Kirjailijakuva

James Stevens Curl

Teoksen The Victorian Celebration of Death tekijä

43+ teosta 786 jäsentä 14 arvostelua

Tietoja tekijästä

Professor James Stevens Curl is Senior Research Fellow at The Queen's University of Belfast.

Tekijän teokset

The Victorian Celebration of Death (1972) 119 kappaletta
A Dictionary of Architecture (1999) 110 kappaletta
Georgian Architecture (1993) 41 kappaletta
Victorian Architecture (1973) 25 kappaletta
The erosion of Oxford (1977) 17 kappaletta
Death and Architecture (2002) 12 kappaletta
Freemasonry and the Enlightenment (2011) 10 kappaletta
The Londonderry Plantation (1986) 6 kappaletta
Kensal Green Cemetery (2001) 5 kappaletta
Winchester Walks (1983) 2 kappaletta
A collection of poems (1978) 1 kappale

Associated Works

Merkitty avainsanalla

Yleistieto

Sukupuoli
male

Jäseniä

Kirja-arvosteluja

Besproken in AQC, jrg.104 (1991), 1992, pp.244,245:
“What a delight to welcome a scholarly, but eminently readable, text on a new subject to beautifully produced and copiously illustrated. That delight is the greater when one realises that the author, who is Professor of Architectural History and Director of the Architecture Research Unit at the departement of Architecture, Leicester Polytechnic, is not himself a freemason and comes new to the subject…Beginning with an introduction on Freemasonry, the theories of origins and the use of architectural symbolism in both a visual and an oral sense, the author then discusses in detail what the terms ‘the great prototype’ – King Salomon’s Temple – and its place as both an actual building and as a symbol of the ideal in human thought. Using masonic engravings, designs for buildings and actual buildings he then considers the influence of Freemasonry on the development of neo-classicism, leading to a very detailed discussion of the Egyptian revival. This latter section – Egypt – I found the most satisfying and stimulating part of the book…In his final section the author raises the question ‘Is there a masonic style?’ There are elements on many buildings which find an echo in masonic symbolism but does this constitute a masonic style or is it merely happenstance?
This is important study which I would recommend to anyone interested in the arts and the history of ideas.”
Besproken in Q.C.J. 29 1992, pp.244-247:
“Der Autor, renommierter Hochschullehrer der Architektur-Geschichte, beginnt seine Arbeit mit einer Hommage an die maurerischen Historiker [ Kloss, Findel, Begemann, Woodford, Gould, Hughan] …Er erkennt bei diesen maurerischen Forschern dankenswerterweise Arbeiten ohne dilettantischen oder sensationellen Makel. Damit lässt er eine anspruchsvolle Arbeit erwarten. Der Leser wird nicht enttäuscht John Hamill berichtet aus London, dass Curl, selbst kein Freimaurer, seit nahezu zwanzig Jahren von der freimaurerischen Architektur begeistert ist. Er bezeichnet seine Arbeit als erstes wissenschaftliches Werk über maurerische Architektur…
Alles in allem eine anregende Studie, nicht nur für freimaurerische Architekten.”
… (lisätietoja)
 
Merkitty asiattomaksi
MBRLibrary | Jul 25, 2021 |
Tämä arvostelu kirjoitettiin LibraryThingin Varhaisia arvostelijoita varten.
"Jersey Joe Walcott - A Boxing Biographt" by James Curl is an informative, educational and entertaining read. Curl portrays Walcott as a multi-dimensional person who contributed leadership to not only his family but his community, his sport and the wold during his lifetime.

People like Walcott, Ezzard Charles and Rocky Marciano were only vague names of former boxers. After reading this book, I understand and have a solid history of Heavyweight boxing from the 1930's through the mid 1950's.

I have no hesitation in recommending this book to anyone who is a fan of professional boxing.
… (lisätietoja)
 
Merkitty asiattomaksi
JDVotier | 10 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Dec 15, 2012 |
Tämä arvostelu kirjoitettiin LibraryThingin Varhaisia arvostelijoita varten.
My reason for wanting to read this book was because I like the rags to riches aspect of it, but the book is much more than that. About all I knew about boxing was from Friday Night at the Fights, which my dad watched back in the 1950s. The author did a great job of researching the story, and it is an amazing story, rich in detail about Jersey Joe Walcott's struggle to lift his family out of poverty, and to have a meaningful existence in this world. He was successful on all counts, and from beginning to end this book has many twists, turns and delightful surprises. I truly enjoyed it! I hope the author writes another book, perhaps on Ezzard Charles.… (lisätietoja)
 
Merkitty asiattomaksi
Rob.Larson | 10 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Nov 8, 2012 |
Tämä arvostelu kirjoitettiin LibraryThingin Varhaisia arvostelijoita varten.
I'd like to say first off that Jersey Joe Walcott has always struck me as an impressive fighter, and the opportunity to learn more about him was greatly appreciated. I also want to say that I understand there must be difficulties in researching the life of a fighter like Jersey Joe. It's truly a shame that earlier writers didn't pursue the opportunity to research more thoroughly the careers and lives of some of the great fighters of what was once America's most popular sport, but what's done is done. I'm glad to see that James Curl has tried to take up some of the abundant slack that has been left in this neglected field.

Nevertheless, there's an obligation to put forward an honest assessment of the sort of book which by its very nature is an odd construction readily prone to flawed assertions; the boxing biography. It's not so much the boxing part of that which is problematic, but the biographical part. People simply don't write biographies on subjects that they don't either intend to glorify or demonize, so there's an inherent flaw in the objectivity of the genre itself. This shows in most boxing biographies, and particularly in autobiographies, and James Curl's bio of Jersey Joe Walcott is no exception, though arguably not as glaringly so as many, and perhaps most.

Not wanting to ramble unnecessarily like a James Curl blow-for-blow description of a 15 round fight, I'll try to cut this short. There is an unfortunate lack of substance to this book which may have been unavoidable. Certain questions regarding the life of Jersey Joe at this point may be unanswerable. There are points in the book where you simply have to question what the writer was thinking... for example, when he describes Felix Bocchichio at one point as a suspect in a homicide and a well-known gangster, then very shortly thereafter describes Jersey Joe "recognizing him as a man of his word" and never attempts to reconcile how Jersey Joe, the purported "clean living athlete and devoutly religous man" could not only associate with but develop an extreme loyalty to an individual of such low repute and criminal associations. But such is life... it doesn't always have to make sense, and that's not entirely the writer's fault. The obvious discrepancies between photos provided in the book and the narrative, as described by other reviewers and particularly worthy of taking note of are of course, but still there's not too much harm in them... they tend to indicate that, like a Nat Fleischer description of a fight, one should be aware that the writer is largely attempting to describe something he views only from afar, and without understanding any of its subtleties, and that whenever events outpace his notetaking, he has to fill in the gaps with imagination to keep the narrative flowing and the reader entertained. In truth, the worst part of this book is the endless blow-by-blow accounts, or attempts at accounts, of Jersey Joe's fights. They drone on seemingly forever, encouraging us to envision things that only the writer sees. Sure, we can imagine what he describes, but would that truly represent the fight as it happened? Not a chance. Fights are too dynamic, too energized, and have too many dimensions to allow their speed, grace, power and fluidity to be expressed in mere words. A mere few seconds of a fight could be described in an abundance of words accurately, but in doing so would necessarily lose their sense of immediacy... what took fractions of a moment to happen could take up paragraphs or more to describe accurately, dulling the pacing of a dynamic experience. What can be described however, is the style of the fighter. Details of a fight can be conveyed without specifics. Curl described the "Walkaway", which he described as a signature move of Jersey Joe, and that helps define a fighter's style far better than a lengthy description of what punch landed in what round. That's the sort of thing he should have stuck to in his description of Jersey Joe's style.

In short, or as short as a long-winded review can be, this book is sparse at the beginning, has too much filler in the middle, and is brief but satisfyingly informative at the end. The reason probably lies with the availability of reliable information on the subject. I appreciate that Mr. Curl wrote it, and would encourage him to try his hand at another on Ezzard Charles, another individual the memory of whom truly deserves biographical preservation. As for the quality of the writing, I would advise boxing fans that sometimes, particularly in hard times for the sport, you have to take what you can get. Appreciate it, just don't kid yourself about the quality.
… (lisätietoja)
 
Merkitty asiattomaksi
IbnAlNaqba | 10 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Aug 22, 2012 |

You May Also Like

Associated Authors

Tilastot

Teokset
43
Also by
2
Jäseniä
786
Suosituimmuussija
#32,384
Arvio (tähdet)
½ 3.4
Kirja-arvosteluja
14
ISBN:t
78
Kielet
1

Taulukot ja kaaviot