While Wilson's book is an interesting and worthwhile read, a far better book is The Heart of Hamlet by Bernard Grebanier (now sadly out of print). By a close reading of the play, particularly in terms of plot structure, coupled with a knowledge of the Elizabethan mind, Grebanier convincingly dismantles many of Wilson's interpretations. Some of Grebanier's major points, which are opposed to Wilson (and many commentators): Hamlet is not mad and never pretends to be; Hamlet does not procrastinate or hesitate, except for good reason; his tragic flaw is that not that he hesitates (or can't make up his mind) but that he is too rash; Hamlet is a man of action, capable of brutality, caught in extraordinary circumstances, not an etherial, delicate romantic philosopher; "To be or not to be" is not about suicide.

Having studied the play, reading many commentaries on it prior to directing it, I found Grabanier's book to be generally (not always) on target, where Wilson's left me very unsatisfied. Read both, and make up your own mind.

A magnificent book! I'm so glad they came out with a new edition of this book so I had the chance to purchase it (even if I was a bit dismayed to see Mel Gibson on the cover instead of Kenneth Branagh)! My friend had the older edition, which I borrowed frequently while taking a Shakespeare course. Each scene is covered in depth, almost like a summary. It might actually be better titled "What Happens TO Hamlet" because once you finish the book, you feel like you know the man! Great for any student of Shakespeare, or for that matter, anyone interested in Shakespeare or the Prince of Denmark at all!

For many years I questioned myself about Shakespeare's greatness and I did not find any answer in italian translations , perhaps because of the treachery nature of the translation itself: the Wilson's precise and meticulous analysis of Hamlet's tragedy enabled me to fully appreciate plot,carachters, and witty shakespearean art.
I strongly recommend this book to beginners, expecially of non-english-native language

Henry James' Beast in the Jungle is surely not for everyone, there is little action in the novella (I suppose that is the point actually) and the title could give readers the wrong idea. John Marcher, the protagonist, is re-aquainted with May Bartram, a woman he knew ten years earlier, who remembers his odd secret- Marcher is seized with the belief that his life is to be defined by some catastrophic or spectacular event, lying in wait for him like a "beast in the jungle."

May decides to take a flat nearby in London, and to spend her days with Marcher curiously awaiting what fate has in stall for John. Of course Marcher is a self-centered egoist, believing that he is precluded from marrying so that he does not subject his wife to his "spectacular fate". So he takes May to the theatre and invites her to an occasional dinner, while not allowing her to really get close to him for her own sake. As he sits idly by and allows the best years of his life to pass, he takes May down as well, until the denouement wherein he learns that the great misfortune of his life was to throw it away, and to ignore the love of a good woman, based upon his preposterous sense of foreboding.

James' language can be a bit stilted at times, and some of the dialogue may strike modern readers as out-dated. However James was a master of the novella format, and with The Beast in the Jungle he has written an engrossing psychological drama, which left me speechless at the very end. Pick up a collection that also includes The Turn of the Screw and Daisy Miller if you haven't already read them, they are accessible (more so than some of James' full length novels) and great examples of the format's potential.

I have never read Henry James before because I have always been told that he is not worth reading. My own teachers have told me that, but they obviously didn't read like I do because I found this story nothing but delightful. Henry James faintly resembles the writing of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. I see the resemblance in James' use of detail, not only in physical descriptions but also in the portrayals of capturing what is happening in the minds of his characters. This can be tedious if a reader is looking for plot, but my own conviction is that good fiction is driven by character, and anything that happens within a plot happens consequently to how characters act and/or think. "The Beast in the Jungle" revolves around only two characters and how their relationship and convictions affect each other's lives. The beauty in this story is the reality within it-a realization of time and how and what it should be spent on. James focuses on human relationships and shows the flaws that can occur within those relationships. John Marcher's selfishness, for instance, keeps him at a distance from May Bartram and her love for him: "Marcher had been visited by one of his occasional warnings against egotism. He had kept up, he felt . . . his consciousness of the importance of not being selfish". This selfishness, which Marcher believes he suppresses fairly well, is what turns out to be part of the Beast he is seeking; the selfishness is what keeps him from loving Mary Bartram simply because he wants her only for what she can do for him: ". . . he had never felt before, the growth of a dread of losing her by some catastrophe . . . that yet wouldn't at all be the catastrophe: partly because she had almost of a sudden begun to strike him as more useful to him than ever yet". I enjoyed "The Beast in the Jungle" so much because it took me into the mind of a person who grows throughout the story and learns something that perhaps every human being needs to learn throughout the course of his/her life. I don't find Henry James tiresome or dull at all; in fact, to myself of course, his writing is quite the contrary. I look forward to reading more of him.

Henry James has always been one of my favorite writers even though many readers are put off by his very stylized writing. When I first read "The Beast in the Jungle", I must admit that I was completely blown away by its powerful message. This is a type of mystery that never loses its power although you already know the ending. There is no way to describe certain moments in the story that give us a glimpse into the very soul of these characters that manage to become real to us throughout this story. Marcher's incredible egotism blinds him from seeing the truth in his life and thereby destroying not only his own life, but also destroying the life of the woman who could have helped him learn how to live before it was too late. Henry James was a master writer and to quote the words of T.S. Eliot: "Henry James is a difficult writer for English readers because he is American, difficult for Americans because he is European, and I ignore if he is possible for other readers." Yes, Henry James can be a challenge for many readers, but the reward is all worth the effort.

Despite a misleading definition of haiku on the back of this book (continued in the introduction), and despite the tendency of Dover Thrift Editions to use the worst possible translations for other books they have published, this is an authoritative and valuable collection which offers translations of quite a few works otherwise difficult to find. One of the most valuable elements of the book is its printing of multiple translations of one poem -- while some of the translations (particularly from the early part of the 20th century) are execrable, it is fascinating and instructive to see how various poems have been approached.

This book is a great addition to any library, but don't let it be your only haiku book -- be sure to read William Higginson's "Haiku Handbook" as well as "The Essential Haiku" edited by Robert Hass and "The Haiku Anthology" edited by Cor van den Heuvel.

This volume has several characteristics to recommend it: (1) it provides a transliteration of the Japanese to give the reader a sense of the sound of haiku (2) several times it provides multiple translations of a haiku, giving the reader a sense of the different approaches to translation (3) it provides a collection that is a cross-section of haiku throughout its Japanese history rather than concentrating on the best known.

It has some negatives - too many footnotes that could have been handled in a less intrusive manner such as who is the student of whom or what is the best known haiku of the author. The willingness to use footnotes allows the editor to direct the reader's response in a positive way.

If you have any interest in haiku, you will want this volume in your collection.

I really enjoyed reading this book because I love the beauty and simplicity of haiku poetry. Although this is a relatively thin book, it contains very resourceful and detailed information about the haiku poets and thier inspirations. I really appreciate the author's acknowlegement of the female haiku poets, in which most became buddist nuns, proving that women were just as an important part of the haiku scene as the men. In conclusion, this book is a pleasure for the senses and a must for anyone's library.

Known by his contemporaries as the only social theorist to apply Darwin critically, in 1899 Thorstein Veblen published The Theory of the Leisure Class: A Economic Study of Institutions, which was to become the basis from which all further American leisure history and theory stemmed. In his study, Veblen is primarily concerned with the "new rich," whom he regards as social parasites that retard the growth of modern life. Thorstein Veblen wrote The Theory of the Leisure Class from a perspective that was largely isolated from his own culture, which either aided in his understanding of the Leisure Class or perhaps negatively influenced his opinions due to his exclusion from it. In The Theory of the Leisure Class, Veblen essentially confines man and woman's existence on the planet as a struggle to change and adapt with the growth of their communities. Through this belief, Veblen develops a theme that amounts to the idea of a certain "dominant" type of individual. This individual develops a social structure through dominance in which social advance is sought by others. She/he will feel the discrepancy between the modern life and traditional life during the process. Though Veblen's rhetoric is sometimes anxious, sometimes negative, he actively pursues a specific account of the origins of the Leisure Class through individuals. The struggle for individual advancement eventually expands to include society, and the more individual struggle for advancement in society leads to the accumulation of surplus goods.
Surplus of conspicuous consumption by the Leisure Class gives the class license to indulge shamefully in pure conspicuous consumption, where their occupations eventually become leisure itself. These "professions" of the Leisure Class by nature render it closed, and impenetrable by outsiders.
Thorstein Veblen wrote the Leisure Class represented the new phenomena of conspicuous consumption compared to pre-Industrialized wealthy communities as well as contemporary working-class ones. But as intellectual inquiry into the topic of leisure has progressed over the past one hundred years, leisure has come to hold a number of definitions and meanings.

Mr. Veblen is a refined person in the use of the words he uses to address and explain the economic habits of the refined people of the upper-class of the beginning of the last century. He spares no expenses in detailing in a very polite manner the idiossincracies of the noble and very rich when deciding what to buy, what to use and how to behave, going also to all lenghts explainning how these habits mold and form the habits of the not so rich and noble strata of the society. His theory of the leisure class reachs significance when compared to the rationality which some economists, classics and neo-classics, ascribe to the human being as an economic agent. I was quite surprised by the elegant style of Mr.Veblen and the fine irony (which he does not admit) with which he treats the rich and noble of his time. Sure, this is a book which could be also serve well times ahead and before Veblen's time.

This opus by Veblen exposes the real meaning of the pecuniary advancement of the working and merchant classes, and the formation of elites based mostly upon money and asset valuation. The transfiguration of the traditional social and individual ethical values that this phenomenon produced, is portraited with clarity and sarcastic intelligence by the author in the book, first published in 1899.
Now a classic of economic theory, as well as a text book of social science, it describes the tendencies of consumerism, leisure and the "materialization" of the ideals of the aspiring new princes (or noveau rich) of society. Veblen's vibrant satire of the tendency of the modern individual to believe that real accomplishment is all about aquiring a condition of ostentatious wealth and status, and his analisis of the inception of modern class structure in America, still stand, a century after, as recommended reading for historians and economists.
If you are a fervent follower of advertisement, fashion, "glamour" and other modern expressions of consumerism , then you will find a surprisingly fresh portrait of yourself in this book. It worries me that the leisure class and its shallow views and values as described by Veblen, may still today represent elites in America and their religion, as analyzed by professor Lash in his last book "The Revolt of the Elites". I highly recommend Veblen's best book, to scholars and sociologists at large.

This book presents the full-length versions of some of Lincoln's best oratory feats. Great Speeches contains fifteen of Lincoln's best along with his famous letter to Mrs. Bixby, who lost all five of her sons during the war. Here is an excerpt as only Lincoln could create:
"I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom."

What you get from the book is a fabulous primary source from which to quote our sixteenth president. What you do not get is a lot of analysis on his underlying motivations. Although a short essay at the beginning of each discourse helps place Lincoln's words in historical context, you will not find a wealth of scholarly insight into why Lincoln gave each particular speech and what the implications were to the nation. Nevertheless, Great Speeches helps the reader understand this incredible man in a manner unbiased by the opinions of others.

Highly recommended for anyone wishing to learn more about President Lincoln and some of the issues he faced during a time of incredible national upheaval.

I am hesitant to say much of anything about a historic figure as iconic as Abraham Lincoln, simply because I feel that there is very little to say that hasn't been said, and said better, already. Two brief points, then:

1) In addition to being one of our greatest presidents, Lincoln was also one of our greatest WRITERS. Certainly as a rhetorician he has had few peers - Dr. King is the only American who springs to mind.

2) If you're think about buying this, JUST DO IT. Jeez - it's only a buck fifty. What have you got to lose?

PS Here's a great big "THANK YOU" to Dover Publications for making this and other fine books available at such an economical price. I don't know how you guys do it, but please, DON'T STOP!

First, I would have to say that this book, i.e., Great Speeches (Dover Thrift Editions) [UNABRIDGED] by Abraham Lincoln is by no means an easy read and would have suited better as an audiocassette or a CD. However, as one starts to read his great speeches, e.g., His "Farwell to Springfield" speech, Gettysburg address and annual messages to Congress (or the moving letter to Mrs. Bixby regarding the deaths of all her five sons); then one starts to understand the true genius that this former President was blessed with. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in either history or public speaking: since it is a great aid for both.

I was looking forward to reading 'Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening', but came away disappointed. Of course, 'The Road Not Taken' is worth the price of admission regardless. It is chock-full - as chock-full as 53 pages can possibly be - of other Frost goodies.

Overall, a good book for the price and a great addition to your order, but for serious Frost devotees I would suggest a more comprehensive collection.

This collection is actually not bad. It provides some of Frost's best poems in an easy to carry book, and for a buck you can't go wrong. This is great for first time Frost readers, but not for the experienced Frost fan. I love Frost and carry this book and plenty other Dover poetry books in my laptop case wherever I go!

Frost, like no other poet, captures a moment that we all have experienced at one time in life. He paints a picture with such vivid strokes of literary imagery that the mind brings the reader back to a moment in time, almost feeling the sensations of past experiences.

For example, I recently made a decision where I was torn between family and career interests. To ease the anxiety of a lost professional opportunity, I reasoned that the chance would present itself again someday, maybe. Thinking of Frost I realized that he captured that very self-rationalization in the Road Not Taken. "Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back."

As others have pointed out already, the largest drawback of the book is lack of thickness. Even though one of my all-time favorites, "Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening," is not present, others like "An Old Man's Winter Night" make up for it. If you need a small book to stick in a backpack while hiking for moments of inspiration while on the trail, you could do worse than to carry along a little bit of Frost.

Although far less plausible and possessing characters of much less depth than Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth, Burrough's At the Earth's Core, despite some embarrassingly preposterous elements, is an entertaining read due to its well-rendered, imaginative fantasy setting and fast-paced swashbuckling adventure. The story is never dull, and the hideous and hypnotic bat-winged Mayars make for memorable villains. The depiction of a human sacrifice to these monsters halfway through the novel is particularly unforgettable. There is also a multifarious array of attacking prehistoric monsters, without the claustrophobic feel of the 1970's film.

Also recommended is Basil Copper's treatment of the descent-into-the-earth theme in his creepy novel The Great White Space, now unfortunately out of print.

For Edgar Rice Burroughs, life was relatively simple. Men fell into one of three categories: muscular heroes, ordinary types, and evil, greasy villains. Women existed primarily to act as universal lighting rods that attracted either the first or third category. Regardless of the universe that ERB wrote of, these constants held with predictable regularity. With the publication of AT THE EARTH'S CORE, he began yet another series that put the hero at odds with nature, evil doers, and beautiful, virtuous women. David Innes, the handsome hero, drills down to the center of the earth in a manner that brings to mind Jules Verne's tale, both of which posit a habitable, temperate core that supports a variety of lush, prehistoric life. Despite knowing that the earth's core was held to be molten, ERB did not hesitate to bend science for the sake of a good tale. ATEC possesses both the plusses of ERB at his best and the negatives at his worst. Like Tarzan, Innes is a likable, manly sort who feels at home regardless of whether home is a jungle or a tea room. The logic of how ERB gets his hero placed in an exotic locale is irrelevant and often purely unscientific. For his Martian (Barsoom) series, he merely had his hero, John Carter, gaze at the Red Planet to effect his transport there. For his inner world series (Pellucidar), Innes used a drill machine, a device that at least tries to be scientific. Once there, Innes has the necessary adventures with beasts, villains, and beautiful women, in this case Dian the Beautiful. The workings of the plot about how he finds her, loses her, and then finds her again are almost not to the point. Where ERB excels in his ability to place the reader, who is usually a 15 year old boy, in a realm that allows imagination to run riot. Events flow so smoothly that the youthful reader will probably overlook the negatives of ERB's prose style. In the world of ERB's muscular heroes, both hero and villain speak in the artificial, courtly dialogue that rings true only to the ears of the young. Coincidence runs rife to the point of ridicule. Beautiful women are haughty at first, but lusty later, and then only to the clean-limbed hero. His plots are often mirror images of one another. You can substitute the center of the earth for Mars, Venus, Africa, or wherever, and hero, villain, and lovely lady are interchangeable. Yet, despite all this, AT THE EARTH'S CORE is the kind of read that ought to be part of any kid's early mental universe. Reading Burroughs as a thirty year old requires a strong ability to suspend one's disbelief, but once having done so, the ride is usually worth the effort.

...so one day independently wealthy David Ennis is confronted by his scientist buddy Abner Peery who has just invented a vehicle that essentially drills through the earth. (If the reader is into descriptives it looks like the device Dr Evil of Austin Powers fame has devised to take over the world.) They decide, "Well, let's try it out." and the reader is then treated to a journey to middle earth which is similar to Jules Verne's, but not as serious. I would say that Burroughs brings us satire similar to Voltaire's "Candide" or Swift's "Gulliver's Travel". The inner world, Pellicidar, is one where if you are not careful, you can be awake for days because the sun never sets or rises--that sun being the molten earth core rather than the sun we all know of. In Pellucidar, the various dragons, apes, and reptiles and mutations of such, are heads of gangs, tribes and kingdoms in the middle earth. And the royalty has beautiful sorcery princesses like Dian the Beautiful, who David falls for and who leads him into an innerworld adventure taking the reader to an unforgettable serial-pulp style reading enjoyment. If you dig Robert E. Howard or Jules Verne or Rice Burroughs' Tarzan series you will definitely love this. My opinion is that this is one of those series that could stand some revamping and the reader will feel that this is somewhat dated but, I feel that it is still well-worth the investment of time and $.

I had thought the "average" in the title was equating it with the many beginners' books available. It isn't. Or doesn't. Average here means someone who already has alot of basic chess knowledge under their belt. It was a bit over my head and for that reason disappointing. As I mature as a chess player I'm sure this book will be one I'll go back to however.

I have the original edition from the '70s. This is a very enjoyable book. Although my rating is about 2000 USCF, I still find much of the material to be enlightening and simply fun. For the price there is a LOT of nice chess packed into this book. You won't finish it in a week. And the sense of fun and humor are great.

I'd say any player from about 1200 USCF up to high expert level (maybe 2150) would find this a good book, with perhaps those around 1400-1700 getting the most benefit. And like I said, it's priced well and covers a lot of ground in an enjoyable fashion.

I may buy another copy to see what's been changed since the '70s. The extra copy will make a great gift.

The layout of this book is not the greatest presentation, but this corrected edition is interesting- it presents a fictional account of an imaginary tournament as the author discusses various middle game techniques. Its written in algebraic notation so the style is modern. This book is useful for players rated under 1900 ELO strength.

The contemporary American reader can almost visualize this one as a Jim Carrey movie: a case of mistaken identity causes red carpets to be rolled out for a character whom the narrator calls a "flunkie." The expected hilarity of course ensues, with every petty government official seeking to impress the person they think is the Inspector General. Yes, we have seen this plot many times before, even before Gogol's time, but Gogol does it especially well. Perhaps this is sociopolitical satire, perhaps it's just humor, and perhaps it's a little of both. In any case, you don't have to be interested in Russian literature nor in politics to find this short piece hilarious.

The Inspector General is a short comedy parodying the rampant low-level corruption in Russian towns at the time the play was written (1836). The officials of a small town, led by Chief of Police Anton Antonovich, are petrified when they learn that a government inspector is being sent to visit undercover to make sure everything is running as it should. Due to their fear, they quickly conclude that Hlestakov, a badly-in-debt guest at a local inn who is in reality just a 14th-rank clerk en route to his father's house, is in fact that inspector. Hilarity ensues, as the officials fall all over themselves to show Hlestakov the town and convince him that they are doing their jobs in a most upstanding manner, while Hlestakov, though no genius, is wise enough to exploit the situation, convincing the townfolk that he is an extremely important personage, securing over a thousand roubles in "loans," and becoming engaged to Anton Antonovich's daughter and nearly seducing his wife. After Hlestakov leaves, a letter arrives to the effect that he wasn't really the inspector, causing everyone in town to feel very silly, and the play ends.

Though both today and at the time he was alive some people have insisted on setting Gogol up as a biting social critic, at least to me it seems that in reality he was nothing more than a very funny author. The characters in The Inspector General (much like those in his novel Dead Souls) are generally not much more than comic caricatures, so if you're hoping for a lot of depth in that area you might wish to look elsewhere. But there are a number of very funny moments in the play, and it's quite an enjoyable story which had a good deal of influence on later writers. At just 72 pages, it's a quick read, so I would recommend it heartily.

This was a fun play to read. I highly recommend it to anyone, especially if you're into Russian literature. Enjoy!

I have to read She Stoops to Conquer for school and it is absolutly terrible. For a play that is supposed to be funny and one of the most comical plays of its time, I find it completly boring. I am not discriminating against the "classics", as I have read many which I have highly enjoyed, but reading this play is a waste of time.

This play is a rollicking satire on the British caste system of that era, seen through the mischief, mayhem, and mistaken identities of this work. Almost a must-read!

This play is a delightful satire about mischief, mishaps, and mistaken identities that throws a quirky but revealing light upon the British caste system of that era. This is a great work, and almost a must-read.