In John Grafton's edited book of great documents of American History, he provides an uniquely handy reference book to the great speeches and documents of our past. Included are both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, with all Amemdments, a document I often find myself in need of referencing, especially in these tumultuous times.

I will not list off all the documents in his book, the Amazon review and several reader reviews do list them. But I would note, that Grafton's commentary on Lincoln's composition of the Gettysburgh Address is in accord with the superb work of Gary Wills in his book, "Lincoln At Gettysburgh" where Wills thoroughly debunks the myth that Lincoln wrote the Address on the back of an envelope on his way up on the train.

Anyone who has frequent need to reference some of the greatest and enduring documents in American History will find this book an invaluable reference tool.

The Declaration of Independence and Other Great Documents of American History: 1775-1865 edited by John Grafton is an important collection of the heart and soul of what America is all about. These fourteen great documents are the foundation by which our American democratic republic was founded. Each of these documents has a short introduction giving the reader a basis in time, relevent to and providing fascinating background history and information about the author.

This is handy and gets the reader in the right time frame, making this an indispensable reference for general readers to American political writing. This book covers a basic library of important American documents from the first century of America's history as an independent nation.

From Patrick Henry's 1775 speech to the Virginia Revolutionary Committee, "Give Me Liberity or Give Me Death" to Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugral Address in March 4, 1865 we see the tenor of American thought throughout come to the forefront. These are compelling, influential and often inspirational, but most importantly these are certainly among the most essential and enduring, reflecting the ideas, issues and conflicts which dominated American political life in the first century of our fledgling republic.

The contents is listed:
Patrick Henry: "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death," March 23, 1775

Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

The Constitution of the United States, September 17,1787 with amendments

James Madison: The Federalist, number 10, November 23,1787

George Washington: Firt Inaugral Address, April 30, 1789

George Washington: Farewell Address, September 19 1796

Thomas Jefferson: First Inaugral Address, March 4, 1801

James Monroe: The Monroe Doctrine, December 2, 1823

William Lloyd Garrison: The Liberator, January 1, 1831

Andrew Jackson: Veto of the Bank Bill, July 10, 1832

Abraham Lincoln: First Inaugral Address, March 4, 1861

Abraham Lincoln: The Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863

Abraham Lincoln: The Gettysburg Address, November 18, 1863

Abraham Lincoln: Second Inaugral Address, March 4, 1865

These all are compelling documents dear to the heart of the United States and should be in those of us who call ourselves citizens as well. This is excellent for teaching our children, revealing a spectrum of thought and opinion more complex and wide ranging than often remembered... and what it means to be an American and the responsiblities that go along with it.

Beginning with Patrick Henry's rousing (and particularly timely today) call to action, "Give me Liberty or Give me Death" or the War Inevitable speech, "The Declaration of Independence and other great documents of American History" covers the most widely known of our country's key documents in its first century of existence. Each document is prefaced with a brief intro, which nicely places each in historical context.
Also included are:

Declaration of Independence

Constitution of the United States

The Federalist, James Madison

George washington's 1st Inaugural and Farewell Address

Thomas Jefferson's 1st Inaugural Address

James Monroe's Monroe Doctrine

William Lloyd Garrison's The Liberator

Andrew Jackson's Veto of the Bank Bill

Lincoln's First and 2nd Inaugural Address, Emanciapation Proclamation and Gettysburg Address

Collectively these are the very words of freedom which still endure today. So much is said in so few words. They represent quantum leaps in our struggle for Independence, Freedom and Equality and mark each milestone- from war of independence to civil war to the abolition of slavery- with sublime brevity. The words are charged with electricity and coated with the blood of thousands of Americans who gave their lives to uphold these founding principles.

We face a darkness on our horizon. It would serve us well to remember these words- torches of Liberty that our forefathers lit to remind us of the spirit, the principles and the freedoms that we still stand for and struggle to uphold. God Bless America!

I re-read this play recently after being asked to submit a few choices to direct at a local theater, and fell in love with the humor of Aristophanes all over again.

His comedies are virtually unparalelled in the surviving classical works. The humor of the plays, particularly the Frogs, is just as fresh and vibrant today as it was thousands of years ago.

Dionysus, Greek God of theater, has grown despondant that upon the death of Euripides there are no great poets left on Earth. He resolves to travel to Hades and beg Pluto to allow him to resurrect Euripedes so that he might continue his work.

Dionysus, accompanied by his faithful porter Xanthias, travels first to the house of Heracles, dressed as the Greek hero, to ask his advice...as well as directions. Heracles suggests conventional methods (death by ones own hands) before he reveals the path he himself followed.

The two then set out to rescue Euripides. Xanthias, being a slave, is given a foot route to follow, while Dionysus enjoys a boat ride courtesy of Charon, the ferryman of the dead. Upon arrival at Pluto's house, and after a case of mistaken/disguised identity ends up in a draw, Dionysus finally meets up with Euripides.

However, Aeschylus isn't about to give up without a fight...Pluto has arranged for a contest between the two famed poets to determine the better of them...as Aeschylus decries Euripides as merely a 'flavor of the month' among the people of Hades. A dialogue ensues between he and Euripides, with Dionysus left to judge the merits of each.

Full of delightful comic insight into the works of both poets, The Frogs is a completely accessible foray into classical theater that you don't need to be a scholar to understand. While a basis of Euripides and Aeschylus helps to augment enjoyment of the work, it stands apart on its own.

An enchanting, intriguing, and entertaining read.

As a struggling (college) student of Classical Greek, I found K.J. Dover's edition of Frogs to have a wonderful amount of translation help and historical notes, without being overwhelming (or overly expensive). Since the second half of the play is a gentle parody of Aeschylus and Euripides, it helps to have read those authors (preferrably in the original) to get some of the jokes -- if you're new to Greek Comedy, take a look at K.J. Dover's edition of Clouds, which I haven't yet tackled, but intend to. (That one parodies Plato and Socrates...)

N.B. -- this edition doesn't include a translation, which is how I prefer it, but some may not.

On the one hand Aristophanes's comedy "The Frogs" is a farce, but it is of more interest because it presents the earliest known example of dramatic criticism. Presented in 405 B.C., the play tells of how Dionysus, the god of drama, had to go to Hades to fetch back Euripides, who died the previous year, because Athens no longer had any great tragic poets left. The first part of the comedy involves Dionysus, who has disguised himself as Heracles, and his slave Xanthias on their way to Hades and features several interesting songs by the chorus of blessed mystics and the chorus of frogs. However, the high point of the comedy is the contest between Euripides and Aeschylus.

Each of the two great tragic poets denounces the other and quotes lines from their own works to prove their superiority. We discover that Euripides writes about vulgar themes, corrupts manners, debases music and has prosaic diction. In contrast, Aeschylus finds obscure titles and is guilty of turgid prose. In the end Dionysus finds that artistic standards of judgment are useless and turns to a political solution. This makes sense since the problem facing Athens is a political one: what to do about the tyrant Alcibiades. What is most interesting is the implicit belief that the tragic poets had a social responsibility towards the audiences of their dramas.

"Frogs," in addition to being one of the better comedies by Aristophanes, is also of interest because it contains the only fragments from several tragedies by Euripides and Aeschylus that have been long lost to us. As always, I urge that if you are studying Greek plays, whether the comedies of Aristophanes or the tragedies by those other more serious fellows, it is important to understand the particular structure of these plays and the various dramatic conventions of the Greek theater. This involves not only the distinction between episodes and stasimons (scenes and songs), but elements like the "agon" (a formal debate on the crucial issue of the play), and the "parabasis" (in which the Chorus partially abandons its dramatic role and addresses the audience directly).

I would not consider myself a big fan of poetry, in fact this is the first book of poetry I've ever read. But I would highly recommend this book because it contains many classic love poems and authors. There are many poems in this little collection that will move anyone who has experienced love.

I am giving this collection five stars because is a wonderful collection for its price. Dover really does put out some great books for around a dollar. This collection has all of the usual love poems which appear in every love anthology like Shakespeare's "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day," Jonson's "To Celia," Browning's "How Do I Love Thee," and Poe's "Annabel Lee." The thing that impressed me about this collection were some of the little-known poems which did find their way into this book. I've always loved the poems of Thomas Campion, Thomas Moore, Walter Savage Landor, and John Clare, and each had a number of poems in the book. Any lover of love poems should buy this anthology. It is easily worth the dollar it takes to buy it. I would also recommend the anthology "Love Poems" selected and edited by Peter Washington for Everyman Library for anyone who wants to buy a collection of love poems.

This book has love poems by every poet you can think of and some you wont. I would say you should own this even if you dont enjoy love poems, it can only come in handy. All around great stuff and there is even a drinking song in side.

The story of the man who would be king describes the journey of two half-mad yet determined Englishmen from obscurity in India to divine rule in far-off Kafiristan. The two men smuggle themselves into Afghanistan posing as a mad priest and his servant, steal some mules when their camels can go no further, trek over the vast mountains, and set themselves up as kings by demonstrating the power of the rifle to spear-brandishing natives (in the most murderous way, one might add). They later establish their status as gods by introducing Masonic mystery and orders to the mountain villages. Eventually, however, their humanity is exposed, thus wrecking the dream of empire.

The story itself is witty and exciting, driven by the raw prose and longing for exotic adventure characteristic of Kipling. At the same time, this short tale is remarkable as a summary of imperialism and its problems. The questionable motives and courses of actions of the imperialists are exposed, yet at the same time they are shown to reflect human nature more than ideology or political purpose. The ease with which a small number of people with superior technology can subjugate much larger numbers is also demonstrated in a non-sentimental fashion (it is certainly not a politically correct story by present standards). Finally, the ending emphasizes the impossibility of maintaining authority in the long run under such circumstances - technological knowledge must be revealed to maintain order, responsibility must be shared with intermediaries, and propaganda will eventually be appropriated for subversive purposes. If only historians could be as brief and straightforward as Kipling in recognizing these simple facts about how imperialism came about and how it was doomed to failure.

While they are quite enjoyable, most of the stories in this collection pale when compared to the author's later works, such as the Jungle Books and Just So Stories. There are definite traces of his trademark wit, but only "The Man Who Would Be King" stands comparison to his more well known pieces. It's an excellent story, and as I was reading it, I couldn't help but think it was the spiritual cousin to Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. If you enjoyed one, you'll enjoy the other, as both share the theme of regular men reaping the consequences of forcing civilization on people. A good black comedy.

If you have the gift of being able to engulf yourself in a story then you are in for an adventure. In this beautiful work by Kipling you are a soldier of fortune headed back into territory with your brother in arms where you both fought bravely for Queen and country. But now its just the two of you with a different victory in mind. This book will put you in the heart of the battle with the characters so that you can go through the trials and experience the victory.

I recommend getting Mathematics of Classical and Quantum Physics by Byron and Fuller (also from Dover). You'll get more (quantity and quality) for your money. Mathematics For Physicists just isn't very good, poorly written compared to Math. of C. and Q. Physics.

This is a splendid textbook for both practicing engineers and scientists, not just physicists. It is a mine of useful techniques
and formulae and I would recommend it both as a reference text
for use when working and for general dipping into.

The book covers an extraordinarily wide amount of the sort of
mathematics that both students and professionals might use on a
day-to-day basis, and it clearly written and well laid out.

A very worthwhile purchase.

This is easily the best book I have found for the purposes of an engineer (such as this reviewer), or perhaps a physicist, wishing to acquire certain areas of mathematics quickly. In my current work (in electromagnetics) I have had to brush-up-on/acquire topics including: function spaces; vector spaces; differential equations (with adjoint operators etc.); and Green's functions and identities. This book beats all others I consulted for this purpose. Although the book is seemless, chapters are mainly self-contained. The absence of problems/exercises is actually beneficial for my purposes, since the author has made the text correspondingly more complete. There are, however, a small number of judiciously placed examples, with quality rather than quantity being the author's apparent principle;- Once you have absorbed Professor Dennery's exposition of a particular topic, you are then aptly equiped to go to other texts for examples. In summary, this is a gem, Dennery is the 'Kubrick of maths writers'.

I enjoyed the selected poems of Claude Mckay. Although in the beginning the dialouge was hard to follow, it became easier as I imagined myself as the writer...Good poetry

"Selected Poems," by Claude McKay, is a wonderful volume by this noteworthy writer. This Dover edition, which is edited by Joan R. Sherman, includes a bibliography of work by McKay as well as an index of the poems in the book.

Sherman's introduction discusses the life and career of McKay, who was born in Jamaica and came to live in the U.S. A novelist and essayist as well, he died in Chicago in 1948.

Many of the poems are written in Jamaican dialect. These dialect pieces have an energetic color and musicality. Many poems also show McKay's command of standard literary English; he writes some particularly fine sonnets.

Overall, this is a rich, diverse, and technically adept collection. There are many pointedly political poems that condemn racism and economic injustice, as well as sensuous love poems. There are poems that invoke both the rural tropics and the urban north.

These poems show McKay to be a master of meter, rhyme, and other aspects of poetry; he uses considerable variety throughout the collection. His best pieces combine a burning passion with his impressive technical prowess. Consider "A Capitalist at Dinner," a cutting political sonnet with a devastating final couplet; or "Song of the New Soldier and Worker," another political piece that uses stunning imagery and masterful audio effects.

McKay uses words as both lethal weapons against the forces of injustice and as tender instruments of passionate love. He is a poet of tremendous talent, and this collection is a real treasure.

In Claude McKay's Selected Poems, one sees the transformation of this West Indian poet's life manifested in his varied styles. McKay was born in the Jamaican countryside to an elite class, educated and given every opportunity. Then, as a young man, he came to America and felt the sting of pervasive racism and the numbness of being labeled second-class. His work shows that at times he looks down with pity at his people, only to look up with scorn at his oppressors. This duality drives many of his poems, especially those in the book's first section: Songs of Jamaica.
In "Hard Times" McKay exhibits the range of his poetic voice by ventriloquizing a Jamaican peasant. The effective use of this device brings an undeniably intimate feel to the poem and is remarkably capable of relating the sorrow of the poor farmer depicted. The modification of Jamaican vernacular on the English language is also a portrayal of the West Indian's captivity and adaptation to a strange culture.
Not to be overlooked are poems from McKay's Harlem Shadows collection. "If We Must Die" reflect his anger at an oppressive white menace that threatens to devour his culture. Interestingly enough, Winston Churchill read the same poem to British troops during WWII in a defiant call to arms. This cross-cultural application surely reflects the broader themes of McKay's work buried in the bowels of racial conflict.
All together, McKay's nation language echoes through the entire collection and relates a stirring narrative of the struggle of a West Indian exile. Each poem uses language, whether the voice of an island peasant, or an American immigrant, to engage the reader in the poet's struggle; a compelling read.

While Dostoevsky said, "We have all come from under 'The Overcoat'," western literature, especially because of the Cold War sentiment has put Gogol and his fantastic tales hidden under an overcoat. It is a shame that Gogol, especially "The Overcoat" and "The Nose," has been hidden or underpresented (nice word, eh?) for so long, especially since he seems to be Poe with a deep social commentary. Or maybe Poe is Gogol with a lyric bent for the macabre.

The Overcoat is a beautifully told story that will not allow you to look at people the same way, especially those who might be ostracized. While Akaky is a figure from 19th century Russia, he is very much a character that can be found in the 21st century. Moreover, when Gogol tells about the druken tailor with his witchy wife and the smell of onions, the reader at once pictures the dreadful wench and the overpowering smell of fried onions. And when the commissioner berates Akaky, it is hard not to almost faint in fear, or be outraged. Gogol is a master of stirring the human emotions and mixing them with vivid descriptions making for stories that a reader cannot forget.

The Nose is a very funny story, much of which gets lost in translation and in time. But the idea of a vain official losing his nose only to have it turn up as a mid-level bureaucrat is still relevant in this world of middle management. What a tremendous story tale of human vanity and what a surreal tale that seemed to spawn the likes of Bulgakov's "Heart of a Dog," and "Master and Margarita."

The four stories in this collection contrast a precise realism - whether it is the evocation of place and atmosphere, or a description of civil service procedure - with narratives of absurdity, fantasy and pure comedy. If the classic 19th century novel, as epitomised by the likes of Tolstoy, mirrored a world-view that society, people or history could be known and adequately represented in fiction, than Gogol reveals the impossibility of applying that model to Russia - his is an unstable, constantly metamorphosing, fluctuating and seemingly random universe. Whereas the apparatus of order, such as bureaucracy or the justice system only weave chaos, or, at best, a parody of order; Gogol's primary device for destabilising the familiar world is narration. If the 19th century novel was related by a third-person, voice-of-God narrator, who knew everything about the generalities of empires and the most intimate thoughts of chambermaids, than Gogol's narrators dance constantly on the brink of madness, inopportunely professing ignorance, amnesia and prejudice, their prose styles febrile, staccato and grotesque.

The 'straightest' story in this collection is 'Old-Fashioned Farmers', a tragicomic story of old age, marriage and superstition, which, in its nostalgic and detailed evocation of a vanished period in Russian provinical life, looks ahead to Nabokov's ravishing memoir 'Speak Memory', albeit laced with a comic and satiric irony the later book lacks. The long 'How The Two Ivans Quarrelled' pinpoints the pettiness of the lower gentry's notions of pride and honour, as two lifelong friends become bitter enemies when one calls the other a 'goose'. This hilarious tale of small-town pretensions and inept local government includes the priceless scene of a fat brown sow breaking into the courthouse and stealing the petition of its owner's antagonist.

The famous 'Overcoat' is often considered one of the greatest stories ever written, and the way Gogol manages to avoid sentimentality in the story of an insignificant middle-aged clerk whose routine and despised life is briefly illumined by the purchase of a specially made new overcoat he can ill afford, and which is soon stolen, is admirable. The lunge into nightmare and the savage satire of the Russian civil service remain shocking. The standout story for me, though, is 'The Nose', which plays like Kafka rewritten by Mark Twain, in which a barber finds a nose in his breakfast, and its owner wakes up with a smooth face. With the most glorious deadpan comedy, Gogol describes the loss and the procedures to find it as if it were a wallet: at another point, the Nose is found disguised as a councillor attempting to flee the city by horse.

The translations ('The Nose' by Gleb Struve, an early translator of Nabokov, and his wife Mary; the others by Isabel F. Hapgood) are readable, retrieving Gogol's brisk comic pace and some of his incongruities of language. There is a use of cliches in Hapgood's 1886 transations, however, that can't always be credited to Gogol's deflating method, and which make certain passages feel flat.

If you like Dostoyevsky you should read The Overcoat. Its the best russian novel I have ever read. Well ... or Crime and Punishment. Its short, but still it contain so much.

This is an enjoyable mystery in the classic mode with some deft turns. But it is completely unedited and riddled throughout with type-os and silly mistakes. Surely no person at the publishing house read this book before it was released; I'd go so far as to say no one bothered to use spell-check to detect ludicrous errors. In most cases, the correct spelling or usage is fairly easy to figure. In one, a "Mrs." should have been a "Mr." and that caused a bit of confusion. Readers appreciate these budget-priced editions, but couldn't someone at the publishing house give them a look after they've been scanned into the computer? Surely a summer intern in the editorial department might even have a good time reading this pleasant little mystery.

This is Mary Roberts Rinehart at her best. The author tells a haunting tale which is on a par with The Yellow Room. Rinehart is a master at setting the stage and draws the reader in with her unique stlye of mystery writting. She expertly developes the plot and her character descriptions are flawless. A real page turner and a great read.

For decades Mary Roberts Rinehart was the queen of mystery thrillers -- the American Agatha Christie. The Circular Staircase was Rinehart's first published novel (The Swimming Pool was her last), but it is a well-constructed work in ever way. Rinehart's special gift was in the evocation of an overlying and unremitting atmosphere of unease and potential danger and it is under such an atmosphere of apprehension that she spins her stories. For some time it has been fashionable to dismiss the novels of Mary Roberts Rinehart as old fashioned. This may apply to superficial details -- such as gas lighting -- but it definitely is not true of the novels themselves which are timeless in their ability to hold the reader in a grip of mystery and suspense. The Circular Stasircase is one of the finest mystery novels ever written.

and should be required for married couples to read together. It should make for some fascinating conversation.

Tolstoy adopts a scorched-earth policy in this novel which deflates the "sanctity" of marriage. The protagonist is a man on the edge, and it seems Tolstoy was there with him in the writing of this incandescent novella.

Chris McCandless, the ill-fated Alaskan voyager who died in a hunting shelter while trying to escape the ties of civilization, was reading this novel very close to his death. See the nonfiction "Into the Wild" for information on this...

I'm sure most of you have read the other two selections in this anthology, so I'll limit my comments to Kreutzer. This novel made my pulse race, a physical reaction I haven't had to a novel in quite a long time.

This little book contains three short stories: "How much land does a man need?", "The Death of Ivan Ilyich", and "The Kreutzer sonata". Although the stories are widely different, they share a common theme. All three expose the hollowness of modern life, with sometimes explicit, sometimes implicit reference to the Christian alternative Tolstoy espoused.

The first two are rather simple didactic tales, juxtaposing materialism, greed, and vanity with Christian sincerity and humility. I think a person's appreciation of these two stories hinges, to a great extent, on the reader's assessment of Tolstoy's solution to the unbridled greed and nauseating superficiality which he witnessed and we even moreso witness today.

The last story, The Kreutzer Sonata, is surely the best and the one with the most universal appeal. This follows from Tolstoy's uncanny ability to infiltrate human psychology and expose people for the frail and undignified beings we really are. In this story, he strives to reveal the self-deceit of marrying for "love" as opposed to marrying with an understanding of marriage as primarily an obligation to God. It seems that to Tolstoy, a life without repentance and duty to God must amount to a life where one is merely subject to the passions, a life that no one can want, just as described by "Schopenhauer and the Buddhists". Like Nietzsche, he is trying to tackle the problem of absence of meaning (posed by Schopenhauer), but he suggests the opposite of Nietsche's active nihilism. His purpose is to offer a life of sincerity, humility, and repentance; a life in accordance with the teachings of Jesus.

If you are looking to read the classics from a different perspective, this is an interesting story to read from a feminist theoretic perspective. I highly recommend reading "Intercourse" by Andrea Dworkin, as she includes an analysis of "The Kreutzer Sonata" in her book that provides a complex view of this story. Very interesting.

Oscar Wilde touches here a fundamental subject in Christian lore : Salome and John the Baptist, and through them Jesus and the prophesy that he is the Messiah. It would be a perfect subject for an opera because the events are contained in too short a time and the feelings and motivations are too simple and intensely concentrated for a dramaruc play. Salome asks for John's head out of spite because she could not possess him, because he refused to acknowledge her, and also because she knows this will mean the downfall of her step-father, the killer of her own father, and the incestuous husband of her mother. So vengeance is her second motivation. Those motivations are too simple to build up the tragical force of a play, but they are so intense that they could have inspired the most dramatic and powerful music. Oscar Wilde's language is beautiful in many ways but this beauty does not give any complexity to the simpleness of the emotions and motivations. This beautiful language could have become the carrier of a beautiful music. Actually we can hear the music of a Scarlatti, or of a Purcell behind the words, maybe even a Haendel. But as a play it is a little bit flat and without enough depth to build a beautiful performance. As a matter of fact the centrepiece of the play, the dance of the seven veils, is not a dramatic event but a visual and musical event. And we cannot in anyway escape the recollection of the fantastic little black and white film by Clive Barker on the subject. Salome is worth more than just a dramatic play. She can only find her full strength when music and dancing come into the picture, when it is fully visual and musical.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Perpignan

I found this book to a very quick and interesting read. Salome is both loved and feared by men. She uses her deadly seductive power to get anything she wants, almost.
The price of the book is so cheap how can you resist not buying it.

Wilde was the Irish Lord of the Language (English or French, it is the same). I concede that Michael Flatley is the Lord of the Dance... In any case, Wilde's words are worth being listened to. Salome possesses a rich texture of fine images and figures of speech that come to life through the voices of the actors.

This performance of "Salome" is a radio recording from a Canadian station broadcasted in the late sixties. It is too bad that radio theater be a rather defunct art. It has many values of its own. This abridged performance is based in the Alfred Douglas's translation of the original French play (Wilde wrote it directly in Frech, and it was the cause of his breaking up with Pierre Louys and serious trouble with Doulgas). I refrain from rating it with 4 stars because it is edited and abridged -slightly-.

Every interpretation is correct and some outstanding. It has even a fit original score. Wilde fans wouldn't be disapointed.