Book Description
"Enthralling...As fascinating as any novel and more so than most!"
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
Against the monumental canvas of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe and Russia, unfolds the magnificent story of Peter the Great. He brought Russia from the darkness of its own Middle Ages into the Enlightenment and transformed it into the power that has its legacy in the Russia of our own century.
Customer Reviews:
Detailed insights into the life of Peter the Great.......2007-09-22
This is a rich, detailed examination of the life of Peter the Great. One almost gets a sense that his was a life characterized by ADHD--but with enough ability and imagination and focus that the almost out of control energy worked to his homeland's benefit.
This book examines in considerable depth the arc of his life, from childhood and the dangers that he faced, to his play warrior simulations, to his journey abroad, to his desire to reshape Russia as a more modern nation. Well told is his zeal to create a Russian navy that would be a force. From his childhood on, he was fascinated with this thought. The book recalls how his childhood imaginings developed until, indeed, he had developed a navy that was able to project Russian power.
His learning to be a soldier is also told well. He had ups and downs as a military leader. Part III of the book details dreadful losses and an ultimate triumph over the Swedish forces at Poltava.
Then there is his desire to create a new capital city, a city to be the envy of the world. The book outlines the many struggles and challenges in the creation of St. Petersburg.
The reader will feel almost exhausted by the end, as a result of the great ambitions, the enormous energy, the prodigious accomplishments of Peter the Great. The book balances well his failures with his triumphs and provides a nuanced view of this important historical figure.
Very enjoyable biography.......2007-09-12
I've just finished reading this book in 2 weeks - mainly when i'm commuting to and from work. There's very little i can add to the positive reviews. This is one biography that reads like an action-packed novel. Here's what i enjoy most about this book:
1. It's written in a very engaging manner. I breezed through all 900pages of the story not wanting to stop. Having read some shorter historical biographies where my interest ran out less than halfway through the book, this really says a lot about this book and its author. Robert Massie had stucked to the facts and yet narrated them in a way that was never boring.
2. You not only learn about Peter the great as a person - warts and all, you also get to know many luminaries of early 18th century Europe. E.g. the warrior-like King Charles XII of Sweden (Peter's archrival of the Great Northern War), William of Orange, King George I just to name a few. The narratives on these person are threaded together as part of Peter's life story and are no less interesting than that about Peter himself.
3. One gets a feel of what life was like in Europe at that time because the author described in detail the various places that Peter lived in, e.g. his beloved St Petersburg, Paris which Peter visited during his second grand tour of Europe, London/Amsterdam which Peter visited in his first grand tour.
After finishing the book you feel that you've learnt a great deal about Peter (the Tsar and person) as well as the stage (Europe from late 1600s to 1720s) on which he performed. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in history.
An outstanding account of an astounding monarch.......2007-07-27
If it were a novel, Peter the Great's roller-coaster life would seem wildly implausible. As a small child he was seized and terrorized in a Kremlin revolt, with many trusted state councilors hunted down and murdered before his eyes. As the teenage Tsar of an almost landlocked country, he fell wildly in love with boats, rivers and the sea, and made it his adult policy to obtain a Baltic port and build a first class Russian navy. (His early tiny sail boat was later saluted by its "grandchildren", a magnificent Russian Baltic fleet.) Raised to be an isolated autocrat, he rejected pomp and enthusiastically toured Europe incognito, visiting and questioning people of all ranks, in all trades, and learning to be a shipyard worker. Leader of a backward, inward-looking country, he enthusiastically adopted change and almost single-handedly transformed Russia into an outward-looking European power. Seeking to build a navy, he endured a twenty year war with Sweden under its military genius Charles XII, culminating with the defeat of an invading Swedish army deep in the Ukraine. And there is much, much more...
Massie does not assume any prior knowledge of Peter's times and he carefully and skillfully introduces the rulers and the national policies of key powers such as France, Hanover and Turkey. Particular attention is paid to Peter's arch-rival Charles XII of Sweden, who was an astounding and enigmatic figure in his own right.
This is a lot of material to cover, even in 850 pages, but Massie moves along briskly and keeps it exceptionally lively and interesting throughout.
A True Enlightened Despot.......2007-03-26
This is a wonderfully written biography of Peter the Great. It goes deeply into the many challenges that Peter faced in his rise to power. It then looks at Peter's lifelong efforts to drag Russia from its political/economic/cultural slumber into the 18th century. No easy feat -not even for an autocrat who was never hesitant to break skulls to achieve what he wanted (as illustrated by the building of Peter's beloved "Window on the West"). Neverthless, Peter did transform Russia into a major European (and Central Asian) player and I think that Massie covers this nicely. Massie takes care to balance out Peter's ruthlessness with his devotion to modernize Russia. At the same time, he takes care not to judge Peter's brand of goverance with 21st century notions of human rights.
The best of the Romanovs.......2007-02-16
I read this book about a year ago, and in the year since i have read about 20 or so other historical biographies, and i can say without a doubt this is by far the best of the bunch. From the stories of the Peter's drunken debauches, to his trials as a dentist on his subjects, to the transformation of Russia from a backward backwater ready to be picked apart by the rest of Europe to a first class power. Whether Massie has one of the most fascinating figures in all history to work with or he's just an amazing writer, either way this book is one of the if not the best biography I have ever read, and certianly the most entertaining.
Average customer rating:
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The Cambridge History of Libraries in Britain and Ireland 3 Volume Set (The Cambridge History of Libraries in Britain and Ireland)
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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ASIN: 0521858089 |
Book Description
This is the first detailed scholarly history of libraries in Britain and Ireland. It aims to provide a panorama of the great variety of libraries since the medieval period, setting them in their social and cultural contexts and interpreting their role as it has changed over time. Libraries of all kinds are included, from monastic libraries and other manuscript collections to the modern world of electronic information. Special attention is given to the purposes of libraries - in education, for professional use, for religious purposes and of course for leisure and general reading. Large libraries and small are covered, with examples from all over the British Isles of how needs have been met. Each volume includes an extensive bibliography of sources and secondary works.
Amazon.com
In a phrase coined by Captain Arthur Connolly of the East India Company before he was beheaded in Bokhara for spying in 1842, a "Great Game" was played between Tsarist Russia and Victorian England for supremacy in Central Asia. At stake was the security of India, key to the wealth of the British Empire. When play began early in the 19th century, the frontiers of the two imperial powers lay two thousand miles apart, across vast deserts and almost impassable mountain ranges; by the end, only 20 miles separated the two rivals.
Peter Hopkirk, a former reporter for The Times of London with wide experience of the region, tells an extraordinary story of ambition, intrigue, and military adventure. His sensational narrative moves at breakneck pace, yet even as he paints his colorful characters--tribal chieftains, generals, spies, Queen Victoria herself--he skillfully provides a clear overview of the geographical and diplomatic framework. The Great Game was Russia's version of America's "Manifest Destiny" to dominate a continent, and Hopkirk is careful to explain Russian viewpoints as fully as those of the British. The story ends with the fall of Tsarist Russia in 1917, but the demise of the Soviet Empire (hastened by a decade of bloody fighting in Afghanistan) gives it new relevance, as world peace and stability are again threatened by tensions in this volatile region of great mineral wealth and strategic significance. --John Stevenson
Book Description
THE GREATGAME: THE EPIC STORY BEHIND TODAY'S HEADLINES
Peter Hopkirk's spellbinding account of the great imperial struggle for supremacy in Central Asoa has been hailed as essential reading with that era's legacy playing itself out today.
The Great Game between Victorian Britain and Tsarist Russia was fought across desolate terrain from the Caucasus to China, over the lonely passes of the Parmirs and Karakorams, in the blazing Kerman and Helmund deserts, and through the caravan towns of the old Silk Road-both powers scrambling to
control access to the riches of India and the East. When play first began, the frontiers of Russia and British India lay 2000 miles apart; by the end, this distance had shrunk to twenty miles at some points. Now, in the vacuum left by the disintegration of the Soviet Union, there is once again talk
of Russian soldiers "dipping their toes in the Indian Ocean."
The Washington Post has said that "every story Peter Hopkirk touches is totally engrossing." In this gripping narrative he recounts a breathtaking tale of espionage and treachery through the actual experiences of its colorful characters. Based on meticulous scholarship and on-the-spot research, this
is the history at the core of today's geopolitics.
Customer Reviews:
A fabulous book.......2007-10-12
This is a fabulous book. You can read it again and again. His book "Setting the East Ablaze" is almost as good.
Rousing good story.......2007-08-29
Am not qualified to judge the scholarship but, as someone who grew up on tales of derring-do in the Khyber Pass, this is a fascinating detailing of the larger reality behind the Kipling-esque "Great Game" tagline. And, as an account of two imperial powers duking it out back and forth across Central Asia, it is not without relevance to an age when Afghanistan, and impenetrable Waziristan are still a part of the puzzle and there remains no lack of imperial hubris and ignorance in dealing with the folks there (evidenced by the recent announcement of an Administration plan to spend $700-800 million "winning hearts and minds" in Waziristan - it's like some people never learn!) The geniuses behind that decision should spend a little summer reading time with Mr Hopkirk and the imperial experience of that bit of history.
Well written account of the "first Cold War".......2007-04-30
"The Great Game" is an enjoyable read and the 600 pages go surprisingly quickly. I read this as background for an upcoming trip to the region and from the perspective of the post-Cold War era, it's amazing how so many dynamics of the Cold War were in place over 100 years earlier. The chess moves of the British and the Russians and the many intrepid "explorers" provide plenty to hold the reader's interest. I would have given it 5 stars, but the references aren't well tied to the text, so it's unclear to the lay man how to evaluate the scholarship. Hopkirk certainly has a track record, however, there always are disputes in the attempt to piece together history.
One of the best history/adventure books available today!.......2007-04-23
Hopkirk is the master of the Middle East history books! FAST READ!! and I am a slow reader!
Hopkirks BEST book yet! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, it's like being there!
More Tedium From Peter Hopkirk.......2007-04-11
"Reads like a novel" ??? Come on, folks! The yellow pages of any phone book are far more exciting. This text takes a subject of great potential, & reduces it to the dried up dust of a Central Asian desert. I am disgusted with Mr. Hopkirk, because I truely love real History. This author is only one of the sorry crowd who destroy interest in even the most eager seeker. Our schools are full of them. This text belongs to the times when books were sold by the pound, rather than the content. As a former teacher - & lifelong seeker after the amazing truths of history - I consign Mr. Hopkirk to the dust bin.
Book Description
The Great Lakes are the largest collection of fresh surface water on earth, and more than 40 million Americans and Canadians live in their basin. Will we divert water from the Great Lakes, causing them to end up like Central Asia's Aral Sea, which has lost 90 percent of its surface area and 75 percent of its volume since 1960? Or will we come to see that unregulated water withdrawals are ultimately catastrophic?
Peter Annin writes a fast-paced account of the people and stories behind these battles. Destined to be the definitive story for the general public as well as policymakers, The Great Lakes Water Wars is a balanced, comprehensive look behind the scenes at the conflicts and compromises that are the past-and future-of this globally significant resource.
Customer Reviews:
Great Lakes Water Wars is an excellent read.......2007-08-08
I started out to skim Peter Annin's book, determine what to say, and decide how to write a requested review. I had no trouble becoming completely engrossed at the start of the Author's Note and Prologue, and read the whole thing. Cover to cover. I do not need to abridge all its contents in great detail, nor could I begin to accomplish that task as eloquently, chronologically, and thoroughly as does the author anyway. What's more, the stories presented are fascinating and rapidly ensnare the reader. It will be of value to active professionals, students, politicians, NGO participants, and elected officials as well as to residents of the Great Lakes Basin, and to those who think they can tap into its abundant waters. What's more, it is informative and fun to read.
The Great Lakes aren't bottomless.......2007-05-25
As a former resident of northeastern Ohio, growing up near the shores of Lake Erie, I expected to be captivated by Peter Annin's treatise on the water resources issues of the Great Lakes, and it did not disappoint. But I think there's plenty here for anyone interested in the expanding issue of water resource diversion, as it spreads from the notoriously thirsty southwest to the Great Lakes, which house 20% of the world's fresh surface waters.
The five lakes in the Great Lakes surface water drainage basin seem inexhaustible and have, for centuries, been treated that way by neighboring states and provinces. Massive pollution identified in the 1960s raised the first indication of the Lakes' vulnerability. Annin tackles the issues of water resource allocation in three sections. The first sets the stage by talking about surface water resource challenges generally, from the difference between water rights assumptions in the eastern and western US, to the disastrous overuse of the Aral Sea in the former USSR, to the unknown problems that will result from global warming.
The second section uses stories to articulate the political and economic challenges surrounding six specific water diversion cases in the Great Lakes basin. The third explains the attempts by the eight states and two provinces within the Great Lakes basin to agree on political and legal mechanisms for protecting and preserving this enormous resource. His book ends with a cliffhanger; in late 2005, an historic regional agreement was signed by all the states and provinces in the basin but it must be codified into law by each state and US Congress. His website tracks its progress: [..]
A cautionary tale.......2007-04-01
"Today, when I stand on the shores of Lake Superior, I don't see a lake. I see a sprawling deep blue battleground that stretches from Duluth, Minnesota to Trois Rivières, Québec--and I wonder, who will win the war?" With these ominous words, Peter Anin launches into his account of the history of water issues in the Great Lakes.
Anin begins with a cautionary tale: the destruction of the Aral Sea in central Asia. Through government bungling and hubris, this once thriving ecosystem has lost 75% of its surface in the past 50 years. His message is clear; this could happen again, it could happen here.
What follows is a detailed account of the history of water issues and governmental policy in the Great Lakes region. There's enough analysis here to satisfy any policy wonk. But the true strength of Anin's book are the fascinating stories he tells of the diversion of mighty rivers, the desperate searches for safe drinking water, and the commercial exploitation of this precious resource.
Why this book, why now? The governors of the eight Great Lakes States have recently negotiated an agreement to protect this resource. The Great Lakes Compact must now be ratified by the legislatures of each state and the U.S. Congress. With this book, Anin makes an important contribution to the public understanding of the issues and urgency behind this legislation.
The real fight begins.......2007-02-26
On May 8, 1892, a gang of workmen hired by Chicago entrepreneur Mr. McElroy invaded the town of Waukesha, Wisconsin. This gang was intent on laying a pipeline from Waukesha's Hygeia Spring to a suburb of Chicago. They were turned back by the citizens of that city in one of the few (to date) physical confrontations over water east of the Mississippi river.
In 2006, with their wells dry or contaminated, Waukesha, which lies just outside the edge of the Great Lakes basin, insisted on exemption from the return clause of the water compact signed the year before. The compact was the latest evolution of agreements between the 8 Great Lakes states and 2 provinces of Canada. The latest agreement was so troubled that only two governors attended the signing. As with all the other agreements, it stood on bog of technical and legal details that could easily be upset by the smallest challenge. "Waukesha is a poster child," admits Dan Duchniak, the embattled head of the Waukesha Water Utility, adding that the debate over Waukesha is "almost like a cyst that has grown into a cancerous tumor, and we need to figure out a way to treat it." (pg. 245)
With this and other examples, such as an attempt to ship a tanker of Great Lakes water to China, the author explains the difficulties in protecting this great natural resource. The chapter on the Aral Sea foretells the future of the lakes if governments can't find a way to appease industry while maintaining the lakes for future generations.
Anyone trying understand what we, those of us blessed to grow up along their shores, must do to protect the Great Lakes should read this book. Although the material is fairly complex, the author presents several anecdotal stories that are readable.
As the author says, the fight has only just begun. Over the past 20 years, the states and provinces around the Great Lakes have produced a basic framework. Unfortunately, companies like Nestle have fought in court for the right to export bottle water from the Great Lakes basin; as one official asked,what is the difference between a tanker of bottle water and a tanker of water? --Damn good point! Although they are fighting a losing battle, other challenges are on the horizon in a world running short of clean, fresh water.
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At War Over Great Lakes Water.......2006-11-29
Schemes to keep Great Lakes waters in the Great Lakes may look good on paper, but how they actually work or do not work is shown in The Great Lakes Water Wars. It is a practical book thoroughly researched by a veteran investigative reporter, Peter Annin and published by Island Press.
According to Annin, the key to keeping these freshwater lakes viable is to return the water to the lakes: that is to keep the waters in the Great Lakes watersheds and to take measures to conserve water. Diversions outside of these watersheds will deplete the lakes of water. Although the Great Lakes are large, they are fragile. Annin shows the consequences of unwise uses of water on other parts of the planet, for example the Aral Sea that has been depleted of most of its water.
This is an important book with words of caution for those who live in the Great Lakes watersheds.
Amazon.com
The richly illustrated At Home with Beatrix Potter will delight the many admirers of the artist and writer of children's books. Her beloved characters--Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle-Duck, and their whimsical friends--were inspired by the English countryside, which she grew to love during summer vacations as a girl. In 1905, at the age of 40, Potter bought Hill Top Farm overlooking Esthwaite Water in the Lake District, a region of hills and lakes famous for its glorious landscapes. She continued to buy property in the area with her royalties, and by the time she died 37 years later, she had amassed over 4,000 acres. She fought vigorously to preserve the beauty of the Lake District and its rural ways, leaving her estate to the National Trust, Britain's leading conservation agency. This book, written by an official of the Trust, is a tribute to the jewel of the estate, 17th-century Hill Top Farm. Potter restored and furnished it as a showcase of English country ways, though she actually lived in a large cottage nearby. Her substantial collection of Lake District antiques reflected the influential Arts & Crafts movement, which emphasized the integrity of handmade objects in a period of increasing mechanization. The book takes us on a tour of the farm, alternating the artist's original photographs and watercolors with photographs of the building and countryside as they look today. Several two-page spreads of the garden in early summer and the Lake District in late autumn are especially beautiful. Unpretentious, solid, charming, understated: At Home with Beatrix Potter embodies the rustic virtues that Beatrix loved. --John Stevenson
Book Description
The creator of Peter Rabbit, Samuel Whiskers, and Jemima Puddle-Duck, Beatrix Potter (1866-1942) is one of the best-loved children's book authors of all time. Yet few in America are aware of the role she played in protecting some of England's most beautiful landscapes and in designing romantic interiors and a lovely garden at Hill Top, her beloved Lake District farmhouse.
Taking the reader through her picturesque house and the breathtaking scenery around it that inspired many of her famous stories, this charming book is the first to look at the intimate connection between the English countryside and Potter's work. Her own exquisite sketches and watercolors, as well as personal ephemera, appear alongside specially commissioned full-color photographs, revealing a home filled with treasured old furniture and beautiful objects and celebrating an artist-storyteller whose legacy as a conservationist at last receives the attention it deserves.
Customer Reviews:
A place I'd like to visit.......2007-08-24
What a beautiful book. Clear, inviting photos, and interesting information. A book you will enjoy reading and sharing.
Ten stars.......2003-01-05
Being the big fan of Beatrox Potter, the woman and not just the author I was overjoyed to get this as a gift recently and the book is a treat for the eyes. While it has pages and pages of stunning photographs as well as her own water colours, it is the text and complete history of her farms that is awesome.
That and reading and seeing photographs of her as well as her farms and reading why she bought each property and the breeds of sheep she raised was of special interest to me. I loved seeing the inside of her farms, although I had seen the inside of a few, via the National Land Trust to whom she left her properties.
I loved the photographs of Beatrix and how she was so eccentric, kind yet firm and a woman ahead of her time. And it was nice to read that she was a true homestead style woman who had the waste not want not mentality, as well as a deep appreciation for quality and hated to see old bridges torn down for modern ones, although she was quick to make sure the stones and plants, wood and other things being discarded by some, didn't end up in some dump area but were recycled into new walls and buildings and plantings on her property.
This is a book a cottage gardener, keeper of sheep. painters, stone masons and anyone who loves working with their hands will love. As well as sincere environmentalists and organic gardeners and farmers.
A DELIGHT FOR THOSE WHO LOVE BEATRIX POTTER'S BOOKS.......2000-04-07
AT HOME WITH BEATRIX POTTER is a delight to the eye and the spirit for those who love this children's author and her "little books." It is written by Susan Denyer of Britain's National Trust. (Potter's property was left to the National Trust.) The focus of the book is Hilltop Farm, the first farm Beatrix Potter acquired. Although she lived across the road in Castle Cottage, Potter often used Hilltop for its library, guestroom, and workplaces. She also used it to display her "treasures." This book reveals her love of nature, the English Lake District, and of old things--carved dressers, chests, spinning wheels are a few of the "gems" portrayed. Two-page color spreads convey the beauty of the Lake Area, where Potter became a major landowner, sheepfarmer, and a happily married woman. It is wonderful to see the original places, buildings, and objects that she incorporated into her books (examples are shown side by side). The book's layout, photographs, and design are first-rate. Reading this book reminded me of THE PRIVATE WORLD OF TASHA TUDOR and its wonderful photographs by Richard Brown. Like Tudor, Potter drew what she knew and preferred country to city life. (Tudor also was a working farmer in New Hampshire.) Finally, this book presents information about Beatrix Potter and the things and people she loved in an informative and respectful way. This book is not a biography, and Denyer avoids the biographer's temptation to "sum up" or "explain" Beatrix Potter. Rather, we draw our own conclusions after being exposed to the things Potter loved. The select bibliography at the book's end provides a list of works on and by Potter (her journals and letters have been published) that is very helpful to those who want to know more about this author. This is a book to treasure.
Blend of Biography, Original Sketches and Scenic Photography.......2000-04-04
This book is a balanced combination of biographical information, Beatrix Potter's sketches and paintings, and exceptional scenic photography of the Lake District she helped preserve. It also details the exterior and interior of a house she owned which provided the backgrounds for many of her book illustrations. The side-by-side comparisons were interesting, even though the house seemed to be more of a showpiece than her actual residence. (Thus, the book title is somewhat misleading.) I found this book to be of exceptional quality and, although the text was sometimes overwrought with property, town and house names, the book includes many captioned photos and a map that allow the reader to appreciate the area in which she lived.
Book Description
Whether painting a mysterious bearded figure floating on aflat wash of blue or a winter landscape glimpsed through a thick web ofbranches, PETER DOIG harnesses the materiality of his medium to create whathe calls abstractions of memories', distilling recollected sensations intofrozen moments, like scenes in a series of mysterious narratives.InGasthof zur Muldentalsperre (2000-2) two costumed figures standguard at a low stone wall while behind them a reservoir reflects atwinkling starry sky.The young man bundled up against the cold inBlotter (1993) contemplates his reflection in a frozen pond, whilein Red Boat (Imaginary Boys) (2004) six men in white shirts navigateupstream through a dense tropical landscape.Doig's work has been exhibited at the world's top museums, including TheMuseum of Modern Art in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and theNational Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, and has been selected forcontemporary art's most important international exhibitions, such as theSITE Santa Fe Biennial (2006), the Tate Terminal (2003 and 2006) and theVenice Biennale (2003).Although his work has had an enormous impact oncontemporary painting, paving the way for a whole generation ofidiosyncratic figurative painters, his painted worlds are without parallel. Raised in Canada, based in London for two decades and now living inTrinidad, Doig has tallied a wide range of references, not only geographic(from French modernist architecture to the ski slopes of Quebec) but alsoartistic (from Ernst Kirchner to Philip Guston) and musical (from punk tocalypso).Peter Doig is part of Contemporary Artists, a series ofauthoritative and extensively illustrated studies of today's most importantartists.Each title offers a comprehensive survey of an individualartist's work and a range of art writing contributed by an internationalspectrum of authors, all leading figures in their fields, from art historyand criticism to philosophy, cultural theory and fiction.Each studyprovides incisive analysis and multiple perspectives on contemporary artand its inspiration.These are essential source books for everyoneconcerned with art today.
Customer Reviews:
A must have for an contemporary art student.......2007-03-25
Doig is really one of the best living artist, and this book really does him justice. The book includes older work as well as recent. Reproduction is excellent. I can not give a better recommendation.
Amazon.com
Peter Conradi is literary executor of the estate of Iris Murdoch (1919-99) and was her close friend in the 1980s and '90s, so sensible readers will not expect this to be a warts-and-all biography of the distinguished novelist and philosopher. What they get instead is a warm, appreciative portrait focused on Murdoch's formative years: happy Anglo-Irish childhood; intellectual fulfillment at Oxford University, where she joined the Communist Party and formed many enduring friendships; a stint in the civil service and work with refugees during World War II; and the postwar decade, when she began to write the intellectually challenging yet wickedly entertaining novels that made her reputation. John Bayley movingly described his wife's struggle with Alzheimer's disease in Elegy for Iris, and Conradi wisely does not reiterate that material. He concentrates on recapturing the intense young woman who awed fellow students with her brains and enticed men with her blonde hair and generous figure, yet kept everyone at a slight distance, finding epistolary relationships more manageable than the tangled sexual intrigues her fiction explores so acutely. She had many affairs, including a painful one with expatriate (and married) European intellectual Elias Canetti, but marriage to Bayley in 1956 gave her the stability she needed; over the next 40 years she produced 25 steadily more assured and provocative novels, from Under the Net through A Severed Head and The Black Prince to The Green Knight. Conradi uses interviews and Murdoch's journals to good effect in a lengthy but readable text that illuminates the personal experiences that so intimately informed her fiction. --Wendy Smith
Customer Reviews:
good for some readers, not for others.......2007-05-11
This comprehensive biography gives you the life and thoughts of Iris Murdoch, her development as a writer and as a person.
Her sex life is included, but her relationships are merely mentioned. This is a completely G-rated book, no descriptions, no scenes. The purpose is as much to say whom she did NOT sleep with as it is to say whom she did. Iris was quite gregarious and preferred one-on-one conversations. She met with and had drinks with many different people. Most of these she did not sleep with. But she lived completely by her inclinations of the moment, so men knew that it was always possible they might end up in bed but that they probably wouldn't. This made Iris far more popular than if she had slept with everyone she met.
Also, Iris never seemed to drop or break up with anyone. She just moved on. She was usually involved with several people at any one time, but didn't talk about it. Like all women, she was susceptible to pretty men, and even though she was no beauty herself, she did get involved with two such men. When they dumped her, she was deeply hurt. Men didn't usually dump her. This led to her holding back in relationships, "never giving all the heart" (as Yeats put it). And this may be one factor that led to her ubiquitous portrayal of distanced relationships in her novels.
The other factor is some of the other men she got involved with, especially Canetti. This individual hated women (p. 349). He was "jealous, paranoiac and a mythomaniac" (p. 355). Women, including Iris, adored him to the point of enslavement. He kept many women going at the same time, but hated if any of his women had more than one man. He was also a sadomasochist (p. 357 ff). After having sex, he would contemplate the woman with "a sort of amused hostility" (p. 358). One among the many things he hated was decent people. The characters in his fiction are as sick as he. In 1981 he was given a Nobel Prize for Literature (which tells you something about the Nobel Prize for Literature). His cynical view of people influenced Iris's portrayal of her characters.
This biography also covers in detail Iris's intellectual development, and here is where most readers will get lost. The biographer presents detailed issues in philosophy that Iris wrestled with and assumes the reader is familiar with them. For professional philosophers, this material is interesting and it is refreshing not to have to wade through a lot of entry-level explanations of what Sartre thought, what this is, what that means, etc. Most readers, however, will find this material unintelligible.
Iris hated analytic philosophy and never seems to have learned much of it. As a result, her own thought bounced around wildly, from Marxism in the `30s, to an interest in existentialism, to Catholicism, to Buddhism, etc. Her philosophical thought and writings are rather muddled, as Isaiah Berlin and Stuart Hampshire, among others, were quick to point out when Iris read papers before other professionals. Still, her book on Sartre was one of the first in English and sold well. Sartre was a hot topic in the early 1950s. After Sartre's work was translated into English by Hazel Barnes in the mid-fifties, a better understanding of Sartre began to spread. Even though Iris spent an afternoon in a café talking one-on-one with Sartre, her understanding of his work was limited. Her book should therefore be considered obsolete at this point.
The book is, for the first time, vague about whom she did and didn't sleep with after her marriage to John Bayley. She was 37. He was 30. Iris, never pretty, was definitely showing her age by then. It is tempting to view this marriage as an insurance policy. John was a good-natured, easy-going person. He cooked the meals and generally seems to have behaved as a faithful dog. He was a virgin until she slept with him. Their housekeeping with "beyond bohemian", i.e. nonexistent. For instance, they bought a cheap old country house with no plumbing or heat, but plenty of space. In an abandoned greenhouse they made a small pool. It is an indication of the mentality of both that he hung an electric heater by a string over the pool to provide heat while they were in the pool. He did not read her work in manuscript and sometimes not after publication. Iris did not allow editing of her novels by her editors.
The biographer's preferences about her novels are very much present and are stated as established truths rather than his preferences. Her novels in the 1980s did present more "good" people than previous ones, but there was so much mysticism and so much "metaphysics as a guide to morals" that some readers will be less than thrilled.
Worst. Biography. Ever........2002-05-31
Can you write a biography without being in love with your subject? The question isn't really relevant to this work, because I don't see any evidence that Conradi can write at all. There's plenty of evidence for his fawning, puppy-dog adoration of Dame Murdoch. There's plenty of evidence for half of Oxford's fawning, puppy-dog adoration of her, along with about a fourth of the population of London and assorted Americans and Continentals. Conradi could have called his book "Iris Murdoch and All the People Who Went to Bed with Her: Lives" or "Iris Murdoch: She Almost Makes Me Wish I Weren't Gay" or "Iris Murdoch: If You're English, Your Parents Probably Had Sex with Her. Yes, Both of Them." The bulk of the book is a catalog of love affairs and intrigues that would be over-the-top for a high school prom queen, mixed up with feeble stabs at placing Murdoch's intellectual development. What there's little evidence for is any sense of irony or humor on Conradi's part. I personally could not plop down one-sentence references to Simone Weil, the allegory of the cave, or Holocaust survivor guilt like a giant blob of oatmeal in the midst of a candyfloss paragraph giving me details of Murdoch's vast network of flirtation without intending to be funny. Conradi isn't funny. He's just incoherent.
This obsessive focus on Murdoch's status as sweetheart to the philosophical regiment is not only incredibly boring to read, it's offensive in the same way focus on Doris Lessing's motherhood is offensive. Male writers and intellectuals who leave a child in the care of others, as did Lessing, or who lead complicated romantic lives on a Murdochian scale, are not presented to the world by others as if these are the central facts of their existences. Conradi's book communicates that the most important parts of Murdoch's life were her sexual intrigues. This is an unforgivable reduction of an important moral philosopher and it's going to take me all day curled up with "Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals" to stop feeling icky at having been exposed to it.
The depth of coverage is impressive.......2002-01-09
Writer and philosopher Murdoch played a major role in English writing for nearly half a century: Iris Murdoch: A Life provides her first authorized biography, examining her life and work and revealing not only connections between her life and her art, but the moral and social changes she helped introduce to new generations. The depth of coverage is impressive.
A WOMEN WHO MANUFACTURED BOOKS.......2001-11-19
This biography proposes to be about a woman who manufactured 26 novels and who knows what else ( plays etc.).How she did that the author never says . Instead we get knowing little talk about the role of Irish protestants in the 20th century,the life of a lesbian with male friends ,and potted biographies of numerous British personalities and celebrities .We never get a handle on the life of a writer who was a brand name for a while in Britain .We never are told whether Iris Murdoch books sold in the hundreds.
Book Description
Fish is a stunning celebration of this continent’s great fish, mostly game fish, with a sprinkling of fun (pumpkin seed sunfish), history (shad), and culinary delights (bluefish). These detailed, never-before-published watercolor portraits, with text by the master of sport fishing, Dean Clarke, combine to make an upscale guide for the naturalist, an aid to the angler, a tool for the educator and conservationist, and an enjoyable read for everyone. It’s part field guide and part angler’s soul, but most of all a feast for the eyes.
Every fish has a story, and this book presents 77 incredible tales of hunting, studying, catching, and eating fish. Each portrait is accompanied by tips on bait and habitat. Also included are essays on the state of our oceans, and species conservation efforts. Artist Flick Ford’s watercolors of individual specimens—many of which he caught—are rendered in a unique technique that captures the perfection of the fish at the moment it was pulled from the water. Everyone who fishes longs to land “the big one,” and here it is—the best catch of the season for sport-fishermen and weekend anglers alike.
Customer Reviews:
perfect.......2007-01-19
bought for a christmas gift...and was perfect. shipping, packaging, price!
thanks
One of the Classic's.......2006-10-17
Once and awhile a book comes along that touches your senses and raises your emotions, FISH is just such a book. Flick Ford's beautiful watercolors of the 77 fish species are the best since S.F.Denton did his over 100 years ago. These complimented by the moving and lighthearted text of Dean Travis Clarke as well as Peter Kaminsky's introduction make this book sure to be a timeless classic. It's the type of book the reader can pick up at any time and turning to any page leave ourselves to go to that place inside that brings us all the peace we experience streamside, casting into a rolling surf, or trolling a pattern offshore. FISH is a perfect book, and anyone who even remotely loves the sport of angling or appreciates these amazing creatures should have a copy in their library and one wrapped as a gift for that special angling friend.
Absolutely Stunning -- a fantastic book.......2006-10-07
Earlier this week I received my copy of FISH: 77 Great Fish of North America and I am absolutely amazed. It is a superb book, beautifully written with stunning artwork. I rarely purchase what I would consider "coffee-table" or collector-type books, but I am extremely pleased with this book. I have spent several wonderful hours going through it -- and enjoyed it immensely. It will be a treasured book in my library and reminds me a great deal of the early James Audubon bird books. For any dedicated angler or fish enthusiast it is a "must-have."
Book Description
"An exceptional history . . . Derrick's well-written narrative is packed with thoroughly researched facts and reasoning."
—Library Journal
"Derrick's book goes more into the details of the behind the scenes actions that surrounded the construction of the largest public transportation system ever."
—Bronx Times
"...a valuable case study in the micropolitics of one of the Progressive era's signature projects."
—The Wall Street Journal
"[An] excellent addition to the literature of the city's planning, development and economics."
—Publishers Weekly
"Illuminating . . . Yes, the city built the subway (with a lot of help from the private sector), but more important, the subway built the city, which remains dependent on its intricate structure."
—New York magazine
"As the most detailed and thorough account available of the dual system, Derrick's book has improved out understanding of rapid transit politics and urban planning."
—The Journal of American History, June 2002
In 1910, New York City was bursting at the seams as more and more people crowded into a limited supply of housing in the tenement districts of Manhattan and the older areas of Brooklyn. With no outlet for its exploding population, and the burgeoning social problems created by the overwhelming congestion, New York faced a serious crisis which city and state leaders addressed with dramatic measures. In March 1913, public officials and officers of the two existing rapid transit networks shook hands to seal a deal for a greatly expanded subway system which would more than double the size of the two existing transit networks.
At the time the largest and most expensive single municipal project ever attempted, the Dual System of Rapid Transit set the pattern of growth in New York City for decades to come, helped provide millions of families a better quality of life, and, in the words of Manhattan borough president George McAneny (1910-1913), "proved the city's physical salvation." It stands as that rare success story, an enormously complicated project undertaken against great odds which proved successful beyond all measure.
Published in conjunction with the History of the City of New York Project.
Customer Reviews:
A political-financial history of the "Dual Contracts".......2001-08-24
Peter Derrick's book covers the "Dual Contracts" era of subway construction in New York, when numerous lines were built between 1910 and 1931 by the IRT and the BRT /BMT. Derrick focuses on the interactions between executives of the then-existing subway companies and municipal politicians. Only a few paragraphs cover the "Independent" subway system, which was built after 1931.
Endnotes, bibliography, etc., comprise 155 pages of this book, or nearly a third of its pages. There are eight maps and 24 period photographs. There is nothing in this book about station design, track layouts, operating procedures, or rolling stock. In fact, the book ends when construction began. It was a worthy endeavor of historical research to document the political deal-making of this period, but some readers may be disappointed that the author's interest was solely in the back-room political gamesmanship that preceded construction
New York City's Pivotal Moment.......2001-04-15
No other historian has identified so important a piece of NYC's history on which so little is known, and written so lucidly about it. This is not just enjoyable history. You cannot understand New York City today without reading Derrick's book.
The greatest city of the modern era had its pivotal moment early in the 20th century with the decision in 1913 to double the size of its subway system: the largest public-works expenditure in the Western Hemisphere to that date. This decision, a dozen years and more in the making and led by Manhattan Borough President George McAneny, was propelled by the inability to resolve the problems of disease, crime, prosititution, overpopulation and poverty that overwhelmed Manhattan's Lower East Side, spilling into more affluent neighborhoods throughout the city. Getting employees out of impoverishment and to their jobs was now an impediment to development and modernization. The vision that turned farm lands into an urban center was a leap into the unknown and Derrick meticulously details this exciting chapter in NYC's history, a chapter that when fully understood, reveals how issues get resolved and great accomplishments propelled. In comparison, the highway system of the Robert Moses era was but an anxilary event.
Amazon.com
Amazingly, this second volume of Peter O'Toole's memoirs (the first was Loitering with Intent: The Child, published in March 1995) covers only three years of the actor's life; even more amazingly, it's a wonderful read. If he hadn't been such a prodigiously gifted actor, O'Toole could have made it as a writer. His prose is discursive, freewheeling, multilayered, and fairly bursting with exuberant vitality.
Loitering with Intent: The Apprentice covers O'Toole's years in the early 1950s at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he studied his craft, hobnobbed with fellow students (including Albert Finney, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship), and made rakish, footloose excursions around London. It's hard to say whether he had more fun in the living of it or the retelling, but both are a pleasure for the reader to behold.
Customer Reviews:
O'Toole Amazing life in His Own Delightful Words.......2007-01-25
I want Peter O'Toole to scrible my life story. One of our grandest actors turns out to be a remarkable writer. If he was writing about any other person than himself, this would be a great book; a most enjoyable reading experience; and a primer in how to tell the story of a larger than life person. As it happens, Peter O'Toole, the exceptional writer, is writing about Peter O'Toole, the peerless actor.
And this is Volume Two! Do grab the first book, "Loitering With Intent: The Child." It is not only a fascinating story of the very early years of O'Toole's boyhood in Ireland, it is also a personal account of the world plunging into the chaos of the 1930s that became World War II.
Read them both...preferasbly in order. And pray Mr O'Toole is with us long enough to craft volume three!
The Peter (O'Toole) prescription for a life well lived!.......2003-08-26
Who says a great actor has to be a self-absorbed boor with no life or thoughts of his own offstage or off-camera? This second installment of noted actor O'Toole's autobiography brims over with vitality, quirky charm, and loving reminiscences of fellow drama school students, teachers, and a host of other fascinating souls. O'Toole is clearly one of those people who makes his own fun, and naturally finds kindred spirits wherever he goes in life. He doesn't choose his friends based on their status or what they can do for him, he just enjoys their company. And how! The myriad, unorthodox ways O'Toole and his pals devise to obtain lodgings, food, semi-clean laundry and other of life's necessities will have you laughing out loud. One of many highlights concerns the delightful, party given to celebrate the final hours of leaky old houseboat, where guests take turns pumping the sea back out even as it sloshes at their ankles. A rip-roaring good time was had by the artist as a young apprentice, and his mates!
The Memories.......2002-02-04
This is the second volume of Peter O'Toole's autobiography, and is devoted to his years as a student at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in the 1950s.
It's very much a stream-of-consciousness memoir: O'Toole reflecting on the drama (and ballet!) classes, his escapades with his fellow students, his loves, and - it being O'Toole - the drinking. All of it is told in his often quirky, yet enjoyable style - shades of Joyce yet accessible.
I thought that "The Apprentice" could be viewed as a series of anecdotes woven into a memoir, yet it's more than that: O'Toole flits back into childhood memories, then to later life in order to set his reminiscences into a wider context. The ghosts of actors past, most notably Edmund Kean, haunt O'Toole. There's both joy and sadness here - remembering recreates past happiness and a sense of history, but it also reminds O'Toole of what (and who) he has lost.
I confess an interest - firstly, (and most disturbingly for me) I recognised the names of many of the central London pubs O'Toole haunted in the 1950s - they are still there today though no doubt are much changed since O'Toole's heyday. More reassuringly, I met O'Toole recently (albeit briefly) and found him utterly charming (apologies for name-dropping).
In all, an enjoyable read, and indispensible for anyone wanting tips on how to take a double bed through the London Underground!
Brilliant 2nd. volume of O'Toole's biography........1999-06-08
Peter O'Toole continues recounting his early years in the second volume of his biography. It has a slightly different style than the first volume (The Child), but is still extremely enjoyable. Highly recommended.
Brilliantly written and very funny.......1998-11-22
O'Toole has a gift for the English language -- you just want to read whole chapters aloud, to enjoy the sound of the words. There are also scores of laugh-out-loud funny anecdotes sprinkled throughout, all told with wry joy. This isn't a typical actor's memoir -- this is way more fun.
Books:
- Pilots Choice
- PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives
- Rain of Gold
- Real Estate Development: Principles and Process 3rd Edition
- Return of the Children of Light: Incan and Mayan Prophecies for a New World
- Rogue Warrior
- Same Kind of Different as Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together
- Season on the Brink
- Shakespeare's Secret
- Simple Path
Books Index
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