5 comments about The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics).

1. Having watched the DVDs of The Flame Trees of Thika several times, I was delighted to see the reissue of Elspeth Huxley's book of the same title. This is a unique case of both the book and the movie being about equal. Knowing the story from the movie in no way detracts from reading the book. Huxley's devotion to the land and people of Kenya shines through her descriptions of encounters with both. A semi-biographical account, it not only gives the reader insight into the colonial thinking of the times, but accurately predicts the inevitable conflicts (for example with the Mau Mau) that would later occur. It is a description of what must have been, for Huxley, an idyllic childhood living in the shadow of Mount Kenya, with its exotic animals and her interactions with the local tribes people. A most enjoyable read, this is a cameo of a time long past.
   
   All that is now needed is a re-issue of the sequel : The Mottled Lizard.



2. This is by now a revered classic of a young girl's childhood in the Kenyan countryside under British rule. One reads this and instantly identifies with the colonial family. It's a kind of Swiss Family Robinson story about that magical time in Kenya and thereabouts before World War I when the world seemed to be at the feet of the British King and all globes glowed pink under the Empire. Were people ever so free and happy as the colonialists in Africa who instantly had countless servants, nearly free land, and the British fleet for protection? This is Out of Africa for the middle class, as opposed to Isak Dinesen's aristocratic take on things. Still, the going was good, as Evelyn Waugh once said. Ms Huxley is a charming writer. Required reading for lovers of things African.



3. The Flame Trees of Thika is a wonderfully written book giving the reader a glimpse of what it must have been like to grow up in Colonial Africa. It is an experience most of us will only have through reading and can only be compared to what it must have been to be one of the early settlers on the American Frontier.



4. I loved this book. It is beautifully written and is a gripping story on growing up in Africa.



5. In 1913, a little English girl named Elspeth relocated with her family from their native country to begin a coffee plantation in the wilds of Kenya. Similar in a way to Laura Ingall Wilder's adventurous and sentimental "take" on what was surely a very difficult experience for her family, Elspeth remembers Kenya as a wonderful place and tells us with lingering excitement of her experiences there in the short time before the First World War changed nearly everything. A delightful memoir that is a pleasure every time it's read.

5 comments about Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson.

1. This was a small, interesting book, but I found it a difficult read, due to the language used back then. Very different from today's speech. I was rather disappointed that it did not include some of his earlier life.



2. Written in 1821, TJ writes very quickly about his parents, childhood, and the time period before the revolution and spends way more time on the declaration of independence, articles of confederation, his presidency and the early 1800s.
   
   He does include an original draft of the declaration of independence which is neat. And his section on the articles of confederation shows the many problems the states had to deal with upon becoming independent.
   
   While Bill Clinton's autobiography was way too long, this autobio was way too short.
   
   But the perspective is one that the history books do not often show you.



3. Few autobiographies offer such a candid and vivid view of the mind of the author. In this, Thomas Jefferson's autobiography, there is no doubt as to the authenticity of the man, the revolutionary and the statesman: the virtue, wisdom and strength that is visible as Jefferson describes both the minor and major events and moments in his public life of service where his reliance upon the essence of the early Republic's laws and the spirit of the national consciousness were blended with the author's unique insight as to how to maintain the delicate balance of Federal necessity, states rights and the influence of the foreign powers and their affairs upon the young nation.
   
   Unlike the autobiographies of other founding fathers (Adams, Franklin, Hamilton, etc.), whose own accounts are more personal and revealing about themselves as well as judgmental and temperamental about their personal experience with their peers, Jefferson has crafted an autobiography, which is true to form: the form of the man and his beliefs, which influenced national policy without every being advanced to replace it, which served a nation selfishly without requiring anything else in return except for the promise of posterity to "preserve, protect and defend" the liberties achieved and to forever more "admire, relish and respect" the eternal need to defend and uphold, at any cost, both the people and the commonwealth for future generations to behold.
   
   I think it funny that today's democratic-socialists have adopted Thomas Jefferson as their "founding father". If anything, this book redeems the reputation and spirit of Jefferson, not as a democrat or democratic-socialist, but as a Republican, dedicated and sworn to instituting a democratic-republican form of government free from the tyranny of dictators and protected from the ill-conceived attempts of men and women from within to manipulate and pervert a form of government conceived as "one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."



4. This brief "autobiography" is not a self-promotion, an expose, or a book designed for the purpose of keeping the reader turning the pages in suspense. In fact, it has very little personal information about Jefferson or his life outside of the political happenings in which he was involved concerning the American and French revolutions. Certainly, there is no mention of his black lover, Sally Hemings, and for that matter little mention of his "real" family. Nonetheless it was to me a gripping tale that kept me reading, as I felt privy to the inner workings of the Continental Congress and the French Revolution from an influential American who was on the spot (and in the midst) of the events as they occurred. Perhaps, as a direct descendant of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, of which Jefferson was the author, I had a natural interest in this book. But I think not, as it had been sitting gathering dust on my shelf as I read lots of classic American fiction that I thought would be more rewarding. Despite (because of?) its dry, blunt, intelligent but factual style, the debates and events are center stage, with Jefferson's occasional but not obtrusive opinions being much appreciated. My great experience reading Jefferson's brief book led me to pick up W.E.B. DuBois' The Suppression of the African Slave-Trade, which covers some of the same ground although from a different perspective, and is equally rewarding.



5. I was a bit disappointed in this book. Having read and relished The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, I was anxious to read the native narrative of another of the Founding Fathers. Unfortunately, where as Franklin's book combines delightful personal details along with perspectives on the man's government service, Jefferson's autobiography is quite dry and seems to be more an official catalog of committee deliberations than a story about his own life. The rear cover of the books states, in addition to other things, that the book "...presents a detailed account of his young life..." and "...his life in retirement." I think that one would be hard pressed to identify more than a couple paragraphs in this 101 page book in which Jefferson describes his youth or his retirement. The book was interesting, though more from the historical and political perspectives than from any insight it offers into the inner philosophy or personal life of the man.

2 comments about Woodrow Wilson: Princeton to the Presidency.

1. In this elegantly written biography, Maynard explores Woodrow Wilson's time at Princeton (as a student, faculty member, and university president), detailing the triumphs and defeats that did so much to shape the future president's personality and perspective. To anyone interested in Woodrow Wilson...or Princeton...or the history of higher education in America for that matter, Maynard's book is indispensable.



2. Dr. Maynard (on the faculty as Lecturer of Johns Hopkins as well as Princeton at the time his book was released) has written one of the more truthful, composite portraits of Woodrow Wilson. It is refreshing to see the depth of research, with references to older historians and Princeton alumni, who verify Wilson as the uncompromising and egotistical college president. The damage that Wilson did to Princeton continues to this day. And not only is it revealed that Wilson and his father were "a good hater" (to quote them both) but his first wife Ellen also had a terrible temper; and there is plenty of evidence.
   
   I was disappointed that the author did not go into Mary Peck's affair with Wilson more thoroughly; he also completely ignored the affair Wilson had with a Princeton professor's wife. Maynard's treatment of Wilson's doctor, Cary Grayson, was too kind; Grayson was a major player with Wilson's second wife, Edith, in the cover-up of Woodrow's almost total incapacity as president, due to his last stroke. Although, because of his art education at Princeton and the University of Delaware, he devoted many interesting pages to the proposed architectural design of the Quads.
   
   Nevertheless, the book is a page-turner. It almost reads like a novel...because in this case, the truth about Wilson seems almost stranger than fiction. This book brings more evidence to light about the truth of Wilson as a racist, a liar, a man who could not compromise, a man with tunnel vision, a man who didn't know how to raise money for the college, and a man who constantly bickered with the trustees over the Quads and almost everything else he wanted to introduce to the campus. He would not compromise on any issue, whether academic or political. And he couldn't keep friends; as his own father was quoted as saying, "I never had a friend who was faithful to me." Like father, like son.
   
   We see a picture of Wilson living with a tortured ego in a psychological "twilight zone" who could not be a friend with anyone who disagreed with him about anything. He had an exaggerated sense of self-importance and a craving for domination in everything.
   
   The author, as a former student of Princeton himself (B.A. in Art History), covers the preceptorial system Wilson brought to Princeton, which is still advertised on their website, as Wilson's "brainchild," although I do not believe it facilitates excellence in education; it pressures students to "BS" their way through the course material. And the Eating Clubs Wilson opposed, are still there, albeit, they are now co-ed and less in number. Wilson wouldn't agree, but fraternities would have had a better socializing effect on students than these Clubs.
   
   I wondered if the author would still have a job at Princeton after such a tour de force. So I was not surprised that he ended the book with what amounts to a three paragraph apology for Wilson, in which he attempts to vindicate Wilson's twisted educational vision for Princeton, by stating "Princeton University itself has finally come around to the blueprint that Wilson put forward one hundred years ago..." The author closed his book saying that "history would prove him (Wilson) right," confirms the author's vested interest as a former student and now on the Princeton faculty. A good read, but with that vested interest, one has to wonder if all the drama and fireworks presented for the previous 340 pages, is a chimera covering his own loyalty to Princeton...just putting a good face on Wilson's rocky road from Princeton to the presidency.

5 comments about Profiles in Courage.

1. Profiles in Courage is a book that American lovers of history will inevitably read at some point or another...and they should. It is a solid piece of work, grounded in erudition and steeped with keeps-the-pages-turnin' anecdotes.
   
   The Senators profiled are mostly forgotten, but their stories are compelling nonetheless, and one wonders why they have lapsed into obscurity while other negligible figures (e.g. Crispus Attucks) have risen to prominence in elementary history curricula. (OK, one doesn't really wonder.)
   
   There are some eye-glazing passages of fluff and foofaraw, but the book mainly keeps a brisk pace, evoking the historical context in small prefatory chapters, and then outlining the situation wherein the Senator in question--rightly or wrongly, for good or ill--exhibited the courage that qualified him for inclusion. (One could call their courage anti-democratic...but sometimes that worked out for the best.)
   
   Besides its readability, Profiles in Courage is also strictly non-partisan--a feat I'm surprised they pulled off. Kudos to Ted Sorenson for crafting this--I'll go ahead and call it "classic"--work, which stands as an admirable piece of educational apparatus.
   
   (Too bad he didn't receive the Pulitzer.)



2. I bought this book and it's a nice read and very historical, of course. I just wanted to put it in context today. 07/31/08 The house voted 213-212 not to extend the session. The main reason it was brought up was to debate the issue of our nations energy future One vote mattered to keep Congress in session, it voted against that debate. I wonder if that can be pinpointed to a single Representative for that vote against and why they chose that. Probably not as they would not be viewed as a member or party of courage today! Then again why not? They come out on TV saying they want to save the earth (tell China, India and the rest of the world please and let me drive cheap, please), so lets get the debate going and cut the total BS. no courage on the Democrat side now a days or else you become Lieberman.



3. This book is well written, engaging and tells stories of courageous political leaders. Once you pick this book up you won't be able to put it down, and it will stick with you for years. He won the Pulitzer for a reason; we all need a reminder that doing what's right but unpopular leaves a far richer legacy than making decisions that win short term allies.



4. 
   I read this book quite a while back and found some great food for thought. One of my primary takeaways was that be careful when judging others motives.
   
   Kennedy (or whoever wrote the book) poses a primary question: Which is better...the man who will not compromise at all, or the man who bends but does not break?
   
   The argument is that the man who does not compromise may be considered true to his cause, but may get little done. The man who compromises to get things done may not be 100% true to his cause but is able to forward some of his ideas.
   
   The author(s) leave it up to the reader to decide (judge) if the path is right. Or, are both paths right? This is good food for thought for a critical thinker!
   
   What the author(s) is pointing at is that each man and woman must choose their own path in a situation according to their beliefs, values and morals, even if it may cause political and/or other ruin.
   
   The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide to: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking



5. John F. Kennedy makes an excellent contribution to history with this book. It describes the lives of several distinguished Americans who, in the course of history, have shaped the face of the United States. All these biographies are interesting. History becomes very much alive with this book, and Kennedy does an excellent job in showing how men can contribute to the life of a nation. What is even more noteworthy is that that is what he himself did. This new edition of the book has an excellent preface by Caroline Kennedy, herself an eminent legal scholar.

5 comments about With Malice Toward None: A Life of Abraham Lincoln.

1. This reviewer is fortunate to be a former student of Stephen B. Oates, both in his History of the American Civil War and in his seminar on biography writing. WITH MALICE TOWARD NONE gives what Mr. Oates calls "a portrait" of Abraham Lincoln. Oates cautioned students about presuming that any portrait was "definitive." His classes in biography writing were thorough and strict (illustrated by his own index cards and reams of notes), so of course when bogus plagiarism charges were slung at him, his students knew he would run them down with a truckload of substantiation of his work. How sad that he had to defend himself against "academia at its pissiest."
   
   What I particularly enjoyed about reading WITH MALICE TOWARD NONE was the sense of again being in his Civil War classroom. Mr. Oates has an uncanny ability to create a scene in the mind of the listener. His description of Abraham Lincoln's assassination plot took two classes -- and he managed to end the first class at the point where John Wilkes Booth drilled a hole in the door of the private seating area in Ford's Theater. Needless to say, every student attended every class! And reading the book gave a sense of that classroom presence.
   
   I do take exception to the reader who criticizes Oates on "psychoanalyzing" Lincoln, when in fact Oates clearly and masterfully is combining a series of documented facts to arrange the portrait in a story form. There is no guessing other than where it is admitted.
   
   All in all, WITH MALICE TOWARD NONE is a worthwhile and accessible biography of a complex and fascinating man, and I enthusiastically recommend it.



2. Will anyone dare to write an accurate assessment of the 16th President or are the myths that surround him just to strong to penetrate? I await a writer willing to discuss the wholesale destruction of property in the South that left thousands of civilians to starve, destruction sanctioned by Lincoln. I await a discussion on the hostage taking and the indiscriminate killing of Southern civilians. I await a thorough discussion of the Dahlgren Raid and its implications, I await a real assessment of the Lincoln/Seward relationship, and I await a real judgement on Lincoln's lack of religious belief. This book, like all the others ignores anything that might be the slightest cotroversial and that might dent the aura surrounding Abraham Lincoln.
   Alan Lowe. BA. Manchester Metropolitan University.



3. This book generated controversy among Lincoln scholars. The general reading public, however, will probably enjoy both the book's prose and its story. Regardless of whether there is much, or anything, new in the volume, its account of Lincoln is told with flair. Points that disturbed some Lincoln scholars will probably not be noticed by general readers. I read the book before I knew about the dispute, and found the volume enchanting.



4. Consider the great biographies of Lincoln: Nicolay and Hay,[10 volumes] his secretaries, Carl Sandburg's Abraham Licoln [6 volumes], Benjamin's single volume and all those that preceed and follow this, you must conclude this is the best single volume biography of Abraham Lincoln, indeeed the best general biography of the President and the man. The closest rival is Carwardine's Lincoln which deals in depth in one aspect of his life. WITH MALICE TOWARD NONE IS THE BEST INTRODUCTION TO THAT COMPLEX MAN AND HIS TIME AND ACHEIVEMENTS THAT WE HAVE TO DATE.



5. Professor Oates in my opinion did an outstanding job in the biography he did on Lincoln. While it is not as verbose as Donald's, it was well written and to be honest I could not set the book down. For anyone who does not have the time to read a larger volumn on Lincoln I suggest Oates. If you have time then I suggest you read both and also read "Team of Rivals. They are all outstanding volumns. This biography though is articulate, a good length and at times you can see the great passions in Lincoln the boy from Kentucky, the youth in Illnois and the 16 President of the United States. I give it a 5 stars a must read for any history student and I think a must for every American.

5 comments about Alexander of Macedon 356-323 B.C.: A Historical Biography.

1. I've been reading a reasonable amount of history lately, and I was starting to get worried how much of it has left me rather cold. Either I find that I can't engage with the writing, or else I find the thesis of the writer poorly supported. I had started to get the bad bad feeling that my problem with historians was more about me than about the history itself.
   
   Luckily, just about that point I picked up Alexander of Macedon. Excellent and apparently well-respected as history and delicious to read as a book. It doesn't talk down to the readers; it doesn't pretend to know more than it possibly can do. The prose is very good. The logic and structure of the book are clear and well-ordered. I really enjoyed reading it and felt that I learned a lot.
   
   When I sat down to write this, I read some reviews and letters that were written by Green in the New York Review of Books. His tone was much as this book would lead me to expect-- acerbic, smart and witty. He is a very good writer. In fact, that seems to be one of the arguments most commonly used against his books. He writes too well.
   
   A brief dip into the online world highlights two basic types of criticism for Alexander of Macedon. There are the Alexander fans who hate Green for not being flattering enough about their hero. (The fact that the book's title says nothing about "Alexander the Great" is kind of a giveaway that Green was not embarking on a course of further myth-making around the king. Shame, many seem to want him to be idolized and not studied.) The other criticism seems to come from Very Serious Academics who admit Green's enthusiasm for the subject matter, while making snide remarks about how he is more a novelist than a historian. The implication seems to be that this makes Green more suitable for armchair historians like myself than Very Serious Academics.
   
   And that may well be true. Since I'm not a VSA myself, I can only report that it seemed just right for me. I'll also note, mildly, that he does seem to be widely respected and that the people who don't respect his work appear in the minority.
   
   Alexander is a fascinating character. I have been thinking about him a lot since finishing the biography. His career raises a huge number of questions about the nature of greatness, and those questions obviously also matter to Green. I'm not sure if he ever settles for himself how "Great" Alexander really is-- but there is a firm argument made for his importance-- a hard argument to counter, in my opinion.
   
   Recommended. Best history book that I have read in a long time.



2. Alexander, usually known as the Great, was truly great if we are speaking of military prowess. Perhaps the greatest general the world has ever known, Alexander had an insatiable desire to conquer. His motivation did not seem to lie in wealth but in the desire for power, the lust of battle, and the march toward deification. No army could stand against him, all other men were diminished in his presence, he was the ultimate conqueror. He conquered everything except himself, and this proved to be his undoing.
   
   Today we all but idolize men such as Alexander, however it is worth noting that at his death he was universally hated. He most likely died of poisoning, possibly at the hand of his tutor Aristotle, and the entire world rejoiced. As soon as he died his empire fractured. Green writes, "He spent his life, with legendary success, in the pursuit of personal glory, ... and until very recent times this was regarded as a wholly laudable aim. The empire he built collapsed the moment he was gone" (p.488). Perhaps this is a lesson for us all.
   
   This is surely one of the best biographies on the life of Alexander the Great. I recommend it for all that have interest in such subjects.



3. Peter Green is one of the foremost scholars of Alexander the Great. His biography of the Macedonian King is based upon the evidence of the ancient sources, which are themselves only secondary sources, since the eye-witnesses to Alexander's exploits are unfortunately no longer extant. Green does not have "an agenda" as some reviewers have suggested; he is merely evaluating the evidence of Arrian, Plutarch, Quintus Curtius, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, etc., etc. as it they read it in Callisthenes, Ptolemy, Aristobulus, Onesicritus, etc., etc. All of the non-extant primary sources had their own agendas. Callisthenes was Alexander's press agent and image maker; Ptolemy, who highjacked the king's body, wrote his subsequent history of the expediton in such a way that his own exploits were highlighted.
   
   All of what Green writes is in the ancient sources. He has not made up the facts that Alexander could be very unpleasant at times (Consider his treatment of Thebes, Tyre, and Gaza; not to mention his reported murders of Philip's general, Parmenio; Parmenio's son, Philotas; Alexander's old family retainer Cleitus; Alexander's cousin, Alexander of Lyncestis, and the king's own spin-doctor Callisthenes [Alexander ordered the last two to be carried around in cages, Lyncestis for three years and Callisthenes for several months until he died of obesity and lice in India, according to Plutarch.]).
   
   If Green's Alexander does not live up to the "idealized" Alexander of those who have not read the ancient accounts, it is because we are dealing with a man who, with the aid of Callisthenes, had carefully crafted his own image. That image, which was always grandiose, became even larger than life after Alexander's death, when his successors got busy rendering the Macedonian king's image into their own images.
   
   Alexander was not Alexander the Saint; Alexander the British Public Schoolboy; Alexander the Guy-I'd-Like-to-Have-a-Drink-With (Heavens forfend!); Alexander the Ideal Husband; or even Alexander the Nice, he was actually Alexander the Imperialist! And yes, he was Great! Anyone who can march an entire army--indeed a mobile state--around for ten years, traveling 22,000 miles through snow-blasted mountains and sand-driven deserts deserves the term Great, no matter how many men and women he kills in the process (and Alexander's collateral damage was not to be sneezed at!). The fact that we are even arguing about him today demonstrates that he achieved his dream in renouncing his father Philip and becoming, first the Son of Zeus-Ammon; and next the New Triumphant Dionysus. Alexander has indeed achieved immortality.
   
   Peter Green has demonstrated Alexander's Greatness in a manner that is both exciting and eminently readable. If he has knocked the Macedonian off his gold-plated pedestal of propriety, Green has done readers a singular service, and, in the process, he has brought Alexander to life as the complex, deeply disturbing--and infinitely interesting--character that, according to the ancient sources, he certainly must have been.



4. I'm very disappointed with this book.
   I was looking for some objective and critic biography but this book have an obvious agenda from page one: put down Alexander by any possible means.
   For Mr Green every good or great thing Alexander is credited to had done is just propaganda or flattery.
   He can even doubt the result of a great battle like Granicus because our sources are few and unreliable. For him it was a defeat hidden by propaganda, a theory he make up with nearly zero backup from the ancient sources.
   But instead, he don't hesitate to follow without doubt every nasty detail some of this sources could give us about the bad acts of Alexander (the chapter about Cleitus assassination for example is pure gossipy).
   For me, thats not an historian...
   A shame...



5. It's obvious Mr. Green knows his stuff but I feel this was written for a few of his peers and not the average reader. He tends to explain why he thinks what he thinks, and why others might be wrong or right, or whether new research challenges long held beliefs, etc. which is fine when chatting with your pals who are also well versed in the subject but better left to an appendix in a book as it stems the narrative flow. Please just tell me what happened, tell me why you think so later. I trust you. More than once I found myself at the bottom of the page having to reread it because my mind began to wonder.
   The author assumes the reader is an academic like himself and peppers the book with phrases like, "The truth of the matter can never be known for certain. If we apply the cui bono principle, then Alexander undoubtedly had everything to gain..." and "De l'audace, toujours de l'audace, encore de l'audace: all through his life this was to be Alexander's guiding star, ..." and so on.
   This in not a friendly book for commuters or people who like to read before bed. The chapters range from 30-60 pages a piece so every time you pick it up you're making a commitment. One personal annoyance is that, when referring to something he has already touched upon, the author has the bad habit of saying (see above pg. 47) or (see above pg 123) It paints a picture of him editing it on his computer, why not just say see pg. 47 or pg. 123 why the "above"?
   Academics and those already familiar with the subject may enjoy the book, History Channel historians who saw a cool special on Alexander and want to learn more may want to look elsewhere.

5 comments about Too Close to the Sun: The Audacious Life and Times of Denys Finch Hatton.

1. "Denys had been out of Africa for the whole of 1921, Tania for the whole of 1920. They were reunited at the end of the long rains, when fireflies came to the highland woods and skyscrapers of clouds topple through the blue."
   
   I wanted to like this novel very much but it never happened. I thought that I would have found deep and interesting characters, and get to really know the blue-eyed boy Denys Finch Hatton. It was repetitive and vague in many parts, but although it was not for me, others may like it. I was not impressed.
   Reviewed by Heather Marshall Negahdar (SUGAR-CANE 05/08/08)



2. Best detailed info on Denys that I have ever read. The book has a unique charm-- it has words that I had to actually look up in order to determine exactly what the author was saying. Her vocabulary will intrigue or frighten you as you read the book, and I think dinner with her would be most memorable.



3. I really enjoyed reading this book. It was thoroughly researched and beautifully written. It contains a lot of interesting information about Dennis Finch Hatton, his background and his life. A must read for any fan of "Out of Africa".



4. Sara Wheeler's "Too Close to the Sun" is as much a biography of a place and of an era as it is of a man. The author went looking for Denys Finch Hatton and found East Africa as well as her elusive subject.
   
   The man, himself, was once a nearly mythical East African figure. Finch Hatton is best known today as Karen Blixen's long-time inamorata in the film version of her book "Out of Africa." In life, he was a privileged Englishman who often worked as an African guide and professional hunter and who flourished and died during Kenya's colonial period. He was also a reluctant soldier, a glad aviator and a man who loved theatre, photography, dance, books and women.
   
   Ms. Wheeler says that her aims in writing the biography were: "to depict a figure in the landscape, to explore the universal themes threaded through his story, and to find out why he was an engine of myth." Other than a few personal letters and some newspaper articles, he wrote little. Because of this, and because she writes so many years after his death, Ms. Wheeler is left with little more than trace evidence and the words of others with which to develop her theme and achieve those goals. Fortunately, she's an able writer and tenacious researcher. She also uses the words of Teddy Roosevelt, H. Rider Haggard, Ernest Hemingway, Siegfried Sassoon, Elspeth Huxley, W.B. Yeats and Evelyn Waugh, among others, as sources to help her develop her African story.
   
   Karen Blixen is, perhaps, her most famous source for direct Denys Finch Hatton information. Karen Blixen (aka Isak Dinesen) wrote about Finch Hatton as her lover and used her version of him as an element to drive her own story. Sara Wheeler, on the other hand, is a graduate of the same Oxford college as Finch Hatton and seems more in sympathy with him as a human being.
   
   Beryl Markham, an aviatrix, writer and renowned wild child, is another useful source. Martha Gellhorn (Hemingway's third wife) described her as, "Not your ordinary Circe." Beryl says of Denys, "As for charm, I suspect that Denys invented it." Those may be the final words on Denys Finch Hatton. In two-hundred-fifty-two pages of text, author Wheeler can't find anyone to say a bad word about him.
   
   Sara Wheeler certainly charmed this reviewer when she quoted Anthony Blanche, a character in Evelyn Waugh's "Brideshead Revisited." Antoine, as he's known, warns another character about the danger of English charm, stating that it blights anything it touches. Ms. Wheeler believes that Finch Hatton's own charm nearly destroyed his ambition.
   
   Ms. Wheeler's writing skills are (to say the least) fully developed. She calls the disastrous British 1916 offensive in France the "Apocalypse on the Somme." In one chapter, she describes the deteriorating relationship between Finch Hatton and Karen Blixen by saying, "They were living in different mental worlds...coexisting like the twin beaters of a rotary whisk." In passing, Ms. Wheeler notes what she calls "the spiritual journey at the heart of all great literature."
   
   She's made some interesting choices in her own life, both as an author and as a person. By her own reckoning, she spent three years researching and writing "Too Close to the Sun." She also traveled to three continents (Europe, Africa and America) doing research. She's also written "Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica," and "Cherry: a Life of Apsley Cherry Garrard." She spent six months in Antarctica paying part of the personal tariff for creating these two works. She paid another similar price to research her South American book, "Travels in a Thin Country."
   
   There's a theme here: Much time and energy spent on projects with a limited market potential. That may be crass, and those of us who are interested in any of her subjects do have reason to be glad that she invested the time as she has. Considering her enormous writing ability, however, had she devoted the same amount of skill and effort in another direction, she might well have become the new James Michener or the next Donna Tartt or A.S. Byatt. Instead, she's chosen to forgo the probability of huge literary or popular success and with such success, big bucks and big acclaim. Perhaps this is too American a perspective about writing or living, but Ms. Wheeler's choices do remain interesting questions. In his day, Denys Finch Hatton was already becoming an anachronism. Sara Wheeler, who refers to modern-day Istanbul as Constantinople may also fit into that category. Bless them both.
   
   The bottom line on the book is that for anyone with even a drop of Walter Mitty blood, "Too Close to the Sun" is a splendid read. James Joyce has given Daedalus his modern day due. Let's hear it for the new Icarus.



5. So this book is definitely not for everyone. There has been a lot of criticism regarding the content and whether the author provides any novel insight into the life and times of Denys Finch Hatton. On a personal level though, I found the book intriguing from multiple standpoints. For those of us who seem to be eternal wanderers this book provides valuable insight into the perils and rewards of pursuing your own dreams and wandering off the beaten path. Success is defined differently by each individual and while Denys may have appeared to lack direction, his constant quest for knowledge and experiences were the driving force for the many and varied initiatives and ventures he took up in his lifetime. He was a romantic and was perhaps better suited to an earlier time. His non-conformity and unwillingness to change with the times may have lead some to perceive him as being unsuccessful, but in reality he marched to the beat of his own drum. In the final analysis the only definition of success that matters is an individual's own.

5 comments about The Lost King of France: How DNA Solved the Mystery of the Murdered Son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

1. I got this because I had read a book about Eleanor of Aquitaine. With all the different countries & the royal families I thought it would be interesting to read a little more. I had no interest in Marie Antointette, I thought she was a little overdone. I found the book about her son & vaguely remember hearing about the scandal in my High School French lessons. I read the book in about 2 days it was that captiavting. I thought I would have a hard time with the French names & places, but it seems like 2 years of French all those years ago stood me in good stead.
   This is a great book for someone who is looking to learn facts & resolutions from research, not someone looking to find idle gossip about a most noted royal.



2. This well written and compelling work of non-fiction recounts the political events that led up to the French Revolution and the tragedy that befell the royal family, Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and their two living children, the Louis-Charles and Marie-Therese. It gives insight into just how the royal family was treated after the revolutionists were in charge.
   
   The book details the terms of their imprisonment in Temple Tower. It is almost hard to believe the cruelty with which they were met. The heartbreak of the King and Queen is palpable as they realized what fate had in store for them. Moreover, their fear for the fate of their children must have been an incalculable agony, piercing the heart and soul of the King and Queen.
   
   While the indignities imposed upon the King and Queen were insufferable, once the royal couple met their fate at the guillotine, what was done to the now eight year old King Louis XVII was downright cruel and inhuman. Barbaric beyond belief, his treatment was nothing short of shocking. While his thirteen year old sister was also cruelly treated, her experience paled in comparison to that of her once happy and cherubic little brother.
   
   When Louis XVII was declared dead two years later, the fact that there was no marked grave sparked rumors that the he had escaped and was still among the living. Over the years, many came forward claiming to be the lost King of France. It was not until the twenty-first century that the mystery was laid to rest, thanks to DNA testing and a heart purported to be that of Louis XVII.
   
   This is a fascinating, well-researched book that will keep the reader turning the pages. Bravo!



3. You read about how this little boy, who'd known only the best the world had to give, ended up in a sunless room, curled in a fetal position, full of puss and unable (or unwilling) to speak. This is a creepy tale that makes what happened to the son of the Tsar Alexander's son in 1917 (or there abouts...who knows for sure?) seem like a kind ending. It also gives you insight into his mother's execution and his sister's life.



4. Of all the human tragedy that marked the French Revolution, perhaps none was so acute as that experienced by the royal family. In this well-researched and engrossing book, Deborah Cadbury conveys the full measure of this tragedy in her description of the unspeakable horrors visited on the little Dauphin of France, Louis-Charles, son of Louis VXI and Marie-Antoinette. It is impossible to avoid that sick feeling in the pit of one's stomach as we read this harrowing tale, and it certainly helps explain why, to this day, many people can't bring themselves to believe that it was indeed Marie-Antoinette's "chou d'amour" who ended his days in so wretched a manner.
   Cadbury also does a fine job of recounting in a very readable manner the seemingly endless procession of pretenders that began to emerge shortly after the Terror, and keeps the reader in suspense until the final denouement.
   All in all, an excellent, moving book, not to be missed.



5. I enjoyed Deborah Cadbury's "The Lost King of France," although I would never recommend reading it at night, unless stories of small children being brutalized help one to sleep. Cadbury has a dry, logical style which makes her descriptions of the royal family's descent into hell all the more horrifying. I was perturbed when she stated that Fersen and Marie-Antoinette were probably lovers, without giving any evidence, especially when she was careful to give evidence for everything else. Also, on the cover of the book is most likely a picture of Louis-Joseph, not Louis-Charles (Louis XVII).
   
   Many say that the book proves beyond doubt the death of Louis XVII on June 8, 1795, but it does not. The DNA merely concluded that the desiccated heart which was allegedly removed from the little victim who died in the Temple was the child of a Habsburg princess. As anyone familiar with European history knows, Habsburg princesses were legion; many not having the last name of Habsburg, but having Habsburg genes. Although it is highly probable that Louis XVII did die in the Temple at age ten after horrendous sufferings, it should be recalled that Madame Royale herself had doubts about the fate of her brother, since she had not been allowed to identify the body.

5 comments about My Traitor's Heart: A South African Exile Returns to Face His Country, His Tribe, and His Conscience.

1. I have attempted to write a review of this book several times, but failed as I find myself gripped with the same conflicting emotions that Malan so succintly portrays in the book.
   
   Having been born and brought up very close to the Msinga Valley (the subject of the closing chapter of My Traitor's Heart) in the heart of Kwa Zulu Natal, many of the names and people are known to me. Some of those people are the heroes of the book, others are the villains. I mention this only in so much as I can verify sufficient of the authenticity of Malan's very personal, cathartic journey.
   
   Many others have written a synopsis of Malan's book. If you want to know about the story line - there are many reviews to be read. However, for me the review is a personal experience. Malan's catharsis is paralleled by my own! No other book I've read is as descriptive of the madness that is Africa. A madness that you both love and hate at the same time. A madness that drives you away and yet draws you in simultaneously. And finally a madness that drives you to the edge of reason, yet (as the story of Creina Alcock unfolds) drives you to the reason for being.
   
   No matter where you start on the political spectrum (extreme left, extreme right or somewhere in the middle), you find yourself driven to the other end of the scale and back again, on a roller coaster of emotion. For Malan, his beginning point is 'extreme left'. His end point, is, I suspect, 'disallusioned'.
   
   I recommend this book as an extremely well written, witty, sad, mad book. If you want to understand Africa (insofar as anyone can 'understand' Africa), this is the book to read.
   
   But reader beware - it is a deeply disturbing, very graphic read!



2. How does one explain the intricacies of Apartheid-era South Africa, from the political turmoil to the constant tribal warring? Primitive thought? Anger spurred by poverty and hunger? Ancient beliefs conflicting with modernity? Racism? There is no one simple answer, and this book does an incredible job of elucidating this. It is harrowing, horrific, and incredibly sad, but it is all real and should be read by all. The story of an incredibly violent and hopeless place told through the eyes of Rian Malan, a descendant of one of the first founders of Apartheid thought, as he retells his life story and searches his soul for an answer, travelling from white affluence to the slums, from America to the soul-crushing gold mines, from the base of a dwindling black political movement to the outermost reaches of the arid rural kwaZulu, meeting whites consumed by intense racial hate and those who tried to love so hard that it destroyed their lives, and telling their life stories along with his, to create an incredibly rich and horrifying mosaic.



3. When I read this book ten plus years ago it blew me away, both as political and narrative non-fiction, and as excellent writing. Malan's voice and humanity perfectly tell an important story. The second reading was as good, if not better.



4. White liberal draft-dodger hard at work. He's a good writer and the book's a painful look into the heart of a white liberal. My admiration goes rather to those who fought to defend their country.... but it's an insight into the tortured soul of a typical liberal wooftah. Why people put themselves thru all this inner torment I have no idea - have a beer and get over it, bloke! If you'd just done your time in the armed forces like pretty much every other south african had to do instead of taking the chicken run, you wouldn;t be going thru all this turmoil.



5. Before a recent visit to S. Africa, this book was recommended as an introduction to the political climate in S. Africa, especially after Apartheid. This very personal account told by Rian Malan, whose ancestors were directly responsible for the formation of the Apartheid society, traces his teenage rebellion against Apartheid, his career as a liberal newspaper reporter and his ultimate rejection of the violence that the new government has spawned. Be prepared for graphic descriptions of violence committed by both whites and blacks.
   
   A good introduction to the complicated history of S. Africa and leaves the reader with questions regarding the future of that sad country.

5 comments about Marie-Therese, Child of Terror: The Fate of Marie Antoinette's Daughter.

1. 
   Most important to me in a biography is that the writer lay out the story of the person and the times in an interesting and readable way. For the writer this means finding the right balance between documenting, which can get very dry, and telling, which calls for judgment of what to leave in and out. Susan Nagel has hit a perfect balance. She has sorted through a tremendous number of sources and created what may be the first biography of the only surviving child of Marie Antoinette.
   
   Next in importance to me when I read a biography is feeling, at the end, that I know and understand the person who is chronicled. For a subject such as Marie-Therese, the author must bridge the centuries so that the modern reader can actually understand a believer in the divine right of kings. Here, Nagel shows that she has come to know her subject and this period in France and she communicates it very well.
   
   History certainly has some interesting twists and turns. The most interesting to me, in this book, is the support of the British monarchy for the Bourbon exiles not long after concluding a war with them. Another smaller curiosity is how in exile, in the rudest of circumstances, the royals maintain protocol. They bow before each other and the leave rooms in a prescribed order.
   
   Susan Nagel does a wonderful job. For anyone interested in European history, she has created an excellent read.



2. Being a great admirer of Marie Antoinette and a sympathizer of her downfall, I couldn't pass up this book when it was released, the true story of her daughter and first born, Marie Therese. The biography, very interesting and readable, accurately depicts the life of Madame Royale, from her much anticipated birth (for it was hoped that she was a boy) through the turbulent years with her family in prison, and beyond. Marie Therese, locked up in her own cell for a very long time, never even knew of the murder of her mother, aunt and baby brother, due to the harsh treatment she received from her captors. The outside world was a mystery to her, not knowing of the loyal family members that struggled to have her released. After her release, Marie Therese's life never stopped being turbulent. She lived most of the years in exile, whether in England or Austria, Russia, or numerous other places, the victim of France's inability to pick a government and stick with it (in one hundred years, France had three different republics, two emperors of Napoleon blood, two Bourbon kings, and one citizen king). Though her suffering never ceased, Marie Therese always appeared resilient and kind, never forgetting her country and her people, and the parents she loved and cherished. The book is beautiful and informative, since I had never really known what happened in France after the Revolution. The writer brings history to life, and creates a mind blowing suspense throughout the book on whether Marie Therese had switched with her half-sister and look-alike Ernestine after leaving the prison. I will definitely read this book again and am looking forward to more from this author.



3. A must-read to get a much bigger picture of the last years and days of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, and the fate of their two surviving children. European history buffs will love the details provided from the family's personal letters and from other contemporaries to the Madame Royale. This book was captivating and enlightening, and draws the reader into the heart and mind of Marie-Therese. Truly an inspirational, if not much overlooked historical figure, this book is a wonderful portrait of this courageous and heroic young girl.



4. Nagel has written a splendid biography of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette's only surviving child. The author begins by describing Marie-Therese's birth and early childhood in the luxurious world of Versailles. Nagel then guides the reader on an amazing journey from the sickening brutality of the French Revolution and the French people's savage treatment of the monarchs' children, to Marie Therese's escape and never-ending journeys away from and back to the country of her birth. Nagel takes an enormous amount of historic facts and people and places them neatly in a seamless and brilliant fashion in this biography. The reader doesn't learn only about what happened in the life of Marie-Therese; the reader is also treated to a subtle and gradual revelation of the true and noble character of this woman. If one has enjoyed reading about this woman's parents, then it is such a treat to see that the best characteristics of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette lived on in this lady. I was particularly fascinated to read that Louis XVI's judgment was so well placed when he trusted the American, Gouveneur Morris, with a large sum of money to support his surviving family. Morris personally delivered it to Marie-Therese years later. Amazing when one considers the recent news reports of the failed auction of the pearls Marie Antoinette gave to the British ambassador's wife to sneak out of France. Apparently, those pearls never left the ambassador's family's assets in spite of the fact that Marie-Therese LIVED in England for years!
   This is a great biography and I highly recommend it!



5. I have read every book on the French Revolution and on Marie Antoinette in particular and so I was eager to learn more about her only surviving child. I was absolutly not disappointed!!! This book is wonderfully written and brings to life an era through the eyes of a truly thoughtful, kind, intelligent Princess. This is not just a biography about any royal daughter- she is an inspiration to all women whose lives ebb and flow through good and bad. Always trustworthy and kind, she is an admirable person, and a good example to anyone going through tough times.