Q Books

The purpose of democratic government is to provide the greatest good for the greatest number. You can't please all of the people all of the time. But this requires an egalitarian society, not one where 2% of the people own 80% of the wealth. Money represents the power of the super-rich, and trumps the votes of the ordinary people. This is why campaign contributions are in a bad odor; it represents the power of the few over the needs and wants of the many. This book from a Washington lobbyist tells about events that seldom make the newspapers. Editors and publishers have their agendas and priorities too. So be educated and entertained by Winter-Berger's stories.

You can ask if anything is different today, but you can guess what the answer is. Do you ever wonder if things were different in the days of Washington, Jefferson, and Monroe? When the big landowners and rich bankers directly ran the government there was no need for campaign contributions. The need for broadcast advertising means candidates MUST seek money from the rich. So abandon any fantasies of idealism when you read this book. Politicians need money and votes to get elected, and each of these can translate into the other. Money gets things done in Washington by overcoming obstacles (p.12). Lobbyists get things done and collect their share. Different classes and sections have their interests, and legislators try to resolve the differences (p.13). Ever wonder how newspaper and magazine articles are created? See page 18. The red tape and delays of government agencies seem created to require pay-offs (p.20).

Why was Lyndon B. Johnson a powerful Senate Leader? He had files on the personal indiscretions of his Senate colleagues, and a close personal relationship with J. Edgar Hoover (p.55). This allowed LBJ to control a Senator's vote. Page 57 explains the statesmanlike public images of legislators! Another chapter explains how justice works in NY (pp.128-130). Can one crook save himself by discrediting another (p.167)? Would the Establishment save the Speaker of the House (p.172)? Legislators deal with laws that spend millions and can either hurt or help people and businesses (p.128). Lobbying and campaign contributions affect legislators: "nothing for nothing". Page 184 explains why Big Business gets the big contracts. Page 186 explains why Nixon picked Jerry Ford for Vice-President. Why did House Speaker John McCormack resign from Congress (p.199)? Page 200 shows how political genius finesses a horse breeding bill. Page 205 explains how to fix government decisions in secret. Ever wonder about the purpose of a Washington party? Read page 261 to learn the price tag in government contracts. One hostess worked for tobacco corporations and kept health warnings off cigarette packs (p.268). Wealthy people still want money. Pages 269-270 tell of the lifestyle of the rich and famous, and their women.

Winter-Berger met many of the richest people in the country, and found them to be deadbeats, hypocrites, bigots, and snobs (p.280). Their money allowed them to influence and control politicians on all levels of government. Most politicians are from the middle-class, and are easily corrupted by exposure to the corrupt rich. The rich get the most out of the economy, but do the least for it (p.289). Page 292 tells how to buy a draft deferment. The last chapter summarizes this book. If you think the ruling class will ever change things, you have infantile fantasies (p.308). Why must a good lobbyist also be a lawyer? To claim client confidentiality and avoid answering questions.

I was looking for books that would give more insite into the murky world of Washington lobbyists. Even though this book is old, it covers much of the period following the assasination of JFK and prior to the assasination of Robert Kennedy from a first hand perspective. Although a one-sided account, I think it gives much more information and realistic account than any other book I have read.

It is far better than watching the "K Street" DVDs that are total hogwash. It provided more insite into the corrupt institution the government was and is now, how government actually operates, as well as, more about the time when our government could too easily cover-up multiple asassinations.

It is eye-opening and depressing to see that a republic bears little relationship to a democracy once lobbyists take control. Without full disclosure of both lobbyist registration, and presidential and congressional campaign accounting, we will be a government only of the rich and for the rich which certainly applies in today's Bush administration with government stuffed to the gills with former lobbyists.

I agree with the author that recycling former government officials, military officers, and lobbyists back and forth must end before the middle and lower class citizens will get a fair deal.

A humorous book on the first season of the Emmy Award winning TV show. No you are not going back to school. This book is entertaining and fun. Test your knowledge of the "Friends" and get a rating of How good a FRIEND you are.

I highly recommend you buying this book ... if you can't find it in any book stores around your area then buy it from amazon. The book contains 501 Questions for those of you'se who think you are a Friends Fanatic and these questions range from what number is chandlers and joeys apartment number? to what is Chandlers mum's name?

If you think you can handle the questions then buy the book, but I warn you it is highly addicting and will keep your mind focused on one thing and one thing only...... FRIENDS!

This is a great book for kids. Its straight forward and says everything you ever wanted to know about where you came from.

An excellent, straight forward book that will approach sex as a subject with your kids. It is a love and family oriented approach to discussing where babies come from

The book is really funny. Encourages kids to ask, and digg into science. Glenn Murphy is the man!

Link to the sequel, How Loud Can You Burp?
How Loud Can You Burp? (Science Museum Q & a Book)

Review from CultureSquad.wordpress.com:

This book takes the funny sides of things; I find it difficult to imagine a humoristic science book, but this one is perfect. The book is split into two: the explainer and the reader. The explainer... um... explains everything, and the `reader' asks questions in the same way as the reader would. So the book is extremely informal.

There are five sections to the book: `Lost in Space', `The Angry Planet', `Animal Answers', `Being Human' and `Fantastic Futures'. They are all split into questions, such as `Why is Snot Green', and the reader is engaged into `asking' the questions. Most of the questions are really funny and both the explainer and reader could be comics.

Despite no colour, there are pictures and diagrams to help the reader through the book (the real one). So, I give this book a 9/10.

Review from thebookbag.co.uk

Go on. You don't know, do you? Why is snot green? I'll tell you. Snot is green because it contains a special bacteria-busting protein which itself contains a form of iron that reflects green light and absorbs all other colours. Wasabi, the Japanese sauce, contains the same protein. That's why it's green, too. Hold that thought. Dried snot - you know, the bogeys that you pick and stick on the wall to drive your mother mad - isn't green because once it leaves the body and the air begins to dry it out, the cells in the snot containing the proteins - phagocytes - die and the green colour disappears.

Do rabbits fart?

Well, almost. If, by fart, you mean 'release gas from the gut' then all animals with guts will, in fact, fart. Insects, fish, lizards, cats, dogs, mice, elephants... almost any creature you can think of. In fact, the only ones that don't fart are those that didn't evolve guts - like sponges, jellyfish and some types of worm.

This whole farting thing gets quite interesting, actually. Apparently, termites are the top farters on Earth. The combined farts of termites produce more methane - a greenhouse gas, in case you didn't know - than cars, planes and factories all put together. Cattle burps have a pretty shocking effect on global warming too.

These are just two of the almost two hundred questions answered in Why Is Snot Green? by the Science Museum's head of communications, Glenn Murphy. Thankfully, they're not all concerned with bodily functions and gruesomeness. They're neatly arranged into five sections - about space, about the planet, about animals, about humans and about the future. It covers many of the topics children will come across in Key Stage Two science, but it isn't geared to providing answers for the dreaded SATS tests; it's geared to providing interesting and inspirational context to the broad topics they're covering at school. It does that, and then some.

I found the sections about humans and animals most interesting - and I actually found a better section on lightning in this book than I found when searching the internet about it not so long ago. My older son (11 and Year 6) liked the part which talked about technology and the future and my younger son (10 and Year 5) just devoured and loved it all as he busily put a backstory to the lessons he's doing at school. He had more than a few eureka moments as he read. It is not easy to combine information and entertainment without sacrificing something on one side or the other, but Why Is Snot Green? manages remarkably well.

The whole book is a perfect exercise in plain but good English. The vocabulary isn't dumbed down for young readers and includes some fairly complex words. Rather, Murphy avoids the passive voice and sticks to short, direct and active sentences to convey some quite difficult concepts in a simple way. I heartily approve of this. English is a language with a great many words, each with a precise shade of meaning. The more words a child can collect, the better they are able to express themselves. Simple and straightforward doesn't have to be limited, as this book quite clearly proves. You can see why the Science Museum is such a success with people like Murphy in charge of training.

There's an awful lot of interesting information and illuminating context in this little book. There's also some very good writing and a decent dollop of dreadful puns too. And all for the pocket money price of a fiver. It's best suited to children in Years 5 and 6, at Key Stage 2 level, but it didn't feel babyish to me, at Key Stage Too Scary To Think About. It's highly recommended

This book explains MacNeil's love and passion for the English language through his firsthand knowledge of it. He describes his first glimpses at the beauty of words by telling us the story of his childhood. Although it tells the story of a child growing up in a time of war in Canada it contains information and stories that everyone can find relatable. Any lover of the English language will enjoy this book. He hits you with just the right combination of history and personal experience to make the story real for the reader and yet informative at the same time. The information provided in this book is a mixture of both fact and opinion. Mr. MacNeil provides the history of his life and gives his opinion about how experience has influenced the initial spark and continuing devotion to the English language. I found it intriguing to look at the English language through such a different perspective than my own.

Any person who is passionate about the English language -- and not only as it is found in literature, but in conversation, in theater, in any kind of storytelling, everywhere--;who is fascinated by its many dialects and its complexity; and who fondly remembers milestones in the history of their own relationship to the English language, will realize what a treasure this book is.

What is particularly wonderful about it is how MacNeil combines an intelligent tribute to and reflection on the English language with personal memoir. Not every bit of the book is about reading, storytelling, or even language in general, although that is the major theme. A great deal of it strays from this into childhood in general...and it is so interesting and moving, especially for a person who grew up in and still lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia. (I have to apoligize for this obvious bias...but I can't write from my heart about this book without revealing it)I have never seen my own city written about so articulately, and never really learned about its history. I always thought I lived in a pretty boring city with very little history...relatively speaking, of course. I certainly didn't think anyone existed who actually possessed nostalgia about this place. But he does! And he is a wonderful writer, so thankfully, he expresses his nostalgia well. Every Canadian should read this book, and others should as well-- perhaps an American or two out there might be interested in the experience of a Canadian, as dull as they might think it will be. It's not. What's impressive and unique is that there is nothing EXTREME in MacNeil's childhood. Most succesful memoirs, of course, have much more drama, and seem to all document extreme abuse and misery--eg Angela's Ashes, The Liar's Club... MacNeil's childhood is so simple, perhaps even (gasp) common, and yet all the more touching because of this. The drama and magic of childhood without the distraction the extreme situations is wonderful and refreshing in a literary world overwhelmed by stories of extremism and the 'abnormal'. One gets tired of eccentric and quirky characters and extreme situations-- it seems to be the easy way to be original, for a writer.

Anyway, I know I'm becoming a little long winded and have revealed an obvious bias which might make that New Yorker or Californian reading this cross this book off their mental list and look for another exotic account of an African adventure or heartbreaking memoir of life in India to read, but I had to simply speak from my heart. I feel so strongly about it...I read this book when I was in Japan teaching (sigh, leading to even more bias), when I was surrounded by a strange world and a strange language, and it made me feel more strongly than I ever have about my homeland and my language. Tears came to my eyes...yada yada yada O.K. I'll stop there...I don't want to obliterate all credibility... As much bias as exists behind my review, I must, say, even if you have no interest in a boy's childhood and coming of age in Halifax, Nova Scotia during World War 2, you should still read it. It isn't just about that (That actually makes up a fairly small part of it). This book is really about the story of a man's relationship with his language-- in childhood and as he came of age. As an aspiring journalist and writer, for this reason alone I find it to be a jewel. It is a very personal memoir about a lifelong love affair, which any of us who read reviews on Amazon.com likely share...a love affair with language.

The book is perfect and I'm pleased with the book. However, I paid for rush delivery for 10 days and it took more than 20 days. I paid extra for nothing. This is not correct.

I use Margaret Richek's book for tutoring purposes, both in one-on-one and group settings, for basic vocabulary and language skills. The primary purpose of this text is to strengthen the vocabulary of the learner. It is designed with the adult learner in mind, tailoring the vocabulary and language exercises to be of use to those who are continuing their education toward GED, community college and general literacy skills.

Each chapter of the book has three key elements - word mastery, learning strategies, and interesting features of words. In the mastering of words, each chapter presents the tried-and-true vocabulary list, to be used again and again in the course of the chapter (and repeated occasionally throughout later chapters). Several sentences are used to put the words in context. It is not simply a dull list of definitions - words are connected, and related words given.

Learning strategies are introduced in each chapter as well. These include use of a dictionary (how can you look up a word when you don't know how to spell it?), using context clues to figure out the meaning of a word, analysing word elements by parts (prefixes, suffixes, etc.), and learning words in settings such as forms, newspapers, and other familiar settings.

The special interest sections include articles that highlight the vocabulary (articles include the history of Ben & Jerry's, stories of how cars get named, biographical stories of famous people like Jackie Robinson, and more), as well as brief histories of words and word categories.

Each chapter has a variety of exercises - mix and match, word association, fill in the blank, analyzing paragraphs, discussion questions for the reading passages, and more.

The one thing I would wish for this text would be a general glossary or dictionary at the end of the book, for students to use with greater ease in looking up the meanings of words. This could be organised in the manner of a dictionary, to be useful for the dictionary use exercises, too. Other than this, `The World of Words' serves as a very useful guide in language arts, reading and writing classes, as well as for individual tutoring for those looking to enhance their basic literacy skills.

Just fascinating! Anita Diamant's "The Red Tent," is a chick book (although my husband also likes it), but extremely well written and researched. Diamant's fluid and lovely writing style, historical perspective, thoughtful observations, action, and the interaction between characters is gripping. I resisted reading it because of all the hype, given that such popular books are typically not good literature. This is not true of this book. The topic of menstuation does permeate the story a bit much for my taste: but that subject binds the themes of fertility, love, birth, and family, around which the story revolves. The historical research that is interwoven in this book is just fascinating, particularly the segregated lifestyle of the early Jews and the worshipping of Canaanite gods and the Hebrew god in the same family (and by the same family members). It's like Joseph's Campbell's insights about the evolution of our concepts about God have been brought to life in this very good novel. From the reviews and the publicity, I feared it would be too feminism oriented and too religiously preachy, but it is neither. I also highly recommend "The Last Days of Dogtown" by the same author.

In writing The Red Tent, Diamant seems to have actually lived the history of which she writes. Very well considered, historically accurate, thoughtful, interesting, and a great story (of course). Really gives food for thought.

This book had me hooked and I could hardly put it down. It's fair enough to say that getting started can be a challenge with all the unfamiliar biblical names. Get past the introduction of characters and you're full steam ahead. Anita Diamant takes a biblical story, then tells it from the viewpoint of the women. Their secrets, their stories, how they lived, what they did for each other just to survive and the bond they all formed. I related very well to all the characters which jumped out from the page and greeted me. A well written book I almost wish she would write more about other biblica women.

I enjoyed reading this book immensely. I approached it as I did "A Wrinkle In Time" in that though it was historically based, the conversations and personality traits of the characters were not necessarily factual..however this in no way took away my interest in what was being said nor did it remove me from feeling I was a part of the experiences Dinah had. This book is a gift and I think Ms. Diamant for it.

About two thirds of the way through the book, I would have given it a mere two stars. I felt that the narrative was unfolding slowly, and too much time was spent providing minute details about the everyday lives of these characters. I also found descriptions to be repetitive. Overall, it really was pretty yawn-inducing, up until the point when Dinah starts menstruating. I like to read books in one sitting, or depending on the length, in several concentrated blocks. With this one, however, it took me a full two weeks to finish the first two parts of the book. Not a good sign. But I hate abandoning books, so I pressed on.

So why the 4 stars in the end? Because I found myself moved despite the slow start. It made me feel connected to all the women who have come before me, who faced unimaginable struggles and intense pain and suffering to bring life into the world. On the last pages of the book, there is a line that says, "We are all born of the same mother.". I wasn't particularly interested in this sort of sentiment when I started the book, but by the end of it, I understood it completely.

i read this book right after dracula and well, it's definitely a good read and an edge of your seat thriller. it has stood the test of time in terms of it's theme and lesson.

for the people who hated this book and gave it poor reviews. Really missed out on what may be the greatest novel of all time. For me it's hard to put down. And the themes are deep and everlasting ones that humans will forever struggle with. Life and death, God vs science, good and evil, spiritual themes, and social ones also, all wrapped up in a GREAT story. Oh well, you can't expect everyone to get it and resonate with it.

One thing about this Rieger version: it says it "reproduces for the first time in more than a century the text of the first edition published in 1818". Not true. Donohue produced at least three editions (I have them) around 1895 that are all the 1818 text.
Just an FYI.

Believe the hype! This book is hard to surpass. I virtually never give 5 stars to ANYTHING. This deserves it.

Once you read Shelley's classic you're going to scratch your head and wonder: Is this really the book that gave us the Karloff movie? Not to mention Herman Munster and Frankenberry. For over a century and half people have been cannibalizing this book for ideas, movies, other books, and products of every size, shape and type that our modern concept of Frankenstein holds little to no resemblence to the master work. While occasionally these bastardizations have had enjoyable results, like Young Frankenstein, it's criminal that so few people are unfamiliar with the source. Do yourself a favor and find out where it all came from. It's not nearly as creepy as you may think, but it's infinitely more thought provoking and it certainly doesn't hurt that this version is beautifully published at a very reasonable price.

It is pretty surprising that something come up with almost on a whim to
provide a diversion has come to be such an important text for two
genres, both horror and science fiction.

Victor Frankenstein's obsession with the creation of life ultimately ends in tragedy and death for those around him.

Most editions of Mary Shelley's landmark book available today follow the heavily revised 1831 version. The impulse behind this trend is an honorable one (to present what is seemingly an author's "final revision"),but the 1818 version is preferable for many reasons. Looking back on her creation in later life, Shelley felt obliged to alter the book's focus in significant ways, adding what critic Marilyn Butler accurately describes as "long passages in which her main narrator, [Victor] Frankenstein, expresses religious remorse for making a creature..." The author sought to make the 1831 edition less controversial and thereby more palatable to the tastes of the reading public. The 1818 version is closer to Mary Shelley's original intentions, though it too, unfortunately, was filtered through the sensibilities of her husband, the poet Percy Shelley, who took many of his wife's rather straightforward passages and rendered them into his own more ornate and Ciceronian style. Still, the 1818 version remains more vital, more original, and less constrained by what the author believed would be acceptable to readers in 1830s England.

As an adult I normally loathe stories with talking animals, animals who reason, etc. I'm also not that fond of mice! But "Stuart Little" is done in an engaging way, and it's far better than the live-action movie of the same name. The story is a little more serious and less action-oriented, and the book as a whole is evocative of a simpler time.

I see the reading level as 9-12. Yikes! If Harry Potter is 9-12, then Little should be 1-3. I did love the beginning of this story. There is no explanation as to why a human mother presumably gives birth to a mouse instead of a human child. The story goes on without anymore reference to it. As if this is just the way it was. End of discussion. I loved that! Funny. And the writing is charming, to be sure, but the story just goes on without getting anywhere. It's one adventure after another without an end in sight. No goal. That's my trouble with Stuart Little.

To explain the sudden and unsatisfying ending, I did hear that the author, White, was quite a hypochondriac. At the time of this book's writing, he was convinced he was going to die at any moment, (He ended up living a number of decades after Stuart Little was first published.) So, fearing certain death, White demanded the publisher to publish the book now!, as is, "before I die tomorrow!" Amazing, but true.

I enjoyed this book, but I didn't really enjoy the ending. The beginning and middle were well written, the characters were well thought out. The boat race was probably the most exciting part. The ending was poorly written. However, EB White was suffering from hypochondria, and this is why he ended the book so abruptly and never wrote a sequel. He could have written one, but was suffering from this illness. I prefer the movie, very sadly, in this one instance.

my 6 yr old read charlotte's web - wanted this one - loves it also

When Mrs. Fredrick C. Little gave birth to her second son, everyone was surprised when it was a mouse. Even though Stuart is only two inches tall, he has all the attributes of a human, including the ability to talk. And he finds that his small size is a help around the house. But it also gets him into some dangerous situations since people often overlook him. Whether it's going down the drain looking for a ring, sailing a boat on a pond in Central Park, or accidentally getting thrown out with the garbage, you can bet that Stuart will face any obstacle head on.

I was first read this book in first grade and loved it for the most part. Even back then, the ending bothered me. Still, there plenty of laughs at some of Stuart's adventures, and the early chapters are entertaining. Garth Williams' illustrations are absolutely darling, and add much charm to the story.

However, the second half really disappointed me when I reread it. The first half is pretty much a series of unconnected adventures. The barest hint of a plot begins to take shape in the second half, but it goes no where. Furthermore, Stuart begins to show some rather immature behavior in those last few chapters. While he had always had some arrogance, it became too much by the end. And that doesn't even touch the ending, which leaves the plot that had finally taken hold completely unresolved.

This book is really a character study rather then a story. Parts of it will entertain kids. But the second half will let them down and the ending will leave them unsatisfied. The book isn't bad, but it's too bad it doesn't live up to my memories.

This book is required reading for freshman in our high school. This version is very hard to read due to the Old English style of writing.

Silas Marner / 0-553-21229-X

Silas Marner always invariably compares in my mind to Dicken's Scrooge. In the height of his youth, healthy, happy, and in love, he is betrayed, cast down, and taught the 'lesson' that only the criminal and avaricious get ahead in life. Banished to a new town, he abandons all attempts to connect with the society around him and instead focuses on hoarding his wealth carefully, counting his money lovingly in the evenings. When the money simply disappears one day, stolen by a burglar, Silas is crushed. Only the arrival of an "angel" - a little orphan girl with golden curls on her head - saves him, and starts him down the long road to redemption. Given something to love, Silas flourishes and learns to join the society of people.

The local nobility, Cass, serves as a perfect counterpoint to Silas' lessons. Cass is rescued in one fell swoop from all his burdens - his inconvenient lower class wife dies suddenly clearing the way for his 'true love' and noble girlfriend, his illegitimate child is adopted by Silas, and his blackmailing brother disappears into the snow for good - and yet, Cass is doomed to a life of disappointment. His perfect upper class wife Nancy cannot bear children, and their perfect home is turned into a silent as the two simply age (they do not grow) and they find that they never really loved each other after all. When Cass realizes, too late, what a treasure his daughter would have been in his life, he finds himself rejected as the girl prefers her adoptive father to the natural one who would not claim her. And though the girl marries below her father's level of nobility, she marries a good man who loves and appreciates her, and her future seems much more rosy than that of her upper class 'parents'.

I am one of the former students who long ago was forced to read this rot for a HS english class. I can not think of a book that would be of less interest to a teen age american boy than this one. All the reviewers who praise this book make me wonder about what else they read. It was beyond boring and had no possible points of reference to me. There are literally thousands of British novels that would be better choices. If you are going to assign students a British Novel pick one that at least they would enjoy reading. Thank god I liked to read or after this experience I would probably not read anything for years. I hope to god that this is no longer assigned or rather forced reading for HS. When there are books like 1984 or Brave New World available why use one that has so little possible interest to students.

George Eliot is the best woman author I've ever read. She had God-given talent that you or I, no matter how much we read, no matter how much we write, could not consciously replicate. She had something which can't be taught, a kernel of genius hidden somewhere in the brain, which was allowed to express itself...to our collective benefit.

Silas Marner, while not perfect, is something recognizably special--a book with lingering phrases, a book with extraordinary insight, a book that instates the reader with the feeling that the author knows what the hell she is doing. It's a book that matters.

I know what you are afraid of: you are afraid this book will be a bloated succession of tea parties and persiflage with mutton-chopped vicars. No fear: the plot is credibly organic, and moves along briskly, wrapping itself up in just over two-hundred pages. It should hold your interest so that you can discover the ten or so gem-sentences dispersed throughout. Sentences that are not just airtight, but that meld with your mind, and cause an "Aha!" reaction. You know what I'm talking about.

Perhaps the most convincing signal I can offer of my sincere regard for her abilities is the fact that I'll now seek out her other works...something I can't say about Virginia Woolf, for instance, whose literary inferiority to Eliot I would take as axiomatic. (Ironic, isn't it--or maybe not--that feminists seem to esteem Woolf more highly than Eliot?)

Silas Marner is a skillfully crafted novel to be enjoyed by readers with varied tastes. It was written by a woman, who found it necessary to use a man's name because of attitudes in England in the nineteenth century. It is built around problems that all of us face in our lives, such as, "How important is money?" As in all great novels, the characters change as the plot develops.

SILAS MARNER is a realistic novel because it portrays life in a real and believable fashion. The author, Mary Ann Evans, who used the pen name, George Eliot, pays careful attention to a few distinguishing details about here characters and settings.

For example, we can see Silas Marner, the central character of the novel, with his pale skin and undersized body. We know how he looks with his large, near-sighted, bulging eyes. We can see the important-looking village of Raveloe, which lives peacefully in opulent neglect.

When I was a teacher, I directed many high school sophomores to read SILAS MARNER. Most students dreaded reading the novel included in their literature textbooks. Once they met Silas and spent enough time with him to become acquainted with his unique personality, they became eager readers of this well-crafted classic.

It has some of the same qualities that made Pride and Prejudice (Vintage Classics) an endearing and enduring novel. In both works, the idyllic English countryside is an enjoyable escape from everyday life. There is romantic courtship in both, but the romance of SILAS MARNER is not the central theme; therefore it is not as compelling as that in PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. Since the readers are not required to become obsessed with yearning for romantic fulfillment, young guys who were in my class felt free to enjoy it. (Sixteen year old young men are still self-conscious about these matters.) Both books contain the same kind of satire buffered with compassion. In both novels we laugh with the local rural and village people. Because the language in SILAS MARNER is less complex, adolescent readers enjoy it more than they do PRIDE AND PREJUDICE.

When as a student I first read SILAS MARNER in high school and when I read it with my students, I considered the coincidences plot weaknesses. Life doesn't work that way, I thought. Now that I have experienced a life of incredible coincidences, I no longer find anything in the book unbelievable. Events caused by Silas Marner's catalepsy seemed unlikely, but now they represent no problem.

Theft with its resulting bitterness provides conflict with which the readers can identify. Earlier I found it difficult to believe that the lightning of theft could strike twice, but that part of the plot is one more realistic element now. Other twists and turns with their ironic mysteries are typical of human life as I have lived it.

All the parts of the novel that seemed to be a contrived fairy tale are now a vignette of life. Even if I could not believe it all, the book would still break my heart the way Forrest Gump does with its twists and turns of satirical accounts.

When I enjoyed SILAS MARNER in my twenties with thirty teenagers at a time, I did not notice the shaping of Silas' religious beliefs as much as I do now. I remember that the students and I were indignant about the way Silas was duped by the evil church members at Lantern Yard. Now I have compassion for them, especially William, as well as for Silas.

Mary Ann Evans showed the futility of idolatry. All my students understood the disaster of worshiping money. If I could return to my students, I would like to ask them what they thought of the villagers who seemed to rely on the habits of their church to bring them close to God. Could we discuss that in the 21st century? I feel sure we would discuss the addiction to narcotics as it is realistically portrayed.

SILAS MARNER is a great English novel not difficult to read, but rich in insights. It shows what is evil and what is good in human hearts.