Journals Books

What a great time I had reading this book. As a fan of the TV series and Hyacinth herself, I was delighted to read the daily account of one year in her life. Very very funny and entertaining. A definite must for anyone who's a fan and a must for anyone who enjoys a great laugh!!!

This adorable little book is ostensibly a copy of Hyacinth Bucket's one-year diary (a gift from Richard). As with any diary, the entries are (of course) handwritten. Also, there are copies of newspaper clippings, invitations, a few annotated photographs, and so on, throughout. The first page, as one might expect, is a list of important phone numbers (all filled in and suitably annotated by Hyacinth with comments such as "dirty hands--must NOT touch wallpaper" next to the electrician's number, for example).

Though the diary makes reference to people and places that were introduced in the series--like Marston Hall (Hyacinth's rural retreat) and C.P. Benedict (the Garden Centre king), it is not a script-based book as is her Book of Etiquette. In fact, it includes incidents that never appeared in the series at all, such as a visit to the Antiques Roadshow. Also, from various comments included in the diary, the reader begins to wonder fairly early on whether or not Richard is seeing another woman (which adds quite an interesting twist!).

In short, this is a light-hearted and thoroughly entertaining (not to mention insightful) book, and it is a must-have addition to the series for all who love this priceless British comedy and that precious Bucket woman. Highly recommended!

I ordered this book on Feb 14, 1999 and have not yet recived this book! 3-5 weeks has turned into 3 months!

The book is pure Hyacinth. It's like reading her mind!

This book is so well written, it really makes you question the type of babble that we sell for books here in this country. The comedic content is wonderful - it's all there - timing and everything!!

From the first chapter to the last one (for now I hope), this a teriffic collection of short stories which form one narrative, but stand alone very well. Written with great economy, and humorous sections which pop out of nowhere, you just want to keep reading. I highly recommend this book to anyone.

What an enjoyable book. You will laugh much and you will cry. It is a fictional story about a "Personal Preacher" named Lloyd Boyd. You will have to read it to understand what "Personal Preacher" means. If you are looking for good book that tells a story and brings a message of comfort and love then I strongly suggest you buy this book and let it bring you some good news for a change.

I loved this book. The title promised me a fun read full of humor and wit. The book contained so much more. Each chapter had delightful comic insight into the Loyd Boyd's, and very often, my life. Then, just as I thought I knew what would happen next, the author surprises me with an appropriate and poignant moment that touches my heart and soul. I read every night as I go to bed but this book I couldn't put down and continued immediately the next day when I woke up. So much fun and so inspiring. I recommend "I Flunked Sunday School" to anyone who loves to read and especially those who grew up in or currently attend a church. Pastors would probably get more out of it than I did. No reader will come away disappointed.

"Best comedy I've read in a long time. From the title of the book to the concept of Lloyd Boyd, I was hooked. Ken Bailey's humor opens the door for heart-warming stories. I laughed and I cried. What more could you ask of a book?" --Wayne Holmes, compiler of Whispering in God's Ear and The Embrace of a Father

For whatever reason, I did not expect to enjoy this book very much. I actually have the audio CD version. It was given to me as a gift a few years ago, and I had no interest in listening to it. However, I had a sixteen-hour trip in the car, so I decided to try this thing. Much to my surprise, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

One of the best parts of the audio CD is the reader, who was absolutely fantastic in characterizing many different people in this story. "I Flunked Sunday School" basically consists of various little snippets of stories that continually overlap throughout the entire book. Bailey does a good job of allowing each storyline to stand on its own, while integrating them together smoothly.

My favorite quality of this book was the fact that it successfully managed to capture the twin goals of humor and inspiration. While there were many laugh-out-loud moments throughout, there were also a number of really beautiful moments. I'll be perfectly honest and admit that I shed a few tears driving on I-94 through Wisconsin as I enjoyed this story.

There are moments when the jokes go flat or the dialogue seems forced. But for the most part, I had a great time with Lloyd Boyd, personal preacher. I highly recommend this great work of fiction for churchgoers and non-churchgoers alike.

Mad Dog provides hilariously funny glimpses into the lives and customs of other cultures. What a great way to learn geography AND foriegn languages! As a huge fan of his web site and travel columns, I highly reccommend anything he has to offer. His quirky sense of humor and amusing anecdotes brighten my day. His books are also great for use as an exercise plan. Be sure and stretch before reading. I laughed so hard my sides hurt! Without Mad Dog, the world would be a dismal place indeed. Mad Dog's "If It's Such a Small World Then Why Have I Been Sitting on this Airplane for Twelve Hours?" and "Skywriting at Night", are necessities for anyone with a pulse. Or without...a good laugh just might give someone a jump start.

I laughed so hard it hurt. Having traveled quite a bit myself, and seen many of the places and things written about, I thought I knew where I'd been. After reading Mad Dog's take on things, I'm not so sure. His oddly stilted outlook, along with his quick wit, not only make you feel as if you're actually there, but let you see things from a completely unique perspective. Sometimes irrelevant, sometimes insightful, but always right on the money and uproaringly funny, these travel tales let you see the "real" places usually overlooked (often with very good reason) by the standard tourist. And yet, the information and advice is truly quite helpful - whether intended to be or not. For a great time learning about new places, getting another viewpoint, or finding out that, according to Mad Dog, you might not know the place you've been at all, you have to check ou this hilarious new book.

Mad Dog's latest book takes us on a jaunt around the world in his inimitable quirky style. A delightful rendezvous for the world weary traveler as well as the armchair couch potato. It is full of humorous tales, amazing anecdotes and insightful perspectives on various cultures, be it stateside or worldwide. Once again, Mad Dog tickles our funny bone and keep us panting for more.

After reading Mad Dog's columns for years on both his website and in newspapers throughout the country, it is a pleasure to finally read this compilation of his finest travel columns. He is truly at his best when observing the quirks of the human existence, be it here in the U.S., in France, Czechoslovakia, Bali, or wherever his nomadic wings propel him. As much as this book is about the places he's been and the customs he's experienced, it's even more about the people he's met...and that's what shines the mirror on ourselves so brightly. Equal parts hilarity, witticism, sarcasm, warmth, and compassion, this book confirms that though it may be a small world, there are some huge observations to be made. And nobody makes them as thoroughly entertaining as Mad Dog does.

It's about time! I've been a fan of Mad Dog's hilarious travel writing since seeing some of them in the newspaper a couple of years back, and then got turned onto his web site. Time after time he's dead on, both in his humorous outlook as well as his insight into people, places, and cultures around the world. Whether they're places you've been or you're living vicariously through him, you'll love it.

Reading this book made me wonder "where are the men of today who are writing like this on these topics?" -- things like soul mates, monogamy/polygamy, affairs, prostitution, romance novels, Darwin's theory of sexual selection, the double standard, the "Madonna/whore complex" (not called that then), sexual harassment, employment discrimination, abolishing marriage, and declining marriage and birth rates all make an appearance in the book. And much of it retains its essential truth. The more things change...

It's especially interesting to see where HLM was right and where he turned out to be wrong. For instance: the book was written just before men gave women the vote (i.e., during World War I, when Mencken was in his mid-to-upper thirties and still a bachelor); Mencken thought women voting would cure politics of rampant corruption -- because women wouldn't allow such shenanigans. This is not to say that he had any kind things to say about the suffragettes. He didn't, and some of what he wrote was outrageously funny. One can extrapolate in a straight line to some of today's feminists.

His basic thesis -- which may or may not have been meant to be taken seriously -- is that women are more intelligent than men, the proof being the ease with which they typically defeat men in the war between the sexes:

"I am convinced that the average woman, whatever her deficiencies, is greatly superior to the average man. The very ease with which she defies and swindles him in several capital situations of life is the clearest of proofs of her general superiority. She did not obtain her present high immunities as a gift from the gods, but only after a long and often bitter fight, and in that fight she exhibited forensic and tactical talents of a truly admirable order. There was no weakness of man that she did not penetrate and take advantage of. There was no trick that she did not put to effective use. There was no device so bold and inordinate that it daunted her."

It would be fifty years before Esther Vilar's "The Manipulated Man" continued with many of the same themes. But Mencken was quite prescient in the section on women's martyrdom, which today we'd call their claim to victimhood or being "oppressed". I could go on at some length about how close his description of marriage is to what prevails today (based on reports which come to my attention), but I'll spare you.

I'm sorry I waited so long to get around to this book, as it's truly a classic written by a great mind -- a highly recommended trip above the stratosphere for all men and, especially, bachelors.

Mencken's "In Defense of Women" has such a bad reputation in some circles that I'm almost afraid to review it for fear of virtual grenades. But surely the bad reputation is unjustified, for whether one approves of Mencken's conclusions or not, it would seem hard to deny the nobility of the his intentions in publishing them. He simply wished to help us rid ourselves of some harmful and incorrect stereotypes. To wit: men think they are intelligent and clear-headed while women are emotional and sentimental. But in reality, Mencken explains, it is men who are prone to sentiment and women who are intelligent and clear-headed. Of course many things follow from both the misconception and the "truth." Although it may be useful to some people to know Mencken's ideas about the sexes (I find this knowledge useful), perhaps the best reason to read "In Defense of Women" is that it is incredibly entertaining. If you are not amused by Mencken's style, or if you are afraid that you might encounter an uncomfortable truth or two, then by all means keep safely away.

This is not a book for faint of heart. No one was better at invective than Mencken, and his defense of women is far more of an attack on men than a defense of the "unfair" sex, as Ambrose Bierce signified our better half. Mencken's basic argument goes something like this: women are pretty bad; men are worse; therefore, women are better than men. This is, to be sure, a gross over-simplification. Mencken's argument is really much more sophisticated and ingenious. He picked it up, he tells us elsewhere, from a madame of a bordello. It contains a great deal more truth than most people would be willing to admit. Mencken's hillarious presentation is recommended only to hardened cynics (which is to say, hardened realists). Sensitive people with "beautiful" souls are well advised to avoid this brilliant book.

Mencken wrote that "Nothing could be plainer than the effect that the increasing economic security of women is having upon their whole havit of life ... The diminishing marriage rate and the even more rapidly diminishing birth rate show which way the wind is blowing . . . large numbers of them [women] now approach the business [of marriage] with far greater fastidiousness than their grandmothers." So as a result, only relatively skilled men are marriageable, and lower-class men go without. By contrast, in the past "even marriage with a fifth-rate man was better than no marriage at all."

Mencken also correctly predicted that even after the influx of women into the workplace, women will still lag behind men economically: he writes that "it is impossible to imagine a genuinely intelligent human being becoming a competent trial lawyer, or buttonhole worker, or newspaper sub-editor, or piano tuner, or house painter. Women, to get upon all fours with men in such stupid occupations, will have to commit spiritual suicide, which is much further than they will ever actually go. Thus a shade of their present superiority to men will always remaijn, and with it a shade of their relative inefficiency, so marriage will remain attractive".

Mencken also predicts loosened sexual mores: "With the decay of the ancient concept of women as property there must come inevitability a reconsideration of the whole sex question."

And of course all these things have come to pass, both in America and in Europe: well-employed women marry later or not at all and get divorced more quickly, and low-income women have virtually abandoned marriage altogether.

Mencken only runs aground when he looks at war and peace. He correctly predicted World War II (in particular predicting wars between France and Germany, and between Japan and America) but thought that it would be so devastating, and wipe out so many of the world's men, that women would vastly outnumber men, which in turn would radically modify marriage- perhaps by causing the reinstitution of polygamy. Had WW 2, like WW 1, killed only soliders, Mencken might have been right. Instead, of course, millions of civilians were killed- including many women, thus limiting the male/female imbalance.

Undoubtedly, HL Mencken was the greatest American mind of the 20th century. It is my opinion that he was possibly the greatest man of letters in the world during the 20th century. He seems to me to be a combination of his two predecessors, Mark Twian and Ambrose Bierce, with all the bad alloyed out.

Shaw? Orwell? Pikers all, compared to the Holy Terror from Baltimore. This book is simply fantastic. Simply reading the preface for the first time left me breathless and in amazement.

The writing is so good, let me illustrate- a black writer was assigned a story on Mencken, because it was heard Mencken was a racist (which he was). Upon reading Mencken for the first time, the man said his original purpose melted away to be replaced with a single question. "How does one write like that? How can I write like that?". I concur- HL Mencken was the finest purveyor of ideas in any man during the 20th century.

By this book. Then buy all his others, starting with the Mencken Chrestomathy's and his Prejudice series. The worst book I've ever read of Mencken is better than the best other book I have ever read.

I enjoyed this book immensely, but probably for the wrong reasons. The book is a bit chewy in places, but stick with it, as it's surprisingly enjoyable on it's own merits. On a more selfish, sadistic note, I had been mecilessly bludgeoned on a regulary basis by a work colleague, a second generation descendant of the Emerald Isle, with tales of Celtic martyrdom and Anglo tyranny, and none of which I felt I had the right to dispute. Then I read the book. After ten minutes of lively debate, challenging all he knew as 'fact', he has not spoken to me since. No-one had ever shut him up before. Heaven. But back to the point, I found this to be a rather good read.

Baby Cromwell, Nottingham, England

R. F. "Roy" Foster author of 'W. B. Yeats: The Apprentice Mage,' 'Charles Stewart Parnell: The Man and His Family' and 'Modern Ireland,' has written this experience and interpetation into Irish history and literature. He does a fine job of it. His bravery in massacring every sacred Irish cow as one would have fun reading it. It leaves you with a warm, passionate, giggly feeling. It's entertainingly brilliant look at the past and present Ireland. I particularly love the chapters and passages on Theme-parks & Histories (with some warning from Foster on expliotation); the chapters on Yeats; When the Newspapers Have Forgotten Me: Yeats, Obituarists and Irishness; Selling Irish Childhoods: Frank McCourt & Gerry Adams; and, Remembering 1798. They're totally smothered in clichés and lots of traditional tidbits of fond or fatal memories, known to some as the Irish experience.

Foster cleverly works moments of Ireland's past into narratives of Irish culture on myth, folklore, ghost stories and romance. The result is from a varied interpetation of opinionated and right down funny interlinking essays. In Theme-parks and Histories-Foster writes of the Irish are to remember or commemorate anything. It is worth remembering the upward curve of Irish cultural achievement-referring to W. B. Yeats, Hugh Leonard, Ezra Pound, Cashel Heritage Society and the 2,000-acre Famine Theme Park in Knockfierna Hill west of Limerick. Irish history, the most distinctive achievement for it. His suggestion to form a monument to Amnesia and forget where they put it. As a historian he would be shocked, but as an Irishman he would be attracted to the idea. Foster shows no mercy on his view of manipulating Irish history on political places and Irish poverty and oppression as a commerically packaged heritage park. His exploration of Yeats' authority of the Irish story's fitting moments as the voice of his Ireland countrymen.

Foster leaves teeth-marked criticism of Frank McCourt (Angela's Ashes) and Gerry Adams and their devil may care attittude of taking hostages for fortune. Transcending into the bestsellerdom of Irish childhoods. Simply a technique of marketing where Irish version brag and whimper about the woes of their early years' experience. I find this to be an entertaining reading. In some places a bit wordy, but good telling of Irish culture. You may hate or love it. But, if your interest is in Irish history and literature it's quite essential.

Irish people of all persuasions and in all walks of life have developed a talent for building up a national history to their liking and drawing conclusions from it. Roy Foster's essays are about some of the ways in which Ireland's history has been interpreted, embroidered, exploited and packaged. I think everyone will agree there are cogent reasons for preserving the distinction between history and "national fiction". Ultimately, poor history makes poor propaganda, and propaganda in any case is a shabby use to put something as precious as a nation's history. This book is essential reading for people with an interest in Ireland. (I also recommend strongly the same author's earlier "Modern Ireland 1600-1972".)

This book ought to be on the shelf of anyone with an interest in Irish history. Foster has done an excellent job at making his points about the various 'uses' that history in Ireland has been employed for. From downright propaganda to 'memoirs' masquerading as vague truths he unleashes the power of clear thinking and valid sources. For so long Irish history has been treated as 'story' and this book attempts and succeeds in telling the difference. It is so refreshing to see something sensible in print! It is a great source book or reference and could also be read by delving into the different subjects in the index. I would recommend this for all who are involved in getting to know the real history of Ireland and the Irish and how some Irish 'history' came to be written in the first place.

Porter's tongue-in-cheek treatment of the marketing of Ireland is refreshing after an avalanche of Irish hype came from unscrupulous little publishers.The Disneynification of Ireland ,apparently propelled by American ad agencies for the Irish Tourist Board,is treated by Porter correctly as hype to snare innocent Irish-Americans.Porter gets almost every hilarious Irish twist of recent decades in this collection of exposes, including the hilarious, almost unbelievable marketing of the potato famine in Disney-like theme parks.Unfortunately, he closed his collection of revionist chapters without pointing to the biggest Irish hype of all -the invention and collapse of " The Celtic Tiger", based on runaway inflation and a Dublin stock market bubble that aped the rise and fall of America's Nasdaq.Foster's book is a must if you wish a clearer view of the Irish .

To gain a sense of the various stages of L'Engle's life, read the Crosswicks Journals in order of publication. In The Irrational Season, Book 3, L'Engle does not give any easy spiritual answers, yet somehow a sense of comfort prevails throughout the pages. Never preachy, this is a book to savor again and again. We share L'Engle's struggle as she grapples with age-old questions. One is awed by the grace with which this woman deals with conflict, both internal and external, even as she is sharing her deepest doubts. As we read, we become a part of L'Engle's spiritual quest and we make it our own.

I have been a fan of Madeleine L'Engle since I discovered A Wrinkle in Time in the 5th grade. As an adult, I have come to appreciate her non-fiction and adult novels. Irrational Season is probably the best of her non-fiction. The story follows the litergical year and in keeping with the seasons and holidays takes the reader through pain and joy while always maintaining hope. This is an excellent book for anyone who has sometimes felt overwhelmed and questioned their faith only to find that their questioning makes them stronger.

This is classic L'Engle, full of thoughtful observations and solid spiritual food. It's a good book for meditation and healing. And always L'Engle poses questions that give one pause.

I started this book on Christmas Eve...and who knew that this is almost precisely where L'Engle starts the book off at! It was a joyous, challenging, beautiful and often unnerving book that made me flip page-after-page in wonder and awe at the author's very wise words.

Sure, L'Engle sounds a bit like a Christian universalist in some of these pages, but they come from the heart and like all of our hearts, not every thought is theologically right on. So I can easily forgive her for this.For those people getting married, or thinking of getting married, or about to get married within the next 6 months, I'd recommend reading the first 60 pages of this book at least as it will fill you with wisdom, guidance and many wonderful descriptions of what true, ever-lasting love looks like.

Out of "A Circle of Quiet," "The Summer of the Great-Grandmother" and "The Irrational Season," this book comes in a close second out of the three. It's tender, warm, and just what I needed after the holiday season.

This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to reconcile their belief in God with their intellect. Lyrical and moving (I cried several times), The Irrational Season can be read on its own, or as part of the four-book series.

Growing up in my small hometown of Sobeiski, I have shared many great memories with those that I love. I became attached to many people that have comforted me over the years. I felt as if I was welcomed anywhere. Oh The Places You'll Go brought back many emotional memories from my childhood. Oh The Places You'll Go, is filled with beautiful illustrations full of feelings and expressions. The main theme of the book was to persuade children towards the right direction in life everywhere they go. Oh the Places you'll go is a miraculously hilarious book. It is very different from other Dr. Seuss books because it has a wider variety of word choice, and contrast between ideas.

Growing up in my small hometown of Sobeiski, I have shared many great memories with those that I love. I became attached to many people that have comforted me over the years. I felt as if I was welcomed anywhere. Oh The Places You'll Go brought back many emotional memories from my childhood. Oh The Places You'll Go, is filled with beautiful illustrations full of feelings and expressions. The main theme of the book was to persuade children towards the right direction in life everywhere they go. Oh the Places you'll go is a miraculously hilarious book. It is very different from other Dr. Seuss books because it has a wider variety of word choice, and contrast between ideas.

Very cute. It makes a very nice combo with the book for graduations.

Do you have shoes on your feet and brains in your head? Then maybe you can go places like the little boy in the book Oh the Places You'll Go!, by Dr. Seuss. This book takes a little boy through good and bad places till he finds what he's looking for. This book has fabulous pictures that pop out in the story when you read it! They describe the characters moods also! When the character is happy then the pictures are colorful and bright colors. However, when the character is sad or mad the pictures are gloomy and dull colors. When I first read this book I thought about how it related to my life. Well my parents always told me that I could go great places if I have a good education! If you read this book I bet it could bring back some memories from the paste to! This book also relates to real life and has a great message in it! But don't sit her and give the whole thing away, READ IT!

I've been journaling for years and this is one of the finest ones I have used. I may never buy from an alternate press again! The pages are lined on both sides, which I enjoy. The binding is not spiral, something I normally prefer, however the spine is strong and I have had no problem with loose leaves. The cover is made from a durable board, it does not look any worse for the wear I have put it through in the 6 months I've used it. I've also found that the paper used is very strong. If I use a felt tip pen or something else with a lot of ink the paper does not allow it to bleed through! I'm very pleased with this journal. It also has a nice name plate on the inside front page. I highly reccodmend it, along with other journals from peaceable kingdom press.

Jazz Life is a great book in every senses: Fantastic photographs,very good informative text and wonderful audio CD, besides its weight and its size. Very, very good. Great find.

Gorgeous book. One that I will want to have out and look through over and over. Amazing, you see something different every time you look through it.

This book has great pictures of famous entertainers. It is very heavy, though. I got the best price through Amazon. It came more quickly than I imagined, We are very pleased with the book and the service and wouuld do it again.

I just received this enormous book; yes enormous in every way. Both in vision, content, printing and weight. I have plenty of jazz photo books and some earlier collections by Claxton, but this certainly reaches beyond the rest. It reminds me of the work by the great Cartier-Bresson. It is far beyond publicity shots and the compositions are real and echoes what language can never say. I am reminded of the great writer Albert Murray. He delves deep into the entire ouvre of this American art form. The large two page bleed photos are breathtaking. The book is largely b&w which suits me just fine. One seldom comes across such empathy and passion for a subject and at the same time shoots like a painter. This is a bargain at twice the price.

If you were a jazz fan in the Fifties this book will be the ultimate visual memory jogger. It is a huge book, too, weighing in at over fifteen pounds (a bit more with its handy carrying box) and with spreads opening to an impressive twenty-three inches wide by sixteen deep. The 696 beautifully printed pages feature an expanded collection of photos originally taken for the 1961 German book 'Jazz Life' produced by Joachim Berendt and William Claxton.

In four months during 1960 these two motored across the America and it would seem photographed every important jazz musician that mattered and what stunning photos they are. Page after page of folks you have been listening to for years and not just recording studio shots but plenty of informal and location photos. Musicians everywhere get a look in, New Orleans, Kansas, St Louis, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York, from ragtime to bop to East and West coast styles. Each area has an essay and all the photos are captioned. Looking through the book for the first time with its huge page size and Claxton's sympathetic jazz camera is a rather awesome experience.

There is a forty-two minute CD with the book (the original German edition had two seven inch LPs) of music recorded by Berendt but I thought it was rather bland in its choice of tracks. Predominately New Orleans traditional and spirituals with a very small sampling of other styles some of which annoyingly fade out before the end. I bet at the time though the music added to the book's success in a still rather war-torn Germany.

'Jazz Life' celebrates a great American music style with photos you can almost hear. I doubt there will be anything as good as this published again.

*A Shorty Rogers tune dedicated to Bill Claxton

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

This is one of the best books that I have ever read. It wonderfully portrays two sides of town torn about by a seeming abundant source: water. ok im tired of typing..its good just get it you wont be dissappointed and if u dont like it ill buy it back from you for 4 bucks

Jean De Florette along with Manon Des Sources are two of the most lyrical, heartbreaking books that I own. I urge anyone who is comfortable reading French to read these books.

Each book stands on its own but the story which begins in Jean De Florette moves to its conclusion in Manon Des Sources

These two books along with the 4 volumes of Marcel Pagnol's autobiography: La Gloire De Mon Pere, Le Chateau De Ma Mere, Le Temp Des Secrets and Le Temps D'Amour will transport you to a time and place that no longer exist but are not so far from our own.

Those who try and love these books and are familiar with the films may want to try these other Marcel Pagnol film classics: The Fanny Trilogy which is comprised of: Marius, Fanny and Cesar - I strongly recommend the original with Raimu,Pierre Fresnay, Orane Demazis rather than any later version and La Femme De Boulanger. All of these are availble as plays in book form as well.

If you are looking for a first french read then this is it! Not only is the story (and the sequel "Manon des Sources") great, the language is very easy to understand for a person who feels confident speaking and understanding French and wants to take it up a notch.

These stories are an interesting study of the human condition with a prominance of irony that makes the effect of the book's theme quite impactful. The jist of the plot is that a hunchback named Jean comes with his wife and daughter to inherit a house and farm. His neighbours are to be Ugolin and Cesar, who tend to value money over other people's welfare. Knowing that an heir will soon be arriving to live on the land, Ugolin and Cesar plug up a spring of water that exists on the neighbouring property in order to ensure discouragement and limited success for the new owner (Jean). The greedy men hope that they will then be able to by the land from the hunchback for a cheap price, and then use it for their profit. Manon de Source (or Manon of the Spring) is a continuation of Jean de Floretter, and focusses on the hunchback's daughter, Manon, and provides a more satisfying end than the first story for its reader.

This haunting and lyrical novel tells how greed destroyed the lives of two men and those around them. The setting is exquisite, the characters fully developed and the plot seamless. The rich and evocative language is a joy in itself. A novel like this is an experience you will remember and treasure for a lifetime. It truly becomes a part of you.

Unfortunately, Jan Swafford did not have a chance to read this book before writing his own "biograohy" of Brahms. If he had, he would have been privy to a wealth of information, much of which has not been available to non-german speakers. Avins' commentary on the letters of Brahms and many of his correspondents is clear and well researched.

I'v been a Brahms' music fan for a long time and i have read three different biographies, without having the opportunity of get closer to his thoughts before i buy this great book. Now I know how Brahms' mind worked, how (really) was his relationship with his friends and how were his feelings and thoughts during the periods he composed that wonderful music.

I'm not an english born speaker, so i had some difficulties in understand the meaning of some sentences, more exactly, some modisms, wich are very frecuent in Brahms' speech.

In spite of this, I recommend this book because it's just wonderful.

The virtues of this book are several: about 800 previously untranslated letters of Brahms, masterfully translated and carefully and judiciously annotated, based on research entirely from source materials which, among other things, give the lie to the unsavory myths of Brahms childhood, proving beyond doubt that he came from a hard-working, well-meaning family who lived in a good neighborhood, and provided him with a good education and normal childhood. The author's research confines to the rubbish heap the silly Freudian theories, never based on any evidence, for his reasons for not marrying. This compendium of letters and their absorbingly written annotation is a gold mine for amateurs and professionals interested in a truthful picture of Brahms.

"Richly informative" - Sunday Times, London. "Occasionally a book comes along which changes perceptions of its subject. This is such a book. ... [The] annotations are not only scholarly but often witty and always full of common sense. ... Wherever you read, you will feel you are in Brahms's world and that he is speaking to you." - Sunday Telegraph, London. "There are many gems here ... much to be gleaned from what Avins has selected.. Those who seek to be on more intimate terms with Brahms and his circle... will find much to pore over in this collection" - Los Angeles Times. "Little short of a bombshell ... Ms. Avins's contributions are terse and often illuminating... fascinating illustrations, a helpful chronological table and other tools... Brahms reveals himself in workaday as well as transcendent moods." - New York Times. "This is a work that will thrill Brahms fans and provide much pleasure to those entertained by the personal correspondence of great artists. Recommended for general and academic libraries." - Library Journal. "It is not much of an exaggeration to say that the book presents Brahms in a new but quite convincing light... the book can be read as a biography... this composer has seldom seemed more lovable, more vulnerable, more honorable." - Gramophone. "This is one of the most important music books published in recent years." - The Oldie, London.

"Johannes Brahms, Life and Letters" is a new biography published by Oxford Univ. Press and is based on the composer's letters. The letters were selected and annotated by Styra Avins and its 550 complete letters which constitute the first such general collection of letters in English, were translated by Josef Eisinger and Styra Avins. The book also contains 48 rare photos, detailed notes and appendices (e.g. on Brahms and Clara Schumann), and a bibliography. The lively text joining the letters is based on the latest Brahms scholarship and provides a fresh view of the composer's life, much of it in his own words. It sheds new light on the early life of Brahms, his numerous friendships, his family, his work, his character and his personality. A well-written book which will heighten anyone's appreciation of the man and of his music. Highly recommended to lovers of biography and music.