Prayers Written At Vailima is a gem. These simple, yet beautifully expressed thoughts was over you like a refreshing shower. They calm the soul and put you in a quiet place of reflection. True spirituality glows in these lovely invocations. In addition this volume is elegantly produced and adds visual and tactile pleasure to the pleasure of the reading.

This edition of Stevenson's Prayers Written at Vailima is simple, elegant and beautiful. Although Stevenson wrote these Prayers in another place and another time, his words are still relevant to us today. He prays for many of the same things we wish and hope for: friends, family, success and strength. I recommend this book to people of all religions (and even those who are not religious at all). Stevenson expresses his emotions and desires with such clarity and spirit that any reader might identify with and enjoy this remarkable book.

Prayers Written At Vailima is a collection of the daily prayers written by the famous English novelist Robert Louis Stevenson for his family and their Samoan neighbors during his time in the south seas. Also included is an introduction by his wife about their life on the island of Samoa and twenty-one original linoleum-cut illustrations designed with a Polynesian feel buy Catherine Kanner. For Friends: For our absent loved ones we implore thy/loving-kindness. Keep them in life, keep them/in growing honour; and for us, grant that we/remain worthy of their love. For Christ's sake, let/not our beloved blush for us, nor we for them./Grant us but that, and grant us courage to/endure lesser ills unshaken, and to accept death,/loss, and disappointment as it were straws upon/the tide of life.

The essays in this book are consistently interesting and thoroughly researched. The writers are some of the finest active historians of the American South. I particularly recommend Robert Paquette's article on slave drivers and Eugene Genovese's interview in Appendix A. I also liked Clyde Wilson's analysis of John C. Calhoun's economic thought. Calhoun's dual executive theory may have been off the mark but his economic thinking was first-rate and profoundly republican.

Twelve scholars provide essays debating the cause of Civil War history and the relationships between slavery and master-slave relationships in the South in a title which revises and challenges central themes of Eugene Genovese's work on the subject. The result is Slavery, Secession, and Southern History, a new analysis and interpretation of Southern history recommended for any student of the era.

If you are intrested in Slavery, Secession, and Southern History as am, this book is perfect fo you. Edited by the brillant Professor of Economics Louis Ferleger, this book is a collection of articles that discuss diffrent parts of th 19th century south. I think it is a great book every history buff should own, no collection is complete without it.

My review title sums up the overall flavor of the book, that being a "black comedy," but the humor is the result of Stevenson's uncanny ability to weave ever changing plot twists into the overall story itself without ever losing a sense of continuity.

Joseph Finsbury is a character whose heart may be in the right place but his head never is. Constantly preoccupied with trivial intellectual pursuits, he allows his leather business to go heavily into debt to the brink of ruin. Having raised his two nephews, John and Morris, since the death of their father, the news of the loss of their fortune to Joseph Finsbury's malfeasance lays the ground work for all that is to come.

Morris, who is shrewd and extremely self-centered, is given the ailing leather business as consolation. But Morris counts on Joseph winning the tontine to make him whole. A tontine is a scheme where participants pay an equal amount of money into a kitty and the last one living gets it all.

The three are involved in a train wreck and the assumed body of Joseph Fisbury is found by Morris and John who hatch a plan to first hide the body and then ship it back to their home in Bloomsbury, London, where they will pretend Joseph is still alive; which he needs to be to keep their claim to the tontine intact. It is during shipment that its' destination is changed as a sort of practical joke and mayhem ensues shortly thereafter.

The bulk of the story essentially has people coming home and finding a dead man in their house whom they've never seen before, dead or alive, and who definitely wasn't there when they left. The problem then is obvious; What to do with the body? It is here that Stevenson is ulra-creative with the solutions these poor unfortunate souls come up with long before Bernie ever had two losers over for the weekend.

I found myself laughing several times throughout the book, which is only about 150 pages of text, and always eager to pick it up again to see where poor "Joseph" would end up next and who would get him. This is one of Stevenson's less familiar works but also one of his best. Buy it, read it, tell a friend. You'll be glad you did and so will they.

We don't usually think of RLS as a comic writer, but a story-teller ofswashbuckling romances like Kidnapped and Treasure Island. ButThe Wrong Box is comedy in the grand manner: eccentric characters,a wonderfully convoluted plot, settings that range from railway trainwrecks through moldering houseboats, barrels, boxes, and a grand pianothat have bodies in them (actually, the same body), plus a charming romance. It also contains some of Stevenson's finest descriptive writing -- vivid,dramatic, and funny. Miss Haseltine's description of how she will firethe revolver she bought as self-protection is worth the price of the book.Who can forget a novel in which the young solictor Gideon Forsyth is trying to write an opera in the key of seven sharps called "Orange Pekoe-- Orange Pekoe" while hiding on a houseboat?But no more spoilers, if that was a spoiler. If you read or saw "ColdComfort Farm" by Stella Gibbons -- or even if not -- you'll love "The Wrong Box."Very highly recommended.

[submitted on behalf of G. Franco Mattioli, Milan]

If you have some heart problems, it is better to avoid this book. You might have the same reactions that Rudyard Kipling had on this reading: laugh and fast heart-beating.

Practically it is impossible to touch this subject without been absorbed through the mirror as Alice and in the same time to be happy to be different. Morris Finsbury, the "great Vance", uncle Joseph, Miss Hazeltine, Gideon, the uncle "Wooden Spoon", William Dent, Bloomsbury, Victoria Station, are surely coincidental with your world, parents, neighbors, your TV characters and other people you know. Never a virtual Country (this 18th Century England) was so similar to the Country in which you are leaving now.

But this vivid Victorian picture is penetrating in your mind as ever before.

The other problem you will encounter is that of ever putting this very addicting book down. You will read and read it again to search the hidden treasure left in this Island on which only few elected spirits are claimed to wreck being happy of doing it.

I stumbled upon the short stories of Stevenson kind of by accident, and what a happy accident that was! I can now say that Stevenson wrote both some of my favorite novels and some of my favorite short stories. I haven't gotten around to reading all of his stories yet, but I have loved those that I have read. I can't possibly describe how much I enjoyed Markheim, which is without a doubt my favorite short story of all time. Despite my rather limited reading of Stevenson's short stories, I would not hesitate to recommend them to anyone.

There is nothing so exciting as a Stevenson novel--Kidnapped, Master of Ballantrae, Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde--who can forget them once you've read them? These short stories have the same ability draw you in. The reading is effortless, and Stevenson's backgrounds don't labor with a conscious attempt at reality. They exist for the story and are as true as need be, and not more. From the South Sea to a Medieval City, the variety is pleasing and keeps you reading. Some of the best stories are "The Bottle Imp" (I doubt if a better twist on King Midas has ever been written), "Sire De Maltroit's Door" (A surprisingly good romance than manages, somehow, to skip all the usual elements) and "The Suicide Club" (not half as grim as it sounds, and showing RLS's ability to penetrate human thought).

These stories are highly recommended and aren't something to be read when you are all out of the "good" standard Stevenson--they stand as some of his best works and should be read just for the pure fun of it.

EAST OF THE ARCH is the third installment in the Joe Keough detective series from master story teller Robert J Randisi. Considering moving on in his career, Joe's mind is changed when he is loaned out by his boss, the mayor of St. Louis, to investigate a serial killing spree that is occuring there. Keough has assigned to him a "task force" consisting of a young Mark Twain quoting dective, Marc Jeter( who I would like to see teamed up with Keough again) and their "girl Friday" Jenny Sykes. The three begin the investigation of a serial killer who is killing pregnant women. Also showing up from Joe's past is Valerie Speck and the boy Brady who were involve in Keough's first case in St. Louis and the IA detectives Mason & Gail who are still out to get Keough any way they can. Add a seperate murder to the mix and once again Randisi weaves a first rate mystery. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND EAST OF THE ARCH and hope there are many more Randisi Joe Keough books coming out.

Detective Joe Keough is a St. Louis Detective who is the mayor's "top cop" which means he is little more than a bodyguard. He misses working in the field. Joe is actually thinking of leaving and moving on to someplace where he can do some actual police work when the mayor of East St. Louis in Illinois asks the mayor of St. Louis to loan him a police officer who has had experience in apprehending serial killers.

Joe is the logical choice and he jumps at the chance to find out who is killing pregnant women and ripping out their fetuses. When Joe sets up his new office there are two such killings and he knows it is only a matter of time before there is a third. He is paired off with police officer Marc Jeeter, an idealistic man who badly wants catch this maniac and put him and put him in a cage but that won't be an easy take because there are political forces at work with a different agenda.

Robert J. Randisi is an author who knows how to write an excellent police procedural. He shows a step-by-step investigation in progress and the reader gets so caught up in it that he can't put the book down until he learns how it all turns out. Part of the book is told by the viewpoint of the villain. This is exciting and horrifying at the same time. EAST OF THE ARCH is a fantastic installment in this long running series.

Harriet Klausner

Fanny Stevenson was a strong woman but deeply affected by the attitudes of her day. What a strength she had though. Love this book, any woman would appreicate her story, very well written.

it is ashame that this book left store shelves so quickly and has become so hard to find. it is one of those rare gems of biography, seemlessly weaving facts and writings and the many stories of a life into a work with a novel-like quality. the work gracefully unfolds the tale of a powerful, courageous woman. fanny stevenson was a woman ahead of her time and she was of her time. she traveled alone across our continent and to europe at a time when women traveled with companions at the very least. she m

if you are moody, cause winter is around, then you have to read this book, you will feel the sun, ocean breez, friendly people, more than your expactation. even I only have chance to read in Chinese version, but I can feel so touching and travel with the writter at same time, such as flying through storm and leave my heart on those beautiful south pacific Island. so, please sit tight, relax, and go......

Thanks for Gavin Bell for introducing me to Robert L. Stevenson. This book is so fasinacting. Everytime I read this book, I feel like I am surrounding by the ocean, palm trees, moonlight, friendly people...How much I wish I could be there. I don't have money to go there but Mr. Bell satisfies my dream. Now I start to get into Robert L. Stevenson. I have recently read a book about Fanny Stevenson, she is such an incredible woman. Now I am reading In Search of Tusitala in Chinese, I have been looking the English version and I have not found it yet. I hope it will be reprinted soon. If you have not read this book, you are missing a lot.

If you read only one "South Seas" book from the 1920s back, this should be the one. This Penguin issue corrects a number of inaccuracies from previous editions, including Stevenson's own error in their departure date (!) It is the classic travel and observation book of the Pacific. The early descriptions of the Marquesas are unmatched, as are the accounts of the several islands they visited in Kiribati (Gilbert Islands). The account of Tem Binoka will give you a real eye opening into an absolute ruler and his ways in the late 19th century. Reading this could start a life long interest in Pacific literature.

In his book, In the South Seas, Stevenson gives an accurate and in depth look into the people and culture of the islands of the South Pacific. The book describes Stevenson's two year journey from the Marqueses Islands, to Tahiti, then Honolulu ,and finally Somoa. Stevenson uses the great adventures he experienced and his masterfully writing skills to paint a breath taking view of the islands and thier many beauties.

Awesome book that helped me pass

Anyone not familiar with James Haining, is missing out. Salt Lick was wonderful and unique. A treasure!