While Empson's posthumous publication, "Faustus and the Censor," first came out in the 1980's, it remains a relevant document in Christopher Marlowe criticism. The oft-disputed authenticity of Marlowe's play "Doctor Faustus," and its two versions, the A and B-texts is the main focus of Empson's book. Empson begins with the beginning - Marlowe's sources, primarily the German Faust Book. Empson discusses the possible relationship with the translator of English Faust Book, a mysterious gentleman named 'P.F.' who may have provided Marlowe with information on German and Latin texts.

Empson's thesis is that the A text is the 'original' - but that its seeming inadequacies are due to the interference of the official censor of plays in the late 1500s. Scenes missing that Empson argues were removed for reasons of state and morality are an appearance of the chorus and an episode in a Turkish harem.

The censor, Empson argues, had three major problems with Marlowe's play that required change: 1)the women Faustus consorts with must be real women - because Anglican belief did not allow that devils could consort with humans. 2)Mephistopheles must be a devil - again, Anglicanism does not allow for middle spirits. 3)Faust must be punished eternally at the end of the play; apparently, the original version when acted, left some ambiguity about this issue.

Empson's "Faust and the Censor" tends to be somewhat repetitive on supporting these points. However, the repetition is done well, so that the points he makes are continuously reinforced and consistently developed. This is an engaging piece of literary criticism - the language is familiar, even colloquial, making the book an interesting and even entertaining read - very unusual in the field of literary criticism. I don't even like Marlowe, but Empson's style and substance make this a critical work worth checking out.

Mixing the erudite and colloquial language, Washabaugh's text has so many references to other sources one begins to wonder whether any of the content is actually original. Since he's an American Anthropologist I suppose one should forgive his limited view of an art form whose cultural roots must be as alien to him as little green men from Mars. The author seems to think flamenco performers are 'doing politics' whether they want to or not. He totally misses the point that flamenco has no high ideals, and no political goals, apart from serving as an emotional catalyst. On his web article about some of the videos he talks about in this book, his lack of research is really deplorable. No- Do in Seville comes from the days of Alfonso X in the 13th Century when the loyalty of the city led him to proclaim No Me Han Dejado- They Did Not Abandon Me on the coat of arms of the city. Nothing to do with Christ's cry from the cross, Mr. Washabaugh, do your homework.

Book was just your basic run of the mill kind. Nothing special about i

I'm a CRNA who has been practicing for one year. I was put in a positon to perform primarily cardiac anesthesia. I purchased this book to enhance what I learned in school and at work.

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who understands the basics of cardiac anesthesia. It is more of a reference for those who are in their residency or first years of anesthesia.

Overall there are probably more comprehensive texts, but it only took me about 4 hrs. to read through this text and I'm not a fast reader.

Very dry for fun reading but great for reports, etc. When I say dry I mean it won't be fun to read just for fun. I used it for a report on the Mashantucket Pequot tribe and although it didn't have anything in partcular on them it had things they may have done or do. I recomend it.

Green approaches the Hobbit as serious literature and undertakes to apply archetypal analysis along with some of the tools of physcological criticism. Not much help for a casual reader, but if you have a background in literaty critical theory an interesting explanation of the symbolism of the work.

Green analyses the 2nd edition text of the Hobbit without reference to its sequal, The Lord of the Rings. Those wanting more information about Hobbits or their world must look elsewhere. But if you already understand the plot and are seeking to probe more deeply within the context of medern literary theories, this book may well form a part (though not an overly large one) of that journey.

Unlike most contemporary Greek helps, Alsop's index doesn't do all of the work for you. It does however, greatly reduce the time you will spend using B.A.G.D. Students who are familiar with B.A.G.D. will spend less time finding the root stem of words in the New Testament that have contracted and elided beyond recognition. Tasks such as parsing are left to the student.

This is a great book, if you are interested in self-enlightenment -- if you are searching to find out what life is all about and are interested in exploring the various traditions (in this case, the Islamic tradition), but it does not give one a very good idea of what Islam is all about. Of all the faiths of the world, Al-Islam is among the most dogmatic and narrow-minded in character. The text that Corlett uses exclusively in his interpretation of the Islamic tradition is the "Conference of the Birds", a Sufi text that most Mohammedans are unaware of. This is in keeping with the author's approach of using the more mystical interpretations of each and every major religion (this book is the last in a series of six such books), but also puts one at a distance form the faith and practice of most Moslems, and completely ignores nearly all of the commonly-held tenets and ignores the Al-Qur'an as well! So, if you pick up this book with the intention of learning anything new about Islam, you will be sorely dissapointed. The author seems to have no interest whatsoever in exploring the religion as it is understood by most of the Mussselmen in the world. many of the things he suggests will be considered heretical by the vast majority of Muslims, and the overall approach seems to be more in keeping with Vedanta. Still, since it is obviously not the author's purpose to explore the cultural fact of Islam, or any other religion, but to get to the gist of existence -- to explore the religions and ideas that casued all religions to come into being in the first place. If these are the questions that interest you, then this is one of the best books to read. Like the author says in the introduction, the book does not attempt to come to a definite conclusion or to be dogmatic or final in any way. It is just a guide of self-exploration that may allow one to get something of the wisdom from various of the world's major faiths, in this case, Islam. The words and style that the author's use gets a bit old if you read all of the books in the series . . . it can get a bit repetitive after a while and there seems to me more verbiage than is necessary . . . large parts of the book don't really say much. If you want a good idea of what Islam, as it is commonly practiced is all about, however, look elsewhere.

The title of the book is misleading because author, John Malone, takes the mistaken view that scientists who don't have a formal education and a PhD are amateurs. The underlying theme throughout the book implies that professional scientists are basically snobs with fancy degrees who give little credit to anyone who doesn't have a formal education, and 'amateurs' have made important scientific discoveries. The error in this assumption is that some of the world's greatest scientific geniuses were self-taught and didn't possess PhDs, but they were certainly not 'amateurs.' As Morley points out, Joseph Priestley, Michael Faraday, and others without advanced degrees have made great contributons to science, but they were in fact well-recognized, professional scientists, not amateurs. A great many other names could be added to this list--for example, Thomas Edison, Charles Darwin, Benjamin Franklin, and a host of others. All were self-educated geniuses who made great scientific discoveries.
However, once having recognized Malone's basic misconception, the short biographies are interesting and fun to read. The delightful collection of stories contain plenty of little-known facts that make for enjoyable reading. You'll like the stories even if you don't buy the underlying 'amateur' concept.

But much of the book, which reaches just 150 pages, strays merkedly from the purported subject. The author has a pithy writing style, but his efforts are sometimes misdirected.