Beyond the Pale (The Darkwing Chronicles, Book 1)

Book Description

The government knows that Daphne Urban is a vampire, and they have an ultimatum: spy for them, or be killed. The choice is easy. She can speak 13 languages, has a genius IQ, and has escaped detection for nearly five hundred years-making her perfect for Team Darkwing. Her first mission is to get close to Bonaventure, a shady arms dealer with an unexpected gift for seduction. But when Darius, a darkly sexy vampire slayer, begins chasing her, Darius is torn between desire and duty. For his lithe, young prey is also his ultimate temptation.

Customer Reviews:

Super Reader.......2007-08-31

A covert government agency makes a vampire woman an offer she can't refuse. Work for them, or don't do anything ever again.

They have some terrorists to stop, and her superhuman abilities will be needed.

She also has a problem in that after causing a serious problem for Byron, she has been celibate for a century or so. So, of course the first guy she meets and finally shags turns out to be a vampire hunter.

Apart from the bad guys she eventually gets the better of, it turns out her mother is involved with a secret group of super vampire agents called Team Darkwing. A bit annoyed by this revelation, she can't be too mad given they helped her out.

Poorly written.......2007-05-30

This book was poorly written with lots of descriptions and lacking anything that would get me to care for the characters. There were multiply flaws in the plot with the biggest one the inability of the vampire heroine to recognize a fellow vampire.

Never have I ever read .......2007-04-03

I can honestly this that never before have I ever read a book that made me wish to toss it out the window. The premise of the book sounded interesting and original; however, at three chapters in, I had to put it down. I forced myself to finish it, hoping for something worthy to make this purchase worthwhile. I finished this book and was disgusted. I can honestly say that if this is an example of her work, then I will assuredly never read anything associated with her name again.

Potential Wasted.......2007-03-17

A completely unique and original plotline that sent shivers up and down my spine. Vampires are always portrayed as dark and sexy and are rarely working for the "good guys" so to speak. They play the villains or they are the protagonists, but they certainly aren't working for the government. One notable exception to that little rule is Kim Harrison's Ivy Tamwood; but then again she's a runner (see bounty hunter/PI) and the government agency is corrupt and rife with politics so she joins up with a witch to make it on their own. So again, nothing like what I've seen before. Despite the semi-predictable love affair tossed into the story's summary, the book really came off as new and refreshing. I couldn't wait to curl up with it and start reading.

But the saying holds true, never judge a book by its cover. Despite the enticing promises that the story's summary offers, and the captivating plot, the story falls short of its mark. Drastically short of its mark. I suppose that if you're looking for a book with steamy sex-capades in it then this book is for you. However, I would recommend checking out the romance and erotica sections of your bookstore first before picking this book up. Certainly you'll find books there that don't have one dimensional characters who are just blatant attempts at bringing to life every stereotype imaginable. You'll also probably find books by authors who can keep the story's pace flowing and who know how to make their characters believable.

In all honesty I only kept reading this book so that I could see how it ended and so that I would know the entirety of the story when I wrote my review of it. Not even half-way into the book I just wanted to fling it out the window and let the dogs have it. I didn't though, which is a good thing, since someone at one of the book swaps I'm a member of has requested it. Pity them.
The story's plot concept was original yet the way the author chose to execute it made the book entirely hokey. You have the protagonist, Daphne Urban, former lover of Lord Byron (yes that Lord Byron), who hasn't had a lover since then. Despite being heralded as a genius the character acts like an airhead, is flakey, and cannot seem to think on her own. Considering the fact that her friends call her "Daphy" this really shouldn't be too much of a surprise actually. Now granted, book smarts does not equate street smarts, but for someone who is nearly five hundred, knows thirteen different languages, and has a genius-level IQ she seems rather dumb. There is never a hint of the character's intelligence in any of the actions or thoughts she has throughout the entirety of the book. No book smarts and no street smarts. It makes you wonder how she possibly survived, and then you get introduced to her mother. Her mother has been the hand pulling the strings in many governments and monarchies throughout her life, and no surprise, she has a major influence in the present day US one as well. When you see how much of a continued presence the mother has in her daughter's life you completely understand how Daphne survived this long. It's also no surprise that the mother was behind Daphne's "forced" recruitment.

Daphne is not the only vampire hired on by the government to form a top secret taskforce, of course, so let us take a look now at Daphne's two team mates and supporting cast: Benjamina "Benny" Polycarp and Cormac O'Reilly. Benny Polycarp is a rather newly made vampire, and characters that makes any women who was born in the South cringe in disgust of the appalling stereotyping of a Southerner, and then punch the author for the affront. Yes it's that bad. The character is blonde, big breasted, empty headed, has a very thick southern accent (which is even accentuated by the author), not to mention just about every sentence out of Benny's mouth ends with `honey', `honey child', `sugar', or `darling'. Benny also has the appalling habit of using overly clichéd phrases (I feel like a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs) in every other sentence. Thank you Ms. Russe, for your appalling portrayal of women from the south, I'm sure we will never get tired of seeing these derogatory caricatures. Shall I now go on to make a horrendous caricature of a Yankee from Pennsylvania for you? Somehow I doubt you'd appreciate it.

If that wasn't bad enough you have Cormac O'Reilly who is, unfortunately, the stereotypical flaming gay in the story, complete with flapping hand movements, Broadway dreams, and poorly timed comments about past lovers for shock value. If I didn't know any better I'd say Ms. Russe sat down one day, spent all of her time coming up with a compelling plot idea and after jotting down some notes walked away only to return later with no idea of how to flesh it out. So instead of starting back from square one she just thought of every clichéd stereotype she could think of and started plopping them into the story. You have your ditzy air headed bimbo of a protagonist, despite her initial description contrasting this, with the flaming gay guy, and the ditzy bimbo Southern belle as her supporting cast. Even Daphne's romantic interest is so stereotypical; blonde, tall, handsome, brooding, and self-involved. His only "saving grace" is that he is also bigoted and prejudice, but that's not much of an improvement really.

As for the big bad guy they were supposed to nab, Bonaventure, well I've seen sticks with more life. Honestly his character description and portrayal was akin to reading a news recap. No life, nothing to make you drawn to the character and see him as real, let alone be able to dislike him. This was evident in all of Russe's characters though, but in all honesty, it was more readily apparent in J, Mar-Mar, and Bonaventure. They were just names in the book, not people. Had they been offed you wouldn't have cared in the least, they just weren't real to the reader. Then there was the mission they undertook. They flubbed it up horribly but despite Bonaventure being a kingpin of crime somehow he was as much of a bumbling idiot as his pursuers since they did eventually prevail. Ah of course, clearly Russe got the memo that the good guys always win so despite her initial portrayal of Bonaventure she quickly altered his personality and character to allow Daphne and company to nab him. Note to self: if your story begins to take a different turn than you originally thought it would don't work with it, just divert it back on track by any means necessary; this includes having characters act out of character and against their own makeup.

In short, if you want a read where the heroine not only meets her romantic interest but has slept with him by the third chapter than you might like this book. There is also an obvious tension between Daphne and her boss and since by the end of the book the relationship between Daphne and Darius is on the rocks you can expect things to heat up with the boss or another character in the next book. Beyond the Pale had a predictable turn of events, poor execution of a potentially riveting story concept, unoriginal and flat characters, horrible and atypical stereotypes, and not an once of character development left this reader wondering how the book ever made it to the publisher at all.

An OK Read..........2006-12-29

...I enjoyed this book, but I am not going to put it on my keeper shelf. I am going to buy the next book, ut I plan to buy it used. The story, to me was only, OK>not great.

Average customer rating:

Pretty good
Brilliant!!
Riveting
The best series I've read since Earth-sea
Thoroughly Enjoyable

Beyond the Pale (The Last Rune, Book 1)
Mark Anthony
Manufacturer: Spectra
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0553579347
Release Date: 1999-11-02

Amazon.com

Travis, a bespectacled barkeep from Castle City, Colorado, and Grace, a regally beautiful ER doctor from Denver Memorial, wormhole their way through a magical billboard into... a Robert Jordan novel. Well, sort of. Sure, in Beyond the Pale, it's a chilling winter--not a sweltering summer--that's gripping the land. And the seals (little stone disks, no less) are weakening on the prison of the Pale King, not the Dark One. But, surprise--Travis finds that he's the first man in centuries to successfully wield the One Power... er, runes, that is... and is the sole hope of keeping the Pale King at bay.

Beyond the Pale isn't entirely derivative of Jordan's wildly popular Wheel of Time series: if nothing else, Anthony sets himself apart by having things actually happen in his book. Travis and his fellow earthling Grace end up in Eldh after surviving run-ins with the Pale King's servants on Earth. Grace, mistaken for a fairy queen, is quickly shanghaied as a spy for King Boreas, who has just convened a council of Eldh's rulers. After a series of adventures, Travis joins Grace, and the two must tangle with the mysterious Raven's Cult and a bunch of iron-hearted bad guys who are trying to derail the Council of Kings and hasten the PK's return. --Paul Hughes

Book Description

Reality is unraveling in the dusty Colorado town of Castle City.  Strange symbols are carved into storefronts, and ancient legends come to life.

Saloonkeeper Travis Wilder is handed an ornate iron box and a mysterious mission.  And in Denver, where dead men walk, ER doctor Grace Beckett is witness to a terrifying and inhuman scene of carnage.  Theirs is a destiny shrouded in a coming darkness, a destiny that draws them into the otherworld of Eldh....

Eldh is a land of gods and monsters, myths and runecraft, conspiracy and blood.  It is a world that has secretly coexisted beside ours for millennia.  But now the boundary between worlds is crumbling in the face of a monstrous evil.  And Travis and Grace must save this strange land in order to safeguard their own world.

Customer Reviews:

Pretty good.......2007-08-20

Honestly, the first time I picked up this book, I read the prologue, and the first 2 or 3 chapters and threw it back on my bookshelf. It sounded great at the bookstore, but I just couldnt get into it. I think I was just looking for something different at that time. Anyway, with Harry Potter over, and in waiting for the final installment of the Inheritance Trilogy (Eragon) I was looking for a new book to read. I had thought of returning the Redwall series, but its been so long since I stopped. I thought I would give this one more quick try before I went running to the book store.

I dont know what the difference was from the first time I sat down to read this book, but I was hooked after reading the prolouge and the first couple chapters. If anything, early in the book, Anthony is a little too descriptive, yes in fantasy worlds you like to have description, but most people have a pretty good idea of what Colorado would be like. Aside from that, I never wanted to stop reading. The end of one chapter pulls you right into the next, while also making good stopping points.

Overall a good read, going to get the second one soon.

Brilliant!!.......2007-07-27

This serie is great. A new brilliant writer has arrived. The story is complelling and hooks you from the first page to the end. I have read the first two books and can't wait for the other four.
It's worth every penny!!

Riveting.......2007-06-15

I have read all the negative reviews, and y'all need to get a life. This book is cool, the best fantasy I have read in a long time.

So, yeah, it is a bit derivative (Eddings, Donaldson, etc.). Yeah it has open homosexuality. Yeah it is kind of violent. At least there's no swearing, no drugs.

But it's fun! That's what good fantasy / sci-fi is about right? I am about 8 chapters from the end of Beyond the Pale and I am on the edge of my seat. I feel like I have been watching the best movie ever made.

Mark Anthony's characters are diverse, 3-dimensional, flawed, interesting and colorful. Good is good and evil is evil, except for that fuzzy gray area the author cultivates very well and leaves the reader breathless and the pages turning. The world of Eldh is palpable and alive. The story is well thought out, and extremely entertaining, regardless of what some dweeb commentators might think. And the writing flows like water.

All you prudes who like to have things to complain about, go away. Beyond the Pale rocks.

I cannot wait for Keep of Fire and the other 4 volumes in The Last Rune series.

The best series I've read since Earth-sea.......2006-08-31

This is the second best series i've ever read. The first being the wizard of earth-sea by ursula leguin. The characters are real and evolve with the series. I read one after another and bought the few I didnt have ahead of time so I wouldnt have a gap in between. I usually drift from book to book, series to series, looking for something to keep my attention. and this is one of those. If you are a fan of fantasy at all you will love these books.

Thoroughly Enjoyable.......2006-07-21

When I read fantasy I want to be compleatly drawn in. If the story starts to drag it does not get long to redeem itself before I'm done with the book. Luckily, that was never the case in Beyond the Pale. Anthony captured me in first with his lyrical prose and then with his two main characters Grace and Travis both of whom I could identify with in some way. I will admit that there was a little while at the begining where I really just wanted them to hurry up and get to the other world but the writing was good enough that I didn't dwell on that thought for long. Once they did get there I was hooked every step of the way.
All in all it's not my favorite but it was very enjoyable and I can't wait to read the rest of the series.

Average customer rating:

An extremely moving read
Silently Perfect, Blindly Nice
So much to learn
Just Beautiful
Endurance, love, and stalwart courage

Beyond the Pale
Elana Dykewomon
Manufacturer: Raincoast Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 155192613X

Amazon.com

Elana Dykewomon's Lambda Award-winning novel Beyond the Pale announces itself to the world with an infant's scream--"a new voice, a tiny shofar announcing its own first year." The midwife attending this birth is Gutke Gurvich, a half-Jew with different colored eyes and a gift for seeing into the spirit world. Beyond the Pale is Gutke's story, detailing her odyssey from a Russian shtetl to a comfortable Manhattan brownstone. But, as Dykewomon puts it, "Whenever you tell the story of one woman, inside is another," and this rich, multilayered novel is also the story of Chava Meyer, the baby girl Gutke delivered that day, as well as the story of the important women in both of their lives: mothers, sisters, neighbors, lovers, friends. After seeing her mother raped and killed during a particularly vicious progrom in her native village of Kishinev, Chava immigrates to America. There, on Manhattan's Lower East Side, both she and Gutke find themselves involved in the nascent labor union and suffrage movements. Dykewomon has clearly done her research here, and Beyond the Pale presents a beautifully detailed account of life among turn-of-the-century immigrant Jews, from classes at the Henry Street Settlement House to the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Through the lens of several lesbians' lives, Dykewomon draws a portrait of an entire Diasporan community living through the terror and uncertainties of both Russian progroms and life in the New World.

Book Description

Beyond the Pale — winner of the Lambda Literary Award — tells the stories of two Jewish women living through times of darkness and inhumanity in the early 20th century, capturing their undaunted love and courage in luminous and moving prose. The richly textured novel details Gutke Gurvich’s odyssey from her apprenticeship as a midwife in a Russian shtetl to her work in the suffrage movement in New York. Interwoven with her tale is that Chava Meyer, who was attended by Gurvich at her birth and grew up to survive the pogrom that took the lives of her parents. Throughout the book, historical background plays a large part: Jewish faith and traditions, the practice of midwifery, the horrific conditions in prerevolutionary Russia and New York sweatshops, and the determined work of labor unionists and suffragists.

Customer Reviews:

An extremely moving read.......2006-01-02

This was a book that I could not put down. The story follows two immigrant women from Russia to America, where they quickly learn that they have left neither poverty nor struggle behind. The characters face so much hardship and tragedy in this story, and yet the darkness is far from oppressing, as one might find with other authors who have attempted a story such as this.
Yes, there is profound sadness in this book (the account of the Triangle fire is almost to hard to read), but there is also joy, understanding and an amazing sense of connection with the characters that will stay with the reader long after the book is finished.

Silently Perfect, Blindly Nice.......2005-01-15

When I first finished this novel, my girlfriend looked over at me and said, "Parsha, you're crying like you lost your own loved one." As I tried to explain the story to her, I couldn't make out one sentence without breaking into tears. Even at work that week, thoughts would lead me back to that book and once again I'd became a blubbering mess! A few months have passed and yesterday I found myself pulling it off my bookshelf. I noticed several pages were wrinkled up by the salt in my tears that fell upon them. And still I'm left with the same feeling all over again... this is the best book I've ever read! It is a story of struggle, love, loss, and perseverance through the eyes of many characters. It is an incredible journey that is so intensifying your heart will bleed! You'll find yourself searching at the bookstores for copies to share with those who appreciate only the best. One recommendation: When reading Beyond The Pale, don't forget the Kleenex... trust me, you'll need it!

So much to learn.......2004-02-16

I finished Beyond the Pale more than 4 weeks ago, yet it is still resonating within me. The author's writing style is wonderfully rich. Her love of language is obvious as she writes quite poetically. I am neither Jewish nor a lesbian, however I thoroughly enjoyed this book. In many, many ways it is a great educational experience that I would recommend to anyone.

Just Beautiful.......2004-01-24

Amazing story about amazing women. Also about the Jewish identity. The author mentions that she wanted to tell a story of Jewish persecution outside the Holocaust, to show that it was not an isolated event but the result of a worlwide hatred and she succeeded completley.
This is a book that I felt brought my heritage, both as a woman who likes women and the daughter of a Jewish man into sharp relief, but I'd reccommend it to anyone, for the writing and the stories that need to be told that are braided into it.

Endurance, love, and stalwart courage.......2004-01-17

Opening in the early years of the twentieth century, Beyond The Pale by Elana Dykewomon is the engaging story of Gutke Gurvich and Chava Meyer -- two Russian Jewish women who go through hardship. Chava loses her parents to the brutality of a Russian pogrom, and then both women immigrate to New York City, where they find a new definition of cruelty awaits. The Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire figures prominently in this award-winning historical novel which provides the reader with a superbly written tale of endurance, love, and stalwart courage.

Rider of the Pale Horse: A Memoir of Los Alamos and Beyond

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Memoir of a Technician at Los Alamos

Rider of the Pale Horse: A Memoir of Los Alamos and Beyond
McAllister Hull , and Amy Bianco
Manufacturer: University of New Mexico Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Scientists | Professionals & Academics | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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Book Description

A scientist's recollection of his life as a junior member of the Manhattan Project, Rider of the Pale Horse recounts McAllister Hull's involvement in various nuclear-related enterprises during and after World War II. Fresh from a summer job working with explosives in the chemistry department of an ordnance plant, Hull was drafted in 1943, after his freshman year in college. Unlike other accounts written by scientists and historians of that era, Hull's narrative offers a realistic picture of the dangerous and messy job that GIs and civilian powder men were asked to do. Life in the workshops where bomb components were constructed was very different from life in the offices where they were designed.

Hull's description of his postwar work supporting the Bikini Atoll tests in the Pacific and the early concerns about the effects of a hydrogen bomb explosion illuminate the Dark Age of nuclear weaponry. John Hull's handsome illustrations show technicians and scientists at work and bring the story to life.

“Rider of the Pale Horse adds valuably to the total record of the most important technological development of the twentieth century.”—Richard Rhodes, author of The Making of the Atom Bomb

“Hull gives a bottom-up view as seen by a foot-soldier. His account of the grubby details of the project is illuminated by his later view of its historical repercussions and bears new witness to a turning-point of history.”—Freeman Dyson, author of Disturbing the Universe

A recollection of life in the workshops where nuclear bomb components were constructed during the Manhattan Project.

Customer Reviews:

Memoir of a Technician at Los Alamos.......2005-12-20

McAllister Hull had a distinguished career as a nuclear physicist and university administrator but in the fall of 1944 he arrived at Los Alamos to work as an explosives technician. His story of how that happened gives a view of the Manhattan project different from the well told histories of the eminent scientists and military leaders. Hull knew who Oppenheimer and Groves were but his role was a niche producing critical chemical explosive components at the more isolated S-site. For that matter he knew Klaus Fuchs with out any idea of the Soviet connection.

That Hull was a scientist to the depths of his psyche is apparent when he describes his thoughts while careening down a hill driving a truck with failed breaks: "I knew that if even a slight misalignment occurred, the truck would translate its forward momentum into a rotation about an axis across the road."

The book is tantalizing in its brevity as when he alludes to Edward Teller during the Oppenheimer hearings: "He helped a petty man, Lewis Strauss, to harass a man better than either of them." The memoir is a quick summary by someone who had a view of the birth of atomic weaponry from the nuts and bolts up through a thorough comprehension of the underlying theory. It adds to the understanding of how the great wealth of technical talent was put together in the remote New Mexican country side and managed to achieve the unimaginable.

Illustrations by the author's son round out the mid-century feel of the narrative and the bibliography has Hull's comments on nine of the more important accounts of the development of atomic and hydrogen bombs.

Average customer rating:

Beyond the Pale
William Trevor
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0670161152

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Beyond the Pale

Manufacturer: Signet Esclipse Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Full Moon Rising (Riley Jensen, Guardian, Book 1)

ASIN: B000CSCJEK

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Bored?

Niagara - Beyond the Pale
Niagara
Manufacturer: 9mm Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Museums & Collections | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0976632586

Product Description

Niagara Beyond The Pale - Traces the rising star Niagara from Punk Rock Royalty, to her iconic art world status. . . her early years to her first band DESTROY ALL MONSTERS, from DARK CARNIVAL to her successful career as a painter. Hundreds of historical American Punk Rock photo's from the 70's and 80's including The Ramones, Iggy and the Stooges, MC5, Sonic Youth and Debbie Harry. Journal entries from Niagara's personal diary along with countless paintings from her large body of artwork outline her life. Quotes and testimonials from many of Niagara's peers in the music and art world like Ron Asheton, Mike Kelly, Colonel, Rick Manore, Carlo McCormick, Jerry Vile, Robert Williams, Jamie O'Shea, David Keeps, John Holmstrom, Eric Kroll and Long Gone John. A must have book for art collectors and alternative music connoisseurs. "Beyond The Pale" kicks down the barriers of modern art and music and blows the doors off of the mundane.

Customer Reviews:

Bored?.......2007-01-17

Man Oh man..This girl is the BOMB!Get this if you have any interest in the mystery that is Niagara.it wont answer your questions but will make you want more of the mystery..beyond awesome..

Beyond the Pale: The Jewish Encounter with Late Imperial Russia

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Beyond the Pale
Not for Casual Reading; But a Great piece of Scholarship
Book Prize Winner
Excellent work

Beyond the Pale: The Jewish Encounter with Late Imperial Russia
Benjamin Nathans
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0520208307

Book Description

A surprising number of Jews lived, literally and figuratively, "beyond the Pale" of Jewish Settlement in tsarist Russia during the half-century before the Revolution of 1917. Thanks to the availability of long-closed Russian archives, along with a wide range of other sources, Benjamin Nathans reinterprets the history of the Russian-Jewish encounter.
In the wake of Russia's "Great Reforms," Nathans writes, a policy of selective integration stimulated social and geographic mobility among the empire's Jews. The reaction that culminated, toward the turn of the century, in ethnic restrictions on admission to universities, the professions, and other institutions of civil society reflected broad anxieties that Russians were being placed at a disadvantage in their own empire. Nathans's conclusions about the effects of selective integration and the Russian-Jewish encounter during this formative period will be of great interest to all students of modern Jewish and modern Russian history.

Customer Reviews:

Beyond the Pale.......2007-03-29

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

Not for Casual Reading; But a Great piece of Scholarship.......2006-08-17

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

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

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

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

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

Book Prize Winner.......2004-11-20

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

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

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

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

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

Excellent work.......2003-10-27

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

Journeys Beyond the Pale: Yiddish Travel Writing in the Modern World

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Journeys Beyond the Pale: Yiddish Travel Writing in the Modern World
Leah Garrett
Manufacturer: University of Wisconsin Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Jewish | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0299184447

Book Description

Passages into the modern world-by road, by train, and by ship

Book Description

Offering an intimate look at the people and places of Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan, this memoir by adventurer and historian Mathew Wilson recounts journeys into remote areas as a member of the British army and with his family in the late 1960s. Wilson relates stories of crossing the Hindu Kush with his pregnant wife and two-year-old son and running a gauntlet of armed border guards to get his injured son to a hospital. Twenty-one years later, Wilson returned to honor a promise made to a Hindu priest in Central India-to seek, find, and follow the fleeting shadow of the Rani of Jhansi, one of the heroines of India's 1957 revolt against British rule.

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