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Great book featuring the history and role of the piano in culture and society. 110 color and black and white illustrations / photographs of pianos, piano players, pianos in film, movies, famous pianos, pianos of famous people, pianos in art, cartoons, advertisements. Includes a bibliography.Softcover. 461 pages. Measures 8 by 10 inches. Interesting book, nicely illustrated. ... Read more

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IVORY APES AND PEACOCKS; JOSEPH CONRAD, WALT WHITMAN, JULES LAPORGUE, DOSTOIEVSKY AND TOLSTOY, SCHOENBERG, WEDEKIND, MOUSSORGSKY, C ZANNE, VERB EER, MATISSE, VAN GOGH, GAUGUIN, ITALIAN FUTURISTS, VARIOUS LATTER-DAY POETS, PAINTERS, COMPOSERS AND DRAMATISTS - 1915 - CONTENTS PAGE I I. THE GENIUS OF JOSEPH CONXAD . . . . I IV. DOSTO EVS A K F Y . T OLSTOY AN , D THE YOUNGER CHOIR O F RUSSIANW RITERS . . . . 52 V. I. ARNOLDS CROENBERG . . . . . . 89 I II. IUS O I F C T O-DAY A ND TO-MORROW . . I04 VI. F m WEDEKIND . . . . . . . . 121 L VIII. RICRARDS TRAUSS A T STUTTGAR . T . . . 153 IX. MAX LIEBERMANN AN D SOXE PHASES OF MODERNG ERMANA RT. . . . . . 173 X. A MUSICAL P RIMITIVE M ODESTEM OUSSORG SKY . . . . . . . . . . . I90 XII. RUBIN M , UNCR, A ND GAUGUINM ASTERS O F HALLUCINATIO . N . . . . . . . 2 22 XIII. Tm CULT OF TEE NUANCE LAFCADIO HEARN . . . . . . . . . . 240 vii CONTENTS PAGE XIV . I . THE M ELANCHO O L F Y M ASTERPIECES . 249 I1 . ITALIAN FU TURISTP AINTER . S . . 2 62 XVI . A S OF YDE M AUPASSANT . . . . 2 88 XVIII . THREE DISAGREEABLGEI RLS . . . . . 3 11 viii IVORY APES AND PEACOCKS THE GENIUS OF JOSEPH CONRAD IN these piping days when fiction plays the handmaid or prophet to various propaganda when the majority of writers are trying to prove something, or acting as venders of some new-fangled social nostrums when the insistent drums of the Great God Rkclame are bruising human tympani, the figure of Joseph Conrad stands solitary among English novelists as the very ideal of a pure and disinterested artist. Amid the clamour of the marketplace a book of his is a sea-shell which pressed to the ear echoes the far-away murmur of the sea always the sea, either as rigid as a mirror under hard, blue skies or shuddering syrnphonically up some exotic beach. Conrad is a painter doubled by a psychologist he is the psychologist of the sea - and that is his chief claim to originality, his Peak of Darien. He knows and records its every pulse-beat. His genius has the rich, salty tang of an Elizabethan adventurer and the spaciousness of those. times. Imagine a Polish sailor who read Flaubert and the English Bible, who bared his head under equatorial few large stars and related his doings in rhythmic, sonorous, coloured prose imagine a man from a landlocked country who midway in his mortal life began writing for the first time and in an alien tongue, and, added to an almost abnormal power of description, possessed the art of laying bare the human soul, not after the meticulous manner of the modern Paul Prys of psychology, but following the larger method of Flaubert, who believed that actions should translate character-imagine these paradoxes and you have partly imagined Joseph Conrad, who has so finely said that imagination, and not invention, is the supreme master of art as of life. He has taken the sea-romance of Smollett, Marryat, Melville, Dana, Clark Russell, Stevenson, Becke, Kipling, and for its well-worn situations has substituted not only many novel nuances, but invaded new territory, revealed obscure atavisms and the psychology lurking behind the mask of the savage, the transpositions of dark souls, and shown us a world of kings, demagogues, priests, charlatans, dukes, giraffes, cabinet ministers, bricklayers, apostles, ants, scientists, KaErs, soldiers, sailors, elephants, lawyers, dandies, microbes, and constellations of a universe whose amazing spectacle is a moral end in itself. In his Reminiscences Mr... ... Read more

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In this major new study of Henry James' classic text of cultural criticism, The American Scene, Beverly Haviland shows how James confronted the vexing problem of making sense of the past so that he could make culture work. In this record of his 1904-5 return to America and in his unfinished novels, The Sense of the Past and The Ivory Tower, he interpreted the social conflicts that seemed to be paralyzing relations between men and women, between black and white Americans, between "natives" and "aliens," between defenders of taste and censors of waste. Haviland's own method brings historical and theoretical readings into conversation with each other. ... Read more

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(Book Jacket Status: Not Jacketed)

Introduction by Alfred Kazan

First published in 1910, Howards End is the novel that earned E. M. Forster recognition as a major writer. At its heart lie two families—the wealthy and business-minded Wilcoxes and the cultured and idealistic Schlegels. When the beautiful and independent Helen Schlegel begins an impetuous affair with the ardent Paul Wilcox, a series of events is sparked—some very funny, some very tragic—that results in a dispute over who will inherit Howards End, the Wilcoxes' charming country home. As much about the clash between individual wills as the clash between the sexes and the classes, Howards End is a novel whose central tenet, "Only connect," remains a powerful prescription for modern life.

From the Trade Paperback edition.


From the Hardcover edition.Amazon.com Review
Margaret Schlegel, engaged to the much older, widowed HenryWilcox, meets her intended the morning after accepting his proposaland realizes that he is a man who has lived without introspection ortrue self-knowledge. As she contemplates the state of Wilcox's soul,her remedy for what ails him has become one of the most oft-quotedpassages in literature:

Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Onlyconnect the prose and the passion and both will be exalted, and humanlove will be seen at its height. Live in fragments nolonger.

Forster's 1910 novel begins as a collection of seemingly unrelatedevents--Helen's impulsive engagement to Paul Wilcox; a chance meetingbetween the Schlegel sisters and an impoverished clerk named LeonardBast at a concert; a casual conversation between the sisters and HenryWilcox in London one night. But as it moves along, these disparatethreads gradually knit into a tightly woven fabric of tragicmisunderstandings, impulsive actions, and irreparable consequences,and, eventually, connection. Though set in the early years of the 20thcentury, Howards End seems even more suited to our ownfragmented era of e-mails and anger. For readers living in such anage, the exhortation to "only connect" resonates ever moreprofoundly. --Alix Wilber ... Read more

Customer Reviews (72)

More Difficult to Follow and Less Satisfying
I greatly enjoyed A Passage to India and A Room With a View.Howard's End shares many of their assets - character development, period description, adventure, surprises, cultural and political awareness.However, many of the events seemed disconnected or irrelevant.None of the characters were especially lovable or heroic.The author highlights the difficulties of finding meaning (or a place) in life for a wide variety of individuals.Perhaps the disruption of the historical comforts of a settled social structure is the main message of this 1910 work. Like the other two novels, this work focuses on the frustrations of making meaningful connections with others during a time of change.

Not a vibrant portrait
`Howards End' is not E.M. Forster's best work and it should not be used as compulsory reading in schools. It is not a vibrant portrait of Edwardian English society. The characters are not wonderful. The novel is rather a boring confrontation of types (not characters), like the cold, cheating plutocrat, the independent suffragette, the bowing servant, the unemployed downtrodden or the germanophile.
`Having a mistress' or `unwelcome' engagements do not stir scandalous remarks today. They are cheered in popular newspapers with big headlines.

Technically, the novel is far from flawless. One example: the introduction, the interventions and the final act of the poor family (the Basts) are clumsy, artificial and improbable, and that all the more in a novel about `property', where Leonard Bast is an insurance clerk.

The overall atmosphere is too sentimental with many overreactions and a lot of superficial dialogues.
This is not a good introduction to E. M. Forster's work. A far better one is `Where Angels Fear to Tread.'
Only for E.M. Forster fans.

Spirit of that time
Speaking as one who wasn't there, I know, but...it seems to me that Howard's End captures perhaps more than any other book the spirit of the early 20th century. It deals with the morality, the intellectual revival and awakening of women and the community, the development of feminism, social mobility, the changing world and neo-imperialism. All these issues are approached through following 3 families over a period of years and life-changing events: the Schlegels, the Wilcoxes and the Basts. The theme for the novel, and one of its protagonist's motto is "only connect", and indeed by the end of the novel the three famiies have made an enduring connection. The lives of the characters, the time spirit and the detail make it an enjoyable read.

super fast shipping! thanks!
just started on the book but am enjoying it immensely. i found out about it through a film review class i was taking last semester. so far, a great read.

such a beautiful and worthy dilemma
The stories of the two vastly differenct families that represent the disparities in the rapidly modernizing English society--Intellect vs. materialism, idealism vs. pragmatism, art/literature vs. buiness/wealth, and the issues about genders, relationships/marriages, death, fate, and social/economic classes.Yet the inquiries, raised by the Schlegels sisters, particularly by the more pensive one of the two, margaret, and the manner and eloquence in which she asks these questions deeply moved me both intellectually and emotionally as well.I think that she asks all the fundamental questions that are still relevant to all the thinking persons in our time, and her desire of "connecting" resonates throughout the book. The writing is beautiful, funny, and poignant. This is absolutely a lovely, lovely book. ... Read more

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The Enchantment series is designed to provide maximum overall coverage of the subject nation.Each covers the same contents.The series has been very widely used in U.S.A. schools.But the many human interest stories have made itfascinating reading for young and old. ... Read more