Ancestral Shadows: An Anthology of Ghostly Tales

Book Description

Foreword by Vigen Guroian

Widely regarded as the founder of the modern conservative movement, Russell Kirk was a noted man of letters whose prodigious literary career included a syndicated newspaper column and a regular page in National Review. This volume demonstrates another compelling side of Kirk — the imaginative author who could communicate his powerful vision through the dramatic genre of the ghost story.

Ancestral Shadows collects nineteen of Kirk's best ghostly tales from periodicals and anthologies published throughout his life. In the tradition of Defoe, Stevenson, Hawthorne, Coleridge, Poe, and other master writers, these frightful stories conjure the creaks and shadows of the very places where they came to life through Kirk's pen: haunted St. Andrews, the Isle of Eigg, Kellie Castle, Balcarres House, Durie House ("which has the most persistent of all country-house specters"), and Kirk's own ancestral spooky house in Mecosta, Michigan.

The volume ends with "A Cautionary Note on the Ghostly Tale," an incisive piece in which Kirk reflects on why he writes such stories." All important literature has some ethical end," Kirk says, "and the tale of the preternatural — as written by George Macdonald, C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and other masters — can be an instrument for the recovery of moral order."

Masterfully crafted, Kirk's Ancestral Shadows will enthrall and delight all lovers of ghost stories.

Customer Reviews:

Ghosts, Thrills , Chills And Redemption For A Lonely Drifter!!!.......2005-11-13

This is an excellent compilation from the very talented but now sadly deceased Russell Kirk. Dr. Kirk writes about ghosts but there is Hope and Joy to be found in his stories. The story which stands out most in my mind is "There's A Long, Long Trail A'Winding " which is about a drifter's search for some meaning and sense in his life. If you have ever spent a long, lonely night in a big deserted mansion then you wil realize that things are not always what they appear to be.There is true Joy and Redemption to be found in this tale which is a rarity in your everyday ghost story. RIP Dr. Kirk.The Literary world lost a great talent with your passing.

Ghost stories to live by.......2004-11-11

Russell Kirk was not only an exceptional historian, moralist, cultural critic, and man of letters. He was also a superb prose stylist, as anyone who has read The Conservative Mind or The Sword of the Imagination knows. In Ancestral Shadows, a collection of ghostly tales written over a period of roughly twenty-five years, Dr. Kirk displays his mastery of the English language as he weaves startling and often stirring "tales of the preternatural." Eerdmans Publishing has done the reading public a real service in bringing out this handsome volume.

As Vigen Guroian notes in his helpful introduction, Dr. Kirk is widely regarded as having developed the gothic genre by imbuing it with a distinctive moral and metaphysical character. In "A Cautionary Note on the Ghostly Tale," included in this volume, Dr. Kirk himself writes: "Alarming though (I hope) readers may find these tales, I do not write them to impose meaningless terror upon the innocent...What I have attempted, rather, are experiments in the moral imagination." In this he succeeds admirably. The reader of his ghost stories is treated not only to terror and suspense, but to an occasional, delicious glimpse of the eternal order underlying our own.

The heart of the book is found in "A Long, Long Trail A-Winding" and "Watchers at the Straight Gate," a pair of tales about Frank Sarsfield, whose character is modeled after that of Dr. Kirk's hobo friend Clinton Wallace. These stories are eery and beautiful; I confess I never expected to feel uplifted by a ghost story. Other favorites of mine include the early "Ex Tenebris," which conveys, delightfully and gruesomely, Dr. Kirk's contempt for the modern bureaucrat, and "An Encounter by Mortstone Pond," a poignant reflection on the mystery of human existence.

As a native Michigander, I took a special delight in reading Dr. Kirk's descriptions of the region's land and people, especially in the part of the state he calls "stump country." He perfectly captures the essence of the place, both in its native richness and in the desiccation brought upon it by modernity.

Ancestral Shadows is a treasure. I commend it to lovers of gothic tales, admirers of Russell Kirk, and anyone who perceives, or has forgotten how to perceive, the supernatural character of human life.

Among the best authors of the literary supernatural tale.......2004-10-17

The publication of "Ancestral Shadows" is a major event for fans of the ghost story genre and Russell Kirk but also for the reputation of the literary supernatural tale. Russell Kirk (along with the recently deceased Jack Cady) ranks as one of the few top-notch, modern American ghost story writers, and for far too long Kirk's stories have been out of print. This book collects all but a very few of Kirk's lesser tales (which are available for die-hards and completists in the pricey but gorgeous recent Kirk collection produced by Ash-Tree Press in two volumes).

The stories in this collection include many of the best ghostly tales ever written, including "Lex Talionis," "Fate's Purse," "Watchers at the Straight Gate," & "The Invasion of the Church of the Holy Ghost." Not to mention Kirk's masterpiece, "There's a Long, Long Trail A-Winding"--if you can read this one alone in your home after dark and, once you finish it, not be driven to turn on every light in the house (and maybe your stereo as well), then you're a braver soul than I. Kirk indulges several of the genre's conventions and breathes new life into them while giving us a whole host of wonderful characters as unforgettable as the denizens of a Dickens novel. The collection does include two or three stories that drop below the high standard of Kirk's usual tales, but this in no way diminishes the his accomplishments as a virtuoso writer crafting prose that is as cultivated and engaging in its own way as that of Flannery O'Connor or F. Scott Fitzgerald.

The dust jacket blurbs--of the rare, substantive variety--lend much legitimacy to Kirk's status as a significant literary figure, culled as these blurbs are from such diverse sources as Ray Bradbury, Madeline L'Engle, T. S. Eliot, Thomas Howard, and Robert Aickman. I fully agree with Bradbury's blurb: "For too many years Russell Kirk, almost like the title of this book, remained half seen in the American literary scene. It is time his critics and readers brought him out into the full light. He deserves to be considered a fine writer and an amazing thinker in literature and in politics."

Kudos to Eerdmans for releasing this relatively inexpensive and very attractive volume. (The gorgeous, black-and-white sketch portrait of Kirk on the cover even has a ghostly tone to it and evokes association with the beautiful woodcuts Kirk made to illustrate his first volume of stories, "The Surly Sullen Bell.") I can only hope this book finds wide placement in libraries and bookstores around the country.

The Hollow Lord of the Dark.......2004-09-28

This collection of Russell Kirk's supernatural fiction ranges in quality from simply lordly and brilliant("What Shadows We Pursue") to utterly hollow and bombastic ("The Last God's Dream"). And too many of these stories are predictable. In other words, there aren't many chills here but the ones you will find are first-class. I think the reason for this is because Kirk put too much of himself into these stories. If you ever read at his autobiography, "The Sword of Imagaination" (written in the third person, incidentally), you will find its style digressive and ponderous, a style that is amply reflected in these stories. I am not advising you to pass on this collection, but just to get it at the library or wait for "Ancestral Shadows" to come out in paperback.

Book Description

Informal Employment in Advanced Economies challenges many of the popular myths surrounding informal economic activities.
This book tackles the popular belief that informal employment is growing throughout the advanced economies; it challenges the myth that this work is undertaken mostly by marginalized groups such as the unemployed, poor and immigrants; it evaluates the dominant view that we should replace informal with formal employment through enforcement of stringent laws and regulations. Examining policy options and their consequences, the authors show that conventional regulatory and deregulatory approaches merely exacerbate inequalities and a radical alternative solution, grounded in a "new economics" vision of the future of work and welfare is essential.

Book Description

$6.95 paper 1-58685-191-8 4 x 6 in, 96 pp, Line Illustrations Throughout, Rights: W, Western Humor A western humor classic is back! Hats & the Cowboys Who Wear Them, by celebrated western humorist Texas Bix Bender, reveals in hilarious detail the personality profiles of the cowfolk underneath their hats. In fact, Bender cautions, choosing a cowboy hat should be done with much care because it tells just exactly who you are. The man who wears a Cattleman's style, for instance, "likes to sing in the shower, in his truck and under women's balconies. He hopes to get a recordin' contract. After all, George Strait wears a Cattleman, and look what it did for him." Bender covers forty other traditional cowboy hat designs, imparting similar jewels of western-tinged wisdom for each. He also takes care to rope in all the trimmings, addressing hatbands, feathers, and the dangers of "hat hair" in this laugh-out-loud little book. Revised with all-new illustrations, Hats & the Cowboys Who Wear Them is one more uproarious volume from a sure-selling humorist. Texas Bix Bender is the author of Gibbs Smith, Publisher's "Don't Squat . . ." series of books. Now a million-selling author, he has worked as a writer for television. He lives just outside Nashville, Tennessee.

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Hats: And the Cowboys Who Wear Them
Texas Bix Bender
Manufacturer: Gibbs Smith Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0879056061

Book Description

The Concise Oxford History of Music, written by one of the world's most respected musicologists, remains the one-volume history for anyone seriously interested in the subject. This comprehensive work covers the whole history of music by genre from its first recorded emergence in Egypt to the
death of Stravinsky.

Customer Reviews:

One of the very best--brilliant.......2006-05-27

This is one of the very best books written in English on the history of music. It is not the easist book, but the writing is very good and sparkles in comparison to many of its genre.
The book is written as a series of little stories that are presented more or less in chronological order. If you are interested in the history of Western music, it is a "must have."
There are more fascinating details per page about music history in this book than any other book of its type, and there are quite a few pages. A great read for any serious student of music or professional musician. It can be used as a sort of mini-encyclopedia as you can for example just refer to the articles on Beethoven or Mozart--but there is much more. A minor criticism is that some of the language needs to be updated. A gem.

Extraordinary.......2003-12-02

This book offers musical knowledge for musicians and people that are totally without any knowledge for history of music. It gives you an objective view of music and it will not bore you with information about composers (when he was born... bla bla bla). It is strictly dedicated on music and nothing else. From the first knowned moment of music in history to the 20th century neo-classical music.
This is definitely a History of music textbook and I recommend it for everyone that wants to explore the history of music.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music (Oxford Paperback Reference)

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A Must HAVE for music students...
Very handy and most useful for any musician or general lover of music
An indispensible guide
Amazon Shopper
Indispensable desk reference tool

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music (Oxford Paperback Reference)

Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 019280037X

Book Description

Derived from the full Oxford Dictionary of Music, this is the most authoritative and up-to-date dictionary of music available in paperback. Fully revised and updated for this new edition, it is a rich mine of information for lovers of music of all periods and styles * Over 10,000 entries on musical terms, works, composers, librettists, musicians, singers, and orchestras

Customer Reviews:

A Must HAVE for music students..........2006-09-09

My daughter is a music major, and I used to teach private lessons. This is a great book for a quick reference guide to theory terminology, and is a must have for anyone taking a music class of any sort, but an absolute necessity for those in music theory courses. A great, and as the name states, concise compellation of just about any term you'll ever need to know!

Very handy and most useful for any musician or general lover of music.......2005-12-29

Music has often been described as the universal language, but the terms a musician has to read on the printed page of the score are specific words in various languages. If we only had to deal with the basic piano or forte of diminuendo or other basic terms it would not be a problem. However, there are thousands and thousands of more obscure terms that deal with performance, types of instruments (and their component parts), composers, works of various types, and so forth. That is why a well-executed hand sized book like this is so valuable. You can keep it on your piano in easy reach when you turn the page and haven't a clue what Debussy or Beethoven or some other composer left there for you to decipher.

It is true that this dictionary does not have a pronunciation guide, but that is simply because these words are said differently in different places and since it has to be "concise" the choice would be to have half as many terms and pronunciations (and the problem of picking among many possible ways of saying the words) or leaving out the pronunciations and having many more terms. I am glad they picked the latter.

There are a few illustrations, and they are well chosen but sparse.

Highly recommended. Every musician or general lover of music is better off with this book or one like it kept nearby.

An indispensible guide.......2003-04-24

A comprehensive, well-organized volume that covers composers, compositions, periods and styles, terminology (though I must agree with another reviewer--this really needs a pronunciation guide for some of the more difficult names and terms), instruments, vocalists, cultural context, and more. Major composers get more attention, with longer bios and more detailed entries, though the entries for some of the more notable people (such as George Gershwin) come up a little short in detailing their impact and significance. I purchased this book about a year ago, when I found myself becoming more interested in classical music, and it has proven to be extremely handy in identifying major pieces, performers, and composers. A must-have for music majors and libraries (both college and public) and for individual reference, and as an added bonus, is a godsend for those of us who do crossword puzzles.

Amazon Shopper.......2001-01-31

The Oxford Music Dictionary is in some ways useful, but as the title depicts, one would assume that a "dictionary" would contain pronunciations, but this book does not. Its good to know what sfortzando and fortissimo means, but can you say them? Given that every book has some downfall or another, I felt this should be titled "The Oxford Collection of Musical Terms," with the exclusion of "dictionary."

Indispensable desk reference tool.......1999-11-29

As the maintainer of the Classical Archives, I use this reference every single day. Its contents has been most judiciously selected to permit searches on composers, musical forms, terms, instruments, orchestras and performers. Each composer's entry offers a work-list which provides an excellent perspective. An invaluable tool indeed.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera (Oxford Paperback Reference)

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Would you trust it?

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera (Oxford Paperback Reference)
John Warrack , and Ewan West
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0192800280

Amazon.com

This is a handy, portable guide to opera: composers, artists, national trends. The authors have done a good job of ferreting out information and putting it together. If you just need to check which opera has a prima donna called Isabella (Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri) or the definition of a covered tone, this is a good book to grab.

Book Description

Derived from the full Oxford Dictionary of Opera, this is the most authoritative and up-to-date dictionary of opera available in paperback. Fully revised for this new edition, with over 3,500 entries, it is designed to be accessible to all those who enjoy opera, whether at the opera-house or on record. * Composers and their works * Singers and their notable performances * Plot summaries and separate entries for well-known roles, arias, and choruses * Leading conductors, producers, and designers * Opera companies and festivals

Customer Reviews:

Would you trust it?.......2004-08-10

Would this give you confidence?

On the first reading I had close to 147 objections by the end of letter C and most of these were factual errors. I wrote to OUP and received what I perceived as smug replies.

Eight basses (De Vries p190, Krivchenya p386, Piragov p557, Reysen p597, Rossi-Lemeni p612, Shalyapin p655, Gustav Siehr p658 and David Ward p758) are credited with Mozart's Don Basilio in their repertoires while the lyric tenor Lemeshev is credited with "Mozart's Count Almaviva".

The entry "chorus" states "Verdi's Nabucco (1842) where the opposing factions of Egypt and Israel" Wrong country, wrong continent.

Check the musical ranges under "soprano", "mezzo-soprano", "contralto" , "tenor", "baritone" and "bass" against the score and you will find it a laborious chore. It is possible that Messrs Warrack and West found similarly because the ranges given are not always correct. In a profession where the difference of a semitone can make a role possible or impossible, we read that Dandini and the Count in Capriccio range from c to a flat', when Dandini is actually G to f', a fourth out at the bottom and a minor third at the top. The Count in Capriccio is from A flat on page 159 of the score to g' on page 120.

Jupiter in Orphee aux Enfers is credited with the bass range from the Amateur Operatic Society Version of the score instead of the baritone range in the professional. Perhaps the authors could go to Offenbach's various professional versions and correct me here.

On pages 12, 16, and 230 we read about "vocal chords" instead of "vocal cords", a common mistake, a chord being two notes sounded together and vocal cords being the vibrating strips of flesh which produce speech and song.
\
Under "Balzac" a list of obscure operas is provided but there is no entry for Oscar Wilde.

According to ODO the action of The Fiery Angel starts in Cologne and goes to Cologne.

Page 1 "Abigaille. Nabucco's daughter". The plot hinges on the fact she isn't.

Page2 "Abul Hassan ...(bar), the eponymous Barber of Bagdad" He's a heavy bass , just llok at his opening phrase in the score.

Page 4. "Nixon's visit to China in 1972, the first by a Western leader" Australia's Gough Whitlam beat him there.

Page 5 "Addio fiorito asil. Pinkerton's (ten) aria in Act II of Puccini's Madama Butterfly" It's in Act III in my score.

"Adelaide. City in South Australia. The first opera staged was La Muette de Portici in 1840" No, Rob Roy. "followed by an Italina season in 1865" Sorry 1856. There are several errors following in this entry.

Nevertheless, the book makes an excellent doorstopper.

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The Concise Oxford History of Music
Gerald Abraham
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OKOW9Q

A Concise History of Music. From the Commencement of the Christian Era

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A Concise History of Music. From the Commencement of the Christian Era
H.G. Bonavia, B.Mus. Christ Church Oxford. Hunt
Manufacturer: Charles Scribner's Sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000W2CO46

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THE CONCISE OXFORD HISTORY OF MUSIC
Gerald Abraham
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000M0ZTB8

Book Description

The movement from tradition to modernity engulfed all of the Jewish communities in the West, but hitherto historians have concentrated on the intellectual revolution in Germany by Moses Mendelssohn in the second half of the eighteenth century as the decisive event in the origins of Jewish modernity. In The Jews of Georgian England, Todd M. Endelman challenges the Germanocentric orientation of the bulk of modern Jewish historiography and argues that the modernization of European Jewry encompassed far more than an intellectual revolution.

His study recounts the rise of the Anglo-Jewish elite--great commercial and financial magnates such as the Goldsmids, the Franks, Samson Gideon, and Joseph Salvador--who rapidly adopted the gentlemanly style of life of the landed class and adjusted their religious practices to harmonize with the standards of upper-class Englishmen. Similarly, the Jewish poor--peddlers, hawkers, and old-clothes men--took easily to many patterns of lower-class life, including crime, street violence, sexual promiscuity, and coarse entertainment.

An impressive marshaling of fact and analysis, The Jews of Georgian England serves to illuminate a significant aspect of the Jewish passage to modernity.

"Contributes to English as well as Jewish history. . . . Every reader will learn something new about the statistics, setting or mores of Jewish life in the eighteenth century. . . ." --American Historical Review

Todd M. Endelman is William Haber Professor of Modern Jewish History, University of Michigan. He is also the author of Comparing Jewish Societies, Jewish Apostasy in the Modern World, and Radical Assimilation in English Jewish History, 1656-1945.

The Jews of Georgian England, 1714-1830: Tradition and Change in a Liberal Society

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The Jews of Georgian England, 1714-1830: Tradition and Change in a Liberal Society
Todd M. Endelman
Manufacturer: Jewish Publication society of america
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MQLZ74

Book Description

Covers all of today's most common Web design tools, including HTML, JavaScript, cascading style sheets, Dreamweaver, and Flash
Presents step-by-step instructions for 190 tasks using hundreds of screen shots with concise captions-all at a competitive price
This two-color, intermediate-level reference delivers solutions for a wide range of Web design issues, from creating a layout template and establishing a color palette to adding interactivity, optimizing pages for ease of use and speed, and working with pictures and sound

Customer Reviews:

a more advanced discussion.......2005-02-18

The book aims at a cut above a complete beginner to the making of web pages. There's not much time wasted over explaining the basic HTML tags and how to put them together into a simple page. Instead, the book moves right along. Into more advanced issues like using base URLs to simplify your links by factoring out a common origin of data. Or how to format many pages by using CSS. Both internal and external.

As a practical matter, your website might need to support itself with banner ads. So the book shows how frames can be used for this purpose. Then, if you want to spruce up the interactivity on the client side browser, for someone going to your website, there is a long discussion on using JavaScript. The level of programming here can get quite involved, depending on your needs.

The book, like others in this series, is pretty focused. It's deliberately not as long as more comprehensive texts on this subject. But it aims at being more succinctly readable, for someone in a hurry.

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Master Visually Creating Web Pages
Joe Kraynak
Manufacturer: HUNGRY MINDS IDG
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000Q1HRF4

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Master Visually Creating Web Pages

Manufacturer: HUNGRY MINDS (TWLD)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000H98EJ8

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