Although I've never heard of these actors before, they all do a very nice job on the readings. They are all English (Americans cannot speak Shakespeare for some reason) and with the Royal Shakespeare Company which should explain why. As opposed to most Shakespeare collections, these readings are not scenes, but just individual speeches which stand well on their own as poetry.
There is a very brief, one sentence introduction to every speech. My only quibble is that there's a musical interlude between every speech which gets a little tiring after a while.

Everyone knows that William Shakespeare wrote a great many speeches. Everyone knows that Hamlet had a soliloquy, that there was a big famous speech about a stage (or something) in ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, that Romeo and Juliet had a "balcony scene," but this is not enough to spread the genius of Shakespeare throughout the world! This book contains nearly all the speeches ever written by this "phantom of the stage" and when all you people who have not read very much Shakespeare and think it's boring, I assure you this will change your mind. You will most likely be memorizing all of the speeches and buying all Shakespeares plays or sonnets! Buy this book and am positive that you will not regret it!

I was pleasantly surprised when I received this book. The pictures are nice and clear and seems organized well. Even though it has information about hundreds of roses, it seemed to missing a few of what I thought were fairly popular roses. All in all it's a good reference book for the beginner.

For a book to have as much color photography as this book does for under $... is truly amazing. I have done much of my rose garden by year of introduction and have found this book extremely useful. I do searches on internet sites or rose lists, and then locate the roses in this book to see what they look like, as well as other tidbits of information such as disease-resistance, repeat-bloom, hardiness etc. The book does include year of introduction in its summary, but lists the roses alphabetically so one can easily find them. I also noticed the index in the back of the book lists many roses by their synonym names which is helpful when another source you are working with calls the rose by a different name.

Very little information in terms of how to care for a rose exists in this book. You will have to purchase other books for that. There is only so much information one can pack into a book and still keep it portable!!

A beautifully illustrated and fact-filled book on the myriad of extraordinary rose cultivars. The book is a feast for the eyes and truthfully a bargain for it's price considering that most books cost more and do not even approach the detailed information and unbelievably beautiful photos of hundreds of cultivars. This book is replete with cultivars from landscape roses, hybrid teas, floribundas, miniatures, species roses, and even vines.
They are all covered and fully illustrated!!!! A true encyclopedia for the rose afficianado that one will enjoy looking at over and over again!!! It will help you find that perfect rose for your landscaping needs. I hope you enjoy this book as much as I do. :-)

I just reread it in a collection of Nobel Prize winning authors--their acceptance speeches etc., and this story and "As I Lay Dying" were chosen as examples of his work. This story!!! It's such a mundane little macabre "gotcha" story, over-anthologized for high school students (along with other tired stories like "The Most Dangerous Game"). Faulkner is such an incredible writer--I'm reading Fury in the Dust right now, and his sentences--the Nobel Prize committee described them as being "as powerful as Atlantic rollers". What was he thinking when he wrote "A Rose for Emily"? Obviously not much. Read anything else by him, you'll have a better time.

This is one of those books that are force on you at school. The basic story is of a Southern belle driven mad by isolation and her ties to the past. If this is your first reading of something representative of Faulkner this is the best example, as it is short and the story is intriguing. You can enjoy reading it for what it is and not have to analyze the thing to death. Even if you do not particularly cotton to Faulkner's style or subject matter, this book will transcend both. In 1982 they made this story into a movie with John Houseman and Anjelica Huston.

this book is about a very good short story on the changes of the south during a very representative period!

A sentimental treatment of Therese's life; I'd look for something more vigorously written, and perhaps for a more contemporary treatment.

As a little girl, I must have read this lovely book at least a dozen times -- the 'divine romance' of little Therese and the difficult life of a cloistered Carmelite convent. Every page thrilled me -- her 'vision' during a childhood illness, her anguished parting from her beloved sisters as they entered the convent before her, her fervor and innocence. Although written in the style of another era, this book captures some profound truths about the nature of children's spirituality, and is a classic from another and more challenging era of Catholic devotion. It is now my pleasure to buy it for my goddaughter for her First Communion; this young lady, with her love of high drama in literature, will no doubt love it as well!

What I loved about this book was I learned about Saint Therese and her "little way" inside a sweet easy read novel rather than an biography on her. Now I can't wait to read the deeper "reads" but this book I read in 2 days and fell in love with her and her family. Her family taught me how my family could model hers. I truly fell in love with this book and have bought it for friends who have loved it--and their older children. I can't wait to read it to my 4 and 5 year old boys in a couple more years when they can have a story read to them without pictures.

Rose is a computer genius and gets a new job that allows her to use her computer skills. The only thing is that the boy that she's helping wants to sing and not work on improving his computer skills. When Rose gets fed up with him, she goes to her neighbor Ellie's magic attic and tries on a grass skirt, shorts and a top and is transported to a tropical island! She finds out that she is in a surfing contest and everyone expects her to win except Haku who is determined to beat Rose. She was doing good until Haku disapeared under a wave and no one seemed to notice but her! Will Rose make the right decision?

Laura's Rose is a really great overview of the life of Rose Wilder Lane. Of course it is more of a booklet, so you don't get a great wealth of information, but still it brings up lots of details things that dedicated Little House fans will find interesting.

This is a well illustrated book that can be used for creating classroom handouts. Written for teachers, but aimed at elementary students, it explains the steps taken to create a science fair project, from the planning stages, through research and doing the experiment, to logging the observations. Older students can get valuable information from this book as well, if they aren't put off by it's definite grade school format.

The Rose and the Ring is a great classic. This edition, however, is an outright fraud. The original has rhyming couplets across the page tops, this edition omits them. The original has illustrations by Thackeray, who originally intended to pursue a career as an illustrator, but this edition omits them. It's like printing an Alice in Wonderland without the Tenniel drawings and with none of the songs. This edition is a waste of paper. Shame on Amazon for selling it! Now I have to return to the search for a real printing...

This is a very funny and clever book that deals with the appeal and danger of beauty. It is a great book for all ages with some very well done illustrations through out the book. The bottom review is from the back of my copy of the book.

A magic rose and ring which make those in the possession of them attractive, togather with a mischiviouse fairy who adds, "a little misfurtone" to the lives of a prince and a princess, creat hilariouse complications on a unusual fairy story.

This is a classic funny story that has stayed in my mind for 30 years. I first read it as a kid less than 10 and it was as wonderful and meaningful then as it is now.

The story of Giglio, Rosalba, Angelica and Bulbo casts a magic spell. Then of course there's Countess Gruffanuff.....

Classic's are classics with good reason.

Many people would like to say that Shakespeare did not write this play. But this is hardly fair. Even with the world's finest writers such as Marlowe and Dickens, not every single thing they write can be a masterpiece. But what makes "The Two Gentleman of Verona" worth reading? Well, Shakespeare presents us with a valid theme. (Conflicts often exist between romance and friendship.) There is also beautiful language. Launce and his dog offer some interesting comedy as well as a beautiful and memorable passage in 2.3. The scene where Valentine is accepted amonst the outlaws is memorable. This is Shakespeare's first play where a woman (Julia) disuises herself as man to do some investigating. It is also easy to see that several elements of this play were used in "Romeo and Juliet." To be sure, this is not a masterpiece like "The Comedy of Errors," "Richard III," or "King Lear." But it is still an good study that is worth some interest.

Although few would claim that Two Gentlemen of Verona is one of Shakespeare's greatest plays, it is well worth reading in order to serve as a reference for the best of his romantic comedies. In essence, Two Gentlemen of Verona gives you a measuring stick to see the brilliance in the best works.

The play has the first of Shakespeare's many brave, resourceful and cross-dressing heroines, Julia.

Shakespeare always used his fools and clowns well to make serious statements about life and love, and to expose the folly of the nobles. Two Gentlemen of Verona has two very fine comic scenes featuring Launce. In one, he lists the qualities of a milk maid he has fallen in love with and helps us to see that love is blind and relative. In another, he describes the difficulties he has delivering a pet dog to Silvia on his master, Proteus', behalf in a way that will keep you merry on many a cold winter's evening.

The story also has one of the fastest plot resolutions you will ever find in a play. Blink, and the play is over. This nifty sleight of hand is Shakespeare's way of showing that when you get noble emotions and character flowing together, things go smoothly and naturally.

The overall theme of the play develops around the relative conflicts that lust, love, friendship, and forgiveness can create and overcome. Proteus is a man who seems literally crazed by his attraction to Silvia so that he loses all of his finer qualities. Yet even he can be redeemed, after almost doing a most foul act. The play is very optimistic in that way.

I particularly enjoy the plot device of having Proteus and Julia (pretending to be a page) playing in the roles of false suitors for others to serve their own interests. Fans of Othello will enjoy these foreshadowings of Iago.

The words themselves can be a bit bare at times, requiring good direction and acting to bring out the full conflict and story. For that reason, I strongly urge you to see the play performed first. If that is not possible, do listen to an audio recording as you read along. That will help round out the full atmosphere that Shakespeare was developing here.

After you finish Two Gentlemen of Verona, think about where you would honor friendship above love, where equal to love, and where below love. Is friendship less important than love? Or is friendship merely less intense? Can you experience both with the same person?

Enjoy close ties of mutual commitment . . . with all those you feel close to!

"The Two Gentlemen of Verona" is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. Maybe that's because it's one of the only one's I understand. My youth Theatre did a wonderful production of this play. I was not in it, but I saw it twice. It was set in the 60's, peasant-shirted and bell-bottomed. I think it's a wonderful story, although a bit unrealistic because of all the forgiveness that happens at the end of the play. But I think that it's a play everyone should read. This edition of the play is, I think, a very good one. If you are planning to buy a copy of "The Two Gentlemen of Verona," I would advise you to buy the most current edidtion printed by the Folger Shakespeare Library. They have lots of information in the book, and many definitions of the more difficult Elizabethian words.

This book is mistitled, it should be Days of Our Slaves because Dessa and the slave have no choice but to give into their istresses sexual and emotional demands. An inequality of power through one human being actually being the possession of another cannot broker to a "love story". Though touched on as an issue. Thsi book decides to take the cheating/easy way out and equate this power imbalance to "love". Deplorable. I studied/worked on this book in a high level college class that related Slave Narratives and Sadomasochism. This book does play around that area, as does the Black Book by Mapplethorpe and Langston Hughes travel books. THe Slaves Narratives/Incidents in teh Life of a Slave Girl is a stronger book though I have issues with that as well.
Don't get me wrong I appreciate the strength fo the writing AS writing. However I have studied and taught African American literature so I have a keen understanding as to the problems, one of which is that if it is African American pablum is tllerable within the genre now. The freedom of mass publication and right to produce literature has been reduced to normalized American pablum. Therefore this kind of literature has availed itself to the destructive consequences, which is thorough criticism and dissection.

Williams has taken us into the mind and soul of a slave and recreated Dessa's experience with a searing feeling of authenticity. This is a notable piece of fiction; it should be part of history courses studying slavery.

I recently picked up an old copy of Dessa Rose and began to read. Although I found it slow in the very beginning, it became one of the few books I can truely say I couldn't put down. Anyone that is interested in slavery should read this book. It is an eye opener for sure.