Irish-American Books

What if I told you that a secret project conducted more than 60 years ago held the true origins of the modern computing era? And that the country behind this project did such a good job erasing its tracks that it did itself a disservice? And that many of the things invented during this project would only be realized with modern-day PCs?

This book is a wonderful collection of first-person accounts and you get to see the enormity of the task and exactly how critical this effort was towards winning the war. If you got excited about crypto stuff in the DaVinci Code then you will have lots of hours of fun trying to work through the examples the authors provide.

This book is a copendium of histories from the people who were at Bletchley Park who actually did the code breaking. I found their stories facinating. There is also some moderately technical information that describes how the several code breaking machines worked. This is the first description that I have seen of the effort to break the codes associated with the German teletytpe system. I found the book facinating.

This provides a good general history of the breaking of the German Lorenz and (to a lesser extent) Siemens cipher teletypes, focusing mostly on the British methods using the Heath Robinson and Colossus tabulating machines driven by punched tapes. The breaking of these differed from the breaking of the Enigma machines in that the methods were probabilistic and statistical rather than the logical operations of the Turing and Welchman electromechanical Bombes, so that the mathematics (relegated to appendices) are very different. The appendices include the Swedish mathematician Arne Burling's breaking of the Siemens machine on leased cables from Norway through Sweden.

For understanding the mathematics, I prefer Harvey Cragon's "From Fish to Colossus" or Frank Carter's pamphlets sold by Bletchley Park, which seem to be currently unavailable, and Cragon includes descriptions (and schematics) of much of the circuitry of the Colossi. It is interesting to read in Copeland's book descriptions by many of those who actually made the breakthroughs.

The story of the Bletchley Park code breaking efforts towards the German Enigma machine are well known. (If you are not familar the best book on the Enigma is:The German Enigma Cipher Machine: Beginnings, Success, and Ultimate Failure - ISBN 1-58053-996-3) Down through the years there have been only casual references to the Colossus machine that was used on the more sophisticated German coding machines.

At last enough material has been declassified to enable the story to be told. Dr. Copeland, Director of the Turing Archive for the History of Computing and author of some very good books on Alan Turing, has collected an amazing amount of information on Colossus. This has come from various sources, primarily in the form of short essays written by people who worked on or with Colossus during ther war.

This is an important book covering not only a little explored aspect of World War II but also an important step in the development of electronic computers. It also talks about how Colossus was held secret for so long that the important developments which it entailed might have helped Britain retain greater prosperity after the war.

An excellent, ground breaking book, highly recommended.

It has been mentioned that only half the "Faerie Queene" is here included. I would like to add that of the 12 months of the "Shepherd's Calendar", only the months January, February, April, October, November & December are included.
I would have prefered that the editors throw out some of those 160 pages of critical examinations and include a complete text.
The type face is legible, the paper opacity is adequate, and I especially applaud putting the glossary in the margin so I need not turn to the back of the book to make use of it.
The "Shepherd's Calendar" is illustrated with one woodcut for each month. They are not the elegant sort we get from say Albrecht Durer, but are are in a primitivism style. I found no other illustrations in the rest of the book.

This edition is all right - reasonable level of annotation (most students would benefit from more), justifiable selection, fair show of critical essays; but it's a comedown from the 2nd ed. in every respect, or so it seems to me. The selection from "The Faerie Queene" cuts out Scudamour's relation of his experience in the mysterious Temple of Venus: absolutely essential for anyone reading Book III, which is printed entire in both eds. The pseudo-personal "Colin Clouts Come Home Againe" is a thin substitute, whatever its indications of "the teasing ambiguities of the patronage system" so dear to critics of the 1990s. With the new emphasis on politics rather than philosophy, the "Fowre Hymnes" have gone too; the editors are clearly aiming to reflect "recent critical attention" (their words), but the result somehow suggests that Spenser has become more predictable, less intellectually exciting, over the 10 years between the two editions (1982-1993). As for the choice of critical essays, some things have not been changed when they should have been (the tiny snippet on allegory from "The Kindly Flame" is far too brief to be helpful); on the other hand, the excision of C.S. Lewis's account of the House of Busyrane is simply perverse. Lewis is the critical starting point for this, and later work depends (whatever its attitude) on him.
Obviously a new edition must struggle over the demands of space, but it must also keep in mind the nature of its readership. Who will use this? Not a professional Renaissance scholar, who will own a complete text. So, students, or interested readers, who don't already own the previous edition, and have not necessarily internalized a long tradition of Spenser scholarship. This imposes a serious responsibility on the editors to choose not just fashionably but judiciously. And to limit the bibliography to work published since 1972 (just over 20 years!) is not just injudicious but absurd. (The list for "Epithalamion" does not list Kent Hieatt's seminal study of its structure, to give just one egregious example.) Also, of course, this procedure limits the work's own reach into the future. This bibliography already looks out of date, as one with a broader chronology would not. The same goes for other elements, too: the editors of a fourth edition, on a similarly limited plan, would probably want less on power and more on gender - and thus, with luck, might reintroduce the Temple of Venus, dropped here.
Meanwhile, for the decisions here outlined, so damaging to the lasting value of the book, these editors deserve three stars.

EDMUND SPENSER'S POETRY : Authoritative Texts and Criticism. Third Edition. Selected and Edited by Hugh Maclean and Anne Lake Prescott. 842 pp. London & New York : W. W. Norton & Company, 1993.

Although everyone has heard of Edmund Spenser's amazing narrative poem, 'The Faerie Queene,' it's a pity that few seem to read it. To a superficial glance it may appear difficult, although the truth is that it's basically a fascinating story that even an intelligent child can follow with enjoyment and interest.

It appears difficult only because of Spenser's deliberately antique English. He needed such an English because he was creating a whole new dimension of enchantment, a magical world, a land of mystery and adventure teeming with ogres and giants and witches, hardy knights both brave and villainous, dwarfs, magicians, dragons, and maidens in distress, wicked enchanters, gods, demons, forests, caves, and castles, amorous encounters, fierce battles, etc., etc.

To evoke an atmosphere appropriate to such a magical world, a world seemingly distant in both time and place from ours, Spenser created his own special brand of English. Basically his language is standard Sixteenth Century English, but with antique spellings and a few medievalisms thrown in, along with a number of new words that Spenser coined himself. The opening lines of the poem are typical :

"A Gentle Knight was pricking on the plaine, / Y cladd in mightie armes and silver shielde, / Wherein old dints of deepe wounds did remaine, / The cruell markes of many a bloudy fielde...." (page 41).

If, instead of reading with the eye, we read with the ear or aloud, the strange spellings resolve themselves into perfectly familiar words such as clad (clothed), mighty, arms, shield, deep, cruel, marks, bloody, field. And "Y cladd" is just one of those Spenserian medievalisms that simply means "clad" or clothed (i.e., wearing).

The only two words in this passage that might cause problems for the beginner are "pricking" and "dints," and it doesn't take much imagination to realize that these must refer, respectively, to 'riding' (i.e., his horse) and 'dents.' But if you can't guess their meaning, in the present edition a quick glance to the right at their explanatory glosses will soon apprize you of it, and will save you the trouble of searching for their meaning elsewhere.

Once you've used the side glosses for a little while, progress through Spenser's text becomes a snap. And learning a few hundred words is a small price to pay for entrance into one of the most luxuriant works ever produced by the Western imagination, and one that once entered you will often want to return to.

The present Norton Critical Edition has been designed for college students, but will appeal to anyone who is looking for an abridged Spenser which gives maximum help with the language, and who might also like to read a little of the best recent criticism.

The first part of the book, besides giving almost 500 large pages of annotated selections from 'The Faerie Queene' which amount to well over half of Spenser's complete text, also includes a generous selection from Spenser's other poetry : The Shephearde's Calendar; Muipotmos : or The Fate of the Butterflie; Colin Clouts Come Home Againe; Amoretti; and the beautiful Epithalamion and Prothalamion. An Editor's Note exploring important issues follows each selection, and all obscure words have been given convenient explanatory glosses in the right margins.

The second part of the book consists mainly of a wide range of Twentieth-Century Criticism, and contains twenty-five critical essays on various aspects of Spenser, many by noted scholars such as A. Bartlett Giamatti, Thomas P. Roche Jr., Northrop Frye, A. C. Hamilton, Isabel MacCaffrey, Paul Alpers, Louis Martz, and William Nelson. The book is rounded out with A Chronology of Spenser's Life and a very full Selected Bibliography.

Criticism undoubtedly has its value and at times can be stimulating, but Spenser, as one of England's very greatest writers, was of course writing not so much for critics as for you and me. Admittedly his language can be a bit tricky at first, and he certainly isn't to be rushed through like a modern novel. His is rather the sort of book that we wish would never end.

His pace is leisurely and relaxed, a gentle flowing rhythmic motion, and that's how he wants us to read him. To get the hang of things, try listening to one of the many available recordings. And when you hit a strange-looking word there will be no need to fret or panic, for a quick glance to the right at its gloss will soon apprize you of its meaning.

So take Spenser slowly, and give his words a chance to work their magic. Let him gently conduct you through his enthralling universe, one that you will find both wholly strange and perfectly familar, since human beings and their multifarious doings are Spenser's real subject, and somewhere in one of his enchanted forests you may one day find yourself.

Until I read this book, I thought I knew everything about Spenser, but Norton has done it again! Insightful and interesting,this anthology of criticism covers everything from "The Faerie Queene" to all the other things Spenser wrote. I had always been a Chaucer hound,but now I've converted to the Spenserian camp. Partake of this grand work and be saved!

Robert Scally's book is the product of detailed research into the wiping out of the Irish village or "townland" of Ballykilcline in County Roscommon around the time of the great famine of the mid 19th century in Ireland and the forced emigration of its people to the Liverpool area of Lancashire and to the United States and Canada.

The book starts with a description of the British imposed land ownership system in Ireland at the time, the landlords' financial difficulties which led to their desire to clear the land of their troublesome tenants by assisting them on their way, made easier by the famine.

But the book presents an incomplete picture because of Scally's failure to consider context and history.

Even the title is misleading. "Hidden Ireland", presumably meaning the remnant of the Gaelic culture which still stubbornly remained in the culture and language of the townland people and particularly in their attitude about use and ownership of land, had been receding in defeat for many years. Starting in 1607 with the defeat of the great northern leaders, O'Neill and O'Donnell and the "Flight of the Earls", the slow removal of native Irish leaders and the seizure of land by the colonizers, the Penal Laws of 1695 effectively proscribing the Catholic religion, and the Act of Union in 1800 after the United Irishman rebellion of 1798 were all aimed at destroying the Gaelic, Catholic, Irish nation. In fact they were never completely successful, and certainly the effort did not end with the leveling of Ballykilcline although it was a part of a low point for the Irish nation.

The Irish people were never fully subjugated; nor were the peasants the docile, cultureless ignoramuses painted by Scally, poor though they may have been. It was these very peasant people who supported Daniel O'Connell, the Catholic "Liberator" in his mass rallies in 1823, the more radical Fenians in 1860, Michael Davitt's National Land League in 1879 and the Sinn Fein movement founded in 1905 which finally won victory in elections for the Irish Dail and ultimately Ireland's freedom from Britain. "Hidden Ireland" has in many ways never disappeared and has emerged in our times, wounded but victorious, perhaps in a slightly different form.

History is an unfolding tapestry, not a snapshot of a limited period. It is this which gives Scally's dismal portrait its dark and false color. If one does not understand the traditional Irish view of land ownership and cooperative use and its conflict with the English "metes and bounds" system which the conquerors saw as normal one cannot understand the views of the townland people. The old Gaelic and Brehon legal system of course did give way in our times. Another example of Scally's puzzlement is that he doesn't seem to realize that the Irish people saw the National School system brought by the English, in spite of its advanced, modern benefits, as part of the English plan to destroy their national culture and language and for that reason it was never fully accepted.

The famine, the overwhelming catastrophe which struck the Irish people at the time of this narrative appears in the book only as backgound even though Scally's excellent footnotes tell that he was well aware of the facts and the impact of British laissez faire economic policies on the victims. He seems more interested in legal pleadings about unpaid rents.

And his attitude toward the local Catholic clergy approaches downright ignorant hostility. As virtually the only educated people in the Irish community when they defended their people against perceived injustices he joins the English Protestant view of them as hot-headed trouble makers, a description not supportd by their actual words quoted in the book.

The latter parts of the book about conditions in the Liverpool area are the best part in my view. There is less about the immigrants to the United States which is surprising and more could have been said about Canada where the many Canadians showed great compassion for the suffering of the famine immigrants at Grosse Isle.

I regret to have dwelt on what I see as the defects in this otherwise excellent book but I feel that it's lack of historical context presents an incomplete picture. I recommend it for its general subject matter however.

The trauma and distress my own ancestors went through during this famine period was horrible. In the ten year period Ballykilcline lost over 90% of its population from disease, eviction, emigration and death by starvation. My own ancestors lived in Kilglass Parish where they lost 55% of their population. Robert James Scally's book gave me a very clear understanding of what transpired from about 1835 to 1850.

I give this book a "7" mostly because Scally should get a lot of credit for all the research he did for this book. It's very obvious. However, I would not recommend it if you are looking for a quick and easy read. This book is best for someone studying the famine and migration of the Irish to America.

Scally does an excellent job of using historical facts to present a better picture of a devistated Ireland. Americans in particular often misunderstand the cause of the chaos usually blamed on the potato blight. In reality, the famine was only the "icing on the cake", which Scally explains well. The first half of the book is a very detailed description of Ireland in the days immediately preceeding the famine. The second half walks us through the once-green hills of a broken Ireland, passing sunken faces and hungry eyes. Scally has been accused of leaving historical fact for emotional imagination. I submit the idea that every historian must create something from imagination at some point. Although we can read facts, we must paint the scenes in our minds. This is an excellent book to read if you are already interested in "Black '47" and is also good for the serious reader who cares to explore the Emerald Isle of 150 years ago . . . this is also an important source for an Irish-American who would like to better understand his or her roots, like me. Perhaps those of us who have ties to the isle are more likely to appreciate the suffering that happened there.

The feature that must be mentioned first is that this book is aptly named. It is truly a "giant book of poetry". At 640 pages it is packed solid with pure poetry in all its beautiful manifestations. They cover the work of poets born in time spanning time from around 4,000 BC to 1984. They were chosen with no specific criteria except that the editor liked the poem. Luckily for the reader William Roetzheim has widely varied tastes so there is something for everyone in this anthology.

The introduction of the book and the appendix are both devoted to educating the reader as to the type and role of poetic meter . Roetzheim is able to clearly explain the styles that make up the many types of poems included in his book. It is a well described education for anyone who is unfamiliar with the components of poetry and how they are used..

What sets this book aside from other poetry anthologies, besides sheer volume, is the editor's personal comments and asides in the form of footnotes. Each poem's form is noted and there is often other remarks as to vocabulary, meaning or even history of the poem. For instance his footnote to Robert Frost's "Good-by and Keep Cold" is "there is an underlying message of needing to trust faith after you have done everything you can to protect of prepare something (someone) that you love." He adheres to the common interpretations of meanings so that new scholars will be informed as to usual thoughts. Vocabulary definitions will be appropriate for younger readers.

Although he spent much of his pervious life as an owner of software companies and author of an extensive number of technical books and articles, Roetzheim retired to be a poet. His work can be found included in this edition. Anyone looking for a very comprehensive volume of classic poetry will find this to be the book they want. It is especially suitable as a first poetry book for both new devotees or students of the art.

For William Roetzheim, Life and Poetry are apparently inseparable. The guy simply loves to read (voraciously) and write (with craft and feeling) the stuff, and he wants the rest of us to also. He has educated himself in the history and techniques of verse and approaches the challenge of editing an anthology from every possible angle: inclusivity, contextualizing, cross-indexing, pedagogical footnoting, and the juxtaposition of the canonical with his personal favorites. Thus the truly Giant Book should satisfy the needs of teachers, students, acquisition librarians, and those who, like Roetzheim, are hopelessly addicted to the artful, measured human utterance.

Five hundred and sixty poems give a very wide-ranging overview. Poems old and new include many standards and favorites, and are sure to introduce you to many new favorites as well. It certainly includes a lot of mine, such as Persimmons by Li-Young Lee.

The selection is sophisticated enough to be an introductory textbook, but also very accessible for the home, with plenty of aids such as notes on each poem, an explanation of meter, and something I wish a lot more anthologies had: a subject index.

If you're going to have one collection of poetry--or at least a first collection--this could be it.  And if you really want to relish it, the leather-bound edition does look tempting.
 
Additional note:  The publisher has also produced a set of CDs that include many of the poems from the book, read by a variety of voices. With matching cover designs, the book and CDs make a whole set for the budding poetry enthusiast.

Simple black-and-white illustrations add a rustic touch to The Giant Book Of Poetry, a 750-page anthology of some of the most important poems and poets of all time. Spanning an immense spread of authors, from an anonymous poet writing in 4000 BC to familiar names such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, and many more, The Giant Book Of Poetry is truly a moving compendium ideal for the library of any poetry lover. An extremely comprehensive index of the poems by title, subject, and first line allow for quick and easy lookup of a favorite verse. Jokun: Ah! I intended / never never to grow old... / Listen: New Year's Bell!

As a television correspondent traveling to Northern Ireland just before marching season, I covered several references. I used "God and the Gun" as the primary source for my trip. Only someone as thorough a journalist as Martin Dillon could direct readers into one of the world's most lasting, if not bizarre, geopolitical campaigns of terror draped in religion. It's in straightforward, sometimes blunt language that stirs up your stomach. Because of the real fear and disturbing acts of premeditated violence on the Emerald Isle, "God and the Gun" is similar to a nightly national newscast in the U.S., except there are no pictures for the horrifying words from the interviews and accounts contained within. Much like Thomas L. Friedman's "From Beirut to Jerusalem," Martin Dillon connects historical occurrences to recent outbreaks of destruction, thuggery and wanton killings. For the casual observer, reporter or person of faith who wants a significant study of flashpoints for trouble, "God and the Gun" is a work to read. It has stories from an author who has lived amidst the day-to-day tensions for 18 years. His words will leave you wanting to tell someome else what you discovered about The Troubles. "God and the Gun" takes you where no movie has on the subject of Northern Ireland -- into the minds, hearts and deeds of clergy and lay people. This is what the Irish have known for centuries: religion and politics are a volatile combination.

Mr. Martin Dillon brings the history of the Irish "Troubles" as close as he can without the reader actually participating with him in his interviews. The interviews he shares, together with the balanced personal perspective he offers, presents the reader with one of the clearer explanations of the conflict, the participants, and their motives, that I have read. This book is of manageable length, for more detailed documentation of the various political groups and their leaders; Mr. Dillon's friend Mr. Timothy Patrick Coogan is the definitive reference.

The most unusual aspect of the book were interviews he conducted with Catholic Priests, and the role they are at times forced, at gunpoint, under threat of death, to perform. There will be a knock at the door; they will then be taken to a victim who has usually been brutalized, and then given a few minutes to hear the man's final words prior to his being executed. Add to this that there are times the victims are members of the Priest's Church, and you have both a personal and an ecclesiastical torture for these Priests. Ministers of the Protestant Faith, who attempt to bring sanity to these conflicts, are relocated out of Ireland to stop their interference and protect their safety.

On the other end of the spectrum there are clergy on both sides whose conduct disqualifies them from their roles as representatives of the Church, and places them in the same column as the terrorists they support/protect.

When the results of violence are shown in the news, the tendency is often to dehumanize the individuals who perpetrate such violence. Mr. Dillon shows that on either side of the conflict there are those that are truly depraved, they are killers, and lovers of violence that would conduct themselves as they do despite their location.

He also interviews men and woman who are extremely articulate, who know exactly what they do and why. They do not just spout partisan rhetoric. It was through these interviews I gained a better understanding of the motivation of some of the people involved. The problems that face Ireland are much more complex than the news commentators would have you believe. The conflict is not just about religion, despite the slogan of "For God And Ulster". And there are not 2 groups that oppose one another, but factions within factions, often at odds with those who would appear to be on the same side. There are even groups assembled entirely of women, that I had never read of before.

One book cannot explain the incredibly complex issues that catalyze and nurture the violence in Ireland. Mr. Dillon does do are remarkably good job in a relatively brief book that gives the reader a good grounding in the issues, the combatants and their complaints. I came away from this book understanding that if nothing else, the conflict is infinitely more complex than usually portrayed, and that there are many groups portrayed as fighting on the same side, when in fact they have as much affection for one another as they do for their alleged common enemy.

The military forces are not exempt for behavior that is appalling to any true military unit's functioning, and the complicity of those that sanction their behavior is repulsive as well. The book will not answer every question you may have; it will give you a great deal of information that may lead you to further study of the topic.

A very well written investigative book, by a man who literally put his life at risk to bring this work, and others he has done to readers.

Dr Conor Cruise O'Brien has described the author, Martin Dillon, as 'the greatest living authority on Irish terrorism'. If he ever was, he has since lost his touch. His previous works have been well-received, particularly The Shankill Butchers, Stone Cold and Killer in Clowntown. Since leaving Ulster, however, he seems to have lost his way. His last book on the Provisional IRA, The Enemy Within, was inferior sensationalist stuff.In God and the Gun, Dillon claims to look at the role of the Church and 'Irish terrorism'. In this task he fails utterly. This is not to say that the book is uninteresting. Despite its many faults, and elementary errors of fact, it is - in parts - a gripping read.The conflict in Ulster has been primarily one of nationality but it is impossible to ignore its 'religious' dimension. Ulsterfolk have not been fighting a theological battle but everyone's religious upbringing and background colours their outlook on the situation. Many of the main paramilitary players in both republican and loyalist groups are regular worshippers - 'good Christians' despite having committed some horrendous atrocities over the past thirty years. Dillon has met and interviewed notable Protestant and Catholic paramilitary activists and former activists to try and understand how the manage to reconcile killing with their Christian convictions. Most fascinating was the testimony of Billy Wright who went on to form the Loyalist Volunteer Force splinter group. Billy Wright was later to die in Long Kesh prison at the hands of INLA fellow-prisoners.Wright has been involved with the Young Citizen Volunteers as a teenager. He was imprisoned on arms and hijacking charges in 1977 and soon after his release was again held in custody on the testimony of the 'supergrass' Clifford McKeown. During his time in prison, he began to read the Bible and made a 'commitment to Christ' after his release in 1983. This caused him to abandon his terrorist affiliations. However, the 'act of treachery' that brought in the Hillsborough Pact of November 1985 called him back to arms. Wright took the militarist view that constitutional politics was a waste of time - 'if I was to be involved in politics, in a sense it would be from a paramilitary prospectus. There's absolutely no way one could walk with Christ and align oneself to paramilitary activity.' Despite his abandonment of his 'walk with Christ', he was deeply imbued with a fundamentalist Protestant Christian outlook but willing to lose his personal faith and his eternal soul in order to fight for his beliefs in Faith, Fatherland and Family. Wright was a complex character and Dillon is at his best when he lets Wright speak for himself and spares the reader his own speculations and opinions.It is interesting to note that Protestant terrorists seem to feel more guilt than their Catholic counterparts. UFF and UVF men often became evangelical Christians when give time to reflect in prison. On the other hand, their Catholic counterparts became more ideologically committed republicans with no apparent sense of guilt for their acts of violence. There must be some deep theological or cultural significance here, but Dillon leaves this avenue largely unexplored. Someone else will have to do that job sometime as this book falls short of the task.

The best book published recently on the Irish conflict. It provides not only a profound insight of the Irish political situation interwoven with religion and terrorism but is also highly readable.

The Heir of Redclyffe is a wonderful novel that vividly depicts life in the nineteenth century. I greatly enjoyed this novel for its superb characterization. I was truly captivated by the main character,Guy Morville. He is a character that the reader genuinely admires and likes for both his nobility and humanity. The writing is excellent and the novel flows more easily than other Victorian works of fiction.

The Heir of Redclyffe is book that brings both pleasure and pain, but pain that causes the reader to think about the nature of good, evil, and human beings. Like Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, you are fully confronted with the pain of likeable human beings doing immoral, selfish things. The world of the Heir of Redclyffe is realistic in its depiction of complex characters with flaws and weaknesses. You meet a family of two parents, three sisters, a cousin, and a ward (the heir). There are also plenty of fully sketched and realistic minor characters as well. Part of Yonge's power is to make you care about a great many characters and to understand them, their different values, temperments, and personalities. There are five major characters that dominate the novel: Charles, the invalid brother with his clever sense of humor; Laura, the serious older sister; Amy, the sweet and charming younger sister; their cousin, Philip, a brilliant scholar who sacrificed his chance of a fulfilling intellectual life for a sister who betrayed him; and Guy, the heir of money, a title, a terrible education, and a family tradition of a wild temper.

If you haven't read the editorial review above, please don't--it's a spoiler. I don't know if being told the fate of a particular character before I read the book would have changed my experience of the novel, but it certainly would have reduced my surprize and sense of "oh my, god, what next!" The major twists and turns of the plot had for me the same sensational impact I felt when reading Frances Burney's Cecilia or the great Chinese classic, The Dream of the Red Chamber. I realize many of my readers here might be unfamilar with these two works, but the common experience I had in reading all three books was to feel extremely moved and upset by the book. In all three books, characters had become so real to me that I felt intense emotional responses to their pleasures and pains. I think one reason I felt so moved reading these three books was that none of the books involves a world in which you expect extreme horror. For example, in reading The Color Purple, a novel narrated by a young girl raped by her father, the extreme horror and sordid nature of novel's entire world in a way protected me from deep shock and pain. In a tale of a lovely family with a lovely home, fun friends, beautiful gardens, balls, walks, fun after dinner games, discussions of great books and art, the realistic introduction of painful situations moved me greatly.

The book displays a complex web of characters with flaws and assets, much like other Victorian novels such a Eliot's Middlemarch and Martineau's Deerbrook. Like these novels, it also gives you a vivid sense of upper middle class life in Victorian England. I have a Ph.D. in British literature, and I focused on eighteenth-century literature and the novel for my fields of specialization. While reading this Charlotte Yonge novel will certainly not give the social rewards you get for reading more famous authors such as George Eliot or Anthony Trollope, it will give you a wonderful literary experience. I also recommend, although less highly, Yonge's The Clever Woman of the Family and The Daisy Chain. These novels more directly address intellectual, feminist, and religious issues of the Victorian period. For some, particularly fans of Eliot's work, this may make them more highly reguarded. I perfer the focus on more timeless problems of human relationships, pride, and honesty that is found in The Heir of Redclyffe.

Charlotte Yonge's "The Heir of Redclyffe" is the Victorian bestseller that many critics,along with much of her other work,are attempting to revive.I had trepidations before I read this novel.The only things I knew about Charlotte Yonge before this were - her novels were considered models of virtue and propriety and that Charles Kingsley loved her work.This was not very encouraging.But,after reading "The Heir of Redclyffe" I realized that Yonge was well worth reviving.Charlotte Yonge was probably the Victorian Christian novelist par excellence.Even they who are neither theists or Christians would be impressed with Yonge's intense conviction.Unlike most of her contemporaries her use of religion never feels perfunctory or insincere-she wrote as she believed and practiced."The Heir of Redclyffe" tells the story of a flawed yet saintly young man who is persecuted to death by his jealous and self-righteous cousin.Despite its sentimental theme the book is surprisingly restrained and ultimately moving.Its minute depiction of family life in the 1850's is so evocative -that it is worth reading for that alone.Charlotte Yonge, unfortunately,lacked the literary skill to be ranked with the best of the Victorians,but "The Heir of Redclyffe" is an original and powerful experience.

In general I prefer Victorian novels to modern novels. Victorian novels frequently have a higher moral standard and a more classic literary style. Charlotte Yonge was a prolific writer and The Heir of Redclyffe was a popular and classic novel in 19th century England. While I do not share the author's ritualistic High Anglicanism, I do appreciate her Christian orthodoxy and her lifelong dedication to Christian piety, virtue and nobleness of character. Once I got well into the novel I found my interest increasing rather than diminishing. There is struggle "within" and "between" the main characters and even the tragedy that ensues is what I would term a "pleasing melancholy."
One critic said that Charlotte Yonge had the ability to make virtue appear interesting. I think she does that here.

Hundreds of brief, clearly written essays provide fascinating inside information on the Age of Elizabeth. The dictionary includes extensive information on the leading political, literary and religious figures and families of Great Britain. The author wisely recognizes that Britain did not exist in a vacuum, and so he has been careful to include European leaders and their complex interrelationships with Britain. Readers who have mistakenly assumed that the ill-fated invasion by the Spanish Armada was a single spectacular disaster, will learn that it actually involved a long series of ocean battles between the British fleet and the Spanish forces led by the reluctant Duke of Medina. Elizabeth I, William Shakespeare, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Bacon, and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester are presented in the context of their families and the social matrix of the period. Less well known figures discussed include the unfortunate Amy Dudley, and Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox. Many illustrations enliven the text. Battles, plots and rebellions, religious controversies, finance, treaties, art, architecture, literature and drama all are covered in this surprisingly comprehensive work. Readers who are not quite sure what function the Star Chamber served will find enlightenment here. Useful tables such as the dating of Shakespeare's works and charts for the genealogies of the Houses of Lancaster, York, and Stuart, as well as the Habsburgs and the Bourbons are extremely welcome. Appendices list historical fiction of the period, motion pictures, and sound recordings of Elizabethan music, providing a multidimensional approach to those seeking a balanced picture of the age. Appendix 7 provides a list of web sites devoted to Elizabethan and Tudor culture. These include sites that provide primary source materials, images of ships, persons, and fashions. Readers will be made aware of major internet resources: The English Heritage Web Site, the Folger Shakespeare Library Web Site, and even a site devoted to the Wars of the Roses. An extensive bibliography lists recent works on the Elizabethans and all aspects of their lives and culture. The book is indexed and articles are cross-referenced. A series of maps and a chronology will be most welcome to students of the period. John A. Wagner and the editors at Oryx have prepared a fine one-volume reference work that is sure to be a welcome addition to schools, and to public and academic libraries.

Hundreds of brief, clearly written essays provide fascinating inside information on the Age of Elizabeth. The dictionary includes extensive information on the leading political, literary and religious figures and families of Great Britain. The author wisely recognizes that Britain did not exist in a vacuum, and so he has been careful to include European leaders and their complex interrelationships with Britain. Readers who have mistakenly assumed that the ill-fated invasion by the Spanish Armada was a single spectacular disaster, will learn that it actually involved a long series of ocean battles between the British fleet and the Spanish forces led by the reluctant Duke of Medina. Elizabeth I, William Shakespeare, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Bacon, and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester are presented in the context of their families and the social matrix of the period. Less well known figures discussed include the unfortunate Amy Dudley, and Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox. Many illustrations enliven the text. Battles, plots and rebellions, religious controversies, finance, treaties, art, architecture, literature and drama all are covered in this surprisingly comprehensive work. Readers who are not quite sure what function the Star Chamber served will find enlightenment here. Useful tables such as the dating of Shakespeare's works and charts for the genealogies of the Houses of Lancaster, York, and Stuart, as well as the Habsburgs and the Bourbons are extremely welcome. Appendices list historical fiction of the period, motion pictures, and sound recordings of Elizabethan music, providing a multidimensional approach to those seeking a balanced picture of the age. Appendix 7 provides a list of web sites devoted to Elizabethan and Tudor culture. These include sites that provide primary source materials, images of ships, persons, and fashions. Readers will be made aware of major internet resources: The English Heritage Web Site, the Folger Shakespeare Library Web Site, and even a site devoted to the Wars of the Roses. An extensive bibliography lists recent works on the Elizabethans and all aspects of their lives and culture. The book is indexed and articles are cross-referenced. A series of maps and a chronology will be most welcome to students of the period. John A. Wagner and the editors at Oryx have prepared a fine one-volume reference work that is sure to be a welcome addition to schools, and to public and academic libraries.

This book is fun to read, or to just pull off the shelf when something requires looking up. The scope of the topics is quite helpful. There are entries on Queen Elizabeth herself, subjects like her portraiture, various players at court, important families like the Howards, Dudleys and Seymours, as well as entries on political, cultural and religious issues. Where else can you look up why transubstantion was so important to the religious squabbles of the time, and learn about the sisters of William Cecil's wife. (The three women were the most educated in England.) The book also conveys a great deal of information visually with particulary explanatory maps of Elizabethan England (find out how far it is from Sussex to Warwick to Northumberland, for example,) and Elizabethan London (find out how far it was from Whitehall to the Globe Theater,) impressive pictures of characters like Essex, Nicholas Bacon and Throckmorton, and tables which show who held which post in privy council when (as well as explanations of what those posts meant.) The genealogical charts, of the Tudors, Stuarts, Greys, Howards, Valois and Hapsburg cannot fail to interest. (One error I caught though: the French King Henry IV's first wife, Margaux, was not the mother of Louis XIII, but that's not so relevant for the Elizabethan period.) There are also entries and illustrations of royal castles and properties of the time, as well as appendixes of Tudor related fiction, films and websites. There's also a heck of a bibliography. All in all a handy dandy reference book, visually appealing and informative, and entertaining taboot.

John Wagner's Historical Dictionary Of The Elizabethan World: Britain, Ireland, Europe, And America is an impressive work of comprehensive scholarship and an essential, core title for any personal, academic, or public library Elizabethan studies reference collection. This exceptional, highly recommended encyclopedic dictionary is enhanced for students and scholars with a bibliography, index, and appendices devoted to genealogies; Elizabethan Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and the Roman Catholic Popes; European Monarchs in the Sixteenth Century; Selected Historical Fiction with Tudor and Elizabethan Characters and Settings; Selected motion Pictures with Tudor and Elizabethan Characters and Settings; Selected Sound Recordings of Tudor and Elizabethan Music; and Selected Web Sites for Tudor and Elizabethan Topics.

In general this is a useful biography of George Orwell. However, after at first clearly distingushing between the POUM, the lefist party in whose militia Orwell fought during the Spanish Civil War, and Trotskyism, the author then goes on to refer to "Trotskyists" in Spain and equate the POUM and Trotskyism. The POUM weren't Trotskyists. This is made clear in all the credible works on the history of the Spanish Civil War. This is a small point but it indicates some lack of understanding on the part of the biographer of the larger political context of the Spanish Civil War.

Also, on page 235, the author refers to "the distinguished American Journalist Stephen Schwartz." Schwartz is a long time San Francisco colorful character and professional repentant former leftist whose work as a journalist has been limited mostly to his former job as an obituary writer at the San Francisco Chronicle. In the 1980's he worked as a public relations man for the Nicaraguan Contras and the Reagan Administration's war moves in Central America. Today Schwartz is a minor league neo-conservative war bird. There are no grounds on which Schwartz can be described as "distinguished," let alone as a distinguished journalist.

The following article explains this further.

Neo-conservatism and Stephen Schwartz: the further adventures of an obituary writer.

[...]

Kevin Keating

This book is the best of the newer Orwell biographies, but it still falls short in some respects. Bowker does a far better job than D. J. Taylor at creating a sense of continuity and purpose in Orwell's life. Bowker is a good writer, occasionally showing bits of inspired analysis, but still there are passages of utility-grade stuff.

The two biographies, Bowker and Taylor, published in the same year, offer readers an opportunity to compare two quite different treatments of the same life, treatments that both use previously unknown materials. Taylor's treatment is more episodic and seems to lose no opportunity to highlight something dark, unflattering, or unpleasant about Orwell.

Bowker gets at Orwell's quintessential Englishness. I was happy he used exactly that word, Englishness, which I think is an important and appealing aspect of Orwell. It is a word I've always associated with Orwell much as I do with figures such as Dickens or Graham Greene. This is a quality virtually ignored by Taylor, unless you accept his references to old-boy school snobbery as a rough substitute, references I believe are clear distortions.

Bowker is sympathetic to his subject without ever being servile or sentimental, a position which is right for a biographer. While Taylor makes some effort to convince us of his old admiration for his subject, his words ring false. Taylor displays strong antipathy towards his subject, releasing it slowly through the book, and to my mind this is never the correct position for a biographer. Moreover, the clash between Taylor's claims of admiration and his clear antipathy introduces a howling note of falseness that warns of the author's intent.

Bowker does an excellent job of summarizing the saga of Orwell's widow (his second wife) Sonia and his literary legacy - a tale in which the new Cold War becomes an important element - an interesting topic with which Taylor doesn't do much. Bowker also does a nice job of explaining why a biographer would write about Orwell despite the author's well-known wish that he wanted no biography.

The portion of new material in either book dealing with Orwell's sex life does not shed a pleasant light on part of his character. I couldn't help thinking of passages in Benita Eisler's Byron dealing with the poet's grotesque servant-boy swapping and Mediterranean tours to buy boys in various countries - activities that would put him in prison today - passages that frankly left me feeling as though I needed fresh air. No, Orwell wasn't as twisted as Byron, but he was double-dealing in his sexual affairs and apparently sometimes found the charms of young girls selling themselves in exotic lands an irresistible purchase.

I very much agree with Arthur Koestler's observation, quoted in Bowker, "I don't think George ever knew what makes other people tick, because what made him tick was very different from what most other people tick." Orwell was in many ways what contemporary speech might describe as "out of it." He was, if you will, an authentic English eccentric. This may help explain why Orwell was such a powerful critic and observer while remaining a second-tier novelist.

In a way, something like this may be said of many incisive critics and great artists. The divine Mozart with his scatological letters and often buffoonish behavior. Beethoven's constant moving to new apartments, thunderous emotional storms, and self-destructive attachment to a worthless nephew. The ticks and quirks of the magnificent Samuel Johnson. Dicken's unbelievably obsessive, compulsive behavior.

At the more extreme end of the scale, we have Rousseau's bizarre temperament, always ready to attack friends and admirers. The strange Herman Melville who may just have murdered his wife. Marcel Proust's sadistic penchant for sticking pins into live mice.

Sometimes I think it is better just to enjoy the work of genius rather than digging too deeply into the lives of its creators. For this reason I am almost fearful of reading Norman Sherry's third volume on Graham Greene (reported to focus heavily on the unsavory aspects of Greene's life), one of my favorite twentieth-century writers and critics. But then again, we want to understand, and we find it almost irresistible to read about the lives of artists we have come to love. And whatever unpleasant we may learn, it remains the greatness of their work that drew us to them.

Orwell wrote some of the twentieth century's best essays and occasional pieces, and, in 1984, not long before his death, he displayed a kind of penetrating political insight rarely seen before or since. Since great writing is so often the work of mature people, we undoubtedly missed a great deal when he died at 46.

I studied George Orwell years back in College and wish I had had this book to read then. It's the best I've read so far, not only well and clearly written and firmly-based in research (including some fascinating new discoveries), but also a real page-turner. I hadn't realized how adventurous Orwell's life was (not only as a man but also as a man of ideas) and how closely his writing followed his experiences. This book is very convincing in exploring Orwell's state of mind - as a down-and-out in London and Paris, as a fighter in Spain, living through the Second World War in England, and writing '1984' at the start of the Cold War. It also very good in showing just how his last two books were misunderstood in the US. I took this book to read on a plane trip and found myself absorbed in it completely till we landed.

The title is indeed descriptive as the author probes the inner workings of the great author - Eric Blair (aka George Orwell). Bowker exposes the dualism of Blair/Orwell to describe many of the man's layers.
Blair, in his twenties, was a policeman for the empire in Burma. He came to loathe the job and what he did. Just what he did can only be conjectured - but one can imagine the power of a colonial authority in Burma in the early 1900's. In later years George Orwell would write about power in a far more pervasive atmosphere - notably in his two great twentieth century works - "Animal Farm" and "Nineteen Eighty-Four".
While it is true, as Bowker says that his two major works were miss-interpreted, they are so substantial and multi-faceted in scope that they can be given many different interpretations. In their beauty, power and longevity they are multi-faceted. I feel that Bowker left out one for "Nineteen Eighty-Four" which is the cult of mediocrity (as seen through the proles). We certainly have been experiencing this for many years on TV, newspapers and magazines which constantly aim for the lowest common denominator.
Also, while Bowker explores Orwell's relationship to several British authors (Maugham, Wells), he has skipped over the American side. What about Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tools" which is the most popular book on the Spanish Civil War. As Bowker points out it was Orwell's participation with the Republicans in Spain that led almost directly to "Animal Farm" and "Nineteen Eighty-Four". Also what of Sinclair Lewis whose social satire books were extremely popular during Orwell's era?
Nevertheless he does paint a portrait of an extremely troubled man - his many affairs, his constant health problems. His dualism to experience poverty with people who were barely literate I found perplexing and as Bowker says anthropological. His accent would immediately set him apart and made him ill-suited to assimilate with homeless people - even though it led to his `poverty books'.
Also Orwell could miss-read events - he sided with Chamberlain on the Munich appeasement. During the onset of war (the London Blitz) he predicted a forthcoming revolution to a classless society.
Bowker's description of Orwell's essay on Dali's paintings is illuminating. Was Orwell seeing something of his inner self in the surreal and underworld Dali paintings - perhaps getting an all to close glimpse of himself in Burma, his philandering and sexual mis-treatment of women (Orwell was not one to shy away from direct sexual approaches to woman).
Orwell died at age 46 - what other major works were hidden within him?

Since my youth I have admired the poetry of John Donne. Not for its overwhelmingly religious and theological sentiments but for its individuality.One can take a subject that he was writing on in one poem, say mortalism, and see it interpreted in another way in another poem dedicated to another patron. It was only later that I found out that my intuition about what amounts to the theological opportunism of the Rev. Mr. Donne was more than a literary devise. He was desperately trying to keep his head above water in the on-going theological struggles that held England in their grip for most of the 17th century. I am much more of a philosophical materialist now than I was in my youth however these metaphysical poems still mean something to me. The `deathless' "Death Be Not Proud" is still one of my favorite poems in the English language.

***I've noticed that a second edition of Donne's poetry has been released and amazon has just been forwarding the reviews from the first. This review was written for the first edition.

When I made the decision that I wanted to study John Donne this book was the first place I turned. Norton Critical Editions tend to be the most thorough studies of any particular writing with generous helpings of criticism and well annotated authoritative texts and this one is no different.

The criticism in particular is phenomenal. They are especially brilliant when reconciling the difficult contradictions between what can appear as base as lust in Donne's love poetry and the higher love that Donne aspires to. The essays dealing with the various categorizing and readings of Donne's religious poetry are also invaluable. Most every piece of criticism included in this edition helps to illuminate Donne's works and aid new readers attempting to grasp the various levels of activity going on in much of his poetry.

I only refrain from giving this edition a full five stars because it lacks any sort of cohesive introduction to Donne's life. The poetry of John Donne in particular reflects the man's life and without any sort of background information, even a few pages in an introduction, readers are essentially just cast adrift. However, this information is easily obtained online or at the library.

Regardless, this still remains the best edition of Donne available both as an introduction for beginners and for those who wish to have a better grasp on Donne's work. If you are at all interested in John Donne, this book is absolutely necessary!

John Donne was truly a poetic master. Preeminent among the metaphysical poets, his talent shines brightly in both his early secular and later religious poetry. This volume is particularly useful in its helps with the texts and its discussion and analysis of the meaning and impact of his work. I find these aids useful indeed with a more "difficult" poet like Donne. This book is a good starting place for the study of John Donne's poetry.

This selection of the most important of Donne's poems complemented by critical articles that provide insight into the techniques and meanings of one of the most intellectually challenging of the great English poets is first -rate.
Donne's greatness as a poet is in part in his making passionate argument of ideas, in his fusing the world of sense and idea in startling combinations. His poems of Love and of Death are among the most profound and moving in the language.

"Fiona McGilray's Story: A Voyage from Ireland in 1849" is an interesting historical fiction for younger readers who enjoy this genre of fiction. If you're interested in immigration, Ireland, and how The Great Hunger affected all of this, then this book is a good introduction. The writing is very simple, but rather than showing a lot of events, author Clara Pastore told it in description, and in reality, we don't say people's name when we talk to them, and Pastore wrote the dialogue as such. While interesting, this story may be misleading for beginner learners of this subject, as not every family who came to America from Ireland were as luck as the McGilray's, and Pastore should have said that. Lastly, the epilogue read more as a chapter, instead of summing up the character lives fully. Nonetheless, I recommend.

This is a wonderful story of spirit and adventure. It's a delightful read for a curious child, especially one of Irish heritage, since Fiona's story is a story like so many who left Ireland. We enjoyed it tremendously.

I loved this first book in the Journey to America series. I learned a lot about the potato famine too. I highly recommend this book and will tell all my friends in middle school about it. I can't wait to read the next book, Amelia Kaminski's Story, a Voyage from Poland during World War II. I love to read books having to do with WWII. A+++++++++++

The year is 1848, and the place is Ireland, devastated by the potato blight that has swept the countryside and left the poor farmers without their main source of food. Twelve-year-old Fiona McGilray and her family are among the lucky ones - her father has a job working on the landlord's flax farm. But when the landlord decides the farm is not making a profit, all the workers, including Fiona's father, lose their jobs. After Fiona's older sister dies, her parents decide the only way to protect their children is to send them to their relatives in America. When Fiona's father is arrested, Fiona's mother decides to just send Fiona and her older brother Patrick immediately. They flee in the middle of the night and board a ship for Boston. The voyage takes many weeks, and many do not survive. Fiona and Patrick arrive in America strangers in a strange land. Unable to find their relatives, they live in a tiny basement room, taking whatever work they can find to survive. Fiona fights to overcome hunger and prejudice, and to work toward the day when she will see her parents and younger siblings again. This was an inspiring story of a young immigrant girl who, in spite of a difficult life, never gives up her hope for a better life.