Book Description
A major event: a new novel by the Whitbread winner, her first novel since
Emotionally Weird, and probably her most commercial book yet.
The scene is set in Cambridge, with three case histories from the past: A young child who mysteriously disappeared from a tent in her back garden; An unidentified man in a yellow jumper who marched into an office and slashed a young girl through the throat; and a young woman found by the police sitting in her kitchen next to the body of her husband, an axe buried in his head.
Jackson Brodie, a private investigator and former police detective, is quietly contemplating life as a divorced father when he is flung into the midst of these resurrected old crimes. Julia and Amelia Land enlist Jackson’s help to find out the truth about their younger sister. They embroil him in the complexities of their own jealousies, obsessions and lust.
Another woman named Shirley needs Jackson to help find her lost niece. Jackson meets solicitor Theo Wyre whose daughter, Laura, was murdered in his office and is desperate for Jackson to help him lay Laura's ghost to rest.
As he starts his investigations Jackson has the sinister feeling that someone is following him. In digging into the past Jackson seems to have unwittingly threatened his own future. This wonderfully crafted, intricately plotted novel is heartbreaking, uplifting, full of suspense and often very funny.
Customer Reviews:
I'm being generous........2007-10-08
How this book is getting five stars is beyond me. I mean, it's not an AWFUL book as it does have some redeeming language and a somewhat coherent plotline, but it so just so boring. Getting into this book took forever, and once I did become even remotely interested, the focus would switch and I would forget what I had already read. The characters are uninteresting and there are far too many names to keep track of. I just simply didn't care about them. I'm not sure that enough time was given to each "case", and that resulted in the lack of depth of the characters. I don't know, I just wasn't convinced... they didn't seem real to me. This book could have been an interesting read, but it was just too sloppy and underdeveloped.
Though I wouldn't give this one star, three might be pushing it. Like I said, some of the language used in this book was very beautiful and I'm a sucker for a good quote, but more often than not the dialogue (both internal and external) was just bland. Not to mention Atkinson's ridiculously excessive sexual language. I didn't notice it so much at first, but by the second half of the book EVERYTHING centered around sex. Everything. Maybe that was intentional, maybe a major theme was sexual depravity and the pains brought by it, but to me it was just unnecessary. It's not the sexual language itself that bothered me; if it had fit or enhanced the writing in any way I would support it. But alas, Atkinson failed to deliver on that one. She could have developed some really great characters by giving them ANY other redeemable quality, but she didn't, and thus they fall flat.
My last great qualm that I have to voice, and forgive me for being nit-picky, is the author's excessive use of parenthesis. I found them extremely distracting. If you have to voice a character's "true thoughts" in parenthesis, then you haven't developed him well enough! I should be able to KNOW what Jackson is thinking without having the simple things spelled out for me. Come on, give your readers some credit.
Not the worst book you could read, but far from the top of my list.
Good beginnings, but then...........2007-10-07
The story begins at once, and it is exciting. The reader is presented with three different case-files of un-solved mysteries: the case of the little girl Olivia, the case about Michelle and her daughter Tanya and the case about Laura. All cases are years old, and after the presentation, we move forward to the present day, where the ex-cop and ex-soldier Jackson Brodie enters the stage as some kind of a private eye, hired to solve the three old cases. Jackson is a philosofical dreamer, and he is chronically worrited about his 8 year old daughter. In his quest of finding answers, not just to the old cases but to life in general, he manages to crack open the three old cases again and get small glimpses of what happened back then.
Unfortunately, what promises to be a great story, a great mystery, fade out pretty fast. Jackson seems too philosofical and yet cynic, the disappeared Olivia's three, now grown, sisters seem too cartoon-ish and it is hard to find the rhythm in the story. We also find out the Jackson's cynisims has grounds in his own childhood and upbringing and recent divorce, and it makes the story all the more annoying in this reader's opinion.
The story is set in Cambridge in England, and I would have liked a little more atmosphere of the town. The story is not very tight, and what could have been a great book and a great mystery seems lost. All in all, this was a 2* plus book, and I ahve decided to give it 3* here.
so overrated.......2007-10-01
Please do not believe the hype with this book. (I should preface this by saying that I finished reading a Cormac McCarthy novel last week, so perhaps my palette is scarred.) The characters wallow about with too much lame dialogue and expected idiosyncrasies. The plot starts out at 80 mph, only to sputter to a geriatric standstill by the 5th chapter. I kept turning pages hoping it would get better, be written better, and seem like less of a Lifetime channel movie you watch on sick days. Sadly, dear potential reader, it never did. When I finished the last page I immediately walked outside and left it on the curb, saddened that it ever occupied a place on my bookshelf. If you want to read it, you can find it outside on the sidewalk and save yourself the shipping charges.
modest mystery and plot, interesting threads.......2007-09-28
The resolution of the murder mysteries takes a distant back seat to the odd collection of characters, some interesting and some not so much. There's hardly a normal person to be seen, with perhaps the most normal person the detective who integrates the threads, or maybe the victims. Ms. Atkinson has delivered an entertaining story somewhat light on action, when compared to the detective novel genre, but it's clear she was aiming for something else. The characters are the real focus, and she tells about them in a casual, conversational style that goes down easily.
Alright?.......2007-09-09
I enjoyed this intricate, character-centered narrative (although the deus-ex-machina fantasy endings mar it, unless their very unreality is the point. And why, in so many current novels, are the characters with same-sex desires also often the most unappealing?)
But my main comment is a nit-picky pedantic one. When did it become all right to spell "all right" as "alright"? I hate this trend. I can adapt to inevitable linguistic change (hey, I no longer rant about "impact" as a verb [I even see now that it makes logical sense], and half the time, I can even hear "proactive" without shuddering), but "alright" seems sloppy and unnecessarily imprecise. And while I'm at it, I'll point out another problem: a character is said "not to waiver" after making a decision. What, to change your mind nowadays, you have to submit a waiver? (joke -- that's a joke.) Get better editors. All right?
Average customer rating:
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Reading And Writing Italian Homosexuality: A Case of Possible Difference
Derek Duncan
Manufacturer: Ashgate Publishing
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ASIN: 0754653919 |
Book Description
The Mabuse phenomenon is recognized as an icon of horror in Germany as Frankenstein and Dracula are in the United States. This work is a study of the 12 motion pictures and five books (and some secondary films) that make up the eight decades of adventures of master criminal Mabuse, created by author Norbert Jacques in the best-selling 1922 German novel and brought to the screen by master filmmaker Fritz Lang in the same year.
Both on screen and off, the story of Dr. Mabuse is a story of love triangles and revenge, of murder, suicides, and suspicious deaths, of betrayals and paranoia, of fascism and tyranny, deceptions and conspiracies, mistaken identities, and transformation. This work, featuring much information never before published in English, provides an understanding of a modern mythology whose influence has pervaded popular culture even while the name Mabuse remains relatively unknown in the United States.
Customer Reviews:
MABUSE the german Horror-Icon.......2001-12-13
Mabuse is for the german-gothic cinema, what Frankenstein or Dracula are for the anglosaxon-movies: cult. This book reviews the 12 Mabusefilms and a few secondary films, which where inspired by the mad doctor. The interested reader finds chapters about Fritz Lang, Jess Franco or the producer Arthur Brauner. Like all books published by McFarland the top quality has a top price. I guess the book is mainly for filmstudents or fans of dr. Mabuse
Customer Reviews:
Murder is murder no matter what era..........2007-10-05
The Case of Madeleine Smith is one of the Treasury of Victorian Murder series. Rick Geary starts off with bibliographic references used in creating the book, a map of Scotland noting the towns germane to the major characters, and a map of the City of Glasgow in 1857 and its surrounding area. All these help the reader to visualize the relative locations of the action. The writing is clear and the artwork is amazing in that you can picture yourself in the story as an observer, and the surprise is when you look up and find yourself in your living room.
On Monday 23 March 1857, Emile L'Anglier arrives at his lodging house seriously ill. He dies later the same day. Notes in his journal cause the arrest of his fiancé Madeleine Smith, who is actually engaged to another man, William Minnock. But all the evidence points to Madeleine.
Geary clearly sets out the evidence going over the background of Emile L'Anglier and Madeleine Smith, the love affair, letters, journal entries, and actions prior to Emile's death. He covers the highlights of the court proceedings, the verdict, and follows up with what happened to some of the major characters in later years.
I found the writing clear and concise. Geary only sets forth the facts about what happened and lets the reader decide if the court's decision was the correct one. It would seem a cut and dried case but the prior history of the major figures casts doubts. What happened may not be what it seems -- there is definitely doubt about motives.
I think if more history was told as clearly with only the facts presented and the reader left to think about the ramifications and possible outcomes and how things might have been avoided or outcomes changed; it would make history much more exciting and interactive as a learning process. I found this illustrated presentation of The Case of Madeleine Smith thought provoking. The artwork is also clear and closely tied to the narrative so that the two are seamless as you're reading.
Sex and death in the not-so-Good Old Days.......2007-07-17
Geary does what might be called documentary graphic novels, the best known of which is his series of true crime stories. This one is set in Glasgow in the late 1850s and involves an overly-romantic young gentleman and the young-ish daughter of a prominent architect who carry on a clandestine love affair -- until Madeleine gets tired of the whole thing, takes up with a man her father approves of, and then has to keep her paramour from outing her. Enter arsenic. The ex-boyfriend dies in great pain, the government brings murder charges, and a trial ensues. Even though their styles are nothing at all alike, Geary always reminds me of Edward Gorey -- the sly depiction of violence, the sense of inevitability, the decorous text. This is great stuff.
A good look at a mid-Victorian scandal.......2006-08-23
This book is a graphic-novel overview of a murder case that gripped the attention of mid-nineteenth-century Britain: Did Madeleine Smith, Glasgow socialite, poison her inconvenient lover, Pierre L'Anglier, or didn't she?
Geary does not come down on the side of innocence or guilt; he presents the facts of the case, in his own inimitable drawing style, and lets the reader come to his or her own conclusions. I would say that the clue to innocence or guilt is there, but you have to be paying attention to see it---and I won't spoil the book for others by pointing it out. It's just one small fact that can't be explained otherwise.
This book's recommended for anybody interested in the case, or in true crime or classic crime in general. About the only reason I didn't give it five stars is that Geary apparently swallowed the story of Madeleine living her old age out in New York City out whole, without checking it out. It could be, but it also might not be, the truth---and without digging the corpse in question up and checking its DNA with known relatives of Smith, there's no way to know.
Book Description
In the spring of 1884 Ulysses S. Grant heeded the advice of Mark Twain and finally agreed to write his memoirs. Little did Grant or Twain realize that this seemingly straightforward decision would profoundly alter not only both their lives but the course of American literature. Over the next fifteen months, as the two men became close friends and intimate collaborators, Grant raced against the spread of cancer to compose a triumphant account of his life and times—while Twain struggled to complete and publish his greatest novel,
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.In this deeply moving and meticulously researched book, veteran writer Mark Perry reconstructs the heady months when Grant and Twain inspired and cajoled each other to create two quintessentially American masterpieces.
In a bold and colorful narrative, Perry recounts the early careers of these two giants, traces their quest for fame and elusive fortunes, and then follows the series of events that brought them together as friends. The reason Grant let Twain talk him into writing his memoirs was simple: He was bankrupt and needed the money. Twain promised Grant princely returns in exchange for the right to edit and publish the book—and though the writer’s own finances were tottering, he kept his word to the general and his family.
Mortally ill and battling debts, magazine editors, and a constant crush of reporters, Grant fought bravely to get the story of his life and his Civil War victories down on paper. Twain, meanwhile, staked all his hopes, both financial and literary, on the tale of a ragged boy and a runaway slave that he had been unable to finish for decades. As Perry delves into the story of the men’s deepening friendship and mutual influence, he arrives at the startling discovery of the true model for the character of Huckleberry Finn.
With a cast of fascinating characters, including General William T. Sherman, William Dean Howells, William Henry Vanderbilt, and Abraham Lincoln, Perry’s narrative takes in the whole sweep of a glittering, unscrupulous age. A story of friendship and history, inspiration and desperation, genius and ruin,
Grant and Twain captures a pivotal moment in the lives of two towering Americans and the age they epitomized.
Customer Reviews:
Dissonance and Victory - Well Done!.......2007-07-25
I decided to read Mark Perry's treatment of "Grant and Twain" for several reasons: First, I loved Perry's duo-bio of Marshall and Eisenhower; Second, I had read individual biographies of Ulysses S. Grant and Samuel L. Clemens a.k.a. Mark Twain already, having been intrigued by both men and their roles in the Civil War and Gilded Age eras of America. (Think of the old television series "Wild Wild West!" with anachronistic secret agent James West and side kick Artemis Gordon traveling around the growing country by that behemoth of high tech, The Railroad System, at the commission of President Grant himself, dealing with criminal arch genius villains and their Jules Verne-esque technologies in the middle of carpetbaggers and con men and normal everyday people trying to make an honest even moral life in it all).
And so I did read "Grant and Twain" and I am glad I did and I find myself wanting to review it not just to share it but to draw out the uncomfortable and til now not quite articulated thoughts I had on Grant and Twain in my earlier readings of the details of their lives.
And I DO recommend it and give it five stars. I give it five stars for a) Perry's lovely method and focus of comparing two famous men side by side for new perspectives, b) His revealing a, to me, hitherto unknown connection between the two men, c) His focus on the 15 or so months where Grant wrote his famous Memoirs (which I am now, finally, going to read) and Twain facilitated him, and d) Early hints in this Perry work of some themes about war and democracies more fully realized in the Marshall and Eisenhower work.
The "dissonance" I allude to in the title of this review is that, while Grant and Twain are FAMOUS, their lives were full of downs and ups and arguably each died in unhappy circumstances. Grant died of cancer, using the writing of his memoirs to energize himself to see it through to the end as his last campaign, though incidentally creating what Perry characterizes as the United States' greatest work of nonfiction. Grant wrote his memoirs partly as a result of having been misled by a business partner and having to pay off debts to retain Grant's sense of dignity and honor. Oh yes, and Grant's eight years at president were a bit marred by constant financial scandals of government officials he'd naively trusted to be honorable in the positions he'd given them.
Twain died of old age basically, but was embittered at the end of his life at the deaths of his wife and oldest daughter, and disgusted with the reliable dishonesty and exploitation and hypocrisy of men. And oh yes, near bankrupt from inept business dealings as well.
So when I first read the bios of these two great men it bothered me... was dying in pain and embitterment a worthy end for great men like these? For heaven's sake what could the rest of us aspire to? Life is so complicated when there is not a 'lived happily ever after' ending to biographies like these.
I could barely stand to re-read the "sad bad bits" in the stories of both men... skimming along quickly at times to the interesting action bits such as the when Grant decides to write his memoirs and who to have publish them; the point where Twain finds the inspiration needed to complete the story of Huckleberry Finn (quietly dedicated to General Grant at the very front, according to Perry's convincing analysis, who characterizes Huck Finn as the United States' greatest work of fiction).
And yet having completed Perry's book, I have became satisfied and at peace with the mixed happinesses of the lives of both these great men. The Gilded Age was a time after the Civil War where the pursuit of the dollar became rampant. "The Rise of Silas Lapham" was published in this era by Twain's good friend William Dean Howells. Twain lived next door to Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin". The thrashing of the United States about attitudes to slavery and commerce continued to dominate this century.
And yet in all this dissonance death and discord... two great men married, raised families, pursued careers, pursued concepts of professional honor and dignity, faced literal and figurative life and death often and unpredictably, and at the end, died. They "won" because they became "famous" and they became famous because their names became household words. But are they to be emulated for having become famous? Are they to be emulated for the clarity and brilliance, the insights of their most famous literary works? Are they to be emulated for the example they set of sheer persistence if not bravado making a life with what they were given. As all of us are challenged to do?
Well done Grant!; well done Twain!; and well done Perry!
A Story about Two American Historical Figures.......2005-11-29
Mark Perry's GRANT AND TWAIN: THE STORY OF A FRIENDSHIP THAT CHANGED AMERICA is one of those books where the old adage, "never judge a book by looking at its cover," comes to mind. However, never judge a book by reading its title may be a better term. The subject matter of U.S. Grant and Mark Twain is quite interesting, and Perry parallels Grant and Twain's lives. Unfortunately, Perry does not show how the two men grew closer as friends during Grant's last few months of life in 1885. The entire aspect of the book concentrates on Grant's life and death experiences while completing his memoirs, and how Twain completes his most famous, THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN. Possibly, this book is a tie into the story behind Twain's opening passage to Huck Finn (The book's premise almost resembles the Citizen Kane story, and how the movie revolves around the mystery behind Rosebud).
Perry attempts to elaborate on the lives of these two monumental figures in American history. Perry offers a short biography of the two men, and Perry credits personal accounts from family and friends as to the friendship between the two men. However, the story revolving around Twain and Grant's friendship never quite meet in this book. There is a sense of disconnect in Perry's attempt to cite how their friendship changed America; the stories are separate from one another, and their is not one inkling of emotion on how one felt about the other. The narrative dwells on Twain helping Grant publish his memoirs.
As a recommendation for reading about U.S. Grant or Mark Twain, GRANT AND TWAIN: THE STORY OF A FRIENDSHIP THAT CHANGED AMERICA, should be read after reading Grant's memoirs and Huckleberry Finn.
Grant eclipses Twain... for an excellent read........2005-10-27
Mark Perry's "Grant and Twain" may well be the only work in which the personality of Mark Twain plays second fiddle to another. Whereas Twain was a giant of literature, Grant was a giant of humanity and this book offers plenty of evidence in that regard.
U.S. Grant was such a mass of contradiction. He was a soldier with a distaste for war, yet he possessed little fear in battle and deployed his forces with vicious ferocity. He was a man of great ethical conviction, yet as president he headed one of the more corrupt administrations in our history. With a clarity no doubt inspired by Grant's writings, Perry explores those contradictions and how they made his relationship with Twain noteworthy.
A lesser historian might have just focused on Grant's final year of life, and how he approached his final illness with dignity and stoicism. But Perry finds deeper meaning in the ways that the mutual admiration between Grant and Twain came to influence them both.
Twain's effort to finish Huckleberry Finn dovetailed nicely with Grant's reluctance to write his memoirs. Grant's perspective on the South helped Twain flesh out some of the nuances within his work. The novel had stalled in the writing process and in fact had been shelved by Twain as having no promise. Meanwhile, Twain moved from basically looking for a publishing coup (that of winning the rights to Grant's memoirs) to a more nurturing role as writing mentor to the General. Twain's numerous business failures were legion, but Grant's writings were a notable exception. Perhaps that was due to the respect that Twain held for Grant prior to their association, or more a reflection of the admiration that he developed as the ailing ex-president applied himself to the task of putting his memories to paper.
Grant began his memoirs after being diagnosed with cancer of the tongue. As time elapsed, the effort to give his perspective on his military career and the Civil War became a counterpoint to his illness; perhaps even to the point of prolonging his life somewhat.
Grant and Twain is excellent history. It's informative, readable and enjoyable. And to it's credit, this book will (should) foster renewed interest in reading Huckleberry Finn and Personal Memoirs by U.S. Grant.
A Thoroughly enjoyable read.......2005-10-14
Grant and Twain is a good book, informative, insightful, and concise enough.
Mark Perry starts by giving us very good sketches of the lives of the two principals up to the point of the story, including some surprising (for me) details about their personal lives. He then goes into their relationship, how it came to be, and the affect it had on their great works of literature. The books influenced by their time together, Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Grant's Personal Memoirs, are considered to be classics and the best that either of the authors ever produced. In fact, some think that Huckleberry Finn is the best American novel ever, and that Personal Memoirs (about the Mexican and Civil Wars) is the best American book ever written on military events. Perry records many conversations Grant and Twain had with each other and with the other folks surrounding them, including families and associates. It makes you feel like you are there, and gives some personal insight into what these gentlemen were really like. We find that they were both quite remarkable as private figures as well as public figures. The story of their relationship rides to a great extent on the heroic drama of Grant racing to finish his book before dying of cancer, to ensure the financial security of his family. Perry, at the same time, paints a fascinating sketch of what Twain called the Gilded Age, a time of great industrial progress along with great corruption in the U.S.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable read.
Mistitled.......2005-06-08
This is a decent book that was mistitled. It should be "The Last Days of Grant with a Little Twain Thrown In".
The vast majority of the book is devoted to Grant's life. There is some background biography, but really starts with his near bankruptcy and then his efforts to get his memoirs written - a truly compelling story.
There are a few short chapters devoted to Twain. Unfortunately, there was a disappointingly small amount of space devoted to the friendship between Twain and Grant. It obviously was addressed, but never in depth. It appeared that the two men were living parallel lives rather than experiencing a close friendship. This was the major short-coming of the book and where it did not live up to its billing.
It is well-written, however. The account of Grant's struggles to complete the memoirs and what it meant to him was very well done. The accounts of Twain were equally good. The author just never really brought the two great men together in any meaningful way. Regardless of that shortfall, it is still worth the read for the account of the memoirs writing.
Amazon.com
The authors of Growing Up with Dick and Jane do themselves one better in this beautifully packaged and exhaustively researched volume. While Dick and Jane is loads of fun, it is a bit light on text; this book tells you everything you wanted to know about your favorite white-bread detectives. The story of their creation in the mind of Edward Stratemeyer, the way they were fleshed out by his stable of writers, and their transformation in the light of a changing America are all told, with tons of asides on their influences, effects, and environment. Kismaric and Heiferman use the teen detectives as a lens through which to view the invention of adolescence in the 20th century, but they never become dry or pedantic. The lushly illustrated, large-format book is as beautiful to hold and look at as it is engaging to read. --James DiGiovanna
Book Description
You're hot on the trail of the world's most beloved teen
detectives when you crack open The Mysterious Case of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, so grab your magnifying glass and curl up on the couch for some action-packed sleuthing. Discover how and why the
plucky blonde Nancy Drew and the
fearless, energetic Frank and Joe Hardy have entertained and influenced American teenagers for seventy years and solved hundreds of page-turning mysteries along the way.
When the sunny, tree-lined streets of River Heights and Bayport are threatened by an endless lineup of colorful
thugs, smugglers, thieves, and
villainous rogues, these crime-busting teens make sure that justice prevails and good always wins out over evil. Nancy, Frank, and Joe were breakthrough characters, the first teenage detectives to
star in their own book series and personalities who were
tough enough to face dozens of literary competitors.
Kids stumbling through the obstacle course of adolescence couldn't get enough of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. The young
sleuths survived countless
revolutions in teenage taste, jumped from books to movies to television, and found themselves employed by merchandisers to sell a range of products, from jigsaw puzzles to Halloween costumes. This book tracks the growth of
teen power, too -- from
screaming bobby-soxers to antiwar protesters -- and shows how the rise of a youth culture redefined values and transformed American life.
For anyone who grew up reading the classic mysteries, which have been published since 1972, The Mysterious Case of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys offers an absorbing way to connect once again with the hyperactive teen sleuths who taught young readers that being a teenager could be a
thrill-a-minute adventure. The whole gang's back:
handsome dads Carson Drew and Fenton Hardy; college-boy heartthrob Ned Nickerson; Nancy's best friends, Bess Marvin and George Fayne; and chubby Chet Morton and the Hardy Boys' gang.
Independent and driven Nancy Drew continues to be a role model for new generations of girls, showing them the thrill of taking
risks and taking charge. The heart-pounding excitement of Frank and Joe's heroics still
enthralls boys, tapping into their fantasies of omnipotence and reinforcing the ideals of masculinity that have defined American manhood.
Two hundred million copies later, Nancy, Frank, and Joe's stories remain bestsellers, passed from one
friend to another, from father to son, mother to daughter, and from one generation to the next.
Customer Reviews:
the evolution of two popular children's series.......2004-07-14
"The Mysterious Case of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys" takes the reader back to the origin of the Hardy Boys Mystery Series and the Nancy Drew books. While the two series have Franklin W Dixon and Carolyn Keene listed as the authors, neither author actually exists are a person. They are both creations of the Stratemeyer Syndicate. The Stratemeyer Syndicate was the "writing factory" started by Edward Stratemeyer as a means to churn out book after book in a series that he conceived of. He would contract an author to write a book with the requirement the author sign away all rights to the book and to remain anonymous. This led to the birth of Franklin W Dixon and Carolyn Keene (as well as the Tom Swift series, among others).
This book is the history and evolution of these two iconic series for children. The reader is shown how society has influenced the content of the novels, both in the language used as well as the plots. When the Hardy Boys first began in the late 1920's and into the 30's, there early volumes contained numerous racial stereotypes, both among the bad guys as well as the Hardys' friends. Later editions would edit these stereotypes out. This book follows the series through their various authors as well as the change in the focus of the Syndicate after the death of Edward Stratemeyer.
One thing that the authors of this book try to do is tie both series into the society of the time (whether it is the 1930's of the early series, the 1950's or the 1980's). This attempt is what I found less successful or interesting about the book. There are numerous sidebars and pictures and captions about the America's youth during each era and how the books impacted the youth and I felt that this information was extraneous and unnecessary.
What is most interesting about this book is the evolution of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. The characters changed over the 75 years and the books continue to sell. This coverage was the best part of the book and is what I would recommend for the reader. Nothing would be lost by just skipping the sidebars. I do feel that the authors have overstated the influence of these characters, but I cannot question the popularity of the Hardys or Nancy Drew.(...)
The Stratemeyer Syndicate sleuths get their day........2003-04-14
This book is fun to look at. Dozens of photos, large and small, pay tribute to the most popular series characters in English-language fiction. As a child I used to stand in front of rows of these books in bookstores, poring over the covers, for hours at a time. The covers have a talismanic quality this book neatly captures. Interior line drawings (including the "frontispiece" illustrations in each book) also appear throughout this large-format book. Unfortunately none of the Drew/Hardy pictures are labelled, so unless you know the originals you can't pair them to the book. The potted history of the Stratemeyer syndicate is clearly if breezily presented, with excerpts from letters indicating the tensions behind the scenes between publishers and Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, who assumed control of the empire after her father died in 1930, just as the Drew series was about to start (three years after the Hardy series had taken off). The authors document almost nothing, though, so you can't easily use the book for research purposes. Still, these authors condescend to the series characters far less than most academic writers have -- it's nice to read complimentary things about the power of the books on kids who have literally read them to pieces over the decades. The main problem with this book is that it goes far afield to encompass a general social history of the last century. We get inset mini-essays on adolescence, "model dads" (from FDR to MLK), juvenile delinquents, "Seventeen" magazine, the influence of TV, etc. The inset coverage is superficial, reading like canned newsmagazine features. Anyone who picks up the book to read about Drew/Hardy is unlikely to care about this material. Fortunately, there is still plenty about Drew/Hardy, with generous quotes from both the original books and updated rewrites of the Grosset and Dunlap series. The authors treat each series as one long book, looking for trends in plots and characterizations -- Nancy is "locked in closets, attics, gymnasiums, cisterns, caves, and submarines," they note. They're also good on the media and pop culture variations of the characters, from Disney TV adaptations to board games. The paperback watering-down of the characters in the 1980s gets softer treatment than it deserves, since this book's publisher (Simon and Schuster) owns the Stratemeyer Syndicate now and published them. The book is worth seeing, as long as readers knowit lacks full focus on Drew/Hardy, and often doesn't reveal its sources.
Great photos, text could be better.......2001-11-26
GREAT info for the Nancy Drew lover. This would get 5 stars for the inclusion of photos from the books alone. The writing could have been more detailed and written a bit better. I DID like that the authors included information from the period during which the NDs were written -- the '30s through today -- and how teens were changing over the years. Nancy Drew changed and grew along with today's teens, although die-hard fans wish the syndicate hadn't changed a WORD.
I was a little disappointed with the reading of the book, but had just finished "The Nancy Drew Scrapbook" which is AWESOME, so that might be why I was expecting more from this book. I LOVED all the photos, tho, lots of nostalgia!
Great pictures, great research!.......2001-11-09
This descriptive book shows great book photos from the '30s and later and describes what life was like back then! It describes TV shows of the time, and how Nancy Drew sparked interest in female sleuths like Jessica Fletcher of Murder She Wrote! Teens of the time are described, and how Nancy Drew became an important positive role model for all young women. Hat off to the authors!
Fascinating social commentary a must-read for Hardy Boys fan.......2000-10-17
This beautifully packaged, colourful, but thin paperback unearths the long history of the Stratemeyer Syndicate's greatest heroes, the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. Blown-up covers from both series liven up the book, triggering memories of adrenaline surging through the veins of teenagers everywhere.
The material on how the books changed over the years -- especially the evolution of racial stereotypes of "Negroes," Jews, and Italians -- is truly fascinating. I never realized that the books I read in the seventies had been homogenized by a factory of authors. I now want to read the original books, if I can find them (eBay here I come!).
I could do without most of the overlong and annoying sidebars. Again and again they fill us in on how teens have changed over the last century, but seldom are the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew even mentioned in them!
I give this book an "A" for the terrific images and accurate and enlightening history, but overall, marred by some poor editorial decisions, the book deserves a "B." Still, this is required reading for those interested in pop culture and the literature of our youth. Now I'm off to solve the Secret of the Caves . . .
Product Description
From the first great turning point in the battle against racial injustice comes one of the mighty novels of the decade!
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Aspects of Conrad's Literary Language
Michael A. Lucas
Manufacturer: East European Monographs
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
19th Century
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20th Century
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ASIN: 0880339845 |
Book Description
Why did Joseph Conrad avoid using English, except when it came to the arduous task of writing fiction? And how do we account for his extensive "borrowing" from French writers? This psycholinguistic examination delves into the creative mind of Conrad in an attempt to decipher his learning and use of three languages, Polish, French, and English. Following a trail of syntactical eccentricities and considerable stylistic variations, Lucas shows how these features interact to produce Conrad's idiosyncratic style.
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Sherlock Holmes and the Case of Dr. Freud
Michael Shepherd
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
British
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ASIN: 0422799904 |
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Closet Writing/Gay Reading: The Case of Melville's Pierre
James Creech
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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19th Century
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19th Century
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All Titles
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ASIN: 0226120228 |
Book Description
One of the most urgent tasks for gay studies today, James Creech argues, is the retrieval of a repressed, "closeted" literary heritage. But contradictions and problems cloud even the most basic theoretical questions: What does a lesbian or gay reading of a literary text require or presume? Can we talk about a homosexual writer expressing him- or herself before the invention of "homosexuality"? Was it possible for a writer like Herman Melville, for example, to create literary works linked to his own prohibited eros?
In Closet Writing/Gay Reading, Creech shows how a literary critic can be receptive to implicit and closeted sexual content. Forcefully advocating a tactic of identification and projection in literary analysis, he lends renewed currency to the kind of "sentimental" response to literature that continental theory—particularly deconstruction—has sought to discredit.
In the second half of his book, Creech sets out to analyze what he considers the exemplary novel of the nineteenth-century closet, Melville's Pierre, or: The Ambiguities. By approaching Pierre as the gay man Melville longed to have as its reader, Creech is able to decipher the novel's "encrypted erotics" and to reveal that Melville's apparent tale of incest is actually a homosexual novel in disguise. The closeted "address" to queer-sensitive readers that Pierre disseminates finally receives a critical reading that strives to be explicit, shareable, and public.
Books:
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- Danse Macabre (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 14)
- Darcy & Elizabeth: Nights and Days at Pemberley (Pride & Prejudice Continues)
- Deception Point
- Dosage Calculations
- Dungeons & Dragons Core Rulebook Set (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying, Three Book Slipcased Set)
- Eat Healthy, Feel Great
- Facing Death in Cambodia
- Fallen Angel: The Premiere Collection
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream
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