4 comments about Wilderness: A Journal of Quiet Adventure in Alaska--Including Extensive Hitherto Unpublished Passages from the Original Journal.

1. Unlike the true frontiersmen (ie; Dick Proenneke, One Man's WIlderness or James Huntington, On The Edge of Nowhere), this man is a typical anti-establishment artist who escaped to the outdoors in search of himself. His work reveals his own state of depression. It would be interesting to know what became of his son.



2. You can pick this book off your library shelf any time, open it to any page, start at any paragraph and begin to feel a mantle of peace settle over your jangled nerves. "Wilderness" is the record of artist Rockwell Kent and his 9-year-old son spending a winter in Alaska on Fox Island in Resurrection Bay, near Seward, with only one elderly Swede as a neighbor. This "journal of quiet adventure" nonetheless is exciting in the relationships between father and son and old Olson and between the Kents and the harsh winter weather. Beautifuly and profusely illustrated by Rockwell and Rockwell, Jr.



3. Of the many wilderness adventures that flood our view on the television or in movies, with dramatic, life-risking events, we can become weary of the slick presentations. Rockwell Kent tells of us of another type of adventure, the day to day living on remote Fox Island off Seward, in Alaska. The small pleasures, the difficult trips in an open boat to get supplies, the child's sweetness in his friendship with a magpie, all these and more stories are told in a daily journal. And illustrated as Kent always does, with insight and style. Kent as a writer is equal to Kent as an artist, intellectual and candid in his telling a story and sharing impressions. If this is your first reading of a Kent book, you have a long list of other books ahead for this was his first book done as a "first person" storyteller. His desire for remote and wild landscapes to paint took him, and then takes us, through his work, to many other places over many decades. But none are any more delightful and majestic than this trip to Alaska. To check out the validity of this remote place, I took a trip to Fox Island several years ago, and though I didn't see it in the winter as Rockwell and his son did, it was dramatic, beautiful and matched the feeling I'd gotten when I first read the book years ago. The nice touch of this edition is that the editor, Doug Capra, has a very fine introduction to the book and Capra knows his subject. He has been researching Kent for years, but more than that, he has something to say and says it well. Few Kent editors do. But the book--it makes a wonderful Christmas gift because it has a really fine description of what a meaningful Christmas celebration can be in a remote place, shared with a hermit on the island, the father and little boy. There are some delightful details in this story: the food taken for the trip; the books for father and son; the rigerous baths when the bay freezes and the ice cold waters no longer are available. Kent is no ordinary artist, writer or father. And this is no ordinary adventure. It makes you wish, even yearn, for that place, that time, those people. I knew Rockwell Kent in the final few years of his life and he still carried that energtic view of life, that love of beauty and nature that comes alive in this small work. And three cheers to Doug Capra for bringing this new edition to life for it is of the quality for which Kent was famous in his published books. (A wretched edition of this treasure of a story was published a few years before and this edition puts to rest a Kent lover's dispair about having a bad edition of a Kent work on the shelves, any shelves. I almost never throw books away but this earlier paperback with bad design from cover to cover merits polluting a garbage pail.) So, invest in some good reading, some laughs and some wistful thoughts about what a wilderness adventure could be. And for those who have courage, still can be.



4. I found this book to be very informative about the land and extream weather of Alaska but it ran a little dry quickly. This is a journal of around 9 months of Rockwell kents life while in Alaska. I have read other books that were written from journals and Kents does fair better then most. I can understand that a journal in Alsaka can run out of new and interesting things to write about and this book seemed to try to fill in the gaps with Kents thoughts and many philosophies. All in all I do recomend this book to anyone who really want a real veiw of what Alaska is actually like.

1 comments about Stately Passions: The Scandals of Britain's Great Houses.

1. This is a fascinating account of thirteen stately homes and the scandals which occurred in them. The book includes the homes of royalty and the aristocracy, starting with Balmoral, the Scottish home of the present day Queen Elizabeth 11, and is the site upon which, in 1128, the Scottish King David proposed the building of an Abbey. The building was added to, remodelled, burned down, attacked by various armies and was the site of murders, and scandals, as were the other sites listed in this book. The author has added wonderfully entertaining snippets of the goings on in all of these premises, right up to and including the 20th century, which makes this book a most interesting read for admirers of these wonderful buildings and the people who inhabited them, throughout the centuries.

2 comments about Records of Shelley, Byron, and the Author (New York Review Books Classics).

1. The lives and deaths of Shelley and Byron ought to interest the world--not just the readers of English--for their poetry covered every topic: the rise and fall of empires, nation-building and nation-breaking, and the vanity of the men who would lead them in victory or defeat. And Edward John Trelawny shows us each poet as a human being. The production of fine writing should not be a mystery; beautiful language comes most eloquently from a troubled heart and a mind committed to seeking knowledge. Trelawny reminds us that Byron's and Shelley's lives were focused on connecting to people through their work; Tre begins each chapter with lines from the work of Byron or Shelley.
   
   The Introduction to this edition of Trelawny's book is written by Anne Barton, a professor at Trinity College, Cambridge University, from which Byron himself graduated about 200 years ago. I disagree with her that Tre's writing is "focused for the most part upon himself" as though he were self-centered, though Barton does say he had "hidden depths" (xx). Based on the form and structure and content of Records of Shelley, Byron, and the Author (and Tre's subsequent life), it seems that Trelawny was aware of the nuances of human character and was more than adequate to the task of knowing complex people. The details he provides in key places are so specific that they could not have been lies or fabrications; Byron's claim that Trelawny could not tell the truth was simply evidence of Byron's pleasure in teasing banter. "Byron's idle talk during the exhumation of [Edward Elliker] William's remains," Trelawny writes, "did not proceed from want of feeling, but from his anxiety to conceal what he felt from others" (146). Byron also concealed his feelings at the cremation of Shelley's remains. It's clear throughout the book that Tre is a sharp observer--of himself and others. And Tre was sensitive to what Mary Godwin Shelley and Williams' wife, Jane, felt about the drowning of their husbands in the Bay of Spezia. Mary Shelley wrote to Tre that she experienced a "blank moral death" (176). Tre shows that the breakup of the Pisan Circle--because of Shelley's drowning--was clearly a personal tragedy with far-reaching consequences.
   
   This is a book for all seasons--but better appreciated while strolling on a beach in some far-flung corner of a poetic universe.



2. If you're interested in the life of Edward John Trelawny, you'll have to look elsewhere. Suffice it to say that Tre' (as his friends knew him) was a privateer, a scoundrel, a lover of poetry, a freedom-fighter and a loyal friend of the most prolific literary talents of the romantic period. "Records of Shelley, Byron and the Author" is an account, not of Trelawny's extraordinary life & adventures, but of the two men that helped make that life so extraordinary. In his own words, he tells of the secret lives of Byron and the Shelley's, their romp through sunny Italy and the tragic death of Percy in the coast of Spezzia. The tale continues as Tre' follows Byron to the bloody civil war in Greece, where Byron too dies. To his credit, though, it is never "Trelawny's tale", but "Byron and Shelley's tale" as told by Trelawny. This deep, insightful book shows the poets as only a close friend could. Yet throughout, one can not help but love Trelawny himself: the man who supported the impoverished Mary Shelley to her dying day... the man who bought a slave for $10,000 only to set him free... the man who reached into the embers of Shelley's pyre, withdrawing his heart. If you love the poetry of Byron and Shelley & have even a passing interest in the men behind the legends, then Trelawny's memoirs are a must-read.

5 comments about King John (English Monarchs).

1. An excellent history book, factual as a text book but reads like a novel. Hollywood could never dream up a life or character so complex.



2. King John has the reputation as being the absolutely worse King England has ever had. Accused of lechery, murder, treason and much more, John is looked on as an absolute failure, and is warped out of all recognition as the bad Prince John of Robin Hood. The only bright spot in his reign is John's grant of the Magna Charta, which is looked on by many as the ultimate foundation stone upon which English and American freedoms rest.
   W.L. Warren, in this exhaustively researched book, paints a full picture of the life of this least successful of English kings. Dr. Warren points out that much of John's bad reputation results from writer's contrasting him with his brother, Richard the Lionheart.
   This book gives us the reality of King John. It doesn't excuse him. It does explain him.



3. This book shows the "dastardly" King John of Robin Hood fame in a more realistic light. He is seen to be an enlightened ruler who reviewed the law courts and other English institutions and who truly, of all the previous Plantagenet kings, preferred England as his inheritance. He is not the cowed king who is seen to have signed the Magna Carta, but a king who was faced with the accumulatiom of misrule by previous Plantagnet rulers including his brother Richard the Lion Heart. This book does not hide the King's less likeable attributes, avarice, lustfullness, a bad temper, a vengeful nature, but then Richard Coeur de Leon had that too. This book shows that John was no worse than his predecessors. Read also "Eleanor of Aquitaine" by Alison Weir, which corroborates this book very well..



4. I was a little hesitant about ordering this book at first for fear it would be dry and complicated. I was very happy to discover it was neither. It is well researched and well written. Warren gives you a good feel about the period and the challenges John faced. I even found myself asking "what would I have done in his place?" This book busted a few of the "Bad King John" myths as well as some of the "Good King Richard" ones. This is a very readable book provided you have an interest and a little knowledge about the period. If you are looking for a "Robin Hood" type story this isn't it. It's not a page turner but nor should it be. This is the story of a complex man during a complex time and Warren did a great job of bringing it to life without making it dull.



5. W.L. Warren begins this biography with an explanation of how and why King John ended up with the dastardly reputation we all know from Robin Hood stories and other popular fiction. John, Warren says, suffered from a confluence of factors that have rendered a slanted and warped portrait of him. Historiography methods of the past concentrated almost entirely on contemporary chronicles, practically ignoring administrative records and other types of extraneous material. John especially suffers under this kind of examination, since the chroniclers who wrote about his reign were all either poorly informed, outrageously prejudiced, or both.
   
   John is mocked with the name "Softsword" for having lost his hold on the French domains his father, Henry II, and his brother, Richard I, worked so hard to keep. Warren points out, however, that such far-flung territories could never have been maintained, and, even had Richard lived, the French outcome would probably have been the same. Far from being a military do-nothing, John is the founder of the Royal Navy. Warren marvels that a nation that came to treasure its naval superiority as England did could so completely vilify the founder of its navy.
   
   But this book is no whitewash, either. John was duplicitous and grasping and didn't trust anyone who wasn't beholden to him. He surrounded himself with baseborn hangers-on, excluding and alienating the barons of his realm. He took money for dispensing justice and then still ruled against the side that paid him. He was cunning and conniving, and was known to issue decrees that said one thing while secretly issuing instructions that ran exactly counter to what he wrote.
   
   Yet this same king instituted something that, to historians, is even more important than the Royal Navy: the systematic keeping of government and court records. Before John ascended the throne in 1199, English government recordkeeping is spotty and haphazard - a frustratingly obscure and incomplete source for the study of history. But from 1199 on, these same records emerge as a rich and authoritative resource. Hmm, almost as if John knew the chroniclers weren't going to treat him fairly...
   
   Another myth that gets busted in this book is the one about King John's being forced to sign the Magna Carta. While Warren concedes that John had backed himself into a corner by running roughshod over his barons, he explains that the Magna Carta was simply a compromise brokered between him and his opponents. Nobody was holding a gun to his head - and wouldn't have been even had guns been invented. And John had the last laugh when, days later, he made England a fief of the Pope, who reciprocated by declaring the Magna Carta null and void.
   
   When I started reading this book, I had a fairly negative attitude about King John. By the time I finished, I still didn't like him much, but I had a new appreciation for him as a brilliant, complex, and probably tortured soul who tried to do great things and occasionally succeeded.

5 comments about Irish on the Inside: In Search of the Soul of Irish America.

1. IRISH ON THE INSIDE is a fast-paced, entertaining and lucid look by long-time activist Tom Hayden at the history of the Irish immigrant image and the role of the Irish in American politics/business as well as an excellent survey of the seemingly unsolvable schism between Northern Ireland and the country of Ireland as a whole.
   
   Hayden is somewhat of a fanatic in his style of writing and that only adds a tasty morsel of Irish to the flavor! He is out to challenge misconceptions of the Irish image (drunken, wild living, fighting, wife beating, lower class citizens) that is a welcome addition to the literature. Though the numerous famous writers, playwrights, and poets from Ireland have tended to play up the Irish wild side, Hayden looks at history and fact and seeks to prove that though the Irish have definite life ties to their mother country no matter where they emigrate, their contribution to global welfare is a positive.
   
   Hayden spends a lot of this book giving us insight into the history of the longstanding political fighting in Northern Ireland and does so in a manner that is more illuminating than most essayists. But it is Hayden's feisty commitment to restructuring the worldview of the Irish people that is the most heartwarming and entertaining aspects to this bubbly book. A worthy read, this, no matter what your previous opinions of Tom Hayden's own political career might be!



2. I just finished reading Dan Sheehan's novel Irish American Hero. I wanted to learn more about Northern Ireland and picked up a copy of Irish On the Inside. It is a great book and I'd suggest that people pair up the two books to get a real feel for what has been going on in Northern Ireland!



3. I read Hayden's book as I travelled through the northwest of Ireland, in the Republic and in Northern Ireland, and found great insight within. Hayden takes a tremendously complex political and social quagmire and illuminates without oversimplifying. The people who hate this book are likely people who simply dislike everything about the social movements of the 1960s in which Hayden was so deeply immersed. But for those who still believe in fighting for what is right, and care about Ireland, Irish On The Inside will be a refreshing read that will have an impact.



4. I come from the same people as the author and see things quite diferently.The book impressed me as a very windy and preachy screed of self-adulation and pseudointellectual posturing.Filled with nonsequitors,gushing kudoes to his liberal friends and the Kennedys,and all based on this laboriously contrived theory that
   Irish-Americans possess cultural and personality traits that have their origin with the Potato Famine.There are a few.The dont tread on me attitude is one but then most people who have been oppressed(and that is most people)have the same trait.I admit to a certain bias.While Mr. Hayden was sleeping with Jane Fonda and getting arrested in Chicago in the 60s becoming somewhat of a political celebrity,I was starting a medical career on the southside of that city while raising 5 very young children.Nice try Tom but Robert Emmet your not.



5. This is a particularly good time to read Tom Hayden's Irish on the Inside, due to the gathering conflict between America's role in the war against terrorism and the Irish perception of that role. The book deals with the exodus of Irish people from their homeland following the Famine in the mid-19th century, and the efforts of the newly arrived immigrants to adjust to American cultural attitudes which were frequently anti-Irish. The resulting desire to become immersed in the anglo protestant population led to increasing political conservatism and greater distance from the more radical viewpoints common among the native Irish. Hayden believes that there is a suppressed liberalism among Americans of Irish descent which should emerge at this point to form a bond with oppressed and disadvantaged people throughout the world, but especially in Ulster.

   The first part of the book traces Hayden's family's journey from Ireland to Michigan, where he was raised in a parochial school surrounding prior to graduating from the University of Michigan. The author attributes his conversion to radical dissent during the `60's to that vein of revolutionary thought which characterized the Irish struggle against the British for centuries, culminating in the uprising of 1916 and the subsequent Irish Civil War. The second part describes the time of the troubles in Ulster and the fate of those who participated in the political and paramilitary efforts to free the northern counties. The history outlined here is factual and will explain much in terms of not only the violence of the Bloody Sunday era, but the sacrifice on both sides which led ultimately to the Good Friday agreement.

   Finally Hayden looks to the future and discusses the question of retention of native identities in the face of onrushing globalism. Are populations like that of Ireland, small and insular, going to be absorbed in the whole as Europe eliminates borders and moves to a common currency? He argues convincingly for renewed efforts to preserve traditions and languages while working to make the international community a place where justice and understanding prevail. Key to that aim will be the resolution of human rights issues in the world at large. Hayden suggests that a vital first step in that process would be an admission by the United States and Britain that arms are not the solution to every problem, and that it is long past time to bring peace to Northern Ireland.

1 comments about Nathaniel's Nutmeg.

1. I loved this book, it was very readable and it covered an area of history which I personally found really interesting.
   
   The title is misleading as the story is not centrally based around Nathaniel. This is more a collection of tales from European age of discovery. These tales are fascinating often hilarious and Milton does not spare us the true picture of the cruelity and barbarity of the time.

5 comments about John Wilkes: The Scandalous Father of Civil Liberty.

1. This book reads well and has lots of of things of interest to say about this great, but flawed Englishman. One small niggle: the author has difficulty with the peerage system and titles [especially the sons of peers and the correct use of Royal Highness, which does not refer to the monarch]- okay, pretty trivial for most purposes, but fairly important for a historian of 18th century British politics.



2. The name of John Wilkes has come up in several books I've read and in a few classes I've taken, but I never really learned all that much about him. Arthur Cash has written a good biography of this eighteenth century Englishman who gained fame for pointing out and fighting the abuses perpetrated by his own government, namely the Parliament and the King's ministers (Wilkes rarely blamed King George III personally). Specifically, Wilkes fought his government when it came to issues like the general search warrant, freedom of press and privacy, and the right of the people, not parliament, to choose its representatives in the House of Commons. Indeed, all this makes Wilkes out to be a champion of civil liberty as well as for the rights of commoners, which in many ways he was, but he also remained loyal to the crown and acted against rioters and mob action, at least that which threatened to turn into lawlessness. It's also worth mentioning that our country learned from some of the causes Wilkes fought for.
   
   In addition to Wilkes's causes and actions taken in the public sphere, we get to see the John Wilkes who enjoyed the intimate company of many women, producing one legitimate daughter (Polly) and a few illegitimate children along the way, enjoyed a good bawdy joke or just making fun of a political figure, spending himself into deeper and deeper debt and so on. Wilkes was not a one-dimensional man by any means. It seemed to come across in this book that John Wilkes tried to make the most out of life, though I think he enjoyed certain things a little too much. He did not seem to sink into complete despair or unhappiness; his contemporaries made note of this upbeat side of his personality. But his activities without question made him a controversial person.
   
   He published criticisms of the government that led to his being declared an outlaw, resulted in a few duels, forced him into exile, was imprisoned and even then was being elected to serve in the House of Commons, but was denied a seat until he finally did win the right to represent the constituents who had elected him to serve. He served in other positions as well, including as Alderman, Lord Mayor of London and Chamberlain (like a treasurer for the city of London). Throughout his ordeals, his reputation and popularity only grew, much to the chagrin of those in government who had been subjected to his wit and criticisms. Wilkes also spoke out in the House of Commons as a supporter for universal suffrage for men, almost unheard of at that time.
   
   In addition to these sides to Wilkes's public roles and his personal life, which I've only so briefly touched on, we become acquainted with many of his friends and associates as well as his enemies, his close and loving relationship with his daughter Polly, though he also seemed kind and loving towards his illegitimate children. Indeed, Cash makes it a point to reveal that Wilkes was often a very courteous, loyal and true gentleman, though this isn't always the case. He was full of life. These are some of the impressions I came away with from reading this book. There were still certain episodes I would have liked to have known a little more about, namely his public service roles and more about his accomplishments and or failures, a more in-depth view of his take on the American Revolution and its conclusion among other things. In the afterword, Cash mentioned that his take on Wilkes is different from that of many other historians; I would have liked the author to have developed that point more. I guess that's what reading other sources are for. Needless to say, this was a good biography on a very colorful individual.



3. John Wilkes was one of the most fascinating figures of the 18th century, both politically and personally. We in the U.S. owe many of the principles in the Bill of Rights to Wilkes, yet how many Americans have heard of him? Especially now, when so many of our civil liberties are being eviscerated, this is an important book. Wilkes was also a colorful character -- to say that he loved wine, women, and song is an understatement. This was a guy who squeezed every drop he could out of life, all the while fighting battles for a free press, protection against unwarranted search and seizure, and free speech. Arthur Cash has given us a rich historical portrait of a true hero (along with some unforgettable Wilkes quotes). If you've never heard of North Briton No. 45, what are you waiting for?!



4. John Wilkes could be considered a "flower-child of the 60's". The 1760's, that is. As I read this magnificent telling of JOHN WILKES: THE SCANDELOUS FATHER OF CIVIL LIBERTY by Arthur Cash, I couldn't help but wonder how this free spirit would be accepted today. I was reminded of countless modern day examples of people who resemble this man they probably never heard of. Cash captures the essence of his subject in an erudite fashion seldom found.
   
   We Americans owe a great deal to Wilkes, and yet, he ranks but a footnote in the pages of our history. Wilkes encompassed the American spirit of independence and if known today, would be a folk hero of the highest regard. Perhaps Cash's work can help put the name of John Wilkes in its rightful place.
   
   John Wilkes had to compensate for his less than dashing looks, and he did so quite well with his wit. He was cross-eyed and had a most prominent jaw, almost to the point of deformity. By the time he was forty, he had lost his teeth and spoke with a very heavy lisp. His wit can be illustrated by his comment to Lord Sandwich who told Wilkes he would either die of the pox or at the gallows. Wilkes retorted, "That depends, my Lord, on whether I embrace your wife, or your principles."
   
   Wilkes pushed the bounds of the "free press" with his publication, the North Briton, which at one point, won him a week in the tower. In the end, however, Wilkes' incessant attack on pushing the boundaries of the free press would eventually make his name synonymous with liberty.
   
   We picture those stuffy men of the late 18th century sitting in Parliament with their starched collars, their powdered wigs, and their staunch expressions and I'm sure many of them fit that very description. But this parliamentarian, writer, freedom fighter and part time pornographer will shock readers with just how "anti-establishment" he was, and for the most part, got away with.
   
   Arthur Cash has composed a delightful, though lengthy read about someone we all should get to know a little better.
   
   Monty Rainey
   www.juntosociety.com



5. A superior biography of an Englishman who had a great impact on the advancement of liberty, both at home and, by example, in the colonies that were to become the United States.
   
   Today's readers will find this life of John Wilkes deserving of attention for a multitude of reasons. Professor Cash gives clear background on many of the political and judicial terms of that age, many of which are still in use today. The evil that was embedded in general warrants, the beginnings to a right of privacy, freedom of the press, and the start towards universal suffrage are all part of this story. As well as the private worldly pleasures of an unorthodox gentleman who never met a debt or woman he could refuse.
   
   One of the best books, if not the best, I have read this past year. If you are a fan of James Boswell or Voltaire I wager that you will enjoy this worthy effort by the accomplished author Arthur H. Cash.

2 comments about Frances: The Remarkable Story of Princess Diana's Mother.

1. I thought this biography told me a great deal about a person I knew very little about (except basically gossipy bits from other "Diana" books). It is well-written, sympathetic to the subject, yet fair. You learn that Frances was the warm-hearted child of a reserved mother & affectionate father; just a very nice girl, who unfortunately ended up making the mistake of marrying the wrong man (Earl Spencer) and basically has had to pay for that mistake, her whole life. Some of the mistakes of her own upbringing were repeated with her children, to the greater detriment of her two younger children, but one could argue she had no choice, having lost custody of them thanks to her mother & Earl Spencer's machinations, and the mores of the time. It's good to read "her side", after hearing so much garbage about how she left Diana's father and the reasons why. Also, Paul Burrell's book portrays her SO badly (and I believe most unfairly). Frances deserves the chance to tell her version of events & in Max Riddington she's found the means to do so -- Well done, very interesting, and a must-read for those who want to hear ALL sides of the story of Diana, Princess of Wales.



2. I can't recall ever coming across another book on the late Princess of Wales' mother, but this rehashes all the familiar stories of her famous divorce & lost custody battle, and tries to explain her tenuous relationship with her children. While a sympathetic character, she has always seemed somewhat mysterious and I can't say this has cleared much up in that regard. I'm unsure why she agreed to cooperate with this effort, unless she knew it was to be written anyway and thought she'd try and get her part right. She seems a lonely and isolated figure, partly by her own design, but nonetheless seems to have not had such a nice life after her first marriage. Her second marriage seems to have been ruined by her daughter's fame. I consider myself a bit of an expert on the POW, and unfortunately this book didn't tell me much I didn't know already.

1 comments about Lucia Joyce: To Dance in the Wake.

1. This review is based in good part on Joan Acocella 's comprehensive review which first appeared in 'The New Yorker'. It also makes use of information provided by D.T. Max in a story on Joyce's grandson , Stephen Joyce and his efforts to protect the family from too close public scrutiny.
   Shloss worked for many years on this book, and her aim is to both rehabilitate Lucia Joyce from the image given of her by Joyce scholars Richard Ellmann( The great Joyce biographer) and Brenda Maddox( Biographer of Nora Joyce).
   As Schloss sees it Lucia Joyce was herself a creative artist who was not simply an inspiration but a real collaborator with her father in the creation of 'Finnegan's Wake'. This claim is one Acocella believes there is no real evidence for, and is in fact the major exaggeration of the book.
   Other claims of Schloss however are given greater credibility. The primary one is that Lucia Joyce was victimized, institutionalized unnecessarily through the treacherous actions of her brother Georgio. As Schloss sees it James Joyce was Lucia's defender in the family , loved her and believed in her genius. But in his dedication to his work, especially to the completion of 'Finnegan's Wake' he did not take the time and effort to stand up to his wife Nora and son Georgio who worked against Lucia.
   Lucia's sad story, her schizophrenia, her rejection by three assistants of Joyce, including Beckett and Alexander Calder, her failed efforts at a dancing career, her tale of childhood wanderings with an indigent father artist, her language difficulties , her long period of institutionalization is told here in great detail.
   Schloss has tremendous sympathy for her subject.
   Unfortunately she in trying to make Lucia Joyce a subject of interest is unable to change the fact that the reason most people have had or will have interest in her is because of the possible light her life throws on that of Joyce itself.
   Certainly the illness of his daughter was for Joyce a major source of worry grief and frustration.
   Yet in the way Schloss tells the story Joyce himself too appears a victim, both of his other family members, and of his genius.
   He also appears as an often neglectful but nonetheless largely caring father who could not prevent his child from having a life of great pain and suffering.

No comments about Eileen Gray: Compact Design Portfolio.