"Aurora Floyd" may not be the best novel Mary Elizabeth Braddon wrote -- the honor goes to "Lady Audley's Secret" -- but, the book is still intriguing because of the contrast it makes with the other book and many other comtemporary novels, especially "Jane Eyre." And if you don't have these historical interest, the book is pretty interesting thanks to its good story telling.

"Aurora Floyd" follows the history of the heroine of the same name, who has a shady past left in France. Aurora, unrestrained morally in her youth, hides some secret, but still attractive enough to make the two heroes fall in love with her. Without telling the nature of the secret, Aurora, strong-willed and candid, a gives a clear warning to one of them, proud Talbot Bulstrode, that he may one day regret his rash action if he dares to marry her. While he vanishes from her to marry other woman, tame and tender-hearted Lucy, the other suitor meek John Mellish succeeds in winning her heart, and he immediately marries her, not knowing her secret. As the time goes on, however, her hidden secret emerges from the past, and finally catches up with Aurora, living now quietly in a countryside. She must face the past, but how? While she is tormented by the sense of guilt, her husband began to suspect something wicked is going on, and he too began to suffer.

The story is melodramatic, but it is the merit of sensation novels, the genre in vogue during the 1860s, and Braddon, as she showed in her previous (actually written almost at the same time) "Lady Audley's Secret," is very good at handling the subject. It is notable, however, that the author intends to do something different this time, spending more pages on the analysis of the psychology of the characters. The result is a mixed bag; sometimes she shows good descriptions of characters with a witty touch, which reminds us of Thackeray, the story sometimes gets slower because of too much philosophy. Compared with the fast-paced "Lady Audley's Secret," her new experiment may look somewhat damaging.

But as a whole, the book is agreeable, and after you finish two-thirds of the book, Braddon makes the plot speedier. The last part includes one of the earliest examples of detective story, and a good (but short) portrayal of detective Joseph Grimstone's work is still fascinating. But the greatest merit of the book is its sub-text dealing with incredibly violent passion of Aurora, whose image is clearly mocking the typical angelic image of Victorain women. One of the book's scenes, in which the heroine gives a shower of blows with her wrip to her stable-man who bullied her dog, caused sensation and scandalized some critics. The description is still impressive today.

In conclusion, "Aurora Floyd" is a fairly gripping story, even though it is not the best place to start reading her books or Victorian novels. If you think you are familiar with those Victoraiin novels, or want to read one of the effect following the impact of Bronte's "Jane Eyre," try it.

Trivia: Braddon lived long (died in 1915), and before her death, she even watched the filmed version of her own "Aurora Floyd." Her life story is as intriguing as a story she wrote.

[NOTE ON THE TEXT] Oxford University Press's "Aurora Flyod" uses the later edition of the book while Broadview Press's uses an earlier edition. The former one is considerable changed from the latter, so for the academic use you must be careful.

Having devoured Trollope, Willkie Collins, I happened onto Aurora Floyd and was truly surprised to find such an outstanding story so beautifully written. A dark secret revealed, a murder and a love story, this is a wonderful book.

This childrens book is a thin veneer of fiction wrapped around some worked examples of cryptanalyzing some simple ciphers (your basic pre-twentieth century ciphers).

The writing is a bit formulaic (but no worse than the Encyclopedia Brown books), the situations implausible, but my nine-year-old son liked it, and it's a painless introduction to an interesting hobby.

i thoght this book the code breaker kids was an excellent childrens book.it showed that if you really want to do something you can with all your minds combined .it showed good friendship because the kids never broke up and stayed as a team.

Compared to this course, Sequential Math II is much easier than this. This course leaps from hard to easy numerous times, doing completely new stuff then reflecting back to first and second year math. The book is a good tool to learn from, but it is far from easy to master. The exercises range from simple to ridiculously hard. Uncovered material can come up before it is explained. While schools often choose this book for Junior year mathematics for Sequential III, perhaps a newer version could simplify the exercises to a level which students could actually do them!

Anyone who doesn't understand this book should go work for a disposal company, or even worse, Burger King. This is a great book that explains everything in a clear and understandable fashion, unobscured by pictures of teens eating Doritos and the latest Corvette. It's divided into chapters, which are divided into sections. The section reviews have three sections : A-the easy problems for the C2 class. B: more complicated questions, and C: questions where the student will have to apply their knowledge to go to the next step. Anyone who can't apparently needs to force-fed knowledge through a bottle. There are also challenges and cumulative reviews every few sections. This is one book that doesn't ever require a good teacher. Only a good student with initiative to learn how to learn, instead of being fed. Great book!

Sine I bought the atlas some years ago, I found it very useful in finding info on aspects of Pennsylvania such as geography, history, population, and economic data.A must have for anyone doing research on Pennsylvania whether for school or personal use.

I enjoyed this book because it gave good descriptions of unusual jobs. The interviews gave it a personal touch and helped give the articles some extra information which might have remained unknown through normal research. My only complaint was with such fields as anthroplogy. I liked the passage, but they only interviewed a cultural anthropologist, which left out many other fascinating branches of the field.

E.J. Young's justly famous _Commentary on the Book of Daniel_ is now back in print, after too many years. Unlike many published works on Daniel, this book is thorough, sober and credible.

Young was one of the 20th century's masters of Biblical Hebrew and many other of the Semitic languages of the ancient Near East; he was also a conservative Christian theolgian of considerable skill. He brings both of these skills to the Christian nterpretation of one of the Old Testament's most difficult books, one of the few Biblical texts to be written in two ancient languages, Hebrew and Aramaic.

Interacting with the original text, and with other interpreters of Daniel both ancient and modern, Young constructs a thorough account of the meaning of this elusive book. The position he defends stands in sharp contrast to two other schools of thought that have proved to be influential in the years since 1949, when Young first published this commentary.

One of those competitors is the historical-critical school, which typically treats the Book of Daniel as primarily a product of the 160'sBCE, composed in response to the Jewish revolt against the Seleucid king, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, and written under the old hero Daniel's name as a kind of pious fiction.

Young defends a sixth-century BC date for the book's primary authorship, attributing it to the real-life Jewish exile in Babylon named Daniel, as chapter 1 of the biblical book claims. Young's treatment of the authenticity of the book is one of the more important defenses in the English language. His defense, one also pressed in other published works, will not convince everyone, but it should supply the reader with food for thought in reconsidering the origins of the ancient Danielic tradition.

Young's second set of competitors come from the dispensational school of Evangelical Christian theology, which, like Young, takes the book as a true prophecy of Daniel, written in the 6th century BC. Unlike Young, these interpreters think the book is addressed mainly to the close of what dispensationalists call the "Church Age," that is, the present era of history as it leads to "the Rapture of the Church" and the "Great Tribulation," recently popularized beyond all belief by the Jenkin/LaHaye series, _Left Behind_, part of which will soon be a major motion picture. Daniel's book, so they claim, is about the times leading up to Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

Not so, says Young. The book's forecasts of the future primarily involve the first Advent of Jesus Christ.

To take one case in point, Daniel 9.26 predicts that "an Anointed One will be cut off and shall have nothing, and the troops of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city..." (NRSV). Young and his dispensational critics agree that the reference is to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, in about 30 AD. But Daniel 9.27 adds: "He shall make a strong covenant with many...and he shall make sacrifice and offering cease; in their place shall be an abomination that desolates..." (NRSV).

Dispensation interpretation generally holds that this line refers to a final Antichrist figure, who desolates a newly-built Temple in Jerusalem, in the (near?) future. Thus, there's a leap of at 2000 years or more between 9.26 and 9.27, in what looks like continuous narrative.

Young resists this line of thought. The anointed one in 9.26 is Christ; and by his atoning death-by-crucifixion he puts an end to all further need for sacrifice and atonement. Thus, Young argues, the temple of Jesus' own day is rendered obsolete, and all that remains for it is to be destroyed by the Romans, as took place in 70 AD. That approach looks sane and sober to this reviewer.

In brief, then, I commend this commentary to serious students of the Bible. Even if you end up disagreeing with Young, the journey will have been worth it.

I initially decided to read this book because I had heard mention of its historical importance in the field of young adult work. Imagine how pleasantly surprised I was to find that Margaret Edwards was a dynamic, funny writer whose issues in the sixties regarding the state of young adult services has numerous parallels in today's world of teen services! While the text is certainly dated in terms of language and the books discussed, the refreshing attitude of Edwards can still be seen in many public libraries all over the country. This is a great read, intrinsically and historically, and I think many librarians will say, "How little has changed!" Let's hope we all work to further the work that Edwards began.

This book is a glowing account of Thoreau's character, written later in life by Ralph Waldo Emerson's son Edward. Edward knew Thoreau up until the latter's death in 1862, when Edward was about 17. He has supplemented his own memory with interviews and anectdotes given him by other Concord citizens who knew the Thoreau family. These writings are a valuable resource for anyone who is researching Thoreau, with its humanizing slant and defence of its subject against perceived misunderstandings by the public. Any Thoreau fan will find this brief tract illuminating and amusing.

This is a wonderfully written factual account of lifi in British sumbarines during the Second World War. The book is written by an ex-sub. commander, with portions taked from his boats logs. His anicdones rum the gummit from witty and humorous to realy quite tragis. A must for anybody who has an intrest in naval opperations. A must for all those who have read all about the U-Boats and the US Submarine Service.

This book is a blood cloated adventure. Each line of this story filled with greate adventure. This book is really an amazzing one.