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Customer Reviews (7)

Depends on what you're looking for
If you think there's any value in the authorship question, this book isn't likely to help you.Apparently, not only characters but the sources of the most interesting information are transparently fabricated, as I learned when I tried to track down the Zelle source and learned it was only Mata Hari's real surname.So I suppose the book amounts to a parody of other authorship writing.Post-modern cool? So that's why the Brooklyn Public Library (from which or from one of whose borrowers the copy I bought online from Better Book Worlds was apparently stolen--no "DISCARD" stamp) had indeed shelved it under FICT.

Taken In
I was taken in, not by the book, but by the library that shelved this book in the biography section instead of in fiction. The library was probably taken in by the end-of-book notes, although a cursory glance at said notes gives away the fictional character of the work. In the endnotes, there's a lot of "I embellished the facts here to improve the story" and "I invented this character." Every single footnote is made up. The index, on the other hand, is real, as is the bibliography.

I'm one of those who believe Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare's plays, but in this book, Shakespeare hardly gets credit for living. I'm not sure I can finish this book. I was looking for a life of Marlowe, and this ain't it.

Well, I did finish the book, but I was frustrated throughout. One of the totally made-up characters is named Oliver Laurens. Don't I remember a fellow named Laurence Olivier, who had some little influence on the drama a few centuries after Marlowe lived? Then there's a reference to a made-up writer named Bernard Rosine. Odd that Rosine Bernard was the real name of Sarah Bernhardt. And here's another pseudo-writer, Julius Marx. Shades of Julius "Groucho" Marx. It was all too confusing for me.

The very title of the book, HISTORY PLAY, is two-edged. Half history and half play (as in games and puzzles, not drama).

Very clever
The footnotes alone are worth the price of the book - very, very funny!

Really gets you thinking about how scholars write Shakespeare biographies from very skimpy evidence.

Marlowe's genius and absolutely fascinating life wonderfully captured by Bolt.Fun, educational, irreverent.

fiction, but what fun
Farfetched, but lots of fun to read.Very imaginative and I, for one, would be happy if it were true that poor Kit was not murdered, but lived on to create.

I enjoyed the descriptions of the politics and personalities of the time, especially my favorite villain, Sir Robert Cecil.

Clever, witty, ENTERTAINING!
If you're a fan of Shakespeare, and want a way to experience the flavor of life in his times (Elizabethan England), there is no better book from the standpoint of entertainment and thought-provoking suppositions. Fiction? OF COURSE! And the author admits it. But what FUN! (This book has for me a lot of the exciting "you are there" of the film Shakespeare In Love: wildly informative and entertaining quasi-fantasy.) ... Read more

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Drawing on three decades of feminist scholarship bent on rediscovering lost and abandoned women writers, Susan Staves provides a comprehensive history of women's writing in Britain from the Restoration to the French Revolution. This major work of criticism also offers fresh insights about women's writing in all literary forms, not only fiction, but also poetry, drama, memoir, autobiography, biography, history, essay, translation and the familiar letter. Authors celebrated in their own time and who have been neglected, and those who have been revalued and studied, are given equal attention. The book's organisation by chronology and its attention to history challenge the way we periodise literary history. Each chapter includes a list of key works written in the period covered, as well as a narrative and critical assessment of the works. This magisterial work includes a comprehensive bibliography and list of prevalent editions of the authors discussed. ... Read more

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This study presents a compendium of statistical material relating to the Welsh language in the 19th century. Divided into five sections, the statistical findings are presented in tabular form, together with explanatory maps. The volume offers a mirror to the changing linguistic character of Wales in a critical period in its history. ... Read more

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The Oxford English Literary History is the new century's definitive account of a rich and diverse literary heritage that stretches back for a millennium and more. Each of these groundbreaking volumes offers a leading scholar's considered assessment of the authors, works, cultural traditions, events, and ideas that shaped the literary voices of their age. The series will enlighten and inspire not only everyone studying, teaching, and researching in English Literature, but all serious readers. Overstepping traditional period divisions, this volume in the new Oxford English Literary History runs from 1350 to the death of Henry VIII. It thus spans the extraordinary burst of English literary writing in the reign of Richard II; powerful phases of fifteenth-century literature; and the cultural revolution provoked by the split with Rome. Although potent traditions praise both the 'Reformation' and 'Renaissance' as liberating movements, this book argues the reverse. Sixteenth-century centralization instead narrowed possibilities enjoyed by late medieval writers, whose work was energized by generic and stylistic diversity. From roughly 1350 a wide range of literary kinds flourished, in a wide range of dialects. Many of these texts can be described as a mixed commonwealth of styles and genres, such as Langland's Piers Plowman, Gower's Confessio Amantis, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the dramatic 'mystery' cycles, and Malory's works. In the sixteenth century that stylistic variety gave way to a literary practice that prized coherence and unity above all. Some kinds of writing, especially romance, survived the cultural revolution. Others, such as Langland's attempt to reform the Church, the broadbased politics of Gower and Hoccleve, and the feminine visionary mode of Julian of Norwich, became untenable. For all its finely tuned classicism or Protestant energy, sixteenth-century writing--by figures such as Wyatt, Surrey, and the dramatist John Bale--emerges as the product of profoundly divided writers, torn between their commitment to the new order and their awareness of its painful, often destructive constraints. ... Read more

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Britain possesses a literary heritage virtually unrivaled in the Western world.This lavishly illustrated volume explores the richness, diversity, and continuity of that tradition.Under the general editorship of Pat Rogers, some of Britain's foremost literary scholars trace the history of English literature from its first stirrings in Anglo-Saxon poetry to the present day.
The contributors aim to convey to the reader the pleasure and exhilaration of literature, rather than to provide a bare outline of schools and periods of writing. At the heart of the volume towers the figure of Shakespeare, who has a special chapter devoted entirely to himself.The volume also offer detailed treatments of other major writers such as Chaucer, Milton, Donne, Wordsworth, Dickens, Eliot, and Auden, and up-to-date discussions of living authors such as Muriel Spark and Seamus Heaney.More than a mere chronology, this versatile work provides a basic core of information and invaluable supplementary material, including suggestions for further reading, maps, a chronological table of dates, and a detailed index with birth and death dates of individuals listed.It also moves beyond these facts and events to characterize the broad sweep of ideas and the main concerns of British writers over the past thirteen centuries.
The illustrations chosen--thirty-five in color and over two hundred in black and white--bring to life the content and concerns of the text.They range in subject from manuscripts and book illustrations to works of art and architecture, portraits, social scenes, landscapes, and caricatures, illuminating not only the literature but also the ideas, preoccupations, and outlooks that fostered it.Rather than simply decorating the text, the illustrations complement and enlarge it.
All experts in their chosen areas, the contributors bring to this volume a deep understanding and great enthusiasm and zest for their subject. Collectively, they have woven together the complex strands of English literature into a highly readable narrative. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Complete Guide to British Literature
This book is a must for teachers of English literature or those who love to know all the details. Pat Rogers has included information from Beowulf to the 20th century. I use this book to supplement textbook information for my students. This book is an excellent resource for historical,biographical and literary information. This is the one book I must have onmy bookshelf. ... Read more

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'A remarkable feat of scholarship, fairness and readability, full of lively detail with a freshness of style which brings new life to the narrative' Anthony SampsonThroughout its turbulent history, South Africa has frequently been the focus of worldwide attention -- usually hostile. Yet prejudice and ignorance about the country are widespread. The evolution of the present-day 'Rainbow Nation' has taken place under conditions of sometimes extreme pressure. Since long before the arrival of the first European settlers in the seventeenth century, the country has been home to a complex and uneasily co-existing blend of races and cultures, and successive waves of immigrants have added to the already volatile mixture. Despite the euphoria which greeted the dismantling of the apartheid system and the election as President of Nelson Mandela in April 1994, South Africa's history, racial mix and recent political upheavals suggest it will not easily free itself from the legacy of its tumultuous past. Newly revised and updated, Frank Welsh's vividly written, even-handed and authoritative history casts new light on many of South Africa's most cherished myths.Like his A History of Hong Kong, it will surely come to be regarded as definitive. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Still trying to finish its just boring.
I found this book incredibly dry. I generally enjoy history books - and as a new resident of South Africa, reading on SA history is important to me.I can't read more than 10 pages of this book at a time.I've learned a lot - that's good.But its killing me its so boring.Nothing like reading, say, David McCullough. ... Read more

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Priming the Pump: How TRS-80 Microcomputer Enthusiasts Helped Spark the PC Revolution by David Welsh and Theresa Welsh takes you back to the largely unknown origins of personal computing. Personal computers grew out of a hobbyist movement in the 1970s, as some began experimenting with the new microchips, building their own computers. Kit computers appeared, available from small mail order companies, but the computer that brought a wider audience to personal computing was the TRS-80 Model I, introduced by Tandy Corporation in August 1977. It was the first complete mass market, off-the-shelf microcomputer that anyone could buy for $599.95. And it was available at 3500 Radio Shack stores nationwide.

Introduction of the TRS-80 meant, for the first time, anyone could experiment with software and affordably use word processing, spreadsheets, accounting, database and other applications... except for one thing: there weren't any programs. So, of necessity, new computer owners became programmers, and enterprising individuals working in basements and garages created the software everyone wanted. Many of them had never done any programming before.

The authors were part of a community of entrepreneurs who sold software for the TRS-80. Besides telling their own story, they also collected stories from key innovators from that era, including some who had never been interviewed before about their contributions to computing. The technology that originated with these amazing microcomputer pioneers went on to change life in fundamental ways and their stories are the heart of this book.There were programmers who created fabulous games like Dancing Demon, Microchess, Oregon Trail and the Scott Adams Adventures; there were rivals who created five different Disk Operating Systems for the TRS-80 and one man's fight with Tandy over who owned the code; there were scam artists who offered products that were too good to be true, and brilliant visionaries who were first with software features later "invented" by big companies with more money but not more talent.

The authors relate how Don French, a computer hobbyist who worked for Radio Shack at the time, suggested to his bosses that they capitalize on the latest craze, home-built computers. Radio Shack took a chance and hired young Steve Leininger away from Silicon Valley and told him to build a machine they could sell cheap. Working alone in an old saddle factory in Fort Worth, he built the first TRS-80; its total development costs were less than $150,000.

Author David Welsh was one of those self-taught computer-buyer/programmers. He created a word processor, Lazy Writer, and, working with his wife Theresa, sold copies worldwide to enthusiastic fans who were eager to ditch their typewriters. This was before Microsoft was a household word, when software was new and exciting and everyone was learning. Software generally had only one author, and programmers were proud of their work; some became stars. David and Thesesa Welsh, who lived through it all, have captured the defining moments and excitement of this era, with the untold stories from the microcomputer pioneers whose efforts and love for their "trash-80" helped spark the PC revolution that followed. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

A Fun Read
Having worked for Radio Shack Repair from the late 70s through the 80s and buying my 1st computer (a model III), the book brought back a lot of good memories. Sharing programs/info., learning Basic, writing a few useful programs, learning a little assembly language from my brother-in-law who was a programmer at Data Point.

I enjoyed learning more about what was going on behind the scenes.

I love this book, polish or not
I enjoyed this book thoroughly, read it cover-to-cover. It would be a shame to focus on whether this book has enough "polish". If you are interested in this topic, I encourage you to check it out. The writing is clean and easy, and I tore through the book with no problem. There are wonderful photographs and reproductions of old TRS-80 ads. The story is really about not only the TRS-80, but the early microcomputer movement, and how it was overtaken by the PC revolution. It's also a personal story of a self-taught programmer and husband-wife entrepreneur team. I am so glad this book was written, because this is an important and entertaining story. I can only hope that someone will do something similar for the TRS-80 Color Computer, which was the machine I grew up on and put myself through college with.

A fascinating look into the world of micro computing from a professional who was there from the begining.
This book offers a first hand account of a family that was involved in Software development for Tandy's TRS-80.The love these users have for the "Trash 80" comes through in these pages.This book painstakingly chronicles the rise and fall of the micro computing industry in the heady days before the PC rose to prominence.

The story is interesting, but I felt this book could have stood a little editing.There were several places where I would skim through a few pages to get past the description of interpersonal turmoil to get back to the "interesting" bits.This book was obviously a labor of love, so I feel bad criticizing it, but I was hoping for more of a straight up "history of the TRS-80" and analysis of the business of micro computing and what I got was more of a story about entrepreneurship.

Still if you are curious about what it was like to develop software for the TRS-80 this book contains a lot of gems.

Heady Times & Lost Legends
Oh, the memories. This is a book that you can judge by its cover; doesn't it remind you of something you'd see in the hobby book section of a Radio Shack circa 1980, sandwiched in between the SAMS photofacts books and ham radio antenna guides? "Priming The Pump" is a very personal recollection of early microcomputer history, more along the lines of Stan Veit's "History Of The Personal Computer" than Brian Bagnall's journalistic "On The Edge: The Spectacular Rise And Fall Of Commodore" (both great reading.)

Put briefly, David & Theresa Welsh's book is exactly how I remember the glory days of 8-bit microcomputers. For those who weren't there, these "Wonder Years" of personal computing were a hobbyist renaissance of Edisonian proportions, full of wonder and small-community values, laced with inventiveness and packed with more than a bit of 60's idealism. So empowering was the concept of having a privately-owned personal computer, that only a few years after the Big Three (Apple, Commodore & Radio Shack) first hit the shelves, universities in the U.S. experienced an explosion of new computer science majors that has not been equaled since.

"Priming The Pump" picks up where John Markoff's "What The Dormouse Said" leaves off - and if you enjoy this type of history, these two books are ones you should read before moving on to what has since become the Revealed Truth of the Silicon Valley, Robert X. Cringely's "Accidental Empires" (and from there, pretty much every biopic involving Steve Jobs and/or Bill Gates.) This is not that book.

What David and Theresa have done is write the Rest Of The Story viewed through Tandy glasses, and a very personal pair at that - a story of entrepreneurship, early technology and background on most of the major individual contributors from the TRS-80 days whose history has been nothing short of opaque despite being quite possibly the world's most popular home computer up until the introduction of the IBM PC in 1981. Here, for the first time in print, Steve Leininger (The TRS-80's Steve Wozniak) and Randy Cook (its Gary Kildall) get their due. What, you haven't heard of these guys? Chuck Peddle (inventor of the Commodore 64) gets his due in Brian Bagnall's book - and, like Leininger and Cook, the reason these guys aren't household names is because their parent companies were rather faceless as opposed to being cults of personality emerging from a garage. Today, only Apple is left among the original members of this garage cult, and as the sole company remaining we should appreciate that there were once many voices, equally fresh and innovative in their day.

While writing the book was an 8-year labor of love for the authors, reading the book is similar - it's so "you are there" personal that it's akin to reading Bill Bryson's "Thunderbolt Kid" if Bill had become a TRS-80 programmer. But if you weren't there, you're going to be at odds with the lack of journalistic distance with which the book is written. The Welshes are not writing from a Voice Of God 3rd-person perspective here - this is more like Beat journalism, where you are down in the trenches at the West Coast Computer Faire once again, dealing with crappy distribution, Empyrean magazine publishers (Wayne Green!) and larger-than-life mini companies (Adventure International, Micro Systems Software, etc.) along with the nightmare of being new parents trying to make ends meet.

With this in mind, the only information I would have added - LNW Research, where art thou? LNW, the Cadillac of TRS-80 clone makers and kit-builders, is mentioned only in passing despite sharing the stage with Logical Systems (of LDOS and Lobo MAX-80 fame), the only significant 3rd-party hardware companies to orbit Tandy's solar system.

A fantastic, if sentimental, read!

Some Good Information, but lacks polish
If you are a die-hard fan of the history of microcomputers, then this book may be worth your time. Personally, I found it to be poorly written, and lacking any polish.

Typos, missing articles, inconsistencies, repetition, and difficult to read passages are the norm.There are some good stories, but they are not well-told.

The authors mention that they did quite a bit of freelance writing to support themselves.You would never know it by looking critically at what they have written.

I finally gave up and moved on to another book in my reading pile. ... Read more

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The tales surrounding Sweeney Todd's notorious barber shop in London's Fleet Street have entertained generations of audiences and have made Todd himself one of the most famous - or perhaps notorious - characters in the city's history. The Wonderful and Surprising History of Sweeney Todd traces the fortunes of Todd's narrative from its earliest 'proper' appearance as a Victorian 'penny blood' in 1846-47, and then as a popular melodrama on the stage, through to its twentieth-century manifestation in film, ballet, musicals, and opera up to current and future productions, including the forthcoming Tim Burton/Johnny Depp film version of Stephen Sondheim's 1979 Broadway masterpiece.

Each successive generation has found a compelling fascination in Sweeney Todd's themes of avarice, ambition, desire, appetite, retribution, justice, and cannibalism.Following in the footsteps of the myth, this fascinating book takes the reader on a journey from the roots of the story in the alleyways and pie-shops of Victorian London to its modern incarnations on stage, screen and in popular culture. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Devotee's Delight
If you are a Devotee of the legend/story/history/you-name-it of Sweeney Todd you should devour this book.Notice the capital "D".At times Mack gives us just a bit too much info, but then again it's all interesting.Of course, discourses on the general subject of cannibalism are a necessary part of the story.What's nice is that although it was published just before Johnny Depp added his interpretation for the benefit of the public at large, Mack touches on the story behind this latest film production...quoting Sondheim and Depp among others.A must-read starts on page 108 when the classic original story "The String of Pearls" is summarized. ... Read more

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Howard Marchitello's study of narrative techniques in Renaissance discourse analyzes imaginative conjunctions of literary texts, such as those by Shakespeare and Thomas Browne, with developments in scientific and technical writing. Narrative was used in the Renaissance as both a mode of discourse and an epistemology; it produced knowledge, but also dictated how that knowledge should be understood. Marchitello uses a wide range of cultural documents to illustrate the importance of narrative in constructing the Renaissance understanding of time and identity. ... Read more

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Describes Welsh life and customs, from the time of the earliest workers of flint tools and weapons down to the emergency of political nationalism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. ... Read more

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"Inside Out" is a brief guide to the highlights of Welsh history..."Inside Out" is a new series that an insider's guide to Wales. "Highlights of Welsh History" is a brief but comprehensive journey through the most notable points of Welsh history - from the ancient Celts right through to devolution and the formation of the Welsh National Assembly. It presents a view of the history of Wales from within, looking at the events and people that have shaped the country and are still important within Wales. Some are widely known amongst the people of Wales, others are figures who are perhaps not so well known, but whose legacy lives on to this day, and whose stories are waiting to be told. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The best introduction to researching Welsh ancestors.
It this little volume, you have all the basic elements which makes Welsh research unique.Language, Non-Conformity, and patronymic surname origins are just a few of the key issues describedwith research advice andexamples given.

This book is the best way to learn about the challengesof Welsh genealogy.

WONDERFUL for beginners!
Only 4 stars because it reads like a textbook, but then it REALLY is... on Welsh genealogy.For someone like myself (researching the surname Jones) it was a God-send.Read it before wasting a moment researching.There area LOT of pitfalls and this book reveals them ALL!HIGHLY recommended! ... Read more

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This is a history of how the bible came to be translated into Welsh and its remarkable influence on Welsh life and culture. In 1563 the Act for the Translation of the Scripture and the Divine Service into Welsh was passed by Parliament. It was ordered by Elizabeth I's government, largely because it became apparent that the Welsh could not be converted to the Protestant faith without the use of their native tongue. Fears of foreign Catholic invasion made it imperative that they should be converted wholesale to the new religion to avoid any threat to the security of the realm. The translation of the Scriptures into Welsh has traditionally been regarded as one of the major factors responsible for the preservation of the Welsh language. It was also fundamentally important for the successful introduction of Protestantism and the later growth of Nonconformity. The impact of the "Welsh Bible" was, however, even more far-reaching, heavily influencing Welsh culture, language and literature for generations. This book would provide a survey of the significance of the Welsh translation of the Bible and its subsequent influence from the sixteenth century into the twentieth century. ... Read more

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

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Specifically written for the WJEC syllabuses, this text covers the history of Wales and Britain between 1906 and 1951. An English version is also available. ... Read more