The world's great writers have always been capable of establishing an unforgettable mood in their works, of combining imagery and plot to create pieces of enduring value. This is no less true of Alexander Lernet-Holenia. More than any other writer of the last century, Lernet-Holenia possessed that indefinable quality that makes his writing an experience both of mind and spirit, the ability to know the human being for what he really is and to provide this knowledge in a literary form that is both enoyable to read and profoundly enlightening to encounter. Chekhov, Faulkner, Joyce, Mann, and Proust are some of the geniuses who gave us life in all its magnificent eloquence and sordidness, who set down in words that superb juxtaposition of beauty and hideousness that constitutes the world we live in and the resulting struggle that humans are constantly engaged with as they are buffeted by these incessant forces. In two novellas, Lernet-Holenia reveals to us the kind of talent that truly makes him the kind of writer who will be read for as long as civilized men exist. There is no reason to repeat what the reviewer above has written about the plots of these two superb stories, as this has been admirably accomplished. But, in closing, I do urge any readers of this review to get a copy of this astonishing book. If you know the difference between good and great, you will be forever thankful you were introduced to Alexander Lernet-Holenia.

This is Thomas Bernhard's first novel, and at first it seems to be a rambling collection of grotesques in the manner of WINESBURG, OHIO. But then, after the insane industrialist and the boy in the cage, we reach the realm of the prince, and the novel takes off into the territory Bernhard explores in his later books -- that is, breathless, disjointed, almost-incoherent blocks of text. Note that I'm not suggesting this is a bad thing. Here it's wonderful. And although the prince's rant is quite exhausting, it's exhausting in a good way (I had to put the book down a few times during Molly's soliloquoy too, but that doesn't mean it's bad, just perhaps a bit demanding). An obvious choice for any Bernhard fan, and just possibly a good trick to play on someone, who will believe they're reading a naturalistic novel, until....

Josef Pieper is probably best known for his book "Leisure: The Basis of Culture." This book on festivity is a good companion to that volume. Pieper discusses festivity's contrast to ordinary, everyday work, but points out that festivity involves more than the absence of labor. Real festivity also requires a quality of spirit which makes enjoyment possible, and that quality of spirit is love. He says, "One who loves nothing and nobody cannot possibly rejoice." The artificial festivals created by business can not possibly regenerate us the way festival is meant to do, because they are rooted in acquisitiveness rather than love and generosity of spirit. This is a beautiful book which will make you want to celebrate something truly festive!

This gem is worthy of 100 stars. Bubar's early writings, the work with Gustav Landaur and Franz Rosenweig in synthesizing "Ich und Du", as well as his editorial comments to writers of Der Jude. A true Passover Feast of wisdom and compassion, even including his letter to Gandhi. The forward by Paul Mendes-Flohr serves as an excellant background.As vital today as he was at the birth of the State of Israel.

This gently-paced novel is a bit of a sleeper, but charming in its homespun simplicity. The first portion of the book describes the difficult and painful existence of displaced German families--unwelcome refugees in their own country. THE ARK was written to enlighten American youth about the horrors of homelessness, separated families and unreasonable prejudice. This book contains no battle memories or war atrocities, but proves that German burocracy is second to none.

Since Mrs. Lechow, a small seamstress, has four children to house and feed, we are not sure for the first 100 pages which of them is the protagonist, as in modern YA novels. Gradually the activities focus on the older teens, Matthias and Margret, as they are weaned from their two upper rooms in Parsley Street to a farm with real animals and crops. The book particularly chronicles Margret's transformation from gawky teenager (privately mourning the death of her twin brother) into a capable farm woman like her mentor.

Before the War the German Railroad had offered old passengers cars for sale, which Mrs. Almut had purchased but not really used. Now it becomes the perfect place for the Lechow teens and is promptly christened, THE ARK. But how can it become a real home--which Margret is sure she will never have again--with half the family elsewhere--including their father, a POW in Russia? Will Margret learn to live with her personal loss, yet not be scarred for future happiness? This is an introspective gem for those who appreciate the importance of holding on to Family and learning how to release past Tragedy. So relax and savor the slower pace, the quiet humor, the cycles of the seasons for two years, and the ultimate time of harvest for the soul.

This classic children's book uses The Odyssey and post-World War II Germany as its basis. The Lechow family (Mother and four kids) have been forced from their family farm with the return of German land to Poland after World War II. With their father still lost in camps in Russia and the death of a fifth child still fresh in their minds, the Lechows have finally found a place to call a temporary home. They are sent to an elderly woman's home to take two rooms and at first fear that the older woman will not accept four children in their house. Luckily she grudgingly lets them stay the first night and never quite makes it to the housing office to force them out, eventually coming to love them. The family needs to find work or schooling for all, Margaret needs to find a place for herself alone now that her twin is dead, and Matthias aches to become an astronomer one day. The children's love for their parents and each other comes through clearly but without a lot of sentimentality.

THE ARK is one of the best books ever written. It has a gentle power to it that makes me glow when I read it and re-read it. It is a story of rebuilding, of finding a new home and a new place to belong. Hope is what this book is. Hope for the future. The Lechows make the best of less than desirable circumstances, finding goodness everywhere they can. The characters are well-developed and real. They take you with them on their emotional journeys and they stay with you after you read the final page. This is a book that deeply touched me. Simply put, it is just Beautiful.

My fifth grade class just read this book for our reading group. It was amazing! The suspense and the humor added just the right touch to this woderful book. I won't give too much away because it would ruin yhe suspense. Seven young Romans attend the Xanthos school. Two students, Rufus and Caius, get into a fight over a tablet reading 'Caius is a Dumbell' that Rufus wrote. The next day in red paint, the same thing is written on a temple dedicated to the Emperor, who is Caius' father! But rufus is innocent. I really enjoyed this book, and you will too! Enjoy!

This book is a comical mystery about seven rich boys who live in ancient Rome and go to the Xanthos school for boys. Cauis isn't very bright, Rufus is the class clown, Aucius is a hard worker, Flavius is the slow boy, Antonius is the fast boy, Publius is the poorest one, and Julius is the boy with the best ideas. In the beginning of the book, Cauis and Rufus pick a fight with each other. Rufus, the class clown wrote, "Cauis is a dumbbell" on a writing tablet. The teacher cruelly punishes Rufus and kicks him out of school. The next day, when the teacher didn't show up for school, they went to his house and found him manacled. Everything in his house was demolished. The same day, another crime was committed. Graffiti was found on the temple wall that was dedicated to Cauis' father, Senator Vinivius...I think this was a great book with an unbelievable ending. The ending was so awesome because I never saw it coming.

Roman history, boring? You wouldn't think so, reading "Detectives in Togas." Seven high-spirited Roman boys and their crabby teacher make up the cast of this outstanding head-scratcher, set in the heydey of Rome's domination.

Rufus disrupted Xantippus's class by writing "Caius is a dumbbell" on a tablet, provoking Caius to start yelling. In the blink of an eye, Rufus has been thrown out of the schoolmates, alarming his classmates. What's even more alarming is that the same message is scrawled on a sacred temple's wall the next day -- in Rufus's handwriting. This act of sacrilege will destroy Rufus's life, and for some reason he won't deny it.

The day of the defacing, Xantippus's house is robbed and the wax tablet is taken, but the robber leaves behind a beautiful golden brooch. The boys go to the soothsayer Lukos, but that goes horribly wrong when the soothsayer chases them out, and they leave behind Mucius, who then proceeds to fall into the Baths of Diana -- discovering that Rufus spent the night there before. The boys soon become enmeshed in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse centering on politics, money and revenge.

Henry Winterfield clearly had solid memories of being a teenage boys. His gaggle of young boys are entirely realistic -- they bicker, they make idiots of themselves, they make all the wrong decisions, they all have distinct personalities. With a cast including seven young boys from similar backgrounds, you would think that they would all be the same, but Winterfield manages to make each one unique. Xantippus is the crabby grandfather with a marshmallowy interior. He clearly cares about all the boys, but is impatient about their blunders.

Kids may leave this charming mystery with a wish to learn a little more about Rome (and to read the sequel, of course). And don't be surprised if you hear someone shouting, "Mike asinus est!"

This book wasn't the best Remarque book that I've read. In short it is about a race car driver, Clerfayt, who falls in love with a terminal ill patient, named Lillian. She finds a new lease on life after leaving the sanatorium with Clerfayt. Clerfayt leads a risky life on the edge, where as Lillian has lead a quiet, "safe" life in an attempt to be cured. Realizing her time is growing short, she feels she is ready for a big change.

Their roles reverse as the course of the book plays out, each gaining insight to the fallacies of the other person's lifestyle. Remarque throws a lot of wit and wisdom in the conversations and thoughts, which to me didn't seem normal. However, Remarque's characters, in all of his books, tend to be deep and thoughtful.

Overall, though, it was enjoyable departure from his typical WW2 books. Worth reading, but he has other better ones.

Even if you are the type to read Remarque's works, this is the most touching and real book i have read. It gives deep insights into love and live in general. The perfect book any hopeless romantic. I will remember this and insights forever.

Alright, I just finished reading this mammoth novel a few moments ago, except for the short stories at the end. The AP english class at my school had to read it last year and this year there were extra copies so I grabbed one thinking alright this might be fun. Well, I'll admit, I struggled with it. And I'm a pretty avid reader but I had to put it down and read other things in between. In the end though, it's remarkable. When Mann said this was a "treasure of purest thought" he hit the mark. The next to last chapter "The Circular Letter" changed my whole way of looking at this book. Yes, it's dry. And Yes, parts of it may seem boring and too drawn out. But for the reader that toils through it, it's an amazing novel and very deeply thought out. There are times I wanted to burn this book, but now I'm honestly very glad I read it. It's beautiful and more relevant to today's day and age than one might think. In that sense I suppose it's timeless.

I read MAGISTER LUDI many years ago after I had been first introduced to Hesse by the short novel DEMIAN. I found my interest in this book was captured by the "Posthumous Writings" of the main character, Joseph Knecht.

I found "The Rainmaker" segment fascinating. It is the first of three short stories about what Knecht might have been in other times and places. The Rainmaker was sensitive to nature, and could deliver rain when it was most needed...except once. At which point he was sacrificed and his heir, whom he had prepared, took over. Rilke once described a poet as a man who must understand "the gestures with which the flowers open." The Rainmaker did.

But top billing in my book is the one page poem STEPS. (My translation is by Mervyn Savill, a most superior one, in my opinion.) I have often described it to my friends as "the best poem in the English language." Do I dare type it out in full?

STEPS, by Herman Hesse

As every blossom fades and all youth sinks/ into old age, so every life's design,/ each flower of wisdom, every good, attains/ its prime and cannot last for ever./

At life's each call the heart must be prepared/ to take its leave and to commence afresh,/ courageously and with no hint of grief/ submit itself to other, newer ties./ A magic dwells in each beginning and/ protecting us it tells us how to live./

High-purposed we must traverse realm on realm,/ cleaving to none as to a home. The world/ of spirit wishes not to fetter us/ but raise us higher, further, step by step./

Scarce in some safe accustomed sphere of life/ have we established house, than we grow lax;/ he only who is ready to inspan/ and journey forth can throw old habits off./

Maybe death's hour too will send us out/ new-born toward undreamed-of lands, maybe/ life's call to us will never find an end.../ Courage, my heart, take leave and fare thee well!

This poem was written by Knecht in his student days, and has become my most prized poem. Another one is fascinating to me, also, titled A DREAM. It describes the flashes of insight that come to us out of nowhere...and disappear just as quickly.

The translator deserves special mention with his" "Scare in some safe, accustomed sphere of life have we established house..." Lovely alliteration, to my ear. Master philosophical novel, truly meaningful poetry. Thank you, Herman Hesse!

I recently finished reading The Glass Bead Game for the second time, the first being when I began college in 1996. The first reading evoked an "awakening" experience, precisely as described -- this is not a coincidence -- in The Glass Bead Game and Hesse's autobiographical writings: my perception of the world, myself, and existence in general was forever altered. It was, to be sure, a mystical experience -- and not of the conventional variety. I expected my second reading, as with most books, to be less compelling, less significant. I also expected to discover aspects of the book that I disliked -- both in style and content. This, however, was not the case. The second read was equally as powerful; even after four years I can still feel the resonance of my first awakening experience. This novel has become, in a sense, my existential guide -- the only truly reliable source of wisdom that I have. Who else besides Hesse could bring together -- qua "rapprochement" -- the poles of modernism and, as I interpret it, the beginnings of postmodern thought? Like Hesse, Nietzsche is my shadow and Modernism my ideal -- together they form something wonderful.

This book is one of the essential studies of St. Thomas's life and thought. It is especially valuable because it preserves some of the profound insights of two other Thomists whose books have either never been translated into English (Grabmann) or are, alas, out-of-print (Chenu). Pieper's treatment of St. Thomas's (and Aristotle's) use of language is absolutely essential reading for beginning students of Aquinas who have not read the more thorough treatments (by Chenu and Blanche - now largely forgotten) upon which it is based. Pieper also captures better than most biographers the importance of Thomas's decision to embrace both of the apparently opposed movements of his day, the back-to-the-Bible movement of the mendicant orders and, the modern, scientific movement of Aristotelianism.

There are a few points on which I think Pieper is wrong, most importantly on the question of Thomas's "Aristotelianism." In his justifiable attempt to show that Thomas is not an unqualified Aristotelian, Pieper goes too far the other direction and leaves the reader with the impression that Thomas was a defender of Plato. Especially troubling is Pieper's citation of passages from Thomas's Commentaries on Aristotle's De Anima and Metaphysics, which he, Pieper, claims defend Plato against Aristotle's criticisms: I cannot figure out how Pieper could construe the cited passages in such a way. Also, Pieper's criticism of the Inquistion, the Dominican order's role in it, and Thomas's defense of it seems surprisingly naive coming from an author steeped in the history of the Church. But these are relatively minor flaws in an otherwise worthy study of St. Thomas.

My rating of other books on St. Thomas: (1) Josef Pieper, The Silence of St. Thomas. ***** One of the very best books on St. Thomas Aquinas; see my ... review. (2) G.K. Chesterton, St. Thomas Aquinas: the Dumb Ox. ***** A justly acclaimed popular account of the life and work of St. Thomas; a thoroughly enjoyable reading experience for student and general reader alike. (3) Marie-Dominique Chenu O.P., Toward Understanding St. Thomas. ***** THE indispensible work for every serious student; sadly, out-of-print. (4) Ralph McInerny, St. Thomas Aquinas. **** A scholarly introduction to Thomas's philosophical thought, which emphasizes Aquinas's indebteness to Aristotle and Boethius. (5) Jean-Pierre Torrell O.P., St. Thomas Aquinas: the Person and his Work. **** Currently the standard scholarly biography.

This is a very difficult book that will help you to understand St Thomas philosophy. It turns very slow, sometimes.

I have read this book twice and gained valuable information both times. After Chesterton's "Saint Thomas Aquinas," this is by far the best introduction to Thomas Aquinas. I highly recommend it.

Yet, whatever I could say about this book, Pieper himself already has said it in the preface, where he outlined the purpose and goal of his book. So, I'll let you read Pieper instead of me:

"This book is closer to the spoken than to the written language. It is based on a series of university lectures given before collective student bodies. Its purpose and scope are precisely what the title suggests: to serve as a guide and introduction. It is intended neither as a detailed biography of Thomas nor as a systematic and comprehensive interpretation of his doctrines. Not is it meant to be an original contribution to the historical study of medieval philosophy. Everyone acquainted with the field will see at once to what degree my account is based, far beyond the specific quotation, on the works of Marie-Dominique Chenu, Etienne Gilson, Fernand van Steenberghen, and others.

"The purpose of these lectures is to sketch, against the background of his times and his life, a portrait of Thomas Aquinas as he truly concerns philosophical-minded persons today, not merely as a historical personage but as a thinker who has something to say to our own era. I earnestly hope that the speculative attitude which was Thomas' most salient trait as Christianity's "universal teacher" will emerge clearly and sharply from my exposition. It is to this end alone, I repeat, that I present the following chapters, and it is this aspect for which I accept full responsibility."

This book is a piece of communist propaganda gone right. The annihilation of the Sixth Army is told, from the Soviet encirclement to the capitulation. The novel starts full-on and never lets up; from beginning to end the army is defeated, spent, everyone is starving, freezing, wading through corpses. The only movement of the storyline is the retreat of the hapless shells of soldiers, away from the victorious Red Army.

This Germanic heaviness is troweled on so thickly, via actual events from Wehrmacht prisoners Plievier interviewed, that even Americans can feel the whole Nazi edifice tottering with Sixth Army's fall. Plievier (whose name sounds like a derivative of the Russian word for "shoot") succeeds in putting over the full horror of battle. He was a communist, and his depiction of Russian troops is eyewash. In reality, as the introduction reminds us, the Soviets were as ruthless as the invading Nazis, and were rarely very chivalrous to their German prisoners. But the informed reader can make allowances for this. If nothing else, this is a remarkable job of reportage of the German experience at Stalingrad. It's the next worst thing to being there...

Pliever strips the 6th army experience beyond the academic "Stalingrad was the highwater mark for the German war efforts...". After the sound of "the full throated sound of an army in advance" is quiet, the heroes of the 6th army are reduced to their essence. A grenadier, frozen & unfed is no longer a grenadier, he is a farmer from Westphalia & a father of five who will probably never see his farm or family again. There are so many other examples of "personality reduction" where the Nazi ideology in the crucible of Stalingrad is found wanting and most of those caught on the wrong side revert to selfish motivations @ various speeds. While the reader will feel sympathy for those caught in "der Kessel" they will do well to remember that if the outcome would have been different they would not feel so sympathetic as the Westphalian farmer would probably be extolling the joys of National Socialism, not bemoaning his fate.

Theodore Plievier's "Stalingrad" is a gut-wrenching, spellbinding read. A Communist, Pliever emigrated to Russia in the 1930s, and his "semi-historical fiction" version of the most brutal battle in the history of mankind is based largely upon personal interviews with German survivors, of which there were few: of approximately 290,000 men, only 6,000 returned to Germany alive. Even the introduction is chilling, stating that in reading the book, "one can almost hear their souls crying for mercy."

These up-close-and-personal accounts of the unbelievable amount of human suffering caused by Hitler's fateful decision to "capture the city of Stalin" will move you as no sterile historical accounting of the German 6th Army's fate ever will.