Europe Books

The Wisdom of Angels chronicles the author's literal and emotional journey to the roots of her Italian ancestors. This very engaging narrative moved me in ways I had not expected. Like the author, my own grandparents were born in the small Sicilian village of Tusa. Cummings' rich descriptive style and gift for dialogue brings to life the wonderful food, culture, and people of Italy. She reminds us that we can better know our selves by understanding and connecting with our past. She has inspired me to make a pilgrimage of my own to the birthplace of my Italian ancestors. Here's to history, to roots, to family. Mille grazie!

Bravissimo! Martha Cummings has written a gem of a book! I did not want the book to end. Recommended to anyone who loves Italy!

Martha Cummings doesn't just write, she inspires. Only a few chapters into her latest book, I found myself on the phone with my oldest living relatives feverishly writing down every word they could remember of our family's heritage. Just as the picture on the cover draws you in, this author's writing captivates the reader in such a way that people come in from other rooms of the house and ask you what you are laughing at and why you look so starry eyed upon putting it down. The description of Italia is so vivid that it transports you across the Atlantic (no passport required). Reading the restaurant scenes compelled me to open a bottle of red and fry up some anchovies! One scene she describes in Campo di Giove took me back to my Italian grandmother's table with all the various offerings of an ordinary mid-week lunch. Anyone who has ever been to Italia needs to read this book. After the trip is over and you are thrust back into your American schedule, you forget so much. The smells, the pace of life, the people, and the little nuances which are nothing short of magical. Ms. Cummings took me back and helped me rekindle the magic that I now possess in my soul having been there.

This book resonated with me because of my own experience of reconnection with my Italian roots. My angel was my late father, Angelo, born in Northeastern Italy, whom I have adored forever, and who told us stories of the family with whom he lost contact during WWII before my sister and I were born.
I recently connected with the children of his brother whom Papa had last seen as he hugged him good-bye before leaving his village forever. Papa was 17; his brother was 16. We found each other via the Internet. The emotions I felt at the first e-mail from the second cousin who found our name on the Internet website on which I had posted it, and realized when he gave the names of his grandparents and said that my father's bithplace and surname were also the birthplace and surname of his mother, that he was the grandson of my father's brother, parallel those of Martha and Laurie in 'The Wisdom of Angels." At least one reviewer has called this book a novel. I think this is more of a non-fiction memoir of a sentimental journey taken by two cousins to the ancestral homeland. Martha and Laurie experience kindness and generosity in their search for their family places from the angels they meet along the way, such as the clerks in the town halls in the villages in the Abruzzi and in Sicily, who go out of their way to help in the search for family records, and the couple who lead them in their car to the best route to Florence. They experience warm and bounteous welcomes from their cousins and distant relations, and shed tears of remembrance as they find vestiges of the lives of their grandparents,Laurie's father, and Martha's mother. Unlike Martha, I have been to Italy only once, but like her, have loved it, its cuisine, its language, and its culture my whole life.
I was especially touched by the scene in which Martha, caressing the weathered door of her grandfather's house, the texture of which she likens to his gentle wrinkled face, discovers that someone had inscribed on it in pencil the date of his death in America an ocean and a lifetime away.
I remember thinking, as I sealed the envelope for my Italian cousins in which I had placed pictures of Papa, locks of his hair, and his funeral cards, that I was glad that there was was someone related still living in his natal village, who remembered Papa from stories told to them by their father, to send the mementos to. The cousin who contacted me had been sent to the library as a child to try to find Papa's name in an American phone book.
I have been to Italy, but not to the village of Papa's birth. One of my Italian cousins sent me a picture of the village, Orcenico Superiore, in Northeastern Italy above Venice marked with an arrow showing the street where he was born. Another cousin, now in Canada sent me some ceramic ware from the Friuli-Venezia-Giulia region in which his village is located.
I remember thinking on the boat crossing the Adriatic to Italy, that I was taking Papa's journey in reverse. Being there was like going home.
I am unlikely ever to return, and will probably never see my cousins face to face, but I have spoken to one of them on the phone and, exchanged letters and pictures with the all of them. Vicariously participating in Martha's and Laurie's journey has permitted me to experience in my imagination a similar journey to the tiny hilltop village in which my personal and lifetime hero was born.

A beautiful and very personal second novel. Ms. Cummings has done it again! The Wisdom of Angels takes us back again to Italia where culture, history and most of all family are the main themes. As in her first novel, Straddling the Borders, Ms. Cummings takes us on a journey to uncover her familial roots, only this time she travels to the birthplace of her Grandmother. The enduring admiration and love Martha and Laurie share for their Nonna comes through in the rich prose and easy dialogue conjuring feelings of longing for those childhood days where the best place around was on a grandmother's lap. Ms. Cummings also very poetically reminds us that a mother's love is best of all with her tender dedication at the opening of the book and the bittersweet final chapter. And the food! Move over Ruth Reichl! Ms. Cummings knows how to capture the essence of the dining experience and she keeps us laughing through all of her gastrointestinal endeavors. A splendid mixture of family, friendship, laughter and travel The Wisdom of Angels is a must read.

I bought this book when (I'm ashamed to admit) McD's came out with Wizard of Oz toys. My 5yo wanted to know who all the characters were, and what they "say". She loved the artwork, pouring over each page to find each character. The book is so eloquent, it's not nearly as scary as the movie. Also, because she's just beginning to read I could gloss over scary parts or words. She has loved it! The day we finished it she wanted to start over and read a second time. I highly recommend for reading with your child!

I bought this book years ago and am looking for another copy as a gift. This edition is the entire MGM script (including the lyrics to the songs) of the 1939 movie and is is wonderfully illustrated with stills from the movie. My family has practically worn out this oversized book and we need another! My husband recently witnessed my daughter's new boyfriend reading along as they watched the movie because he knew we were just fans and he had better catch up! Our families favorite book!

I think that this is a very good book and it also helps me because I have to do a research project on childrens literature and I needed to get pictures of the wizard of Oz and Amazon.com took me right to it!! I was so happy and also I tried other book websites and could not even find a thing!!!

The imagery of the century-old text is superb, and Michael Hague does it a great service. I've been reading this edition to my five year-old son over the past several nights, and he lingers over each lovingly detailed illustration. I'm surprised The Wizard of Oz doesn't have more high-quality editions in print. This volume is a wonderful item to add to your child's library, or even to libraries of adults who enjoy children's books. Highly recommended.

Here's a trivia question for you. When Dorothy killed the Wicked Witch of the West by dropping her house on the witch, was the witch wearing (a) ruby slippers? (b) silver shoes? (c) both?

If you answered "both," you have the correct answer. L. Frank Baum's original story (found in this book) has magical silver shoes in it. The movie version of the story, starring Judy Garland as Dorothy, had ruby slippers. Why the change? Well, ruby slippers film much better. So the Wicked Witch of the West wore both types of footwear, depending on whether you are reading the book or watching the movie.

I share that example with you because 9 people out of 10 have seen the movie, but never read the book. When I was a wee lad, I started in the opposite direction and was sorry to see how much of the Oz story was left out in the movie.

Now, you can make up for lost time by reading or rereading the original. I commend it to you for three primary reasons. First, the book version is built around the idea that the different parts of Oz cannot be easily traversed and the ensuing travel complications make for a better plot. Second, there are many more types of imaginative creatures in the book than in the movie. Third, the book has been lovingly enhanced by new illustrations done in turn of the 20th century style by Michael Hague. The illustrations encompass styles from immediately post van Gogh (yes, there are sunflowers) through Art Deco. I especially liked the water colors of gloomy and darkening skies.

If you are like me, you will chortle when you read L. Frank Baum's comment in the beginning that the story was "written solely to please children . . . a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained . . ." while the scary parts are left out. If you remember frightening moments, you are thinking about the movie. The book is much more gentle, which makes it more suitable for the youngsters. Yes, there are frightening villains, but they are quickly dispatched rather than being allowed to hang around to menace and frighten children just before bedtime. Still, children must have been braver in those days. This story is still scary enough for most to feel a deathly chill now and then.

Many of the ambiguities and confusing aspects of the movie are clearer and less disconcerting in the book, as well.

I won't go into a fine comparison of the two, because that will just spoil the plot for you. Do let me mention a few chapters that you will not recognize from the movie . . . just to whet your appetite for the book -- Away to the South, Attacked by the Fighting Trees, The Dainty China Country, and The Country of the Quadlings.

After you have finished enjoying the wonderful story and new illustrations, think about some of the lessons of the book. Notice that by teaming up, Dorothy and her friends could combine strengths to overcome individual weaknesses. This is the ultimate group of superheroes. How can you combine your talents with others so that all of you combined can accomplish vastly more than any one of you can individually?

Stay on the Yellow Brick Road with effective allies!

It was a whim that brought me to Lucia Graves' memoir "A Woman Unknown: Voices from a Spanish Life." I had just finished reading Carlos Ruiz Zafón's "The Shadow of the Wind," and was thoroughly entranced by its soaring lyrical prose. I noticed that the book was translated into English from Spanish and wondered whether the high quality of the prose might owe a great deal to the translator. So, I started investigating Lucia Graves' writings and discovered this exquisite memoir.

I rarely read autobiographies, but once I stared this work, I couldn't put it down--within a few pages, I felt like a spell had been cast. Soon, I was deep into a serene meditation on life--uncommon and fascinating for its vibrant Spanish twist, and subtle feminist slant. Finding this book was like suddenly discovering a refreshing mountain spring after a long summer hike: I had no idea how thirsty I was for a lush literary work dealing with the inner lives of women.

Naturally, most of the work deals with the life of the author, Lucia Graves. She is the daughter of Robert Graves, the famous English poet, novelist, biographer, essayist, scholar, and translator. She was raised on the island of Majorca, a place with a distinct cultural subset from the mainland Catalonian culture of northeastern Spain. She spoke English at home, Majorcan to the village people, and Castilian Spanish in school. Her father taught her a deep abiding love for words and language. There were dictionaries in every room of her childhood home so that the precise word might be found and discussed at any time. Later, as an adult raising her own family in a sterile modern Barcelona suburb, translation became the author's tranquil refuge from the everyday vicissitudes of life.

The book has four distinct themes. First and most importantly, we learn about the interior life and thoughts of Lucia Graves. It is important to note that there is little in this book about the life of her famous father, or the lives of her mother, siblings, children, and husband. The focus of this memoir is personal and inward at all times. Second, we learn about the lives of women who have played important roles in the author's life. She tells us about their strengths--the characteristics that allowed them to make the most of whatever adversity that befell them. Like her own life, she takes the lives of these everyday women and celebrates them. Third, we learn about the author's passion for words and for the painstaking art of translation. Finally, through the stories of the many women that make up the bulk of this book, we learn about the history of modern Spain, from the Civil War to the present day. In particular, we learn about the dynamic culture and people of Majorca and Catalonia.

There is the story of Jimena, Graves' cleaning women when she was a child growing up on Majorca; the story of Blanca, the island's midwife; and Juanita, her cleaning woman a dozen years later when she was a mother raising a family in Barcelona. Graves tells us about Olga, her childhood ballet instructor--a woman who had once achieved prima ballerina status in a major Russian ballet company, but eventually had to settle for a life of ballet instruction in a small Majorcan village. There's the story of Sister Valentina, one of the Catholic nuns who was Graves' teacher and mentor. Graves also delights us with the stories of courageous women from history: Marie Powell, long-suffering wife of John Milton and heroine of a book by her father that she translates into Spanish; and Margarida de Prades, the little-known and nearly forgotten 16th-century Queen of Catalonia. Graves also manages magically to weave into her contemporary life's story, the tale of the Greek goddess Persephone, Queen of the Underworld.

Like bookends holding the work together at the beginning and end, Graves gives us the story of her aging mother as she undergoes a minor operation in Barcelona. Once again, Graves takes this event as an opportunity to celebrate the many lives of the everyday women who were a part of this congenial, gracious, and loving hospital experience.

The Spanish legal term for a divorced woman translates as a "woman unknown." In the early 1990s, Graves became the "Woman Unknown" of the book's title when she and her husband of 26 years agreed to end their marriage. The subtitle, "Voices from a Spanish Life," aptly describe the many stories the author relates about vital Spanish women--unknown women whose lives she honors and memorializes.

This is a remarkable and richly nuanced work of literary prose. I recommend it highly, particularly to women, feminists, and others who may enjoy connecting with the inner dialogue of an astonishing, articulate, and uncommon woman of uncelebrated wisdom.

Concha Alborg's review of "A Woman Unknown" is riddled with errors.
She leaves an erroneous impression when she writes "Lucia Graves is the daughter of Robert Graves, the English poet who lived in Majorca with his Spanish wife and children for several years." Lucia is the daughter of Robert Graves and his second wife, which "A Woman Unknown" clearly states on page 6. it's also clear from the text that Lucia's mother is English. There's a great deal of information about her in this autobiography,even her maiden name, Pritchard.
Alborg also writes "The reader is left wondering what led to her divorce from her Catalan husband ... "
Not so. The author explains at length that she and her husband, who married quite young, simply grew apart in their interests and activities.
"we know little more than her oldest daughter's name and not even that of her other two daughters" Alborg says. Again, not so. The third daughter's naming is discussed at some length (it's Natalia) in a quite comical scene in the labor room, when the attending nurses urge Lucia to name her daughter Purificacion, in honor of that day in the Roman Catholic calendar.
Emy Louie also errs in referring to Lucia "Roman Catholic upbringings". Her parents were firmly agnostic, a major source of conflict during her girlhood time in a convent school, and of shaping her thought.

I loved this book and, as a writer, I found it very inspiring! Graves writes beautifully of growing up on Majorca and her descriptions of the place and the people there, and other parts of Catalonia, are very evocative. The book caught my eye because I am studying Spanish and this book gave me a great feel for life in Spain, particularly under Franco but also, as described to her by people she knew, during the Spanish Civil War. It also offers interesting thoughts on language and identity, because she grew up speaking English at home, Majorcan/Catalan with neighbors (at least until Franco tried to crush the language), and Castilian Spanish at school. It's no wonder she became a translator.

By the way, if you're interested in Robert Graves (I didn't know anything about him - I guess I missed the whole PBS "I Claudius" series), you won't find out all that much about him here - this is Lucia's story. At least he passed on to his daughter his talent for writing.

FOUND IN TRANSLATION

It's hard to review a book when one feels that she could have written it herself and worse yet when in fact that book has been published already. In some ways it's reassuring to read the same thoughts, opinions, even the same literary references and mythological symbols. In other ways it is almost eerie to share with it a similar structure of titled chapters which can be read independently. It all started with the cover of Lucia Graves' A Woman Unknown. Voices from a Spanish Life (Washington D. C.: Counterpoint, 2000) where I saw the familiar picture of Mercedes Formica, a writer I interviewed some years ago, but more about her later.
Lucia Graves is the daughter of Robert Graves, the English poet who lived in Majorca with his Spanish wife and children for several years. Her book is labeled as her autobiography, but it's more like a history of Spain during the almost forty years of Franco's Dictatorship and the ensuing some twenty years of Democracy. Her role is more that of a well-versed witness, a woman who has lived among three different cultures: the English of her birth, the Spanish of her adopted country and the Catalan into which she married. Hers is a well documented account of everyday life, political repression, historical events and a study of the richness of languages.
The author moved to Majorca, where a version of Catalan is spoken, when she was three years old. Despite her father's prominence, she lived a rather modest life on the island before it became a popular tourist destination. A few years of her childhood were spent in Palma, the island's capital, where she studied in a repressive nun school like any other Spanish girl, until she was almost convinced to be baptized in the Catholic Church ( to keep her from "going to hell"), at which time her parents had her first tutored at home and then send to England to receive a "proper" education.
At Oxford, although she missed Spain terribly, she became familiar with the language of her birth, her own father's work and - interestingly enough- Spanish literature which she could then study uncensored. It was her appreciation of the complexity of languages and in particular her translation class, that gave her the tools to become the accomplished translator she is now. Her reflections on language are in themselves worth the reading of A Woman Unknown. Her dilemma should be familiar to anyone fluent in more than one language: "I began to see that being trilingual meant I had never been able to focus fully on any one of my languages, that each one covered only particular areas of experience, and as result I could not express myself fully in any of them" (115).
Lucia Graves' book is full of expressions in Catalan which she carefully explains and translates into English. In fact, if anything, her careful attention to detail is superfluous to the initiated reader of Spanish culture. Her knowledge of the subtleties of the Spanish and Catalan character is commendable as is the varied tidbits of information about popular customs. Her appraisal of the repressive years of Franco's regime is equally on target as is her appreciation - only now becoming official in Spain- of the liberal Republican government.
However, for all her political openness, Lucia Graves is very coy about much of her personal information. For instance, she mentions in passing the sudden death of her half-sister Jenny (149), but doesn't bother to explain it, or we know little more than her oldest daughter's name and not even that of her other two daughters. Her Spanish mother, despite the fact that her illness opens and closes the book, remains a mystery as well. The reader is left wondering what led to her divorce from her Catalan husband and even to whom is she married now since she alludes to a second marriage, while she analyzes in depth the effects of the new Spanish divorce law of 1981. It could be argued that this lack of detail is a good thing since the reader's curiosity is peaked due to her talent as a writer and her, indeed, fascinating life.
The title, "A Woman Unknown" refers to the legal terminology given a woman in divorce proceedings. In fact Lucia Graves gives special attention to the situation of Spanish women: from the liberties of the Second Republic before Franco to the repression of the years after the Civil War, up to the new freedom we are presently enjoying. Her representation of postwar courtship rituals is as poignant as that of Carmen Martín Gaite's, one of the best Spanish writers who have written on the same topic. Her sympathetic portrait of Margarida de Prades, in the chapter titled "The Queen Who Never Was," a fifteen century Catalan noblewoman, for example, makes for captivating reading.
Lucia Graves is equally sympathetic in her depiction of the Sephardic Jews who inhabited Majorca and Catalonia. Their exile, in many ways, parallels her own quest for a homeland. But she is overly simplistic when she states that Franco was anti-Semitic. Despite all his other abuses, Franco saved over thirty thousand Ukranian Jews as it is documented in Chaim Lipschitz's book, Franco, Spain, the Jews, and the Holacaust (KTVA Publishing House, 1984). In fact Franco's own mother was of Jewish descent; her maiden name, Bahamonde, being typically Jewish.
There is no mention in the text of Mercedes Formica, the writer who graces the book's cover. This is a surprising choice given her right wing ideology - she was a sympathizer of the Falangist leader, José Antonio Primo de Rivera. My guess is that it was chosen by the editor in an otherwise beautiful, careful edition. These minor issues aside, Lucia Graves' book is a well written, compelling history of contemporary Spain from the point of view of a not so foreign woman, even when her own story is still not completely told.
CONCHA ALBORG

Concha Alborg is a Spanish writer who lives in Philadelphia and teaches Spanish literature at Saint Joseph's University. She has recently published Beyond Jet-Lag (New Jersey: Ediciones Nuevo Espacio, 2000), her second work of fiction, about the immigrant experience. Beyond Jet-Lag is available on Amazon.com ...

I've not read another book as lovely as this one in a long time! The estimable daughter of Robert Graves creates in beautiful prose an estimable voice of her own, while wearing warm and honorable traces of her father's literary genius; there's a common clarity, and distinction in the language. There's remarkable writing on every page; the ever so gradual reaching deep into the heart of Franco almost by not mentioning him, the destruction of her Spain from within, the passion of her love for her Catalan self, among her many selves- it's a thoroughly important book in every way. The first and last sections work like bookends and are epsecially right; Graves' subtle reflections on her relationship with her mother. This is English prose of the first order. Of course, one has a natural penchant to want to find wonderful amber things in her writing, given one's regard for the work of her father; the interesting thing is that her own voice presents itself right off, so much so that one ends praising even more the virtue of the inheritance, rather than getting lost in the echos. Her reflections on the work of a translator are beautifully woven throughout the book, and reveal a meticulous care for the possibilities of language. The ways in which she chooses to speak of her father in this memoir are memorable; at the oddest, least unexpected moment the narrative will turn and there is Robert Graves, father. This really is an irrepleaceable work of art. I commend it to everyone to read, there is something for every reader in these slender pages, and that surely expresses the consummate perfection of its parts.

Gustaw Herling-Grudzinski writes about fundamental things that determine the human condition: good and evil, love and hate, the yearnings and limitations of existence. The material for his reflections are significant examples from literature history which terrified me because book show reality of living in camp which is below dignity and state statement that "Human being are human in human terms." This marvelous book should be read by everybody who want discover true of war. Highly recommended.

This is a true story of the Gulag. Gustav Herling was arrested because he fled across an international boundary and the Russians suspected he was related to Hermann Goring. Of course this was crazy. At the time, Russia was allied with Germany, and Herling was fleeing the Nazis. His one and half years in a Gulag camp in the Artic north is featured in this story. He relates how prisoners were sapped of their energy and then died. The prominent theme was the hunger of the prisoners. They were slowly starved to death. Other stories relate the one or two days a year the prisoners were given off, the disgraced NKVD prisoners and their fate, and the cultural activities.

This is an interesting read. This is not for the feint of heart. Murder, rape, hunger, and the loss of humanity were what happened in the camps. Herling portrays this vividly in this book. The book blasts the system of slave labor in the Soviet Union.

The imagery in the book is not for the faint of heart. Its a brutal book - a study of the human condition when devoid of hope, set against impossible odds, and where a temporary relief from the pain may turn out to be an insufferable shock.

Its also a deeply moral book - that seeks to find answers to the most grotesque acts of depravity in the context of these acts... where a man's face cracking under the weight of boots may be the path to freedom.

Perhaps the best summary of this book comes from Bertrand Russell himself who wrote an introduction to the first English edition of "World Apart" in 1951: "Among the many books that I have read about experiences of the victims of the Soviet prisons and camps, the `World Apart' by Gustaw Herling impressed me the most and is best written. This book possesses very rarely seen power of simple and lively narrative and it is completely impossible to question anywhere his truthfulness."

In spite of this testimony from one of the greatest intellectuals of the XX Century, the book did not enjoy much recognition for many years. Even today, more than half a century after its publication, this masterpiece still remains in relative obscurity, save the Herling's native Poland. It is an example of a thing done by "a wrong guy at the wrong time in the wrong place". Czeslaw Milosz explained that condition somewhat like this: After the war Gustaw Herling was known more for his service in the Polish Army of Wladyslaw Anders considered at the time, especially in France and Italy, as Fascist and the book was clearly anti-Soviet. At the same time the prevailing mood, especially among the left-leaning intellectuals was decisively pro-Soviet. After all the Soviet Union was an Ally who played decisive role in the defeat of the Nazi Germany.

The true nature of the Soviet system was not fully revealed and acknowledged until the publication of Solzhenitsyn's "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" (1963) and, more importantly, "The Gulag Archipelago" (1974). Important as these works are, however, the testimony of Herling preceded them by more than a decade and it is the first, as far as I can tell, in depth account of the reality of Soviet system. Unfortunately the works by Solzhenitsyn did not do much good to redeeming this book's value. Perhaps, they even overshadowed it.

The "World Apart" is an account of the real events that happened during Herling's "tenure" in the camps of Kargopole in the deep North of the Soviet Union. And the real were the people he wrote about. But this book is not merely an account of these unspeakable events. Herling goes much further. He offers his analysis of "what happened how and why". And he offers the portraits of people describing what can happen to a man under the conditions of extreme terror, cold, hunger and overwork. It is a warning to all those "homegrown moralists" who in the comforts of their secure existence in freedom feel in their rights to pass judgments on others regardless of circumstances they really know nothing about.

However horrific were the events described and however terrible was what happened to and with the people in the camps the overall "climate", if you will, of this book is not altogether gloomy. While not concealing what happened with the inmates in terms of their own behavior, Gustaw Herling refrains very consistently from passing judgments on them. The inmates were ordinary people and their misery, including sometimes complete moral disintegration and loss of dignity, was inflicted upon them and they were the victims. One cannot demand impossible from others and cannot expect something he had not proven capable of delivering himself.

But his judgment of the nature of the Soviet system itself is unmistakable and uncompromising. It is astonishing that even today while there is hardly any confusion as to the nature of the Nazism, there is still much ignorance, misunderstanding and under-appreciation for the evils of Communism, including it's most degraded Stalinist brand. "World Apart" by Gustaw Herling-Grudzinski fully deserves to be recognized as one of the most in-depth, original analysis of the nature of the Soviet system (and beyond) and is a genuine masterpiece of the literature of the XX Century. If there is a work that this book should be compared to it is Fyodor Dostoyevsky's "Notes from the Underground".

I first read The Gulag Archipelago when I was in middle school, and it left a lasting impression. What I hadn't realized was there were other authors who had written about the subject before Solzhenitsyn.

Herling's book is a very readable introduction to life in the GULAG; he was a prisoner for eighteen months until he was released to work as part of the war effort. Told from a first-person perspective, it's not as detailed and doesn't present as many disparate views as The Gulag Archipelago but is still very interesting and enlightening.

It's especially recommended if you're curious about the subject and don't have the patience or the time to work through Solzhenitsyn's works.

This book begins with a musical score in Beethoven's own hand. The end papers are an actual photograph of Beethoven's working manuscript for the Grosse Fuge in B flat major, Op. 134.

Jonah Winter recounts the story of Beethoven's pianos and the thirty-nine apartments where he lived in Vienna. So often children's "non-fiction" blurs the line between fact and speculation. Not so in this book. Winter clearly identifies what is fact and what is conjecture and does so with great humor.

Diaries, eviction notices, physical evidence and piano movers' notes are used as a basis for the story he tells. Why did Ludwig change apartments so frequently? Well, there is some evidence to suggest the neighbors complained. As Beethoven moves from place to place, Winter chronicles the music that was composed there. An author's note at the end gives additional information about his deafness and the amazing fact that he composed his magnificent Ninth Symphony after he had completely lost his hearing.

Barry Blitt's illustrations lift the story to a new level. We first see Beethoven as a baby crying in Gothic letters, "wha wha wha WHA." He accurately and humorously depicts the difficulties and incredible logistics involved in moving pianos to the new apartments, over rooftops, through windows and through walls. The composer's effect on his neighbors is depicted in a cross-section where we see the neighbors living above, below and next door to him reacting to the noise coming from his apartment in the middle. Babies cry, dogs bark and people pound on the floor, ceiling and walls as Beethoven plays.

This book is a must have for music teachers, piano teachers and students of music. What a treat!

I teach middle school music and use this book to introduce the video "Beethoven Lives Upstairs" to my students. The text and illustrations wonderfully depict for students some of the idiosyncracies of the great composer. Much of the same ideas are then shown in the video through the eyes of a boy their same age. This book is a wonderful addition to anyone, young or old, wanting to learn insights about Ludwig vanBeethoven.

What a great and witty book. Great for K-2 Music Teachers. Excellent.

This is such a creatively well-done book. The words and illustrations are top drawer. Through the mystery of moving 39 times five pianos, children learn the story of Beethoven. Winter's underhanded humor is shown throughout making it a joy to read. I guarantee my kids won't forget who he is and what he did. The author's note in the back gives a nice lesson after the fun. My kids were enthralled through the entire book.

It's hard to easily categorize this: based on a little-known fact about Beethoven's habit of moving frequently, it offers up a fun story of how he not only moved, but moved all five of his pianos from place to place. The hilarious tale of and why he moved, followed by all those pianos, creates a very different kind of story youngsters will relish.

I've tried several courses: math, science, history and language. My kids especially love the Sign Language cards! I purchased all three card sets and the CD-software. The photographs are more realistic than drawings which you mostly find in ASL products. Great for younger kids too. My daughter's using them in her Brownie troupe and my three-year-old has picked up on some of the alphabet and numbers already. My older son has some mild learning disabilities and looking at a page in a book with so much information all together makes him nervous. I put one card at a time on a cleared table. It helps him focus and that gives him more confidence. People have been making or using flash cards forever, and I think they always will be no matter how fancy computers and software gets (but the Exambusters software is good too). I've recommended them to others.

When I was in school, flash cards were the best way to learn and I always made my own. The exambusters cards cover many of my daughter's courses and I bought her several. Sometimes we work together and she and her friends study in a group too--making a trivia game. Try the software. The screensaver function is great!! In our house, we love to learn new languages. The program flashes words or phrases and then translation every few seconds. The material goes into your brain by osmosis and the constantly changing cards on the screen keep pulling you back to read more. The software is much easier to figure out than some other brands we've purchased. It's intuitive; you don't need to read a lot of confusing instructions. All in all, good investment.

In junior high, my son got a head start on high school courses and that helped him get better grades. He used both cards and CD. My son liked the software, so he studied more than he would have from a book. Learning is hard work, but the exambusters made him feel like it's not quite so bad. The software is well-laid out, colorful, and user-friendly. The messages they give when they score the tests are amusing.

I bought several courses. The cards offer basic concepts in small bites. The information was relevant to what was presented by my teacher. The cards and CD's gave good review before exams and a head start at the start of the new school year. The cards had a lot of questions; you can carry them in your pocket and learn a few each day. The software was easy to use. It is like the cards but on the screen. You can take a test or just review. Front is question, click for answer on back of card. The software can also show the cards on the screen at random, first the question, then the answer. They change every few seconds. That keeps you reading and wondering what's coming up next. It's entertaining while you're studying.

Every year I recommend them to my students. The ones who buy them seem to do a little better than they might have. The cards are numbered, so it's easy to tell them which ones they need to know, and which they can set aside based on the curriculum. It's harder to accomplish that type of culling of information with a review book you'd buy at the superstore.

I believe this book is a wonderful introduction to the history and events leading up to, and including the horrible years of the holocaust. I gave it to my grandaughter who is ten years old. I am a child of a survivor. The book is a valuable part of education of a time that now seems so distant, and when most of the survivors have died. It speaks for them to future generations
nd as always, Elie Wiesel is warm, and honest, but never bitter. We are now the witnesses for those who experienced hell.

This is the third book I read by Elie Wiesel, first I read "Night" which is my favorite, second I read "The Forgotten" which I thought was very good too. Now this one, is much shorter but the tetimonials by other Holocaust victims and the photographs makes it an excellent book. The generation of WWII survivors are dying and we need books like these to keep reminding us and future generations of the horrors of the war, so we don't repeat it.

Those who do not believe that there was, and still is, a legend in the name of 'Holocaust' are kindly invited to visit Ghaza and Lebanon (North and notably South) to look and see how such a word is actually pronounced.
They will see a thorough destruction involving extensive loss of life through a carnage of fire and cold-blood slaughter of civilians.

Thank you.

Elie Wiesel is the writer who more than any other made the world aware of the Holocaust. He through the years has been a voice of remembrance for the victims, a voice of integrity and courage, a witness of what is the greatest example of Man's inhumanity to Man known in human history. For the Holocaust was the deliberate effort of Nazi Germany, a people sitting in the center of Europpean civilization to wholly destroy, man, woman and child the entire Jewish people. One third of the Jewish people was murdered in the years 1939-1945, and the greatest share of European Jewry destroyed.
Now in this work Elie Wiesel presents a small historical over-view of the Shoah, and accompanies this with testimonies of others who passed through this world of nightmare.
It is a short moving volume, another work of invaluable testimony.

Dare to stick you head and heart into the cruelity of mankind and you come away from this powerful book enlightened--and looking over your shoulder at today's racism. An equally moving book is Walking the Trail, One Man's Journey Along the Cherokee Trail of Tears by Jerry Ellis.

I have just read the 7th volume of the amazing Story of Civilization, and continue to be impressed with this series. This volume focuses on European civilization from 1558 - 1648 and focuses on such great minds as Shakespeare, Bacon, Montaigne, Rembrandt, Galileo and Descartes. From a political perspective, it focuses on the reigns of Mary Queen of Scots, Elizabeth I, and James I of England; Philip II, III, and IV of Spain; Henry III, IV, and Richelieu in France; and the interesting histories of the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, and Russia. The book also touches on the Islamic world at this time.

Durant's prose is very readable and it is also easy to see his likes and dislikes of the characters in history. I personally like to be able to understand how an historian feels about his subject and I have learned to respect his opinions. I'm amazed at how bloody this part of European history was. I knew that the time of the reformation was filled with wars, but didn't realize how long it lasted after the reformation. This volume also shows how difficult it is for man to accept change, though this time frame does begin to show some positive ideas being accepted. From a religious freedom perspective, it is incredible how difficult and painful of a process it was to arrive at the freedoms we take for granted. Reading history really makes me grateful for what we are blessed with.

I highly recommend this series and volume to anyone wanting to understand the story of our civilization. It is filled with beauty and horror. Let us learn from the lessons of history.

The Durants are gifted storytellers, however sometimes it seems they're more concerned with the art of the tale moreso than the veracity of the facts. That is not to say they are inaccurate, rather that aesthetics dominates their work. My reason for making such a claim is that it seems their spin is more of an interpretation of history than a simple conveying of facts. That spin is based in a materialistic mindset. They see historical figures as being motivated primarily by shallow concerns, which I don't think was the actual case. With that established, there is a lot of material covered in this book which makes for fascinating reading. The era of the King James Bible is described. The Puritans took the Bible as their guide for daily living. "Toward 1564 they began to be called Puritans--as a term of abuse--because they demanded the purification of English Protestantism from all forms of faith and worship not found in the New Testament" (pp. 23-24). The majority of the London Protestants and of the House of Commons were Puritans.
Private libraries among the well-to-do in England were common at this time. Interestingly, public libraries were rare. John Lyly wrote a book in 1579 proposing to show that "mind and character can be formed through education, experience, travel, and wise counsel" (p. 67). The Durands mention "old Parr", who in 1635 was presented to Charles I allegedly still in good health at age 152. There is a lot of history covered in this book. I would recommend reading it with an eye of receptivity to the facts, while disregarding the commentary inserted throughout, and taking into consideration the bias of the historians.

In this, the seventh volume of the unparalleled series "The Story of Civilization," Dr. Will & Ariel Durant have compiled a compelling rendition of historical fact covering nearly a century of Europe's past from the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558 A.D. to the death of Descartes in 1650 A.D..

The reader will be treated to vivid historical recounts concerning: Phillip II of Spain and his "invincible armada." Elizabeth I of England, the "Virgin Queen." The Hapsburg Family. The Thirty-Years' War. The Puritan Revolution in England. Spain's fierce struggle to subdue the Netherlands. Europe's disillusionment following the brutalities of the religious wars. Cardinal Richelieu of France. And much, much more including plates and maps.

The Durants have created a prose which is free-flowing and easy to understand. This book, designed to stand alone or within the series, is a masterpiece of historical accuracy to be enjoyed by professional and layperson alike. I rate it as five stars. Superb!

Fortunately, a PH.d is not required to both enjoy and be educated by the Durants monumental achievement. They are the authors who literally built the Simon & Schuster company. (I hope Carly Simon sends flowers to their graves every year as they largely generated her families fortune!)

It is important to remember that Will Durant was an experimental academic himself (c.f. the "Ferrer School"); and he knew that nothing was so stupid that it could not be found in Academe or academics. He himself is amazingly free of this crippling disease of "institutional" scholar an expert in philosophy as well as history. He was born in 1885, and educated at a time when Truth was still a concept (self-serving misreadings of Nietzche aside) and historians were unafraid to voice opinions other than one's attacking anything and everything not conforming the usual left-wing fad of the moment.

The aesthetic is indeed stunning. The flow or eloquence is rarely interuppted over nearly 70,000 pages of written text. Of course mistakes of detail abound. As I've said in other reviews, the biggest problem area is that of the military. Too often the Durants take, especially ancient, but also more recent military histories at face value. This was due to two reasons: little interest in detailed military history and preference for things "cultural." And sensing their weakness in battle narratives (as opposed to say Keegan or Tuchman or Gibbon), they are largely absent; the concentration is on their causes and effects; the effects of battles nearly always being ephemeral.

To condemn them for "lack of perspective" or "bias" is to reveal one's own. Unlike some reviews, the Durants made every effort to balance controversies by offering both sides. If they drew a conclusion contrary to your sacred cow, it is not an indicator of bias or error (much tho' the Left attempts to conflate the two).

In certain obviously indefensible activities (the Spanish Inquisition, the genocide of Jews before the First Crusade, the Church's deepfrying heretics, Louis XIV's brutal expulsion of the French protestants (Huguenot, a corruption of a German word, "eidgenossen") the Durants' condemn it with the precision of Gibbon and the moral outrage of Barbara Tuchman or Robert Conquest.

Somethings are evil and can never be anything else. To forget that is to invite the next generations of Lenins, Stalins or Hitlers.

The Durants understood the role "bias" far better than a thousand puerile academic critiques (tho' I realize that is largely a redundant remark) and compensated for it by the effort as well as their method of "integral history" which seeks to weave the entire history of European civilization into one seamless, if not stream of conscious, narrative flow.

It succeeds brilliantly and one finds it difficult to believe that any other such "generalists"--historians these days tending to bury into the infinitesimal and cherish minutiae, thus condemning themselves to present and future obloquy--will flash so brilliant across the literary heavens any time soon.

You should always check for youself if you have doubt. The Durants are almost always right and the mistakes are those of haste or, perhaps, the preference (or distaste) for the particular subject. (It is, for instance, difficult to feel much but revulsion for Charles V and his son Philip II and their policies of tyranny, blood and bigotry).

Read with a mind open to learning, not with crosshairs seeking weakness to exploit.

Will and Ariel Durant shine again in their seventh book of their history of European civilization. The given detailed attention to Shakespeare, Elizabeth I, Henri Quarte, Phillip II, Montaigne and many others.

The prose sparkles with wit, verve, pith and an unflagging interest and love for the subject of history and the homeland of my ancestors.

Highly recommended.

This book is a good overview of the main events of the period. Dunn does a great job explaining each event.

Reads like a story, instead of a series of "facts", like most history books. Highly readable. Very interesting.

When my son began the study of Modern European History in college I decided to reacquaint myself with the subject. "The Age of Religious Wars" is a good place to start. Covering the years, 1559-1715, this tome takes the reader from the End of the Reformation to the beginning of the era of the 18th century balance of power.

This book focuses on the big themes of history. It tells the stories of Kings and warriors, merchants and clerics, artists and philosophers, but very little about the common people of the era.

This book is very well organized. Beginning with the situation in Europe in 1559, the first chapter gives the religious lay of the land in the countries of Western Europe at the start of the era. Chapter 2 outlines the beginning political situation in Eastern Europe.

In Chapter 3 the author studies the economic theories and commercial forms which fueled the economies of the age.

Chapter 4 introduces the reader to the political ebb and flow between absolutism and rising constitutionalism. Although the dominant figure of the era was France's Sun King, Louis XIV, he was the architect of a system which would die in a sea of blood before the 18th Century was out. In his day, Louis XIV lead the superpower of the age, but, toward the end of his long reign, he overplayed his hand, losing much of the territorial gains which he had temporally enjoyed.

The political upheaval of the era which was a harbinger of things to come was England's Glorious Revolution of 1688. For perhaps the first time in history, a monarch's right to reign was made dependent on the support of his subjects. Protestants William of Orange and his wife, Queen Mary, daughter of the late King Charles II, were invited by the nobles to challenge Mary's brother, the Catholic King James II. The resulting overthrow of James, in clear contrast to Louis' absolutism, laid the groundwork for the concept of government by consent of the governed, which would receive expanding application during the succeeding centuries.

In Chapter 5 Prof. Dunn reflects on the Age of Genius which truly this era was. Emerging from the intellectually stagnant Middle Ages, Europe erupted into a creative age virtually unique in history. Science was advanced by the likes of Copernicas, Kepler, Galileo, Descartes and Newton. Renaissance art bust forth under the creative genius of da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, Durer and El Greco, to be followed by Baroque masters such as Rubens, Van Dyck and Velazquez. Europe still glories in the architectural heritage of Bernini and Wren. Our philosophy and political science still draw inspiration from the writings of Montaigne, Pascal, Hobbes Sponoza and Locke. Theatres of the world still interpret the works of Shakespeare and Marlowe, Lope de Vega and Calderon, Corneile, Moliere and Racine.

The book concludes in its sixth chapter with an analysis of the new balance of power which would carry Europe into a new age. A series of wars, Sweden's moment in the international spotlight and giant personalities such as Peter the Great would all combine to make Europe the place it would be in the 18th century.

Overall, this book is a good survey of the Age of Religious Wars. I had not read a college text in a long time and I had more acclimated to learning history in biographies and books more focused on specific topics. I am glad that I read it and give it 4 stars.

This is the second book I've read in the Norton History of Modern Europe (the first was Eugene F. Rice, Jr.'s "The Foundations of Early Modern Europe, 1460-1559"), and I've been highly impressed with both of them.

They both cover the basic events fairly thoroughly and simply, presenting the background but not getting lost in details. Although focusing on political history, they both cover many other aspects of history--military strategy, economics, demographics, art and culture, philosophy--briefly at least.

Speaking as someone who occasionally has to teach the subject, in my opinion organization is the greatest challenge in presenting history, and one of the greatest compliments I can pay to any history book is to call it well-organized. Dunn's book is generally very well-organized; I have only a few minor quibbles, and I doubt that I could improve on his organization without introducing bigger problems.

Other quibbles are much less significant: I would have liked more detail regarding the War of the Spanish Succession, more information about changes in military strategy in this period (since firearms underwent constant improvement, and the nature of seige warfare changed dramatically--but how exactly did these change the strategy and nature of warfare?), more on the culture of Restoration England, maybe something on the culture of the Puritans (he tells us nothing of John Foxe, and almost nothing of John Milton or John Bunyan).

However, I am fairly familiar with the cultural history of Europe (by which I mean art, music, literature, philosophy and religion), so in reading these books my main concern is to fill in the political, military, and economic background, which I don't know very well. If your situation is similar to mine, I guarantee you will find these books very rewarding.

One other thing I find most gratifying is the well chosen illustrations: although printed in black and white, they are often obscure enough to be new to me, while perfectly commenting the text. For instance, the closing pages show a woodcut of Peter the Great cutting a Russian nobleman's beard, in which Peter (actually an impressively large man) is portrayed as a giggling, child-size pest to the large, dignified nobleman; the opposite page features a print from 1698 showing Peter's execution of the streltsy (his elite guard) rebels: row after row of hangings and beheadings on edifying display for the passing carriages. You didn't see it in your art history survey course, but it reveals the nature of Peter's Russia far more effectively than anything that you did.

The maps are also perfect, which enhances any history book.

If you are looking for a history of modern European culture, I do not recommend these books, however, as their focus lies elsewhere. For that purpose, I suggest starting with Jacques Barzun's opinionated but thorough "From Dawn to Decadence," supplemented with a good art history textbook such as Jansen's History of Art. If the religious issues that attended the religious wars are your concern, you should consider the 4th volume of Jaroslav Pelikan's "The Christian Tradition," which is titled "Reformation of Church Dogma."

After this book, if your thirst for early modern European history has not been quenched, I recommend turning to Diarmaid MacCulloch's "The Reformation."

Dunn is an excellent writer. He is not flowery like the Durants, but his prose is elegant and to the point. He covers a great deal in a fair amount of detail. His book is very well organised and full of well chosen illustrations. The book is an easy size to carry around and very competitively priced (this kind of book is often very expensive, this one is not). If you want an introduction to this period, I do not think you could do better than this book. I could not put it down (Dunn knows how to be entertaining) and since completing it have referred to it often.

A very good read. And what makes it fascinating is the fact that they are all actual events. It vividly illustrates what lengths the locals went to to help these airmen. Literally putting their lives at stake to help strangers for a common cause.

Fast paced and very hard to put down, this book really gets you into the WWII evasion experience. The sense of urgency and suspense really comes through...my heart was racing as I read about downed airmen stealing clothes to blend in with the locals and racing away from the scene of the crash, sometimes right through German troops. This book really highlights the efforts and risk of the collaborators, and just how dedicated they were to doing their part in the war effort. A very highly recommended read!

"Aircraft down" by Philip D. Caine, sub-titled: "Evading Capture In WWII Europe". Brassey's, Dulles, Virginia, 1997

The author is a retired Brigadier General, United States Air Force, where he was once responsible for training at the Air Force Academy for "SERE (survival, evasion, resistance, escape). This gave him a professional interest in the history of evaders in Nazi occupied Europe. Philip D. Caine has also written books on Americans serving in in the Royal Air Force, (e.g. in the "Eagle Squadron") including "American Pilots In The RAF".

In this book, "Aircraft Down", he has drawn on his training and experience to write six separate stories, of individuals and crews, shot down behind the lines in enemy held Europe. The first three stories deal with Americans who were flying in the RAF. These three were fighter pilots, who came down alone. They were not alone on the ground, however, as they all needed the help of the local populace to escape Nazi searchers.

The fifth story is different: the entire crew of a B-17 Flying Fortress comes down on the island of Corfu, off the coast of Albania/Greece. Here, again, the common thread is that he local populace has to work together to first provide refuge for the evaders and then to provide a means of escape.

In all of the stories in this book, the author has worked to put a human face on the evaders. His research has been sufficient to give a personal memoir flavor to each story, and his follow-up on post war meetings, provides a sense of closure to the story. He relates the excitement when an evader meets the same woman working in the same field as on the day he was shot down, some 40+ years ago.

The book is concluded with a very short chapter entitled, "The Art Of Evasion And Survival", which points up that the personal resourcefulness of the downed pilot is often the key to a successful escape. General Caine has avoided the usual impersonal book, often written by General Officers, dealing with statistics numbers and unit identification, all at the "higher" strategic level. Instead, happily, he has used personal interviews and much research to provide a fine book telling the stories almost as if they were all personal memoirs.

I found this book gives a lot of insight to evaders and some of the less well known facts of the war. The book has a fairly fast pace but also has a lot of detail. The first three stories deal with downed flyers in France and Belgium who eventually made it to Spain and then British held Gibraltar. Spain was sympathetic to Germany, and treated evaders harshly until 1943 when it became politically necessary for them to develop a better relationship with the Allies.

The fourth story is of a later evader in Belgium who was able to meet the oncoming Allies in 1944 instead of going to Spain. The fifth story details the evasion of an entire bomber crew from the island of Corfu over to Albania. They stayed at a guerilla camp in the mountains and eventually escaped by ship to Italy after much hardship. The final story is of of a flyer who evaded through Italy. Originally captured by the Germans upon landing, he was released from jail with many others when Italy signed an armistice with the allies. He spent the rest of his time evading the Germans and travelling around Italy (with much help from Italian partisans) and finally escaping to the Allied lines after many setbacks.

One of the central themes of the book is the sacrifice made by the occupied population to feed and help the Allied fliers escape. Every story has a follow-up at the end about the later life of the evader and what happened to the people that helped them evade (if known).

Do not start reding this book if you have important things to do because you will not be able to put it down. The book chronicles the evasion of several downed airmen in WWII Europe, how they evaded, the people that helped them and the trials and risks they endured. It is well written and informative and will make you glad that you never had to fly in combat, bail out of a plane or crash land and find yourself in a lonely and hostile land.