Madame Bovary (Oxford World's Classics)

Book Description

'Would this misery go on forever? Was there no escape? And yet she was every bit as good as all those other women who led happy lives!' When Emma Rouault marries Charles Bovary she imagines she will pass into the life of luxury and passion that she reads about in sentimental novels and women's magazines. But Charles is a dull country doctor, and provincial life is very different from the romantic excitement for which she yearns. In her quest to realize her dreams she takes a lover, and begins a devastating spiral into deceit and despair. Flaubert's novel scandalized its readers when it was first published in 1857, and it remains unsurpassed in its unveiling of character and society. In this new translation Margaret Mauldon perfectly captures the tone that makes Flaubert's style so distinct and admired.

Customer Reviews:

This story will stay with you.......2007-08-03

This book was a challenge initially, with many peaks and valleys to overcome. During the first half of the novel, Flaubert's overt word-painting on every trivial object nearly made me put it down. I marched on because there was a weird thread that kept telling me he was gathering for a big push. The second half of the novel was the most incredible description of this woman's self-destructive behavior in literature. I kept thinking, "God, how far is she blindly willing to go." Francis Steegmuller's translation captures the vernaculars and mood of Flaubert's intent. I compared three separate translations at the bookstore and read passages side by side to gauge the use of straightforward language. Steegmuller floored the rest; having sublimity the others did not posses. The book is on my shelf with pride.

Mixed feelings abound..........2007-07-31

I found myself incredibly annoyed by the character of Emma Bovary. Although, the story itself was written with flowery and descriptive flare, I think that Flaubert wrote Emma so well that by the time I was halfway into the book I was ready for her to just kill herself already. I trudged my way through the middle of this book only because I felt invested in it already. I didn't feel any empathy for her character. The story was very well written. A fan of Flaubert's, but I was definitely not a fan of Emma's.

It leaves you with so much.......2007-06-20

I really liked this book. Flaubert has such an interesting way of writing. His discriptions are pretty bizarre. For example the way he suggests the lusty acts that are occuring by describing the scenery or architecture.
The characters are so enigmatic and at the same time very simple. That's kind of how the whole book is, complexingly simple. Homais uses a line of (paraphrasing) mistaking arsenic for sugar when making vanilla custard. For me this was the theme of the book, but I'm sure it's different for others.
It's a book that leaves you thinking. There's just so much to take from it and you'd never get it all no matter how many times you read it.

Much like Emma's life..........2007-06-01

... a slog through the beginning and middle, really great toward the end, uninteresting at the end.

I was bored with both the story and the writing until about half way through the book. Suddenly the prose seemed to jump off of the page and the story swept me along. Like Anna Karenina, but not as good, this is a textbook example of fantasy and love addiction.

I can't see anything here that a young person could relate to. I hope high school students aren't still being tortured by being required to read it.

The Woes of an Incurable Romantic .......2007-05-27

This is a well written tale about an old story: a woman gets married and finds out that marriage is overrated. She turns to adultery and finds out that this does not satisfy either. It reminds me of the Kate Chopin tale, The Awakening, of a woman in similar circumstances with similar characteristics. Emma Bovary is a pre-cursor to the modern woman: bored, self-centered, and unrealistic. She is not interested in raising her child, helping her husband, or making friends with other women. She has servants to do the housework, so she has a lot of time to feel sorry for herself.

Emma Bovary pursues happiness but never quite catches up to it as she indulges in her passion for romance as an escape from the dullness of life in provincial towns. Even though she gets the romance she wants, she becomes dissatisfied with it later. Her pleasures are fleeting and she is ultimately dissatisfied whether she is bored or trying to escape boredom. She could not handle the mundane routines of life well. Bovary's romantic nature and her desire to live out her fantasies to relieve boredom leads to her downfall.

During her honeymoon days with Charles she imagines that she would be happier if she could travel to a far off place and live out some romantic fantasy: "Why couldn't she be leaning over a balcony in some Swiss chalet? Or nursing her melancholy in a cottage in Scotland, with a husband clad in a long black velvet coat and wearing soft leather shoes, a high crowned hat and fancy cuffs?" Charles is not the husband she dreams of. She finds out early on that he is rather dull and pragmatic. He has no interest in going to the theatre while he lives in the city of Rouen. His dress, learning, and personality cannot inspire any passions in her. He is a man with simple desires married to a woman with elaborate longings for romantic experiences, which is a classic rift in male/ female relationships: "He took it for granted that she was content; she resented his settled calm, his serene dullness, the very happiness that she herself brought him."

Her attempts to stir up passionate love from Charles do not work as she recites amorous verses and sings romantic songs to him. She takes strolls with her dog for "...the sake of a moment's solitude, a momentary relief from the everlasting sight of the back garden and the dusty road." She imagines what it might be like to be with another man who is unlike Charles had her life turned out differently. He would have a magnetic, witty, charming personality and they would live in the city where there would be opportunities to go to balls and theatres and to have "...opportunities for deep emotions and exciting sensations." Beyond this daydream, "...her life was as cold as an attic facing north and boredom, like a silent spider, was weaving in the shadows, in every corner of her heart."

Looking at magazines about Paris, she imagines scenes of artists and writers who live life on a higher plane than the mundane level that she lives on. She longs to experience love with "elegant living" and "sensitive feeling" in a romantic place such as the Paris of her dreams. She tries to overcome her boredom this way, but it only leads to more desire for the finer things. Becoming despondent, she gives up playing music, embroidery, and reading. She quits music because she will never perform in front of an approving crowd in a beautiful dress: "There wasn't a chance of her giving a concert in a short sleeved velvet gown, skimming butterfly fingers over the ivory keys of the piano, feeling the public's ecstatic murmur flow around her like a breeze..."

Emma eventually sees through the illusions of her lovely dreams of finding the perfect husband and attributes it to art making things more beautiful than they are: "Ah! If only in the freshness of her beauty, before defiling herself in marriage, before the disillusionments of adultery, she could have some great and noble heart to be her life's foundation! Then virtue and affection, sensual joys and duty would all have been one; and she would have never fallen from her high felicity. But the happiness was doubtless a lie, invented to make one despair of any love. Now she well knew the true paltriness of the passions that art painted so large."

Soon after her night at the opera, she meets Leon and has an affair with him. She goes through the same pattern of disillusionment as the passion wears down as time goes on: "She continually promised herself that the next rendezvous would carry her to the peak of bliss; but when it was over she had to admit that she felt nothing extraordinary." Her passions were the sole concern of her life and she was not careful with money as she pursued her affair. As she spends more money to keep up her romantic illusions, she still does not have happiness and she remarks that adultery is as banal as marriage.

But for all her striving to fulfill romantic passions to relieve her boredom, there is moral condemnation of Emma as the priest does the final rites: "First he anointed her eyes, once so covetous of earthly luxury, then her nostrils, so gluttonous of caressing breezes and amorous scents; then her mouth, so prompt to lie, so defiant in pride, so loud in lust; then her hands, that had thrilled to voluptuous contacts, and finally the soles of her feet, once so swift when she had hastened to slake her desires, and now never to walk again."

Madame Hillary: The Dark Road to the White House

Average customer rating:

Pathetic Drivel
Amazing coincidence
Hillary-mania : A wonderful thing!
Great book about a big liar
Swing and a miss, a good article expanded to a book

Madame Hillary: The Dark Road to the White House
R. Emmett Tyrrell
Manufacturer: Regnery Publishing, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Political | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Congresses, Senates, & Legislative Bodies | Government | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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Leadership | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

The Clinton Crack-Up: The Boy President's Life After the White House
Hell to Pay: The Unfolding Story of Hillary Rodham Clinton
The Case Against Hillary Clinton
The Final Days: The Last, Desperate Abuses of Power by the Clinton White House
Hillary's Scheme: Inside the Next Clinton's Ruthless Agenda to Take the White House

ASIN: 0895260670

Book Description

First-hand reporting and revelations of recent behind the scenes maneuverings that shows the reality between her carefully crafted image.

Customer Reviews:

Pathetic Drivel.......2007-05-31

I was hoping for some intelligent insight into Hillary Clinton when I bought this book. Clearly, much can be said on both sides of this subject. I am trying to listen carefully to both and then make up my mind about her.

This is the equivalent to a rant from a right-wing Rosie O'Donnell. Don't waste your money on this rehash of old news.

Amazing coincidence.......2007-05-17

It is quite an amazing co-incidence that at least in some ways this book presented as "fact" seems to mirror a book presented as "fiction" which is entitled The Empress Project. Both books tell of an American woman of boundless and unbridled ambition seeking ruthlessly to become president of the United States. Author Tyrrell calls Hillary "Madame Hillary", while Dr. Little, author of the other book, writes a story of political intrigue about a CHICOM plot to make an evil American woman Empress of America. Are the similarities of these two books merely coincidental ?The Empress Project

Hillary-mania : A wonderful thing!.......2005-06-30

Whatever Hillary Clinton says and does is perfectly alright with me! If Hillary says it, then it's the truth. Hillary is perfect in every way! I love Hillary so very much!

Great book about a big liar.......2005-02-06

R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. should be given a lot of thanks for exposing the liar named Hillary Rodham.

Thank you R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr.!!!!!

Swing and a miss, a good article expanded to a book.......2004-08-19

Plainly stated, I was disappointed with this book. I am certainly part of the target audience for this book, being pretty disgusted with the Clinton duo. However, what I hoped for was a factual tome of the flaws, failings, and deceit of the junior senator from NY. What I got was a repetetive, smarmy, and poorly constructed screed against her that offered little new information and was so partisan in tone that it became untrustworthy even as a source of dirt. Authors on both sides of the political debate need to realize that too snippy a tone tends to turn off the average reader.

In more detail, the book is full of allegations of radical beliefs, wretched interpersonal skills, and bald-faced deceit but precious few illustrations of same. Don't tell me that Senator Clinton is a horrid person to work for with no sense of two-way loyalty, give me examples. Don't quote the radicals who supposedly influenced her beliefs, show me examples of her demonstrating those beliefs.

In short, while there is some interesting information in this book, it misses the mark. It could have been an exhaustive record of the senator's changing of beliefs, opportunism, and political deceit. Intead, we get an annoyingly repetetive and shrill attack without a great deal of substance. For anyone but those who simply want to nod and agree without learning anything new, this book is a wash.

La Bonne Cuisine de Madame E. Saint-Ange: The Original Companion for French Home Cooking

Average customer rating:

French quisine has never been made so understandable
a timeless cookbook for the ages
It is all you need
LaBonne Cuisine
Wonderful Book!

La Bonne Cuisine de Madame E. Saint-Ange: The Original Companion for French Home Cooking
Madame Evelyn Saint-Ange , and Paul Aratow
Manufacturer: Ten Speed Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

The Silver Spoon
The Cooking of Southwest France : Recipes from France's Magnificent Rustic Cuisine
My Life in France
Bones: Recipes, History, and Lore
Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol. 2 (Paperback)

ASIN: 1580086055

Customer Reviews:

French quisine has never been made so understandable.......2007-07-18

This book needs to be in everyones cooking library, it introduces basic french cooking techniques and then naturally expands on tehm, truly a comprehensive cook book.

a timeless cookbook for the ages.......2007-03-15

Well, there's not much I can add to what has already been written on these pages regarding this fine book. As with other great cookbooks which contain much more than recipies, I read it cover to cover before attempting any of the many dishes. There are a few awkward moments with the translation, but other than the totally baffling 'Hunter's Sauce' (pg. 60), your own good sense will guide you through these. It's not, however, the recipies that are the only value of this book, but, as others have mentioned, the delight is in the details, and the working knowledge of the author (you'll understand how the French can eat such rich foods and get away with it - "remove every atom of fat."). Madame will guide you through each painstaking step from beginning to end, from choosing meats and vegetables, seasonings, serving suggestions... in what is a comprehensive, and highly educational course in French cooking. Good cooking takes time and effort, and those willing to put forth the effort will find that Madame has taken the time to inform us, perhaps as never before. Happy cooking

It is all you need.......2007-03-09

If you want to learn how to cook this is the book for you. It is a brilliant book that will make you love cooking and of course eating!!!
It will also send you in an imaginary trip to France!
If you take your time and make one recipe at a time, you will adore the end result.
This book has no pictures and it is a "manual" to be followed page by page.
If you can't cook well after following the recipes in this book, you never will!!!!
It changed the way I thought about cooking well.
This book is also a great addition to your cook book library.
Enjoy!

LaBonne Cuisine .......2007-01-18

Not only does it have recipes, but it goes into very basic cooking, what utensils are needed and why, and how and why to do various things while cooking. I am a novice at cooking but found this book to be very helpful and interesting!

Wonderful Book!.......2006-08-23

There is so much to learn from this book -Mme Evelyn de Saint-Ange has a tremendous gift for explaining how to cook even simple things - for example the egg section. She gives the reader a basis to build skills on - something many cookery writers do not. She is very precise about timing, and preparation, and will always tell you - 'Here is the critical moment', and, also, how to deal with it. The book is dense with information.

The only quibble I have with the translation, which in every other way is great, is the use of deciliters, when surely a liquid measurement in mls would be so much easier for readers who aren't American, and wouldn't be measuring in the American way anyway!

I would have to say that, as an Australian, I was introduced to French cookery, by 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking'and 'Cooking with Pomiane' in the 1970's.

'La Bonne Cuisine de Mme E. Saint-Ange' ranks right up there with those favorites, and more recently, 'Patricia Wells at Home in Provence'.

Heart without Measure: Gurdjieff Work with Madame de Salzmann

Average customer rating:

Deep Homage
Woman #5

Heart without Measure: Gurdjieff Work with Madame de Salzmann
Ravi Ravindra
Manufacturer: Morning Light Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Mysticism | Other Practices | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

General | Spirituality | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Without Benefit of Clergy
Gurdjieff
Voice At The Borders Of Silence
Self-Remembering
Exchanges Within: Questions from Everyday Life Selected from Gurdjieff Group Meetings with John Pentland in California 1955-1984

ASIN: 1596750006

Book Description

Heart Without Measure is a collection of excerpts from the journals of Ravi Ravindra, giving a glimpse of the extraordinary life and teaching of Madame Jeanne de Salzmann and the Gurdjieff work through the eyes of one of her pupils. Ravindra’s account of his meetings, letters and encounters with Madame de Salzmann is deeply intimate, yet it is not merely personal. His questions, doubts and insights are not unlike our own. In these recollections of a pupil, we hear Madame de Salzmann’s voice; the clarity of her perception and the force of her insight are evident throughout.

Customer Reviews:

Deep Homage.......2006-08-31

Ravi Ravindra's Heart Without Measure, though a small book, is a powerfully felt homage to the great Madame de Salzmann, whose voice and presence, echoing through the text, resonates like a pure and holy bell, calling us all more perfectly to The Work. He describes well the experience of the student faced with the laser-like eye of the teacher who can read hearts and souls, an encounter not easily endured nor understood, and reveals the 'everyman' conflicts of his strivings in a restrained, almost selfless way. Most of all, this book is sprinkled generously with esoteric clues for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. This book indeed is the 'fruit' of the oral tradition that has always existed within the Gurdjieffian canon.

Woman #5.......2005-06-10

I found this book extremely refreshing but I can't help wondering if it is really only for those who do or have done similar practices [Taoist Alchemy, Prayer of the Heart, Gurdjieff's meditations and exercises for opening and harmonizing the 7 centers].

The entire book shows Madame DeSalzmann trying to raise the author from his back and forth states to a man no. 4 - that is someone who has in Gurdjieffean terms acheived balance amongst their body, heart and mind and is thus at square one and truly ready to begin and to try and crystallize something. Similar in intent to the Pentland/Patterson drama in 'Eating the I'

Like 'Eating the I' and 'Voices in the Dark' we are taken inside the inner door to a rather significant degree, but unlike 'Eating the I', this does not try and provide much context or background info. If you have not been in The Work or learned the preliminary relaxation and self-remembering practices, you will understandably be scratching your head through much of it.

However along with Bennett and Pentland the Madame seems to have made it to Man #5. And that is worth experiencing even through the medium of printed words.

I found that the book started 'meditating me' as few books do.

Average customer rating:

A Compelling, Complex, Classic
Disturbingly Brilliant
The unsurpassed masterpiece of the European novel
Madame Bovary, or Provincial Lives
Good for discussion; not a page-turner

Madame Bovary (Penguin Classics)
Gustave Flaubert
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

French | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

French | Foreign Language Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

All French Books | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Madame Bovary (Cliffs Notes)
Middlemarch (Signet Classics)
Pride and Prejudice (Penguin Classics)
Lolita
Anna Karenina (Oprah's Book Club)

ASIN: 0140449124

Book Description

For this novel of French bourgeois life in all its inglorious banality, Flaubert invented a paradoxically original and wholly modern style. His heroine, Emma Bovary, a bored provincial housewife, abandons her husband to pursue the libertine Rodolphe in a desperate love affair. A succès de scandale in its day, Madame Bovary remains a powerful and arousing novel.

Translated with an Introduction by Geoffrey Wall
New Preface by Michèle Roberts

Customer Reviews:

A Compelling, Complex, Classic.......2007-09-10

"The great question that has never been answered, and which I have not yet been able to answer, despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul, is ''What does a woman want?'" Sigmund Freud

This is one unforgettable classic! I don't even know how to begin describing it, mainly because of the complexity of the main character Emma Bovary. When I finished this novel (almost in tears, for the ending is both tragic and very distressing) I walked away from it feeling extremely fortunate to be born in a time and place in which I have complete freedom. For, in a nutshell, what plagued our heroine throughout her entire life was the simple fact that she was trapped being a woman in a man's world (the novel takes place during the mid 19th century in Normandy). You see, Madame B. is no common, run-of-the-mill mademoiselle. On the contrary this gal is blessed with it all - beauty, brains, passion, etc... You name it, she's got it! She is the true embodiment of femininity - possessing style, grace, and a keen eye for artistic beauty, on top of also being a great cook, excellent piano player, having a knack for home-decor, sewing, drawing, etc... There is seemingly nothing she can't do or isn't good at.

Her tragic mistake (which is usually the case with many talented people throughout history) is that she marries the wrong person. Her husband Charles Bovary is a man who 'knew nothing, taught nothing, desired nothing' the complete antithesis of his enlightened wife Emma. Flaubert further defines him early on in the novel: 'Charles's conversation was as flat as any pavement... rousing no emotion, no laughter, no reverie. He had never ventured to the theatre... he couldn't swim, or fence or shoot...' In other words, he's boring as hell, and although he absolutely worships the ground his wife walks on, she, on the other hand, slowly begins to resent this servile, supine, sappy simpleton she finds herself tied down to. To complicate matters even further, she ends up pregnant and giving birth to a girl, Berthe (of course Emma was hoping and praying for a son, for 'a man, at least, is free...'). Depressed and engrossed with the eternal ennui, which inflicts so many women who marry men they feel no passion nor love toward, Emma embarks on her own personal crusade to find that happiness which always seems to be eluding her. A self-indulgent quest that in the end, only leads to catastrophic consequences for both her and her family.

What makes this masterpiece "Madame Bovary" such an interesting read is how totally modern this story is. Emma, desperately seeking an escape from being a lonesome, unfulfilled house-wife and mother, soon becomes a shopaholic, racking up debt all over town. When she is not shopping and spending money, she's having adulterous liaisons with men who... well, you shall have to see for yourself. While I was reading this, I kept thinking to myself, I know women like this! I see them all the time in the area (Silicon Valley, Northern California) in which I live. Beautiful women, who married their far from beautiful husbands for money and security. They don't work, have nannies taking care of the kids, while they cruise around in their new Mercedes or BMW shopping all day and hopping in the sack (although, like Emma, very discreetly) with one man after another. They hang out at upscale bars/restaurants with each other bitching about how difficult their lives are, how much they despise their husbands, their next trip to Europe, etc... while sipping on hundred dollar bottles of wine and comparing plastic surgeons. Talk about a sad, pathetic life... Just like Emma, these barracudas are completely empty inside. They can find no happiness from within, and the more material things they possess, the more their insatiable appetites go unfed... There is no price that can be placed for love. No one material item or one night of unbridled, erotic passion can ever replace the true love of a spouse or child.

The first part (there are three parts in all) of this novel was a bit slow, but once you get to part two, be prepared to be totally enraptured with this beautiful story. I am so happy, after all of these years, to have finally read this excellent classic. Truly worthy of five stars!

Disturbingly Brilliant.......2007-06-14

When I first began reading Madame Bovary, I was skeptical about a book revolving around the telltale subject-adultery. I was wondering how the reader was supposed to root for a woman who forsakes her husband again and again to seek self-absorbed, transient passions.

Brilliantly, Flaubert situates the novel so the reader can sympathize with either. He introduces the husband first, which is significant, as we know his back-story, but then we are introduced to the restrained beauty in the convent who longs for the adventures she zealously consumes in her books. It is a colorful account of a woman trying to chase away the boredom in her life. Absolutely brilliant.

The unsurpassed masterpiece of the European novel.......2007-06-04

Beyond its deservedly much-praised stylistic and structural perfection, the power of Gustave Flaubert's spectacular novel "Madame Bovary" comes from the fact that it addresses head-on one of the fundamental issues of human existence: the mechanisms humans invent for themselves to meet their own emotional needs. Romantic love is presented here as such a mechanism invented to help satisfy the human urge for sex in a non-commercial setting, in other words without direct cash payment, as for instance in prostitution.

Indeed, to survive, a man --- let me start with a man and not with Emma Bovary herself --- needs to eat, he needs to have a roof over his head and as of the onset of puberty he has to have his sexual needs attended to. To eat, man can shop for food, that's what the grocer is for. The home he needs can also be purchased, not from the grocer but from the builder and the decorator. When it comes to the sex, that too is freely available for purchase in any society, whether or not it is run by the bourgeoisie. In this case the purchase is made neither from the grocer, nor from the builder or the decorator, but from the prostitute. Remarkably, before meeting her, both Emma Bovary's lovers, had met their sexual needs in this commercial setting. We see Rodolphe Boulanger, even before becoming Emma's first lover, cynically calculating how he is going to get rid of her, once he will have had enough. After all, that is the only detail that strikes him as different from what transpires in a sexual transaction with a prostitute whom he can quit without any discussion as soon as he has paid up. He wants to connect with Emma not to save himself some money, he is well-to-do after all, but to "experience" non-commercial sex. Of course, unlike a prostitute, you do not pay an adulteress in cash. Another form of payment is extracted. The price is a pretense of love, of romantic love like in novels. Yes, Emma Bovary has read many a romantic novel in her time and knows all-too-well what to expect in matters of such romantic love. It is spectacular to watch how Emma and both her lovers play this romantic love game and in moments of sexual abandon are able to completely suspend disbelief. Flaubert is reducing romantic love to a currency, not unlike the cash that buys life's other necessities.

To Emma, a woman, love is something else altogether, something learned from novels. In this respect she drives Flaubert to one of the main issues of western civilization's novel, the effect of romantic novels on naïve readers. This issue had been forcefully raised already by Miguel de Cervantes, the inventor of the modern western novel. After all, his Don Quixote de la Mancha, is also an avid reader of romantic novels, and the lessons he draws from this reading set him up for fighting windmills, and asexually revering Dulcinea, a feminine creation of his own imagination. Emma Bovary, reads not the Spanish trash available to the Knight of the Mournful Countenance, but Sir Walter Scott and his like. Her second love affair is jump-started at a performance of Gaetano Donizetti's operatic setting of Sir Walter's "The Bride of Lammermoor." Whereas Cervantes pokes fun at the romantic novel, Flaubert explores what appear to be its outright tragic consequences. In this sense "Madame Bovary" is about the role of literature in everyday life.

But at a closer look, this role of literature is not as tragic by far as it first appears. After all, when dumped by Rodolphe Boulanger, her first lover, Emma Bovary gets herself a second lover Léon Dupuis, and could probably get herself a third lover once the affair with Léon runs its course. She is done in not by matters of love, but by the cavalier manner in which she handles her own and her husband's finances. It is her dealings with the unscrupulous merchant Lheureux that bring about her downfall. Lheureux couldn't care less about love, he is a strictly cash-and-carry fellow. In his own way, he tries to help Emma, to bring her to her senses. He sends her to the notary Guillaumin, who for a change offers to pay for her sexual services with money rather than with professions of romantic love. This prompts a revolted Emma's famous line, "Sir, you shamelessly take advantage of my distress. I am to be pitied, but I am not for sale." Spoken like a reader of Sir Walter Scott. Emma Bovary's willingness to find the sweet nothings whispered in her ear by Rodolphe and Léon as the only currency in which to accept payment for her sexual services, is tantamount to Don Quixote's willingness to fight the windmills.

So, in the end, Madame Bovary is as much about the role of literature in our lives, as about adultery or bourgeois philistinism, its most obvious themes. Lest one walk away with a bad feeling where matters literary are concerned, Flaubert spikes his text with his remarkable insights into the nature of great literature. Consider a paragraph in part II, Chapter 12, which starts as an astute examination of Rodolphe's jaded reaction to Emma's romantic chit-chat, and then smoothly meanders into as good a statement of the basic problem faced by a writer, as has ever been put in words by anyone "Human speech is like a cracked cauldron on which we knock out tunes for dancing bears, while aiming to move the stars to tears." Never mind the bears, Flaubert shoots for the stars and is right on target.

Madame Bovary, or Provincial Lives.......2007-05-08

Flaubert himself gave the book two titles. The first, MADAME BOVARY, is Emma, a beautiful convent-educated bourgeoise who, growing up reading nothing but Romantic literature, expects real life to match. Marrying a devoted but prosaic husband, she seeks solace where she can find it, with predictably tragic results. It is a beautifully anti-romantic object lesson in the dangers of romanticism, told with a sexual frankness which shocked its original readers, but which now inevitably seems a little tame.

But this sordid plot is contained in a novel that is satirical, even comic, portraying the complex pettiness inherent in the book's second title, PROVINCIAL LIVES. Flaubert hilariously counterpoints Emma's first steps towards adultery, for instance, with the speechifying of some petty functionary at an agricultural fair. In addition to Emma's mediocre doctor husband Charles, and her two lovers (the infatuated Léon and the libertine Rodolphe), the author includes many peripheral characters who together make up a portrait of small-town society, from the self-aggrandizing apothecary Homais to the draper and usurious money-lender Lheureux. But Flaubert can also temper his satirical edge in magnificent descriptions of scenes ranging from a village market to a provincial opera performance. [While I am in no position to say if the Penguin translation by Geoffrey Wall is better or worse than the others available, it is certainly good enough to give me much enjoyment in these passages, and is faithful to the French text of those sections that I have compared.]

Though tied to a particular place and time, the social and commercial elements of the story come across with startling modernity. It is, as I say, a little difficult to recapture the physical eroticism that so shocked its original readers, but its psychological aspect is still acute. Indeed, whether fully-fleshed or sketched in, the psychology of Flaubert's characters always rings true. For all that, Flaubert always has the air of writing from the outside, even when talking about Emma. The result is to show a story of decline that is all too plausible, and which leaves one helpless to intervene. The Bovary story may end in tragedy, but the provincial comedy that contains it continues unruffled on its petty course.

Good for discussion; not a page-turner.......2007-04-25

I read this for a book club. I have to admit that I'm not sure I see why it has received all this acclaim. There were pages that I just had to force myself to wade through. That being said, I can see for it's time that it was quite a thriller. The writing style is just so much different than what we as readers of most modern novels are accustomed to.

I never felt any kind of sympathy for Emma Bovary, but yet I do believe she is representative of those individuals who are always looking outward to something or someone else to make them happy. Manners, customs, fashions, lifestyles have changed, but there are still plenty of Emma Bovarys today. Good literature lets us see human nature at its best or at its worst; this book does that.

As the saying goes, "So many books, so little time" -- if you have lots of time, read this. However, if there's only so much time, there are many more modern novels that will be easier to read and relate to.

Average customer rating:

interesting
Simple yet great!
Beautiful Cards--Right to the Point
Amazing!! Gorgeous!
Awesome

Madame Endora's Fortune Cards
Christine Filipak
Manufacturer: Monolith Graphics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Cards
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ASIN: 096757563X

Book Description

This exquisite deck of fortune-telling cards offers insightful advice concerning matters of love, money, health and general prosperity. The lush artwork is based on Old World myth and lore, and blends Egyptian, Celtic and Fantasy themes in an elegant Art Nouveau style. Each card features its own unique fortune for a quick reading, and an easy-to-use instruction booklet is included to provide detailed definitions as well as various divinatory spreads.

Customer Reviews:

interesting.......2007-08-13

One of the most beautiful decks I have ever seen. Easy to learn, easy to use.

Simple yet great!.......2007-07-24

Many times a tarot card beginner is put off with having to "memorize" 78 meanings for 78 different cards, or twice that many if you use reversals. I've owned hundreds of tarot card decks, divination decks, etc. over the years and really go for the K.I.S.S. method!

Simple doesn't mean not effective, though. There are 48 cards and each one has the title of the card and a short, to-the-point definition. I've found them to work very well when reading for myself and others.

Rich in symbolism and color! I love this deck of cards!

Beautiful Cards--Right to the Point.......2007-03-09

These were the first oracle cards I had ever used so I was excited to get them, but not really sure what I was getting. Basically, they're very beautiful cards with clear messages on them. A small booklet comes with it that provides a brief message about each card; however, what is written on the cards pretty much sums it up.

If you like art, simple and to-the-point answers to your questions, these oracle cards are good for that. I don't find as in-depth of a reading as one does with tarot cards so make sure you are aware that that is what you want.

Amazing!! Gorgeous!.......2007-01-08

I first bought this deck back in late Novemeber and now it is January. I was first attracted to this deck because it is the same publisher of the Gothic Tarot(Joseph Vargo). Before I bought this deck, I did research about it, and went to the publisher's webstie and it shows pictures of the cards. They were absolutely beautiful! This deck is a must have. The readings are freaking accurate that it might scare you. I did my first reading on the deck last night, and I got 3 cards more than 1 time, one card I got 5 times, second card 3 times, and the last one 2 times. I am not kidding, I shuffled like crazy and yet, I got the those three cards still.

I can assure you that you won't regret buying this deck because I haven't! It has become one of my favorite deck in my collections.

Awesome.......2007-01-04

These cards are well designed with a little bit of everythingdon't even need the book in order to read them

Average customer rating:

An excellent glimpse of Tibetan spirituality
a great book
Tibetan Buddhism in Practice
Diverting
Fascinating book, leaves you wanting more

Magic and Mystery in Tibet
Madame Alexandra David-Neel
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

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Parapsychology | Occult | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

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The Secret Oral Teachings in Tibetan Buddhist Sects
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Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism

ASIN: 0486226824

Book Description

Seeker, adventurer, pilgrim, and scholar, David-Neel (1868–1969) was the first European woman to explore the once-forbidden city of Lhasa. This memoir offers an objective account of the supernatural events she witnessed during the 1920s among the mystics and hermits of Tibet — including levitation, telepathy, and the ability to walk on water. Includes 32 photographs.

Customer Reviews:

An excellent glimpse of Tibetan spirituality.......2007-09-23

This book present an excellent overview of Tibetan spirituality and the various practices that occur within that spirituality. Perhaps what I liked the best was that the author seemed to avoid incorporating Western cultural biases into her description. Indeed she seemed very intent on describing the practices in an accurate manner.

I was able to take her description of tumo and actually incorporate it into my daily practice. I've also used her chod ritual.

a great book.......2007-05-13

This is information you will find nowhere else. A fascinating book
on the mysterious world of Tibet at the beginning of the last century.

Tibetan Buddhism in Practice.......2006-08-23

While many books about Buddhism and other historically eastern religions focus on high theology, the book describes Tibetan Buddhism as it was practiced in the early 20th century. It is fascinating.

I first read this book in college and have just read it again after many years. It was better the second time around.

The first time, I was entranced by the accounts of exotic magic and mystery. This time I searched for themes and Ms. David-Neel's viewpoint. Dealing with death is the primary theme underlying at least the popular practice of this religion. As for Ms. David-Neel, I was interested in her viewpoint and experience as a Buddhist who did not find the Tibetan version to be her paricular brand. Because of her distance from this version of Buddhism, her accounts of events that she saw or experienced personally are particularly interesting.

Diverting.......2005-03-29

I suppose that Madame David-Neel was truly interested in practicing Buddhism as a means to enlightenment. After all, she went to a great deal of trouble to get to Tibet, learn Tibetan, meet lamas, stay in mountain retreats and borderland monasteries. She must have been a sincere seeker.

But perhaps the idea of a European actually learning truth from "Orientals" was too much for the reading public to handle. Perhaps David-Neel was giving people what they wanted when she wrote about magicians and tricksters and assorted weirdness. Whenever she gets close to her own inner life, she suddenly clams up, saying things like, Whether it is true or not, I can't say, though I have had experiences, but never mind that.

In any case, I found the description of the practice of chod deeply moving. It shares characteristics with Christ's experience on Calvary, and only a deep compassion for all beings could impel one to visualize one's whole being being sacrificed for the salvation even of demonic beings. I wish David-Neel could have been a little less ironic and a little more open about her own passion to learn from the lamas.

Fascinating book, leaves you wanting more.......2003-03-03

This must be a classic book on Tibetan religion and mysticism. It is based on observations from some truly remarkable journeys in Tibet; I only wonder why the author restricts herself when relating what she has seen and heard. Part of the reason may be that she is a sceptical Western-style Buddhist and does not want to be judged as "airy-fairy" by her audience. Nevertheless, she tells of some absolutely fantastic occurences which are rendered even more authentic by her dry, understated style. A fearless person, she handles situations that would have scared most of us out of our wits! But for fear of ridicule, she could no doubt have written a much longer text on this subject.

Madame Chiang Kai-shek: China's Eternal First Lady

Average customer rating:

Amazing Person. Amazing Book
Dazzling Dame, Riveting History
No Rock Left Unturned
This book is key to a thorough understanding of not just the woman, but Chinese politics and influences in particular.

Madame Chiang Kai-shek: China's Eternal First Lady
Laura Tyson Li
Manufacturer: Atlantic Monthly Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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Chiang Kai Shek: China's Generalissimo and the Nation He Lost
Soong Dynasty
The Soong Sisters
Mao's Last Revolution
The Soong Sisters

ASIN: 0871139332

Book Description

Madame Chiang Kai-shek — a Booklist Editors' Choice for 2006 — is the first biography of one of the most controversial and fascinating women of the twentieth century. Raised in a powerful Chinese family, the beautiful, brilliant, and captivating Soong Mayling married Nationalist leader Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, and went on to become his chief adviser, interpreter, and propagandist. When the Communists broke with Chiang’s Nationalist Party, Mayling and her sister, the widow of Sun Yat-Sen, found themselves on opposing sides of a civil war. A relentless crusader speaking out against Communism well into her nineties, she sparred with international leaders and impressed Westerners and Chinese alike with her acumen, charm, and glamour. But she was also decried as a manipulative “Dragon Lady” and was despised for living in Western-style splendor while Chinese citizens suffered under her husband’s brutal oppression. The result of years of extensive research in the United States and abroad and access to previously classified CIA and diplomatic files, here at last is the story of an extraordinary woman who has become a symbol of America’s long, vexed love affair with China and China’s own struggle to define itself as a world power.

Customer Reviews:

Amazing Person. Amazing Book.......2007-01-29

Laura Tyson Li has assembled a spectacular bio. It's page turner with the authority and detail of an encyclopedia. LTL has managed to keep her opinions out of the text. It isn't until the last chapter when through an informed discussion on the Madame's possible motivations that LTL becomes subjective.

While almost every aspect of this life is intriguing, certain people and episodes stand out. I had forgotten Zhang Xueliang until he emerged after a 50 year house arrest, after which he & his wife move to Hawaii. Apparently he was able to keep his pre-war fortune, or had been cared for financially; he is deemed a friend of the Madame. (Another 5 year house arrest of a physician who botches an operation of the General suggests house arrest is a common punishment for "friends" and other professionals.) Madame's war time US appeal for funds, with its cross country caravan of staff whom MCKS treats "as coolies" is certainly an episode worth a small volume. (The $800,000 she raises goes to her personal account.) While the Wendel Wilkie relationship (true or false) is intriguing, I fixed on the William H. Donald relationship, which may have been a professional friendship and refuge from her husband's authoritarianism, but her end of life treatment of him suggests something else.

There are a host of issues worthy of their own books. Perhaps these books exist but I don't know about them. One issue is the "arrival" of 2 million mainlanders to the island of Formosa, who's 7 million citizens seemed to have some degree of prosperity under the Japanese. While the Chaings arrive with resources, others huddle in makeshift places and cry at night. "Invasion" appears to be a better word for this arrival (particularly after 2/28), but it is certainly not portrayed as such (or allowed to be portrayed as such) by the Nationalists who felt entitled to rule and had the resources to make it so. Even later, Madame objects to the appointment of Taiwanese to government posts.

Another issue deserving its own book is Madame's money. Whether or not the NYC exterminators actually saw it, a closet of gold bars is not far fetched. For maybe 30 years, Madame's "charity" received a % of all imports to Taiwan. There were several "vacation" homes in Taiwan, one built at a cost of $2 million. Then, the resources brought from the mainland to Taiwan. This money provided Madame with luxury and a large staff until her death. How large was it? How was it acquired (any from the US war assistance?) and where did it go?

MCKS can be noted for her longevity alone. There must be something Guinness-worthy about her survival despite many years in a war zone, continued medical treatments, operations including several for breast cancer, nervous afflictions, a late in life automobile accident, lifelong cigarette smoking (and potential drug abuse) and at least one assassination attempt. Any one of these factors would tend to predict an early demise, not a life of 103 years.

If you read this book, it's riveting, so be prepared to give it time. Also, the level of detail might make continuity difficult if you have to make gaps in your reading time.

Dazzling Dame, Riveting History.......2006-11-15

This is a book to dive into, and lose yourself for days. Madame Chiang Kai-Shek is that good a story, and this is that good an account of her life. Madame Chiang used her political cunning and legendary drive to seduce supporters to her side of China's epic civil war during the middle part of the 20th century.

The Nationalist regime, headed by her husband, was hated by the Chinese people for its notorious brutality and corruption. But as portrayed by Madame Chiang, especially to American audiences, Chiang Kai-shek's government was a modern, educated bulwark of democracy and freedom for a country whose history had allowed little of either. Indeed, Madame Chiang personified the vaunted hopes, bitter disappointments and complex misunderstandings of the U.S.-China relationship, which vacillated wildly during her exceptional 105-year lifetime. Laura Tyson Li's incisive new biography, rises to the tall task of capturing this pivotal figure in all her splendor and humiliation, against a backdrop of war, revolution and unending political turmoil. Li, a journalist with a decade of experience in Asia, accurately portrays her as "beautiful, vain, witty, spirited, capricious, scheming, selfish, and driven."

What a character. What a tale.

The book opens in the waning days of China's second-to-last emperor in the late 1890s, when Mayling Olive Soong was born in Shanghai, the youngest daughter of a businessman who had made a fortune selling Bibles and presided over a family of savvy, idealistic and recklessly ambitious children. One married Sun Yat-sen, China's first president. Another became finance minister and acting prime minister of Nationalist China. Another became one of China's richest women. Mayling became Madame Chiang Kai-shek.

In an era when few girls learned to read and fewer traveled, Mayling was schooled in Georgia, then graduated from Wellesley College, where she excelled at French, violin and religious studies. She returned to Shanghai in 1917 just as China lurched into a bloody warlord period, and soon she was courted by the most severe warlord of all, Chiang Kai-shek. He divorced one wife and sent another off to Columbia University before Mayling agreed to marry him.

During World War II, Madame Chiang became a superb envoy to the United States, where her address to Congress in 1943 thrilled Washington, and her barnstorming across the country won renewed support and money to defeat the Japanese. In China, she was a poised partner to her husband, softening his imperiousness while sharpening his political machinations.

In Li's telling, husband and wife (who shared a bedroom with a screen separating their beds) could not have differed more. He was an early riser; she stayed up late watching movies. He was ascetic; she insisted on luxury. Still, they called each other 'Dar' (short for 'darling') and for years collaborated to cement fragile political alliances and keep a shaky hold on power.

The book has delicious tidbits, such as an affair with Republican presidential nominee Wendell Wilkie and her insistence on getting silk sheets when she stayed in President Franklin D. Roosevelt's White House.

Overall, Li delivers a thoughtful portrait of a complex woman and resists the considerable temptation to crucify her. That is a refreshing contrast to the shock-and-awe approach seen in so many recent books on prominent figures in China's recent history. Li deconstructs critical historical events with skill: the Xian Incident, when Chiang Kai-shek was kidnapped by rebellious generals; the 50-year house-arrest of the leading kidnapper, with whom Madame Chiang developed a curious friendship; Madame Chiang's mysterious disappearances for months at a time, caused, Li thinks by physical and mental illnesses, including debilitating hives, breast cancer and nervous breakdown.

More reporter than writer, Li assiduously draws on Madame Chiang's extensive personal correspondence, from archives around the world, to explain each stage of her drama. It's a spellbinding period of history. And it does not end well for the Chiangs. The Nationalist regime crumbled to the Communists in 1949. The Chiangs fled to Taiwan, admitting no fault, but blamed President Truman and vowed to retake the mainland. That dream faded gradually after Chiang Kai-shek died in 1975.

Madame Chiang's antagonistic stepson, Chiang Ching-kuo, would oversee a murderous suppression of dissidents as head of Taiwan's intelligence network. Paradoxically, as president, he later paved the way for the launch of Taiwan's democracy just before his death in 1988. That year, at age 90, she tried to rally Taiwan's Old Guard and prevent the onset of democracy she once spoke of so often. She failed.

Madame Chiang lived out her days in New York, watching China and Taiwan as one became capitalist and the other became a democracy. Despite her illnesses, she lived until 2003.

Ultimately, Madame Chiang was "a deeply flawed heroine," Li writes, "that rare creature who stuck resolutely to her beliefs, however misguided some of them may have been, through the decades and the trials."

No Rock Left Unturned.......2006-11-15

Reading "Madame Chiang Kai-shek: China's Eternal First Lady" was like going through everything in the attic and leaving nothing unexamined. Tyson-Li covers every aspect of Madame Chiang's life without ever letting us forget that life's relevance for today. The "Dragon Lady's" significance never disappears in the wealth of the personal, historical, political, psychological, medical, and religious dimensions of her complex life. Her fanatical anti-Communism calls to mind Richard Nixon's personal crusade. Her use of religion to define her and her husband's sense of destiny parallels certain leaders who employ religious language for similar ends. Her manipulation of people and events exceeds the ambitions of any demagogue who has come to believe his or her own public statements.

All this and more the author achieves with vivid prose that takes you into private parlors where Madame Chiang herself has invited you to tea, but leaves you feeling that just maybe everything you've heard is really true and that your hostess is neither monster nor statesman, but an enigmatic individual using the world as a stage to work out her insecurities.

This book is key to a thorough understanding of not just the woman, but Chinese politics and influences in particular........2006-11-06

It's surprising to note that this is the first biography of one of the most politically influential women of modern times, but MADAME CHIANG KAI-SHEK: CHINA'S ETERNAL FIRST LADY remains the only title to provide the complete story of a woman who seized unofficial and official power during China's civil war. Her position against Chinese Communism and her diplomatic relations affected decades of Chinese-American relations, so this book is key to a thorough understanding of not just the woman, but Chinese politics and influences in particular.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Madame Jeanne Guyon: Experiencing Union with God Through Inner Prayer & the Way and Rescues of Union with God (Pure Gold Classics)

Average customer rating:

The most important book on prayer.

Madame Jeanne Guyon: Experiencing Union with God Through Inner Prayer & the Way and Rescues of Union with God (Pure Gold Classics)
Jeanne Marie Bouvier D. Guyon
Manufacturer: Bridge-Logos Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

General | Spirituality | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
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Jeanne Guyon: An Autobiography

ASIN: 0882708732

Book Description

2 of Madame Jeanne Guyon's best writings together in one incredible volume: Experiencing Union with God Through Inner Prayer & the Way and Rescues of Union with God

Customer Reviews:

The most important book on prayer........2003-04-28

Madame Jeanne Guyon's guide to prayer is by far the most imortant book on the subject I've ever read. I could never recommend a more useful guide to prayer.

The book is short and sweet--to the point. And although it can be read in a single sitting, you'll definately want to slow down to digest each page. In fact, that's precisely what Madame Guyon recomnmends of her readers. She teaches one of the most significant principles of prayer: felloship with God through meditating on portions of His word (the Bible). She recommends sitting down in a quiet place with your Bible and reading it slowly and carefully. And when you happen upon a particularly moving passage, slow down and dwell on that passage in a prayerful, meditative fashion.

And there is so much more here, too. Too much to mention in a brief review. It's enough to say that this classic is an irreplaceable guide. Anyone will be made better at prayer by this book. It's definately one of those books one will return to year after year, ever refreshing their spirits with the simplicity of Madame Guyon's methods of prayer.

War Paint: Madame Helena Rubinstein and Miss Elizabeth Arden, Their Lives, Their Times, Their Rivalry
Average customer rating:

Suspense

When Business Women were just that.....

Two Women With Similar Ideals

War Paint

War Paint: Madame Helena Rubinstein and Miss Elizabeth Arden, Their Lives, Their Times, Their Rivalry
Lindy Woodhead
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Giants of American Industry - Elizabeth Arden (Giants of American Industry)

ASIN: 0471487783

Book Description

Raves for War Paint

"The amount of research and meticulous personal data in this book is really quite remarkable and compelling. It provides a wealth of information from which to draw wonderfully three-dimensional characters and humanizes this iconic twosome."
-Raquel Welch

"I have seldom enjoyed a book so much as War Paint. The research is staggering-I loved all the detail about society and the arts in Paris, New York, and London that so beautifully set our two heroines in context during such a long span of years . . . it was a wonderful read."
-Lulu Guinness

"A compelling cosmetic portrait of the first half of the twentieth century."
-W magazine

"So riveting that it reads like the movie that will surely be made. . . . With first-hand research and fast-paced prose, Woodhead has succeeded in turning dusty archives into high drama."
-Suzy Menkes, International Herald Tribune

"It might seem impossible to wring another drop of H2O (water is still a 90 percent base of most cosmetics), let alone humour and historical interest, out of the absurd but ever-alluring beauty business, but Lindy Woodhead has succeeded."
-Nicky Haslam, Literary Review

"These were women who were tough in business, who had a single vision-an idea of what they believed in and would do anything to get there."
-Bobbi Brown

Customer Reviews:

Suspense.......2007-05-07

When I'll finish this book,i'll send my opinion. Thanks for your interest.
Lucy Laragione.
(Lucy is my wife and the reader)
mcosin

When Business Women were just that............2005-09-21

I knew a fair amount about Helena Rubenstein, but knew little about her rival Elizabeth Arden, and this book pulled no punches about their rivalry. It was a time when those two created their own fortunes and companies from the ground up, something that doesn't seem to happen in the cosmetic industry today. It seems all you have to do is be a "media darling," sign a contract, and your name is plastered all over all kinds of products. Helena may have been rithless to those around her, but Miss Arden seemed to take great delight in backstabbing and the like. I'm sure I'm prejudiced, but Madame Rubenstein, albeit tiny, cut a regal figure,and to me,Miss Arden was a bit on the frumpy side. A very enjoyable book for those interested in the battle between those two.

Two Women With Similar Ideals.......2004-12-27

Rubinstein and Arden had a rivalry that you might compare to that of Jack Benny and Fred Allen--i.e. one largely conducted for publicity reasons. Lindy Woodhead has donesome amazing research, can you imagine, she spent months kneeling on the floors of Krakow parishes to find just the right birth certificate for Helena (nee Chaja) Rubinstein--not an easy thing to do, especially given the fact that Rubinstein lied about her age by several years! And in every case Woodhead goes the extra nine yards to try to distinguish what is true and what is false about her two millionairesses. They were among the first to sell American women the "culture of beauty," to insist that the cosmetics they sold would bring the consumer a whole zeitgeist of pleasure, not just individual beauty treatments. To this end they conspired with Madison Avenue and devised decades worth of intriguing, perhaps misleading advertisements.

In the end what lets us down is the feeling that perhaps the two women aren't actually that different, and it gets confusing trying to remember their slight differences--which of the two was four feet ten, while the other was five foot two? A depressing business saga of how the mass public can be manipulated with great success, but they will pay you back in the most final way--they will forget you as soon as you're not alive any more.

War Paint.......2004-02-18

This is such a juicy story. Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein were two glamorous divas, who come to life and the stories of their personal and business lives are fascinating. The author describes the rivalry between these two women with rich details, describing how their animosity fueled their growing empires. The story is even more interesting because of the times in which they lived, and Woodhead does a great job of explaining their very glamorous social circles. I can't wait to share this book with my friends, especially those who love fashion.

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