Book Description
Plenty of examples, diagrams, and figures take readers step-by-step through well-known classical biological models to ensure complete understanding of stochastic formulation. Probability, Markov Chains, discrete time branching processes, population genetics, and birth and death chains. For biologists and other professionals who want a comprehensive, easy-to-follow introduction to stochastic formulation as it pertains to biology.
Book Description
Time-Frequency Analysis is a rich source of ideas and applications in modern harmonic analysis. The history of time-frequency analysis dates back to von Neumann, Wigner, and Gabor, who considered the problems in quantum mechanics and in information theory. For many years time-frequency analysis has been pursued only in engineering, but recently, and with the development of wavelet theory, it has emerged as a thriving field of applied mathematics. This book presents the first systematic introduction to time-frequency analysis understood as a central area of applied harmonic analysis, while at the same time honoring its interdisciplinary origins. Important principles are (a) classical Fourier analysis as a tool that is central in modern mathematics, (b) the mathematical structures based on the operations of translation and modulations (i.e. the Heisenberg group), (c) the many forms of the uncertainty principle, and (d) the omnipresence of Gaussian functions, both in the methodology of proofs and in important statements. Topics and Features: * Underlying thread throughout the book is the idea of a joint time-frequency representation and its conflict with the uncertainty principle * Unified and systematic introduction of the mathematical foundations of time-frequency analysis on the basis of classical harmonic analysis to obtain core results. * Emphasis of the interdisciplinary aspects of the subject and its connections to other disciplines within and outside mathematics. * new results in the modern theory of Gabor frames and the quantitative measurement of time-frequency content through the theory of modulation spaces * the role of pseudodifferential operators in time-frequency analysis. Mathematicians, physicists and engineers in signal and image analysis, will find an authoritative, systematic introduction to this active field of modern analysis and applications. Researchers and professionals in wavelets and mathematical signal analysis will also find the book a useful resource.
Customer Reviews:
An Immediate Classic.......2003-02-14
This book is an essential tool for anyone working in
time-frequency analysis. It is so important that I bought
TWO copies - one for home and one for work. Hardly
a day goes by that I do not look into this book for some
gem which clearly explains a difficult topic. This is an
area with a tremendous amount of literature. Some of it
is written in such generality and obscure notation that one
cannot recognize even a familiar theorem in some of these papers.
This book contains all the best and clearest proofs of the
results. It also organizes this subject exceptionally well so
that it all finally ``flows'' the way it should. I could discuss
the book section by section to point out the important
points. But this review would then be as long as the book.
All I can say is that no one should even dream of working in
time-frequency analysis without having this book at their side.
From the moment it hit the shelves it was already the ``classical''
work in the area. And it will be that for a long time to come.
I thank the author for this significant contribution to the
understanding and enjoyment of my professional life.
long awaited mathematical introduction to time-frequency.......2001-03-21
This book fills a long-standing gap in the literature. While Gabor analysis is described on equal footing with wavelets in the early literature on the subject (in the late 80's) the book market on wavelets exploded, while no "serious" (from a mathematician's point of view) introduction to Gabor analysis was available. Maybe the impossibility of having orthonormal Gabor bases was the main reason for this situation (by the Balian-Low theorem). In 13 Chapters the author takes the reader from basic Fourier analysis and fundamental facts concerning the short-time Fourier transform and uncertainty to the foundations of Gabor analysis, i.e. Gabor frames, the structure of the Gabor frame operator, Zak transform methods, the role of the Heisenberg group and to functional analytic results describing the "appropriate" function spaces (so-called modulation spaces), playing here the same role as Besov spaces play with respect to wavelet expansions. Besides summarizing known results and proving things from scratch interesting applications (e.g. to pseudo- differential operators) are provided. The book should be of great interest to mathematicians (e.g. graduate students in analysis) as well as those applied scientist who want to read about the "foundations" of this field without having to consult dozends of original papers. A great book which will have its influence on the teaching of the subject in the years to come.
Book Description
This trilogy of novels about World War II, largely based on his own experiences as an army officer, is the crowning achievement of Evelyn Waugh’s career. Its central character is Guy Crouchback, head of an ancient but decayed Catholic family, who at first discovers new purpose in the challenge to defend Christian values against Nazi barbarism, but then gradually finds the complexities and cruelties of war too much for him. Yet, though often somber, the Sword of Honour trilogy is also a brilliant comedy, peopled by the fantastic figures so familiar from Waugh’s early satires. The deepest pleasures these novels afford come from observing a great satiric writer employ his gifts with extraordinary subtlety, delicacy, and human feeling, for purposes that are ultimately anything but satiric.
Customer Reviews:
the best novels of world war 2.......2007-03-08
The best of Evelyn Waugh works, this trilogy is the perfect combination of story and history. Waugh's actual experience during the war leaves its mark all over the place, as well as his particular brand of humor - and his distaste for communism. Great read for anyone who wants to be entertained by a touching story, and see how the war was fought by the British, and why they turned against Churchill when it was won. Even if you don't care about any of that, the jokes are still fantastic, and most of the characters are brilliantly developed. They don't make novels like these ones anymore.
A Good Man in World War II .......2005-10-06
Guy Crouchback is almost saintly. He is Catholic, patriotic, and selfless. When World War II comes along he is eager to serve his country and to be thrown into the caldron of war. But, by his own admission, he is not "simpatico" and he always seems to be the square peg trying to fit into a round hole. Perhaps his military career parallels that of the author, Evelyn Waugh.
There is of course no place for Guy in the British Army where his hard work and dedication are little rewarded and his war experiences are spotted with malfortune, little of which is of his own making. Guy "blots his copy book" early on and ends up being suspected of spying for the Italians. Waugh dots this novel with a cast of clownish characters and comic adventures in which Guy sadly participates.
Waugh's irreverent attitude toward World War II has probably made this novel less popular than it should have been. For example, at the opening of the war, Crouchback wonders why England, in the face of simultaneous invasions of Poland by Germany and the Soviet Union, chose to go to war with one and not the other. At another point, Guy muses that "he was engaged in a war in which courage and a just cause were quite irrelevant to the issue." In the best Waughian tradition, he does a hatchet job on the much-celebrated Yugoslav resistance movement of Marshall Tito.
Waugh, oddly enough, has also made the interesting comment that he wrote the "obituary" of the Roman Catholic Church in England with this novel. I take him at his word although perhaps I can't fully appreciate the Catholic subtleties of the novel.
Waugh originally published this novel in three volumes between 1952 and 1962. He then published the three volumes in one, omitting "tedious" passages. One of the tedious passages he omitted was, to me, the most memorable of the book -- the tale of children evacuated from London at the beginning of the war and thrust, with hilarious consequences, upon the country gentry for caretaking. So, you might read the novels -- Men at Arms, Officers and Gentlemen, and The End of the Battle -- separately as well as together.
Beyond thrillers, World War II doesn't seem to have inspired a lot of good novels. Waugh's comic, sad, and cynical novel is one of the best.
Smallchief
Plummy fun.......2004-11-28
Great fun. The sort of thing that you read in the study with an open fire, a glass of 10 year old port and a cigar smouldering in the ashtray, the Great Dane snoring in the corner next to the mahogany sideboard.
Or that's the image that the book throws up.
I really enjoyed the book, wit in bucketfuls with an irony and a poignancy that had me chuckling away in time to the Great Danes' snoring.
Waugh takes you to the world of officers and gentlemen that he obviously experienced during his own wartime service- the injustice, the inept leadership and the crazed bravado of some of those around him. The waiting, the rumour, the boredom, the politics and luck, both good and bad are all major players in this book. The class system of officers and privates- all of the ingredients that make a Waugh book are here.
Oh yeah: and he fully describes and realises the insignificance of one soldier in the great scheme of things in an army, no matter how hard that one man wants to make a real difference.
Watch out for the exploits of the great Richie Hook- comic relief and so incredibly un-PC it will make you winch and laugh at the same time
Five stars for Waugh, 0 stars for Everyman's Library.......2004-11-13
Though "Brideshead Revisited" may be his best known work, nothing conveys Waugh's sense of the world better than "The Sword of Honour" trilogy.
His sacramental view of earthly reality is best expressed in a memorable exchange between Guy Crouchback, the book's protagonist, and an obviously overwhelmed Anglican minister.
"... Do you agree," [Guy] asked earnestly, "that the Supernatural Order is not something added to the Natural Order, like music or painting, to make everday life more tolerable? It is everyday life. The supernatural is real; what we call 'real' is a mere shadow, a passing fancy. Don't you agree, Padre?"
"Up to a point." [said the Padre]
Sadly, Alfred A. Knopf's Everyman's Library, a collection of books intended to preserve and popularize the classics of modern literature, isn't up to the task. The binding is stiff and cheap, and the gold embossed lettering on the cover literally disintegrates in your hands. I bought this book hoping it would last a lifetime, but I'll be lucky if it survives the coming year.
Read Waugh for the tonic that he is, but avoid the Everyman's Library like the publishing plague that it is.
Worthy of the Victoria Cross.......2004-02-02
When these books came out a number of reviewers thought that Waugh had lost his touch. Perhaps the atmosphere of the swinging sixties did not lend to itself a real understanding of the greatness of this work. In my opinion this work represents one of Waugh's major works. While it does not cover every aspect of World War Two (Proust did not feel the need to fight out every battle of World War One either), it does provide a kind of summing up of the state of Britain and what happened to former ruling class, a body that provoked feelings of great affinity from Waugh, even though he was a product of the upper middle class.
The key to understanding Waugh, not just this book, but also all of the others is his distrust of the 20th century. He came of age during the 1920s and biographers have noted an early fascination with the pre-Raphaelites. Although this artistic brotherhood focused on life in the pre-industrial age Waugh the satirist brought his powers to bear on the post World War I modern world its mores and hypocrasies. World War Two brought high taxes and democracy to this admired world of the British gentry and Waugh correctly chronicles this in his summary of the war in the trilogy.
The book is also a wonderful social satire drawing portraits of many of Waugh's own circle including Diana Mosley (With the fascist sympathies air brushed out here) Cyril Connolly and others. He marks the fall of the aristocratic officer and the rise of the "Trimmers" of the world whose heroism is more a result of luck and press puffing than genuine achievement.
The turning point in the book is the Crete campaign. Here British high born leadership collapses finally. Waugh sees this military failure coupled with the subsequent alliance with Bolshevik Russia to be one of the failures of the war. The so-called "Stalingrad sword" which appears as a character in its own right is symbollic of the passing away of the former way of life. It is not surprising that Waugh kills off the saintly Mr. Couchback (the hero's father) at this point in the book to provide a last hurrah for the old Catholic landed gentry.
The book is replete with a full gallary of comic characters. My favorite Apthorpe is unfortunately killed off in the first novel. To detail the reasons would be to deprive future of readers of the genuine pleasure in encountering him in the novels. However despite this absence in the two subsequent volumes, there are plenty to keep one amused. My second favorite of Virginia Troy, who is the ex-wife of our hero, Guy Crouchback. It is entertaining to watch this very worldly woman make her way through war-time Britain. There is Ludovic, the aspirant writer, enlisted man and probably the personification of the future post-war world with his trite novel "The Death Wish." Finally there is Trimmer, a former barber who becomes a hero because Britain needed one who was working class (at least in the opinion of HO HQ).
This is a major work by Waugh and probably his best book after "A Handful of Dust." In many ways it is superior to the earlier masterpiece in that provides Waugh with a wider canvas to express himself. This is a must for all readers of Waugh.
Average customer rating:
- An immensely enjoyable example of masterful prose.
- A Subtle, Understated Satire
- Carry on Soldiering
- A Crusader Adrift In Britain's Finest Hour
- Dull and disappointing
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Men at Arms (Sword of Honour Trilogy)
Evelyn Waugh
Manufacturer: Chivers Audio Books
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Officers and Gentlemen
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The End of the Battle
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Put Out More Flags
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Black Mischief
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Vile Bodies
ASIN: 1560549238 |
Book Description
MEN AT ARMS is the first volume of Evelyn Waugh's masterful WW II trilogy about war, religion and politics. It is followed by OFFICERS AND GENTLEMEN and THE END OF THE BATTLE.
Meet Guy Crouchback, a 35-year-old divorced Catholic. Though the armed services really don't want him, he manfully succeeds in joining the Royal Corps of Halberdiers. There he meets Apthorpe, an eccentric African who is devoted to his "thunderbox" (aka chemical closet). Together they make quite a team.
"A highly entertaining novel. Waugh's sharp wit and sure satirical touch are always at work." (The Atlantic)
Customer Reviews:
An immensely enjoyable example of masterful prose........2006-01-20
'Men at Arms' is a book which is a pleasure to read, and one is kept company by Waugh's sumptuous prose and exceptionally good characterisations throughout the book. There can be little doubt, that when Waugh wrote this work, he could claim to be one of the foremost masters of English prose of his time. Waugh's effortlessly rich and varied vocabulary helps to make an otherwise rather dull tale come to life.
'Men at Arms' is the story of Guy Crouchback, a thirty-six-year-old divorcee and one of the last remaining members of the once great, now crumbling, Crouchback family. It is 1939 and Guy is drawn away from his comfortable existence in a small Italian town by his desire to fight for king and country in the imminent war. Guy eventually manages to get into the Royal Corps of Halberdiers, and we follow him as he proceeds with training, as he cultivates friendships with fellow officers, as he goes off on leave, and as he enjoys numerous jovial evenings in the officers' mess. For the majority of this book, one may be forgiven for thinking that there is no war on, and it is not until the last few chapters of the book that Guy and his regiment get remotely close to any action in West Africa.
Waugh manages in the course of the book to hint at Guy's disillusionment with the cause which he finds himself fighting for, impatient with the men around him and angry at his own average abilities, although this melancholy quality is balanced by a humorous edge to the book. 'Men at Arms' is, in my opinion, most remarkable for its characterisations. One finds oneself intensely concerned for, and interested in Guy, impatient to find out what Apthorpe's next revelation about his past will be, and in awe of Brigadier Ritchie-Hook. Waugh achieves what so few writers are able to achieve; the effect of making one feel that one is there, present, beside the main character throughout the book.
One criticism which may be levelled at 'Men at Arms' is that it seems slightly unfinished. The last chapter ends as though tempting the reader with clues as to what is going to happen next. It is perhaps best, in light of this, to read 'Men at Arms' as part of the 'The Sword of Honour Trilogy'. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who appreciates the beauty of the English language in the hands of masters like Waugh.
A Subtle, Understated Satire.......2004-07-05
Waugh had a sure grasp of the language, which makes this novel a pleasure to read. He was a natural writer, and a natural stylist. This particular novel is a satire, although a subtle, understated one. Even though Waugh never really comes out and says it, he thinks WWII might have been an unnecessary war. Parts of this book are obviously autobiographical. Some parts are hilarious, especially the "thunder-box" and all the machinations surrounding it, and the fierce and terrifying Ritchie-Hooks, who's missing an eye and some fingers, and who has a penchant for shrunken heads. Don't expect any big yucks. But if you like quiet satire, take a look at it.
Carry on Soldiering.......2004-04-05
This is fifth book I have read by Evelyn Waugh. I have come to appreciate his style of writing and his style of humor. Both of those reasons would justify, in my opinion, reading any and all of his novels. However, for those expecting a lot more, the author doesn't always deliver. That is the case of "Men at Arms". I came away wondering what the point of the book was meant to be. I also came away wondering where all of the emotion behind the advent and early days of WWII were. Maybe the author, who lived through that time, gave us a better view of reality than the Winston Churchill "Finest Hour" image that we all hold. Then again, I don't want to criticize this book, or any book, for not being what it never intended to be. What we do get is a humorous look at a collection of individuals coming together to become British officers from scratch. The various ways they act, react, and interact is what makes the book enjoyable. The main character, Guy Crouchback, comes from a somewhat fallen aristocratic family and feels the need to make something of himself as war seems imminent. Being in his early 30's makes it difficult for him to find his spot until he meets up with an old associate who gets him into a newly forming brigade. To try and explain any more of the plot might make it seem dull. In fact, it moves along well; not because of action but because of the interaction. Guy Crouchback is like all of Waugh's main characters that I have come across so far; they have a certain detachment from what's happening around them. That aspect gives for a keener insight but can tend to leave the reader a bit detached as well. If you've read Waugh before then you know what you're getting in. If not, this may not be the book to start with. I'd suggest "A Handful of Dust" instead.
A Crusader Adrift In Britain's Finest Hour.......2004-01-28
Exile Guy Crouchback returns home to the United Kingdom on the eve of World War II, fully expecting a glorious self-immolation in the cause of all that is right and noble. Instead he is plunked into the middle of a farcical parade where tired gray men do the best they can to lose a war against a dangerous, devouring adversary while underlings move like spastic marionettes beneath bony fingers.
The result is no happy marriage for Guy, though happy marriages have not been his lot. He was married once, to a scheming heartbreaker named Virginia who divorced him for a career as a serial bride. Guy's strict Catholicism forbids him from marrying again, though as the last in his aristocratic line, such a situation means dereliction of duty in the posterity department. Stuck in every sense of the word, like Miniver Cheevy living mostly in the past, he views the onset of war as a means of redemption against the atheistic hordes of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, aligned at the war's outset in the partition of Poland.
After a struggle, Guy finds himself enlisted in an army brigade where the golden mean is one of bare competence, and bureaucratic "banf" trumps all. France falls, and Norway, and the future is decidedly bleak. Whether Britain can ever rally is a point very much in doubt at book's end, though it doesn't seem likely Guy will help much.
That said, the first of Evelyn Waugh's "Sword Of Honor" is actually a pretty funny read most of the way through. The dialogue is crisp and clever; the plot twists ingenuously lurid. Author Evelyn Waugh has obvious fun recalling his own second youth (he enlisted in his mid-30s) and overseeing the zany exploits of his off-kilter comrades. While Guy spends a lot of time in the shadows, his emergence to be the subject of the later books, "Men At Arms" focuses on characters he meets who shed light on the various all-too-human traits of His Majesty's armed forces.
For example, brigade commander Ritchie-Hook is a one-eyed loon obsessed with attack and "biffing" the enemy. "There are no Sundays in the firing-line," he declaims. At one point, angered by his troops' inability at the shooting range, he runs over to the trench beneath the target butts, pokes his head up, and promises a reward to anyone who can nail him. They don't, maybe because they really try.
The book actually belongs to another character, Apthorpe, a strange, "rather rum" fellow who befriends Guy and in time enlists his aid on a mission to keep Ritchie-Hook from making use of Apthorpe's private "thunderbox," a.k.a. port-o-potty. This gets rather involved, with hushed nighttime conferences between Guy and Apthorpe that wind up somehow getting reported to British Intelligence, before the two conspirators' plot stumbles its way to a charged and highly entertaining conclusion.
If "Men At Arms" had ended there, it would be seen as an engagingly comic though perhaps shallow look at military service during the first and least nasty days of World War II, what would be called "The Phoney War." But Waugh, deeply scarred from his own wartime experiences, keeps the story moving into more penetrating territory. The comedy pulls up a bit, though not abruptly, and never completely.
Sometimes, when comedies turn serious, readers can be put off by the sharp change of tone. Yet here, even as laughs fall fainter, the reader's attachment increases, probably because Waugh subtly manipulates audience expectations (for example, by making Apthorpe less and less likeable, and the machinations of Guy's superiors more and more opaque) before messing with the storyline.
Also, Waugh's deeper involvement with all he presents here really shines through. This identification will only grow with the next two volumes, "Officers And Gentlemen" and "Unconditional Surrender," books that draw deeper focus on some real horrors of war only hinted at with "Men At Arms," while enriching characters first illustrated here with broader and less subtle strokes.
Talking about this book being an uproarious military comedy makes one think of something like "Stripes" or "M*A*S*H," which "Men At Arms" isn't by any stretch. It's no laugh riot, but neither is it a dull bore. Actually, it's very bright and invigorating. Like another Anglo-Catholic trilogy written at around the same time, "Sword Of Honour" is intimately concerned with the question of worldly goodness and overcoming the awesome threat posed by evil and doubt. No one is ever going to do with this trilogy what they did with the other and make gigillions with a three-part screen adaptation featuring hobbits and orcs. Yet "Sword Of Honour" with its real-world focus makes for an interesting counterpart to thoughtful readers who wonder what J.R.R. Tolkien drew upon when writing "Lord Of The Rings," or how people living through World War II viewed the conflict before the result was achieved and the mythology took over. "Men At Arms" makes for an inviting opening act.
By the way, a good way for reading this is in the company of David Cliffe's excellent trilogy companion, found at his Evelyn Waugh website at http://www.abbotshill.freeserve.co.uk/home2.htm.
Dull and disappointing.......2003-04-10
Very insular and without context. I wonder if this is how post-modern lit will seem in 50 years.
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