Robert Duncan Books

This was the first book I read by Antonin Artaud.
I was really moved by this man and he helped me
realize that one could an outsider yet still
remain in centricity of culture. I don't know
alot of it went over my head I guess but the
man is extremely interesting and offers neat
challenges to his time and to the reader.

I love Nerval's voice and his lush dreamy nostalgia. Many of these pieces are like looking at a Rococo painting and there's many of the classic Romantic themes, love of nature, nostalgia for a lost idyllic past and lost youth. I love literary surrealism so Aurelia was right up my alley but it has a more spiritual vibe which seems lacking in more modern surrealist works. After reading Nerval I can see why the surrealists considered themselves the prehensile tail of Romanticism.

simultaneously one of the saddest and most hopeful books i have ever read, this is an account of gerard de nerval's descent into insanity and his frantic search for something beyond what the positivists offer, a "spirit world". nerval obsesses over an actress who barely knew he existed, idealizing her to a seriously nutty point--but during all this he visits funerals, graveyards other places, apparently believing he is in touch with something metaphysical. i read this book awhile ago but i do remember his reference to his rejection by the woman, aurelia:"one's only option after these kinds of events is whether to die or go on living." touching, mystical, and sad.

Because this book shows what a real romantic means beyond the common meaning of "being in love". Because De Narval is a Romantic, he behaves trying to be the center of everything, no matter the price or the pride. He loves as a tool to make women move around him. His dreams are an extension of his life, so he can live any dream as real because the memorie of the real is the same as the memorie of the dream.

that's the best way to put it: like condensed Proust. De Nerval's stories of place, love, and memory have found a permanent place in my heart. As other reviewers have noted, these stories seem the very definition of romanticism-- an unexpected quality in a writer often remembered most for his madness, eccentricity, and ultimately, suicide.

this edition by Exact Change Press is also worth remarking upon: the paper feels great, the design is perfect... hmm, running out of synonyms for "good."

all in all, a great volume by a lesser-known master.

This book has helped me with multiple projects throughout the years. While some of the projects are not things I generally build, the collection of pieces throughout this book provide the fundamentals required to design and create almost anything. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to learn or simply needs ideas ... one of the best books I ever bought.

I first read this book as a beginner and now five years later I still refer to it and get ideas for more intricate projects. Very well edited so any one can read it. Because it has so many differant writers you get a lot of differant ideas

If you are looking for a book on fine furniture type cabinetry which will never be within the ability of the average homeowner, then get this book--it would look great resting on a coffee table. However, if you are looking for practical nuts-and-bolts information about construction of cabinets then buy Danny Proulx's book: "Build Your Own Kitchen Cabinets".

I think the book is great for beginers as well as advanced woodworkers. I am a woods/cabinetry teacher. I have 25 of these books that I use as text books in my advanced woods classes. This is the second school I have used this book in. I have made a work book that covers the first half of the book asking the students to find many of the tips and techniques given in the book. The kids like the book more than an ordinary textbook because it gives information to them that they can use right now. Many of my students make these projects or we modify them to meet the needs of the students. I think it is a great book.

This book has helped me with multiple projects throughout the years. While some of the projects are not things I generally build, the collection of pieces throughout this book provide the fundamentals required to design and create almost anything. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to learn or simply needs ideas ... one of the best books I ever bought.

The book talk in interesting way about the role of the game theory in the actual economy. The arguments are formally very good. The student can make easy the proofs and the applications are clear. I am interesting particullary about cooperative games and I'm sorry that it here lack the relation with the projective geometry.

You need calculus to appreciate this one.

But it is still very good. Like a dinner made by a top chef with the finest possible materials, it still may not be to your personal taste, no matter how well made it is. "Games and Decisions" is of limited utility for non-mathematicians, especially the attorneys and liberal arts majors that make decisions for nations.

The maths are mostly over my head, and I was only really able to follow one out of four pages (on the average) of the book. Nevertheless, from what I could appreciate, I learned a lot about the nature of utility, reiterative games, non-zero sum games, conditions of certainty and uncertainty, etc, as well as a lot of 'special case' games in the appendices.

I can see that this is the work of masters, but it is not something I can fully appreciate.

E. M. Van Court

This overview of game theory and decisions is a great into the problems and ideas behind game theory. I expect that this book will be most appreciated by non-math Ph.D.'s or grad students. For a math person, Von Neumann and Morgenstern's classic title is perhaps a better place to start. This book is one of those that can be read on a range of levels. I work in a trading and risk management environment and I find this book very useful.

in his course in Game Theory (M711!) at MIT in the late 1950's.
I took that course; while Nash was unquestionably brilliant, he was getting to be pretty hard to follow at that point. The lecture hall was always jammed to overflowing, because even on a bad day Nash was really something! Nevertheless, the book was subsequently very useful, with lots of ideas about game-theoretic approaches to real-world problems.

Nash didn't think too highly of this book (too much non-mathematical stuff), but thought it the best available at the time not written by his arch-enemy, Von Neumann!

I had this book for a number of years before I could appreciate its use. The reading in the main text can be very low yield at times, as he is often simply musing, explaining the implications of certain ideas without much mathematical analysis. This is basically a very long primer on game theory, which ends up often explaining what is intuitively obvious based on his previous expositions.

So why 5 stars? For starters the book is quite comprehensive, but where I found this book really shines is the appendices, which comprise roughly a fourth of the book and are really interesting. They address topics in high yield fashion simply getting to the mathematical methods: A probabilistic theory of utility, The minimax theorem, Geometrical Interpretation of Games, Linear Programming and Games, Methods for solving Games, Recursive Games, and Games of Survival.

A mathematician may not find anything in this book that is new to him other than an explanation of what game theory is and a vocabulary for reading and writing about game theory, but a non-mathematician (like me) will likely find some very interesting topics presented in the appendices.

Every Civil War buff (and many others, too, thanks to the movie "Glory") knows the story of the 54th Massachusetts, the black regiment commanded by the boy-colonel Robert Gould Shaw which attacked the Confederate Fort Wagner in July 1863.

The story of the 54th is memorable for many reasons. The most obvious one--and the one usually focused on--is that Shaw and the 54th displayed extraordinary courage in the assault on Fort Wagner. Another less emotional reason is that the 54th proved to the nation that men of color could and would fight for the end of slavery. This was the shattering of an important color barrier and an important stage in the evolution of the conflict. By war's end, an incredible 74% of free Northern blacks of military age would enlist (p. 50).

But a deeper, more significant reason why the history of the 54th is important--and one, moreover, that's usually missed--is that it invites reflection about the standards by which our culture, then and now, measures "manhood." W.E.B. Du Bois (quoted on p. 123) put it well: "How extraordinary...in the minds of most people...only murder makes men. The slave pleaded; he was humble; he protected the women of the South, and the world ignored him. The slave killed white men; and behold, he was a man." Prior to proving themselves in battle, both the North and the South looked at men of color as bumbling and cowardly half-wits. Except for the minority Abolitionists, most whites considered blacks subhuman, and there seemed little or nothing blacks could do to break through that conviction. But he moment they proved themselves skilled at killing other human beings, they were accepted (even if reluctantly) as "men."

Duncan's Where Death and Glory Meet is a fascinating chapter in the history of how our culture determines manhood. Although a rather detached supporter of abolition, Shaw was skeptical about the fighting abilities of freedmen, and initially declined the command of the 54th. When he did accept, he was painfully aware that the eyes of the nation were on his regiment, and his training of them was relentless. But the 54th measured up by proving itself in battle.

Moreover, Shaw is also representative of the cultural measure of manhood. In his private letters, he expresses great ambivalence about commanding the 54th and almost panicky fear about assaulting Fort Wagner--a task that he (correctly, as it turned out) thought rather hopeless. Just as th But Shaw, fully aware of what was expected of a "man," overcame both doubts and anxiety in order to perform his duty. Just as the ability to kill men made his black soldiers "men," so Shaw's willingness to die in battle also demonstrated his own "manhood," his final maturation from a boy-colonel to a seasoned warrior.

What fascinating under-currents run through the Civil War. Too bad they're so often bypassed in favor of the surface stories of guns and glory. For more on our cultural conflation of manhood with battlefield courage, Margaret Creighton's magisterial The Colors of Courage is highly recommended.

HONOR THE MEMORY OF COLONEL ROBERT GOULD SHAW AND THE FIGHTING MASSACHUSETTS 54TH BLACK REGIMENT IN THE CIVIL WAR

COMMENTARY

FEBRUARY IS BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Those familiar with the critical role that the recruitment of black troops into the Union Armies in the American Civil War usually know about the famous Massachusetts 54th Regiment under Colonel Robert Gould Shaw which has received wide attention in book, film and sculpture. Those heroic black fighters and their fallen leader deserve those honors. Glory, indeed.

Although Shaw was hesitate to take command of those troops after suffering wounds at Antietam when he accepted he took full charge of the training and discipline of the regiment. Moreover, as the regiment marched into Boston to cheering crowds before embarking on ships to take them South each trooper knew the score. Any blacks captured (or their white officers, for that matter) were subject to Southern `justice', summary execution. Not one trooper flinched. Arms in hands, they fought bravely at the defeat of Fort Wagner and other Deep South battles, taking many causalities.

I have remarked elsewhere (in a review of William Styron's Confessions of Nat Turner)
that while the slaves in the South, for a host of reasons, did not insurrect with the intensity or frequency of say Haiti, the other West Indian islands or Brazil that when the time came to show discipline, courage and honor under arms that blacks would prove not inferior to whites. And the history of the Massachusetts 54th is prima facie evidence for that position.

I should also note that the Massachusetts 54th was made up primarily of better educated and skilled freedman and escaped slaves unlike the black troops recruited from the plantations in the Deep South in the 1st and 2nd South Carolina black regiments. Thus, one might have suspected that they would not be up to the rigors of Southern duty. Not so. After reading a number of books on the trials and tribulations of various Union regiments, including the famous Irish Brigade, the story of the 54th compares very favorably with those units.

However, so as not to get carried away with the `liberalism' of the Union political and military commands in granting permission for black recruitment it is necessary to point out some of the retrograde racial attitudes of the time. It took a major propaganda thrust by Frederick Douglass and other revolutionary abolitionists to get Lincoln to even consider arming blacks for their own emancipation. Only after several severe military reversals was permission granted to recruit black troops, although some maverick generals were already using them, particularly General Hunter. As mentioned above there were qualms about the ability of blacks to fight in disciplined units. Moreover, until 1864 black troops were paid less than their white counterparts. The Massachusetts 54th is also rightly famous for refusing pay until that disparity was corrected.

One should also not forget that the North in its own way was as deeply racist as the South (think of the treacherous role of the Southern-sympathying Northern Copperheads and the Irish-led anti-black Draft Riots in New York City, for examples). This reflected itself in the racial attitudes of some commanding officers and enlisted men and well as the general paternalism of even the best white commanding officers, including Colonel Higginson of the 2nd South Carolina. It was further reflected in the disproportionately few blacks that became officers in the Civil War, despite the crying need for officers in those black regiments and elsewhere. Yet, all of these negatives notwithstanding, every modern black liberation fighter takes his or her hat off to the gallant 54th, arms in hand, and its important role in the struggle for black liberation

This book serves as an important source of information regarding the birth of the 54th Massachusetts,black soldiers, politics, Shaw's personal and Civil War life. It is well written and places the reader at the start of northeastern politics and Shaw's upbringing. Shaw leads a pampered life of a wealthy family. He travels the world yet comes back to fight for the Union in the Civil War. His family is influencial in his military promotions and sets his promotion to Colonel with Governer Andrew's backing. Shaw becomes Colonel of the 54th and dares to take a risk at leading the first ever black regiment. His daring tale of being an outcast and a potential political target for his role in getting the 54th ready for battle is courageous and inspiring. The book covers the plights of the 54th in learning drill, military life and battle in chronological fashion. Much is covered in this short yet informative book on Shaw and the 54th. The definate "must read" for anyone looking to get an understanding of how the 54th and Colonel Shaw came together and fought!

Although Robert Gould Shaw was only 25 years old when he died, leading the 54th Massachusetts Infantry in a futile assault on Fort Wagner, he has become an object of interest in the past dozen years, especially since the release of the movie "Glory," which gave a somewhat fictionalized account of the 54th. This book by Russell Duncan is a good introduction to the life of Shaw, and gives an extensive bibliography for those who want to engage in further reading and research.

In this book (which is an expanded version of the introduction to Shaw's collected letters that Duncan edited and published in the book "Blue Eyed Child of Fortune") Duncan gives a view of a life that one can truly say was tragically cut short by war. Robert Gould Shaw spent much of his short life trying to find his way and place in the world, something that many of us can identify with immediately. He had difficulty in accepting authority; he could not decide upon a career; he was the only son of well-known abolitionist parents, yet he had grave reservations about the abilities of black people. A "rebel" by nature, he could be rigid and unbending with others. He was dominated by his mother, only truly breaking away from her by marrying a lovely young woman against his mother's wishes. Married to a woman he apparently adored, he also engaged in a flirtation with a schoolmistress in South Carolina after accepting the command of the 54th. Shaw had found his calling in the military: he was brave, and able to inspire confidence within his men, yet he promised his future wife that he would not persue the military as a career once the war was over.

This book is a good introducation to the brief life of Robert Gould Shaw. It contains some photographs of the Shaw family and Annie Haggarety, Shaw's wife. It also dispells some of the myths about the 54th that were present in the movie "Glory," chief among them the myth that the 54th was made up primarily of unlettered escaped slaves. From reading Duncan's book it appears many were literate freedmen of long standing. Also, the sergeant-major of the 54th was the son of Frederick Douglass, not the middle aged recruit as played by Morgan Freedman in the movie. I would recommend this book for anyone who is interested in the life of Robert Gould Shaw, or the history of the 54th, as a jumping off point for further reading.

Where Death And Glory Meet: Colonel Robert Gould Shaw And The 54th Massachusetts Infantry is the fascinating military biography of Civil War Colonel Robert Shaw who commanded an infantry unit composed of Negro soldiers, the North's first Black combat regiment. Russell Duncan presents a poignant portrait of an average young soldier struggling against his mother's indomitable will and thrust unexpectedly into the national limelight. Drawing upon Shaw's letters home before and during the war, Where Death And Glory Meet tells the story of the rebellious son of wealthy Boston abolitionists who never fully reconciled his own racial prejudices, yet went on to lead his black regiment into fierce and bloody battlefield conflicts where they performed with heroic distinction and scotched forever the notion that black soldiers would not or could not fight successfully against the Confederate forces. Where Death And Glory Meet is a superb contribution to Civil War studies and will prove of deep interest to students of Black history.

This is such a funny book which can be enjoyed without having read the previous book in the series (but it helps, plus, the first Duncan & Mallory book is very VERY funny as well)

Most of the notables return for this installment (plus one extra returning in another role, there's a hillarious bit about that early on) and are thrown together at, of all places, a tarantula ranch. Once again Robert Aspirin's prose and Mel White's artwork are wonderful and make this book and absolute riot. Highly recommended.

I picked this up along with the first book in the series for a dollar apiece at a closing out sale about 8 or 9 years ago. One of the funniest graphic novels I've ever read. The irreverant humor and hilarous drawings make it a real treat. I've heard that Robert Asprin and Melanie White had issues with the publisher, and only recently got the rights to the characters back. Ms. White is supposedly working on a new book in the series, so hopefully there will be more!

Writing and art should always be this much fun. Duncan and Mallory are a hoot, almost deveelishly clever...well, at least Mallory is...well, he is when he's not running in terror from...well, you're just going to have to read it to find out. This series is as amusing as the Myth Adventures graphic series. If you're looking for a good laugh with a few good chuckles and snickers thrown in, this is the book to read.

The first 27 pages of this book are dedicated to making the reader understand the storytellers and their purpose. The reader will gain knowledge in varied areas by having different storytellers tell the same stories in their unique ways following the introduction. This book is well researched and seemingly comes alive as you read the verses on its pages. There are so many lessons to be learned in life and the Cherokee have a gift when it comes to bringing those lessons to their young ones. We, as a public in general, stand to gain a wealth of knowledge by reading the stories held within the binding of this book. So, take off your shoes, get a cup of French Vanilla, curl up in your most comfortable chair...and escape. Let the lessons of life be branded on your heart as you read!

This is a book full of wonderful stories. It has many stories already familiar to those that read Cherokee tales as well as many new stories that I have never seen writen down before. The editor tries to stay as true to the story teller's own words as possible and manges to even keep the story tellers' rhythms. There are short introductions on each story teller and even the same story told by several different story tellers to compare the styles of each. This marvelous book is equally enjoyable for those interested in a good story and those interested in the Cherokee culture.

This book is full of wonderful stories told by various Cherokees. It teaches why these stories are important and why they are passed down from generation to generation. Anyone can gain knowledge about Cherokee culture from this stories. There are myths and legends from long ago and there are stories that are from personal experiences. The story tellers tell how they learned each legend and in some cases why the story reflects life today.

I have not in all honesty spent enough time in this work to rate it. I will say that, which I have read, that it has not surpassed Louis Berkhof's work in this same area. The [4] that I've giving it, is for its being thorogh as far as its subject manner.

This book is the result of a lifetime of work by a master theologian. Any student of systematic theology will find this an excellent resource. The author has an amazing grasp of the subject material which is developed from a solid biblical basis and yet is set in context with an extensive array of pertinent information from other resources. The reader of this work will be taken through history, philosophy, linguistics, science, ..., as they relate to the subject. It is useful for the beginning student as they will be exposed to this vast topic without being overwhelmed. It is likewise useful to the seasoned expert because of the masterful grasp and presentation of the material. This work is unique in that the author finished it when he was 88 years old, after a lifetime of study and ministry, and yet references to works from 2004 are included. Dr. Culver is definitely a conservative scholar, however, others will find this book useful as it also presents contrasting views and an avenue into reference material.

If one wants a systematic theology that is both biblical and pastoral then one should definitely purchase Robert Duncan Culver's book. It is one book that I would highly recommend for pastors and seminary students.

Culver pretty much discusses almost all the standard topics of systematic theology (except prolegomena, bibliology, and pneumatology). Considering the size of this book (over 1200 pages in small print font), one will definitely find that Culver does not leave a stone unturned - he pretty much discusses almost all the issues that are pertinant to a specific doctrine. Hence, the high value of this systematic theology text.

The perspective given is conservative evangelical, Calvinistic, Baptistic, and premillennial (with a hint of dispensationalism). Many evangelical readers will be comfortable with Culver's positions and arguments. One can even say that Culver's systematic is presented in a more "classical" way (i.e., Grudem, Reymond, etc.) rather than ontological or philosophical way (i.e., Barth, Pannenberg, etc.). Thus, you will see him quote Scripture quite profusely.

Overall, I would highly recommend this work. Not only is the book a mine of information but also a book that is pastorally sensitive. Hence, pastors will find the book very useful for their ministries. Also, Culver writes in an enthusiastic and easy-to-read style. You can see his passion for God and his truths throughout the pages. This book will become one of the great evangelical systematic theology texts for the many decades to come.

Basically well written and excellently researched , this book offers insights on the critical battles of the Civil War in western Virginia during the Spring of 1864, a subject usually not covered in detail. The details provided and the sequence presented on military operations give a very useful overview of strategy and tactics in this area in 1864. Richard Duncan, the author, details the unsuccessful attempts by General Hunter's army to live off the land which contrasts with Sherman's success in Georgia. While Sherman's effect on the civilian population is well known, the harsh treatment of civilians in the Shenandoah Valley is not as widely covered in print; and Richard Duncan's account provides much useful information and references on the subject of the Union Army's relationship with the area's civilians. The importance of the campaigns in the Shenandoah Valley during the Spring of 1894 should not be ignored. Had General Hunter been successful, the Civil War

may have ended six months earlier. This book well describes Grant's strategy, Lee and Davis responses and the numerous mistakes made by both armies. Making this account enjoyable, is the inclusion of brief biographical sketches of the field officers involved before discussing each operation.

The book suffers from a lack of good and sufficient maps. The maps provided do little to support the text. Critically needed are maps on individual battles. This is especially true of Chapter 2, The Dublin Raid, where maps are provided only on Crook's and Averell's routes to and from Dublin; however, maps on some of the raid's engagements/battles would greatly enhance the text. In addition, maps are badly needed for the engagements fought near Lynchburg. However, both the professional historian and the Civil War buff, would do well to read this work.

This is a must read book for anyone interested in the 1864 Overland Campaign. Our Civil War history is limited to the VMI Cadets at New Market and the invasion of 1864 by Early. We now have a book that fills in the gaps telling us the why, where and how. Reading this book explains why a hard-pressed Lee would detach Jubal Early to The Valley on more than a desperate gamble. All of this sets up the reasoning behind Sheridan's return to The Valley and his actions.

This is a very well written book presenting the 1864 campaign in Western Virginia in a logical sequence allowing the reader to follow the events with few problems. How events in one place influence another area is well detailed giving the reader a clear picture of the overall campaign. The author manages to place events within the 1864 Overland Campaign without detracting from the story. This is one of the strong points of the book, giving us a full and clear understand of the war. The only problem is maps. There are not enough of them and the ones we have are poor and badly placed.

Short-story anthologies are pretty hit-and-miss in terms of quality. Sails and Sorcery, thankfully, has far more hits than misses. There are a few genuinely intriguing settings (Stillworld-- about a planet that has stopped rotating on its axis) and some neat historical fantasy as well. Even the blatant "Call of Cthulhu" pastiche (Sea of Madness) does a good job of depicting the terror of being lost at sea and finding a strange, otherworldly island (better, in some ways, than Lovecraft's original, since this story isn't bogged down with ludicrous amounts of purple prose). There are some authors here that I'd definitely like to see more from in the future.
Like any anthology, there are a couple stories you'll probably gloss over-- one or two generic Middle-Earth-on-the-high-seas. But they are, thankfully, few.
Some of the best things about Sails and Sorcery are the black-and-white illustrations that accompany every story. They're professional quality and fit each piece of fiction quite well (it's obvious the artist has carefully read and mulled over each one).
Sails and Sorcery is a nice volume to own. Particularly since there isn't nearly enough aquatic fantasy fiction out there.

This book of short stories is a delightful read for those who like tales of pirates and adventure on the high seas. It is full of adventure and romance, with witches and wenches, chaos and camaraderie, horrors and heroes, magic and mayhem at every turn of the pages. My favorite story was "Rum Runners", with very colorful characters and just the right mix of suspense and humor, peppered with enough romance to be compared to Pirates of the Caribbean. You will enjoy the various stories, all touched by the supernatural.

At first glance Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge suggests it might be quite a light book, an easy read, a period piece set in the mid-nineteenth century. This would be wrong. Master Georgie is no safe tale of country house manners, of marriages imagined by confined, embroidering young women. Beryl Bainbridge's Master Georgie is anything but a tale of such saccharine gentility.

Master Georgie is a surgeon and photographer, and the book is cast in six plates - photographic plates, not chapters. Death figures throughout. From start to finish morbidity crashes into the lives of the book's characters. We begin with Mr Moody, dead in a brothel bed, his host of minutes before in shock. Later we move to the Crimean War, where the carnage is graphic, extensive and apparently random. And even then individuals find their own personal ways of adding insult and injury to the suffering.

The book uses multiple points of view. We see things Master Georgie's way. Myrtle, an orphan he takes in, adds her perspective. The fussy geologist, Dr Potter, imprints his own version of reality. And still there are less than explained undercurrents, undeclared motives which affect them all. Thus, overall, Master Georgie is a complex and ambitious novel. Though it is set in a major war, the backdrop is never allowed to dominate. The characters experience the consequences of conflict and register their reactions, but we are never led by the nose trough the history or the geography of the setting.

But we also never really get to know these people. Myrtle, perhaps, has the strongest presence. She has a slightly jaundiced, certainly pragmatic approach to life. But even she finds the privations of wartime tough. Why the characters of Master Georgie are all so keen to offer themselves as support for the war effort is an aspect of the book that never fully revealed itself. And ultimately this was my criticism of Beryl Bainbridge's book. While the overall experience was both rewarding and not a little shocking, I found there was insufficient delineation between the characters and their differing motives. The beauty of the prose, however, more than made up for any shortcoming. The language created the mixed world of mid-nineteenth century politeness and juxtaposed this with the visceral vulgarities of soldiering and the general struggle of life. This rendered Master Georgie a complex, moving and quite beautiful book.

I found this a very disturbing book of the type that you like against your own best instincts. I'm not saying it's bad, no. I'm just saying that if you want a nice, friendly, romantic (within reason) war book, look somewhere else. Children shouldn't read this, but it's good. Forgive me if I'm making no sense, but this is a very tricky book to review.

Master Georgie is a novel set in the time of the Crimean War. Through the eyes of three people close to Master Georgie, Myrtle, a girl believed to be Georgie's sister, Dr. Potter, a geologist and Pompey Jones, the photography assistant, we follow him from Liverpool to the battlefield of the Crimean War.

This way to write about a person and his happenings is well known through Ian Pears An Instance of the Fingerpost. And can be a perfect way to keep the readers interest and also the readers capability to live with the story. But Beryl Bainbridge do not master this art in this book. The language is too flat, without feelings, and the plots are sometimes too cryptical to be understood. I had to read several parts more than once to be able to understand what it all really was about, and to understand which lenses where used.

Still the book has some good parts, among them are the battlefield scenes. And I also like the way Bainbridge use the meaning of the photography, to let us see snapshots of Master Georgie's life, using other people as lenses, as cameras.

The book is a short one, less than 200 pages, and the surprising ending helps to give meaning to the story.

Britt Arnhild Lindland

Geroge Hardy, a surgeon and amateur photographer, discovers his father dead in the bed of another woman and hastens to bring the body home before his mother learns of it. Three people help with this task, and their lives are irrevocaly changed because of it.

The story is told through the eyes of those three people close to Master Georige. The first is Myrtle, a young orphan who is accepted and raised by the Hardy family. She immediately falls in love with Georgie, a love that will carry her from the streets of Liverpool to the battlefields of the Crimean War. Next is Pompey Jones, a young street boy who helps move the body of George's father and then discovers George's passion for young men. The last is Dr. Potter, a family friend who follows George all the way to the Battle of Inkermann, never understanding George's aversion to women or why he wants to attach himself to a unit during the awful war. Through their eyes, we watch George change from a young doctor in England dealing with his father's troublesome death to the hardened field doctor trying to save lives during a time of war.

This is a fantastic historical novel, with some of the most descriptive war scenes I've read in quite some time. Bainbridge makes you feel the confusion, fear and dread that the soldiers faced both due to battle and due to disease. At the same time, she shows how one life can effect others, either for better or for worse. A highly engrossing novel.

Beryl Bainbridge has to be one of the greatest of all English authors. All of her books are superb and Master Georgie, her third book of historical fiction, is different, but no less superb, than the two preceeding. I think Master Georgie has not been praised quite highly enough because its subject matter may be less familiar to Americans than Bainbridge's two previous historicals. As a European, however, Master Georgie is definitely my favorite. It is quieter and more subtle, but I think it has much more emotional depth.

Bainbridge is always a little cryptic with her subject matter and Master Georgie is no exception. Don't let this put you off the book, though--the undercurrents of energy and intrigue make this short book riveting and well worth anyone's time.

The protagonist, Master Georgie, is actually George Hardy, a Victorian English dissolute and surgeon who, one day, decides to pack up his family and head for Turkey. Although his intentions are to provide medical care to the wounded during the Crimean war, we all know things rarely go as planned. Suffice it to say that Murphy's Law holds just as true for Master Georgie as it does for us.

The battlefield scenes are some of the best I have ever read, not surprising with Bainbridge. Although the scenes are brutal and sometimes even gruesome, this marvelous author has managed to infuse them with a sardonic wit that rivals anything I have ever read. Bainbridge is true to her subject matter in these scenes. Bainbridge chooses to forgo romanticism in favor of the reality of confusion and futility that surely must have existed on the battlefields of the Crimea. Lest you think she's making fun of her subjects, let me tell you she most assuredly is not. She is compassionate, but she wisely keeps that compassion from coloring the facts. I think she is simply interpreting events with her own brand of intelligence and irony.

Master Georgie can meander at times, but Bainbridge has even this meandering under complete control. She also tempers it with vivid details. We really feel as if we are reading an actual eyewitness account to the war.

Master Georgie is a short book, really more of a novella than a novel, and you can easily read it in one sitting if you so desire. Don't let its length fool you, though. Master Georgie is a dark book and one that really packs a punch. It is stylish, sophisticated and sardonic. In short, it is a book that is worthy of all the praise it has garnered.