Fiction Literature Books

Over the years I've heard numerous people call "The Master and Margarita" their favorite book, so finally I decided to read it for myself and was not disappointed at all. Yet, despite my enjoyment of this book, I am at a loose for how best to describe or critique it. I could perhaps say (and I mean this as a compliment) this is the literary equivalent of an old and unsafe ride at a traveling carnival - that is, you're never sure what's going to happen next, so all you can do is hold on tight and enjoy the ride. Bulgakov's work is a terrific, mind-bending mixture of dark humor, satire, surrealism, romance, horror, fantasy and social commentary. Of course, while this work skewers many of the problems which faced the early Soviet Union, you don't need to be enrolled in a seminar course on Stalinist Russia to appreciate this unique and absorbing tale of good and evil (although the introduction and notes by Richard Pevear are very useful for the non-academic reader). Approach this novel with an open mind and you will love it!

My boyfriend and read it toghether and i got addicted to it since page 1! what a book!
Its very funny, cause the characters are one of a kind, it is interesting because it reflects the Russian society, it is deep because you also get both of these features related to yes...Pontius Pilates and Christ! and it is easy to read, has many many helpful comments at the end so you dont get lost in history!
This is a must for everyone

I found Mikhail Bulgakov's life terribly sad, as I progressed through this novel, realizing how much of it is autobiographical. Here was a brilliant man---the grandson of Priests, who was obviously quite theologically challenged in atheist Russia. His motif surrounding the existence of Jesus and the Devil, told through stories of Faust and Pontius Pilate, was obviously his personal desire to master the concept of good versus evil, in a culture of oppression, brutality, and subjugation, not to mention censorship---the slow death of a creative, freedom-seeking, artist.

A good deal of the read may appear to just be magical folly but on careful inspection, it is filled with deep, political satire and symbolism attacking Stalin's Communist Russia and the justifiable paranoia it bred. The ridicule, denouncement and exposure was nothing short of genius, as were the characters that carried out his themes, my favorite being the personification of the big as a pig, Vodka craving, Black Cat.

Bulgakov, was clearly before his time and it is sad he died at 48. His history shows a man who was broken by his inability of free expression. His determination to complete his works, in spite of censorship, is a testament to his spirit and perseverance---one of the strongest reasons that this book deserves to be read by all. I consider it a literary gift from the grave, carrying messages we must never forget.

Be warned that this is not a quick and easy read---at least it was not for me. I suspect that I've missed, or misinterpreted many scenarios that will read differently with a repeat read. Simply put, it's like trying to watch a ten ring circus---in more ways than one. But, you won't want to miss a single ring of action.

About midway through this book, I decided it could easily be turned into a screenplay for another run-of-the-mill slasher movie. Maybe the best is yet to come, but I resent having read so far waiting for something better.

There is little I can add to the many excellent reviews of this unique novel; it repays re-reading and study.

Professor Kevin Moss at Middlebury College maintains an excellent site dedicated to this novel. There are illustrations from various editions, maps of places and a guide to the characters. Professor Moss describes the site:

"These Master & Margarita pages are intended as a web-based multimedia annotation to Bulgakov's novel.

"You won't find the full text of the novel here, as it is still under copyright and no one in his right mind would want to read a 300-page novel online in any language. Curling up with the novel, preferably in a basement apartment in front of a fire on a moonlit night, is highly recommended.

"You won't find a summary of the novel here either, and it's unlikely the site will make much sense as a whole if you don't read the novel. You can't use this site like Cliff's Notes."

Amazon doesn't permit direct links, but you should be able to find this outstanding reader's aid by going to middlebury.edu on Google and searching on Bulgakov in the Middlebury search box.

Robert C. Ross 2008

This story is moderately good. Rather than weaving eloquent statements extolling the author, the plot, and the style as most reviewers do, I will simply state the pros and cons, perhaps in a tone that will be worthy of Hemingway himself.

First, I have two major criticisms. I found the plot to be interesting, but unoriginal. Countless novels have been written about guerilla forces fighting behind enemy lines, and a substantial percentage of those books revolved around blowing up a bridge. Fine, it makes for suspenseful (no pun intended) reading. However, I would have thought that he could have come up with a better approach to a war story. Secondly, I found that the sex scenes detracted substantially from the story. While the romance between Robert Jordan and Maria was an integral part of the plot, the sexual content was wholly unnecessary and was at an extreme juxtaposition with my Christian values. I felt that the story would not have lost anything by eliminating those elements.

I did, however, enjoy many things about this novel. Hemingway's style is always intriguing to me, and I love his clipped, terse tone. The Spanish words and phrases scattered liberally through the dialogue added a nice touch as well. More than that, though, I thoroughly enjoyed his social commentary on Spain, and the connections to the poem by John Dunne. Death is really the overriding theme of the book, and I found the philosophy of the interdependency of mankind even in death to be thought-provoking. Lastly, I always appreciate an author who is willing to write about overlooked periods or viewpoints in history. While I found his story to be fairly trite (guy goes with guerilla band to blow up bridge, falls in love with girl, and half of the people die), I loved the setting of the Spanish civil war. I've read very little about that era in history, and so I found it to be informative and inspired some interest in learning more about it.

The ur-text for today's wartime adventure novel, "For Whom The Bell Tolls" remains a standard bearer for pulse-pounding action fiction, and one of the true masterpieces by the most celebrated American author of his time.

Robert Jordan is a Spanish-language instructor from Montana who, now in Spain, has a job of another kind: blow up a critical bridge under enemy control before his comrades, the Republicans of the Spanish Civil War, mount a critical attack. He falls in with a band of motley guerrillas, discovering the joy and passion of life even as he must make peace with the real possibility of his death.

When published in 1940, there was little need to explain the title: the bell was tolling pretty loudly for just about everyone outside of Sweden and Chile as the Axis powers led by Nazi Germany rolled up giant chunks of the globe. Germany's three-year dress rehearsal had been the Spanish Civil War, where they helped Spanish fascists and monarchists overthrow the Marxist-led Republicans while Western democracies watched idly. Ernest Hemingway, a strong supporter of the Republican cause, lost arguably the only country he ever really loved.

"For Whom The Bell Tolls" could have been an exercise in told-you-so or score settling with the right-wing victors Hemingway despised. Yet the story is so engaging - so raw and sweeping in its style, so visceral in form, and undogmatic in outlook - that it is hard to know from reading it just how bruised a champion Hemingway had been for the losing team. The most drawn-out, brutal section of narrative deals with atrocities committed by Republicans, not fascists. Rebels and Republicans alike appear oddly human.

"Do you think you have a right to kill any one? No. But I have to. How many of those you have killed have been real fascists? Very few. But they are all the enemy to whose force we are the opposing force. But you like the people of Navarra better than those of any other part of Spain. Yes. And you kill them. Yes."

That's one of many internal monologues Jordan has with himself in the course of the book, which may annoy some expecting more wall-to-wall action but works fine by me. It's easy imagining oneself pondering similar questions in similar situations, and the running stream-of-consciousness adds to the nail-biting tension.

Hemingway also does very well by the secondary characters, especially the guerrilla band Jordan takes up with. Their leader, Pablo, was a once-ruthless killer of fascists now reduced to drink and train-robbing. "There is not enough of you left to make a sick kitten," says Pablo's bitter woman, Pilar, herself a tigress and Jordan's chief ally. Pilar is both supporter and scoffer of Jordan's budding relationship with Maria, a teenaged rape survivor rescued by the guerrillas. This is not a merry band of outlaws; their very fractiousness draws you in.

As a Sam Peckinpah fan, I was struck by how pleasingly similar "For Whom The Bell Tolls" was to the classic Western desperado saga "The Wild Bunch". Both are straightforward action yarns with a lot of backstory, vivid characters and setting, and a storyline that cleverly pulls you in even as it seems to ramble.

"For Whom The Bell Tolls" is less concerned about the bridge itself (where or when precisely this action is occurring is never spelled out) then the feelings that surround warfare, and how and why one man must do what he can, for as Rick said in "Casablanca", the problems of one man don't add up to a hill of beans in this crazy mixed-up world. Hemingway's ending is less Hollywood but just as stirring, and a fittingly open-ended climax to this singular story.

For Whom the Bell Tolls is a novel about love, deception, war, and trustworthiness. Author Ernest Hemingway can be seen as the perfect writer for this book. All novels are not created equally and this one outshines most.

This novel starts off in the midst of the Spanish Civil War in May of 1937. Robert Jordan, the protagonist, is seen in the beginning of the story as an American scientist that wants to blow up a bridge that is being used by the Fascists. The Fascists are people in the war fighting against the Republicans or rebels. Jordan is blocked to this path by a man named Pablo who will not help him with his plans for blowing up the bridge. Pablo, so called leader of the rebels, is the opposite of Jordan by seeing the whole plan as a danger zone for the safety of his men. Pablo's wife Pilar, real leader of the rebels, seems to enjoy the plan and decides to help Jordan out with it. Pablo has been demoted as the leader and now his men blame him for all of the calamities that happen throughout the story, such as the killing of troops just for their horses.

As the story progresses, there is the smell of love in the air when Jordan meets Maria in the rebel camp. Maria is a woman who has been raped by the Fascists and seeks revenge upon them. Maria and Jordan have several "sexual sensations" throughout the novel and they imagine themselves living a normal life after the war is over. This is ironic because things do not work out the way they want to.

By the end of the story, the bridge has been blown apart by Robert and the rebel band, but some people do not make it back alive. Robert Jordan progresses throughout the story as a stiff and unchanging character. He develops a sense of distrust even though he supports the Republican side. Hemingway sets the tone for an appetite of destruction and leads it off into a sense of love and sensation at the end.

This novel can be seen as a great attribute to war fiction by incorporating love and hate into the war zone. Many people should decide to read this book because while reading this book it brings home war in a realistic manner.

In the past few days I have finished reading the internationally acclaimed book "For Whom The Bell Tolls" by Ernest Hemingway. Before I began reading this book I had heard and read from many that the book was a classic and a very good read; after finishing the book I have to say that I completely agree. This book well deserves the praise that it has been given over the years; it is a classic in every sense of the word.
From Hemingway's unmatched descriptions of the beautiful Spanish countryside to the deep inner thoughts and struggles of the people. Hemingway has captured the true inner feelings of the Spanish people in their struggle for their idea of freedom, from the gripping oppression of fascism.
Yet he goes even further, in the unlikely relationship that develops between Robert Jordan and recently rescued Maria. He is still able to show that there is always some good even in some of the darkest situations. From betrayals and tragedy to unlikely and unexpected aid Hemingway covers all spectrums and interests
The only criticism I can give this book is concerning the ending which I personally found unsatisfying but that is for you to decide for yourself. In conclusion I find this book to be a great read for any who feel they are a skilled enough reader to fully appreciate the majesty of this work of art.

Robert Jordan is a young American fighting against the fascists in the Spanish Civil War. He is sent into the mountains to make contact with a small band of guerillas to blow a bridge in support of an offensive.

Hemingway's tremendous strength of drawing characters that the reader comes to know and care about is on full display in "For Whom the Bell Tolls." Jordan falls in love with the young woman, Maria, who is seeking refuge from a world that has robbed her of her childhood innocence. There is Pablo, the former leader who has seen the futility of the war and cannot face the day without dulling his mind with wine. There is Pilar, Pablo's mate, who longs for her youth, but has now assumed the role of leader and mother to the small group of fighters.

Robert Jordan and the reader come to know the dynamics of the group quite well. Jordan wrestles with the necessity of endangering the group of people for "the cause." This book depicts the contrast of war's brutality with the camaraderie of friends.

"For Whom the Bell Tolls" is considered a classic for a reason. This is a book that has aged well and will stick with the reader for a long time.

I think that this product had a little more highlighting and damage done to it than described. But the damage might of been done in shipping and handling. Other than that it was usable.

Needed item for school. Great idea to be able to purchase both volumes at a discounted price.

I received the book before the time stated, which is always appreciated, and it was delivered in perfect condition. Thanks.

I bougth this book out of necessity, because is obligated for my English class this semester. It turn out to be pretty good. It is all poetry from the romantic period to our time. It has great writers, so as T. S. Eliot and more. I got to admmit it thought it will be dull but I was wrong. It is a great book. One thing is for sure, half the poems that I read so far are all related to death, for some reason.

I needed this book for a college British Literature Class. There's a lot of poetry and great footnotes. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the romantic and victorian periods.

For me the edition is so cool, besides the special content and masterpiece by George Orwell. So fast was the delivery of the item. Yet i haven't enough time for finishing it, but I'm sure that it'll be a great time.

This is a very nicely published edition of both of George Orwell's landmark novels. Many of us were required to read these in school, but they are all the more meaningful in today's political climate. While the left may tend to want to cite these novels the most (the Patriot Act as "Big Brother"), there is probably more ammunition for the right, particularly in today's politically correct culture. Think former N.O.W. executive and conservative lesbian Tammy Bruce's book "The New Thought Police". A good historical/political read regardless of your political persuasion.

So you could go borrow the book at the library or buy the paperback, get the content down, and be done with it. But for same reason people buy very expensive European cars, there is something attractive to looks of a exterior that makes the consumer want to own, not rent, but possess. I love both books by Orwell, and this edition is one to show off.

When I saw that Chris Hitchens wrote the intros to this I was optimistic that he would shed a great amount of light on the subjects. Unfortunately, the intros are too short to get into much depth.

This is a handsome republication of Orwell's two most renowned works, Animal Farm and 1984. Even if you're just looking for 1984, this edition is to be commended; it comes with a fine introduction by today's leading Orwell enthusiast, Christopher Hitchens, and the reward of including Animal Farm requires very little in the way of additional effort or expense on your part. At 80-odd pages, you may as well pick it up in the same volume, and you're virtually certain to be glad that you did.

I'm not alone in being of a generation that was first required to read Orwell in my student days (Middle School, in my case.) It seems that there was a lot of literature churned out then, accessible to if not directly aimed at children, with the horrors of totalitarianism as its theme. In addition to reading Orwell, we were also reading Huxley, Bradbury, and Verne -- the youth-oriented John Christopher books being yet another example. The generation that lived through Nazism and Stalinism clearly wanted the younger set to be aware of the horrors that could be, and to remain on guard against them.

It doesn't seem to be quite that way anymore. Orwell's name is invoked today, but often in trivializing contexts: "Big Brother" is now a brain-numbing reality show, and "Orwellian" is a convenient and often hysterically-applied charge to political opponents. Some complaceny does seem to be inevitable: we are now further removed from the days when the likes of Hitler and Stalin killed tens of millions. Still, regimes arise that are nearly as horrific on a local scale, from Pol Pot to Saddam Hussein to the Taliban, and are real enough that Orwell's book is no joke. Orwell deserves attention if for no other reason than to sensitize us to the bad form associated with invoking his name in a trivializing context. There was a political ad on Youtube last year from an Obama supporter that cast Hillary Clinton on a giant Big Brother-like screen. I'm not in the least a fan of Senator Clinton, but associating her image with those of 1984 -- as was also done in an infamous Apple Computer ad -- trivializes Orwell's message in a deplorable way. Orwell wrote his novel to warn against real dangers that his generation lived through, and which others might yet, not as a marketing ploy to be used in selling either computers or nearly indistinguishable democratic political candidacies.

The main reason I am writing this review, however, is that re-reading Orwell in my 40's is a stark reminder that his novels are more than political parables, but are worthy literature. I hope that those reading these reviews will be aware of this, and not shut their minds to a rewarding literary experience.

As a kid, I was able to perceive the pedagogical intent of these books, but less so was I able to appreciate the literary artistry. 1984 in particular passes the Nabokovian test of creating a fully believable, if terrifying, alternate world. Beyond that, on nearly every page, Orwell leaves an image that just might stay with you forever. Small wonder that so many of the terms in 1984 ("Big Brother," "Newspeak") have burrowed their way into our lexicography.

Orwell was a man of the left who understood something that many of his compatriots did not; that what had arisen in the Soviet Union was a regime unprecedented in its horror (arriving before, and ultimately outlasting, its horrific mirror image, Hitler's Third Reich.) At a time when others on the left simply refused to believe in the reality of the USSR, he looked at it unflinchingly and wrote what it was really about.

Also, in childhood, I was not able to fully appreciate that Orwell's books simply weren't negative-utopian nightmare-fantasies, but paralleled actual events in the USSR with chilling accuracy. I knew, at some level, that he was satirizing certain events and characters in the Russian Revolution, but only in adulthood was I able to closely recognize nearly every episode and character in Animal Farm. Those familiar with USSR history will find it all here in the two books: the rewriting of the past to reaffirm the infallibility of the Party, the sudden reorienting of national propaganda to suit the latest twist of foreign policy, and the complete elimination of all references to those unfortunate souls decreed never to have existed.

Truly, the thing that makes 1984 terrifying now, is not what was imagined in the novel's construction, but what was real in its sources. It exaggerates even relative to the Stalinist state -- but not by much. It is this recognition that makes it a chilling read today.

1984 is the more vivid and evocative of the two novels. Excepting one passage (Goldstein's dreary history lesson about 2/3 of the way through) it is riveting almost throughout its 300 pages.

A few notes for younger readers: The moral of Animal Farm is not that Napoleon was simply a bad apple, but rather that the system adopted by the Animals ensured that ultimately such a tyrant would dominate. (I find the end of Animal Farm to be something of a false note; in the end the pigs prove no better than, and resemble, the humans they replaced, but this understates the tragic reality that the USSR was worse still than that which it replaced.)

As I close, I leave you with one random question about 1984: how come it never occurs to Eastasia and Eurasia to combine against Oeania? Given that Oceania keeps flipping its allegiance from one to the other, you'd think they'd ultimately catch on and both decide to attack Oceania at the same time.

Silly questions aside, this book is highly commended. Worth re-reading again, especially if you only have read Orwell when as immature as was I.

"A Passage to India" left me a little dissapointed. It starts so promissing, so unusual. It takes you to a different world and different time and you expect a fine journey. But somehow as the story progresse I was still waiting for some more excitment, more interesting characters, developing of deeper feeling. But unfortunately I never found it in this book. The language, the discriptions of India are beautiful. But I expected so much more from it! It's like those Marabar caves around which the plot revolves: you see them from far away, think about them, find them beautiful, but when you come to visit them they are just caves with nothing to make them special.
There was nothing special for me in this book, except that everything in it happened in India. And I can understand why so many readers are struggling through it.
The major plot is flat, the characters are plain and uninteresting, they look like cartoon caricatures sometimes. There are a lot of possibilities to make this story shine like a real gem stone. But Forster didn't use any of them. Though I appreciate his idea, his wonderful work over the details and mastering the dialoges.

A Passage to India is a complicated novel about British imperialism in India in the 1920s, and about the relationship between the natives and the British as those two cultures collide.

The story revolves around several characters: Adela Quested, a young woman come to India to marry a government official; her potential future mother-in-law, Mrs. Moore; Dr. Aziz, a local doctor who becomes friends with these ladies, until something shocking happens one day on an outing that changes things forever; and Cecil Fielding, another member of the expatriate community.

In some respects, A Passage to India hasn't aged all that well. I also found my attention wandering in some places. But still, it's a well-written novel about what happens when East meets West.

Almost a century after the book's publication the most crucial problems it discussed are as current as they were during Forster's life. The impossibility of communicating across the divide of culture, religion, and race, seems to be even more alive then when he saw it. The value of the novel lies not so much in representing it but in the fact that Forster offers a way out - personal contact. There is little chance people will suddenly like Muslims, Pakistanis, gays, lesbians, Moroccans, Turkish, Kurds etc etc - there is a chance (a very slim chance, Forster would be quick to add) that an American and a Muslim, a Turk and a Kurd, an Israeli and a Palestinian can be friends. The world may not want it, the people that surround them may not want it but the results depend on us alone. If we do not try we only have ourselves to blame.

Britishers Mrs. Moore and her prospective daughter-in-law, Adela Quested, make the arduous journey to India to visit Mrs. Moore's son, Ronny Heslop. He is a magistrate in Chandrapore, India, during the British occupation of that country. The two ladies make the acquaintance of Dr. Aziz, a local doctor who offers them a chance to see the "real India" by visiting the Marabar caves. Hoping to please the British ladies, he plans a wonderfully complicated and expensive journey. However, an unfortunate misunderstanding erupts into a tragic affair that point up the cultural differences and seething anger between the two cultures.

Was Miss Quested attacked by Dr. Aziz in the caves? This question becomes the central issue which propels the plot and lays bare the hostility and polarizing feelings of superiority and inferiority prevalent at the time. The reader is swept into the life of Dr. Aziz as more misunderstandings cause a permanent rift with his dearest friend and gives him a genuine hatred of the English. While the pompous Heslop contends his countrymen are in India to do justice and keep the peace, the appalling behavior on both sides explodes at a trial and lingers long after.

Forster is adept at not taking sides, at showing both the British as well as the Indian side of the issues. In his fair and balanced telling, the reader can alternately sympathize with Dr. Aziz or Miss Quested. Neither wins when the truth is revealed and both are forever scarred by the incident in the Marabar caves.

In 1984, David Lean brought this drama to the big screen and, in my opinion, actually improved on the source material by making the characters more sympathetic and capturing visually the beauty of India. Mrs. Moore and Miss Quested atop an elephant riding to the Marabar caves is a breath-taking scene and one any viewer will long remember.

First of all, I should say that as I grow older I'm learning that everything I read more than five years should probably not be included in the list of books I've read. I first read A Passage to India in 1994. I know this because in my quasi obsession, through most of the nineties, to catch up on reading the important books years I had never read, I wrote the dates at which I started and finished each book on the inside cover. When I picked A Passage to India up again this summer, I was stunned to find that, except for a few hazy vaguenesses, I had forgotten the book completely. I certainly had no memory of its beauty. At the heart of A Passage to India are the issues of race, friendship, decency, and the clash of cultures in British India at the turn of the 20th century. Forster's story is polyphonic, which is to say it is told from a number of voices. His prose is beautiful enough to stop you, and the novel's larger questions are ones that continue to resonate with the world's denizens even at the turn of this century.

The concept is great. The product did not meet the promise. The presentation style was just too artsy-fartsy, like a bunch of undergraduate girls from the Seven Sisters, sitting around saying "Look how smart I am."

I couldn't finish the thing. It would be a great book to sleep to.

I'm looking to improve my writing and I came across this book and decided to give it a listen. I was surprised at how helpful and fun it was. The text was very engaging, and you can tell the author put a lot of time into making this book not only informative but also enjoyable. I now look for specific elements when I read and have discovered the things I want to improve in my own writing.

I'm sorry, but this book is incredibly dry. I can't seem to finish it no matter how hard I try. Don't buy it if you have short attention span.

I really enjoyed Reading Like A Writer and since my son enjoys learning tips from authors, I gave this book to him after reading it.

A great gift item for those who want to, or think they would like to, write a book!

Author Francine Prose's latest non-fiction book Reading Like a Writer, a Guide for People who Love Books and for Those who Want to Write Them, brings to the study to literature exactly what the study of literature needs: literature. She reads a text for what it offers as a unique assemblage of words into sentences into paragraphs into chapters into volumes. The author of a great work of literature creates carefully, deliberate placing each word for meaning and effect.

To study literature this way, one needs time. Time to read slowly, to savor the words, to appreciate the gift of literature. One might also need a dictionary. And of course Strunk and White's Elements of Style--a textbook developed early in the last century to set out in the clearest, most direct terms the basic rules of grammar and punctuation and how these things combined with our carefully chosen words create style.

In its pithy way, USA Today called Prose's book "A love letter to the pleasures of reading." That's exactly what it is. It is also a love letter to the pleasure of learning to write. Each chapter focuses on a different aspect of writing that makes an author's work unique--words, sentences, paragraphs, narration, character, dialogue, details, gesture. The closing two chapters offer insights into "Learning from Chekhov" and "Reading for Courage." Prose draws on works of great writers and models reading to write. That is, by reading great works carefully, a student of literature who wishes to write develops a personal database of who does what well and learning to turn to specific writers for specific help.

For example, a writer struggling to effectively communicate character through dialogue might turn to authors he knows does that well--or to Chapter 6 in Prose's book. There the writer will find a close reading of passages from Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility in which she does just that. The writer can take from that reading an example of just how to.

Prose's book unhooks literature from the life-support of the classroom full of sartorial know-it-all professors with their one and only way of reading a work and their critical methods--feminist, Marxist, Freudian, sociological, and on and on--to show that the life-support is totally unnecessary; the patient breathes quite independently, thank you.

To anyone whose parents suggest he or she study something other than English in college the better to secure a good job, I say take that advice. If you love literature and want to read it well, all you really need is Prose's book.

The Count of Monte Cristo is far and away the best book I have ever read, and considering I read about a book a week, that is definitely saying something.

I'm not going to give you another review of the storyline because there are probably a hundred others on here already so to do it again would seem quite pointless. What I want is to give people a couple of reasons why this book is so great. One of them is that the book is so well balanced and what I call an "everything book" because it has a great balance of everything in it: adventure, romance, mystery, humor, etc. There is really no one category you could put this book under which I think makes it even better.

The other thing that makes this book so great (along with the great storyline) is the writing style of Dumas. First of all, he is never overly descriptive which is something that a lot of authors tend to do. He uses just the right amount of description on the scene and then lets the characters take over from there. Also, he has this wonderful way of always making the reader want to continue on to the next chapter. You just can't put the book down! Everything just seems to flow in such an effortless manner. Many nights I was up at two in the morning because I just couldn't put the book down.

Do yourself a favor and read this book (unabridged penguin classics version, of course) and I can promise you that you will not be disappointed.

Perhaps the only work in popularity to rival Alexandre Dumas' Three Musketeers is The Count of Monte Cristo. As with many of Dumas' works, the story has huge cast of characters and several underlying plot lines dealing with political upheaval and scandals in France during that era. I found that the The Man in the Iron Mask had so many side political story lines that it made the novel confusing and hard to follow. And then I got bored. However, The Count, has just the right amount and ties together very well at the end, which does not subscribe to the generic formulaic predictable plot. In fact, I would deem it the ultimate revenge story.

There have been 11 films and 4 television series that have attempted to tell the tale of the wronged Edmund Dantes and his search for his fiance Mercedes and his pursuit of the man that wronged him. The most recent film was in 2002 starring Jim Caviezel and while casted well, paled in comparison to the novel in many ways and the liberal creative license taken with the story almost offending. The latter half of the film no longer resembled the masterpiece of the novel. Yes, most films pale to their written counterparts, but this one in particular deserved a Golden Razzie.

The novel has a huge story to go with the cast of characters, but is pretty basic in that a man is wrongly accused and seeks to right the wrongs, along the way, losing those that he cared about, mounting his need for revenge even further. Edmund calculates and plans out the most exquisite plans and is not completely heartless or merciless. In fact, his compassion and loyalty are overriding themes throughout the novel. I guess you could say the richness of the Monte Cristo sandwich rivals that of it's namesake!

The Count of Monte Cristo is not a novel to be missed.

And if you really need the short version, The Simpsons did a 10min summary in the episode "Revenge is a Dish Best Served Three Times."

Wow. I am so glad to have bought this book. I cannot put it down! At first I must admit I was intimidated by its size as well as the period it was written. I find that many period books are really dense and difficult reads. Not this one at all!!! Easy to read and such a gripping tale! It draws you in and you do not want to put it down. I am so glad that I am reading the unabridged version because I cannot imagine it any other way. I am also so happy that it is so long because I do not want the story to end!

"The Count of Monte Cristo" is a literary masterpiece. It has everything one could want in a book and more: adventure, fighting, planning, tales of riches, tales of suffering, tales of ultimate betrayal and revenge, and even a little love.

This book may be long, but every single page is worth your time. It is written so perfectly and the story put together with such great design...an epic tale perfect for any reader.

I had never read Monte Cristo before and was at first reluctant to invest the time needed for this modern, unabridged version. I'm glad I did though, because it was a great story that moved along quickly in spite of its length. The freshly translated language helps, and because it's unabridged, it's satisfying to know that you're getting the full text that Dumas intended.

John Milton's "Paradise Lost" is one of the all-time classics of English literature. The epic poem begins with Satan just having been expelled from Heaven. Adam and Eve are tempted in the Garden of Eden, and fall. Before the two are expelled from Eden, Adam has revealed to him some of the major events of the Old and New Testaments, culminating in the Second Coming of Christ. The epic has enthralled readers for well over three centuries.

One thing that must be borne in mind when reading this work is that Milton's theology was not orthodox Christian theology, but Arianism, as he denied the Trinity and believed that Christ was not eternal, but created by God the Father. Also, the seventeenth century English is difficult to plow through. However, by forcing the reader to reflect on the origin of evil and to consider what they believe about the concept of original sin, "Paradise Lost" proves to be worth the effort one must make in reading it.

I have read "Paradise Lost" four times, and took no less than three semesters on it at university. This was the edition we used to work. Modernised spelling, coherent punctuation (plus variations of it in the notes), good introduction, and enormous work in the notes; this edition has all you need for a good reading of the epic poem.

As to the poem itself, some people are hard on it for all the wrong reasons. Remember that it is a 17th century poem, that English was not exactly similar as it is today, and that there are many, many words which were first used in English in "Paradise Lost". Milton was innovative with words, and he gave English new words, and expressions, such as the most famous "all Hell broke loose", which was first uttered in "Paradise Lost".

A poem like this cannot be read without good notes, and this is what this edition has to offer. Notes aren't enough, though, they have to be good, and in this edition, they are. The poem itself is not burdened by the numbers of the notes, because there are so many, the editor decided not to show them in the text per se, but at the end of the book, you will always have the reference, the lines, which the notes are about.

As to the poem itself, if you don't know it, you certainly know of the story of the Fall of Man, Adam and Eve, and the rebellion of Satan in Heaven. I'll only say that Milton's God is one seriously problematic figure in the poem, and that it caused centuries of academic discussion as to whether Milton's God is a good God or a devilish one, whether "Paradise Lost" was truly a "myth", in the old sense of a story which explains why we're here and how it got to be, or whether it was an attack on Christianity. Scholars still discuss this today, so make your own mind if you can!

Penguin Classic Editions of any book are truly great. One should also note that Signet Classics is also Penguin but this version should only be brought if Penguin Classics is not available. Of course, one has to evaluate one's purpose for the book but Penguin always has notes and good Intros for their books.

I purchased this book for a paper in which I had to choose a chapter and write about it. This version is really clear but is written as Milton would have written it so some of the old English is annoying but there are notes and major parts. The only problem I have with this edition is that there are no chapter titles so you really do not know what each cahpter is about unless you read it.

One of the many results of the increased literacy rate is the ability for every Tom, Dick or Harry to consider themselves literary experts and to opine on the supposed faults of great literature, presuming that it should serve merely their basest pleasures. The correct response to such vulgarity is to rebuke, letting them make their solitary way till one greater man restore them. Before the charge of arrogance is levelled against me, I must too opine that this attitude of literary snobbery should be applied to each one of us when we approach the genius of Milton and Paradise Lost, relenting to the sensation of humility as this epic poem enters our mind. Only by reading in such a frame of mind, can one truly appreciate and enjoy the poetry of Milton.

Paradise Lost is Milton's attempt to recount the debacle of Satan in Heaven, and his role in the Fall of Humanity. While Milton grandly presents his work as an attempt to `justify the ways of God to men' regarding His motivations for our expulson from Paradise, the focus of Paradise Lost is firmly upon Satan and his emotional turmoil at losing Heaven, only to see a creature of dirt replace him as God's focus. From a Catholic perspective, one of the faults of Milton is that his anthropomorphism of the devil is almost too convincing, making Satan appear as a tragic, almost pathetic figure, rather than the merciless deceiver that he is. That is not to say that Milton portrays the devil in a positive frame, but attempts to offer reasons of insecurity, envy and self-righteous hostility for Satan's path of destruction; all too human traits, as many readers will find disconcerting.

As some have noted, while one's grasp and love of the English language should improve at the behest of Milton's poetry, it is unlikely that one will find any theological inspiration from this work. Heresies abound in Paradise Lost; hardly surprising due to the unorthodox religious convictions of Milton. Without condoning such-in my conviction-wicked ideas, one should attempt to read Milton, not as a theological treatise or an attempt to historically describe the Fall, but as a courageous attempt to venture into the midst of the spiritual, the power of emotion and the capability of both unto despair.

A classic which all will do well to read.

John Milton's "Paradise Lost" is a timeless classic. It's imagery, based itself upon 1500 years of previous Christian-cultural imagery, has shaped how the Western world views Christianity, sin, the fall, life, death, heaven, and hell.

The open-minded non-Christian reader would do well to read "Paradise Lost" to become a literate student of Christian imagery. The Christian, willing to work through the descriptive poetry, will gain new insight into Creation, Fall, and Redemption. In many ways, Milton bridges eras (the Middle Ages and the Reformation), cultures (Southern Europe and Northern), and religious groups (Catholic and Protestant).

It's interesting how much "folk theology" owes itself to Milton's "Paradise Lost." Modern views of the Devil, in particular, are often unknowingly based upon the poetic images from Milton. Fortunately, Milton is at his best in describing Satan, first as the unfallen Lucifer with all his glorious, God-created brilliance, and then as the fallen False Seducer in all his distorted and tormenting deceit.

For example, Milton speaks of how revenge, dark requital, propelled Satan's monstrous motives:

To waste his whole Creation, or possess all as our own, and drive as we were driven, the puny habitants, or if not drive, seduce them to our Party, that their God may prove their foe, and with repenting hand abolish his own works. This would surpass common revenge, and interrupt his joy in our confusion and our joy upraise in his disturbance; when his darling Sons hurled headlong to partake with us, shall curse their frail Original, and faded bliss, faded so soon (Milton, Paradise Lost, p. 40).

Surpassing common revenge, Satan lives to spite the Author of life.

By Satan, and in part proposed: for whence, but from the Author of all ill could spring so deep a malice, to confound the race of mankind in one root, and Earth with Hell to mingle and involve, done all to spite the great Creator? (Milton, Paradise Lost, p. 41).

Milton's depiction of the temptation in the Garden displays psychological brilliance and biblical insight into the nature of the human personality as designed by God and depraved by sin. Perhaps only C. S. Lewis' "Screwtape Letters" matches Milton's understanding of Satanic seduction.

For instance, so whose fault their fall? Milton, imagining God's words to Christ, declares:

For man will hearken to his glozing lies, and easily transgress the sole Command, sole pledge of his obedience. So will fall he and his faithless Progeny. Whose fault? Whose but his own? Ingrate, he had of me all he could have; I made him just and right, sufficient to have stood, though free to fall (Milton, Paradise Lost, p. 63).

Well put. Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall. Made just and right and able to choose. Adam and Eve had all they could have from the generous hand of God, yet they transgressed the sole command, the sole pledge of loving, trustful obedience. Loving allegiance they chose to grant to non-god rather than to Father God.

Whatever could possess them to trade their birthright for one bite of the one forbidden fruit? When we last spied earth's Villain, he was tumbling toward hell. Having lost the battle for heaven, his hostility and hate triggers a new plan. Why a second siege on heaven's gates, when earth's shores suggest easier prey? As Milton envisioned it:

Nor will occasion want, nor shall we need with dangerous expedition to invade Heaven, whose high walls fear no assault or siege, or ambush from the Deep. What if we find some easier enterprise? There is a place (if ancient and prophetic fame in Heaven err not), another World, the happy seat of some new Race called Man, about this time to be created like to us, though less in power and excellence, but favored more of him who rules above. So was his will pronounced among the Gods, and by an oath, that shook Heaven's whole circumference, confirmed (Milton, Paradise Lost, pp. 39-40).

Readers also could benefit from his less known work, "Paradise Regained." Many have mentioned how difficult it is to write a riveting book about Heaven since the drama of evil is defeated and thus the tension is deflated. Yet Milton captures one possible vision of a future Paradise/Heaven as well as most. (Randy Alcorn's book "Heaven" is, in my opinion, the best modern book on the topic).

Got this book to introduce Star Wars to my kid, he likes the animated Yoda, but I guess it's because he is green, my son just loves green. Most of his favorite characters are green, Oscar the Grouch, the Green Power Ranger...

I am a huge fan of Star Wars and can't wait to see the movie The Clone Wars, so to get an idea of what it will be about I bought this book. It is awesome! It is jam packed with pictures and te,lls you every thing you need to know about the characters, battles, ships, everything!!! I think it is excellent buy.

If you are a Star Wars fan than this book is definitely for you. It goes over the characters, story, and technology of the new movie and the TV show. I think this book is excellent in every way!

I had heard a lot about this story and knew something of what it was about. The particular rendition in this book seemed to leave some points made by other reports of other translations in doubt.I am reading another book about this epic ("Buried book") which I hope and think will cover more than this translation. If it doesn't satisfy my interest I will look for other translations.

Overall it was an interesting book.

This is absolutely one of the best translations of Gilgamesh available. Andrew George gives us a taste of what the original versification was like. He also translates all the extant versions and fragments of versions of the epic, and this is important. Not only do the versions augment each other and fill in the gaps that time and entropy have literally carved, shattered, and eroded into the original tablets, but they key us into the variations that the generations of years of cross-cultural retellings have wrought. Gilgamesh becomes Bilgames, etc. etc. Finally, an appendix at the back of the book discusses the process of translating the text from the tablets. In many ways this is the most fascinating part of this volume. Along with these good points, we are treated to line drawings taken from period artwork illustrating the epic, so we see the gods, goddesses, and strange monsters as they were visualized by the Babylonians. Highly recommended!

This is another from my "what haven't I read that maybe I should have" period. This is a difficult read - part of which is because of the way the text and variants are put together (though I don't know how to make it any better). So, have patience.
This is the first translation I have read of Gilgamesh (and probably my last unless new material adds significantly to the text) so I can't comment on other versions. The Penguin Classics edition has many illustrations that did add to the pleasure.
Highly recommended as one of those "to be read before I die" books.

I recently ordered this version to prepare for teaching Giglamesh in a Humanities I course. I had read the famous Sandars version, which compiles the various tablets into one coherent prose narrative. However, Andrews' new version attempts no similar gloss: the work is revealed as a fragmentary masterpiece, with gripping passages of narrative trailing off into maddening gaps and uncertainties. The Introduction offers a very informative, concise overview of Gilgamesh scholarship and the state of the work itself. It is truly humbling to realize how little we have of this great work, yet what we do have literally changed our understanding of the ancient world. And as Sandars suggested in his Introduction to the earlier Penguin volume, it is amazing that such an old, fragmentary work from a forgotten culture still has the power to move us. This sounds like academic hyperbole, but even in its most authentic state, the work is powerful; we see Gilgamesh's grief, his desperation, and his bitter defeat upon losing Enkidu and the possibility of eternal life. The translation carries some powerful imagery that somehow surpasses the more fluid prose translation; perhaps this is a bit of chiaroscuro (sp?), the lost passages showing the more complete, brilliant ones in greater relief.

Even better, this translation includes all the various fragments of the Gilgamesh story, as well as the ealrier Sumerian version of the epic, which is much different than the Standard version. It's a remarkable volume which is fun to pour through and reconstruct this ancient world on the dawn of civilization. It truly inspired me to teach this work to my students, emphasizing how such a powerful work can rest on only a handful of broken tablets.

I recommend this Penguin Classic, but it offers more thorough scholarly apparatus than usual for the series. This is not meant as a criticism! But, a beginner may find a "version" such as Stephen Mitchell's easier to start with for an overview of the storyline, and a briefer introduction and helpful endnotes. The poem itself is not lengthy, but the ancillary texts and sources, as Andrew George shows us, do take up considerable space which may please enthusiasts but discourage newcomers to this epic poem.

George prepared for Oxford UP in 1999 a two-volume edition, and this Penguin adapts the core of the English translation for a wider audience. It appears ideal for a college classroom or the reader wanting to learn more about the lacunae, the gaps, the language, and the editorial decisions made by George and fellow translators. A fascinating appendix shows how out of grammatical markers, syllabic, and half-syllabic cuneiform incisions the sounds and rhythms and absences that fill this most ancient of narratives turn into what we can understand. To a point.

Terms such as "louvre-door," "glacis-slope," "hie to the forge," and notably Ishtar's exhortation to "stroke my quim" give a rather archaic diction to parts of the translation. George aims obviously for precision in such terminology, but this does clash with the more demotic vernacular chosen by Mitchell in his popularization. Mitchell's also considerably more erotic and develops passages that in their original state, reading George, remain terse. Again, George approaches the thousands of fragments that are still being assembled nearly 150 years after their discovery and observes that this epic is still, amazingly and poignantly, one in progress as we await trained Assyriologists able to decipher not only the later Akkadian but the considerably more challenging and often cryptic Sumerian sources. It's a shame that in a region where so many billions have been spent to destroy the area between the Tigris & Euphrates that a few thousands can not be provided for the study and restoration of the oldest story text we have ever found.