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Title: Robert E. Lee: A Penguin Life by Roy, Jr. Blount ISBN: 0-670-03220-4 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 08 May, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.5 (12 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Ah, the history of Robert E. Lee, I think.
Comment: Well, Blount gives us the biography of Robert E. Lee and then some. Blount tries to give us the psychology of Lee and tends to put the focus off Lee when he does this. I am sure Blount is a real good cynic, but Robert E. Lee and the Civil War need better than this. When you do a biography of a great man like Lee, why spend excessive time talking of his tiny feet. For that matter, why talk about a joke called Pusyism and then spend ten or more pages reviewing this. (Pusyism was a movement in the Church of England, instilling more Roman Catholic traditions into the church, such as unmarried priests and the lead proponent was Father Pusy). Blount focuses on this an awful lot, when he should expand on Robert E. Lee.
Blount does an alright job reviewing the personal life of Robert E. Lee. However he does very poorly in analysis of his professional life and focuses a great deal on areas not relevant. I would have loved to have had Blount's opinion of the relationship between Lee and Davis, but sadly this is missing. What we get is jokes about feet and Pusyism. Jeepers, I could have done better with another book about Lee, by somebody more professional like Burke Davis.
Rating: 3
Summary: Not bad but a little o rambling
Comment: this book was a basic biography of one of the greatest men in history. I learned a lot about Lee's non-war years in this book but I felt the author looked at some things and made them out to be more then they truely where. So what if Lee liked to have his feet tickled it doesn't make who he is I like to make my self sneeze does that change who I am no so some of he things looked into are kind of stupid and he talks about them for way to long.This is a good book though because you do learn about Lee also as another reviewer states the appendixes are kind of rambling and probably could do with out them all together.
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent short bio of a military enigma
Comment: Several generals of the American Civil war are enigmas, to various extents. Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson, for instance, is very difficult to read, because he left so little in the way of letters or whatever that tell you anything of what he was thinking. Robert E. Lee was equally close-mouthed about this sort of thing, and amazingly stiff and standoffish with most male acquaintances and friends, to boot. The result is that we know very little of what he thought or felt about a variety of things, and must piece together opinions from various sources.
So it was with some trepidation that I approached the Penguin Lives version of Robert E. Lee. These are intended to be very short biographies: sketches rather than anything detailed. In addition to the fact that it's a short book, the series editor took a chance and commissioned Roy Blount Jr. to write the book. Blount is a Southerner (though he lives mostly in the North now) who writes newspaper columns and books, and is generally what's called a humorist. He also appears on the radio. This is (as far as I know) his first venture into real non-fiction (as opposed to funny stuff that's based on reality) and I'll admit I was some what curious and a bit apprehensive as to what he would do with the book. I needn't have worried.
Blount is an accomplished writer (obviously) and does a good job of outlining Lee's life and career. He's also a Southerner, and understands the mystic attachment people of the south have for their culture and society, and recreates what things must have been like for Lee in the mid-19th century. The military aspects of Lee's life are dealt with only in outline (as you would expect in a book with ca. 170 pages of text, but they're explained in enough detail that you get the gist of what's happening. There's a fair amount of information on Lee's life, little of it new, but much of interpreted in a fashion different at least in nuance from previous biographers.
Unusually, Blount relegates his speculation about Lee, his character, and such things as his sexuality, to an appendix labeled "Speculation." This is very unusual in a biography, and I would encourage other writers to use a similar device. While I didn't agree with every one of Blount's judgments, I could see how he came to the conclusions, anyway. On that note, I enjoyed the book a great deal, and think it valuable, in spite of its small size.
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Title: Abraham Lincoln: A Penguin Life (Penguin Lives) by Thomas Keneally ISBN: 0670031755 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: December, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Winston Churchill: A Penguin Life (Penguin Lives) by John Keegan ISBN: 0670030791 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 10 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Napoleon: A Penguin Life (Penguin Lives Series.) by Paul Johnson ISBN: 0670030783 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 09 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Joseph Smith (Penguin Lives) by Robert Vincent Remini ISBN: 067003083X Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 10 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Leonardo Da Vinci (Penguin Lives) by Sherwin B. Nuland ISBN: 0670893919 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: October, 2000 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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