YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS

The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-century Literary Imagination (Yale Nota Bene)

A great insight into Victorian feminism, 1999-10-03
A must for anyone interested in the feminist aspects of Victorian writing. Gilbert and Gubar explore the writings of canonical Victorian women such as Austen, Eliot and the Bronte sisters with an insight sure to fascinate the academic or just the interested everyday reader.

Yemen: Dancing on the Heads of Snakes

Interaction of Color

Eye opening, 2004-06-13
I brought this book for research into colour theory, for use at University. Actually being a computing student, looking for the first time at human interaction, this book really did open my eyes about how much there is to this subject. There are various DIY experiments explained in the book, but in my opinion, some of theories into how we interact with colour are far more interesting.
I would say that this is an interesting (although small) book, by any standards, and is certainly not just useful for studies.

A Little History of the World

A classic for both little adults and big children, 2009-11-25
This is one of those children's books that you don't need to feel embarrassed about reading on the metro. I was a little put off by the very first pages - the prose style seemed to be aimed at very small children rather than 'young people'. Nethertheless, I quickly got used to it and Gombrich rapidly begins making some extraordinarily complex, yet delightful analogies to illustrate his rather sophisticated (and very socialist) takes on history.

Being neither a child nor a young person, I can't for certain say how much these groups will get from this book. I would imagine a lot, although as said, despite the prose, it might be a little difficult for young children. I'm sure readers of every age group will love this, however. A timeless classic hidden away for far too long.

Behind Closed Doors: At Home in Georgian England

Wonderful, readable history, 2009-12-01
I am a great fan of Amanda Vickery's books. And I think that they should be required reading for anyone interested in the social history of the Georgian era.

Her previous work, "The Gentleman's Daughter" was a wonderfully detailed exploration of the intimate lives of women in the 18th century and helped many of us to a greater understanding of Jane Austen's female character's lives, setting them in a recognisable historical context .Her new book "Behind Closed Doors : at home in Georgian England" once again takes the domestic realm as it subject but details it on a much wider scale.

She does not concentrate on one class of people but considers, in minute detail, the intimate lives of landladies and lodgers, tradesmen and women, professionals and aristocrats living in both London and in the provinces.

Its scale is breathtaking and the detail, delicious. And what I really adore is that she admits the historical truth of Jane Austen's writings by including copious quotes from the six novels to illustrate her points. Indeed, she devotes almost half a chapter of the book to consider the way in which the subject of the home is treated by Austen's heroines and heroes, even going so far as to paraphrase the famous opening sentence of Pride and Prejudice.

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Georgian house with a drawing room,French windows and lawns must be in want of a mistress..."

It was an irresistible and understandable opportunity ....I daresay had I been given the chance to play with that famous line, I would not have let it pass either...

While reading Professor Vickery's descriptions of the lives and experiences of real individuals the Jane Austen devotee will find many parallels with the situations in which her characters find themselves.

The book is beautifully produced , printed on fine glossy paper and illustrated in black and white and colour with very appropriate and carefully chosen illustrations.

I confess I have devoured this book and read it quickly almost at one sittting.I am going to revisit it over the next few weeks savouring its detail. I highly recommend this book to you: anyone who is keen on Jane Austen's works will enjoy delving into the minutiae of real people's lives - especially as many of the lives have telling details which echo in Austen's works.

Is it too much to hope that this book will soon appear in a Kindle edition?

The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England,1400-1580

The English Reformation Unmasked, 2002-10-09
A thoroughly satisfying book. Duffy makes it quite clear why he considers it important to examine late medieval English piety in such comprehensive detail in the first part of this book. His minute and coherent analysis is well repaid by illuminating his crisp narrative analysis in the second half. I wished he had spent more time on the background and motivation to the royal visitations which followed in Edward VI's and Elizabeth I's reigns. In particualar the Commons' vote after Elizabeth's succession gets very little space for such a momentous decision. A little more on how the clergy was reorganised and replaced in Mary's reign and Pole's cardinalate would have been interesting for someone new to this subject like myself. Just occasionally there is a tendentious note. For a modern catholic there is something slightly unhealthy in the lack of communion and the pax bread communion surrogate and here one is inclined to side with the reformers and to doubt the vitality of this late medieval piety. But the argument is pushed home with compelling detail. These are parishes not just stripped of their altars but with the very warp of their communities chopped and unravelled with nothing but the hollow clang of Cranmer's solemn humility to echo in the empty spaces.

Lived in London: Blue Plaques and the Stories Behind Them

Not just another tourist pocket book, 2009-07-12
This is not just another pocket book guide. For a start. it is 337 pages long and weighs heavily. The authors from EH have trawled the Blue Plaque archives and they reveal the arguments and infighting that often occurred as well as the changing criteria adopted and names the designers and contractors who made the plaques. The book is superbly illustrated both from archives and with new photographs and gives a potted biog of the individual commemorated. It is an excellent piece of research and a good example of book production from Yale. One error: for George Alexander entry - St James' Theatre was not in King St Covent Garden.

Elizabethan Architecture: Its Rise and Fall, 1540-1640 (Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art)

Elizabethan Architecture, 2009-10-27
For architectural historians this is a 'must have' book for reference; it is the last word on Elizabethan architecture for many years to come.

Weighing in at 5 lbs it is not bed-time reading, a friend tried it and was rudely wakened when it fell on her! The many illustrations are magnificent and lavish; Yale Press has spared no expense and the price is worth it.

The text is divided into subjects which are essays on their own but, if the reader wants to look up, for example Longleat, the pages are scattered through the book. There is much new and interesting and as we have come to expect from Mark, very readable.

The publication was much delayed since the original date of May, due to Mark having to have a sojourn in hospital but now fully recovered.

The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World

A shifting balance of power between the brain hemispheres gives hope for our world, 2010-01-09
This is a fascinating and profoundly insightful exploration of the functions of the two hemispheres of our brain, and how they relate to one another; but it goes much further than that. From a sound background of brain research and neuro imaging covered in some considerable depth in Part One, the second Part goes on to make sense of these findings in a wider worldly context, suggesting how the balance of power may have switched between the two hemispheres over the centuries. We read how this may have influenced human behaviour and how this knowledge can be related to the history of Western culture and thought. The author is therefore able to provide convincing explanations for the present predicament the Western world finds itself in.

I love the skilful use of metaphor throughout the book and the pace with which a new and fascinating story or idea unfolds with each page turned. There is so much that resonates with our human condition and the place we find ourselves in today, and it is difficult to do justice to the sheer scope of coverage in a brief review. It certainly makes sense to me in what I see around me, for example, that Christianity is losing its spirituality to dogma, and that individual responsibility is being dulled by increasing state interference, both symptomatic of a left hemispheric world. I can relate to the idea that our loss of cultural tradition and contact with the natural world reduces our ability to counter such left hemispheric dominance, but that body, soul and art combined may be able to resist such tendencies. The book poses important questions, such as: "Is the obvious inauthenticity of the mechanistic left hemispheric world now going to lead us to seek to change it?" Or "Can we learn from the cultural qualities and values of the East before they become Westernised beyond redemption?"

Most importantly the author leaves us with a message of hope as he shows why there may still be time and opportunity for the empathic and intuitive right hemisphere to assert itself over the mechanistic and rational left hemisphere, with potentially huge significance for our future well being.

Once I began reading I could not put this book down. With his vast experience and knowledge of medicine and psychiatry, philosophy and English literature, the author is more than well qualified to write a book of this enormous scope and depth. Erudite it certainly is, and the book will surely be essential reading for anyone involved in any study of the human brain and human behaviour. But the author's style is so easy and persuasive that any intelligent reader who is concerned for the state of our world should read and truly digest this quite unique and valuable book.

Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill (Yale Center for British Art)