The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary (P.S.)

Average customer rating:

Interesting, but cannot match its own hype

Surprisingly absorbing

Sensationalized Version of a Gripping History

Slow

THIS BOOK IS A MUST-READ

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary (P.S.)
Simon Winchester
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0060839783
Release Date: 2005-07-05

Amazon.com

When the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary put out a call during the late 19th century pleading for "men of letters" to provide help with their mammoth undertaking, hundreds of responses came forth. Some helpers, like Dr. W.C. Minor, provided literally thousands of entries to the editors. But Minor, an American expatriate in England and a Civil War veteran, was actually a certified lunatic who turned in his dictionary entries from the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum. Simon Winchester has produced a mesmerizing coda to the deeply troubled Minor's life, a life that in one sense began with the senseless murder of an innocent British brewery worker that the deluded Minor believed was an assassin sent by one of his numerous "enemies."

Winchester also paints a rich portrait of the OED's leading light, Professor James Murray, who spent more than 40 years of his life on a project he would not see completed in his lifetime. Winchester traces the origins of the drive to create a "Big Dictionary" down through Murray and far back into the past; the result is a fascinating compact history of the English language (albeit admittedly more interesting to linguistics enthusiasts than historians or true crime buffs). That Murray and Minor, whose lives took such wildly disparate turns yet were united in their fierce love of language, were able to view one another as peers and foster a warm friendship is just one of the delicately turned subplots of this compelling book. --Tjames Madison

Amazon.com Audiobook Review

The compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary, 70 years in the making, was an intellectually heroic feat with a twist worthy of the greatest mystery fiction: one of its most valuable contributors was a criminally insane American physician, locked up in an English asylum for murder. British stage actor Simon Jones leads us through this uncommon meeting of minds (the other belonging to self-educated dictionary editor James Murray) at full gallop. Ultimately, it's hard to say which is more remarkable: the facts of this amazingly well-researched story, or the sound of author Simon Winchester's erudite prose. Jones's reading smoothly transports listeners to the 19th century, reminding us why so many brilliant people obsessively set out to catalogue the English language. This unabridged version contains an interview between Winchester and John Simpson, editor of the Oxford dictionary. (Running time: 6.5 hours, 6 cassettes) --Lou Schuler

Book Description

The Professor and the Madman, masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary -- and literary history. The compilation of the OED began in 1857, it was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.

This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

Download Description

This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting, but cannot match its own hype.......2007-09-10

I think that I could've really enjoyed this book on its own merits had the author not continued to insist throughout that the story was horrifying, amazing, shocking, thrilling, electrifying, and tragic by turns. Rarely can these "sensationalist histories" live up to their own hype. I found the book a fascinating look into the development of the OED with the bonus of the intriguing back story of one its most unusual volunteer contributors. Isn't that good enough? Why must everything be oversold? Note to the publisher: Next time undersell, over-deliver.

Surprisingly absorbing.......2007-08-28

Locked inside the compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary is an astonishing, bizarre story poignantly told in The Professor and the Madman. Well written, this disturbing story flows easily, holding the reader's interest to the end, even through the definitions!

After reading this book I have also gained a new appreciation for the beloved dictionary.

Sensationalized Version of a Gripping History.......2007-08-13

The Professor and the Madman is the yellow journalism version of the history of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), Sir James Murray, Dr. William Chester Minor, the treatment of the criminally insane during the Victorian period. I was particularly offended by the overly graphic details of Dr. Minor's self-mutilation (if you don't have a strong stomach, skip that section) and playing up of the fictionalized (and often repeated as fact) version of how Sir James and Dr. Minor first met. If the story weren't so interesting, I would encourage you to avoid the book.

Writing the first edition of the OED took 70 years and employed an unusual organizational method that has since become popular for monumental knowledge tasks -- relying on volunteers to do the bulk of the work of finding quotations that use each word in different ways over time. As someone who has always admired the OED, I enjoyed learning more about the process involved in its development. Unfortunately, that material is scattered throughout the book rather than concentrated where you can find it for a brief read through. The examples are good, however, if the material is needlessly diluted.

Thinking about that monumental effort will give you just the right foundation for appreciating how mental illness can affect parts of one's faculties while leaving others undisturbed, as the paranoid Dr. Minor employed his extensive free time in the Broadmoor Asylum for Criminally Insane and personal wealth to become of the most organized and helpful contributors to the OED.

Dr. Minor's story is the actual focus of the book. Unless you are quite interested in ironies, mental illness, and how the Victorians treated the criminally insane, you will probably find this book has more of Dr. Minor than you really care to know. It's a tragic story, but not one that I would have sought to read if the OED development process material hadn't been in the book. As background for that comment, you should know that I have a strong interest in criminal insanity and wrote my law school thesis on the subject. The book tells its story to make you feel the pain of being Dr. Minor quite well, but The Madman and the Professor won't advance your knowledge of mental illness or legal concepts of responsibility very much.

I was attracted to this book in part due to my work in leading the 400 Year Project, seeking ways to make improvements in everyone's lives at 20 times the normal rate between 2015 and 2035. I came away impressed that just a few people can make a remarkable contribution to an all-but-impossible project. I will redouble my efforts to locate such people for the 400 Year Project.

Tackle the impossible to find out what you can really do!

Slow.......2007-07-11

I did like this book and would have given it 3.5 stars is I could. The history was interesting and easy to get through, even for a casual reader of histories such as myself. However, for some reason I felt like I was dragging myself through parts. I am unable to put my finger on it, but some parts were just really slow for me. I would recomend that you read this book if for no reason than it is full of interesting facts that may come in handy at a cocktail party. In all seriousness, I did like it but read it on vacation so you can cruise through the slow parts.

THIS BOOK IS A MUST-READ.......2007-03-18

IF YOU ARE SOMEWHAT INTERESTED IN MENTAL ILLNESS AND NON-FICTION, THIS BOOK IS A MUST READ. FROM THE OPENING LINES TO THE END OF THE BOOK, THIS TRUE STORY WILL HAVE YOU TURNING PAGES. THE TITLE IS SOMEWHAT MISLEADING BECAUSE YOU PROBABLY THINK "SO WHAT" ABOUT THE MAKING OF THE OXFORD DICTIONARY. BUT DO NOT LET THE TITLE FOOL YOU. THIS IS A FASCINATING STORY FROM THE 1800'S ABOUT PARANOID SCHIZOPHRENIA, BRILLIANT MINDS AND WRITING OF THE MOST IMPORTANT DICTIONARY OF ALL TIMES. THIS BOOK IS ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAVORITES

Average customer rating:

Grippingly Written, Moving, and Historically Powerful
Evangelical Pastor - 63 years old
A mixture of polemic, interesting recollections, and accounts of questionable credibility
Heartbreaking and Revelatory
essential

Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story
Timothy B. Tyson
Manufacturer: Crown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

African-American & Black | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0609610589
Release Date: 2004-05-18

Amazon.com

When he was but 10 years old, Tim Tyson heard one of his boyhood friends in Oxford, N.C. excitedly blurt the words that were to forever change his life: "Daddy and Roger and 'em shot 'em a nigger!" The cold-blooded street murder of young Henry Marrow by an ambitious, hot-tempered local businessman and his kin in the Spring of 1970 would quickly fan the long-flickering flames of racial discord in the proud, insular tobacco town into explosions of rage and street violence. It would also turn the white Tyson down a long, troubled reconciliation with his Southern roots that eventually led to a professorship in African-American studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison--and this profoundly moving, if deeply troubling personal meditation on the true costs of America's historical racial divide. Taking its title from a traditional African-American spiritual, Tyson skillfully interweaves insightful autobiography (his father was the town's anti-segregationist Methodist minister, and a man whose conscience and human decency greatly informs the son) with a painstakingly nuanced historical analysis that underscores how little really changed in the years and decades after the Civil Rights Act of 1965 supposedly ended racial segregation. The details are often chilling: Oxford simply closed its public recreation facilities rather than integrate them; Marrow's accused murderers were publicly condemned, yet acquitted; the very town's newspaper records of the events--and indeed the author's later account for his graduate thesis--mysteriously removed from local public records. But Tyson's own impassioned personal history lessons here won't be denied; they're painful, yet necessary reminders of a poisonous American racial legacy that's so often been casually rewritten--and too easily carried forward into yet another century by politicians eagerly employing the cynical, so-called "Southern Strategy." --Jerry McCulley

Book Description

"Daddy and Roger and 'em shot 'em a nigger."

Those words, whispered to ten-year-old Tim Tyson by one of his playmates in the late spring of 1970, heralded a firestorm that would forever transform the small tobacco market town of Oxford, North Carolina.

On May 11, 1970, Henry Marrow, a 23-year-old black veteran, walked into a crossroads store owned by Robert Teel, a rough man with a criminal record and ties to the Ku Klux Klan, and came out running. Teel and two of his sons chased Marrow, beat him unmercifully, and killed him in public as he pleaded for his life. In the words of a local prosecutor: "They shot him like you or I would kill a snake."

Like many small Southern towns, Oxford had barely been touched by the civil rights movement. But in the wake of the killing, young African Americans took to the streets, led by 22-year-old Ben Chavis, a future president of the NAACP. As mass protests crowded the town square, a cluster of returning Vietnam veterans organized what one termed "a military operation." While lawyers battled in the courthouse that summer in a drama that one termed "a Perry Mason kind of thing," the Ku Klux Klan raged in the shadows and black veterans torched the town's tobacco warehouses.

With large sections of the town in flames, Tyson's father, the pastor of Oxford's all-white Methodist church, pressed his congregation to widen their vision of humanity and pushed the town to come to terms with its bloody racial history. In the end, however, the Tyson family was forced to move away.

Years later, historian Tim Tyson returned to Oxford to ask Robert Teel why he and his sons had killed Henry Marrow. "That nigger committed suicide, coming in here wanting to four-letter-word my daughter-in-law," Teel explained.

The black radicals who burned much of Oxford also told Tim their stories. "It was like we had a cash register up there at the pool hall, just ringing up how much money we done cost these white people," one of them explained. "We knew if we cost 'em enough goddamn money they was gonna start changing some things."

In the tradition of To Kill a Mockingbird, Blood Done Sign My Name is a classic work of conscience, a defining portrait of a time and place that we will never forget. Tim Tyson's riveting narrative of that fiery summer and one family's struggle to build bridges in a time of destruction brings gritty blues truth, soaring gospel vision, and down-home humor to our complex history, where violence and faith, courage and evil, despair and hope all mingle to illuminate America's enduring chasm of race.

Customer Reviews:

Grippingly Written, Moving, and Historically Powerful.......2007-08-16

I finally got around to reading this memoir this summer and was in awe of the author's narrative gifts. This story reads like a novel and is full of plain human wisdom, an emotional openness combining humility and pride, wry humor, sharp political analysis, and a can't-put-it-down story line that comes to terms with America's number one cultural problem: racism. This is a book of local history that gets at the human condition, and a work of history that reads like great literature. I'm telling everyone I can to read it, and that includes whoever reads this. Don't pay attention to any of the so-called "corrections" made by some other reviewers here. This is a must-read historical work that shows an astute and perceptive ability to understand its widely varying participants' points of view and experiences, while not shrinking from the moral and historical obligation to draw judgments. There is only one word to use: *brilliant.* (I'm not one to use that lightly when talking about either autobiography or
history.)

Disclaimer: The writer of this review is a professional historian with a Ph.D., but one who has never met Timothy Tyson.

Evangelical Pastor - 63 years old.......2007-07-29

Few books are as challenging for me as this one. I lived through the years of this story and consistently refused to believe that our racism was as extensive or deeply rooted as it was. Take away: the challenge to see it in our present day and to do something about it.

A mixture of polemic, interesting recollections, and accounts of questionable credibility.......2007-07-18

I was born and grew up in Oxford, North Carolina as a white boy, and graduated from the
University of North Carolina in 1949. I have lived in a suburb of Baltimore, Maryland for many
years.

Tyson deserves credit for deploring the murder and acquittal of the murderer in the book.
However, he tends to be polemic: all black people in it are noble; all but a few white people are
some combination of racist, ignorant, or narrow-minded. (It is similar in that respect to Leon
Uris's novel "Exodus", in which all Jews are noble and bigger than life, while all others are hateful
or, at best, not very bright.)

He often uses a down-home style of writing, calling his parents "Daddy" and "Mama" and being
addressed as "Little Buck" by his father, which he apparently feels makes him and his family seem
to be folksy, good plain people.

However, the book is not without its shortcomings.

Accounts of questionable credibility:

¶¶He states that tear gas was used by Oxford police in 1944 to dispel a crowd of black people
who were protesting the arrest of two men. I witnessed the event and remember no tear gas--had
there been, I think I would never have forgotten it.

¶¶An account of the torching of buildings in Oxford on May 25, 1970 by angry black people
following the killing of Marrow describes two tobacco warehouses which were among
them:"Inside these warehouses were eight hundred thousand pounds of golden cured tobacco, a
known flammable substance, with a total value of more than a million dollars." I find it hard to
believe that any tobacco would have been in those warehouses in May.

Tobacco was brought by the farmers to Oxford warehouses from mid-September through
mid-November, where it was sold at auction and immediately taken by the buyers to their Oxford
processing plants, and then shipped off to the cigarette manufacturers. By some time in late
November, all of the warehouses became empty.

Although the whole procedure I describe above could have changed somewhat by 1970, I still
find it hard to believe that there would have been tobacco in the warehouses in May, by which
time it would have probably become dry and crumbly.

¶¶The following exchange supposedly took place during the 1930's between Major T.G. stem (a
prominent white man in Oxford) and a man described in the book as "a local white bootlegger."
Having occurred long before Tyson was born, it was recounted to him by Thad Stem, the Major's
son and a close friend of the Tyson family.

"Major Stem was leaving Hall's drugstore with his son (Thad) and they passed Mrs. G. C. Shaw,
the wife of the principal at Mary Potter High, the local Negro high school.

'Good afternoon, Mrs. Shaw,' the Major said, tipping his hat.

A local white bootlegger, idling under the store awning, accosted Major Stem. 'Why'd you call
that [...] woman Mrs. Shaw'?" he demanded.

'Well, Mrs. Shaw's older than I am,' he began softly. 'She's better educated than I am,and she has
more money.' Then, thrusting the bootlegger away from him, the major exploded: 'But more to
the point, what I call Mrs. Shaw is none of your goddamned business, you low-life taxidermist,
you two-for-a-nickel jackal, you knee-crawling [...], net.' These were the days when
people really knew how to cuss. Back then, the appendage 'net' meant a real [...]...on the
way home (Thad) asked his father why on earth he had called the bootlegger a 'taxidermist.' The
major said quietly that a taxidermist is a man who mounts animals."

If not a total fabrication, the story seems to me to have been mostly made up.

In those earlier times, I never heard any white person in Oxford address or refer to a black person
as Mr./Mrs./Ms. (However, by some strange logic, a black doctor was referred to as Dr. X by
white people. Dr. Ellis Toney was a black practitioner there for many years and was so referred
to. The same was the case for some black ministers, who were referred to as Pastor or Reverend
such-and-such.)

¶¶In writing about the slave trade, Tyson speaks of "the dark Atlantic, where the bones of
somewhere around ten million Africans settled into the sand, thrown overboard by the slave ships
that plied those waters in the early days of the republic (the USA)."

Where did this 10 million figure come from? Tyson provides no source. One reference, "Slavery:
A World History", by Milton Meltzer, says that about 2.2 million died that way.

Degrading most of Oxford's black people by stereotyping them as uncultured:

The most puzzling aspect of the book is: On the one hand, Tyson makes the legitimate point that
black residents of Oxford and Granville County, after long having been subjected to a segregated,
inferior status in society, deserved to be recognized as having equal rights with white citizens.
Yet, at the same time, he consistently shows these same black people as being crude and unable to
say anything without massacring English grammar.

"I knowed him right good, and I liked him all right. He didn't hurt nobody." "Yeah, we was
listening to TV, that's how we got involved in the first sit-ins in Oxford, because we saw on TV
they was doing it up in Greensboro." "Me and a guy named Ronald Jordan, me and him climbed
up on the Confederate soldier..." And there are many more.

I know from personal experience that many black people in Oxford, then and now, are much more
cultured than Tyson portrays them. I also know from my volunteer work at the Helping Up
Mission in Baltimore, where I tutor men who are recovering from drug and alcohol addiction in
the 3R's (all of whom to date have been black), that most black people, like anyone anywhere, will
grasp an opportunity to become more cultured.

Heartbreaking and Revelatory.......2007-05-18

An essential history and memoir of a time whose facts are often forgotten and even actively repressed. The present doesn't make sense without honestly examining the past, and this book does that with humility and emotional power. Even if you think you know this history (as I did) you very well may not.

essential.......2007-03-15

For those of us who think we understand by reading about racial prejudice and thinking about what it must be like, should read this book. We still won't really understand, but we will be a much closer than we were before.

Average customer rating:

It's ok within in its genre
WHERE DO YOU HIDE A PEBBLE...
A Poorer Cousin of the DaVinci Code
Builds to a surprising end...
Interesting philosophical musings, not so impressive conclusion

The Oxford Murders
Guillermo Martinez
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 014303796X

Book Description

Two mathematicians must join forces to stop a serial killer in this spellbinding international bestseller

A paperback sensation in Argentina, Spain, and the United Kingdom, The Oxford Murders has been hailed as "a remarkable feat" (Time Out London) and its author as "one of Argentina's most distinctive voices" (The Times Literary Supplement). It begins on a summer day in Oxford, when a young Argentine graduate student finds his landlady—an elderly woman who helped crack the Enigma Code during World War II —murdered in cold blood. Meanwhile, a renowned Oxford logician receives an anonymous note bearing a circle and the words "the first of a series." As the murders begin to pile up and more symbols are revealed, it is up to this unlikely pair to decipher the pattern before the killer strikes again.

Customer Reviews:

It's ok within in its genre.......2007-06-23

The book was short and a fun read. The author threw in mathematical theory, philosophy and history. There are several problems with the book but every British Whodunit has them. Character development was poor and I had a hard time caring about any of them. The book used red herrings and false endings to bad effect. The romance was okay. The "denouement" was fairly weak. Since it is a mystery, I won't divulge it. Needless to say I was disappointed.

The best part of the novel is the location at Oxford. The author wrote about the different locations. The mathematical philosophizing after a while became gibberish, but in the early parts of the book the philosophy and puzzles were entertaining.

In summary, I enjoyed the book more than I was disappointed in the ending.

WHERE DO YOU HIDE A PEBBLE..........2007-06-22

Readers who long for novels that test their ability to solve scientific or mathematical problems will love The Oxford Murders. For those of us who do not nurture an interest in nor possess a passing familiarity with Godels Incompleteness Theorem, Tarski's corollaries, or Ockham's Razor and Pythagorian triples some parts of the book may be an arduous read. I understand that it has been optioned and will be made into a movie with John Hurt (Elephant Man) as Arthur Seldom and Elijah Wood (Frodo Baggins in LOTR) as the nameless Argentinean student so perhaps the scientific portions will be presented in a manner that will make them easier to view than they are to read.

If one removes all of the hypothesizing and mathematical theories, what you are left with is a pretty average whodunit. For all those who experienced a sort of scholarly rapture reading this tome, I say "enjoy my friends". As for myself, I found too many "convenient coincidences" and too many "dangling threads" to really call this a fine tapestry.

A Poorer Cousin of the DaVinci Code.......2007-04-26

"Oxford Murders" joins the growing number of novels aiming to ape the success of "The Da Vinci Code" as the intellectual thriller par excellence. A murder has taken place. A cryptic clue is left behind. Once cracked, it only leads to a trail of further such clues that call for a detective cerebral enough to match the author's convoluted storyline. In "The Da Vinci Code", the hero is a symbologist. Here, he is a mathematician.

These plot ingredients come together to offer a fairly interesting read with just enough twists to keep the reader from getting bored. Maths and logic puzzles are weaved into the murder mystery to provide that extra bit of intellectual pizzazz that people have come to expect from such novels. The ending, although not the best that I've come across, is plausible enough and justifies the myriad twists and turns that the reader is taken through to get there.

The book's chief flaw, however, is that it offers nothing more. The plot and the puzzles are put together in an almost mechanical fashion that comes across in the colourless writing that is a feature of the whole book. The characters are similarly colourless. I had trouble sympathizing with any of the main characters, all of whom were simply not allowed enough space to develop in tandem with the complex murder plot. It is also a pity that, unlike with the The Davci Code, the author fails to capitalize enough on the Oxford setting. Frequent references are made to various landmarks in this famous locale; but otherwise, the murder plot together with its puzzles, could as easily have been set in Oxford Connecticut, USA.

A good enough thriller, but nothing to get too excited about.

Builds to a surprising end..........2007-01-21

Guillermo Martinez effectively blends his knowledge of mathematics and his understanding of human nature in this superb novel. The Oxford Murders is narrated by a young mathematician at Oxford on a scholarship. One day shortly after arriving in England, and accompanied by his older and more accomplished colleague Arthur Seldom, he walks into a room containing the body of his murdered landlady. Thus starts an intricate sequence of events that build to a satisfying and surprising ending.

People are dying one by one, apparently as part of a killer's twisted duel of wits with Arthur Seldom, a respected logician whose own phrase "maximum uncertainty" best describes this story's unfolding. The Oxford Murders contains many familiar mystery elements: a mentor-mentee partnership, a tenacious police inspector, a handful of fascinating and mysterious women and men who are plausible suspects, and a rarified setting (Oxford) inhabited by members of a quirky subculture (academia). But Martinez's vision and careful crafting guarantees that his readers will experience pleasant surprises as each element eventually becomes something more than it first appeared to be.

In addition to the rich descriptions of the novel's physical places, Martinez gives each of his major characters a well-developed backstory into which he weaves subtle foreshadowing. Readers not only meet, for example, Inspector Peterson's daughter but also learn several pieces of important information from her conversation with the narrator and Arthur Seldom. We come to care about Beth, the landlady's niece, and Podorov, the embittered Russian mathematician, and Lorna, the nurse obsessed by crime, even as we try to decide which one might be a killer.

Martinez's story explores the difference between the truth and our conception of the truth, between selfish and sacrificial actions, and between the entertainment industry's typical conceptions of crime and the actual motives of many criminals. As a result, The Oxford Murders surely will leave its readers with a new understanding of the philosophical principle of Ockham's Razor.

In The Oxford Murders, Martinez has created a delightfully disturbing mystery that many readers (including me) literally will not put down until they finish it.

Armchair Interviews says: Highly recommended.

Interesting philosophical musings, not so impressive conclusion.......2007-01-09

It was indeed interesting to read about the narrator (young Argentine algebraic topologist aspiring to study logic at Oxford) and his mentor (leading mathematical logician at Oxford) discussing philosophical matters such as 1) how it is impossible to specify a game with a finite rule set (Wittgenstein's finite rule paradox), 2) how Godel's incompleteness can be interpreted as acting in a smaller scale of mathematics (so that the validity of "normal" mathematics does not generally collide with incompleteness just as quantum mechanics that operates at the subatomic scale does not invalidate classical mechanics), and 3) how change in perception even in totally irrelevant matters alters the outcome of logical deductions. However in the end the book is one that does not aspire to transcend the genre, and as such particular emphasis lies in the final unraveling of the case. The ending came rather hastily, and personally I didn't find the explanation very convincing. The best of the book lies, as discussed, the philosophical musings, and, recreation of the academic atmosphere at the department of mathematics.

Hamlet (Oxford School Shakespeare Series)

Average customer rating:

To read or not to read

Hamlet (Oxford School Shakespeare Series)
William Shakespeare
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0198320493

Book Description

Featuring the images of some of the world's most famous stage and film actors, these additions to the all-new Oxford School Shakespeare introduce--and enthrall--young people to one of the greatest writers of all time. This season brings revised editions of five of the Bard's most famous plays--As You Like It, Othello, Hamlet, Love's Labour Lost and The Taming of the Shrew. Designed specifically for students unfamiliar with Shakespeare's rich literary legacy, these new editions present Shakespeare's sometimes-intimidating Middle English in a way that is easy-to-read and engaging for ages twelve and up. The notes and introductions ahve been completely revised, allowing unprecedented clarity and accessibility. Featuring new covers and new illustrations--including photos from recent productions of Shakespeare's plays from around the world--Oxford School Shakespeare brings all the pleasure of these literary treasures to life.

Customer Reviews:

To read or not to read.......2003-04-27

I recently read the book Hamlet by William Shakespeare and I loved it. It contains all of the characteristics needed for a good story Such as murder, revenge, friendship, trust, life, and death. Hamlet also expresses how many different emotions people can have such as love, hate, anger, sadness, and much more. This story shows how important family and love are.
In Hamlet a young boy, named Hamlet finds out that his father, the king, was murdered in his sleep and the king's brother wants to marry the queen. Soon after the wedding Hamlet is visited by the ghost of his dad. The ghost tells him that his brother, now the king, is the one that killed him with help from the queen. The ghost asks hamlet to avenge his death by killing the new king. Through most of the play hamlet has to decide what to believe. While he is doing that his girlfriend thinks he is going crazy because he has been acting so strangely. All of the other people in the castle also start to believe that he is insane.
Is the middle of the play Hamlet says the most famous lines ever written and most people have probably heard them somewhere. What he says is, "To be or not to be, that is the question, for is it nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune of to take arms against the sea of troubles in by opposing in them. To die, to sleep, no more." Hamlet is the longest play ever written but it is very good. Without all of the things in it the story would not be so interesting.
I am sure you probably have many questions about the book. To find out how the story ends you will just have to read the book. I am sure you wont be disappointed.

Falconer's Judgement: In The Depths Of The Dark Ages, It's One Man's Brilliance Against A Conspiracy Of Murder (Medieval Oxford Mysteries)

Average customer rating:

Don't bother

Falconer's Judgement: In The Depths Of The Dark Ages, It's One Man's Brilliance Against A Conspiracy Of Murder (Medieval Oxford Mysteries)
Ian Morson
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0312961510

Book Description

In Rome, Pope Alexander IV lies dying. From the East, an assassin is sent by a powerful royal family. In Wallingford Castle a young man is held prisoner, charged with a murder he did not commit...

In the swirling mists of Oxford, Regent Master William Falconer, Aristotelian philosopher and amateur sleuth, searches for the whereabouts of his mentor, Roger Bacon. But a political intrigue is about to explode. The Papal Legate's brother-a master cook-is killed with an arrow during a student riot. While authorities crack down on the disorder and zealots warn of the Apocalypse, Falconer begins an investigation. Now the man of reason must enter a labyrinth or madness-where ambition, deceit, and murder are the order of the day.

Customer Reviews:

Don't bother.......2000-03-15

I am a fan of medieval mysteries, but found this one very disappointing. The tale is told through brief glimpses of the activities of a number of characters, none well developed. By the middle of the book I still didn't know who everyone was, and I didn't care. I left the book unfinished. Stick with Ellis Peters, Candace Robb, and Margaret Frazer for GOOD stories in the genre.

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On Murder (Oxford World's Classics)
Thomas De Quincey
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0192805665

Book Description

'For if once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination' Thomas De Quincey's three essays 'On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts' centre on the notorious career of the murderer John Williams, who in 1811 brutally killed seven people in London's East End. De Quincey's response to Williams's attacks turns morality on its head, celebrating and coolly dissecting the art of murder and its perfections. Ranging from gruesomely vivid reportage and brilliantly funny satiric high jinks to penetrating literary and aesthetic criticism, the essays had a remarkable impact on crime, terror, and detective fiction, as well as on the rise of nineteenth-century decadence. The volume also contains De Quincey's best-known piece of literary criticism, 'On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth', and his finest tale of terror, 'The Avenger', a disturbing exploration of violence, vigilantism, and religious persecution.

Puddnhead Wilson and Other Tales : Those Extraordinary Twins, the Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg (Oxford World's Classics)

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Absolutely joyful and totally entertaining with mystery.

Puddnhead Wilson and Other Tales : Those Extraordinary Twins, the Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg (Oxford World's Classics)
Mark Twain , and R.D. Gooder
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0192837303

Book Description

Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), written in a more sombre vein than his other Mississippi writings, was Mark Twain's last serious work of fiction. It reveals the sinister forces that, towards the end of his life, Twain thought to be threatening the American dream. The central plot revolves around
the tragedy of "Roxy," a mulatto slave whose attempt to save her son from his fate succeeds only in destroying him. An astringent work which raises the serious issue of racial difference, Pudd'nhead Wilson is considered by the critic F.R. Leavis to be "a classic of the use of popular modes--the
sensational and the melodramatic." The volume also includes two other late works by Twain, Those Extraordinary Twins and The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg.

Customer Reviews:

Absolutely joyful and totally entertaining with mystery........1997-12-25

As entertaining as any of Mark Twain's works. Fun for all ages. Great stroy and lessons in life as well as Twain's great gift for humor, subtle and obvious. Totally entertaining with enough drama to keep your interest. Great for entertainment, education or teaching.

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I just finished this overlooked little gem...
atmospheric
A well written story of moral turmoil
A Great Read
Scariest book I ever read!

The Lodger (Oxford Popular Fiction)
Marie Belloc Lowndes
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 019282371X

Book Description

In 1888, a series of prostitutes were brutally murdered in the East End of London. These gruesome crimes filled the press and shook England with fear and intrigue. Marie Belloc Lowndes established her considerable reputation as a crime writer through her fictional account of these murders.
Dealing with not only the psychology of "The Avenger"--her version of Jack the Ripper--but also with that of his landlady, Mrs. Bunting, who never gives away his secret, Lowndes creates an atmosphere of suspense, fear, and horror.
The only paperback edition of this classic available, The Lodger is a chilling page-turner from first to last.

Customer Reviews:

I just finished this overlooked little gem..........2005-06-19

It is a GREAT book and will go on my 'special' bookshelf of superior things. "The Lodger" is written,1900-ish, by Marie Belloc Lowndes, who is the sister of vaguely famous Hillaire Billoc. I had assumed from the name Hillaire that he was some French writer I had missed, but he turned out to be just a right wing English politician who thought women shouldn't get the vote, even though, obviously, his sister could write rings around him. Anyway, the plot is this: (Don't read this is you fear exposure to a few plot details)

Robert and Ellen Bunting were an ex butler and his wife, a lady's maid who after a business failing had fallen on very hard times, and were reduced to such straights that the husband's purchase of a penny newspaper to read about the details of the horrendous, "Avenger" (aka Jack The Ripper), serial killings in London nearly precipitated an argument between them, despite the fact that they were a very nice couple who cared for each other in their restrained English way. At the moment of their greatest despair, their prayers are answered as a 'gentleman' comes knocking in answer to the sign in their window of 'rooms to let'.

""On the top of the three steps which led up to the door, there stood
the long, lanky figure of a man, clad in an Inverness cape and an
old-fashioned top hat. He waited for a few seconds blinking at her,
perhaps dazzled by the light of the gas in the passage. Mrs.
Bunting's trained perception told her at once that this man, odd as
he looked, was a gentleman, belonging by birth to the class with
whom her former employment had brought her in contact.

"Is it not a fact that you let lodgings?" he asked, and there was
something shrill, unbalanced, hesitating, in his voice.

"Yes, sir," she said uncertainly--it was a long, long time since
anyone had come after their lodgings, anyone, that is, that they
could think of taking into their respectable house.

Instinctively she stepped a little to one side, and the stranger
walked past her, and so into the hall.

And then, for the first time, Mrs. Bunting noticed that he held a
narrow bag in his left hand. It was quite a new bag, made of strong
brown leather.

"I am looking for some quiet rooms," he said; then he repeated the
words, "quiet rooms," in a dreamy, absent way, and as he uttered
them he looked nervously round him.

Then his sallow face brightened, for the hall had been carefully
furnished, and was very clean.

There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary
feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which
matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls.

A very superior lodging-house this, and evidently a superior
lodging-house keeper.

"You'd find my rooms quite quiet, sir," she said gently. "And just
now I have four to let. The house is empty, save for my husband
and me, sir."

Mrs. Bunting spoke in a civil, passionless voice. It seemed too
good to be true, this sudden coming of a possible lodger, and of a
lodger who spoke in the pleasant, courteous way and voice which
recalled to the poor woman her happy, far-off days of youth and
of security.

"That sounds very suitable," he said. "Four rooms? Well, perhaps
I ought only to take two rooms, but, still, I should like to see
all four before I make my choice."

How fortunate, how very fortunate it was that Bunting had lit the
gas! But for that circumstance this gentleman would have passed
them by.

She turned towards the staircase, quite forgetting in her agitation
that the front door was still open; and it was the stranger whom
she already in her mind described as "the lodger," who turned and
rather quickly walked down the passage and shut it.

"Oh, thank you, sir!" she exclaimed. "I'm sorry you should have
had the trouble."

For a moment their eyes met. "It's not safe to leave a front door
open in London," he said, rather sharply. "I hope you do not often
do that. It would be so easy for anyone to slip in.""

Ellen Bunting becomes even more sure the shy new lodger is a gentleman because his manners are so odd. He arrives with no luggage but a brown leather bag he clutches continually. Ellen is reassured because from her years of service in Regent's Park households, she knows peculiarity of behavior is a sign of good breeding. The lodger who's name is Mr. Sleuth, borrows a bible and pays the months rent in advance. He's a vegetarian, which shocks the conservative Bunting's, but they cook prepare his eggs and cheese with as good a face as they can't put on it. Mr. Sleuth is so glad there is a sink and gas stove in his room on which to conduct his 'scientific experiments'. He rents the entire two floors above the couples apartment. The couple are able to repay a loan they got from a young policeman who has romantic intentions toward Mr. Bunting's daughter Daisy from a first marriage, who lives with a rich aunt. The tired policeman visits often, and Mrs. Bunting gives him tea as he tells of the failure or success of the police in their search for the man who is committing horrendous crimes which have enthralled all wintery London. The murders start to occur closer and closer to the couples home, as the gentle Mr. Sleuth sits upstairs during the daytime reading aloud all the sections of the bible which are most unflattering to women. Ellen, polishing the banisters, listens to his voice. At night he goes out in rubber soled shoes. Quickly, Ellen begins to suspect her lodger is a notorious murderer, but she doesn't turn him in because, understandably, he stands between them and starvation. Not to mention the fact that she's become oddly attached to him. He's such a gentle gentleman.

What a rare great book! It's so well written. Wonderful, thoughtful characters. I restrain myself from giving away the end, although of course, as is my way, I read the last chapter first... sigh. A book this good is like being in love.

Now I'm reading "Castle In The Carpathians" by Jules Verne. It's not very scary though. His bats, I understand, all turn out to be mechanical. I must find more ghost stories to read, it's such a dark and rainy summer. (I haven't finished Tristam Shandy yet, but am plugging along in the odd hour.)

atmospheric.......2003-09-30

This is the suspenseful best-seller by Hillaire Belloc's sister that inspired Hitchcock's first talkie and the 1940s-era remake that won its star, Laird Cregar, an Oscar. The motivation of the murderess lodger's landlady may be hard for moderns to swallow. Her crisis comes from, on the one hand, guessing that her lodger is a serial killer, and, on the other, needing his rent money as well as harboring the working-class Victorian's deeply ingrained aversing to informing to the coppers -- this even though a young detective is a constant visitor and supportive friend. This conflict is never resolved. By accident only are the landlady and her husband saved from "The Avenger." Despite the protagonists' moral cowardice, the deus ex machina ending and considerable over-writing, this is a gripping, atmospheric page-turner, redolent with fine detail of every-day life in the London of the period. Their character warts don't prevent Mr. and Mrs. Bunting from being sympathetic. Indeed, those flaws help the book rise above its genre.

A well written story of moral turmoil.......1999-12-03

Our reading group read this book and the six people present all enjoyed it - some more than others. The consensus - it was more of a period piece dealing with moral conflict rather than a horror story (although we all agreed it was quite disturbing). Almost all of us were disappointed in the ending. Still, we were all glad we read this very well written book.

A Great Read.......1999-12-03

I loved this book. It was not the horror story that I was expecting, but more of the classic tale of suspense and spine tingling situations. If you need a lot of "blood and guts", this is not the book for you. If you want a great book to read, cozied up the the fire with a cup of tea, prepare to enjoy!

Scariest book I ever read!.......1999-08-28

This is a literate, well-written thriller in the Poe tradition. What happens to the landlords when a strange lodger insists on paying handsomely for simple lodging? And what about the terrible murders that just begin as he moves in? Could they be related? But he is so nice. And he pays so well! The plot is simple. The setting and characters are tightly drawn. But readers are in for a frightening ride!

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How does one make a play by Shakespeare accessible to those disinclined to read one?The answer is Sixty-MinuteShakespeare Series
helpful
Great for studying Hamlet!
Helpful edition; entertaining play.
A good reading copy

Hamlet (Oxford World's Classics)
William Shakespeare
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0192834169

Book Description

Hamlet's combination of violence and introspection is unusual among Shakespeare's tragedies. It is also full of curious riddles and fascinating paradoxes, making it one of his most widely discussed plays. Professor Hibbard's illuminating and original introduction explains the process by which variant texts were fused in the eighteenth century to create the most commonly used text of today. Drawing on both critical and theatrical history, he shows how this gusion makes Hamlet seem a much more 'problematic' play than it was when it originally appeared in the First Folio of 1623. The Oxford Shakespeare edition presents a radically new text, based on that First Folio, which printed Shakespeare's own revision of an earlier version. The result is a 'theatrical' and highly practical edition for students and actors alike.

Customer Reviews:

How does one make a play by Shakespeare accessible to those disinclined to read one?The answer is Sixty-MinuteShakespeare Series.......2007-07-14

Reviewed By: Beverly Krueger, Eclectic Homeschool Online

How does one make a play by Shakespeare accessible to those disinclined to read or see one? Or how do you make it possible for those who just don't have the time to do the play full justice, but nevertheless want to have more than just a taste of the bard, to find the time to read it? The answer is the Sixty-Minute Shakespeare series. I've got in my hands their version of Hamlet. There are two important distinctions to this edition. First, it is abridged. The core of the play is left untouched, so the play and its themes are still understandable. Famous soliloquies are also left untouched. The dialogue that fleshes out the minor characters is often abbreviated. Second, the play is rendered in the original language, but uses standard spelling. This is not a modernized version of the play.

The Sixty Minute Shakespeare series was also written to give a shorter, easier to produce version of the play for theater groups that wanted to put on a production of a Shakespearean play. Any of this series would be a great production piece for a homeschool theater group. I recommend Hamlet in particular because there are so many resources available to help young actors learn more about their roles, especially the many fine productions of Hamlet on video or DVD. A short section on staging a production gives useful advice for staging and pacing of a production.

For those who want to use this edition for a study of Hamlet, I suggest getting a study guide to help with understanding the themes of the play. The notes at the bottom of each page help with understanding some of the unfamiliar words used, but those who are not familiar with Shakespeare will benefit from additional explanations of what is happening in the text.

helpful.......2007-01-15

I have my degree in English... I like reading and teaching with this version as "help" not as a substitution. It gives a clearer understanding to Shakespeare for people who have difficulty with it.

Great for studying Hamlet!.......2007-01-10

I had to use this for a course I was taking. This book was very clear and very helpful. It definetely made reading Hamlet a lot clearer and simpler.

Helpful edition; entertaining play........2006-09-14

"Hamlet" was not a Shakespearean play I had plan on reading outside of my Movement in Theatre class and this edition made it one hundred times easier. I had to read the play in a week, so reading the modern English side made that process effortless. I then read over the original Shakespeare version when I had to focus on the character Ophelia. Overall, I found that this play was easier to read in Shakespeare's writing, as opposed to some of his other plays. The play is interesting, but I felt the ending to be boring. I "sorta" recommend.

A good reading copy.......2006-08-25

Once you get used to the layout, this is a good copy to read along with as you listen to the play. Some valuable insights too and not just for students.

The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson and the Comedy Those Extraordinary Twins (1894) (Oxford Mark Twain)

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A look inside Twain's writing method

The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson and the Comedy Those Extraordinary Twins (1894) (Oxford Mark Twain)
Mark Twain , and David Lionel Smith
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Widely acknowledged as the greatest of his later works, IThe Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson, is Twain's most searingly ironic vision of race in America. Set in a town not unlike the Hannibal of Twain's youth, the book began life as a slapstick comedy about Siamese twins. But "it changed from a farce to a tragedy," Twain tells us, in the course of his writing, and the result was one of the most profound meditations on race and identity an American writer has produced. The voice that dominates this tale is that of Roxana, a light-skinned slave desperate to keep her child from being sold down the river, who switches him in the cradle with the child of her master. Roxana, Twain's most complex and fully-realized adult female character, is a compelling tragic heroine; the plot she sets in motion is daring, risky, and totally riveting. Murder and mayhem precede a courtroom scene that ranks as one of the most memorable in American literature. This conflicted, provocative, richly satirical novel confronts head-on the enigma of what makes us who we are.

Customer Reviews:

A look inside Twain's writing method.......2001-10-12

The main portion of the book is "Puddnhead Wilson", but Twain writes a fascinating intro to "Those Extraordinary Twins" to explain how he started writing one book and ended up with the other. The twins were originally conjoined (Siamese), and were the main characters. The side characters of Tom and Roxy developed into main characters in an entirely different story. what you end up with is a tragedy and a comedy, that occur around the same time, in the same town, with most of the same characters. Its amazing how much a few little twists change everything.

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