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Author Topic: Recommended Reading Thread...  (Read 95165 times)

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Offline mcbyrne21

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #125 on: December 09, 2011, 02:50:36 pm »
I see there are a couple of new/newer books out on the period after Alexander's death and the wars between his successors. Has anyone read any and could recommend one?  I have limited my book buying budget severely and am trying to choose just 1.

Thanks!

Offline Jay GT4

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #126 on: February 14, 2012, 05:06:39 pm »
Desmond Seward's Jerusalem's Traitor: Josephus, Masada, and the Fall of Judea is a wonderful historical narrative aimed at a popular audience. Seward is quite the storyteller and he does not skimp on the details. Highly recommended to anyone interested in this crucial subject.

Just picked this one up and am already half way through.  Thanks for the tip, I'm enjoying it!

Offline David Atherton

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #127 on: February 15, 2012, 08:52:05 am »
I'm glad you're enjoying it Jay! It's probably one of the better popular books on the subject, IMHO.


Offline Jay GT4

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #128 on: February 15, 2012, 09:09:08 am »
I also just finished Chasing Aphrodite by Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino

It's the hunt for looted antiquities at the world's richest museum the Getty and Met.  Fantastic book that reads like a mystery novel only it's true.  I really recommend this book, it'll change the way you think about museums.


Offline cicerokid

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #129 on: February 15, 2012, 03:02:24 pm »

Much more closer in time but the subject of a recent film" Anonymous", whose hero I think is the Earl of Oxford, de Vere  who died in 1604 ( yes really!)

"Contested Will", by the  American scholar and author of the excellent "1599", James Shapiro charts where the 3 main contenders of the "who wrote Shakespeare" question came from and why.

I have no doubt: Mr William Shakespeare ( various spellings!) of Stratford upon Avon 1564-1616.

Niether does James Shapiro.


( and I'm not just saying that 'cos Stratford upon Shakespeare is 20 miles away  :) ).


Cic
Timeo Danaos afferentem coronas

Offline David Atherton

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #130 on: February 15, 2012, 04:16:42 pm »

Much more closer in time but the subject of a recent film" Anonymous", whose hero I think is the Earl of Oxford, de Vere  who died in 1604 ( yes really!)

"Contested Will", by the  American scholar and author of the excellent "1599", James Shapiro charts where the 3 main contenders of the "who wrote Shakespeare" question came from and why.

I have no doubt: Mr William Shakespeare ( various spellings!) of Stratford upon Avon 1564-1616.

Niether does James Shapiro.


( and I'm not just saying that 'cos Stratford upon Shakespeare is 20 miles away  :) ).


Cic

Conspiracy theorist even creep into English literature. The imminent British actor Derek Jacobi sadly has fallen for this load of rubbish. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_Jacobi#Shakespeare_authorship_involvement

Offline David Atherton

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #131 on: February 22, 2012, 12:12:59 am »
A big recommendation for N. H. H. Sitwell's Outside the Empire: The World The Romans Knew. There are numerous books out there about what was inside the Roman Empire, this book goes some distance to tell us what the Romans knew about the world beyond their borders. Each chapter goes into detail about a different area - Germany, Eastern Europe, Africa, India, China, and so forth. Written in a breezy narrative style that makes this book a joy. A truly fascinating read. I picked the book up rather cheaply and it can easily be found on Alibris.com or amazon.

N.B. The maps are OK but one would do better to have The Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World close at hand.

Also, Sitwell had previously written another great book called Roman Roads of Europe which goes hand and hand with Outside The Empire.

Offline David Atherton

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...*Roman Passions*
« Reply #132 on: November 27, 2012, 10:35:51 pm »
After reading the book Roman Passions by Ray Laurence, I was reminded of an inscription on a Roman tombstone - "Wine, sex and baths – they ruin the body, but they make life worth living". That, in a nutshell, is what this book is about. If you ever wanted to know what the Romans craved and enjoyed, this is the book for you!

With chapters on bathing, sex, food, gardens, and a host of other pleasures this monograph covers a lot of ground. Highly recommended!

Offline Jay GT4

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #133 on: December 29, 2012, 12:45:15 am »
I just finished In the Shadow of the Sword by Tom Holland It's the history of the world after Rome, basically how Persia and the east became Muslim.  Very interesting read and gives some real insight into why the world is divided the way it is today.

Here's the description from Amazon:

"In the 6th century AD, the Near East was divided between two venerable empires: the Persian and the Roman. A hundred years on, and one had vanished forever, while the other seemed almost finished. Ruling in their place were the Arabs: an upheaval so profound that it spelt, in effect, the end of the ancient world. In The Shadow of the Sword, Tom Holland explores how this came about. Spanning Constantinople to the Arabian desert, and starring some of the most remarkable rulers who ever lived, he tells a story vivid with drama, horror and startling achievement."


Offline Jay GT4

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #134 on: January 15, 2013, 08:24:56 am »
Just bought "Livia, Empress of Rome" by Matthew Dennison.  So far so good.

Offline Jay GT4

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #135 on: March 14, 2013, 06:01:25 pm »
Just started "Cleopatra the Great: the Woman behind the Legend by Dr. Joann Fletcher"

I'm over 100 pages in and still haven't really learned anything about Cleopatra  :laugh: so far its been a history of Alexander the Ptolemy's and Egypt but it's good none the less. 

Offline David Atherton

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #136 on: March 14, 2013, 06:52:29 pm »
Just started "Cleopatra the Great: the Woman behind the Legend by Dr. Joann Fletcher"

I'm over 100 pages in and still haven't really learned anything about Cleopatra  :laugh: so far its been a history of Alexander the Ptolemy's and Egypt but it's good none the less. 

I've read her popular book on Amenhotep III and thought it was fairly decent.

Offline Jay GT4

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #137 on: April 04, 2013, 09:43:54 pm »
Just started "Cleopatra the Great: the Woman behind the Legend by Dr. Joann Fletcher"

I'm over 100 pages in and still haven't really learned anything about Cleopatra  :laugh: so far its been a history of Alexander the Ptolemy's and Egypt but it's good none the less. 

I've read her popular book on Amenhotep III and thought it was fairly decent.

Problem is this one seems to be all about Egyptian religion.  I'm almost half way through and I still have learned nothing about Cleopatra except that she supported various local temples...get on with it!

Today two new books arrived.

Scipio Africanus: Romes Greatest General by Richard A. Gabriel

A Jew Among Romans: The Life and Legacy of Flavius Josephus by Frederic Raphael

Offline Molinari

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #138 on: April 05, 2013, 07:47:53 am »
I didn't realize we had a recommended reading thread.  Here is an article I read yesterday that I highly recommend, for anyone interested in Janus, his temple, and early Roman "religious" practices:

Taylor, Rabun, "Watching the Skies:Janus, Auspication, and the Shrine in the Roman Forum" in Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, Vol. 45 (2000), pp. 1-40.

If your library has access to databases it should be easy enough to find.  I got mine via JSTOR.

Nick

Offline David Atherton

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #139 on: April 05, 2013, 08:26:07 am »
Today two new books arrived.

Scipio Africanus: Romes Greatest General by Richard A. Gabriel

A Jew Among Romans: The Life and Legacy of Flavius Josephus by Frederic Raphael


Fasten your seatbelt while reading the Raphael book, you will be in for quite the ride! Yes, it is about Josephus, but also about so much more.

Offline Jay GT4

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #140 on: April 05, 2013, 07:26:51 pm »
I bought it on your recommendation.  Looking forward to it once I finish Cleo.

Offline Jay GT4

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #141 on: July 09, 2013, 11:08:33 pm »



A Jew Among Romans: The Life and Legacy of Flavius Josephus by Frederic Raphael


Fasten your seatbelt while reading the Raphael book, you will be in for quite the ride! Yes, it is about Josephus, but also about so much more.

You know David, I just wasn't that interested in the "so much more".  Some of the footnotes were longer than the paragraphs and in at least one case took up 3/4 of the page.  It became tedious and sometimes I forgot what the original paragraph was about!   It wasn't really what I was looking for but I'm glad I read it.

Keep the recommendations coming!

Offline WindchildPunico

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #142 on: July 09, 2013, 11:20:37 pm »
I just re-read Caesar's Legion: The Epic Saga of Julius Caesar's Elite Tenth Legion and the Armies of Rome by
Stephen Dando-Collins, which is a great book about the 10th Legion.


I would also recommend Carthage Must be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization by Richard Miles.


Offline David Atherton

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #143 on: July 09, 2013, 11:33:10 pm »



A Jew Among Romans: The Life and Legacy of Flavius Josephus by Frederic Raphael


Fasten your seatbelt while reading the Raphael book, you will be in for quite the ride! Yes, it is about Josephus, but also about so much more.

You know David, I just wasn't that interested in the "so much more".  Some of the footnotes were longer than the paragraphs and in at least one case took up 3/4 of the page.  It became tedious and sometimes I forgot what the original paragraph was about!   It wasn't really what I was looking for but I'm glad I read it.

Keep the recommendations coming!

Well, I suppose his style isn't everyone's cup of tea. It was his unceasing wit that mostly propelled me through it.

Offline David Atherton

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #144 on: July 09, 2013, 11:34:57 pm »
I just re-read Caesar's Legion: The Epic Saga of Julius Caesar's Elite Tenth Legion and the Armies of Rome by
Stephen Dando-Collins, which is a great book about the 10th Legion.


I would also recommend Carthage Must be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization by Richard Miles.



Dando-Collins is a very engaging writer, however he plays fast and loose with the facts and can come up with some odd theories. Approach with caution.

Offline WindchildPunico

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #145 on: July 09, 2013, 11:40:18 pm »
I just re-read Caesar's Legion: The Epic Saga of Julius Caesar's Elite Tenth Legion and the Armies of Rome by
Stephen Dando-Collins, which is a great book about the 10th Legion.


I would also recommend Carthage Must be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization by Richard Miles.



Dando-Collins is a very engaging writer, however he plays fast and loose with the facts and can come up with some odd theories. Approach with caution.

I forgot to add that the first is more of a story while the second is much better as a history book.

Offline Jay GT4

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #146 on: April 12, 2014, 07:22:43 pm »
Almost finished Caligula: The Corruption of Power by Anthony Barrett

I'm really enjoying this read.  An excellent biography of Caligula with some very sound theories and conclusions.  I highly recommend it.

Offline Andrew McCabe

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Mommsen, History of Rome
« Reply #147 on: June 08, 2014, 10:17:00 am »
I just bought a nicely bound copy of Mommsen, History of Rome, pictures below. I have to say that the lovely binding makes me question my own motivations as regards books. Of course it's available free on archive.org, or in battered single volumes or reprint on demand for about $10 a volume. Originals are usually badly bound, with pages often falling out, and print on demand is a horrible reading experience, as is trying to read such a massive tome on a computer. So I like to think that my motives in choosing such a nicely rebound old copy were entirely academic - a nice book is such a pleasure to read that it maximise the chances I will actually read it again (I've an abridged version and have read much of the full version in bits and pieces from single volumes borrowed at library. but never end to end in one go). It is very well written indeed, so well written that this was the very book that caused Mommsen to be awarded the Nobel prize in literature for 1902: from the Nobel citation:


The Nobel Prize in Literature 1902 was awarded to Theodor Mommsen "the greatest living master of the art of historical writing, with special reference to his monumental work, A history of Rome".


Presentation Speech by C.D. af Wirsén, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy on December 10, 1902

The second paragraph of the Nobel statutes states that «Literature» should include not only belles-lettres, «but also other writings that in form or content show literary value». This definition sanctions the award of the Nobel Prize in Literature to philosophers, writers on religious subjects, scientists, and historians, provided that their work is distinguished by artistic excellence of presentation as well as by the high value of its content.

 The Swedish Academy this year had to make its choice among many brilliant names that have been suggested. In giving the Prize to the historian Theodor Mommsen, whose name had been proposed by eighteen members of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences, it has selected one of the most celebrated among them.

 A bibliography of Mommsen's published writings, compiled by Zangemeister on the occasion of his seventieth birthday, contains nine hundred and twenty items. One of Mommsen's most important projects was editing the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (1867-1959), a Herculean task despite the assistance of many learned collaborators, for not only did Mommsen contribute to each of the fifteen volumes but the organization of the total work is his lasting achievement. A veritable hero in the field of scholarship, Mommsen has done original and seminal research in Roman law, epigraphy, numismatics, the chronology of Roman history, and general Roman history. Even an otherwise prejudiced critic admitted that he can speak with equal authority on an Iapygian inscription, a fragment of Appius Caecus, and agriculture in Carthage. The educated public knows him chiefly through his Römische Geschichte (1854-55, 1885) [History of Rome], and it is this monumental work in particular that induced the Swedish Academy to award the Nobel Prize to him.

 The work began to appear in 1854; Volume IV has not yet been published, but in 1885 he brought out Volume V, a masterly description of the state of the provinces under the Empire, a period so close to our own that the descriptions could be made to apply to more recent fields of activity which are mentioned in the Nobel statutes and which one can use as a starting point in assessing the total work of the writer. Mommsen's Römische Geschichte, which has been translated into many languages, is distinguished by its thorough and comprehensive scholarship as well as its vigorous and lively style. Mommsen combines his command of the vast material with acute judgment, strict method, a youthful vigour, and that artistic presentation which alone can give life and concreteness to a description. He knows how to separate the wheat from the chaff, and it is difficult to decide whether one should give higher praise and have more admiration for his vast knowledge and the organizing power of his mind or for his intuitive imagination and his ability to turn carefully investigated facts into a living picture. His intuition and his creative power bridge the gap between the historian and the poet. Mommsen felt this relationship when in the fifth volume of his Roman history he said that imagination is the mother not only of poetry but also of history. Indeed, the similarities are great. Ranke's detached objectivity is reminiscent of Goethe's calm greatness, and England did right in burying Macaulay in the poets' corner of Westminster Abbey.

 In a few bold strokes Mommsen has drawn the character of the Roman people and shown how the Roman's obedience to the state was linked to the obedience of son to father. With extraordinary skill he has unrolled the huge canvas of Rome's development from slight beginnings to world rule. He has shown how with the growth of the Empire new tasks outgrew the old and stubbornly preserved constitution; how the sovereignty of the comitia gradually became a fiction, only incidentally realized by demagogues for their own purposes; how the Senate took care of public affairs in an honourable manner, but how the old aristocratic oligarchy that had once served its purpose failed to meet new demands; how a frequently unpatriotic capitalism abused its powers in political speculations; and how the disappearance of the free peasant led to disastrous consequences for the commonwealth. Mommsen also has demonstrated how the frequent change of consuls hampered the unified and consistent conduct of wars, which led to the prolongation of military commands; how at the same time the generals became increasingly independent and how Caesarism became a necessity for many reasons but especially because of the lack of institutions commensurate with the needs of the actual Empire; and how absolutism in many cases would have caused less hardship than the oligarchic rule. False grandeur vanishes before the uncompromising eye of the historian, the wheat is separated from the chaff and, like his admired Caesar, Mommsen has a clear eye for practical needs and that freedom from illusions which he praised in the conquerors of Gaul.

 Various critics have objected that Mommsen is sometimes carried away by his genius for subjective passionate judgments, especially in his frequently unfavourable remarks concerning the last partisans of dying freedom and the opponents of Caesar, and concerning those who wavered between the parties during those hard times. Objections, perhaps not always totally unjustified, have been raised to Mommsen's admiration of the power of genius even where it breaks the law, as well as to his statement that in history, which has no trials for high treason, a revolutionary can be a farsighted and praiseworthy statesman. On the other hand, it must be emphasized that Mommsen never glorifies brute power, but extols that power which serves the high goals of the state; and one has to record his firmly stated conviction that «praise that is corrupted by the genius of evil sins against the sacred spirit of history.» It has also been remarked that Mommsen occasionally applies to ancient conditions modern terms that cannot fully correspond to them (Junkertum, the Roman Coblenz, Camarilla, Lanzknechte, Marschälle, Sbirren, etc.). But this method of stressing the similarities between historical phenomena of different ages is not a product of Mommsen's imagination but of his learning, which has at its disposal many analogues from various periods of history. If it adds too much colour to the narrative, it also adds freshness. Mommsen, by the way, is not a historical materialist. He admires Polybius, but he blames him for overlooking the ethical powers of man, and for having a too mechanical Weltanschauung. Concerning C. Gracchus, the inspired revolutionary whose measures he sometimes praises and sometimes blames, he says that every state is built on sand unless the ruler and the governed are tied together by a common morality. A healthy family life is to him the core of the nation. He severely condemns the curse of the Roman system of slavery. He has seen how a people that still has energy can be morally strengthened by disaster, and there is a pedagogical truth in his words that just as Athens' freedom was born out of the flames with which the Persians ravaged the Acropolis, so today the unity of Italy resulted from the conflagration that the Gauls caused in Rome.

 Learned, lively, sarcastic, and versatile, Mommsen has shed light on the domestic and foreign affairs of Rome, her religion, literature, law, finances, and customs. His descriptions are magnificent; no reader can forget his accounts of the battles of Lake Trasimene, Cannae, Aleria, and Pharsalus. His character sketches are equally lively. In sharp and clear outlines we see the profiles of the «political incendiary» C. Gracchus; of Marius in his last period «when insanity became a power and one plunged into abysses to avoid giddiness »; of Sulla, in particular, an incomparable portrait that has become an anthology piece; of the great Julius Caesar, Mommsen's Roman ideal; of Hannibal, Scipio Africanus, the victor of Zama - not to mention the lesser figures whose features have been drawn clearly by the master's hand.

 With regard to these portraits the historian Treitschke has said that Römische Geschichte is the finest historical work of the nineteenth century and that Mommsen's Caesar and Hannibal must cause enthusiasm in every young man, every young soldier.

 One finds in Mommsen a curious combination of qualities. He is profoundly learned, a sober analyst of sources; yet he can be passionate in his judgments. He describes in great detail and with profound knowledge the inner workings of government and the complexities of economics; but at the same time his battle scenes and character sketches are brilliant. He is perhaps above all an artist, and his Römische Geschichte is a gigantic work of art. Belles-lettres, that noble flower of civilization, receives the last mention in Nobel's will; Mommsen will always be counted among its prime representatives. When he delivered the first volume of his Römische Geschichte to the publisher, he wrote, «the labour has been immense», and on the fiftieth anniversary of his doctorate he spoke fervently of the boundless ocean of scholarship. But in his completed work the labour, however great it may have been, has been obliterated as in any true work of art which receives its own form from nature. The reader treads on safe ground, unmolested by the surf. The great work stands before our eyes as if cast in metal. In his inaugural address in Cambridge, Lord Acton justly called Mommsen one of the greatest writers of the present, and from this point of view especially Mommsen deserves a great literary prize. The most recent German edition of Römische Geschichte has just appeared. There are no changes. The work has retained its freshness; it is a monument which, though it may not possess the soft beauty of marble, is as perennial as bronze. The scholar's hand is visible everywhere, but so is the poet's. And, indeed, Mommsen did write poetry in his youth. The Liederbuch dreier Freunde [Songbook of Three Friends] of 1843 is witness that he might have become a servant of the Muses if, in his own words, circumstances had not brought it about that «what with folios and with prose/not every bud turned out a rose». Mommsen the historian was a friend of Theodor Storm and an admirer of Mörike; even in advanced years he translated works by the Italian poets Carducci and Giacosa.

 Arts and Sciences have often shown the capacity to keep their practitioners young in spirit. Mommsen is both a scholar and an artist, and at eighty-five he is young in his works. Even in old age, as late as 1895, he made valuable contributions to the Proceedings of the Prussian Academy of Sciences.

 The medal of the Nobel Prize in Literature depicts a young man listening to the inspirations of the Muses. Mommsen is an old man, but he possesses the fire of youth, and one rarely realizes as clearly as when reading Mommsen's Römische Geschichte that Clio was one of the Muses. That example of pure history aroused our enthusiasm when we were young; it has kept its power over our minds, as we learn when we reread it now in our older days. Such is the power of historical scholarship if it is combined with great art.

 For the above reasons we are sending today a homage from the country of Erik Gustaf Geijer to Theodor Mommsen.


At the banquet, C.D. af Wirsén delivered a speech in German in which he praised «the master of the art of historical exposition», and, in the name of the Swedish Academy, invited those present to empty their glasses in honour of the «great master of German historical research». The Minister of Germany Count von Leyden, replied for Theodor Mommsen, who was absent.

Offline Jay GT4

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Mommsen, History of Rome
« Reply #148 on: June 08, 2014, 10:31:18 am »
Very nice Andrew.  I like the binding.  Very attractive and I also love having a book in my hand rather than reading on an ipad or computer.

  Just a few months ago a friend of mine gave me all 5 volumes of Mommsen's History of Rome 1901 edition.  It's in its original binding and the pages are in excellent condition.  Just started reading it...


Offline Andrew McCabe

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #149 on: June 08, 2014, 10:43:51 am »
Mines the 1864 edition. Same translator so I assume from a literary perspective it will be much the same despite the additions and corrections in the 1901. I was prompted to buy it due to the annoyance of finding that my library copy was missing some pages and the impracticality of having all five library volumes at home at the one time. I assume my vol IV:1 and IV:2 equates to your vols 4 and 5: in the original conception vol 5 was to cover the provinces and vols 6 onwards the empire but the latter were never written. I'm rather confused however by the Nobel citation speech saying that vol.4 had not yet been published as of 1902 so frankly I'm not quite sure what I'm getting, but it wasn't overly dear at about $100 per rebound volume in three quarter leather with new endpapers and marbling and titled spine. One might pay as much for the binding.

You have nice generous thoughtful friends. The nature of your friends is a vote on your own character too.

 

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