Maybe it's because of all the renewed interest in Shakespeare suddenly, but suddenly I feel like making everybody I know (with a sense of humour) read this absolutely delightful book I must have read in high school! 40 years ago. I feel terrible when bookstores say they've never heard of him. How thrilling to know there are many Richard Armour fans like me out there! I remember so many gags still- especially from Macbeth. Also Ït all started with Eve"--Must get them someday!!

I first checked this book out of my high school library and read it in 1970. I loved the book then and still love it. It is a pity the book is out of print. Anyone who enjoys Shakespeare and who has a sense of humor cannot fail to treasure the wit and humor of this book. I am trying to find a copy of this book myself.

This book was hilarious! I read this right after reading MacBeth in my second year of high school. I could not stop laughing! Lucky for me, the school library was going to throw this book out, so I asked if I could have it. Four years later, I am still laughing. I highly recommend this book!

Dominic by William Steig
Reviewed by Julia

At first I thought Dominic was going to be a boring book about a dog. I also thought it was going to be sad. I thought that because on the cover it looked like a dog that had lost his way. However, when I read the first page about Dominic, the lead character, who wants to have fun and adventure, I thought this would be exciting to read. Every animal that Dominic meets along the way has a problem. The Doomsday Gang is the villains who try to ruin everyone's fun. While there are many main characters, the most important ones are Dominic, Barney Swain, and Bartholomew Badger. The first animal Dominic meets, the Alligator Witch, is a fortune teller who gives him a spear that will help him along the way. Next, Dominic meets Bartholomew Badger, a pig, who is rich, old, and ill. Dominic makes friends and takes care of him. Bartholomew Badger gives him all his riches when he dies. Dominic isn't sure if he wants all those riches since the Doomsday G ang keeps trying to steal them. Barney Swain has the biggest problem of them all. He is robbed by the Doomsday Gang of the money he was going to use for his wedding. Dominic gives him some of the riches and they become good friends. Dominic helps so many animals that don't have what he has. He was a one "dog" community service volunteer.

I love this book not only because it is exciting and has adventure, but also it is about friendship. My favorite part of the book is the ending. I won't tell everyone what happens but: Matilda Fox (who is a goose!) will never forget how brave Dominic is. Mwana Bhomba, the magician and elephant, can't remember how he got here from Africa. The way Dominic helps him is really funny. Anyone who likes animals and comedy should definitely read this book. As people can tell, these animals act like silly people. The author has a great imagination. This book is sad and a little scary but this is a great summer camp book.

Despite winning a Walt Whitman and being an ALA notable, I still feel that Dominic has been overlooked for the past twenty years. Whenever I see lists for suggested reading I rarely see Dominic included. I have a theory for this, but it may sound like a bunch of hogwash. It is well documented that the main cogs, levers and bearings in the English departments for the past 40 years at least have been women. No, I'm not getting ready to say something sexist. Dominic, I think, is a book for the male population, and it could easily have slipped through a female reviewer's hands with the opinion of "good, but not superior." Now, this is not to place blame anywhere, simply to suggest that perfectly natural forces were and are and always shall be at work. Dominic embodies a certain masculine spirit, one which is infused with honor, nobility and simple virtue, yet at the same time he is complex and curious, wondering what makes his world go around. The illustrations which Steig provides match Dominic completely: simple, yet revealing. Dominic is the story of a dog who feels the bite of adventure take hold one day, and he sub- sequently tacks a note on his door and runs off into the wide world (with his collection of mood hats). He goes through a series of archetypal adventures, has brushes with death in various forms, develops an honorable reputation, and in the end finds true love. The entire book is infused with a light humor. The language in the book interesting. There are large words here and there which challenge the reader, not letting him/her get by without discovering meaning in some way, whether by dictionary or context. The reader can't simply stop reading the book because the story is too good, so they must discover meaning. (deconstructionists please hush!) - Dave Leaton

I was amazed to read Dave Leaton's fascinating comments about Dominic being a book for the boys! As a child, this was my favourite book; I still have a beaten-up copy of it on my shelves at home, and I am most certainly a woman, nor was I a tomboy as a girl. It is an adventure story, for heavens' sake! And I do not feel that honour, (sorry, I'm English) nobility, virtue and complexity are peculiarly male traits. Aside from this, I enjoyed his review, which is accurate and interesting. I suspect that the reason this book hasn't received much attention of late is far more to do with the fact that thousands of children's books are published each year, and we are inclined to look more at what's new. Having said that, Dominic is a beautiful book - it's eventful, comic, very poignant too, and the charm of the book lies in Dominic's great eagerness to discover as much as the world can offer him. That curiosity appeals to boys and girls alike! - Sally Bigg

The Complete Works of Shakespeare edited by David Bevington

Bevington's edition of Shakespeare's plays is a popular choice, and not without good reason. But that doesn't make an ideal choice. The introduction to this one volume edition is ample with chapters on life in Shakespeare's England, the drama before Shakespeare, Shakespeare's life and work. These are good, but they tend to rely on older scholarship and they may not be current. For example Bevington repeats Hinman's claim that there were 1200 copies of the 1623 Folio printed. However later scholars think the number was quite a bit lower, around 750. It should be said that we don't know for sure how many copies of the 1623 folio were printed and either number could be correct.

Bevington's edition prints the plays by genre. We get a section of Comedies, Histories, Tragedies, Romances and the Poems. He puts "Troilus and Cressida" with the comedies, though we know the play was slated to appear with the tragedies in the 1623 folio. The play was never meant to appear with the comedies, and all the surviving Folios that have the play have it at the beginning of the tragedies.

Let's get down to brass tacks. You are not going to buy an edition of Shakespeare's works because of good introduction. You're going to buy one because the quality of the editing of the plays. Is it reliable? Is it accurate? For the most part this edition is reliable and accurate, but that does not mean it is accurate and reliable in every instance.

Modernized editions of Shakespeare's plays and poems are norm. Since the 18th century (and even before) editors of Shakespeare have modernized and regularized Shakespeare's plays and poems. There are good reasons for this modernization. There is the reader's ease of use and the correcting misprints and mislination. I have no problem with this regularization of spelling or punctuation. But when an editor goes beyond normalizing and modernizing--when an editor interferes with the text then I have a problem.

Let me give two examples of the editorial interference that I am writing about:

King Lear 2-1-14 (p. 1184)
Bevington has:
Edmund
The Duke be here tonight? The better! Best!
This weaves itself perforce into my business.

The Folio has:
Bast. The Duke be here to night? The better best,
This weaues it selfe perforce into my businesse,

Even allowences made for modernization of punctuation and grammar would not account for Bevington's "The better! Best." Bevington glosses this to mean "so much the better; in fact the best that could happen." Nice try, but "The better best" of the folio is a double comparative, (which is a regular feature of Early Modern English) and not two separate adjectival phrases. Interestingly, the Quarto printing of Lear prints this scene in prose, and there is no punctuation between "better" and "best" in that version either.

A few lines down Lear 2-1-19 Edmund continues
Bevington has:
Brother, a word. Descend. Brother, I say!
Enter Edgar

But Bevington has reversed the order. The Folio has:
Enter Edgar.
Brother, a word, discend; Brother I say,

Bevington does not say why he changed the order, though to be fair other modern editors have done the same thing.

These two changes just a few lines apart go beyond regularization or modernization. They interfere with the text as presented in the 1623 Folio. And Bevington does not explain the changes. So next time you pick up this or any other modernized edition you should ask yourself "am I really sure what I'm reading is what Shakespeare wrote?"

THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SHAKESPEARE. Updated Fourth Edition. Edited by David Bevington. 2000 pp. New York : Longman, 1997. ISBN 0-321-01254-2 (hbk.)

As complete Shakespeares go, the Bevington would seem have everything. Its book-length Introduction covers Life in Shakespeare's England; The Drama Before Shakespeare; London Theaters and Dramatic Companies; Shakespeare's Life and Work; Shakespeare's Language : His Development as Poet and Dramatist; Edition and Editors of Shakespeare; Shakespeare Criticism.

The texts follow in groups : Comedies; Histories; Tragedies; Romances (including 'The Two Noble Kinsmen'); Poems. Each play is given a separate Introduction adequate to the needs of a beginner, and the excellent and helpful brief notes at the bottom of each page, besides explaining individual words and lines, provide stage directions to help readers visualize the plays.

One extremely useful feature of the layout is that instead of being given the usual style of line numbering - 10, 20, 30, etc. - numbers occur _only_ at the end of lines which have been given footnotes - e.g., 9, 12, 16, 18, 32. Why no-one seems to have thought of doing this before I don't know, but it's a wonderful innovation that does away entirely with the tedious and time-wasting hassle of line counting, and the equally time-wasting frustration of searching through footnotes only to find that no note exists. If the line has a note you will know at once, and the notes are easy for the eye to locate as the keywords preceeding notes are in bold type.

The book - which is rounded out with three Appendices, a Royal Genealogy of England, Maps, Bibliography, Suggestions for Reading and Research, Textual Notes, Glossary of common words, and Index - also includes a 16-page section of striking color photographs.

The book is excellently printed in a semi-bold font that is exceptionally sharp, clear, and easy to read despite the show-through of its thin paper. It is a large heavy volume of full quarto size, stitched so that it opens flat, and bound, not with cloth, but with a soft decorative paper which wears out quickly at the edges and corners.

If it had been printed on a slightly better paper and bound in cloth, the Bevington would have been perfect. As it is, it's a fine piece of book-making nevertheless, and has been edited in such a way as to make the reading of Shakespeare as hassle-free and enjoyable an experience as possible. Strongly recommended for students and the general reader.

Last year for Christmas I asked my parents for some William Shakespeare's plays.Boy was I suprised!Not only does it have all of the plays,but also his Sonats,poems,and illistrations.Despite the fact that it's a large valuem and will need quite a bit off book space from you're self.You wont regret getting it.You will never need to get another book on William Shakespeare's plays and everything else ever again.It also has a list of dictonary for understanding the words better.

Gitanjali is a sweet collection of poems and songs from Nobel Prize winning poet Rabindranath Tagore. These are songs that touch on love, faith, truth, life in general. Tagore has written from the heart. The wisdom contained in these works is startling. This is Eastern poetry that is a wonder to behold. Tagore embraces the personal as well as the universal. He encourages his people to transcend. I refer to this book variably over the years. Its alluring beauty has not faded in any way.

"Gitanjali" is a collection of prose poems by Indian author Rabindranath Tagore. The Dover Thrift Edition contains an introductory note on the life of Tagore, who lived from 1861 to 1941. According to this note, Tagore, who wrote poetry in Bengali, translated "Gitanjali" himself into English. The Dover edition also contains a 1912 introduction by William Butler Yeats.

This English version of "Gitanjali" is a series of prose poems that reflect on the interrelationships among the poet/speaker, the deity, and the world. Although Tagore had a Hindu background, the spirituality of this book is generally expressed in universal terms; I could imagine a Christian, a Buddhist, a Muslim, or an adherent of another tradition finding much in this book that would resonate with him or her.

The language in this book is often very beautiful. The imagery includes flowers, bird songs, clouds, the sun, etc.; one line about "the riotous excess of the grass" reminded me of Walt Whitman. Tagore's language is sensuous and sometimes embraces paradox. Like Whitman and Emily Dickinson, he sometimes seems to be resisting traditional religion and prophetically looking towards a new spirituality.

A sample of Tagore's style: "I surely know the hundred petals of a lotus will not remain closed for ever and the secret recess of its honey will be bared" (from section #98). As companion texts for this mystical volume I would recommend Jack Kerouac's "The Scripture of the Golden Eternity" and Juan Mascaro's translation of the Dhammapada.

The word and the deed were never far from each other in Tagore's life and not surprisingly he advocated the Universal Man. He was a polymath: a poet, fiction writer, dramatist, painter, educator, political thinker, philosopher of science. He was also a genius in music, choreography, architecture, social service and statesmanship. Over six decades Tagore gave the world some 2,500 songs, more than 2,000 paintings and drawings, 28 volumes of poetry, drama, opera, short stories, novels, essays and diaries and a vast number of letters.

I would enthusiatically recommend this book by my favorite author. Like the Psalms of David, Gitanjali is a soothing balm to the spirit. I read this entire book in less than two hours and has been my long-trip travel companion ever since. The introduction to the book by W. B. Yeats is magical and all the poems in this book transcend your imagination. The variety and quality of the poems are unbelievable!

Laura was a nine year old girl who had dark brown hair and eyes. She lived in the prairie of Minnesota with Ma, Pa, Mary, Carrie and her pet bulldog,Jack. Laura's family worked very hard in their everyday life. Pa would tend the garden,Ma would do the house work,and Mary and Laura would help after they came from school. Sometimes storms struck the prairie and it was devastating. The author,Laura Ingalls Wilder, wanted to let people know about pioneer times. On the Banks of Plum Creek is a very well written book,it made me feel as if I was part of the story.

Laura and her family have moved to a small farm near Walnut Grove in Minnesota. They will have to adapt to Minnesota, the sod house, and a lot more. Laura Ingalls is a seven year old girl who loves to explore the creek, and is daddies little angel. Laura lives with her Ma, Pa , her two sisters Marry and Carrie, and their loyal companion and bulldog Jack. Pa goes out to get lumber and builds a beautiful new house with windows and he farms wheat to earn money. One day Pa said that in a couple weeks the wheat would soon be ready to pick. Then they see this peculiar sparkling cloud that filled the sky. Shortly after countless numbers of grasshoppers cover the field, the creek, and the rest of the farm, including Laura and her family. The grasshoppers consumed every plant including the wheat that Pa worked so hard to grow.
Mary and Laura start to go to school and on their first day they met many friends and some foes. one of their rivals was named Nellie who had a party and invited all the girls from school. Nellie was very rude and very cruel to Mary and Laura. Laura decided to have a party as well, and invited all the girls from school. Laura invites Nellie particulary to get back at her, and boy did she do a clever and a funny prank on Nellie. Then the Ingalls experienced blizzards, storms, and prairie fires which were very devastating. After all the work the family put into the farm and the wheat, their work finally payed off.
This book had lots of surprising, unpredictable, and very exciting events. If I could rate this book on a scale of one through ten, I would give this book a ten. Once I started to read this book I couldn't put it down, because I was so hooked on it. This book is fantastic and is great for every age, and great for every age, and should be enjoyed by everyone. If your looking for a great book that will excite, delight, suprise, and grasp your attention, On the Banks of Plum Creek is just the book your looking for.

On the Banks of Plum Creek is a really good book. Laura is seven like me. Her big sister Mary is eight. The little sister Carrie is two. They moved to the banks of Plum Creek and built a house. There was a town three miles away so they got to go to school. They had lots of fun in the water. You should read this book.

I've never had the experience of meeting a person like Horse Badorties. Coming form a culture like mine.. I read almost half of the book to get an idea of what's going on, I read all the reviews too. I enjoyed reading it. And what amazed me most is Kotzwinkle's ability to register all this confusion in a person's mind. I thought it funny, interesting, new to me.. the confusion puzzled me

I first read this book when I was about nine or ten. My mom and older sisters had already dog-eared our copy and finally saw fit to pass it down to me. I read it, laughed uproarously, and wasn't aware of 90% of the culture, drug, or sexual references in the book. I still found it funny enough to read repeatedly throughout middle adn high school, and throughout college and graduate. Of course, as I got older, I understood more and more and found The Fan Man to be as sad as it was funny.

Horse Badorties is a loser who knows he's a loser and this makes his life that much more poignant, hilarious, and pathetic. He's on the fast track going nowhere and intends to enjoy every moment of it. He's the burnout hippie who hasn't escaped his languishing identity; he's capable of great things, but never follows through. He's a skilled musician, a magnetic group leader, and a charismatic con artist, yet never takes himself seriously enough to achieve the bliss he's looking for -- until he gives up his main ambition to watch the sunset over the Hudson River.

Like the sunset, his contentment is also short lived and leads inevitably to his perpetual dark dissatisfaction with everything he does (with the exception of his girl's choir). Yet I still find myself laughing at him and with him. Every time I read this book.

This is one of the greatest books ever written. Every word, line, page, image hits true. I read it back when it first came out & have since given away a couple dozen copies. Like so many others in this thread when I reread it I am hit anew by the force of its humor & pure writing. Horse Badorties LIVES, MAN!!! He is a TRUE ORIGINAL right up there with Huck & Ahab (& you & me, man). Wow!!

Cancer Ward is often overshadowed by its predecessor, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, and its successor, the immense memoir, The Gulag Archipelago. While the worldly impact of those two works is perhaps greater, the aesthetic power of Cancer Ward is stronger than both of those works. The story is poignant and powerful, reaching out and probing deeply into the essential questions that are never answered by not only Soviet society, but western culture as a whole. The religious message that emerges is stunning and unique, recalling the works of Dostoyevsky. Overall, this is an excellent book, and any reader who enjoyed One Day or Gulag will be blown away by this work.

Having read a good bit of Solzhenitsyn's books, I can safely say that this is the pinnacle of his work. It simultaneously examines how people cope with the loss of freedom (to the Soviet state and the cancer ward), with the death that surrounds them, and with their own mortality. Through the whole work, too, through death and triumph over disease, runs Solzhenitsyn's recurring theme of the survival and growth of the human spirit under terrible conditions, seen as the main character and those around him realize former errors and deficiencies of character and seek to redeem themselves by doing good for others. I would highly recommend this book to all readers of Solzhenitsyn and, really, anyone.

Having just finished reading it for the third time, I believe that Cancer Ward is a very fine novel, rich at many levels: in its depiction of Soviet provincial society in 1955, a poor society just emerging from Stalinism; in its portrayal of many separate characters (doctors, nurses, patients, hospital workers) in that society, many of whose lives have been permanently damaged by the terror and the GULAG, but in different ways; and, as I know from personal experience, in its depiction of the isolated world of the cancer patient, from which the rest of society is seen dimly, as though through dirty glass. In spite of all medical progress, the basics of this world have not changed much in 50 years: the core treatments are still surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, and the side effects both long and short term can still be brutal.

The ending of the book will disappoint those who want a happy ending, or just an ending with all the loose ends tied up. In real life, though, loose ends usually stay loose. My thought is that Solzhenitshyn intended the reader to understand that for the characters and the society who are so damaged by the past there can be no happy endings; the best they can hope for is to continue from day to day, grasping at whatever happiness briefly comes their way.

I thought I knew my American history reasonably well until Henry Mayer taught me how much I had missed. Garrison certainly was far more than the hot-headed crusader on the nut fringe I read about in one text after another. But this book also is more than a correction of an historial footnote; Mayer breathes life into the moral arguments about slavery before the Civil War and weaves America's history from the signing of the Constitution to the passage of the 14th Amendment into a colorful, lively tapestry. This is biography raised to its finest form.

I read a great number of biographies that deal with American history, and this is simply one of the finest works I have ever read. In terms of scope and ambition and writing style, I compare ALL ON FIRE with Robert Caro's THE POWER BROKER. Henry Mayer should come to be known as one of America's finest living biographers. In addition to being the definitive biography of William Lloyd Garrison, this is also a brilliant retelling of nineteenth-century American history as seen through the eyes of its greatest Abolitionist leader. This is social and intellectual history at its finest, for Mayer uses Garrison as a focal point to tell the story of the political leaders, writers, agitators, and early women's rights advocates whose lives were affected by the fight to abolish slavery. I realize that this book will take you a good chunk of time, but it is worth every minute. ALL ON FIRE becomes an absorbing, tragic tale, yes, an epic, with all events leading to the carnage of the Civil War and the emancipation of the slaves. Once you have finished this book, you will put Garrison before Lincoln as the one person most responsible for setting free the slaves. It's hard to imagine a time in American history when people were so socially and politically responsible (read the section where 10,000 people encircle a Boston prison to protest the removal of an escaped slave back to South Carolina, for example). There is a great tradition in America of social protest. This book is really a colossal achievement that harkens back to an age when people and ideas still mattered.

I cannot recommend it highly enough. A rich read about a great American hero for all times. Mayer obviously loves and admires Garrison, but this did not keep him from portraying this hero with his blemishes as well as strengths. The most startling thing about this great read is just how important Garrison was to America's most tumultuous time --- the abolitionist of all abolitionists, a leader who appreciated how deep religious beliefs and moral politics go together, who believed in the power of the written and spoken word, who helped perhaps as much as anyone in our history to move our nation and free it of slavery. Truly a companion biography to go with the best biographies of Lincoln --- no understanding of the Civil War can be complete without knowing about Garrison, and this is definitely the way to know about Garrison. To say it simply: no one can claim to be a Civil War buff without knowing about Garrison, and no one can know about Garrison any better way than by reading this book. Highest kudoes to Mayer!

This is one encyclopedia that is actually fun to read and browse. I fully join in the earlier reviewers' praise for this book. I do, however, have a couple of constructive criticisms. First, much too much space is devoted to non-literary historical and political figures and events. Hopefully, the next edition will cut down on this stuff, so that more "minor" writers can be included, especially contemporary writers and writers from the non-English speaking world. (In this respect, the Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature is probably a more comprehensive reference.) Second, too many entries about particular works are merely brief plot summaries that do not convey to the uneducated reader (such as this one) the essential meaning or significance of the work in question. That said, Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia is one great reference book to have around.

A handy reference work for scholars, literature students, readers and booksellers, the headings include authors, titles, literary terms, fictional protagonists, historical personages, and so forth. This is one to keep at arm's reach, right there next to the dictionary.

A quick & ready reference for unfamiliar terms encountered during literary jaunts and journeys, and a great aid for booksellers needing some accurate background information to list a literary find online! One wishes the numerous online booksellers just entering the fray would purchase a copy, and familiarize themselves just a little with the world of books and literature of which they have become purveyors! - I've seen listings that betray the seller's ignorance of the difference between Winston Churchill the British statesman (& prime minister), and Winston Churchill the American novelist! A quick check of this easy reference work would have made the difference between accuracy and diletantism!

Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia is the most complete one-volume encyclopedia based on literature. Its entries are numerous and cover a vast variety of topics, from 'portmanteau words' to 'The Inferno.' I highly recommend this book to everyone who has an interest in literature or who need some extra help in that subject to get by.

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.

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.

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!