Book Description
Lucia works as a servant girl in Italy and is engaged to be married. But after the pox disfigures her face, she flees in shame without telling her lover. Years later, as a reknowned Amsterdam courtesan who never goes out without her veil, Lucia is at the theater when she recognizes her long-lost fiancé, Giacomo Casanova; and she cannot resist the opportunity to encounter him again.
Based on a woman who appeared briefly in Casanova’s legendary diaries, Lucia emerges as a brilliant woman who becomes every bit his match. In Lucia’s Eyes is an elegant and moving story of love denied and transformed.
Customer Reviews:
Flat story, boring blather attempting to wax philosophical, unreal characters.......2007-03-11
Lucia is a 14 year old peasant girl who meets and falls in love with Casanova when he visits the home of her family's employer. He must return to Venice, but he vows to return in the spring so that they can wed. Lucia's family employer essentially sponsors a tutor for her to learn how to go from peasant to cultured Venetian lady (a la Eliza Doolittle). But on the eve of her debut & wedding she is stricken with small pox and incurs deforming scars on her face - a death knoll for success in Venetian society for her and anyone associated with her. Thus, Lucia has her mother tell him she ran off with someone else, and Lucia runs away from her home so that he will not find her. The two meet again much later in life, both under assumed names, and she realizes that her breaking of his heart is the reason he disdains any emotional relationship with the 1000's of women he has seduced since.
Sounds like the set up for a great story... but what follows is anything but. The book reads like an insecure person's attempt to prove themselves the most evolved, rational, and learned philosopher in a room full of other pompous, insecure pseudo-philosophers. The tone was a turn off. An entire section of the book, Lucia's recounting of her friendship with a French woman who takes her in and attempts to continue the expansion of Lucia's mind and philosophizing abilities, is boring drivel.
Lucia tells the reader of her life in prostitution in a completely detached voice. She casually mentions being violated in all ways, having no choice, and having "stooped" to the lowest levels. However, she lost to alcohol, opium or some other drug to numb the experience though chemicals are nearly ubiquitously relied on by women in prostitution to numb out their harsh realities. Japin presents Lucia as suffering none of the shame or embarrassment so commonly felt by the millions of women who live similar experiences, despite her extremely sheltered and virtuous upbringing. He omits all possible detrimental outcomes which result from years of being used in prostitution, despite that in real life such an experience literally "uses up" the person (my comments based on my professional knowledge from working with survivors). I just couldn't read this sterile presentation of this young woman's tragic life (deformation, shunning, loss of love & family, and being used in prostitution) and be able to see Lucia as real in any sense at all.
This was all so distracting and unrealistic to me, I simply can't recommend this book.
Lush, rich, excellent.......2006-08-06
Japin's second novel is a beautiful work of historical fiction. His descriptions of the times, the places, the clothes and fashions and thoughts and activities - perfect. The dialogue, the attitudes, the games his people play - all dead right. Even Japin's weaving together the fictional and nonfictional source material (mostly Casanova's autobiography) is done most skillfully and believably. It is a beautiful work. I enjoyed every page of the book.
Something was very much lost in translation.......2006-07-01
I really hate to not finish a book, no matter how much I dislike the book in question. But this novel, which seemed so promising according to the other reviews, was just not readable.
I liked the premise, Casanova's only lost love turns out to have run away in shame after being disfigured by smallpox, and later they meet and engage in a battle of the genders when she is a prostitute in Amsterdam.
But this book does not read like historical fiction. Possibly it is the translation from Dutch into English which rendered this into a snooty sudo intellectual novel on the nature of suffering. Maybe it is the translation which made all of the words in this book into things rarely seen in dictionaries. I mean, normal English isn't exactly a bad language for describing things. Sometimes a kiss is just a kiss, a smile is just a smile....not "any mouth game we could make of it" or something weird like that.
Anyway, the language of this book killed me. I lost interest by page 100, and I quite without finishing.
Two stars.
Tracy Chevalier, move over.......2006-02-16
I love stories that steep you in the sounds, the sights even the smells of history. The Girl With the Pearl Earring is a book I adored. But that book now seems a beginner's effort to bring the past to life. Japin writes so believably as an 18th century courtesan, the book is like a found manuscript. The language is period pitch-perfect. And this is that rare book with something for both the mind and the heart. For the mind, a subtle and fascinating meditation on sense versus sensibility (yes, I recommend this to fans of Jane Austen), reason versus feeling. For the heart, there is a irresistibly developed love story, both suspenseful and poignant. You rarely find a contemporary author with these classical skills of story telling. Bravo!
fascinating historical tale .......2005-11-29
In Pasiano, Italy fourteen years old virginal servant Lucia works in a noble house. There she meets seventeen years old just as virginal seminarian student Giacomo Casanova. The youngsters fall in love until she Lucia catches smallpox that scars her face terribly. Unable to face her lover, she runs off Giacomo before fleeing across Europe.
She earns her way doing various jobs especially as a prostitute to those every other fallen woman rejected. Eventually she becomes Madam Galathee de Pompignac running a popular brothel in Amsterdam and using a sexy veil to hide her visage while also making her mysterious to her clients. Casanova, renowned as the seducer le Chevalier de Seingalt, meets his first love and they wager a war of words, wit, and a challenge to determine whose gender is the stronger.
This fascinating historical tale provides a different look at Casanova through the eyes of his first love. Her trials and tribulations turn her into a strong intelligent woman during an era when females were not expected to show any wit. The period is vividly described, though at times the window into the mid eighteenth century overwhelms the battle of the sexes. Still Arthur Japin provides a solid gender war that humanizes the legendary lover as he competes in a fierce skirmish of the mind and the body against his greatest opponent, his first love.
Harriet Klausner
Book Description
The ten writers included here rose to prominence in the last decade of the twentieth century. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba underwent a drastic economic contraction that brought about an explosion of feminine narrative writing, largely in a need to reinforce the self-esteem so essential in moments of crisis and uncertainty. For the first time in Cuban literature, women focused on topics long con-sidered taboo-sexuality, eroticism, domestic violence, drug addiction, pedophilia-to bring attention to the social and moral crisis brought about by the loss of Soviet support. Writers include Ana Lidia Vega Serova, Karla Suarez, Marilyn Bobes, Adelaida Fernandez de Juan, Nancy Alonso, Aida Bahr, Ena Lucia Portela, Mirta Yanez, Mylene Fernandez Pintado, and Sonia Bravo Utrera.
Average customer rating:
- Emily Dickinson was a middle child
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We Dickinsons;: The life of Emily Dickinson as seen through the eyes of her brother Austin
Aileen Lucia Fisher
Manufacturer: Atheneum
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
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ASIN: B0007DYWVS |
Customer Reviews:
Emily Dickinson was a middle child.......2005-12-03
The story is written from the point of view of Emily's brother, Austin. It is suitable for junior high school readers. The authors, it seems, were impelled to write a book on Emily Dickinson for reason of her joyous seclusion. There is a diagram of the Dickinson homestead at the beginning and a map of Amherst. When Austin was eleven, Emily was nine, and Lavinia was younger. The opening covers the family's move to a house on Pleasant Street. Mr. Dickinson was campaigning for William Henry Harrison. Relatives lived in Monson and Worcester.
When Austin went to Easthampton to attend Mr. Williston's new seminary, Emily missed him. At age thirteen she was depressed over the death of a classmate. Her family urged her to vist an aunt in Boston and an uncle in Worcester, and she did. Emily felt that beauty was buried under all the science after hearing an explanation of geology by the new president of Amherst College. Austin learned that Emily had a sense of guilt about religion. Austin went to Amherst College and later Emily spent a year at Mt.Holyoke Female Seminary. A friend asked Austin to guard Emily from the trivia of a small town.
A great religious revival swept New England in 1850. Emily didn't want to seize the wondrous faith but she did feel a desolation of spirit. The revival went into a third month. Father and Lavinia joined the church. Emily and Austin did not succumb to the fervor. Austin studied law at his father's office and later went to Harvard to study law. The family heard Jenny Lind at Northampton. Emily grew reluctant to be in crowds. Mr. Dickinson bought back the family homestead, his father's mansion. Emily and Lavinia traveled to Washington. They visited Mount Vernon. Austin built a house in Amherst for himself and his wife, Sue Gilbert. (Sue was one of the most understanding readers of Emily's poems.)
Sue, Austin, Lavinia, and Emily went to hear Emerson lecture at Amherst College. Emily started to disappear from social gatherings. Her time was precious to her. In 1861 Austin was thirty two. He certainly did not want to volunteer to fight in the Civil War. Emily refused to see a friend of the family, Sam Bowles, because he had been sick and she felt oppressed. She said she was smothered by talking and bantering. She also felt riches at times because she felt at one with something. Emily wrote to Thomas Wentworth Higginson. He was conventional in his literary criticism but she continued to write to him year after year.
The big event in 1870 when Emily was forty was a visit with Thomas Wentworth Higginson. He was a gentle visitor, a man with a quill. As time passed Emily withdrew. She did not venture beyond the hedge. Following her father's death, Emily's withdrawal from the world became complete. Austin died nine years after Emily did.
Book Description
Kenyon's bestselling backlist heats up the night and is now available in a sizzling boxed set. The Sherrilyn Kenyon Dark-Hunter Boxed Set #1 contains one copy each of Night Embrace, Dance with the Devil and Night Pleasures.
Customer Reviews:
Love Dark Hunters.......2007-10-04
Love those Dark Hunters! She (Kenyan) is one of the best paranormal romance writers ever... right up there with Christine Feehan!
Good fun.......2007-07-28
This set was my introduction to the Dark-Hunter series and I have to say that I am hooked. The story-lines and the character development were far superior to what I was expecting. And heck, they are a fun read.
Great Series.......2007-04-04
A fantastic fictional series. This boxed set inspired me to order several other books from Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunter Series. I am very pleased with this purchase.
Loved, loved, loved them.......2007-03-09
This was my first taste of Sherrilyn Kenyon and her Dark-Hunter series and now I am waiting with baited breath for my next shipment to get here so I can continue reading her series. I have been an avid Laurell K Hamilton reader and after reading all the current books in both of her series was left desperate and depressed with nothing to read.... THEN I found the Dark-Hunter series!!! I love how each book is devoted to a Dark-Hunter. Getting to know each of them "intimately" and then seeing them make little guest appearances in the next book makes for an awesome read. These are the kind of books you find hard to put down once you start reading. I would recommend this series to anyone who loves the paranormal, adventure, romance-erotica genre. A+, 5 stars, 2 thumbs up!
Book Description
In Night Pleasures, Kyrian of Thrace---an immortal who protects humans from vampires---wakes up one morning handcuffed to the one thing that can scare him: a conservative woman in a button-down shirt. But Amanda Devereaux turns out to be his perfect partner for hunting down a deadly foe, and for helping him to regain his soul and learn that love doesn’t have to bite.
Night Embrace spins the story of Talon, an ancient Celtic warrior who killed the son of the god Camulus. Camulus cursed Talon, decreeing death for everyone he loved. Now a Dark-Hunter in modern-day New Orleans, Talon meets Sunshine, who is key to ending his curse once and for all. Not to mention helping him to save New Orleans from an ancient god bent on total destruction....
Enter a realm like none you’ve ever experienced with Night Pleasures and Night Embrace. Now together in one volume!
Customer Reviews:
GREAT/GREAT.......2006-12-29
I cannot say enough good about the writing of Sherrilyn Kenyon. She grabs me from the first page and holds my atten all the way thru. She has a whole shelf of her own on my Keeper Bookcase. You will enjoy all her books too, I am sure.
Night Pleasures / Night Embrace ( Dark-Hunter Novel).......2006-06-27
The first of the Dark-Hunter novels I read was "Kiss of the Night". I was so enchanted with the story that I HAD to go back to the beginning. Night Pleasures and Night Embrace made me laugh, cry and moan all in one chapter. LOVE this series!!!
Product Description
Ten titles from Kenyon's very popular Dark-Hunter series.
Amazon.com
During a traditional Quaker meeting, the Friends sit in silent meditation. No one speaks unless they are moved to do so through the "still, small voice" of God within. As a result, spoken words are often spare, clear, and wise. A Quaker Book of Wisdom reads like the voice of a Sunday morning meeting. Author Robert Lawrence Smith is a lifelong Quaker and former headmaster of the Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C. (Chelsea Clinton's former alma mater). Reflecting on topics such as silence, simplicity, business, and family, Smith offers guidance on how to "let your life speak"--an important premise to the Quaker life of service. Smith's humble self-disclosures make this slim book especially endearing and accessible. In the chapter "Conscience," he divulges battlefield horrors that rival those in Saving Private Ryan--images that still haunt him long after he chose to fight fascism during World War II instead of becoming a conscientious objector, as many Quakers did. In the next chapter, "Non-Violence," Smith writes of an eye-opening shopping trip to Toys R Us where the action-figure warmongers are far more attractive to his grandson than the checkers game they were planning to purchase. In the final chapter, Smith offers "Ten Life Lessons" that he wishes someone had shared with him when he was growing up. Indeed, these lessons are even more valuable and certainly more provocative than the ones we learned in kindergarten. --Gail Hudson
Book Description
"The most valuable aspect of religion," writes Robert Lawrence Smith, "is that it provides us with a framework for living. I have always felt that the beauty and power of Quakerism is that it exhorts us to live more simply, more truthfully, more charitably."
Taking his inspiration from the teaching of the first Quaker, George Fox, and from his own nine generations of Quaker forebears, Smith speaks to all of us who are seeking a way to make our lives simpler, more meaningful, and more useful. Beginning with the Quaker belief that "There is that of God in every person," Smith explores the ways in which we can harness the inner light of God that dwells in each of us to guide the personal choices and challenges we face every day. How to live and speak truthfully. How to listen for, trust, and act on our conscience. How to make our work an expression of the best that is in us.
Using vivid examples from his own life, Smith writes eloquently of Quaker Meeting, his decision to fight in World War II, and later to oppose the Vietnam War. From his work as an educator and headmaster to his role as a husband and father, Smith quietly convinces that the lofty ideals of Quakerism offer all of us practical tools for leading a more meaningful life. His book culminates with a moving letter to his grandchildren which imparts ten lessons for "letting your life speak."
Customer Reviews:
Lessons in Simplicity, Service and Common Sense.......2007-07-05
This book is excellent. If you want to read something that makes you think, this is a great book for you!
Profound book about a profound spiritual teaching.......2007-05-07
Reading this book, I thought that there is as much here for the Buddhist or the Taoist as there is for the Friend. Perhaps this is because what lies at the core of each of the world's faiths is the unifying message of mysticism. Quakerism comes as close to mysticism in religion as you're likely to find in the West. The author's account of Quakerism as well as how the inner sought spirit informs his life is deeply profound and inspiring.
A deeper understanding to what faith is all about.......2006-10-13
As an old/new member of the Quaker faith this book was not just some shallow sayings, with washed up meanings, but instead it was truly amazing! I have a heritage of Quakers within my family and I found this to be a worthwhile read. While some have labeled this a liberal book, with liberal Quaker views, I would argue that the theology and basis of Quakerism is to see the light in every person regardless of creed or religion. Smith does an excellent job of reinforcing these ideals for me, and furthermore makes it clear in each chapter what is expected of those who are Quakers. Simply, it comes down to a choice ocean of light or darkness, and I chose the light with the help of this great book.
A Breath of Spiritual Fresh Air.......2005-08-09
This little book is clear, thought-provoking, and most of all, inspiring. I have recommended it to all my friends and I have purchased it as a gift for one. How refreshing to be exposed to wisdom as opposed to indoctrination and dogma. It is a breath of spiritual fresh air.
A so-so book..........2005-04-16
This book is not a bad book per se (I'd give it three and a half stars if that were possible), but it definately leaves out A LOT of information. I'm taking it upon myself to give the rest of the information the book should have given, in four major points:
1) This book represents just one type of Quakerism, namely the Liberal Quakers, and the author himself is from the liberal end of the Liberal Quakers. That's not a bad thing in and of itself, but it should have been pointed out on the book, or somewhere in the description. Most Quakers in the world today are Christian and we always have been a Christian Society. Many of the values this book discusses are debatable at best and do not represent Quakerism as a whole. That's why I think it could have been called "A Liberal Quaker Book Of Wisdom" or "A Hicksite Quaker Book Of Wisdom". If that's what one is looking for, great--but it should be made known before the book is purchased, I feel.
2) The "life lessons" in this book are actually just essays (more or less) loosely on different topics by the author. The book kind of portrays itself as a whole volume, i.e., one that is more "solid", but it could have been published as a bunch of little books as well.
3) The school that the author used to head, Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., is one of the most expensive day schools in the county (and probably in the world). Mainly politicians' kids and children of important public figures go there--precious few Quaker kids could ever afford it. That isn't mentioned at all in the essay on simplicity and it really should have been. His former status of head of the school is used as a selling point of the book, but in my view, it doesn't tell the whole story for those not familiar with Sidwell Friends School.
4) It doesn't really contain that much information. The book itself is very small and square shaped, and it is printed in large font with what looks (to me) to be double-spaced or nearly double-spaced lines. The cover (on the softcover version) is actually rather thin, even for a softcover book, and prone to ripping. I personally feel that even $9 is too much to pay for this book.
In conclusion, I really don't like to give a negative review of a Friends' book, but this one is less than excellent and in many ways does not tell the whole story.
If a person is new to Quakerism or just looking for general Quaker infomation, I would whole-heartedly recommend Wilmer A. Cooper's book, "A Living Faith" (ISBN 0944350534). It is truly one of the better Quaker books written in recent years. It addresses both Liberal and Orthodox Quakerism as well as other groups such as Conservatives and Independent Meetings. It far excels this one in just about every way, but it does cost a few dollars more (it's a much larger book).
Product Description
Using illustrations from his own life, Robert Smith teaches us how Quakerism can help us lead simpler, more meaningful and more useful lives.
Books:
- In the Province of Saints: A Novel
- Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: A Novel
- Just a Couple of Days
- Lake of Sorrows: A Novel
- Leonardo's Swans: A Novel
- Lest Darkness Fall & Bring the Light
- Little White Lies: A Novel of Love and Good Intentions
- Lying Awake
- Memoirs of a Geisha: A Novel
- Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose
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