Nicholson Books

The authors have visited one of the loveliest areas of England, the Lakelands, which I understand were popularized by Wordsworth in his poetry. Having been to England but always having missed this area, I am so pleased to have this book. The scenes are gorgeous. The photography is true art, just beautiful.

By Barbara Anderson (Massachusetts, USA) - See all my reviews


Are you old enough to understand regret for life choices, to fear old age, nursing homes and dementia, to experience intergenerational not to mention sibling guilt? Apparently, incredibly, one thirty-year old author knows all these things and shares his light with us.

Do you want to fall in love with an 80 year old woman who has a walker named Cordelia? Do you believe in ghosts?, or do your meds just need adjustment...
Do you simply enjoy a good story? or are you looking for enlightenment in your own rooms... Read this book, and add it to your list of favorites as I have. Then buy copies for your best friends, on their significant birthdays.

As a young student, who had grown up in the middle of a cornfield and now found herself in London in the 70's, the Nicholson's London Guide saved me more than once. The small street and tube maps helped me find my way. The clear, concise instructions about how to pay (and how to get off) when sitting on the top of a double decker bus were invaluable. This guide helped me find cheap theater tickets, a good laundry, and the best flea markets around. Because it was pocket-sized, it was my constant companion. Because it was bright red, it was never lost... and neither was I.

Now, returning to London for the first time in years I am saddened to learn that the Guide is no longer published. I feel sorry for all the young midwestern students wandering around lost in London today.

Bring it back!

We have traveled to India 12 times using Louise Nicholson'sIndia Companion in all its editions. On the first trip we followedher advice to the letter and had a most fabulous trip which generated the succeeding 11. It has proved invaluable on all our trips no matter how sophisticated and experienced we've become. Her descriptions of hotels and restaurants, sites and shopping opportunities are unfailingly accurate. Whether you'll be most comfortable in a European style hotel, a venerable Raj era hotel, palace, or Indian hotel, Louise's accurate descriptions will guarantee no unpleasant surprises. Her grasp of Indian history and insights into the marvelous sights, people, animal preserves, temples, and natural wonders that await you insure you won't miss anything wondrous where ever you plan to travel. Her restaurant reviews are just what you need to make the right culinary decisions. We've read nearly all the other guide books and none compare for any country. It will spoil you for any other travel guide. If you're just considering a journey or have dreamed about a trip to the sub-continent all your life, reading India Companion will transport you to this exotic and exciting world. As entrancing as a great historical novel, it can be read just for fun!

This collection of essays, by a wide range of contributors, adds considerably to our collective knowledge of Gustav Mahler, his life and times and the cultural milieu in which he worked as composer and conductor, and of course his music.

The editors, as they note in the Introduction, provided very loose guidelines to the contributing essayists: Beyond refereeing the broad topics for inclusion, the editors largely gave carte blanche to the contributors regarding style and content. This "looseness of control" has resulted in a volume of both very considerable strengths (some of which I highlight here) and a few perplexing weaknesses and oversights which I allude to at the end of my comments.

The "logical bookends" of this volume are an opening essay by Leon Botstein, titled "Gustav Mahler's Vienna," and a closing essay by Wilfrid Mellers, titled "Mahler and the Great Tradition: Then and Now." The former sets the cultural, socio-political and philosophical stage of fin-de-siècle Vienna onto which Mahler entered, and the latter nicely summarizes how Mahler might fit into a continuum of musical composition and practice that preceded and succeeded him. (This new paperback edition also includes. at the end, two new essays, not present in the hardback edition, covering recollections of his daughter, Anna, and recently discovered Mahler "juvenilia" in the form early chamber music and songs.) In between these bookends, all of Mahler's music, and much about his life and times, and how he and his music were accepted (or not accepted) inside and outside Vienna, are covered.

The essays regarding Mahler's music are largely - and splendidly - informative, and provide alternative insights into the music not necessarily covered by the well-known analyses of Theodor Adorno, Constantin Floros and Henry-Louis de La Grange. (Interestingly, many of the music-analysis contributors reference Adorno's "Mahler: A Musical Physiognomy." Perhaps Adorno's time has come as well, some 40 years after his writing this difficult-but-epiphanic work.) But at least three of them are (to me, anyway) frustratingly idiosyncratic. Peter Franklin's essay on the Third Symphony ("A Stranger's Story: Programmes, Politics, and Mahler's Third Symphony") is heavy on largely-irrelevant minutiae and very light on certain matters of true import, such as the significance of the final Adagio of the work. David Matthews' "The Sixth Symphony," by his choice, largely limits his comments to the two well-known areas of conjecture/dispute: the ordering of the two inner (Scherzo, Andante) movements and the matter of whether the final movement should have two hammer blows or three. (I am personally in agreement with both of his choices, but that is largely beside the point.) And Colin Matthews' "The Tenth Symphony" is largely a technical analysis of the available raw materials of the work left by Mahler for realization by others but very little about what interests most Mahlerites regarding this final work: A detailed comparison of the various "performing versions" or "realizations" that exist.

Among the many personal "resonances" for me are the following: A finely-crafted analysis of Mahler's "Opus 1," his "Das klagende Lied" (but absent the fact that a splendid recording of the 1997-discovered Ur-text score has been made by Kent Nagano); (finally) a musicological connection between Mahler and Hector Berlioz, by way of how the widely-separated octaves (of trombone pedal tones and high flutes) in the "Hostias" of the Berlioz Requiem might have influenced Mahler when he was composing the first "Nachtmusik" movement of his Seventh Symphony; and a fascinating footnote to the analysis of the final Adagio of the Ninth Symphony, where some apparently reliable documentation is provided for Mahler's awareness of the famous hymn, "Abide with Me," the tune that always comes to mind every time I listen to this gorgeous hymn-like passage.

Elsewhere (and scattered throughout various essays) are frequent allusions to certain parallels between Mahler and Charles Ives. (They both wrote "music about music," incorporated "vernacular" music in their works, were almost-simultaneous "polytonalists" and of course contemporaries. The matter of whether Mahler had been aware of the music of Ives is put more in the affirmative than I've seen heretofore; hopefully this is the result of recent research about which there is more to follow.) Similarly, there are frequent parallels drawn between Mahler and Dmitri Shostakovich; the case for Shostakovich being the logical (and most significant by far) successor to Mahler is well-drawn without overlooking the obvious differences between them.

There is an intriguing chapter on some not-so-obvious parallels between Mahler and Debussy (although the overt pentatonicism of "late" Mahler is made elsewhere, most obviously in the essay on "Das Lied von der Erde"). And, for me, one of the best contributions is by Edward R. Reilly, in his essay on "Mahler in America."

The volume is exceedingly well-annotated, with liberal footnotes (many, such as the "Abide with Me" one, of considerable length), and, at the back, a full bibliography of source materials, a detailed index of works, and a general index as well. Clearly, a lot of work (both scholarship and "routine editorial") has gone into the preparation of this valuable resource.

The book is not perfect in all respects, at least from my own personal point of view. Biographical details are not its strength, but there are the volumes by La Grange and Blaukopf & Blaukopf to compensate. (Nonetheless, I would have liked to have seen a contribution by Herta Blaukopf, who is as knowledgeable about Mahler's Vienna Conservatory period as any.) But, as I noted at the outset, its very considerable strengths greatly outweigh its relatively minor weaknesses. If you consider yourself a Mahlerite, this book belongs in your library, alongside your copies of Adorno, Blaukopf, Floros and La Grange.

Bob Zeidler

Professor Nicholson's wonderful book Male Envy is a landmark achievement in an important area. Male Envy should be on the reading list of all who are interested to decipher not only the power struggles in major works of literature, but also in everyday life. Dr. Nicholson's masterpiece is not merely about reading male envy in literature, but rather is an authoratitive psychological, anthropological, and economical treatise on this important subject. The subject comes alive with dozens of references to some of the greatest works of English literature, especially those from the Romantic era. Any serious student of this era will benefit from Professor Nicholson's often unique interpretations. Male Envy is easy reading for the open mind. Enjoy some fresh insight.

_Coomaraswamy called this work the best account of the Vedanta in any European language. Coomaraswamy would have known.

_Guenon points out that the Vedanta is neither religion, nor is it a philosophy, in the Western sense. What is it then? It is a complete way of life. More than this, it is in and of itself, the totality of existence. It is the true Metaphysic. You see, Western thinking always categorizes and systematizes. It views what it studies from outside- and manages to sterilize and kill it. This is why the western man finds it so easy to put aside his "religion" and "philosophy" when comes the opportunity for exploitation and war. You cannot put aside the Vedanta, for it is the totality of existence- including you. It is Reality. And the farther you separate yourself from it, the less "real" you become. The end result of a profane society is a world of shadow with no real substance at all.

_The goal of the Vedanta is unity with the Universal. You seek alignment with that which was before all else. More specifically you seek to realize this union consciously, for you, and everything and every being, emanated from this Source. You still contain a Divine spark or seed at the core of your being. You realize this with your heart through Intuition and not through your brain and its lesser form of knowing. The more you rely on the brain and its elaborate ego constructs the farther you stray from the Ultimate Source and Goal.

_There are many subtle variations on finding the path back- many schools of Yoga. Just remember, in all of them Yoga still means "Union"- the goal is the same. To reach it is to rise above caste through transcendence.

_If you are already familiar with the teachings of Taoism, Neo-Platonism, or Hermetism then you will digest this study more readily. This is because these other branches of tradition drew from the original Tradition expressed first by the Vedanta.

_Anyone that attempts to use the Tradition for profane and veiled ends that ignore the inherent divinity within all beings will no doubt deserve what they will inevitably get.

_Note: The translator's name is Richard C. Nicholson and not "Richard Nichol."

Fast moving action story which will hold your interest for the first to the last page.

I really enjoyed this book. It holds your interest, not being at all sleep-inducing. The point of the book is to apply evolutionary psychology to all aspects of organizational behavior. I was fascinated by his discussion of masculinity in management, how difficult it is for women to get to the top because they are not as ruthlessly competitive as men and how hierarchy is inevitable throughout the animal kingdom. He talks about how men are driven to seek status through either of two routes - dominance or achievement. Both can be leaders in their own way, but he identifies leadership with getting to the top slots. This is the only area where I disagree. Leadership has always been associated with power, but the power of ideas is increasingly more important than the power to dominate through force of personality. With the power of ideas, I think it is possible to show leadership upwards without needing or wanting to dominate others.

Quel livre remarquable! Laure Adler nous décrit une femme extrêmement intéressante.

Marguerite Duras a grandi en Indochine.
Sa mère était à moitié folle.
Son frère aîné était complètement fou.
L'auteur parle du climat social qui régnait en Indochine à cette époque.

A 19 ans, Marguerite Duras part en France pour y poursuivre ses études. A l'Université elle a cotoyé plusieurs célébrités; des écrivains, des hommes politiques, etc.

Durant toute sa vie Marguerite Duras vit presque en état continuel de dépression. Elle a toujours eu peur de devenir folle, et à quelque part elle l'était. Alcoolique. Elle fut autant géniale dans le cinéma que comme romancière. Elle a eu pleins d'amants mais les 3 hommes qu'elle a vraiment aimés, elle n'a pu les garder, les deux premiers lui ont été infidèles; elle les étouffaient. Le 3e était homosexuel. Une femme qui n'a jamais été vraiment heureuse, problèmes d'argent, d'amour, de santé mentale. Une femme narcissique.

L'auteur a le don de nous faire entrer dans la tête de M. Duras. On ressent toutes ses émotions, sa détresse, sa tristesse, sa folie, son génie, les manques dans sa vie, l'amour impossible. Une lecture qui m'a bouleversée.