Today, William Godwin is perhaps best known as the 'anarchist' philosopher who wrote "Enquiry Concerning Political Justice..." It is my understanding that in the 19th century, although his philosophy was popular, his fiction also garnered significant attention. After reading both "Enquiry" and "Caleb Williams," I can see both why his novels were popular then and why they're scarcely in print now.

As a story, this novel is pretty good. It is a psychological suspense story of first (teetering on second) rate. The tale is about Caleb Williams's descent from a promising career as personal secretary to an intellectual, to a fleeting criminal that ironically was, at first, innocent. So, while the plot and action are good, these are buried in over-emotional asides and one dimensional characters. You never quite get to know Caleb, Mr. Falkland or anyone else here. All in all, as a story, I give it 4 stars as the plot makes up for any weaknesses.

As a political/social commentary, this novel has 2 stars. First, unless she has read "Enquiry Concerning Political Justice," the reader will not pick up on many of the subtle points Godwin makes about the nature of liberty and its preconditions. Second, while trying to show Caleb as victim of a flawed legal system, Godwin created in Caleb a character that was just as villianous. The only way Calebs often villanous behavior could be explained is Godwin's belief in determinism; the theory that our actions are predetermined solely by external circumstance - in other words, Caleb, while increasingly underhanded in his actions, is not responsible for them as he is treated like a criminal anyhow. At any rate, one may not get these points if they've not read Godwin the philosopher.

In short, I would reccomend this novel but with hesitancy. First, I would qualify the reccomendation with "but you should read "Enquiry" first." Well, since "Enquiry" is 800+ pages (and out of print in every edition) this is quite an undertaking in itself. However, if the reader JUST wants a good suspense story (minus the philosophical undertones) then this is a pretty good novel.

Having never myself been the victim of a wrongful criminal accusation, imprisonment, or torture, I was ill-prepared for the experience of reading "Caleb Williams". I once thought that Orwell's "1984" and "Animal Farm," or the fiction works of Camus, Kafka, or Sartre were more than adequate to address the problem of total alienation and isolation in the very midst of humanity. Even Richardson's "Pamela" carries its heroine through half the novel in a state of claustrophobic paranoia. In 1794, Godwin created a world and a mind no less frightening than the worst and most depraved of the 20th century. That we still toil through issues of basic human and legal rights entering the 21st century speaks to the complexity of these issues and casts a shadow of doubt over our ever finding a suitable solution.

In an effort to expose the hypocrisy of a legal system under the complete influence of the "long purse" and the lack of recourse of the common man to justice, Godwin has his hero Caleb suffer increasing terrors, imprisonment, and the threat of ceaseless surveillance at the hands of the ex-thief Gines. Like Richardson's Pamela, Caleb's suicidal fantasies enable him for a short while to claim control over his mind and his situation.

Unlike Pamela, Caleb fails to maintain this control, even after he forces the ruthless Falkland to admit to the murder of Tyrrel. In a scene reminsicent of ones in "1984" and Kafka's "The Trial," Caleb relinquishes what little power he has been able to garner over his torturer. Falkland, a frail, physically powerless, demoniacal 'gentleman,' through a constant and pervasive presence in Caleb's own fragile mind has unwittingly reclaimed final power over the novel's helpless hero.

By internalizing the social hierarchy since childhood, Caleb is finally unable to bear the disgrace he brings upon Falkland. Ironically, while he is pursued across England and Wales as a thief, he claims innocence. Once he is exonerated of his crime, he is insistent on his guilt. "Caleb Williams" is an endlessly complex and captivating novel, frought with issues of power, levels of narrative, and takes issue with the flawed notion of human justice.

I confess I only read D. C. Somervell's abridgment of Arnold Toynbee's first six volumes A Study of History, so I cannot claim to be a student of his work, but I was impressed mightily by that reading. This biography of Toynbee by the eminent historian William H. McNeill is of consistent interest and does not fail to relate Toynbee's troubled personal life as well as explore his eminent historical writing life. After reading this bio I concluded that Toynbee's theories and prophecies have not proved overly valid. E.g., he feared the U.S. more than Soviet Russia, and that is a novel and unspportable fear to me, naturally. Toynbee, along with most great thinkers, did not foresee the Soviet collapse. I think an interesting work would be an exploration of the why so many people looked on Communism as the wave of the future, even including Whittaker Chambers. Does anyone know of a good book exploring that phenomenon?

I had the very good fortune to read this book when it was in Galleys, and it is wonderful. It's one of the earliest books written in the USA, and was written by a woman. Set in Fall River, Massachussetts in the 18th century, it tells the tale of a young girl who is seduced, impregnated, and then abandoned and defamed by an scoundrel of a minister. What was truely striking (apart from the quality of the writing), was how little things had changed in the intervening period. As I was reading the galleys, a very similar case was being tried in the same area. Well worth reading, not only for its style, but also for its content, and for its depiction of life in New England in that time.

Arnold's book 'Introduction to Pastoral Care' is a book often used in the pastoral care course at my seminary. This brief book probably could be briefly summed up as one set of principles:

+ Be present to the one needing care
+ Focus on them, and not on yourself
+ Listen, and listen actively, which means remembering the principle to
+ Focus on them, and not on yourself
+ Don't be afraid of silence
+ Don't pass judgment
+ Seek care and support for yourself when you need it

These principles are amazingly simple to learn and state, but often get ignored. Giving advice is not pastoral care. Empathising by telling your own story is usually not helpful.

Arnold recounts the story of a visit with a person in the hospital when he was on call as the chaplain. He went into the room of a critically-ill patient, said hello, and then she began a very long story, alternately laughing and crying, and then, when finished, patted Arnold's hand and thanked him for his help. The only word he had said was 'hello' -- but he had listened, something others had been too busy to do.

This is a book that can help anyone who wants to learn how to be truly helpful. It is not just for clergy -- as church members come increasingly to learn that ministry exists at all levels (and indeed some of the most important ministry of a church is that which members in the pews give to each other), this kind of book should be more widely used as a good introduction to some of the do's and don'ts of being pastoral and helpful, and what in the end is effective ministry.

This has a good explanation of regular expression search/replace and the Emacs regexp syntax. It also has a lot of little tidbits not in the O'Reilly book (which is still a better starting place). It's a bit older though (1992) and has chapters on Fortran and Pascal modes so a lot of trees are dying for nothing .

I bought this after reading all of the O'Reilly book and most of the O'Reilly "Writing GNU Emacs Extension" and have only gotten a few new things out of it, so it's good for completists like myself.

One of the neat things I learned were: when you C-x C-f to open a file, rather than backspacing to erase the path Emacs provided you can just type two slashes (//) and then the path to the file you want (of course C-a C-k would work too, but I want choice, damnit! :-)

The organization is also very different than the O'Reilly book; for example there is a whole chapter on "Administering Emacs" (how to find the parts of it on your system), a huge chapter that is nothing but a command reference (with keybindings), and "how to edit" happens in only three chapters, with the following chapters each devoted to specific things (except for the "Miscellaneous" chapter).

The print quality is not the best, if that matters to you, but it is a sizable book and a decent desktop reference.

I liked the depth of examples in this book. Where the O'Reilly book "Learning GNU Emacs" gave an excellent introduction and overview, this book gave more involved examples. For example in the regexp-search-replace, this book showed the use of \( and \) for grouping and \1 \2 \3 for where to place the each group in the replacement string. If your are new to Emacs, get the O'Reilly book; then get this book next.

I have been so looking forward to a book on Tod Williams and Billie Tsien's work. So with much anticipation, I opened the book. It began with twenty wonderful color plates, but after that, two hundred pages of black and white photos. This lack of color distorts the balance between the two architects - concentrating on structure and de-emphasizing Billie's exquistite sense of color and material. As Hadley Arnold stated of these photographs they are "simply reminders of the real spaces." Unfortantely if you haven't visited these spaces, this is a frustrating book. I'd reccommend that you wait until an author comes along that can focus on the architects and the reader rather than themselves.

Though esoteric at times, the book beautifully displays the work of these visionaries... I highly recommend it.

I have been so looking forward to a book on Tod William's and Billie Tsien's work. So with much anticipation, I opened the book. It began with twenty wonderful color plates, but after those, two hundred pages of pink and blue photos. This lack of black and white emphasizes the balance between the two architects - concentrating on structure and emphasizing bille(my personal friend) exquisite sense of color and material. As Hadley Arnold stated of these photographs they are "the real spaces." Unfortunately if you haven't visited these spaces, this is an exquisite book. I'd recommend that you don't wait until an author comes along that can focus on the architects and the reader.

Those of us who are hoping that the ark of the covenant will be found need not read this book.Those who,from a scholarly point of view want to know what the ark was,read this book. You will discover that probably the bible should have said 'arks' instead.You quite likely may come to the conclusion that the ark was just a system,which,according to Jerimiah, will never be replaced.As to the ephod-- You may want to make one for yourself and try out the lottery or find an idol to worship.One more thing,learn a little hebrew,greek and german before you start reading athis book.

I had great expectations for this book. I respect Dr Cooper and his work. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with the book. There are 115 pages of nutriton related information mostly suggested menus and recipes - there are lots of good nutrition books for kids. The fitness evaluations were mostly for kids 10 and older. He recommends an active lifestyle and sports, but that's not worth the money to me. I'd say check this book out at the library for the fitness test information but keep your money in your pocket on this one.

basically what you have is a political spinner descending into music criticism.

This book attempts to determine the areas in which Schoenberg 'erred' in the creation of his twelve-tone idea. This book deals less with solid theory but more with the ideals of aesthetics, perception, philosophy, and basically many unfounded claims. This book assaults Schoenberg's musical achievments, with very little assesment of his value at all. It seems that this book is has is seeking to dismantle the strong history of modern music, by claiming that one of it's father's was in error.

In this treatise, William Thomson has systematically and successfully deconstructed the atonal/serialist theories of Schoenberg, Webern and Babbitt. He reveals them for what they are: subversive, unnatural academic experiments dealing with the interrelationship between music, mathematics and nihilism. Through a complex theoretical analysis, Thomson affirms what many Twentieth Century composers (such as Sibelius, Bartok, Shostakovich, Vaughan Williams and Adams) argued either through their work, through words or both - namely, that the language of tonality is the natural language of music and is essentially an outgrowth of very deeply entrenched human impulses. In creating works which defy natural imperatives and uphold inhuman precepts, the serialist composers managed to stimulate academic interest and controversy, but their work will almost certainly not be recognized in future as the greatest or most meaningful contribution to Twentieth Century music.

'It Takes a Moron' would be more like it; this incredible- literally- compendium of semi-fictitous tales of the selfish, the ill-informed and the misguided virtually defines the term 'wise use'. If you think people who fight on a daily basis to preserve wildlife, wild places, clean air, clean water, the ozone layer, the oceans, our forests etc. etc. are the 'enemy' and find resistance to their efforts 'heroic' you might enjoy this drivel by James Watt's bestest buddy. Probably not.

Thank goodness there is finally a counterbalance to the eco-craziness that has blindly trampled individual liberty. Pendley clearly argues a point one would think was obvious: people are important. This work is a powerful antidote to those who would prefer to see the West (among other areas) people-free. This book is bound to annoy, and hopefully educate, the droves of band-wagon armchair ecologists in America today.