Product Description
This edition brings five of Marston's most interesting plays together in a readable and helpful form. They are collected with modern spelling, full commentaries, textual notes and introductions, in texts newly edited from the original quartos. A survey of criticism of Marston is included. The edition of Sophonisba (a play highly praised by T. S. Eliot) is the first modernised text to appear in one hundred years. Another textual innovation is the relegation to an appendix of Webster's obtrusive additions to The Malcontent. Marston's plays have enjoyed popular revivals in English theatres over the last decade, and the authors' commentary is designed to alert readers to theatrical effects. The playwright's language is elucidated here far more fully than in any other collection. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An excellent play!
Tracers is a compelling, harsh funny and moving look at the Vietnam War, as told by men who fought there. Originally developed through psychodrama workshops, the play takes several archetypal soldiers- the black militant,the scared kid, the hippie soldier, and places them in a series ofvignettes that are frighteningly realistic in what the young men of the 60sand 70s went through in Vietnam. A must read! ... Read more

Product Description
10 Rillington Place is an address that sends a chill down one's spine. Within its grimy walls, its notorious resident John Christie murdered six women and then concealed them in house and garden. There are many gruesome aspects to the case including Christie's sexual proclivities. But most unsettling of all is the fact that another tenant in Christie's house, Timothy Evans, was hanged for murdering his wife and baby girl when Christie may have committed the act. This 'bloody history' takes you inside the claustrophobic confines of Notting Hill's most famous address, drawing on the wealth of Christie trial records at the National Archives, from medical reports to floor plans of the murder house, as well as the inquiries that re-examined the Evans' verdict. ... Read more

Product Description
The entry of the Scots into the English Civil War on 19 January 1644 on the side of Parliament radically changed the balance of power in the North of England. The Royalists in the North were forced onto the defensive and besieged in York. In a bold march Prince Rupert outmanoeuvred his enemies and relieved York without a shot being fired. However, when Rupert met the allied army in battle on Marston Moor on 2 July his cavalry was defeated by Cromwell’s Ironsides who then turned on the Royalist infantry. The result was a hard-fought but catastrophic defeat; the Royalist army was crushed and their forces driven from the north of England. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Decent, No Frills
In Osprey's Campaign #119 Marston Moor 1644, John Tincey summarizes one of the more decisive battles of the English Civil War that lost northern England for the King Charles I.This summary is more interesting than the previous volume on First Newbury, and while the author tends to digress on issues of historiography, he does provide a relatively clean campaign narrative.

In standard Osprey campaign series format, Marston Moor 1644 begins with short sections on the background to the campaign and opposing commanders.The section on opposing armies is unusually long at 22 pages (plus two more pages for the actual order of battle), and includes subsections on deployment and fighting tactics.Unfortunately, much of this space devoted to opposing armies is spent discussing and comparing various modern theories about unknown or controversial aspects of the campaign.Most readers will probably find this section tedious and distracting from the campaign narrative.The author then spends 14 pages on the early stages of the campaign, particularly the relief of York, and then covers the battle itself in 26 pages.The campaign narrative is supported by five 2-D maps (the opening campaigns of 1644, the siege of York, Rupert's march north, the relief of York, and the aftermath of Marston Moor) as well as three 3-D Birds Eye View maps of the battle itself.The three battle scenes by Graham Turner (probably Osprey's best contract artist) are excellent: the relief of York, Cromwell's Ironsides charging and the last stand of the Whitecoats.

Most of the military actions of the English Civil War appear confusing to modern American readers and herein lies the value of studying such conflicts.Unlike our own Civil War, which was fairly linear in nature, the English Civil War was set in a more fluid and non-linear environment.From the King's perspective, the enemy lay in the southeast, southwest and northeast.This non-linear combat environment and low force density resulted in very mobile operational methods and control of population centers (with attendant tax resources) became the decisive terrain.One such piece of decisive terrain was the city of York in the northeast; the Parliamentarians besieged it and the King sent Prince Rupert's army to lift the siege.Rupert's relief of York is probably the best part of this volume and should be studied carefully by military professionals.The Parliamentarian army occupied a favorable blocking position on key terrain overlooking the most obvious direct route into the city and awaited Rupert's advance.Boldly, Rupert fixed the enemy's attention with a small feint and then marched the bulk of his army across an undefended bridge far to the north and then slipped into York without firing a shot.

As for the Battle of Marston Moor, Tincey does a decent job describing the battle, although it is not always clear from his account why one side or the other prevailed in certain engagements.Clearly, the fact that Rupert's army did not expect battle to begin so late in the day and was surprised by the enemy's sudden attack was a major factor (similar to the Roman disaster at Adrianople in 378).Tincey argues that discipline was also a factor, in that the superior Royalist cavalry was difficult to reign in after one charge, while Cromwell's Ironsides were capable of reforming quickly.However, one could argue that it really was an issue of managing reserves, and both armies suffered from poor command and control after the initial action began at Marston Moor.Although both sides had light cannon at Marston Moor, there is virtually no mention of their participation.Tincey is also vague on casualties, relying instead only on a 17th Century source (no mention of modern diggings on the battlefield). ... Read more

Product Description
This edition brings together Marston's five major plays--Antonia and Mellida, Antonio's Revenge, The Malcontent, Measure for Measure, The Dutch Courtesan, Sophonisba--in one volume. Under the general editorship of Michael Cordner, the texts of the plays are presented with modernized spelling and punctuation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A quirky genius
Marston is among the first rank of English Renaissance dramatists, right up there with Marlowe, Middleton, and Webster. His achievement, however, is not fully commensurate with his genius: his reputation rests largely on one play, the satire THE MALCONTENT, which helped establish the fad for "disguised ruler" plays in the early 17th century (including Shakespeare's MEASURE FOR MEASURE). The other four plays in this collection, however, are also consistently fascinating.

Marston is a rather anomalous figure in many ways; in the middle of a successful career as a dramatist, he became a clergyman and completely dissociated himself with the theater, even refusing to allow his name to be used on a printed collection of his plays. Unlike Middleton and Shakespeare, Marston wrote for the "boys'" acting company of St. Paul's Cathedral which used the indoor Blackfriars theater. Marston's works themselves are quite unique, blending tragedy and comedy in a highly satirical combination. His satirical perspective typifies the Jacobean period more than the Elizabethean. He has a real gift for language, with many very memorable lines. Another unusual feature of Marston's works is the many songs and musical interludes; the lyrics are included, but the music has been lost. This collection is essential reading for fans of Shakespeare and the English Renaissance. The introduction is highly intelligent and insightful, well worth reading.

The general editors of this series should be flogged, however, for using inconvenient endnotes instead of footnotes. Notes are essential, as Marston liked to sprinkle Latin quotations throughout the dialogue, but turning to the back five to ten times each page will drive a reasonable person crazy. The editors seem to take an adolescent pleasure in pointing out every single possible sexual reference. There are many of them, but the editors sometimes invent sexual references even where they don't exist. As Freud once said, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. In any case, I don't need the editors to tell me of a sexual reference. If you have to explain it, the joke isn't funny.

Useful edition.Needed to be done.
Since Amazon.com can't be bothered to list the contents of all the books, I thought I'd be helpful:this one contains The Malcontent, Antonio and Mellida, Antonio's Revenge, The Dutch Courtesan, and Sophonisba. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

Good Reading - Betrayals and Unexpected Twists
In 1601 John Marston, William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and George Chapman were described as "the best and chiefest of our modern writers".Today, only English majors are likely to be acquainted with John Marston's works. Even his most popular play, The Malcontent (1604), is seldom encountered.

The Malcontent is often categorized as a revenge play, although it is quite unlike Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy, Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, or The Revenger's Tragedy (uncertain authorship).Even though deceit, betrayal, disguises, and attempted murders are essential elements of the plot, The Malcontent lacks the brutality that characterizes other Elizabethan and Jacobean revenge plays. Unexpectedly, as the play develops, Malevole, the disguised Duke of Genoa, shows some willingness to forgive others for their past injustices. The recovery and restoration of character becomes more important than revenge.

The Malcontent makes good reading. Cascading betrayals and unexpected twists maintained my interest throughout all five acts. Unlike many contemporaneous plays, the plot is not complicated by extraneous subplots.The action, although sometimes convoluted, is all tightly connected.All in all, I found the The Malcontent to be easier reading than most Elizabethan and Jacobean plays.

Induction: Act I is preceded by an Induction by John Webster, a six page witty discussion among five of the Globe Theatre actors (including Richard Burbage) regarding the author's intentions and recent modifications to the play itself. Apparently, The Malcontent had been previously staged by a rival theatre, the Children of the Queen's Revels at Blackfriars. While of interest to scholars in unraveling the early history of Marston's play, this induction is not germane to the plot itself.

Staging: In the introduction Bernard Harris, the editor of the New Mermaids edition, describes The Malcontent as "a theatrically ambitious and bewilderingly active play, rich in details of staging."Scenes require attendants, pages, lights, ladies, processions, music, dancing, costumes, jewelry, feasts, and even the devising of a masque.

A Fun Play!
Malevole, the title character of Marston's masterpiece, has good reason to be a malcontent: he is the disguised, deposed rightful ruler of Genoa. The play is a collection of intrigues, questions as to who knows what about whom, and disguises. It is a great joy to read and one of my favorite pieces of Renaissance literature.

The New Mermaid edition is very nice, with a good introduction, but the language has been modernized more than in most editions. ... Read more

Product Description
The images of early west photographer William HenryJackson capture a Colorado landscape both pristine and alreadydramatically affected by the onslaught on westerncivilization. Standing exactly where Jackson stood, and pointing hisown camera in precisely the same direction, John Fielder hasrephotographed Jackson's Colorado images to capture the oftenstartling change that has occurred over the last century. The resultis both breathtaking and stark, hopeful and disquieting. Jackson's andFielder's photography is accompanied by thoughtful and provocativeessays by respected experts in the environmental field: Roderick Nash,America's foremost wilderness historian and author of Wilderness andthe American Mind; Ed Marston, journalist and publisher of HighCountry News; and Eric Paddock, Curator of Photography at the ColoradoHistorical Society. John Fielder describes the profound experience oftraveling the state and seeing the landscape from Jackson'sperspective, and reflects upon changes of the last 130 years.

The contrast between Jackson's and Fielder's photographs not onlyilluminates Colorado's past but will help us determine the course ofland management as we move into the next century. Accompanied by aneducational program that includes lectures, a traveling exhibit,newspaper serialization, and television series, this book is aimed atencouraging people to appreciate and reflect on nature, history, andphotography as we move into the next century. Colorado: 1870-2000stands not only as an important document of westward exploration,expansion, and urbanization, but helps define our past and futureenvironmental values. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (27)

Fabulous Colorado
this is a most beautiful book.we bought our copy in 2000 while we were living in colorado.it is a prized possession.the one i purchased recently was for a friend who bought a copy while out staying with us in colorado.she has lost it and was missing it.we found a replacement on amazon and she is delighted.the pictures show 'then and now' and tell a wonderful story.the narrative is gorgeous too.

what a book!
This book is an amazing capture of what has happened to our world. You are able to see what scenes were like 150 years ago and compare what they are like today. The photographers are so exact that people have been placed in the scene at the exact site.If you wonder if global warming in real than take a look at this picture. You can see the glaciers and rocks change between the pictures. It is amazing and wonderfully done. I bought 3 for Christmas gifts and now want to buy one for my own family.

Binding Fell Apart
I noticed the review that said this book was worthy of "permanent display on your coffee table."Well, I don't think that will be possible with my book, as the binding fell apart after 6 months.The book has gotten a fair amount of use, but nothing out of the ordinary.I've since seen a similar problem with a couple of the display copies at bookstores (which is why they've been demoted to display copies).So I don't think this is an isolated problem.It seems like the book is so big that they didn't make a strong enough binding for it.So just a warning for this thinking of buying this book.The good news is that, on the advice of one of the reviews, I bought Colorado: Yesterday & Today to replace my copy of Colorado: 1870-2000.I agree that it is the better book and now it will be on permanent display on my coffe-table.

Worthy of permanent display on a coffee table
This book is excellent in look, feel, and quality.It is intriguing to see how much landscape has changed in 130 years.Many times for the better and many times for the worse.In every case it is very interesting to see two pictures side by side and compare 1870 with 2000.The photographer was very meticulous to capture every shot as closely as possible to the original perspective and frame, which really enhances the "then and now" feel of the book.

Clearing Up the Confusion and Getting the Photo Details
There appears to be some confusion as all of the reviews of the original "Colorado 1870-2000" big book are credited to this, the paperback "Colorado 1870-2000 Revisited: The History Behind the Images".This book is a companion book to the original.It takes each photo set from the big book and goes into detail about the location, changes, and how Fielder acquired each photo. These are the things that, being left out of the original, made several people give the big book negative reviews.While it would have been nice (and certainly less expensive) to have everything in one volume, we now have the information for which those disappointed with the big book were looking.While the big book is a piece of coffee table art, the Revisited book fits neatly on your bookshelf, ready to be taken down to answer those questions posed by your friends perusing the big book.I take a bit of offense at having to have paid for two different books, but they belong together and I feel were money well spent; the big book for the beautiful photos and the revisited book for its entertaining and educational material. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Albion, published by North American Conference on British Studies on June 22, 2002. The length of the article is 1221 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Drama of John Marston: Critical Re-Visions. (Reviews of Books).(Book Review)
Author: Robert C. Evans
Publication: Albion (Refereed)
Date: June 22, 2002
Publisher: North American Conference on British Studies
Volume: 34Issue: 2Page: 303(3)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more