Shadows in the Sun: Travels to Landscapes of Spirit and Desire

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Renowned anthropologist Wade Davis shows us how preserving the diversity of the world's cultures and spiritual beliefs is just as important as preserving our endangered plants, insects, and animals. In this collection of personal essays, Davis tells of dramatic personal adventures during which he visits and often lives with indigenous communities in the remote regions of the world. He offers reports of toad-smoking shamanistic journeys in the Amazon forests, tracking an elusive cloud leopard in the mountains of Tibet, and a soulful lament for the lost American buffalo.

Although he has been called a modern-day Indiana Jones, Davis has far more integrity. His stories are not in service to self-glorification, but rather to one resounding theme:

If there is one lesson I have drawn from my travels, it is that cultural and biological diversity are far more than the foundation of stability; they are an article of faith, a fundamental truth that indicates the way things are supposed to be.... There is a fire burning over the Earth, taking with it plants and animals, cultures, languages, ancient skills, and visionary wisdom. Quelling this flame and reinventing the poetry of diversity is the most important challenge of our times.

--Gail Hudson

Book Description

"One of the intense pleasures of travel is the opportunity to live among people who have not forgotten the old ways, who still feel their past in the wind, touch it in stones polished by rain, recognize its taste in the bitter leaves of plants."

In this riveting collection of stories and essays, gifted scientist, anthropologist, and writer Wade Davis offers a captivating look at indigenous cultures around the world--from the nomadic Penan of Malaysia to the Vodoun practitioners of Haiti--and a poetic, timely examination of the rapport between humans and the natural world. Traveling from the mountains of Tibet to the jungles of the Amazon, Davis delves into the mysteries of shamanic healing, experiences first-hand hallucinogenic plants, explores the vanishing Borneo rain forests, and describes the ingenuity of the Inuit as they hunt narwhale on the Arctic ice.

A compelling and utterly unique celebration of the beauty and diversity of our planet, Shadows in the Sun is about landscape and character, the wisdom of lives drawn directly from the land, and the hunger of those who seek to rediscover such understanding. Davis shows that preserving the diversity of the world's cultures and spiritual beliefs is as important as preserving endangered plants and animals--and vital to our understanding of who we are.

Customer Reviews:

Recycled a bit, but good.......2007-01-20

At first I thought I had read this book already, and while it's technically possible, I think I am getting that sensation because Wade Davis recycles his stories and essays over and over again. By now I think I've read everything he's written (or getting very close, at any rate) and I love it all. He has great stories. But like a drunk uncle at a Christmas party, they are changing as he gets older and they are also getting a little tired. By my count, I've heard about the running of the borders in the Andes about 6 times now, and it's fascinating, it's a really great tradition and Davis tells it well, but honestly, I expect more from a man who's travelled around the world, lived with the Penan and in the Amazon and in Haiti and in the Stikine...he's got to have more stories than that. So in that respect I found this book frustrating because I kept skipping ahead for something that didn't sound like something I'd already heard. And that's a shame because his stories are enticing and he writing style is engaging, I'm just hungry for more new material.

A Little Bit of Everywhere.......2004-06-11

How tough are we, really? When I was twelve I can assure you that I was not killing polar bears and whales; but Wade Davis introduces the reader to just such an Inuit boy. The boy is special in that he carries on a tradition of providing his community with sustenance; but he is one of many such boys and men in his community. Shadows in the Sun is filled with cultural activities that seem bizzare, terrifying, beautifully exotic, outrageous, and downright strange to those of us whose culture is surrounded by electronics, mass media, and mass prefabrication. It is a beautifully written book that samples human diversity as a threatened and disappearing art form.

A Little Bit Of Everywhere.......2004-04-27

Profound and brilliant.......2004-04-19

_Shadows in the Sun_ is a collection of essays on biodiversity, from both an anthropological perspective as well as from a biological standpoint. The brilliance of the book is the way in which Daivs illustrates the juxtaposition and similarity between the two.

Davis takes you from the rainforests of Indonesia to the rainforests of the Pacific Northwest, voudon practices in Haiti, toad licking in the Amercan southwest, "surviving" in the Canadian arctic. In each essay, the tremendous variety of life (animal - including human - plant and fungal) and its adaptation to its environment is discussed in detail.

I give it four stars rather than five due to the underlying lament of the loss of bio (and cultural) diversity that is taking place worldwide. Certainly this is a just concern, and Davis is not the first to draw attention to this. However by only discussing the damage the modern, industrialized world is causing without addressing ways of elimintating the harm being done makes such observations a moot point. Even with this criticism, however, I highly recommend this book. It is a wonderful read.

Best book of essays I have read in years........2001-08-18

The author is humane, wise, brilliant and an excellent speaker. One of his talks is on the 'net.

Book Description

This book identifies all the species one is likely to encounter, with extensive information on their structural features, distribution, and ecological associations. Superbly illustrated, including keys, it is an introduction to their biology as well as a field guide.

Customer Reviews:

As Strange as Any Life from Mars Could be!.......2004-03-26

The slime molds are generally little noticed, but very strange life forms that could easily fit in a science fiction book. The swarm cells and myxamoebae unite to form first an amoeboid zygote, then the strange, crawling, plasmodium stage, and finally the fungus-like fruiting body. The plasmodia can be (in the case of Fuligo) large yellow pulsating crawling blobs that suddenly appear on people's lawns. Others are less noticeable, but often brightly colored. I have seen one of these plasmodia in my life- a bright pink blob that disappeared into the ground when I raised a rotting log in the Pinaleno Mountains of Arizona. I was certainly startled!

Stephenson and Stempen have written an excellent book on these strange critters in "Myxomycetes: A Handbook of Slime Molds." It fills a gap in the literature on natural history. It is my hope that more people will be able to appreciate these neat organisms through the descriptions, excellent line drawings and well-rendered color plates.

I will disagree with one reviewer's dislike of the describer's name after the scientific name, however. It is there for the convenience of other taxonomist as least as much as the vanity of the describer. If I know that Physarum nutans was described by Persoon it tells me something about where I should look for the original description and may also give me some idea of when the name probably originated. Also Physarum cinereum (Batsch) Persoon tells me that Batsch wrote the original description, but placed the species in a different genus, which was than changed to the present genus by Persoon. Thus such "vain" additions are often important to other workers in the field.

I do agree with the same reviewer that some further discussion of how slime molds are classified might have helped an otherwise excellent book. However, I am also fully aware that the classification is still in flux and no final answers may yet be possible until DNA studies are done (and maybe not even then!).

Read this book if you find the weirdness of the world fascinating! Better still, use it to find and identify slime molds. Good hunting.

Excellent - with 3 caveats.......1999-01-19

Overall I cannot find enough praise for the book. Clearly written, lavishly illustrated with exquisite line-drawings, and even the luxury of coloured plates! My three criticisms below can only be seen in the context of lavish praise which this volume richly deserves.

However...........

1. Chaper 6. Classification. Pages 70-71.

The classification diagram is fine. But it would have been very helpful to mention the class, division and kingdom in which myxomcetes belong. Thus enabling the reader to appreciate the place of Myxomycetes in the tree of all earthly life.

2. Chapter 6. Identification. Pages 72ff.

The novice's efforts to itentify a slime mould would be greatly assisted by taking one step back, before presenting the excellent dichotomous trees. We need an acid test to decide whether what is before our eyes is indeed a slime mould, and not e.g. a lichen, fungus, moss..... It is pointless to apply the dichotomous (how I love that word!) tests to something which is not in fact a slime mould at all!

2. Chapter 6. Descriptions (names). Pages 87ff.

As a matter of passionately held principle I object to the odious practice of adding discoveres' names to the scientific names of species. As the authors will be aware, there are strongs movement to put an end to this appalling habit which -

a. Detracts from the scientific objectivity of the naming scheme, by obtrusive name-dropping. Imagine the ridicule resulting from the spread of this practice to other sciences, where we might well stumble upon the ...

electron (Thompson) Milligan, neutron Chadwick neutrino (Yukawa) Dirac

b. Leads to such ugly and unfelicitous expressions as....

Trichia varia (Persoon) Persoon

.....surely a case of the tail wagging the dog!

c. Adds nothing to the intrinsic nature of the species. Presumably Physarella oblongata would still have existed, exactly as it now is, even if it had never been identified by (Berkley & Curtis) Morgan! Or indeed before any human beings evolved!

To avoid continual irritation I have typ-exed out all mention of discoverers' names in my copy of this otherwise splendid book!

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Myxomycetes: a Handbook of Slime Molds
Steven L. Stephenson
Manufacturer: Timber Press (OR)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000N66GYU

Book Description

This portable, map-based guides offers local and out-of-town drivers accessible adventures around Chicago. Drivers are guided southwest along Route 66 to the largest prehistoric city north of Mexico, Cahokia Mounds. Travelers can also follow Great River Road northwest to Wisconsin's eagle nesting areas or southwest to Mark Twain nostalgia, or head southeast to Indiana's Amish country.

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A new twist to an old and explosive story: the Gunpowder Plot, and the man who knew exactly what happened - the Lieutenant of the Tower, Sir William Waad.

Autumn Traditions: Bonfire Night, Halloween And Other Festivals to Celebrate the Season

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Autumn Traditions: Bonfire Night, Halloween And Other Festivals to Celebrate the Season
Doc Rowe
Manufacturer: English Heritage
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ASIN: 1905624034

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Bonfire Night (Don't Forget)
Monica Hughes
Manufacturer: Heinemann Library
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Binding: Paperback

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Bonfire Night (Special Days)
Katie Dicker
Manufacturer: Hodder Wayland
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0750252359

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Electrons on Bonfire Night
Sally Carr
Manufacturer: Rockingham Press
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Italian Novels Of Peasant Crisis, 1930-1950: Bonfires in the Night

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Italian Novels Of Peasant Crisis, 1930-1950: Bonfires in the Night
Brian Moloney
Manufacturer: Four Courts Press
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Binding: Hardcover

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Lewes Bonfire Night
Jim Etherington
Manufacturer: SB Publications
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ASIN: 1857700503

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Night Of The Bonfire
Jane Blackmore
Manufacturer: Ace
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Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000PD8SHY

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Night of the Bonfire
Jane Blackmore
Manufacturer: Ace
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000TZH5JU

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Night of the Bonfire
Jane Blackmore
Manufacturer: Ace Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000OMHD7C

Book Description

Stock Identification Methods is a comprehensive review of the various disciplines used to study the population structure of fishery resources. It represents the experience and perspectives of worldwide experts on each method, assembled through a working group of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea. The book is organized to foster multidisciplinary analyses and interdisciplinary conclusions about stock structure, a crucial topic for fishery science and management. Technological advances have promoted the development of stock identification methods in many directions, resulting in a confusing variety of approaches. Based on basic tenets of population biology and management needs, Stock Identification Methods offers a unified framework for understanding stock structure using various methods, by promoting an understanding of the relative merits and sensitivities of each approach.

* Describes eighteen distinct approaches to stock identification grouped into sections on life history traits, environmental signals, genetic analyses, and applied marks
* Features experts' reviews of benchmark case studies, general protocols, and the strengths and weaknesses of each identification method
* Reviews statistical techniques for exploring stock patterns, testing for differences among putative stocks, stock discrimination, and stock composition analysis
* Focuses on the challenges of interpreting data and managing mixed-stock fisheries

Book Description

Describes the theory and practice of infrared and Raman spectroscopy as applied to the study of the physical and chemical characteristics of polymers. Its purpose is to give the beginning researcher in the field a firm foundation and a starting point for the study of more advanced literature. To this end the book concentrates on the fundamentals of the theory and nomenclature, and on the discussion of well-documented illustrations of these fundamental principles, including many now-classic studies in the subject. No previous knowledge of either polymers or vibrational spectroscopy is assumed.

Vibrational Spectra and Structure : Molecular Approach to Solids (Vibrational Spectra and Structure)

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Vibrational Spectra and Structure : Molecular Approach to Solids (Vibrational Spectra and Structure)
A.N. Lazarev ^&dagger;
Manufacturer: Elsevier Science
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0444500391

Book Description

The current volume in the series Vibrational Spectra and Structure is a single topic volume on the vibrational spectra of molecules containing silicon in the solid state. Molecular Approaches to Solids has been treated by the workers in the Institute for Silicate Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Science in St. Petersburg for the past two decades. In the last 15 years, a number of publications have originated from the laboratory where quantum mechanical computations for suitably selected molecules have been utilized to explain the origins of some structure bonding interrelationships and silicates and to evaluate their force constants.

Since most of the developments in this area have been published in the Russian literature they remain relatively inaccessible to the Western scientists. This volume is a compilation of many of these publications and summarizes the essential conclusions of these studies.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Canadian Chemical News, published by Chemical Institute of Canada on October 1, 1995. The length of the article is 1157 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: Undergraduate lectures on infrared spectroscopy in the solid state.
Author: E.A. Secco
Publication: Canadian Chemical News (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 1, 1995
Publisher: Chemical Institute of Canada
Volume: v47 Issue: n9 Page: p21(3)

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Vibrational Spectroscopy of Adsorbates (Springer Series in Chemical Physics)

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Vibrational Spectroscopy of Adsorbates (Springer Series in Chemical Physics)

Manufacturer: Springer
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Binding: Hardcover

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Vibrational Spectroscopy of Molecular Liquids and Solids

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Vibrational Spectroscopy of Molecular Liquids and Solids
S.; Pick, R. M. Bratos
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OSLSSQ

Vibrational Spectroscopy of Molecules on Surfaces (Methods of Surface Characterization)

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Vibrational Spectroscopy of Molecules on Surfaces (Methods of Surface Characterization)

Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

In this extensive work, the authors give a complete self-contained exposition on the subject of classic function theory and the most recent developments in transcendental iteration. They clearly present the theory of iteration of transcendental functions and their analytic and geometric aspects. Attention is concentrated for the first time on the dynamics of transcendental functions to compliment the growing body of work on rational functions. The subjects covered in detail include the fixed point theory, basic properties of Fatou and Julia sets, components of Fatou sets, the geometry of Julia sets, and the Hausdorff dimension of the Julia set.

Nonlinear dynamic behavior of the transcendental function, hyperbolic complex cosh: Computer graphics maps of Iiterates in the mu plane (z cosh(z) + u) ... Business Machine Inc. Research Division)

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Nonlinear dynamic behavior of the transcendental function, hyperbolic complex cosh: Computer graphics maps of Iiterates in the mu plane (z cosh(z) + u) ... Business Machine Inc. Research Division)
Clifford A Pickover
Manufacturer: IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: B00070USQO

Book Description

This single-volume edition of the complete works of Sir Thomas Malory retains his 15th-century English while providing an introduction, glossary, and fifty pages of explanatory notes on each romance.

Customer Reviews:

If I only had one book . . ........2005-12-21

If I had only one book to read for the rest of my life and couldn't read anything else, it would be this one.

Ian Myles Slater on: Worthwhile Malorys, Not For All.......2004-08-08

This is mainly a review of two related editions of the work commonly known as "Le Morte D'Arthur" (Anglo-Norman French for "The Death of [King] Arthur). One is Eugene Vinaver's "Malory: Complete Works," the title of which will be explained shortly. The other is the Norton Critical Edition, as "Le Morte D'Arthur" -- an admirable book, but not for all readers; as also explained below, the text has some striking visual differences from the usual modern book, which some may find too difficult. Both are original-spelling editions of the fifteenth-century text, in what can be called either very late Middle English, or very early Modern English; other, easier-to-read, editions will also be mentioned below.

Until a mis-catalogued fifteenth-century manuscript in a safe at Winchester College was finally recognized in 1934 as Sir Thomas Malory's account of King Arthur and his knights, the only authoritative text of this now-famous work was that found in the two surviving copies of William Caxton's 1485 printing. Unhappily, its first and last pages are missing, so Caxton remains the source for those passages. (The standard exact, or "diplomatic," text of Caxton's Malory was edited by H. Oskar Sommers, 1889-1891. There is a recent critical text, edited by James Spisak, 1983, and a facsimile edition, edited by Paul Needham, 1976.) There are thousands of minor differences, and a few very large ones.

Caxton had divided the text into twenty-one books, with numbered and (usually) titled chapters, and called the whole "Le Morte D'Arthur" -- "Notwithstanding that it treateth of the birth, life, and acts of the said King Arthur, of his noble knights of the Round Table, their marvelous enquests and adventures, the achieving of the Sangrail, and in the end the dolorous death and departing out of this world of them all" (Caxton's Colophon). He had also dramatically abridged one long section (his Book Five), and seems to have made some changes of his own in wording, sometimes softening Malory's aristocratic bluntness. When Eugene Vinaver edited the Winchester Manuscript for the Oxford English Texts series, he gave the three-volume set (with critical notes, glossary, etc.) the title of "The Works of Sir Thomas Malory" (1947; revised edition, 1967; third edition, re-edited by P.J.C. Field, 1990).

In Vinaver's eyes, the manuscript revealed that Malory had produced only a very loosely connected set of narratives, distinct "WORKS" to which he, as editor, gave his own titles (which are now in current use, despite the lack of any other authority for some). The idea of a single, continuous, narrative was, in this view, Caxton's; hence the many inconsistencies, such as dead villains showing up alive and still wicked after a few "books." This decision has given rise to a long critical controversy; Malory was, in Caxton's term, "reducing" some disparate French texts into English, and may have just missed some discrepancies, as he tried to produce a reasonably unified "whole book". It has also created a certain amount of bibliographic confusion.

Keith Baines' "Rendition in Modern English" of Vinaver's edition (1962; a rewriting, covering every incident, but mostly sacrificing the language) is carefully called "Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table," as if to emphasize that Caxton's "interference" is being removed, without sacrificing reader recognition (and sales). Vinaver's later Oxford Standard Authors one-volume original-spelling text edition (1971), however, is "Malory: Complete Works." Vinaver also edited for Oxford University Press a modernized-spelling "King Arthur and His Knights: Selected Tales by Sir Thomas Malory" (1956, 1968, 1975), which maintained the same premise. John Steinbeck, a great admirer of Malory, was delighted by Vinaver's edition, and referenced the Winchester Manuscript in the subtitle of his unfinished "Acts of King Arthur ...," avoiding the "Morte" designation. (This is in fact an Arthurian novel by Steinbeck, incorporating chunks of source material, *not* a modernization.) Thus far, there is a certain amount of consistency.

However, a more recent Oxford edition, Helen Cooper's modernized spelling edition of the Winchester text for The Oxford World's Classics (1998; abridged, unfortunately; otherwise excellent), is instead titled "Le Morte D'Arthur." So, too, is the medievalist R.M. Lumiansky's much more extensively modernized 1982 complete version of the Winchester text. (Almost a translation, and thus an implied commentary on the text; but not to be confused with Lumiansky's projected, and unpublished, critical edition, almost complete at the time of his death in 1987. But is quite impressive, and I can understand anyone who thinks I am too critical of it.) The title of the facsimile edition for the Early English Text Society (N.R. Ker, 1976) "The Winchester Malory," avoided the issue, but the volume also helped renew the debate over Vinaver's theory by eliminating his editorial hand.

Stephen H. A. Shepherd's Norton Critical Edition is "Le Morte D'Arthur" on the cover, but on the title page has the Caxton-derived subtitle of "The Hoole Book of Kyng Arthur and of His Noble Knyghtes of The Rounde Table." This title may well go back to Malory, or least to the manuscripts; it would have appeared on the missing final pages. Shepherd, indeed, gives considerably more weight to Caxton's evidence than has been customary. It has become clear, from printer's marks, that the Winchester Manuscript was in fact available to Caxton, and was still on hand when his successor, Wynkyn de Worde, reset the "Morte" in 1498, introducing some of its readings. This suggests that Caxton was comparing at least two manuscripts, and that some of his "innovations" may reflect Malory's intentions as much as any other scribal copy.

The one-volume Oxford "Malory: Complete Works" is a rather bare-bones edition (especially compared to its three-volume prototype), consisting almost entirely of a very lightly "normalized" text (abbreviations are silently expanded, but variant spellings are usually preserved, etc.), with some good textual notes and a glossary (about a hundred pages of "apparatus"). In the Norton Critical Edition, Shepherd offers the reader an extended Introduction, Chronologies, a text with explanatory footnotes, a large section of "Sources" (earlier and / or alternative versions of Arthurian stories, many translated by Shepherd) and "Backgrounds" (contemporary medieval documents and modern histories illustrating Malory's times) and "Criticism" (essays and book excerpts), followed by a thirty-two-page double-column Glossary, a "Selected Guide to Proper Names," and a Selected Bibliography. (There is also a website, accessible through W.W. Norton's main page; it lists printing errors, and reports that the corrections of those identified have now been made in a second printing.)

Shepherd's text itself includes more of Caxton's readings, which seem to reflect another manuscript with different errors; and manuscript is the crucial word. Unlike Vinaver, who attempted to reproduce what he regarded as Malory's intended structure (or non-structure), Shepherd aims to create the impression of reading a medieval manuscript, without the most difficult obstacles. Not only are original spellings preserved, he carefully includes marginal notes and other indicators of scribal practices. The two scribes of the Winchester Manuscript carefully (but not completely consistently) wrote names, and some passages, in red ink ("rubrications"). Shepherd does not ask the printer for two colors, but follows the practice of "Scribe A" in using a more ornate script for the rubrics, substituting a black-letter font, so these words stand out; in some cases, following the scribes' use of larger lettering, they are printed in an extra-bold face.

Shepherd has some sensible solutions -- not identical to Vinaver's -- to such problems as character variation ('u' and 'v' and 'i' and 'j' had yet to settle into their modern restrictions, for example), erratic word divisions, and punctuating sentences whose beginning and / or end is not clearly marked. [A recent review by Jim Allan, posted on the "Le Morte Darthur" side, elegantly summarizes Shepherd's approach to these and other problems.]

This does not make for easy reading; it does reproduce, as nearly as possible in a printed book, and with modern typefaces, the experience of reading a medieval book -- which is the point of the exercise. As someone who once pored over the facsimile of the Winchester Manuscript without being able to make out much from the fifteenth-century handwriting, I love it. And it is not Shepherd's eccentric decision. It is part of a renewed appreciation for the medieval book as a physical artifact, not a sort of nuisance to be made transparent by modern typography.

However, with their 'olde spellynges' and other peculiarities, neither the Oxford Standard Authors version nor the Norton Critical Edition is suitable for all readers. Although Lumiansky's version comes close, there is still a need for a *complete* "normalized" edition based on the Winchester text, only very lightly modernized as to spelling, and faithfully preserving the original words and sentence structures.

The best version of Le Mort D' Arthur ever!!!!.......2002-01-16

If you want the original Middle English version of Le Mort D' Arthur, this is it. It is the Winchester version. I bought this book while in England and it's the best version I have due to the original spellings. It's a challenge to read, but I enjoy it because it is more authentic. Since you don't have somebody "correcting" the text, you get to see what the original actually looks and reads like. I believe this is the only middle English version available. You won't be disappointed!

The Original.......2001-09-20

This is a marvelous work. You must teach yourself to read the 15th-century English, but once you have gotten the knack, it's not hard at all. Malory lived in a simpler time, and spoke a simpler language, than we do today. There is a vigor and energy to the prose that leaps off the page - I remember one knight threatening that he would "fetch [his enemy] out of the biggest castle that he had." This volume, which gathers Malory's work over many many years, also tells the story of a man learning how to be a writer, and also, I think, growing in his emotional understanding and inteterest in his own characters. The characters are so much more real and interesting at the end than at the beginning!

The Only Way To Read Arthur.......2001-05-18

For those of us who want to read the original tales of King Arthur and the Round Table, but can't speak French, this is the place to go. The 15th century English makes for slow going at first, but provides a more authentic tale than the Caxton version. Malory grows stylistically throughout the Works, and by the Morte D'Arthur he tells as engaging a tale as any in Arthurian literature. This is a must read!

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