Customer Reviews:
Gilbert Morris is my all-time *favorite* series/saga writer!.......2001-03-26
The House of Winslow series is one of the best series I've ever read. They chronicle the life of the Winslows, a fictional family with major historical implications. Gilbert Morris is a wonderful, detailed writer, easily mixing real and fictional people. Mostly, the books pertain to the Methodist faith, though not always.
This set of books covers ground from 1620-1776.
'The Honorable Impostor' is the first book. It begins with Gilbert Winslow, a wayward pastor with ties to the Church of England. He is asked to infiltrate a group of Puritans and help "bring them to justice under the King's law". Through a series of events, he ends up coming, quite unwillingly, to the New World with the group, thereby establishing the House of Winslow in America.
'The Captive Bride' covers two generations of Winslows. Matthew, Gilbert's son, breaks his parents' hearts and is sent off to England to find his roots. Instead, he finds a wife and a heap of trouble. He loses his mind in prison and leaves a heartbroken, pregnant wife to go back to his father. Rachel Winslow grows up without a father in Salem amidst the crazed witch trials. When an unexpected piece of the past confronts her, she has nowhere to turn but God.
'The Indentured Heart' chronicles the life of Adam Winslow, Rachel's nephew. Cruelly abused by a stepmother who's jealous of him, Adam is sent to live with his older brother. He goes into business with his half-brother, Charles, and cousin, Saul. On a fact-finding mission back to England, he finds another abused soul and brings her back as an indentured servant. Charles and Saul try every trick they know to make off with the dark Winslow's part of the business, but end up helping him more than they could ever know.
'The Gentle Rebel' begins right before the American Revolution. It concerns two cousins--Nathan, the son of Adam, and Paul, son of Charles--who are on different sides of the war. When Nathan's younger brother becomes an early casualty of the war, Nathan vows to fight in his place. He has a new "little brother", Laddie, who has a secret of his own.
'The Saintly Buccaneer' finishes out Paul Winslow's story. Paul is Impressed into the British Navy after a hard night of drinking. He wakes up on a ship with a soft-hearted captian and his beautiful daughter with no memory of himself or his horrible past. When the British ship clashes with an American ship on the high seas, he meets someone who sparks a memory--as well as shame.
The Winslow Books are the best!.......2000-05-28
I think that the Winslow series is the best that I have read so far. They leave you in suspense until the end and surprise you sometimes. I would suggest if yoiu like romance and suspense to definetly read this series. I love the Winslow series!
It was interesting but repeated it self........1999-06-03
I liked these books they taught you quite a lot about history and I liked the way the story went through the generations .The story line is pretty predictable when it comes to their love life. I definitely think #1 was the best.You should read them but if you don't like book one then you probably won't like the rest.
Book Description
The Inventive Peasant Arnaud du Tilh had almost persuaded the learned judges at the Parlement of Toulouse, when on a summer's day in 1560 a man swaggered into the court on a wooden leg, denounced Arnaud, and reestablished his claim to the identity, property, and wife of Martin Guerre. The astonishing case captured the imagination of the Continent. Told and retold over the centuries, the story of Martin Guerre became a legend, still remembered in the Pyrenean village where the impostor was executed more than 400 years ago.
Now a noted historian, who served as consultant for a new French film on Martin Guerre, has searched archives and lawbooks to add new dimensions to a tale already abundant in mysteries: we are led to ponder how a common man could become an impostor in the sixteenth century, why Bertrande de Rols, an honorable peasant woman, would accept such a man as her husband, and why lawyers, poets, and men of letters like Montaigne became so fascinated with the episode.
Natalie Zemon Davis reconstructs the lives of ordinary people, in a sparkling way that reveals the hidden attachments and sensibilities of nonliterate sixteenth-century villagers. Here we see men and women trying to fashion their identities within a world of traditional ideas about property and family and of changing ideas about religion. We learn what happens when common people get involved in the workings of the criminal courts in the ancien régime, and how judges struggle to decide who a man was in the days before fingerprints and photographs. We sense the secret affinity between the eloquent men of law and the honey-tongued village impostor, a rare identification across class lines.
Deftly written to please both the general public and specialists, The Return of Martin Guerre will interest those who want to know more about ordinary families and especially women of the past, and about the creation of literary legends. It is also a remarkable psychological narrative about where self-fashioning stops and lying begins.
Customer Reviews:
Stellar historical novel!.......2007-09-13
This is a well-written and well-researched historical work. The book needs all the requirements for academic writing, yet actually manages to be readable! Shocking thought, right? This is definitely worth the time to read! As a note there is a movie version, in French, that is actually quite well done (Davis consulted on it) and knock off US version set in the Civil War (Sommersby), which sucks.
Davis explores the trial of Martin Guerre in medieval France. Guerre runs off to war and deserts his wife and son. Years later, a man appears claiming to be Guerre. The town and his wife accept this man with few complaints. Then, all of sudden, Guerre's family accuses this man of not really being Martin Guerre. The trial ensues with Martin's wife (Bertrande) standing staunchly by that this IS her husband. In the final bit, just as the courts are about to believe Bertrande and "Martin," another Martin appears - the real Martin. The imposter (Arnaud du Tilh) is hung and Bertrande goes back to her "real" husband. The story reads like it should be fiction - and a soap opera at that - yet it is a historical trial. Davis' sources come straight from the trial transcripts and the one of the judges. She even includes a chapter that explores this at the end (this is probably the hardest to read for a casual reader).
Davis does a beautiful job of recreating the era and the people, especally Bertrande. Bertrande can be easily pushed aside in this story, yet it is her story that Davis highlights.
I use this book in my western civilization classes because it really showcases the "normal" people of medieval France. It is definitely worth the time to read. If you want to enjoy a book AND learn something, this is the book for you. It also makes a great present to budding young historians.
Great "Micro- History," a new genre in history.......2006-12-17
At first, Natalie Davis collaborated with the director Daniel Vigne on his film, but she became dissatisfied by how many elements of the story never made it into the movie. Her book adds specific details she thought central to the story; such as, the Guerre's Basque roots, Bertrande first meeting Arnaud du Tilh at an inn outside of the village, and Bertrande's reasons for collaborating with the imposter. Davis' story affords her audience a rare glimpse into the world of peasant life in sixteenth century France. Historically, there are only a few times when the everyday lives of the lower social classes receive comment in history or literature. Students of the humanities have only a few primary source books to examine. The Domesday Book is a collection of census records from eleventh century England. The Canterbury Tales are a fourteenth century collection of tales describing the lives of religious pilgrims in England, authored by Geoffrey Chaucer. The Decameron is also a fourteenth century collection of stories, this time from Italy, written by Giovanni Boccaccio.
Davis' story focuses on Bertrande de Rols and her place in sixteenth century society, especially as a wife. Bertrande was married to Martin Guerre who was a young peasant of Basque heritage. Both Bertrande and Martin were in their early teens during a time when marriage customs for peasants was changing in Europe. For several years, these two very young kids have trouble consummating their marriage. Davis speculates that Bertrande may have been happy with this circumstance since it gave her a chance to enjoy adolescence and be free of the drudgery of motherhood and all the duties that went with it. This becomes evident by the fact that she refuses to annul her marriage at her parent's insistence. A few years go by before Bertrande conceives and gives birth to a son - her first foray into adulthood. Davis explains how Bertrande, like other peasant women, became even more aware of the male dominated world in which she lived. This is evident by the particle "de" in her name, which was a custom in the area where she lived depicting the social and legal connection female peasants had to the men in their families. She was subordinate to her father, her husband, and finally her widowed mother and her uncle turned stepfather. Frances and Joseph Geis illuminate in detail the customs of family and marriage during this time in history. During the Middle Ages, most peasants did not have formal marriage vows conducted in church. Instead, they vowed to each other to live as common law husband and wife. Formality was not necessary since peasants did not own property; they worked the lands of the nobility as tenant farmers. Marital mores change in the sixteenth century due to the peasant's ability to own land, which in turn causes parents to insist on having more control over their children's marital choices.
In 1548, Martin runs away from his village of Artigat, France to join the army, leaving his twenty-two year old wife Bertrande and a young son. His abandonment severely reduces Bertrande's social standing in the village. She is no longer a full-fledged wife, nor is she a widow who had property rights. Without a body to prove Martin is dead, she cannot divorce him; thus, she is stuck with her plight. She has to move back in with her mother. In addition, she faces ridicule from peers at every turn. Davis believes that all of these circumstances add up to Bertrande becoming an unhappy person. After eight years of living in quiet desperation, it is no wonder that she would finally find fulfillment of her hopes and dreams of a better life when the imposter Arnaud du Tilh nicknamed "Pansette," shows up in the village in 1548, in the guise of Martin Guerre. Of course, Bertrande would be predisposed to want to believe that her husband had returned to her, which would allow her to regain a better social status in the village. It also meant that Bertrande would be able to have her own household with her husband who inherited land from his recently deceased father. Davis correctly speculates that even if Bertrande soon realizes Pansette is not her husband, she still finds in him a congenial companion and falls in love with him. They also have a daughter together. Davis finds it very plausible that Bertrande would become a willing collaborator, in order to protect her newfound freedom and social standing. The couple's marital bliss unravels the day Pansette argues with his uncle, Pierre Guerre, over his desire to sell off some of the land. This causes Pierre to become suspicious of the identity of his nephew, since it is an old Basque custom never to sell ancestral land, leading him to sue Pansette as an impostor in a court of law. The feud divides the village and finally places a rift between Pansette and Bertrande. Bertrande had originally testified that Pansette was the original Martin. However, before the start of a subsequent court hearing she caves into the enormous pressure from her widowed mother who married Pierre, to change her testimony. Fearing she could lose her good name and social standing in the family and village, she changes her testimony and accuses Pansette of being an imposter.
Davis comes under heavy criticism from Robert Finlay surrounding the suppositions that she makes about Bertrand's emotions, motivations, and her complicity in the deception perpetrated by Pansette. In Finlay's, article The Refashioning of Martin Guerre he accuses Davis of reading too much into the court record left by Coras. "This Bertrande de Rols seems to be far more a product of invention than of historical reconstruction." Davis, responding to Finlay's criticism of her research methods, more than adequately defends herself in her journal article On the Lame. In it she describes her meticulous research of the court records, social roles and cultural customs of sixteenth century France. "For Davis ... peasant women, are people with sexual as well as economic drives and with cultural traditions and resources which have escaped the eyes of most orthodox historians."
The social historian Natalie Davis was tireless in her efforts to comb the local archives, judicial records, and in conducting interviews of present day inhabitants of the village Artigat to record the folklore of the "famous case" from their village. Davis has brought to light this micro history of sixteenth century peasant life in France in an easy to understand and compelling film and narrative. What makes the story so interesting to modern day viewers and readers is how relevant the story and the people in it are to our own times. This story is about a history of everyday people rather than royalty and generals, history's usual subjects. The story is replete with mystery and plot twists. It also examines the psychological areas of passion and deceit, while questioning personality formation and the self. In tying all of these sub plots together, Davis presents to her modern day audience a chance to examine and to compare their own identities and questions of self.
I read this book for a graduate class in the Humanities. Recommended reading for anyone interested in history and, psychology.
History With Academic Rigour and Real Literary Worth.......2006-08-29
The Return of Martin Guerre is not a regular history book. It is extremely short and extremely readable: a tale of intrigue; muddled and contradictory motivations; ethnic assimilation, sexual deficiencies; witch craft; and the stolen identity of a peasant by another on the backdrop of the Protestant reformation in France, Natalie Z. Davis's account of this utterly weird case of sixteenth century fraud proves the old dictum that historians never tire of explaining to incredulous novelists and an unfortunately indifferent public: truth is stranger than fiction.
The life of Martin Guerre would have left nearly no evidence of any existence, and have been of little use for any historian, were it not for the fact that he abandoned his young wife and son when he was in his early twenties for motivations that the modern historian can only guess at. Wanting adventure and release from a matrimonial bond that had been established for him at an extremely young age by his wife's and his own parents, young Guerre made his way into the service Spanish nobility and then fought in the Spanish wars in modern Flanders and Holland, where he would loose a leg. This, in and of itself, is unremarkable. There were likely many gimps made by their service in Armies of Spain in the sixteenth century. The utter weirdness of this situation only begins with the entrance of Arnaud du Tilh.
From a modern standpoint, it is difficult to imagine that anyone who knew Martin Guerre would have mistaken Arnaud du Tilh for him for any great length of time. Martin was tall and slender whereas Arnaud was short and stocky; Martin was athletic whereas Arnaud was a lazybones; Martin was difficult and irascible where Arnaud was generally likable; Martin was a native speaker of Basque whereas Arnaud's first tongue was French. The only thing that Arnaud and Martin really had in common was that neither was happy enough in the life they were born into to remain where they were. The question becomes then, how could Arnaud possibly hope to, and very successfully, appropriate the identity of Martin Guerre?
Davis gives many reasonable explanations. First, this was an age before photography and therefore only flawed memory could serve the purpose of knowing what Martin looked like among peasants too poor to have considered portraiture. Second, the Basque tradition which Martin Guerre grew up placed a powerful emphasis on the importance of family and seeing him return would have been, even after a less than honorable exit nearly a decade before, a nearly unadulterated joy. Finally, Davis points out what is the truly amazing about Arnaud is that he had, "a memory an actor would envy (35)." Though this mechanism alone, Davis believes, Arnaud is able to tap into a myriad number of stories which he is able to consciously able to craft into a believable mask of Martin Guerre--one that would, seemingly, fool Martin Guerre's friends, family, and his wife for several years. Even more amazingly, when much of his family was certain that Arnaud was not actually Martin, he would nearly deceive several magistrates.
The fraud only did not go unpunished because the real Martin Guerre reappeared on the scene in the nick of time, and with not much in the way of explanation, with less of memory for the events of his life than Arnaud had. It was this fact that compelled Davis's two primary sources on the case of Martin Guerre to try to understand just what it was that they had witnessed. As Davis points out, this was a case where absolutely nothing was as it seemed. This is what drew both Jean Coras, the judge who nearly freed Arnaud to return to Martin Guerre's wife, to write his magisterial Arrest Memorable and Guillaume Le Sueur Admiranda historia de Pseudo Martino. Both works show a powerful respect for the fact that Arnaud was able to pull off such an incredible act of fraud for so long, but neither could come to terms with how a peasant was capable of doing this. Ultimately this is what drew Davis to the case and will likely be what continues to draw readers to her book.
Reflective Writing.......2005-04-06
What is real? How do we really judge other people? How do we know what we know? How do perceptions influence social interactions? These are the kinds of reflective questions this book causes you to think about.
Set in 16th century France, this case of mistaken identity, where one person assumes the identity of another, is intentionally ambiguous in drawing the reader in to make some personal judgments independent of the author. This masterful technique requires an active reader.
Chapter 10 describes one of the judges in the case after it was appealed. He went on to write a book on the matter. Jean de Coras was a Christian scholar, a writer, lawyer, romantic, and communicator. Fortunately for us the author included this excerpt on him, as he was a character who made a mark that has survived over time.
Overall this is a book that will make you consider yourself and how you treat other people. It's a healthy form of reflection that is designed to help you consider things you might otherwise overlook.
A look at Joe Everyman from southern France in 1560.......2004-06-15
Davis gives us the story of how in the mid 16th century, a man named Arnaud du Tihl impersonated the long departed well-to-do peasant named Martin Guerre, took over his identity, his wife and family, and his property.
In itself, the story is interesting enough. What makes Davis's book special is her concise presentation of everyday life in the early renaissance (1560 is not in the Middle Ages, which ended about the time of Christopher Columbus 1492). We see village life, village institutions, we get a feel for what businesses the people ran (e.g. sheep for wool) we learn of legal procedures, of "dangerous new ideas" on marriage (from protestant influences) as well as inconvenient old one (secret marriages made without priests, nevertheless legitimate). We learn of differing customs on inheritance among different regions (the Basque and Gascon customs) of the role of women in public life.
The only problem I find with the book is that it is incomplete. We know what end Arnaud du Tihl meets, but we do not learn what happened after the trial to the real Martin Guerre or to his wife. Of course, the records are probably lost so we cannot fault Davis for this. But while we learn much of Jean Coras, the court official who published one of the two contemporary accounts of the case, a more detailed account of what befell him following the Martin Guerre case would have been interesting.
But that's a lack, not a flaw. Recommended!
Average customer rating:
- The Crass, the Odd & the Clever Gamut of Popular Entertainments through the Ages.
- You have to like your humor dry
- 'An Anomaly of Anomalies'
- Odd Tastes? Read This Book.
- Perfectly Odd
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Jay's Journal of Anomalies : Conjurers, Cheats, Hustlers, Hoaxsters, Pranksters, Jokesters, Imposters, Pretenders, Side-Show Showmen, Armless Calligraphers, Mechanical Marvels, Popular Entertainments
Ricky Jay
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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ASIN: 0374178674 |
Book Description
A dazzling tour through the world of singular entertainers, con men, and unusual phenomena.
For the past four years, the multitalented Ricky Jay (sleight-of-hand artist, author, actor, film consultant, and scholar of the unusual) has published a unique and beautifully designed quarterly called Jay's Journal of Anomalies. Already a coveted collector's item, the complete set is gathered here for the first time. A brilliant excursion into the history of bizarre entertainments, the journal covered such subjects as dogs stealing acts from other dogs, an anthropological hoax involving the only survivors of a caste of ancient Aztec priests, and the ultimate diet: ingesting only air.In a delectably deadpan and winning style, Jay conveys his admiration and affection for the offbeat that characterized his bestselling Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women. He explains how wags since the sixteenth century have cheated at bowling; he explores the ancient relationship between conjuring and dentistry; and he chronicles the exploits of ceiling walkers and human flies. Crammed full of illustrations drawn from the author's massive personal archive, Jay's Journal of Anomalies will baffle, instruct, and, above all, delight.
Customer Reviews:
The Crass, the Odd & the Clever Gamut of Popular Entertainments through the Ages. .......2007-04-12
"Jay's Journal of Anomalies" reproduces all 16 issues of Ricky Jay's quarterly that was published by Antiquarian Booksellers in Los Angeles for a subscription rate of $90 per annum from Spring 1994-2000. The publications are numbered Volume One, Number One through Volume Four, Number Four, and I assume they appear much the same as they did originally. The "Journals" have essentially been bound into book form with a few additional illustrations and an "Afterword" in which Mr. Jay talks about the publication of the Journals, provides additional information about the subjects therein that he obtained after their original publication, and makes the occasional correction.
Ricky Jay is master of the magic arts and perhaps the foremost scholar on their history as well as the history of "peculiar performance" in general. His 1986 book Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women chronicles some of the most creative and amazing performers in the annals of popular entertainments. That is probably the book you should start with if you're new to Ricky Jay's writing. The entertainments explored in "Jay's Journal of Anomalies" are less spectacular but no less curious. This book cuts a broader swath, including the unvirtuous origins of bowling, the first successful attempts to mimic the human voice mechanically, and an American buffalo exhibited disingenuously as a startling new species. No contents of "Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women" are repeated in this book except in passing reference.
Mr. Jay's prose is, as always, erudite, wry, and a pleasure to read. He loves this stuff. And the reader can't help but love it too. Each Journal is dedicated to a different subject and includes extensive endnotes, in which you will discover interesting tidbits of information and references to Jay's sources. The subjects covered in these 16 Journals are, speaking generally: dog performers, exhibiting obesity, common animals exhibited as rarities, performances of crucifixion (real and fraudulent), performing fleas, facial contortionists, 18th century showman Isaac Fawkes, ceiling walkers, nose amputation (fake), the "Aztec Lilliputians", the athletic legless Harvey Leach, the artful history of bowling, fasters (who starve themselves for profit), the shared history of dentistry and legerdemain, early levitators, and early machines that replicated human abilities.
There are over 130 black-and-white and color illustrations throughout that reproduce playbills, engravings, broadsides, woodcuts, lithographs and more from the author's collection. Also included are 2 large fold-outs: One is a 1931 photo of the cast of the "Dreamland Circus Side Show" in New York, which featured a "crucified man". The other is a drawing of the Bartholomew Fair in 1729, which featured Isaac Fawkes. I offer a bit of trivia for Amazon shoppers: The Automaton Chess Player built by Wolfgang von Kempelen and described in Jay's last Journal is the same that inspired the name of Amazon Mechanical Turk, an Amazon subsidiary that solicits humans to perform tasks that we do better than computers.
You have to like your humor dry.......2005-01-20
Ricky Jay is an odd bird, and I guess most people would consider his fans (myself included) odd for liking him. I can't imagine that anyone unfamiliar with Mr. Jay and his trademark deadpan delivery, use of archaic multi-syllabic synonyms, and fondness for esoterica will be interested in Anomalies. But for those who are into him (and you know who you are) the book is quality through and through. The topics are interesting, fun and wide-ranging. The research is, of course, top notch. The genuine admiration he shows for the entertainers he writes of and his respect for their craft are abundantly clear.
As far as the appreciation of Jay's writing and his selection of content, you either get it or you don't. And if you get it, then by all means get the book. The fact that the book is a reprint of his newsletters, and therefore various subjects can be read in a single sitting, makes this compilation all the more enjoyable. My only itty-bitty complaint would be that the updates would be more accessible if they came immediately after the individual articles rather than a collection of endnote.
'An Anomaly of Anomalies'.......2004-05-27
What wasn't quite clear to me when I got this book is that it is exactly what it says it is: a compellation of a quarterly 'newsletter' or journal written by magician Ricky Jay over a period of six years. The newsletter combines Jay's interest in entertainers of the outrageous kind with high quality publication; as he says,"a magazine printed letterpress on mold-made paper, with tipped-in color plates to present the illustrations I cherished with dignity and clarity." Although I have not seen either the original newsletters or the paperback version of the book, I can testify that the hardback retains these fine qualities.
As one might expect given the nature of the project, the quality of individual chapters evolves with time. Each chapter of the book is one volume of the newletter, preserved with the original masthead; the first few chapters show Jay warming to his subject. Chapter one, on trained dogs, is only 6 pages long; Chapter two, on Edward Bright and other early "Fattest Man/Woman/Child" is eight pages. Honestly, these opening chapters did not particularly interest me. But then the topics became more interesting to me and Jay seemed to 'hit his stride'--the final chapter, on the Amazing Chess Automaton, is twice the length of the first. Nonetheless, I still found the book a bit uneven--the chapter on bowling begins superbly, with a short description of Matthew Buchinger, born in 1674 who became a bowling wizard in spite of having neither arms nor legs. But after a single paragraph and picture, this singular character is not mentioned again. Instead, Jay concentrates the remaining pages on a general discussion of cheating at bowling--substitute "pool" for 'bowling' and the situation is pretty much unchanged today; and the association of bowling with amorality in the Victorian mind. Moderately interesting, but give me a ceiling walker, chess automaton, or Bonassus any day. It would be churlish of me to make more of this--it is, after all, Jay's Journal of Anomalies, not Coleman's Journal.
Among the more fascinating chapters are those on fasters, where Jay brings in the modern example of the Breatharians, who supposedly live on air alone; the Aztec Lilliputians; and a quirky chapter on "nose amputations". The common but unspoken thread among all the chapters is that odd but universal human quality--an eagerness to be deceived. The Amazing Chess Automaton, a device which has been treated at great lengths elsewhere, is a real testament to this quality; having been purchased by not one, but two members of royalty!
Each chapter is thoroughly footnoted, so that the book stands not only as an entertaining collection of quirks, but also as a scholarly source of information. One of the highlights is the Afterward, in which Jay publishes, presumably for the first time, additional material and pictures supplied by his readers in response to the original newsletter. All in all, Jay has succeeded admirably in creating (in his own words) 'an anomaly of anomalies."
Odd Tastes? Read This Book........2002-03-16
Wonderfully entertaining and enjoyable scholarship on extremely odd topics: flea circuses, hunger artists, nose-removal devices, and humbug of all sorts. Jay proves himself once again to be not only a supremely talented performer on the stage but on the page as well. Peruse this and be amazed at what people found entertaining a century or two ago... it's not so different from what you watch every evening on the TV (especially if you watch Fox).
Perfectly Odd.......2001-12-28
A superb book stuffed with bizarre topics and weird old illustrations. The previous reviewer's remark about "there's nothing in here I need to know" totally misses the point. Of course you don't NEED to know this stuff! It's the simple joy of human weirdness that makes this book worthwhile. Where else are you going to learn about recreational nose-slicing and the fine art of ceiling-walking? Also check out Jay's "Learned Pigs", Bondeson's "Feejee Mermaid," Collins's "Banvard's Folly," and Standage's "The Turk" ... all great stuff in this same line.
Customer Reviews:
Mistaken identity........2002-10-20
The book starts off as Frank Morgan getting jailed because of a look alike that is an outlaw. He breaks out of jail and starts looking for the lookalike outlaw. He rides into the town of Chance to resupply and to verify his identity. He is told the lookalike has been raiding towns in the area and takes the job of deputy of Chance. He gets into a confrontation with a rancher from the area and settles it in his way. The outlaw raids the town and kidnaps some women, one of which Frank is fond of. Then "The Last Gunfighter" goes to rescue the women then to settle the score with the lookalike and his followers.
Book Description
Some of the finest horror stories ever written. Arthur Machen had a profound impact upon H.P. Lovecraft and the group of stories that would later become known as the Cthulhu Mythos. This first volume of Chaosium's Arthur Machen collection begins with the chilling "The Three Impostors" in its complete form, including the rarely seen sections "The Decorative Imagination" and "The Novel of the Iron Maid." Rounding out the first volume are "The Great God Pan," "The Inmost Light," and "The Shining Pyramid," all are excellent tales. Introduction by S.T. Joshi.
This book is part of an expanding collection of Cthulhu Mythos horror fiction and related topics. Call of Cthulhu fiction focuses on single entities, concepts, or authors significant to readers and fans of H.P. Lovecraft.
Customer Reviews:
More chilling than gore.......2006-08-03
This review is only about the title story, or rather, short novel. It is a circular story, as it ends where it begins. Characters have multiple identities and strange coincidences abound. It is a macabre joke, a foundational book of the cosmic horror a la Lovecraft and his Ctulhu mysteries. It is also a peak of the late Victorian era and much more. What makes it more than a genre story is the poetic quality of its literature. There are paragraphs that would make little perfect prose poems.
Along several months, or years, Dyson and Phillips meet different persons, who have in common the search for a shy and nervous young man with a little black moustache and big spectacles. Each one of these persons tells his or her story in inserted chilling tales, full of the imagery that would later become cliche. This is no cheap horror: it has a great sense of humor, it is not about axe-grinding nor about phantoms and exorcisms. It is pure cosmic horror, the horror of hidden forces and obscure memories of a remote past. It is a horror of strange gatherings and incognoscible conspiracies. The inserted stories are often compiled independently of their contextual frame: "The novel of the Dark Valley" is an adventure in the loneliness of the Rocky Mountains, with a pre-Kafkian touch that makes you go pale. "The novel of the Black Seal" happens in the Welsh wilderness, with a mad scientist and beings from the past. "The novel of the Iron Maiden" includes a collectionist of instruments of torture. "The novel of the White Powder" is about a substance that transforms humans into something indefinible and horrific. Finally, ""The story of the Spectacled Young Man" closes the circle and "explains" everything.
Like a good Englishman, Machen is a master of the understatement. More than showing, he insinuates to let the readers feel for themselves all the weight of the horror of the world, the mysteries that haunt us, and the strangeness of this life. Little surprise, then, that this was one of Jorge Luis Borges's favorite books, since much of his beloved subjects are here: ancient and undecipherable languages; stories lost in time; mirror games; equivocal identities; implacable gods; and somber mansions. Much recommended.
A Bit Dry But Worthwhile.......2005-06-17
Other reviews are longer and more in-depth. This is meant as a quickie.
The title story is the heavy-hitter of this collection; it ties several shorter stories together under one title. The other stories are much shorter but have their twists and turns as well.
The language is not as dry as one might expect from stories written a century ago.
Worth four stars out of five.
Convinced to buy Vol. 2.......2004-05-03
As the title says, I found this collection so intriguing that I will be buying the next volume (The White People and other Tales). The only work that I had previously known by Arthur Machen was "The Great God Pan", which has shown up in so many anthologies that I am thoroughly sick of it, although it is a good read the first few times through. "The Inmost Light" was quite disturbing to me in terms of plumbing the depravity of the human soul. "The Shining Pyramid" was a good supernatural detective story, in my opinion, although the intuitive leaps made by the protagonist would have made Fox Mulder proud. This clearly inspired quite a few of Robert Howard's stories.
Clearly, the crown jewel of this collection is "The Three Imposters." The deeper I got into this novel, the more engrossed I became. It is made up of 14 short stories, each of which is part of an overarching storyline that involves the protagonist, a golden coin, a man with spectacles, and 3 people who are not who they say they are. Each successive short story drew me in further. Some of the best reading I have done in years!
One of the Great Masters of the Macabre.......2003-11-19
Arthur Machen (1863-1947), an English author best known for his eerie stories about supernatural creatures and situations, served as a major influence on later explorers of the macabre. H.P. Lovecraft, for example, cited Machen as an authority and even wrote articles about him on occasion. The introduction to this compilation of some of Machen's best stories, written and edited by S.T. Joshi, underscores the author's ability to shock his Victorian contemporaries, who blasted his works publicly by labeling them obscene. Joshi argues the ridiculousness of this criticism, for Machen actually was an orthodox Anglo-Catholic who presented the concepts of nature as a corrupted influence that only civilization with its strict rules can negate. That's one way to view Machen's work: with a lot of scholarly blather. For most horror fans, it simply does not matter whether this author used horror as a means to support the social status quo. What is important is that Machen wrote cracking good stories that are not only eerie but also inspired future writers in the genre.
The best story in this collection is arguably the first one, "The Great God Pan." This horrific tale boils down to one sublime theme: don't mess with Mother Nature. A doctor performs a brain experiment on a young lady with absolutely horrific results, although the scope of the terror isn't widely known at first. As the story unfolds, we discover that this woman had a physical experience with something beyond our realms of perception, something so bizarre that our frail little minds can barely grasp the implications of such an unholy union. The result is a child, a very special child with a very evil character. This wicked offspring consequently ravages her way through the upper crust of British society, luring men into her clutches and then performing acts on them that cause the dupes to die in a quite terrible manner. There are some clever twists and turns throughout the story, such as bringing one of the doctors present at the beginning of the story back into the plot towards the end, that I quickly realized is a trademark of Machen's writing style. "The Great God Pan," perhaps better than any other story in this collection, shows the influence this author had on Lovecraft and others. Like the author of "The Mountains of Madness," the narrator here only alludes to shocking incidents in an oblique way, leaving it up to the reader to fill in the terrible blanks.
"The Inmost Light" and "The Shining Pyramid," while intriguing in their own ways, do not seem to pack the emotional punch of the "The Great God Pan." One story that does rise to the level of greatness is "The Three Imposters; or, The Transmutations," a sprawling epic that forms the bulk of the book. This is a wonderfully constructed oddity, a larger story built up of numerous interlocking smaller tales that could well stand on their own. Two characters, a Mr. Dyson and a Charles Phillips, encounter three individuals looking for a mysterious man wearing spectacles. The three people tell various stories to one or another of these men, including one set in the American West, a wacky yarn about an overachiever who imbibes a mysterious white powder with horrific results, and "The Novel of the Black Seal," my favorite story by far. In this intense tale concerning our lack of knowledge about the ancient past, a scientist going on retreat to the wilds of Wales mysteriously disappears forever after attempting to prove his theories about a weird little seal inscribed with the most curious markings. Parts of this story read like a mystery novel, as the main character in the story (a female servent/secretary type) discovers the aftermath of weird goings on and attempts to investigate the strangeness. I thought Machen achieved an amazing level of taut pacing with this story, and the conclusion to "The Three Imposters" shows the author bringing together the story in a satisfactory way.
One of the things I liked about Machen's stories is the emphasis he puts on atmosphere and background. Outside of Dickens, I cannot remember reading another author who describes the squalid streets and alleyways of London as well as Machen does. Joshi mentions this in his introduction to the book, but until you actually sit down and read the stories you simply won't grasp the detail Machen offers on every page. Moreover, this hyper atmospheric writing style extends to stories that take place outside the city as well. As anyone who has read horror knows, atmosphere is as important, if not more so, to a story than nearly any other element. With his bleak descriptions of the seedy London byways, Machen elevates horror to new heights.
In fact, all of the stories in this collection achieve greatness in their own unique ways. From what editor Joshi said in the introduction to this book, Machen failed to sustain his career in the long run. His later stories didn't sell well at all and seemed to be mere shadows of his former glories. Fortunately, we still have his creepy gems to read and savor today. If I had to rank Machen in the pantheon of grand horror writers, I would place him on more or less an even keel with Lovecraft but below Algernon Blackwood. But that comparison comes from only having read the few stories in this slim book. Certainly there are still Arthur Machen gems out there I have yet to see, so perhaps his stature will rise even higher in my eyes in the near future. Still, if you like Lovecraft and wish to read similarly themed stories, you need to pick up "The Three Imposters and Other Stories" soon. You won't be disappointed.
A Review of the Three Imposters with a Calumny against Joshi.......2003-04-16
If you're familiar with Machen, you've probably read the frequently anthologized chapters of "The Three Imposters" -- "The Novel of the White Seal" and "The Novel of the Black Powder" -- as stand alone short stories. I found that I appreciate them more after having read them in their original context as chapters or "novels" of this odd picaresque (or maybe arabesque) novel. In "The Three Imposters", these "novels" appear as stories narrated by characters within the main plot. It's an interesting idea. However, the "novels" stand out as better stories than the narrative in which they are imbedded. So I'm not sure it's such a good idea. The book ends with a truly gruesome finish -- even for Machen.
This is definitely a worthwhile read even if you've read the aforementioned novels. As usual, skip Joshi's introduction. For example, Joshi finds the source of Machen's numinous sense of horror in -- surprise! -- Machen's Victorian discomfort with sexuality. Not to mention the fact that he was a Christian, too. Ooh those Christians just hate sex! I suppose we are then to believe that Machen undertook the translation of Casanova's "Memoirs" as some sort of penance, like the protagonist's hair shirt in Machen's "Hill of Dreams". (Machen's "Memoirs" is still the standard translation in English, by the way.) Or could it be the case that Machen was more subtle than the freshman composition caricature of a sexually repressed Victorian Anglo-Catholic Joshi draws in his introduction; that in fact one of Machen's great themes is the reconciliation of sensuality with mysticism? Not surprisingly Joshi, who professes a peculiarly coarse and unreflective variety of atheistic materialism, is blind to this possibility.
Whatever happened to E. F. Bleiler or Lin Carter? (Well, they're dead, sadly. But can't Chaosium and Dover find a better editor for their Weird Fiction?)
Book Description
This book lets you audit the effectiveness of your current hiring program, provides all the whys and how-to's for implementing the necessary employment practices that will keep your business safe.
Customer Reviews:
The Safe Hiring Manual .......2005-04-28
Put all of your other books away, hiring managers, human resource personnel, and small business owners, this one book will replace everything else on your shelf. A wonderful resource to help you with the hiring process and how to handle it efficiently, professionally, and safely.
A "Must Have" Book.......2005-01-08
For anyone involved in hiring, security, human resources, background screening or labor law, this is a "must have" book. The first half of the book is a very practical and in-depth "how-to" for employers who want to protect their workplace from criminals, terrorist or imposters. It goes well beyond just background screening, and covers the critical aspects of the application, interviewing and reference checking process as part of a safe hiring program. The chapters on negligent hiring, the FCRA and privacy are also critical. There is also an in-depth discussion on the how to legally obtain and utilize criminal records. The second half contains a resources library with chapters on subjects such as terrorism, international background checks, fraud and embezzlement, workplace violence and drug testing. This is the only source of information I have located on international background screening and the issues associated with keeping potential terrorist out of your workforce. The safe hiring audit alone makes this book indispensable. The books 512 pages is nearly an encyclopedia of safe hiring and pre-employment background screening. It reviews the screening industry in some detail as well. The book is very valuable for any employer attempting to outsource employment screening. What is also interesting is that the book also has a chapter that examines employment screening from the applicant's point of view, and even contains information on how job seekers with criminal records can find jobs.
The Definitive Book on Background Checks!.......2004-11-12
As the title implies, this really is The Complete Guide to safe hiring. Rosen's step-by-step descriptions and instructions are an invaluable resource to any HR or Security professional, or lawyer, concerned with how to effectively implement (and/or measure) an employment screening policy. A "must have" for any organization's hiring procedures.
Book Description
Matt Kelly's knack for concealing his identity is his greatest asset as a federal agent. But when an assignment gets personal, discovering who he really is may prove to be the toughest mission of all.
Customer Reviews:
Great Mystery/Suspene Novel.......2007-04-17
What I like about Davis Bunn is that he doesn't "dumb" down his books but requires you to think. Instead of having a good idea "who done it" at the beginning, the plot keeps you guessing with clues from the US to Europe. Matt's "gift" was a little Mission Impossible-ish, but it was fun to read about. Two Thumbs up!
Unrealized Potential.......2007-02-16
'Imposter' is a story that had the potential to be very good, but it didn't quite work out.
The story focuses on Matt Kelly who is a rookie federal agent. He is walking up to his mother's house with her when she is killed by an explosion at the front door. He then has his father (a U.S. senate candidate) pull some strings to help him be able to investigate the case.
There are several parts of the story that are mentioned but just left hanging with no real explanation ever given. Some of these are as follows: Matt and his father having a strained relationship, Matt being emotionally disconnected from virtually the entire human race, Matt having moved around a lot as a child. There are others too.
Some parts of the story were quite action packed and kept my interest. Overall though, this was just average.
Plot is complex, confusing and leaves many questions unanswered.......2007-01-23
Imposter is a political/police thriller by best selling Christian author Davis Bunn. This is the third book I've read by the author (Elixir, Lazarus Trap) and all three have their own unique style, voice and message. Imposter is written as traditional political thriller. Matt Kelly is coming home with his mom after grocery shopping. Matt's mom opens the front door to the home and is blown to bits by a bomb. Matt Kelly isn't any ordinary guy. He's a thirty year old heartthrob who works for State Department Intelligence. He's smart, good looking, and tough as nails, and also mysterious and reclusive. Matt's father Paul is the democratic canditate for the Senate in Maryland and the election is only 8 days away. Matt pulls some strings to get the chance to investigate the murder of his mom before the killer strikes again.
The blurb on the back of the book says "Matt Kelly's knack for concealing his identity is his greatest asset as a Federal Agent. But when an assignment gets personal, but when the assignment gets personal, discovering who he really is may be the toughest mission of all." Unfortunately, after reading the novel, I still don't know who Matt Kelly is, nor why a lot of things happened in the novel. First, the plot complex and intricate, the kind you would expect in a political thriller. Second, the characters are all interesting. Matt is a great agent who loved his mom but never got along with his dad. While investigating the death of his mom, he works with a veteran cop and a beautiful rookie cop that is already in trouble with the police hierarchy.
For me, the novel didn't work because nothing was resolved. There were several questions the novel brought out? Why was Matt so reclusive and why did he have a bad relationship with his dad were just a few and they weren't answered. Now, I've read a lot of thrillers, and enough to know that I don't need everything spelled out for me, but in Imposter, the author really needed to go a step further in explaining things. Almost every single scene concluded with a cliffhanger. Some were big and some were minor, some related to the plot and some related to character development. For me, it seems like every single one of these scenes could have used another line to explain it. Because the next scene would occur and the cliffhanger would have apparently been resolved, yet I had no idea what the resolution was. To me, there was just too much implied, too much to be inferred, too much of the details left unexplained.
This book has received mostly positive reviews, so maybe I'm off base. Still, I think that despite all of its obvious strengths, the novel just doesn't work for me. If Matt Kelly is the "Imposter", I think I should be able to know why he is called that. I should know why Paul Kelly despises his son. And I should be totally confused about the Vietnam subplot pushed on me the last fifty pages of the book. I've enjoyed other Bunn novels, just not this one, and plan on reading him again. The Imposter just wasn't one of the better ones.
A Good Read.......2007-01-16
If you action/mysteries/cop thrillers - you'll like this book. The author writes well, plots well, and his writing has a clarity I find admirable. I would have given it five stars except that the writer kept harping on the hero's inability to express emotion. That would have been okay too except that it interrupted the novel's flow and was never sufficiently explained nor satisfied in the story. Must every detective in fiction be a reformed drunk, addict, depressed, suffering from some loss or trauma, etc, etc?? This is annoying when carried to the length that this author takes it. But - aside from that - a really entertaining read.
Amazing Action Thriller.......2006-11-17
If more books like "Imposter" were published, I would spend all of my money on books. Davis Bunn has written an original and authentic action-military-government intrigue novel that would make a great film. For the role of Matt Kelley, I want Christian Bale.
Matt is an unlikely, yet suprisingly likeable hero. Although extremely good-looking, he is tortured by many personal demons that have led him to supress all emotions. He comes across to people as a "bland, white-bread boy," and they dismiss him. That is a big mistake, as Matt is skilled at hiding what lies underneath his surface. He tried to drown his pain in martial-arts training at a Baltimore inner-city dojo, and training at a federal academy for special ops agents. Matt doesn't really know who he is. He has a strained relationship with his father Paul, who is in a frantic race for the Senate.
His life is turned upside down as his mother is blown up in front of her own home. Matt almost dies in the explosion, but soon is seeking his mother's killer. But why would anyone want to kill the wife of a political candidate? The media blames right-wing extremists, but Matt senses something much greater behind the scenes. A pretty rookie cop named Connie Morales helps him in his investigation, but just as new clues turn up, they are stymied at every turn by unknown forces.
Bunn writes so well and so descriptively that you can't put the book down.
Book Description
The volume that launched the blockbuster House of Winslow series. Gilbert Winslow, forced by his family into the pulpit of the Church of England, becomes a spy among religious separatists. Who will he turn to when the forces of good and evil threaten to pull him apart?
Customer Reviews:
Recommended with reservations.......2006-03-11
In this book a young man is hired by an English lord to spy on the Separatists living in Holland, particularly to discover the whereabouts of William Brewster, one of the leaders of the religious dissenters. Gilbert Winslow's task will lead him to travel on the Mayflower, and have to determine where his loyalties truly are. This is book 1 in the incredibly prolific House of Winslow series
This book is . . . nice. Not especially challenging, thought provoking, or whatnot, but nice. I like history, don't mind the religious undertone, good times had by all. Morris is a Christian author, but I've found that his stuff is generally not the `religion shoved down your throat repeatedly" variety, and since I'm a sucker for the nice romantic stories it's a win-win situation. So I would recommend it with reservations
Don't Start Unless You Wanna Be Hooked for Life.......2006-03-02
This book kicks off one awesome series. Gilbert Morris may be a bit long winded at times, but his characters are interesting, the history's cool, and the plot twists sneak up on you.
Gilbert Winslow sets out to spy on the Puritans, loses his heart and more to a Puritan and becomes a better man for it.
This is a great book..........2003-05-19
This is a remarkable story. It is full of history and I learned a lot about the ways of life of the puritans from reading it. You will meet the characters you find in your history books in a way you never knew them before! I read it very quickly because the characters were so well developed and the plot exciting. The romance was wonderful, but this isn't a romance novel so it wasn't overdone. This is the first book in the House of Winslow series and it tells the story of young gilbert winslow who takes on a job as a spy to turn in one of the leading puritan pastors. It follows his journey on the Mayflower and the lives of the settlers. This story is captivating, simply put. Will Gilbert be able to turn in the innocent man even after he has come to love the Puritans? Will he go back and Marry Cecily and forget all about dear Humility? Everyone should read this book.
misinformation.......2000-06-01
Edward Winslow was the first Winslow to come over on the Mayflower.The Winslows had many children, but looking at our family Bible and records...no Gilbert. Also, the Winslows in our family line (directly from Edward)became Quakers and settled in the South (NC). However, the book sounds interesting, but the names could be more accurate.
Must Read for History Buffs!.......2000-03-27
This has to be one of my favorite books. The content of the book, historicaly, is amazing. Gilbert Morris must have gone to a lot of trouble to research his book so thoroughly. The trials that Gilbert Winslow experiences are facinating to any reader. The story line of Gilbert and Humility is truly romantic and gives you hope that true love does exist. Gilbert Winslow was a real man that traveled on the Mayflower as well as Humility Cooper and several other characters. However, I do believe that Gilbert went back to England after coming to the New World as well as Humility Cooper. I do not know if the story line between them is a true one, but I don't want to know; I fell in love with them and that is the way I'd like to keep it!
Average customer rating:
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Thomas The Imposter (Peter Owen Modern Classics S.)
Jean Cocteau
Manufacturer: Peter Owen Publishers
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Binding: Paperback
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Product Description
6 Titles By George V. Higgins : Cogan's Trade The Patriot Game Imposters Outlaws Trust Wonderful Years, Wonderful Years. six mmpb books.
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- The King of Lies
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- The Morning After
- The New Eating Right for a Bad Gut : The Complete Nutritional Guide to Ileitis, Colitis, Crohn's Disease, and Inflammatory Bowel Disease
- The No-Grain Diet: Conquer Carbohydrate Addiction and Stay Slim for the Rest of Your Life
- The One-State Solution: A Breakthrough for Peace in the Israeli-Palestinian Deadlock
- The Other Side of You: A Novel
- The Return of Superman
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