A thoughtful and poetic stream of conciousness novel cum memoir.

This is a very easy read and contains some very beautiful passages. However, there is a fine line between and honest and frank depiction of emotions and someone feeling sorry for themselves. This book crosses that line on occasion but remains worthwhile and also quite endearing.

Interestingly, the most effective portion of the book is the opening 40 pages or so which do not involve the famous rock star. These contain a very well written description of a gay boy growing up and are the highlight of the book.

As the story progresses you find yourself wanting to give the narrator a bit of a slap. Come on, snap out of it!

Overall though a good read, if a bit lightweight in places. An author to watch.

This is a lovely book to hold; it's tiny, compact, with a well-designed cover -- things that made a big difference to my initial perception of it. The content of "Outline of my Lover", however, is not so much a novel as a collection of more-or-less plotless but poetic ruminations that are enjoyable in the way they are conjoined and juxtaposed.

I was expecting a little more of a story, but what conventional plotting does take place in this novel is handled so delicately that it is barely perceptible. Nevertheless, Martin's reflections on stardom are important observations of our society, where we often live side-by-side with celebrities but rarely acknowledge them in any human sense.

This book, despite its sparse tone, is a promising addition to Martin's literary career. REM fans looking for voyeuristic detail won't find it here, but readers looking for a sensitive, thoughtful interpretation of the persistence of love will be rewarded in abundance with this novel.

How this book is classified is obviously erroneous. There is an emotional veracity that makes it well worth spending the time absorbing its examination rather than flipping through it looking for names. If this is a diary, it is one written with a complicated command of perspective and that the narrator began as a child and managed to keep before he has even gone off to school, as the first forty-four pages dealing almost exclusively with the terrain of early childhood, roughly an entire third of the page count, attest.

Ridiculous as it may seem, the narrator goes to Athens for the same reason a number of people go to Athens, the difference here being that the book's narrator is successful. This "cycle" of the book spins slowly out the narrator's control, placing both characters' continued identities at stake. Whether or not the story actually ever existed in the past (the narrator claims for the only evidence two pictures, one of which each of the ex-partners hold), by casting his journey through a first person subjectivity struggling to be as objective as possible in overwhelming circumstances, the narrator has little to laugh about, as well as few people to turn to, as in this sort of dynamic it is the powerful who will always be represented as right. I would wager some liberties have been taken to make certain points.

Indeed structured as an Outline, the narrator constantly belies an awareness of being educated by men, the shortcomings of such teachers, and of setting up a story. I'd point out a parallel/shortsightedness on the narrator's, but not the author's, part between his lover and his father's alcoholism (outlined in the first section) as a projection onto the disappointing lover.

As for manipulation, Martin does indeed imaginatively make some of guessed rock star's favorite imagery underlying motifs of the narrator's im(pen)ding fate. Here you have just the beginning, and the developing of the concerns Martin first began expressing several years ago in books then classified as poetry.

The Two Noble Kinsmen was only partially written by Shakespeare. The primary author was John Fletcher, and Shakespeare seems to have been doing a rewrite more than a collaboration. As a result, you get two different styles of narration and development in the same story. The underlying tale follows very closely on the famous Knight's Tale from Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. As a result, you get a three way perspective on Shakespeare that is not available elsewhere -- what his co-author did, what Chaucer did, and how Shakespeare handled similar problems in other plays.

Where the Knight's Tale was primarily a story about chivalry, love, and spirituality, The Two Noble Kinsmen is very much about psychology and human emotions. Like other plays that Shakespeare wrote, this one shows how conflicting emotions create problems when we cannot master ourselves. In this case, the two loving cousins, Palamon and Arcite, fall out over having been overwhelmed by love for the appearance of Emilia, Duke Theseus's sister. The play explores many ways that their fatal passion for Emilia might be quenched or diverted into more useful paths. The dilemma can only be resolved by the removal of one of them. This places Emilia in an awkward situation where she will wed one, but at the cost of the life of the other. She finds them both attractive, and is deeply uncomfortable with their mutual passion for her. In a parallel subplot, the jailer's daughter similarly falls in love with Palamon, putting her father's life and her own in jeopardy. Overcome with unrequited love, she becomes mad from realizing what she has done. Only by entering into her delusions is she able to reach out to others.

What most impressed me from reading this play is how much better Shakespeare was as a writer than either Chaucer or Fletcher. You can tell the parts that Shakespeare wrote because the language is so compact, so powerful, and so filled with relevant imagery. The tension is unremitting and makes you squirm.

By contrast, the Knight's Tale is one of the dullest stories you could possibly hope to read and admire for its virtuosity without experiencing much enjoyment. Although the same plot is developed, few emotions will be aroused in you. When Fletcher is writing in this play, the development is slow, the content lacks much emotion, and you find yourself reaching for a blue pencil to strike major sections as unnecessary.

In fact, this play would not be worth reading except for the exquisite development of the dilemmas that are created for Emilia. Her pain will be your pain, and you will want to escape from it as much as she does. In these sections, you will find some of Shakespeare's greatest writing.

I also was moved by the way several scenes explored the duality of cousinly friendship and affection occurring at the same time that lethal passions of love and jealousy are loose.

Although this play will probably not be among your 50 favorites, you will probably find that it will sharpen your appetite for and appreciation of Shakespeare's best works.

I also listened to Arkangel recording, and recommend it. The performances are fine, the voices are easy to distinguish, the music is magnificent, the singing adds to the mood nicely, and you will find your engagement in the play's action powerfully increased over reading the play.

When do you lose control over your emotions? What does it cost you? How could you regain control before harm is done?

May you find peaceful, positive solutions to all of your dilemmas!

I will be the first to admit this is not the "best" or the "greatest" play written by the bard, but it is still very worthy of his name, and incredibly beautiful! Kinsmen is a romance in the style of Shakespeare's other late plays, Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest (my favorite). In many ways it reflects his earlier works, namely A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet, and The Tempest. It tells a wonderfully romantic story of two good friends who fall for the same girl (I know, sounds familiar, but trust me, it's a different take on the setup) in Athens. The poetry in it is lovely, the characters very well developed, and the plot is incredible. Many people haven't heard of this play as Shakespeare cowrote it with Fletcher, but belive me, it is still wonderful. Highly recomended.

The Arkangel Shakespeare series being issued by Penguin Audio is now halfway through the plays and the surprise is that was given preference to the remaining more familiar works. Co-authored by Shakespeare and Fletcher, this play remains an odd man out for several reasons. Based fairly closely on the "Knight's Tale" from Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," it tells of two cousins, who just after swearing eternal friendship in one of Duke Theseus' prisons immediately fall in love with the same woman, Emilia, and become bitter rivals for her affections. One of them, Arcite, is exiled but returns in disguise; the other, Palamon, escapes with the help of the Jailer's Daughter, who goes mad for love of him; and...well, see for yourself. Of the play's 23 scenes, 7 and part of an 8th are attributed to Shakespeare, a 9th doubtfully so, and the rest to John Fletcher, who was probably handed over to Shakespeare to learn the ropes as it were. The Shakespeare parts are easy to spot: they are nearly impossible to understand without a heavily annotated copy of the text open before you! Even more so than in his late plays like "Cymberline" and "Winter's Tale," the syntax is so complex, the thoughts so condensed, that one might (and has) compared his writing with the late Beethoven String Quartets. As one of the scholars quoted in the excellent Signet Classic paperback edition of this play comments, the play is most unShakespearean in that none of the characters change over the course of the play. And I should add the subplot of the Daughter's madness is never integrated into the main plot. One scene, in fact, is devoted entirely to the description of some minor characters and might have been influenced by a similar and much longer sequence in "Seven Against Thebes." In short, do not play this for a casual listen; but be prepared to be challenged. Look especially for echoes of the earlier all-Shakespearean plays. The nuptials of Theseus and Hippolyta recall the opening scenes of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," the main plot that of "Two Gentlemen of Verona," the Daughter's madness of Ophelia, and so on. As for the actual recording, it would be difficult to better it! The voices of the two kinsmen (Johnathan Firth and Nigel Cooke) are easily distinguishable, Theseus (Geoffrey Whitehead) sounds advanced in years and noble, Emila (Helen Schlesinger) mature and alert, Hippolyta (Adjoa Andoh) vocally of African origins as perhaps befits the character, and all the rest as understandable as the text allows and "into" their roles. Thank you, Penguin, for this noble entry in a series that is getting better and better.

The author manages to hide an interesting story in a dull book. It reads like a scientific paper. No doubt the author knows his material, but he can't tell an interesting story. The history of Athens during the time of Socrates and Pericles has all the ingredients of a spell binding saga, but the professor's detached style conveys almost none of the excitement. Danald Kagan's book, "Pericles of Athens and the Birth of Democracy" is much more interesting.

Declared as an attempt by the author to understand the work of Thucydides, this history of the world of democratic Athens in the generation after Pericles is a low key yet gripping account of the maelstrom into which this great seminal era of political evolution passed. The great detail of the account matches both the magnificence and yet the somber context of the reality behind the usual glorified summary accounts of the world's first brief experience of true direct democracy, whose actual facts are at certain points almost an alarming eye-opener, from the immediate collision of class struggle in almost canonical form to the duress of empire, and the outcome of civil war. The work of Aristophanes, and its direct echoes of this period, especially stands out better understood in this blow by blow, as does the ambiguous division of history just here, with respect to its democratic ideals and its first dissenter, Socrates. The work brings home a claim to the solution of the mystery of Thycidides composition, that the rise of note-taking in this era vindicates the relative accuracy of the speeches long thought to be imaginative recreations. It is a strange account, rendered eerie in the author's meticulous drumbeat march through the labyrinth of recovered details.

Mark Munn has written a superb study of late fifth-century Athens focusing especially on the protracted struggle between the democrats and the oligarchs, and the effect which Thucydides' HISTORY OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR had on those men involved in that struggle. What is new and unique here is the importance Munn assigns to the role of history and memory in Athenian society. He shows how the Athenians' view of their past colored and shaped their political struggles. The Athenians were probably more sensitive to religious and political scandal in their own time than we are in ours. Munn writes in a very engaging style-especially in his account of the controversy surrounding Alcibiades. At last we have an answer to the question: When did Thucydides write his HISTORY, and why he left it unfinished. The SCHOOL OF HISTORY is a must read for anyone interested in Athens, Thucydides, or Alcibiades!

Although this is an excellent textbook for medical students and hematology fellows who need to learn more about certain topics and diseases, it offers limited assistance to the clinician who has to work backwards from lab results and symptoms in search of diseases. It covers the molecular biology of hematology in great detail and also discusses some of the treatment options. It is a great book if you are doing a paper on a hematologic topic. There are also chapters on the new techniques used in labs and the differences in these techniques. On the other hand, if you are looking at abnormal results on a CBC, this book may not offer much help.

A comprehensive text of practical clinical hematology. Clearly and concisely written for use as a reference or 'at the bench.' One of the most useful materials in the Hematology laboratory.

This book is written primarily for the laboratory, and the haematologist. In that area it is excellent, for clinical treatment, williams or other books are better. But for the laboratoru I would reccomend this book, as I have this and several of the previous editions.

This version of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is part of the Oxford School Shakespeare Series. It is the copy that was given to my 7th-grade honors English class a few weeks ago. Though I found the story a bit dull at times (what normal middle-schooler likes a book assigned for school), most of the sidenotes in this version were very helpful to me. This book offers an exact copy of Shakespeare's play, as well as sidenotes explaining words that are not used anymore. It also contains a lot of background information on the characters and a brief synopsis. In all, I would recommend this version to younger readers and students, as it offers a lot of helpful tools for better understanding of the play.

This book was the Shakespeare book I read in grade 9 english class. It helped me by the left cloumn was where the words that were used in sentences were. Thats if you didn't understand the old words. I sure didn't so it helped me out a lot. I would recomend this book to anyone. It was a good play at least I think it was. At each new scene there was a synopsis of the scene and at the beginning of the book there was a character sketch of all the characters.

Penguin Classics have gone up in price I see with this new copy -- ah, well, such is publishing it seems. Plutarch was writing in the Roman world so his view of the lives of nine important Athenians is a bit different than their comtempories. The lives examined inclue Theseus (perhaps more legend than history), Solon (also a tad more legend than history), Themistocles, Aristides, Cimon, Pericles, Nicias, Alcibiades, and Lysander. There are two descent maps -- one of the Aegean and one of mainland Greece. The book could really use an index and better footnotes or commentary frankly to be of great use to anyone not just reading it for a introductory level course dealing with Athens or the Archaic and Classical Greek world.

I'm reading this translation for a class on 5th century BC Greece. I find Plutarch a fun writer with his emphasis on the moral behavior of his subjects, even when some of them (such as Themistocles) are not moral at all. This is also a very good translation, as Penguin is known for.

I saw the other reviews of this book,and I have to wonder if the reviewers really read this abridged version of the play. This is one of our family's favorite plays, and I bought this book to allow us to do a living room performance of it in one evening. I was disappointed. First, the copy has many errors in it that make performing it confusing. For instance, in Act I, Scene 1, when Egeus brings Hermia and Demetrius and Lysander before Theseus, there is a stage direction that says "Demetrius exit and Helena follow." although Helena has not appeared (in this or any other version of the play) until later in the scene. Second, every person who has to make cuts in this play does it differently, but Cass Foster has cut some parts that I really miss, especially Bottom's playing the "tyrant" in Act I, Scene 2, and the rest of Thisby's death speech in Act V. Those scenes seem wooden and hurried without those lines. If I had known what this book was like, I would have ordered a different book with the full text and cut out lines myself. It would be easier than going through this text and correcting typos and adding lines that I feel need to be there.

March 5, 1999

Dear friends at Five Star Pub.,

We have a small school on the other side of the planet from you in a country called Azerbaijan. It's kind of a home school coop. Two years ago we performed your version of Romeo and Juliet and last year, A Midsummer Night's Dream. We really enjoy your versions because of the suggestions for staging (we're all rookies) and your notes of explanation on difficult phrases. I have to admit that the kids liked the Romeo and Juliet notes the best because there were more of them but we also like the new layout of Midsummer. It's easier to use.

Thanks for your help,

Cindi Wagner Baku, Azerbaijan

I love to travel and one of my favorite hobbies is shopping for the local bargains, whatever the region I'm visiting is known for. I searched several bookstores for travel guides to Greece prior to purchasing this one. The extensive shopping section really caught my eye. Many of the thicker, more expensive, travel guides had no information on shopping at all. It proved very helpful in finding the famous poet sandlemaker in Athens, where the Beatles bought their shoes. I shared the information with everyone on my tour. This book is small, easy to read, easy to carry around, quite comprehensive and well worth the money. I bought both this one and the Essential Greek Isles.

Although I think that the general reader may find some difficulty with the use of transcribed Greek words, the writing is both intelligent,articulate and amusing.

Davidson has delved into some of the lesser known aspects of Classical Athens, although perhaps has ignored the (already well documented) enthusiasms for theatre, war & politics that also engrossed the Greeks This gives the impression that all the Greeks were interested in was fish, wine and sex. Obviously, he has wanted to create an interesting and sale-able book, but no reader should forget that, as in the modern world, such pursuits formed only a part of most people's lives or indeed of the lives of a small section of society. And, as today, they are by far the most interesting things to read and write about, but they are only a part of the whole.

His arguments provide a neat counterbalance to the rather one-sided products of recent years. I could detect quite a few axes being ground, quietly, in the background against many of his scholarly contemporaries. Such disputes are always gratifying to the non-combatants.

I would recommend the book to any reader interested in a wider appreciation of Ancient Greek society or just for an amusing read.

This is a most welcome addition to my Ancient History bookshelf, and while a knowledge of Athenian history lets you get the most out of this book, those without any background in the subject may find that Davidson will prompt them to dig further into the lives and times of a most intriguing people. I found myself thinking "Aha!" more than once as some facets of Athenian culture were put more firmly into place for me, and the rich fullness of Athenian life put on display.

Granted this is not the most entertaining 'read', but neither is it a dry scholarly tome. Some tables (regarding currency and what it would buy, for example) would have been nice to make some comparisons easier, but that is a minor matter. Any student of Greek drama or history should find this book invaluable in gaining a deeper understanding of their coursework, not to mention the fun to be had in throwing references from this admirable book in to jazz up your next paper.

This is about the best book I have ever read about classical antiquity. Davidson focusses on consumption habits, and the morality of eating, drinking, and sex. It is both very revealing about the lives of the Greeks, and an absolutely key step in understanding the origins of modern styles of consumer culture. This is by far the most theoretically sophisticated thing written about consumption in prehistory - Davidson brings some of the best of modern consumption theory to bear, but never in a pedantic way. The text remains lively, fun, and enlightening.

As a new Shakespeare reader, I can not compare it with his other plays, but I can say that A mid Summer night's dream is a light and enjoyable play. The characters are interesting, the setting is wonderful and the telling of the story is very visual. The aspect of the fairy world was particularly nice as well as the every so often witty lines. By using Shakespeare made easy, I was able to "translate" Shakespeare's language into plain English. By doing so I was able to better understand and get more of a feel of the play on the long run. I will use the "made easy" books again in my further Shakespeare readings I enjoyed them very much.

On the first read, I thought this was really silly stuff, but on the second read I thought it had some of Shakespheare's best romantic poetry in it.

This story contains yet another authoritarian father of Shakespheare's creation, Egeus, telling his daughter Hermia who she will marry (Demetrius) and not marry (Lysander). There is also her sister Helena who is in love with Demetrius, but Demetrius does not love her. Enter the fairies, mainly Oberon and his servant Puck who muck things up further by enchanting Lysander and Demetrius into falling in love with Helena instead of their previous darling girl Hermia. Tension ensues as Helena thinks that she is being mocked and Hermia thinks that Helena has stolen away her men. Puck and the fairies eventually right things by enchanting Demetrius to match up with Hermia and Lysander with Helena.

There is a subplot with working class rustics who try to put on a play of Pyramus and Thisbe, two lovers that die tragically. (Imagine construction workers putting on a romantic play, for modern day comparison.) The leader Snug and his company of Bottom, Quince, Flute, Snout, and Starveling prepare a play at night in the woods and the mischievous fairy Puck attaches a donkey's posterior to Bottom's head and makes the queen fairy Titania fall in love with him and his fine feature. Eventually, Puck reverses this predicament before the night is over.

Bottom and company put on the play in the last act for the nobles of city who are Theseus, Duke of Athens, and his company of the soon to be married nobles Demetrius and Hermia and Lysander and Helena, among others. The play is so bad it's comical. The usual tragic romantic deaths in plays like Romeo and Juliet are parodied in this act. In fact, this play seems to be what Romeo and Juliet would have been if it were turned into a comedy.

As with most Shakespheare's plays this is better seen than read. The love rectangle is confusing at first given the similar names of Helena and Hermia and the switching match-ups. Not much mentally to chew on here, other than the observation that one can often love someone, but they don't love you back and it's frustrating.

A Midsummer Night's Dream is certainly one of the most popular Shakespearean plays. Few other dramas display such a combination of theatrical appeal: comedy and dance, music and fairies, rustics and the moonlit woods. This unit examines the enchanting play and its theme of love and love's folly. A Midsummer Night's Dream contains some wonderfully lyrical expressions of lighter Shakespearean themes, most notably those of love, dreams, and the stuff of both, the creative imagination itself.
I believe that Shakespeare wrote A Midsummer Night's Dream as a light entertainment to accompany a marriage celebration.