I found the book not very rewarding to read, and I feel the writers try to explain too much. So I found a lot of material I could have come up with myself, and just a few new things. By explaining everything rightaway, they take away all the challenge and excitement from the programming and reading.
The books q/a approach doesn't really appeal to me either and the fact that not all examples are available in C as they are in perl, is (to me as a C programmer) simply unforgivable.
A good reference manual for only C would have been more usefull to me.
I stopped reading the book after the first two chapters and have used the questions with the first few lines of explanation as programming exercises. So it wasn't totally useless afterall ;)

This is a 1996 book still being sold in year 2000 and that says something about it. It is a very useful book in many respects. A whole lot of the stuff in it is as useful today as it was in 1996. However, just for perspective, Win 3.1 was still the dominant Windows platform back then, and there was no Microsoft browser (or server, for that matter) in general use -- Netscape was it. In fact, the index shows Win 3.1 and NT 4.0 (no Win 95) and there's not even an index entry for Microsoft! (There are for Netscape, Mac, etc.) The short list of potential programming errors is still useful, and the security risks listed are things you always have to have in the back of your mind. I think the book would be most useful if you were going use it in a site where not a whole lot had changed recently or where there was not much money for newer technology. They do provide scripts for such things as a shopping cart and it makes you wonder how many e-commerce sites on the web right now basically just loaded up the scripts from the CD-ROM as a starting point. I found the book useful, but as a consultant my needs are not those of someone who writes Perl for a living.

There is a good deal of valuable information here for the intermediate perl programmer, but no online errata sheet is provided, and the book is not flawless. Plan on spending a fair amount of time debugging on your own.

Apparently "Death in a Cold Hard Light" was named because the words 'cold hard light' where stated 5 times in the first chapter. The book was formulaic but attempted to avoid being by casting nebulous and dark shadows over the characters motivations and thought processes. Merry, who is previous books was a clear bright spot in the otherwise overlong scenic descriptions of nantucket, in this book, she is written in with such abstraction that you have no idea what she is even thinking. It's always been my opinion that characters in sequels or series should be basically true to thier own nature, unfortunately this doesn't seem to be the case with poor Merry. I get the distinct feeling that "Death in a Mood Indigo" was the pinicale of this series. I can say without hesitation I won't be reading any more of this series and I won't miss it at all.

Detective Merry Folger fans will enjoy this novel. The pace is good, the descriptions (both of things physical and of things emotional) are vivid and true. We learn more about Merry and her relationships. The many references to the "Osborne case" (a case in a previous book) got under my skin a bit and took away from whatever moment was happening in the story. A must read for those who want to grow with all the characters in the series.

Jay Santorski's body has been pulled out of the frigid waters near Nantucket Island by the Coast Guard. Though anyone who knows the deceased could not accept the probable cause of death, John apparently is the victim of an accidental drowning. The Nantucket Chief of Police John Folger recalls his daughter, police detective Meredith, who is on a much needed vacation with her fiancé Peter Mason, to oversee the investigation. Over the irate objections of John, she flies home in a nasty storm to take charge of the official inquiry.

Meredith quickly realizes that the character of the victim remains out of focus as there are two conflicting opinions about the man. She soon discovers a possible heroin connection and subsequently two more suspicious deaths follow. Leads stop cold or go down the wrong path. Many of these are fed to Meredith by her own father, who may be covering up the disappearance of a fellow officer that possibly is tied to the Santorski case. Though she constantly argues with her father and her lover, Meredith continues to seek the truth behind the Santorski death.

DEATH IN A COLD HARD LIGHT is a great addition to a top rate series. The fourth Folger book has a strong premise that is brilliantly developed into a fine story line. However, what makes this particular novel so good is the insight into Meredith's relationships with her loved ones, especially her father. This reviewer strongly recommends all the novels in this series and the Francine Mathews' Jane Austen mysteries(under the name Stephanie Barron) for anyone who enjoys fine characterization, atmospheric mystery, and a fun to read plot.

Harriet Klausner

While this Modern Library edition is attractively produced, all teachers and students who hope to use it in an academic setting should be aware that this is a severe abridgement--it represents about one-eighth of the original text from 1660-1669. As a result, there are large gaps in continuity, exacerbated by a lack of editorial notes to fill in those gaps. Also, the abridgement omits many of the sexiest passages and seems tailored to a Victorian sensibility. ...

Pepys' secret diary, kept in cryptic shorthand to shield it from prying eyes, covers the years 1660 to 1669, starting with the return of Charles II from exile and ending when the writer's failing eyesight made writing difficult. He was 27 years old when he began this work, and quite impecunious. Through the patronage of his kin, Edward Montagu (later Earl of Sandwich) he rose from humble beginnings to a respected position (Clerk of the Acts in the navy office). Educated at Cambridge, he was ill prepared for the job: while he read Latin and French, he did not know the multiplication tables and had to be taught basic mechanics. However, he seems to have applied himself to his work with diligence and persistence. During the naval war with Holland (1665-67) he was surveyor of victualling. In this capacity, he gained the confidence of the lord high admiral, the Duke of York (later King James II). After the war, he defended the navy office in Parliament against charges of mismanagement with a speech that seems to have been the high point of his career.

His eyewitness accounts of the Plague (1665) and the Great Fire (1666) in London are riveting. But it is the description of quotidian events that sheds light on how the people lived. Moving easily among different social classes, he recorded their moods and diversions. He attended public executions of regicides (complete with display of heads and organs to a cheering crowd), and noted when initial enthusiasm for the restoration of the monarchy gave way to disillusionment; when anger at the King's debauchery and neglect of state business bred nostalgia for the reign of Oliver Cromwell.

While critical of the King's and the Court's incessant "gambling and whoring", Pepys himself was no paragon of virtue. His dalliances with maidservants and accommodating ladies of his acquaintance caused bitter quarrels with his wife. He seems to have lusted after every pretty girl who crossed his path. Repeated vows to mend his ways generally came to naught. Some of the racier passages in his diary are written in fractured French or Latin.

Pepys was an avid theater-goer: he loved Macbeth and Henry IV, but thought Midsummer Night's Dream silly and inane. There was a lot of music in his life: he played the lute, the flageolet, and the violin, and missed no opportunity to join in singing, dancing, drinking and merry-making. He carefully noted, however, how much these diversions cost him. He also conscientiously recorded the bribes and kickbacks paid him by suppliers. Forever curious, he attended lectures and observed experiments, read voraciously and enjoyed a good discourse.

If he often appears vain and foolish, it is because he portrays himself as vain and foolish. His naive enjoyment of even the most mundane things ("this pleased me mightily" is an oft-repeated phrase) cannot fail to strike a sympathetic chord in the reader. He comments on fashion trends (powdered wigs, beauty spots, wearing of masks and male riding habit by court ladies, etc.). When he yielded to fashion and had a periwig made for himself, it was delivered full of nits. New servants had to be deloused and fitted with clean garments, but once domesticated, they were part of the household; they received music lessons and, in some cases, lessons in Latin and Greek. When they misbehaved, he beat them until his arm hurt.

The parallel career of his wife deserves some reflection: the "poor wretch" who, early in their marriage, used to wash his dirty clothes by hand, graduated to lace gowns, powdered wigs and a coach of her own; but discontent increased in proportion to luxury. "I have to find her something to do", mused Sam. Dancing and painting lessons, theater visits and parties filled the void. The couple had no children.

The Modern Library Edition is, of course, a greatly abridged version of the six-volume original. One may quibble with the selection or deplore the lack of notes; but the hefty original is available to all who want to know more.

This book is very recommended for everyone that is, in some degrees, a history "buff". It describes in thorough detail some of the less known aspects of events in that time. For me being a Norwegian I found the parts describing the battle with the Dutch fleet in Bergenshavn particualrly interesting. All in all, an excellent book with extreme historical values.

I should give it more, but it's fictional, and I like true tales of the past. It's fairly short and somewhat colorful. You get a brief taste of what it would have been like for a German family to make the trek to Texas in the old days of the west. The boat trip alone would have killed most of us. It's a nice story, but I like the Laura Ingalls Wilder books better.

I was expecting actual letters and commentary. This is a book written not just at a young person's level, but also for young people. As an adult looking for serious information on the subject of German settlement of Texas in 1847 - I was dissapointed. Perhaps a simple label of "Fiction" would be nice.

Apart from that - the story is interesting and well written and I would recommend it to people of any age interested in this subject. Don't expect a scholarly account and hard facts, this is fiction but fun.

This story, as told from the eyes of a young girl from Germany, gives a fairly accurate account of what life may have been like for a family immigrating to Texas in 1847. It is appropriate for all ages and backgrounds, but is particularly interesting to the Germans who established themselves in Texas. As I read it, I related to the language, customs, and locations presented in the story. I am eager for my father to read it. His mother might well have written the story herself.

Mauvais traductions!!!! This is a dual language book with the pléiade text on one side and english verse translations facing. Apearently a large amount of these translations are rather old (1900 England), and repress some of the more blasphemus passages. What is worse is that they are translated in Elizabethian english (Yuck!). I would recommend another translation, but as I dont know of one; all I can say is steer clear of this one, unless you are a English dandy!

THIS IS A FANTASTIC TRANSLATION! AND MY FAVORITE EDITION OF BAUDELAIRE BESIDES THE COMPLETE FLOWERS OF EVIL ALSO FROM NEW DIRECTIONS PUBLISHING.

Flowers of Evil is teeming with imagery that is, at times, lofty, and others, bitter. My favorite edition is the 1955 New Directions Paperbook edition. He was truly a poet who lived and thought rather than the masses who merely muse on living. Read his poetry and step lightly through the flowers.

I think the CD-ROM would be great to have, but I can't find it anywhere! Noel Rowe's _Pictorial Guide to the Primates_ is much much better.

This was a great reference book, but not a favorite of mine. I bought this version for a primates class yet it only helped minimally. The suggested class texts by Collinge and Napier proved to be by far the most effective tools in our research,the actual cd-rom version was very nice b/c it was in color and photographs could be viewed easier. The resale value was poor also!

As a primatologist, I suggest that this book would make an excellent addition to community college libraries. It gives specific information regarding diet, location (including a map), social groupings, and current status as well as a clear image of the primate. I use it to supplement texts, as it covers a variety of species not usually discussed.

Some of the other reviews on this page point out that certain Chinese-Chinese dictionaries are better than Mathews. But that's hardly a fair criticism; you have to compare it to other Chinese-English dictionaries, and those that take the classical language into account are hard to come by. (One work that is rapidly gaining in popularity is the Taiwanese Far East Chinese-English dictionary, which is expanded from an older dictionary compiled by Liang Shih-ch'iu.)

There are several problems with the Mathews dictionary, and the old Romanization is the least of them. More disturbing are Mathews's erroneous pronunciations, which are too frequent. You cannot rely on him at all for tones, for example. In the second edition, the great Y.R. Chao went through all of the entries and corrected many of Mathews's errors--but the press did not re-alphabetize the entries to reflect the corrected pronunciations, so if you are looking up a character with a pronunciation that Mathews happened to get wrong, you'll have to go back and use the stroke index to find it, unless you want to try and guess which mistaken reading Mathews might used. Both alternatives are irritating.

As another reviewer pointed out, Mathews does not provide any historical context for his definitions. One simply cannot tell whether a compound is modern or ancient--or, more dangerously, how the meaning of a compound may have changed over time. To be sure, there is a limit to how comprehensive a one-volume dictionary can be. But it still should be possible to give some brief indication as to whether a particular sense is attested in the classical language.

In sum, this dictionary is still useful, and a student will want it on his or her shelf, but it can be both frustrating and misleading.

When I first started studying Classical Chinese, I used this book so often that I photocopied the character indexes to save time. However, I haven't opened it too often since those first classes.

The definitions seemed adequate at the time, and it is in English (especially useful when the word is some random object from centuries past), but I found the following things got in my way:

1. It uses an odd spelling system (Wade-Giles is more difficult than pinyin and zhuyin)
2. It sometimes didn't have the depth of the word I was looking for (forcing me to consult Chinese sources -- I should have started off with the Chinese sources.)
3. There is little context for definitions (historical notes or quotes from classical texts).

Although it's a good start, once you're relatively comfortable with modern and classical Chinese, it's probably a good idea to move on to Chinese sources -- at Berkeley we often use Gu hanyu changyong zi zidian for words that we don't need ALL of the information for, and the hanyu da cidian (or zhongwen da cidian, etc.) for stuff that needs lots of detail.

What, is this book still around? This was required classroom material for anybody who studied Chinese prior to 1980. Since then, other material has come out that sometimes has more characters (which is not an accurate indicator of total entries), frequently has newer coinages (but leaves older ones out), usually is smaller (admittedly, Matthews weighs a ton) but probably nothing that is all-around more useful than old Matthews. If you are a serious student of Chinese you should acquire it.

"Blue of Noon" is the story of Henri, an amoral man living in Europe during the 1930s. He is supposedly married, but spends his time with similarly amoral women, lacking clothing, inhibition, shame, and even proper hygeine at times. He zips between London, Paris, Barcelona, and Frankfurt, and frankly, engages in nothing but immoral self-satisfying activities in every spot.

At various times, he agonizes over his relationships with his wife, his sexual partners, and his deceased mother. He becomes embroiled in a Communist revolutionary plot in Barcelona, with one of his sexual partners, a Jewish woman, involved in its planning and execution. He reveals his necrophilic obsession to two of his partners, further revealing the exact, even more sickening, subject of his obsession to one of them. He has sex, he gets sick, his women have sex, they get sick, everybody has sex, everybody gets sick. For the punchline, near the end of the novel, Bataille throws Nazis into the picture, showing us that all the depravity of fascism is comparable to the depravity he has shown us all along. Though published in 1957, the book was originally written in 1936.

This reviewer isn't buying it. Not a word of it. Not the story, not even the "1936" part. For one thing, the writing style is actually more mature than that of "L'Abbe C", published in 1950. Bataille is most probably trying to show off that he detected the evil inherent in the Nazis "way back when". I don't give him that much credit.

For another thing, I think he uses Nazis as an easy way to score "scary" points. One might intellectualize his choice by saying Bataille is trying to tell us that no matter how disgusting humans may act, at least we're not as bad as Nazis. Imagine a murderer begging leniency because he's not a Nazi. He's still a murderer. It seems Bataille is using Nazis to justify the pornography he just wrote, as if the world is such a horrible place that pornography is just another little bit of it, and tries to throw a philosophical wrench into the works, as if saying life is meaningless in the face of all the horrible things fascism is doing to us in Europe, but I suspect it was all done just for the hell of it. I frankly don't see any rhyme or reason to the thematic choices he makes.

I have nothing against the depravity or explicit nature of the book. "Been there, done that", right? It's not even all that explicit, there's probably less sex in this book than the average mainstream novel today, and he's certainly not advocating committing even the slightest harm to anyone. There are a few disturbing or distasteful ideas here and there, but one never gets the sense Bataille really means what he's writing. One gets the sense he's simply trying to come up with every juxtaposition of immoral behavior and social taboo he can, just to tweak the reader's moral compass a bit, trying to get a cheap rise out of his audience. Maybe this was an interesting exercise in 1957 (or "1936"), but given the state of depravity which existed in Germany during the 1920s, and the state of sexual liberation which swept Europe from the late 19th century through the early 20th century, I strongly doubt it.

Perhaps the target reader for this book will be the person interested in twisted versions of 19th-century literature (Bataille wrote like someone living 50 or 100 years before his time), or the works of De Sade (albeit in highly shortened format, this book being only 126 pages).

I'm pretty fondly disposed to Bataille, but Blue of Noon was a disappointment. The title and the cover are wonderful, and having read Story of the Eye and L'abbe C just before it, I expected great things. But what I received instead was a drawling, shabby, painfully tedious and remarkably unmemorable narrative ramble. It isn't as disturbing as Story of the Eye, and it isn't as interesting as L'abbe C, and it feels much shorter in the surreal atmospheric magic that made those two books worthwhile. If you've already read and enjoyed Bataille, you may want to check Blue of Noon out, but it is not one of his better works.

I don't really know how to begin this review. There's not really a good angle to approach this remarkable and beautiful book. What do you do when the very things that attract you to a woman disgust you and yet they turn you on at the same time. In this novel Henri and his wife, whom he sometimes refers to by giving her the name "Dirty" are driving each other insane. They love each other but the very intensity of their personalities makes them fated to never be at peace. This is the root of their despair, that they both realize the futility of being with each other. Henri sinks into dissipation and having relationships with women he thoroughly despises. The first, a woman named Lazare, he refers to as a "raven of ill omen". She is so ugly and despicable but he loves her in a way simply because she reeks of death. He wants to surround himself with an environment that reflects his state of mind. Dirty is dying and you sense that in reality her spirit has already passed on and its simply her image dragging Henri into her own horrible hell. Most of the book takes place in Spain just as the Spanish Civil War is beginning and there are all kinds of portents of the coming World War which adds to the darkness of the characters. This book was brillantly done. The characters seemed so real because they did hurt each other, because they did have unhealthy obsessions which they revel in instead of hiding them within. They give full vent to their joys just as much as their miseries. This is the first book I have read by Bataille and I am curious to see what his other work is like.

I found the premise of this book to be totally unbelievable. Maybe I am too "cosmopolitan," but I find it impossible to believe that in the mid-1990s, the setting for this book, a father would kick out of the house and stop speaking to a daughter who, apparently at least 30 years old, becomes pregnant and decides to have the child. In addition, we are expected to believe the whole town condemns her and her "loose morals" and character deficits. We're also expected to believe this same man would leave his most treasured possessions to a man who has little, if any, respect and affection for him, and that he would suggest this same man to be his "illegitimate" granddaughter's legal guardian! What a bunch of hogwash.

Francine Mathews creates compelling characters and stories set in the less glam side of New England's rarefied vacation island. The romance that twines through Death in Rough Water heightens the suspense.

This was the first book I bought by Francine and I've read all of the others since. Very good author and an excellent place setting too. Highly recommend this one.

Although I found this book to be very interesting historically and culturally, I was disappointed in the projects and techniques. Some of the projects were made from paper rather than fabric. I wanted more information on making fabric molas.

I enjoyed the beautiful photographs and interesting historical and cultural information about the molas. However, I was dissappointed in the projects. There were several projects that were completed out of paper. My interest was in fabric projects.

The writing in this book is clear and concise, the directions are easy to understand. The color photos are sharp. The background of the Mola has obviously been carefully researched. The only fault with this otherwise 5 star book is the lack of many full-size patterns for the beginner to try. Those that are included are mostly too difficult until the sewing technique is perfected.