Peter Books

I read this book in mid 2001. For anyone who wants to know from where the Catholic Church derives its intense sexual pessimism and its antagonistic attitude towards heterosexual love within marriage, then this is the book for you.

Many of the sexual taboos the Church is fixated upon have no Scriptural basis, and as the book incisively points out, no rational basis either. And the Church's extreme negative hatred of married sexual pleasure has been very costly to it over the centuries - even contributing to the Schism of 1054 and later the Protestant Reformation.

One of the conclusions that I was compelled to draw based on the overwhelming evidence of centuries of papal and clerical animosity towards heterosexual love (especially within marriage!) is that such an intense hatred of married heterosexuality is itself an immoral perversion in the same class as the sexual perversions the Church routinely condemns. One suspects, after reading this book, that the celibate clergy talked down marriage, in part, to bolster their prestige both within the Church and society at large.

Another conclusion that became clear was that the Catholic Church hurts its credibility immensely in the modern world by its obstinate clinging to a discredited, pessimistic view of human sexuality. The faithful often times do not listen to the Church on current major issues - issues that the Church is correct on - because the institutional Church has trivialized and abused its moral authority on so many minor or non-issues.

The author points out that this sexual pessimism was not dominant in the very early Church of the first three and a half centuries, but became dominant later. And, most surprising, is that this destructive sexual pessimism has pagan roots! We can hope that, in time, the Catholic Church will return to the more positive and constructive thinking of New Testament times.

This book was a revelation for me. It opened up avenues for research and exploration that I was not yet ready to open on my own.

Did you ever have an intuition that everything was not as simple and rosey as some would have you believe? Did you ever think that there was more to the story than was being revealed? If so, then this book is an excellent resource for you for topics such as misogyny, celibacy, sexuality, family planning and morality.

I am a Roman Catholic and a religious educator, but far from finding the book to be shocking or full of "dirty words," I found it to be an insightful challenge to the church to return again to the central teaching of Jesus and to turn away from its obsession with genitalia and what people do with them. There is more to faith than that. And only by embracing the truth of our past can we grow beyond it.

This is a book of gloriously passionate and meticulous scholarship. Why, Ranke-Heinemann asks, did the church turn from forbidding priests the right to divorce their wives at the Council of Nicea (in 325), to requiring all priests to dump their families in 1074? Why did this demand arise in the Latin Church, and not in the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Coptic Church, or in Judaism?

Sometime around the year 1000, the Latin Church hierarchy shifted from trying to end sex in clerical families, to a goal of ending the families period. The question of how to do this was both practical and moral. Because speaking directly on the issue of divorce, Jesus said that if a man and woman really loved each other unconditionally, they would never find reason to end their relationship. Taking these words legalistically, the Western Church had long taught that the only moral justification for divorce was adultery. And if that was their doctrine, how could the clergy justify divorcing their mainly loyal wives en masse?

When Christianity became Rome's official religion, most clergymen still believed that having wives was a good thing, and marriage helped prepare a man for religious leadership. As the Jews expected their rabbis to be married, so most Christians expected the same of their priests. If a priest was not married, most adults in the community would assume there was something wrong with him. A bachelor priest seemed immature. Marriage was a school of life, and if a man had not learned its lessons, how could he teach those who had?

Ranke-Heinemann traces the movement for enforced celibacy through an ecclesiastical struggle lasting over 700 years. Her presentation of the arguments pro and con is so revealing, that these chapters alone are well worth the price of the book. Then she documents the measures taken to enforce the great divorce - and they were horrific, including punishments of whipping, prison, banishment, or sale on the slave markets for the offending priest's wives. With their backs to the wall, many priests grew violent to defend their families. In the Paris Synod of 1074, Abbot Galter of Saint Martin demanded that the flock must follow its shepherd in celibacy. A mob of outraged priests and bishops beat him, spit on him, and threw him into the street. In the same year Archbishop John of Rouen threatened protesting priests with excommunication, and had to flee for his life under a hail of stones. In furious debate, the celibate party denounced its opponents as fornicators trying to prostitute the church. Married priests hurled accusations that their foes were sodomites, whose obvious preference for homosexuality rendered them hostile to married families. For decades church synods regularly broke into riotous fistfights, with monks and priests actually smashing each other's faces in the church aisles. In 1233, protesters murdered papal legate Conrad of Marburg, who was touring Germany partly to enforce chastity. (p. 109)

Beyond this, Ranke-Heinemann surveys the impact of this policy on the church over centuries to come, showing what it took for the parish clergy to live without wives, or what it took to train future priests, if no priest could train his son. And last she shows the history of resistance across Europe, in which love between priests and churchwomen survived despite all attempts at "sundering the commerce between the clergy and women through an eternal anathema".

Finally, this book of protest becomes a testament to the power of love, which proved stronger than all efforts to control it.

--author of "Different Visions of Love"

This book is incredibly well referenced and insightful. I was amazed by the amount of reference materials that were also included throughout the book. I was also amazed by the information set forth in the book. If you have ever wondered where some of the practices and ideas in the Catholic church originated, this is a very helpful book. It's not just limited to a female audience either - it's also quite helpful in understanding some of the requirements placed on men by the Church. I gave it four stars instead of five because it can be a very difficult read -- not a great book to read after a long day at the office!

This books simply unmask the horror,perversion and insanity of Catholic Church.It is important people live the pleasure and freedom as a sin,because companies need them for work.It is important to maintain and consolidate socio-economic domination-see Marx and Freud-and the SEXUAL dimension of the man and of the women is FUNDAMENTAL for this.Church and rich and powerful makes an invisible alliance.
Do you want to understand Columbine massacre,american psycophats and so on...? Start on this book,on Freud and on Marx.

I purchased this book in March of 2002 and began my "diet" in April. I was obese to say the least. I have since lost a total of 60 pounds and overall 22 inches (13 from my hips and waist alone)I am sure that my personal motivation has had a lot to do with my success and I now have more energy than I have had in years. I am now able to wear a pair of jeans that I purchased my senior year of high school (I know... why would you save them?) which was 15 years and 2 children ago. I am absolutely NEVER hungry and actually crave drinking water now. (which I used to gag just at the thought of drinking) I have promoted this book to EVERYONE I know and even laugh about the fact that it was published so long ago, but still applies and is so useful.

My additional motivation is that I have gone from a size 22W pants to a comfortable 12 and often a 10. I run /walk 3 - 6 miles each day with my son, something I would not have been able to do 6 months ago and this also gives us some special time together.

I will say that this is obsessive, and my family hates to eat with me. Everytime we cook or eat together I do a lot of "do you know how much fat that has" or "I can't believe you ate sausages for breakfast!"

If you are even thinking of buying this book ... DO IT... RIGHT NOW!

I first saw this diet in " Ladies Home Journal" back in 1989ish.
It had a page size color chart to figure your fat index, which the paperback book lacks.

I used this diet back in 1992 and lost 48 pounds. However, during the holidays over the years, the weight crept back.

Now my wife and I are both on this diet and in the first two weeks, I have lost:

14 pounds

2 inches in the hips

3 inches in the waist

1 1/2 inches across the breast

My wife keeps her weight secret, even after 14 years of marriage, but she has lost 4 inches in the waist, 3 inches in the hips, and 2 inches across the breasts, in our first two weeks. HINT: Buy a scale with a memory!
I would say the diet still works. In addition, I don't feel any hunger pangs between meals.

The exercise is important, but drinking 64 oz of water each day is more important, to wash out those fatty acids that accumulate from burning your stored up fat. DON'T WAIT until you are thirsty, start with water before the first cup of coffee.

There is no mention of increasing your water intake after drinking caffeinated drinks, that in hot weather would leave you dehydrated. The typical rule is to drink 2 times the amount of water for each amount of caffienated diet soda. Apparently, the fluid intake and outgo with 64 ounces of any liquid is enough to flush the system.

Our sample supper meal for one person:

Fruit: 4 oz high pulp Orange juice

1 Vege: 2 cups salad mix with 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar dressing

Protein; 1 Vege; 2 starch & 1/2 dairy:
2 yellow no fat tortillos
1/2 can no fat refried beans
1/2 can diced tomatoes with green chillies
grated cheese on top

Heated in microwave 2 1/2 minutes. Magnifique!

I whole heartedly recommend this diet. DON"T FORGET to exercise at least 30 minutes every other day. Walk, spade your garden, put up stuff upstairs or like I'm doing this morning...unloading 20 sacks of humas, 40 pounds each, which I found last night @ 49 cents each.

I first used this book about 10 years ago and found it effective and easy to follow. It is a flexible, healthy lifestyle plan incorporating good food and exercise. I have gone back to it several times over the years, and it has never failed me. Try it!

I love this book! This is the only "diet" I have ever followed and I am still my high school weight at 45 years old. I first ordered the paperback from the back of the Special K cereal box at least ten years ago and have completely worn out the book. I've just ordered a hardcover edition hoping it will last into my old age. If you're new to this book, keep in mind the fat comes off slowly - replaced by muscle. It's not an overnight diet - but a forever body change. Give yourself a couple of months to really see the difference. Also, you won't be hungry. The only thing I do differently from the book is to have two starches at lunch and one at dinner; this seems to work better for me. Also, I've found that water-packed tuna with BBQ sauce for flavor really sticks with you. Have fun and be creative!

I only had to read about 1/2 of the 1st chapter of this great book(I dont like to read), but thats all i needed to understand why "diets" dont work. This book is a must for anyone who want to lose weight(fat). I lost 25 pounds in about 40 days. The concept of this "diet" is so easy i had to slow my loss down because i was afraid of losing too much too fast. Now that the holidays are over, i'm going for another 25 pounds. My wife lost about 33 pounds also.

This book was given to me when I relocated to Florida, and I have thanked my benefactor many times over. Living in Florida means living with and respecting the wild critters, who are part of the beauty of this wonderful state. The colorful photos make it easy to identify the animals who slither through my new world and give me valuable information about which ones I should admire from afar.

I would like to say that I am extremely happy with this book. The pictures are huge and are printed on extremely high quality glossy paper. I would recommend this book to everyone that lives in Florida or is considering moving here.

we LIVE in central florida and my nature loving kids are constantly bringing home wildlife. the vivid accurate photos in this book allow them to ID their living treasures with confidence. (then they get additional info from the internet). the book is also full of useful info, and conservation topics.

My kids and I went on a kick of reading reptile books at a difficulty level similar to this one. After a week of going through various titles, I was surprised to learn more about alligators from the short section in this book than I had learned from all the previous stuff we had read together! Ditto for cottonmouths, and other reptiles.

The photographs are superb, and there are enough pictures of each species to give a true feel for what it looks like instead of a single profile view of each.

If it's slithering, clawing or hopping around your Florida yard you'll find it in this book. The photographs are very well detailed for easy identification. I also recommend Florida's Fabulous Insects for other creepy crawlies.

I think that what I most enjoy about the "From Porn to Poetry" books, as well as CleanSheets.com, the magazine they originate from, is that you can say something like "sexy, classy, hot, wild, and true" and be accurate in your description. The editor's name, Susannah Indigo, represents authenticity in writing to me, and all of her projects that I've read have been a cut above ordinary erotica. The mix of material in this book ranges from the down and dirtiest stories to elegant, sexual poems, and there's nowhere else you can read that kind of pleasurable mix. The subtitle is "Clean Sheets Celebrates the Erotic Mind," and that's how it felt to me after reading the book - like my "erotic mind" had been thoroughly and joyously "celebrated," honored, turned-on, and was raring to go.

Nothing in the book resembles cheap "Penthouse" stories; stunning stories by writers like Kim Addonizio, Maggie Gray, Mike Kimera, Greg Wharton, and Susannah Indigo herself simply leave you begging for more. I can't recommend these books enough to anyone interested in erotica; I've gifted friends with them and they all agree. They wonder, in fact, where I found them, since there's nothing in big bookstores done as well as this. Thank heavens for the Web and the ability for small book publishers to put this cornucopia of erotica out there for us!

There are some really good stories in this book, and the rest is such an interesting variety that I highly recommend all of it.

I love the mixture of fiction and non-fiction and poetry in this book. All of it is sexy, interesting, fresh and new. Highly recommended, and a great gift for a love to get them talking about what they like.

I agree that there should be more books like this, always full of great writing, huge variety, covering the entire scope of our dirty and sexy minds, without being Penthouse-y/girlie magazine. Smart writing, sexy, with emotional depth, and hot. Excellent book.

There's such a lacking in books like this - smart but still sexy, funny sometimes yet deadly serious others, erotic and sensual from start to finish. Mostly deep and meaningful stories and poems, really just beautifully done.

We purchased this book on recommendation from a friend and have fallen in love with it. Many similar books into our search, this one provides plentiful beautiful and illustrative pictures to accompany well-written and knowledgeable prose. This combination and organization allows me to quickly introduce myself to a new wine or region, but also then spend more time to gain a greater insight should the need or desire arise. I would definitely highly recommend it!!

The book is a wonderful coffee table book with many pretty pictures, weighing better than 5 lbs. The accompanying CD is more or less useless as a wine guide or a wine record. The text is illegible. Very frustrating to work with.

There are currently several major wine reference books available in the English language. Originally, there were the definitive Schoonmaker Encyclopedia of Wine and the entertaining Encyclopedia of Wines and Spirits by Alexis Lichine. These were the reliable wine reference books 20-30 years ago. Then there were the beautiful World Atlas of Wine by Hugh Johnson and the Oxford Companion to Wine by Jancis Robinson., These were the standards 10-20 years ago. NOW THERE IS THE GLOBAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WINE which eclipses them all! Current, timely and with 33 diverse authors all respected in their fields. Complete with full color photos and maps as well as reliable wine ratings. This is the one book that can replace many wine books in your wine book collection.

This book is a treasure, and it lives up to its name as a global resource for wine. The book comes with a CD that is quite good, is organzed in a rational way, and designed for ease of access. The bright, clear, glossy photos in the book are truly exceptional, and they are suggestive of an attractive coffee table book. But behind the pictures is a throughly researched book. Essentially, you get a graduate level course on wine in 900 pages of readable prose. Of course everything about wine is about taste, and as tastes vary, so do opinions. The book has 36 contributors, so the reader enjoys a variety of views as well as a variety of writing styles. While most of the book is organized geographically, there is an excellent opening chapter titled "The World of Wine," which will tell you more than you ever thought you'd ever know about the winemaker's craft. Then follows the geographic chapters, where the jumping off point, appropriately enough, is France. By the time our journey is ended, we have met all of the wines of the world face to face. Well, not all, actually. The index omits many wines that are popular in their own backyards, but have yet to make in impact in the global marketplace. But overall, you cannot be disappointed with editor Peter Forrestal's monumental book. You'll be delighted by the book's complexity, balance, and clarity.

I have always enjoyed drinking wine but I have never had the necessary
background and information about how to distinguish a good wine from a bad
one, which are the most famous wine regions in the world and what are the
most famous wine denominations. That was before my friend gave me this book
as a gift and I must say it was exactly what I needed.

It helped me understand about the different types of grapes and wines,
their specific characteristics, how to taste a wine, which wines are to be
consumed younger and which ones are to be left for aging. I also found out
about the influence of the soil on the vine's growing, the harvest time for
each type of wine, etc.

I think this book is a good start for someone who would like to be
initiated in the amazing world of wines and also for those who already know
well wines.

This book is very detailed and discusses every wine region of the world
(Europe, South Africa, Australia, new Zealand, South America, etc.),

mentioning its wine producers, the history of the area, the climate and in
certain parts it also gives suggestions about specific food that can be
combined with the wine of the area.

Regions like France, South Africa, Germany, USA, Australia, are very
detailed presented, with maps and informations about every single producer
in the area. If you want to take a vacation and visit some wine areas, this
book is everything you need.
Unfortunately, regions like Eastern Europe don't offer so much
information, despite the fact that they have a big potential, but are not
historically so well known.

This is not something to read once and then put it aside. It is meant to
be kept within easy reach and read from it every time you taste a new wine
and want to find more about its origin and history. Knowing all these
things, it will make you understand better its personality and perhaps you
will enjoy it more.

I'm sure you will like the experience of reading from this book.

While somewhat out of date, Hard Living on Clay Street is one of the best observations of poor white Southern working class folks ever done. Howell came to the research with some background, but more importantly with the ability to get these people to let him into their lives. He tells a compelling story. I have used the book for a Qualitative Methods class, and the students are impressed with both the writing and the characters. Anyone who wants to get a good look inside the lower middle class in this country should spend a little time on Clay Street.

I ran across this book after it was misfiled at the library, and I picked it up because I wondered what a book with a title like that was doing in the section. I read the whole thing through in one sitting. I think it is one of the most incredible anthropological studies I have ever read. As others have commented, the methods that Howell uses are extremely effective - he quite literally moves across the street from his stubjects. I get the feeling that to write this book about "blue collar" people (although the first family at least is really quite destitute) Howell does not hesitate to drink a lot of cheap beer, go deer hunting, etc.

Al Gore might have grown up there had his father been a plumber who moved north for work. Not many St.Albans boys in that neighborhood though. As in none. Gotta wonder if Harrington and Gore don't hook up once in a while what with the wellheeled intellectual Nashville/DC connection. All in all not a bad intro to a forgotten people in a very interesting time and place. I was happy to have stumbled upon it.

This book should be mandatory reading for all high school students in the United States. Poverty is indeed a virtual reality in this book. You cannot help but gain an appreciation for all you have, however little it may be.

Howell utilizes a "hands on " approach to drive home the reality of a very large segment of our society by literally moving in with them and living the life - in spite of peril for one year. Through this approach, he gains the trust of two families, the Shacklefords and the Mosebys, and we are able to move into their homes, travel with them on their drunken runs, and thereby gain an insight from a perspective within that no "text" could ever offer us. I applaud this book and have used it yearly in classes since 1978 with raves from the students.

Thomas Singer will soon be twelve years old. For years, his parents have promised him he could go hunting with the men when he was twelve. His birthday present is to be a brand-new shotgun and an orange safety vest. Thomas's birthday happens to fall on the first day of hunting season.

But Thomas's initiation into manhood is much different that he anticipates. One day, while out walking in the woods he loves, he witnesses a poacher shoot a deer. He remains hidden, only to see an old woman lumber into the clearing, gather the deer in her arms, then murmur to it and stroke it. The fully-recovered deer bounds away. Thomas and the old woman also flee the enraged hunter.

Thomas learns that the woman's name is Emma, and they spend nearly every day together after that. At his insistence, she begins teaching him how to be aware of all living things. Thomas is naturally sensitive and learns quickly. He discovers that he can communicate with, and heal, animals.

Torn between his desire to go hunting with his father or honoring his new-found knowledge, Thomas makes his anquished decision on the morning of his birthday.

The Healer of Harrow Point is Peter Walpole's first novel, and it's engrossing from the first page to the last. It's a "coming-of-age young adult novel that addresses larger issues of spirituality and the connection of all life." Readers of all ages will find it compelling and impossible to forget.

Peter Walpole uses the imagery of a boy on the verge of manhood to mirror for us all the times of transition in our lives. Emma is Thomas' spiritual guru through his journey. Ultimately, the lessons he learns about himself transcend the simple physical healing that Emma strives to teach him. The book is beautifully written and captures the fire within all of us. Although it is targeted for "young adults" I think it will speak more directly to those of us who have already passed through various stages of our lives. This is a book to read with your teenage children to use as a springboard into a number of discussions about growing up and relationships.

This was an enjoyable book that reminded me of similar ones weread for high school English classes. I can imagine a teacher usingthis book to start classroom discussions on decision making as well ason the interactions between people and nature. The book started off a little slowly for me, but after the opening scenes were set, the pace quickened. The story was believable enough, yet still not too hokey as to make it seem forced. Reading this book was time well spent.

The combination of fantasy with real life contemplation of the value of life made this a really fun read. I particularly respected the non-judgmental way in which Mr. Walpole deals with the hunters in this tale and hunting in general. The very real consequences of the loss of a life are dealt with in a creative and thoughful way. I read the whole book in one sitting!

I am a 6th grade student and thoroughly enjoyed this book. Once engaged in this book the action is terrific. I stayed up past 10:30 p.m. to finish this magicial, heart-warming, book.I would recommend this book to anyone with a love for animals, or anyone that likes a believable fantasy.

An excellent book on WW I. Oddly, not carried in our fabulous library system.
Title based on a quote from Hamlet and is greatly misleading.

Of course, I say this work is elegant, true, vivid and memorable as a work, not the events it depicts. In parts of the world that used to make up the Commonwealth and serviced by Penguin books, the title may be THE MIDDLE PARTS OF FORTUNE. Having had 25 years in the military I can only say I read this book from cover to cover, and relished every word in it. Artistically, as an artifact, it has a satisfying structure and conventional narrative. Like the characters in it, especially Private Bourne, it manages a superb tone, neither hiding the horror, the detail, but never sentimentalizing the common bravery of the ordinary man whilst despising the shirker. I could go on but I just draw to your attention on P58 the brilliant detail of having to carry an awkward box three miles by hand: - ....he was glad to dump the box he and Lance-Corporal Johnson had carried the three miles from Philosophe on the floor of the Quartermaster's office. It had those handles which hang down when not in use, but turn over and force one's knuckles against the ends of the box when it is lifted. By reversing the grip, one may save one's knuckles, but only at the expense of twisting one's elbow, and the muscles of the forearm. Having tried both ways, they passed their handkerchiefs through the handles, and knotted the corners, so that it was slung between them, but the handkerchief being of different sizes, the weight was not equally distributed. The quartermaster's store was a large shed of galvanized iron, which may have been a garage originally. He was not there, but the carpenter, who was making wooden crosses, of which a pile stood in one corner, thought he might be back at the transport lines; on the other hand he might be back at any moment, so they waited for as long as it took to smoke a cigarette, watching the carpenter, who, having finished putting a cross together, was painting it with a cheap-looking white paint. -That's the motto of the regiment,- said the carpenter, taking up one on which their badge and motto had been painted carefully. - It's in Latin, but it means WHERE GLORY LEADS.
Bourne looked at it with a sardonic grin. - That is just one paragraph of 247 pages of fine prose, and itself could be a study as a sample of quite brilliant writing.
A classic of the 20th century.

I feels like i am reading both "The Stranger" and "All Quiet on the Western Front." I was hoping to get something from it but i was disappointed from what i considered the best combination of both novels.

This semi-fictional story is set in a brief 6 month (or so)period in 1916 in which the British Army began to assume the major contribution to the Allied effort. By this time of WW1 the French had been somewhat degraded and pretty exhausted by the combined efforts of Verdun and the Somme. The story is set on the Somme front after the opening phases of the battle and includes the description of a long recovery period behind the lines to refit-a luxury denied many German units. The story reflects to some degree the British class system , and many of the soldiers themselves seem somewhat bewildered about the nature of war confronting them. The Germans themselves are shown as remote and treated somewhat indifferently. Despite the possibility of death each soldier seems distracted with obtaining alcohol, women and decent food in that order.

The 1 difficult aspect of the book is the phonetic nature of the spoken words. The characters are, after all, British, and Americans may have a tough time understanding what's being said. When compared with All Quiet on the Western Front, which focuses more on the futility and abstract nature of the war, Her Privates, We is more insular and personal.

In his novel, "Her Privates We," Frederic Manning does something almost unique in Great War literature. He gives voice to the English common soldier. This was the man the British public personified as Tommy Atkins and whom Americans in a later conflict would call GI Joe. This was the man who did the work of war with bayonet, rifle and hand grenade.

Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves, Wilfred Owen and Vera Brittain--among others--have given us a look inside the English middle-class perspective of the Great War. Through their poetry and prose, we can gain some understanding of what they and their educated counterparts suffered and endured.

The clerk, the taxi driver and farm laborer who went to war had no such heavy-weight advocates. Until Manning's novel first appeared in a limited edition during 1929, English private soldiers spoke primarily through letters home, not through literature. We know them best through the mute, exhausted faces that stare out at us across time from black-and-white Great-War-era photographs.

Manning, an educated Australian, worked as a minor literary figure in pre-war England. He enlisted in the King's Shropshire Light Infantry during 1915 and served as a private soldier in France through much of the 1916 Somme Campaign. Not coincidently, most of the novel's action is set within British lines during the time of that huge offensive.

Because Manning was a man who combined a writer's skills with a soldier's experience, his work gives us a rare and vivid glimpse of what trench life and fighting felt like from the viewpoint of the English private and non-commissioned officer. The book reflects the emotional and physical costs of battle. It also gives us some knowledge of the ways men related to each other and to their superiors. Any American who soldiered during the 20th Century will almost certainly find echoes of his own service experience within Manning's story.

In its 1929 printing "Her Privates We" was called "The Middle Parts of Fortune." The first mass publication the next year was ruthlessly edited to reflect 1930s sensibilities. The current paper-bound version of "Her Privates We," offered through Amazon, is completely uncut.

The Book's title derives from some obscene banter in Shakespeare's Hamlet, during which two characters describe themselves as the private parts of Fortune. Private parts, private soldiers, you get the picture. After listening to them, Hamlet concludes that Fortune is a strumpet. This would seem an equally valid conclusion for those of any rank or station caught within the titanic social and military struggle that played out during the 1914-1918 war.

I highly recommend this book - a great intro into poetry. My 3 yr old loves it!

I bought the book for my four-year-old great-granddaughter. The poem choices are charming and the illustrations are delightful. I showed "Here's a Little Poem" to neighbors in the senior complex where I live and sold four more copies. Two of the buyers are retired primary teachers; one is a retired librarian; I am a retired Professor of English. We all agree that this is the perfect introduction to poetry for little people.

I bought this book for my 3yr old neice, and although it she is a bit young, she loves it!

This book is just adorable. It has short poems, longer poems, funny poems, night-night poems... you get the idea. A poem for everything. I read some to my 5 month old daughter the other night and she just kept giggling when I really got into it. I love it, worth it.

I gave my 2, almost 3 year old this book for Christmas. She was very
taken with it from the start, and she declined to open more presents.
She said "No, I'm reading." We then read it before her nap, and she
loved it. Older children will like it too. She is taking the parts
she understands right now and the lovely illustrations. I know she will
treasure it for many years to come.Here's A Little Poem: A Very First Book of Poetry

In volume five of Proust's massive and perspicacious `a la recherché,' we find the narrator Marcel, slowly, yet surely, falling out of love with Albertine. Proust is extraordinarily masterful at evoking the painful (and yet very real) feeling of gradual disaffection, which all lovers must inevitably face with each other. Marcel pontificates endlessly and relentlessly on Albertine. He loves, her (or maybe we should say him), he doesn't love her, he loves her, he doesn't love her, etc. etc. Until, finally, the moment of decision, he tells her that he does not love her and wishes her to leave, insisting that she will be happier without him. Of course, the moment Albertine departs, Marcel is in despair, he has lost has love, and Albertine is reduced to the status of the `fugitive.' This volume is one of the most beauteous and thoughtful unfolding of the loss of love, and the painful convalescence that transpires in the subsequent period. Marcel goes to Venice, and explores that wondrous and ancient European city, and he sends help to find Albertine, only to discover that she has died in a horseback accident. In addition to the tragic loss of Albertine, Marcel grows continually disenchanted with the aristocratic world to which he belongs. Proust is brilliant in his ability to sustain this massive web of characters, as he reintroduces figures from the early stages of the search, such as Gilberte (Marcel's first love), and Mme Verdurin. This book evokes the meaning of life as it unfolds temporally, and the meaning of relationships throughout the course of a lifetime, and how they change and drift in and out of focus at different stages. It is one of the great works of Western literature.

The 7th of March I found this book, ISBN:0713996048. Now it's the 12th and I've returned to buy the book,except I can't locate it on the site! What is going on? Where's the first volume in the set? I'm so frustrated by this. I waited for years for the new translation to be completed.Help me!

This is volume five of the superlative new translation of "In Search of Lost Time," containing the two books of the Albertine cycle, which are now titled "The Prisoner" (translated by Carol Clark) and "The Fugitive" (tr. Peter Collier). Though I haven't yet read their translations, I have found the new editions to be a wonderful improvement over those done in the 1920s by Charles Scott Moncrieff. So I have no hesitation in giving them five stars.

Unhappily for American readers, current U.S. copyright law prevents Viking/Penguin from publishing the last two volumes of "Lost Time" in this country until 95 years after Proust's death, or 2018. The first four volumes have been published here in handsome hardcovers (more handsome than the British edition), but the only way to obtain this and the final volume ("Finding Time Again") is to find an imported British hardcover or paperback. -- Dan Ford

Modern Library's Volume V deals with the relationship between Marcel and Albertine. It is a complex, psychological relationship to say the least. In the Captive, Albertine lives with Marcel in his apartment in Paris and in The Fugitive one wonders who is, in fact, more captive -- Albertine or Marcel. It would seem to be Albertine for whom Marcel possesses an obsessive love and concurrent fear of her sapphic penchant. But it is also Marcel who will sacrifice experience if he makes a commitment to her. Who is more free, the captive or the fugitive? Proust raises questions about how to serve best the artist's quest for beauty. In fact, how does one really ever "capture" the beauty of life in art or music or literature? Even in a masterpiece, is it not beauty the fugitive that usually dwells just beyond one's capture? Or like Vinteuil's septet or the music of Wagner or the painting of Rembrandt, is the best for which one can hope of fugitive beauty only a brief fleeting experience? Are the vast tracts of time spent to understand the beauty and meaning of life worth it? As a writer does he not habitually surrender life in order to capture it? Or is the pursuit of the capture of the beauty of life in fact where one realizes its most sublime value? One sees in Proust toward the end of The Fugitive a member of society who respects it but chooses by reasons of health not to position himself so visibly within it. Despite his family name and vast but dwindling fortune inherited from his beloved grandmother, he seems to become somewhat ultimately disenchanted with the intricacies of Faubourg-St. Germain society to which he devotes so much of his writing. He recognises society's shallow obsession with materialism and rampant snobbery but his own place in society is captured by its complex history and tacit rules and Marcel is inescapably a captive of his own culture. When Albertine is lost to him toward the end of the volume, as in the prior volumes, the story line's serial intrigue advances most. Characters from prior volumes reappear, reminiscent of Balzac, whom Proust adored, but like him they change,too, and usually for the worse over time. The great tapestry of the characters of Proust -- Albertine, Gilberte, Swann, Brichot, Bloch, Charlus, Morel, Saint-Loup -- ultimately surprise and usually disappoint him. As to nagging questions about Proust's own orientation, "Personally I found it absolutely immaterial from a moral standpoint whether one took one's pleasure with a man or a woman, and only too natural and human that one should take it where one could find it." I found myself wishing that Proust had written more about Bloch and Saint-Loup and Gilberte, and less about Albertine. But she was, like his work, the one obsession, the endeavor of which understanding he could never escape and never quite marry -- she was his beauty and his art. She was the breath of life itself from his pen and from his experience of life as seen through the eyes of a true genius.

The Albertine episodes make more sense if we assume this is a homosexual ralationship. Albertine's independence, and her being allowed to live in a young man's apartment, and other aspects of her social life do not seem likely for a young woman in the nineteen hundreds. Marcel's (and incidentally this is the only volume where he refers to himself as Marcel) suspicions then become the gay lover's fears that his lover prefers heterosexuality. Albertine is the only female in the Recherche who never gets married.
Apart from these external clues there is quality about the the affection Marcel feels that suggests a gay rather than a straight relationship.
This volume marks a turning point in the narrator's fascination with the aristocracy. From here on disenchantment sets in, and the references to homosexuality become almost homophobic.