Product Description
Timo von Block, a Baltic nobleman, spurns an appropriate marriage to wed a peasant's daughter and becomes an outcast among his fellow aristocrats, an act of defiance topped only by his subsequent letter of criticism to Czar Alexander I. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Interesting History
This book, based on an actual journal, tells the story of a Baltic baron (Timo von Bock)in the 1800's set in Livonia (now Estonia).

Timo, who doesn't beleive in the class structure of the time, and falls in love withand marries a poor Estonian girl (unheard of for a baron to do). But it ishis mysterious letter to the Czar that lands him 9 years in jail and costshim all his teeth. He is only released after he is deemed a"Madman" and is allowed to return to his home, but remains under"house arrest".

The journal is written by the brother of Timoswife who lived with them at the time, and the book is the journalre-written and made into a more fictional story by the author Jaan Kross.The story is tragic and sad, but well written and even tho there is no realclimax to the story, the day-to-day life of these interesting people keepsyou turning the pages to see what happens next.

It's also an interestingfact (altho not mentioned in the story, only in the authors notes) thatTimo was actually the great-grandson of Peter the Great!

The first review above is of a different book!
The first review printed here (From KirkusReviews , 01/01/94) is a review of "Professormarten's Departure" also by Jaan Kross, not "TheCzar's Madman"!

All in our book group gave this book a "thumbs-up."
After a trip to the encylopedia for a quick refresher on CzarsAlexanderI and Nicholas I, a look at the atlas to realize that Estonia is very close to St. Petersburg and a dictionary search for "Livonia," The Czar's Madman became a fascinating novel of post-Napoleonic Russia.Clearly Timotheus ("Timo") von Bock, an Estonian aristocrat, has been effected by the French philosophes and the Age of Reason.His ideas are "mad" by Russian uppercrust standards.

The narrator of the book is Timo's brother-in-law, Jakob, whose journal writing over 32 years gives the reader a glimpse of many richly detailed and vivid characters and locations. This literary devise lends an air of unfolding mystery.While writing about life going on around him, Jakob emerges as a character, with all his human flaws, that we care about.

Kudos to the author and the translator.

An outstanding novel - one of the subtlest I've ever read
The Czar's Madman is a fascinating historical mystery and also a masterpiece of modern fiction. It's like Estonia's War and Peace, except that it is much funnier, and much more frightening. I urge everyone to have a go at reading it. Kross really is someone to get to know ... Read more

Product Description
Poetry. Poems born in "a time of abrupt needs," this collection catalogs those individual and imperative fancies that, in the cosmos of Tomaz Salamun, eternity aims to replace: A genealogy of dressmakers and songbirds. A biography that locates the poetic "I" as, at once, a primordial being and a tamer of beasts, a monster and a guardian angel. With uncanny and sometimes harrowing grace, Salamun plumbs every reach of the imagination in search of a space where we can delight in and mourn the disintegration of the body. The nine translators who collaborated to bring out this new book by a "major Central European poet" (The New Yorker) include Thomas Kane, Peter Richards, Phillis Levin, Joshua Beckman, Ana Jelnikar, Christopher Merrill, Matthew Rohrer, Brian Henry, and Anselm Hollo. ... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: Eleni Sikelianos, Bernard Lietaer, Brenda Coultas, Anselm Hollo, Andrew Schelling, Martha Ronk, Maureen Owen. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 34. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Eleni Sikélianòs is an American poet. She was raised in California. She graduated from the Naropa Institute with an M.F.A. She taught at Teachers ... Read more

Product Description
1st and probably only edition, Limited to 240 copies. Privately printed, Iowa City, T. G. Miller, 1969. Measures 11 inches tall by 4.5 inches wide in green wrappers. Two poems, one by each poet, signed by both with printed images of both. Flawless, a beautiful, scarce book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

More than meets the eye here
This book was written during the late 1960s when it first became fashinable to take an "enlightened" view on crime, criminals and the penal system, but it provides some pretty good insight into the mentality of criminals and prison inmates. Elli takes a radical step in making the main character one of the ringleaders of a prison riot, but not the top man. While the riot is taking place, Cully Briston works below the threshold, whispering in his leader's ear when the bossman is about to make an unwise move. He becomes an emmissary between groups out of touch with each other, which often includes the authorities who have taken refuge outside the walls. He tends to always have the answer when it comes to how to respond to the naysayers behind the walls. He has a rep for integrity and trustworthiness among his peers. You find yourself wondering how a guy like this became a convict. But such is the irony of crime--some people who would be very successful in legitimate enterprises chose a life of crime, of victimizing people when they could be leaders those same people could look to in time of need. It gives the lie to that liberal base canard that criminals are people who society has "let down". It's really ironic how a book written during the time when criminals were seen in some circles as victims in their own right can be relevant to the opposite point of view. ... Read more