History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)

Average customer rating:

Check and see
Suprise! Suprise!
Prescient St Augustine?
Something of a disappointment
Romulus courts Helen, Paris founds Rome, Moses goes to Troy..

History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)
Anatoly T Fomenko
Manufacturer: Delamere Resources LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Assyria, Babylonia & Sumer | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

Historiography | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Medieval | World | History | Subjects | Books

German | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Russian | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Spanish | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Chinese | Classics | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Mythology & Folklore | Encyclopedias | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Controversial Knowledge | Religious Studies | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

History | Religious Studies | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Celtic | Earth-Based Religions | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Magic & Wizards | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

History | Fashion | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Nonfiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Reference Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Religion & Spirituality Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Science Fiction & Fantasy Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 2913621066

Product Description

`History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2` is the second volume of the most explosive and astounding tractate on history ever written - however, every theory it contains, no matter how unorthodox, is backed by rock solid scientific data. The book is easy and pleasant to read; it is well-illustrated, contains hundreds of charts, graphs and illustrations, copies of ancient manuscripts, and countless facts attesting to the falsity of the chronology used nowadays. You will be amazed to discover: - That the chronology universally accepted today and taken for granted is simply wrong; - That ALL methods of dating of ancient sources and artefacts known today are erroneous or non-exact; - That there is not a single document that could be reliably dated earlier than the XIth century; The Author refers to the Middle Ages as the Antiquity and proves mutual superimposition of the Second and the Third Roman Empire, both of which become identified as the respective kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Furthermore, he asserts that the famous reform of the Occidental Church in the XI century by Pope Gregory Hildebrand was the reflection of the XII century reforms of Byzantine emperor Andronicus who in his turn identifies with Jesus Christ. The Trojan war counted by Homer happened only as late as of the XIII century A.D. and the great poet actually lived in XIV century A.D. No stone in history of Antiquity is left unturned. Literally. This book is the beginning of a major correction to the chronology we live with.

Customer Reviews:

Check and see.......2007-06-21

I don't care what other people say of this book. Those affirmig it's fake, they hadn't ever read it. Or have some special reasons to do so. "Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see..." This book won't make you feel comfortable. It'll make you feel free. It'll make you feel you're "not the only one" to feel you'd been lied to for centuries.

Suprise! Suprise!.......2007-03-22

Here is a serie of books which turns "the whole world" upside down. I learned a lot of it and I hope that a new book from A.T. Fomenko will follow very quick. A absolute must for everybody who is interested in history or even a little bit from it.

Prescient St Augustine?.......2006-02-05

We can so far divide the New Chronology into the following three parts:

a) The verifiable theory that proves consensual chronology wrong with the aid of astronomy, statistics and mathematics;

b) The new chronology hypothesis based on a new understanding of known historical facts and the most likely logical explanation of the most obvious inconsistencies inherent in the official version of history;

c) The history conjectures, that is experimental historical reconstructions based on assumptions that the authors believe to make sense in the light of their research and linguistic parallels - void of ironclad factual support to date.

Fomenko's theory complies with the most rigid scientific standards as a whole:

It gives a coherent explanation of what we already know.

- It is consistent: independent lines of inquiry all lead to the same conclusion.

- The predictions it makes are confirmed empirically.

Fomenko goes by the following axioms:

- Chronology is the basis of history;

- Human evolution has always been linear, gradual and irreversible;

- The "cyclic" nature of human civilization is a myth, likewise all the gaps, duplicates, "dark ages" and "renaissances" that we know from consensual history;

- The accumulation of geographical knowledge as reflected in cartography is a gradual and irreversible process;

- The chronological distance between a given manuscript and the events described therein is proportional to the amount of distortions it contains;

- There is no "useless" information in authentic ancient sources.

Why the mainstream historians do not shower mathematician Academician Dr.Prof Fomenko with thanks and laurels?

The Russians:

Because Fomenko asserts that there was no such thing as the Tartar and Mongol invasion followed by three centuries of slavery, providing a formidable body of documental evidence to prove his assertion. The so-called "Tartars and Mongols" were the actual ancestors of the modern Russians, living in a bilingual state with Arabic spoken as freely as Russian. The ancient Russian state was governed by a double structure of civil and military authorities. The hordes were actually professional armies with a tradition of lifelong conscription (the recruitment being the so-called "blood tax"). Their "invasions" were punitive operations against the regions that attempted tax evasion. Fomenko proves that Russian history as we know it today is a blatant forgery concocted by a host of German scientists brought to Russia by the usurper dynasty of the Romanovs, whose ascension to the throne was the result of coup d'état, charged with the mission of making their reign look legitimate. Fomenko proves Ivan the Terrible to be a collation of four rulers, no less. They represented the two rival dynasties - the legitimate rulers and the ambitious upstarts. The winner took it all! Over some 30 years of controversy, Russian historians have made a most remarkable transition - they were initially accusing the young mathematician Fomenko of anticommunist dissident activity and attempts to deface the historical legacy of Soviet Russia; nowadays the middle-aged mathematician is accused of adhering to "pro-communist Russian nationalism" and defacing the proud historical legacy of Great Russia.

The Westerners:

Because Fomenko blows consensual Russian history to smithereens, successfully removing a crucial cornerstone from underneath the otherwise impeccable edifice of World History. Fomenko adds insult to injury, wiping out one by one the Ancient Rome (the foundation of Rome in Italy is dated to the XIV century A. D.), the Ancient Greece and its numerous poleis, which he identifies as the mediaeval crusader settlements on the territory of Greece, and the Ancient Egypt (the pyramids of Giza become dated to the XI-XV century A. D. and identified as the royal cemetery of the Global "Mongolian" Empire, no less). The civilization of the Ancient Egypt is irrefutably dated to the XII-XV century A. D. with the aid of the ancient Egyptian horoscopes cut in stone. He was the first one to decipher and date all such horoscopes, coming up with mediaeval dates in every case. English historians rage at the suggestion that the history of Ancient England was de facto a Byzantine import transplanted to the English soil by the fugitive Byzantine nobility. To reward the English historians who consider themselves the true scribes of World History, the cover of the present book portrays Tintoretto's Jesus Christ crucified on the Big Ben.

The Chinese:

Because Fomenko wipes out the Ancient History of China outright. No such thing. Full point. The compilation of the so-called Ancient Chinese History is reliably datable to the XVII-XVIII century only. It is perfectly recognizable as the Ancient European history, reworked and transcribed in hieroglyphs as yet another historical transplantation, this time performed on the Chinese soil by the loving Jesuit hands. The Chinese are the next in line to go berserk. Chinese history is inevitably bound to get both more ancient and more eventful, proportionally to the growing involvement of China in the world affairs. Chinese historians will keep on finding valid proof of prehistoric Chinese spaceflights until the Politburo orders them to shut up.

The Arabs:

Too bad. Islam with all its key figures is datable to XV-XVI century A. D. Arabic historians may find consolation in the crucial historical role of the Ottoman Empire in the XVI-XVII century. The trouble is that this empire was initially a Christian state, with Hagia Sophia identifiable as Temple of Solomon, according to Fomenko! We can only guess if the acquisition of Alexander the Great (a Macedonian and a Christian) as the founder of the Muslim World Empire will make Fomenko's theories more acceptable to the Arabic mainstream. He certainly does not spare any holy cows at all, claiming The Stone of Qa'Aba in Mecca to contain the lost Arch of the Covenant.

The Divinity:

Despite of reiterated statement that his theory is all about chronology and not Religion, Fomenko stirs up a whole condominium of wasp nests. His collection of anathemas, fatwa, and other condemnations from all parties concerned is already considerable. Little wonder, considering that the history of religions à la Fomenko looks as follows: the pre-Christian period (before the XI century and JC), Bacchic Christianity (XI-XII century, before and after JC), JC Christianity (XII-XVI century) and its subsequent mutations into Orthodox Christianity, the Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism, and so on.

According to Fomenko we know strictly NOTHING about the events that predate the X century A. D.

St Augustin was prescient when he spoke unto us: "be wary of mathematicians, particularly when they speak the truth."

Something of a disappointment.......2005-09-09

After having read the first volume of this expected series of 7 volumes I was triggered by the thesis of these authors that ancient Greek and Roman history did in fact take place in the Middle Ages. So I started studying medieval history of the Middle East - also known as Islamic history - to find out if the opponents of the ancient Greeks and Romans - the Acheamenid Persians, Sassanids, Scythians, Egyptians, etc. - also have their duplicates in medieval history. My search was disappointing: none of the many medieval Islamic dynasties seemed to correspond to the ancient middle eastern rulers.

However, I did find a close correspondence between Herodotus' Persian kings and medieval events:

- the defeat and capture of an Anatolian king - the Lydian Croesus - by the Persian conqueror Cyrus is identical to the defeat and capture of another Anatolian king - sultan Bayezid - by the Asian/Mongol conqueror Tamerlane;
- the Persian conquest of Egypt by the cruel tyrant Cambyses reds almost exactly as the Ottoman conquest of Egypt by Selim the Grim (note the nickname!);
- Darius the Lawgiver of the Persian Empire looks very much alike to Sulayman the Magnificent, the Lawgiver in Islamic history;
- Xerxes, whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by the Greeks at the naval battle of Salamis, looks like Selim II (the Sot) whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by a Spanish-Italian alliance at the naval battle of Lepanto.

I should have expected Fomenko et al. to arrive at similar conclusions, however, they claim that the Persian kings are the alter egos of the Angevin kings of Sicily whose biographies do not contain the exploits of the Persian kings.

The similiarities I indicate lead to the conclusion that Herodotus must have written his Histories at the close of the 16th century. But this is extremely late, given that Herodotus is "the Father of History", so therefore all other "ancient" histories must have been fabricated even later. Yet, the founders of modern chronology - Scaliger and Petavius - laid their foundations also at the close of the 16th century and had the full corpus of ancient histories already at their disposal.

It seems to me that Fomenko has to address these inconsistencies, maybe in the forthcoming 5 volumes?

Another critique of their book is that the correspondencies between different rulers are often based on a superficial comparison of the biographies; upon a more thorough comparison many details appear that do not correspond at all.

Finally, the authors rely heavily on the works of Gregorovius (1821-1891!!) - his medieval histories of Rome and Athens - as the source of medieval history; these works are - at least in the West - hoplessly outdated and have been superceded by more up-to-date works (for instance, Julius Norwich's trilogy on Byzantine history is not even cited).

Romulus courts Helen, Paris founds Rome, Moses goes to Troy.........2005-07-30

If you agree with Fomenko that Roman chronology is basically the foundation of the entire edifice of global chronology; you would also certainly agree that despite its numerous gaps and inconsistencies, Roman history is the best-documented field of ancient history, and thus a reference scale. But how well is the actual date of the Eternal City's foundation known?

Firstly, Rome is supposed to have been founded by the Trojans who had to flee after the fall of Troy. Some claim Rome to have been founded by Aeneas and Ulysses shortly after Troy had fallen; others are of the opinion that there was an entire dynasty that ruled for 500 years between the fall of Troy and the foundation of Rome.

Well, that's just an innocent 500 years long misunderstanding compared with what heretic Fomenko says, asserts, proves in his second volume: Second Roman Empire, Third Roman Empire, Biblical Kingdom of Israel, Biblical Kingdom of Judah, Holy Roman Empire are stories about basically same events, written from different points of view at different times. The underlying events have actually taken place during xii-xv cy. These histories have been written and perfected by multitude of highly talented humanist and clerical writers of xiii-xvi cy disguised as "ancients" with glorious names like Homer, Pluto, Thucydides etc..Chronology 2.0 beta..

Historians are kindly invited to report the bugs.

Women Poets of the Italian Renaissance: Courtly Ladies and Courtesans

Average customer rating:

A Diverse Collection of Poetry by Italian Renaissance Women Writers

Women Poets of the Italian Renaissance: Courtly Ladies and Courtesans

Manufacturer: Italica Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Women Writers & Feminist Theory | Books & Reading | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Italian | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Women Writers | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0934977437

Book Description

This dual-language volume presents the rich flowering of women's poetry during the Italian Renaissance: from the love lyrics of famous courtly ladies of Venice and Rome to the deeply moral and spiritual poets of the age. It includes biographies of 19 poets and over 80 selected poems in the original Italian with facing English verse translation. Poets include Isabella Andreini, Vittoria Colonna, Tullia d'Aragona, Veronica Franco, Veronica Gmbara, Olimpia Malipiera, Chiara Matraini, Lucrezia Tornabuoni de' Medici, Aurelia Petrucci, Antonia Giannotti Pulci, Camilla Scarampa, Gaspara Stampa, and others.

Includes introduction, biographies, notes, bibliographies, first-line index.

Customer Reviews:

A Diverse Collection of Poetry by Italian Renaissance Women Writers.......2005-08-26

It is really good to find an excellent translation on women poets of the Italian Renaissance, as well as to have an edition that has facing Italian and English poems. The translators have also preserved the spelling and diacritical marks of the original text. The brief biography on each woman writer offers important background information on her life and her literary style. At the end of the book, there is an additional section written about the political and social situation in Italy from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century. There is an added bonus of a map that shows the Italian city-states around 1559. The bibliography shows the amount of painstaking effort to research material for this book. Finally, there is an index of first-lines that makes reference very easy. Therefore, this book is an excellent book to use either in a classroom or for purely recreational enjoyment.

Average customer rating:

Sylvia Plath: A Critical Study
Tim Kendall
Manufacturer: Faber & Faber
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Women Writers & Feminist Theory | Books & Reading | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Criticism | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Women Writers | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0571192351

Book Description

A fresh and unique look at the work of one of America's most compelling and enigmatic poets

Sylvia Plath was one of the most gifted and innovative poets of the twentieth century, yet serious study of her work has often been hampered by a fierce preoccupation with her life and death.

In this new analysis, Tim Kendall seeks to redress the balance in his detailed and dispassionate examination of her poetry. Taking a roughly chronological structure, he traces the unique nature of Plath's poetic gift, finding-with reference to Letters Home, The Bell Jar, The Journals, and the stories and autobiographical reminiscences-an essential unity in her inspiration, tracing the evolution of recurring themes and at the same time exhibiting her accelerated development from the formal restraint of The Colossus through to the groundbreaking techniques of Ariel. In the process, Kendall shows that Plath was a poet constantly remaking herself, experimenting with different styles, forms, and subject matter, while at the same time firmly reinforcing her rightful place in the canon of world literature.

Italian Women in Black Dresses (Essential Poets Series 116)

Average customer rating:

Poetry that offers a window into a woman's life
Provincial but Moving Poetry, Good in Heart, Not in Craft

Italian Women in Black Dresses (Essential Poets Series 116)
Maria Mazziotti Gillan
Manufacturer: Guernica Editions Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1550711563

Book Description

Written to read like a memoir, this collection of poetry details the life of a family across generations and provides a moving and haunting portrait of the Italian mother who is the center around which this family revolves. But this is much more than a story about ethnicity; it transcends any single identity and explores instead the many ways in which people learn to identify themselves.

Customer Reviews:

Poetry that offers a window into a woman's life.......2003-06-06

This is such a brilliant, risk-taking moving book, I can only recommend that you read it immediately.You won't be sorry.Here we have poems about growing up, incidents in high school and grammar school. the life of an ethnic Italian neighborhood policed by the old ladies in their black dresses. The book traces this woman's life through girlhood, the books she read like Nancy Drew and the stars she admired like Doris Day to a time when her husband of many years becomes critically ill with Parkinson's Disease. I don't know how anyone could put his down without wanting to return to it again and again. Beautiful!!!!
Also read Maria Mazziotti Gillan's other books. She is a poet who transforms the ordinary, sees below its surface, and allows us to see as well.

Provincial but Moving Poetry, Good in Heart, Not in Craft.......2003-03-27

Though this poetry is provincial in form and content, it has a heart and its content often transcends its craft. Still, its the sort of poetry that the average reader who is not in love with the craft and knowledgeable about it will enjoy. What it lacks in sophistication, it often makes up for in feeling and insight into the human family in its everyday life--especially the Italian American family of New Jersey. A pleasant and easy read, if not terribly original in style.

Average customer rating:

a note on a rare collection
A poet worth knowing
Poetry to rekindle your heart
Gaspara Stampa: Timeless Poetry
Of historical importance only

Gaspara Stampa: Selected Poems
Gaspara Stampa
Manufacturer: Italica Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Italian | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0934977372

Book Description

This dual-language edition of the selected poems of this famous Renaissance poet and musician, Gaspara Stampa (c. 1520-1554), presents, along with the Italian original, the first English translation of Stampa's work. It includes an introduction to the poet and her work, a note on the translation, and provides the reader with notes to the poems, a bibliography, and a first-line index. Second printing.

Customer Reviews:

a note on a rare collection.......2007-02-22

I have to start with a warning: I like the poetry of Gaspara Stampa very much but I also read it in the original. With that note, I am afraid that I was most interested in this book simply so that I could have more copies of her work, copies that weren't photo-copies caged over the years I spent studying Italian at university. The translations are fine, not particular inspired but not terrible either. For the reader who does not know Italian, they do well expressing the meaning of the poetry if not it's particular genius. However as "A Reader" pointed out, Stampa's true brilliance comes out in the original. "A Reader" also made a few other good points when she mentioned Dacia Maraini, and I think La Maraini touches a certain truth of Italian literature. In short, after an exhaustive effort on my several visits to Italy, I have never once been able to find a newly publised collection of Stampa's work. Infact, I have yet to find any used collections of her work. (They must have existed at some point, and perhaps one day I will find one.) Worse, of the many Italian book sellers I spoke with, very very few had ever heard of this writer. Veronica Franca, the other and rather more famous courtesan poet, was saved from similar neglect perhaps first by Maraini's own writting and certainly by the much romanticized biopic, "Dangerous Beauty."

And so, in my rather round about way, I must conclude that if you enjoy Italian poetry, in particular that written during the Renaissance, this collection is more than worth it's price. Indeed it is very nearly priceless.

A poet worth knowing.......2002-05-08

This may be the only selection of Stampa's poetry in print anywhere, which is remarkable considering that she's regarded as one of the finest poets of the Renaissance. I recall the writer Dacia Maraini saying that when a woman writer dies in Italy, she disappears. That would be a shame, particularly in the case of Stampa, because her work is outstanding. I disagree with the reviewer here who characterized her poetry as merely "undistinguished laments," but recognize that Stampa's powerful language and originality are somewhat lost in the translation. The gist is there, but the swift rhythm, the melody, the intelligence revealed in the careful choice of words, rarely come through.
This is a good translation in that Stortoni and Lille tried hard to render the literal meaning of the poems. The problem is that they attempted to use iambic pentameter -- not even the meter for Petrarchan sonnets -- which results in an inflated, lumbering style.
Nevertheless, there are some standouts; for example, "Amor m'ha fatto tal ch'io vivo in foco" -- which one should try to read in the Italian, if only to listen to the sound of the language. Stampa was a unique poet by any standard, and she deserves the recognition. Highly recommended!

Poetry to rekindle your heart.......2001-07-21

Gaspara Stampa's use of language is rather simple and concise. There are really no tortured words, or tortured phrasings or linguistic metaphors, just laments of longing. Some scholars dismiss her simple words as being overwrought with emotion, but this misses the point of what she is communicating. The intensity of infatuation, of having a crush, of unrequieted love that makes you desperate has never been better expressed. While her direct expression of feelings don't satisfy the intellectual pursuit of contemporary critics, it is not to this audience whom she is writting to. She writes to the heart. Since her poems were meant to be read out loud the impact of each of her poems should only be appreciated in its entirety, dissecting them line by line only disservices them. Read her if you want to re-kindle the embers of your heart.

Gaspara Stampa: Timeless Poetry.......2000-06-12

"Gaspara Stampa: Selected Poems", edited and translated by Laura Stortoni and Mary Prentice Lillie, is a dual-language (English and Italian) compilation of selected poems by a woman considered by many to be the best woman poet of the Italian Renaissance, even the greatest Italian woman poet of all times. Stampa's poems are very similar to Petrarch's poems to Laura, in that a lover (the poet) sings praises of the beloved, while simultaneously lamenting the heart break and loss that comes with this intense and unrequited love. What is so unique and rare about these 16th century poems is that the poet and lover is a woman (and of questionable status), and the object of disire is a man. Stampa's poems are filled with so much passion and emotion that anyone who has been in love will be able to relate to the universal emotions that Stampa expresses. One of my favorite poems is one that is brief and simple, yet conveys such a depth of feeling that one is left wondering how so much could be communicated in so few and such uncomplicated words. These are my favorite types of poems. Stampa explains why love is more deadly than death: "Your cruel arrow, Love,/ Is sharper and more dire/ Even than Death's own dart/ Because through Death one simply dies on time,/ While you, when you attack/ Can strike a thousand times, yet never slay./ So, Love, your piercing dart,/ Is deadlier than Death." Stampa's poems by no means speak to a specific, narrow audience. Her experiences and poems are not dated or defined by her time, but speak to anyone, especially any woman, just as much now as they did over 400 years ago. Likewise, this edition of Stampa's poems is not limited in its audience. Many may find this volume useful and interesting - from Renaissance scholars to literature students, to those interested in Women's Studies, from students of Italian to poetry lovers, to romantics. I would highly recommend this book to anyone.

Of historical importance only.......2000-04-06

In my opinion, these poems do not have much intrinsic merit; they are important for women's studies or an understanding of Renaissance taste or a survey of Petrach's influence, not for a study of brilliant literature. Her metaphors are cliche in the extreme, her story is not very inventive, and her style is heavily derivative of Petrarch. There are some poems which are witty or poignant or lyrical, but these moments of inspiration do little to improve the rest of the collection, which consists of undistinguished laments.

Sonnets for Michelangelo: A Bilingual Edition (The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe)

Average customer rating:

Sonnets for Michelangelo: A Bilingual Edition (The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe)
Vittoria Colonna
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Italian | Foreign Language Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Italian | Foreign Language Nonfiction | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Nonfiction | Italian | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books

All Italian Books | Italian | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Literature & Fiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0226113922

Book Description

The most published and lauded woman writer of early sixteenth-century Italy, Vittoria Colonna (1490–1547) in effect defined what was the "acceptable" face of female authorship for her time. Hailed by the generation's leading male literati as an equal, she was praised both for her impeccable command of Petrarchan style and for the unimpeachable chastity and piety of the persona she promoted through her literary works.

This book presents for the very first time a body of Colonna's verse that reveals much about her poetic aims and outlook, while also casting new light on one of the most famous friendships of the age. Sonnets for Michelangelo, originally presented in manuscript form to her close friend Michelangelo Buonarroti as a personal gift, illustrates the striking beauty and originality of Colonna's mature lyric voice and distinguishes her as a poetic innovator who would be widely imitated by female writers in Italy and Europe in the sixteenth century. After three centuries of relative neglect, this new edition promises to restore Colonna to her rightful place at the forefront of female cultural production in the Renaissance.

Not Just A Personal Ad (European Contributions to American Studies)

Average customer rating:

Truly a pleasure
A MUST READ gift for the senses
vivid poems, direct and true

Not Just A Personal Ad (European Contributions to American Studies)
Vittoria Repetto
Manufacturer: Guernica Editions Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1550712446

Book Description

Showcasing a subtle poet who has preserved her working-class sensibility and taste for the language of daily life while maintaining an acute ear for literary echoes, this powerful collection explores the life of a lesbian Italian American woman. From the first poem where she places her grandparents young and in love right in front of the reader, to "she's doing the dishes" where a tongue-in-cheek delivery eroticizes a simple household chore, the poet casts an unapologetically direct and witty eye on life's complexity and paints unforgettable moments within unforgettable scenes.

Customer Reviews:

Truly a pleasure.......2007-04-17

Vittoria Repetto's book of poems is an exploration of her life on New York's Lower East Side. Her poems sing of love and lust, neediness and loss. Repetto describes herself as "the hardest working guinea butch dyke on the Lower East Side" and her poems prove it.

Each carefully chosen word creates a vivid snapshot of her negotiation with life. Relationships emerge from the page, people are fully drawn and the difficult, occasionally tragic "stuff of life" is presented to readers like a gift.

You'd better be prepared to take these poems a few at a time. If you gobble, you may miss something truly precious.

A MUST READ gift for the senses.......2006-12-29

The honesty in portraying her family, the passion in her descriptions of food and Italian language, the humor remembering her relationship mishaps, her rushing enthusiasm, and her desire to find the one... it all really makes Not Just A Personal Ad a book that gets your senses going.

vivid poems, direct and true.......2006-11-21

In this collection of 49 poems a genuine lesbian sensibility interacts with a striking poetic gift. The meld is seamless. Repetto uses contemporary American idiom with a skill that approximates Dante's with the Tuscan dialect. Her precise, compact, colloquial cadences assemble the reality of growing up lesbian in lower Manhatten, loving and losing a mother, hating and reconciling with a father. Running, stumbling, recovering, her lines replicate the struggle between the contradictions of love and desire, work and leisure, pride and passion. No holds barred erotic episodes are unforgettably incised. Artlessness is achieved with great art. Finally, Repetto, without deprecating her innate butchness, emerges as a trancendently feminine person who has stitched together in these poems an entrancing crazy quilt that unabashedly reveals the here and now of human life, New York City edition. While much of the subject matter of "Not Just A Personal Ad" will have a special relevance for gays and lesbians, its audience is unlimited.

Recollections of My Life as a Woman: The New York Years

Average customer rating:

The Real Thing!
quite the life
Beat then and now
I Cried
More divine Di Prima

Recollections of My Life as a Woman: The New York Years
Diane DiPrima
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Authors | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Family & Childhood | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0670851663
Release Date: 2001-04-19

Book Description

An evocative, gritty memoir by the leading woman writer of the Beat Generation.

In this rich and passionate memoir, influential poet Diane di Prima explores the first three decades of her extraordinary life. Only by heroic effort was she able to break away from her intense Brooklyn Italian family to follow through on the lifelong commitment to poetry she made in high school. Immersed in the proto-Beat world of Manhattan's early 1950s Bohemia, she emerged as a major force, not only establishing herself as a poet, but also coediting the influential literary newsletter, The Floating Bear, and cofounding The Poet's Theatre.

Recollections of My Life as a Woman chronicles the intense, creative cauldron of those years as the Beat movement emerged on both coasts, and the country accelerated into the sixties. Poetry, painting, dance, and theater flowed into one another, and well-known figures from all those worlds-including Merce Cunningham, Frank O'Hara, Audre Lorde, Trisha Brown, and Franz Kline-move through her story. Di Prima was a deliberate single parent at a time when that was unheard of, and her relationships and sexuality were as revolutionary as her writing. This is a powerful and unique remembering of how one woman's life revealed itself to her.

Customer Reviews:

The Real Thing!.......2002-12-16

This is a wonderful book, presenting a brilliant vibrant picture of a cultural movement and time, the Beats/Hippies, and a woman who embodied all the artistic and humanistic values in an incredibly pure form. To me, the book (and the woman) are inspiring in their dedication to the values of art, spontanaeity, love, and Zen naturalness. An invaluable read for women artists, especially, and also for artists in general, and people interested in a certain world view and life style.

quite the life.......2002-10-27

I found this book to be captivating. I felt as though I was right along side her on her journeys. The eras she lived through were so richly detailed. She had so much hope and energy. I never wanted this book to end.

Beat then and now.......2002-09-18

Diane di Prima is one of the most foremost and noteworthy female writers of the Beat generation and the 20th century. She has been affiliated with such writers as Jack Keroac, Allen Ginsburg and Robert Creeley. She wrote and inspired in a mans world bringing to life a new female perspective in the 1950's. She continues to write extraordinary poetry, essays, and amazing prose. Her writing style is original and still refreshing to read fifty years later. Diane in her latest book Recollections of My Life As a Woman : The New York Years, an autobiography, goes on to embrace all aspects of her life as a woman. It was an amazing book. I enjoyed it, and I think most will, even if your forte is not beat generation history. It's a good read for others who want to learn more about the beat generation, and it's a great book because of the excellent narrative, and the obvious love she has for writing as well as life it's self.

I Cried.......2002-05-31

At the end of the book I cried because it was over. That happened once before at age 10 when I finished Black Beauty. This book hit nerves in me that hadn't been touched since On the Road. DiPrima's brilliance, toughness, honesty and forays into the unknown make me want to find her phone number so I can talk to her... this rare woman!

More divine Di Prima.......2002-02-25

Di Prima is not really meant to be a novelist -- and that's the beauty of this volume. Whereas the backbone of "poetic" writers such as Anne Rice is brutally literary, Di Prima captures all of that grandeur without so much embellishment. It's her poetry all over again: gritty, surreal, heartbreaking, fluid, and ever returning to her theme of what it means to be a woman and how she sought to find that meaning. This is especially gripping in terms of being a bisexual street poet (and later a single mother) in 1950s America. In an era when "gray was the colour and vanilla the flavour" -- when any deviation in hemline or hair length labeled you a communist, her differences were painful. Even the New York beats had a male chauvanist hierarchy that considered themselves far too good for Diane's realism, street language, slang. It seems that every life lesson we have to learn is somehow couched in this book, even through experiences one would hope to never endure.

Where I Come From (Essential Poets Series 64)

Average customer rating:

Sentimentality and Pedestrian Prose
Maria Mazziotti Gillan: From Every Day to Universal
Beyond Labels
A Lumnious Poetry Collection
Open your eyes wider

Where I Come From (Essential Poets Series 64)
Maria Mazziotti Gillan
Manufacturer: Guernica Editions Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1550710052

Book Description

A great selection from a fine New Jersey poet.

Customer Reviews:

Sentimentality and Pedestrian Prose.......2000-11-28

Gillan who fiercely took back her Italian name only when multiculturalism became fashionable, is bascially a sentamentalist. Her poetry does not rise to the truly poetic. She needs to go back to square one and study the really good Italian American poets like Felix Stefanile, Diane DiPrima, John Ciardi, Daniela Gioseffi, Donna Masini, Joseph Parisi, Dana Gioia, Maria Fama, so many others, who can write with more than old-fashioned violin strings. I had a real desire to like the book, but I was disappointed. These other authors are highly recommended reading, evenif this Italian American poet falls rather flat. There are really norisks here. The language is pedestrian. Nothing original. Que piccata! What a pity!

Maria Mazziotti Gillan: From Every Day to Universal.......2000-05-03

Maria Mazziotti Gillan is one of the most influential living Italian-American poets. She is also active in the field of multi-ethnic poetry, and is the editor of the prestigious "Paterson Literary Review." Her poetry has been compared to the poetry of the great William Carlos Williams, who came from the same area in New Jersey. And from William Carlos Williams (whom she loves), she has learned that great poetry comes from "the cup that runneth over", that is, from emotion, from intuition, and from the genuine wonder at the marvel of life. Hers is poetry that is deceptively simple and that is based on content, images, and recollections, rather than semantic funamnbolism. Her poetry also pivots around recollection, in that she follows Wordsworth's tenet that poetry is "life recollected in tranquility."

Although Mazziotti Gillan's poetry deals essentially with her experience as an Italian-American, it transcends her own ethnic origins to reach a reality that encompasses all shades and shapes of American faces and the many ways to be American.

Maria Mazziotti Gillan is the founder and director of the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College in Paterson, New Jersey, and editor of the "Paterson Literary Review". With her daughter Jennifer Gillan, she coedited the acclaimed 1994 anthology "Unsettling America: An Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry and Identity Lessons: Contemporary Writing About Learning to Be American", published by Penguin in 1999. She is also the author of seven books of poetry, including "Where I Come From: Selected and New Poems" (Guernica), "The Weather of Old Seasons", Cross Cultural Communications), and "Winter Light", an American Literary Translator's Award winner. She has had several poems published in "The New York Times", "The Christian Science Monito"r, and "Poetry Ireland", as well as in numerous other journals. Awards for her work include the 1998 May Sarton Award, two New Jersey State Council on the Arts fellowships, and a Chester H. Jones Foundation Award. In addition, she was a finalist in the PEN Syndicated Fiction competition. She has appeared on National Public Radio's All Things Considered, Leonard Lopate's Books and Co., and Garrision Keillor's Writer's Almanac. Her poetry book, "Things My Mother Told Me", was published by Guernica in 1999. Currently, she is at work on a memoir entitled "My Mother's Stoop."

Maria Mazziotti Gillan's poetry is bold and gutsy, and deals directly and unflinchingly with the complicated terrain of race and ethnicity in the United States. It also boldly deals with feeling, family, and expectations, with love and longing, with childhood and old age. Mazziotti Gillan is a courageous, risk-taking poet, who does not hesitate to bare her soul. She reveals the most intimate details of her life, her family relations, her experiences as a child, as a lover, as a wife, as a mother. These experiences, far from being only Italian-American, belong to the universal realm and reflect the destiny of "Every Woman".

I have personally seen and heard Maria recite her poetry at many of her well-attended poetry readings. Having broken, a long time ago, her silence, Mazziotti Gillan speaks, in her poetry as well as in person, with an assertive, inspiring voice that at times takes on prophetic, ieratic tones. She is not, however, devoid of humor.

Maria Mazziotti's poetry, in simple and direct language, explores the universal experiences of all humans, from childhood, to adulthood, to old age. Some of the poet's strongest poems, in this good-looking book by Guernica Press, reveal her own poetic itinerary in the world of men and in the magic Kingdom of Words.

This is a book I highly recommend-a fresh, moving, inspiring book.

A Reader in California

Beyond Labels.......2000-01-06

The poet's mother is the unifying spirit in this collection of heartfelt poems ablout family life. The mother is the vehicle through which Gillan's Italian ancestory comes alive and by which hope against all odds is maintained. Through these poems we come to understand how a family--any family-survives the hardships of the present through its links with the past and dreams for a future. The poems in this collection are written in everyday language aout everyday experiences. They speak in clear, cirect language about what it means to be human. They also remind us of the importance of place in shaping our lives. This book is a gem, and I think it would appeal to a wide cross-section of people. It will make you laugh and cry. I loved it.

A Lumnious Poetry Collection.......1999-12-07

This luminous poetry collection is about much more than ethnicity. Certainly, those with an Italian American background will be especially moved by the poems that directly address that experience, but Gillan's work succeeds in transcending any single identity category and explores instead the multiple ways in which each of us learns to identify him or herself. Addressing the intricacies of class and ethnicity that determine one's relationship to what is considered "mainstream" American culture, these poems derive their power from the genuine experience of growing up poor in an Italian American neigborhood in a city of factories, rowhouses, and vacant lots. Reflecting a complex attitude toward this space, as well as to the close-knit community that both nourished and stifled her talents, these poems speak to anyone who as a child secretly wished to be a member of a "normal" made-for-television family, only to appreciate as an adult the freedom and imagninative possibility that result from embracing one's personal past and cultural origins.

Open your eyes wider.......1999-08-20

The previous reader seems to be wearing blinders that allow a look only at this ethnic aspect of Gillan's poems. Too bad. There is much more here about motherhood, heritage, city life, growing up and yes, about all those things in a frame of Italian- American Culture. Read "Arturo" & "Public School #18" and see if you don't agree. Gillan has worked hard, in her anthologies, poems and work as an editor and teacher to promote the cause of poetry and the dropping of ethnic & racial barriers. Take a closer look.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books