Stephen Geoffreys Books

The audiobook version of "The West" is a fast paced excursion through the history of the west from the arrival of European immigrants to the early 20th century. Over 80% of the material, however, concentrates on the 19th century (where the bulk of the action is found). I found this to be a very exciting trip through the history of the region and do recommend it to anyone with an interest in history or the region.

The only flaws in the presentation are relatively minor. The first is the usual flaw found in most writers of western history of the latter part of the 20th century and that is an over-romanticization of the Native American cultures which tends to reduce the conflicts of the settlement of the west to "all Native Americans saintly; all white settlers act like Satan". While they do a good job of covering white atrocities inflicted on the Native Americans (i.e. the Sand Creek Massacre, the war against the Nez Perce, the routine violation of treaties by the government, etc.)the authors do gloss over the often violent history the Native American tribes had with each other as well as totally ignoring the barbaric aspects of some tribal cultures of the west. Still, on balance, they are far more objective in this area than the majority of western writers. Their is also an almost complete silence on the roll of religion in the settlement of the west. Also it is dissapointing that Alaska and Hawaii were completely excluded from coverage in the audiobook. It is also dissapointing that the book ends in the very early 20th century leaving out great 20th century events in the west such as the oil booms, the dust bowl, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and the rise of tourism in the west.

Still, "The West" is an enjoyable listen, and is probably best listened to while driving in your car through the west.

I have read this title in Hardback and it was wonderful. The personal stories of fate, tradegy and triumph as the European immigrants settle on Native American lands are excellently written.

The story actually starts earlier than most would think - in the 1600s as the Spanish explore what is now New Mexico and Texas, and there are some misunderstandings between them and the Native Americans. Throughout the book, there are narratives following a person or a group of people and their journeys to the West.

My favorite narratives are the expansion of U. S. citizens to Texas, and the journey of the Mormons to Utah. I knew some the of the facts, however, they were vividly and poignantly written in this book.

Amazon seems to be including all the reviews of different editions and translations of Chaucer's "Troilus and Criseyde" on the same page. If you read the reviews here you will be very confused. Some refer to an original language edition (either the one made by R. A. Shoaf or Stephen Barney's Norton Critical edition), and some refer to a translation, at least one to the translation done by Nevill Coghill. The reader needs to pay careful attention to what edition is actually on the screen when making a selection.

If you want to read the original text, I would recommend Stephen Barney's edition. Barney is the editor who made the critical edition for the Riverside Chaucer, and his Norton Critical edition includes ten excellent critical essays in addition to Chaucer's poem, Giovanni Boccaccio's "Il Filostrato" (Chaucer's source), and Robert Henryson's "Testament of Crisseid." Shoaf's edition is also good, but twice as expensive, and it does not have as much contextual material. Coghill is a fine translator of Chaucer, and for the reader who does not want to tackle the Middle English he will provide an adequate experience. But beware: His smooth couplets sound more like Alexander Pope than the vigorous medieval writer he is translating.

Geoffrey Chaucer's fresh, but, sometimes very sentimental text tells the story of the brave knight, Troilus, a `slave of love', Criseyde, a realistic widow, and their go-between, the intriguer and opportunist, Pandarus.

For the idealist, Troilus: 'Next to the foulest nettle, tick and rough, / Rises the rose in sweetness, smooth and soft.'

For the realist, Criseyde: 'Am I to love and put myself in danger? / Am I to lose my darling liberty? / She who loves none has little cause for tears. / Husbands are always full of jealousy' / And men are too untrue /Or masterful, or hunting novelty.'

The sly intriguer Pandarus brings them together: 'Just as with dice chance governs every throw / So too with love, its pleasures come and go.'

However, the love between Troilus and Criseyde cannot blossom for political reasons. The realist betrays the idealist.

For Troilus (Chaucer), the fundamental question is: 'Since all that comes, comes by necessity / Thus to be lost is but my destiny.'
Was his fate ruled by predestination or was there only foreknowledge by God? 'To prone predestination, yet again others affirm we have free choice. To question which is cause of which, / and see Whether the fact of God's foreknowledge is / the certain cause of the necessity.'
Chaucer's answer is `determinism': 'And this is quite sufficient anyway To prove free choice in us a mere pretence.'

However, the priests are not his favorites: 'The temple priests incline to tell you this / That dreams are sent as Heaven's revelations; / They also tell you, and with emphasis / They're diabolic hallucinations.'

For Chaucer, 'Think this world is but a fair / passing as soon as flower-scent in air.'

This poem is not as strong as the Canterbury Tales, but it is a must read for all lovers of world literature.

This is a great edition for the masochist literature lover who wants to attempt middle english text. The footnotes are well researched and the supplementary papers are great additions.

As to the actual story, it is a wonderful, if not a little too realistic, love story taking place during the Trojan war. It mixes Greek customs and period with Chaucer's life in the middle ages. The story confuses itself with middle age customs with ancient greek traditions, with some parts completely unable to be understood (as the footnotes can atest with the same difficulties).

A good edition for English majors, bad for the faint of heart.

Please be careful! Everything on this page gives you the impression that this is a hardcover version of Shoaf's edition of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde. IT IS NOT - IT DOES NOT EVEN CONTAIN THE POEM. This is a collection of essays about the poem that is really only suited to Chaucer scholars. Don't make the same mistake I made. It should be subtitled - ESSAYS - or have some other clear description of the nature of the book. I can not evaluate the essays, because I haven't yet read the poem because of this mis-identification of these Essays with the Superior Shoaf edition of Troilus and Criseyde by Chaucer.

Your web-page is misleading. It quotes, and the image displays, the Middle English original of the poem. The inside pages shown are from the Middle English edition. However, (and the modernized title should be a giveaway, but it wasn't) the edition on this page is in modern English -- a translation, not Chaucer's poem. You need to clean up this page, take away the Middle English quotations, state that it's a modern translation, and refer the prospective buyer to the actual, modernized edition -- which the buyer may or may not want (in my case I did not), with assistance in finding the actual Middle English masterpiece.

Found some pretty useful info that isn't easily discovered...
For e.g. - The sequence in which ASP.NET looks through the collection of the REQUEST object (query string, form, cookie, client cert, server vars).
Also - interesting take on limiting usage of session objects.
I liked the treatment on connection pooling and caching practices as well.
Overall - I would summarize it as 'contains useful info that may not be easily found elsewhere....'

Round, one of the more astute (and contentious) genealogical scholars for two decades on either side of the beginning of the 20th century, undertook this study of the period of aristocratic civil war following the death of Henry I in the light of the large number of charters granted or attested by Geoffrey de Mandeville, 1st Earl of Essex. Until his sudden death at the hands of an enemy bowman in 1144, Geoffrey was one of the major players during the Anarchy; to many historians, he typifies the period. Round, in fact, calls him "the most perfect and typical presentment of the feudal and anarchic spirit."
Actually, his principal goal seems to have been to recover the lands seized from his father by Henry I, which he accomplished by playing each side in the struggle against the other. Of special interest, though, is Round's habit of adding appendices to his books on whatever topics interested him, however tenuous their connection to the subject at hand. This volume includes twenty-eight brief essays on such notables as Gervase de Cornhill, Miles of Gloucester, William of Arques, Roger de Ramis, and the connection between the Mandevilles and the De Veres. There is also an extended essay on "The Creation of the Earldom of Gloucester." Round's scholarship is always finely honed, though certain of his interpretations and conclusions are now out of fashion. And be warned that he follows the Victorian gentleman's assumption that any educated person can handle Latin texts, so he never bothers to translate his frequent excerpts from medieval charters and historians.

Good book for practitioners and students in Built Environment

Good services from the distributors

This is advertised and unabriged. What I received was Volume three of what may be a complete version, but it was not advertised as one of a series by any means. In addition, I was very sorry that it was recorded in modern english rather than the original middle english. If I had known, I would not have ordered and am pursuing a refund.

Not a complete version.. only has SOME of the tales. I didnt realize that when I bought it!