Product Description
George Herbert combined the intellectual and the spiritual, the humble and the divine, to create some of the most moving devotional poetry in the English language. His deceptively simple verse uses the ingenious arguments typical of seventeenth-century metaphysical poets and unusual imagery drawn from musical structures, the natural world, and domestic activity to explore a mosaic of Biblical themes. From the wit and wordplay of "The Puley" and the formal experimentation of "Easter Wings" and "Paradise," to the intense, highly personal relationship between man and God portrayed in "The Collar" and "Redemption," the works collected here show the transcendental power of divine love. This vast collection includes all Herbert’s English poems, selections from his Latin poetry with translations, his major prose work A Priest to the Temple, and Izaak Walton’s Life of Herbert. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Some of the Most Beautiful and Godly Poetry
George Herbert's poetry is, to my ears, some of the best religious poetry ever written.I studied a lot of poetry in grad school, but Herbert remains at the very top of my own personal literary canon.In Herbert, the best of godly devotion and exquisite craftsmanship are married, and that is a rare thing.

This Penguin Classic version of "The Complete English Poems" has a misleading title - but in a good way!It not only contains all of Herbert's poetry but also his wise and wonderful book on the ministry, "A Priest to the Temple."Reading this manual on ministry gives you greater insight into where the profundity and godliness of Herbert's poetry comes from: in Herbert, the poet and priest are perfectly united.

The poetry itself is divine.Although English metaphysical poetry may not be to everyone's taste, and it will be difficult for many modern readers, it's perfectly suited to mine.I love the whimsical word play and the delight in the English language that Herbert manifests.The form matches the matter, and it always seems as if the poems end when they should on a note of satisfaction and having said just what one wanted to say.Most important of all, Herbert's poetry assists me in my praise of and devotion to my Lord.

One of the most excellent aspects of Herbert's poetry is that it is not merely the individual meditations of a solitary Christian but is intimately connected to the life of Christ by being connected to His Bride, the Church.The structure of Herbert's collection, "The Temple," is aptly named.In summary, Herbert's poetry is a delight to my ears, my tongue, my mind, and my soul!

Herbert's poetry also has a very personal connection with me: I used to read it to my wife when we were courting and early in our marriage.Not only did it move her, but it also raised her estimation of me.Thank you, George Herbert!

The Penguin Classics edition seems to be one of the most affordable editions of the complete poems out there.It amuses me to think that you can own every poem George Herbert ever wrote in this Penguin Classics edition for less than 12 bucks!

I can't leave without quoting my favorite 2-line poem in the universe (from Herbert):

Ana {MARY
ARMY} gram

How well her name an Army doth present,
In whom the Lord of hosts did pitch his tent!

A most intense dialogue with God
Herbert is ordinarily classified along with Donne, as a Metaphysical poet i.e. one who use extreme metaphor and makes connections between completely diverse matters to forward arough and energetic argument in verse. Herbert is , as I sense it, gentler than Donne. He is a more quiet devotional poet, one with deep religious faith. There is a certain sense of his humility and great power of concentration in his devotion.His love of music plays a central role in the metaphoric structure of his work.
Among his often anthologized poems are " The Collar" " The Pulley" "To the Jews" "The Altar"

You don't need to be religious to love his poems
I'm a solid atheist. I also love Herbert's intimate dialogue and often battle with his God. Stylistically, he dominates better known poets of the Metaphysical era, such as Donne. His backround as a musician comes through in all his work. He inherits the Metaphysicals' use of vivid metaphor. He looks ahead to Gerard Manley Hopkins in his fusion of music,image and conversation. "Love bade me welcome" and "Prayer" are among the jewels of poetry.

If you are religious, Herbert will be of great comfort in his deep and moving spirituality. If you are not, that spirituality is still so compelling and resonant that you will feel with and for him. He in many ways reminds me of Emily Dickinson: the poet of the quirky, gentle, wry and elegaic short poem. Do read Prayer with its lovely last line "something understood" and Love with its last line "And I replied, my Lord."

Herbert os a treasure. In my sixties, I respond to him with the same respect and warmth as in my twenties when I first discovered him.

Among the greatest religious poetry ever penned
Over the centuries, there has been a great deal of Christian poetry written by a broad range of poets, but only a tiny handful of that can stand comparison with the very best nonreligious poetry.The later poetry of John Donne, Milton, Dante, some of the early American Puritan poets, and the poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins does not quite exhaust the list, but it consumes most of it.And, of course, George Herbert stands at the head of any such list.Of all these poets, Herbert is probably my favorite as a religious poet.By that, I mean someone who is religiously satisfying while at the same time writing exquisite poetry.There is simplicity of expression in Herbert that is missing in Donne, and a personal piety that I do not find in Milton, whose poetry, while unquestionably religious in spirit, is somewhat spiritually dry.One wouldn't read Milton to inspire piety.Hopkins is brilliant, but I find myself focusing on his over alliteration.

George Herbert was one of those either fortunate or unfortunate younger sons of a landed family who was forced to enter the Church because the family title passed onto his older brother.That brother, very nearly as well known as his younger brother for his own writings, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, was the author of several books, including what could be regarded as the first history of comparative religion written in England.The religions compared were not, however, Christianity, Judaism, Islam with Buddhism and Hinduism or with so-called primitive religion, but with Greek, Roman, Jewish, and Christian religions.

This is an excellent edition of Herbert's poetry, but one should note the title carefully.Herbert, in fact, wrote a fair amount of poetry in Latin.That unfortunately, is not included either in original form or in English translation.

Is there in truth no beautie?
Other poets can write about the beauty of the woman that they love, but Hebert writes of the true source of beauty, the source that most deserves praise in poetry:God.Hebert's poetry is a tribute to God, for whom hegave up everything to go into ministry.A musician, Herbert writes much ofhis poetry in a way that is almost musical, and may have at one time beenset to music.A collection of his poetry can be an incredible devotionaltool for personal reflection and praise.It can also be wonderful to studyin the classroom because of his brilliant use of literary devices.Myfavorite poem of his is The Holy Scriptures.For a taste of Hebert'sbeautiful tributes... "Oh book!Infinite sweetnesse!Let my heart suckev'ry letter...."Your heart will suck every letter from Hebert's beautifulpoetry. ... Read more

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Introduction by Ann Pasternak Slater ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Herbert poetry
Superb edition of the complete English poetry of George Herbert. Very classy. Excellent price. Highly recommended.

Handsome Everyman Hardbound
Beautiful book with an understated book jacket that seems perfectly suited to the intelligent, elegant, devotional poetry of George Herbert.No question about it, Herbert was a poet to be reckoned with.His verse is extremely stylized and contains complex structures and brilliant rhyming and meter.Nevertheless, they are all about his faith and about the church.Not being much into traditional religious faith, I find his poems, though indisputably brilliant, unsatisfying in that, unlike Donne's, they're all about the same thing--his undying devotion to his God.Nothing wrong with that; it's just that it gets to be like readng the same poem over and over.The same could be said, I suppose, about poems about romantic love.There are other things to think and write about besides love and religion.Nevertheless, he was a master poet and anyone who writes verse could learn a great deal from Herbert.It's a beautiful edition with a great lay-out, helpful introduction, and a slender little gold ribbon for holding one's place.

The Genius Heart Of George Herbert
This is a must addition to any thinking Christian's library.Herbert, contemporary of Shakespeare, weaves prosaic and rhyming lines with utmost artistry, expression, and Christian devotion.His works stands out among writers of every century, and not limited to Christian writers in particular.

A difficult poet for me
Herbert is a difficult poet for me. His deep Christian faith is central to his work, and this makes it somewhat hard for me, to really enter it. Yet I do feel some kind of connection with it, perhaps out of the sense that his intensity and close- relation toGod remind me much of Psalms. He to many is one of the great English poets one whose modest demeanor belie a remarkably experimental and searching soul.
Here is one of his well-known poems,

REDEMPTION.


HAVING been tenant long to a rich Lord,
Not thriving, I resolved to be bold,
And make a suit unto him, to afford
A new small-rented lease, and cancell th' old.

In heaven at his manour I him sought :
They told me there, that he was lately gone
About some land, which he had dearly bought
Long since on earth, to take possession.

I straight return'd, and knowing his great birth,
Sought him accordingly in great resorts ;
In cities, theatres, gardens, parks, and courts :
At length I heard a ragged noise and mirth

Of theeves and murderers :there I him espied,
Who straight, Your suit is granted, said, and died.

affordable, beautiful edition of GREAT poetry
George Herbert is hard to find, and the standard Hutchinson edition is expensive and weighty. This new Everyman edition is both affordable and compact, without sacrificing quality. It's beautifully printed, elegantly bound, accurately arranged and intelligently footnoted. I was thrilled to come across it and have bought several editions so that I could introduce friends to the insight and beauty of this profound poet. A must for anyone who loves poetry and everyone who seeks God. ... Read more

Product Description
George Herbert (1593-1633) lived in England during the tempestuous reigns of James I and Charles I that saw the nation racked by conflict among Catholics, Hugh Churchmen, and Puritans. A member of a politically-active family, Herbert rejected a promising career as a member of Parliament for the simple life of a country parson. While busily involved in his pastoral duties he produced works of poetry and prose that have earned him a long-established place in English literary history.

Collected here are two works originally published after Herbert's death at Bemerton in 1633: The Country Parson, a prose treatise on the duties, joys, and hardships of a pastor's life; and The Temple, a collection of poems. In them the literary genius of this humble priest whose spirituality was a synthesis of Evangelical and Catholic piety is revealed.

Herbert's appeal for today is summed up by A.M. Allchin in his preface to this volume: "Without glossing over the fragility and brokenness of man's experience of life in time, he managed to reaffirm the great unities of Christian faith and prayer. These are the unities which draw together the separated strands in the Christian heritage, which draw together past and present in a living an creative appropriation of tradition." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Beautiful Religious Poetry + Godly Advice for Pastors
George Herbert's poetry is, to my ears, some of the best religious poetry ever written.I studied a lot of poetry in grad school, but Herbert remains at the very top of my own personal literary canon.In Herbert, the best of godly devotion and exquisite craftsmanship are married, and that is a rare thing.

This Paulist Press edition of the works of George Herbert includes Herbert's 2 major works: "The Temple" and "A Priest to the Temple.""The Temple" includes Herbert's beautiful church poetry.Although English metaphysical poetry may not be to everyone's taste, and it will be difficult for many modern readers, it's perfectly suited to mine.I love the whimsical word play and the delight in the English language that Herbert manifests.The form matches the matter, and it always seems as if the poems end when they should on a note of satisfaction and having said just what one wanted to say.Most important of all, Herbert's poetry assists me in my praise of and devotion to my Lord.

One of the most excellent aspects of Herbert's poetry is that it is not merely the individual meditations of a solitary Christian but is intimately connected to the life of Christ by being connected to His Bride, the Church.The structure of Herbert's collection, "The Temple," is aptly named.In summary, Herbert's poetry is a delight to my ears, my tongue, my mind, and my soul!

Herbert's poetry also has a very personal connection with me: I used to read it to my wife when we were courting and early in our marriage.Not only did it move her, but it also raised her estimation of me.Thank you, George Herbert!

Here is my favorite 2-line poem in the universe (from Herbert):

Ana {MARY
ARMY} gram

How well her name an Army doth present,
In whom the Lord of hosts did pitch his tent!

Herbert's "A Priest to the Temple" is subtitled: "Or The Country Parson, His Character, and Rule of Holy Life."Reading this manual on ministry gives you greater insight into where the profundity and godliness of Herbert's poetry comes from: in Herbert, the poet and priest are perfectly united.In it, Herbert addresses such subjects as "The Parson's Life," "The Parson Praying," "The Parson in His House," "The Parson in Mirth," etc. I'm using "A Priest to the Temple" in a seminary class I'm teaching on The Cure of Souls as an example for young priests to study and adapt to 21st century pastoral ministry.

Great Devotional Poetry
Herbert is one of the best devotional poet of all time. The footnotes are excellent. Buy this book if you enjoy contemplative literature.

Getting to the church on time...
George Herbert (1593-1633) has long been respected as a clergyman, poet, and spiritual master.Like many clergymen of his day, Herbert owed his position to a certain extent to his political connections - his family had some influence, and indeed, Herbert himself was probably destined for a parliamentary/political career, had another calling not seized him.He became a country parson, which was an ideal setting for Herbert, for it afforded him the time and the environment he needed to delve deeply into the human spirit, and produce works of depth and inspiration that make him an important figure in literary history.

Herbert's peaceful musings come at a time when the church in England was going through a tempestuous time.Herbert's poetry and prose strikes a chord with Catholics, Anglicans high and low, and Puritans, in different ways.Herbert's personal devotion and humility shines through his writings, and his works provide material for spiritual direction to a wide range of people to this day.

This volume includes two of Herbert's best known works - 'The Country Parson', a prose reflection of Herbert's own work as a pastor, which provides insight into his own spiritual work as well as a snapshot of life in the early seventeenth century, and 'The Temple', a collection of Herbert's poetry.Both works were published only after Herbert's death in 1633.

The underlying sensibilities in both prose and poetry are many of the same sources of much of English literary works: the Bible, the Book of Common Prayer, the works of Shakespeare, and the rapidly developing English language itself.The ever-shifting ground of political and spiritual realms, together with a rapidly changing intellectual climate, made England a dynamic place in many respects, yet Herbert's works show a permanence and a synthesis of concepts that is almost mystifying when one considers the background.

The Paulist Press volume includes a good preface setting the context by Arthur Macdonald Allchin, a residentiary canon of Canterbury Cathedral, and an interesting introduction of historical and literary detail by John Wall, Jr., at the time of writing a professor of English.The book is well indexed, and has a good, useful bibliography.

Herbert's work is indispensable for any one looking for a deeper spirituality, particularly within the context of a church community.For those with a suspicion or disdain for church, reading the struggles and honesty of a country parson is worthwhile.This particular volume is a good one for study and reflection. ... Read more

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Why Not Call it Philosophy?
I came to this book after reading, and loving, alot of Erving Goffmann... Although he's called a sociologist, I really don't understand why he's not classified as a philosopher, since this book, in particular, seems more like a work of then any other discpline.

Mead's essential thesis- that individuality exists only after society, and its collalary, that intelligence is characterized by the anticipation of other's reactions to one's behaviors or "gesture", seems to belong more to the discipline of philosophy then to pyschology or sociology.Maybe chalk it to the american disdain for philosophy and the growth of speciailzation within the north american university system?

This book is brilliant- but I found this edition to be lacking.It's basically a reprint of the orginal text, replete with footnotes that are printed in 6 point type.What is that- sadism?Why would you do that to a footnote in 2009?It basically meant that I skipped all the footnotes because i was afraid of hurting my eyesight, and that sucks, because it's totally avoidable.I hold University of Chicago responsible, and if anyone there is reading this- put out a better edition.

A brilliant book
Until I read Mead's Mind, Self, and Society I couldn't get past mind/body dualism.Great authors rejected it; none, to my limited knowledge, endorsed it.But none were able to convincingly explain it away.

Mead, however, though it was not his stated intention, dispels mind/body dualism quite easily.He does so by first giving priority to the organism, something that his contemporary followers, known as symbolic interactionists, seem not to understand.

Mead then acknowledges that human beings have a central nervous system possessed of the neurological equipment needed for symbolic functioning, something not shared by other organisms, except in rare instances and in rudimentary form.

Beyond that, human beings are actively sensate organisms who participate in social settings where mutually interpretable symbols -- especially in the form of language -- are in routine use.It is in such social settings that we acquire the symbolic wherewithal needed for communication with others and for thinking, an internal conversation that we have with ourselves.It is in such social settings that we acquire an individuated self.

When speaking of acquiring language or any other capability, Mead is fond of using the expression "reorganization of the central nervous system."For Mead, inevitably, that is what learning is, and again we see that he has good reason to give priority to the organism.

Mead's take on the concept attitude is especially interesting.He defines an attitude as a repertoire of behaviors which gives value to the environment.A car is a valuable means of transportation if we know how to drive it.Otherwise it's worthless.We need a socially learned repertoire of behaviors to give it value.

Mead does not use the term sub-conscious, certainly not in the way that Freud did.Nevertheless, as socially learned behavioral repertoires become automatically responsive to specific stimuli, a richly endowed sub-conscious is created, made manifest through reorganization of the central system.This is the subconscious according to a social behaviorist

The first fifty or so pages of Mind, Self, and Society make for difficult reading.After that, however, the material becomes easier, in part because Mead illustrates the same concept again and again in different ways.Each time, it seems, the reader acquires a more subtly nuanced understanding of Mead's ideas.

Mead's work is replete with brilliant insights.It deserves reading and re-reading.

The founding stone of symbolic interactionist theory
This books represents the foundation for a major sociological approach - symbolic interactionism. The essential premise of symbolic interactionism is that all human action is essentially symbolic and that society is to be understood, not as a closed system to be studied in abstraction, but as a network of endless interactions in which human beings symbolically interpret human behavior, speech and thought. Society is the interiorised 'other' or a projected interpretation of societal 'others'. Human self therefore has a free component or I and a bound component or We.

This book is an essential reading for whosoever wants to understand sociology and also the departure of Anglo-American sociology from 'society as a system' approaches. And above all it is a timeless classic that you can enjoy reading for the sheer insights it throws into social behavior. ... Read more

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Helpful Material
I found the introductory remarks by Professor Reck more intriguing than the body of the book. His comments are somewhat motivating for scholarly work. In describing the process of editing the material, he sets a certain tone that is appealing.

In the writings of Mead one finds seeds of liberalism being sown. Mead takes simple concepts and makes them sound overly complex. In this particular collection of his work, there is more filler than substance in many cases. The bibliography, however is useful in that it provides a means of tracing sources. ... Read more

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George Herbert Mead (1863-1931) had a powerful influence on the development of American pragmatism.This classic work represents Mead's philosophy of experience, so central to his outlook.

The present as unique experience is the focus of this deep analysis of the basic structure of temporality and consciousness, which emphasizes the novel character of both the present and the past, contrary to the assumptions of science.This novelty within perceived reality is the crux of the problem that Mead explores.Each new experience causes us to reconstruct preceding experiences to make sense of the past, which is assumed to be the main cause of what we presently experience.Our reality is conditioned by each new event and it changes continuously as the effects of the present shift our view of the past and future.

This emphasis on the integrative nature of reality makes Mead's philosophy highly relevant to today's quantum universe, in which chance and probability play key roles. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Great Book Indeed
Mead is one of the key American pragmatists, and this book is his most important philosophical essay. The subject is primarily metaphysics: a relativist theory of time and space and the objective character of perspectives. So the book is for the most part quite abstract and therefore difficult, but Mead is thorough and repeats his points, so with a little patience a nonphilosopher can follow his reasoning. Mead's more familiar "sociology" about the social self and the collective other are discussed but not extensively. ... Read more

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In 1633, George Herbert published what has become the best-known religious poem in the English language, The Temple. Actually a sequence of poems, The Temple is shaped by the order of church ritual and liturgy. At the heart of The Temple stands "The Church," poems that are patterned on the Church's liturgical calendar and that discuss theological ideas such as death, judgment, and heaven. Herbert's poetry is at once personal and confessional. His poems about the Eucharist and holy baptism are not only general theological explorations of the sacraments but also the poet's expression of the struggles of his own flesh to be reconciled to God. This mildly modernized edition makes the spiritual insight and quiet passion of this great poet available to today's reader. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A Masterpiece of scholarship
I totally agree with tifepiphany!The work is a gift to all who love 17th Century poetry / George Herbert / and poetry of the highest level.The Critical Introduction alone makes this a necessary book - the re-creation of the text and a generous selection of facsimile prints on corresponding pages make this a delight!Do yourself and favor and buy this book... I bought 2 copies.Books like thisusual cost 50 to 60 dollars.Thank you Mario Di Cesare for this amazing work that should set a new standard for scholarly re-creations of texts - especially for those of us who can not afford $150.00 facsimiles.This is now one of my most beloved books.

A Must Have for students of Herbert & 17th Century Eng Lit
The amount of detail in this reproduced/recreated edition of the Bolleian Tanner 307 edition of Herbert is a GREAT service to all interested in Herbert and 17th Century English Literature.This text, convincingly, elucidates many elements of the strong editing by Buck (1633) and makes available the source text for Buck and what is arguably the central text for understanding George Herbert. Thank you Mario Di Cesare!!!

--- by way of correction, Amazon lists this work as only a little over a hundred pages, it is in fact closer to 400 - and each page a treasure.

Perhaps authoritative
Di Cesare makes a relatively persuasive argument that this Bodleian manuscript is more authoritative than a widely accepted first printed edition of 1635. The manuscript is not Herbert's, so it is a live argument as to which represents his most specific intentions. I don't know which is closer to what Herbert had in mind, but the extraordinarily painstaking reproduction of such elements as the relative size of letters is appreciated.

This is the editor's description; ignore 5-star rating.
Mario A. Di Cesare writes: The Bodleian manuscript of George Herbert's wonderful set of poems called The Temple is a beautiful work made with loving care at Little Gidding in the months after Herbert's death in 1633.It is also the most important manuscript of Herbert's poetry.

This volumepresents an exact transcription of the manuscript, page by page, renderingprecisely or recording not just the spelling and punctuation (including theplacement of punctuation), but also the visual layout, the specialcharacters (size, position, emphasis), the corrections and insertions, andthe graphic characteristics of the page: Computer typography allowed me toimitate the original pages closely. (Lots of facsimile pages are alsoincluded.) My three-part introduction shows why contact with originalmanuscripts is important, argue the primacy of this manuscript forHerbert's text, and give critical readings of the poems themselves.

I amhappy to report that my book has been widely praised by reviewers andcalled indispensable for anyone seriously interested in Herbert's poetry. ... Read more

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Priestly ministry in the Church of England needs a radical rethink George Herbert died in 1633. His legacy continues. His poems are read and sung, and his parish ministry remains the model for the Church of England's understanding of how and where and why its priests should minister. But there is a problem. The memory of Herbert celebrated by the Church is an inaccurate one, and, in its inaccuracy, is unfair on Herbert himself and his successors in the ordained ministry. This is a book of the long view. It sets out to assess realistically the context of Herbert's life and to explore the difficulties of parish life today. By examining the status and role of parish clergy since Herbert's time and today, it draws on the work of historians, social anthropologists, psychologists and theologians, and presents their ideas in a readable and passionate style. It argues that the future strength of parochial ministry will be found in a recovery of historic, renewed understandings of priestly ministry, and concludes by outlining more sustainable patterns of practice for the future. In a climate of uncertainty for the future of the church, it will be an encouragement for priest and people, and welcomed by both. ... Read more

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In the Days of the Comet is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of H. G. (Herbert George) Wells then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

Expected More
An extremely verbose book on the social and political issues between the Boer War and World War I in England with a solution to the world's problem via the green mist left by Earth passing through a comet's tail. I truly enjoyed the movie renderings of "The War of the Worlds" (the first version with Gene Barry), "The Time Machine" and "First Man on the Moon"; but I am let down by the wordiness of this novel and hope my reading of "War of the Worlds" and "Time Machine" do not do the same.

Green dawn
H.G. Wells had a strong streak in him of the social reformer. This relatively early work, from 1906, shows that more clearly (if ham-handedly) than any other work that I've read by him.

It starts with a snapshot of Dickensian dichotomy between haves and have-nots. Haves, in this case, are so rare and distant that they can safely be ignored. Instead, the narrator is one of the underclass, worrying whether his shoes will fall apart before the end of his day's walk. Malnourished, marginally educated, and economically marginalized, he seizes upon the one bright spot in his life, love of a charming woman. But in a "Young Werther" burst of emotion, that passion twists itself into its own homicidal inversion. At the same time, warships stand off within sight of the British shore, lobbing shells at each other across the night sky.

But there's a new star in that sky, and one that has incredible effect on human life. Suppose, just suppose, that one day, everyone in the world suddenly started acting reasonable, or mostly reasonable. Suppose that all the world leaders, all the soldiers in the trenches, all the capitalist barons, all the socialist firebrands, and even the lovers suddenly woke up, and said, "I've been stupid. Let's do better." This examination of humankind's entry into a better world foreshadows Wells's later "Modern Utopia." In "Comet," he imagines mankind reworked into the beings who could support that ideal world - with the striking examples of those few who need only minor adjustments. "Modern Utopia" assumes that unidealized people will populate the ideal world, so the ideal must have places in it for them. I find the combination of similarities and reversals between these two books equally interesting. By itself, "Comet" might not be Wells's best. In the context of his entire ouvre, however, it holds a fascinating and possibly transitional place.

-- wiredweird

The Awakening of Mankind- Cosmic Peace Beyond Understanding
I thought that I was familiar with most of Well's body of work, until I stumbled over this unique novel.

First of all, do not be put off by the first part of this book- it is intended to be depressing. It is meant to paint the pettiness, ugliness, and just plain bloody-mindedness of human society in 1906. It does this quite well for I almost set the book aside several times in disgust. It is all unpleasantness after unpleasantness in the life of a working class young man (obviously modeled largely after the author's youth.) Even the fact of the approach of the great comet is almost mentioned only in passing as a minor occurrence.

Then everything changes when the comet hits. Mankind is transformed. That is to say that all of mankind is suddenly mentally and spiritually enlightened and awakened. I've read nothing quite like it in literature. The first part of the book makes it jump out at you all the more. All the meanness, pettiness, guile, and evil evaporate in the human species. The story of how these enlightened men put an end to want, injustice, and war around the world is breathtaking and inspirational. Wells attributes this to a chemical change in earth's atmosphere, but there is a surprising amount of spirituality also incorporated (surprising for Wells.)

All of this reminded me of the change that is said to occur when a human soul leaves the material world and enters the astral. All of the old heaviness and stupidity drop away. Only the highest of what it means to be human remains- the old ego dies. Even in the story everyone speculated if perhaps they were not dead and transported to a different world. Some even declared that this great Change was the Second Advent.

There is one thing about this novel that leaves a lingering element of disappointment. This is the fact that the core causes of all the economic, social, and political injustices and stupidities described in the first part of the book in 1906 are still with us. After 101 years these same problems are still with us. I'm sure that this would have also disappointed Mr. Wells.

Free SF Reader
More than a few people have used this idea over the last few decades.
The people of Earth are going about their normal dodgy business, until
they realise that a comet may actually strike the planet.

A most definitely political novel, this looks at the upheaval such
a catastrophic event can cause, and what happens to the society as a
result.

It seems here that humanity will improve in the face of such calamity.

The Awakening of Mankind- Cosmic Peace Beyond Understanding
I thought that I was familiar with most of Well's body of work, until I stumbled over this unique novel.

First of all, do not be put off by the first part of this book- it is intended to be depressing. It is meant to paint the pettiness, ugliness, and just plain bloody-mindedness of human society in 1906. It does this quite well for I almost set the book aside several times in disgust. It is all unpleasantness after unpleasantness in the life of a working class young man (obviously modeled largely after the author's youth.) Even the fact of the approach of the great comet is almost mentioned only in passing as a minor occurrence.

Then everything changes when the comet hits. Mankind is transformed. That is to say that all of mankind is suddenly mentally and spiritually enlightened and awakened. I've read nothing quite like it in literature. The first part of the book makes it jump out at you all the more. All the meanness, pettiness, guile, and evil evaporate in the human species. The story of how these enlightened men put an end to want, injustice, and war around the world is breathtaking and inspirational. Wells attributes this to a chemical change in earth's atmosphere, but there is a surprising amount of spirituality also incorporated (surprising for Wells.)

All of this reminded me of the change that is said to occur when a human soul leaves the material world and enters the astral. All of the old heaviness and stupidity drop away. Only the highest of what it means to be human remains- the old ego dies. Even in the story everyone speculated if perhaps they were not dead and transported to a different world. Some even declared that this great Change was the Second Advent.

There is one thing about this novel that leaves a lingering element of disappointment. This is the fact that the core causes of all the economic, social, and political injustices and stupidities described in the first part of the book in 1906 are still with us. After 101 years these same problems are still with us. I'm sure that this would have also disappointed Mr. Wells.
... Read more

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A Theoretical Maverick at his brooding best
Although among theorists, George Herbert mead must be considered the "theorists' theorist," he nevertheless remains a towering enigma who marched through life to the cadence in his own head. A pragmatic philosopher by both training and intellectual predilection, and a life-long friend of John Dewey, Mead was also a brooding, pensive, tormented, uncertain craftsman, whose dabbling into Sociology turned out to be more important than the whole of his contributions to his chosen field, philosophy. He is known best for his ambiguity and for his paltry professional output owning in large part to an obsessive need to rewrite, rework, and massage his ideas until either there was nothing left of them, or they had either come full-circle and watered-down to the last precipitate.In the end, his endless massaging amounted to procrastination that left the task of pulling together his large fragments of theoretical papers, to his students and admiring colleagues.

That said, Mead is important not because of these eccentricities, but because until the end of his life he was a deep structure systemic thinker unafraid to embrace "cutting-edge," and sometimes even tentative ideas -- especially those borrowed from the hard sciences which often served as the bedrock of his theoretical enterprises. He is known best for his large ideas, such as that science is the best instrument we have for intelligence control over our environment, for promoting the idea that even discrete interactions are affixed to the larger reality in a holistic way, for fully embracing and then evoking Darwin's Theory of evolution, and for his almost maverick interactionist posture that went against the grain of established structuralist theoreticians. He situated himself somewhere between the American pragmatist school and the European phenomenological school. Thus he was an intellectual Maverick without being intellectually promiscuous. He followed science more closely than he followed theoretical developments in either philosophy or sociology, or on either side of the Atlantic, and was quick to adopt the changing worldviews of the leading scientists, especially that of Darwin and the Quantum Physicists.

Mead believed "intelligence" to be a verb and that "perception" by definition can never be passive: only active. To "perceive" is to be alive in the world and engaged with ones environment. According to Mead's theory, it is this "act" (of perception) and its emergent interactive and communicative properties that define social structure. Therefore interactions are not (as his critiques claim) structure-less: for process always precedes, is prior to, and is instrumental in defining form and shaping structure, Thus, following Berger and Luckmann's seminal "The Construction of Social Reality," fundamental to Mead's theoretical formulation, is the notion that social structure emerges from social process, i.e., from social interactions and communications.

Thus as a result, the "social order" too is an emergent property of communications as that process matures and evolves. This "emergent evolution of communications" definition of the social order implies that the "social order" is perhaps less well defined and has many more degrees of freedom than we might at first want to admit. What is difficult to see at the level of context alone is that the social order is very much a "negotiated reality," one in which the individual is "free" to break the rules of society as well as to help reshape them.

Modern societies then, according to Mead's formulation, are not static, unified, homogeneous, well-defined entities that dictate their rules from the top down. They are in fact congeries of bottom up sub level social worlds, sub-worlds that are continually coming into and going out of existence; sub-worlds that are continually being negotiated with those of competing interests and are being reified in institutions and social organizations.

An enduring feature of these sub-worlds (that eventually becomes the centerpiece of Mead's explorations) is the idea of social movements. Again "social movements" are systemic processes, and not always nationally or culturally dependent or determined. Nations for instance are not (as the common wisdom imagines them to be) monolithic units held together by a core set of values, etc., but are territories in which many interacting sub worlds exist. These emerge, come alive, evolve negotiate and then die. Thus evolution is not just an attribute of these sub worlds, but a larger and higher systemic process that flows within as well as above them and the societal processes and institutions they bring into being.

Undergirding all of these novel ideas was Mead's belief that Intelligence plus symbolization, plus the self-reflexive ability of man, constitutes the ultimate palette for individual self-creation and self-construction. A prominent subtext of this view is the notion that it was Darwin and the quantum physicists who released man from the shackles of determinism.

As a personal note, I worked under the leadership of the renown Professor Charles A. McClelland on the World Interaction Survey (WEIS) at USC., which (without knowing it at the time) was in a real sense a bold attempt to realize in the real world Mead's theoretical approach. We used computerized newspaper clippings of international events from around the world as a basis for measuring international tensions based solely on cross-national communicated interactions. Although at the time, McClelland's "interactionist approach" was fashioned after and grounded in the theoretical frame work of the General Systems theorists such as Ross Ashby, Ludwig von Bertalanffy, et. al. While we were remotely aware of Mead's work, it would have been impossible to see its full power in context at the time. For much of his work appeared as scattered fragments.At the time I had read Mead's "Mind, Self, and Society" missing the deep implications it could have had for our project altogether. The WEIS project did have some success (used as a basis for university research, in the intelligence community and by a few military contractors for a time and is still being maintained by Professor Rodney Tomlison at the U.S. Naval Academy) and then died a normal death. But what a missed opportunity!

Five Stars

Social Phychology & Sociology
Mead, unhappy had never written a book, but this book is him ideas, and is the only phylosopher that makes a way between nature science and culture science. he makes the link between concrete & abstract ... Read more

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George Herbert (1593-1633) is widely regarded as the greatest devotional poet in the English language. His volume of poems, The Temple, published posthumously in 1633, became one of the most widely read and influential collections of the seventeenth century. Almost 400 years after they were first published in Cambridge by the 'printers to the Universitie', Cambridge University Press is pleased to present the definitive scholarly edition of Herbert's complete English poems, accompanied by extensive explanatory and textual apparatus. The text is meticulously annotated with historical, literary and biblical information, as well as the modern critical contexts which now illuminate the poems. In addition to the lively introduction and notes, this edition includes a glossary of key words, an index of biblical quotations, and the authentic texts of Herbert's work. ... Read more

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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

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This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's large-scale digitization efforts. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the original text that can be both accessed online and used to create new print copies. The Library also understands and values the usefulness of print and makes reprints available to the public whenever possible. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found in the HathiTrust, an archive of the digitized collections of many great research libraries. For access to the University of Michigan Library's digital collections, please see http://www.lib.umich.edu and for information about the HathiTrust, please visit http://www.hathitrust.org ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A Prize for the few right readers
This is a wonderful volume.
It's well bound; and full of delights.
The texts are enriched with 56 pages of biography and scholarly introduction and 133 pages of commentary.
In addition to Herbert's beautiful poems of The Church, there are other delightful and instructive works, such as The Country Parson, Outlandish Proverbs, some letters, and his Will.
Add to this about ninety pages of Latin poetry and prose (much of which is easy to read -- if Latin isn't Greek to you), and you have a wonderful book.

The Reader who will enjoy this book is probably a meditative Christian with a scholarly bent, who is comfortable with 17th century English poetry, is familiar with the Bible, and has no problem with Herbert's theology.If you read Latin, that's a great bonus -- but not utterly necessary to enjoy and cherish this book.

Don't buy this edition until it's fixed.
This kindle edition lacks a table of contents, making it difficult to locate individual poems.There are also formatting problems: different sizes of font on the same page, and kindle font change controls don't work.Amazon has asked for the file to be fixed.Don't buy till it's fixed.Also, 9.99 is a lot for a book that is out of copyright, unless it is a really good modern critical edition with notes.I hope one of the good modern editions of Herbert is made available for kindle. ... Read more

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Love and Mr. Lewisham is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of H. G. (Herbert George) Wells then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Wells' social fiction
Love and Mr. Lewisham is the story of a young man who seeks to better himself and achieve glory through educational achievements.His love life, however, derails this ambition in several different ways.This is Wells' exploration of the dilemmas of the young man torn between career and relationship.Wells fans will realize that the ending of the book did not mirror his actual feelings/behavior on marriage.

pretty good book that's not really well known
i just grabbed a book one day from the library and it turned out to be a good story. i was surprised that wells, a big author, wrote such an unknown book. try it out. ... Read more

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This volume presents the major works of five poets—George Herbert,Richard Crashaw, Andrew Marvell, Henry Vaughan, and Thomas Traherne.While most of the selections fall under the heading of religiouspoetry, the important secular verse of Marvell and Crashaw is included.

Eighty poems by Herbert have been selected from The Temple, and twoearly poems from Isaak Walton's Lives are also included. Crashaw isrepresented by sixteen poems from Steps to the Temple, Delights of theMuses, and Carmen Deo Nostro; Marvell, by eighteen selections fromMiscellaneous Poems; Vaughan, by forty-five poems from SilexScintillans, Parts I and II; and Traherne, by twelve poems from theDobell Folio, The Third Century, and the Burney Manuscript.

All of the texts have been freshly edited, and spelling has beenmodernized. Textual Notes specify the procedures followed and givereasons for certain new readings. The poems are fully annotated inorder to clarify unfamiliar allusions and images.

A broad range of critical viewpoints is represented in essays by SamuelTaylor Coleridge, Aldous Huxley, W. H. Auden, T. S. Eliot, Anthony Low,L. C. Knights, E. B. Greenwood, Joseph H. Summers, Douglas Bush, HelenC. White, Austin Warren, Richard Strier, Frank Kermode, William Empson,M. C. Bradbrook, M. G. Lloyd Thomas, Edward S. Le Comte, KarinaWilliamson, Dennis Davidson, Robert Ellrodt, E. C. Pettet, S. Sandbank,Arthur Clements, H. M. Margoliouth, and Stanley Stewart.

An Annotated Bibliography covers historical and cultural background,the lives and works of the individual poets, and several importantaspects of religious belief especially relevant to the poems. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent for literary purposes and for thinking richly about God
Excellent texts that you will want to read and reread slowly so as to let the full depth of the poems sink in.I especially enjoyed Traherne and Herbert.It is obvious that these authors had a deep relationship with God and had spent many hours meditating on the richnesss of His love towards us. ... Read more