What do you do with a caged and hungry tiger if you don't have all that much faith in the cage? Mystery and History combine to produce a fascinating tale of deception, intrigue, and murder. This is one of those books best read on a weekend when you don't really need all that much sleep. The writing style entices you to skip ahead: chapters detailing the modern-day murder investigation alternate with chapters describing the events on Elba Island in the early 1800s. At that time, European Heads of State weren't convinced that Napolean I could be effectively contained on the island to which he had been exiled. But an outright execution of the former emperor might precipitate widespread civil rebellion.
So, in steps the spy...

But how do you reconstruct a subtle murder plot which took place over 150 years ago? I'm looking forward to reading the revised edition (Assassination at St. Helena Revisited). Recommended for those who enjoy science with their mysteries. Kay O'Cullane.

Helena Olson's book is a personable and delightful book that gives deep insights into the first activities in the west of one of the great saints from India, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The book is written very well, and carries the reader smoothly from beginning to end. One gains a personal feeling for the life around such great men. It is written in a series of sequentially unfolding events around Maharishi's first few trips to the United States to teach his scientifically proven Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique.

One immediately sees the masterful way that Maharishi lectures on the value of the technique and the way he orchestrates the growth of his world-wide Movement to bring inner peace and enlightenment to the world.

This book is delightful for people in all walks of life and it is inspiring to those who do not practice TM as well as those who have been long-term practitioners.

His integration of a wide range of philosophies and religions into the understanding of the value of the practice is astounding and profound.

It is a great gift for young and old, for people of all walks of life.

Do you enjoy folklore? Are you interested in the Gullah people? Do you just want to read some spooky tales? If so, this is the book for you. Blue Roots explains how the Gullah got to SC and why they alone out all of black America have hung on to so much of their African culture. You will be chilled by stories of the dreaded plateye and the hag. You will read of Dr.Buzzard the greatest of the root doctors and how the High Sherrif of the Low Country brought him down. I especially appreciated the fact that the author showed a respect for the Gullah and their ways and
made no judgements.

Kimberley Wilson, author of 11 Things Mama Should Have Told You About Men

Written in the colloquial, narrative style that characterizes much of the writng of the South Carolina Low-Country, "Blue Roots" is a readable introduction to a culture and folk religious practice that has been a part of Southeastern low-country life since the first Afro-Americans were brought to it's shores as slaves. Pinckney is masterful in creating the mood and "feel" of the gullah culture with its unique personalities such as Dr. Bug, Dr Buzzard and J.E.McTeer, former High Sheriff, businessman and "root doctor." I met Mr. McTeer if the early 1970s while doing field research on the "root culture" around Beaufort, South Carolina and found him charming, complex and most astute with regard to his "practice." "I'm a poor-man's psychiatrist." he remarked "my clients don't trust regular doctors, so they come to me." On the other hand, he had no doubt as to the effectiveness of the "magic" he performed in a small roon adjoining his real estate office in downtown Beaufort. Those who want to look beneath the surface of this complex world may wish to explore the titles listed in Pinckney's bibliography including those titles by Puckett and Hyatt which, admittedly, does require some effort on the reader's part, but reveals fascinating details such as the strong probability that the use of the name "Dr. Buzzard" predates the individual mentioned in "Blue Roots." Pinckney's "Blue Roots", can, and should be seen as a excellent entry, much like the port city of Charleston is to South Carolina, into a incredible world that many pass by and without recognizing the complexity, beauty and magic contained therein.

This was a great book, not only from a historical standpoint, but from a cultural standpoint, as well. It allows the reader to know that such terrific and interesting cultures exist in today's society. If possible, I would give this book six stars!

This is a strange mixture and I have to admit to very much disliking it when I first picked it up. It is a translated version of what was originally a French work and the English to me seemed a bit florid and dramatic. I am not sure if that is the translation or if the French naturally write in that style. I would however recommend people who are interested in Napoleon to persevere - it is a strange sort of book but worth the read.

I say this for two other reasons - firstly because Kauffmann has read just about every primary source about Napoleon's exile on St Helens - a tiny island pretty much in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and secondly because Kauffmann knows first hand about captivity.

After reading this book a little = and not enjoying it I read the author biography - this man spent some years as a captive in Beirut in the 1980's. Returning to the book I started to realise that this is more than just a book about Napoleon, or about a travellogue to the island. This is a story about captivity and its psychological side. Kauffmann is very clearly the right man to write about it. The oppression of captivity overwhelms the writing sometimes. Kauffman clearly found the place oppressive - he keeps talking of the town itself squeezed between two mountains - it is one of his repetitive themes and I get the sense that if he didn't sail out there expecting to dislike the place, his dislike of it coloured his later writings about it.

I think this book could just as easily be named 8 days on St Helens as the book is divided into chapters for each day. So his trip is dealt with chronologically - the information about Napoleon ducks and dives - often with seemingly little logic to it. However if you are looking to learn about Napoleon's last years they are touched on - more so Napoleon as a man is revealed. His impatience (he drove each day on the island in a carriage with two wives of his officers - but went at such high speed as to throw them around - a demonstration of power?) his arrogance.

There are also interesting insights into the man prior to his captivity - for instance I never knew Napoleon couldn't speak perfect French - (he spoke it badly and confusingly at times - muddling his words and pronunciations). However I don't think Kauffman explains anything new to most scholars of Napoleon. He mentions that Napoleon considered going to America before settling for surrendering to the English - why did he change his mind?

So you can read this book on many different levels - a story of St Helens, a mixed bag of Napoleonic history, or a story of captivity. All have different merits in this - but they are all mixed together. I don't know that I would recommend making a special trip to get it - but worth reading if you haven't much else to do.

This may well seem to be a confusing review. I did not particularly enjoy the book, but that was because of the person that I am, and not because the book wasn't good. In fact, I consider it to be well written. The Black Room at Longwood is a lyrical work written by an author with a strong sense of environment and the "presence" of historical events. However it is also more of an introspective, personal experience, a mental voyage back into time than a work of history. Since I tend to prefer the cold, dry facts without emotional garnish, I found it a less captivating work than a person who finds ungarnished fact a little dull might well find it. The prose is almost poetry, although how much of this is due to it's translator's talent and how much to the author's I would be unable to say. The psychological character of the environment of St. Helena and of the house of Longwood, that housed Napoleon and his fellow exiles during the last years of his life, is vividly recreated for the reader. One doesn't just learn of the personality and facts of the exile, one lives the experience through the author's words. Basing his description on extensive research into the subject, Kauffmann visits the site and describes it and the events that took place there in such a way that the reader actually travels with him back into the early 19th Century to watch and experience. A vividly written work.

I am not disparaging the earlier reviews of this book. But, I found the theme to be one of reconciliation. Kauffmann used his trip to reconcile the mythical glory of Napoleon's reign with the factual emptiness surrounding his imprisonment. Along the way, he found other aspects that needed reconciliation. The "Saints" enjoy the benefits of their status with the United Kingdom, yet don't appreciate them. The French consul's father had a productive life in France, yet chose to live as a recluse in St. Helena. The consul paints flowers that grow on a desert island. And Napoleon's former tomb is a lush contrast to his living quarters at Longwood. There are also failed attempts at reconciliation, such as Napoleon's frequent attempts to understand how he lost at Waterloo. Behind all these attempts is the almost silent struggle by Kauffmann to reconcile his own experiences as a captive with those that Napoleon endured.

It's a very ambitious project that Kauffmann undertook. Fortunately, he pulled it off with incredible elegance. His descriptions of St. Helena and Longwood give a vivid image of the bleakness of both settings. Addtionally, his reflections on Napoleon's deteriorating condition are very poignant. Non-fiction does not ususally make one reflect on such things as the effect of isolation on a soul and the need for reconciliation in one's life. The fact that Kauffman has made a book that tackles such issues in an intelligent manner makes it one which everyone should read.

This past spring, Dr. Michael Wolfe-a United Methodist minister in the South Carolina Conference-published his first book entitled: The Abundant Life Prevails-religious traditions of Saint Helena Island. Having earned his doctorate in historical theology from the University of Virginia and spent over two years in research, Wolfe demonstrates remarkable expertise in his analysis of the faith-community that developed on the island and its subsequent impact on the world outside. While other writers have focused primarily on the unique linguistic culture of the islands off the Carolina coast known as Gulla, this book proves to be the first to deal exclusively with the religious tradition represented there. Saint Helena island is located off of the southern end of South Carolina's coast-line. Able to trace its history back to the native Americans and the early Spanish explorers, Saint Helana soon became the home of plantation owners and the hundreds of African slaves who labored there. This all changed, however, during the Civil War as Union naval ships set sail for Charleston and the surrounding areas, liberating all Confedrate-held property. Within a matter of months, and with the aid of Northern missionaries, Saint Helena island entered into the phase of its life that would soon prove to be its most famous (and useful). It is into this arena that Wolfe begins that history. Overall, I thought this book to be a solid, well-documented work that disspelled many of the myths that have arisen and been proposed by other writers about this time period and region (specifically, concerning the motive of the islander's religious practices and the amount of influence the island had during the civil rights movement and the origin of its concern). Going to great lengths to "back-up" his proposals, Wolfe demonstrates (through historical accounts and first-person interviews) the true origins of the religious life that arose on the island and which contributed so much to the islander's education and the island's influence. Covering over a century of history, this book deals with everything from the islander's faith, to the educational model the Penn School came to represent, to the island's critical role in the civil-rights movement during the 1960's. It cannot be over-stated how much of a disproportional impact Saint Helena island is shown to have made on the world outside of it. Stepping out into unventured territory, The Abundant Life Prevails lives up to its name as it beautifully demonstrates what the faith of a people can accomplish amidst oppression, poverty, calamity, and isolation. It is a lesson begun a hundred years ago on a remote island and one that can still be learned today.

I intend no disrespect when I say "introductory," but after seeing the edition by Mark Griffith of "Judith" (223 pages on a 349-line poem), also by U of Exeter P, Gradon's "Elene" does come up short a little bit, with 128 pages on a 1321-line poem.

That said, this volume contains most of what any beginning student of Old English poetry would need--a clear introduction outlining Cynewulf's sources, good textual notes (but no line-by-line commentary), and a good glossary (but the page with the last letters, from "wrathe" on, is missing in my copy!).

Here is the reason for my giving this book four stars instead of five. This is supposedly an edition revised in 1996 (the first Gradon-edition is from 1958), as the general editor assures us in a short preface. The bibliography has been updated (the most recent entry is from 1994, apart from a reference to a 1996 publication in the same series as this "Elene"), but the introduction, the text, and the notes have not. This is a shame, for the last two decades have seen a wealth of new publications (especially literary criticism) on Cynewulf.

Thus, we find no mention (not even in the bibliography) of the important work done on the legends of both the Holy Cross and Helena, by Stephan Borgehammar ("How the Holy Cross was Found," Stockholm 1991) and J.W. Drijvers ("Helena Augusta," Leiden 1992).

Seminal modern articles, by for instance J.P. Hermann, Daniel Calder, Earl Andersen, and Catherine Regan, which discuss the text from a literary more than a textual or historical point of view, are listed in the bibliography but not discussed in the book. I would suggest ordering a copy of Bjork's "Cynewulf: Basic Readings" as a sort of companion volume if you want to know what is currently going on.

In all, I have mixed feelings, and this predominates: while this edition is scholarly competent, it seems outdated, and the claim that this is a "revised edition" is substantiated only in the bibliography. It seems to me Exeter missed out on a great opportunity to reissue an edition of a text which is drawing more and more interest among scholars of Old English. Those just getting started in the discipline have a right, I feel, especially considering the current types of interest (structural, poststructural, new historicist, feminist, you name them) in this poetry, to get more out of an edition than what Gradon (and Exeter) offer. Unfortunately, for this text there is no other choice.

I was really disappointed in this book. What the author did not understand, and probably never will, is that the readers are not the least interested in her life or the lives of her children or husband. I am not in any way interested in her own impressions about St Helena, I am not interested in the Island's history or geography or what others might have thought about it. It is Napoleon that concerns me and when I purchased the book I though it would be about Napoleon's journey to the Island and his last days there. Instead it was the author's journey to the island in the 90's and her own days , which does not interest me and I doubt if it would be interesting to anyone bet herself. It was a real disappointment.

This book is not easy to classify ' part biography, part memoir, part essay. After Napoleon's final defeat at Waterloo, the British exiled him to the remote South Atlantic island of St. Helena, where he lived the few remaining years of his life. This book, written in the early 1990s, consists of the author's sensitive and insightful musings on Napoleon's life and death on the island, the relations between him and others in that most unnatural setting and those most unnatural circumstances, the history of St. Helena, the world of Napoleonic studies, the author's visit to St. Helena, and much else. The book is very elliptical and personal, and is perhaps best described as an extended meditation by Blackburne on life and human relationships as displayed in these events. Hard-core Napoleon fans and others looking for a straightforward narrative are likely to be disappointed (though I suspect that more insight into Napoleon's character can be gleaned from this book than from any more prosaic narrative). The book will appeal to readers who enjoy an intimate conversation with a thoughtful woman who, taking as her point of departure the unique and timeless spectacle at the core of the book, has much to say about all of us.

I have dined off his fine china and watched him play with the children of his initial host on the island. I have been transported through time and space, a reaction I have had only rarely. Ms. Blackburn has created a reality worthy of attention. The aura of the house, the luminosity of Napoleon's complexion and the thinking of his English overseers are only a part of that reality. The prose is clear and compelling. The past, the natural history of St. Helena and Ms. Blackburn's present day doings complement one another. On the map, St. Helena is as much "in the middle of nowhere" as any place on earth. And Ms. Blackburn makes going there an enlightening journey.

Marion Zimmer Bradley illuminated my world when I was a teen, when I read Mists of Avalon. I've read all the books of the serie, in french and english (I speak french). After reading the Avalon Cycle serie, I've realized that every stories Bradley wrote was the same: She changed names and places in Britain, but the story is always the same. Always a foreign Savior in love with a priestess that will bore their child of the Prophecy.
I think Bradley was obsessed and fascinated with Arthurian myths, so am I. But she never did serious researches for her writings about them, until the last decade. So I believe she began to be interested by the 'real' history much later in her life, after The Mists of Avalon.
And The Priestess of Avalon is her final cut, with too much of history (names, places...), probably because scholars didn't think Bradley was a serious writer and discredited her. I think she was obsessed now with the credibility of her stories and she loses all the magic... and the mists!

So, shortly, as a fan, Priestess of Avalon doesn't worth the buying. But if you fall on it, read it. But nothing is new and I've guessed everything from the beginning to the end.

I'll read and read and read The Mists of Avalon again and again.

P.S. The TNT special series was pathetic and didn't look what I thought. Too bad.

I am so sad to realise that this is the final Avalon book.It's also hard for me to guess whether or not a reader who isn't INTO the old Celtic religions would find this an interesting read, but for me, it was another wonderful, absorbing and magical read involving the occupants of the mystical island of Avalon and the gentle, loving form of their religion.A young priestess, Eilan, falls in love with a handsome Roman soldier named Constantius, and forsakes her home on Avalon for love of him and also because she believes that her future is inextricably bound with his.
She bears a son who becomes the Emperor Constantine who eventuually caused the conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity.Eilan,or the Empress Helena as she is known when she becomes the mother of the Emperor,somewhat reluctantly accepts Christianity as she realises that much of the new religion is based on the old and, because of pressure from her son, tours his Empire on his behalf. As a very old lady, she stages her own death in order to return to her true home, the Isle of Avalon.As always when I read books about Avalon, I feel a tremendous sense of deja vu....perhaps in a former life???

Of course, Priestess of Avalon isn't really part of the lot. For the most part, it's a story tangential to the Avalon epic. I also suspect Diana Paxson did a lot of the filling in of Marion Zimmer Bradley's dream of the tale. Take it in this context--as a book about Avalon but not really part of any series--and perhaps this novel will have a different meaning.

The idea proposed to us the readers is that Eilan (Helena in the Roman world), a priestess of Avalon, falls in love and runs away with Constantius, a Roman. He existed, by the way. Somehow through her travels in the Empire (after all, her patroness is Elen of the Ways), Helena gains a wisdom and an understanding. She gives birth to Constantine, the Roman emperor who embraced Christianity. Eilan, through it all, begins to see where all religions and paths are reflections of a greater truth. Sometime after the book ends this Eilan/Helena is canonized as Saint Helena. In short, it's a detailed autobiography of a fascinating figure of a woman.

I can see where Mists devotees would be disappointed by this book. After all, only a small part of it actually takes place in Avalon. But does Eilan need to have spent her entire life on the island to be a priestess of Avalon? It seemed to me that she spread and shared the wisdom she learned on Avalon with people all over the Empire. If that doesn't make her a worthy heir to the Avalon legacy, nothing does.