A wonderful collection! One could sit down and read this book from start to finish in one sitting and remain enthralled. You will find yourself quoting Wilde for weeks. By the end, I had a firm grasp of what "the season" was and how polite society functioned from Wilde's point of view. A must-read if you've read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: you will finally understand why Fenchurch is always asked if she was found in a handbasket! Wilde's writing is, as always, witty and beautiful. "You will call me sister, won't you?"

i know this book is supposed to be a satire of the british gentry, but that was a hundred years ago and those people are dead. so what's left is a very witty play about some very funny (dead) people. some wag called "the imp of being earnest" a "verbal opera". this description is apt. read the book and find out why...

By looking at the cover I didn't think I would like this book : a dirty brown with an Old English illustration. But once I read the first few pages I was hooked. The book is based on Oscar Wilde's play of the same name, one I only vaguely had heard of. Although the story takes place in 19th century England, the humor transcends time. It starts off when one gentleman meets up with another. Questions arise to the identity of the visiting man, named Ernest, which leads to a mini-mystery. The two men banter humorously throughout the book accompanied by the leading ladies and a very accomodating butler. The reason for the title becomes apparent when the name Ernest is the central cause for the hilarity. I absolutely loved this book! It was a quick read and made me laugh out loud. I was surprised that noone else had written a review for it. I was glad I took a chance with something that, on the surface, didn't look very appealing. You won't be disappointed if you did, too.

Vasari's prose is effusive but easy to follow because it says the same things over and over about each artist. If you have any interest in the Italian artists this book is a crucial and reliable source of information. Artists lives with an emphasis on their contemporaries and their development are lavishly detailed in this book. It's a crucial source for a college-level art history report. Art historians respect Vasari's analyses of the artists' lives.

Vasari LOVES the High Renaissance artists, especially Michelangelo and Raphael, so you'll find that those chapters are especially long and informative. At times the praise of these artists, and others of the Renaissance, seems exaggerated and excessive. But you get the general gist of things, and find yourself itching to see the paintings that he tells stories about after you read about each artist.

I found this to be a magnificent reference for anyone interested in learning about the Renaissance art and artists. Vasari wrote the original text between 1563 and 1568, and he knew the greats such as Michelangelo and da Vinci personally as well as many others and imparts both his knowledge and first hand impressions of these great artists not found in any other reference. Vasari himself was a very talented artist apprenticing under Michelangelo directly. This is a wonderful text and facinating source of hard to find information. You will enjoy it.

In studying up for a visit to Italy I noticed that art historians still directly and frequently cite this book, written over 400 years ago. Since Vasari was a contemporary of the High-Renaissance artists, I thought it would be interesting to read his descriptions of artists and their technical development. The book is organized into a series of essays focusing on artists from Cimabue to Titian. In this translation, the editors have included only those artists still believed to have made a significant contribution.

To my surprise, this book was not only informative, but it was also quite entertaining. Vasari focuses mostly on the artistic development of each artist, but frequently strays into fascinating stories about their personal lives. The writing style is surprisingly readable, thanks to both Vasari and the editors. The notes in the back of the book are extremely useful. They point out where Vasari has been proven inaccurate, elaborate on some of Vasari's points, and provide updated locations for some of the works.

This book was invaluable during my recent trip to Tuscany and Umbria. It was thrilling to read Vasari's descriptions of great fresco cycles, paintings, and sculptures while I was viewing them in person, whether in the Uffizi in Florence or the Duomo in Orvieto. I cannot recommend this book enough to all art lovers, particularly those who are planning a visit to central Italy.

This was the first Sarah Caudwell novel I've read. Perhaps I should have started the series from the beginning, but I found myself unable to overcome my sense of implausability in this novel. I was surprised that the characters all wrote such long, frequent, and detailed letters - I was even more surprised that Hilary Tamar was allowed to read them all. I didn't like the main character because I didn't know anything about him or her, except that he or she talked a little too much in the manner of Sherlock Holmes. I enjoyed the various developments to the plot, until the point that the blame for three successful and several more attempted apparent murders took place. I felt that Ms. Caudwell took the expression "always the person you least suspect" far too literally. Couldn't the person at least BE a suspect? I'm sorry to be offending any Caudwell fans, and I'm very sorry to hear that she passed away, but I found the amount of coincidence truly excessive, the main character unlikeable, and, in short, I found that the best thing about the novel was the front cover (which was excellent.)

Although British author Sarah Caudwell wrote only four Hilary Tamar comedy-of-manners mysteries before her death in January, the long wait between each of them only whetted her fan's appetites. Oxford Professor Tamar's gender (as well as height, complexion, build and every other personal detail) remains a mystery in Caudwell's last, "The Sibyl In Her Grave," and the writing is as precise, elegant, urbane, witty and polished as any fan could hope.

Introducing the story, Tamar addresses the issue of personal appearance, admitting that some readers have expressed an interest. "I do not doubt, however, that these enquiries are made purely as a matter of courtesy and to take them au pied de la lettre would be as grave a solecism as to answer a polite 'How do you do, Professor Tamar?' with a full account of the state of my digestion."

Happily the narrator's reticence does not extend to the team of four young London barristers whose personal, romantic and professional doings enliven Caudwell's stories. Julia, tax expert, is concerned for her Aunt Regina who has made a truly remarkable killing in stocks and is now expected to pay tax on money already spent. Meanwhile Selena's client, a retiring merchant banker, has discovered that one of the two men vying to succeed him is guilty of insider trading - but which one?

These two threads neatly tie into the death of a despised neighbor of Regina's, a psychic whose aviary includes a pet vulture and whose household includes a most unattractive and hapless niece. The other two young barristers, Cantrip and Ragwort, supply red herrings and clues as needed and Hilary pursues this trail of coincidence to come up with several elegant solutions, each one engagingly convincing until demolished.

Dryly hilarious, elegantly polished, Caudwell is the Jane Austen of mysteries and though her books are few, each can be read and reread for the sheer delight of the writing and the intricate, comic plots.

Sadly, this will be the last book featuring the adventures of Selena, Julia, Cantrip, Ragwort and their former Oxford tutor Hilary Tamar, as Sarah Caudwell died in 2000. Last is not least, though, as Caudwell again provides her readers with hilarious characters, suspicious situations, and just enough British tax law to keep things interesting.

This installment centers on Julia Larwood's aunt Regina, who lives in the innocent-sounding town of Parsons Haver, West Sussex. This being Caudwell and not Christie, however, the town is populated with the same kind of oddball, interesting characters the rest of her books are (for instance: the town's newest resident is a psychic who keeps a flock of ravens and a vulture in her drawing room). Regina needs advice from Julia on a tax question; she and some friends have made quite a bit of money investing in shares in different companies and they are now being asked to pay a large capital gains tax. Strangely, their investment plan was identical to that of someone apparently involved in insider dealing at the bank of one of Selena's clients. But what is the connection? That's what this band of amateur sleuths sets out to discover.

As in Caudwell's other books, much of the action is explained through correspondence, in this case mostly letters from Regina to Julia, although other characters do take up the pen. The device works well; it allows the reader to see the story from several first-person perspectives at the same time and to get a better understanding of each of the characters who write. The book isn't all letters and no action, of course; several trips are made to Parsons Haver, Regina comes to London, and action on the bank connections sends characters to locations ranging from Cannes to Scotland. Stones fly through windows, ..things are stolen, and Selena, in an attempt to remodel the law offices at 62 New Square, must deal with those nefarious creatures known as builders. And, although this book does not end in the kind of showdown some of Caudwell's other books do, the ending is satisfying just the same.

The best thing about Sarah Caudwell's novels is the tone, the style. The characters couldn't be anything but British, but they are decidedly modern. Ragwort's trip to Cannes, complete with a dominatrix neighbor and a cross-dressing companion who serenades diners at a local restaurant, would be out of place in many novels, but it fits into Caudwell's world perfectly. Her humor is understated but effective; Cantrip, describing his attempts to discover whether another character is involved with the Parsons Haver business, says that upon his mention of the town, the man became very agitated. When Hilary remarks that this seems significant, Cantrip replies, "Yes, that's what I thought. But it turned out he'd just been stung by a bee, so I suppose it's a bit inconclusive." Caudwell's sense of humor also shows in her decision not to reveal Hilary's sex; the reader may attempt to deduce it, but the clues, such as they are, lead nowhere. The Sibyl in Her Grave lives up to Caudwell's other books in style and in substance. Readers will enjoy this last trip to 62 New Square.

Cart and Cwidder is the first of Diana Wynne Jones' Dalemark books, which run to four volumes. Dalemark is a fairly obvious version of Wales. Indeed, the book reminded me a bit of Lloyd Alexander, though not the Prydain books (set in a version of Wales), but rather the Westmark books, as they share, very roughly, tech level, and an interest in politics.

This book concerns an 11-year old boy named Moril, a musician traveling with his family. They earn their money by stopping at towns and villages and playing songs. They also pass news among the people of Dalemark, and take passengers : they and other musicians are the only people who regularly travel between the northern and southern parts of the land, which are at the point of war. The south in particular is being severely repressed by the Earls (there has been no King for some time). Moril's family consists of their jolly father Clennen, their beautiful, aristocratic mother Lenina, the talented 15-year old songwriter son Dagner, and a 12-year old girl, Brid, in addition to Moril. The title refers to the cart they live and travel in, and to the main musical instruments they use, "cwidders", which seem guitar-like, and one of which may have magical powers.

On the journey in question, they pick up a rather mysterious traveller, Kialan, a boy of roughly Dagner's age. He has a tendency to disappear when they pass through villages. Then, near the castle of Lenina's former fiance, some men show up and murder Clennen. Abruptly, Lenina heads to her ex-fiance's house, as he has long promised to marry her if she is ever free. But the children recognize one of the murderers as a guest at the house, and they decide to head on their own to the North. On their way, they find more trouble, and eventually they learn that war is closer to hand than they thought. Can it be stopped?

It's very readable and involving -- I'm not sure Jones can be other than readable and involving. But it shares with much YA fantasy a certain thinness in the background. Her best work, such as _Fire and Hemlock_, seems much more completely imagined, more complex in characterization, theme, and morality. This book is fun, and not without real tension and interesting characters, but it seems minor compared to my favorites among her work. I will be buying the rest of the Dalemark books, however.

Cart and Cwidder tells the story of a family of singers: Clennen, the larger-than-life lead singer and father, Lenina, the cool, calm highborn mother, Dagner, the talented but shy eldest son, Brid, the impetuous, talkative daughter and Moril, the dreamy youngest son. The family is happy enough, traveling around the country between North and South boundaries, performing for various towns and villages along the way. But when they take on a traveler, Kialan, to take him to the North, their happy life starts to unravel. Clennen is suddenly murdered in the woods. Lenina marries the nobleman she was engaged to before she ran off with Clennen. Dagner tries to continue his father's spy work and ends up in jail. Brid thinks that she is more clever than she is and leads the evil Tholian to Kialan, who is really the duke's son. It is left to Moril to try and muddle his way through, half awake, half dreaming, and learn how to play the magicial cwidder that his father left him.

I loved the characters. As soon as they were introduced, I felt as if I knew them and how they worked together. The author has a nice story to tell and it unfolds rather well, but is kind of abrupt in parts. The beginning of the book is a little slower paced, but once the ball gets rolling, it gets faster and faster and faster and never slows down again. I thought that it would have been nice to have a little more plot development, a little more time to tell the story. However, I do understand that this is a children's/young adult's book and it is a good length for them to read. The main reason I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5 is because of the rather detached way that the story is told. Everything is in third person and I sometimes felt that the characters weren't feeling anything. This may be intentional, as Moril is a rather dreamy and detached character and tends to distance himself from circumstances in the real world, but it made the story less than it could have been. It would have been nice to have a more active feel to the story as a whole. Still, I think that most younger readers will enjoy this book. It is also a good introduction to fantasy for teens and children as it takes place in a place that seems normal with touches of magic here and there.

I loved this book. Between Brid and Moril, I think that Jones, the author, did a great job. The family seams to be happy, but there is more to that. The mother Leneia (sp?)is still in love with Ganner, the earl she was engaged to before she ran off with Clennen. Clennen, the father, is a wonderful singer and preformer, but holds a dark secret that puts the family in a few sticky situations. Then Kilian (sp?) comes along to join the family on there journey up to the north. He is unlike the rest of them, selfish (kind of), stuck up, and mean to Moril. When you think of him, you think BAD GUY!!! The Clennen gets murdered before Morils, Dagners (oldest son), and Brid. Oncwe he is gone Leneia goes to Ganner. At his house they see the man that killed Clennen. Then Brid, Moril, Kilian, and Dagner, head up noth to bring Kilian to Harnett. As they pass through towns, Dagner, trys to be a spy and hand oput information like his father, Clennen did. Not smart. He gets caught and is on the brink of ebing hanged. Brid and Moril now have to get Kilian, the son of the Earl of Harnett, up to the north before the weasal of a person, Tholion, gets he hands on him.

This is by far the best book in the quartet. I loved the characters and how tey interacted with eachother. I wanted more Brid and Kilian in the other books.

READ THIS BOOK

This is the perfect follow up to Klinger's annotated "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes." It is exhaustively researched, beautifully printed, and tastefully illustrated. The scope of the annotations are awesome, and truly enhance the appreciation of the Sherlock Holmes stories. Both die-hard fans and casual readers will absolutely love this book!

In spite of the fact that I have all the stories, this book made me want to reread them all again. It is a hoot. You'll discover fascinating facts that will make the stories brand new and interesting all over again. This is a MUST HAVE for Holmes fans.

This is a good collection of Sherlock Holmes shorts. The first offering is what is generally considered one of the best stories in the entire Holmes canon: Silver Blaze. "The Musgrave Ritual" is very cool also, but of course, they're all good. This collection also houses the infamous short "The Final Problem" where Doyle originally tried to kill Holmes. So popular a character was Holmes (even then) that after the story was released there was a riot in the streets of London, so mad were the people at Holmes's death. Needless to say, Doyle brought Holmes back. Imagine if he hadn't...

Not a bad parallel edition - the typeface is easy to read and footnotes are included. These four Bible translations (NRSV, NJB, NAB, REB) are all high-quality scholarly editions and very useful to have under one cover. My one complaint is that the page thickness prohibits the use of ballpoint pen in writing personal commentary.

When it somes to parallel Bibles this is one of a kind! There
are parallel New Testaments, but to my knowledge this is the
only parallel Bible that includes the OT and NT. The four translations are excellent, representing good variety of
expression. The NRSV and NAB are good, fairly literal translations, while the REB and NJB are beautiful literary translations of the Bible. I use this parallel bible very often,
espcially when I am studying a passage in the OT. Also, I often
keep this Bible open when I am using the NASB or NIV text in the
study of an OT passage. Highly recommended.

I searched a long time to find a parallel bible containing the NAB and NJB. The others NSRV and REB were an added plus. The parallel design is to make a comparison of the more literal translation to the one that best follows the meaning. This is almost necessary as even the literal and meaning comparisons are still interpretations. Look at how they handle Psalms 88:19. For variations in verse numbering.

In the front, there is a real nice description of how the different versions came about.

The introduction has:

· The Translations and their Background · The Arraignment of the Translations

· The Order of the Biblical Material · Variations in the Text of the Different Translations

· Explanations of the Translators' Footnotes

· Variations in Verse Numbering

· Use of the Parallel Text

I hated history in highschool (could be because the history teacher was fore-mostly the football coach) but found that as an adult I have a passion for it - ancient history, that is. However, this book was my first foray into the realm of history since that time oh so long ago. I was bedazzled with the thought of glorious battles and windy voyages at sea - and as I am mainly a fiction reader, I was unprepared for the sheer amount of _detail_ included in this book. I have found, that while it is very interesting - Gwyn Jones packs SO much information onto each page that I can hardly read more than 10 or so pages at a sitting before I need a breather - unusual for me, as I usually will finish a book in a couple of days. So while the content is well thought out and presented, if you are only a casual reader, perhaps you should get a bit more background on the Viking people first, and THEN attempt to slog through this one. (In either case, I _do_ recommend it!)

A clearly written, well-organized review of the full range of Viking history, from dim origins to far flung diaspora, to gradual fade. The story of the Greenland colony's disappearance is bone-chilling: like a subtle horror story, or a disturbing anxiety dream about neglect and loss. The mystery of it, and the other-worldly setting, raised the hairs on my spine. The book is an ample exploration of the entire gamut of Viking history, and strives to redress some of the demonization that has traditionally beset Vikings in history, presenting the archaeological evidence (such as it was in the late 60's--which is to say, not bad) alongside the contemporary accounts (including the fascinating diary entries of Arab travelers). Much of Viking history is a puzzle, so one must bear with some of the writer's detective work regarding placenames, dates, saga deconstruction and principal actors; but it helps to know the basis of the author's conclusions--where the firm ground is, and which claims are more or less tacit. The footnotes and bibliography are extensive and helpful.

The Vikings settled Scandinavia, Iceland, Greenland and possibly also Russia; they were the first to discover America; they settled towns across England, Scotland, Ireland and the Isle of Man; they founded Normandy in France; later the self-same Normans (Norsemen) were to conquer England, where their descendants still occupy the throne. A magnificent and ingenius people they were. This book is a nice, crisp primer on who the Vikings were and how they lived. It also serves to dispel myths: the Vikings were, for the most part, a peaceful people whose relations with their neighbors were good (for the most part). Rumors of atrocities were usually exaggerated - "Viking raid" stories were almost always written by non-Scandinavians with an ax to grind. Rather than relying exclusively on plunder, which is the popular perception, the Viking economy relied on a sophisticated mix of agriculture, manufacturing and trade, and they had a sound monetary system. Their literature was highly developed - in fact the Icelandic sagas are among history's greatest all-time best sellers. A useful reference source on the Viking achievement.

the Oxford Shakespeare has been touted as 'a new conception' of Shakespeare, but is in fact merely an update of the cumbersome old Arden editions. Like these, 'King John' begins with a 100-page introduction, divided into 'Dates and Sources' (full of what even the editor admits is 'tedious' nit-picking of documentary evidence); 'The Text' (the usual patronising conjecture about misprints in the Folio edition and illiterate copyists); 'A Critical Introduction', giving a conventional, but illuminating guide to the drama, its status as a political play dealing with the thorny problem of royal succession, the contemporary legal ambiguities surrounding inheritance, the patterning of characters, the use of language (by characters as political manoeuvring, by Shakespeare to subvert them); and an account of 'King John' 'In the Theatre', its former popularity in the 18th and 19th century as a spectacular pageant, the play distorted for patriotic purposes, and its subsequent decline, presumably for the same reasons. The text itself is full of stumbling, often unhelpful endnotes - what students surely want are explanations of difficult words and figures, not a history of scholarly pedantry. The edition concludes with textual appendices.
The play itself, as with most of Shakespeare's histories, is verbose, static and often dull. Too many scenes feature characters standing in a rigid tableau debating, with infinite hair-cavilling, issues such as the legitimacy to rule, the conjunction between the monarch's person and the country he rules; the finer points of loyalty. Most of the action takes place off stage, and the two reasons we remember King John (Robin Hood and the Magna Carta) don't feature at all. This doesn't usually matter in Shakespeare, the movement and interest arising from the development of the figurative language; but too often in 'King John', this is more bound up with sterile ideas of politics and history, than actual human truths. Characterisation and motivation are minimal; the conflations of history results in a choppy narrative. There are some startling moments, such as the description of a potential blood wedding, or the account of England's populace 'strangely fantasied/Possessed with rumours, full of idle dreams/Not knowing what they fear, but full of fear'. The decline of the king himself, from self-confident warrior to hallucinating madman, anticipates 'King Lear', while the scene where John's henchman sets out to brand the eyes of the pubescent Pretender, is is full of awful tension.
P.S. Maybe I'm missing something, but could someone tell me why this page on 'King John' has three reviews of 'Timon of Athens'? Is somebody having a laugh?

Timon of Athens has often been thought the work of a madman. Disjointed, polemical, irrational, and downright inelegant, many have thought that Shakespeare (or whosoever it may be) suffered a mental breakdown. This and more surrounds what I believe to be a tragic under-appreciation of this play. This play is NOT the story of a naively generous soul who eventually "faces reality". This is instead the story of a glorious Dionysian self-expender, who, upon realizing the cowardly conservatism of his so-called "peers", runs off to the wilds, to continue expending himself in body and soul. He dies on a curse, the climax of all the "evil wind" he has been sending out, the ultimate self-expension, his ultimate glory. The "tragedy" is the stone cold tablet that lies atop his corpse at the end, and the message of frugality it seems to send out, which is all too easily accepted by fatally declining cultures.

Among the least performed of all the Shakespeare plays, is probably the most disturbing. In the beginning, Timon is (not to put too fine a point on it) stupidly philanthropic; in the end he is equally misanthropic. When Timon is on top of the world, we have the cynical Apemantus to be our voice and let him know what a fool he is. In the last two acts, we simply wish (I do, at least) that our hero would stop complaining and let us "pass and stay not here," as he would have all men do in his epitaph.

But a recording is to be judged on its performances, not so much on its text. The Arkangel series, now in its last laps toward completion before (I am told) it is all redone on CDs, has every reason to be proud of its "Timon of Athens," thanks to its strong and intelligent readings. The opening scenes of artisans and poets building up the play's themes of wheel-of-fortune and gratitude/ingratitude are almost intelligible without a text open before you. Alan Howard, whom I saw in New York long ago as Henry V and as the main character in "Good," has that kind of friendly voice that is so well suited to the extravagant Timon in the open acts that we feel all the more for him when his false friends deny him in his need.

The snarling voice of Norman Rodway's Apemantus is a perfect counterpoint, and he casts out his invective in those early scenes with a hint of humor. However, when Timon becomes the misanthrope, his voice darkens and coarsens; and it is very hard to tell it from Apemantus' in their overly-long exchange of curses in 4:3. If the actor playing Alcibiades (Damian Lewis) sounds far too young for the role, that is a minor quibble--and perhaps the director wanted him to sound like a young Timon.

The incidental music sounds sufficiently Greek but too modern; still, Ingratitude knows no particular time period. A superior production of a much flawed play and a very welcome addition to any collection of recorded drama, especially since the old Decca set is long out of print and Harper audio does not yet have a "Timon" in their series.

The temptation to finish the tale seems irresistible. In the beginning, everything seems to lead toward a predictable solution - but then the plot thickens. After some digressions that shrewdly delay the action and raise the level of suspense, and after some florid editorializing (e.g.,on professional philanthropy, on female intuition vs. male obtuseness, etc.) Dickens introduces some new characters, and the mystery deepens: Who is Datchery? Is he one of the previous players in disguise, or a Sherlock Holmes-like figure? Who is Tartar? What is Bazzard up to? What does the opium dealer know or suspect? Who is the "fellow traveller"? Did Jasper murder (or try and fail to murder) Drood - or did he commit the deed only in an opium dream?
My own hunch is that Drood is not dead. There is no body - at least not yet; and it would seem so much more like Dickens to have a man given up for dead re-emerge triumphantly after many trials and tribulations, and after much dissimulating on the part of characters "in the know" (cf."Our Mutual Friend"). But since we don't know what Dickens planned, we are free to spin our own yarn and weave our own tapestry. Isn't that a lot more fun?

This novel has stayed on my mind ever since I read it. It's so frustrating that Dickens died before completing this novel. On the other hand, the fact that this classic British mystery was never finished has created a great opportunity for literary critics and mystery lovers alike to try to solve the mystery for themselves. We'll never know who Dickens really had in mind as the murderer, or if indeed there was a murder after all. That's a huge loss. But it's a great ride for readers to try to make up their own minds.

I still haven't made up my mind about who did it. Sure, there is a very obvious suspect in Jasper, but that doesn't mean Dickens thought he did it. Some people have speculated that Dickens wrote this novel as a tribute to his friend Wilkie Collins' "The Moonstone," so perhaps the opium addiction would have played a huge part in the mystery. It's even possible that Dickens saw a bit of himself in Jasper's tortured love life because of the way it paralleled his own life. After all, Cloisterham is supposed to be based on Dickens' Rochester. Then again, just because Dickens sympathized with someone, that doesn't mean that character was innocent, either, does it? Now you see why this story continues to torment mystery lovers.

Like any other Dickens novel, this one has lots of memorable characters, from the suspicious and tormented Jasper to the Reverend Crisparkle to Princess Puffer. And of course, the enigmatic Datchery. The gravedigger and his obnoxious but perceptive boy assistant provide both Dickensian eccentric characters and possible clues.

The power of this book even today is clear in the way it inspired an award-winning Broadway musical where the audience got to solve the mystery on their own. (By the way, 1935 movie with Claude Rains was good, but some of the main characters were cut out, and others seemed little like the characters in the book, even if they were fine actors.)

Anne M. Marble
All About Romance and Holly Lisle's Forward Motion Writing Community

It is so strange to see a long, well-plotted novel suddenly come to a dead stop. (Of a projected twelve episodes, Dickens wrote six before his death.) The title character is either murdered or missing, and a large cast of characters in London and Cloisterham (Dickens's Rochester) are involved in their own way in discovering what happened to Edwin Drood.

There is first of all John Jasper, an opium addict who suspiciously loves Drood's ex-fiancee; there is a nameless old woman who dealt him the opium who is trying to nail Jasper; there is a suspicious pile of quicklime Jasper notices during a late night stroll through the cathedral precincts; there is Durdles who knows all the secrets of the Cathedral of Cloisterham's underground burial chambers; there is the "deputy," a boy in the pay of several characters who has seen all the comings and goings; there are the Anglo-Indian Landless twins, one of whom developed a suspicious loathing for Drood; there is the lovely Rosebud, unwilling target of every man's affections; and we haven't even begun talking about Canon Crisparkle, Datchery, Tartar, and a host of other characters. All we know is that the game is afoot, but we'll never know the outcome.

It would have been nice to know how Dickens tied together all these threads, but we can still enjoy THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD because -- wherever Dickens was heading with it -- it is very evidently the equal of his best works. Life is fleeting, and not all masterpieces are finished.

This book gives what appears to be an almost complete and factual account of the events of the enrollment of James Meredith at Ole Miss. Having first hand experience of being there as a staff member in the Office of the Registrar, I was drawn to this book and find it flows well and coordinates time lines in an understandable format. It can easily be read in two evenings and makes you feel as though you were there. A must for anyone interested in history.

William Doyle has written an excellent account of the events surrounding Meredith's entry into Ole Miss. Particularly noteworthy is his detailed account of the behind the scenes negotiations between the Kennedys and Mississippi's segregationist governor, Ross Barnett. The book's depiction of the riot is also rich: Doyle vividly potrays the chaos that reigned in Oxford during the riot. The narration is gripping and this book is an entertaining read.

I thought the book was not nearly as strong in the final 30 pages. There is no clear direction to the book's "conclusion." Doyle sort of vasillates between providing updates on the book's main characters and attempting to place the riot into a historical perspective. While both are interesting, this portion of the book drags on.

Overall, a very enjoyable read.

I found this book to be very enlightening. It is a factual account of the clash between the United States Government and the State of Mississippi. Anyone who has been to Oxford would find it hard to imagine that those events actually occurred. It is a great example of our constitution being put to the test.