Product Description
This audiobook takes us from Robert Browning's earliest work, through the poet's literary successes and critical disappointments, by way of romantic lyrics such as "Home Thoughts from Abroad". Explanatory commentaries elucidate the works and place them in a historical and biographical context. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The poet of dramatic monologue
This is the opening of one of Browning's most well- known poems "Rabbi Ben Ezra"
Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in His hand
Who saith ' A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all,
nor be afraid!'

Browning is a poet of the inner life.His dramatic monologues are in the words of F.B. Pinion the editor of the Collins Edition of ' Dramatis Personae' centered on ' the thought- processes and mental outlook of his characters than in dramatic action" The
poems are rich in consideration of the moral and religious problems of his time. Lovers of poetry and students of human relationships can certainly be enriched by the reading of these poems.

one of the greats
Browning is one of the great poets. this selection contains poems such as 'the last dutchess', 'porphyria's lover' and 'childe roland to the dark tower came' which shows browning at his best. this selected poems only whetted my appetite for a complete version. ... Read more

Product Description
January 1937. Jack Miller has just about run out of options. His shoes have worn through, he can't afford to heat his rented room in Tooting, and he longs to utilise his training as an specialist wireless operator instead of working in his dead-end job in the city. So when he is given the chance to join an arctic expedition, as communications expert, by a group of elite Oxbridge graduates, he brushes off his apprehensions and convinces himself to join them.As the young men set sail from a gloomy Britain on the verge of war, Jack feels the overwhelming excitement of not knowing what lies in store. Little can he imagine the horrors that await him in their arctic destination, Gruhuken, a place that cannot escape the savage echo of its past. ... Read more

Product Description
This collection of Blake's work also features a biographical narrative which aims to put each poem in context and highlight its significance. Included are: early nature poems; "Songs of Innocence" and "Experience"; exerpts from "Thel" and "The Book of Urizen"; and "Milton" and "Jerusalem". ... Read more

Product Description
This collection of Keats' work begins with "Imitation of Spenser", his first known poem, through to his more familiar poetry, including "The Eve of St Agnes" and "Odes". It includes a biographical narrative placing each poem in context and illuminating its significance. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

John Keats
Doing a review of someone like Frost, Keats, Rilke, or Shakespeare is like reviewing the Bible, it is impossible.It has already been established that this man's poetry is mastery.Now the question is thus, what book should you purchase?If you want a small taste of his work at a good price, this is it.With this small, under $... edition, you can decide if you want to purchase anymore of his books.I say it is a great book for a poetry shelf in anyone's library.

The brillance of Keat's poetry
What a wonderful anthology of John Keats' poetry. The selections in this book range from his well known and loved pieces like "Lamia" and " To Autumn" to less familliar but still gracefully written"On the Sea" and "To Leigh Hunt, Esq."The timeline inthe front of the book is helpful, giving an overview of what the world waslike in Keats' short lifespan. Many critics wonder what he would'veaccomplished had he lived longer, and by reading this collection of hispoems, one can only image the brilliant works he might have given us tofurther his powerful legacy. ... Read more

Product Description
This collection of John Donne's poetry contains love poems, elegies, metaphysical verse, and offers sections from the "Satires" and the "Epithalamions". It includes a biographical narrative placing each poem in context and illuminating its significance. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The poetry of Argument and Intellectual Feeling
This book's editor Andrews Wanning provides a good short introduction to the poetry of Donne. He begins by surveying the ups and downs of Donne's reputation. Dr. Johnson did not find a high place for him and he was not celebrated for a long- time. The pioneering scholarship of Herbert Grierson who published in 1912 an edition of the poetry, and above all the re-evalutation of T.S. Eliot made Donne into a central figure of the Tradition. Donne's poetry was worshipped in the world of Critical opinion which Eliot for more than half-a- century set the tone in.
Donne is a complicated, difficult and remarkably original poet. He isa poet of strong feeling and argument. His poems seem to lay out a line of thought which the reader must stay with through hard mental effort. Along with this the great innovation of the Metaphysical Poets of which Donne was the chief was that linking together violently of worlds of experience which were not ordinarily associated. This adventure of Mind gives Donne's poetry a quality of excitement, newness and interest.
This volume contains the poems Donne is most known for, the early love poems,the Holy Sonnets, Epigrams,Elegies,Anniversaries,Epithalmio0n, Divine poems, Anniversaries.
There are endnotes but they are scanty. With a poet like Donne one needs a lot of help, and for those who really want to understand him a more comprehensive critical edition is recommended.
But the great poems are here.
I wouldonly add as a minor note that while I recognize the distinctive power of Donne's poetry it does not hold me or move me in the way that ofShakespeare Wordsworth Keats Hopkins Stevens do. The music is not there for me in the same way. But I am only one reader, and other readers think otherwise.

superb poetry expertly read
Without a good grounding in the life of his times, Donne can be a bit of a puzzle to the casual reader. Luckily, this excellent recording of a broad selection of his oeuvre includes not only superb readings by a fine team of British actor-readers, but also commentary about the poet's life. Particular favourites: The Flea and To His Mistris... Really beautifully done (if you'll forgive the pun). ... Read more

Product Description
NARNIA... where owls are wise, where some of the giants like to snack on humans, where a prince is put under an evil spell.. and where the adventure begins.Eustace and Jill escape from the bullies at school through a strange door in the wall, which, for once, is locked. It leads to the open moor...or does it? Once again Aslan has a task for the children, and Narnia needs them. Through dangers untold and caverns deep and dark, they pursue the quest that brings them face to face with the evil Witch. She must be defeated if Prince Rilian is to be saved. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (104)

A darker Narnia, but good still triumphs
In this penultimate book in the Narnia series, the older characters have been completely phased out--the four Pevensies replaced by their cousin Eustace and a wholly new character named Jill. In addition to serving up a new cast, The Silver Chair represents a tonal shift toward more three-dimensional characters. In the early books, we don't know much about the Pevensies' life outside of Narnia: they have parents and they attend proper British boarding schools, that's about all we know. Here, the story is more grounded in mundane realities, showing Jill and Eustace languishing at a school with lax discipline, where bullies run rampant. They even get into Narnia while fleeing from bullies.

There are some other indicators of an overall darker story. For the first time, the time gap between Narnia and the real world is disturbing. Instead of a thousand years or a couple of years passing, it's about seventy years, so though Eustace knew King Caspian as a young man, he now sees him as an elderly man nearing death. The there's the children's mission itself, a long trek through marshes and northern wastes to find Rillian, the lost prince of Narnia and sole heir to the throne. They have very little information about the prince's likely whereabouts, just the cryptic instructions or "signs" that Aslan has Jill memorize, and poor Jill consistently misinterprets, forgets, or otherwise bungles the signs. The kids' sole guide/companion is a chronically depressed marshwiggle (basically just a tall, thin man with webbed feet and hands) named Puddleglum who finds the cloud in every silver lining, and during the whole trip, they all suffer from the cold, from lack of food, and Jill especially notices how filthy they always seem to be.

Those are the outward circumstances of Jill and Eustace's adventure, but the emotional obstacles in The Silver Chair are just as intense. The kids are often confounded by the signs, since following Aslan's directions is never as simple a matter as it seems, and they have the worst trouble of all with the final sign Aslan gave: "you will know the lost prince (if you find him) by this, that he will be the first person you have met in your travels who will ask you to do something in my name, in the name of Aslan" (pg 25). Naturally, the first person to do so is a proud, cruel, unstable and possibly insane man. When I was a child, the most disturbing element of all was the giant-city of Harfang and the truly horrific discovery the kids make there, though it's not needless scariness because the Harfang episode is a kind of object lesson showing what happens when you want something so badly you forgo common sense to attain it.

As with all Narnia books, there a few blatantly awesome elements: 1. Flying. Aslan blows a puff of air and Eustace and Jill fly a few hundred miles to Narnia. They also get a brief ride on some talking owls. 2. Puddleglum. I've never heard of the fantasy creatures called marshwiggles, except in Narnia. This is probably because they're not exactly magical or powerful, though they have a wonderful natural bent for gloominess, and Puddleglum actually says that other marshwiggles think he's too flighty and optimistic. 3. The Underworld. It adds a mythological feel to the story, since old-timey heroes are always descending into the underworld as part of their journey. 4. The silver chair itself. Naturally, it's magical and doesn't serve its obvious purpose. 5. Centaurs. In some almost throwaway paragraphs toward the end, Lewis explains a little bit about centaur behaviors, diet, and culture.

Although there aren't a lot of light spots to alleviate the moroseness, the book still ends triumphantly. After sinking down to the Underworld, Jill, Eustace and Puddleglum return to the surface and by the end of The Silver Chair, justice is restored to Narnia, to the Underworld, and to Jill and Eustace's school back home.

Not as weak as The Magician's Nephew, but close
C. S. Lewis, The Silver Chair (HarperCollins, 1953)

In the sixth installment of the Chronicles of Narnia, we have bid farewell to the Pevensies altogether, leaving us with Eustace. What a bad idea that was, but Lewis balances Eustance, whiny little brat that he is, with Jill Pole, a schoolmate of Eustace's who's a bit more levelheaded (though she's obviously shaken by her first taste of Narnia, as anyone would be). In any case, when Eustace and Jill get back to Narnia, it's been quite a while, as it usually has. Caspian is an old, old man, on the verge of death, and his son Rilian has been missing for the past decade. Aslan sets Eustace and Jill to look for him, with all the adventures thereto. While there's a good deal of adventure, etc., which has always been the core of the Narnia books, the lack of Pevensies is somewhat daunting given how effete Eustace is and how long it takes Jill to get her head around Narnia and start behaving like a proper adventurer. One of the series' weaker books, though nowhere near as much a drag as The Magician's Nephew. ***

Least Favourite of the Series.
I love the Chronicles of Narnia, however I did not enjoy this one at all, to the point I had to stop reading. It's not necessarily the story itself, but more of Eustace. In the Voyage of the Dawn Treader Eustace was a brat which was fine, but now in the Silver Chair he's seen as a much stronger character, perhaps if he was more developed at the end of the Dawn Treader it would be ok, but it is too large of a jump in Eustace's character.

Narnia goes underground
The entire "Narnia" series has been a hallmark in my own development as a writer since childhood and a lifelong inspiration in all that I love in the fantasy genre. "The Silver Chair" is no exception and, as the sixth in the series, takes on a darker overtone than some of the earlier books which are, literally, played out in a land of sun and light. In "The Silver Chair" there is a distinctly ominous overtone as much of the action takes place in the Narnian underworld where there is no sun or light and where all is guarded by grey and miserable trolls and other grim and malevolent creatures. In this episode the much maligned Eustace (now a far better character for his earlier, much needed chastening in "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader")makes a welcome return, along with a new heroine in the form of Jill Pole, a much put upon schoolfriend at the deplorable school of Experiment House. As only C S Lewis can do, just when the unhappy Eustace and Jill are facing further misery at the hands of the out of control school bullies, they are whisked magically into Narnia by Aslan to tackle a new task - although upon discovering what that is they may well believe the bullies may have been the better option!

The magical time difference between Narnia and our own world means that many years have passed and the now old and ailing King Caspian's son and heir, Rilian, has gone missing, held in the thrall of yet another evil witch. Eustace and Jill must brave bitter cold, hunger and many hardships on their quest,cannibal giants not being the least of their worries. There is a dark but wonderfully welcome relevation for the reader when they discover a giant's cookbook detailing "Man -this delicious biped". A quirky addition to the story comes in the form of Puddleglum the Marshwiggle, whose oppressive pessimism delights rather than annoys the reader and gives a distinct touch of humour to the entire tale.

As he always manages to do, Mr Lewis has given a wonderful fantasy adventure a number of twists and turns while still inserting his cautionary messages of the benefits of true friendship, honesty, responsibility and general decency. Of course Rilian is eventually rescued, Jill and Eustace discover their inner strengths and overcome their weaknesses and the bullies in our own world are given at the story's end a very un PC but much needed thrashing. Although this book was written over fifty years ago, it is a timeless classic that young and old alike can treasure and its messages ring as true today as they did all those years ago. The horribly Politically Correct environment of Experiment House in particular stands out to me as a cautionary message in our current day and age where so many people think they can do as they please without consequences. All my copies of the Narnia series are dog eared and much thumbed, as they are books that never fail to deliver and they stand the test of time. "The Silver Chair" is not the least of these.

A new character performs interestingly
Several weeks have passed since Eustace returned from his sea adventure with King Caspian in the magical land. Eustace is now back in England attending a boarding school filled with bullies, where the school head has no control over the students.
Jill also attends the school. Eustace finds her crying because of the way she is being treated by the bullies. He tries to console her and tells her about the magic land. The two wish they can escape to Narnia.
They hear the bullies coming to hurt them, and they run. Suddenly they are transported to the other world. They land on a mountain and Aslan, the magic lion, transports Eustace to Narnia. But before blowing Jill there, he tells her that he brought the two so that they can find the lost son of a king. The king is now old and believes that he will die without leaving an heir to reign in his stead.
Aslan gives Jill four signs. First, Eustace will see someone he recognizes from his last trip. He should talk to that person immediately. Second, they should travel north to the land of the giants. Third, they will see a writing there on a stone and should do what the writing says. Fourth, they will recognize the lost prince when he asks them to do something in Aslan's name. Aslan then blows Jill to Narnia where she finds Eustace.
The two see a very aged king leaving Narnia on a ship. They are told that the king is Caspian, who Eustace knew during his last visit. Eustace realizes that although only weeks have passed in England since his last adventure, some seventy years have gone by in Narnia. Eustace and Jill also realize that they failed to fulfill their first task, for Caspian has gone.
They become involved in an adventure with owls that fly them around on their backs but cannot take them north because owls do not like to fly during the day. The owls tell the children how the prince's mother was killed and how the prince disappeared. They suspect that a wicked witch is involved.
The owls take the children to Puddleglum, a scarecrow type being, who is gloomier than his name, who sees bad in everything, but who agrees to help the children fulfill the second requirement of going north to the land of the giants, even though he tells them that their future will certainly be terrible.
Several adventures follow. The three pass through a land of stupid giants where stones are thrown. They meet a beautiful lady on a beautiful horse and a knight dressed in black who does not speak. The lady sends them to a house and tells them to say that they are "sent to your Autumn Feast." Jill forgets the third sign about a writing on a wall.
Readers will enjoy hearing the details of these adventures. They will also hear the other adventures the two children and Puddleglum had. Who was the beautiful woman? Were the three able to find the prince? Did they save him? Was there a wicked witch? Did King Caspian return and see his son the prince? Did the prince become king? What happened when the two children returned to England? Were they able to beat the bullies? What happened to the head of the school?
... Read more

Product Description
One of the nation's most popular poets, Rudyard Kipling spoke with the voice of the underdog and defied the view of the poet as intellectual and elitist. This audiobook is a selection of his work including "If", "Gunga Din", "A School Song" and "Tommy". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

"If" is included
Perhaps the above reveiw was for a different book of Kipling's poems. There are no illustrations besides the cover art, and Kipling's famous "If" poem is thankfully included. The book is lightweight andsmall enough to fit in a purse or briefcase easily. The cover is pleasingand the margins inside are generous. In all, well laid out and good to havearound.

Kiplings Poems...
I thought it was a poor selsction, without his most famous, "If" included. The illustrations were like those from a newspaper, and it's overall content was not great. ... Read more

Product Description
In this unabridged, enlightening and often shocking expose of life on the streets of two of Europe's most romanticised and celebrated cities, Orwell describes in detail the day-to-day life of a 'down-and-out', which involves hunger, filth, derision and often prejudice and violence. Alcohol is also a staple distraction on both sides of the channel for the destitute, and Orwell's comments on issues such as the emasculation of a man when he becomes a tramp (women see him as 'less than' a man and will not interact with him) are truly fascinating.Amazon.com Review
What was a nice Eton boy like Eric Blair doing in scummy slums instead ofbeing upwardly mobile at Oxford or Cambridge? Living Down and Out inParis and London, repudiating respectable imperialist society, andreinventing himself as George Orwell. His 1933 debut book (ostensibly anovel, but overwhelmingly autobiographical) was rejected by that elitistpublisher T.S. Eliot, perhaps because its close-up portrait of lowlife wastoo pungent for comfort.

In Paris, Orwell lived in verminous rooms and washed dishes at theoverpriced "Hotel X," in a remarkably filthy, 110-degree kitchen. He met"eccentric people--people who have fallen into solitary, half-mad groovesof life and given up trying to be normal or decent." Though Orwell's toneis that of an outraged reformer, it's surprising how entertaining many ofhis adventures are: gnawing poverty only enlivens the imagination, and thewild characters he met often swindled each other and themselves. Thewackiest tale involves a miser who ate cats, wore newspapers for underwear,invested 6,000 francs in cocaine, and hid it in a face-powder tin when thecops raided. They had to free him, because the apparently controlledsubstance turned out to be face powder instead of cocaine.

In London, Orwell studied begging with a crippled expert named Bozo, agreat storyteller and philosopher. Orwell devotes a chapter to the finepoints of London guttersnipe slang. Years later, he would put his lexicalbent to work by inventing Newspeak, and draw on his down-and-out experienceto evoke the plight of the Proles in 1984. Though marred byhints of unexamined anti-Semitism, Orwell's debut remains, as TheNation put it, "the most lucid portrait of poverty in the Englishlanguage." --Tim Appelo ... Read more

Customer Reviews (108)

A tale of poverty. THIS EDITION IS A WASTE OF MONEY.
Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell is an incredible story about poverty. Orwell describes the experiences of being out of work, then of working as a plongeur (a dish washer - one of the lowest jobs imaginable) in Paris, and of becoming a tramp in London. Orwell writes beautifully with humour and describes each of the experiences with great details while maintaining the reader's interest. This novel is about poverty, but if you are looking for a story with a proper plot, then this in not the book for you.

The novel is written in first person, yet the protagonist is never named. This story is thought to include many events from Orwell's life. Orwell's stories are magnificent and are those that I always recall because they can be related to the real world.


The protagonist is an Englishman whose money is one day stolen, and as an English teacher, he is left without work because he no longer has any students. The little money he has left is getting spent too quickly, and each day he has less and less. He contacts the only man he seems to know in Paris, and finds that he is, unfortunately, in the same situation - almost penniless and without work. Work is terribly difficult to find. The lodging houses are uncomfortable to sleep in for the night. How does the Englishman deal with poverty?


It is a sad tale that makes you feel grateful that you have a roof above your head; are not forced to eat bread, margarine, and tea as your only meals; and never have to starve yourself for days at a time if you are ever left penniless. It is shocking to see how far vagabonds traveled just for free tea or food.

May contain spoilers:

I believe one of the main points of this work was to emphasise that poverty is a cycle that likely will not come to an end unless the government steps in and does something productive with the tramps. The last paragraph states all that the protagonist learned throughout the tale: "I shall never again think that all tramps are drunken scoundrels, nor expect a beggar to be grateful when I give him a penny, nor be surprised if men out of work lack energy, nor subscribe to the Salvation Army, nor pawn my clothes, nor refuse a handbill, nor enjoy a meal at a smart restaurant." (213) Even after his tale, the protagonist concludes that he feels he has merely seen the fringes of poverty.


NOTES ON THIS EDITION

I would NOT recommend this edition. Everything seems to have a dash censoring it, even though those words are very important to the story. I had to purchase another edition just two weeks after, and now I have two.

Poverty, Hunger, Food Service, and Homelessness as Seen by the Master Social Critic
As with other works of his, Orwell has a strong reformist purpose with this book, and in this instance, the topic under consideration is urban poverty, in its various gradations: unemployed and hungry, employed but stupefied by toil, and finally, homeless, or tramping, as the term was at the time. In each section, his the autobiographically-based protagonist has a number of colorful experiences and misadventures, which are then analyzed and remarked upon with Orwell's characteristic society-skewering and thought-provoking perspective.

In the first section of the book, the narrator is minimally and then unemployed, dodging his landlady, skipping meals, and living from pawnshop to mouth. I've encountered other descriptions of being hungry in literature, of course, but Orwell dwells on it here and the unrelieved tedium, frustration, and discomfort that such a life entails, illustrating it with observations such as this: "Hunger reduces on to an utterly spineless, brainless condition, more like the aftereffects of influenza than anything else." Reading this made me both grateful that I've never had to go through such hunger, yet also slightly curious to see how bad it is for myself.

In the second section, the narrator finds work as a plongeur, or dishwasher, at a fine Paris hotel. To anyone who has worked in food service (as a waiter, caterer, dishwasher, or the like), it will be both humorous and sad how little has changed in 70 years; to anyone who hasn't, it will be an eye-opening look at what goes on behind the scenes at restaurants and hotels. Looking back on 19-hour catering jobs, I can well relate to Orwell's observation that "Work in the hotel taught me the true value of sleep, just as being hungry had taught me the true value of food." And in that light, this section of the book reinforced my opinion that ideally everyone would have to do some service job sometime in their lives, both so they could sympathize forever after with those who later serve them, and for the intrinsically valuable lessons therein.

In the third and longest section, the narrator returns from Paris to England, and spends a lot of time tramping among the work houses, hostels, and other refuges of the homeless and vagrant. While he certainly had some harsh words about the dehumanizing effect of mindless drudgery like that of the plongeur, he saves his harshest criticism for his home country and the laws governing and conditions pertaining to the homeless. He calls out the hypocrisy of those who consider begging to be any different than any other profession, and regarding the physical and mental degradation of a fellow tramp, he comments "He had lived on this filthy imitation of food till his own mind and body were compounded of inferior stuff." Living in the Bay Area, with its substantial homeless population, Orwell's book has prompted some serious reflection.

Never say never...
Can you imagine suddenly living in the slums and working like a madman just to eat and survive?That's what happens to the narrator of this story (Eric Blair?).He has lived a respectable life, never with worries.That is until his money gets stolen while in Paris.Now, with the help of a man with a lame leg, he will have to take whatever job comes his way until he can make enough money to survive and eat and to one day return to London.He does whatever is necessary, including considering writing for Russian communists in order to earn good money.(The Russian communists, however, are nothing but thieves themselves.)He resorts to working in the lowest positions at restaurants and hotels.The narrator learns about life in the slums, about the different slang words, the world of "tramps," and the hierarchy found in restaurants -- how waiters are considered better than cooks, etc.Tough lessons are learned.Will he be able to see the world and poverty the same way again?

This is an interesting novel.It is said that Down and Out in Paris and London is autobiographical.Eric Blair (pseudonym George Orwell) was an Eton-educated man and a writer on the rise.Had he gone through all of the horrors described in this book?The book tells some interesting backstories on characters and their lives in the streets.The vivid descriptions would lead one to believe that all of these things are true.This book is also full of humor.There are scenes that made me laugh.First published in 1933, Down and Out in Paris and London was Orwell's first published book.It is nowhere near as amazing or as vivid as 1984, but it's a great read if you like stuff about the early 20th Century slums.You won't regret it if you're a new Orwell fan like myself.

A SPECIFIC AGAINST FEELINGS OF ENTITLEMENT
The kind of Entitlement we feel as Americans is something made up mostly of the funk exuded from the idol we revere of ourselves as Middle Class people -- one myth created by decades of Madison Avenue advertising, and a lie like most of them -- which we don't recognize because TV and pulp infortainment have blinded us with the vulgar dazzle of celebrity-hood, until dopey, we have come to feel that we know them, the celebrated PEOPLE people; that we share their quirks and inhsecurities; that we have so much in common with them -- trouble with excess weight, with prescription drugs, papparazzi, out-of-control credit card debt -- that we are celebrities too.That we too are people who need people who need people like us.I mean, we're all American, aren't we?A rich, successful and powerful classless society?...Of ordinary people, with excellent credit.No?But...Haven't you ever travelled to strange places and looked at your fellow-citizens and wondered sometimes, Who in the world do they think they are?So rude!So inane!So pretensious!And, of course, they're our Neighbors.Our selves.

I've heard it said, "With foreign travel its either palaces or poverty."But you don't have to go to another country to come face-to-face with the big P; with the unspeakable danger, Poverty.And that's what everybody's afraid of.Looking at a recently released and much-praised movie recently, THE WRESTLER, one sensed that this evocation in contemporary style of a favorite genre from Depression days, one had the feeling that much of the attention to it and praise of it was generated by the fact that it looked as though it might have been filmed in Manesquan, NJ; that is, on location somewhere below the poverty line.And the public reaction was sincere embarassment on one hand, and on the other, gratitude for not being that poor oneself.

DOWN AND OUT was published in 1933, that fateful year Roosevelt got his Congress and HItler got his Reischtag; the nadir of the Great Global Depression that began in '29, and the book was possibly written two or three years earlier.Considering the shape the world was in, with the financial systems of Europe and America and everywhere else in collapse, and including the inevitable unemployment and the resulting wide-spread poverty, it is astonishing to contemplate Orwell, young and only trying to make a career for himself, deciding to not run off to a foreign country, as he did later when he went to Spain, but deciding to leap head-first, as it were, into Poverty, POVERTY ITSELF, in the country just across the channel.Simply to have experiences?Simply to have something to write about?To have subjects for his fledgling journalism?Yes!Apparently so.On the final page of the book he writes that he believes he may have written a kind of Travel Book.He did!And the means are shocking; the effects quite free of tinted light.Except that the second, third and fourth letter of the commonest Anglo-Saxon epithet are deleted in print, there are no euphemisms.But oh! my foes and ah! my friends, the results are spectacular.What extraordinary courage!What powers of observation and description!

Here is a tourist who does not intend to look at the world through the windows of the Hilton lobby.Imagine:Without even a credit card!You don't know what to say.You stand back, gasp in admiration and wonder if you would ever have the nerve to undertake anything like it; the discomfort, the embarassment.Work as a Dishwasher?Me?And you wonder if you would ever have the nerve to be as honest with yourself as you wrote it?Honest about your squeamishness?About your dirt hatred.About being seen among uneducated people.About the fear of looking dirty.Or going a week without changing clothes.

The English have written some great travel books.I've always admired Cunningham-Grahame and Maugham, but this book is different.It doesn't cover much land or take a great deal of time, but it plummets to depths often ignored by other authors.Depths of the human soul and condition so terrifying to many -- which never terrified him -- I'm reminded of that french song...

"Children with faithful hearts have no fear of wolves."

Ritz Plongeur?Moi?Quelle cauchemar.

Great Grit
Gritty realism.

This is one of Orwell's three great travel journalism books. "Homage to Catalona," and "Road to Wigan Pier" being the other two. These three books are his greatest works; they identify Orwell's journalistic genius. This book was written at the encouragement or possible coercion of his publisher and has a history similar to "The Road To Wigan Pier." Do not forget the source material for this book when reading it.

The source material for this book can be found in "In an Age Like This" with its journals on poverty in London and Paris written in the twenties and thirties. One interesting essay, "How the Poor Die" was written much later and appears in "In Front of Your Nose"- the fourth of the four volume series edited by his last wife Sonia Orwell.

Written after WWII, "How the Poor Die" recounts his stay in an unnamed Paris charity hospital during his youth as a dishwasher during the period covered by "Down and Out in Paris and London." Morbid reading. Orwell had chronic lung problems, and describes in his essay what it was like becoming an anatomical subject for french medical students under early welfare state medicine.

Read the source material for this book to get a richer Orwell experience! ... Read more

Product Description
In a legendary novel that appears to predict the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, Graham Greene introduces James Wormold, a vacuum cleaner salesman whose life is transformed when he is asked to join the British Secret Service. He agrees, and finds himself with no information to offer, so begins to invent sources and agencies which do not exist, but which appear very real to his superiors. Then follow some very real events, such as undercover work and even murder attempts, all backed up by phantom chains of information and invented covert agencies. An often light-hearted but massively important complete and unabridged audiobook, which makes many comments on present-day life despite being published over 50 years ago. The book was also made into a hit film starring Carol Reed and Alec Guinness in 1959, and has recently (2007) been the subject of a play adaptation staged in Guildford to a enthusiastic public reception. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (74)

Not My Cup of Tea
Well for once a Greene book didn't really appeal to me. I think this is meant to be a spy-comedy, but as usual I didn't laugh one single time! I think Greene had intended this to be a good humoured comment to a time which was very tense upon the cold war. Things like that just don't really appeal to me, sory Greene!

Intelligent and fun
Graham Greene obviously had fun writing this wonderfully satiric send-up of the espionage business. I smiled through most of the book, and often laughed aloud, and yet the story never veers so far into farce that the reader is able to entirely forget the very real events in Russia and Cuba that made espionage a necessary evil during this perilous moment in world history.

Because this IS Graham Greene, the character development is a step above the norm: the main character, Wormold, is delightfully unexpected; his daughter is engagingly manipulative; and even the corrupt chief of police, a man who carries around a cigarette case fashioned from human skin, turns out to be something richer than the cartoon characiture of a bad guy he might have become in a less gifted author's hands. And it's not only espionage that falls victim to Greene's wit: he also hurls satiric darts at Catholicism, ugly Americans, Cuban culture, and do-gooder international organizations, to name a few.

In summary, thoroughly recommend this to anyone who enjoys their humor with a dose of intellectualism. I've read it twice already but its spot on my bookshelf is secure: one of these years I know I'll be back for more.

A Comedy of Errors
Graham Green is a masterful storyteller, and many of his novels are still as fresh and interesting as when they were first written, in many cases more than a half a century ago. He has drawn on his extensive experience as a World-traveling journalist and his time working for the British Foreign Service. This particular novel takes place in pre-revolutionary Cuba, when a lot of different interests were clashing on this Caribbean island. Havana of the time was a bustling city with a lot of international residents. One of them, a divorced Englishman with a teenage daughter, works as a vacuum-cleaner salesman. The business is not going all too well, and he is contemplating how he will continue to provide for the increasingly extravagant needs of his daughter. Unexpectedly he is recruited by the British Secret Service, and he reluctantly agrees to provide them with information that he will gather in the field. Unfortunately, he is really not cut out to be a spy, and in order to keep receiving payments for his services he is forced to invent a whole host of contacts and agents working for him. When a technical report that he sends to the home office becomes too important to handle, he is sent a young secretary in order to help him with his work. This infinitely complicates his deception, and he is at pains to keep the pretense going.

This is one of the more amusing of Graham Green's novels, although it presents a very dark kind of humor. After all, people do get killed and tortured. These are not light matters to deal with even in a satirical work like this one. Furthermore, the book was published in 1958, just a year before the overthrow of the Cuban regime. It is hard to read this book without being mindful of all the tragedies that Cuban people have endured over the past half century.

Funny and literate
I have read a lot of literature, and get tired quickly of badly written books. I just discovered this book and I'm nearly forty.

Very funny, very literate, skilled writing. It helps one to get over oneself.

Bad reviews are probably down to people who read it and find there are no bragging rights attached to that achievement.

Hilarious and Entertaining
This was the first Graham Greene novel for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.This book is a satirical look at the world of spying--set in Cuba just prior to Castro.The main character is a vacuum cleaner salesman who is reluctantly recruited to become a spy for British intelligence.The problem is that he is not cut out for the job so he just makes up his own spies and his own intelligence.That is comical enough until you find out the British and the Cubans both buy into his made up stories.What happens later is almost reminiscent of Inspector Jacques Clousteau.The ending is especially amusing.Highly recommended. ... Read more

Product Description
Charles Ryder meets Sebastian, a member of the aristocratic Flyte family, at Oxford. He then begins to spend time at the family home, Brideshead, where he is welcomed into the fold and enjoys a decadent high-society lifestyle. Things start to unravel, however, when Charles notices the cracks in the veneer: his perception of the naivety of the family's devotion to the Catholic faith, and his friend's increasing drink habit. Examining the complexity of relationships and the strength of belief, "Brideshead Revisited" is an intense semi-autobiographical listen as well as a riveting one.Amazon.com Review
One of Waugh's most famous books, Brideshead Revisitedtells the story of the difficult loves of insular Englishman CharlesRyder, and his peculiarly intense relationship with the wealthy butdysfunctional family that inhabited Brideshead. Taking place in theyears after World War II, Brideshead Revisited shows us a part ofupper-class English culture that has been disappearing steadily. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (137)

Perfection
ONe of the finest novels written in the English Language.Waugh transports you to the world of Brideshead.I was constantly startled to look up and find myself in 2010.Impeccable language and masterful storytelling are just some of the hallmarks of this treasure.I will read it again and again.

"my theme is memory"
There is little to add to the excellent reviews on this book.Nearly seventy years after its first publication in 1944 Brideshead Revisited continues to exert its spell over readers. The PBS series that aired during the 1980s was a routine topic at the "water cooler." In fact, the office eventually organized group viewing sessions so we could drink while we watched the program.It is not possible to ignore the role that Catholicism plays in this novel, but too much can be made of it as well, reducing the scope and importance of Charles Ryder's recollections.What Brideshead accomplishes at the end of the novel is, in my view, quite remarkable.To be sure, Book II of the novel can seem quite distinct from Book I, at least in that Waugh seems not to have laid the groundwork for the novel's fast moving ending.And yet, there is, throughout Brideshead an emphasis on ritual, at Oxford, at the mansion, in the community and within the family.At the end of the novel, it is ritual that forges ahead of belief -- the ritual of last rites for the family patriarch that seems to pull him to belief, not long after he (Alex) had told the attending priest:"I am not in extremis and I have not been a practicing member of your church for twenty-five years."All that past hate did, in the end, turn out to be, as Cara, Lord Marchmain's mistress earlier told us, "something in [himself that he hated] (p 103).Whatever one thinks of the outcome, Brideshead Revisited endures, not for the solution to which it points, but for the questions it raises.Thus it remains relevant from WWII to the present.

All roads lead to faith
"Brideshead Revisited" is a novel that can be read on so many levels. It is peopled with real characters that leap of the page in all of their complexity, it is a fervent convert's exuberant praise to his recently realized God, it is a glimpse of the fading aristocracy of England, and it is a story of a few people and their journey to find their faith and proper place in the world.
This book is vastly different from Waugh's satirical earlier works. There is still satire and humor in this text, but it is dryer and less central to the plot than in some of his previous novels. Also, unlike his previous efforts the characters in this novel are not caricature, but well developed human individuals. It is also rather episodic in plot and we follow the characters from their late teens to early thirties, a rather formative time in one's life.
I think that reading this novel will be a fuller experience if the reader has a religious background, and some personal experience with faith. But it is not necessary to enjoying (and getting something) from the text.
The novel deals with a close circle of friends, and depicts how they all in their own ways come to God. I feel that Mr. Waugh was trying to write a great novel of faith (my personal opinion) and to that extent I think he left religion, and the Catholic Church in particular, open to some criticism, which I don't think was his intent. However, one could read the same sections that I think expose the weakness of the church, and see them as plot details that strengthen the argument for faith. Waugh was much smarter than I, and I am going to assume that was his goal. What makes the text so layered is that one can read the novel and see a great testament to God and Church, and others can read it and just as easily argue for the destructive power of religion on individuals.To me, that is one of the greatest assets of "Brideshead Revisited".
This novel got under my skin, in a good way, and has been knocking around in my head since I finished. To me, that is high praise. I will be revisiting this text again. Probably again, and again...
Read it with a group of friends, there will be lots to digest, and the vastness of reactions this novel will be sure to engender will make the process all the more enjoyable and richer.

Still Good
I first read Brideshead Revisited at the University of Wisconsin in the mid-1960s. Then I read it for its wonderful characterizations and dialogue and for the fascinating, to me, glimpses into the mores of pre-war England, as well as for its elegiac view of traditional English culture. (I also wondered frequently what, exactly, was going on between Charles and Sebastian!)

All of those aspects remain interesting, but this time I concentrated on the theme stated by Waugh himself in his preface--'the operation of divine grace on a group of diverse but closely connected characters'. I don't want to give away the plot because it's a good one. Left to myself, I would have guessed that the theme had to do with the many varieties of love, but can see, after re-reading the book, what Waugh meant to do. There are many varieties of love among the group of people who populate this story, and Waugh considers them all to be precursors, or 'forerunners' of love for their Christian god. Waugh himself, like many midcentury English intellectuals, was a convert to Roman Catholicism.

I certainly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the English novel. It's more serious and more philosophical than Waugh's satires but has its own charms.

This is Waugh's revised 1959 edition of the book originally written in 1944 during an army furlough. Critic Frank Kermode has written an introduction and there's a brief preface by Waugh for the new edition. Also included is an interesting chronology of Waugh's life, paralleled by corresponding literary and historical events. There's also a bibliography of his works.

This Knopf Everyman's Library hardcover edition is quite attractive, with shots from the movie tie-in on the dust jacket. I had one small complaint about the physical book--the inner margins are quite narrow.

A postscript--The main character, Charles, has two children, Caroline and John. His wife insists on calling the son Johnjohn, much to Charles's dismay. This is curious, no?

I received an advance review copy from the publisher.

Good, but not as good as I expected
With 127 reviews already posted here, I know I can't add much that is new.However, I've just concurrently read the book and watched the BBC miniseries on DVD, and feel moved to leave a rating.

This book was not excellent, but it was good.I feel that the miniseries is even better than the book, and if both are unfamiliar to you, I recommend doing what I did - watch an episode of the series then read that portion of the book, then move on to the next episode.The film follows the novel so closely that this is easy to do.The miniseries brings the characters and atmospheres to life for your imagination, when you are reading the book.If you only have time for one, go for the miniseries (about 13 hours in total, but it goes quickly).

I liked the fact that all of the characters have flaws and are mainly unsympathetic.I feel I've known people like all the characters, which I think is due to the fact that I lived in the UK a long time.It's quite a British story (obviously).Much of the content of the novel is in what goes unspoken and undescribed, and the meanings of those things.I know enough about what I don't know about British society to realize that some of these things in the book escaped my attention, and that even more would escape the modern American reader not familiar with the UK.Again, this is where watching the dvd can help a little (you can at least watch the faces of the characters while they are not saying all they are thinking), and where repeating the story twice (doing book/film together) deepens one's understanding.But a lot of what Waugh thought he was conveying is probably only conveyed clearly to a certain segment of the audience, which is much smaller now than it was in the mid 20th C.

This is not an inspirational or feel-good story.It was depressing, because everything was gradually falling apart and people were constantly letting each other down and behaving selfishly and cuttingly, which feels lifelike and inevitable.

The religious content of the story was not what I imagined it would be.I am not Catholic, so it didn't appeal to me in that way, but if Waugh meant to show Catholicism in a good light or convey the romantic nature of it or show the eternal truth of it or whatever he was trying to do, it didn't work for me at all.In fact, the message I got was that religious belief is personal, it can't be explained very well to others, and it's mainly formed when one is young; from then on, it can mess with your mind especially if you don't want to live your life the way others expect you to.I'm not saying that is my pronouncement on Religion, I'm just saying that's the message that I got from the book about it.

The ending was particularly abrupt and bad. The narrative was going along slowly and normally, and then it's as if Waugh suddenly decided he was done with the whole thing, so he pounded out the last couple dozen pages and left it at that.

What I did like was how two of the half-in, half-out foreigners were shown to be more honest and direct than the Brits - Sebastian's father's mistress and the Italian stuttering Oxford classmate - a couple of their monologues helped to define what was really what, though sometimes unkindly. I also liked the gentle and delicate depiction of Sebastian's and Charles' relationship (which I took to be entirely and actively gay, physically and emotionally, and I think this is what was certainly being implied by Waugh, but I understand how some people don't want to read it like that).Gay relationships were and are an accepted part of British life, especially amongst the upper classes in their teens/early 20s.

The miniseries has given me a good insight into how a certain kind of British man can romanticize his time at Oxbridge and the late teens/early 20s generally, which the whole society is kind of geared towards idealizing.(Of course, idealizing that stage of life is normal in the US, too, but I think Americans are more likely to look forward more, and expect their futures to also be interesting and fulfilling, whereas the Brits (the more privileged ones, anyway) are more likely to feel that the highpoint of their lives was during their early 20s and that only larger or smaller waves of disappointments can be expected afterwards.)Combining what Sebastian's father mistress said (which I agree with), that British boys mature late emotionally as compared to boys of other countries, with the amazing experiences of being raised well-to-do, being taught you are better than others, going to such gorgeous universities, being cushioned and coddled up to the age of 22 (at least), it's no wonder that many idolize their halcyon days, the present never lives up to their memories, and the future is left to muddle itself up.

I wish that I had loved the book, but I didn't. I wouldn't call it a masterpiece, but it was a good book.I haven't read anything else by Waugh, and I confess that after reading this, I will push Vile Bodies and A Handful of Dust further down on my to-read-someday list, but I'll keep them on it. ... Read more

Product Description

In the never-ending war between good and evil, The Chronicles of Narnia set the stage for battles of epic proportions. Some take place in vast fields, where the forces of light and darkness clash. But other battles occur within the small chambers of the heart and are equally decisive.

Enhanced CD: Put this CD in your computer to view a gallery of Pauline Baynes' classic color illustrations, and access Narnia weblinks. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

quick delivery
great condition, quick delivery, exactly what i needed since my originals had two of one disc and missed this one. ... Read more

Product Description
This anthology of Shelley's work includes his long mythical poem "Queen Mab", his political allegory "The Revolt of Islan" and the autobiographical "Epipsychidion". It also includes a biographical narrative placing each poem in context and illuminating its significance. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

basic and most popularly printed poems
This text contains the most often anthologized poems that Shelley wrote, not the complete poems and none of his prose.This book would be a good gift for a person who is just becoming interested in Shelley (who, by the way, is NOT by any means an obscure author) but is not comprehensive enough for even an undergraduate student. I recommend the Modern Library Complete Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley instead of this for anyone who enjoys Shelley already.As for the prose, the Norton Critical volume is decent.

Shelley
This is a fairly complete volume of a moderately obscure author's work.In his short life, Shelly left behind an enormous collection of important poems both for their narrative style and political undertones.Definitely one of them most thoroughly Shelly books around. ... Read more

Product Description
This anthology contains poetry from the "Lyrical Ballads", Wordsworth's famous collection written in collaboration with Coleridge. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

beautifully done
I had forgotten how beautiful Wordsworth's poetry is. This recording, by a group of talented and skilled British actor-readers, brings the poems to life. It is a delight from beginning to end. Find any excuse you can to give it to someone as a gift: it will be one that they will enjoy for many, many years.

The greatness of Wordsworth as a poet
There are too many lines in Wordsworth and too many long poems which today are largely unread. But there is also a body of work within that far vaster world of lines which is great. There are a whole group of poems , including many from 'The Lyrical Ballads' and certainly 'Intimations on Immortality ' and certainly 'Tintern Abbey' and certainly some of the great sonnets that constitute together one of the great poetic oeuvres.
Wordsworth combines the simple and sublime as no other poet does. His relation to Nature is deep and fresh, and yet too humble and moral, wild and beautiful. His direct experiential mode of meeting Nature in youth, is transformed into something far greater in his meditative and reflective relation to it . Wordsworth somehow brings to his meetings with nature a noble cast of mind. So too in his moral sentiment there is not a preaching narrowness, but a broad vision of something far more deeply interfused . Wordsworth in giving everyday life and perception a sense of the sublime is somehow a religious poet. The sense of something sublime that flows through all things is too a sense of something Divine.
Reading Wordsworth is receiving the sense that life too and our experience have a dimension of beauty and nobility which make them supremely worthwhile.
Reading Wordsworth one feels that one is lifted up to one's own better nature.
And this too when there are in him immortal lines, which like ' the best part of a good man's life is small acts of kindness and of love' are unforgettable. ... Read more

Product Description
Gosford Park is a 2001 film directed by Robert Altman. The screenplay is by Julian Fellowes, based on an idea by Altman and producer Bob Balaban. It features an ensemble cast including Michael Gambon, Alan Bates, Derek Jacobi, Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren, Eileen Atkins, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jeremy Northam, Bob Balaban, Ryan Phillippe, Stephen Fry, Kelly Macdonald, James Wilby, Clive Owen, Emily Watson, Camilla Rutherford, Tom Hollander, and Richard E. Grant. The film is set in 1932 at an English country house. A party of wealthy Britons and Americans accompanied by their servants gather at the home of Sir William McCordle for a shooting weekend. A murder occurs in the middle of the night, the film presenting the murder from both the servants' and the guests' perspective. But rather than a simple mystery to be solved, the film uses the whodunit format to create a drama showcasing the tensions of the British class system. Many intertwining subplots detail the complex relationships among the characters, both above stairs (the wealthy guests) and below (the servants). The film was very well-received by critics, with Altman, Fellowes, Mirren, and others receiving a number of awards. ... Read more

Product Description
The Complete Chronicles of Narnia Journeys to the end of the world, fantastic creatures, and epic battles between good and evil---what more could any reader ask for? THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE, written in 1949 by Clive Staples Lewis, had all this and more. But Lewis did not stop there. Six more books followed, and together they became known as The Chronicles of Narnia. For the past fifty years, The Chronicles of Narnia have transcended the fantasy genre to become part of the canon of classic literature. Each of the seven books is a masterpiece, drawing the reader into a land where magic meets reality, and the result is a fictional world whose scope has fascinated generations. Now, some of the most noted actors of our times have come together to read these extraordinary works. This timeless boxed set includes all seven unabridged recordings: THE MAGICIAN'S NEPHEW; THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE; THE HORSE AND HIS BOY; PRINCE CASPIAN; THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER; THE SILVER CHAIR; THE LAST BATTLE. Deceptively simple and direct, The Chronicles of Narnia continue to captivate fans with adventures, characters, and truths that speak to readers of all ages, more than fifty years after they were first published.Amazon.com Review
The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis, is one of the very few sets of books that should be read three times: in childhood, early adulthood, and late in life. In brief, four children travel repeatedly to a world in which they are far more than mere children and everything is far more than it seems. Richly told, populated with fascinating characters, perfectly realized in detail of world and pacing of plot, and profoundly allegorical, the story is infused throughout with the timeless issues of good and evil, faith and hope. This boxed set edition includes all seven volumes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1123)

Beautiful book, but heavy
A beautiful book!But it was cross-listed with the paperback boxed set books, so I thought I was ordering smaller hardback books in a set.This large one-book volume has nice illustrations and the same great C.S. Lewis tales, but weighs heavily in the lap.A more precise distinction should be listed when this book and the boxed set are shown together.

Narnia Book Set
This is a very good set.My teenagers read it over and over.Great price, makes a nice gift.

1
I love these books, they are purely amazing. Their tale incorporates a wondrous adventure, that takes the reader away. They strike a deep feeling within, they become part of your life after you read them, if you fully understand them

My Family Loved These!
We took a family vacation with our two young boys and listened to three entire stories during the hours and hours we spent on the road. My boys LOVED these stories! The actors do such an amazing job at making each character come to life. Kenneth Brannaugh was a favorite of ours. I would encourage anyone with small children to buy this set, especially for long drives.

review for the used item
I thought by being in used good condition they would be what I considered "good" for used.I keep my books very well kept.These look very very very used. ... Read more