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$16.04
21. Omega: The Unknown Classic TPB
$7.47
22. The Unknown Life of Jesus:The
$3.00
23. The Living Unknown Soldier: A
$18.19
24. The Unknown American Revolution
$11.94
25. An Unknown Woman
$2.62
26. Points Unknown: The Greatest Adventure
$8.67
27. Showcase Presents: Unknown Soldier,
$21.50
28. Unknown City
$9.26
29. Behind a Mask: The Unknown Thrillers
$8.32
30. A Land Unknown: Hell's Dominion
$13.20
31. Down the Great Unknown: John Wesley
$9.50
32. The Unknown She: Eight Faces of
$2.97
33. Destination Unknown (St. Martin's
$4.93
34. Hymns to an Unknown God: Awakening
$9.92
35. The Unknown Ajax
$3.79
36. The Unknown Sayings of Jesus
$27.42
37. The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
$16.89
38. The Unknown Gulag: The Lost World
$9.44
39. The Unknown Masterpiece
$4.90
40. The Unknown Shore

21. Omega: The Unknown Classic TPB
by Jim Mooney, Herb Trimpe, Steve Gerber, Mary Skrenes, Scott Edelman, Roger Stern
Paperback: 224 Pages (2005-12-28)
list price: US$29.99 -- used & new: US$16.04
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 0785120092
Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan
Editorial Review

Book Description
Marvel's short-lived superstar fought enemies both infamous and obscure, but it took his death to unveil the story of his life! It's demons, depowerment and drama when the Defenders discover the true secret of Omega and his mysterious charge! Plus, the death of a super-villain who, so far, is still dead! When was the last time you saw that? Guest-starring Spider-Man (if you look closely enough)! Collects Omega: The Unknown #1-10 and Defenders #76-77. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

3-0 out of 5 stars Very mixed feelings about this story
I remember Omega the Unknown from my childhood - one of the many characters that rode the "Marvel Wave" of the '70s.I recalled little about the series:Omega was a mysterious alien who shot energy from his hands, he was created by Steve Gerber (of Howard the Duck and Man-Thing fame), and the series was canceled, incomplete, after only 10 issues.One more thing - a rushed ending was provided by writer Steven Grant 2 years later in The Defenders #76-77.Both Gerber and the readers gave Marvel a lot of grief.At the time, I couldn't really say if it was warranted, for while I had read a few random issues of Omega the Unknown, the X-Men and Avengers were more exciting, so I didn't worry myself too much with the fate of Gerber's creation.

Anyway, when the OMEGA THE UNKNOWN CLASSIC trade paperback was announced, I immediately reserved a copy at my local comic shop in order to experience the full story with a more mature perspective.Thirty bucks seemed a high price for a character that is not really taken seriously, if even remembered, by most comic fans, but as a new series from Jonathan Lethem was on the way, I figured it'd be a good way to get in early.

I came away with 2 observations:

1.Omega the Unknown is rightly considered a cult classic.For the time this series was published, it contained a unique style of writing, and after two reads, I still can't quite determine how to describe it accurately.It was certainly like no other comic at the time.Omega serves as a supporting character in the story of a strange boy, James-Michael Starling.A connection exists between the two, but the reader always seems to be one step away from the truth.Gerber's narrative is very engaging, considering that he was stringing the reader along for so long, and that leads to my second observation...

2.It's no surprise this comic was canceled after 10 issues.Reading this storyline all at once is not too bad, but if I would have had to read this with a month between issues, I would have given up like many readers at the time.While Gerber does a great job of teasing the reader with what may be to come, he ultimately idles through his time as writer.Some may say that Grant's work was a random and unworthy conclusion to the story, but seriously, when 10 issues go by and the story is going nowhere, I don't blame Marvel one bit for doing what they did.I really do respect Steve Gerber as a writer, but his Omega the Unknown was so full of navel-gazing and obtuse philosophy that it took both the audience and the publisher for granted.

In the end, this trade paperback was somewhat worth the purchase, but I say that from a historical perspective more than anything.Story-wise, there's not much here.

4-0 out of 5 stars Ahead of its time
This is one of those rare comic books that actually exceeded my expectations.
Omega the Unknown was created a few decades ago.Many older works are fun it terms of nostalgia, art style, and a more light-hearted tone compared to today's straight-laced grim and gritty works.However, today's explosion of art styles, creative freedom, and high-quality production make many older works seem obsolete.
Omega the Unknown seems cutting-edge when read today.It must have really blown some circuits when it first came out.
The strength is certainly the writing.It proceeds at a natural pace but never bores the reader.Its sense of mystery keeps the reader intrigued throughout yet never frustrates or loses a reader.The characters are likable and believable.The wording has clearly been carefully-chosen and will force its audience to do some work.Yes, a lot of people will have to get up and find their dictionary, and everyone will have to pause for a few moments and think about the storyline in order to get all they can from this work.Perhaps the reason this comic failed was because the people who originally were buying it only wanted to see some spandex-wearing chumps beat up on each other.
Speaking of spandex fight scenes, Steven Grant tries to wrap this up in a two issue arc of The Defenders.I'm not a fan of Grant's work; I thought the two included issues of the Defenders were painful compared to the ten issues of Omega, and the conclusion is far from satisfying.However, Omega the Unknown needed closure, and I have to give the man respect for taking a shot at a very difficult task.It could have been done much worse, and I was glad it was included in this collection.
Regarding the artwork, I have read it being descibed as "pedestrian".That is far too harsh a criticism.The artwork in this book is nearly always polished and professional.I don't think Jim Mooney's name is brought up very often in debates regarding the greatest comic artists ever, but I do think he should feel proud of his contribution to this work.
This comic is an early attempt to bring in new elements to the comic book landscape.It examines the human condition, brings in elements of surrealism, and doesn't bore or insult a reader's intelligence.Putting all that in a superhero book is no small accomplishment!

4-0 out of 5 stars Steve Gerber's Alpha and Omega of superheroes
I was watching the fourth season DVD box set of the Batman Animated Series a while ago (I'd write a glowing review for any of those sets if there weren't so many glowing reviews for them already) and I was especially struck by a line from one of the creator commentaries.On the "Critters" episode, which was written by veteran comic scribe Steve Gerber, show-runner Bruce Timm claimed that Gerber "doesn't really believe in heroes" and proceeded to not really elucidate on that statement.I couldn't really figure out what to make of Bruce's assertion.Is he saying that Gerber felt that the superhero genre was becoming crowded and trite, or did he believe in something more pessimistic like that no one could ever make great personal sacrifices for others for purely altruistic reasons?The Batman creative team offered no rebuttal or closure to that ostensible denunciation.

That's why I sought some closure myself by checking out the new full color, paperback collection of Gerber's enigmatic series, Omega the Unknown.As most Marvelites know, Gerber's canon also includes Howard the Duck and the Man-Thing, certainly not standard superheroic figures, as well as a run on the Defenders which distinguished itself from other teams by being relentlessly self-effacing and tongue-in-cheek (I don't think the Elf with a Gun would have shown up in even the most lighthearted Spider-Man tale).However, Omega is his most straight-forward, Silver Age-style comic creation, at least by all initial appearances, and so I picked it up as a test to divine exactly where Mr. Gerber stands on this "hero" business.

In the first six pages of the first issue, a caped limber figure that can spew streams of fire from his palms fights for his life on some war-scorched realm while a thoughtful twelve-year-old boy survives a horrific car crash and learns that his doting parents were robots.Welcome to the wild and wonderful world of Steve Gerber, friends!The story of Omega the Unknown is thus about the mysterious and tenuous relation between those two protagonists.The silent alien warrior known only as Omega has fled to Earth from his devastated planet and apparently decided to occupy himself with occasional vigilantism (after all, he already has the outfit for it).Meanwhile, the young James-Michael Starling, who sure looks a lot like a younger Omega, tries to adapt to foster life in New York City. It's no easy order for a kid who is so socially naive, coldly analytical and emotionless that he would make Reed Richards blush.The duo's lives are buoyed along by a colorful supporting cast including Omega's curmudgeonly old caretaker "Gramps", James-Michael's fussy worrywart nurse Ruth, and Ruth's roommate Amber, a free-spirited redhead who's a freelance photographer for the Daily Bugle (I know, she's like Mary Jane Watson with Peter Parker's resume).The list of villains is a little less inventive with a large quantity of guest stars like Electro, the Foolkiller, Nitro the Exploding Man/Civil War-instigator, and that one strong guy who knocked around Captain America that one time, you know the one.The only original foes are the totally unbelievable Hispanic shaman, El Gato, and the eerily believable handyman/unhinged killer, the Wrench.

In any case, the series is remembered less for its characters as it is for its greatly philosophical, existentialist message.Gerber clearly uses the nebulous, uncertain link between Omega and JM as a metaphor for the difficulty that ordinary people can experience when searching their souls and trying to define themselves.While I often appreciated the gravity and intelligence of the script (it was certainly more fluid and enjoyable than the excessive navel-gazing in the Essential Killraven), I still felt that it was a little ill-fitting at times in an otherwise typical superhero book.For example, in the scene where Omega actually thinks he has conclusively prevailed in equal combat over the Hulk, there's this passage: "The peril has not yet been put to rest.Congratulations evaporate in panic ... the mind reorders itself ... accepts the necessity of dying, if need be, to obviate further threat to the boy...!Singularity of focus ... detrimental on a world with so diverse a catalogue of hazards...!"Yes, pretty much the entire book is written like that, a long string of ten-dollar words and weird syntax and ellipses.Actually, two of the later issues are not written by Gerber, and they have lines like: "Each time he uses the power, it seems to come more easily.What is this world doing to him?"It's quite a difference.But Gerber's issues aren't all heavy and grim; there are still a few avenues for his patented sense of humor.When some irate burglars inform Omega that "you `n your underwear should'a stayed home" and when I first read the opening caption that described the title character as being "garbed utterly inappropriately in garish blue-and-red", I'll admit I chuckled.

Still, the overly dense prose just wasn't what the `70's comic-buying public was looking for and the series came to an end at a mere ten issues.Omega's final bow took place in fellow Gerber vehicle the Defenders, although it was penned not by the auteur himself but by someone named Steven Grant (of whom I know nothing about and am only assuming that it's coincidental that he shares his name with one of Moon Knight's aliases).Many readers have already expressed their disgust with Mr. Grant's conclusion over the intervening years.I'd rather not reveal anything about it except to say I thought it was a serviceable ending that tied up all of the loose ends I could recognize.It probably was not what Gerber would have preferred, but I've seen many worse comic cancellations (*cough* Dr. Strange *cough*).

And so I come back to my earlier question: Does Omega the Unknown prove that Steve Gerber doesn't believe in heroes?He clearly has some fun flaunting conventions of the genre in this series, and ol' silent Sam seems to fight crime out of ennui and warrior instinct instead of for truth or justice.Or perhaps the author's disbelief in heroism came because this labor of love of his failed?Maybe it's a chicken-or-the-egg sort of question, or maybe it doesn't really matter.The bottom line is that one of Marvel's most unique series ever is available in verbatim, in color, and on high quality, low gloss paper for a fair price.It's intelligent, it's memorable, but it might not be the perfect read for everybody.In the meantime, I'll just keep on reading Marvel comics and watching DC animated shows on DVD.If in the future Bruce Timm says something like Jim Steranko doesn't believe in the color yellow, you'll be the first ones to know.

2-0 out of 5 stars expensive
I heard this series is actually quite good, but I'll wait until a more affordable version comes out(an Essential version ?)
This 'softcover' book is about 50 dollars Canadian if you buy it at a shop. Frankly, with only 12 issues collected here that's a bit much. Where does Marvel come up with these prices?
Unless your a hardcore fan (or very rich) I can't really recommend this book. ... Read more


22. The Unknown Life of Jesus:The Original Text of Nicolas Notovich's 1887 Discovery
by Nicolas Notovich, J.H Connelly, L Landsberg
Paperback: 128 Pages (2004-11-01)
list price: US$12.95 -- used & new: US$7.47
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 1884956416
Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars
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Editorial Review

Book Description
In this memoir, Notovitch writes that it was his goal to take an "extended journey through the Orient...to study the customs and habits of the inhabitants of India." On the way to Leh, the capital of Ladak, he visited a Buddhist monastery near Mulbek, close to the Wakha River. Here a Lama told him that Jesus, whom the Buddhists called "Issa," had visited the region and that there were manuscripts documenting this in the Lhasa archives in Tibet. He was told copies of these documents existed also in some of the larger monasteries elsewhere. Intrigued, Notovitch determined to delay his return to Europe with the hope of viewing these documents himself. On his way to Leh, the capital of Ladak, Notovitch found himself laid up at the Hemis Monastery with a broken leg. During his stay, he was under the care of Buddhist monks whom he befriended. He eventually convinced one of the monks to read from these documents and, as an interpreter translated, Notovitch made notes. Much of what Notovitch recorded supports and amplifies the Jesus the West is familiar with. For instance, Jesus is said to have angered the monks over his teachings that humans, regardless of caste, are equal. Yet, an expanded view of Jesus’ teachings, more in line with the texts known as the Gnostic Gospels, is presented. An example of this is the Tibetan manuscripts’ record of Jesus preaching that within each person "dwells a part of the spirit of the Most High." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

4-0 out of 5 stars Buddhism
Now we have another point of view for Christhood and The Ten commandments from Buddhism.

3-0 out of 5 stars Great discovery. Boring book.
I read this book after reading Haigins' The Rozabal Line, Holger Kersten's Jesus Lived in India: His Unknown Life Before and After the Crucifixion. In that book, several references to Nicolas Notovitch prompted me to read this. Actually most of his material has been presented much better by Kersten. However, one needs to keep in mind that Kersten would never have had any material for his book if it weren't for Notovich. Notovich was the first Western explorer to reach Hemis and view the ancient scrolls that spoke of Issa, a young boy from Judea who came to India to study. The Buddhists considered him to be a "Bodhisattva" or an incarnation of Buddha. Notovich then describes the manuscripts and explains why Issa and Jesus are one and the same. My advice, if you want to learn more about the "Jesus in India" theory, you are better off reading Kersten, or "Jesus in Kashmir, The Lost Tomb. Notovich did a remarkable job of bringing this issue to light, but did a rather boring job of writing it up.

5-0 out of 5 stars Times Have Changed, Yet Remain Timeless
In the process of gathering my own information about Jesus in Kashmir, I became familiar with Notovich. This edition is quite a delight and the compilers are to be commended. I would have prefered to read straight through an updated version without all Notovich's misspellings and misprounciations..

Key points the reader must keep in mind is that the Hemis Monastary was built long after the time of Christ even though Buddhism flourished in Kashmir long before Christ. The Hemis Gompa was built in the 17th century and copies of all important manuscripts were then added to Hemis at later dates.
Thus the scrolls that Notovich saw were copies of copies of ancient copies, and we cannot be sure what originals these were based on.. The burning question becomes "where are the original scrolls about Jesus in Kashmir? In what Buddhist monastary did his story first begin?"

We may never know. When Islam arrived in the area, Moguls destroyed every trace of Buddhist, Christian, and Hindu history they came across. Vast libraries that rivaled the great Alexandria Library were burned to the ground. They must have contained additional information about Jesus in Kashmir. Then came thefamous archaeologist Ariel Stien who plundered much of the area and sent the plunder to museums in London. Perhaps we can find more about Jesus in some dusty forgotten back storeroom of the London Museum. Then came the Chinese Cultural Revolution. They believed Buddhists were backward and superstitious and so they destroyed every book and scroll and idol and mandala they could lay their hands on during their invasion of Tibet.

And so it is little wonder that people have had such a hard time verifying the truth of Notovich's claims....It is my understanding that many have followed in his footsteps and sought out confirmation of the scrolls. Indeed, their contenthas been verified by monks in Leh and Hemis!

Notovich's descriptions of life in the Punjab and traveling the hill country to Murree and Srinagar, and the rough mountain passes toand Ledakh are wonderful. I have traveled those same roads and can understand what he experienced, what has changed, and what has remained the same.

This book is a little gem for all who are searching for the real life of Jesus. It provides one more key to the puzzle. I recommend it to all.

5-0 out of 5 stars I Wondered Where-----?
I think this is going to be a good book, I always wanted to know where Jesus was between 12 years of age to 32 years of age, It doesn't really say in the Bible, But I wondered if he traveled the world or did he help his dad carpenter WHAT?? This man seems to have found clues as to where he was. I have not finished the book but I'm going to.

Thanks Wyodonna

2-0 out of 5 stars Interesting
I bought this book because I was curious about the idea of Jesus studying in the East.The book is written in a lovely style.You can tell this was written during the Victorian age....very nice writing style.But I felt this was a good book, an interesting idea, but fiction.I feel like the author used his talent for writing, with an idea of Jesus traveling to the East, and mixed it with his own traveling experiences and the Biblical teachings of Jesus. I do not feel that Jesus ever studied in the East, but it is a good read.I would not take the writing of this book to be fact or true. ... Read more


23. The Living Unknown Soldier: A Story of Grief and the Great War
by Jean-Yves Le Naour
Paperback: 240 Pages (2005-09-01)
list price: US$15.00 -- used & new: US$3.00
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 0805079378
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan
Editorial Review

Book Description
In February 1918, a derelict soldier was discovered wandering the railway station in Lyon, France. With no memory of his name or past, no identifying possessions or marks, the soldiergiven the name Anthelme Manginwas sent to an asylum for the insane. When the authorities advertised his image in an attempt to locate his family, hundreds of relatives sought to claim him as the father, son, husband, or brother who never returned from the front. Marshaling a wealth of materialfrom letters and newspaper articles to accounts of battlefield deaths, hospital reports, and police filesFrench historian Jean-Yves Le Naour re-creates the long-forgotten story of the soldier who came to stand for a lost generation. In the process, he portrays not just the fate of one individual but of an entire nations great and inconsolable grief following a war that consumed the lives of millions. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

4-0 out of 5 stars Well researched and heart moving
Very well researched and simultaneously, very heart moving. It's as if one is reading one of Steinbeck's tragedies (only its real).

5-0 out of 5 stars Tragic Story Of One Survivor Of The Great War: And There Were Many!
This review refers to the hardcover edition of the book. I bought this book a few years ago with the intention of reading it right away, however, it was only recently [the past week] that I began to read this very sad book dealing with the life of a French soldier from WWI. Although there have not been many reviews of this book, the few reviews here are great to read. The story deals with the life of an amnesiac WWI French soldier named Anthelme Mangin. It was a name given to him because the Doctors were never able to figure out his real identity: Therefore, they had to call him by a name, and Anthelme Mangin is the name he became known by.

Further, his identity has never been discovered. And like so many of his generation: both the soldier's and the French families whose own sons, husbands and fathers never came home; Mangin came to symbolize a French nation just as much traumatized by this great slaughter on the battlefield as the soldiers who returned. Many of whom would never recover from this war. With so many "unknown" soldiers' graves dotting the French landscape, Anthelme Mangin came to symbolize a nation grieved with trauma as much as Mangin himself. There were many who claimed him as their own family member; many did so out of their own grief of having their sons, husbands and lovers themselves missing in action. Moreover, many of these families who claimed him as their own son or husband were tragically unaware, or refused to accept that their loved ones were themselves in the graves of those whom the French could not identify, and these soldiers therefore became just another statistic of the official 'Unknown' enscribed across numerous grave markers in Belgium or France. Or, like many others, they are still laying buried beneath the French and Belgian soil--even to this day, without a marker.

For me, the story was very poignant and somber. With recent visits these last few months at a VA hospital for medical treatment, I remember my own stay in a U.S. Military hospital at Landstuhl Military Hospital in the former West Germany. And while I had the best of care for 6 weeks, at least I was afforded the opportunity of counselors and nurses who genuinely cared for me, not to mention the military Doctors who saved my life. Looking about the V.A. hospital today, I could not help remembering the past, and feeling such strong sympathy for Mangin and others like him, who unlike myself and others, were at least afforded great medical care and follow-up treatment, both during the military and afterwards.

It has been nearly thirty years since I left the military hospital where I recuperated and regained my health. Unfortunately for Mangin, his life would consist of Asylums and an identity that alluded both him and the rest of the French citizenry. In 1942 Mangin died. And in yet another cruel twist, he would be buried in a common grave--forgotten, for there was another war raging. The 'War to End All Wars' did not end all war, and once again another generation of young men and women would themselves become 'Unknown' and missing, albeit not to such a large degree at Mangin and others of his generation. The book is highly recommended. It is only 233 pages long: This includes the extensive endnotes in the book for those wishing to delve deeper into this sad chapter in human history. French historian Jean-Yves Le Naour does a meticulous job in his narrative in trying to recreate the tragic life of this 'Living Unknown Soldier. Highly recommmended.

5-0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Stranger
Anthelme mangin wasn't even his real name, but the doctors had to call him something in order to fit him into their bureaucracy.In Jean-Yves Le Naour's research he found that many of the Army records he needed to lay his hands on have mysteriously been "disappeared," but from press accounts and asylum he was able to piece together most of the story, though some details remain alarmingly vague.It didn't help him that the journalist who did the most to publicize M. Mangin's plight was himself a fabulist and made up picturesque details out of whole cloth if they helped him sell newspapers.(So there's a funny passage in Le Naour's book in which he enumerates how many fictions the journalist used in one piece, claiming that in the entire news release there was only one verifiable fact.)

I got puzzled too, because lost in the mist of history is the origin on Mangin's madness.Amnesia is now more properly understood as a secondary system of something else, and trauma studies have shown that war alone is able to induce amnesia (rather than postulating that the amnesiac is a "weak" person to begin with, or even more xenophobically, a foreigner).But so is the asylum and so is prison, so that Mangin's indisputably "nutty" symptoms might have cropped up later on in life when he began receiving wholescale public attention.(Jean Anouilh wrote a play about him, TRAVELER WITHOUT LUGGAGE, which premiered in 1937.Of copurse Le Nauor was too "insane" to attend.)

Did you know that approximately 250,000 Frenchmen just disappeared during the First World War?Presumably most of them were killed in battle, buried in mass graves, but at least a dozen wound up with amnesia and remained unclaimed by their families.In Mangin's case the publicity brought him numerous surrogate families, and when he eventually died (during the Second World War) many lawsuits surrounding his identity clogged French courtrooms, as bereft wives and children and parents thought they recognized his mug from news photos and sued for a piece of his cul.An ironic way for the story to end, but it says something about our need to belong, and our need to make things tiday and recognizable.He was about five foot four, so asylum officials could dismiss the claims of families with missing six foot tall guys in them.His face was round, he had freckles, they could sort of figure out he had a high school education.Why, he even spoke some English!Maybe he was English, how would they know?He was found with a group of other French prisoners, but the numbers of his regiment, sewn to his greatcoat, had been ripped off by a bullet.

As an American boy growing up in rural France, I would pass by a secluded glade on my way to my "Lycee" every day, and older boys whispered that deep in the forest was the grave of the famous living unknown soldier.It was cemented over, looked something like a sunken birdbath.Like the grave of Jim Morrison at Pere Lachaise, it was marked up with a savage and jubilant graffiti.I remember the famous tag from John Lennon: "I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together/ See how we run like pigs from a gun . . ."Apropos for a man from whom war had blasted away an identity.

5-0 out of 5 stars A Somber, Unsettling Tale
Jean-Yves Le Naour has magnificently written an unsettling tale of the Living Unknown Soldier of post-WWI France, Anthelme Mangin. Penny Allen has masterfully translated the story.
Le Naour brings to life the past of Anthelme Mangin, an amnesiac veteran of WW One who returned to France in a state of complete dementia. Mangin had been a prisoner in Germany who was repratriated with other invalids in early 1918.
A great sadness permeates the book. Mangin's poor soul never recovered its memory, although he was definitively identified as a soldier who had been taken prisoner in 1914 many, many years later. But his and other amnesiac veterans' return brought an unrelenting torment to the families of more than 300,000 missing Frenchmen. Le Naour in his narrative veers off briefly but fully brings to the pages a sense of the France's state after the war: the guilt of the survivors, the never-ending hope that the disappeared would someday return to their families, the despair that drove some survivors to madness as they waited the rest of their lives for a son, a brother, a husband to come home. Mangin, in his wretched state, symbolized for the French the enduring symbol of grief for a nation drained of much of its young manhood in the war. With no body to bury, families of the missing were torn over clinging on to hope or whether to let go and begin grieving.
The book was excellent. As I write this and think of the story I'm left saddened at how Mangin passed away without ever recovering his memory. You can almost feel the shock and emptiness of the families who misidentified Mangin as one of their missing loved ones, and at the end you read that with Mangin identified the remaining families were left with nothing more than when they had begun their trials to claim him. It is terribly sad to realize that the soldiers Lemay, Mazat, Rondot and others were to be forver resigned to oblivion when they simply disappeared off the face of the earth. Le Naour brings to life one of man's greatest fears, especially as a soldier: to die unknown and to not have news of his death reach his loved ones.
An excellent book. A must read.

4-0 out of 5 stars Lost and Disillusioned
In "The Living Unknown Soldier," Anthelme is a an unidentified French Soldier in post WWI Europe. He is suffering from Amnesia and doesnt remember who is family is or where he is to call home. He searches countless times all over Europe. People who cannot find realitives of their own take him in, thinking if he can't remember who he is maybe he is our lost relitive. Distant family memebers desperately hold on to the shroud of hope that he maybe their family member. In this book Anthelme represents the young generation of France. The childish belief that once something is over it is forgotten. It is trying to show how France wants its people to forget the horrible losses of the war and move on into the next stage of civilization. France felt guilty for the way the family's suffered, for the lost, the innnocent, and the missing. This book represents the way the whole country of France felt, Lost and Disillusioned. ... Read more


24. The Unknown American Revolution : The Unruly Birth of Democracy and the Struggle to Create America
by Gary B. Nash
Hardcover: 544 Pages (2005-06-23)
list price: US$27.95 -- used & new: US$18.19
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: B000EUKRAO
Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan
Editorial Review

Book Description
In this audacious recasting of the American Revolution, distinguished historian Gary Nash offersa profound new way of thinking about the struggle to create this country, introducing readers to acoalition of patriots from all classes and races of American society. From millennialist preachersto enslaved Africans, disgruntled women to aggrieved Indians, the people so vividly portrayed inthis book did not all agree or succeed, but during the exhilarating and messy years of thiscountry's birth, they laid down ideas that have become part of our inheritance and ideals towardwhich we still strive today. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

5-0 out of 5 stars The Universality of the American Revolution
The history of the American Revolution is usually treated, even by professional historians, as an event out of history. It's a platitude, but accurate, to say revolutionary figures like Jefferson, Adams, Paine, and Franklin are treated as philosophers debating abstract principles of government with Olympian detachment.At the same time, it's rare to find any serious treatment of Native Americans, African Americans, and women as revolutionary actors. For this reason, Nash's treatment--with or without alleged historical accuracies and exaggerations--is well worth reading.

Nash is fairly unusual for historians of this period insofar as he introduces a broad range of social issues that were raised, but not resolved, by the war: the struggle, *roughly* contemporaneous with the armed insurgency, by women for enfranchisement (achieved in NJ until 1806) and to abolish slavery, to establish social accountability for business enterprise and to preserve vertical mobility--these are all struggles that gave the American War for Independence its revolutionary nature.During the War, the crown relied heavily on mercenaries from the Continent, militant North American loyalists, and Native Americans.The revolutionary forces, to my surprises, relied, on recent, impoverished immigrants from Ireland, Germany, and England.The patricians produced a conservative separatist ideology, but the blood and sinews of the Revolution--the spiritual transformation of American society, the fighting, the starving, and the dying--THATcame form the dregs of the American masses.After the war, this cohort of Americans was hurled into the lurch.The Continental Congress and the nascent federal government issued few pensions, and those were platy.

Nash also introduces the important research of Richard White on the revolution among the Native Americans.Yes, the Native peoples of North America along the Middle West and the Tidewater experienced a political revolution. Understandably, the vast majority of Native peoples had no choice but to side with the crown.But the effects on the first nations were dramatic: determined efforts by visionary leaders to forge the disparate Indian bands into a coalition against the advancing settlers, while far from successful, destroy the popular myth of a moribund people facing extinction fatalistically.

Gary Nash's history considers far more: it broaches and responds to far more questions of the revolution than other historical accounts I have seen.Its narratives are far more realistic.And Nash, departing from near-universal tradition, does not glorify the winners, something that will no doubt raise a lot of hackles.

5-0 out of 5 stars Debunks the Notion that the American Revolution Was A Conservative Revolution
Generations of scholars have put forward a hypothesis that the American Revolution was a conservative revolution.On the surface, this hypothesis seems plausible.After all, the Constitutional Convention of Philadelphia created a model of government that was very similar to the English model, a model of branches of government that had checks and balances over one another.Gary Nash's book, the Unknown American Revolution, collects and reveals information about a revolution that was truly radical -- a revolution that I had never seen revealed in any classroom, in spite of being exposed to a fair bit of liberal arts education.

Although Nash doesn't make an explicit comparison, the U.S. Constitution of 1787 was quite conservative compared to the Pennsylvania state constitution of 1776, a constitution that called for a broader franchise and government by a unicameral legislature.Elites were snubbed in this state constitution, a constitution that created a government without an executive branch or a upper house of the legislature.Up and down the seaboard, radicals argued for state constitutions such as these, although, in most cases, they had to compromise with conservatives and moneyed interests and produce more moderate governing institutions.

Nash paints a fascinating picture of angry farmers and "leather aprons" tearing down sumptuous mansions of abusive governing elites and staging jailbreaks for unjustly imprisoned leaders; Black slaves joining both sides in the conflict in a revolutionary attempt to secure their own freedom and abolish slavery; and itinerant frontier preachers challenging the established church in defense of Christ's Poor.He establishes a continuity of mob violence from the Carolina Regulator Movement to theviolent reactions to the Stamp Act, all the way through Shays Rebellion of 1786.Nash's portrayal of Shays Rebellion as a continuation of the disaffection of the poor makes more sense than the traditional portrayal of Shays Rebellion as an aberration demonstrating the weakness of government under the Articles of Confederation.

Indeed, Nash's defense of mob violence as something focused and purposeful (as opposed to random and mindless) is bound to generate some controversy.Professor Nash takes up the position that a law that is unjust is no law at all, and that mobs are not unthinking masses.Is mob violence democratic?Can a mob make a reasoned decision on whether a law is just or unjust?Nash seems to think so.A little scary, since this line of reasoning could be used to justify riots, wilfull destruction of property, and lynchings.

The genius of Professor Nash's book is his ability to separate the War of Independence from the American Revolution.Separating from Britain is one matter, revolutions are another.How much did American society change in the American Revolution?More than meets the eye, argues Nash.The fledgling United States might have failed to abolish slavery, but the contradiction between the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and holding people in bondage was placed firmly on center stage.Slavery WAS abolished north of the Mason-Dixon line, and the institution drew harsh condemnations even from slaveholders such as Washington, Jefferson and Madison.Radical government may have been replaced with more moderate government, but never again could wealthy elites contemptuously ingnore the political aspirations of the masses or publicly label them as "rabble."

Although the Unknown American Revolution is long and seems to ramble in some places, this book effectively challenges some myths in the account of the revolution.This is a good popular history of the American Revolution.

4-0 out of 5 stars Revolution...or Civil War?
Maybe it's been done before, I'm no history buff, but this was the first book I've read about the Revolution that focused primarily on details of the local economic, political and religious conflicts tearing through the lives of ordinary Americans in the 1770's, instead of the big-picture stuff we all learned in school (military battles, international politics and the Founding Fathers).

It makes you realize that the Revolution was really a nasty and often chaotic civil war that was starting to break out even before the first "official" battle against the British, with farmers fighting land speculators, radical evangelists fighting conservative churches, poor fighting rich...and that's just the Anglos. Meantime the Indians were fighting illegal settlers, and African slaves were fighting slave-owners. I happen to live in New England, and there's an old house near me where the mother and kids in a Tory family had to physically fight off a lynch mob out for the blood of her husband -- that's the kind of thing this book reminds you was going on all over

Probably this is old news to history Phds but for the ordinary reader it's a great eye-opener. I will say that the book drags in some parts but it was still well worth a look.

5-0 out of 5 stars Different Views
It must be admitted that the history of the American Revolution that we learn in school leaves a lot of people out.What were women, the poor, slaves, and Native Americans doing during this period of our history.In general, most history books are silent on this topics and focus on the founding fathers instead.This book attempts to fill in the blank spaces in the picture of the American Revolution.

Perhaps the most interesting idea put forth by this book is that the Patriots' cause was not the call a call for freedom for many people.In the case of slaves, they put faith in the British as a chance for freedom, while the Patriots were advocates of slavery.In the end, the British abandoned many of their slave allies to their fate.Also, from the Native American perspective, an American victory was the first step on the road to destruction and genocide.

I really recommend this book to those who would like to understand the complex web of interests which were in play during the American Revolution.

2-0 out of 5 stars Class Warfare Comes to the American Revolution?
Gary B. Nash's purpose for the book is, "to capture the revolutionary involvement of all the component parts of some three million wildly varying people living east of the Mississippi River." (Nash, xxviii)Nash bemoans how the "great men" still "dominate the master narrative [of the American Revolution,]" (Nash, xv) and that we are struck with "historical amnesia," (Nash, xvi) because we forgot the stories of those outside of the "great men" clique.He states that we cannot capture the essence of the Revolution without paying close attention to the experiences of the many groups that made up colonial society.These groups not only include the poor farmers, artisans, and other laborers, but also of women, blacks (both free and slave), and of the AmerIndian population.

Nash illustrated the problems and plights of the lower order through their myriad of stories.To illustrate the importance of the lower classes of white society, he showed the importance of these individuals in their role as revolutionaries, which include their participation in riots against the various taxes implemented by the Parliament.He also shows the tensions between the seaboard inhabitants and their piedmont antithesis to the west which, in his estimation, helped to spur change all along the way.In the case of the inhabitants of what would become Vermont, he illuminated their fight against the landowners located primarily in New York City.Led by Ethan Allen, the "Green Mountain Boys," as they would become known as, fought to keep the land that they cultivated with their own hands - against the wishes and land deeds that the New York City landowners had for their property.(Nash, 110 - 114)He also showed how the piedmont inhabitants of the Carolinas had to struggle for their rights to live life as they saw fit as well.(Nash, 73 - 79)In the case of the "Green Mountain Boys," their struggle proved to be more successful than the struggle of the Carolina piedmont, whose insurrection was brutally suppressed by then colonial governor of North Carolina, William Tryon.

Nash also shows how this sector of the population became mobilized politically during the course of the revolution.In Nash's estimation, these people were spurred on by the rhetoric of equality in society, as championed by the Founding Fathers in the countless tracts and pamphlets that were produced during the revolutionary war era.In Pennsylvania, the 1776 state constitution was heralded by Nash as a true revolutionary document because of its unicameral legislature, its weak executive, and its attempt to limit an amassing of wealth within the state.He also praised the fact that artisans and lower sorts also played such a vital role in the forming of the new state constitution.(Nash, 271 - 286)In states where the constitution did adhere to these premises, Nash equated it with a betrayal of the will of the people, as evident by the problems Massachusetts had in ratifying their state constitution because of its more conservative outlook.(Nash, 302 - 304)

The talk of freedom and equality also spread, according to Nash, to the black population in the American colonies.These ideals not only spread to the free black portion of the population, but also to the thousands of enslaved blacks throughout the land.This spread of ideas to the black population, particularly the enslaved portion, troubled white leaders, according to Nash (Nash, 59)What was more troubling to the white slave owners was their perception that slave restlessness and even revolt was on the rise.(Nash, 37 - 39)What else was truly troubling to many slave holders was that the British actively recruited the slaves to fight against their masters - and all other rebels to the British Crown.(Nash, 157 - 164)Nash contributed much of the awareness of the enslaved to their plight the rise rising literature of freedom that the Founding Fathers were disseminating across the land.Nash believes that this rhetoric, and its implications, were inescapable to the slaves.(Nash, 64)He also showed us the aftermath of the revolution for those slaves who sided with the British; they were transported off either to Nova Scotia or to the Caribbean Islands where they were subjected to an even harsher form of slavery than on the mainland.(Nash, 426 - 427)

Women also were praised in this work, as Nash pointed out how crucial this sector of the population was throughout the course of the conflict.First, women were important to execute the boycotts that were prevalent in the preceding years of the revolution.Nash argued that without their co-operation in the boycotts, the measures would not have proved effective.This is because women had a great deal of involvement in the running of the household and much of the purchasing power was in their hands.If they did not adhere to the boycotts, the measure would have failed, in Nash's estimation.(Nash, 141 - 144)Nash also illustrated how the women of the revolution became active during the war, specifically in response to rising prices for necessities.Nash showed us the response of many women in the Boston area to Thomas Boylston, a merchant whose prices on goods rose as the war progressed.In response to these rising prices, women marched on Boylston's shop, and the shops of other merchants throughout the colonies, to procure the basic necessities for their families at what they deemed equitable prices.(Nash, 232 - 235)

The plight of the American Indians was also great as land speculators and land hungry colonists swarmed over the Appalachian Mountain range to claim and settle upon lands that were seen as belonging to various Indian nations.Nash showed us how the natives resisted this encroachment upon their lands through a myriad of tactics, from essentially engaging in bushwhacking warfare with the colonists who encroached upon their lands, (Nash, 253 - 255) to the fact that many Indian nations chose to align themselves with the British in their cause to suppress the rebellion.(Nash, 151 - 157)What was more alarming to Nash is the colonists' "genocidal" policies towards the native population.(Nash, 377 - 381)

Although it may not seem like it, there is an underlying premise to Nash's illustrations in the struggles of all of the aforementioned groups during the American Revolution.That premise with Nash, at first alluded to, and then by the end of the book, states bluntly is class warfare.There is, however, a very real problem in this Marxist outlook on American society during the era of the Revolution, specifically that the colonists did not view the class structure in the same light that we do today, or even as class was viewed in when Karl Marx wrote his tracts on such matters.As Gordon Wood pointed out in his work, The Radicalism of the American Revolution, "The social distinctions and economic deprivations that we today think of as the consequence of class divisions, business exploitation, or various isms - capitalism, racism, etc. - were in the eighteenth century usually thought to be caused by the abuses of government."(Wood, 5)Wood also pointed out that there were complexities and variations to American society, which fell along "local, regional, sectional, ethnic and class differences."These complexities made, "any generalization about Americans as a whole," quite difficult.(Wood, 6)

Wood further illuminated the difficulties of following such a class distinction as Nash proposed in his work.Wood stated in his review on Nash's work in the "New Republic Online":
Nash's evidence for popular resistance to all this class exploitation is the incidents of rural rioting and urban mobbing that took place in the decade or so leading up to the Revolution.This mobbing and rioting is exceedingly familiar to historians, who have produced a literature about it.Unfortunately, these phenomena do not support Nash's argument.Not only did the rural rioting have little or nothing to do with the Revolution, but the urban mobs, which were indeed directed at British authority, did not represent the class upheaval that Nash assumes.The rural riots all arose out of peculiar local circumstances, and were hardly expressions of some sort of coherent class warfare.(Wood, "New Republic Online Review)


Wood, in his review of Nash's work, went on to illustrate exactly what constituted the true dividing lines in American society when he stated:
But what of all the rhetoric about the laboring people contesting the aristocratic few that Nash draws on to make his case for class warfare?There was indeed a serious division in eighteenth-century American society that reverberated through the northern states over the succeeding decades, but it was not the one that Nash describes.Instead of being divided between a rich upper class and a poor working class, as Nash sees it, anachronistically anticipating a later nineteenth-century division between employers and employees, eighteenth-century American society was in fact still divided between a leisured gentry and the mass of artisans and other laborers who worked with their hands--many of them the businessmen of the future.

In Nash's work, he viewed many of the Revolutionaries as having ulterior motives for their proclamations of equality and freedom.Nash, I would argue, hinted toward the idea that the Founding Fathers only took part in the revolutionary movement to benefit themselves.Throughout the course of the book, Nash takes great care to "expose" the double standards of the Founding Fathers, making them seem as if they merely wanted to continue their "elitists" lifestyle at the expense of the commoners below.There is no bigger whipping boy for Nash than John Adams, who, according to Nash, was essentially a closeted monarchist who was afraid of the people.To be sure, Adams did have his reservations about the people, but it was more a fear of a "tyranny of the masses" than it was an outright fear that the people would displace the leaders of the new nation.

However, what is truly ironic is that Nash relied so heavily upon the writings of John Adams to illustrate many of his points.Not only did he rely on Adams' writings, but also the writings of many of the other Founding Fathers.Throughout the course of the book, when Nash referred to any of the writings of the Founding Fathers, I found myself wondering if Nash was cropping their words to support his case.It is my belief that this is something that seriously needs to be explored in greater depth than I can provide here.What is also ironic is that Nash makes little use of the narratives of those whose stories he claimed he wanted to tell.Outside of the use of Joseph Plumb Martin's narrative of his experiences as a soldier in the Continental Army during the war and the autobiography of Ethan Allen, he does not make extensive use of the diaries and letters of many people who lived through the war experience, both in the military and in the civilian sector.To be sure, there are many diaries out there from those below who can illuminate their thoughts throughout the era.Would their writings bear out what Nash proposed?

Nash criticized the Continental Congress for not being able to pay the soldiers their salaries.This inability to pay the soldiers wages stemmed from the fact that the government was essentially broke: they were unable to levy taxes on the people of the colonies because of the weak governmental structure from which they operated and many of the colonies did not pay their fair share of the financial burden of the revolution.When Robert Morris tried to restore fiscal responsibility to the war effort and raise revenue to provide pay and necessities to the army, Nash viewed it as an attempt to "tame the social and political radicalism of the Revolution."(Nash, 367)However, I suppose Nash chose to forget the fact that Morris was trying to get revenue to provide for the war effort.Why then would Thomas Paine, one who Nash seemed to have great respect for his principles of democracy, agreed to author a pamphlet on behalf of Robert Morris in favor of his new fiscal plan.(Nash, 395)If Morris' plan was so stifling to democracy, intended to roll back the radicalism of the revolution, then why would Paine agree to be a party to it?Not all of these explanations and questions would mesh well with Nash's outlook on Morris and the Founding Fathers at large.

Further, if the Founding Fathers truly wanted rule for themselves, there was no better chance for one of them to establish it than with the "Newburgh Conspiracy."It is true that the soldiers and officers of George Washington's army were deeply distraught by the ineffectual abilities of the Congress to pay wages and provide for basic necessities.(Nash, 370 - 371)However, what Nash failed to mention is the other half of the conspiracy.The men wanted to march on the Continental Congress and put George Washington in power.Washington, through an impassioned speech and performance, quelled all of these thoughts and possibly saved the revolution once again.

Nash, as stated previously, believed the struggle of the thousands of black slaves in the colonies was heightened by the revolutionary rhetoric that littered the landscape of the era.He believed that such literature raised their awareness and caused more unrest and rebellion than at any time previously.However, I would like to offer my own take on this.Did it take pamphlets from the Founding Fathers to raise the awareness of the enslaved that there was something unnatural about their situation?I certainly think not.Frederick Douglass' autobiography indicates that from a very early age, he was well aware that there was something wrong with the situation he found himself.In an illustration, a still teenage Douglass talked with some of his young white friends on the streets of Baltimore and they complained about their lot in life.Douglass illustrated the point when he wrote, "You will be free as soon as you are twenty-one, but I am a slave for life!"(Douglass, 53)While Douglass certainly is an exceptional individual, I doubt that this same premise was lost on the countless enslaved individuals in the colonies and that they wanted freedom and it did not take pamphlets for that realization to come to mind.

Nash lamented the "genocidal policies" towards the AmerIndians adopted by many colonists during the revolution.While it is true that atrocities were committed against the natives, first, this was nothing new by this point in American history.Warfare between the natives and colonists was an almost constant from the time that European settlers stepped onto the New World.In such a climate, atrocities committed by both sides in this armed and almost perpetual struggle were inevitable.However, Nash is somewhat disingenuous when he makes the native population seemingly innocent or justified in their actions.Although Nash admitted that the British courted and armed the native peoples to fight the colonists, even after the revolution was over, he cannot seem to find any justification for the colonists to meet force with force.

Lastly, as stated previously, Nash bemoaned how historians and the people at large have lost the viewpoint of those below the Founding Fathers - how the great men still consistently dominant the narrative on the American Revolution.(Nash, xv)First, I would ask Mr. Nash, "should we discount what the `great men' did during the war?"While historians do deal with the "great men" of the American Revolution, I doubt there is one serious historian out there who would discount the actions and sacrifices that were made by the people below.Their deeds do not go unnoticed in narratives of the war.We read about the Boston Tea Party, we read about the non-importation of British goods and how the participation of the common people was vital to such an enterprise.We read about the plight of the Continental soldier as they nearly starve and free to death in the service of their country.

What Nash further discounted was the explosion over the past decades in dealing with various social aspects of the history of the revolution.Bruce Chadwick's piece, The First American Army: The Soldiers of the American Revolution, he offered the reader a look into the world of the solider in the Continental Army through their diaries, letters and records.Through these written records, we are presented with the bleak situation that so many found themselves in - conflicting interests between home and duty, the want of food and clothing, and their battle experiences.Alfred Young, in The Shoemaker and the Tea Party, offers a glimpse into the world of the common man on the streets, taking part in demonstrations and actions against the British and their oppressive measures.

Women's roles in the revolution are far from ignored.Mary Beth Norton authored a book, Liberty's Daughter's: The Revolutionary Experience of Women: 1750 -1800, dealing specifically with the trials and tribulations of the women during the American Revolution, both from the Patriot side and the Loyalist side.Linda Kerber also wrote a piece on women in the American Revolution entitled, Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America, which also draws upon the revolutionary experience of women through their diaries, letters and legal papers.

The Native Americans receive their fair share of print as well.Alan Taylor wrote Divided Ground: Indians, Settlers, and the Northern Borderland of the American Revolution, which offers a rich, sprawling history focusing on the Iroquois Six Nations of New York and Upper Canada during the era of the American Revolution.Taylor examines Indians' wise but unsuccessful attempts to hold onto their land as colonists encroached on it.Colin Calloway, in his work, The American Revolution in Indian Country: Crisis and Diversity in Native American Communities, explored the internal strife that the revolution brought to Indian nations involved with the American Revolution.

The African-American population in the revolutionary era also received a fair amount of print about their ordeals.Glenn Knoblock wrote, Strong and Brave Fellows: New Hampshire's Black Soldiers and Sailors of the American Revolution: 1775 - 1784, which explored the military careers of over 200 black military officers during the American Revolution and attempted to reconstruct their ordeal throughout the conflict.Sylvia Frey, in her book, Water from a Rock: Black Resistance in a Revolutionary Age, explored the triangular relationship between the British, the Americans, and slaves in the South.Through this triangular relationship, Frey attempted to illustrate the complex and confusing options presented to the slaves in the South during the rebellion.

Beyond the Founders: New Approaches to the Political History of the Early American Republic, edited by Jeffrey Palsey offers readers an alternative reading in the same light that Nash presents, the conflicting desires of the myriad of peoples during the American Revolution.The political historians contained in this work showed that the early history of the United States was not just the product of a few "Founding Fathers," but was also marked by widespread and passionate popular involvement; print media more politically potent than that of later eras; and political conflicts and influences that crossed lines of race, gender, and class.Thus, this work is not beholden to one particular point of view on the revolution, as Nash is guilty of being caught up in.

These are just some of the books out there on the myriad of topics that Nash covered and, to be sure, there are many more.These books are not hard to find.Just do a search on Amazon's or Barnes and Noble's online stores on any of these topics and you will be presented with a cornucopia of choices - there is not quite the neglect that Nash claimed in these fields.To be sure, there will still be authors who write biographies on the "great men" of the American Revolution, but there are many who also explore the social history of the conflict.Thus, Nash is not the lone voice for these "forgotten" as he claimed. ... Read more


25. An Unknown Woman
by Alice Koller
Paperback: 320 Pages (1991-09-01)
list price: US$11.95 -- used & new: US$11.94
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 0553354825
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars
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Customer Reviews (15)

4-0 out of 5 stars Perhaps a bit generous
I bought the book because of the Nantucket angle, rather than for the story of how Koller "finds" herself. Actual observations about the island are thinner than I'd expected (she was there only 90 days, in a remote area, living basically as a hermit). The story takes place in the winter of '62 - '63, long before the 1982 publishing date would imply. One (admittedly minor) point that jumped out at me was that her inability to receive any radio stations re-enforced her isolation. Actually, although FM and TV signals are generally poor there, without cable, I can recall listening to very clear AM radio from as far away as New York City on the sunniest and foggiest days, when such reception should be the poorest. The problem with "fading out" was likely her radio. That having been said, it was worth the read to get to the point where she decides to move ahead, putting the past firmly behind her. Basically, the first part of the book consists of (factual) background of events leading up to her arrival on the island, the middle reads lie a Do-It-Yourself therapy session. I didn't find it a "womans' book" myself, but the story of someone who finally learns to stand up for herself, instead of fearing failure, and grasping for others' approval. Amazon doesn't have 1/2 stars, or I'd have given 3 1/2.
One final point: the author is known to some friends as "Timmie" - this is introduced rather abuptly, leaving me to wonder "Who's that, and whendid (s)he enter the conversation?"

5-0 out of 5 stars Wasn't sure but it has stayed with me

I'm another male reader which is a minority for this book.Actually there are quite a few books by women on living in solitude and not as many by men.I enjoy the genre and so I got this one.I also like to read about books about Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket.This falls into that category.While reading the book I was a little annoyed that she seemed immune from accepting responsibility for her problems and blamed everyone else.There's a little of that.There a bit of a holier than thou attitude.If you love pets then you will understand her devotion to her dog but other may find it a bit much.

However, after reading it over 4 years ago I'm still wondering what became of Alice.I still think of the book admire it's spirit.If you can overlook the minor annoyances I mentioned and the idea of going off alone to reflect on your life appeals to you, I can recommend it.

5-0 out of 5 stars Deconstructing the Self
I am currently finishing An Unknown Woman for the second time. This time was even more useful than the first - which was many years ago. I dug deep into the box hidden at the back of the closet for what I knew would help me in my current internal journey. Yes, there is much about her dog Logos. But like a good movie, the characters must be developed before they can mean anything in the epiphany. I love the process of how she deconstructs her patterns and thoughts to get to some source of each one of them, following a thread until it leads her to a place of realization. And only the realization can stop the process. Along the way I did some deconstructing of myself and developed once again a pattern of looking at my choices that is actually helpful in revealing my own truths hidden under the daily machinations which cover it all up. It is hard to be true to yourself. I am glad to have books like this that continue to aid me in my journey to be free.

4-0 out of 5 stars perceptive read
Thirtysomething Alice Koller looked in the mirror and didn't recognize the face she saw.Feeling the urgent need to reassess her life, she saved up enough money to spend several months in a secluded house in Nantucket.Her only companion was her puppy, Logos. Faced with solitude, she began the challenging task of dissecting who she was and deciding who she wanted to become.She found that her adult self was not that much different from the child who so desperately sought her mother's attention and affection.She finds her difficulty with jobs and men have their roots in her early conflict with her mother.She emerges clear-sighted and independent: "I don't need anyone to tell me what I'm like, what I do well, what I ought to try. I know who I am a little bit more each day." Through writing and vigorous soul searching she comes to realize this.And the reader will share in her ultimate triumph.

4-0 out of 5 stars Entertaining yet serious self-searching
Well worth reading; entertaining and enlightening, up to a point. Some minor complaints: too much walking around to no purpose, too much boring talk about the dog, too much melodrama and tears, etc. But these are mostly minor distractions from a serious and important book. Much like Tolstoy's Confession. One "reason for living" she doesn't consider: religion. Starts slow. Worth reading twice. ... Read more


26. Points Unknown: The Greatest Adventure Writing of the Twentieth Century (Outside Books)
Paperback: 608 Pages (2002-11)
list price: US$19.95 -- used & new: US$2.62
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 0393323781
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Editorial Review

Book Description
From Robert Falcon Scott's final journal entry to Jon Krakauer's reckless solo climb of the Devil's Thumb, David Roberts and the editors of Outside have gathered the most enduring adventure literature of the century into one heart-stoppingvolume.

A frigid winter ascent of Mount McKinley; the vastness of Arabia's Empty Quarter; the impossibly thin air at Everest's summit; the deadly black pressure of an underwater cave; a desperate escape through a Norwegian winter—these and thirty-six other stories recount the minutes, hours, and days of lives pushed to the brink. But there is more to adventure than hair's-breadth escapes. By turns charming and tragic, whimsical and nerve-racking, this extraordinary collection gets to the heart of why adventure stories enthrall us.

Includes works by Sebastian Junger, Jon Krakauer, Edward Abbey, Tim Cahill, Edward Hoagland, Ernest Shackleton, Freya Stark, and Wilfred Thesiger. ... Read more


27. Showcase Presents: Unknown Soldier, Vol. 1
by Joe Kubert, Bob Haney, Frank Robbins, Robert Kanigher, David Michelinie, Archie Goodwin
Paperback: 548 Pages (2006-11-15)
list price: US$16.99 -- used & new: US$8.67
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 1401210902
Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars
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Customer Reviews (4)

5-0 out of 5 stars An exceptional Showcase collection
Regarding DC's SHOWCASE PRESENTS series of black and white collections, I certainly feel that older material should be available in an affordable format for all to experience, but I consider very few of those volumes to be essential reading.Many of them have shown me just how quickly some of DC's flagship titles lost steam in the `50s and `60s.Flash, Green Lantern, Atom - while I love these characters, it was difficult to stick with their various collections.Others weren't so difficult; specifically, their non-superhero titles such as Jonah Hex, The Haunted Tank, and now, The Unknown Soldier.In fact, SHOWCASE PRESENTS: THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER VOLUME 1 is my favorite entry in the series so far (sorry Jonah!).

The Unknown Soldier... the man whom no one knows, but is known by everyone!Created by Joe Kubert, and first appearing in Star-Spangled War Stories #151 (1970), his face was ruined in a grenade attack that killed his brother.Remaining in the service as a covert operative for US intelligence, this master of disguise moves behind the enemy lines of World War II like a ghost, supporting the troops of Europe, Africa, and the Pacific Theater through his espionage activities and impersonations of both Allied and Axis figures.

This collection features tales from Star-Spangled War Stories # 151 - 190, written by Kubert, Bob Haney, Frank Robbins, Robert Kanigher, and Archie Goodwin; and illustrated by Kubert, Jack Sparling, Dan Spiegle, and Gerry Talaoc.Good grief, could the talent roster be any more impressive?The stories are quick and to the point, yet packed with tons of plot and action; seriously, even the shorter stories in this collection contain more action than many of today's full-length comics.The stories pull no punches when it comes to the realities of the war - spies, concentration camps, and death around every corner.Also of note is the obvious research the writers did in order to stage the Unknown Soldier's missions during actual events of World War II, such as the cracking of Japan's Purple Code, the Casablanca Conference, and the German Resistance's plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.The art is consistently stellar, even though it moves through a number of contributors.These guys all knew how to draw normal, everyday people and military hardware, exhibiting much more talent than many of the artists on DC's superhero titles.

I'm hoping for more volumes featuring DC's war characters, and the Unknown Soldier is at the top of the list.

5-0 out of 5 stars Classic DC war comic
The war, horror and Western were genre staples of the DC Universe, as much as it was to the Marvel Universe..until DC Crisis and Marvel's Secret Wars. These titles died a small death, due to the growthg of superheroes.

DC, in its WAR genre hayday, Sgt. Rockand his Easy Company (now in a color archieve book edition and a graphic novel "Between A Rock & A hard Place"), The Haunted Tank (also now in another Black & WhiteShowcase edition), Enemy Ace (also now in a color Archieve edition), The Losers (which combined heroes Johnny Cloud, Captain Storm and Gunner & Sarge) (so DC, where is the Archieve or Showcase edition of this one?), Weird War (which was strange war tales), Man of War (a black American OSS agent), and the Unknown Soldier

This collection of tales of the Unknown Soldier starts with his first appearence in the pages of Star Spangled War. This collectiom of the first 38 issues of SSW is worth an Unkown Soldier fan. Joe Kubert and Dan Spiegles art work make this collection one to keep

The story of the Unknown Soldier is simple. This man of a thousand faces , working for the USA, becomes some person in the war from a soldier to a general . The man become a turning in the war and then vanishes

OKAY, This book for meis pure escapest war stuff! 1970's Americana promoting the smart USA against the dumb axises. It was great entertainment for my 20 cents then ..and the book is a feel good project reflection an era gone by.For me, In reading this collection, I am eleven years old again and buying these at cappy's newsstand

DC Comics with their Showcase books have brought backcharacter driven collections like the Phantom Stranger, The Haunted Tank, and Jonah Hex (see my Review) as well reprinting Early stories of Shazam (see my review), Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Justice League and Brave & the Bold (Batman team up books).these collections are over 500 pages for under $20, worth it to recapture comics of old.

I hope that DC will seek out the original DC showcase booksfrom the 1960'sthemselves > Some had characters like Hawk & Dove, Bat Lash andeven James Bond Dr No in comic form. well I can hope

Bennet Pomerantz AUDIOWORLD



5-0 out of 5 stars Reprint Gunner and Sarge
Sgt. Rock and Easy Company should be out in force as the vanguard of DC's classic war stories, but right behind them should be "Gunner & Sarge." Come on DC, let's get moving! Ya think we're all gonna live forever?

5-0 out of 5 stars Not "Unknown " to us DCwar comics fans.
This collection ,along with the one of "The Haunted Tank" is an excellent volume of DC war comics. It has hundreds of pages of great comic art work.I must admit I do miss the color, but for the number of stories it is a great value over the Archives version of DC's other collections. Now please do volumes of The Losers, Sgt. Rock and Weird War Tales. ... Read more


28. Unknown City
by Michelle Fine
Paperback: 352 Pages (1999-02-18)
list price: US$22.00 -- used & new: US$21.50
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 0807041130
Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars
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Editorial Review

Book Description
The young people defined as "Gen Xers" in the media and popular imagination almost never include poor or working-class young adults. These young people - a huge and important part of our society - are misrepresented and silent in our national conversation. In The Unknown City, Michelle Fine and Lois Weis offer a groundbreaking, theoretically sophisticated ethnography of the lives of young adults (ages 23 to 35), based on hundreds of interviews. We discover their views on everything from the construction of "whiteness" and affirmative action to the economy, education, and new public spaces of community hope. Finally, Fine and Weis point to what is being done and what should be done in terms of national policy to improve the future of these remarkable women and men. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

4-0 out of 5 stars Different Perspective
The Unknown City by Michelle Fine and Lois Weis did a fantastic job of telling the story of homelessness and poverty from the perspective of the poor and working class. The book is based on interviews from different racial perspectives in the New York/New Jersey area. The book claims to represent the Generation Xers between the ages of 23 and 35. However, readers of the Unknown City do not get this perspective. The voices and points of view seem to come from an older generation. The youthful perspecitve is lost in the authors' main concerns and discussions.
All this aside, the authors do a good job in contrasting the racial perspectives on the causes of and dealings with poverty. The viewpoints of Whites, African Americans, and Latinos all seemed to be different. We understand the authors' intentions in writing this book--to uncover the different perspecitves on poverty from voices not usually heard. In the end, readers are hoping for possible solutions to the problems introduced.

4-0 out of 5 stars New Perspective
The Unknown City by Michelle Fine and Lois Weis did a fantastic job of telling the story of homelessness and poverty from the perspective of the poor and working class. The book is based on interviews from different racial perspectives in the New York/New Jersey area. The book claims to represent the Generation Xers between the ages of 23 and 35. However, readers of the Unknown City do not get this perspective. The voices and points of view seem to come from an older generation. The youthful perspecitve is lost in the authors' main concerns and discussions.
All this aside, the authors do a good job in contrasting the racial perspectives on the causes of and dealings with poverty. The viewpoints of Whites, African Americans, and Latinos all seemed to be different. We understand the authors' intentions in writing this book--to uncover the different perspecitves on poverty from voices not usually heard. In the end, readers are hoping for possible solutions to the problems introduced.

4-0 out of 5 stars Good look into inner-city life
Though I felt this book was boring in places, I think that Fine and Weis do a terrific job in giving poor and working-class Gen X'ers a voice in crying out against the public policy that is perpetuating their families inability to move out of the inner-city and become "productive members of society".I am from a white, upper-middle class family and have never been exposed to issues such as these.Fine and Weis interview various ethnic and racial groups in Buffalo, NY and Jersey City, NJ and then generalize their findings to the experience of all such racial/gender groups living in inner cities around the country.From other research, they prove that this extrapolation is not unfounded.

What I loved so much about this book is that they interviewed (and extensively quote throughout the book) over 150 people of various backgrounds in these cities.To hear of the plight that these people go through was truly saddening to me.This book made me ask the question: to what extent do I allow the media to form my opinion on issues such as these?All I am used to seeing on the news is stories about moms who cheat welfare and deadbeat dads who only care for themselves.It is extraordinary to hear of the situations and circumstances BEHIND these stories however.

While I cannot evaluate this book solely on the basis of its sociological merits (I've only taken two classes in college in sociology), I can tell you that this book has the ability to change your stereotypes...as I mentioned, especially if they have been formed by the media!The struggle for survival in the inner city is shown in a way that can only make the reader wonder: what would I do if I lived there?What could I do to help these people?A great book.It gets 4 stars because it is boring in a few sections.

3-0 out of 5 stars You will love this book if you are a member of the elite
The Unknown City is an addition to the volumes of manipulative writing found in Sociology. Fine and Wise produce a skillfully constructed argument that exploits the critiques of white working and lower class men to benefitthe writers' social positions and further their agenda. That agenda ischaracterized by their adherence to racially based social critiques insteadof class based critiques. This substitution makes it easier to gloss overthe fault of middle and upper classes in perpetuating racism andpatriarchy, while using white working and lower class men as an acceptablescapegoat. The Unknown City is a tedious and bloated read because ofthe authors' over use of narration extracted from interviews. The authors'goal, to give a voice to those Generation - Xers located on the politicalperiphery (2), is undermined by their prejudicial use of interviewee'scomments. Despite shared discourse among racial groups, Fine and Wise feeljustified in pointing a racially and patriarchally charged finger at whiteworking and lower class men. They do so while elevating the AfricanAmerican and Latino participants to intellectuals (82) and politicians(107). To Fine and Weis, The Unknown City is an opportunity to implement"narrative affirmative action" (281). Some white malebashing is justified. Certainly white men within any class have enjoyed thebenefits of their race, and Fine and Wise are precise in their explanationof white male dominance within the United States. Moreover, AfricanAmericans are undoubtedly the victims of an unfair cultural representation(59). Nevertheless, the forces that are used to explain the AfricanAmerican plight are the same ones used to explain the perpetuation ofracism within the white lower class community. Why is it that white men arenot victims as well? Why do Fine and Wise pay only minimal attention to theelitist influence of media and politics in the construction of reality forall races? Because the authors' are attempting to flip flop class basedexplanations, which have been established by writers such as William JuliusWilson (who they site as support for their argument), for racial solidarityexplanations (46). What Fine and Wise fail to see, is the limited andelitist nature of their argument. By giving little attention to themagnitude of middle and upper class influence in racism and patriarchy theyare excusing themselves. The Unknown City is little more than anoverzealous attempt by two white affluent women to relate to the plight ofthe young urban poor. It will serve its middle to upper class audiencewell. The Unknown City will allow the reader to remain in their glasstower, while pointing the blame at those bad white working class racist andsexist males. Fine and Weis would not think to single out white upper classmen as the creators and perpetuators of racial and gender hierarchy in thiscountry. They simply engage in a form of racially acceptable male bashingat the expense of white working and lower class men who have littleammunition with which to fight back. ... Read more


29. Behind a Mask: The Unknown Thrillers Of Louisa May Alcott
by Louisa May Alcott
Paperback: 320 Pages (1997-02-14)
list price: US$15.95 -- used & new: US$9.26
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 0688151329
Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars
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Editorial Review

Book Description
Six years before she wrote Little Women, Louisa May Alcott, in financial straits, entered "Pauline's Passion and Punishment," a novelette, in a newspaper contest. Not only did it win the $100 prize, but, published anonymously, it marked the first in the series of "blood & thunder tales" that would be her livelihood for years.

In Behind a Mask, editor Madeleine Stern introduces four Alcott thrillers: "Pauline's Passion and Punishment," "The Mysterious Key," "The Abbot's Ghost," and the title story, "Behind a Mask." First published in one volume in 1975, they are regarded as Alcott's finest work in this genre. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

5-0 out of 5 stars Deffinately no Little Women... but better
What a trippy book. I was in highschool when my mother gave me this book for Christmas. I was a girlie girl and a fan of Little Women. My best friend and I were even into the spin off stories from that book and when we found out there was a collection of "dark", unknown Louisa May Alcott stories that were being published we had no idea what we were about to sit down to. I must of read each story twice. From an old witchie woman driving the men of a family mad to smoking hash, a whole new world was being opened up to me. Reading this turned me on to short stories, and I wanted to read more like it which led me into discovering author's like Graham Greene and James Baldwin. I was also devoting myself to go to English and Literature class and trying out some of my own short stories. I think if you have a young women in your home who's into reading and dabbles in things like poetry and writting this is a good book to add to her collection... right next to Little Women

5-0 out of 5 stars Remeber Jo's "naughty stories?"
In Little Women, remember the stories that Professor Bhaer convinces Jo aren't worthy of her?These stories, written under the pseudonym A.M. Barnard, are sort of those, just as Jo was "sort of" Alcott's alter ego...Alcott loved these short stories, considered quite scandalous, and she felt they were better work than the "moral pap for children" (her words, not mine) for which she is more famous.

While I love Little Women (read it a million times), and am really glad she wrote that "moral stuff," these stories have a darker edge than the happy March home-- thrillingly scandalous.Some of the short stories are a little bit less finely crafted than others, but all of the ones in this collection are fabulous.Actresses!Poisoners!Exotic Locales!Revenge-seeking scorned women!Wicked Women in general! This is one of many collected by Stern-- so get them all, and learn about the darker persona of the famous "girl's writer."

5-0 out of 5 stars Enthralling!
Every story in this book is a page-turner!You will boo the villains and cheer the heroines -- who sometimes happen to be one and the same.Three cheers for Madeleine Stern for resurrecting these rousing tales.

5-0 out of 5 stars Characters hardly "Little Women"
In this collection of four short stories, Louisa May Alcott reveals herself as a racy, infinately readable author. Each story features strong women, with sharp tongues and sharper wits. Every plot has an unexpected twist, and a decidedly dark touch of irony. If you couldn't read Little Women because of its flowery prose, here is a second chance to aquaint yourself with an incredible American author. Every story is a page turner to the very end, and each short enough to be read in an evening. ... Read more


30. A Land Unknown: Hell's Dominion
by B.W. Melvin
Paperback: 216 Pages (2005-11-09)
list price: US$13.99 -- used & new: US$8.32
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 159781380X
Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars
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Editorial Review

Book Description
A Land Unknown is an astonishing true story of one man's incredible journey to Hell and back, truly, a must read for those curious about the near-death experience written from the Christian perspective. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

2-0 out of 5 stars A Decent Parable - but Not Much More
In the spirit (if not the quality) of Dante's The Divine Comedy: Inferno; Purgatorio; Paradiso (Everyman's Library) or the modern re-imagining of Thigpen's Gehenna, Melvin promises to take the reader on a journey through the afterlife realm of the dead. It was published by an on-demand printing house (this is often erroneously referred to as "self-publishing" although it is not), and as can be expected it bears some marks of poor editing (for example, the use of all-caps for emphasis makes it occasionally look more like an e-mail than a novel).

As far as story telling, Melvin started off pretty well. His use of flashback holds the interest and the first time he referenced "the cubes" it gave me a shudder (unfortunately by the third or fourth time in the same chapter I was getting bored). After some rather tedious background information it started to pick up again once we finally got to his Near-Death-Experience (NDE). However this quickly disintegrated into mind-numbing repetition of words and phrases. Whole passages seemed to be cut-and-pasted with only a few details changed. I don't know how many times Melvin mentioned that he knew about people's pasts in the cubes, or that he could see what they saw, or repeated phrases like "a name and a title," or, "make life, live" (I still am not sure what that even means).

The writing is average to below-average with offerings like, "I was pale as an ashen-gray sheet and weak as a fresh-cooked noodle," or, "While thus engaged, like a bolt out of the blue, discernment hit my mind like a ton of bricks." Some of this comes out in Melvin's reports of God's alleged dialogue, such as this brain twister: "God fashions and squeezes light by initiating darkness in order to refine harmony and balance to a desired haven." Huh??? This style was not helped by the multitude of goofy demonic rhymes such as, "A Most High...just is he? Ha! Ha! wait and see." These made the demons sound more like cartoon pirates than evil angelic beings. Even God's voice did not seem particularly grammatical at times. Most of the time God was said to offer speech "riddles" that were very often difficult to take seriously (for example: "You, over there, snarling mean, know not what a not is, . . ." Again, huh???)

There are some questionable theological issues present in the text. The basic thrust of the messages that Melvin reports are that his objections to God's goodness were without foundation and that God is not responsible for what His creation does with the freedom it has. Theologians continue to struggle with the interplay between the two clear truths of God's sovereignty and man's free will. Taking the book as only Melvin's opinion this is allowable, taking it as a genuine revelation from God is much more problematic. Melvin states several times that sin is "whatever makes life ugly." This definition is not so much false as it is weak. Sin is taking rebellious action against the moral will God. This is like saying syrup is what makes a table sticky. Melvin's view on the eternal state seems to follow the popular view that at this time "hell" is basically a compartment for the lost who are awaiting final judgment and the lake of fire. This is a controversial position but not beyond orthodoxy. Melvin also states quite clearly that he saw no children or mental incompetents during his tour. Melvin does not mention Satan per se, although he reports being followed around by a three headed purple figure whose identity he states remained unknown to him. But he does refer to Satan as "the head honcho" - thus implying that this realm of the dead was more of a torturous playground for demons with satan running the show. Again, Melvin's implications are not heretical but one should exercise caution when considering them.

Concerning the truthfulness of the story, Melvin offers the following challenge to the reader: "What I am about to reveal happened; it's true. You have the right to believe it or not. It does not matter if you agree or disagree. All I know is that the souls I saw there are still there; judge by the merit of the message." This is troublesome. If it "happened," if "it's true," if he "knows" it . . . then do we really have the right to believe it or not? Melvin seems to be implying that these things are true whether or not anyone believes them. But if that is the case then does it not matter if we agree or disagree? And how are we to judge by "the merit of the message"? What does this mean? A message is not judged by its "merit" - it is judged by whether or not it is true. It would be a simple thing to revert to naturalistic explanations of the experience much like atheists attempt to do when confronted with supernatural evidence. This might make us more comfortable but without good reason it hardly seems fair. Theologically there seems no contradiction inherent with someone visiting the place of the dead and coming back to tell about it (although technically this would not be a near death experience - if one's soul actually separates from the body they are dead by definition). So while I may be suspect of Melvin's explanation for his experience I cannot rule out the possibility a priori.
Assuming he is truthfully recounting his experience we still must judge his interpretation of it. We should not simply equate Melvin's experience with his interpretation and let them stand or fall together. Of course the story can function parabolically even if it is not accepted literally.

5-0 out of 5 stars An excellent read. Powerful and life changing.
I hadn't sat down and read a book in about twenty years until my wife bought this book. The title intrigued me and when I started reading it I couldn't put it down. I finished it in two days.

The descriptions of hell and the things that happen there really made me sit back and evaluate how I was living and this was after my conversion/reversion to the faith. Beyond the horrific scenes and stories of the people in hell (and how they got there) was the doctrine handed down from God. This was the part of the book that really got me. It is so sound and answers so many questions there is no doubt that it came from God Himself to B.W.

This book is a must read for anyone who questions the reality of hell and even better for any lukewarm Christians out there. Great book all the way around.

4-0 out of 5 stars I don't want to go there
B.W. Melvin is a man like any other in American society.Living his life, doing what he wants, a regular guy.But one day he finds himself coming up short in Eternity's value system.Put into a place he proclaimed didn't exist, yet he was there.He finds that all he once espoused wasn't really true.Find out what he saw, heard, and why he changed his views when he awoke in the hospital.An interesting book and an interesting person from an ordinary guy.

5-0 out of 5 stars Enlightening Journey
Mr. Melvin's story provides many important insights into what lies beyond the threshold of death.

The people who read this book will learn the reality of hell and thus how to avoid it, which is much better that learing about hell after eternity has placed its seal on their lives.

His journey through hell witnesses to the effects that one's earthly life has on their eternal fate.Many Biblical references and messages from Jesus and the Blessed Mother also describe hell as "pit" thus corroborating his testimony.

His description of the illusions created by evil spirits within the cubes appears similar to the effects of nightmares suggesting that these spirits affect sleeping humans in a similar way.His book strongly supports the conclusion that evil spirits behavior similarly whether they are operating in the pit or on earth, namely creating illusions, stimulating negative emotions and thoughts.

One of the most striking ideas presented in the book is that evil spirits originating from the pit would come to earth, pester someone through their life and then continue tormenting them for eternity if the person ended up in the pit after they died.

I frequently think about different ideas presented in this book when reading the stories of mystics and visionaries.

The book is well worth reading several times to fully grasp the material presented.

Finally, Mr. Melvin's rescue at the end of the book speaks clearly about the extent to which a Shepherd will go to rescue a lost sheep and how the Shepherd can only rescue the sheep if the sheep responds willingly to mercy, even with only a slight movement of their will.


4-0 out of 5 stars A different View
I only gave the book three stars , not so much for the concept, but the way it was written. As one reader stated the style of writing was very jumbled, and at times hard to follow....but...this to me seems how a just God would act. A group of us were discussing acts and punishment and how God would have people just burning non-stop forever, that does not blend with a JUST God. I cannot believe the God I love would subject anyone to that horror. Now a just punishment is to let people who have done evil, malicious deeds to people get like in return...Hitler will feel the horror and torment of the millions he tortured and killed, one agonizing individual at a time. Directly or indirectly the people who fell to his evil deeds. He will feel the oven doors closing again, and again. The pregnant women who had their babies ripped from their wombs, he will know and feel the horror they felt. That is a just punishment. As JESUS preached "Do unto other as you would like done unto you"...Maybe that has a much deeper meaning than just be a good human. ... Read more


31. Down the Great Unknown: John Wesley Powell's 1869 Journey of Discovery and Tragedy Through the Grand Canyon
by Edward Dolnick
Hardcover: 384 Pages (2001-09-30)
list price: US$27.50 -- used & new: US$13.20
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: B00009MVI2
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars
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Editorial Review

Amazon.com
Edward Dolnick's Down the Great Unknown depicts the "last epicjourney on American soil," John Wesley Powell'sexploration of the Grand Canyonand the fulminating, carnivorous Colorado River. The book, a model of precision,clarity, and serene passion, outshines, arguably, its bestselling brother-volume, Stephen Ambrose's Undaunted Courage.

On May 24, 1869, Powell, an ambitious, autocratic, one-armed Civil War veteranand amateur scientist, and a casually recruited crew of nine--without a lick ofwhite water experience--embarked from an obscure railroad stop in the WyomingTerritory to travel through a region "scarcely better known than Atlantis."Ninety-nine days, 1,000 miles and nearly 500 rapids later, six of the men cameashore in Arizona--the first humans to run the waters of the Grand Canyon.Dolnick tells this story of courage, naiveté, hardship, and petty squabblingsimply and authoritatively using entries from the men's journals, deft overviews(we always know where we are), and short science, history, and psychologylessons, as well as the prodigious knowledge of present-day river runners andhis own first-hand observations. His prose carries the day: Powell looks like a"stick of beef jerky adorned with whiskers," the boats are "walnut shells,"which in rapids are little better than "ladybugs caught in a hose's blast" or"drunks trying to negotiate a revolving door," while the river is a "tauntingbully," a "colossal mugger," a "sumo wrestler smothering a kitten," and anotable rock formation looks like what might happen if "Edward Gorey haddesigned the Bat Cave."

Down the Great Unknown brushes against perfection. This is historywritten as it should be--and too rarely is: enthusiastic, rigorous, painterly,gloriously free of both pedantry and hyperbole. --H. O'BillovitchBook Description

On May 24, 1869 a one-armed Civil War veteran named John Wesley Powell and a ragtag band of nine mountain men embarked on the last great quest in the American West. No one had ever explored the fabled Grand Canyon, to adventurers of that era a region almost as mysterious as Atlantis -- and as perilous.

The ten men set out down the mighty Colorado River in wooden rowboats. Six survived. Drawing on rarely examined diaries and journals. Down the Great Unknown is the first book to tell the full, true story.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (26)

5-0 out of 5 stars To Be The First Through The Then Unknown Colorado....
I've "rafted" the upper Colorado.

Of course that was in a motorized raft, led by experienced pilots, with a map and they did all the cooking and if something really bad happened the ranger service could chopper in and get me (Hey, I *did* hike out from Phantom Ranch)

I can't conceive of doing it in an ungainly rowboat, without a steering oar, having little provisions, without a map or even knowledge of the river (what happens if you hit a 100 ft fall and nowhere to portage?), and where a broken ankle would have meant an almost certain death -- and with one arm.

Truthfully, its amazing this exposition survived.

Dolnick weaves in Powell's embellished account with the other expedition journals to craft a balanced account of the expedition, along with correlating the trip with known features of the canyon.Dolnick describes the tensions within the team -- categorizes their moves, good and bad and tracks their trailblazing passage.

Excellent read.

2-0 out of 5 stars Too many digressions ...
This is a pretty decent book for the newcomer who has never read anything about Powell. I found it less entertaining than my fellow reviewers though, as it follows the tedium of the daily journals a little too closely. I also found the narrative to be interspersed with too many digressions. These range from opinions of the Green/Colorado river by modern rafting experts to accounts of other early rafting expeditions, and a lengthy 2-chapter segment on the American Civil war and Battle of Shiloh. This latter exercise contributes nothing to the book, by the way! The reader is also left in the dark about the Native American peoples, Mormon settlers, and miners who inhabited this area at the same point in time ... Really, it is as if the expedition were done in a vacuum. Even worse was the lack of information on 9 of the 10 men who took part in the expedition. While there is more than enough about John Wesley Powell, readers get only sketchy details about the lives of the other 9 men. Even the simplest details like where these men were born is left out, nor are we given much about the kinds of lives they lived (careers, families, etc.) prior to the expedition (and precious little afterwards as well). Although 6 of these 9 men were, like Powell, fellow Union veterans of the Civil War, but we get nothing about their wartime experiences! We also have no clue what motivated them to join this expedition. This oversight would not doubt have suited the egotistical Powell, but is a serious oversight for a modern historian.

5-0 out of 5 stars Excellent read
I enjoyed this book very much. So much that I have loaned it to family and friends to enjoy.

3-0 out of 5 stars Down the Great Unknown
This book was informative but not a real "page turner". The author went off on tangents often that took away from the story at hand. It was not a bad book, but it was not full of the adventure that you would have expected the trip to have been.

4-0 out of 5 stars I would much rather read this than John Wesley Powell's actual book.
"Down the Great Unknown" is a terrific retelling of John Wesley Powell's 1869 expedition down the Colorado River.The book's author brings to life all of the expedition's more minor (and usually overlooked) characters, and gives the reader a great sense of the danger of the river and the grandeur of the canyons.
The author has an excellent sense of history, and does a wonderful job of tying all his sources together.The book also includes a detailed look at how John Wesley Powell lost his arm, and an examination of all the possibilities of what could have happened to the three men who abandoned the expedition.
If I had any objections to this book, it would be that the author dismisses too quickly the real possibility that a man named James White may have gone down the Colorado through the Grand Canyon alone two years before Powell did.(I hope the author has since read "Hell or High Water," a well-researched book on that subject.)
Overall though, this is a great read, and is much better written and much more interesting than even Powell's account.I would recommend it to any fan of adventure writing, and to any fan of the West. ... Read more


32. The Unknown She: Eight Faces of an Emerging Consciousness
by Hilary Hart
Paperback: 355 Pages (2003-03-01)
list price: US$15.95 -- used & new: US$9.50
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 1890350060
Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars
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Editorial Review

Book Description
Is there a mystical consciousness particularly natural to women? And if so, what role is it playing in the spiritual evolution of our world? To answer these questions, Hilary Hart traveled across the world meeting with contemporary mystics from a variety of traditions including Lakota Sioux, Sufism, Buddhism, and West-African Shamanism. The revelations of feminine wisdom offered from these encounters are not conceptual teachings, but vivid examples of lived spirituality expressed sometimes through simple ways of being, sometimes through profound mystical experiences. Revolutionary and remarkably practical, The Unknown She offers a startling new look at women's unique mystical orientation and its place in the evolution of our universal consciousness. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

5-0 out of 5 stars What a Gift This Book Is
This amazing book begins with the author exploring with seven women and one man what the feminine consciousness is, why it's coming in now, what its role is and how it will help reshape our world.I can't tell if all eight of these people have reached enlightenment, but if not, they are well on their path, with each having their own spiritual journey and discipline.The book ends with those interviwed saying such similar things, concentrating on four areas:exploring the feminine consciousness, what's important about spiritual practices, the need to go beyond transcendence to transformation in everyday life (and in a balanced way), and finally where we're headed because of our bringing in the feminine consciousness and transformation.It is with heart-felt gratitude to the author for writing this book.

5-0 out of 5 stars Beautiful book!
I loved this book.Very thoughtful and relevant.Every chapter made me feel more connected, more inspired and more hopeful.

5-0 out of 5 stars Something subtle is happening in the world
Something subtle and insistent is happening in the world and Hilary Hart in her impressionistic interview style captures its essence.To comprehend the book requires the reader to still the analytical mind and tap into the realm of the intuitive.Approach follows theme.Spiritual guides and teachers from a variety of traditions illuminate the sometimes vague,dark, powerful, tantilizing, and mysterious force that promise the return of something precious that has long been supressed.

5-0 out of 5 stars Mystical truth accessible to everyone!
What an awesome book! Author Hilary Hart offers intimate and really moving encounters with eight contemporary and mostly hidden mystics from different backgrounds, like Buddhism, and Sufism. It was amazing to read the ways so many different people can come to experience the divine.
What sets this apart from so many spiritual books is it brings divinity down to earth wihtout losing the divinity!
And finally, a spiritual writer who finds a way to be honest and real, herself. Not an ounce of pretension!!! ... Read more


33. Destination Unknown (St. Martin's Minotaur Mysteries)
by Agatha Christie
Mass Market Paperback: 288 Pages (2002-10-13)
list price: US$6.99 -- used & new: US$2.97
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 0312981686
Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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Book Description

American scientist Thomas Betterton has disappeared form a conference in Paris--only the latest in a series of notable men to vanish into thin air. Equally strange is the death of his new bride in Casablanca. To discover the secret she took to her grave, British Intelligence enlists the aide of an unlikely secret agent--an enigmatic young woman with nothing left to lose. The proposal for Hilary Craven? Impersonate the late Mrs. Betterton. But the masquerade means embarking on an unknown escapade, hiding from an unknown enemy, and retracing a stranger's steps to an unavoidable death...
... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

1-0 out of 5 stars Usually a fan, but unimpressed
Let me start by saying I love Agathie Christie, she's one of my guilty pleasures. There's nothing cosier that sitting in a lovely warm living room reading an Christie novel while it's raining outside.

That being said, this novel is very odd and uninspiring. It's not one of her typical murder mysteries...and it's all very farfetched and just barely comes together in the end.

Fans of her usual material might seem a bit baffled by this 'novel'. This probably would have made a fine screenplay...but there's not enough coherence or guts to it, to make it a good novel as such. The characters also, are rather forgettable. The climax to the novel as well, is all rather odd and unimpressive.

A fast read notheless.

5-0 out of 5 stars A classic Agatha thriller--which is perfect
A thriller type.Her knowledge of the middle east from her husband's excavations, Max Mallowan, puts her--and us--in the picture.Wonderful fun.

Often underrated by Agatha purists.

4-0 out of 5 stars Rare Christie thriller
This 1955 novel is a departure from her more well known cosy series books.This one has none of her more familiar characters like Poirot or Marple, the setting is mostly the North African desert and centers on a James Bond type conspiracy complete with secret hideout and mysterious, fabulously wealthy mastermind.

Hilary Craven has been defeated by life, her daughter has died, her husband has left her and she has nothing left to live for.She has decided to leave England and in an out-of-the-way spot in Morocco end it all.Circumstances intervene and instead of a quiet end in a lonely hotel room Hilary finds herself cast in the role of secret agent.

This is a rather standard thriller type novel.Although a departure from Christie's usual fare there are still many of her more familiar motifs.The 'hero' is a single woman off on a adventure (like MAN IN THE BROWN SUIT), there is also a 'master criminal' (like the Tommy and Tuppence series or PASSENGER TO FRANKFURT) and much of the action takes place in an isolated, contained environment.As always in Christie's work the clues are all there for the reader to follow right up to the surprise ending.

2-0 out of 5 stars A letdown
The scientist Thomas Betterton, a brilliant young American who developed the ZE Fission technology that can be very important for modern warfare, has disappeared suddenly out of England. Has he been kidnapped or did he depart out of free will to work for the enemy? If Betterton's wife asks for permission to leave the country for a relaxing trip to Morocco, she gets followed by security agent Jessop. It all turns bad when her plane crashes on its way to Cassablanca. Nevertheless she succeeds in continuing her trip, but is not fully aware into which beehive she stumbles.

First of all it must be stated clearly that this is not a detective story, but an atempt at an espionage novel. When Agatha published Destination Unknown in 1954, Ian Flemming had just created his famous James Bond character in the novel Casino Royale. Although Agatha clearly has the intention of making the plot flamboyant and bursting with action, she never succeeds in coming close to the fantastic plots that Flemming created. It is clear that the specialty of the Queen of Crime lies in the typical whodunit with Poirot and Marple as the key-characters and not in novels of espionage. The plot of Destination Unknown is straightforward and, although some admirable attempts were made to surprise the reader, lacks the level of suspense that normally characterizes this type of thriller.

This book certainly does not belong to Agatha Christie's highlights. But then again, it is still remarkable that seen the enormous size of her oeuvre, she only wrote but a few really bad books.

3-0 out of 5 stars An Entertaining But Minor Cold War Thriller
In the 1920s and 1930s Agatha Christie often created novels that were more "thriller" than "mystery"--but as time passed she became less and less interested in such material.1954's DESTINATION UNKNOWN (also published as SO MANY STEPS TO DEATH) is one of her few such novels from the latter half of her career.

The novel has a topical story line that references the Cold War, defections, and even the notorious House Unamerican Activities Committee.In the aftermath of her child's death and a painful divorce, Hilary Craven travels to the Middle East in an effort to escape her past--and when this fails determines to kill herself.But her attempt at suicide is foiled when she is confronted with an intelligence officer aware of her intention, an intelligence officer who makes her an unusual proposal: if you are so determined to die, why not do it in a way that would serve your country?A nuclear scientist has defected; his wife, rushing to join him, has died in a plane crash.And Hilary, intrigued, agrees to take the wife's place in an effort to trace the missing scientist and uncover the intent behind his disappearance.It is a mission from which she is unlikely to return alive.

Although the premise is interesting, the resulting novel reads rather like the outline for a minor Alfred Hitchcock film.Christie writes with her usual expertise, but the characters here are not greatly memorable and the story itself falls down a bit toward the novel's conclusion.Still, it is a fast and fun read, and fans of the writer will likely enjoy it as a change of pace from her more typical fare.Mildly recommended.

--GFT (Amazon reviewer)-- ... Read more


34. Hymns to an Unknown God: Awakening The Spirit In Everyday Life
by Sam Keen
Paperback: 336 Pages (1995-09-01)
list price: US$16.00 -- used & new: US$4.93
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 0553375172
Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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Book Description
There is no doubt that America is in the midst of a spiritual crisis.  Millions of people are trying to find meaning in their lives by returning to old-time religions, or by seeking out new cults, fads, channelers, 12-step programs, and self-help books. Bill Moyers has called this search for spirituality "the biggest story -- not only of the decade but of the century."  Now, Sam Keen, the New York Times bestselling author of Fire in the Belly, addresses this crisis and provides a blueprint for bringing spirituality into everyday life in Hymns to an Unknown God:  Awakening the Spirit in Everyday Life.

Using practical examples from his and other people's lives, Keen tells readers how to cut through what he calls the "spiritual bullshit," and recover the sacred in their love affairs, families, jobs, and politics -- in short, how to recover the "Unknown God." Down-to-earth and articulate, Sam Keen is a popular social commentator, philosopher, and teacher. He describes himself as "overeducated at the Ivies," with degrees from Harvard and Princeton. His work has been featured in a special Bill Moyers PBS interview, and for over twenty years he was a consulting editor at Psychology Today.

How to Use Your Spiritual Bullshit Detector: In a world of one-minute solutions, false spiritual leaders, and instant spirituality, how can you tell which beliefs are valid and separate the bogus from the genuine.

Sex and the Spirit: Why is it that sex and spirituality are so interconnected and confusing? Keen explains the conflict between "I want" and "I should," and tells readers how to integrate sensuality, sexuality and spirituality to experience truly deep and loving relationships.

Consecrating Our Days: Rituals for Living: Keen gives more than a dozen suggestions for personal rituals to remind readers of the sacredness in their everyday lives, including creating a private place as a personal sanctuary, learning to make time to think deeply, setting aside personal days as times of celebration, and more. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

1-0 out of 5 stars Hymns to an Unknown God
Altough Mr. Keen is obviously well-read and, in a perverse way, bright, he puts himself before all others and invites his readers to do likwise.Unless one is convinced that what this world needs most is more self-centeredness, it would be best to avoid this one.I put my copy out with the trash.

5-0 out of 5 stars A bible for the 21st century ?
I was delighted to read, in the magazine review of the book, an opinion that 'Hymns' was a theology for the New Age.My reaction was very similar, a sudden thought crossed my mind that this was a bible for the 21st century.There have been, admittedly, a number of such bibles produced towards the end of the last century, not the least of them being the Seth books, but the fascinating aspect is that they all follow the same spiritual path and they all contain some form of Myth emphasis that dwells upom Man's pathway through life and his own personal responsibilities in following that path. It is no coincidence that Keen's message comes at the same time as Harry Potter, the Lord of the Rings, and other modern dramas bearing a powerful Myth content.The thirst of a confused Mankind for new forms of digestible myth, carrying the same ancient wisdoms but with refreshed archetypes and modern symbols, is evident. It is a thirst that has been rejected by the churches to their cost.Keen's book encapsulates the spirituality of the new century, the desperate need for balance between every aspect of Man's being and the substitution of knowledge, spiritual knowledge that is, in the place of emotion and unquestioning belief.

5-0 out of 5 stars a must have for the 90's seeker
keen's blend of psychology and spirituality is very appealing to me.exploring the truths and mysteries of the seen and unseen where organized religion dare not go.a no nonsense book on spirituality ineverdaylife.if you are one that seeks yearns and desires but are not happywith any of the already laid paths....this is a great starting point to setthe mind spirit and imagination on fire! ... Read more


35. The Unknown Ajax
by Georgette Heyer
Paperback: 320 Pages (2005-02-22)
list price: US$14.45 -- used & new: US$9.92
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 0099474360
Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars
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Book Description
The family of the irascible Lord Darracott are unprepared for the arrival of the weaver’s brat and heir apparent to Darracott Place. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

5-0 out of 5 stars Can't Get Enough of Heyer
Here's my sister, Shannon Hyle's feelings on this author (and I heartily agree):
"I hate it when I get in the mood for a certain author and nothing else will do. Sometimes one book will satisfy and I can move on, but right now it's Georgette Heyer or nothing! I read The Masqueraders, The Toll Gate, Sprig Muslin, The Black Moth, These Old Shades, and Cousin Kate all in a row and still I hunger. I have a few more Heyers somewhere, but apparently the book thieves have been to house and I can't seem to find them.
I yearn for them. My mother-in-law had said she had some in her motorhome. Maybe she's been holding hostage my False Colours or Faro's Daughter or Sylvester, the Wicked Uncle. But once we arrived, she says they must have packed them up and put them in the shop. Aggh! She's killing me here!
This accelerating addiction to Ms Heyer is a troubling sign. It's not like a candy bar, I can't run to the nearest store and pick one up. As far as I know, all of her titles are out of print. There was a brief revival of some of her titles 2000-2004 but most of her 54 books have been out of print long enough that used book stores won't take them in trade.
Yeepee! We happened past a Borders and I begged to stop-just in case. They had single copies of three Heyer reprints snuggled deep in their romance shelves. The Grand Sophy, which I know I own somewhere, These Old Shades, just read-see earlier and Beauvallet! Yeepee...one I haven't read even!"

5-0 out of 5 stars Witty funny, a grin from start to finish, a great pleasure
The Unknown Ajax is so good that I once read it cover to cover twice in a row (and these were perhaps my third and fourth readings).

5-0 out of 5 stars Wonderful and different -- Heyer's Regency has some suspense!
Hugo Darricott is a handsome and charming former military major whose father was disowned by his family when he married a common weaver instead of someone who befitted his station in life.But now Hugo will be welcome to the family because he is the new heir to his grandfather's title and estates.His cousins will train him to behave like a gentleman so that he'd marry Lord Darricott's granddaughter Anthea (they are cousins) just to ensure that he won't marry someone below his rank like his father had done.But his cousins and other family members dislike him, including Anthea.Hugo decides to play along the role of ignorant country bumpkin, and through his act he discovers many secrets, deceit and a possible crime.He also manages to woo the spirited and independent Anthea in the process.There are various twists throughout the novel.

Georgette Heyer is one of the best historical writers I have ever had the pleasure of reading.The Unknown Ajax is more unique than the other books I have read because she adds a suspense subplot here (I know that Heyer jumped to the contemporary romantic suspense bandwagon later on in her career) and that the novel focuses more on the hero than on the romance between the two characters.Anthea is quite an interesting heroine as well.I wasn't thrilled with her conceit at first, but I like the fact that she couldn't help falling for Hugo in spite of thinking that he isn't educated enough for her.The secondary characters are all interesting and they somehow resembled characters in a mystery theater or film noir.But they are also wonderful and colorful and add great humor in the dialogue as well as the narrative.And as always, Georgette does a wonderful job with the historical accuracy.Regency England is seldom written so well by a romance author.A friend of mine tells me that she finds Heyer's writing style "challenging" because she uses a lot of exclamation points and emphasized words in italics.Heyer was an author during the early to mid twentieth century, which may explain her writing style.Jane Austen used lots of semi-colons and emphasized words a lot as well, but I was never put off by her writing style either.It is enjoyable to see how writers from other centuries write, which is better than many of today's popular authors.The Unknown Ajax is another enthralling offering by the gifted Georgette Heyer.As said earlier, this one is kind of different from her other efforts because a touch of romantic suspense is added into the mix and because it focuses more on the hero's point of view than on the heroine, but it is just as wonderful and readable as her other books.I have purchased several more of her novels and I look forward to giving them a whirl.In the meantime, I recommend this gem.

5-0 out of 5 stars Major Darracott, an unusual hero
I just finished re-reading this book, and once again, it was great. This is one of my favourite Georgette Heyer books. I am quite in love with the hero of the story... he's clever, he's modest, he has a great sense of humour, he's charming, and he has a knack of making everything come out right. This story is really more about Hugo Darracott than it is a romance, although of course we do have a heroine, and also some mystery thrown in.

Hugo whose father was banished for marrying a weaver's daughter instead of a proper wife, returns to meet his estranged family when he unexpectedly becomes Lord Darracott's heir. Expecting the worst, they prepare themselves for an unschooled, foolish yokel, and poor Hugo is thrust amidst an argumentative and scornful family. Hilariously, they have no idea who actually has the upper hand.

Look for: Claud, whose manner of speaking is a bit like Freddy from Cotillion, but not as lovable, and more dandyish and clothes-mad. Lady Aurelia who is truly majestic and a prototype Earl's daughter.

Even though I'd read this book before, I still had to stay up all night to finish it!

5-0 out of 5 stars Wit, Romance, Ghosts & Crime -Another Georgette Heyer Winner
Georgette Heyer, the reigning monarch of romance fiction, has contributed another winner to the genre with "The Unknown Ajax."

Lord Darricott calls his entire family together at his estate, Darricott Place, on the border between Kent and Sussex. His son, two daughters-in law, three grandsons and a granddaughter, are all present when he informs them that they are to prepare for a visit from his new heir within the week. Lord Darricott's son and former heir had been recently killed in a boating accident and Darricott has had the unfortunate duty of recognizing the grandson he has never met, who will inherit the title and all his worldly goods upon his own demise. Hugh Darricott, the new and recent heir, had been raised in the North country, far away from the family seat, and now, in his mid-thirties has left the military with the rank of major. Hugh's father was disowned by the family patriarch after marrying a common weaver, and never seen by the family since. Lord Darricott, who rules his clan with an iron fist, except for granddaughter Anthea, who fears him not at all, has made plans that Hugh is to be schooled in the ways of a gentleman by his cousins. He also plans for Hugh to eventually marry Anthea, to prevent him from making an unsuitable match like his father did. The family, forming all kinds of stereotypical ideas about this base born cousin, is prejudiced against him before he arrives on the scene. And he is the last man Anthea wishes to marry.

Hugh arrives and, finding the group predisposed to dislike him, puts them on and plays the country bumpkin. He discovers each family member's weaknesses and strengths, their characters, and comes to know each of them, perhaps, better than they know each other. Hugh Darricott is much more intelligent and adept than the family gives him credit for and manages to uncover some family secrets, a ghost or two, and a crime in the making. He also finds the way to Anthea's heart, not to mention into his grandfather's and the rest of the group's good graces.

As always Ms. Heyer's humor is delightful, as are her characters. Hugh Darricott makes a wonderful hero as he bumbles along, so sure of his own intelligence and common sense that he is not at all embarrassed to play the clown in order to become better acquainted with his family, without intimidating them. His courtship of Althea is funny, romantic and endearing. His solutions to the many problems that confront his relatives are unusual and creative. This is a wonderful story, beautifully told - one of Georgette Heyer's best. I highly recommend it.
JANA ... Read more


36. The Unknown Sayings of Jesus
by Marvin Meyer
Paperback: 208 Pages (2005-09-13)
list price: US$12.95 -- used & new: US$3.79
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 1590302745
Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars
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Book Description
Hundreds of sayings were attributed to the sage from Nazareth by ancient admirers. More than fifteen hundred versions of five hundred quotations are attributed to Jesus in the New Testament, the Gospel of Thomas, and other Gospels found at Nag Hammadi. Marvin Meyer has combed additional Jewish, Muslim, and Christian sources for another 200 of the most fascinating epigrams and parables ascribed to Jesus. Dr. Meyer includes an intriguing introduction and annotations that put the sayings into perspective. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

5-0 out of 5 stars sayings both inside & outside the tradition
I read this book as someone raised Christian who now is inspired by most of the world's religions.I'm one of those people who hasn't met a religion they didn't like!

Christianity still holds a special place in my heart.Just like I've discovered sushi & Thai food since leaving home, doesn't mean I still don't like mom's home cooking!And that's what Jesus is for me: plain, good & wonderful comfort food.

This book gives us plenty to chew on and think about, both within a "Jesus only" tradition and without.And it does so without a lot of religious tradition or scholarly jargon getting in the way.If you're poly-religious like myself, you'll contemplate each saying and how it relates to sayings by other sages and masters.And if you're mono-religious, you'll find a lot of inspiring sayings by Jesus that just might cause you to look deeper into your own faith tradition, whether Christian or not.

The main thing to remember when looking at books like these is that Jesus was a revolutionary, aramaic-speaking Jewish peasant (probably illiterate) and for that reason was put to death by the Romans.What he actually said was then written down by many people over the following centuries.Approximately 300 years later the 4 gospels were canonized and some of his words were put in Greek in the allegorical context of the Jewish Messiah.Needless to say a lot of other stuff attributed to him was outside that Christian tradition that developed at the time.Of course, looking back, it's hard to see the Jesus for the Christ!

Nonetheless, his words alone are very inspiring -- and challenging and critical -- and worth reading whether within the Christian tradition or without. ... Read more


37. The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
by H. P. Lovecraft
Mass Market Paperback: 256 Pages (1986-03-12)
list price: US$6.50 -- used & new: US$27.42
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 0345337794
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars
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Book Description
Six bone-chilling tales of bizarre beauty and awesome horror lurk in the dark of the soul, waiting to be called upon by the demons of nightmares, and let loose in the frightened mind. Only H.P. Lovecraft could conjure up these testaments to evil that will live inside of you forever.... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (23)

5-0 out of 5 stars It was a fever of the gods
H.P. Lovecraft was a gentleman and a true artist - the stories released under his name are works of his singular genius, unbending to commercial pressures. The revisions and ghost-writing he did to supplement his income were never throwaway pulp tripe, but chances seized upon by the author to test out and perfect his trademark blend of horror and wonder in the face of an infinite cosmos.

One piece stands out among his work, and that is The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. It was done as a personal exercise and was only released posthumously - never even formally typed in the author's own lifetime. He was concerned it was so singular and out-of-the-ordinary in his field of weird fiction that it wouldn't be well-received and thus he never submitted it to a publisher. Fortunately for the world, it was lovingly transcribed by his associates and released for all to enjoy.

It is certainly the most personal of his works - his recurring character Randolph Carter is the star, and Mr. Carter is the closest thing to an alter-ego among Lovecraft's gallery of literary creations. By day he is just another man (revealed in other stories to be a writer of weird fiction as was his creator), but by night he is a master dreamer privy to realms of the collective unconscious unknown to the average traveller of Hypnos' domain. As haunting dreams of beauty trouble him, Carter sets out on a quest to find a fabled city of the gods of which Fate has cursed him with tantalizing visions. This takes him deep into the Dreamlands, a fantastic and wondrous realm where civilizations of the primitive and the classical reside in staggering landscapes of beauty and dread. He takes on the will of the blind and dangerous Outer Gods as he seeks to attain a privilege of the gods that few mortals have attempted, and in the course of his trek he finds himself adrift at sea, taken to the moon, battling alongside feline hordes, and in the clutches of darkest cosmic force.

The diction is wordy and dense, done both as a tribute to Lovecraft's beloved Lord Dunsany and as an exercise of the unparalled vocabulary that marks Lovecraft's work. This lofty prose works well to bolser the otherworldly, epic feel of the work. No apologies are made to the audience regarding the fantastic setting, and the audience is tantalized with some details and left to speculate on others concerning the background of the world Randolph Carter tranverses. It is the Dreamlands, after all - and Lovecraft provides elusive and mesmerizing revelations to inspire his audience to bring the land to life in their own dreams.

Ultimately, the book is a thrilling read equal parts breathless fantasy, unrelenting adventure, and dawning horror. Any fan of Lovecraft's other work will find this book indispensable, and fans of the epic work of Edgar Rice Burroughs, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, or Lovecraft-inspired modern icon Neil Gaiman will thrill to this tale of dreams sought and hopes attained.

Any scholar of Lovecraft's biography will be moved at the contents of the final paragraph, where the mask of Carter slips and we see Lovecraft recalling the dreams of his own life which always remained just out of reach. To understand Lovecraft, and to experience a world of fantasy and horror unlike any other in print, one must do himself or herself the favor of taking the Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath.

5-0 out of 5 stars The dream-key of H.P. Lovecraft
_This collection of stories are in my opinion the highest and best creation of Lovecraft's career. They are also the most personal. It is obvious that Randolph Carter is Lovecraft's alter-ego. These stories are the dream map of his life- the source of his inspiration. How many other authors have claimed that their best ideas came from "somewhere else"- often in dreams?

_I would classify these stories as more fantasy, than horror- except that I am not all that sure that they are really fantasy. Perhaps embroidered visions would be closer to the truth. Afterall, he points out that to value waking reality more than dream is a "superstition" that he has come to reject. For as you accompany the author through the fantastic landscapes and cities of this quest they come to seem more and more real, more and more familiar. As one who has repeatedly returned to the same cities in his dreams I am not going to pass judgement about their reality...

_Besides the title story "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath", you also have "Celephais", "The Silver Key", "Through the Gates of the Silver Key", "The White Ship", and "The Strange High House in the Mist." All deal with the dream realm.

_It is the story "The Siver Key" that tells us the most about Lovecraft the man. He despised those scientific materialists that sucked the life out of the world. Yet, he had no respect for traditional churches who tried to pass myth off as literalism. This left Lovecraft in a bind (as it has many of us), until he made the breakthrough into the true mysteries- and dream....

5-0 out of 5 stars What dreams are made of.
One of my favorite stories of all time.A variety of the madness of Lovecraft.I always thought Stuart Gordon should have made this one into a movie complete with soundtrack containing the music of Mr. Bungle, System of a Down, and Fear Before the March of Flames.Ghouls, Ghast, and Nightgaunt city.If you liked Call of Cthulhu check this one out.If you liked this one check my poetry book out: Poisoned Mushrooms(Here at Amazon.com and at Authorhouse.com).I'm Jason Leonard and you have my word on it.We put the fear into legal fees.Around the country and in your neighborhood.

3-0 out of 5 stars worthwhile
Not as impressive as some of his other work, Dream Quest is still one of the best in the genre. If you like Lovecrafts other works, you should read this for comparison sake at least. It tends to be needlessly wordy and rambles without any driving energy to push the plot foward. All that having been said, I liked the book. If you can get it cheap, do so.

3-0 out of 5 stars Such stuff as dreams are made on
To sustain a fantasy tale solely on the strength of the imagery, without the support of strong character development or a narrative that is richly symbolic or allegorical, is extraordinarily difficult.To achieve it, the imagery must be sufficiently novel and compelling to hold the readerýs interest by itself.In ýDreamquestý, Lovecraft makes the task even more difficult for himself in two ways; firstly by making it clear from the beginning that this is all a dream ý thus the dreamer could safely wake up at any moment ý and secondly by making the stakes seem very modest.In most fantasy tales, the fate of nations or of the entire Universe rests on the heroýs success in retrieving a ring or slaying a dragon, or whatever.Here, the aim of the journey is to visit a city that the dreamer once saw in dreamland and yearned to enter.Hardly the stuff of dramatic tension.

Nonetheless, ýDreamquestý succeeds magnificently, purely with the strangeness and poetic beauty of its imagery.Despite the manner in which the publishers promote this book, it is not a collection of horror stories.They are fantasies.The title story is a fine prose-poem that will live with you ý and very likely encroach on your dreamland ý long after you read it.

Clearly, Lovecraft was extremely introverted and introspective.There are references in the story to those perilous places where dreamland and reality meet, and where insanity threatens.The destruction of the individual may be at stake in too ambitious a dreamquest, even if the future of mankind is not.

Although some passages have a light touch, the story lacks the humor that Tolkien, for example, brings to his work.Also, there is no erotic element -- not even a single female character.Ironically enough, considering his name, Lovecraft appears to have had little or no sexual awareness.

In short, ýDreamquestý attempts none of the usual functions of storytelling.It seeks only to take you on a journey through one expert dreamerýs psyche.When the guide is as competent as Lovecraft, that is enough. ... Read more


38. The Unknown Gulag: The Lost World of Stalin's Special Settlements
by Lynne Viola
Hardcover: 320 Pages (2007-04-16)
list price: US$30.00 -- used & new: US$16.89
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 0195187695
Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars
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Editorial Review

Book Description
One of Stalin's most heinous acts was the ruthless repression of millions of peasants in the early 1930s, an act that established the very foundations of the gulag. Solzhenitsyn barely touched upon this brutal episode in his magisterial Gulag Archipelago and subsequent writers passed over the subject in silence. Now, with the opening of Soviet archives, an entirely new dimension of Stalin's brutality has been uncovered. The Unknown Gulag is the first book in English to explore this untold story. Historian Lynne Viola reveals how, in one of the most egregious episodes of Soviet repression, Stalin drove two million peasants into internal exile, to work as forced laborers. The book shows how entire families were callously thrown out of their homes, banished from their villages, and sent to the icy hinterlands of the Soviet Union, where in the course of a decade, almost a half million would die as a result of disease, starvation, or exhaustion. Drawing on pioneering research in the previously closed archives of the central and provincial Communist Party, the Soviet state, and the secret police, Viola documents the history of this tragic episode. She delves into what long remained an entirely hidden world within the gulag, throwing new light on Stalin's consolidation of power, the rise of the secret police as a state within the state, and the complex workings of the Soviet system. But first and foremost, she movingly captures the day-to-day life of Stalin's first victims, telling the stories of the peasant families who experienced one of the twentieth century's most horrific instances of mass repression. A compelling story of human suffering and survival in Stalin's Soviet Union, here is a new chapter in the history of the gulag, virtually hidden from sight until now. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

5-0 out of 5 stars Shocking and brutal; a time when evil reigned
I got interested in the subject of the gulag by reading a book called "Cannibal Island" which told the horrifying story of one settlement in the gulag.

This book is a more scholarly and detailed examination of the gulag. It is a truth "that was suppressed for nearly sixty years, locked in Soviet archives and buried in the memories of frightened survivors" (p 2).

The communist party, and Stalin in particular, declared war on the kulak class during the 1930's. A kulak was a slang word for a tightfisted person, and the communists were certain that the country would flourish if only they could be rid of those peasants who hoarded food and goods.

In fact, the country was in a state of chaos and the people who were branded kulaks were as likely to be already starving as hoarding anything.
Yet, "In the violent context of the First Five-Year Plan, the countryside became a foreign country to be invaded, occupied, and conquered"(p 32).

Millions were swept up, wrenched from their families and their land, sent in over packed trains to the gulags.And millions died. Typhus and smallpox, exhaustion and starvation claimed the poor peasants who were sent to the gulag.

In their desperation, many tried to escape the gulag, only to perish in the vast emptiness of Siberia. Some rebellions occurred, and were swiftly put down. The dry reports from those in charge make for grim reading, containing such statistics as half of the women had ceased to menstruate due to hunger (p 133).






5-0 out of 5 stars Excellent scholarly work on the lost gulag
Gulag is the abbreviation for the vast agglomeration of prisons, penal camps and settlements that held the millions of citizens the Marxist/Leninist Communists enslaved. This scholarly work covers the establishment of the settlements populated by the expropriated "kulaks" -- rich peasants, the definition of which changed constantly.

Millions of people, mostly entirely families, denounced as enemies of the socialists were arrested because they owned a cow, a tractor, had employees, had more goods than a neighbor, were simply disliked or because a Communist functionary needed to meet a quota. They were forced into box cars without adequate food, water or sanitation and sent hundreds or thousands of miles away into exile. Thousands died enroute, still more thousands were executed. And many more thousands died when they were forced to labor in forests, mines and on primitive farms in the name of socialist glory.

Lynne Viola has conducted extensive research, including many hours in the formerly sealed archives of the security organs. Her unadorned prose is all the more horrifying: "The survivors noted that the people whom Soviet sources labeled non-able-bodied and who some of the bosses called "ballast" were the most vulnerable during the famine." There are extensive quotes from the letters of the exiled, letters which of course were confiscated by the socialist authorities. There are excerpts from the endless reports of the bureaucrats who spent enormous time blaming others for their failures to extract more work from their slaves.

Most people will be unable to tolerate reading "The Unknown Gulag". It is not likely to find favor among the left-wing who prefer to pretend that socialism didn't kill and enslave hundreds of millions of people in Europe, Asia and Africa. For the few who can deal with the truth, Lynne Viola has performed a great service.

Jerry ... Read more


39. The Unknown Masterpiece
by Honore de Balzac
Paperback: 48 Pages (2005-12-08)
list price: US$15.95 -- used & new: US$9.44
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 1425462219
Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars
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Editorial Review

Book Description
THIS 42 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: The Country Doctor; The Quest of the Absolute; and Other Novels, by Honore de Balzac. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 0766171175. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

1-0 out of 5 stars BORING ARGUMENTS ABOUT ART
The effect of reading the two short works in this book is one of overhearing two snobbish and conceited intellectuals arguing about painting and music in a wanna-be hip cafe. Being that, The Unknown Masterpiece is not only annoying, it's boring. Set in Paris in 1612, a young unproven painter named Nicolas Poussin has come to the city to make a name for himself by studying under the great master Frenhofer. Frenhofer has been holed up in his studio for years working on his great masterwork, a portrait of a woman who he has disturbingly started referring to as his wife. The problem is that he hasn't found a suitable model for him to be able to finish the work. "Gambara", the novella that is also in this book, also concerns an artist that can never quite find the X-factor that would allow him to finish his work. Signor Gambara is a composer of music, whose grand operas come out as random noise to all those that listen, except when he's drunk, then his music turns beautiful, as if he can only communicate his divine music when his conscious mind is gone. A young playboy Count is meanwhile trying to steal Gambara's beautiful wife Marianna.

This book was awful and is a poor example of Balzac's genius. Even for his big fans like me. I don't know why Richard Howard even went to the trouble of translating this. Supposedly "Masterpiece" has had a profound effect on painters like Picasso who identified with the character Frenhofer. So what? It's just the same blithering romantic notion of capturing the unattainable that we've heard for centuries. "Gambara" is even worse. In a normal Balzac work, he would have focused on the characters of the Count and the Gambaras, but here he focuses on chord names and arguments and analyses of operas that I had to literally slog through with my eyes. If these had been longer pieces I would not have finished the book. Steer clear. It's a shame because probably only about 10% of Balzac's novels are available in English so why waste time printing this sub-minor work?

If you want to see Balzac's true genius, check out any of the Penguin editions of his works.

4-0 out of 5 stars Artists are not gods
Balzac's The Unknown Masterpiece is not about abstract art! It is about the destructive power of obsession for perfection. The artist Frenhofer over-paints and touches-up his masterpiece until it is not recognizable as anything but a mess. Balzac's Gambarra was too wordy but it does have the interesting theme of an artist, totally consumed by his personal vision, and thus not able to recognize the sacrifices and motivations of those around him. He writes an opera about the beginnings of Islam and the sacrifice of a woman for the man she loves. Yet Gambarra can not see this same pattern being played out with his wife and thus his single minded vision destroys his marriage. He is both a genius and a fool. His atonal compositions were 100 years before their time.His inability to empathize and get out of his own visions results in his wife's running off with an Italian count who plots to steal Gambarra's wife after he sees the composer's Achille's heel.I don't think I would recommend these books to anyone but artists.They reveal the artistic feet of clay which we so often overlook.

5-0 out of 5 stars Great Tales About Artists Struggling To Create Masterpieces
At first glance "The Unknown Masterpiece" and "Gambarra" are dissimilar tales about a painter and a composer. Yet they share in common the main protagonist's struggle to make a masterpiece; the finest painting and opera ever conceived. Unfortunately in "The Unknown Masterpiece" the painter Frenhofer is so dissatisfied with his work that he paints it anew, and it is seen by his friends, with disastrous consequences for all. In "Gambarra" the composer of the same name struggles to finish an opera on the early history of Islam, which he promises will be more glorious than any by Mozart. Such lofty ambitions remain unrealized, leaving the composer impoverished. Without question two of the greatest tales ever written by Balzac, influencing generations of painters, writers and other artists.

5-0 out of 5 stars The birth of the modern
It's amazing that the author was able to create an essay on 20th century abstract art in 1834.But this story is much more than that.It is a commentary on the parallels between art and human psychology, and the unreality of both... also, a character study, a mystery, an allegorical tale... all within 40 pages.In keeping with its theme, The Unknown Masterpiece is, on the other hand, none of those things.In keeping with its title... at least in this country.

5-0 out of 5 stars A writer expressing the life of the artist
I dig Balzac telling us about his views of art through the stories of a painter ("The Unknown Masterpiece") and a musician ("Gambara"). You can't go wrong with this one. Terrific translation; I wish I read French well enough to dig the original. ... Read more


40. The Unknown Shore
by Patrick O'Brian
Paperback: 316 Pages (1996-10)
list price: US$13.95 -- used & new: US$4.90
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 039331538X
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars
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Editorial Review

Amazon.com
The Unknown Shore, a sort-of sequel toThe Golden Ocean, is a fascinating blue-print for theAubrey-Maturin series. We follow Jack Byron and Tobias Barrow, two unlikely neighbors and fast friends in whom we catch glimpses of the heroes of the epic series to come. They set off to sea in 1740 as part of Commodore Anson's fleet to circumnavigate the globe.Byron, a romantic, forceful lad, signs on as a midshipman; Barrow, a strangely educated, scientifically brilliant boy, is running away from his father and wins a commission as a surgeon's mate.Set up in the Wager, which is parted from Anson's squadron and sinks somewhere along the desolate coast of Chile, Byron and Barrow are left to struggle for survival by wits alone, facing mutiny, famine, indifferent natives and lingering infighting.A fully realized hint of the fictional magic to come. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

5-0 out of 5 stars Nothing less than an excellent Aubrey-Maturin PREQUEL!
Fans of the Aubrey-Maturin series will not be disappointed.

Here again is the real, witty dialog, the warm (and evil) characters, the all-too-real scenery made possible by what can only be called preternatural powers of story-telling.

You won't be disappointed in experiencing O'brien's failings, too:complete disregard of tying off the loose ends of a plot, complete lack of any epilogue.But haven't we come to love even that part of his work?

4-0 out of 5 stars Jack Bauer and Casey Ryback get the stuffing kicked out of them!
You know how these characters in "24" and "under Siege" constantly get the stuffing kicked, stabbed, shot, slashed, punched, imprisoned, tortured and just plain irritated? Well. this is what Patrick O"Btian does to Jack and Toby - the predecessors to Aubrey-Maturin in the 20 volume/episode novel(s). There are section that are just hard to read because of the empathy that you feel for the characters. These characters are not two dimensional. black and white. They are real people moving within a realm that is from light to charcoal grey.

The book is a great read but it really doesn't stand on its own. What keeps you going is knowing that the treasure trove awaits in the other novels. There are many loose ends never tied up - what sis happen to Captain Cheap and why was he not slowly skinned alive or disemboweled?

It is a good intro to O'Brian but don't stop here. Read it and then go get those next 20 novels.

3-0 out of 5 stars Not My Favorite
The Unknown Shore is the story of Tobias and Jack, two unlikely companions who, after enlisting in the royal navy are subject to so many trials and tribulations at the end of the novel I was surprised that they survived with their sanity intact. The novel starts off mildly enough, but after they are castaway, things begin to go rapidly downhill. As if the gruesome descriptions of scurvy were not enough, the reader is treated to watching characters starve to death slowly, under the iron fist of a stupid, and selfish captain.

Frankly, my greatest disappointment was that O'Brian did not show us what happened to the cruel and heavy-handed captain Cheap, who deserved to be eaten by cannibals at the very least.

Good, but not great, and not something I would want to read again.

3-0 out of 5 stars Not Quite
I am a longtime reader of O'Brian's work and sought this out after I had exhausted the Aubrey-Maturin series for the second time. This story is often said to be a progenitor of the series, but I beg to differ. The main characters bear some resemblance to the two heroes, but are wholly unlike when closely examined.

This is a rich, detailed story at first, far funnier than many other of his novels. Midway through, though, he loses his thread (he often talks about sailors ashore being fools, and this may be a case in point) and never fully regains it. The story wanders through detailed descriptions of suffering and death with a deus ex machina end seemingly borne of the mutual exhaustion of both author and reader.

Tales of survival are well and good... inspiring, even, at times... but after a point it becimes an endurance test for even the most stalwart reader. In his later works, O'Brian learned that it was the characters and not the events that kept the reader enthralled. Sadly, this work wore on me: again and again the dismal tales of survival against all odds stacked up like cordwood until I was no longer interested.

The language is lovely, but the clean, superb O'Brian style fades away in the late-middle. This is not unusual in novels;few carry their bold beginnings to the end. With O'Brian, though, I had hoped for more, even in his early work.

There is some comfort that even such amaster faltered at first, and that his later command of story, character and voice was learned (authors such as Saul Bellow are disturbing in their untiring published perfection, and I am cheered that one of my all-time favorites is capable of sometimes boring me.)

I would say that this is a journeyman piece: beautifully researched, well-begun but ultimately not up to the standard that set you reading it in the first place.

4-0 out of 5 stars Very interesting story, predecessor to Aubrey-Maturin saga
If you have just begun to read nautical fiction or have come to it by way of one of Patrick O'Brian's later Aubrey-Maturin books, this book is well worth reading.

I have been reading nautical fiction for a couple of years, and have just finished my first Aubrey-Maturin book (the fourth - THE MAURITIUS COMMAND). I came to it via Jane Austen's Persuasion when I was wondering about Captain Wentworth's life at sea.I then read through most of the Horatio Hornblower books (set at the same time, as the Aubreyiad, as it is known to fans) and even watched two great films about life at sea during the Georgian era - DAMN THE DEFIANT and the Horatio Hornblower film starring Gregory Peck.

I have to say that it helps if you have watched one of these films (or the later version of Horatio Hornblower starring Ioan Gruffyd), or if you have seen one of the British Navy's ships or a reconstruction at hand.If not, try one of the many good books explaining the construction and layout of a man-of-war or life in the British navy. [I have reviewed at least one such book].Prior to my re-read of Persuasion and my curiosity about all things naval, I was an utter novice. I am still almost as confused as Toby, one of the two protagonists of THE UNKNOWN SHORE about many things naval.

How does this book do for someone who is not incredibly familiar with nautical fiction but has read a bit (like me), who comes to it perhaps from another genre of fiction, or who has picked this kind of book up for the first time?The first two chapters are a delightful evocation of life in Georgian England (although it is not clear that this is 1740), with Midshipman the Honourable John "Jack" Byron forming part of a cousin's large household. When Jack leaves to try and join Anson's round-the-world expedition, he takes along with him the eccentric, alarmingly naive, socially inept, and well-read Tobias Barrows.After a series of adventures in London, Toby is commissioned as a surgeon's mate (or assistant).Jack hopes that he and Toby will be posted on the same ship, since someone has to look out for Toby (and rescue him from himself).Both are posted to the WAGER, the least-regarded ship in the expedition since it is not a proper man-of-war.The first part of the expedition is fairly routine, with Toby learning the ways of life aboard and three captains taking command, with the last being the worst.

The expedition soon runs into trouble around Cape Horn.The WAGER is separated from the rest of the convoy and shipwrecked on a desolate island.The captain's harsh discipline imposed on the surviving cruise leads to desertions and then mutiny; Jack and Toby remain behind with the captain and a few others.The second half of the book is grim but realistic reading.Eventually, only a few people survive illness (mostly scurvy and lack of food), the stormy seas, capture by Indians, and more comfortable imprisonment by the Spanish in Chile to find their way home by a circuitous route.

I will not tell you who makes it back, but the Jack Byron of this book is the grandfather of the poet Lord Byron (the 6th Baron) so he makes it through.

The book is good reading, although not fast reading (unless you prefer to skip all the details about life abroad, the ornithological observations of Toby etc).Jack Byron is a precursor of the far more bluff (and more politically inept Jack Aubrey) but he comes from a better family;his father was a lord, his brother is a lord, and his grandfather Lord Berkeley is politically influential and with naval connections.[His sister Isabella will go on to marry a wealthy earl herself].Tobias Barrow, who is apparently entirely fictional, is in some ways an early version of Stephen Maturin (although far more naive and inept).The description of Toby is almost spot-on for Maturin, down to the dreadful equestrian skils and their shared profession - surgery.

One thing that I had mixed feelings about was the level of authorial intrusion.In this book, O'Brian inserts his comments here and there, sometimes at length.I grew to notice it less through the book as the situation becomes grimmer, but at times it jarred in the early stages.

If you are wondering about how much background you need, the navy as a career and the importance of "interest" is well-explained by Jack to the naive and clueless Toby.Some knowledge about the period (the start of the War of the Austrian Succession; the changes in politics with the start of Hanoverian rule) would be helpful.What I missed most was a starting date for the novel, and for a long time I laboured under the impression that this story took place in the late 1750s. (OK, I *am* clueless about the dates of Anson's expedition, although I know that his successful capture of a Spanish galleon made him very rich). ... Read more


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