Burton Books

condition of book is really good, but its dimensions are smaller than i expected.

Richard Burton's narration is fantastic, the accompanying music adds to the mood, and the selection of tales is also good.

I had read the tales of 'Sindabad the Sailor' as a kid. They did seem appropriate for small children and that was my intention when i purchased this edition of the 'Arabian Nights' for my 8 yr old. Luckily for me, i read the first 30-40 pages before the book got into the hands of my child. Although fictional in nature, the book is very adult oriented and presents a higher level of difficulty in reading. The stories depict a very highly Patriarchial culture in the old Islam world and also give us a vivid exploration into classes that were prevalent in the social structure at that time. Overall it is not a quick read, one has to be patient and there are some good tales to be enjoyed.

This is one of those books you "should" read. An "improving" book, as it were. The stories tend to be repetitive, and the human behavior is wholly illogical at times...but these are fairy tales, of course.

The names of Aladdin, Ali Baba, and Sinbad have penetrated the popular culture, and, unsurprisingly, the stories involving these characters are the best. That leaves plenty of other stories less well-known, and, related to that point, less entertaining for the reader. But one must be prepared at times for a bit of a slog.

The Zipes translation is decent, though at times lapsing waaaaay too far in the direction of contemporary vernacular. We (the royal "we") don't need Victorian-era censorship, but we also don't need any degree of conspicuous pandering to the MTV Generation. Zipes is also guilty of a fair amount of typos, and his Introduction and Afterword are pedantic and rather PC.

But, as alluded to earlier, this compendium of stories has been an influential part of Western culture since the 18th century, and thus deserves a look on that basis alone...and a few of the stories will indeed envelop you.

The Arabian Nights: Tales from A Thousand and One Nights -translated by Sir Richard F. Burton
Though the collection is incomplete (this edition contains only the "most famous and representative" tales from the entirety), the compendium outshines any expectation or foreknowledge of the stories and is choc with the marvelous wit of ancient Arabian storytelling. The stories have an underbidding theme all alike, good is good and evil is evil, Allah is all and always and man and manhood will be sundered, for without fail comes with the tail of every tale "the Destroyer of delights and Severer of societies, the Plunderer of palaces, and the Garnerer of graves." Reminding sundry-reader that, despite diamond caches and throes of love, all is vanity of vanity, and only the story will exist for aught. The structure of each of these stories is thematically similar: a poor man happens on a souterrain of riches, he is espied by someone of evil, foul play ensues, a moon of moons of a beauty entrances one and all, a jinn sneaks out of a signet ring, the enemy is bewitched, and the hero is consummated with love and gold. Or, the reverse. Or, the inverse. But what is unique to each of these stories is the complete freedom of happenstance. A man fishing in a pond nets a monkey. A marooned sailor flies with a giant bird to freedom. A man blind in one eye runs into another blind in one eye and they run into another blind in one eye. Ali-Babba overhears an eponymous password to a storehouse of plunder. Everything and anything goes. As well with the language, in "fairest favour and formous form," Sir Burton spares no joyance of neologism coined, alliteration aligned or rhyme rhymed. The text is bedight with proper consciousness of Shaharazad, "for interest fails in twice told tales," and "Words cannot undo the done," as we are gently and thematically reminded of the bookends: the murderous king and the maiden, Shaharazad's "fictitious" fight for survival. The stories that have so obviously leaked into our culture, Aladdin, Ali-Babba and the Forty Thieves, are so much richer, more profound, and less coddling than our cartooned interpretations (as is also the case with the Grimm and Andersen tales). In the end, it is obvious that nor King nor author nor Queen is the hero. None save the stories themselves and the love of the telling will live on.

Our third trip to Vegas is coming up in October. I always use Alamo for our car rental and I have used the same coupon to book the car every trip. This alone more than paid for the cost of the book the first time I used it. I have never been asked for the coupon at the rental car center so am able to use it multiple times. We have also used several of the match play and food coupons. Although the majority of the coupons are for off strip locations, many are for downtown including Binions Steakhouse, Main Street Station etc. You won't be disappointed.

This was the worse book I ever bought. The pages are falling out because of bad binding. The contents are very poor. Casino's that I know are not in the book or not accurate. Very Very poor

Well I never used any of the coupons in here but it did have good tips and reading in it. It was prompt on getting here.

We bought this book before our last trip to Vegas. It was well worth it just one coupon for dinner paid for the book. We always rent a car so getting to the different places was easy. The two for one buffets at Green Valley, and the Silverton were great. If you only go to the big hotels on the strip you wont get the full benifit of the book.

Loads of good info and a ton of coupons. If you are planning a trip to Vegas this book is a must have. You won't find offers from many of the large resort casinos but you will find enough free play, free gift, and food coupons to pay for this book a few times over in just one trip!

I bought and used THE FIRST THREE YEARS OF LIFE By Burton L. White during the late 70's! Now I'm
using the new edition of that book, along with RAISING A HAPPY, UNSPOILED CHILD in caring for my grandchildren and the toddler pre-school class I teach. I have never found a better book on caring for young children. It makes it possible to detect new stages and explaines how to deal with the changes in the child's behaviour. So-o-o helpful! I include these books in my gifts to young mothers.

I found the advice in this book appealing (it's much the way I like to do things anyway). I was excited by the research. But I was frustrated because the description of the child's social development does not match my kids at all. My daughter was a delight from 14-24 months - the time frame when she was "supposed" to be testing me. She took direction, minimum tantrums, played well on her own, etc. Around 24 months the testing hit, and we are still in the thick of it (though outsiders tend to call her a "delight" - as mom, I see the testing going on). According to this book, a testing 2 year old is the mark of an overindulged child. But this simply isn't the case with ours. The book "Loosing Our Minds" has alot of interesting and useful information for parents of gifted children. Often gifted children do not develop according to neat little timelines that scientist and baby trainers prefer.

This is an outstanding book that should be read by both expectant parents. It discusses not to raise a child that is how an A student, great athlete, or future world leader, but rather how to raise a student who does well in school, life, and society.

Mr. White interviewed parents from different cultures and child rearing methods and gives the reader straight advise on methods to improve your child's chances for success in their life ahead. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is ready to have their first and also as a re-read to those working on their second, third, etc. A definite must!

I bought this book to help me deal with my two year old who was acting up, but the premise of this book is that if you are having problems with you're two year old, you probably screwed them up in the first year and it's too late to really do anything about it. Basically, you're screwed and it's because you spoiled them. Needless to say, this didn't help me. I completely agree with other reviews which said that the author divides children into angels and brats with no in betweens. Not helpful. I wish I would have taken more heed to the bad reviews, because apart from a few decent recomendations, this book was a complete waste of time.

I'm writing this because my daughter has finally turned 3. She is as delightful as what's described in the book. Cheerful, affectionate, curious but able to respect boundaries. I'm a first time mother, and I started reading this book when my daughter was a baby. I found all the instructions and explanation very helpful and easily to apply. It's assuring that Dr. White's advice is based on research and observation of numerous real-life cases, rather than his imagination and personal opinion. This book emphasizes how one stage of a baby/toddler's development can affect the next. It's more a whole-program approach rather than a guide with quick-fix solutions. Those who seek the latter could be disappointed.

This history of Jazz is not only one of the best reads but with the addition of all the pictures this book is such a great insight to our culture not only for music lovers but all of society. A tuely remarkable book.

This is a very well-written, entertaining and informative book, and I learned a great deal while reading it and enjoying the many beautiful pictures. However, the last four decades of jazz are compressed into the last chapter, and some omissions (like George Shearing!) are inexplicable. Overall, this is a great introduction to jazz, but be aware of the shortcomings.

I brought this for a class and it is one of the few books I continue to read afterword. This is an excellent book.

If you've seen the PBS miniseries "Ken Burns: Jazz" you'll know exactly what you are getting into.

This oversized, photograph-laden text concentrates almost exclusively on two periods of Jazz' history - the 1920s variety and Swing. These were also Jazz' glory days as million-selling popular music and it's impossible to look at the photos in this book without also marvelling at the wonderful cityscapes and beautiful vintage fashions. There was a stylish classiness about the look of the 1930s and 1940s that still towers over almost anything since. Immersing yourself in these photographs and listening to some choice Jazz CDs from the era is the next best thing to a time machine.

This book is also a labor of love for both Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, two equally important but very different titans in Jazz of this time period. I love the music of both men, and the huge sections devoted in each chapter to both of them is a welcome antidote to the relative lack of attention they currently receive in other media nowadays.

Why I have I given this book a mediocre rating?

Ken Burns is a historian, which means that his interests lie primarily in the past. Burns focuses almost exclusively on pre-1950s Jazz. This would not be such a bad thing if the book ended the story with, perhaps, the end of the Korean War. Burns, however, makes an attempt to cover the more modern era in Jazz to disasterous result. The development of Jazz guitar is largely ignored (Wes Montgomery, where are you?), fusion is distained, smooth jazz is dismissed as aural wallpaper, non-American jazz players are barely mentioned (except for Django Reinhardt), and Marsalis is glorified to a point that even he must find embarassing. These flaws, while they probably accurately reflect Burns' personal taste, present a very skewed - possibly damaging - image to a jazz neophyte.

Ken Burns also devoted almost all his career to exploring black-white race relations. While this is a particularly American way to explore a largely American artform, it's also a very limiting one. Jazz of the period cannot be discussed without understanding mid-century Black American culture, but Jazz by definition transcends all our human smallness. Time and time again, Burns veers away from telling truly interesting and appropriate stories about the content of jam sessions to remind us of how segregated American society was. This gets very old very quickly and if this material had been edited there would have been more room to cover more Jazz greats - such as Montgomery, Count Basie, George Benson - in far more detail. Jazz itself should be the primary focus to an introductory primer such as this.

I purchased this book at a steep discount and keep it on my coffeetable. It's a great book if you are nostalgic, and it's a nice introduction to Jazz as long as you are aware of Ken Burns' biases. If you really want to learn more about Jazz, you're going to have to dig deeper, find a knowledgeable and supportive CD store, and explore this beautiful world in alternate ways.

I really liked this book because it gave great detail to the Founding Giants of Jazz. I get disapointed with books that try to be all things to all people and end up just skiming over everything. I like that this book went in-depth with the most popular artists. To try to fully cover the "Complete History of Jazz" would take about 10,000 pages of similairly over-sized books broken into about 20 volumes. Critics I have read on this page do a lot of name dropping to show off some knowledge. Perhaps they should write a book or two on the subject; I would love to read such a book. "Fusion: The Complete Evolution" would be a great volume in the above mentioned theoretical 10,000 pager, but most people have no interest in fusion. If you start going into Anthony Braxton's complex sheet music you are just going to loose people. This book sticks to the popular art form which is an evolution of sorts on it's own. An evolution of popular music and the evolution of the "musician's music" are two different things. I think the authors gave people what they wanted with this book. The REALITY of publishing a book like this is that it has to have broad appeal. You just aren't going to get funding to do a book that spends 25 pages on an extremely talented yet popularly obscure artist. This book is great for the novice or for the more educated jazz historian who wants to read some great stories and see some great photo's even if many of them are "common jazz knowledge" and repeats. (The story of Armstrong running into Oliver while selling tomatoes is a classic. I hadn't heard that one.) It is not as comprehensive with the modern era but I feel that it is proportional to the popularity of Jazz. If you want a complete Jazz history, you will need a library of about 100 books. This book should be in that library.

The first half of book talk about how to plan e design the tank, and about equipament. The rest of book show how to mount various biotypes of tanks, realy, the second part is like a layouts guide, with types of fish, plants, rocks and etc for each biotype.

This is an usual book compared to many of the others I have read recently but I like it. It contains many beautiful pictures of aquarium setups with step by step directions on producing the finished product. The various aquariums are representative of different habitats all over the world. It is a joy to look through even though you may not be creating a new aquarium.

We have aquariums, but really knew next to nothing about the correct way to set them up and maintain them. This book was both informational and reinforced what we did know.

I first bought this book looking for a book about building aquariums and was very disappointed. It is titled "The Complete Aquarium, A practical guide to building ....... aquariums". It, however, does not discuss the actual building of an aquarium, what it is refering to is the setting up of an aquarium. It does provide beautiful information for setting up theme tanks, ie. natural environment tanks from lakes, rivers, etc from around the world. It is also very attractive and well organized as is typical of a DK book.

This wasnt the type of book for a newbie if you just wanted to know about fish. This is more of a HOW TO book for setting up different types of tanks. I guess it would be a great book if you were really deep into fish other than just wanting a nice community tank that looks nice and the fish wont eat each other.

Barnaby Rudge is one of Charles Dickens' lesser known and read novels--and that's a pity. The book is interesting, full of the kind of characters that Dickens is noted for, and full of action and exciting scenes. More significantly, it is one of his most thought provoking works, with a relevance that is applicable to today's world. It will leave you cheering for the good guys and grateful to see that the bad guys (and gals) get what coming to them. The book is divided cleanly into two parts, the first taking place in 1775, depicts the comings and goings of four families and their assorted relations and friends. The second occurs five years later and focuses on an historical event, the riots which shook London to oppose rights for Catholics.

The book begins at the Maypole, an inn located just outside London and presided over by John Willet, a pompous know-it-all who intimidates his friends and dominates his son, Joe, to the point that he leaves to join the army by the end of this part. Hugh, an uneducated and violent man works for Willet handling animals. Down the road is the residence of Geoffrey Haredale, a country gentleman, and his niece Emma, a beautiful and gracious girl. Her father was mysteriously killed 22 years previously and the mystery runs through the book. Haredale is a Catholic and an antagonist to John Chester, an oily, Machiavellian, highly ambitious character. The only thing the two men have in common is their mutual desire to keep Chester's son Edward from a romance with Emma. In this they succeed and Edward, too, leaves at the end of part 1. The third household contains the Varden family. Gabriel, the father, is a locksmith kindly and a moderating influence throughout the book. Ultimately he plays a hero's role. His wife, Martha, constants nags him, aided and abetted by their servant, Miss Miggs, a comical character given to hysterics. Their daughter, Dolly, is beautiful and vivacious, but flirtatious and at this point does not return the love that Joe Willet shows for her. Simon Tappertit, an apprentice to Mr. Varden, also resides there. He is a ridiculous person with an exaggerated sense of himself and the clandestine leader of a group of similar apprentices with designs on engaging in violence against their masters. Finally there is the residence of the title character, Barnaby Rudge, who is a mentally deficient but happy and charming young man. He lives in genteel poverty with his mother. Mr. Rudge, who was the steward to the murdered Mr. Haredale, was also allegedly a victim. The cast of characters interacts in typical Dickens fashion for the first 33 (of 80) chapters.

The scene and mood shifts abruptly in the second part which gives a detailed and graphic account of the so-called "anti-popery" riots that took place in London in 1780. The reader would do well to read an independent account of these events before reading Dickens' version. The above cast of characters is joined in part two by an additional group including some from actual life (Lord George Gordon, the instigator of the riots and Ned Dennis, one of the ringleaders to name but two). The riots bring out the best and the worst of all the characters. Barnaby is conned into joining the rioters and ends up in prison condemned to be hanged, the Maypole Inn is sacked and John Willet, humiliated, bound and gagged, the Haredale residence is set ablaze and Emma and Dolly taken prisoner, many houses are burned, people killed, Newgate prison is broken into, destroyed and all the prisoners released. The riots end with a harrowing scene is which dozens of people are burned to death by flaming alcohol.

The execution scene, where three of the "ringleaders" are to be hanged is one of the most powerful parts of the book. Dickens gives a vivid account of the conditions and circus atmosphere that surrounds this event. In Hugh's powerful and eloquent speech Dickens also gives a condemnation of British society that creates such persons. Hugh at this point is the most moral person in the book and goes to his death with bravery and courage. This scene alone is well worth reading the book for.

In the end, of course, everything is sorted out, justice is delayed but not denied and we have a happy ending.

If the book can be said to suffer it is from the lack of a strong central character around whom the plot revolves. There is no real hero here or even a singular villain. Joe and Edward, either of whom might have filled the former role are largely absent from much of the book and only show up again after the riots have ended. Gabriel Varden comes closest to that role but is more acted upon than actor until the closing chapters. The most likely candidate for villain, John Chester, likewise disappears at the end of part one. Hugh, Simon and Dennis emerge as a trio of rouges joined by Gashford, secretary to Lord Gordon and a blind man who cries plaintively, why must I be good just because I am blind? The murderer, of course, is also lurking around. But none of these individuals stands apart from the rest and the hero versus villain theme is muted. The book is really about events and how these events shape and change the life of the characters for better or worse.

In the end you will find yourself thinking about Barnaby Rudge for days afterward and it will leave a mark on your life. Nothing more positive can be said about any book.

Having left Dickens until later in life, I just completed Barnaby Rudge as part of my attempt to go through his novels in chronological order, starting with Pickwick. Barnaby Rudge is a very different animal from the 4 prior novels, patterned after it was on the swashbuckling historical style of Scott. It's so different from Old Curiosity Shop, which he was writing at the same time as Barnaby Rudge, that it's hard to believe it's the work of the same author, except for the quality of exceptionally vivid characterizations that pervade all the books.

I knew nothing of the historical events upon which the book is based, that, at the time of original publication, were well known to most Londoners, almost as well known as 9/11 is known by contemporary New Yorkers. Dickens seemed to have anticipated this problem, as the historical recreation is so beautifully folded into the melodrama that I never felt left behind. DON'T READ THE INTRODUCTION as too many plot points were given away and spoiled some of the dramatic impact for this reader. Save the introduction for afterward.

The characters are so memorable, it is painful to have to complete the book and say goodbye to them. Especially John Willet, and his double-chin, which almost deserves billing as a character in and of itself, Sir John Chester, a poetic achievement to whom Oscar Wilde and Shaw owed enormous debts, Maypole Hugh, and Grip the Raven (from whom Poe got his idea for the poem "The Raven), are high water marks of achievement.

While I preferred some of the intensely personal, experimental style of the latter half of Oliver Twist and much of Old Curiosity Shop, the confident and bold tone of the narration in Barnaby is a shot of adrenaline in every chapter, and the power of description in Dicken's cinematic viewpoint is incredibly powerful and pulse-poundingly entertaining, while the whole time maintaing a savvy, but never cynical outlook when it comes to the socio-political themes.

Don't miss it.

This is a review of the BBC Radio dramatization version of this book.

The story is a good one, filled with politics of religion, sympathetic characters and Dicken's inimitable prose.

However, this audio version is WAY over produced, with blaring, overly-dramatic music that seemed reminiscent of the worst grade B silent films.

The actors screamed, ranted, raved and wept hysterically more than they spoke. Unless someone already knows the basic plot and characters, they may have difficulty following the action (particularly, as a previous reviewer pointed out, the thick accents will be hard for Americans to decipher.).

The entire production needed to be toned down quite a bit for Dicken's voice to be heard above the clamor.

It might be better to read the book in this case.

This is the last of all the Dickens's novels (including the five shorter Christmas Books) that I have either read or attempted. I had saved it until the last because it has not been held in very high esteem either by the critics or the reading public. I was pleasantly surprised.

Whereas there are several Dickens novels that I was unable to finish (namely, The Old Curiosity Shop, Martin Chuzzlewit, Dombey and Son, Little Dorrit, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and all the Christmas Books except A Christmas Carol), Barnaby Rudge never dragged even though it is one of Dickens's longer novels. Barnaby Rudge is as filled with memorable characters (especially the secondary ones - Miss Miggs, the Vardens, the Chesters, Hugh, Mr. Tapperttit, Dennis the hangman, etc.); places (the Maypole Inn, the locksmith's shop) and incident (the Gordon Riots) as any of his greater novels.

Stylistically, Barnaby Rudge is akin to Dickens's earlier picaresque novels (Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby). After those early successes of the 1830s, Dickens was struggling to find his mature style in my opinion. Most of the longer and shorter novels I was unable to finish come from the 1840s. (The Mystery of Edwin Drood is Dickens's last novel, but it was only half-finished at his death so it is really not fair to blame Dickens for my failure to respond to it.) Even though The Old Curiosity Shop comes between Nicholas Nickelby and Barnaby Rudge, Barnaby Rudge demonstrates all the strengths of Nicholas Nickelby and avoids the weaknesses of The Old Curiosity Shop. Barnaby Rudge is still early Dickens in my opinion.

G. K. Chesterton described a taste for early Dickens as similar to a taste for new potatoes as opposed to mature potatoes. Some people prefer new potatoes. Barnaby Rudge is not Dickens at his greatest. (I reserve that description for David Copperfield, Great Expectations and Bleak House. Along with the three novels of the 1830s already mentioned, I place Hard Times, A Tale of Two Cities and Our Mutual Friend and now, Barnaby Rudge, on the second tier of Dickens's novels.) We must remember, that Dickens at his worst is better than most writers at their best. If Barnaby Rudge were a newly discovered work by an otherwise unknown author, or by one of Dickens's contemporaries, it would be hailed as a masterpiece. As it is, Barnaby Rudge is an eminently enjoyable and readable effort by a great writer.

Barnaby Rudge (1841)originally appeared as a weekly serial in Dickens'
weekly newspaper Master Humphrey's Clock. The novel is the most obscure work by the master. The story is well worth reading. It is an exciting story of the Anti-Roman Catholic riots of 1780 led by the eccentric George Gordon a member of Parliament. The second half of the book focuses on the riots in a cinematic depiction of the mobs who ran amok in London during a hot summer of hatred, prejudice and murder.
Character rather than complicated Victorian plot is why we read Dickens. This book adds many memorable folks to the gallery of Dickens
characters. In this long novel we meet:
Barnaby Rudge-the title character is a feeble witted lad whose pet is the famed raven Grip. He lives with his mother. We later learn his evil father Rudge Sr. murdered Lord Haredale's brother. The father is hanged but Barnaby lives to spend time at the Maypole Inn. Years before Dostoevsky's novel "The Idiot" Dickens took a mentally ill person as his hero. Barnaby is pardoned for his participation in the Gordon riots.
Gabriel Varden, his shrewish wife and buxom daughter Dolly live in London where Mr. Varden is a locksmith. After Joe Willet leaves England to fight in the American Revolution he returns home to wed Dolly. A charming love story.
The Haredale family tells us of the love of Mr. Haredale's beautiful niece
Emma for Edward the son of John Chester. Chester is a Protestant and a sworn enemy of the Catholic Haredales.
Minor charactes such as Hugh (the illegitimate son of Chester); Dennis the hangman; Miss Miggs the man crazy maid to Mrs. Varden and others populate the pages of this fast paced tale of murder,mystery and intrigue.
Barnaby Rudge is a fine book which deserves to be better known. It is not Dickens best novel,his longest novel or his most famous novel. Yet it still appeals in its exciting look at the events of 1780. It and the much more famous Tale of Two Cities were the two historical novels the author produced.
YOu will never forget Grip the Raven (said to be the inspiration for Edgar Allen Poe's poem "The Raven") or Barnaby and his friends and enemies. Curl up with this good book and let your mind and heart wander back to the year of our Lord 1775 when the novel begins.
The book is well illustrated by George Cattermole and Hablot K. Browne
in charming art work.

I found this book both fascinating and instructive. Folsom's brief biographies of six great American industrialists provide a riveting read and a thought provoking revision of the perspective on entrepreneurship that is widely held by the academic establishment. I believe that his distinction between "political" and "market" entrepreneurs is essential to understanding the economic history of the US and the process by which nations and individuals become wealthy. The only complaint that I have about the book is that it is too short. The portraits of the great producers that Folsom discusses are so interesting that I wanted to know much more about each man. I suppose that I will need to start tracking down some supplementary biographies. If you are looking for a book on history or economics that is enjoyable to read, thought provoking, and relevant, you could hardly do better than this book.

Burton Folsom's The Myth of the Robber Barons is a short, but excellent book that argues that the mislabeled "Robber Barons" of the 19th century became wealthy not because they robbed anyone but because they offered quality products/services at record low prices. These productive giants made their fortunes because so many Americans chose to do business with them.

There are several values to gain from this book. First, you will learn several inspiring stories about how great industrialists amassed their fortunes through ingenuity, extended dedication and taking great calculated risks. You will learn about how Cornelius Vanderbilt defeated the Fulton NY/NJ steamship-transport monopoly by offering lower rates, earning a reputation for his punctuality, investing in faster and larger ships and providing ancillary services such as concessions. You will also learn about how Andrew Carnegie was obsessed with cutting costs, which led to him profitably carting off tons of steel shavings discarded from a competing steel plant owned by the Scrantons. Other business heroes covered in depth in this book are James J. Hill (who built the Great Northern Railroad without a penny of Federal aid), oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, the Scranton steel family, Carnegie's right hand man Charles Schwab and Andrew Mellon, the Secretary of the Treasury whose laissez-faire policy recommendations allowed the 1920s to roar.

Another great value of this book is that it dispels a few common myths about capitalism. For one, Folsom correctly identifies that "Robber Barons" is an invalid concept. That is, "Robber Barons" includes market entrepreneurs (i.e., those who *created* their fortunes by revolutionizing an industry) with political entrepreneurs (i.e., those who made their fortunes through government aid or with political connections.) Examples of market entrepreneurs include Carnegie, Rockefeller, Hill, and Vanderbilt. Examples of political entrepreneurs include Henry Villard and Leland Stanford. Instead of subsuming all wealthy industrialists under a single category, Folsom suggests that we instead judge these industrialists based on *how* they made their fortunes.

A final great aspect of this book is that it offers a concise, essentialized history of what made these individuals great. Thus, an avid reader may absorb a healthy amount of introductory material without committing himself to reading an 800-paged biography.

If you enjoy this book, then I also highly recommend both Burton Folsom's "Empire Builders" and Andrew Bernstein's "The Capitalist Manifesto". To a lesser extent, I also recommend H. W. Brands' "Masters of Enterprise."

Folsom does a masterful job of illustrating how the traditional "Robber Barons" of the 19th century actually fall into two categories, market and political entrepreneurs. The political entrepreneurs, were generally abusive of their position and government favors, providing little innovation, high prices, and lower quality because government subsidies and privileges made it unnecessary for them to compete more effectively. The market entrepreneurs, though not always angels in their personal lives, generally reduced the prices and increased the quality of the products of their industries in order to succeed by outcompeting their competitors. Even the most successful, like Rockefeller, who approached 90% market share, never raised the prices of their products back to their earlier levels. In other words, even when they were successful, these entrepreneurs always left the markets they entered with considerably higher quality and lower prices than when they entered. His treatment of his chosen entrepreneurs is well-researched and his clear bias in favor of capitalism does not come across as bigotry, given his careful use of factual evidence. I use these as supplements to my History and Civics classes, and have for years. His other books are equally well-written, but not as easy to find in print.

He includes a supplemental chapter right at the end of his book that deals directly with the reasons why traditional history textbooks come to such contradictory conclusions with respect to these entrepreneurs. That historiography aspect of this book is unique in most such business literature.

Who were the real robber barons.

The entrepreneurs vs. the state. Folson cuts away the myths and tells the true story of these remarkable risk takers: Vanderbilts's steamships, Hill's Railroads, Scranton's Iron Rails, Schwab and the steel industry, Rockefeller's oil, and Mellon's tax cuts. He also hits upon the missed data and half truths in the textbooks that contributes to rewriting history.

Burton's style is a little dry, with an over emphases of each subject. He received research help from libraries, institutions, historians, and even his students.

There are two types of entrepreneur, the market entrepreneur and the political entrepreneur. Great visionaries of the private sector can do it better than the government: what we get is lower prices and a better product; innovation isn't stifled; more affordable comfort and products for the poor. Government aid tends to breed inefficiency.

Who is relative to growth? Who makes creative contributions?

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."------------------C.S. Lewis

Wish you well
Scott

...that there is still so much hatred of capitalism in the world today, as evidenced by the fact that several reviewers gave this book one star. Nothing in history has even come close to elevating the material standard of living like the capitalistic system, and yet it is still villified, maligned, mocked, and hated intensely, mainly by those who despise freedom. Burton Folsom's "The Myth of the Robber Barons" is an excellent, though much too brief, discussion of several industrialists of the 19th century. In the book, Folsom argues, and undeniably proves, that free market entrepreneurs of the 19th century were far more successful, less wasteful, and much less economically corrupt than those who begged for government subsidies. This will not surprise anyone who understands free market economics versus government meddling.

Just one quick example: James Hill built the Great Northern Railroad without a dime of government money. The other four transcontinental railroads, all built with government subsidies, went bankrupt--there were massive amounts of waste, fraud, and abuse, which is, of course, exactly what you would expect when people aren't spending their own money. Those who built the transcontinental railroads on government subsidies had no reason to be careful or efficient because they were spending taxpayers' money, not their own. Hill built the best, most efficient, and most profitable line. Then he expanded into the Asian market, opening doors to further enhance American trade. Only to be stymied by government action--the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. So government built a far worse railroad on taxpayers money, and then stifled the freedom of a great entrepreneur with a useless law. Folsom proves this conclusively, and there is no way to deny it, except through vitriol and hatred.

There is a reason why capitalism can succeed in economic matters where government cannot. Government, by definition, is the nationalization of force. It can do nothing without the threat or use of force. It's major--often only--source of income is through coercive taxation, which is nothing more than forced requisitions from its citizens. Government's purpose, as so wisely noted by America's Founding Fathers and ignored by American politicians today, is the protection of property, the free use thereof that does not infringe upon the natural rights of others. Government can only use force to protect property--that's why government is so good at war and so wasteful when it comes to social issues. It's not government's purpose to be involved in charity, simply because of the nature of government--the use of force to accomplish its goals. One doesn't use a sledge hammer to break an egg--that's not the purpose of a sledge hammer. A sledge hammer WILL certainly break an egg, but it probably won't accomplish the intended purpose, unless that purpose is the total destruction of the egg. And when governmental force is used in areas where force is not required (charity, free market economics, etc.) then the result will nearly always be negative and very often catastrophic. That's the point Folsom makes in this book and he makes it well.

Lovers of freedom will enjoy this book. Those who want to control others, think they know better how to run other peoples' lives, and are government-control freaks will hate this book.

One last note: I am an instructor of history at a community college in California. And starting this fall, I'm going to require my students read Folsom's book. It's time our people started getting the other side of the story, the correct one, the one where freedom wins, rather than loses.

Not one of Tim Burton's best.But if you have collected his other books on the art of his movies, you will still want to buy this too.You'll still get a good if not great book.

The first thing I noticed about this book is that how unappropriately mistitled it is by calling itself "The Art" of Sleepy Hollow. What I saw instead is the unentertaining shooting script printed superimposedly on the so-called 'conceptual arts' and stills from the movie.
I was expecting a book with a feature of something like The Art of The Matrix. Being a fan of moviemaking conceptual artistic designs, I found the pictures and still photos to be blurry and in some cases 'artless'. What a disappointment for a book based on a really atmospheric and visually stunning approach.

"The Art Of Sleepy Hollow" does a great job a carturing the sweeping,eerie mood of Tim Burton's films,with great stills and re-creations of the beautiful art design.There are also an abundance of original scatches,illustration the development of many of the characters and scenarios in the completed film.My favorite photo personally is the one at the back showing a menacing Tim Burton holding the mock-ups of two severed heads,perfectly capturing the fun-house chills of the film.As an added bonus you get the original screenplay,with many scenes that were not in the film,that help elucidate and clarify alot of the scenes that didn't make a lot of sense in the film.If you loved the movie,this book is a must-have.

this book is a total failure!

Don't get me wrong, I LOVED this movie! And I'm a big fan of Tim Burton and his visuals. But this book doesn't accentuate either of the above. The illustrations are not very exciting and the book lacks tons of actual still photos and behind the scenes shots. At least I got it for free. I was hoping for something similar to the Bram Stoker's Dracula book that came out shortly after that film. That book and script was exceptional and captured the full beauty of the movie. This one (though the script is included) does not do the same. A shame because I love this film.

"Gargantua and Pantagruel"

A 16th-century medical doctor and Catholic monk, François Rabelais spent decades writing a series of five books, collectively known as "Gargantua and Pantagruel," that became wildly popular for their dark and bawdy humor. To this day, the massive tome still ruffles religious feathers. The current edition of The Catholic Encyclopedia calls Rabelais "a revolutionary who attacked all the past, scholasticism, the monks; his religion is scarcely more than that of a spiritually-minded pagan.... His vocabulary is rich and picturesque, but licentious and filthy."

Sex, drinking, utopian ideals, and heretical philosophy populate this fantastical saga that follows the adventures of a giant and his son. What's even more intriguing are the multitude of hidden messages, Gnostic insights, alchemical secrets, and herbal obsessions (e.g., cannabis) that bubble far beneath the surface of these tall tales.

Hey, the book is dated, no doubt. But it can still get the Church's metaphorical cloisters all bundled up in a ruffle... so don't let the Pope catch ya readin' it, son.

(This review is being posted on Amazon under the legal approval of a Creative Commons License -- material can be used elsewhere so long as the original author and website are credited. Author: Lucas Brachish. Website: celebritycola.blogspot.com)

Readers should be aware that this translation/interpretation has two
serious flaws. First, it's not particularly faithful to the original. In fact
the translators took great liberties many of which change the content
of the original.

Second, the English text is thoroughly antique. English being a language
that changes rapidly, the distance between our english and theirs is
great enough to render this text a bit difficult. The spelling, which comes
from a time before Dr. Johnson's Dictionary had time to standardize
orthography, is more than a little distracting.

So what to do? Well, the best thing is to read it in French if you can. Rabelais'
French is closer to the modern language and you should have little trouble
with it. If you can't, look for one of the annotated scholarly editions or
the translation by M.A. Screech. The latter is available only in a cheap
paperback that's not much fun to hold, but it may be the best avenue to
Gargantua for most of us.


--Lynn Hoffman, author of New Short Course in Wine,The and
bang BANG: A Novel ISBN 9781601640005

The positives about this edition of Rabelais' five book epic are: 1) the full inclusion of all chapters in all the books 2) a very readable text by Burton Raffael. The negatives for me were the lack of notes (though somewhat a formidable task considering the bulk of the text presented) and the occasional anachronism in his choice of translated names. Pretty minor - I still prefer Putnam's translation in the hard to find "Portable Rabelais," but this edition offers a full exposure to all the books in a lively language that preserves the spirit and philosophical intent of Rabelais.

Some of the other reviews summarize the plot and discuss Rabelais' style; my review is directed to people trying to decide which edition to buy. The Everyman's Library edition, which I just received, uses a late seventeenth-century English translation by Sir Thomas Urquhart and Pierre Le Motteux, not the recent Burton Raffel translation. (One might be led to assume that it reprints Raffel, given that the "Search Inside" feature on the Everyman's edition leads you to his translation in a Norton paperback edition.) One should approach the Urquhart/Le Motteux translation with some caution. Terence Cave points out in his (excellent) introduction to the edition that the translation is "extremely free" and expands the first three books by 50%, but at the same time he calls the translation "an extraordinary feat . . . a literary work in its own right." My sense after reading the first book is that he's right--the language has a lively and strange effect--but this is probably not the ideal introduction to Rabelais. There are no editor's notes. Moreover, the snippets of Latin, Greek, and other languages which riddle the text are left untranslated. Perhaps the phrase "charitatis nos faciemus bonum cherubin; ego occidit unum porcum, et ego habet bonum vino" gives you no problems, but if it does, I would recommend a different translation, like Donald Frame's, which Cave specifically recommends in the bibliographical note in his introduction.

I don't want to make this review too long, but it might be useful to see brief excerpts from the Urquhart/Le Motteux, Donald Frame, and Burton Raffel translations for you to judge for yourself which one you would enjoy spending time with. (I don't have the Cohen translation published by Penguin). Here's the description of Gargantua's conception at the opening of Book 1, chapter 3, as rendered by Urquhart/Le Motteux (remember, late seventeenth-century English):

"GRANDGOUSIER was a good fellow in his time, and notable jester; he loved to drink neat, as much as any man that then was in the world, and would willingly eate salt meat: to this intent he was ordinarily well furnished with gammons of Bacon, both of Westphalia, Mayence and Bayone; with store of dried Neats tongues, plenty of Links, Chitterlings and Puddings in their season; together with salt Beef and mustard, a good deale of hard rows of powdered mullet called Botargos, great provision of Sauciges, not of Bolonia (for he feared the Lombard boccone) but of Bigorre, Longaulnauy, Brene, and Rouargue. In the vigor of his age he married Gargamelle, daughter to the King of the Parpaillons, a jolly pug, and well mouthed wench. These two did often times do the two backed beast together, joyfully rubbing & frotting their Bacon 'gainst one another, insofarre, that at last she became great with childe of a faire sonne, and went with him unto the eleventh month . . ."

Donald Frame's version, in up-to-date English:

"GRANDGOUSIER was a great joker in his time, loving to drink hearty as well as any man who was then in the world, and fond of eating salty. To this end, he ordinarily had on hand a good supply of Mainz and Bayonne hams, plenty of smoked ox tongues, an abundance of salted mullets, a provision of sausages (not those of Bologna, for he feared Lombard mouthfuls), but of Bigorre, of Longaulnay, of La Brenne, and of La Rouergue. In his prime, he married Gargamelle, daughter of the king of the Parpaillons, a good looking wench, and these two together often played the two-backed beast, so that she became pregnant with a handsome son and carried him until the eleventh month."

Here is the passage as it stands in the original 1534 edition of Gargantua (following the original orthography):

"Grandgouzier estoit bon raillard en son temps, aymant a boyre net autant que home qui pour lors feust on monde, & mangeoyt volentiers salé. A ceste fin avoit ordinairement bonne munition de jambons de Magence et de Baionne, force langues de beuf fumees, abondance de andouilles en la saison et beuf salé a la moustarde. Renfort de boutargues, provision de saulcisses, non de Bouloigne (car il craignoit ly bouconé de Lombard) mais de bigorre, de Lonquaulnay, de la Brene, & de Rouargue. En son eage virile espousa Gargamelle fille du roy des Parpaillos, belle gouge & de bonne troigne et faisoient eulx deux souvent ensemble la beste a deux douz, joyesement se frotans leur lard, tant qu'elle engroissa dun beau filz, & le porta jusques a lunziesme mois."

Notice that that the ribald detail "joyesement se frotans leur lard," rendered by Urquhart/Le Motteux as "joyfully rubbing & frotting their Bacon 'gainst one another," is altogether missing in Frame's version. Perhaps Frame's version is too genteel in omitting this passage. It's not only a delightful example of what Bakhtin described as the "lower bodily stratum" in Rabelais, but it links Grangousier's culinary preferences that open the passage with the conception of Gargantua (who will turn out to be quite a glutton himself). With this in mind, consider Burton Raffel's translation:

"In his time, Grandgousier was a fine tippler and a good friend, as fond of draining his glass as any man walking the earth, cheerfully tossing down salted tidbits to keep up his thirst. Which is why he usually kept a good supply of Mainz and Bayonne hams, plenty of smoked beef tongues, lots of whatever chitterlings were in season and beef pickled in mustard, reinforced by a special cavier from Provence, a good stock of sausages, not the ones from Bologna (because he was afraid of the poisons Italians often use for seasoning), but those from Bigorre and Longaulnay (near Saint-Malo), from Brenne and Rouergue. When he became a man, he married Gargamelle, daughter of the King of the Butterflies, a fine, serviceable female--with a good-looking face, too. And they whacked away at making the beast with two backs, happily whipping their lard together, so successfully that she conceived a handsome boy and carried him for eleven months."

Notice that in addition to preserving the bawdy language, Raffel resolves the name of Gargamelle's father, the king of the "Parpaillons," to "Butterflies." (In modern French, "papillons.")

Hopefully these examples give you a sense of which translation you would most enjoy. I like the Urquhart/Le Motteux version but would have preferred editor's notes to explain unfamiliar terms and translations of at least the Latin and Greek citations. I think Frame or Raffel would likely be preferable for first-time readers of Rabelais.

The title characters of this amazing classic are father and son, respectively. Gargantua is so huge that men climbing into his mouth got stuck in the crevices of his teeth as if they were food particles. Pantagruel, while being born, was so enormous that his unfortunate mother had to be ripped open to accomodate his exit from her womb.

_Gargantua and Pantagruel_ has lots of screamingly funny toilet humor, so much so, that occasionally I had to prevent myself from falling off my seat with laughter. Yet, there is really nothing pornographic about this book. There is absolutely no graphic sexual activity. Rabelais often quotes Greek, Roman, and French philosophers and intellectuals while recounting his tales. Rabelais also effectively satirizes political leaders, judges, Churchmen, and taste-makers of his day.

On his voyages to foreign lands, Pantagruel, takes along, among others, his closest friend, Panurge and Friar John. Seemingly a braggart, Panurge is really a man suffering from great insecurity and cowardness. He is as loveable as the Cowardly Lion in the Wizard of Oz. Panurge is also very introspective and learns quite a bit about himself by the conclusion of the book. The monk, Friar John, is, on the other hand, a brave and swashbuckling character, who would not hesitate to run a sword through a seeming enemy. Many of the surroundings and individuals on these uniquely strange places are so unusual and the situations so inventive that they boggle the mind.

I read _Gargantua and Pantagruel_ in the Modern Library edition, which was fortunate, because some of the earlier translations used too formal English (lots of "thees" and "thous" and "haths).
This is a book of great intelligence and thoughtfulness, which, as I noted at the beginning of this review, is also delightfully bawdy and imaginative. I only wish one of my high school English teachers had made _Gargantua and Pantagruel_ required reading.

I really like the idea of what Burton is trying to do here. He's got a great concept and I'm a big fan of Christian sci-fi.

Unfortunately, I don't think he has the writing skill to pull it off. Burton's writing style is incredibly awkward. A basic guideline for beginning writers is "Show, don't tell"--in other words, use your characters to tell the story instead of simply saying what happens. (Look the phrase up on Wikipedia.) This rule needs to be engraved into a stout stick and Mr. Burton needs to be beaten with it about the head and shoulders. Seriously, I've read fanfic with better style.

The feeling of stilted awkwardness is amplified by the author's mortal fear of contractions and the way he frequently jumps between POVs. Even if you get used to the writing style, at bare minimum the book needs an editor. I read the "Historical Background" prologue with some interest but didn't get past the first chapter before giving up in pain, which was a first for me.

Lesson to prospective authors: No matter how awesome your ideas are, you've got to master the art of writing before you can tell your stories. I intend to return this book for a refund, if I can.

After reading all the reviews on this book, and anything else I could find on it, I bought it from Amazon. It was not as good as I thought it would be. The author created a cool world, and had some interesting ideas, but it was very hard to read. The language through the whole book was very formal; even what was supposed to be slang! Also, there were a lot of characters, and you wanted one of them to come to the front and be the main character. No one really did, and you kept wondering who the story was about. This also made it hard to get drawn into the story, as you didn't really connect with the characters. It was unique enough to be interesting, which is why I gave it four stars, but it was also hard to read, so all in all, it was not as good as I had hoped.

I appreciate Burton's attempt at a Christian sci-fi novel, but he needs to go back to the drawing board and work on his craft.

I often judge a good novel by how well it keeps my attention while on an exercise bike. This one kept it at times, but I found myself wishing it was over so I could start something else.

The book starts off slow, but I can handle that. There is a lot of getting to know characters so it seems you being set up for an in-depth fiction knowing of people, which I like. That said, it just becomes to over-the-top as you read. By the end of the book he has introduced elves, dwarves, merlin, Guenevere, giants, ogres, robots, dragons, wizards, etc; just about every fantasy element you can think of, with a perfect (too perfect) fitting together of Biblical explanation for each one. I just got a little too far out, in my view.

Also, it was a little too preachy. I like Christian fantasy, but I prefer the symbolic, or the in depth stories of personal struggles over books that use their stories to have one of the characters preach a sermon to you.

Again, I appreciate the effort and am for the self-publishing approach. I just think the author needs to go back to the drawing board and re-think some of his style.

This book received great reviews here on Amazon. so I sprung for the whole series. What a mistake! The premise of the book promises to be a great story, and it probably is a great story, but the poor writing gets in the way. He obviously has not learned the writing mantra "Show, don't tell." I could not get drawn into the story because I'd constantly think, "I can't believe he wrote that!!" Also, Mr. Burton has made his book a soapbox for his particular theology which is quite irritating.

I believe that Mr. Burton should hone his craft of writing and republish this book. Anything worth doing for the Lord is worth doing excellently.

Black Storm Rising by D. Shane Burton was an amazing read. I approached this book with an open mind. I was a bit leery about how science fiction and Christianity could be brought together but Burton did so flawlessly. The technical precision of Tom Clancy, along with the sci-fi storytelling of David Weber or Orson Scott Card is what I felt upon reading this book. There are those who have criticized the author for his unique writing style. I admit, after years and years of reading formulaic books it took some getting used to. After about the second chapter I was completely engrossed in the novel. The criticized style is one of the reasons this (and the sequels When Worlds Rage & Dark Tyrant's Ascension) novel is so enjoyable. I found myself excited about what would happen next. The characters are very well developed and their relationships with each other are equally so.
As was mentioned in another review, there are a few typos and errors. This is understandable since these books are self-published. These errors in no way detract from the story.
I would also like to address the Christianity of this book. There is no one denomination or viewpoint presented in these pages save for Biblical Christianity. It is not at all preachy or overbearing. It is however, an immensely important feature of not only the author's life, but of the lives of many of his characters. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of the science-fiction genre.