English Classics Books

This is an excellent selection of Ozick's work . It includes what in my judgment is the finest piece of fiction that she has written the novella ,'Envy'. It also a number of her outstanding literary and historical reflections including some which touch upon her wise and insightful understanding of Jewish history.

Of course everyone will commend you to Puttermesser and Xanthippe-a novella of almost operatic drama and sadness. A Mercenary has charms because it so evokes the news in 2008 and Envy is a wicked little piece likely to have lasting appeal.
But I am urging you to buy this book for the sake of one story. It's called Virility. In it, Ozick puts aside her Judeopean, world-weary voice for the clean credulity and wholesome cynicism of a male waspy New Yorker who tells the secret story of one of America's most famous poets and some of the real truths behind the New York literary scene.
I read this back in the 70's and its sour little truth changed the way I thought about men and women in the way that no argument could have.

The other pieces are good too, but get yourself to Virility as soon as you can.

D. H. Lawrence: Self And Sexuality by James C. Cowan (Founder and Editor of "The D. H. Lawrence Review" and recipient of The D. H. Lawrence Society of North America Award for Distinguished Scholarship) is a thoughtful and thought-provoking psychologically oriented examination of assorted issues arising from the sexual topics found throughout the writings of D. H. Lawrence. Professor Cowan ranges from employing object relation theories of D. W. Winnicott, to traditional Freudian interpretations, to self-psycho-logical terms, and much, much more. An erudite and meticulously reasoned account, D. H. Lawrence: Self And Sexuality is an original and seminal contribution which is especially commended to students of the life and work of D. H. Lawrence.

This short book explains D. H. Lawrence's sexuality in concise, illuminating terms. The author spent many years studying Lawrence and psychoanalysis; now he uses the insights of therapists such as Heinz Kohut to penetrate the creative work of a gifted novelist. The book's ten chapters, all impressively organized, reflect Cowan's wisdom and humanity; in the chapter on Lawrence's search for masculine identity, for instance, he shows how vigorously Lawrence searched, consciously and unconsciously, for a way to unify his divided male consciousness. Highly recommended for readers curious about the way sex - in all its forms - permeates the affective life of a genius.

Critics have traditionally regarded D. H. Lawrence's self-proclaimed role as a "priest of love" as part of an oppressive, masculinist agenda. This book achieves something importantly different. By concentrating on the ways that Lawrence's understanding of Tantric Yoga and the Kabbalah, among other discourses of sacred erotics, inform the narrative voice and structure of his major novels, Charles Burack provides a new approach to Lawrence's hierophantic aspirations. Especially exciting is Burack's revelation of similarities between the work of leading feminist theorists and Lawrence's attribution to patriarchal hierarchy of the mechanistic, logocentric, and scopophilic mind-body split that fragments the modern consciousness.

D. H. Lawrence considered himself "a passionately religious man" and Charles Burack's study focuses on the emotive rhetoric of his novels that aims at "the religious initiation of the reader." Burack examines ways in which Lawrence's expressive style transforms the reader's consciousness and stimulates ontological awareness, demonstrating how the writer sets out to educate or initiate the reader by subverting conventional responses and engaging vital potentialities. This book reveals the intimate transactions between Lawrence's language, with its characteristic rhythms and image patterns, and an implied or attuned reader's sensibility. It is a valuable contribution to our understanding of Lawrence's creativity.

Much more interesting than I could have imagined. Written by the author of Robinson Crusoe. If I have my dates correct, Daniel Defoe was about 5 years old when the Great Plague hit London. He wrote this journal when he was 62 years old, and wrote what he recalled of the plague. It obviously left a great impression on him. (He wrote this journal 3 years after he wrote Robinson Crusoe -- again if I have all my dates correct -- he wrote Robinson Crusoe at age 59 years age.) Robinson Crusoe and Journal of the Plague Year are both on Harold Bloom's Western Canon reading list.

In this documentary novel, Defoe sketches poignantly the irrational behaviour of man under extreme circumstances, when death threatens behind every corner of the street.
People turned to fortune-tellers, astrologers or conjurers who deluded them. They became the victims of `doctors' selling `infallible preventive pills'. They `swarmed to a wicked generation of pretenders to magic and black art'.
People were terrified by the force of their imagination and saw representations and appearances in clouds. Their impudence increased by using devilish blasphemous language.
Others risked their lives by stealing and plundering without any regard to the danger of infection.
Man behaved as a mad dog.

The Government encouraged devotion, public prayers, fasting and humiliation to implore the mercy of God to avert the dreadful judgment. `Many a penitent confession was made of crimes long concealed.'
Innumerable religious sects and divisions fought for the souls of the condemned. It was `altar against altar'. The discourses of the religious ministers were full of terror, prophesying evil tidings.
Unfortunately, religion was not the solution: `the best physic against the plague was to run away from it.' People who believed in predestination (`tis the hand of God, there is no withstanding it') and stayed home, were infected too and died by thousands.
For Swift `there was no apparent extraordinary occasion for supernatural operation, it was really propagated by natural means.'

The near view of death reconciled men of good principles one to another.
But as the terror of infection abated, things all returned again to the course they were in before.
More, after the plague, `people, hardened by the danger they had been in, were more wicked and more stupid, more bold and hardened, in their vices and immoralities.'

In this impressive panorama, worth a Breughel or a Hieronymus Bosch, the only weakness is the lack of some kind of plot.

Not to be missed.

Daphne du Maurier was a favorite of the late great Alfred Hitchcock. Most famous, perhaps, for her psychologically intense novels (e.g., REBECCA), her short stories often rose even more to the level of true masterpiece. This book contains six of these, made ever more atmospheric by Michael Foreman's wonderfully unsettling watercolors. It's a perfect combination. Du Maurier's tales are a kind of literary level Twilight Zone. Included in this collection is the all-time classic "The Birds," though the others (every one) are equally as good. If you've never read the original story, "The Birds" offers an additional treat in that we're able to see both du Maurier's own gift of imagination AND Hitchcock's ability to adapt and change a story in creating a film. This book is a treat on both the verbal and non-verbal levels. And, since all great writing is (ironically) about creating an essentially non-verbal experience, this book is a success. Check it out!

I read this book as a teenager and loved the strange stories. I only rediscovered that I wanted to read it again is because of the Johnny Depp movie "Netherland" The "Sylvia", Peter Pan's mother in Netherland story is a close relative of Daphne Du Maurier's. Probably Sylvia's niece. I can't currently recommend since I read the book 25 years ago, but I still remember the stories. I'm buying it again.

This is a great place to start for anybody interested in the influence of alchemical symbolism on english literature. The alchemists (and especially those who produced alchemical texts) did all kinds of strange, obscure, difficult, puzzling, and therefore fascinating things with language. This fact was not lost on the many important literary figures who never got their hands dirty but found alchemy useful as a theme or symbol in their work, and as this book demonstrates they had many good reasons to take an interest. So will you. Alchemy has been too long neglected as a key element in the religious life of the renaissance and after, and the texts of literary authors dealing with alchemy are an important source for our understanding of this--which still has yet to be fully researched and explained. This book is an important first step, and hopefully will inspire many future studies.

Occultists and spiritual alchemists with an interest in literature and the history of alchemy will find much of value here, although it does not speak to the post-19th century occultist reading of alchemy as much as the renaissance and medieval tradition.

Linden is probably one of the few serious scholars to have taken into consideration the importance of the use of alchemical registers in various central works of late medieval and early modern English literature. Together with an impressive knowledge of the fundamental and less known works of sixteenth century English alchemy, Linden provides his readers with a fisheye view on the idiosyncratic uses authors like Chaucer, Donne, Herbert and others, have made of basic alchemic concepts. The text is important for those scholars and amateurs of the field who still think that alchemy occupies a central position in the "languages", in Pocock's words, spoken in Early Modern England. A work of admirable seriousness and impressive documentation.

Even if you speak French, this book is an indispensible source on the great, 20th. century poet Henri Michaux. One of the important things that David Ball establishes is the chronology of Michaux's publishings. Michaux often published a string of small books between major collections - the major books overlapping, partially containing and redacting the earlier books in a highly complex and confusing way. In some cases, the larger work even duplicates the title of a smaller work. Ball untangles this gnarly time-line once and for all.

This is the most extensive selection in English from all phases of Michaux's long poetic career. It includes excerpts from his prose works - the travel writings and the mescalin writings, although nothing was taken from A Barbarian in Asia and Miserable Miracle. There are some plates that provide a view of Michaux's often superb graphic art.

The translations stand up pretty well against Richard Ellman's in Selected Writings (also highly recommended); however, this is a much larger work. Ball is perhaps on the literal side as a translator, a respectable choice. Probably, the only way to translate a poet impeccably, is to have a team of accomplished poets working in direct collaboration with the living poet who also speaks the second language well. And, of course, that's not the case, here. As far as I know, among major 20th. century poets translated into English, only Jorge Luis Borges was tranlated in this arcadian manner. That said, there's nothing wrong with these translations, except that David Ball, though possessed of a good ear, is not himself a poet, or trying to use a translation of a poem as an occasion to write another poem. Again, this is a respectable choice. In a sense Michaux is easy to translate. His language, though highly individual, is clear and direct (except when he's creating his bombastic new words). It's this language and conscience (John Ashberry's critical insight) in service in service to a deep and powerful visionary faculty, that makes Michaux one of the truly great poets of the 20th. century.

This early 20th century psychonaut is the latest embodiment of the Poet Maudit, intuitively following the program set out by Baudelaire and brilliantly brought to fruition by Rimbaud and Lautreamont and added to substantially by the surrealists. It is, however, Michaux's connection to the author of Maldoror that draws me to him, and as in Ducassean texts, Michaux's writings reveal numinous monsters aplenty, strange landscapes, psychic flora and fauna that are noted, illuminated from all sides, catalogued in precise detail. A selection of the art is given as well. These are good to excellent translations, as noted in the previous review. The selection and chronology makes this book stand out over the New Directions standard that we've long depended on for our picture of Michaux.

William Farina covers all of Shakespeare's generally acknowledged plays (except The Two Noble Kinsmen), as well as his two major narrative poems and the Sonnets, in this extensively researched, consistently illuminating book. He draws innumerable connections between Edward de Vere and the source materials of Shakespeare's works, and shows the clear parallels between de Vere's life and the lives of Shakespeare's most autobiographical protagonists.

Although I've read most of the principal Oxfordian works, I still found myself learning something new on almost every page. The author has synthesized a vast amount of material in a brisk, readable form. Discussion of each play is more or less self-contained, allowing one to read the book selectively.

Naturally, even Oxfordian readers will take issue with some of Farina's interpretations. I disagree with his analysis of the Sonnets, for instance. To me, a more compelling theory is the one put forward in Hank Whittemore's recently published book, The Monument (which also has implications for Venus and Adonis). But this is a quibble.

Overall, De Vere as Shakespeare is an excellent resource, recommended for anyone interested in the authorship question.

I had the pleasure of meeting the author on September 18, 2006 at Davis Kidd in Memphis. Although I have not read the book yet, I know it will be intellectual treat.
I have been a Shakespeare lover for years but never really gave too much concern as to his true identity. Now that I have met the author and had a chance to hear what he thought of the whole matter, I will admit that it does deserve some looking into.
I know that there are people out there who could care less about Shakespeare's true identity (we have his work, isn't that enough?) Their point is valid but still the revealing of the Bard's true identity would give us more of an insight into the mind of a literary genius.

I was very satisfied to be hammered by nailbiting Koontz stuff...thrilled and excited to experince this new feature which I now regard as one of my best top 10 books - Thank you Mr Koontz

I was very satisfied to hammered by nailbiting Koontz stuff...thrilled and excited to experince this new feature which I now regard as one of my best top 10 books - Thank you Mr Koontz

Kessler's translations of these French stories are an invaluable treasure to the English speaking community. Many of these stories have never been translated or were out of print for many, many years. Kessler gives them new life in this collection that will appease both francophiles and lovers of spooky stories.

I was lucky enough to read this book in a class on 19th Century French Lit. taught by Joan Kessler herself. I have never forgotten these stories or the depth of psychological exploration each presents. This amazing book brings the genre of 19th French Macabre to non-French readers for the first time. Each story is truly classic, all at once an original and the obvious predecessor of horror and psychological thrillers as we know them today. Fans of Poe will love this book, and fans of King will be delighted by these twisted tales, though they may need to keep a dictionary handy.

Ms. Kessler's notes are the perfect guide through each work. She places each story in it's own history, giving ample insight into the mindset of the authors and their audiences.

From beginning to end this book will keep your heart pumping. It is the perfect read for those who have a hard time finding great work. It will keep you up at night, if not out of interest, then out of terror.