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Customer Reviews (6)

Fictional Memoir by the Page of Robert the Bruce
The Great Scot by Duncan A. Bruce is a fun read and helps see the story of Robert the Bruce as if you were there.Duncan Bruce tells the tale of Robert the Bruce through the eyes of the fictional David Crawford.David happens to be in Dumfries on the day Bruce murders the Red Comyn.He becomes page to Robert the Bruce and from there on is swept up on the Bruce's trail to the Throne of Scotland, battling England and the 3 Edwards, getting recognition from the Pope and ultimately trying to keep Scotland free.David just happens to be in all the right places to give a first hand account of what happened in the historical events critical to the Bruces success, from the battle at Methven, the Spider's Cave, Bannockburn, the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath and the death of Robert himself.
The book is definitely a hero worship tale about Robert, but it is suppose to be the long lost tale of David Crawford so that is believable to a point.A few times though it seemed very cliché but this tries to include all the legends.Robert the Bruce was a great man and did an amazing thing for Scotland, but he was still a man and had his faults of the times.This book hints at them but glorifies his strengths for sure.
I enjoyed The Great Scot and would recommend it to anyone who reads and loves Scottish history and the Wars of Independence, not for the historical value but as entertainment to live the legends rather then learn the history.

Great story, wanted more
Just finished this book on a long plane ride from Europe.I agree with all the critical assessments above.Not greatly written, did not reveal a lot of insight about the Bruce, etc.But I could not put it down.I was interested in "Page Crawford's" story and his outside view of what happened with the Bruce and historical events.
I mostly would have preferred to start the story sooner.In my historical readings and such, I already know most of the events from 1306 on.I am still looking for a good novel on what happened before - what created Robert the Bruce and his quest.
All and all a good read, not a masterpiece, but if you are interested in Scottish history or more directly, Robert the Bruce, you will enjoy and it is a quick read.

Flat Retelling Not Worthy of its Subject
Duncan Bruce's "The Great Scot" gets five stars for its selection of a protagonist -- Robert the Bruce.While historical fiction is generally dominated by novels surrounding the largest figures in history (Julius Caesar, Hannibal of Carthage, Elizabeth I, Cleopatra, etc.), some of the greatest joys in the genre can be found in stories about lesser-known-but-worthy figures.Robert the Bruce is such a character.Inheriting a noble struggle for freedom against tyranny from the immortal William Wallace (of "Braveheart" fame), Robert the Bruce succeeded where his forebears failed, and he did so in grand style.

But "The Great Scot" does not carry the day.The narrator of the piece is a young man (David) who, as a lad, becomes the Bruce's page. Inexplicably, the Bruce places a huge amount of trust in the boy, who rises to become one of the Bruce's most indispensable men -- although this rise is explained more by the boy's mere presence and devout loyalty than through any great accomplishment on David's part.So far, so-so.But the style of the narration is flat, methodical, and without much insight.In general, the story is a series of "And then this happened . . ." followed by, "the Bruce said this," and "we were all swayed by the Bruce," and "she smiled at the Bruce."It gets tedious -- even the famous battle of Bannockburn, where the Scots wiped out a much larger English force, is told with little more than a rote recitation of events.David is also not around for many of the key events in the novel, which are told to him by folks who are as incapable of spinning a yarn as our narrator.

When comparing this novel to other recent works of historical fiction -- see, for example, David Anthony Durham's "Pride of Carthage," or Bernard Cornwell's "The Last Kingdom" -- "The Great Scot" becomes more of a tedious slog to the finish rather than an enjoyable trek through a bygone era.

There is little to learn about the Bruce, as well, other than he's a good swordsman, a champion with the ladies, prone to the occasional illness, and a firm believer in freedom.None of these traits are surprising, and the Bruce appears to be much more of a cardboard cut-out of a hero than a true man of greatness (he does not compare favorably to Durham's Hannibal, for example, or with Sharon Kay Penman's Henry Curtmantle, or with the Julius Caesar of Conn Iggulden's "Gates of Rome" series -- or any character written by Colleen McCullouch).

Perhaps I'm being a bit harsh with this review, but I had high hopes for "The Great Scot."And these were not met.For fans of historical fiction set in the British Isles, there are many other more worthy selections.

If you like a good story, you'll like this book!
FINALLY a novel about Robert Bruce, one of the most, if not THE most, influential figures in Scottish history.
Fascinated by the life of Robert Bruce since my Scottish grandfather related the the legend of "Robert the Bruce and the Spider" to me as a child, I have been waiting for someone to tell this story.It was worth the wait!If you are a fan of adventure and heroism combined with a bit of intrigue and treachery, this book is for you.
Beginning with Bruce's murder of the "Red" Comyn, a bitter rival for the Scottish throne, the tale only gets better. Narrated by Davie Crawford, a long time aid and confidant, the reader learns of Bruce's early defeats, his decision to wage guerilla warfare against the superior English forces which began to turn the tide, and culminates with his ultimate victory over the English at Bannockburn.
With the immediate threat eradicated, "Guid King Robert" still has to face the danger of more invasions while trying to unite Scotland under his rule.Before his death in 1329 he lives to see peace between England and Scotland, final recognition of Scotland as an independent nation, and Papal recognition of his title as "King of Scots".
I really enjoyed this book.

Too much left untold
If you let the first 5 chapters influence you - you won't finish this book.They were bad.After that the story finally picked up and the characters becames interesting enough to finish.I think that this is a first look at Robert the Bruce --and agree with the other reviewer that the man has been unjustly over-shadowed by William Wallace thanks to the movie Braveheart.However, that probably happened because there wasn't a story exciting enough about Robert the Bruce to turn it into a movie...this one isn't either.

What's good about it - the character holds an interesting place in history.There are battle references, there is court intrigue, there are murders and kidnappings and mysterious illnesses and all of the things that keep the story interesting so you plod on.It is a fast read and a simple read.

What didn't I like?Robert suffers from a strange malady that appears from time to time and threatens his life.However, the author discusses it almost as though it were unimportant.You never do find out what it might have been.Also - he paints Edward Bruce as much more of a military tactician and the battles are less than vividly portrayed. He also makes it very clear that Robert the Bruce was a womanizer who had mistresses slug out all over Scotland and was more than ready to use them for food, money and protection ...along with other things...when and ONLY when it was convenient to him.He supposedly loved only one woman in his life....yeah right.If anything this makes him less than valiant and noble in my opinion and the book would have been better with fewer women falling into his bed at every turn -- history certainly remembers him for deeds far more interesting.

Lastly, the author obviously has a good grasp on languages.However, he uses it sporadically and his timing is bad.The characters can go on for pages with all of their conversations recounted in English for the reader.Then suddenly when a very important speech is made the author writes it in some phonetic form of Scots and it stops ALL of the momentum he has built to that moment.You slow down and try to figure out what the speech even was and then suddenly everyone is speaking English again and the story goes on.However, the author does this not only in Scots, but French and Latin as well.There is no rhyme or reason as to which lines of which conversations must suddenly appear in another language - but I think it was a bad attempt to show off his linguistic skills and that it was NOT an enhancement for the story.

I understand it is his first work of fiction.It's not terrible but it's certainly not a 5 star book. I won't keep my copy - it's in the library donation box now.I also wouldn't recommend it to anyone.If you like the subject matter - give it a whirl but wait for the paperback price. If you don't - this probably won't make you want to read more about Robert Bruce.It's been suggested I try works by Nigel Tranter instead and that's what I intend to do. ... Read more

Product Description
According to Kenneth Rexroth, the San Francisco Renaissance the literary and countercultural movement that prefigured Black Mountain, the Beats, and the hippies "owed more to Robert Duncan than to any other one person." Following the publication of his first book of poetry, the self-mythologizing Heavenly City, Earthly City (1947), Duncan functioned as shaman of an emerging aesthetic grounded in magic, polytheism, and sexual freedom, a role that he cultivated in weekly Berkeley literary salons. For his biographer, Ekbert Faas, the mystic-poet Duncan was a harbinger of the coming cultural revolution, the iconic "guru" figure who, in the late 1940s, pried opened the door to the late 1960s.

Born in 1919, Duncan was raised by adoptive parents, eclectic California spiritualists who interpreted his dreams, encouraged his literary endeavors, and gave him a sense of a sacred life on just the other side of our profane existence. Once he discovered himself to be a homosexual, his cause as a writer was to denounce "dead Christianity," white-collar conformity, racism, sexual repression, and the exploitation of the working classes. "By the mid-1940s," writes the critic Tom Christensen, "he had consolidated in himself the lore and experience of the social outsider. But rather than style himself an antihero or a social rebel, he sought to reach the general reader, whom he wished to serve as intermediary of larger but forbidden worlds. Duncan rejected the notion of a small, elite audience of initiates for poetry; the goals of art were to raise awareness and compassion in the mainstream audience"to change the world through an accessible yet utopian art.

It is Ekbert Faas's achievement in Young Robert Duncan to bring us a complex, full-length portrait of this remarkable poet at midcentury, when was at the height of his powers and the postwar, postmodern world we now live in was just being born.

With 36 pages of black-&-white photographs and an Appendix collecting six early uncollected prose pieces by Robert Duncan, including "The Homosexual in Society" and "Love: A Story" ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

China Dawn
I loved this book so much so that I've looked for additional books by this author.I gave this book to my mother who also loved it and she can't wait to give it to her friends.We may be prejudiced though as we lived in Southeast Asia in the 50s and 60s so this hits home for us.I also gave the Queen's Messenger to my daughter's boyfriend who is a journalism major.He really didn't think he would like it since he's more sports and non-fiction minded but he couldn't put the book down either.

I Love China Dawn
I love China Dawn so much that I translated it into Chinese. Zhongguo Fuxiao, the Chinese version, was published on January 1, 2009 by World Affairs Press in Beijing. I was able to reach the daughter of the author, the late Robert L. Duncan, for the project. She was thrilled about it.

China Dawn is the story of an American diplomat, Sam Cummings, who first arrived in Shanghai, China in the early 1930s, and two other main characters, Yuki, a young Japanese woman who escaped poverty at home to start a life in China and Ito, a Japanese military diplomat serving in China. The book follows their work, love, struggle, loss, separation and reunion through the war and the post-war years, all the way to the 1980s. Out of their relationships, a little girl was born in wartime Shanghai and was named Dawn.

More importantly, China Dawn is also a story of evolvement of the American foreign policy towards China, especially during the Japanese invasion and occupation of China, from neutrality to allying with and fighting along China. It tells, a first to me, through the experience of an American, Sam, part of the Nanjing Massacre the Japanese military committed against the Chinese population in the winter of 1937, a crime known to all Chinese but not many Americans.

Finally, China Dawn is a love story, a love spanning countries and nationalities, war and peace, American, Chinese and Japanese, and a love for China.

I most strongly and passionately recommend China Dawn, which I discovered by accident. Read it in English or Chinese. Maybe someone should also translate it into Japanese.

"China Dawn" leaves you in the dark
"China Dawn" is a novel that can't decide what story it wants to tell. The author beings with a story set in the present day, then explains the background from before World War 2 where it began, only to have a verypredictable ending in the present.

The author spent about 300 pages withdetails that were extraordinarily unnecessary. He introduced severalcharacters that have nothing to do with the outcome of the final story andleft me scratching my head.

The final complaint about this novel I haveis the author should avoid using Japanese phrases. He used so many phrasesincorrectly that it was almost laughable. It's clear he's learned about 10words in Japanese, it would just have been nice if he used themcorrectly.

I give it two stars for its depiction of pre-World War IIShanghai, but beyond that, the author tortured me with about 250-300 pagesof detail that, however interesting, were irrelevant. ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Historical value
Old book, with notable historical value.
It serves how study of how were performed the transmission structures projects and tests. ... Read more

Product Description
Graham Roberts is a true football legend. Utterly uncompromising both on and off the pitch for Tottenham Hotspur, Rangers and Chelsea, Roberts was a fans' favourite with a talent which was the envy of many. Now he tells the full story of his sensational career, and also of the high profile court cases which he took on and won. "Hard As Nails" is the incredible story of one of football's legendary hard men - and it's a story as uncompromising as the man himself. ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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Robert Lehman was a member of the first generation of American collectors to embrace what we call modern art. This lavishly illustrated volume catalogues 207 nineteenth- and twentieth-century European drawings that are now part of the Robert Lehman Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. More than three-quarters of these drawings are French, but there are also sheets from Italy, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, and Great Britain. Most are from the nineteenth century, but Robert Lehman also acquired, in some cases from the artists themselves, a number of drawings made during his own lifetime.

The catalogue begins with drawings by David and Goya, the two most important artists in Europe at the turn of the nineteenth century, and it concludes with a group of watercolors made in the 1940s by the painter Marcel Vertès. Among the French drawings are outstanding sheets by David, Delacroix, Ingres, Chassériau, Corot, and Daumier. Drawings by Renoir, Morisot, Sisley, Pissarro, and Degas represent the Impressionists, and Robert Lehman also assembled one of the finest private collections of Neo-Impressionist drawings, including canonical works by Seurat, Signac, Cross, and Pissarro. Entries by four specialists elucidate various aspects of the drawings. The volume features an extensive bibliography and an index. ... Read more