George Sand Books

I've always been a fan of Scott's, I believe he was the best actor the U.S. ever produced. However,even as a kid I can recall having heard that this was a very intense man. This book explains why. He was a heavy drinker most of his adult life. When drunk he could turn on the woman he was with. Those stories are supported by other bio's I've read about Ava Gardner & Collen Dewhurst (twice married to Scott). But the book also gives insight into the man & why he may have had this problem. He was by all accounts a kind person when sober. But the Hyde side took a serious toll on his private life. (& sometimes his professional life as Truesdell- Riehl's book points out). It is a very well written book for a first time author also , very good read. Especially if you happen to be a George C Scott fan.

On camera George C. Scott was the man that every woman wanted & every man wanted to be. Off camera he was a man who wrestled with bitterness & insecurity. He harbored anger ever since his childhood & when he became an adult he took it out on everyone close to him. He dealt with his insecurities by trying to control & manipulate the people closest to him. The people who loved him tolerated his behavior & still wanted to be with him costing them their own peace of mind & in Karen's case, a promising career in theatre. Even after his brilliant success in theatre & movies he remained insecure & bitter. It makes your heart ache for Scott & those whom he hurt.

This is a compelling & sad story. Karen Truesdell Riehl does not hold back but tells the whole story; warts & all.

Love and Madness is not only a titillating story of a celebrity's secret love life, it is a penetrating look into the heart of a woman who had to live with the scandal of an out-of-wedlock birth during the 1950's, when women caught in those circumstances were considered sluts. Truesdell Riehl's courageous and well-written story will remind you of how far we've come since those days, when living in a home for unwed mothers and following your heart when your head knows better were matters to be swept under the carpet and shared only in whispers and knowing smiles.

Truesdell-Riehl's story of her 30-year clandestine love affair with George C. Scott is a gripping tale, beautifully told. The author met and fell in love with Scott when she was in her freshman year at Stephens College and he was a theatre instructor. After acting with him in summer stock following her graduation, Truesdell-Riehl gave up a promising acting career to go to New York with Scott, working as a dental assistant, while he pounded the pavement in search of acting jobs. Her story, written with both wit and wisdom, provides insight into the tormented life of this international film star and the woman he called the love of his life. It's a page turner I couldn't put down!

Everybody knows the star of Patton was a brilliant actor but not exactly a warm and fuzzy human being. Ms. Truesdell Riehl's account of her relationship with Scott is a compelling story of his destructive influence on innocent lives. There is no self-pity here, though. The author's narrative is laced with warmth, wit, and the wisdom that comes only from hard experience.

It took me a few chapters to get into this book (possibly because I was reading it as I was falling asleep) However, once I was in the midst of it, I just sat down and finished it off. The characters are really appealing and interesting, and also very human. With a very few descriptive words I know these people that Sand has created, I can see them very clearly and imagine every detail that she doesn't give us.
It isn't a very long story, though it takes place over a couple of years, and the cast of characters is very small. Sept-Epees is our hero and Tonine the heroine, they are a very interesting and powerfully drawn pair. Sept-Epees at first has a burning ambition to prove there are better things in life for him and invests all of his time and money in a money-pit of a factory (What it produces we never find out, but it is ultimately not importatnt) This ambition drives him further and further away from what everyone else (including the reader) know as his real happiness, Tonine.

The complexity of the plot that Sand manages to created with relatively few characters or incidences is amazing and very tantalizing. I would reccomend this book to anyone who was looking for something along the lines of Dickens but with a little more sunshine.

I really liked it. It's a good story that everyone can relate to in some way. This book made me want to read more by George Sand. It's the perfect book to curl up with on a rainy afternoon!

This short, fast paced novel, artfully translated by Kover, is as much a social commentary on life during the Industrial Revolution as it is a story of true love. The plot is engaging, the characters are convincing, and the story culminates in an inspiring twist. A pleasure to read, The Black City will surely strike a familiar chord with every entrepreneur, aspiring business owner, or anyone who has ever yearned for something more in life. I highly recommend reading it!

If you like Victor Hugo, Emile Zola, or Gustave Flaubert, you will love George Sand. Many people have heard her name but much of her work has never been translated into English, so she is largely unread in the United States. Do yourself a favor and buy this book. The story seems fairly simple on the surface, but it has layers of meaning and truth that will strike you. The love story is very real and beautifully crafted, and the book's hero and heroine would not be out of place in the twenty-first century. I enjoyed every page of this book. You will, too! It's a must-own!

This is one of the best translations I've ever read, and it is so nice to have another of George Sand's works available in English. The story is surprisingly modern, very readable, with really appealing, human, simple characters. If you've heard of Sand but never read anything of hers, start with this book!

Over the recent years, I have become a fan of "old-time" comic strips, those that were published in the first half of the 1900s. In that era, the newspaper comics were a far different medium than nowadays. While I am sure there are plenty of forgotten, forgettable strips from that era, on the whole, the comics were treated as a respectable part of the newspaper and in an age when cities often had several competing periodicals, a good comic strip could be a major selling point. Nowadays, the comics are almost an afterthought, scrunched up on some back page.

Among the material I have been reading has been Popeye, Flash Gordon, Dick Tracy, Gasoline Alley and Peanuts (this last, admittedly, a product of the 1950s and not the first half of the century). The one that kicked off my renewed interest in these oldie, however, was Krazy Kat. Krazy & Ignatz: Shifting Sands Dusts Its Cheeks in Powdered Beauty is the poetic title for the seventh volume of republished Sunday strips (all in kaptivating kolor!), this one covering 1937-1938.

If you have not read Krazy Kat, this book is as a good a place to start as any, as continuity is no issue. The three principals are the classic dog-cat-mouse triad, but don't expect Tom-and-Jerry-like antics. Ignatz Mouse loves to bean Krazy Kat in the head with a thrown brick. For Krazy, this brick-beaning is actually a sign of affection. Yes, Krazy loves Ignatz (his "l'il anjil"), and Officer Bull Pupp loves Krazy and hates Ignatz. The typical strip has Ignatz beaning Krazy and then getting run off to jail by Pupp.

Is Krazy male or female? Creator George Herriman tends to keep things ambiguous, but I've always viewed Krazy as the former, a feeling that is justified in the February 14, 1937 strip which Officer Pupp clearly refers to Krazy as male.

For those used to today's gag strips with a punch line in the final panel, Krazy Kat is a change-of-pace that may not appeal to everyone. While humorous, this comic strip relies more on the absurd, the surreal and the poetic. Even the constantly changing landscape of the Southwestern county of Coconino is almost as much of a character as Krazy, Ignatz and Pupp are.

If you think that comic strips like Marmaduke, Heathcliff and Family Circus are the pinnacle of the comics medium, then Krazy Kat is probably not going to be your cup of tea. On the other hand, if you look at today's comics page with a certain lamentation of its fading overall quality, you may enjoy Krazy Kat which shows how wonderful the comics could truly be.

This project of gathering, binding and offering the Sunday Krazy Kat comic strips is such a boon. It is a treat to be able to enjoy a strip that was gone before I was born. The art work, the humor, the perspective on life all go together so perfectly in Herriman's work that it would be a great loss to this generation not to have these books available. I look forward to the next volume when it arrives!

Has the Krazy Kat curse finally lifted? More than a few brave companies have tried to reprint entire runs of this highly acclaimed but very underprinted comic only to end up self destructing. Way back in the hoary old days of the 1990s a company called Eclipse printed all of the Sunday pages from 1916 to 1924. Then something happened. No 1925 volume ever appeared. The curse begins. Not long after, another company, Stinging Monkey, printed volume one of "the complete Krazy Kat Dailies". That bold venture only lasted one mere volume. The curse returns. The small Pacific Comics Company has actually released three entire volumes of Krazy Kat dailies with no sign of stopping, but their market reach remains quite diminutive. Enter Fantagraphics, a company that may finally lift this ignoble curse from one of the best comics ever produced. They exhumed the smoldering Eclipse series and began anew with the year 1925. So far seven volumes have appeared covering the years 1925 - 1938. The last two issues appearing in full color (just as the strip did in 1935). Only three potential volumes remain for the years 1939 - 1944. Fantagraphics now stands well poised to obliterate this vile printing curse forever.

This volume, like its predecessor, displays the Sunday pages in full color throughout. During these two years the strip began to take on an even more surrealistic and esoteric edge. The addition of color heightened the abstraction of Herriman's brilliant backgrounds. Folded moons, impossibly high cacti, and chunky mountains fill in nearly every gap (see the particularly stunning strip from September 12th, 1937). The adobe colored jail becomes a permanent home for Ignatz as it now appears on almost every page. And the incessant love triangle between a Kop, a Kat, and a Mouse kontinues unabated. Signs of the strip's maturity peek out from behind every frame. The humor becomes more subtle, relying less on wordplay and slapstick than earlier strips. The jokes don't reach out and grab like a cattle prod (unlike many of today's strips that thoroughly rub the joke in your face); some require re-reading or reflection. Or a large vocabulary. Regardless, many remain laugh out loud funny despite their age. The March 27, 1938 strip depicts Offica Pupp trying to arrest Ignatz because he misunderstood his verbal fulmination "DUCK!" Pupp examines a book entitled "Law" while murmuring "Maybe - MA-A-AYBE I can arrest him fot it - Let's-s-s-see." Also, Herriman's little cartoon asides begin to appear at the very end of this volume (starting with December 11th, 1938). These small frames appear incongruous but they actually complement the strip as a whole and alter the mood. They harken back to his early "Family Upstairs" strips. Unfortunatley, the strip paid dearly for its waxing maturity and subtlety with plummetting popularity. The 1930s and 1940s saw the inexorable commercial decline of Krazy Kat. It appeared in increasingly fewer papers as irritated editors tried to slash "old man Hearst's" favorite strip. This volume helps preserve Herriman's legacy to the comic form, and it proves once again that commerciality does not always equate with high quality.

Unlike all other Fantagraphics volumes so far, this one does not contain an introductory essay. Nonetheless, some amazing watercolors and photos bookend the strips, including a rare one of Herriman without a hat. And the tradition of the "Ignatz Mouse Debaffler Page" gets upheld.

With each successive volume it appears that Fantagraphics may be well on its way to completing this series. The quality has not waned an iota from the first issue. Impressive. Carry on, please.

We are now, depending on method, between 1/3 & 1/2 way through the republication of Herriman's full-page comic spreads. There is plenty of good discussion of the artistic & literary value of this eccentric comic elsewhere, though perhaps not enough on the underlying philosophical issues it seems to raise, both in the push-&-pull of Kokonino Kounty's animal society, & in the recurrent surreal transformation of landscapes, an endless perceptual pun. But there is also immense & gentle, grace-filled hilarity of a sort we need no less now, than when Herriman was alive. Blessings on Fantagraphics for committing itself to this republication. Advice? Read it. Read them all - good food for the mind & the funnybone, not too common a combination...

As you open the book, you immidiatly got cought up in the world of Consuelo, you begin to worry for her, be happy for her, and cry when she is sad. George Sand wrote a book of a music genious, a perfect girl Consuelo, and she really succeded. It was also a great book to use in the School Certificate in New Zealand, 'cause it is very ditailed, and the characters are well diveloped. As I read it I wished the story would never end!

Do you like music, romance, history and adventure? If you answer yes, then Consuelo is definitely a book for you. This novel is an inspiration story about essence and purpose of true art, and a life call of true artist. This is a stirring story of talented yang singer life, whose character is filled with love for freedom, sincerity, musical genius and true generosity of the heart. The story unfolds in the midst of factual historical events that take place in real places with actual historical individuals. Due to such historic setting the reader can see the full picture of life in XVIII century Europe and the art development of that time. The novel is a beautiful mix of historic and cultural facts with life and romance of a yang woman, who step by step discovers herself through true purpose of art. It is a trully amazing book! Once you start to read it you can't put it down!

As poetry goes, fame comes last. George Wallace, if I was in charge, would be herald the minstrel mountain troubadog of joyous bark and babble. A true wizard in the art of language, as beat, paint or something to stand in. By and away the furthest word from a man of mouth. The last 10 or so poems in this collection could alone blow your head into cupcakes. It did me. Recommended highly.

This book surprised me. It was nothing like what I expected it to be. It was a good book and I enjoyed reading it wich was not something i expected to be able to say. The stories were interesting and intreaging. Goerge Sand is nothing less then a literary genuis, her stories reminded me of when I was younger. In her Story "What Flowers Say" I could definitly identify with the young girl since when I was that age I too wondered what the flowers talked about when I wasn't there. I would recomend this book to people of all ages it is simply a great book, writen by a truly awesome writer.

Great book, but an interesting offering here as the title is renamed differently than the paperback version that's available and has been available for years (which is widely known as "Consuelo"). Odd when publishers change the name of her books. "The Master Pipers" is also available as "The Bagpipers" for instance (though the translation is a bit different). I'm not sure, but isn't "Consuelo" the given name of the novel? Odd.

But ... nonetheless ... it's a great story and they are right in saying it's her masterpiece.

The authors, Shannon & Torlen, continue to produce excellent instruction in Stained Glass, this their 3rd book. The photographs of their copper foil and leaded panels and sandblasted projects are of the highest quality. Choice of glass colour and texture in their designs make the projects quite remarkable, I refer in particular to the standing room divider. I recommend this book to all stained glass hobbyists and artists as I do to my students. I look forward to the release of their next book.

This book, each short story sucked me in and had me rushing home to read more. I loved it. Even the Devil's Pool, which I found a bit awkward with the dialogue (something Sand herself addresses, and can be attributed to translation to a degree) was still a great story, I loved its follow up even more, "The Country Wedding." "The Unknown God" was a great story as well, very timely in my studies too as I am currently reading abt the time in history it is relevant to (the Christianization of the Roman Empire). I loved "Lavinia" it had a sort of Bronte feel to it as far as the setting goes but with a more Jane Austen like prose, more wit than melodrama. Her letters are my favorite, I would have to say, without charcters as her mouthpeices George Sand is amazing. She spits out one witty remark after another, filled with insight and passion. I am blown away. I highly reccomend this book as a great introduction to her works.

This is a biography of a woman writer who's real name was Aurore Dupin, who lived in Paris in the 19th century -- Since Amazon didn't provide an editorial review, here's the description from the back of the book to help you decide if this book is for you: "Hailed in her lifetime as the first female genius of any country or age -- even while condemned as the pipe-smoking, pants-wearing mistress of Frederic Chopin, Alfred de Musset, and numerous others -- George Sand, born Aurore Dupin, both captivated and scandalized nineteenth-century Paris. Foreshadowing the women's movement by more than a century, she shook the foundations of European literature and culture with her consuming desire to discover her identity through her art. A provacative, daring and truly gifted writer, George Sand emerges as large as life in this splendidly realized, lusty biography -- an insightful narrative as romantic, as intense, as meomentous as the life that inspired it."