Book Description
Sir Francis Walsingham's official title was principal secretary to Queen Elizabeth I, but in fact this pious, tight-lipped Puritan was England's first spymaster. A ruthless, fiercely loyal civil servant, Walsingham worked brilliantly behind the scenes to foil Elizabeth's rival Mary Queen of Scots and outwit Catholic Spain and France, which had arrayed their forces behind her.
Though he cut an incongruous figure in Elizabeth's worldly court, Walsingham managed to win the trust of key players like William Cecil and the Earl of Leceister before launching his own secret campaign against the queen's enemies. Covert operations were Walsingham's genius; he pioneered techniques for exploiting double agents, spreading disinformation, and deciphering codes with the latest code-breaking science that remain staples of international espionage.
In the taut narrative of a spy novel, Budiansky recounts how this legendary spymaster invented the art and science of modern espionage—and in the process set Elizabethan England on the path to empire.
Customer Reviews:
Let us look elsewhere for guidance........2007-10-04
Mr. Budiansky proposes that Elizabeth's spymaster Francis Walsingham offers us an example for conducting modern espionage. Yet the fact is, Elizabethan England was for all practical purposes a police state. Catholicism was deemed treasonous, and Walsingham's spies combed the countryside for practitioners of the "old religion," i.e., the faith that had been the taproot of English civilization for a thousand years. Catholics were barred from serving in Parliament, attending university, worshipping at Mass, and generally living the life their immediate forebears took for granted. And yet Budiansky holds up this tragedy as a model. Let us look elsewhere for guidance.
Disappointing Flop.......2007-06-07
After such a promising title, I was disappointed to make it more than half-way through this book and still have little mention of the title character and no information that seems pertinent to the supposed theme of the book. It is possible that toward the end Budiansky decided to actually make a point with his narrative, but between his abysmal sentence structure and his *sesquipedalian* use of gratuitously long words that broke up the even flow of reading, I personally was unmotivated to find out.
Entertaining History of Walsingham.......2007-01-15
Stephen Budiansky's "Her Majesty's Spymaster" is a very readable popular history of Sir Francis Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth I's personal secretary and informal chief of intelligence. Written in a breathless novelistic style, Budiansky captures the atmospherics and endless intigues of the Tudor period in a way designed to capture the interest of the average person without background in the era. He succeeds in making the religious struggles and dynastic wars of this distant period accessible to the modern reader.
Walsingham was unusual in his time in that he served in a high position in government without having come from the nobility. His rise from what would now be termed a middle class upbringing was based on education, talent, and good service. Walsingham turned out to be a superbly capable spymaster who could get and keep secrets and protect the fortunes of his Queen and country. Walsingham was especially effective in managing the English rivalry with France, including the dangerous problem of the status of Mary Queen of Scots, and the running conflict with Spain.
Budiansky is less than effective in making the case that Walsingham gave birth to modern espionage. Walsingham learned his craft from his mentor and predecessor, Lord Burghley, and his success was due less to inventing new methods of espionage than to making fewer mistakes than his contemporaries in executing already widely-known tactics and techniques.
This book is recommended to the casual reader looking for an introduction to the intrigues of the Elizabeath period. The close student of the history of the period will find no information that has not been covered in more detail elsewhere.
Budiansky does not accomplish his goal.......2006-12-04
The author tries to bring both the biography of Walsingham and a discussion of the birth of espionage together in the same book and succeeds at neither. It is a fine read if you would like a general overview of the time, but, after reading the title and reviews, I was hoping for a detailed biography of Walsingham or much detail on how he created the group of people who became his information gatherers. Instead, it is a general overview of Walsingham's life with references to the work that he did. There are some interesting facts that the author brings forward that the reader might not find elsewhere , but the majority of the reading is rehashed from biographies of Elizabeth I. If you want details and a better understanding of Walsingham the man, and his life work and actions, you will need to look elsewhere.
Entertaining but incomplete.......2006-11-25
I was hoping that this book serves as a biography for Sir Francis Walsingham but instead, it proves to be a career dossier on Walsingham. The book read like a historical novel of Walsingham's activities as Elizabeth I's ultimate spymaster. That review written by Lisa Jardine hit many marks right on the nail despite of her rather snobbish approach. The author centered much of the book around the Walsingham's most famous case against Mary, Queen of Scots. However, since the information proves to be pretty basic, you will not find any new insightful information here.
It seem regretful that the author missed his opportunity to write a good biography on Walsingham instead of writting a slightly generic book on his role as a spymaster. His relationship with Burgley, Dudley and with his own family proves to be very lightweight. There are hints of interest scattered all over this book and I guess for that reason, it may be worth your time to read it.
Overall, the actual rating may be closer to 2.80 stars if I had a choice.
Average customer rating:
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A Monastic Renaissance at St Albans: Thomas Walsingham and His Circle c.1350-1440 (Oxford Historical Monographs)
James G. Clark
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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ASIN: 0199275955 |
Book Description
A Monastic Renaissance at St Albans is a study of intellectual life at the abbey of St Albans - one of Britain's greatest Benedictine monasteries - during the lifetime of Thomas Walsingham (c.1340-1422), one of the most prolific scholars of the later middle ages. It has always been assumed that the monasteries fell into decline long before the dissolution and that cultural and intellectual activities were largely abandoned as the monks surrendered themselves to high living and low morals. This study challenges this view. Drawing on a wide variety of manuscript sources, it shows that education, independent study, and even the co-ordinated copying of books continued to flourish at St Albans (and its affiliate houses) for much of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In fact the abbey emerged as one of the country's most influential centres of learning, a clearing-house for books and ideas in Ricardian and Lancastrian England. Thomas Walsingham himself played a key part in this renaissance in monastic studies; his works were copied and circulated throughout the St Albans network and his influence acted upon the next generation of monastic readers and writers. Walsingham was not only a compiler of contemporary chronicles but also a Classical scholar of extraordinary originality. His commentary on Ovid's Metamorphoses, his re-working of the histories of Alexander of Macedon and the Trojan War, and his Genealogia deorum gentilium, are discussed in detail here for the first time. Walsingham's interest in the Classics was shared by many of his St Albans colleagues, and they in turn were members of a wider circle of literary scholars, which included the London schoolmaster, John Seward. The work of these scholars, monastic and secular, points towards a revival of Classical and literary scholarship in England long before Italian humanism and other traces of the continental Renaissance first found their way into the country.
Book Description
Walsingham is both a lively story and a commentary by the author on her society's constraints upon women. The novel follows the story of two main characters, Walsingham Ainsforth and his cousin, Sir Sidney Aubrey, whose birth disinherits Walsingham. Sidney, educated in France, later returns to England, where he continues to interfere with Walsingham's prospects by wooing away the objects of his love. Eventually, Sidney's true reasons are revealed: Sidney is in fact a woman, who was passed off as a son by her mother so as to ensure that she would be the family's heir. Later, she fell in love with Walsingham, and one by one convinced the women he courted to leave him for herself. Upon revealing her true identity, she and Walsingham declare their mutual love and wed, sharing the family's estate.
The appendices include: contemporary reviews; historical and literary accounts of 18th-century cross-dressers (female-to-male); and selections from contemporary works that focus on the figure of the "fallen" woman.
Average customer rating:
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The Walsingham Woman
Manufacturer: Pocket Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GC4W88 |
Product Description
The Walsingham Woman; The mysterious and vital woman who rocked Elizabethan England with intrigues and scandal.
Average customer rating:
- Diplomatic intrigue ......
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Under the Molehill: An Elizabethan Spy Story
John Bossy
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
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Giordano Bruno and the Embassy Affair
ASIN: 0300084005 |
Book Description
This absorbing account of Catholic and anti-Catholic plots and machinations at the English, French, and exiled Scottish courts in the latter part of the sixteenth century is a sequel to John Bossy's highly acclaimed Giordano Bruno and the Embassy Affair. It tells the story of an espionage operation in Elizabethan London that was designed to find out what side France would take in the hostilities between Protestant England and the Catholic powers of Europe. France was a Catholic country whose king was nonetheless hostile to Spanish and papal aggression, Bossy explains, but the king's sister-in-law, Mary Queen of Scots, in custody in England since 1568, was a magnet for Catholic activists, and the French ambassador in London, Michel de Castelnau, was of uncertain leanings.
Bossy relates how Queen Elizabeth's Secretary of State, Sir Francis Walsingham, found a mole in Castelnau's household establishment, who passed information to someone in Walsingham's employ. Bossy discovers the identity of these persons, what items of intelligence were passed over, and what the English government decided to do with the information. He describes how individuals were arrested or fled, a political crisis occurred, an ambassador was expelled, deals were made. He concludes with a discussion of the authenticity of Elizabethan secret operations, arguing that they were not theatrical devices to prop up an unpopular regime but were a response to genuine threats of counter-revolution inspired by Catholic zeal.
Customer Reviews:
Diplomatic intrigue .............2006-04-12
This is a fairly scholarly work. Although it is not overly long, and it does allow a reader that is less well informed on the Elizabethan period to get a feel for the politics of the period, the book is not so dramatic as to be compelling to the average reader, and would be better suited to large institutional collections and those with a particular interest in Elizabethan England.
Bossy writes in an erudite style, and appears to have attempted a more novelistic style for the structure of the book, but the nature of the book remains unchanged, and unfortunately, the literary gymnastics seem to reduce clarity in the account.
Still a good book for interested parties.
Average customer rating:
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As I Went to Walsingham
Musicians of Swanne Cdharm 905192
Manufacturer: HARMONIA MUNDI, U.S.A.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD
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ASIN: 6301134915 |
Book Description
Magic! Real Magic! Ever wanted to learn? We require someone with intelligence and a disciplined mind. Those well versed in fantasy novels and role-playing games a plus. May need to travel. Only those of good character need apply. No appointment necessary.
When he answers an intriguing advertisement in the newspaper, James couldn't possibly have known that it would thrust him into the middle of a quest that will test the limits of his intelligence and courage.
James, a high school senior, is not given any sort of explanation why or how he's been brought to this strange, mystical world. He quickly realizes that he's able to use the knowledge he's gained through reading hundreds of books as well as the time spent in role-playing games to help him cope.
The world he's entered is one on the edge of war, and only by learning to control the magic within himself will he be able to survive the trials ahead. With the help of a boy named Miko, James sets out on an adventure across this strange world to discover why he's there—and what he must do.
Download Description
Magic! Real Magic! Ever wanted to learn? We require someone with intelligence and a disciplined mind. Those well versed in fantasy novels and role-playing games a plus. May need to travel. Only those of good character need apply. No appointment necessary. When he answers an intriguing advertisement in the newspaper, James couldn't possibly have known that it would thrust him into the middle of a quest that will test the limits of his intelligence and courage. James, a high school senior, is not given any sort of explanation why or how he's been brought to this strange, mystical world. He quickly realizes that he's able to use the knowledge he's gained through reading hundreds of books as well as the time spent in role-playing games to help him cope. The world he's entered is one on the edge of war, and only by learning to control the magic within himself will he be able to survive the trials ahead. With the help of a boy named Miko, James sets out on an adventure across this strange world to discover why he's there-and what he must do. For more about The Morcyth Saga, go to:
morcythsaga.com
Customer Reviews:
I really, really liked this!!.......2007-05-02
A job. That's really all he wanted was a job. He went to the interview just to get his grandfather off his back, and winds up on the adventure of a lifetime. At first he didn't care for it: wolves trying to eat him, bandits trying to kill him, I suppose I wouldn't care for it much either.
But who wouldn't want to have the adventure he goes through? I would for one. Using magic, saving people, what fun! The author really brought it home to me. I felt more into this work than any other. Maybe it was the fact he wrote it in present tense, I don't know. At times I felt I was there. I could read and let my mind take me there. I was beside James when he was going through Lord Colerain's estate, when he thundered over the falls in the raft during a hair raising ride on an underground river, even when he struggles with the one thing he hates more than anything else...haggling.
Any of you who like fantasy, epic fantasy, role playing games, you'll like this one. Oh, in case I forgot to say it, I loved it!!!
About Time.......2007-01-28
It's about time someone came out with a book that told the story of the common man. And that's what James is. The main hero is just a high school senior without any special abilities. He's not skilled in athletics, not a genius, has no special powers or that hereditary 'something' so many heroes have these days. The only thing that gives him an 'edge' over his adversaries is the common knowledge garnered while in our world.
You see, once he crosses over to the other world, he uses his knowledge of the physical world i.e. physics, biology, etc. to create potent spells. The author gives magic a more believable foundation than others have.
James has his doubts, worries, fears, yet he persevers through it all. Though it seems he's beset by enemies on all sides, he somehow maintains his sense of right and wrong. Just when you think he should kill someone to remove a threat, he's unable to do so because at the moment of choice, in his mind, it would be murder. And despite the consequences, James always does what he feels is right.
A good story with plenty of action.
One of the most original works I've read in some time........2006-12-16
First off, let me say that I am rather surprised at all the one star ratings. I thought The Unsuspecting Mage was much better than that. For those of you deciding whether to take the chance on this or not, let me tell you it is definitely worth it. The present tense does take a bit to get use to, but once you're past that, it's an excellent story.
James is truly a unique character in literature. There is none of this old wise man helping him out, or prophecies that lay it out for him. No, the author didn't do those time worn cliches. Rather, he is thrown into a world where he's able to manipulate magical forces, isn't told what's going on or anything. The only help he has along the way is this enigmatic little creature who pops in from time to time.
There's not really any explanation about the creature either. That's another thing the author did that I liked. He didn't go into great detail about who and what the different people were unless James learned that. Anyway, back to the creature. He first meets it upon first arriving in the world. He doesn't answer any questions simply tells him three things.
1-You can't go home
2-Magic works here
3-Get your sorry butt to the village of Trendle
Then he's gone. He pops in from time to time, but doesn't answer questions. Rather he takes James to places in our world for a brief time. Again, he doesn't explain why he's doing this. Later on you learn that something during these visits will come to light that will aid James in finding the path. Sometimes you don't find out for a book or two.
I also really liked the magic system here. The system Mr. Pratt has created is based on three things. First, the mage must believe he can manipulate the magic. Two, the mage must have a fundamental understanding of what the spell has to do. Case in point, you have to understand there's such a thing as gravity in order to manipulate it. And since James has had the regular High School classes in physics and biology, that enables him to understand and effect magic more than the average practitioner in the world he's found himself in.
The whole series is chocked full of battles, secret passages, and a multitude of bad guys who want James either dead or captured. There wasn't a whole lot of slow time, every chapter seemed to have either action or something of interest going on. No 'braid pulling' if you get my drift.
This series is definitely worth it and don't let the one star reviews sway you in not trying it. You won't regret it.
Great book.......2006-07-04
I loved it from beginning to end. The magic was believable though I really thought James would spend more time in learning rather than be good at it from the get go. The author does explain that, his time role playing helped to prepare him for it.
Can't wait to see what's in store for book two.
Rollicking adventure.......2006-07-03
A truely fun novel beginning I hope a great fantasy series. The way the story flows from one exciting situation to another kept me turning page after page until I finally realized what time it was and turned out the light.
The fall of the city of light was my favorite scene, or rather when they reach the city all the way through to the last page.
Great book.
Average customer rating:
- If only we could change the past!
- What a great book!
- It doesn't get any better than this
- Would recommend to anyone.
- Imaginative but Flawed
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The X-President
Philip Baruth
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Law of Gravity
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18 Seconds
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Then We Came to the End: A Novel
ASIN: 0553802941
Release Date: 2003-11-04 |
Book Description
A masterful blend of political satire and edgy social commentary, here is a wildly entertaining trip through recent American history and into the impending future. An incisive look at how we love and hate our political leaders, and how they love and hate us back,
The X President touches the very heart of what it means to be president—and what a president means to America.
It is the year 2055 and America is entangled in a devastating world war—and losing badly. As the threat of homeland invasion grows stronger, the United States is desperate to change the tide, anyway it can.
Enter Sal Hayden, official biographer of a former president known as BC, now 109 years old and all but forgotten. Charismatic, controversial, and always willing to feel another person’s pain, BC’s political career, like his personal life, is marked by both uncanny triumphs and key blunders—some of which may have doomed the U.S. to defeat. Recording his story has not always been easy, but it has been straightforward. That is, until the day Sal is asked to rewrite it—and not just on the page. For Sal will be granted a biographer’s most fantastic dream, one that will thrust her into the greatest moral dilemma of her life—and the world’s most daring, dangerous, and spectacular spin job. . . .
Customer Reviews:
If only we could change the past!.......2007-09-22
It is the year 2055 and America is entangled in a devastating world war -- and losing badly. As the threat of homeland invasion grows stronger, the United States is desperate to change the tide, anyway it can.
Enter Sal Hayden, official biographer of a former president known as BC, now 109 years old and all but forgotten. Charismatic, controversial, and always willing to feel another person's pain, BC's political career, like his personal life, is marked by both uncanny triumphs and key blunders -- some of which may have doomed the U.S. to defeat. Recording his story has not always been easy, but it has been straightforward. That is, until the day Sal is asked to rewrite it -- and not just on the page. For Sal will be granted a biographer's most fantastic dream, one that will thrust her into the greatest moral dilemma of her life -- and the world's most daring, dangerous, and spectacular spin job....
What a great book!.......2007-07-10
I loved this book, it was original and very funny. I literally didn't want to put it down. Poor Bill Clinton must have hated this book. I just wish the ending had wrapped things up.
It doesn't get any better than this.......2006-06-02
The book is as finely crafted as anything I have read, it fairly
resonates! The characters, the plot, and the style all combined
to provide a deeply satisfying read.
Some of the less enthusiastic reviewers seem to have either
mis-read the book, or are too thin skinned about their politics
to be able to appreciate what they were reading.
The main character, Sal, seems incredibly real and not in any
way tainted by the gender of the author.
The George/Carville age descrepancy is explained in the book.
The plot flies, it does NOT ramble.
The ending? The ending is brilliant! I have read a lot of
time-travel books, and rarely has an author sewn up the loose
ends so neatly.
Would recommend to anyone........2004-11-20
I thought the book was great. There was a little slow period in the middle but, once you get thru that, it really picks up. Especially a good read now that clinton's library has opened arkansas!!
Imaginative but Flawed.......2004-07-26
I had very mixed feelings about this book. It is extremely imaginative, its bleak view of the future seemed posible in many ways, the characterization of Bill Clinton (both young and old) was touching, funny, insightful, and rightfully critical, and the characterization of the viciously bureaucratic Carville was impressive. But other characterizations were weak. Sal did not come across as a real woman and Virginia was a cartoon caricature. The book was also carelessly written. For example, the 1995 George/Carville is said to be 51 years old on pages 307 and 296, and in his late 50s on page 355 (since he was 27 in 1963, he should be 59). Also, the plot was often not thought out carefully enough, and in many places the novel rambles on. The ending, which does not make a statement of any kind, just fizzles out and was a disappointment. I gave this book three stars for its good traits, but that was a real compromise in my mind.
Average customer rating:
- Mostly funny, but some uncomfortable moments.
- Added Relevance in a post-Sept. 11th World
- You'll laugh untill you turn blue in the face
- It's just like SNL, only a lot funnier!
- As Funny as any book I've ever read
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X-Presidents
Robert Smigel , and
Adam Mckay
Manufacturer: Villard
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Saturday Night Live - The Best of Saturday TV Funhouse
ASIN: 0679783628 |
Customer Reviews:
Mostly funny, but some uncomfortable moments........2001-12-13
X-Presidents is a strange, screwy parody which mixes bad 1970s Saturday-morning cartoons, Marvel comic books, and politics into a pastiche of weirdness like none other published to date.
There's a fine line between parody and parroting the liberal party line; unfortunately, while X-Presidents hits the mark most of the time, the authors can't help but devolve into Bush- and Reagan-bashing from time to time. For example, the "From the X-Presidents' Mailbag" section consists of nothing but cheap shots against the three Republican X-es -- and in predictable ways, too: Reagan, Iran-Contra and firing the air-traffic controllers; Bush, Iran-Contra and son W.; and Ford, stupidity.
Also, there are multiple gratuitous sexual references that are simply nonsensical. True, the whole book is gratuitous, but seeing Bush having sex with Babs on every page, or Carter having a threesome with Imelda Marcos and a mystery mullet-dude, lends little to the plot except to make it strangely embarrassing.
These aside, X-Presidents did contain the most hilarious bits of humor I've read in this dark post-September 11 world. Best of all were the peculiar "Archies"-style interludes wherein the X-es play and sing various tunes (yes, they even play the same instruments that the animated Archies did) summarizing the plot action.
This is a bizarre little book, no doubt.
Added Relevance in a post-Sept. 11th World.......2001-10-02
Taken by itself, this book is a masterpiece of sophisticated humor *and* political relevance masked as a "Super Friends"-like cartoon book knock off. There are obscure references to famous utterances associated with each of the ex-Presidents that I hadn't thought of in 25 years or more. To see Jimmy Carter taking on a villian with the line "I have lust in my heart...to kick your ass." Man, that's funny stuff.
But now, after the terrorist attacks on NYC and the Pentagon, there it is right on Page 1 of the New York Times: "Bush Appeals to Ex-Presidents for Coalition-Building Efforts." Life imitates art to a 'T'. Absolutely amazing.
You'll laugh untill you turn blue in the face.......2001-04-23
Based on a popular Saturday Night Live skit, this book (for those few who have not seen the segments) chronicles the adventures of what might happen if our former presidents had superpowers and an international mandate to save the world from a vaugley identified evil.
Granted, the animation style screams cheap 70's cartoon, but this is precisely the point of the animated sketches. The humor is subtle enough for adults and others to grasp it, and the undeniably cheesy and fun sketches will keep you rolling on the floor with laughter and guffaws.
Out of all the things Saturday Night Live has transformed into a skit post Wayne's World, the X Presidents is surely most deserving of this tribute, as well as an entire movie of their very own. You don't have to be a political freak or even like the particular presidents featured to know that sometimes something this silly is needed.
It's just like SNL, only a lot funnier!.......2001-04-02
A very clever and extremely fun read. This graphic-novel is a MUST-HAVE for all SNL's 'TV FUN-HOUSE' fans. It has all the elements that we have come to love and expect from 'TV FUN-HOUSE' plus more great stuff that SNL cannot broadcast over network television!
As Funny as any book I've ever read.......2001-04-01
When I first saw the cartoon on Saturday night live I laughed until I fell out of the chair. The same thing happened when I read this book. From the giant tornado hitting an axe factory to our former presidents smoking crack and then singing an American Bandstand-syle song about it (9 out of 10 times it's just plain wrong) this book rocks. Even the little legal disclaimers (a direct parody of real comic book legalese) on the first page are twistedly funny. Buy this Book!
Average customer rating:
- Lived Religion in Your Living Room
- Beautiful pictures, good essay
- Extraordinary book on the Art of Vietnam
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Pagodas, Gods and Spirits of Vietnam
Ann Helen Unger , and
Walter Unger
Manufacturer: Thames & Hudson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0500018030 |
Book Description
This book reveals through text and illustrations the extraordinarily varied and prolific religions of Vietnam. Despite decades of government discouragement of all religion, the deeply anchored faiths of the Vietnamese people have continued to flourish, and indeed to increase their hold on believers. Everywhere between the Red River in the north and the Mekong Delta in the south, sacrificial offerings are heaped upon altars, hundreds of thousands of the faithful stream again on pilgrimages, and there is a regular increase in the request- and thanksgiving-rites in the chuas, dinhs, and dens, the pagodas, village ceremony halls, and hero temples all over the land. In most guide books, Vietnam is described as a Buddhist country; but in contrast to their neighbors in Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia, the Vietnamese follow a Buddhism that is far from pure. The faith and its teachings were taken over from India about 2,000 years ago, but Vietnamese Buddhism was mingled with more ancient indigenous ancestor cults and spirit beliefs suitable to local customs and needs. Other strains were also absorbed: elements of Hinduism as well as the teachings of Confucius and Taoism. The text by Ann Unger admirably explains this complex situation and shows how the great number of beautiful, serene religious buildings throughout the country reflect the multiple strands of the country's religious fabric. Walter Unger's arresting photographs document the architectural splendor of the buildings as well as the worshipers in a ground-breaking reportage of a country that for so long has been hidden from the rest of the world.
Customer Reviews:
Lived Religion in Your Living Room.......2006-05-20
This is a great book one never gets tired of looking through. It is full of a great variety of beautiful color photographs, all of them giving you a different glimpse of religion in Vietnam. Some shots show you the outside of the sacred temples and pagodas in all of their ornate architecture, others the insides of these buildings as people--priests and lay folks--pray and carry out rites. And many others still focus on the icons, the deities being worshipped. One excellent thing about these latter shots is that the deities are always situated in their ritual contexts (incense burning, offerings spread out before them) and not in the abstract like museum pieces. By the end, one is left with a vivid sense of the deeply intense and heart-felt religiosity of the Vietnamese people as they really live it.
The essay at the beginning is quite helpful, preparing you to generally have an idea what you're looking at (so that the images are not just exotic sound and fury signifying nothing) and doing a fine job of showing how several different religious traditions have flowed together to inform and shape Vietnamese religiosity. The treatment is careful and well-researched while written in a very accessible style.
I'm not sure who wouldn't like this lovely book. Anyone interested in Vietnam and its culture should, for sure. Photography buffs will also find something here, I'd think. But I think scholars of Religious Studies should also take note--sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words, and a book like this is invaluable in approaching lived religion. Finally, this is a super book for any armchair travelers out there; it's the next best thing to actually going to Vietnam in person.
Beautiful pictures, good essay.......2001-08-02
This is a coffee-table style book: hundreds of beautiful, color pictures, with a short, informative essay. In fact, the nearly 50-page essay is better than many coffee-table books are. If you're interested in pictures, this is your book. If you're interested in descriptions of beliefs and practices, this is merely an introduction. Unfortunately, I don't know of a good book for that purpopse, although I've looked around both in Vietnam and the United States. Also, this book doesn't cover Hoa Hao, Vietnamese Catholicism or the Montangards' religions at all, and only the most famous Cham and Cao Dai sites.
Extraordinary book on the Art of Vietnam.......2000-09-24
I highly recommend this beautifully photographed and well document book on the art and culture of Vietnam. I loved the pictures of many sacred ceremonies and Ms. Unger's descriptive text. It is a miracle that these buildings still exist after what Vietnam has endured. The only reservation I have with the book is that it does not cover ancient Vietnam history in depth. Otherwise, the book is extraordinary.
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