One of the greatest childrens stories of all time : This book was a favorite of mine in my childhood, and, when I returned as an adult to re-read it to my own daughter, I discovered it all over again. <p> This is a story about a different kind of princess than one might imagine; a princess that is an orphan – lonely, cold, hungry and abused. Sara Crewe begins life as the beloved, pampered daughter of a rich man. When he dies a pauper, sh ...
This book is a treasure chest of 19th century bushcraft, hunting, and trapping methods that can be and are still useful today. Some of the hunting and trapping techniques may be considered illegal today and one can make more money off of trapping today but then again in 1881 there were no income taxes and the dollar was still on the gold standard. <p> $10.00 for an otter pelt was not bad, but still, if fur companies paid for furs back th ...
Still relevant. The font of late Roman and medieval history : Historians love revision. Its why so few histories of the 19th century endure; new evidence and interpretations render them useless. <p> Why, then, is The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire timeless? The author wasnt a post-modernist man trapped in an Enlightenment body; Gibbon had no conception of social history or archeology, his 18th century idea that climate affects mora ...
A wonderful resource : This book contains stories from a thousand years of Irish history, as drawn from primary sources. <p> Well written and informative. A good collection of original texts from Ireland. Especially useful after reading a good ancient Irish History book. <p> This is a wonderful resource. I have read many books on Irish history, and it is great to be able read about select episodes as written about by people who ...
Radical even in the 21st century : Composed long before there were rules about what a novel is supposed to look like, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy is a visionary piece of literature, a book so original in construction it almost defies genre. Conceived by an Anglican vicar who, under the comic influence of Rabelais and Swift and equally informed by Cervantes and Shakespeare, turned to writing fiction later in his life, it is an inadve ...
One of Twains Greatest! : This book–at times disjointed, rambling, self-referential, and irreverent–is decades ahead of its time. Its an interdisciplinarians dream as Twain takes on economics, geography, politics, ancient and contemporary history, and folklore with equal ease. Mostly though, one appreciates his knack for exaggeration, the tall tale, and the outright lie. Its a triumph of tone, as he lets you in on his wild wit, his keen observat ...
Fascinating ancient treatise on the nature of Love: in many pieces of ancient Roman and Greek literature you will come away greatly surprised at how these 2000 to 3000-year old cultures were so similar to ours in many ways. Well, Platos dialogue The Symposium both re-affirms and counters these past impressions. <p> The Symposium investigates the nature of romantic Love. What is it? From where does it arise? What is the aim of Love? What ...
More Than A Book – The Continuing Adventures of a Friend: Anne of the Island is no less wonderful than the books preceeding it or following it. Like all the books, it has a blend of humour and poignancy; joy and sorrow. The key drawcards of the Anne books are the characters. They are lovable, good, kind, wholesome folk who make you care about them and want to know what happens next. Incredibly vivid characters, it was no exaggeration to say that ...
A Best Kept Secret of literature: this is a canonical work that should be read by every school child as a superior example of English literature and the epitomy of the written Enlish language. <p> Kim is a wonderful story of an orphan in India (the part that is now Pakistan) in the late 1800s. Kim is the son of an Irish soldier raised by locals, familiar with the customs and languages of the Hindus and Muslims of the area who gets recrui ...