Book Description
The primal image of the black-caped vampire Dracula has become an indelible fixture of the modern imagination. It's recognition factor rivals, in its own perverse way, the familiarity of Santa Claus. Most of us can recite without prompting the salient characteristics of the vampire: sleeping by day in its coffin, rising at dusk to feed on the blood of the living; the ability to shapeshift into a bat, wolf, or mist; a mortal vulnerability to a wooden stake through the heart or a shaft of sunlight. In this critically acclaimed excursion through the life of a cultural icon, David Skal maps out the archetypal vampire's relentless trajectory from Victorian literary oddity to movie idol to cultural commidity, digging through the populist veneer to reveal what the prince of darkness says about us all.
Customer Reviews:
More than you ever wanted to know about Dracula..........2005-09-16
I first heard of David Skal from the Universal Classic Monster series of DVD's. David was on the accompanying documentary and did the audio commentary for Tod Browning's 1931 classic, Dracula. If you own the set and have run the documentary and, particularly, the commentary, then you've already experienced about three chapters of this book. What remains is a rich mine of details about every aspect of Dracula, the book, movies, and culture. And what a lot there is.
David's writing, like his speech, is precise, educated, and loaded with literary allusions. While no dilettante, I consider myself well read and was still left with the occasional "what the hell is talking about?" moment. The language is rich and occasionally reminds me of the mental images drawn by Anne Rice at the height of her powers. However, David is no snob and is not merely parading his impressive intellect - it's just that he knows so darn much about the subject.
And if I had any criticism of the book that would be it - David seems driven to exhaustively document every possible aspect of Dracula's existence. The detailed (and seemingly never ending) battles between Florence Stoker and the makers of "Nosferatu" is described in such detail that I wanted to scream "OKAY!! We get it! Nosferatu was a Dracula rip off and Flo didn't like it!!" But eventually the tale moves on and sets the stage for intricate negotiations between the Stoker estate and Universal. In retrospect (and considering how handsomely the studio profited) it's interesting to see that Universal bought almost unlimited use of the vampire for the paltry sum of $25,000.00 and is still making oodles of money hand over fist today. David covers all aspects of vampire lore from Byron's "The Giaour" (1813) to Mel Brooks' "Dracula, Dead and Loving It" (1995). And everything in between. Trust me, if it can be construed to be in any way connected with Dracula, it's in this book.
If you have any interest in gothic culture, or the movies that spawned it, this is a must have. Reading it is like enjoying an evening of conversation with a much beloved, if slightly eccentric, old friend, preferably over brandy in front of a glowing fireplace on a cold, cold night.
"I want no souls. Life is all I want." .......2005-08-28
Down deep, we all agree with the fly-eating Renfield. That's why we can't get his Master out of our system. David J. Skal's book Hollywood Gothic explains a lot of the reasons why.
Hollywood Gothic is like David Skal's Screams of Reason: Mad Science and Modern Culture. Hollywood Gothic and Screams of Reason both take horror motifs we know mostly from movies and trace them back to literature, where they originated.
Screams of Reason looks at the mad scientist figure in fiction, from central European vivisectionists like Dr. Frankenstein to postwar American A-bomb scientists. Hollywood Gothic is more narrow - - it covers Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, the plays adapted from it, and then the movies inspired by it - - F.W. Murnau's silent film Nosferatu, then the Universal and Hammer horror films.
Skal goes into detail about Bela Lugosi's career as Dracula on stage and film. He also digs up a lot of interesting information about the Spanish-language Dracula made simultaneously with the Bela Lugosi movie by producer Paul Kohner and cinematographer George Robinson - - who was responsible for the look of later Universal horror films like Dracula's Daughter and House of Dracula.
Kohner fell in love with and married the real star of the Spanish-language Dracula, Lupita Tovar as Eva - - the Mina Harker character - - and who could blame him. Skal calls her a "truly ingenuous ingenue." In Mexico she could barely go out in public without being mobbed.
Except for Bela Lugosi himself, almost everything about Kohner's Spanish version is better than Browning's. (That's my opinion from watching the movies, not just reading Hollywood Gothic.) Skal quotes people who worked on Tod Browning's Dracula that Browning was barely paying attention to the movie he was making.
For instance, when Dracula welcomes Jonathan Harker to his castle from the top of the staircase, in the English version a huge spider web is off to the side behind Dracula, but in the Spanish version Dracula is framed in the center of the web. We see Dracula rise from his coffin in the Spanish version where Browning just shows him suddenly standing there. (Seeing Christopher Lee rise from his coffin, or be destroyed in it, was always a high point of the Hammer movies for me.) Every night Kohner's director George Melford looked at the film Browning's crew shot during the day and improved on it for their version.
But there was (and is) something in the idea of the vampire that makes readers and audiences forgive hack storytelling.
If you haven't seen them already, you should watch the films before reading Hollywood Gothic. The Universal Legacy Collection of Dracula contains the Lugosi film, the Spanish-language version, Dracula's Daughter, and Son of Dracula. (There's more, but those are the best. Universal's release of the Legacy Collections of Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Wolf Man are the only good thing to come from the marketing of the movie Van Helsing.)
Hollywood Gothic has a lot of illustrations, many of which are theatrical and film ephemera from Skal's personal collection. (Yesterday I saw The Aristocrats - - Penn Gillette's documentary about the world's filthiest joke - - and one of the comedians was wearing a T-shirt with Dracula's face from the cover of the first Modern Library edition of the novel. SIDE NOTE: See The Aristocrats - - it's about how to tell a story and keep an audience hooked as much as it is about the history of blue humor.)
Reading Hollywood Gothic made me finally read Bram Stoker's novel. Because I've seen so many movies that tell the story I never read the book. While the writing style isn't great, at least it moves along, and you're introduced to Dracula right away.
I read over half of the 600-page novel The Historian - - apparently foredoomed to be a bestseller and a blockbuster movie - - and the character Dracula still hadn't made an appearance. I skimmed to the end and read the climax, but I was disappointed. When you build Dracula up as such a powerful being, it's hard to destroy him in a way that doesn't seem anticlimactic. (That's one of the reasons Kim Newman has given for why he started writing his Anno Dracula series - - if Dracula is such a terrible force, how could he be tracked down and killed so easily by an insane Dutch doctor and three upper-class twits who belong in the Drones Club with Bertie Wooster?)
And why do characters in The Historian struggle to find copies of Bram Stoker's novel at university libraries? It's been out in paperback all over the world since the early 1900s. Go to any W.H. Smith.
Filmmakers who've told the Dracula story understand something novelists sometimes don't - - Dracula shouldn't be just a menace offstage, he's the protagonist of the story. Dracula is the hero. He's the one we want to see - - and be. That's why our mothers were displeased when they caught us watching monster movies on TV when we were kids. Mom knew what we were thinking. The reason Stoker's novel works at all is because we're introduced to Dracula at the beginning, when Harker comes to Translyvania. What makes the novel disappointing is that we hardly see Dracula again after that.
But Skal reminds us that "La sangre es la vida." Dracula isn't going anywhere.
ADDITIONAL RECOMMENDATION: Check out Vampires: Los Muertos (see my review), the sequel to John Carpenter's Vampires, and an underrated movie. To me, it's a vampire movie that shows the monster as a Third World victim of globalist Van Helsings. (A rich white American woman can get the medicine she needs to stay alive (un-undead), while the brown vampire, stolen from her peasant family by a rich landowner, has only one way to get the sangre she needs. (I also like vampire movies that show how vampires might experience time differently than mortals - - Queen of the Damned also does this in an interesting way.) There's a scene of slow-motion slaughter in Los Muertos that the monstrous child in me responded to. Los Muertos also has the most sexist line I've every heard in a vampire movie, but you still identify with the female master vampire.
Fascinating History of Dracula's Path to the Silver Screen........2005-05-06
In "Hollywood Gothic" David Skal tells the story of "Dracula" that came after the classic of gothic horror was published in 1897. It's a fascinating, fact-filled tale of colorful personalities, legal battles, Hollywood politics, and a culture still captivated by the King of Literary Vampires. The book's seven chapters begin with author Bram Stoker, end with the Count's recent incarnations on stage and screen, and include the most insightful analysis of "Dracula"'s origins that I have read in the course of my minor obsession with the novel.
Chapter 1 explores "Dracula"'s literary and theatrical predecessors before moving on to discussion of the intellectual and sexual climate into which the book was published in 1897, the life and elusive character of its author Bram Stoker, and how the novel was received in its own day. David Skal does an impressive job of pulling together the relevant details, from diverse perspectives, of the novel's birth.
Chapter 2 details the legal battle waged by the Bram Stoker's widow, Mrs. Florence Stoker, to suppress the first cinematic adaptation of her husband's novel, 1922's "Nosferatu", the unauthorized German production directed by F.W. Murnau, now recognized as a masterpiece of silent cinema. Chapter 3 sees Mrs, Stoker finally authorize an adaptation to British dramatist Hamilton Deane, whose wordy, plodding "Dracula" play nevertheless achieved great financial success, attracting the attention of American theatrical producer Horace Liveright. Liveright enlisted journalist John Balderston to rewrite the play for Broadway and make it a smash hit on this side of the Atlantic.
Chapter 4 moves to Hollywood for the protracted negotiations over "Dracula"'s film rights. "Dracula"'s path through the early 20th century was mined with legal battles, and it is a credit to author David Skal that he is able to make interminable and constantly mutating negotiations into absorbing drama. Chapter 5 follows the winding road to the production of the first Hollywood "Dracula", the 1931 film starring Bela Lugosi, which, although made cheaply and lazily, was the first horror talkie and a financial life preserver for Universal Studios. Happily, Skal has dedicated Chapter 6 to the superior Spanish language version of "Dracula" that was filmed simultaneously, on the same sets, as the English version of the 1931 film, but with a different producer, director, cinematographer, and cast.
Chapter 7 tells us what became of the principle person's associated with the two 1931 films. Then it follows the legacy of "Dracula" from the 1930s forward, through its incarnations in film, plays, musicals, ballets, and other performances. Appendix A is a list of notable stage performances of "Dracula", 1897-2003. Appendix B is a list of about 200 films, 1921-2004, which feature the "Dracula" character or name. Thankfully, there is an index.
In outlining the contents of "Hollywood Gothic", I may have made the book seem dry. But the story of "Dracula"'s continuing life in film and on stage is as lively as the novel that inspired it -and it is written a good deal better. David Skal's tireless research and engaging style never fail to impress. "Hollywood Gothic" is an absorbing literary and cinematic history that "Dracula" fans shouldn't miss.
Nice Revision to an Already Great Book.......2005-01-05
David J. Skal is as readable as ever is this newly revised edition of the definitive Hollywood Gothic as he covers the history of Dracula from his creation by Bram Stoker to the various and multiple version on screen and stage. The thrust of the story is, of course, on the novel and the iconic Bela Lugosi movie, with an additional nice, but smaller, chunk on Nosferatu. The author is particularly effective in combining, in an interesting fashion, the creative, financial, and legal elements. His analysis is always clear and interesting and will definitely send the reader on a viewing frenzy. Vampire movies seem always to be streaming forth from Hollywood and Dracula is and always will be the most tempting of the bunch. This book brings this fascination to life, as it were. A very good job.
Nifty little book about the granddaddy of vampires.......2004-10-08
I read this book years ago. It's good to see it's coming back into print.
Skal charts the history of Stoker's book, beginning with early drafts extant, following the tangled film history, including the legal battles over Murnau's "Nosferatu", Universal Studio's struggle to get the rights for the Lugosi pic, and everything that happened after.
It won't change your life, but its fascinating stuff. Skal's style is quick, clean, and to the point. This book is a lot of fun, giving insights into publishing, film, theater, and the audience reaction to and participation in all of those mediums. A must for all vampire buffs, film students, and those who are curious about the inner workings of popular culture.
Book Description
“This useful overview of British horror films condenses 100 years of celluloid fright into 100 key works and 180 photos…This book will likely prove popular with a wide readership…British film historian Rigby’s fine prose is lively and assured. His evaluative comments are worthwhile, and his recounting of historical developments is both accessible and informative. Fans will appreciate his attention to detail, while casual readers will benefit from his skilled survey.” — Library Journal
Customer Reviews:
Still not the final word.......2006-10-31
This is a much needed and very valuable summary of the British horror film. The success of Rigby's book hinges on the accessibility of the prose. More recent summaries of this much neglected area of British cinema tend to take a strongly academic bias; either impenetrable psychoanalytical or sociological studies. The quest of academia is to elevate these films to some status of quality, but most horror fans don't give a damn about this. This book is definitely written for enthusiasts of the genre and Rigby himself shows himself to be the fan he is and writes wittily and with affection for many films. Naturally the book is unevenly tilted to the 1960's, a golden era of British horror, which is my only criticism. I personally consider the 1970's to be the most interesting time for British horror. However Rigby gives much needed attention to some forgotten gems such as "Jack the Ripper", "Night of the Eagle" and "The Skull", this isn't just a summary of Hammer Studios. The only fault of the book is that it could have conceivably been twice the length and after it I still felt a truly definitive all encompassing account of British horror is still required.
get it for the pictures.......2005-12-06
I had high hopes for this book when I heard about it, but shortly after receiving it they were quicky dashed. There is a wealth of information on many different British horror movies, which is interesting - and a lot of movies included made by companies other than Hammer. And the picture selection is excellent, and many readers may want it for that. However, there is a kind of Puritan fog that shrouds this book, which makes it far from appealing, and something I haven't seen before in British books on horror movies. The sexy scenes which are a well-known characteristic of British horror movies are "sleazy" or "vulgar" or "exploitation" and looked at disapprovingly by the author, while he delights in the grisly scenes. . The mild "Circus of Horrors" (1960) is "quasi-pornographic", etc., etc. and the whole book has this kind of feminist film-journal quality about which is far from appealing. This, together with the turgid, humorless style makes it a chore to get through. The main aim of the writer seems to be to take all the fun out of British horror movies. Better pass this one up.
Essential for the Horror Fan.......2005-07-15
This is one of the best books written on the horror film. Rigby writes well and is very informative about the development of the British horror film from silents to the Nineties.
Of course, the heart of his book is the era from 1956-74, roughly from "The Creeping Unknown" to "The Wicker Man." Even if you have read about Hammer films before, Rigby has something new to say. He has seen EVERYTHING from this era, and his book steered me to fascinating movies like "Demons of the Mind" and "And Now the Screaming Starts" that I would never have heard of otherwise.
I don't agree with all of his opinions. (Rigby is incredibly down on the movies of Amicus Studios.) But Rigby really appreciates Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Terrence Fisher and Freddie Francis, making this a fun, informative read. Horror fans could only do themselves a favor by buying it. A most enjoyable book and one that the reader will go back to many times.
Definitive and absorbing........2004-05-22
As a huge fan of horror and science fiction films of the 'Golden Age' of the genre, I've always had a particular fondness for the (generally) more sophisticated and cerebral output of the British studios. As was the case for many of my generation ('baby boomers'), my introduction to these great films began with the legendary Hammer Studio's remakes of the classic Universal monster films, kicked off by the seminal Peter Cushing/Christopher Lee vehicle 'The Curse of Frankenstein'. I recall being scared silly as a child by the indelible image of Christopher Lee's bloodshot, snarling visage in the staircase scene from the superb 'Horror of Dracula', of having my heart race with excitement while watching Lee's turn as 'The Mummy', and, like a drug addict, anxiously awaiting the next chiller to be exported to U.S. movie screens. For those who harbor similar memories, 'English Gothic' is for you (this review is of the 2nd edition).
There have been numerous other books that took a turn at this historically important product, but none (at least that I've read) comes close to this book's comprehensiveness, style and sheer reading pleasure. Author Jonathan Rigby (an actor himself) infuses this masterful work with insightfulness and attention to detail that could well serve as a model for others. Beginning with a chapter titled 'British Horror in Embryo', it concludes with the sad (but accurately titled) final chapter, 'British Horror in Retreat'. In between one will find a veritable treasure trove of detail, the effect of which is to present the reader with a unique contribution that is at once both somewhat scholarly yet readily accessible. While this loving treatment of British horror films (broadly defined, as it encompasses related mystery and science fiction titles as well) stands on its own, the book offers much more. It provides for a fascinating sociological context as well: the output of British studios, both in quantity and theme, reflect the socio/political milieu of the times. In addition, it does what no similar book has done, which is to provide a sense of what British Gothic film making was really like. It's almost like being an invisible observer, hovering over the studios during production. Even movie fans that do not care for horror films would find this aspect of the book worthwhile.
The book's 260-plus pages give appropriate focus on the aforementioned grandfather of British horror, Hammer, without cutting short the contributions of other notable studios (such as Amicus and Tigon), as well as the sometimes complex co-production arrangements between these studios and those of other countries (for example, the collaborations between Hammer and such American production companies as AIP, Universal and Warners). Such detail is very informative. It's surprising how many such films, perceived as American, were in fact British productions (such as 'Fiend Without a Face' and 'First Man into Space').
While American readers will find themselves at a slight disadvantage with the lack of familiarity with references to established British character actors, television programs, scene locations and the occasional slang phrase, this is a minor distraction. If you're a fan of British horror/science fiction, or simply of film making in general, 'English Gothic' deserves a place in your library.
A Must-Have for the Interested.......2003-06-24
This book covers all strata of British horror, from the silent film era until the millenium. It's a beautifully produced volume, with excellent stills, photos, and side-bars within the text zeroing-in on specific films. Rigby, unlike some reported experts on British horror, gives full credit to Hammer Films for having added to, if not revitalized, a genre that had existed haphazerdly in Britain until the 1950s. The text is smoothly written, with some wit, and gives valuable information on the background of various films and on such modern classics as Peter Walker's trio of highly considered films made in the late sixties-early seventies. Other films convered are the UK-filmed productions featuring Vincent Price. Only in his treatment of Todd Slaughter is Rigby somewhat harsh: the actor made no pretence of being other than melodramatic. This book is highly recommeded, and I would even advise the owner not to lend it to anyone. They might not get it back.
Average customer rating:
|
Modern Gothic: A Reader
Manufacturer: Manchester Univ Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 General
| Movies
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
United States
| Horror
| Genre Fiction
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Sage, Victor
| ( S )
| Authors, A-Z
| Horror
| Genre Fiction
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
British
| Horror
| Genre Fiction
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Horror
| Genre Fiction
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Classics
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| British
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
| Classics
| Comic
| Contemporary
| Literary
General
| Criticism & Theory
| History & Criticism
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Movements & Periods
| History & Criticism
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Culture
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Horror Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
ASIN: 0719042070 |
Book Description
Austrian composer's splendid settings of 53 poems by German poet Eduard Mörike. Includes Der Tambour, Verborgenheit, Elfenlied, 50 more. New literal prose translations of the lyrics provided, with lists of song titles and openings, and glossary of German musical terms. Sturdily bound, clearly reproduced collection of some of the finest lieder ever composed.
Average customer rating:
- Awsome! 5 stars! A++++++++++!
- It's totally cool and easy
- The Total Idiots guide to Furbies 2
- Complete Idiot's Guide To Furbys
- This book is for starters and can clear info unknown.
|
Furby Trainer's Guide (Furby)
J. Douglas Arnold , and
Mark Elies
Manufacturer: Sandwich Islands Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Crafts & Hobbies
| Arts & Music
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Literature
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
| Action & Adventure
| Children's Literature Guides
| Classics by Age
| Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths
| General
| Humorous
| Literary Criticism & Collections
| Poetry
| Popular Culture
| Read-Aloud
| Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery & Horror
| Short Story Collections
General
| Puzzles & Games
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Toy Animals
| Antiques & Collectibles
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Furby (Here to Stay, Wah!)
ASIN: 188436442X |
Customer Reviews:
Awsome! 5 stars! A++++++++++!.......2004-07-05
Excellent information! Perfect! Has just about everything one needs to know about their Furby! I rate this product a Triple Star!
It's totally cool and easy.......2002-07-15
This Guide is so neat it's very coforable and easy to use! My furby is now a delite little robot thanks to the THE FURBY TRAINER'S GUIDE! Their arn't many pictures or games but the are many ways to help your furby learn and understand helping information, after useing this guide your furby is sure to be a good one ,I recomend this book to any furby lovers just like ME!!
The Total Idiots guide to Furbies 2.......1999-11-29
It is all pictures, it has no actual purpose, except annoying you.
All it does is give pictures, and doesn't explain Furbies, (which is what it's meant to!) very well.
There are lots of useful pages on the internet, (so save yourself the money and don't buy this book! )
Complete Idiot's Guide To Furbys.......1999-08-14
At least you'll feel like a complete idiot when you buy this book, look at all of those silly pictures, and see that most of the information you want to train your Furby is on just a few pages. Furbys are unable to record messages, learn complicated phrases or foreign languages, or become potty trained. As such, you will not learn how to teach Furbys these things by reading this book. You can get most of what you want to know on the web. Save your money and buy two Beanie Babies, instead.
This book is for starters and can clear info unknown........1999-06-29
As I said this book is for starters and people that have a craze over the furry electronic. But I guess ill give it 4 stars for its pictures and information.
Book Description
Get the only official Trainer's Guide for Furby! This full color guide includes a Collector's Guide with many rare and "Collector's Edition" Furbys, Secret Tricks, an exclusive rare photos scrapbook, and a full chapter devoted to the new Furby Babies! This new updated version of our best-selling guide is completely authorized by Tiger Electronics. Full Color / over 200 pictures
Customer Reviews:
Very Disappointed.......2006-03-02
I am very disappointed in this manuel. It was a manuel on the old generation furbies, not the 2005 models. I was directed to get this manuel to help trained my new high tech furbies. Well 3 weeks after I ordered the book (paid overnight) I looked at it and realized I had been ripped off. The only good thing was I do have first generation furbies that I can train alittle more.
This a great introductory manual for your Furby........2002-08-02
I bought my Furby from a second hand store, and I had no idea what my Furby was talking about most of the time. I bought this book, and it explained everything about Furbys from what the Furbish words meant to instructions to play all of the Furby games from Hide and Seek to using your Furby as a fortuneteller (for fun "yes/no" questions). It even includes tricks that kids (and adults!) will love, like how to make your Furby burp eight times in a row or get a case of hiccups. Also included where photos of other Furbys available, Furby accessories, and Furby history. It contains a lot of information within a short number of pages. I am not sure what, if any, imformation comes with the Furby in the original package, but for me (having no instructions) this was a fantastic book that has led me to have a great time with my Furby, Delola!
FURBY!!!.......2001-05-13
This book is just GGGRRRREEEEEEAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTT!!!It has EVERYTHING you would ever need to know about Furbys!!! BUY IT!!!!!!!!!
What a rip-off!.......2000-01-15
This book is not worth buying - it is already outdated. If you really want information on Furbys, browse through websites from Furby fans. You will probably find more current and helpful information there. A true disappointment!
Book Description
Mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities are fixed-income securities, like bonds, which derive their return from an underlying mortgage or basket of mortgages, or an asset or basket of assets. This market has increased from about $100 billion in 1980 to over $2.5 trillion today. Filling the void for a new book on fixed-income, Salomon Smith Barney Guide to Mortgage-Backed and Asset-Backed Securities provides a coherent and comprehensive approach to the subject. Featuring material used by the company, this book is an ideal training tool and resource for investment professionals, institutional investors, pension fund investors, and hedge-fund investors.
Lakhbir Hayre (New York, NY) is a mortgage officer at Salomon Smith Barney, and their leading expert on mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities. He is a Certified Financial Analyst and a Doctor of Philosophy.
Download Description
Mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities are fixed-income securities, like bonds, which derive their return from an underlying mortgage or basket of mortgages, or an asset or basket of assets. This market has increased from about $100 billion in 1980 to over $2.5 trillion today. Filling the void for a new book on fixed-income, Salomon Smith Barney Guide to Mortgage-Backed and Asset-Backed Securities provides a coherent and comprehensive approach to the subject. Featuring material used by the company, this book is an ideal training tool and resource for investment professionals, institutional investors, pension fund investors, and hedge-fund investors.
Lakhbir Hayre (New York, NY) is a mortgage officer at Salomon Smith Barney, and their leading expert on mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities. He is a Certified Financial Analyst and a Doctor of Philosophy.
Customer Reviews:
A collection of client reports: a Handbook (simplified), but not a Textbook.......2007-02-17
If you are a professional working on ABS and you want to have a handy collection of the client reports that were distributed by Salomon Smith Barney (now Citigroup), well this book might be very useful for you. The book covers a large breadth of topics and generally they are written quite well. But putting together 700 pages of reports written by different authors doesn't make it an organized book. Most of the chapters are neither a logical consequence of the previous one nor self contained, and they require you to be already familiar with the terminology. Furthermore, this book lacks examples of implementation details, and the mathematics involved doesn't go beyond the very basic. For example, you won't get much detail on how to structure a CMO or how to calibrate a prepayment model.
If you don't already know ABS and want to learn the details of securitization I advise you to consider the book of Stone and Zissu.
Excellent.......2006-12-12
By covering topics of great practical importance in the mortgage industry, both from the standpoint of mortgage-backed securities and from the mortgage origination process, this handbook should be helpful to those entering the field of fixed income securities and those who are seasoned veterans. The authors of the different articles emphasize the applied and practical aspects of the subject, and so no heavy guns from mathematics are brought in (as they could be in the discussions on term structure models and option-adjusted spreads), but even those readers interested in these tools from mathematics could view the handbook as an introduction to the key ideas used. In this regard the part of the handbook on prepayment analysis and modeling will be of great interest to those responsible for financial modeling, as will the part on option-adjusted spreads and durations. Readers will probably not read the handbook from cover to cover, but instead will select those articles that they have the greatest interest in. The handbook can be consulted as needed and compared with other more current literature on the topics discussed.
Financial revolutions are not as common as revolutions in other fields, due to the conservative nature of financiers and venture capitalists, but when they happen they do so with a vengeance. The mortgage industry is currently undergoing such a revolution, due not only to the innovations that are occurring in mortgage-lending but also to the willingness of homeowners to cash in on their equity. In addition, techniques from artificial intelligence (usually called "smart automation" in the mortgage industry) are being used to automate the loan origination process, particularly that of underwriting and estimation of borrower credit-worthiness. The mortgage loan origination process can now be tuned to the profile of the individual applicant and parameters such as interest rates, to produce a loan that is structured optimally for this applicant. In addition, the sheer number of regulations that must be complied with, both from municipal, state, and federal agencies can be daunting to financial and mortgage firms. But there are now technologies that have automated compliance. All of these developments are dependent on the concepts discussed in this handbook, along with others of course that are not included in it. No doubt as the mortgage revolution reaches maturity, this handbook will have to be rewritten, and might indeed include concepts that at the present time seem extremely radical or even alien, much as the current ones would have just two decades ago.
Filled in the gaps.......2006-11-08
This helped me understand how this works, with some of the jargon and some of the standard models that are used in valuation.
Hayre is lucid and informative! The Best Prepayment book.......2003-10-14
As other reviewers have mentioned this is a must for anyone involved with MBS ABS markets. Outstanding discussions on prepayment. Very detailed analysis of MBS ABS structures and related processes. A must for all people working with MBS.
Some modeling is hidden and not well explained...
Clearly the best!.......2003-01-10
A clear and detailed book, written by the No. 1 expert in MBS from, Salomon Smith Barney, the best MBS underwriting and trading firm on Wall Street. A must for all people working with MBS.
Books:
- Hollywood Hype And Audiences: Selling and Watching Popular Film in the 1990s
- Hollywood v. Hard Core: How the Struggle Over Censorship Created the Modern Film Industry
- Hollywood Walk of Fame : 2000 Sensational Stars, Star Makers and Legends
- Hollywoodland
- How to Be Your Own Script Doctor
- I Want to Tell You: My Response to Your Letters, Your Messages, Your Questions
- Impossible Bodies: Femininity and Masculinity at the Movies (Comedia)
- Incongruous Entertainment: Camp, Cultural Value, and the MGM Musical
- John Lyons' Bringing up Baby: 20 Progressive Ground-Work Exercises to Develop Your Young Horse into a Reliable, Accepting Partner
- Kung Fu Cult Masters
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- The Reading Lesson: Teach Your Child to Read in 20 Easy Lessons
- My New Baby And Me: A First Year Record Book For Big Brothers And Big Sisters
- Design and Analysis of Coalesced Hashing
- Employees and Corporate Governance
- How to Settle an Estate
- Over the Moon
- Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam
- Developments in the International Harmonization of Accounting
- Emotional Labor in the Service Economy
- Mr. Spaceman
The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror; Revised Edition with a New Afterword
Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality
Dracula (Norton Critical Editions)
In Search of Dracula: The History of Dracula and Vampires
Something in the Blood: The Underground World of Today's Vampires
