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Chapters: Sergei M. Plekhanov, Evgeny Pashukanis, Cecilia Bobrovskaya, Konstantin Badygin, Yakov Perelman, Ivan Shamiakin, Ina Konstantinova, Dmitry Nikolaevich Medvedev, Ivan Tyulenev, Yuri Glazkov, Polina Gelman, Natan Eidelman, Grigory Kramarov, Boris Kordemsky, Iosif Grinberg. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 52. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Sergei M. Plekhanov (born May 7, 1946 in Moscow, Russia) is a former Russian Soviet Government adviser who served under the administration of Mikhail Gorbachev. He is also the former Deputy Director of the Institute for the Study of the USA and Canada in Russia, specializing in Russian politics and Russia-United States relations. He is currently an associate professor of Political Science at York University in Toronto, Canada, a position he has held since 1993. Dr. Plekhanov received B.A. and M.A. in International relations from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1968 and a Ph.D. in History from the Institute for the Study of the USA and Canada of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. From 1988 to 1993 he was the Deputy Director of the Institute for the Study of the USA and Canada. He has taught as Visiting Professor at the University of California, Irvine, and Occidental College in (Los Angeles), and served as Soviet Affairs Consultant with CBS News from 1988 to 1991. Plekhanov wrote the Russian subtitles for the HBO Television Film Stalin in 1992 starring Robert Duvall. Since his arrival in Canada in 1993, he has been a frequent commentator on Russian and East European affairs for Canadian TV, radio networks and print media including TVO's Studio 2, The Agenda, CBC News, CBC's Sunday Edition and CTV News. He has consulted Canadian and US governments on Russian affairs and testified at hearings at the Parliament of Can...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=3218409 ... Read more

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Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (1818-1883) was a great Russian novelist and playwright. His novel Fathers and Sons is regarded as one of major works of 19th-century fiction. After the standard schooling for a child of a gentleman's family, He studied for one year at the University of Moscow and then moved to the University of St Petersburg, focusing on the classics, Russian literature and philology. Turgenev was impressed with German Central-European society, and believed that Russia could best improve itself by imitating the West. Like many of his educated contemporaries, he was particularly opposed to serfdom. He first made his name with A Sportsman's Sketches, also known as Sketches From a Hunter's Album; or, Notes of a Hunter. He wrote several short novels like The Diary of a Superfluous Man, Faust and The Lull. In them Turgenev expressed the anxieties and hopes of Russians of his generation. Amongst his other works are Liza: A Nest of Nobles, The Jew and Other Stories, On the Eve, A Reckless Character and Other Stories, The Torrents of Spring, and The Rendezvous.

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Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (1818-1883) was a great Russian novelist and playwright. His novel Fathers and Sons is regarded as one of major works of 19th-century fiction. After the standard schooling for a child of a gentleman's family, He studied for one year at the University of Moscow and then moved to the University of St Petersburg, focusing on the classics, Russian literature and philology. Turgenev was impressed with German Central-European society, and believed that Russia could best improve itself by imitating the West. Like many of his educated contemporaries, he was particularly opposed to serfdom. He first made his name with A Sportsman's Sketches, also known as Sketches From a Hunter's Album; or, Notes of a Hunter. He wrote several short novels like The Diary of a Superfluous Man, Faust and The Lull. In them Turgenev expressed the anxieties and hopes of Russians of his generation. Amongst his other works are Liza: A Nest of Nobles, The Jew and Other Stories, On the Eve, A Reckless Character and Other Stories, The Torrents of Spring, and The Rendezvous.

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Lloyd Alexander's beloved Indiana Jones-style heroine, Vesper Holly, is back for one last adventure. Delving into the mystery of the origins of Western civilization, Vesper and her friends set out for the site of the legendary Troy, only to fall into a trap laid by the despicable Dr. Helvitius.Helvitius imprisons the companions in the palace he calls Xanadu, and Vesper will need all her intellectual cunning to engineer an escape. Lloyd Alexander's clever storytelling is as polished and delightful as ever, and his many fans will thrill to the return of his most brilliant leading lady. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A decent ending to a great series.
I adored the Vesper Holly series growing up, so it was great to finally buy the final book.It lacks a good plot, but the characters still make you smile.

Lacking heart
The Xanadu Adventure, published a full 15 years after the somewhat open-ended "Philadalphia Adventure," attempts to put a definitive end to the adventures of Vesper Holly. In retrospect, the plot is solid traditional Holly fare.The execution, however, is severely lacking.

Unfortunately, simply too much time has passed between the writing of the last book and this one.At one point in Xanadu, the characters remark how an author can lose his inspiration.The same seems to have happened with Mr. Alexander in this book.More specifically, he seems to have lost a grasp of the characters and what made the series tick in the first place.If his name wasn't on it, I'd swear it was written by a different author.

As I said, the plot is solid, and there are times when the dialogue is pure Vesper Holly classic.Unfortunately, there are some serious problems with the characters overall that are just impossible to overlook.Often Alexander has them saying lines that are basically making them caricatures of themselves.Vesper, for example, repeatedly refers to Brinnie as her "dear old tiger," which is a reference to a few lines in the first book of the series, but instead of invoking a clever tie-in, just comes across as hoakey and false.

The voice of the novels, "Brinnie," is the biggest disappointment.His character comes across as ignorant and silly at times instead of the steadfast, loyal companion to Vesper he has been in the past.For example, at one ridiculous moment, he threatens to cut someone's mustache down to its roots with a butter knife.Lines like this would never had existed in the original series.

Also lacking are the clever observations by Brinnie that made the original books so witty.All we ever get are his thoughts on how to handle situations, instead of getting actual analysis on how others are behaving.He seems -- I don't know, self-absorbed, in a way.Even then, he's the only character who really comes across as three-dimensional.Even Vesper, supposedly the star, seems relegated to some sort of ensemble cast, and therein is the book's biggest problem:Alexander forgets in this book that when it comes right down to it, the Vesper Holly series is not an ensemble, it's an adventure series whose highest points come in the relationship between Vesper and Brinnie.The two of them do not carry on a single conversation throughout the entire book without other characters nearby and the book loses its heart because of this.

And, of course, there's Helvitius, one of the greatest my favorite villain of all time.His character sadly degenerates here into some type of a sad imitation of its former self, where he's relegated to some moustache-twirling villain of silent movies.It's just a waste, really.

Also, unless you are a student of Greek mythology, the endless quoting and references to Trojan horses et al. is probably going to come across as a bit heavy-handed, far moreso than previous installments in the series.

SPOILER ALERT!

One final thing -- the book ends with a very sweet, sentimental ending that should have, could have worked, but doesn't, because of the background to it.Essentially, Vesper marries the Weed two-thirds through the book in a whirlwind wedding that hardly gives room to breathe.It's simply out of character for the heroine -- not in the fact that she would get married, since I always assumed she would, but because in doing so she hardly even speaks at all of the affair to Brinnie, even knowing full well she'll be leaving him.Those who read the previous books know that, as free a heart as she has, the person who really occupied it was Brinnie, and the fact that the two never even converse about the fact that she is getting married just comes across as false.

The Xanadu Adventure
I've purchased a lot of Lloyd Alexander books to give to my grandchildren.I think that the Holly Vestper books are actully written at an easier reading level than the conceptional level warrants.Actually some appreciation for geography and cultures came be developed.The humor is great,even though after a couple of books,they become predictable,like a trade mark.

Review of Xanadu
In 1876, the beautiful, courageous Vesper Holly of Philadelphia
finagles her guardians,Mary and Brinton Garrett, into accompanying her and her persistent friend and admirer, Tobias Wistar Passavant (nicknamed "The Weed,")to Troy. Brinnie rightly protests that no one knows the location of Troy. Vesper, never one to be deterred by such a minor detail, explains that Troy is now known to be in Asia Minor near the Dardanelles Straits. Tobias has a theory that Greece is not the real cradle of Mediterranean civilization but that Troy is. Brinnie, who has accompanied Vesper on her other many adventures, is not eager to go on one instigated by The Weed. He nevertheless soon finds himself bundled onto a ship with Mary and the two young people sailing toward a mythical city - never suspecting that the unmourned, dead archvillain, Dr. Helvetius, is not. He has not only survived but he controls their movements from the time they step aboard. Dr. Helvetious has two passions - world domination and Vesper Holly. Through a corrupted scholar and archeologist, he guides Vesper and company to his latest dwelling, Xanadu, built to mimic the Coleridge poem. World domination he has in his sights through his monopoly of a new product called "oil," and Vesper is in his clutches.

While Vesper doesn't have an understated bone in her body and flings herself into her final adventure with wit and verve, her author, who obviously loves this character and uses Brinnie as his alterego, is a master of understated humor and irony. Shot through with the author's trademark humor and nonstop action,this final adventure ends on a surprising and touching note. It contains hidden poignancy when this alterego goes where
his author cannot go.

Vesper Holly Shines to the End!
Lloyd Alexander gives us yet another delightful and intriguing adventure, with his gutsy, intelligent, fearless heroine leading her trusty band of fellow travelers.Like each of the five previous Vesper Holly adventures, this book could be read on its own.But we highly recommend starting at the beginning with The Illyrian Adventure.These are characters you'll want to spend lots of time with.We're especially grateful to Mr. Alexander for finishing up this thriller, and the series, in such a heartwarming and satisfying way.We are able to say goodbye to Vesper, knowing she's moving on in life in such an optimistic way.Bravo Lloyd Alexander! ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein (Russian: ?????? ?????????? ?????????? Sergej Mihajlovi? Ejzen?tejn; January 23, 1898 ? February 11, 1948) was a revolutionary Soviet Russian film director and film theorist noted in particular for his silent films Strike, Battleship Potemkin and October, as well as historical epics Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible. His work vastly influenced early filmmakers owing to his innovative use of and writings about montage. Eisenstein was born in Riga,Latvia but his family moved frequently in his early years, as Eisenstein continued to do throughout his life. ... Read more

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Originally published in 1983, this book tells the story of the two Moscow merchants, Sergey Shchukin and Ivan Morozov, who between them amassed the greatest collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art ever seen. Following the events in Russia in recent years, this new edition contains photographs never before seen in the Western world of paintings in the collection (now in the Hermitage Museum Collection), as well as documents relating to matisse, Picasso, Van Gogh and Cezanne. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Russian Art Collectors from the "Merchant Aristocracy"
Atlanta & Houston will host a travelling selection drawn from the Pushkin's holdings of these wonderful French Impressionists in the Spring & Summer of 2003. Most of these works were "condemned" by the Communists, hidden away for much of the 20th century. The treatment by this author, with many photos of rarely-seen but marvelous art works, is of great interest to Americans. The world owes a debt to the Russian collectors who amassed these works, & the Russian curators who have preserved them for posterity! ... Read more