Not actually a "letter," though it had to be originally presented as such for him to be allowed to write it while in prison, *De Profundis* is Wilde's masterpiece--one has to have really lived and really, really suffered to have written it and it's amazing that he achieved it.

I only very recently read it--and "got" it. It rings true to me, and is very, very moving and "profound." It ain't summer beach reading.

Wilde is still and will probably always be best known as a "Personality"--that and the author of a couple of decent period plays, a short novel, a few stories, and lots of forgettable poems and such. But THIS--THIS is IT.

He really WAS a great writer, it turns out, after all.

One of the most famous - and infamous - letters in all of literature, De Profundis is a strange little piece of work: either much more than it appears on the surface, or much less. It is something I think everyone should read, if only for its insight into the human character, particularly that of one under great personal suffering. Wilde wrote this extraordinarily long letter from prison to Lord Alfred Douglas, his friend, lover, and the man who - by all accounts - was the reason Wilde was in jail in the first place. Despite repeated assertions in the first few pages alone to the contrary, Wilde seems reluctant to blame himself. He clearly blames Douglas to the hilt, and harbors a certain bitter resentment towards him. And yet... he clearly still hold much dear affection toward - and even loves - Douglas. He still seems to be asking for forgiveness - despite the fact that, by all accounts hardly excluding his own, he was the man wronged. It is quite clear from reading this letter that, desite the view history holds of him, Wilde was clearly a man of very high moral character. Certainly, one would not put Wilde atop a pedastal as the zenith of ethics - he himself says that morals contain "absolutely nothing" for him, and clearly admits - and is proud of - his having lived the high life to the hilt during his youth - but Wilde was a man of principles, and he stuck to those principles to the tragic, bitter end. Perhaps you might say he carried them too far. One gets the sense in reading this letter - or a biography of Wilde - that, not only could he have stopped his immiment imprisonment, but could have severed his ties with Douglas completely - had he wanted to. Apparently, he had his own utterly compelling reasons for not doing so. Whatever the case, Oscar Wilde is one of the most fundamentally and perpetually interesting characters in the whole of history. A self-described man of paradoxes - Wilde was subsequently the true essence of his time, while also being far ahead of his time - De Profundis makes for required reading by one of the most endlessly fascinating individuals you'll ever read about, and also provides a startling - indeed, perhaps too much so - insight into human nature.

De Profundis, though long for a letter, is not a long work in the conventional sense. Consequently, as many editions of Wilde's collected works are available, buying this on its own may be deemed questionable. I highly reccommend purchasing a Collected Works of Oscar if you have not done so already - it's well worth the price - but, should you desire to have more compact editions of specific works, an edition such as this will be privy to your needs.

Ah, me...one doesn't know which to be more irritated
and exasperated with: whether it be Walt Whitman doing
his dissembling shuck-and-shuffle about the children
he had sired (to throw off a probing, serious John
Addington Symonds) -- or Oscar, in this "j'accuse," which
he should have spoken while looking in a mirror, rather
than writing it on paper to Lord Alfred.
This is without doubt a fascinating, horrifying,
and yet in places humorous, "piece de Miserere mei"
(to combine a bit of French with Latin).
If one chooses to believe Oscar, his only fault
was weakness in "giving in" to Lord Alfred. Oh,
come now. Blinded by Eros, reason flies out the
door...if ever reason was in control. There are
some sentences which are devastatingly revealing,
but Oscar doesn't seem to see it. "The trivial in
thought and action is charming. I had made it
the keystone of a very brilliant philosophy expressed
in plays and paradoxes." Ye gods, and little fishes!

And this man dared to call himself a "Classicist?!"
Yikes!!!
The best exercise for the reader is to just take
many of the things which Oscar accuses Lord Alfred
of, and turn them toward the self-blind, self-
justifying Oscar, to see their devastating hitting
of the mark. Never having met the young man, but
only having the "benefit" of hearsay (mostly from
Oscar's literary defenders) Lord Alfred seems to have
been calculating, temperamental (using anger to get
his way), manipulative, etc., etc., etc. The best
description of him may be Wilde's referring to him
with the lines from Aeschylus' play AGAMEMNON,
about the lion cub being raised in a house and
being let loose to wreak havoc and ruin.
But Oscar bears his share of blame -- more than just
that of the "sin" of weakness which he constantly falls
back upon in his own justification. Even in the midst
of what purports to be some sort of penitent cry from
the depths of hell...Oscar still is ever the poseur:
"And I remember that afternoon, as I was in the railway
carriage whirling up to Paris, thinking what an impossible,
terrible, utterly wrong state my life had got into, when
I, a man of world-wide reputation, was actually forced
to run away from England, in order to try and get rid
of a friendship that was entirely destructive of everything
fine in me either from the intellectual or ethical point
of view...." Er, when was the last time that the
"everything fine" had last seen the light of day?
Was Oscar an "Artist," as he consistently claims?
Was he the wronged, harmed Artist? Perhaps only the
reader can decide that for himself. Without doubt
he was witty, acerbic, funny, cute, clever, perhaps
even charming (to some -- sort of like a Pillsbury
Dough Boy with flair and a clever tongue), perhaps
stylish (in a frumpy, velveteen sort of way). Was
he wronged by a predatory clinger and manipulator,
and a hypocritical social prudery and class power
play (Oscar is no Socrates--that's for sure!)? He
hardly seems worthy, in some ways, of being a poster-boy
for Gay Pride parades. More likely, he is a better
warning poster boy for the self-excusing, and never
take-responsibility-for-your-own-actions crowd.
But this is an incredible piece to read and think
about. There is some of it that is mordantly hilarious.

I could not put this book down. Once I began reading it, I had to finish it. It was full of mystery and suspense. I can not wait until the sequeal comes out. I have told alot of friends about this book. If you like suspense, mystery and a all around good book, Buy this. I recommend it to everyone.

Mr.Davis book kept me on my toes. I never knew what to expect next. It made me think,and explore the way the human mind can find a faucet to place the blame on someone eles. I cant tell you how often when asked if I like a book my respones is that it was just okay. This time I can truly say that this book is AONE. you wont be able to put this one down!!!

It was one of the most execiting books that i have ever read. i could not put it down, had to finish it. it was GREAT !!!!!!

In this book Garzooka, Odious, Starlena, Abnermal, and Compooky find them selves in another adventure to save the universe. This is the third book in the seris and the best. I liked the Pet Force books because they are exciting and funny. Vetvix, the pet force's archenemy creats a brain boosting device and increeses a dovermen's intellagence and strength. Then went around the universe increeseing dogs intellagence and strength. K-Niner gives the dogs collars to put on their owners. The colars make the owners act like dogs. If you liked this book you should read other Garfield books by Jim Davis

I think kniner dog of doom is by, far the best book in the series. In this book Vetvix creates a brain bosting machine and increeses a dovermen's intellagence. I really liked this book because it's exciting and funny. K-niner went to kennel (a planet with a lot of dogs), used the brain bosting machine and bosted all the dogs intelagence so they could walk and talk. Then he starts going to other planets and bosting dogs brains. If you liked this book you should read other books by Jim Davis.

I really liked this book. It is without a doubt the best book of the series. In this book Vetvix has created K-niner and tries to brainwash all dogs everywhere. This book was very funny as well as action packed. I would highly recommend it for any Garfield fan or for anyone who likes an adventure with a little bit of humor as well.

by CVM Dallas Texas age 8.
The book takes place around a lake cottage and on an island. The main characters are a brother and sister. Megan and Sandy are trying to solve a family mystery. There is alot of adventure as they find clues that fit the puzzle. They try to find the biggest clue of all, what is there mother doing. They try to find the clue with special friends Ben and Wolf. The book was exciting and I just wanted to read more and more of it. It is a book for boys and girls or reading it as a family.

Megan's Island was a great book with lots of suspense.
There was one week of school left until summer vacation and Megan was really excited. Then one night Mom told them they had to pack up because they were moving. Megan was used to moving but this was strange. To make it even more stranger, her mom was acting kind of wierd lately and now she almost seemed scared of something.
At there grandfather's house where they were living everything was going okay until she wrote a letter to her best friend, Annie which her mom told her NOT to do. Then strange people started to come to their house.
This story had a GREAT, shocking ending.
I LOVED THIS BOOK!

This book is one of my all time favorites. I gave it five stars because it was well written and kept you turning. It is about these two kids who always move, and one night her mom was acting very weird. She said they had to leave now in the middle of the night to go to granpa's cottage up at the island. On from then all kinds of weird stuff happens. There are so many unexpected turns. GO READ THIS!

ALSO RECOMEND: Searching For David's Heart By Cherie Bennett

Garfield is back in living color for the fourth time and it's funny. In this book, Garfield and Odie run away from home and do several other things in color. Garfield makes me laugh all the time and I'd recommend this book, as well as his mini-books and other treasuries. Funny.

This "Treasury" is a collection of Sunday Garfield comic strips from October 1984 through November 1986.

This treasury collection also shows the final morphing by creator Jim Davis of Garfield and his friends into what we see today in the comic strips.

This book is a nice anthology of some of Garfield's funniest moments. Really enjoyable

I would like to cast a somewhat dissenting view of this book. It is certainly a good place to start for information on various projects but comes up short on construction techniques. Perhaps an older source, Procedures in Experimental Physics (Lindsay Pubs), is better. Of course, it was written in 1938, so materials cited might be out of date, but the construction techniques aren't bad. I recently decided to build a good sized water tank (40" by 6" by 3") of acrylic and found nothing about construction tips. I was thinking of building something that probably required casting, and found a paltry two pages on the subject.

It would be good to see it updated every 5 years or so. I see the pub date is 1991. Things have changed a bit. It has a very good list of references, but with the advent of the web, it would be good to see some the reference material cite the web.

This is a _great_ book! I buy a copy of this for every student who starts work for me--which I consider to be a fine investment. Practical, hands-on information is given on a huge variety of skills needed by those working in Physics labs. From glass blowing to vacuum systems, to instruction on attaching BNC connectors, it's all in here.

Have never seen a book which was able to pack so much practical information into so few pages, and able to explain complex concepts so simply.

If you have to work with any type of laboratory equipment you would be insane to NOT have this book on your shelf.

The author is humane, wise, brilliant and an excellent speaker. One of his talks is on the 'net.

Travels to Landscapes of Spirit and Desir

A package arrived from home several weeks into my first semester of school. In it, my dad had included a copy of SHADOWS IN THE SUN. I am toying with the idea of adding Anthropology as a second major to my current Chemistry. After reading Davis's book, I was nothing short of enlightening. It's strange to think that such an awakening can occur after experiencing another culture vicariously through a stranger, but his essays were enough for me to name him my current science hero. He writes with a passion that is unparalled by many scientists. Complicated details, from the biochemical make-up of toad secretions to the effects of drinking ayahuasca, are written in a way my eighty-one year old great-grandmother could understand them. An eventual goal of mine is to do science writing, and Davis writes just as I aspire to. Candidly and comically, he personifies the robotesque stereotype many people must have of scientists. Nothing stuffy or arrogant about these essays. Davis is the first scientist I have ever read who has admitted in print that he has been baffled by the discoveries research has led him to. No "I knew I was right" attitude, and only vivid descriptions that make the book impossible to put down. It allowed me to look beyond my own ethnocentricities and taste the tiniest sample of the importance of environment in other cultures. Nothing short of amazing and, although I am still young, I imagine this book will remain one of my favorites for quite a while.

I thought that this book was an excellent overview of the development of logical thought and it's relevance to the modern computer. Davis does a superior job of energizing a subject that is admittedly a little dull. I found myself rereading several of the sections to try to better understand some of the math involved, but overall, I think Davis found a nice balance between the complexity of the math and the history of logic. My one serious criticism of the book is that I found the chronology to be tough to follow, and I often found myself referring back to previous chapters to try and get a better sense of when events were happening. It is natural to assume that a book like this is presented in chronological fashion. The Universal Computer generally is presented that way, but there are some events that happen more or less simultaneously. This is important to the overview of the history of the field. I think the book could actually use a graphical timeline with the birth dates of the mathematicians and the significant events (i.e. 1902 - Russell's letter to Frege, etc.) that are involved. Other than that, the book is informative and enjoyable for those interested in the origins of the modern computer.

As a recent college graduate, who earned a B.S. in computer science, I thought this book provided some good background information on the people who worked to discover the underlying principles of automated mathematics implemented in a machine. The book was, for the most part, not terribly difficult to follow and gave more insight on the actual history of the individual people and times than I thought it might. Nevertheless, the individual histories, and time context put the points being made into a better framework. Not a long book, I recommend this to the more intellectual type, rather than an occasional reader.

While most of us consider computers to be some special silicon in a white box, they are in fact machines that execute rules in applied logic. For this reason, the history of computing has two tracks. The first is the hardware track, which generally starts with Charles Babbage and progresses through the recent advances in integrated circuits. One chapter of the book traces the historical development of computer hardware, starting with the Jacquard loom and moving up to the modern personal computer. The second is the history of logic that can be mechanically applied, which is the primary focus of this book.
Once again, the mathematics largely predates the applications. It is amazing how mathematicians develop mathematical structures that initially have no applications and then after some time, something appears that requires that form of mathematics. To me, it is nothing sort of amazing that Alan Turing invented an abstract universal computer long before any of the physical counterparts existed. No one has ever been able to substantially improve on his Turing machines and it is widely believed that they cannot be improved. This theme permeates the book and Davis does a very good job in presenting all of the advances in a historical context.
The contributions of Leibniz, Boole, Frege, Cantor, Hilbert, Godel and Turing are all described in detail, and it is clear how one person's work was built using that done by their predecessors. Other people noted include Bertrand Russell, Leopold Kronecker, and Albert Einstein.
This is the best popular history of the development of the computer viewed as a logic engine. I strongly recommend it as a book for courses in the history of mathematics and computing.

Save your money and don't buy this book. The so called "new" theories that are revealed are the same old common sense rules that everybody already knows about. It's all conjecture and hear say. What works for some will not work for others that's just the facts. How many books on "how to sell stuff" can you find at a bookstore..same with this dribble. Just another useless opinion from a group of bagel biters trying to con more people out of their money. Nice try!

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