Fiction Literature Books

This is the worst classic I've ever read. I had to read it for high school English and my mother had to keep waking me up because I was so excruciatingly bored that I fell asleep every few pages. I could not care about the plot or about even one single character, although I sympathize with Dickens' social observations, I usually devour anything in print and I love 19th century novels as a rule. My high school class discussions did not bring me around in the least on this book. Dickens' female characters are either crones or ingenues, and he really does write as though he's being paid by the word. He was capable of better: "Great Expectations" is actually worth the paper its printed on; he actually seemed to give that one some care rather than just churning out word after word after word. Unfortunately out of all his books I've read, only "Great Expectations" lived up to his potential. If I want an English Victorian novelist, I'll take Thomas Hardy or Wilkie Collins (even at his most outlandish) any day, but spare me Charles Dickens.

Tale Of Two Cities represents a change for Dickens. Considering the story a short exposition on the French Revolution, Dickens avoids much explanation or background on a multitude of characters that are trapped in the world pre-french Revolution and yes this is a problem.
The tale opens up with the rescue of Dr. Manette. It's hard to care for Dr. Manette as he comes across as both eccentric and quirky and nothing else. We also don't know his past or his motivations or even why he got locked up in a French prison. His daughter Lucie comes across as a one dimensional soap opera character and Mr. Lorry is a cardboard cutout completing the triangle. Such is the start of the adventure. To be honest, you may struggle since Dickens demands a proper stage to be set introducing character after character without so much as an explanation why we are meeting them and it can seem frustrating. Dickens does this for a reason which is to provide a great deal of twists and turns at the conclusion (all is not what it seems).
Once the conflict kicks in -- Charles Darney (Lucie's husband) must go to France and now the Revolution has kicked in and it becomes a gripping page turner. Dickens is a master writer and creates mood over action and it works. As already mentioned, the plot twists do kick in and there is an obvious feeling of 'forced and contrived' in some instances but the emotions are real, the situations are frightening, and no other book I have read captures the French Revolution in such a personal level as this book. I just finished it tonight and I'm still processing it. If you chose to read it, try to not focus so much on character but situations and the times they are set in and you will more appreciate how wonderful this story really is even to today's modern audiences.

Charles Dickens is not a boring, old foagie author from times gone by, droning on and on in a language that cannot resonate with modern readers. Dickens was a great writer, a good man (flawed and human in his own life), and in "A Tale of Two Cities," he spins a story of the most terrible and wonderful, of profoundness and poignancy, of the best and the worst times and how people reacted to them.

I originally read "A Tale of Two Cities" as an assignment for high school English class. What a pleasant surprise I was in for. This book has every right to be called a classic. Its themes of political disillusion, cultural progress or regression, families torn apart and reconciled, love lost and gained, honorable sacrifice and religious confusion are true and timeless.

Dickens' characters speak to us today through Lucie's eternal love of a wife and mother and daughter, of Sydney Carton's rejected lover, of Charles Darnay's moral man trying to right the wrongs of his family's past. Carton, the tragic protagonist, is a wonderful, eventual hero, and a great study for theologians and psychologists. As an adult and now Christian, I have much greater appreciation for and understanding of Dickens' Biblical references, and of Carton's spiritual journey that occurs just before the end of Book the Third.

I highly recommend "A Tale of Two Cities" to young people, for a largely historically accurate and interesting account of the French Revolution, and the exploration of important psychological and religious topics. This is also quite enjoyable reading for lovers of classics, those interested in historical fiction, or even just a good novel. Do spend your money on an unabridged printing.

And, for fans of the new Doctor Who, check out the episode featuring Mr. Dickens, with Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper, "The Unquiet Dead."

Perhaps it's my lack of enthusiam for classic English literature, but I found this book dull and very unamusing. I purchased this because my English teacher wanted us to read it, and while I don't regret buying it, I highly doubt I'm going to read it again.

Though, keep in mind I'm but a teenager, and not a fan of the classics. I'm sure if the classics are your thing, then you'll love this book. The included appendix and notes help out a lot.

Some honest disclosures. My strongest academic credentials relevant to literary criticism are that I minored in English. I have never been a "student" of Dickens. I enjoy Shakespeare plays in the same manner that I enjoy analyzing baseball games: I always get the point and relish in the general purpose of the production, but there are finer nuances that are beyond me and most of the people watching probably have a more sophisticated appreciation than I do. All of that stated, I dove into this classic Dickens title (actually, reading it aloud to my pre-teen kids) and was pleasantly surprised to find that I throughly enjoyed the experience.
As practically every review on this page will tell you, or as could be digested from Wikipedia or Cliff Notes, this novel is set in the circumstances of the French Revolution. What Dickens provided is a human tale from the perspective of the coming (and elapsed) revolution on the lives within one extended family based in Paris and London. Make no mistake: this book is long and plodding, and the language is sufficiently "Dickensesque" to discourage any modern American reader, but the investment of time and attention is rewarding. Dickens is wonderful, and it is a delight to read the words of someone whose universal messages can still reach across the centuries and cultures that separate us (like Twain, Shakespeare, and, what the heck, the Apostle Paul).
I am not expert enough in English literature or French history to provided more of an endorsement than this: this is a great read and is surprisingly accessable. The themes of violence, greed, rebellion, hatred, love, charity, mercy, and sacrifice are clear enough for anyone to appreciate. And my children, as young as eight-years, eagerly settled down for a chapter night after night. Another big shout goes out for Dickens.

With her vivid imaginative skills, Jean Rhys offers us the tale of "Bertha" Rochester, the madwoman in the attic of "Jane Eyre." The skies of the West Indies are an ever-changing backdrop in this moody novel of fear, memory, and desire. Rhys' style challenges the reader to "fill in the blanks" many times throughout, making necessary intuitive connections to amplify her sometimes sparse prose. What could have been merely a lightweight story of "love and greed in the tropics" turns into an engaging, beautifully unfolding narrative laden with mystery and sadness.

Who is the mad woman in the attic of the house where Jane Eyre has gone to work; how does she come to live there; what drove her to madness? Anyone who has read "Jane Eyre" has, I'm sure, wondered these things as Bronte's story unfolded.

Jean Rhys has wondered also, but has tried to answer these questions. The back story which is contained in "Wide Sargasso Sea" fills in answers. Rhys explains the childhood of this woman and her strange home life as a child. The story is told of how she got to England and ended up captive in a dark cagelike attic.

It would have been better if Bronte had answered these questions herself. However, Rhys stands in for her and has written a marvelous mystery which keeps the reader as spellbound as the original story did.

Good reading - have a go at it.

The voice of Christophine, the former slave in the household in Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea, is able to talk in the voice of both colonial and post-colonial vernacular, "she could speak good English if she wanted to, and French as well as patois." (p 21, Norton 1982) What is far more compelling is that a former slave of indeterminate age becomes a life-giving force. In the beginning of the novel Antoinette's mother says, "we would have died if she'd turned against us." To answer the question of why two generations of Cosways would have perished without Christophine's help is to understand how Christophine and other islanders operate in the present, unhurt, unhurried, and unbowed by the colonialism that wracks most of the islanders in Rhys' novel.

Daniel Cosway, Rochester's erstwhile blackmailer knows that "the English and the French fight like cats and dogs since long time." (p 96) The use of the grammatically incorrect word since with a phrase that stands for extended time passages transmits the past into the present, showing that wars come and go but the island inhabitants remain to carve out their identities. Daniel uses the phrase to considerable effect when confronting Antoinette's husband to imply he has been cuckolded all along, "[Y]our wife know Sandi since long time. Ask her and she tell you. But not everything . . ." (p. 140)

From the first pages to the last, Rhys allows several characters to employ a somewhat innocuous phrase nearly twenty times throughout the novel. "Long time" establishes Christophine's prominence, entreats readers that much of the past is contained in the present as well as the reverse, and literally if not figuratively defines love, "[Y]ou only know a long time afterwards what it is, the life and death kiss." (p. 186)

Christophine chooses to speak in her patois, to practice her obeah, and, in her own unhurried way, to live a life with the Cosways, knowing that one of the cornerstones of story-telling, "A long time ago," means a long time now and forever but especially in the present.

I bought this novel with anticipation of a thrilling story and a dramatic yet suspenseful story. What I got was a boring love story followed by an atrocious climb to a lackluster climax. The story is narrator from opposing views, mainly the Creole protagonist, Antionnette, yet also from a Colonialist whose name is never mentioned. Why the name was never mentioned is unclear, obviously to try and give a sense of imagination and creativity to the story (EPIC FAIL). Characters are introduced randomly and seemingly without a purpose in the novel. The racism towards English is evident in Rhys obsession towards depicting them as soulless colonial butchers when this is obviously not the case. The novel is simply a silly novel, not bad, but silly. The love story seemingly falls apart out of nowhere, there is no cohesion to the story and the characters seemingly were created out of a Jamacain woman's desire for a popular story. The climax of the novel is pointless and silly, the story translating to England out of nowhere. There is no point to the novel, as it should never have been written. This is the most racist and atrociously silly novel I have ever read. Couldn't stop laughing after I read it.

Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea is a dreamlike feverish novel awash in passion and trauma. Forget for a moment that it's a sequel to "Jane Eyre" or that it is a seminal text in Feminism and Colonialist studies. Simply as a story of trauma and madness executed in a modern stream of consciousness style it is brilliant. Disorienting, agonizing, nightmarish yet stunningly beautiful; I was forced to read it in dribs and drabs - as the knife edge of Rhys' vision would compel me to come up, panting for air. This book is powerful and unforgiving dark. But, of course, it is much more - it's a modernist masterpiece which brilliantly critiques the human costs of crimes of patriarchy, colonialism, slavery and subjugation. It is a searing indictment at the same time it is a haunting work of art.

Antoinette grows up poor and isolated at her family's plantation. Her companions are the black laborers and their children who simmer with resentment at the legacy of slavery. Slavery may have been abolished but has been replaced with economic and social subjugation and the resentment is palpable. Mr. Mason disregards his wife's warnings with sexist and colonialist arrogance - an act which destroys their lives. Her mother's anger at Mr. Mason leads to her imprisonment as a mad woman. Women are not permitted to express rage. Patriarchy is central because Antoinette/Bertha is chattel. Her marriage to Rochester is effected because she owns land - it's an economic arrangement to gain property for Rochester. Once married, Antoinette/Bertha is stripped of all her claim to property and is completely under her husband's authority. Their marriage is marked by passion but it becomes apparent how culturally Caribbean (black) she is, tainted with scandal. Their relationship flames out spectacularly with infidelity and rage. When he decides he can't deal with her and chooses to abandon her to be locked as "the madwoman in the attic" she is reduced to, essentially, a prisoner. A woman, in that society, can literally be the prisoner of her husband. Both Antoinette and her mother, Bertha are confined as mad - but their pathologies are the simple act of blaming their spouses and acting out their anger. Rebellion is seen as madness - both in the context of rebellion against slavery and rebellion against patriarchy.

As for the literary context - "Wide Sargasso Sea" as sequel to "Jane Eyre". By situating WSS's story within the classic Victorian novel "Jane Eyre", Rhys sets up a host of powerful resonances. Jane Eyre is a tale of redemption; of love's power to redeem. England's brutal social and economic inequities are hurdles to be overcome - but ultimately love overcomes them all in a healing and redemptive way. The fly in the ointment is Bertha, the mad woman in the attic. Her presence complicates the otherwise straightforward romantic narrative and gives it tension and fire. By inverting this tale to tell the story of Antoinette/Bertha, Rhys deepens the misery by shattering "Jane Eyre"s redemptive message. In "Wide Sargosso Sea" love is a tragic by-product of the economic abuses of patriarchy. Love has no redemptive power for Antoinette. It's just more salt in the wound. A lot of the negative reviews here center around resentment at Rhys for besmirching their beloved innocent "world of 'Jane Eyre'". They've missed the point. Inverting and besmirching the innocent world of 'Jane Eyre' is exactly the point. Colonialist England's apparent grace is built on the blood and toil of subjugated peoples. The subjugation extends to English women as well. You are meant to see that and the experience is not meant to be pleasant.

I can't say enough about this book's importance or the brilliant, polished skill with which it is written. Published in 1966 - at the height of the civil rights movement and free speech movement - WSS's issues were dead on the zeitgeist of the moment. You can imagine how the lush, dark, evil imagery of the jungle and colonialism must have resonated in with an America embroiled in Vietnam and a rising anti-war moment. It's not a pleasant read, however. The messages are hard, dark ones. There are no happy endings here and as the story unfolds the brutal details big and small are as oppressive as the tropical humidity. This is fine literature, indeed - but also a journey into pain, deprivation, madness and tragedy. It's not a journey to be taken lightly.

This piece is magnificently presented, a true collectors edition, true there are some issues with the maps at the front and back which seem to be glued together and are hard to pull apart (Personally we haven't tried to open them nor will we as we are not too worried about not being able to see the maps) the rest of the book is greatly presented - the way I always imagined the book to be.
Delivery was a little slow but then again we are in Melbourne, Australia so we understand the delay as we selected the basic freight level.
Anyway - highly recommend this version of the book to any true fan out there

I bought this gift as part of a set of wedding gifts for my friends, their cake had the one ring writing on it so it fit, and they absolutely loved it. Everything about the product resonated quality, especially the leather.

Recommended for anyone who loves the Rings.

I love it. The volume is great to look at and the feel is awesome. The text is large enough (better than the small paperbacks). The maps are great and the other embellishments (such as the gold trimmed edges and the page marker) are excellent. I am loving this volume. It was well worth the ptrice.

Very happy with this edition, it wass exactly what i expected, and once i had it with me i think it is a really good value.

My boyfriend loved this! He is an avide book junky, and thought it was well made, and also a great collectors piece

"The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair clearly states how people wanted to live the American Dream; which was unfortunately extremely hard in those types of conditions. The setting of the story takes place at first in Lithuania and then the family then moves to Packington, a meat-packing sector of Chicago in the early 1900s, in hope of living better lives and being successful. The conflict that occurs during their stay in Chicago are that Jurgis and his family attempt to pursue the "American Dream", but certain situations come up and interfere their successfulness. The main events that happen are that Ona's boss rapes her, Jurgis has to spend Christmas in jail away from his family, and Ona's death during childbirth. As a result of this, Jurgis feels destroyed by capitalism and Jurgis turns to abandon his family and turns to dishonest means to survive. The resolution to all this is that everyone goes their own separate ways and try to survive their own way and the hard way. They learn how hard it is to live and survive by themselves in those conditions.

The Jungle is a dreary novel about the failed American dream. It shows readers the shadowy side of early 20th century Chicago and the hardships that immigrants had to go through. Jurgis, a Lithuanian immigrant, illuminates the horrible working conditions and shady business tactics that occurred in America during this time period. He vowed that he would just work harder to make more money, yet the only jobs available to him were those that involved back breaking labor in an unsafe work environment. In an effort to alleviate the situation that his family is in, Jurgis joins a union. The reader begins to see just how corrupt Chicago is at this time. Immigrants were used for their cheap labor while the politicians skimmed off the top. Jurgis sprained his ankle while he was working and the meatpacking factory would not pay him until he came back 3 months later. This kind of unfair business practice ran rampant in America during this time. After a series of deaths in his family and stays in jail, Jurgis becomes one of many criminals looking to make a dishonest dollar. He finally must turn to socialism in order to show his discontent for the happenings in America. I would recommend this book to anybody who is interested in the corruption of early 1900s America. Upton Sinclair shows how hard it actually was for immigrants to make a living and exposes the the unsafe working conditions in which they had to live and work in.

Back in high school I read this book and absolutely hated every page of it. The other day I decided that it was time for a re-read so I pulled it back out and started reading.

Short Summary: Jurgis and his extended family migrate to America from Lithuania in search of the American Dream. When they arrive they discover that the American dream may not be available to them, what is available to them is scam after scam, starvation, freezing winters, and slave labor for pitiful wages.

The first chapter of the book is generally enough to make all but the most dedicated readers consider turning back. It is an extended wedding scene with little to know explanation as to who these people are that we are reading about. Though we do meet up with many of the characters later in the book, it's really not the most desirable place for us to leap into the story. The wedding between Jurgis and Ona is a happy affair that nearly breaks their pitiful bank. After this chapter we leap back to the family coming over to America, fumbling about to find a place to stay, trying to learn enough English to get by, and attempting to find jobs.

The family does not have an easy time of it... there are thousands of people in the Chicago area starving for lack of work, the slaughterhouses have their pick of employees, can pay them almost nothing, and can turn them out to the streets with no notice. Women and children are forced to work as well, trying desperately to make ends meet, keep food on the table, and keep coal in the stove for heat.

The bulk of this novel focuses on the horrors of life in that time, particularly the atrocities committed by the slaughterhouses and the meat packing industry. I assure you that after reading this book you will think before you take your next bite of beef or pork (especially sausage). The horrors that this novel brings to light are almost unbelievable in this day and age, but they were true. One cannot even imagine going through the days and nights as this family does. Every time they begin to believe that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, it is extinguished again. This book follows the tragic breaking down of the human spirit, the death of the soul, and the degradation of humanity on such a scale as to be almost unbelievable. Sinclair takes us to the brink of despair, we want this family to make it, we want their spirits to soar! We want to see hope glimmering in their eyes and food in their bellies. Such vivid characters and such terrible scenes will stick with the reader long after the book has been closed.

But that is just the first 3/4 of the book... of all of the classics that I have read, both modern and ancient... so far this one has the least satisfying ending. In the last 5 or so chapters of the book, Jurgis is swept up by the socialist movement, and from that point on the reader simply reads speech after speech of socialist propaganda so thick that Sinclair almost leaps out of the book and bashes you over the skull with it. Page after page of brand new, came out of nowhere characters - people we know nothing about theorizing and pontificating over the joys and hopes that the socialist movement is bringing to the people. Page after page of how material wealth should be government run and intellectual wealth should be free, and how the whole concept of Socialism will solve everyone's problems and we can all live happily ever after should we vote socialist.

Now I have nothing against socialism, heck the good old US of A is a socialist country, even though they'll fight you rather than admit it. But I don't like anyone's theories jammed down my throat... especially after they have just drug me through the gutter and have me all emotional about the horrible lives the poor characters are living. I almost took offense to the ending - Jurgis and his family deserved a better ending to their story than that!

I am giving this book 3 stars, the first 3/4 of it is 5 star material, the last couple of chapters was 1-2 star material the appeared out of nowhere, so I'm splitting the difference. I remember now that my hatred of this book back in high school was for the same reason, and I recall arguing with my teacher that this book could have been great if he had let me rip the last 3 chapters off of it... or if Sinclair had woven his socialist theory throughout the book rather than slapping it on at the end. Still I highly recommend reading this book, even if you don't bother reading all of the speeches at the end.

Using the word "beautiful" to describe Sinclair's "The Jungle" is a bit tedious, and something of an oxymoron. I mean, let's face it: it's a down-and-dirty book, a brutally honest portrayal of Chicago's turn-of-the-century Packingtown. The novel traces Lithuanian immigrant Jurgis Rudkus and his family, as they seek a new life in America--and fall into a trap of immorality and despair. It is not an easy read, in the sense that the imagery Sinclair uses is not watered down; you are made to wince, you are made sick to your stomach. I cannot imagine what this was like for readers at the time it was published, before the Pure Food and Drug Act (the passing of which was a direct result of this novel). Most of "The Jungle" flows along smoothly; it works very well as a novel, even one with a Socialist agenda (the last thirty pages read like a Socialist pamphlet; but then again, that was Sinclair's point, so we can forgive him for that).

Now for the "bonus features" (obviously, I am of the DVD generation). The "Introduction," which offers a brief bio of Sinclair, as well as a brief analysis of the "protest novel"'s role in literature, is a worthy read. The "Interpretive Notes" are a joke, I'm afraid. The Notes are somtimes helpful (if it weren't for one note, we wouldn't know Sinclair was referencing his friend and fellow Socialist, Jack London), but more often simply get in the way (did we really need a refence stating that the "lake" referred to is Lake Michigan? I mean, it's Chicago, for God's sake!). Kudos to the "Suggestions for the Interested Reader" and "Critical Excerpts" sections, for including listings that actually go against Sinclair's views. Combine that with the "Questions for Discussion," and I'd say that this book would be handy in the classroom. I read it outside of class, for the exerpience (and a pleasant one at that), but I can easily see this edition being used in one of my college literature courses (I'd suggest high school, but let's face it, no high school student would be all that interested). So for you Teachers of the World, I highly suggest using this edition of the text. For those of you who simply want to experience Sinclair's classic novel--by all means, dig in. You'll be a bit squeamish in spots, and you might get tired of having Socialist ideals pounded into your skull, but you'll enjoy the experience, and will hopefully come out a richer person because of it. At the very least, you'll thank God somebody had the balls to take on the Beef Trust, and make dinner time a safer place for the rest of us.

Of the numerous editions of The Jungle that are in print, this version is reasonably good and presented in a scholarly form. However, this version of The Jungle is not the original form. It has been drastically cut in length, with much of the slaughterhouse gore removed and the ethnic material cut way back. Readers would be better to get the "Uncensored" verion of the novel put out by See Sharp Press.

takes "Armis virumque" and gets "I sing of warfare and a man at war"? The consensus in the reviews is that Fitzgerald has written a fine epic. It just is not the same one written by Virgil. If you want to read Fitzgerald, this is the book for you. If you want to read Virgil you need the Mandelbaum translation.

I use this translation as my primary source in studying The Aeneid. I also possess and refer to translations by Mandelbaum, Dryden, Humphries, Rhoades, and Dickinson as well as various commentaries. Regrettably, I know of none that translate the original in Latin to English on a line by line basis.

Fitzgerald's version of the Aeneid is literature in its own right. Readable without being sing-songy, classic without being stilted, this translation kept me hooked on the Aeneas story long after high school Latin class ended at Book 6, and it stirred my imagination to such an extent that I got the impudent idea to emulate him in The Laviniad: An Epic Poem.

And as for the poem itself, this seminal work of Western literature deeply inspired everyone from Augustine to Dante, but unfortunately seems to be passing out of academic consciousness. Vergil's Aeneid is the very pinnacle of Ancient Roman literature, a classic story of piety, duty, and honor as opposed to immediate gratification and selfish interest. It represents the very best ideals that ancient Rome had to offer. Perhaps in this modern age those virtues don't seem relevant--but if so, that's why we need this poem all the more.

See my review of Fagles' Aeneid for more on the travesty of modern English translations of Virgil, also my review of Lombardo's translation of the Aeneid.

As for Fitzgerald's translation in particular, it has for some strange reason been anointed by the universities as the 'standard'. It is hard to say why. The language is contemptibly low and unpoetical, the metre nonexistent, and even his knowledge of Latin distinctly imperfect. But then, one can become a Latin professor in America with no very extensive knowledge of Latin, much less of Latin poetry. More to the point, to translate a great poet requires a great poet who also knows intimately the language from which he is translating, and this is very, very rare.

What makes the whole situation downright provoking is the publishers blurbs that tout all these perfectly aweful translations as 'wonderful', 'superb' etc; blurbs which the ignorant hoi polloi echo in their reviews on this site.

Thinks the Aeneid begins with armis virumque? (For those missing the point, I'm poking fun at a reviewer who got the opening words of the epic in Latin wrong - it's "arma virumque cano")

I've read this translation several times and taught out of it, and I think it's quite readable and faithful to the original. I don't think you can go wrong with Fagles, Fitzgerald, or Mandelbaum, to be honest. Or Vergil in the Latin, of course.

This is an excellent, heart-warming book. Sure to be at the top of my gift giving list this year.

This was a wonderful book. As I love the Christmas season, this is the type of book that gives the true meaning of the season.

The book was great. It makes me want to fill jars and pass them to deserving people.

This is a wonderful book, although it is quite a quick read. Throughout the book you gain such insight into these characters lives and truly understand how powerful the gift of giving is. I was touched by the sheer power of selflessness amidst each character and how we can all learn from them.

This is a fabulous book and I was sorry when it was over. To me, this is a huge sign that this is a book that I would recommend to others. It makes one think and contemplate what you can do to make this world a better place. I also teared up while reading, but it also put a smile on my face. What more can you ask for from a book. I eagerly await Mr. Wright's next book. I will get it without fail.

My children loved Richard Scarry and it's fun to now introduce the grandchildren to the same books and games. They like them just as much as my own did. I'm so glad this one was available. Great condition.

These books are great! I loved them as a child and now my 2 year old loves them too!

My son is 23 months and can't get enough of Busy Town. We read it day and night. It is a great book for communication and word development. I recommend all of Richard Scarry's books.

THis was one of my favorite books as a kid.. Every kid I know loves this book. Hours of fun!

This book is a perfect example of the kind of publication that has made Richard Scary a favorite of families for generations. The illustrations are action-packed, and kids are immediately drawn in to all the activity of the town, learning about all the characters on the way to work!

From toddlers to pre-schoolers, this is a book to be absolutely cherished!

It seems like the majority of Deathly Hallows critique and analysis has focused on what Rowling got wrong -- the opportunities she missed, the issues left unresolved, etc. Mr. Granger's book of essays/lectures points out what Rowling got right and makes a very persuasive argument that Deathly Hallows is the artistic capstone of the series, and not just a cop-out. Mr. Granger's arguments are written in a clear and entertaining way that makes them accessible to casual readers. But there is also a lot of meat to his ideas -- enough to intrigue even jaded lit majors such as myself. Mr. Granger makes a wonderful analogy between the game of Quidditch and literary analysis and invites us to become seekers. His book is a demonstration of the riches that await someone willing to delve deeper beyond the storyline into the symbols and structures that underly the story and that give the story its emotional and moral impact. Mr. Granger's book is also helpful for anyone wishing to cut through the kerfuffle regarding Christianity and occultism in Harry Potter and the debate as to whether Harry Potter has literary merit. His discussions of these issues are thoughtful and balanced. I definitely have a greater appreciation of Deathly Hallows having read Mr. Granger's book and I am newly inspired to keep seeking to find new treasures in Mr. Rowling's work. Thanks to Mr. Granger, Dante on my short list of works to re-read.

You don't have to be an authority on Dante, C.S.Lewis, or William Shakespeare to get your head around John Granger's latest book, *The Deathly Hallows Lectures*. The purpose of DHL is to introduce and enlighten the reader as to the many layers of symbolism in Harry Potter's journey/defeat over Lord Voldemort.

The HogWarts Professor writes in an easy-to-read style that combines his quirky humor with the intricacies of literary analysis. John doesn't talk down to his reader. On the contrary, his tone is quite personable. I felt as if I was sitting in an upper-level lit class led by an instructor more interested in making sure I was "getting" the information instead of telling me how much he knew. A word of caution: you may want to keep a dictionary close at hand during the meatier/deeper discussion points!

Bottom line, *The Deathly Hallows Lectures* is a wonderful tool for unlocking the many layers of J K Rowling's work. Serious readers will no doubt recognize the many literary traditions John references throughout. Novices (like myself) will be introduced to new ways of reading and examining the deeper meanings beneath the storylines. I heartily recommend *The Deathly Hallows Lectures* to the serious and interested-in-becoming-serious reader.

Having read all of John Granger's books, I was not surprised to find that this latest one, "The Deathly Hallows Lectures" is full of even more insights into the depth of the Harry Potter books. This book is not only fun to read, taking the reader back through all the books, and tying up the series with Deathly Hallows, but also points to the rich tradition of literature that inspired J. K. Rowling. Granger's book also shows how Rowling answered her Christian critics throughout the series, by pointing the obvious Christian imagery throughout the books, and especially in the last one, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows".

Because of this book, as well as John's previous ones, I've been delving back into Austen, Dickens, Lewis, Shakespeare and many others. And now, I've added Dante to my list.

"The Deathly Hallows Lectures" by John Granger sheds light on the symbolic writing of Rowling in a way that enhances every re-reading of the Harry Potter books, making them even more enjoyable than they were on my first reading.

This is truly a wonderful collection of classic children stories if you want to have great variety but have space or money issues. As another reviewer stated, it's ideal for travel or to explore new children stories and decide which ones to buy in a separate and full edition.

However it's a pity that because of a space issue, they have decided to leave out some pictures. Also, I have seen other anthologies (e.g. Your favorite Seuss: A baker's dozen by the one and only Dr. Seuss) that have managed to join in one page spread several pictures of a storybook in a more coherent way... Here, in some of the stories they have done it nicely, in others (e.g. Good Night Moon) they have just pasted into a page spread several pages of the book in very small detail. It's a pity that they couldn't make the book a bit bigger and longer to include the pictures in greater detail, or that they didn't edit two separate volumes so that they could fit the stories better.

As a plus, the stories are color-coded and cover a great variety of age-ranges, so it's still a great travel book if you have children of very different ages.

All this said, this is still a great way of getting to know a big selection of children's classics. In my case, I don't live in an English-speaking country, so I have to deliver children books for my kid via air-mail and it would be impossible to get these many books in their individual editions, so I'm very grateful to the Editor for making this excellent collection of children stories readily available for everyone.

This book is an uncanny collection of most of our favorite children's stories that we have collected over the years plus many more we had not yet discovered. It's a great collection. The only downside of the collection is that the stories are displayed with several of the original "pages" per page which is distracting to young readers. They see the pictures from many pages at once while the parent tries to read the through the words left to right.

I received this book as a gift when my boys were 17 months old and 1 month old. The are now 2 and 3, and we still read from this book just about every day. The Table of Contents suggests age groups for each story, but I have found that my kids are pretty much up for any of them, even at a young age. This time I purchased it as a gift for someone else, and if Amazon continues to offer amazing prices on it ($27 instead of $40 at major bookstore) then I will buy it for everyone I know that has a child. It's one that your kids will never tire of (just keep it out of reach to keep in good condition, as they will want to flip through the picures on their own...).

What is more comforting to a child than being curled up in bed and having Mummy or Daddy reading a good story -- big story books are pages full of magic!

When my children were young we read from this almost every night. It contains many of the favorite stories that I grew up with as a kid. It is a must for any parent's library.

I was truly pleasingly surprised when I received this book. It was much more than I expected for the price I paid. It is definitely a book I will pass down to my children.

This was a gift so I didn't read it, but the recipients of the book were delighted with it. The cover was beautiful and would make an excellent coffee table book. The delivery was speedy.

I grew up reading Martin Gardner in Scientific American, and although I didn't get interested in Lewis Carroll until I saw the original "Alice" manuscript in a display at the British Library, I've been a fan of children's stories all my life. Having Gardner expound Carroll is (dare I say it?) pure genius. I have a number of annotated works, but I think this is the only one where the notations come close to outweighing the actual text being explained. That goes to show not only how deep the rabbit hole goes, but how much deeper someone like Gardner can dig, and how many rewards can be granted by the author who invites his readers to dig deeper. As I've noted in my other reviews of these annotated works, this one is very attractive on the shelf, easy on the eyes, and thoroughly enjoyable. Pick this up and start throwing out expressions, like, "If you don't jabberwock, I'l smack you in the lobster quadrille!"

If you really want to go beyond the "children's story" side of "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There", this is an excellent resource. With the help of the notes, the "nonsense" of this tale makes more sense. And you get all that along with reproductions of John Tenniel's fantastic illustrations, including a section in the back with his preparatory pencil sketches. Buy it, and smile like the Cheshire Cat.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, along with its sequel, Through the Looking Glass and what Alice found there, where done by a person ahead of his time. His name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, pen name, Lewis Carroll.
Both are in this modified annotated version combined with the original illustrations by John Tenniel, but not only that, also have the suppressed episode "The Wasp in a wig" in Through the looking glass. Intended for children, this particular book will delight adults as well because it has annotations and information making this even more enjoyable. The information and comments given mostly by Carroll's biographers/scholars/researchers help you understand the meanings behind the puns, word plays, poems, conversation and situations going on behind Carroll's mind (though nobody knows in fact the purpose of the author's intentions, but the annotations or comments were made by hard research or extracted from the author's original manuscript, so they are quite accurate). Mind that this is very useful because most of AAIW and TTLG were made from private jokes, puns, word plays and Victorian manners that not all people knows about. Some were made for England native people, and even further, only friends and collegues of Carroll can understand them. This books are the essence of imagination and fantasy, opening doors to a LOT of authors that in some way or the other included in their works some of Carroll's ideas/themes... so having explanations alongside the story will definately help you to have a better grasp of such masterpiece that had transcended over the centuries.
This book is the one to go, unless another updated version comes along. It has everything you want... both books included with explanations and Tenniel's illustrations... it can't get better than that! :-).
Oh!... btw... handle with care. The book is a bit fragile, specially the dust cover jacket.

~ Life, what is it but a dream~