Used price: $250.00
Buy one from zShops for: $266.80
Allow ý am radiologist any more it must be in my library too.
Collectible price: $21.85
This book is basically an intellectual history overview with a lot of helpful charts and guides. It's written in a very humorous tone, and it hits the humor target more often than not. If you feel that you lack knowledge, this is the book for you. It's not in depth, but it does tell you what you SHOULD know in all areas, including history, philosophy, music, art, and even film. My personal favorite features are the Latin abbreviations and the "Words you pronounce wrong but if you pronounced them right, you'd be considered a pretentious snob" feature.
For a good time (and to increase your IQ), read this book. It's tongue-in-cheek, but it's a wealth of information.
Used price: $19.90
Buy one from zShops for: $28.16
Professor Joav Merrick... E-mail: jmerrick@aquanet.co.il
Used price: $2.24
The play has the first of Shakespeare's many brave, resourceful and cross-dressing heroines, Julia.
Shakespeare always used his fools and clowns well to make serious statements about life and love, and to expose the folly of the nobles. Two Gentlemen of Verona has two very fine comic scenes featuring Launce. In one, he lists the qualities of a milk maid he has fallen in love with and helps us to see that love is blind and relative. In another, he describes the difficulties he has delivering a pet dog to Silvia on his master, Proteus', behalf in a way that will keep you merry on many a cold winter's evening.
The story also has one of the fastest plot resolutions you will ever find in a play. Blink, and the play is over. This nifty sleight of hand is Shakespeare's way of showing that when you get noble emotions and character flowing together, things go smoothly and naturally.
The overall theme of the play develops around the relative conflicts that lust, love, friendship, and forgiveness can create and overcome. Proteus is a man who seems literally crazed by his attraction to Silvia so that he loses all of his finer qualities. Yet even he can be redeemed, after almost doing a most foul act. The play is very optimistic in that way.
I particularly enjoy the plot device of having Proteus and Julia (pretending to be a page) playing in the roles of false suitors for others to serve their own interests. Fans of Othello will enjoy these foreshadowings of Iago.
The words themselves can be a bit bare at times, requiring good direction and acting to bring out the full conflict and story. For that reason, I strongly urge you to see the play performed first. If that is not possible, do listen to an audio recording as you read along. That will help round out the full atmosphere that Shakespeare was developing here.
After you finish Two Gentlemen of Verona, think about where you would honor friendship above love, where equal to love, and where below love. Is friendship less important than love? Or is friendship merely less intense? Can you experience both with the same person?
Enjoy close ties of mutual commitment . . . with all those you feel close to!
Used price: $1.99
Collectible price: $1.98
Buy one from zShops for: $20.31
The Dark Clue:
a) is utterly devoid of humor (you won't laugh)
b) builds no sympathy in the reader (you won't cry)
c) at 390 pages (in my copy), it certainly makes you wait, but there is a total absence is suspense (your waiting will be tedious).
James Wilson has written a very accomplished novel, in that it recreates Victorian speech and settings quite proficiently. It obviously took him years of research and writing time. But where are the rounded, memorable characters, like Laura Fairlie's peevish uncle with his delicate "nerves" (from The Woman in White) or the terrifying Count Fosco with his white mice, or even the faithful house-steward Gabriel Betteredge (from Collins' The Moonstone) who consults his copy of Robinson Crusoe at every important turn in his life? Lastly and most importantly, what Wilson does with the brave, noble characters of Marian Halcombe and Walter Hartright is not only UNTRUE to their characters, but despicable. For a terrific Victorian novel, stick to Wilkie himself.
The tale is the writing of a biography, a book within a book. The subject is the 19th century painter J.M.W. Turner, and the author has used all 7 major biographies of the man to write his novel. I have read none of them, but I cannot imagine any of them being less enjoyable than this book, and I bet they even have pictures! My complaints in general are that the book is too long, the story presumes the reader to be obtuse, the ending is completely unsatisfying, and this book must be amongst the entries for the most obsessive use of commas. The first two sentences have 4 commas, 2 hyphens, and a parenthetical. The cadence of this book is an uncertain staccato.
I have read Mr. Wilson's other book which was non-fiction and extremely well written. I don't know if he has the ability to eventually write a great or even a good novel, but he will never get there by trying to imitate the work of another. He makes his attempt exponentially more difficult by trying to mimic the writing of an author who has endured for centuries, and he even borrows a character from the man he seeks to emulate.
As the main character in this book sinks in to depravity, the story becomes confused, unsure of what it wants to be, and who is in charge. Many authors say they create their characters and then let them lead. Allowing them to lead, and allowing them to run amok are very different.
I say this is the best reading we can hope for... fiction combined with real historical characters and education combined with great entertainment.
Used price: $15.95
Buy one from zShops for: $15.94
Used price: $1.50
Collectible price: $15.88
Used price: $11.00
Collectible price: $10.59