No comments about Kaunitz and Enlightened Absolutism 1753-1780.

1 comments about Can Lily O'Shea Come Out to Play?.

1. This autobiography is a terrific read. Think Frank McCourt without the heartache. There are many moving moments, and moments of great warmth.

No comments about Nell Gwynne: A Passionate Life.

1 comments about Warwick the Kingmaker.

1. A Warwick! A Warwick! Mr. Hicks work should be applauded. While the beginning of the book is very academic, in verse and research, it attempts look at Richard Neville, 16th Earl Warwick and Kingmaker, as a whole person. Hicks looks back on both primary and some secondary sources, makes some assumptions, buts overall lets the reader decide on Warwick's character. He notes the mixed temperament of 15th Century English - some hated Warwick, many more loved him. As a self proclaimed scholar of Neville, I have to highly recommend this work - along with four other titles entitled "Warwick" or "Kingmaker", all of which are out of print.

No comments about Intellect and Character in Victorian England: Mark Pattison and the Invention of the Don.

No comments about Biddy Early: The Wise Woman of Clare.

No comments about A Bloody Canvas - The Mike McTigue Story.

No comments about Cochrane the Dauntless: The Life and Adventures of Thomas Cochrane.

1 comments about Charles Dickens (Very Interesting People Series).

1. Oxford University Press, home of the Oxford English Dictionary has put out a highly successful Shorter Edition of the O.E.D. Perhaps somebody there heard that Professor Michael Slater was working on a major new biography of Charles Dickens (for Yale Press) and had the bright idea to ask Professor Slater to put out a "bite-sized" biography of The Inimitable. (Actually this book is based on Professor Slater's entry on Dickens for the massive Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.)
   
   This new book is part of a series about "Very Interesting People." Shakespeare, Newton, Darwin and George Eliot have also been given this abbreviated treatment with promises of James Joyce, Milton, Austen and Churchill to have their mini-biographies forthcoming soon. You may have noticed that the notables are all British.
   
   I don't know how the other subjects will fare with their biographers, but Dickens could have no better biographer than Professor Slater. In just ninety pages we are treated to a surprisingly complete biography by one of today's most eminent Dickensians. Especially surprising since Dickens was not only an author, but also an editor, journalist, playwright, actor and concluded his life with a new career in public readings. All these, plus Dickens's personal life are all admirably covered, as is his work with various charities. Still the emphasis of the biography is on Dickens's novels. Professor Slater concludes with a fourteen page chapter about Dickens's reputation and legacy after his death, exploring his after-fame, his impact on world literature and his continuing presence on the stage as well as in film, television and radio. Everything of importance is here. Professor Slater's lucid writing style is, of course, a great boon, and the biography is eminently readable.

No comments about Shaw, The Letters of George Bernard: Volume 2 (Bernard Shaw Collected Letters).