No comments about The Ghost of Yester Year (Isis).

4 comments about Beethoven Lives Upstairs: A Tale of Childhood and Genius (Classical Kids).

1. my children are 6 and 7. they love this touching story of beethoven. we have taken many a long car ride and this cd is always our companion. it would be a good idea to also get a background book of beethoven for your children as they may become so intested, as mine did, that they simply had to know more about him. i bought the teachers notes that go with this. i would have done better to get a more thorough book, but it has served us well. this cd is highly recommended



2. Beethoven Lives Upstairs CD is an intriguing imaginary story told by a child who lives in the apartment below the elderly, deaf Beethoven, whom the child believes to be a mad man. The story of Beethoven's life and his greatness as a musician, even after becoming deaf, is woven through a series of letters the child writes to a relative who teaches the appreciation of Beethoven and his music. It is a beautifully written story of the great and tragic composer's life, interwoven with marvelous renditions of his most beloved music. This is one of the Symphony of Stories for all ages collection of Classical Kids CD's from Children's Group. You and your children will want to own all of them and listen to them again and again!



3. Excellent story for the entire family to enjoy. Music and information is blended together to make the audio version of this story enjoyable for a wide range of ages. Great way to introduce kids to famous composers in a format that is interesting and fun. And, the listeners don't Have to sit still while the story is being read.



4. I started buying this series for my 6 year old one year ago. She received "Mr Bach comes to Call" for her seventh birthday. She has spent hours listening to it and then to other Bach CDs. The music is well selected and the historical content is described quite well. Her imagination has really been excited. As we live in Germany for the moment she has expressed a wish to visit Liepzig to see Bach's grave. We have four in this series now and think they are brilliant. All of us enjoy listening especially on long car journeys. Great entertainment with educational value.

No comments about The Kennedys: The Third Generation.

5 comments about The Right Man: The Surprise Presidency of George W. Bush : An Inside Account.

1. After reading this book you still may believe that Bush is 'The Right Man' for the job of presidency. On the other hand you may not feel this way but at least you've taken the first step to looking at a different perspective. Frum provides a clear framework to choose your own opinions regarding Bush and the fact that Frum was not even pro Bush before he started to work at the white house is reason enough for anyone to read this book regardless of your political sides.
   
   Unfortunately many people will likely pass by this book for the pure reason that they are in full disbelief that Bush ever became president or has any ability to maintain a stable country as president. Whether you are pro or not for Bush, he is still the President and if there is one book that I would want to read about the background and the framework within which he works, this would be the book. Frum is a grasping writer that you're not going to fall asleep reading and you will learn new things from inside the White House and about Bush himself. You don't have to agree with Bush or Frum but it never hurts to have another view.



2. It's a decent book. I think David Frum has a bit of an ego problem, though, because some of the things he writes about seem unlikely to have happened for someone who was hired as an economic speechwriter. If you're looking for a book to really learn about President Bush, there are definitely better ones out there.



3. Coming from Europe it can sometimes be hard to get an inside look at Bush which is not biased against him. This book served to let me see how Bush is seen from a conservative American perspective. In that respect it was very interesting. The book is also very well written, so it's pleasant to read. It should be noted though that the book is highly partisan, as can also be understood from several of the other reviews.
   
   The main gripe I have with this book is that some of the attitudes expressed in it are not backed up by arguments. Thus the author states that when Bush canned Clinton's national health plan he was sending the money home. He thus indirectly makes a claim that this is a good thing without going into the debate of letting a minority rich part of the population pay some extra tax to fund a national health plan that will benefit extremely poor people. He also claims that the most extreme act of Saddam Hussein was an attempt to assasinate George Bush sr. This seems to be hyperbole when you think of how many people Saddam has killed with chemical warfare.



4. and the worst president within living memory.
   
   he took the nation into an unnecessary war with Iraq. National Intelligence Estimates tell us that this war has only made America less safe because it serves to recruit and train jihadists
   
   his fiscal policies benefit the wealthiest two percent while they balloon the national debt.
   
   he has curtailed environmental protections of air and water.
   
   he favors big business and especially big oil at the expense of the working and middle class, who have to pay interest on his bloated deficit.
   
   he cloaks his sinister agenda under a smarmy, self-congratulatory facade of religion that has nothing to do with the Jesus of the bible.
   
   Bush is the right man to prove the adage that you can fool some of the people all the time.
   
   A useful corrective to this book is Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis by Jimmy Carter.



5. Frum gives us as clear a view as possible of how President Bush thinks,what his values are,what he plans to do and how he goes about accomplishing his goals.Frum demonstrates over and over again, that the image portrayed by most of the media in North America as well as around the world could not be further from the truth.The media was so slanted against President Bush for the two years leading up to the 2004,that they even believed their own misrepresentations.They had no idea that they were so off base and that President Bush would be re-elected.They haven't got over it yet.Rather than understanding why they lost they still think the voters got it all wrong.
   Frum was there and tells what it was really like.You have only to read what he tells us;then ask yourself if that wasn't really what happened.The history and facts speak for themselves.Not everyone can write about this as Frum does;since few were there as he was.The media even got it all wrong,intentionally or not,why Frum left when he did.
   Frum shows how President Bush utilizes his staff,but in the final analysis he is in charge and makes the decisions;not Cheney,not Rumsfeld,not Wolfowitz,not the Polls,not the big Corporations,not Haliburton,not the Jews,not the Religious Right,not his Texas pals,not the CIA,not the military and on and on.This is what his detractors have spun for the people to believe,and the only ones they convince is themselves.
   Some of the words Frum uses to describe The President are:
   
   "Steady,efficient,controlled"
   
   "Moderation,persistance and boldness."
   
   "Bush was not a lightweight.He was,rather,a very unfamiliar type of heavyweight.Words often failed him,his memory sometimes failed him,but his vision was large and clear.And when he perceived new possibilities,he had the courage to act on them;a much less common virtue in politics than one might suppose."
   
   When asked,"Is it hard to make decisions as president?Not really.If you know what you believe,decisions come pretty easy."
   
   "Presidents are either in command of events or at their mercy."It's easy to see how that applies to President Bush.
   
   Though portrayed by his detractors as a reckless,redneck cowboy;"Bush's great gift to the country after 9/11 was his calm and self-restraint."
   
   Frum tells us where the expression "Axis of Evil" came from and why it was used.
   
   Find out the real reason the US doesn't buy into the International Convention on land mines,the Koyoto Accords and the International Criminal Court
   
   "Bush does not lie to you.You had better not lie to him."
   
   "Read George Bush's major speeches-and nothing else-and nothing he does will come as a surprise to you.Like Babe Ruth pointing to the stands before hitting a home run,Bush clearly indicates in advance exactly what he will do."
   
   Frum even tells us about a line that never made it into a speech as it was "too bellicose". "Those who choose America for an enemy choose their own destruction.";even though it amply describes how right-of center Americans felt.
   
   On Sept 20,2001 ,President Bush stated,"Every nation,in every region,now has a decision to make.Either you are with us,or you are with the terrorists.From this day forward,any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded as a hostile regime."
   
   America pleaded for the freedom loving countries to join her in this War on Terror.Many abandoned her ,Canada included,tended to side with the european detractors.With an over abundance of left wingers and Socialists,it's no wonder as they don't understand,"The tough get going when the going gets tough."
   
   The cover on the hard cover copy of this book is excellent. If nothing else ,it should prove to you that President Bush is the right man for President in these times.Sure he has a whole array of people to write great lines and speeches ,lots of people to set up photo ops; but this shot was completely unorchestrated.A retired fireman beckoned his President to join him on the roof of a truck and to say something.When unable to be heard, President Bush spontaneously said "Well I can hear you."
   Then his face grew serious."I can hear you."The rest of the world hears you.
   And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear from all of us soon."
   I suspect this photo and statement will become the defining one of his terms as President.
   Frum also treated us to another great insight into working at the White House:
   
   "Now it was time to heed Andy Card's admonition:to remember that a White House job was an honor,not a career."That sure fits as a caption for the shot of the President on the back cover,as he takes a stroll on his ranch in Crawford,Texas.It sort of reminds one of the photos of President Truman taking a stroll in Independence Missouri after retiring from his excellent Presidency.
   A great book!

No comments about American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer Part 2.

5 comments about The Great One: The Life and Legend of Jackie Gleason.

1. This author takes every opportunity to take The Great One down a few pegs. Even when begrudgingly admitting Gleason's strong points (such as his generosity and support of civil rights), there is an underlying tone of judgement throughout the book.
   
   Also, I kept waiting for the "Honeymooners" period to be discussed, but this entire period seems glossed over. No anecdotes, no behind the scenes tales...
   
   It seems the author just wasn't privy to much information and instead composed a smear campaign of a dead man. A shame.



2. On the first page of the book you hit the statement that Jackie was "the laziest man alive." For me, that statement sets the tone. A quick look at the picture of the author will show he doesn't know much about excercise himself. I found it laughable that one of the big gripes William makes about Gleason was he proported musical talent was his that belonged to others, when whole paragraphs from the previous two biographies mysteriously found themselves into this book, word for word at times. Whereas the first two books were written by friends of Jackie's, William never had even a personal conversation with him, and spoke to NONE of the family. While he did speak to coworkers, I got the feeling from the beginning that he had set out to write a "Jackie is a smuck" book, and filtered everything accordingly. Within the first few chapters, I lost count of the number of factual errors that I found. Mae's mother had 11 children, not 5. They never actually lived in Ireland. Jackie's darkness didn't come from some ancestral Spainard sunk of the coast of Ireland, but from a maternal Great-Grandfather from Portugal. Herb, the father, was not a decade older than his wife, but three years. These were all easily researched items and were wrong. This cast a long shadow of suspicion over the rest of the book which consists of people's accounts of things long past. We all know how memories can be. The bookcover said the author treated shortcomings with compassion, but I found it closer to intense condemnation, such as with the statement, "the laziest man alive" because Jackie didn't walk 12 blocks in New York. Have to wonder if the author would have hoofed it, or hailed a cab. There may be some facts buried in the pile of misinformation and bad feeling, but it may be hard to find, or to identify. For me, I see Jackie's ever changing stories as a way for him to keep the truth private and just for himself. I certainly hope no one out there really believes that Tom Cruise is telling us the truth about his life, or Julia Roberts. Just because they do something, doesn't mean we deserve the intimate details of theirs lives. And just because Jackie wasn't upfront about his, doesn't change that mystical magic that happens when people watch the Honeymooners. He wasn't perfect, few of us are, but he gave us smiles we didn't have before. His life was sad and hard, but to be so spiteful and mean about it makes William's life even sadder. Imagine implying Jackie shouldn't feel upset because his mother died when he was a "man of nineteen" instead of boy of sixteen. I can't imagine having lost both parents by nineteen and to only have one cousin at my wedding for family. This book will only give you what you want if you already know that it has been written by someone who looked for the bad and down played the good, or quite possibly, simply didn't include those accounts. The book wasn't that interesting, and I certainly could put it down. It left a very bad taste in my mouth.



3. On the first page of the book you hit the statement that Jackie was "the laziest man alive." For me, that statement sets the tone. A quick look at the picture of the author will show he doesn't know much about excercise himself. I found it laughable that one of the big gripes William makes about Gleason was he proported musical talent was his that belonged to others, when whole paragraphs from the previous two biographies mysteriously found themselves into this book, word for word at times. Whereas the first two books were written by friends of Jackie's, William never had even a personal conversation with him, and spoke to NONE of the family. While he did speak to coworkers, I got the feeling from the beginning that he had set out to write a "Jackie is a smuck" book, and filtered everything accordingly. Within the first few chapters, I lost count of the number of factual errors that I found. Mae's mother had 11 children, not 5. They never actually lived in Ireland. Jackie's darkness didn't come from some ancestral Spainard sunk of the coast of Ireland, but from a maternal Great-Grandfather from Portugal. Herb, the father, was not a decade older than his wife, but three years. These were all easily researched items and were wrong. This cast a long shadow of suspicion over the rest of the book which consists of people's accounts of things long past. We all know how memories can be. The bookcover said the author treated shortcomings with compassion, but I found it closer to intense condemnation, such as with the statement, "the laziest man alive" because Jackie didn't walk 12 blocks in New York. Have to wonder if the author would have hoofed it, or hailed a cab. There may be some facts buried in the pile of misinformation and bad feeling, but it may be hard to find, or to identify. For me, I see Jackie's ever changing stories as a way for him to keep the truth private and just for himself. I certainly hope no one out there really believes that Tom Cruise is telling us the truth about his life, or Julia Roberts. Just because they do something, doesn't mean we deserve the intimate details of theirs lives. And just because Jackie wasn't upfront about his, doesn't change that mystical magic that happens when people watch the Honeymooners. He wasn't perfect, few of us are, but he gave us smiles we didn't have before. His life was sad and hard, but to be so spiteful and mean about it makes William's life even sadder. Imagine implying Jackie shouldn't feel upset because his mother died when he was a "man of nineteen" instead of boy of sixteen. I can't imagine having lost both parents by nineteen and to only have one cousin at my wedding for family. This book will only give you what you want if you already know that it has been written by someone who looked for the bad and down played the good, or quite possibly, simply didn't include those accounts. The book wasn't that interesting, and I certainly could put it down. It left a very bad taste in my mouth.



4. As far as I know, this is the only biography written by someone who was not a friend of Gleason's, and it shows. While the book is well-researched, the author takes an inordinate amount of pleasure in pointing out as many of Gleason's faults as he can. I was left with the impression that the author was jealous that Gleason enjoyed such enormous success despite not always being a pleasant person.

   Audrey Meadows commented at the end of her book "Love, Alice" that the author skewered Gleason for not living up to his (the author's) standards, and that sounds about right. To pay Meadows back for this, the author tries to discredit her story about how she won the role of Alice on "The Honeymooners," but only ends up looking vindictive again, as Meadows has published the photos taken of herself auditioning for Alice that prove her story true. This is only one of several instances where Henry tries to attack people who try to disagree with his negative view of Gleason.

   There are many instances in the book of phrases like "Gleason said..." or "Gleason often commented..." but very few of these quotes are backed up with any kind of source in the text itself, and there are no endnotes in the book. In addition, many other people quoted in the book are identified only as "colleagues," with no one specific being cited as the source(s) of many of the stories about how horrible Gleason really was.

   I noted the comments from various celebrities on the back of the dust jacket, and was surprised to hear praise from people who call themselves Gleason's friends. It makes you wonder just what kinds of friends they were.




5. What Mr Henry reveals in this biography is the true ugliness of Jackie Gleason. Yes, he was an outstanding performer. Yes, he was loyal to his "pals". Yes, he worked his way up from nothing to become something. But what, exactly, did Gleason become? "The Great One", a title he bestowed upon himself? Or a miserable, bitter drunk, who twisted and controlled everything and everyone around him just to project the image of a genius?

   I believe every word of William Henry's excellent book, even though Jackie fans most certainly do not. I believe it because Mr Henry went to the sources--he interviewed Art Carney, Audrey Meadows, Jane Meadows and Joyce Randolph; he interviewed The Great One's directors, producers, castmates and writers (the people that truly made him great)--and they all agree to a universal conclusion, even when they try to be kind: Jackie Gleason was a crude, cruel, manipulative man, even beyond what you may expect. Read this book and prepare to be shocked.

2 comments about Princess Diana (Biography (Books on Tape).).

1. I liked this book a lot.Diana had a very busy life and a lot to do but she always found time for other people.It is sad that she died but I think she did a lot of good things in her life.This book tells the story of a beautiful person.I give it a A+ !!!!!



2. My daughter read this book for a school report. I picked it up to look at it, & then couldn't put it down. I was impressed and touched by this well-told story.

3 comments about Officially Osbourne: Opening the doors to the land of Oz.

1. The Osbournes have gained fame not just for pioneering the reality TV show (and succeeding in it the way pretty much nobody else has), but for letting the masses in on their family life. It's weird, it's wacky, and when you pare it down it's pretty close to anyone else's family life. And that includes dogs peeing on the furniture, music, thongs, the arrogance of big sisters, getting tattoos, and much more.

   "Officially Osbourne" is an episode guide (first season) interspersed with biographies, interviews, and information. Each of the bios includes favorite music, birth date, video games, personal philosophies, what their family members say about them, and then an interview. Each episode has a basic summary (about two or three paragraphs) and a slew of pictures. Also there are best lines ("Bubbles? Oh come on, Sharon! I'm the Prince of #$&*in' Darkness!"), and highlights (a fire in the kitchen -- "the first one in the new house").

   There are chapters on other topics too: On Melinda Verga, a lower-key employee, on home decor (black, antiques, and crucifixes), the different rooms in the house, and on the pets (dogs and cats, most memorably Lola). One chapter is devoted to Ozzy and Sharon's parenting methods, and what their kids think of those methods. And most tantalizing of all is the chapter where they talk about what never made it onto your TV screen...

   This book captures some of the spirit that infuses the Osbourne TV show. The coverage and interviews with Ozzy, smart wife Sharon and kids Jack and Kelly (Aimee declined to be in the show). Their attitudes are refreshingly honest and open -- in a celebrity subculture where people say prescripted, inoffensive lines, the Osbournes will tell the world what they do and don't like (Kelly hates pop singers, for example).

   The pages are likably colorful, not just black text on white paper. The pictures are a slightly more mixed bag -- there are a lot of them on almost every page in the book, of everyone: The house, the furnishings, the dogs... unfortunately, many are too small to look at easily, and some are blurred. Many are quite good, clear and well-lit.

   "We're not the #$&*ing Partridge Family" -- Sharon said it best. And "Officially Osbourne" takes some of the best elements from the TV show and commits them to paper. Definitely recommended for people who watch the show.




2. Officially Osbourne is an excellent guide to the Osbournes. It shares details of the episodes, profiles of the family members, untold stories, interviews, parents' advice from Sharon and Ozzy, and more. The pictures in this book are mostly animated, and while regular photos would have been great, it does add a more fun approach to the book. This is a must have for fans. You'll learn so much more about the Osbournes.



3. For any Osbourne fan, this is the book to get. It has every detail you ever wanted to know about the show. Great pictures and interviews, as well as info you didn't know!

5 comments about Freud for Beginners.

1. promt delivery. recommended by one of my tutors at university. frank easy to read, some of the illustrations made me smile but i found them easy to remember.



2. The 'xxx for beginners' are marvellous not just because they give you a valuable grounding in forbidding subjects, allowing you to approach primary texts with more confidence, but because they are so entertaining, even in subjects you have little interest in. Though this book is a much-needed introduction to and exposition of Freud's basic theories, making you feel clever as you join the dots you always knew were there but for the intimidating jargon, the real joy is in the irreverent presentation, especially the illustrations. These are full of in-jokes about Freud's life and times which are not always treated explicitely in the text, as well as being technically expert, imaginative and, sometimes, bracingly shocking. So while it is pleasing, in these anti-Freudian times, to be reminded of the man's incalculable importance and influence, the illustrations offer an in-built critique that puts everything in perspective. Great fun.



3. This book is just a book, but a better book than its successor of the same title by Richard Osborne. Mostly because it does not hang onto the relationship between Jung and Freud as long and focuses more on the theories of Freud. In fact, what I really enjoyed about this book is that gave a good round about summary of most of Freuds theories inside each book. Certainly acts a good stepping stone for those who need to know Freud in a hurry and wants the gist of his work. Richard Appignanesi displays good understanding of Freuds work and summarizes it well and concise. Reccomended for the prodigal psychologist.



4. (See page 79 for explanation and a very funny illustration of the second stage of psychosexual development). This book, in addition to being very informative, is also incredibly funny. Very well written and drawn; though in the form of a comic book, it is nevertheless a splendid introduction to Freud's life and work. The author and illustrator are quite witty as well as knowledgeable, and in this book they have succeeded at what should be the goal of all beginners' book writers: piqued my interest in the subject and made me want to learn more. Would be a great supplementary text in a course on Freud or on psychology/psychoanalysis in general. Highly recommended!



5. The pictures were fun (especially pg. 79) and the text clear and informative. This book has explained some Freudian concepts better than some of my classes in college have! Fun and stimulating at the same time... what more could someone ask for?

5 comments about Obstinate Heart - Jane Austen: A Biography.

1. The punchline of Valerie Grosvenor Myer's 1997 biography "Jane Austen: Obstinate Heart" is delivered in its preface. Contrary to the warm and contented portrait in family memoirs, Myer asserts that romance novelist Jane Austen knew a life of genteel poverty and personal disappointment, yet showed her "obstinate heart" by refusing to marry a wealthy man she did not love. This interpretation of Jane Austen's life is certainly a plausible one, but it has been told by other biographers with more flair.
   
   Every biographer of Jane Austen must confront the challenge of the limited material available on her life. Myer chooses a conventional approach. Readers familiar with Austen's surviving letters will recognize that Myer has adapted excerpts into a chronological narrative, rather freely mixing Jane's comments to her sister about domestic matters with her own interpretations of Austen's state of mind. The result emphasizes Austen's limited personal possibilities as the dowerless daughter of a middle-class cleric. The failure to marry ensured that Austen would live a frustrating life as a family poor relation; recognition for her remarkable literary talents came only in the very last years of her life.
   
   Myer devotes surprisingly little energy to speculation about Jane Austen's personal romances, whatever they may have been. She spents more time on Austen's interactions with her immediate family and various in-laws and cousins, although without generating any unusual insights. This reader wishes Myer had explored in more detail the dynamics of Jane Austen's intimate relationship with her sister Cassandra or her rather difficult relationship with her mother. Myer limits her literary criticism to drawing some parallels between the characters and locations in Austen's novels with their possible counterparts in life. The book includes a nice selection of family portraits.
   
   "Jane Austen: Obstinate Heart" is a conventional and serviceable biography most likely to appeal to readers new to Jane Austen and not prepared to wade into various academic controversies about her life. Devoted fans of Jane Austen already familar with her life and letters can find more challenging biographies elsewhere.



2. I must say that I am in shock after having read this "biography". The author clearly does not understand irony - so then why bothering reading Jane Austen at all? Writing about her and being so unappreciative of her qualities must be considered an abuse by any true Jane Austen fan. Why is V. G. Myer so eager to make Jane Austen look like a bitter spinster that never experienced love end therefore hated every women who did marry and have children? Is the author that kind of lady who becomes very frightened when she meets with an intelligent woman with a sharp tongue - because she clearly can't stand Jane Austen's sense of humor. And, on top of it all, she has not done a good work when it comes to the research. I strongly doubt that she has read James Edward Austen Leigh's "Memoirs", she misquotes him and misunderstands him on some very crucial points. She just one of these authors trying to make money out of Jane Austen without making any effort whatsoever.



3. This is a very good biography for readers who want a fairly straightforward, reliable, moderate length account of Austen's life. Among the seven biographies that I have read so far, I think that this is the best first choice for readers who want more than Carol Shield's well-done Jane Austen, part of Penquins short biography series, but who don't want to tackle a book as long as John Halperin's Life of Jane Austen, nearly twice the length of this. Halperin weaves a lot more quotes together to build his narrative,something that I found disconcerting when I was younger, although I like it now. I leave the reader to determine their own taste. (As a teenager, I regarded books made up largely of quotes as most people regard books with mathematical formula.)
   
   
   Myers organizes her work both chronologically and thematically, discussing all of JA's romances and potential romances in one chapter, and then alluding back to them when she returns to chronological order. She recounts standard interpretations, but allows for some alternatives; she duly records that Mrs. Austen was regarded as a hypochondriac, but notes that her frequent pregnancies may have left her with problems of which we are unaware.
   
   Some of the reviewers have complained that Myers does not contribute any new research, but frankly I think that there are probably few facts to add to what is already know and a readable biography is itself a great accomplishment, and preferable to inventing wild theories to gain a little publicity. Some other authors that have produced more research into the minutiae of Georgian-Regency life thereby scant JA's life or hare off on tangents that may try some readers' patience. While I personally adore all this somewhat extraneous detail, it is best preceded by reading a book like this that gives one a solid grounding regarding JA's life. Others make up for a lack of new information by posthumous psychoanalysis and mindreading, not something that I encourage.
   
   The reader should be aware that the book is serious flawed by a lack of notes. I don't know if this was the author's or the publisher's choice. The book generally accords with what other biographers write, so I am fairly confident of the facts, but when Myers makes an unusual assertion, such as the claim that Cassandra Leigh didn't really want to marry George Austen, this is very irritating.
   
   In all, I think this is a good choice for entering into a study of JA's life, one that can be enriched by reading other books later.



4. I think Valerie Grovesnor Myer has made a nice stab at trying to write to a biography of Austen and she succeeds relatively well. The only trouble biographies of Austen are all drawn from the same material - very little new material has been turned up in recent years and so biographers are forced to reinterpret the old sources to find a new angle. And that really is what this author has done - with only moderate success.

   She has 24 chapters, mostly chronological although really the complaint that this is mostly about Austen's family than Austen herself bears through - especially in the first nine chapters.

   To make her book different again Myer has attempted to find biographical incidents from Austen's own life to explain incidents in her novels. Not a bad thing to do - but I found it overpowering at times - as though she were just going from one incident to another - and sometimes I felt her examples used weren't good ones. For instance she likened Jane Austens' brother Edward's adoption by the Knights as being like Fanny Price's living with the Bertrams in her 'Mansfield Park'. Which is not at all the same situation. In the novel Fanny lived with the family but was never adopted by them. In real life, Edward adopted the new surname of Knight and eventually inherited a large estate and fortune from it. The whole situation in fact reminds one of Frank Churchill in 'Emma' - Frank Weston is adopted by his aunt, Mrs Churchill, adopts her name and becomes her heir. It seems that is a much better example - why did Myer use the much less satisfactory one?

   Another point is that she shows that she has read various books on Austen (for instance Deidre Le Faye's collected letters of Austen) but doesn't seem to have done much research outside of those on the history of the period. Myer cites a letter from Austen to her neice Fanny Knight in which she talks of the whole race of 'Pagets'. Myer has clearly used the footnote which is in Le Faye's edition of the letters to explain this remark about Austen's dislike of the Pagets - explaining about Lord Paget's (later Marquess of Anglesey) elopement with Lady Charlotte Wellesley. What both Le Faye and Myer miss is that the year before this elopement there was another High profile Paget elopement when Lord Paget's brother eloped with Lady Boringdon. A little extra research on Myer's part would have revealed this fact.

   I found the book interesting though for Myer's interpretation, but I wouldn't pick it by choice. If you are looking for a really good biography of Jane - Park Honan's is much better - or Claire Tomalin's. There are other great books on the history of the time you can read - Maggie Lane is great - and Deidre Le Faye's collection of letters is fabulous. So there is a lot of much better material out there. But if this is all you can get hold of - well it would do in a pinch.




5. Just above her grave in Wincester Cathedral is written, "In the beginning was the word..." I am convinced that no one has ever written English prose narrative as well as Jane Austen. In her book, 'Jane Austen, Obstinate Heart' Valerie Grosvenor Myer takes the reader behind the scenes into the private life of this remarkable author. Using correspondence, diaries, and the memoirs of Jane Austen and her family and friends, Ms. Myer constructs a biography that helps the reader understand Austen's day-to-day existence 200 years ago--the environment that formed her and inspired her creative process.

   She lived a life of genteel poverty--barely made genteel by the kindness of her brothers and friends. She worked hard--in an age when the mangle was just invented, irons were heated on the fireplace, and woman's work was never done, she and her mother and sister could not always get the help they needed. She worried about money, reworked old clothes to make them last, lacked good food at times, was cold at times, and wanted for many material comforts. And yet, she managed without the aid of a computer or even a typewriter, to produce six of the world's greatest novels.

   This book will appeal to women more so than men because it concerns issues that have affected women more. Most women have faced some form of discrimination or deprivation, or know of the deprivation of other women--lack of food, lack of clothing, fear, depression, an inability to control one's reproductive life, and poverty. Austen was aware of women's struggles--her own and those of family and friends. She watched five sisters-in-law succomb to early deaths owing to childbearing.

   Austen's books center on the struggles of heroines to make lives for themselves in what is essentially a man's world. Although this book doesn't discuss Austen's books in any depth, it certainly illuminates the links between the life of the author and her characters. It's an excellent book. It made me cry.