O Books

If you think you know what prosperity is, this book may change your mind. It presents the fullest definition of "Propserity" I've ever found. So much of what we call success is only superficial, but this book goes deep. Written as a short novel, it will keep you on the edge of your seat as the main character moves from a wood cutter to "highest prosperity." I love it.

The 7 Laws of Highest Prosperity is the greatest book I've read this year! This book helped to get a clear focus on what God wants me to do. It is a refreshing story about how God desires all of us to be prosperous in every area of our lives. What better what to witness than through success! If you're looking for clear understanding of God's purpose for your life, then this is the book for you!

This book reads like a modern-day parable; a story that draws one in and makes one look at oneself with new eyes. I felt like Kemp was writing about ME.
As I shared the book with friends, their reaction was much the same.
I have highly recommend 7 Laws of Highest Prosperity to my church members.

A wonderful story, a wonderful lesson in life. This book is insightful and truly inspirational. You cannot read this book without comparing yourself with the main character, Sam the Wood Gatherer. The lessons of life here are more valuable than any financial returns that may come from following Sam's lead. This is NOT your typical book on prosperity. All too often, these books focus primarily, if not entirely on self. The lesson here is that prosperity will come to you if you focus your energies on others. It is a fairly short book, just over 100 pages, but the power in those pages is immense.
I enjoyed this book so much that I am in the process of gathering several other Cecil Kemp books for reading. I have just finished my second, "The Secret Meeting Place," and it may actually be even better than this one.
If you are looking for more from your life, this is one of the most important books you may ever read. Don't miss it!

Cecil O. Kemp's "7 Laws of Highest Prosperity" has more practical spiritual guidance than Steven Covey's "Seven Habits of Highly Successful People", and is more readable than Spencer Johnson's "Who Moved My Cheese?". Following Sam's road from lowly beginnings to "highest prosperity" was for me both a pleasure and a beginning of my own journey to seek highest prosperity. When it comes to knowing how to live prosperously, Kemp hits the nail on the noggin! No false premise here.

Usually it isn't a compliment to say that you plow through someone's books, but in Isaac Bonewits's case it is a compliment. I can never put his books down until I finish, including this one.

Specifically in this case, Isaac fits decades worth of study and involvement into a manageable book that's not too dense for the non-scholar. This book should be a standard for all Wiccans, and is even useful for the rest of us Neo-Pagans.

I had the pleasure of meeting Isaac a couple years back when he was in Milwaukee during the Ostara season. His "Evening with Isaac" program literally blew me away. He was charming, funny, but most of all, he was competent.

One of the things lacking in most Neo-Pagan books is scholarly research which can be easily peer-reviewed. Isaac, on the other hand, provides all the resources necessary to check his facts and figures. In areas of speculation (or potential bias) he lets his audience know what's going on instead of trying to pass his word off as gospel.

The Essential Guide is just what it claims....an essential text for any serious student of the craft. It debunks the junk, it provides a historical context, and it prepares readers (new and old) in the ways of the craft.

As a Pagan for 10 years, and as the coordinator of Milwaukee Pagan Pride Day for 4 years, I highly recommend this book!

This great book will become an established text on the Wiccan studies and procedures.I highly recommend anyone to read it.Not just the pagans,but curious outsiders,who have no concept of the Wiccan lifestyle.We have several generations,who have been brain-washed into thinking that the pentacle and the pentagram are the devilish symbols of evil-doers.Anyone who is a true Wiccan,knows this is completely not the case.In light of the military acceptance of the Pentagram symbol,on the head-stones and cenotaphs at the Arlington National Cemetary,why not a Druid Sigil emblem also? This book will educate,inform and assuage any uneasiness concerning the correct Wiccan dogmata code of civil conduct and the proper displaying of pentacle stars.(The perfidious rogues,who are involved with any malefactional act concerning the misuse of a pentagram symbol,should be forced to publicly recant any maleficence committed and face the punitions imposed upon them.-N.B.-This is my editorial opinion here,in brackets,not dear Isaac's rant.Yet,the wicked misuse of the pentacles evokes a rousing cry for justice from me.The Pentagram should be a symbol of rapprochement and not for division among people.)
And remember the Pentagon is a five-pointed star also.The perduring pentagram continues on.Read the facts in this great book.

This is BAR NONE the best book I've ever read on Wicca!

When I first got involved with Wicca, I was full of questions for my tearch: "how old is all this stuff, really?", "where does all this stuff come from?", etc. She was very good about telling me when she didn't know and kindly tried to tell me what she did. I turned to books to learn more about the new religion I was so enthusiastic about. While I don't mean to offend anybody, I, personally, found just about all the books out there had one or more things in them that really bugged me. Some made lofty claims that Wicca came from the Celts, Paleolithic humanity, the people who built stonehenge, the Atlantians, the Aliens or what have you. I found a strong woman-centric slant to many of them, which, as a man, made me feel excluded. I believe in gender BALANCE, not female dominance OR male dominance and for something as close to the heart as spirituality, it was a cruel blow to be delt woman-centricism. Other books were fluffy: so light weight that they seemed patronizing and to only deal with pleasant aspects of nature and humanity.

Isaac's book had none of these problems and there are many, many aspects to it that are wonderful. He's honest that Wicca is, as far as any real scholarship can glean, purely a modern religion. He also says something that none of the authors who try to convince us of some ancient origin say: that just because it's modern makes it no less valid! He is gender balanced and matter-of-fact. He's not afraid to talk about "dark" issues. After reading it, I FINALLY felt that I got a square deal for buying the book.

But, I can't sing the praises of this book high enough. It's informative as to the history of Wicca. It would have answered all of the initial questions that I would have had as a beginner and taught me a lot of good stuff to boot.

Perhaps its only weakness is that, unlike many of the other books that I looked at when I was starting, it is not quite as chalk full of exercises, spells, rituals and the like. I think that this is because Isaac doesn't want to limit Wicca to a particular set of techniques and, to be honest, while it's true that much of his competition packs this stuff in, it's also often the case that they present it as the "right" way or the "ancient" way. Isaac isn't trying to tell ANYONE what the "right" way is and admits that it's probably not "ancient".

What he lacks in quantity, in this regard, he makes up for in quality. For example, he has a general outline for a Wiccan ritual that is top notch and shows his decades of practice and expertise.

So, I think this is a MUST HAVE for beginning Wiccans, because they should DEFINITELY READ THIS BOOK BEFORE THEY READ ANYTHING ELSE ON THE SUBJECT, and I also think it's a must read for experienced Wiccans, because it dispels a lot of myths that they were probably taught at some point. That being said, I think a beginner should THEN go on to read some other books, with the knowledge that they may have one or more of the flaws that I sited at the beginning of this review, to get some ideas for spells, exercises and rituals. The books by the Ferrars would all make good followers and, before Isaac's came out, they were ones that I respect as minimizing above mentioned flaws.

About what another reviewer said about being able to get the same information from reading other books, that may be true, but beginners aren't likely to know about them. I certainly didn't when I was starting. I had to wade through mountains of what to me is, with all due respect, nonsense in order to get to anything that I considered to be academically sound or remotely accurate. Yes, Hutton is great, but Isaac's book provides one starting point for the beginner.

Someday, I'd like to see a book as good as Isaac's that ALSO has a large collection of sample exercises, spells and rituals, but which notes that they are only examples and that there is great diversity among Wiccans. That way, we'd have one beginner's guide that I would actually feel good about recommending.

Have you ever read a book that made you laugh, made you think, and made you glad to be a part of something all at once? If you haven't then this book will do it for you. The writing is easy to understand, the language is not teacher to student, but rather a friend telling of an amazing journey. The journey wasn't a physical one, but rather a growth of spirit. The complete likability of this book isn't the only reason for having this book in your library.
The main reason to have it is the well-researched, informed history of Wicca. Isaac experience many of the bench marks of Wicca first-hand, and who else has had the chance to crawl through Gardieners personal papers and tell us the real truth found there. Most books about Wicca agrandise the "secret" history of Wicca, but if you want to know the real secret history of Wicca then pick up this book. I guarentee you'll learn something new.

This is a must-have resource. Gorgeous illustrations, detailed descriptions and referenced by the leaders in the field.

it is amazing that such an authoritative text can actually be written. but there it is!. a masterpiece, which is so encompasing that words fail. braunwald has a tradition and every new edition is a towering giant over the previous.seeing is beleiving, thus i strongly recommend this text to any one wishing to perfect himself in any aspect of cardiology.

Dr. James Thogtam: A classic book for those in the field

WITH THE SEVENTH EDITION OF BRAUNwald's Heart Disease, the editors have accomplished an impressive feat: improving on an already classic text. With 36 new chapters and full-color figures and photographs, the new edition is substantially altered in both content and appearance. Compared with the rather limited color-plate photographs in the sixth edition, the color photographs, figures, and tables in each chapter significantly enhance the new text.

Informative chapters on the foundations of cardiovascular medicine remain, including detailed discussions of history taking, physical examination, and electrocardiography, topics often overshadowed in an era of rapidly progressive medical technology.....

The seventh edition of Braunwald's Heart Disease would be a worthy addition to the medical library of any practicing cardiologist, cardiology fellow, or health care practitioner with a special interest in heart disease.

THIS MASTERPIECE IN CARDIOLOGY BRINGS TO SPECIALISTS AND HEALTH PROVIDERS IN GENERAL THE APPROACH TO KNOWLEDGE FOR SUCCEDING IN THEIR TASKS.SINCE THE BASIC AND SIMPLE TO THE MOST COMPLEX UPDATED AWARENESS, THIS ENCYCLOPEDIA CONVEYS THE READER THROUGH THE RIGHT PATH, AS A DIDACTIC AND AMUSING STORY OF CARDIOLOGY.
RAUL M. MARCH MD

Anyone familiar with Dr. Braunwald's superb cardiovascular exploits in the "Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine" would not be surprised by the richness of this book.
The diligently crafted chapters are comprehensive, authoritative, well-illustrated, and include all the 'ins' and 'outs' of contemporary cardiology. It is one of the most consistent and coherent multi-authored texts in the field.
This single-volume CD-ROM package is a rich blend of evidence based medicine, best practice, and all the user-flexibility an e-book enthusiast would expect.

A must-have guidebook for retail-based businesses! O'Leary and Sheehan will teach you how to find out who your customers are, then teach you how to not only keep them as satisfied customers, but turn them into "evangelists" for your brand/business -- and they do it in an easy-to-understand, entertaining manner. A great read!

What do you get when you combine an experienced retail advertising expert and a journalism professor? One of the best "how to"s on successful business building ideas for retail businesses of all sizes. They have written a comprehensive guide, filled with a virtual plethora of proven marketing programs and ideas for retailers. This is a book that a successful retailer will keep on hand, and refer back to on a regular basis - if they want to succeed!

This is 21st Century marketing; a must read for all small business owners who are battling the Big Boys - that's all of us. Steve O'Leary and Kim Sheehan walk you through the process of identifying your customers, and establishing, growing and supporting your virtual customer community.

For store owners who are tired of paying for coupons that just discount your price to your regular customers, who are sick of the high cost and low results of radio, television and newspapers, and who want to understand and implement a marketing concept that will yield tangible results, this is where you start.

This book takes you step by step through the stages of building, implementing and measuring the results of a marketing plan that leverages the strengths that a small business has. It is full of real world advice to overcome the resources that large companies have and get the customers in YOUR door. This book does an excellent job of describing where the future of marketing for a small business is going. Read it and get ahead of everyone else!

There are tons of great ideas for any sized business in this book. If you use just one idea, it will be well worth the price. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to grow their business.

This book is the most complete and clear text about the transition that many companies are doing from product centric to solution enabler organizations. A must read, highly advisable if you are in the IT business.

This book is absolutely the best! It provides frameworks to structure and implement an effective professional services organization (PSO) for an IT product vendor. A product company PSO matures over time through various phases characterized by the types of services it offers. This book is full of practical yet winning strategies and tactics to maneuver the high risk waters of professional services. There are clear directions on how to manage key levers that increase profitability but it also sets realistic expectations. Although the book provides the `recipe' for a sample $100 million professional services organization, it lists all the necessary `ingredients' to cook up a PSO of any size.

I liked the fact that it is written in a style that is free of any jargon. Authors are professionals who clearly understand the industry from inside. My least favorite part are the diagrams and illustrations which are at best adequate but could be better. Highly recommend this book!

This is the absolutely best book devoted to building pro services organization in a product-based company. While there are a lot of sources on managing stand-alone pro services firm (i.e. accounting, law), this book addresses the common pitfalls in moving into services for product-oriented companies.

The book is easy to read, well organized, and packed with sound practical advice you can start applying right away, whether you're in delivery, sales, or marketing -- you'll be going back to it often.

This book absolutely is the best book I've ever ready regarding professional services. They describe a pragmatic approach from their experience at SGI services. This book will take you through planning an PS organization, development of various groups, reporting strucutures, templates for tools to help you.

It's focus in on a PS organization of a product company but you can take much away from this book if you are purely a services organization.

What I like the most is that it helps you do begin to address the various challenges where other books gloss over these topics and leave it to you.

This book as become my day-to-day bible to managing a professional service division within our product-oriented company. If you have your objectives and strategy clear, this book will help you getting organized with the tactics.

Please join People Against Childhood Cancer (PAC2). We also have a petition to create awareness of childhood cancers.

Here is the link to our group site and petition....


[.....]


[.....]


Thank you.

I think this is a great book, now we just need a book on finances and how to plan for lifes events like college, buying a home, and retirement planning.

This book is what every survivor, their parent(s) and thier doctor needs! It is comprehensive and well laid out...I love how I can easily find information on areas of concern I have regarding my son's survival. It has come in handy during follow up appointments to ensure my son is receiving the proper long term care. There is a compact card in the back of the book where all information about the child's treatment can be recorded so the child will have easy to access, concise information regarding their surgeries, chemotherapy drugs, radiation amount and type, etc. I know this will be an indispensible tool for my son as he grows up. I applaud the authors for writing a much-needed book. This book is a MUST-HAVE for EVERY childhood cancer survivor!

Once again Nancy Keene provides information for patients and families that is just not available in this detail anywhere else. Her disease specific description of late effects and life after chemotherapy enables the reader to receive benefits that will effect for the rest of their lives. Information such as monitoring potential life threatening effects from treatment are just invaluable for the future of children surviving cancer and continuing into adulthood. I would urge any patient/parent/family member coming off active chemotherapy to pick up this book. Trust me you will have many, many book-marked pages. Our child just concluded his treatment and this book has not been very far from my side.

I am an 18 year survivor of Osteoganic Sarcoma and I found this book to be one of the best and informative books I've ever read. I read things that I didn't even know about my disease or the long term late effects due to the chemotherapy I received. I will admit, at times it was TOO much information, but it was all factual and there were things that I read that I had to come to term with. I have an appointment at a Late Effects Clinic in a few weeks, and I am eager to get on with the rest of my life. A big Thank You to the authors who took so much time doing research and putting their own blood, sweat and tears into such an awesome project!!! Sincerely, Diane Trautman Smith

Had to buy it for class. Regardless, came in good condition and it's a pretty good book. Not too much details into each chapter but good if you want an overall review on different children's literature.

This book isn't bogged down by various author histories or long-winded, complicated psychological breakdowns of why the authors think a particular book has more merit than others like many textbooks do. Instead, Tunnel and Jacobs get down to the nuts and bolts new teachers need to actually get children to read! With simple examples and amazing tools like booklists and the easy to use database, this book gives the teacher the essential keystones to teach and read children's literacy and then pushes the teacher to be a good role model and get out there and read! It is certain to have a permanent place in my resource library.

I bought this book for Master's level class on Children's Literature, and it's a great book. It's easy to read, and jam-packed with useful information. This is a book I will keep & not sell back.

The preface of this title describes it as "a children's literature textbook for people who don't like children's literature textbooks" (p. v) which sets the tone for the rest of the text. Tunnell and Jacobs, both instructors of children's literature from Brigham Young University, offer an introduction to children's literature that is entertaining and educational.

The book is divided into three parts: "The Magic of Books;" "The Books Themselves;" and "Books in the Classroom." The first section discusses the value of reading, why children don't read, how to distinguish between literary quality and personal taste, and how to recognize books that are well-written and well-illustrated. The second section tackles the history of children's literature as well as organization of children's books into nine separate genres: picture books, poetry, traditional fantasy, modern fantasy, contemporary realistic fiction, historical fiction, biography, informational books, and multicultural and international books. The third section describes controversial books and the most effective way to deal with challenges, how to motivate students to read, and teaching with children's books. The aim of the book is to provide "an overview to shed light on children's literature and its use with young readers" (p. v).

Throughout the text, many examples of quality children's literature are used to illustrate particular points the authors want to make. All book references are included at the end of each chapter and each genre's chapter features a list of "books we like," compiled by the authors, which provides bibliographic information as well as a brief summary of the work. Included with the book is a children's literature database CD which contains a listing of 20,000 children's books which can be sorted by title, genre, grade level, topics, author, illustrator, year, or publisher. Instructions on how to use the CD-ROM are located in the back of the book at the end of the last chapter and they include color graphics to illustrate what the database's interface looks like as well as the tools used to sort books into categories.

One of this book's greatest strengths is that it is written with humor, reads like a dialogue, and is organized in a logical way. The authors draw readers into the realm of children's literature with teasers excerpted from various titles, descriptions of interesting books, and providing interesting facts about children, their literature, and its history. Appended at the end of the book are "Guidelines for Building a Classroom Library;" book selection aids, a list of magazines for children, awards in children's literature, and information for anyone interested in publishing a children's book. The awards section and books selection section are particularly useful to anyone starting out in collection development (or those who have been doing it for a while) as well as those interested in finding award-winning books for children.

While this text is not an exhaustive look into the world of children's literature, it is not intended to be. It does, however, provide a stellar introduction to the subject and provides readers with enough information to distinguish quality literature from poor, to understand genre differences, and to be able to motivate children to read, which is the most important lesson of all.

This was used as a textbook in my children's literature class and I'm glad it was! It really gets away from the conventional textbook by having the info relaying in an easy-going context.

I purchased the 1st edition and it is been the best Cisco resource, if you need to find out something quick, reach for this book. So when I saw the 2nd Edition I knew I had to update to it, same great book with even more.

I cannot praise this book highly enough.

Published for the engineer by engineers with 'real' real world examples of working configurations.

It has already helped me out with one small functional change which will go to all router throughout the company as part of the default config.

Useful, relevant, easy to find answers & just unbelievably indispensible

You won't be configuring a router from scratch with this book, but it shows you how to handle about 90% of the common scenarios that you'll encounter with a Cisco device. Highly recommended if you are someone like me, who knows just enough IOS to get around and handle the basics, but configure these things maybe once a year and will never know enough IOS to do it on their own.

This book is pretty much an all in one book, it won't prepare you to pass any exam, but it will help you in your work if you have to do something with your cisco router when it's outside your scope.

i found this book is very well written, it gives you an example of how to configure something, then it will give you a detailed explanation of what it does and other options that you can do to adjust your need.

more things that i found very interesting is the "handling queuing and congestion" part which helped me implement qos for my router and make my network runs better.

there are many other interesting chapters for me, which will be too much to review. but i will recommend this to any body who works with cisco devices to get this book for in job reference or even just for study because this book will teach you more than what a ccna can do.

A book that resides outside of the often-essential Cisco Press series of books, Cisco IOS Cookbook delivers the goods. I'd like to see more coverage of Ethernet switching, which is a huge part of Cisco's business (and many modern Cisco Catalyst releases run IOS now). Communication between Ethernet and Token Ring is fully covered, however. Otherwise, this is an excellent, accurate and razor-sharp configuration reference for Cisco router hounds. Very good coverage of all L3 routing protocols and subjects such as serial interface and CSU/DSU setup, all of which I've done in previous jobs. Check out the Chapter 19 section on Access Lists. Finally, if you really need a thorough introduction to IPv6 on Cisco, go straight to Chapter 25. Another solid effort from O'Reilly.

"To appreciate any sport, you must learn about its entire histroy. And you can't truly appreciate baseball without learning about the Negro Leagues. Begin with this book."

-Sports Columnist, Kansas City Star

"The food industry has Emeril, the political pundits have O'Reilly and the Negro Leagues has Holway. Artfully wrote by the premier expert on Negro Leagues history."

-President, Legends of Sports

". . . statistics that prove the greatness of the Negro League players. Now, we can truly call baseball the National Pastime."

"To appreciate any sport, you must learn about its entire history. And you can't truly appreciate baseball without learning about the Negro Leagues. Begin with this book."

As submitted to Hasting House on Dec. 10, 2001 via e-mail

This is a fine overview of the contributions made by black ball players from the mid 19th Century to the more well known players of the 20th. I judge baseball books on how they contribute to the overall understanding of their subject matter. This book stands among the others, including Only the Ball Was White and Larry Lester's pictorials on the Negro Leagues in Chicago, Kansas City, and Pittsburgh.

One of the most famous - and infamous - letters in all of literature, De Profundis is a strange little piece of work: either much more than it appears on the surface, or much less. It is something I think everyone should read, if only for its insight into the human character, particularly that of one under great personal suffering. Wilde wrote this extraordinarily long letter from prison to Lord Alfred Douglas, his friend, lover, and the man who - by all accounts - was the reason Wilde was in jail in the first place. Despite repeated assertions in the first few pages alone to the contrary, Wilde seems reluctant to blame himself. He clearly blames Douglas to the hilt, and harbors a certain bitter resentment towards him. And yet... he clearly still hold much dear affection toward - and even loves - Douglas. He still seems to be asking for forgiveness - despite the fact that, by all accounts hardly excluding his own, he was the man wronged. It is quite clear from reading this letter that, desite the view history holds of him, Wilde was clearly a man of very high moral character. Certainly, one would not put Wilde atop a pedastal as the zenith of ethics - he himself says that morals contain "absolutely nothing" for him, and clearly admits - and is proud of - his having lived the high life to the hilt during his youth - but Wilde was a man of principles, and he stuck to those principles to the tragic, bitter end. Perhaps you might say he carried them too far. One gets the sense in reading this letter - or a biography of Wilde - that, not only could he have stopped his immiment imprisonment, but could have severed his ties with Douglas completely - had he wanted to. Apparently, he had his own utterly compelling reasons for not doing so. Whatever the case, Oscar Wilde is one of the most fundamentally and perpetually interesting characters in the whole of history. A self-described man of paradoxes - Wilde was subsequently the true essence of his time, while also being far ahead of his time - De Profundis makes for required reading by one of the most endlessly fascinating individuals you'll ever read about, and also provides a startling - indeed, perhaps too much so - insight into human nature.

De Profundis, though long for a letter, is not a long work in the conventional sense. Consequently, as many editions of Wilde's collected works are available, buying this on its own may be deemed questionable. I highly reccommend purchasing a Collected Works of Oscar if you have not done so already - it's well worth the price - but, should you desire to have more compact editions of specific works, an edition such as this will be privy to your needs.

This is a very moving account of a heartbroken man who was betrayed by a person he loved dearly. The pain, the trauma, the love, the anger, the frustration is evident in every single well-written sentence. This book is not only a window into the mind of one of the best British writers of the late 19th century. It is also a timeless lesson on what can happen when one falls in love with someone who doesn't truly appreciate what they have before them. Of course there are other lessons to be learned in this book but rather than point them out here, I'd much prefer you pick up a copy of "De Profundis" as soon as you can.

Not actually a "letter," though it had to be originally presented as such for him to be allowed to write it while in prison, *De Profundis* is Wilde's masterpiece--one has to have really lived and really, really suffered to have written it and it's amazing that he achieved it.

I only very recently read it--and "got" it. It rings true to me, and is very, very moving and "profound." It ain't summer beach reading.

Wilde is still and will probably always be best known as a "Personality"--that and the author of a couple of decent period plays, a short novel, a few stories, and lots of forgettable poems and such. But THIS--THIS is IT.

He really WAS a great writer, it turns out, after all.

So many people concentrate on De Profundis' accusations cast towards Alfred Douglas. Yes, it's true that the letter was written to him and that Wilde is ruthless in letting Douglas know exactly what he thinks of him but that's not why De Profundis is a great piece of work. It is great for three reasons. Number one - It contains the best account of the life of Christ. Christ as the romantic artist is the only account that has moved me to tears and the only account I can personally embrace. Number two - it is chock full of the Oscar Wilde voice and wit and as a result it reverbates as a true work of art and number three - It is ultimately a work that celebrates the things in life worth feeling - failure, love, injustice, strength and forgiveness.

Don't waste your time with the accusations towards Douglas. He is unimportant. Oscar Wilde is what's important and De Profundis is Oscar Wilde bare.

Ah, me...one doesn't know which to be more irritated
and exasperated with: whether it be Walt Whitman doing
his dissembling shuck-and-shuffle about the children
he had sired (to throw off a probing, serious John
Addington Symonds) -- or Oscar, in this "j'accuse," which
he should have spoken while looking in a mirror, rather
than writing it on paper to Lord Alfred.
This is without doubt a fascinating, horrifying,
and yet in places humorous, "piece de Miserere mei"
(to combine a bit of French with Latin).
If one chooses to believe Oscar, his only fault
was weakness in "giving in" to Lord Alfred. Oh,
come now. Blinded by Eros, reason flies out the
door...if ever reason was in control. There are
some sentences which are devastatingly revealing,
but Oscar doesn't seem to see it. "The trivial in
thought and action is charming. I had made it
the keystone of a very brilliant philosophy expressed
in plays and paradoxes." Ye gods, and little fishes!

And this man dared to call himself a "Classicist?!"
Yikes!!!
The best exercise for the reader is to just take
many of the things which Oscar accuses Lord Alfred
of, and turn them toward the self-blind, self-
justifying Oscar, to see their devastating hitting
of the mark. Never having met the young man, but
only having the "benefit" of hearsay (mostly from
Oscar's literary defenders) Lord Alfred seems to have
been calculating, temperamental (using anger to get
his way), manipulative, etc., etc., etc. The best
description of him may be Wilde's referring to him
with the lines from Aeschylus' play AGAMEMNON,
about the lion cub being raised in a house and
being let loose to wreak havoc and ruin.
But Oscar bears his share of blame -- more than just
that of the "sin" of weakness which he constantly falls
back upon in his own justification. Even in the midst
of what purports to be some sort of penitent cry from
the depths of hell...Oscar still is ever the poseur:
"And I remember that afternoon, as I was in the railway
carriage whirling up to Paris, thinking what an impossible,
terrible, utterly wrong state my life had got into, when
I, a man of world-wide reputation, was actually forced
to run away from England, in order to try and get rid
of a friendship that was entirely destructive of everything
fine in me either from the intellectual or ethical point
of view...." Er, when was the last time that the
"everything fine" had last seen the light of day?
Was Oscar an "Artist," as he consistently claims?
Was he the wronged, harmed Artist? Perhaps only the
reader can decide that for himself. Without doubt
he was witty, acerbic, funny, cute, clever, perhaps
even charming (to some -- sort of like a Pillsbury
Dough Boy with flair and a clever tongue), perhaps
stylish (in a frumpy, velveteen sort of way). Was
he wronged by a predatory clinger and manipulator,
and a hypocritical social prudery and class power
play (Oscar is no Socrates--that's for sure!)? He
hardly seems worthy, in some ways, of being a poster-boy
for Gay Pride parades. More likely, he is a better
warning poster boy for the self-excusing, and never
take-responsibility-for-your-own-actions crowd.
But this is an incredible piece to read and think
about. There is some of it that is mordantly hilarious.