No comments about Anna Countess of the Covenant: A Memoir of Lady Anna Mackenzie, Countess of Balcarres and Afterwards Countess of Argyll.

2 comments about The Amazing Grace of Freedom: The Inspiring Faith of Will Wilberforce.

1. If you're interested in Wilberforce and want to learn more about his life-- but are not excited about the idea of ploughing through long (or possibly dull) biographies, this book is perfect. Accessible, colorful, and refreshing, it's a well-organized collection of 'articles' written about aspects of Wilberforce's life, friends, colleagues, relationships, influence, and legacy. The variety of authors who penned the book gives it balance, and gives you insight from the perspective of people in different walks of life (who have different reasons for being drawn to Wilberforce).
   
   This is definitely not a 'coffee table book' in the sense one is used to; it's basically just a great anthology that looks attractive like a coffee table book. You'll get some great inside info on the film Amazing Grace as well, but it's not at all the focal point of the book--no fluff involved. Also, the physical quality of the book makes it absolutely worth more than its low price--I was actually surprised that this was not a $24.99 book. Highly recommended.



2. This is an excellent book. It has beautiful pictures and is laid out in an 'easy to read' manner.

1 comments about Hazel: A Life of Lady Lavery, 1880-1935.

1. Ms. McCoole does a wonderful job in accurately portraying the life of Hazel Lavery. She has gone to great lengths to uncover the truth about her relationships with historical figures, one being the Irish icon Michael Collins. What many people may not realize is that Hazel was a painter herself before she met her famous husband, John Lavery. Hazel's story from the suburbs of Chicago to the face on the Irish pound note is a truly enjoyable read.

1 comments about Samuel Johnson: The Life of an Author.

1. Lipking has written a "writer's life," examining Johnson not from the viewpoint of celebrity, but as a history of his writing, and "career development" as an author. Lipking's thesis is that the transformations Johnson underwent in his career went a long way in shaping what we think of authors, and in that interest spends the bulk of his time examining Johnson's written words. While one may initially think this approach is redundant with Kernan's ("Samuel Johnson and the Impact of Print"), in fact Lipking is far less concerned with the publishing industry and more concerned with Johnson's writings themselves. A more direct comparison might be made to DeMaria's "Samuel Johnson," but even there the comparison is weak. Like Lipking, DeMaria analyzes Johnson's writings, but Lipking is less concerned about context, and concentrates far more on the writings.

3 comments about OLIVER CROMWELL: SOLDIER: The Military Life of a Revolutionary at War.

1. Cromwell has been mostly remembered for his politics. Politics that made him Lord-Protector of England. But before he was Lord-Protector, he was a soldier and general. This book details Cromwell's life as a self taught soldier and describes his campaigns in some detail.
   This book is for any serious students of Cromwell or of Early Modern warfare.



2. If you're looking for a good biography of Oliver Cromwell, this isn't the book for you. Marshall's description of 17th century battle techniques and his empirical analysis of Cromwell's battles are excellent. But for those (like me) who purchased the book to learn more about the man and his subsequent impact on England and English history, look elsewhere. Mr. Marshall's effort here is quite focused, and a bit more than dry in its literary flair.



3. This is an excellent analysis of Cromwell's life and development as a soldier. And, only one of a few ever done (Frank Kitson's being one of the others -- it too is excellent).
   
   The title says it all though, it is the Military Life of a Revolutionary at War, not a general biography.
   
   Highly recommended.

2 comments about Churchill (Life & Times) (Life&Times).

1. This powerfully written and informative biography of Winston Churchill tells the story of a monumental British figure who was to influenced the world of the 20th Century. European journalist and Churchill biographer Sebastian Haffner was one of the foremost figures in European writing and influenced Churchill's policy towards Germany and the Nazis. In this major examination of Churchill's life and accomplishments, Haffner provides a passionate and involving probe of the man whose methods and motivations changed the political shape of European history.



2. This book is a great account of Churchill's life; how 3 wars made him famous, his rise and fall in British politics, his private life and other subjects. Churchill had an interesting life. Haffner had an interesting way of telling and writing. Together it makes this book one that you should read.

No comments about The Story of a Beautiful Duchess: Being an Account of the Life And Times of Elizabeth Gunning.

1 comments about Darling Georgie: The Enigma of King George V.

1. A different look at George V & British royal family...written from a psychologist's POV...A few provisos. Occasionally the author is guilty of overreaching, but he has some interesting insights. Some of his research is a bit faulty, but that could be the fault of sloppy editing. Still, on a whole, I enjoyed the book & recommend it. Interesting how the past influences the present, in ways we don't realize!

No comments about The Diary and Correspondence of Charles Abbot, Lord Colchester; Speaker of the House of Commons 1802-1817: Volume 2.

5 comments about Wilde Album: Public and Private Images of Oscar Wilde.

1. Cutting to the chase, the real prize in this marvelous little book are the photographs. For once, we get something other than the usual lot that appear in books with a Wilde connection. Mr. Holland has achieved through his pictures (most seem to be from the family collection) something which most texts don't do..... a feel for the whole of Wilde the man. There is a human dimension to this slim volume that one does not find elsewhere. There are pictures of ancestors, parents, editorial cartoons, advertisements, all in relatively strict chronological order, from the child in a dress (as was customary for little boys in the period) to the student, the developing fop, the lampooned character, the ludicrous pairing with Bosie... who looks perpetually bored and thoroughly uninteresting... to the depressing denouement, death bed and funerary monuments.

   The text reveals nothing new but it is elegantly written. Both of Wilde's children were devoted to the memory of their father. It is evident that the grandson was raised in like manner.

   Of Wilde's two boys, Cyril died in WWI without issue. Mr. Holland is the grandson of the other, Vyvyan.

   If you are interested in the period, England and Ireland in late 19th century, Wilde, gay history, etc. buy this book. It is worth infinitely more than it costs.




2. This is a sparkling gem for all fans of Oscar Wilde. It is a brilliant retelling of Oscar's life through pictures. Filled with everything from photographs of Wilde the aesthete to hilarious caricatures of him from Punch magazine to some of Wilde's own drawings and notes, this fabulous little book has it all. Many of the items I have not seen in any other volume. It goes wonderfully well coupled with Richard Ellman's gorgeous biography or it stands tall on its own. All and all, a marvelous book that I cannot possibly recommend highly enough.



3. This volume is more touching and insightful than most
   works about Oscar Wilde tend to be. It is filled with
   the narrative commentary of Wilde's grandson,
   Merlin Holland, who gives honest opinions as well
   as factual detail about the various stages of
   Oscar Wilde's life.
   The treasures, however, are the multitudes of
   photographs, memorabilia, and paintings that are
   included -- as well as drawings, satirical cartoons
   (mostly lampooning Oscar, both at Oxford and later
   in life), and wonderful notations under the items.
   The most interesting photographs, for me, are
   the ones which were done by Napoleon Sarony. They
   seem to touch a more thoughtful, poetic, dreamy
   Oscar, rather than the posing bon vivant or the
   deliberately provocative aesthete/decadent.
   The volume does well to have one of those photos
   on the cover, as well as having a different photo
   beside the title page. The grotesque photos,
   that almost make one cringe, though, are of
   Oscar in a skirted Greek national costume
   (with boots!) from April 1877; Oscar in a
   checkered suit and bowler hat at Oxford in
   1878, and Oscar at age 2 in a blue velvet
   dress, a daguerreotype which has been color
   tinted. The weirdest photos are of the
   "blond tiger/panther" Lord Alfred Douglas,
   would-be "friend" and lover of Oscar. His
   eyes look vacant, haunted, cold in most of
   the photos , except for the one on page 147,
   in which he looks touchingly sensitive and
   lonely...the caption below the picture says
   it all: "Douglas aged 23. 'Your slim gilt
   soul walks between passion and poetry. I know
   Hyacinthus, whom Apollo loved so madly, was you
   in Greek days,' Wilde wrote to him around that
   time."
   Truly a remarkable album of memories.



4. What a Gem! If you are a fan of Oscar Wilde then this book is indispensable.
   My only gripe is that it is too small. A larger format would have shown off the many Napoleon Sarony photos (the largest collection in one publication) If the publisher and Mr Holland ever read this....I'd gladly shell out for a large format edition. Other than that, I'm quite too utterly ecstatic about the book.......WELL DONE!



5. Mr. Oscar Wilde, the toast of all London for his successful plays revealing the immoral soft underbelly of the British aristocracy, received a slanderous calling card at his club from the Marquess of Queensberry, whose son Al was assisting Mr. Wilde in his investigations of the more corrupt and immoral and hypocritical aspects of those filthily wealthy imperialists.
   
   At Al's urgent request, Mr. Wilde filed suit for slander against Al's own father, serving as noted in this book in Mr. Wilde's own words, as the dice in a cruel and callous oedipal gamble between father and son. Mr. Wilde lost; the petit bourgeois father won and before the Crown brought charges against Mr. WIlde under a new immoral activities act, the father had Mr. Wilde's home ramsacked and auctioned, all of Mr. Wilde's treasured and expensive belongings, and those of his wife and two small sons, in order ostensibly to cover his own legal costs in defending himself against Mr. Wilde's charge of slander. The auction, staged as it was, brought only a very small percentage of its actual worth, yet destroyed all that the family owned.
   
   Mr. Wilde's grandson, in gathering this present album, mentions the fact of this destruction of his family heritage by alluding to the registry of six family albums which were sold and discarded beyond any recovery. Merlin mentions this fact cold, without further comment, but the skilled reader may read between the lines the deep and painful import of this action to Merlin personally. Thus this present effort grows immeasurably poignant and important.
   
   Though others praise the photographs here, it is the comprehensive and extensive and brilliant essay by Merlin here which makes this book as well. This book grows thereby essential for any reader of the English language, and for any reader of Irish resistance to English colonialist power, in particular that fatal power which was so coldly brought to bear against its most subtle and charming and astute and eloquent and Irish critic, greater even than GB Shaw, more subtle even than the great Mr. James Joyce.
   
   Never mind please my ramblings nor the effusiveness of other reviews which here appear upon this page. My one qualm regarding this book is that it is not BIG enough!
   
   Please see as well the excellent, if painfully abridged, production of An Ideal Husband in the BBC collection The Oscar Wilde Collection (The Importance of Being Earnest / The Picture of Dorian Gray / An Ideal Husband / Lady Windermere's Fan) if only to see younger and slimmer and in his prime he who would later play for them Sherlock Holmes. The Importance . . .in this collection is also tolerable if abridged and awkward; Lady Windermere's Fan begins slow with the mournful Lord, but grows inexorably to a heart wrenching finale without sentimentality.
   
   Read all of Mr. Wilde's published work (lacking of course the bulk his writings for Women's World, and lacking his original French text of Salome) in Complete Works of Oscar Wilde (Collins Classics). The original French text of Salome you may find at Salome: Drame en un acte (Collected Works of Oscar Wilde) in order to perform your own translation into English which will undoubtedly replace Al's. It is also available in a Spanish translation at Salome - Bajo El Monte and a fine selection of his short stories at El Fantasma de Canterville y Otros Cuentos (Serie Roja Alfaguara) (Serie Roja Alfaguara).
   
   Please read this book and know the extent of the destructive power of an offended British aristocracy, a destiny, as Merlin here indicates, as inexorable as any ancient Greek drama. Merlin's assessments of his grandfather's oeuvre are also excellent and right on, although too brief! Find further critical work by himself as well as by his father Vyvyan Holland, whose photographs as a small boy are so telling here.