In the first ten pages, Stevenson has 1) the perfect General traveling to meet 2) the perfect industrialist/philanthropist who, along with 3) the perfect woman, working in 4) the perfect building/research facility, create 5) the perfect weapon.

This book contains every mistake that a novice writer can make to sidetrack the reader from the storyline. Every paragraph (at least for the thirty-two pages that I was able read) contains cumbersome phrases such as "Electrical cables dangled to his left, the thick strands a dull orange in the penumbra of his dive light" and "catching sight of one of his team gliding past him like an angel of death, the silhouette of a sound-suppressed Heckler and Koch MP5 clearly visible against the lighted base ahead." Said base being viewed while under a parachute from an altitude of 29,000 feet and 30 miles away.

As an avid reader, I was extremely disappointed with a book carrying the Robert Louis Stevenson name...

This book was recommended to me by Amazon and I took a chance on it. It was well written, interesting and fast paced. I did not read the other book so I did not know the main character, but that was a minor deficiency.
The problems I have is his research. There are no Lieutenant Commanders in the Army, not in my lifetime. A HALO jump means High Altitude Low Opening, if you jump from 30,000 and open the chute at 29,000 that is a High Altitude jump. He does not really dwell that you have to be on oxygen when you jump either.
The glaring error in the book was his lack of understanding how classified data is transmitted. He assumed incorrectly that it was computer to computer and that the crypto coding was in the computers, not so, not at all. Classified data of the nature of Bright Star would be double or triple encrypted using NSA devices that no hacker could defeat just by playing around. He would need a Cray 2 and about a month to get one message that was just encrypted once. Also the encryption keys are changed on a daily basis, so when you broke the first message, and tried to use that key on a second message the next day you would have to start over.
The glaring technical errors took my rating from 5 to 3.

A very good techno-diving thriller. Stevenson actually manages to live up to the obvious marketing advantages of his famous name. Along with Cussler, Poyer, McKinna, and a few others,R.L.S. the IIIrd delivers excellent deep-sea genre fiction, heavy on the diving.

Robert Louis Stevenson came up with another brilliant idea and ran with it. Similar to his other novels, The Master of Ballantrae was classic of Mr. Stevenson in that it was a tale of adventure. In this tale, brothers
James- considerably well liked by the common people merely because he is familiar with the lads of the county and they are commonly found carousing about at brothels and bars. He is a complete disgrace to the Durrie family and is dishonorable in his actions as he has an illegitimate child with villager Jessie Bruin, while the entire time he is betrothed to Alison (the sweet, spirited ward of his father)
Henry-studious, responsible, intelligent, trustworthy, kind, and even though he is the one that should be respected, everyone hates him because he doesn't drink in the village pubs, he is condsidered a "skinflint."
have been at odds with one another since childhood and with good reason, their father has forever favored James and that has caused a rift between them. When an uprising against the British occur, Henry and James both desire to be join other brave, loyal Scotsmen. Yet to assure that there is future offspring in the Durrie line, one brother must remain at home. Henry is chosen to remain, and is now considered to be a coward. When word comes that James has died in a skirmish, Henry then takes Alison as his bride. She doesn't love him instead she loves James, but just feels sorry for Henry and agrees to the marriage. When a few years later, James returns after living in Paris, trouble ensues and he disappears and heads to India. Alison then learns the truth about James and then becomes content with a husband who adores her.
When the British take over India, James again returns to Scotland to again torture Henry. Yet, I won't tell you what happens in the end. :) It is an awesome novel though. :D

BTW, I apologize for the jumbled form in which I stated the series of events that occur.

Robert Louis Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is one of the classics of horror literature because it provides the paradigmatic example of the "werewolf," the human being with a monstrous alter ego. However, originally it was much more of a mystery story and that is the best way of describing this adaptation of Stevenson's novella by Michael Lawrence. The book's complex structure is simplified and Lawrence employs a narrator to help retell the tale. The adaptation is certainly competent enough, but the story clearly takes a back seat to the illustrations in this particular volume.

This Eyewitness Classics adaptation of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is full of the illustrations and details we have come to associate with books put out by DK Publishing. A two-page spread before the first chapter details The Two Face of London, contrasting the rich West End of Victorian London with Soho area where criminals stalked the poor. Background about how Victorian gentlemen dressed for evening and how women were second-class citizens is provided. Once the story commences there are not only illustrations by Ian Andrew depicting events in the novella, but the borders are usually filled with small photographs and detailed text amplifying the action. One such note might explaining the gas lighting system in use at the time while another actually explains the significance of the key Jekyll supposedly gave to Hyde. These pictures and notes are certainly informative, but they are also somewhat intrusive, especially when the reader is trying to decide when they should read each of these additional bits of information.

The attempt here is to provide something more than a straightforward presentation of the novella without going so far as to provide an annotated version. The information provided is quite useful for young readers, for the most part, but their intrusiveness may well get in the way of enjoying the story itself. The illustrations by Andrew are stylistically evocative of the shadowy, misty streets of London we associate with tales of violent crimes such as "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." A final spread in the back of the book looks at the Legend of the story, which includes the various dramatic versions on stage and screen. More interesting are the insights into how the story reflected what people were thinking about evolution, psychology, and drugs at the end of the 19th-century. The best solution might be to just try and read the story without always resorting to the additional information and then going back and filling in the details (maybe on a chapter by chapter basis). This approach is used in a pair of other "horror" classics, "Dracula" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," in the DK Classics series.

This is a fabulous reference for how Lyndon Johnson outedged Coke Stevenson for the Senator of Texas in 1948 by a mere eighty-seven votes. Had Lyndon B. Johnson not of won this election he may of never became President.

A well-written, thorough study of one of the forgotten, yet most important, moments in Texas and American politics. Kahl provides a complete story of "Landslide Lyndon's" ballot box fraud in his race for the U.S. Senate in 1948. Had Johnson lost this election, he might never have been president, and this book tells the complete story of how LB J and his cronies stole an election, then used parliamentary tricks to avoid being overturned. Mary Kahl puts the whole story together in a fascinating read. If you are a Lyndon Johnson fan, or a Lyndon Johnson critic, you have to read this story.

This book s a great chiller I chould not put the book down. The way he just kept chageing back and forth was great. Oops! don't want to spole it This book is great if I had 1 wish it would be for everyone in the world to read this BOOK!.so please read this book it is proboly the BEST BOOK I have ever read in my life .If you like short scary chillers read this book.

This is really three interwoven stories beginning with "Story of the Young Man with the Cream Tarts" and then "Story of the Physician and the Saratoga Trunk" and finally "The Adventure of the Hansom Cab." They were published in his story collection "New Arabian Nights" and involve a secret society of suicidal young and old men. You may find the plots predictable or familiar by now, but when you remember that he was the first to come up with these themes and situations, it's remarkable. Eerie and suspenseful.

I thought that this book, being a classic and all, would be totally mind-boggling, hard-to-follow, and boring, like most "classics" are. Yet it was different. It kept me intrigued and also reinforced the lesson of not to judge a book by its cover!

While this Modern Library edition is attractively produced, all teachers and students who hope to use it in an academic setting should be aware that this is a severe abridgement--it represents about one-eighth of the original text from 1660-1669. As a result, there are large gaps in continuity, exacerbated by a lack of editorial notes to fill in those gaps. Also, the abridgement omits many of the sexiest passages and seems tailored to a Victorian sensibility. ...

Pepys' secret diary, kept in cryptic shorthand to shield it from prying eyes, covers the years 1660 to 1669, starting with the return of Charles II from exile and ending when the writer's failing eyesight made writing difficult. He was 27 years old when he began this work, and quite impecunious. Through the patronage of his kin, Edward Montagu (later Earl of Sandwich) he rose from humble beginnings to a respected position (Clerk of the Acts in the navy office). Educated at Cambridge, he was ill prepared for the job: while he read Latin and French, he did not know the multiplication tables and had to be taught basic mechanics. However, he seems to have applied himself to his work with diligence and persistence. During the naval war with Holland (1665-67) he was surveyor of victualling. In this capacity, he gained the confidence of the lord high admiral, the Duke of York (later King James II). After the war, he defended the navy office in Parliament against charges of mismanagement with a speech that seems to have been the high point of his career.

His eyewitness accounts of the Plague (1665) and the Great Fire (1666) in London are riveting. But it is the description of quotidian events that sheds light on how the people lived. Moving easily among different social classes, he recorded their moods and diversions. He attended public executions of regicides (complete with display of heads and organs to a cheering crowd), and noted when initial enthusiasm for the restoration of the monarchy gave way to disillusionment; when anger at the King's debauchery and neglect of state business bred nostalgia for the reign of Oliver Cromwell.

While critical of the King's and the Court's incessant "gambling and whoring", Pepys himself was no paragon of virtue. His dalliances with maidservants and accommodating ladies of his acquaintance caused bitter quarrels with his wife. He seems to have lusted after every pretty girl who crossed his path. Repeated vows to mend his ways generally came to naught. Some of the racier passages in his diary are written in fractured French or Latin.

Pepys was an avid theater-goer: he loved Macbeth and Henry IV, but thought Midsummer Night's Dream silly and inane. There was a lot of music in his life: he played the lute, the flageolet, and the violin, and missed no opportunity to join in singing, dancing, drinking and merry-making. He carefully noted, however, how much these diversions cost him. He also conscientiously recorded the bribes and kickbacks paid him by suppliers. Forever curious, he attended lectures and observed experiments, read voraciously and enjoyed a good discourse.

If he often appears vain and foolish, it is because he portrays himself as vain and foolish. His naive enjoyment of even the most mundane things ("this pleased me mightily" is an oft-repeated phrase) cannot fail to strike a sympathetic chord in the reader. He comments on fashion trends (powdered wigs, beauty spots, wearing of masks and male riding habit by court ladies, etc.). When he yielded to fashion and had a periwig made for himself, it was delivered full of nits. New servants had to be deloused and fitted with clean garments, but once domesticated, they were part of the household; they received music lessons and, in some cases, lessons in Latin and Greek. When they misbehaved, he beat them until his arm hurt.

The parallel career of his wife deserves some reflection: the "poor wretch" who, early in their marriage, used to wash his dirty clothes by hand, graduated to lace gowns, powdered wigs and a coach of her own; but discontent increased in proportion to luxury. "I have to find her something to do", mused Sam. Dancing and painting lessons, theater visits and parties filled the void. The couple had no children.

The Modern Library Edition is, of course, a greatly abridged version of the six-volume original. One may quibble with the selection or deplore the lack of notes; but the hefty original is available to all who want to know more.

This book is very recommended for everyone that is, in some degrees, a history "buff". It describes in thorough detail some of the less known aspects of events in that time. For me being a Norwegian I found the parts describing the battle with the Dutch fleet in Bergenshavn particualrly interesting. All in all, an excellent book with extreme historical values.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
By: Robert Louis Stevenson
Reviewed by: E. ...
Period:6

This book is about a man that has somehow brought out an evil side of him. He is a scientist and he makes a concoction that has brought out the evil part. At first the man is able to be somewhat aware of what the other person does, but it gets worse and he looses control. He has few conscious moments and often wakes up not knowing what has happened. His friend learns about the evil side, but has no idea that both of the men are the same. As the friend learns more, he becomes closer and closer to the horrible truth. Then the evil side kills a man and he hides by becoming the good man and hiding in his house. The friend thinks the evil man has killed the good one, but he soon finds out something is very strange about the whole situation. Then the friend receives a letter from the man and he gets the supplies asked in the letter. A man meets the friend and makes a concoction. Then he drinks it and all of a sudden the man turns into his friend that seems to have been revived from the evil side. The whole story is a mystery as the friend finds more clues.

The thing I liked was how the story was set up and how the whole thing was a mystery so that it kept you interested in finding out the answer. It got confusing at times and I had to re-read parts to find out the clues and truly understand it. "pale and shaken, and half fainting, and groping before him with his hands, like a man restored from death-there stood Henry Jekyll! " The good man had only a little power left and he needed the concoction to make himself regular again. The person that his friend saw was a mixture of evil and good with the good barely holding out. After that, the friend was told everything and he listened in shock. This part didn't come until near the end so that it was a twist in the story that is unexpected.

The book may have been good for its story line, but parts of the story got to be repetitive and it got to the point where it was boring and it was hard to keep going. The end really disappointed me, because the story was pretty decent and then the end came and it was bad. The end was supposed to be a letter written from the last words of the good man that was losing his power to stay in control. The letter was at least twenty pages and was filled with confusing sentences and the same information being repeated over and over. It got tiring and boring very quickly, so that I struggled to keep reading. I finally made it through and the end of the letter said that the good man was saying he was going to end his miserable life. "Here, then, as I lay down the pen, and proceed to seal up my confession, I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end. That ending would have been good if it wasn't after the most boring part in the book.

My favorite part of the book was when the friend and the butler of the good man break into the study to get the materials wanted by the man. It was my favorite part because lots of clues start to come out and it's the point right before finding out the truth of the evil and good man. My least favorite part is the end when the same information is repeated and the words are so confusing that it is very boring. Overall the book has a good way of keeping the reader suspenseful, but it also does the opposite with the repeated parts and the story may seem a little over stretched.

This is another first-rate critical edition from Norton. The text is cleanly printed with careful and accurate annotations. Both the critical and the backgrounds and contexts essays are well chosen. Sections on performance adaptations on stage and screen and on literary, scientific and sociohistorical contexts are particularly useful.One of the best critical essays is the editor's own. A detailed Stevenson chronology and an accurate selected bibliography conclude the volume.

I really love Wishbone, but I prefer the mystery series. I do like his classics series, though, because they are more attention holding than the real books. I read part of Treasure Island, got totally bored and quit. But I could read the whole Wishbone version in one day! His cute comments make it funny and enjoyable to read.

When you feel like life around you is dull and boring and need adventure, try reading this book. It is like two stories in one! One story is of Wishbone and his friends on a rainy day in a barn, the other is basically Treasure Island, another great book. In story one Wishbone is on a bike ride with his owner and friends. When a storm shows up they decide to go explore an old abandoned barn. The winds become stronger and they soon lock the door. The kids are trapped! If you want to find out what happens next, read the book!