By Nature's Design: An Exploratorium Book

Amazon.com

Chaos theory may be all the rage in the mathematical world, but most people like at least some measure of order in their lives, whether through daily routines or tested methods of getting something done. Writer Pat Murphy and photographer William Neill appeal to our quest for patterns with this book, based on a major exhibit at San Francisco's Exploratorium. Together they puzzle out how pebbles form clusters on the beach, how an ear of corn grows, how mountains and clouds form and how spiders make their webs: how, in short, nature sees to it that things happen in much the same way again and again. The science is simple ("the sleeping cat curls into a ball because this shape offers the least surface area"), and the photographs are both splendid and informative, making this a fine gift for budding young naturalists.

Book Description

The beauty and symmetry of the natural world come alive in this inspired collaboration between acclaimed nature photographer William Neill and San Francisco's famous hands-on science museum, the Exploratorium. Exquisite, full-color photographs unveil the secret blueprints of nature often overlooked by the casual observer: the spiral forms that appear in seashells, spiderwebs, and the heart of a daisy; the hexagons found in honeycombs and cracking mud. Through its captivating photographic content and accessible scientific examination. By Nature's Design reaveals the order, economy, and elegance of nature's diverse forms in an engaging volume that will fascinate and inform art and nature lovers alike.

Customer Reviews:

Ideal for graphic designers.......2004-10-15

This book is a must for people who study or work in the field of graphic art. It reminds us the shapes and maths we use in computer programs originate from cosmos ;-). The subtleties of natural colour shape and composition remains an inspiration to my every day job as a graphic artist. Beautiful photography indeed.

Beautiful!.......2001-12-10

This book is lovely. The pictures are gorgeous. The text only compliments the pictures. The text is simple and easy to understand.

I used this book when teaching the gifted students math and science. The book is so lovely that many times my students would just read it because of that, not because they were trying to see a concept.

Now I use it as a goal for my personal photography. (I can only hope to be that good someday!)

This is a gorgeous book and well worth the money.

10 Star book on nature and patterns.......2000-07-28

If I could give 10 stars to this book, I would. As a fellow nature photographer and instructor, we use this book as the text book for our photography programs, especially the ones on composition, patterns, and natural design. William Neill's photography is outstanding, each picture simple and clear to the point being made. The text is a reflection of the outstanding quality and precision of the photographs, making their point clearly and simply, yet capturing the imagination. You will start looking at the world differently after reading this book, having your imagination captured by the shadows and cracks on the sidewalk, the curls in the petal of a flower, the fascination of designs found in food, plants, the clouds, everywhere you look will seem fresh and new, seen through new eyes.

Interested in math and geometry, this book will open a new world to you in understanding the complexities of nature as well as geometry and other sciences to you. Fractals, rectangles, spirals, mathematical computations we all learned in school come alive under the simple and magical words and the gorgeous images by Mr. Neill. I would include this as a text book in any math class, inspiring and opening student's eyes to the possibilities found in nature.

For nature and photo enthusiasts, you will go back to this book time and time again for inspiration and information. It will help you understand why rose petals open as they do, how a drop of water can hold the most volume before it explodes, making yet another geometrical shape. You learn why cactus have spines, how lava cools, cracking in even shapes. A very exciting lesson comes in learning how scientists, after many frustrating centuries, with the help of computers finally came up with a mathematical computation for measuring mountains, coastlines, clouds, fog, the physical and ethereal elements of nature. The chapter on fractals really expands your understanding of the sciences.

Mr. Neill has done a sequel to this book and it is also worth getting, as is anything he touches. He is an inspired and dedicated photographer, who some say is carrying on the work of his mentor, Ansel Adams, but I say he is carving his own unique road, in someways surpassing the master's work.

Revealing and Feeling Photography.......2000-07-17

Each page is worthy of framing itself! You feel as though you are with the photographer as each description of the picture is both clear and inviting the reader to feel what was happening at the time the photo was taken ...All aspects of nature, from flowers to underwater scenes....are creatively captured for the viewer. I loved this book and din't want to finish it...

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Oleg Polunin's Trees and Bushes of Britain and Europe
Oleg Polunin
Manufacturer: Paladin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000LRMV2C

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Trees and Bushes of Europe
Oleg Polunin
Manufacturer: Oxford Univ Pr (Sd)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Plants | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0192176315

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Trees and Bushes of Europe
Oleg Polunin
Manufacturer: Oxford Univ Pr (Sd)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OK2DMY

Customer Reviews:

Dated, modernism, serious omissions.......2007-03-12

Because this book was written before the 1996 Olympics and organized around the major architects (and firms) practicing in Atlanta, there are conspicuous omissions. Unless the structure you wish to research has a brand name architect (you know, John Portman, John Burgee, Philip Johnson, etc...), it won't be in here. And if it's a church outside the city center, even if it had a brand name architect, it won't be in here either. There's a heavy modernist slant to the book, and an inexplicable lack of coverage of Atlanta's important ecclesiastical and neoclassical structures, particularly outside the city center. Architectural historians and classicists will be disappointed, which is surprising considering that Elizabeth Dowling, classicist extraordinaire, was the senior consultant for the book. Perhaps a new edition can improve on these problems.

Capitol of the New South.......2005-12-18

First let me say that I really enjoy these AIA guides and this one is good. Atlanta has grown tremedously in the last twenty years and its skyline reflects that fact. This guide does not compare with the best AIA guides like the guide to Chicago, New York, Detroit, or Houston, but it hits on most of the major buildings and I liked the fact it is sectioned into different areas. I would have liked to have seen more on the Buckhead area and Druid Hills. I would have also liked to have seen every building have been accompanied by an image, that is a must in books of this kind. If you are someone from Atlanta or are interested in the architecture of Atlanta I recommend this book, but if you are just looking for AIA guides then I suggest getting the afore mentioned guides before this one.

The Guide to the Architecture of Georgia

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The Guide to the Architecture of Georgia
Tom Spector , and Susan Owings-Spector
Manufacturer: University of South Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0872498565

Art in Savannah: A Guide to the Monuments, Museums, Galleries, and Other Places

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Art in Savannah: A Guide to the Monuments, Museums, Galleries, and Other Places
Sandra Lee Underwood
Manufacturer: Schiffer Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 076432649X

The Courthouse and the Depot: The Architecture of Hope in an Age of Despair : A Narrative Guide to Railroad Expansion and Its Impact on Public Architecture in Georgia, 1833-1910

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Superb historical railroad station architecture survey.
An essential collection of Georgia architectural history

The Courthouse and the Depot: The Architecture of Hope in an Age of Despair : A Narrative Guide to Railroad Expansion and Its Impact on Public Architecture in Georgia, 1833-1910
Wilber W. Caldwell
Manufacturer: Mercer University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0865547483

Customer Reviews:

Superb historical railroad station architecture survey........2002-03-24

The Courthouse And The Depot: A Narrative Guide To Railroad Expansion And Its Impact On Public Architecture In Georgia 1833-1910 by Wilber W. Caldwell is an exhaustive catalogue of 19th century public architecture in Georgia and all the railroad lines that criss-crossed the state during this period. A wealth of Deep South history illustrated throughout with black and white photographs. The Courthouse And The Depot uses the unique framework of architecture to substantially narrate a significant stretch of Georgian state history, and how the coming of the railroad changed everything for the future. A fascinating and superbly presented wealth of information about changing times over a century ago, The Courthouse And The Depot is highly recommended reading for American history, architecture, and railroading reading lists and reference collections.

An essential collection of Georgia architectural history.......2002-03-04

Mr. Caldwell, an "independent" historian, has provided us an exaustive and accurate compendium of the architectural and social history of Georgia in the 19th century. He has reviewed and cross-referenced the hundreds of sketchy local histories in Georgia and has noted the background and history of the creation of every Georgia county and railroad from 1800-1911, and how the railroad shaped the aspirations or distrust of Georgia's communities.

He notes how the influence of Northern "carpetbaggers" led to the development of many of Ga's reconstruction railroads and the erection of its many distinctive high-style courthouses. The influence of Bostonian H.H. Richardson on Georgia architects Gloucke and Bruce & Morgan is prevalent as well.

Interestingly, Mr. Caldwell is intent on revealing what he sees as the truth behind the "myths" of the Old and New South and how those myths are related through railroad development (the equivalent of a 19th century interstate highway) and public architecture. His conclusion that the creation of post-civil war railroads and the promise of Northern investment was nothing more than a sham in most cases is very unique and interesting and deserves further study.

This book is less about the specifics of architecture but basically provides a clearer view of rural southern history, and provides a useful collection of the local history of 159+ counties in Georgia. There are a few spelling errors, and could have used a few color plates, but the book is well made.

This book is a must for any Georgia architect, landscape architect, and historic preservationist. It also could be of use to a few politicians in order for them to better understand the background of thier own GA communities. Of course, armchair historians and lovers of southern history will enjoy it as well.

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Macon: An Architectural & Historical Guide
Inc. Members Middle Georgia Historical Society
Manufacturer: Middle Georgia Historical Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0965101711

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Madison Georgia: An Architectural Guide

Manufacturer: The Morgan County Foundation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000B5SSXU

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The Architecture of Madison Georgia

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The Courthouse and the Depot: The Architecture of Hope in an Age of Despair: A Narrative Guide to Railroad Expansion and Its Impact on Public Architecture ... An article from: Journal of Southern History
H. Roger Grant
Manufacturer: Southern Historical Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Journal of Southern History, published by Southern Historical Association on November 1, 2003. The length of the article is 598 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: The Courthouse and the Depot: The Architecture of Hope in an Age of Despair: A Narrative Guide to Railroad Expansion and Its Impact on Public Architecture in Georgia, 1833-1910.(Book Review)
Author: H. Roger Grant
Publication: Journal of Southern History (Refereed)
Date: November 1, 2003
Publisher: Southern Historical Association
Volume: 69 Issue: 4 Page: 946(2)

Article Type: Book Review

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Handbook for historic preservation in Georgia: A guide for volunteers

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Handbook for historic preservation in Georgia: A guide for volunteers
William R Mitchell
Manufacturer: Georgia Historical Commission
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006W3K4U

Historic Savannah, Georgia, Official Souvenir Guide, Over 100 Natural Color Pictures

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Historic Savannah, Georgia, Official Souvenir Guide, Over 100 Natural Color Pictures

Manufacturer: Dixie News Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Pamphlet
ASIN: B000BNOICC

Product Description

Contains some very attractive color photos of Historic Savannah with their descriptions, some pages having one large photo, others several--starting with City Hall and concluding with Tybee Island Lighthouse and Shrimp Boats.

Customer Reviews:

History resource.......2007-08-17

I would definitely recommend this book. It is informative, without being too descriptive for young children. It was very interesting and children of both genders were entertained while using this book to learn.

Very Entertaining and Informative!.......2007-07-16

We thoroughly enjoyed this book during our unit study of the Vikings. I read the whole book aloud to my 8yo daughter and 5yo son over the course of several days. They found it fascinating and so did I.

It is written in such a way that it is *very* complete and encompasses a HUGE amount of information on the vikings, yet it is also still very accessible and quite enjoyable. The illustrations are magnificent [as always with Usborne books] and they really add to the book.

We learned a whole lot with this book [mom included!] and it is one we will re-read through the years and one we will refer to as a reference book as well.

I think anyone would enjoy this book and really get a lot out of it.

Who Were the Vikings? (Usborne Starting Point History)

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Who Were the Vikings? (Usborne Starting Point History)

Manufacturer: Usborne Publishing Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0746052588

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Who Were the Vikings?
*
Manufacturer: Usborne Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K71FH0

Book Description

Created to teach students many of the most important techniques used for constructing combinatorial designs, this is an ideal textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in combinatiorial design theory. The text features clear explanations of basic designs, such as Steiner and Kirkman triple systems, mutual orthogonal Latin squares, finite projective and affine planes, and Steiner quadruple systems. In these settings, the student will master various construction techniques, both classic and modern, and will be well-prepared to construct a vast array of combinatorial designs. Design theory offers a progressive approach to the subject, with carefully ordered results. It begins with simple constructions that gradually increase in complexity. Each design has a construction that contains new ideas or that reinforces and builds upon similar ideas previously introduced. A new text/reference covering all apsects of modern combinatorial design theory. Graduates and professionals in computer science, applied math, combinatorics, and applied statistics will find the book an essential resource.

Constructions and Combinatorial Problems in Design of Experiments

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Constructions and Combinatorial Problems in Design of Experiments
Damaraju Raghavarao
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Frames and Resolvable Designs: Uses, Constructions and Existence (Crc Press Series on Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications)

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Helpful, but specialized.

Frames and Resolvable Designs: Uses, Constructions and Existence (Crc Press Series on Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications)
Steven Furino , Miao Ying , and Yin Jianxing
Manufacturer: CRC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Combinatorial Designs: Construction and Analysis

ASIN: 0849339847

Book Description

Frames, together with a modified fundamental construction, provide a powerful recursive mechanism for constructing resolvable balanced incomplete block designs (BIBDs). Frames and Resolvable Designs: Uses, Constructions and Existence presents a unique study of frames and their application to this construction. Chapter 1 sets the stage by describing the games combinatorialists play. It introduces basic combinatorial structures and construction techniques. Chapter 2 discusses frames extensively and includes comprehensive lists of direct and recursive constructions. Chapter 3 provides known classes of RBIBD constructions. Chapter 4 deals with existence results and demonstrates the utility of the frame approach. Chapter 5 is a series of informative tables useful for researchers. No other book tackles this demanding topic from these varied perspectives. Multi-faceted and written for easy access by different users, Frames and Resolvable Designs: Uses, Constructions and Existence is the right choice for students, as a text in advanced design theory; for researchers, as a resource complement to standard encyclopedic works; and for mathematicians and statisticians in this field, as a working handbook.

Customer Reviews:

Helpful, but specialized........2004-02-01

This book is helpful, within its limits, in understanding and constructing a few specific families of block designs. That is the book's strength and weakness. The strength is it's readable, applicable approach to construction - a welcome change from the tantalizing lists of existence proofs that other authors offer. The weakness is its specificity: it appears to address only 2-designs, and my interests are a bit broader. Still, with support from other sources, I may be able to stretch some of this book's results to meet my needs.

If you're not familiar with design theory, you're in good company (and lots of it). Perhaps the defining problem in design theory is Kirkman's Schoolgirls. They are fifteen friends who walk to school every day, on a path wide enough for only three at a time. To avoid jealousies, every girl must have walked with every other by the end of the week. In other words, divide 15 elements into sets of 3, so that every unique set of 2 appears 1 time in one or another of the triplets. (All of the numbers in that sentence may be changed to give define different designs).

Unforutnately, design theory has not yet made it into the main stream of applied math. That means that the writing I've seen falls into two extreme categories. First, there are a few isolated and popularized facts - Latin Squares or design of statistical experiments, cut off from all of their supporting reasoning. Then, there are the dense tomes, by and for mathematicians, abstracted unreachably far away from applications. This is truly a pity, because design theory informs modern cryptographic protocols, replicated databases, error correcting codes, computer architecture, sports playoffs, and gamblers looking for "the system" for Lotto. I am sure that applications would be wider and richer if the literature had more for the middle tiers of readers, myself included.

This book is certainly not for the popular press, but is a step in a more readable direction. It seems to have more applicable content and less opaque notation than other design theory I've read. Still, this book is for the specialist only.

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Combinatorial Designs: Constructions and Analysis.
Douglas R. Stinson
Manufacturer: 2004
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000TAHA8Q

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Combinatorial Designs: Constructions and Analysis.

Manufacturer: 2004
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IBIBG6

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Construction of designs from permutation groups (Institute of Statistics mimeo series)
Marshall Hall
Manufacturer: Dept. of Statistics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0007FRIXU

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Constructions of designs (Institute of Statistics mimeo series)
Carlo Bernasconi
Manufacturer: Dept. of Statistics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0006YDASE

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Randomized rounding and discrete ham-sandwich theorems: Provably good algorithms for routing and packing problems (Report. University of California, Berkeley. Computer Science Division)
Prabhakar Raghavan
Manufacturer: University of California. Computer Science Division
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: B0007160S8

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A ranking algorithm for MOS circuit layouts (Research Report RC. International Business Machines Corporation. Research Division)
C. Andrew Neff
Manufacturer: IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: B000716JXO

Book Description

For the first time, exact analytical solutions are available for some of the most interesting types of problems arising in physics and applied mathematics. Hydrodynamics of Unstable Media outlines the theory of "quasi-gaseous" unstable media, and demonstrates how the theory can be used to obtain analytical solutions. Until now, the solutions to many of the examples considered in this new book have been numerical or partial solutions. By developing a new theory of hydrodynamics for unstable media, the authors provide a means for scientists and mathematicians to solve problems exactly and analytically. Solutions to some 50 problems are provided! Hydrodynamics of Unstable Media features interdisciplinary discussions by internationally recognized authors.

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Updike Transfigures Literature's most Scandalous Love Affair

Interesting angle on Shakespeare's characters

Masterful, funny wordsmithing.

A prelude to Hamlet

"The King was irate."

Gertrude and Claudius
John Updike
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

A Thousand Acres: A Novel

Hamlet (Folger Shakespeare Library)

Seek My Face

Hamlet (Signet Classics)

ASIN: 0449006972
Release Date: 2001-07-03

Amazon.com

Borrowing a phrase from Hamlet for the title of his 1999 nonfiction collection, John Updike may perhaps have been dropping hints about his fictional work in progress. He has, in any case, now delivered Gertrude and Claudius--and his variation on what is arguably the Bard's greatest hit sits very handsomely in the Shakespearean shadows. As its title suggests, this is a prelude to the actual play, focusing not on the sulky star but on his mother and fratricidal stepfather (think of it as a Danish, death-struck version of The Parent Trap). Updike's great achievement here is to turn our customary sympathies on their heads. This time around, Gertrude is a decent, long-suffering wife, whose consciousness happens to be raised to the boiling point by her sexy brother-in-law. And Claudius, too, seems half a victim of this fatal attraction, with a strong neo-Platonic accent to his lust:

The amused play of her mouth and eyes, the casual music of her considerate voice, a glimpse of her bare feet and rosy morning languor were to him amorous nutrition enough: at this delicate stage the image of more would have revolted him.... What we love, he understood from the poetry of Provence, where his restless freelancing had more than once taken him, is less the gift bestowed, the moon-mottled nakedness and wet-socketed submission, than the Heavenly graciousness of bestowal.

Subtract the poetry (and leave in the wet-socket business) and we're not too far from Rabbit Angstrom. As in the bulk of his fiction--and most conspicuously in the underrated In the Beauty of the Lilies--Updike sacrifices artistic firepower when he goes archaic on us. That explains why Gertrude and Claudius gets off to a wobbly start, with the author's medieval diction careening all over the page. But once his narrative gets up to speed, Updike dispenses one brilliant bit of perception after another. Note, for example, Ophelia's teeth, "given an almost infantile roundness by her low, palely pink gums, and tilted very slightly inward, so her smile imparted a glimmering impression of coyness, with even something light-heartedly wanton about it." Who else could make mere dentition such a window into the soul?

Gertrude and Claudius also amounts to a running theological argument, in which men constantly impale themselves on metaphysical principle while the adulterous queen is willing "to accept the world at face value, as a miracle daily renewed." (That would explain Gertrude's snap diagnosis of her neurotic son: "Too much German philosophy.") A superlative satellite to Shakespeare's creation, Updike's novel is likely to retain a kind of subordinate rank, even within his own capacious body of work. Still, it's packed with enough post-Elizabethan insight about men and women, parents and children, to suggest that the play's not the thing--not always, anyway. --James Marcus

Book Description

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

“A LIVING, POWERFULLY PHYSICAL WORK . . . UPDIKE IS A SUPERBLY SKILLFUL WRITER.”
–The Wall Street Journal

“WHAT A PIECE OF WORK IS UPDIKE! Our own king of erudition has gone back to the Hamlet story to imagine its inception: its offstage pre-story, when Claudius fell in love with his brother’s queen and that first dastardly deed in the garden was set in motion. Wickedly replete with allusions, weaving the history of ideas with the lustier possibilities of adulterous coupling. . . . There is something delightful about following Updike down this path, seeing his sentiments and sympathies unfold.”
–The Boston Globe

“WITTY . . . FRESH AND MOVING . . . Engrossing enough on its own terms to stand independently of Shakespeare’s play.”
–Time

“[UPDIKE] HAS MANAGED TO CREATE IN GERTRUDE A GENUINELY COMPELLING CHARACTER, a woman who is, by turns, vulnerable and outspoken, daring and naïve. . . . One of his most sympathetic and persuasive female characters.”
–The New York Times

“BRILLIANT.”
–New Republic

Download Description

Updike's 19th novel brings to life the story of Gertrude and Claudius, King and Queen of Denmark, before the action of Shakespeare's Hamlet begins..

Customer Reviews:

Updike Transfigures Literature's most Scandalous Love Affair.......2006-10-04

Poor Claudius! He has been getting the worst of bad raps from young Hamlet for 400 years. And Gertrude doesn't come off much better. John Updike has decided to stand up for the defence. In "Hamlet" the prince and some pompous ghost get to wax indignant because a middle-aged couple doesn't act their staid age, but seem actually to love one another physically. Working from the old stories that lie behind Shakespeare's, he turns suburban Elsinore into a trysting place for the Queen and her husband's far more attentive and humane brother. Updike is in familiar territory here, reveling in the physical details of sexual love, illicit and married.

Evident, too, is his familiar quiet mastery of the background facts, both of the play and the wider Renaissance life he pulls in to tell the story of this much-maligned couple. But do see "Hamlet" before you read this book, rather than after. Otherwise, your sympathy for that self-righteous prig of a prince might not survive.

Interesting angle on Shakespeare's characters.......2006-09-04

As the title makes clear, Gertrude and Claudius is a look at the characters of Hamlet -- their previous life, before the action of the play. As such it is in large part an exploration of an adulterous couple -- which I find amusing, because Updike is regarded in some quarters as being mainly concerned with 20th Century suburban adultery, and here we see him writing an historically set novel and what subject does he tackle? -- adultery.

Updike tells his story in three parts, using a clever convention to distinguish them. In Part I he uses the names from the account in Saxo Grammaticus's Historia Danica. In Part II he uses the names from Francois de Bellefort's Histoires Tragiques. And Part III uses Shakespeare's names. The main character is Gerutha/Geruthe/Gertrude, Hamlet's mother. She is the daughter of Denmark's King, who has no son, and her mother is long dead. She is pushed into marriage to Horwendil (Horvendile/Hamlet the elder), mainly because he is a powerful warrior who seems a good candidate to be the next King. And, indeed, he does become King, and they have a tolerable but not especially loving marriage, and some disappointment in that they only have one child, Amleth/Hamblet/Hamlet. Slowly, Gerutha becomes aware that Horwendil's brother Feng (Fengon/Claudius) is attracted to her. He spends his life away from Denmark and his brother's shadow, and his acquired cosmopolitan nature is a source of attraction -- and she begins to fall for him.

Part I, then, is scene-setting, in a way. Part II is the story of their adulterous affair. By this time they are fairly old (nearing 60 in Fengon's case, 48 in Geruthe's case), but both are very passionate. It closes with the murder of Hamlet's father. Part III tells of Claudius's coronation and his early reign as King, and his attempts to come to an accommodation with Hamlet.

All that is a very bald description. The story really lives in Gertrude's mind. She is a very well-depicted, involving, character. Her life, her feelings, her romance with Fengon/Claudius, her frustrations with Hamlet, father and son, all ring true. At this level the novel works very well. It is also written very well, though not quite beautifully. Updike is a precise writer, and an original writer, but not quite, it seems to me, a musical or poetical writer. Taken all in all, after a slowish start, Gertrude and Claudius is an involving and moving story, and an interesting look at some familiar characters from a different slant.

Masterful, funny wordsmithing. .......2005-12-30

This delightful John Updike work so enamored me, I bought 2 more copies for whoever cared to share my good fortune of discovering it. Smaller than most hardcovers, they made for great going away gifts for friends flying over the holidays.

A prelude to Hamlet.......2004-02-19

John Updike is a witty man. He is quite funny, and I had the pleasure of hearing him speak at a reading held last fall at Cornell University. This book, however, loses much of the natural comedy and beauty that Updike has.

Updike is like a modern day Nabokov, someone who indulges himself with wordplay and word study. The linguistics behind all of their conscious choices is absolutely incredible and stunning. This is definitely evident here [for there will be many a time that you will run over to your dictionary in order to consult the meaning (or multiple meanings) of the diction. And it's not because Updike sees himself as better than the average man; he just enjoys playing around.]

"Gertrude and Claudius" does not lend itself to that much folly though, for it is a story that has been passed down through Scandinavian mythology. The characters are not his; he has the oral tradition, Shakespeare, Tom Stoppard, and even "The Lion King" working against him, throwing in some sort of opposing philosophy. The fact is that they were there first, so he has to work doubly as hard in order to get his point heard.

And he does a good job of it. It is an intriguing story, for most people would like to know what exactly happened before the court of Claudius took reign. The power exhibited by Gertrude will also be another point of controversy, for in the play by Shakespeare, she seems like a flake; here, she has a mind of her own, and is not anyone's pawn.

In fact, Gertrude is the most redeeming quality of this novel. Updike does a wonderful job painting the portrait of her; however, it would be interesting to know how close this information given to us really coincides with the original story itself. And it's not that that is a bad thing, for fiction writers should adapt works in order to make them pleasing and interesting for them to write. But Gertrude would absolutely be a great topic of conversation over a cup of coffee in a cafe.

Worth a read, especially if you are a fanatic about "Hamlet".

"The King was irate.".......2004-02-12

With that sentence begins each of the three parts of this novel. Three different Kings, each mad for the only reason that Kings are ever mad: because things are not going in accord with their commanding expectations. And why not? Each of the principal characters in this novel, like Elsinore itself, lives as an island to himself, apart and impenetrable. Not even the Saviour can reach it, for "Christianity turns grim in lands of frost; it is a Mediterranean cult, a religion of the grape." This novel, a precursor to Hamlet (though direct lines from the play surface sporadically), sets the stage for a play less consumed by a singular event and Hamlet's predisposed reaction to it, than by a solitary insecurity that exempts no one from its grip -- certainly not Hamlet, and not his mother or her unbridled lover, his uncle, the new king. The madness of detachment awaits only its apparition when the last line of this novel is reached. By then a new dimension has been given to a classic play.

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Gertrude and Claudius
John Updike
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Gertrude and Claudius (Signed First Editions Society)

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Gertrude and Claudius (Signed First Editions Society)

Manufacturer: Franklin Library
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Limited first edition, signed by the author.

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Gertrude und Claudius.
John Updike
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Gertrude & Claudius
Updike John
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Gertrude and Claudius
John Updike
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Gertrude and Claudius
John Updike
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