Ireland Books

This is a must have for any fan of Irish Literature

The Ballad of Reading Gaol and Other Poems (Dover Thrift Editions)

Oscar Wilde was not a person who was likely to take being put into prison lightly. Those who know the full extent of Wilde's wit ought to see how bitterly it was able to express itself, when getting locked up for enjoying inappropriate pleasures of the mind results in this, the reflection that "every prison that men build is built with bricks of shame." (p. 40) Although it is included in a small book, the poem in the title might seem to go on forever, as it hardly ends when Wilde gets to the last line, "The brave man with a sword !"

If you are looking for slapstick humor or short "sound-bite" quotations, then perhaps you should look to some of Oscar Wilde's other works--but if you are looking for subtle wit and excellence in exposition, then you have found just the book. These Dover Thrift editions allow one to inexpensively read, annotate and travel with Oscar, when you might be leaving the big collected works at home. Real value for the dollar, and "The Ballad of Reading Goal" is some of the best writing in the English Language.

This book is fantastic! I loved reading about my favorite show. I was able to get the book the last time I was in Ireland and I was so excited when I saw it. The book gives you all the information you ever wanted to know about Ballkissangel. The book has amazing pictures of everyone in the cast. It has pictures of the cast from different episodes and showing them when they are not in front of the camara. I recommend this book for anyone who is a big fan of BallyK.

This is a great book! It gives you a wonderful variety of behind the scenes photos and information, as well as, giving a photo and brief synopsis of each episode of the first two seasons. There is also a similar section on each character. The cover art is beautiful! It is definately worth the price and I feel you'll enjoy it as much as I have or more.

With plenty of participation and anecdotes from all involved in the production (the producer, writers, directors and actors), this lovely little book provides a delightful behind-the-scenes look at this warm-hearted comedy-drama.

The book deals with how the idea for the series came about, how a town was chosen to represent Ballykissangel (whose name, incidentally, is Gaelic for "The Town of the Banished Angel"), the impact that the series has had on that town (Avoca, in County Wicklow) and its inhabitants. The book also touches on how a few of the effects were achieved, like the burning of Kathleen's house and the statue crashing through the roof of Ambrose's car. Included are brief 2-3 page bios of the actors and the characters they portray. Finally, there is an episode guide covering the first two series (the last episode of which is "Chinese Whispers").

Written by Geoff Tibballs, this beautiful little book is a 7 1/2" x 10" 128-page hardcover printed on thick, high-quality paper, and it is loaded with colour pictures (mostly scenes from the series).

In conclusion, this is a thoroughly enjoyable and informative little behind-the-scenes look at one of the most charming and gently amusing comedy-drama series around. Highly recommended.

If you are a fan of the show, this book is a MUST. It has bios of each member of the cast and the creator, information on the location, filming and creation of the show, and synopsis' of the first three series(seasons).

Very imformative of history in an entertaining way. The love story is a continuation from another book - The Fields of Bannockburn. Loved it and would highly recommend it for high school and up.

Mary flies to Scotland to marry her fiance, Gareth, only to find he has signed on with a group trying to bring about some kind of healing in Northern Ireland.

So off they go to work in that battle-torn country,where nobody wants to comprimise because each side thinks they, alone, are in the right, have been for hundreds of years, and cannot forgive the wrongs done to them over that time. As Mary and Gareth's own personal adventure moves forward, Mary learns the history of Northern Ireland during the last 350 years as they visit various historical sites. The Scottish Presbyterians were being persecuted and emigrated to Ireland where they started presecuting the Irish Catholics. Then the English Episcopalians started persecuting them both. Every once in a while, they would realign themselves, but never for a moment forgive anyone not of their stripe. The results were massive bloodlettings leading to more massive bloodlettings.

Although both stories are fictional, Mrs. Crow has done a masterful job of intertwining the stories against an historical background. And she has done her homework. She even has a bibliography in the back of the book. She traces one family who came from Scotland in 1649 to the Easter Rising of 1911. This is all juxtaposed against Mary and Gareth's modern day story, both having related experiences.

For fans of historical fiction, this is a winner! The author knows how to involve her readers in the story. It also helped me see a little more clearly the background of the harsh feelings in that beautiful country.

"How the Irish Saved Civilization" by Thomas Cahill gives the more ancient background of Ireland.

Mrs. Crow also wrote "The Fields of Bannockburn," which tells the very early history of Scotland.

This book tore at my heart as I read through the bitter history of Ireland. A must read for all who have even the smallest bit of Irish blood. The passion of the Irish people is absolutely amazing.

This novel is an incredible tribute to those who work to do the Lord's will no matter what the circumstances. How hard is it to hope, love, and give mercy to those who hate you? Ireland has a sad history, and this novel points to the only way humans can overcome their hatred and fear- by giving their lives to Jesus. I reccomend this book to anyone who desires to understand forgiveness and/or the history of Ireland.

I used a friend's copy of this book for a specific recipe (whole wheat banana bread). I've tried many of the other recipes and I've not found one I don't like. I HAD to buy my own copy. The food is tasty, appealing and chock full of healthy ingredients. It's nice to find a cookbook with so much variety and great alternatives to grocrey store premade baked item. This is a keeper!!!

This is NO ripoff. It's the real deal. Straight from the Irish presses and shipped to America. The breads and baked goods are authentic and unbelieveably delicious. I can't praise it enough for its authenticity.

This book is an excellent choice for the person who is interested in authentic Irish baking. There are many variations on the traditional brown bread and all I have tried taste really good. The recipes are easy to follow and a lot come from top guest houses. The "Irish Apple Cake" is wonderful and freezes beautifully. It also has a few Irish American recipes along side the traditional versions. The scones, sweet breads - in fact everything I have baked from this book has been wonderful.

`The Best of Irish Breads & Baking' by Georgina Campbell, sponsored by the Irish company, Shamrock Foods, is the third book of Irish baking I have reviewed, and it nicely fits between the areas covered by Tim Allen's `The Ballymaloe Bread Book' and Margaret M. Johnson's `Irish Puddings, Tarts, Crumbles, and Fools'. Before comparing the three books in detail, I'll survey Ms. Campbell's contents.

This is a very nicely sized, relatively inexpensive book, listing at $15 or 15 euros which concentrates, like Ms. Johnson, on recipes from local Irish baking and hospitality establishments.

The chapters, with virtually no surprises, are:

Soda Breads and Scones, confirming once again that THE classic Irish bread is a brown soda bread and not the familiar Irish-American all white flour soda bread. I was pleased to find, however, a recipe for that familiar Irish-American soda bread with many flavorings added. One of the more unusual sections in this chapter is a method for making buttermilk from skimmed milk and yeast. I find immense irony in this method, as yeast is being used to make an ingredient for a yeastless quick bread. It also gives the yogurt method for making buttermilk, but makes no mention of the quick sour milk method or of powdered `instant buttermilk' products.

Hot Off the Griddle covers things which many people may not consider `baking' as they are recipes to be made from batters on top of the stove, including cakes made from batters with oats, potatoes (for boxty), apples, and flour. If you happen to be a big breakfast fan, this chapter may alone be worth the price of admission.

Tea Breads, Bracks, & Buns cover what in the United States would tend to be lumped together as muffins and their allies such as gingerbread and fruit breads.

Yeast Breads explores baking with packaged yeasts, either fresh brewer's yeast or dried yeast packets. One interesting fact in this chapter is that Irish wheat is soft, much like that from the southern United States such as White Lily flour. The explanation for the Irish love of soda bread is not this, but the fact that few Irish households had the kinds of ovens needed for baking yeasted breads. This may not be complete, as the same could probably be said of Italy, one of the capitals of yeasted bread traditions. While this chapter focuses on native Irish recipes, there are a fair number of imports from the Mediterranean using things like onion and garlic in the breads.

Cakes and Biscuits is the chapter which contains the recipes for the kind of seed cakes and biscuits which Bilbo Baggins probably served to Thorin Oakenshield, his band of dwarfs, and Gandalf the wizard in that magical moment at the beginning of the novel, `The Hobbit'. If you are a Tolkien fan, this chapter alone may be worth the book. Note that biscuits, here, is the English sense of biscuits as `cookies' and not what we recognize as, for example, southern buttermilk biscuits, which are much more similar to Irish scones.

Pastry and Puddings involves another English / Irish usage which may be unfamiliar to Americans, as `puddings' here refers primarily to desserts, primarily those made with custards. Oddly, the lion's share of recipes in this chapter are for cakes, pies, and tarts, rather than custard based desserts. There is another fair share of European influence in recipes for strudel (Austrian) and frangipane (French).

Festive Fare is one of my favorite kinds of chapters, as it gives recipes for occasions where you get an excuse to bake something delicious and fattening. I'm especially fond of these Irish dishes, as they contain the mother lode of inspirations for mincemeat pies and fruitcakes. The emphasis here is on Christmas, Easter, and Halloween, our favorite culinary holidays other than Thanksgiving.

If you have room for only one book on Irish baking, especially if you don't have a lot of books on general baking techniques, this is the best of the three books I cite here. Tim Allen's Ballymaloe book ranges far beyond Ireland, because his focus is what is made at the Ballymaloe restaurants for their guests, not what is traditional in Ireland. Thus, he includes a chapter on sourdough plus chapters on major Italian specialties such as pizza. Ms. Campbell does not touch sourdough (using natural yeasts) at all. Since Campbell covers both desserts and bread baking, it is also more general than Johnson's book on desserts. And, Campbell goes into a bit more detail on general baking technique, although not as much as the great bread baking specialists such as Peter Reinhart.

I am especially happy to say all measurements are in both metric and English systems and for things like flour, both weight (lb or grams) and volumetric (cups) units are given. This is another reason to pick this book if you can only have one. Otherwise, all three books have much to offer.

Highly recommended.

Excellent service, as usual. I am thrilled with the service provided by Amazon and it's vendors and will buy books only from these sources.

This book is an absolutely brilliant, lucid, beautifully written, engrossing exploration of the relationships between women in Victorian England. Marcus' arguments are fresh and deeply surprising -- revolutionary, really -- yet somehow manage to feel utterly inevitable after the fact. I love the breadth of sources -- novels, diaries, fashion magazines, pedagogical manuals, pornography -- Marcus draws upon, and the stunningly diverse modes of relatedness she portrays as available to Victorian women. I rarely find myself reading academic books, yet for me "Between Women" was a real page turner. I recommend it very highly.

--according to the London Review of Books, the London Times, the BBC, and me! Marcus is smart, engaging, thorough-- and makes dazzling use of a vast array of primary sources. She asks (basically), "What if we re-read the Victorians as if women's relationships were important to one another?" Looking through this lens at diaries, letters, conduct manuals, law cases, anthropological writings, fashion plates, doll stories, and pornograpy, Marcus reveals a world that leaps off the page with life and immediacy. Go read it.

Sharon Marcus's "Between Women" is that rare academic book - utterly readable and absorbing and juicy. It not only re-casts Victorian literature in a new light, by examining the roles that women characters have in securing the marriage plot, but ushers the reader into a new way of understanding women's surprising power in Victorian society. The book argues that women and female friendship wielded considerable influence in Victorain society- in novel plots and in the work of marriage reform thinkers and leaders. Her work on "the plot of female amity" has been called ground-breaking and I can see why. Sharon Marcus's pages on "Great Expectations," for example, are just amazing, bringing the reader along, at every step, as this brilliant, clear mind details the charged interactions of Miss Havisham, Estella, and Pip. "Between Women" uses a fascinating array of source materials - not just novels, but pornographic magazines, fashion magazines, and treatises of social reform movements. She points out that sometimes female friendship meant friendship and sometimes it meant lesbian relationships. John Stuart Mill, for example, modeled his marriage reform ideas on the equitable dynamics at play in contemporary lesbian couples. The book's exploration of how mothers and daughters, and daughters with their dolls, were depicted in illustrations, often with sado-masochistic overtones, is pretty unforgettable and quite persuasive. It was fascinating to read how the language of fashion magazines and the language of pornographic journals were often the same. The writing in "Between Women" is wonderful and the research well-organized, diverse, and accessible. It is true that Sharon is a great friend of mine, but please know that it is also true that I would not write these sentences if I did not believe them. I read and adored this book and I hugely recommend it, to academics and non-academics (which I am), alike.

I love this book. Benjamin Nathans really captures the thoughts of an average russian man. I know this because im his close friend.
thankyou and good night

You should know that having been selected a Slavic Studies award it was not going to be all plot and laughs. Though if you read it with the right mindset, some of it looks like it was made-up by Myron Cohen. Probably the most interesting part of the scholarship brought up by Nathans was that once Russian Jews were allowed into law schools, they turned out to be recognized as the most expert in the law.

Anyone who has studied under a talmudic system will know that you must learn not only the law itself, but learn to read between the lines as to it's intent. Even the non-Jewish lawyers admitted that the Jewish lawyers were much more committed to their clients and their clients welfare. Many non-Jews hired Jews as apprentice lawyers because of their attention to detail.


From the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS) awards committee:

Benjamin Nathans' masterful study provides a fresh look at an age old problem, the entry and integration of Jews into larger territorial, cultural and political communities. The book takes us, literally and figuratively, "beyond the pale" of Jewish life in late imperial Russia to the encounter of Jewish professionals and intellectuals with Russian civil institutions.

Through exhaustive and innovative research, from newly available archives to private family memoirs, Nathans brings to life key personalities and social interactions that redefine the Jewish presence in St. Petersburg, and in turn reshape ties to the other subjects of the empire and to Russian Jewry. Through these vibrant portraits of the Jewish-Russian encounter, the author paints a much larger canvas tracing a cultural world of understandings and misconceptions, a social existence beset by advances and setbacks, and a political discourse of emancipation and reaction.

This is a fascinating study of the Jews in Russia. The book description is accurate... it is a highly detailed and first rate work of scholarship. The only concern is that it is not casual reading-- it is an in-depth and comprehensive study that rewards the devoted reader.

Beyond the Pale: The Jewish Encounter with Late Imperial Russia won the 2003 Wayne S. Vucinich book prize awarded annually by the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS) for the most outstanding monograph in Russian, Eurasian, or East European studies in any discipline of the humanities.

The book prize selection committee wrote the following about this volume:

Benjamin Nathans' masterful study provides a fresh look at an age old problem, the entry and integration of Jews into larger territorial, cultural and political communities. The book takes us, literally and figuratively, "beyond the pale" of Jewish life in late imperial Russia to the encounter of Jewish professionals and intellectuals with Russian civil institutions.

Through exhaustive and innovative research, from newly available archives to private family memoirs, Nathans brings to life key personalities and social interactions that redefine the Jewish presence in St. Petersburg, and in turn reshape ties to the other subjects of the empire and to Russian Jewry. Through these vibrant portraits of the Jewish-Russian encounter, the author paints a much larger canvas tracing a cultural world of understandings and misconceptions, a social existence beset by advances and setbacks, and a political discourse of emancipation and reaction.

This exemplary, insightful book, argued with balance and nuance and written with flair, provides an original interpretation of a central problem in Russian history and politics. More, the intellectual journey goes well beyond Russia to recast our understanding of broader, ever-present issues of identity, integration, and conflict.

The two greatest land battles of English/British arms are universally thought to be Waterloo and Agincourt. Charles Spencer and others (including Winston Churchill) would add Blenheim as the third greatest battle in the list. Louis XIV (the "Sun King" of France) was dominant in European power and had been for a couple of decades. He was an imperialist at heart, taking land when it suited him, on the flimsiest of pretexts. When the inbred and sickly Hapsburg king of Spain died without direct heir, Louis decided it was time to put a Bourbon king (i.e. his own family line) on the throne of Spain. This naturally angered the other Hapsburg monarch - the Holy Roman Emporer (leader of what was later known as Austria-Hungary) and would result in Louis's power increasing significantly, both in Europe and the Americas. Thus, the Emporer and the British, whose Dutch-descended King William III had long fought Louis as Prince William of Orange, formed an alliance to combat this new threat from Louis.

Charles Spencer is known to most as the 9th Earl Spencer, sister of the late Diana, Princess of Wales. His well-spoken and eloquent eulogy of his sister is an indication of his ability as a narrator. Fortunately, Spencer does not herein rely on his titles, nor on the fact he is a descendant of the winning British general: John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough. Instead, knowing the book will only be judged by his ability as a writer and historian, he presents a very readable and enjoyable depiction of the battle between the two Allied armies - commanded by Marlborough and the Imperial general Prince Eugène, and the opposing Franco-Bavarian forces. Taking place in and around the Bavarian village of Blindheim (Anglicised to Blenheim), the Austro-British forces are outnumbered and facing a foe that has not lost a major engagement for a generation. Included in the French ranks are a number of highly-decorated regiments (both of infantry and cavalry). Unfortunately for the French, they are badly outgeneralled, especially in the centre of the line where Marshall Tallard faces Marlborough. The English general has rapidly gained a reputation for initiative, timing, and daring only equalled by Prince Eugène, who is left to pin down the flank against a second French army and the Bavarians.

Spencer wisely takes a third of the book to set the scene - i.e., the politics of the age. No account of the battle would be complete without a detailed look at the people involved, of course, so much of the narrative alternates between the setup of the political situation and the personalities of the people involved. John Churchill was much maligned by both parliament (because his anscestors fought for the crown in the Civil War) and the protestant King William III (because he so easily switched allegiances to himself from the Catholic Charles II after Charles was deposed). It was not until Anne, protestant daughter to Charles II and sister-in-law to William III, came to the throne that Churchill rose to become commander of the British army. This did nothing to placate his detractors, of course, and he was dogged continually by his enemies. Spencer manages to avoid sounding the champion of his anscestor, instead presenting these facts in a straightforward but very readable fashion.

Similarly, when we move into the campaign phase of the book, and that of the Battle of Blenheim itself, we get to see the conflict from all sides - in the camps of all five armies present, and from the generals to the non-commisioned officers, many of whom kept diaries of the events (presumably many in the lowest ranks were illiterate and couldn't keep diaries).

There aren't a lot of accounts of the Battle of Blenheim (compared to, say, Waterloo), but this is a good read for anyone interested in the era, or in European history in general. Especially for those shy about tackling Winston Churchill's mammoth biography of Marlborough (which is also hard to find), this book gives a good description of the man, his age, and the battle he is most famous for winning.

At the end of the 17th century Louis XIV of France was at the peak of his power, the most powerful sovereign in Europe whose power was enforced by an victorious army with a reputation for being unbeatable. With the rise of his relative to the throne of Spain and his coercion of Bavaria into his sphere of influence it seemed that total dominance of Europe was within his grasp.

The fact that this did not come to pass was the result of the formation of the Grand Alliance by William III of England, combining the forces of England, the Holy Roman Empire and the Dutch free states.

The leadership of the Anglo Dutch forces was entrusted to John Churchill the Duke of Marlborough a handsome dashing General of only limited military experience. It was Marlborough who devised and implemented the daring plan to march across Europe to attack Frances ally Bavaria thereby relieving the threat of invasion from Vienna the capital of the Holy Roman Empire. A march which would ultimately see him join forces with the Imperial army commanded by the proven and driven General Eugene of Savoy to confront the Franco Bavarian forces near the village of Blenheim.

The resulting battle displayed the qualities of both of the allied commanders, Marlborough's dash and daring, his command of the battlefield, his husbanding of resources and the judgment which allows him to unleash them to the greatest effect and Eugene's tactical genius, charisma and steely resolve to achieve victory no matter the odds or the cost.

Overall this book provides a well written narrative of a battles which has been largely forgotten, which changed the face of Europe.

Based on diaries and letters of the participants and other sources, Charles Spencer gives a very readable, informative account, not only of the Battle of Blenheim, but of a whole period of history. BLENHEIM, BATTLE FOR EUROPE, is the story of how two friends and military geniuses, the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy spoiled the Sun King's splendor. Louis XIV's army, considered invincible for forty years, was crushed at Blenheim, a small Bavarian village on the Danube, signaling that the Sun King would not conquer the Continent. Mr Spencer describes not only the everyday lot of the common soldier: his arms, medical treatment and food, but he also delves into the personalities of the major participants involved, from the Sun King to the field generals to Sarah, Marlborough's wife. This is popular history at its best, although the term "popular history" somehow seems dismissive; would it be that all history was written as well and as entertainingly. The book comes with color reproductions of portraits, three maps, including two battle maps showing positions and movements of troops, and order of battle and unit strength tables, useful for those who might like to recreate the battle as a simulation. He also describes the battlefield terrain quite well and the morale and quality of certain troops. Valuable as a reference, once read for pleasure, I recommend BLENHEIM highly.

"Blenheim: Battle for Europe" by Charles Spencer is a riveting account of that great battle fought between Allied forces under the command of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, and the French Army of Louis XIV on August 13, 1704. This is a splendidly told story, not only covering this pivotal battle but the events leading up to it and the main characters involved, including my favourite, Prince Eugene of Savoy.

This battle possibly changed the course of European history with the near destruction of Louis XIV's army. Up to this point the French Army under the command of many capable marshals had never been beaten. It was virtually unstoppable until it met Marlborough, the Captain-General of the armies fighting against France. In this book Charles Spencer describes the outcome of that meeting at Blenheim.

The story telling is first-rate, the narrative flows fast and smoothly, is packed full of information but never over-loads the reader with too much. The colour plates are excellent and the maps sufficient for the story however I would have appreciated maybe a few more.

The account of the fighting is excellent and once you start reading it's hard to stop. The narrative drags you into the fighting as the allied infantry assaults the villages of Blenheim and Oberglau and then mass in the centre for the decisive offensive that was to break the back of the French forces. In the end the allies lost 12,000 men killed and wounded but the French lost more than three times that number.

This is an excellent account and adds much to the military history of this period, no decent library should be without a copy on their shelves.

O'Neill's "split" background led to an interesting life and a fascinating family history. Great read. Would like to get my hands on his other books. Picked up this book in February and missed his book signing in Dublin by hours. Would really like to know how long it took him to intricately research the book.

must read for Irish history buffs, Turkish history buffs, or WWII.

I simply could not put this book down. Much more than an entertaining portrait of early 20th century life in some remote places, this is a highly informative social and political history and a compelling reflection on nationalism, patriotism and the fears, violence and intrigues which sometimes accompany them. Mr. O'Neill obviously has talents for both research and scene-painting, and his writing is both literate and engaging. After 340 pages, I was sorry to put the book away. But I feel wiser now that I have made the journey with Mr. O'Neill.

"Blood Dark Track" provides a fascinating background into the history of both Ireland and Turkey during the first half of the Twentieth Century. These two very disparate regions actually have more in common than we would initially suppose: neutrality during WWII, an antipathy to British Imperialism, persecution of religious minorities, and layers upon layers of history underlying bloody Twentieth Century history.

These areas also combine in the persona of the author, Joseph O'Neill, who has provided an intriguing personal narrative of his own family. His father's side, Catholic, poor, and Republican from Cork; his mother's, Catholic, bourgeois, and apolitical from Mersin (a coastal city near Syria). Their meeting is as fortuitous as it was unlikely.

The author deftly melds the pieces into a coherent whole, despite geographic, cultural, and temporal distances. Because of the personal connection of the author to events, people, and places, it reads more like a novel than a history.

Informing the story is the author's discovery of his grandfathers, both as family and as characters in two distinct, though subtly parallel, historical contexts. I was surprised to find the story so gripping that I finished it in three days.

This is one of the finest books published in many years. On the surface the book tells the stories of O'Neill's grandfathers. Both stories are of interest, both touch on historical events of interest; but it is the softness and absolute intelligence of O'Neill's voice that makes this book a classic. In relating the experiences of his grandfathers, O'Neill takes us through his own intellectual struggle as he attempts to apply the rational tools of the barrister/philosopher to the world of strong ethnic identities that haunted him from the world of his grandparents. If this were not enough, O'Neill treats us to a rather fine sense of humor -- again, never obvious but always there and always effective.

I first read Bogmail over 20 years ago and recently picked it up again. Fortunately I didn't recall too much of the plot but what I could recall was that it made me laugh out loud then and sure enough it did again. This is a mystery but it is also an incredibly comical look at life in a small Irish village. It has some of the most amusing dialogue I've read anywhere as the various local characters philosophize over pints of stout at the local pub. The dialogue is witty and would have made a great screenplay so I'm surprised this was never picked up as a film. The people are all real "characters" and the story , set in rural Donegal , digresses enough to include philosophical musings by the local inhabitants as well as an Englishman recently transplanted.

The mystery aspect of this story moves the plot along briskly but the real joy of this book is the interaction between the characters.
A hard book to find but well worth the effort.

I have this one on my "mystery listmania list" (go there for the best mysteries of all time!) with good reason -- it's one of the top (and more humorous) mysteries that I've ever read, a real sleeper! If you're a mystery buff at all, be sure to glean this singular treasure from the heap. I love finding an obscure work like this and being pleasantly surprised as I was in this instance. I originally found it at the library, then I bought a copy so I could read it over and over. I hope, when this fine story is made into a film, that they don't change a single word.

Bogmail is an unclaimed jewel of a book. Why this story has never been snapped up by Hollywood I cannot understand (although BBC Northern Ireland did a TV adaptation in 992, the ridiculously named 'Murder in Eden') The characters are well crafted and believable, particularly the central figure, Roarty the pub landlord. Some of the dialogue had my belly aching with laughter. A thoroughly recommended book for lovers of Ireland and the Irish. Five star excellence.

This is a truly funny, witty and stunningly well-told story of murder in a small Irish village near Donagal. Charming characters, inane but clever conversations abound. Well worth the read!

I needed facts for a group of artists who were painting for an exhibiton with a turn of the century Paris theme.

This book was well written, entertaining, and contained some little known details for these well known and well read artists. The Exhibition was planned to highlight "Le Chat Noir", the caberet where many artists gathered just before the turn of the century, and the book gives life to the Caberet scene in Paris, as well as the total Bohemian scene there in that time frame.

This book was so good in many other ways, that every one of the artists decided to read the whole book. I highly recommend it.

The cover of this book is so telling about the contents that I searched for the poster to hang it in my voice studio. The time and place of early Cabaret is very intriguing to me and this book gave the details of the social canvas behind the whimsy of the art form. This is one of the most wonderful ways to read history. It IS NOT DRY. It springs up your imagination. songbird@avavictoria.com

After reading the only review posted of this book, I thought maybe I hadn't actually read the said book. I'll blame it on how I tend to skim through these sorts of things hardly paying attention. Point is, the review lost me in about the first two sentences. John Lennon? I don't criticize the review or anything - I can, indeed, make the connections - but I read the book more for the information on Murger, Verlaine, Jarry, and the rest of them... So what I'm trying to say is, if you want a great bohemian read totally packed with interesting stuff, read the book. It's a good one.

I first came across this book several years ago when writing about Jacques Offenbach. At that time, I much enjoyed both the author's erudition and his dead-on social analysis. Seigel demonstrates how, in mid-nineteenth century Paris, the eager purchase by the bourgeois of "revolutionary" works of art (literature, paintings, drama, music, etc.) deadened the intended meaning of those works, and, by making their creators wealthy, changed the artists' own feelings about their society. Seigel sees this cooption as an intrinsic function of capitalism, and its own best defense against violent revolution. The parallels for our society seem clear to the reader (Seigel does not discuss them) - just as Henri Murger, author of "La Vie de Boheme", grew rich enough to buy a country estate (and then killed himself) so John Lennon took the money from "Revolution" and bought New York real estate. Mick Jagger is today one of the largest and wealthiest landowners in Britain - and one could extend this list indefinitely.

Over the years, I thought of Seigel's analysis on occasion - for instance, when reading plaintive complaints about the "misuse" of rock in TV commercials. But I didn't bother to pick up the book again until reading a new book with "bohemian" and "bourgeois" together - Brooks' "Bobos in Paradise" - which does not cite this book. Hmm. It's very true that Brooks may simply be a keen observer - after all, our intellectual culture is a direct descendant of that discussed by Seigel. So let's leave it at that - and suggest that anyone seriously interested in "Bobos" would do very well indeed to read this volume.