English Classics Books

This book is a five star must have book for runners. I have purchased the book for at least four other people (runners) to read. Good variety of stories with some poems too.
Andrew Gideon, Thompson Falls, MT

I thought this book had a great collection of running stories that just inspired me to just run and help me in my races to keep going. I enjoyed reading this book eminsly and it has something for all ages and all types of runners. I recommend that any runner get this book, especially if you're looking for inspiration

This book should be in the hands of every runner. The short stories are amazing. The different portrayals of running can appeal to anyone, from beginner to advanced. Some of the stories will bring you to your race days and get your adrenaline running as if you are runninf the race. I can only read them one at a time because I get to pumped up and have to relax.

The poems are very eclectic. They capture the crazy thoughts that go through your mind while you are running. They also are beautiful descriptions of a very basic act. I loved them all. Every once in a while I read one before i go run. They make you think, and isn't that what happens on a run. These poems give you good mind fuel.

A Scrap of Time is a collection of short stories that masterfully presents the Holocaust experience from the perspective of survivors, witnesses, and victims in the villages of occupied Poland. Acts of personal courage, the day to day decisions that meant life or death, personal attempts to carry on with dignity, are all expressed here in powerful language and moving tales that evoke the Holocaust as it is not often told: as an experience that was as personal as each person who lived it. I have read and re-read this book several times. Each time, the stories seem to resound with their original power. Ida Fink, a Polish survivor of the Holocaust, is a master storyteller. With the very first sentence, she has the ability to create scenes of astonishing clarity and suspense. You simply cannot put the book down until you finish the story. With simple, lyrical language, she creates scenes of tremendous emotional impact. I don't believe I will ever look at the Holocaust in quite the same way. No television documentary could ever do justice to the Holocaust experience as these unforgettable stories of the personal lives of human beings in the most impossible of situations.

Ida Fink uses vivid langauge and impectable details to bring faces to the Holcaust. She tells haunting stories about Jewish life in Poland before and after World War II. Fink's stories are beutifully told and evoke every emotion; from fear to joy, hatred to pity. The book tells about individuals and gives faces and lives to the often impresonal Holocaust.

Though the concentration camps are never mentioned, these 23 short stories are a haunting collection about life in Poland at the time of the Holocaust. The theme of the anthology is on the excruciating agony of life in a broken world. These are stories of resistance, submission, betrayal, hope, regret and remembering.

Each story is the nightmare of an otherwise quiet ordinary people, previously living a secure and ordered existence. What is most striking is the uniqueness of the tone and style in each short story; and that none of the stories talk of the camps, only the horror before and after.

Perhaps, the author's own words (see below) taken from the first, title story captures why this collection is ultimately crucial to an impression, an understanding of those times. [Recommended for Young Adults/Adults]

[quote]
I want to talk about a certain time not measured in months and years. For so long I have wanted to talk about this time, and not in the way I will talk about it now, not just about this one scrap of time. I wanted to, but I couldn't, I didn't know how. I was afraid, too, that this second time, which is measured in months and years, had buried the other time under a layer of years, that this second time had crushed the first and destroyed it within me. But no. Today, digging around in the ruins of memory, I found it fresh and untouched from forgetfulness. This time was measured not in months but in a word--we no longer said "in the beautiful month of May," but "after the first "action," or the second, or right before the third." We had different measures of time, we different ones, always different, always with that mark of difference that moved some of us to pride and others to humility. We, who because of our difference were condemned once again, as we had been before in our history, we were condemned once again during this time measured not in months nor by the rising and setting of the sun, but by a word--"action," a word signifying movement, a word you would use about a novel or a play.
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Two authors of the 20th century whose letters go beyond fascination are James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway. This volume is an excellent example of just how committed Hemingway was not only to writing, but to getting as close to the action of his writing. Once the reader emerses themselves into his letters, one sees the true Hemingway, not the mythological one created by critics (mostly those who were not fans of the writer).

It is almost unimaginable that someone in his time or any other could be so well connected and intimate with other artist: Joyce, Pound, McLeish, Fitzgerald, Picaso, and so on. If you're a writer this collection is wonderful. It shows the day to day dealings with drafting, editing, publishing, and the intimate relationships between writer and publisher, though this relationship is almost non-existent today.

I found Hemingway through his letters to be someone who is passionate about life and equally compassionate about friends. He tells it the way it is, not the way politically correct messengers do. It is an education in itself to read this collection.

This collection of letters serves as the closest thing to a Hemingway autobiography we have. It is certainly must reading for the student or researcher, and I would highly recommend it for even the casual Hemingway fan.

Hemingway often wrote letters to either warm up for a day of writing or cool off afterward, and in these letters you see him at his unguarded, intellectual, humorous best. The style of his letter writing is often much freer than the tightly crafted prose style of his fiction...it's almost like watching a classical musician break into some improvisational jazz.

A great book to just dip into wherever you want, and this new edition is long overdue.

I miss old fashioned letters, now that we live in the age of email. Frotunately, I still have 'real' letters saved that have now collected dust from my parent's generation, and from a time gone by.

Occasionally I stumble over published letters of famous writers in antique bookstores: Last time, it was a 800 page volume of some of Ernest Hemingway's personal letters; the first edition of this Amazon edition. They were published posthumeously, and not intended by EH for publication.
We get a peek behind the curtain, and learn among other things that Ernest Hemingway was addicted to letters, wrote lots and lots, starting in his teens; and that he was really depressed when he didn't receive replies; or when there were days when the postman brought no letters. Waiting for transatlantic mail added to his sense of loneliness. Letters were a lifelong passion of his, continuing up to the day when he took his own life. These private letters weren't meant to be published, and they are raw, but very honest.
When you read them, you are in no doubt that the writer is a true artist, and an original!
They stretch over the span of his productive life, and they are varied: addressed to family (his parents, his children), his ex, to friends, including famous contemporaries, such as Marlene Dietrich (just one of them), his agent(s), his publishers, and many more.

I have a hunch EH must have been hard to keep up with, but his letters are fun to read; even though, in my view, his novels are mixed: Some great, and some I don't care for.

Guess, EH's life was bizare too. The private letters are consistent with that. And yet, they exude a special warmth; both gentelness and passion.
Reviewed by Palle Jorgensen. December 2004.

Despite the increasing place Hardy's poetry has in the canon of English Literature it seems to me that he falls short of the very first rank. While he has a clanking originality of his own his poetry always seems to me lacking in a deeper soul music and sympathy. Consider one of his most well- known poems, 'Hap'
HAP

If but some vengeful god would call to me
From up the sky, and laugh:"Thou suffering thing,
Know that thy sorrow is my ecstasy,
That thy love's loss is my hate's profiting!"
Then wouldI bear it , clench myself, and die,
Steeled by the sense of ire unmerited;
Half-eased in that a Powerfuller than I
Had willed and meted me the tears I shed.

But not so.How arrives it joy lies slain,
And why unblooms the best hope ever sown?
-Crass Casualty obstructs the sun and rain,
And dicing Time for gladness casts a moan...
These purblind Doomsters had as readily strown
Blisses about my pilgrimage as pain.

This poem centers on a basic Hardy theme, the cruelty of chance and accident which rule the world. Or to say this another way the lack of a traditional caring God who makes order and sense of the world.
While it is true that I am not especially enamored of this idea as basis for one's ultimate world- view my objection to the poem comes for other reasons. I do not think that this kind of abstract explaining is very effective as poetry.I again do not feel its music or deep soulfulness.
Again I may be completely wrong about this.

After the Library of America edition of Robert Frost's poetry, this might be the best collection of poetry there is. Not only is Hardy one of the best poets ever (easily top five in the English language), but Mezey does a great job at putting together this collection. He selects the best of Hardy's poetry and a highly representative selection as well. His introduction is very well written and highly informative. It's like taking a quick class on Hardy. The poems are very much annotated, almost too much, but the notes are at the back of the book, so they are unobtrusive. There is a chronology and Mezey includes a few quotes, some of them quite witty, from Hardy. And all for an affordable price. You really can't beat this, and Hardy is one of those poets that should be on everyone's shelf.

A quick list of my favorite Hardy poems: Hap; Neutral Tones; At a Hasty Wedding; The Last Chrysanthemum; The Darkling Thrush; Mad Judy; The Ruined Maid; The Man He Killed; Channel Firing; Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave?; Without Ceremony; The Haunter; The Voice; His Visitor; She Charged Me; At Tea; Over the Coffin; In the Moonlight; Near Lanivet, 1872; Something Tapped; The Ballet; A Backward Spring; At a Country Fair; A Night in November.

If you are looking for a collection of Hardy's poetry, look no farther than this collection. The Penguin editors have done an incredible job of organizing the dense, complex body of Hardy's work into a very readable collection. This is more than just a simple "Hardy's greatest hits." Yes, there are the standard favorites here, but there is also an impressive collection of the writer's more obscure work. Reading the entire contents of this book is the best way to see the breadth of Hardy's existential and metaphysical angst.

The editor of this edition Keith Sagar has selected for it what he says are Lawrence's truly good poems which he reckons as one- hundred fifty of the roughly one- thousand Lawrence wrote. Sagar maintains that Lawrence's special quality as a poet is his emotional realism. And it seems to me undoubtedly true that Lawrence is powerful in his expression of his feeling. But then the question which might be asked is why the lines of Lawrence do not somehow sing in our memory , remain with us as for instance the lines of Keats, Hopkins, Yeats, Wallace Stevens do?
Why is it despite Sagar's objection that the consensus is probably right in seeing Lawrence as primarily a novelist, and only secondarily as a poet?

Here is a fine small poem of Lawrence from this book.

DESIRE IS DEAD
Desire may be dead
and still a man can be
a meeting place for sun and rain
wonder outwaiting pain
as in a wintry tree.

And one more small example.
WHATEVER MAN MAKES
Whatever man makes and makes it live
lives because of the life put into it
A yard of India muslim is alive with Hindu life
Anda Navajo woman, weaving her rug in the pattern of her dream
must run the pattern out in a little break at the end
so that her soul can come out, back to her.

But in the odd pattern, like snake- marks ont he sand it leaves its trail.

Am I wrong to think to think these poems are too prosaic to be the greatest poetry ?

Sagar states in the introduction of this selection of D.H. Lawrence's poetry, "We have come to think of his poetry as something of a by-product of, or relaxation from, other more strenuous and important work". There is no doubt it was to an extent, however, what is clear is that he took it just as seriously as his other artistic pursuits. Casual readers of Lawrence may be surprised to learn that he wrote around 1000 poems in his 45-years. His poetry runs in near-parallel themes to his novels - for example, "Sons and Lovers" character Miriam was inspired by the muse of "Love Poems", Lawrence's' then sweetheart Jessie Chambers. "Sons and Lovers" focused upon the cruelty of love - platonic, romantic, and parental. Lawrence's poems from his "Love Poems" collection, "Cruelty and Love" and "Snap-Dragon" capture the same theme, albeit far more personally.

In this collection we see Lawrence's poetic skills evolve - from young rebel to world-weary mystic. It's his ability to capture emotion so clearly and concisely which is Lawrence's greatest skill. What also shines through in his poetry is a sense of playfulness - take "The Mosquito" as a case example:

"It is your trump,
It is your hateful little trump,
You pointed fiend,
Which shakes my sudden blood to hatred of you:
It is your small, high, hateful bugle in my ear."

The poem is altogether hilarious, depicting Lawrence as a hunter of the tiny yet vicious bug, who evades his every attempt to squash it until he finally, after much effort, succeeds. Much more than this, however, it demonstrates Lawrence's uncanny ability to capture the essence of nature and its creatures, best evidenced in "Snake".

Lawrence's poems are all full of energy and spirit, technically adept, and yet not limited by form. Admittedly some of his work is too personal, leaving the reader alienated, but his successful poetry (mostly presented in this collection) transcends time and culture.

Lawrence wrote nearly 1,000 poems during a short lifetime in which he was also astonishingly prolific in other spheres--fiction, travel writing, essays, criticism, letters and plays. Lawrence was not simply a novelist who dabbled in other forms. His characteristic vision informed everything he wrote, especially his poetry. At three important phases of his life it became the primary channel of his experience and creative energy--the first year of his relationship with Frieda, the two years in Sicily, and the last year of his life. Bringing together the best of his poetry, this volume demonstrates that 'Lawrence is a great poet in every sense including the technical ... The form is the perfect incarnation of the content, the perfect vehicle for the liveliness of thought and feeling, the freshness, and depth of perception, the wit and wisdom he has to offer.' Superb. Without hesitation or reservation, five stars.

Selected Stories of H. G. Wells (Modern Library Classics)

Widely regarded as a founder of science fiction, H.G. Wells predicted, among other things, nuclear and biological warfare ("The War of the World" and "The Island of Dr. Moreau." His longer works are well known, but his short stories deserve critical acclaim as well. In "The Land Ironclads," Wells also accurately predicted the use of tanks in battle, although they did not appear until years later. His description of the gunsights and navigational systems are incredibly accurate... his gunners use a sort of "heads-up display" and a kind of laser sighting. "The sighting was ingeniously contrived. The rifleman stood at the table with a thing like an elaboration of a draughtsman's dividers in his hand, and he opened and closed those dividers, so that they were always at the apparent height --- of it was an ordinary sized man... of the man he wanted to kill."
"Changes in the clearness of the atmosphere, due to changes of moisture, were met by an ingenious use of the meteorologically sensitive substance, catgut and when the land ironclad moved forward the sights got a compensatory deflection in the direction of its motion." His prediction of technology using thermal imaging, laser sighting and gyro-controlled stabilization is amazing.
But it isn't technological innovation, but social analysis that makes his short stories worth reading. Technology is a double-edged sword: it improves man's ability to deal with the environment but diminishes his quality of life.

I recently read all the stories in this book over a period of a week. They are arranged in a nice, thematic way, so that similar stories are grouped together. I was amazed at the breadth of the subject matter of the stories, having previously restricted myself to Wells' speculative short stories such as "The Land Ironclads". But "The Valley of Spiders" is a spooky story of what apparently are cowboys on a chase, and the first story in the book, "A Slip Under the Microscope", is a realistic story of college students, that shows how little has changed in over 100 years. In fact, if one thing struck me about all the stories it is how modern they all are; there were no anachronisms that spoiled any story, though of course you have to put yourself back before airplanes and tanks were invented in "The Argonauts of the Air" and "The Land Ironclads". Rather than reviewing all the stories individually, I will just say that anyone who enjoys imaginative short stories will surely find much to like here.

This is one of the most exciting volumes of Wells' work I've ever come across, not only for the works themselves, but for Le Guin's brilliant introduction, commentary, and overall selection. She truly acts as a guide throughout the volume, and I can think of no greater heir to Wells' vision than the brilliant author of The Dispossessed, Left Hand of Darkness, Lathe of Heaven, etc. Unlike other editors/critics, she is uninterested in matters of political correctness, and instead urges us to read the historical and the universal Wells--in other words, the Wells that revolutionized the science fiction story, and the one who continues to be relevant through his vision and insight.

The stories here are brilliantly written--science fiction could never be written like this today. Wells was a master of style (and as Le Guin points out, of description), and without his voice in the stories, even the most fantastic ideas might seem second rate. Yet all of his stories marry style with vision; Wells understood the dangers of technology and progress as well as its achievements. In a story like "The New Accelerator," we see the moral dilemma of marketing a formula that could create an entirely new class of criminals (and indeed, even the protagonists act a bit criminal and childish under the influence of their accelerator). There are many stories like this, that chart the great promise of science twisted for immediate, selfish ends, and how powerless mankind is to stop it.

Even more exciting are the stories that take us entirely to new dimensions of thought, such as "The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes," where a man exists in two worlds--his physical body in London, while his eyes and perception on a remote Pacific island. The way Wells describes the man's dilemma is both amazing and terrifying in its realism. The same is true for the surreal "Under the Knife," where a patient undergoes a near-death experience and floats through the cosmos to oblivion. Again, the style conjures up a sense of tactile experience and lived terror that is hard to shake off.

We also find stories that hint at the masterpieces to come, such as "The Crystal Egg," which has resonances of The War of the Worlds, as does the frightening "The Star," which ends with a paragraph very similar to the opening of WOTW. And a story like "The Stolen Body" dabble in familiar Stevensonian doppleganger territory, but is in no way derivative. In short, this is a fascinating volume showing Wells' true range not only as a science fiction writer, but as a true literary stylist who exerted a profound influence on an entire century of writers. If you enjoy Wells or works of true fantasy and scientific speculation, this volume should find its way to the top of your wish list.

When Valery was writing, the Symbolist movement had already died down, but he was nonetheless accurate in defining, describing, and practicing it. The essays contained in this edition are exquisite. The prose is probably the closest thing to Pater you'll find in French--despite Symons' declaration that the brothers Goncourt were the French Paterians, I found more of that in Valery than in the Goncourts. The poetry is also interesting, although to a lesser extent.

This volume consists in selections of Paul Valery's writings. Valery was a thinker and poet whose own intellectual path was a unique one. He began by writing poetry but then in his early twenties decided to abandon poetry completely in order to devote himself to the study of his own mind, the study of his own creative process. And so he began that lifework of every morning sitting down and writing down his observations, his thoughts about his creative process. Early on he had the hope that this will lead him to something like a mathematically complete system of understanding of the mind. Later on, his ambitions became more modest.
After twenty years of poetic silence he at the urging of others resumed writing poetry and wrote among other things 'La Jeune Parque' which is in this volume. This work made him famous , something he regarded as a very mixed blessing. But the fame enabled him to find new ways of making a living when his work for the Defense Department of France, terminated.
This present volume contains 'Le Cimitiere Marin' 'Le Jeune Parque' excerpts from 'Monsieur Teste ' and the drama 'Mon Faust'.
In the essays one feels Valery's unique and great aphoristic powers, powers which are felt even more strongly in his Notebooks.
Valery is a concise, precise, thought- provoking writer. He is an intellectual figure of great integrity and singular determination.
He is also inspiring. Reading these words of his many years ago I too felt myself' thinking in aphorisms'.
I conclude here with a section from Joseph Epstein's outstanding review of the English translated edition (in five volumes) of Valery's 'Notebooks'.

"Rilke once remarked that what drew him to Paul Valéry's writing was the "finality" and "composure" of its language. His lucidity on complex subjects is what excites; his ability to capture the essence of the questions, issues, and problems that the rest of us find puzzling if not impenetrable is what amazes-and that he was able to do so with an almost assembly-line regularity is itself astonishing. "

What gives Valéry's prose its gravity, lucidity, and chasteness is what he excludes from it. He disliked irony, except in conversation, and felt that it chiefly gave a writer an air of superiority, adding that "every ironist has in mind a pretentious reader, mirror of himself." He also had a distaste for eloquence, "because eloquence has the form of a mixture, adapted to a crowd. It has not the form of thought." He cared more for precision than profundity, and precision was only accessible through the utmost clarity: "the kind that does not come from the use of words like `death,' `God,' `life,' or `love'-but dispenses with such trombones." No trombones, no trumpets, no brass section in Valéry's prose; a solo cello, deep strings played under perfect control and superior acoustical conditions, is all we ever hear."

I'm very glad I discovered Paul Valery. He is a source
of enlightened wisdom equal to any Zen master. While
I suspect that some of the translations (the book contains
multiple translators of multiple items) may be a bit ponderous,
if you have patience you will find incredible wisdom in this
GREAT BOOK. Valery wrote from the point of view of the absolute
center of consciousness...tempered by the experience of mortality.

This is an exellent book and I believe it is a must-read for any serious readers of Walden--or, perhaps, any serious readers of Cavell. I think it will have particular interest for people who are interested in writing, literature and/or American cultural heritage.
That said, I wouldn't recommend it to someone who's not willing to embark on a book that requires dedication and multiple readings (then again, I wouldn't recommend either Walden or Cavell to any reader that is not very, very serious).

More than a discrete work of literary criticism, this work plays an important part in Cavell's ongoing philosophical project. If Cavell's earlier work had Wittgenstein and Austin as involving a modernist break with the dominant Anglo-American philosophical tradition of positivism, then this work exemplified how analytical philosophy might continue. Cavell finds in the word conscious text of 'Walden' a linguistic economy complimentary to the idea of a logic or necessity to ordinary language. The American Transcendentalists are recast as philosophers who anticipate the turn away from metaphysics to the ordinary and everyday to be found in Wittgenstein. At the same time, as newly recovered American philosophers, they rehearse an encounter between English (empiricist) and German (idealist) philosophy before the split between these strands became institutionalized. 'The Senses of Walden,' then, is a key philosophical text by Cavell as much as a work of literary criticism on Thoreau. It is the text of a philosopher unable to completely give up an analytical training, but equally unwilling to ignore the broader cultural issues that such training obscures. Paul Jenner, University of Nottingham.

This is Professor Cavell's loving reading of Thoreau's "Walden." I was struck by his accounting of Thoreau's daily means. There is even the general ledger that Thoreau made of his financial bearings. To live so simply in a gentle world is a scholar's dream.

This is an outstanding book/monograph on that famously puzzling play of Shakespeare. Best of all is that this introduction to Hamlet includes--however briefly--astute comparisons between dialogue in William Shakespeare's Hamlet and in Samuel Beckett's work in general. That is bound to encourage the student or general reader to make some comparative investigations of his own. And that isn't the only time Cantor makes such an intriguing, sound observation. Shakespeare has a good steward here.

This is the best boook on Hamlet available. No brief post can do it justice. If you are a student of Hamlet, get this book.

This is a great introduction to the play within a Reniassance context. The author does an admirable job in reconstructing the historical and literary contexts surrounding Hamlet. For example, the conflict which the play embodies between classical ideals of heroism and Christian skepticism is well-developed. Overall, this is the best place to begin any study of Hamlet, and it may be all you'll need. The language is clear and concise, in contrast to the pompous jargon-laden prose of so many "post-modern'" critics. Well-written, well-argued, well-informed: one of the best works available on this quintessential Renaissance play.

The Chronicles of Narnia has little veiling of its Christian roots- and author Gene Veith claims that the sequel 'Prince Caspian' has parallels to our world as well. "The Soul of Prince Caspian: Exploring Spiritual Truth in the Land of Narnia" is a look at the spiritual and religious elements found in Narnia and how they reflect into the real world, focusing on the forgotten faith that seems to go with so many lapsed American Christians. "The Soul of Prince Caspian: Exploring Spiritual Truth in the Land of Narnia" is a deftly written and through examination of faith, and highly recommended to community library Christianity collections and for fans of the franchise as well.

Dr. Veith's analysis of both the theology of CS Lewis and his application to Prince Caspian is phenomenal. text features study questions, suitable for Bible study. Caspian is treated in our setting especially in light of post-modernity. Despite the simple allegory of Lewis, this text draws out additional insights I had overlooked. Well recommended!

Veith is certainly culture and Christianity, so this is perfect fit for him and us, the readers. Here he provides his articulate analysis of Lewis' second book in Narnia, which we know by his writing that it is about the restoration of true religion after corruption.

Veith brings his reading and knowledge of literature, mythology, philosophy, and theology among others to bear upon the fantasy symbolism in this wrongful overthrow of Old Narnia by the Telemarines and Miraz. The summons of the Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy is the focal point of this adventure, and Veith shows in his careful probing of the theological and cultural underpinnings of this Narnian tale what application it might have for today's postmodern world and Christianity's engagement with it.

What this reviewer found so useful here is the careful development of the defamiliarization and regress of a culture that lost its spiritual and moral moorings. This is supplemented by questions for study and discussion at the end of each chapter.

A must have for those who want to go deeper into this Narnia offering by a trustworthy guide.