No comments about Gustav Stresemann: Weimar's Greatest Statesman.

No comments about Reminiscences Of Lenin.

1 comments about Mary of Guise (Scot¬s Lives).

1. Mary of Guise is probabely best remembered as the mother of Mary , Queen of Scots, but was a fascinating women in her own right. A devout Roman Catholic , she was also a women of courage and determination , she was never wantonly cruel or spiteful as portrayed by John Knox and some British historians , but had to operate with sharp cunning and resolve. Marshall provides a very different portrayal to that of Mary of Guise in the movie Elizabeth (1998),directed by Shekhar Kapur.
   Mary was born on November 22, 1515 at at Bar-le-Duc, Lorraine.
   Widowed , at 21, after her first marriage to Louis of Orleans, Duke of Longueville, she became wife of James V of Scotland , at age 23 , in 1538.She was crowned as Queen Consort at Holyrood Abbey in 1540, and the mother of two sons who died in infancy. King James died in 1642 , leaving the 27 year old Mary , Regent of Scotland , with her little daughter Mary (who was sent to France as a little girl for her own safety) .Mary was forced to manouver between various powerful nobles of shifting allegiances , she was loyal to France and the Roman Catholic Church , determined that Scotland should stay Catholic and in alliance with France, she was threatened by the growing power of Scotland's Protestants and of an ever threatening England. This is the story of her life and character , and of her ultimate failure and death.
   Rosalind Marshall provides as sympathetic portrayal of Mary of Guise as well as a sharp eye into the Scotland and Western Europe of the time.
   An impressive personal and social history.

1 comments about Patrick Kavanagh.

1. The best of Patrick Kavanagh's poetry is superb. He has only a couple of dozen poems in this category, but he does write savagely and with a coarse humor. But what a man! I do not think I have run into his like in fiction or biography (or real life). The facts of his life, parents, education, lack of schooling and the like are all here and help one realize his poetry. The anger, the jealousies and the endless financial scrabbling simply astonish. Patrick Kavanagh was an original, presented fairly gently and completely in this stolid, interesting biography. Much of his good poetry is mentioned, but not printed here. Read the poetry. He invents himself there.

1 comments about The First Indian Author in English: Dean Mahomed (1759-1851) in India, Ireland, and England.

1. A surpassing interest in the first of anything is as old asAdam. Just as we are different from the first man and yet in many waysstill the same, Dean Mohamed is also different from the first of Amitav Ghosh, Arundhati Roy, Vikram Chandra, or Shashi Tharoor... You name them .

   The main difference is in the use of the language and the market targeted. The similarity lies in the location and contemporary timing of subject matter - their own India!

1 comments about Memoirs Duc De Saint-Simon: 1710-1715 (Lost Treasures).

1. I loved these memoirs by a Duke who lived at the French Court during the later part of the reign of Louis XIV and during the regency of Duc d'Oreleans (Louis XV's minority). This second volume deals with the very last years of Louis XV and ends with his death (and the great fight over who would be Regent, since Louis XV was very young). There is a lot of detail about court life and it is very much biographic, details about people. Lucy Norton has done a wonderful job editing leaving out the long boring parts on war, treaties and politics and has left in all of the information on people during that age. I really enjoyed these memoirs.

No comments about A Chronology of Jane Austen and her Family: 1700-2000.

No comments about Henry VIII: Court, Church and Conflict.

No comments about Autobiography of a Generation: Italy, 1968.

2 comments about Historic King Arthur: Authenticating the Celtic Hero of Post-Roman Britain.

1. "The Historic King Arthur" is perhaps not a book suited for first-time travelers through the murky forests of Arthurian history, searching for the reality behind fifteen centuries of myths and tales. It might be best to first read one or more other works dealing with this great mystery before tackling Frank Reno's highly detailed, deep-delving study of the ancient sources that shed light upon the question. That way, the journey through the writings of Gildas and Nennius and Geoffrey of Monmouth and various scribes and poets will not be quite so daunting. But make no mistake about it, once some fundamental grounding in the basics of the Arthurian quest has been obtained, then "The Historic King Arthur" (and its sequel, "Historic Figures In the Arthurian Age") should be read carefully. Reno minutely examines each source (and most of them are to be found with numerous variations) to lay out his case for his solution to the central questions of the Arthurian mystery: Who was King Arthur? Where did he live? When did he live? Who were his enemies? What was his role in history? And what was really his name?

   Reno acts as a guide in this journey in search of historical truth, explaining his methods and logic in evaluating the evidence, but he does not rigidly insist upon the absolute truth of his conclusions. Frequently, he explains that there are other reasonable answers to the questions than the one he favors. Sometimes, such as in his analysis of the locations of many of the battles fought by Arthur (as described in Reno's "Historic Figures In the Arthurian Era"), he concludes that no single "best" answer is really possible. At times, his explanations are complex and subtle to the point where the reader may have difficulty following the path Reno is laying out. That is perhaps a natural consequence of the type of evidence that must be used and of the detail in which it is presented. Usually, however, Reno returns to the same subject of investigation later in the book to again address the questions and to clarify his answers. Thus, attention to detail on the reader's part is required and patience must be exercised as the author slowly builds his case.

   And what are Reno's answers to what above I termed the central questions? He believes that Arthur was of a Roman-British background, operating as a high king primarily in Wales and the adjacent midlands, although also in southern England and northern Gaul, from the middle of the Fifth Century AD through the early portion of the Sixth. Reno contends that many of Arthur's campaigns were waged not against Saxon hordes fresh from Germany, but against Saxons who had been settled in Britain for one or more generations, these "English" Saxons being in league with leaders and forces of native British. And Reno believes that "Arthur" was a man known otherwise to history as Ambrosius Aurelianus and as Riothamus and finally as Arthurex, not a name at all but an epithet connoting his status as a great leader.

   I will not claim that I am yet wholly convinced of this "triad" equation of Ambrosius Aurelianus, Riothamus, and Arthur but, as the author himself points out, rejection of this total identity does not negate the validity of many parts of Reno's overall work. I found to be especial important Reno's conclusions regarding Cerdic, a "Saxon" king with a wholly Celtic name, and Cerdic's people, the West Saxons. If Reno is correct, our understanding of the Arthurian era must be substantially altered, with a consequence that the course of events becomes much more clear. I expect Reno's conclusions to be challenged - this is inevitable in a field where evidence is scant and subject to multiple interpretations - but at the very least he has provided us with a provocative, comprehensive portrait of man and era.

   To my knowledge there is no other Arthurian study available to the general public that explores the ancient sources in such depth to provide answers to the old questions. If I might be critical of some peripheral features, I do wish that the index was somewhat more comprehensive and illuminating (given the complexity of the issues at hand, I found myself turning to the index again and again to go back to earlier points) and the maps, although numerous, sometimes lack the visual clarity that could have been achieved. Nonetheless, "The Historic King Arthur" and "Historic Figures In the Arthurian Era" are books that should be of great interest to anyone seriously interested in attempting to glimpse the real King Arthur.




2. This book took a time and a man, explained the truth of the time and captured my heart. Knowing there was King and how Mr. Reno went about proving his existance was interesting, intreeging, heart warming and fun. I can not wait for the next book!