Faulkner Books

The information will be very useful in the near future, see my other reviews

I'm sure that this book would be as wonderful as everyone else here says it is - if i already spoke middle Egyptian or was sitting in Egypt, translating passages off of temple walls. However, as a student sitting in Los Angeles, trying to self-teach themselves...

My main problem with this book is a complete lack of an English - Egyptian index. The words listed are organized by first glyph - but the beginning glyphs themselves are not organized in any way that I could see. Certainly not by stroke count or anything logical like that.

Next - and this has been touched on by others - the entire book except for a few pages of preface is written in a pseudo-scripted font (not even a simple copy of Faulkner's handwriting, which would have probably been preferable) that is exceedingly hard to read. Not even the glyphs are safe - they look as though they were copied-and-pasted from Faulkner's rather hastily jotted notes.

Finally, the book seems to have been published in a half-baked state. Not only is it in this aforementioned font, which any serious editing would have gotten rid of, and not only does it miss an included English-Egyptian index, but the preface and epilogue have a list of additions and addendums that he meant to put in! Doesn't it seem like it might have been a good idea to add those before publication?

Unfortunately, this seems to be pretty much the only book of its type out there.

Studying Middle Egyptian, Faulkner's dictionary is a must, specially in those cases where you cannot get your hands on the Wörterbuch, which is the essential dictionary for any serious student of the Middle Egyptian language. The handwriting may be annoying and seem oldfashioned in this day and age, but after some practicing, it is not that hard to decipher Faulkner's glyphs. I've definitely seen worse.

There are references to all the words, so that you can check the ancient source and see where Faulkner found it. But you need to have at least a basic knowledge of Middle Egyptian and to know how to transliterate Middle Egyptian glyphs, otherwise this dictionary is a waste of your money.

Still, you should never, ever buy any books by Budge. Not if you want to be a serious student of the Ancient Egyptian language!

I am a Egyptology MA student and have used this dictionary for several years. It is, honestly, the best English-language reference available for ancient Egyptian, though the multi-volume German 'Worterbuch' is considered the ultimate resource. Budge is no comparison to either, being, in general, laughably inaccurate. The only reason he's reprinted is that there are no copyrights on his work, so publishers don't have to pay extra. Faulkner, on the other hand, references the texts from which he gets his definitions, providing as complete a reference as possible. He also covers the variations of spelling and definition (which for Egyptian can be both wide and numerous).

Yes, this dictionary is handwritten, which is due to the fact that it was created _before_ there were computers that could handle a hieroglyphic type. And converting it would take a lot of time and money that academics don't have and publishers don't want to spend. (This isn't exactly an NYTimes bestseller.)

So if you're seriously interested in translating the Egyptian language, this book is a must.

This is a most useful dictionary for those interested in reading and translating Middle Egyptian. However, I was amazed to find it entirely handwritten instead of typeset! It's fun if you have good eyesight and a little patience, otherwise get the older Wallis-Budge dictionary if you can ignore all of the "thee", "thou" and "thine" type translations he used, which only reflected an older literary style, I suppose. Being more recent than Budge, Faulkner's work will also contain some updated interpretations as well.

Well, as a Jane's Pocket Guide, it pretty much outlines all of the ships currently in service around the world. It breaks them down by type and by nation. It also even lists the individual names of each ship in each class which is pretty cool if you need to find out what ship and what class your loved one is stationed on.

The only negative comment I have about the book is that all of the pictures are black and white. Now I realize that some ships from around the world are not that readily available to get a color photograph of, but I must assume that most should be. So why not use them?

My only regret is the stats are not detailed enough. Other than that, it is a thorough look at the warships of the world's current navies. A must for any nautical fanatic.

--don

Maybe I expected too much. But the 2nd edition of Jane's Warship Recognition Guide comes up lacking in some respects, especially in comparison to my dog-eared, 1973 Jane's Pocket Warship Guide.

First, the good news: As a recognition guide, it does the job well. Line drawings are good, (if a bit too miniaturized) and a description of the ship's unique recognition features are covered in good detail. Full-page photographs of each class of ship are included. Most of the photos are of excellent quality, though a few (example, the converted Russian "Kiev" class carrier) are so washed-out as to be nearly useless. Still, if you're looking for a recognition guide, this book does the job. Buy it.

Now, the bad news: the technical information is erratic. Maybe I'm asking too much for Jane's to list each class of ship's main machinery in detail (make, model, horsepower, configuration - though they somehow managed to do so in my 1973 guide) but one would at least expect a one-word comment about the ship's propulsion ("CODOG," "nuclear," etc.). But Jane's offers us nothing - zero. Is France's new carrier nuclear powered? I would assume so, but who knows? Omission of this basic information is just inexcusable, even in a recognition guide.

Weapons systems, with some exceptions, are covered in better detail. Aircraft carrier descriptions include information on the types and numbers of aircraft likely to be carried by each particular class. Excellent. But one has to wonder why, after informing us that the "Typhoon" class submarines are equipped with SS-N-20 missiles, they can't bother to tell us how many of these dammed SS-N-20s each boat carries. C'mon, guys, this is kinda important information!

The bummer is that there's a real dearth of general-purpose warship books out there, and if you're looking for anything under $50, Jane's is really the only game in town. It's really not that bad - it just could have been so much better.

THERE ARE SO MANY EXCELLENT REVIEWS HERE ALREADY, ESPECIALLY THE ONE IN THE SPOTLIGHT FROM JANUARY OF 2001.

HAVING SAID THAT FIRST:

"Jane's Warship Recognition Guide" - fully updated 2nd edition, by Keith Faulkner, is a lot of concentrated warship recognition to have literally in the palm of one's hands. It practically fits in one's pocket, and this undeniably points to this volume's strengths as well as its weaknesses.

IN A NUTSHELL: I NEED A MAGNIFYING GLASS TO SEE THE DIAGRAMS & FINE PRINT USEFULLY

For recognition purposes, the full-page photos and detailed line diagrams for the over 200 classes of warships included, are scaled down to where I need to use a high-powered magnifying glass to make sense out of what I am looking at.

WARNING: MAGNIFYING GLASS USE ON-BOARD SHIP CAN LEAD TO SEA-SICKNESS:

Yes, it was a pretty bad scene and highly embarrassing. I saw many a seamen, who had witnessed my magnifying glass sickness, grimacing before turning to one another and nodding - go figure.

AFTER DOWNING SOME "ANTI-VERT" & RETURNING TO THE BRIDGE, I GAVE IT ANOTHER TRY:

In exchange for the smallness of the print, photos and diagrams, we have in our hands quite a lot of data and graphics. Enough to fill an older computer, to be sure.

The guide is organized by ship type which is ideal, when you are not told ahead of time what you are looking at. In essence, you would not need to pull out the guide at sea if you can see an air-craft carrier with the number 65 in huge white letters on the island just below the bridge, supported by an unusally narrower pedestal structure beneath. If you did, there would certainly be plenty of chuckles and you'd never make that mistake again.

Where this guide comes in handy, is as a fast and dirty identification tool when you really need it. Say, for instance, you're in the English channel in failing light. You can make out a large patrol boat say 8,000 meters off the port-bow and the issue is whether it is French or English. What's the big deal you might think, but on a patrol boat with a crew of a dozen or so, language may be an issue, and you might have to muster a linguist on-board your vessel or it will be a tough go communicating with a French crew, especially during a war. After all, naval vessels have become very generic, with some third world countries purchasing older classes of vessels from the U.S.A., Russian and UK navies.

ANOTHER GOOD THING ABOUT THIS GUIDE IS IT DOES GET INTO THE RESALE MARKET:

Essentially, Mexico, Greece, Pakistan, Turkey, South Korea, and Taiwan are sailing around in the very recognizable Ex-Gearing class Destroyers. For each country that has purchased these former previously owned U.S.A. Destroyers, there is a refitting of equipment along with insignia, flags, and other identification markings that are different. This guide does pay very careful attention to these differences. So, if you happen upon a ship which everyone on the bridge knows is an old Gearing Class destroyer, this guide can very quickly help identify the present difference in these vessels, from country to country. This is a more important use for this volume, not only because this type of identification is more difficult and common, but because these types of vessels are often in the hands of nations that have been, or will be, involved in regional conflicts. So all of the above, the language issue, the quick identification issue and now, the security issue, all come together for a solution in this book. FAST AND ACCURATE IS WHAT COUNTS HERE!

This is a must for those who love warships. It contains everything you want to know about a warship: weapons, performance, name, country... Very interesting for those like me who are in the navy.

I'm going to go out on a limb here, and express my feelings about Flags in the Dust using simple English. I took a course on Faulkner, and this was the novel I absolutely loved reading. I was frustratingly mystified by Sound and the Fury(particularly by all the accolades it has received), disgusted and disturbed by The Light in August, and had at least some admiration for Absalom, Absalom. Several reviewers describe this as "young" Faulkner or "developing" Faulkner - well, for me, this is Faulkner before the copious self-conscious devices - and seems far more genuine than his other novels. There it is - now I can only await the flood of "non-helpful" votes. It was worth it though.

After being delighted by Soldier's Pay, Faulkner's first novel, and thoroughly entertained by Mosquitoes, his second, I moved on to Flags in the Dust with high hopes. Like the other books, it has hypnotizing, lush descriptions of the Deep South and obliquely rendered, fascinating characters. Much of it rings true and makes you really feel as if you are there is this bygone era. But I had problems being very interested in young Bayard, the handsome, hell-raising, irresponsible, moody, manly, drunken, self-destructive main character. The book seems to romanticize and glorify Bayard at the same time it is minutely describing his selfish, hurtful behavior. While Faulkner seems to partly explain Bayard's defects as a result of trauma over his brother John's death during WW1, it seems to me that Bayard would have been much the same regardless. As such, I didn't find him a very interesting character -- he reminded me of scores of other very similarly portrayed handsome, hellbent, brooding, self-absorbed young "heroes" in movies and books. So I took my consolation and pleasure from the much more interesting-to-me supporting characters such as Aunt Jenny and old Bayard and black Simon and young Bayard's wife Narcissa and old doctor Loosh Peabody.

I love those works of art which bridge two eras; in music the early Schoenberg in "Death and Transfiguration", and all of Mahler; "Sartoris" is a literary example. Here you can see the developing Faulkner stylistically acknowledging some 19th century mentors in the exquisite descriptive chapters which open the book. A beautifully appropriate style in which to convey nostalgia for that period. It is rather heartbreaking that F. stopped writing like this, but I suppose he had to move on... I have not read the uncut version entitled "Flags in the Dust" but have a feeling, based on some reviews here, that the novel might be more enjoyable as "Sartoris"; from what I have read so far, it is not verbose at all, but really a gemlike work indicative of his debt to the great masters Zola, Flaubert, Eliot, Bronte, etc...like some recently recut old movies I've seen recently, sometimes it's just better the first time around.

Though not as complex and difficult as some of his more famous works, Flags in the Dust provides some outstanding writing. It may benefit some to read The Unvanquished prior to this book as it gives some background on the Sartoris family, the main focus of Flags. Many of Faulkner's descriptions in this book are uncanny. I would have only given this book four stars, but his two-page description of the mule was alone worth one more star.

Before I read this book, I kept hearing what a horrible novel it was. However, it isn't horrible; it's just not nearly as fantastic as some of his other works. It's still definitely worth the read, though.

If you can make it through sentences that seem to never end and some repitition, you will find a great story of love, guilt, and Southern life. This book opens with the Sartoris family, and several young men (Bayard Sartoris and others) returning home from World War I, and the impressions war left upon them. Thrown in with a little bit of incest, love notes, and a daredevil, this book provides a good combination of mushiness (sp?), humor, and sorrow.

However, while some have said not to read this book as your first Faulkner, I disagree. And here's why: reading this book after you have read some of his other works really makes you look at this book in a more negative way, since his other works have been so great. Just remember, if this is your first Faulkner read, many of his other works are MUCH BETTER, so if you read this first and don't like it, there are MUCH BETTER ones out there. As far as reading goes, it's a pretty easy read (although you might have to keep track of all the Johns and Bayards), at least in comparison to some of his other books. Also, if you plan on reading other Faulkner books, this one is a MUST, since it introduces you to the Benbrows, Snopes, and the Sartorises-all characters that are found in some of his other novels.

This is a wonderful way to brush up on history! It is fast and easy to read. This would be a great book for someone who missed history the first time around!

I gave it as a gift to a 10 year old. Hope he likes it. It looked like a easy read.

This book is a great concise recap of American history. Despite the age level for the book, I believe this is a great review for those of us who's brains find it hard to retain all those details about our country's history. Good for kids and adults, as well. Thanks, Kenneth Davis.

This appealed greatly to my wife who never studied much of American History. I found it interesting as well, but was less enthusiastic since the material was very familiar to me. Still, it is presented in a unique and captivating format. It is good for both kids and adults.

American history is rife with stories about Washington and a cherry tree, Jefferson and his slave mistress, and more that we all accept as fact. The author does a nice job dispelling these myths and more. I read the book all the way through and stayed entertained...

... until the end of WWII. If the book had a slight leftward slant before that period, it ended with a major slant afterward. The treatment of Bill Clinton is especially biased.

Overall though, I would recommend this book. Any author who can make history entertaining is doing the country a service.

What frustrated and disappointed me was Robert Harlands sloppiness. Harland, a former British spy, was suspicious from the get yet kept making careless stupid mistakes over and over. That, after the first two, was inexcusable, imho. His sloppiness caused his sons death which reeeeally pissed me off cuz I liked Tomas Rath and was looking forward to a whole book with him in it. Grrrrr. Other than that I enjoyed reading this book and am looking into reading his 'Brandenburg Gate'. 'Empire State' sounds stupid so will skip it. Also will skip 'Remembrance Day' after reading the Publishers Weekly and Chris Fogarty's review.

I must agree with some of the other reviewers that this one is good, not great. Parts of it are too implausible, and other parts dragged on way too long. Halfway through I had to put the book down for a few months and regain my strength before finishing. It was only pure perseverance, not enthusiasm, that made me finish it. The end was actually well done, but it took far too long to get there.

However I do not read an espionage genre on regular basis, more exactly - I read it very rarely, this book has got me totally. Thrilling from the very first paragraph it has consumed my entire weekend. I simply could not leave it and let it be a bed-side reading. I have picked it randomly from a box of english books I have received from someone leaving my country back to the US and every other book I have picked up afterwards was a pure disappointment in a comparision with this one.
The plot is great and refreshing, the style is dynamic and the construciton of book is thirilling. Beside being an enormously convincing post cold-war espionage book, I have appreciated the job the author has done as for the local specifics described in book. As long as I come from on of the countries the book takes place in and as long as these central-european countries are usually described in a ridiculous, far from reality way, Mr. Porter has bothered himself to do a research, to check the probability of local names and places (authors, when writing about the post-communist countries often tend to name their heroes Boris and Yelena, forcing them to live in towns sounding like in XY-kovo and let them standing all their days in the queues to get a bread and potatoes, thinking that giving the contex a typical russian coherency of the 70ties spices the book with the sprinkle of authenticity) and together with the plot he has made the book so persuasive I have started to look over my shoulder to check whether or not I'm being observed by a spy.
But first and foremost he has convinced me the espionage genre (and the espionage itself) has not died with the end of a cold war.

Spy's Life is a very enjoyable espionage thriller. Robert Harland, a former British spy, begins the novel by surviving a plane crash only to realize that this is the least of his worries. Key events in this spy's life have come back to haunt him and now he is not only fighting for his life, but the lives of his loved ones. Great political intrigue, I especially liked the use of the United Nations in the novel.

Can't wait for the sequel 'Empire State'.

A very good spy story with lots of twists and turns, a love story and the up turning of an unknown son. There is lots of shooting and death for those with a bloody bent and an airplane crash that is the centre of a sabotage investigation. The plot line centres on the competition amongst spy organizations in different countries in the investigation by the UN of an ethnic cleansing burial site in the former Yugoslavia. A nice twist at the end, a believable protagonist in Robert Copeland and a ruthless sadistic enemy that stretches Copeland's many talents.

While I enjoyed most of the book the last 100 pages tended to drag and the involvement of the various good and bad guys got very complex. 3.5/5

This volume is a guide to the last 400 years of Japan's greatest and most distinctive artistic tradition. It explains the techniques used in Japanese lacquer and chronicles the development of the craft in response to Western demand. Edward Wrangham, one of the world's foremost collectors of lacquer, contributes an article tracing the revival of the Rimpa style. This volume of the Collection is sold with a free copy of "Volume I: Selected Essays".

The second of two volumes on ceramics, this book covers earthenware and focuses on another great artist-entrepreneur, Yabu Meizan (1853-1934), and illustrates 168 of his earthenwares and those of his contemporaries and imitators, minutely decorated in enamels and gold over a characteristic crackled ground. These wares, under the misleading nane of 'Satsuma', were the most popular of the Japanese craft products which dazzled the Western world in the era of the great exhibitions. An essay by Malcolm Fairley and Oliver Impey demolishes the various myths about the originb of 'Satsuma' put about by Japanese and Western writers in the late nineteenth century, while a biography of Yabu Meizan by Yamazaki Tsuyoshi of Osaka Municipal Museum, illustrated with copious examples of his work from the Yabu family archive and from contemporary illustrations, sheds fascinating light on the evolution of his style and working methods. By assembling such a large and outstanding group of ceramics and presrnting them in the light of pioneering research into their origin and progress, this volume makes a major contribution to the study and appreciation of Meiji art.

The first of two volumes of the catalogue of the Khalili Collection of Japanese Art covering ceramics, this book discusses porcelain. It concentrates on Miyagawa (Mazuku) Kozan (1842-1916), illustrating more than 80 examples of his virtuoso work in porcelain. Kozan brought the medium to new heights of technical perfection not seen before and, ever responsive to market forces, produced wares with shapes and decoration in Japanese, Chinese, and European styles. An essay by Malcolm Fairley and Oliver Impey traces the part played by Japanese porcelain in the international exhibitions of the period, while Clare Pollard contributes an artistic biography based on documentary research in Japan. By assembling such a large group of ceramics and presenting them in the light of pioneering research into their origin and progress, this volume makes a contribution to the study and appreciation of Meiji art. This fifth volume is sold with a free copy of "Volume I: Selected Essays".

This collection of essays by an international team of scholars provides essential background on the administrative, social, and economic, as well as the artistic, history of the Meiji period in Japan (1868-1912). The first three essays investigate the new government's active role in the modernization and re-orientation of the traditional crafts, which was seen as a vital component in Japan's efforts to become a modern country on a par with the Western powers. Janet Hunter sets the scene, describing the drastic changes wrought by the Meiji revolution and the conflict betwen Western and Japanese civilization that was to become a constant theme of Japan's development. Sato Doshin analyses the Meiji bureaucrats' efforts to promote the craft industries by means of trade exhibitions at home and abroad, while Hida Toyojiro investigates the motivations and working methods of the Japanese entrepreneurs who did so much to bring the domestic craft tradition to an international audience.

This volume covers Japanese cloisonne enamels which were a technical triumph of the Meiji (1868-1912) and Taisho (1912-26) periods. The 107 examples in the Khalili Collection offer a panorama of the achievement centred around the work of three artists: Namikawa Yasuyuki, Namikawa Sosuke, and Ando Jubei. In assembling this group of pieces the emphasis has been on work of the highest quality and there are many superb examples made for exhibition in Japan, Europe, and the United States, or for presentation by the Imperial family to Japanese and foreign dignitaries. The collection includes a large number of works by each of the three leading artists, making it possible to establish a reliable chronology for the development of enamelling in Japan, firmly based on extensive documentary research as well as on the internal evidence of the pieces. In their introductory essay the authors trace the brief history of the craft from the first experiments of Kaji Tsunekichi in the 1840s and '50s, based on Chinese models, and identify three strands of stylistic evolution that took place from the 1860s: the conservative, the pictorial, and the exotic. The conservative Yasuyuki continued to treat the wires separating the different areas of colour as an integral part of the design, while the more pictorial Sosuke, in his late works, almost dispensed with them altogether to create works which are really a variety of painted enamel. An essay by the great British scholar Jack Hillier, one of his last publications, traces the relationship between Sosuke and the painter Watanabe Seitei. The volume, combining magnificent colour reproduction with pioneering scholarship, will serve as a guide to a little-known facet of Japan's artistic achievement. This volume of the Collection is sold with a free copy of "Volume I: Selected Essays".

This is a good book for hunters or adventures people. This book by William Faulkner Big Woods hunting stories is an interesting book.
This fiction book is about a bunch of people who go out in a big river bottom and there is a big bear that they call old Ben and they can't ever kill him but this time when they go out they have a special feeling that they might get the old two toed bear. Do they get the bear? You will have to read this book to figure it out. Then there best hound lion who was the only hound good enough to come close to Old Ben dies after a chase. Then the next time they go out they find a big buck that looks like there is a wooden rocking chair on his head. You probably wonder if they get it but you are going to have to read it yourself to find out.
I would give this book three stars because it jumped around a lot and was hard to make sense for me. I would recommend this book to people who like to read adventure books because it is adventures. This book also had parts in between that could of been left out and the book would have been just as good.

The essence of political conservatism is the yearning for the best of the culture and moral clime of the past--the sense that something of value to our souls has been lost in the headlong rush of human social progress. Political liberalism, on the other hand, assumes that bureaucrats and technocrats can improve upon centuries old social structures, cultural inheritances and moral codes. But there is one area where the roles of the two are reversed and that is when it comes to the environment. The American Left has a long standing love affair with nature; from Jefferson to Thoureau, Teddy Roosevelt to Al Gore, there is a pastoral strain to liberal politics, a kind of religious belief in an Edenic past and a nearly Biblical sense that man's attempts to control nature have a corrupting influence.

This sentiment has perhaps never been treated more beautifully in our Literature than in Faulkner's great short novel, The Bear. The story of a succession of hunting seasons is basically a warning from Faulkner that as we destroy the wilderness we threaten the traditions and values of our society. Nature is symbolized by the cagey ancient ursine, Old Ben. Most of the tale is told by Ike McCaslin, who is 10 years old as it begins. Initially he flounders through the woods, but as he surrenders himself to the primordial forces of Nature, he is able to sense the bear's presence. Another year, when he sets aside his gun and compass and other accouterments of civilization, he is finally able to see the bear. Gradually he earns his way into the aristocracy of the wild, until, together with Sam Fathers (part black, part Indian, he represents a kind of noble savage) and Boon Hogganbeck (a sort of elemental force of nature) and a suicidally fearless dog named Lion, he hunts down Old Ben after the bear violates the unwritten code of the woods by attacking a horse. But even as Old Ben succumbs, he will take some of them with him and his parting signals the end of a way of life.

Despite some too obscure interior monologue passages, this is Faulkner's most accessible work. It is the only Faulkner I've ever actually reread and it is so rife with symbolism and ulterior meanings, that you can always find something new in it. And, for whatever reason, it is further evidence that sports writing brings out the best in almost every author (see also "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu" by John Updike), in fact, it is often anthologized in Greatest Sports Story collections. Regardless of where you find it, or which version you read, it is well worth a shot.

GRADE: B+

Of course the short stories here are excellent, but it is terrible that the origional Part Four of The Bear has been removed. Anyone who enjoys The Bear owes it to themselves to find a complete copy (it will have five parts) because Part Four is arguably the most important and meaningful portion of the entire story!

I've occasionally used this collection as required reading for troubled and directionless young adult males. "The Race at Dawn" provides an excellent starting place for a discussion for the need to complete their education. The review from 1999 by "A READER" comments about "The Bear" being incomplete; all five sections are printed in the version collected in "Go Down Moses."

I'm re-reading this book and really enjoying the stories (read it as tales in a novel). The book really puts different views to various people's ways of looking at the same stories and family histories. Read this and know why Faulkner is considered one of the best American novelists of all time. His people ring true, and two stories, "The Old People" and "The Bear", are just fantastic.

As a Counselor & Spiritual Director I am very interested in women's spirituality. I was attracted to this book but will not buy it because I find it insulting to myself & my clients to be under the title "Idiot." I would think this publisher would find a more positive approach to their books.

In this one volume, Mary Faulkner has assembled the best and brightest insights on the history and expression of women's spirituality. Her lucid, informative and enjoyable style does not make information out of reach, but places delightful possibilities for inspiration in your hand!
I would not hesitate to recommend this book as an excellent reference/resource for women's study courses in church, women's study circles, and for anyone who wishes to obtain a greater and deeper appreciation of feminine world wisdom!

I picked up this book at my friend's house and couldn't put it down--it is awesome! I have always been interested in learning more about (women's) spirituality but frankly, I was afraid of it being too witch-y or occult-ish. It is neither! The author is clear from the beginning to the end about what is good, clean, healthy earth/goddess worship and what it isnt. She offers several quick ceremonies or ideas about how to get started which I found helpful.Being Christian, I also appreciated that she never slammed or talked bad about Christianity. The list of resources and bibliograpy is impressive and now I can follow up on other authors or ideas.

Mary Faulkner has put together a wonderful book of women's spirituality information. The book answers many of the questions we ask about goddesses, The Goddess, magick, priestesses and other wonderful women. For those just starting a spiritual journey, its newsy style covers the basics and gives concise facts. I like the way it can be read from front to back, or you can just open to any page and find something interesting.
I am not usually fond of "Idiot's Guides," but THIS one is definitely worth being on the bookshelf with all my other Womens' Spirituality reference books!
I own a metaphysical bookstore, Seasons in the Sun, and will certainly be carrying and spot-lighting Mary Faulkner's book.

this book is exactly what I have been searching for! I have dabbled in Earth Religion/Goddess Worship but never quite felt like I "got it," but now thanks to the author, I not only "have it" I am it!!
This book offers a broad spectrum of the wonderful world of Pre-Christianity--one that included and celebrated Womankind. I cannot wait to bring it to share at my next women's group and I have already begun reading it to my nine year-old daughter at bedtime.
Besides being spiritually based, I gained alot of historical and social information too. The author adds humor and a refreshing outlook that kept me so interested that I read the entire book over the past weekend!!
Hats off to Mary Faulkner--thanks for the Her-story lesson!

When you see a book with the title "The Portable Anything", you may figure it a handy compendium, digestible in relatively short order to give you a feeling about something without running you through the gauntlet.

What you may not expect are two of the longest sentences in the American literary canon, one alone running some 35 close-set pages; double-parentheses; 100-page stream-of-consciousness narratives about bad horses and deadly bear hunts, and churning through names like Eck Snopes and Tomey's Turl. Unless maybe the book is "The Portable Faulkner", in which case what you are dealing with is not a title but an oxymoron.

There's nothing simple about Faulkner. Even ordinary things come out convoluted, like graffiti, "the gross and simple terms of his gross and simple lusts and yearnings, the gross and simple recapitulations of his gross and simple heart" as described near the beginning of that 35-page sentence in "The Jail". Forensic science is easy compared to making headway of a plot like "Old Man" or "Was". In short, Faulkner's hard to read, and Malcolm Cowley's book doesn't make him any easier by picking these three pieces and other examples of Faulkner's singularly manic density as nuggets for sampling.

For Cowley, who first put this together in 1946, the goal was to rescue Faulkner from obscurity. It seemed to work. Largely unregarded except by other notable American writers (Hemingway touted him in "Death In The Afternoon"), Faulkner emerged over the next few years as a Southern-fried combination of Poe and Hawthorne, of dreams and morality served up in the messy racial and generational gumbo of the American South. It culminated in his winning the 1950 Nobel Prize for Literature, and his reputation has not only endured but prevailed ever since.

I just wish it was available in digestible form. There are some examples of a more direct and comprehensible style to be found in this book, like Faulkner's Nobel address. "A Rose For Emily" sums up Faulkner's whole view of the South as cleverly and succinctly as a "Twilight Zone" episode. There are two other fine stand-alone short stories in that vein, "A Justice" and "Red Leaves", while "That Evening Sun" and "Appendix: The Compsons" serve as a perfect prequel and postscript to "The Sound And The Fury", one of the richest and most daring novels I ever read.

I just wish Cowley had gone easy on the novel excerpts. "Dilsey," a quarter section of "The Sound And The Fury", thrusts you into the Compson saga as it is winding down, and there's little help for you if you don't know going in that the fellow named Quentin referred to here is actually a girl. Supposedly these pieces were chosen by Cowley to flesh out Faulkner's imaginary Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, though "Old Man" is set well outside county lines while the boring and pedantic "Ad Astra" occurs in France.

In a terrific introduction, Cowley describes Faulkner's writings "like wooden planks that were cut, not from a log, but a still living tree. The planks are planed and chiseled into their final shapes, but the tree itself heals over the wound and continues to grow."

Cowley's enthusiasm for Faulkner's artistic messiness is admirable and even necessary in getting the right handle on what made Faulkner great, but it doesn't make for the best of introductions. "The Portable Faulkner" works best for those who know the writer well enough not to need a "portable" version in the first place.

An influential collection, partly responsible for the late 1940s resurgence of interest in America's greatest author, this construction of Faulkner's narrative world is certainly no substitute for any of the novels. But it has its uses: readers who don't plan to read more than 3 of Faulkner's best novels may find some of Cowley's excerpts a reasonable consolation; Cowley's chronological ordering not only clarifies Faulkner's fictional world but exposes its organic unity; with the exception of "Barn Burning," most of the essential short fiction (including the frequently excerpted "The Bear") can be found here; the concluding commentary and genealogy which Cowley elicted from Faulkner himself is both helpful and a kind of Faulknerian literary piece in its own right.

A slight "down side" (apart from some questionable excerpting and over-emphasis on chronological at the expense of "narrative" time) is Cowley's somewhat "dated" aesthetic judgements (though at times refreshing, since the author was applying them to a "non-canonical" writer).

As for "Burn Burning," it's readily available, free of charge, on the Internet.

The Portable Faulkner is THE way to be introduced to William Faulkner, arguably the best of 20th century American novelists. Cowley arranges whole work and excerpts chronological for Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County; it should be noted that Faulkner did not write his body of work chronologically. By arranging the work in this way, Cowley does us a great service in seeing Faulkner's great creation as an ordered whole.

The drawback to this work is in its goal -- to make more understandable Faulkner's creation in his mythic county. The drawback is that, by design, none of Faulkner's other work is included, such as The Fable.

The Portable Faulkner should be viewed only as an introduction, a tantalizer. Upon seeing the greatest of the work, we can then proceed to the work in its entirety.

The Portable Faulkner is a wonderful intro to Faulkner, but it's just that--an introduction. It can't do whan the entirety of one of Faulkner's novels will do, and in some cases I recommend skipping a bit in the Portable Faulkner until the corresponding novel has already been read (for example, Dilsey's section of The Sound and the Fury shouldn't be read in the Portable if you haven't read The Sound and the Fury. Trust me, TSatF is a book where you don't want to read the last chapter before the first three).

Better than an introduction, the Portable Faulkner also serves as a very interesting companion to those already familiar with Faulkner--it does the great service to readers of putting Yoknapatawpha stories in chronological order, which is an interesting perspective we may not otherwise get to see.

However, above all, there are two reasons why I bought this book.

First, it includes the Compson Appendix. If you've read a copy of the Sound and the Fury that didn't include the Compson Appendix, you need this. It's something that has to be read after the Sound and the Fury to capture the whole of Faulkner's story.

Second, it includes Faulkner's Nobel acceptance speech, which is wonderful, especially as a complement to reading the books themselves, and which is very nice to have in book format like the Portable Faulkner.

Malcolm Cowley is a genius, only to be suceeded by Faulkner himself. This is the ultimate history of Faulkner's (non?)fictional world.

I liked the presentation style and content to briefly cover a complex topic. If you take the Bible literally as I do, you will like it. If you don't believe in a God or the Bible, you will not. Your choice.

After my mom had a class under this professor, she recommednd that I attend the book signing that USC-Lancaster was holding for him and his book. I went and got it (they sold out) and it was a very good choice. This book is awesome. He could've done more elaborating on the Humphreye's outline but he still did a great job.

Using the Bible to fill in gaps in his scientific knowledge and crazy theories make this the worst ten bucks I've ever spent... don't buy this book! Flush your money down the toilet instead, it will be more entertaining.

Go ahead and live your religion however you please, but keep it out of the classroom as an easy answer to anything you cannot explain with the scientific method.

Dr.Danny Faulkner is a very brilliant man! He is a Professor of cosmology at the University of South Carolina. The book is a must read for all people interested in the really big questions of our universe. Don't let the book description fool you; you can get a lot out of this book even if you are not a christian. If you are a christian, you MUST have this book in your collection. There is not another book out there that has the best that cosmological science has to offer through the eyes of a creationalist. I can not praise Dr. Faulkner enough, having took some of his classes at USC,I have first hand experience of his depth of knowledge and passion for teaching. If you have to buy only one book this year you must make it this one!

Here's an absolute for ya - this book is absolutely amazing! Phew!