The Mill on the Floss (Penguin Classics)

Book Description

New chronology and updated further reading.

Edited with an Introduction by A. S. Byatt.

Customer Reviews:

Eliot is superb as always! I would give this 10 stars if I could.......2007-10-02

This is Eliot's semi autobiographical novel, and tells the story of Maggie Tulliver and her brother Tom. The story takes place in the village of St. Ogg, and at the Mill on The Floss that's been in the Tulliver family for generations. Other reviewers have told enough of the story (in some instances too much) that I don't see the need to go into it again. I thoroughly enjoyed the way Eliot depicted the sibling relationship between Maggie and Tom with all of those ups and downs that we all have experienced with our siblings, and culminating in the final finish of the story that thoroughly blew me away. I think I just sat for a good ten minutes just saying Oh Wow over and over again, and then felt the need to seek out my brothers and give them both a big hug.

The joy of reading this novel or any other by Eliot is her gorgeous prose and brilliant characterizations, even with the minor characters. Just be warned, this is not an action packed, sit on the edge of your seat, can't put it down until it's finished type of novel. This is a story to savor and enjoy the multi-faceted characters and the author's glorious prose like a fine red wine or a box of chocolates (or both). If you are looking for high action and adventure, this is not the book for you. Highly recommended for any lover of 19th century English literature, not as dark and brooding as Hardy can be, but the prose is just as lovely, if not better.

not Dickens, but as good as Dickens.......2007-09-29

Never read George Eliot? If you like Dickens or Wilky Collins, you need to read George. (she's a woman).

unequivocally a great company in times of perplexity.......2007-04-02

George Eliot with her keen observation of human attribute, had written another novel about man's struggle with ephemeral follies and victorious governance of emotion towards what is right.

This story preludes with sibling fondness of Tom and Maggie Tulliver with each other marred by the former's occassional bullyness and the latter's childish peevishness. As manifested on the personality of the brother and sister, Tom's perusal of Latin in boarding school where Philip Wakem also attends and excells fuels his repugnance towards the deformed Philip. During her visits to Tom, Maggie meets Philip whose intellectual interest matches hers and instantly initiates friendship with the physically deformed lad.

To Maggie however, the feud between the Tullivers and Wakem clan doesn't put a damper on her clandestine meetings with Philip in the mill. Until she meets her cousin's lover Stephen Guest. Torn between Philip's undying love and Stephen's fleeting adoration, she finally succumbs to rendezvou with the young and handsome coxcomb.

It is not unusual for a woman of caliber to make indelible mistakes and for a learned man to let his boorishness seeps out of the cracks of his soul. Nonetheless, a woman of higher intellect on command can disengage liquid glue that travels short distance from her brain to mend a broken heart.

The novel ends with poetic justice. For relationships cultivated out of soil of deceit will bear sweet but poisonous fruit; and the toxic seeds will proliferate to feed the mouth hungry for misery.

Nature repairs her ravages.......2007-03-05

The merits of the novel deserve a more worthy arena to be debated and highlighted. It is specifically with the Penguin Classics Edition in mind that I write this review. A.S. Byatt offers an introduction that well-becomes the subject and the now absolutely essential appendix "The Placing of Stephen Guest". Anyone who has read the book or plans to do so in the near future, must read the said appendix for it proves to be of incredible and indelible insight into the awkward presence of Maggie's lover Stephen Guest.

George Eliot's most autobiographical novel is a literary masterpiece.......2006-06-23

George Eliot (1821-1880) is one of the great literary artists in the Victorian (or any!) era. In this novel she tells the tragic tale of Maggie and Tom Tulliver growing up on the Floss
River in the small village of St. Ogg's in Lincolnshire. Maggie and Tom have a complicated relationship which ends in tragedy.
Tom is non-intellectual, something of a bully and a braggart; he
is also loyal to his family assisting his father and looking out for what he thinks is best for his kid
sister Maggie.
Maggie is similar to George Eliot. She is plain, highly intellectual, a bookworm and a romantic who is courted by the
suave Stephen Guest and the physically frail Phillip Wakem. As in Romeo and Juliet the lovers are separated by a hatred between Maggie's father and the wealthy Mr. Waken who owns the Mill.
While I think Middlemarch is her greatest novel this one, in my opinion, is a close second! It is warmer in tone filled with
scenes of rural life in mid nineteenth century England. Some
readers will become irritated with her use of dialogue but I had
no trouble following the story.
Eliot is great in using the rich symbolism of the river as she weaves this classic story which will be perused as long as their are English readers to savor her poetical prose tale of provinical life. They don't write them like this anymore!
Don't miss this classic!

The Brothers Karamazov: A Novel in Four Parts and an Epilogue (Penguin Classics)

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A story of fraternity and strife...
The last and the greatest of Dostoevsky's novels
A Fitting Finale
One of the greatest novels ever written
A Long Haul . . .

The Brothers Karamazov: A Novel in Four Parts and an Epilogue (Penguin Classics)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140449248
Release Date: 2003-04-29

Book Description

Translated with an Introduction by David McDuff.

Customer Reviews:

A story of fraternity and strife..........2006-08-29

Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov is a rich, thick, somewhat ponderous piece of literature which tells the tale of three Russian brothers and the circumstances surrounding their father's murder. Fyodor Pavlovitch, a disgraceful wretch, competes with his son, Dmitri Fyodoritch, for the favor of a local girl. The psychopathic Dmitri struggles mightily throughout the tome to vanquish paterfamilias. Alexey, the youngest, is the voice of reason and hope, while Ivan, the enigmatic atheist of the lot remains, to the bitter end, a hard man to pin down. Amidst these four is a collection of townspeople and relations who combine to drive the plot forward.

Interspersed throughout the angst are generous dollops of theology (inspiring for those so inclined), philosophy, and politics. At nearly 900 pages, it is an effort to get through, but there is excellent character formation. One can't help but admire Alexey's innocence, magnanimity, and gentleness while despising the obsessive carnality of Fyodor Pavlovitch and Dmitri. It is said The Brothers Karamazov is the finest example of Russian literature, but there is room to disagree. Tolstoy's War and Peace and even Anna Karenina are superior to me. 4+ stars.

The last and the greatest of Dostoevsky's novels.......2005-11-07

This is the last and the greatest of Dostoevsky's novels. It is the story of the family Karamazov who embody within themselves the character and conflicts of human nature as a whole. Each of the family members as Anne Freemantle writes Dostoevsky gave some part of himself, : to Dmitri his sincerity, generosity, and courage; to Ivan his intellectual temptations and pride, his unmentionable secret sins; to Smerdyakov his malady. To the father he gave his own name; and Alyosha is both the innocent child he once was, and the saint he would become. Also, Alyosha is something more. At the novel's end, Alyosha "half laughing, half enthusiastically" tells a group of boys gathered for a funeral, ". . . we shall all rise again, certainly we shall see each other and tell each other with joy and gladness all that has happened." Alyosha, then, is also the genius, the writer in Dostoevsky, the narrator who "tells all that has happened."
The plot of the novel centers around the question of the patricide of who has killed the sensual, greedy,father of the family.
The work contains one of the greatest chapters, set- pieces of world literature, the Grand Inquisitor. In this section told by the son Ivan there is the possibility raised of Christ returning to earth. The Grand Inquisitor provides Mankind bread and circuses and forbids the return of Christ, for the meaning of Christ's return is that Mankind knows the moral decision and passion of human freedom. And to know human freedom is to know suffering. And all this against the background of the question of the unjust suffering on earth, the terrible injustices Mankind has known.
This is a powerful, complex work, one of those great works of Literature which one can read over and over again throughout one's lifetime - and each time be fascinated anew by the remarkable strangeness, richness , cruelty, complexity and perhaps too simplistic beauty( in the form of the soul of the brother Alyosha and the saintly father Zossima who is his spiritual master) which are the picture of life given by the novel.

A Fitting Finale.......2005-09-18

Fyodor Karamzov is curmudgeonly, nasty, lecherous old man, cursing the lives of those with whom he comes into contact, and blighting the lives of his three legitimate sons: Mitya, who shares many of his father's traits and with whom he is in rivalry for the attentions of Grushenka; Ivan, a hard-bitten drunken cynic; and the deeply religious yet impressionable Alyosha.

When Fyodor is murdered, the blame falls upon Mitya, but was he really to blame and can any of the brothers be absolved of guilt?

This is a long, at times dense and challenging novel, in which Dostoyevsky re-examines many of the themes he explored in his earlier works, albeit with much greater intensity: for example, the nature of freedom and man's destructiveness when moral and social controls are absent or fail to work. He also delves into the nature of heredity - are the sins of the father visited upon the sons?

At one level, the plot is of course an extended murder mystery, complete with court-room scenes. Although these play a great part in the novel, the reader needs to be prepared for long, introspective passages. For those unaccumstomed to Dostoyevsky these might be a chore.

It takes some time to get through, but it is worth the effort, because it is the most eloquent statement of Dostoyevsky's world view and still has deep relevance.

G Rodgers

One of the greatest novels ever written.......2005-08-27

Arguably one of the greatest novels ever written; challenging, brilliant, and a wonderful entry into early existential literature. This is a tale to read in your adolescence or early adulthood; do not be intimidated by its reputation, length or greatness; just enjoy.

A Long Haul . . . .......2005-04-29

But worth it in the end. I'm a slow reader by nature, and this took me some time to get through.

Although I haven't read an awful lot of Dostoyevsky, I wouldn't say this was my favourite so far, which is not to say I didn't enjoy it. It can be slow and heavy going at times, but that is to be expected due to the sheer richness of such a large novel - the notes to the text are also a wonderful guide to such a thick prose and I'd have been greatly lost without them. That said, and I don't wish to at all bring spoilers to my review, I did enjoy The Idiot more, just for the deeply dark ending that novel contained compared to this one, the ending of which left me a little unsatisfied, despite the sense of achievement of having finally finished the book!

If you like other novels from the era, and can patiently read large slabs of monologue and the like, stick this one out and you will be rewarded.

Wieland and Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist (Penguin Classics)

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An amazing book by an amazingly creative author.
Disrupting the Empire of Rationality
A Great Author, But Only A Good Book
Wieland, questions in early America (and still today!)

Wieland and Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist (Penguin Classics)
Charles Brockden Brown , and Jay Fliegelman
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140390790

Customer Reviews:

An amazing book by an amazingly creative author........2002-03-07

I am impressed with the reviews on this site because they are so deservedly glowing. I read this book when I was an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin Madison, and was amazed at the creative genius this man had, as well as the destructive power of critical dismissal. Given, he may not have written the most perfectly structured novel in history, but give the guy a break. He was a professional author from a time when, even if you were a best seller, it only paid just enough to get by. He had to hurry his output to keep up with his grumbling stomach. However, as far as pure entertainment value, and heart stopping plot twists he is second to none. This man should definitely be read more and given more credit as the grand-father of gothic writing. Given, he is nowhere near Poe, but who is? He is far ahead of his time (late 18th century) in psychological exploration and X-files-esque ponderings. If you want a book that will entertain, frighten, and shock you look no further. I also highly recommended Memoirs of a Sleepwalker if you liked this novel and are looking for something along the same lines.

Disrupting the Empire of Rationality.......2000-10-26

Charles Brockden Brown's first novel, 1798's "Wieland," is an outstanding, riveting work fraught with anxieties over the new American nation and its enlightened foundations. Set sometime between 1763 and 1775, "Wieland" is narrated by Clara Wieland, and concerns the fate of her family and friends - her brother Theodore, and their friends Pleyel and Catharine. Clara is a woman born and raised into a secure world of enlightenment rationality. She is a model of Wollstonecraftian feminism - educated, astute, and benevolent.

Clara's narrative begins with a recitation of her family history - her Anglo-German roots and an account of the family's migration to the American colonies, to wit, Pennsylvania. Following an account of her father's religious enthusiasm and apparent spontaneous combustion, Clara shows herself and her brother, who equally partition the family estate, living in perfectly rational harmony. The estate of Mettingen is an enlightened utopia, where the Wielands and the Pleyels discuss literature and virtue, completely oblivious to the outside world. Though Philadelphia is not far away, the concerns of the city, of commerce, and of politics are not theirs.

Their ordered world is soon upset by the manifestation of mysterious disembodied voices around the estate. Shortly thereafter, Carwin, a rustic stranger with remarkable intelligence and a shrouded past, enters their isolated society.

In "Wieland," Brown calls into question the enlightened basis of the still new American government. With fresh knowledge of the failure of the French Revolution, subsequent uprisings in Ireland, and an intense fascination with the radical political philosophies of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, "Wieland" powerfully engages and synthesizes the currents of its time. With all the trappings of psychological gothic trauma, Brown, a resident of a nation conceived in liberty, asks whether the ideological break between a rational new world and a traditional, superstitious old world actually changes anything in human nature.

A Great Author, But Only A Good Book.......2000-01-04

I liked the book, don't get me wrong, but it simply is not all that good of a book. It's importance as a groundbreaker in American Gothic is a very large one, but I feel that the book will be lost on the every day readers, who will be put off by both the language and the rather silly way in which it ends. The whole book is a build up of mystery and then out of the shadows the criminal steps forward and gives a speech (a long one I might add) on how the whole thing happened. So long as you accept the fact that this will happen at the end, you should like it, but if not, then stay away. The book is quite a let down (I just can't stand the ending), especially for being Brown's best read novel. If you want to read the book (and it really is a good book), just stop before the last chapter.

Wieland, questions in early America (and still today!).......1997-03-06

Wieland is an excellent response to the questions of post-revolutionary America. It raises question of religious fanatacism, reason as religion, and representative government in the context of a gothic inspired novel. Set where the Delaware meets the Schuylkill (my hometown of Philadelphia) Brown provides the perfect representation of many of the question that were faced in his day

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Rain Man

Rain Man (Penguin Readers, Level 3)
Leonore Fleischer , Kieran McGovern , and Bob Harvey
Manufacturer: Pearson ESL
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0582417856

Customer Reviews:

Rain Man.......2000-07-26

The book holds up well and is as enjoyable as the movie. I personally found it to be more interesting than it's big screen counterpart and highly recommend it. Also, the reader learns more about Tom Cruises Character Charlie Babbit, who really is the main character.

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Perfect for siblings....
Boomba!
Perfect book to make a 2 yr old smile!! BOOMBA

Flip And Flop
Dawn Apperley
Manufacturer: Orchard
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0439288924

Book Description

Flip is five and Flop is two, and whatever Flip does, Flop does too. Unfortunately, big brother penguins, just like human ones, sometimes think their little brothers are pests. Flip wants to play with a buddy his own size, like Hip, the polar bear only that leaves little Flop out in the cold. Flop, however, finds a friend of his own and a game that everyone can enjoy, making for an endearing tale that anyone will enjoy.

Customer Reviews:

Perfect for siblings...........2006-01-14

This book is a great story for families with small children, especially families where younger children are always trying to copy everything that the older ones do. My daughter was given this book by her preschool teacher. My wife and I thought it was funny at the time, but it perfectly describes the relationship between our two oldest daughters (both of which LOVE this book!)

Boomba!.......2003-10-06

I picked this book up because I love penguins and enjoy reading children's literature. I found the story to be quite engaging. The book is filled with bright illustrations that enliven the normally drab colors usually associated with polar bears and penguins. The story is about two brother penguins. The older brother is 5 and is named Flip and the younger brother is 2 and is named Flop. They enjoy playing games and having fun together and they love each other very much. However, sometimes Flip finds Flop annoying and wants to do his own thing. The story is somewhat sad at this point, but soon turns around as Flop meets a new friend and is eventually reconciled with his brother. This would be a great story to read together to siblings. It made me think of all the times I spent playing with my youngest brother. A good story.

Perfect book to make a 2 yr old smile!! BOOMBA.......2002-07-23

We came across this book by accident but haven't put it down since. It is just perfect. The pictures are adorable, the colors are bright but even moreso it's the story that we love. It doesn't have anything scary like so many kids books, esp fairy tales. It doesn't tell some long lesson that goes over the childs head. It just tells the story about 2 little penguins who are brothers, 2 and 5, and the silly games they play and how sometimes the older brother wants to play with his own friend instead. But it's ok because the little penguin finds a new friend his own age. And in the end they all play together. Usually when I read children stories to my little guy, I change a lot of the words to make them engaging to him but this book was exactly right, and I didn't need to change a thing.

The Penguins of Doom (From the Desk of Septina Nash)

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The Penguins of Doom (From the Desk of Septina Nash)
Greg R. Fishbone
Manufacturer: Blooming Tree Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1933831030
Release Date: 2007-10-31

Product Description

Dear Reader, In order to make this book I had to escape from a mad scientist, adopt a trio of wild penguins, become an Olympic freestyle skateboarder, collect a whole bunch of empty yogurt containers, and find my missing tripletsister. In order to enjoy it, all you have to do is read every page. Thanks for doing your part! Sincerely, Septina Nash, Main Character

The Master of Ballantrae: A Winter's Tale (Penguin Classics)

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One of Stevenson's Best
Excellent book!
The most beautiful book I have ever read
Quite simply the best book I have ever read
Excellent characters and story

The Master of Ballantrae: A Winter's Tale (Penguin Classics)
Robert Louis Stevenson , and Adrian Poole
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140434461

Book Description

Stevenson’s brooding historical romance demonstrates his most abiding theme—the elemental struggle between good and evil—as it unfolds against a hauntingly beautiful Scottish landscape, amid the fierce loyalties and violent enmities that characterized Scottish history. When two brothers attempt to split their loyalties between the warring factions of the 1745 Jacobite rising, one family finds itself tragically divided. Stevenson’s remarkably vivid characterizations create an acutely moving, psychologically complex work; as Andrea Barrett points out in her Introduction, “The brothers’ characters, not the historical facts, shape the drama.”

This Modern Library Paperback Classic includes illustrations reproduced from the original edition.

Customer Reviews:

One of Stevenson's Best.......2004-10-04

Stevenson is best known today as a writer of juvenile fiction. This doesn't do justice to his skills as a writer of historical fiction or his ability to explore psychological and moral issues. Master of Ballantrae is one of his best works. Set in 18th century Scotland, it is an exploration of the nature and relationship between good and evil. In many ways, this is a parallel book to Jekyll and Hyde. In Master, the different aspects of human moral behavior are explored in conflict and relationship of 2 brothers, one charismatic and amoral, the other, stolid and virtuous. This is primarily a psychological novel of family tragedy brought about by the characters of the 2 bothers in a conflict ignited by the Jacobite uprising of 1745. Stevenson does an excellent job of handling the characters and plot. As with his other work, there is a nice depiction of 18th century Scotland. This is not a great work, but it is very good.

Excellent book!.......2001-09-27

I read The Master of Ballantrae quite recently and I think it is an awesome book. James Durie (the Master) is such a wicked man, but seems to charm (most) everybody. He is such a round character. He torments his poor brother Henry Durie and Henry suffers in silence. Only Mr. Mackellar knows of Henry's sufferings. The Master makes the book so colorful. It's full of adventure, romance, sorrow, and revenge. I highly recommend this book, because it was so interesting and kept you wondering what would happen next. I am sure it will capture your attention as it did mine.

The most beautiful book I have ever read.......1999-10-14

Wild Grows the Heather in Devon is thought provoking, eloquant and superbly written. I have highlighted most of the book. Many of the prayers written, I have taken as my own. Excellent intelligent reading!

Quite simply the best book I have ever read.......1999-03-26

I have always liked everything written by Stevenson, but The Master of Ballantrae far outstrips everything else. It is a subtle insight into human nature, and a great adventure story as well. The episodes are majestic, and the story, though bleak, is very touching. I have read it many, many times and think more of it the more I read it (to paraphrase Mackellar on page 1).

Excellent characters and story.......1998-12-18

I am a big fan of Robert Louis Stevenson, and I think that "The Master of Ballantrae" is his best novel. It has interesting character studies and its exciting story is set in a great variety of locations. It has good adventure plus a very haunting quality to it, and is one of those books that I enjoy re-reading.

The Lifted Veil and Brother Jacob (Penguin Classics)

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The dark Hyde to Eliot's more familiar, 'warm' Jekyll works.
Between Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll

The Lifted Veil and Brother Jacob (Penguin Classics)
George Eliot
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140435174
Release Date: 2001-10-02

Book Description

The two novellas in this volume-one Gothic, the other satiric-offer dark counterpoint to the warm humanism of Eliot's novels. The Lifted Veil is the story of Latimer, a mindreader with psychic powers. His brother's fiancée, Bertha, is the one person whose mind remains closed to him, arousing an undeniable curiosity, until his brother dies and he and Bertha marry-when he can finally see her intentions. In Brother Jacob, David Faux is driven by self-interest and greed to create a false life for himself as a confectioner in Jamaica. To David's surprise, it is his idiot brother, Jacob, who proves to be his nemesis.

This edition includes an introduction that places the novellas within the context of modern psychology and relates them to Eliot's longer fiction.

Download Description

Among the many fatalities attending the bloom of young desire, that of blindly taking to the confectionery line has not, perhaps, been sufficiently considered.

Customer Reviews:

The dark Hyde to Eliot's more familiar, 'warm' Jekyll works........2001-09-22

My previous experience of reading George Eliot (admittedly about a decade ago) had been unhappy - her celebrated humanism seemed like so much fussy interference; 'Silas Marner' was too cosy, and I could not get past the infuriating first chapter of 'Middlemarch'. I've always felt a bit guilty about abandoning 'the greatest English novelist', and this volume of two short tales was a perfect opportunity to see whther my tastes had matured.

'The Lifted Veil' is a dark masterpiece, part-Gothic tale, written in the stilted style of famous horror stories like 'Frankenstein', in which inexplicable horror is described with unnervingly inappropriate articulacy; part-Henry James study of an idle, wealthy man tormented by the unknowability of a woman and her faithfulness (shades of Proust too, who worshipped Eliot).

As Gothic, its influence on cinema has been slight, although the narrator who narrates his own death looks to 'Sunset Boulevard', while a character who can see others' minds was recently enacted in 'What Women Want'. The story begins with one of the best, most shocking openings in English literature, as the hero Latimer, blighted with the gift of 'prevision', gives a detailed account of the way he will die, alone in a crumbling mansion, abandoned by careless servants.

At times, the story reads like a textbook psychological study with a solipsistic hero who lost his beloved mother at a young age, whose father resented him as inadequate, and whose brother's fiancee he loves. The various previsions he has are full of those details Freudian critics enjoy. But those previsions are described in ominous tableaux, and the switch from 'real life' into these states has a genuinely disorienting effect on the reader.

The text has always been seen as valuable as a rare instance of Eliot in effect denying or questioning the humanist principles of her most characteristic work and her interest in progressive science - its narrative is hermetic, anti-humanistic, circular: conflating time to an eternal, hellish present.

'Brother Jacob' is more like the Eliot I remembered, the story of a confectioner's apprentice who steals from his mother to emigrate to Jamaica where he intends to be given his fortune. Although it is a (sour) moral fable, with every character emerging badly, rather than warmly humanistic, the novels' irritations are here - the bossy, intrusive narration; the portrait of a growing, bourgeois community, lifelessly focusing on their obsessions with status and money, where every metaphor is inextricably linked with commerce and consumption. Each character is a caricature: the 'humour' is smug, smart-alecky, sarcastic and sneering. The tale is full of the details English Literature critics enjoy - colonialism, mental defectives, assumed identities etc.

The volume is worth reading for Sally Shuttleworth's exhaustive introduction, which discusses the stories in the context of Eliot's life and work (both are seen as negative allegories for writing and the writer), British Imperialism, laissez-faire economics, gender, the growth of science and progressive philosophy as the new religion etc.

Between Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll.......2000-06-11

A little-read story of George Eliot's "The Lifted Veil" is a lovely example of the intersection between humanities and science in 1859: it ends with a revivification scene worthy of Mary Shelley. Written just before Eliot admitted to being the author of *Adam Bede*, the emasculated protagonist, Latimer, mirrors Eliot herself in his desire for solitude. Exceedingly well-crafted Victorian writing. (I don't know the other story *Brother Jacob* well: it espouses that the wages of sin are embarassment and ostracization.)

The Brothers Karamazov (Penguin Classics)

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strong, contrasting & enveloping
The Brothers Karamazov is one of the world's greatest novels
An Unflattering Portrait of Russia
Please note!!
Masterpiece

The Brothers Karamazov (Penguin Classics)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140444165

Book Description

Dostoevsky’s towering reputation as one of the handful of thinkers who forged the modern sensibility has sometimes obscured the purely novelistic virtues–brilliant characterizations, flair for suspense and melodrama, instinctive theatricality–that made his work so immensely popular in nineteenth-century Russia. The Brothers Karamazov, his last and greatest novel, published just before his death in 1881, chronicles the bitter love-hate struggle between the outsized Fyodor Karamazov and his three very different sons. It is above all the story of a murder, told with hair-raising intellectual clarity and a feeling for the human condition unsurpassed in world literature.

This award-winning translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky–the definitive version in English–magnificently captures the rich and subtle energies of Dostoevsky’s masterpiece.

Customer Reviews:

strong, contrasting & enveloping.......2007-07-25

the novel changes you by questioning your opinions with such a variety of principles & points of view

The Brothers Karamazov is one of the world's greatest novels.......2007-06-27

The Brothers Karamzov was published in 1880 by Fyodor Dostoyvesky (1821-1881). It is the the greatest of his novels. The BK is also considered one of the best novels ever written.
The lengthy book (nearly 1000 densely written pages!)is many things:
a. A mystery story. Who murdered the old lecherous Fyodor Karamazov?
b. A theological inquiry into theodicy and the purpose for life. Most notable chapters are "The Grand Inquisitor" and "The Devil."
c. A classic Christian story of sin, redemption and humankind's hope for eternal life.
d. A psychological study of the various types of human personality. Dostoevsky is the best psychological novelist in Russian letters.
e. A political discourse on the future of Russia in the late 19th century. We see such topics as nihilism, atheism, the role of the state and Russian social structure discussed.
Was old man Karamazov murdered by his sons?
a. Dmitri-a military man who is wild as the wild. He is torn between his love for the wealthy Katerina and the village Circe Grushenka. He hates his father. He represents sensuality in human life.
b. Ivan-the coldly intellectual son who is an atheist. He believes that in a world without God all things are possible.
c. Smerdyakov-the illegitimate epileptic son by old Karamazov's first wife who was the village idiot!He is one of the most repulsive characters in fiction!
d. Alyosha-He is the Christ-like son who lives in a monastery with the saintly Father Zossima. Alyosha will leave the monastery to share the gospel of love and understanding in society.
The novel has long passages of philisophy and religious thoughts by the characters. The court scenes dealiing with the murder of old Karamazov are exciting. Several chapters dealing with Alyosha's loving care of a dying child are as moving as anything in Dickens.
The book is not easy reading. I have read it five times always gaining a new insight into the human soul and condition. It will live forever.
Hooray for Karamazov!!!!

An Unflattering Portrait of Russia.......2007-05-27

This is a typical Russian novel in which characters walk in the room and have deep and long conversations about life with each other. If you are interested in what they are saying, it is good reading; if not, it can get tedious. Most parts of this long novel are fairly interesting, although it seems to be slow going at times.

Doestoevsky presents two brothers with opposing ideas on how the world works and how those ideas influence Russian society. Alexey follows the Orthodox Church and its beliefs and seems to do well by them, whereas Ivan is tortured by his disbelief in God and the absurdity of the world. He may just be angry at God, rather than an atheist; he is a person who does not like how God has arranged things. Dostoyevsky seems to favor Alexey's Christianity over Ivan's secular ideas because he puts Alexey in better light.

Alexey's dream is the standard Christian one in which all people become equal, holy, and loving in their submission to the will of Christ. Alexey represents a religious Russian that finds the way to live life is by the Church's teachings.

Alexey is accused of being a sensualist because he is a Karamazov; "birth and heredity" has shaped him. The socialist Rakitin states, "You're a sensualist from your father, a crazy saint from your mother." Alexey goes on to prove that his saintliness overcomes whatever sensuality he might have. He refuses to see the sensual Grushenka, even though she says that she will "pull his cassock off". Alexey represents a Russian who rejects the sensuality that a secular liberal may give into.

Unlike his brother Ivan, Alexey shows his sensitive nature and insight into people he helps. When Ivan coldly states that one reptile will devour another if Dmitri kills the father, Alexey exclaims "God forbid!" Alexey later questions Ivan as to whether he or any man has the right to decide who should live. Ivan states that it is natural to wish for his father's death and he has a right to do so. Alexey also cries over his father being beaten by Dmitri and Dmitri's insensitivity to it. When he gets bitten by Ilusha, Alexey asks the boy why he was bitten, rather than get angry with him. He thinks that he must have wronged him in some way. Alexey is incapable of passive love because if he loves someone, he wants to help them. He realizes that the captain is too proud to take the money offered him and is ashamed of his initial delight. Alexey attempts to help him again rather than lose patience. He does not have contempt for the man, but states that all are like him. Alexey is a religious Russian who finds an outlet for his kindness and sensitivity by following the Christian way of life.

Alexey does not say much, but he does record the beliefs of his mentor, Father Zossima, who believes that fulfilling desires is fruitless and one would do better to live according to brotherly solidarity and humanitarian service.

Ivan, on the other hand, asserts that all things are lawful if there is no immortality: "There is no virtue if there no immortality", he states. He is an uneasy atheist claiming that natural law is based on the belief in immortality and if the belief is destroyed then love and life will be destroyed along with it and the laws should be changed to the opposite of what they are now. Like other Russian secular liberals, he is at odds with the moral teachings of the church because he claims not to believe in God.

Ivan struggles to justify his life with his belief in absurdity and atheism. Ivan states that he still has a thirst for life that no disillusionment can destroy. Even though he does not believe in the chaotic disorder of the world and is disillusioned with it; he still wants to live and does not consider the thirst for life base. Alexey states that he should love life even if he finds no logic in it and then he will find a meaning in it later. Ivan will not depend on sensuality to get through his life the way his father has done. Ivan changes his mind and says that he does not believe in the world God created, but may believe in God. His mind is an earthly mind and cannot understand unearthly things or the absurdity of suffering in this life. Like a secular liberal, he struggles to find meaning in life after he has rejected religious meanings that explain life.

Ivan makes the argument that suffering is absurd and unjustified as it afflicts the innocent; the world does not make sense and must not have been created by God. He mentions the cruel murder of a baby and says that the devil may not exist, but man has created him in his own image. He talks about the Russian proclivity to cruelly beat innocent animals and children without a tinge of guilt. He says that everyone has a demon of lust, cruelty, and lawlessness within them that is waiting to come out and indulge itself.

Dostoevsky presents a generally unflattering picture of Russia as a backward land filled with cheats, religious fanatics, and unprincipled secular types. But he does have two compelling characters with Alexey and Father Zossima; the rest seem to be suffering from insanity, character flaws, or proclivities for violence. He indicates through these two characters that following the Christian beliefs are better than following liberal secular ones, even though a person might be considered reactionary because of it.

Please note!!.......2007-05-06

This is by far the best translation of Dostoyevsky's greatest work--BUT PLEASE!!: it is NOT the Constance Garnett translation!! It's the much newer translation by Peaver and Volokhonsky.

Any of the reviews stating this is the Garnett translation should be ignored; clearly these reviewers haven't even bothered to notice the correct names of the translators: their comments about the book itself are, no doubt, just as worthless!!

Masterpiece.......2007-03-29

This is the kind of book Freud would of wrote if he was a fiction writer. Dostoyevsky did a phenomenal job of putting together the mind set and behaviors of individuals using words.
Excellent read

Selected Tales (Brothers Grimm) (Penguin Classics)

Average customer rating:

A decent collection of these famous stories

Selected Tales (Brothers Grimm) (Penguin Classics)
Jacob Grimm , and Brothers Grimm
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140444017

Book Description

'Once upon a time in mid-winter, when the snowflakes were falling from the sky like down, a queen was sitting and sewing at a window ...' The tales gathered by the Grimm brothers are at once familiar, fantastic, homely, and frightening. They seem to belong to no time, or to some distant feudal age of fairytale imagining. Grand palaces, humble cottages, and the forest full of menace are their settings; and they are peopled by kings and princesses, witches and robbers, millers and golden birds, stepmothers and talking frogs. Regarded from their inception both as uncosy nursery stories and as raw material for the folklorist the tales were in fact compositions, collected from literate tellers and shaped into a distinctive kind of literature. This new translation mirrors the apparent artlessness of the Grimms, and fully represents the range of less well-known fables, morality tales, and comic stories as well as the classic tales. It takes the stories back to their roots in German Romanticism and includes variant stories and tales that were deemed unsuitable for children. In her fascinating introduction, Joyce Crick explores their origins, and their literary evolution at the hands of the Grimms.

Customer Reviews:

A decent collection of these famous stories.......2002-03-03

This book does not contain all of the Grimms' stories, but it does include a wide selection (sixtyish) of the most famous and most interesting tales. There were many more stories, of course, but the editor of this edition has chosen some of the most well-known and representative ones. In addition, there are many tales included that aren't necessarily famous but are just as good as the familiar ones.

The book opens with an interesting introduction, which shows how the Grimms were the first to seriously record folk wonder tales in a literary form, putting them in good prose but still maintaining respect for the original stories. (The earlier French writers drew on folktales, but altered them into tales of courtly intrigue, and sometimes told them in a snickering, sarcastic style.) Then, of course, come the tales themselves, well-written and yet hauntingly simple.

Note: This is an edition for the grown-ups. No illustrations. Visually, it looks like a textbook rather than a book of fairy tales. I do need to buy a pretty edition someday, to pass on to my hypothetical kids. :)

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