Koncocoo

Best Eastern European Literary Criticism

Crime and Punishment (Norton Critical Editions)
Included are a detailed map of nineteenth-century St. Petersburg, selections from Dostoevsky’s notebooks and letters, and a crucial passage from an early draft of his novel. Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and many other novels.
Reviews
"Not knowing a word of Russian, I declare my favourite only by the enjoyment I derived from reading the book in English. The result of reading only the English versions is that one’s choice is largely subjective. Compared to the Garnett version, the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation seems very modern – until Ready’s came along. Little things like changing ‘had not’ to ‘hadn’t’ renders Ready’s version not only a little more modern but also more informal. The truth won’t go away, but life can be nailed shut; there are examples. The truth won’t run away, but life just might – wouldn’t be the first time. Ready’s version has a table of chronological events and a fresh, inspiring introduction that will help the first-time reader understand and appreciate the context of ‘Crime and Punishment’."
"This is my first Dostoyevsky book that I am reading, and I plan to keep reading his works after this one--- The story is complex, deep, and well intertwined with meaning."
"By the end of the book I didn't like the main character or his girlfriend."
"The Everyman's Library edition is a very nice hardcover: solid, tight with a ribbon."
"The book is broad in its scope, exploring numerous themes--alienation from society, criminal psychology, poverty, benevolence, confession, spirituality, redemption, love and more."
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The Captive Mind
The best known prose work by the winner of the 1980 Nobel Prize for Literature examines the moral and intellectual conflicts faced by men and women living under totalitarianism of the left or right. A central text in the modern effort to understand totalitarianism.
Reviews
"And man is so plastic a being that one can even conceive of the day when a thoroughly self-respecting citizen will crawl about on all fours, sporting a tail of brightly colored feathers as a sign of conformity to the order he lives in". The author presents this fragility of human existence (and their mind) with a collection of fictionalized stories of four men who succumb to the forces of changing political landscape, more or less consciously becoming victims of a historic situation."
"This is a most interesting first-person account of how intelligent people can talk themselves into acceptance of undemocratic political systems, written by a Nobel laureate who lived through WWII and the early years of Soviet domination in Poland."
"He describes through personal experience, not only how liberals and progressives avoided the cultural police and gulags, but perhaps even more valuable, how his "comrades" changed to become part of this authoritarianism."
"Educated in the 1920s in Lithuania, he lived in Poland at the time of the invasion of the Nazi armies in 1939. Milosz eventually had to break with the Polish Communist Party and go into exile, because he could no longer obey the tenants of Socialist Realism."
"They say 'those not students of history are doomed to reapeat it'."
"We shared stories, exchanged ideas and grumbled a lot about the current political climate and our disappointment in what could have been – what should have been. Unlike so many others, he made the difficult and dangerous decision to break with the regime when the “socialist realism” imposed by the censors became too much for his poet’s fingers to bear. But it is also a story of resistance – of how writers are often able to find in subservience to a great power a modicum of liberty; going beyond cognitive dissonance (which is a tool of the totalitarians) to mine their work with a tense deferential rebellion. Nevertheless, these failed ideas incredibly still find disciples in the modern thought police who are so quick to make exceptions and excuses for those engaged in totalitarian behaviors – falling back upon ideas of social justice and theories of victimization as excuses. Defense of things like seizure of private property, politically motivated trials, blasphemy laws, the massacre of Christians, acid attacks, hijab laws and the flogging of bloggers is met closer to home with discussions of “micro-aggression” and a strange new political correctness – a new “socialist realism” allows no honest exploration. Thankfully we have the stories of those who have gone before us – written down – to show us the way as they lead with example and nourish our own resistance. And isn’t that what the totalitarians fear the most?"
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The Metamorphosis (Norton Critical Editions)
· Eight critical essays by Günther Anders, Walter H. Sokel, Nina Pelikan Straus, Mark M. Anderson, Elizabeth Boa, Carolin Duttlinger, Kári Driscoll, and Dan Miron. She succeeds brilliantly, however, with a vivid fidelity to Kafka's vision, driving home the way he makes us at once sympathetic to his anti-hero, Gregor Samsa, and repulsed by him.””. - The Wichita Eagle.
Reviews
"This story has a lot to offer!"
"The work is still wonderful, but the critical edition includes topics and thought-provoking essays."
"I read this book for school, I am actually really surprised with how much I like and enjoyed this book."
"Nice and very new!"
"A good translation with a variety of commentary and notes."
"The notes and essays provide a great background for anyone new to Kafka."
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Best Eastern European Literature

The Last Panther - Slaughter of the Reich - The Halbe Kessel 1945
This first-hand account by the commander of one of those Panther tanks relates with devastating clarity the conditions inside the Kessel, the ferocity of the breakout attempt through Halbe, and the subsequent running battles between overwhelming Soviet forces and the exhausted Reich troops, who were using their last reserves of fuel, ammunition, strength and hope. Eloquent German-perspective accounts of World War 2 are surprisingly rare, and the recent reissue of Wolfgang Faust’s 1948 memoir ‘Tiger Tracks’ has fascinated readers around the world with its insight into the Eastern Front. The rarely-heard voice of a World War 2 panzer crewman, now in a modern English translation.
Reviews
"(Read "Tiger Tracks") Faust's accounts puts the reader right into the turret of a deadly Panther tank as it confronts overwhelming Soviet infantry, armor, and air power hell-bent on capturing and annihilating all German forces within their grasp as the war ended east of the Elbe river."
"However, one can still read this and well imagine what it must have been like to try to reach the American side during the final days of the war."
"The winner Russia has not told it, few Germans have covered it, and modern writers basically overlooked it."
"The prime quality of the story is that it is told by a soldier who actually participated in the epic and horrible events.Indirectly one also get some sort of impression of the mentality of at least one skilled and battle hardened german soldier."
"Brutality, heroism, and broken hearts, as the Last Panther rolls towards the west to escape the surrounding Russian forces."
"There are many accounts of the Battle of Berlin and the strategic, as well as the tactical stories of the very last days of Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II."
"Enertaining but am having a very hard time believing it's a truthful account."
"Clearly, the tank commander didn't see it all, but there is little doubt that his story is being woven around the stories of others who were also living through the ordeal."
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Best German Literary Criticism

Gnomes
The characteristics, behavior, habits, and habitats of gnomes are pictured and described in a complete survey of gnome life, gnome history, and gnome lore. Text: English, Dutch (translation).
Reviews
"Such a cute book."
"My son's favorite chidhood book now being enjoyed by our granddaughter."
"I have one of these but bought this one as a gift for someone who wanted my copy."
"Wife wanted this childhood favorite."
"My sisters and I loved this book so much I bought a copy of the new edition for each of them and for a friend as well."
"PERFECT!"
"The extra prints in the back are great and I cannot wait to frame them, they are an odd size though, so I think we may have to custom frame them."
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Best Italian Literary Criticism

The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Volume 1: Inferno
This is the first volume of a new prose translation of Dante's epic - the first in twenty-five years. 'This new edition of Inferno is distinctly user-friendly....Serious students-in or out of the classroom-who...examine the original poem alongside a readable and reliable prose translation will find this edition excellently suited to their needs.'. 'Like the Inferno edition that preceded it, the Durling-Martinez Purgatorio, with its beautiful translation and superb apparatus of notes, is simply the best edition of Dante's second canticle in English. --David Young, translator of The Poetry of Petrarch "Durling and Martinez deliver Paradiso in elegant English prose faithful to Dante's Italian. --Michael Wyatt, author of The Italian Encounter with Tudor England "At the end of his poem Dante claims that his 'high imagining failed of power,' but Durling and Martinez have suffered no such fate in completing their translation of the Divine Comedy .
Reviews
"After a single reading of a Canto not only do they help make sense of difficult passages (which of course, abound) but also reveal interprative difficulties which might be easily missed without the proper historical or literary background."
"Additionally, the book is a deep well of background information which helps one understand more fully the context in which the text was written."
"The best way to read inferno!"
"Although the English translation is in prose, it follows each Italian tercet very closely."
"I was so excited to see this marvelous book ported to kindle I ordered a copy immediately."
"Superb quality."
"This is not to say Durling's edition is bad, and I guess the "best edition" depends on the reader and his or her objective in reading Dante: for a learned, scholarly reader who is accustomed to knotty periods and subtle historical, religious, mythological and literary references, and who wants to enjoy fine poetry (not to write a college essay or meet some school requeriment), I believe Longfellow's translation is the most appropriated; but if you are inexperienced and not as well-educated as you wish you were (which makes two of us, by the way), choose between Durling's and Hollander's translations/commentaries, with this reviewer giving the latter a slight edge."
"It isn't bad, but the translation is a bit dated, obviously, since it's by Longfellow, and it just wasn't what I expected."
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Best Scandinavian Literary Criticism

The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen
A #1 international bestseller in the vein of Fredrik Bachman's A Man Called Ove. : an irresistible, funny, charming, and tender-hearted tale about friendship, love, and an old man who is young at heart. A bestselling phenomenon that has captured imaginations around the world, The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen is inspiring, charming, and laugh-out-loud funny with a deep and poignant core: a page-turning delight for readers of any age.
Reviews
"This is a novel we selected for our Book Club, and my first reaction was that this is an odd book. Of course, in this setting you can expect a lot of ends."
"If this is a translation from Dutch, it helps American readers by expressing distances, weights, etc."
"a great diary about keeping the ravages of senility from approaching to rapidly, Fight fight fight and above all, keep your sense of humor and share it and your love with others."
"I’m so touched by this books depth of understanding in the world of the elderly."
"I enjoyed this book about a male senior citizen very much."
"By the time a person goes to a nursing home, many of your former friends have passed away."
"Daily life in a retirement home."
"What a wonderful book!"
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Best French Literary Criticism

The Count of Monte Cristo (Penguin Classics)
"On what slender threads do life and fortune hang" Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantes is confined to the grim fortress of If. Robin Buss (1939–2006) was a writer and translator who worked for the Independent on Sunday and as television critic for the Times Educational Supplement .
Reviews
"Material previously omitted by Victorian-era translators such as Franz' hashish-fueled sexual fantasies and the strongly implied lesbian relationship between Eugenie and Louise remain intact and uncensored. As another reviewer pointed out, Buss will provide footnotes to explain subtleties that aren't easily translated from French to English, such as insults delivered by using the formal you (vous) rather than the informal/friendly/intimate you (tu). A detailed appendix provides valuable historical and cultural context that aids the reader in understanding Dumas' masterpiece, and includes a primer on the rise, fall, return, and final downfall of Napoleon Bonaparte that is crucial to making sense of the politics driving the novel's plot."
"(p.1027) A perfect human being who loves young girls in a fatherly way, kisses his slave on her forehead, acted as guardian angel to 17 year old Valentine and go-between for her and her fiancé. I would not want to see the film of this book, no earthly creature could match up to the mysterious, romantic, mythical figure of The Count of Monte Cristo. Women are turned on by it not only because it is thrilling but because it speaks to the fairy tale longing, (Cinderella) of finding the perfect man..... In the beginning, even though far fetched, (the escape from jail, the treasure) one goes along for the ride, but towards the end of the book Dumas gets a bit carried away. The fantasy good as it is becomes a bit hard to sustain, the magic cure-all drops, the murderous step-mother nobody suspects, the crippled grandfather blinking in Morse code, and then of course the almost Shakespearean ending of the star crossed lovers. The coolness with which Monte Cristo explains that the program has been changed, in a "tone of voice" Dumas says, "as though he were reading the personal column." .......they were speaking of some kind of stay of execution to one of the two men...... That means you will be denied a guillotining but you still have the mazzolata, which is a very curious form of torture when you see it for the first time - or even the second; while the other, which in any case you know, is too simple, too unvaried."
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Best British & Irish Literary Criticism

The Atlas of Middle-Earth (Revised Edition)
Authentic and updated -- nearly one third of the maps are new, and the text is fully revised -- the atlas illuminates the enchanted world created in THE SILMARILLION, THE HOBBIT, and THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Karen Wynn Fonstad is a qualified geographer and cartographer who first mapped Middle-Earth in 1981 and has since added much new detail based on those endless volumes of drafts, abandoned passages, alternative versions, and laundry lists published since Tolkien's death.
Reviews
"None of the pre-fab boxes above fit this work - as it is a book of maps that accompany JRR Tolkien's works from The Silmarillion through The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the posthumous works his son, Christopher has published."
"I bought this book as an accompaniment to The Silmarillion and found the maps vey informative and a good reference."
"As an old fan, I was hoping this atlas had fold-out maps that didn't hide points of interest in the crease of the binding."
"It's packed with information about many different things including how the land was shaped over the ages and even shows the movement of the races across the landscape."
"The only thing I'm not pleased with is the center binding cuts off parts of the maps which would be an issue with the publisher and not the author."
"Sometimes when Tolkein is explaing the locations of the towers, cities, and palaces of the elves of the First Age, or telling the stories of the quests of the hobbits, dwarves, elves, and men of the Third Age, one wants to reach for a nice clear map to help sort things out."
"There's so much info in here to take in."
"This atlas is an excellent companion resource to accompany the books in the Tolkien universe."
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Best Spanish & Portuguese Literary Criticism

Children of the Days: A Calendar of Human History
Unfurling like a medieval book of days, each page of Eduardo Galeano's Children of the Days has an illuminating story that takes inspiration from that date of the calendar year, resurrecting the heroes and heroines who have fallen off the historical map, but whose lives remind us of our darkest hours and sweetest victories. His writing is full of candour, empathy, humane concern and also predictable convictions Herein lies Galeano's central appeal: he evokes the marvels of a remarkable world that is not so bad after all.” Financial Times “The stories themselves, broken into pieces, present both Galeano's aesthetic and his view of history. The impact of this literary approach to the history of violent disappearances is a lasting and universal one.” The Independent (UK). Good and evil, beauty and ugliness, generosity and greed-all are juxtaposed to great effect.... [T]his is a heady portrait of the human story rendered in broad, though no less incisive and affecting, strokes." Children of the Days , his Calendar of Human History, is an immensely varied gathering of facts and oddments and truths and stories of every kind. He keeps me morally awake, while also lifting my spirits with his ability to reveal in story-form the deep, sweet humanity which rebounds even after the cruelest moments of history. Reading Galeano, I'm often reminded of Joseph Conrad's claims for what writing should do: 'art itself may be defined as a single-minded attempt to render the highest kind of justice to the visible universe, by bringing to light the truth, manifold and one, underlying its every aspect.'. "It's May, but this is a Christmas kind of a book: giftable, covetable, hefty, handsome, a veritable plum pudding of a thing, its lovely midnight-blue cover designed to look as though dotted with stars, or perhaps dusted with sugar, and slathered all over with generous custardy recommendations from both Philip Pullman and John Berger... Galeano chronicles events and anniversaries from the history of oppressed nations, adding the odd dash of fictional fun and philosophical musing... "Galeano's genre is his own - a mixture of fiction, journalism and history that, as always, is conveyed in orderly fragments of various sizes and is best understood as an outgrowth of his first midteen self-expressions as a socialist cartoonist. If you think of every short individual Galeano piece in the mammoth collection of them that comprises his life's work as a kind of verbal cartoon - or a set of variations on a verbal cartoon - then you understand both the striking singularity of his work and its innovation...Galeano's fire is unquenched.
Reviews
"Starting this book I did not know what to expect."
"Each anecdote -- half to one page -- is written for each date of the year. Half way through the book i.e. half way through the year, you realize what a blessing this unique South American writer brings to the world."
"But these short insights into the lives and deaths of people who made a difference, good or bad, captivated me and I read the book through in less than two days then loaned it to a friend."
"This is a stirring book with 365 examples of people whose courageous lives live on for us."
"Eduardo Galeano has shared thought-provoking past events for each day of the year."
"The reader can just read for any one day and have a lot to consider."
"But Galeano writes with wit, irony, humility and sometimes simple humor about the shared human experience."
"Galeano takes us through history, day by day, commemorating dates and events that normally slip through our attention."
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