Project Financing 6th Edition

Book Description

The revised sixth edition of Euromoney's best-selling text book is an invaluable manual which should be on every project financier's desk. This edition still covers the key criteria for success: choosing financial advisors and banks, types and sources of equity and debt, financial instruments, lease versus purchase, commercial paper, swaps and interest rate futures, and political risk and guarantees. In addition, all data has been updated, including new bank league tables. New sections include: countries which have set up project financing departments, a revision of the section on credit risk appraisal to reflect the latest credit ratings of all the recognised rating agencies, discussion of the risk-based capital requirements for banks, an extensive update on the latest instruments used in the global market, analysis of Rule 144A in the US and its implications for project financing and revisions of all tax and legal regulations.

Customer Reviews:

A most comprehensive book on the Subject........1998-11-28

The book is very well written with excellent graphs and examples. The footnotes are quite useful. The Glossary and the Appendixes are very well orgainized. This book is a bible for the professionals, bankers, lenders and even enterpreuners looking to fund their projects. A job very well done...Congrats Frank.

Book Description

This practical, how-to guide provides HR professionals with a detailed framework for designing, implementing and maintaining comprehensive career development systems. Covers a wide range of approaches--workshops, counseling, mentoring--and tells how to enlist the support of management.

Book Description

The only classroom-based training and self-assessment system! Osborne's MCSE Designing a Windows 2000 Network Study Guide provides 100% complete coverage of all official Microsoft objectives for exam 70-221. Based on 200,000+ hours of IT training experience, the book contains hundreds of practice exam questions and hands-on exercises. The CD-ROM features full CertTrainer CBT software with interactive tutorials and lab simulations, plus the new ExamSim adaptive test engine.

Customer Reviews:

Questionable.......2004-09-26

Upon completion of this book, I would not recommend it - unless you have a thorough grasp of the subject and do not mind errors/discrepancies. Numerous attempts to contact editors proved futile although a contributing editor provided some help. Contacting publisher to register book and obtain updates and listing of errors placed me in perpetual hold.
If you do not mind misprints and getting updates/seeing listing of errors is not important to you, this may be worthwhile. If not, search elsewhere.

Just OK.......2002-10-29

I used this book and my experience to pass the test. It was hands on knowledge, not this book, that allowed me to pass. The material coverage is adequate, but a little thin in some areas (SNA, Proxy). The self test questions are ok, but I found several incorrect answers. Note: I did not review the publishers web site for updates/corrections. If you purchase this book, I recommend also using a second source.

Thin on Content, Strays Off Topic Too Frequently.......2002-02-04

I used the Syngress book written by the same author to study for my 70-215 and was quite disappointed. However, based on the positive reader reviews for this book, I thought perhaps Schinder did a better job this time, so I bought it. Unfortunately, this book was no better, wandering back and forth, hitting on-topic then straying away, then back again, like a drunk trying to walk a straight line. For example, the author wastes valuable space frequently reviewing the registry entries we can change to modify the system defaults (which we might need some day), or in reviewing the history of a particular topic, but the 70-221 is a DESIGN exam and not a system configuration or history exam. Like the 215 book, the author spends so much time drifting into material that is not relevant for the exam that there is insufficient room left over to actually develop the crucial topics to the depth needed for a passing score. I found myself arriving at the chapter summary and thinking, "Is that ALL he's going to tell us?" I suggest not wasting your time with this book. Granted, there is no single exam prep that will please everybody, but of all the tech books I've read, I've been the least pleased with the Syngress/Schinder books. I passed the exam, but only because I found other resources to study. This book alone will probably get you 60% "there" as far as preparedness goes, but don't expect much more.

Passed the test.......2001-09-10

This is the only study guide I used for the test. If you take your time to understand the information put out in this book you will have no trouble passing the exam. If you don't understand something, don't just pass it up hoping that it will be covered again later on in the book. Review each section in little chunks and before you know it, you will be done.

Not so good.......2001-06-20

I read this study guide twice before taking the exam. I was fairly confident that I had the material in it down cold. I was totally unprepared for the real exam and I didn't make it. I've been working with Win2k for about 6 months now and still got surprised at the exam format and difficulty. Don't depend solely on this book for exam readiness. You probably won't make it.

MCSE Designing Security for Windows 2000 Network Study Guide (Exam 70-220) (Book/CD-ROM package)

Average customer rating:

Don't buy this book
Not the best choice
Decent Book
Chose a different book!
Bad choice

MCSE Designing Security for Windows 2000 Network Study Guide (Exam 70-220) (Book/CD-ROM package)
Thomas W. Shinder , and Debra Littlejohn Shinder
Manufacturer: Osborne/McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Amazon.com

There are three phrases that describe this book accurately:

Well Written. As with most books in the vastly underappreciated Syngress series, the writing is a wonderful mixture of clarity and readability. Not that it's a day at the beach, by any stretch (this is a certification book, after all), but the Study Guide walks you with ease through the various issues that are involved in high-level Windows 2000 security. The sections on the political, organizational, and emotional sides of security are particularly worthwhile; you'll learn how IT security strategies must be shaped by the pressures from both upper management and the everyday user to be effective. The chapters on Active Directory planning and EFS are good from a technology standpoint, and illustrate the various approaches that one can take when using these two new Microsoft features.

Challenging. The multiple-choice questions probably are just a shade less difficult than what you'll find on the actual exam; but, to simulate the often complex (and much-feared) "scenario" questions that Microsoft has loved to throw out recently, there are also lab questions at the end of every chapter that give real-world business scenarios and ask you what you'd do to solve them. These questions tend to be rough, particularly near the end of the book, and they should prepare you quite nicely for the exam. The wealth of ExamSim questions also adds value.

Poorly Organized. Unfortunately, the Achilles heel of this book is the fact that, instead of making its own way, it follows the Microsoft test objectives chapter by chapter, which leads to a scattered and disjointed feel. The book skips from topic to topic, repeats certain ideas numerous times over the course of several sections, and brings up important topics only once or twice. For example, instead of detailing the security issues that are involved in, say, remote salesmen having to dial in to a Windows 2000 network all in one place, the Study Guide details the laws, regulations, and personnel issues of remote users in chapter 3; dialup permissions in chapter 4; laptop group policies in chapter 6; EFS hard-drive security strategies in chapter 8; and VPNs, which barely are mentioned until you're all the way through chapter 11. Almost every security issue is split and diced finely throughout the book.

If you already have hands-on experience with security issues, no doubt you'll be able to assemble these disparate topics into a coherent whole. But, if you're new to security and aren't quite sure how things mesh, you could be knocked off balance by a simple question like, "What are the security measures you need to take when hosting a Web site?"

This is a solid book that's marred notably, because it adheres too closely to the Microsoft curriculum. If you have experience with security already, or approach networking from a feature-based line of thought, this could prove a fine guide for you. But, if you're new to security, or tend to think in the larger picture instead of in individual functions, you might want to look elsewhere. --William Steinmetz

Book Description

The only classroom-based training and self-assessment system! Osborne's MCSE Designing Security for a Windows 2000 Network Study Guide provides 100% complete coverage of all official Microsoft objectives for exam 70-220. Based on 200,000+ hours of IT training experience, the book contains hundreds of practice exam questions and hands-on exercises. The CD-ROM features full CertTrainer CBT software with interactive tutorials and lab simulations, plus the new ExamSim adaptive test engine.

Customer Reviews:

Don't buy this book.......2002-02-24

I hate the format of this book. It's layout and the way that the book is organized totally detracts from it's content. And it's content is fairly week as well. It's basically just a bunch of questions that has in depth answers. I can't imagine that this book would actually help someone pass the 70-220 exam.

I've been working with Windows 2000 since before it was release; administrating AD, migrating domains, and testing security aspects of it. I am very familiar with subject of the book and it is just poorly presented and explained.

I gave it 2 stars because some people may actually make use of it, but only combined with other books. Get something from the the Exam Cram or Exam Prep series, or from New Riders.

Not the best choice.......2001-05-05

I agree with other reviewers who said that this book has too much irrelevant information, which ultimately overshadows the core material that you will need to know to pass the test. The practice tests in the book are good but, of course, they test on material presented in the book. What good does it do to do well on the practice tests when you are testing on material that is not relevant to the exam? When I tried practice tests that were not in the book, I found that there were huge gaps in terms of the information that I would likely need to know to pass the test. Don't waste your time.

Decent Book.......2001-04-26

Since this whole concept is new to MCSE's of the past, I can see how some would find this book useless. I thought it coverered all the material well and was a good prep for the exam.

Chose a different book!.......2001-04-13

I was really disappointed in this book. It was long winded and off topic.. Its seems like a different person wrote each chapter, too much overlap. In the first three chapters the author(s) state that you can not export 128 bit encryption three times. I have read many of the Syngress books and have been very happy with them, I will be reading the Sybex instead. I am angry that I wasted time on this book.

Bad choice.......2001-04-06

This book and mostly all of the Osborne series contains a lot of text whith no meaning at all. If you have a good understanding of the four core modules (especially the 3rd core), the added value of this book is almost nothing at all. Secondly the layout of the book makes this book very hard to read, although it's English... Compared to the four core books of Microsoft Press self, no other rating than one star is well deserved.

MCSE Designing Windows 2000 Directory Services Study Guide (Exam 70-219) (Book/CD-ROM package)

Average customer rating:

Absolute fluff...do NOT waste your time
No good for the exam
Don't waste your time
Using this book to Pass your 70-215 test!
Highly recommended MCSE study material

MCSE Designing Windows 2000 Directory Services Study Guide (Exam 70-219) (Book/CD-ROM package)
Thomas Shinder , Thomas W. Shinder , and Debra Littlejohn Shinder
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Companies
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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MCSA/MCSE Self-Paced Training Kit: Implementing and Managing Security in a Microsoft Windows 2000 Network Infrastructure, Exam 70-214

ASIN: 0072125039

Book Description

The only classroom-based training and self-assessment system! Osborne's MCSE Designing a Windows 2000 Directory Services Infrastructure Study Guide provides 100% complete coverage of all official Microsoft objectives for exam 70-219. Based on 200,000+ hours of IT training experience, the book contains hundreds of practice exam questions and hands-on exercises. The CD-ROM features full CertTrainer CBT software with interactive tutorials and lab simulations, plus the new ExamSim adaptive test engine.

Customer Reviews:

Absolute fluff...do NOT waste your time.......2003-07-31

This is a 700 page book of absolute junk.
I'm very experienced with AD and had hoped that this book would focus on the specifics of the design aspects and prepare me for the test. Quite simply, it did not. This book simply glosses over general concepts and contains MAYBE 5% hard infromation you'll need to know for the exam. Bleh. I want my money back.

If you're looking for a serious study guide, ditch this and go with examcram or heck...go with anything else besides this. In contrast the Exam Cram 2 book was VERY helpful and gave me many details that definately helped on the test.

No good for the exam.......2001-06-14

This book is more of a guide to consulating than a coursebook. Very little of the contents are applicable to the exam - look at the braindump sites and then compare the information presented in the book with that asked in the exam - there is NO correlation. If you want a VERY high level VERY general guide to design, this is the book for you. If you want any chance of passing the exam, forget this book, look elsewhere. The relevant material (no more than 10% of the total contents), is discussed in SO little detail as to be pretty much, (but not completly) useless. If you have done a course or used other material to revise from, this may add some value, but otherwise it is not going to get you through the exams. First Osborne book I've bought, think it may well be the last.

Don't waste your time.......2001-03-12

Buy and study a book for the Installing and Administering Active Directory 70-215 exam. (That book of this series isn't bad.) This book provides a superficial overview of business practices and attempts to teach you how to apply them to AD Design. It fails miserably. The book, in my opinion, is a waste of effort. Just study for the 70-215 exam, and maybe try a practice test to get familiar with the question format for the 70-219 exam. If there is anything special you have to do to study for this exam, this book doesn't have it.

Using this book to Pass your 70-215 test!.......2000-10-23

Iam attendeding a New Horizon Computer School.These are the books I found that I have bought to help supplement the courses. I went to class for a week, read this book front to back for a week, then went in and took the Prometric exam and passed the test. I have not found a better set of books that explain Wn2000 in terms a beginner can understand.I have looked.The cd has a electronic version of the book, I will dwnld onto a laptop and use in my future jobs. I would have liked to see more exam questions than what was provided. A+ :) Thanx

Highly recommended MCSE study material.......2000-10-20

Having been one of the contributing authors of this title, I have no choice but to recommend it to all aspiring MCSE2000 candidates. I've read through this book thoroughly and feel that the material presented within is right on track with Microsoft's requirements.

This book was written by the top professionals in the field. If you want to learn Active Directory services from the best, this is the book for you.

Designing a system for career development and advancement in the U.S. Navy
Average customer rating:
Designing a system for career development and advancement in the U.S. Navy
J.W. Hedge , W.C. Borman , and M.J. Bourne
Manufacturer: Copyright (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Elsevier | By Publisher | e-Docs | Formats | Books
ASIN: B000LK9P46

Designing a system for career development and advancement in the U.S. Navy [An article from: Human Resource Management Review]
Average customer rating:
Designing a system for career development and advancement in the U.S. Navy [An article from: Human Resource Management Review]
J.W. Hedge , W.C. Borman , and M.J. Bourne
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Elsevier | By Publisher | e-Docs | Formats | Books
ASIN: B000P6OT1U

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Human Resource Management Review, published by Elsevier in 2006. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
The Navy is undergoing fundamental changes that will likely alter the nature of work and worker requirements. At the heart of their human resource management strategy are five distinct competency areas: professional development, personal development, leadership, certifications and qualifications, and job performance. These five areas, called ''vectors'' by the Navy, form the foundation around which the Navy identifies the knowledge, skills, and abilities which Sailors need to succeed. As part of this HR transformation, the current research describes the design of a career development and advancement system. The primary component of the system is a weighting algorithm that links performance across all five areas to advancement to the next paygrade. The system is designed to compute an advancement score based on achievement of defined milestones across all five competency areas of concentration. It does so by defining the career paths associated with a member's development across these five areas; and identifying the advancement potential for recruit, apprentice, journeyman, and master-level personnel across every occupation in the U.S. Navy. In addition, this scoring system will be transparent such that personnel can view their own record at any time and assess what they might do in their career to improve their relative standing for future advancement. These results will also be used by future promotion boards to guide their selections.

Book Description

Galaxies represent the most readily visible fabric of the cosmos. Their morphological types, luminosities and environmental surroundings contain valuable clues as to their origin and evolution. Locally, a strong correlation is seen between galaxy morphology and environmental location; this may have been molded at surprisingly modest redshifts. Spectroscopic and photometric studies of deep fields also suggest remarkably recent changes in the galaxy population. The associated growth of structure during the same interval can be tracked via X-ray studies of distant clusters of galaxies.
Very recently, impressive observational facilities have been completed, each of which has extended the astronomers' dataset to look-back times where such evolutionary effects can be studied.
This volume discusses surveys which share a common theme - the need for a large number of ground-based spectra. It focuses on the various approaches via a single theme concerned with the evolution of galaxies and their distribution. In the near future, impressive new observational facilities will be able to generate large statistical spectroscopic surveys, and the aim of this volume is to assess the scientific impact that ongoing and future spectroscopic surveys can make. Emphasis is placed on the role of non-optical and satellite facilities and the co-ordination of international efforts.

Book Description

Instrumentation for Trace Organic Monitoring provides comprehensive coverage of instrumental analysis techniques for trace organic analytes in environmental analysis. Sampling/sample preparation is discussed, in addition to mass spectrometry techniques, including GC-MS, HRMS, LCMS, APIMS, and MS-MS. This important book also covers new chromatography techniques, supercritical fluid, solid-phase extraction, and ion mobility spectrometry, which is a new ultra-sensitive technique. Difficult problems, such as dioxin/furan analysis, organometallic speciation, atmospheric organic vapors, water analysis, and flyash toxicity testing are addressed.

Book Description

The last five years have seen an immense growth in the use of symbolic computing and mathematical software packages such as Maple. The first three chapters of this book provide a user-friendly introduction to computer-assisted algebra with Maple. The rest of the book then develops these techniques and demonstrates the use of this technology for deriving approximate solutions to differential equations (linear and nonlinear) and integrals. In each case, the mathematical concepts are comprehensively introduced, with an emphasis on understanding how solutions behave and why various approximations can be used. Where appropriate, the text integrates the use of Maple to extend the utility of traditional approximation techniques. Advanced Mathematical Methods with Maple is the ideal companion text for advanced undergraduate and graduate students of mathematics and the physical sciences. It incorporates over 1000 exercises with different levels of difficulty, for which solutions are provided on the Internet.

Customer Reviews:

Math (with a little Maple).......2005-11-18

This book is to help you learn mathematics. It will not teach you much Maple.
If you want to learn about lots of things Maple can do, including such mundane things as plotting graphs, writing programs, etc etc etc, go and get a user's manual on Maple or an Intro to Maple book. I made the mistake of thinking this book was going to teach me Maple and illustrate what can be done using moderately common mathematical examples. I was disappointed. The first three chapters introduce basics about using Maple's command/response paradigm, but it covers nothing more than what the author abolutely needs for his subsequent tome on mathematics. The rest of the book has precious little Maple code in it anywhere.

My 1 star rating for this book is from the point of view of learning Maple; it might be quite good at what it's real objective is. Now that I know what it's all about the title seems honest enough "Advanced Mathematical Methods with Maple". However, you are warned.

A vigorous intro to advanced mathematics for applications.......2002-05-23

I'll begin by noting the unintended humour on Amazon's part, the Preface is signed Derek Richards, Milton Keynes, January 2001, by Derek Richards of England's Open University. Milton Keynes, named for John Milton and John Maynard Keynes, is, of course the location of the Open University. Amazon credits the preface to Milton keynes. Not the first work that Milton Keynes has been credited with, certainly not the last.

Anyway, to the book. Books on mathematical methods for physics have been lagging behind technical innovations. This book introduces Maple in the first three chapters and then uses it extensively in chapters that begin with functions, series and limit, and ranges through most topics in differential equations to dynamical systems. I would have liked to see an introduction to symmetry methods and Lie groups as they are particularly easy to implement on computer algebra systems. But then again the book is already long at 862 pages. Anyway, this book is a must have for working physicists and applied mathematicians. A good text for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students. Many solutions are available through the author's web site.

Advanced Mathematical Methods with Maple
Average customer rating:
Advanced Mathematical Methods with Maple
Derek Richards
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MVDBIA

Book Description

New Grub Street (1891), George Gissing's most highly regarded novel, is the story of men and women forced to make their living by writing. Their daily lives and broken dreams, made and marred by the rigors of urban life and the demands of the fledgling mass communications industry, are
presented with vivid realism and unsentimental sympathy. Its telling juxtaposition of the writing careers of the clever and malicious Jaspar Milvain and the honest and struggling Edward Reardon quickly made New Grub Street into a classic work of late Victorian fiction.

Download Description

And as to living up at the very top, why, there were distinct advantages--as so many people of moderate income are nowadays hastening to discover. The noise from the street was diminished at this height; no possible tramplers could establish themselves above your head; the air was bound to be purer than that of inferior strata; finally, one had the flat roof whereon to sit or expatiate in sunny weather.

Customer Reviews:

Gissing's shade would smile .......2006-05-26

Poor Gissing! I suspect his miserable, self-destructive life fuelled his wonderful novels much as (we now know) Dickens's traumatic "blacking-factory" experience explains so much of the nightmare world of those gargantuan fictions. Gissing greatly admired Dickens, and like Dostoyevsky, seems to have appreciated the grim side of Dickens most. Not much humor in Gissing; but there is the same shabby poetry one used to see in Bloomsbury back in the 1960s. The same wonderful appreciation of futile, obsessive scholarly lives. Gissing is a great poet and sometimes a rather fine moralist. His pictures of London rival those of the Master (Dickens --and Dore). Don't miss him. Start with "Workers in the Dawn" and "The Nether World"--his passion more than compensates for his crudities. Remember: he was also a very accomplished classicist--more of a scholar than any other major Victorian novelist! A not insignificant fact.

Doesn't deserve obscurity.......2005-09-25

I recently read New Grub Street, and I must say I was stunned by how much I enjoyed it. Gissing's prose and characterization hold up remarkably well. He's sort of an urban Hardy, though far more accessible to today's reader. I'd recommend this to any serious reader. Oh, and this novel is ripe for adaptation. A BBC miniseries would be great.

Insight into the Victorian Writing/Publishing Scene.......2004-05-02

I'm beginning to realize that George Gissing is an author who is relatively unknown by the general public but who is frequently studied/referenced by academics. The main reason why I think this is true (and this relates to the book at hand) is that Gissing himself had more of an academic temperament than a writing temperament. He was very adept at analyzing the world around him and commenting on it to a point of depressing realism, but he wasn't a storyteller. In fact, he struggled with creating enough storylines in order to support himself. Thus, while his books give impressive looks at Victorian life, they don't always leave a reader fully satisfied.

Why do I say this so confidently? Well, as Gissing was particularly self-aware and as he was particularly oppressed when writing "New Grub Street," in this novel he writes about what it's like to be a writer in London in the 1880's and 1890's. He essentially writes about his own life and those he find around him, all of whom are trying to make a living on writing.

Gissings seems to portray himself through the main character, Reardon. When the story opens, Reardon is struggling. His sophisticated wife is getting fed up with their impoverished lifestyle and with her husband's inability to write decent material. Reardon, a sensitive soul, is floundering under mounting pressure and stress. He is torn between his desire to write sophisticated, meaningful material and the public demand for "fluff." The more stressed laid on him, the less he is able to create and stick with any plausible fiction novel. He becomes more and more fererish and unable to work, and he is devastated as he loses his wife's love and respect.

Around this central character Reardon, Gissing builds a very full and weighty cast of characters. A small sampling of these characters are:
- The embittered, older column writer/reviewer, Yule, whose temperament has made so many enemies during his career that he is still laboring hard to support his small family at the end of his life.
- Yule's daugher, Marion, who is very clever but who is also very vulnerable. Her education has made her too good for many positions and marriages but her lack of money makes her a poor match for the educated class.
- Reardon's friend Milvain, who is an ambitious young man who has no problem writing exactly what the masses want. He knows his talents, he knows the market, and he knows his stuff won't last for posterity. But he is determined to live a comfortable life, make a strategic marriage and become a semi-respected man.
- Biffen, another friend of Reardon's, sympathizes most with Reardon's situation and condition. Two peas in a pod, these men spend long hours discuss meter, prose and ancient poetry.

I found myself continually amazed at Gissing's amazing ability to get into the head of many individuals in his large cast and to see how the world makes sense through each's eyes. Gissing also provides us with a wealth of information about the Victorian publishing scene. It was amazing to read that writers and publishers then were struggling with the same issues writers and publishers are struggling with today.

Additionally, Gissing gives you an unglorified look at poverty and the impoverished educated class of London at that time. While Dickens' works on the poor is idyllic and sentimental, Gissing simply relates the life he has known. There is nothing exceptional or amazing, and Gissing seems to argue that poverty takes character out of a man rather then build up a man's character.

Overall, I found this to be a fascinating piece...though perhaps a slow read. For those interested in publishing, writing, realistic portrayals of Victorian England, or other such topics, this is a fantastic work.

Whither Arnold's "Sweetness and Light?".......2003-07-02

I found Jasper Milvain, the "alarmingly modern young man," to be the most interesting character in Gissing's New Grub Street for a number of reasons, the most significant of which is that he evinces what can only be considered a modernist's consciousness in his approach to writing. That is, while it soon becomes clear to the reader that Milvain represents the antithesis of what Edwin Reardon personifies-i.e., the work of literature as an emanation of author's native genius-and thus one of the intercalated plots of the novel involves the incremental success of Milvain as a modern man of letters, and the concomitant gradual abjection of Reardon. In a manner of speaking, then, Milvain and Reardon's fates emerge from a common source, namely some sea change in the reading public's (the consumer's) preferences and tendencies.

Milvain identifies as vulgar the most lucrative market for the product of the man of letter's labor. The vulgarians, or "quarter educated," drive the market (479), and since they have been determined to desire nothing more than chatty ephemera, they have successfully opened an insuperable gulf between material success in writing and artistic success. Reardon's psychologically penetrating novels just aren't in demand. Therefore, there emerges quite an interesting conceptual shift within the nascent hegemony of the quarter-educated as established by their purchasing power: what was once considered healthy artistic integrity has transmuted into a peculiar kind of petit bourgeois hubris, if, in the new paradigm, the writer is more an artisan than an artist. Therefore, Reardon's artistically-compromised and padded three-volume novel, written with no other end in mind than to pander to the vulgar reader, nonetheless achieves only modest success because, the fact that it is indistinguishable from countless other similar works glutting the market aside, his novel is infected from his irrepressible integrity, and thus his novel becomes a strange sort of counterfeit, a psychological narrative masquerading as a popular novel. Reardon thus becomes a sort of Coriolanus among writers.

Milvain, on the other hand, is a sort of Henry Ford among writers; he reveals his particular genius when offering advice to his sister Maud about how to write religious works for juveniles: "I tell you, writing is a business. Get together half-a-dozen fair specimens of the Sunday school prize; study them; discover the essential points of such a composition; hit upon new attractions; then go to work methodically, so many pages a day" (13). In other words, Jasper has managed to streamline and to mechanize the writing process. He studies previous works, abstracts formulae from them, isolates the elements of these formulae, and then deploys and rearranges these elements to give his own writing a patina of originality. By treating writing as an exercise in manipulating formulae, Jasper exchanges "authenticity" (whatever that word means anymore) for the convenience and efficiency of not having to grapple with his own potentially mutable and recalcitrant genius. Jasper did not invent writing, just as Ford did not invent the automobile. But like Ford did with automobile manufacture, Milvain discovers those aspects of writing that lend themselves to mechanical reproduction. Thus he is able to capitalize on his time and effort, and effectively becomes the very machine Reardon believes himself to be but never actually becomes because of his lingering notions of artistic integrity (352).

Also of interest is the fact that Albert Yule is a sort of synthesis of Milvain and Reardon. Like Milvain, Yule attempts to streamline his own literary production by delegating some of the labor to his daughter Marian. However, like Reardon, Yule clings to the superannuated notion of the necessary individuality of writing: "[h]is failings, obvious enough, were the results of a strong and somewhat pedantic individuality ceaselessly at conflict with unpropitious circumstances" (38). In other words, Yule fails to recognize the obsolescence of the lone, learned genius within the realm of literary production. A market of vulgarians who demand occasional literary confections simply does not expect Works of individual genius. Moreover, even if they were in demand, works of individual genius are too ponderously inefficient to keep pace with the rate at which they are consumed. Therefore, Yule straddles the either/or proposition personified by Reardon and Milvain: One may preserve his artistic integrity and write "for the ages"--hence Yule, Biffen, and Reardon's fetishization of Shakespeare, Coleridge and authors of classical antiquity--and starve in the process, or one may write "for the moment" and actually turn a respectable profit.

The shadow of Charles Darwin indeed looms large over the events and characters of New Grub Street. The growth market brought about by the advent of the "quarter-educated" vulgar class, and their discretionary income coupled with their callow aesthetic sensibilities and truncated attention spans, represents a nascent economic, if not ecological niche, for certain social creatures to occupy. However, it's not simply a matter of being able to adapt one's skills to the tastes of these consumers. One must also be a prodigious enough writer to keep pace with an equally prodigious rate of consumption. Individuals like Milvain and Whelpdale are adequately adapted to this niche in that they satisfy the demands of this niche in terms of both content and output. Reardon panders to the vulgar taste only grudgingly and after long resistance and thereby cannot meet the production demands of this niche. Biffen absolutely refuses to pander at all. Alfred Yule does attempt to pander, but his mode of literary production is too inefficient to meet production demands, and he is also largely ignorant of vulgar literary taste. While more in touch with the vulgar reader than her father, Marian Yule is as inefficient in her literary production as her father. Therefore, each of the characters named above are equally maladaptive, albeit for various reasons, and thus their extinction by the novel's end strikes the reader as somehow inevitable. Whereas Milvain and Reardon's widow Amy are left to come together as the triumphant niche occupants and thus reproduce themselves in their offspring, should they decide to produce any.

The Hateful Spirit of Literary Rancour.......2002-05-28

George Gissing's 1891 novel, "New Grub Street," is likely one of the most depressing books I've ever read. Certainly, in its descriptions of literary life, be it in publishing, or in my own realm of graduate scholarship, the situations, truths, and lives Gissing portrays are still all too relevant. "New Grub Street" itself points to the timelessness of Gissing's portrayals - as Grub Street was synonymous, even in the eighteenth century with the disrepute of hack writing, and the ignominy of having to make a living by authorship. One of Gissing's primary laments throughout the novel is that the life of the mind is of necessity one which is socially isolating and potentially devastating to any kind of relationships, familial or otherwise. "New Grub Street" gives us a world where friendship is never far from enmity, where love is never far from the most bitter kinds of hatred.

The anti-heroes of "New Grub Street" are presented to us as the novel begins - Jasper Milvain is a young, if somewhat impoverished, but highly ambitious man, eager to be a figure of influence in literary society at whatever cost. His friend, Edwin Reardon, on the other hand, was brought up on the classics, and toils away in obscurity, determined to gain fame and reputation through meaningful, psychological, and strictly literary fiction. Family matters beset the two - Jasper has two younger sisters to look out for, and Edwin has a beautiful and intelligent wife, who has become expectant of Edwin's potential fame. Throw into the mix Miss Marian Yule, daughter of a declining author of criticism, whose own reputation was never fully realized, and who has indentured his daughter to literary servitude, and we have a pretty list of discontented and anxious people struggling in the cut-throat literary marketplace of London.

Money is of supreme importance in "New Grub Street," and it would be pointless to write a review without making note of it. As always, the literary life is one which is not remunerative for the mass of people who engage upon it, and this causes no end of strife in the novel. As Milvain points out, the paradox of making money in the literary world is that one must have a well-known reputation in order to make money from one's labours. At the same time, one must have money in order to move in circles where one's reputation may be made. This is the center of the novel's difficulties - should one or must one sacrifice principles of strictly literary fame and pander to a vulgar audience in order to simply survive? The question is one in which Reardon finds the greatest challenges to his marriage, his self-esteem, and even his very existence. For Jasper Milvain and his sisters, as well as for Alfred and Marian Yule, there is no question that the needs of subsistence outweigh most other considerations.

"New Grub Street" profoundly questions the relevance of classic literature and high culture to the great mass of people, and by proxy, to the nation itself. For England, which propagated its sense of international importance throughout the nineteenth century by encouraging the study of English literature in its colonial holdings, the matter becomes one of great significance. The careers of Miss Dora Milvain and Mr. Whelpdale, easily the novel's two most charming, endearing, and sympathetic characters, attempt to illustrate the ways in which modern literature may be profitable to both the individual who writes it and the audiences towards which they aim. They may be considered the moral centers of the novel, and redeem Gissing's work from being entirely fatalistic.

"New Grub Street" is a novel that will haunt me for quite some time. As a "man of letters" myself, I can only hope that the novel will serve as an object lesson, and one to which I may turn in hope and despair. The novel is well written, its characters and situations drawn in a very realistic and often sympathetic way. Like the ill-fated "ignobly decent" novel of Mr. Biffen's, "Mr. Bailey, Grocer," "New Grub Street" may seem less like a novel, and more like a series of rambling biographical sketches, but they are indelible and lasting sketches of literary lives as they were in the original Grub Street, still yet in Gissing's time, and as they continue to-day. Very highly recommended.

As I Walked Down New Grub Street
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As I Walked Down New Grub Street
Allen
Manufacturer: University of Chicago Press
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Binding: Hardcover

British | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books | 18th Century | 19th Century | 20th Century | Classics | Contemporary | General | Historical | Humor | Letters & Correspondence | Middle | Old | Poetry | Renaissance | Shakespeare | Short Stories
ASIN: 0226014339

As I Walked Down New Grub Street - Memories Of A Writing Life
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As I Walked Down New Grub Street - Memories Of A Writing Life
Walter Allen
Manufacturer: Univ. Of Chicago Press
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ASIN: B000RIU89S

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AS I WALKED DOWN NEW GRUB STREET: MEMORIES OF A WRITING LIFE.

Manufacturer: Heinemann
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ASIN: B000HHT6SI

Decline and rise
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Decline and rise
Richard Morris
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Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0007AKWQK

GISSING: NEW GRUB STREET.
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GISSING: NEW GRUB STREET.

Manufacturer: P/B
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ASIN: B000HKULOI

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New Grub Street
George Gissing
Manufacturer: The Modern Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Gissing, George | Classics | British | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000LNFYNY

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New Grub Street
George Gissing
Manufacturer: Modern Library, 1985, c1962.
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ASIN: B000WU64M6

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New Grub Street

Manufacturer: Modern Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000H5771S

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New Grub Street
George Gissing
Manufacturer: Penguin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Gissing, George | Classics | British | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0000CO8AW

Book Description

This book provides a detailed analysis of the conceptual and practical problems posed by the increasingly common phenomenon of cross-border insolvency, both in respect of individuals and companies. In Part I of the book the author considers how such problems are approached and resolved under national legal regimes, comparing the English common law approach with those of other jurisdictions such as Australia, Canada and the USA. Part II analyses the regional and international agreements and conventions that have been under negotiation in response to the special difficulties imposed by multi -jurisdictional insolvencies, such as the E.U. Insolvency Convention and the UNCITRAL model law on cross-border insolvency. The book will appeal equally to insolvency specialists and to international company and commercial lawyers more generally. The aim of the Oxford Monographs in Private International Law series, edited by Peter Carter QC, is to publish works of high quality and originality in a number of important areas of private international law. The series in intended for both scholarly and practitioner readers.

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