Book Description
This is one of the most comprehensive anthologies of enduring masterpieces of Western drama available. The critical and interpretive histories of the works, as well as background on the theaters where the plays were produced highlight the cultural and theatrical context of dramatic performances. The collection features 39 plays and 1 trope from all periods of Western drama including Greek, Medieval, Renaissance, Neoclassical, Early Modern European, Later Modern American and European, and Contemporary. For individuals interested in expanding their knowledge and critical understanding of dramatic performances, their histories and the important role of reviewers.
Customer Reviews:
Best and maybe least known college textbook play anthology.......2005-05-12
First, this book is marketed as a college textbook, so its price reflects textbook prices. That said, this is a wonderful anthology in which the editors seem to have selected the finest and most appropriate plays as examples of particular genres and historical eras. Gainsaying the usual standard selections, this volume includes Three Tall Women by Albee, Mamet's Oleanna, Puig's Kiss of the Spider Woman, and Soynika's The Strong Breed. Shakespeare is represented by "Midsummer..." and "Hamlet" and Beckett, Pirandello, Hansberry and O'Neill demonstrate the diversity of the choices. Even better, there are sample performance reviews--both American and British, with multiple reviews for selected plays: a great way to learn about the range and craft of theatre criticism. The commentaries are extremely well-chosen; they alone could be marketed as a text. They range from Turner's anthropological perpective to T.S. Eliot's aesthetic essays to Ernest Jones' psychoanalytic approach. Raymond William, Barthes, and Bergson are excerpted alongside Walter Kerr, Frank Rich, and Clive Barnes. This book and perhaps a general introduction to theatre history will give anyone an informed perspective on theatre--nowadays that most controversial and endagered art form.
Book Description
When John Nash won the Nobel prize in economics in 1994, many people were surprised to learn that he was alive and well. Since then, Sylvia Nasar's celebrated biography A Beautiful Mind, the basis of a new major motion picture, has revealed the man. The Essential John Nash reveals his work--in his own words. This book presents, for the first time, the full range of Nash's diverse contributions not only to game theory, for which he received the Nobel, but to pure mathematics--from Riemannian geometry and partial differential equations--in which he commands even greater acclaim among academics. Included are nine of Nash's most influential papers, most of them written over the decade beginning in 1949.
From 1959 until his astonishing remission three decades later, the man behind the concepts "Nash equilibrium" and "Nash bargaining"--concepts that today pervade not only economics but nuclear strategy and contract talks in major league sports--had lived in the shadow of a condition diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenia. In the introduction to this book, Nasar recounts how Nash had, by the age of thirty, gone from being a wunderkind at Princeton and a rising mathematical star at MIT to the depths of mental illness.
In his preface, Harold Kuhn offers personal insights on his longtime friend and colleague; and in introductions to several of Nash's papers, he provides scholarly context. In an afterword, Nash describes his current work, and he discusses an error in one of his papers. A photo essay chronicles Nash's career from his student days in Princeton to the present. Also included are Nash's Nobel citation and autobiography.
The Essential John Nash makes it plain why one of Nash's colleagues termed his style of intellectual inquiry as "like lightning striking." All those inspired by Nash's dazzling ideas will welcome this unprecedented opportunity to trace these ideas back to the exceptional mind they came from.
Customer Reviews:
Undiluted math.......2007-09-13
If you have an interest in John Nash AND know mathematics, this is an interesting collection. The main body of the book consists of eight papers in mathematics and his Phd Thesis in uncut form, accompanied by a small introduction. Apart from that there is a general introduction from his friend Kuhn, a short biography from his biographer Nasar, a 7-page autobiography, the statement of the Nobel-prize committee, a collection of photos of Nash in various phases of his career, and a short explanation to the game of Hex that Nash invented when he arrived in Princeton.
Being an economist I was only interested in the thesis with the existence proof of the Nash equilibrium, and I am sure I would not have understood an alpha of any of the other papers. You really need to be a mathematician to appreciate this bundle. For those who want to know about Nash the man, I would recommend his autobiography "A beautiful mind" or the film with the same title.
An essential reading !.......2007-01-06
In case you have been captivated by "A beautiful mind", and be disposed to know more about the controversial existence of John Nash, pick up this book, that surely will catch your entire attention.
Good Collection of Nash Writings!.......2004-06-26
I only rate books that I really enjoy reading. While this one has some techy chapters, readers without a strong math background can still enjoy it.
Professor Nash's story was brought to life by the movie, this book shows why. One day his manifold theory will rule! ;)
excellent.......2003-10-12
Personally, I found this book to be very interestring. The proofs and ideas are presented in clear and non-rigomorphic fashion. One is able to read the works of Nash in the way he himself presented them, and hopefully appropriate some mental strategies used by this genius. There is much that goes on behind the scene of creation of proofs. I think mathematicians of today would greatly benefit from availability of larger number of books which would contain the mathematical works in the way they were originally presented. This is certainly a major step in that direction.
A Most Welcome Mathematical Banquet.......2003-08-06
I can't begin to express how deeply satisfying it was to peruse these papers by John Nash. You almost felt you were right there at his side, as he penned them.
There is even something in the book for non-mathematical types: Sylvia Nasar's Introduction and the autobiographical essay (Chapter Two). But for me the greatest interest resided in the remaining chapters: 4-11.
Of these, I particularly enjoyed reading the original presentation of Nash's Thesis on 'Non-Cooperative Games' (Chapter 6), and was fascinated not only with the air-tight logic of his proofs, but the use of hand written-in symbols.
Of course, Chapter 7 is just the re-hashing of Ch. 6, but in proper type-set form, rather than Nash's original script. But - give me the former any day! Reading the original form and format almost made me feel like Nash's Thesis aupervisor, including the same excitement of a new discovery!
Chapter 8 'Two person Cooperative Games' nicely extends the mathematical basis to cover this species of interaction.(And in many ways, people will find the cooperative game model easier to understand than the non-cooperative).
Chapter 9 is important because it delves into the issue of parallel control, and logical functions such as used in high speed digital computers. This chapter was of much interest to me since particular aspects of parallel control figured in my own model of consciousness - recently presented in Chapter Five of my book, 'The Atheist's Handbook to Modern Materialism'. Astute readers who read both books will quickly see the analog between the Schematic of Logical Unit Function (p. 122) and my own Figure 5-13 ('Development of Neural Assemblies', p. 156).
I enjoyed Chapter 10, 'Real Algebraic Manifolds' because of my ongoing interest in Algebraic Topology, and especially homology and homotopy theory. In his chapter, Nash presents a cornucopia of methods for representation, which I am still playing with for different manifolds.
Chapter 11, 'The Imbedding Problem for Riemannian Manifolds', is a delight for anyone familiar with Einstein's General Relativity, or even differential geometry. When you read through this chapter, you also will understand why Nash is still very interested (and involved) in research to do with general relativity and cosmology. Particularly fun for me was his section on 'Smoothing of Tensors' (p. 163) and 'Derivative Size Concept for Tensors' (p. 164).
Chapter 12, 'Continuity of Solutions of Parabolic and Elliptic Equations' is like 'dessert' for anyone who is intensely interested (as I am) in modular functions, which themselves are related intimately to elliptic equations.
In short, I think this book has something for both mathematicians and non-math types alike. Obviously, the former are likely to get more out of it, so the question the latter group must ask is whether the purchase is worth satiating their curiosity about Nash.
I know how I would answer, even if I couldn't tell a derivative from a differential. However, this book can be read on all kinds of levels, and that's the beauty of it.
Customer Reviews:
A bright, shining light..........2004-06-11
John Donne, in addition to being one of the leading lights in Anglican church history as well as the art of use of the English language, was once Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral, London - a distinction he shares with John Moses, the editor of this great volume of his work. The volume begins on an auspicious note, with a Foreword by the current Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, who likens Donne to both a saint and sinner (which, of course, he was); his contribution to the English language is rare in both poetry and prose, and his legacy as part of the Anglican tradition and ethos is unending.
John Moses begins with a three-part introduction about Donne, his life, work, and spirit. Dating events and writings are difficult, but the overall development is fairly clear. Donne's poetry is much better known than his sermons (despite the fact that some excerpts - 'For whom the bell tolls', for example - come from sermon and meditation sources), but Donne's popularity has experienced a resurgence of late. This is part of the impetus for this volume. There is an irony here, since Donne apparently was interested and well organised in preserving his sermons, but didn't seem to care much to preserve his poetry.
Moses' introductory essays (which include a piece on Donne's time at St. Paul's, undoubtedly a labour of love in contrast and comparison with Moses' own experience) are only a small portion of the volume. By far the greatest portion is the collection of quotations, more than 1000 of them, organised topically. Throughout the texts, some as short as a few lines, and some which go on for pages, there is a tension between the sacred and secular, the worldly and the otherworldly. Donne's fitful life, full of passion and despair, triumph and failure, provides a very fertile field from which Donne's poetic voice and prose compositions spring.
Donne married his love, Ann, against the wishes of her father, who cut them off and cost Donne his job. Years of poverty and the reliance on strangers gave Donne both a sense of grace and gratitude as well as a sense of despair and tragedy; through love and generosity, anger and passion, foolishness and sublime creativity, Donne experienced life fully, and incorporated this into his writing. Ann's relatively early death most likely inspired Donne to a deeper religious sense of vocation and connection with God.
As part of the group of writers who formed the English Renaissance, Donne was a true artist, even though he didn't acknowledge his early poetry later in his life. Along with writers such as Marlowe, Spenser, Bacon, and Shakespeare, Donne's influence continues to be felt in diverse ways throughout ages of poets and writers, to the present generations. T.S. Eliot is but the brightest of twentieth century lights to owe much to Donne.
Donne's Anglican sensibilities also help define the present via media of the church - living at a time between solid Roman Catholicism and solid state Anglicanism, he learned to navigate a middle path with skill and sensitivity, never being contrived or forced in directions lacking spiritual integrity. This sense is greatly needed in the church today.
This is a glorious volume, full of life, and light.
Book Description
With its combination of poetic brilliance and exquisite art, the Poetry for Young People series has won the admiration of critics, educators, children, and parents. Every breathtaking volume in this acclaimed, bestselling collection features magnificent full-color illustrations that enhance each verse, and a renowned scholar’s guidance to help children understand and love poetry. There’s an introduction to each poem, full annotations that define unfamiliar vocabulary, and fascinating biographical information.
The star of this superb new entry in the series is 18th century artist and poet William Blake, who wrote his mystical, spirit-filled verses for children and adults alike. Best known for his masterpieces “Songs of Innocence” and “Songs of Experience”—both excerpted here—he speaks of love, hate, anguish, relief and above all, mercy and the divine image that comforts us. Blake often uses simple, lovely language that young readers can appreciate, as well as animal metaphors; his poems sometimes even come in pairs, with the same subjects seen from different points of view. Professor John Maynard (Poetry for Young People: Alfred Lord Tennyson) provides the excellent biography and notes. Artist Alessandra Cimatoribus contributes richly colored and magically rendered paintings that fully capture the gentleness of “The Lamb,” the sparkling deep blue sky and angels of “Night,” and “The Tyger,” eyes glistening and sharp teeth bared—burning bright.
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|
The Blind See Only This World: Poems for John Wieners
Manufacturer: Granary Books/Pressed Wafer
ProductGroup: Book
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ASIN: 1887123342
Release Date: 2000-07-02 |
Book Description
Edited by Michael Gizzi, Joseph Torra, William Corbett.
Customer Reviews:
Honor.......2006-12-21
There's not a wrong note in this antholgy orchestrated by Corbett, Gizzi and Torra. Wieners will appreciate that it's not a series of poems about him or a serie: verses a la the roi of Joy Street. Just--great poets --Tate, Kleinzahler, Mazur, Howe, Violi, Equi, Gunn and on and on--celebrating a great poet. Buy it.
Average customer rating:
- book purchase
- An Excellent Collection of Poetry for all to enjoy.
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The McGraw-Hill Book of Poetry
Robert DiYanni , and
Kraft Rompf
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Averno: Poems
ASIN: 0070169446 |
Book Description
This is, perhaps, the widest ranging, most comprehensive poetry collection available, and it is useful for poetry courses at all levels. It contains an excellent introduction to reading poetry and understanding the elements, as well as sections on poems and paintings, poems and music, and poems from other languages. Sections on featured poets are integrated with the chronological anthology which gives students a perspective on the variety and range of a large group of poets. This multi-national, multi-cultural, multi-genre and multi-lingual collection gives students a view and instructors an opportunity to teach the universality of poetry. Includes a superb historical range of poetry, from its recorded beginnings to most contemporary.
Customer Reviews:
book purchase.......2006-02-26
I was very pleased with my purchase it saved me a lot of money and it was of good quality
An Excellent Collection of Poetry for all to enjoy........1999-06-01
I have thoroughly enjoyed this "Book of Poetry" It offers a variety of inspiring works from poets both past and present. It allows you to open your mind and just enjoy. The collection of poetry has been put together in an easy to use format, including cross-references to other poems of similar content or subject matter. I find this book very enjoyable, both for personal reading and also to share with others.
Customer Reviews:
Intriguing Introduction to Poetic Structure and Meaning.......2004-12-24
John Ciardi's How Does a Poem Mean? is an intriguing, unorthodox, and surprisingly effective introduction to poetry. He argues that the question: "What Does a Poem Mean?" is too often a self-destroying approach that results in paraphrasing and misses the point of poetry. A poem is to be experienced, not simply interpreted. Unlike prose, a poem is primarily a performance.
How does a poem build itself into a form out of images, ideas, and rhythms? How do these elements become the meaning? How are they inseparable from the meaning? John Ciardi's remarkable textbook answers these questions, makes enjoyable reading, and is a five star introduction to poetry.
This text, published by Houghton Mifflin, was adopted by many colleges in the 1960s and 1970s. Inexpensive, used, soft cover copies are still fairly easy to find.
The eight chapters are titled How Does a Poem Mean?, A Burble Through the Tulgey Wood, By Rippling Pools, The Words of Poetry, The Sympathetic Contract, The Image and the Poem, The Poem in Motion, and The Poem in Countermotion.
I encountered many familiar poems as well as others new to me. Among the latter, I list several to illustrate the wide range of Ciardi's selections (and to remind me to return to these poets): The Listeners (Walter De la Mare), Mr. Flood's Party (Edwin Arlington Robinson), The Death of a Hired Hand (Robert Frost), Burning Love Letters (Howard Moss), Snake (D. H. Lawrence), Blue Girls (John Crowe Ransom), Medusa (Louise Bogan), A Subterranean City (Thomas Lovell Beddoes), and What the Sonnet Is (Eugene Lee Hamilton).
Also, I especially enjoyed three closely related poems: Departmental (Frost), Heaven (Rupert Brooke), and A Deep Discussion (Richard Moore).
Like most collections of poetry, How Does a Poem Mean? is best enjoyed if read in a leisurely fashion over several months. The overall time commitment may be substantial, but John Ciardi's fascinating text will reward your efforts. Take your time. Enjoy yourself. Remember, poetry is to be experienced, not simply analyzed. Cheers.
Memorable.......2003-08-20
This was a textbook I had in AP English in high school twenty-something years ago, and it is the only high school textbook of which I remember the title-- it was that memorable. A Great book. This textbook both defined and expanded the world of poetry for me, and I hope to again get a copy of it. Until I can find it again somewhere, I will have to be content with with some of the samples of poetry that I can still remember from outstanding book.
40 Years of Reference.......2000-04-01
This book was a text book for me as I wandered, wonderingly, into the world of freshman college English Lit. in 1960. It has made th cut on all of the 27 "moves to new digs" that I have made since then. It is now like an old friend--treasured, respected, loved. I am sorry it is out of print because my copy is held together with tape and cannot last too much longer. It is written with such an obvious love for the subject matter (the poem) that one is caught up in that love and swept along with it. Yet, the writing is simple, clear, and constructive. It is an introduction to poetry for an adult of any age. For me, it was, and is--priceless.
Average customer rating:
- 18 stories, 12 writers: generally a good read!
- A collection of diverse themes and perspectives
- Wales Half Welsh
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Wales Half Welsh
Williams John
Manufacturer: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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ASIN: 0747566062 |
Book Description
After years of near invisibility in contemporary fiction, overshadowed by the acclaimed offerings from Scotland and Ireland, Wales can now draw on a brilliant and diverse group of writers, from Trezza Azzopardi to James Hawes, and Niall Griffiths to Anna Davis. Wales Half Welsh is a vibrant and original collection, whose subjects range from childhood trauma to hipster thrills, but all of them share a pervasive sense of a dark, edgy world. So here they are: eleven new writers from Wales—a place that’s catching up with its own distinctive history.
Customer Reviews:
18 stories, 12 writers: generally a good read!.......2006-03-20
Since precise detail about the contents of this anthology is lacking here, I'll provide some. Having recently read (and reviewed on Amazon.com US) the "Urban Welsh" short story collection, I was curious about how this gathering of 18 stories from a dozen authors (born in, resident in, or both, or formerly both, in Wales) compared. I liked it better. Perhaps because one of my favorite writers, Niall Griffiths, has three stories? Yes, but I found much else of (near-)equal merit.
Here's the stories included, ranked roughly by my preferences.
Starting with Griffiths. he gives an effective tale of haunting, rather more "traditional" in telling than his usual narrators fueled by drug-and-booze, in a spare and moving tale, "Fran and the Witch and Me." With one phrase tacked on to the final sentence, he masterfully twists the whole previous account--just that bit more skewed. With "Turd-burglars," as the title may indicate, it's more typical: native Welsh resenting the Anglo holiday-home buyers who appropriate with their mansions and picture windows the picturesque, its social message mixed with satire in an entertaining extended anecdote. "Stigmata" is less than three pages, but again captures in a tiny anecdote a promising subject of adolescent angst and an update of "Lord of the Flies."
Next, the editor John Williams blends commentary upon the recent radical past of today's media elite in Cardiff with a wry take on their current comfort, in "The Useful Idiot;" this same milieu occupies the previous, if less gripping story, Tessa Hadley's "The Enemy." Also, the trials of a recently divorced dad in this area vs. his own side of the capital city feature in James Hawes' "Pork." Two stories titled with the same noun make a fine citified pairing: Lloyd Robson of the determinedly lowercase style in "the vinegar mix" offers one of his trademark stories of pubcrawling and I admit although his lack of capitalization does grate a bit, this form does enhance the flow of his relentless, stream-of-semi-consciousness reports from the nearly down and passed out. Erica Woolf's "Extra Vinegar" plays off two teenaged girls and their class differences and moral gaps concisely. Her other story, "Inspiration," ambitiously puts her protagonist before an art gallery painting to challenge her perceptions. Fantasies vs. reality color Williams' "The Colonel and the Mercenary" also, revealing a bit more Welsh urban life than some of the stories, which (as with those in "Urban Welsh," tend often only to give a bit of an edge by names or places to an otherwise rather mundane "British" setting--of course this itself is a comment on today's Wales from these writers' choices--see Williams' introduction for more.) tend often towards the more homogenized texture of whatever passes for a diluted Welsh life today--again, this perhaps drives many of the writers here, who must do more with the hints, only, of difference still persisting within an Anglo-American and multi-cult society that supposedly defends diversity even as it diminishes the same.
Many stories mention Cardiff's multi-ethnic dockside area of Butetown and/or the Valleys--beyond this, barely any register of the rest of the principality's places or sights remains. Rachel Trezise's "Valley Lines," Desmond Barry's "Dalton's Box," Anna Davis' "Black Weir" all provide a cool glance at a Welsh post-industrial service-oriented economy and its bland surfaces beneath the evocative Welsh toponyms. Davis' "Hiding in Cheesy's Bedroom" narrows the focus, as the title shows; Barry's "Fresh Start" and Trezza Azzopardi's "Shorthold" depict this flourescent, garish, but ultimately dispiriting consumer culture, or its lack, and its effect on fragile souls.
Unlike "Urban Welsh," the ratio of winners to also-rans is much higher here. I only found two stories not entirely to my liking, and neither of these lacked distinction--they just aren't to my own tastes. Malcolm Pryce has made a big splash with his cultish novels on detective send-ups in a place called Aberstywyth, but from another dimension than that seaside college town, where film noir meets BBC "stupid but not unfunny" humor meets surrealistic collegiate ramblings. "Human See, Human Do" follows this format. It has its moments of deadpan wit. Sean Burke's earnest "The Trials of Mahmood Mattan," as the title promises, dramatizes a 1950s case of criminality and framing the wrong man and while it makes its points predictably, would have worked better as journalism or "creative non-fiction" rather than as a short story.
A dubious but intermittently enjoyable bonus: the cutesy clever authors' notes, their diary excerpts, and snapshots appended. All in all, even though I preferred some stories far more than others, the quality of this volume should ensure a place on many shelves of those readers wishing a panoramic view of the more sub/urban, constrained, and introverted temperaments that have replaced singing miners and doughty shepherds as the common denominator for many of today's millions living in Wales.
A collection of diverse themes and perspectives .......2005-03-12
So, who says the Welsh have no contemporary fiction writers? John Williams edits a collection of eleven new Welsh writers to draw upon the best of young writers, creating a collection of diverse themes and perspectives united only by their heritage. Any who would believe Wales devoid of literary figures need only consult WALES HALF WELSH to see otherwise.
Wales Half Welsh.......2005-01-27
Wales Half Welsh is a great collection of short stories by todays most prominant Welsh writers, it is a must have for anyone who loves the work of Niall Griffiths, Irvin Welsh and other great modern authors from Scotland, Ireland and Wales.
Average customer rating:
- Good for the price
- The poetry itself
- A Great Poetry Collection for the Price
- A pretty good anthology
- GREAT
|
English Romantic Poetry: An Anthology (Dover Thrift Editions)
William Blake ,
William Wordsworth ,
Samuel Taylor Coleridge ,
Lord Byron ,
Percy Bysshe Shelley , and
John Keats
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English Victorian Poetry: An Anthology (Dover Thrift Editions)
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Essay on Man and Other Poems (Dover Thrift Editions)
ASIN: 0486292827 |
Book Description
Rich selection of 123 poems by 6 great English Romantic poets: William Blake (24 poems), William Wordsworth (27 poems), Samuel Taylor Coleridge (10 poems), Lord Byron (16 poems), Percy Bysshe Shelley (24 poems) and John Keats (22 poems). Introduction and brief commentaries on the poets.
Customer Reviews:
Good for the price.......2007-01-04
I was teaching the "English Romantics" to a small class of students. I needed something cheap. This did the job although it has no footnotes or annotations to the text. Introduction to each poet is helpful but limited in scope.
Bill Kurry
The poetry itself .......2006-10-10
I think most readers know what they are going to get with a 'Dover edition or reprint'. An attractive, spartan looking volume( It has changed in recent years and their volumes are more colorful) without extensive commentary or note. The works themselves.
In this case it is a collection of the poetry of the great Romantics, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Shelley, Byron.
There are of course many anthologies of this poet, most with more elaborate notes and explication.
But I love many of these poems so much that I am happy to see them again in any new edition.
The poetry of the English Romantic period is among the greatest Mankind has.
On that basis primarily I would recommend this volume.
A Great Poetry Collection for the Price.......2004-06-24
Dover Thrift Edition books are known for providing classical literature for a great price, without abridging the material (unless they say so of course). This anthology is no exception. The best poets of the English Romantic period are included, including two of my favorites, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth. Blake, Byron, Shelley, and Keats are also represented quite liberally.
Don't expect too much of this anthology outside of the actual poems themselves though. It is a Thrift Edition after all. The paper is strong, but not of the highest quality. There are brief introductions to each of the poets, but no real commentary or notes on the poems themselves. The editor does translate some of the ancient languages that the poets occasionally employ, like Latin and Greek. At the end there is an index of first-lines and titles. Also, I have to say, that these are not "romantic" as modern readers often use the term. "Romantic" refers to an era of art, music, philosophy, and literature where artists and writers allowed their emotions to overflow using a whole host of symbols, creating great works that owed more to the depths of the Imagination than the rational intellect. Coleridge was himself a theologian and philosopher and expressed many of his ideas of Imagination and eternal Symbol in his poems. Overall, this is a good sampling of some of the finest poetry available. Factoring in price and quantity, it is definitely 4 stars.
A pretty good anthology.......2002-08-01
The price is certainly right. I used this book to teach a high-school poetry class. The selection of Blake is the weakest part of it: the selections from Innocence and Experience aren't ample enough to give a real sense for the book, and exclude some lyrics that I just couldn't do without (e.g. the "Holy Thursday" of Experience). The complete lack of notes (which originally I thought of as a plus :->) led to some unnecessary pain for students -- I remember one attempted close-reading of "The Extinction of the Venetian Republic" which toiled slowly through the poem, dealing with mysteries that wouldn't have been mysterious at all if there had been even a brief note on the political context of the poem.
On the plus side, there is not a bad poem in the whole book: every rift is loaded with ore. And it's an attractive paperback, nicely typeset, comfortable in the hands: it doesn't feel like a cheapo-cheapo book, which you'd rather expect from the price.
GREAT.......2000-06-10
It has some of the best poems i have ever read in them! there is a need to buy this book if u are hopelessly devoted to love poems!
Book Description
Historians have credited--or blamed--Calvinism for many developments in the modern world, including capitalism, modern science, secularization, democracy, individualism, and unitarianism. These same historians, however, have largely ignored John Calvin the man. When people consider him at all, they tend to view him as little more than the joyless tyrant of Geneva who created an abstract theology as forbidding as himself. This volume, written by the eminent historian William J. Bouwsma, who has devoted his career to exploring the larger patterns of early modern European history, seeks to redress these common misconceptions of Calvin by placing him back in the proper historical context of his time. Eloquently depicting Calvin's life as a French exile, a humanist in the tradition of Erasmus, and a man unusually sensitive to the complexities and contradictions of later Renaissance culture, Bouwsma reveals a surprisingly human, plausible, ecumenical, and often sympathetic Calvin. John Calvin offers a brilliant reassessment not only of Calvin but also of the Reformation and its relationship to the movements of the Renaissance.
Customer Reviews:
A nice collection of Calvin quotes, but that's all.......2005-10-17
This book is organized into chapter topics such as Cosmic inheritances, Being, Knowing, Society, Polity and so on. The value of the book is the extensive quotations he has assembled from Calvin on each of the chapter topics. In that sense, the book functions almost as an index of Calvin's thought, and it's valuable for scholars looking for quotations from Calvin on specific topics.
The title advertises the book as a biography, but it's not. Bouwsma states that the biographical facts of Calvin's life have been covered elsewhere, and he does not plan to revisit that ground. So we have a biography of Calvin which assumes that you have already read his biography elsewhere! Much of what Bouwsma argues doesn't make much sense without knowledge of Calvin's life and time. Dividing Calvin into arbitrary and abstract topic areas fragments his thought unnecessarily, distorting his life and thought.
Bouwsma sets up a strawman to his position, that Calvin's debt to Renaissance humanism has been ignored. This is not true at all. In fact, Calvin's debt to humanism is virtually a truism of Calvin scholarship. Unfortunately, Bouwsma's approach here is typical of post-modern revisionary historical scholarship.
Bouwsma's interpretation of Calvin is deeply problematic for a number of reasons. First of all, he portrays Calvin's thought as essentially a reaction to the uncertain times in which he lived, and to Calvin's own anxieties and fears. Calvin emerges here as depressed, anxious, and neurotic. That's a very one-sided view, and there's just not enough evidence to support that claim. It seems very reductive to interpret Calvin's theology as just an expression of his personal insecurities. What's missing here is any kind of larger historical perspective that can explore and appreciate the constructive dimension to his thought. Calvin is a hugely influential thinker who contributed to the development of modernity, but to read Bouwsma, one might think Calvin was merely an obscure pastor obsessed with his own anxieties.
Calvin's Psycology and his Major Themes.......2003-10-03
It is important before committing to this text that one recognizes the author's distinction between a biography and a portrait. If you are looking for a narrative biography (or even a summary of Calvin's teachings) I would look somewhere else. In either of those categories I would have given this 2 or 3 stars. But this Bouswama's work is not intended to be either of these. It would almost be best described as a reflection on Calvin's psychology as expressed in his major themes. The themes chosen are not those that I would have. However, I would estimate that nearly a quarter of this text is composed of direct Calvin quotes, and the author displays a fairly high level of rigor and competence with respect to Calvin's body of work. There were times that I was unhappy with inferences made from some of the reformers statements and tracking some quotes to the source left myself and others I have talked to wondering about the consistency of the author's fidelity to context. However, on the whole it is a helpful text that provides a non-traditional (but not necessarily negative) view of John Calvin. I would not recommend it as an introduction, but it is an interesting analysis for advanced study.
Calvin and the Sixteenth Century.......2003-09-18
William J. Bouwsma considers John Calvin the least known and most misunderstood of all the great figures of the sixteenth-century. Bouwsma's unique attempt to elucidate John Calvin for a contemporary thinker is contextually driven and methodologically persistent. John Calvin: A Sixteenth-Century Portrait aims to read, understand, and interpret Calvin within his sixteenth-century setting.
In order to give the reader a clear picture of Calvin and through him the mood of his generation, Bouwsma begins with Calvin's anxiety. This aspect of Calvin's life gives the contemporary reader, in Bouwsma's opinion, the opportunity to get a glimpse of an anxiety-filled age. This approach allows Bouwsma, at least in theory, to understand Calvin even better than Calvin understood himself. Taken together, the external influences and internal struggles show Calvin as a man who saw himself in a world on the edge of a great calamity, even divine judgment.
This aspect of Calvin and his society is the point of departure for Bouwsma's major thesis: humanism is the umbilical cord between the "labyrinth" and the "abyss" in Calvin's thought. Bouwsma uses "labyrinth" to denote the safe, yet problematic philosophical worldview the Europeans inherited from the Hellenistic and Hebraic cultures. While these two worldviews were woven together with relative ease in antiquity, the Renaissance would unravel and lay bare the problem. Bouwsma believes Calvin has but a glimpse of this and knows that his sixteenth-century context is a labyrinth of dangers, but still safer than the "abyss" of doubt.
Bouwsma asserts that as Calvin tried to alleviate his anxieties he clung to certain assumptions inherent in the labyrinth. The issues brought forth by the labyrinth include the cosmological inheritances such as an intelligible universe, a cyclical view of time, and the imago dei. In addition to this view, Calvin continually strove for order through moderation, control, and high moralism. Finally, Calvin's "cultural baggage" in Geneva was his strict adherence to rational religion (i.e., the mind rules the other human faculties and is capable of grasping reality). Ultimately Calvin was unable find solace in the complexities of his inherited philosophical culture and sought an opening.
The opening for Calvin was Humanism. Here, Calvin found a way to hold to the eruditio while pursuing persuasio. The task of the preacher is not just to explicate the scriptures; it is also to move the listener to action. Humanistic rhetoric allowed Calvin to do this in a manner he found comfortable.
In a strange semantic twist Bouwsma's opening for Calvin finds its way into the "abyss" where a rhetorical culture had presuppositions about the human condition, the possibilities of knowledge, human experience of the world, and the organization of life. Bouwsma now uses "abyss" in a manner which left Calvin on the edge of an ambiguous unknown. What is human? What capacity do humans have for knowledge of God? What is God? What is the human role in the drama? Bouwsma treats these questions and more as he moves Calvin through the abyss.
Bouwsma concludes by looking at Calvin's programs as they appear in society, polity, and the church. Calvin's moderation is evident in his social thought and the power of God places the government in a subordinate position to the church. Bouwsma is aware that those fans of Calvin at either extreme might not be pleased with his account, yet he is quick to point out the complexities in Calvin that are often overlooked by both margins.
Bouwsma succeeds in offering a unique contribution to the corpus of Calvin scholarship. He takes a serious look at Calvin in his historical context while looking at Calvin's historical context through Calvin's eyes. This is achieved by extensive referencing of primary sources and pertinent secondary sources. Bouwsma weaves the abundance of quotations together in a surprisingly readable manner.
In light of widespread confusion and misunderstanding over Calvin and his thought, this book offers a "man behind the myth" picture of John Calvin. A related issue stems from the church audience to which Calvin continues to speak. Bouwsma's intended audience is of secondary importance here. The first section, "Quest for the Historical Calvin," is instrumental as a contextual compass. While this book is not intended for a small-group discussion or as a devotional aid, it is accessible to the average reader, thanks in large to the first fifty pages.
Two words of caution must be added to this review. Bouwsma does an outstanding job of giving a close-up of Calvin and a panoramic of the society, but does he get a glimpse of the local, the towns? What about Geneva and Strasbourg? Bouwsma inadequately treats the immediate physical setting and its relationship to Calvin's thought. He makes use of the events in Geneva and Strasbourg only in passing. It is clear that Calvin was influenced by the world at large. It also follows that he must have been greatly influenced by the events on his doorstep. Bouwsma only uses these events with reference to Calvin's continued struggle in feeling overwhelmed with work and frustration with the local polity. The additional information in this area would strengthen the book as a whole and portray a more accurate scene of Calvin in his context.
Second, at times Bouwsma's attempt to get a portrait of the sixteenth-century from Calvin's perspective paints an inaccurate picture of the relationship between the two. For example, Bouwsma uses "drama" as a window that the modern reader can see into Calvin and out toward the world. The weakness is that Calvin's relationship to drama was only an ostensible one. Drama, then, is a tool to introduce the role of the believer in Calvin's thought and then becomes a symbolic shape as the drama is "played out." If one is not careful he or she will miss the portrait for the background.
These two criticisms aside, John Calvin: A Sixteenth-Century Portrait is a great tool for any study of Calvin. One would do well to own it and use it.
A solid and insightful academic biography.......2003-01-12
This is one of the finest academic historical biographies to have appeared in the past couple of decades, and will provide nearly anyone with an insightful and in depth introduction to one of the most important figures of the early modern age. It must be stressed, however, that Bouwsma will not please everyone. He is a professional historian, and not a theologian nor an apologist. Many hardcore Calvinists might not enjoy the style with which he deals with his subject matter or his theologically neutral stance in discussing Calvin's work and thought. But most students of theology and all students of history will discover in this a study of Calvin that not only discusses his thought, but relates it to the particular period of history in which it was produced. Too many Calvinist treatments of Calvin discuss him in almost ahistorical fashion, as if his thought were developed in a vacuum. As Bouwsma demonstrates, however, the was very much the product of the Late Renaissance as much as he was the Reformation.
One review below states that Bouwsma claims Calvin was a pagan. This is an important misunderstanding, the correction of which will take us to the heart of Bouwsma's central argument. Absolutely nowhere does Bouwsma assert that Calvin was a pagan, but his central argument in the book is that Calvin was deeply entrenched in renaissance humanism. The humanists went back to the pagan writers of Greece and Rome as literary models as well as alternative sources of inspiration to medieval Catholicism. As Bouwsma quite correctly points out, humanism was in no way antithetical to Protestantism. Calvin was absolutely not a pagan, nor does Bouwsma make that claim, but he did study the pagans such as Cicero and Quintillian, and modeled his writing style on them.
Many biographers delight in the smashing of myths of their subjects. While Bouwsma might not please hardcore Calvinists, in that he isn't deferential or assuming that Calvin articulated truths nearly as authoritative as those of the New Testament, he also does not try in any sense to defame or criticize Calvin. On the contrary, he goes out of his way to debunk many of the negative myths concerning Calvin. What he does try to do is provide the most accurate portrait he can of a major figure of the 16th century, both his positive and negative traits, and situation him in his time and place. In this he succeeds marvelously. This volume could stand for some time as the premiere biography of one of the two most important figures in the history of Protestantism.
Disapointed........2001-06-06
I read the first several chapters of this book and found the author didn't have a grasp of the Calvin's basic theological teachings which plainly contradicted some of Bouwsma thoughts. I do not question his historical expertise, but i doubt very serriously that he knew John Calvin In his book he called Calvin a pagan and anybody who knows Calvin knows he was a man of God. He also took a passage from the Institutes that Calvin was addressing the Catholic church and applied it to Calvin to support his claim that Calvin was anxious. I tried three times to get something out of this book and failed all three times. I appreciate Calvin too much to keep this book in my library.Also I crossed referenced some of his notes he claimed he quoted Calvin from and found discrepricancies. If you want a secular oppion of who Calvin was not based on his Theological mindset, then read this book. Otherwise disreguard it.
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