This is a great book. I bought it when I was about to go on a trip, and I couldn't read it until I got on the plane. I allowed myself to read one story. The story was "The White Cat". Now, this was a great story, with a great charector. The white cat enchanted me, especialy because my grandmother had a white china cat. It was all I could do to wait until the plane to read the rest, but I did. The rest of the book was great, too, but my favorite story was still the White Cat. Some of my other favorite stories were Belenda and Bellamont, the Princess and the Hedge Pig, and the Cathood of Maurice. These are really great stories. After awhile, I got my grandma to give me her own white cat, and I felt so glad. These stories have great effects on the readers.

I have to say, I love E Nesbit's works! It's not just the magic, it's the characters and humour, and I love the way real-life situations mix in with the magic! (hmmm... mentioned 'magic' twice already...)
There are twelve stories in all... and I can't summarise them all for you... but "Septimus Septimusson" (my favourite) was amusing, about the seventh son of a seventh son who had to go seek his fortune. Unfortunately I can't think of anyway to summarise this story either (gives away the "plot line"), so in conclusion:
MAGIC + HUMOUR + REAL-LIFE SITUATIONS + HUMOUR
I'm sorry it's not a very good review, though.

This book is a collection of short stories, and finding it again has been a highly emotional experience for me. I had read it YEARS ago in the Library when I was but a small child, and loved every syllable of it; then the Library LOST it, and I pined for it terribly. I had even forgotten its title (I had *thought* it was "Nine Unlikely Tales" -- perhaps an alternate title?).

Then about eight years ago, as an adult of 32, I FINALLY laid hands on a copy of "The Magic World" once more. Oh my! How I adored reading those old fine magical stories again! How I wept -- WEPT! -- to read all those old stories which I had so long loved and lost and now found again! Who could ever forget such stories as "Accidental Magic", or "The Cat-Hood Of Maurice", or "Kenneth And The Carp", or "Belinda And Bellamant; Or The Bells Of Carrillon-Land"??? This last has a very catchy verse in it ("Out! Out! Into the night!/The belfry bells are ours by right!") which I have never forgotten and which I looked for -- and found -- and triumphantly BELLOWED at the very top of my lungs the instant the book was again in my hands! Ah, me!!!

These stories are all "Classic Nesbit", and even if the book is "brand new" to you and not nostalgic as it is for me, it is still well worth the getting, and at a VERY reasonable price!

One final note of historic literary interest: the story "The Aunt and Amabel" -- with its train station tucked away inside a wardrobe in a spare room -- was C. S. Lewis' inspiration for setting the land of Narnia inside a similar wardrobe in "The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe". :)

This life of Queen Victoria set a new standard for biographies when it was written and it still reads very well today. To the modern ear some of Strachey's language may at times be a bit dry. That aside this is an excellent study of the development of Victoria from infancy to old age. The entanglement's of family and the influence of key ministers is well covered and documented . Especially interesting is the treatment of Prince Albert and the Queen's relationship.
I found this to be quite an informative book and would highly recommend it to anyone with a curiosity regarding this period of British history.

I purchased this book at a library sale and it has no copywrit date other then the 1921 date published by Harcourt, Grace & World,Inc and renewed by Jame Strachey, with no renewal date. The copy I have has 434 pages which include an index of subject matter. The only other used books mentioned for sale have a copywrit of 1981 and have 100 less pages. This book is in very good condition and has the original cover jacket. It begins its historic tale in 1817 and includes footnotes at the bottom of the page.

strachey became famous for his 'eminent victorians' which has the reputation for being a hatchet job-but he was looking at the previous generation from the disillusioned, post-WWI perspective, and he treats florence nightingale et al more like prodigies than monsters. when he undertook to write about the eponymous queen herself, people expected it would be another exercise in target practice-even his mother tried to discourage him, saying that 'if she was stupid, it was not her fault.' But in the event what he produced is one of the most sympathetic, if slightly condescending, biographies ever written-and absolutely one of the most accomplished. it is a chronicle of victoria's 60+-year-long political career and emotional life, a series of portraits of all the personalities in her life-including albert, his curious replacement john brown, disraeli-him, it is true, strachey clearly did not like-a completely non-pedantic reflection on the growth and eventual shrinkage of the british empire during her reign-and the whole thing is done so subtly, so gracefully-and, at the same time, so forcefully-that you may find yourself talking about nothing else but this book and queen victoria for days afterward. one of the most successful marriages of rigorous scholarship and beautiful style in english literature.

Lewis Carroll sends Alice on a second set of adventures in some territory that is beyond our world. This time she crosses a mirror and enters a game of chess. She will eventually become a queen but she will in all possible ways express her deep desire to rebel against a world that is seen as having too many limitations and frustrating rules. She will in a way rebel against the game of chess itself when she comes to the end of it and pulls the tablecloth from under all the pawns and pieces to have peace and quiet, to free herself of absolute slavery. But what is she the slave of ? Of rules, the rules of the game, the rules of society, the rules of education. Of words and their silly ambiguities that enable them to mean both one sense and its reverse, that enable them to lead to absurd statements and declarations that completely block her in blind alleys and impasses. But at the same time, her return to the normal world that transforms those adventures into a dream, is a rejection of such adventures and of such rebellion as being absurd and purely fantasmatic, dreamlike. There is in this book a rather sad lesson that comes out of this ending : children can dream adventures, can dream perfect freedom, but reason brings them back to the comfortable world of everyday life and submission. And there is no other way possible. This book is pessimistic about a possible evolution from one generation to the next thanks to the retension of childish, childlike dreams, forgetting that the world can only change and progress thanks to the fuel those dreams represent in our social engine.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

"Through The Looking Glass" is, perhaps, not QUITE as good as "Alice's Adventures In Wonderland", but it's close enough to still rate five stars. Not, properly, a sequel to the first book, there is no indication at any point in it that the Alice (clearly the same individual, slightly older) from this book ever had the adventures in the first one; there is no reference to her previous adventures, even when she once again meets Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Obviously, the two books are intended as parallel adventures, not subsequent ones.

The most memorable bits from this book are doubtlessly the poem, "Jabberwocky", as well as chapter six, "Humpty Dumpty". But all of the book is marvellous, and not to be missed by anyone who enjoys a magical romp through silliness and playful use of the English language.

(This review refers to the unabridged "Dover Thrift Edition".)

Carrol was a profound and wonderful writer, and Through the Looking Glass... is definate proof of this. Though there isn't much evidence that he was a pedophile, you shouldn't grade his works simply on who he might or might not have been. Through the Looking Glass... is one of the greatest works of literature in the english language, and will continue to be despite the author's supposed problems.

Reading "Trilby" is like listening to a lively, friendly raconteur taking you into his confidence. All the characters are interesting and lovable despite their faults. Ultimately, du Maurier even has a soft spot for Svengali. Sentimental, yes...but effervescent and with a broad tolerance for life and human weaknesses. It's a fun, memorable read and easy to see why it was a huge hit of the 1890's.

The book which put "Svengali" into the English language. I had heard of this book long ago, of course, though i can't remember whether it was first from learning about Svengali or finding out that du Maurier was Daphne du Maurier's father. But i had never read it. In a way i'm glad i didn't, becuase that has given me the opportunity to read it now, for the first time. It has taken me a little longer than i might have expected, but was well worth the time. The story of the tragic Trilby, who cannot sing a note to save her life, and how she is moulded into the singer who takes Europe by storm, by the evil (?)(i'm not sure) musician Svengali, who uses mesmerism of some kind to play her as an instrument. The story is told from the persepective of three Englishmen who lived in Paris during the time Trilby was an artists' model, before she fell under Svengali's spell. The three, Taffy, the Laird, and Little Billee, who was her fiancé at one point, briefly, are artists, of a sort; they love Trilby for herself, and are devastated when she is removed from them by events. Naturally, they are shocked by her reappearance in the world of Culture. But they are delighted at the possibility of renewing her acquaintance.

I could wish that du Maurier had not been so cute with his French as "spoken" by the English. I could wish that there is less French altogether, as it does slow down the reading ~ perhaps one reason "Trilby" isn't read any more (is it?). It does generate an atmosphere, though, and you begin to know what Western Europe was like in the middle years of two centuries ago. This edition, Dover, has over a hundred illustrations by du Maurier, who had made his name as a cartoonist for Punch. They are lovely, and add immeasurably to the book.

I have to disagree with the reviewer who commented that this novel is at best a curiosity and that it deserved to fade into obscurity. I read this in a course on 19th century novels and fell in love with du Maurier's writings and his drawings. He uses such wonderful devices to flavor the text and in many ways this satirical view of the aesthetic movement informs the period as much as Oscar Wilde's work does. That the work has some anti-Semitic sentiment it is no more worrisome than anything in Shakespeare (meaning that you must take the work as a work in a period of time). The character types are common enough and the message of the story is timeless--I'll leave the discernment of the message to the reader. Reading this was like uncovering your grandad's favorite toy in the attic and realizing it was still fun to play with today.

Shirley's early novel "City Come A Walkin'" takes us on a surreal (and frequently brutal) jaunt through a near-future San Fransisco where the city's overmind has the ability to manifest as a mirrorshades-wearing techno-shaman with a marked dislike for bad guys. The brilliance and terror behind this straight-forward tale is Shirley's refreshing refusal to cling to genre conceits. "City Come A Walkin'" challenges the nature of identity as well as the parameters of urban morality.

This book really opens up your imagenation, because it's plot. You really need to look at the wording to understand a lot of it.The only thing I didn't like about this novel was it was a little slow at times.

This is probably the most unique concept I've come across. The idea of a the city's consciousness manifesting itself is fresh and interesting. It's hard to believe this title is as old as it is. It seems like recently written cyberpunk. Pretty obvious that instead, all other cyberpunk has taken from it.

Philosophers should enjoy this one. The story is about coming to grips about who you are, expectations and perceptions. This book can be insightful for some, but for me, a little dry. Forster did not foster a logical basis for Rickie to fall in love - or a hopeless romantic one for that matter. From there, the story lost steam.

I find Forster an engaging and compelling writer. His novels often become absorbing despite flat passages and parts that, for me at least, are bordering on the unacceptable - the actions and thoughts of characters sometimes seem contrary to behaviour that seems at all natural to me.

I missed the sense of the exotic in this novel that I got from 'A Passage to India' and 'Where Angels Fear to Tread' - and yet the world of the priveleged in the UK and the cloisters of Cambridge University are exotic for me. It's just that they are so gloomy in this novel - gloomy and troubled. Even the countryside is blighted by the freight trains that repeatedly claim lives as they tramp the landscape.

This novel also has melodramatic elements that stretched my sense of credibility, however revelations of surprises are wonderfully managed. While my thoughts were heading in the right direction with the major revelation, when it did come it brought a true 'aha!' feeling - it made so much sense and yet I, like the characters in the story, had not seen it coming.

But, perhaps for me, the most disappointing aspect of this novel is its attitude towards the 'disadvantaged'. As in the movie 'Edward Scissorhand' the 'distorted' person, while capable of receiving small 'gifts of love' (as Morike put it - see Hugo Wolf's song 'Verborgenheit') it seems from these views of life that the realistic approach to the 'distorted' is that they are incapable of true happiness or fulfilment. This is a view I certainly don't subscribe to.

The Longest Journey's suspicious form and strange conclusions were quite accurately detected by Lionel Trilling who declared this novel in comparison to Forster's others to be his least perfect, least compact, least precisely formed and, simultaneously, his most brilliant, most dramatic, and most passionate. Such a multi-faceted existence is an exact indication of the risky and unfamiliar lines upon which modernists walked. One can assume that Trilling considered A Passage to India to be the wiser and more perfect of Forster's novels in comparison. Where A Passage to India is socio-political, The Longest Journey is personal. The philosophical issues portrayed can be interpreted as being in dialogue with Forster's fellow scholars, pontificating upon the arguments of his academic circles. Scholars who engaged with these same philosophical arguments will no doubt warm to the affable and ironical gestures Forster uses to argue his case.

The structure in which Forster composes The Longest Journey sometimes borders on an obsessive control of the novel's plot and particularly the characters. As the events of the story unfold, we see the frame leading us to a central statement about the human condition. The overemphasis of these points crowded with immense symbolism leads us to question the effectiveness of Forster's statements. Particular points in the story, such as Rickie's realisation that Stephen is his half brother and the reintroduction of Ansell teamed with Stephen, leave us in a troublesome position asking whether this highly personal story was sacrificed to the musically fluent style Forster was working. The Longest Journey's most difficult problem is that it introduces itself as a modernist novel whose commitment is to style, yet its story is obviously Forster's personal account of a series of emotions and events in his own life.

The narrator's voice and Rickie's are essentially interchangeable. The only difference between the two is that the narrator is consciously aware of what Rickie's subconscious knows, but can't admit. If Rickie were so closely intertwined with the authorial voice, then it would seem that there is no room for intimacy with the reader. Yet, the story redeems itself through Rickie's struggle because it is so personal in its metaphysical complications. It is only later in the story, as it drifts farther away from Rickie's consciousness that the emotional impact lets go and we are left wandering through labyrinths of overt symbolic designs. The design in which Rickie is brought to his end is ultimately unfulfilling because the tragedy of the human condition makes itself so poignantly clear when the story is brought full circle to the ending ominously predicted from the outset. Instead, we are asked to accept that no life is tragic because of the enduring factor a human's spiritual hope. If Stephen were created as a character more complicated than a pastoral hero, then this resolution might be effective. However, in the troublesome structure it exists in, it falls short of an enlightening resolution.

Within the complex faults that unfold from an authorial voice inseparable from a central character's consciousness, there is a meaning that resounds through. Apart from stylistic concerns, the modernists were intensely concerned about the human's existential crisis that results from an awareness of the bleak resistance to have faith in either scientific or theological assertions. Rickie is the only vehicle with which we can understand and interpret the complicity of an early twentieth century man's reality. The other characters exist as mere paper figures that serve stilted plot functions. It is through Rickie alone that we understand this particular metaphysical crisis. These sentiments are what make The Longest Journey an important work of modernist fiction in the historical sense. Its theoretical importance lies in the fact of its mismatched structural and sentimental tale's existence.

There is an odd coincidence between symbols he and other modernist writers use. For example, Rickie hangs a towel over a painted harp in the room he is sleeping in at Ansell's house just as Woolf wrote about Mrs. Ramsay hanging her shawl over the skull hanging in the children's bedroom. The symbolic meaning of this can be interpreted in various ways. Yet, in Woolf's writing the meaning makes itself abundantly more clear because the style with which she works supersedes the story in To the Lighthouse. This is why To the Lighthouse is a more successful modernist experiment. A writer that does not work within the laws of the form in which they are working will inevitably fail in their efforts. Forster does not seem to be ignorant of these laws, but he is so enthusiastic about the application of them that his obsessive use of the stylistics becomes rather inappropriate.

Forster often declaimed himself as "not a great novelist". The reason he felt this was probably because he was not able to abide by the standards that he himself set as the qualifications for great novels. This is, at least, the primary objection to be made toward The Longest Journey. In Aspects of the Novel Forster writes, "The novelist who betrays too much interest in his own method can never be more than interesting; he has given up the creation of character and summoned us to help analyse his own mind, and a heavy drop in the emotional thermometer results". The obsessive control of style as an opposition to the driving story he wanted to tell in The Longest Journey proves to be a fatal merging of a novelist who wants to keep with the artistic innovations of his time. Forster is too aware of his use of stylistic method to make the novel a wholly satisfactory piece of literature. Yet, because there is so much of Forster in the novel, it remains a very interesting book to serious and passionate readers.

Mary Barton is the first novel of Elizabeth Gaskell, a female writer who left her influence upon other English writers of the 19th century, like, for instance, Charles Dickens. The book is only an average view about Manchester life in the 19th century, focusing its attentions over the extreme poverty of the working class, the first labor conflicts in the pre-dawn of the Industrial Revolution, all this connected with a tender love story between the young Mary Barton and his old time friend Jem Wilson.
In fact, the murder of the young mill owner, Mr. Henry Carson - he too an admirer of Miss Barton - is not well developed and is not the central point of the novel because the reader knows all the time who is the real murderer. So, it's not a surprise at all the ending of the trial and the revelation of the real murderer in the last chapters.
Miss Gaskell has a simple and an almost näive vision of the social problems that harassed the working class in England when the Industrial Revolution started. Even though, we must recognize that she made a good work trying to denounce the insensibility of the English government about the problems of the workers and their families and the inflexibility of the mill owners and other high economic classes to negociate with their subordinates.
Mary Barton is a book that will hold the attencion of the readers, men or women, because Miss Gaskell has an elegant style and really knows how to tell a good story. Another great vintage of this novel are some great characters portrayed with flavour and undeniable charm, like the old and friendly Mr. Job Legh and the hard and anger John Barton, Mary's father.

Gaskell wrote one of the most vivid descriptions of the gap between rich and poor in this novel of the Manchester 'hungry forties'. The plot is driven by the device of a murder of young factory owner's son, but this story line is more an excuse to present the story as a novel (and to serve the demands and expectations of the novel form as it was understood at the time) than it really is the center of the book. The romance and the mystery (although still well-written) are cursory in comparison to the loving detail that Gaskell lavishes on Alice Wilson, the temptation of Esther and all the little points of life in deep poverty.

Worth reading, particularly if you're a fan of the novel (or history) of the period.

Actually I read this book in three days' time (it can be even faster if I don't have to go to school). Anyway, Mrs. Gaskell's depiction of the working class people in Manchester during the 19th century was so vivid that you can just *see* and *feel* how the rich and the poor's lives were like back then by turning the pages. I believe no one who had read this book will not to some extent feel pity for the tragic hero, John Barton, in the story. But aside from this formal social theme being presented in the novel, there is also a very strong sense of religious/moral theme in it (espeically near the end of the story), as well as some drama and romance in it. Definitely worth a read, especially to those who are interested in Victorian Literature.

Frank took a break from the world of OZ and wrote this book, It's the same sort of fomula but set in a coastal town. The kids and I liked it, but just not as much as the regular OZ series. It is however mentioned in the later Oz books as Frank liked to keep everyone happy and what better way than to have all his characters live in Oz?

This was a great book! I love the Oz books, and this was just as good, if not better than some. It is about a girl named Trot and her wise old friend Cap'n Bill, a sailor who lost his leg and has lived with Trot's family ever since. They go deep into the ocean to see a beautiful mermaids palace, meet the sweet and lovely mermaids, and explore the ocean. One of Baum's best books, the descriptions are fabulous and humorous. Then the mermaids and their comrades ghet captured by the evil wizard, Zog, and they have to fight to stay alive, outwitting Zog's clever plans. I have always been fascinated with mermaids, and I have never been able to find a great book that really got into the lives of mermaids until now. GET THIS BOOK! END

I too was thrilled to discover that the Magical Land of Noom has been republished. I was searching rare book sites hoping to find a copy, and lo and behold discovered the listing at Amazon.com. I've ordered three copies, two as surprise gifts for siblings. I cannot wait to see the illustrations of the Soft-Voiced Cow and other characters again. I will probably purchase another to donate to our public library, as today's children should have the chance to discover this gem.

... that readers not be deceived by the title of this book. This book was not written by Houdini. It was written by other writers, and yet it contains articles that were penned by the man himself.

There's sometimes a jarring lack of continuity between the chapters because of this, and there are sections that seem only peripherally related to Houdini: sections about how various magic tricks are done. These sections were not written by Houdini himself, in his "voice" describing how he accomplished thus and so escape on a particular day (although there are a couple of examples of that in these pages). These long sections were merely the editors of the book describing how magicians of Houdini's time did various stock tricks. This knowledge in itself is invaluable and quite enjoyable, but it wanders from discussing Houdini.

I was looking for a direct view into the man and his thoughts on his art ... what I got was only periodic windows into that territory, stitched together with a couple of chapters that - honestly - felt like filler material meant to lengthen the book.

If you buy this book, you will enjoy it. You will gain valuable information about Houdini. But you won't feel his spirit in the pages as much as the title would lead you to believe.

It is commonly said that you should never read a book on magic tricks unless you are willing to learn a trick and show it to your friends and not tell the secret. Disclaimers aside, this book has material useful for beginners, and for those who wish to make complex apparatus and only a few of the tricks might pose a risk to your life. The material on fraud commit by mediums is very interesting. It can further be said that Houdini was a very good writer.

This book is simply fantastic. It contains a large amount of Houdini's writings from articles, books, etc. It contains Houdini's famous "Margery the Medium" pamplet where he exposes her false methods, explains in Houdini's words how he escapes from a straitjacket, and also tells about an illusion that Houdini was thinking about performing, but never did. A wonderful book with many pictures and illustrations.

This book is a brief and readable analysis of the OT writings from a literary and cultural viewpoint. I would respectfully disagree with the prior reviewer that the author is a liberal. Gibson is definitely a moderate; believing in the truth and inspiration of the bible but yet willing to acknowledge that the printed words are limited by the intellectual resources of those who wrote them as well as by the characteristics of the Hebrew language in which they were written. This book is excellent for those Christians who believe that Scripture IS the word of God - but who need a little more than some of the nonsense explanations given to harmonize what the Bible says with what we see. Let's face it, the OT is a difficult body of writings - neither written as nor meant to be read as a simple bedtime story.

Author J.C.L. Gibson is a fine scholar. To that end, this publication successfully nurtures a better understanding and appreciation of the Old Testament. Moreover, Gibson offers an easy writing style that offers many insightful observations that helps unlock the complexity of the language in the Old Testament.

I found Chapter one, "The Energies of the Hebrew Language," and Chapter three, "The Rhetoric of Hebrew Prose Writing," helps foster a greater appreciation of the ancient imagery and language in the Old Testament. I must admit to being only a moderate reader of the Old Testament and to having struggled over and over penetrating the secrets of the language. Hence, I found "Language and Imagery in the Old Testament" to be an excellent companion to the Bible.

Admittedly, the Old Testament is deep and open to many interpretations. Consequently, not everyone will agree with all of Gibson's conclusions. However, I have found Gibson's scholarship to be comprehensive, objective, inspiring and a good faith effort to improve our understanding of the many mysteries in the Bible.

No serious person actually believes that God literally (with his own hand) "wrote" the Bible. He may have inspired its writing, but the Bible is an anthology of texts, produced over a period of more than a thousand years. Human beings wrote the texts. Human beings used literary techniques to make this book as beautiful as it could be. Some of those techniques include hyperbole, irony, metonymy, etc.

One of my favorite examples of how a study of literary techniques can enhance ones appreciation of the Bible is the merismus: a term used in rhetoric to describe a type of synecdoche in which two parts of a thing, usually the extremes, are made to stand for the whole. So, when, in Genesis, the phrase "knowledge of good and evil" is used, it quite simply means good and evil AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN. We can clearly see this if we think of other, similar usages: When Christ says, "I am the Alpha and the Omega" he does NOT mean "I am only the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet!" The words must be interpreted metaphorically to mean: I am the beginning and the end AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN. When, in our patriotic song, we sing Guthrie's words, This Land is your land, this land is my land "from California, to the New York Island / From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters," we don't mean only California and New york, only the Northwest and Louisiana belong to "you and me." Guthrie was using merismus to say "California to New York" AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN.

So when I read comments like those on this page that this book is "too liberal" because it offers a clearer, better understanding of the sacred text of the Bible, I want to say, "Open your mind; learn something about literary techniques like the merismus and you will be amazed at how profound the Bible really is and at how much you still need to learn about the Bible."