Sharpe's Company (Richard Sharpe's Adventure Series #13)

Book Description

Looming on the border of Portugal and Spain is the fortress of Badajoz. To lead an assault on its thick, sheer walls and battlements is suicide, yet Richard Sharpe must lead one. Inside the walls are his wife and daughter, and only he can save them. Outside is the misshapen, vengeance-crazed Sergeant Obadiah Haskewill, a man determined to kill Sharpe. Sharpe knows that in the heat of battle only the cold steel of his battered sword and the ruthless bloodlust of a soldier at war will protect him from the danger of both sides. Third in a series taking Sharpe all the way to Waterloo.

"Consistently exciting...these are wonderful novels." (Stephen King)

Download Description

To stem the Napoleonic tide, Sharpe must capture a fortress-where his wife and infant daughter are trapped-while protecting himself from a fellow officer determined to destroy him. "The world may have a new literary hero. His name is Richard Sharpe."-Philadelphia Inquirer "A masterful blend of fiction and historical detail."-Newsday

Customer Reviews:

Another good Sharpe book.......2007-07-13

In the early months of 1812, Wellington led his army to French-occupied Spain. Captain Richard Sharpe participates in the storming of the fortresses of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz. The siege of Badajoz is bloody for the British army. They failed twice before and now Wellington wants the fortress at any cost. As Wellington moves on Badajoz, a new Colonel and a new Captain arrive from England and the command of Sharpe's Light Company has been given to this new Captain who bought the promotion. Sergeant Hakeswill, who is ruthless, cruel, indestructible and Sharpe's oldest and toughest enemy also joins the company. Hakeswill could do anything to terrorise everyone in the company, including Sharpe and Harper. Sharpe desperately fights for his company, and for Teresa, the woman he loves and with her is Antonia, their daughter, both blocked in the besieged city of Badajoz.

Again, Mr Cornwell did an excellent job in Sharpe's company. I would highly recommend this book to any Cornwell fan and any history buff.

A high-water mark in the Rifleman Sharpe series.......2007-03-06

Bernard Cornwell's series of Sharpe novels has delighted countless readers over the years. Cornwell is (famously or infamously, depending on your perspective) writing these novels out of historical sequence, so even though while "Sharpe's Company" is in the middle of the Sharpe series chronologically, it is among the earliest books Cornwell wrote about Wellington's favorite rogue. And it is easily among Cornwell's best books ever - thrilling, ghastly, funny, and with perhaps Cornwell's greatest villain, Obadiah Hakeswill.

[Full disclosure - I read "Sharpe's Company" after reading the terribly disappointing "Hannibal Rising," and have Cornwell up on a bit of a pedestal right now. A gushing review follows.]

Like all soldiers from the stews of London, born without name or wealth, Richard Sharpe started life in the British army as a lowly private. While serving with Lord Wellington (then merely Colonel Wellesley), Sharpe had the misfortune of serving under Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill, a grossly fat and evil man who knows that he cannot die - he even survived a hanging! Taking an instant hatred to Sharpe, Hakeswill has Sharpe flogged in events chronicled in Cornwell's "India Trilogy," a sub-set of the Sharpe novels. Sharpe swears revenge and thinks he has killed Hakeswill off . . . only to have the insane Sergeant return in "Sharpe's Company."

Hakeswill is the kind of man who will trump up flogging charges on a soldier in order extort sexual favors from the soldier's desperate wife . . . and then kill her and frame her husband. Truly evil, Hakeswill's love for rape is only matched by his hatred of Sharpe. So what happens when Hakeswill comes across Sharpe's lover, the gorgeous partisan Teresa? He must have her, both to possess her beauty and to ruin Sharpe.

And also, what is to happen when Sharpe finds himself demoted when a wealthier man buys his Captaincy and Hakeswill is put in charge of the 95th Rifles? A mere Lieutenant, Sharpe still outranks Hakeswill, but just barely. This gives Hakeswill the opportunity to ruin the Rifles, the only other thing Sharpe holds as dear as Teresa.

Things are dire enough for Sharpe, what with the return of the mad, gibbering Sergeant. But he must also contend with Wellington's siege of Badajoz, perhaps the most impregnable French-held fort in all of Spain. Even the redoubtable Major Hogan despairs of British boots ever getting inside that mountain of rock and guns. And yet Sharpe must lead men inside, if not only for his honor and to earn his Captain's bars, but also to save Teresa and his new-born daughter, Antonia, who live inside the fortress.

Cornwell writes a battle scene as well as anyone, and he has never been in finer form than with his description of the horrific siege. Perhaps shockingly for a proud Brit, Cornwell pulls no punches at the terrible crimes committed by the British soldiers once they crack open those walls - the robberty, rape and murder of the innocents is one of the most depressing passages you will ever read.

For high adventure, slightly leavened with comedy, you will not find anything better than "Sharpe's Company." Read these novels in order - don't start with this book, because the characters will make much more sense if you have the entire back-story.

A Great Series.......2006-08-15

This is another entry on the Sharpe series. It is fun, entertaining and very readable. Cornwell's research is as excellent as usual. He takes some licenses for the shake of the story and continuity, but this is OK. Some people are outraged by the portrait of some of the real historical characters, but historical characters are rarely depicted accurately in historical fiction, so I think this can be forgiven. Besides, usually a more serious account of these characters is given at the end of the book on the Historical Note.

Many people insist in compare this series with Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander. I don't think this is fair for any of the series, they are different entities. What they have in common is that once you start you may get hooked and devour one book after another...

And in the literary world today that is a rare and marvelous thing.

Hawkeswill kills everything including this book.......2006-08-11

I've eagerly poured through this great series, but was sorely disappointed to see a re-appearance of Sgt. Hawkeswill. His presence ads nothing to this book, other than a great unbelievable diversion.

Sharpe mutters about his life-long desire to kill his arch nemesis Sgt. Hawkeswill at least every 200 pages of every book in the series. Then Sharpe, who has not hesitated to kill before, finds Hawkeswill alone in a barn raping his wife, and then decides to let him go?????? This is the same man that murdered 500 innocent people just so he could leave a city, and now he suddenly wants an honorable public death for for his arch enemy??? Cornwell has made Hawkeswill into the ultimate evil nemesis, and he is just too evil and too lucky to be believed. Having Hawkeswill again and again dance around Sharpe and his friend Sgt. Harper makes Sharpe's other exploits all that more unbelievable. How could anyone that is so easily fooled by the insane Hawkeswill accomplish all the heroics described in this and other books? Here is a guy that tracked one enemy through mountains, rivers, etc. for weeks, just for beating him up, but when he finds Hawkeswill raping his wife (for the second time), threating to kill his child, after Hawkeswill has already killed his good friend Cpt. Knowles, and had Sgt. Harper flogged and demoted, he lets Hawkeswill jump out the window without even a chase???? The Sharpe character wanders all over the place from a vile evil killing machine to a goof-balled mush-mellon.

Fortunately, we have not had to contend with Hawkeswill for a long time in the series, and hopefully we will not see him again.

One of the better Sharpe novels.......2006-04-01

"Sharpe's Company" is one of the better books in the Sharpe series with a mostly convincing plot, a geniunely interesting series of complications for our hero Richard Sharpe to deal with (including a demotion, the birth of a daughter and the return of the evil Sgt. Hakeswill) and some really terrific battle scenes.

If you've read any of the Sharpe in India "prequel" novels ("Sharpe's Tiger," "Sharpe's Triumph" and "Sharpe's Fortress"), this is an especially rewarding book because of the return of Sharpe's old nemesis Hakeswill.

While a great adventure yarn, the book isn't quite perfect. As some previous reviewers have noted, there are a few contrived lapses in the way the characters behave, particularly the failure of the normally aggressive Sharpe to quickly and cleanly end his Hakeswill problem. But, if you've read the Sharpe in India prequels, you're likely to just see this as an ongoing weakness of Sharpe, who tended to do things in India such as force Hakeswill into a snake pit and then walk off without ensuring that the snakes actually finished off Hakeswill. (If I wanted to get all literary, I could possibly account for this by spinning out some psychological theory about Hakeswill's role as a distorted father figure for the orphaned Sharpe, but, hey, this really isn't *that* kind of historical novel ...)

Walt Disney's Nine Old Men and the Art of Animation

Average customer rating:

I want John Canemaker's privileges
Nine Lives
Discovering the Genius Of Exactly What Made Disney "Disney"

Walt Disney's Nine Old Men and the Art of Animation
John Canemaker
Manufacturer: Disney Editions
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Artists, Architects & Photographers | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Children's Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Entertainment Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0786864966

Book Description

Most Disney characters between 1930 and 1970 were animated by one of the Nine Old Men. Through the span of their careers, these nine highly skilled men, exhibited a loyalty to one another and their employer unparalled in most professions. This candid narrative of their lives and contributions will continue to be a significant, essential source for stury and inspiration.

Customer Reviews:

I want John Canemaker's privileges.......2003-05-01

Once again John Canemaker has made me envious of his access to such beautiful artwork. The behind-the-scene stories of the personalities who created the characters we grew up with is wonderful. A gorgeous book with illustrations that make it worth the money all by themselves.

Nine Lives.......2003-01-12

So much has been written and said about several of these nine legendary Disney animators that I very much doubted a lot of new ground was going to be broken, especially in a Hyperion release, but Canemaker rises to the task here, and then some. I was most interested in artists like Les Clark and Johnny Lounsbery, who have received less attention than some of the others. Canemaker not only brings them vividly to life with meticulous research, but he also manages to bring new information and fresh insight to all nine of his fascinating subjects. No matter how well you thought you knew the Nine Old Men and their work, there's plenty here for you. This book reveals the lives and personalities of these men, analyzes their contributions extraordinarily well, and also their working and personal relationships with each other, and presents great new visual material from their lives in and away from the studio. The Kimball stuff is a special treat.

Who could have imagined that Marc Davis' early life was as interesting as his work? Or that Kimball and Kahl were even crazier than you thought (and even more brilliant)? Ot that the master, Frank Thomas, actually struggled with his draftsmanship? Canemaker captures the promise of each of these men's pre-Disney careers and the spark in the work that caught Walt's attention is always evident. He also captures the human quirks that played a tremendous role in the golden age of the studio and often found its way onto the screen as well.

Much of this information and all of Canemaker's excellent insight would not have come to light without his diligent effort and research, and the result is a well-written, revealing, tasteful, and very visual masterpiece.

PS We lost the great, one-and-only Ward Kimball recently...only Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas are still with us now. God bless you both.

Discovering the Genius Of Exactly What Made Disney "Disney".......2001-11-02

John Canemaker has given readers the Disney animation book that's been missing for decades. Only it's the Readers Digest version. Canemaker is forced to compact nine amazing biographies into one book. Each of his nine subjects - the core group of gifted animators who defined the look and feel of Disney animation from the 1930's through the 1970's - is deserving of far more time and space than a single volume can deliver. Nevertheless, he's done an amazing job, and he introduces us to these men with the same careful critical objectivity he did in "Before the Animation Begins", Canemaker's marvelous 1996 book focusing on the great Disney visual development and story artists.
The author gives us the best un-fairy-dusted glimpse of the real day-to-day workings of Disney's shop since animator Jack Kinney's 1988 "Walt Disney And Assorted Other Characters" (admittedly limited in objectivity, but still enormously entertaining in its candor.) It's impossible not to feel the same admiration and passion as the author. Even in his harsher analysis of temperaments and turmoil the author is writing about the best of times among a group of very real artistic heroes who were such extraordinary people that you'd have treasured any time you could have spent in their company. Sadly, Canemaker only gets to brush on topics such as how the old generation influenced the new. Many of the current generation of Disney artists are interviewed for this book and they have a great deal of insight to contribute (both Andreas Dejas and John Lasseter in particular)and one wishes that the author had been afforded the luxury of a more critical analysis of the older generation's influence on this generation -- both by their presence and their absence; e.g. - in the best chapter in the book, Milt Kahl is characterized as having had the greatest influence on the look of Disney characters. Questions about what affect Kahl's abrupt departure in 1976 had on the next generation - whether by way of his absence or his reluctance to be a true mentor - deserve more space than alotted. Similarly, the reader wants to know more about how veteran Eric Larson was treated by Disney executives who handed over "The Small One" to the ambitious Don Bluth, who later broke ranks and left the studio to start his own production company leaving the studio talent pool seriously decimated.
Canemaker is both the obvious choice and greatest risk for authoring this important animated version of "The Lives of the Artists" (Cainmaker states it was his hope to emulate Vasari's work) as he is admittedly very close to two of his subjects - animators and authors Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. Similarly, Ward Kimball and the late Marc Davis were friends of the author's, but he pulls fewer punches in his sharp but loving focus on the latter two. Even so, it would be hard to imagine any other author would have such an unprecedented level of trust from his subjects and their parent company, and thus such privileged access. And though his focus seems less sharp in the chapters on Thomas and Johnston, any biographer suffers from similar lapses when focusing on a living subject, particularly one whom they and the vast majority of the public hold in great affectionate esteem.
The book makes it clear that the memories of the living affect a much harsher view of the dead from among this old boy's network of disparate personalities who helped to define something as far reaching in popular culture as Disney's animated characters. Withered rivalries and carefully aged egos still pepper the perspective here and it only adds to the books ability to evoke something real, and not just the Halceon days of animation. The fact that the dead can't defend themselves even through living relatives and numerous ex-wives is a minor and admittedly unavoidable flaw, and in his preface Canemaker attempts to acknowledge it with a quote from a letter from Thomas to the author re undertaking the project. Even with obvious affection personal favorites, the author has done a terrific job of sharing insights into the passions of each of these nine men whose personalities were made immortal once filtered through such old friends as Captain Hook and Cruella DeVil.
It's to Canemaker's credit that we long for even more on each of these animators -- particularly Kahl and Larson -- and more examples of what made them great animators. Which brings us to the book's only glaring flaw: the illustrations. There simply aren't enough examples of scenes and sequences attributed to each artist -- particularly raw pencil drawings -- and the quality of photo reproductions from finished film frames and other archival material seems oddly yellow or green in tint and not up to the usual Disney publishing standards. e.g. a series of frames showing the Duke from "Cinderella" rolling his monocle between his fingers is so dark that you can barely see the referenced movement it serves to illustrate. This is greatly disappointing. Granted that many such sequences are found in Thomas & Johnston's "The Illusion of Life", but the book is out of print, and the vast resources of the Disney Animation Research Library as well as Mr. Canemaker's personal collection must be able to yield fresher and more fitting illustrations than what's found here. Again, Kahl's chapter gives us more to feast on than others, but it still isn't enough. After all, this is a visual medium we're discussing and a picture here only serves to give us reason to read another thousand written words. But, be that as it may, the book is both a MUST READ and a MUST HAVE for anyone interested in film history, animation, acting and/or Disneyana, and one hopes that Mr. Canemaker's upcoming book on Disney artist Mary Blair heralds a series of more extensive and more intimate (and hopefully much better illustrated) biographies on Kahl, Davis, Reitherman et. al. A long awaited and fine accomplishment, and easily the best book from Disney's publishing arm in 2001.

The Men Who Loved Trains: The Story of Men Who Battled Greed to Save an Ailing Industry (Railroads Past and Present)

Average customer rating:

Good for all who love trains
WONDERFUL COMBO OF HISTORY, PERSONALITY, HI-STAKES BIZ
Great book to sit back and enjoy the read
Review on "The men who loved trains"
The Men Who Loved Trains:The Story of Men Who Battled Greed to Save an Ailing Industry by Rush Loving

The Men Who Loved Trains: The Story of Men Who Battled Greed to Save an Ailing Industry (Railroads Past and Present)
Rush Loving
Manufacturer: Indiana University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Company Profiles | Biography & History | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Transportation | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Transportation | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Business Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Nonfiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0253347572

Book Description

A saga about one of the oldest and most romantic enterprises in the land--America's railroads--The Men Who Loved Trains introduces some of the most dynamic businessmen in America. Here are the chieftains who have run the railroads, including those who set about grabbing power and big salaries for themselves, and others who truly loved the industry.

As a journalist and associate editor of Fortune magazine who covered the demise of Penn Central and the creation of Conrail, Rush Loving often had a front row seat to the foibles and follies of this group of men. He uncovers intrigue, greed, lust for power, boardroom battles, and takeover wars and turns them into a page-turning story for readers.

Included is the story of how the chairman of CSX Corporation, who later became George W. Bush's Treasury secretary, was inept as a manager but managed to make millions for himself while his company drifted in chaos. Men such as he were shy of scruples, yet there were also those who loved trains and railroading, and who played key roles in reshaping transportation in the northeastern United States. This book will delight not only the rail fan, but anyone interested in American business and history.

Customer Reviews:

Good for all who love trains.......2007-09-29

As a train lover and a man who grew up along Connecticut's shoreline during the waning days of the New Haven (and an uncle who worked on the NY Central) I found this book an amazing archive of the key players in the demise of the "great" roads and the emergence of the "modern" US railroads. The only drawback was the necessity to understand the terms of stocks, shares, corporate finance and other things financial. So some of this book required some homework (and a lot of reading portions two and three times!) But nonetheless, a great historical railroad document.

WONDERFUL COMBO OF HISTORY, PERSONALITY, HI-STAKES BIZ.......2007-02-18

.
In one way or the other, THE MEN WHO LOVED TRAINS is the book Rush Loving, Jr., a journalist and specialist in business and transportation, has spent most of his career preparing. For a debut book, even a non-fiction one, THE MEN WHO LOVED TRAINS is very effective in covering the modern railroad merger movement yet fun to read with a can't-put-it-down quality and a surprisingly vivid cast of characters. In the early 1960s, Loving begins, the modern merger movement was already underway following Norfolk & Western's acquisition of the Midwestern Wabash Railroad. The N&W brass then asked itself where next to try a merger and the answer was obvious: The Pennsylvania Railroad, "Pennsy" or "PRR" to its friends. The two roads had a kindred history of cross-ownership, complementary coal routes (Pennsy-anthracite / the Norfolk-bituminous), excess Midwestern lines crying for rationalization, nicely meshing home regions (Industrialized Northeast / Upper South) that would eliminate the freight-car handoffs that made so many huge railway yards imperative, similar "command" or top-down military-style departmental operating cultures, even a history of shared passenger livery ("Tuscan Red.") The mighty Pennsylvania, with its extensive Northeastern route system, coveted electrified line from Washington to New York, and far reach into the industrialized eastern Midwest was proud to call itself "The Nation's Standard." Such hubris would play such a large part in wrecking the road and its successor.

The marriage that sounded so good in theory was shot down by the Interstate Commerce Commission, an agency not far from its Progressive Era / New Deal origins that was beginning to look increasingly archaic by the 1960s. (The ICC wouldn't let N&W and Pennsylvania merge, but it had a suggestion of its own: have PRR merge with NYC--the New York Central.) It wasn't until nearly thirty-five years later, 1997, that Norfolk Southern (a merger of Norfolk & Western plus Southern Rwy.) bought nearly sixty percent of Conrail, most of that successor to the old Pennsylvania, later Penn Central routes. Meanwhile rival CSX needed the eastern half of Conrail's (previously New York Central's) famous old "Water Level Route" mainline of New York City - Albany - Buffalo - Cleveland - Toledo - Chicago so desperately that, all told, it settled for just over forty percent of Conrail. The two carriers paid, pledged or put up stock totaling nearly Twenty BILLION dollars, the result of a "never-say-die" debt race. Even the "mere" $600 million less CSX owed did not buy a proportional share relative to the sixty percent NS got. What CSX did get, looked a great deal like the old Central--minus the western half of the Water Level route. Norfolk Southern's acquisitions paralleled even more closely the exx-PRR lines. People still argue about whether NS cheated CSX.

What happened in between makes for much of the history in this yeasty and well-laid-out book, which comes out readable, fun--yet with a moral in the middle. In merger matters the ICC's opinion was law, but even it couldn't keep railroad executives from climbing the corporate ladder. On October 1, 1963, an attorney from charming Bedford, Virginia and previous CEO of the Norfolk & Western (Roanoke, VA), Stuart Saunders, reported to his new job as CEO of the mighty Pennsylvania Railroad (Philadelphia). Saunders was not a railroad guy of the type who rides in locomotive cabs, sets up steam-engine drawn excursions, or likes to talk with the hourly employees. Saunders was a businessman specializing in investment at that precise time in American business culture when it started to look as though the latest management techniques, along with conglomerating a palate of unrelated subsidiaries, would be key to corporate success--knowing a core industry intimately was not quite so high a priority. No doubt that the Pennsylvania Railroad was a step up in grade from N&W, if not in class. October first should have been one of the proudest days of his life. Yet fate intervened in the form of a statement released by the Kennedy Administration, that very day. Doing its own end-run around the stolid ICC, the Administration opined that a merger of Pennsylvania and New York Central was not in the public's interest.

As early as the mid-1950s, many prime American railroads were losing the patronage of businessmen who forsook Pullman comfort for aircraft speed. It was almost inevitable that first-class service would decay. New York Central's Twentieth-Century Limited, favored by celebrities and famous for Alfred Hitchcock's witty portrayal of Eva Marie Saint stowing away Cary Grant in the 1959 film North by Northwest--was cancelled in 1963. Well, actually no. The deluxe services of the train were dropped, the boutonnières for passengers, the red carpet leading to the train, stewardesses (as they were called then) and white-tablecloth diner all got tossed. A train without a name, only a number, kept running the same route. But increasingly less emphasis was put on punctuality or upkeep of equipment. And the shorter the train, the larger the union-mandated crew relative to revenues.

When the mid-Sixties hit, most of the railroads of the Northeastern United States faced a quadruple challenge: Air travel by the general public began to soar owing to the new domestic-route jets. The toll-free, federally funded Interstate Highway System led to bigger trucks, carrying heavier loads faster, and with a truck's traditional advantage of not having to tie up along a specified rail route. Most American railroads -- especially the Eastern lines here discussed -- lacked the money to innovate with the kind of high-techish stuff that now dominates railroad freight travel, especially piggyback trailers and shipping cubes. In fact, many saw their roads deteriorating and couldn't do a thing about it. Finally, Suburbia, cheap gas, more cars per family and the impromptu spirit of the Sixties made for a generation of young people whose parents had relied heavily on trains for intercity travel during World War II, but themselves rarely saw the need for one - sometimes not even the inside of one. America had lost the habit of including rail in its long-distance travel options.

After assuming the CEO post at Pennsy in 1963, Saunders and his opposite number at the New York Central, Al Perlman, spent the next four-and-a-half years or so trying to plan a merger anyway. They tried to anticipate the inevitable headaches that would result when and if the two systems actually were allowed to mesh together in (hopefully) revenue-earning reality, not theory. The Central was a smaller road than the Pennsy, but together a new merged system would have allowed for service cuts and rate consolidation, which is where the American railroad industry, of which most observers predicted only a slow decline, had ruefully settled. Al Perlman is generally portrayed in railroading-business writing such as this as a hot-tempered but good-hearted, with an innovative flair for the operations side of railroading that Saunders lacked. Saunders was a smooth guy, a Southern gentleman by training and a Philadelphia Main Line suburban resident who settled into genteel (and largely exclusive) Main Line historic societies and country clubs with surprising speed, given the customary standoffishness of Main Liners to strangers. He put that suave quality to good purpose in stumping for a PRR/Central merger, eventually winning over reluctant politicians of both parties, labor, most media, and community-leader types. Working all sides, Perlman and Saunders eventually persuaded the decision-makers that a Penn/Central merger would work.

They were mistaken. The new, merged Penn Central's first day was February 1, 1968. Eight hundred and seventy-one days later, in the spring of 1970, it filed for bankruptcy, the biggest American bankruptcy ever. In the brief interim the new Penn Central never really jelled as an operating railroad. In fact, no one in his wildest dream could have imagined how poorly the non-merged merger came down. Freight cars that used to be computer-located (using a type of colored bar-code plaque that was the peak of innovation in the late Sixties) got lost or got sent - AWAY - by yard manages already facing a yard full of mystery freight. Needless to say, the customers stayed away in droves. Penn Central's employees were incompatible Central vs. Pennsy. The computers were incompatible. Scheduling proved incompatible. And the increasingly rickety commuter coaches and dilatory long-distance diesels provided passenger service incompatible to the human spirit.

After the crash and the ensuing bankruptcy of a score of regional Northeast railroads dragged into the maelstrom, it took a long time to find politically acceptable solutions. Yet, by the mid-Seventies, a culture and polity traditionally suspicious to "socialism" found itself with local-government commuter systems, a federally-controlled service to operate the remaining passenger trains (Amtrak); and finally a mopping up and consolidation of the overly vast, tangled and superfluous number of freight railroads (Conrail, 1976).

Not all the news was bad: Conrail's steady recovery and return to profitability pleased its friends and astounded its detractors. The Conrail during this period was run by two bosses with different operating styles and personalities. Stanley Crane was an industry insider, a veteran who knew not only how to run a large rail system but also whom in Washington to talk to for increased funds, relaxed rules, and the like. He was succeeded by the innovative David LeVan, a down-to-earth type who loved to schmooze with the rail crews on the ground and in the cabs of locomotives. At one point it looked as though Conrail would die simply because it didn't have enough federal funding, even though the balance sheet was headed toward profitability. LeVan had to go to the head of Conrail's biggest labor union and ask for a twelve-percent pay cut across the boards. His rep as a "regular guy" got the almost unheard-of consent of the workers.

The Eighties held a combination of ironic developments and surprise. Nineteen-eighty saw the beginning of the end of the hallowed and hated Interstate Commerce Commission; few mourners were present when the ICC finally closed shop for good, in 1995. (That's because in the meantime, Congress had set up a modern agency, the Surface Transportation Board ("STB"), which was far less tied to rigid categories of service, areas of service, rates of service and employees in service.) Since the government-controlled Conrail was still off-limits, big Southern-based carriers forced themselves into bed with partially compatible routes and contrary corporate cultures. The Norfolk & Western's top-down executive structure that would have meshed so well with the old PRR clashed badly with the more congenial and collegial Southern Railway, epitomized by the urbane Graham Claytor and his brother Robert. The two roads agreed to merge, effective 1982.

Part of the reason was fear, not operating economies in and of themselves. In 1980, an incredibly large (and to some observers, awkward) merger tied most other Southern lines together: the predominately east-west C&O/B&O (or "Chessie System") got hitched to the "Family Lines," already an amalgam of coal roads like the L&N and Clinchfield under the protective wing of the mostly route-incompatible Seaboard Coast Lines, whose famous streamliners "Silver Star" and "Silver Meteor" still run today, under Amtrak. In 1986 the corporation took railroad slang to heart and officially christened the railroad and related operating divisions "CSX" for Chessie, Seaboard and that certain "je ne sais quois" represented by the X factor.

Who were the losers in all these goings-on? Marketing and railroad-ops specialists in Penn Central, most of them ex-NYC, the innovative train guys who got shoved aside by the bean-counters. Lyndon Johnson, trying to play catch-up to the Japanese, who decreed that the new experimental Metroliner must attain 150 mph, when in fact the trainset behaved not at all like a bullet train but very much like the souped-up electric commuter train it is at heart. Financial institutions and individual investors who relied on wildly bogus, inflated financial data when they invested in Penn Central. The traveling public who suffered the rapid deterioration of long-distance service in the Sixties and on into the underfunded Amtrak era. Commuters. A labor union that had to take a twelve percent pay cut or risk killing its employer. The American taxpayer, who had to pay for rehabilitation of roads and services that never should have sunk so low in the first place. Last but not least, the remaining two American-headquartered mega-survivors from the Southeast: Norfolk Southern and CSX, which together ran up almost twenty billion dollars in debt after a preventable bidding war over Conrail.

It was Loving's great talent - plus opportunity - that he knew how to portray his more vivid characters. THE MEN WHO LOVED TRAINS is populated with almost as many colorful guys as a novel out of Elmore Leonard or Carl Hiaasen. A "blue-eyed Jew from Minnesota," Al Perlman, ran the New York Central from 1955 until the Penn Central merger in 1968; he ranks high in Loving's esteem for his creativity and custom of forging consensus within the company. But Perlman and his fellow ex-NYC "green hats" clashed in terms of corporate culture with the Pennsy's more buttoned-down "red hats," and those divisions were never really resolved. David LeVan, his duty done at Conrail, left and entered another facet of American transportation: he opened a Harley-Davidson dealership in Gettysburg, PA. Fear a threat of hostile takeover from the South? Say hello to the Claytor brothers, Graham and Robert, who loved railroading so much that they spent innumerable hours in diesel cabs or hunkering with workers on the ground. Robert even qualified to operate the iconic N&W Class J streamlined steam engine, no mean feat for an experienced engineer and almost inconceivable for a suit. A useful connective sinew in this history results from following the career of Jim McClellan, a rising N&W exec with a Forrest Gump-like ability to be in the right place at the right time.

But what narrative is complete without a couple of villains? A big black hat goes to Stuart Saunders, that attorney from the charming small town of Bedford in Virginia. Primarily a bean-counter, it was Saunders who rapidly dieselized the N&W in the late Fifties. It was Saunders who fired Al Perlman from Penn Central in 1969. And it was Saunders who first diversified the PRR's money into anything but railroad maintenance in the mid-Sixties, temporary fixes that made the balance sheet look good but disguised the deteriorating home road's profitability. The strategem worked: undiminished dividends and healthy-looking profits released as "Consolidated Statements of Earnings" perpetuated the myth of the invincible Pennsylvania Railroad enough to pacify the shareholders and keep the investigators at bay. No observer figured out that Saunders' pet investments in utilities and real estate were the real cash-generators and that "The Nation's Standard," its revenues slowly sinking, was getting into a situation of chronic deficit.

Saunders' strange and largely hostile relationship at the recently-turned Penn Central with the company's chief finance officer, David Bevan, got the line into some serious fiscal cheating, yet little came of it. When Saunders' investments could no longer pump up the railroad's earnings statements enough to declare a profit, Saunders turned to Bevan with suggestions that Bevan made come true. Thirty years before the event, Penn Central's "creative accounting" eerily anticipated Enron: the threat to fire an independent analyst unless he rosied up pessimistic conclusions. Buying and selling various parts of the physical rail infrastructure with the help of shell corporations and tax dodges, while the real railroad saw none of these changes. Toward the very end, Saunders and Bevan came close to paralleling Lay and Skilling: they booked money onto PC's ledgers--money that had no origin. Nobody but the federal government can introduce additional money into the American economy. To do otherwise--in effect, pose as financiers--was and is very illegal. And except for a conflict-of-interest hearing into the "finance club" Bevan and a few friends set up in 1962, the two executives largely escaped censure or punishment.

This book deserves a wide readership among the general public, along with railroad people and railroad enthusiasts; also people who like a good, well-written and real corporate saga along the lines of BARBARIANS AT THE GATE should like THE MEN WHO LOVED TRAINS. The book (out of Indiana University Press) is a good sturdy product, enlivened with before-and-after route maps in the frontispiece and back of book, respectively. These colorful charts come courtesy of America's largest-circulating Railroad magazine, TRAINS of Waukesha (suburban Milwaukee), Wisconsin. Twenty-seven ninety-five is not an unrealistic retail price but Amazon and others offer online discounts.

Great book to sit back and enjoy the read.......2007-02-14

The Men Who Loved Trains is an excellent book about railroads, economics, politics and backroom deals without needing a political science or economic degree.

I am glad to have added this book to my collection.

Review on "The men who loved trains".......2007-01-18

This is probably one of the best books I have read in years. Even though my background is not economics this book is excellently written to make you interested what's going on in the railroad industrry. This book in many ways is more written like a novel than a documentary. It is really fun to read and I learnd a lot by reading it. Highly recommended!

The Men Who Loved Trains:The Story of Men Who Battled Greed to Save an Ailing Industry by Rush Loving.......2007-01-16

I bought this book for my husband who works for the railroads mentioned in this book. Because of his busy schedule, he does not usually read books prefering to read magazines instead. However, I gave him this book as a Christmas present and he read it in one week. He said the book was excellent! He found it an excellent source of information. He was there during a lot of what happened so it was of special interest to him.

The Rise and Fall of the House of Barneys: A Family Tale of Chutzpah, Glory, and Greed

Average customer rating:

How the third generation Pressmans blew their fortune.
Should be read by anyone with a FAMILY business
Fascinating
Why businesses don't succeed when passed to kids
A Cautionary Tale for Expansionist Managements

The Rise and Fall of the House of Barneys: A Family Tale of Chutzpah, Glory, and Greed
Joshua Levine
Manufacturer: William Morrow & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Company Profiles | Biography & History | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Retailing | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Reference | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Reference | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Business Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Nonfiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Reference Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0688155022

Amazon.com

The history of Barneys is the history of America itself in the 20th century. Barney Pressman was a hard-working nobody who sold mostly second-hand clothing in a nowhere neighborhood in Manhattan. From those humble beginnings rose a store that became famous for the sheer volume of its suits, and the discount prices for which they were sold. But Barney Pressman's son, Fred, had a different vision. He wanted his store to be more upscale, even if it couldn't be uptown, like Bloomingdale's. He pulled that off, but his sons--Barney's grandsons--wanted even more. They envisioned a plush uptown store, franchised around the world, with no expenses spared. And so they spent $267 million on their Madison Avenue store--$600,000 alone for a hand-assembled marble-chip floor--sinking the three-generation family business in a mere 10 years.

Levine shapes this story less as a tragedy than a lesson in hubris--and in business. All of Barney and Fred Pressman's business savvy corrupted into snobbery when Fred's sons took over. Barneys became "too New Yorky for most New Yorkers." There's an old saying that no one goes broke underestimating the taste of Americans. The converse is that fortunes are easily lost going the opposite direction. Barneys may be the most fascinating proof of that adage in American history. --Lou Schuler

Book Description

This is a rags to riches to rags story.

It took three generations to build Barneys into the world's most fabulous clothing store--and less than a decade to tear it down. This fascinating book is at once a family saga, a cautionary business tale, and a riveting, superbly detailed behind-the-scenes account of how a secondhand store founded on pluck and chutzpah grew into a glittering international retail empire, only to founder on greed and hubris.

It is a tragicomedy of truly Greek proportions, featuring a full cast of larger-than-life heroes and villains and fools, spun in dramatic, novelistic style, and written in evocative prose by a distinguished editor at Forbes. Patriarch Barney Pressman started small in 1923, but within two decades he was selling more suits than anyone in the world. By the time his son, Fred, took over in the 1960s, Barneys was a thriving institution, and Boys Town at Barneys was the site of every New York boy's clothing rite of passage. But Fred had loftier ambitions; he was never comfortable with the crass discounter image. He staked the family fortune on European fabrics and design, wound up transforming the entire world of men's fashion, and made a killing along the way.

But it was Fred's sons, Gene and Bob, who really wanted it all--not just a store but a grandiose temple of ultimate chic. Instead, through extravagance, flamboyance, greed, and an arrogant disregard for sound business principles, they raced heedlessly into one of the most spectacular business flameouts in retail history.

A tasty mix of high fashion, high finance, and overweening family ambition, The Rise and Fall of the House of Barneys is a book every bit as stylish and well tailored as any suit the Pressman dynasty ever sold.

This is a rags to riches to rags story.

Customer Reviews:

How the third generation Pressmans blew their fortune........2006-11-05

This is a typical story of a rich family running the family business into the ground. Barney and Fred Pressman spent their entire lives building up their suit store. They spent all their hours nurturing this business and they turn it over to their two sons and two daughters. The grand children have grand plans of expanding the store nationwide along with opening a megastore on Madison Avenue. Cost overruns, and the market result in doing in the business. They took a Japanese outfit along for the ride causing them to lose several hundred million dollars.

Levine does a good job of detailing the rise and fall of this retail empire. Barneys did a lot for mens fashions. However arrogant and greedy grandchildren caused the fall of this store. Family owned businesses should read this story for the caution it may give to family members.

Should be read by anyone with a FAMILY business.......2001-07-20

Don't be put off by what may appear to be a look at one business and one family's way of doing business. This book actually explores far deeper subjects and questions such as : Why is it that so many successful family businesses fail when passed on to heirs? Why do so many solid companies with loyal customers, proven merchandise and a promising future just fall by the wayside? To those who don't know Barneys, it was started by Barney Pressman, a smart, ambitious man who built his business into a thriving industry, selling more suits than anyone in the world by the 1960's.But what makes the book interesting is what happened to his business when his sons came into the picture and the intrigue, scandal and greed that tore apart the company. I can't help wondering: Why don't the patriarchs (or matriarchs) of family businesses teach their children to run the companies just as well? Is it possible to mix family and business and do it well? The Barney's sage, of course, is not yet over and the store is still in existence. So the end of this story remains to be seen.

Fascinating.......2000-08-14

A very enjoyable book. You pull for the Pressmans when the snobs snub them in the beginning. You jeer at them when their position goes to their heads and they behave very, very badly. But the really interesting part of the book concerns how fashion and retailing REALLY work. They appear to be just an elaborate hoax on the consumer. This book should be read in conjunction with Teri Agin's "The End of Fashion" which shows the comsumers are getting more and more skeptical and dissects the public offerings of fashion stock (if you're fond of your money and want to keep it, don't buy). Hooray.

Why businesses don't succeed when passed to kids.......2000-05-27

A fascinating case study on the history of a well known American business. The behind the scenes look shows the evolution through 3 generations. Looking deeper, it says a lot about the values of each of the generations which explains some of the troubles in America today. Maybe we've become too soft.

I can't recommend this book enough if you enjoy shopping or business books. I continue to shop occasionally at NY and Beverly Hills. You can't go into the stores without better appreciating the history of the store. BUY THIS BOOK.

A Cautionary Tale for Expansionist Managements.......1999-09-19

It seems everyone talks to Levine because as Barney Pressman once told Fred, "The Pressmans have no friends." What emerges is not only a morality play but also a case study on how not to raise your children and how not to expand your business. Hubris is a horrible thing. Time and again though during this decade, with Wall Street money plentiful, retail managements successful in one locale expand their businesses to places that don't want them. A concept that works in NY doesn't seem to play in Peoria, or with Barneys, in Texas. While with public companies, it's only money; with Barneys, privately held, it's family and lives. Maybe that's what makes the Barneys' tragedy a fascinating read.

Office Ladies and Salaried Men: Power, Gender, and Work in Japanese Companies

Average customer rating:

Subvert the dominant paradigm.
Very good study of gender and power in Japanese business

Office Ladies and Salaried Men: Power, Gender, and Work in Japanese Companies
Yuko Ogasawara
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Women & Business | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Workplace | Organizational Behavior | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Japan | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Business Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Nonfiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Business & Investing | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0520210441

Book Description

In large corporations in Japan, much of the clerical work is carried out by young women known as "office ladies" (OLs) or "flowers of the workplace." Largely nameless, OLs serve tea to the men and type and file their reports. They are exempt from the traditional lifetime employment and have few opportunities for promotion. In this engaging ethnography, Yuko Ogasawara exposes the ways that these women resist men's power, and why the men, despite their exclusive command of authority, often subject themselves to the women's control. Ogasawara, a Japanese sociologist trained in the United States, skillfully mines perceptive participant-observation analyses and numerous interviews to outline the tensions and humiliations of OL work. She details the subtle and not-so-subtle ways that OLs who are frustrated by demeaning, dead-end jobs thwart their managers and subvert the power structure to their advantage. Using gossip, outright work refusal, and public gift-giving as manipulative strategies, they can ultimately make or break the careers of the men. This intimate and absorbing analysis illustrates how the relationships between women and work, and women and men, are far more complex than the previous literature has shown.

Customer Reviews:

Subvert the dominant paradigm........2002-09-20

This book (actually a dissertation) describes the power-hierarchy in Japanese companies. Throughout modernity-and into post-modernity- women in the professional Japanese workforce are often given jobs of menial nature. These women, so called "office ladies" or "office flowers", are not given the opportunity for career advancement. Instead they are bounded to their male superiors for whatever clerical jobs these men may desire. Ogasawara, however, posits that "office ladies" actually hold more power than is perceived on the surface. These women, because of their ability to make copies, types documents, and in some cases write detailed reports for the men, are highly valued. These men must, in a sense, "curry favor" with these women in order to: 1) Prove that they will be competent managers in the future and 2) handle all that is required of them from their superiors. (The abundant workload often leaves male employees with little time for making copies, running errands etc.)

The methodology the author uses is participant observation. A great book for anyone interested in Japanese societal structure

Very good study of gender and power in Japanese business.......1999-07-11

The author writes clearly and convincingly about the experience of being an office lady. She explains her entry into the work place, the importance of pecking order among both men and women, and more interestingly, the interaction between men and women in the workplace.

A fascinating study on formal gift giving between men and women, and the opportunities to give strong feedback to workers who have displeased the gift giver is worth the price of the book.

Book Description

One industry has had more impact on life in America than any other before or since. Here is the story of two men and one company at the start of it all.

You couldn't find two more different men. Billy Durant was the consummate salesman, a brilliant wheeler-dealer with grand plans, unflappable energy, and a fondness for the high life. Alfred Sloan was the intellectual, an expert in business strategy and management, master of all things organizational. Together, this odd couple built perhaps the most successful enterprise in U.S. history, General Motors, and with it an industry that has come to define modern life throughout the world. Their story is full of timeless lessons, cautionary tales, and inspiration for business leaders and history buffs alike.

Billy, Alfred, and General Motors is the tale not just of the two extraordinary men of its title but also of the formative decades of twentieth-century America, through two world wars and sea changes in business, industry, politics, and culture. The book includes vivid, warts-and-all portraits of the legends of the golden age of the automobile, from "Crazy" Henry Ford, Ransom Olds, and Charles Nash to the brilliant but uncredited David Dunbar Buick and Cadillac founder Henry Leland.

The impact of Durant and Sloan on their contemporaries and their industry is matched only by the powerful legacy of their improbable and incredible partnership. Characters, events, and context--all are brought skillfully and passionately to life in this meticulously researched and supremely readable book.

"This book is particularly timely, with the auto industry in a period of extreme turbulence that features a restructuring of General Motors, as well as other icons of times gone by. In a sense, we may be reliving in the 21st century the auto drama of the 20th century portrayed so well by Bill Pelfrey. The author's outstanding writing and research skills are evident throughout and make this one of the most important and fascinating books I've read in a very long time." -- David E. Cole, Chairman of the Center for Automotive Research

"Every person who is interested in the building of the American automobile industry must read this book. Bill Pelfrey has done a great job researching the early years of Billy Durant and Alfred Sloan and the very different roles they played in the history of General Motors." -- Jack Smith, retired Chairman and CEO, General Motors Corporation

"Anyone interested in the current story of General Motors should read this engrossing description of the beginnings and early growth of this largest of all America's businesses. Billy, Alfred, and the General is an important work on the history of the automobile industry." -- John G. Smale, retired Chairman and CEO, Procter and Gamble Company; former Chairman, General Motors Corporation

"The challenges faced by Durant, Sloan, and others in the automotive industry 100 years ago are as relevant as ever today: managing through varying leadership styles; ensuring the ability to adapt to a changing business environment; maintaining cash flow during downturns. This book highlights both their successes and failures, and it should be read by managers everywhere." -- Ira M. Millstein, Senior Partner, Weil, Gotshal and Manges; Visiting Professor in Competitive Enterprise and Strategy, Yale School of Management; Special Adviser to the World Bank on Corporate Governance

"To understand where General Motors is going, you must first understand where it has been. The who and why of it all is beautifully described, anecdote by anecdote, by Pelfrey in this fascinating read. Magnificently researched." -- Gerald C. Meyers, Professor of Management, University of Michigan (Ross) Business School; former Chairman and CEO, American Motors Corporation

Customer Reviews:

Billy Durant and General Motors........2007-05-12

This is a pretty good book, and gives basic knowledge about how GM was formed. This is one of the few books on the market that you can talk about when someone is purchasing a car, and the history of the company is different than I had expected. The book focused most of the attention on Billy Durant, instead of Alfred Sloan, which in turn made the title more interesting. It is a good story about how one mans drive can change the world as we know it, and it can also ruin him. I would recommend this book to a friend or relitive. But it gets a bit hard to hang in there for the last chapter or so (at least I thought so).

Billy, Alfred and General Motors.......2007-02-26

Billy Durant, what a man, not only a visionary with amazing ablities, but one who believe in the worth of the common man.

Where would Nash, Chevrolet, the Dodges , Chrysler , the Leland's, the DuPont's and yes Sloan, who was disloyal and stabbed him in the back without Billy Durant?

This book proves the established fact of business, that bankers, both direct and investment, stock sellers and so call money people can't built anything for all their money.

A great book on American business.

JRP

Lively look at the dueling leaders who launched GM.......2006-11-23

In this book you'll find eccentrics, misfits and geniuses who made and lost fortunes, founded and lost companies, gained brief fame and were eventually forgotten by just about everyone except automotive industry historians. Although the book purports to focus on Billy Durant, Alfred Sloan and General Motors, its scope is actually much wider, since the evolution of the automobile industry exemplifies the evolution of U.S. industries in general. We recommend this lively, readable saga to history buffs and managers. It is a highly instructive take on the parallels between boom and bust in the car industry of the 1910s and in the high-tech industry of the 1990s.

The Right Men, The Right Place, The Right Time.......2006-07-11

In a week when the Nissan-Renault partnership has made a suggestion of parterning with or buying out or merging with General Motors, this book makes a timely read.

Here is the story of the men who founded the company, Sloan and Durant. They were big dreamers, held a vision of the future, and seemed to have a basic understanding of where their company and the automobile industry was going.

I don't know who's in charge at GM now, but it appears that they aren't managing the company to the standard that such an icon of business should be held. Quite likely they are financial people, very knowledgable in making the company profitable this quarter (that's 'this quarter' a few years ago), but ignoring things like fuel efficiency to keep building SUVs (great profits for 'this quarter').

In their day Durant and Sloan managed through a whole series of problems. It's interesting to think about how they might have handled today's problems. The book presents a view of a time when perhaps management could make changes, when the company, the union, and the economy was different.

Horribly edited, if at all.......2006-07-01

Are the other reviewers here reading the same book I am, or are they friends of the author? The poor quality of this book is too glaring to avoid. An honest reader has to wonder if it is self-published. (OK, AMACOM appears not to be a vanity press, but a Scribners it ain't.)

Pelfrey is sometimes good at narrative, but after doing his cut-and-paste work, did he bother to read the finished product? We are ceaselessly flailed with redundant information. How many times do we need to know that Alfred Sloan's memoir was ghostwritten by a committee of 20? How many times do we need to know of Billy Durant's mother's Mayflower connection? How many times do we need to be told that Durant was a strong supporter of Prohibition and the Eighteenth Amendment? How many times do we need it driven home that Billy Durant was mercurial and that Alfred Sloan was stolid? How many times do we need reminding that General Motors became the greatest enterprise in corporate history? All of this is repeated as if for the first time. And all of this in the first 30 pages!

Is this just sloppy or non-existent editing, or is it padding? For no apparent reason, where we would expect a series of sentences heading paragraphs, we are given a bulleted list. Since when does a book that "reads like a novel" have bulleted lists?

I keep hoping that the repetition will taper off, that I'll no longer be subjected to gratuitously sensationalistic passages like, "Raised by a socialite divorcee in an era when single mothers were scorned," or awkward transitions like "...Durant was high on the list of Flint's most elegible bachelors. He married Clara Pitt...." I hope the story of Durant's first job, in his family's lumberyard, which Pelfrey (or rather the source he quotes) begins in intimate detail, will be rescued from the oblivion to which it's assigned a paragraph later. But I won't hold my breath.

I suggest that, instead of heeding the misleading reviews here, you catch the author's talk on BookTv. It tells you everything the book does, but mercifully only once.

Average customer rating:

It's like Dilbert on steroids
Company - to the ludicrous extreme
Satirical Look at Corporate Culture
Very clever
Maxx Barry is the author of the decade

Company: A Novel
Max Barry
Manufacturer: Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Comic | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0385514395
Release Date: 2006-01-17

Book Description

A bitingly funny take on corporate life by the author of acclaimed bestseller Jennifer Government.

At Zephyr Holdings, no one has ever seen the CEO. The beautiful receptionist is paid twice as much as anybody else, but does no work. One of the sales reps uses relationship books as sales manuals, and another is on the warpath because somebody stole his donut.

In other words, it’s an ordinary big company. Or at least, that’s what everyone thinks. Until fresh-faced employee Jones—too new to understand that you just don’t ask some questions at Zephyr—starts investigating.

Soon Jones uncovers the company’s secret: the answer to everything, what Zephyr Holdings really does, and why every manager has a copy of the Omega Management System. It plunges him into a maelstrom of love, loyalty, management, and corporate immorality—and whether he can get out again, now that’s a good question.

Download Description

PRAISE FOR JENNIFER GOVERNMENT

“Funny and clever . . . a kind of ad-world version of Dr. Strangelove . . . [Barry] unleashes enough wit and surprise to make his story a total blast.”
—New York Times Book Review

“Barry capitalizes on the strengths of the characters and ends up creating a brilliant finale to a clever story.”
—USA Today

“The plot rockets forward on hyperdrive . . . fresh and very clever.”
—Boston Globe

“A wicked and wonderful satire . . . Jennifer Government does just about everything right.”
—Washington Post Book World

“Extremely funny . . . Barry is a smart writer with a Cassandra’s gift for dark-edged prognostication.”
—Time

“A riotous satirical rant . . . [its characters’] excesses . . . make Barry’s world of unregulated corporate greed and unrelenting consumerism so frightening and funny.”
—Entertainment Weekly

“It’s Catch-22 by way of The Matrix.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“A thoroughly modern tale in the tradition of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley.”
—Book

Customer Reviews:

It's like Dilbert on steroids.......2007-08-07

This was the first book I read by Barry. I didn't know what to expect, but after the first page I don't think I put the book down more than a few minutes until I had finished the entire thing. I've since read any other Barry books I could get my hands on.

I thought that every parody of corporate culture that could be made had already been covered by Dilbert, yet The Company gave me new and funny material to laugh at. The book offers a unique and creative explanation for the seemingly retarded decisions of big business, and then destroys it all with a story where integrity and strength of character win over greed.

Company - to the ludicrous extreme.......2007-07-18

Picture your typical company and all it's ridiculous bureaucracy, then take it to almost Dilbert levels - but not that far - where it's still somewhat believable. Throw in a twist in the company history, and you've got Max Barry's company. A funny read along the sames lines of his Jennifer Government and Syrup. I love Max's style because it reads so easily and quick, you can almost sit down and read it straight through without feeling like you've wasted any time at all.

Satirical Look at Corporate Culture.......2007-07-10

What starts as a satirical look at corporate culture twists and turns into something else. Max Barry can mock like the best of them, and it's encouraging to see publishers embracing a book that bends genres (satire, thriller). The ending just didn't live up to the expectations, however--it's good that the rest of the novel kept me engaged until the climax, but Barry ultimately doesn't close the deal. Four stars for the first 3/4 of the book, and two stars for the finish.

Very clever.......2007-07-09

This is based upon the audio download from audible.com.

There have been various comments about this reader...either love him or hate him. I happily align with the former.

Since there are many other sources for a review of the book, I'll comment only what makes this different, the reader. With so many characters in the story, I found different voices the reader used for each helpful and delightful in the reading of this very clever story.

I rate William Dufris right along my other favorite reader, Scott Brick.

Maxx Barry is the author of the decade.......2007-06-18

This guy is amazing. Jennifer Government, Syrup, and Company are all engrossing tongue in cheek reads that satire marketing and the business world. He is one of the most intelligent authors I have come across. Keep up the awesome work Maxx!!!

(btw I liked it better when it was with 2 x's bro)

Average customer rating:

A Very Funny Dickens Novel
Dickens! Dickens!
Nicholas Nickleby: A Raucous Romp through Merrye Olde England!
Nicholas Nickleby
The moral and the immoral, guess who wins?

Nicholas Nickleby (Penguin Classics)
Charles Dickens , and Mark Ford
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0140435123

Book Description

Our hero confronts a large and varied cast, including Wackford Squeers, the fantastic ogre of a schoolmaster, and Vincent Crummles, the grandiloquent ham actor, on his comic and satirical adventures up and down the country. Punishing wickedness, befriending the helpless, strutting the stage, and falling in love, Nicholas shares some of his creator's energy and earnestness as he faces the pressing issues of early Victorian society.

Download Description

Around the central story of Nicholas Nickleby and the misfortunes of his family Dickens created some of his most wonderful characters: the muddle-headed Mrs. Nickleby, the gloriously theatrical Crummles, their protegee Miss Petowker, the pretentious Mantalinis, and the mindlessly cruel Squeers and his wife. Nicholas Nickleby's loose, haphazard progress harks back to the picaresque novels of the eighteenth century -- particularly those of Smollett and Fielding -- yet the novel's exuberant atmosphere of romance, adventure, and freedom is leavend by Dickens' awareness of social ills and financial and class insecurity.

Customer Reviews:

A Very Funny Dickens Novel.......2007-07-30

This is a very funny novel in some sections. Imagine an older Oliver Twist, about 19 or 20 or so, but handsome, and with a temper, and with a strong outgoing personality, and one who can act and do all kinds of things. He has lots of self confidence and a beautiful sister, and throw in an obnoxious and rich uncle and a dotty mother. Yes, it is very, very entertaining.

I bought the Wordsworth Classic version but would recommend the Penguin Classic version, and recommend that purchase highly. This is among Dickens's somewhat forgotten novel but still among his best. It is another masterpiece that brings together all of Dickens's writing skills with a great story. I would rate it slightly behind David Copperfield but it remains one of the most original and interesting of Dickens's novels somewhat on par with Oliver Twist.

As background information, I am in the process of reading most of Dickens's 22 novels and longer short stories, and set up a Listmania list. As a suggestion, avoid the Penguin Popular Classics with the plain green covers (I bought two). They fall apart and do not stand up to a read, especially books over 500 pages in length. The Regular Penguin Classics with the photo or painting on the front are excellent and some have maps and illustrations (drawings). The Wordsworth Classics are not as good, and some are illustrated.

A young Dickens at the age of 12 had the unenviable job of attaching labels 10 hours a day at the Warren's boot blacking factory. That experience shaped much of his writing career. Still in his teens he became a law clerk, then later in his twenties a journalist. The last job as a reporter led to the serialized writing of his novels. His works were social commentaries with larger than life characters, or colorful caricatures, living in the slums of London. He was a critic of poverty, social injustice, and the slow moving court system.

All of Dickens's experiences come together in his novels. The Pickwick Papers, his first novel, is mostly humorous. But the next one, Oliver Twist, is a dark novel set in the crime plagued streets of early 19th century London. Next in novel number three, he changes back to a more humorous novel which is the present work. This is a big novel, about 750 pages or so - but the pages fly by. The protagonists are Nicholas, who is almost 20, his sister Kate, a few years younger, and his uncle Ralph Nickleby. Their father has died and Nicholas and Kate come to London with their mother to seek aid from the wealthy uncle. The uncle finds them minimum paying jobs, and that creates a good story. It is a novel with many common features that we expect from Dickens with things such as a school where the children are beaten, but it has many funny parts and it is complicated by the uncle's financial dealings.

Having read many of Dickens's novels I still rate David Copperfield as best as a work of literature and rate Oliver Twist as close behind and a must read. The latter book was read by Queen Victoria and Karl Marx, and both enjoyed the read. The novel had a far reaching social impact. Nicholas Nickleby is another gem and well worth the read, but lacks the social bite of Oliver Twist, and lacks the enthusiasm of David Copperfield, but it is hilarious.

Dickens! Dickens!.......2006-12-29

Charles Dickens is my favorite author and this is another excellent story! I have all his books, and they are all well-written, entertaining and intellectual. I love how people are his subject and he is a master of words. Every person ought to read Dickens if only for the understanding of grammar you will receive.

Nicholas Nickleby: A Raucous Romp through Merrye Olde England!.......2006-10-02

Nicholas Nickleby was written in 1838-39 by Charles Dickens riding the crest of his monumental success from writing Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist. The lengthy novel is filled with memorble characters, an exciting plot and the incredible genius of England's greatest novelists.
The story concerns the adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (the least interesting character in the book!, his sister Kate and his fatuous and longwinded mother the widow Mrs. Nickleby.
Nicholas works for a time in the infamous Dotheboys Hall for boys in Yorkshire. The schoolmaster is the evil Wackford Squeers, his odious wife and his ugly daughter Fanny who becomes infatuated with Nicholas. it is here that we meet the pathetic mentally challenged lad Smike who is assisted by Nicholas and along with him leaves the horrid school.
One of the most hilarious parts of the book deals with the time NN spent with the Vincent Crummles theatrical company. Dickens loved the theatre and loved to act in amateur theatricals.
Katle Nickleby is employed at the Madame Mantalini milliery shop and becomes a companion to a wealthy and ridiculous woman. She is pursued romantically by the scoundrel Sir Mulberry Hawk.
Dickens draws a vivid portrait of corrupt evil in the wicked uncle Ralph Nickleby a usurer whose wiles and schemes for fortune pull the many threads of the plot into a well woven plot that has a crackerjack ending as secrets are revealed and all ends well for the Nickleby family.
This is still in many ways an work of growth for the budding novelists.
It resembles a picaresque novel of the eighteenth century in following Nicholas and Kate through many scenes and situations. The genius of the novel lies in Dickens peerless ability to draw memorable characters that will live in the reader's mind long after the complicated plot machinations are forgotten.
The Penguin Edition is excellently edited with copious notes and a learned introduction. The original illustrations by Hablot K. Browne
are also included (Phiz). This is a pageturner which will entertain you for hours. It is a good novel to begin with if you have not read Dickens.
The Dickens world is filled with all those marvelous characters which shall live as long as literature. Great.

Nicholas Nickleby.......2006-01-28

This book is best, out of all the Dickens books. If you should just read one of Dicken's, it should be this one.This captures all of the suspense that he creates in any of his books. I reccomend this boook to anyone who is looking for a long and satisfying read.

The moral and the immoral, guess who wins? .......2005-09-14

Money versus virture, poverty set against wealth, hero against the ills of society, plus the combined forces of the duty to family and bond between sister and brother. Any Dickens novel will bring you the perfection of character, the ordinary individual through thought and deed becomes the extraordinary

Throw in a sarcasm still alive today, mainly through the use of superlatives which over emphasize the importance of "Lord somebody" and deftly turn these titled aristocrats from dieties of fortune into over inflated balloons. Dickens, in a time of Victorian sensibility, turned to an arsenal of adjectives for dealing with the long engrained antediluvian British nobility. Exquisite descriptions allowing the reader to visit each character as if you were in the literal sense, sitting in their living rooms observing their lives right down to the tea kettle whistle.

All Dickens novels are loaded with the stuff of glory, but never too far fetched that he can't drive home the plight of the impoverished, the cycles of poverty and the deep suffering he witnesses daily in the streets of London. What better way to emphasize injustice than to contrast sick and orphaned children with rich old misers?

Comparing his observations on injustice, you will find it relevant today, in a different guise perhaps, from Lord Somebody and his buffoons in parliament to our corporate welfare state and over saturated market economy.

How does one survive a world as cruel as one directed by a corrupt guardian uncle in the money lending business? Only Nicholas Nickelby can answer that. With nothing but youth on his side and a good upbringing in the country, Nicholas learns his values will need to be tested at the risk of his own safety and reputation. As he defends his character and the honor of his family, not to mention saving a few lives of those much worse off than he, he gains enough good karma to last several lifetimes as he follows his heart to the wealth that awaits him like a holy grail. Like any hero, he sets off a chain reaction of good luck for his family and aquaintances, until the book exhausts itself in becoming one riotous, joyous celebration of life. As one last task,Nicholas with all his honor, attracts the only one thing he is missing, an equally flawless damsel to be rescued from a cruel, self centered father.

Unlike his later works, this one is brimming with sweet hyperbolic idealism and exageration, like youthful optimism, it does not carry the same intimate character intropsection he develops later.

It is worth it to settle into this novel to witness the sharp black and white juxtapose of the good character versus corrupt.
Whereas Dickens balanced this with gray areas between rich and poor in other novels, this work is direct, simple and explicit in it's quest for moral ground. Wealth matches wealth of spirit and Dickens can make it infectious with his keen observations of human behavior and his absolute dedication to matching his words to his heart.

Average customer rating:

All you ever wanted to know about Henry Ford
Sensational, Definitive and Entertaining! A Must Have!
It's an auto industry history and a soap opera!

Ford: The Men and the Machine
Robert Lacey
Manufacturer: Little Brown & Co (T)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Production & Operations | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Industry | Automotive | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Business Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The People's Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century

ASIN: 0316511668

Book Description

Master biographer Robert Lacey tells the fascinating, authoritative account of the ambitious men and glamorous women behind the world's largest family-controlled business empire. From Henry Ford -- the original in every sense of the word -- whose revolutionary standards created a new way of life for America and the world, to Henry Ford II, old Henry's grandson, who rose from a frivolous playboy to become an industrial giant in his own right, to the tragic figure of Edsel Ford, old Henry's son and young Henry's father, smothered by the one and overshadowed by the other, to brash Lee Iacocca, whose visionary plans for the company would put him in conflict with Henry Ford II.
"Richly anecdotal and wonderfully readable . . . irresistable." The Washington Post Book World

Customer Reviews:

All you ever wanted to know about Henry Ford.......2003-08-22

This book provides a comprehensive look at Henry Ford's life that is both entertaining and educational. It covers basically everything, his personal affairs, all the little side ventures he took part in in addition to his car company, even relationships with other notable people of his time, namely Thomas Edison, Dodge brothers, etc. It is overall an interesting read and at times I find it quite humorous. Highly recommended.

Sensational, Definitive and Entertaining! A Must Have!.......2001-07-31

"Ford: The Men and the Machine" is the most definitive and complete book about the life and happenings of automotive's greatest man, Henry Ford. His accomplishments as cited cannot compare to any other single figure in automobile history (or even business itself).

The book is nothing short of epic: over 800 pages and 36 chapters, plus appendices. It starts off with the author's assessment of Ford's total contribution to life, starting at Dearborn Michigan in 1831. The details are all-inclusive and mind boggling, right down to Henry's Sister's comments about his early days repairing watches. The book moves slowly and steadily through Part One, "The Rise of Henry Ford" to Parts Two and Three, "Glory Days" and "Grass-Roots Hero." Here the reader is given the unbiased account of even the thoughts of young Henry, and how he became so fascinated with what was then the latest thing: the gasoline engine, which he saw in 1877 from a trip to Machinery Hall in Philadelphia. We are given the full story behind Ford's rise to power over other prominent automotive men of his time, such as the Duryea and the Dodge Bros., and particularly Henry Selden. I found it exciting to read about how Ford didn't give in to a greedy, money-hungry individual like Selden who had no real engineering talent, but wanted only to rake in the royalties from his so-called gasoline engine that he patented in 1895 (it didn't even work as illustrated in his diagram, and Selden didn't even have a working model in an automobile until 1904--it went five yards and died!). Ford held out through more than 10 years of court battles over the legal implications of the Selden patent, and won. After that, there was no doubt that Ford had firmly established himself as a "man for the people." The victory over the Selden patent allowed ALL automobile manufacturers to keep their prices affordable.

Part Four, "Henry and Edsel" describes the business relationship with his firstborn son, and their occasional public disputes over company policies and overall business strategies. Henry bitterly opposed automoible financing, for example, but Edsel was all for it. Edsel was right, too, it was the only way to sell cars to lower-income buyers. Of course, the whole story behind the biggest flop in automotive history, the Edsel car itself, is revealed. What happened? How much money was lost? What were the shortcomings of the Edsel that ultimately was its demise? "...The Men and the Machine" will tell you, without room for doubts.

In fact, as part of the research I'm doing for an automotive book of my own, I noticed at least three other authors in my bibliography that referenced this same book, perhaps Lacey's greatest achievement.

Parts 5 and 6, "Henry II" and "Henry and Lee" gradually move more away from the business side of the Ford Machine--but not altogether away--and gradually reveal personal aspects of later Ford generations and their family relationships. Discussed are the development and marketing plans of the Mustang and Pinto which, ironically, were diametrically opposed to each other as complete success and utter failure.

This book is worth double the money. Sometimes I am amazed at the length Lacey went to get his sources, over 50 pages of specific and varied references. I feel fortunate to have a copy that is in good shape. Every time I open the pages, I learn something new. Each page informs, educates and increases depth of thinking, in that sometimes what appears to be a single invention is only a hub to other spokes of development. "...the men and the Machine" actually helps me to think better overall. I can then apply the underlying techniques to all situations in life; consider that one thing leads to another, and if this happens, then it will affect that and that, and so on. If you have even the slightest interest in automotive development, automobile history, American Culture or the person of Henry Ford himself, do not be without this book. Buy it today. My highest recommendation for all readers over 14 (reading level).

It's an auto industry history and a soap opera!.......1999-03-12

For those who want the dish on one of the most dominant yet dysfunctional American family businesses, Robert Lacey's profile of the Ford Motor Company is a must. It's plot is pure Movie-Of-The-Week - a country boy inspired to build a cheap car for the masses, accrues wealth and fame, then has to deal with the giant he created. His lone son, the second generation gives his life for the company, a casualty of the tug of war between a patriarch and his ego. Just as the company is about to crash in corruption and incompetence, the grandson, Henry II enters and saves the day, building the infrastructure of a modern corporation. But, eventually Henry's hat changes from white to shades of grey - the pitfalls of arrogance from never ending riches and successes. It's 650 pages of American history and soap opera, and it was so interesting it could have been longer. A great book for those who appreciate American motoring history. - Leila Dunbar, Mobilia.com

The Princess of Denmark: An Elizabethan Theater Mystery Featuring Nicholas Bracewell (Elizabethan Theater Mysteries Featuring Nicholas Bracewell)

Average customer rating:

Marston plays it again. Again!
The Latest Book in this Terrific Series
Great Elizabethan Theater Mystery

The Princess of Denmark: An Elizabethan Theater Mystery Featuring Nicholas Bracewell (Elizabethan Theater Mysteries Featuring Nicholas Bracewell)
Edward Marston
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Minotaur
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Mystery & Thriller Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0312356188
Release Date: 2006-08-22

Book Description

Winter approaches and Westfields Men are out of work. When their widowed patron decides to marry again, he chooses a Danish bride with vague associations to the royal family. Since the wedding will take place in Copenhagen, the troupe is invited to perform there as guests of King Christian IV. One of the plays they perform is The Princess of Denmarka disastrous choice. Westfields Men soon find themselves embroiled in political intrigue and religious dissension. Their patron, who has only seen a miniature of his future bride, is less enthusiastic when he actually meets the lady, but he can hardly withdraw. Murder and mayhem dogs the company until they realize that they have a traitor in their ranks. It is left to Nicholas Bracewell to solve a murder, unmask the villain and rescue Lord Westfield from his unsuitable princess of Denmark.

Customer Reviews:

Marston plays it again. Again!.......2007-07-09

Nicholas Bracewell is set to save Lord Westfield's Men. Again. For the 16th time. In "The Princess of Denmark," Edward Marston's continuation of this series set in Elizabsethan England, we find a continuation of the same issues, problems, love interests, and stilted dialogue that the entire series contains. Nothing is new. Except that this time the adventures are set mostly in Denmark, Elsinore Castle (sound familiar?).

As we have it, the Queen's Head, home of Westfield's Men, the best theatrical company in all England, has been partially burned, dashing (once more) to the ground all hopes of our Men's continued profession. Woe is we! Whatever shall we do?

At the same time, the group's patron, Lord Westfield himself, has issued a proposal of marriage to a young lady in Denmark, the marriage arranged through an intermediary, and, once again, stepped in to help his company. They'll accompany him to Elsinore and perform there for his hosts and the king.

As this is a murder mystery, we need a body. Did we mention that a young theatre goer was burned to death in the Queen's Head fire? Thus, the fire sets in motion the series of dastardly deeds.

The crew boards a vessel for Denmark and on the way they encounter, in true--but quick--swashbuckling style, they dispense of the pirates (with Nick leading the way) and soon land at their destination. Alas, things are not what they seem. The intermediary to this marriage is found murdered (another body!) and the action speeds up. Nick is ever ready to come to the rescue again. As if to echo Macbeth's resounding lines, "double double toil and trouble" and "false face must hide false heart," Marston marches us on to a quick conclusion. The marriage ramifications and conditions are resolved, the murders are resolved, and the company is soon returned to England,where the last vestiges of this murder mystery are cleared up.

Still, despite a very tried and true formula, this series by Marston is delightful (if not fully predictable) to read. One wishes, though, that the author would find other conflicts beside the now tiresome ones (the Queen's Head owner continuously tossing them out of his premises, Barnaby Gill's same old tire arguments, the same old Lawrence Firethorne, great actor that he is. Enough is enough. There are many, many more options Marston has to take the development of this series and of his characters to other, even more exciting, adventures.

The Latest Book in this Terrific Series.......2006-12-02

Edward Marston is the pseudonym of Keith Miles, a fairly prolific and extremely good writer of mainly Elizabethan and medieval mysteries. He has also written mysteries under his own name with both sporting and golf backgrounds. However it is primarily the books that take place earlier in history that I am interested in. He read modern history at Oxford and has had many jobs, including university lecturer, but fortunately for all his readers, he turned to the writing profession.

Winter is approaching and the troupe of actors known as Westfield's men are one again out of work, but not for long. Their patron Lord Westfield has decided to marry again and has chosen a Danish bride with tenuous attachment to the Danish Royal family. The troupe is invited to perform as guests of the King, Christian IV and fittingly or so they believe they choose to perform as one of their offerings, The Princess of Denmark. They little know when making the decision that it will prove to be a disastrous choice.

Westfield's men soon find themselves embroiled in political mayhem and religious dissension. Lord Westfield who has never seen his future bride in the flesh and made his proposal after seeing a painted miniature of the lady, is less than enthusiastic when he actually meets the lady. But he can hardly withdraw his offer of marriage. As usual murder and intrigue follow the company wherever they go, and eventually they realise that there is a traitor in their ranks. Once again it falls to Nicholas Bracewell to solve the murder, unmask the villain and extricate Lord Westfield from his unsuitable match.

The author's love for the Elizabethan theatre comes shining through this series of books. Plus his knowledge of the period fills the pages with authenticity and the sights and sounds of the streets and inns of Elizabethan London.

Great Elizabethan Theater Mystery .......2006-08-24

The bonfire destroyed the Queen's Head Theater leaving book-holder Nicholas Bracewell and the Westfield Men unemployed. While debate rages over to rebuild or not to rebuild that is the question, the troupe's widowed wealthy patron, Lord Westfield decides to marry for the third time. His bride, Sigbrit Olsen, is a Dane he has never seen except in a miniature given to him by his business agent Rolfe Harling. As a wedding gift, Westfield takes his Westfield Men troupe with him to Denmark to perform for his bride.

The sea voyage proves harrowing as storms attack the vessel and pirates assault them, but they arrive at their destination Ellsinore. Though he survived the traumatic sea voyage, Harling does not survive the castle where the English are staying. Two cooks are accused of murdering the devious business agent leaving his corpse in the basement. When thugs attack actor Owen Elias, Bracewell becomes concerned that they are being set up, but not sure why. Adding to his suspicion is that Westfield has barely seen his fiancée and not in an area of much lighting though the visitors have been here for several day. Bracewell plans to expose what he assumes is a scam before any of the troupe follows Harling's fate.

The latest Elizabethan Theater Mystery relocates to Denmark, which provides a fresh background for mayhem to occur. The story line is filled with suspense as the audience along with Bracewell wonders what is going on in Ellsinore. Nicholas' investigation is excellent as he slowly uncovers a two prong conspiracy that involves the bride and the Danish queen. Edward Marston is at the top of his game with his latest performance, THE PRINCESS OF DEMARK.

Harriet Klausner

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books