"superfluous man " (Russian : Lishny Chelovek) : a character type whose frequent recurrence in
19th-century Russian literature is sufficiently striking to make him a national archetype. He is
usually an aristocrat, intelligent, well-educated, and informed by idealism and goodwill but
incapable, for reasons as complex as Hamlet's, of engaging in effective action.
-Encyclopaedia Britannica

In his great autobiography, Memoirs of a Superfluous Man, Albert Jay Nock meant that he was
superfluous because his ideas, particularly his belief in freedom, had become so outmoded at the time
he was writing--the 1940s. But the original superfluous men were Russian nobles, who led utterly
meaningless lives of leisure, while peasants worked their land, servants took care of them, and
autocratic government mostly ignored them. They were felt to be superfluous because they had so
little to do and made so little contribution to Russian culture. For the most part though, they were
treated, in literature anyway, as kind of tragic heroes, as Russian Hamlets.

Thus, in Ivan Turgenev's novella, The Diary of a Superfluous Man, the young protagonist,
Tchulkaturin, humiliates himself in a romantic entanglement and a resulting duel, all the while
conveying the sense that there's nothing else really left for him to do with himself. Turgenev's
portrayal of this hopeless character combines tragicomedy with social criticism, but it is certainly more
sympathetic than not.

As always, Turgenev is the most accessible of Russian authors; the Constance Garnett translation is
very readable; and it is blessedly short. Even if you're, understandably, intimidated by Russian
novelists, you'll enjoy it.

GRADE : B+

The Diary of a Superfluous Man is a diary of a fictional 30 year old man written during the last two weeks of his life. The dying man, Tchulkaturin, is exceptionally introspective and obssessed with his sense of failure and inferiority. His heated sensibilities stifle his will. He was a particular type in Russian literature, especially hated by the reformers of the day. In their eyes, he made no social contribution--hence, the term "superfluous".
The Diary is not just a negative romp of a self-pitying aesthete. True, there's much complaints, hysteria, and sentimentality, but it's relieved by Tchulkaturin's amusing self-awareness. Likening himself to a useless fifth horse on a carriage, dragged along by life, he says, "But, thank goodness, the station is not far off." It was said that his birth was the "forfeit" his mother paid in the card game of life. Turgenev's ironic humor and relentless yet light-hearted social criticism add sharp levity.
Tchulkaturin supports his self-assessment as superfluous with the "folly" of his life, a failed three week love affair which he claims was his only happiness. Through this vehicle Turgenev explores the themes of love, passion, illusion and will versus weakness, which is also the focus of the companion story, First Love.
Tchulkaturin remembers bliss and humiliation, but he did take action. We see that no one wants to be rescued from passion, not even Tchulkaturin. Does it matter whether he reached his goal? The townspeople eventually esteemed him--perhaps he did make a social contribution and wasn't, afterall, a superfluous man. Irony upon irony and no answers.
In his small room, confronting death, Tchulkaturin realizes that none of the pathetic facts of his life matter. Yet he laments he has "gained sense" too late. He sees what things have had meaning for him. No matter how small, he wants to hold onto them--he wants to live. The tragedy is that Tchulkaturin is universal, not superfluous. He, like most of us, come to realize that it is part of the human condition to feel that happiness and life seem to have hardly begun when nearly over.
At the end of the diary, after Tchulkaturin has died, Turgenev adds another ironic touch that doubles as a social comment and as a device to force the infinitely unvarnished and necessary view that life goes on however it will, regardless of how we may think we have lived.
First Love is the story of an adolescent who falls in love with the same woman as his father. It sensitively portrays the transformation of a child to a young man, precipated by his first passion. The unusual triangle intensifies the suspence as we wonder how the son will find out who his rival is--he knows there is one. His inevitable realization deepens his emotional life and his understanding of the complexities of human life.
The story has an episodic structure from which the poetry and drama effortessly unfold, showing the son's growing love and helpless flip-flopping from child to man.The parlor games portentuously hint at the untold subplot. No character is wasted. Each has a distinct purpose for plot development and highlighting the boy's predicament.
Turgenev's incomparable nature depictions have such a clarity of vision that vivid and penetrating images automatically arise in the mind's eye whether he uses them to symbolically presage events or to reflect a character's emotional state. Or, Turgenev can use his visions of the expansive beauty of nature in opposition to the character's emotional condition to distance us from it to show human insignifcance in the face of the vastness of existence.
The pairing of The Diary with First Love is good. Each is a meditation on life, love and death. The juxtaposition of the two love stories, the neurotic dying man, the intelligent, passionate young son, and the powerful, archetypal father stimulate profound thought: How should life be lived--passionately or safely? Why to we cling to life so, no matter how we perceive it? Who decides whose life is superfluous and whose is meaningful? What are the criteria? Is any life meaningful? Does it matter how we have lived if we can discard our regrets and wonder at the paradoxical smallness and greatness of life? Is any significance we attach to life a mere crutch to face life or a crutch to face death? Each rereading of the stories reveals more perspectives and more layers of meaning.

You heard me. Read the headline over again, and then do what it says.

I like this book because there are a few little interesting short stories in it. The fairy tales want to tell us something about social problems. If you read this book it opens your eyes so that you can see that there are these problems in our society too. But the book is also good for little children, because the fairy tales are written in a nice language. They are very pretty,
My favourite story in the book is „The Selfish Giant". Because first the Giant is very selfish and doesn't want the children to play in his garden but afterwards he sees the happiness of the children when they play in his garden and this gives him happiness too. Also the relationship between the little boy and the Giant is great.

I am no expert on Oscar Wilde, but I've been reading fairytales long enough to be able to tell the difference between an enchanting story and a bunch of pap. The nine magically airy yarns in this small collection are definitely in the first category.

"The Happy Prince" and "The Selfish Giant" are perhaps the most famous of the nine. In the first story, the golden statue of a prince weeps for all the suffering people he sees and begs a swallow to strip him of his riches and distribute them to the masses. In the second tale, a giant builds a wall around his beautiful garden to keep out the noisy children, only to find out that he has also locked out the Spring.

"The Young King" is a variation on the theme of "A Happy Prince". When a young monarch learns of the suffering and misery caused by his requirement for a robe, a crown, and a sceptre, he refuses to handle any of these riches and is given a more fitting raiment by a Divine Power. Keeping with the royal theme is "The Star-Child", about a beautiful but horrible young boy whose physical appearance grows to match his ugly spirit. Another little bird appears in "The Nightingale and the Rose", to help a young man win the heart of the woman he loves.

The stories' themes include beauty, tragedy, agony, compassion, innocence, and (Platonic) love. Some characters give their lives, or sell their souls, in the name of love. There are also the same archetypes that appear in dreams: the Divine Child, the Trickster, the Wise Old Man or Woman, the Number 3, and more. Add all this to Wilde's delicate writing and gilded imagination, and you get some of the most original tales ever written.

Though most of these stories end happily, all end tragically. That is to say, even when the endings are happy, someone always dies. Each story manages to associate everything thrilling and exquisite about beauty with the starkness of death. Accordingly, not all of these tales are suitable for children. For example, one scene in "The Fisherman and His Soul" features witches dancing before the devil and the princess in "The Birthday of the Infanta" is a heartless child whose mockery leads to the death of a little dwarf. Though the stories are moral at the core, and often explicitly Christian, they do not always make sense.

Despite the faults, the keening, poignant loveliness shines through, making me want to read each story again and again and again.

This is the best book I've ever read.It is great for children as well as for grown ups,who shouldn't forget that they were children once too.

GBS wrote play with "approaching audiences as citizens capable of thought and prompting them to think imaginatively to some purpose" in mind, as Margery Morgan says. And there are plenty for one to think seriously about in Major Barbara.

The most interesting is his conviction that no money is untainted. That's interesting because it means the donations and public fundings the environmentalists take in come from no less than the evil polluters themselves, perhaps feeling, which GBS rightly agreed, as the Salvation Army would that they "...will take money from the Devil himself sooner than abandon the work of Salvation." But GBS also wrote in the preface that while he is okay to accept tainted money, "He must either share the world's guilt or go to another planet." From what I can gather from the preface and play, GBS believed money is the key to solve all the problems we have, hence his mentioning of Samuel Butler and his "constant sense of the importance of money," and his low opinion of Ruskin and Kroptokin, for whom, "law is consequence of the tendency of human beings to oppress fellow humans; it is reinforced by violence." Kropotkin also "provides evidence from the animal kingdom to prove that species which practices mutual aid multiply faster than others. Opposing all State power, he advocates the abolition of states, and of private property, and the transforming of humankind into a federation of mutual aid communities. According to him, capitalism cannot achieve full productivity, for it amis at maximum profits instead of production for human needs. All persons, including intellectuals, should practice manual labor. Goods should be distributed according to individual needs." (Guy de Mallac, The Widsom of Humankind by Leo Tolstoy.)

If GBS wasn't joking, then the following should be one of the most controversial ideas he raised in the preface to the play. I quote: "It would be far more sensible to put up with their vices...until they give more trouble than they are worth, at which point we should, with many apologies and expressions of sympathy and some generosity in complying with their last wishes, place them in the lethal chamber and get rid of them." Did he really mean that if you are a rapist once, you can be free and "put up with," but if you keep getting drunk (a vice), or slightly more seriously, stealing, you should be beheaded?

Shaw can be absolutely captivating even when he is being an evangelist for political philosophies that the twentieth century has proven to be nothing but vehicles for repression and mass murder (Communism - Shaw approved of Lenin even when the evidence showed him to be pure evil). This play-among his best (if you can see the movie with Rex Harrison, do not miss it)- has such brilliant dialogue and sparkling humor that it is easy to forget that one is being preached to. Shaw thinks human evil is due to socially deprived environments. Ergo, pour money into poor neighborhoods and social evils will vanish. Unfortunately for Shaw's argument, poverty and human evil are two different things entirely and only intersect occasionally and coincidently. The poor can be poor due to lack of opportunity or due to a culture of self-destructiveness (illegitmacy, drug/alcohol use, disdain for values that lead to achievement, disdain for skills that lead to steady employability). It is difficult to sustain an argument that the poor in the USA are so due to a lack of opportunity when recent immigrants have pretty much taken the available opportunities and ran with them, rapidly entering the middle classes within a generation of arriving here. Shaw simply cannot believe that anyone would choose to remain poor. Well, they can and do, when getting ahead means putting in 40+ hours a week, and not loafing all day on a street corner in an inebriated/stoned condition. Accepting that fact would have saved millions of lives that were sacrificed in the last century in the attempt to build a perfect "worker's paradise".
Leaving the silly premise behind the play aside, Shaw has crafted a startling piece of theatre and uses his magisterial command of the English language to amuse, provoke, and amaze the audience.

The playwright uncovers the debate about war and pacifism. Shaw also illuminates the poverty industry, and shows that all money is tainted. The play is a vehicle for a debate on philosophies, the burning issues of the day. Shaw shows that the audience can laugh and think, in the same play. Probably Britain's best known playwright, after Shakespeare, Shaw shines in Major Barbara

I have started to read a bit on Browning and decided to get an idea of his poetry. Given the price of this book, this was a good choice.

Browning covered a lot of ideas, and all are written very intelligently. Reading through this book though, may cause you to scratch your head. If you read it, enjoy each selection rather than try to read straight through.

This is what I mean by the arrangement; I poem on the killing of a loved one (Porphyria's Lover) precedes the Pied Piper of Hamelin. The jump in ideas can slow you down a bit. The arrangement is logical in that the editors printed the poems in groups according to the collection they were originally published in. These collections, in turn, are arranged in chronological order. This is good because you can watch Browning's work as time progresses.

There are 42 poems in this selection. It does include the great ones (I will abbreviate titles) like Andrea del Sarto, Caliban upon Setebos, Karshish, Childe Roland, My Last Duchess, Fra Lippo Lippi, The Bishop Orders His Tomb, Johannes Agricola, and others.

I would recommend this book for reflecting on the occasional work of a great poet.

Robert Browning is a treat, especially to read out loud. This book includes "My Last Duchess," of course, and some great poems like "The Bishop Ordering His Tomb" and "Fra Lippo Lippi." I like to think of Robert Browning as the first poet of the twentieth century since he really can't be put in a box with Tennyson or other popular poets of his own time. Also, he had a big influence on Ezra Pound who, in turn, had a big influence on many popular poets today.

Dover Thrift Editions are surprisingly well-constructed - they'll outlast, say, your Oxford World Classics paperbacks - and the poetry is usually very well selected. Oh...and they're cheap!

Robert Browning's poetyr is more difficult than his contmeporaries, arnold and tennyson (the lower-cases are intentional) and much better. Reading "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" makes one wonder why Kafka was so uplifting, yet the same poet also writes such charming verse for shildren as "The Pied Piper of Hamlin". A marvelous book!

Some people look on accounts of slavery as being only for black Americans to read. This is untrue. The horror and evil of slavery is something that every American should confront. This is not to hang or condemn anyone. Its just to say that a book like The Narrative of Sojourner Truth is something that everyone should read. I was at times stunned by Sojourner Truths startling courage in the face of the evil she faced. It was also enlightening to read about the slavery of the Northern states like New York and that so many people in that region still spoke Dutch even well into the 19th Century. I was infuriated reading about the treatment of the slaves but I also was inspired by Sojourner Truths dignity and strength. Much like the Nazi holocaust, slavery is a horror that must never be allowed to happen again. If everyone read books like this, we would be one step closer to making that a reality.

very much a must read
the way the words flow
with your thoughts
as if you were really there
to me it is a must read
nice book

Anyday, anywhere, this book: "The Narrative of Sojourner Truth", is a masterpiece. The hardship she endured, as well as other horrors of slavery will always live in our memories. Afterall, it is said that: 'The evil that men do lives after them'. Sojourner's courage and perseverance is commendable. There is a lot to learn from her.
I strain to keep myself from laughing each time a serious issue like Slavery is raised, and I see men and women do nothing but run for cover. The North accuses the South of having been too tenacious on slavery, and the South accuses the North of hypocrisy, insisting that she (the North), started it in the first place: by disguising the first slaves whom she brought (in 1619) to New Amsterdam (the present day New York) as "indentured servants".
Surely, the guilty are afraid and ashamed; but that changes nothing. Reality will always remain reality. This 138-paged book is a fantastic history memo. It is the real truth; from Sojourner Truth.

I was greatly impressed with "Great Short Stories by American Women," the anthology edited by Candace Ward. The stories in this volume were originally published between 1861 and 1930, and represent the work of some of the United States' best writers. The contents of the book are as follows:

Rebecca Harding Davis' "Life in the Iron Mills," a compelling piece of social protest; Louisa May Alcott's "Transcendental Wild Oats," a satiric view of life in a Utopian commune; Sarah Orne Jewett's "A White Heron," a reflection on men, women, and nature; Mary E. Wilkins Freeman's "A New England Nun," about an extended engagement; Charlotte Perkins Gilman's creepy "The Yellow Wall-Paper," about a woman who, diagnosed with "a slight hysterical tendency," is forced to undergo an oppressive treatment; Kate Chopin's lusty, sensuous "The Storm"; Edith Wharton's "The Angel at the Grave," an ironic study of the legacy of a famous philosopher; Willa Cather's "Paul's Case," a tale about a dandyish young man who just can't fit into society; Alice Dunbar-Nelson's "The Stones of the Village," a study of racism, shame, and secrecy; Susan Glaspell's "A Jury of Her Peers," a murder mystery which the author adapted from her own one-act play entitled "Trifles"; Djuna Barnes' multigenerational family story "Smoke"; Zora Neale Hurston's "Sweat," a story of a nightmarishly bad marriage; and Nella Larsen's chilling "Sanctuary."

This is an excellent, richly varied selection of thirteen tales. Unfortunately, the brief intros to each tale and its author commit the two cardinal sins of such intros: (1) They are excessively intrusive, sometimes revealing the stories' endings; and (2) they often leave out relevant information -- such as the knowledge that both Edith Wharton and Susan Glaspell received Pulitzer Prizes for their writing.

So, if you skip the brief story/author intros, you will find this to be a fine anthology, good both for literature courses and for individual reading.

"Great Short Stories by American Women" would be better titled "Short Stories by 19th Century Women." Although it is a new addition, the book does not encompass nearly enough genres of American Women. The highlight of the book is "The Yellow Wall Paper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. This Naturalistic story most accurately portrays the plight of women stuck in their unhappy gender role.

This book contains some key texts in 19th and early 20th Century American short fiction, including "The Yellow Wallpaper" and "Life in the Iron Mills," which are normally only available in volumes costing considerably more. A great teaching text.

Arthur Schnitzler's play "Hands Around" was first published in 1897, but (according to the brief prefatory note in the Dover edition), its controversial nature prevented it from being performed until 1920. The Dover edition contains an English translation of the play.

"Hands Around" is a cycle of ten dialogues, each of which is linked to the previous and following dialogue through one or the other speaker. Thus, "The Girl of the Streets and the Soldier" is followed by "The Soldier and the Parlor-Maid," which is in turn followed by "The Parlor-Maid and the Young Man," etc. The couple in each dialogue is about to have, or has just had, a sexual encounter.

Through his characters, the Vienna-born Schnitzler holds up a harsh mirror to the dishonesty, hypocrisy, and loneliness of life. There are some passages of truly dark cynicism. Consider this statement of "the Count" to "the Actress": "Happiness? There really is no such thing as happiness. All the things that people talk about most, don't exist... for instance, love."

Schnitzler paints a rather bleak portrait of human nature. His characters' disturbing inner lives are ironically complemented by surroundings that are either sadly shabby or elegantly decadent. Overall, "Hands Around" is a fascinating, if uneven, work of European theater.

It was a pleasure to read this short play that involves 8 people whose affairs or near-affairs link to each other. (For example, A is the wife of B who is in love with the chambermaid C who has a passioa for businessman D who is still lonely and seeks out prositiute E....etc.) The writing is clear and concise, and full of tension and erotic suggestion. For eighty cents, this is the best bargain in the entire Amazon catalog.

Though the last reveiw was good enough to compel me to read this play, the writer is a bit off. Hands Around involves 10 people who each have affairs with two lovers. Each scene involves the dialouge between the lovers before and after they have sex. It starts with the "girl of the streets", who has sex with a soldier, who forces himself upon the maid, who is suduced by the young man, etc. and ends with the girl of the streets... I found the play not only intruiging because of its bold approach torwards promiscuity but also because of the time it was written; 1890. It was only first publicly presented in the 20's and even then was condemed for the scandal it created. I read this in one sitting, first because it's short and you could easily finish it in under an hour, but also because I couldn't put it down. If this play is ever performed near where I live, I will have to see it. Everyone should have the privledge of enjoying this work and now that it's in dover-thirft editions you can get it for less than a what a sandwich might cost you.

I buy these Dover sticker books in bulk... my two year-old LOVES them and they work great to keep her occupied quietly during plane trips. The kitten book is naturally one of her favorites, very cute and fun.

Of all the Dover little activity books, this is one of my favorites. The kitten is drawn very realistically, but still has a nice expression. The pale pastels of the clothes compliment the fashions perfectly. It's a great deal for a buck!

Very cute stickers. Perfect for activities in car or restaurants. Great value.

......this intro to John Keats is no exception to the Dover Thrift Edition collection of poetry books that introduce readers to certain poets or movements within poetry for a great price. Many of Keats' most famous are included in their entirety here (except for the longer ones such as "Hyperion" and "Lamia"): "Ode on a Grecian Urn", "Ode to a Nightingale", "Isabella", and "On Seeing the Elgin Marbles" for a total of thirty poems. In each, his stunningly beautiful descriptions and amazing lyrics are evident. It becomes evident to the reader why Keats was one of the foremost poets of the Romantic era. My only regret is that this collection doesn't tell us more about the poet himself, which surely would have enriched the experience of his poetry for first time readers.

Lyric Poems is a small book containig several beautiful writings about the world. It seems to plant ideas and imagination into even the most un-imaginative people. There are a few poems I didn't care for, but don't let that stop you from purchasing this book. I liked it (and I'm pretty picky!) ... I bet you'll ike it too!

The poetry of John Keats is a remarkable discovery for the reader unfamiliar with his works. His poetry is timeless. I have read this small Dover edition innumerable times and with each reading I gain further pleasure from his works. I find it almost inconceivable that Keats only lived 25 years. His early death, due in part to an extended hiking tour, is almost without parallel. It is as though Shakespeare had died after producing only a few plays.

The Dover edition, priced only at a dollar, represents much of Keats' better known, shorter poems. They are arranged chronologically (the best are not at the beginning) and illustrate his growth as a poet. If you are new to Keats, I suggest that you skip around, maybe focusing on the shorter poems in the beginning. But don't wait too long to delve into the longer The Eve of St. Agnes. And sample the Odes of Keats, possibly his best lyric poetry.

I found it helpful to make a few notes in the margin for unfamiliar words and expressions, particularly archaic terms. My notes assisted me considerably in second and third readings.

I knew of John Keats, but had not read his poetry. But some time ago I happened to read Perinne's Sound and Sense, an excellent guide to reading poetry, and developed some interest in Keats. You might find this text a useful reference.

I also recommend an audio tape (ISBN 0-8045-0868-2), Treasury of John Keats, read by Robert Spaeight and Robert Edison. The readings are quite exceptional. I especially enjoyed The Eve of St. Agnes.

"Monday or Tuesday: Eight Stories," by Virginia Woolf, is an intriguing collection that holds up to re-readings. The copyright page of the Dover Thrift edition notes that the book is an unabridged republication of the edition published in 1921.

In many of these stories conventional notions of plot and character are apparently thrown out the window in favor of a dreamlike, experimental style. At times the stories in this book remind me of the work of Gertrude Stein. Woolf crafts some really memorable phrases and visual images.

The longest of the 8 stories, "A Society" (pp. 3-16) is about a group of women who form a "society for asking questions" about male contributions to the world. This piece has a rich satirical flavor; in it Woolf raises questions about female creativity and procreativity, the nature of fiction, and the impact of female literary artists.

Although at times I often found Woolf's writing obscure, I enjoyed her elegant prose style.

This book of eight stories by Virginia Woolf shows Virginia's mind at work demonstrating her "stream of consciousness." Each story flows from one thought to another asking different questions about life. For example, "The Mark on the Wall" questions the meaning of life and existence. "An Unwritten Novel" is about what people hide and what you don't know about a person you seat next to on an "omnibus." All these stories will make you look at life in a slightly different way.

This volume of short stories is a good re-introduction to an author most of us probably haven't seen since High School. The stories are engaging and thought-provoking, and the length is manageable even to someone out of practice with the stream of conciousness style. I carried this book to read between classes one semester and enjoyed the challenge of reading something better than standard leisure fare. This book made me want to see more Virginia Woolf. Well recommended.