I'm not a casual reader. I have voraciously studied literature extensively during my life and I'm the only person I know that has read The Canterbury Tales for fun. I have been trying for a month now to read this little volume and I'm having a very difficult time maintaining interest. I wish I had read it during a college class to have the guidance of a professor enamored with Ms. Woolfe and the discussion of an interested class to give the novel perspective. I have enjoyed many of Ms. Woolfe's works long before the recent film notoriety, Orlando being a favorite, but I can't seem to immerse myself in the world of Jacob Flanders and have it make any sense at all.

This is the first Virginia Woolf book I've read and I can see why she is ranked as a great writer. Her writing is very dense and the prose reads like poetry. She writes Jacob's Room in the stream of consciousness style, like Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce. The stream tends to meander all over the lot, so just go with the flow. The reader hears snippets of conversation and characters come and go. We learn about Jacob Flanders, but in little bits, here and there, the way you learn about people in real life. The reader never knows what's going on inside Jacob's head. You observe Jacob the way you would in real life: from the outside. Size him up for yourself.

The novel is set around World War I and Jacob Flanders (FLANDERS, as in Flanders' Field--World War I's killing field) is one of that Lost Generation. The novel is dark, questioning the futility of life, but the language is beautiful and the emotion is stabbingly true. Definitely read it, but have something more chipper around to read afterward, lest you brood too much.

Some say that as we grow up,
we become different people at different ages.
but I don¡¯t believe this.
I think we remain the same throughout,
merely passing in these years from one room to another,
but always in the same house.
If we unlock the rooms of the far past,
We can look in and see ourselves
Beginning to become you and me.
Do you know where you were born? Yes, most probably in a room. Do you remember where you were brought up? Uh-huh, in most cases, in a room. Do you have any idea where you are going to die? Of course, most people would wish to be in a room. Dust we are, to dust we shall return (Gen. 3.19). Once dusty us get the passport of landing on this planet, the majority of our fellow earth citizens march to our another biological inevitability under the shelter of different rooms, like the snails. Fortunately, most of us will not realize this human bondage; besides, we take it for granted that freedom is something tangible like the apples in a tree. We can get it as long as we try and retry. Unfortunately, some of us are sensible enough to feel the invisible bars, so they resort to literature and presume that they could be set free in another world. Most unfortunately, they merely step from one cage to another. I am not saying the authors are evil-intentioned. Far from it. They just unconsciously lead us to a special room of their own.
Here are two examples to give the readers a vague idea what these rooms are like. Entering Dicken¡¯s room, one would be at once fascinated by the kaleidoscopic scenes in it. The tiniest turn would present the readers with a fabulous show on our life stage. Here we see happy smiles, weeping faces, regretful looks and clenching fists. No matter how dark the room might be sometimes, we would always see four big letters on the walls---HOPE. Isn¡¯t that what we live on and live for?
Then, in a hopeful mood, we gracefully knock open Woolf¡¯ Jacob¡¯s Room. All of a sudden, we find ourselves in the strangest place we have ever stepped in. EMPTY. That is the impression we get at the first sight. Where is Woolf? She has disappeared from the door silently. When our eyes get used to the light in the room, we only figure out some dim stuff on the walls. ¡°Listless is the air in an empty room¡±(Woolf 37). Some people leave the room at once in a rage: ¡°What is it all about!¡± Some of them linger for a while. Finally they shout exultantly: ¡° I see, I see. There IS a portrait of a gentleman on the wall. Some women surround him. Wow! What a romantic painting!!¡± Satisfied, they go out. Only a few left at this moment. They have been standing there for a long time in the same pose as if they had been frozen. Their eyes are glued on the walls and their gaze conveys a shocked and frightened meaning. What do they see? A monster? An accident? Or a turbulence? No, but more than that. They see life---AS WHAT IT IS. Where is Woolf? She is silently smiling behind the door.
What should they do? Run out of this room to another? No use. The next-door room is similar. Keep running? No way. This sort of room design is a fashion on this floor. A moment later, someone hear a terrible cry from the rooftop. Someone has chosen to meet his dusty ending earlier. Is ignorance really a bliss? Should we ignore what is real just because it is cruel and painful? Is that an escapist¡¯s motive? Not really. In one of Harry Potter¡¯s adventures---The Socerer¡¯s Stone, there is a magic tree. Once one falls in its tangled branches, no matter how hard he struggles, he will never be able to get out. The only way of getting rid of its hold is to---relax. If one relaxes his whole body as if nothing were around him, he will be set free at once. Those who did not go in Jacob¡¯s room do not need to regret for what they have lost, because they might regret more if they had. Those who went but saw nothing special are lucky, because they have spared themselves a later sting. As for those who did see what Woolf intended to show, frankly speaking, they have fallen into those messy branches then and there. To relax or not to relax? That is the question. Relaxation seems impossible and ridiculous at such a confusing, painful and struggling moment. How can we possible forget what we have seen and felt? However, the harder we fight with the branches, the faster we will sink. Therefore, better stop thinking further before being devoured. The human bondage is merely invisible. If we spare the trouble of reminding ourselves of its existence 365 times a year, we will be as happy as one could possible be. Down with those rooms! After all, there is only one room we wish to guard and cherish with our life---the chamber of our hearts.
Where is Woolf now? She has gone back to a room or her own, leaving us a room with a view.

"Dr. Faustus," the play by 16th century writer Christopher Marlowe, has been published as part of the Dover Thrift Edition series. The brief introduction to this version notes that the play was first published in 1604, and also discusses its relationship to a German text from 1587 known as the "Faustbuch." In his play Marlowe tells the story of the title character, a scholar who is "swollen with cunning." Faust dabbles in the dark arts of "magicians / And necromantic books," and literally makes a deal with the devil. These actions drive the tragedy forward.

This play is a curious mixture of Christian theology, tragedy, slapstick comedy, and colorful pageantry. It moves along fast, and contains some really beautiful and stately language.

"Dr. Faustus" is ultimately a cautionary tale about human pride and ambition. I must admit that in the end I find it less satisfying than some of the other great tragedies of the Elizabethan era, perhaps because this play relies less on universal human issues than on a culturally-bound theological contrivance. Still, it's a noteworthy play that, I believe, still holds relevance for contemporary audiences. ...

Not everybody knows Faust(us). But a lot do. Most readers know this tragic personnage who allied himself with the devil and finally paid the price for his betrayal of God from a famous play written by J.W. Goethe. It was him who wrote the most famous version of Faust's history. (If you want to know more about Goethe's work, please visit my reviewer page.) But he wasn't the only dramatist who considered this lost magician worth a tragedy. Exactly 2 centuries and 1 year before Goethe published his work, a play by the Englishman Christopher Marlowe saw the light of the world.

Marlowe and Goethe are different personalities living in completely different times so that it's no wonder their plays vary in character. Goethe lived in prosperity and had all his life to think about subjects like human nature, social relationships, history and its influence on the present, love, religion and much more. He was a philosoph, and that's the reason why Goethe's "Faust" is sometimes difficult to understand because you have to dive under the surface of things to understand their true nature. Marlowe's work is different: This man was certainly very intelligent and knew a lot about the forces that moved the world, but, unlike Goethe, he didn't have a lifetime to think about one single play. You can imagine that Marlowe's "Faust" became more shallow, but still not shallow enough to be ignored by this imaginary institution we call World Literature. As a compensation, Marlowe's work contains more life and action in it, something I can't say about Goethe's. Both men were geniuses. In this review, I'd like to pay my tribute to the Englishman.

As stated above, the play tells the story of a medieval scientist who allies himself with the devil. The latter promises to serve the first in this world, whereas Faust must do the same in hell. The poor doctor doubts his choices because it's his soul being sold, still he follows the devil and has the time of his life. I beg your pardon, for I feel the need to return to Goethe to show you another important difference between both versions: Whereas Marlowe's Faust wants the devil to provide him with fun and all richness of the world (materialism), Goethe's alter ego feels the importance to be educated by the devil to get a complete picture of the world. At the end, Marlowe's Faust realizes that all experiences weren't worth his soul. He begs God to save him, but it is no longer possible. The devil tears his body apart and takes his soul with him to infinite sufferings.

The effect this play had on me was tremedous. Fascinated, I watched Faust's development. I particularly liked the 5th act where he realizes that all is finally lost. You can really feel his pain in those scenes; the effect is unbelievable.

So, if you want to be touched by human tragedy, I really advise you to read this book. It's done very quickly, so you needn't worry about the time it takes. If you want to make a step further and find additional material on Faust, read Goethe's "Faust 1" as well as Thomas Mann's "Doctor Faustus". It's a marvelous novel and the most modern narration based on the medieval German scientist named Johann(es) Faust(us).

I, like many English majors, was assigned this play for my English Lit I class thinking it would be more of an exercise than anything else. I was pleasantly taken off guard. I was surprised about how well I could relate to or at least empathize with the character of Faustus, in a play written hundreds of years ago.
Marlowe has a great sense of style in his writing which was ahead of his time, rivialing Shakespeare historically though slightly predating him. He shows a great sense conflict and tension throughout the plot and characters who are very much architypical of the human condition; the quest for forbidden fruit, dealing with own's own need to conquer, lust for greed, exhibiting vanity (the other of the seven deadly sins make appearances) and so on. There is a religious undertone to the play which is easy enough to follow without having much knowledge of Christianity, this play is easy to enjoy without considering much of the religious dogma which was inserted as a guide for the audience of the time.
Perhaps what is most interesting about the play is Marlowe's use of black humor as the reader will find that there is much comic relief spread throughout the play (mostly through other characters mocking Faustus in ways unbeknowst to him, and you yourself may be laughing alongside of them.) Marlowe's style could arguably be seen as a significant influence on Monty Python and other British comedies going back as far as Shakespeare. The play is very much in the vein of what we might consider modern day 'British humor'; dark, often bleak, obsurd, hysterical.
Dr. Faustus doesn't take long to read, is highly entertaining, and you may even get something extra from it by examing your own moral tendencies. Without a doubt the best piece of literature I've read last semester.

We all had to go through the drudgery of PDE's in undergraduate courses and except if you're a math major your knowledge of the methods of solution will probably stop at separation of variables, Laplace transform and D'Alembert. This book is an excellent review of a host of methods for solution but what is more important is the physical interpretation of the PDE's the author insists on. Most of the physical examples are drawn from the fields of heat and mechanics but they can be easily applied to electromagnetic and semiconductor charge transport problems. Every aspiring senior in an engineering discipline should study this book for his own good.

As the title implies, this book is not intended to mathematicians, although it could finely serve as additional text for them, too. On the other hand it is excellent as an itroductory overview of the types of PDE's met and the methods used for their solution. There are references to more advanced texts for the interested, excercises in each chapter and, most importantly, nice, qualitative remarks on the properties of mathematical tools (like Fourier and Laplace transform) which help the reader to comprehend them.

The strength of this book is its organization. It is all you need to understand and use PDEs. Dont waste your money on other books. This is the best intro there is...

I first ran into Charlotte Perkins Gilman because of the title story in this collection, "The Yellow Wallpaper" which she wrote originally as a sort of cautionary tale--don't let this happen to you! It is an unsettling story which stays with the reader. A woman ordered to take the "rest cure" finally dives over the edge into insanity.

Gilman's stories are most often didactic, that is, they have a clear message. She is a first rate story teller. These are fascinating tales about real human beings, like a well-traveled great aunt might have told about traveling across the plains in a covered wagon.

Town gossips sit around sharing scandal with the new lady school teacher in "The Unnatural Mother." The reader is in on the irony almost immediately, that the mother in question is a heroine, a woman well ahead of her time in her child-raising practices and her willingness to sacrifice for the public good. To the locals she's plain unnatural.

These stories are great fun... quirky, ironic, satirical. They were way ahead of their time politically and socially, promoting family relationships, childcare, and responsibility in a non-preachy and dramatic (and often funny) manner. Perhaps that's why they don't feel dated. Gilman might be happy with the way things have gone in the 20th century; her stories still speak to the modern reader.

The Yellow Wallpaper and other stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a wonderful compilation of feminist short stories. The first story, The Yellow Wallpaper reminds us, even today, that a woman who allows herself to become dominated to the point where her talents are suppresed can made herself a prisoner of her own creativity. The protagonist,much like Gilman, has a "nervous disorder." Unlike Gilman, who wrote her way out of the "disorder" the "wife" is not allowed to write and thus must sneak her writing, much like an alcoholic. Eventually, the wallpaper invades her space to the point of madness. Other stories point up other women's issues, such as Three Thanksgivings, in which the women save themselves via a business adventure, which is similar to Making a Change, in which a mother's anxiety and depression are alleviated by following her true creative urges and an older woman's losses are alleviated by her ability to nurture. The Cottagette was a light-hearted romp into the problems women create for themselves and how a too-good-to-be-true suitor helps out his beloved. Turned is an interesting story of what happens when a man makes a wrong move in the presence of a strong woman! Last but not least, Mr. Peebles Heart is an interesting story of a fiftyish shopkeeper. For $1.00, this book is a highly recommended find for those that enjoy feminist literature. I happen to be one of those so I have given it a "10."END

I was 15 when I first read this book. I was awkward and unhappy. The book hit something inside of me and wrenched sympathy from me. It was unbelievable how much oppressed women writers were in the 19th century. The central character in the Yellow wallpaper was trapped behind a cage of propriety, carefully manufactured and sold by society. Her writings were "destructive" and were dangerous to the accepted norm. When she couldn't write, she couldn't live. Her madness was a direct reaction against her entrapment. She was someone who simply couldn't live without writing. I would highly recommend this book to any reader. It is tragic, beautiful and maddening.

a good read, but can be confusing for kids. It takes a while to comprehend all of the Shakespearian langauge, but is very interesting. It is boring at parts.

The Winter's Tale is a lot of things: heart-breaking, exhilerating, funny, beautiful, romantic, profound, etc. Yeah, it's all here. This is one of the bard's best plays, and I can't believe they don't teach this in schools. Of course, the ones they teach are excellent, but I can see high school kids enjoying this one a lot more than some of those others (Othello, King Lear).

The story is, of course, brilliant. King Leontes goes into a jealous rage at the beginning against his wife Hermione. Leontes is very mistaken in his actions, and the result is tragic. Shakespeare picks the story back up sixteen years later with the children, and the story works to a really, really surprising end of bittersweet redemption.

This is one of Shakespeare's bests. The first half is a penetrating and devestating, but the second half shows a capacity for salvation from the depths of despair. Also, this being Shakespeare, the blank verse is gorgeous and the characters are well drawn, and the ending is a surprise unparalleled in the rest of his plays. The Winter's Tale is a truly profound and entertaining read.

The Winter's Tale contains some of the most technically difficult solutions to telling a story that have ever appeared in a play. If you think you know all about how a play must be constructed, read The Winter's Tale. It will greatly expand your mind.

The play opens near the end of a long visit by Polixenes, the king of Bohemia, to the court of his childhood friend, Leontes, the king of Sicily. Leontes wants his friend to stay one more day. His friend declines. Leontes prevails upon his wife, Hermione, to persuade Polixenes. Hermione does her husband's bidding, having been silent before then. Rather than be pleased that she has succeeded, Leontes goes into a jealous rage in which he doubts her faithfulness. As his jealousy grows, he takes actions to defend his misconceptions of his "abused" honor that in fact abuse all those who have loved him. Unable to control himself, Leontes continues to pursue his folly even when evidence grows that he is wrong. To his great regret, these impulsive acts cost him dearly.

Three particular aspects of the play deserve special mention. The first is the way that Shakespeare ties together actions set 16 years apart in time. Although that sounds like crossing the Grand Canyon in a motorcycle jump, Shakespeare pulls off the jump rather well so that it is not so big a leap. The second is that Shakespeare captures entirely different moods from hilarious good humor to deep depression and remorse closely adjacent to one another. As a result, the audience is able to experience many more emotions than normally are evoked in a single play. Third, the play's final scene is as remarkable a bit of writing as you can imagine. Read it, and marvel!

After you finish reading this play, think about where your own loss of temper has had bad consequences. How can you give yourself time to get under control before acting rashly? How can you learn to be more open to positive interpretations of events, rather than dark and disturbing ones?

Love first, second, and always!

We're all familiar with the dramatic device of the "play within a play" from Shakespeare (for instance, the device is used in Hamlet). But Nobel Laureate Luigi Pirandello had a specific use for the concept; he wanted to demonstrate the fine line that separates reality and fiction. He did so most famously in the play Six Characters in Search of an Author.

The play opens with a theater company getting ready to begin a rehearsal. As the director tries to bring some order to the proceedings, six people walk in off of the street looking for an author. They want someone to dramatize their sordid true life story. The tale that they unfold is in fact so melodramatic that the director has his troupe start acting out the six characters and repeating their lines. Meanwhile, the six quibble with the actors' interpretations and with the reproduced dialogue and even argue with the director over whether it is possible or appropriate for anyone other than the six to play themselves.

The premise and structure of the play are amusing and thought provoking. One can only imagine how Pirandello would react to the permutations we see spun out today with reality tv and instant tv movies based on real events, even those we've all just witnessed on live tv like the OJ trial. In fact, just recently on the X-Files, Scully and Mulder were working with a police force which was being filmed for the live action show COPS. Fictional characters pretending to be on a "real" show, but the players on the "real" show are fictional for this episode... He would have loved it. But ultimately the actual content of this play seems to be totally superfluous. The ingenious set up is the whole point and so it ends up resembling one of those Saturday Night Live skits that doesn't know when enough is enough. It all makes for an interesting thought experiment but a somewhat tedious, though blessedly brief, drama.

GRADE: C+

There are actors preparing for a Pirandello play, when they get interrupted but six characters. Leading the six characters, the father steps up to inform them they are looking for an author and explains that the author hasn't fully brought them to life yet. The manager tries to kick them out when he is intrigued in the story they start describing.

The play starts to take its twists when the father encourages his wife to leave him for his secretary because he has gotten bored with her over the years. The mother leaves the father with the eldest son. The mother starts a new family with the man, having three children. The father starts to miss her, and seeks out the children in order to reach her. The other man eventually moves away from the city with the family and the father loses track of them. After, the other man dies the mother returns to the city with the children. She gets a job in Madame Pace's dress shop, unaware that Madame Pace is more interested in using her daughter as a prostitute. The father arrives at the dress shop and that's where it starts to get good...

The sense of tragedy and disillusion showed through in his work because of his personal experiences. In 1894, at the age of 27, he married a young woman who he never met. His parents arranged the marriage, Antonietta Portulano, the daughter of his father's business partner. Antonietta's mother had died in childbirth because of her father's insane jealousy that wouldn't allow a doctor in during the birth. Antonietta suffered a mental breakdown and became so violent that she should have been institutionalized. Pirandello kept her at home for seventeen years, terrorizing him and his three children. Their daughter was so troubled by her mother's illness that she tried to commit suicide. She failed when the old revolver failed to fire. His wife's illness played a great role in his work, contributing to the theme of madness, illusion, and isolation.

I highly enjoyed reading this story because of its turns and twists. It kept me intent because of it's abrupt turns. When the whole prostitution scene came in, I was caught off gaurd and it made the book so much more entertaining. Also, Pirandello's style of naturalism is creative but a little odd.. Luigi had a strange upbringing and a crazy wife, but his work is so warped and disillusioned that you find it very entertaining. To better understand the sporadic behavior of the characters and the novel itself, you need to read about Luigi Pirandello himself. I am one of those people who don't like to read a thousand-paged books-containing 30+pages in a chapter. This novel is short and sweet, but so good that I wanted to keep reading. For, the past year I haven't found to many novels that I've cared for, but I highly recommend reading this book. Preferably recommending to people that are open to new and random things, and if you have a bit of a twisted or normal sense of humor I guarantee you'll love it! I'm always open to any kind of novel and this one caught my attention and I actually enjoyed reading something for one!

Luigi Pirandello's "Six Characters in Search of an Author" premiered in Rome in 1921 to audience shouts of "Maricomio!" ("Madhouse!"). Perhaps few of the theatregoers realized that the "madhouse" they had witnessed was a watershed in the history of drama. While many of the innovations of "Six Characters" may now seem commonplace, Pirandello's innovative, iconoclastic masterpiece marked a break from traditional dramatic structures and stage settings, a break which enabled twentieth century drama to develop along self-reflective imaginative lines much different than its predecessors. As Eric Bentley, the play's translator, notes in his introduction to this edition, "this was the first play ever written in which the boards of the theatre did not symbolize and represent some other place, some other reality."

"Six Characters" is set in a theatre where a director, his stage manager and a group of actors are about to rehearse another of Pirandello's plays, "The Rules of the Game". The curtain is up, the stage is empty of props and background, and the lights illuminate the bare wall at the back of the stage. It is an austere setting, a kind of theatrical analogue to the blank sheet of paper an author faces each day he sits down to write.

Suddenly, this austerity, this mundane theatrical rehearsal, is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of six characters--a father, a mother, a son, a stepdaughter, a boy, and a little girl. They are six characters who have lives, who have stories to tell, but whose dramatic text has not been written. They need an author. As Pirandello says in his 1925 introduction to the play: "Every creature of fantasy and art, in order to exist, must have his drama, that is, a drama in which he may be a character and for which he is a character. This drama is the character's raison d'etre, his vital function, necessary for his existence."

The play proceeds, with the six characters relating fragmentary scenes of incidents in their lives, scenes which are accompanied by commentary, quarrels, dialogue, and interaction among the characters and between the characters and the actors. A kind of theatrical hall of mirrors, the actors who view these characters become, in effect, an audience. The actors are also, however, the actors who will be called upon to play the parts of the six characters in the dramatic text which is being created in their presence. For these actors and these characters, the stage becomes more real than the world.

"Six Characters in Search of an Author" is a remarkable work of imagination, both in its structure and its dialogue. It is comic and absurd, tragic and ponderous. The play is a work of original genius; the text (like its characters) is open to multiple interpretations and meanings. As one character says, in an appropriate Pirandellian bit of dialogue: "[t]herein lies the drama . . . in my awareness that each of us thinks of himself as one but that, well, it's not true, each of us is many, oh so many, according to the possibilities that are in us."

This thin edition, containing only a few of Kafka's short stoires, seems unlikely to cause the powerfully disturbing reactions that it brings out in its readers. In his story "The Metamorphosis," Kafka writes a tale of how a salesman turns into a bug overnight. As unlikely as this situation sounds, Kafka succeeds in making the situation seem real by going into extreme detail about both the physical and emotional effects of the character's metamorphosis. Although logic prevents anyone from actually believing they may turn into a bug, readers can still relate to the common emotions of the story, of being alienated and unwanted, of being a cumbersme burden unto others. The other stories in the edition are equally engaging and disturbing in their realistic, sometimes frightful descriptions.

Don't be fooled by the scant 80 pages in this book...it is a powerful collection of stories. Metamorphosis is truly an amazing short story, about the priority shift of a man who has found himself stuck in the body of a bug. Like most of his other pieces, Kafka deals primarily with the mind, using the despairing feelings of his characters to reach the reader. The other stories, "In the Penal Colony," "A Country Doctor" and others, are equally powerful and equally disturbing, and I recommend this book to anyone interested in reading contemporary classics.

"Look, I'm a Bug!" No, no, no... the plight of Gregor Samsa as he awoke as a beetle is no laughing matter. In this tidy little Dover edition, Kafka's famous short story breathes of the futility and alienation men face, and the fear in the midst of it all.

"The Metamorphosis and Other Stories" is worth every penny.

The beauty of the Dover edition is the ability to sample Kafka, rather than indulge in a complete works. He is not for everyone, but at such an inexpensive price, you'll get to taste his style and complex ideas.

Note that there are several stories here, including the oddly-styled one paragraph "A Country Doctor," which effectively challenges the view of common man of the almost godlike pedestal we put doctors on.

Stories include:
The Judgment
The Metamorphosis
In a Penal Colony
A Country Doctor
A Report to an Academy

I fully recommend "The Metamorphosis and Other Stories" by Franz Kafka. The price can't be beat, and would make a great addition to a larger Amazon purchase.

Anthony Trendl

Edith Nesbit is a charming writer. She tells her story with wit and humour, and interjects sly digs that engender a wink and a smile, but while the premise is timeless and interesting, the prose is extremely dated, making the book a bit tedious to read for any length of time. Also, the ideas and prejudices exhibited by the characters date the material.

The five siblings of the title, who have found a Sand-fairy willing to grant them one wish a day, continually make silly wishes that get them into trouble. Their first wish is to be "as beautiful as the day". Right there you get a sense of the book's outdated charm. This is of interest more as a tribute to a talented children's writer of a bygone era rather than for its own sake.

I wanted to enjoy this classic, but I found it hard slogging through. That is just my opinion, however, but I'd suggest you read a bit of the text before purchasing it unless you're already familiar with, or particularly interested in, author Nesbit.

Caveat: The occasional black-and-white line drawings are by H.R. Millar, not the Paul Zelinsky watercolors promised in the Editorial Reviews section.

This book is about Cyril, Anthea, Robert, Jane, and their baby brother who discover a Psammead,
or Sand-fairy, who agrees to grant the children one wish per day.
Soon, their wishes start to turn quite unlike what they expected.
Then, an accidental wish has terrible consequences, and the kids
are faced with a hard choice: to let an innocent man be charged
with a crime, or to lose their gift of magical wishes.

I read this book in one day, and I thought it was pretty good.
This book turned out to be fairly interesting.
I would probably read "Five Children and It" again.

This 1902 fantasy, a gift from my parents when I was in fourth or fifth grade, features an irritable Psammead whom Cyril, Anthea, Robert, Jane, and their baby brother dig up in a sand pit. Then the magic begins. The sand-fairy does not like granting wishes, and his misshapen body with bat's ears and snail's eyes bloats when he does. The wishes, lasting only until sunset, all take unexpected, funny turns.

The sand-fairy and other personalities and Victorian details render the magic entirely real-world, believable. This was my favorite children's book and I relived the delight when I found a copy to share with my own children. That this volume is illustrated by one of my favorite people from one of my favorite families triples the delight.

The book is too challenging for independent reading for children under 10, but it's a great read-aloud for small children, as are the classics of Frank Baum, E.B. White and C.S. Lewis.

Edith Nesbit was like J. K. Rowling a single mother in need of a means to support her children. Her books in their era were as popular as Harry Potter in this one. Some of her observations are surprisingly humane. Nesbit's treatment of a clan of Gypsies, for example, transcends the deep prejudice of her time. Not to worry, the book is not preachy or teachy. It's just grand, eloquent fun. Alyssa A. Lappen

This is one of the greatest books I have ever read. I know that many people don't like to read essays of any kind, but all I can say is that Ralph Waldo Emerson is simply different! Nobody has the gift to write essays and analyze life like him.

His words and ideas are so powerful and deep that we soon realize that they didn't come only from a brilliant mind, but also from a warm-hearted soul!

That's exactly what this book is about: Its sentences break through your brain and penetrate right into your soul! Emerson's optimistic view on human beings and life can only reinforce our courage in mankind and, especially, in ourselves!

What else can I say? His speech is direct, he defends all the good values, tell us to have confidence in ourselves and show us that passing through life with dignity is a matter of choice and courage, and that it simply doesn't change with time. It was like this a thousand years ago, it will probably follow the same rules a thousand years f! ! rom now.

This is the book I grab to comfort my spirit when I'm having difficult times... :) It is a guide that make us believe that anything is possible when we really want it! " Self-Reliance ", one of the essays inside this book, is a masterpiece in its own and I believe it should be studied in every high school, instead some of the crap we are usually obliged to read!

This book can shape your spirit and your mind. It is also possibly THE BEST self-help book you could ever own and, yet, a great literary work.

I would rate this book as ageless and I'm sure the future generations will be still interested in it, in the same way we are in those ancient Greek and Roman texts.

This is precious culture and food for your soul as a bargain! Do not waste more time. READ IT!!!

At a mere buck (eighty cents after Amazon's discount!) this book should be owned, and more importantly, read, by every single American -- no, every person who can read English. It is profound and brilliant, and deep and complex enough that you will discover something new each time you read it. People say those sorts of things about books all the time but with this book it's actually true. If only the ideas of Emerson, Thoreau, and their group had been widely accepted, we would live in a very different, and I think much better, country.

P.S. Maybe it's just me, but I tend to be skeptical of reviews by people who use words like 'cognitive' without knowing what they mean.

Emerson and Thoreau are THE two greatest writers regarding transcendentalism in American Literature. Emerson is a genius according to his own definition and the ideas he presents are truly part of what it means to be an American. He preaches to us about self-reliance, basically saying that if we want to make it, if we want to be geniuses in our own niche, if we want to succeed, it needs to come from inside of us. It cannot be from anyone else. These traits define the American. The American is self-reliant. He succeeds on his own. He builds his own dream, and despite impossible odds, succeeds. It is no coincidence that the most stories of rags to riches, 1 week millionaires, and overnight successes are of Americans. The language he uses is beautiful, and simply stated (yet complex in the number of ideas expressed in each word). For these reasons, some people may find it a hard read. I had to read it two or three times myself. But I assure you, the knowledge gained from this book is worth it, and truly gives one deep insight into the power of the self. Therefore, I give this book 5 stars. Emerson paints such a vivid picture of an American trait, that this book has already become an American classic, and thus I believe it should be made an essential component of every American Library.

When you are reading the play you feel like in a dream The play both contains romantic and anti-romantic attitudes. William Shakespeare stimulates the imagination of the spectator by fantastic contrasts and the creation of an exotic fairy world. The main theme of the play is the love among different persons". Like there are four groups of persons, there are four different plots which weave together: First, the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta, second, the love-adventures of Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius and Helena, third, the quarrel between Oberon and Titania and last but not least the rehearsals and the performance of Bottom and the Athenian workmen of the play of "Pyramus and Thisby". At the beginning of the play it wasn't very simple to see through the four different plots and the language was sometimes very difficult to understand, but it's nevertheless a nice play you should really know! I think Shakespeare has put a symbolism into that play. The movement of the scenes could mean that the actors leave the real world for a short time, and enter in a dream world, to solve their problems there and come back, when all problems are solved.

I won't tell the whole plot of the play, for then I'll be destroying the mystery. I'll just say a tiny bit of the story so one will get the idea:

1. Hermia and Lysander elope to get married, Demetrius follows them because he desperately loves Hermia and Helena follows Demetrius because he's the man of her dreams. All end up in a forrest.

2. King Oberon and Queen Titania have a fight over a child, and Oberon wants revenge. Plus, he decides to help a certain couple he saw in the forrest.

3. Peter Quince and his play fellows, along with the arrogant and conceited Bottom, are going to perform a play, and they chose to practice in the same forrest.

Bottom line: Puck, Oberon's servant, messes everything up.

What happens? What is the connection made between these 3 groups? Like I said, I'll not tell. ;> All I'm going to tell is that the play is worth a read. Magic, confusion, love, hate, revenge, mischance, proudness, friendship, joy, sadness, everything are all rolled into one (typical by Shakespeare).

So, looking for a good and comic read by Shakespeare? Read this one and enjoy.

This is a fabulous edition for anyone who just wants to get to the meat of the story. It's small, very portable, cheap, and doesn't waste a whole lot of time on introductions. The story itself is fairly well known. I would reccomend _Much Ado About Nothing_ for those who enjoy _Midsummer_'s light-hearted comedy and are willing to explore some of the themes a bit more deeply and seriously.