No comments about Sartre (Blackwell Great Minds).

No comments about Damião de Gois: The Life and Thought of a Portuguese Humanist, 1502-1574 (International Archives of the History of Ideas / Archives internationales d'histoire des idées).

1 comments about Francis Bacon: The Temper of a Man.

1. Francis Bacon was a man filled with contradiction. He was consumed by two ambitions: 1) an insatiable thirst for knowledge and, 2) an endless "striving for political favor and position." The latter ambition finally did him in, bringing about his impeachment from Parliament for taking bribes, losing the high position (Lord Chancellor) he had spent his whole life striving for. Five years of life were left to Bacon after his disgrace, time spent in scientific and writing pursuits, but the damage was done.
   
   Ms. Bowen does not write a full and detailed biography here, but rather more a profile or "evocation." She sacrifices the impartial and detached position of the historian clearly in her prologue by declaring her great admiration for Bacon. And although she doesn't hide or ignore his faults, it's difficult to read any page and not feel Bowen's awe and respect for her subject. There is much to admire about Bacon: his broad and deep learning (he seemed to be an "expert" on every subject, from law to botany); his wit (this a verbal exchange between Bacon and his arch-enemy Edward Coke: "Mr. Bacon!" says Coke. "If you have any tooth against me, pluck it out, for it will do you more hurt than all the teeth in your head will do you good." "Mr. Attorney!" (Coke was the Attorney General), retorts Bacon. "I respect you, I fear you not, and the less you speak of your greatness, the more I will think of it." (Ouch!); his books such as NOVUM ORGANUM and THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, still regarded highly today; his life-long wish to found a university in England that would employ the scientific method in its pursuit of knowledge and not the old schoolman methods.
   
   But there is also much to disdain: his bluntness; his naivete with regard to his enemies; his inability to control his spending impulses; his almost outrageous ostentation with his scores of servants, men in waiting, etc. He also had what came to become a most unpopular belief, that the king was above the law.
   
   What makes Bowen's portrait of Bacon worth reading is her marvelous writing style. She is a descendant of the old-school of historical writing (Parkman and Prescott come to mind) that was as much of a literary bent as an historical one. She writes beautiful prose, worthy of her subject and the age in which he lived. Reading her book is a most enjoyable experience.

No comments about The Letters of H.P. Blavatsky, Volume One (Letters of H.P. Blavatsky).

No comments about Golden Lads: A Study of Anthony Bacon, Francis and Their Friends (Virago Modern Classics).

No comments about Masters of Political Thought (Plato to Machiavelli).

1 comments about Compromising Traditions: The Personal Voice in Classical Scholarship.

1. Classical scholarahip is in serious trouble in academia. The number of high school and college students who study Greek and Latin has plummeted over the decades. And those entrusted with manning the classical barricades of professorial integrity and good old fashioned teaching have surrendured the moral high ground by focusing on themselves rather than on their students. In COMPROMISING TRADITIONS, editors Hallett and Nortwick do not come right out and admit the validity that classics as a discipline is moribund, but they do have a methodology that they believe can recharge the flickering batteries. They include numerous essays (written mostly by themselves and like minded academics) on the use of the personal voice in reporting historical events. Traditionally, historians and classicists have been quite circumspect in their use of first person pronouns and personal tidbits like sex, gossip, office backstabbing, and a generally whiny tone. Hallet and Nortwick suggest that much of the reason why the study of Greek and Roman classics has declined is that readers of such classics need far more than the traditional dry and dusty prose style that has come to mark more than 2,000 years of reporting on matters historical. When readers get involved in the juicy side of writing they will want to read more. Fair enough. But to prove this point the editors need far more than a litany of anecdotes and in the final analysis anecdotes are all they proffer as evidence. We do get a sense that Hallet and Nortwick are not bashful about using their book as a forum for psychodrama, much of which does have a limited charm but as for supporting their premise that the personal voice has a powerful effect on re-energizing readers, the answer is sadly no. Most of the essays deal far more with them as harried and underpaid academics than with personal voice itself. If classical scholarship is truly represented by books like COMPROMISING TRADITIONS, then the future of the glory of Greece and Rome will fizzle away into a well-deserved nothingness such that the next class they teach will have nobody present in the seats but themselves.

1 comments about Soap Opera from the Wrong Side of Town.

1. This book speaks from the heart. It is evident in every word. Sharon tells the story of her life and you will relate to at least one part of it for sure. But it is not a story in boring chapters - just wonderfully expressed thoughts that will touch your heart. Such feeling and depth.....

No comments about International Directory of Philosophy and Philosophers 1993-1994.

No comments about Dreemz of the Night.