Shape in Chemistry: An Introduction to Molecular Shape and Topology

Book Description

'Shape in Chemistry' looks at molecular shape from a unique perspective: It introduces the reader to the topological concepts and methods of precise shape characterization that are applicable for direct, non-visual description and analysis of general molecular shapes. The author provides a pictorial introduction to all the topological tools necessary for the subjects discussed. Mathematical description is also provided at an easily comprehensible level. New concepts are introduced beginning at the familiar level of stereochemistry and lead on to more advanced topological shape analysis methods. The structure of the book reflects the author's desire to bring the reader to an early appreciation of the power of topology in chemistry. After a brief review of the quantum chemical concept, the author compares the merits of visual, computer graphics methods and nonvisual, algorithmic shape analysis methods. The book ends with the concepts of approximate symmetry and various generalizations of symmetry. 'Shape in Chemistry' is surely destined to become standard reading in the field. It presents a valuable addition to the literature on shape and modeling of molecules for non-specialists organic, physical and medical chemists, researchers in various aspects of QSAR and pharmacological drug design and advanced undergraduate and graduate students.

Book Description

Provides users with an accessible, yet mathematically solid, treatment of probability and random processes. Many computer examples integrated throughout, including random process examples in MATLAB. Includes expanded discussions of fundamental principles, especially basic probability. Includes new problems which deal with applications of basic theory—in such areas as medical imaging, percolation theory in fractals, and generation of random numbers. Several new topics include Failure rates, the Chernoff bound, interval estimation and the Student t-distribution, and power spectral density estimation. Functions of Random Variables is included as a separate chapter. Mean square convergence and introduction of Martingales is covered in the latter half of the book. Provides electrical and computer engineers with a solid treatment of probability and random processes.

Customer Reviews:

Good book for learning prob and stochastics for EEs.......2007-05-10

Used this for a course.
It is pretty good to learn the basics from, although it gets pretty deep pretty fast by the fifth chapter or so, at which point you may need to use other references to help you stay afloat. Contains a lot of good sideitems that other books don't capture, and some decent examples. Lots of emphasis on DSP, a plus if that is what you are using this material for. Yates and Goodman is good as a companion if you need help understanding the basics. Papoulis is a good companion text for the advanced stuff.

Wow..........2007-04-05

I am amazed that this book is used as a primary text at so many universities. While initially I was unsure if this was a poor text, or if I was simply not adequately prepared to take a probability course, I qucikly realized upon viewing other references that this book was useless and that there are so many other books on this subject which address probability in an intuitive manner. I sometimes read this book and wonder who the authors were writing this book for. The examples are completely overbearing in some cases. Take Example 5.5-3, which was a 4 page discourse on Black Lung, which was probably pulled out of a journal paper. While this could be an interesting topic in probability, it is frustrating, confusing and discouraging to someone trying to learn the subject. I will not even go into the books typographical errors, as they have been mentioned in several other reviews. My advice would be to check out other references if you are taking a class using this text. This book is useful only to people who have mastered the subject.

Some good some bad.......2007-01-20

I found this book to be terrible when I was looking for something specific, but good if read from the start to finish of each chapter. My style of studying doesn't mesh well with the book's lack of a useful index and procedural organization within the text. The index is useless because common, major terms refer to pages that almost exclusively off-handedly mention the term with no further explanation. This organization makes it nearly useless as a reference book.

Great random processes book for engineers.......2005-11-13

This book is ideal as a textbook in a class on random processes, particularly for engineers and those interested in signal processing and telecommunications. I have found the book very easy to follow, quite accessible and complete, and the example problems are very indicative of the approach you need to solve the exercises at the end of each chapter. I would not recommend this book for self-study, however, as I think that self-study of a subject as difficult as random processes would be tough going for anybody. The criticisms that I would make are:
1. The book is poorly edited. There are a moderate number of typos. Some are in places where it is obvious what the author meant, but a few are in critical equations that could mislead the reader.
2. There are no solutions to any of the exercises included in the book. It would really help if there were solutions to either odd or even problems included so that you would know you are on the right path.
Since Amazon does not currently show the table of contents for this book, I do so for the purpose of completeness:
Chapter one is an introduction to probability. This material is covered quickly, so the reader should just use this as a review.
Chapter two introduces random variables. Included topics are the definition of a random variable, the probability density and distribution functions. This material is presented with exceptional clarity.
Functions of Random Variables are introduced in chapter three. This is one of the hardest chapters in the book, although I have not been able to find another book that explains the same material as well. This is mainly concerned with finding the probability density functions of f(x) and f(x,y) given the pdf of the input functions. Convolution and multiple integrals abound in this chapter.
Chapter 4 is Expectation and Introduction to Estimation. This sounds straightforward, but the material on conditional expectation can get complex, although the book covers it well.
Chapter 5 is Random Vectors and Parameter Estimation. This chapter takes concepts from numerical linear algebra and applies it to random processes.
Chapter six is random sequences and introduces linear systems concepts and markov processes.
Chapters seven and eight talk about advanced concepts in random processes.
Chapter nine discusses applications of the previous eight chapters to statistical signal processing.
To get the most out of this book you should already be familiar with probability theory, multiple variable calculus, and linear algebra. If you are not, there is no way you are going to understand this material. A good companion to this book is Schaum's outline of Probability, Random Variables, and Random Processes. It covers most of the same material as this book, except that it does so with more of a mathematician's viewpoint. The Schaum's outline's solved problems also help offset the fact that there are no solutions to exercises in this book. Just remember that there is no textbook on a subject as complex as random processes that is going to negate the need for an instructor of exceptional ability.

Well written but lacks editing, a bit sloppy.......2005-03-13

This book is well written, and is especially interesting for electrical engineers because it uses examples from their field almost from the start. However, it is rife with typos, which can be frustrating in a math book, where you often assume its true, then try to figure out why. Also, it exhibits the sloppy math style common to engineers, especially when it comes to the distinction between constants and variables. This can lead to alot confusion at first.

Probability and Random Processes: With Applications to Signal Processing and Communications

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Excelent!
Not recommended

Probability and Random Processes: With Applications to Signal Processing and Communications
Scott Miller , and Donald Childers
Manufacturer: Academic Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Algebraic Codes for Data Transmission
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Probability and Stochastic Processes: A Friendly Introduction for Electrical and Computer Engineers "Solution manual only" Not a test CD.
Digital Signal Processing (4th Edition)

ASIN: 0121726517

Book Description

Miller and Childers have focused on creating a clear presentation of foundational concepts with specific applications to signal processing and communications, clearly the two areas of most interest to students and instructors in this course. It is aimed at graduate students as well as practicing engineers, and includes unique chapters on narrowband random processes and simulation techniques.

The appendices provide a refresher in such areas as linear algebra, set theory, random variables, and more. Probability and Random Processes also includes applications in digital communications, information theory, coding theory, image processing, speech analysis, synthesis and recognition, and other fields.

* Exceptional exposition and numerous worked out problems make the book extremely readable and accessible
* The authors connect the applications discussed in class to the textbook
* The new edition contains more real world signal processing and communications applications
* Includes an entire chapter devoted to simulation techniques

Customer Reviews:

Excelent!.......2007-01-06

A very nice textbook. Very clear and rich in examples. Ideal to support graduate courses on Probability and Stochastic Processes.

Not recommended.......2006-12-17

This is one of the worst texts I've had to use in my 6 years of engineering education. There are almost no relevant examples in this book and the homework problems stray far from the material in the text. Many fundamental steps are glossed over or skipped, leaving the student without the intuition to solve problems that stray from the norm.

Probability and Random Processes with Applications to Signal Processing: International Edition

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Probability and Random Processes with Applications to Signal Processing: International Edition
Illinois Institute of Technology John W. Woods , Henry Stark
Manufacturer: PEARSON HIGHER EDUCATION
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000N5BOJ8

Approximation and Weak Convergence Methods for Random Processes with Applications to Stochastic Systems Theory (Signal Processing, Optimization, and Control)

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Approximation and Weak Convergence Methods for Random Processes with Applications to Stochastic Systems Theory (Signal Processing, Optimization, and Control)
Harold J. Kushner
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0262110903

Book Description

Control and communications engineers, physicists, and probability theorists, among others, will find this book unique. It contains a detailed development of approximation and limit theorems and methods for random processes and applies them to numerous problems of practical importance. In particular, it develops usable and broad conditions and techniques for showing that a sequence of processes converges to a Markov diffusion or jump process. This is useful when the natural physical model is quite complex, in which case a simpler approximation la diffusion process, for example) is usually made.

The book simplifies and extends some important older methods and develops some powerful new ones applicable to a wide variety of limit and approximation problems. The theory of weak convergence of probability measures is introduced along with general and usable methods (for example, perturbed test function, martingale, and direct averaging) for proving tightness and weak convergence.

Kushner's study begins with a systematic development of the method. It then treats dynamical system models that have state-dependent noise or nonsmooth dynamics. Perturbed Liapunov function methods are developed for stability studies of nonMarkovian problems and for the study of asymptotic distributions of non-Markovian systems. Three chapters are devoted to applications in control and communication theory (for example, phase-locked loops and adoptive filters). Smallnoise problems and an introduction to the theory of large deviations and applications conclude the book.

Harold J. Kushner is Professor of Applied Mathematics and Engineering at Brown University and is one of the leading researchers in the area of stochastic processes concerned with analysis and synthesis in control and communications theory. This book is the sixth in The MIT Press Series in Signal Processing, Optimization, and Control, edited by Alan S. Willsky.

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Probability and Random Processes : With Applications to Signal Processing and Communications
Donald Childers Scott Miller
Manufacturer: Academic Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OHQWQU

Book Description

A masterly new translation of Rabelais's robust scatalogical comedy

Parodying everyone from classic authors to his own contemporaries, the dazzling and exuberant stories of Rabelais expose human follies with mischievous and often obscene humor. Gargantua depicts a young giant who becomes a cultured Christian knight. Pantagruel portrays Gargantua's bookish son who becomes a Renaissance Socrates, divinely guided by wisdom and by his idiotic, self-loving companion, Panurge.

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Translation Alert!

Decent though not exceptional translation

Review of the Everyman's Library edition

Not only a joyful and bawdy romp

"Gargantua and Pantagruel"

Gargantua and Pantagruel
Francois Rabelais
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0393308065

Book Description

Biting and bawdy, smart and smutty, lofty and low, Gargantua and Pantagruel is fantasy on the grandest of scales, told with an unquenchable thirst for all of human experience. Rabelais's vigorous examination of the life of his times—from bizarre battles to great drinking bouts, from satire on religion and education to matter-of-fact descriptions of bodily functions and desires—is one of the great comic masterpieces of literature.

Parts of Gargantua and Pantagruel were banned upon their publication, and the whole of it has suffered in our century at the hands of translators too timid to say in modern English what Rabelais so frankly wrote in Middle French. Master translator Burton Raffel unapologetically brings to life in today's American idiom all the gusto of Rabelais's language. Raffel succeeds in making Gargantua and Pantagruel, so long a great unread classic, accessible and alive to the contemporary reader.

Customer Reviews:

Translation Alert!.......2007-08-04

Readers should be aware that this translation/interpretation has two
serious flaws. First, it's not particularly faithful to the original. In fact
the translators took great liberties many of which change the content
of the original.

Second, the English text is thoroughly antique. English being a language
that changes rapidly, the distance between our english and theirs is
great enough to render this text a bit difficult. The spelling, which comes
from a time before Dr. Johnson's Dictionary had time to standardize
orthography, is more than a little distracting.

So what to do? Well, the best thing is to read it in French if you can. Rabelais'
French is closer to the modern language and you should have little trouble
with it. If you can't, look for one of the annotated scholarly editions or
the translation by M.A. Screech. The latter is available only in a cheap
paperback that's not much fun to hold, but it may be the best avenue to
Gargantua for most of us.

Lynn Hoffman, author of the novel bang BANG

Decent though not exceptional translation.......2006-11-04

The positives about this edition of Rabelais' five book epic are: 1) the full inclusion of all chapters in all the books 2) a very readable text by Burton Raffael. The negatives for me were the lack of notes (though somewhat a formidable task considering the bulk of the text presented) and the occasional anachronism in his choice of translated names. Pretty minor - I still prefer Putnam's translation in the hard to find "Portable Rabelais," but this edition offers a full exposure to all the books in a lively language that preserves the spirit and philosophical intent of Rabelais.

Review of the Everyman's Library edition.......2006-03-23

Some of the other reviews summarize the plot and discuss Rabelais' style; my review is directed to people trying to decide which edition to buy. The Everyman's Library edition, which I just received, uses a late seventeenth-century English translation by Sir Thomas Urquhart and Pierre Le Motteux, not the recent Burton Raffel translation. (One might be led to assume that it reprints Raffel, given that the "Search Inside" feature on the Everyman's edition leads you to his translation in a Norton paperback edition.) One should approach the Urquhart/Le Motteux translation with some caution. Terence Cave points out in his (excellent) introduction to the edition that the translation is "extremely free" and expands the first three books by 50%, but at the same time he calls the translation "an extraordinary feat . . . a literary work in its own right." My sense after reading the first book is that he's right--the language has a lively and strange effect--but this is probably not the ideal introduction to Rabelais. There are no editor's notes. Moreover, the snippets of Latin, Greek, and other languages which riddle the text are left untranslated. Perhaps the phrase "charitatis nos faciemus bonum cherubin; ego occidit unum porcum, et ego habet bonum vino" gives you no problems, but if it does, I would recommend a different translation, like Donald Frame's, which Cave specifically recommends in the bibliographical note in his introduction.

I don't want to make this review too long, but it might be useful to see brief excerpts from the Urquhart/Le Motteux, Donald Frame, and Burton Raffel translations for you to judge for yourself which one you would enjoy spending time with. (I don't have the Cohen translation published by Penguin). Here's the description of Gargantua's conception at the opening of Book 1, chapter 3, as rendered by Urquhart/Le Motteux (remember, late seventeenth-century English):

"GRANDGOUSIER was a good fellow in his time, and notable jester; he loved to drink neat, as much as any man that then was in the world, and would willingly eate salt meat: to this intent he was ordinarily well furnished with gammons of Bacon, both of Westphalia, Mayence and Bayone; with store of dried Neats tongues, plenty of Links, Chitterlings and Puddings in their season; together with salt Beef and mustard, a good deale of hard rows of powdered mullet called Botargos, great provision of Sauciges, not of Bolonia (for he feared the Lombard boccone) but of Bigorre, Longaulnauy, Brene, and Rouargue. In the vigor of his age he married Gargamelle, daughter to the King of the Parpaillons, a jolly pug, and well mouthed wench. These two did often times do the two backed beast together, joyfully rubbing & frotting their Bacon 'gainst one another, insofarre, that at last she became great with childe of a faire sonne, and went with him unto the eleventh month . . ."

Donald Frame's version, in up-to-date English:

"GRANDGOUSIER was a great joker in his time, loving to drink hearty as well as any man who was then in the world, and fond of eating salty. To this end, he ordinarily had on hand a good supply of Mainz and Bayonne hams, plenty of smoked ox tongues, an abundance of salted mullets, a provision of sausages (not those of Bologna, for he feared Lombard mouthfuls), but of Bigorre, of Longaulnay, of La Brenne, and of La Rouergue. In his prime, he married Gargamelle, daughter of the king of the Parpaillons, a good looking wench, and these two together often played the two-backed beast, so that she became pregnant with a handsome son and carried him until the eleventh month."

Here is the passage as it stands in the original 1534 edition of Gargantua (following the original orthography):

"Grandgouzier estoit bon raillard en son temps, aymant a boyre net autant que home qui pour lors feust on monde, & mangeoyt volentiers salé. A ceste fin avoit ordinairement bonne munition de jambons de Magence et de Baionne, force langues de beuf fumees, abondance de andouilles en la saison et beuf salé a la moustarde. Renfort de boutargues, provision de saulcisses, non de Bouloigne (car il craignoit ly bouconé de Lombard) mais de bigorre, de Lonquaulnay, de la Brene, & de Rouargue. En son eage virile espousa Gargamelle fille du roy des Parpaillos, belle gouge & de bonne troigne et faisoient eulx deux souvent ensemble la beste a deux douz, joyesement se frotans leur lard, tant qu'elle engroissa dun beau filz, & le porta jusques a lunziesme mois."

Notice that that the ribald detail "joyesement se frotans leur lard," rendered by Urquhart/Le Motteux as "joyfully rubbing & frotting their Bacon 'gainst one another," is altogether missing in Frame's version. Perhaps Frame's version is too genteel in omitting this passage. It's not only a delightful example of what Bakhtin described as the "lower bodily stratum" in Rabelais, but it links Grangousier's culinary preferences that open the passage with the conception of Gargantua (who will turn out to be quite a glutton himself). With this in mind, consider Burton Raffel's translation:

"In his time, Grandgousier was a fine tippler and a good friend, as fond of draining his glass as any man walking the earth, cheerfully tossing down salted tidbits to keep up his thirst. Which is why he usually kept a good supply of Mainz and Bayonne hams, plenty of smoked beef tongues, lots of whatever chitterlings were in season and beef pickled in mustard, reinforced by a special cavier from Provence, a good stock of sausages, not the ones from Bologna (because he was afraid of the poisons Italians often use for seasoning), but those from Bigorre and Longaulnay (near Saint-Malo), from Brenne and Rouergue. When he became a man, he married Gargamelle, daughter of the King of the Butterflies, a fine, serviceable female--with a good-looking face, too. And they whacked away at making the beast with two backs, happily whipping their lard together, so successfully that she conceived a handsome boy and carried him for eleven months."

Notice that in addition to preserving the bawdy language, Raffel resolves the name of Gargamelle's father, the king of the "Parpaillons," to "Butterflies." (In modern French, "papillons.")

Hopefully these examples give you a sense of which translation you would most enjoy. I like the Urquhart/Le Motteux version but would have preferred editor's notes to explain unfamiliar terms and translations of at least the Latin and Greek citations. I think Frame or Raffel would likely be preferable for first-time readers of Rabelais.

Not only a joyful and bawdy romp.......2005-10-28

The title characters of this amazing classic are father and son, respectively. Gargantua is so huge that men climbing into his mouth got stuck in the crevices of his teeth as if they were food particles. Pantagruel, while being born, was so enormous that his unfortunate mother had to be ripped open to accomodate his exit from her womb.

_Gargantua and Pantagruel_ has lots of screamingly funny toilet humor, so much so, that occasionally I had to prevent myself from falling off my seat with laughter. Yet, there is really nothing pornographic about this book. There is absolutely no graphic sexual activity. Rabelais often quotes Greek, Roman, and French philosophers and intellectuals while recounting his tales. Rabelais also effectively satirizes political leaders, judges, Churchmen, and taste-makers of his day.

On his voyages to foreign lands, Pantagruel, takes along, among others, his closest friend, Panurge and Friar John. Seemingly a braggart, Panurge is really a man suffering from great insecurity and cowardness. He is as loveable as the Cowardly Lion in the Wizard of Oz. Panurge is also very introspective and learns quite a bit about himself by the conclusion of the book. The monk, Friar John, is, on the other hand, a brave and swashbuckling character, who would not hesitate to run a sword through a seeming enemy. Many of the surroundings and individuals on these uniquely strange places are so unusual and the situations so inventive that they boggle the mind.

I read _Gargantua and Pantagruel_ in the Modern Library edition, which was fortunate, because some of the earlier translations used too formal English (lots of "thees" and "thous" and "haths).
This is a book of great intelligence and thoughtfulness, which, as I noted at the beginning of this review, is also delightfully bawdy and imaginative. I only wish one of my high school English teachers had made _Gargantua and Pantagruel_ required reading.

"Gargantua and Pantagruel".......2005-01-09

"Gargantua and Pantagruel"

A 16th-century medical doctor and Catholic monk, François Rabelais spent decades writing a series of five books, collectively known as "Gargantua and Pantagruel," that became wildly popular for their dark and bawdy humor. To this day, the massive tome still ruffles religious feathers. The current edition of The Catholic Encyclopedia calls Rabelais "a revolutionary who attacked all the past, scholasticism, the monks; his religion is scarcely more than that of a spiritually-minded pagan.... His vocabulary is rich and picturesque, but licentious and filthy."

Sex, drinking, utopian ideals, and heretical philosophy populate this fantastical saga that follows the adventures of a giant and his son. What's even more intriguing are the multitude of hidden messages, Gnostic insights, alchemical secrets, and herbal obsessions (e.g., cannabis) that bubble far beneath the surface of these tall tales.

Hey, the book is dated, no doubt. But it can still get the Church's metaphorical cloisters all bundled up in a ruffle... so don't let the Pope catch ya readin' it, son.

(This review is being posted on Amazon under the legal approval of a Creative Commons License -- material can be used elsewhere so long as the original author and website are credited. Author: Lucas Brachish. Website: celebritycola.blogspot.com)

Francois Rabelais Tout ce Qui Existe de ses Oeuvres: Gargantua - Pantagruel. Precede d'une Vie de l'Auteur les Documents les Plus Recemment Decouvert et les Plus Authetiques et Suivi d'une Bibliographie de Notes et d' un Glossaire par Louis Moland.

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Francois Rabelais Tout ce Qui Existe de ses Oeuvres: Gargantua - Pantagruel. Precede d'une Vie de l'Auteur les Documents les Plus Recemment Decouvert et les Plus Authetiques et Suivi d'une Bibliographie de Notes et d' un Glossaire par Louis Moland.
François Rabelais
Manufacturer: Paris: Garnier Freres 1860.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000L5BD14

The Complete Works of Rabelais; The Five Books of Gargantua and Pantagruel

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The Complete Works of Rabelais; The Five Books of Gargantua and Pantagruel

Manufacturer: Heritage Book Club
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GSS044

Rabelais's Carnival: Text, Context, Metatext (New Historicism)

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Rabelais's Carnival: Text, Context, Metatext (New Historicism)
Samuel Kinser
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

French | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0520065220

Book Description

How is it possible, after four centuries, that a major episode in Rabelais's novels remains systematically misread? The episode, which playfully and grotesquely treats the relation of Carnival to Lent, occurs in Rabelais's Fourth Book, his last and most artfully crafted novel. Samuel Kinser argues that the text has been distorted because critics have not attended to the episode's performative as well as literary contexts, overlooking the innovative use Rabelais made in his work of his immediate world. In this original interpretation of the Fourth Book, Kinser evokes the gestures, games, and visual, oral, bodily semantics of Carnival and Lent as they were performed in Rabelais's day. He also underscores the importance to Rabelais of the invention of printing, an innovation which revolutionized the relationships of author and reader. Understanding this and fearing it, Rabelais adopted an extraordinary set of disguises as an author, disguises which in their bewildering interplay constitute the truest sense of his carnival.

Rabelais and Bakhtin: Popular Culture in "Gargantua and Pantagruel"

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Rabelais and Bakhtin: Popular Culture in "Gargantua and Pantagruel"
Richard M. Berrong
Manufacturer: University of Nebraska Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

French | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0803211910

Book Description

In Rabelais and Bakhtin, Richard M. Berrong demonstrates both the historical and textual weaknesses of the argument advanced by Mikhail Bakhtin and his influential study Rabelais and His World. The publication of Bakhtin's book in the West in the late 1960s brought both Rabelais and Bakhtin to the attention of students interested in the "New Criticism" in literature. Bakhtin agrued that the key to Rabelais's narratives was to be found in their language of popular culture, which was intended to free his readers from the ideological "prison house" of official, establishment discourse; to provide them with a nonofficial perspective from which to view—and combat—the establishment and its institutions.

Since the publication of Bakhtin's study, scholars such as Peter Burke, Natalie Zemon Davis, and Carlo Ginzburg have shown that the relationship of the upper classes to popular culture changed in the first half of the sixteenth century. Previously these classes had participated fully in the culture of the people (while adhering to their own), but at that time they undertook to exclude popular culture from their lives and from their world.

In his refutation of Bakhtin's thesis, Berrong demonstrates the complex and shifting role of popular culture in Rabelais's narratives. His conclusions should interest not only readers of Gargantua and Pantagruel but all students of the sixteenth century, since the use and exclusion of popular culture is an issue in the study of many of the writers, artists, and composers of the period.

Gargantua y Pantagruel - Ilustraciones de Gustavo Dore

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Gargantua y Pantagruel - Ilustraciones de Gustavo Dore
Gustavo Dore , and Francois Rabelais
Manufacturer: Edimat Libros
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Spanish | Foreign Language Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

The Histories of Gargantua and Pantagruel

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The Histories of Gargantua and Pantagruel
Francois Rabelais
Manufacturer: The Franklin Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Leather Bound
ASIN: B000L3NYFO

Gargantua & Pantagruel (Wordsworth Classics of World Literature)

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The Horror! THE HORROR!!!!!!!!!!
Fabulous
Not so..not so....

Gargantua & Pantagruel (Wordsworth Classics of World Literature)
Francois Rabelais
Manufacturer: Wordsworth Editions Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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Gargantua/Pantagruel (Petits Classiques Larousse)
The Heptameron (Penguin Classics)
The Book of the Courtier (Dover Value Editions)
The Prince (Bantam Classics)

ASIN: 1840221070

Customer Reviews:

The Horror! THE HORROR!!!!!!!!!!.......2004-06-15

In nine short words: This is the worst book I have ever read. It is awful, simply awful! First of all, it's 800+ pages long, so it takes ages to read. The jokes that are supposed to be rude are outdated and disgusting. The only upside of this is that that's where the word 'Gargantuan' came from, and I don't think we could live without that word.

Fabulous.......2004-01-11

I was gonna compare this one to Don Quixote to see another reviewer beat me to it! Well I shall anyway.

Both are one of the first examples of novels, both are extremely long, both are successful and funny satires of society (in this case of the 16th century) at large.

The difference is this book is much less philosophical and more slapstick. It has less high concepts and more toilet jokes. But that's what I found great about it! It is much more farcical and is about the furthest you can get away from realism. The author does not try to be consistent in terms of scale (the book - made up of five books - chronicles the life of the giants Gargantua and his son Pantagruel) but that's the point. Every conceivable historical figure and literary work is mocked.

I think this is one of the first postmodern works(!). Rabelais experiments with heaps of different text types, he has certain chapters which are lists of things pertaining to happenings (like insults hurled by two characters at each other - over 100 in all) etc etc. He goes off on tangents, talks about all the topics on earth from scholarship to sign language. And the antics of the characters are hilarious.

Personally I found this just a tad better than Don Quixote (4 stars). Yes, this book is also a tad too long. But it's actually five books and with short chapters on diverse topics, you can just pick it up and read another chapter. The translation is great, using white space and punctuation in a very unique way and highlighting the comic nature of the book. In fact, Urquhart's translation is a masterpiece in itself.

A great, great book to knock down your sense of decency and pompousness.

Not so..not so...........2001-03-03

Bakthins critics on GARGANTUA and PANTAGRUEL created too much stir over the book. But it is not so good, the jokes are too scatological and its popular knowledge does not aid too much, do not make us tremble so much as in DON QUIJOTE. Well, that's it.

The complete works of Rabelais; the five books of Gargantua and Pantagruel in the modern translation of Jacques LeClercq

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The complete works of Rabelais; the five books of Gargantua and Pantagruel in the modern translation of Jacques LeClercq
Francois Rabelais
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B00005XDHV

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