The Courage Consort

Amazon.com

Admirers of Belgian writer Michel Faber's magnificent breakthrough novel, The Crimson Petal and the White, may be surprised by how well his taut but unhurried prose translates to shorter fiction in the three novellas of The Courage Consort. It helps, of course, that the stories--minor marvels of suspenseful pacing and atmosphere--are unified by a large, old-fashioned theme: the loss of innocence (and, in one case, the struggle to preserve it). In the title story, an English vocal ensemble travels to Belgium for a two-week residency at a rural chateau, an opportunity to rehearse a notoriously difficult and possibly pointless new composition. Catherine, the soprano--and the dependent, emotionally fragile wife of the ensemble's director--hears plangent cries from the surrounding woods each night. Like Mrs. Dalloway, Catherine feels herself approaching middle age without having achieved adulthood. If she goes into the woods--facing the ghostly legend of a simple-minded mother and her baby, lost there near the end of World War II--will she find her grown-up self? The second novella, "The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps," traces a paper conservator's nightly unraveling of an 18th century oil merchant's tight-scrolled deathbed confession. And the third, "The Fahreinheit Twins," is one part Angela Carter, one part Jack London: a scary fairy tale translated to a glittering ice-bound wilderness.

Events that would be sensational in the hands of most writers--gruesome nightmares, hauntings, possible murders--are serenely dispatched by Faber, who has bigger emotional game in sight. And while every writer has characteristic tics and favorite phrases, the joy here is in observing Faber's growing mastery, and how few the limits on his talent. --Regina Marler

Book Description

With his elegant prose, distinctive imagination, and deep empathy, the bestselling author of The Crimson Petal and the White once again dazzles us in three novellas. "The Courage Consort" tells of an a capella vocal ensemble sequestered in a Belgian chateau to rehearse a monstrously complicated new piece. But competing artistic temperaments and sexual needs create as much discordance as the avant garde music. In "The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps," a lonely woman joins an archaeological dig at Whitby Abbey and unearths a mystery involving a long-hidden murder. In "The Fahrenheit Twins," strange children, identical in all but gender and left alone at the icy zenith of the world by their anthropologist parents, create their own ritual civilization.

In each of these novellas, Michel Faber creates a unique, self-contained world, where the perennial human drama plays out in all its passion and ambiguity.

Customer Reviews:

A++++ Ratings.......2007-07-05

Amazon's the best!!! Book sellers are terrific!!! This book and the author are superb!! I'm a happy camper......Thanks!!!!

Existentialism dragged down by modern assumptions.......2006-06-26

Faber's writing is dreamlike: precise, diverse in language, colorful in metaphor and like many European writers, unafraid to layer metaphors through the use of similar sounds, shapes and mental motions. Where it fails is its "workshop" tendencies, which distill characters to motivations inherent to their situation and give them little chance of transcendence or growth, which in these allegorical tales is how they exist. Characters are enigmatic and lifelike but still cutouts that symbolize stasis and not progress. It seems to me that Faber's writing is light years ahead of his thought.

Always different.......2006-02-05

Faber does a great job of creating new and interesting settings and situations. Though I found the (96 pages) Courage Consort to be somewhat boring and lacking in interesting plot elements, I was greatly rewarded by continuing on to The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps (90 pages) and The Fahrenheit Twins (45 pages). The latter reading like a surreal cross between a fairy tale and the second floor of The Shining hotel.

The Courage Consort.......2005-09-20

Michel Faber's The Courage Consort is one of those books where you wish it were longer or part of a collection. A novella of 150 pages it follows the story of a group of singers sent to Belgium for two weeks in order to rehearse a new avant-garde piece for an upcoming event. As they spend more time in each other's company the group falls apart due to personality conflicts and personal problems.

Roger Courage is the founder of the singing group, named The Courage Consort, although the courage in their name comes from their willingness to tackle contemporary pieces in addition to the traditional standards. His wife, Catherine, is a manic depressive who, in preparation for the trip to Belgium, has forgotten her pills. Ben is an overweight bass singer who lives in his own personal world of silence. Julian is a seemingly bisexual vocalist with a love for Bohemian Rhapsody. And Dagmar, a young German, is the opposite of Catherine in her love for life; she has also, for the trip, brought along her newborn child, Axel.

The book begins with Catherine Courage sitting on the window ledge contemplating whether the four storey drop would be enough to kill her as her husband sit in the next room. As it continues the quintet spend the days practising Partitum Mutante, the avant-garde piece of Italian composer Pino Fugazzi, while the nights provide them with an over exposure to each other that leads to constant arguments about the direction the group should take. Their inability to work with each other leads to an incident that eventually breaks up the group, who are "possibly the seventh most renowned in the world", although there is some hope for the group as evidenced by the optimistic ending.

The prose is light, the vocabulary restrained, and the plot simple. There is humour in this book but it's not laugh out loud funny; the Brits' interpretations of European accents, and the way characters communicate with each other. The characters are nicely done although the woman were better drawn than the males, a common occurrence in Faber's work. Catherine, as the main character, is well conceived - her thoughts were realistic, her dialogue seemed right, and her mania added that extra bit of depth.

Faber's novella is a good read, although, like in The Crimson Petal and the White, he leaves a few things unanswered - the source of a recurring noise from the nearby forest being a prime example - but this does provide scope for interpretation. Maybe we can presume that some parts of the story are delusions of Catherine's. The Courage Consort almost succeeds as a standalone book, but I couldn't help but feel that the characters needed a little more to fully appreciate them. That said, the story is still worth appreciating.

Faber Has A Divine Gift.......2005-07-01

Not one of these three earnest novellas really appealed to me--yet I cherished and treasured all of them. The various characters were flawed (as are all characters), and their subsequent interactions and conflict mundane, yet I still remained transfixed as I turned each page. Let's see: a singing ensemble, an insecure anthropologist, and two tiny twins above the Artic Circle. . .none of the above really interests me. Yet Michel Faber's amazing gift with the written word made his three-novella collection, named THE COURAGE CONSORT, an absolutely spellbinding, mystical, existential, and satisfying reading experience.

The "Guardian" of London says of Faber: "This is a man who could give Conrad a run at writing the perfect sentence." Darn right. Faber's writing is clean, concise, compelling--a fluid nirvana of perfectly-matched nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions. The prose is nothing short of brilliant: the author manipulates the English language like a sorcerer waving an hpynotic wand. The result: reading that rolls off the tip of the tongue, like sampling a wine of inestimable value.

Faber is good, very good; this novella collection is positively as riveting as his post-Victorian masterpiece, "The Crimson Petal And The White." As a matter of fact, Faber has demonstrated, via his surreal prose, that he has grown even more as a writer--which makes reading him the epitome of literary pleasure.
--D. Mikels, Author, WALK-ON

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From Publishers Weekly

The Courage Consort
Michel Faber
Manufacturer: RB Large Print
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Poetry & Short Stories | Large Print | Formats | Books
ASIN: 1419322532

Product Description

Faber pens three novellas infused with a deep-seated sense of life, tragedy, and characters striking out for the borderlands of the soul: 'The Courage Consort, "The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps', and "The Fahrenheit Twins'.

Customer Reviews:

From Publishers Weekly.......2007-07-09

The loss of innocence, the urgency of sexual need and the persistence of inner demons unite these three fine novellas, further evidence of the wide-ranging imagination, ironic humor and incisive characterization Faber displayed in The Crimson Petal and the White. Siân, in "The 199 Steps," is working on an archeological dig in England when she encounters Mack, a gorgeous fitness buff. As Siân and Mack try to decipher the clues to a 1788 murder, Siân's dreams of a handsome man slitting her throat grow in intensity, paralleling the grisly facts she brings to light. The denouement is surprising--and satisfying--for what does not happen. In "The Fahrenheit Twins," Tainto'lilith and Marko'cain are pre-adolescent twin brother and sister living in the Arctic tundra with their eccentric parents, both anthropological researchers. When their mother dies, their father encourages them to voyage alone into the wilderness with her body tied to a sled. Catherine Courage, of the title story, is the soprano member of an avant-garde musical ensemble that has gathered in a Belgian chateau to rehearse a fiendishly difficult piece. Suffering through a July heat wave, Catherine is driven to desperation by an eerie cry she hears in the night. A tragedy, however, provides the reality shock she needs. While this is a slighter effort than Faber's previous work, readers will again be immersed in the intense worlds he creates.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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The Courage Consort
Michel Faber
Manufacturer: Harcourt
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MC2S10

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Courage Consort Three Novellas
Michel Faber
Manufacturer: Harcourt
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OJJKMG

$The MacKade Brothers: Rafe And Jared: The Return Of Rafe MacKade\The Pride Of Jared MacKade$
Average customer rating:

Fun Read

Five Stars

Love the MacKades

Introducing the MacKade Brothers

A Fun Read
The MacKade Brothers: Rafe And Jared: The Return Of Rafe MacKade\The Pride Of Jared MacKade
Nora Roberts
Manufacturer: Silhouette
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Romance | Subjects | Books
General | Roberts, Nora | ( R ) | Authors, A-Z | Romance | Subjects | Books
Paperback | Roberts, Nora | ( R ) | Authors, A-Z | Romance | Subjects | Books
General | Contemporary | Romance | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0373218575

Book Description

New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts returns with the embodiment of tall, dark and dangerous! Back by popular demand, the irresistible MacKade brothers are once again stirring the heart of every female that crosses their path.

Ten years later and the bad boy of the bunch had returned home. Appealing as ever, not even lovely Regan Jones, the town's reserved antiques dealer, was immune to Rafe MacKade. Regan claimed her plans didn't include relationships with rebels, but her reaction to The Return of Rafe MacKade -- and his sizzling kisses -- said something quite different.

Attorney Jared MacKade had his pick of women. His dealings with Savannah Morningstar were strictly business, but thoughts of the outrageous, direct and sinfully sexy woman kept him coming back for more. With Savannah's incendiary attitude, plus The Pride of Jared MacKade, something -- good or bad -- was bound to erupt.

Customer Reviews:

Fun Read.......2007-05-25

I just finished both books of the MacKade brothers. I thought each brother was interesting and likable. I got so amused of the scuffling around of the brothers who really love each other and would do anything for each other. Not sure how many adult men behave in this manner. :) I thought Regan was ideal for Rafe and Cassie is a good mix for Devin but the author's choice for Jared and Shane wasn't believeable. Savannah was hard to warm up; she has such a temper and a chip on her shoulder. To me Jared's personality doesn't fit with hers. I never could warm up to her even to the end and especially when she ruined Jared's clothing and etc. Jard may have been having some problems dealing with some things about Savannah but who wouldn't (hey, I liked her son though-he was smarter than her) but I thought Savannah showed such immaturity in her temper fits. Now by Shane's story she becomes more likable but then we have Shane's romance. That one doesn't jell at all as far as I'm concerend. Rebecca's way too prissy, uptight and snooty for Shane. She's so educated she can't even have a normal conversation. I never warmed to her either, especially as a romantic interest for Shane. I still enjoyed the series because I liked the brothers. I think I enjoyed the series of the Quinn Brothers more than the McQuade brothers but still both series are fun reads.

Five Stars .......2007-05-22

The MacKade Brothers are one of the best NR series ever. About four brothers who got into a lot of trouble when they were little and now have grown up. It kicks off with the baddest of the four Rafe who returns to Antietem,MD rolling in money and wanting to restore a former landmark and turn it into an inn and meets up with Regan who moved to town four years ago and sells antiques and thinks she can resist Rafe's charms. In the second book is about Jared MacKade a lawyer who has to inform new recluse Savannah Morningside of her father's death and is attracted to her, Savannah's used to taking care of herself and her son and has difficulties letting a man into her life. Each of the brothers are very likable and strong willed and so are the women they are paired with.

Love the MacKades.......2007-04-14

I realy love reading Roberts's books that tie in family members. The brother books she writes are great. The humor of the family dynamics are great and the stories are heartfelt. If you love this one, you will Like the other two MacKades even better. Look for Devon and Shane.
Love, Love, Love it.

Introducing the MacKade Brothers.......2007-04-08

Rafe and Jared are two good solid stories, they're not Nora Robert's best, but they are still quite enjoyable.

In Rafe's story, Regan makes a fine heroine for the wild Rafe. It's a well written story that never really goes wrong. A solid Nora Roberts. 4/5 stars

In Jared's story I felt like they didn't flesh out the relationship between Jared and Savannah enough, or Jared himself. We got to know Savannah very well and she was a very interesting, vibrant character. Yet Jared was aloof in a ways. This story seemed more rushed than the other three, but was still enjoyable. 3.5/5 stars

All in all two decent interesting reads.

A Fun Read.......2006-10-29

This was a reread for me and I liked it! This is the first two stories of the fabulous MacKade brothers. Four brothers who were known for being a bit rowdy and unruly as teens.
In the Return of Rafe MacKade you have the baddest of the 4 boys coming home after leaving several years ago. He has made his money in the construction industry. He comes back to by a local haunted house that has been abandoned for years.
Regan is a local antique store owner. There is lust a first sight and Rafe hires her to help him redocorate the house and return it to it's original splendour so he can make a Bed and Breakfast.
In The Pride of Jared MacKade you have Jared an attorney hired to settle an estate with the new girl in town. When he meets Savannah and her son he is immediately taken by her. But Savannah is about as prickly as they come. At times her attitude was way too much.
Through both these stories and the next two are some interesting haunts and tales about people who lived and died during the civil war.
Very interesting read.

Return Of Rafe Mackade (Heartbreakers) (Silhouette Intimate Moments, No 631)

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Rafe and Regan
An okay contemporary story. I expected much more from NR.
An oldie, but a goodie
love these boys
The MacKade Brothers

Return Of Rafe Mackade (Heartbreakers) (Silhouette Intimate Moments, No 631)
Nora Roberts
Manufacturer: Silhouette
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Romance | Subjects | Books

Silhouette Intimate Moments | Series | Romance | Subjects | Books

General | Contemporary | Romance | Subjects | Books

Regency | Romance | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0373076312

Customer Reviews:

Rafe and Regan.......2007-04-08

A good solid introduction to a series of brothers that just gets better. In Rafe's story, Regan makes a fine heroine for the wild Rafe. It's a well written story that never really goes wrong. A solid Nora Roberts.
4/5 stars

An okay contemporary story. I expected much more from NR........2003-08-14

The hero is hunky, the heroine is fiesty, the brothers are to die for but the story line is weak. It's "just" another harlquin romance formula type. Sorry I got it.

An oldie, but a goodie.......2001-07-24

I am sure I came across this series from within a review I read. Thank you unknown reviewer! This is one of the best books (series) I have read. Rafe is a traditional male lead (bad boy), but the characters are fleshed out so well the old formula is still interesting. I read the series in order, but I am rereading out of order a month later and the books truly hold on their own. I really liked this book, but I can't say it is my favorite. They are all so good, I think of them as one continuous story. And wouldn't it be nice (and profitable) for them to be re-released together. I don't think in the last 6 years there have been that many better books. Once again...Why is this out of print? :)

love these boys.......2000-05-17

i, unlike most, didnt find all 4 books before starting, or even start with the first one (this one) but instead, read this one last. it didnt make the book any less, but it does make me want to re-read them in the proper order. i loved this book. rafe is almost perfect. regan is a wonderful woman and i loved the relationship between cassie and the rest of the family. i only wish there were more to this series! ::smile

The MacKade Brothers.......2000-03-09

I just love the MacKade Brothers they are simply delicious. They represent the men of my dreams. I just wish they really excisted. Such a shame they don't anymore. Well I just give these MacKade Brothers a 10 star rating but you don't have it.

COMPLETE Mackade Brothers Series: (1) The Return of Rafe Mackade; (2) The Pride of Jared Mackade; (3) The Heart of Devin Mackade; (4) The Fall of Shane Mackade (Set of 4)

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COMPLETE Mackade Brothers Series: (1) The Return of Rafe Mackade; (2) The Pride of Jared Mackade; (3) The Heart of Devin Mackade; (4) The Fall of Shane Mackade (Set of 4)
Nora Roberts
Manufacturer: Silhouette Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000VS4HE6

Book Description

THE TIES THAT BIND
Rezsia was a city girl, unequipped to face the dangers of the wilderness. Although she was a wolfwalker, her telepathic link with the wolves was too new to give her the strength and experience she needed to survive in the forest. Then the elders asked her to investigate a series of strange deaths, and what started out as a straightforward task became a desperate struggle between a hidden evil and the fledgling bond between one wolf cub and a woman.
The odd, older wolfwalker, Coale, could teach Rezsia to join in the packsong and run with the wolves. The scouts assigned to escort her could instruct her in forest survival skills. But when even the packsong held secrets, there was no one she dared trust fully. If she hoped to survive, she would ultimately have to search her soul, sift through the memories of the wolves, and bet her life on an inner strength she had never tested . . .

Customer Reviews:

It truely is gray in places.......2007-08-31

'Grayheart' really wasn't what I expected. What I thought was a chilling, murder-crime that needed to be solved by a Wolfwalker-in-training, and this odd, Wolfwalver Coale. What I got, instead, was a slow read that told nothing, gave no real suspense, and failed to really give me something new.

Rezsia really IS a city girl, and for the whole book she is taken with other scouts and the Wolfwalker Coale to learn how to survive in the wild. Among her brothers, she is the only one with violet eyes and the only one linked to the wolves. Please. I am tired of seeing Super Hero Heroine with Violet Eyes (obviously, we've found the Wolfwalker). And because she's the grand daughter of Dione, the Master Healer, does not help much to me actually liking Rezsia. When I got through the chunk of her being trained to the part where she actually uses Ovosibas (the ultimate healing power) to save her Grandmother Dione, who was Coale all along, as well as the rest of the scouts, that was an automatic turn-off. Rezs does that so-called 'inner power she held within her' all along, and she's not even a healer! Umh, do I smell a Mary Sue? Why can't this book really supply this 'something new' I wanted, instead of another Dion clone? It doesn't help that Dion had only one daughter who ended up being the Wolfwalker, and here comes her granddaughter who also eventually becomes one.

I really like how technology in this book is becoming more apparent, how the world was actually shaping, how there's greedy folk around the corner, but it could have been better if it wasn't bogged with so many tedious dialogue and action we've already know about. The characters, all of them, are so pessimistic and even the slowly learning Rezs has nothing much to bring to the table, that after a while, you get tired of their constant whining. You learn with Rezs how to survive in the forest, but when it gets to 'you have to do this or you die' over and over and over, you don't really learn anything. You don't feel with these characters, and you really don't care if they live or die, because they're static characters, too perfect and too much in your head. The only character I really enjoyed was Vlen. He was better than Gray Rishte (from 'Wolf in Night') simply because he was different. He was barely a year old, but unlike Rishte, he was clumsy, silly, showed a lot of personality that really needs to be afflicted on in other wolves of the series.

And the love interest between Ukiah and Rezs was a total anticlimax. We knew this Ukiah was Grayheart from the beginning, and how they kissed at the very beginning was a pretty much 'wtf' moment. Also, Ukiah getting all mushy-mushy for Rezs, saying 'I've lost so many people, I don't want to loose another' was a little laughable, considering his personality changed a complete 360 degrees.

Granted, I gave this book four stars because it's such a nice story, but when it comes to something new, and characters that we can actually attach ourselves to, it fails. At least the wolf was interesting.

I just Loved it.......2000-01-30

It was a great story that holds a exitement at berable levels, after a long day of work. It you want fast pace stories this isn't for you, but if your willing to read past the first three chapters, it will be will worth the wait.

It's BOOK #5! If you read it out of order, too bad!.......1999-12-11

Many years after Dion has recovered from the death of her younger son (and almost her own death for the 500th time!), her granddaughter by her remaining birth son undertakes her own adventure.

It was very difficult to bring this later world into alignment with the one we got used to in the first books. It spends a lot of time talking about bio-this and bio-that and how everything on the planet is basically "grown" and not built. Kind'a hokey.

It also has a publication date that is before the fourth book's (Wolf's Bane) publication date. This is too bad. Because, by reading this book before Wolf's Bane, it damaged what would, otherwise, have been a very good story in that 4th book.

This book is ok, but it *was* hard to put myself into this new "future" when I'd become so used to Dion and Aranur's world.

Wonderfully Descriptive.......1999-09-11

I found this book to be my favorite. I like Star Wars novels usually, but the stories in the Wolfwalker series are truly my love. I have read Grayheart numerous times. The mixture of music is what truly makes it my favorite of the series. Grayheart is a wonderful character and the connection of family thought lost and then found is a wonderful resolution to old conflicts. It's a must read, one to read slowly to savor the flavor.

Tara Harper is wonderful!.......1998-08-30

Rezsia knew nothing of the dangers in the woods. But she needed by the elders to investigate a series of strange deaths. Rezsia had only been bonded with the wolf, Gray Vlen, for a short time. Everything was still new to Rezsia. But she had no choice but to do as the elders bid. There was no one else available.

In the woods Rezsia met an odd, older wolfwalker, Coale, who could teach her to join in the packsong and run with the wolves. Then they join with a party of scouts who were assigned to escort Rezsia to her destination safely and to instruct her in forest survival skills.

If she hoped to survive, Rezsia could trust no one. She would have to sift through the memories of the wolves, and trust her life to skills she had never tested.

***Anne McCaffrey is quoted as saying, "Tara K. Harper's Wolfwalker novels are particular favorites of mine." I understand why.***

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Grayheart
Tara K. Harper
Manufacturer: Del Rey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OVBEJG

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Grayheart {Unabridged Audio}

Manufacturer: Books on Tape, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette
ASIN: 0736684883

Product Description

Rezsia, granddaughter of Dion, was unequipped to face the wilderness. Although she was a wolfwalker, her telepathic link with the wolves was too new to give her the strength and experience she needed to survive in the forest. Then the elders asked her to investigate a series of strange deaths. The older wolfwalker, Coale, could teach Rezsia to join in the packsong and run with the wolves. The scouts assigned to escort her could instruct her in survival skills. But when even the packsong held secrets, there was no one she dared trust fully. If she hoped to survive, she would ultimately have to search her soul, sift through the memories of the wolves, and bet her life on an inner strength she had never tested.

The Wolfwalker Series: Wolfwalker, Shadow Leader, Storm Runner, Grayheart, Wolf's Bane, Silver Moons Black Steel, Wolf in Night (Set of 7 Sci-Fi Novels)

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The Wolfwalker Series: Wolfwalker, Shadow Leader, Storm Runner, Grayheart, Wolf's Bane, Silver Moons Black Steel, Wolf in Night (Set of 7 Sci-Fi Novels)
Tara K. Harper
Manufacturer: Del-Rey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000QYBGEO

Book Description

Hailed as "the doyen of Middle Eastern studies" in The New York Times Book Review, Bernard Lewis stands at the height of his field. "To read Mr. Lewis," wrote Fouad Ajami in The Wall Street Journal, "is to be taken through a treacherous terrain by the coolest and most reassuring of guides. You are in the hands of the Islamic world's foremost living historian." Now this sure-handed guide takes us through treacherous terrain indeed--the events of 1492, a year laden with epic events and riven by political debate. With elegance and erudition, Lewis explores that climactic year as a clash of civilizations--a clash not only of the New World and the Old, but also of Christendom and Islam, of Europe and the rest. In the same year that Columbus set sail across the Atlantic, he reminds us, the Spanish monarchy captured Granada, the last Muslim stronghold on the peninsula, and also expelled the Jews. Lewis uses these three epochal events to explore the nature of the European-Islamic conflict, placing the voyages of discovery in a striking new context. He traces Christian Europe's path from being a primitive backwater on the edges of the vast, cosmopolitan Caliphate, through the heightening rivalry of the two religions, to the triumph of the West over Islam, examining the factors behind their changing fortunes and cultural qualities. Balanced and insightful, this far-reaching discussion of the encounters between Islam, the West, and the globe provides a new understanding of the distant events that gave shape to the modern world.

Customer Reviews:

The clash of civilizations in 1492 .......2007-07-10

Lewis is the acknowledged dean of Middle Eastern historians. The three essays included in this volume begin as a meditation on the year 1492, the year of Columbus' discovery of America, of the final Christian reconquest of Granada, and of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. Lewis presents a picture of Islamic Civilization and Christian civilization in conflict, with the Jews caught in between. He points to Islam as having been the first truly global civilization , distinguished from the great civilizations of India and China which were largely confined to their particular areas of the world. He focuses on what is in effect a turning point moment that at which Islam is about to go into global decline, and the upstart Christian West is about to conquer the world. He explains how technical means, the West's adaptation of gunpowder and the printing press were vital in the process of conquest. He also explains how Islam failed to adapt and meet the challenge.
Lewis' middle chapter is devoted to the various expulsions of the Jews. He shows how their difficult situation in Western lands became horrifying worse with the Crusades. And how the Turkish Empire became for a considerable group a land of refuge.
This work is written with a kind of sweeping and masterful grace. There is a sense that behind each line is a world of knowledge and understanding, a lifetime of study in the field.
Here is an example of Lewis' writing on one key point of the book.

" In all of this, as in much else, the discovery of America, for better for worse, was a turning point in human history and an essential part of the transition to a modernity that began in Europe and was carried all over the world by European discoverers, conquerors, missionaries, colonists, and , let us add, refugees.The mines of the New World gave European Christendom gold and silver to finance its trade, its wars and its inventions. The fields and plantations of the Americas gave it new resources and commodities and enabled Europeans, for the first time, to trade with the Muslims and others as equals, and ultimately, as superiors. And the very encounter with strange lands and peoples, unknown to history and scripture alike, contributed mightily to the breaking of intellectual molds and the freeing of the human mind and spirit."

Lewis concludes with a defense of Western civilization which he well recognizes the historical faults and failings of. In responding to the charges that it has been the source of the Evils of Imperalism, Racism and Sexism he points out that these terms are of Western origin, and that the West did not invent them but rather identified, related to them and tried to correct them. He writes, "If , to borrow a phrase Western culture does indeed "go",imperialism, sexism and racism will not go with it. More likely casualties will be the freedom to denounce them and the effort to end them."

Excellent historical review of the clash between Muslims and Christains and Jews.......2007-01-21

The author is an expert on Muslim history and this short book is an essential primer for anyone wanting to understand Muslim history and how it relates to Europe and the west. Helps us understand a little where the Muslims are "coming from" and maybe a little why they feel the way they do.

Truth telling.......2007-01-18

Most of the media treat us like morons. A state of war requires politicians to be creative with the truth and fanatics to lie outright. Bernard Lewis is one of those rare writers who combines erudition with an obvious respect for the intelligence of the lay reader. To be properly informed citizens we need the truth in all of its complexity. Bernard Lewis gives it to us, as far as he can reasonably ascertain it, in a highly readable fashion. Reading his work shows us that nothing much has changed except our capacity to hurt each other on a much grander scale than ever before balanced by our capacity to understand each other across cultural divides on an equally grand scale. I recommend this work to anybody interested in making sense of out present geoppolitical predicament.

A great intro or primer to Islamic Studies.......2005-04-12

This booklet (a compilation of three speeches given by the author) is a fast and easy read about the state of 3 world cultures (Islam, Jewdaism, Christianity) around 1492 (especially as seen in the Iberian peninsula - Spain, and subsequent world exploration).

It is a great intro (primer) to understanding how the Christian, Muslim and Jewish cultures affected each other and evolved in the late 15th century and into the 16th century. The analysis of how advanced the Muslim culture was and why it stopped advancing and making significant discoveries post-1492 is the gem of this treatise.

Bernard Lewis, a widely read British historian and a Near Eastern Studies Emeritus professor at Princeton University, has written over 20 books about the Muslim world and history of Islam.

I would recommend this for anyone wanting to understand the historical context of the start of deterioration and decline of Muslim influence on world events, and the stagnation of Muslim technical and cultural advancements.

The author's conclusion is that today's cultural divide between the West and the Islam world are grounded in the historical, cultural, and social developments of late 15th century. This book offers very little if any religious theological analysis.

Islamic Civilization outflanked.......2003-01-27

Bernard Lewis the world's leading authorities on the Middle East discusses the eclipse of the Middle East in their last three centuries in power and how their decline is still felt to this day. For many centuries, the world of Islam was in the forefront of human achievement--the foremost military and economic power in the world, the leader in the arts and sciences of civilization. Christian Europe, a remote land beyond its northwestern frontier, was seen as an outer darkness of barbarism and unbelief from which there was nothing to learn or to fear. And then everything changed, as the previously despised West won victory after victory, first in the battlefield and the marketplace, then in almost every aspect of public and even private life. In his three essays Conquest, Expulsion, Discovery he examines how the Islamic world was transgressed from conquers to conquered. Lewis bases the expansion on three significant areas weaponry; education and navigation.

The Europeans gained significant advances in the field of weaponry; with the discovery of gun powder in the Far East. The Christian traders bypassed the middle east and bought this product home where it was adapted to deadly fire arms.

In 1492 the Spanish monarchs captured Granada, the last Muslim stronghold on the peninsula, and also expelled the Jews. The Jews got with them the knowledge of printing; but the rulers fearful of desecration allowed the Jews to publish books in any language except Arabic. This caused a significant regression in the transfer of knowledge to the masses; which the West took the maximum gain of.

Navigation was a major contributor for the economic development of Europe. The European ships were built for the Atlantic and were therefore bigger and stronger than those of the Muslims , built for the Mediterranean. The muslims also had the Atlantic coastline along Morocco. One obvious answer for the absence of Atlantic faring muslim ships were for the lack of ports on the Atlantic and also Morocco had the Atlantic to them selves in comparison the Europeans had to compete with one another. The sea faring enabled the West to gain the riches from America and colonize it.

Islamic civilization was eventually overshadowed by the achievements of European Christendom, and much of the Muslim world came under the direct or indirect domination of the West.

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Cultures in Conflict: Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the Age of Discovery. (book reviews): An article from: Arab Studies Quarterly (ASQ)
Andrej Kreutz
Manufacturer: Association of Arab-American University Graduates and Institute of Arab Studies
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B00097UDM4
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Arab Studies Quarterly (ASQ), published by Association of Arab-American University Graduates and Institute of Arab Studies on September 22, 1997. The length of the article is 2244 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Cultures in Conflict: Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the Age of Discovery. (book reviews)
Author: Andrej Kreutz
Publication: Arab Studies Quarterly (ASQ) (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 1997
Publisher: Association of Arab-American University Graduates and Institute of Arab Studies
Volume: v19 Issue: n4 Page: p187(5)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Cultures in Conflict: Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the Age of Discovery

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Cultures in Conflict: Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the Age of Discovery
Bernard Lewis
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OKQL9A

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