It is undeniable that J.M. Synge was a very important Irish playwright of the early 20th century. These plays, especially, "Playboy of the Western World," are pivotal to Irish literature, and now, Irish culture. Any serious student of British drama, or actor should read both of these plays.

On the other hand, it may not be an ideal idea for someone that does not fall into one of those two catagories. The dialectic style is very thick, and at times difficult to understand. "Playboy," an important (and early) Irish peasant drama is beautifully writen, but for a casual reader it would probably come off as a slow read that is not all that entertaining.

Important work from cultural and recent historical perspectives, but these plays are very dated and, as I mentioned, not the most entertaining read.

First off, I write in favor of the works of Synge; yet, I find it unfortunate that Amazon is not offering a better version than the Dover Thrift. Synge's symbolism will pull you in and embrace you and warm out to his style. John Millington Synge was a lover of words and dialect, he even says that he only used words that he heard being used in Ireland. Both of these plays are well written and full of symbolism. For the serious love of Irish Literature or drama, J.M. Synge is a must. Read on...

This book has lovely pictures, although the author admits she has taken the liberty to decide which should be included for each year. It would be an even better book if the articles were named, better yet a small description, sometimes I wondered if a shoe were a man or woman's.

I think the book is good but stops short of being great but it is interesting and I would like to a sequel with the other drawings that were left out of this edition.

This review is from the viewpoint of a home sewer and crafter who adores vintage clothing, not a fashion historian, designer or illustrator.

Never having purchased any of the Pictorial Archives series before, I was surprised and initially disappointed by the black and white illustrations and the complete lack of text.

While it is fascinating to see how fashion accessories evolved over the decades there is no indication of whether an item was casual and day wear, or dressier for afternoon or evening. An index naming the style of each piece and/or notes explaining popular colors of the day would be helpful.

The black and white illustrations do render the detail of the accessories beautifully. With over 2,000 copyright free illustrations of wide variety of styles for men, women and children included I look forward to years of inspiration for fashion embellishment.

This is an OK book with only one character, Nell, to redeem it. The rest is just not good enough. The whole tie-in with Elizabeth II of England is not inspiring although a message that everyone wants to be special is a nice touch. If the author focused more on Nell and her mother, then the book would have been better. I also felt that the author was too removed from the action. She was writing about them in such reserved manner that it was impossible to "escape" reality with this one. The writing talents of Judith Saxton need to be re-evaluated although her plot development is quite gool.

I really liked this book alot. I felt really drawn to Nell and her mothers story the most. Actually I wish the whole book was all about them. I think I'll read it again!

I read the Subjection of Women for my 17th Century Philosophy class. I found it interesting, but hard to read. Mill tends to be repetative and wordy. He is very much the early feminist until you get to page 86 or 87 when he tells you that for all women can do, they should stay home and care for the family anyway. I would suggest that others read this book, but give yourself time, because about 20 pages a night was all that I could muster. At 100 pages it's not too long, but could have been said with more clarity and organization.

Mill states here that he still believes traditional gender roles (as we now call them) are desirable, but, being John Mill, he passionatly believes in the freedom of lifestyle choice for the individual. Hard to argue with that.

I feel the same way about this book as I do about the Tatting Hearts book - i wasn't oohing and aahing about the designs, and it was more like a lesson in split rings, and the designs were an excuse to use them. I didn't like ONE butterfly design in this book, and a lot of them didn't look like butterflies.

I was really surprised because I had heard great things about these books, and i was hoping to find some cute hearts and butterflies to tat. Try to look at a copy first before you buy!

For such a small, inexpensive book, TATTING BUTTERFLIES includes a lot of information about tatting styles and techinques. The Reverse Riego style, directional joins, reverse double knots, lark's heads, split rings, directional tatting, stacking, three beading techniques, and the Dora Young knot are explained. The five motif designs and their variations provide opportunities to practice these techniques, and there are not only "butterflies", but four chain edging designs. I was thoroughly impressed with the way the art of tatting is advanced through this book.

The only weaknesses are the line drawings, some of which are "jagged", as if a bitmap graphics program were used instead of a vector application to render smoothly curving lines. And on a purely subjective note, the stylized butterflies look more like elaborate corners for handerkerchief edgings. I haven't figured out why the word "butt" is used to indicate the part of an insect known as an abdomen, but the author is probably not an entomologist. The "Tatbit" (an anthropoid figure) on the cover "being carried off by butterflies to a tatting paradise" is rather odd.

All in all, however, this is an intriguing book to add to your tatting collection for the various techniques that it explains.

The Red House Mystery by A.A Milne was a mystery set in the late 1900's. The story was about a lady named Miss Stevens in the red house. There is a man or a woman that is killing people, so the public has to try and figure out who did it, when and how. This is probably one of the best mystery stories I have ever read. This book really had a lot of suspense and surprising points. I think you'll be very shocked about what happens at the end. I recommend this book to whoever likes mysteries or who is at a high school level.

"I envy those readers who are coming to this lighthearted masterpiece for the first time," writes Douglas G. Greene in the introduction of A. A. Milne's "The Red House Mystery." Since Greene is considered the leading expert on John Dickson Carr--one of the greatest Golden Age detective novelists--I was tremendously excited by his recommendation and plunged into the book straightaway.

It took me a little under two weeks to finish. Yes, for a book that isn't even two hundred pages. The story features Antony Gillingham and Bill Beverley as a rather unlikely Holmes and Watson who set out to unravel a bizarre murder at the Red House. Although Gillingham and Beverley make an interesting pair, the way they tackle the problem is a bit too languid and leisurely for my taste (and I usually thrive on cozy mysteries), and since there is virtually no action and almost no other major characters to focus on--well, it's not exactly a page-turner. There are a few nifty plot tricks--one twist involving a door key is particularly clever--but the resolution (which falls back on that most irritating of cliches, the letter of confession) doesn't carry much in the way of suspense or surprise.

Still, it's all very witty and well-written, and the droll humor that spawned "Winnie-the-Pooh" is very much in evidence. Anglophiles will treasure it for its delineation of mid-1920s England alone. But I was expecting a masterpiece, and as a detective novel, "The Red House Mystery" is no masterpiece--but then again, Mr. Milne is no John Dickson Carr.

This was the most fun I've had reading a mystery since I read the Hardy Boys as a kid. It seems you should be reading it under the covers with a flashlight. In The Red House Mystery, A.A. Milne (of Pooh fame) lets us pal around with Tony Gillingham, a jack-of-all-trades who is trying his hand a being a detective. The setting is an English country house loaded with guests, including the British major, the willful actress, and the dim-but-lovable young athlete. These are stock characters; Tony and his friend Bill even gleefully refer to each other as "Holmes" and "Watson". It's all very playful, despite the corpse. So much so that Tony and Bill are guilty about how much fun they are having.

There are tons of mentions of amateur theatricals and acting. Tony is playing at being a detective and so is the reader, which draws you into the story alongside him. In a way you are competing with Tony and Bill to solve the crime. It's a fair contest: only amateurs allowed. Milne gives you all the clues, even to the point of saying things like "This would be important later." In the reader's head a siren goes off and a sign lights up saying "CLUE". Tony and Bill bounce theories off each other and the theories change as the clues mount up. Still, Tony is always ahead of Bill (and probably the reader). He knows the real question in a mystery is not "How?" but "Why?"

The best parts are the gasps of surprise and moments of anticipation while we wait in darkness for the sounds of approaching footsteps. Milne has a great way of setting the mood, whether it's nervous tension or eager curiosity. A fun mystery is like opening up a big present: You can't wait to know what it is. Milne conveys this sense of "I need to know" in this his one-and-only mystery novel. If you're like me, you'll need to know and keep saying to yourself, "One more chapter and I'll put out the light."

I have several Russian phrasebooks. Except for one I have that had nothing at all in English/Greek alphabet phonetic pronounciations, this book is pretty useless.All the phonetics written in the greek alphabet are in a horribly hard to read print, and are too overly phoneticized with extra letters that bring you to the point of confusion. That is, if you can even make any sense of them. It's not clear where the stress on the word should be, which of course, is very important so that you don't sound like a buffoon when talking to Russian people. I was looking at the book, and saying to myself, if I didn't have any prior knowlege of this language, or live where people speak Russian, I wouldn't be able to make out one thing in this book. I'd say it's A WASTE OF $1.50, even such an inexpensive investment won't pay off, especially for someone just beginning. Go for the Lonely Planet Russian Phrasebook with 2 way dictionary. THAT'S a GREAT book, it's availiable here at amazon too. Spend only a little more, and get a book that REALLY gives you EVERYTHING you need to learn how to speak Russian. Da Svidanya sa seechyas!

I confess that I have some previous experience with the Russian language and that had I not already known basic letter sounds and inflection I might not have gotten much from this book. Out of curiosity, I asked my 8 year old to try some of the words and short phrases and she did pretty well in sounding everything out.

The best section of this book deals with food. In a situation when you have very little Russian but desperately need to tell the waiter "Without cheese, please" or something similar this book is aces. It also teaches everyday pleasantries for travellers but a person would need much more than is contained in this book to get around a Russian speaking country comfortably.

Hey, for a dollar fifty cents, even if you only get a few phrases out of it, it's small and would be good to stuff in your briefcase or bag for quick reference in a pinch. Worst case scenario, you could point to the necessary words as they are well grouped according to the situation or topic at hand.

If you can read Cyrillic, and know basics of pronounciation and a little grammar, this book is great! A fellow reviewer commented that you can't lose by buying a book for $1.50 or $2.00, and I agree, as long as you fulfill the few basic conditions above.

This book is packed with "690 basic phrases for everyday use." There's very short mundane and useful phrases like "Please speak slowly", "I am an engineer", "Wait a moment!", "Please show me the way --", "Send my regards to your aunt and uncle" to longer, more useless phrases like "You indicate the amount of insurance on the form. What does it contain?" (Useless unless you work in the Russian insurance business, of course.)

Each phrase is written in English, cyrillic, and then a phonetic english representation of the cyrillic. It's not too bad, if you follow just the phonetic representations, but preferably you should go pick up some pronounciation from a recording or a friend or a teacher who speaks russian.

When you're at the stage of knowing a little Russian, having a small book like this to read through helps build vocabulary and idiomatic knowledge.

Caveat Emptor: it's totally worthless by itself! The inside of the book says that this was originally a manual accompanying a Dover recording called "Listen & Learn Russian." Of course, leave it to Dover to squeeze a buck out of a now-defunct recording.

Knowing I would be forced to study this work for my A Level in English Lit, I was sure I would enjoy it due to the comedy and satire involved. I was wrong. As the first reviewer claimed, The Way of the World is just like a soap opera! I appreciate the intention of Congreve was to satirise the follies of the upper classes at the time but this does not make the play any less tedious. The plot is unnecessarily complex and rather difficult to follow at times. It all boils down to romance and infidelity in the end, as one might expect. Granted, it is fairly well written, but if there's a stupid plot and irritating, useless characters, no amount of creative flair in writing can compensate. As well as that, the language, while not difficult, is different from that of modernity so makes it awkward. OK, we expect this from an 18th century piece of literature, but it still causes problems for a modern audience/reader. The worst thing was being told by the teacher when we were meant to laugh - that obviously kills any comedy value in the play. Exam boards should add some more modern plays to their syllabus! Not to mention ones with meaningful, interesting plots and characters. This is not worth the paper it's written on, in my humble opinion.

Yikes! Let's see here...

Mirabell is in love with Milamant, who is the niece of Lady Wishfort, who hates Mirabell because he pretended to be in love with her. Her daughter is Mrs. Fainall, who had an affair with Mirabell that resulted in her marrying Fainall (she thought she was pregnant) who she doesn't love and who is having an affair with Marwood, who is secretly in love with Mirabell and would do anything to keep him from marrying Millamant, who, by the way, loves him and hates him at the same time.

And that's all before the play even starts. This play, often heralded as "the best of the Restoration plays" (ironic, since it was a commercial failure for Congreve) is witty, complex, and very hard to keep up with. The plot revolves around who will get Lady Wishfort's inheritance and how, and some of the things they try are quite ridiculous. It has funny moments -- mostly provided by Mirabell's wit and the tomfoolery of Witwoud and Petulant, the comic relief. But it ends up just being pretty long and convoluted.

Go read Shakespeare.

I had to write a review after reading the two preceeding mine!

This is perhaps the most brilliant of the late Restoration comedies. For all of those unfamiliar with Restoration drama, it is a rich, witty genre which has been too often neglected in American educational institutions, relegated to the "secondary canon" of English lit. The Way of the World is ridiculously sublime, incorporating the tropes of the genre, but exceeding its predecessors.

My gripe with this book is that there is no introduction, nor any commentary. Whilst claiming to be the Max Muller translation it avoids including any of that fine oriental scholar's discussions or commentaries.

I found this edition to be more than adaquete to the casual reader desiring to become better acquainted with Buddhist beliefs. Its lack of lengthy commentary (no more than a 2-page introduction and brief, explanatory footnotes) actually serves to make it highly accessible to the casual reader. This is the Dhammapada in its rawest form, free of someone else's interpretation.

For those wishing to thoroughly research the Dhammapada, however, another edition containing scholarly annotations would be more useful. (For that purpose, I would recommend the edition by Eknath Easwaran.)

This book is not a quick read if you wish to take something from it. Like most Buddhist writings, it is divided in to smaller parts for discussion (like "Old Age," "The World," and "Happiness"). Within each of these parts, there is an explanation trying to illustrate this idea of the reader. It is not intended to be scanned. If you read one of these sections a day (they are usually one or two pages), just reflect on that. You will walk away with a much better understanding. It is designed to assist your personal meditations.

I think it is a quick translation because I sometimes feel that "Western" words come into the translation rather than the intended word. For instance, I think "temple" would be a much better translation than "church." It would keep an Eastern feel to the writing.