ET Books

Originally a series of lectures from 1947-48, when the Romantics were held in something less than high literary esteem, this insightful volume did much to restore them to their rightful place as major poets. The emphasis is on the importance of the Imagination: in making full use of this uniquely human power, the Romantics felt that they contributed something new & illuminating to the experience of life, rather than simply providing pretty escapism.

Bowra begins with an examination of this visionary outlook, and then turns to specific examples: Blake's "Songs of Innocence and Experience," Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," and so on through the major Romantics & their heirs, such as Christina Rossetti & Swinburne. Each poet's work is explored with precision, empathy, intelligence, and clarity. Finally, he concludes with a finely balanced assessment of their overall achievement.

For those who love the Romantics, for those who wish to know more about them, for those who wonder why we should even care about such poetry, this book is indispensable. Most highly recommended!

The book I read was called Romeo and juliet.It was written by William Shakespear. Its a story of two yong lovers caught in the crossfire of a senseless family feud.The two families ,which is known as, the Capulets and the Montagues. They have been feuding forever. They don't even communicate. Juliet Capulet is supposed to get married soon and her father wants her to marry this one guy. She can't stand this man she is supposed to get married to. All of a sudden, she meets and falls in love with Romeo Montague. It was an outstanding book. I would highly recommend this book to people of all ages. Although, the only people who would understand this book would maybe be over the age of 12 or 14. It was written in the form of a play and the words are basically from the medievil times or earlier.

A feast for the eye is The Rothschild Gardens by Miriam Rothschild, Kate Garton, and Lionel de Rothschild.

With filial insight and love the granddaughter of the first Lord Rothschild presents a magnificently illustrated view of her family's private and public gardens yesterday and today.

This is an excellent addition to the Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia series. It is presented with great clarity, and the translations are very reliable. The introductory information to each set of texts provides useful context. The price is a deterrent for all but specialist readers, and I wonder if there was any reason why the size of the volume could not have been reduced by reducing the number of pages with so much blank space.

But overall, a very valuable reference tool for Near Eastern specialists.

This is part 4 of the 12 part saga by Van Hamme and Vance. The success of this comic book has been incredible in Europe. It is unfortunate that this genre is not getting a better grip on the US market, because I will trade Superman and Co. for Jason Mac Lane (aka XIII, the main caracter) any day.

The story reaches the complexity of the best thrillers (it is actually based on "the Bourne Identity" by Ludlum), and the fans are as crazy about it as Star War freaks.

The Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series is just wonderful; it's like a "Cliff Note" of the opera, and extremely informative and educational. I particularly like the size; these guides are not cumbersome and fit right into my shirt pocket. The ladies will find sufficient room in their pocketbooks.

The story narrative with the music examples is excellent. I prefer it to a libretto; indeed, it's a much easier way to follow the essence of the story. The essay is magnificent; very well written, not pedantic, and extremely insightful and comprehensible. I congratulate Burton Fisher for a job very well done and Amazon for making these handy, information-laden booklets available. The Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series is a wonderful contribution to opera education and opera appreciation.

My tip: acquire the entire collection because you will be in easy reach of superbly presented opera guides consisting of story analysis, principal characters in the opera, story narrative with music highlights, background, analysis, and commentary.

Heinz Dinter, Ph.D.

I was blown away by this book ! It's amazing poetry filled with resounding images and great metaphorical feats. I heve been reading Canadian poetry for years, but this is the first I really was moved to tears by a poet.

This book is very factual and easy reading. As, I read the book it was like the author was telling a story. It was written with great style and respect for all countries of the world. I recommend the use of this book in history classes and as a coffee table item or to go on a collectors bookshelf. Enjoy this fully packed factual book. The book is indexed in a great user-friendly fashion.

I first used this book as the primary text when I was a student in a 3000-level French phonetics and pronunciation course in college. It begins with a detailed explanation of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and how the symbols represent the sounds of French. Along with this are graphics of the speech organs (mouth, nasal cavity, articulators) showing where each sound is produced.

There are many exercises in chapter one (and the appendix) to familiarze you with the use of IPA, including IPA-to-French transcribing exercises and vice versa. (Unfortunately, there are no answer keys in the book for the exercises.)

Chapter two goes on to cover things like liason, accent, rhythm, and intonation (la prosodie), and the difference between vowels and semi-vowels.

Chapter three focuses entirely on vowel sounds.

Chapter four details nasal vowels.

Chapter five is about "le E muet."

Chapter six returns to the particulars of semi-vowels.

Chapter seven is about consonants (sub-sections are occlusives, fricatives, liquides, nasales, la lettre H, et consonnes ecrites finales).

Each chapter includes oral practice examples to refine your pronunciation and to draw your attention to the subtle differences between pronunciations. For example:
--mes/mais
--et/est
--lecteur/lecture
--abandonne/abandon
--rein/rend/rond

As a teacher of French, I use this book often when I need to look up a rule or an exception. It is a wonderful reference book. If you are not familiar with IPA, this book may not be right for you just yet. If you know IPA or use this book as a course textbook, keep it on your shelf to use when tricky pronunciations have you guessing.

It is written entirely in French, but when I first used it as an upper division college level French student I had no problems with comprehension.

This textbook is great. It has many different topics and review pages to, of course, review the chapter. This i the science textbook my school uses and I just love it.