English Books

Once you get past the strange layout (described in other sections), this is a great edition of Henry V. It is easy and fun to read and offers valuable insights (not just for students either). Well worth a flutter.

This play more than any others in the histories glorifies Englishmen and England. His characters in this one are larger than life, but each has their own limitations and flaws. The play covers the time of the Battle of Agincourt when the French King Charles was so sure of victory that he sent a messenger to Henry to ask him to give up and to pay a ransom before the battle. On the eve of the Battle of Agincourt, the English were outnumbered five to one, Henry's troops were on foreign soil and riddled with disease. The scenes where Henry dons a disguise and goes out amongst his troops to bolster their confidence are great. The English managed to triumph in this battle where all was stacked against them mostly because of Henry's leadership. This is such a sweeping story that it is hard to condense in a few words, the plot of the play, but it is a wonderful example of Shakespeare's skills as a writer.

'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.' What more need I say? Henry V is an imortal classic of western literature. And this edition is complete and accurate. See the film if you want, but be sure to read the words at least once. They are inspiring.

"Now, if these men do not die well, it will be a black matter for the King that led them to it."

Particularly poignant poetry in these times of pompous presidential sabre rattling and wars based on questionable facts.

This play is best known for the St. Crispian's Day "Band of Brothers" speech given by King Henry just before the battle at Agincourt. It is a powerful speech that rallies people at all times and everywhere. Sir Lawrence Olivier made a film version in 1944 during WWII and Kenneth Branagh made another as recently as 1989. You can count on there being more versions. Epecially so when computers can help them make spectacular battle scenes (that aren't really in the play) with less expense.

Audiences love this play and they should. There is a lot to like and enjoy. I think upon repeated readings Henry becomes a more equivocal character than he seems at first. And readers of the King Henry IV plays will know him before he became King Henry and know something deeper about his personality.

And of course there is the whole bit about the drive to France being sponsored by the Church to avoid confiscation of property by the Crown. Moreover, there is the slaughtering of the French prisoners, and his treatment of Falstaff (who dies offstage in this play). This isn't revisionist stuff, it is right there in the play, but it is easy to miss the first time you are trying to take in the play.

In any case, this Arden edition is the one to buy and read from. Why? Because it has the most authoritative text, but that is only the beginning. It also shows variants between the early sources. The notes at the bottom of each page of the play are simply fabulous. The editor includes not only helpful notes explaining what might be obscure in the text of the play, he provides sources Shakespeare probably used such as Holinshed and makes for some very interesting study. There are also some helpful notes on how various scenes have been performed over time.

And to make this sound more like an infomercial, you get more! The introduction provides great background material on the play, its sources, and how it has been performed throughout history. After the play, there is a photo reproduction of the first Quarto from 1600 and it is fairly readable. There are also a couple of maps showing the path of the English Army from Harfleur through other towns on its way to Calais and makes clear how they had to pass through Agincourt.

There is also a helpful genealogical table so you can see the confusing claims used by Henry and the French nobility to make their claims. And there is a doubling chart so you can see how theater companies can perform all the roles with fewer actors.

This is a great edition as are all the plays published by the Arden Shakespeare. The amount of work collected in these volumes is stunning and they will enrich your experience of the plays tremendously. I can't recommend them enough.

This book is so funny, creative and original. Loved it! A very quick way to bring a smile to your face.

I have a confession to make: I am an angry driver. I take it very personally when people cut me off, don't let me merge, and are just generally rude and nasty behind the wheel. If you're like me, YOU NEED THIS BOOK. It is a great stress reliever; humor is such an effective coping device, and so much better than giving some moron "the finger!" Keep it handy in your car, but don't read while you're driving; the streets are dangerous enough with all those cell phone users out there.

I picked this up last night at a local bookstore and think it is great. Quick, funny, and often insightful. I especially liked: Our new minivan, so many cupholders it needs a dishwasher. Great to share as gift or just to pass around the office.

Poets in motion
Conquering streets and highways
No honking requir'd

After author Aaron Naparstek had a brush with danger when confronting a honking driver, he found a way to sublimate the frustration and anger of traffic annoyances into calming poetry. Through the use of the 5-7-5 syllable pattern of haiku, he has now brought enlightenment and laughter to the topics of road rage, traffic gridlock, high fuel prices, lack of parking, and many other automotive trials and tribulations. In this little book, perfectly suited in size to fit into the glove compartment, are such gems as:

Lawyer on cell phone/tries corporate and freeway/mergers at same time
Seattle traffic/the one thing capable of/stopping Microsoft
When the light turns green/like a leaf on a spring wind/the horn blows quickly

So keep this book in the car with you, and when that familiar tension starts, breathe deeply and transcend your road rage to reach a state of honku nirvana.

My son was given this book as a baby. I used to read it to him all the time and he loved it!! Now he is 9 years old and reads it to me!!

Our daughter was given this book before we left to moved to our new duty station. She loves it so much and so do I. Our friends wrote on the inside that no matter were we are in the world they will alway promise to find her. This book shows the love a mother or father would do to find their missing child.

I bought this book for my four year old son when he was only two, because the artwork was captivating, and the storyline was sweet and easy for him to follow. He got to know it by heart and for a while insisted on touting it everywhere we went, and would "read" it to himself. I lost count of how many times we've read it together. He's four now and it's still a favorite among others. I'll have to replace it soon, because it's so worn out... and that's when you know you've got a great book.

I purchased this book for my little sister in 1998. I wrote an inscription in the front promising her that, no matter where she goes, I promise I'll find her. I'd since forgotten about the book until my sister passed away a few weeks ago and her teacher told me that she had just read the book to her the day before, including my note to her. I now have the book in my possession and it will forever be special to me knowing that, although I'd since moved out and didn't go home to visit nearly enough, she was still reminded in my absence how much I loved her.

For me, the most touching stanza of the book is:
And if I had no other way,
I'd walk or crawl or run,
I'd search to the very ends of the earth,
For you my precious one.

This is a great gift for anyone with whom you'll always share a special bond.

I really liked the fiction book I Promise I'll Find You. It had beautiful pictures, and on each page there's a little doggy and a kid for you to find in the picture. It's a very touching and comforting book. I hope to see more books like it in the future.
By Emily, age 8

In all things about James Joyce, no one has exhibited more of an acute understanding of the man and his works than Richard Ellmann. He is the bridge by which readers who have not read Joyce or do not understand what they have read by him to the inner workings of the artist and his life.

This biography, "James Joyce" has been around for decades, virtually unchallenged. He presents to the reader all the facets of Joyce's life and personality. This is no mere star-gazing. Along with all the great things about Joyce, he also examines his weakness: his superstitions, his drinking, his occasional selfishnes, his sexual complexities, and his failure to really take care of his family. We get to see Joyce in all his dimensions and from several perspectives. That makes this book not only the best biography of James Joyce but one of the classic biographies of all time.

I just cannot praise this book enough. Ellman's biography of Joyce is amazing, bewildering, daunting (at least in its length) and wonderful -- not coincidently, just like James Joyce. One caveat: I imagine a reader might be quite confused if s/he read this before reading any of Joyce's major works (Ulysses or Finnegans Wake). I am kicking myself that I didn't read this biography years ago! Truly a marvelous work -- and a must for readers of Joyce.

For those of you interested in a biography of James Joyce that's as erudite as his works themselves, then Ellmann's "James Joyce" is most definitely for you. This is a product of years of interviews and correspondence with many of Joyce's friends and family members; and Ellmann's love for both the writer and the man radiate through every page. His sections on the key themes and events that inspired both "Ulysses" and "Finnegans Wake" are invaluable. Moreover, you'll find yourself chuckling a great deal of time, and even shedding a few tears, as I did. My only critique of the book, albeit fairly minor, is not so much directed at the author as it is at the publisher: there is little room in the margins for notes, as well as very sparse flyleaves; hence for those of you who like to engage a book with gushing pen in hand, then you'll find the layout of this book quite restraining, as I did. One might counter this critique, however, with the perhaps granted point that it leaves all the more canvas space on which to overlay layers and layers of brush strokes much needed when attempting to paint the life of this very complex, gifted, and charming man.

Richard Ellmann's biography of James Joyce is hands down among the three best or the best biography written in the 20th century. For anyone with a serious interest in Joyce or his writings, will truly enjoy getting to know Joyce and his writings through this book.

I've read maybe a few thousand reviews of other titles on this website but this is the first book I've felt I needed to comment on. I comment mainly because I noted that two reviewers gave this book "4 stars". What unmitigated gall!

Richard Ellmann's biography is the most definitive and complete examination of James Joyce that has been written. This extensive work examines Joyce's life from his birth to his death. Ellmann's narrative derives from Joyce's letters as well as accounts from Joyce's brother, Stanislaus. The book is most revealing in offering an understanding of the process it took for Joyce to come up with his most monumental works, ULYSSES AND FINNEGANS WAKE. Ellmann states that Joyce intentionally made it difficult for anyone to understand what he wrote. He wanted to keep his critics, academics and scholars, guessing of what significance his nonsensical gibberish creation represented. In addition, Ellmann intertwines events that occurred in Joyce's life that show how they closely resemble the characters in the works he produced, such as his early work, A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN.

James Joyce most likely can be considered a "starving artist." He would go without a new pair of shoes until they wore down to the soles, but looked debonair and sophisticated with non-matching suits. In the beginning, he aspired to be a work within the realms of Jesuit studies, but later opted for a writing career that would take him from Trieste, Paris, and Zurich. Joyce struggled with poverty through out his life even as his most famous works were published. Monetary problems and health conditions that affected his eyesight never hindered his creative process. If he lost his eyesight, he probably would have continued to write blind. Joyce appeared to be an eccentric and stubborn man. However, Ellmann shows a caring and supporting man who loved his wife and children, and most of all, his father, John Stanislaus Joyce.

In terms to history and literature, Ellmann constantly references Joyce's fascination with Shakespeare, ancient civilization and history. This is best displayed in ULYSSES, but one significant footnote is that he did not appear to care for American history. He makes a minute reference to Ulysses S. Grant in ULYSSES, but he did not even know who the man was; Joyce loathed the United States. Also, Ellmann offers a birds-eye view of what his cohorts thought of his work. Gertrude Stein as well as Ernest Hemingway praised and envied Joyce's contributions to Modernism.

Ellmann examines a tremendous amount of information within his narrative. When one completes JAMES JOYCE, what else do you need to know about this genuine writer who used his craft as a means of getting back home, but never quite made it there? But he preferred Zurich and its snow-capped mountains as home rather than the complexities of his former Dublin. JAMES JOYCE is the springboard one needs when beginning a study of Joyce the man and his works, which should begin with PORTRAIT and ending with WAKE.

This was my absolute favorite book when i was growing up. I still have the entire thing memorized. I never get tired of looking and the illustrations and hope that my children will enjoy this book as much as i did and still do!

My Grandma bought me this book when I was a small child. We read it over and over again. I absolutely loved it!!! I will definitely be reading this book to my future children and the future children in my classroom. I hope they love it as much as I do.

This was one of my favorite books as a little girl, and now my two little nieces can't get enough of it. I'm actually buying a replacement book now because the one we have is so worn out from reading it again and again. I definitely recommend it for the kids in your life.

Awwww I feel like crying! This was one of my all time favorite books as a child! My favorite library teacher let me have it in 1st grade and I read it over and over until i knew the words by heart

this is a great story, both to read out loud and to read alone. it's about a girl whose mother wants her to clean her room, but her friends come over and they end up playing instead. her mother tells her a few times to go clean her room and she seemingly goes to do it, but she takes her friends with her, as well as her baby sister, and they get distracted by their imaginations, so we get to see them pretending to be a bunch of different things. at the end though her mother puts her foot down and tells jillian to clean her room, so she tells her friends to come back when her room is neater.

the book rhymes, which is amazing for reading out loud, or for singular readings, the flow is nice. the illustrations are great too, the characters look like they're having fun. the way they're drawn conveys a lot of energy and excitement, and yet the drawings are simple... i guess they kind of remind me of children themselves, not a whole lot to them, but invest your time and you'll have more than your share of fun.

this whole series is great. i recommend.

My 5-year-old LOVES doing these treasure hunts; we even use them as a reward when he's had a great day at school. He puts the sticker he earns at the end of each hunt on the calendar, which also gives us the opportunity to discuss days of the week and month.

I would recommend a more rudimentary introduction to reading before beginning to use this book; I started teaching my son to read at home right after his fourth birthday, which is when I bought this book. After it arrived, I realized it would be too advanced for a very new beginner and put it away for later.

What a huge hit it has been (and Pirates of the Caribbean and the acccompanying pirate obsession hasn't hurt the interest in treasure hunts, even though he hasn't seen the movie)!

I will absolutely buy this as gifts for other parents/kids.

I purchased this product for summer vacation for my 6 year old daughter. She just finished Kindergarten and has just begun to read this past year. This product has been an excellent tool to continue her reading practice into summer vacation. She and my 4 year old son eagerly beg for their treasure hunt each day!

My son is 5 and loves these treasure hunts and the match game bonus with each hunt. He would love to do one after the other if I would let him. Every time he finishes one he ask if we can do another one. Don't even think about it -- just get this book! You will not regret it!! It brings so much joy to your child!! and you too!

This is easy for me and fun for my son. I could not recommend it more highly. My son has been begging me to do more, more, more! He's having a wonderful time and he is READING!!!!!

My son just turned six, and we have a wonderful time with these for several reasons:
1. We both look forward to them every day
2. He feels a real sense of accomplishment (giggling the whole time) and it's even sparked his imagination in creating his own treasure hunts and an interest in maps.
3. What parent doesn't enjoy seeing their child laughing while learning?!

On school days I come back in and hide them after he gets on the bus. We're both always super-syked to get home and "do the hunt." On weekends and holidays, I hide them after my son has gone to bed. It's a great way to wake up!

"Lovely Me" is riveting. I had read Valley of the Dolls and enjoyed it, but was surprised when I found out it was one of the best selling books of all times, so I picked up "Lovely Me" to find out more. What I found was an inspirational biography of a flawed but driven woman who took the world by storm, but not until after the age of 44, after a failed acting career, and after her diagnosis of cancer. Jacqueline Susann's story can be heartbreaking (her son was institutionalized) it can be gritty (her numerous affairs) but is also shows a fierce determination to survive and thrive in this world. Two very important points of her life will stick with me throughout mine: 1) her fierce loyalty to friends 2) her determination to make her books a success. She went above and beyond most authors to promote her books. She may not have been the best writer but she was a best seller.

Here's the book that reveals all about the queen of the published melodramas, Jacqueline Susann. One thing's for sure, her real-life tale is as bumpy as anything she's ever written: jealousy, revenge, sexual deviation, incurable diseases... Author Barbara Seaman doesn't miss a beat in bringing you the story of a lady whose marginal frame of mind automatically made her an activist in human rights. Told with real pizzazz, LOVELY ME meticulously brings you back to a time when evolution was everywhere, even in so-called fluffy novels like the ones of Jacqueline Susann. Her personal struggles behind all of her fiction glamour definitely make for a compelling read.-----Martin Boucher

WOW! LOVELY ME is the terrific biography of an absolutely amazing woman who was HELL-BENT on fame since childhood - a very inspiring woman who didn't even BEGIN writing until her cancer diagnosis! She gives determination a new name. Jacqueline Susann was also a woman who LIVED Valley of the Dolls --- she schmoozed and worked for the marginal actress stardom she achieved on stage and in early Television with pals/lovers(?) like Carole Landis...the book also has a lot of GREAT celebrity tales. Jacqueline Susann was a woman whose fridge was stocked with only olives, gin, and pills! She was a woman who loved bedding elderly Jewish comics, and a woman who (along with her devoted husband Irving) was an ABSOLUTE GENIUS at SELF-PROMOTION!!! She was a woman who even stalked Ethel Merman (!!) etc. This extremely well written biography is brilliant, crazy, and engrossing --- and the perfect coming together of writer and subject. Reading it you are VERY aware of where JS's got the inspiration for her novels.

Ms. Seaman has produced a work of exceptional depth and quality, truly bringing the essence of Miss Susann to life, and making her compulsion for fame and regognition understandable. What struck me most was the tenacity with which Miss Susann clung to her dream of glory, only to have it so cruelly taken from her at such a young age--almost like a character in one of her classic novels. If the life of a working artist and the world of celebrity interests you, this is a book you will quite enjoy.

LOVELY ME takes honors for being the most lurid bio I've ever read. It was great!

I recommend reading this book before you pick up VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, because once you read VOTD, you'll know from exactly which well Jackie drew these experiences. Just as VOTD was a roman a clef for life as Jackie knew it, LM is the real-life retelling of VOTD.

I admire Jackie Susann. Not only was she a Philadelphian and a writer, like me, but she had such tenacity. Even when cancer, a failed career, a mentally-ill son, and a dim future stared her in the face, she plodded on and closed her ears to the naysayers. She never once took her eyes off her dream of being a published author and bolstering VOTD to being the best-selling novel in history. We can all learn something from her.

It's more fun to realize that it's about writing, illustrations of writing and figures for writing. The reader is represented in the story as the victim of the author, which he always is.

Check it out and tell me if it doesn't work.

this is the best book i've ever read and by far the best translation of it. i can't really say anything more.

Lushly, sensuously, decadently overwritten, a fatal literary intersection where Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Poe, and Sade collide and out of the spectacular wreckage something lopes off into the surrounding woods declaiming like Nietzsche's Zarathustra with head trauma--Lautreamont's *Maldoror* is one of those ten or twelve books that aren't like any other. Part hallucination, part philosophy, part prose-poem, part prophecy, it's a bizarre stitched-together Frankenstein's monster of a text, a virtuoso improvisation animated by an electrifying genius who appears--and disappears--on the literary stage like a bolt out of the blue.

Here is a work where the first-person protagonist is an arrogant, cruel, disdainful superhuman egoist--sometimes seeming to be Satan; other times, something considerably less, but at all times evil incarnate. Dramatic and arbitrary shifts of narrative perspective and authorial points-of-view, a fractured, nonlinear plot-line, similes and metaphors of Homeric proportion that bring together the most disparate items in absurd conjunctions virtually without meaning. Was it all a joke? A parody of Romantic literature and the self-indulgent, self-pitying, overheated imagination of those who struck the Romantic stance of poetic revolt and existential defiance? What must the French public have thought of this black mass "celebrating" vice, blasphemy, pederasty, and murder--a work that held nothing--including itself--above disgust?

Predictably enough, *Maldoror* caused barely a ripple in the bourgeoisie calm when it was first published--by Ducasse himself incidentally--and remained unread by the general public who continues to not read it today. It remains a text ahead of its time--or perhaps more accurately--outside of time altogether. And yet it's had a huge influence on the writers, artists, and intellectuals of our time, from the Surrealists to the Situationists to literature in theory and practice to this day. *Maldoror* is a quintessentially postmodern text--a pastiche of genres with its penchant for self-parody and its direct address of the reader, breaking the illusion of "fictive reality" and authorial authority.

The translator argues forcefully that this is the edition of *Maldoror* to read--that other editions, most egregiously the Penguin--are rife with errors that stumble along the borderline of sheer incompetence. I've got no good reason to doubt this is the truth--and why not read this edition? It's attractively formatted, fully annotated, and contains all the known works of Lautreamont ((Ducasse)) including a few apocryphal tidbits, a chronology, biographical notes, and even a reminiscence by an old dude who once went to school with the Dark Prince of Letters. If there's a better edition, I'm unaware of it.

As for the heavily annotated *Poesies* that round out the main bulk of this volume--I had far less enthusiasm for them than for *Maldoror.* A series of gnomic axioms and aphorisms ala Pascal, indeed, many apparently in direct reply to Pascal, I didn't find them very interesting, often barely intelligible, even with the help of the comprehensive annotations--much of it in French which was unfortunately of no use to someone monolingual like me. What I did understand of the *Poesies,* the opinion of enthusiasts to the contrary, I found, for the most part, bombastic or banal, and very often both. A young man's ((Ducasse died in his early twenties)) bold, world-shattering, and consequently somewhat naïve proclamations on life and literature, any and all of which were likely to change if he'd lived to see even five more years of either. At twenty-three, you can be a genius and produce a literary masterpiece, but you still don't know much--certainly not even most--about life.

Indeed, even in the *Poesies,* Ducasse radically reverses field, mercilessly ridiculing Romanticism and its heroes, mocking the Satanic defiance that inspired such works as...*Maldoror!*

So was *Maldoror* all a goof then--a black spoof, a devastating satire? Had Ducasse turned a new leaf as he claimed in the *Poesies* and now dedicated himself to composing uplifting works of classical order and clarity? Was he pulling our leg then...or again? Was it all a joke--on us, on him? Was he simply insane, or just young, or both? Are we reading too much into all this--and is *that* the point?

These are some of the very potent post-contemporary questions that Ducasse has left us to contemplate in the wake of his great literary disappearing act--questions that remain in addition to, and beyond, those raised by the actual content of his enigmatic, and abbreviated, corpus of work.

An author--and a book--as important for being important as for the substance and merit of what he wrote, Ducasse and *Maldoror* is essential reading for the serious student of post-19th century literature. Ducasse/Lautreamont/Maldoror is a major signpost on the way to a new kind of writing, some of which we see today, more of which we'll see tomorrow.

This review is of *Maldoror*, alone.

Lautreamont's *Maldoror* is legendary for its bold and complex phrasing and imagery, for its reputation of embodying Surrealism *avant la lettre*, and for its remarkably extreme, savage imagery. Less frequently remarked is its obvious debt to the earlier literature of the *Frenetiques*, such as Petrus Borel. Given the very few English translations of the latter, one may pardon those who do not read French for overestimating the originality of *Maldoror*. Francophones such as the Surrealists and Lykiard, however, have no such excuse.

The descriptions of *Maldoror* in the various reviews here describe the content and style of the work perfectly well, so I shall neither repeat them nor try to outdo them. Instead, I shall offer a slightly less breathlessly adoring view of the work, in general, and of Lykiard's translation of it, in particular.

My view of *Maldoror* is that it is primarily a parody of the extreme tendencies of the "dark side" of Romanticism, in general, and of Byron, in particular. Although Lykiard dismisses Mario Praz's view of Lautreamont and *Maldoror* rather abruptly, Praz's observations seem quite germane, to me:

"[Lautreamont/Ducasse is] a macabre humorist in whom it is impossible to distinguish where sincerity ends and mystification begins".

Those who doubt this observation should have a look at Ducasse's extant letters, many of which bear witness to his desire merely to be a successful writer, and to be judged by the literary critics of the day. In a word, Ducasse/Lautreamont appears to have been precisely the sort of careerist *litterateur* whom the Surrealists excoriated and excommunicated from their ranks with tedious regularity!

As for Lykiard's translation, it is adequate, but far from inspired. Although, as he trumpets *ad nauseam*, his version of *Maldoror* may be in the main less error-riddled than those of his competitors, it is frequently leaden and awkward. Compare, for instance, the following tin-eared rendition to the original, and then to Paul Knight's rendering of the same passage:

The original: "[...] car, à moins qu'il n'apporte dans sa lecture une logique rigoureuse et une tension d'esprit égale au moins à sa défiance, les émanations mortelles de ce livre imbiberont son âme comme l'eau le sucre".

Lykiard: "For unless he bring to his reading a rigorous logic and mental application at least tough enough to balance his distrust, the deadly issues of this book will lap up his soul as water does sugar".

Knight: "[...] for, unless he brings to his reading a rigorous logic and tautness of mind equal at least to his wariness, the deadly emanations of this book will dissolve his soul as water does sugar".

Granted, such evaluations involve much subjectivity, but there's no doubt in my mind which version reads both more accurately and more elegantly in English. Lykiard does, however, deserve credit for demonstrating Knight's faults, as well.

Lykiard's notes are not necessarily much better than his translations. To take but one instance, Lykiard tells us that "God is here (and *passim*) ironically addressed as *tu* rather than the more formal *vous*". If Lykiard were as clever as he'd like to appear, then he'd know that the French *always* address God as *tu*, and not as *vous*. Therefore, there is nothing ironic on its face about Lautreamont's usage, at all.

In sum, *Maldoror* is a sometimes powerful, but often puerile, *reductio ad absurdum* of *Frenetique*-era late Romanticism. Enjoy it for its over-the-top style and its infrequent passages of genuine and sincere poetic power. Do not, however, take it too seriously, because, although we shall never know for certain, my bet is that Ducasse/Lautreamont was little more than a prodigiously gifted adolescent who sought, as most adolescents do, simultaneously to shock and to impress the grown-ups.

I like my writers drunk, blasphemous, decadent and French. If any of that list sounds even vaguely familiar then this is the book for you. Set the absinthe fountain to a slow drip, light some candles and prepare to tour an alchemical end-of-the-century underworld.

Since most everyone should be familiar with the basic premise of the novel by the time this review is read, I'll point out a few worthy considerations. Mapp and Lucia, the fourth volume in the Lucia series by the inimitable E.F. Benson, is simultaneously fantastic and sublime. Benson's brilliance is his ability to translate significant, though sometimes easily missed observations onto the page using the most exquisite and economical description possible. He manages to take some of the silliest social aspects of human behavior, renders it important, and turns it into a first-rate triumph. The reader walks away from Benson completely satisfied and certainly hungry for more.

I'm sure the fourth installment can be read on its own, but I consider the first three in the series (Queen Lucia, Lucia in London : A Novel and Miss Mapp) indispensable in getting the most out of Mapp and Lucia. While all three are delectable entertainments (think social reality TV done to its fullest potential), this one departs its counterparts in a rather bizarre turn of events in the plot. Despite its absurd hilarity, it was logical and it worked, almost too perfectly.

Many thanks go to the originator (In Honor Bound) of this fabulous fondness for Lucia in our family. I am now officially and unashamedly a Luciaphile (would it be too much to admit that I've picked up a thing or two from her? Or would Benson be proud?), and I have no problems getting others on this habit. Just make sure you pair this series with your favorite treat--time with Lucia is worthy of indulgence.

Oover the last fifteen years I have been meaning to read certain authors. H.E. Bates, Anthony Trollope, P.G. Wodehouse, E.F. Benson and the like.

Last week I succumbed to a nasty bout of influenza and E.F. Benson. I had grabbed the slender volume of "Mapp & Lucia" from the library shelf and it had rested in my bookcase for almost a week. Not wanting to dull my brain with endless hours of television, I cracked open "Mapp & Lucia".

Ten pages into the book and I was hooked. Lucia, her period of mourning almost over is looking to regain her iron control on her hometown. First action, regain her star role as Queen Elizabeth in the village fete.

As I read Lucia's plots and plans, a strange thought hit me. Lucia is the creature Hyacinth Bucket (the main character of the BBC's Keeping Up Appearances) secretly dreams of being. Having taken over the fete from her dazed and confused friend, Lucia goes onto greater pastures, the hometown of Miss Elizabeth Mapp, reigning social goddesss.

Miss Elizabeth Mapp (known as Mapp) plots with her friends to rent out their respective homes a profit. Lucia and her best friend (a gentleman who brings to mind a cross between KUA's Richard and AYBS Mr Humphries) move and slowly begin to take over the town. Mapp is not pleased and a genteel war of one-upsmanship begins between the two ladies.

Drawings are rejected from the art exhibit, parties given, ownership of produce and fruit desputed with the poor town in the middle. Matters come to a head on Boxing Day (December 26) when Mapp decides to steal a longed for recipe that Lucia refuses to give to her.

Lucia stumbles on her rival in the kitchen and both women are swept out to sea on Lucia's kitchen table (yes, Lucia's kitchen table, this is a not a mis-type). The town mourns the two ladies as lost and the Great War of Mapp-Lucia as over.

Okay, enough said. You'll have to succumb to the collective charms of the ladies Mapp and Lucia yourself and find out all the bits I've left out. Now, I'm off hunt down and read the rest of E.F. Benson's wonderful books.

"Mapp & Lucia" is like reading Trollope's "Barchester Towers" with the gloves off. The teacup may be small, but the battles rumble like thunder on the bay. Lucia is incredible. She combines absolute self-absorption with ironclad charming resolve to succeed in her every endeavor. She really is wasted being queen of Society in a small English village when fulfilling the duties of Lord High Admiral would not cause her so much as a tiny frown.

Lucia is a newly minted widow in this hilarious outing. Her fires have been banked, and she is anxious to get back in the swing and show her mettle. She rents a house for the summer from the formidable Miss Elizabeth Mapp of Tilling. Miss Mapp is clearly the leader of society in Tilling and revels in her role. Lucia eyes the situation, and the lines are drawn in the most charming but resolute way possible Lucia is the richer of the two and possibly more clever, but Miss Mapp has some powerful advantages of her own. She has pride of place, a town full of quaking allies, and indomnable perseverance. When these two square off, the fun begins and doesn't let up.

This is a delightful read, a mood lifter of the first magnitude. "Mapp & Lucia" is my introduction to Lucia, and I cannot wait to further my acquaintance with this fascinating lady.
-sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer

E F Benson's characters are just sublimely and achingly funny, it seems with Mapp and Lucia he was aiming to scrutinise and satarise the nosensical heirarchy and rivalry of bored and over privelaged upper middle class folk.
This aspect of the British Class system was one he knew well and which was breathing it's last in the times in which Mapp and Lucia live, witness the somewaht irritating coldness with which the Ladies treat their Maids, Drivers and Shop staff.
Lucia is the dominant character, lithe, fashionable and razor sharp while Mapp is clumsy, mumsy and opts for bulldog tactics.
The two appear in many novels, Lucia more often and one cannot help wonder if she was based on a Lady whom Benson was ever so slightly in love with, but here they meet for the first time, as Lucia moves to "Tilling" for the summer in Mapps rented out home "Mallards". The array of colurful charcters they surround themselves with and draw into their delighfully bitchy and cunning war agaisnt each other, are of equal delight, of particualr note are Quaint Irene and Georgie. Perhaps seen as little more than bohemian in their day but doubtless these characters would now be seen as obviously Lesbain and Gay; with the former being in love with Lucia. A daring inclusion in Benson's time but subtle and beautifully inclusive one.
Fans of these deliciously naughty pair should see the 1986 TV series which is available on DVD. Geraldine McKewan (of current Miss Marple fame)is petite, pretty, acid and simply perfect as Lucia while Prunella Scales (Cybil of Fawlty Towers) brings Miss Mapp to dusty, dowdy and bullish life! Excellent stuff!
The series was filmed in Rye in Sussex, home town of Benson, it used many locations close to his home (Lamb House), such as the lovley houses of Watchbell Street (My favourite being No 11 which was used as Godiva's house) and "Twistevens" shop on Mermaid Street, actually a Tea Room in reality.
WELL WORTH A VISIT! Literature fans may also wish to know that Lamb House was once home to American novelist, Henry James before Benson's time. One can also visit Benson's Grave in the town. Benson was Lord Mayor of Rye for a while and the river "Tilling"-ton flows through the town.

Read these books and discover the truth. It's all there -- the vanity, greed, passion, jealousy, and exultation. Don't let the objects of all these towering emotions fool you (lobster recipes, psychic bridge, red currant fool, babytalk Italian, dead budgies, suspect gurus, the Moonlight Sonata), it is the stuff of life!

The original texts in each language were somewhat difficult, (for Old Norse, two pages took me five hours with some interruptions, the rest were easier). If you have not the patience to look up word by word in the included "dictionary", this book is probably not for you.

The grammar sections are also difficult and dry; I did not like grammar at school and I did not like it in this book either. Specially when you include all the cases and declinations found in germanic languages, you can get a headache.

I bought the book mainly for phonological relationships and because it contains a brief history of the people speaking these languages. The following words have always intrigued me: Deich (German) - dijk (Dutch) - dike (English) / Reich (G) - rijk (D) - reign (E). I wanted to know which was first the egg or the hen in the evolution of these words. Did the Saxons take these words from what is now Germany through The Netherlands and then to the UK or did Norse invasions bring them to the UK and The Netherlands and from there somehow to Germany?

I supposed there was a straightforward answer to my question but apparently it is not so easy, so I got a partial explanation for it. Dating of phonological differences is difficult since there are time periods without written texts to follow the changes; the spelling can differ from the pronounciation: a change in pronounciation might already have occured while the spelling remained the same or the same pronounciation can be spelled differently even by people of the same linguistic group (spelling was not regulated, copying mistakes, translation mistakes, etc.). Additionally, the cultures can inffluence each other back and forth by trade relationships, etc. However, it seems that there existed a Proto-Germanic language from which all three (German, Dutch and English) derived and departed.

At the end of the book there is a chapter summarizing the language changing processes that affected each language and thereby establishes similarities and differences in the languages. I would have put this chapter as an introduction to better illustrate what the author was aiming to demonstrate throughout the book.

I had the privilege to study the history of the Germanic languages from a photocopied version of the manuscript for this book back in the day. Though the title makes it seem targeted at students of Old English, it actually gives equal weight to all of the Germanic languages, notably Old High German, Gothic, and Old Norse (Icelandic).

Each chapter begins with the parable, "The Sower and the Seed," in the language of the chapter. This text was chosen because it's actually found in the existing manuscripts - - the Bible tended to be translated into the vernacular early on, and disseminated widely - - and because this story has a goodly amount of grammatical action. "A sower went out to sow seeds" gives you three variations on the basic stem of , and you can see how that idea is reflected in each language.

Using the same text also makes for great pedagogy. After a few chapters, the student *sees* the differences immediately, and automatically starts thinking about the language at hand.

It would be easy to make a book like this a collection of reference grammars with a boring list of similarities and differences from one language to the next. Robinson avoids this, and writes in a lively and interesting style. I highly recommend this book if you're interested in the history of the Germanic languages.

This is a wonderful book, and I doubt if any serious reviewer will give it less than five stars. It is exceptionally well-written by an author who wears his immense learning lightly. Devoting a chapter to each of the known early Germanic languages -- e.g., Old Germanic, Gothic, Old Saxon, Old English, Old Frisian, etc. -- Robinson shows how the languages developed, how they shared common characteristics and developed new ones, and how they to some extent must have cross-fertilized one another. In the process, he shares some fascinating information, such as the development of "Futhark," the runic alphabet in which Old Norse was originally written, and makes a cautionary remark which explains that we may know a good deal less about early Germanic writings skills than we think we do: "It is easier to write a letter on a stick than on a stone." He also tackles some deep linguistic issues, such as the reasons why the idea of a language-tree may be misleading, and why the analogy of biological taxonomy to language typology can be problematical. When biological species diverge, they never re-converge. But tribes, armies, villagers, etc., my split up, rejoing, form new groups, etc., so their languages may diverge, reconverge, borrow, meld, and otherwise demonstrate a more complicated history than a "divergence from a common ancestor" model might suggest. For example, Robinson concludes there never was a "common language" which could be called "West Germanic."

Robinson also points out the limits of our knowledge -- so much of our reconstruction of these ancient languages depends upon translations of the Bible and other religious texts that we know very little about the idiomatic usage which surely characterized the "everyday" use of these tongues. We have to be grateful to Robinson for a book which is unlikely to be equaled, much less surpassed, anytime soon.

This book was my first introduction to Germanic linguistics. The book begins with a chapter entitled "The Germanic Language Family." Although the discussion is, for obvious reasons, framed in terms of the Germanic languages, this is incidentally the best and clearest exposition of the principles and techniques of historical linguistics that I have ever read.

The next chapter, "Germanic: A Grammatical Sketch", lists those features of phonology and grammar which characterize the Germanic languages, richly illustrated with examples, mostly from Gothic. That's because Gothic is considered to have preserved more archaic features than the other languages surveyed, and to best represent what proto-Germanic must have been like.

There follow chapters on each of the following languages: Gothic, Old Norse, Old Saxon, Old English, Old Frisian, Old Low Franconian, and Old High German. Each chapter begins with a short history of the tribe(s) which spoke that particular language, usually 4-5 pages worth.

Following this is a short listing of texts from which we derive our knowledge of the language. This obviously varies from language to language. In the case of Gothic and Old Saxon, the texts are few and are listed in their entirety. In the case of Old Norse, Old English, and Old High German, the number of texts which survived is too numerous to list them all, so the corpus is merely described by genre, with a few outstanding representative texts listed.

Next are two short readings in the language. These are limited by the scope of the texts that survive in the language in question. The first is usually the Parable of the Sower and the Seed from the New Testament, to allow for easy comparison between languages. The second is usually from a text unique to the language: for example, the second text in Old Norse is the story of Thor and Skrymir from the Edda; in Old High German, it's from the Muspilli; in Old Frisian, it's from a Frisian legal code.

Following the readings, there is a glossary of all words contained in the readings.

Next there is a short grammar of the language, which covers spelling and pronunciaton pretty thoroughly, and offers a less thorough treatment of grammar. The author clearly states that he did not intend to present a comprehensive grammar for each language. The intention is to give the reader the noteworthy characteristics of the language being considered, and especially to illuminate how it is similar to, and how it differs from, the other early Germanic languages.

The next section for each language covers some topic in Germanic linguistics; the author chooses a general topic which has special significance for that chapter's language. For example, for Old Saxon, he discusses Germanic alliterative poetry. This is particularly relevant to Old Saxon since our main representative text in that language is the Heliand, an alliterative epic retelling of the events in the life of Jesus.

Finally, there is a bibliography for each language, usually containing about 10-12 items, which directs those interested to further reading. The lists are relatively short, but I have found some real jewels there; McDonald-Stearns treatment of Crimean Gothic, for example.

The author concludes the work with a discussion of the grouping of the Germanic languages based on grammatical and phonological features, together with a chart listing some of these features and the early Germanic languages which exhibit them, for ease of comparison.

This is one of my most treasured books. I purchased it 10 years ago, and still keep it by my bedside. I've read it innumerable times from cover-to-cover, and also enjoy opening it at random.

Orrin Robinson has done what many suggested could never be done -- or done well at any rate: he has constructed a useful, solid introduction to the whole of early Germanic linguistics, hitting all the high points, with concision, without merely paying lip service to each language. It's a terrific starting point for comparative Germanic linguistics -- from which you can move on to more exhaustive works on the individual languages.

Robinson covers seven key Germanic languages here, each in its own chapter: Gothic, Old Norse, Old Saxon, Old English, Old Frisian, Old Low Franconian, and Old High German. In each chapter, he situates the language in its proper historical context, discusses its development from Primitive Germanic, explains its phonology (useful crib notes to refer back to when you need to remember how to pronounce Old Saxon or Gothic! :), talks about the key literary texts in the language, offers two or three reading samples in each language -- with glosses and cognates in the margin and a short glossary following, provides an overview of the grammar, and more. Each chapter also concludes with a Further Reading section, telling those interested in learning more where to turn next.

This is quite a lot to have accomplished in such a relatively short book (c.300 pp.). Robinson's writing is a model of clarity, and the book never plods or becomes too overwhelming or too dry. I've read this book more than once and I refer to it often, which is a compliment of another sort. Very highly recommended indeed!