Average customer rating:
- effectively tells alternate history,the series is great,waiting for no.3
- Rapid-paced and entertaining action novel, bogged down by pointless descriptions and somewhat unfair conjectures
- Enjoyable
- Fiction is no excuse for ignorance
- Good story telling
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Hannibal's Children
John Maddox Roberts
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ASIN: 0441009336
Release Date: 2002-05-01 |
Amazon.com
John Maddox Roberts's alternative history Hannibal's Children is an interesting expedition to answer the question "What if Hannibal of Carthage had succeeded in his bid to conquer Rome during the second Punic War?"
Roberts, author of The Catiline Conspiracy and several other titles revolving around ancient Rome, opens his novel with a few words of history to acquaint the reader with the particulars of the Punic War. He then launches into his experiment, taking the reader onto the floor of the Roman Senate, which is voting to accept Hannibal's terms of surrender, namely that the Romans leave their beloved seven hills and never return. The novel then moves forward 200 years, when the descendants of the exiled Romans have carved a new empire from the barbarous north called "Roma Noricum." An expedition is sent south to assess the strength of Hannibal's descendants--a journey that takes the scouts through Rome and across the Mediterranean to the hearts of Carthage and Egypt, which have risen to great power and wealth in the absence of Rome.
Roberts is a bear for details, especially those of a military nature. His fascination with Roman military prowess is evident as he skillfully and vividly re-creates the might of the legions. Likewise, his speculative re-creation of Roman, Carthaginian, and Egyptian societies is colorful and rich. Unfortunately, Roberts runs out of gas in his third act, leaving plot lines dangling, character development unfinished, and the reader stuck hoping for 300 more pages or wishing for a sequel. Despite this flaw, the book is a fascinating experiment that brings the ancient world to life. --Jeremy Pugh
Book Description
Enter a world in which Rome fell to Carthage-then rose again.
215 B.C. The Third Punic War has left Rome defeated and in ruins. Under the leadership of the legendary Hannibal, the Carthaginian troops are prepared to slaughter their enemies. Instead, Hannibal gives his adversaries a choice: exile or extermination. But in doing so, he has made a grave miscalculation.
100 B.C. In exile for one hundred and fifteen years, the Romans are about to re-emerge-stronger and more powerful than ever-in an ultimate battle for supremacy.
Customer Reviews:
effectively tells alternate history,the series is great,waiting for no.3.......2007-08-03
I read the believable stories of j.maddox roberts(also "the seven hills ") and found the best writer of this genre of possible alternate outcomes of major historical events. Even though i read the 2nd one first, I still enjoyed "Hannibal's Children" just as much.It is the first series that I actively search for if the next installment, sometimes weekly. I hope soon.
having carthage defeat rome in the punic wars, would have changed every thing ,even the world today. think about it they beat rome-no roman empire as we new it,or stop any number of tyrants and revolts(ie mithridates,ptolemy,aleric,.....At this point in history their were two superpowers one of which would have the power to control most of the know world, the two kept some balance of power,once defeating the other. what if?
Rapid-paced and entertaining action novel, bogged down by pointless descriptions and somewhat unfair conjectures.......2006-11-23
I started this series by reading the sequel first, "The Seven Hills". That was possibly a mistake, as I was unimpressed overall with the "alternate history" he takes with it.
This one, I feel is much better by comparison, but still suffers some of the problems I had mentioned in my review of "The Seven Hills". For one, I had mentioned that even though the Romans were completely eliminated as a prime force for 115 years, not much appeared to have changed to the political landscape---the Seleucids and Ptolemaics still control what they controlled, Carthage has extended a bit, but hasn't even bothered to utilize Italy, and Greece is Greece.
My initial complaint with this one, that was also in the second one, is the pointless descriptions not of a physical sort, but of the kind a historical documentary would give to someone who knew absolutely nothing about the subject. Even sparing an extra sentence on describing something like the formation of the legions or the politics of old Carthage can break the entire paragraph. It goes on to a point where you fall asleep at some points hearing the main characters fantasize about Homer and Odysseus or whatever.
Another problem I have is the unfair conjecture that had the Romans not expanded the way they had, technology would have remained stagnant. Somehow it is blamed on the Romans' imperial expansion that Archimedes couldn't gather a sect of followers who would invent futuristic devices like a ship that can move underwater, or a flying machine, or a tube which reflects mirrors and allows you to see around corners. According to the novels, with the Romans' loss of the Second Punic War, Archimedes is allowed to go to Alexandria and flourish.
Another complaint is that although this is historical fiction, nothing much at all changes. In a quick instance, almost unimportantly, the legions' standards change to Eagles held by Aquilifers and their style of armor totally changes (from Punic War-era, to Post-Marian era, for you historical persons).
Meanwhile, the Seleucids and Ptolemaics are still bordering each other, occasionally scuffling, with no major changes happening in their topography, save that the Seleucid Empire is (naturally) crumbling, and the Parthians are exacerbating this with their incursions. Meanwhile, Carthage pretty much still controls what it did at the end of the Punic Wars, save for Sicily and Sardinia and possibly much of Spain, but otherwise nothing new.
Along with this, nothing technologically or philosophically new has occured, save for battle technology which already existed, but has simply been modified to be somehow better (such as ship ballista, Greek Fire, catapults, etc). It doesn't really matter, and aside from the new inventions occuring in Archimedes' school in Alexandria, everything appears to have completely stagnated since the last Punic War, inventions, politics, everything.
Characterization is apparently very broad and not very brilliantly done---I mentioned in my review of "The Seven Hills" that the main characters of Marcus Scipio and Titus Norbanus were apparently supposed to be vague characterizations of Caesar and Pompeius from actual history. In this novel, it is bluntly revealed that Norbanus clearly wants to be Dictator for Life in Rome, and essentially start up a Roman Empire (possibly like Caesar, but due to his fair coloring and Gallic ancestry and his stubbornness, I'd guess more likely as Pompeius)
Hamilcar is the typical pompous potentate, where his sister Zarabel is the typical sinister, seductive, and scheming princess locked in a constant struggle with her brother for superior control of their cults (Baal-Hammon for Hamilcar, Tanit for Zarabel)
It was an overall interesting and fun little read, but I am disappointed by its simplicity and let down when I was promised a "What If?" story that showed Carthage winning the Second Punic War. It amounts merely to the equivalent of a what-if story of the South winning the American Civil War, forcing the Union into Canada, then simply abandoning the north and staying in the southern states, until the Union returns some years later and retakes its land and engages in another civil war.
Enjoyable.......2006-03-31
As a bit of a Roman history buff, and a fan of alternative history in general, this book was a joy to read. My favorite period in roman history was the late Republic before the rise of Caesar and the later emperors. In this book, that is how the romans are portrayed. Expanionist, ruthless, but still having legions made up of landowning citizens.
I don't know how plausible it would have been that Hannibal would have offered the Romans exile, which is is the premise for the change in history, but it makes for a good story. Parts of the book seemed rushed. Which is why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5. It should have been longer. It appears this may be a trilogy, based on what I've read so far of the sequel, The Seven Hills.
Fiction is no excuse for ignorance.......2005-10-15
I saw this book listed on Steven "Gordianus the Finder" Saylor's site. Being impressed with Saylor's scholarship I quickly ordered the book and plunged into it as soon as I received it. What an utter disappointment! Too much is made of "classical scholarship". Latin and Greek literature is rich and vast. But it is not all there is to the history of the Mediterranean. Without understanding the earlier and contemporary cultures - the Persian, Egyptian, Sumerian, Phoenecian, Aramaic and Assyrian - one cannot do justice to any study of those times. Roberts is clearly beyond his competence in this poorly plotted tale. In twisting one strand of reality - imagining that Phillip IV comes to Hannibal's aid - Roberts has had to grapple with an even weightier strand of history and blithely ignores it altogether. The Roman legions were annihilated by the Germanic tribes in the Batttle of Teutoborg a scarce 100 years after the events narrated in this book. Poor battlefield mobility, rigid formations, lack of individual intitiative, inability to smell out ambushes, and a dogged adherence to set piece battles were some of the factors that brought about their downfall. It is true that during 200-100 BC the Romans did earn many victories against the Germanic people. But these victories were against poorly organized clans. Once the Germans learnt to band together (following their links with the Gauls and Celts) and make use of their superior hit and run tactics the Romans' advantages in discipline, doctorine and skills did not matter much.
Roberts has relied almost entirely on pop accounts of the Phoenicians and produced a poorly written piece of pulp. As a work of impossible fiction this belongs to the same shelf as of Edgar Rice Burroughs (King of Mars) and the ridiculous SF of 'Doc' E.E.Smith.
Good story telling.......2005-07-16
I really liked this novel as it approaches an old story with a new twist. A good example of a what if history story. It is well worth the effort to read this book if this type of story telling is to your taste.
Book Description
Divorce is a way of life in America today, with over one million couples dissolving their unions each year. And millions of children are profoundly affected by their parents' divorce. Negative consequences of divorce for children include lowered self-esteem, poor academic and professional performance, and difficulty in forming healthy relationships of their own. Yet this need not be the case.
For nearly fifteen years, the Kids' Turn workshop program has been helping parents and children identify and cope with the issues that arise out of separation and divorce. Research shows that Kids' Turn works by giving children tools to confront the pain of divorce and move on, and by sensitizing caregivers to what their children are going through. Now, for the first time, the Kids' Turn wisdom has been distilled for individual readers. Author Mary Ellen Hannibal presents step-by-step the key topics that concern all parents and their children throughout the divorce and beyond, including:
• How to recognize, cultivate, and respond to your child's feelings • How divorce affects your child's development and how to support your child's healthy growth over time • How to connect with your children through better communication and how to manage communication with your co-parent • How to support your child's expressive self • The challenge of behavior and discipline • The dos and don'ts of shared parenting
Good Parenting Through Your Divorce includes stories of real children, parents and families in their everyday settings. It is intended for every divorced parent, those who are separated but not divorced, same sex parents, never-married parents, single parents--in short, for every kind of changing, blended family in our country today.
Book Description
Set in ancient times, during the Punic wars, this story follows the adventures of young Malchus, an officer in Hannibal's army. Henty describes the army's incredible journey through southern Europe and across the Alps in fascinating detail, providing both a lesson in ancient history and an absorbing story. The balance of power in Europe swayed between Rome and Carthage and the outcome of this struggle would determine the course of Western Civilization, even until today.
Download Description
From Rome's historical contention with Carthage, the legendary military general Hannibal emerged to do battle at Trebia, Lake Trasimenus, Cannae, and almost conquer Rome. When Carthage herself was under Rome's attack, she sustained bad faith and excessive ferocity. Hannibal began an incredible journey across the Alps, bringing an army with cannons and elephants to overpower the great Roman empire. He confronted the rallied forces who rose up to defend Rome plus those he had earlier subjugated that were coalescing an insurgency against him. During the time this problematic legendary story occurs, a relative of Hannibal, a boy named Malchus, joins in Carthage's march against Rome. Malchus has an unsullied energy that allows him to escape attacks from lions and wolves while employing the use of a raft to maneuver through Carthage's subterranean reservoir. Even though Carthage is eventually defeated, the clashes are thrilling enough and the dilemmas vexing enough to gain a reader's undivided attention. Please Note: This book has been reformatted to be easy to read in true text, not scanned images that can sometimes be difficult to decipher. The Microsoft eBook has a contents page linked to the chapter headings for easy navigation. The Adobe eBook has bookmarks at chapter headings and is printable up to two full copies per year. Both versions are text searchable.
Customer Reviews:
An impressive "theater of the mind".......2002-10-09
A simply outstanding historical novel set in the age of ancient Rome's legendary conflict with the city of Carthage, The Young Carthaginian by G.A. Henty is a totally thrilling historical action/adventure tale that will rivet the listener's attention from beginning to end. Superbly and dramatically narrated by William Sutherland, The Young Carthaginian is written with detailed attention to historical accuracy and truly brings to life a long-lost time of Hannibal, the legions of Rome, and the absolute destruction of a great maritime empire. A confidently recommended addition to any personal, school, or community library audiobook collection, The Young Carthaginian is complete and unabridged on eleven compact discs, offering 12 hours, 30 minutes of an impressive, "theater of the mind" quality entertainment experience.
Admirable hero and his hairbreadth escapes!.......2002-08-09
Who would have thought that a book written in the 1800s could be so appealing today? Doing a little internet research, I have found that G.A. Henty lived from 1832-1902, and the books he wrote were historical fiction "for boys". He was called "The Prince of Story-Tellers" and "The Boy's Own Historian", which certainly may have been true, but I'm an adult female who loved this tale! The style of writing sounds a little formal and old-fashioned, but it actually helps create a feeling of antiquity, appropriate for its ancient setting during the Punic Wars.
The fictional and lovable hero, Marchus, a relative of the famous Hannibal, accompanies him on the Carthaginian campaign against Rome. I learned so much about Hannibal through this book, yet the majority of the plot involves other adventures that Marchus gets into. He has near escapes from bears, wolves, lions, treacherous tribesmen. In two instances, he escapes with the help of an elephant, and a raft in the subterranean reservoir of Carthage. This was fun stuff, and I am so impressed that this book I found, that is so old it doesn't even have a publication date in it, could be so delightful. Someone could make a great movie out of this!
Brings ancient history to life.......2002-02-16
Everyone, it seems, has heard of Hannibal bringing his army,including the elephants,through the Alps, right to the doorstep of Rome. However, a readable account of Carthage vs. Rome is not easy to find. I've been very happy to find this fascinating historical novel as the best way to teach my two sons, ages 11 and 14, about this time in history. There are some valuable lessons for us all in the book--valor, honor, and how corruption destroys great nations.
Historical Fiction from a Very Different Time.......2001-12-02
G.A. Henty was a Victorian gentleman who wrote historical fiction for young people. I learned of him in reading Arthur Schlesinger's autobiography "A Life in the Twentieth Century". Schlesinger credits Henty with awakening an interst in history that was to last a lifetime. I see why. Henty's approach is to imagine a young lad and thrust him into interesting historical periods. The young man possessed of courage, pluck, honesty and compassion finds these attributes necessary to his success in the novel. Much like the Horatio Alger novels of a somewhat later American time, Henty was also conciously teaching the manly virtues. In "The Young Cathaginian" Henty pulls off a slick trick. Our young hero Malchus is a relative of Hannibal the great Cartaginian general who dared to cross the Alps to attack Carthage's great rival, Rome. While Henty admires Hannibal and presents Malchus as virtually flawless, it is clear that Carthage was a corrupt entity and that her deserved defeat was crucial to the growth of Western civilization. This is not a dry history, merely laden with moral overlays. It is also good fun. There is a lion hunt in Africa. A wolf hunt in the Spanish mountains. Escapes through the underground reserviors of Carthage. And countless vivid battles. And a charming little romance. I am glad I stumbled across the Henty output. Sclesinger is right: Henty makes history fun!
very accurate historical fiction.......2001-03-30
G. A. Henty lived just over a hundred years ago and wrote dozens and dozens of books. He would research everything that had to do with the time period before he even started writing, hence, his works are very, very historically accurate. He takes a military event and tells the story from the piont of veiw of a fictional young man. In every book, Henty's main character is a good, honest, brave young man, and a perfect role model. The Young Carthaginian takes place during Hannibal's invasion of Rome. It is a very well written peice that goes into great detail about the invasion, with some exciting made-up parts involving his main character. I would reccommend this book for anyone over 10, there are a few dry parts, and the wording can get a little tough for youngsters. All-in-all this is a great book that you'll enjoy reading.
Book Description
Divorce has become a way of life. One million couples dissolve their unions every year, profoundly affecting millions of children. While divorce can have many negative consequences, it need not be a disaster for children. For nearly twenty years, the Kids’ Turn workshop program has been helping parents and children identify and cope with separation and divorce issues. Good Parenting Through Your Divorce distills Kids’ Turn wisdom for individual readers, presenting key topics that concern all parents and their children throughout the divorce and beyond, including:
• How to recognize, cultivate, and respond to your child’s feelings
• How divorce affects your child’s development
• How to support your child’s expressive self
• The challenge of behavior and discipline
• The dos and don’ts of shared parenting
• Understanding and managing negative reactions
• Guidelines for developing positive emotional habits
• How to manage communication with your co-parent
An essential, comprehensive guide for parents, Good Parenting Through Your Divorce helps you help your children adjust to a new family arrangement. Chapters on childhood development, discipline, healthy communication, and how to move forward make this a user-friendly, complete treatment of a common but challenging experience.
Average customer rating:
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Hannibal: Great General Of The Ancient World (Rulers of the Ancient World)
Karen Clemens Warrick
Manufacturer: Enslow Publishers
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ASIN: 0766025640 |
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Up From The Ashes
Hannibal B. Johnson ,
Melissa Roberts , and
Clay
Manufacturer: Eakin Press
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Summer of Secrets (Cover-to-Cover Novels: Historical Fiction)
Kimberly Klier
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Customer Reviews:
What a (hi)story to be told!.......1998-02-20
This is a wonderful account of history's most improbable wartime march! Hannibal takes the army of Carthage and marches on Rome. Not so amazing you say! Well, his fighting hords include 37 elephants. He takes them across the Mediterranean, through Spain and even over the Alps! While the text was at times
too simplified, the history it contains is accurrate and full. This is a great read to capture young minds for
future study of history.
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No Place Like Home: A Story About an All-black, All American Town
Hannibal B. Johnson
Manufacturer: Eakin Pr
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Book Description
This story, set in 1920, revolves around Charles "Charlie" Jackson, a twelve-and-a-half-year-old from Boley, Oklahoma, one of America's best-known all-black towns. Today Boley, once a thriving black mecca, is smaller and more subdued. Still, significant historical footprints line her streets and alleys.
Book Description
Drawn from the first-hand accounts of eye-witnesses, Roy Mottahedeh's gripping account of Islam and politics in revolutionary Iran is widely regarded as one of the best records of that turbulent time ever written. Roy Mottahedeh is Gurney professor of Islamic History at Harvard University. An internationallly renowned expert, he has published extensively in this field and his academic awards include a Guggenheim and a MacArthur Prize Fellowship.
Customer Reviews:
An Unfocused Mess.......2007-01-04
This book had no focus, was choppy, and really doesn't help you to understand Iran - if anything, it confuses you even more. The first half of the chapters is the story of Ali Hashemi, a young Iranian boy who studies at a madreseh and eventually becomes a prominent mullah in the town of Qom. Not fantastic, but that part's okay. What kills the book is the second half of the chapters: a sloppy, unfocused, confusing, rambling account of Iranian history. The book goes into such detail on some aspects of Iranian history (for example, providing detailed biographies of historical figures) that you can't grasp the overlying structure. This detail would be fine in a purely nonfiction book on the history of Iran, but coming in a book with such a jumbled format, a general synopsis would have been more appropriate. The history portion attempts to relate to the previous "fictional" portion of the chapter, but in doing so the history isn't presented in a clear chronological order, leaving you befuddled as to what's happening when. I had to read this book for a class and it was very painful. Don't read it if you don't have to - stay far away!
Iran.......2006-03-23
This book failed to provided Khomenie's life. Another point that this book was super exaggerating Ali's mother breathfeeding. According to the author every time before breathfeeding her son she was water purifying {vozou}. A child is breathfeed more than three times a day.
Last point that the book made which was interesting that 1979 revolution was for socioeconomic reason and after success of revolution the socioeconomic was remained unresolve.
This book has good points with regard to Islamic doctrine and Shi'ite sect belief.
Worst Book Ever.......2005-10-27
Trust me. I've read them all, and this one's the worst.
A history book thinly disguised as a novel, this book reads at the pace of molasses sliding down a 3-degree incline. The story "centers" around Ali, a fictional character placed in a historical context. However, only a few pages of each chapter actually relates to him. The majority of the book is a bewildered exploration of tangential facts. Every now and then Mottahedeh will simply say, "Oh, by the way, all the information you could ever want to know about Khomeini's childhood belongs here, right next to Ali's experience at a lecture!" Or how about a two-page discussion of the definition of a partnership? With stilted dialogue and no plot whatsoever, this book does nothing to educate and even less to amuse.
An Education In Iranian History, Politics And Values.......2005-08-19
Though deliberate in its pace and what I might call dry in tone, I believe this book, which I read over the summer, masterfully reveals the real Iran as it was in the last two decades of the twentieth-century, and gives the best insights I've yet found into that nation today: a country founded on the principles of a blood-soaked revolution. Forget what you hear on the evening news, read this book and approach Iranian culture with an open mind. I think you'll be startled, as I was, at much of what you learn. If the culture of Iran at the time of the Islamic uprising of 1979 was justifiably viewed by Americans as shocking, then it was also certainly fascinating in all its depth. This book takes us inside Iran from the point of view of a number of its citizens, as the pro-western nation in which they'd grown up retreats 1300 years in an effort to save itself from what it views as destruction from the outside. It is too easy to characterize Islamic fundamentalists as unintelligent and backward, but let us make no mistake, many who take that stance are shrewd, brilliant, and above all proudly commited to their way of life. In The Mantle of the Prophet, the reader will meet many of these.
This book gives descriptions of all areas of life under the Ayatollahs, from the law courts, to the marketplaces, the army, to the mosques themselves, and introduces us to real people who lived through those frightening times. This book is as important today in the age of nuclear proliferation as it was when first published in 1985. Anyone who wants to learn about life inside fundamentalist Iran would do no better than to add The Mantle of the Prophet to her reading list.
A Must Read if you wanna understand IRAN and IRANIANS.......2004-11-28
The Mantle of Prophet is an interesting novel written in the context of Iranian history, religion, and politics. I would say pretty balanced description of the Iran today, I enjoyed that alot, except in the discussion of last fifty years, the author focused more on Jalal Ahmed, who undoubtly did good contribution, and other 'liberal' intelligentsia and neglected to give proper place to Khomeini, Mutahhari, and Shariati's ideas and role, in all, the role of the religious intelligentsia. I also wanted to see the the context of neo-colonial politics and the emerging (as a reaction) international Islamic movements that had influences on the shape of Iranian Revolution. The author traces Khomeini's involvement in politics after Bourojerdi death (1960s), which is not historically accurate. Khomeini wrote his book Kasful Asrar (or some other very controversial book, in which he not only criticized Shah but the lethargic Ulema class as well) around 1942. But all in all a good read.
Book Description
This fifth and final volume of Joseph Frank's justly celebrated literary and cultural biography of Dostoevsky renders with a rare intelligence and grace the last decade of the writer's life, the years in which he wrote A Raw Youth, Diary of a Writer, and his crowning triumph: The Brothers Karamazov.
Dostoevsky's final years at last won him the universal approval toward which he had always aspired. While describing his idiosyncratic relationship to the Russian state, Frank also details Doestoevsky's continuing rivalries with Turgenev and Tolstoy. Dostoevsky's appearance at the Pushkin Festival in June 1880, which preceded his death by one year, marked the apotheosis of his career--and of his life as a spokesman for the Russian spirit. There he delivered his famous speech on Pushkin before an audience stirred to a feverish emotional pitch: "Ours is universality attained not by the sword, but by the force of brotherhood and of our brotherly striving toward the reunification of mankind." This is the Dostoevsky who has entered the patrimony of world literature, though he was not always capable of living up to such exalted ideals.
The writer's death in St. Petersburg in January of 1881 concludes this unparalleled literary biography--one truly worthy of Dostoevsky's genius and of the remarkable time and place in which he lived.
Customer Reviews:
Antisemitic Prophet?.......2003-10-15
Not until in this the fifth and final volume of Frank's biographical look at Dostoevsky's books is the issue of antisemitism fully dealt with, and good heavens what PASSIM references there are! Finally, Dostoevsky's introduction of the blood libel myth into The Brothers Karamazov got on Frank's nerves (I don't know if Frank is Jewish though): "[T]hat Dostoevsky should have introduced such material at all, no matter how topical it may have been, leaves a permanent stain on his reputation that nothing can efface.....NOW, he gives the widest possible circulation to this age-old vilification, first used in classical antiquity against the early Christians themselves." (p. 670)
Yet Frank's words for the book itself include: "genius," "grandeur," "poetic power," "symbolic elevation," "a monumental power of self-expression to his characters which rivals that of Dante's sinners and saints, Shakespeare's titanic heroes and villains, and Milton's gods and archangels....with the same superhuman majesty as the figures of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel." To save ink Frank might as well compare The Brothers Karamazov to the Old Testament. (This would be appropriate as Christianity is a leitmotif in Dostoevsky's works.)
Such a brilliant book! (Dostoevsky's, that is.) Little wonder that Einstein, someone I admire very much, also liked it a lot, antisemitism notwithstanding.
Frank's biographical criticism runs to almost 3,000 pages from Volume I-V. I'd hoped at least 300 of those pages would be devoted to The Brothers Karamazov (Dostoevsky's masterpiece) but I got half that number.
The "mantle of prophet" which Frank refers to of course has nothing to do with antisemitism: He means that Dostoevsky was, even more than Pushkin, the prophet of the Russian radical spirit.
A long time will pass before another definitive work on Dostoevsky supersedes this multi-volume masterpiece.
The Final Volume in the Biography of a Literary Giant.......2002-09-01
Dostoevsky: The Mantle of the Prophet, 1871-1881 is the long-awaited final volume by Joseph Frank, Professor of Comparative Literature Emeritus at Princeton University and Professor of Comparative Literature and Slavic Languages and Literature Emeritus at Stanford University.
Previous volumes in the series are: Dostoevsky: The Seeds of Revolt, 1821-1849; Dostoevsky: The Years of Ordeal, 1850-1859; Dostoevsky: The Stir of Liberation, 1860-1865; and Dostoevsky: The Miraculous Years, 1865-1871.
It was during the final decade of his life, 1871-1881, that Dostoevsky wrote Diary of a Writer and his greatest novel, The Brothers Karamazov. Many pages of Frank's fifth volume deals with analzying these two works (140 pages for The Brothers Karamazov alone).
With impressive literary scholarship, Frank throws light on the historical, political, economic, social, cultural, and literary setting within which Dostoevsky created his works of art, novels of great psychological depth.
For example, Friedrich Nietzsche wrote: "Dostoevsky, the only psychologist, by the way, from whom I had anything to learn; he is one of the happiest accidents of my life, even more so than my discovery of Stendhal."
Dostoevsky traced the roots of the evils in Russian society to a loss of religious faith. By "religious faith" he meant specifically the Christian faith of the Russian Orthodox Church. He thought the Roman Catholic Church was a distortion and perversion of true Christianity. (See the harangue Dostoevsky puts into the mouth of Prince Myshkin in Part Four, Chapter VII, of The Idiot.
Of particular interest is Frank's discussion of Dostoevsky's philosophical thinking (framed, of course, within a Christian worldview), such as his ruminations on Russian nationalism, rational egoism, and the freedom of the will, and his grave concerns over the adverse moral and political effects of atheism and nihilism.
Frank soft-pedals Dostoevsky's notorious anti-Semitism, seeking to exonerate his hero as being simply "a child of his time."
Although one finds many things to dislike about Dostoevsky, one cannot help being impressed by his literary genius. Recognizing the excellence of Dostoevsky's art, Frank devotes the lion's share of his volume not to the man himself but to the man's literary production.
While this is surely not the fault of Joseph Frank, one is depressed by the seemingly endless fare of Russian sectarian bickering and murky political maneuverings. One breathes a huge sigh of relief to escape this oppressive atmosphere.
a crowning achievement.......2002-06-02
A truly triumphant conclusion to a massive and passionate undertaking. Frank shows the highest standards of scholarship in being objective, fair, yet sympathetic to one of the greatest of all writers. In this final volume, we have Dostoevsky living and breathing the Russian air of his beloved land seething with social, cultural and political issues of the day. An engaged and far-seeing artist if ever there was one. The complexity and paradoxical simplicity of his life presents us a real genius often at odds with the way he would be perceived by many of his readers, yet a humane and sincere human being. Now go back and read the magnificent works he has given us from his pen.
Warning--this is but the last volume in a great biography.......2002-05-10
"Dostoevsky : The Mantle of the Prophet, 1871-1881" is the fifth and final volume in Frank's extraordinary biography of Dostoevsky, a remarkable undertaking of more than a quarter century. While every volume has been exceptional and well worth reading, because they share a title and differ only in subtitle Amazon's system tends to muddle reviews of the various volumes together. This final volume covers the last decade of Dostoevsky's life, so don't buy it expecting a one-volume bio of the great writer. If you care about Dostoevsky's work find copies of the first four volumes, read them, then read this book. The series sets a superlative standard for examining a great writer's life and works, but this volume isn't really intended to stand alone, despite a short "story-to-date" intro.
The 2nd most important genious of the 19th century.......2002-05-07
The first was Abraham Lincoln, and thank God he lived to see the Civil War to its conclusion. Unfortunately, Dostoevsky died of smoking-induced emphysema before his genious was able to formulate the aims of a revolution, potentially of comparable historical import to our own. This is my analogy -- not Frank's -- but his "biography" does make my view legitimate, I think.
Dostoevsky's sway over the new generation of radical activists was profound enough that he aimed to transform the ideology of socialist revolution into the ideology of a unique Russian Christian renaissance, in opposition to the secular materialism of the civilized world. In the author's eschatalogical imagination, he envisaged a Russian revolution of sentiment that would have had the opposite effect of France's "liberty, equality, and (compulsory) fraternity" -- but he died before he was able to manifest his positive ideal in its complete force through the character of Alyosha Karamazov. Thus, it would be interesting to find out what the sequel to The Brothers Karamazov would have been and also to see how Russians would have taken such a message.
Frank's "biography" should bolster most people's initial internal response to Dostoevsky's work -- a response that most of us have to struggle to articulate.
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I Must Be From Another Planet: The Mantle Of A Prophet
Bishop Milton Adams
Manufacturer: iUniverse, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Prophecy
| Divination
| New Age
| Religion & Spirituality
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General
| New Age
| Religion & Spirituality
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ESP
| Occult
| Religion & Spirituality
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Spiritualism
| Occult
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General
| Spirituality
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ASIN: 0595402003 |
Book Description
While shoveling snow one morning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, author Milton Adams experienced pain like he never had before. When it erupted from his abdomen and swiftly moved to his chest, Adams realized that he was having a heart attack. As paramedics struggled to stabilize him, Adams' life was slipping away. He entered into the spirit world and experienced revelations that transformed his life. Adams' out-of-body experience enlightened him to the spirit world. It helped him discover that he was created in the image and likeness of God and is in the same class and realm with God. Adams shares his experience in I Must Be from Another Planet: The Mantle of a Prophet to highlight the special gifts that operate in the life of a prophet and provide guidance for those who have been called to serve God. Adams also describes how he has learned to live with the strangeness of being a prophet and how his relationship with God has grown and developed. I Must Be from Another Planet is a comforting guide that can help anyone adjust to the mantle that God has placed on your life.
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