Product Description
Like her previous books, this book will be the result of the author's passionate interest in the realities of everyday life - and the conditions in which most people lived - so often left out of history books. This period of mid Victorian London encompasses a huge range of subjects : Victoria's wedding and the place of the royals in popular esteem; how the very poor lived, the underworld, prostitution, crime, prisons and transportation; the public utilities - Bazalgette on sewers and road design, Chadwick on pollution and sanitation; private charities - Peabody, Burdett Coutts - and workhouses; new terraced housing and transport, trains, omnibuses and the Underground; furniture and decor; families and the position of women; the prosperous middle classes and their new shops, e.g. Peter Jones, Harrods; entertaining and servants, food and drink; unlimited liability and bankruptcy; the rich, the marriage market, taxes and anti-semitism; the Empire, recruitment and press-gangs. The period begins with the closing of the Fleet and Marshalsea prisons and ends with the first (steam-operated) Underground trains and the first Gilbert & Sullivan.All the splendours and horrors of Victorian life will be vividly recalled. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Victorian London - 1840-1870 - Liza Picard
Liza Picard opens up this book To Londoners, but I can safely add to history lovers, tourist and anyone fascinated with this Victorian era for the years of 1840-1870 there is simply a wealth of information about the social everyday life of Londoners. For all modern day Londoners living the life no need to look down at the pavement on your daily drudge to work because after reading this book you may look up and have thoughts of enlightenment and wonder. This era gives you an account of how you came to travel the underground so next time you hear that automated voice over at the station "This train is delayed, due to the previous train being delayed.. and so on" for clarification, the delay started back in the 19th century. Victorian buildings you may pass were a base from which a great idea was formed, everything is right before our very eyes, this book welcomes us back to a fascinating city.

I'm firstly going to bring everyone into the lay out and expectations when reading through. Incredibly researched, primary sources have been used but its been investigated much much further for detail. Its then I would say been divided into themed references and then themes form chapters, each broken down into many small sub-sections. Themes: Buildings, the river, the streets, working, middle, upper classes and royalty, domestic service, poverty, railway, Crystal Palace at Sydenham, Great Exhibition, health, fashions, language, food, and so on. Theme example: Under Practicalities: The postal services, subs: the stamp introduction, letterboxes, post offices when the first uniforms were worn and fashion ect ect. This builds up an image in the mind, of people, a place, an area and a sense of time in an observant way. Letters left behind of those times which is about real peoples lives, voices from all walks of life, at the workhouses, a ladies maid, the upper class as they sit down to dinner or a butler who kept a diary for a year noting his daily grind. These voices form and produce a much more vivid picture as we follow through the book.

Smell: Pick the worst smell you can think of and hold that thought because that is the odor you'll be walking around London with before a sewerage system was devised. Once the sewers were in place the book explains in detail the trails and tribulations, first problems it caused water pipes and sewers were run to close together and how the matter was resolved, the hugh overhaul, which saved lives. We then go on to costs, how much to have a lavatory installed, the flush system that were put into a middle class family home. It made for a dramatic change to a bustling city and an idea used in others cities around the world.

1840 -1870 the dwellers of London were thriving with new ideas and invention during the Victorian age these were the years London was ripped apart to make way for railway lines and stations even showing the first congestion of traffic as London came to a stand still while this upheaval took place but again the outcome, it generated work or allowed people in every day life to travel to locations they had only heard of. A man named Thomas Cook set up a business venture in 1841 and made his first deal with the railways, trips were organized in groups and were made cost effective. known in those days as the Thomas Cook Excursions in 1851 he was a successful entrepreneur making it possible for people to travel far and wide, he was prepared at affordable prices to let many see with their own eyes the Great Exhibition.

Liza Picard has added a sense of humor everywhere in this book from mens latest fashion in beards and dress entire, hat problems at the opera or ladies fashion problems when getting on the omnibuses. We are also given a crash course by leaflets issued at that time on the art of fainting, corsets being tight to the point of not breathing, "make sure there's a couch behind you if you feel you must faint, we can't always rely on a gentleman to lunge and catch". The Marriage certificate was framed and used to decorate the wall at home in the 1850's...... how many would go up if that came back into fashion today?

We go into schools looking at education, we also look at religion, places for amusement, prisons, crime, punishment even death and cemeteries the information is plenty and sometimes surprising. This books recreates the industries, inventions and London life with all its many sides, splendor, misery, cruelty, vices or pleasures all the while keeping it entertaining you also have illustrations showing this extraordinary age. I can honestly say I learnt much from this book and thoroughly enjoyed every minuet. Congratulations Liza Picard has my attention and I will be looking at other books written.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in this History era

Andrea Bowhill

Fascinating
I really enjoy the Victorian Era and this book, really explores the life and times of those who lived in Victorian London. From sewers to crime, the author covers what life was life, and how the people lived, and what customs and society expected of them. For instance, I was surprised to learn that in Victorian England people kept pigs in their basements, and prisoners were forced in some prisons to push a giant wheel. My favorite parts were those about domestic service, cooking and the parts about Victoria and Albert.

This is a must-read for Victorian-philes.

Every aspect of London social history that you can imagine
I've read almost every book in print on London social history, so I thought no author could hold my attention on this topic, yet Liza Picard's book was a delight to read, as she put a new spin on well-tread ground.

The author covers every conceivable aspect: the infrastructure, daily lives of all social classes, and every other topic you can think of. Liza Picard puts a special emphasis on the perspective of Victorian women. This was an era when the only way a woman could have a reasonable life was to marry someone who could support her; women defined "a good marriage" far more generously than they do today. The options open to an unmarried woman - even a well-educated woman - were incredibly bleak.

Every chapter provides unexpected tidbits of historical trivia, such as the fact that London homes had a mail delivery every hour for twelve hours per day, which also gives a clue about the typical workday. In this book, no leaf has been left unturned, yet the prose flows very smoothly in a tightly organized structure. The 23 chapter headings are: Smells [sewers], river, streets, railways, buildings, practicalities, destitution, working class, middle class, upper class, domestic service, houses, food, clothes, health, amusements, The Great Exhibition, The Crystal Palace, education, women, crimes, religion, and death. There are 45 illustrations, mostly period drawings, some in color.

Ms. Picard is 79 at this time, and the biographical blurb says this completes her series of four books on London social history. Surely she isn't thinking of retirement? There is plenty of scope for a fifth book and beyond.

Another Delightful View of London History
This is the fourth book the author has written on the history of London.The others dealt with Elizabethan, Restoration, and Dr. Johnson's London.Much as its predecessors, this volume on early Victorian London is a treasure and a delight to read.While the author focuses upon some of the physical aspects of the city (i.e., rivers, streets, buildings), the book really is much more concerned with the daily life of the city during the (1840-1870) period, and that is its great strength. Therefore, there are chapters for example on poverty, the class system, domestic service (a hard way to go), houses and gardens, food, clothing (surprisingly interesting), health, the Crystal Palace exhibition, education, religion and death. The author's research is extensive and she really knows the city.Her discussion is very informal and breezy to read--almost as if one were sitting across from her at tea time.The abundant illustrations add greatly to the narrative.This is apparently the finale of her series--this is too bad, for volumes on the late Victorian and Edwardian periods would have been of great value as well.

Thank you, Mrs. Picard !
Long awaited,finally published,immediately ordered-I LOVE IT !
As with Picard's three earlier works,the amount of total immersion in the period,that the reader can experience,is a quality hallmark.
I can,without too much trouble,read textbooks on these subjects,but,as I am not professinally engaged in history-why should I?
Picard's approach is a lot more fun,her fine british humour,her understatements,but also her undisputable knowledge and perfectionism,make this a worthy pillar in her hitherto published work.
It is pure,undiluted JOY ! ... Read more

Product Description
Not really great expectations, but checking to see what public domain books are allowed ... Read more

Product Description
Set in Victorian England, this is the tale of David Copperfield, a boy who grows up in a world which is magical, fearful and grimly realistic. A CD set is also available.Amazon.com Review
Beginning in 1854 up through to his death in 1870, CharlesDickens abridged and adapted many of his more popular works andperformed them as staged readings. This version, each page illustratedwith lovely watercolor paintings, is a beautiful example of one ofthese adaptations.

Because it is quite seriously abridged, the story concentratesprimarily on the extended family of Mr. Peggotty: his orphaned nephew,Ham; his adopted niece, Little Emily; and Mrs. Gummidge,self-described as "a lone lorn creetur and everythink went contrairywith her." When Little Emily runs away with Copperfield's formerschoolmate, leaving Mr. Peggotty completely brokenhearted, the wholefamily is thrown into turmoil. But Dickens weaves some comic reliefthroughout the story with the introduction of Mr. and Mrs. Micawber,and David's love for his pretty, silly "child-wife," Dora.Darknights, mysterious locations, and the final destructive storm provideclassic Dickensian drama. Although this is not DavidCopperfield in its entirety, it is a great introduction to theworld and the language of Charles Dickens. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (104)

outstanding
I've read much of Dickens over the years.Great Expectations was and is my favorite, but DC is probably a close second now.It is magnificent, and has a different tone than most of his other novels.It soon captured my attention, and it wasn't long before my pace accelerated--so much so that I was really regretting coming to a rapid end to this very long book.I don't have much to add over what other good reviewers have stated already.This is a novel that can be read at many levels and at any age.Aunt Betsy was my favorite character.Absolutely unique!

4.75 Stars -- A Near-Masterpiece
David Copperfield came roughly in the middle of Charles Dickens' career, and it is unsurprisingly transitional in many ways. It is also perhaps his most controversial novel in relative merit terms. Many critics, perhaps most, put it with or near his mature, fully-realized later novels, significantly ahead of early efforts; many others think it significantly ahead of the latter but not far enough to go with the former. Readers of course have no such scruples; it has long been one of Dickens' most popular novels - which truly says something -, and its appeal has hardly lessened after more than a century and a half. Also, for what it is worth, it was Dickens' own favorite. The bottomline is of course that everyone should read it anyway, because Dickens' storytelling power is such that even his lesser novels are far above most writers' best.

There is certainly no denying the power of the story as a story; Dickens is hardly bettered in pure storytelling terms, and this is one of his preeminent examples. Virginia Woolf, not generally a Dickens fan, thought it one of English fiction's greatest works, and no less than Leo Tolstoy thought the famous shipwreck chapter the greatest ever written and the example for all novelists to aspire to. After a (by our standards) somewhat slow start, the book quickly becomes engrossing, and we are hooked until the end. As always, Dickens deftly guides us through various styles and sentiments; the book is often comic but also has much tragedy and hits practically every spot between the two. There is no great mystery or plot twist as in some of his later books, but we see a definite breaking away from prior works in plot structure terms. Dickens' essentially episodic style was ideal for an era when serialization was obligatory and lengthy novels expected, but many later critics say it keeps him from true greatness. The trend is most noticeable in early works and still here to a certain extent, but this is clearly the seed of more concerted later plotting.

The plot is of course dependent on the eponymous narrator and central character, and the novel is one of the all-time great bildungsromans - perhaps even the greatest and certainly the most famous. Those who highly value tight plots may still be unsatisfied, as David's life is not much less uneven than most, but the fact of being tied to a single life gives considerably more structure than some early Dickens. Essentially a fictional autobiography, the novel charts David's progress literally from birth, ending in what seems to be middle age. Though not quite a rags to riches story, his long and troubled path from obscurity to fame may make the cynical scoff, but it is important to remember that this is after all one of the template's founding texts. We must also keep in mind that Dickens' own story was much the same; some have even called this his disguised autobiography, and there are indeed many fascinating parallels. His knowledge of and sympathy with young men growing up in his era at any rate gives the book a great lifelikeness that made many of them strongly identify with it. Along with Dickens' usual precise attention to nearly all details of everyday life and his keen eye for social life and other cultural aspects, this makes the novel invaluable as a peek into early nineteenth-century English life.

Far more important, though, is how forcefully the novel transcends time and place. Because so many aspects of growing up are universal, it is easy for nearly anyone to identify with David, and many have. We share his exultant joy at childhood's carefree moments and suffer along with his first tastes of pain, disappointment, and regret. We recall along with him adolescence's exuberances as well as its challenges. His first experiences of education, love, friendship, work and many other rites of passage are familiar to nearly all, as are his adult interactions. Dickens portrays all this realistically and empathetically, letting us relive much of our lives through David. He runs us through nearly every emotion along the way; the book has almost as many tears as laughs. David's story would of course be interesting in only a very limited way if his life were just like most, but Dickens makes sure to include many interesting narrative experiences. These are so well told that we feel for David as he moves through life's ups and downs, changing and growing in ways both familiar and unfamiliar.

This alone would make the book more than enough for most, but there is plenty more. Dickens' typically great characters are perhaps most notable. He may be unequaled for consistently depicting unique and memorable characters, and this has some of his most enduring. It is often said that David is the least interesting, and it may well be true - not because he is dull but because the rest are so fascinating. This is usually called a defect, but is in this way quite a virtue. It is after all hard to argue with the characters for wealth of human interest and sheer entertainment value. As always in Dickens novels, there are so many characters - nearly all with distinct and usually eccentrically memorable personalities - that no review of anywhere near normal length could possibly hope to do them justice. However, several are absolutely unforgettable:the melodramatically mercurial Mr. Micawber and his eminently practical but naïve wife; the thoroughly despicable hypocrite Uriah Heep; the low-key but ever reliable Traddles; David's hilariously short-tempered but genuinely kind aunt; the dignified and strong-willed but fundamentally selfish Steerforth; the lovely but almost childishly hapless Dora; the industrious penny pincher Mr. Barkis; Mr. Dick, the madman with flashes of brilliance - and enough others to populate most authors' whole canons. Dickens' characters have entertained millions of readers all over the world for nearly two hundred years and are certainly notable for strength of characterization and sheer imaginative reach. However, a minority has long objected to them as hopelessly quirky to the point of being unrealistic and annoying. This certainly will not convince them, but the vast majority who take the characters to heart will find many to love.

This gets to the central critical debate about Dickens' work generally and this novel particularly - is it great art, or simply very well-written and astoundingly entertaining? Dickens' essentially unparalleled characterization and storytelling are more than enough great art for most, but some decry a supposed lack of deeper meaning and serious themes. Yet Dickens is at least as sociopolitically aware as most great authors and plenty of lesser ones without succumbing to the nearly always fatal fault of heavy-handedness that few serious writers escape. The story certainly has some serious themes, drawing attention to - and because of Dickens' popularity, raising awareness and sometimes even leading to reform of - problems relating to several overlooked areas. These include unregulated youth schools, previously addressed in Nicholas Nickleby; the plight of parentless children; the working conditions of inner city factories, also addressed in Hard Times; poverty, particularly debt; and more. Also, though there is much in the presentation of female characters for feminists to decry, there is also a highly notable focus on issues of immense importance to women:the delicate position of young widowed women, which made them prey to unscrupulous men because of their enforced ignorance and consequent naïveté; and the sad state of prostitutes, a group so scorned that almost no one looked closely enough at their conditions to see just how miserable they were or inquire about the often surprising causes. There is also thought-provoking commentary on perennial issues like corporal punishment. Readers must decide if such themes are substantial enough. As for the long philosophical discussions in narrative and dialogue that have made so many other nineteenth century greats famous and revered, they are not to be found in Dickens. Some may think this a significant flaw, but his incredibly moving and believable portrait of a representative life will be enough for most. David learns much over the course of his life despite all the struggles and hardships, and if the ending may be too pat for the most cynical, all others will be touched by its paean to love's redemptive power, which has some of Dickens' most beautiful prose, and it is certainly hard to begrudge David's happiness and contentment. However much our lives may differ from David's, the novel will remain popular and worthwhile at least as long as any parallels remain.

As for this edition, it is ideal for most; it is not only inexpensive but has substantial supplemental material. There is an excellent introduction with background on Dickens, the novel, and the historical context as well as some initial analysis; useful notes are also included.

Copperfield is a literary receipe for life...
When I first read Copperfield (I have increased my adoration and respect to the novel by lovingly reducing the title), I was so moved by the journeys of David and the lessons that he learns along his way. His 'way' allowed me to be wrapped up in a chamois and surreptitiously allowed to witness my own growing up and growing in of my own. I identified with Dickens' past youthful experiences through my own varied and emotional travails. I embraced every single one of the myriad of mankind that pummels and embraces every single human being through their own individual lives. The ups, the downs, the ins, the outs of Copperfield are not so much spectacular as they are personally meaningful.
I have read this novel twelve times. I suppose that people would roll their eyes at such a claim and wonder bemusedly why. I read the book twelve times in twelve years for twelve different reasons. I made the decision as "this time I'm going to read it for Steerforth, this time for Dora, this time for Peggoty. And every time I was that character I was more of what David was and consequently, more of what I became.
It must be said that it is my favorite book. I claim to be prolific in nineteenth century literature and though other books of that one hundred years span have touched my heart, made me laugh and cry; it is, and most likely will remain so until I die, David Copperfield that I love. If you love yourself, if you love someone else; you owe it to your spirit and consciousness to read this beautiful and loving experience, It is more than just a book. Bill Christensen

A wonderful (audio)book
I have read and listened to many of Dickens' novels, and this is, without a doubt, my favorite. In fact, this is my favorite audiobook bar none.

This BBC Radio adaptation is the perfect introduction to Dickens and to David Copperfield in particular for those who may be dissuaded from reading Copperfield because of its length. It is impossible to imagine that the BBC could have found better performers for the roles--I can easily hear their voices in my mind as I recall the story. Although the story is abridged, you don't get the sense that you are missing any of the important points of the story. In fact, it's a much more satisfying "read" than most books in their unabridged version.

Poor print quality for the price

For the price of the Everyman edition, one would expect the pages to be cleanly printed. Instead, the letters are faded and weak on many pages. On many pages, parts of some letters are missing altogether. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (7)

A Gem of a Sea Story--4+ stars
I shall not repeat what was previously written in editorial & prior reviewer comments.IMHO this is another fine Superintendent Alleyn mystery (but without his usual supporting cast) held mainly on a ship at sea--mildly reminiscent of the river boat journey in Clutch of Constables (Roderick Alleyn Mysteries) & referencing the voyage in which Alleyn met his future wife Troy (see Alleyn and Others: The Collected Short Fiction of Ngaio Marsh (Library of Crime Classics)).In this one, Marsh does provide the reader with subtle but sufficient clues to determine the culprit, but also interjects some clever activities by both suspects & Alleyn during the cruise.As usual, Marsh provides some intriguing dialog & witticisms including: "She exhales unhappiness," "spiritual striptease session," "spiritual policeman," "When one is looking for peculiar behavior one seems to see it all over the place," & in the naming of the sour & egoistic "Mr. Merryman" (hardly a good conscript for Robin Hood)!Unfortunately, she annoyingly laces the book with a number of Latin phrases not in either of my two phrase books.Overall, I think it's one of her better mysteries.It is included, with False Scent (Roderick Alleyn Mysteries) & Scales of Justice in an anthology--Another Three-Act Special: False Scent, Scales of Justice, Singing in the Shrouds.

Great characters and atmosphere
Others have commented on the disparaging treatment of the camp, gay steward. Another of the characters is obviously a lesbian, and she is sympathetically written up except that the passengers comment rudely on her "ugliness". She is a foil, though, to the Nice Young Girl Jemima and the wonderful Mrs Dillington Blick (imagine Diana Dors in her heyday). An interesting touch is to have a priest and a psychiatrist discuss the mind of the murderer. Of the two, I'd take the priest's demonic possession over the doc's 50s Freudianism. If you enjoyed this voyage, read Marsh's Clutch of Constables.

Good shipboard mystery.
Clues point to a serial murderer being aboard a cargo ship bound for South Africa. Inspector Alleyn is sent to join the ship on its voyage south. It carries nine passengers in addition to the crew.

The cast of characters are vividly drawn and Ms. Marsh does a wonderful job in making us switch our suspicion from one character to the next. As with most mysteries of this sort, much of the fun comes from the interplay between the characters as opposed to the mystery itself.

As always, Marsh provides us with the necessary clues to guess the murderer. If you pay close attention, you may figure out the solution within the first half of the novel. A drawback here, is that the list of the possible guilty parties is narrowed rather early on. Part of this is, however, made up for by trying to perceive who the next victim will be.

Something has been made about the character of a gay character. I've always thought that it is somewhat dangerous to attempt to place the latest views of morality/society upon works of fiction written in the past. Was Ms. Marsh prejudiced against homosexuals, or was she portraying the reality of her day? One could easily interpret that the unfavourable characteristics of the character may have arisen from the need to hide their sexuality. Also, because of its role in the outcome of the mystery, its uncertain as to what could have been changed and still keep the mystery intact. Finally, in regard to how gay characters are treated by other characters in the novel, it seems more likely that they would have suffered prejudice, etc., rather than open acceptance and celebration of their sexual preferences.

Clever Plot, But Unpleasantly Dated
When Scotland Yard has reason to believe London's latest serial killer has set sail on a small luxury liner, Inspector Allen is quickly dispatched to perform an investigation en-route.The result is one of Marsh's more tightly plotted novels with enough twists to keep you guessing all the way to the end.Unfortunately, it is also the Marsh novel most likely to offend modern readers.

Marsh is particularly noted for her ability to create well-rounded, convincing characters... but there is an exception: on the rare occasions when she deals with either implicitly or obviously gay characters, she inevitably characterizes them as slimy, dismissable, and unlikable--and even Inspector Allen, who is inevitably polite to one and all, feels free to behave toward them in the most obnoxious manner imaginable.

Marsh's tendency toward homosexual hysteria is noticeable in DEATH IN ECASTY and PHOTO FINISH, but it is particularly obvious here, and it is so powerful that it renders an otherwise wonderful bit of writing progressively distasteful.Marsh is among my favorite mystery writers, and I did read the book to the end--but it was not a book that I kept on my shelf afterward.

Cruise Mystery Keeps You Guessing...
In NgaioMarsh's "Singing in the Shrouds", dependable New Scotland Yard detective Roderick Alleyn is going on a cruise -- but not a vacation.Sent in secret to prove his hunch that a murderer is on the Cape Farewell, a cargo ship sailing to South Africa via Portugal, Alleyn meets up with an intriguing list of characters, most of whom could be legitimate subjects.All he has to go on is a scrap of paper in the last victim's hand -- an embarkation note -- and the murderer's predilection for singing and leaving a certain flower on the victim after the murder is completed.There are other clues, one of which I didn't get until the end, which point to the eventual culprit, but as always, Marsh delivers a wonderful analysis of character as well as a good plot.There's also humor and an interesting portrayal of some sexuality issues that are interesting to read in a book originally published in 1958.A good escape into a different time. ... Read more

Product Description
This classic tale of sea adventure was published in 1903. It follows a daring investigation by two men who make the terrifying discovery of a carefully laid plan for the invasion of England. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (37)

Somewhat mellow after all the expectations.
I expected this to be a great read after all the hype I have heard of this book.Alas it was not so, so maybe Childers will haunt me after this review.This book, like much of the narrative has me sailing in circles.I got some nautical terms out of this reading but not much else.The plot is the German Imperial Army planning the conquest of England.They expand their tranportation system in the land nearest the UK and build train stations and barges as a means to transport their soldiers.

This story is perhaps more believeable than a James Bond movie.However, the narrative at page 200, is much like that at the beginning.This is an OK read for spy buffs, and those interested in WWI.

Cracking good read
I was first given this book as a present from my English teacher when I was 13. Now I'm 23 and I only just read it.

Overall I think it was a great read. The plot wasn't so great, a little too slow and it petered out towards the end. What was great was the sense of adventure. Of stripping away from the office and running into the unknown. Childers' character descriptions were also top notch - painting subtle yet rich articulation into the storyline.

The descriptions of sailing weren't overly technical, they were rich and atmospheric.

Spies, Sailboats and Sand
For lovers of spy/espionage thrillers this is a great read.Childers, despite his slow(70 page) start maintains a high level of informative tension to almost the end.Who are the villains and who are the heroes and who can be trusted?The purpose of the the author,as was John Buchan's 'Thirty-Nine Steps' which was made into a fine Hitchcock film, was to warn the pre-World War I British establishment of the dangerous intentions of Imperial Germany and to awaken Britain from its complacent slumber.The evolution of the central character from snobbish dandy to a sea-toughened spy is skillfully drawn.To get the most from your reading, bring along your own maps of the North Sea/Friesan Islands,Baltic Sea region.

Frustration leading to skimming
Childers' novel was a real disappointment.After starting to read the original Ian Fleming James Bond novels for Fleming's centennial, my interest in spy novels was piqued and I decided to make a survey of them.I was going to start with The 39 Steps until I came across The Riddle of the Sands.I wasn't expecting a Bond-style thriller, and I came with an open mind, but this was a tedious and underwhelming story with little general historical interest.

Originally published in 1903, the story is a first-person account of a pre-WWI British Foreign Office employee who gets caught up in the discovery of German invasion plans while on a sailing holiday.The book was written as a serious account of events for the expressed purpose of jarring the public into recognition of the German threat.

While the plot sounds like a decent one for a spy novel, and while the reader with an interest in historical fiction might expect to find period interest, most of the book is detailed accounts of sailing, complete with nautical terms and descriptions with little meaning to those not familiar with boats and navigation.I figure the book could easily have been cut down to a half of its length without losing any plot or meaningful descriptive material.

There's not much else to say.The evil villain turns out to be a double agent working for the British, which all but the dimmest reader will suspect from the introduction of his character.Whenever danger seems around the corner, it turns out to be nothing.There is no descriptive material that would be of interest to the antiquarian or historical enthusiast.One reviewer who said "it gives remarkable insights into the culture and attitudes of the period" must have been reading a different book.

I'm not sure who this novel would appeal to, and I suspect that it was chosen as an Oxford classic because the novelist died for the politically correct cause of supporting Irish independence.Yawn.

The best thing about the novel is this edition (Oxford Classics green cover with white portrait), and the introduction by David Trotter provides a nice background on early thrillers and spy stories.

Beautiful book, wonderful piece of literature ...
This is a truly beautiful book ... Although it is said to be the first book in the genre, it is not alike to most of the spy novels I read. The plot develops slowly, and for the most part of the story nothing significant happens, but this is exactly what makes it special and valuable. Heroes are very human, they are prone to fantasies and mistakes, and for a long time it is not clear if the spy plot was a reality or the creation of their vivid imagination. There is a scene I particularly enjoyed, and if it were not written at the very beginning of the century, it might have been a satire of modern spy novels. Here I refer to the scene when one of the main characters is eavesdropping under the window of a house, but cannot hear much because the curtains are drawn! This is a jewel. I also enjoyed descriptions of sailing in the sands and of the life on the islands.

Read this book if you are interested in the study of human character, do not read it if you are just after thrill and entertainment, you won't find what you are looking for then. This book requires time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (97)

one of the best books I have read in ages
Jeffrey Archer is a great writer.This is the first book I read by him, and I liked it so much I just bought this amazon copy for a friend.It is a great mystery set in the world ofArt.His writing is so enthralling you cant put it down.I am a jaded mystery reader and always love when there are twists and outcomes that I do not expect or forsee.This book has plenty of them and a satisfying ending.

sloppy
I listened to the audio version of this and hated that the narrator used accents. Not necessary at all, especially since he sometimes used the wrong accent at times!

An ordinary character suddenly becomes able to elude monstrous assassins all over the globe? Yeah, right , sure.

The story was okay, but there were an awful lot of coincidences in the plotting, and some very "convenient" and preposterous plot devices when the author needed them. Some characters make stupid decisions and the formula has been done many times before. Predictable. Poor character development and poor research.

If I had had another audio in my car, I would not have finished this.

Trying to fill in for Robert Ludlum?
I fell in love with Jeffrey Archer, slowly, after reading books like First Amount Equal, Prodigal Daughter, Honor Among Thieves. I have all the books written by the author in my library. All these books have one thing in common, the author takes time to build the key characters. Through the pages, I could see their world in my head. Then I read the short stories and enjoyed every one of them like a curious kid.

I was very excited when I picked up this book. I could hardly believe what I was experiencing. This book has a pace and feel of Robert Ludlum. A normal life protagonist is suddenly thrown into a world of international chase through the dark characters and all of a sudden the the hero beats James Bond (of course Jason Bourne is better).

The book is predictable and lacks research. Maybe I was expecting a Twist in the Tale!

Flawed Impression
THE SETUP
Bryce Fenston (a Hungarian) is the CEO of Fenston Finance which specializes in extending loans to distressed owners of private collections of impressionistic paintings, for the purpose of foreclosing on the collections and obtaining them for far less than their true value.This seems to inevitably include the murder of owners, by female hired assassin Olga Kranz.Fenston's major purchasing agent is Dr. Anna Petrescu (also coincidentally Hungarian) who, unfortunately for her, is honest.An FBI agent, Jack Delaney ultimately follows Anna around the world.That's the setup.

CAVEATS including spoilers.
Although explanations are given for some of the following, the explanations are thin at best:

The book begins with the murder of Lady Victoria Wentworth (by Kranz paid by Fenston), a few hours her Van Gogh has been shipped to Fenston.Why bring unnecessary attention to himself at that time?On September 11, 2001, Fenston fires Anna Petrescu on completely trumped up charges because Anna had advised Victoria that the Van Gogh alone is worth far more than the entire outstanding loan.So, why did Victoria give up the Van Gogh to Fenston?.Fenston plans to have Anna murdered as well.Why both fire and murder her?--again bringing unnecessary attention to himself?Anna is ordered to leave the building (an upper floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center) within 10 minutes, and does, with the airplane crashing into the building before she gets to the elevator.Yet, miraculously, Fenston (and his sidekick Karl Leapman) have already left the building, and gotten to another Wallstreet office building in time to witness the airplane crash into the WTC.Then, believed dead, Anna decides to fly to Britain to advise Victoria (already dead) that Fenston has no proof of ownership of the Van Gogh (already on its way to Fenston).Why put herself at such risk at her own private expense?--particularly without phoning ahead?Okay she tries to phone but directory assistance will not give her Victoria's number. However, her friend Tina still works for Fenston, and can surely get the phone number the next day.

Archer repeatedly makes the point that Fenston has no proof of ownership of the Van Gogh (nor of the loans to the estate), all documentation having been destroyed in the destruction of the WTC---implying that this will ultimately become Anabelle's (Victoria's sister and heir) trump card.But it doesn't.For no reason, the missing documentation never becomes an issue.In fact, Fenston has Kranz destroy the Van Gogh so that it cannot be sold to pay off the unprovable debt to him. Huh?Even though, we are told that Fenston's pathological lust for the Van Gogh was the sole reason he extended loans to the estate and paid Krantz a couple million dollars to murder Victoria.

The day after 9/11 the FBI still has surveillance on Anna's apartment, and deploys ANOTHER team watch Tina's apartment!! Then multiple teams are posted at every major European airport waiting for Anna--No way.Note that she used her own passport---yet the FBI could not discover her destination?--No way.Moreover, virtually every FBI agent in the country was immediately retasked to investigate 9/11--because it was feared that additional attacks were immanent.Note that Fenston was not even suspected of crimes in the U.S., the crimes he commited were on foriegn soil---which would be relatively low priority at any time; zero priority the day after 9/11.

As soon as Anna drives out of NYC, the FBI concludes that she is on the way to Toronto, Canada.Not bloodly likely.Earth to Archer:Here in North America, we have international airports in other than Capitol cities--such as Montreal, which would have been much closer.Nor is it conceivable that Anna/Tina turned off the TV after catching the latest updates.On 9/12 nearly everyone in the country was glued to their TVs every waking minute.

While most of these implausibilities are just annoying, one is hilarious:Since air traffic has been grounded in the U.S., Anna has to decide whether it is best to drive to Mexico or Toronto to fly out.Some choice.London is just "across the pond" (2318 miles), Mexico City is 5500 miles in the OPPOSITE direction (total 7594 miles to NYC to Mexico City to London)Even she got to Mexico City any flight to London would have to be significantly re-routed around U.S. airspace (closed to air traffic).I bet all or most non-stop flights from Mexico City to London were simply canceled while US airspace was closed.

VERDICT
Judging from the several Archer novels I've read, this one is typical, containing an excess of serious implausibilities."Suspension of disbelief" is like a rubber band, which can be stretched a long way for a good story.But once it snaps, it becomes difficult to enjoy the story.Difficult, but not impossible.Archer is such a good storyteller that the story captivated me anyway.So, 6 stars for a superb story filled with interesting characters, minus 2 for sloppiness.

False Impression A real Page Turner
I have read quite a few Jeffery Archer books. This one I think I read in two sittings. It starting on Sept 10, 2001 and brings us through the events of 911. You feel like you are going through getting down all those stairs in the North Tower. It is a good story and the secondary story lines. Hopping across the ocean to Europe and back again to the USA. I loved the story and it read quickly almost too quick. ... Read more

Product Description
Charles Dickens's life is a story of rags to riches, complete with bankruptcy, prison, forced child labour, and fame and fortune overshadowed by guilt and secrecy - rather like the plot of one of his novels. Indeed, Dickens drew strongly on his own experiences as the source for much of his fiction. Here the author offers a fresh view of Dickens's remarkable life story. Dickens's novels brim with references: they are located in the places he lived in and visited, peopled with characters he knew, and inspired by the preoccupations that haunted his mind. Ackroyd highlights the reality of Victorian life, warts and all, and the issues that sparked Dickens's fervent calls for social reform; and he also charts the influential landmarks of that era, such as the coming of the railways, the effects upon society of the industrial revolution and the expansion of the British Empire. Dickens was a complex personality. He apparently had everything - fame, success, wealth - but he died harbouring the great sadness he had carried with him all his life, and he was humble enough to forbid a grand funeral. Like many eminent Victorians, he led a double life.Although he insisted that nothing in the newspapers he edited should offend his middle-class readers, he regularly indulged in dubious night-time escapades with fellow-author Wilkie Collins and, for the final 13 years of his life, kept a secret mistress, Ellen Ternan. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

There is evidently no middle ground
There is evidently no middle ground about this book, people absolutely love it, or despise it.The oddity about this reaction to this very odd and in my opinion very great, biography of Dickens is that I can sympathise with a lot of what the 2 (so far) negative reviewers say.The most honest criticism cannot be disputedat all: in books as in theaters and concert halls a loud snore says more than a thousand of the most carefully considered words.If it doesn't work for you it doesn't work for you because Horace is right about matters of taste.

The fascinating fact is that one of the 2 people who have written negative reviews seems to intend to finish it. For him the immense tome (and how can Amazon have shrunk the paperback to a bit over 200 pages?) has to have something to recommend continuing. For myself it feels like a very long and very good novel.I've read both Edgar Johnson'sand Acroyd's work twice, as well as all of Dickens's novels once.Acroyd replaced Johnson on my shelf.Johnson would be the better introduction for people who have only read one or two of the novels and for anyone in need of scholarly apparatus. For someone who downright loves Dickens I have to say that my initial reaction on finishing Acroyd was a sense of loss because I would never again be able to read it for the first time .

It is a unique biography in my experience, and as a truly great effort to understand a man in the context of his times stands directly next to the finest 20th century academic biography I have read: Peter Brown's Saint Augustine.

Garrick's Review
This is an outstanding biography.Extremely well researched and written by a devoted author who is expert on the subject, culture, country, region and local environs.I have read many other of Peter's books and have come to consider his work quite excellent.

My experience with biographies of great men such as Charles Dickens is that you need the space of at least 1,000 pages.The approach here is far from being too academic.I savored every colorful chapter. The bibliography and chapter notes have me continuing my friendship with CD.

While I read this book very late, I am glad that I read it.
This is a book I should have read when it first came out in 1990, but did not buy it until the paperback edition came out.And then it sat on my bookshelf with my Oxford illustrated Dickens.Why didn't I get to it earlier?My best guess is that not only is reading all of Dickens a big chunk, this book is almost 1,100 pages long.I had so much else I wanted to read that getting into that much material as carefully as I wanted to read it caused me to put it off.Now that I have read the book and begun my perusal of all of Dickens rather than just that books with which I was already familiar show me what a mistake I have made. So, I urge you to not put off treating yourself to this biography or diving deeply into the writings of Charles Dickens.

Why do I like this biography?I think there are several basic approaches to telling the story of a life.Two that I do not like are the mere chronology of events from beginning to end and the other extreme that assimilates the author into the intellectual fashions of the present and does nothing to help us see the life and work in the context of the times in which it was created.This latter type is most often seen in academic biographies where English departments have become political advocacy and indoctrination programs and no longer deal with our language and its history in a serious or thoughtful way.Its easier to simply dismiss everyone who doesn't share your political philosophy and pretend that your being "right" also means you are of superior intellect and learning.For me, this is like travelling to a foreign land and then judging it against your own culture and finding its differences to be deficiencies.

This biography is of the kind I appreciate most.Ackroyd not only helps us see the life of Charles Dickens and how the author used his own life and times to create his art, but also the times, social settings, and evolving culture in which Dickens lived and worked.For me this has the benefit of travelling to a foreign land and by coming to appreciate its culture for what it is and how the people there express their lives in that culture you learn to see your own life and home culture with new depth.Our intellectual shorthand calls Dickens a Victorian, and of course he was in his maturity.However, his early life which formed much of what he was, was pre-Victorian.The London of his maturity was quite different than the London of his childhood and it is that earlier London that he used in most of his writing.I also found Ackroyd's discussion of the Charles' early family life and his relationship with his parents to be most helpful in seeing more deeply into Dickens' novels and the way he lived his life.

Ackroyd also provides seven little interludes that help us see his perspective on this biography.He admits his likely faults and where he might be pushing his ideas a bit too far.Still, I think this work is a fine accomplishment.As Ackroyd notes many times and as his friends noted, Dickens was an odd man.His friends loved him and if their relationship with him was broken off, more than a few grieved at the loss for the rest of their lives.On the other hand, he was so driven by his inner needs, his burning energy, his need to work hard, and to work out his life and world through his art that he was very hard on those around him.Not least his wife, Catherine.After she bore him ten children and suffered horribly from what we know as post-partum depression after each birth, he eventually separated from her.Yes, he set her up so she lived well, but she was terribly harmed by being pushed away.And he was, too.But he didn't see it that way.His relationship with Ellen Ternan is discussed in this book at length and Ackroyd takes the position that it was not sexual, but of the same deeply emotional attachment of similar nature to the one he had with Mary Hogarth (his wife's younger sister) who died at seventeen.But some have disagreed with this book's conclusions on this subject.I am willing to go along with the author, but for me the serious issue is less whom he took up with than those whom he abandoned.But that is my own view of life.Dickens was one of those driven men whose inner need to accomplish and work more deprive his family of a supportive father as his children grew.Frankly, Dickens was disappointed in most of his sons and was quite open about his favorites among his daughters.Very few of them had lives that worked out well.Of course, his presence was such a powerful force that the descendants to this day live in part to protect and perpetuate his legacy.

I also appreciated learning the way each of his works of fiction began, the way he worked through them, and how the public received them.Among the many things I did not know before reading this book I found Dickens' lifelong devotion to theater and the theatrical surprising to me and also quite helpful in understanding his work.Ackroyd also shows us how his works were constantly dramatized with or without Dickens' support and involvement.We also get a better sense of what melodrama meant in the context of that culture rather than our own perceptions of it.Ackroyd also guides us through the layers of artistic culture and how Dickens' popularity with the masses in some ways denied him acceptance in the more elite artistic circles.Still, Dickens knew what he was aiming for and his success was so great that these exclusive circles could hardly deny him.I also enjoyed learning how his works were serialized.While there were several different ways, in most cases the monthly installments were little books containing only that work and some advertisements (to increase profitability).While a few of his works were serialized in publications, particularly in Household Words and All the Year Round, most were handled as independent monthly serials.Oliver Twist and his Christmas books were issued as single volume publications, but that was not his usual way of publishing his works.As she worked his copyrights, he did print his works as bound novels and often revised them when issuing them in these editions.

Dickens was also an astute and hard driving business man.He valued his copyrights and worked them.Part of his hard feelings about America was the way his works were printed and sold here without any payments to him.Dickens was also very hard with his publishers at home.He would extract the lions share of the value of his work, which makes sense, and leave the publishers with enough to make them happy.However, when a publisher tried to push back that was often the end of their relationship.Dickens would not accept any slight or indignity; real or perceived.

While I knew that Dickens did do public readings of his works, I had no idea how extensive they were and how big a role they played in his later career.Nor did I realize how many of his works he developed for this type of public performance.Ackroyd does a fine job in showing us how carefully and even tentatively he developed the murder of Nancy by Bill Sikes for public reading.Many of his family and friends told him not to do it because of the shock it would give his audiences.Once he did it and the shock was profound but popular, they urged him to stop because of the terrible physical and emotional strain it put on him in his frail condition.His children and friends believed that the strain of these readings shortened his life considerably.

The latter years of Dickens life are, frankly, sad.He only lived to be 58.How much of his health decline was caused by actual illness that he treated with medications such as laudanum and how much was caused by the treatments I do not know.But many of his friends and associates died by their late fifties, as well.

I think this is a very successful biography and provides wonderful information and insights for us, its readers.I not only recommend this biography to you, but encourage you to treat yourself to a more patient and deep reading of Dickens, who was, I believe, one of the great English writers.When we dismiss him, we cheat ourselves and blind ourselves to all his strengths, his wonderful humor, and indelible characters.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

REVIEW OF PETER ACKROYD'S DICKENS BY JOHN CHUCKMAN
There are some oddities in the style of Mr. Ackroyd, and his book contains some, what might be called, experimental chapters, fantasies or dreams or prose poems on subjects the author associates with Dickens. Ordinarily, I would find these things a bit off-putting.

But Mr. Ackroyd succeeds in giving us an overwhelmingly animated and penetrating portrait of the great Victorian author. This huge book - and no smaller effort could capture Dickens' spirit - crackles with energy, the very kind of driving energy so characteristic of Dickens himself.

Dickens was a strange man with immense drives and desires going off in many directions and personal habits that might well at times be regarded as unbalanced. He was not the sentimental, storytelling Victorian father figure he is sometimes regarded, although he could be quite sentimental about family and friends and his storytelling ability had few equals.

He behaved at times as a petty tyrant and was highly opinionated, always a man of immense curiosity, a traveler, a political activist, a generous man, a workaholic, a man eager for every possible shred of success and acclaim, a talented actor and mimic, aman seemingly possessed at times, as when carrying on conversations with himself, imitating his own characters in a mirror or going for walks as long as twenty miles alone or living with the ghosts of his fractured childhood.

A whirlwind of experience and desires helped make this naturally talented man such a great novelist. There are similarities to the titanic storm that was Beethoven. In both cases, the young man in his first blush of success could be truly charming while the aging figure could be quite unsettling.

The book contains many interesting anecdotes and details of Dickens' England, as well as Dickens' America since he made two journeys to America, a place he both hated and was fascinated by.

Highly recommended to all lovers of good biography, all students of English literature, and all students of English history.

Stupendous . . .
. . . but no adjective, or string of adjectives, can do Ackroyd's massive, majestic biography justice.Dickens is, with Victoria, the archetypical Victorian, and he is here fully realized, in all his contradictory dimensions: the best-known and best-loved writer of his day, but perpetually insecure and ashamed of his "ungentlemanly" background; wealthy yet financially ever insecure and working feverishly for material advancement; outgoing and flamboyantly dramatic, yet profoundly interior and haunted by irrepressible demons; the great celebrator of hearth and home who sired 10 children but who abandoned his wife of 22 years for a curious relationship with an actress more than half his age; the man who toasted Shakespeare's birthday as the anniversary also of the Bard's gallery of immortal characters, who saw himself as a similar progenitor but who would "write" his friends, compulsively objectifying them, family, and acquaintances into manipulable, construed, understandable "characters" - indeed, the most capacious literary imagination since Shakespeare but a jittery control addict for whom everything, and everybody, had to be in its right place.

Ackroyd has read every word Dickens wrote - the novels, stories, journalism, letters, inscriptions - and apparently, and more astonishingly, everything ever written ABOUT Dickens - by his circle of literary and profession friends, rivals, reviewers and critics, acquaintances, memoirists who encountered him but once, otherwise unknown British, Scottish, Continental, or American diarists who happened to note a Dickens "sighting" whether or not words were exchanged.All these gleanings Ackroyd shapes convincingly into cumulative aspects of character, incidents that inform Dickens's work, information about the author's public bearing, mannerisms, speech, likes, dislikes, behavior in almost every imaginable range of situations - "in short" - to call on Micawber - a full portrait.And with remarkable efficiency and literary felicity, Ackroyd situates Dickens within his rapidly changing era, as long-distance horse-drawn coaches give way to rail travel, as the stench and filth of pre-Reform London yields to reformist impulses of every stripe, as the Empire advances and London is transformed into a great capital of monuments and squares and Imperial architecture. (And, as with his engrossing biography of Thomas More, Ackroyd introduces London as a major character and influence on his subject, a conceit Ackroyd, himself the author of a knowing, loving "biography" of London, pulls off beautifully.)

Most important for devotees of Charles Dickens - and if you're searching for a 1200 page (scandalously) out-of-print biography, you are surely that - Ackroyd demonstrates convincingly how the work reflects the life, the personality, the influences, the environment, and all the contradictions of Dickens the man. Ackroyd carefully walks the line between reading too much into the life from the work, but draws careful correspondences between the tensions of the life and their realizations in fiction.The chapters devoted to Dickens in the throes, or ecstasies, of creation - for so does his creative moods and energies vary - are among the book's most compelling passages.Scarcely ever has the sinews of literary creativity been laid so believably bare, by a biographer who is himself a prolific, and highly imaginative, writer.The most powerful impression one draws from Ackroyd's matchless story is the extent to which a protean Dickens embodied to a great degree all his mightiest creations, the dark and the bright, and not merely the plainly autobiographical Nickeby, Pip, and David Copperfield.

When I finally closed Ackroyd's Dickens, I was nearly inconsolable at the loss of someone I felt I had come to know so well.A brilliant life, radiantly told, and a book that deserves to be - and, I pray, will soon be - back in print. ... Read more

Product Description
"The Iliad" is the first and the greatest literary achievement of Greek civilisation - an epic poem without rival in the literature of the world, and the cornerstone of Western culture. The story of the "Iliad" centres on the critical events in the last year of the Trojan War, which lead to Achilleus' killing of Hektor and determine the fate of Troy. But Homer's theme is not simply war or heroism. With compassion and humanity, he presents a universal and tragic view of the world, of human life lived under the shadow of suffering and death, set against a vast and largely unpitying divine background. "The Iliad" is the first of the great tragedies. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

Beautiful Poetry, Though Not Always Easy to Understand
Any rating of "The Iliad" has to be primarily a rating of the translation, not of the work as such. Obviously "The Iliad" does not measure up to 21st-century expectations of riveting fiction, but then again, it was not written in the 21st century and it would be silly to expect anything of the sort.

It was instead written in about 800 BCE and is *the* cornerstone of Western literature. Homer was for the Greeks what the Bible was for the Hebrews: the poems gave the loose Greek tribes a common identity in a semi-mythical history. Homer, in a way, gave *birth* to Greece, and Greece contributed significantly to the birth of Western culture.

For this reason alone, anyone who lives in or identifies with the West should read "The Iliad." We wouldn't be here without it.

Now as far as modern taste and entertainment value goes, "The Iliad" might conceivably be disappointing. It tells the war at Troy with its principle heroes Achilles and Hector, but the story ends anti-climactically with the burial of Hector. The Trojan Horse is not mentioned in it, nor is the city conquered.

For the retrospective account of the Trojan Horse and the fall of Troy, one has to turn to Virgils "Aeneid" or to Homer's "Odyssey" - which is a more engrossing tale than "The Iliad" in terms of human interest, fantasy, and a satisfying ending.

Now to this particular translation, made around 1600 CE by English poet George Chapman. It is important to realize that this is *not* a simple prose translation of Homer, but in fact one of the most poetic renderings of Homer in the English tongue. As such, it is also one of the most difficult to read and is probably not recommended as an introduction to "The Iliad." It can be better appreciated if you already know the story well and want to relish the beauty of Chapman's English version of the Greek poetry.

For a more straight-forward and easier-to-understand prose translation, the reader may turn to the version by English novelist Samuel Butler, published in 1898. Butler's version lags far behind in terms of beauty, however. Furthermore, Butler uses the Roman names for the gods and other characters (e.g., Jove instead of Zeus), which I found unfortunate (although Chapman does so too).

For another prose translation that uses the Greek names, I recommend the one by W.H.D. Rouse (Signet Classics). The advantage of the Butler translation, however, is that it is in the public domain, which means that you can get it as an e-text on the internet and also as a free audio book at librivox.org.

To summarize: Buy this Wordsworth edition if you want to relish the *poetry* of "The Iliad"; buy a newer prose translation if you want to be introduced to the *story* of "The Iliad."

Not what I expected.
I'm really disapointed with this version of the Iliad. This version uses the Roman names for all the gods in the book. This makes it so confusing to figure out who is who I just stopped reading the book. I would return it but it would cost just as much to ship it as the book costs, so there's no point in doing that.

Best of the Translations
This translation captures the noble grandeur of Homer's Iliad better than any of the others (Lattimore, Fagles, etc.--Lattimore's Odyssey is nearly perfect, but in the Iliad he uses words like "sir", which make his Iliad translation seem anachronistic and "cheeky" at times.)

Though it is referred to as a "prose" translation, it nevertheless achieves at least the same degree of poetry as the other "verse" translations (none of which actually reproduce the metrical rhythms of Homer, but merely try to match the same thoughts per line, with occasional distracting flights of fancy.)

The characters' speeches are rendered beautifully by Hammond, with striking directness, force, passion and noble pathos. In the Hammond translation, we have all the ritual, formulaic, noble and heroic grandeur of Homer's Iliad, with characters that come alive through their speeches,with clearly recognizable self-consciousness and sophistication of thought that easily elicits even the modern reader's empathy.

too little information
No translator listed.Or is this version in the original Greek?

For novices to the classics, it improves with repetetive listening
I felt very satisfied after having listened to this book once, and enriched after listening the second time. I had two challenges (described below) to overcome to get through this disc set, but I really felt engaged and enriched by the challenges as well as the story itself.

The first time I listened to the book, I found myself frequently referring back to the list of principal characters that is included with the CD. This list was extremely helpful because the characters sometimes have more than one name.

(example: "Diomede - also called Tydides (as he is the son of Tydeus), strong fighter")

Without the list I would've been confused. After an hour or so, I finally grasped the characters and then I was able to immerse myself into the story.

Another small hurdle for me was the "old english" way of speaking. While I do appreciate the style, it took me about an hour to fully get used to the sentance structure. This challenge was also good for me.

This audiobook really opened my mind and engaged me to think. I am pleased with the challenges and with the knowledge I gained from the story. I will listen to it again and again in the future.

... Read more

Product Description
One of Dickens' earlier novels, dating from 1839, it charts the fortunes of an honourable young man, Nicholas Nickleby, who has set out to make his way in the world. Dickens presents his remarkably vivid display of Victorian characters and the life they lead, from the generous to the fated to crushed. Hope springs eternal, however, and righteous persistence brings rewards. Anton Lesser, the outstanding Dickens interpreter, brings all his narrative expression to bear on this exciting tale. ... Read more

Product Description
In the heyday of the Roman Empire, a small accounting error has left Marcus Didius Falco sharing a cell with a large rat. But the Empire's most beleaguered investigator is finally bailed out, and promptly accepts a commission to help a family of freed slaves fend off a professional bribe. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

Venus in Copper - BBC Full Cast Production
I am a big fan of Lindsey Davis' Marcus Didius Falco detective stories.He is an Informer (private detective) who periodically gets assignments from the Emperor Vespasian (around 70 BC).These are great fun, light hearted, and give you a real feel for what it must have been to live in Rome during the Roman Empire.His problems center around the fact that he is in a sleezy business, in love with and marries a Senator's daughter and has to come up from his Plebian status to be worthy of her.On top of that he has to contend with all his crazy family members.

Currently (2010), Lindsey Davis has written 20 Falco mysteries.Like all story series it helps to know the preceding stories (The Silver Pigs and Shadows in Bronze) to completely understand the Venus in Copper.

The BBC Birmingham has done the first 4 stories and the voices chosen are well suited to the characters. The plot encompases a number of murders and lots of blind alleys he finds himself in as he tries to unravel the mystery.The side story involves the Emperor's son Titus lusting over Falco's sweetheart, the Senators daughter. All in all it is a fun way to spend 3 hours.

Another Marcus Didius Falco winner
It's been a long time since I've been this involved in a series of mystery novels. The combination of complex, eccentric characters, living their daily lives in ancient Rome, piled into well crafted whodunit stories, has me captivated every time I delve into another volume in the series.

Not Free SF Reader
Bail, bashings and banquet.


Falco is in so much trouble he is in the slammer, thanks to the machinations of his rival Anacrites.His family and friends also have problems with a nasty landlord.

The Emperor, needing some work done, offers and solution, and Falco makes a favorable impression on his younger relatives, as well.

A continuation of the entertaining hijinks in previous books, and you won't be disappointed with this one.

Venus in Copper
This is my favorite of all the Falco books.I love the plot, especially the MO of the murderer, I love plebian Marcus' ongoing relationship with patrician Helena Justina, but most especially I love the storyline involving Titus, the turbot, Marcus' brother's shield, and the Praetorian Guard.Read it and weep, because you'll be laughing hard enough to.

Snakes Alive
This is the third novel in the mystery series featuring Marcus Didius Falco, an informer and sleuth. A series of books that have become hugely popular, so much so that the author is now at the forefront of historical mystery writers. It was probably a stroke of genius on her part to have novels that are extremely well researched and contain all the elementsthat would be and should be found inRome in AD70, but to have a lead character who has the vocabulary of a present day New York cop. In this the third novel Falco is starting to feel like an old friend.

Falco is trying to live down the indignity of being released from jail with the help of his mother of all people and he has accepted a case from some rich private clients. He is also in the middle of trying to entice his girlfriend Helena Justina to come and live with him, though why a senator's daughter, especially one who has just lost their baby, would wish to live in the hovel he calls home is anybody's guess.

When the client Falco is supposedly protecting dies, he is immediately re-hired by none other than the chief suspect. The crux of the matter is that Falco must find and expose a woman, a fortune hunter, who has lost more husbands to accidents than it can be believed possible.

Falco has more than a little excitement during the investigation, including a brush with a female contortionist who has a very interesting snake act. He also has the tremendous honour, or otherwise of a "friendly" visit from Titus Caesar himself, right in the middle of Falco attempting to cook a huge turbot without the aid of every chef's must have, a fish kettle. ... Read more

Product Description
It is 4034 AD. Humanity has made it to the stars. Fassin Taak, a Slow Seer at the Court of the Nasqueron Dwellers, will be fortunate if he makes it to the end of the year. The Nasqueron Dwellers inhabit a gas giant on the outskirts of the galaxy, in a system awaiting its wormhole connection to the rest of civilisation. In the meantime, they are dismissed as decadents living in a state of highly developed barbarism, hoarding data without order, hunting their own young and fighting pointless formal wars. Seconded to a military-religious order he's barely heard of - part of the baroque hierarchy of the Mercatoria, the latest galactic hegemony - Fassin Taak has to travel again amongst the Dwellers. He is in search of a secret hidden for half a billion years. But with each day that passes a war draws closer - a war that threatens to overwhelm everything and everyone he's ever known. As complex, turbulent, flamboyant and spectacular as the gas giant on which it is set, the new science fiction novel from Iain M. Banks is space opera on a truly epic scale. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (74)

Slow start but then takes off
A very good read, as usual Banks really stretches the bounds of imagination. This is not a Culture novel, but rather an equally intricate and fascinating universe. I have seen enough other reviews summarize the plot, I just wanted to add that the Dwellers are what kept me in this, and will keep me coming back if he writes in this setting again. They're hilarious, mysterious, enigmatic...like something out of Lewis Carroll. There was a lot of "laying pipe" on the character backgrounds, culture, family and government. I would have liked to see him start things off with a bang or something that draws you in first. But stick it out, it is worth it.Yes Banks can go over the top with descriptives, but you either get in the spirit of it or don't, and I don't mind as long as the story rewards. This story rewards! Slow to ge started, but once it takes hold I did not want to put this down, staying up several late nights.

Here's what I think of The Algebraist...not so much.
I finished it and stared uncomprehendingly at the book in my hands. I'd completed the last page and I don't know what I'd just read. Did I miss something important that pulled it together somehow? So I spent a couple of days randomly reading parts of it until I got something of a gist. First I was just confused--then I got angry. The time I spent reading this is time I'll never get back, and somewhere along the line I'm going to wish I'd been doing something else.

Let me first say I am a frequent SF reader, and I'm incredulous this book was considered for any prize at all. Ponderous, with half-hearted explorations of too many ideas, this book left me empty. I never could grasp what thread was going anywhere and that made for a directionless plot. Finally, I got the significance of seemingly random pieces such as the search for the ship in the very beginning, who was the searcher, and who was the prey. The characters were thinly developed, and I just couldn't for the life of me find anyone to connect with. Man! I've never worked harder to pull a story together for myself, than in reading this tome. I felt cheated, though: how come the author couldn't have been more help?

Can't say I'd recommend it. Too long, too formless, too haphazardly constructed for me to put anybody else through reading it. I read it so you don't have to.
Thank me later.

Simply stunning
This novel is stunning, elegant and coherent - a journey to be remembered.If you like sci-fi at all then you owe it to yourself to read at least some of Ian M Banks' work, and this one will not disappoint!

The coolest space opera novel ever.
This is the coolest space opera novel ever written.And just for a change, most of the usual Banks mayhem takes place in the middle, instead of the end.

A great introduction to Iain M. Banks
I discovered Iain M. Banks with this book someone had left next to the bed in a fisherman's hotel my family and I were staying on the Lofoten Islands in Norway, hundreds of kilometers above the Arctic Circle. It was already quite a mystical experience being up there under the midnight sun. Reading the first few paragraphs I knew this was something special. Granted I was lost and confused for the first hundred pages, I even stopped reading it for a few months. When I picked it up again, I couldn't stop. I've caught the bug and now devoured four other of his sci-fi books. Like most of Banks' leading characters, Fassin Taak is a somber, reluctant, conflicted, lone kind of guy. Some readers might not find him personable enough and lose interest because of the lack of him being a clear cut hero, but in my opinion they're missing the point. What matters here is the vivid universe Banks is able to create, it's as violent, beautiful, and haunting as you could probably never imagine. And the beauty of it is that it's perfectly immersive. There is plenty of action, suspense, and escapism to satisfy the fan of the genre. Let's hope this is the beginning of a new series. Until then I'll catch up on Banks' equally satisfying if slightly less mystical Culture novels. ... Read more

Product Description
“A second brilliant bauble, perhaps more foreboding and terrifying than The Ruby in the Smoke.” –Publisher's Weekly

Will the sea give up its dead?

The year is 1878, and the spirited Sally Lockhart, once again defying Victorian sensibilities, has gone into business for herself. When one of her clients loses a large sum of money in the unexpected collapse of a British shipping firm, Sally sets out to investigate. But as she delves deeper into the identity of the wealthy and elusive industrialist who owns the doomed company, she uncovers a plot so diabolical that it could eventually subvert the entire civilized world–and if Sally’s enemies have their way, she won’t live long enough to see it happen.

Philip Pullman, author of the award-winning His Dark Materials, continues the nerve-shattering story of his canny and courageous heroine in this second Sally Lockhart mystery.Amazon.com Review
Six years after solving the mysteries surrounding the death of her father (in The Ruby in the Smoke), Sally Lockhart has set up her own consulting business. But her photographer friend, Fred Garland, has a habit of drawing her into his private detective work owing to her skill in both finances and firearms. When one of Sally's clients loses a large sum of money invested in a shipping firm and Fred encounters a conjurer on the lam from underworld thugs, the two begin to find links in these apparently disparate cases.

Exquisitely written and packed with a wonderfully diverse, often terrifying cast of characters and dark twists and turns of plot, the second installment of the Sally Lockhart trilogy--an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, a Booklist Editors' Choice, and a nominee for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Mystery--is entirely impossible to put down. Make sure book 3, The Tiger in the Well, is close at hand as you near the end of this one. (Ages 12 and older) --Emilie Coulter ... Read more

Customer Reviews (82)

a really good read!
Like all of Phillip Pullman's books "The Shadow in the North" takes you back in time and into the lives of the vivid, and interestingly compelling characters that he creates. Although it is another time, Pullman draws you in and you feel as if you were there and can totally realte the circumstances. The Sally Lockhart mysteries are wonderful books for all ages; quite similar in it's appeal to adults as in the works of J.K. Rawling.

Must be read as part of itsTrilogy
`One morning in the spring of 1878 a steamship, the pride of the Anglo-Baltic shipping line, vanished in the Baltic Sea.' Sally Lockhart, financial advisor, now in her own business (we've met her in book one of the Sally Lockhart Mysteries), investigates the situation when one of her clients loses a pension investment due to the subsequent collapse of the shipping firm. What a concept, a financial advisor who diligently and personally investigates possible fraud concerning a client's money! This story like it's predecessor is overdone with modern conventionalism, particularly with regard to this 20th Century feminist heroine, who is still not really likeable. She disdains the romantic advances of her companion Fred, for no reason at all except her own selfishness. Again, there's a mindboggling panoply of Holmesian mystery revealed in Dickensian style. Maybe Pullman uses this effect to characterize Victorian London, but it takes modern readers on a tedious trudge through the story's enfoldment. Returning readers are glad to have further kinship with former favorite characters. New cast members of potential enduring interest are introduced. Too bad for them; an appallingly sad ending is perhaps meant to make the reader grab book three ASAP to gain some closure.

The Shadow in the North:A Sally Lockhart Mystery
Just like the DVD version, but with that little extra that keeps a person coming back to it!Recommend it to everyone young and old!A good book to read on a rainy day or snowy day!I'm still in the process of finishing it, and looking forward to each and every part.You feel like you are right there, and understand why the characters think the way they do.Love this book and can't wait to finish it!

I Think This Might've Been Censored
I'll save a review of the book for others, but suffice it to say that I really liked it.As a narrator, Anton Lesser is superb.I've listened to a lot of audiobooks, and he is one of the best.

However... it was when I was referencing my place in the story in a paper copy that I noticed that a paragraph in a certain physical scene between two characters has been entirely omitted.Later, when the male is asking the female whether their encounter was painful, the dialogue has been altered.I don't know if the audiobook producers are responsible, or if this represents a rewrite by the author, but I was annoyed.

Great book, better than the first!
This book is so good! i love how dark and sophisticated it is. Sally really comes into her own and it leads perfectly into the next in the series. fantastic! ... Read more

Product Description
These fantasies and true-to-life fables were created by Oscar Wilde for his own sons. Here is the tale of the Prince who is not as happy as he seems, of the Selfish Giant who learns how to love children, and of the Star-Child who suffers bitter trials when he rejects his parents. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Excellent Gift
This collection makes a wonderful gift for any library.Our children received a copy each, inscribed by their grandmother as a Christmas gift.It will be cherished as an heirloom and passed down through the generations.It contains some terrific classic read-aloud stories, and is very well bound.Beautiful.

Great starter
Nice starter book - As advertised - Quick Ship - Recommend to all - Thank You!

The first fairy tales I heard
My father read them to me, when I was 4, sitting in the crook of his arm (I know I was 4, because at five, I was too BIG to sit in the crook of his arm, and besides, I could read). He must have read them to me a lot, because I still remember "the cold gray fingers of dawn were clutching at the fading stars," from "The Young King" (my favorite, then), and--in "The Selfish Giant," the words TRESSPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED were capitalized, and when he got to them, he'd make me "read" them aloud.
It is thus hard for me to say they aren't children's stories. Some children's stories are frightening; why shouldn't some be sad?

They are lovely, often very sad (though some end happily), socially conscious (Wilde seems to have had a strong sense of being surrounded by the poor --well, London is not a bad place to find them), and often filled with irony--but the kind children can understand. Some make reference to God, and one to Christ, indirectly (though the clergy aren't always so sharp!). Some take us on journeys to strange and foreign places. Some have a rather sophisticated sense of humor (I understood these well enough as a child, but did not like them very much).

It's nice to have them again, in a large-paged (and such white pages!), hardbacked
book. I find the intentionally primitive, brightly-colored illustrations hard to get used to. I expected something more realistic, or even pre-Raphaelite or Art Nouveau. Perhaps others will appreciate them.

There is always some salvation
In these tales, most of them being sad and even very sad, Oscar Wilde looks for a way to save one's soul in front of the misery of the world. Anyone in society who lives in the upper classes does not necessarily see the ugliness and suffering of the world when one looks at the lower classes. But in these tales the Happy Prince, or the Selfish Giant, or any other character will manage to get salvation out of their upper class blindness, by opening their eyes to misery and suffering and by doing what they can to repair these pains and evils because they will realise they have to feel responsible for the world, because they are more powerful and could easily impose their selfish rule. But the giant will discover nature, if not God, punishes him for his selfishness. The nightingale will try to redeem a young student by giving him a red rose in a season when read roses do not bloom. And yet the student will not get the love he wants because he is nothing but a non-entity for the girl he would like to be loved by. There is also a very sad note in A Devoted Friend and how friendship can become a mask for selfishness, a nice appearance for an ugly and egoistic attitude. Those tales are sad and at the same time they convey a moral full of hope. All is not lost if the Happy Prince can give away his happiness for those who suffer, even if later the powerful of his society will reject him when he does not look happy and beautiful any more

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Perpignan

Timeless Tales of Great Worth
When I was quite small (I'm now 64) the 33 1/3 records were introduced.One of the first that we got was a recording of "The Happy Prince".It featured Bing Crosby.I listened to it over and over until I went off to college.Years later I was in England, and I discovered that there was a whole book of stories.Over the years I have re-read this book so much that it is now in tatters.Each story is a gem unto itself.Each story will become another jewel in your treasure chest of lenses, which help you to see the world more clearly.Now that I have discovered that this book is still in print, I expect to buy multiple copies to give as Christmas Gifts this year.Do yourself a favor and don't miss these delightful additions to your life. (Psst : I like this book !) ... Read more

Product Description
Dickens' first novel features a cast including the amiable Londoner Sam Weller, the boisterous Mr Pickwick and a number of typically English scenes, such as the cricket match in Dingley Dell and the grim description of Fleet prison. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (45)

gotta love Mr. P.
Even though The Pickwick Papers is very low on plot, I never wanted to stop reading it. Mr. Pickwick and his pals cavort around the English countryside eating, drinking, and occasionally running into unearned tussles with the law. Mr.Pickwick himself is part of a common Dickens type: the older man who cheerfully and wisely mentors younger proteges, as the younger guys negotiate the moral complications of romance and career.

Additional details important
You can certainly read this Dickens classic without the additional notes, maps and appendices, but your understanding and enjoyment will be somewhat diminished.Penquin Classics does an excellent job of helping the reader appreciate the language and the context of the era.The maps are particularly helpful when attempting to visualize the travels of this extraordinary touring group in their many adventures throughout the English countryside.An excellent edition of a timeless classic.

Underrated and Fun
This is one of Charles Dickens greatest novels and the best expression of his comedy/satirical treatment of several 19th Century English institutions.Mr. Pickwick is the English equivalent of Cervantes' Don Quiote and Sam Weller is the worldy sidekick who looks after his Masters best interest with excellent loyalty. The 24 year old Dickens draws on his many earliest experiences working in Parliament and as a reporter in London. He was the forth person asked to write this serial and you get the sense that he is flying by the seat of his pants, writing and thinking the story out as he goes, as opposed to his later practice of the planning or story mapping of some of his greatest works. It isn't until the tenth chapter and the introduction of Sam Weller, as Mr. Jingle's foil, that Dickens realizes the moment when the novel finds its focus and thrust.Weller transforms the novel in a fascining and hilarous manner. I highly recommend reading this book. It's too much fun to pass up.

addressing some complaints
I think many people miss the whole point of this story.What they're wanting is a movie, when they're watching a television series, if you catch the meaning.This is not a "novel," in the strict sense of a definitive plotline.It holds the title loosely, and is more of a collection of short, interconnected stories.It is meant to be, quite literally, a Victorian re-imagining of Don Quixote, which is set up in much the same style.(By the bye, if you enjoy The Pickwick Papers, I highly recommend reading the aforementioned literary masterpiece.)
One thing I've heard complained about--even in the good reviews--is that the characters are not "real" or "fully developed.""Real" seems to imply that the characters will grow and change.I disagree.Take the two most popular characters in the book as prime examples, Samuel Pickwick and Samuel Weller. We see the former in his later years--his development is all but passed him.He does grow as a person somewhat throughout his experiences, but just like most men his age, he is not the mindset for change.In fact, his obstinacy is shown quite vividly throughout.The latter, being Samuel Weller, is in that unflinching stage of youth, when he feels the world is his for the commanding.And just like his master, we see his obstinacy quite often--usually in the same places.These are characters Dickens did not want to change.Indeed, G. K. Chesterton goes so far as to call them eternal.They're better this way.Who didn't feel a pang of remorse when Don Quixote renounced his gallivanting ways?
As to the other characters, they are all subsidiary to Pickwick and Weller, just as the entire cast of Don Quixote is to Sancho and the Knight of the Rueful Figure.
As to the wandering storyline, that is part and parcel to Charles Dickens.He never could stay in one place.The plot was secondary to his whims, and a definite plot would usually just weigh him down.Dickens created people, not characters or caricatures.Whether they be static or no, they are always interesting and entertaining and full of all the eccentricities of the individual.The stories were just places for the people to live, and the people he created for this story certainly do live.

Put this one in the pantheon
This book proves that you don't need organization, theme, or even a plot to write one of the great books of English literature when you're one of the greatest novelists the world has ever known. There are many excellent reasons to read this book, chief among them the fact that even if you only read a few chapters you'll get more pleasure, humor, and great writing than if you read hundreds of pages from other authors.

The Pickwick Papers starts out as if the story comes from records taken down from the club itself. This allows Dickens as author to comment as a reader of someone else's chronicles, and accounts for much hilarity in the early goings. Since the book was written in monthly installments, originally intended as comic vignettes to accompany humorous sketches, there is little to connect the early chapters in terms of theme or even coherence.

This turns out to be irrelevant, because strung together each chapter becomes a crazy quilt of eccentric activities with implausibly funny situations that bring forth the basic 19th Century English difficulty of being respectable while still trying to have fun. Pickwick's problems, and those of his club members, revolve principally around courting women, getting into scrapes, and drinking...constant, incessant, over-the-top drinking. If The Pickwick Papers bears any resemblance at all to the real life of English gentlemen, they were simply never sober.

As the story evolves, Dickens chucks the device of relating these stories from the records of the club and gets down to earnest storytelling in a true narrative. One of the great characters of all time, Sam Weller, makes his appearance and literally carries the rest of the book on his humor, loyalty, philosophy, and pugilistics. If anyone is funnier than Sam, it's his father, Tony Weller.

The Pickwick Papers is also rife with the best names, names that match exactly the personality of the person. Dodson & Fogg the lawyers, Winkle the wimpy lover, Jingle the con man, Job Trotter his accomplice, Nathaniel Pipkin the parish clerk, Miss Nupkins the spoiled young lady, the Porkenhams, nemeses of the Nupkins, and of course Lady Tollimglower from the previous century. The names alone are a reader's feast.

The story takes Mr. Pickwick through a lawsuit for breach of promise to marry, time spent in debtor's prison, time spent helping his young friends get married, and more or less continuous bouts of drinking. By the end Dickens has revealed his warmth, optimism, and love of happy endings. The ending is as heartwarming as the corpus of the book is rollicking and funny. ... Read more

Product Description
The apprentice's friends think hearing the latest story by Fritz, the writer, will cheer poor Karl up. At least it will distract Karl from the fact that he hasn't produced a new moving figure for the great timepiece at the center of town, as he was supposed to. But to Fritz's horror the story he tells Karl begins to come true, and one of the main characters -- the evil Dr. Kalmenius -- shows up with a terrifying piece of clockwork. It's a knight called Sir Ironsoul. And when Karl decides to accept Dr. Kalmenius's offer and try to pass Sir Ironsoul off as his own work, the results are...well, deadly.Amazon.com Review
While Philip Pullman's greatest popularity is as a creator ofnovel-length magical realism for young adults, such as TheGolden Compass, he continues to explore and stretch the limitsof other children's and young adult genres. Clockwork is noexception. With its inspiration lying solidly in the German romantictradition of E.T.A. Hoffmannand the BrothersGrimm, the story begins, as all good fairy tales do, with someonewhose human weakness sets events inescapably in motion. As thetownspeople of Glockenheim gather in the White Horse Tavern on the eveof the unveiling of a new figure for their great town clock, Karl, theclockmaker's apprentice, reveals to Fritz, a young storyteller, thathe has not been able to construct the figure. A new clock figure isexpected of all apprentices, and Karl is the first in hundreds ofyears to fail. Fritz, in his turn, has the beginnings of a new storyto tell, and as it rolls off his tongue, its dark antagonistmaterializes and offers Karl his dearest wish. Not surprisingly,Karl's Faustian pact brings him destruction, but an innocent child isthe deus ex machina that saves another child and the spirit of thetown from seemingly ineluctable oblivion.With its eerieblack-and-white illustrations by Leonid Gore and itshappily-ever-after ending to some thrilling suspense, Clockworkis a fine fairy tale for younger children and a thought-provokingtwist on the art of narrative for older ones. --Barrie Trinkle ... Read more

Customer Reviews (63)

Clockwork - Small, but great book by an amazing author.
Karl is an apprentice clockmaker and soon the day is coming where his apprenticeship comes to an end. Karl is to make a figure to put in the clock for all to see. All clockmakers have done so before him, but the problem is he has failed and doesn't have a figure to put in the clock.

One night while at the Inn, Karl and the other people from town are there to listen to the local writer, Fritz. The towns people love listening to the stories Fritz writes.

This night something happens, something no one would think would happen. A character from Fritz' story is real! And apparently is there to help Karl.

I don't want to give to much of the story away, but this book is really good. It is a short book, though, only a little over 100 pages long, but even so the book is still very good and worth a read.

from [...]
I have a semi-intense love-hate relationship with Philip Pullman (and perhaps also with hyphens, but that's another matter). I used to like Pullman unconditionally, reading anything he had written. Then I read "The Shadow in the North" (the second installment in the Sally Lockheart trilogy) and was burned by the ending. It literally hurt. Philip Pullman made me cry. But I was willing to let it slide because I was also in the midst of His Dark Materials and felt compelled to finish--my mistake. "The Amber Spyglass" also left me severely burned, and crying again.

Before all of that happened, Pullman wrote some shorter, happier works. I can't recapture my early excitement about Pullman, especially after reading about his "Frederick must die" rule, but I can almost appreciate his works without remembering the grief he caused me.

"Clockwork" is a novella length story Pullman published in 1996. At 107 pages, the narrative is too short to include any deaths of beloved characters or annoyingly impossible loves. Pettiness aside, I have to say that's a relief.

The story is set in a German town once upon a time when time still ran according to clockwork timepieces--none of that electronic nonsense. Karl, the clockmaker's apprentice, is sulking in the local pub while his friend Fritz prepares to tell the town his newest story.

Things begin to go wrong when a mysterious visitor arrives at the pub after Fritz has wound up his story but before he has a chance to wind it down again. That's well and good for readers but not so good for the characters, especially Karl and Gretl, the daughter of the pub's owner.

"Clockwork" is grim only in the way a children's book can be. There is death and gore and talk of devils taking souls, but none of that is conceptualized in a way that actually touches readers. It's sort of like they way I was able to watch "The Nightmare Before Christmas" as a girl without being creeped out even though I don't understand how that is possible when I watch it now.

The narrative reads very much like a story. Not like a book, but like an actual story told in the oral tradition. This technique is not often used outside of the realm of fairy tales, but Pullman works the style aptly. It works especially well with the edition I read which includes black and white illustrations by Leonid Gore. The illustrations kind of suggest what Edward Gorey would have drawn if he didn't work in such outline oriented ways for anyone who was wondering.

This novella (I can't bring myself to call it a novel) also received tons of accolades in the 1990s when it came out. It was winner of the 1997 Silver Medal Smarties Prize, A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year for 1998, and a NYPL Best Book of the Year also for 1998. I mostly agree with this praise. The story is a little thin on character development, but given its length that's to be expected. Considering it in terms of being a tiny book, the story is really tight and well-put-together.

A Triumph
Wow, I picked this book up and did not put it down until it was finished.This story gets you going in one direction and then takes a very unexpected turn.It reminds me of old fairy tales, but with a modern twist.I loved this book.

I can't wait ot read more by this author!
This is my first Philip Pullman book. I went to the library looking for "the Gold Compass but it was checked out so I grabbed this little book by the same author and decided I'd give it a try. It is an admidtedly short, fairy tale revolving around a small group of people living in a German villiage a long time ago. The people's lives revolve around a monster grandfather clock that is filled with lifelike figures. Every time an apprentice is about to graduate to become a master he must carve a figure for this clock. Karl, the apprentice who is one of the main characters, has so failed to produce a figure and now has only a single night to come up with something or be disgraced. How far is this desperate willing to go to achieve his goals? An enigmatic old clockmaker comes to the inn and willing to help him but with magic help of this kind there is always a price.
There is also a writer whose short stories have a bad habbit of turning out to be nonfiction, a little prince who is not what he seems, and a plucky little inkeepers daughter who is the hero and moral center of this story.
Pullman packs a lot of emotion and suspense in this little book. A must read for anyone who enjoys suspense, fantasy, or just enjoys a good fairy tale with a twist. After this I cannot wait to read Pullman's other books.

like clockwork
I finished this book in an evening.For such a short story, it has many twists and turns. True to its name, the story is tightly wound up from the start, set in motion, and doesn't slow down until the end. Pullman deftly pulls the reader through fear and laughter without missing a beat.Superbly done.

The story seems so simple after the first read, but there's much more to it. It's like a Pinocchio-Faustian-Frankenstein fairy tale. A bizarre combination, yet it works so well. It'll be worth many re-reads, especially for kids as they grow older and can grasp Pullman's deeper meanings. ... Read more