Irish Books

This unfinnished romance has inspired centuries of literature. Chretien was probably the most popular writer in the 12th century. Despite the age of the book the story is full of issues that concern us today. It is a comming of age story in which a boy becomes a man and learns of his ancestry and potential. It is also a story of spiritual discovery, and the encounter with mystery. The fact that the poem was left unfinnished makes it even more compelling. Chretien claimed that this book was rewritten from a source book given to him by Phillip of Flanders, his patron. Speculation about the nature of this source has run on for centuries. A recent analysis in _King_Arthur_ by Norma Goodrich, makes a good case that the source was real and that these Arthurian stories took place in southern Scotland. So maybe Percival is more than just one of the greatest works of fiction. I love to read direct translations of Celtic mythology, and this is amoung the best available. Easier to read than you might think, but still a challenge. One of my favorite books.

Written by Chretien de Troyes in around 1180 under the patronage of Philip of Flanders, this medieval poem can be considered as the French take on the Arthurian legend. (Remember this was a time when England was ruled by French kings, so I suppose there was a lot of cultural exchange between the two countries). It's a very peculiar work, in that it is very funny, as Perceval, the protagonist of the story, is portrayed as an almost impossible fool who through his candor achieves success as a knight. Merlin doesn't appear here, but King Arthur does (as an aging and ineffective monarch), as well as Gawain and the Fisher King (with a very intriguing subplot dealing with the Holy Grail, reportedly the first mention ever in print of this mythical cup). Summing up, this is highly reccomended (and it's highly readable). Note: French filmmaker Eric Rohmer made in 1978 a very good adaptation of the poem called Perceval le Gallois.

It's sad to think that Chretien de Troyes introduced his most enduring invention in a work he did not live to finish. We never learn what, precisely, the Grail is--though Chretien never actually names it "Holy"--or where it came from. Almost like the Fisher King or the Grail itself, the Grail's inventor gave us a symbol and disappeared.

Perceval is the last of Chretien's five surviving romances. The Grail and the poem's naive central character proved enormously popular in medieval Europe, spawning several continuations of the unfinished story (all summarized at the end of this edition) and many imitators, from Wolfram von Eschenbach to Richard Wagner.

The story is both easy and difficult to summarize--easy because, being unfinished, it is short and fairly straighforward, and difficult because, for the same reasons, it has no ending and the reader has no way of knowing how the plot would finally interconnect and resolve. The title character begins the poem as a young man, living in the forest with his overprotective mother who, for fear of his life, has shielded him from knowledge of chivalry and even his own name. Nevertheless, Perceval shows knightly instinct and when he encounters a group of knights by chance, he determines to travel to King Arthur and become a knight.

This he does in short order, though not after a series of Quixotic adventures caused by his literal interpretation of his mother's bits of parting advice. Upon reaching Arthur's court, the acerbic Sir Kay tells Perceval that Arthur has knighted him and that the red armor of a rebellious knight is his to take. Perceval misses the joke and kills the red knight, then sets off on another series of adventures, vowing not to return to court until he has avenged Sir Kay's slapping of a girl.

The first third or so of Perceval deals exclusively with Perceval's misadventures and growth in courtesy and manliness. He fights overbearing knights and rights wrongdoings--all the trappings of the finest medieval romances. But near the middle of the tale, Sir Gawain suddenly comes to the fore in a subplot that is given as much time as the Perceval-centered plots. Indeed, almost the entire final third of the poem deals with Gawain. Chretien died before he could bring Perceval back into the story from a shadowy hermit's retreat.

But despite the lack of an ending--one can pick up von Eschenbach's Parzival for a much longer and fuller telling of the tale--Perceval remains a great read. The story is by turns touching and hilarious. Perceval's hopelessly naive exploits as a young man carefully segue to his realization, as a more mature man, that he has forgotten God and not only caused suffering for some, but prolonged it. The Gawain plot parallels Perceval's in many ways, and can be seen as the end result of the older knight's youthful adventures.

This translation by Burton Raffel is very good. While, as a non-French-speaker, I cannot speak for his accuracy or literalness, Raffel very deftly captures all the wit and energy of Chretien's narrative without succumbing to contemporary slang or cliche. A brief translator's note at the beginning summarizes Raffel's motivation and goals as translator, and the afterword by Joseph Duggan is a valuable and enjoyable read.

In the end, reading Perceval may be a disappointing experience for some--the absence of an ending, I have to admit, is frustrating--but for me, reading a master poet's story in a masterful translation is always a joy.

Highly recommended.

I thought this book would be hard to read and boring since it was written so long ago, but I was wrong. I thoroughly enjoyed it and found it a fascinating story with undertones of all sorts of things. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the real story of the Grail Legend. Read this book instead of relying on other author's interpretations and theories.

What a Classic tale of the Fool coming to age! The story (read: poem) moves along at a quick pace as we follow Perceval through his travails. The story is light and humourous but also is so much deeper at second look. It is too bad Chretin dy Troyes could not have lived to finish this piece.

This is one of the best books ever written on the subject of Elizabethan Costuming. It mainly contains all of the details of Queen Elizabeth I wardrobe but it has unique points in the society that surrounded the dresses. This book helps to explain the Gloriana image that became so popular and it helps us to understand all the little details that went into the dress of the period. Detailing costumes using portraits and explaining how the fashion progressed makes this book a must for anyone interested in Renaissance Faires and the nobility. The only drawback is that very very few of the portraits and pictures are in color. I think a total of about 7 are in color the rest is in black and white. The only way to make this book more appealing and usable would be to put all of the portraits and pictures in color, but that would make the book even more expensive. After this must have book the 2nd on the shelf should be a J. Hunniset book (the lady who did all the costuming for Elizabeth R and The Six Wives of Henry the VIII produced by BBC). Next, any Janet Arnold book. Last, would be the Norris book: Tudor Costuming and Fashion (although most of this book is very outdated it is nice to look at). All of these are must haves and will make a well rounded library. Dispite the high price of the book it is worth posessing. Enjoy.

This book is amazing. Huge, and packed full of information. An essential refernce work if you are seriously considering doing anything with elizabethan fashion. The author has poured years of scholarship into this work and it shows. It's not really a coffee table picture book. Instead it is full of carefully culled facts for the serious student or anybody curious about 'real' English Tudor costume.

For the historical costumer focused on 16th century clothing, this is the "bible" hands down. Big, expensive, and filled with the usual detail that is the hallmark of Janet Arnold, this is one very worthwhile investment for the serious costumer. This book has one tiny drawback, in that it focuses entirely on women's fashion in the 16th century as viewed through the wardrobe accounts of Queen Elizabeth I and some of her contemporaries. Therefore, it has nothing to say on the topic of men's clothing, which is an unfortunately neglected aspect of 16th century research.

Much of Janet Arnold's most important contributions to the costuming community are addressed in this book, making it extremely valuable. She presents each section with satisfying detail, raising very few questions that remain unanswered. The photographs accompanying the text are also invaluable, as many of them are not available in other books or to the general public for viewing. If only there were more color images...

If you can afford the book, you won't regret buying it.

For years I heard how this was _the_ book to buy if you were into Elizabethan costuming and wanted authentic items that could be documented. The book is good for that, and I enjoyed the style that Ms.Arnold wrote it in.

But I have two major gripes with the book-both regarding the quality of graphics and images in it.

First off-in the whole book there are only about 5 pages in color. The rest of it-including hundreds of portraits, examples of extant clothing pieces and pieces of embroidery were all in black and white. I complain about that because, with so many of the portraits quoted as examples it would help if they could be seen clearly. (Many of them are too dark to have reproduced well, and a few are quite horrible.) And the photographs....

If they could reprint this book and possibly include more color plates it would be a much much more valuable resource. As it stands now, it is a good source, but not all that I could have hoped for. Instead I have begun a search for color reproductions of the portraits cited in the book. A long tedious job but one that I think over all will make it a much more solid resource for my needs.

I bought this as a gift for a friend who helped a great deal with my wedding, advising me of dress styles, hair styles, fashion from this era, dances, music, food, and everything in between, as well as arranging all the flowers for the wedding! She was a godsend! When I gave her the book, her jaw dropped and she was so excited to get it... she said she had been wanting it forever. As I consider her quite knowledgeable about the subject matter of this book, and as it came highly recommended by her, I would say that it's a great book to have if this is something you are interested in as a serious hobby or more.

This book is excellent because it is exactly what I needed, that is an account of Edmund Burkes thinking, what it is he contributed to our understanding of government.

This small title is actually a letter that the author wrote to a friend in France. When Edmund Burke wrote this letter about the French Revolution (where the king was overthrown and beheaded by the masses aka Jacobins), English scholars agree that the result was the finest piece of prose in the English language; only a few poets have succeeded in writing something finer. Whether you agree with Burke's interpretation or not is not the point; he penned the finest piece of literature ever in the English language.

As a historian and social commentator, Burke is a "structural functionalist" decades before that term was dreamed up. He recognizes that the French are not only creatures of their culture, but prisoners. And to compare them to the English colonists and other insurgents in the American colonies who revolted against the British government is to compare apples and oranges. Whereas the Yankee revolution of 1776 was Biblically-inspired and the propaganda for rebellion preached from the pulpits, the French were railing AGAINST the Catholic Church for keeping people ignorant and in their Dark Age.

Burke says the French Revolution is a revolution without its moorings, without the necessary principles to guide individual behavior, and without the maintenance of institutions that long provided stability and security. What the French philosophes were writing was mere balderdash, says Burke. Without their traditions, customs, and institutitions that had slowly brought the French out of barbarity and into a civilized manner of living, Burke saw in revolution a rapid decline and fall of the French people into a visciousness of dog-eat-dog.

In short, Burke saw the French Revolution as lacking virtue and descending into terrorism; whereas the Yankee Revolution was virtuous and grew into a democracy.

Whether you agree with Burke or not, and I do not, his writing in this letter to a friend is the finest example of English writing to be found and should be read by everyone simply for that reason alone.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797)wrote REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE in 1789 which was four years before the rise of the fanatical Jacobins and the execution (murder)of Louis XVI. This book was not only well written but very prophetic on the tragic events that were part of the French Revolution. Burke showed historical insight and warned both the British and the French what was going to happen.

Burke cited conditions in France prior to the French Revolution. He certainly did not give a false representation of the economic and social conditions in France, but he was clear that, while not perfect, the French had advanced culture and tolerable living standards. He also warned the French that abrupt changes without recourse to tradition and legal norms were dangerous and would end in tyranny. Readers should be aware that Burke's assessment of the French political system was that the French had reasonble politcal freedom and prosperity. To destroy this political system would end in political disruption, social and political violence, lack of law-and-order, and the rise of tyrannical military leaders.

One should note Burke's assessment of the members of the French National Assembly which was vacilating and subject to the whims of any "political interest group" was serious. He suggested that military officers would be among those "pleaders" would be military officers who would be difficult to control. He also warned that when someone who understood the art of command got control of the military officers, the days of the French Republic and the National Assembly were over. The military commander would be in total control, and this is exactly what happened when Napolean I (1769-1821)started to exhibit military genius, he quickly got power by a coup d' etat in 1799 and became the French Emperor by 1804.

Burke's warnings of disaster and tragedy were fullfilled. From at least 1792 until 1815, the French were almost constantly at war with most Europeans. While the French Empire expanded beyond anything prior French monarchs ever dreamed of, the collapse of the French Empire came quickly, and the French empire was ended by 1815 at terrible cost in both blood treasure. Burke warned of these dangers, and his predictions were accurate.

Burke lived just long enough to see the rise and fall of the maniacal Jacobins which included the Reigh of Terror (1792-1794)and the execution of King Louis XVI and his wife, Marie antionette. Had Burke lived a few more years, he could have resorted to remarking, "I told you so."

Edmund Burke has been defined as a conservative which is true. However, Burke was not a reactionary. Burke realized that progress, whatever that may mean, is often slow and within the confines of historical tradition, legal norms, and established law. Burke warned his readers, to use modern parlance, against "wipe the slate clean." Burke clearly understood that to "wipe the slate clean, meant mass dislocation of men and ultimately mass executions (mass murder). Subsequent modern political revolutions vindicate this view.

Readers may wonder why Burke expressed support for the American Revolution but strongly opposed the French Revolution. A careful examination of these revolutions provides the answer. The American "revolutionaries" were arguing for their "Rights of Englishmen" which had a long tradition in Great Britain. Henry II (1154-1189) started the use grand juries. The English had the right of trial by jury by the time of Edward I (1272-1307). The fact is the American colonists wanted to rules of common law and long established legal traditions to apply to them. The British wanted to rule the American colonists with administrative law using clever bureaucrats, as Burke would probably have called them, rather than use British Constitutional Law and the Common Law which many American colonists demanded. The French, on the other hand, wanted to replace a weak monarch with "clever bureaucrats" which Burke knew very well could not work in France.

Readers should note that Thomas Paine (1737-1809)wrote a response to Burke's REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTION titled THE RIGHTS OF MAN. While Paine's views were different than those of Burke's Paine's book was just as brilliant as Burke's. Readers should read both works if they want exposure to profound political thought and excellent writing. This is much preferred to the current political nonsense that is pushed by media talking heads and journalists who cannot think or write. Burke and Paine were well read men and offered readers history lessons as well as politcal lessons.

Edmund Burke's REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE is highly recommended regardless of one's political persuasion. This book is not a light read and takes time. However, one will be better informed and wiser for doing so. Again, this reviewer suggests the reader should read Thomas Paine's THE RIGHTS OF MAN to draw comparisons and contrasts.

In 1789, the year of the French Revolution, Burke received a request from a good friend living in France to provide his thoughts on the Revoution. The result- one of the finest pieces of political discourse ever written. For those encountering Burke for the first time, his adament defense of the crown, and of hereditary succcesion, seem to make a hypocrite of this self-proclaimed liberal. Burke, however, was not defending an absolute monarch who ruled under the charter of divine right, but rather, pointing out the danger of a perfect democracy, whose sovereign (the national assembly) was compelled not to a moral authority such as a Church, nor to a fixed consitution. In short, liberty was safer restricted in civil socity, than left unchecked.

Whether you find Burke's analysis, consistent with your political leanings, or more likely, you find his writing very offensive, you can appreciate both the efffect of this work on American and European political though, as well as the reason and intelligence with which it was written.

This is an indispensible essay for anyone who has ever been interested in politics. It is composed of beautiful prose, crisp logic, and perennially relevant material.

You must read Burke to understand the why it is worth being critical of the French Revolution and to understand some major reasons for the counter-revolutionary movement in France.

I prefer the new Mermaid text to those in the anthologies primarily because the notes are on the same page as the text. I don't think the background to the play in the introduction is quite as thorough as it could be (the Oxford being more complete I think in that regard), but his notes are helpful and his history of production, though short, is revealing. I tend to side with those that attribute this play to Middleton, but who knows? The play itself is a wonderful mixture of the melodramatic revenge plot with a surprisingly comic over-view of the world in which it takes place.

PreShakespeare, but a lot of fun to read! I enjoyed it very much--- has to do with a man who is carrying around a murdered girlfriend for almost ten years-- he is planning revenge on the king...

This dark tragi-comedy resonates with the dramatic potential of Hamlet, but and edge particular to Jacobean Drama. A play which is still relevant today (many students related it to "The Godfather"), and brimming with cinematic violence, lust, deception, vengence, and, with all this, communicated through beautiful poetry.

Brian Gibbons, editor of the New Mermaids second edition (1991), describes The Revenger's Tragedy (1607) as a minor masterpiece. Judged against contemporaneous revenge plays like Hamlet and King Lear (and even Titus Andronicus), the term 'minor' certainly does not imply inferior. Minor or not, I agree with the four previous reviewers: The Revenger's Tragedy deserves five stars. Also, it is much easier reading than most Elizabethan and Jacobean plays.

Despite its title, The Revenger's Tragedy is no more bloody than Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy (fifteen years earlier) and it is certainly not as insanely gruesome and brutal as Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus (1594). No dismemberments and no cannibalism. Bloody, yes. But not excessively so.

Nonetheless, we learn of a murder, a rape leading to a suicide, and yet another aggressive seduction (or rape, if need be) that is in the planning stage. So ends Act 1. Revenge and mayhem follow.

The plot is not unduly complex. Vindice desires revenge for the poisoning death of his betrothed, Gloriana, by the lustful, aging Duke. Vindice also indirectly blames the Duke for his father's death, though "he died of discontent, the nobleman's consumption". Vindice is perhaps obsessive; he has retained Gloriana's skull and sometimes speaks directly to her.

In disguise he provokes discord between his enemies and leads them to plot against each other. (This ruse reminds me of Malevole's subterfuge in John Marston's play, The Malcontent.) A poisoned skull, a mistaken execution, and a murderous banquet highlight the later acts. The play concludes with an ironic twist, possibly added as a moral lesson, or simply to surprise the audience.

Hats off to either Cyril Tourneur or Thomas Middleton, or whoever may have authored this fascinating revenge play.

Update July, 2007: I recently encountered reference to this lesser known play in a murder mystery. Cecil Day-Lewis, Poet Laureate from 1968 until his death in 1972, wrote sophisticated mysteries under the pseudonym Nicholas Blake from the mid-1930s to the early 1960s. Thou Shell of Death (1936) is a revenge murder patterned on The Revenger's Tragedy. In the first scene Vindice speaking to the skull of his dead mistress says: "My study's ornament, thou shell of death, Once the bright face of my betrothed lady ...."

OK. The jury has more or less decided that "The Revenger's Tragedy" is not by Cyril Tourneur after all, but by Thomas Middleton. This is on strictly scholarly grounds. Either way, it scarcely matters, as this play is strictly sui generis. It's like nothing else either Tourneur or Middleton ever wrote.

The best way to think of it is as standing in a relation to the classic Jacobean and Elizabethan tragedies of Kyd, Shakespeare, Webster and Middleton sort of like the way Quentin Tarantino's early films stand in relation to previous Hollywood classics. Whoever wrote this, they were Taking The P*ss. The play starts in next-to-top gear, and accelerates into warp speed fairly quickly. Few other plays of the era (this is roughly contemporaneous with "King Lear", to give you an idea) are so ruthlessly efficient. The basic plot is put in motion by two brothers, Vindice and Hippolito, who are a bit cheesed off because the egregious Duke (of wherever) killed Vindice's wife cause she wouldn't put out. From here proceeds a bizarre and increasingly unlikely series of revenges, climaxing in a frankly chortlesome mass slaying. Vindice is the juiciest role - a bit like Shakespeare's Richard III, he guides the audience through the action, but with far greater economy and far less wrangling of conscience, not that Crookback Dick is noted for his remorse.

By the end, the stage is littered with bodies, and Vindice and Hippolito cheerfully go off to execution, with barely a qualm in sight. This is truly the most cynical and the funniest of all Jacobean tragedies. Whoever wrote it, be it Cyril or Tom, was thinking along the same lines Howard Hawks was on when he (Hawks) turned "Rio Bravo" from a Western into a chamber comedy. It's all thoroughly reprehensible, and great fun. You want depth, try John Webster.

There aren't many four-hundred-year-old plays that I laugh aloud at whilst reading, but this is one of them. Pace the opinion below, it couldn't have less to do with Jonson's careful layering of reality if it tried. It's a brisk, bleak, savage cartoon. Full marks, whoever you were.

Gillingham does it again. John Gillingham, again,provides us with another superb account of a remarkable ruler of England.

A great introduction to those curious about this legendary monarch. Gillingham pulls off a bit of a hat trick here. While he does have strong opinions of surrounding figures, particularly Philip and John, he lets the facts speak for themselves about Richard and does not argue one particular point of view. With one exception, his sexuality. This also one of the few times where I found the primary historians, both Arab and Norman, becoming "characters" and their presence is missed when they die or no longer are around the King. The very difficult task of giving all of the counts of Normandy, the Vexin, and the Aquitaine distinctiveness is handled incredibly well. In the hands of a less skilled author this would have been very dry reading and frustratingly convoluted. Also, bit of a heads up to the future reader: This is Gillingham's second book on Richard the Lionheart and he has written numerous articles and essays on the monarch. He has no problem using himself as a reference and he flat out lifts an entire chapter from his previous work and places it in this one. I found this shrewdly entertaining. It does benefit this volume and since the older version is no longer in print, no harm done. After reading this you come away better informed, entertained and with a desire to pick up another book on this era and this king. I can't think of much better praise than that. An essential work for a medieval library.

Richard the Lionheart's life and personality may be the stuff of legend, but they are hidden by the mists of time -- or rather the paucity of relevant documents. Gillingham does a brilliant job of breathing as much life as possible into rather arid fragments without stepping beyond what is warranted by the evidence. For his understanding of the king, he draws as much on contempory Arab sources as European ones, arguing convincingly that the Arab writers may have had fewer axes to grind in talking of Richard. Gillingham goes so far as to place his evaluation of Richard's character at the point where the evidence ends -- following his captivity in Germany -- rather than at the end of the book. Instead the book ends with a well reasoned argument that it was John (and John alone) who lost Normandy whereas Richard was winning the war against Philip Agustus of France. Gillingham also points out that, had Richard lived to complete that struggle, the empire of Henry II might still have disappeared with his death.

Inevitably, some of the work is frustratingly dry -- especially for the process of Richard's development into a strong ruler and military genius against the background of one of history's most disfunctional families. But that dryness arises from the lack of evidence, not from immersion in trivia at the expense of substance.

The book itself is a delight, with strong narrative supported by a myriad of footnotes which are where they should be -- at the bottom of the pages. All in all, a good story well told with insightful analysis based on the record.

I was sceptical getting started on this biography. Certainly, the early parts were fact-laden, slightly uninteresting and slow going.

I am very glad I did not give up.

This is one of the few strictly historical books that restores one's faith in objective research and non-agenda, non-ego driven truth finding.

One might wish for a bit more of a picture of Richard's persona, but from the remove of nearly a millenium, this would be fudging anyway. The facts that there are are clearly and neatly laid out regarding all of Richard's attributes, and some of the modern fadist mythologies (so many of which have their underpinnings in a given academic's desire or need for attention) are dealt with fairly and thoroughly.

Example: Richard was not a homosexual, as "The Lion in Winter" would have a viewer believe. The evidence against it is clear and plenary. It isn't that one doesn't wish him to be, it's just that this notion has its roots in a modern attempt to overlay ancient male and political bonding customs with a template of modern behaviours and modern conclusions which would stem from modern interpretations of those behaviors.

All in all, Richard emerges from the historical record as a great warrior King, who was grossly treated following his exertions during the Crusades, and was forced to try to reclaim the lands that Phillip of France stole while Richard was away. He was therefore forced to stay away from Britain, because the Angevin and Acquitainian and Norman parts of his empire were on the continent. He did not stay away from Britain by choice or by neglect (another myth debunked), but because he was forced to by the duties of his Kingship. Also, Britain WAS part of continental Europe as well in those days. (Or vice versa, if you happen to be English.)

This is the most balanced royal biography I've read to date. Gillingham begins by tracing Richard's reputation through the ages, beginning at it's peak in the 12th and 13th centuries, when he was considered one of the great leaders of his time to it's nadir in the 1950's when academics began to consider him a "Bad son and a bad king..." who spent far more time on the continent than he ever did in England, leaving it in terrible financial straits when he went off to fight in the crusades, and began to conjecture about his sexual preference. Gillingham explores and discounts these and other myths about Richard and his reign simply by letting the historical record speak for itself and allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions, rather than stating his own opinions as facts and then selectively using the historical record to back them up. He also isn't afraid to admit that he can't be sure of something when the historical evidence is either too thin or simply obscured by the mists of time, which is refreshing. The author is among the first to rely heavily on contemporary Muslim sources in constructing his portrait of Richard, because he believes they are less biased in their evaluation of Richard's character than a European chronicler might be. These sources are, for the most part, complimentary, and add great perspective and depth to the reader's understanding of Richard as a warrior. Gillingham strikes the perfect balance between academic research and popular history, making the book very readable. Whether you're interested in Richard himself, or merely seeking an introduction into reading further about his fascinating family dynamics, or the crusades, this is the book to read!

Professor Holt has done an outstanding job with this book. I've had this book long before Amazon.com came into existence and was thrilled to see it listed here. Holt's meticulous research into Robin Hood has been referenced by numerous other authors and researchers into Robin Hood, yeoman archers, and life in Medieval and Tudor England. Holt has persuaded a fair number of very intelligent researchers in their assessments of who Robin Hood was and his status as a yeoman. I've had this book since 1991, with worn pages and all, yet I still can't put it down. Highly recommended. Like one of the other persons who gave it 5 stars, I give it a 10 stars. * * * * * * * * * *

Holt has written an enthralling study of Robin Hood, of both the man (what little remains of him in the ballads) and the legend. He discusses the five earliest surviving ballads - "A Gest of Robyn Hode," "Robin Hoode his Death," "Robin Hood and the Monk," "Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne," and "Robin Hood and the Potter" - and from them details all that can be inferred of the original Hood and of the transmission of the legend in the 200 years before the songs of Robin Hood were first written down. Even after they began to be written down new elements in the legend emerged - Maid Marian and Friar Tuck only joined Robin's merry men in the 15th century. Although today we commonly think of Robin Hood as hanging around in Nottingham and Sherwood Forest, the early ballads most strongly connect him with Barnesdale ("My name is Robin Hood of Barnesdale," the outlaw once remarks in a ballad). Holt details the physical setting in which Robin Hood and his legend traversed, and also the type of people who were his original audience.

So who was Robin Hood? Holt answers, "There were more than one." Many outlaws later called themselves Hood, and some elements of the legends were possibly added on because a storyteller confused one Hood with our Robin Hood - this may explain why a actual march of Edward II's in 1322 is incorporated into the life of a bandit who probably lived a hundred years earlier. Holt does think there was an original Robin Hood, who inspired the legend, and believes that he lived in the first half of the 13th century. He is possibly identical with a certain outlaw named Robert Hod, aka Hobbehod, who is mentioned in records from 1225-26. Although there are many uncertainties, of all the suggested candidates for the "real" Robin Hood, Robert Hod is the most plausible, based on the existing evidence. If you get only one book about Robin Hood, make it this one.

I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it.
It's a great book for anyone inteested in Robin Hood.
I'd give it 10 stars if I could.

Professor Holt wrote what came to be acknowledged as the definitive work on Robin Hood in 1981, and it was published the following year. A second edition appeared in 1988, incorporating significant new research. So that's the first point to make; make sure you get the later edition. The second point is that this new evidence, which pushed the first reference to Robin Hood a century further back in time, merited a re-write. Instead, Holt leaves the main text almost unaltered and discusses the new information in a postscript, and gives it a brief mention in a preface. The result is that the reader is presented with much speculation about the origin of the legend which is invalidated in the postscript. It's rather like having the rug pulled from under your feet.

Nonetheless, the work remains a fact-packed, authoritative guide to England's unlikely national hero. (Well, a thief who may or may not have existed seems an unlikely hero to me). Holt points the reader toward the earliest ballads, and I strongly recommend that you read these in parallel with the earliest chapters of this book. The ballads are all readily available, in the original and translated, on the Net, and they are great fun.

Robin is as elusive as he is intriguing, but he is well worth tracking, and Holt is probably still the best guide.

This book has the ring of authenticity about it. One British reviewer called it "Probably unsurpassable," and I agree. In this way it is like an Arthurian book by Ashe or Alcock. (I am thinking of "In Search of Arthur's Britain," which described the 1967 South Cadbury dig.)

You will learn the truth about the earliest Robin Hood stories - he was a yeoman, not a nobleman or a peasant, his earliest haunt was Barnsdale, not Sherwood. There was no Maid Marian at first, etc.

An excellent book for British history buffs and English lit types.

A friend told me about this companion book to A.S.Byatt's novel: POSSESSION. I bought both the novel and the reader companion as gifts for a friend. My friend has written to say how much she is appreciating both items...both purchased at Amazon. Thanks.

Reading A.S.Byatt's "Possession" can be a daunting task as the novel is not only interpersed with poetry and letters written by all the fictional historical characters, but is filled with allusions that only a lifetime afficiando of literature would understand. This little book by Ms Burgass will help the less erudite reader peel back the layers that comprise the entire work.
The guide is broken down into various sections that will answer questions regarding all manner of topics related to the novel. The author, the novel itself, the novel's reception, the novel's standing today, and a helpful list of study questions,further reading and websites round out the chapter topics.
I found the chapter on the novel sufficiently comprehensive to answer all my questions regarding the fictional works of Ash and LaMotte. Coverage of the novel's various themes was also extremely instructional.
I recommend this to all who enjoyed the movie and want to fully enjoy the book's entire experience.

I give this book 5 stars because it did what I hoped a book like this would do: It gives the reader more ideas, history, and perspectives from which to interpret A.S. Byatt's novel "Possession." This is not a Cliff Notes. It's more like if you invited a person who was way "too" smart and "too" informed to your book club discussion. Of Byatt she says, "She has worked assiduously towards encompassing what are frequently regarded as mutually exclusive states." And this is true in so many ways. Byatt takes on ideas that most people consider contradictory and challenges those assumptions capably.

There is a "signifanct part of the work (Byatt's fiction) which is semi autobiographical." "As the main title suggests, the novel is about possession, and in line with its complex form dramatizes multiple aspects of this theme, exploring the nature of possessive love and the contrary impulse to self-preservation; superficial possession - of things - and supernatural possession by ghosts, literal and metaphorical; the quest for knowledge (intellectual possession)," and "a degree of self-possession (pride)."

Catherine Burgass examines the book's form, plot choices, and language. She gives examples of the literary criticism and reviews the book has received from major media sources and different schools of thought (old and new). The book intrinsically asks how do contemporary focuses and forms interact with the considerations of the past and future? "Part of Roland and Maud's mutual attraction is, paradoxically, a shared desire for solitude."

When A.S. Byatt was asked if she was tempted to write biographies of other people, she replied, "I do not wish to spend most of my life on somebody else's life - not one other person's life. The words came to me long before the plot of the novel, Possession, and it was to do with being taken over - or alternatively, taking somebody over, depending on whether you're a sympathiser or a hunter."

Byatt's characters are beautifully complex. Ash is sensitive to past, modern, and possible future sensibilities. So "at one point in the novel, Ash considers the way to win Christabel: 'He would teach her that she was not his possession' (p.279)" or anyone else's possession for that matter. And in the end "She and Ash remain linked in their lifetimes, poignantly through this child, whom neither of them can publicly own." The "child" in the novel could be representative of many good things they shared, their literal child, their chemistry of ongoing communication, or the things their relationship created in the real world. The novel explores how and why both characters choose to hide or silence parts of their relationship.

Love that creates consistent beauty and quality is rare. Some people think it comes only once. Some believe they can experience it in several ways, at the same or different times. Some find it in art and work as much as they find it in other people. Regardless, it is rare for most people. And the novel and the Reader's Guide explore how seemingly contradictory loves may co-exist by reconsidering perceptions, definitions, and forms.

I wrote a review of the movie before I read Ms. Burgass' Reader's Guide. My review is on Amazon if you'd like additional perspectives. If you like the movie Possession or the novel, and you'd like to consider it further, I highly recommend this book. Ms. Burgass really cared about the intelligence, complexity, and work that went into creating the novel. And her Reader's Guide may open doors to considering the story in new and valuable ways.

This is part of the "Continuum Contemporaries" series. It is a very useful resource for teaching/learning about A. S. Byatt's novel, POSSESSION, as well as about the author and the themes/issues in the novel. My only critique is that I wish it had a compendium that listed all of the different literary allusions in the book. Even without that, though, it is a helpful resource.

Especially if you are in a book group that will be discussing "Possession", this is a thoughtful, comprehensive guide to that convoluted novel. It will ease the rather daunting task of taking in the nuances of A.M. Byatt's literary romance. Also included is a brief biography of Byatt. Recommended.

It starts in the 4th century or so, and continues with great poems until mid twentieth century. It includes biographies of most of the poets, so you can know who they were, and what they did. It has some of the very best poems that I have ever read.

As an evangelical Christian, I continue to wonder why many evangelicals have not discovered Christian poetry for the treasure storehouse that it has always been in the English speaking world. This book is a feast to the mind as well as the spirit and is the perfect introduction to Christian poetry for the thoughtful Christian.

Max Lucado is fine but do yourself a favor and step outside the box. Buy it and read it slowly, carefully, thoughtfully and prayerfully.

The Christian's song thru the ages, yet tinged by place in history. The wit of Alexander Pope, the martyr's courage of Anne Askew, the perspective of John Oxenham, the triumphant perseverance of Paul Laurence Dunbar, the perspicuity of C.S.Lewis, and more. This anthology is organized by historic period ("Early Victorian," for ex) and then within each period the poems are grouped by poet, with a brief bio given for each. Though the poets are of different theological backgrounds (Catholic, Protestant, Unitarian), their backgrounds are noted in the bios and the actual selections are pretty mainstream theologically.

As an evangelical, I am suprised that others of my persuasion have not discovered the treasure chest of beauty and devotion in Christian poetry. I consider it truely sublime and find reading it slowly and quietly to be a fountain of great devotional interest. I keep this volume on the shelf next to my bed and turn to it often.

This anthology in particular is an outstanding introduction to the excellence and beauty of Christian poetry. Buy it and read it slowly and prayerfully. Max Lucado is fine but sometimes it's good to think outside the box. Give this a try.

This anthology of poetry will serve as an excellent introduction to those unfamiliar with the genre or as a source of refreshing inspiration to those who know the works.

The book, broken into 12 chapters covering various time periods, offers all sorts of Christian poetry over roughly 1,200 years, from early Anglo-Saxon writings up to 20th Century works.

Authors are introduced with short biographies, as are the time periods to help readers get a sense of how language and religious poetic thought developed. The range of material is amazing, from works predating the Venerable Bede to Madeline L'Engle's plea to God to learn how to pray, written as she rode a New York City bus.

I found this to be a beautiful collection of value to anyone interested in Christian thought and prayer.

A unique voice that took her life too soon. These plays are an important testament to the IN Your Face Theater that lashed out in the 90s. Sometimes mistaken for pointless violence, Kane has a brilliant ability to cut to the heart of humanity and explore the darker aspects of our own kind.

Sarah Kane's collected plays represent an underestimated force in theater. Much like the work of Elfriede Jelinek or Ntozake Shange, Kane takes a private pain (losing oneself in another or testing the limits of proclaimed love) and creates a verbal landscape that the audience must inhabit, either by force of shock or noble acceptance of empathy. In either case, her plays must be reckoned with upon finishing. I think perhaps the most intriguing and powerful to me was 4.48 Psychosis, her final and posthumously performed play. There are no defined characters because who cannot claim a piece within the multitude of confessions that the play really unfolds as. Brutally honest and intentionally confrontational, this play, above the others, embodies the last possible moments of hope in anyone's life. Kane's characters rarely make the choice to latch on to these moments, but they are there and cannot be ignored.

One of the strongest women writers that lived, she revolutionized theatre and her death was unfortunate robbed theatre of her potential. A Great collection of her complete work at a great price. Cleansed was my favorite in the collection. Her work is so poetic, stark, honest, painful, and brutal.

These are the most electric scripts to arrive in a long while. Sadly, the source was snuffed in 1999. Kane's writing is at once repellent and seductive. "Blasted" is exceptional, riffing on Beckett blatantly, but still signature of a visionary voice: inyerface, exuberant, filthy, poetic, profound. As a debut, it is truly remarkable. "Phaedra's Love" and "Cleansed" push the envelope past the hyper-real into lightning-bright brilliance, and with thunderous emotional depth. How does one stage this stuff? Kane's challenging work sets the imagination--and ultimately, the soul--on fire.

Sarah Kane is anything but family friendly. Her plays are raw, brutal, and yet beautiful in an ironic way. She takes all of the hate that exists in this world and uses it to show us the beauty that can come from the ruble of a blown up building. There is no way to actually describe Sarah Kane to you to make you want to buy her book. I was forced to buy it because of a class at my college, but I don't think I'll be selling this one back. I never thought I would enjoy a play such as Blasted. If you want to understand what my review actually means, buy the book, read a couple of her pieces and then read this again. I'm sure you will understand then.

This isn't a very long book. I read it in 2 nights. What is amazing is that it's a true story. I bought it intentionally, as a relative of mine once knew a relative of the writer, and I had a vague memory of this story. It was truly riveting. You might expect a lot of blood and gore, but there isn't. The story haunts with you long after reading the book.

"Sea Of Sharks" by Elmer Renner and Ken Birks. Subtitled: "A Sailor's World War II Survival Story". Naval Institute Press, 2004.
Many years after the events, these two gentlemen got together to write the ever so brief history of the World War II minesweeper, YMS-472. This was a tiny vessel, constructed of wood, so as to avoid setting off magnetic mines. The beginning chapters deal with the commission of the ship, the accidents during practice and drill, and the routine efforts of the YMS-472 operating out of Governor's Island, in the harbor of New York City. As the war wound down, a group of minesweepers were ordered from the East Coast to the Pacific theatre. Mr. Renner's description of the voyage to the Pacific is an excellent sea story in itself. The crew had been concerned with the fact that the vessel's number, 472, added up to 13 ... which sailors considered unlucky,. Then, their date of arrival was scheduled as the 13th. Renner brings up many of the superstitions of the crew ..."hard luck ship", and the need for him, as an officer, to deal with such personnel problems (see Chapter Two, entitled appropriately , "Thirteens", pp. 29-51). There is a lot of old Navy in this section.

From Chapter Three ("Typhoon"), to the end of the book, Renner deals with the so-called "Makurazaki Typhoon", September 1945, the destruction it wrought, and the capsizing of the tiny YMS-472. Renner's description of actual shuddering and capsizing of the vessel is extremely frightening. The last few chapters deal the survivors' days in a very small raft, their attempts to swim to an island (with one sailor being eaten by a shark), the lack of search and rescue by the U.S. Navy, and their rescue, apparently by a chance sighting.

Renner indicts the U.S. Navy for either a sin of omission, if the Navy staff at Okinawa did know that the YMS-472 was missing at sea, or for a sin of commission, if the same Navy staff did not even make an effort to find the YMS-472 and her survivors. Twenty five men went down with the ship. RIP.

The first person tales of World War II are nearing their end. Elmer Renner was a college graduate when he entered the Navy in 1943, sixty years ago. I am thankful that he was able to tell this story. It is a story of survival at sea.

More than that it is a story of a Navy capable of what can only be called gross incompetance. Renner was aboard the 130 wooden hulled minesweeper YMS-472. Designed for work in coastal areas the YMS-472 sailed across the Pacific Ocean to Okinawa. With a typhoon forecast, the YMS-472 was sent to sea to ride out the storm. The shallow draft vessel capsized in what is known as one of the worst storms ever. Renner and eight others managed to ride out the storm on a life raft. The Navy searched for a while, then called off the effort (why with the war over and plenty of ships and planes available). Days later, days without food or water, they happened to be spotted by a Corsair that radioed for help.

This is a story of ordinary men in extraordinary circumstances. Mr. Renner says that it was good for him to tell the story rather than keep it inside himself. It is good for the rest of us also.

Sea Of Sharks is the true story of a Marine Corps veteran who served as a radio operator in the Pacific theater of war during World War II, and the occupation of Japan. Yet Sea Of Sharks is not a saga of the war itself, but rather of a handful of men caught in the grip of one of the worst typhoons in recorded history, off the coast of Okinawa. Their Navy minesweeper was unable to withstand the fury of nature, and the author and eight others barely escaped on a raft. Not only did they have to weather the horrific storm, but afterward, they endured days of hunger, thirst, shark attacks, and despair. Lives were lost to the all-encompassing sea, to the ruthlessness of sharp-toothed sea predators, and to the onset of delusion and madness. The rescue of the survivors could not begin heal the lasting scars of the ordeal, now put to paper years after the fact. A harrowing and horrifying true story, that also raises keen questions as to why the service was so quick to write off the survivors as dead, leaving their rescue to blind chance.

Elmer Renner's narrative of his near death experience in the waters off Okinawa immediately after World War II is a gift to those of us who grew up in the post-war generation. On the surface, this is a story of eight men who survived the ravages of the Pacific during and after the worst typhoon on record. But the simple survival story is a metaphor: the immediacy, the tenacity, and the endurance, of the eight crew-members provides an example of the kind of heroism that, multiplied a thousand-fold, protected this nation from the wartime threat posed by the Axis nations.

In a moving description of the harrowing days at sea on a skeletal raft without food, water, or enough square inches to sleep, the author invites us truly to experience the determination of the stranded sailors to survive and to return to their families. We seem literally to experience the sailors' hunger, their thirst, their disorientation, and finally their hallucinations. We approach that reality as closely as a reader may come vicariously.

Other reviewers have noted the astonishing failure of the Navy to search for the survivors of the minesweeper after it was sent directly into the path of destruction by the Naval command. There seems to be no question that there were ships, planes, and personnel available for the search which was inexplicably abandoned.

And other questions remain. Were the weather warning systems actually so primitive that catastrophe could not have been predicted? Why was a shallow water minesweeper sent into deep sea water to battle the worst weather imaginable? Why was the treacherous sailor who made it to safety never disciplined for his failure to seek help for his companions? And who is to answer for the callous abandonment of the search for survivors?

Mr. Renner's sense of disappointed resignation seems an understated response to the reader who has become furious on his behalf. His own review of Naval documents recording the inquiry into the disaster reveals only inconclusive, unsatisfactory, and self-serving answers. No one was found to be at fault. The administration of justice to those responsible for the deaths of 25 crew members and the nearly indescribable suffering of the survivors may seem a very small matter in the entire context of World War II. But the dead and the living of YMS-472 deserve nothing less.