Short Stories Books

Superb. Simply. Great literature. The character of John, the main character's friend was the best and most gratifying of all. Please obtain and let your eyes go to work. To think the author died short of fifty. Man, we get burned sometimes.

I am thilled to see this book being available in hardcover and paperback as well. I read this book about ten years ago and I read it regularly every couple of years. The story is very compelling and the scene of the protagonist walking home through a run-down community is a classic of American literature.

What this book and O'Connor's other novel, The Last Hurrah, apart is the writing. In an era where writers seem to challenge one another to be more like Faukner and less comprehensible to the average man, O'Connor wrote very well and his language is beautiful. From this fine prose arises really deep characters which are flawed and so easily identifiable to us all.

I found this to be a wonderful novel and a great pleasure to read. I have been trying to find this for years and could not in any bookstore. While this could not translate to the movies as easily as Last Hurrah, I found this to be so much more interesting. A truly Catholic novel, it is a joy to find something that takes spiritual issues seriously and yet is hardly preachy. And if you are Irish, the dialogues of the "friends" of the family will make you laugh outloud while reading. This brought back the charms and frustrations of my childhood and my own family of Irish aunts and uncles. Long but worth the effort. A great find.

As I was reading THE EDGE OF SADNESS, I couldn't help but think that in 1961, when this Pulitzer Prize winning novel was published, it must have been rather controversial. It dealt with the humanity of priests, noting flaws but in a respectful manner. While some writers such as Georges Bernanos dealt with such issues in his DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST, American audiences were still used to the Hollywood Big Screen concoctions of Spencer Tracy--Father Flanagan/Bing Crosby--Father O'Malley models of priesthood. While the priest in THE EDGE OF SADNESS may be worthy of the warmth and love given to his movie counterparts, he's hardly perfect.

The novel tells the story of an alcoholic priest named Hugh Kennedy beginning again in ministry in an older, run down parish. Readers get a sense he's not the priest he once was, and throughout the novel we learn of his early ministry, the ramifications of the death of his father, the struggle with alcohol, and the loneliness that is a real part of his life. The book is written in the first person, and we hear the story of his life as he tells of his rekindling of a friendship with the Carmody family: Charlie, the patriarch, his son John the priest, Dan, the ne'er do well, Helen, the outspoken sister married to a doctor and Mary, the daughter who remains at home to care for the aging but still independent and at times ruthless Charlie. We also meet a host of minor characters: Helen's husband Frank, their son and daughter-in-law Ted and Anne, Charlie's longtime friends P.J. and Bucky, Roy, the maintenance man who works at Fr. Kennedy's church, and Fr. Stanley Danowski, the endearing yet naïve and at time nerdy young curate at Fr. Kennedy's parish. As the events of the novel unfold, we see changes in Fr. Kennedy as he discovers his love for God and his vocation.

This is an older style novel in many ways. O'Connor is not short on words and he gives a number of details, yet the novel flows and is a fast read for a volume of nearly 650 pages. The issues of struggles in priesthood, vitality of parishes, older priest verses younger priest, unstated yet real competition between clergy people, and a hunger for God are all present in this book. In some ways if some historical details were changed in the book, it could be about modern day Catholic life. Perhaps this is the power of this book and why it can seem timeless. While it tells a story from an earlier day, it's not an invitation for nostalgia, at least for Catholic readers. Instead it will remind readers of what truly matters in life: the importance of faith, and the importance of having people who love us and people we love in return. While it may seem dated in some ways, readers will agree that the editors at Loyola Press were correct in reissuing this book as a classic.

This simple but beautiful bittersweet story of life among the Irish-American citizens of an unnamed eastern city is a joyful and beguiling tale. O'Connor's characterizations and dialogues are engaging and from my personal experience utterly authentic. I feel as though I have met all the main chacters and could give them names among family and acquaintances. The set piece of Father Kennedy' battle with alcoholism is tastefully done.

Both my 5-yr old and my 2 1/2yr old girls love this book! So simple, and beautiful pictures!

I gave this book to my daughter on her 2nd birthday and for over 7months now it has been one of her favorite books she has her Nonna read her "Busy Timmy" everyday and when its time for my daughter to do things on her own like use her potty or eat if you remind her that Timmy does them she just can't wait to do them as well! This book is a treasure for any toddlers library!

I love this book. I grew up with "We Help Mommy". It brought back memories and tears!

Eloise Wilkin Stories (Little Golden Book Treasury)
The sub-title says Little Golden Book Treasury and treasury is an appropriate title. This book is a treasure! Each of the 209 pages is a delight! The pages have a sentimental familiarity for me as I can remember relishing them as a child, reading them to my children, and now sharing them with my grandchildren. The reproduction is excellent- much better than some other publishers are offering- each detail still intact altho some of the images are as old as 1948. I heartily recommend this edition to anyone who enjoys the peaceful beauty of Eloise Wilkin's illustrations!

My toddler loves Eloise Wilkin's illustrations-- they clearly make the "babies" (as he calls them, whether they are or not) very sympathetic. He will ask frantically for the "baby stories," and start begging for more when we get to the penultimate page of whichever one we're reading. Some of the books selected for the anthology are a bit long/wordy/tedious for a very young child, but half are suitable for even the youngest. I was sorry to see that "We Help Daddy" was not included along with "We Help Mommy," but that's my only complaint.

This book has moved to the rankings of one of my favorite books ever! It was so smart and witty...I couldn't put it down and I was so sad when it ended. These characters were fresh and fun, they were confident but still flawed, and they were so relatable.
Not once was a character described by skin color or something else trivial, this book actually made fun of books like that! It was such a refreshing and smart read, I would recommend it to any reading diva!

I am always looking for something new to read. The story line has to move me. I loved he story line and characters. I could not put this book down. I think every woman can relate to each of these women. I loved it and will recommend it to others.

FAB is the story of four friends who are trying to balance their careers while looking for love. Bianca has moved from New York to Hollywood as a television publicist, but finds her paycheck doesn't cover her lavish lifestyle, and she discovers the men in Hollywood don't follow her rules. Carolyn is a successful advertising executive; however, her love life isn't going so smoothly, and she has self-esteem issues that have her always belittling herself. Taylor is a corporate attorney who works six to seven days a week and can't find a man worth spending her time with until she meets Meschach. Finally, there is Roxanne, a struggling actress who has hit a standstill in her career and must take a break or lose her mind.

The four friends are fiercely loyal to one another and offer each other advice when things seem to be a bit rocky. The ladies must make some hard decisions in their personal and professional lives in order to find their true happiness. Bianca must hit rock bottom before realizing it is not about the name brands you are rocking, it is about being yourself. Carolyn must learn to love herself to find her true love, which happens to be closer than she realizes. Taylor must face her fears of rejection and learn to balance work and life by taking a leap of faith. Roxanne must undertake a small sabbatical to find her muse and reinvigorate her career.

As successful as these ladies are, they still harbor the same issues of most women as they maneuver in the dating world, searching for the right man. However, they know they can depend on each other no matter what and will be friends until the end. The quests to balance work and find Mr. Right makes for some witty moments between the ladies. The characters are easily relatable to most hardworking and successful African-American women. Their pain, hurt and eventual understanding makes them believable. Although the story is not fresh, since it centers on female friends searching for love, the approach with four different authors was. The writing was skillfully crafted where each character had a strong voice. My only issue with the story was at times there was too much narrative and not enough dialogue, which tended to slow the pace down a bit. When the dialogue was there, it brought out laugh-out-loud moments and kept me turning the pages. The authors have presented an engaging friendship story where the women have their pains and their struggles, but in the end they still have each other.

Reviewed by Cashana Seals
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers

This book was entertaining, hilarious, and extremely true to life for single women of all races. I could totally relate to all of those characters! I have been some of all of them at different times in my life. I read this book straight though and almost never put it down. It was so funny that I found myself laughing out loud, which I almost NEVER do when reading a novel...even if I find it funny! I would recommend this book to everyone!!! :-)

Honestly, the only thing that I didn't like was the title. To me, the title didn't really do the book justice.

It's a great, realistic story about four black women who want to live "the fabulous life," but do it by working hard and enjoying their time with their friends, as opposed to scheming or marrying rich. What a refreshing change! They all want the same things -- a successful career, good friends, unconditional love and support, and, to be happy in their own skin. Each character is struggling in a different way to find the right balance and perspective. They all have flaws, but wonderfully, they all know it, and they all try, in varying ways, to improve themselves and their lives.

Because the writing is so clever and interesting, all of this is clear without ever sounding trite, simplistic, or cheesy. The writing is clear and the plot never slows down. Even better, the plot isn't silly or outlandish. The writing is also VERY witty, and intelligent. (I know I said that already, but I really appreciate cleverness and wit.) It made me laugh out loud several times. I enjoyed all the characters and felt like I really got to know and understand them all. The characters are real and developed. I don't mean to sound so suprised, but even with books where I enjoy the plot, I am disappointed by the character development or the writing. FAB has it all. It's probably the best black "chick lit" that I have ever read.

If you are (or you know) an intelligent, fun, professional, independent black woman, read (or tell her to read) FAB.

I have always been very skeptical of "biblical fiction" because creative license can border on heresy if the writer is not careful, so I reluctantly purchased Gods & Kings the first book in Lynn Austin's Chronicles of the Kings series. Wow, was I pleasantly surprised! Ms. Austin has taken a few meaningful lines of old testament Scripture and brought them to life with believeable dialogue and suspenseful plots that although speculative, do not contradict biblical truths and bring honor and glory to our GOD. The way she describes how the Israelites under the rule of King Ahaz slowly and steadily turned from the one and true GOD and allowed idol worship to appease other nations, it is very easy to see parallels with our society today and it is very sobering! However, instead of leaving us with a feeling of doom and despare, Lynn gives us hope through the young Prince Hezekiah and a handful of faithful prophets of GOD -- it is not too late to wake up America!

I look forward to reading all the books in the Chronicals of the Kings series, and hope she continues to write stories about the old and new testament.

What an awesome storyteller. If you have ever had the pleasure of reading a Francine Rivers novel, you will enjoy Lynn Austin as well. While I meditated on Rivers novels for days and even weeks, I found Austin's stories a bit faster paced and entertaining yet at the same time thought provoking and nourishment to the soul. I greatly enjoyed the first three books and highly recommend them. I am waiting for the fourth and fifth!

You will not put this down, takes you directly to the time and setting of our history! You will LOVE this...all the Kings books are a MUST!!!

I purchased this book as an Amazon recommended read. I was completely SHOCKED how much I loved this book! I picked it up and read it in a day.
It is an inspiring read. I love the dynamic love relationship that develops with Hezakiah and his grandfather, as well as the relationship with his mother. This story will inspired in me a renewed faith!

Sometimes as a Christian you can read bible stories and you gain the historical significance, but this book allows you to relize the personal significance and dedication to God. It was wonderful!

The Chronicles of the Kings series are THE BEST Biblical novels I have ever read. Lynn Austin's writing is so captivating, you won't be able to put the book down! While reading this series, I actually had to make myself not even touch the book before I went to work - because several times I did just that, lost all track of time and wound up arriving late to work!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. It really fleshes out certain Biblical characters and events, enabling you to really feel involved with the Biblical accounts. They become more than just words on a page in a history book - they become living, breathing people that really walked this earth. I was pleased that the author stayed very true to the Bible. I have read novels in this genre before that took great liberties with the facts as presented in the Bible. I did not feel that this was one of those. In fact, the author uses direct quotes from the Bible at all times when the prophets delivered their prophecies! At the front of the book, the author lists the scriptures used to write the story and encourages you to study it more deeply.

This is a well-written, page-turning, true-to-the-Word book that will keep you reading for hours and deepen your appreciation for God's love and grace. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Good things come in small packages! This volume may be slender, but it packs a helluva wallop. This book is pure "rock & roll" hororr!

This horror anthology consists of twelve short stories and an extract from a novel. The collection runs a wide range of the genre with lead characters including the undead, a serial killer, and a dying cowboy's final lament, etc. The book contains well written tales that grip the audience as Staci Layne Wilson provides surprising emotion (that is for the short story format) in several of the stories. The supernatural runs free throughout the tome, but mostly provides atmosphere or the impetus to move the plot forward. Though the title implies a god-fearing or anti-religious fervor, HORRORS OF THE HOLY is more of a secular generalist series of tales that grips the audience with suspense and a wonder what can happen next. Ms. Wilson is a talent worth following (SEE THE LIFE AND TIMES OF RAPUNZEL).

Harriet Klausner

This is a funny book, but it doesn't detract from the horror at all - it's plenty scary! I really enjoyed it, and I'm hoping she comes out with a horror novel soon. Even though there are 13 stories, they were too short. I wasn't ready for them to end!

An anthology of 13 stimulatingly scary short stories. Each story a different look into the darkness, zombies, vampires, monsters and more. Wilson has created a collection of very different intersting, spine-tingling stories. The stories are creative and not really predictable. She uses different perspectives and creative these highly-entertaining plots. Delightfully enough, she sprinkles humor powder into irony, artfully. Her au fait writing style makes this a page turner. Take a journey through the supernatural world. Quick.

The sacred and the profane are only separated by a thin veil, and when HORRORS OF THE HOLY peels back the veil, be prepared for the fearful and unexpected. Beneath the most respected and holy lies the macabre and the profane, often more closely linked than you've ever expected.

Ranging from vampires and the supernatural to priests and evangelists, and even the common such as jewelry and teeth, HORRORS OF THE HOLY will have you checking the mirrors and the bathroom repeatedly. Two of my favorites, "Always Amber" demonstrates that possession may come from the simplest of things, while " Anti-Christ Superstar" will have you thinking twice before checking out that cool new web site.

Perhaps some of the fun with HORRORS OF THE HOLY also comes from the play on literary tradition. "Always Amber" was on my mother's book shelf for years; all children of the sixties and seventies loved "Jesus Christ Superstar" and of course the allusion to the bible in "The Tooth Shall Set You Free." Wilson's clever alliteration of the title, of course, also delights this English major: HORRORS OF THE HOLY: 13 SINFUL, SACRILEGIOUS, SUPERNATURAL STORIES.

While some stories are vaguely familiar as ghost stories or urban legend, this fresh voice brings new meaning and vitality to the story telling. Each story is riveting, written with an intensity that will hook the reader right through the end. Each story lives with vibrancy that is very difficult to match with such a diverse short story collection. If you love horror stories, the HORRORS OF THE HOLY is a must read.

Great job Victor! I had a hard time putting the book down once I started reading it. (I read it twice) you almost felt like you were living it. Victor did a nice job of making you visualize each character. I think Mr. Johnthan Holloway was my favorite. He's every girls hero. His family, his friends, and his community were his life. So much that he was willing to die for them. I can't wait for your 2nd novel hit. good luck Victor.

gwen

Yes, our book club "Mixed Company" discussed every aspect and enjoyed it. We look forward to meeting the Author VERY soon!

In Spite Of spins a tangled web of comedy, chaos, espionage, and intrigue; bascially things that occur in the Black community on a daily basis.

In addition to all the drama that takes place from the neighborhood beautyshop to the corporate boardroom, this novel's true gift to its readers is the passionate "Black on Black" love-thang. I'm sure you'll agree that is the "real deal" personified. The story gives each reader hope and reaffirms that love don't mean a thing, unless you have some for yourself.

The burning question that's sure to come to mind after completing the story of two life-times will be: "Who's going to star in the movie?"

I guess I'll be the dissenting voice here. I could not wait to put this book down. It was just plain bad.

The characters came off as one-dimensional stereotypes with no real depth who could be easily summed up in five words or less. John Holloway was "strong black man", the villain was "evil racist white man", Nation of Islam- "strong black men with suits", John's best friend-"Player" etc... While it's admirable to have a book featuring a "strong black man" to the extent that character is "Mr. Perfect/Dudley Do-right" he's not all that interesting.

Moreover, I lost count of how many times the author used John's thoughts as a vehicle to preach his views of what's wrong with Black America and how it can be fixed. While I understand the desire convey some sense of morality in a character, it just felt a little heavy-handed to have some moral lesson being conveyed to the reader on every other page. I couldn't help but wonder if this book was targeted towards teenagers because of the constant and obvious soap-box preaching going on.

As for the plot, why the author felt the need to make this an action novel I'm not sure. I felt like I was watching bad made for TV movie which from start to finish was obviously going to have a happy ending.

Finally, setting this story in Dallas was interesting, however the details were somewhat superfluous. As a reader I don't need to know every single street name the characters travel on to really "feel" like this story is in Dallas. A little too obvious an attempt to "Dallasize" the story on the author's part in my opinion. One more thing, way too many typos and misspelled words for a real book.

Twice John Holloway Sr., is placed in the wrong place at the wrong time and end up paying dearly for it. It took John Jr., to outwit the deception that was thrown upon him, to settle the score for him and his dad.

I really enjoyed the drama and would really like to see this novel made into a movie.

Zola's The Ladies Paradise is a fine translation from the French original. The author is right on target when it comes to consumer culture in nineteenth century France. He predicted well, how big businesses would swallow up the mom-and-pop shops, and create a need for material possessions. The character of Denise was one of strong ambition in a time when women had less than half a chance of leading an independent life outside of an andro-centric culture. Denise is a young heroine in her own right, rising up from poverty to become a strong voice in the world of the department stores. She has to fight vicious rumours and unwanted affections to make it to the top with out sacrificing her own beliefs. I highly recommend Zola's The Ladies Paradise.

any one who has started a business or has worked in a business should read this book. It clearly outlines all marketing principles, sales psychology and the benefits of being in distribution rather then production. Amazing. Grow your mind and read.

THE LADIES' PARADISE is a sequel to POT LUCK (POT-BUILLE), which I read last year. Both have Octave Mouret as a central character. In the earlier novel, he was a young salesman on the make, both in his profession and with the young women in his apartment building. At the end of POT LUCK, he marries the owner of a successful drapery establishment. At the start of PARADISE, his wife has died; and Octave has entered on an expansion program from drapery into a department store named the Ladies' Paradise that threatens all the other shopkeepers selling clothing and accessories in the area.

Enter Denise Baudu, a country girl from Normandy, who moves to Paris with her two brothers after one of them has gotten in trouble back home. Her uncle runs a store called Au Vieil Elbeuf, selling drapery and flannels, but is unable to give her room or a job because business is threatened by the presence of the Ladies' Paradise across the street. Denise finds a job at the Paradise at the risk of angering her relatives.

Salesgirls at the Paradise live in a dormitory on the top floor of the department store. Room and board is part of the job, plus a token wage and commissions on sales over quota. Little does Denise know she had entered into a whirlwind of gossip and backbiting. She is made fun of by her fellow workers, but Mouret resists getting rid of her because he is drawn to her. At one point, however, two of Mouret's "spies" in management come upon Denise and a young salesman from her region who has sheepishly fallen in love with her and kisses her hand as head axe-wielder Bourdoncle watches. Denise is promptly dismissed.

As Denise finds another position in a less profitable store than the Paradise, the focus turns more to Mouret, who did not know of her dismissal. Mouret plans a large-scale expansion of the store and calls upon Baron Hartman (in real life, Baron Haussmann) to allow him frontage on the new boulevard being cut through the neighborhood.

One day, Mouret runs into Denise on the street and asks her to consider returning to the Paradise, which is just as well as the store where Denise had started to work was going under. To sweeten the offer, Mouret makes her an assistant buyer in the new children's wear department. With her enhanced status, Denise is now winning admiration from her co-workers, though some backbiters remain. In the meantime, Mouret's passion for her is growing -- despite Denise not encouraging it in any way.

There are several set pieces in the novel which are a feature of Zola's fiction. They come under the heading of giant mechanisms that grind people down. In GERMINAL, it was a coal mine; in POT LUCK, an apartment building; in HUMAN BEAST, railroads; and in THE BELLY OF PARIS, the food market at Les Halles. In every Zola novel, there are scenes showing off some giant mechanism at work crushing people under it like the wheels of a Juggernaut. In PARADISE, these scenes are highly successful sales which show a crush of frenetically spending customers and overwhelmed sales clerks as Mouret keeps "pushing the envelope" of what is possible in the apparel business. Even wealthy shoppers who came "just to look" are caught up in the frenzy and leave the store having committed themselves to buy more than what they could afford.

The owners of neighboring shops feel that the Paradise is like a hungry beast that strives to devour their businesses and put them out in the street. Which is exactly what happens. Denise's cousin Genevieve dies of consumption after her lover Colomban -- the main hope of Au Vieil Elbeuf -- runs away to chase a slutty Paradise shopgirl who is one of Mouret's cast-offs, and who doesn't even want him. Aunt Baudu follows her daughter soon after. When as the result of a series of sharp moves, Mouret buys their properties, the shopkeepers are evicted; and Uncle Baudu goes to a nursing home, completely dazed and broken.

Eventually, Denise and Mouret do hook up, but on Denise's terms. The novel ends as they announce their upcoming marriage.

I have found that the ten or so Zola novels I have read have been of a uniform high quality, such that I have difficulty recommending one over the other (though I have a particular fondness for NANA). THE LADIES' PARADISE is an excellent read and paints a fascinating picture of life in the emerging Paris department stores of the late 19th century.

The Ladies Paradise written in the nineteenth century rings true of today's consumerism. Emile Zola examines in this socialistic novel the effects of consumerism on customers and employees. The customers who are women are drawn to the items that are displayed on the tables. Octave Mouret, the storeowner, knows what women desire and sets forth to use it to bring in profits. The lace, stockings, velvet are feminine fabrics that entice women to spend money, even if they don't have it.

As a retail employee, I have dealt with customers who don't have the money to buy the items but want to get it. I am a customer who buys what is displayed because I think it is going to be an investment. I can relate to small stores like Uncle Baudu's. Businesses like his struggle to stay afloat amongst corporate expansion. They entice clients with their sales and bargains--things that I look for when I shop. Small stores can provide what the big stores don't have. One way or the other, the consumer can get some sort of balance. Working at both a community store and a corporate store, one thing that matters most to customers is service. Customers want to be treated with respect and they expect sales associate to be enthused and answer their questions; even if it is trivial.

Denise Baudu, a simple country girl, arrives in Paris to get a job at her uncle's drapery shop. To her disappointment he doesn't have a job for her because his store is losing customers to the Ladies Paradise. The mall provides goods that are cheaper than the small shops and have a selection of fabrics not only from the mother country, but imported from Asia. He suggests to his niece that she get a job there.

The store fascinates her but she does feel some betrayal towards her uncle. Her uncle's business, along with the small stores, are struggling to stay afloat. With the expansion of the mall, these stores are forced to close because they can't compete with them. Uncle Baudu's hopes of his business staying for the long haul are shattered.

Denise is at first, shy and awkward. She is the target of cruel and malicious slander from the employees including assistant buyer Madame Aurelie. Zola unfolds the lives of the sales employees. The money they make in retail isn't sufficient to support them. The women take to prostitution. Claire has three men supporting her material needs. Pauline befriends Denise and suggests that she get herself a lover to support her financially. Denise doesn't take that advice because it is not in her interest to be a prostitute. She is determined to keep herself and her family together without falling apart which makes the women envious of her.

The novel is centered around an actual person Aristide Boucicaut who founded Le Bon Marche which remains today at the center of Parisian culture. Denise is believed to be the model of his wife Marguerite. Zola puts into a social perspective that exists til this day.

After reading the book for an art class I was suprized to find out that I actually enjoyed the book, it had quite a twist to the department store/love story. I think Zola's description of the scenes were wonderful and helped me use my inmagination better. I would reccomend this book to anyone who likes learning about Paris bourgeous life and the mechanical system of the department stores. Definitly a good read.

Stanley,
Thank you for "Looker." The characters were as real as the pages and
paper on which they were written. Your knowing and seeing of Black gay Men's lives made the book a page turner. The tapestry of lust, love, pain, joy, anger, betrayal, safe hatred, sardonic sex, rage, crime, and bliss wove a tale reminiscent of what "real" Black gay men know to be our truths. Never before have had I read such a description of Black gay men living on the periphery of our community; while we exist in its midst.
Bran was a man undamaged by the gay experience, simply reluctant to love.

Most importantly you aptly connected the lives of varying generations
of "WE".
Love unrequited and finally realized and revealed. A love based on friendship. Wow!


Do it again,

Borris Powell
New York

This is no E Lynn Harris novel by any means but I must say it is well written, Engaging, Shocking, Real, and Exciting. My hat off to Stanley Bennet Clay. Thanks for giving us good quality fiction.

Well I must say. I enjoyed this book immensely.I didn't won't this book to end,hey clay what about a part two?????? You have another loyal fan,please keep the books coming.God bless you and much more success.

I enjoyed this book immensely. It kept me engaged and I couldn't put the book down until the end.

Stanley Bennett Clay is a masterful writer, but he's more than that. He is a wicked and compelling storyteller. With this his 3rd novel, SBC is at his best. The way that he so gingerly and brilliantly handles a myriad of characters--Omar, Brando, Shane, Dee, Mrs. Fant, Miss Zara, Eli, Vanessa and William and a few others AND their varied storylines--love unrequited, past pains and parental hurt, betrayal, bisexuality, without losing his stride OR his fire, is just commendable and makes for a wonderfully rich and page-turning read had me finishing off this morsel of a masterpiece in a matter of days! KUDOS AND ACCOLADES!!!

The Human Comedy is a saga of 92 novels that Balzac said was written by French society. Legend described him as the night-shirted social recorder working until dawn fueled by liters of coffee. Lost Illusions (1837-1843) is considered to be one of the best of the novels in the series in scope and structure. From the frenetic world of writers and booksellers in Paris to the grueling life of hard work and boredom in villages, Balzac traced the systematic destruction of illusions in his characters. No one could be trusted (friends, foes, or family) when the creative or inventive characters attempted to reach a goal. The flicker of hope and joy related to an artistic or business accomplishment was extinguished within days or hours. The enduring artists and producers were those who lived almost without hope, guided by a strict code of ethics protected only by their ability to keep their accomplishments secret. Ultimately, some of these survivors reached their goals. But by then, they no longer placed high value in them, much of the luster lost with their illusions. Lost Illusions set the standard for many of the wonderful French novels of the subsequent years of the 19th Century. The reader is immersed in French culture in a manner similar to the later writing of Gustav Flaubert.

Lost Illusions by Balzac is one of the most famous novels out of the ninety two he wrote in his lifetime and maybe also among a million his admirers have written in 175 years since his first novel was published.

Balzac choses Lucien as a romantic, good-looking dreamy poet. We are first thrust into his provincial life, with details about his ordinary life and extraordinary ambitions that he has no means of realizing. Except patronage by an older woman! She leads him to Paris, only to abandon him to fight his way into the high society. How Lucien rises and falls in the glamorous, amorous, corrupt and vicious life as a journalist in Paris is picturized through a narrative that is bathed in realism, and yet proceeds through both suspense and wit, in the spirit of the pace at which Balzac could conjure up such novels.

In the provinces, Lucien has a friend, David, who likewise is somewhat lacking in social and economic acumen, and is a hard working inventor. David own father ruins him by extracting an unreasonable price for the printing press that he leaves or sells to his own son. Crafty competitors take advantage of David's credulous character. David endures both provincial small mindedness and economic setbacks suffered to keep Lucien afloat. Balzac displays his knowledge of these disparate characters with remarkable attention to detail. He weaves an undercurrent, of what could have passes as a dissertation, on the art and science of paper making.

Balzac creates in his one book, a saga that unravels friendship, love, jealousy, lust, ambition, vanity, greed and absurdity that lurk in our beings and in our relationships. By using two main pillars, Lucien and David, Balzac erects a bridge into the two worlds of poetry and science. He shuns hint of any romance of either worlds, and shows how much character, how many hardships and set-backs, how much devotion and labor are required for a man to become a known poet or a scientist.

I am quoting an example from this translation (carried out by Katharine Prescott Wormeley):

"No one can be a great man cheaply," said d'Arthez in his gentle voice. "Genius waters her work with tears.Talent is a moral being which, like all other beings, is subject to the maladies of childhood. Society rejects undeveloped talent just as nature removes her feeble or deformed creations. Whoever wishes to rise above his fellows must be prepared to struggle, and not recoil at difficulty. A great writer is a martyr who does not die - that's the whole of it!"

Besides the two pillars, the book has an interesting array of characters. Actresses, society women, editors and publishers, lawyers, struggling writers, dandies - all appear with their human failings and foibles as part of a drama that unfolds with an enrapturing narrative. Be it history, economics, alchemy, or psychology, or any topic under the sun, Balzac ushers in his great knowledge, suspending and supporting the story with able and apt pointers, tresses and metaphors.

Balzac's Lost Illusions is undoubtedly a classic everyone can enjoy and must read at some point in their lives. Highly recommended.

I read this book during my latest visit to my favorite middle east country. I must admit that I didn't enjoy this book as much as others. I felt like it was slow to come around and I thought there was too much detail on (seemingly) unimportant things at times. I'm just a regular person, so that said if you are an accomplished reader you may love this, for neophytes such as myself, other titles are more likely to be properly enjoyed (see my reviews)...and keep me updated!

This is one of the best novels by Balzac, which is to say much, since he is still one of the best writers that have ever lived. Here, as in the rest of his work, the reader can appreciate Balzac's knowledge of worldly life, and especially the world of business, so alien to other writers. In this book he elaborates on the printing business as well as on journalism -vastly so-, back when it first began as a mercantilist activity. He contrasts the small life and intrigues of the province with the -no less petty but more gandiose- life and intrigues of the big city, Paris, and in particular of the faubourg Saint-Germain, the paradise of the Parisian jet-set.

David Sechard is a young man who inherits, at great cost, his cold and greedy father's printing business. Lucien Chardon (later "de Rubempre", after taking his impoversihed mother's more aristocratic last name) is his best friend. Both of them share a love for poetry, but it is Lucien who comes to shine as the young genius of province, the promise for whom it is worth it to sacrifice it all. Lucien gets the love of one Louise de Bargeton, the "queen of Angouleme", the most cultivated and refined woman in town. Louise promises to take Lucien to Paris, introduce him into the great society, and make him triumph as a poet. His family gives him all they can to get him started, and off he goes to Paris. But he happens to be arrogant, proud, and insecure, and soon he suffers the despise and insolence of aristocrats and other rich people. After what he believes to be an offense from Louise, he rejects her, earning her eternal hatred.

In the meantime, Lucien has been spending time with two very different circles of friends. The first is composed of a group of young intellectuals, hardworking guys sacrificing money and fun for the sake of science, art, and knowledge. They are there for him in times of need, and encourage him to keep up with his writing. The second group is a bunch of journalists, easy going but corrupt people who convince him to achieve quick fame and money. Lucien gets more and more trapped by this seemingly easy life, and after he conquers the love of the prettiest actress in Paris, his fate is decided. He achieves fame and fortune overnight, and so he jumps completely into the world of parties, frivolity and silly competition for status. At this point in the novel, Balzac introduces us to the sordid, decadent, and disgusting world of journalism understood as an unmerciful network of extortion and constant blackmailing. Lucien slides down that road, getting recognition and fame, oblivious to the growing net of envy that closes in around him every day.

What follows is the sad story of an unlikable character. Lucien has very little redeeming qualities about him, as opposed to some of his early friends, his young lover and his family. He is blind as blind can be, since his extreme selfishness builds a cloud in which he lives. He cares for nobody, except perhaps for the little Coralie, and he goes on leaving too many wounded bodies by the side of the road. Nevertheless, this character is the vehicle that allows Balzac to show us the real world out there. This writer never ever gives up to the temptation of sweetening things for the reader, he's brave and persists on his plan. Balzac is never a moralizing preacher, he is just a skillful painter of life as it is.

Here, as in the rest of his work, you will find characters who also appear in other novels, an ingenious device intended to give us a feeling of reality. This book is never boring and builds up tension rapidly, even for its length. It is an encompassing ride through all the fancies of youth gone wrong, as well as an unrelenting depiction of all the falseness and emptiness of high society. Much recommended.

I love Balzac. At his best he soars above the rest of French literature and here he is definitely at his finest. Easy to see why Proust thought him the best, at his best. Vautrin/Collyn is at his most sinister and attractive. If you haven't read Balzac before, this is the best to start with.

Lushly, sensuously, decadently overwritten, a fatal literary intersection where Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Poe, and Sade collide and out of the spectacular wreckage something lopes off into the surrounding woods declaiming like Nietzsche's Zarathustra with head trauma--Lautreamont's *Maldoror* is one of those ten or twelve books that aren't like any other. Part hallucination, part philosophy, part prose-poem, part prophecy, it's a bizarre stitched-together Frankenstein's monster of a text, a virtuoso improvisation animated by an electrifying genius who appears--and disappears--on the literary stage like a bolt out of the blue.

Here is a work where the first-person protagonist is an arrogant, cruel, disdainful superhuman egoist--sometimes seeming to be Satan; other times, something considerably less, but at all times evil incarnate. Dramatic and arbitrary shifts of narrative perspective and authorial points-of-view, a fractured, nonlinear plot-line, similes and metaphors of Homeric proportion that bring together the most disparate items in absurd conjunctions virtually without meaning. Was it all a joke? A parody of Romantic literature and the self-indulgent, self-pitying, overheated imagination of those who struck the Romantic stance of poetic revolt and existential defiance? What must the French public have thought of this black mass "celebrating" vice, blasphemy, pederasty, and murder--a work that held nothing--including itself--above disgust?

Predictably enough, *Maldoror* caused barely a ripple in the bourgeoisie calm when it was first published--by Ducasse himself incidentally--and remained unread by the general public who continues to not read it today. It remains a text ahead of its time--or perhaps more accurately--outside of time altogether. And yet it's had a huge influence on the writers, artists, and intellectuals of our time, from the Surrealists to the Situationists to literature in theory and practice to this day. *Maldoror* is a quintessentially postmodern text--a pastiche of genres with its penchant for self-parody and its direct address of the reader, breaking the illusion of "fictive reality" and authorial authority.

The translator argues forcefully that this is the edition of *Maldoror* to read--that other editions, most egregiously the Penguin--are rife with errors that stumble along the borderline of sheer incompetence. I've got no good reason to doubt this is the truth--and why not read this edition? It's attractively formatted, fully annotated, and contains all the known works of Lautreamont ((Ducasse)) including a few apocryphal tidbits, a chronology, biographical notes, and even a reminiscence by an old dude who once went to school with the Dark Prince of Letters. If there's a better edition, I'm unaware of it.

As for the heavily annotated *Poesies* that round out the main bulk of this volume--I had far less enthusiasm for them than for *Maldoror.* A series of gnomic axioms and aphorisms ala Pascal, indeed, many apparently in direct reply to Pascal, I didn't find them very interesting, often barely intelligible, even with the help of the comprehensive annotations--much of it in French which was unfortunately of no use to someone monolingual like me. What I did understand of the *Poesies,* the opinion of enthusiasts to the contrary, I found, for the most part, bombastic or banal, and very often both. A young man's ((Ducasse died in his early twenties)) bold, world-shattering, and consequently somewhat naïve proclamations on life and literature, any and all of which were likely to change if he'd lived to see even five more years of either. At twenty-three, you can be a genius and produce a literary masterpiece, but you still don't know much--certainly not even most--about life.

Indeed, even in the *Poesies,* Ducasse radically reverses field, mercilessly ridiculing Romanticism and its heroes, mocking the Satanic defiance that inspired such works as...*Maldoror!*

So was *Maldoror* all a goof then--a black spoof, a devastating satire? Had Ducasse turned a new leaf as he claimed in the *Poesies* and now dedicated himself to composing uplifting works of classical order and clarity? Was he pulling our leg then...or again? Was it all a joke--on us, on him? Was he simply insane, or just young, or both? Are we reading too much into all this--and is *that* the point?

These are some of the very potent post-contemporary questions that Ducasse has left us to contemplate in the wake of his great literary disappearing act--questions that remain in addition to, and beyond, those raised by the actual content of his enigmatic, and abbreviated, corpus of work.

An author--and a book--as important for being important as for the substance and merit of what he wrote, Ducasse and *Maldoror* is essential reading for the serious student of post-19th century literature. Ducasse/Lautreamont/Maldoror is a major signpost on the way to a new kind of writing, some of which we see today, more of which we'll see tomorrow.

this is the best book i've ever read and by far the best translation of it. i can't really say anything more.

What to say about Maldoror that hasn't been said yet? What to say about the mysterious son of a diplomat who appeared in France, wrote this book and died, vanishing from the world, yet leaving his mark for decades and centuries yet to come?
The first time I had the pleasure of reading this exceptional work, I was taken aback. Barely seventeen, I hungrily swallowed the disturbing images leaping at me from the pages, not to fully comprehend them until years later. This work, over a century old, is believed to be the first work, the foundation stone of the surrealist movement, a movement that penetrated into every aspect of art, life, being; whether we are willing to admit it or not, this work is as important today as it was when originally published in 1868 (well, at least a part of it was). The world was not ready to receive the complete self-awarness of evil Maldoror so fully comprehends, and the world is still not ready. This work is certainly not to be read by a "closed" mind. It is said that to be creative, one must borderline insanity, yet, Lautreamont was playing with genius; a genius of a caliber capable of scaring away even the most immodest of us. But get deeper into his work, walk past the disturbed images, surpass your fears and you shall see the light. This work cannot be ignored, cannot be left to collect dust. I have owned several copies over the past 14 years, and I am still finding new meanings, new passages and new understanding in this wonderful work. This trully is the one book that will never get old, that will always keep on giving, as long as one is ready to listen.

Isidore Ducasse's or Comte de Lautreamont's 'Les Chants de Maldoror' is a book one can contemplate over it's themes of darkness.
The songs of Maldoror is essentially an occult view of the world.
For good and evil are seen as equally important and mutually linked forces in nature, divorced from the moral content given to them by human beings. This is even noticeable in the name of the book's hero: Maldoror, which is a pun on 'mal d'aurore' (evil of dawn), the combination of darkness and light.
The book's phrase 'as beautiful as a chance meeting on a dissection table of a sewing machine and an umbrella' was also very important for the surrealists. It was valued because it was absolutely original in its combination of a banal object from everyday life with something that carries sinister and morbid overtones. The phrase also consists of a paradox, two of these objects have an constructive and therefore positive function, while the third has a dissecting and destructive, and therefore negative function. Yet these are only inanimate objects, it is only our imagination that puts "life" into them and give them these qualities.
It was this paradoxical metaphor that led Breton to describe Lautreaumont as the "unattackable".
The book also mocks science in its attempt to impose a static and rational order upon nature and attacks the belief that humanity is superior to the natural world. Religion is seen as an absurd delusion and god is seen as an unworthy, ineffectual, pathetic drunkard, scorned by the animals he is meant to have created.
This book can be seen as a belief that the "traditionally ugly" can be transmuted to an aesthetic value. When the socially conditioned fear of the ugly has been overcome, pleasure and psychological power are acquired.
Salvador Dali wrote:
"Repugnance is the sentry standing right near the door to those things that we desire most".

I like my writers drunk, blasphemous, decadent and French. If any of that list sounds even vaguely familiar then this is the book for you. Set the absinthe fountain to a slow drip, light some candles and prepare to tour an alchemical end-of-the-century underworld.