The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre: A Novel

Average customer rating:

Flowery

Mercury Visions and the Human Heart

Good, But Could Have Been Better

A Dull Disappointment

Didn't live up to the expectations

The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre: A Novel
Dominic Smith
Manufacturer: Washington Square Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0743271246

Product Description

In this luminous novel, Dominic Smith reinvents the life of one of photography's founding fathers. In 1839, Louis Daguerre's invention took Paris and the world by storm. A decade later, he is sinking deep into delusions brought on by exposure to mercury--the very agent that allowed his daguerreotype process.

Customer Reviews:

Flowery.......2007-08-02

The subject, Louis Daguerre was fascinating for me as a lover of photography and a tinkerer with the cyanotype process, pin hole cameras and all things not digital about photography. I think I understood more than most folk would when the processes were described, but I don't think it was meant to be a technical novel in that way. I ended up explaining a lot about it to my book club group. I would have enjoyed it more if there were more historical details as they related to Daguerre and the French Revolution. The plot was compelling, though it was difficult to get into and out of the novel.

Mercury Visions and the Human Heart.......2007-05-14

The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre: A Novel, Dominic Smith, 320 pages,
Atria/Washington Square Press, 2006/2007, hardcover/paperback, $24.00/$14.00

This novel peers into the mind and heart of the mid-19th-century French genius who invented the daguerreotype and into the mind and heart of a woman who refuses to be loved. In this story, the celebrated photographer Louis Daguerre suffers from the effects of the mercury process that creates the first photographs. He imagines of the end of the world, and launches on a quest to record a series of 10 images before the apocalypse.

Using an extended flashback, the author describes the intellectual progress, persistent experimentation and the physical hazards that Daguerre must surmount in order to achieve the breakthrough discovery before his competitors do. Smith renders an engaging portrait of Daguerre and his thinking, within a backstory of tumultuous times of political and social revolution.

Near the end of his career and fame, Daguerre enlists the help of bohemian poet Charles Baudelaire to help him find the settings of the portfolio, and together they prowl the underside of Paris in search of several of Daguerre's subjects and settings, including a beautiful naked woman, the perfect Parisian boulevard, and Daguerre's childhood friend and long-lost love, Isobel Le Fournier. As young adults, he held deep affections for her but she refused to be loved by him.

While visiting a Parisian brothel with Baudelaire, Daguerre encounters Isobel's daughter Chloe, who becomes the beautiful naked model in the photographer's portfolio. In addition, Smith details elements of two women's lifes. The daughter rejects the mother because of the mother's rejection of romantic love; the mother rejects the unconditional love of a suitor because she does not believe that love is real.

Dagierre does achieve his portofolio before his own personal apocaplyse arrives, brought about by the mercury vapors of the photographic process. Besides being a rewarding experience, for the sake of the history of photography, the novel is also teaches, for this reader, something new about the human heart.

Good, But Could Have Been Better.......2007-04-23

I picked this up on impulse in a bookstore. I was leaving for Russia and I knew it would be a while before I could get more books in English. I think the story would have been better if it had focused more on the struggles to invent rather than the unrequited love story. I am assuming most of the story is completely invented as well as most of the main characters. Of course Louis Daguerre was a real person, but I guess Chloe and Isobel are invented. It seems way too much of a coincidence that Daguerre's nude model turns out to be the daughter of his long lost love, but I guess the rest of the story wouldn't happen otherwise. This was a mildly entertaining read, but I hope Smith will do better in his next book.

A Dull Disappointment.......2007-04-12

The idea of this novel is intriguing but the author's execution of it is not. He was not able to develop any genuiness in the characters and his descriptions of Paris were unconvincing. He throws in some $10 words for effect but that just detracts from an already dry, clumsy and artifical story.
If you must, then get it from the library. I wish I could get my money back. Another nicely packaged, back cover hyped disappointment.

PS
I notice one reviewer calls this book "masterful." I find that astounding. To me, it was more like something written by an over-ambitious, under-talented high school student.

Didn't live up to the expectations.......2007-03-30

I had had high hopes for this book but I was sorely disappointed.

The storyline dragged like slow torture and the characters seemed barely two-dimensional.

There was great potential in both the storyline and the characterization, however the author missed both marks by a long shot.

So many times I wanted to just give up and put this one away but I kept reading thinking (hoping, wishing) it would get better. And it did, but only through fleeting passages. Then back to the same old labored reading.

I gave this 2 stars instead of 1 because there were definite resolutions to the two main conflicts presented in the story. Had it not been for those much-sought-after resolutions, the whole thing would've been a complete waste of time.

If you can hold out so long as to find out how the conflicts get resolved, then more power to you. If not, no big deal. You won't have missed much.

Sailor Moon the Novels: Mercury Rising (Sailor Moon Number 3)

Average customer rating:

A very good book. I enjoyed it.
Hmph
Buy it for Lianne if nothing else...
doink doink doink doink doink doink doink...
doink doink doink doink doink doink doink...

Sailor Moon the Novels: Mercury Rising (Sailor Moon Number 3)
Naoko Takeuchi
Manufacturer: TokyoPop
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Action & Adventure | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1892213184

Customer Reviews:

A very good book. I enjoyed it........2004-08-05

This was a very good book, and I enjoyed it. I don't agree with anyone who says that this book only gets 1 or 2 stars. I give it 5 stars because it is very interesting. Especially the Saffron chapter.

Hmph.......2001-07-02

I'm so sick and tired of how these people do Sailor Moon. They don't know jack about it, all they want is the money and it's just plain SAD! I'm not going to blame Lianne because I KNOW Mixxine are the ones making her write these books in such a [bad] not even KINDERGARDEN fashion. All this American additive stuff. Uh-uh. It's just so STUPID! The only reason I gave this book 2 stars was because it's the only one I read twice. They all look cute on bookshelves though... And they rate this "Young Adult." PUH-LEEZE. I hate it. It makes me literally want to cry seeing how Sailor Moon is slowly being chewed up to be spat out resulting in nothing. Mixxine needs to get their ACT together and start making some REAL stuff. These Sailor Moon novels could be great if people wouldn't act so DUMB with it's writing. Those harpies. They really get on my nerves. If you want some REAL Sailor Moon stories your best bet is fanfics.

Buy it for Lianne if nothing else..........2001-05-24

Okay, I know that most of you otakus out there might buy this expecting it to be like the original manga or show. But in all reality, it most likely won't turn out that way. Why? For one simple reason: all of the novels now written by Lianne Sentar are done so by an original Otaku and fanfic writer. Fanfic writer, you ask? A fanfic writer is someone who writes stories about the original characters, keeping them in character or going on a total tangent. I have read some of Lianne-sama's original fanfics, and if they are any indication as to her writing talents, then I would definatly say you should pick up her novels. As for the other guy... well, I don't know about him. Support fanfic writers everywhere by buying Lianne-sama's Sailor Moon novels! ...

doink doink doink doink doink doink doink..........2000-08-31

In case you don't know, "doink" is my word for stupid. And stupid describes this book from cover to cover. Why did it have to be senselessly Americanized (I love 'N Sync and I know that some people in Japan also love 'N Sync but I don't think they fit into Sailormoon)? Please, fellow Sailormoon fans, don't buy this doinky book or any other Mixx Sailormoon novels because the other ones are just as doinky. Instead, buy the English manga off of Amazon, or even better go to your local comic shop and see if they have the Japanese manga available. But whatever you do, whatever other readers say, DON'T BUY THIS BOOK!

doink doink doink doink doink doink doink..........2000-08-31

Average customer rating:

One of My Favorite Scouts
great sailor mercury scout guide
It is good, but....
my fav Sailor's book
A must have for every Sailor Mercury fan!

Meet Sailor Mercury: Ice

Manufacturer: TokyoPop
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1892213311

Customer Reviews:

One of My Favorite Scouts.......2004-10-23

Sailor Mercury is one of my favorite Sailor Scouts, and this book is full of bits of information about her. The exclusive pictures of Mercury/Amy are really cool, some being cute, and others glamorous. I especially like the pictures in the background of the poems in the back of the book. Mercury's transformation and attacks are in better order then the other scouts', but it's still hard to figure out which picture comes first in the Episode Best 5 section.

Overall, I would say that this is a fun book to read like a magazine, simply flipping pages and reading little bits while you eat a snack, sit on the couch, or when you need something to do to pass a small amount of time. Although it's 93 pages long, there isn't so much reading material that it takes more then an hour or less to read if you read to the end without stopping. Almost all of the pictures, except for the exclusive ones, were taken from the TV series and movies, so if you're a die hard Sailor Moon or Sailor Mercury fan who's seen all the seasons of the show, and all of the movies, you might find this book to be uninformative and boring. But if you want an easy read, a book of info on Sailor Mercury to keep tucked away just in case, are new to Sailor Moon and want info on the scout with the blue hair that might be your favorite, or want to collect everything Sailor Moon or Sailor Mercury in existence, then I would recommend this book to you.

CAUTION: This book may contain material that younger children shouldn't be reading. This book contains much less mature content then the other Scout Guides, but there may still be some hints and bits here and there that may not be appropriate for younger kids.

great sailor mercury scout guide.......2004-06-28

this book is a great fun-filled book with lots of pages.
like serena's snapshot gallery of amy,famous lines ,50 secrets about her,mythology,5 favourite episodes,pose gallery and lots more!one problem:the price my book was 27 dollars for each book and i got all of the scout guides.if you are australian and get this book and complain about typing errors and it is from the u.s.a it is not typing errors.in the 50 secrets part and says favourite colour they spell it favorite color. but enjoy the book!

It is good, but...........2003-07-19

What this book doesn't have is information on Ami's parents. I've always wanted to know about how she grew up, ect. Sure, we know her mother is a doctor, but how many people know that her father is divorced, and is still living today as an artist? I was very dissapointed that this information wasn't included into the book.

my fav Sailor's book.......2002-03-09

This is an okay guide... clears up info about the dub Mercury that many sites are confused about. Problems: the pictures are not in an order familiar to Americans and NO SuperS info! The good stuff: it does have episodes that were never shown in the US but are important for Sailor Mercury's story to be somewhat complete. The poems are nice and the pictures behind them are neat. The picture galleries were a very cool addition. It also gives a little information about the Roman god Mercury and other tidbits about Amy. All in all, this would be a great buy if you want to know more about Amy Anderson and Sailor Mercury, or to complete a SM collection.

A must have for every Sailor Mercury fan!.......2001-06-28

This book is a total must have for anyone who likes Sailor mercury! The book tells alot about Amy and her secrets, her life, and a little spot where she tells you what she thinks of the other scouts.

Horace (Mercury House Neglected Literary Classics)

Average customer rating:

Not light fare, but well worth it
One of George Sand's best books...

Horace (Mercury House Neglected Literary Classics)
George Sand
Manufacturer: Mercury House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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

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ASIN: 156279082X

Book Description

The first English-language edition of a major work by George Sand. Translated by the winner of the 1994 BOMC-PEN Translation Award. "A courageous work, nowadays unjustly neglected". -- Renee Winegarten "Sand develops her most advanced political, social and sexual views in this classic work". -- Feminist Bookstore News

Customer Reviews:

Not light fare, but well worth it.......2004-12-06

This is the first George Sand book I have read. I was curious about her after watching the movie "Impromptu". It was a bit of a quest to get my hands on one of her books--possibly this would not have been my first choice. Either way, I found it very interesting.

It is hard to grasp the revolutionary nature of some of the ideas she has in this book--i.e. equality of women from a modern view point. Of course much of what she is saying and observing is still quite relevant in many ways. And she has a marvelous way of saying what she does. It makes me wish I could read French well enough to read it in the original.

It was a great example of first person narrative, and Horace certainly is a character unlike any other I have encountered in a book. Eugenie is a marvelous woman as well.

One of George Sand's best books..........1999-10-11

This is a truly fantastic book. It is written in George Sand's fourth period of creativity and emphasizes on what it means to be a man. G. Sand stresses on the qualities of human nature, but she does not criticize them on the surface. She shows what would happen if people accept them.

It is worth reading for anyone who feels they do not know what they want to do with their lives!

Average customer rating:
Classic Dan Dare: Marooned on Mercury
Frank Hampson
Manufacturer: Titan Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books
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Classic Dan Dare: The Man From Nowhere (Classic Dan Dare)

ASIN: 184023847X
Release Date: 2005-04-01

Book Description

It's the best of British as, once more, Dan Dare takes to the stars in this latest volume in this legendary series!

Believed dead after they successfully saved the Earth from the threat of the Red Moon, Dan and his friends have crashed on Mercury and fallen into the hands of the rock creatures that inhabit the planet! To make matters worse, Dan's nemesis — the dreaded Mekon — is once more on his trail and Dan is again caught between a rock and a hard place!

Amazon.com

Brad Watson's The Heaven of Mercury brings fresh, sly humor to the traditionally dark genre of Southern gothic. It's the story of the small town of Mercury, Mississippi, told through the lives of various inhabitants, including a white man, Finus, and his lifelong love, Birdie; and a black girl, Creasie, and her Aunt Vish--slave descendants who see Mercury as the zone of their captivity. All over Mercury, characters dream about moments in the past when they wish they'd had the courage to change the course of their lives. Watson's (Last Days of the Dog-Men) ornate, lush prose will remind readers of Faulkner, but he has a much lighter touch. Mercury is a sad world of violent drunks, unpunished crimes, and unrequited love, but Watson's wry observations work to dispel the gloom (a strict Christian woman wears "a tight brown bun in her hair like an onion God drew forth from her mind"). The Heaven of Mercury is an ambitious work from an important voice in American fiction--a voice with a distinctly Southern accent. --Ellen Williams

Book Description

A dark, riotous Southern novel of sex, death, and transformation. Brad Watson's first novel has been eagerly awaited since his breathtaking, award-winning debut collection of short stories, Last Days of the Dog-Men. Here, he fulfills that literary promise with a humorous and jaundiced eye. Finus Bates has loved Birdie Wells since the day he saw her do a naked cartwheel in the woods in 1916. Later he won her at poker, lost her, then nearly won her again after the mysterious poisoning of her womanizing husband. Does Vish, the old medicine woman down in the ravine, hold the key to Birdie's elusive character? Or does Parnell, the town undertaker, whose unspeakable desires bring lust for life and death together? Or does the secret lie with some other colorful old-timer in Mercury, Mississippi, not such a small town anymore? A potent cocktail of Southern gothic and classical mythology, this is a novel only Brad Watson could have written—an unforgettable portrait of the most romantic aspirations and most twisted inclinations of the bleak and lovely human heart.

Customer Reviews:

"That would be that and then,not this and now.".......2006-05-05

I am very fond of Southern writing.My favotrite is Erskine Caldwell. "Tobacco Road" and "God's Little Acre" are the most well known; but he wrote about 30 other novels as well as numerous short stories.Tennessee Williams and Faulkner are also high on my favorite list. When I saw this book ,the title really didn't grab my attention,what caught my eye was the line at the top of the book;"As mystic and miraculous as Faulkner and Marquez. A novel so fine you don't want it to ever end."
That is a pretty big claim,and because of my love of the earthy southern way of life,I just couldn't pass it by.
Well,what a pleasant surprise.I loved the book and I wholeheartedly agree ;I didn't want it to end either.
Watson has a wonderful skill of observation and a fantastic ability to describe people and their thinking,desires,fears
hopes,and all other aspects of living and their relations with one another as they go about their trials and tribulations of everyday living.
Either he has an unusual imagination,or he has molded his characters in part or whole on people he has known. I suspect it is a combination of both. Anyway,his writing is so convincing ,that one actually gets the feeling that Mercury and these salt of the earth people are real.
As I read the book,I found myself pauseing and trying to visualize the people,scenes,buildings,cemetary,and on and on.I have often wished that the author of a novel like this would include photos of real people that would portray his characters.Also pictures portraying buildings,vehicles,etc.
"Gone With the Wind",that great Southern novel,might be used as an example.When I think of that movie ;it is the vision of of Scarlet,Ashley,Butler,Pitipatand all the scenes like the hospital,the mansion,the burning of Atlanta,from the film that give such reality to the story.
Overall,I found this a great Southern novel and I fully intend to read more of Watson's writings.
How about this for great writing?
"Poisons invented by the white folks.Black folks don't need no poisons.
Why's that?
Well,sir,she said,we got the white folks,poison enough.Then she bared her gums,gave that little wheezy laugh.I reckon I can say that nowadays,cain't I.
I reckon you can say whatever you want to.
She nodded.
Ain't always been the case."

Subtle storytelling, gorgeous prose.......2004-01-28

Many of the negative reviews here seem focused on the disjointed narrative or - unbelievably - a supposed lack of plot. Perhaps those readers would be better served by the latest Patricia Cornwell novel, complete with inciting incident, rising action, climax, etc., all told in linear fashion, each event telegraphed to the reader by the event before it. I don't doubt that these same readers struggled through "plotless" books like The Sound and the Fury or Joseph Heller's Something Happened.

Watson is a subtle storyteller who reveals the truth about his characters through a few well-chosen stories from their lives, each rendered in pitch-perfect prose. He does not feel compelled to give us a summation of each character's entire life history, nor does he show us the entire internal world of every person in the book, and for that he is beaten up by readers who apparently are unfamiliar with Hemingway's iceberg principle.
As to the charge that the relationship between a black housemaid and her employer was drawn without subtlety, nothing could be further from the truth. If anything, this was one of the most nuanced and deeply-felt examples of human connection (or lack thereof) in the novel.
Most of the readers who lambasted the story in the novel at least gave Watson credit for his brilliant writing style, so I won't add anything there.
If you treasure southern literature, stories of abiding love, or ruminations on life, death and the hereafter, order this book now.

If this is heaven, give me hell.......2004-01-10

What do you say about a book whose crowning literary moment is the description of an 89-year-old man taking a dump in the bathroom? Then there's this lovely image of a horse: "A long, slow fart flabbered from the proud black lips of Dan's hole, and the smoke from it too trailed off in the air." Curiously, intellectuals praise The Heaven of Mercury for how it "illumines every accurate detail" and delivers "just-right words."

The Heaven of Mercury is part love story, part murder mystery, and part taste of the South. These parts combine into a dull and dreary text. The love story offers no payoff to the reader. The murder mystery fails outright. It is so loosely developed, there are no clues for the reader to pick up. In the end the omniscient narrator just tells some back story to explain the mystery. As for the taste of the South, it is bland at best.

The Heaven of Mercury does make a solid showing as a feminist text. In this book the men are weak, the women are strong.

Finally, The Heaven of Mercury is yet another example of how the academic mind disdains plot. Here the story is not told in a linear fashion. A character who dies in one chapter may be alive in the next. This book of 333 pages piddles along to a dubious crescendo (the bathroom scene) near page 200, then for the next 133 pages the author fills in gaps left by the first 200 pages.

INTERESTING AND WELL DONE.......2003-11-22

Wonderful discriptive writing. It takes a bit to get use to the author's syntax and punctuation peculiarities, but once you get over that, it is rather fun and refreshing. This work does have it's own rhythm and I rather like that. I like the way the author has take very "ordinary" people, and told a story, proving again, that there is merit and a tale in every life. I suppose many may be a bit put off as the the fact that the characters are not all that different from you and me, but that is one of the strong point of the work, I feel. I could not find one character in the book, that I have not meet in "real life" and that was kind of nice. I highly recommend this read and hope we get more of the same.

Wonderful descriptive power but..........2003-05-30

This author, a creative writing instructor, hits the jackpot with his luscious descriptive ability. That is almost, but not quite, enough to carry the reader happily through the convoluted and generally boring lives of his main characters, Finus and Birdie. In regards to form, Mr. Watson's interesting insistence on omitting quotation makes the dialogue refresing, thoug a little difficult to follow, and on at least one occasion I read two entire pages before I could figure out which character the narrative was about. In retrospect, a semi-satisfying work that needs a real story line and decent conflict resolution rather than just petering out in the end when everybody get around to dying.

Fantastic Tales (Mercury House Neglected Literary Classics)

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Fantastic Tales (Mercury House Neglected Literary Classics)
Iginio Ugo Tarchetti
Manufacturer: Mercury House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Complete Sylvie and Bruno (Mercury House Neglected Literary Classics)

Average customer rating:

If you could give 6 stars, this book would have it!

The Complete Sylvie and Bruno (Mercury House Neglected Literary Classics)
Lewis Carroll
Manufacturer: Mercury House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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Customer Reviews:

If you could give 6 stars, this book would have it!.......1998-12-19

This book is my all time favorite book! In the beginning it's a little hard to follow, but keep reading and you're hooked! I love how the childern are the stars of the book. The way Bruno talks is soo cute! This book touches on very natural things, but it presents them in a wonderfully different view. It has a feel to it that no other book has. The plot is there, but it's very vague so that the book is very relaxed and open-minded. If you like Sylvie and Bruno, Sylvie and Bruno Concluded is a must! My favorite part of the book is how wonderfully it concludes and leaves you perfectly content, yet a little bit of wonder still lingers. From all angles, this book is one of a kind!

Gender, Society and Print Culture in Late Stuart England: The Cultural World of the Athenian Mercury (Women and Gender in the Early Modern World)

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Gender, Society and Print Culture in Late Stuart England: The Cultural World of the Athenian Mercury (Women and Gender in the Early Modern World)
Helen M. Berry
Manufacturer: Ashgate Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0754604969

The Getting of Wisdom (Mercury House Neglected Literary Classics)

Average customer rating:

An Australian Rebel

The Getting of Wisdom (Mercury House Neglected Literary Classics)
Henry Handel Richardson
Manufacturer: Mercury House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1562790420

Customer Reviews:

An Australian Rebel.......2000-08-11

I remember reading this book as a teenager, and thinking, "Yes, I understand!" every time the heroine, Laura, found herself at odds with the relentless conformity of school society. Set at a turn-of-the-century boarding school in Melbourne, Australia, "the Getting of Wisdom" is a classic tale of a girl who thinks for herself and, thus, is forever out of step with both her society and her classmates. Laura tries desperately to fit in, but never quite does. Still, in the end, the reader is sure that Laura will be the one to soar high in life -- not her more conventional peers. As Richardson says, "She could not know then, even for the squarest peg, the right hole may ultimately be found; seeming unfitness prove to be only another aspect of a peculiar and special fitness." Almost 100 years old, the book's message is still fresh today, which is why Richardson is considered one of Australia's greatest novelists.

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