The Reivers

Customer Reviews:

The complexity of Faulkner in a straight forward novel.......2007-08-24

William Faulkner is one of my all time favorite authors, one who I greatly admire and love. His writing always seem fluid in its movement from paper to mind, giving up such a full picture of what is going on. The Reivers is yet another novel that draws you in and makes you feel as though you are right there with Lucius, Boon and Ned as there adventures lead them to Memphis.

All, of course, did not go as planned. Lucius Priest, an elven year old boy, is persuaded by Boon, a character we've seen in other Faulkner novels (such as Go Down, Moses), to "borrow" Lucius' grandfather's car. Eventually the star of the book, Ned McCaslin, is discovered and the adventure soon took a decidedly different direction.

The Reivers is a great comic, picaresque novel that is one of Faulkner's easier novels to read. This does not distract from the novel and, in a way, lends the story its credibility. At times we see the naive and ignorant young Lucius, then we meet the older narrator Lucius. Boon the mastermind, only to be usurped by Ned. The morals and the justice of the story all come together nicely by the end.

Faulkner is one to be admired, and I have yet to pick up one of his novels and not be impressed. Although some find his novels too complex or confusing, this one is a much easier read and allows the reader to enjoy the complexity of Faulkner in a much more straight forward manner.

5 stars.

A great comic adventure!.......2007-01-04

Faulkner's "The Reivers" is a great comic adventure about the early days of automobiles, when it was rare to see one. The story is about a misadventure that a young boy, and two of his father's employees get into when they 'borrow' his grandfather's car for a joyride from rural Mississippi to Memphis, Tennessee.

Loved it.......2006-11-04

The Faulkner I've previously read explores mans' imperfections and failures. This book celebrates them. The story is told from the perspective of a young boy, and his sentence structure and punctuation takes getting used to, but it's worth it. The book is beautifully and joyfully written.

Faulkner's last novel.......2006-07-10

Although I had read Faulkner's other major works, I only just recently got around to completing this novel. As students of Faulkner know, this book is not--nor did its author intend it to be--a major work of literature. For those just beginning to read Faulkner, it will prove much more accessible than the classic texts (like The Sound and the Fury), and it will introduce them to some of the author's characters and themes--but it won't introduce them to important elements of his Modernist technique.

The novel has a great deal of charm, however, and I will take this opportunity to suggest that it be assigned as summer reading (do they still do that?) for students in about 10th grade. It's a coming-of-age story that has to do with responsibility. At the end the grandfather says to Lucius following the boy's adventure in Memphis: "A gentleman can live through anything. He faces anything. A gentleman accepts the responsibility of his actions and bears the burden of their consequences, even when he did not himself instigate them but only acquiesced to them, didn't say No though he knew he should" (p. 302).

Trying to finish it.......2006-01-13

This book is very hard to read. Excruciatingly painful in dull plot as well as the overly wordy text. I am going to finish it as an exercise in tenacity.

Steel Bonnets: The Story of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers

Average customer rating:

Thorough, well-structured, and entertaining
The Definitive History of the Borderers
Fascinating book for me as a Reiver descendant.
Readable and relevant
A much needed title

Steel Bonnets: The Story of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers
George MacDonald Fraser
Manufacturer: Harpercollins Pub Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

Scotland | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0002727463

Book Description

"If Jesus Christ were amongst them, they would deceive him," it was said of the plunders, raiders, and outlaws who terrorized the Anglo-Scottish Border for over 300 years. Theirs is an almost forgotten chapter of British history, preserved largely in folktales and ballads. It is the story of the notorious raiding families--Armstrongs, Elliots, Grahams, Johnstones, Maxwells, Scotts, Kerrs, Nixons, and others--of the outlaw bands and broken men, and the fierce battles of English and Scottish armies across the Marches. The Steel Bonnets tells their true story in its historical context-- how the reivers ran their raids and operated their system of blackmail and terrorism, and how the March Wardens, enforcing the unique Border law, fought the great lawless community. A superb work of scholarship and a spellbinding narrative. George MacDonald Fraser is the celebrated author of the Flashman novels, The Candlemass Road, The Pyrates, and the Private McAuslan stories.

Customer Reviews:

Thorough, well-structured, and entertaining.......2005-06-10

Until England and Scotland were united under a single king in March 1603, the border between them was, unsurprisingly, a natural place for strife and disorder. The two countries had been at war intermittently for centuries, and many armies had passed back and forth across the border counties. Fraser's history covers the last hundred years of the border, from 1503 to 1603, a period during which the decayed (and astonishingly corrupt) administration could never cope with the local gangs -- known as "reivers" -- who terrorized the district with cattle theft, murder, and arson.

The book is very well-organized. Fraser starts with a few pages on the long historical background, then takes about half the book to cover the reivers by topic: chapters on arms and armour; on reiving technique; on the key families and their alliances; on cross-border relations; on the administrative structure. Fraser gives a lot of details, and plenty of quotes from the original sources (with the original spellings!).

This painstaking coverage sets up the second half of the book perfectly: one hundred and forty pages that cover the history of the border chronologically through the sixteenth century. With the details in hand, the second half is easy to follow and put in context; the writing is also clear and entertaining.

The last section of the book details the uncompromising way in which King James I destroyed the reivers in a few short years after 1603. It is a startlingly bloodthirsty story: Fraser includes quotes from blanket pardons that King James issued to some of his enforcers, which essentially say "whatever murders you did, I'm sure it was in a good cause, and you're absolved".

There are separate chapters on some of the most famous events, notably the raid on Carlisle Castle that freed Kinmont Willie. Fraser is at some pains to dispel the romantic ideas that cling to stories of the borderers -- as he points out, they were essentially a Mafia, with little of Robin Hood about them. It's clear, though, that he finds their adventurousness and style endearing and fascinating; and he writes about them so well that you are likely to feel the same way.

The Definitive History of the Borderers.......2005-03-24

This book is the definitive history of the riding families -- the Border Reviers. It is a long scholarly look into the nature of these complex and determined families that does not pass judgment or apply modern values in the assessment of their history and deeds. This is not for the casusal reader. It uses a fair amount of old English spellings and can be an effort to decifer at times. However Fraser MacDonald combines this along with his natural story telling ability to make you feel as if you are on a foray across the border and it keeps you coming back for more. If you are a student of Border history or are lucky enough to have one of the riding names, make the effort to read this book. It has no equal in its treatment of the subject.

Fascinating book for me as a Reiver descendant........2003-03-15

I was born in Carlisle, England. The second big town of the border area other than Berwick. My father is from Longtown, Cumbria which is right next to the debateable land and I have the last name of Crozier. This book was like reading about my own history and explained a whole lot of things about my home town and the people I grew up with. Just in my neighborhood, there were Armstrongs, Taylors, Littles, Nixons, Grahams and many other Reiver names.
This is a very scholarly book and exceptionally well written. The author must have done an incredible amount of research to put this together. I read it twice, the second time noting how many references to Croziers(Crosers) there were. My father's family name is in there 26 times. Along with the Armstrongs, Nixons and Eliots, we were considered the worst of the worst of the reivers. Maybe not something to be proud of, but interesting. According to my mother(God rest her soul)her paternal grandfather was the illegitmate son of the Duke of Buccleugh(you'll hear a lot about the Scotts of Buccleugh, many of whom had the same name of Walter, including the famous one), so I have Reiver blood from there too. Fascinating book especially if you have a surname that might go back to that part of the world and those times.
What I have written here is just a taste of the whole book. A little heavy going at times, but so good that I have read it twice already and now use it as a research tool.

Readable and relevant.......2002-02-05

MacDonald Fraser brings to the history of the Anglo-Scots border reivers all the exuberance and attention to detail that made his name in the Flashman novels. Readers looking for more gloriously politically-incorrect adventures from the Victorian age won't find them here, but this book does repay the extra effort needed from the reader. The Steel Bonnets is the most entertaining yet informative serious works of history I have read.
The story of the Anglo-Scots border is a complex and a bloody one. MacDonald Fraser manages to understand, without condoning, the hard men who fought and died, rode and raided across the border between the kingdoms of England and Scotland. He untangles the knotted threads of their family ties and feuds and reveals their part in the wider relations between England and Scotland prior to the union of the Crowns in 1603. He dives into the dusty depths of the written records and brings them back to us red in tooth and claw.
At a time when the border between England and Scotland looks as though it may become an international, rather than a domestic border once more, this book should be of relevence to all with an interest in and love of these two nations.

A much needed title.......2001-09-20

As a newcomer to Scottish Border history I found the many forces and families influencing events very confusing. George MacDonald Fraser has written a remarkable book in which he creates order and logic from a very complicated period and at the same time has written a book which is etremely readble.

Book Description

Lady Ellyson is outraged that her cousin, the beautiful Fiona, is being married off to Eustace Chisholm, a greedy predator.Fiona has been engaged to Chisholm's nephew, Kit, who disappeared after being accused of murder and is presumed dead.But Kit is very much alive and is hiding in Scotland after escaping from an enemy who has imprisoned him.When he comes across Anne, who figures out his true identity, the two team up and foil Chisholm's wedding plans.But then Kit realizes that it is not Fiona he wants, but Anne!With Anne determined that Kit marry Fiona, Kit determined to make Anne his bride, and Chisholm's confession that he really wants Fiona's mother, romantic affairs have become hopelessly tangled.It'll take a daring plan from Anne to straighted out this mess-and make sure each person makes the proper love match.

Customer Reviews:

A Great Series .......2006-07-06

This is a great series by a truly gifted author. She has every element you look for in a good book. Suspense, excitement, hot and heavy petting, plus of course a happy ending.

A pleasant, make-merry tale.......2003-12-07

Spending eighteen months aboard a prison ship for crimes he didn't commit is as close to hell as Sir Christopher Chisholm has ever experienced in his twenty-eight years of living. If he hadn't escaped and found refuge in the Scottish Highlands, he'd still be aboard the Marion Ogilvy, a man condemned to a fate too dark to contemplate...But by whom?

What wicked conspiracy is at work here? Hoping to uncover the truth about his unjust imprisonment, Kit has returned to the border lands, where his estates as the Laird of Ashkirk and Tornes lie, only to discover that he's been declared legally dead, his property now in the hands of his uncle, Eustace Chisholm. (Who has also laid claim to Kit's unwanted betrothed, by the by: Lady Anne Ellyson's cousin, Fiona, a lass much too young to be the bride of the lecherous Sir Eustace).

Not that Kit is particularly concerned about the lass's fate, until a late night encounter with the lovely Lady Anne rouses his conscience and makes him aware of his uncle's plans to marry Fiona in a ceremony two days hence. He's not yet ready to reveal his presence, however, or let the element of surprise slip through his fingertips. Not when Kit is still laboring in the dark, so to speak, and doesn't know what Sir Eustace has been up to in his absence.

Besides, Lady Anne -- a daring, spirited lass -- is a much more desirable bride than her simpleton cousin. If he steps forward, he'll no doubt be forced to honor the betrothal contract his father fashioned with Fiona's greedy, grasping mother...and where will that leave Kit's potent attraction to Anne? Aye, there are entanglements aplenty to unravel, though how he's to go about the untangling is a mystery to Kit.

Members of the Secret Clan are up to their old tricks, plotting mischief (for the betterment of all, of course, and with naught but a wee bit of fae magic at their disposal) in Amanda Scott's medieval romance, REIVER'S BRIDE. The forth installment in the author's enchanting series about sixteenth century Scotland and the wee folk -- be they spirits, sprites, or puckish pixies -- is a pleasant, make-merry tale, and is blessed with a bounty of historical details and fanciful imaginings.

Maggie Malloch and her son, Brown Claud, are once again pivotal characters, and are intent on setting things to right in the mortal realm (though Claud is present in a slightly, er, diminished capacity), while Jonah Bonewits, the Clan's disgraced wizard, is determined to foil their plans. Lady Anne and Sir Christopher, Kit to his friends, fit into this percolating cauldron of plot twists with a wee bit of difficulty, however. With such an abundance of secondary characters -- including Anne's beautiful cousin, her aunt, and Kit's lascivious uncle -- a reader's attention is divided, and the primary romance between Anne and Kit is given short shift, I think.

It takes over a hundred pages for the protagonists' relationship to develop to the point that Ms. Scott's hero and heroine are more than passing ships in the night, though they remain star-crossed lovers, in a sense, for some time to come. Which is a little disappointing, as they're such a wonderfully charismatic couple and deserve so much more than moments of stolen intimacy. Also, Kit's near marriage to Anne's cousin, Fiona, is too close a call, quite frankly. I don't care about the extenuating circumstances: how can Kit just stand there and calmly submit to a marriage he doesn't desire? Anne's bravery and willingness to be more proactive in this matchmaking muddle are therefore of great assistance, bless her stalwart heart!

Now, I don't know if Amanda Scott is planning to continue on with this series, but REIVER'S BRIDE has shored up my hopes that she will. Interesting plot twists and the romance of Scotland -- the mountains, the mist, the castles, the lochs -- make for good reading, after all. Add a fair sprinkling of fae magic, and Ms. Scott's writing is positively luminous.

C.L. Jeffries, Heartstrings | Romance Novels and Reviews

Exciting historical romance with a touch of Scottish magic.......2003-09-04

In 1541 Scotland, the dying Border's Earl confesses to his daughter, Lady Anne Ellison, that he failed her by not insuring she had the protection of a husband. He tells her that since she will be wealthy in two years when she is twenty-one, she needs to stay low so she should live with Aunt Olivia at Mute Hill House.

After being falsely accused of two homicides, but not convicted, the sheriff sent Kit Chisolm to the prison ship Marion Ogilvy. After fifteen months of living in hell he has finally escaped. During his six years away from the Highlands, his father died so he is the Earl, but soon learns that his uncle declared him dead and claims the estate.

When Kit meets Anne, he is surprised to find he is attracted to the feisty woman. However, she may reciprocate, but feels loyalty to her cousin who is his intended bride. With the help of the Secret Clan, Kit and Anne may find a path to happiness, but both has enemies with plans that will leave one dead and the other living dead.

Amanda Scott's latest Secret Clan tale is an exciting historical romance with a touch of Scottish magic that enhances the engaging plot. The story line is fun to follow though in many ways the characters contain traits that are similar to previous books in the series. Still when the mischievous imps matchmake or perhaps interfere with human hearts, chaos occurs and readers have a good time.

Harriet Klausner

Romance and Magic in the Highlands - 4-1/2*.......2003-09-02

Setting ý Ellyson Towers, Scottish Border 1541 - Lady Anne Ellyson has suffered numerable losses of her family. Now alone she has been sent to live with her aunt Olivia and beautiful cousin Fiona. Coming to care deeply for her beautiful cousin she feels helpless to extricate Friona from an arranged marriage Fionaýs mother is forcing upon her to an odious older man, Sir Eustace Chisholm, Earl of Ashkirk. Feeling helpless to save Fiona from the hateful Earl, Anne rides out alone to de-stress herself and is set upon by a band of reivers. Anne discovers that the leader of this band of miscreants is none other than Sir Christopher ýKitý Chisholm (introduced in the prequel (Secret Clan: Highland Bride). Prior to being declared dead, Kit was betrothed to Fiona by proxy though he had never met her or agreed to the betrothal.

Returning ýfrom the deadý and testing the waters, Kit posed as a reiver to discover if his Uncle Eustace was involved in the trumped up murder charge that had Kit serving a life sentence aboard a prison ship. Discovering Lady Anne, alone and with no escort, forced him to discard his reiver persona and admit to his true identity. Lady Anne, although attracted to him herself, saw Kit as the answer to her dear cousin Fionaýs dilemma. Anne had to convince Kit to step forward, own up to being the true Earl of Ashkirk, and stop the wedding of Fiona to his hateful uncle. This would definitely solve Fionaýs problem, but as Anneýs feelings towards Kit intensified and Kitýs passion for Anne accelerates this would not be the ideal solution. Outside forces in the form of the elusive ýwee folký and their many intrigues could and would set most plans awry!

Having read the prequel HIGHLAND BRIDE, in the Secret Clan series I was delighted to revisit the Highlands for this engaging tale of intrigues set during a historical era I find appealing as well as giving Kit Chisholm a chance to tell his story and find romance. The reader picking this book up will find that it stacks up well as a stand alone but will find much more enjoyment by starting with the first of the series as there are numerous characters, both real and magical, who visit in and out of the story. While the human's have their turmoils, the ýwee folký that interfere and are ýsupposedý to watch over their human charges have just as many problems. The reader will certainly enjoy the antics of the fierce little Maggie Murdoch, her son Brown Claud, his girlfriend Catriona, Fergus Fishbait and all rest who make reading these stories a magical and fun experience. Fans who like a little magic in their tales will take much pleasure in and have fun returning to the magic of the highlands time and again. The series is romantic, fun, and one that I highly recommend.

Average customer rating:

Two-thirds of an amazing trilogy

From Work To Wealth, The Snopes Saga

William Faulkner: Novels, 1957-1962: The Town / The Mansion / The Reivers (Library of America)
William Faulkner
Manufacturer: Library of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Faulkner, William | Classics | United States | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Classics | United States | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Collections & Readers | United States | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Faulkner, William | ( F ) | Authors, A-Z | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

William Faulkner : Novels 1942-1954 : Go Down, Moses / Intruder in the Dust / Requiem for a Nun / A Fable (Library of America)

William Faulkner : Novels 1936-1940 : Absalom, Absalom! / The Unvanquished / If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem / The Hamlet (Library of America)

William Faulkner : Novels 1930-1935 : As I Lay Dying, Sanctuary, Light in August, Pylon (Library of America)

William Faulkner: Novels 1926-1929: Soldiers' Pay / Mosquitoes / Flags in the Dust / The Sound and the Fury (Library of America)

Steinbeck Novels 1942-1952: The Moon Is Down / Cannery Row / The Pearl / East of Eden (Library of America)

ASIN: 1883011698

Book Description

William Faulkner's fictional chronicle of Yoknapatawpha County culminates in his three last novels, rich with the history and lore of the domain where he set most of his novels and stories. "The Town" (1957), the second novel of the Snopes trilogy that began with "The Hamlet," charts the rise of the rapacious Flem Snopes and his extravagantly extended family as they connive their way into power. In "The Mansion" (1959), the trilogy's conclusion, a wronged relative finally destroys Flem and his dynasty. Faulkner's last novel, "The Reivers: A Reminiscence" (1962), distinctly mellower and more elegiac than his earlier work, is a picaresque adventure that evokes the world of childhood with a final burst of comic energy. "Novels 1957-1962," like previous volumes in The Library of America's edition of the complete novels of William Faulkner, has been newly edited by textual scholar Noel Polk to establish an authoritative text, that features a chronology and notes by Fau! lkner's biographer Joseph Blotner.

Customer Reviews:

Two-thirds of an amazing trilogy.......2006-04-17

The Library of America (LOA) has done a wonderful job of publishing all of Faulkner's novels in five compact, uniform editions. Besides being handsome, beautifully typeset volumes, they contain the texts of one America's most brilliant authors in versions that are as authoritative as can reasonably be expected. All five volumes were edited by two of the foremost Faulkner scholars--Noel Polk and Joseph Blotner; and each volume contains their notes on the text and a detailed chronology of Faulkner's life (In case you ever find yourself wondering when Faulkner entered first grade, the year was 1905; he enjoyed drawing and painting.) The scholarship and care that went into the preparation of the LOA Faulkner is impeccable.

Within the LOA series, the novels are arranged chronologically (though the volumes were not released in sequence). Consequently, the present volume contains the last two novels (The Town and The Mansion) in Faulkner's great trilogy, The Snopes. To get the first (and critically proabably the best) novel in the trilogy, The ;Hamlet, you'll have to purchase William Faulkner: Novels 1936-1940 (ISBN 0-940450-55-0). Since that volume also includes Faulkner's masterpiece Absalom! Absalom!, it is worth the purchase price. In my opinion, it is impossible to overpraise The Snopes trilogy, and it is difficult to summarize its themes. Suffice it to say, the trilogy encompasses many genres (myth, folklore, legend, realism, epic) while provideing an insightful and scathing commentary on the American dream, society, and the tension between traditional values and modernity. (Faulkner's insights make Theodore Dreiser look like an entertainment Tonight! reporter.) Although The Town has been called a "weak plank between two substantial boulders," I have to confess a fondness for its depiction of the goofy and sexually naive town lawyer, Gavin Stevens (also the hero of Faulkner's Knight's Gambit short stories). I would also venture to say that readers' uncomfortability with The Town may also be a reflection of the fact that this part of the trilogy represents the "real world of the present"--not our mythic past which we nostalgically recast to flatter our self-image (The Hamlet), nor an expression of our "wildest dreams," what we expect our life to be like "when our ship comes in" (The Mansion). Most of life, in other words, is taken up not with valiant struggles and bold accomplishments, but with the pettiness of domestic life and trying to get along with others. The Town (published in 1957), therefore, can be seen as the flip side of Father Knows Best, Leave It to Beaver, and all the other 1950s family sitcoms. Taken in that vein, I think it's a good satire and a delectable opera bouffe between two grand operas.

Daniel J. Singal in William Faulkner: The Making of a Modernist (1997; Univeristy of North Carolina Press) pinpoints November 1940 as the date when Faulkner's genius and talent began to irreversibly fade. While on a camping trip Faulkner, always a heavy drinker and surely already an alcoholic for many years, suffered brain damage when he passed out while drinking. If this is true, that means all three novels collected in Novels 1957-1962 were written during the Nobel laureate's waning years. Concerning the many passages of brilliant writing in The Mansion, Singal notes that many of these had been previously published as short stories and only reworked to become part of the novel. It is hard to imagine how The Mansion could have been better (though I'm sure there is no shortage of Faulkner scholars willing to suggest some scenarios). As far as The Reivers goes, I have long recommended this novel to friends who want to read something by Faulkner but are intimidated by the structural challenges of The Sound and the Fury or Absalom! Absalom! The Reivers is a nostalgic look at the early days of Jefferson (the key town in Faulkner's invented Yoknapatawpha County) told mostly through the eyes of a young boy. The story is linear and easy to follow, and the humor is some of Faulkner's funniest and most heart-warming. If this is Faulkner at his most diminished, most American novelists writing today should be so diminished!

So buy both Novels 1936-1940 and Novels 1957-1962 and treat yourself to The Snopes trilogy. Then, after you've finished it, rent "The Long Hot Summer" and see what a mangle Hollywood made of Faulkner's richly imagined world.

From Work To Wealth, The Snopes Saga.......2000-04-03

It is too bad that the first novel "The Hamlet" is not included (it appears in an earlier volume of this excellent series of The Library Of America) with "The Town" and "The Mansion" in this wonderful tale of growth and maturity of the outcast Snopes clan to a Snopes family of civic prominence. The three novels need to be read in their order to feel the strength of uneducated and poor individuals struggling for opportunities to better themselves, successfully, to claim the privileges of wealth that only the aristocracy of landowners enjoy. This is the new Yoknapatawpha County of automobiles and areoplanes. The old wilderness of the bear hunters was long ago paved over for speed. "The Reivers" is a long hearty laugh at innocence in a whore house. Told from a boy's viewpoint, the action is very adult and funny as adults pursue their urges for sex and gambling. The horse race is a fine piece of sustained Faulkner writing. Buy this book. It is a keeper.

Average customer rating:

The Reivers

Manufacturer: Vintage Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

ASIN: B000H09KB8

The United States Early Silver Dollars 1794 to 1803

Average customer rating:

Not worh the 'new' price!

The United States Early Silver Dollars 1794 to 1803
Jules Reiver
Manufacturer: Krause Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Coins & Medals | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

A Buyer's Guide to Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States

ASIN: 0873416023

Customer Reviews:

Not worh the 'new' price!.......2005-05-18

This book is full of errors. That said, it does have a lot of information and I appreciate its narrow focus. Find a nice used copy for $5-$10 and you'll probably be satisfied -- pay $38 and you'll go ballistic!

Heritage Coin Auction #390: The Jules Reiver Collection, Vol. 3

Average customer rating:

Heritage Coin Auction #390: The Jules Reiver Collection, Vol. 3
Mark Van Winkle; Brian Koller
Manufacturer: Heritage Auctions, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 1599670267

Product Description

This profusely illustrated auction catalog for the Heritage Coin Auction #390: The Jules Reiver Collection, conducted on January 24-28, 2006 in Dallas, TX, is accompanied by a complete list of the prices realized for each item sold. A valuable reference, which makes interesting reading for hobbyists and researchers. Heritage Galleries & Auctioneers is the world's largest collectibles auction house (over $450 million in annual sales), and the third largest public auctioneer in the United States. Heritage specializes in live and online auctions in venues throughout the United States of rare coins and currency, vintage sports collectibles, comic books and comic art, illustration art, Americana, celebrity and music memorabilia, autographs, books, manuscripts, and historical memorabilia. Heritage now also auctions fine American and European paintings and decorative arts. Heritage's website offers free online auction results archives to its 225,000+ registered Internet bidder-members (membership is free), with over one million enlargeable images. Whether you are a collector or a potential seller or consignor, these back-issue auction catalogs from Amazon.com are a perfect way to learn more about Heritage and the collectibles categories and markets that interest you most.

The Steel Bonnets The Story of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers

Average customer rating:

Rousing Brilliance
A history of a turbulent area and era
Makes the Balkans look like a children's sandbox
Back-stabbing,double-crossing,treacherous,thieving..........
How Do You (Not) Spell "Elliott"?

The Steel Bonnets The Story of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers
George MacDonald Fraser
Manufacturer: Cox & Wyman Ltd,
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Criminology | Crime & Criminals | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Border Reivers (Men-at-Arms)

ASIN: 0330238574

Customer Reviews:

Rousing Brilliance.......2006-11-28

With all the focus on Scotland being tied to all things tartan, the peoples of the Borderlands often overlooked. George MacDonald Fraser paints a spectacular portal into the tumultuous life of the Border Rievers and all they came in contact with. The objective writing style favors neither Scotland nor England. He does not attempt to justify one side or the others action- it just is what it is. This approach fits in perfectly with the frequency in which loyalties and rivals switched sides and waged a blood feud that is still felt in parts today. Anyone who is remotely interested in anything associated with Scotland, England, organized crime or just a good history will bask in the wonder of this spectacular book.

A history of a turbulent area and era.......2006-01-30

Most of us think of Elizabethan Britain as a reasonably peaceful place. Shakespeare and Marlowe writing plays, Edmund Spenser writing "The Faerie Queen," Sir Francis Bacon inventing science to replace natural philosophy, the English Renaissance.

However, there was one part of Britain that underwent continuous terror and warfare, the Borders. The area lying around the border between Scotland and England was an almost lawless place. Great numbers of the people inhabiting the Border Marches lived by despoiling each other. The 16th Century was when great tribes feuded continuously among themselves, when robbery and kidnapping were everyday professions, when raiding, arson, murder and extortion were an important part of the social system. This had little to do with war between the two countries, who spent most of the century at peace with each other. Much of the raiding was not cross-border, but rather English attacking English and Scots stealing from other Scots. It was a way of life pursued in peace time, by people who accepted it as normal. The seamen of the first Elizabeth might sweep the world's greatest fleet off the seas, but for all the protection she could give to her Northumbrian peasants they might as well have been in Africa.

While the monarchs of England and Scotland ruled the relatively secure hearts of their kingdoms, the narrow hill land between was dominated by the lance and the sword. The tribal leaders from their towers, the broken men and outlaws of the mosses, the ordinary farmers of the valleys, in their own phrase "shook loose the Border." They continued to shake it as long as it was a political reality, practising systematic robbery and destruction on each other. History has named them the Border Reivers.

Fraser explains, in very well written words, how the situation on the Borders came about. He describes the manner of people who lived there, who were the leading robber families, how they lived and ate and dressed and built their houses and so forth. He tells how the reivers practised such crimes as the protection racket, robbery and cattle rustling. He also explains about the feuding that went on. He describes how Border law operated under the March Wardens and how the two governments tried to quell the reivers. Lastly the book tells how the reiving ended when England and Scotland came under one king, and the older Borders ceased to be.

Makes the Balkans look like a children's sandbox.......2002-09-19

THE STEEL BONNETS by George MacDonald Fraser is a prodigious and esoteric historical narrative about the Anglo-Scottish border. The time is the 16th century. The place and players are indicated by the book's subtitle, "The Story of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers", reivers being raiders. The place is more specifically the six administrative areas called Marches (3 English and 3 Scottish - West, Middle, and East on each side of the line) which straddled the border to serve as a buffer zone.

Having grown up in Carlisle, the former bastion of the English West March, Fraser has written a work of love divided into five parts. In the first three, Fraser describes the genesis of the Border Marches, the Wardens, one per March, that were responsible for the maintenance of order, the raider families that lived there, and the culture and practice of violence that characterized the area. The author's catalog of depredations, based on research of contemporary records, includes murder, arson, blackmail, kidnapping, rustling, racketeering, feuding, plunder, and banditry - all made infinitely worse by the indifference and/or cynical scheming of the English and Scottish central governments which tolerated the not-infrequent participation in the mayhem by the Wardens themselves. Part 4 is a sequential narrative history of events along the Border during the 16th century, the last before James VI of Scotland united the island's thrones as James I of Great Britain. Part 5 describes this monarch's brutal suppression of both the violence and raider families of the Marches during the first decade of the 17th century, an effort that finally brought peace to the region.

THE STEEL BONNETS offers a surfeit of detail. At times, as Fraser brings on stage the multitude of principal characters and attempts to unravel the maze of ever-shifting family alliances and feuds (Scot vs. Anglo, Scot vs. Scot, Anglo vs. Anglo, everybody vs. everyone), the reader may decide the author went over the top. However, the story is never uninteresting, and the social chaos is appalling.

If the reader was delighted by the humor in Fraser's other books, e.g. the McAuslan and Flashman series, there may be some disappointment as this narrative is relatively straitlaced. However, even here the author's dry wit occasionally shows. Regarding the assumption of the English East March Wardenship by Henry Carey in 1588:

"... his notion of Border justice was that the only good reiver was a dead one - a point of view which has much to be said for it. Possibly the fact that he suffered from gall-stones made him irritable, for he started in office as he meant to continue, by hanging Scottish thieves."

And, as always, Fraser's prose is a joy to behold, as demonstrated by his closing remarks:

"Only now and then, if your romantic imagination is sharp enough, there can come a little drift from the past ... most vivid of all, perhaps, in a little fellside village at night, when there is a hunter's moon and a strong wind, and the black cloud shadows hurry across the tops, and beasts stamp in the dark, and an inn door down in the village opens and slams with a blink of light, and the rough Norse voices sound and laugh and die away ... The old Border is buried a long time ago, and there is hardly a trace now to mark where the steel bonnets passed by."

Back-stabbing,double-crossing,treacherous,thieving.................2002-08-08

barbarous,murderous,anarchic, happenings on the Anglo-Scottish borderlands from the 13th through 16th centuries. It was Afghanistan with kilts.

How Do You (Not) Spell "Elliott"?.......2002-06-26

In this wonderful look at a dark and fascinating period in Anglo-Scottish history, Fraser brings the same quirky attitude and deep appreciation of man's inherent rascality that make the "Flashman" books and his novel "Mr American" (q.v.) so iminently readable to the explication of the complex and violent history of the Border reivers.

Beginning with a Foreword that, among other things, describes the jolt he got watching Richard Nixon's Inauguration on television, when he saw Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Billy Graham standing together on the platform, he explains, in typical fashion, that Johnson, Nixon and Graham are all names that figured strongly in the reiving years, and thateach, as well, wore faces that might well still be seen in the Border country today.

He delves into the history of Hadrian's Wall ("Any Englishman can tell you why it was built -- 'To keep the Scots out!'"), and speculates how Anglo-Scottish history might have been changed were the Wall a few milse north or south.

And then he dives off into the history of the Border and the Reivers.

This is *not* a standard, dry history text, laying everything out in a straight line,with dates and battles to memorise and all the juice sucked out of it.

No, Fraser skips around; first giving us an outline of the whole period, he then, in subsequent chapters, cover different aspects of the history in depth, and not necessarily chronologically.

He gives us fascinating details, such as why the spiral stairs in the watch towers built by the Kerr family tended to spiral anti-clockwise instead of the usual clockwise, in the process defining and explaining the origin of the term "correy fisted".

He writes of the great feuds among the reiving families, many of whom were to be found on both sides of the Border, of the practise of blackmail (somewhat different than the meaning the term has today) and in what manner one might legally pursue raiders back across the Border to attempt to retrieve one's property.

Explaining the administrative setup of the Border, he describes the careers and personalities of several of the more prominent Border Wardens, lawmen assigned by both England and Scotland to keep the peace, but never given the budgets or forces they needed.

He introduces us to several of the prominent reivers, including some of Sir Walter Scott's ancestors, and recounts their deeds.

He analyses the economy of the Border and the reiving system, as well as anyone can, at this remove and from extant records, and shows howthis all affected the overall history ofAnglo-Scottish relations.

And, for good measure, he includes the truly "Monition of Cursing" issued by the Archbishop of Glasgow against the reivers, a masterful piece of vituperation that runs four or more full pages depending on the edition.

Not a history text in the classic sense, not a novel, because it's all true, Fraser has presented the reader with a corking good reading experience that opens the window on another time and place whose influences still reverberate in the world today.

((About the spelling of Eliot... or Ellet ... or Eliott...: The family seemed to not mind how their name was spelt -- Fraser lists a large number of variant spellings with various permutations of "L"s and "T"s. He then points out that almost any were acceptable -- *except*, for some reason, the double "L" and double "T", a spelling the family affected, for some reason, to despise...))

Average customer rating:
The Reivers
William Faulkner
Manufacturer: The Franklin Library: Pa 1983.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Faulkner, William | Classics | United States | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000HJIS4E

Average customer rating:

Well illustrated and written.....

The Border Reivers (Men-at-Arms)
Keith Durham
Manufacturer: Osprey Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books
General | World | History | Subjects | Books
Military Science | History | Subjects | Books
General | England | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Steel Bonnets: The Story of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers

Border Fury: England and Scotland at War 1296-1568

The Scottish and Welsh Wars 1250-1400 (Men at Arms Series, 151)

Clans and Families of Scotland: The History of the Scottish Tartan

The Jacobite Rebellions 1689-1745 (Men-at-Arms)

ASIN: 1855324172
Release Date: 1995-03-13

Book Description

From the 13th century until early in the 17th century the Border Marches of England and Scotland were torn by a vicious and almost continuous cycle of raid, reprisal and blood feud. The Border Reiver was a professional cattle thief, a guerilla soldier skilled at raiding, tracking and ambush and a well organised ‘gangster’. Including eight superb full page colour plates by Angus McBride, as well as numerous other illustrations, this text by Keith Durham explores the colourful history of these remarkable people.

Customer Reviews:

Well illustrated and written............2002-06-27

I convene a Scottish Clan Tent at various Highland Games, and this is always prominantly displayed on my table.
It gives a quick, but thorough history on the Scottish Border Reivers for those of use who don't have time to read the Steel Bonnets. The illustrations alone are worth the price of the book.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books