I thought that this was a very entertaining novel. It's set in Constantinople in 1908, when the old Ottoman Empire was in terminal decline, and the "Young Turk" revolution was approaching. The British officer Robert Markham watches the impending collapse of the old regime, and at the same time is tortured by the memories of the Turks' brutality to the Armenians.

On one level, "The Rage of the Vulture" is a fine historical novel, giving (for all I can tell) an authentic feel of both the place and the time. Unsworth's prose is so fine, you can almost feel the tension, even smell the odours of the city, and soak up its atmosphere. No doubt Unsworth used modern Istanbul as his reference point, nonetheless I felt he's crafted a fine piece of of historical fiction.

On another level, this is a mystery/spy novel - there's plenty of intrigue and shady characters to drive the plot along. It's also a psychological study - Markham is consumed by guilt, a guilt that erodes his sense of morality, and responsibility to his family. Markham's search for atonement brings the destructive nature of his guilt to the fore.

Until I read this novel, I thought that "Stone Virgin" was the best of Unsworth's novels I've read. "The Rage of the Vulture", though, now takes first place - though only just.

An odd, suspenseful and gripping story. It reminds of Conrad or Trollope. There is a plot, but the characters are to the fore, deeply drawn, and never faked. The suspense comes from watching the characters make choices, not just the plot. (It is NOT a post-modern novel about a novelist writing a novel about a novelist writing a novel about ... as so many modern novels are.) Better in all respects than his bestter known "Sacred Hunger."

This novelist's themes are invariably unusual and gripping, reminiscent in some ways of Joseph Conrad in their relentless - and uncomfortable - exploration of the darker recesses of the human spirit. "The Rage of the Vulture" is set in the false dawn of the Young Turk revolution that promised so much, as it swept away the tyranny of tyranny of Abdul Hamid and which offered a brief glimpse of ethnic harmony before plunging the Ottoman Empire into yet more terrible chaos and genocide. With spare but telling detail Unsworth portrays a society, and individuals, poisoned and warped by hatred, cruelty and fear and incapable of breaking the cycle of perpetuation. The main character, an English officer on secondment in Istanbul, is no less maimed spiritually - and ultimately physically - by this unending tyranny than the most depraved torturers of the dying regime. The most memorable feature of the novel is however the extent to which the malign, self-loathing and all but invisible personality of Abdul Hamid dominates the action - and the city - from his curious bourgeois villa retreat - one hesitates to say Palace - high above the Bosphorous. By a curious turn of fate I read this novel some three months before being sent, quite unexpectedly, to live and work in Turkey and to spend long periods in Istanbul. It had already made a strong impression on me - and this became even stronger as I explored many of the locales of the action. The phrase "the banality of evil" is horribly appropriate as one spends an hour at the same kiosk in Abdul Hamid's gardens where, insisting on the farce of being incognito, he would insist on paying for his own glass of tea before hurrying back to indulge in his hobby of cabinet making, order a massacre or allow the cries of his menagerie beasts to drown out the screams of wretches being interrogated close by. Mr.Unsworth melds this background very effectively into the plot of his powerful and disturbing book, which is not only absorbing to read but impossible to forget.

I liked Wide Sargasso Sea and thought this book had promise (based on the back cover synopsis). That will teach me to fall for the b.c. synopses, which I should have learned by now. I think the story is not at all compelling, but could have been if we'd learned just a bit more about the characters, their motivations, their backgrounds. I found the writing annoying: in reading passages of dialog I was often startled to see that a quotation was what a character was thinking, not saying. These "thought quotations" were mixed in w/ "spoken quotations," making for jumpy reading. A graceless approach to telling a slight but potentially graceful story. I DID like her descriptions of Paris and other French cities. And I was intrigued by her frequent mention of the color red. I might try other books by her, but it's unlikely.

Quartet was Jean Rhys' first novel. It is the story of Marya, a British expatriate living in Paris in the early part of the 20th century. She is acutely self-conscious and yet utterly incapable of changing her life to achieve happiness. Her life revolves around two men: Stephan, her vague Polish husband and HJ, a married British ex-pat who is extremely social and active in the arts. Marya's life has been pared down to essentials: dining, drinking, reading and waiting for her husband to return. When she finds Stephan has been unexpectedly arrested her attachment to him is disturbed. Craving affection and financial security, she desperately attempts to discover why Stephan has been arrested and how she can stay in contact with him. However, she quickly takes up with HJ and his wife, Lois. Her emotions become dangerously tangled between the two. Meandering through defeat after defeat entirely unsatisfied and pining for the money to pay for her rent and a glass of brandy, she ultimately has to face the consequences of her love affair. Marya is vaguely dissatisfied and compulsively tragic. In her life which closely parallels Rhys' own, she finds no remission for the terribly existential fact of life.

In this novel Rhys subtly satirizes her affair with Ford Madox Ford and the life she led with him in Paris. This time of great artistic innovation is reduced to the bare facts of the debased livelihood of the expatriates: their drinking and intertwining sexual affairs. Rhys is unremittingly spare in her emotional honesty. Her prose are hollowed out just as the main character's personality is hollowed out. There is nothing tender about this fictitious recreating. It is brutal, just as Rhys' vision of life. Emotions seep out in sporadic bursts and the rest is contemptuously smoking a cigarette and watching passers by. But the gaze of Marya's is incredibly telling. Her feelings are projected outward onto the people surrounding her. A man or woman witnessed walking by or sitting on the opposite side of a café will inhabit the emotions Marya does not allow to pool inside her. In this way, Rhys fiction is a strong precursor to Alain Robbe-Grillet's because of the intensely violent subjectivity of the character's perception of the world. The solemn nature of novel evokes powerful feelings of sympathy and sorrow.

"Quartet" by Jean Rhys is the story of the vunerable and weak-willed Marya Zelli. Happily married to Stephan, Marya leads an interesting, bohemian life in Paris in the 1920s. Marya doesn't ask questions about Stephan's professional life, and she is stunned, helpless and stranded when Stephan is arrested. Suddenly, there's no money, and Marya suddenly has to start worrying about how she will survive. When Stephan is sentenced to prison, he is so concerned with his own predicament that he doesn't really consider Marya's plight. He vaguely suggests that Marya write to her long estranged relatives in England for money, but Marya is soon facing eviction and starvation.

At this point, Lois and HJ Heidler enter Marya's life. Lois--a large, commanding woman who has pretensions of artistic ability insists on taking Marya under her wing. The Heidlers insist that Marya moves in with them, and Marya--who is at first repulsed by HJ--suddenly finds herself thrown into his company while Lois makes rapid exits. Heidler--who possesses incredible force of will--hunts Marya relentlessly. Marya really doesn't have any friends to warn her against becoming involved with the Heidlers, and soon Marya finds herself in a very exploitative, compromising situation.

There's a sort of hopeless inevitability to "Quartet"--and in that sense it is thematically similar to "After Leaving Mr Mackenzie" and "Good Morning, Midnight." However, the heroine, Marya, is younger, less corrupt, and rather undeserving of the circumstances she finds herself unable to escape from. Readers can compare Marya Zelli's situation to Jane Eyre--Jane Eyre literally runs away from the temptations offered to her by Mr Rochester. Marya Zelli, however, does not possess the same strength of character, and "Quartet" follows Marya's mental deterioration as her willpower erodes.

This is my fourth novel by Jean Rhys. Many people dismiss Rhys as a depressing novelist, and it's true--if you want a happy ending, you should probably look elsewhere, but there is a sort of naked honesty to these novels that make them compelling and unforgettable reading. I prefer "Quartet" to "Wide Sargasso Sea," and it is equal to "After Leaving Mr MacKenzie" and "Good Morning, Midnight." If you enjoyed this novel, I also recommend "The House of Mirth" for its heroine, Lily Bart, reminds me of Marya Zelli--displacedhuman

Often the scholarly become so involved in proving their thesis that they lose sight of where they are going. In other words they can't see the forest for the trees! Such is the case with Nibley's Temple and Cosmos. Although very informative and well documented, in his zeal to justify the existence of Mormon temples by showing many amazing similarities to temples and temple rituals of the past, he fails to notice that nearly all of his examples are from pagan cultures. Nibley proves well that the origin of Mormon temples is paganism. While the Mormon Church claims its origins stem from ancient Hebrew culture, any real evidence supporting such a claim is conspicuously absent from Nibley's book. ...Go figure!

This book is amazing. Nibley's grasp of the subject matter is truly astounding. While it is true that Nibley is a mormon apologist, this work is not skewed like many of his other works. This is his best effort. Whether you are mormon or not this book brings up a lot of intersting similarities with almost every ancient religion and their temple type. Zoroastrian fire temples being the most notable exception. a pure joy to read.

Nibley does not go into depth concerning mormon temple ceremonies but many of the things he discuss will still be easily understood by the non-mormon reader. In addition, a large portion of the book is devoted to the actual structure of the temple as a microcosm of the universe. Also of note is his discusion of sacred vestments through the ages.

I'm no scholar, but I foind this book to be very readable and extremely stimulating. Nibley's thought is astounding. While a couple of his statements on science are now a tad dated, the thought itself is as sound as ever. The coverage of the essays in this volume is astounding--you name it. Nibley's thought is very helpful to all who wish to supplement faith with intellect

I've read other Andre Norton books such as "Star Man's Son" and i thought that that book was excellent, but "Breed to Come" was terrible. If there's one thing i've learned after reading books where the main characters are animals, is that i don't care about them- they seem so fake. While reading this book i had to keep reminding myself that these "people" were mutated cats, but they were basically just human-- the author just made them cats because she has some sick fetish with cats!

I would have to disagree with the last reviewer. True, the cats and other mutated animals are pretty much like people, but that makes them easy to identify with... and since when was fantasy/scifi real anyhow? The storyline is very tight, and Norton does a wonderful job of painting the picture of an original and unique future earth - one unlike anything I've read anywhere else. Not a deep book, but that's not her style. One of her better works in my opinion.

This is such a good book.I'm almost done,but I was just aching to write a review on it.Norton uses things that I've never seen before in Sci Fi.Cats,rats,dogs,and others have evolved.The Demons (as the cats call humans)have died out ,for they destroyed eachother .We do not like to think it,but that is one of the possibilities of mankind's fate.Synopsis:The Demons have died out,but races are still at war ,not serious war ,but still war.The cave of Gammage is discraced,for Gammage uses the materials of the Demons.Furtig ,Gammage's great great grandson goes to learn from him.As he is learning of the tools of the Demons ,there comes a day when Furtig sees a Demon spaceship landing .They must fight them.

the treatise is a masterpiece in every sense of the word, but the Nortons have done a disservice to the academic community with this edition. their editorial section, which comprises a solid third of this edition, is extremely subpar. i've even heard that many Hume scholars have demanded that Oxford recall the critical text that was published as a companion to this edition. the oxford edition of the enquiry's is just fine, but i would recommend the sellby-bigges edition of the treatise instead of this one.

This book is like Sigmund Freud's books. You must get a commentary book to read this, or it wont make sense and sounds like pure latin. But if you buy a commentary book, 5 stars!

I have had this book for about a year now and I would say it is still the most helpful I have found for reading Humes' Treatise. Everything is explained well and completely, but it is the depth that impresses me, not only are the concepts explained with clarity, but in places where a point relates to an earlier concept it is noted down to the paragraph of where it appeared. Also when another philosophers view is similar or conflicts with Humes own view it is noted. The annotations in the back of the book alone by their helpfulness would give this book 5 stars, but the introduction is about as close as I have seen to a complete summary of Humes book without having to buy another book entirely. Overall the author has a good understanding of the text and can relate it to the student.

An awful, boring book. One of the most dreadful things I have ever been forced to read.

Whether or not this work can be considered relevant in today's society is not a factor here. As a testimony to fifteenth century Italian Court Life it is unparalleled.
This delightful four-part book at the social nobility of the Italian Renaissance opens with an apology by Baldesar on the quality of his writing. Something that was clearly debated after Petrarch, Dante and Boccaccio as there is somewhat of a lengthier side discussion on the merits of using the vernacular in written speech partway through the first 'book'.
The 'handbook' opens with the matriarchal Duchess ordering that a game be played and that signora Emilia decide the nature of it. It is first set to Count Lodovico to describe those qualities best attributed to a courtier with the rest of the 'players' questioning or discussing his points further.
The Count states that a good courtier should possess charm, be handsome, be of noble birth, modest, physically fit, be good at sports, should both observe and imitate those good qualities of other courtiers, be a good dancer, have an appreciation of music, letters and art, not be affectatious, be an above average scholar in the humanities and that his first and truest profession be that of arms. Quite a long section is taken with a development on the theory of writing and letters which has many references to the desired quality of those in the ancient world. Indeed, Castiglione holds up those practices of the ancient world in high esteem as being worthy of the perfect courtier.
The second book is to be continued by Duke Federico as to how and when the courtier should put the desired courtier qualities into practice. Castiglione prefaces the second book with a justification of why old people see the future as a depraved version of their golden era - almost a youth's retort to the aged question of rebelliousness.
Federico opens by stating he believes the courtier should be considered, virtuous and adhere to certain rules. Above all else he must have good judgment. The second book is frequently 'territorial' in nature, particularly in the section espoused by Bernardo Bibbiena on the three types of pleasantries. Namely: long and amusing narrative ; spontaneous thrust of a cutting remark (including puns) ; practical jokes. It is in the latter, which includes tales, that the poking of fun at inhabitants of various cities (for example, Sienans, Fiorentines, Brescians) occurs. Federico earlier makes mention that no young man should attempt wisdom and that no courtier should socialize overly with those beneath his station taking care in choosing your associates. The second 'book' is effectively in two parts - Duke Federico's discussion on the rules of courtiership, Bernardo's discussion of the three types of pleasantries with many anecdotes to prove his points and then finishes with a epilogue discussing those practical jokes played by women after Gaspare denounces the practice.
This proves a neat lead in to the third book for the Magnifico Giuliano to discuss fashioning a Court lady. As signora Emilia puts it: "To prove it, consider that virtue is feminine whereas vice is masculine."
The third book is prefaced by Castiglione with short discourse on the superiority of the Court of Urbino to all the other Courts of Italy. The Magnifico then addresses the Duchess directly stating that a woman must not "resemble a man as regards her ways, manners, words, gestures and bearing." and must be beyond reproach or suspicion. He draw many parallels with the perfect courtier, then espouses excellence in subject knowledge, discretion, prudence purity, magnanimity, and appearance. The Magnifico then gives us many stories about great women, ancient stories from Camma to Argentina, from Roma toTheodolina, Theodora and Mathilda, medieval queens such as Eleanora of Aragon, Isabella of Naples, Tomyris of Scythia and many more. He continues with examples of continence, before finally ending his discussion by stating the greatest thing a Court Lady must know, is how to conduct a discussion on love.
The fourth book is prefaced with a lament for several of those parties at the discussion who are now dead. The fourth book is mainly a discussion by Ottaviano giving an end to the perfect courtier. Namely that he be able to please his Prince and how to liaise with and deal with him It ends more as discussion on the nature of Princes. What Castiglione seems to be intimating is that the perfection of a courtier is determined by his Prince rather than by a standard set of rules. The discussion sidetracks into a discourse on the nature of evil and how to recognize and act on it. It links the concepts of agism and vanity to this discussion with several interjections from the oldest member of the group, Morello. The fourth book ends with a move towards discussion of divine love and there it ends. Whether Castiglione meant to continue or not is uncertain.
Two things leap out about this courtier handbook:
The first is how often Castiglione chooses to address the side issue of semantics, rhetoric and grammar. It was clearly an important topic of the age and more time is spent on that single theme that any other.
The second is the constant reference to the ancient world an an ideal to be lived to. Particularly classical figures such as Alexander. This is not surprising given Jacob Bruckhardt's later 1860 essay on the Civilisation of Renaissance Italy, also refers to the "Revival of Antiquity' of the time.
What does comes across very clearly in this book is George Bull's refined translation keeps in mind the nature of the subject matter and in itself espouses courtiership. It is precise yet fluid in its translating and can be considered the best english rendering of this great Italian Renaissance work to date. This work is a must-read for any serious student of Renaissance Italy.

Wouldn't it be great if several people had gathered together in one of the 16th century Italian states to hash out exactly what was proper behavior for a gentle person at that time and place? And wouldn't it be better if they were led by a gracious lady who demanded that they stay on track? And wouldn't it be helpful if somebody had written down what was said, so that we could read it? And wouldn't it be wonderful if the book earned praise all over Europe at that time, so we'd know that its teachings were generally accepted? And wouldn't it be convenient if it were currently in print in English translation?

They did. We can. It is.

As a work of entertainment literature, this book is dry, boring, slow, and not worth reading. All of the characters are hateful, and unrealistic. Now, I'm not going to lie to you, it has many interesting philisophical concepts. Some of which are love, the supernatural, and human nature, however, the book was so uninteresting, and depressing, I would have rather read it out of a textbook. Bottom line - Hopefully I'm just a shallow uncultured reader, and you will find much more enjoyment in it than me.

OK, it's still one of the best editions available (the 3rd edition, I mean), especially if you don't need non-dialectal notes (there are almost none). A very useful selection of early critical reviews, an intelligent anthology of Emily's verse (and that's very important), and a good selection of good, modern critical essays. Who may want more? I, for one, want notes.

As far as the text itself is concerned, it WAS a rather good edition that looks very much as if one takes the second, Charlotte's 1850 "improved" edition and drops it into a 1847 paragraphing and -to a certain extent- punctuation mould. It's not at all -as one reviewer says- Emily's words, but these with almost one third of the Charlotte's and other improvements, as is clearly stated in the Textual Commentary by Sale Jr. So far, this is not a big problem in itself, although we get 'door' instead of 'floor' at the beginning of Chapter 2.

Fourth edition comes with an improved anthology of reviews and of Emily's poetry, and much improved notes (although still on the scarce side). The text -claims let aside- is the same of the 3rd ed (eclectic, as scholars say), but the Textual Commentary has by now disappeared, and that's a pity. Perhaps it doesn't matter that much, but it isn't -as wrongly stated- the 1847 text.

Wuthering Heights baffles me. It's the most curious novel in 19th Century Literature, and the only novel I read each year regardless. I just bought this edition, for Emily Jane's words, unedited by her sister and others. It also contains some poems from Gondal, some diary entries, and a few criticisms, which are always lacking in my opinion. I learned nothing new from them, but the text is beautiful and worth the money, and the edition of her poems and how they play into Emily Jane's Gondal world offer a few new insights. I often think this novel is part fairy tale, part dream, part nightmare, part history. But it defies definition. Like Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake, it creates confusion and muddle for the scholar. The amazing sum of its mystery is that Emily Jane Bronte wrote it at all, this lonely, isolated, and ill woman from the moors of England. Read it. Think about it. Wuthering Heights is truly a mystical experience. If only the author had lived to write another complete novel, we might really understand her mythologies. I'll keep reading till I do.

Being a boxing fan since 1971, I lived through the era of great heavyweights of the seventies: Ali, Frazier, Holmes, Foreman, and Norton. Ken Norton was a terrific competitor of that era, and I expected his book to be an exciting retelling of his experiences of that era. Unfortunately, the book left me disappointed. Norton spends too much time explaining blow by blow, round by round, his greatest fights. Although this may appeal to some, I found it repetitive and somewhat boring. One can get the round by round analysis by watching the fight videos. I found myself skimming over these sections to get to his feelings and thoughts about the fights. This was THE major drawback of the book.

Norton's three fights with Ali are covered in great detail, as these fights brought him into the public's consciousness. But once again the emphasis was on the blow by blow coverage instead of anecdotes and recollections about the fights. He expresses his bitter feelings about his third fight with Ali in which he feels he should have been given the decision. Having trained so tremendously hard for this fight and then having the decision go against him, Norton relates how this heart went out of boxing at this point. Although he becomes the Heavyweight Championship of the World title two years later when Ali retires, Norton is unable to retain te title in his first defense against Larry Holmes. He blames his failure to defend the title on his lack of dedication to boxing after the last Ali match. His heart was just not in it. I can't help but think Norton would have received the professional recognition and justification he so craved had he defeated Holmes. Their match was an exciting battle that culminated in perhaps one of the greatest rounds of boxing ever. Had Norton pulled out the decision, he would have probably been rematched with Ali one final time and had his best chance to defeat his nemesis decisively. However, history and fate turned a different direction, one that did not include a prominant role for Ken Norton.

Norton's private and then public feud with his son, Ken Norton Jr., make up a complete chapter in the book but this held little interest to me, a boxing fan.

Ken Norton is a decent man who had an interesting career, being both a boxer and a fighter. His experience acting as the characters "Mandingo" and "Drum" are only briefly mentioned. Again, there are few interesting stories or revelations about this time of his life. I would have liked to hear more.

Norton's book is a quick and easy read, as there are no major character controveries, conflicts, or issues to digest. I did not find it compelling in any regard. It was an easy book to put down. I had hoped for much more. As far as boxing books go, I have to rate it sub-par.

Jim Koenig

the problem with some boxers autobiographies is that they skim over big fights with a line or two. in ken nortons book he goes into FAR, FAR too much detail on his big fights, sometimes four to five pages of a round by round breakdown. it's all, quite frankly, too much.

kens a funny guy to listen to, but his humour doesn't really come across well in this book. overall it's a relatively interesting read, but does not draw you in the way the books of george foreman, joe frazier, larry holmes, and quick tillis do.

unless you really love kenny, i'd give this one a miss.

"Going the Distance: The Ken Norton Story" makes a compelling read. It is one unassuming autobiography.
Ken was a remarkable fighter: a great one whose hulky hew was intimidating. His era was the one which notable names like Ali, Foreman and Frazier dominated; yet, he still fought his way to the top: becoming a champion in 1978. He is remembered as one of the few boxers who scored a victory over Muhammad Ali. He broke The Greatest's jaw in the process. Ken's (championship) fight against Larry Holmes was a gut-wrenching one: regardless of his losing it via majority decision.
This book rides one across his humble up-bringing; and then into the 1970s. I liked the way it refreshed my memory. It recounted Ken's life story in a candid manner. Reading it was a pleasure!

Good grief, this sort of thing sounds like TORTURE. People become accountants because they failed at something else. And they actually read stuff like this?

This book is very practical and covers all the pertinent information needed for a good foundation in Accounting. The book is easy to understand and gives practical examples and useful exercises.

I am an accounting Professor. I am also an accountant. I am so surprised that you thought people became accountants because they failed from something else. It is totally wrong. I am so pround of it. I am 27 year old. I have a good car, have a good house (no debt at all; I just repaid all my mortgage recently.) I do not think that people who are in the field from which you mentioned they failed can make money and have good reputation like I do. Do you know that an auditor money as much as a lawyer (I am a good auditor; please do not talk about other case)

For this book, I found it is very good. I used Prof Skousen's textbook in first accounting class as well as intermediate. My students like them so much. However, they give a little bit too much detail. A professor should adapt it when using in class. This book is a excellent alternative to another book published by Wiley.

I skipped a couple newer DX books and bought this one as I'd heard many good things about it. Unfortunately I'm not very pleased. Although all of the code is still relevant to newer versions of directX, the level of explanation is very light. On the plus side, there is a lot of code, but one is simply left to figure out many important details. Basic/summarizied descriptions appear all over the place which even a non-programmer might understand (To load a DIB, first, read the header, then... etc), but many of the "nitty-gritty" details are either completely skipped or only given a very cursory examination. Overall, it's not worthless, but there has to be something better.

The book has good information about how to use DirectX for developing games. However, there are lots of problems either related to the text or related to the example programs. (The latter being the worst). The example codes are a) not well commented, b) most of them do not run as they suppose to; c) the programmer (who is not the author) defines functions (methods) never used in the main program; etc. This book can be useful for someone interested in developing games, but be aware that you will need to rewrite most of the code again (after you understand what the original code was trying to do, which will take a lot of your time). Also be aware that the author does not reply e-mails, what is really sad. I have been in contact with authors of other books and this connection between author-user is a very healthy thing to have. Normally both have something to learn from this connection.

This was the second book I bought on programming using Microsoft's DirectX SDK. I researched all the other books on the market before I bought it, and by reading this book I learned everything I needed to know about DirectDraw, DirectInput, DirectSound & DirectPlay

This book provides many example games, after reading this book you'll have a better understanding of 2d game engines like those found in Rayman, Myst and Command & Conquer.

Another big plus is the author's explaination on how to use Binary Search Trees and Linked List and the sample code provided on how to apply these to creating/destoying objects/entities in games.

If you want to learn how to program games for Windows using DirectX you either go with this book or Andre LaMothe's Windows Game Programming for Dummies.

Go with the later if you're a complete newbie. Or (better yet), buy them both.