A reviewer below states that Shakespeare's literary value is unquestioned. This is patent nonsense. Every year, untold numbers of people (students, etc.) are forced to read him by trained teachers and they still end up questioning his value. Let's examine the Shakespeare cult:
1) Any author who needs an interpreter, explainer, or support from the educational system to keep readers is simply not a vital author. If Shakespeare was a vital author, people would love him without the brainwashing and spoonfeeding of a vast educational system that insists on teaching these tired plays year after year because everyone has done so year after year.
2) Silly romances and boring dramas driven by improbable plots and vulgar jokes are not great literature. These plays are the work of a man who spent far too much time on scandal and trivial junk to be taken seriously.
3) The Shakespeare nuts want it both ways and they can't have it either way. On the one hand, they insist that Shakespeare be regarded with the reverence one would give to holy scripture. No one must dare question its greatness, truthfulness, or entertainment value. If you do so, you will be attacked as a philistine. On the other hand, when people believe this nonsense and stay away from Shakespeare because they do not want to be bored, the cultists insist that we are taking it too seriously and that Shakespeare is simply great theatre (when it is nothing of the sort) which can be enjoyed with as much gusto as a rock concert or a stand up comedy act (which is a lie).
4) Any book that needs a glossary for the reader in order to be understandable must either be abandoned as dated or translated into modern English. The Shakespeare nuts wouldn't insist that anyone read Beowulf in Old English or argue that its Old English language is so beautiful that we all must learn what is now a foreign language to us but they do this when it comes to Shakespeare. This is beyond irrational. Imagine being forced to read a viking saga in Old Norse with only a glossary to assist you because the professor happens to love the cadences of Old Norse. This is no different from the nuts who do the same with Shakespeare.
5) I judge literature on two, and only two, criterion: Is it intriguing? Is it entertaining? I don't give a fig about some academic telling me I need to read something because it is hitorically important. I doubt that Shakespeare's audience paid to see his plays because they had historical importance and neither will I. Alas, what was entertaining even twenty years ago seems dated and boring today, nevermind what may have been entertaining hundreds of years ago. Old jokes lose their punch, old romances become foolish and insipid with time, old dramas about historical figures become irrelevant and sleep inducing, old concerns no longer concern us. Shakespeare is dated, unfunny, boring.
And no amount of forcing the issue will change that. Free Shakespeare from the support of the educational system and watch him become forgotten as quickly as last years fashions. And I say, "good riddance" to an author who should have been relegated to the trash heap at least a century ago.

The very idea of reviewing or giving stars to Shakespeare in this format is superfluous: he is the epitome of English literature. The source and inspiration for many subsequent classics, the well from which many popular expressions have sprung, the basis for many brilliant (and not-so-brilliant) stage and film renditions of these classics -- Shakespeare's literary greatness lies universally ackwnoledged and unquestioned. In reviewing any edition of the man's works, then, the reviewer's task is not to comment upon the work itself, but the presentation. This Gramercy edition of The Complete Works (yes, that's all 37 plays -- comedies, histories, and tragedies -- as well as all of the poems, sonnets included) is the most popular and widely-available -- and inexpensive -- version available. Is it the best? Well, no. Other reviews of this edition have commented upon its shortcomings -- extremely small print; very tight and hard-to-read layout; no margins for notes; no footnotes or annotations; no background information on the plays; errors, typos, and generally questionable editing. That said, this edition may have what you're looking for. It does indeed contain the complete works; it also has a few other small incentives: a hard cover that looks great on a bookshelf, a built-in bookmarker, and various illustrations. Clearly, this is not an omnibus for the Shakespeare scholar. If you want an edition of the bard for in-depth study or for academic use, you are better off buying more expansive editions of the individual plays themselves, with plenty of background info, notes, annotations, and space for your own writing; or else one of the more expensive editions of the Complete Works. That said, if you are just looking for a Shakespeare book that has all of his works in one place, that is convenient and, above all, inexpensive -- or you just want a Shakespeare tome sitting on your dust-ridden bookshelf to impress friends -- then you could do worse than picking up this.

Few writers in history have been able to come close to matching Shakespeare's astounding flair for writing, and this volume is the perfect compliment to his talent. The engravings inside are beautiful, and the plays, even without their numbers and their footnotes, are still as incredible as they ever were. To those of you who say that Shakespeare is boring, you're not really understanding his work, or you are simply unable to appreciate anything this old. I highly recommend this particular edition

I think this would have been a better anthology if the editor had spent more time finding sources. It doesn't really seem like he searched lesser-known documents; just about everything here is pretty well known. The quality ranges from excellent to somewhat pointless.

I purchased this book without having any firsthand knowledge of it as a background source and I haven't been minutely disappointed. Kadzis assembled both primary and secondary sources either from the time of the Civil War or from more modern secondary source writings about aspects of that war. In any case the extracts were singularly well chosen and are valuable for my purposes. I would recommend Kadzis' compilation to any person searching for a single source of Civil War rememberances written at the time or of modern fiction writers using the events of that war around which to build their longer story. The writings he has selected are very useful and interesting.

This book is in a series put out by Adrenaline books and each book contains certain selections chosen by the editor. The selections are generally either excerpts from books, excerpts from diaries and journals, short stories, or an occasional essay. I look at how good the writing is, and how good the stories are.

This is a strong anthology in many ways. It had a variety of civil war literature that helps to give a fuller picture of the civil war experience. There are many letters, stories, and diary entries and even a copy of orders given by a General. We get a picture of the inner workings of the war by people directly involved, as well as a picture of the world outside the war and how it was effected. We hear aspects of the war from multiple points of view. A soldier's fighting experience, a General's commanding view, letters to loved ones back home, the viewpoint of a young southern girl, life in a military prison. The reader gets to see not just the war, but the world it encompassed.

The anthology is made even stronger by the selections of famous people's writings. We get to read the words of General Ulysses S. Grant, Stephen Crane, Generals Pickett and Sherman, Abraham Lincoln, and even Walt Whitman (who worked in the hospitals treating wounded soldiers from both sides).

The only negative thing about this book is that it has no amazing powerful pieces. Almost all the selections are good (with two or three exceptions), but none are outstanding, in terms of either the writing or the story. There are no exceptionally well written pieces and no really incredible stories. This is unfortunate, but does not detract too much from the overall book. And also this volume includes some fiction, which generally does not exist in these series of books. Other than that the book is good and worth reading.

I can't believe how you nice little English people can actually edit such terrible and unbelievable books! I hope you'll never ever get another book published!

This play by Shakespeare has had a tremendous influence. First it was trasnformed into an opera by Purcell under the title of The Fairy Queen. Second it was widely known in Germany at the time of Goethe, but under the title of The Walpurgis Night. Goethe himself alludes to it in Faust and composes his Walpurgis Night at the end of the Faust as the prolongation of the end of Shakespeare's play. What is interesting in this play is the fact that the world of spirits, the night in the forest are used as elements to create a marvellous and light comedy. No witchcraft in all this. An entertaining though slightly grotesque tale. The Queen and King of the fairies use their powers to make fun of simple men, even providing Bottoms with the head of an ass (an old practice from the Middle Ages when the bishop of the pope were shown as being asses in the Masses of Fools or of Asses, some « carnival » rites authorised by the Church). But what is most important in this play is the fact that the fairies, with all their antics, make three marriages possible, and that is the end of the play. Three marriages, two times three people, three men and three women, the sacred number of Salomon. This ending is a christian ending. And when we add to these three marriages the couple of the Queen and King of Fairies, we come to the number of four couples, which is the sign of perfect equilibrium in Shakespeare. We find such a umber (four marriages) in As you Like It. Finally the whole play, or nearly it all, takes place in the night, the realm of Selene, the goddess of the night and the moon, who is only one of the three facets of Diana, the goddess of forests, animal life and hunting, whose third facet is Hecate, the goddess of death. This threeforld nature of Diana is constantly present in the play. It is the very symbol of the fairies. We must understand that for Shakespeare three is the number of disruption, chaos and the fairies bring chaos, though, in the end perfect equilibrium is achieved. The last element concerns the style of Shakespeare. He adapts his style to every character, moving from the highest and most perfect poetry with the King and Queen of fairies or with Theseus and Hippolyta, to a very simple language with the six (six again) craftsmen who prepare a play for Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding. In other words it is a light comedy that carries Shakespeare's whole art in its lines. A perfect introduction to this art, and with a lot of fun, thanks to the pranks fo Puck, a light-headed fairy of his own.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

I loved this book so much. This story is just so magical with mischevious Puck and glimmering Titania. I enjoyed this book from cover to cover!

Obviously not up to the standard Gaiman started out with in the Books of Magic mini-series, but then again it was not expected to be. Only Gaiman can write like Gaiman. The plot is a little hap-hazard and it has a few confusing moments. The significance of Tim's dueling tatoos, what exactly happened to Cupid, what happened to that director guy... there are a lot of plot threads that are totally abandoned or unexplained. But the magic of the story is still in there somewhere. It may not be seen in the monsters and mermaids and fairys. The magic in the book is the beautiful way Tim and Leah and Molly's goofy adolescence is perfectly portrayed (even if Leah is several thousand years old). Good. Not Gaiman good. But good.

When I started reading the series, I thought that the Books of Magic were really great. The illustrations, the storyline, the depth in a graphic novel that is rare in comic books nowadays. When I worked my way to _The Girl in the Box_ , the quality that the previous issues had was slightly tattered, and the story was not so fascinating, but all in all, it's still a great book.

I first started reading the Books of Magic series about a year ago. I love this comic and thought the Girl in the Box was just as good as any other. This book disserves 5 stars.

Dedication to the Oxford English Dictionary (aka: OED), Norman Lewis' Syntactics and Etymology, for example, as well as life-long devotion to Pythagorian Theory and Polynomials, provide undeniable essential foundations as a preparatory for the CBEST that not but one (1) or even ten (10) Study Guides can match... Lifetime devotion to diplomacy and communicative-logic skills remains foremost; not one study guide but the avid reading of many volumes of study guides that scholars recount and recommend to be critical foundations...

I used the Clifftestprep book by Jerry Bobrow to prepare for the CBEST, which I took on June 8, 2002. I found the book to be very concise. The book reviews the things you'll need to know to take the test -- reading comprehension, math, and essay. The book gives good tips on test-taking techniques. Also, there are numerous mini-tests, and four complete (4-hour) sample tests included. I actually spent four hours one Saturday afternoon taking one of the sample tests, and it was great preparation for the real thing. As for the comment left by the previous reviewer about there being some errors and typos, I think I did find one or two typos out of 400 or 500 solid pages of text and examples, but these few minor typos were not a big deal at all, and in no way detracted from the valuable knowlege the book provided. I say, check it out.
--Mark V.
p.s. I get my results in two weeks. I hope I pass. I'm fairly confident that I did pass.

I went to the CBEST prep course for the people who put this book together. This book is the best book out there if you want to pass the CBEST the first time. You will get your money's worth. I have tried many books and this book was right on to the CBEST test. Good Luck All!

Logical errors run rampant throughout this book. Definitely stay away from it.

If you have just one week to study, and plan to spend less than $30. This book with ETS Official Guide is what I recommend you to get. Cliff Notes gives a brief review, give you one diagnostic test. If you have $100 budget and months to study for the test, this book would like be as helpful as other books. However, If you only have one week and just want to have a brief prep, this is a must have.

It's worthy every cent you invest on it. Despite the fact that it's not as fashionable as some others like Kaplan, Princeton, etc. Cliffs does a very serious job, covering all GMAT subjects and providing many good questions with explanations.

"Pagen" [sic] is misspelled in the Beowulf introduction. Henry II is described in the introduction as having ruled from 1154 to 1177, when in actuality, he ruled until his death in 1189. The more I read, the less I trust what I'm reading. I recommend M. H. Abrams' Norton anthology instead.

otherwise its a great collection of texts. 3 books too.

This is an excellent anthology, with generous selections, lively introductions, and beautifully reproduced color plates. Though published on "bible paper," there is very little bleed-through. It is an splendid alternative to the Norton Anthology, not only for its ample contexts sections and for its loving attention to both canonical and new writers (especially women writers of the Renaissance), but also for its favoring of complete works--More's Utopia, Sidney's Apology, etc. I've been using IB this semester, and though there are, as the (I think excessively) negative reviewer notes below, occasional errors, these are not unusual in massive endeavors. An old game in the 1950s used to be to send grad students in search of errors and typos in the standard literary critical books of the day. I'm sure these will be cleaned up. For now the book works especially well for "survey" courses and for upper-level, specialized courses, when supplemented by another paperback or two, or course packets.

Roger Cullingwood discovers that his wife Francie is having an affair with Ned Demarco, so Roger decides that Francie must die. Roger hatches a perfect murder or did he?

The quality of the writing grabs you on the first page. Characters are drawn with accuracy and keen insight. The plot is beautifully developed. It is suspenseful but not in a predictable way, you see what's coming, but trust me you are still surprised and amazed. This book has several graphic love scenes.

Peter Abrahams is the author of eight previous novels, including " The Fan" and "Lights Out", which was nominated for an Edgar Award for best novel.

The quality of the writing grabs you on the first page. Characters are drawn with deft accuracy and keen insight. The plot is beautifully developed. It's suspenseful but not in a predictable way: you see what's coming, but trust me: you're still surprised. The grace with which Abrahams accomplishes what seems to be effortlessly unfolding left me thoroughly impressed. The author does not resort to cheap tactics, no easy outs: it's just solid writing. This guy is now near the top of my list of all-time favorite authors. My only question is, why isn't he more acclaimed? If you thought Grisham was good, this makes him pale in comparison. If you think Grisham is mediocre, RUN to your keyboard and order this book, and you can thank me later.

Roger Cullingwood discovers that his wife Francie is having an affair with Ned Demarco, so Roger decides that Francie must die. Roger hatches a perfect murder or did he?

The quality of the writing grabs you on the first page. Characters are drawn with accuracy and keen insight. The plot is beautifully developed. It is suspenseful but not in a predictable way, you see what's coming, but trust me you are still surprised and amazed. This book has several graphic love scenes.

Pam @ MyShelf.Com

This book is OK but people get hurt like when Squanto and some other men were captured and thrown into a dungeon.Then they were sold as slaves! When Squanto returned to his home his family was dead!!!! At first he didn`t know but then he went to a nearby tribe and asked "where`s my family?" the tribe said 'white men bring terrible disease everyone die!!!!!!!!

This book is a really great book! Squanto, a young man, goes to London and stays there for years. Finally, he goes home. But every one died over a terrible sickness. He was sad his family died.

Once there was a Indian boy named Squanto and he lived in the Patuxet Tribe. Out of no where English men had come to their villiage and everyone paniced. Everyone started to hide in the woods, but Squanto wanted to talk with these white men. His mother didn't want him to go because it might be dangerous, but the chief said it might be the best if Squanto tries to talk with them. Squanto noticed that they were in peace and the white men offered Squanto to go to America with them. Squanto got permission from their tribe and everyone wanted Squanto to have a wonderful adventure. When he went to America he had some fun and some difficulties from other Americans. He stayed there for about 3 years and when he came back to his village his tribe had disappeared because of a astonishing disease that flew through the tribe. Now Squanto didnt had to join a different tribe......the Massasoit tribe.
I liked this book very much because it gave a little bit of detail about Indians back then and how they lived together. In some points of the book sometimes it is very sad because he lost his whole tribe by some disease. When Squanto was in the city of America I was obviously known that the Americans were suprised that there were still Indians around. Then, when they brought Squanto here the White men settled their own camp in the island of Indians. This book was very interesting.
My favorite part was when Squanto returned to his village. Even though it was sad it came to my attention that it was the main event in the story. Squanto might of felt really sad, but atleast he had other tribes he could of went to. If he had no tribes to go to anymore he could have been captured by the Pilgrims. But I doubt it that they will survive there with all those Pilgrims.

This text has good and bad points. It's translation of terms in the back, the background information on text pointing, and the briefer listing and explanation of the MS accent system is probably less overwhelming than other such references. But in the end, one would purchase this overpriced book with the purpose of learning the uses of the accents in Hebrew pointed text. The book comes up way short.

After giving some specific information on certain common disjunctive accents, it then shows the rest of the disjunctive accents with little or no explanation as to what they are doing in the text. The conjunctive accents are listed separately with no explanation whatsoever as to how they work. And two of the most common text pointings found in the Hebrew Bible are missing! I've never found memorizing symbols without explanations to be of any help in anything.

One should just pay a little more money and buy a reference which gives all the accents and explains their uses. As it is, my copy of this book has told me virtually nothing that I hadn't already learned in the two Hebrew grammars/ workbooks I've used to learn Hebrew.

Invest your money elsewhere than in this book.

If one is interested in decoding the minutia around the BHS text, then this book is an invaluable resource to have available.

Upon careful reading, I found the explanation of the accents in this volume to be adequate, especially when applied directly to individual verses in the BHS.

For those just beginning to work with the Hebrew Bible, this little guide can be very valuable. There is much in BHS that needs explaining, but is missing or difficult to comprehend in the front matter of BHS itself. The material in Scott's book is available in more substantial reference books on the Masorah ("The Masorah of BHS" by Kelley et al.) or textual criticism (see "Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible," by Emmanuel Tov), but these books are considerably larger and more expensive. The latter may be particularly difficult for beginners. As a quick and easy handbook for navigating BHS, Scott's book is very useful.