1 comments about King Henry V: A Biography.

1. The material to understand this late-medieval conqueror is more abundant than one realizes: not only detailed chronicles, State documents and accounts of his wars, but personal anecdotes and financial records. And Hutchison makes good use of it, working not from secondary but from primary sources, giving a detailed, perceptive and highly readable account of a remarkable individual. If he works to contrast the Henry of history with the Henry of Shakespeare, that is understandable and indeed right, since it is through the plays - and especially through Laurence Olivier's unforgettable film - that most of us have become aware, if at all, of the fame and success of this usurper's son. Hutchison treats his subject with a sympathy that does not stop short of admiration, giving just and honourable due to all his remarkable qualities - able politician, bold and independent mind, excellent organizer, and finally, as everyone knows, superlative soldier. Yet his final verdict is inevitably negative: Henry stiffened the social situation of England, threw the country into a war which it did not have the resources to maintain, and which - but for his genius - would have ended in disaster early on (there is something very telling about the frenzied rejoicing which greeted his victories); brutalized his followers, degraded the rule of warfare, and, in the end, presided over the spiritual impoverishment and material ruin of two great countries, as the great age of Chaucer and the Roman de la Rose died out in a sea of blood and even the military glory of Henry gave way, not so much to the splendid but brief phenomenon of St.Joan of Arc, as to the crooked and cruel practical politics of Louis XI, the establishment of brutal royal tyranny in France and the collapse into civil war in England. Like that of all conquerors - think of Alexander of Macedon, of Gengis Khan, of Napoleon, Wallenstein, Gustavus Adolphus, Charles XII of Sweden, Hitler - Henry's ultimate legacy was purely one of collapse and negation: he achieved nothing except a blaze of unconstructive glory.

1 comments about Jewish Life in Germany (Modern Jewish Experience).

1. Dr. Richarz provides the reader with an opportunity to understand the German Jewish experience from the subject's vantage point and in their own (translated)words. Her anthology demonstrates the many facets of German Jewish experience from the eighteenth century until the Holocaust. The contributors speak of their own and their families' degree of religious observance, the psychological and economic effects of state-sponsored discrimination, as well as the geopolitical maneuvering that Jews in Europe, and in particular German Jews, had to do in order to preserve their too often despised communities. This book is a must read for persons interested in any aspect of modern German Jewish social history.

No comments about Paedar O'Donnell (Radical Irish Lives).

No comments about Snakes & Ladders.

No comments about Major: A Political Life.

No comments about Grounded in Eire: The Story of Two RAF Fliers Interned in Ireland During World War II.

No comments about Harvest Saved (Text).

No comments about Dear Harp of My Country: The Irish Melodies of Thomas Moore (Spirit of Ireland in Lyric and Song, Vol 1).

No comments about London Was Ours: Diaries and Memoirs of the London Blitz (International Library of Twentieth Century History).

4 comments about The Unmasking of Oscar Wilde.

1. This very readable book is very useful corrective to what's become the "standard" view of Wilde. It's especially good at exposing the weaknesses of Richard Ellman's now-standard biography of Wilde. For example, the claim that Wilde contracted (and later died of) syphillis is pretty much taken apart by Pearce.

   Pearce has also very closely read Wilde's works, so he offers some very valuable readings of Wilde's writing in order to better understand Wilde's inner life--a life, according to Pearce, that was marked by inner loathing and a self-rebuffed desire to embrace the Church.

   Ellman's book remains the standard biography in terms of prose quality (Ellman wrote with uncommon beauty and grace, and Ellman's enthusiasm for Wilde's work and personality is truly infectious). However, Pearce's book really should be must reading for all fans of Wilde's work. It doesn't merely trot out all the old information and anecdotes, but actually offers a fresh view of Wilde.




2. Before reading this biography all I knew about Oscar Wilde was that he was oversexed and the author of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Joseph Peace does a good job of revealing Wilde's upbringing, studies, and career. In fact I am now reading and pondering other works of Wilde's like, De Profundis.
   
   The author seems harsh to Wilde's lovers and most forgiving of the "Wilde Life." The book paints a picture of Oscar Wilde as a gifted artist who, as his life progressed, became a moral degenirate and a drunkard, in that order. Wilde apparently felt and even expressed remorse, but seemed incapable of acting on it. Yes, "We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." But, that said, Oscar Wilde was predatory in his pursuit of and obsession with younger men. As Pearce points out, Wilde's sin destroyed his family and destroyed him. Wilde died almost friendless and a pauper. Wilde didn't seem so much interested in love as he did in pleasure. What Wilde expressed on paper he was not capable of in himself. The book is an interesting study of the decadent movement of the 19th century in art and literature, and will open the reader up to lesser known writers and artists, who were Wilde's contemporaries. Pearce does make the reader feel sad for Wilde as he was brilliantly talented, but morally a train wreck. Over all, not a bad read and a good introduction to the life of Oscar Wilde.



3. There seem to be two types of Oscar Wilde biographies. One, treats him like a sexual martyr and hardly gets into his huge talents at all. The other talks only about his career and treats the episode with Lord Alfred Douglass like a spot on an otherwise pristine carpet. Jospeh Pearce refuses to take either path. He looks at Oscar Wilde, the man, the artist and the broken soul. Wilde had some ideas about himself and was like Herod, fascinated by religion but was unable to stir himself to change. He a genius and was spoiled, pampered and protected by his class and talent but that left him totally unprepared for a brute of a man like the Marquiss of Queensbury.
   
   Pearce is gentle with Wilde but he doesn't excuse him. Wilde failed his wife and his sons miserably and the nameless, faceless rent boys of London weren't just props, they were shabbily used human beings. Pearce makes this all clear but he also discusses the hope of Wilde's life, his last minute conversion. Give this well written book a try. It is a completely different and fresh look at Oscar Wilde.



4. Pearce begins his book pompously: "I am convinced that [this book] penetrates to the very core of its subject." Yet, rather than provide insight into Wilde as Pearce claims, the book is only the Reader's Digest version of Ellmann's biography. If you are short on time and want an overview of Wilde's life and work, you could do worse. Just don't expect perceptive analysis.