18th Century Books

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (Signet Classics)

Edwin A. Abbott

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 163 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Flatland 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

If you are looking for a book that makes you think this is the one. Written in 1867, its amazing that we are still having the problems that are embellished in this lovely book. This book helped me remember I need to be more empathic to others when they are limited in thier perception. And for me to never stop dreaming.

Written for all Flatlanders...like us 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book is a must have for all bonafide Flatlands fans.

First off, it has the original Flatlands classic by Edwin Abbott Abbott, the mathematician/clergyman would first took us to the world of A Square. And it also has the 1967 followup Sphereland.

It bears noting that Sphereland is but one of many follow up so Abbott's classic and because they're all good and worthy in their own right, I'll repeat them here:

Spaceland...the Rudy Rucker classic which focuses more on following up the story than the science of Abbott's original book;

Plainiverse...the Dewdney work which actually endeavors to thoroughly flesh out the physics and biological issues of what life actually would be like in 2D (for what it's worth philosopher Dan Dennett says that this is favorite take on the Flatlands theme); and

Flatland Annotated and Flatterlands...both by mathematician Ian Stewart. If I wasn't as a big of a fan of this book I probably admittedly would've stopped my collection at just these entries because the annotated version has the original Flatland in it and also because in my opinion at least Flatterlands does the best and most recent job of updating the mathematics of Flatland.

But that being said, Sphereland is a serviceable entry and does faithfully follow the A Square story...albeit two generations later...and like the original Flatland serves as a great metaphor for the desireability of open mindedness and looking past your limitations.

Editorial Review:

Flatland, a place of two dimensions peopled by a hierarchy of geometrical forms, is the home of narrator A. Square, who takes a tour of his bizarre homeland. This tour provides a hilarious satire on Victorian society with questions about the nature of the universe.

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (World's Classics)

Laurence Sterne

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 52 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Postmodern before modern 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

A line from the movie "adaptation" put it best: this was a postmodern novel before there was any modernism to be post to.

Simply put, Laurence Sterne threw out all the literary conventions of what a novel should be and how it should be arranged, a few hundred years before more recent writers like Calvino, Joyce and Danielewski did. The result is "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman," a gloriously rambling, richly entertaining sort-of-novel.

"I wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were in duty both equally bound to it, had minded what they were about when they begot me." So begins Tristram, who starts his life story with his "begetting," and attempts to tell the story of his birth and life, as well as the descriptions of relatives -- his lovable uncle Toby, his eccentric dad, his patient mother (who's in labor for most of the book).

But as he tries to tell us about his life, Tristram keeps getting sidetracked by all the stories that surround him -- his uncle's romance with the Widow Wadman and the war in which he received a nasty wound in a sensitive spot, the French, the doctor who delivered him, letters in multiple languages, the parson, the personal history of the midwife, and what curses are appropriate for what occasions.

Most novels are pretty straightforward -- they have a beginning, a middle and an end. But "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" totally ignores that, by having a beginning that lasts for the whole book, dozens of "middles," and no real end (it just stops at a suitable spot). All of this is without a real structure.

And he took this postmodern, break-all-the-rules mentality all the way, by including odd little illustrations -- when speaking of the death of Parson Yorick, Sterne includes a black page. Random empty pages. Asterisks instead of important paragraphs. And a bunch of squiggly lines to demonstrate precisely how the narratives in previous chapters looked.

At first glance, Sterne's writing style was pretty typical of his period -- detailed, somewhat formal in tone, and very talky. It takes a little while for Tristram to start dipping out of of his narrative -- at one point, he starts interrupting himself in midsentence. By the middle of the book, he's completely lost control of his own story.

And he twisted it around with lots of bawdy humor (such as poor Uncle Toby's groin injury, which causes quite a few problems), and the continuous comic stumbles of all the characters. On the subject of his own name, Tristram describes his dad's reaction: "Melancholy dissyllable of sound! which to his ears was unison to Nincompoop, and every name vituperative under heaven.")

Life is too rich to be encapsulated in a single story -- that's the problem with "Tristram Shandy," whose story is a classic comic delight of premodernist-postmodern skill.

Editorial Review:

A novel about writing a novel in which the invented world is as much infused with wit and genius, as the theme of inventing it. It is a celebration of the infinite possibilities of the art of fiction, and a wry demonstration of its limitations.

Samuel Johnson: A Biography

Peter Martin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Bewigged, muscular and for his day unusually tall, adorned in soiled, rumpled clothes, beset by involuntary tics, opinionated, powered in his conversation by a prodigious memory and intellect, Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) was in his life a literary and social icon as no other age has produced. “Johnsonianissimus,” as Boswell called him, became in the hands of his first biographers the rationalist epitome and sage of Enlightenment. These clichés—though they contain elements of truth—distort the complexity of the public and private Johnson. Peter Martin portrays a Johnson wracked by recriminations, self-doubt, and depression—a man whose religious faith seems only to have deepened his fears. His essays, scholarship, biography, journalism, travel writing, sermons, fables, as well as other forms of prose and poetry in which he probed himself and the world around him, Martin shows, constituted rational triumphs against despair and depression. It is precisely the combination of enormous intelligence and frank personal weakness that makes Johnson’s writing so compelling.

Benefiting from recent critical scholarship that has explored new attitudes toward Johnson, Martin’s biography gives us a human and sympathetic portrait of Dr. Johnson. Johnson’s criticism of colonial expansion, his advocacy for the abolition of slavery, his encouragement of women writers, his treatment of his female friends as equals, and his concern for the underprivileged and poor make him a very “modern” figure. The Johnson that emerges from this enthralling biography, published for the tercentenary of Johnson’s birth, is still the foremost figure of his age but a more rebellious, unpredictable, flawed, and sympathetic figure than has been previously known.

(20080901)

Gulliver's Travels

Jonathan Swift, Rex Whistler

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 95 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Fellow Yahoos, read this book! 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Gulliver's Travels is not a children's fantasy written by an avuncular Englishman. This book, instead, is a searing indictment of the human race written by a brilliant satirist and misanthrope. The Lilliput episode is most clearly inscribed in the public consciousness, perhaps because it is the least overtly damning of the human species. By the end of the book, however, when Gulliver is forced to leave the equine utopia of the Houyhnhnms, the utter perfidy of humanity is laid bare without compunction. (And it is still as true and applicable to today's societies as it was three-hundred years ago.) No one likes being criticized, especially when guilty of the offense, and Swift is unsparing in his condemnation of our collective culpability. (He makes provision for the goodness of the individual, though, such as the Portuguese ship's captain.) One of the ten best books I've ever read.

Editorial Review:

HarperCollins UK Audio Classics presents abridged and unabridged readings of the world's favorite literary masterpieces. Among the distinguished readers are Christopher Lee, Derek Jacobi, Simon Callow, Linus Roache, Elizabeth McGovern, Terry Jones, Peter Firth, and Rufus Sewell. Each package of cassettes in the Audio Classics series is beautifully packaged and shrink-wrapped.

The Mysteries of Udolpho (Oxford World's Classics)

Ann Radcliffe

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

The Mysteries of Udolpho: real and imagined 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

On one level, this novel defies categorisation. Yes, the Gothic web of mystery and intrigue is obvious. And so too are the beautiful descriptions of nature, the struggle between good and evil, the noble acts of heroism and the ignoble acts of greed.

Anne Radcliffe has taken all of these components and distilled an imaginative creation that still, some 213 years after publication, catches the imagination of the reader. If you do choose to read this glorious novel, make sure that you are prepared for a pace which relies more on descriptive prose and less on implied actions. Set aside the time to immerse yourself in the setting and enjoy the journey.

This is not a novel to be rushed, it is a novel to be savoured.

Ann Radcliffe was 30 years old the year this novel was published. What an accomplished and imaginative young woman she must have been.

Highly recommended.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Editorial Review:

A best-seller in its day and a potent influence on Sade, Poe, and other purveyors of eighteenth and nineteenth-century Gothic horror, The Mysteries of Udolpho remains one of the most important works in the history of European fiction. After Emily St. Aubuert is imprisoned by her evil guardian, Count Montoni, in his gloomy medieval fortress in the Appenines, terror becomes the order of the day. With its dream-like plot and hallucinatory rendering of its characters' psycological states, The Mysteries of Udolpho is a fascinating challenge to contemporary readers.

Robinson Crusoe (Everyman's Library (Cloth))

Daniel Defoe

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 104 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

The Best of the Robinson Crusoe readings. 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Everyone knows the story...so the issue is who can read the
literature in a compelling way. Clearly, Martin Shaw has the touch. My only criticism is that this audio Cassette should be made into an audio CD for most modern listeners.

Shipwrecked-on-an-Island, a Wonderful Story 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Note: Your "helpful" votes are appreciated. Thanks.

There are a lot of psychological and social theories about "Robinson Crusoe," but I just take it as a grand adventure. I loved all the details of how he survived after being shipwrecked on that island. Just remember that it was written in the seventeenth century so you have to get used to writing.

I have a warm place in my heart for Robinson Crusoe. Some fifty years ago in the second grade, my teacher read it to our class. Decades later, I told my wife about it, but she said that it was impossible. Robinson Crusoe is too difficult for a teacher to read to second graders.

Well, several years went by, and I was proved right. In a used bookstore, I bought a copy of "The Story of Robinson Crusoe in words of One Syllable," with "Colored Illustrations." The book was published in about 1900, and when my teacher read it to her class, the book was over fifty years old.

Since then I have collected paperback editions of "Robinson Crusoe" for their neat covers, and this one is really nice.

If you like shipwrecked-on-an-island stories, read Richard Laymon's "Island." It's a page-turner of a modern murder mystery.
Island

Editorial Review:

Published in 1719, Robinson Crusoe has long been celebrated as the first great English novel. Based on the account of a shipwrecked sailor, it tells the story of one man rediscovering himself and the world in a solitude he thinks complete until his encounter with Man Friday.

Distinguished by its strong, pure style, and by a delight in factual precision, Robinson Crusoe is still the most compelling book we have from the Age of Exploration. The impact of Daniel Defoe’s prose on the development of English writing has often been compared to that of the King James Bible; and the power of this fable of human loneliness has been felt by readers of every age over the last three hundred years.

Moll Flanders (World's Classics)

Daniel Defoe

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 52 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Good, but not great literature 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

To fully understand and appreciate Moll Flanders you should have some understanding of the status of fiction at the time Daniel DeFoe was writing and some knowledge about the man himself. As Nancy Springer has indicated, the novel is an example of a "picaresque adventure," a style of writing that was popular at the time. These stories glorified a new kind of hero--the ordinary person, who engaged in a series of often wild and improbable events in exotic places. The picaresque rouge was a rebel against the remains of the feudal system with its hierarchy of human worth. Such novels featured a clever, strong-minded, low-born character who knew how to survive. What DeFoe did differently is to make his character a women and have her adventures take place largely in England.

The novel is also largely autobiographical. DeFoe himself experienced many financial ups and downs, yet he persevered. In fact it wasn't until he was 60 years old that he began writing novels and achieved some measure of fame and financial success. He spent time in Newgate prison and deeply in debt. He was also an outspoken political reformer who wrote more than 250 political pamphlets.

Having said the above, the novel still has its faults. One is that it is written in a continuous manner with no chapter breaks. While DeFoe may have been trying to say that time is continuous and that distinctions (such as hours, days, weeks, etc.) are mere fabrications, still readers like to have books broken down into chapters. A more serious flaw is the lack of names. Apart from her first husband there are virtually no names given to the characters. Even Moll herself is not identified by the title name until well into the book and even this name is not her actual name (which we never learn). Instead characters are identified in some impersonal way (my Lancashire husband, my governess, etc.) The lack of names makes it hard for the reader to engender any sympathy for Moll and the other personages in the book. Also the action is so fast paced that it flashes by like looking through a kaleidoscope, the scenes and action constantly shifting and changing. For example, within the first 100 pages Moll is married five times, has several children, goes to Virginia, finds her mother, etc. There is no time for the reader to reflect on the tragedies that befall her, especially given that they are told in a matter-of-fact manner.

The book can be divided into two parts. The first half deals with Moll's amorous life--her marriages and love affairs. The second part focuses primarily on her criminal activities. Both sections tell the story entirely from Moll's perspective. In many respects Moll is a match for Thackery's Becky Sharp. Both are low-born, both get positions in well-to-do families, both marry one of the sons in the family, both are attractive and quick witted, both scheme to get money and both have various adventures and misadventures. But Vanity Fair is written as a social commentary and Thackery uses the omnipotent story teller to advantage, even having him speak directly to the reader. DeFoe, by comparison, limits himself to having his protagonist say, in effect, now I did this, then I did that, then this happened, etc.

To give DeFoe his due, the book does provide a realistic and detailed account of life in England at that time. His description of Newgate prison is but one example. Perhaps Moll's attitude also reflected the times accurately. It can best be described as "a woman is nothing without a man and to get a man a woman must have money." Thus Moll spends the entire book pursuing both. But one can question how realistic Moll Flanders really is. She has a number of children, but seems to have little regard for them. Perhaps DeFoe, needing to rid Moll of encumbrances such as children in order to engage her in so many adventures, gave her what is an unnatural attitude for a mother. In the end he does reunite her with a son, but we should note that her motivation, at least at first, is financial not familial.

All in all, the book is worth reading, but it is far from great literature.

Editorial Review:

First published in 1722, MOLL FLANDERS is called the first social novel in English. It is the tale of the unfortunate Moll Flanders, forced into a life of prostitution and crime until fate bestows fortune upon her. Racy, ironic, rich in realistic sociological detail, it is also a tale of romance, with Moll in quest of a familial paradise where she can reside at its charmed center.

Lord Byron: The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics)

George Gordon, Lord Byron

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

the shining star of Romanticism 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 10 people found this review helpful.

Lord Byron was perhaps the most dazzling and influential figure of the Romantic movement. He was certainly the most colorful, controversial, and celebrated poet of his time. His poetic style is controlled, yet the sentiments expressed are passionate. He can be sad and despairing in one stanza, then ecstatically happy in the next, and it is these impulsive mood swings which made him no less contradictory in his beliefs and actions. He wrote some wonderful lyrical poems, but my favorite are his long poems, like "Don Juan." He is and was a captivating personality and a brilliant poet.

David Rehak
author of "Poems From My Bleeding Heart"

Editorial Review:

Byron is regarded today as the ultimate Romantic, whose name has entered the language to describe a man of brooding passion. Although his private life shocked his contemporaries his poetry was immensely popular and influential, especially in Europe. This comprehensive edition includes the complete texts of his two poetic masterpieces Childe Harold's Pilgrimage and Don Juan, as well as the dramatic poems Manfred and Cain. There are many other shorter poems and part of the satire English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. In addition there is a selection from Byron's inimitable letters, extracts from his journals and conversations, as well as more formal writings.

The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story (Oxford World's Classics)

Horace Walpole

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Lovely, trashy early novel 4 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

The Castle of Otranto isn't the best novel you'll ever read, since its characters are more like "types" than living human beings. That said, it's a breezy example of an early novel, before the Victorians got hold of the form and made the books longer and more "respectable." This is one of the books that Jane Austen's gothic-novel-obsessed character Catherine Morland (in Northanger Abbey) would have read to scare herself out of her wits. For that reason alone it's worth reading--to understand what types of books Jane Austen herself was reacting to when she wrote her books.

Also, it's worth reading simply because the story begins with a character being killed by a giant helmet. What a great, fun, gloriously trashy way to begin a book!

Horace Walpole, incidentally, was the son of the prominent 18th century politician Robert Walpole, who is satirized in John Gay's "The Beggar's Opera" and in a number of works written by Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope. Perhaps fortunately, however, the father had passed away before his son wrote this book.

Editorial Review:

First published pseudonymously in 1764, The Castle of Otranto purported to be a translation of an Italian story of the time of the crusades. In it Walpole attempted, as he declared in the Preface to the Second Edition, "to blend the two kinds of romance: the ancient and the modern." Crammed with invention, entertainment, terror, and pathos, the novel was an immediate success and Walpole's own favorite among his numerous works. The novel is reprinted here from a text of 1798, the last that Walpole himself prepared for the press.

Samuel Johnson: The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics)

Samuel Johnson

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Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Good Example of the English Language 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 11 people found this review helpful.

Johnson's sentences are so beautifully composed that when reading him, I am apt to focus mainly on his sentence structures rather than what he says. This is not to say that his philosophy is boring; indeed it is very interesting and inspiring, only the way he translated that philosophy into words is more so. "What? Johnson's style is more inspiring than his philosophy? Nothing could be more absurd," some may say. Certainly the frequent use of inserted clauses and complex phrases makes some of his sentences a little cumbersome, and those who are accustomed to an easy read often find his style less acceptable, especially when the movement of "Plain English" is reaching its climax, and writing plainly and succinctly has become a virtue. But Johnson's prose style has an attraction-or a spell if you like-we can never find in, say, newspaper articles; insomuch that those who see language as more than a means of communication, that is, those who can enjoy language for its own sake, find wandering into his lanaguage labyrinth far more pleasant than merely digesting what today's main news communicate.

In his criticism "The Plays of William Shakespeare," Johnson wrote, "The Pythagorean scale of numbers was at once discovered to be perfect; but the poems of Homer we yet know not to transcend the common limits of human intelligence but by remarking that nation after nation, and century after century, has been able to do little more than transpose his incidents, new name his characters, and paraphrase his sentiments," suggesting that if Shakespeare's works provoked reverence, it is in so far as it had survived the test of time. Now, reading this statement more than two century after his death, I believe that we can revere Johnson's works for the same reason he revered Shakespeare.

Editorial Review:

Samuel Johnson's literary reputation rests on such a varied output that he defies easy description: poet, critic, lexicographer, travel writer, essayist, editor, and, thanks to his good friend Boswell, the subject of one of the most famous English biographies.

This volume celebrates Johnson's astonishing talent by selecting widely across the full range of his work. It includes "London" and "The Vanity of Human Wishes" among other poems, and many of his essays for the Rambler and Idler. The prefaces to his edition of Shakespeare and his famous Dictionary, together with samples from the texts, are given, as well as selections from A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, the Lives of the Poets, and Rasselas in its entirety. There is also a substantial representation of lesser-known prose, and of his poetry, letters, and journals.