Literature Books

What a product! When you read something like this you begin to realize the real depths of obsessive thinking. There's so much to learn here -- exact details relating to late 19th century Britian; considered essays on where exactly Watson was shot (there is some consensus he must have been shot while stooping over, to take into account various Doyle references); and more than that, watching fans do their best to bring it alive.

Kind of reminds me of Potter.

This was the first time I read any Sherlock Holmes and I was not disappointed. But what really made the experience such a fun time was the vast number of info accompanying the novels. The notes are right next to the text so you don't have to keep flipping pages, plus various pictures abound throughout the volume capturing the times of Holmes and Watson.
After reading it myself, I lent this volume to my good friend who can pretty much recite any line from the novels and he absolutely loved it.
So if you are a fan or just curious about all the hype, this is a must!

This collection of Sherlock Holmes stories & analysis is clearly one of the best biographical works published in the past 30 years. The painstaking effort and detail put into this work is something to be marveled.

Whether a new or old fan of the exploits of Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson, this product will not disappoint.

Also included in this series is some of the original artwork from the Holmes novels. If a fan, you might also consider picking up The Crime Doctor, which also bears the artwork of Frederic Dorr Steele, with stories of the medical detective by EW Hornung (also the brother-in-law of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle).

Having been brought up on the edge of Dartmoor,in Devonshire, SW England,where the Hounds of the Baskervilles story was located I found the annotations to that novel to be very interesting and, more importantly, factual even to the minor details that were mentioned.
I have no doubts whatsoever that the facts connected to the other three novels are just as accurate.
I have thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to any Sherlockian.

While most people have read at least one Sherlock Holmes stories others have not only read them all but have studied every detail of them. The author, Leslie Klinger, is one of the latter group. He is one of the foremost experts on the 'Canon' as devotees call the Holmes stories, and a member of The Baker Street Irregulars, the oldest and most exclusive club of Holmes scholars.

Klinger follows the accepted practice of the Irregulars in that he treats the stories as factual, rather than fictional accounts. This volume covers the four full length novels: "A Study in Scarlet"; "The Sign of Four"; "The Hound of the Baskervilles" and "The Valley of Fear" completing his study of the Canon that had begun with his two volume treatment of all the shorter works. As with the earlier works the book is printed in two columns, one containing the text of the story and the other containing the notes from that section. The book is illustrated with engravings that accompanied the stories in the magazines that first published them. The notes that Klinger has included with the text cover a wide range of subjects from explanation of outdated slang expressions to speculations by the author and other experts on people and locations the stories were actually based upon to in depth explanations of details. In addition both in the notes and in appendices Klinger offers his own and others theories as to the dating of the events in the stories.

This is a beautiful book, one that any fan of Holmes and Watson will surely enjoy. Someone who is reading the stories for the first time might find themselves suffering from information overload but anyone familiar with at least some of the stories will delight in finally discovering what some of those odd references meant. Also it is interesting to see that at times Watson or perhaps his 'agent' Arthur Conan Doyle, made some errors in their accouts leaving the impression that the 'Master' (Holmes) made some errors.

Hirschfield writes about poetry with an intellectual as well as with an emotional clarity that illuminates and clarifies her subject. In doing so she draws from an vast well of deeply considered experience and insight. If you are interested in poetry in its many forms and manifestations I highly recommend this book.

I've owned this book for several years now, and I turn to it again from time to time, dipping into its rich prose and remembering the love I felt for it the first time I opened its covers and began to read. I was so captivated by Hirshfield's words that I read aloud from it to my friends, sharing her sense of beauty and mystery with them, and the joy I was taking not just in the way she formed her arguments, but in the wonderful feeling that came from hearing the words aloud.

I have a shelf full of books on poetry and poetics. I've got volumes of writers' exercises and essays on what poetry is and how to do it. This is the only one I've ever assaulted my friends with. Share it. Pass it along.

Jane Hirshfield's "Nine Gates" is probably the most interesting and insightful book I have read on the art and uses of poetry. While Hirshfield's approach to poetry is very much informed by (and often illustrated through) her knowledge of Asian arts and Buddhist philosophy, one need not be a Buddhist or a scholar to understand and appreciate her vision. Hirshfield is most interested in approaching poets and poetry through the essential work that they perform by helping us to understand the natures of, and the relationships between, the self and the world (that is, community in its largest sense). The book's argument is hardly as abstract or fanciful as this might sound, however. Instead, Hirshfield uses this approach to show how the most basic elements of poetry (rhythm, rhyme, image, and so on) function to help the poem build its meaning and fulfill its purpose. "Nine Gates" is an excellent book to strengthen your ability to read poetry, and to deepen your understanding and appreciation of this vital art.

...sometimes we need a personal classic to draw comfort from.

This past year when both grandmothers passed away, the soft voice of poetic comparison helped ease the heart.

In my small opinion, this is an inspired and gentle voice to turn to and read. And also reread.

I hope you also enjoy this reading experience.

At first I rebelled against the author's devoting pages to a discussion of poetry translation. However, once I dug hard into
her elegant but fairly dense prose, the more I found it fascinating, (including (of all things) certain esoteric aspects of Japanese language and poetry as well as translation.

I have begun reading NINE GATES for a second time, and I suspect not for the last. Although scholarly, the book is also moving, touching and definitely inspiring for any artist, poet or not.

I had the privilege to study the history of the Germanic languages from a photocopied version of the manuscript for this book back in the day. Though the title makes it seem targeted at students of Old English, it actually gives equal weight to all of the Germanic languages, notably Old High German, Gothic, and Old Norse (Icelandic).

Each chapter begins with the parable, "The Sower and the Seed," in the language of the chapter. This text was chosen because it's actually found in the existing manuscripts - - the Bible tended to be translated into the vernacular early on, and disseminated widely - - and because this story has a goodly amount of grammatical action. "A sower went out to sow seeds" gives you three variations on the basic stem of , and you can see how that idea is reflected in each language.

Using the same text also makes for great pedagogy. After a few chapters, the student *sees* the differences immediately, and automatically starts thinking about the language at hand.

It would be easy to make a book like this a collection of reference grammars with a boring list of similarities and differences from one language to the next. Robinson avoids this, and writes in a lively and interesting style. I highly recommend this book if you're interested in the history of the Germanic languages.

This is a wonderful book, and I doubt if any serious reviewer will give it less than five stars. It is exceptionally well-written by an author who wears his immense learning lightly. Devoting a chapter to each of the known early Germanic languages -- e.g., Old Germanic, Gothic, Old Saxon, Old English, Old Frisian, etc. -- Robinson shows how the languages developed, how they shared common characteristics and developed new ones, and how they to some extent must have cross-fertilized one another. In the process, he shares some fascinating information, such as the development of "Futhark," the runic alphabet in which Old Norse was originally written, and makes a cautionary remark which explains that we may know a good deal less about early Germanic writings skills than we think we do: "It is easier to write a letter on a stick than on a stone." He also tackles some deep linguistic issues, such as the reasons why the idea of a language-tree may be misleading, and why the analogy of biological taxonomy to language typology can be problematical. When biological species diverge, they never re-converge. But tribes, armies, villagers, etc., my split up, rejoing, form new groups, etc., so their languages may diverge, reconverge, borrow, meld, and otherwise demonstrate a more complicated history than a "divergence from a common ancestor" model might suggest. For example, Robinson concludes there never was a "common language" which could be called "West Germanic."

Robinson also points out the limits of our knowledge -- so much of our reconstruction of these ancient languages depends upon translations of the Bible and other religious texts that we know very little about the idiomatic usage which surely characterized the "everyday" use of these tongues. We have to be grateful to Robinson for a book which is unlikely to be equaled, much less surpassed, anytime soon.

This book is an exceptional piece of literary work. This book compares old English to it closest continental relatives. I particularly enjoyed the preamble at the beginning of each chapter that discusses the history surrounding the people that spoke such languages as old Saxon, old Norse, old Friesian and other Germanic dialects. This would be a valuable tool to the student or to the armchair Etymologist/early medieval historian.

Orrin Robinson has done what many suggested could never be done -- or done well at any rate: he has constructed a useful, solid introduction to the whole of early Germanic linguistics, hitting all the high points, with concision, without merely paying lip service to each language. It's a terrific starting point for comparative Germanic linguistics -- from which you can move on to more exhaustive works on the individual languages.

Robinson covers seven key Germanic languages here, each in its own chapter: Gothic, Old Norse, Old Saxon, Old English, Old Frisian, Old Low Franconian, and Old High German. In each chapter, he situates the language in its proper historical context, discusses its development from Primitive Germanic, explains its phonology (useful crib notes to refer back to when you need to remember how to pronounce Old Saxon or Gothic! :), talks about the key literary texts in the language, offers two or three reading samples in each language -- with glosses and cognates in the margin and a short glossary following, provides an overview of the grammar, and more. Each chapter also concludes with a Further Reading section, telling those interested in learning more where to turn next.

This is quite a lot to have accomplished in such a relatively short book (c.300 pp.). Robinson's writing is a model of clarity, and the book never plods or becomes too overwhelming or too dry. I've read this book more than once and I refer to it often, which is a compliment of another sort. Very highly recommended indeed!

This book was my first introduction to Germanic linguistics. The book begins with a chapter entitled "The Germanic Language Family." Although the discussion is, for obvious reasons, framed in terms of the Germanic languages, this is incidentally the best and clearest exposition of the principles and techniques of historical linguistics that I have ever read.

The next chapter, "Germanic: A Grammatical Sketch", lists those features of phonology and grammar which characterize the Germanic languages, richly illustrated with examples, mostly from Gothic. That's because Gothic is considered to have preserved more archaic features than the other languages surveyed, and to best represent what proto-Germanic must have been like.

There follow chapters on each of the following languages: Gothic, Old Norse, Old Saxon, Old English, Old Frisian, Old Low Franconian, and Old High German. Each chapter begins with a short history of the tribe(s) which spoke that particular language, usually 4-5 pages worth.

Following this is a short listing of texts from which we derive our knowledge of the language. This obviously varies from language to language. In the case of Gothic and Old Saxon, the texts are few and are listed in their entirety. In the case of Old Norse, Old English, and Old High German, the number of texts which survived is too numerous to list them all, so the corpus is merely described by genre, with a few outstanding representative texts listed.

Next are two short readings in the language. These are limited by the scope of the texts that survive in the language in question. The first is usually the Parable of the Sower and the Seed from the New Testament, to allow for easy comparison between languages. The second is usually from a text unique to the language: for example, the second text in Old Norse is the story of Thor and Skrymir from the Edda; in Old High German, it's from the Muspilli; in Old Frisian, it's from a Frisian legal code.

Following the readings, there is a glossary of all words contained in the readings.

Next there is a short grammar of the language, which covers spelling and pronunciaton pretty thoroughly, and offers a less thorough treatment of grammar. The author clearly states that he did not intend to present a comprehensive grammar for each language. The intention is to give the reader the noteworthy characteristics of the language being considered, and especially to illuminate how it is similar to, and how it differs from, the other early Germanic languages.

The next section for each language covers some topic in Germanic linguistics; the author chooses a general topic which has special significance for that chapter's language. For example, for Old Saxon, he discusses Germanic alliterative poetry. This is particularly relevant to Old Saxon since our main representative text in that language is the Heliand, an alliterative epic retelling of the events in the life of Jesus.

Finally, there is a bibliography for each language, usually containing about 10-12 items, which directs those interested to further reading. The lists are relatively short, but I have found some real jewels there; McDonald-Stearns treatment of Crimean Gothic, for example.

The author concludes the work with a discussion of the grouping of the Germanic languages based on grammatical and phonological features, together with a chart listing some of these features and the early Germanic languages which exhibit them, for ease of comparison.

This is one of my most treasured books. I purchased it 10 years ago, and still keep it by my bedside. I've read it innumerable times from cover-to-cover, and also enjoy opening it at random.

Desiree is married to Jamal. Troy is the ex-boyfriend she almost married and Derrick is one she let get away, who is also best-friend to Troy. Constantly away from home traveling for her job, Jamal feels neglected because when Desiree is home she acts as if she wants nothing to do with him. Jamal, feeling frustrated, gets caught up in a love triangle that doesn't include his wife. With lingering feelings for Troy, Desiree gets caught up in her own love triangle. Add in a best friend who is quick to voice her opinions, but has always been there for Desiree no matter what, with all that is going on, someone is bound to get hurt. The question is who will it be and what will the consequences be for all of this infidelity? This book is DRAMA-filled and it will have you quickly turning the pages to find out what is going to happen next and just when you think it ends the author leaves you gasping for more.

From the first page ONE AIN'T ENOUGH took off and I found myself quickly turning the pages to find out what was going to transpire next. Talk about drama, man, this book was chocked-full of it. Mo Flames did an excellant job in keeping this reader entertained and glued to the pages. I got to say she left me (literally) with my mouth hanging open, like no she didn't.

Reviewed by Leona Romich
for The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

I have been reading Mo Flames blogs for the last year....I was so impressed by her wit, candor, intellect and truthfulness. I was so excited when I found out she was writing a book. I pre-ordered it months and months in advance.

Well, I finally got my book and needless to say, I enjoyed it immensely. Suspense at every turn.....taking the book with me every where I go and finally finishing it and craving for more. This book will not disappoint!! I also ordered a book for my goddaughter, she loved it, said it was the best book she has read in a long,long time!!!

I am not a big reader. I get bored after a few chapters if the book is not interesting enough and I put it down, never to be picked up again. Not with this book. Hot hot hot. You are hooked from the very first page and can't wait to see what happens next. The descriptive nature of each scene makes you feel as if you are right there. Definitely a must read! I can't wait for the next book of Mo Flames!

Mo Flames is definitely a new author who is destined to take this literary game by storm!!

This book tells you all about Desiree and her quest to find a true soulmate. She starts out with Troy, a NFL player that is nothing but trouble from his fist connecting with her face every chance he gets. She finally comes to her senses and leaves him alone, gets married to another man Jamal and then starts getting busy with her and Troy's mutual friend Derrik...

Sounds like a bunch of DRAMA... well that it is.... Mo steps into many womens' lives with this uncut, hold onto your seat debut novel of hers and I can't wait for this sequel.... Please get this book! Much success, Mo!

Mo Flames is hot, hot, and hot. Beware, a towel or even a cold shower maybe required when reading One Ain't Enough; that is how hot this book is.

Girl meets guy, falls for him hard, realizes he is not the one. Girl meets another guy and he is the one...maybe. Desiree Edwards, a woman who can help you make the right choices when it comes to your money, but who is there to help her make the right choices when it comes to love? Will it be her best friend, Brielle, or one of the men in her life; Jamal, her husband; Troy, her ex-boyfriend or Derrik, a mutual friend of hers and Troy?

Desiree's job requires her to do a lot of traveling, and though in the beginning Jamal was understanding and okay with it, the time has come where he really wants to begin a family. When his needs are neglected, Jamal finds a new body to warm his bed. Once he realizes he may have gotten more than what he bargained for, Jamal makes choices he cannot change and would come to regret.

Derrik a true friend, has been holding in his feelings concerning Desiree, because of her relationship with Troy. When they are stuck in an airport together, he sees his chance and takes it as soon as it is offered to him. As the saying goes, what is done in the dark, will always come to light, and when it does sparks will fly, but who will ultimately get burned?

What do you get when you put hot sex and two love triangles together? One Ain't Enough by Mo Flames. I truly enjoyed reading this debut novel. I was a bit perturbed when I completed the book, because it left me hanging and wanting more. Then again I anticipate her next book that I hope will not only tie up some loose ends, but stand up to the quality work Mo Flames put forth in One Ain't Enough. One Ain't Enough is not for the meek or the mild; I do recommend it to readers who can hang with the likes of Eric Jerome Dickey and Zane. This would be a good read to a person with an open-mind, who likes fast-moving drama, and who is not afraid to read erotica in its rarest form.

Jennifer Coissiere
APOOO BookClub

I love this book! The illustrations are beautiful and the messages are wonderful. I especially like the way the devotions are written for the small child. They are easy for them to understand and relate to everyday situations that they have probably experienced.

Preschoolers can relate to the stories in these devotionals and have often experienced something similar in their lives. The stories are short, so a little one can pay attention throughout. The prayers fit the stories very well and again, are short and sweet. I also like that actual the Bible Verse is included in each devotional.

I read this book to my daughter every night. The messages and illustrations soothe us and help us connect with each other.

Of the fifty-some children's books I own, this is one of three I actually enjoy reading. :)

My 3 1/2 year old son and 5 year old daughter love this devotions book and so do I. It has a short 1 page story that the kids can relate to (also there is usually a question or too within the reading that lets you be interactive with your kids). A bible verse and a prayer are at the bottom of the page and relate to the story. I would recommend it for anyone that wants to put an emphasis on the Lord and bring Bible verses into their children's lives.

This book was given to my 3+1/2 year old for Christmas, 2007. We have been reading the one page devotions every night before going to bed. I really enjoy the short sweet messages, prayers and scriptures. My daughter talks about Parker, Zoe, Kaitlyn and Jack as if they are a part of our family now! The illustations are adorable. A few words of caution...some of the readings bring up subject matter that might prompt a few questions from your little one (Holy Spirit, Heaven, death etc.) I would certainly recommend buying this for a parent and child to share together.

Dazzling and intense works. Good overview of his output. Although this is not the Collected Poetry of Heaney it does contain almost all his best poems up to 1996, as well as his Nobel Prize acceptance lecture (a gem) and an excerpt from his play Cure a Troy. Essential poetry volume.

I needed the book for a class... I went in to reading it like it was going to be garbage... But it actually was a little bit interesting...

strong poems, there is a sadness and a resignation of fog that permeates these poems. this is a melancholy man, one for whom the all-pervading glue of inaction and paralysis bounds him to a bleak world, soiled and grey and drab. this is a weary poet, too nauseated with reality's bruised soldiers, slovenly rudeness, the uncouth glutton, the debauched fiend. i enjoy him, immerse myself in his dust-gloom, his inability to soar into elation and falcon-freedom.

author of Lorelei Pursued and Wrestles with God

After currently studying the quality of Seamus Heaney's poems, i am quite sure that this book will not dissapoint you. The quality of Heaney's poems are somewhat outstanding, they are a shock, as you dont normally read poems of this sort, and once you read one, you have to read the others. One of my personal favourites is Mid-Term Break.

Written by Kirk Aged 14

If you have not read Seamus Heaney, then you are not in touch with what the English language is in its heart. Heaney's simple, unstrained word usage, coupled with a deep knowledge of the rich Anglo-Saxon which is our cornerstone, evokes a strength which comes not so much from what we see and know as from something which is rooted deeply in our psyches as Anglo-Europeans (or at least those living in and a part of such cultures). Heaney also brings to light the beauty of the ordinary, primarily by weighting it with the yoke of history and the various passions of his fellow man.

I bought this collection because I enjoyed others of his works (especially The Spirit Level and Seeing Things), which I uncovered at the library, too much to go long without his poetry. And this collection turns out to have all of my favorites from those volumes, as well as the best and most skilled of the poems of his earlier volumes. Do I recommend it? I wouldn't have prominently displayed the fact that I was reading it in numerous public places if I didn't, now would I?

I ordered this book for our library's collection (for education students, to help them understand all faiths their students might be), and I still have the habit of reading everything I order-and I'm very glad I read it.

The artwork is wonderful, but the real magic of this book is it's handling of many aspects of being raised Pagan. Young Rabbit has been raised Wiccan by her parents and each of the major rituals and Sabbats are examined from her point of view, as are their understandings of the dieties, how to deal with teasing, and stewardship of the Earth and other people. Stories of everyday life and ritual life are mixed in with explanations of Sabbats and there are great real-life examples of how to bring a child into Circle worship with parents. It makes me wish there was a larger family-centered Pagan community in my area to share with my son.
This is definatly a book written for an American child (it mentions the US more than once), but it would probably be appropriate for a UK Pagan, as well. Excellent resource for Pagan children up to about 3rd grade, for Pagan parents, and for educators or neighbors who have discovered there is a Witch in their community.

Beautiful art work. Execellent story and lesson for the pagan child or any child for that matter.

I've read this story to my daughter dozens of times, and while she is only 2 she loves this book. I've had to memorize it because she pulls it into her lap and pretends to read as she turns the pages. Okay, enough of the cute stuff. Lyon has captured essential pagan themes and practices in an absolutely terrific story about Rabbit and how she has learned pagan customs and festivals. If you have been searching for that book to help your child understand your beliefs, stop now, get this book. P.S. SHE ILLISTRATES IT TOO. This is one seriously talented author.

My daughter loved this book and i learned a few things as well. It's a great tool for teaching children about their parents' pagan ways and covers alot of info about the 8 sabbats, circle, goddess, etc. It's written in the form of a 'storybook' but with all of this info contained within the story. I would highly recommend it!

First of all I need to say that I personally know Lyon. But don't let that make you think I'm biased.

All of Lyon's books are fun and down to earth so they can be enjoyed by both children and adults alike.

Not only does she write children's books, but lives the spiritual lifestyle as well.

If you have young children in your life and follow the pagan lifestyle, I'm confident you will not be disappointed in this or any of Lyon's books.

Highly recommended!!

Pale Phoenix is a wonderful book. so detailed and well written that you can see your self there with the main characters. enchanting and a joy to read. i first discovered it 6 years ago at the local library and ive been rereading it(and i dont like to reread books *nods*). adios

This was a great book. The author kept you in suspense until you figured out what was going on. It is about a girl named Miranda and her parents. They take in an orphan named Abby. It was going okay, and then Miranda realized there was something weird about Abby. Then she started searching Abby's past.

This is another fine example of Kathryn Reiss's writing. I think it was a great book. I read atleast 4 times because I loved it so much. I really hope Kathryn Reiss becomes well-known. She has a great imagination and sense of literature. This classic tale about a pheonix rising from the ashes is a great story for young and older people to enjoy. I'd give it 10 stars if I could.

The only way that you will reall you will really understand this book fully is if you read the first book, Time Windows. The basic plot is that a girl , Miranda has a very great life with her parents and neighbors in her small Northeastern town until they take in this orphan named Abby to live with them. Miranda and Abby do not get along a weel and things change for Miranda. She beginds to start uncovering Abby's amazing past and helping her deal with it. If you read this book you will really benefit from it becuase, if you read anymore books by this author, the character Abby appears in many of them breifly.

This story is so suspenseful, that I was kept on the edge of my seat the entire time! This time-travel book, involves a young, thirteen-year-old girl by the name of Abby Chandler, who mysteriously and magically escapes a horrific fire, in which her family was killed. Abby does not know it, but a small, magical, stone flute carved in the shape of a phoenix, given to her by a Native American woman, Willow, saved Abby from dying in the fire with her family. But the flute did not only save Abby's life, it also threw her ahead in time by at least three hundred years! One second Abby was living in the colonial era, and the next second she was in a field of snow, without any knowledge of the buildings and houses around her.

Eventually Abby crosses paths with a young, fifteen-year-old girl, Mandy Browne, of Massachusetts. Unknown to both girls, but the day these two meet is the day Abby is rescued from her seemingly inevitable fate of living forever.

Mandy discovers there is something about this girl that isn't right. Whenever Mandy hears Abby hysterically crying, she goes to her room, but Abby is not there. What is even more strange, is that Mandy's parents do not hear Abby's wretched crying. In addition, Mandy discovers pictures of Abby's dating back hundreds of years. The strange thing is though, is that in all of the pictures there is a girl who is the splitting image of Abby, with the exception of clothes from each time period.

Twice, Mandy confronts her parents about Abby's crying, and twice Abby somehow returns back to her room, denying all of it, to which Mandy's parents take sides with Abby. Abby now knows that Mandy can unquestionably hear her crying when she has traveled back to her home of ruins. Since no one else has been able to hear her crying when she has been there, she decides to tell Mandy what really happened to her. Shocked and surprisingly moved by Abby's story, Mandy has no idea what to say and she is left speechless. Abby thinks that because Mandy can hear her crying, she will be able to help Abby save her family.

The rest is up to you to figure out what happens to the two girls. I loved this book and I know that anyone who reads it will too!

An excellent edition of Graham Greene's The Quiet American because it combines this prescient novel with superb contextual documents about the Vietnam War, Greene's role in it, and a wide-range of critical essays about the novel. It's stunning how Greene in 1952 was able to see what would happen and why in Vietnam, but the novel speaks as well to us today about the dangers of imposing our own ideologies on other cultures and being blind to human suffering. It also shows the dangers of sterotyping and objectifying the "other."

To read The quiet American now, some thity years after the end of a sensless and disastrous war, gives us an unexpected vision of Vietnam, its people and the United States involvement in that war. Furthermore, it's inevitable to think of the present war in Iraq.
It's no news that Graham Green is a magnificent fiction writer, witty, sometimes funny, always capable of digging deep into historical situations and different people habits and values (The power and the glory and The comedians are very good examples)but in the qiet American he is also a cruel reporter and a skillful creator of full size human characters.
The Viking Critica Library edition has also an enormoues value for the inclusion of literary reviews from the first edition of the book and the opinons of experts both in literature and Vietnam history.
Javier Olmedo,
Mexico City, Mexico

Into the intrigue and violence of Indo-China comes a young, idealistic and quiet American called Pyle who is employed in the Economic Aid Mission. He is sent there to promote democracy through a mysterious Third Force. But his naïve optimism about democracy starts to cause deaths and his friend the cynical British foreign correspondent Thomas Fowler finds it hard to stand aside and watch. As Fowler intervenes, he wonders whether it is for the sake of politics or for his love for the young Phuong.
Commissioned during the 1950s to write an article on guerrilla warfare in Malaya, Graham Greene stopped off in Vietnam to visit a friend, and soon fell under the spell of Indo-China. This novel is a result of his love for the country, inspired by his experiences there. Although the political situation has changed dramatically, The Quiet American continues to reflect accurately and powerfully the problems of war and the people involved in it.

If you plan to buy this book by all means get this edition. The novel is very readable and Greene is a real wordsmith. The thing is this edition has news articles by the author about Indochina,
critical reviews (the good and the bad), interviews with Ho Chi Minh and American generals, a plot summary of the film and documents about the war. It also has topics for discussion or school papers. The text is less than 200 pages and readable so there is time to read the additional material. This book has the last chapter first such that you know the final result and the rest is leading up to the events in the first chapter. It is a gimmick but it works. I had to re-read the first chapter when I finished; couldn't help it. Find this edition, Viking Critical Library.

One of the most amazing things that jumped out at me about Graham Greene's novel, "The Quiet American," was the copyright date. 1955. How many years BEFORE America found itself mired in the nightmare of the Vietnam War?
Why didn't anyone in power or policy see the warning in this novel?

I'm still reading through all the extra material but I feel confident enough about the book itself and what I have read that I can definitely give this book five stars (the novel is over a third of this book).

Alden Pyle, Greene's "quiet American," clearly represents America in this cruel world. He's young, strong, sure of his beliefs and willing to act on his own convictions--but in this world of deceit and corruption, he doesn't have a chance. And quite a few people have said the same thing about America in Vietnam.

Beyond the deeper meaning of the setting and story (more powerful since it was written BEFORE the USA got stuck in Nam), the characters really make for some fiction. Pyle, the clear-eyed Yank looking to do good in Indo-China, runs into the narrator Fowler, an opium-smoking old Brit journalist who's seen too much and forgot how to care about anything--except the Vietnamese woman who comes between them.

At the end of the 1970s, "Apocalypse Now" got a lot of kudos for its dark humor ("I love the smell of napalm in the morning!") but Greene had written along those lines in the 1950s: Fowler rides along on a bomb run and, after a village is blown to bits, the pilot points out the beautiful sunset on a nearby river.

Up to this point, my favorite Greene novel had been "The End of the Affair," but now it's "The Quiet American." I also want to see the Michael Caine movie they made a couple years back.

One thing that poverty didn't diminish is Woodruff's powers of recall. Though, as soon as he becomes literate, one senses he'll inexorably transcend his meagre beginnings which ring most vividly in this tale. I loved the regional patois as much as the rising political conscience of the working class boy. The years roll by with the daily grind, humilities accompanying the unjust disenfranchisement of workers; Dickensian conditions that were worse in Lancanshire than other industrial zones. Woodruff's effortless prose is as tough as his father's persistent presence and as nuanced as his mum's mercurial mood shifts. Fortunately for readers,'Nab's End' is no end, but a beginning to further tales from post adolesence. Having just closed the covers on Roy McFadyen's, 'at A Cost', I opened Woodruff to discover a parallel story in times bedevilled by poverty and dire economic depression. If you want to visit the comparison and find, at a pinch, an even more extraordinary childhood,'At a Cost' is published and distributed by its author @ 15 Maryann Street, Golden Beach, Queensland, Australia 4551.

This is a wonderful book which, as an Anglophile, I loved reading. Just a word to those who feel it some of the terms are American. Remember, please, that the author is now living in the US, and new terms become automatically one's own after a while. And yes, there is a sequel to this book!

You don't have to have been born in Blackburn (as I was) to appreciate this wonderful true story of a childhood in poverty with all the wit and humour and honesty of the working class. Their hopes for a better and fairer future are vivid and the story ends with an emotional desire from the reader to know how and if this young man succeeds as he takes his steps away from Lancashire. Inevitably the reader will read the sequel Beyond Nab End which is even better but read this first.

William Woodruff and I have something in common; we were both born and reared poor in Lancashire, doubly lucky as Mr Woodruff puts it. The book itself is a reader, you pick it up and you can't put it down. There is always something else you want to read in the next chapter. It is a shame the book had an ending to it as it leaves you wanting more.

Like one of the other reviewers I was a bit disappointed when the text was dumbed down, probably for our American cousins, as little discrepancies showed through the text. For instance, stating ten pennies instead of ten pence (we would have said it 'tenpunce') and the absolute glaring mistake of calling a tanner 6p when it should have been 6d and a dodger is 3d not 3p. Little details like this tend to eat at me.

The book was easy to read and if you know a little about Lancashire, specifically Blackburn, you will find it fascinating.

Tim Brimelow 19 May 2003

I came upon this book after hearing brief snippets of it serialised BBC Radio 4 and the World Service.
It had added interest for me as I know Blackburn (at least modern Blackburn) very well, it was later a surprise to discover I knew virtually nothing of the town.
The book is evocative and stirring as you follow the authors journey from early childhood to his 16th year, when he finally leaves a deprived, economically and spiritual broken town for London, in hope of work and a better life.
The journey in between is a rich array of colourful and long forgotton characters and ways of life. Most striking by far is the harshness of past societies in which the poor were virtually ground into the dirt and totally at mercy of commerce. Yet still the love and joy of these kindly, caring and sweet natured people shines through, it took a great deal to make them lose all hope. One cannot help but to think that these poor and hardworking forbares made more than a little of the muscle in the British national psyche.
The Authors journey is one of love, loss and curiousity, his intelligence is meant for better things than the dust and grime of cotton mills but so hard worked are his people and he that this realisation is a long time coming.
Highlights characters are Grandma Bridget and the lovley Aunts he visits in Summer. Quite a journey and very much a joy to read.