When the great Moitessier died in 1994, was working to his "manual", and " A Sea Vagabond's World ", finished by his companion Veronique and printed in 1996, is the result, the summa of his thought. You have to forgot electronic equipment, regatta tactics, crowded moorings... and enter in his philosophy, in his primitive method of rigging, in his innumerable astuteness that at the right moment may be your salvation. Feel how is a life in an atoll, in harmony with everything and everybody. If you will follow his philosophy even only in a Sunday sailing, you will feel better, more autonomous, free and you will understood what beautiful and big is the world and you will wish only to set out and sail on it.

Suspenseful, beautifully written, splendid character portrayals. One of the best descriptions of Paris I have ever read - it's magical! Don't miss this book!

Here are some features of this collection that readers might want to know about. It includes the original notes to *Vathek* (the 1816 version) and *The Giaour* and presents them as they were intended to be presented: in separate sections following each work. Editorial glosses and footnotes, on the other hand, are at the bottom of each page--my students, who don't like hunting for endnotes, tell me this makes a real difference for them. In addition to the three main works, *Three Oriental Tales* includes a sample from *The Arabian Nights* and Oriental tales from *The Spectator*, Johnson's *Rambler*, Goldsmith's *Citizen of the World* (Letter 33, an Orientalist send-up of Orientalism), and the complete text of Maria Edgeworth's "Murad the Unlucky." It also includes Francis Jeffrey's contemporary review of *The Giaour* and a set of recent critical responses to the tales, plus a chronology of literary Orientalism in Britain from the early translations of *The Arabian Nights* to Byron's death in 1824.

"A Time We Knew: Images of Yesterday in the Basque Homeland" is the product of a fascinating collaboration between photographer William Albert Allard and the dean of Basque-American literature, Robert Laxalt.

In the fall of 1967, Allard spent two months in the Basque country of northeastern Spain and southwestern France, capturing with his camera the everyday life of the people who lived there. Although Allard spoke no Basque and was linked to the Basque country only through his Basque wife, his stunning photos evoke the tremendous power of the Basque landscape and people: the haunting flanks of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques at evening; the gloomy mountains of the northern coast of Spain just at the approach of a storm; a rough-hewn woman with a scythe at Behorleguy, on the frontier between youth and age, in whose face is reflected the painful past of the ancient Basque people. From a technical point-of-view, these incredible photographs are so good that they could truly be "images of yesterday": the color is brilliant. Alas, though, "yesterday" in the Basque country is no more. The years since 1967 have seen the heavy industrialization of both the French and Spanish sectors of the Basque homeland and the gradual passing of the ancient ways Allard captures here.

Laxalt's contribution to this book is his prose vignettes, some of the best of his characteristically exquisite prose-poetry. A second-generation Basque-American whose father grew up in the French Basque country, Laxalt knows the region as well as probably anyone in the United States. While one cannot miss the heavy dose of romanticism in his prose ("Girls slender as reeds walking hand in hand down the lane, singing an ode to spring in soprano voices pure and light as air") and even pastoralism (exacerbated by the fact that the Basques are some of the world's greatest shepherds), it is obvious that Laxalt is a remarkable writer.

A poetic look at "yesterday" in the Basque country. Get it on your shelf.

The story of Cinderella is my favorite. When I was little I would watch this movie over and over. The music the plot itself, it was all so breath taking.This is a great book and I hope there are many more like this to come.

I enjoyed this book and also Watchers in The Sun. Heartwarming storis of animals that the writer took care of while in the South of France. I laughed and cried and was left with a warm feeling. Have the tissues handy!

I read this book the first time in 1985, eighteen years ago.
The book is a historical fictional novel. The people and events that took place actually occured. The author filled in some of what may have been said, although she researched the book thoroughly on location and refered to some diaries and letters
for dialogue.
The reseach took place over many years. I spent many long days at the libraries where she did her research as a teenager. We
also visited some of the locations of the events and places in the novel. The novel is a fast paced, riveting read. It is not a book that you'll want to put down. The Battle scenes are painted vividly with words, and it is an important piece of American History that you'll not want to miss out on. Frankly, I am surprised it hasn't been made into a major motion film yet... This is definitely a unique one-of-a-kind novel you must have to add to your bookcase or library, especially at a time in our own renewal of freedom and patiotism in history. It makes you appreciate what early Americans endured to make this country what it is today. Men will like this book for the intriguing historic battles, and women will be drawn into the romance and life in early America. It's a very entertaining way to spend some time. I hope you will enjoy this book as much as I did. Happy reading!

This book is phenominal! In a catagory of study where there is so much false information circulating, Monter stays close to the facts. The Jura Region discussed by Monter, is the area between modern day France and Switzerland. This area is also one of the earliest (not to mention most heated) areas of witch trial concentration. Monter gives a very localized and thorough discription of the trials in this area, as well as a very well supported argument on the reasons why this area is so fertile for witchcraft accusations. A must have for anyone who is interested in witch trials.

This is an exciting book that unfortunately feels formulamatic at times. Maybe that is because it was produced as a serialized novel originally. It can have that "find out what our heros are up to next issue" feel.

Overall it is fast paced, but long. I liked the action sequences and the author's creation of distinct personalities for his heros. While I had to read this over a long period of time, I found I enjoyed it most when I could put in a couple of hours at a time and fully submerge myself in the author's world. I would recommend picking this up for a vacation book or if you know you'll be able to keep at it night after night.

The author uses a convincing historical and period backdrop for his tale. It feels real which aids the story. The romantic nature of his heros leads to a wonderful story of comradship and loyalty, good versus evil, etc. Many things to like, but I did not find it deserves quite as lofty a pedestal as most of these other reviewers do.

For those trying to read The Musketeers Saga:
In the original French, there are only three (3) books - 1. The Three Musketeers 2. Twenty Years After and 3. Ten Years Later. But when translated, most English editions split the behemoth Ten Years Later into a Trilogy (and some four - which make it all the more confusing!).

The reading list should be 1. The Three Musketeers 2. Twenty Years After and 3a. The Vicomte de Bragelonne 3b. Louise de la Valliere and 3c. The Man in the Iron Mask. Five books - that's the total series!

I highly recommend this series from Oxford University Press containing the complete unabridged and annotated versions of all of these books. The notes are located in the back of each book so as not to slow down the flow of the text. Most of the notes give additional info on historic characters and places. And a few point out that Dumas was a better storyteller than historian, as keeping dates seems to be such a nuisance!

The story starts out with a young naive Gascon by the name D'artagnan who goes to seek his fortune with the King's Musketeers. On his journey to Paris he has a tangle with a man named Rochefort whom D'artagnan chases throughout the book, along with his female companion Milady, a woman of pure evil.

He meets the Three Musketeers and they don't get off to such a great beginning as he finds himself preparing to fight a duel with all three of them. Eventually D'artagnan wins over Athos, Porthos, and Aramis and together the four set off on adventures to protect their majesty the queen (Anne of Austria) against the bad intentions of the cardinal.

It's all intigue and romance and swashbuckling! I loved it all, every sentence. And i love how M. Dumas twists history to his own literary devices.

I played hooky to finish reading this book!

I don't know why this is, but classic books are often bound into heavy, dark tomes and printed in the tiniest print with almost no space between the lines. Perhaps the publisher imagines these books will not actually be read anymore, but instead are supposed to serve as fillers for the large shelves in aristocratic libraries and behind lawyers' desks.

Well, for those of us who still like to dust off the classics and read them, TOR's edition of the Hunchback of Notre Dame serves nicely. It's bound in a modern style--small, with an intriguing cover, with easy-on-the-eyes print. And, it's complete and unabridged (accept no substitutions on this point, otherwise you're depriving yourself of the grand vision of the artist). Also, TOR's 458-page mass market paperback is only [$]--when was the last time you got so many hours of entertainment for so little?

The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a dark, desperate novel, filled with mist and moonlight and echoes in the lonely streets of 15th century Paris past midnight. In the main, it tells the intersecting stories of three lonely characters, each aching in their own way. There's Claude Frollo, archdeacon of Josas, who's spent his whole life cloistered in the tight garb of Catholicism. There's La Esmeralda, an enchantingly beautiful gypsy who's searching for her long lost mother. And, of course, there's Quasimodo, the malformed, hunchbacked figure haunting the shadows of the Cathedral of Notre Dame.

Hugo knows how to tell a story--there is plenty of irony, a few good surprises, and some excellent characterization. He paints the dark places of humanity: people struggling to survive, to find hope in the midst of horror, each clinging in some way to a dream that can never be realized.

One drawback of the book is its pacing, which, at times, slows to a crawl. For example, there is a long chapter on the layout of Paris in the 15th Century, which, if you're not a city planner or fastidious historian, can get pretty long and boring. Even Hugo seems to know it becomes boring, because he recaps so often. Also, Hugo often breaks the fourth wall and directly addresses the reader, which can be distracting and anti-dramatic at times. Thirdly, I would have liked to spend some more time with that loveable wretch, Quasimodo. He has a big part in the end, but not much more. But don't let these minor annoyances stop you from reading a great story.

If you have patience, The Hunchback of Notre Dame will rebuild the gothic Notre Dame of stone in words; if you have imagination, it will acquaint you with the adventures of some extraordinary characters; and if you have a heart, you will shed a tear for Claude Frollo, La Esmeralda, and Quasimodo.

Simply put, The Hunchback of Notre Dame is one of the best novels I have ever read. I loved Victor Hugo's writing style (or the translation thereof), the comprehensiveness of description of both characters and setting (for the most part), and the ideas that Hugo provoked in me as I went through the book.

The novel is about a beautiful, young, virtuous and romantic gypsy (La Esmeralda), a deformed and deaf bellringer of the cathedral of Notre Dame (Quasimodo), and an archdeacon (Frollo) whose obsessive nature creates the tragedy that all three will realize at the end of the novel.

All three characters have the one uniting feature of unrequited love. Esmeralda seeks the love of Phoebus, an officer whose only interest is that of the carnal nature, and sees the gypsy as only another girl to have his way with. Quasimodo and Frollo each seek the love of Esmeralda, who does not return it due to their physical and (best attempt at description) spiritual odiousness, respectively.

Ironically, the hideous Quasimodo and lovely Esmeralda hold the most in common, as Hugo makes the reader aware that both of them are adopted (and even in their infancy, their lives are linked), and that both are social pariahs, Quasimodo due to his appearance, and Esmeralda due to her gypsy heritage, her beauty, a crime attributed to her, and, of all things, a performing goat she trained, the sum of which tags her as a sorceress. In fact, both, due to these characteristics, are linked with the devil, although their actions show a goodness that outweighs that of any other characters in the novel.

Variations on the notion of "love" are examined in the book, There is Esmeralda's romantic love where she imagines the handsome captain Phoebus to be the embodiment of masculine virtue, Phoebus' physical love where the value of a woman is based on her appearance and promiscuity and lasts until he's satisfied his physical urges, Frollo's obsessive love where a person, whose life is spent on monomaniacly focusing on his faith, his studies, and alchemy, finds a beautiful young girl in his sights (his love amounting to a sickness, his resulting actions morbid symptoms), and Quasimodo's love, based on the kind acts of another. This last love is the only one of the three not focused on one's appearance, as Quasimodo does not develop this affection until Esmeralda soothes him while he is tortured for trying to kidnap her at Frollo's (his adoptive father) direction. It is Quasimodo's love and his expression of it in acts of kindness, not to mention saving Esmeralda's life once and trying to do so a second time, that makes him such an endearing character.

This novel also has some incredible descriptive moments, such as the dark streets of 15th century Paris while Frollo wanders in a state of confusion following what he thinks is the death of the woman he loves, and the depiction of Paris at dawn, quaint and placid just before the story's most tragic climax.

Hugo also provides some description of the architecture of the cathedral itself, which I found very interesting, and a description of the layout of Paris in the 15th century, which I found not so interesting, due to my unfamiliarity with the city itself and the history thereof, although a French reader, especially one in the 19th century, would have probably appreciated it. This is the only element of the novel that I did not like, and it is but one chapter.

This story grabbed me, and I was hanging on every word Hugo wrote. I found myself emotionally affected at many points of the story, which is not something that often occurs when I read a novel. I was so impressed with the book that I got Les Miserables after only reading 100 pages of Hunchback. I give this novel 5 stars, and it deserves every single one of them.

Having seen at least two Hollywood versions of this story (we won't even mention the Disney monstrosity!), I eagerly looked forward to reading Victor Hugo's original. As his superior writing unfolded the story, I soon realised that the four movie versions that have been made were conceived by people with very limited scope and understanding!

The story of 15th century life around the edifice of Notre Dame cathedral is brought to life through Hugo's descriptions that allow you to hear the noise of the hustle and bustle of the people and smell the scents that waft about the place. You feel the torturous loneliness of the deformed bellringer, Quasimodo; the pain of the forbidden lust that Claude Frollo has for the beautiful gypsy, Esmeralda; and the despair and terror of Esmeralda as she is accused and sentenced to death for the murder of her lover, Captain Phoebus!

It's a great book...I'll never be able to watch the movies ever again!