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- His Basic Short Story Collection
- Kafka's Complete Shorter Works
- Kafka had it right
- not bad, maybe kind of superfluous
- An avid student's perspective
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The Complete Stories
Franz Kafka
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The Diaries of Franz Kafka (Schocken Classics Series)
ASIN: 0805210555
Release Date: 1995-11-14 |
Amazon.com
How many writers get their own adjective? The work of this terminally alienated master narrator of the subconscious demanded a new descriptor; I guess they gave up and just settled on "Kafkaesque." But if you ever wonder what the original Kafkaesque work was, take a look here. The book contains all of Kafka's short and longer stories -- everything but his three novels. Most of these stories weren't even published during the author's lifetime. The widely-anthologized The Metamorphosis is here, wherein Gregor Samsa awakes from uneasy dreams to find himself insectoidally transformed, as are equally lovely pieces like A Hunger Artist, A Country Doctor and A Little Woman.
Book Description
The only available collection that brings together all of Kafka's stories--those published during his lifetime and those released after his death.
Customer Reviews:
His Basic Short Story Collection.......2007-08-18
This is a collection which first appeared about 60 years ago and has been published a number of times with small variations in the selected works.
Franz Kafka (1883 - 1924) was one of the major German-language fiction writers of the 20th century. He was a Jew living in Prague and working for the Worker's Accident Insurance Institute. He wrote in his spare time and was inspired by the problems associated with bureaucratic institutions - such as we read in "The Castle."
I read all of Kafka's work and put together this Listmania list from my notes and experiences. His short novella Metamorphosis is among the best short works ever written. Unfortunately, he did not write and publish much when he was alive. Most of what is available was published after his early death, and some of it is edited (possibly) poorly as in Amerika. His writings vary from novels to one page impressions of life, such as one essay that is about looking out a window. The novels revolve around a young to middle aged protagonist male named "K," who battles the courts and bureaucrats.
At some point while reading his works, I realized that his short stories are just as important as the novels, or even more so, and Metamorphosis is just one of a number of excellent short works involving compulsion and one's view of life. So, the present book is an excellent buy for those who want to learn about Kafka.
Overall, I like "Metamorphosis" for its originality. After reading many of his works I got to the point where I had read enough, because many of his writings are just fragments. Some might want to read all his sort stories in one go, but I did not because of all the fragments. In any case, this collection with a forward by Updike is an excellent buy or read, well worth the time. The following short stores are complete works and not fragments: Hunger Artist, A Country Doctor, A Little Woman, The Penal Colony, and the Judgment. The Penal Colony goes even farther than Metamorphosis; and as such, it is an odd reading experience, having almost a nightmare quality to the story. A few of the others are bizarre as well. In any case, an English reader will always wonder if he completely understands or has fully appreciated the translated German writing.
This is recommended as a basic introduction. It is missing The Stoker but it has his key short works.
Kafka's Complete Shorter Works.......2007-04-11
This book contains almost all of Kafka's literary works, save his full length novels.
Kafka's writing is representative for a large portion of modern literature. Although one can classify his works as dealing with alienation, assimilation, inferiority, and insecurities, they are, on some level, impenetrable by interpretors. His prose is clear and easily readeable; however, the implications of his story remain troubelsome and confounding.
Kafka's writing style betrays expected norms of literature. In the metamorphisis, the protaganist Gregor Samsa awakens from his sleep to find himself changed into a beetle. The story is about the ramifications of the event, and the expected pinnacle, his transformation itself, is barely attended too. Furthermore, Samsa seems to take his transformation in stride. He recognizes the uniqueness of his case, but thoughts of his own insanity, nor the impossibility of the situation are hardly voiced. By giving us the absurd and simultaneously sidelining it, Kafka is able to focus on other issues. Samsa's "otherness" as a beetle, now being an existential given, leads us to explore how being "other" works in relationship to family and other acquantices.
Kafka is a truly marvelous writer, and if his writing seem paranoid and absurd, it adds to their literary quality. His concerns are not so unique as the positions his literary creations often find themselves in, and he provides an interesting voice on the conditions of modernity.
Kafka had it right.......2006-12-13
This is the most authoritative collection of Kafka's immortal short fiction; it includes the most respected translations of each story (mostly by Willa and Edwin Muir), and a fair introduction from John Updike.
Kafka was the greatest writer of short fiction of the modern era. Such stories as 'The Metamorphosis,' 'In the Penal Colony,' 'The Hunger Artist,' and 'The Great Wall of China' encapsulate the tyrannical, dehumanizing regimentation of the modern world. Kafka may be difficult to read, and the allegorical form is not enjoyable for everyone. However, it is impossible to not be drawn into the strange madness of 'The Hunger Artist,' or 'The Country Doctor,' surely two of the most terrifying works of literature of the period.
In many ways, Kafka was a precursor to the sort of self-reflexive artistry that would later be found in Beckett, Sartre, and Brecht; Kafka is always aware that he is working within the literary realm, and he knows that he cannot escape it. Therefore, (brilliantly), he turns it into an advantage, by intoning the mystical, the metaphysical, and the surreal. His characters are often animals, metaphors, or simply moods. This approach has its strengths, but only in the hands of a true master. Fortunately for us, Kafka was just that, in the truest sense: a master of form, and unity of content.
not bad, maybe kind of superfluous.......2006-08-16
I've had this Kafka volume for about six months now and I've enjoyed it thoroughly. The Metamophosis alone warrants high marks, but this collection thankfully includes countless stories from the breadth of Kafka's career, in essence providing context for his most famous work.
I can't corroborate reports of binding issues, mind has lasted perfectly. There's not much one can say about Kafka that has not already been said, really. The avid fan will, however, appreciate the depth of this volume, which, if anything, helps to better elucidate the contents of the Metamorphosis itself, an indispensible story that seems, at times, a bit obfuscated.
An avid student's perspective.......2005-12-16
As a student of the German language, I must say that I view this text from a different perspective than most of its other readers. I selected this book merely to give me a broader understanding of Kafka's work in the short time available to me. It is an infinitely useful resource, gracefully translated and sturdily bound. I give it four stars simply because no English translation could possibly compare to the original German texts. For example, the German word "Gesetz" is translated "law" in the foundational parable "Before the Law." Though it is a literally accurate term, it does not capture the sense of the Gesetz as a semi-personal metaphysical absolute concerning the condition of the Universe. ("Gesetz" is something of a German equivalent for the Greek "Logos" with a capital "L".) Such slight aberrations are certainly common as they are an ineluctable consequence of translation; this aside, it is an excellent text that will always sit next to my German edition on the shelf of Modern Literature.
Amazon.com
This volume, authorized by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's estate, contains all 4 full-length novels and all 56 short stories featuring Sherlock Holmes. At over a thousand pages, the weighty tome is a perfect gift for budding amateur sleuths, and it is an ideal companion for a long stay on a desert island (or a leisurely trip through the English countryside). As the reader wades past the tense introductions of A Study in Scarlet and moves towards such classic tales as The Hound of the Baskervilles, "The Adventure of the Speckled Band," and "The Final Problem," she is sure to draw her own conclusions about Holmes's veiled past and his quirky relationship with his "Boswell," Watson. Doyle never revealed much about Holmes's early life, but the joy of reading the complete Holmes is assembling the trivia of each story into something like a portrait of the detective and his creator. By the end of the long journey through London and across Europe (with a long stopover at Reichenbach Falls), one is apt to have found a friend for life. --Patrick O'Kelley
Book Description
Over one hundred years have passed since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle intoduced his inimitable sleuth, Sherlock Holmes, to the world--and his popularity has never waned. This oversized commemorative volume contains the entire canon of Holmes adventures, both before and after his creator's attempt to dispatch him in print. Just as the character, Holmes, prevails and defies even death, these detective stories featuring him and Dr. Watson have withstood more than the test of time: they defined and changed the way modern crime writers approached detective fiction.
Download Description
This omnibus faithfully chronicles all the sixty cases of Sherlock Holmes by his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The famous Baker Street detective has captured the hearts and imagination of both the young and old, generation after generation. Now, by popular demand, this precious, complete collection of Sherlock Holmes cases is available to his fans in ebook format! The individual titles in this volume by the publisher are also available: A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, the Return of Sherlock Holmes, the Hound of the Baskervilles, the Valley of Fear, His Last Bow and the Case Book of Sherlock Holmes.
Customer Reviews:
Complete Sherlock Holmes.......2007-06-14
This entire book is amazing. A very good product!!
For a fan of the detective genre, buying this collection is a no brainer.......2007-03-13
Whether you've read any of the Sherlock Holmes stories or not, at only 10 bucks this collection is a must own for any fans of detective fiction.
This edition is highly usable and highly readable - it's cheap, and it's also compact and easy to read. Breaking it into two reasonably small paperbacks makes it very convenient to take with you on a trip, for example. It's also an easy, convenient way to get all four novels and all the short stories. Sure it isn't a pretty hardcover edition that will look good on the bookshelf - this edition is meant to be read.
If you're already a fan of Holmes and are debating whether to buy this collection, I'd highly recommend it. If you're not already a fan but like detective fiction in general, you may as well shell out the measly 10 bucks for one of the original (and still one of the best, in my opinion) examples of the genre.
Great edition........2007-01-05
I really like the book from the inside out. Sturdy with an excellent binding, printed using easily readable font, and contains a nice touch of antiquity with the slightly torn pages on the side. Looks exactly like the first volume, though the background color of the pictures on the cover, side, and back is red and not blue.
For this kind of money it is a real bargain and I recommend it for anyone who wishes to venture into the magnificent world of Sherlock Holmes.
Question.......2006-12-29
Why is it that one of the user reviews says it ends with THE FINAL PROBLEM? If they are in order that should not be the case. Sherlock Holmes returns later. (THE ADVENTURE OF THE EMPTY HOUSE) Is it defenetly the complete collection?
Short Review.......2006-08-28
This book includes really all four novels and many stories about Sherlock Holmes. If you are interested in having all this in one book, buy this book and you won't be ever regret.
Book Description
Sherlock Holmes
The Complete Novels and Stories
Volume I
Since his first appearance in Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1887, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes has been one of the most beloved fictional characters ever created. Now, in two paperback volumes, Bantam presents all fifty-six short stories and four novels featuring Conan Doyle’s classic hero--a truly complete collection of Sherlock Holmes’s adventures in crime!
Volume I includes the early novel
A Study in Scarlet, which introduced the eccentric genius of Sherlock Holmes to the world. This baffling murder mystery, with the cryptic word Rache written in blood, first brought Holmes together with Dr. John Watson. Next,
The Sign of Four presents Holmes’s famous “seven percent solution” and the strange puzzle of Mary Morstan in the quintessential locked-room mystery.
Also included are Holmes’s feats of extraordinary detection in such famous cases as the chilling
“ The Adventure of the Speckled Band,” the baffling riddle of
“The Musgrave Ritual,” and the ingeniously plotted
“The Five Orange Pips,” tales that bring to life a Victorian England of horse-drawn cabs, fogs, and the famous lodgings at 221B Baker Street, where Sherlock Holmes earned his undisputed reputation as the greatest fictional detective of all time.
Customer Reviews:
One of my favorite writers!.......2007-08-19
There's not much left to say about this literary classic. It's great to have all of the stories and novels put together, in the order that they were published--there are references here and there to things that happened in previous stories. Of course, you don't have to read everything in order, but its worth it all the same.
Some of my all-time favorite stories in this volume of the collection are "The Red-Headed League," and "The Adventure of the Speckled Band." Also worth a read are the short novels A Study In Scarlet, The Sign of Four, and The Hound of the Baskervilles. They illustrate Doyle's (and Holmes's) mastery of the art of observation. As Holmes says in a story in the second volume, "I see as much as you, but I notice what I see." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is one of my all-time favorite authors; this collection is highly recommended.
Bravo on Baker Street!.......2007-05-18
This book offered some of the lesser known writings of Doyle, as well as, some of the better known stories like "The Sign of Four". My only gripe was that the font was bit small and I was feeling like a detective myself holding a magnifying glass just to make out the words.
Arthur Conan Doyle captures my interest with each little detail and surprise that awaits our true Bohenian Detective and his companion Watson. The dialogue is always fluid and natural. And the stories are so involving. I recommend anyone hoping to become a writer someday to tackle Doyle's works headon. You'll be better for it.
Sherlock Holmes.......2006-06-26
If you a Sherlock Holmes fan this is a great book to read. I like this Volume that I order Volume II to read this summer.
Wow.......2005-12-11
Immerse yourself in foggy 19th century London, following the steps of intrepid detective Sherlock Holmes. This volume will give you a very thorough introduction to the official "canon" of Sherlockian lore. Recommended reading.
My all-time favorite.......2005-12-01
I have the whole collection of the Sherlock Holmes, and they are my all-time favorite books. There was never a better character, stories, or anything. I personally think that the reason many people think they start out slowly is because you have to understand the basic facts or you'll be puzzled when he's in the middle of the "big deal." They start out calm and get more and more exciting, so by the time the climax comes, you're almost nuts to read it all and find out what was going on! Anyways, this is the FIRST book I would buy for my fiction library.
Amazon.com
The third story in this volume takes place 16,000 years in the future. When you realize that the 33 stories are ordered chronologically, you begin to grasp the scale of Cordwainer Smith's creation. Regimes, technologies, planets, moralities, religions, histories all rise and fall through his millennia.
These are futuristic tales told as myth, as legend, as a history of a distant and decayed past. Written in an unadorned voice reminiscent of James Tiptree Jr., Smith's visions are dark and pessimistic, clearly a contrast from the mood of SF in his time; in the 1940s, '50s, and '60s it was still thought that science would cure the ills of humanity. In Smith's tales, space travel takes a horrendous toll on those who pilot the ships through the void. After reaching perfection, the lack of strife stifles humanity to a point of decay and stagnation; the Instrumentality of Mankind arises in order to stir things up. Many stories describe moral dilemmas involving the humanity of the Underpeople, beings evolved from animals into humanlike forms.
Stories not to be missed in this collection include "Scanners Live in Vain," "The Dead Lady of Clown Town," "Under Old Earth," "The Crime and the Glory of Commander Suzdal," "Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons," and the truly disturbing "A Planet Called Shayol." Serious SF fans should not pass up the chance to experience Cordwainer Smith's complex, distinctive vision of the far future. --Bonnie Bouman
Book Description
Includes 33 stories that represent Cordwainer Smiths entire SF works except for the novel Norstrilia. These stories are "classics" of the field such as "The Dead Lady of Clown Town," "The Game of Rat and Dragon," "Scanners Live in Vain," and "A Planet Named Shayol." Appearing for the first time in print are "Himself in Anachron" and the completely rewritten adult version of his high school story "War No. 81-Q." Introduction by John J. Pierce.
Customer Reviews:
The Glory That Was Cordwainer.......2007-06-21
Cordwainer Smith was unique. Although the contents of this volume represent more than half of his entire science-fictional output, what he lacked in quantity he made up for in superb and very different quality. His prose is colored by some very non-standard phrasing and imagery, at least some of which came from his close connections with Chinese culture (his god-father was Sun Yat-sen, and he was a close confidant of Chiang Kai-shek). There is a feeling, an ambience to his stories that I have never seen even approximated by any other author. But the themes he tackled in his stories are ones that everyone can relate to, covering prejudice, greed, lust for power, crime and appropriate punishment, and the seeming boundless desire to go where no man has gone before.
Perhaps the main highlight of this collection is "The Dead Lady of Clown Town", which is a very forceful retelling of the Joan of Arc story. I ended up in tears at the end of this one when I first read it, and subsequent re-reads haven't lessened its impact. I've had this one in my top ten `best of sf' short fiction list since my first encounter with it.
"A Planet Named Shayol" will make you do some heavy thinking about just what can or should be done to punish a society's law (or custom) breakers, or if punishment is ever even really justifiable at all, and will give you a nightmare vision of just what hell on Earth (or any other planet) just might be like.
"The Ballad of Lost C'Mell" may be the centerpiece of his entire envisioned future history, as the Instrumentality of Mankind, which for centuries has managed the human population to avoid disease, war, or hard labor (for which tasks the Underpeople were created), is driven to the conclusion that a viable civilization must have some dark elements, as championed by Lord Jestocost and girly-girl Cat-person C'Mell.
Almost all of the stories here are part of Smith's envisioned universe governed by the Instrumentality, a vision that stretches from near-Earth future to a very distant far-future galaxy where humanity has spread almost everywhere. Smith clearly has some overriding messages: his fear of all-powerful ruling bodies, his attachment to all forms of life and the respect that each individual should have, and a basic belief in the power and utility of religion. All the details of this universe are not filled in, and it is sometimes the tantalizing glimpses of what he does not describe that will capture your imagination, and your wish that there were more stories about this unique world. His Underpeople are marvelous creations, showing not only those traits normally associated with the best of humanity, but also characteristics of their underlying animal heritage, whether it be cat, dog, or turtle.
Not every story here is a gem, most especially those not set in his Instrumentality universe or those dealing with the very near future. But they are all very readable, and the overall level of quality here is absurdly high. Read this first. Then take on his only sf novel, Norstrilia. You won't regret it.
--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
Cordwainer Smith.......2007-01-09
essential to any fan/student of the genre.
the beginning of the transition from the space opera to the "soul" of free-form fiction...
d
A major SF book.......2006-03-04
This books belongs to the library of every SF fan.
It's a compilation of many very original short stories that in the ends describe a whole strange world.
Some of the stories are so evocative that you will remember them for a long long time.
Give it a try.
Timeless, original, and engaging!.......2006-01-03
When I read the short-story Scanners Live in Vain, I was bowled over. I could scarcely believe it was written over fifty years ago. By creating a future so divorced from our present time and so unique in it's voice and details, Smith had succeeded in writing a story that would retain it's startling freshness. But Smith's "Instrumentality of Mankind" stories have more than just staying power: they are very powerful and intimate reflections on the human condition. I also highly recommend Cordwainer Smith's novel "Norstrilla". Cordwainer Smith inspired Robert Silverberg to write science fiction. -nuff said.
Universe of Incandescent Bliss.......2005-10-29
Serious fans and historians of science fiction must obtain this compendium of all the known short stories by Cordwainer Smith, who deserves far greater fame than he got when he did most of his writing back in the 50s and 60s. At the time, Smith simply sold a few stories to a few SF mags, but it turns out that they were interconnected vignettes from a vast future universe and mythology that Smith was creating in his mind for decades. This vast fictitious universe covers the development of man over tens of thousands of years and across the galaxy, in an expansive style that is reminiscent of Frank Herbert. Meanwhile, Smith's method of creating narratives as if they were told by an old storyteller, even farther in the future, could be compared to J.R.R. Tolkien, who also created his own universe and history of tremendous proportions.
Smith was a storyteller of remarkable literary ability, as he explored scientific advances without getting too technical, and introduced very heavy themes of humanity and morality without lapsing into preachy conclusions. Very few writers in any genre have this kind of ability for kicking off deep speculation and introspection in the reader. Just about all of the many stories here explore the re-emergence of real humanity after many millennia of human dispersal across the universe, with a few glimpses of mirth or action amidst general darkness and melancholy.
A few stories of note include the disturbing "A Planet Named Shayol" in which humans are farmed for body parts on a deceptively tranquil prison planet; "Think Blue, Count Two" which describes what could really happen on a typical SF mothership transporting humans for hundreds of years to a new space colony; "When the People Fell" which very creepily explores how regular people will be used for space colonization; or "The Crime and the Glory of Commander Suzdal" in which Smith twists time travel and even history in remarkable humanistic ways. Of special note to SF historians is "War No. 81-Q" which lampoons the fallacy of war for profit and entertainment, a form of satire that's unbelievable for a story first written way back in the 1920s (and Smith was in high school at the time to boot). Those are just a few of the tremendous stories in this collection by an author who richly deserves to be treated as a grand master in his field. The sheer breadth and depth of Smith's literary universe is simply astonishing. [~doomsdayer520~]
Book Description
This three volume set presents for the first time the genre-defining Slammers series in a uniform hardcover set. This volume features all of the Hammer's Slammer short fiction, as well as all of the interstitial material from the original Slammers collection, as well as new artwork, and an original Slammers story, "A Death in Peacetime." The first volume will feature an introduction by Gene Wolfe, and cover art by Vincent Di Fate.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Compilation.......2007-02-11
Everyone who is a fan of David Drake's Hammer's Slammers will enjoy this collection.
Part one of a comprehensive collection of the Hammers Slammers Works.......2006-11-04
This is a book I've been waiting over ten years for. As a fan of mister Drakes writtings, in particular the Hammers Slammers series, I have always had a hard time tracking down some of his stories... this book, and its companion, offer the complete collection of his works (a must for any fan). It will also replace my paperbacks, which have become quite dog-eared over the years since I first discovered the Hammers Slammers.
For those not familiar with the Hammers Slammers... These stories represent some of the best Military Sci-Fi of the previous century, and remain among my top picks to this day. As Mr. Drake quite frequently points out his stories are not about super-hero type soldiers; rather they are about ordinary men and women whos chosen profession is soldering. His characters have flaws, and they often times lose a lot... but they always get the job done. Though his stories are based of of his experiences in Vietnam it is quite easy to see how the lessons apply to todays world (perhapse more so in some respects).
If you enjoy gritty military fiction then I'm sure that you'll enjoy the trials and tribulations of the Hammers Slammers.
Great Compendium of Early Hammer's Slammers Tales.......2006-10-15
HAMMER'S SLAMMERS are a mercenary Army regiment, operating in the 28th Century, who sell their services to the highest bidders on the diverse outlying human colonies, most of which are in constant conflict... sort of like futuristic Hessian mercenary soldiers of the 18th Century.
Here are brief reviews of the more substantial stories (mostly short stories, except where noted) from THE COMPLETE HAMMER'S SLAMMERS (VOLUME ONE):
*** UNDER THE HAMMER (1974) - Details a newbie Rob Jenne's first day among Hammer's Slammers - and he ends up having to learn fast.
**** THE BUTCHER'S BILL (1974) - If you hire the Slammers to get the job done, don't expect them or Sergeant-Commander Pritchard to play around when things get tough.
*** BUT LOYAL TO HIS OWN (1975) - Tells how the Slammers regiment got their start, and introduces Joachim Stueben, Colonel Hammer's smallish personal bodyguard - who has a prediliction for killing.
*** CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE (1978) - A young lady has to learn to kill quickly, and then chooses to join up with the Slammers, rather than go back with her now-husbandless villagemates.
***** CULTURAL CONFLICT (1979) - A remotely stationed platoon of Slammers meets up with an intelligent race of dense forest tree-dwellers, which leeds to a different kind of conflict with immense ramifications to all parties.
*** 1/2 HANGMAN (1979) Novellete - Danny Pritchard is now a Captain, and highly-trusted element of the Slammers. He doesn't approve of the casual voilence of Stueben, but will get the job done when called upon.
*** CODE-NAME FEIREFITZ (1985) - A Captain is assigned to dig out a horde of rebels from an underground bunker complex (eerily predictive of Tora Bora situation in Afghanistan, occurring 17 years later); but, he must also deal with his ex-Slammer born-again Christian brother, who has ties with the rebels.
***** THE TANK LORDS (1987) - Novellete - This story plays out on a despot lord's manor on an off-world Kingdom; it is an excellent little tale about a young page, who worships the tanks and "the tank lords" who are visiting his lord's manor - and how he comes to transform himself into one of them. Much political and sexual intrigue, along with some decently exciting moments. Not the typical Drake tank lords story of mayhem and gore, although there is some at the end.
**** LIBERTY PORT (1987) Novella - Everything goes haywire when a company of Slammers, who have recently been in terrible combat, are let loose in a entertainment district with heartless cyborg females, which turn out to cause more problems than human females.
*** NIGHT MARCH (1997) - A strange case of mistaken identity ensues when communications on a night march get fouled up beyond all recognition.
The Slammers Complete.......2006-02-25
The first in a proposed three volume compendium of Dave Drake's HAMMERS SLAMMERS material, this one will be convenient to have. It is likely that the buyers will, at least in many cases, have already read what it contains, but having the tales together, in a hard-back format, will be a good thing.
The Slammers are, as Dave once said himself, "the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment with ray-guns", and are notably inspired by what Dave saw and heard while he was with the Blackhorse Cav in Vietnam and Cambodia some few years ago. Some of the best tales available to bring the violence, confusion and sometimes ambiguity of who the "good guys" are in combat to the reader.
If you have read Dave's Slammers material before, you'll enjoy having it pulled together into this anthology and will want the book. If you haven't, you owe yourself the pleasure of getting this book of tightly written, fast moving stories of what combat does to those who have the "privelege" of experiencing it.
Book Description
Aanton Chekhov, widely hailed as the supreme master of the short story, also wrote five works long enough to be called short novels–here brought together in one volume for the first time, in a masterly new translation by the award-winning translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.
The Steppe–the most lyrical of the five–is an account of a nine-year-old boy’s frightening journey by wagon train across the steppe of southern Russia. The Duel sets two decadent figures–a fanatical rationalist and a man of literary sensibility–on a collision course that ends in a series of surprising reversals. In The Story of an Unknown Man, a political radical spying on an important official by serving as valet to his son gradually discovers that his own terminal illness has changed his long-held priorities in startling ways. Three Years recounts a complex series of ironies in the personal life of a rich but passive Moscow merchant. In My Life, a man renounces wealth and social position for a life of manual labor.
The resulting conflict between the moral simplicity of his ideals and the complex realities of human nature culminates in a brief apocalyptic vision that is unique in Chekhov’s work.
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
Great Intro to Chekhov !!!.......2006-08-14
I had hoped to find a single book to introduce me to one of the greatest short story writers in history. This book absolutely fills that bill.
The writing is captivating. The Steppe was actually my favorite. I understand how some might see it as slow or plodding; yet the visual and auditory descriptions were so complete and mesmerizing.
I will definitely be looking into more Chekhov.
I should note that I picked up this book specifically because the same translators (Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky) of these stories also translated the much lauded Anna Karenina recently popularized by Oprah Winfrey. They again do a wonderful job! I will look for other Russian translations from this duo in the future.
Good Place to Start, but Read "The Shooting Party.".......2006-03-28
I have been reading books by a number of 19th century authors including Balzac, Flaubert, Dostoevsky, Gogol, and Chekhov - all in an attempt to get a better understanding of their work and to enjoy the writing.
This is an excellent place to start with Chekhov, although it is not his best work in my opinion.
I found the first story "The Steppe" to be rough going. It is a bit drab, and the characters are not great. If you read only that story you would not understand Chekhov - in my opinion. His strength is with a good set of characters set in a small town or similar. I had trouble with the story, started and stopped reading it twice, and read it only after I had read the others.
The best of this group is probably "The Duel" because it follows the formula of a small town with geat characters and some romance. Similarly, the story "My Life" has a similar setting and good characters. "Three Years" is a Saul Bellow like story about a man who marries a younger woman and searches for his identity or soul. He becomes a successful businessman by accident - by default from a wealthy father.
"The Story of an Unknown man" is not about a man as much as it is about a depressed young woman who fails to find happiness in love. I thought it was one of the weaker stories in the group.
The stories are good but I read Chekhov's novel "The Shooting Party" and thought it was far superior to any of these five stories. It is a novel within a novel; it has a great set of characters and wonderful prose.
In any case, 5 stars for these short stories.
The Artifice of a Master.......2006-01-15
There is nothing more aesthetically pleasing than to surrender to the artifice of a master. One is deeply comforted in reading this collection of well-translated works. Chekhov reproduces human perception and experience with brilliant precision and insight. His deeply felt compassion and empathy lead him to an art that captures the consciousness of the most refined and the most tortured of souls. In "The Steppe," for instance, he almost cinematically creates the image of the Russian plains as a living being that casts its life force on a humble wagon train and a young boy crossing its great distances. This truly brilliant artist also compellingly and dramatically describes a mighty thunderstorm in such powerful strokes that one is utterly spellbound and engrossed in its fearsome energy. In "The Story of an Unknown Man," a consumptive servant narrates the events of his weak nihilistic upper-class master who is incapable of love. His master willfully torments a beautiful young woman who has sacrificed her marriage to come live with him, but in doing so, has condemned herself to his cynical disrespect. Before the age of tape recorders, Chekhov has recorded dialog in this work that is thoroughly authentic and captures underlying psychological motives and unconscious forces that push these people to the breaking point. But the narrator too is an intimate character in this work and finds himself drawn into the life of his employer. This subtle change is handled with such skill that one is completely convinced of its reality. Here's where Chekhov's artifice produces magic. Its choice of detail, its dialog, its plot, its events all combine to sculpt a living experience, one that will never die. Chekhov's art is immortal. I invite every reader to partake of this satisfying feast that has been created for us. Not only are all these short novels worth every minute of your time, but you will feel the power of true art when you read them and perhaps you will never again settle for anything less.
Great Classic Russian Lit, great collection of stories.......2005-05-11
This collection of short stories of Chekhov, is mighty fine for anyone wanting to brush up on some great stories, or complete their collection of Russian literature. And like every Everyman book, you got your nice binding and tassle, what more could be asked for???!
I figured I'd go through the stories one by one
THE STEEPE - Probably one of the most poetic and dreamy stories I have ever read. I really enjoyed the scenes and the way Chekhov describes the countryside as a young boy travels along a cart running into many characters. Pure poetry.
THE DUEL - One of the most popular duel stories and scenes (not counting Hero of Our Time, or The Idiot) in all of Russian literature. A great microcosom of 2 individuals who end up resorting to pistols.
THE STORY OF AN UNKNOWN MAN - It is mentioned in the introduction that this is one Chekhov's least known stories. And it's too bad cause this one was EASILY MY FAVORITE suprisingly. A spy infiltrates a house as a servant, and through the course of knowing the inhabitants and the people who frequent the home, he develops a different mindset to his original agenda.
THREE YEARS - I found this still entertaining but it was my least favorite of the 5.
MY LIFE - Is a great story of a man renounces wealth and social position for a life of manual labor, but it's the conflict he has with his father over it that creates some great writing that Chekhov handles masterfully.
I was very pleased with the content of this addition, and I massively enjoyed Chekhov as a writer. He has some great stuff, and this collection is just the perfect thing.
Book Description
In
The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen, whose career flamed brightly but briefly in the 1920s, we rediscover one of the most gifted writers of the Harlem Renaissance.
Nella Larsen's subject is the struggle of sensitive, spirited heroines to find a place for themselves in a hostile world. Passing is the story of a light-skinned beauty who, after spending years passing for white, finds herself dangerously drawn to an old friend's Harlem neighborhood. In Quicksand, a restless young mulatto tries desperately to find a comfortable place in a world in which she sees herself as a perpetual outsider. Race and marriage offer few securities here or in the other stories in a collection that is compellingly readable, rich in psychological complexity, and imbued with a sense of place that brings Harlem vibrantly to life.
Customer Reviews:
Larsen speaks to those who've felt they never really fit in.......2006-12-21
This volume contains two novellas, Passing and Quicksand. I would recommend reading the introduction afterwards because it might spoil the stories. The two female protagonists in her stories are loosely autobiographical. Larson's mother was from Denmark and her father was Caribbean or African-American. Both protagonists are bi-racial women living during the Harlem Renaissance period and struggling to fit into segregated society.
I liked Quicksand better. Helga Crane also has a Danish mother and African-American father. As the story opens young Helga Crane is a teacher at a very strict school in an ultra-conservative small southern US city. She is lonely and isolated and far too intelligent for her environment. She finally makes the break and moves to New York City. After a long struggle to fit in she moves to Copenhagen. She is taken in by her mother's family. Instead of finding the love and acceptance she craves she is treated condescendingly like some exotic pet. I don't want to give away the ending, but it's good.
Complete fiction-- all too slight for the quality of her voice........2006-07-16
This little book represents the complete literary output of Nella Larsen, the great Harlem Renaissance writer. It is impossible to read without the sense of a voice that went quiet too soon. These are sophisticated works, full of issues about anger and identity. In the longer pieces it is frustratingly tangible how great she could have been had she been able to develop a larger body of work.
The pieces included in this work are:
"The Wrong Man" and "Freedom"-- these are two sensational short stories that Larsen published in women's magazines at the beginning of her writing career. If I have a quarrel with this collection, I have a quarrel with the fact that Larson (the editor) chose to put these stories first. While in some ways I understand it, they are so much weaker than the rest of her work that they do not create the right beginning for the book.
"Sanctuary" is a brilliant and powerful short story about a man hiding from the law. This story marked the end of her career, as accusations of plagiarism about the story drove her out of the public eye.
"Quicksand" was her first novel. Clearly drawn from the author's own experience (Larsen was born of a Danish mother and a West Indian father), it tells the story of Helga Crane. Helga constantly resists the idea that her life is defined by the color of her skin, but finds no available options for living any other way. She turns between her black friends in Harlem and her family in Copenhagen, trying to find a way to be herself.
"Passing" is a longer novel which is about two women from the same neighborhood who grew up to take very different routes. One has successfully passed as white, and is married to a white husband. One makes her home in Harlem and marries a black doctor. When they accidentally meet some time later in a different city, their lives once more connect. Irene and Clare are confronted with their own choices when they see what has become of the other woman.
Larsen died in obscurity in 1964, after 34 years of silence. In some respects, her work feels more modern than ever in the way it takes on the complexity of identity and questions notions of both feminism and race. I would suggest buying this edition if you aren't yet familiar with her work. Her output is sadly so slight that it makes sense to buy it all bound in one volume.
Recommended.
Passing was a great read !!!!!.......2003-03-21
Passing, written by Nella Larson, portrays the thoughts and feelings of a black woman dealing with inter-racial issues during the early twentieth century. The main character Irene Redfield, who has led a semi pleasant life with her husband and child finds herself dealing with issues brought upon by her past childhood friend Claire. Claire creates an intense and unstable environment for Irene and her family throughout most of the story. Towards the end a dramatic and suspenseful moment leaves the reader to create an ending in itself. I enjoyed Passing and found it to be an interesting book in relation to the early Harlem Renaissance years.
Average customer rating:
- Step Into Darkness
- The book that keeps on giving
- Evil of the Dawn
- Tough To Stomach
- THIS IS THE TRANSLATION YOU WANT
|
Maldoror and the Complete Works of the Comte de Lautréamont
Comte de Lautréamont
Manufacturer: Exact Change
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 187897212X
Release Date: 2004-02-02 |
Book Description
Andr Breton wrote that Maldoror is "the expression of a revelation so complete it seems to exceed human potential." Little is known about its pseudonymous author aside from his real name (Isidore Ducasse), birth in Uruguay (1846), and early death in Paris (1870). Lautr amont's writings bewildered his contemporaries, but the Surrealists modeled their efforts after his lawless black humor and poetic leaps of logic, exemplified by the oft-quoted slogan, "As beautiful as the chance meeting on a dissecting-table of a sewing-machine and an umbrella!" Maldoror's shocked first publisher refused to bind the sheets of the original edition...and perhaps no better invitation exists to this book, which warns the reader, "Only the few may relish this bitter fruit without danger." This is the only complete annotated collection of Lautr amont's writings available in English, in a superior translation.
Customer Reviews:
Step Into Darkness.......2007-01-12
I like my writers drunk, blasphemous, decadent and French. If any of that list sounds even vaguely familiar then this is the book for you. Set the absinthe fountain to a slow drip, light some candles and prepare to tour an alchemical end-of-the-century underworld.
The book that keeps on giving.......2006-12-12
What to say about Maldoror that hasn't been said yet? What to say about the mysterious son of a diplomat who appeared in France, wrote this book and died, vanishing from the world, yet leaving his mark for decades and centuries yet to come?
The first time I had the pleasure of reading this exceptional work, I was taken aback. Barely seventeen, I hungrily swallowed the disturbing images leaping at me from the pages, not to fully comprehend them until years later. This work, over a century old, is believed to be the first work, the foundation stone of the surrealist movement, a movement that penetrated into every aspect of art, life, being; whether we are willing to admit it or not, this work is as important today as it was when originally published in 1868 (well, at least a part of it was). The world was not ready to receive the complete self-awarness of evil Maldoror so fully comprehends, and the world is still not ready. This work is certainly not to be read by a "closed" mind. It is said that to be creative, one must borderline insanity, yet, Lautreamont was playing with genius; a genius of a caliber capable of scaring away even the most immodest of us. But get deeper into his work, walk past the disturbed images, surpass your fears and you shall see the light. This work cannot be ignored, cannot be left to collect dust. I have owned several copies over the past 14 years, and I am still finding new meanings, new passages and new understanding in this wonderful work. This trully is the one book that will never get old, that will always keep on giving, as long as one is ready to listen.
Evil of the Dawn.......2005-12-02
Isidore Ducasse's or Comte de Lautreamont's 'Les Chants de Maldoror' is a book one can contemplate over it's themes of darkness.
The songs of Maldoror is essentially an occult view of the world.
For good and evil are seen as equally important and mutually linked forces in nature, divorced from the moral content given to them by human beings. This is even noticeable in the name of the book's hero: Maldoror, which is a pun on 'mal d'aurore' (evil of dawn), the combination of darkness and light.
The book's phrase 'as beautiful as a chance meeting on a dissection table of a sewing machine and an umbrella' was also very important for the surrealists. It was valued because it was absolutely original in its combination of a banal object from everyday life with something that carries sinister and morbid overtones. The phrase also consists of a paradox, two of these objects have an constructive and therefore positive function, while the third has a dissecting and destructive, and therefore negative function. Yet these are only inanimate objects, it is only our imagination that puts "life" into them and give them these qualities.
It was this paradoxical metaphor that led Breton to describe Lautreaumont as the "unattackable".
The book also mocks science in its attempt to impose a static and rational order upon nature and attacks the belief that humanity is superior to the natural world. Religion is seen as an absurd delusion and god is seen as an unworthy, ineffectual, pathetic drunkard, scorned by the animals he is meant to have created.
This book can be seen as a belief that the "traditionally ugly" can be transmuted to an aesthetic value. When the socially conditioned fear of the ugly has been overcome, pleasure and psychological power are acquired.
Salvador Dali wrote:
"Repugnance is the sentry standing right near the door to those things that we desire most".
Tough To Stomach.......2005-07-06
This is a hard book to digest, but it is worth it, so long as you do not faint at gory detail, and crave a classical mixture of poetry and prose: only then can you appreciate the ultra esoteric Maldoror.
THIS IS THE TRANSLATION YOU WANT.......2004-08-24
Alexis Lykiard captures the rabid bite, godlike arrogance, swooning eroticism, obnoxiously erudite vocabulary, genius humor, and vortex of profound madness that is Lautreamont's Maldoror. Don't waste your time with a translation that will mar this masterpiese with even a streak of drabness.
Book Description
Before he trailed off into the wilds of Mexico, never to be heard from again, Ambrose Bierce achieved a public persona as "bitter Bierce" and "the devil's lexicographer." He left behind a nasty reputation and more than ninety short stories that are perfect expressions of his sardonic genius. Brought together in this volume, these stories represent an unprecedented accomplishment in American literature. In their iconoclasm and needle-sharp irony, their formal and thematic ingenuity and element of surprise, they differ markedly from the fiction admired in Bierce's time. Readers familiar with the classic An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge will want to turn to Bierce's other Civil War stories. Also included here are his horror stories, among them The Death of Halpin Frayser and The Damned Thing, and such tall tales as Oil of Dog and A Cargo of Cat.
Customer Reviews:
Andrew's Review.......2006-11-13
The story, An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge, had vivid descriptions of the scenery. It gave me an idea of what people might think about before they die.
I would not recommend it, because overall, to me, it was boring. It was hard to understand the first time I read the short story. However, the second time it was more clear to me what was happening. It was confusing the way the author went from dream to reality.
Great collection of short stories, the title is incorrect.......2004-02-26
Ambrose Bierce was a fine writer and this is a good sampling of his short stories. It is not, however, a complete collection of his short stories. I particularly missed "One Summer Night" and there are a number of other stories that could have been been included. Still, this collection is well worth reading.
I suppose this must be death.......2001-10-18
Ambrose Bierce's most famous story is An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge and many of his stories follow that same kind of pattern: an event is related with some surprising or revelatory twist at the end. The stories of the Civil War are especially interesting as they are not at all typical writings about war. Bierce does not see the battle so much as one of North against South rather he sees the war as the child sees the war in his story Chickamauga, his attitude is one combining fascination at the spectacle and utter disgust. Life is an unresolved jumble of confused forces and mixed emotions for everyone in Bierce's haunting tales that read like dreams but dreams informed by much contact with reality as Bierce was wounded twice(once in the head)in the war he describes. The descriptions of Civil War battles are told with great precision(and alone make this volume worth having) though there is always an additional element to make them more than war reportage, Bierce turns his accounts into stories because he sees through all the cannon smoke to the small detail which encapsulates the essential thing about an event. In one of my favorites, Killed at Resaca, a courageous captain gallops across a field to deliver a crucial message only to find the field is impassable because of a deep gully, instead of turning around however he merely waits for the enemy to shoot him. Going through his personal things a fellow soldier, the narrator of the story, finds a letter which explains this resolve. The letter reads:"...I could bear to hear of my soldier- lover's death, but not of his cowardice." Later, when the narrator has a chance to return the letter to its author he is asked by her how her soldier-lover died. "He was bitten by a snake,"is the narrators reply. Bierce's pen was dipped in wormwood and acid said H.L. Mencken. His stories of soldiers and civilians are told with a bitter and venomous clarity. His humor was always of the sort aquainted with the gallows. He said at age 71,"I am so old I am ashamed to be alive." And so he rode off to Mexico. It's hard to imagine Stephen Crane existing without the example of Ambrose Bierce just as it is hard to imagine Bierce without Poe. What a strange tradition of independents we have.
Civil War Survivor and Damn Good Author.......2001-08-22
Ambrose Bierce was the one of the 2 writers of major significance to fight in and survive the Civil War (the other being Sidney Lanier). He was bitter to begin with, but the experience changed him into an even more cynical man. An eloquent writer, his best subject is fear: his ghost stories are dark and spooky - the civil war stories are as well, but with the added horror of a very real war and fear of battle. "Chickamauga" is one of my favorites - Bierce was actually at the battle but the story is fictional, and adds a supernatural angle to an infamous time and place. His writings are ghostly and vivid tales of America in the mid 19th century. The horrific experiences encountered in his tales are both real and imagined. If you are a ghost story fan or an American history/Civil War buff, you'll enjoy Bierce.
bitter wit.......2000-12-29
Ambrose Bierce is as famous for the circumstances surrounding the end of his life as for his bitter fatalistic prose. Bierce was a journalist/author and a Civil War veteran. In 1913, after the breakup of his marriage and the death of his sons, he set out for Mexico to meet Pancho Villa and observe the Mexican Revolution at first hand. He wrote to a friend:
Goodbye, if you hear of my being stood up against a Mexican stone wall and shot to rags, please know that I think it a pretty good way to depart this life. It beats old age, disease, or falling down the cellar stairs. To be a Gringo in Mexico--ah, that is euthanasia!
With that, he disappeared into Mexico and was never heard from again, fueling wild speculation about his fate (i.e., Carols Fuentes' novel The Old Gringo). A fitting end for an author whose works combined a bleak view of life with elements of mystery.
Bierce's Civil War stories are bleak little tales of death and destruction. There's one here that nicely captures his cynical world view--most of us saw a film version of it in grade school--An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. Peyton Farquhar is a Southern planter captured behind Union lines on a spy mission. As the story opens, he stands upon Owl Creek Bridge with a noose around his neck thinking of the wife and children he will never see again. But when the Union soldiers try to hang him, the noose slips and he swims off downstream. He flees across country until he finally reaches home and as he approaches his open armed wife...the rope snaps tight and we realize that he had imagined the whole episode on his way down. Here in one tidy package is the brutality of war, the futility of life and the bitter wit that characterizes his work.
He's not for all tastes, and I'm not generally big on short stories, but I like him.
GRADE: B
Average customer rating:
- The Complete Fairy Tales
- Rehashed
- Wonderful book!
- Poor edition
- From the first master
|
The Complete Fairy Tales (Penguin Classics)
George Macdonald , and
U. C. Knoepflmacher
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
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ASIN: 0140437371 |
Book Description
An authoritative edition of the shorter fairy tales of George MacDonald, "one of the most remarkable writers of the nineteenth century" (W. H. Auden)
George MacDonald occupied a major position in the intellectual life of his Victorian contemporaries, and his dazzling fairy tales earned him the admiration of such twentieth-century writers as C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and W. H. Auden. Employing paradox, play, and nonsense, like Lewis Carroll's Alice books, MacDonald's fairy tales offer an elusive yet meaningful alternative order to the dubious certitudes of everyday life.
The Complete Fairy Tales brings together all eleven of George MacDonald's shorter fairy tales, including "The Light Princess" and "The Golden Key," as well as his essay "The Fantastic Imagination." The subjects are those of traditional fantasy: fairies good and wicked, children embarking on elaborate quests, journeys into unsettling dreamworlds, life-risking labors undertaken. Though they allude to familiar tales such as "Sleeping Beauty" and "Jack the Giant-Killer," MacDonald's stories are profoundly experimental and subversive. By questioning the concept that a childhood associated with purity, innocence, and fairy-tale "wonder" ought to be segregated from adult skepticism and disbelief, they invite adult readers to adopt the same elasticity and openmindedness that come so naturally to a child.
"I have never concealed the fact that I regarded him as my master . . . The quality that had enchanted me in his imaginative works turned out to be the quality of the real universe, the divine, magical, terrifying and ecstatic reality in which we all live." --C. S. Lewis
Customer Reviews:
The Complete Fairy Tales.......2007-02-25
This book gives a great perspective into fairy tales and how they were told during the eighteen hundreds. It is a fun, scary, spriritual reflection of that age.
Rehashed.......2006-03-19
I was disappointed because I thought I was getting fairy tales edited by MacDonald. Instead, this is a compilation of other works which I already had like Northwind, Light Princess, Golden Key etc. If you don't have these already, this edition will probably be a great source for them.
Wonderful book!.......2006-02-25
This is a delightful book -- the first by MacDonald that I have read. The reading of these short fairy tales prompted me to order 3 of his longer stories as well.
Poor edition.......2003-05-08
A poor edition of this beautiful work. Binding and paper quality are not as expected considering the high price.
From the first master.......2003-02-10
George MacDonald, a 19th-century minister from Scotland, may be the earliest writer of fantasy as we know it today. He was a prolific writer and an influence on grand masters C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, and here some of his less-known (but well-written) works.
First of all is his essay on "The Fantastic Imagination," where he discusses fantasy, fairy tales, and the nature of childlike innocence. There are also short stories, such as the novella "Light Princess," about a girl who is a lightweight in mind AND body, excerpts from the dreamy fantasy novel "At The Back of the North Wind," the haunting "Shadows" that appear for a king, a "Wise Woman" who sweeps away an obnoxious princess, and several others.
MacDonald's stories have the sort of rich, compelling prose that the best of 19th-century literature has. His stories are full of creepy creatures, magical women, golden keys and dreamy atmosphere, the sort of stuff now written by Jane Yolen and not many others. But they're also more grounded and traditionally fairy-tale-like than the stories of later writer Lord Dunsany. Rather, you can see how Lewis and Tolkien would have both enjoyed and been influenced by MacDonald.
A good selection of short stories and a thought-provoking essay, definitely for fans of fantasy and fairy tales. Delightful.
Books:
- The Complete Stories of Robert Louis Stevenson: Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Nineteen Other Tales (Modern Library Classics)
- The Complete Works (Everyman's Library)
- The Crucible (Penguin Classics)
- The Damned and the Beautiful: American Youth in the 1920s (Galaxy Books)
- The Decameron (Signet Classics)
- The Great Gatsby
- The Illustrated History of Magic
- The Immoralist (Penguin Classics)
- The Letters of Abelard and Heloise (Penguin Classics)
- The Lord of the Rings
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