5 comments about Shakespeare: A Life.

1. I enjoyed this biography of Shakespeare very much. My wife and I were in London at the just opened Borders on Oxford St. when I saw a signed copy of this book for sale and decided to purchase it. It was a great read and quite convincing in its approach to the playwright and poet. There is not enough direct evidence of the man's life to flesh everything out, but Park Honan uses the plays forensically. What does a close reading of the plays tell us about the man who wrote them? And then look into how that matches with what we know directly of him. It matches quite well and becomes a wonderfully fleshed out portrait. That being said, there is much more direct evidence about Shakespeare and his plays than many of the conspiracy theorists would have you believe.
   
   We follow him from his youth in Stratford along his journey to London and what work in the theater of those days was like. We learn about the sheer volume of lines an actor of those times would have had ready for use in their mind at any given time; it was thousands and thousands of lines. It is drawing upon that resource, just as a Handel or a Teleman or a Bach called upon the hundreds of works they had in their minds, that allowed him to compose with such rapidity. It was his genius to improve upon his sources just as Bach and Handel always made more of their borrowings. Genius never requires a noble source. In fact, it is usually sprung from seemingly poor soil. Yet it comes.
   
   The author is very specific about what we know directly from the record versus what is a normative behavior for the time and a possibility for Shakespeare. Honan never allows speculation and possibility to become fact. Nor does he follow other modern anachronisms of wondering about the psychology of Shakespeare or whether he was "Gay" since even the term homosexual would be out of place in Elizabethan times, though homoerotic attachments were not.
   
   I believe the author makes such a powerful case the William Shakespeare of Stratford wrote the plays that the Oxfordians will simply attack the book because of their faith, however unfounded in anything beyond desire and assertion.
   
   I recommend this book highly.



2. Honan's biography of Shakespeare is superb. The writing style is good, the research reliable, and the play reviews are appropriate. The reader ends up with a detailed knowledge of the life of the bard. That is the purpose of a biography. Highly recommended.



3. A great deal of Shakespeare's life appears never to have made it into the official record, and Park Honan, for all his skill as a writer, cannot change that.

   What Mr. Honan does do, however, is construct in detail the setting for what facts we do know about Shakespeare's life. Even if we lack many of the basic facts of Shakespeare's boyhood, for instance, we know what Stratford was like, and we know what kind of lives boys in Stratford led. Mr. Honan lays out this setting, gives us the known facts about young Will, contents himself with making the occasional relatively safe guess, and leaves it at that.

   Despite the fact that Mr. Honan's book is mostly setting, with a fairly scarce plot, it's a good read, flowing well and entertaining. Your study of Shakespeare should start here.




4. We will perhaps never be able to come across a "definitive" (in the modern sense) life of Shakespeare because of the obviously sketchy nature of the extant documents relating to his life .Realising this,Mr.Honan has done the next best thing : to fill in the bare bones of the Bard's life with information from the Elizabethan period & done it in an exquisite fashion.What we get is not what Shakespeare DID at any given point in his life but a sense of what he was MOST LIKELY DOING given the socio-cultural milieu,Elizabethan mores,surviving public documents ,comments by his contemporaries and autobiographical fragments from his plays and sonnets.Mr.Honan's view is by its very nature "oblique" but given the paucity of "hard data" ,it is the wisest approach .Moreover he doesn't gloss over the gaps in our knowledge of Shakespeare's life but freely acknowledges them .Each chapter is thoroughly referenced and annotated .The picture that emerges from this account is of a remarkably sensitive genius endowed with a superlative gift for expressing the universal & the ineffable pertaining to the human condition____ in timeless prose .Interestingly ,Honan manages to do this without deifying Shakespeare ,which is wise given that Shakespeare is too fascinating a man to be 'deified away' !In the final analysis genius is always inexplicable in that it breaks the existing molds and "liberates" us to see,hear and experience the world in a novel and yet distinctly human way .This is an exquisite and enjoyable book .



5. A wonderfully written book that cuts through the myths and speculations concerning Bill's life. A view of Shakespeare's life as he lived it. As a boy, a writer, a business man. Easily the best book on the Bard.

3 comments about Fashions of the Gilded Age, Volume 2: Evening, Bridal, Sports, Outerwear, Accessories, and Dressmaking 1877-1882.

1. Frances Grimble shares her meticulous vision with us once again. A great two book series full of facinating information and patterns galore. I cannot wait to clothe many a pretty lady using them. Not for the faint of heart. The patterns are period correct and I would advise an advanced skill level, or a great deal of patience. Always do a mock up. Remember these are patterns of the age. So start at the skin and work your way out to a glorious new costume.
   Enjoy.



2. This is a great book, but you should know that it is not a second edition of Fashions of the Gilded Age, Volume 1. It is the second volume of the anthology, and a different book with all different patterns. The title is actually Fashions of the Gilded Age, Volume 2: Evening, Bridal, Sports, Outerwear, Accessories, and Dressmaking 1877-1882. It's just as good as Volume 1, none of the information is the same except the intro on how to use the patterns, and the dressmaking manual is really unique.
   
   I heard both volumes were published but it took me awhile to find the second one on Amazon because it was mislisted. So I thought I'd warn other people.



3. I just reviewed Volume 1, where I said the book contains a huge selection of patterns. Volume 2 focuses on patterns for evening dresses, bridal wear, sports wear, and outer wear. The chapters on accessories and trimmings contain some needlework patterns, embroidery and so on. I figure if I don't do the handwork I'll still have learned a lot about buying appropriate materials.
   
   I bought both volumes, but they are organized so you can use them separately. Both contain the instructions for using the book and the special rulers that allow you to draft patterns to fit you. They also both have a big glossary, a bibliography, and two indexes.
   
   Volume 2 has something really special though--a dressmaking manual. The book says it was rewritten from numerous rare original sources that are listed in the bibliography. But it's been rewritten so it doesn't read that way; you can't tell where any source begins or ends. That makes the manual a lot easier to use. And it's so long it could have been published as a book by itself. I'm glad to have it, because I've never been able to find a comprehensive sewing manual for this period. It even has corset-making instructions (the corset patterns are in Volume 1).
   
   Both volumes are very well edited and produced. This is not a cheap printing job.
   
   Anyone who does Old West reenactment or Victorian teas would love these books!

5 comments about Hard Core: Power, Pleasure, and the "Frenzy of the Visible", Expanded edition.

1. Hardcores author like to use big words and confusing dialog to get her point across. This is a good book if you can get through all the muddle and crap to get to her point. The book definetly reads like a college textbook and it does get tediouse at times. A good book if you have patience



2. Williams' claim is that all porn is not the same, but her book title is very specific which would lead one to believe she will make claims about only hard core and not about the attendant debates over all of porn's place in society.
   
   You have to be suspicious when the majority of reviewers of an academic book have not graduated high school. I can barely get my university students to read academic writing.



3. The writing is jagged, superfluous and constantly filled with statements on what the author is intending to say in the book without actually saying it. This book is boring, hard to get through and organized in a questionable fashion. Unless you need to read it for a college course I strongly recommend against it. Frankly I don't understand the other reviews on this page praising the book.



4. This is an easy to read, comprehensive analysis of visual pornography. Williams is thorough and openminded, and clearly shows that this isn't a homogenous and stereotypical genre. On the contrary, she maintains that all trends visible in other types of movies exist in pornography as well. An interesting read.



5. I should probably look more closely at the covers of the books that I am ordering online. Any reasonable individual might naturally assume a book entitled "Hard Core" would contain information regarding the apple harvesting industry; however, such is most clearly not the case with Doctor William's book.

   Despite the initial mix-up, I found this work to be quite titilating. Prior to reading Hard Core, I was only familiar with pornographic films (or "pornos") as an avid viewer. Hubby Rick and I now devote a significant amount of money and time on pornos in the hopes that we might one day fully appreciate, as does Linda Williams, the pornographic film. And our marriage has never been better!

4 comments about Gaffers, Grips and Best Boys: From Producer-Director to Gaffer and Computer Special Effects Creator, a Behind-the-Scenes Look at Who Does What in the Making of a Motion Picture.

1. A very good overall description of all the jobs associated witrh filmmaking. I thought that there would be a little more depth to the descriptions, but...



2. As far as I know there are two books on the subject, the other being William E. Hines' "Job Descriptions for Film, Video & CGI". From those two this book is certainly more prosa. Every major field of movie production is described through kind of essays written from industry insiders. Although the book is by no means an encyclopedia, the reader gets a good idea what those jobs really are about. If you want some insights instead of concise descriptions, buy this book.



3. I really enjoyed this book. I never knew what gaffers and grips and producers actually did, but this book explains all those jobs. The book is written in the order that each person comes into a film, so you first learn about how an idea is generated, what happens with it, who gets involved next, and so on.

   One thing I really liked was all the personal anecdotal information that each interviewee gave. For example, John Lithgow talks about working on the World According to Garp, and Charles Joffee talks about what it was like producing specific movies for Woody Allen.

   A great book for someone who wants an enjoyable way to understand the intricacies of the filmmaking process.




4. _Gaffers, Grips and Best Boys_ is a great title. Unfortunately the title is misleading. The fine print is "From Producer/Director to Gaffer and Computer Special-effects creato, a behind the scenes look at who does what in the making of a motion picture."

   If you're looking for good, solid information about "gaffing, gripping and best boying" forget it. It's just one of the subjects touched on in this book.

   It's a decent book allright, but the title is misleading. If I had seen it in a book store I would have passed it by.

No comments about The Fire This Time: African-American Plays for the 21st Century.

5 comments about American Silent Film.

1. 
   If you are truly serious about the Silent Film Era,then this book is a must for your Library.
   
   The author (who has since died) is very thorough in his research, from start to finish. The B&W photos are also fun to look at.
   
   You might,though, find some of the chapters a bit "dry"...but then, most comprehensive history books (on any big topic, as this one) can seem as such.
   
   Note that this film history book was written in the 1970's, so possibly a few more films may have been discovered or have been restored by now. Still, this 1970 film history book holds up very well , even in 2007.
   The actual silent film "facts" presented by the author have not changed all that much since the 1970's, since the silent film experiences from the 1900's to the 1920's have basically remained the same. Infact, the author lists a thorough time-line in the appendix of this book, listing most American silent films that have been found and restored in the last century! Quite a feat in itself, and so interesting!



2. I am so glad that Da Capo put this old Oxford University Press book back in print. I had read it back when I was a teenager in Chandler, Arizona and found its descriptions of these elusive films fascinating. For instance, this book was the first place I had heard of FW Murnau's excellent Sunrise, which is now a favorite of mine. Get this book for your private Silent Film Genre Reference Library.



3. This book is a classic. If you own only two or three film books, this should be one of them. Everson was the man. He saw everything, and what's more, he understood what he saw. There is no better introduction to the world of silent film.



4. This book, written by the late film expert William K. Everson, is one of the best that you will read on silent film. Everson covers the entire silent film era from its beginnings to the coming of sound. This book focuses on the artistic successes more than the business end of the topic. While he completely covers D.W. Griffith's career, he also champions other early directors like John Collins. He covers interesting topics like art direction (or the lack of) in many early films. While the scope of the book is American films, he devotes time to the influence of European films and filmmakers on American films.

   This books is an excellent introduction to silent film, yet a person familiar with the topic will not be able to put it down either.




5. This 1978 book from the late, great William Everson is , in my opinion, one of the five best books ever written on the subject.Any serious scholar of silent film should have a copy. Highly recommended!

5 comments about Audrey Hepburn: The Paramount Years.

1. Just when you thought, they couldnt come up with anything new about Audrey Hepburn, they do! A wonderful book chock full of stills, lobby cards, and posters from around the world documenting Audrey's Paramount years (1953-1962). For some reason War and Peace is not covered (perhaps because she wore period costumes?). But most of Audrey's most loved movies from this period are here. Roman Holiday: Sabrina; Funny Face and of course, Breakfast at Tiffanys! A must book to have for any diehard fan and even casual admirers of Audrey. Audrey still lives on thanks to those who remember her and photographed her. How lucky for us!



2. This book is awesome!!! I received it almost immediately, and it was packaged just beautifully! Thank you Amazon!!



3. An affordable and well made book about Audrey.
   
   Pictures are fabulous.
   
   One of the best of this kind I have seen.



4. Like the previous reviewer, I wasn't sure when I first saw this book that there would be much new material in it, but there is! Know that the book doesn't cover Audrey's entire career, but focuses strictly, as the title indicates, on her films for Paramount. Within that parameter, no Audrey fan should be without this book in his or her library! Lots of behind-the-scene photos as well as international promo material not often seen in the US.



5. Because I own almost every book published on this iconic actress, I assumed that this one would offer little new material. I was wrong. This excellent collection includes international versions of posters, previously unpublished photographs, and unknown (at least to me) pieces of information. Hepburn's Paramount films are what launched her career and this volume is a beautiful sampling of her contribution to cinema.

2 comments about The Life of the Drama.

1. Bedrock. Take all the books you want about the novel, the theater, film, and the whole of literary criticism, none of them speak more accurate or truer things about storytelling than this book. I can't believe it isn't a classic and used in universities throughout the country as a standard reference.



2. Discusses characteristics of the various genres of drama, such a tragedy, farce, satire, etc.

2 comments about Jesus at the Movies: A Guide to the First Hundred Years.

1. Jesus At The Movies: A Guide To The First Hundred Years by W. Barnes Tatum is a comprehensive guide to virtually all the major Hollywood films made about Jesus Christ to date. The films range from such silent era epics as Sidney Olcott's From The Manger To The Cross and D.W. Griffith's Intolerance, to Norman Jewison's Jesus Christ Superstar and David Greene's Godspell. From the seven last sayings attributed to Christ on the cross, to the story of Jesus from a Judaic as well as Christian perspective, to a comparison of plot dynamics in different films, Jesus At The Movies is a thoroughly researched, heavily annotated, broad-ranging and exhaustive guide, analysis, and review. Enhanced with a selected bibliography, filmography, and an index, Jesus At The Movies is a seminal, invaluable reference work for students of film history in general, and the movie representations of the story and person of Jesus Christ in particular.



2. A fascinating look at how Jesus has been portrayed in the movies. I have seen (and own) several of the movies reviewed. I didn't figure I needed another "Jesus flick". However, the discussion on several of these films has caused me to go looking for them. The changes in how (and who gets to) portray Jesus over the years is intriguing - and it is easy enough to read that I wasn't intimidated. I plan on using this book as a starting point in a Lenten discussion where we will watch several of these films.

3 comments about The Complete Plays.

1. I had to get this boook for an acting class because the professor (who is Russian) wanted to use a translation other than the more well known Paul Schmidt complete works.
   
   While I like Paul's for a very American translation accessible more to American Actors and audiences, there is admitedly something Russian in spirit about Laurence Senelick's translation. I beleive that translations should really be called adaptations because they are merely another, less exact form of the original. Especially when it comes to language and character, and not merely a plot driven play (e.g. Ibsen) Senelick's translation offer a sense that is less American and probably closer to the russian. The only thing that bothers me and it has taken me some time to be somewhat ok with is that I feel like it reads like a translation and I tend to like more seamless adaptation if I'm going to call it that, which takes authorial intention (to the best of their opinion of what authorial intent is) to create their version of the original version. From a performative aspect I am still not sure how much I like it in the mouths of American tongues, but I see the merit in language that requires and american actor to really invest in a a foriegn thought process and construction.
   
   Other pluses: Variants to every play chekhov wrote, including what can only be described in this day and age as the special features section with deleted scenes. Great look and style to the book overall, if you like that kind of thing, but it will feel like a bible you are carrying around. Paul Schmidt's is nice because it looks and carries like a normal book, but has virtually every play Chekhov wrote.



2. if yer looking for an english-language translation of chekhov's plays, and have come across any of the (at least three that i know of) editions containing the translations by Senelick, there is no need to continue searching: these are, by far, the absolute best renditions currently available. they are not merely literary / intellectual translations, but simultaneously capture the dramatic as well... read and perform. there is simply no other translation that accomplishes both of these feats. actors rejoice! readers revel!



3. A brilliant translation for all lovers of great and enduring literature.
   
   W.W. Norton has published all of Chekhov's dramatic works in a single stunning volume. The translator is a professor of drama at Tufts University and is fluent in the Russian of the period. This volume contains works that have not previously been translated. The plays are heavily annotated for clearer understanding and appreciation of the nuances and subtleties of the original. Before each play, the author includes an interpretation in the context of Russian history at the time. The plays are consequently better understood and enjoyed.
   
   The translator includes variants of the plays, different endings encouraged by the actors who played the parts, unfinished plays, and dialogues.
   
   Senelick includes an illuminating chronology of Chekhov's life in the context of history. Chekhov wrote his great plays while practicing medicine as a physician and suffering from tuberculosis.