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A collection of George Orwell's previously unpublished letters, documents and photographs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Orwell Errata

_The lost Orwell_ is a curious book, if it can really be called that. As the editor Peter Davison describes it, it is essentially the twenty-first volume of the twenty-volume complete works of Orwell. That is, it is most everything that came to light related to Orwell after the completion of the complete works. As such, people are likely to have one of two reactions, depending on their dedication to Orwell.

For those whom Orwell is just another writer, one whom they don't especially know much about but want to know more, this is not the Orwell you're looking for. This book will come across as trivia. You've probably read _Animal farm_ and _Nineteen Eighty-four_ and maybe _Homage to Catalonia_ or _Down and out in Paris and London_. Probably what you want to read next is a four-volume collection for the 1960s entitled _The collected essays, journalism and letters of George Orwell_ (CEJL). That's essentially a `best of' collection. No matter how good of a writer you are, it'll give you an inferiority complex. (In the 1980s, there was a book of Orwell's work at the BBC during World War Two that was advertised as a supplement to CEJL. I was entitled _Orwell: The lost years_. No confusion with titles there.)

For people endlessly fascinated by Orwell, this book will appeal to your sense of completeness but not satisfy it. (Most annoying: just having summaries of letters from Orwell to Brenda Salkeld, whom he was quite attracted to.) The book's a rag-tag mixture and doesn't actually contain all that much of Orwell's sparkling prose, though what is here has his typical mixture of pessimism and warmth. What the book includes instead are letters about Orwell, a lengthy errata sheet, biographical notes to pictures, etc. Furthermore, some of the letters were originally in French and those are printed in the original as well as in translation. As a result, there actually isn't that much to read for a 250+ page book. And truth be told, fatigue seems to have caught up with Davison, who spent more than twenty years on Orwell, often when not in the best health himself. (There's an autobiographical essay about editing the collection available online.) In places, the formatting isn't intuitive and redundancy creeps in.

That said, any Orwell completist is going to pick this volume up anyway. There aren't too many rewards, but there are a few. There's some letters from Eileen Blair to Norah Myles, an old friend, that flesh out his relationship with his first wife and also give a sense of her interactions with George Kopp, Orwell's commander in Spain: a bit more complicated than what you expect. There's also a miniature biography of Kopp that makes him seem like an odder character than I had appreciated from the biographies of Orwell.

Rating books is supposed to summarize a response to it, but in this case, it's essentially nonsense. There isn't a lot here, so it has the potential to disappoint. But then again, the thinness of the material is proof of what a job that Davison did with the original volumes of the complete works. Giving it a low rating likewise seems like an act of ingratitude, given the work Davison did for so many years. (If I could shake his hand, I would.) The rating, then, should be interpreted in this case as ranking of priorities when reading Orwell (in which case it should be one star but it's impossible to give him that). Only read this if you're committed to reading every scrap the man wrote. (I am.) ... Read more

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""The City and the Island,"" ""Pretending to Be Asleep,"" ""Walking the Boundaries,"" ""A Voice in the Mountains,"" ""Barn Fever,"" ""Praying Wrong,"" ""The Great Ledge,"" and ""Harmonica."" Reprint. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Peter Davison Poems
If you enjoy this poet you will be amazed with this book.It contains most of his works throughout his life.It is an amazing tribute to this poet and the beauty and charm he expresses is inspiring.I am very happy to have this in my library. ... Read more

Product Description
The Glenans Sailing School has an international reputation for the quality of its teaching, and its instructors have combined their knowledge to produce this comprehensive manual of sailing. This new edition is expanded to include detailed instruction on windsurfing, sailing racing or cruising catamarans, sailboat engines and electrics, the theory of sailpower, and Atlantic and Mediterranean meteorology. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

great, but with a French accent
I found the book to be very helpful if a little too detailed. My only real complaint is that some of the French humor doesn't translate well into English, leading to some distracting prose.

Exhaustively thorough
This book has to be the most complete single book on sailing.Among the topics covered are sailboarding, fiberglass repair, and catamaran trim.The book does have a European bias, however, so the sections on weather and buoyage aren't as useful for an American audience as, say, those in the Annapolis book.It also has quirky sidebars, like how to make a collapsing log.It's an invaluable reference and a good read.

This is an excellent one-volume guide to practical sailing
The Glenans school has been teaching sailing since WWII, and the wealth of practical experience they have shows in this book.This is the best single volume on sailing that I have seen; it combines clear explanations of the physics behind sailing with a vast amount of hands-on knowledge.

For American readers, I will point out two caveats:firstly, in the chapter on meteorology, the book spends a fair amount of time discussing Mediterranean weather.Secondly, when discussing bouyage, the book uses the European system, which is different than the American one (the difference is explained in a sidebar.)

I highly recommend this book to any sailor. ... Read more

Product Description
"A beautiful and richly instructive book, a worthy and welcome sequel to Eileen Simpson's Poets in Their Youth."

Louis S. Auchincloss

An intimately perceptive account, by a poet who knew them all, of the brilliant circle of poets who lived and worked in Boston through the half-decade beginning in 1955. That was the year Peter Davison, coming to Boston as a book editor. was swept up in a world -- in a tumult -- of poetry. He rediscovered his father's old friend Robert Frost. He briefly squired Sylvia Plath. He came to know Robert Lowell (whose poems and private disasters dominated the period) and Adrienne Rich, Stanley Kunitz, Richard Wilbur. Anne Sexton, W. S. Merwin, and others who, closely bound together in friendship or rivalry or both, defined the shape of American poetry at mid-century Through their eves as well as his own, and often in their words, Davison presents a sharply fresh vision of the shift from confidence to a troubled questioning that overtook America -- a transformation that was, in a sense, foreshadowed in the sensibilities, in the writings, sometimes in the lives, of some of our finest poets. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Boston through the lens of its poets
After my wife and I first went to Boston, and before our second trip, I acquired and read this book. On the first trip we found ourselves, one grey afternoon, in the bar at the Ritz Carlton opposite Boston Common, having drinks. It had the atmosphere of something... but what? Now we know that Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton used to also go here for drinks after Robert Lowell's poetry classes. Wouldn't you have loved to have been a fly on the wall for those times.

This book is a fascinating recounting of those times and the many poets in Boston and Cambridge and their various relationships by one who was of that circle. Not a "tell-all", just human. People on their life journey. Interesting formative people. It can guide you on an alternative tour of the city and with a little imagination you can 'see' and feel what went on behind those walls from the time and the people who led one writer, I forget which, to say 'America did not enter the twentieth century until the 1960s.' These are among the formative ones and this is one of the places that led that to happen. You will see Boston differently after. And isn't that what makes any read worthwhile. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume brings together Orwell's powerful writings of his personal experiences of poverty and life outside mainstream society. The complete texts of "Down and out in Paris and London" is included. ... Read more

Product Description
Here in one volume are Robert Frost's first two collections of poetry. A Boy's Will (1913) is the book that introduced readers to Frost's unmistakable poetic voice, and North of Boston (1914) includes two of his most famous poems, "Mending Wall" and "Death of a Hired Man." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Not what I expected
The first half, "A Boy's Will," was better than the second, "North of Boston." ABW are romantic poems, about nature, love, and death, in the grand tradition of Wordsworth et al.They ostensibly follow the couse of a boy's life/coming of age.

The second half, or second book, I didn't like much.Most of the poems are hardly poems at all; they're more like short stories written with line breaks.Some of the stories/poems were interesting, some I just couldn't care about.There were a few more "poemy" poems, like Mending Wall and After Apple Picking, but they're the same poems you find in anthologies, so nothing much gained here.

I would guess that Frost published better books than these later in his career.

The beginnings
Robert Frost came into public view with "A Boy's Will" and "North of Boston," his first short collections of poetry. While Frost's "voice" is a bit unformed in these poems, the rich ponderings of nature and love are never stronger, full of "sun-saturated meadows," melancholy looks at life and death, and pearly streams.

"I should not be withheld but that some day/Into their vastness I should steal away," Frost announces in the first poem of "A Boy's Will." He follows up this statement with everything from eerie story-poems ("Love and a Question") to exultant ("A Prayer in Spring") to melancholy meditations on nature's beauty, love, and broken hearts.

"Something there is that doesn't love a wall," is the first line of one of Frost's more typical poems in "North of Boston," a nuanced work about neighbors rebuilding a wall between them. But then there are poems like "Death of the Hired Man," a long conversation between a man and his wife, about a former worker who has returned home to die. Another is just about a mountain, as told by a farmhand.

Poets take awhile to reach their peak, and Frost was still starting out in these books. That said, it's astounding how good he was even in his first volume of poetry (though at times the rhymes are a little too simple, and the subjects don't vary much). Most striking is Frost's passion -- his enthusiasm, sorrow and thoughts seem to spill off the page.

"A Boy's Will" and "North of Boston" are pretty different, though. The first collection is far less grounded, more ethereal and almost dreamy. Both possess Frost's exquisite phrasing ("A bead of silver water more or less/Strung on your hair won't hurt your summer looks") but the second focuses on more mundane things like hotels, farms and strangers. And more of the poems are long conversations, instead of meditations on nature and life. The first, however, has a poem about a moonlit search for a brook, the God Pan, and the stirring historical poem "In Equal Sacrifice," about Douglas carrying Robert the Bruce's heart to the Holy Land

On an emotional level, the poems are about equal -- "A Boy's Will" is beautifully written, while "North of Boston" is powerful. Some readers might not be thrilled about the conversational poems, which are mostly composed of two people talking in a rather grounded fashion. ("Stark?" he inquired. "No matter for the proof."/"Yes, Stark. And you?"/"I'm Stark." He drew his passport.) But it is quite intriguing to see Frost expanding his poetry and seeing what else he was capable of doing.

"A Boy's Will and North of Boston" encompasses the first two volumes of Robert Frost's classic poetry, and give a look at a poet expanding his talents and finding his unique voice.

Well worth having
Many budget-priced classics are poorly edited, with a forward or introduction that is little more than a token gesture.This edition of Frost's early work, comprising his first two publications, is a notable exception.The introduction by William Pritchard and the afterword by Peter Davison are both first-rate.The poems themselves are very fine and if you read them in sequence they give a real sense of the poet's development.It is also nice that they are in their original forms, including the glosses that Frost later removed.

With such fine editing, and at such a low price, this book is well worth having.

Some great Poems
The book is a collection of poems by Robert Frost. It combines the collections of A Boys Will, and North of Boston. Many of the poems were about nature, and love. I selected the book because I had read Robert Frost before and I liked his style, and I felt I could relate to some of the poems.Most of them had no riming scheme, and were written in sentences, or stanzas. There was one poem about Blueberries that I particularly enjoyed because I like picking them. I also liked it because some of the poems seemed to have a hidden meaning. I thought that Frost wrote discriptive ad imaginable language. I would recommend it to readers that are older than 13.I would also recommend it to readers who like reading about nature. And finally I would recommend it to anyone who has read Robert frost, and enjoyed his work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

an excellent selection, worth reading
farley mowat is special, no doubt about it:a wonderful way with words, just weaves them together, and his subjects are fascinating, intense, powerful, often quite humorous, and his looks into the human and natural world are worth sharing.if you like farley mowat, and have read anything by him before, or even not, this is a good sample selection of a great and multi-talented writer. ... Read more

Product Description
Prince Hal, the son of King Henry IV, spends his time in idle pleasure with dissolute friends, among them the roguish Sir John Falstaff. But when the kingdom is threatened by rebellious forces, the prince must abandon his reckless ways. Taking arms against a heroic enemy, he begins a great and compelling transformationfrom irresponsible reprobate to noble ruler of men. ... Read more

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Orwell's classic satire "Animal Farm" continues to be an international best seller. For the first time ever, "Orwell and Politics" brings this major work together with the author's other works exploring the nature of politics and the Second World War. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Fantastic collection of Orwell's most important essays
'Orwell And Politics' is essentially an abridged version of the 'Complete Works' collections, taking those letters, articles and essays dealing specifically with Orwell's political outlook. It's an important collection, because a surprising amount of Orwell's output had nothing to do with politics. 'Complete Works' and similar collections are fascinating for Orwell's thoughts on cricket, pubs, women's fashion, pheasants, crime fiction, and so on, but it's his political essays for which he is best known and read.

The book collects extracts from his newspaper columns, letters, book reviews, as well as stand-alone essays. It also contains `Animal Farm', described by the editors as "the work at which he most clearly succeeded" in defining his political outlook. `Animal Farm' is obviously one of the greatest books of the 20th century, but I wonder whether `The Road To Wigan Pier' might not have been a better choice for this collection. The second half of that book in particular would have fitted perfectly among the other essays here. The final section contains Orwell's infamous list of Communists and Fellow Travellers, and some commentary that debunks the myths surrounding it.

Highlights of the collection include:

* `The Lion And The Unicorn': Orwell's most explicit examination of why (and how) Socialism should be implemented in Britain.

* The two introductions to `Animal Farm': includes the original preface dealing with literary censorship, and a special introduction to the Ukrainian edition.

* `Politics and the English Language': Orwell's rendering of Ecclesiastes into Modern English is hilarious, and his comments regarding political spin and weasel-word arguments are even more relevant today. The genesis of Newspeak and large parts of `Nineteen Eighty Four' are clear here.

* His two essays on Ghandi: he notes the limitations of Ghandi's peaceful approach to protest, and wonders how it would work in a totalitarian state where dissenters are rounded up and never heard of again.

* `Benefit of Clergy': an essay on Salvador Dali. Explores whether we can appreciate something as art while simultaneously condemning it as morally deplorable, and why artists seem to be granted greater moral latitude purely because they make "good art".

Really, every essay is important in its own way, and the presentation of the material in chronological order allows us to follow the gradual development of Orwell's political ideas. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the essays is how relevant they are seventy years later. Many of Orwell's criticisms of political parties, media manipulation, "anti-war" activists, and re-interpretation of history, apply equally well in 2010 as 1940.

In all, this is a well-assembled collection of some of Orwell's most relevant and important essays.
... Read more

Product Description
Collected together for the first time, this volume includes the complete text of "The Road to Wigan Pier" - Orwell's vivid and impassioned documentary of unemployment and proletarian life - as well as Orwell's best writing on the political and social condition of England. ... Read more

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An examination of the poet's place in society as seen by a poet who is also a publisher.
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The techniques and approaches fostered in the first half of this century by what was called the 'New Bibliography' have spread throughout the world, developing and expanding in association with bodies such as the Bibliographical Society. The essays specially commissioned for this volume take 'New Bibliography' into the twenty-first century. They survey bibliographic and textual studies in some thirty fields, and include discussions of major issues and developments. Areas covered include manuscript studies and the analysis of handwriting; the physical characteristics of the book - its paper, type, and binding; enumerative and descriptive bibliography; incunabula, cartography, book illustration, book catalogues, and the Stationers' Company; bibliographical developments in the history of science, and in many countries - France, Germany, Italy, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, the British Provincial Book Trade, Japan and the Orient, Australia and New Zealand; developments in the theory and practice of editing texts (including biblical texts); the history of the book; and the implications of the computer for bibliography. An important feature of these essays is that each makes proposals for future research, ensuring the vitality of bibliography in the next half-century. Appearing at the time of the Bibliographical Society's centenary, the collection provides a landmark, taking stock of developments in what has become a vast and vital area of study, and mapping out its future parameters. ... Read more