In light of recent documentary discoveries in a number of European archives, I had high hopes that this volume would further the body of research into the Rosicrucian movement. Ultimately, it did, but in ways I did not anticipate.

There are some essential works here (Joscelyn Godwin's excellent meditation on Michael Maier and Rafael T. Prinke's article on Michael Sendivogius immediately spring to mind: both of which demonstrate the varities of meaning Rosicrucianism took on to those who sought to perpetuate the movement in different contexts) but also much filler. Too many of the contributions collected in this volume re-state a body of knowledge familiar to all students of the subject. Due to the original format of these contributions (i.e., speeches) this knowledge is -understandably- not communicated in a particularly useful fashion.

Having said that, this volume is worth its price of entry. However the content is certainly a mixed bag.
Lastly, the translations of the Rosicrucian manifestos contained in this volume are those of Thomas Vaughan's mid 17th century edition of the Fama and Confessio .

Before the 'New Age' there was the "Rosicrucian Enlightenment". At the beginning of the 17th century, a new awakening was heralded throughout Europe, announcing the universal reform of all known areas of human activity - religion, science, art, and society were to become one being. The chief proponents of this great awakening were the mysterious "Rosicrucians". Nearly 400 years after the first seeds of this movement were planted, over 100 students, authors, and scholars of traditional Western esotericism, of which Rosicrucianism is the foremost exponent, gathered in the medieval town of Czesky Krumolv in the Czech Republic, to discuss, explore, and in someway, reopen the 'Vault of Christian Rosencreutz' once again.

"The Rosicrucian Enlightenment Revisited" contains nine essays on the early Rosicrucian movement presented at this landmark conference sponsored in part by The New York Open Center, and copies of the first two Rosicrucian Manifestoes, the "Fama" and the "Confessio". It is a great read and ideal for anyone interested in what is truly the heart and soul of Western esotericism - the Rosicrucian Enlightenment.

I just can't think of anything. This book is part of his collection of short stories 'No Comebacks', and follows Mr Sam Nutley, a mild mannered fellow if ever there was one, as he veers from the straight and narrow for the first time in his life. How does he get out from this 'intolerable and unthinkable' situation? The only thing that annoyed me was how he wanted his determinedly middle class, middle of the road, downtrodden life to continue as it was, but we are at least given some insight into this at the end. Classic Forsyth.

A GUIDE TO THE HAUNTED QUEEN MARY has a wealth of information on a single haunted site. Authors Robert Wlodarski, Anne Nathan-Wlodarski, and Richard Senate are active psychic researchers who have heavily studied this aspect of the ship and relay a lot of intriguing information; however, produced by small publishing house, this book's presentation is rather crude.

This 1995 edition provides a brief history of the QUEEN MARY, including incidents that occurred aboard many believe led to some of its hauntings; primary accounts by people who witnessed its phenomena; the transcript of a séance; photos; and diagrams and sketches to illustrate some of its accounts. This book also has appendixes listing references, selected ghost movies, and "what to do if you see a ghost."

At the ship's pool side, "a young, attractive woman in a miniskirt, is sometimes viewed walking down the stairs leading to the pool, and then vanishing behind a pillar." One employee claims to feel cold spots in the kitchen where there are no drafts or ventilation and another sees a plate fly across the cafeteria. While stopping in the captain's cabin, one tour guest starts feeling seasick--as if the ship is at sea--a sensation that passes as soon as she leaves the room.

Hauntings of major traveling vessels are fairly common. Long voyages and major journeys are frequently stressful to travelers and strong emotions are usually what brings the dead back. Another ship, also permanently docked (but in the docks of the San Francisco Bay Area), where ghosts have been sighted is the USS HORNET. When Flight 401 crashed killing 101 people, Eastern Airlines salvaged undamaged parts of the plane as is the custom in the industry. Apparently, some of the crew's spirits embedded on those parts later reused and have alerted their living counterparts to dangers that helped them save lives.

The number of uncanny encounters on the QUEEN MARY are almost expected when one considers its long years of passenger service were also interrupted for military use during World War II. It transported many enemy POWs during the conflict. Water also affects psychic energy. Learning of the cases in detail is compelling for anyone intrigued by the subject.

The worst criticism this reviewer can make against this book is its poor graphic design and the way it organizes its text. While some publishing traditions become obsolete with modern technology, there are some conventions that confuse the conveying of information when violated. For instance, serif typefaces are more comfortable for long-term reading and recto pages should have odd page numbers. Author biographies and selling info for other books the house sells are usually found at the back of the volume so they don't break the flow of content in the front.

Although this volume is slim, a table of contents would be helpful. It also tends to awkwardly parcel its data. Instead of reporting a fatal incident and all the phenomena that related to it in one place, it separates and classifies the tidbits by on-board deaths and "identified" spirits, verbatim primary accounts from visitors on the ship, then the employee accounts. Although this collection of facts come from different primary sources, sometimes it's a bit repetitive and disorientating bouncing back and forth between the different cases.

For anyone interested in a intensive study on the hauntings aboard the QUEEN MARY, overlook this book's clumsy presentation. A GUIDE TO THE HAUNTED QUEEN MARY is otherwise a fine, in-depth study of a magnificent historical monument's paranormal activity.

An effective way to get obtain better fluency with Italian. The readings are nicely guided, with a key to all the answers to the exercises, which makes this book a great candidate for those wanting to do self-study. The readings themselves also provide fascinating insight into Italian culture.

Ghosts, goblins, specters, and apparitions have always fascinated. Now, for those who might enjoy bedding down by a phantom or supping with a spook here is a guide to many of the South's supposedly haunted spots. Which state leads in the number of addresses for the adventuresome? Why, Texas, of course! San Antonio's Alamo Street Restaurant, which was the Alamo Methodist Church until 1976, has a dining area and kitchen on the first floor while the second floor is home to live theater, concerts, and weddings. That's not all its home to - the owners boast "friendly spirits" who make their presence known by moving dishes around, pushing cooks into the refrigerator, and turning lights on and off. Does the staff mind? Not at all. Every once in a while a waiter will holler, "Now you just stop that!" Spring, Texas, a bit North of Houston, also has its share of unexplainable happenings at the Wunsche Bros. Café & Saloon. This two-story turn-of-the-century building has been turned into a country style eatery. Evidently, Charlie Wunsche, a former owner, likes the arrangement because it is said that he visits frequently - making ghostly appearances in linen closets and wandering the second floor. Austin's Driskill Hotel not only has registered guests but registered ghosts. Colonel Jesse Driskill, the builder makes his presence known by smoking cigars in guests' room and playing with their bathroom lights. Mrs. Bridges, a former employee, returns to the front desk near the witching hour clothed in a Victorian dress. Regrettably, not all of these spirits are affable as some current guests have complained about being awakened in the middle of the night "to the sensation of someone pushing them out of bed." Waxahachie, South of Dallas, also reports eerie events perpetrated by a trio at the Catfish Plantation Restaurant. It seems that when the house that now contains the restaurant was built in 1895 the owner had a daughter, Elizabeth. According to reports, she was throttled in the house on her wedding day by either or lover or groom. A second woman died in the house in 1970, and a third ghostly visitor is "believed to be a farmer named Will, who lived in the house during the Depression and died in the 1930s." Management, guests, journalists and psychics give the threesome credit for flying coffee cups, refrigerator doors opening and closing, and coffee brewed by non-human hands. The Country Spirit, a two story restaurant in Boerne, serves spirits and hosts a few, too. Evidently, these phantoms like to party as the beer spigot has been known to operate at the touch of unseen hands, and laughter has been heard coming from downstairs when it is unoccupied. Add to this list the LaBorde House Inn in Port Aransas which has a few invisible guests, the Grey Moss Inn near Helotes which has mathematically inclined specters who operate the adding machine, and Houston's La Carafe with exploding glasses and a painting that flew off the wall. According to Southern Fried Spirits, Texas has a surplus of the supernatural!

A friend and I planned a trip to Houston around this book. The whole weekend was devoted to haunted places--so why eat in a regular, non-haunted restaurant? You get a nice history of the building and its previous uses (if any), the folks who used it while in the flesh, and those (in spirit) who are purported to inhabit it now.

If you enjoy this kind of thing (and I do), use this very handy book to add some interest and variety to a trip or just find new ''haunts'' in your own city. Most haunted places are also historic or older buildings, so you get an extra treat in seeing some unique architecture. So even if haunted isn't your thing, but historic is, this is a great book.

Be sure to call first to verify hours and if the building is still standing. Unfortunately, one highly haunted tavern in Houston was bulldozed to make room for a modern bookstore. When traveling to any city in Texas, I will always consult this book for unique and special places to enjoy food or a beer.

As much as I love to read, I wasn't very convinced about this book when my dad picked it out. But I can now say it's one of the best books I have ever read. It's sad yet honest, beautifully written. I recommend this book highly.

"Headlong" is a very entertaining sort of novel that revolves around a wonderful plot device: a man finds, in his boorish neighbor's house, a neglected painting be believes may be a lost Bruegel. The rest of the novel revolves around his plot to confirm the painting's identity and to steal it from the undeserving neighbor. Frayn does a remarkably good job of showing how protagonist Clay, while neglecting his own philosophical scholarship, engages in his quest to confirm the painting's authenticity, and the history and art history are mixed in fast and furiously. The novel becomes one of those intellectual mysteries in which the clues are scholarly details, and this material is handled remarkably well, and I learned a great deal about Dutch political and aesthetic history. This aspect of the story, however, is hung on a less effectively executed plot to free the painting from its undeserving owner. If the book drags at times it is not because it gets bogged down in history, it is because it doesn't bog itself down sufficiently in the present. I would have liked to have seen the characters fleshed out a bit more, motives made clearer, and the emotional investments of the characters made more real. Ultimately, however, "Headlong" is an effective and engaging read.

Half of this novel is hilarious; the rest of it is quite serious. It's a strange, schizophrenic combination, that concerns a picture that Martin Clay sees in his country neighbor's home. The neighbor thinks it is junk, but Martin thinks he has found a work by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. If he can correctly discover its provenance he hopes to buy the painting for a pittance, and then resell it for a small fortune.

Martin's subsequent adventures with the rather uncouth neighbor, his flirtatious wife, and the London art world are hectic, bizarre, and above all quite funny. Now comes the qualification. About half of the book's text is taken up with Martin's library research concerning Bruegel, his paintings, and late 16th century Netherlands history. Now I am interested in both art history, and medieval history so I was quite intrigued by all of this. But if you are not of a similar mind, you might object to several antic escapades being interrupted for another lesson in the history of Bruegel's paintings. If you don't like art lessons can you skip through the pedantic parts? Well, I don't know. If you don't like boxing can you skip the fight scenes in Rocky?

I'm rating it four stars, because I liked both components of the book. You'll have to decide for yourself if you are in the mood for Art History 101.

This is the first book by Michael Frayen I've ever read and I'm really impressed. The novel is a page-turner: the comical part of the plot is rather unobtrusive, it includes genuine pearls of humorous characteristics and funny remarks; the part depicting life and time of the great Flemish artist Peter Bruegel is excellent, it is cognitive and incentive, one will feel necessity to dive into bizarre world of painter's fantasies by visiting libraries or appropriate sites on the Net. The author invites you to solve the mystery of Bruegel's art and simultaneously entertines with masterly depiction of unfortunate attempts of Martin Clay, a hero of the novel, to obtain lost masterpiece.

But under the layers of comical effects one can discern elements of tragical events in some keeping with bloody history of the Netherlands under Spanish rule in the 16th century. Martin, a modern person who has everything he really needs - a loving young wife, wonderful daughter, decent work and income, by accident comes across a lost Bruegel's (probably) canvas in the home of his country neighbor who is unaware of his fortune and wants to sell it. Martin commences his efforts to acquire the picture with a proper desire to give it to the National Gallery in London and receive universal kudos for its discovery. But little by little the craving for its possession takes him all, he lies, cheats, commits illegal actions. Next comes possibility of adultery and even leaving his wife and daughter as a price for the canvas. Martin can not resist his monomania anymore, he is ready to justify all his unbecoming deeds. Even in the last ordeal by fire, when he has to choose between rescue of Laura, his neighbor's wife, and the longed-for canvas, he picks the latter at first and only Laura's desperate scream helps him to make right choice.

The last pages of the novel are rather sad...the life of the hero is normalizing again (or at least he thinks so). The book is Martin's confession, his endeavor to alleviate pain caused by his rash actions, to understand what has happened with him... And why...

Some modern Scottish thriller writers are contrasted (not always favourably) with two perceived greats of Scottish fiction - Robert Louis Stevenson and John Bucahn. I love Stevenson, the fast pace of his stories, and his characterisation. This was the first Buchan I read. While it will not be the last I felt a little disappointed.

The Thirty Nine steps is said to be one of the most important novels in the thriller genre. Featuring Richard Hannay a former South African miner, who is caught in a spy story, the effects of which may lead to war in western Europe.

The story is fast moving. Hannay is placed in predicament after predicament (like the Perils of Pauline) following the discovery of a body in his London flat. He escapes to Galloway, then Dumfriesshire (rural south west Scotland). Pursued by both police and foreign agents Hannay's life is at risk - and we witness his use of a number of disguises, and his experience as a mining engineer, in escaping each predicament.

At times the novel feels like a loosely related series of escapades, but the final chapters (as in Childers' The riddle of the sands) pull the disparate strands together satisfyingly. Fast paced with an appealing central character, the novel is recommended as a quick and easy entertainment. However, there are some flaws readers ought to be aware of.

In the Scottish sections of the novel Buchan writes the dialogue of the locals in dialect, contrasting this with the the "received pronunication" of the other characters. As a technique it appears to belittle the validity of the dialect spoken, and appears to patronise the locals. Although, Buchan's sleight here is countered by his portrayal of the locals. They share a certain cunning and deviousness. Additionally, the use of dialect (and a particular type of lowland Scots dialect) renders parts of the text difficult to follow.

Most concerning about the book is the inherent anti-semitism. Analgoies and metaphors rely on negative imagery of jews; and one of the characters (scudder) is overtly anti-semitic in his comments. While this was a prevalent attitude in a certain strata of British writing pre- World War Two, it jars today - and rendered parts of the novel, for this reader, offensive.

Buchan is certainly readable, but his work has dated. His influence is apparent in the work of Greene, and inherent in his work are the influences of American thriller writers of the early twentieth century, and Conan Doyle's Holmes, Challenger, and Brigadier Gerard stories.

If you enjoyed this novel you might want to try Graham Greene's Gun for sale; The Confidential Agent; Stamboul Train; and The Ministry of fear.

This 1915 espionage thriller will delight fans of Conon Doyle with a chain of "adventures" involving a chase, disguises, roll playing, an impossible escape, secret code, warplans, sudden promotion to the inner circle of Britain's defense establishment, mistaken identity, a trap, and clues galore. The vignettes are connected one to the next by miraculous coincidences, as in a dream, but the style is charming enough and the story short enough that you're willing to suspend disbelief long enough to see the end.

The main appeal is a Wordsworthian ramble through a rural scene populated by deep and knowing pastoral types, such as the roadman and the fly fisherman, though no Lucy, nor any available women at all to signify the potential future of a British race. All the characters are either aristocrats or peasants, befitting the narrator's acknowledged anti-middle class sentiments. Curiously, the hero himself is middle class, a mining engineer, though retired at 37 years old, idle but restless, and by nature the best picture of an English sport. He is Sherlock enhanced with amazing physical prowess.

Readers will notice disrespect towards police. Our hero throws a good punch right in a cop's face, and police are everywhere ineffectual. In today's prosecutorial climate, our hero would be in for a 10-year felony.

Anti-semitism: It's there, it reflects the times, of course. However, I must say it's far worse than charmless. It's insistent, each time sudden, and gratuitous, violent, and associated with images of extermination. Towards the end of the book, our hero expresses mild condescension towards anti-semitism, not a satisfactory rebuke.

This book offers a minimum of political background to WWI. Don't pick it up for a slice of life. It' for people who just can't get enough of Sherlock.

A great espionage thriller, involving danger, murder, and the future of England, set just before World War I. The pace is fast, and it makes for a quick but enthralling read. It was the basis for the very popular film by Alfred Hitchcock, made in 1935, starring Robert Donat.

Quite an enjoyable read. I have to say that I couldn't wait to finish the book to see what other reviewer's had said. I waited though, as I did not want the ending to be revealed before I had finished it. Surprisingly, I found the reviews to be quite mixed. Not necessarily someone who would classify themselves as a "reader", I eagerly looked forward to reading the next chapter or page (a few mornings making myself a few minutes late for work!). The driving force behind my interest was the strong development of main character, Nick Dismas. Dismas seems so real and endearing, you wish you could have a drink with him at his favorite pub. I do have to agree with quite a few reviewers here and elsewhere though that the book is not scary in the least. At times, it can be rather intense or sad, but never frightening like I had hoped. With that said, I enjoyed the book very much and look forward to reading other books by Herbert. Some of his earlier novels have received much more praise than "Others", but since I enjoyed this book so much, I imagine I will be more than pleasantly surprised by other Herbert works.

At 500-pages long, OTHERS is the story that most horror novelists only wish they could write. Sure, James Herbert has a tendency to repeat himself a couple times throughout the book (and still has me wonder how much of his story is based on fact!), but his style and character development skills are above anything recent by Koontz (or King, for that matter!). OTHERS takes it's time to lure you into the world of a gum-shoe detective before exploding into the horror novel you'd expect, delicately increasing the suspense with each chapter. James Herbert has succeeded in creating a world filled with the grotesque, misfortunate and mysterious in his latest, OTHERS. He also managed to give birth to one of the most interesting protagonists: Nick Dismas, a deformed PI and reincarnation of an evil Hollywood star. I'm just sorry we had to see him put to rest so soon!

this book was scary. the possibilities of what happens to deformed children who are not wanted or are left to die are examined in fiction by james herbert. scary, in your face and compelling, no thought is left undone. a man (who has intelligence) but is deformed in a physical sense has been reborn as such to redeem himself from a life before that was amoral and filled with depravity. so our hero is put on this earth to redeem himself and make do with the scorn of "normal" people. it is not easy to read this book and think of all the times we have judged the disabled as less than us. to take for granted in a physical sense what we have. in a very descriptive way by herbert, he articulates how the abuse is internalized. this is not a happy book. there are few brief moments of joy and love. our hero finds a rest home that is the secret jail of others like him, who are worse off than him. Of course he was put on earth for a purpose, for himself (the redemption) and for others (to save). i do not agree that he writes (as the flap bragged) that he is like stephen king - who has a tendency to be more subtle and there with kings books there is always a conclusive ending. herbert wrote in his brief and last chapter that this was taken from actual and true events and that he hoped the reader was disturbed. this is a thinking person's book - despite the fiction and horror of it all, you cannot finish reading it without giving a nod to the reality of what if and hope that there are people who are in position with presence of mind to use their powers appropriately.