The Memoirs of the Duc de Saint-Simon is one of those rare books that compel one to pick up a pen and try their own hand at the literary caper. The easy flow of the narrative, and, as the Memoirs progress, his delightful vitriol read as if receiving a letter from a long lost friend. The very fact that Saint-Simon's everyday life revolved around the French court of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries makes it all the more fascinating for the modern reader. A word of warning - the long-winded French names and the plethora of ever changing titles can get confusing.

There would be few who could not be moved by Saint-Simon's rapturous delight at the defeat of his enemies, where his writing is at its unequalled best. However, by far the greatest strength of these Memoirs is the authors humbleness. Time and again he apologies to his reader for lengthy diversions, and for his inability to handle the material well, yet it cannot be denied that he is the greatest memoir writer to have lived, in all senses of the word. His conclusion, admiting that he can be repetitive and long winded is a tour de force, and we are allowed a knowing smile when we recollect that his pride has so often shone through elsewhere - there is nothing more pleasant to read than the work of a HUMAN author, with all the quirks and failings of our own. The translator's (Lucy Norton) footnotes are extremely helpful without being cumbersome. While the length of the three volumes will alienate many a potential reader, they are well worth any time invested in their perusal.

I am a diehard fan of European royal history and I loved this book. It is the first part of the memoirs of a Duke who lived in France during the last years of Louis XIV and during the regency of Duc de Orleans, Louis XV's minority. He is very detailed, telling stories about all of the people at court. Lucy Norton has done a great job of leaving the interesting tidbits in and leaving out the dull, long stories on politics, treaties, etc. I am more interested in biographies and this book was just what I love, you really get to know a lot about court life during this period. This first volume deals with the reign of Louis XIV and all of the intrigues as he is 53-71 years old.

Written some 20 years after he stopped playing any role in the political affairs of his time, that is after the death of the Regent, the duke of Orleans, Saint-Simon's Memoirs are of interest to 21st century readers not only because of what we learn about life in Versailles, at the court of Louis the fourteenth (countless memoirs from the time have long been rightly forgotten) but because of what they reveal about human nature.

Obsessed by his rank and deeply hurt by what he perceives to be the debasement of French high nobility by the king, Saint-Simon is first and foremost a very keen observer of the brutal struggle for power that goes on day in day out at the court. His title of duke and peer of the realm meant that he could move in all the spheres of power and knew not only the Sun king but all the planets and satellites that orbited around him. He breathes life into all of the courtiers and makes them unforgettable. Known best for the unflinching hatred he bore some of them, in particular the king's bastards, he can also bring the reader close to tears when he tells about the ones he loved. The duke of Burgundy's (Louis' grandson and heir to the throne) last days make for some of the most impressive pages I have ever read.

Saint-Simon, though not an easy read at first, will give you intense pleasure and there's 9000 thousand pages to enjoy. This edition is an abridged edition of the complete memoirs. It's a good start but I highly recommend learning French just to read all of it.

This is a diamond of a book, so join the club of those who can claim to have read Saint-Simon like among many others Stendhal, Proust, on whom he exerted a profound influence, or Julien Green, you won't regret it.

I loved these memoirs by a Duke who lived at the French Court during the later part of the reign of Louis XIV and during the regency of Duc d'Oreleans (Louis XV's minority). This second volume deals with the very last years of Louis XV and ends with his death (and the great fight over who would be Regent, since Louis XV was very young). There is a lot of detail about court life and it is very much biographic, details about people. Lucy Norton has done a wonderful job editing leaving out the long boring parts on war, treaties and politics and has left in all of the information on people during that age. I really enjoyed these memoirs.

If you have read The Essential Drucker, Balanced scorecard etc. , the book essentially has the same information repeated under a different title. Recommend Essential Drucker, Balanced Score card which is more comprehensive than this title.

This collection of eight articles from the HBR is a must IF AND ONLY IF you want the only highlights of some of the new management tools and theories out there. If you've ever wondered what Activity-Based Costing (ABC) is or what Kaplan's "Balanced Scorecard" is all about, this may be just the introductory text for you. I mention these two tools first since 2 out of 8 articles deal with ABC, either in whole or in part, while another 3 deal specifically with the balanced scorecard. So, if you've got ABC and the balanced scorecard already firmly laid out in your head, this may be a bit redundant.

The remaining three articles are still worth a quick read though. I found in one article, "How the Right Measures Help Teams Excel," ideas that I hadn't seen anywhere else (for example, the team "dashboard"). And, the "How High is Your Return on Management?" article might give managers a moment of reflection on whether or not they have a good ROM and what they can do to improve it.

As I stated before, much of this is merely highlights though. Do not expect to be able to use this book as a primary source to implement any of the measures. It's a tease that gets you excited (at least it did me), but doesn't provide much of a game plan for bringing it all about.

Still, if what you want is a quick overview and a few case studies where these principles and tools have been applied, by all means, read this. It's worth at least that much.

Looking for some informative, original and clear thinking about measuring performance? This book is a great choice! This is a collection of eight outstanding articles selected from past editions of the HBR. The articles cover such subjects as activity-based costing, the use of nonfinancial criteria, and tools executives require to generate the information needed. Each article begins with an executive summary which, for the fast-forward crowd, is a big plus.

So many books are merely ONE GOOD ARTICLE embedded in a thicket of verbiage. Chopping away through such a jungle of verbosity for the gist-of-it-all often proves tedious and disappointing. (Blessed are the laconic!) This book, on the other hand, just serves up a bunch of 'gists' -the pure meat and potatoes of ideas. Happily, the HBSP has published several other collections of this sort on such topics as knowledge management, change, and strategies for growth. Each of these is collection of first-rate 'gists'. Reviewed by Gerry Stern, founder, Stern & Associates, author of Stern's Sourcefinder The Master Directory to HR and Business Management Information & Resources, Stern's CyberSpace SourceFinder, and the Compensation and Benefits SourceFinder.

I have read the other 6 reviews and I am sorry they got it so wrong. Even if what they say is very true but not related with the subject (Yoruba tragedy) that matter to us. "Death and..." is more related to the person who was asking help because she/he could not understand what was about. I would advise this person to read attently Nietzsche's "the Birth of Tragedy" and "the Antichrist" and if he has some more time, Shopenhauer as well (yet less influencer on Soyinka than Nietzsche). Soyika understand the terrible problems Africa and specially Nigeria has. However, the theme of this play is fare more universal. Is related with the creation and recreation of art and the human being in a turbocapitalistic society. It is about to cross the "abyss"ÿ

In the book, Death and the King¡¯s Horseman, by Wole Soyinka, the author at first appears to portray the white culture as hedonistic beasts, who are self righteous and heartless, but when examined closely, that perception is proven to be false when compared to the play as a whole. In order to fully understand the heart of the opposing culture that is present in the book (which is the white culture), one must closely examine the character that mainly represents them. The character, Simon Pilkings, is basically the major character representing the white culture. Pilkings at first is portrayed as a savage, who does not understand, nor care about the importance of the ceremony that must take place, in order for the death king (who died a month earlier), to enter the after-life, needs his chief horseman, Elesin, to guide his horse through. The problem with that was that Elesin, in order to accompany his king to the after life, had to kill himself. The act of suicide, to Elesin, is a passed down honor from his forefathers that is considered to be a high privilege because they have the weight of guiding their king into his new home. The problem with this idea is that Pilkings, does not agree with the fact that Elesin needs to go through the whole process at all. In the end, he does in fact stop the ceremony from continuing, but at the cost of not only Elesins¡¯ honor and life, but also Elesin¡¯s son, Olunde as well. Pilkings did what he did, not because he hated the African American culture, nor because he did not understand them. In fact, he did what he did because he cared a great deal about Olunde. Olunde is the basically, the son Pilkings never had. Plkings sends Olunde across seas to England, to attend medical school, which Pilkings is paying for at his own expense. Pilkings knows that it is Olunde¡¯s father who is going to commit suicide, and so in order to save Olunde from losing a father and going through unbearable heartache, Pilkings does what he believes would be the best for Olunde. Pilkings proceeds to stop the ceremony, not realizing that Olunde knows that his father was going to commit the act. By the time Pilkings found out that Olunde had arrived to the village, the act had been done. Elesin was captured and his divine time, to commit the act had passed. In Pilkings¡¯ mind, he is at peace because he thinks that he has done the greatest thing for Olunde. He believes that he saved Elesin from eternal damnation and protected Olunde from the pain of losing a father. But in fact, he caused the opposite affect because Olunde has to take his fathers place and must kill himself so that he could guide the king into the after life. Overall, Pilkings can be portrayed as a heartless character, but if one examines the motive behind the act he committed, he is probably the most caring and understands character that is presented in the play.

This play is a must read for anyone seeking the truth about race relations around the world. Especially between African people and europeans. I think the author's account of how the europeans tried to rob the Africans of what little pride, religion and culture they still had left spoke of the horrible genocide that existed then and continues now. It's also most disheartening to know that African people can't even have their freedom in death.

Norton Simon Museum of Art at Pasadena is well known its surperb
collection of the old masters, the impressionists and Asian arts.
These collection is only based on the founder, a self-made millionaire Norton Simon's taste.

This book describes how he earned money and spent to the collection. Although he believed only his way of doing things and made a friction everywhere he goes, his talent, money and passion made possible to build the museum titled his name. Many episodes make this book readable and interesting even a reader who isn't interested in Southern California or Art collector.

A fresh and lively translation, but one that flip-flops between "goodness" and "humanity" in translating _ren_, which weakens it substantially. Copious endnotes follow the text, but the text doesn't provide references to them. Contemporary language. Pinyin romanization.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. Granted, I haven't read other translations of the Analects, so my rating is for the book itself more than as a comparison to other translations.

The fact that Confucius lived thousands of years ago is amazing to me ... the things he says apply to people throughout the ages, and they're full of wisdom. Having read the book, I find myself trying to be a bit more of a Confucian gentleman than I did before reading it. Confucius' teachings about humanity and being a gentleman span across the ages.

I'm very glad I read this book. The only reason I didn't give the book 5 stars is because I can't compare it to other translations, and it seems a little improper to rate a translated book without comparing it to other translations. But I personally found Leys' lines to be easily understandable and interesting, even if I have no way of ascertaining their accuracy with the original text.

asia is in crisis. confucius will show us how to get out of it... i gave it as a gift to a friend (a university professor). another friend, a business tycoon, was with us. he browsed through the book, loved what he saw, and offered to buy it on the spot. i promised to get another one for him, so i'm buying a second one. this shows that confucius is for university professors and business tycoons. read it, you'll love it.