to be a painful thing. This dynamic is stood on its head following her banishment.

Rosalind begins to question the certainty of Orlando's affection. She criticizes his doggerel when she finds it nailed to a tree. Rather than wilting like some medieval flower, she puts into effect a plan. She seeks to test the validity of her pretty-boy's love. In the guise of a boy herself, she questions the deceived Orlando about his love.

Yet Rosalind is not always so assured. Her steadfastness is not cut and dried. Composed in his presence, Rosalind melts the second Orlando goes away. She starts spouting romantic drivel worthy of Judith Krantz. Even her best friend Celia seems to tire of her love talk. This hesitating, yet consuming passion is thrown into stark relief with her crystal clear dealings with the unwanted advances of the shepherdess Phebe.

Rosalind contradicts herself in taking the side of Silvius in his pursuit of Phebe. She seeks to help Silvius win the love of Phebe because of his endearing constancy. Yet the whole reason she tests Orlando is the supposed inconstancy of men's affections.

This idea of Male inconstancy has made its way down to the present day. Men are seen, in many circles, as basically incapable of fidelity. Though a contradiction to her treatment of Silvius' cause, Rosalind's knowing subscription to pessimistic views on the constancy of a man's love places her on the same playing field as many modern women.

Rosalind takes charge of her own fate. Until and even during Shakespeare's own time women largely were at the mercy of the men around them. This is satirized in Rosalind's assuming the appearance of a man. Yet she had taken charge of her life even before taking on the dress and likeness of a man. She gives her token to Orlando. She decides to go to the Forest. She makes the choice of appearing like a man to ensure her safety and the safety of Celia.

Rosalind finally finds balance and happiness when she comes to love not as a test or game, but as an equal partnership. Shakespeare is clearly critiquing the contemporary notions of love in his day. His play also condemns society's underestimation and marginalization of women. However, the Bard's main point is more profound.

As You Like It makes it clear that the world is never picture perfect, even when there are fairy-tale endings. Men and women both fail. Love is the most important thing. With love all things are possible.

"As You Like It" is bar none, one of Shakespeare's VERY best works. It is probably the most poetic of the comedies and contains perhaps as many famous quotations as any other of his plays. Rosalind is perhaps his greatest female character and this work, along with the equally (or even more) brilliant "Midsummer Night's Dream," is the best example of Shakespeare's theme of the "dream world" vs. the "real" world. This play, especially the scenes in the forest, is a celebration of language and the power of the freedom of the imagination. It consequently can be read as a criticism of the "real world," here represented by Duke Ferdinand's court. Like many of the other comedies, Shakespeare is mocking the "ideal" which many in his society would have praised. Though this play deals with some pretty dark themes (which of his plays doesn't?) it is a light-hearted and fully enjoyable read!