Karl Marx: Selected Writings

Book Description

This second edition of McLellan's comprehensive selection of Marx's writings includes carefully selected extracts from the whole range of Marx's political, philosophical and economic thought. Each section of the book deals with a different period of Marx's life with the sections arranged in chronological order, thus allowing the reader to trace the development of Marx's thought, from his early years as a student and political journalist in Germany right through to his final letters of the early 1880s. The inclusion of extracts from some of Marx's less well-known works alongside selections from classic texts such as The Communist Manifesto and Capital provides the reader with an unparalleled overview of Marx's thinking, whilst Professor McLellan's fully updated and revised introduction and bibliographical notes accompanying each extract put Marx's writings into biographical and historical context. This edition also includes a general bibliography and a full index of names and ideas as well as a new general introduction for each section of the book by Professor McLellan. As with the first edition, this comprehensive and clearly structured selection of Marx's writings will be essential reading for all those interested in the political thought of this perennially important figure in Western political philosophy.

Customer Reviews:

An excellent collection.......2006-02-02

This is a brilliant collection of some of the very best writings of Karl Marx. A must read for anyone with interest in Marx's early writings (non-Marxist period), letters, essays, his Doctoral thesis, and then later on his political writings forming the `theory of historical materialism', commonly referred to as Marxism. Personally, his `Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts 1844' is really a very nice reading because it renders a very attractive insight into Marx's early intellectual and psychological fight against Hegel's Phenomenology to form the basis of his theory later on. Also included is: Critique of Hegel's works and A Poverty of Philosophy (critique of Proudhon) which are excellent readings. Recommended to everyone; quintessentially to anyone trying to get an insight into one of the greatest intellectual minds of all time.

Subhasish Ghosh

St. Cross College
University of Oxford

Wonderful Anthology Of Marx's Theories and Ideas.......2004-02-27

When one considers the incredible influence that Marxism has had in the unfolding history of the later nineteenth and twentieth century, the beginning student of the combined writings of both Marx and Engels will find this collection of the essential works of these two pioneering socialists absolutely essential reading. Its list of included works covers the waterfront of all that is required to gain a fruitful first look at the wealth of their philosophical musings, and the nature of their revolutionary canon, as well. Reading this material is essential if one is to understand the depth of Marx's understanding and the detail of his genius, however discredited he may be in current estimations. Indeed, with the rise of international corporatism is so close to his prognostications regarding the final phases of capitalism that it is hard to deny his continuing relevance.

Included here is everything from the Communist Manifesto all the way to Volume One of Das Capital. One can gain a better appreciation for his ideas regarding the way in which the antagonism between the oppressed and the oppressors provides the motive force for history, and how all history is the history of such class struggles between the owners of the means of production, on the one hand, and the workers, who have nothing to barter with but their considerable capacity to accomplish labor. If one want to gain a better appreciation for the nuances regarding how alienation is created buy the organization of work, or the origin of property, or even the ways in which all of the aspects of a particualr society's culture are manifestations of the values of the ruling class, then a careful reading of the material found here will serve you well. I highly recommend this book. Enjoy!

A Great Anthology.......2000-09-16

This is the best Marx anthology available. Aside from selections taken from all of Marx's major works, it contains lesser-known selections on a variety of topics. The whole presents a steady stream of selections through Marx's life. Consequently, it gives the length and breadth of Marx's writing without burying you in a life-time of reading. Short explanatory introductions help place the selections in Marx's development and in broader history.

A good follow up is Main Currents of Marxism by Leszek Kolakowski (3 volumes). Unfortunately those books are out of print in America, but they can still be found in good libraries and in the used-book market.

Excellent Selection of Marx's Writings........1999-07-05

This is an excellent selection of the writings of Karl Marx. This includes many writings which do not make it into the usual Marx/Engels Readers; Writings including Marx's Letters, his criticism of Bakunin, more writings on economics than in the usual Reader, and so on. One flaw of it, though, is that it does not contain the later writings of Engels writen after Marx's death. I suppose this is to be expected; It is after all *Marx's* writings, not Engels. However, the loss does not affect it much, and the book is still one of the most valuable tomes of Marxism I've bought. I'd recommend anyone interested in the thought of Karl Marx to get this book; If one is interested in both the writings of Marx and Engels, I'd recommend they get this book and the Marx/Engels Reader to supplement it. I have both, and both are fascinating.

Vladimir Nabokov: Selected Letters 1940-1977

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Vladimir Nabokov: Selected Letters 1940-1977
Vladimir Nabokov
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0156936100

Amazon.com

If Vladimir Nabokov's fiction merits any criticism, it is for its iciness. The master himself declared in a 1977 BBC interview, "My characters cringe as I come near them with my whip. I have seen a whole avenue of imagined trees losing their leaves at the threat of my passage." Nabokov's correspondence, however, reveals a far warmer individual, though one ever-ready with a verbal shiv. This volume begins with a 1923 letter to his mother, written while he was a farmhand in the French Alps, and ends with a 1977 letter sent to his wife, Vera, for Mother's Day: "My dearest, your roses, your fragrant rubies, glow red against a background of spring rain..."

Nabokov's son, Dmitri, and Matthew Bruccoli have created the fullest, and by far the most amusing, portrait of the serious artist as trickster. There's the famous letter to Burma-Vita, in which Nabokov offers the company an advertising jingle (alas, they turned him down). There's the best, and most amusing, account of "l'affaire Lolita." Here is his response to his New Yorker editor, Katharine White: "Let me thank you very warmly for your frank and charming letter about LOLITA. But after all how many are the memorable literary characters whom we would like our teen-age daughters to meet? Would you like our Patricia to go on a date with Othello? Would we like our Mary to read the New Testament temple against temple with Raskolnikov? Would we like our sons to marry Emma Rouault, Becky Sharp or La belle dame sans merci?"

In another letter, however, he takes care to thank White for a "chubby check." (One wishes this phrase had gained greater circulation.) Nabokov again and again comes off as a difficult author, challenging his publishers left, right, and center over issues large (and there were many) and as well as those that were niggling. Calling the British paperback cover of Laughter in the Dark "atrocious, disgusting, and badly drawn besides having nothing to do whatever with the contents of the book," he tells his U.K. publisher, "I would appreciate if you would use your influence and have them substitute a pretty dark-haired girl, or a palmtree, or a winding road, or anything else for this tasteless abomination." Still, one is most often convinced that he's right, even when he makes the large claim that the French film Les Nymphettes infringes on his rights, "since this term was invented by me for the main character in my novel Lolita."

Not only is this volume endlessly quotable, it also reads like a great epistolary novel--fraught with high thought, high drama, and the delightfully unexpected. Who would have guessed that Nabokov would ask Hugh Hefner, "Have you ever noticed how the head and ears of your Bunny resemble a butterfly in shape, with an eyespot on one hindwing?"

Book Description

Over four hundred letters chronicle the author's career, recording his struggles in the publishing world, the battles over "Lolita," and his relationship with his wife.

The Antonio Gramsci Reader: Selected Writings 1916-1935

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The Antonio Gramsci Reader: Selected Writings 1916-1935
David Forgacs , and Eric J. Hobsbawm
Manufacturer: NYU Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0814727018
Release Date: 2000-04-01

Book Description

with a new introduction by ERIC J. HOBSBAWM

"Very usefully pulls the key passages from Gramsci's writings into one volume, which allows English-language readers an overall view of his work. Particularly valuable are the connections it draws across his work and the insights which the introduction and glossary provide into the origin and development of some key Gramscian concepts."
--Stuart Hall, Professor of Sociology, Open University

The most complete one-volume collection of writings by one of the most fascinating thinkers in the history of Marxism, The Antonio Gramsci Reader fills the need for a broad and general introduction to this major figure.

Antonio Gramsci was one of the most important theorists of class, culture, and the state since Karl Marx. In the U.S., where his writings were long unavailable, his stature has lately so increased that every serious student of Marxism, political theory, or modern Italian history must now read him.

Imprisoned by the Fascists for much of his adult life, Gramsci wrote brilliantly on a broad range of subjects: from folklore to philosophy, popular culture to political strategy. Still the most comprehensive collection of Gramsci's writings available in English, it now features a new introduction by leading Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm, in addition to its biographical introduction, informative introductions to each section, and glossary of key terms.

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A very good selection of Dick's essential stories although some classics are missing...

After Fifty Years

a distopic treasure.

Contents of book

PKD Hit Or Miss...

Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick
Manufacturer: Pantheon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Philip K. Dick: Four Novels of the 1960s: The Man in the High Castle / The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch / Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? / Ubik

Ubik Ubik

We Can Remember It for You Wholesale (The Collected Short Stories of Philip K. Dick, Vol. 2)

Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said

ASIN: 0375421513
Release Date: 2002-11-05

Book Description

Philip K. Dick was a master of science fiction, but he was also a writer whose work transcended genre to examine the nature of reality and what it means to be human. A writer of great complexity and subtle humor, his work belongs on the shelf of great twentieth-century literature, next to Kafka and Vonnegut. Collected here are twenty-one of Dick's most dazzling and resonant stories, which span his entire career and show a world-class writer working at the peak of his powers.

In "The Days of Perky Pat," people spend their time playing with dolls who manage to live an idyllic life no longer available to the Earth's real inhabitants. "Adjustment Team" looks at the fate of a man who by mistake has stepped out of his own time. In "Autofac," one community must battle benign machines to take back control of their lives. And in "I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon," we follow the story of one man whose very reality may be nothing more than a nightmare. The collection also includes such classic stories as "The Minority Report," the basis for the Steven Spielberg movie, and "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale," the basis for the film Total Recall. Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick is a magnificent distillation of one of American literature's most searching imaginations.

Customer Reviews:

A very good selection of Dick's essential stories although some classics are missing..........2007-04-17

Philip K. Dick has become the most filmed author in science fiction. That's a mixed blessing. The films made from his novels vary from flawed but great ("Blade Runner", "Minority Report") to fun dreck that wastes the potential of the story ("Paycheck"). First time fans will discover some great, unusual stories with a unique wit, touch of irony and fierce intelligence that rivals the late Kurt Vonnegut (a fellow traveler with his use of disjointed narratives and the use of irony in science fiction).

As with a couple of other reviewers here, I'd suggest skipping "Roog". Many of the stories included here were later made into films but skip those first. Go for the gothic science fiction story "Upon the Dull Earth" a gem that even I hadn't seen and I've been a fan of Dick's since 1969. Then dig into some of his less familiar but no less trippy (and powerful) stories such as "I Hope I Will Arrive Soon" and "The Days of Perky Pat".

This is a very good collection for first time readers of Dick and, quite honestly, despite his talent he was churning out stories at a furious pace to make ends meet so not all of his novels and short stories are great but those that are continue to be outstanding. Dick was a novelist and writer first and foremost. The fact that he was consigned to the literary ghetto of "science fiction" is a shame because it suggested that he was writing just pulp fiction that others wouldn't appreciate. That's just not the case. At his best he could be dazzling, at his worst he could be merely entertaining but always interesting.

We get the following stories classic stories: "The Days of Perky Pat", "Autofac", "Upon the Dull Earth", "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale", "The Electric Ant", "A Little Something for Us Tempunauts", "The Exit Door Leads In", "I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon""The Minority Report", "Second Variety" (adapted into the film "Screamers"), "Imposter" (adapted into the film of the same name)and "Precious Artifact". The other stories in the collection vary from quite good to OK ("Roog" an early story that hints at his possibilities as a writer).

I'd suggest the following novels as well--Ubik, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer (a non-sf novel), Confessions of a Crap Artist (another non-sf novel), Flow My Tears the Policeman Said, A Scanner Darkly, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich and The Unteleported Man as a good place to start with Dick outside of his short stories. This is a solid collection of classic Dick stories with just a few duds. 3 1/2 stars.

After Fifty Years.......2007-02-23

Most of us who lived in Philip K. Dick's era remember all too well the angst of nuclear holocaust and all the "what ifs" that accompanied these. The author manages to incorporate the fears and projections of his and my era and distill all in a remarkable collection of short stories. Of these stories two stand out: "The Days of Perky Pat" and "Precious Artifact." For those of us who remember the original Barbie Doll, "The Days of Perky Pat" is the Barbie Doll syndrome with an ironic twist; it is the adults who spent their days in an elaborate post holocaust role playing world. "Precious Artifact" rivals Rod Serling's best in its construction of an artificial world. Like the engineer, I prefer my cats to be alive, but perhaps this gives too much away. For all who enjoy the Beat Generation with a double jigger of science fiction Philip K. Dick stands out.

a distopic treasure........2005-11-20

Of the collections of PDK short stories I've read, this is the best. The stories are dynamic and varied. This collection is an excellent way to get to know Phillip K. Dick. Anyone looking for a PKD collection, this is the one to buy, or check out from the library, or buy for your library.

Contents of book.......2005-04-26

Austin, here are the stories in this book:
1. Beyond Lies the Wub
2. Roog
3. Paycheck
4. Second Variety
5. Imposter
6. The King of the Elves
7. Adjustment Team
8. Foster, You're Dead
9. Upon the Dull Earth
10. Autofac
11. The Minority Report
12. The Days of Perky Pat
13. Precious Artifact
14. A Game of Unchance
15. We Can Remember It For You Wholesale
16. Faith of Our Fathers
17. The Electric Ant
18. A Little Something For Us Tempunauts
19. The Exit Door Leads In
20. Rautavaara's Case
21. I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon

A great collection.

PKD Hit Or Miss..........2005-03-10

On many levels PKD is a terrible writer. But as an ideas man, few of us could do better than his distopian every-man glimpses into the future. This collection of short stories illustrates his weaknesses as well as his strengths. Some of these tales are familiar to Science Fiction Movie fans: Dick's short story version of Paycheck is notoriously hollow and undramatic. I long ago learned to avoid the ramblings of the editors of such compilations, but having peeked at the preface was not surprised to find it to be the kind of breathless and unrepentantly obsequious fawnings you'd expect from anyone who refuses to write the words "Science Fiction" and instead tosses the "SF" moniker around as often as possible in order to sound avant-garde.

The short is: You've gotta read the short stories in order to really understand Philip K. Dick... and this is as good a survey as any.

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The greatest Roman of them all...
A note on the translation
Good translation, but the material...
A Pleasure
Excellent selection

Selected Works (Penguin Classics)
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140440992

Customer Reviews:

The greatest Roman of them all..........2006-03-26

First off, yes, I AM a kid, and yes, I have fully read and understood the genius of Marcus Tullius Cicero and the genius of Mr. Grant for bringing it to us. As far as the book goes, it is brilliant, and the translator's skill suffices to bring the greatest orator in history to my doorstep and unworthy mind. "Against Verres" is my favorite Ciceronian writing, because I always shake my head when I think of these noble Romans that I revere like gods stoop to the level of tabloid-like calumny!
But enough about the book! What I really wanted to share with potential customers is the enrichment that such books could bring to kids of today. All they are getting today is manure like Harry Potter and risque-teen dramas, when they should be reading the stuff of legends and the stuff of greatness. Now, I too, can be accused of reading Harry Potter, and liking it sufficiently to keep going, but I fully understand that those kind of books are NOT the kind that I will remember when I grow old.
No, indeed, I will remember the wit of Cicero, and the ambition of Herodotus, the social satires of Charles Dickens, and, of course, the poetic genius and sheer imagination that is J.R.R. Tolkien. That being said, I feel that such books (like the above) are too far undervalued in today's society because all the kids today will read is mind-corrupting filth simply becasue they wish to smother their brains. In short, they want to think as little as possible. And the escapist attitudes are also quite atrocious. Indeed, there is no greater world than this green earth (except for Middle Earth --- I would go there in a heartbeat!) and I would honor it, and honor those giants who came before us and upon whose shoulders we stand.
What is the world without the Republic, and what is the Republic without orators like Cicero and Gaius Sempronius Gracchus, whose fiery opinions had kept the flame of democracy and the flame of the Senate alive for so long? I hope someday that people will come to understand this. You do not have to like Cicero, and you might find his writings a tad antiquated and boring --- but who says that they are relevant only to a certain time period or to certain people? No, I say that there are such writings that transcend time and offer us, if nothing more, a glimpse into the life of one other fellow creature who, though so different from us, is EXACTLY the same.
So, potential kid readers, I beg you to pay attention to history, and give it the respect that it deserves! And maybe you too, if only for a little while, will stand with him in the Forum, or sit beside him as he writes words that influenced the greatest giant of the Age. That giant is Rome, and that man is Marcus Tullius Cicero. Though but a Tullius of poor upbringing, he is remembered by those who care to remember as one of the greatest Romans of them all, vying only with the poetic tragedy of Julius Caesar and the military genius of Scipio Africanus and Aemilius Paullus.
So, my rant will come to an opportune end. Remember Cicero, remember Rome, and you will not be disappointed... in the mists of Time that forever encircle us, only the greatest can escape the haze and step into into the stuff of Legend. For they are remembered, and therefore, they Live. All I ask you is to let Cicero live.

A note on the translation.......2004-11-22

I don't want to summarize the content here. I only want to talk about Michael Grant's translation.

Let's admit one fact: Grant's translation is not that good. I suggest you to check out Cicero's works published by OXFORD WORLD'S CLASSCIS: P.G.Walsh and D.H.Berry are more competent than Grant, and they are fascinating indeed. Grant often unnecessarily chops up a sentence, rendering it ends up with a whole lot of commas, and this utterly destroy the fluency and lucidity of Cicero. In my opinion, D.H.Berry (who published Cicero's DEFENCE SPEECHES) is thus far the best Ciceronian translator.

So why is it still worth 3 stars? It is mainly because of the contents, such as AGAINST VERRES, THE SECOND PHILIPIC, and ON OLD AGE, which are still not translated by OXFORD. Therefore, we have no choice but to stick with Grant's translation (unless you want to buy the expensive Loeb edition). If OXFORD will release more of Cicero's titles, I will definitely throw away Michael Grant's.

Good translation, but the material..........2002-02-21

First of all I foundt this translation to be clear and readable, something that I have come to expect from Michael Grant.
But the material is what baffles me. Cicero is considered the greatest Latin orator and writer, having a concise and interesting style. Personally, I find him to be very long-winded, and I realize this is due to a shortened attention span, but nonetheless, he could have made many of his points with two examples instead of ten.
I also find it ironic that Cicero paints himself to be the epitome of Republican Roman values, a man who stood completely for the decrepit and dying Roman Republic. Yet, he was a great friend of Pompey, a man who's goal it was to acquire dictatorial power, albeit within the confines of Republic. Pompey's actions over the year also consistently undermined the strength of the Republic, whereas Caesar acted legally throughout his career, until his enemies backed him into a corner and an untenable situation.
Yet Cicero sides with Pompey over Caesar, for no especially good reason. Cicero was a brilliant orator and lawyer, but as a politician, his ambitions and sense of self-importance far, far outstripped his abilities. Cicero's allies were a self-centered lot of aristocrats, who ran Rome for their personal benefit rather than for the benefit of Rome. Quite frankly, a man with as strong a sense of justice as Cicero should have supported the more inclusive Caesarian politics; that he did not, is a shame for him.
Regardless, this reading is chiefly for people interested in ancient history, and starry-eyed idealists.
Mildly reccommended.

A Pleasure.......2002-01-15

Michael Grant has done it again with this wonderful translation of some of Cicero's finest work. Designed to give the reader an overview of this great master it shows you just how diverse a writer he really was, and why he cast such a shadow over European prose for the next thousand years.

Excellent selection.......2001-12-10

Cicero's thoughts on old age which are but one selection included here are alone worth the price of this book. The wisdom of this man is clearly reflected here and in other selections that are included. These thought provoking essays and letters contain much that is still relevant. Along with Seneca and Marcus Aurelius, Cicero's writings are a window into the ancient world that helps us to understand how human nature and the problems of living a good life transcend the ages. These are books to return to again and again. The penguin paperback editions are an excellent resource for the general reader and belong on the shelf of anyone interested in philosophy ,history or living well.

Where I'm Calling from: New and Selected Stories

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Nice introduction to contemporary writing
A Storytelling Poet (for the everyman)
A voice so minimal it's barely audible
Where Chekhov is calling from
Concise and Captivating

Where I'm Calling from: New and Selected Stories
Raymond Carver
Manufacturer: Atlantic Monthly Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0871132168

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The last story collection published during Carver's life (he died in 1988) contains most of his greatest hits from his earlier books, as well as seven stories that hadn't been collected up to that point. The breadth of the collection makes these 37 stories an extremely complete map of Carver territory, of a particular area of America and of the specific texture of the people Carver writes about -- their difficult attempts at survival in a world where happiness does not arrive wrapped up in neat packages but comes in far more peculiar parcels, if it comes at all.

Book Description

By the time of his early death in 1988, Raymond Carver had established himself as one of the great practitioners of the American short story, a writer who had not only found his own voice but imprinted it in the imaginations of thousands of readers. Where I'm Calling From, his last collection, encompasses classic stories from Cathedral, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, and earlier Carver volumes, along with seven new works previously unpublished in book form. Together, these 37 stories give us a superb overview of Carver's life work and show us why he was so widely imitated but never equaled.

Customer Reviews:

Nice introduction to contemporary writing.......2007-02-12

I am a hopeless lit. snob. I read only classics. When new books are presented to me, especially books with works published less than 40 years ago, I tend to be very cautious. Raymond Carver's collection may have just changed that. He's accessible to a wide array of readers, from hardcore English majors to "the working man" about whom he so often writes. Stories vary in length from a few pages to over ten, and while some seem to have impenetrable depth of thought, many are easily enjoyed without thinking TOO hard :)

Whether you aren't much of a reader or have books upon books that you've read and loved, this collection has something you can enjoy.

A Storytelling Poet (for the everyman).......2007-01-04

This ought to be called the Greatest Hits of Raymond Carver--with Bonus Tracks*. All of my own personal favorites are here: "Cathedral", "Fever", "Why Don't You Dance?". A few which appeared in previous collections are here restored to Carver's original conception. They appear more fleshed out, the characters are more developed, and oftentimes the tone is entirely changed. Some of Carver's stories will no doubt confound expectations. "Why Don't You Dance?" is told in such a sparse and poetic language that it may not be so easily accepted as a story; it seems to be more like a dance of words and images that dares its way into the heart. Carver's stories are famous for their intimacy with everyday life and everyday folk. His characters' struggles are exalted rather than belittled by the rationality of their predicaments. In "So Much Water So Close to Home" a man's absent-minded choice not to let a floating corpse interrupt his fishing trip culminates in a cosmic battle of Good and Evil between him and his wife yet right in the middle of their kitchen.

I think that many readers who express a dislike of Carver's stories are in fact favoring one Carver style over another. I can't imagine any lover of fiction with a shred of sensitivity being able to brush off "A Small, Good Thing" as a banal tale of child tragedy; the character of the baker is such a perfectly fulfilling example of the duality of human nature. However I can imagine a reader who enjoyed "A Small, Good Thing" completing the last sentence of "Fat" feeling puzzled about where to draw the conclusion between a large man gorging himself in a restaurant and a waitress's off-handed confession of rape. One story doesn't necessarily inform or justify another, and in that sense perhaps that's why this is a selection and not a "collection".

My best advice to new readers of Carver is to give each one of these stories its own personal creative license and realize that Carver was a poet. Really. He published poems as well as stories, and sometimes the accessibility of his vocabulary and the accessibility of his themes aren't consistent. What is consistent is the pleasure of his craft which can be experienced throughout these stories albeit on shifting levels.

*referring to the seven previously unpublished (in book form) stories included at the end of the book

A voice so minimal it's barely audible.......2006-08-22

After having read `Cathedral' for an English Composition class I was teaching last semester, I bought this book in earnest and waited eagerly for its arrival. I wanted so much to like it. I wanted poignant prose and acerbic wit, evidence of a keen observer's eye. Instead, these translucently-thin slices of life left me half-filled, and wondering why the portions weren't more ample. Many of the 37 stories in this book seem to be told both by and in the exact same voice. The overwhelming majority of them revolve around domestic squabbles or silly disagreements that aren't really worth writing about, and the quality of the prose isn't high enough to offset the lack of an intriguing plot. I suppose this is what Carver fans would consider to be `beautiful banality', but for me many of these tales seemed both unfulfilling and tiresome.

The book starts off with a bang, "Nobody Said Anything", the tale of an adolescent narrator and a big fish caught with a newfound friend one afternoon. "Bicycles, Muscles, and Cigarettes" follows, a colorful vignette about a row between three boys that spills over to their fathers. There are other bright lights in the collection, but halfway through (the stories are ordered chronologically, so I read them in order) the mundanity sets in. Literally countless tales of middle-aged protagonists agonizing over the minutiae of life at 4 in the morning on sleepless nights. All of his characters are divorcees, or soon to be separated. Most are alcoholics. Most tales start in media res, but leave us there as well, ending just as arbitrarily as they begin. Fans of Carver might attempt to call this a strong point, but the majority of these stories seem more suited to short stage performance pieces than to prose. Dialogue that is Seinfeldian in its simplicity, only sans the wit. A story that ends with the paltry self-affirmation, "My life is going to change. I feel it." Lots of "we just don't feel the same way as we used to" lines shared between despondent erstwhile lovers. But when we aren't told of the origins of the rift, it's hard to feel sympathy one way or the other.

There is a lot of the author in many of these stories - indeed, one question I came up with time and time again was just how `fictional' much of this short fiction really was. But no fewer than 12 of these stories revolve around a spousal dispute and/or alcoholism. And when Carver ventures out into other territories, it seems as though he is almost lost without the security blanket of the one topic he knows all too well.

Perhaps the last story in the collection, "Errand", unwittingly sums up the author's oeuvre all too well. In it, uncharacteristically, Carver recounts the tale of the last days of the playwright Chekhov. He mentions that Tolstoy came to see Chekhov as he was nearing death, although he was no fan of the man's work. He said of it "the plays were static and lacking in any moral vision. `Where do your characters take you?' he often demanded of Chekhov, "From the sofa to the junk room and back.'" At the completion of this book, I was left wanting to ask Carver the same.

Where Chekhov is calling from .......2006-04-14

The readers of Raymond Carver's selected stories "Where I'm Calling From" is likely to spend 500 pages wondering is this writer is the American Chekhov of suburbia, and is never sure. Until the reader reaches the very last story. The first word in "Errand" is "Chekhov", and as we progress in the reading we can notice that this narrative is about the Russian writer. Then it is time all doubts are dissipated and we can only conclude that Carver's work is a sort of homage to or influence by Chekhov.

Either case, it is a good thing, since that Russian writer is one of the biggest masters of short stories. But, even being under Chekhov's spell, Carver is still a writer of his own. Actually one of the best short story writers of the XX century. Too bad he died so young, one can only imagine what he would have produced more.

In this book of selected stories, the reader can have a vast tableau of Carver's themes, style, approach, and sensibility. There are 30 texts that were previously published, and seven new stories. In these 30-plus tales, the writer is able to dissect with beauty and witty the American psyche -- or yet, soul.

It is not difficult to be seduced by his dry style in which he doesn't try to make beautiful sentences -- but better yet, he reaches deeper depths in the soul of his characters. Carver is not after poetic moments, but he brings up some poetry from everyday life, from banal moments that are important only to those who are the main character of them.

His stories are usually short, and at the same time very efficient. The characters Carver portrays could be living in the same neighborhood, and at the same time they have very different lives. From his stories, we can realize that every life has its own beauty.

And these aspects are very close to those that made Chekhov one of the best, and we still read him, admire his work and consider his texts vanguard a hundred years later they were produced. Carver is very likely to have the same reward in the future. He does deserve it.

Concise and Captivating.......2006-03-29

Where I'm Calling From is a collected edition of Raymond Carver's short stories. Carver died from lung cancer in 1988, but before doing so he was said to have been one of the writers responsible for bringing back the glory of the short story.

Where I'm Calling From is certainly the work of an expert. The stories are nothing particularly outlandish or special in terms of subject matter, but they most definitely cut to the heart of what it means to be human and to have relationships with other humans. Carver seemed especially intent upon giving us stories about married couples who are divorced, in the process of getting divorced, or are on their way to getting a divorce.

That's not to say all of the stories found within this collection deal with such topics. Some of them deal with losing a child, some deal with reflecting on parents, and some deal with simple experiences one has in life. However, all of them are told in a concise and captivating manner where the reader can't help but finish the story in one sitting.

I recommend reading Where I'm Calling From if you are interested in studying non-traditional short stories, especially if you're a writer. I think his work may be a little too abrupt and unconventional for just the casual reader, though I feel everyone would benefit from reading this man who mastered his art.

To me, the most fascinating aspect of Raymond Carver is that as he neared his death, his stories actually got more positive. That says something.

(Visit author Scott William Foley at www.swilliamfoley.com)

Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, Volume 2, part 1, 1927-1930 (Walter Benjamin)

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Beware of the translation

Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, Volume 2, part 1, 1927-1930 (Walter Benjamin)
Walter Benjamin
Manufacturer: Belknap Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0674015886

Book Description

In the frenzied final years of the Weimar Republic, amid economic collapse and mounting political catastrophe, Walter Benjamin emerged as the most original practicing literary critic and public intellectual in the German-speaking world. Volume 2 of the Selected Writings is now available in paperback in two parts.

In Part 1, Benjamin is represented by two of his greatest literary essays, "Surrealism" and "On the Image of Proust," as well as by a long article on Goethe and a generous selection of his wide-ranging commentary for Weimar Germany's newspapers.

Part 2 contains, in addition to the important longer essays, "Franz Kafka," "Karl Kraus," and "The Author as Producer," the extended autobiographical meditation "A Berlin Chronicle," and extended discussions of the history of photography and the social situation of the French writer, previously untranslated shorter pieces on such subjects as language and memory, theological criticism and literary history, astrology and the newspaper, and on such influential figures as Paul Valery, Stefan George, Hitler, and Mickey Mouse.

Customer Reviews:

Beware of the translation.......2006-05-14

Harvard is doing non-German speakers a great service by compiling all of these essential essays in chronological order. I am baffled, however, that some of the translations are so inaccurate. Non-German readers should know that there are egregious errors in some of these translations, especially those by Rodney Livingstone. I have compared one of his translations closely with the original German and was shocked to find so many inaccuracies. In one sentence Livingstone translates into English the *exact* opposite of what Benjamin actually writes. He doesn't just get the wrong word (as he does elsewhere); he composes a sentence that is the precise negation of what Benjamin wrote. This is very worrisome and does not bode well for the rest of the volume. I have not closely compared the majority of the volume to the original-- I don't have the time for that. But from the little evidence I found in just a few hours it looks bad indeed.

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One of the most exquisite collections of short stories you'll find
Great introduction to a great writer...
Edge of my seat
worth reading, though I don't love every story
Raymond Carver is an exceptional short story writer

Short Cuts: Selected Stories
Raymond Carver
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0679748644
Release Date: 1993-09-14

Book Description

A movie tie-in edition to the brilliant new film by Robert Altman, based on these nine stories by Carver, "one of the great short story writers of our time--of any time" (Philadelphia Inquirer).

Customer Reviews:

One of the most exquisite collections of short stories you'll find.......2006-09-24

Carver portrays the banal, mundane, and unknown of life in his exquisite collection of short stories. It is the spouse who after twenty-five years of the same monotonous routine, breaks out and acts in ways that are inconsistent. Showing the psychological buildup of internal angst and tension is what Carver has mastered. He has a way exposing the hidden desire and passion that stem from the dark corners of the psyche. According to Joseph Campbell, many people are uncomfortable reading these types of stories.

The emotional charge that comes from Carver's careful observation takes his writing to the level of masterpiece literature. The narrative observatory techniques in the third person are detached and objective. A few of Carver's stories are written in first person, which give him an opportunity to get inside his protagonist, but even here, Carver chooses to stay at a distance, allowing the reader to dally in ambiguity.

Great introduction to a great writer..........2004-10-07

In my opinion, Raymond Carver is among the top five short story writers of the twentieth century. His stories are bold, contemporary, and never boring. This compilation - used to make the Altman film - is a superb sampling of his work. Some of his best stories are here, such as "Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?," "So Much Water So Close to Home," and the heartbreaking, "A Small, Good Thing." "Tell the Women We're Going" is one of the most shocking short stories I've read recently. In his introduction, Robert Altman writes, "what he really did was capture the wonderful idiosyncrasies of human behavior, the idiosyncrasies that exist amid the randomness of life's experiences." This is a good introduction to his work.

Edge of my seat.......2004-01-12

I was truly on the edge of my seat during these stories. They are beautifully written. I plan on re-reading these stories for years to come.

worth reading, though I don't love every story.......2003-03-12

Though these stories together tend to leave one rather depressed, they are still worth reading for the glimpses of the characters' lives they offer. Furthermore, some, especially "A Small, Good Thing" are less depressing and, in my mind, actually very good.
Don't assume you know these stories because you've seen the film of the same name directed by Robert Altman. He said himself (in the book's intro, actually) that he took liberties with them, and believe you me, he REALLY did. You may even appreciate the stories more after seeing the film. I did, but that might be just me.
Do take a look at these stories regardless, though!

Raymond Carver is an exceptional short story writer.......2002-07-22

Robert Altman made a wonderful film in the 90s based on 9 short stories published by famous American short story writer Raymond Carver. The film was entitled "Short Cuts" and this publication brings together these 9 stories (including a poem) which were culled from several original Carver publications. The book opens with an introduction by Altman who confesses to taking small liberties with Carver's stories and its characters but without compromising their integrity. Those who have seen the movie will concede that the changes in fact give the entity a coherence that would otherwise be missing. But as a collection of short stories. they can and should be read as standalones. Carver is a master of social commentary, using anecdotes of casual human behaviour to capture the absurdity of modern American life. These candid snapshots may not conform with the dictates of conventional fictional writing in that they may lack a beginning, distinct plot development and a neat ending. Often it isn't even the events that trigger off the response of the characters that are significant but the fact that they respond in a certain way that is interesting from the view point of understanding human behaviour. Carver seems to be saying that sometimes the strange things that happen to us are all due to chance and that like it or not, we need to factor chance into the equation of living. As a short story writer, Carver is exceptional. He has that rare ability to communicate some essential truth about the human condition without using melodrama or any of the other techniques frequently used by lesser writers to captivate and sustain our interest. The 9 stories in this collection are individually separate entities which exist in their own right. No character appears anywhere but in the story he originates from. The situations they capture are also pretty diverse. Yet, they don't seem disjointed when you read them in sequence. They are thematically bound together by Carver's magic which may be hard to define but there all the same. I found every one of them absorbing and captivating. Read this first before you watch the movie. You'll enjoy both better.

Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, Volume 4, 1938-1940

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Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, Volume 4, 1938-1940
Walter Benjamin
Manufacturer: Belknap Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0674022297

Book Description

"Every line we succeed in publishing today...is a victory wrested from the powers of darkness." So wrote Walter Benjamin in January 1940. Not long afterward, he himself would fall prey to those powers, a victim of suicide following a failed attempt to flee the Nazis. However insistently the idea of catastrophe hangs over Benjamin's writings in the final years of his life, the "victories wrested" in this period nonetheless constitute some of the most remarkable twentieth-century analyses of the emergence of modern society. The essays on Charles Baudelaire are the distillation of a lifetime of thinking about the nature of modernity. They record the crisis of meaning experienced by a civilization sliding into the abyss, even as they testify to Benjamin's own faith in the written word.

This volume ranges from studies of Baudelaire, Brecht, and the historian Carl Jochmann to appraisals of photography, film, and poetry. At their core is the question of how art can survive and thrive in a tumultuous time. Here we see Benjamin laying out an ethic for the critic and artist--a subdued but resilient heroism. At the same time, he was setting forth a sociohistorical account of how art adapts in an age of violence and repression.

Working at the height of his powers to the very end, Benjamin refined his theory of the mass media that culminated in the final version of his essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility." Also included in this volume is his influential piece "On the Concept of History," completed just before his death. The book is remarkable for its inquiry into the nature of "the modern" (especially as revealed in Baudelaire), for its ideas about the transmogrification of art and the radical discontinuities of history, and for its examples of humane life and thought in the midst of barbarism. The entire collection is eloquent testimony to the indomitable spirit of humanity under siege.

Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, Volume 3, 1935-1938

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Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, Volume 3, 1935-1938
Walter Benjamin
Manufacturer: Belknap Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Aesthetics | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0674019814

Book Description

Radical critic of a European civilization plunging into darkness, yet commemorator of the humane traditions of the old bourgeoisie--such was Walter Benjamin in the later 1930s. This volume, the third in a four-volume set, offers twenty-seven brilliant pieces, nineteen of which have never before been translated.

The centerpiece, A Berlin Childhood around 1900, marks the first appearance in English of one of the greatest German works of the twentieth century: a profound and beautiful account of the vanished world of Benjamin's privileged boyhood, recollected in exile. No less remarkable are the previously untranslated second version of Benjamin's most famous essay, "The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility," with its striking insights into the relations between technology and aesthetics, and German Men and Women, a book in which Benjamin collects twenty-six letters by distinguished Germans from 1783 to 1883 in an effort to preserve what he called the true humanity of German tradition from the debasement of fascism.

Volume 3 also offers extensively annotated translations of essays that are key to Benjamin's rewriting of the story of modernism and modernity--such as "The Storyteller" and "Paris, the Capital of the Nineteenth Century"--as well as a fascinating diary from 1938 and penetrating studies of Bertolt Brecht, Franz Kafka, and Eduard Fuchs. A narrative chronology details Benjamin's life during these four harrowing years of his exile in France and Denmark. This is an essential collection for anyone interested in his work.

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