The Oxford Book of Parodies edited by John Gross is what it says on the tin. A collection of parodies, edited by the late John Gross and published by the Oxford University Press.
Nobody is safe from the mordant wit of the satirical parodist! There are well in excess of 120 victims,if one can use that word in this context. The parodied range from Geoffrey Chaucer to John Dryden, from Swift to Lord Chesterfield, from Wordsworth to Cobbett and in more recent times from Clive James to J. K. Rowling and from Amis (that's Martin, not Kingsley) to Leonard Cohen.
Who are the parodists? old hands at the genre like the irrepressible Sellar and Yeatman, with their witty and well-educated parodies of history teaching (1066 and All That) appear in the book as do others who might not be so well-known. There is a parody of Virginia Woolf by Mark Crick, in which he imagines how she would have handled a recipe for a dish involving black cherries and a parody by J. C. Squire of a poem in the style of G. K. Chesterton.
Some of the parodies are splendid and really do capture, but in a slightly warped form, the true essence of the subject who is being parodied, yet some seem to miss the mark and in some instances quite badly, too. The parody of Chesterton by Squire sadly falls into the latter category.
The book is in two parts, part one starting with Anglo-Saxon and Medieval. Ezra Pound's take on Summer is Icumen In is worthy, although perhaps slightly too long, whilst Murie Song by A. Y. Campbell based on the same song is, to be honest, appallingly bad, especially when one considers that he was a poet in his own right!
Part two contains a collection of nursery rhymes, ripostes, stage and screen, and so forth.
This book will keep you amused, bemused and perhaps just a tad confused for many, many hours. It is published in paperback at £9.99 or $17.95. It is, of course, available through the That's Books book shop.
Sadly the editor of the anthology of parodies died in January of this year.
Book review blog site, with some entertainment material from time-to-time.
Showing posts with label Oxford. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oxford. Show all posts
Saturday, 11 February 2012
The Fall of the Berlin Wall The Revolutionary Legacy of 1989
The Fall of the Berlin Wall The Revolutionary Legacy of 1989 is a very interesting book. It is edited by Jeffrey A. Engel and is a collection of essays on the subject, written by people who are acknowledged as experts in their fields. Chen Jian, holder of the Michael J. Zak chair of history for U.S. -Chinese relations, Cornell University; Melvyn P. Leffler, Edward Stettinius Professor of American History, University of Virginia; Sventlana Savranskaya, director of Russia Programs, National Security Archive, George Washington University; James J. Sheehan, Dickason Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Modern European History, Emeritus, Stanford University; William Taubman, Bertrand Snell Professor of Political Science, Amherst College.
Two of the most momentous events of the late 20th century were the construction of the Berlin Wall, the other was the demolition of that same wall.
The erudite and well-argued essays examines how the Berlin Wall came to be removed all at once in 1989, and why nobody had foreseen this epoch making event.
The book details how the events of the days and weeks leading up to the fall occurred, how a frightened and desperate DDR leader Erich Honecker ordered his troops to open fire on the generally good natured but vocal crowds of demonstrators that were protesting against Honecker's autocratic rule. They declined to accept his order. Something that would have been utterly unthinkable, even months earlier. The party sacked Honecker and thus was the beginning of the end of not only the cursed wall. but of the entire DDR itself.
The book points out that these results came about as a result of the changes that had swept through neighbouring Poland and Hungary. Soon, revolt and revolution took not only the Communist Party of East Germany but also the rest of the Warsaw Pact member states.
The book looks at what happened next, and raises issues about what could happen in the future in this, the Post Wall period.
This book is a must have for any serious student of political or social history.
It is published by the Oxford University Press in paperback at $19.95.
Two of the most momentous events of the late 20th century were the construction of the Berlin Wall, the other was the demolition of that same wall.
The erudite and well-argued essays examines how the Berlin Wall came to be removed all at once in 1989, and why nobody had foreseen this epoch making event.
The book details how the events of the days and weeks leading up to the fall occurred, how a frightened and desperate DDR leader Erich Honecker ordered his troops to open fire on the generally good natured but vocal crowds of demonstrators that were protesting against Honecker's autocratic rule. They declined to accept his order. Something that would have been utterly unthinkable, even months earlier. The party sacked Honecker and thus was the beginning of the end of not only the cursed wall. but of the entire DDR itself.
The book points out that these results came about as a result of the changes that had swept through neighbouring Poland and Hungary. Soon, revolt and revolution took not only the Communist Party of East Germany but also the rest of the Warsaw Pact member states.
The book looks at what happened next, and raises issues about what could happen in the future in this, the Post Wall period.
This book is a must have for any serious student of political or social history.
It is published by the Oxford University Press in paperback at $19.95.
How to Think Like a Neandertal by Wynn and Coolidge
How to Think Like a Neandertal by Thomas Wynn and Frederick L. Coolidge is an extremely interesting book.
"Oh,your such as Neandertal!" Will shriek some man or woman when they are criticising the behaviour of someone they know.
Yet if they were challenged and asked: "OK, who were the Neandertals? Where did they live? How did they live? How did they treat sick members of their group? Did they have any concept of religion?" they would be utterly and entirely clueless, as their views on Neantertal society were probably based on a hodgepodge of vague ideas from seeing a model of a caveman in a dusty, somewhat grim museum, and Raquel Welch in a fur bikini.
Wynn and Coolidge have examined many branches of science to work out how Neandertals lived, worked, played and prayed. Or at least, how they dealt with the death of a family member or of a member of their group.
The book is fascinating and very readable. Unlike many other books of the academic rigour of How to Think Like a Neandertal, the authors want to share their discoveries with their readers. This is no dry as dust worth tome! It's a highly readable worthy tome!
They explore and explain how and what Neandertals ate, how they hunted, the types of work they did, the average length of their lives, how they reacted and inter-reacted with each other, their concepts of an afterlife, how they tended the sick and the elderly, how they thought, how they communicated, etc. They also showed that although Neantdertals and humans did intermarry, that the relationship between humans and Neandertals was not always a happy one.
They also explore several interesting concepts. For example, did Neandertals have a sense of humour? Did they dream? What happened to them?
The book is published by the Oxford University Press in hardback. It is, of course, available from the That's Books bookshop.
I can heartily recommend it to academic and general reader.
"Oh,your such as Neandertal!" Will shriek some man or woman when they are criticising the behaviour of someone they know.
Yet if they were challenged and asked: "OK, who were the Neandertals? Where did they live? How did they live? How did they treat sick members of their group? Did they have any concept of religion?" they would be utterly and entirely clueless, as their views on Neantertal society were probably based on a hodgepodge of vague ideas from seeing a model of a caveman in a dusty, somewhat grim museum, and Raquel Welch in a fur bikini.
Wynn and Coolidge have examined many branches of science to work out how Neandertals lived, worked, played and prayed. Or at least, how they dealt with the death of a family member or of a member of their group.
The book is fascinating and very readable. Unlike many other books of the academic rigour of How to Think Like a Neandertal, the authors want to share their discoveries with their readers. This is no dry as dust worth tome! It's a highly readable worthy tome!
They explore and explain how and what Neandertals ate, how they hunted, the types of work they did, the average length of their lives, how they reacted and inter-reacted with each other, their concepts of an afterlife, how they tended the sick and the elderly, how they thought, how they communicated, etc. They also showed that although Neantdertals and humans did intermarry, that the relationship between humans and Neandertals was not always a happy one.
They also explore several interesting concepts. For example, did Neandertals have a sense of humour? Did they dream? What happened to them?
The book is published by the Oxford University Press in hardback. It is, of course, available from the That's Books bookshop.
I can heartily recommend it to academic and general reader.
Eminent Victorians on American Democracy, The View From Albion, by Frank Prochaska
What, exactly, DID eminent Victorians think of the American democracy?
In this likely and thought provoking book, Frank Prochaska explores how things looked in this fledgling democracy. Or rather, how they looked to outsiders, many of whom had firm views of how government should work in the modern, Victorian era.
I had hoped that the book would be a collection of essays, perhaps with notes and an explanation of each essay, how the author of the book understood the eminent Victorian to mean.
However, the book in question is not that book. The author of the book tells the reader what HE thinks -for example- Bagehot, Mill, Bryce, etc., meant, rather than letting the eminent Victorians actually say it in their own words and allowing the reader to form their own conclusions. Guided with footnotes, etc.
It is a good book, but it could have been a great book. However, students of modern politics and of history of the Victorian era will find it eminently useful.
It is published by the Oxford University Press in hardback.
In this likely and thought provoking book, Frank Prochaska explores how things looked in this fledgling democracy. Or rather, how they looked to outsiders, many of whom had firm views of how government should work in the modern, Victorian era.
I had hoped that the book would be a collection of essays, perhaps with notes and an explanation of each essay, how the author of the book understood the eminent Victorian to mean.
However, the book in question is not that book. The author of the book tells the reader what HE thinks -for example- Bagehot, Mill, Bryce, etc., meant, rather than letting the eminent Victorians actually say it in their own words and allowing the reader to form their own conclusions. Guided with footnotes, etc.
It is a good book, but it could have been a great book. However, students of modern politics and of history of the Victorian era will find it eminently useful.
It is published by the Oxford University Press in hardback.
A Child of the Jago by Arthur Morrison
Look at any map or Atlas of the Victorian era and you will not find The Jago. However, every large city and town and even some smaller towns throughout Britain had their own Jago, an area of streets for which the word "mean" really comes nowhere near descriptive enough.
The Jago of Arthur Morrison in his work A Child of the Jago is based very closely on the worst part of the East End of London.
His description of the hovels the people of the East end occupied, of the filth, the dirt and the squalor are very well realised.
There are certain little facts that he salts his novel with that make its reading even more compelling. For example, did you know that people residing in slum areas such as the Jago often had to keep a light on all night, to ensure that their sleep was not disturbed by being attacked by rats?
Morrison tells the tale of young Dicky Perrott, who is the child of the Jago. His mother reminds him that they are not like the other people of The Jago, although when his father returns home with a cosh covered in the blood and hair of a victim of a coshing robbery, the reader is forced to conclude that perhaps she is not really even fooling herself. Street robberies and urders punctuate the book like grimy comas.
Dicky knows what he wants out of life. He wants to become a leading criminal, in the parlance of the area, a High Mobsman.
But due to the herculean efforts of Father Sturt, it eventually becomes clear to Dicky that perhaps there is another way? Another path that might not lead him ever downwards to the prison cell or even the gallows? Or worse?
Some novels that told of the life of the Victorian working classes were sentimental and mawkish. This novel, however, is not. Its attention to detail and its realism set it high above novels by Morrisons well-meaning but lesser fellow contemporaries.
Although Morrison gives a warts and all description of what was the worst part of the East End of London, a place where even some criminals would fear to visit, let alone the police officers who would only ever visit it in threes, he also showed that the denizens were capable of normal acts of human kindness. One example of this is the obvious love that Dicky Perrott showed to his baby sister, early in the novel.
This edition caries a very good introduction which gives a background to the area upon which The Jago is based. It also provides as much biographical detail of the author as is to hand. Which is not much. Morrison was an extremely private man whose desire for privacy seemed deep-rooted. He felt that he had enemies who would use information from his past against him.
The book also contains a very helpful glossary of terms used in the book.
The Appendix also includes a chapter on Morrison and his Critics,
It is published by the Oxford University Press in paperback at £8.99 and is available via the That's Books bookshop and all good bookshops.
The Jago of Arthur Morrison in his work A Child of the Jago is based very closely on the worst part of the East End of London.
His description of the hovels the people of the East end occupied, of the filth, the dirt and the squalor are very well realised.
There are certain little facts that he salts his novel with that make its reading even more compelling. For example, did you know that people residing in slum areas such as the Jago often had to keep a light on all night, to ensure that their sleep was not disturbed by being attacked by rats?
Morrison tells the tale of young Dicky Perrott, who is the child of the Jago. His mother reminds him that they are not like the other people of The Jago, although when his father returns home with a cosh covered in the blood and hair of a victim of a coshing robbery, the reader is forced to conclude that perhaps she is not really even fooling herself. Street robberies and urders punctuate the book like grimy comas.
Dicky knows what he wants out of life. He wants to become a leading criminal, in the parlance of the area, a High Mobsman.
But due to the herculean efforts of Father Sturt, it eventually becomes clear to Dicky that perhaps there is another way? Another path that might not lead him ever downwards to the prison cell or even the gallows? Or worse?
Some novels that told of the life of the Victorian working classes were sentimental and mawkish. This novel, however, is not. Its attention to detail and its realism set it high above novels by Morrisons well-meaning but lesser fellow contemporaries.
Although Morrison gives a warts and all description of what was the worst part of the East End of London, a place where even some criminals would fear to visit, let alone the police officers who would only ever visit it in threes, he also showed that the denizens were capable of normal acts of human kindness. One example of this is the obvious love that Dicky Perrott showed to his baby sister, early in the novel.
This edition caries a very good introduction which gives a background to the area upon which The Jago is based. It also provides as much biographical detail of the author as is to hand. Which is not much. Morrison was an extremely private man whose desire for privacy seemed deep-rooted. He felt that he had enemies who would use information from his past against him.
The book also contains a very helpful glossary of terms used in the book.
The Appendix also includes a chapter on Morrison and his Critics,
It is published by the Oxford University Press in paperback at £8.99 and is available via the That's Books bookshop and all good bookshops.
Sunday, 22 January 2012
Galileo Selected Writings
The book, Galileo, Selected Writings is a masterful new translation by William R, Shea and Mark Davie.
The book is not just a collection of the writings of a great man. Shea and Davie are able to put Galileo and his writings into the context of the times in which Galileo lived.
It touches on the financial problems that beset Galileo when, on the death of his father, he became the breadwinner and the man of the house. He had dowries to fund for his sisters and his mother to provide for. Problems which meant that Galileo needed to earn a goodly income to provide for his family.
Galileo made a substantial income by selling a geometrical and military compass of his own design, which is referenced within this book, together with information on his work to construct the best telescope in existence at that time.
The book also points out that Galileo did not quite use the Leaning Tower of Pisa in the way that is generally depicted to prove his theory of gravity.
The book contains a wide and deeply fascinating collection from a range of Galileo's writings. From letters to important figures of his day, including nobles and royalty, his observations on the Copernican Theory, details of his trial and his statement of abjuration.
It contains his Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems (see above) A Sidereal Message and much more besides.
This book is not only a testament to the brilliance of Galileo it is an interesting thought-provoking work.
It contains copious and highly useful notes, explanatory notes and a detailed and most helpful index.
It is an ideal book for the student and for those curious to learn more about Galileo.
It is available in paperback at £10.99 published by the Oxford University Press.
The ISBN is 978-0-19-958369-0.
It is, of course, available from the That's Book bookshop, which is powered by Amazon.
The book is not just a collection of the writings of a great man. Shea and Davie are able to put Galileo and his writings into the context of the times in which Galileo lived.
It touches on the financial problems that beset Galileo when, on the death of his father, he became the breadwinner and the man of the house. He had dowries to fund for his sisters and his mother to provide for. Problems which meant that Galileo needed to earn a goodly income to provide for his family.
Galileo made a substantial income by selling a geometrical and military compass of his own design, which is referenced within this book, together with information on his work to construct the best telescope in existence at that time.
The book also points out that Galileo did not quite use the Leaning Tower of Pisa in the way that is generally depicted to prove his theory of gravity.
The book contains a wide and deeply fascinating collection from a range of Galileo's writings. From letters to important figures of his day, including nobles and royalty, his observations on the Copernican Theory, details of his trial and his statement of abjuration.
It contains his Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems (see above) A Sidereal Message and much more besides.
This book is not only a testament to the brilliance of Galileo it is an interesting thought-provoking work.
It contains copious and highly useful notes, explanatory notes and a detailed and most helpful index.
It is an ideal book for the student and for those curious to learn more about Galileo.
It is available in paperback at £10.99 published by the Oxford University Press.
The ISBN is 978-0-19-958369-0.
It is, of course, available from the That's Book bookshop, which is powered by Amazon.
Monday, 2 May 2011
The Little Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
The Little Oxford Dictionary of Quotations is the little brother to the better-known Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.
The Little Oxford Dictionary of Quotations is a small volume, but still found to be stuffed full of useful quotations from the great, the good, the witty, the clever and some ordinary folk who said at least one thing in their life that was memorable enough for someone to write down or record in some way and for other people to say: "Gosh, I wish I had said that!"
The book is 476 pages in length and, although small, is, at 476 pages, quite a well-padded little volume. It is relatively easy to hold, yet I can't help wonder if it could have been just a few centimetres larger? Still, that's a minor quibble and a point that does not, ultimately, detract from the over all enjoyment and usability of this small volume.
The forwards to the first and fourth editions are included and in them the editor Susan Ratcliffe goes some way to explain the purpose of the book.
There is then a list of subjects that the book covers literally from A to Z. (Did you see what I did, there? a rather pointless and only marginally funny pun. Sorry!) From Ability right through to Youth. So in truth, it is not, exactly from A to Z.
Next comes the quotations, followed by a highly useful index of those people who are quoted within the tightly packed work.
There are quotes you will probably be familiar with, quotes which, now you know them, you will remember for the rest of your life and quotes which will serve a purpose in a wedding speech, a magazine article, a college essay or the like.
And for those of us who like to trawl through books like The Little Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, there are nuggets of pure gold and some that, although being nuggets of pure gold, are poignant and somewhat ironic.
For example in the section The Body artist, art lecturer and musician Ian Drury is quoted as saying:
"The leg, a source of much delight,
which carries weight and governs height,"
had problems with his legs due to suffering polio as a child. He sometimes had to take to the stage wearing leg irons in order to support his limb when it was particularly bad. (A minor point is that Susan Ratcliffe lists Drury as a British rock singer. He was, of course, much more than that!)
Also, we find that the Eton Boating Song lyrics were written by English poet William Cory.
There's a poem about entrails by poet Connie Bensley and you can find the source of the saying about 'death and taxes.'
The Little Oxford Dictionary of Quotations is a fantastic little book and will make an ideal gift for the student, the author, journalists or anyone who uses words in their day to day life. Well, just about anyone, I suppose.
The published price is £9.99 ($15.95 USA) but will be available for much less on Amazon.
The ISBN is 978-0-19-954330-4.
The Little Oxford Dictionary of Quotations is a small volume, but still found to be stuffed full of useful quotations from the great, the good, the witty, the clever and some ordinary folk who said at least one thing in their life that was memorable enough for someone to write down or record in some way and for other people to say: "Gosh, I wish I had said that!"
The book is 476 pages in length and, although small, is, at 476 pages, quite a well-padded little volume. It is relatively easy to hold, yet I can't help wonder if it could have been just a few centimetres larger? Still, that's a minor quibble and a point that does not, ultimately, detract from the over all enjoyment and usability of this small volume.
The forwards to the first and fourth editions are included and in them the editor Susan Ratcliffe goes some way to explain the purpose of the book.
There is then a list of subjects that the book covers literally from A to Z. (Did you see what I did, there? a rather pointless and only marginally funny pun. Sorry!) From Ability right through to Youth. So in truth, it is not, exactly from A to Z.
Next comes the quotations, followed by a highly useful index of those people who are quoted within the tightly packed work.
There are quotes you will probably be familiar with, quotes which, now you know them, you will remember for the rest of your life and quotes which will serve a purpose in a wedding speech, a magazine article, a college essay or the like.
And for those of us who like to trawl through books like The Little Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, there are nuggets of pure gold and some that, although being nuggets of pure gold, are poignant and somewhat ironic.
For example in the section The Body artist, art lecturer and musician Ian Drury is quoted as saying:
"The leg, a source of much delight,
which carries weight and governs height,"
had problems with his legs due to suffering polio as a child. He sometimes had to take to the stage wearing leg irons in order to support his limb when it was particularly bad. (A minor point is that Susan Ratcliffe lists Drury as a British rock singer. He was, of course, much more than that!)
Also, we find that the Eton Boating Song lyrics were written by English poet William Cory.
There's a poem about entrails by poet Connie Bensley and you can find the source of the saying about 'death and taxes.'
The Little Oxford Dictionary of Quotations is a fantastic little book and will make an ideal gift for the student, the author, journalists or anyone who uses words in their day to day life. Well, just about anyone, I suppose.
The published price is £9.99 ($15.95 USA) but will be available for much less on Amazon.
The ISBN is 978-0-19-954330-4.
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