I do not appear to have read this edition. The one I read was printed in 1907 by The Roycrofters Shop in East Aurora, N.Y. and was translated by Lascelles Wraxall. But if this is the same work, it is a very readable book, full of the elan and verve one expects from Victor Hugo. After reading it one can see why Wellington said Waterloo was "a very near run thing." The picture Hugo paints, complete with insightful observations made at the battlefield in 1861, is one well worth reading. I enjoyed it much.

Having read this superb book, nothing Mr. Greenspan says will ever be the same. Clearly, he is a very conflicted person. One cannot help but conclude that our savings and our pensions are in mortal danger. How come this book has not come to the attention of our elected representatives? This is much more important than the Enron fraud. Anyone who is concerned about having adequate funds for retirement should read this book very carefully.

This is a wonderful addition to books on european beer culture. It compliments "the beers of Wallonia" and Michael Jackson's books on Beer. Gives a more detailed description of beers and where to find them than Jackson does, but sits well with "the beers of Wallonia" in that it tells you where to find the brews, and rates them accordingly, giving descriptions along the way. Well worth buying.

For many reasons, the Benelux countries are absolutely unique in their variety and complexity of malt beverages. Not the least of these reasons is a demanding public that has supported traditional beers even in an age when small and quirky brewers face almost overwhleming pressure to brew bland beer or be acquired.

Grab your copy of Webb's book then plan your travel to follow his recommendations. You will be challenged, thrilled, and probably moved by having savored what beer can be.

This is The Book to buy if You ever plan on going to Belgium/have been to Belgium/like belgian beers/like beer at all etc...

The book has a section on how to get there, how to act when You are there, how to get around etc. as well as some funny remarks about the differencies between Dutch and Belgians, and Belgians and Belgians(!).

It also covers most pubs worth seeking out, although I'm eagerly awaiting the next edition with the latest additions.

The most valuable part though, is the section with the beers. Tim Webb seem to have exactly the same preferences as I do, since the beers I had tried before and liked, received high ratings, and the beers I subsequently tried after reading this book has turned out to be absolutely wonderful. That is, the beers which received high ratings. ;-)

All breweries and pubs covered in the book has full contact information enclosed. Something I have found very useful when trying to arrange visits/guided tours to different breweries.

All in all, a damn good book!

Charlotte Bronte's JANE EYRE is one of the most readable of Victorian classics. VILLETTE is something different. It could be a good bet for a reading group -- there's a lot to discuss in it. It's a deliberately slow and un-melodramatic story; the narrator, Lucy Snowe, evidently intentionally does _not_ tell about some of the most dramatic incidents in her life,instead focusing on her emotional privation.

In this book, it seems there are three levels of humanity. There is the majority, focused on material dazzle -- who are made of "vulgar materials." Superior to them are those whose hearts and minds are capable of some development, but who are spiritually limited. Lastly there is an elite, who, perhaps through much suffering and the tutelage of the wise, discover their own inner integrity, and so become free even while being bound to the "prison" of the body. In short -- don't be misled by the Christian terminology; this is a gnostic novel, even if Bronte never heard the term "gnostic."

It has a tough-mindedness that makes many novels seem sentimental. And it really is rather bleak, in seeing this world as unredeemable. For a Victorian fiction with obvious spiritual/religious relevance, what a Christless thing it is.

"Villette" is a more complex, mature novel than "Jane Eyre" and, to many readers, a more unsatisfying one. Unlike "Jane Eyre", "Villette" is no Cinderella tale, and there is no Rochester to stir the heroine's -- and the reader's --emotions. In "Villette", Bronte gives us Lucy Snowe, whom she resembled in many ways: plain, prim, no-nonsense, practical to a fault, and suffering the pains of unrequited love. Unlike the happy ending which delighted us in "Jane Eyre", Lucy finds a hope of happiness at last with M. Paul Emanuel, only to have her prospects shipwrecked literally and figuratively at the end of the book. Many readers have a problem with Bronte's liberal use of French throughout the book which disrupts the narrative, and her forays into Gothic romanticism, which seem contrived and artificial. A more serious problem, for this reviewer, is Bronte's insularity and her narrow-minded frame of reference which rejects anything un-English and un-Protestant. Even with these flaws, "Villette" is a deep, thought-provoking portrayal of the pain of lost illusions.

its rather hurried and ambigious ending, which leaves the reader having to form his/her own version of the ending ie. whether a happy or sad one. (Read the Signet Classic, the afterword by Jerome Beaty explains that Charlotte Bronte actually wanted a somewhat sad ending to the story, but her father wanted it to be a happy one, so Bronte compromised by leaving the ending 'hanging' so that the readers can decide for themselves how the story ends.)

Apart from the above dissapointment, this is a marvelous classic and beautifully written, a great and indepth analysis of the workings of the human heart and mind. I loved it better than Jane Eyre (except for the ending: Jane Eyre's is more complete and satisfying). You'll love the character of M.Paul - despite his eccentric behaviour, he's really a darling with a heart of gold, which Lucy Snowe soon discovers!

I recommend that you buy the Signet Classic version which has the English translation to the over 400 French phrases found in the book.

Our book club chose In the Company of Angels for our February discussion. After several hours of interpretation, we realized the novel meant many different things to each reader. The characters caused more magical questions than answers! In the setting of horrible human existence under Nazi control, we were turning pages, marking passages, and debating themes as the characters told their story. The evening was one of our better discussions, and some members want to read the book again. It reads quickly, but find a discussion group before closing the book.

The reader from Budapest has done an excellent job of reviewing this book. It is a difficult book to review because much of the pleasure of the book is the subtle shifting of the readers perception of what is "factual", what is "subjective" and what is "true" within the context of the world of the novel.

In the Company of Angels is above all an understated story that explores a number of themes related to war, especially WW II including: the holocaust, the tension between duty and love, the use of convent as both an escape and a call, the relationship between devotion and insanity, denial as a response to the atrocities of war, the moral judgment of killing individuals in a war ... However, the book presents these horrors to us in a surprisingly gentle way; it sneaks up on us, catches us off-guard by changing the ground under us, reverses our preconceptions as to what is real.

The material for this wonder - a Jewish child whose family owned greenhouses, a novice nun whose father was a chocolater and whose mother was obsessed by religion, a young artist (and captain)who courted the future novice while providing data to the German army, the Mother Superior who has seen her convent and nuns evaporate under the hardships of war and moral choices in war.

This gentle, stark novel is an excellent meditation on war well worth its place on your must-read stack.

"In times of war, the line between 'what is' and 'what is no longer' becomes confused," says the omniscient and poetic narrator of the future award winning first novel of N. M. Kelby. The smell and texture of fine chocolate, the oddity of black irises, the stench of smoke, the roar of war planes convey a heady realism, but something much stronger pulls us into this world of the bell-laden city of Tournai, Belgium during the horrible years toward the end of the war. "In times of war, logic no longer applies." What does apply and miraculously survive are various human loves (nuns for God and for each other; a man and a woman who should be bitter enemies; a community for its few survivors) and the mysterious ways of God (light shining from the palms of a beautiful traumatized child, perhaps an angel; doves fluttering from napkins; an elderly German nun, dead, meeting her parents in their field; a beautiful red headed woman who, angelic herself for all her rich corporality and love of chocolate, claims to have "saved an angel of God," a Jewish child ("How can she be an angel of God?". . ."That is the question you must ask yourself," she answers). And that is but one question the reader must ask too. The slim, gripping novel begs us: "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."

I read A Dog of Flanders by Ouida mainly out of curiosity. I wanted to read the first "boy and his dog" book written for children. I didn't expect much, and I was surprised when I began to enjoy the story late in the book.

The story is of a peasant boy, Nello, and his dog, Patrasche. The boy just wants to be an artist and see a painting by Rubens. The dog (who has very human feelings) just wants to help the boy reach his goal. The two face absolutely every hardship possible in their attempts.

To enjoy this story, you have to take it in the context of the time it was written. The book is really, really sentimental. Every play for emotion possible is made by the author. Early in the book, it even says (in a literal tone) that Nello and his grandfather would just lay down and die if anything ever happened to the dog. Patrasche was their "alpha and omega." All of the sentimentality really bothered me at the beginning. I'm used to modern writing and didn't take the overplay of emotion well. I had to take into account, though, that Ouida wrote in the romantic tradition, when this type of writing was common, especially in children's books. Looking at A Dog of Flanders as an example from the time period helped me to enjoy the novel even through its oversentimentality. Overall, A Dog of Flanders is a pretty decent read. Most children of today wouldn't love it. A Dog of Flanders is definately a worthy read as a curiosity piece, though.

Though I have known this story long time for 25 years or so, it was from animation. So it was different from waht I know. Basically it was same and I found the more details but I also foud some conflicts. Johan was 80 years old when Nello was 2 years old. His mother was very old or Johan was very old when he got his daughter. Nello died when he was 15 but animation was much younger. The problem I see is 15 years old boy is old enough to live by himself 100 years ago ( I might be wrong). Anyway setting of age is kinda wrong. By the way I read a book which is published in 1910 not this book. If this book is different, please let me know.

Ouida expresses depiction of the village in Belgium very beautifully.This also sadly beautiful tale written about Nello, and his dog, and Patrasche can make many people cry.@Nello works to one portion, though he is a boy, and he studies the importance of finishing alone. It is insisted that working hard at any work is important for this work.@Simultaneously, this work expresses the discrimination to a poor person.Nello who believed his future is a manly boy, being equal to the cold treatment by villagers.

While I liked the information provided by this book - alternative sites not covered by most travel books, especially focusing on the "coffee shops" of Amsterdam - I didn't find it worth the 14.95 price tag. It's a very thin book, only about 30 pages long, and the fact of the matter is you don't need a guide book for these sites - you'll find them yourself! Still, if you want the information provided and don't mind the price, the book is well-written, informative and the cover's printed on hemp paper.

When I was transferred to Amsterdam for a year I went out and bought several guides to the city. A friend gave me this book as a going away present and told me that it was what I "really needed to get to know Amsterdam". This is not your parent's travel guide (actually...depends on your parents). Get another guide to find the art museums and the five star hotels. This is the guide to find out where everyone is hanging out, buying their drugs and their music. I especially recommend it to find some laid back non-touristy coffee shops and some toursity but fun off beat museums. Only problem is the price, a bit steep for such a short guide, but it is in the end worth the price.

I wrote a previous review after I received Get Lost! Amsterdam but before I made my trip. At the time, I liked the book but felt it was overpriced. I just returned from 10 days in Amsterdam, and I'd like to change my review. This book was great!! Assuming, of course, that you're going to Amsterdam for Smart Shops, and a great scene. If you're not interested in drugs or the cheapest places to stay, this book isn't for you. The information was very useful; I repeatedly referred to the lodging, drug and general info sections. My only criticism is there could be more listings for restaurants - but then, this probably isn't the only guide you're going to bring with you. A very useful guide for anyone looking for a great trip . . .

If you read Hollinghurst's first novel THE SWIMMING POOL LIBRARY, you know that the excellence of his writing puts him more in a tradition with the likes of such masters as George Eliot, Henry James and E.M. Forster than in the tradition of contemporary gay fiction, no matter how boldly graphic some of his moments might be. But whereas SWIMMING POOL LIBRARY is a breakneck tale of reckless, amoral and privileged youth before AIDS, THE FOLDING STAR is in some ways its spiritual successor - its mid30s protagonist has experienced enough loss (of his father, several friends, a first love) to have shed the certainty and arrogance that characterized the first book's young subject, and has fled his English hometown to a small unnamed city in Belgium where he becomes the tutor of two high school boys, one of whom, Luc Altidore, the subject of a previous mysterious "scandal," becomes his obsession. But as in LOLITA, the obsession is as sad as it is perverse, reflecting back more on Edward's (the protag.) receding youth and present aimlessness than on the attributes of the boy himself, who, like Lolita, is revealed coyly and only half outside the shadow of Edward's own projections. Midway through the story, Edward goes home for the funeral of an old friend and boyhood lover; this is where Hollinghurst conjures all of Edward's past in a half-dream of recollections (one of which reveals the haunting source of the book's cryptic title), and when Edward returns to Belgium for the astonishing final third of the book, the reader is finally able to look at his present rudderlessness as sequel to a past too stiflingly rich in memories. Indeed, THE FOLDING STAR seems less a meditation on erotic obsession than it does on memory and loss, all its memories of emotional and sexual awakening evoked in such beautifully spectral terms that by the end the book's real fetish seems to be the past itself -- a distinctly British, Wordsworthian past where people, hills, even stars become the repositories of memories almost too precious to express aloud. If THE SWIMMING POOL LIBRARY was a fast and shocking read, THE FOLDING STAR is thoughtful and melancholy - but I'm hard pressed to think of a late 20th century writer who depicts both the outer world and the inner life in prose as exquisite and moving as Hollinghurst

From Edward to Luc to Orst, the characters lept from the pages of this book and continue to saunter in my memories long after I finished it. I'm afraid to say that I found myself in all of them at one point in my life (perhaps in many of our lives); the seducer and the innocent. (One thing's for certain, I wish Patrick were real...I'd have loved to have met him...perhaps I would have been obsessed as well.) Definitely one of the better renditions of obsessive love that I have ever read. What an amazing accomplishment this novel is...simply beautiful.

Forget A.S. Byatt, forget Tom Stoppard! Both writers are amateurs in comparison to the top wordsmith of the 20th century, Alan Hollinghurst. If Proust and Mann met and could reproduce, Mr. Hollinghurst would be their love child. A haunting tale of impossible love, packed with beautifully written arcana, this masterpiece will keep reading all night.

The House of Niccolo, Dunnett's second mammoth historical series, begins here powerfully enough to challenge one's affection for her first, the peerless Lymond Chronicles.

Where the Lymond books depicted the aristocracy, this first book of Niccolo digs deep into the merchant middle classes of Fifteenth century Europe, trading some of Lymond's Dumas-style adventuring and near-Wildean wit for an even stronger focus on character -- and emotional clarity.

Dunnett whips her fictional world into vivid detail like some wonderous love child of George R.R. Martin and George Eliot -- the endlessly complex, Machievellian back dealings of "Old Europe" here beautifully counterpointed by the emotional lives of the huge cast of characters. The bravura storytelling twists and turns from Bruges to Milan, Scotland to Brittany, all rendered with near supernatural power. Read slowly, read carefully, and this glorious past comes alive like a dream before your mind's eye.

Niccolo Rising ends on a startling revelation and an intriguing cliffhanger, and we're off to the next story: only seven left to go.

Complex characters, convoluted plots, and fascinating locations make the House Of Niccolo series of books a dream read for anyone who loves historical novels or adventure stories. Set during the Renaissance, the book's settings range from continental Europe to Asia Minor to Africa, Iceland, Russia and Scotland. The main character, Nicholas vander Poele, searches for his roots as he rises from apprentice dyeworker to banker and adviser to monarchs through a combination of intelligence, an engaging personality and ruthlessness. As the series progresses, he gathers to him a group of fascinating characters that are both drawn to his warmth and are repelled by his actions, as is the reader---he is exasperating, but we can always, always see his point of view. Dorothy Dunnett's muscular prose paints a man (and what a man!) and his world with colors that are by turns tender and bold, sensual and spiritual. I haven't read anything this good in this genre for ages. Lymond seems effete by comparison!

I enjoyed the Lymond chronicles so much that I couldn't wait to begin the Niccolo series. Make no mistake about it. This hero is different entirely from the refined and genteel Lymond.It took me awhile to get used to that. Once I did I found I enjoyed the book. Again, it's not an easy read since Ms. Dunnett's plots are intricate and her characters are not what they appear on the outside. This character looks like he is going to be dangerous as well as extremely clever! I just hope that he's as entertaining as Lymond was.Who knows, maybe I may "like" him better as I found Lymond very difficult to "like". Ms. Dunnett peoples her book with her usual interesting and diverse characters, and the usual villains. A good start to a brand new series for me.

This review should be read with the following caveat: I did not know that this was part of a series. Consequently, much of the confusion that I experienced would not be experienced by a dedicated fan of the series. That being said, there is still much that is confusing about this book. The author has us linger for chapter after chapter in particular spots for no apparent reason, as there is no significant plot or character development that occurs. Ms. Dunnett often seems to be swept away in her characterization of renaissance Europe & pre-colonization Africa, so much so that she loses herself (and her reader) in description of places and events that turn out to have little (if any) relation to the underlying story. More disappointing, however, is the ending. This book is at its heart about individuals looking for peace from their pasts and from the ghosts that they carry with them. The ending could easily be a commentary on how each have the personal power to free ourselves from our pasts, and that only we as individuals have that power. Instead however, the ending turns the story into nothing more than a tale of bitterness and rivalry, with potentially great people giving into pettiness and hate.

I love Dorothy Dunnett's writing, and the way she describes the exotic places that our hero visits is extraordinary. This book covers the mysterious land of Africa. We see so much majesty and grandeur here, especially in fabulous Timbuktu. We see a much more mature Nicholas as he finds and admits real friends into his world. Godsalc and Loppe finally get to see some of the true Nicholas. Diniz is a real treasure and I really like this character. Nicholas' group faces real danger and privation in this book and none of them that attempt the adventure come back the same. Nicholas does manage to regain and even add to his fortune. Something that is different in this book is that there is not much description of what happened on the trip that Nicholas and Godsalc took to find Ethiopia. We also didn't hear much about the trip across the Sahara. This is indeed different for Ms. Dunnett, since these two events are what really changed Nicholas outlook and his dealings with his people. She always goes into quite vivid details about side trips that Nicholas has taken in previous books. Now why, after I have extolled all the virtues of this book have I only given it a 4 instead of a 5? Because I felt cheated at the end of the book. Yes, it's a clever cliffhanger, and it does make you want to continue reading the other books to find out if Nicholas does find his true love, but to me it seemed like "grandstanding", and that's not like the Dorothy Dunnett that I know and love. I won't reveal the ending for those of you who want to read the book because it would spoil it for you, but suffice it to say that there is nothing in the previous 500 pages to explain why she chose this way to end the story. Yes, I will continue to read the series, but I must admit that I was disappointed and angry after I closed the covers on this one.

In this book, the fourth chapter in the Niccolo series, Nicholas engages in to his biggest adventure yet. He is faced with the imminent bankrupcy of his bank, he therefore decides to go to Africa and reach the source of the gold traffic. He is aided by Loppe his ex slave and now his friend and companion.

In this trip he is accompanied by his priest, father Godscalc and he is forced to take Diniz and Gelis, Katelina's sister and a lady from Scotland, (friend of Diniz's mother, Lucia, also Simon's sister), who is there to chaperone Gelis and help Diniz out. The deat of his father and Simon's sale of his half property in Madeira has also left them almost destitute.

This is the most daring of books yet in the series. There are so many adventures they face and so many inknown places and such different people! The author describes in detail all the trails they have to go through to reach the source of the gold and its traffic. The kingdoms they pass with their different clans and beliefs, as well as the danger they face for there is a need to keep this source of gold a permanent secret

Once again, the marriage of fiction and real history is masterfully done and this is a great real and very, very enjoyable book.

I can't wait to read the next one....