Isaiah Berlin wrote a lot of essays, as the size of this book, THE PROPER STUDY OF MANKIND, absolutely demonstrates. Near the middle of the book is an essay, "The Originality of Machiavelli," which shows how well Berlin could categorize intellectual activities into various kinds of significance.

"His distrust of unworldly attitudes, absolute principles divorced from empirical observation, is fanatically strong - almost romantic in its violence; the vision of the great prince playing upon human beings like an instrument intoxicates him. He assumes that different societies must always be at war with each other, since they have differing purposes. He sees history as an endless process of cut-throat competition, . . ." (p. 318).

The index is great, and even has an entry for "Pasternak, Boris Leonidovich . . . conversation with Stalin." Pasternak wanted to talk to Stalin, but the question which Stalin put to Pasternak, "whether he was present when a lampoon about himself, Stalin, was recited by Mandel'shtam" (p. 533) was not what Pasternak wanted to talk about. Pasternak wanted to talk to Stalin "about ultimate issues, about life and death." (p. 534). After Stalin put down the receiver, "Pasternak tried to ring back but, not surprisingly, failed to get through to the leader." (p. 534). Stalin had been quick to decide where that conversation was going, and cut it short by observing, "If I were Mandel'shtam's friend, I should have known better how to defend him." (p. 534). It is not obvious that Stalin would have appreciated a defense which asserted that the poem about Stalin was more true than anything else that Pasternak had ever seen, read, or heard, and any decent country would have comedians that would constantly broadcast such ideas on the radio 24/7 until the invention of TV would allow people to watch movies like "Forrest Gump" in the comfort of their own homes. Stalin has been rightly condemned for being hopelessly authoritarian when judging humor that was aimed at his sorry self, and Isaiah Berlin sees the pattern as one that Russia was particularly prone to suffer indefinitely. "Whatever the differences between the old and the new Russia, suspicion and persecution of writers and artists were common to both." (p. 537).

Berlin's account of his conversations with Anna Akhmatova strive to reflect what culture means for people who actively create work like Heine's comment, "I may not deserve to be remembered as a poet, but surely as a soldier in the battle for human freedom." (p. 537). We are now such a comic society on a global level that pop mock rap on the internet can pick on the soldier's mentality in a hilarious way, but it is good to be able to read Isaiah Berlin to account for how much such humor matters.

Isaiah Berlin probably is one of the 20th century's most underrated thinkers. A truely learned man he brought his insight in the history of ideas, reflecting on the elightenment and freedom, the golden age of Russian literature, and rubbing shoulders with the high and the mighty. All of these facets are displayed here. Mr. Hardy has done an exceptional job at assembling these essays. My favorite being "The Hedgehog and the Fox." In this essay, Berlin explores the natures of Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy. Dostoyevsky is the hedgehog who knows one thing really well. Tolstoy is the fox, reflecting his epic sweep and universal understanding of humanity. In a nutshell, Berlin's political philosophy is strongly lined up on the side of freedom and the dignity of the individual. Not exactly in favor in these days of extremist bland thinking. My one complaint is that there is so much more to Berlin than these exceptional essays. If 20th century philosophy is to be remembered as more than an unpleasant memory, it will be as the time of the age of Berlin.

The fox knows many things; the hedgehog knows one big thing -Archilochus, 8th century BC

Never have the readers of the New York Times been more humbled and mystified than the November day in 1997 when the paper ran a front page obituary for the Latvian-born British philosopher Isaiah Berlin. You could hear the collective gasp and feel the pull of the intake of breath as thousands of folks who pride themselves on being "in the know" turned to one another and asked, across a table laid with grapefruit halves and bran cereal,, "Was I supposed to know who Isaiah Berlin was? I've never heard of him." The answer is that there was no real reason most of us would have heard of him, though we'd likely read a couple of his book reviews. He was after all a philosopher who never produced a magnum opus summarizing his worldview. His reputation really rested on a couple of amusing anecdotes, one oft-cited essay, The Hedgehog and the Fox, and on his talents as a conversationalist, which would obviously only have been known to an elite few. Oddly enough, he has experienced a significant revival of interest since his death, but he is basically still just known for this essay.

If, like me, you finally forced yourself to read War and Peace and were simply mystified by several of the historic and battle scenes, this essay is a godsend. Though many critics, and would would assume almost all readers, have tended to just ignore these sections of the book, Berlin examines them in light of Tolstoy's philosophy of history and makes a compelling case that Tolstoy intended the action of these scenes to be confusing. As Berlin uses the fox and hedgehog analogy, a hedgehog is an author who has a unified vision which he follows in his writing ("...a single, universal, organising principle in terms of which alone all that they are and say has significance...") , a fox has no central vision nor organizing principle; his writings are varied, even contradictory. Berlin argues that Tolstoy was a fox who wanted to be a hedgehog, that he longed for a central idea to organize around, but so distrusted the capacity of human reason to discern such an idea, that he ended up knocking down what he saw as faulty ideas, without ever settling on one of his own.

According to Berlin, in War and Peace, Tolstoy used the chaotic swirl of events to dispel a "great illusion" : "that individuals can, by the use of their own resources, understand and control the course of events." Or as he puts it later, Tolstoy perceived a "central tragedy" of human life :

...if only men would learn how little the cleverest and most gifted among them can control, how little they can know of all the multitude of factors the orderly movement of which is the history of the world...

This idea is strikingly similar to the argument that F. A. Hayek made almost a century later in his great book The Road to Serfdom, though Hayek made it in opposition to centralized government planning. Tolstoy's earlier development of this theme makes him a pivotal figure in the critique of reason and a much more significant figure than I'd ever realized in the history of conservative thought.

I'd liked War and Peace more than I expected to when I first read it--despite not grasping what he was about in these sections of the book--and I'm quite anxious to reread it now in light of Berlin's really enlightening analysis. I've no idea how to judge the rest of Berlin's work or how he ranks as a philosopher, but you can't ask more of literary criticism than that it explain murky bits, that it engender or rekindle interest in an otherwise musty-seeming work, and that it take a potentially dated book and make us realize that it is still relevant. This essay succeeds on all those levels. In this instance at least, Isaiah Berlin warrants his hefty reputation.

GRADE : A+

I've just read this book a second time and am making a point of recommending it to my friends and to everybody reading here. This is a very crazy novel. In fact it's not so much a novel as a satire of novels. The author gets you interested in the story but there's some kind of gag on every page, so Kelly's book manages to mock every novel-writing convention, in the process of mocking itself. "The Maltese Falcon" is lampooned, as are H.P. Lovecraft's, and to a lesser extent Dickens's work specifically, but the humor ranges widely beyond just these targets. It's sharp but underlyingly good-natured humor. I'll never forget these patently ripe characters: a Sam Spade type, Jake Stalker, who seems to be coming out of the closet, Lucretia Faversham, elderly dowager, in search of rejuvenation while revelling in all the common vices, Veronica Volupturini, globe-trotting golddigger, Haggie the gin-swilling receptionist, Rastus Reilly himself, whose mere description is hilariously unforgettable, and a larger congregation of strangely loveable misfits Kelly describes bluntly as "lowlife swine." They're rather sweet swine, though, and that's part of what makes them funny. One character's impossibly long surname evokes conversational byplay that puts Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First" to shame: this alone would make the book worth its price, but the laughs keep coming, from every direction. Bizarre characterization is certainly a strong point. The setting is Boston, Massachusetts, and a treasure-hunting cruise from there to the Caribbean, in the 1930s. Pacing is leisurely at first but the story builds to an adventurous conclusion. The tone can best be described as ridiculous. The writing style parodies numerous styles, as suggested by the subtitle, and manages to do this not just effectively, but fluidly as well: Kelly is a genuinely talented writer. The plot is simply a framework for laughter. The good guys, led by old lady Faversham and her hired gun Jake Stalker, have found out there is an ancient Secret of Eternal Youth, and they're chasing after it, hotly pursued by a fat and skinny pair of archly evil bad guys. I said this was a very crazy book. So if you like Crazy you'll love it. I did, enough to read it all over again, six months after my first reading, and I picked up on jokes I'd missed the first time. A+ for humor.

I was *beyond* pleasantly surprised by Rastus Reilly. Steve takes no prisoners when he parodies Laural and Hardy, Mark Twain, Stephen King, HP Lovecraft, and countless others. This book is funny from page one through the end, and I found myself wishing for more once it was finished! Of course, I drink a lot of beer, so what do I know?

I'll be watching for future releases from Steve Kelly, hope he lives for awhile and doesn't die of liver disorder.

I'm a fan of Stephen King and I had just started reading H.P. Lovecraft's classic horror stories when I came across this unusual novel and decided to give it a try. First I'm going to warn readers who don't like completely crazy humor that they will not like Kelly's book. I do like crazy nut humor so I loved "Rastus Reilly." It's well written it's insane and it's a hoot. Knowing a little Lovecraft will help you enjoy this horror and mystery satire. In some parts of the book Kelly satires the Lovecraft writing style very well and obviously with affection. But you don't really have to know Lovecraft. You do have to be a little crazy like me to enjoy a novel as plain silly as this one. I liked it enough to write my first Amazon review and give this book the top rating but only for nutty humor fans.

I was scanning a huge bookstore, searching for bargains...and there it was. Streiker's Bride. I had never heard of it before, but when i read the synopsis on the back, I was intrigued...and it was clearanced! Immediately I began to read it and was pulled into the character Adair...the story begins leaving you wondering what will happen next and it remains that way throughout the entire story. 12:30 in the morning and well into the book, I found I could not put it down (and bookreading at night usually puts me to sleep!). I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning! I am currently looking for the other books in this great saga. This is a MUST read!

I started this book and had no idea what it was about. Once I started, I began to love the characters and the plot. After reading it through a second time, I've decided that this is one of my most favorite books, and I'm glad to learn that there are more in the series.

As a teenager growing up at a Christian school, I find books are hard to find in the school libary, because of careful screening by the school broad. The books they choose are rather boring. But when I picked up the copy of Strieker's bride I was so intregied. This book is so wonderful!! The continuing books are wonderful seguels too.

It is rare to read an autobiography of a successful person involved in a technical field such as surgery and come away enriched by this humane, unselfish presentation offered by Dr. James D. Hardy. His down to earth story of how to balance family, politics, and medicine and still be a gentleman could only happen in the South. This book should be required reading for every pre-med student and should be kept as a bible for those who choose surgery for their calling.

The Academic Surgeon should be required reading for any premed or med student. Because of the insight it gives to an exciting period of medical history, surgeons certainly and other doctors and those in medical fields will find it excellent reading. The general reading public will also be fascinated by a look into the life of this pioneer in transplant surgery who excelled as a doctor, surgeon, teacher, administrator, and devoted family man.

Don't let the title throw you off. The Academic Surgeon makes a great read for anyone both doctors and lay alike. This book reads well and makes the life of a pioneer in surgery come to life.

I must admit, Oliver Hardy was always my favorite of the two, and I was so pleased to find this biography of him. If you can manage to track it down, it's well worth it. Very well researched, with lots of new information and photos. Very well done.

Oliver "Babe" Hardy is something of a paradox: many comedians feel he is actually the funnier of the classic team of Laurel & Hardy. Yet, there is so little biographical material available on him. True, if you buy a book on the comedy team you'll find out the bare facts. But there's always a wealth on Stan Laurel...not Babe (as his friends called him). Why?

A key reason, as John McCabe's solid bio points out, is that Babe wanted it that way. He deferred all creative decisions and most press inquries to Stan. In a sense, McCabe faced a Herculean task: he wanted to write a bio about a comedian etched firmly in world film culture, yet actual sources of information (Hardy died August 6, 1957) were few. Could it be done?

Yes. Babe etches out Hardy's life. And we learn a few fascinating tidbits along the way: how throughout his life he always cringed at jokes about his weight (his weight always bothered him) but went along for the laughs (Jackie Gleason reportedly had the same attitude); how he developed his fuss-budget film-personna quirks from a relative; how he viewed himself more as an actor (or reactor) than a comedian; how his love for music pervaded his life (he does sing in some of his films). And a LOT more. The book also gives fascinating details about his sad final year where he lost a lot of weight and his health went into a downward tailspin.

This is a solid book that also recounts some of the team's best shorts, features, and details their famous tour of England. And McCabe JUST pulls off his feat. His source material on Hardy is largely culled from interviews with Stan Laurel and Hardy's last wife, Lucille. If there is a complaint it's that this is still not as well fleshed out as a typical show biz bio where more sources and information were available -- but there is enough detail to make this a solid book that'll delight Laurel & Hardy fans, show biz bio fans, and students of comedy of all ages. Babe would be pleased.

This book is written with a lot of warmth attached to it that allows you, the reader, to appreciate just how Oliver Hardy worked and lived. It goes into detail of minor storiesof poeple who met him. I knew very littl of Oliver before i read this book. I now know a lot more and I feel that I almost knew him personally.

Frank and Joe are in the winter Max Games.Some mysterious things are happening at the Games. And when Frank and Joe end up having to guard the presidents son it only gets better

The book was exciting and if you read it, you would get hooked to it. If you like action and snow, this is the book for you!

The book was exciting from the first page and when the Hardys become friends with the first kid it gets even better.

Grant Hardy's collection of poems, some of which he translated from the Chinese, gave me comfort and perspective at a crucial time in my life; I read them in a hospital awaiting exploratory cardiac surgery. I had read many of the poets before, but only one of the poems, so there was a freshness to the experience. Mr. Hardy's biographical insights are printed on the same page as the poems, providing interesting connections between poet and poem. The experience led me to look back and forward on my life and prepared me for whatever the future held.

This collection shows that family relationships across the ages are not so different from what we have now. The way people can feel about their children, spouse or parents is one of those universal truths. The choice of poems and their arrangement flow beautifully together and express the idea shared human experience. This book can be appreciated by any generation. My mother loved it, I loved and so did my thirteen year-old-daughter. Once you start reading it you are pulled very willingly along to the end. The biographies of the poets are interesting and add another layer of depth to the poems.

This book is full of such sweet and simple thoughts about life. It made me cry sometimes and smile other times. The author's information about the poet made me feel more connected to these enduring poems. It's a fabulous read!

The author's passion for roses shows on every page. The details on soil, nourishment, planting location, climate are highly valuable. Even creating new roses is covered. The photos and history of every selected plant show lots of devoted research. The listing of Rose nurseries and organizations saves lots of planning time. Love that book.

This book is as useful as a reference as it is lovely to look at. Growing roses at my home in USDA hardiness zone 3 limits choices to a few shrubs found at the local garden center, but 'Hardy Roses' provides well-organized lists of additional choices one can find in catalogs. Want a rose that smells divine? Use the charts that indicate the degree of fragrance. Require disease resistant varieties? The lists tell you which ones are easy to keep healthy. Equally valuable are the lists of catalog suppliers, because chances are, these varieties won't be available at the local outlets. Cultural information is here too, but seems slanted toward shrub rose growers rather than us die-hards determined to grow hybrid teas at any cost in impossible conditions. Along with Ortho's 'All About Roses', 'Hardy Roses' is the most-used of my 20 or so books on roses, and is a very good value. I recommend that after you receive it, keep a dust cover on the paperback version so you can carry it around shopping with you without damaging its pretty cover.

This book inspires cold-climate gardeners to grow roses. The writing is clear and easy to understand and the photos are beautiful. It covers information from where to plant your roses (including a discussion on microclimates) to growing to starting roses from seed and cuttings. It reviews over 100 hardy roses and is written by someone who knows and loves roses. Great for beginners and seasoned rose growers

It was a neat book. Nancy and George go on a wilderness trek and when things get suspicious, Nancy calles in the Hardys. It had lots of excitement though it didn't really have any romance. I especially like the way they meet. It's funny. I also like when they were in they raft. I couldn't put it down and I definatly reccomend it.-RJG,12

This is only the second Nancy Drew & Hardy Boy mystery that I've read and I know that I will continue read more. It is so exciting to find out what will happen to Frank, Joe, and Nancy when they are surronded my a mob of mobsters. How long will they the survive in a wilderness of deceint? Are they meant to ever get out of the woods and tell their secret to the police? To find out you must read it. R.B. age 12

Nancy and George are hiking in the wilderness when strange things start to happen. They call in the Hardys to help them. Soon they're trapped on the mountain surrounded by killers from the mob. Will they survive? To find out, you need to read this exciting book.

There are two and a half sets of lovers in Thomas Hardy's "The Return of the Native," which, if your math is correct and your idea of the number of lovers in a set concurs with mine, makes five people. Romance, deceit, misunderstanding, and misfortune affect their destinies, and those to whom the novel is cruelest come to tragic ends because they refuse to forgive themselves or others for mistakes.

The central tragic figure is Eustacia Vye, a young woman who has come to live on Egdon Heath with her cantankerous grandfather. Despising the dreariness of the heath and generally secluding herself from the local populace, she is somewhat of an outsider and not well liked by some in the community. She was in love with Damon Wildeve, a former engineer who now owns an inn and is not too happy about it; but their affair has since cooled and Wildeve has turned his attention to a girl named Thomasin Yeobright. Wildeve and Thomasin's wedding is aborted when the marriage license turns out to be invalid, and Thomasin, running home to her aunt in shame and anger, is caught on the rebound by Diggory Venn, her long-time admirer. A word about Venn's profession is in order: He is a "reddleman," who, not unlike the ice cream man in the summertime, rides around the heath in a van selling a strange product that shades its vendor most memorably.

Completing the quintet is Thomasin's cousin Clym Yeobright, an Egdon Heath native who is returning permanently after living for some time in Paris as a diamond merchant. Destiny eventually unites Clym and Eustacia in love, but Clym's mother does not approve of the union; she doesn't like Eustacia, and she fears their being married would prevent or discourage Clym from returning to his lucrative career in Paris. They get married anyway, as do Wildeve and Thomasin on a second try, leaving Venn as the fifth wheel but still not out of the running.

The catalyst for the tragedy of the novel involves an attempted reconciliation between Clym's mother and Eustacia, which results in the kind of ugly situation that could be cleared up by simple explanations and apologies but instead is exacerbated by normal circumstances. On top of this, Wildeve realizes he still loves Eustacia and is willing to help her in any course of action, no matter how lacking in judgment, that she thinks is an appropriate response to her plight.

This novel swells with Hardy's typical narrative genius, but no less impressive than the plot, the characters, the dialogue, and the prose, is the barren but hauntingly beautiful setting of Egdon Heath. Like the famous Casterbridge of his later novel, it is a world unto itself, defined by its own peculiar topography and populated by denizens who, with their own special jargon, customs, and folklore, act as a sort of Greek chorus towards the drama of the principal characters, commenting on events with humor and gravity. The heathmen and women don't much mind the hardships of life; they're the kind of people that will joyfully dance around their bonfires on the barrows even without musical accompaniment.

I didn't pay attention to much in high school but this book, and the tools by which to grasp it, has stayed with me through a lifetime. The heath and the people who were more of it than of the world, has remained vivid and powerfully romantic to keep me coming back to Hardy and other English authors of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The result has been part of the greatest joys in a life of reading.

Eustacia Vye is a magnificent heroine, and her power, ardor and ultimate destiny as perhaps in excess of the more common neighbors is intense and pagan and unforgettable. The heath is a pre-christian place, remote not only from civilization but from all that is ordinary. In a small country, with massive social rules, the heath is alive and in posession of a soul. They keep the ancient traditions of festivals and bonfires, the people even speak their own language. The book has enhanced battles with the elements that seem to be offended and punishing ill-fated love. No one who reads this book will forget the red man, seeming to be a favorite of those pagan gods.
This is a romance that is eternal. Read it again, or read it with an inner openness and it will repay your time and soul.

Egdon Heath is the wild and hostile environment in which Hardy's tale of love and loss takes place. The setting of the novel is inescapable and its influence so strong that the heath is almost a character in itself. The action of the novel focusses around three men and three women; Clym Yeobright, Diggory Venn and Damon Wildeve and Mrs Yeobright (Clym's mother), her niece Thomasin whom she has adopted and Eustacia Vye. The other charcters in the novel are the heath people who form a greek chorus to the novel and are occasionally used as instigators of the action. The main theme of the novel is doomed love and the way in which the characters are unable to escape their destiny. It is also interesting to note that the ending to the novel was not the one Hardy inteneded, he had intended to end it after the scene by Shadwater weir. However, his publishers demanded a more positive ending and one which I feel slightly undermines the power of the novel. Most editions have a footnote at the point where Hardy had intended to finish, allowing readers to choose which ever ending they prefer.
Hardy's characterisation is highly realistic in that the boundaries between 'good' and 'bad' characters are somewhat fluid. He also explores the idea of the 'fatal flaw' and how people inevitably destroy themselves and those they hold most dear. If you're looking for a 'feel-good' novel this is not the one to go for but if you enjoy enjoy novels like Wuthering Heights and Tess of the Durbervilles then place your order now...