Irish-American Books

There is better coverage of William Johnson's life but this work by Fintan O'Toole is quite acceptable. Born into near poverty in Ireland, Johnson moves to America to develop his uncle's estate in the Mohawk Valley in the early 1700s, begins trading in furs and land and ultimately buys his own property. Befriending the Mohawks, he is adopted into the tribe and continues to rise within North American politics to become a Baronet, Superintendent for Indian Affairs for the Northern colonies, a position equal to a Colonial Governor.

In this capacity he serves as the Crown's principal intermediary with the powerful Iroquois Confederacy, becoming a principal within their Councils. He commands the British, colonial and Iroquois forces in the victory over the French at the battles of Lake George and Niagra and developed the first group of "rangers" for colonial forces, the precursor of the Rangers within today's US Army.

He dies in 1774, just prior to the American Revolution, but is credited with keeping the Iroquois on the side of the Crown during that conflict. A remarkable colossus in North American history, the Iroquois Confederacy, which lasted for over 200 years, is destroyed during the French and Indian War, due in no small part to Johnson's participation within its governing during that conflict. A well researched work, this is a good rendition of a most amazing life.

William Johnson may be the greatest colonial American in our history. Had there been no revolution, or had the British won, he would be remembered with the esteem we now reserve for "founding fathers". Johnson proved himself a giant in three arenas. First he made a fortune in the fur trade and parlayed his wealth into vast real estate. The Iroquois preferred to deal with him because he respected them, didn't cheat and kept his promises. Secondly, Johnson became a master diplomat. For most of the 18th century, he kept the six Iroquois tribes pro-British and important allies in the French and Indian War. Thirdly, Johnson was a valiant commander in that war, winning the Battle of Lake George, capturing Fort Niagara and assisting in taking Montreal.


O'Toole's book is especially good at bringing out the diplomatic history.
In fact, if you are thinking of joining the Foreign Service, Johnson has left a record that is still of use today. One can learn what it takes to negotiate with a non-Western, non-progressive people who are given to barbarism and who control extensive natural resources.

O'Toole is Irish and never misses any nuances regarding Johnson's heritage. Such an approach is unusual, but does give clues to the man's psychology. What I hoped to find, but did not, were numerous anecdotes and personal asides revealing the fascinating character that was William Johnson. Alas, the 18th century collected little trivia. Still it's a worthwhile read.

This is an immensely enjoyable book. As a fan of Colonial history, I find Johnson himself is a subject of inexhaustible interest. Author O'Toole brings to the table a lyrical yet droll Anglo-Irish style and a master's hand at story telling. Many of the chapters are framed with illustrative incidents from Johnson's life that give theme and sweep to the historical accounts sandwiched between them. O'Toole also uses Johnson to bring the vast and complex colonial frontier (when upstate New York and Ohio were exciting places) to life with a boundless appreciation for all the many participants - Native Americans of many ethnicities, British agents, soldiers, English, Dutch, French, Scots-Irish and African colonists. I haven't enjoyed a biography this much in quite some time.

Once I started reading, I found this book hard to put down. It is about a paradoxical man and a fascinating period of history.

Unlike some reviewers, I thought the references to Irish history were a logical link to understanding William Johnson's identity and actions. In the process, I also learned something about Irish history.

I confess that I was waiting for this book for a long time. By my own admission, William Johnson is probably my biggest hero in Colonial America and his death probably changed the way the revolution in NY turned out (a feared loyal citizen soldier many who rose against his sons would not have done so against him).

This book though left me bored in spots. I find no reason for the author's constant attempt at apologizing for Johnson's conversion to being Protistant nor do I care much about the break down of Irish land ownership. It was not until several chapters in that the book focused on William himself and his time in America.

If the book consitrated more on Johnson as an individual and less on Johnson the Irishman it would have been a better read to me. The most important contributions Johnson made was as a negotiator with the Natives and more time should have been spent building up to this.

I think the author has a great person to write about, but does not do Johnson proper justice. The author should stick more to Ireland and its history in future works. He shows a love of Ireland and its history and his time would be worth spending on that. Writing on Colonial American subject just did not hit home with me.

This is an excellent book, it has gold leaf paper and its own bookmark and has a GREAT sum of his work although some 'may' be missing but all the great ones are there such as the infamous The Raven and The Masque of Red Death, The Fall of The House of Usher among many others; to keep this short and simple this book is well worth the price and looks better in person then what amazon shows. Do keep in mind like I said this is a very nice book and only buy it if your either an avid Poe fan or want a great book to add to your growing library (like me), otherwise buy a paperback if you want something to tote around with you between classes etc.

This book provides the reader a significant sampling of Poe's works both stories and poems. I found the 69 stories to be adequate for the casual reader including all the well known tales: The Masque of the Red Death, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Black Cat, and The Cask of Amontillado. I was pleased to see that "Hop Frog" also made the cut.

His included poems numbered 31 and included: The Raven, Lenore, To The River, The Sleeper, The Haunted Palace, and Dreams. I believe the collection is well suited for a "Selected Works" book.

The book itself is hardbound, the edges of the pages are gold, and a yellow ribbon book mark is built in to the top of the spine. The only negative thing I can truly say about this book is that my personal copy had a broken spine when I took it out of the box, though it was new.

Edgar Allen Poe's, "The Cast Of Amontillado," is a witty and daring tale between two enemies. It humorously portrays the foil of Fortunato, as he is led through the catacombs. Poe's humor is dark, sarcastic and very ironic, which quickly becomes a signpost of the tale. Poe sets himself apart from other authors in his works, based on how he depicts and encounters death. It accentuates the notion that at times, your worst enemy will appear as your best friend. Pride is the downfall of every man and the same can be said for fortunato. "Nemo me impune lacessit."

Edgar Allan Poe is one of America's greatest writers. He is an absolute master of the short story and the poem. A collection of Poe's writings is a welcome addition to any bookshelf. I would not, however, chose this particular collection.

Because all of his works fit handsomely in a single volume, there is no real need to purchase a "selected works" version like this one. There are other "value priced" editions that have everything and you will be better off with one of them. Look for the term "complete works."

Poe's writings do not disappoint, but this presentation of his writings does.

Edgar Allan Poe is truely the father of Horror stories. My favourite creepy story is 'The Tell-Tale Heart' a short read that should be read late at night to get the atmosphere of a true Edgar Allan Poe work of art.

I also enjoyed 'The Masque of Red Death' - a little known short story as well as 'Murders in the Rue Morgue'. Poe's greatest known work - 'The Raven' is also included, and that is by far the best thing Poe has written.

There are not only short stories and poetry. Poe did give script writing a go, and the play 'The Power of Words' is an interesting read, and shows a discussion with a tutor and a pupil over various topics. This script is meant to be read and nor performed, however.

Edgar Allan Poe's best work is defienetly in this volume, and I recomened it for lovers of reading and not just poetry, and vice versa.

If you are not prepared to read several scenes in this novel slowly and often, there is a very good chance that, like many academic reviewers, you will leave it thinking less well of the characters in it than you do of yourself for having, with only moderate encouragement from James, "seen through them." Not many of them are easy to like. Mrs. Brook in particular is, as James clearly implies in his preface to the New York edition, essentially a character in a French novel--charming, beautiful, terminally manipulative. But the pleasure of this book is precisely that it obliges you, by the precise obliquity of its writing, to recurively correct your notions as you move through a series of set scenes, transferring your allegiances as characters initially attractive come to seem less so, and as characters less attractive come, by their honesty or their helplessness, to the moral fore. The long scene at Tishy Grendon's, in which everything comes to a kind of moral head, craves such careful reading that even inveterately fascinated and loyalist readers of James will need to piece their way through it very slowly. Critics and readers who, understandably, wonder why all this fuss is made about people themselves ultimately trivial, need to be reminded that James spent his life as a writer teaching us, by the difficulty of his writing, to read (in just the same way that Bach teaches us to listen). It is "the fascination of what's difficult" that keeps us turning pages, though it must be said that what's difficult here is considerably less so than, say, in The Golden Bowl or The Wings Of The Dove. Ultimately, what is upheld in these novels is the willingness, in a world riddled with well bred rottenness, evil in spotless linen, to live without self pity or bitterness, and for this alone James should be required reading for Americans of the 21st Century.

Critics will often pair this novel with his earlier "What Maisie Knew."

Both novels deal with the child's / adolescent's emerging conscience, while faced with adult corruption.

In "Maisie" and "Awkward," we see James following up on his fascination with Hawthornian themes.

James's facility with dialogue, in which abrupt blushes are loaded with meaning, is apparent here. The drawing-room conversations reminded me of a party in a swimming pool; each character is constantly, in a conversational sense, "taking a plunge and coming up somewhere else."

I found this novel somewhat thin - read closely James's "Preface to the New York Edition"; can you hear James in self-defense mode?

Overall, not bad, but "Maisie's" somber and gloomy tone was better suited to the subject matter and themes than the "light and ironic" touch of "Awkward."

When Nanda Brookenham "comes out" in her mother's salon, one question is immediately which of its male members she will marry--and soon. The urgency is partly financial: Nanda's parents seem to live almost beyond their means and she has no dowry. It is also moral: Given the salon's racy talk and unconcealed sexual intrigues, how can Nanda long continue to present an image of the "pure young girl" it was assumed most men would want to marry? And finally, it may be familial: Does Mrs. Brookenham really want a younger female competitor sitting with her daily?

Nanda's choices seem limited to three: The handsome, clever, conceited Vanderbank, who she prefers, but who is not that well off and who may be attached to her mother. The ugly, awkward, but rich and kind Mitchy, who prefers her. And possibly, the elderly, conventional, but rich and kind Mr. Longdon, who was in love with her dead grandmother and who may turn out to be either a benefactor or a suitor.

Nanda's mother is highly manipulative, not only in trying to arrange her daughter's marriage but in meddling with all her friends' affairs. The grandmother to whom Mr. Longdon always compares Nanda was the eptiome of old-fashioned purity and reticence. The other central question of the novel is: Which role model will Nanda choose?

In the hands of a less verbose writer, The Awkward Age could have been action-packed, clever, and even moving in depicting the limitations of its characters' choices. As it is, James's hesitations, qualifications, and reluctance to fully disclose his characters' motivations partly spoil it. We know (as much as James will ever tell) which suitor Nanda chose. But we are unable to gauge whether she has been manipulative, and acted from cynical financial and social calculation, or whether she has been "pure," and acted from real emotional impulse. That is, we never quite know which role model she chose (though I have my guess).

The novel is written mostly in dialog and reads in places like a play. Personally, I'd like to see it turned it into a play or film script. Simply cutting out a lot of verbosity could give it a clear meaning and a real ending. I even think I know what she'd do with her life after the novel ended.

This novel tells a familiar tale: old-fashioned man enters a tangled web of wealthy British fashionable types, makes a proposal, and the web falls apart. Mr. Longdon, a wealthy old man from Suffolk, returns to London to find the children and grandchildren of his ancient love. Out of respect for this unspoiled affection, he takes an interest in the grand-daughter of his love and tries to pull her out of the circle of influence that has, effectively, soiled her. James manages some interesting and convincing characters, and these pawns interact in some magnificent scenes. It almost reminds me of Restoration Comedy, with its complicated dialogue and dramatic jumps in setting that resemble staged scenes. The major thread of the novel is the relationship between Vanderbank, a complicated but good-natured young man who has managed to penetrate that affluent circle, and Nanda Brookenham, the granddaughter of Longdon's lost love. Vanderbank remains deliciously puzzling to the end of the novel, and Nanda manages a kind of heroism. The conclusion is somewhat surprising; James, by this point in his career, seems to have moved beyond the endorsement of conservative values evident in a work like The Bostonians. Despite the surprise, though, it was a great deal of fun getting to that conclusion. This novel is as close to a page-turner as I have read from James thus far, and bristles with subtle interrogation of a rotting social structure. I have no trouble saying, like F.R. Leavis, that this novel ranks among James's best.

I thought the value of this book lied not in its story (it was forgettable), but as a sort of cultural museum, allowing one to look into what English "high society" was like at the end of the 19th century.

What it was, I found, was horribly superficial and empty. These people had little to do with their time except gather at eachother's parlours and chat idlely and endlessly. But with nothing to talk about and all day to talk about it, it was considered better to sound "clever" than to have something meaningful to say; style was valued in the absense of substance. No one said what they felt, no one felt strongly about what they said, and the whole frustrating lot of them came across as a bunch of phonies. They were all but toppling over with the weight of their own pretensions.

The reason I found this frustrating, though, is that in his other works I have read (admittedly not that many), the reward for struggling through James' prose is his deeply penetrating understanding of human nature; clearly, James "gets" people, and it shows in his sharp observation and subtle wit. So that made me struggle all the more to peel back the layers of clever chatter to "get" what James was driving at, but after I turned the final unfathomable page, all I could say was "huh?"

It's hard to define this book. Mostly, it's about the experience of Thomas Lynch and his extended Irish-American family living in Michigan and his going back home to Clare to the relatives still living in the home of his ancestors. That part alone is well worth the read but Mr. Lynch goes much further, delving into his personal, spiritual faith and the schizophrenia of The Church as well as the residue of 9/11 and the chaos, fear and war that has followed, adding a depth I hadn't expected. The writing is lyrical and flows from topic to topic with ease, like an often beautiful, sometimes heart-wrenching journey.

"Booking Passage, We Irish and Americans" is a delight. Thomas Lynch's use of language is inspiring. Lynch's observations on Irish and American life in the last three decades are full of wit and insight. This is a great book by a great author.

Hilarious in parts, I found his diatribe on 9/11, the airport wait between flights, his "rise" to stardom etc. to be egotistical and boring. If he had stuck to Ireland, relatives there, the cottage there, his life in the States and the back and forth between the two, it would have made a better book. I loved it for the brogue and dialogue therein; reminded me of my father who spoke with a brogue imitating my grandparents from Roscommon but it does wander and that's a shame because he seems to have a niche with his close tie to Ireland that could be used again and again in more books perhaps.

I'd been waiting for what seemed like too long for a third book of stories from Thomas Lynch, but wondered if his Irish-based tales could possibility be as compelling as his earlier works, which were stories about life based on his career in dealing with the dead (in addition to being a writer, Lynch is an undertaker). But again, just as he used the funeral home as a backdrop for stories not about death but about life, Lynch uses Ireland, land of his ancestory and his frequent visits, as the canvas for telling poignant stories about life. Now I'll give friends copies of "Booking Passage" while i wait for a fourth book from Thomas Lynch.

When three of the sections have these headings: Bits & Pieces, Odds & Ends, Fits & Starts, you get the idea: lots of thoughts mainly about but not always about Irish in America and in the US. Lynch writes well, perhaps too self-consciously (but you could say the same about Beckett, Joyce, McGahern, or Banville) about his place within the past & present Irish identity increasingly available to trans-Atlantic "passengers" reversing the emigration of their ancestors. The strength of this book comes from Lynch's determination to act out a point attributed to one of Brian O Nolan's many literary guises: to be Irish you need not have been born there, merely to claim allegiance.

Comparisons to James Charles Roy's more acerbic accounts of restoring a "castle" in Co Galway and herding about Yanks on a tour, respectively "The Fields of Athenry" and "The Back of Beyond," provide a fine counterpoint to the themes Lynch takes on--a rejoinder in turn to the Niall Williams "back to nature" tendency to romanticize rural Irish life for second-home owners.

The most fluent and unified part of Lynch's collection, apparently knocked about for a while in gestation since about 1970 and added to as life added to Lynch's accumulated experiences revolving around Ireland, mortality, and his place within both realms, the section "Death Comes for the Curate" tracks his priest relative who died early back three-quarters of a century ago in New Mexico, and from this Lynch frames a meditation examining Irish Catholicism from many angles, both in Ireland and its remnants in America. This portion of the book hit home, and worked in its concentration around a central theme.

What worked less effectively was, as the opening paragraph about the chapter headings foreshadows, the scattered organization of much of Lynch's other musings. To his credit he steers clear of "The Troubles" and largely bypasses the cute anecdotes and clever pub banter that sinks many a travelogue about the oul' sod. Yet, in his putting thoughts to paper, he tends--like Montaigne whom he cites--to drift before coming back to where he started, at best. In sections about relatives, the old house he restores, poetry that mattered to his younger and present self, and the irritation aroused by travel and its delays in a post 9/11 world, he is often sharp and worthwhile to learn from.

But in many of these same chapters, the control lessens and you feel as if too many undigested and unrevised ideas crowd out the better prose. The book wanders about mightily, and too much to reward a long sitting or two, although in parts it can be dipped into for a few pages with pleasure. Perhaps I need to re-read Montaigne to acclimate myself to Lynch, but the latter seems to treat the Irish concerns as ultimately as disorganized and fractious as any other Lynch may have. While true for him no doubt, this disorganization makes for less than fluid streams of consciousness on these finely wrought but rather too crammed and caroming essays that leave a reader as often stranded as enlightened. Yet, again, that chapter on Catholicism's superb!

It seems that some of the best books I've read are ones that I have never heard of and buy on a whim, just for something to read. This was one of those. An absolutely beautiful story. Nothing more, nothing less. Wonderfully written characters and beautifully drawn scenes. A minor concern is some of the dialogue between Kevin and Jimmy. There is a bit of it that didn't ring true to the way brothers speak to each other, but not enough of a problem that doesn't make this well worth reading.

The mark of a good book for me is when I begin to have feelings for the characters, and I hate to see the book come to an end.
This is true for But Come Ye Back, and it touched some nerves with me.
My own mother was born in Ireland, came to the U.S., worked as a nanny and met my Irish, but American born father, who was another Lyle. That said, I found some humor and sadness in reading this book. It is a wonderfully written love story, without the actual word "love" being spoken. It is heartwarming, and I am sure many people will relate to the characters.

Extraordinarily well-written: Lordan is an excellent craftsman. Nowhere in the whole novel does the style lapse. It is not really a "novel in short stories"--it's really a novel. Few of the chapters would really stand alone.

She has a great sense of psychological depth--this is almost like a Virginia Woolf novel, if VW were an Irish-American. Not much in the way of action: no car chases, no conflagrations. But it is a sympathetic and REALISTIC portrait of marriage.

I was brought to this book by a rave review by Ron Charles in The Christian Science Monitor. On the surface, I was a little skeptical about even starting it. The author describes her book as a " novel in stories." And that it is. The general plot outline is about a retired American couple who return to the wife's native Ireland to finish their lives together. This did not seem to bode very well and I was just little reluctant to start the book. But once I got into the first and second of these stories, I could not stop. What Beth Lordan has done is to people her novel with characters so believable and so compelling that I begn to believe that I was now living next door to them. The fourth story, entitled "Digging" is worth the price of the book in and of itself. A glorious and moving story of real people which left me thinking about Kent Haruf's "Plainsong". Highly recommended.

Lyle Sullivan and Mary Curtin met at a company picnic in 1960. He was an accountant and she was a nanny who came over from Ireland to earn money for her family back home. Throughout their intermittent dating over the next few months, they fell in love, but Mary had to leave suddenly when her mother became ill. Lyle was far from a romantic person but he was inspired to take, for him, what was a most remarkably impulsive step and fly to Ireland to propose to Mary.

It's years later now and neither one of them will be relating the above story themselves...or many of their other memories. It's just not their style. They do not dwell upon the past, and they have settled into a comfortable coexistence wherein Lyle grumbles and Mary soothes, humors and does everything the perfect wife is supposed to do.

Lyle is retired and, after many years of never asking for a thing, Mary is making her one request. Now that their two boys are grown, Mary would like to move back to Ireland to spend her remaining years near her sister and her native land. Lyle is not particularly fond of Ireland, but he agrees and so they move.

Life stays unchanging other than the surroundings until, one day, Lyle meets an attractive American woman with a dying husband and Mary meets a handsome and charming Irish man. Mary has no issues with the decision she makes subsequent to her meeting; whereas Lyle is unsure what to do with his feelings.

When life hands him an unexpected curve, however, Lyle is forced to find his heart, his home and his strength.

On Broadway I saw productions of Martin McDonagh's "The Pillowman" and the "The Lieutenant of Inishmore;" the latter play had more blood and guts spread over the stage than any play within memory; the former was a dark, scary play that shocked even blasé New York audiences.
This play is about simple folk in a small village in 1934, and one could be forgiven for considering them simple-minded as well. Elements of theater of the absurd, farce, vaudeville-like routines, and inane dialogue add to the great comic effects achieved in this piece. Two women run a grocery store that seems to be overstocked with cans of peas. There is no doubt that Cripple Billy is a cripple because the other characters are constantly mentioning it and calling him Cripple Billy. Some of the jokes are stupid, but nonetheless funny.
Billy even goes to Hollywood to seek fame and fortune. Billy cons a boatman into taking him to a nearby island where Robert Flaherty is filming his documentary "Man of Aran."
Billy stares at cows, Helen pegs eggs at Father Barratt, and Aunt Kate talks to a stone.
Johnnypateenmike, the village gossip,(characters use long names in addressing each other) ferrets out and carries the news around the village. He keeps his Mammy in her nineties drunk and hopes she'll croak. These are like stage Irish types, stock characters. McDonagh is not aiming for realistic portrayals. This is farcical stuff with the flaky characters uttering vaudeville-like riffs. Some of the dialogue sounds nonsensical, absurdist, but somehow the plot gets moved along, and the audience gets entertained by these nut cases. It's almost like a hillbilly comedy.
The play has its darker elements because McDonagh is not going to let the audience leave with a happy ending. Violence and cruelty are never far out of sight. If it plays as well as it reads, I'm sure it would be a hilarious theater experience.
Nine Lives Too Many
The Daemon in Our Dreams
The Rice Queen Spy
Clawed Back from the Dead

I have not yet had the chance to read "The Cripple of Inishmaan," however I have had the rare opportunity to see it performed at the Pioneer Memorial Theater in Salt Lake City. This play is absolutely amazing. I enjoyed it from start to finish, despite some of the harsh language. It only served as tool to further explore the characters. This play gave me the opportunity to explore a huge range of emotions in a short amount of time. I was laughing when it started and crying when it ended. The story is beautiful and gives a true and realistic view of humanity as we know it today.

Debates rage among scholars and teachers of Irish literature about McDonagh's mordant take on the hackneyed rural dramatic stereotypes foisted on so many 20c audiences. This play adds to the earlier "trilogy" only more of the same fuel for the fire.

When I saw it performed, however, it seemed far too pat. I decided to read it to see what I missed out in witnessing it. The elderly ladies' banter that begins and closes the play sets the scene efficiently, but did still not move me much. The play's essential veracity--if that's an applicable word--depends on how Cripple Billy can convince. Helen's acerbic tongue's a welcome dollop of levity to offset the revelations Pateenjimmymike provides. The set-speech delivered by Billy from his Hollywood hotel room works well on two levels and slyly dismantles the Synge-speak so beloved by so many stage Irish and those who put the brogues in their mouths on so many screens and in thousands of theatres.

Not as vicious as the Leenane "trilogy" of Beauty Queen/Skull in Conamara/Lonesome West (the last of which I think his best "Irish" effort). Not as satirical as his other "Aran" play, "Lieutenant of Inishman". I wonder why his final effort in his second trilogy, "The Banshee of Inisheer," has never been published?

With his recent "Pillowman," it looks as if McDonagh's at last extending his sights into more Kafka/Beckett-esque and Continental influences, to his credit. I think in time these early plays will be seen as a warm-up for more intricate efforts. There's only so far you can send-up the Abbey Theatre-school of dramatic emoting, after all.

Wonderfully dark, mean and hysterical, but under it all is the message that we all need family, community and each other. McDonagh has an incredible way with very natural stage dialogue and his characters are unique and vivid. I laughed on every page and winced with every vicious attack. Although some may argue that the play is hateful and sad, I have read few plays as ultimately life affirming. To use every characters' sentiments, Ireland mustn't be such a bad place if Martin McDonagh writes so well about it!

This play is by Martin McDonagh, an award-winning playwright whose previous Irish play, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, won a Tony award for Best Play. The Cripple of Inishmaan focuses on the lives of the residents of Inishmaan in 1934. We follow Billy the cripple, the main character of this play. The supporting characters include: Helen, a feisty young lass who has a tongue that would offend even the most colorful drunk. Billy's two aunts, Kate, who talks to rocks, and Eileen, who runs a sweets store. Johnnypateenmike, the town gossip, as well as BabbyBobby who is constantly getting his old lady drunk, and finally Bartley, Helen's younger brother. This is a riveting story that will bring you on a roller coaster ride of emotion. You will experience love, hate, compassion, joy, sadness, but most of all, you will laugh. This play is hysterical! We would recommend reading it or seeing it to anyone who enjoys theater, or just likes Irish culture, or even if you like Hollywood in the 1930's. The story centers on Billy and his wanting to be in a film that is being made on the neighboring island of Inishmoore, The Man of Aran. To get to the island, he has to tell everyone that he has tuberculosis so that they will feel sorry for him and let him go. Billy later decides to leave his aunts and the island and go to Hollywood with the rest in an attempt to fulfill his dream of becoming a film actor. Does Billy really have tuberculosis? Does he have what it takes to make it in the harsh world that is Hollywood? There's only one way to find out.

Very entertaining and enlightening. Pepys gives us a glimpse of what life was like in that period before the "Glorious Revolution" in England which was so important in the developement of democracy in England and the United States. Pepys was on the wrong side of that revolution - a loyalist to King Charles II, although he was never convicted of treason. Good thing, since there seemed to be a lot of beheadings, etc. in that era. Occasionally, it is not absolutely clear what Pepys is talking about, and sometimes the vocabulary is not easily understood,as language and customs have changed, but that is to be expected.

I've long been a student and a collector of information on the personalities of Restoration England, growing out of a desire to know more about the background in literature classes. The Restoration crowd loved life, and in this volume (and presumably the next) you see how tenuous their lives were -- 5000 a week in the City of London dying of plague, two fleets of 100 ships each at war in a narrow sea, everyone so intent on feathering their nest and getting their next place, and an honest man rarest commodity of all. I love all these diaries. I've learned to ignore a lot of the textural (not text) notes that tell you if there was a blot on the page, or the symbol was not quite clear, but the footnotes are amazing and so is the information. Love Sam; he could have done pretty much as he pleased with me, I fear. But in his daily strolls of 5 miles and more I fear I could never have kept up as he went up and down the town, up and down the river. I've been to London and took the boat tour on the Thames from the houses of Parliament down to Greenwich to see the naval museum and Queen's house -- and he would walk, day or night, from London to Depworth, to Woolwich, to Greenwich (though he'd borrow the boat if he could) and pay attention to all he passed. What a companion!

Unfortunately for my budget's sake I started buying these in 3s and am now having trouble filling up 1666-1669. I will persevere, though, and anticipate a re-read of all or part probably every summer (while TV takes a dive and there's good light to read by until long into the evening). The only thing I have wished for is more portraits of the people he is speaking of--and the portraits by Huysmans and Lely that he reports having seen fresh painted. However, financially that may not have been doable. Will have to keep searching for a companion Restoration Portraits volume to keep me happy.

Great reading - do start from the beginning to get into the swing of things. A random paragraph doesn't put you "in the life" like the unrolling panorama does. A better map of London at your elbow (though there is one in the back of each volume) will also increase your pleasure.

It is kind of hard to match up these reviews of the Pepys' Diary with specific volumes, probably due to the nature of ISBN numbers. However, this review is about Volume 10, the Companion to the 10 vol. set of paperbacks (complete edition) by the University of California Press. IT IS a valuable book indeed, being 1700 entries, alphabetically arranged, on the details about the people and places mentioned in the Diary. It has 626 numbered pages and genealogical tables and maps.

When I started reading the diary, I expected it to be extremely boring and very old fashioned (seeing how it was written in the 1600's) - how wrong I was!!!
Samuel Pepys (pronounced 'peeps') is a human, funny, moody man who has his ups and downs like the rest of us. His narrative during the plague records his concern about neighbors, and his real sorrow when people he knows succumb to it. He also records his experiences during the great fire of London in 1666 and his first mention of it strikes me as entirely human - he says that his maids wake him as they have heard of the fire and as it is not near his doorstep he simply goes back to bed as he's tired. He has arguments with his wife, and has cast a lusty eye upon the kings mistress for years! He also has, what I call 'mini affairs' where he kisses and fondles women quite regularly, (including his own maids) and seems to have no guilt about this whatsoever. Most mornings he 'drinks' his breakfast and at one point is outraged that his new wig is teeming with nits! An historical and very human read. Makes me realise that after 450 years we are all no different at all........

There are on the Amazon site two excellent, informative reviews of the Pepys' diaries. They say far more than my own contribution.
I have read in and out of the Pepys' diary more than once. I did this in part because I have read many times that they are the ' best diaries' ever written. Without contending with that I found that they were not for me the most interesting. This probably shows more about my own shortcomings than it does about the work of Pepys.
Pepys' work is filled with description of the life of the time. It is rich in perception of the great city of London in Restoration times. It is filled with personal anecdote, gossip including that relating to his prodigious sexual appetite and activity. It is a busy, businesslike work. And it tells more about a world outside than a world in.
In the diaries I most love there is the quest of the soul to deeply understand itself and its relation to other people, and God. I find that the flurry of activity in the life of Pepys does not lead to this kind of reflectiveness. And thus for me the 'diary' is not a highly significant work personally.

Never before have I ever had the chance to read and witness such a spectacular play as this one. It not only opened my eyes to the harsh realities that a homosexual man may face, but it also allowed me to appreciate and respect their lives and struggles in a predominantly heterosexual society. This play not only captured the essence of Oscar Wilde but also can claim a spot amongst the greatest and most moving plays of all time.

Gross Indecency did a fine job of revealing the puritanical injustices commited by the court of Victorian England. It gives insight into the public sentiment and attitude towards class distinction and sexuality in the late 19th century. What makes Gross Indecency work is that much of the intolerance of Wilde's time still exsists to this day. Much of the content of "Gross Indecency" has yet to be learned.

I have been lucky enough to share the initiation of Mr. Kaufman career in theater in Venezuela, have seen Gross Indecency both in New York and London several times, and have read the play, which is masterfully built. This is a unique experience, both read and seen, and believe me, Mr. Kaufman will be remembered in the future as one of the great names of theater of our time. This may sound as an exaggeration, but if you are someone who is looking for trends in theater, great acting, the influence of Brecht in new generations, never forget this author and director.

This play seems to be true to Oscar Wilde's real biographical story in terms of its dialogues, but I did not enjoy reading it much. At first, I thought to myself: "Well, it is a PLAY, after all, may be it will seem better on a theater stage, where it belongs". So, I went to see three different versions in three different theaters. I am sorry to say, but I did not feel much better about this play after doing that. Well...if you are REALLY INTERESTED IN OSCAR WILDE, you might as well read it, but if you are only mildly interested, then this play is not for you.

i decided to read gross indecency after seeing something about it on tv. being a big fan of oscar wilde's work, i thought that it would be informative. but it went so far beyond that... the play is a little hard to get into at first, and if you're not a fan of oscar wilde, i really wouldn't recommend reading it. you can really see the oscar's transformation during the course of the three trials, from an independent artist with his own views on morality who refuses to be ashamed about his sexuality, to someone who has seen the people he was friends with testify against him over and over....i don't know how anyone could survive in such a situation..... anyway, this play gave me a whole new knowledge of the life of oscar wilde and a new respect for him, the choices that he made, and the courage that he had. if you are really interested in the life of oscar wilde, read this.

This is by far one of the best Milan Jacovich novels I've read. Needless, to say I'm a big fan of the Milan Jacovich novels and all of Les Roberts writings. As always the case involves a friend who needs help. This person's mother just happens to be a prominent Judge in Cleveland. During the investigation he goes into your typical Irish Pub. You'll find a pub like this in every city in the US. You can visualize yourself sitting at the bar as Milan walks in. Later on in the investigation Milan needs some help from Victor Gamari, the heir appartent to the mob in Cleveland which causes some problems of conscience for Milan. Milan meets a nice girl who works at City Hall during this investigation and I hope this romance takes off in the next book. It's time Milan stops dating these upper class snob types. Get him a girl that is just as comfortable in a fancy restaurant as a local pub sitting at the bar drinking a beer with him. Of course, when Milan finally figures it out, he's goes in like gang busters instead of waiting for the police and almost get's himself killed but two others do die in the process.

I cannot say too much about an author who has become my favorite. I stopped reading mysteries many years ago and then discovered the Milan Jakovich novels (my first ten years of life were spent in Cleveland and I was curious) and the Saxon novels set it LA. No other detective writer makes his characters as human as Les Roberts does and he is one of the few authors who causes me to go back and reread what he has written. He is articulate, he is concise, and he knows who and what he is writing about. This is as true of The Irish Sports Pages as of all his books. I would encourage mystery fans to read all his books and challenge non mystery fans with the belief that one Les Roberts book will get them hooked on all that he has written. Believe me, I went to old book stores and the net once I found I had missed the first few and the prices were well worth it.

Les Roberts has really put Cleveland on the map over the years with his fine novels. This book maintains that tradition, and Milan remains one of the more unique characters in private eye fiction. Pick this one up if you've ever been to Cleveland or if you enjoy a classic private eye tale. Roberts is a writer to be followed closely.

This is the 13th book in the Milan Jacovich series, which is set in Cleveland and once again showcases the city to its best advantage while Milan does his investigative work. Milan is a middle-aged, clear-thinking, single and sensible private investigator who always seems to get things done with a minimum of fuss.

Although thereýs a minimum of fuss, thereýs still plenty to enjoy about this latest book in the series. Milan explores the unfamiliar territory of Irish bars when hired to track down a conman posing as an Irishman who is new to the country, He preys on Irish ex-pats, taking them into his confidence before disappearing with a modest haul. He oversteps the mark when his prey is Judge Maureen Hartigan and she demands a chance at a shot of revenge, using Milan to find him. Things become a bit more complicated when it is revealed that the judge hasnýt been completely forthright about what was stolen. When Milan works out what some of the items were, their significance changes the tone of his investigation completely.

This is another enjoyable private investigator story, which I would term as semi-hardboiled. Itýs not going to offend any sensibilities with Milan remaining a gentleman throughout the entire case. As itýs part of a series, I would recommend that a couple of the earlier books could be read to give you a bit of an insight into Milan and the other regular characters.

Maybe there's something wrong with me (many people would wholeheartedly agree), but I liked Les' newest book. It didn't tax my brain and I read it over one weekend. Milan Jacovich has become like an old pair of shoes--the one's you keep going back to when another pair beats up your feet and you're dying for something familiar and comfortable. There's no stomach-churning gore, the sex is so-so, and the plots aren't revealed in the first few pages. Les enjoys writing mysteries and making people think. As long as he keeps writing, I'll keep reading his books.

This is the anthology to buy. Mona Wilson's collection from 1963 is also good, but the texts are less certain. Greene's annotations and bibliography are expert. He was the leading student of Johnson in the 20th century (after, he would say, his mentor James Clifford). I agree with Frank Lynch that it would be preferable to have the entire Journey here, but it is readily available elsewhere and students will find it very convenient to see some of Johnson's little-known but very important works (his life of Boerhaave, e.g. and his Sermon #5) available in this large but relatively inexpensive anthology.

Great book, but there is an edition problem where there are pages missing. I got 2 copies, same problem. They promised that they wouldn't charge, and they have. This sucks!

The case of Dr. Johnson is a strange one. On the one hand, the extent of his achievements, the magnetism of his personality, and the sheer strength of his genius has forever secured him a place among the literary giants of all ages. On the other hand, Time seems to have both granted him fame and deprived him of readers. Nowadays, when people want Dr. Johnson, they go straight to James Boswell. The man has sadly overshadowed the author; and Samuel Johnson is not as much read as he is quoted, nor as closely appreciated as he is admired from afar. Indeed, his works fit Mark Twain's definition of a classic: "A book which people praise and don't read".

And that is a shame, since, as this book amply proves, Samuel Johnson is one of the best and most delightful writers the world has ever seen. He is deep in meaning, and felicitous in expression; never dull, always memorable. As the man himself, his prose has a fascinating quality to it: his architecturally built sentences expand for what sometimes feels like forever, linking up ideas and images, until a sudden burst of energy condenses the whole paragraph into a brilliant aphorism. Each phrase is balanced to perfection. Whenever obscure, Johnson usually illustrates his words with exact allusions, metaphors and similes; he particularly relishes in three-folded tropes: "To a community, sedition is a fever, corruption a gangrene, and idleness an atrophy" (pg 285); "In the bottle discontent seeks for comfort, cowardice for courage, and bashfulness for confidence" (pg 664). His acute and eminently quotable observations, whether about learned matters ("Notes are often necessary, but a necessary evil") or about human nature in general ("Many complain of neglect who never tried to attract regard ") are to be found throughout his whole oeuvre.

However, as painstakingly constructed as his writings might appear to be, the incredible truth is that he wrote many of them as he went along, without even reading them over, prodded by deadlines and debts. Johnson admitted having sometimes written half an essay on the spot, sent it to the presses, and finished the second half as the first half was being printed. He wrote his only novel, Rasselas, in the evenings of a week, and the first 48 pages of his wonderful Life of Savage in a sitting. ("But then again, I sat all night".) That nervous energy can be felt even in his calmer passages, lurking in between the lines, waiting for the inevitable outburst of indignation or angry disapproval to be released.

Regarding this edition, it is by far the best one-volume anthology of Johnson's works now available. It's biggest defect, in fact, consists merely in its inappropriate title: the very prologue happily admits the book is a wide-ranging sampling of Johnson's output and not just his "Major Works". Oxford just decided to re-name the anthology without touching the content, which explains why it still proudly includes Latin School exercises, extemporary verses, pieces "printed in full for the first time" and "lesser-known works". While I would have preferred having fewer, yet more complete pieces, the selection at least feels fresh and does not leave out any of Johnson's must-haves: his poetry (which, although often overlooked, has been praised by authors such as TS Eliot and Bloom), his timeless essays and remarkable biographies, the Preface to his Dictionary (of which some facsimile pages are included), the Preface to his edition of Shakespeare's plays (surely one of the best-written and most lucid examples of literary criticism ever published), Rasselas unabridged, and a few of his Lives of the Poets - which are, of course, quintessential Johnson. In other words, this book is a perfect introduction to those who are new to the author, and even the most avid Johnsonian will find in it something he has never read before, or an excuse to reread something he already knows by heart.

Samuel Johnson is someone towards whom one can feel many things, but not indifference. Hazlitt detested him and decried the "periodical revolution of his style", that search for equilibrium which often made Johnson turn from high praise to stern criticism in the blink of an eye; Carlyle crowned him "the Hero of the Man of Letters". It seems that people must either love the Doctor's elegance, or hate his pompous use of polysyllabic and Latinate words; either exalt his discernment, or deplore his intolerance. I am no exception to the rule. Simply put, I think reading Johnson means enjoying most of the pleasures Literature can give. That is why I consider he deserves more than our mere admiration: he deserves to be read. Certainly Samuel Johnson's achievements alone would make him remembered, but it's his writings that make him unforgettable.

OK, I'll admit it... When I dropped out of high school at the tender age of 14 for a career of glue-sniffing and joy-riding round the graffiti-sprayed council estates of my native Irvine, I was a 'seven-stone weakling' in terms of using the English language.

Brought up on a diet of comic books, tabloid newspapers, and football magazines (Shoot, Match Weekly, etc) and 'educated' in a Socialist-inspired 'comprehensive' school, I wasn't really equipped for my future career as an international journalist. But then something very strange and bewitching happened - I discovered 'THE DOCTOR,' as we acolytes refer to him, and started mentally working out on his long, finely wrought sentences.

At first, each seemingly interminable sentence was like trying to swim the English Channel - I thought I would drown before reaching the other end - but, somehow, I survived and found myself on dry land, confused and wet, but nevertheless alive and raring to have another go.

In the months that followed, the good doctor's erudite style became Mother's milk to me as I progressively beefed up my English. This enabled me to grab a place at the prestigious university of Thames Polytechnic and, then, on graduation, to a career writing for a wide range of excellent publications, including Riff Raff, Tokyo Notice Board, and the Wall Street Journal.

The great thing about THE DOCTOR's prose is that he uses a disproportionate number of abstract nouns, which means you have to mentally provide your own examples. At first this can be extremely challenging, but if you stick with it, your brain will become, as mine has, a potent and expressive tool.

Johnson's sentences are so beautifully composed that when reading him, I am apt to focus mainly on his sentence structures rather than what he says. This is not to say that his philosophy is boring; indeed it is very interesting and inspiring, only the way he translated that philosophy into words is more so. "What? Johnson's style is more inspiring than his philosophy? Nothing could be more absurd," some may say. Certainly the frequent use of inserted clauses and complex phrases makes some of his sentences a little cumbersome, and those who are accustomed to an easy read often find his style less acceptable, especially when the movement of "Plain English" is reaching its climax, and writing plainly and succinctly has become a virtue. But Johnson's prose style has an attraction-or a spell if you like-we can never find in, say, newspaper articles; insomuch that those who see language as more than a means of communication, that is, those who can enjoy language for its own sake, find wandering into his lanaguage labyrinth far more pleasant than merely digesting what today's main news communicate.

In his criticism "The Plays of William Shakespeare," Johnson wrote, "The Pythagorean scale of numbers was at once discovered to be perfect; but the poems of Homer we yet know not to transcend the common limits of human intelligence but by remarking that nation after nation, and century after century, has been able to do little more than transpose his incidents, new name his characters, and paraphrase his sentiments," suggesting that if Shakespeare's works provoked reverence, it is in so far as it had survived the test of time. Now, reading this statement more than two century after his death, I believe that we can revere Johnson's works for the same reason he revered Shakespeare.