Amazon.com
About the Author
John Kotter has been on the faculty at Harvard Business School since 1972. He is the author of eleven award-winning titles and frequently gives speeches and seminars at Harvard and around the world. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Holger Rathgeber spent his early professional career in Asia. He has worked in industry since the early 1990's and is now with one of the leading medical technology companies, Bectom Dickinson. Raised in Frankfurt, Germany, Rathgeber currently resides in White Plains, New York.
 |
|
Watch a video clip featuring author John Kotter |
Book Description
Most of the denizens of the Antarctic penguin colony sneer at Fred, the quiet but observant scout who detects worrying signs that their home, an iceberg, is melting. Fred must cleverly convince and enlist key players, such as Louis, the head penguin; Alice, the number two bird; the intractable NoNo the weather expert; and a passle of school-age penguins if he is to save the colony.
Their delightfully told journey illuminates in an unforgettable way how to manage the necessary change that surrounds us all. Simple explanatory material following the fable enhances the lasting value of these lessons.
Our Iceberg Is Melting is at once charming, accessible and profound; a treat for virtually any reader.
Customer Reviews:
Great Tool to Help Explain the Change Process.......2007-09-28
Our organization is currently going through a structure change in one of our divisions. We are using this book as pre-work to attending our training on the change. We've found that having the book as a reference tool has really helped our team leaders relate better to the various stages of change that their team members (and themselves) are going through.
Not only is this book informative but it is also light-hearted, funny and thus, easy to read. Not one person in our organization has said that they did not enjoy reading the book and that they couldn't relate to a character in the book. I would highly recommend it to any organization preparing their team members or team leaders for change.
The most important management skill.......2007-09-18
Kotter & Rathgeber produced an amazing book in a very simple way to make people get deep into the story and to realize the things that happen in their lives, sometimes, without any attention. This book allows people to re-think about theirselves, where they are living and the most important, how to deal with changes. I'm pretty much sure, within all skills, the most important in the past, presently and forever will always be how to lead changes. And this is the right book for learning.
Too simple.......2007-09-17
This book was entirely too elementary. I was expecting some insight into managing change, not a grade school level story.
Great Read.......2007-09-11
Found it to be both entertaining and educational, it's a perfect balance of real world application packaged in an easy to read book. I would pickup Leading Change for more information on the items that are discussed in this book.
Our Iceberg is Melting.......2007-09-07
Excellent and fast read. Anyone in a leadership position will love this book. All of the key characters in your organization are exemplified on the "ice".
Average customer rating:
- A discussion of the ending *Spoilers below*
- Speak up for those who can't speak for themselves, because someone is advocating for their death
- Tragedies
- Steinbeck does wonders with so few pages. This is a great touching story
- Big
|
Of Mice and Men (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century)
John Steinbeck
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Steinbeck, John
| Classics
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Classics
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Literary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Steinbeck, John
| ( S )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Paperback
| Steinbeck, John
| ( S )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
( S )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
| Shakespeare, William
| Shaw, George Bernard
| Stevenson, Robert Louis
| Stoker, Bram
Classics
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Literary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Classics
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
| Cather, Willa
| General
| Hawthorne, Nathaniel
| Irving, Washington
| Melville, Herman
| Poe, Edgar Allen
| Twain, Mark
| Wharton, Edith
| Whitman, Walt
All 4-for-3 Deals
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
To Kill a Mockingbird
-
The Catcher in the Rye
-
Lord of the Flies (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century)
-
The Great Gatsby
-
Animal Farm (Signet Classics)
ASIN: 0140177396 |
Book Description
MAXnotes offer a fresh look at masterpieces of literature, presented in a lively and interesting fashion. Written by literary experts who currently teach the subject, MAXnotes will enhance your understanding and enjoyment of the work. MAXnotes are designed to stimulate independ ent thought about the literary work by raising various issues and thought-provoking ideas and questions. MAXnotes cover the essentials of what one should know about each work, including an overall summary, character lists, an explanation and discussion of the plot, the work's historical context, illustrations to convey the mood of the work, and a biography of the author. Each chapter is individually summarized and analyzed, and has study questions and answers.
Customer Reviews:
A discussion of the ending *Spoilers below*.......2007-10-02
*WARNING: Don't read this review if you haven't read the book and don't want to know the ending
The book has three surprise events in the ending. The first is Lennie's killing of Curley's wife. This is shocking because Curley's father owns the farm, so Lennie could get into serious trouble. The second is when Lennie is hiding in the brush waiting for George, and he sees and hears Aunt Clara's ghost talking and later a rabbit talking. The third is not when George shoots Lennie, but when George walks away with Slim, as if the two are best pals now. This makes it seem that George did not take his friendship with Lennie very seriously, because instead of mourning his death alone, he hangs on to Slim, as if Lennie is easily replaceable and that Slim has taken Lennie's place now. I thought the ending makes George seem like a shady character, not bad enough to be called the villain, but still not good enough to be called hero of the book.
Speak up for those who can't speak for themselves, because someone is advocating for their death.......2007-09-24
You won't get any complaint from me that this book is skillfully written, in it's vivid descriptions of settings, detailed descriptions of characters, and realistic dialogue.
However, I believe this book has a bad message, and the bad message is about how it's ok to put the weak, infirm and dependent to death. It started with the discussion of Candy's aged dog. The book gave the impression that the dog's age made him no good to even himself, the "quality of life" argument that has been advanced to support euthanizing the elderly, weak and infirm.
After discussing Candy's dog, the argument proceded to Candy himself, where he longs to be euthanized when he can no longer work.
Finally, we come to George's murder of the retarded Lennie, which is completely justified by Slim, the voice of the one sympathetic character in the book. I believe that George was looking for an opportunity to divest himself of Lennie, and that opportunity presented itself when Lennie killed Curley's wife. It was also mentioned that if Lennie was institutionalized, it would be worse than death. I realized there are conflicting opinions about the moral nature of George, but I don't believe he was a good character.
As I was writing this review, I recalled Proverbs 31:8-9 "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy." Of Mice And Men describes a world where the advocates for euthanizing the weak and infirm prevail.
Tragedies.......2007-09-16
This is a well-constructed, tightly-crafted novella by Steinbeck telling the story of George and his simple-minded companion Lennie, who arrive at a farm looking for work so they can save enough money to achieve their dream of buying their own property. You know something is bound to go wrong.
Although much of the plot might be well-signalled before it occurs, I thought that it did not detract from the quality of the work. As a short piece of fiction should, it holds the reader's attention throughout. It also seemed to me that by this time, Steinbeck seemed to be producing high-quality work. "The Grapes of Wrath" were just around the corner.
G Rodgers
Steinbeck does wonders with so few pages. This is a great touching story.......2007-09-10
Steinbeck writes beautiful prose in this very short book. The story unravels rather quickly and the strong connection one feels with the characters is created from the very first pages. The story is about two friends that travel together looking for work on farms in California. Lennie is a very large man with a feeble mind and George is Lennie's keeper who dreams with Lennie about eventually having a small piece of land where they can have animals and live from it. The book is written using the slang of the 20's and Steinbeck uses incredible imagery throughout the book. The quick story is bound to touch your heart and linger in your mind days after the last page has been read. Enjoy!
Big.......2007-09-01
What makes a big book? Not physical length. Knowing this novel's reputation as one of Steinbeck's masterpieces, I was astounded to lay hands on its mere hundred pages. Not scale of setting, either. The entire novella takes place in and around the bunkhouse of a California farm, and contains fewer than a dozen characters; it is so compact that it might almost have been made for film, television, or the stage (and it did in fact succeed in all these media). The people, furthermore, are by no means important or powerful; Steinbeck tells of ordinary itinerant laborers, bindle stiffs, living precariously from job to job. In this, the book is similar to THE GRAPES OF WRATH, but deliberately avoids its epic scope, preferring to show a few characters in intimate detail rather than to suggest the displacement of multitudes.
Yet I have no hesitation in calling the book big. Without any effort or overt symbolism, Steinbeck shows something simultaneously particular and vast. His characters are individuals, very real yet bound to one another and to us through their common humanity. The novel speaks to a particular time -- the American West in the late thirties -- and yet seems timeless. It takes a specific corner of California ("A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green") and makes it a kind of oasis of simplicity, as in the marvelous opening scene where the principal characters choose to spend a night sleeping under the stars rather than arriving too soon at the farm.
And nothing could be bigger than the heart of Lennie, the simple-minded giant who comes to the farm with his friend and protector George, but whose confused feelings and ignorance of his own strength get him into trouble. The bond between him and George is not fully explained, but it is palpably filled with a kind of love. Lennie's inability to articulate his feelings is shared by all the other characters to some extent; this is a world in which men keep themselves to themselves and move on alone. But their very inarticulateness gives their underlying emotions an almost primal power. Truly, this is a big book.
Amazon.com
William Golding's classic tale about a group of English schoolboys who are plane-wrecked on a deserted island is just as chilling and relevant today as when it was first published in 1954. At first, the stranded boys cooperate, attempting to gather food, make shelters, and maintain signal fires. Overseeing their efforts are Ralph, "the boy with fair hair," and Piggy, Ralph's chubby, wisdom-dispensing sidekick whose thick spectacles come in handy for lighting fires. Although Ralph tries to impose order and delegate responsibility, there are many in their number who would rather swim, play, or hunt the island's wild pig population. Soon Ralph's rules are being ignored or challenged outright. His fiercest antagonist is Jack, the redheaded leader of the pig hunters, who manages to lure away many of the boys to join his band of painted savages. The situation deteriorates as the trappings of civilization continue to fall away, until Ralph discovers that instead of being hunters, he and Piggy have become the hunted: "He forgot his words, his hunger and thirst, and became fear; hopeless fear on flying feet." Golding's gripping novel explores the boundary between human reason and animal instinct, all on the brutal playing field of adolescent competition. --Jennifer Hubert
Book Description
These deluxe editions are packaged with French flaps, acid-free paper, and rough front.
"This brilliant work is a frightening parody on man's return. . . to that state of darkness from which it took him thousands of years to emerge. . . Superbly written." --The New York Times
Other Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century:
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
My Antonia by Willa Cather
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
White Noise by Don DeLillo
Customer Reviews:
John Welte's Review.......2007-08-18
The Lord of the Flies was a book that I was required to read at the start of tenth grade. When I started reading the book I wasn't interested right away. I thought the book lacked any action, and I couldn't identify with any of the characters, personally. Honestly, I kept reading because of obligation. Eventually I realized it was a good book. Towards the second half of the book the author added action and the characters evolved. Arguments took place among the boys which started fighting and drama. When the story started picking up it had me excited until the very end. Overall, I would recommend this book for anyone looking for a great adventure book.
required reading for teens.......2007-07-08
Like most everyone else, I read this book because it was required reading in ninth or tenth grade. I recently reread it with my thirteen year old son and discussed it with him. For him, as I suspect it would be for most young readers, it was a magnificent introductory illustration of the distinction between the literal and the metaphoric in literature.
Rather "Piggy" then "Fatty" indeed..........2007-07-02
I'll admit i'm a late fan of this novel, never having the enjoyment of being assigned this in school. However i'm pleased in my adult life to possibly have a greater appreciation of it. This is truly a timeless story of the savage within us all and how even without a civilization, all different aspects of a society can be portrayed, even in the innocence of shipwrecked children. Ralph serves as our center, imperfect at best, yet constantly trying to do the greater good. Jack is his id, a leader by worth but not in ideology or action, our ego. Piggy is our brain and conscience, however fragile and annoyingly persistent. Roger is our wrath. An unleashed, unsympathetic, unbridled purely sickening rage. Simon is our curiosity and independence, He carrys our emotions and our feelings.
The story itself begins with Ralph as the elected leader of the group of young children, however, the lead hunter, Jack eventually finds no solice in this decision and it becomes 2 camps at odds on an island. Thats the short version, which does no justice to the complexity of the story nor the incredible imagery given by the author. In this story, children do terrible things to children, yet the degeneration into savages is so gradual you can understand there blind lust for adventure and victory overall else, especially when that same idea has been behind every war known to man.
I titled this review after a line from the novel, because i think it secretly underlined alot of what the story was about. Some Rules may not be fun, but the consequences without are far worse. This can be applied to so many aspects in life. As i think i will carry this with me a long time coming.
Linguistic tour de force.......2007-06-30
As many already know, this book contains a vast number of symbolisms and has many allusions to foreign themes (eg. ideological, other novels, biblical) and ideas. But what is it other than its allegorical and abovementioned quality that makes it remarkable? Here, I attempt to elucidate the work in other aspects other than its dark theme and storyline(which countless other reviews have already touched upon).
One of the strongest qualities of the book is its language. In the story, the sheer vividness of the landscape is written with great intensity, movements are described with precision and in between are interspaced events and dialogue that many times, because certain events are not directly mentioned or written, requires much effort to infer. That is why I suppose many have found it frustrating and a tedium to read.
As an example of description, when Golding describes the waves and how looking towards it sometimes creates a mirage, 'Strange things happened at midday. The glittering sea moved apart in planes...Sometimes, land loomed where there was no land and flicked out like a bubble...'. Despite the work's linguistic difficulty, especially for younger readers, the language is a work of art, and much concentration is required. Younger readers, however, will enjoy the story's quick pace and narrative.
With its combination of linguistic complexity, far reaching symbolism and allegory etc., the strength of this work lies in its depth and power. The bleak, pessimistic portrait of humanity is brought about through the boys and their virgin attempts at civility on a remote island and as the struggle of Ralph and Piggy against Jack and his gang is played out, many philosophical questions are raised. Is humanity innately fallible to primitism? How does society establish order? Does youth affect all this?
All said, Lord of the Flies is a brilliantly bleak, lustrously prosed, deeply discomforting portrait of mankind. No wonder it is recommended reading for so many high schools and colleges.
Note: Lord of the Flies may be a great piece of dystopian work, but there are some which will inevitably exceed it, notably the first two below:
Nineteen Eighty-Four Brave New World Gulliver's Travels (Penguin Classics) Utopia (Penguin Classics) Herland, The Yellow Wall-Paper, and Selected Writings (Penguin Classics)
complete recording of a tedious novel.......2007-06-29
Listening to this novel doesn't improve it. You get the added bonus track of Golding groaning on and on and on about how he got the inspiration for this overly simplistic morality tale. With so much good literature out in the world, if the house catches fire, leave this one behind. Sucks to my as-mar.
Book Description
Based on historical people and real events, Arthur Miller's play uses the destructive power of socially sanctioned violence unleashed by the rumors of witchcraft as a powerful parable about McCarthyism.
Introduction by Christopher Bigsby
Customer Reviews:
Well Played.......2007-09-11
Arthur Miller's "The Crucible", a four act play about the Salem witch trials in 1692, is a wonderful drama that speaks about intolerance and authoritarian power in society.
The heart of the play is not about the accusations of witchcraft, but about the conditions that led to the accusations and how quickly people will take advantage of one another during hysteria. It is a historical reminder (and a warning) that people died because of hysterical fanaticism in an authoritarian culture. Miller takes this important lesson in history, adds words to the historic figures, and makes a darn good fictional drama depicting their roles in this historic event. The action inside the court room is beautifully constructed and explores the idea of injustices being perpetuated in a sanctuary designed to create justice.
Miller does a great job creating scenes that evoke outrage and indignation while keeping the characters real and human. John Procter is not be looked upon as the "hero" or "victim" because of his past indiscretions and ignorance, just as Abigail Williams is not to be looked upon as the "villain" because her actions are perpetuated by a persecuted youth who is suddenly granted power by the courts. The characters are an interesting mix of people caught-up in a blizzard of conditions that were just right to give innuendos truth and superstitions law.
I found the play very enjoyable and entertaining even without all the parallels to what was happening in the 1950's when it was written.
Miller's finest.......2007-09-01
Along with Death of a Salesman, The Crucible is deservedly known as one of the greatest American plays of all time.
A story of betrayal and personal ethics!.......2007-06-12
This tragic and thought provoking story follows the time period of the Salem Witch trials and the victims who were wrongly accused. "The Crucible" preaches for justice, truth and loyalty. When the Proctor's wife, and later on the Proctor himself, are unfortunately called under trail for relations with the devil, the pair suffers through the ordeals of asking for forgiveness of their sins or dying with pride as they know they are innocent. As they are being tried in court, Mary is the sole person who can testify if the allegations against them are true or not. In the beginning, she stayed loyal to the truth despite the pressures from society to condemn them. Yet eventually Mary breaks under the pressure of her peers and agrees that the pair is indeed guilty of their accusations, although they are innocent. She clearly gives in because of the fear she had of her own life, worrying if others would become suspicious of her. The proctor eventually refuses to repent for something he does not do, but is he still eventually hanged for his crime? Read this story to find out! As you read, benefit from it's parallels to the struggles in our society today, where the justice systems gets overly involved in the moral investments and rumors of the outside world. This book is the perfect historical account to one of the most despicable times in history, it preaches loyalty to the truth even in the worst of times.
delightful.......2007-03-27
This play by Arthur Miller is definitely worth reading, partly because of its engaging storyline and also for its succinctness. This play can pretty much be a model for what play should really be like. It has complex characters that at times both amuse and scare us, a straightforward storyline that is not without it's twists and turns, and most importantly, a fascinating topic that is in relation to historical context.
The plot revolves around the historic Salem Witch Hunt in Salem, Massachusets. A young woman named Abigail is among the others who are accused to performing witchcraft and for enthralling ordinary civilians. When they are finally proven guilty, they stand before court, but not before Abigail gains power in the justice and randomly convicts innocent women to be the "real" witches. The hyseria and corruption surrounding the court and Salem society as a whole will never be the same, as the innocent are convincted while the guilty are let go. Although fiction, this play does relate immensely to historical times, in which women indeed were sentenced to death during the trials for no reason and were never proven guilty. The story is written with eloquence and wit, with the occasional tad bit of humor and irony in the mix. The best part? The language is easy to understand, for us mere mortals at least.
A Timeless Parable; A Theatrical Masterpiece.......2007-02-15
Like many others, Elia Kazan flirted with the American Communist party in the 1930s; again like many others he was soon disgusted by the vicious totalitarianism of the Soviet Union and left the party. In the 1940s Kazan emerged as a major director, creating such films as GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT for the screen and staging playwright Arthur Miller's landmark dramas ALL MY SONS and DEATH OF A SALESMAN--but in the early 1950s his former affiliation with the American Communist Party came back to haunt him the form of the House Unamerican Activities Committee.
In the wake of World War II the American goverment began to fear that Soviet agents had infiltrated the country and were working for the overthow of American democracy. The film industry became a hotspot of investigation, with conservatives claiming that motion pictures were being used to popularize communist thought. Unfortunately, the House Unamerican Activities Committee was less interested in getting to the truth of the matter than in maintaining political power: American citizens were hauled before the committee; attacked, often for no reason; and found their careers and lives destroyed as a result. But there was a way around this. If you confessed you had been a communist (whether you had been or not), if you recanted your former beliefs (whether you had held them or not), and if you named names of others involved in the party (whether they had been or not)--you could survive. And when Kazan was called before the committee in 1952 that is precisely what he did.
Arthur Miller was so outraged by Kazan's behavior that he terminated both their longstanding friendship and highly successful working relationship; although they would eventually resume a working relationship, they had no contact for more than a decade. He also wrote a play about the situation: THE CRUCIBLE.
On the surface, THE CRUCIBLE is a retelling of the infamous Salem witch trials of 1692. The power-hungry Rev. Parrish has met with resistance in the town, and when his daughter Betty, his ward Abigail, and several other teenage girls are found dancing in the wood the community fears the worst: witchcraft. In order to protect himself, Parrish calls in Rev. Hale, an expert in such matters. In order to protect themselves, the girls confess--and then begin to name names of "other witches." In order to placate the court, those named must name others in turn, and the lies and hysteria turn into a cycle of power-grabs and revenge.
Among those named as a witch is Elizabeth Proctor, wife of John Proctor--a man who had a sordid affair with Abigail, who now sees the opportunity to get rid of Elizabeth via hanging and force Proctor into marriage. In an effort to protect his wife, Proctor goes before the court and denounces Abigail, but Abigail now turns on him as well, accusing him of being a witch. He is arrested and sentenced to hang. Rev. Hale, now aware of the fraud involved, begs Proctor to confess, even though the confession will be a lie. Proctor refuses and pays for his integrity with his life.
In broad historical outline, Miller's tale of the witch trials is quite accurate; he does, however, take considerable license with individual characters and relationships. Whatever the case, the result is a uniquely powerful play, not only as a story pure and simple but on a deeper level in its warning against the communist witch hunt of the 1950s--and any similar witch hunt, regardless of nature, which relies on a process created by those with ulterior motives and uses as evidence testimony extracted by fear of reprecussion. While most consider DEATH OF A SALESMAN Miller's finest play, I have always given that title to THE CRUCIBLE; unlike SALESMAN, which has a dated quality, THE CRUCIBLE has a timeless quality, remarkable in intensity, thought-provoking in subtext in ways which most plays are not. Strongly recommended.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
Book Description
Translated with an Introduction by Robin Buss
Customer Reviews:
A superb translation.......2007-09-22
I bought this edition after buying, by mistake, a beautiful hardbound abridged edition. This one was reputed to have the best translation. It's a dauntingly long novel, though, and at my snail's pace of reading 4-5 pages per night before I start falling asleep I'm about 3/4 the way through after 4 months! But if you're gonna read this story, I believe only the full length version will give you the scope of Dumas' writing. having a little knowledge of French is a help with this as there are many references in his vernacular. This translation comes with an excellent body of endnotes that further helps getting the fine points. Highly recommended!
The evolution from innocence to responsibility........2007-09-18
It seems odd to me that many people who enjoyed this book seem to feel apologetic, making claims that they enjoy The Count of Monte Cristo despite the fact that it is not great literature and lacks depth. They claim that it's main value is merely as a very well written adventure story. I beg to defer and believe that this great novel is packed with meaning and delves into the very heart of what a man must go through in his hearts if he is to leave his childhood innocence behind.
Edmund Dantes starts out as an honorable character and his manhood has already been established in certain ways: he's responsible, he's good, he's ambitious and readily handles unforeseen challenges. There is one area, however, where Edmund Dantes is severely lacking, someplace I believe many good men are lacking, he believes all men reflect his inherent goodness. He believes that despite some annoying quirks, that generally other men are not evil. In the words of Shakespeare Dantes' "...nature is so far from doing harms, that he suspects none..."
In the course of the story Dantes learns the hard way that fortune can quickly vanish by the deeds of evil men and he is forced to deal with the world not by being more nice but by going beyond those who conspire to destroy him and master the course of his own destiny regardless of other peoples plans.
The symbolism throughout the novel is impressive but I believe many people miss it simply because it is such a pleasure to read. I guess for something to be considered great literature it needs to be a bit more boring.
Anyway, I certainly don't want to bore you with a long winded review, so if you want to be entertained then I suggest you start reading The Count of Monte Cristo. One more thing, I've read various translations and this version by Robin Buss is probably the one I enjoyed the most. It's a smooth, natural style but doesn't try to over simplify. Just my two cents.
thirsty for revenge?.......2007-09-18
This is one of the best classics! It is a story about how jealous people can falsely accuse another of things, which eventually messes up that person's life forever (no turning back... he has to keep going forward and survive everyday). The book revolves around ideas of revenge and love.
Free SF Reader.......2007-09-03
Daring escapes and dashing swordplay. More fun than at least three
quarters of a barrel of monkeys. A monomaniacal revenge fantasy on one
level, and a swashbuckling story on another. Wrongly imprisoned, a man
eventually escapes and sets out to bring wrack and ruin upon those who
wronged him. This, of course, does not come without a price, in the
end. While I prefer my musketeers, this is pretty good.
Great Translation of a Great Book.......2007-08-31
This is a modern translation of Dumas' greatest book in my opinion. The translator gives good background on the translation, life of Dumas and great footnotes explaining both history of the period and cultural aspects not common knowledge today. This adds greatly to the enjoyment and understanding of the story.
I recommend that anyone interested in reading The Count of Monte Cristo not be scared away by the length of the book and purchase an abridged version. The amount deleted results in a disconnected and not nearly as interesting story. I read an abridged version mistakingly bought before purchasing this one and knowing the story from a previous reading was dismayed at the amount which was eliminated. Buy the unabridged and enjoy Dumas' tale of betrayal and vengeance in all its brilliance.
Average customer rating:
- The National Geographic of the 5th Century BC.
- not for me
- Extremely readable
- Great Book
- The Histories Revealed
|
The Histories (Penguin Classics)
Herodotus
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Ancient
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Classics
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Literary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Movements & Periods
| History & Criticism
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
| Arthurian Romance
| Beat Generation
| General
| Gothic Revival
| Medieval
| Modernism
| Postmodernism
| Renaissance
| Romanticism
| Surrealism
| Victorian
Medieval
| Classics
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
French
| Foreign Language Fiction
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
French
| Foreign Language Nonfiction
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
History
| French
| Foreign Language Books
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Nonfiction
| French
| Foreign Language Books
| Specialty Stores
| Books
All French Books
| French
| Foreign Language Books
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
The History of the Peloponnesian War: Revised Edition (Penguin Classics)
-
Aeschylus I: Oresteia (The Complete Greek Tragedies)
-
The Odyssey of Homer
-
The Iliad of Homer
-
The Twelve Caesars (Penguin Classics)
ASIN: 0140449086
Release Date: 2003-04-29 |
Book Description
Translated by Aubrey de Sélincourt with an introduction and Notes by John M. Marincola.
Customer Reviews:
The National Geographic of the 5th Century BC........2007-08-13
Great read to get immersed in the 5th century BC world. Herodotus was a great story teller, whether of mythical or real stories. Some pages are really fun to read because of the friendly tone and plain language he uses. There are also a lot of unnecessary data -in my opinion- since he talks about all kinds of stories and gives plenty of detail, true or not that sometimes result boring.
The real interesting part comes in the last quarter of the book, where all the major battles between Persians and Greeks take place. A pity he didn't dwell a little more in the marathon and Thermopylae battles, but we get the big picture.
This is more an ethnographic study of all kinds of tribes that populated Greece and the Near East at the time. It's quite interesting to see what were the limitations as far as geography is concerned, the strange ideas they had about the far and unexplored areas of Europe, their peoples, etc. The comparison of what people thought and what really was is really amusing.
Skip the pages that you care less and enjoy the rest. There's plenty of good reading time here. Great translation, by the way.
not for me.......2007-06-07
This is a long, rambling, unfocused book. I guess the other reviewers are interested in everything covered here, but I wasn't. I tried this book after reading Thucydides. Thucydides has focus. Herodotus does not. Herodotus seems like the ancient equivalent of soap operas. I couldn't get through it.
Extremely readable.......2007-04-09
I picked a copy of the Histories mostly because i had just seen 300 and wanted to learn a bit more about the larger war. now, even though i'm quite interested in history, i was pretty apprehensive about reading a book like this one--besides the obvious length, it's dense, with many names and locations i've never seen before and that are rather obscure. however, i was very surprised by just how readable this translation is. you can tell that Selincourt spent a good deal of time making sure that the translation wasn't a direct, word for word port of the original text. the text, though still distinctly scholarly, is written in a manner not unlike any other mondern history book. beyond that, the account itself is very interesting to anyone with an interest in ancient history. this translation is highly recommended.
Great Book.......2007-03-20
This book really brings together all the essential knowledge on the subject. I have a class history book that takes excerts from books of Plutarch, Thucydides and Herodotus and i have go to say that going straight to the source made a big difference in class discussions. A definite must read for you history buffs out there.
The Histories Revealed.......2007-02-14
This history brings the ancient times to life in our modern age.
Average customer rating:
- Classic Fun
- Yes yes yes
- Cinicle Recommendations
- Penguins are fun!!!!
- Mr. Popper's Penguins
|
Mr. Popper's Penguins
Richard Atwater , and
Florence Atwater
Manufacturer: Little, Brown Young Readers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Classics by Age
| Literature
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Humorous
| Literature
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Read-Aloud
| Literature
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Literature
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ages 9-12
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Fiction
| General
| Animals
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Pop-Up & Movable
| Baby-3
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Ages 9-12
| Children's Books
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Fiction
| General
| Animals
| Children's Books
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| Pop-Up & Movable
| Baby-3
| Children's Books
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Classics by Age
| Literature
| Children's Books
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| Literature
| Children's Books
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Humorous
| Literature
| Children's Books
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
All 4-for-3 Deals
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
The Cricket in Times Square
-
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle
-
James and the Giant Peach
-
My Father's Dragon (My Father's Dragon Trilogy)
-
The Mouse and the Motorcycle
ASIN: 0316058432 |
Amazon.com
More than 60 years have not dated this wonderfully absurd tale--it still makes kids (and parents) laugh out loud. Poor Mr. Popper isn't exactly unhappy; he just wishes he had seen something of the world before meeting Mrs. Popper and settling down. Most of all, he wishes he had seen the Poles, and spends his spare time between house-painting jobs reading all about polar explorations. Admiral Drake, in response to Mr. Popper's fan letter, sends him a penguin; life at 432 Proudfoot Avenue is never the same again. From one penguin living in the icebox, the Popper family grows to include 12 penguins, all of whom must be fed. Thus is born "Popper's Performing Penguins, First Time on Any Stage, Direct from the South Pole." Their adventures while on tour are hilarious, with numerous slapstick moments as the penguins disrupt other acts and invade hotels. Classic chapter-a-night fun. (Ages 5 to 10) --Richard Farr
Book Description
More than 60 years have not dated this wonderfully absurd tale--itstill makes kids (and parents) laugh out loud. Poor Mr. Popper isn't exactly unhappy; he just wishes he had seen something of the world before meeting Mrs. Popper and settling down. Most of all, he wishes he had seen the Poles, and spends his spare time between house-painting jobs reading all about polar explorations. Admiral Drake, in response to Mr. Popper's fan letter, sends him a penguin; life at 432 Proudfoot Avenue is never the same again. From one penguin living in the icebox, the Popper family grows to include 12 penguins, all of whom must be fed. Thus is born "Popper's Performing Penguins, First Time on Any Stage, Direct from the South Pole." Their adventures while on tour are hilarious, with numerous slapstick moments as the penguins disrupt other acts and invade hotels. Classic chapter-a-night fun. (Ages 5 to 10) --Richard Farr
Customer Reviews:
Classic Fun.......2007-10-05
Highly recommended. My son loved it at 5, and loved it again at 7. Mr. Popper's Penguins deserves a spot on the family bookshelf. This book makes a wonderful, hilarious read aloud for the family or classroom.
Yes yes yes.......2007-09-10
Old-fashioned fun! This is a great one -- we read it aloud and we almost always are on the hook for "one more chapter" -- it has 20 chapters, so the fun keeps going. Ridiculous situations abound when a family adopts one penguin, then another... it's very fun and funny -- we read it often.
I love how my kids mimic the penguins -- "Ork" "Gook" "Awk" -- it gives me great joy when my kids connect to books.
Cinicle Recommendations.......2007-09-10
For those of you who revolve around action, adventure, humor, drama, horror, fantasy, the future, and woe, then this is defenitly not the book for you.Mr. Poppers Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater expressess how a man is given a penguin from the Antarctic, and how he ends up having eleven more and teaches them how to perform tricks to make money for his family. To start Captain Drake- an antarctic explorer-sends Mr. Popper a penguin, Captain Cook. They build an icebox for him and he tidies up their house. After about a monthe or so, Captain Cook starts to get lonely, so Mr. Popper gets him another penguin from acquarium named Greta, and they have ten more penguins! They named the penguins: Columbus, Victoria, Nelson, Jenny, Magellen, Adelina, Scott, Isabella, Ferdinand, and Louisa. Since Mr. Popper is low on money, he trains the penguins to do tricks and they perform all across the country. They go from Boston, to Seattle, to New York as Poppers Performing Penguins. You just have to read this book, and believe me, you will never have enjoyed closing a book this much.
Penguins are fun!!!!.......2007-08-04
My son (8) got this book for Christmas and he loved it. He read it several times and even took it to school for his teacher to share it with the class. She really liked it and decided to share the whole book!!!
I read it a few times as well to both of my sons and had a great time as well. Buy it!!!
Mr. Popper's Penguins.......2007-06-12
My 8-year-old daughter and I are currently reading this old book together. It was given to her as a gift last year and we are just now getting around to reading it. She has been bugging me constantly to sit down and read more (we are only about half way through). While she could easily read this book by herself we are having a wonderful time reading this charming story together. We can't wait to see what silly thing will happen next. Even though this book was published long ago, it is still a great story that is great fun.
Amazon.com
Among the seven essays collected in Russian Thinkers is perhaps Isaiah Berlin's most famous work, "The Hedgehog and the Fox," which begins with an ancient Greek proverb ("The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing") before taking on Leo Tolstoy's philosophy of history, showing how Tolstoy "was by nature a fox, but believed in being a hedgehog." The other half dozen pieces examine other Russian writers and philosophers, including Alexander Herzen, Ivan Turgenev, and Mikhail Bakunin--although the latter, Berlin says, "is not a serious thinker. There are no coherent ideas to be extracted from his writings of any period, only fire and imagination, violence and poetry, and an ungovernable desire for strong sensations." Few, if any, English-language critics have written as perceptibly about Russian thought and culture as the Latvian-born Berlin, and the history covered in Russian Thinkers is a unique elaboration of Berlin's theses concerning the impact of ideas upon culture.
Customer Reviews:
Berlin at his best - the true fox .......2004-11-11
This study of Russian thinkers is profound and moving. Isaiah Berlin was capable of writing about 'ideas' and their ' development' in a constantly fascinating way. His most well- known essay ' The Hedgehog and the Fox' is in this volume and it seems that Berlin himself was one of those who knew many things and wanted to know many things. His political ideas also took the shape of recognizing conflicting value systems as having validity even when those came from within a single person. Here he writes about the great Russian social and political thinkers Tolstoy, Herzen,Belinsky , Bakunin , Turgenev with characteristic insight, irony and sympathy.
This is a volume anyone interested in the history of ideas should not miss.
Highly Useful Historic Resource.......2002-10-28
This book provides an excellent introduction to the history of Russian thought. I supplemented it with the pertinent chapters of Billington's "The Icon and the Axe" to piece together a general outline of the evolution of Russian political philosophy. Maybe I didn't pay enough attention to Berlin's own philosophizing, but then that wasn't my objective. I found one of his general observations about Russian thought to be particularly useful, i.e. the tendency to follow an idea through to its fullest consequences, no matter how extreme or objectionable. The book nicely sets the stage for how Marxism was able to take hold, showing that it was in some ways an evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, intellectual development. The problem is, now that the book has allowed me to cobble together a general framework of Russian thought, the only possible next step is to start directly reading Hegel and Marx! And who wouldn't try to put off a daunting task like that?
Worth the read but...........2002-10-09
Berlin is an interesting and I agree knowing commentator, but one gets the feeling that he understands there is something awry in Communism, but he's not quite sure what. His ideas of freedom are on the mark, but in the post-Communist world they don't quite get to the point. I highly reccomend papal biographer and political pholosopher George Weigel's recent commentaties, (available online). Liberalism was not and is not a sufficient answer to utopian ideology, which Berlin nevertheless correctly asserts will inevitably degenerate into totalitatianism. Even more, in the post-cold war world, relativism has usurped "true" freedom, which presents perhaps an even more dangerous problem than the Soviet one.
The Liberal Predicament.......2002-06-15
This is one of these intellectual & spiritual odysseys of the mind that, after you've digested them, remain embedded in the protoplasm of your mental being. All the Russian 19th century greats (except Pushkin and Dostoevsky ) are here: Herzen, Belinsky, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Bakunin. In a book so saturated with ideas, it is not easy to make a pick- my favorite ones are:
-the hedgehog and the fox metaphor ("The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing"). Human beings are categorized as either "hedgehogs" (whose lives are embodiment of a single, central vision of reality according to which they "feel", breathe, experience and think- "system addicts", in short. Examples include Plato, Dante, Proust and Nietzsche.) or "foxes" ( who live rather centrifugal than centripetal lives, pursue many divergent ends and, generally, possess a sense of reality that prevents them from formulating a definite grand system of "everything"-simply because they "know" that life is too complex to be squeezed into any Procrustean unitary scheme. Montaigne, Balzac, Goethe and Shakespeare are, in various degrees, foxes.)
-precarious position of liberalism-something Berlin was well aware of. A "non-belief belief", liberalism certainly doesn't satisfy "deeper" human needs; also, it managed, following its very nature, to stay away from planned genocides & siren songs of totalitarian power. Yet- Berlin has failed (maybe due to the "history of ideas" nature of this compilation of essays) to answer more fundamental questions plaguing liberal mindset: is it fit to grapple with the 20th/21st century burning issues ? Or- has it mutated into a dark parody of itself, making a pact with postmodern imperial power(s) as represented by X-Filesque military & financial "Free World" greedy elites which batten on the unenviable position of the much of the globe (Latin America, Africa, East Europe & the greater part of Asia) ?
-on strong side, essays on Herzen (Berlin's hero), Turgenev ("Fathers and Children" controversy) and Bakunin (juxtaposed to Herzen) are fresh, universal & not dated at all. Tolstoy is covered unsurpassably, and I doubt it can be done better. On the other hand, some essays, like those on Russia and 1848 revolutions, German Romanticism and Russian populism, although brilliantly weaven, are, in my opinion, more of historical interest than pertinent to our contemporary metastable anxiety condition.
Be as it may: this is an exquisite intellectual tapestry. Buy it.
From Tolstoy to Chernobyl.......2000-06-05
Consider Isaiah Berlin a leading expert on theories of history and Russia an immense problem. The first step is the realization of how big this problem looms in the history of the world. The approach taken by Isaiah Berlin is a combination of history, philosophy, and literature. The most famous chapter of this book, "The Hedgehog and the Fox," examines the falsifications used in WAR AND PEACE to belittle what is usually considered historical in order to prove what Tolstoy believed about real complexity. Some knowledge of calculus (college-level mathematics) might be helpful to get the overall picture. "Our ignorance of how things happen is not due to some inherent inaccessibility of the first causes, only to their multiplicity, the smallness of the ultimate units, and our own inability to see and hear and remember and record and coordinate enough of the available material." (pp. 44-45) The ludicrous embrace of a doctrine like communism was doomed as soon as communism became an enemy of the multiplicity involved in actually getting anything done in a reasonable way, but the people involved needed an ideology to convince them that they had a system for generating nuclear power at Chernobyl, for example. That example is the best, at the moment, for showing how right Tolstoy could be at times. More recent efforts to make Russia function as a free marketplace have demonstrated a danger to which any notion that might be used as an attempt to free a people who don't know the first thing about doing things right could fall prey. All in all, I would rather read this book, as difficult as it is, than be the president of Russia or worse, a newspaper reporter there.
Average customer rating:
- The Hobo Philosopher
- Must have for any wannabe idealist
- Political Classic...read for historical insight
- A Must Read
- A Misleading Edition
|
The Communist Manifesto (Penguin Classics)
Karl Marx ,
Friedrich Engels , and
Gareth Stedman Jones
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Economic Conditions
| Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Popular Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Communism & Socialism
| Ideologies
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Radical Thought
| Ideologies
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Marxism
| Political Doctrines
| Political Science
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
French
| Foreign Language Nonfiction
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Nonfiction
| French
| Foreign Language Books
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Professional & Technical
| French
| Foreign Language Books
| Specialty Stores
| Books
All French Books
| French
| Foreign Language Books
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Economic Conditions
| Economics
| Business & Investing
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| Economics
| Business & Investing
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
French
| Foreign Language Nonfiction
| Nonfiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Communism & Socialism
| Ideologies
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Radical Thought
| Ideologies
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Marxism
| Political Doctrines
| Political Science
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
All 4-for-3 Deals
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
The Prince (Bantam Classics)
-
The Wealth of Nations (Bantam Classics)
-
The Republic (Penguin Classics)
-
The Art of War (Shambhala Classics)
-
Civilization and Its Discontents
ASIN: 0140447571
Release Date: 2002-08-27 |
Amazon.com
"A spectre is haunting Europe," Karl Marx and Frederic Engels wrote in 1848, "the spectre of Communism." This new edition of The Communist Manifesto, commemorating the 150th anniversary of its publication, includes an introduction by renowned historian Eric Hobsbawm which reminds us of the document's continued relevance. Marx and Engels's critique of capitalism and its deleterious effect on all aspects of life, from the increasing rift between the classes to the destruction of the nuclear family, has proven remarkably prescient. Their spectre, manifested in the Manifesto's vivid prose, continues to haunt the capitalist world, lingering as a ghostly apparition even after the collapse of those governments which claimed to be enacting its principles.
Book Description
Originally published on the eve of the 1848 European revolutions, The Communist Manifesto is a condensed and incisive account of the worldview Marx and Engels developed during their hectic intellectual and political collaboration. Formulating the principles of dialectical materialism, they believed that labor creates wealth, hence capitalism is exploitive and antithetical to freedom.
This new edition includes an extensive introduction by Gareth Stedman Jones, Britain's leading expert on Marx and Marxism, providing a complete course for students of The Communist Manifesto, and demonstrating not only the historical importance of the text, but also its place in the world today.
Download Description
Still relevant today both as a historical document and as a stirring call for social democracy, this New Albion edition includes Engel's extensive footnotes from the various editions, plus the changing Prefaces written first by Marx and Engels, and later by Engels alone, plus notes on the Manifesto and the various translations of it.
Customer Reviews:
The Hobo Philosopher.......2007-09-14
Well, if you are a student of Philosophy or economics you must make this a part of your reading whether you want to or not. It is not long. It is not difficult. It is quite explicit. And after you read it you should have a better understanding of where you personally stand politically. I am not going to comment on what it says or advocates. Read it and find out for yourself. You won't need an interpreter.
Must have for any wannabe idealist.......2007-09-10
Well, obviously I havent read this fascinating piece of litrerature, but thats because a read book just looks so scruffy on my beautiful capitalist shelves.
This book makes me look a lot more sympathetic to all those wannabe commies, so why not dish out on a copy too?
Nah just joking, just read it and decide for yourself.
Political Classic...read for historical insight.......2007-06-27
My son required a copy of "The Communist Manifesto" for a philosophy class. After he was done with it, I decided to read it since this was one of the founding documents for Communism.
I found it difficult to decide how to rate this book. The presentation of Manifesto by Penguin in this book is excellent. The central ideas of the Manifesto itself are disturbing.
Should you read the Communist Manifesto? Yes. Is this a good presentation? Yes. Was Communism envisioned by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels a good idea? No. So I have compromised between the excellent presentation and the ideas espoused by the Manifesto in selecting an average rating.
Some reviewers feel that the Manifesto's critique of capitalism is right on; I have grave doubts. Marx and Engels were critiquing capitalism from an ivory tower. Their remedies for capitalism show that they had no real experience or contact with the workers in the trenches.
Some reviewers have mentioned the changing of labor laws due to the Manifesto, such as child labor laws (a generally agreed good thing). I believe those laws would have changed if the Manifesto had never been written. I believe those reviewers are seeing cause and effect relationships where there is none. I believe labor leaders in non-Communist states, pushing for change in labor laws, did not need belief in Communism behind them to push for change. Even without Communism, they would have done what they did anyways because the labor leaders came up from the laboring trenches. They knew first hand the abuses going on. The writers of the Manifesto did not; their ideas were theoretical. I know my ideas, in this area, are conjectures of what would have happened without the Manifesto, without Communism; there is no way they can be proven, history cannot be rewritten.
The remedy proposed by Marx and Engels is frightening. It foreshadows exactly how Communism gave birth to totalitarian states, to Communist dictatorships. Their remedy for capitalism requires a select group of leaders (Communist elitists) to force Communism onto the populace for the good of the people. We should all be suspicious of anyone who professes an idea that is for the good of the people because it invariably is not good for the people. To paraphase Lord Acton, "power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely," and the states envisioned by the writers of the Manifesto set up perfect conditions of absolute power (for the good of the people) which in practice led to absolutely corrupt power. History has shown there has been extreme abuse by Communist leaders, who became power meglomanics, of the masses of workers in their states.
Indeed, history has repeatedly shown that the concentration of power in the hands of a select few led to abuse of power. The smaller the select, the greater the abuse. This has been true regardless of the political theories espoused by the leaders. Let this be a cautionary tale to all of us.
A Must Read.......2007-06-23
It amazes me that the effects of cold war propaganda drivel still permeates the minds of most Americans. This is easily one of the most influential works since it's publication in the 19th century. To say something along the lines that the pages should be torn out and used as paper airplanes is like saying the literary masterpieces Dickens should be used as toilet paper. Disagree with it all you want but at least acknowledge it's influence and respect it, as several reviewers have. Don't simply pigeonhole a great work due to the ignorance or American cold war dogma. If you are going to rant about this work at least get your facts straight. Hitler is not a communist..never was. As a matter of fact he hated communism just as much as most Americans do. Second, recognize communism is an ideal, just a capitalism is may I add, and there never has been a purely communistic state. If you are going to give this work a bad rating at least pretend you have read it. Most of the bad reviews are complete drivel and it is obvious the work has not been read. Give a reason why you do not like the book. Simply saying it sucks is not very insightful. Finally, do not give this a bad review simply because you cannot understand what is being said. If the merit of literary works were based upon how something is being said rather than what is being said Shakespeare, Chaucer, and Milton would not be considered literary geniuses.
A Misleading Edition.......2007-06-14
The following is the composure of the book:
pg. 1-170 Introduction by Translator
pg. 170-240 Various Prefaces of Other Editions by the Authors
pg. 240-280 The Manifesto
For those not familiar with Marx, who want to read the introduction and gain new insights--this is a brilliant setup.
For those who would rather just pay $2 for the Manifesto itself--this is disappointing.
Recommended for the student of philosophy, not the professor.
Average customer rating:
- Genius
- Excellent edition of The Republic
- Not the best
- "republic" of the soul...aka: self help
- Very good for an inexpensive translation
|
The Republic (Penguin Classics)
Plato
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Medieval
| Classics
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Greek
| More Languages
| Foreign Language Fiction
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Ethics & Morality
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Greek & Roman
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Ancient
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
History & Theory
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Political Science
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Greek
| More Languages
| Foreign Language Nonfiction
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Greek
| More Languages
| Foreign Language Books
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
The Prince (Bantam Classics)
-
Politics (Dover Thrift Editions)
-
The Communist Manifesto (Penguin Classics)
-
Nicomachean Ethics
-
The Wealth of Nations (Bantam Classics)
ASIN: 0140449140
Release Date: 2003-02-25 |
Book Description
Ostensibly a discussion of the nature of justice, The Republic presents Plato's vision of the ideal state, covering a wide range of topics: social, educational, psychological, moral, and philosophical. It also includes some of Plato's most important writing on the nature of reality and the theory of the "forms."
Translated with an Introduction by Desmond Lee
Customer Reviews:
Genius.......2007-09-07
If you can only have five books on your library shelf, this book has to be one of them. Plato argues against democracy and total freedom and does such an amazing job. You may not agree with him, but after reading the book you will have so much respect for someone that is seeking the absolute truth no matter what it turns out to be.
Excellent edition of The Republic.......2007-05-06
Shorey's english rendering of the Greek in the Loeb edition is, in my opinion, excellent. More than anything, he captures the passion and fervor of Socrates beautifully, as his english rendering of the text is significantly more poetic than the vast majority of translations of The Republic. While, obviously, there are countless other editions and translations of The Republic, few of these do "justice" to the work qua literature as Shorey does. Shorey's translation, while perhaps a little less accessible to beginning readers than Alan Bloom's or WHD Rouse's, is not difficult to the point of inaccessibility, and its strengths in other regards are too significant to make it necessary to purchase anything other than the Loeb edition of The Republic.
It is my hope that this review is actually helpful to someone that is deciding which edition or translation of The Republic to buy. Far too many Amazon reviews are little more than opining on the ostensible subject matter of a book that the individual either did not read, or did not understand.
Not the best.......2007-01-10
This work is poorly written and difficult to understand. Philosophy books are dense in the first place, but this edition adds to any confusion and created lots of headaches. Furthermore, the book in other editions usually have line numbers so that people can compair notes across editions, the Dover book lacks these. I purchased a different book and found in depth analysis to be much easier.
"republic" of the soul...aka: self help.......2006-12-20
i have no comments on this particular translation of republic, as it is the only version i have read.
republic does not live up to its namesake. as "socrates" says (i think we all know that socrates is really just plato's play dough after book 1) at the close of book 9, the vision of kallipolis only "exists in theory" or perhaps there is a "model of it in heaven." the earlier differentiation between theory and practice make it clear that plato only intended to use kallipolis as a model for the human soul. therefore, the suggested policies of eugenics, infanticide, communal property, and holding women and children "in common" are probably not to be taken seriously. plato himself predicts the inevitable unraveling of such a city.
after reading republic for the second time, it occurred to me that it is little more than a self-help manual. reason should rule spirit and passion. "dabbling" weakens the character. understand the difference between necessity and luxury. shatter your illusions about what you think you know, etc etc. not that these are not important, but such ideas do not require the complex analogy of a totalitarian society. thus, i think republic is slightly overrated.
the most compelling portion of this book, in my opinion, was the critique of the various constitutions. while the critiques of oligarchy, tyranny, timocracy and democracy map on nicely to the individual soul, they also make logical sense independently. while convention has led us to disregard the former 3 constitutions, democracy is often placed on a pedestal as the most ideal form of government. plato challenges this notion and succeeds with vigor in tearing down this pedestal. democracy, even in its representative form, is not much more than tyranny of the majority. we can witness democracy's inherent flaws today in the U.S., on issues such as abortion and gay marriage. this, in my opinion, is the only significant thing republic has to offer to the modern political theorist.
Very good for an inexpensive translation.......2006-11-10
I'm wrapping up a semester of teaching this translation of Republic, and I've had few complaints. Waterfield's editorial hand is visible, but that in itself, in the hands of a competent teacher, leads to good discussions above and beyond Plato's ideas.
With regards to Plato's masterwork, there's no good place to start save reading it for oneself. Plato is dead wrong in places (with regards to poetry and marriage just to get rolling), but his genius is that he's wrong as an idealist philosopher, encouraging readers to assert and refine their own ideals as counter-arguments. In other words, in order to refute Plato, one must out-Plato Plato.
Deconstruction is fine for deconstructionists, but a good discussion of this juggernaut of ancient thought is the life for me.
Books:
- Perl Best Practices
- Perl Best Practices
- Pit Bulls for Dummies
- Pit Bulls for Dummies
- Puppy Kisses are Good for the Soul (& Other Important Lessons You & Your Dog Can Teach Each Other)
- Puppy Training for Kids
- Rabbit Handbook, The (Barron's Pet Handbooks)
- Real Men Do It Better (Tempting SEALs, Book 3)
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Administration Unleashed
- Seven Days in January: With the 6th SS-Mountain Division in Operation NORDWIND
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- The Oil Factor: Protect Yourself and Profit from the Coming Energy Crisis
- Jeweled Garden: A Colorful History of Gems, Jewelry, and Nature
- Combat Operations
- Democracy: A Very Short Introduction
- History: Fiction or Science
- One to One: The Art of Conferring with Young Writers
- Fresh-Water Invertebrates of the United States: Protozoa to Mollusca, 3rd Edition
- Deal-making frenzy: reviewing three major deals sealed in the early part of this year to see where t
- Credit Risk Models and the Basel Accords
- The Glass Palace: A Novel
Leading Change
The Heart of Change: Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations
The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything
The Heart of Change Field Guide: Tools and Tactics for Leading Change in Your Organization
What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful
