Arthur Books

This is an excellent book! I learned the soprano/tenor recorder using Zeitlin's "Basic Recorder Lessons" (the Omnibus edition) along with a number of other good books, and was sorry to find that he did not write a similar book for the alto. I ran across this book while searching for instructional books for the alto, and I'm very glad I bought it! It teaches both soprano and alto side by side, making it a double value for your money. In addition to the usual folk tunes and dances, it also has quite a number of exercises to build up your fingering dexterity and breathing technique. Highly recommended.

If you want to learn the recorder this is a great book to start with. It teaches both soprano and alto recorder and has some wonderful folk tunes from around the world. It includes a short introduction into the mechanics of music, great for those who don't already read music. I bought this book twenty years ago, and I have been playing recorder ever since. (I even had to purchase a new edition recently.)

I found this book in a used bookstore & compared it with another recorder instruction book that I have (from http://oakmeadow.com). Both books teach the notes in pretty much the same order, but this book also teaches ALTO recorder, right along with soprano... if you already know how to play soprano, and want to learn Alto, it really helps to have the soprano music notes alongside the alto...

The lessons are very clear & the songs are nice...

This is an excellent introduction to the recorder. One need not know anything to get started. A great project to work through with your kids! It uses nursery songs and music we all know, in simple arrangements, including solos, duets and trios, for soprano and alto recorder.

I read this book as an adolescent; about 21 years ago, and it and "The Saracen Lamp" had a very profound affect on my life and my interests. Well written and stimulating, with extreme lasting power, I have thought of this book every year since I have read it.

I would love to see it back in print. Few books since have imprinted themselves as deeply on my soul.

I read this book 20 years ago. It has remained with me ever since. Set on the West Country coast of England, it portrays the setting and the thoughts and feelings of a young girl with fantastic sympathy and eloquence.

I read this book more than 30 years ago and remembered it well enough to look it up today. Haunting and touching, it speaks to young girls without preaching or talking down. It's not current or modern, but rather classic and timeless.

I first read this when I was about twelve and it has stuck in my mind ever since. The story is set in a huge old house on the coast of England. The main character has strange dreams about one of the old portraits-a portrait of a girl who was shipwrecked and adopted by the family over one hundred years ago. These dreams open a barrage of questions-who was the girl? What was her fate? An excellent book for young adults.

This is essentially the material of Kazan's The Arrangement arranged to formulate a conception of theater derived from After The Fall, and it shows the fruits of having written that monumental play. It takes two thirds of the play's length to get its mechanism functioning, and when it does it's a poetic surrealism of great flexibility and subtlety, capable of shifting planes of thought instantaneously, and provided with a set of cinematic flashbacks and evocations which happen in full view of the mind's eye of characters onstage, in a story of Christ between two thieves.

The Ride Down Mt. Morgan is an engaging play, one that provides the reader (or viewer) with as much food for thought, as amusement. Is it a masterpiece? No. Not by any stretch. Death of a Salesman is a masterpiece.

Lyman Felt is certainly a colorful character from whom we can learn much, not just about bigamists, but also about ourselves. He is not, however, a Willy Loman, a character so strongly defined that he's entrenched in the American (if not the world's) psyche. Felt effectively represents and helps us to understand (if not forgive) a specific type of man; Loman effectively represents the sometimes overwhelming frustrations any of us endures in pursuit of the elusive American dream.

Miller does succeed in The Ride Down Mt. Morgan by prompting us to consider what might motivate a man who constructs an elaborate network of lies in an attempt to keep two wives. In his own mind, Felt is justifiably keeping both women happy and (again, in his own mind) he loves them both so much, he couldn't stand to let either one go. For some time, he is quite successful in living these two lives.

After surviving an accident (or was it an accident?), however, both women arrive at the hospital to take care of him. Now that the deception is uncovered, the real damage unfurls; both wives know they can't trust him; both feel they were never truly loved; both are forced to make swift decisions, none of which are surprising or irrational given the circumstances. Although Felt is charming enough to win our affection, we still come away believing he pretty much gets what he deserves. I might be wrong. Maybe Felt does represent us all. Sure, few of us are bigamists; but maybe Felt really represents the very damaging, but human desire we all have to have your cake and eat it, too.

In a number of ways, "The Ride Down Mt. Morgan" parallels "Death of a Salesman". Both plays include a man searching for something in the present with flashblacks spliced into the scenes. The greatest difference between the plays is that many people can identify with Willy Loman from "Death of a Salesman. It is harder to identify with Lyman Felt and his bigamy.

Lyman wants to find happiness and discover himself. After one successful marriage, he begins an affair that leads to a pregnancy. Rather than taking a more logical route, Lyman chooses to marry a second wife. He leads the second wife to believe that he divorced the first wife. Nine years later, a car accident on Mt. Morgan leads the two wives to meet at the hospital. It is there that Lyman explores his motivation for bigamy and the guilt for the pain he has caused. Ultimately, Lyman discovers his true self in loneliness. He is left to himself and the mess he created.

"The Ride Down Mt. Morgan" seems a bizarre premise for Miller to explore. The reader must wonder if bigamy is a more narrow divorce for Miller to explore extra-marrital affairs. While this aspect of the storyline seems distant, it is hard not to feel the emotion in this tale of love lost.

In Arthur Miller's splendid play, the main character Lyman Felt concludes that if you try to live according to your real desires, you have to end up looking like a s---. That's his explanation for never divorcing his first wife before marrying another. It's when his car crashes traveling down a snow covered Mt. Morgan that his double life is exposed. His two wives meet and the issues of fidelity, true love, deception and honesty are explored. Can a person remain true to himself and still always true to another? Arthur Miller poses wonderful food for thought in this witty, poignant masterpiece.

This is the work of the original, the authentic, the one and only "enfant terrible". A powerful and magical ability to create images at the same time beautiful, repulsive and apocalyptic. The demoniac genius of Rimbaud shows up since his first poems and in his prose, notably the included "A Season in Hell". Rimbaud incarnates rage, suffering, the rebellious nature of every youth who is at the same time intelligent and sensitive. He gives and takes no quarter. He is not a complaining grunge type. He is mad at the gods, and human to the bone. He makes subsequent rock stars look like sissies. He travels dangerous ground and comes through very much alive and kicking. Some of my favorites: "Sun and Flesh", "Ophelie", "Venus Anadyomene", "Sleeping in the Valley", "The Crows", "Seven-year poets", of course the mesmerizing "The Drunken Boat", "What is that for us, my heart" (a dark presage of terrorism), "Memoire", and the wonderful "Comedy of Thirst", which includes these wonderful verses:

Peut-etre un soir m'attends
ou je boirai tranquille
en quelque vieille ville
et mourrai plus content:
puisque je suis patient.

Arthur Rimbaud's Poems and Prose speak a dark truth of life.

Rimbaud does not shield you from the realities of his time or his life. He writes of all the things he encountered as a child, soldier, poet, lover, and vagabond.

His poems are of his youth and his prose are of his life. The poems do not depict a romantic childhood but of one with struggle and cynism that he carried all his life. To read his poems is to experience his youthful assurance that the world was flawed. You will be affected by his dark perception of the world and awed by his realistic and symbolic style.

As for his prose, he writes of a tortured existence and bohemian lifestyle steeped in a wild reality that was his life.

My favorit passages from this book of poems and prose:

"One evening, I sat Beauty in my lap. - And I found her bitter. - And I cursed her." from A Season in Hell

"It is found again. What? Eternity. It is the sea, Gone with the sun." from Eternity

I very much enjoyed this book and thought Rimbaud changed modern poetry and writing and brought us into a new realistic age in writing. He opened the doors for some of the great 20th century writers.

We are not serious when we are 17...but are we more serious at 18 or later? He was so young, so sensitive; he wanted to find life, find a place, the place.Like Baudelaire, he was searching his own way, but not in a dark state of mind. The keywords to go through his works are: rebellion,youth and innocence...He is sometimes cruel but I think it's to hide his fragility...I like his childish way of creating; direct but full of hidden love he couldn't give.Read him and you'll probably find that we are not serious at 17 , but that although he found himself not serious, he was so intelligent and receptive to world despite his innocence...

Rimbaud is one of the most impressive poets of all time, never compromising himself to the drudgery of the world around him. If at any point in your life you have begun to feel like a free spirit, read Rimbaud's youthful verse and be prepared to percieve life transcedentally. Within his surrealistic vision you will find the vulnerability of weakness with the demonic anger of a pocessed soul. There are poems that stir every feeling of what it's like to be young, and free and drunk on the pleasures of life. A true poet.

I have worked professionaly with Mr. Silber and I believe him to be a truthful storyteller without ulterior motives. Reading this book is like listening to his stories just as he has recounted them to me. I enjoyed the fact that this book is not "as told to", nor is it glossed over with happy endings and filled out with sordid details. The photographs are marvelous, the majority being taken by the author himself while on the job. This book reminds the reader that an era is gone and what passes for entertainment these days is sad in comparison.

I like this book because the author, Arthur Silber Jr., was actually there during the so called "Rat Pack" days, and witnessed these events first hand. Also, I come from a long entertainment background, and his show-biz vernacular is right on! It is interesting to get a bird's eye view of this history, and this is a fabulous book.

This is an easy read and an excellent book defining the struggle of Sammy Davis Jr. as he worked to become a superstar, written by his best friend who shared the life experiences with Sammy. No one else has written a book on Sammy Davis Jr., that I am aware of, who has actually experienced a relationship with Sammy. The book has over 300 photographs most of which are obviously from the personal photo album of the author. They give a wonderful validity to everything written in the book. People of Co lor today may be surprised to learn just how much Sammy did to make their freedoms possible. This book is an excellent read. By the way, I notice on your website that you list publisher as unknown. In fact, the publisher is Samart Enterprises, as stated in the book, the company formed by Sammy and the author and still owned by Mr. Silber.

Me and My Shadow is a story filled with all the joy, love, pain, happiness and sorrow one could possibly live in a lifetime. Being a black women and growing up in the era of racism and Jim Crow, I could feel the pain I was reading about. To color Sammy's love for another and to label humans for sharing, showing and giving their love is the demarcation line that ran through Sammy's life.
Through it all Arthur Silber gave me a glimpse of what true but sometimes complicated, unconditional love was all about.
My first thrill when I opened the book was to see all the spectacular photo's. I got a clear picture of Arthur and Sammy's life. The pictures were a treat for my eyes and it provided me with a window into their soul's.
Thank you Arthur for letting me in on the good, the bad and the ugly. Thank you for showing and telling me about Sammy's persuit of love and acceptance, in a world where being the proper color was everything and no matter how much talent Sammy had, he still was not able to walk through the front door.
To see two people share a relationship that was as close as a family member's without being blood is a true testament to Arthur and Sammy's character, in a time when being black meant, you stay on your side of the trackes.
The read was tasty, the pictures delectable and the story is Golden.

I liked this book very much. The writer really kept you in suspense with the book. Looking forward to more books from the author. I would recommened this book to others.

I read this book and loved it. I thought that this book was going to be great when I bought it. I like the book covers to stand out when I purchase something. I found that the writer has written a spine tingling Novel with The savior of the woods. I am looking for other books by this author. I think the book held its own, and kept me interested from start to finish.

I read this book and loved it very much. I knew this was going to be a great book. The writer wrote a very good make you want to jump novel with savior of the woods. I am looking forward to more books from the author. This book kept me very interested from begining to end. I give this book 5 stars.

I read this book and loved it very much. I knew this was going to be a great book. The writer wrote a very good make you want to jump novel with savior of the woods. I am looking forward to more books from the author. This book kept me very interested from begining to end. I give this book 5 stars.

Schopenhauer, a German philosopher of the early 19th century, is a greatly neglected thinker today, despite being hugely influential in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, most notably on the thought of Nietzsche, Wagner and Freud. The latter in particular, although he denied it, was greatly influenced by him. Janaway convincingly extends the list to include Mahler, Jung, Mann and others. In fact, if you have not yet delved deeply into the work of Freud or Nietzsche, I would strongly recommend that you tackle Schopenhauer before doing so, and Janaway's is the perfect introduction. It is a well-informed, readable and balanced account, neither an apology nor a savaging. Schopenhauer's metaphysics have not stood the test of time, but his worldview, essentially pessimistic yet with promise of redemption, is still very relevant, and in any ways strikingly modern. If you are at all interested in the development of modern thought, especially that of the various German and Austrian schools, then you need to acquaint yourself with Schopenhauer, and I doubt you will find a better introduction than this book.

This book focuses on the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860).

The author states in his preface that "This book aims to give a sympathetic but critical account of Schopenhauer's philosophy." Indeed, the book at times is certainly critical; the very last paragraph of the book begins "Though Schopenhauer's metaphysics is not credible as a system..." Janaway's basic message throughout seems to be that Schopenhauer is very important for the influence he had on others (for example, Wagner and Nietsche), for the unique and often troubling questions he raised, and for the new ideas he brought into philosophy - but he is not a Schopenhauer apologist.

The focus of the book is on Schopenhauer's ideas about philosophical topics like will, the body, the self, metaphysics, character, sexuality, the unconscious, art and aesthetic experience, ethics, and other issues. Special focus is given to Schopenhauer's The World as Will and Representation, which is presented as his greatest work, and much is made of the philosopher's idea of the will to life and physical reality as a manifestation of this will.

All in all I would say that Janaway does a decent job in introducing Schopenhauer's ideas, although his summary at times is a bit less clear than some of the other books in the Very Short Introduction series.

Janaway is a top-notch Schopenhauer scholar, so there is no question that he knows his subject forwards and backwards. The first time I tried to read this Short Introduction, I didn't get very far before setting it aside with the feeling that I just wasn't getting it. A year later, after reading a lot of Schopenhauer and a several longer treatments of his ideas, I found that Janaway's book was clear as a bell, and I read right through it. I'm not sure what to make of that, but I think that I just didn't approach this kind of material with the right attitude and that the fault was therefore entirely mine. See below.

In any case, this is a first-rate introduction to Schopenhauer, and a very well-written one, too. Schopenhauer himself was a very clear and careful writer (no Hegel, by far), and Janaway continues in that tradition. Schopenhauer's metaphysics is, of course, speculative and that can be a problem if, like me, you come to it from an analytic tradition where everything has to be provable to be considered meaningful or taken seriously. In reading Schopenhauer, or a book like this describing his philosophy, you need to suspend those criteria temporarily and to look at his system as one extremely smart man's best guess about the nature of the world. Call it a working hypothesis that is necessarily underdetermined by the possible empirical evidence. The judgment required therefore must be an overall one as to how well you think that picture fits with the world as you experience it, granting that some number of alternative systems are possible that would fit equally well. To some degree, it's an aesthetic judgment, or perhaps a decision about what kind of world view you can be comfortable with; the key question is whether you are willing to entertain the possibility that the empirical world might not be all there is.

If you are shopping around for a congenial view at that level, then Schopenhauer's ideas are well worth considering, and Janaway's introduction would be a good place to start. Or, if you just have a detached curiousity about what one of the giants of 19th-century philosophy had to say, then it's a good book for that purpose, also. One thing about Schopenhauer is that once you understand his view of things, you will have a hard time seeing the world in quite the same way as you previously did.

Concise yet engaging, this book is an excellent introduction to Schopenhauer's life and thought. The author's remarks on the difficulties and limitations of Schopenhauer's metaphysics are highly illuminating. His notes highlighting the important and influential aspects of this philosophy provide a perfect contrast to his critical remarks, and give the reader a sober, balanced view of the subject. All in all, this is a great book to read before and after delving into Schopenhauer's own works.

Christians have a deep and abiding fascination with the cross. Though 2000 years have passed since Christ hung on that cross, Christians continue to grapple with its deepest meanings and continue to seek to apply its lessons to their lives. Of the countless thousands of books written on the subject, A.W. Pink's The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross stands as one of the few true classics.

In this book Pink looks at each of the seven words Jesus spoke while hanging in agony. In his introduction to the book Pink says, "The death of Christ...was unique, miraculous, supernatural. In the chapters which follow we shall hearken to the words which fell from his lips while he hung upon the cross - words which make known to us some of the attendant circumstances of the great tragedy; words which reveal the excellencies of the one who suffered there; words in which is wrapped up the gospel of our salvation; and words which inform us of the purpose, the meaning, the sufferings, and the sufficiency of the death divine." He dedicates a chapter to each of the words of forgiveness, salvation, affection, anguish, suffering, victory and contentment. In every case he spends some time discussing the meaning of the word and usually equal time applying these words to the faith of the individual Christian. Far from "mere" theology, this book is intensely practical and immediately applicable.

The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross deserves the accolades given to it. It bears repeated readings and is ideal for group study (and, indeed, I led a group of over 100 people reading it in tandem). It is worthy of a spot in the collection of every Christian.

Pink, master of the Old Testament and lover of the NT, takes each of the 7 sayings and explores seven aspects of each of the sayings. Wonderfully enlightening as he always is with his timeless commentaries. Use this as a devotional leading up to Resurrection Sunday...you will experience the Cross in ways you never imagined. All of Pink's works and thoughts are Scriptually based.

The hinge point of creation is presented to us in Christ's death and resurrection. I must confess that I knew that..but I didn't really understand all it's implications.

A.W. Pink has a remarkable ability to bring forth truth and understanding that lies incredibly rich in the understanding of the seven sayings of Jesus on the Cross.

If you would like to understand the lessons from Christ on the cross then you must read and understand this text.

I am nearly done with this book and I must confess that Pink has done an incredible job in pointing us to Christ.

Buy this book!

This is a must read for any student of the Bible. Pastor Pink's insights into Jesus on the cross are unique and fully referenced to the rest of the Bible. I couldn't put the book down. It was very readable and unlike many of his works, short and compact.

Frank Worsley is best known as the captain of the Endurance on Shackleton's ill-fated Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition in 1914, but he led a full and very interesting life that included searching for treasure and sinking a German U-boat during WWI. Anyone who has read "Shackleton's Boat Journey" will want to know more about Worsley, and this book will fill many of the gaps.

Frank Worsley was Ernest Shackleton's captain, so he is a name that is not commonly known. A common mistake for so many biographers of secondary expeditionary characters is that they get caught up in the relationship to the major character and the biography turns out to be about them. That was my main concern when I first picked up this biograpy of Frank Worsley - that his personality and achievements would be overshadowed by those of Shackleton. Not in this biograpy though - Thomson keeps his story firmly about Worsley, and this story is every bit as interesting as Shackleton's.

Worsley, you see, was Shackleton's captain in the Antarctic expedition that almost ended in disaster in 1914/15. A dreadful summer in the south meant that their boat, the Endurance, was trapped inescapably in pack ice and so began one of the most incredible, courageous and stoic journeys in all polar exploration history. Shackleton's story has been told many times - how the men survived on Elephant Island, and how, with Worsley and some others they sailed across the wildest ocean in the world in a tiny boat to South Georgia to get a rescue craft for the rest of the crew. Even then disaster after disaster struck, they were almost smashed on the rocky coast of South Georgia, once ashore they had to cross the mountainous and glacier ridden interior to reach help on the other coast, and then they had to endure several failed attempts to reach the rest of the survivors back on Elephant Island. This story is told again, but teasing out Worsley's perspective and contributions.

Worsley's story isn't solely about this one incident, dramatic as it is. His life from his childhood to his further expeditions to the Arctic with Shackleton and his first and second world war experiences are all here. I think Thomson really gets inside the man in this book. There are numerous photos and illustrations - most of the Endurance and Quest photos of Shackelton's are widely available in other publications though. There is also a good index and a good appendix if you want to read further information on Worsley or his companions.

This book was great. Finally some one has given the credit to Frank Worsley that he deserves. The book tells everything from his days as a boy to the Trans-Arctic Expedition to his death. Read this book, it's great!

This is my favourite book about Antarctic exploration - even surpassing Mawson's 'Home of the Blizzard'. The book captures the humour, insight and stubbornness of Frank Worsley from his upbringing in Akaroa, New Zealand, to his adventures with Shackleton and maritime career.

Worsley's skills as a sailor, navigator and writer made Shackleton's story possible and the book gives a clear insight into the personal qualities of heroic era adventurers 'when ships were made of wood and men were made of steel'.

A facinating and exciting book, well written and researched, with excellent photographs - this is my most frequently loaned book! [Incidentally, Frank Worsley's diaries can be seen at NZ's Canterbury Museum.]

Please keep in mind that Shakespeare's A midsummer night's dream (Monarch notes) (Monarch notes) by Eve Leoff is just as it says, Monarch Notes. A simple way to know the subject matter in a very condensed and abridged version great for those who do not have the time to read the book in its entirety. No illustrations are in it!

The story along with the images! Grate. Most of the books of its king feature only the plates with a brief description and the reader has to know the story to really understand and feel the image. Colour reproduction is not the best possible though. I have seen on the web the same images looking brighter and better. All in all it is a good book to have.

After I sadly lost an auction for a first edition of Midsummer Night's Dream with 1906 drawings by Arthur Rackham, I found and ordered this version -- a faithful copy. I'm delighted -- and not out so much money! :-)

I'm an avid collector of all books to do with fairies. This will take its place as a favorite among all my books. The play is magical, and the mix of genius -- Shakespeare's words and Rackham's imagery -- transported me to another world. There's nothing like it!!! As a fairy photographer/artist http://www.faeriechronicles.com/chronicles/antonia/index.htm I'm passionate about this genre and have have seen many of Rackham's illustrations before. It is really great to see them here with the story. There are the color copies from the plates, but also a plethora of elegant and whimsical pen and ink fairy drawings that introduce the chapters and decorate the pages that I'd never seen. Oh for joy. The pages appear to be copied from the original book (as if duplicated by scanning the original 1908 pages, but cleaned up to look new and enlarged), and they did a great job. The quality of the color reproductions is very good, especially for a paperback in this price range. I would love to have this in a hardback -- the publishers would do well to create an even fancier edition of this hearthrob -- the same size but with a more vintage-look and feel. The soft paperback tends to splay in my hands in its large format. This is a keeper and one that I'd like to last for years. Go check out the reviews on other publications of this play by itself without the illustrations -- you will find an audience that has been spellbound.

I also found a university site with the original book binding and almost all the images in the book scanned -- these are fabulous references:
http://www.special-coll.bham.ac.uk/Blueprint/feature_dream.htm

This is one of those books for which I'd enjoy having the first edition. The original had around 40 bookplates. My websearch found only a subsequent edition (with 16 plates) for $200! Nery a copy of the original 1908 version was to be found. I wonder what THAT would go for!? Please let me know if you find one for a reasonable amount, which I doubt would happen. -- Antonia