Book Description
The Coast of Utopia is Tom Stoppard's long-awaited and monumental trilogy that explores a group of friends who came of age under the Tsarist autocracy of Nicholas I, and for whom the term intelligentsia was coined. Among them are the anarchist Michael Bakunin, who was to challenge Marx for the soul of the masses; Ivan Turgenev, author of some of the most enduring works in Russian literature; the brilliant, erratic young critic Vissarion Belinsky; and Alexander Herzen, a nobleman's son and the first self-proclaimed socialist in Russia, who becomes the main focus of this drama of politics, love, loss, and betrayal. In The Coast of Utopia, Stoppard presents an inspired examination of the struggle between romantic anarchy, utopian idealism, and practical reformation in this chronicle of romantics and revolutionaries caught up in a struggle for political freedom in an age of emperors.
Customer Reviews:
The Coast of Myopia.......2007-07-25
Tom Stoppard's three play series "The Coast of Utopia" was mounted at the Lincoln Center where I was privileged to see the dramas on separate nights. The plays about early nineteenth century Russia were brilliantly staged; the scenic effects were breath-taking; the acting was superb; and the thrust stage was used in novel ways with fast-paced exits and entrances; and the revolving stage, elevators and trap doors were integrated successfully with the action.
Here in this three volume set, we have the texts in which Stoppard tries to dramatize philosophical and ideological conceits. He writes in English, but unfortunately much of it turns out to be unfathomable gibberish. A brilliant turn of phrase becomes merely bombast. His sense of humor is sharp, but his sense of the dramatic is blunted.
We have anarchists, anti-Czarists, nihilists and serfs, landowners, sparkling women, and would-be bomb throwers who are content with editing polemical magazines. Stoppard's abstractions, high level generalizations, obtuse theories, obfuscations, and cloudy reasoning swirl in and around the theatergoers' heads. Although in the theater the lines go by with dizzying speed, the armchair reader will have time to parse and reflect.
Years ago I saw a marathon nine hour "Nicholas Nickleby" adapted from the Dickens novel on stage. It was magnificently acted and staged. It was dramatic and emphatically lucid. Dickens wanted to be a playwright and an actor, and it shows in his theatrical novels. Stoppard apparently wanted to be a philosopher, and it shows in his erudite plays. When one attempts to dramatize ideas, one runs the risk of creating cotton candy: fluffy, gauzy, and nebulous.
Some of the characters are based upon real personages of the period like Turgenev, and the views they spout come from their writings. Stoppard had the great good fortune to have first-class actors saying his lines. Readers who have the time and patience will find these play scripts well worth reading, and if they have the good fortune to see them in live performances, they will be doubly rewarded.
The Daemon in Our Dreams
Nine Lives Too Many
Nicholas Nickleby
The Rice Queen Spy
Fun Reading.......2007-06-12
I was delighted to finally be able to read these plays after reading so much about them. I don't live anywhere near New York and it would be impossible to see these plays either in a 'marathon' performance or separately. But reading and imagining (aided by the production photos in the TCG magazine) made it a good, though vicarious experience.
A Monumental Work.......2007-04-22
Stoppard's Coast of Utopia is marvelous, and reading the plays before you see them enhances the experience. For his canvas, Stoppard uses Russia in the mid 19th century, a period of tremendous turmoil that saw the Decembrist uprising of 1825, the death of Nicholas I, the emancipation of the serfs, and growing revolutionary sentiment in that huge and backward land. The other backdrop for Coast of Utopia is the political and social unrest in Europe, including the various revolutions of 1848, and the development of socialist/communist political theory.
For his story, Stoppard traces the lives of various of the young Russian intellectuals (for whom the term intelligentsia was coined) who saw their country's backwardness, oppression and poverty and dreamed and dared that it could be different. The central characters in The Coast of Utopia are Alexander Herzen, Michael Bakunin, Nicholas Ogarev, Ivan Turgenev and Vissarion Belinsky, but other historical figures also play roles.
The Russian intellectuals who sought change in Russia were hampered by many obstacles; harsh censorship, which made open political dialogue a crime punishable by exile or worse, an utter absence of democratic institutions, a huge peasant class that was largely ignorant of and oblivious to their efforts, and the Tsar and a coterie of landowners, bureaucrats and priests who were largely satisfied with the status quo.
In The Coast of Utopia, Stoppard adroitly mixes social themes with political theory and history. As one might imagine, as these Russians groped for ideas about how their country should be reformed, there were differences of opinion. Initially, the reformers, such as Herzen, favored gradual reform, led by the Tsar; as the 19th century progressed, more radical thought, influenced by Marx, came to predominate, and more moderate voices, such as Herzen's, were drowned out by the increasing call for violent revolution. Stoppard does a fabulous job in showing the various intellectual currents that ran among the exiles by having them argue out their theories on stage in the course of the play.
All this might sound talky and dull, but it's not, for two reasons. One is Stoppard's genius at showing how real people discuss these ideas. One minute we have two characters debating Hegel; the next minute they're attending their children, just the way real life interrupts all sorts of activities. And the lives of the main characters were sometimes untidy, and for that reason interesting; we see their joys, their sorrows, their love affairs and their occasional melancholy on being separated from Russia for so long.
The second is the staging of the plays; I could go on and on, but I was utterly wowed by the Lincoln Center production, it is magnificent and at times transcendent.
But ultimately what makes Coast of Utopia so interesting is that it's a series of plays about ideas, what is the best way to modernize and democratize a backward society. Of course, we see this play through the lens of history, after the revolution in Russia and after communism has been justifiably relegated to the dustbin of history. So we know how disastrous the actual revolution proved to be. But one of the strengths of Stoppard's work is that he doesn't fall prey to easy triumphalism about the later result. Instead he shows these men, mostly in a sympathetic light, trying to imagine a better society for Russia, and then taking the first steps toward making that better Russia come to pass. Without a doubt, Stoppard sees Herzen as his hero, and Herzen, with remarkable prescience, clearly saw the risks of the absolutism to come. But despite his sympathy for Herzen's humanistic views, Stoppard also gives fair voice to the radicals, so that a balanced picture of the political thought of the era emerges.
Stoppard has acknowledged his debt to Isaiah Berlin's Russian Thinkers in writing The Coast of Utopia. If you are interested in the ideas in The Coast of Utopia or the history of 19th century Russia, Russian Thinkers is well worth reading.
The most important theatrical event of the past 60 years.......2007-03-11
Stoppard's eloquence and wit are only the beginning. The subject is monumental and speaks to our times. Wisdom emerges at the perfect pace. Catharsis at the end. I have seen the trilogy and will see it twice more in marathon experiences. Reading the text beforehand enhances the understanding of the contest and of what takes place. If you don't recognize the importance of The Decembrists, please review some history before seeing and/or reading the trilogy. If you don't know at least a bit about Tsar Alexander, please look at wikipedia and go from there. Very timely and relevant and ominous.
And if you read the inspiring text either before or after the experience, the catharsis will be even more powerful. If you havent't seen the epic, this is a must-read.
Thank you, Tom Stoppard (and ensemble) for a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
"Rock & Roll" goes further.
IMO, this is a transformational work which materially enhances Stoppard's prospects for already likely Nobel Prize.
What next? What a genius.
Unforgettable lessons to be learned dramatically.
Unexpected disappointment.......2007-02-20
I am pasting here my letter on the topic sent today (Febr, 19, 2007) to "The New York Times" in response to the review of Mr. Stoppard's work by Ben Brantley:
I admire Ben Brantley for his skill of writing a seemingly positive review of Tom Stoppard's "The Coast of Utopia" (Febr. 19) filled with such phrases, unfortunately fully justified, as: "I wouldn't call it a major work of art" or "But as for major insights of philosophical or historical weight, that's not what "Utopia" is about."
First, my background: since seeing Mr. Stoppard's "Arcadia" in London about 10 years ago my wife and I have become great admirers of its author, we have never missed any of his plays until now when, after attending the first two parts of "Utopia", we decided to skip the last part (though we've read it). Also, with our school education in Russia, we understand a thing or two about the history of the Russian political thought.
With this background, it is painful for me to use the word "failure" to describe the last Mr. Stoppard's venture but regretfully I cannot find another word. A noisy long production - everything could be said in just three hours - with more than 60 characters, it exhibits no unity, no central idea and eventually no purpose. There are three major books on the topic written at that time: "The Fathers and the Sons" by a liberal Turgenev, "The Possessed" by a conservative Dostoevsky and "My Past and Thoughts" by a centrist Herzen ("Utopia" is in significant degree is simply a stage version of Herzen's book), and they give a much better idea of what really happened in Russia at that time. Orwell's "1984" may be considered as an important 20th century commentary to the first three books.
Of course, the fall of communism does call for some reconsideration and the new insight. As a man who combines both Eastern European and the Western cultural traditions, Mr. Stoppard was uniquely placed to give us such insight, and we eagerly waited for this his work. What we got instead may be best described by Mr. Brantley's words: "...you could find a snapper, shorter version of the same idea in a fortune cookie."
Average customer rating:
- A Novel To Be Savoured!
- Common Humanity
- Empathy Without Borders
- All the Trappings of a First Novel
- History without pretenses; a riveting story that crosses all borders
|
The Welsh Girl
Peter Ho Davies
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Wales
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Literary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Historical
| Genre Fiction
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
War
| Genre Fiction
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
On Chesil Beach: A Novel
-
Mister Pip
-
The Gathering
-
Dancing to "Almendra": A Novel
-
Christine Falls: A Novel
ASIN: 0618007008 |
Amazon.com
Following two widely praised short-story collections, Equal Love and The Ugliest House in the World, Peter Ho Davies's first novel, The Welsh Girl, deserves to be equally well received. It carefully examines two great themes, dislocation and cowardice, through the stories of a WWII POW camp built by the British in the remote mountains of northern Wales and Esther, the 17-year-old Welsh girl at the heart of the story. The POW camp, filled with Germans, is yet another national insult, as far as the Welsh are concerned, only one of many instances of prejudice between and among the novel's characters: Welshman against Brit and vice versa, Brits and Welshmen against Germans, Germans against Jews. Some of these enmities are age-old antagonisms; others are newly-minted political killing machines.
Davies introduces a Welsh concept--cynefin--for which there is no English equivalent. It means a certain knowledge and sense of place that is passed down the matrilineal line in a flock of sheep. They always know where they belong and never leave their own turf. It is a perfect metaphor for much of what takes place in this carefully plotted story, and for the displacement felt by many of the characters. Esther longs to escape her village, yet is devoted to the flock and to her father. She meets Colin, an English soldier, in the pub where she works. He is a rough sort and things end very badly between them.
Another theme visited again and again is the concept of cowardice. Is it cowardly to save one's life and the lives of others by surrendering to the enemy? Is death the price that must be paid to be considered brave? The German POWs debate this endlessly, especially Karsten, an intelligent, sensitive soldier who did surrender himself and his men when it was clear that all was lost. When he and Esther find one another under impossible circumstances, Davies renders their relationship perfectly: it is star-crossed, but desperately important to both of them, setting them both "free" in the truest sense of the word. The Welsh Girl is a beautifully told story of love, war, and the accommodations we make in the midst of both. --Valerie Ryan
Book Description
From the award-winning author Peter Ho Davies comes an ambitious and moving wartime romance in the tradition of "The English Patient and Atonement". "The Welsh Girl" begins with a provocative but little-known fact of World War II: the British held German POWs in camps in remote Wales, a proud land with age-old antagonisms toward England. Davies?s beautifully written novel imagines the unexpected and perilous romance that blossoms between a secretive local girl and a German prisoner, and explores the indelible bonds of love and duty that hold us to family, country, and ultimately our fellow man. The Welsh girl of the title is Esther Evans, seventeen, the daughter of a shepherd in the rugged Snowdonia Mountains, who works at the local pub. It is 1944, and the war comes to her village just after D-day in the form of a new POW camp. Although the presence of the English guards is only grudgingly tolerated at the pub, the arrival of the German captives brings the entire village to the hillside above the camp. At first Esther watches from a distance, but her attention is soon caught by one of the soldiers, Karsten Simmering, a troubled young man who has begun to question what he is fighting for. One evening, as Esther lingers by the camp fence, she is astonished when Karsten calls out to her in English. The fates of these two become inexorably entwined when their relationship takes a treacherous turn that calls into question all their assumptions about national and personal loyalty.
Customer Reviews:
A Novel To Be Savoured!.......2007-10-15
What a great novel. It's a somewhat slow moving story, but I enjoyed that aspect of it. The book could be savoured that way. I truly enjoyed the Welsh setting and the characters were all very well developed. Great account of the effects of war on civilians.
Common Humanity.......2007-09-07
The story of a half jewish German national reluctantly forced by his mother to flee to Britan in the 1930s where he becomes an interrogator of German prisoners for the British forces as World War II is ending. He believes his ancestry to be of no significance but it renders him bewilderingly ineffective while interviewing the notorious Rudolph Hess. Sent, in consequence to work at a prinsoner of war camp in Wales his life intersects with well-drawn characters who too find that llife is what is lived and not what is imagined or planned. That the vanquished can be kind and the victors rapists are just two of the many textures of life that Peter Ho Davies brings warmly and ruefully to light. That German hated the Jews and the Welsh hated the British discouragingly means, I suppose, that our common humanity requires that we hate or feel superior to someone.
Empathy Without Borders.......2007-08-21
This gem of a novel is not designed for those who prefer action books with linear plots; it's as real as life itself. From the start, I believed in these characters -- Esther, the Welsh girl...Karstan, the German POW...Jim, the young English boy.
The Welsh Girl can be read in so many different ways: as a story of connections that span boundaries and defy expectations. Or it can be read as a novel of identity. Peter Ho Davies write: "We have something in common, you and I. The same dilemma. Are we who we think we are, or who others judge us to be? A question of will, perhaps."
By the end of the novel, each character will wrestle with this question. The POW will learn the true meaning of "to surrender." The young English boy will find out what "courage" is all about. And the Welsh girl, at the center, will discover about cynefin -- a Welsh quality that has no English translation, but loosely translates to the flock knowing its place. And each will define himself or herself further by comparison with a presumed dead Welsh soldier, whose identity seems to be in the eye of the beholder.
I was enchanted by this novel, the first by the author of Equal Love, a fine short story collection. I'd recommend it wholeheartedly for true readers who are fascinated with love, family, loyalty, and national identity.
All the Trappings of a First Novel.......2007-07-13
Not to harp, but this book had all of the unfortunate qualities of a short story writer attempting the fateful first novel. As a first, it's good enough, but not more than that, and hardly "luminous" or compelling as penned in other editorials.
The primary plot of the book does not even get going until well into the novel, and we are not even introduced to Karsten, one of the main characters, until several chapters in. The writing borders on poetic at times, particularly with Davies' capture of the countryside and life in a rural Welsh village, but such is not the stuff of a great novel. It smacks of good short story writing, and that's all.
Another disappointing aspect of The Welsh Girl is the failure of its subplots. At the outset, the text seems to want to focus on a British soldier named Rotherdam, and his interrogation of Rudolph Hess; Hess has been held captive in Wales for some time. Rotherdam and Hess appear again in two subsequent chapters, but their narratives are never fully linked to that of Esther and Karsten, nor does this "subplot" ever truly enhance or highlight the main narrative. It has the feel of a separate story being mashed into another.
Lastly, I was extremely disappointed in the ending of this "novel." In point of fact, it did not really have an ending. The closing chapter is simply a summation of what those in the village are doing after the war, we get a snapshot of Esther alone, raising her child, and the loose knowledge that Karsten stayed to help her and has since gone off. There is some suggestion that maybe he is unable to return, since he went home to Soviet-occupied Germany, but there is no satisfactory explanation of what really happened. The book ends abruptly and pointlessly, with no real closure.
Overall, I found this underwhelming. It had the possibility of being a wonderful piece of historical fiction, but in the end, I think the author fell into the mistake of thinking a novel is just one long story.
History without pretenses; a riveting story that crosses all borders.......2007-06-27
I bought this book on a whim; prompted by the amazon.com-Gods.
If you know anything about the UK geographical divisions, or even if you have only seen photos of the picturesque countryside, you will be enthralled by this story. If you are intrigued by human stories of WWII, you will be intrigued by this story. If you have ever been misjudged in a situation, you will relate to this story.
Peter Ho Davies creates three characters : they are brought to life by circumstances and his narrative descriptions. You come to appreciate all three for who they are.
It is a page-turner to be sure - as the reader waits to discover how three unlikely people will happen upon one another in a world torn by war, prejudice, hatred, and nationalism.
Although the book has been finished for weeks now, I am still thinking on their fate....
Average customer rating:
|
The Norton Anthology of Poetry
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
| Classics
| Comic
| Contemporary
| Literary
General
| Criticism & Theory
| History & Criticism
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Anthologies
| Poetry
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Poetry
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
British & Irish
| Single Authors
| Poetry
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Criticism
| Poetry
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Salter, Mary Jo
| ( S )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Literature & Fiction
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction
-
Vocabulary from Classical Roots - D
-
Eight Modern Essayists
-
Vocabulary from Classical Roots: Book E
-
The Unvanquished
ASIN: 0393979210 |
Book Description
Long the classic anthology of poetry in English, The Norton Anthology of Poetry, Fifth Edition, adds to its wealth of known and loved poems a rich gathering of new poetry. Beginning with Beowulf, newly represented by selections from Seamus Heaney's dazzling translation, and continuing to the present day, The Norton Anthology of Poetry includes 1,100 poems by 250 poets in the Shorter Edition. Many major figures—from Chaucer and Shakespeare to Ashbery and Walcott—have expanded sections, and a range of outstanding younger voices have been newly added. Concise annotations, biographical sketches, an Essay on Versification by Jon Stallworthy, and, new to this edition, an Essay on Poetic Syntax by Margaret Ferguson help readers understand and enjoy the poems.
Book Description
The Politically Incorrect GuideT to English and American Literature exposes the PC professors and takes you on a fascinating tour through our great literature-in all its politically incorrect glory. Included: a syllabus and how-to guide to give yourself the English lit education you were denied in school.
Customer Reviews:
PIG to English and American Literature.......2007-10-05
This is a superbly written book by someone intimately familiar with the subject matter. It exposes the post-modernist absurdities with delightful wit and not in an accusatory manner. This book would be an excellent text for a mid-level college English course, and could help students prepare for being hoodwinked by silly professors with agendas. Some of the best consideration of Shakespeare I have seen since my "pre-politically correct" studies as an English major in the late 60's.
Seriously?.......2007-09-15
As a person who works in the field of English Capital-L literature, I have recently taken an interest in various books that talk about HOW we teach English. I take exception to Ms. Kantor's view of the field because it is obvious that she has never taught English, or in some cases, read the books she discusses.
First of all, in no way are the classics disappearing from the English classroom. I can guarantee that every English major in the United States is required to take a survey of British and American literature (which is fairly heavy on the "classics," mind you), and a seminar on Shakespeare, Milton, and Chaucer (or, in the case of where I went to school, all THREE). Why do we do this? Because these great writers build on each others legacy and we have to read them to understand literature. Just like we should read Dante to understand Milton, and read Milton to understand Blake. (What Kantor also fails to recognize is that our readings of Dante change after having read Milton and our readings of Milton change after having read Blake, as those men were engaging in the very literary "theory" she denounces. Furthermore, not having "theory" is still a "theory.")
As a liberal, but also an educator, the point of broadening the canon is not to forget about Shakespeare or to assume that his works are not relevant to human experience (Julius Caesar is one of the most cogent political plays ever written, and one Ms. Kantor should probably review before she kicks the opposing party out of the classroom), but it is expanded to include new kinds of human experience that have traditionally been ignored by those "dead white males" who defined the curriculum one hundred years ago. Sure, Conrad's Heart of Darkness might teach us what it means to be "human" (whatever that means), but it certainly doesn't teach us what it means to be an African or a woman, and a gander at Conrad's own words will affirm that, for all his book is critique of Imperialism.
What Ms. Kantor fails to recognize is that no literary interpretation is without its politics, not even hers. What we should focus on teaching our students is that these books are worth reading BECAUSE they raise questions about OUR culture as well as the culture of the writer's own time. But let me tell you this, Ms. Kantor, when we stop reading and discussing Chaucer with undergraduate English majors, I'll quit my job.
Hoo, boy, where to start with this one..........2007-09-02
Is there really a problem with evil liberals trying to re-write how we should look at Beowulf? This whole series of books is politically motivated. In this case, as with the other works, the author made up her mind first, and then looked for anything at all that might support it. You know, pretty much the opposite of how you're supposed to approach scholarly writing. It's a good thing they found a woman to write it, though. It's sort of like how Comedy Central found Carlos Mencia so they could legitimately tell jokes with he word "beaner" in them like twenty times each. Real classy stuff.
Prescription for Poor Readers.......2007-08-25
Thank the Almighty! At last we have a book to help us restore our sense of self-worth by exposing the tactics of that old battle-ax teacher who belittled our reading skills by declaring that we focused too much on our own thoughts and rightful opinions and not enough on the author's intentions, as if it would have been possible to reconcile that propaganda with our own straight truths! Now we can rely on the better class of writers, or at least portions of them, to help us think what we already know. They've kept us silent too long! Why, on the amazonian rankings of sales, Darwin's "The Descent of Man" is 280,117th, Marx's "Das Kapital" is 199,773rd, the "Collected Poems" of that draft-dodger Robert Lowell rank 122,823rd, Moby Dick is 45,550th, Sean Carroll's "The Making of the Fittest" (an anti-religious diatribe) is 13,034th, but "The Politically Incorrect Guide to English and American Literature" is 5088th! Do I make myself clear? The world needs a PIG book on every possible subject, so that we can effectively revile and shout down all those left-behind left-wing wingnuts!
A Terrific Book.......2007-08-25
Elizabeth Kantor's book is one of the very best introductions to English and American literature I have ever read. For the general reader or the smart high school student or beginning college student it should be indispensable reading in these days of the near destruction of literature and criticism in the colleges and universities. I speak as a retired college English professor, scholar, poet, and essayist. It is a splendid antidote or, to use a better metaphor, a strong inoculation against the rampant disease of politically correct teaching and reading of literature. I did not find a single misjudgment in Kantor's choice of valuable works to read (except maybe Joyce's ULYSSES) and don't find that she missed too many. And she named the only really good poem Pound ever wrote, "The River Merchant's Wife: A Letter"!
Book Description
A guide to the art of personal writing, by the author of Fierce Attachments and The End of the Novel of Love
All narrative writing must pull from the raw material of life a tale that will shape experience, transform event, deliver a bit of wisdom. In a story or a novel the "I" who tells this tale can be, and often is, an unreliable narrator but in nonfiction the reader must always be persuaded that the narrator is speaking truth.
How does one pull from one's own boring, agitated self the truth-speaker who will tell the story a personal narrative needs to tell? That is the question The Situation and the Story asks--and answers. Taking us on a reading tour of some of the best memoirs and essays of the past hundred years, Gornick traces the changing idea of self that has dominated the century, and demonstrates the enduring truth-speaker to be found in the work of writers as diverse as Edmund Gosse, Joan Didion, Oscar Wilde, James Baldwin, or Marguerite Duras.
This book, which grew out of fifteen years teaching in MFA programs, is itself a model of the lucid inteligence that has made Gornick one of our most admired writers of ninfiction. In it, she teaches us to write by teaching us how to read: how to recognize truth when we hear it in the writing of others and in our own.
Customer Reviews:
Made me want to get back to writing.......2007-03-09
Gornick manages to analyze exactly what makes a personal essay successful without sounding didactic or sentimental. I'm not surprosed, as she is a terrific writer herself. She uses examples of pieces and excerpts from well-known and not-so-well known writers. For anyone who has written creative non-fiction and hasn't always known what to do to improve their work, Gornick offers an unusual way of looking at things, an interesting combination of intuitive and analytical. If you are new to writing, she offers suggestions on how to read other writers, and what to look for. I would add this to "Bird by Bird," by Anne Lamott, as excellent and inspiring books for writers.
write it right- the Gornick way.......2007-02-15
The Situation and the Story although easy to follow is a tough read. Gornick's book tells how to read memoirs as well as how to write them. She strives for the highest standards and lays great responsiblity on the wrier's shoulders. Beyond just relating a good story that happens to be true, Gornick expects the writer to impart wisdomto the reader gained by the writerfrom the act of writing the memoir. If the writer didn't gain wisdom, t she probably shouldn't write the memoir.
For serious memoirist the book is a must read, and reread, and reread.
Book was not what I thought it would be.......2006-08-10
No fault of amazon or author.
sylvia winner.......2005-09-24
Vivian Gornick never disappoints me. Her intellegence and insights abound and this is a particularly stimulating and revealing book.
Incredible.......2004-10-24
Gornick's approach to the subject and her analysis of personal narrative = priceless. A thoroughly engaging read for those who are exploring how to become stronger writers of essays and/or memoirs. Highly recommended.
Amazon.com
Eliot's poetry ranges from the massively magisterial ( The Waste Land), to the playfully pleasant ( Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats). This volume of Eliot's poetry and plays offers the complete text of these and most all of Eliot's poetry, including the full text of Four Quartets. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Eliot exerted a profound influence on his contemporaries in the arts generally and this collection makes his genius clear.
Book Description
This omnibus collection includes all of the author’s early poetry as well as the Four Quartets, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, and the plays Murder in the Cathedral, The Family Reunion, and The Cocktail Party.
Customer Reviews:
Eliot Update.......2007-07-06
Faber and Faber has recently announced they will print "The Complete Prose of T.S. Eliot" in a gargantuan seven-volume set!
Also announced the much anticipated, eagerly awaited second volume of Letters of T.S. Eliot: 1898-1922 edited by Mrs. Valerie Eliot, as well as a completely revised edition of the first volume which will include nearly 200 letters that has surfaced since the initial printing!
Both the seven-volume set and the second edition letters are due out late 2008.
To the all the Eliot nuts out there, this is good news. To those who have not read Eliot's Selected Essays, they are as affecting as his poetry, as important as Johnson, Arnold, and Coleridge in the their times.
Still Point of the Turning World.......2006-03-14
I'm not at all rating this book five stars; that's my rating for T.S. Eliot's plays. This book was the typical library edition and has everything wrong with it: the cover of an old, wise Eliot (why not a young maverick one?), "Complete" in the title when it's not at all complete, big, heavy, hardback and way too literary looking for the passing reader to crack the cover.
But look how much T.S. Eliot you already know. The Wasteland may be a maddingly obscure poem sequence built around a book by Jessie Weston, but Pete Townshend used the idea in a song: "Teenage Wasteland." You know from another song that T.S. Eliot, in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" said that life was measured out in coffee spoons. We all know that Old Possum's Book of Practical...plays out dramatically in a musical titled for the last word of that book...Cats. You could have tackled (or rather relaxed with) his most famous poem sequence, Four Quartets and the accompanying readers' guide by Thomas Howard.
But for all those bits of poetic imagery, you still might not stumble on the plays. I've never seen one of Eliot's plays put on, but they make wonderful reading. As an astute reviewer suggested, don't get this volume, which leaves out two of the five plays (or six if you include "Choruses from the Rock," which is not among the best). That reviewer also provided the helpful advice to track down the Faber edition which really does have all the plays. Some of them, notably Murder in the Cathedral, are available in single editions. But don't miss The Confidential Clerk, The Cocktail Party and The Elder Statesman for a great reading experience.
The only other play I know that reads this well is J. M. Barrie's original play of Peter Pan. Murder in the Cathedral is notable because it falls in the Church of England (Anglican) tradition of putting on plays at the Canterbury Festival. Charles Williams also wrote plays related to this event (Thomas Cranmer of Canterbury), as did Dorothy L. Sayers (The Zeal of Thy House, The Devil to Pay). All of which is to say that there is a lot of great dramatic writing to be rediscovered as reading as well as performance (see also my review of Christopher Fry's plays A Phoenix Too Frequent and The Lady's Not for Burning). Many Sayers readers are also aware that she wrote the first radio play for the BBC on the life of Jesus (and updated it to common language), as well as essays on her experience dealing with the Gospel accounts in dramatic form. The best known of these is "The Dogma is the Drama," available in various collections.
A pleasure to own!.......2005-02-27
His language is effortless in its flow and it is conducive to deep meditation in its style. After reading 'Prufrock', and the 'Hollow Men' I got the sense that this is something truly withstanding and classic - one of our bards of the 20th century.
Only a handfull of modern poets stick in my mind - Elliot, Cummings, Rilke, and Yeats are among them!
Practical Cats, Etc........2005-01-02
This was the first time I've read Eliot since college, when I read The Waste Land. I was stunned this time around, and particularly found Practical Cats riveting. His ear for language is extraordinary. Why have so many post-modern poets abandoned rhyme, rhythm and sound in such a lyrical medium? Loved it.
a pleasure as always .......2004-12-20
this complete collection by Thomas Stearns Eliot just made me "pur" for joy, please excuse the pun. If you love Eliot's poetry and plays, this is the perfect book for you. And of course, it includes all the classic favorites such as "a love song for j. alfred prufrock" and "the wasteland".
Eliot's writing is delightfully anglo-american, with amazing references to both sides of the atlantic. (the tea-drinking is my personal favorite) and do i dare to eat a peach?
Book Description
The classic poetry anthology.
Customer Reviews:
A selection of Nobel and Enriching thoughts.......2007-09-03
Poetry is something different for each of us. We are touched by different things at different times. This book lets us find, in one place, a cross section of what is considered "famous". It is likely that we will find what touches us from among the selections. Robert Cook the editor says in the preface that the purpose of the book is to enrich, ennoble, and encourage. He adds that it is also for convenience. Perhaps it is a search engine for what you might be looking for or have forgotten in poetry.
English and American poems comprise over half of those presented. Most are indeed "famous" but some are a surprise.
I found one poem by Robert Frost. Not the one that I liked best. I also found two poems by Alfred Tennyson and was not surprised to find either of them. It proves to be very interesting to fine which of each author's writings made this list of 101. At the end of the book you will find an "Index" and an "Index of Authors". Maybe you will want to read it from beginning to end or maybe you will want to find your favorite author. Either way this is a book that you will come back to over and over. I liked what Longfellow said in the first verse of "The Builders", the first poem in this collection.
"All are architects of Fate,
Working in these walls of Time;
Some with massive deeds and great,
Some with ornaments of rhyme."
He must have read the other 100 Famous Poems
My favourite poetry anthology.......2007-07-27
I have never been a big fan of modern poetry and did not own any poetry books until a friend showed me this one. It is a collection of truly outstanding poems, each of which is skillfully crafted and well chosen. The poetic techniques are always masterful and the styles very diverse. What unifies the volume is the generally serious tone of its contributors with respect to the subjects they have chosen - love, loss, patriotism/sacrifice, justice, etc. There are minor quibbles (too many poems about trees, the inclusion of non-poetic pieces) but these cannot detract from a book that both conneissures and neophytes can both enjoy. My friend who showed it to me keep two dozen copies to use as graduation presents and thankyou gifts; given the low price and high quality of this book, I plan to do the same.
A Favorite.......2006-12-12
A copy of this book was in our household from the time I can remember. It was lost in a fire and I soon found myself looking for a copy to replace it. Many of these poems are wonderful read aloud which I did with my grandaughter who is now 16 and has her own copy. I have given several copies as gifts over the years and would never want to be without mine. As another reviewer mentioned, it is a history lesson, and more. I have many poetry books, but none I enjoy as much as this one.
A good collection but a few "Greats" are missing.......2006-04-07
I realize that making the choices as to who and what should go into a collection like this - is very hard. I think this is a great book but I guess that I would not be able to limit the title to "One hundred and One." Enjoy!
MOTIVATOR.......2005-12-18
1957-discharged from the army. No longer a callow youth but lacking motivation, I gave university life a whirl. I bought the book on a whim and I still have it by my bedside. It's a delightful collection that early on helped provide the spark I needed to continue my education. I discovered I knew little of the world. Who the heck was Wolsey? The Spires of Oxford, the Boar War? Where is the encyclopedia?
Book Description
Poetry Speaks features the work of the most influential writers in modern poetry-written and performed-from 1892 to 1997. This book combines their most significant poems in print with the authors themselves reading their poetry on audio CD. Poets range from Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Walt Whitman, T.S. Eliot and Dorothy Parker to Langston Hughes, Allen Ginsberg, Sylvia Plath and Gwendolyn Brooks.
The power of spoken poetry is at the heart of Poetry Speaks. Poetry is a vocal art, an art meant to be read aloud. Listening to a poem read aloud can be a transforming experience. Poetry Speaks not only introduces the finest work from some of the greatest poets who ever lived, it reintroduces the oral tradition of poetry.
Poetry Speaks features over 40 poets in chapters each containing:
The poems that are read by the poet on the audio CD
Additional poems in print form to allow the reader to further explore the poet
A short biography and photo of each poet
Original manuscripts and letters for most of the featured poets
An original essay for each poet written by today's most influential poets, a veritable Who's Who of poetry, including: Seamus Heaney on W.B. Yeats; Richard Wilbur on Robert Frost; Mark Strand on Wallace Stevens; Jorie Graham on Elizabeth Bishop; Glyn Maxwell on Dylan Thomas; and Rita Dove on Melvin B. Tolson.
Poetry Speaks-combining the talents of great poets past and living, their words written and spoken-is the most ambitious, comprehensive and innovative poetry project to be published in years, and is sure to be the model for collections to come.
Customer Reviews:
Poetry Speaks: Hear Great Poets Read Their Own Work from Tennyson to Plath.......2007-01-28
Once in every 100 years a book is created which captures, both in written and spoken word, the ongoing development of an art form. Poetry Speaks is one such book. Glancing at its cover and size, some people will conclude it to be a 'coffee table book', impressive to look at but hardly ever read. For those persons whoread the smaller print: Hear Great Poets Read their Work from Tennyson to Plath, they experience a pregnant pause ..'Tennyson to Plath'...Tennyson?? It is then book's pages have called and the reader/listener are absorbed into its binding. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Walt Whitman and Robert Browning, were all 19th century poets who died in the late 1880s - 1890s. Yet, because of wax cylinders and the wizardry of Thomas Edison, his desire to capture the human voice, and his love of poetry,1886,he recorded each. Nearly 120 yars later,we are able to listen to these poets reading selections of their own writings. We are invited into the studio, hear their puzzlements, frstrations aw well as triumphant celebration, after recording and hearing,for the first time, their own voices.
Poetry Speaks not only has selections of writings, it includes three CDs. Narrated by Charles Osgood, listeners are escorted through a century of recorded voices and explains how recording itself changed the way poetry was presented when read out load. Within the book's pages, each selected poet is introduced with a brief biography, explanation of th poet's style,as well as how outside events and societal changes and influences shaped both poet and poetry. Some presenters include handwritten copies with lined out deletions and revisions. The study of each poet is an educational find.
The collection is a treasure. Whether you enjoy poetry, find it a bit
intimidating or just what to share something a very special for a very special person...such as yourself, Poetry Speaks will let your spirit soar. You will need to take it from the coffee tabe, open its pages, and read along with its authors.
Margaret C. Barno
Poetry Speaks.......2006-07-15
Fantastic short and to the point essays about the greats of poetry along with the ability to hear them read in their own voices - invaluable asset to the serious poet or poetry fan.
History through an iPod.......2006-05-23
The Poetry Speaks collection features works and readings by 42 of the greatest poets ever.
The book itself is rather weighty (literally), but the essays and poems themselves are organized in such a way as to make even the non-poet appreciate them.
The one complaint I have about the collection is the narrator's unbearable way of trailing off mid-sentence. The "introductions" to the poets and their works were bearable enough--- as I said, the book is very user friendly and is a good intoduction to the world of poetry to those who dont know Donne from Shelley--- however, not saying the whole sentence (whether for theatrical effect or simply to save CD space) leaves listeners frustrated. For example, in the introduction to Robert Browning: "At the end of the historical recording, Browning..." Browning what? We know that Browning apologizes for forgetting the words in "How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix", but with simply "..." Browning could have hit Thomas Edison over the head with a phonograph for all we know.
Mysterious narration is not a good enough reason not to get the book however. The joy of hearing Whitman and Pound and Plath far surpasses even the most irritating introductons.
The solution: import all the audio files onto your computer, delete the introductons, transfer the files onto your iPod and voilà. C'est parfait. Find a nice shady tree to sit under, balance the book on your knees, switch on your iPod and experience history.
I thank my friend for giving me this extraordinary gift.......2005-04-17
What a joy it is to see/read poems and be able to hear the poets read the poems to me, the reader. Poetry is breath and life and as the poet reads, and I read back, the exoerience between the artist and the audience is a unity.
When PBS ran the poetry series, Bill Moyers talked about how when we read a poem from another it's like our breath echoing theirs.
I feel this when I listent to these CDs and read the poems.
We all need more poetry, but we need more poetry both written AND spoken.
This volume is wonderful.
Poetry inspires poetry .......2005-02-02
The poets in this volume were listed in another review. I am here simply copying the list. Lord Tennyson; Robert Browning; Walt Whitman; William Butler Yeats; Gertrude Stein; Robert Frost; Carl Sandburg; Wallace Stevens; William Carlos Williams; Ezra Pound; H.D.; Robinson Jeffers; John Crowe Ransom; T.S. Eliot; Edna St. Vincent Millay; Dorothy Parker; e.e. Cummings; Louise Bogan; Melvin B. Tolson; Laura Riding Jackson; Langston Hughes; Ogden Nash; W.H. Auden; Louis MacNeice; Theodore Roethke; Elizabeth Bishop; Robert Hayden; Muriel Rukeyser; William Stafford; Randall Jarrell; John Berryman; Dylan Thomas; Robert Lowell; Gwendolyn Brooks; Robert Duncan; Philip Larkin; Denise Levertov; Allen Ginsberg; Frank O'Hara; Anne Sexton; Etheridge Knight; and Sylvia Plath.
There is a great deal of great and inspiring poetry in this volume. There is also mediocre poetry. And I agree with one other reviewer who said that many of the poets read surprisingly poorly. They all should have listened to Dylan Thomas and learned from him. The power of his voice and the range of his feeling move greatly.
I also was not overwhelmed by the various poetic appreciations. They seemed to me too subjective and did not add greatly to the knowledge of the poets under discussion.
Yet with all the complaining the reading and listening to much of this poetry inspires to poetry. It lifts the mind and heart to another dimension in which there is a depth and a beauty to words which can be found nowhere else.
This anthology has enough of such great poetry to be truly worthwhile.
Average customer rating:
|
British English for American Readers: A Dictionary of the Language, Customs, and Places of British Life and Literature
David Grote
Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Criticism & Theory
| History & Criticism
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| British
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
English (All)
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
English (American)
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
English (British)
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Irish
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Welsh
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Geography
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Words & Language
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Reference
| Words & Language
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Foreign Languages
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
ASIN: 0313278512 |
Book Description
How does a vicar differ from a rector? Is a marquis a lord? Where are the Home Counties? Is someone who is "dead chuffed" happy or angry? Americans reading British literature, come upon such unfamiliar terms and generally have to rely on contextual clues. For the legions of readers of Dickens and Trollope, of Agatha Christie, John LeCarre, and P.D. James, of Muriel Spark and Iris Murdoch, of Noel Coward and Tom Stoppard--to name a few--as well as viewers of British film and television imports, this helpful and entertaining guide defines the kinds of things that British authors thought needed no explanation. Part dictionary, part guidebook, part almanac, part gazetter, part history, part sociology, this lexicon has no specialty, for it deals with British culture in general. David Grote's guiding principle was to select terminology with the potential to confuse readers who know only American English. Consequently, the volume is organized as a dictionary, with entries for concepts, items, and names that might create confusion. Entries are arranged alphabetically, from ten basic categories: (1) titles, ranks, and honours; (2) widely used words not part of the typical American vocabulary; (3) words used differently in America and Britain; (4) customs, terminology, and activities of daily life not shared by Americans; (5) governmental organizations; (6) political and legal customs and methods; (7) communities, and places often used in literary works; (8) foods and common commercial products; (9) common animals and plants not found in the same form in America; and (10) basic social practices that differ considerably from modern American practice. Ideally kept on hand for ready referral when immersed in fictional Britain, this dictionary will make for many enjoyable hours of random or systematic browsing. A true "companion" to British literature, its concern is not authors and literary history, but the slang, bureaucracy, stereotypes of places, food and products used in daily life, social organization, and hundreds of such homespun items.
Books:
- The Complete Taj Mahal
- The Encyclopedia of Yacht Designers
- The Evolution of Future Consciousness: The Nature and Historical Development of the Human Capacity to Think about the Future
- The Historical Atlas of New York City: A Visual Celebration of 400 Years of New York City's History
- The Jamestown Project
- The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History, 1300-1850
- The New Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes (Oxford Books of Prose & Verse)
- The Origins of the British: A Genetic Detective Story
- The Oxford Companion to United States History
- The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War
- Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West
- Robert Smithson: The Collected Writings
- The Law Glossary: Being a Selection of the Greek, Latin, Saxon, French, Norman & Italian Sentenc
- The Trouble With Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next
- Bargaining With Uncertainty: Decision-Making in Public Health, Technologial Safety, and Environmenta
- A Cold Day In Paradise
- Successful Restaurant Design
- Ten Shades of Green: Architecture and the Natural World
- Flores / Flowers : LA Guia De Rourke Para Los Simbolos De Los Estados / the Rourke Guide to State Sy
Russian Thinkers (Penguin Philosophy)
My Past and Thoughts
Tom Stoppard: Plays 5 : Arcadia, The Real Thing, Night & Day, Indian Ink, Hapgood
The Romantic Exiles
Rock 'n' Roll: A New Play
