literature

So many people concentrate on De Profundis' accusations cast towards Alfred Douglas. Yes, it's true that the letter was written to him and that Wilde is ruthless in letting Douglas know exactly what he thinks of him but that's not why De Profundis is a great piece of work. It is great for three reasons. Number one - It contains the best account of the life of Christ. Christ as the romantic artist is the only account that has moved me to tears and the only account I can personally embrace. Number two - it is chock full of the Oscar Wilde voice and wit and as a result it reverbates as a true work of art and number three - It is ultimately a work that celebrates the things in life worth feeling - failure, love, injustice, strength and forgiveness.

Don't waste your time with the accusations towards Douglas. He is unimportant. Oscar Wilde is what's important and De Profundis is Oscar Wilde bare.

Not actually a "letter," though it had to be originally presented as such for him to be allowed to write it while in prison, *De Profundis* is Wilde's masterpiece--one has to have really lived and really, really suffered to have written it and it's amazing that he achieved it.

I only very recently read it--and "got" it. It rings true to me, and is very, very moving and "profound." It ain't summer beach reading.

Wilde is still and will probably always be best known as a "Personality"--that and the author of a couple of decent period plays, a short novel, a few stories, and lots of forgettable poems and such. But THIS--THIS is IT.

He really WAS a great writer, it turns out, after all.

One of the most famous - and infamous - letters in all of literature, De Profundis is a strange little piece of work: either much more than it appears on the surface, or much less. It is something I think everyone should read, if only for its insight into the human character, particularly that of one under great personal suffering. Wilde wrote this extraordinarily long letter from prison to Lord Alfred Douglas, his friend, lover, and the man who - by all accounts - was the reason Wilde was in jail in the first place. Despite repeated assertions in the first few pages alone to the contrary, Wilde seems reluctant to blame himself. He clearly blames Douglas to the hilt, and harbors a certain bitter resentment towards him. And yet... he clearly still hold much dear affection toward - and even loves - Douglas. He still seems to be asking for forgiveness - despite the fact that, by all accounts hardly excluding his own, he was the man wronged. It is quite clear from reading this letter that, desite the view history holds of him, Wilde was clearly a man of very high moral character. Certainly, one would not put Wilde atop a pedastal as the zenith of ethics - he himself says that morals contain "absolutely nothing" for him, and clearly admits - and is proud of - his having lived the high life to the hilt during his youth - but Wilde was a man of principles, and he stuck to those principles to the tragic, bitter end. Perhaps you might say he carried them too far. One gets the sense in reading this letter - or a biography of Wilde - that, not only could he have stopped his immiment imprisonment, but could have severed his ties with Douglas completely - had he wanted to. Apparently, he had his own utterly compelling reasons for not doing so. Whatever the case, Oscar Wilde is one of the most fundamentally and perpetually interesting characters in the whole of history. A self-described man of paradoxes - Wilde was subsequently the true essence of his time, while also being far ahead of his time - De Profundis makes for required reading by one of the most endlessly fascinating individuals you'll ever read about, and also provides a startling - indeed, perhaps too much so - insight into human nature.

De Profundis, though long for a letter, is not a long work in the conventional sense. Consequently, as many editions of Wilde's collected works are available, buying this on its own may be deemed questionable. I highly reccommend purchasing a Collected Works of Oscar if you have not done so already - it's well worth the price - but, should you desire to have more compact editions of specific works, an edition such as this will be privy to your needs.

Hermann Broch's The Death of Virgil revolves about the poet's wish to burn his masterpiece, The Aeneid, and creates out of his signified keen senses and heightened perceptions a rich vision, with full actuality, the religious, philosophical and political impulses of the time. The novel should be read as an epic poem in four parts (water, fire, earth, air) that parallel to four movements of a symphony in which the manner of the theme and variations of each successive part serves as some kind of commentary and reiteration on the parts that have preceded it.

The book is arduous in reading, strenuous in contemplating the richly lyrical prose. Woven and sifted throughout are reflections and perceptions of Virgil's febrile yet lucid thoughts in such rocking rhythms that illuminate, to the full actuality, the macabre sensation of the drifting journey on which the poet is being carried by the bark of death. Death's signet was graved upon his brow. The epic closely accounts for the last 24 hours of Virgil's life as soon as the near-death poet returns to Rome from Athens. The uninterrupted flow of lyrical speculation begins at the port of Brundisium where the bark docks, lingers in the mental suspension between life and death, between the "no longer alive" and "not yet dead", and ends with the journey to death, to nothingness, to a dimension of non-recollection and stillness.

Truth seems to be the recurring theme. The notion of truth is being illuminated and brought to full elaboration through the repeating insistence of reflections on life, death, memory, knowledge, perception, and philosophy. As the poet approached death, he admits with bitterness and cold sobriety that he has pursued a worthless, wretched literary life. The Aeneid, which is acclaimed by Caesar and to whom it is dedicated, has been a mere indulgence of beauty, self-sufficiently limited to the embellishment of concepts long since conceived, formed, and known, without any novel contribution in it. The truth of artistic inadequacies, lack of perceptions, thirst for superficialities, and egotism yields the decision to mock his works. Despite Caesar's effort to cajole Virgil, the poet comments that he lacks the perception, to which he never takes the first step, and yet nobody has ever attained the knowledge of truth of such perception.

The stream of consciousness technique renders the poet's final hours to the full actuality. In fact, Virgil regards death as the most significant event of his life (perception and knowledge of truth?) and is full of anxiety lest he miss it. His sense of time seems to be warped and each passing second has grown to some immense, throbbing, empty space which is not to be linked. The body and its human qualities are denuded and are stripped to the naked soul with the most naked guilt. For Virgil, death is part of life and the understanding of death enlightens meaning of life. Strong than death and the shackle of time is fate, in which the final secret of time lay hidden. It is for this very secret of time (and death) that the suspense and tension of the book not being thwarted.

The conversations are reproductions of external events and actual dialogues (Aeneid, Georgics, Eclogue, Horace Carmina) and their inclusion into the book's inner monologue (the narrative seems to have proceeded in the third person but soon has discerned that narrative constitutes to an inner monologue made up of Virgil's dreams, reflections, visions, and delusions) gains them an abstract touch. The flow of the book presses on through various tempi according to the degree of Virgil's consciousness. The more headlong the tempo (which usually occurs during Virgil's conversations with his friends, attendants, and Caesar), the shorter the sentence. The slower the tempo becomes, the more complicated the sentence structure (i.e. Part 2 - Fire). Virgil's reflections and musings manifest some interminable, richly lyrical prose that mirrors the dying poet's thoughts and ravings.

The writing also deftly alludes to the religious impulse at the time of Virgil. Talks of the coming of salvation bringer prevail in Virgil's conversations with Caesar, who denies the need of such salvation. In various occasions Virgil forebodes the coming of a savior who will not only live in the perception, but in his being the world will be redeemed to truth, whom will conquer death and bring himself to the sacrifice out of love for men and mankind, transferring himself by his own death into the deed of truth. Virgil's audacious statement signifies the turning point in history, the crisis of the godless era between the no longer antiquity and the net yet of Christianity.

From Broch's own words, nothing is really "reported or perceived" in the book but what "penetrates the invisible web of sensual data, fever visions and speculations." The richness of the writing and its lyrics sharpens the contours of the concrete and brings to full actuality Virgil's musings and memories. It's a strenuous, challenging read that requires undivided concentration. 5.0 stars.

Hermann Broch began writing this book under extraordinary circumstances as a prisoner in a German concentration camp in World War II. What emerged from that horrifying experience is one of the preeminent literary works of the 20th century.

The book is about Virgil's infamous deathbed request that his magnum opus, The "Aeneid," be burned because it was imperfect. Most of the book is told in a dazzling but recondite stream-of-consciousness mode, but the best section is Virgil's deathbed discussion with Caesar Augustus.

Broch invokes 20th century ideals such as the "authenticity" of art as a mirror to the natural world. We also encounter the dilemma of works of art that are incomplete & not polished completely. Aristotle said that in a perfect art work, every word contributes to the organic whole. Arbitrarily remove or add one word, says Aristotle, and the whole work comes crumbling down. Virgil uses this motif as his justification for wishing his beloved poem burned. Juxtaposed with this paradigm are the pleadings of Augustus that it is Virgil's duty as a Roman citizen to let his poem be read by all the world. After all, the literary excursion was to be Rome's national epic. The scene is, unmistakably, magnificent.

A considerable amount of background reading is required before attempting to take on this work. At a bare minimum, read the entire canon of Virgil, especially the "Aeneid." A workable familiarity of Roman history up until and including Augustus is necessary and a biography of Virgil (I would recommend Peter Levi's) would also be helpful. I am a fairly well-read guy, but some of the allusions went over my head.

The stream-of-consciousness style is interesting, but can make the book rather dense. Many of the sentences go on for pages and pages. The book attempts to capture the free-thought attributes of the machinery of Virgil's mind. An engrossing work of prose.

"Burn the Aeneid" Virgil instructs his friends from his deathbed. Broch, as Dante did before him, uses Virgil as a spiritual guide in this exploration of the metaphysical and moral imagination. Here, the dying poet, reflects feverishly, consciously transcending his decaying form into the infinite universe-- and despairs of hope, as his sheltering idealism is confronted with the reality of human existence, the limits and futility of his understanding. Virgil's trust in a civilized humane society, one that, at its source, springs from the individual's seeking of beauty, freedom and wisdom, disintegrates, into one represented by the predations of the mob of the streets of Rome, as does his confidence in the Aeneid, his opus. A dialogue on the fate of the Aeneid ensues between Virgil and Augustus, forming a complex debate on art and government. Virgil defends the purity of the perceived world as metaphor, free of the allusions of art; Augustus proposes the nobility of art as symbol for government. A delicate lattice of oppositions and constructive contradictions braces the book. This is, though, ultimately, a story of the human journey, a struggle with darkness and doubt, reconciliation, and a rise to salvation. The remarkable final section has the celestial translucence of 'Paradiso'. The Death of Virgil is among a handful of true literary masterpieces this century whose reach, that of the entire compass of human impulse, consciousness and conscience, has equalled its grasp. It is a work of intellectual and spiritual adventure. Broch orchestrates an inquiry and fugue, sombre and passionate, into life, encompassed in a sensuous poetic oration-- and Virgil continues to cast his spell on the divine and the aesthetic order, employed by masters to illuminate our deepest perplexities and aspirations.

Another great Eye-Openers book! My two-year old is crazy about construction vehicles, and he cannot get enough of this book. We read it constantly, and he is mesmerized. Each page features an excellent photo of a construction vehicle and labels the different parts of the vehicle. Additionally, each page gives the main function of the construction vehicle in a few short sentences. This is a great teaching tool, and my son loves every minute we spend with it.

My littly guy has always loved trucks. I got this for him before he could talk and he always picked it for his good night book. Then as he got older he memorized the pages and knew if I skipped. For a couple of months it was put away. Now, he reads it to me. It's been around for years, just wipes off if it needs cleaning, and I'm sure it will continue to be a favorite. It has grown with him.

My son loves everything to do with planes,trains, and automobiles. I purchased this book while shopping and it was something my son picked up and I could not get him to put down. It is, however, one of the best truck books we own. Each page shows a large picture of a construction vehicle with an acurate description of what each vehicle does and which parts do what. There are also picture insets of certain important parts and each vehicle at work. My son usually has to take this book to bed and it keeps him entertained until I can get to him in the morning. If your son or daughter love trucks this is a definate "MUST HAVE"!

This book deserves five stars because it includes lots of information. It isn't as easy or funny as the lessons, but it's still really good

My daughter received a copy of this book as part of a cotillion class. She has reviewed various sections of the book as different social situations have presented themselves. The book is written with a young person in mind; it is concise, funny when appropriate, and answers a lot of questions the kids might not even know they have yet. As a mom, I found it very helpful not only in teaching my child the rudimentaries of etiquette, but in providing me with a refresher course for both business and personal situations. I have also found it extremely helpful for the dance steps; the combination of the written instruction and the ubiquitous feet make it easy to learn a new dance.

Reviewed by ATH, age 12: I thought that the book was excellent! It explained many hard-to-understand topics pertaining to etiquette rules. After reading this book, you will have no more questions about manners and will never feel uncomfortable at parties. This easy-to-read and understand book tells you everything you need to know about etiquette and more!(Tips on dressing, dancing, manners, etc.) It is a good value for the money since you can keep it and refer to it whenever you have a question. I highly recommend this book to anyone over the age of 11.

Remember those days of who-likes-whom? who-wants-to-date-whom? How do you stand up for what you belive in without losing your friends? If you are past those days, this book will take you back. If you haven't been there yet, this book will get you ready. Filled with authentic middle school characters, feelings, and dialogue, Frankie Murphy's Kiss List will make you wish that you had friends like Travis, Annie, Marcus and Penelope. Once I started it, I couldn't put it down.

It all started with a normal day. When this boy Franky Murphy came to town. He kept on talking about that where he lived was better than Harpersville. So one day this boy Travis decided to made a bet. Then Travis bet on that Franky had to kiss all the girls in the class. So they made a list with all the girls names. Then the fun started to begin.Well, you will just have to read this book for yourself to find out what happens. This book was a funny book to read and anyone could read it.

One day in school Frankiy is so caught up in his bragging that Travis is fed up with it. He comes up with a plan, while Frankiy is saying I bet I've kissed over 200 girls back in Phily. So Travis says I bet that you can not kiss all the girls in our class by the end of the year. At the End Franky Kiss's all but Annie, Travis bestfriend. He know that Annie would not kiss Frankiy or let Frankiy kiss her. At the end of the year party. Penilope Finchester makes the buttons, the one for the boys says I'VE BEEN A SIXTH GRADE JERK and the girls says FRANKIY MURPHY IS THE WORLDS WORST KISSER. Frankiy said he want not put one on, but the other boys do. I think that Travis was cool, Frankiy was a JERK, Annie is cool, Molly is goot a obssetion on pink and yellow. Allsion is Molly's copycat. Pinilope is different. That is my review. This is a good book to read I liked it a lot.

We were acquainted with the Crystal Palace Park dinosaurs from the Walking with Dinosaurs Discovery Channel special (my son watched it dozens of times), so this book piqued our interest immediately. The history of the man behind the models was fascinating, and is told in such a way as to keep even very young readers interested. The marvelous illustrations also keep little eyes riveted. When we traveled to England this year, we made a point of going to the Crystal Palace Park and seeing the dinosaurs first hand. You cannot get as close to the dinosaurs as I expected, but it was still very exciting to see these historic models. We impressed the park guides with our knowledge that was gained from this childrens book. I heartily recommend this book for dinosaur or history lovers, and I recommend a trip to Crystal Palace Park if you are ever in London.

There are very few biographies out there for young children that capture their interest. My 8 year old daughter chose this book for her biography book report, was entranced by it and by the subject -- Bejamin Waterhouse Hawkins.
Surprisingly I was also intigued by the book, found the illustrations magnificent and the story "stranger than fiction". Kudos!

I purchased this as a gift for my four year old Grandson and found myself fasinated with the book. The story, although true, was new to me. I was entranced with not only the narrative but also the great and colorful art work. This is a book for all ages and I predict it will become a classic for those of us who marvel at the number of and various sizes of the different dinosaurs. A perfect gift for that Dinosaur-loving Child in your life.
Beverly J Scott author of Righteous Revenge

Hopkinson has written a clever picture book incorporating tasty recipes, but take the details of Fannie Farmer's life with a grain of salt. Hopkinson has altered the facts to serve her story.

Farmer's first cookbook was an update of a cookbook, written by one of her predecessors at the Boston Cooking School, which already incorporated precise measurement using standard measuring cups and spoons. Farmer's contribution was "level" measurement (as suggested by Marcia) and kitchen-testing of all the recipes by the school's students and faculty.

Read "Fannie in the Kitchen" to your child as an introduction to Fannie Farmer. Then read "Perfection Salad" by Laura Shapiro to learn the true story.

I am an educator who likes to use historical fiction with elementary students. Students love the story of FANNIE IN THE KITCHEN, and we have also used the book to talk about how cooking has changed over the years. I bring in old kitchen utensils from antique stores to show them. (Many kids can't identify a sifter, to say nothing of a butter mold! And when was the last time you saw a doughnut cutter??) We also use the book as a jumping off point to talk about math and measurements.

Although this is clearly a humourous, fictionalized take-off on a footnote to history, students and I also enjoy talking about how young Marcia must adjust to change, as her mother has a new baby. The way the illustrator depicts the developing relationship between Marcia and Fannie is delightful.

As the author note states, Fannie Farmer was one of the first to recommend precise measurements in cooking. What a fun way for kids to be introduced to this 19th century figure

Kids might have seen the Fannie Farmer Cookbook in the kitchen but never known that Fannie Farmer was a real person. This is an obviously fictionalized story, but it does include some actual quotes from Farmer's early cookbook. Nancy Carpenter's illustrations combine Victorian clip art with her own drawings. Not a biography, but a fun introduction to the name of Fannie Farmer and a story about how a young girl gains confidence in the kitchen.

Published in 1892, La Debacle (sometimes translated as The Downfall), is the penultimate novel in Zola's great twenty-novel Rougon-Macquart cycle. As each volume is independent, there is no particular merit in reading them in order. Together, they present a comprehensive vista of nineteenth-century France in very much the same way that Sinclair Lewis was to portray American society, a generation later.

If you are new to Zola, I recommend you start with Germinal, the most accessible book in the series and widely acknowledged to be Zola's greatest work. The Debacle ranks as one of the great war stories of all time. Set in the Franco-Prussian War and its aftermath, the days of the Paris Commune, it is also that rarest of things, a successful political novel. (For the record, I nominate Under Fire by Henri Barbusse as the greatest war story I have read).

In this book, Zola demonstrates his characteristic understanding of human nature. In particular, he gives a compelling depiction of the profound closeness that can develop between comrades-in-arms on active service.

Although it is marred by Zola's tendency to repeat himself - in all his books, he tends to light on a word or phrase which he flogs to death through the course of the story - and some episodes are slow-paced, it is nonetheless a fine piece of writing. Full of humane wisdom and keen insight, it is a moving and memorable masterpiece.

Written in 1891, Émile Zola's classic The Debacle, provides a ground level interpretation of what it is like see one's homeland suffer military defeat, foreign occupation and internal revolution. The Debacle covers the disastrous Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 from the French viewpoint. Indeed, Zola's novel is strikingly divergent from most late-19th Century European views of warfare, which saw conflict through the prism of personal glory and national aggrandizement. This is an exceedingly grim novel, without the slightest glimmer of hope for any of the characters. Zola depicts war in all its brutal fury, including battle, arson, murder, looting, children abandoned, treachery, and starvation. Indeed, the four horsemen of the apocalypse always seem close at hand in The Debacle, and usually preceded by large doses of despair and anguish.

The Debacle consists of three sections: "the trap," which covers the frontier battles between 6-30 August 1879; "the disaster," which covers the Battle of Sedan on 1-2 September 1870; and "the aftermath," which covers the period September 1870 - May 1871. Only inadequate maps and a tendency to overuse British colloquial expressions mar the Penguin edition of Zola's classic.

The main military characters in the novel are part of a company in the 106th Infantry Regiment/2nd Division/7th Corps in Alsace. Jean represents "the reasonable, solid, peasant part" of France, while Maurice represents "the silly, crazy part which had been spoilt by the Empire, unhinged by dreams and debauches." Most of the enlisted troops are presented as mercurial - brave, hard working and stoic one moment, or lazy, undisciplined and complaining the next. Certainly Zola sees the poor discipline of French troops, who discard weapons and equipment on marches, as evidence that the French Army had declined in quality from the legendary Grande Armée. The reputation of the French army of 1870 was based on a legend that it could no longer live up to, and this army marched to Sedan, "like a herd of cattle lashed by the whip of fate."

French officers, particularly at the company level were actually quite good, most of whom had risen through the ranks. Zola depicts Lieutenant Rochas, a stalwart veteran of 27 years, as typical of "the legendary French trooper going through the world between his girl on one side and a bottle of good wine on the other, conquering the world singing ribald choruses." French officers are depicted as ignorant but brave, fed on the legends of Napoleonic military invincibility. As the Battle of Sedan enters its final moments, Rochas stands, "flabbergasted and wild-eyed, having understood nothing so far about the campaign, he felt himself being enveloped and carried away by some superior force he could not resist anymore, even though he went on with his obstinate cry - Courage lads, victory is just around the corner." Even Captain Beaudoin, a bit of a fop, is able to display stoic bravery as his leg is amputated. Colonel de Vineuil, the regimental commander, is brave and imperturbable but little else. Higher level commanders are portrayed as more interested in their own comfort and careers than the welfare of the troops or the nation.

There is certainly no glory in Zola's depiction of war. The battle for Bazeilles is particularly grim, and Zola has a knack for phrases like, "destruction was now completing its work, and nothing was left but a charnel house of scattered limbs and smoking ruins." It was also unusual for a 19th Century war novel to depict what happened to casualties and Major Bouroche's aid station in Sedan is painted in the starkest, bloodstained terms. Most conventional histories of the war shift to the Siege of Paris after the surrender at Sedan, failing to note what happened to the 80,000 French prisoners of war. Zola gives the reader a vivid depiction of the suffering of these troops who were crammed into a small, disease-infested area, with no food for over a week.

Zola sees the debacle as a crime - "the murder of a nation." - with Emperor Napoleon III merely awaiting fate. Who was responsible for the crime? Through the civilian Delaherche, the capitalist, Zola points to opposition politicians in the legislature for failing to provide enough funds for military preparedness. At the grunt level, the troops blame their division and corps commanders - "the whole absence of any plan or energetic leadership were precipitating the disaster." Zola also points to the collapse of the French logistic system early in the war, which left troops unfed and short of ammunition, as attributable to shoddy staff work and a spastic command and control system. After the first defeats on the frontier, pessimism rapidly replaces blind optimism in the French ranks and a sense of the inevitability of defeat develops. Maurice concludes that, "we were bound to be beaten on account of causes the inevitable results of which were plain for all to see, the collision of unintelligent bravery with superior numbers and cool method."

Are there lessons for modern readers in Zola's 112-year old novel? Certainly an obvious point that Zola hammers home through his characters is that national security should be based on realistic assessments of one's own strengths and weaknesses, and not based merely on past reputations. While the French military was given the physical tools for modern war - the chassepot rifle and the mitrailleuse - the upper leadership did not possess the intellectual or emotional stamina for modern warfare. Zola also makes points about the nuts and bolts of foreign military occupation and military government that are just as relevant today in Baghdad as they were in Sedan. Finally, while Zola waffles on whether or not war is a "necessary evil," he certainly makes the point that given its inherently high cost in human suffering that it should only be embarked upon for reasons of national survival, and not merely to satisfy the whims of an opportunistic politician.

War has served as the back drop of many literary masterpieces: The Illiad, War and Peace, The Red Badge of Courage, All Quiet on the Western Front, Catch-22. Zola's "La Debacle," set during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, is every bit as good as these classics. Yet, somehow, this piece seems to have been dropped from the list of war novel classics.

Zola spent 20 years researching the conflict in great detail and his novel is as faithful to historical fact as any ever written. Few military defeats have been as sudden, unanticipated, complete and humiliating as the French collapse in 1870. Zola captures the demoralizing effect that the vertiginous orders and counter-orders had on the French troops in the early phases of the war. A complete lack of planning and mobilization plans, along with inefficient communications and intelligence services, led to scattered units marching aimlessly in search of the enemy without food or shelter and without any general plan of operations. The French were truly defeated before ever making contact with the Prussians. La Debacle is as a good an illustration of the "fog of war" as any I've read.

Octavio Paz, describe a Mexico, al Mexicano y al Latinoamericano desde su realacion con la soledad y por ello con el resto de sus semejantes. Un libro que vale la pena leer, aunque no siempre se este de acuerdo con el planteamiento del autor. El tema invita a la reflexion sobre lo que somos y como influimos en el destino de nuestras naciones.

Aunque no estes de acuerdo con todas las ideas de Octavio Paz, las reflexiones y los analisis de esta mente birllante ayudan a entender nuestra magnifica raza. La escritura lleva al lector al pasado y al presente, para poder entender la condicion de Mexico y su gente. Todos los Mexicanos deberian de sentarse a devorar este libro que clarificara las costumbres de nuestra gente y nos ayuda a entender que tiene que cambiar en nuestra politica para tener un pais mas prospero.

Este libro está formado por tres partes: dos ensayos -el primero escrito en los años cincuenta, el segundo, Postdata, en 1975- y una entrevista que le hacen a Paz en 1979 a propósito de los anteriores.

Pasados casi los 50 años en que Paz predice que nos plantearemos preguntas nuevas, "El Laberinto de la Soledad" sigue hoy tan vigente para los mexicanos como cuando se escribió. Comienza el autor describiendo a los mexicanos tal y como somos, al méxico-norteamericano o Pachuco, pero también nos muestra a los norteamericanos, sobretodo cómo los vemos nosotros.

Encontramos explicadas muchas facetas de nuestra sociedad y de nuestro ser; por ejemplo, la mentira, que en nuestro país es ya institucional y en la que nos movemos con naturalidad y que ha propiciado entre otros desastres la falsificación de la historia que aprendemos en la escuela y la longevidad del sistema político que padecemos.

Encontramos descripciones de fiestas populares, donde el autor nos recuerda esa verdad de que los países ricos no tienen fiestas populares porque no las necesitan. Es cierto, en la India, por ejemplo, las fiestas populares son muy importantes, pero ¿qué fiestas populares se festejan en los Estados Unidos?. Nos dice Paz que los mexicanos gritan desaforadamente durante una hora en la fiesta en que se recuerda el "grito" de Independencia para callar mejor el resto del año, la típica resignación del pueblo mexicano. También nos explica la manera como celebramos los "días de muertos". La relación de los mexicanos con la muerte es muy especial, difícil de entender para otras culturas. El mexicano desprecia a la muerte, a la vez la venera y piensa que cada quien recibe la muerte que se busca.

Más adelante compara situaciones históricas de México, como la Revolución y la Reforma, sabiamente nos hace ver que las revoluciones no se hacen con palabras, ni las ideas se implantan con decretos. Analiza grandes personajes como José Vasconcelos y Alfonso Reyes.

Hay especialmente unas páginas del libro, que me gustaría que leyeran los políticos actuales de México. Nos explica cómo se convirtieron en profesionales de la política, cómo el banquero sucede al general revolucionario y por qué existen diferencias atroces entre los ricos y los desposeídos, es decir, desequilibrio.

En "Postdata" trata de explicar los hechos sangrientos del 68, ubicándolos en un contexto mundial y nacional. Nos habla de la realidad que se vivía en esos años: cómo se estaba desarrollando el país y hasta cómo la televisión mexicana "anestesiaba" al público con su programación. Profetiza que la debilidad del mercado interno paralizaría el desarrollo si el gobierno no hacía algo y que a medida que la crisis política se enconara el poder del PRI dependería de la fuerza física de las armas. La realidad que vivimos en 1997 hace superfluo cualquier otro comentario.

"Vuelta a El labertinto de la soledad" explica y complementa las dos obras anteriores.

La verdad es que ¡qué buena prosa escriben los poetas!. Este libro, además de la profundidad de los pensamientos que expone, es un gusto de leer por su lenguaje, sus expresiones, en fin, la manera que tiene de expresar sus teorías.

Octavio Paz nació en 1914. En 1990 recibió el Premio Nobel de Literatura. De esta obra el mismo autor nos dice que es una declaración, no un tratado de sociología.

Lytton Strachey, a member of the Bloomsbury group, altered the way biographies were written with this volume of four well-known Victorians. At the time the book was published, it skewered the hypocrisies and self-assured nature of the Victorians. Even today, when we are so far removed from the Victorian age that it seems quaint and even attractive, this book's attack on the deadening effect of much of that time still rings true. And it is as readable now as it was then; Strachey was one of the wittiest men of his time, and this book is his most successful work. Interestingly, he became less iconoclastic as he grew older, and his later biography of Queen Victoria (not one of the four figures contained in Eminent Victorians) is rather respectful. If you enjoy this book (and almost anyone would), you might want to try to see the movie released several years ago titled "Carrington." It is based on a biography of Strachey by Milchael Holroyd, but is told from the point of view of a woman who fell hopelessly in love with Strachey; unfortunately for her, he was a confirmed homosexual, but she loved him anyway. Emma Thompson plays the title roal and Jonathan Pryce is an excellent Strachey.

Eminent Victorians has been on my 'to read' list for about 20 yrs, and I'm so glad I finally got around to it. Perhaps Lytton Strachey was the first to create "the new biography," not wrapping his subjects in flowery adjectives as was the style of his times, but instead skewering them with sarcastic and scathingly funny written portraits. And, as he seemed on intimate terms with Everyone Who Was Anybody during the early 1900s, his book created quite a stir. Far from confining his critiques to people, Strachey also lambasted the stilted mores, the hypocrisy, and the severely limiting lines of social strata of his era.
Although it's dated, of course, Eminent Victorians makes terrific reading for anyone interested in that era before everything changed with the First World War.

Most of us here in the old "colony" have probably never heard of General Gordon. For Brits, he's a legendary eccentric military man of the late 1800's who died a hero in terrible circumstances.(At least that's what I think many Brits think..) After a brilliant career in many parts of the vast Empire, and beyond, Gen Gordon was sent to control some Islamic revolutionary jihadist types (sound familiar) led by a charismatic Mahdi (messiah). By all accounts the general was a man worthy of this assignment, and brought his small force to Khartoum to free the slaves, and rally the locals...The rest is bizarre and insane in the extreme with the good general suffering breakdowns of sorts, including having dinner with some rodent friends...When word gets to London, after political maneuvering and bickering, the people damand an expeditionary force to save Gordon and his men.Too late!! A great tragedy ensues. If there's a better short bio out there than this one, I'd read it ASAP...Florence Nightingale has a great story too, and her experiences show once again the horrors of war (this time the earlier Crimean one), and indifference of the comfortable few sitting at home by the fireplace in willful ignorance. No doubt she was a force to be reckoned with, and her ideas about clean hospitals and nursing helped change the world...This book is recommended to those looking for a different historical perspective on current events, and for nurse everywhere! The other two bios are good, but may be put aside for later.