Paul Harris's 140 page book is a serious tease. It is exactly what the archivists and enthusiasts want, although, as both, I would have wanted something ten times the size. How could we ever capture the ether of pantomime set pieces? Harris has done a fine job of putting these sketches both into print and into context. Without his work, we would certainly have lost the jokes at which 1,000,000 people per annum laugh. For your information, we are talking about some seriously old jokes here, including one from the 1670s. That's pantomime for you! His modest aim has been to take the unwritten humour of Dan Leno and Jack Tripp and capture it for those of us who have been brought up in and around pantomimes. The result is a series of sketches and comedy routines which look good on paper but, I promise you, look fantastic on stage. If ever you want to find a routine for a piece of slapstick, traditional pantomime or children's theatre, look no further. Paul, howzabout a second edition with lots more? Finally, I'd like to use the WWW to apologise publicly to my commuting companions who must have thought me two sandwiches short of a picnic whilst reading this book on the train each morning. I know, for sure, that it got me to work a happier and jollier person. Oh yes, it did!

This book deals with the depth and power of Ted Hughes writing in a way which is readable, yet sufficiently technical to highlight the mechanisms being used. It draws on French theorists, notable Lacan and Kristeva, to expose the poems as being ultimately a search for meaning amongst an ostensibly wild and natural universe. The themes of myth and magic run deep through the book in a manner which matches Hughes' style very closely. I would recommend this book to all who are interested in looking more deeply at this poet's work.

Tog the Ribber is strangely interesting book about a young girl who wrongly passes through the domain of a well known and dangerous ghost on her way to her home. What happens to her because of this mistake, changes her life. This is a book on fear. The illustrations are well thought out and the lyrics are nicely written and corrupted in the point of view of a person deliriously frightened. At first, the over-all impression of the book is dream-like. However, as the reader progresses through the poem, things become more frantic and real. This book is not for very young children. The illustrations can seem too far-fetched and graphic. I believe older children(9-12) would grasp the meaning of such a book better.

his great novel, written in 1771, is one of those books that is written so much in the present moment of its own time that it becomes a valuable and fascinating time capsule for future generations. There is no more entertaining way to visit another time and place. There is no need for you to come to the novel already knowing anything about the eighteenth century, because Smollett has his sharp observant mind and all five of his senses open to his world for you--here you will read all of the sights, sounds, tastes, touches, and most memorably of all (for better and for worse) the *smells* of what surrounds him.

The grumpy-old-man-with-a-heart-of-gold Matthew Bramble takes his family and assorted hangers-on for a tour of Great Britain, visiting Bath, London, and many other places along the way. For lovers of Scotland, you are in for a treat here, as Smollett writes this novel as an important "P.R." job for his homeland to his skeptical English readers. The descriptions of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and the Hebrides make you want to book your airline tickets right away; Smollett has an eye for those aspects of the Scottish landscape and Scottish people that haven't really changed in the last 250 years.

This is an epistolary novel, written entirely in the form of letters with no central narrator.
The strength of this format is that it allows the reader to see the same places and events from the (sometimes radically different) perspective of more than one person. As a result, you get comedy, tragedy, farce, romance, satire, and a good adventure story all in one enjoyable package.

One word of caution, though: because of the epistolary format and the travelogue format, you shouldn't really approach "Humphry Clinker" with the expectations of finding a strong unified plot. This is something that we get mostly from the novels of the late eighteenth century and certainly the Victorian novels of the nineteenth century. There IS a plot--a good one--but just don't expect the plot to be the star of the show. If you read it as a series of memorable and sharply drawn sketches and characters and places, and for how well it captures what is unique to the time and place in which it is written, I think you will enjoy it a great deal.

One of the great things about these Amazon customer reviews is that they can alert you to wonderful books that you would otherwise not consider reading. "Humphry Clinker" is a prime example. An eighteenth-century epistolary novel may not sound too enticing and I would guess that few people other than students whose courses oblige them to, would read it these days. Well, I am here to tell you that you should! It is social satire at its brilliant best. Smollett satirized English society mercilessly, but was even harder on his fellow Scots. The result is a novel that is a continual and wicked joy to read.

The characters are finely drawn and their correspondence is written in very individual voices. We follow their adventures as they journey through England and Scotland in the years before revolution in America and France changed the world forever. It is a world obsessed with social class, money and advantageous marriage (so why did I say it changed for ever!). There is plenty of sharp humor and a deal of profound insight into human nature. Smollett's last and best novel, it is a wise and mature journal of Mankind's folly.

Incidentally, the graphic description of the spa town of Bath will make you never want to drink spa water again. Reading that particular chapter requires a strong stomach.

Full of social satire. A comedy with pathos. Insightful verbal blunders. This picaresque book of travel letters is a hoot with a most satisfying conclusion as the characters get their come-uppance and rewards. I love the distinct and lively images that shine through the puns, word games, and allusions.

I found this book to be very frightening and disturbing. Personally, I never knew how demented the human mind could be until I read this book. If you wish to be able to sleep at night, do not, I repeat, do not, read this book.

This book takes books to a whole new level. It isn't written like a conventional book...but who needs conventionalism? It is not a book for the faint hearted, but is horrendously addictive and makes you want to read more books from the owner of this tormented mind.

In my opinion...pure genius.

A terrifying rollercoaster read. It switches from absurdism to civil war reportage in the space of a sentence. It looks like a book, it's printed like a book, but it reads like something completely different. You might not like it, but you won't forget it.

Adorned with a title that sounds like it was borrowed from Enya's last album, Ulrich Baer's derivative pastiche "Remnants of Song" is appallingly preachy and reductive, politically dubious in the extreme, mind-numbingly repetitive, and written in a style that lowers English critical prose to new levels of lumbering inelegance. For something worthwhile on Baudelaire, look at work by Susan Blood, Ross Chambers, Sartre . . . or anyone else, for that matter! "Remnants of Song" raises (lowers?) the bar in the writing-the-disaster department -- my nominee for the 2003 Residual Culture Award.

when i say baudelaire is brought into the light, i mean that his work is described lucidly and criticized empathetically. the author took special pains to understand the conditions in which baudelaire wrote, and sought to bring fresh perspectives to his analyses of the works sited. i agree with another reviewer of this work who commented that his favorite section concerns the sky -- the treatment of the horizon, frames, and clouds is wonderfully clever. as a dancer and choreographer who enjoys using the imagery of poetry i found this to be one of the most helpful discussions of baudelaire's work available to me. i believe this text would be useful not only to students and lovers of poetry, but also to other artists who would like a multi-faceted reading of some very complicated and layered poems. i must confess that i did not read the sections pertaining to celan, because i am specifically focusing my personal research on baudelaire. i cannot speak for the quality of the discussions in the latter half of the book, but i can highly recommend this text to those interested in baudelaire.

In short, this is the best book ever written on Baudelaire and Celan. Baer articulates very complex and subtle ideas, but his prose is clear and inviting. This is for those who are interested in not only these particular poets, but also issues of "memory" and just "poetry" at large. I particulary love the third chapter "Blindness and the Sky" and the fifth chapter "Landscape and Memory." Considering that poetry is on the verge of extinction in our contemporary, it may be urgent to read this book right now.

These poems are filled with obscene language and non-sensical usages of words. I read this for a school report, and was disgusted at Mulddoon's lack of talent.

This is not Muldoon's most accessible book, but it would be a shame to mistake the surface complexity for obscurity, or to assume that nothing worthwhile lurks beneath. In fact the book is deep, beautiful and profound -- and, of course, because it is Muldoon, funny as h-e-double-hockeysticks. "The Soap Pig" is as moving as anything Muldoon has written (at least until "Incantata" in *The Annals of Chile*), and several poems, including "Something Else," "The Mist-Net," and the excellent title poem are showcases for the poet's inimitable wit. As for those who have trouble locating the "point" of Muldoon's work, they should check out the poem called "The Point" in his new collection, *Hay*. Like his other work, it may leave them scratching their heads, but hey, if you've got an itch . . .

I just recently caterered my husband's 30th birthday party with a Scottish theme. I found "A Little Scottish Cookbook" to have well laid out traditional recipes that were easy to prepare. However, after buying a few other cookbooks on the subject at the time, it's pretty standard. If you're looking for the standard bill of fare in Scottish recipes this is it.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book, but descriptions such as "sane" referring to Lord Byron seem a little generous when applied to the Lord Byron written about by so many other respectable authors. The biographical information contained is rather extensive considering the book's size, and all of said information is accurate as far as my studies have shown. Altogether the book is an informative and enjoyable read, but the author's view of Byron seems a little too naive. --C.Dola

An odd little book, this is more of a journal in verse than a collection of independent poems. It was published at about the same time that Farrar, Straus and Giroux published Muldoon's THE ANNALS OF CHILE, and the style here is quite similar to that book's long poem "Yarrow." Like "Yarrow," this sequence is highly allusive and makes plenty of inside personal jokes as well; you don't so much hope to understand it as just go along for the ride. What mitigates the opacity somewhat is Muldoon's playful approach to form: the entries often fall into sonnets, and there's always some kind of rhyme scheme to trace. Muldoon's trademark playful pararhyming is very much on display here, as when he criticizes an Irish production for making Chekhov "more Irish / than a rush." Anyone who already enjoys Muldoon should read this, but it certainly shouldn't be the first thing you read by him.