Don't spend the extra money for this translation. Buy the Dover Thrift edition. You get the same story for a buck or two, and this translation is nothing spectacular.

There was a point at which some critics contended that "Prometheus Bound" was not actually written by Aeschylus, arguing that someone else, perhaps his son Euphorion, who was also a dramatist, The argument hinged on the portrait of Zeus in the play, which is highly critical of the king of the Gods and at odds with the wise and just Zeus of the "Orestia." Since we have only a half-dozen complete plays of the ninety Aeschylus is believed to have written, it is difficult to make a judgment regarding his entire body of work. However, we do have fragments from the other plays in the trilogy, "Prometheus Unbound" and "Prometheus the Fire-Carrier," which suggest that what happens in this first play sets the stage for an evolving Zeus, who eventually finds his better nature when he achieves a reconciliation with the rebel Titan. Given the dramatic scope of the "Orestia," with its evolving notion of justice, it seems to me reasonable enough that Aeschylus was attempting something similar with this trilogy.

"Prometheus Bound" finds the titan, who defied Zeus and gave humanity the saving gift of fire (among other sins), bound on a remote mountain peak with iron spikes driven through his flesh by the unwilling Hephaestus and his assistants Might and Violence, allegorical figures who define the source of Zeus's power. The scenes of the play consist of a series of dialogues between Prometheus and the ancient god Oceanus (the chorus consists of the daughters of Oceanus), Io, a woman turned into a cow because of Zeus's attentions, and Hermes, who wants to know the secret held by Prometheus that threatens the power of Zeus. Prometheus (whose name means "foresight") refuses and is then cast into the underworld to be punished further. At the heart of the play is the conflict between the immovable will of Prometheus and the irresistible force of the power of Zeus.

Clearly this tragedy speaks to an archetypal human condition, wherein physical power seeks to break the mind of an individual to its will. The audience is caught in a dilemma, for on one side is the king of the gods and on the other is the savior of humanity, for without the gift of fire early man was doomed. Indeed, that was clearly the intent of Zeus. Consequently, like Prometheus, the audience is caught between their own rock and a hard place. Fortunately, by the end of the trilogy Aeschylus gives his audience an out, for the Zeus who is represented in this play is transformed into a more acceptable deity in the end. Even without those plays and knowing the innovative brilliance of Aeschylus as a tragic dramatist, we can certainly appreciate the overall story arc that begins with this play. For teachers who do not want to contend with the entire "Orestia" or have to contend with editing it down for students, "Prometheus Bound" represents a single work by Aeschylus that is equally as pivotal to our understanding of classical mythology.

Prometheus Bound is the tale of Prometheus, a titan, who is being punished by Zeus. It is an interesting story and well worth the read, although it is only the first of three plays. The other two are lost to us. The price alone makes this a great deal.

We don't need to see the Little Mermaid's nipples.
(I can never understand why the people who cry out that the nudity is "JUST art!" don't notice that it is never underdressed males, but little girls that we have to look at.)

Amazon.com rates this book for ages 4 - 8, but the text is difficult and violent, and the admittedly lovely art is appropriate for graphic novels in the _Sandman_ vein, not for kids.

Yes, it is a lovely story, yes, it was dark to begin with, and no it is not a children's book.

Good translation, pretty (aside from the gratuitousness) illustrations earn 2 stars.

Sulamith Wulfing's art is gorgeous! Unfortunately, most of the reviews I see here are NOT for her book! They are reviews of the version Rachel Isadora illustrated (see the "nipples" and violence comments); or even for Disney's Little Golden Book adapted from the cartoon. I don't understand why reviews for other versions are displayed here; it's very misleading! If you like Sulamith Wulfing's art, you'll probably like this book.

The Little Mermaid. Illustrated by Sulamith Wulfing; text by Hans Christian Andersen. Translated from the German by Petra Michel.

Sulamith Wulfing is a fantastic artist whose work has been sold as books of plates, calendars, and even decks of cards. This book is special because it is one of the few times that her works illustrate a story. Each page has black and white line drawings and there are ten full page color plates. The color plates are the type of work for which the artist is most known and the ten in this book have been reprinted in her calendars and other collected works. The color is vibrant and the themes of each are sublime. The cover illustration is also the last illustration in the text and shows the mermaid transformed into The Immortal Soul.

An epilog called "The Sacrifice" written by the artist's son, Otto Schulze, states that a new translation of Andersen's story was used and that "parts of the story have been summarized." While staying true to Andersen's original plot, incidents and characters have been left out and parts of the story have been changed. These changes raise the story above being a children's fairy tale and highlight its allegorical theme about the role of love in the quest for immortality. The modified text and the mystical art go together excellently to make this the best rendering of this story I have ever seen. Originally published in German in 1953, this work is as vibrant today as when it was first conceived 50 years ago.

At the end of the book is a brief one page biography of the author with an early photograph of her and a self portrait painted in 1953.

As with most high school students, I was required to read and analyze "To An Athlete Dying Young." Its simple structure, elementary language and subject matter to which I could relate all made it one of my favorite poems at the time. Now, years later, it remains very interesting and drew me into A Shropshire Lad. I was curious to see the other material Housman published and was thrilled to find that all of his work shared similar attractive qualities. His poetry is accessible to even the most novice poetry readers (like myself) and clearly expresses complicated thoughts with beatiful language. Housman's empasis on the brevity of life, death and war are not happy topics, but they are realistic and it is valuable to consider his concise thoughts. I think this book, which essentially follows the life cycle, is full of fascinating poetry that anyone will enjoy, no matter what level you wish to analyze the material. It is a terrific collection.

...in A. E. Housman's "A Shropshire Lad." He is obsessed with death and the brevity of time. He is determined to wring meaning out of a teen soldier's blood-soaked shirt, to bring beauty out of tragedy.

Poets' critical reputations move up and down like a sine curve. Given the increasingly unread status of poetry, however, one would think that Housman's rep would be on the upswing, since he presents his ideas with clear language, pleasant rhyme, simple trochaic or iambic meter, archetypal imagery, and intense emotion; his is among the most plain and accessible poetry a major author has ever crafted, a boon to the genre at a time it's largely being ignored.

Still, people tend to read Housman wrong. They claim he's either promoting or deriding war. In fact, he's doing neither; war is simply an unfortunate fact of life for Housman. People must confuse him for Wilfred Owen, who actually does fulminate against war or Rudyard Kipling, who actually does promote it.

... Even the lovely rural setting of the poems, which in another book he refers to as "the land of lost content," suggests the rapture and freedom of boyhood is being mourned as it passes. Battle death is often a stand-in here for the death of innocence. War is only slightly more awful toward the body than time itself. War is only Housman's metaphor; love is his objective.

This review refers to the Dover Thrift Edition Paperback of "A Shropshire Lad"....

Without getting too analytical of the poetry itself or the meaning of Housman's works,as I am not a poet myself, I will say that I throughly enjoyed this edition of "A Shropshire Lad". Although Housman's words at times may seem a bit like the antedote to exhilaration, he seems to speak from the heart and wisely about the cycle of life. The never ending scheme of things.The seasons and the earth changing year by year. Young men falling in love, going off to war, coming home wounded, dead, or finding their loves no longer want them. It brought to mind for me, the song by Peter, Paul and Mary "Where Have All The Flowers Gone".

Although these words were first published well over 100 years ago, I found there is still meaning in his words.Many of the lines in this book I found to still be quoted today. For example in poem LVI-"The Day of Battle", he ponders this:

"Comrade, if to turn and fly
Made a soldier never die,
Fly I would, for who would not?
Tis sure no pleasure to be shot

But since the man that runs away
Lives to die another day,
And cowards' funerals, when they come,
Are not wept so well at home,........."

This Dover Thrift Edition is a great value for the price. It contains all sixty-three original poems of "A Shropshire Lad" including XIX-"To An Athlete Dying Young"(which you've heard if you have seen the film "Out of Africa"). It has an index with notes on the text which will clarify some of the names and places Housman uses that might be of geographic or historical value to the reader, and also has an index of the first lines, helpful in finding a specific poem. It's a small lightweight book you can easily throw in your purse, briefcase or even a large pocket, that you can pull out to read while you have time to kill or while traveling. It's something to add to your cart when you need just a little bit more to put you into that free-shipping catagory!

Dover Thrift has many of these little books of great literary works, I plan on adding more to my collection....enjoy....Laurie

Mr. Dover makes many assumptions, which may not be to ones benefit. Simply telling an agency to cease communication for example may stop the annoying phone call, but may speed a lawsuit in the debtors direction. Silence is not always golden. Be careful, examine your situtations carefully before taking Mr. Dovers advice.

Sending cease and desist letters works really well. And, since the collection agency has no rights whatsoever (as most people fail to realize) this bounces the ball back into the court of the person you actually owe money to-- stop wasting money giving it to collection agencies which will ruin your credit and not pay your debt- instead renegotiate with your debtor and save %20 or more-- this book is worht far more than it costs if you are in debt and behind in payments.

A friend recommended this book to me, and I have since recommended and in some cases, loaned, it to others. It literally saved me from making a huge mistake -- I still refer to this book from time to time.

The sample "CEASE & DESIST" letters in the appendices are tried and true and stop third-party debt collectors dead in their tracks. Once you have an understanding of your rights and how to exercise them, you will not feel so overwhelmed. Mr. Dover does an excellent job navigating and explaining the laws relating to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

Do not be afraid to utilize the information in this book. Living in the lawsuit capital of the world, I have spent a lot of time researching both federal and state laws, and found Mr. Dover to be extremely accurate. If your account has been referred to an outside collection agency and the original creditor refuses to work with you, there is nothing to lose at this point.

This is the first tating bok I ever bought, and I have been quite disappointed with the patterns.
There's some angles and some snowflakes, but a lot of the patterns are "one shuttle" works and I just can't make those look right because I can somehow never get the "bits of thread between rings" to be the same length.
However the book has some very interesting patterns in it, like a 3d butterfly which I really want to make but since I have no clue of the english crocheting terms and those would be necessary to finish the butterfly I'm a little stuck *g*

Anyway. if you're able to do "one shuttle work" really well and like stars and collars (3 of those in the book) this book might be just the thing for you :-)

I find the directions are difficult to follow. The patterns are pretty and useful. It takes extreme concentration to determine just what the author is asking when joining. I had to make 4 angels until I got it right which is not the case in other patterns I have followed.

I'm just learning how to tat and found these patterns easy to follow. I'm working my way through the book with plans to make them all. I haven't learned to use a shuttle yet and am doing them with the needle tatting method and have been able to adapt the patterns without too much difficulty.

I chose this book to read and analyse a couple of years ago. It seemed to have simple meaning, but the more I tried to analyse, the more outstanding I found the book, and far from simple.
Helen Alving is a widow and is keeping a secret. One day she tells her friend Manders and he's quite shocked. It all has to do with some money from her dead husband that she doesn't want her son to have. Oswald, her son, comes home from abroad with very sad news. He is ill, and there isn't a cure for him. When Mrs. Alving is told that it was most likely inherited, she tells her son the secret too, and that changes his view on his father. As the book goes on, the intriques grow bigger...
Ibsen is probably more known for his play "A Doll House", but this one is just as great. He was very critical of the society and most, if not all, of his books often has a somewhat hidden story where he debates social matters and also morals. He use symbols and mostly contrasts to give the play a certain atmosphare and meaning. I believe this is one of Ibsen's greatest plays and strongly recommend it to anyone.

Although Henrik Ibsen is the first great modern dramatist, his play "Ghosts" ("Gengangere") bears a strong similarity to ancient Greek drama, where the "tragic flaw" of the protagonist lives on in his children. However, in this story the curse on the Alving family has a medical basis. Published in 1881 but not performed until the next year because of its controversial subject matter, "Ghosts" deals with the impact of congenital venereal disease on a family. "Ghosts" strongly reflects Ibsen's desire to attack hypocrisy and conventional morality and caused even more of a furor that his previous drama, "A Doll's House."

Helen Alving is building an orphanage as a memorial to her late husband and the night before the dedication she confesses to her old friend Parson Manders that her husband had been a "degenerate," and she is building the orphanage using her husband's "dirty" money so only her own money will pass on to her son, Oswald, who has just returned from living abroad. But then Oswald confesses he has a debilitating, incurable disease that the doctors believe was inherited. Even from beyond the grave, the "ghost" of Captain Alving ruins the life of his family. Mrs. Alving has to confess her husband's past to their son, destroying the young man's idealized view of his father. Knowing he is dying, Oswald wants to seduce the maid, Regina, so that when he enters the next stage of the disease she will give him poison. Oswald does not care that Regina is really his half-sister, and in the end it will be his mother's decision whether or not to give her son the poison when Oswald begins to have his attack.

The ending of the play constitutes a Rorschach test for the audience, with Ibsen refusing to let them off the hook. "Ghosts" is probably the Ibsen drama that relies most on symbolism, from the heavy use of light/dark imagery to the purifying aspects of fire, to the obvious symbolism of ghosts. Consequently, I think this makes "Ghosts" one of the easier plays by Ibsen for students to analyze. Final Argument: Reading Ibsen's plays in order has greater benefit than usual. If you read "A Doll's House," "Ghosts," "An Enemy of the People," and "The Wild Duck," then you will see the playwright struggling to find a play that will reflect his deeply held beliefs and also find widespread critical and public acceptance. The relationship between each set of plays in the progression becomes insightful, as Ibsen either extends or reverses elements of the previous drama. For teachers of drama there might not be a better quartet of plays to study to show the growth of a major dramatist.

If a great dramatist did not challenge the binding social restrictions back in late 19th century, it would probably have taken longer for us to break the chains of convention. Ibsen contributed to the liberation of society and its rules using dramatic pieces like Ghosts. I don't want to give out the plot, but basically it's about a catastrophe created when the characters adhered to outdated social norms instead of following their hearts. The play is written after the classical Greek style of tragedy, so there's a strong taste of Sophecles in Ghosts. The play begins less than 24 hours before its end, and Ibsen's greatness is clearly shown by his ability to pack so much plot and message in so few words. When read today, the figures in Ghosts may seem ridiculous, for they strictly follow outdated rules that we all belittle today. But had not Ibsen had the courage to attack them, we might still be living under those rules now. Definitely a great piece.

I am fairly new to this stuff, I started doing henna tattoos on my feet and hands last summer. This is hard stuff! This book was full of great designs. It is not a book of stencils, please dont buy it if that is what you are looking for. If you are looking for ideas, and designs- this is a top knotch book for you!

We bought this book for the sole purpose of finding inspriation for henna/mehndi designs. Some designs are great for mehndi. My husband made a really nice elephant on my leg.

the book is really cool it is very useful art. the artist has used really original ideas never sen before.we need to have more titles (new) from the artist.

Nothing real spooky in this book. It's more home decor and not fright. I was looking for a little bit scarier. And there weren't many recipes, not many costumes and nothing real spectacular. It seems like a Martha Stewart takeoff. I got one good treat idea and one good paper bag/candle idea and that's about it. I think there are a lot of other books that would be more worth buying. I was very glad I checked it out at the library first. That's what I recommend most. Go to your library and take a look at it first. I was glad I did.

I love this book! The craft projects are beautiful, functional, and diverse, presented beautifully with great photography and art production value. Notes and articles about various aspects of Hallowe'en are interspersed throughout, making this resource much more than just a how-to book. It's a joy to look at, whether you're in the mood to read, create, or just look at great seasonal photos and illustrations.

Nicely written and illustrated with color photos of virually all projects. Projects are not too complicated, but more decorative than scary. More fall oriented than strictly Halloween. I prefer Martha Stewarts book; it was smilar but more original.

I like the designs, but the total black and white with tiny blocks makes the patterns hard to read. The designs are good, but lacking in color, so if you feel like playing around with them a bit, this is a great book - especially considering the price. Otherwise, I'd probably recommend staying away from it and going with a more expensive, though much more readable and more colorful alternative.

This book has many different designs available. The designs can be a bit small, and a bit difficult to read. I highly recommend taking these charts and enlarging them before starting work on them. There are a great variety in designs, some will take a while to complete, while others can be completed in much less time.

WOW! For the price this book is absolutely wonderful. All the patterns are in black & white, but it's still just as useful as most of the $...-$... celtic cross-stitch books.