Light in August (The Corrected Text)

Book Description

Joe Christmas does not know whether he is black or white. Faulkner makes of Joe's tragedy a powerful indictment of racism; at the same time Joe's life is a study of the divided self and becomes a symbol of 20th century man.

Customer Reviews:

Eleven Days In August.......2007-08-12

This book has been touted as being Faulkner's most accessible. Although a bit easier to follow having less stream of consciousness it still requires some patience and appreciation for nuance. Further, if you take the story at face value you will be missing out on 90% of what it has to offer. The themes run deep and the characters symbolic. I'd recommend reading exerpts from One Matchless Time by Jay Parini who provides some good insights into Faulkner's life and his writings. I'd also read the review written by A.Mason (below). This was one of the more violent and sexual books that I have read of Faulkner. Although I was surprised, I was in awe of his tact and style in portraying these events in a subtly gruesome way that takes the reader off gaurd. The climactic scene of Joe Christmas's undoing was Faulkner at his best. I'd recommend this book to anyone who loves good writing and is fascinated with the tragedy of the post-Civil War southerner.

Wonderful writing, sad and fatalistic story.......2007-02-08

This book was my introduction to Faulkner, based on a suggestion by my well-read aunt.

It is certainly possible to recognize the skill of a writer without necessarily finding the story he tells endearing. That was the case here. Faulkner's prose is often like poetry and his use of the language is unquestionably masterful. He shows his talent not so much in the words he uses - the vocabulary is actually quite plain - but rather in the way he combines those words. Simple adjectives are used to create compelling scenes and even more compelling characters.

Faulkner strikes me as the consummate observer. He doesn't moralize, he doesn't become overwrought, he doesn't offer judgement. He simply observes the way things are, not the way we want them to be, and there is a sense that we are being propelled towards not tragegy but simply reality in his writing.

Light in August is ostensibly about Joe Christmas, a headstrong and mysterious drifter in the 1920s deep South, but surprisingly we aren't introduced to him until several chapters into the book. The book chronicles the intersecting people and events that surround Joe Christmas in Faulkner's fictional town of Jefferson, Mississippi. However, the author introduces us to so many other non-incidental characters that it is often hard to separate the leading from the supporting cast.

If I had to describe the characters in this book in a single word it would be "trapped." There is an overwhelming sense of stuck-ness we get in observing their lives. One does not necessarily get the impression that they saw themselves as stuck and hopeless - indeed many seemed to exist in frustrating ignorance of reality. But for the outside observer to whom Faulkner tells this story using his rich narrative, it is obvious that to a person, every character in this book is indeed on a treadmill. Slavery may be over, but the people that populate these pages are in very real servitude to themselves and their pasts.

The book is a glimpse at the deep South immediately prior to the depression era. We're presented with a culture that still hasn't quite come to grips with life on the other side of the Civil War and racialism is so deeply ingrained that although slavery is no longer law, the caste system it birthed lives on in the arrogant attitudes of the whites and the subservient squalor of the blacks.

The loyalties and alliances and relationships in this book are complex, as are the characters, and more than once I found myself wanting to slap these characters into sense. Without exception, each was their own worst enemy and managed to almost single-handedly sail their lives into the rocks. Although many were admittedly pointed rock-ward via their upbringing, they had ample opportunities to change course but continued sailing directly for the cliffs.

Although I have not yet read other books by Faulkner, I'm told this is the most approachable of all his writing, reading the most like a traditional novel. There is plenty of tension in the story, as the saga of Christmas and the other characters unfolds dramatically. Consequently, most people will find themselves turning the pages in anticipation of what happens next. Faulkner takes the reader on numerous side journeys, showing how the characters came to be what they are, and those characters often share certain aspects of their history in common, not just their present circumstances.

As the book draws to a close, the treadmill keeps turning with characters trudging futilely into the sunset, still stuck in the same ruts in which the beginning of the story found them. I'll say little more. To do otherwise is to risk spoiling the plot.

I can perhaps describe the overall experience here as bittersweet. The writing sweet, but the tale itself thoroughly bitter.

Fine characterization.......2007-02-07

I enjoyed this book much more than I expected. It explores the questions of race thoroughly without hitting the reader over the head with it. The characters seem real, neither demonic nor angelic. The impact of race is ultimately devastating to Joe Christmas and many of the people around him.

Major but Flawed.......2007-01-20

Faulkner's was a self-indulgent, irresponsible, uneven gift. But at his best, as sometimes in these pages, he is a poet and rhapsodist without equal, and we continue to read him. As a rational thinker he was a nullity; he had no practical insights, no social program, no agendum, no framework that could serve as a starting point toward a solution of the problems he so tellingly describes. This became abundantly clear around the time of his winning the Nobel prize for literature, when he disappointed and exasperated followers who were looking to him for guidance as to a beacon. At least Faulkner had the self-knowledge to know that he did not know, did not in fact even want to know. For knowledge was inimical to his art, not-wanting-to-know a precondition for it. That, and bourbon. The bourbon released his inhibitions and silenced his inner editor (its voice had never been loud), unleashing a torrent of words, much of it bilge but some diamonds too. The result in Light in August is an exasperating novel that contains some thirty scattered pages of the highest poetic value and one potentially great character in the person of Joe Christmas. I say this as a man of 54 who has read the book five times in the course of his life, having been introduced to it in high school. Of course I didn't understand much of it then, but its inimitable style and voluptuous confusion have beckoned me back to it.

One is attracted above all by the descriptions of the simple processes of life in all their earthy particulars, the negro cabins, the town lights, the smells, everything rank and dark and elemental. Except for Joe Christmas and possibly Gail Hightower, the characters are all stereotypes, especially the women. Intellectually, there is little of substance in the novel, its appeal is entirely emotional. There is a clean, bracing no-nonsense description of hypermasculine elements and experiences to which Joe seems to gravitate naturally. For instance, of McEachern's harness strap ("clean, like the shoes, and it smelled like the man smelled: an odor of clean hard virile living leather") and Joe's rapt expression when being beaten by it; of Joe's preference for the clean, hard air of men. Given his latent homosexuality, one feels Joe would have done much better as a votary of the strap. But there was a problem. Biologically he was wired for pussy, and no mistake. Even as a child in the orphanage with the dietician he showed this susceptibility: "On that first day when he discovered the toothpaste in her room he had gone directly there, who had never heard of toothpaste either, as if he already knew that she would possess something of that nature and he would find it." He was still too young to understand what Charley was enjoying, but when he came of age he learned that it too, like the toothpaste, was not always sweet ("periodic filth between two moons suspended"). Unfortunately, Joe had no use for the rest of the package and never learned to like and appreciate women as people. This was the root of his troubles with women and by cutting him off from a source of life helped to seal his doom.

Several reviewers have stated that Joe had some negro blood. This is an error and is refuted by the evidence given in the book, although it suits Faulkner (if not Joe) to make Joe out as a possible negro and even to foist him off as one. I think Faulkner's device here, of using the negro as the ultimate symbol of the outcast, is a dreadful mistake, so serious as even to call into question his integrity as an artist and his understanding of his greatest character. Why? Partly because it is too easy, too cheap a shot. It's also overkill, since Joe's alienation has already been powerfully delineated by other, artistic means. But the main, the fatal objection, is that raising the N question does great damage by introducing confusion precisely where the novel demands clarity and restraint -- it entangles Joe's problem of identity with something completely separate and other. This other is a serious communal problem in its own right and certainly should not be abused as a symbol in the way that Faulkner abuses it (neither should the word Christmas). Faulkner is monkeying around with things bigger than himself, things he does not understand, in an attempt to endow his work with a greater significance than he was capable of developing on his own horsepower as a creative writer; this is what I mean when I say he is irresponsible. Joe's problem is in fact his alone. Damaged in childhood and partly cut off from the sources of life, he has to renew and rebuild himself to a degree not necessary to his complacent countrymen, who by virtue of their utter mediocrity are granted automatic membership in small, stultifying, inbred towns like the one in which the action unfolds. Faulkner's punishment is swift and certain -- it is precisely here in the book that he begins to stumble, to overreach for a grand synthesis that isn't there. The performance is increasingly over-the-top until eventually artistic control is lost. He doesn't seem to grasp the limitations of his creations, and the book becomes a stew. Faulkner was nothing if not confused, and here alas the confusion damages the work. Where was that inner editor?

After the murder, a building momentum sweeps the reader on to the end. However, there is no true catharsis and no real tragedy, only an overreaching for a grand synthesis that fails. The reader is struck by the feeling that something has gone wrong, and on going back finds he has been the victim of a swindle. The book closes with that sucker Byron Bunch in tow with his damaged goods in the form of Lena Grove and her bastard infant. Faulkner seems to be saying that in spite of some mistakes, life has returned to its immemorial path. But if this is salvation, one must be glad for Joe that he is safely dead and out of harm's way. Not everyone is cowed by the eternal feminine, and Joe himself would have no trouble giving the Lena Groves of the world what they deserve -- the back of his hand.

So after forty years and five attempts at this book, what of value can I take away? Perhaps some thirty pages of beautiful poetry, and the memory of Joe Christmas. He sought to rebuild and renew himself through the transformative power of hard physical labor and I would like to leave him there, continuing now and forever on the roads he freely chose for himself, that run "through yellow wheat fields waving beneath the fierce yellow days of labor and hard sleep in haystacks beneath the cold mad moon of September, and the brittle stars."

The book for the first time Faulkner reader to start with........2007-01-15

Light in August by William Faulkner is the book for the first time Faulkner reader to start with. The book is very readable. Unlike some Faulkner stories, the story line is easy to follow. His verbosity is not as apparent in this work as in some of his others where lengthy sentences and tangent monologues within the story derail the reader. The plot is more typical than any of his other works. The average reader will appreciate the book and get a hunger to dip into other works by this southern master writer.

Read and reviewed by Jimmie A. Kepler

Play It As It Lays, Second Edition: A Novel

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In the Thick of Nothingness [T]
Memorable Book
Compelling, but depressing
one of my favorites
Why Not

Play It As It Lays, Second Edition: A Novel
Joan Didion
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0374529949
Release Date: 2005-11-15

Book Description

A ruthless dissection of American life in the late 1960s, Play It as It Lays captures the mood of an entire generation, the ennui of contemporary society reflected in spare prose that blisters and haunts the reader. Set in a place beyond good and evil-literally in Hollywood, Las Vegas, and the barren wastes of the Mojave Desert, but figuratively in the landscape of an arid soul-it remains more than three decades after its original publication a profoundly disturbing novel, riveting in its exploration of a woman and a society in crisis and stunning in the still-startling intensity of its prose.

Customer Reviews:

In the Thick of Nothingness [T].......2007-05-05

I have now read two books by Didion - this and the Pulitzer Prize winning "The World of Magical Thinking." Each is devilishly depressing.

The similarities do not end there. The main character of this book, Maria Wyeth, physically resembles the author. Her roots are similar. And, she is an actress in the Hollywood that the author wrote and wrote more for.

But, there are differences too. This is fiction, "Year" is nonfiction. This book revolves around a plundered marriage. Her own was good until it ended with her husband's unfortunate death as explained in "Year." This book delves with reproaching nothingness - Didion's continued works evidence her life was well beyond the expanse of void. Didion survived in a world beyond Maria's nullity.

Some characteristics may or may not have been Didion's own - and the reader really cannot care. Maria sleeps around more than she probably should, drinks too much, may smoke more pot than she should, and experiences a horrible emotional scarring with an unwanted abortion.

The intense emotional depiction is painted evenly and simply by Dideon's masterful use of language. The first chapter biographically recites Maria's entire life in a Valley-girl way, with each sentence appearing to be disjunctive from the previous - but actually all tie together magnificently and very intentionally.

Portions of this book reminded me of the angst experienced by the dipsomaniacal protagonist in Malcolm Lowry's "Under the Volcano." Each book crawls under your skin as you feel the emotion -- the pain and strain experienced by the respective characters who fall into deep funks in their apparent inevitable demise.

This is a quick read, unlike "Volcano." If you wonder if your psyche is strong enough for such literature, read this first as it is shorter and much less intense.

Memorable Book.......2007-01-21

Play It As It Lays is a book that stays with you after you read it. It's also a book that you will probably want to read more than once. I read it for the first time back in November and I've already gone back and re-read it to pick up on subtleties that I missed the first time. The storyline is very sad and depressing, but quite realistic, I think. I can feel Maria's (the main character) pain and the emptiness of the life she lives. Masterful writing here.

Compelling, but depressing.......2006-09-30

If you want something to lift your spirits, this isn't it. And yet, I still found myself turning the pages to see what happens to Maria.

one of my favorites.......2006-08-17

I'm really into dry, unemotional writing like Shopgirl, the Graduate, The King is Dead, stuff full of melancholy. And this is the absolute best of that type. I've read others by Didion but they all sort of pale in comparison to what she's done in Play It as It Lays. The detachment of her lead character is perfect.

Why Not.......2006-05-06

That alternate world we know as "Hollywood" has always fascinated me, so I had no problem getting interested in this book. It's definitely not for everyone, but if you can accept people and things for what they are ("play it as it lays") without too many moral judgments; and, if it doesn't bother you to read about things like unconventional behavior, vague reality, desolation and despair; then you just might like it. I find myself very sympathetic to the main character, actress Maria Wyeth, and her friend, BZ, a producer involved in her personal life. I relate to many of their feelings and actions. Others will find them guilty of a good deal of wrongdoing. But I say, remove the blinders and you may see yourself in these pages. Technically, the book is an easy read. The prose is concise - one short sentence can generate a volume of pictures - and loaded with bitter wit. One more thing: if, as I have read, this is supposed to be a depiction of the crass and empty society of the late 60's, I don't find that our society has made any progress, since today's average American aspires to little more than owning a gas-guzzling SUV, staying attached to a cell phone and vacationing in DisneyWorld. I'll put today's crassness and emptiness up against that of the 60's any day.

On Liberty and Other Essays (Oxford World's Classics)

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The great defender of individual liberty
Liberty for all
Triumph of the individual
On "On Liberty..."
Liberal, Utilitarian and First Feminist. Essential reading.

On Liberty and Other Essays (Oxford World's Classics)
John Stuart Mill
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0192833847

Book Description

Collected here in a single volume for the first time, On Liberty, Utilitarianism, Considerations on Representative Government, and The Subjection of Women show John Stuart Mill applying his liberal utilitarian philosophy to a range of issues that remain vital today--the nature of ethics, the
scope and limits of individual liberty, the merits of and costs of democratic government, and the place of women in society. In his Introduction John Gray describes these essays as applications of Mill's doctrine of the Art of Life, as set out in A System of Logic. Using the resources of recent
scholarship, he shows Mill's work to be far richer and subtler than traditional interpretations allow.

Customer Reviews:

The great defender of individual liberty.......2006-12-24

John Stuart Mill, 1806-73, worked for the East India Co. helped run Colonial India from England. Minister of Parliament 1865-68 he served one term. Maiden speech was a disaster his second was great success. He was first MP to propose that women should be given the vote on equal footing with the men who could vote. He got 1/3 support, England gives franchise to women after U.S. He was a great Feminist, his essay "Subjection of Women" is written with great passion and prose. It was a brave position for him to take he was ridiculed for it. He favored democracy, and letting more men from lower classes the right to vote, but believed that people that are more educated should have more votes then less educated because they would make better decisions about what government should do. He would have wanted to extend education to the masses, so that all may have gotten 2-3 votes and so on. He didn't think it should be extended to where a small elite could carry the day on votes. The idea was that if the working class, and middle class, where divided on an issue, the people with more intelligence would have the power to tip the balance. Mill thought that people with more education would probably not only be better able to make political decisions, especially in terms of intellectually being able to see what would be best for the government to do, but that they would also be more concerned about the common good publicly then people in general. He was intensely educated by his father James. John could read Greek, and Latin at 6 yrs.; his Dad tutored him at home. Dad thought environment was everything. He was treated like an adult, never played games with kids; he had a very cerebral upbringing. He had a period of depression in his twenties, it changed his philosophy, and he recognized the importance of developing feelings along with the intellect, this is something that he stressed in his work. He read poetry to get out of depression; he became devoted to poetry and became a romantic. He fell in love with a married woman Harriet Taylor, was a platonic relationship, after her husband's death they married 3 years later and probably never consummated the marriage maybe due to his having syphilis. His dedication to "On Liberty" is to her, very devoted to each other. Both buried together in Avignon France where they used to vacation.

Mill as a moral theorist subscribed to a theory we call Utilitarianism. It means---In some way morality is about the maximization of happiness. Whether actions are right or wrong depends on how happiness can be most effectively maximized. I say in some way, because there are allot of different kinds of Utilitarians. Allot of different ways of saying exactly how it is the maximization of happiness comes into morality. Therefore, happiness is clearly an important idea for Utilitarians. Mill has a hedonistic view of happiness, he thinks that happiness can be defined in terms of "pleasure in the absence of pain." What is distinctive about Mill in this area is that he believes that some kinds of pleasure are better than others are, and add more to a person's happiness than other kinds of pleasures. He believes in what he calls, "higher quality pleasures." These are pleasures, he says, that we get from the exercise of faculties that only human beings happen to have. So the intellect, imagination, the moral feelings, these are the sources of higher quality pleasures people use. His view seems to be that a certain quantity of intellectual pleasure just adds more to your happiness, and a given quantity of some lower pleasure like a kind we would share with the animals such as sensation, taste, sexual pleasure, etc. His "higher quality pleasures" in a way echo Aristotle's ethics. The idea of those things that make us distinctly human that are the real key to our happiness, that is in Mill also. It is not as limited to reason and intellect as Aristotle thinks. Mill recognizes the importance of the appreciation of beauty, aesthetic pleasure, and moral pleasure. He frankly owes a debt to Aristotle that he never properly acknowledges, never gives him proper credit.

"On Liberty" is Mill's is his most widely read and enduring work. It is an indispensable essay on political thought, which strenuously argues for individual liberty. He is defending what he calls the "liberty principle." It is a principle that guarantees individuals quite a bit of personal freedom. "That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant." These quoted sentences in John Stuart Mill's book, "On Liberty," embody the crux of his argument; that the power of the state must intrude as little as possible on the liberty of its citizenry. In essence, Mill was against using the power of the state through its lawmaking apparatus to compel citizens to conduct themselves in ways that society deems moral or appropriate. Mill thought that people had not only a right, but also a duty to develop their intellectual faculties, which is indispensable to maximize their happiness. He believed that society improved for all its citizens when they where left unfettered to the maximum extent possible, allowing them to use their imagination and intellect to improve themselves. Mill postulates a theory that societies usually institute laws based primarily on "personal preference" of its citizenry instead of established principles. This lack of clarity of opinion often leads to the government frequently interfering in the lives of its citizens unnecessarily. For Mill, there are very few times when the state can infringe on the personal liberty of others. Firstly, the state has the right to promulgate laws that prevent a person's actions from harming others. Secondly, the state must protect those citizens who are not mature enough to protect themselves, such as children. Thirdly, he exempts, "... backward states of society in which the race itself may be considered as in its nonage." In Mill's view, immature societies need a benevolent leader to rule them until they have developed to a point where they, "... have attained the capacity of being guided to their own improvement by conviction or persuasion ..." Mill said this third exemption did not apply to any of the countries in Europe. Mill believed that forced morality by the state on its citizen's liberties was destructive to their inward development, and could even lead to a violent reaction by them against the government.

There are different parts of his defense of this, different arguments that he gives. He has a long chapter on freedom of speech and press. He has some very specific reasons why he thinks those freedoms are important. Always in the background for Mill is the idea of development, and making it possible for more people to enjoy these higher quality pleasures. How do we help people develop their distinctly human faculties, in ways that will help them enjoy their higher quality pleasures? Because for him that is the way, we maximize the total amount of happiness that is enjoyed in the world, and that is the object of morality as far as he is concerned. Utilitarianists believe that maximizing happiness is ultimately, what morality is all about. That does not mean maximizing your own happiness that means maximizing the total amount of happiness that is enjoyed, not only by yourself but also by everybody else as well.

Roger Kimball, in his book "Experiments Against Reality" wrote, "On Liberty" was published in 1859, coincidentally the same year as "On the Origin of Species." Darwin's book has been credited--and blamed--for all manner of moral and religious mischief. But in the long run "On Liberty" may have effected an even greater revolution in sentiment.

I read this book for a graduate class in Philosophy. Recommended reading for anyone interested in philosophy, political science, and history.

Liberty for all.......2005-09-12

It is surprising to me how many people assume that 'On Liberty' was written before or during the American Revolution - Mill was certainly influenced by the spirit of American liberty, which was variously romanticised and adapted in Britain and Europe during the nineteenth century. Published in 1859, 'On Liberty' is one of the primary political texts of the nineteenth century; perhaps only the writings of Marx had a similar impact, and of the two, in today's world, Mill's philosophy seems (please note that I only said 'seems') the one that is triumphant.

One of the interesting ideas behind 'On Liberty' is that this may in fact be more the inspiration of Harriet Taylor (later Mrs. J.S. Mill) than of Mill himself; Taylor wrote an essay on Toleration, most likely in 1832, but it remained unpublished until after her death. F.A. Hayek (free-market economist and philosopher) noticed this connection. Whether this was the direct inspiration or not, the principles are similar, and the Mills were rather united in their views about liberty.

'On Liberty' is more of an extended essay than a book - it isn't very long. It relates as a political piece to his general Utilitarianism and political reform ideology. A laissez faire capitalist in political economy, his writing has been described as 'improved Adam Smith' and 'popularised Ricardo'. Perhaps it is in part the brevity of 'On Liberty' that gives it an enduring quality.

There are five primary sections to the text. The introduction sets the stage philosophically and historically. He equates the histories of classical civilisations (Greece and Rome) with his contemporary England, stating that the struggle between liberty and authority is ever present and a primary feature of society. He does not hold with unbridled or unfettered democracy, either (contrary to some popular readings of his text) - he warns that the tyranny of the majority can be just as dangerous and damaging toward a society as any individual or oligarchic despotism. Mill looks for a liberty that permits individualism; thus, while democracy is an important feature for Mill, there must be a system of checks and balances that ensures individual liberties over and against this kind of system. All of these elements receive further development in subsequent sections.

The second section of the text is 'Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion'. Freedom of speech and expression is an important aspect here. Mill presents a somewhat radical proposition that even should the government and the people be in complete agreement with regard to coercive action, it would still be an illegitimate power. This is an important consideration in today's world, as governments and people contemplate the curtailment of civil liberties in favour of increased security needs. The possibility of fallibility, according to Mill, makes the power illegitimate, and (again according to Mill) it doesn't matter if it affects many or only a few, people today or posterity. It is still wrong. Mill develops this argument largely by using the history of religious ideas and religious institutions, in addition to the political (since the two were so often inter-related).

The third section is perhaps the best known and most quoted, 'Of Individuality, as One of the Elements of Well-Being'. It is perhaps a natural consequence of Enlightenment thinking that individuality over communal and corporate identity would dominate. Our world today goes back and forth between individual and communal identities (nationality, regionality, employment, church affiliation, school affiliation, sports teams, etc.). Mill's ideas of individual are very modern, quite at home with the ideas of modern political and civil individuality, with all of the responsibilities.

Mill states, 'No one pretends that actions should be as free as opinions.' He recognises the increased limitations on individual liberty given that we do live in communal settings, but this does not hinder the idea of individuality and individual liberty, particularly as it pertains to thoughts and speech. Mill explores various ideas of personal identity and action (medieval, Calvinist, etc.) to come up with an idea of individuality that is rather modern; of course, this is political personhood that pre-dates the advent of psychology/psychoanalytic theory that will give rise to a lot more confusion for the role of identity and personhood in society.

The fourth primary section looks theoretically at the individual in community, 'Of the Limits to the Authority of Society Over the Individual'; the final section looks at specific applications. Mill discounts the idea of social contract while maintain that there is a mutual responsibility between individuals and community. Mill looks at the Temperance movements and laws as an example of bad laws (not only from the aspect of curtailment of liberty, but also for impractical aspects of enforcement); in similar examples, Mill looks at the role of society in regulating the life of the individual, calling on good government to always err on the side of the individual.

Mill puts it very directly -- Individuals are accountable only to themselves, unless their actions concern the interests of society at large. Few in the Western world would argue with this today; however, we still live in a world where 'thought police' are feared, and 'political correctness' is debated as appropriate or not with regard to individual liberties.

Mill wrote extensively beyond this text, in areas of philosophy (logic, religion, ethics). The particular text here includes other essays of interest: 'Utilitarianism', 'Considerations on Representative Government', and 'The Subjection of Women', and also has a useful bibliography and index. The essay on Utilitarianism is one of the more contentious works of Mill; the later two contain ideas well ahead of their time, and many parts can be seen at work in modern democracies.

This should probably be required reading in civics classes, if not in the pre-university years for students, then certainly in the early university years.

Triumph of the individual.......2005-01-12

This Oxford collection of four definitive essays by John Stuart Mill, arguably the most famous Victorian writer who could be called a philosopher, gives an excellent profile of a rigorous social reformer and political thinker. The subjects of these essays--liberty, utilitarianism, government, and women's rights--are interrelated to the extent that they reveal a man with a sharp sense of history and its impact on the methods and mores of contemporary society. Mill, after all, was of Charles Dickens's generation and therefore witnessed an era in which the British crown was inclined to manifest its power through tyranny in its efforts to maintain a costly worldwide empire.

Mill's basic concern is liberty, both social and civil. He identifies a difference between freedom and liberty--freedom is the state of being free, while liberty is the freedom that a government or governing body grants its people. Briefly a member of Parliament (the workings of which are described in great detail in "Representative Government") and heavily informed and influenced by Alexis de Tocqueville's "Democracy in America," Mill recognized that the most important (and perhaps the only proper) function of a government is to protect the liberties of its citizens. However, people generally get the form of government they deserve; if laws they allow to go unchecked become the tools of despotic powers, they have only their own ignorance or indolence to blame.

An enumeration of Mill's finer points may suffice as a summary of his ideas:

1. Freedom of the press and freedom of expression are essential rights of man. You don't have to accept as true what other people say, but let them say it because there's always the chance that they're right and you're wrong. Mill points out that even the Roman Catholic Church, most intolerant of religions (his words, not mine), allows a "devil's advocate" to offer repudiative evidence before it canonizes a new saint. He notes instances in which religious intolerance still rears its ugly head in the British Empire of his day.

2. Christianity does not have a monopoly on moral authority; literary history gives evidence of this.

3. Individuality should be fostered so that new ideas may flourish, but society, specifically the middle class, establishes the normative values that unfortunately tend to stifle individuality. You have an unlimited right to your opinion, but you are free to act only so far as you do not harm or molest others. Long before Orwell, Mill had the insight that institutional deprivation of liberty is effectively suppression of thought, for how can someone train himself to think independently when doing so could lead to persecution for heresy or treason?

4. State-sponsored education should restrict itself to teaching scientifically provable or reliably documented facts rather than push religious or political agenda. When or if polemical issues are raised, arguments for and against are to be presented as opinions so that students may draw their own conclusions.

5. The utilitarian principle states that actions that promote happiness (in its most obvious form, pleasure) are "right" and those that reduce happiness are "wrong"--in other words, utilitarianism is the opposite of puritanism. Consider how much better it is to be a dissatisfied human being than a satisfied pig, because the human has the potential for so much more happiness than the pig, whose breadth of experience is contained entirely between the trough and the slaughterhouse, could ever know.

6. Women deserve the same rights as men because the social and mental limitations attributed to women are for the most part a male-conceived artifice. Chivalry is a fallacy.

And so on. I'm not sure if it's correct to call Mill a libertarian in modern terms, but he was certainly concerned with the issues with which modern libertarians are concerned. Much of his discourse is relevant to today's world, even though he often draws upon the past for contrast in order to make his conclusions, the implication being that improvement comes with increased knowledge and experience. Anyone who is interested in nineteenth-century thought on democracy and individualism will find much to ponder in Mill's eloquence.

On "On Liberty...".......2004-05-15

Don't get me wrong. This book is quaint and it certainly has its merits. However, I was disappointed that the character on the cover isn't featured anywhere within. Who is the man with outsretched arms? Is he pleading for alms? Is he offering to pull someone out of a river? In fact, if you look closely he appears to be standing in a body of water which could support the latter theory. Who is he pulling from the river? Or is this a metaphor... do these essays figuratively pull one out of the river - the river of intellectual darkness? Perhaps not, which brings me back to my original point. Who is this man? Like all great philosophical questions... we may never know.

Liberal, Utilitarian and First Feminist. Essential reading........2004-03-31

JS Mill is rightfully so one of the most studied political theorists and philosophers. His radical ideas on women started a womens revolution during the Victorian era. His ideas about good government and freedom are applicable today, and obviously not being listened to in this neofascist age. His 'harm principle' for freedom remains one of the most enlightened theories out there, and it is with an open heart that I recommend his readings to anyone with an open mind, who is not afraid of change.

Margaret Cavendish: 'New Blazing World' and Other Writings (N Y U Press Women's Classics)

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Margaret Cavendish: 'New Blazing World' and Other Writings (N Y U Press Women's Classics)
Kate Lilley
Manufacturer: NYU Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0814714757
Release Date: 1992-09-01

Book Description

Her poems, her plays, her philosophies, her orations, her discourses. All these folios and quartos in which, she protested, her real life was enshrined. Moulder in the gloom of public libraries, or are decanted into tiny thimbles which hold sex drops of profusion.
--Virginia Woolf, writing about Margaret Cavendish

In light of recent critical interest in Utopian and futuristic writing, as well as historical figures in women's literary works, the reissue of the Description of The New Blazing World, first published in 1666 and one of the earliest examples of science fiction writing, is essential. It tells the story of a voyage to another work of speculative science in which women effortlessly rise to absolute power and sexual roles blur. Cavendish, as a character in the fantasy herself, emerges as an ironically self designated hermaphroditic spectacle who dramatizes a heroic figure of woman, ingeniously turning patriarchalized scenes of power and seduction to her own benefit. Dismissed by Pepsys as mad, conceited, and ridiculous, Cavendish lived a life devoted to excess, and the number of elaborately produced books she wrote and published at her own expense during her twenty year career became her most radical and deliberate break from contemporary social etiquette.

Book Description

New editions of Elspeth Huxley's stirring account of her childhood in Kenya and her novel of the destructive forces of colonization.

In an open cart Elspeth Huxley set off with her parents to travel to Thika in Kenya. As pioneering settlers, they built a house of grass, ate off a damask cloth spread over packing cases, and discovered--the hard way--the world of the African. With an extraordinary gift for detail and a keen sense of humor, Huxley recalls her childhood on the small farm at a time when Europeans waged their fortunes on a land that was as harsh as it was beautiful. For a young girl, it was a time of adventure and freedom, and Huxley paints an unforgettable portrait of growing up among the Masai and Kikuyu people, discovering both the beauty and the terrors of the jungle, and enduring the rugged realities of the pioneer life.

Customer Reviews:

Nostalgia for Happy Valley.......2007-06-23

This is by now a revered classic of a young girl's childhood in the Kenyan countryside under British rule. One reads this and instantly identifies with the colonial family. It's a kind of Swiss Family Robinson story about that magical time in Kenya and thereabouts before World War I when the world seemed to be at the feet of the British King and all globes glowed pink under the Empire. Were people ever so free and happy as the colonialists in Africa who instantly had countless servants, nearly free land, and the British fleet for protection? This is Out of Africa for the middle class, as opposed to Isak Dinesen's aristocratic take on things. Still, the going was good, as Evelyn Waugh once said. Ms Huxley is a charming writer. Required reading for lovers of things African.

The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood.......2007-02-02

The Flame Trees of Thika is a wonderfully written book giving the reader a glimpse of what it must have been like to grow up in Colonial Africa. It is an experience most of us will only have through reading and can only be compared to what it must have been to be one of the early settlers on the American Frontier.

Love this Author.......2007-01-10

I loved this book. It is beautifully written and is a gripping story on growing up in Africa.

Truly A Classic.......2006-02-16

In 1913, a little English girl named Elspeth relocated with her family from their native country to begin a coffee plantation in the wilds of Kenya. Similar in a way to Laura Ingall Wilder's adventurous and sentimental "take" on what was surely a very difficult experience for her family, Elspeth remembers Kenya as a wonderful place and tells us with lingering excitement of her experiences there in the short time before the First World War changed nearly everything. A delightful memoir that is a pleasure every time it's read.

When can I get a plane to Africa?!.......2004-10-18

If you are interested in other cultures and ways of life, this book is a treasure. Yes, there has to be a bit of willing suspension of disbelief that this would be the way a child would see and describe things, but if you can live with the fact that this is an adult looking back on her childhood, it's a small thing to get over. The descriptions I found perfect--very vivid, yet not so extensive that they became boring and slowed down the story. And just in what happens and isn't even excused (her parents leave her with neighbors, she accompanies the neighbor's worker to the city, where he leaves her with some more strangers--we'd be calling the police, and her parents are just slightly inconvenienced! And everyone else there has just left their small children at boarding school, not seeing them for years!), the book gives a lot of food for thought about the realities of life in that time and place.

The Fountain Overflows (New York Review Books Classics)

Average customer rating:

Intriguing characters, sparkling writing
Once Of My Favorite Books
My favorite novel of all time--and I've read thousands...
Quite Simply One of the Best Books in English Literature
Beautiful, wise, witty, and, yes, you guessed it, timeless

The Fountain Overflows (New York Review Books Classics)
Rebecca West
Manufacturer: NYRB Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1590170342
Release Date: 2002-12-31

Book Description

The lives of the talented Aubrey children have long been clouded by their father?s genius for instability, but his new job in the London suburbs promises, for a time at least, reprieve from scandal and the threat of ruin. Mrs. Aubrey, a former concert pianist, struggles to keep the family afloat, but then she is something of a high-strung eccentric herself, as is all too clear to her daughter Rose, through whose loving but sometimes cruel eyes events are seen. Still, living on the edge holds the promise of the unexpected, and the Aubreys, who encounter furious poltergeists, turn up hidden masterpieces, and come to the aid of a murderess, will find that they have adventure to spare.

In The Fountain Overflows, a 1957 best seller, Rebecca West transmuted her own volatile childhood into enduring art. This is an unvarnished but affectionate picture of an extraordinary family, in which a remarkable stylist and powerful intelligence surveys the elusive boundaries of childhood and adulthood, freedom and dependency, the ordinary and the occult.

Customer Reviews:

Intriguing characters, sparkling writing.......2007-08-11

This was my first encounter with Dame Rebecca West's writing, but it won't be my last. Nearly every paragraph stood alone, as a description to savor or an emotion remarkably described. The characters linger long after the book is closed. I believe that someone has suggested that they are somewhat Dickensian, with which I would agree. The plot conveys to the reader a deep understanding of the frustrations encountered by women whose lives are held in thrall by men who are indifferent to their wellbeing.

The only thing that keeps this book from being 5-stars in my mind are occasional spots where you want it to move more quickly. Its subtlety and richness make it a book well worth revisiting.

A general comment about the Classics series of the New York Review of Books. I am particularly pleased to have discovered this series for two reasons. First, because of the beauty of the books themselves; the cover art is of a very high quality and the paper, printing and binding is as well. The books themselves are pleasurable to experience. Second, the series is introducing me to literature that I would otherwise have never read. I just finished "A High Wind in Jamaica," have begun "Indian Summer" by William Dean Howells (and my middle-school introduction to "The Rise of Silas Lapham" would have predicted that I would never have picked up a book by Howells again, which would have been my loss - I might even tackle Silas Lapham again), and have ordered a few more. I recommend that readers explore some of these treasures.

Once Of My Favorite Books.......2006-11-07

to be savored - a real treasure.
This book is hard to classify because it is both densely written, and yet, it is like cotten candy. If you like to be transported to another place and time, and enjoy writers who know how to use the English language, this is a book for you!

My favorite novel of all time--and I've read thousands..........2005-01-10

The header says it all. If pressed, I will have to admit that this is my absolute favorite novel of all time. There is something so haunting and so human and so memorable about this book, I can't stay away from it--I must have read it 20 times, and I never grow tired of it.

Quite Simply One of the Best Books in English Literature.......2003-08-16

I had heard of author Rebecca West, mainly as the young woman who had a long term affair with a much older H.G. Wells and produced a child out of wedlock, back when things like this were considered shocking. I stumbled across a copy of this book and decided it might make an interesting read.
I never imagined that I had found a true classic, a book that uses the English language to a degree unsurpassed by any other author I have ever read. The story of is simple, that of a down on their luck family, living in London during the early 1900's. Their trials and tribulations are faithfully described, as are the multitude of characters they befriend. Actually to describe the plot, one might assume that not much really happens and to be honest, the plot is not the main attribute of this novel. But the language! I have often thought that I would some day like to write a novel but after reading this book, I would not even attempt it! This is how language should be used...clear and concise but also able to convey atmosphere and emotions. Page after page of luscious words, all combining together to create an unforgettable reading experience. If, like me, you wanted to read more, please note that the sequel, This Real Night is almost as good. A third book, Cousin Rosamund is much weaker since it was not completed at the time of the author's death.
Please do yourself a favor and read this book. I think this ranks with Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights as books which define the best that the English language can offer.

Beautiful, wise, witty, and, yes, you guessed it, timeless.......2003-03-27

About two pages into this I realized I'd come across a sublimely intelligent and aware narrative voice -- that of a 12-yr-old girl in turn-of-the-century London -- and from that point on I read the rest of the novel in a page-turning fever of delight and pleasure. A fictionalized account of Rebecca West's real family, the story follows the lives of the narrator, Rose Aubrey and her twin sister Mary (both of whom are prodigies on the piano), their older sister Cordelia, who apparently stinks at the piano, but doesn't realize it (much to the chagrine of the rest of the family), their thoroughly unflappable and adored younger brother, Richard, a flautist, and their ragged, heroic mother who tries to keep the family above water while the father, a brilliant essayist and pamphleteer who is completely lacking in all matters of practicality, loses one job after another. It's a brilliant cast brought unforgettably to life by West's flawless prose and the intelligence, generosity, imagination and wit poured into it. When you close the book, you feel as if you had just remembered moments from a real family you'd known while growing up, but who you lost touch with because your family moved away. Truly wonderful. Please, if you love beautiful things, read this.

Middlemarch (Everyman's Library (Cloth))

Average customer rating:

A fun read and a good story
Brilliant!
too much for me
Best Victorian Novel?
One of the Greatest Novels

Middlemarch (Everyman's Library (Cloth))
George Eliot
Manufacturer: Everyman's Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0679405674
Release Date: 1991-10-15

Book Description

Introduction by E. S. Shaffer

Download Description

On April 10, 1994, PBS stations nationwide will air the first episode of a lavish six-part Masterpiece Theatre production of Eliot's brilliant work, Middlemarch, hosted by Russell Baker and produced by Louis Marks. The Modern Library is pleased to offer this official companion edition, complete with tie-in art and printed on acid-free paper. Unabridged.

Customer Reviews:

A fun read and a good story.......2007-06-20

Remember the first time you read a classic, expecting it to be hard work, dreary "educational" stories, and abstruse language? And then you read it and found out to your delight that good writing meant it was easy to read and kept your interest? Middlemarch is simply fun to read. The language is high, and for some readers perhaps "wordy," but not the type of wordiness that has too many descriptions of things. It's thoughtful. Middlemarch is really an elevated soap opera, with completely filled out and amusing characters, angst filled situations, and lots of interesting history. If you like to read about the Victorian era, enjoy the repression they live under, and like to long for people to speak their hearts when they feel they can't, then you'll like this book. It is very long, but I always appreciate that when it's a good story, and this is definitely a good story.

Brilliant!.......2007-05-29

This one deserves 10 stars, it is really one of the most incredible books I've ever read. I think I've only given a brilliant rating to the Count of Monte Cristo and Bleak House. This is a fascinating character study of the people of Middlemarch, a town in Victorian England. I can't even begin to try to describe the story -- there is Dorothea who makes a dreadful first marriage to an older man, Dr. Lydgate and his disastrous relationship and marriage to the self-centered Rosamund, Fred Vincy and Mary, and much much more.

The way the author pulls her story and characters together is incredible, and the insight into the characters is nothing short of brilliant. To quote from the book jacket and Virginia Wolf "one of the few English novels written for grown-up people."

Just be warned, this is not a sit on the edge of your seat, can't put it down until it's finished type of novel. This is a story to savour and enjoy the multi-faceted characters and the author's glorious prose like a fine red wine or a box of chocolates (or both). If you are looking for high action and adventure, this is not the book for you. Highly recommended for any lover of 19th century English literature, not as dark and brooding as Hardy can be, but the prose is just as lovely, if not better.

too much for me.......2007-05-13

I am an avid reader of many different types of literature, and am used alot of different styles of prose. Despite my past readings however I simply could not enjoy this book. It has a style all of itself. Perhaps other readers enjoyed this highly rated novel, but I did not care for the overall style and the excessive wordiness.

Best Victorian Novel?.......2007-04-13

Most people consider Dickens the greatest English novelist or the greatest Victorian novelist at the very least. While I admire Dickens' abilities, none of his novels that I've read comes close to MIDDLEMARCH in terms of accessibility, wisdom, character development or coherant plotting.

This is not to argue that MIDDLEMARCH is a perfect work of literary art, or at least not in the eyes of today's readers. Many a modern reader will be put off by its length, the challenging vocabulary and complex sentences, Eliot's frequent allusions to political, religious, literary, artistic and philosophical esoterica, her characters' hyperbolic fear of "scandals" (laughable by today's standards), their views on the place of women in society, and Eliot's fussy Victorian "not" phrases that overflow throughout. (A random turn of the pages yields the following examples: "One fine morning a young man whose hair was not immoderately long ...." Same paragraph: "He was sufficiently absorbed not to notice ...." Next paragraph: "... a breathing blooming girl whose form, not shamed by ....") These begin to NOT thrill the reader before too long.

But my litany of minor criticisms aside (and they are minor), Eliot's masterwork certainly challenges GREAT EXPECTATIONS, BLEAK HOUSE and DAVID COPPERFIELD for sheer reading pleasure, and far exceeds Dickens' novels in seriousness of topic and tone. As Virginia Woolf famously observed, MIDDLEMARCH was written for grownups.

The one area in which Eliot clearly cannot challenge Dickens is humor. Dickens was a gifted humorist and created many a character simply to make his readers laugh, whereas Eliot appears to have been mostly uninterested in such trivial pursuits. Perhaps serious Victorian grownups weren't supposed to laugh?

But fear not, if you give it a chance, you too will be swept up into Eliot's MIDDLEMARCH world, and you will find yourself caring a great deal about the fate of Dorothea Brooke, Tertius Lydgate, Will Ladislaw, Mary Garth, and the rest of her pantheon of characters, all of whom, far more than any of Dickens' creations, seem of flesh and blood rather than caricatures on a page.

So, to answer the title question: is MIDDLEMARCH the best Victorian novel? Hard to say, but it gives GREAT EXPECTATIONS an excellent run for the money.

High on my lengthy soon-to-read list: Eliot's DANIEL DERONDA, THE MILL ON THE FLOSS and ADAM BEDE.

One of the Greatest Novels.......2007-01-29

George Eliot was the greatest sculptor of characters. She could do grand magic with words. Through the words of George Eliot, we know each and everyone of the characters in her novel with intimate details and deep sympathy - we could see their faces up close: now they blushed, or darkened, or twitched, or pouted, or lighted up, or looked bewildered. She expressed the most difficult, the most ambiguous, and the most awkward feelings with precision, charm and force. In Middlemarch, the story had a simple, rambling plot, put together to support the cast of characters Eliot lovingly sculpted. Many argue that Middlemarch is one of the greatest novels of all times. Yes, I agree.

Average customer rating:

A book that makes you think
Meh. Not for everyone.
Mellow fruitfulness
Incisive and clever
How to describe Barbara Pym?

Excellent Women (Penguin Classics)
Barbara Pym
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 014310487X

Amazon.com

An unqualifiedly great novel from the writer most likely to be compared to Jane Austen, this is a very funny, perfectly written book that can rival any other in its ability to capture the essence of its characters on the page. Mildred Lathbury, the narrator of Pym's excellent book is a never-married woman in her 30s--which in 1950s England makes her a nearly-confirmed spinster. Hers is a pretty unexciting life, centered around her small church, and part-time job. But Mildred is far more perceptive and witty than even she seems to think, and when Helena and Rockingham Napier move into the flat below her, there seems to be a chance for her life to take a new direction.

Book Description

Excellent Women is one of Barbara Pym's richest and most amusing high comedies. Mildred Lathbury is a clergyman's daughter and a mild-mannered spinster in 1950s England. She is one of those “excellent women,” the smart, supportive, repressed women who men take for granted. As Mildred gets embroiled in the lives of her new neighbors—anthropologist Helena Napier and her handsome, dashing husband, Rocky, and Julian Malory, the vicar next door—the novel presents a series of snapshots of human life as actually, and pluckily, lived in a vanishing world of manners and repressed desires.

Customer Reviews:

A book that makes you think.......2007-10-05

Barbara Pym has been called the most underrated writer of the 20th Century but I didn't understand why until I was most of the way through this book. It's the story of an English woman in the 1950's. Her life revolves around churchwork, a part-time job, and her small flat.She analyzes everything and finds a way to blame herself for almost everything.
In the first half of the book, I wanted to yell, "Get a life, Mildred!" Before I got to the end, my thought was, "Oh Lord, I'm just like Mildred."

Meh. Not for everyone........2007-07-24

I finally read "Excellent Women" after a devoted Pym fan finally bought me the book and convinced me to give it a try.

I *tried* to like it, I really did, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. It is a somewhat interesting look at daily life in London post-World War II--I will give it that. As for a plot...well, there isn't one. And the characters are nothing more than a group of oh-so-wacky caricatures.

Frankly, I found "Excellent Women" as bland as the boiled potatoes and macaroni the characters were constantly eating.

Now, I know some people will love this book. If you like British comedies where the characters have a lot of quirkiness but not too much substance, you will probably like this book. If you like old black-and-white movies where not much happens but there are bunch of silly character actors and mildly funny lines, you will probably like this book. If you like Jane Austen, you will probably like this book.

My personal tastes include none of the above, and so my reaction to "Excellent Women" was a resounding "meh." I just prefer books with deeper character development, more conflict, more color, more emotion.

Mellow fruitfulness.......2007-06-18

There are certain books that really can't be fully appreciated until you're older and can bring to them the understanding of maturity: Henry James's "major phase" novels, for example, and perhaps Jane Austen's MANSFIELD PARK. A writer whose talents completely eluded me when I was younger was Barbara Pym; her world of elderly churchgoers and celibate vicars in postwar England seemed too grim to me when I was in my early twenties, and I saw her novels as tragedies rather than as the brilliant comedies they really are. EXCELLENT WOMEN fully deserves its current reissue status in the Penguin Classics series because it really IS a twentieth-century English classic. Its title has famously come to describe a certain kind of character to which Barbara Pym thoroughly lays claim as an author, and is thus often cosnidered the most emblematic of Pym's works (it is certainly one of the funniest). The comic genius of the novel is not that its heroine, the respectable and virginal and shabby-genteel Mildred Lathbury, is unwanted by her society, as I misunderstood when I was in graduate school, when I first read the novel. Rather, she is TOO much in demand, and not only is of great use to the chruch officials who want her to shine the brass of their decapying pews, but also of the confused married neighbors in her lodgings and even the few bachelors she knows (who subtly feel her out for her interest in marrying them--overtures which she always curtails). Although Mildred is puzzled by the work of the anthropologists she meets, she is herself too much of an anthropologist ever to commit to married life (or even sharing a rooom with another spinster friend). Her constant self-deprecation is always offset by her unspoken understanding that her life is far too rich in its observations of others for her to subsume her ego fully into another's needs. Pym has been frequently compared to Jane Austen, and the comparisons are quite just, though it should be noted that her work is more like the more autumnal and scathing works (like PERSUASION) than the giddy exuberance of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE.

Incisive and clever.......2007-03-08

It was my good luck to discover this gem of a book in the most unlikely place: a small car wash store! The title and cover drew my attention, and I bought the book on a lark. I loved every page, especially watching protagonist Mildred Lathbury's perceptions of her new and more worldly neighbors, of the church curate, and of her self-perception as one of the "excellent women" whose lives as single women are, according to the married people around her, supposed to revolve around doing good for others with "fuller" lives.

Pym's writing is smart, canny, and funny as she develops a tight story line. I enjoyed keeping company with Mildred as the story develops. At the end of the book, Pym hints strongly at expanded opportunities in Mildred's life, should she choose them. Mildred's choice will be revealed in a single line in a later book, "Jane and Prudence," which I got from the library right after finishing this book. That, too, is a very good read, even funnier in parts than "Excellent Women." -- Judy Gruen, author, "The Women's Daily Irony Supplement." (www.judygruen.com)

How to describe Barbara Pym?.......2005-12-14

Delicious would be one word - soothing would be another and then there is that little "edge" - so subtle you can hardly believe your eyes - did I mention funny? Pym is probably an acquired taste- but having once acquired a taste for her sly wit you'll be hooked. I put them (all her novels) aside and try to forget the plots; then re-read them at bedtime to relax and become a part of a more gentil and certainly less complicated world.

The Collected Writings of Zelda Fitzgerald

Average customer rating:

My favorite book of all time.
a beautiful, surreal book

The Collected Writings of Zelda Fitzgerald
Zelda Fitzgerald
Manufacturer: University Alabama Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0817308849

Customer Reviews:

My favorite book of all time........2004-06-18

Why do you ask? Because of all the other works of literature out there, this one is among the very few which commands my attention with its dizzying abstract imagery and depth. Zelda Fitzgerald was known chiefly as being Mrs. Francis Scott Fitzgerald, which was something she tried to overthrow by becoming a dancer, an artist, and a writer. For those who are interested in reading Zelda's work, this is the only book you need to buy, as it includes her novel "Save Me the Waltz", her play "Scandalabra", as well as her many short stories and articles.

"Save Me the Waltz" is a gorgeous book which Zelda modelled after her own life. Scott and Scottie Fitzgerald are David and Bonnie Knight, Judge Austin and Millie Beggs are Judge Anthony and Minnie Sayre (Zelda's parents), Joan Beggs is Clothilde Sayre (one of Zelda's sisters), Jacques Chevre-Feuille is Edouard Jozan, etc etc. The parallels are impossible to miss if you already know about Zelda's life. It is interesting to read Zelda's many descriptions, for you can actually imagine in your mind what she actually saw.

"Scandalabra" is a light comedic play which, if given a decent production and cast, would be a huge stage hit. Sadly, as far as I know there have only been a couple of productions and each of them were dismal failures. In order to inherit his wealthy uncle's fortune, a young, naive and happily married man must evolve into a scoundrel and paint his wife as an adulteress. All of the characters are careless beings trying to live in a serious world, and therefore it is hard to capture this strange balance on the stage.

Her short stories are all short and sweet vignettes, many of them were published under Scott's byline so they would earn more money rather than if they were only under Zelda's name. Among the best: "A Couple of Nuts", "Our Own Movie Queen" and "Miss Ella". Her articles were mostly done from the perspective of a celebrity's wife, and so naturally they are light pieces of fluff meant to build on the Fitzgerald myth.

If asked to describe this book in just one word, I would have to refuse. There is no single word that can do this collection justice.

a beautiful, surreal book.......1999-06-15

Zelda Fitzgerald spent much of her life trying to struggle out of the shadow of her famous husband. For many years she was both a literal and figurative inspiration for his work, often helping him with his stories. This book of her writings allows her to finally take her own place in the fiction world. Her novel, Save Me the Waltz, is an incredible book in which language becomes surrealistic art. There are two sides to every story, and it is interesting to hear Zelda's interpretation of her life with Fitzgerald. The novel itself is a gradual emotional and physical breakdown as it documents a woman on her voyage of self discovery and artistic fulfillment. It has been said that Zelda was a true original and, once encountered, was never forgotten. The same can be said about her work. Though she will unfortunately always be paired and compared with Fizgerald, her voice and style is all her own.

None Shall Look Back (Southern Classics Series)

Average customer rating:

A well-written, engaging and thoughtful novel
None Shall Look Back
Body & Soul

None Shall Look Back (Southern Classics Series)
Caroline Gordon
Manufacturer: J.S. Sanders & Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1879941112

Book Description

Grim novel of the Civil War featuring Forrest's cavalry.

Customer Reviews:

A well-written, engaging and thoughtful novel.......2000-07-21

First published in 1937 "None Shall Look Back" represents an attempt by author Caroline Gordon to follow the fortunes of one family throughout the Civil War years. In this she has achieved her goal admirably. The story focuses on the Allard family of Kentucky and Georgia as they struggle with the consequences of war both for those who take up arms and for those left behind.

The central character of the novel is Rives Allard, a scout under General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Gordon follows Rives with skill and eloquence, she writes well of both the physical battles and the internal conflicts that Rives experiences.

Gordon writes with a passion regarding her subject matter, at times however I felt that she has the tendency to over romanticise the idyllic nature of the pre-war south. However this is a small quibble and one that does not detract from the overall power of the book. General Forrest appears throughout None Shall Look Back and as a personal preference I would have liked him to play a larger part the novels structure but again this is not a criticism of the book just a personal observation.

Ultimately None Shall Look Back is an account of what the author saw as the stand of the heroic south, both Rives and Forrest are presented as heroes of the Southern cause and the struggles against deprivation and poverty are presented in an heroic yet believable manner.

Before reading the novel I had some reservations regarding both its age and subject matter. Other accounts of Civil War written during the same period as None Shall Look back have at times been cliched and repetitive. Gordon relies on neither of those qualities with the end result being a well-written, engaging and thoughtful novel.

None Shall Look Back.......2000-05-17

Margaret Mitchell was very lucky Gone With The Wind beat this great work by Caroline Gordon into print.None Shall Look Back was a better, richer story in all respects and, in my opinion, would have made a much better movie and still would. BTW - I'm a big Gone With The Wind fan. MWY

Body & Soul.......1999-08-15

None Shall Look Back is the type of book which has "sticking power". This power will remain as a companion long after the volume has been finished. The path of the hero, so carefully and unpretentiously illuminated here, is always that of self denial, of an abandonment toward a worthy principle or cause. Sometimes it is also a path of suffering and sorrow. Body and Soul. The heroes of this book are human. That is to say they have limitations of flesh and blood, of body and soul, of time and place. And yet for all that, passion placed at the service of honor and forged in unselfishness rises transcendent, and lasting, a truly heroic and enduring fragrance which remains after all lesser things have passed away. Is this a scent your senses respond to? If so, you will be proud to have known the humans, the heroes, of None Shall Look Back.

As a postscript I would suggest saving the Preface and reading it as an Afterword. It is a very fine contemplative piece which serves far better as an after dinner enzyme than a pre-meal appetizer.

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