Mitchell and Robinson's 'A Guide to Old English' is exactly what it claims to be: it smooths the path before the would-be reader of Old English and points out both the obstacles and the areas of interest along the way. It guides the reader through the highways and byways of Old English, and allows him to rapidly gain a reading knowledge of Old English, and some understanding of the workings of the language. Its goal is acquaintance with the tools necessary to decode actual Old English texts, rather than mastery of the language, insofar as composition is a topic omitted altogether. No attempt is made to train the reader to produce Old English.
This guide is not a language textbook in the… Read more
Wilkinson's 'Chinese History: A Manual' is an essential volume on the bookshelf of any serious Chinese historiographer or scholar of Chinese history. Since the publication of the first edition, this book has very much become a standard reference for Chinese history. Note, though, that this is not a textbook on Chinese history, although one can certainly learn a great deal about Chinese history from it. It serves better as a handbook on Chinese history, an informative reference one consults to discover resources for the study of divers aspects of Chinese history.
The first section provides an excellent introduction to Chinese history, and the methods of Chinese historiography. Topics such… Read more
McNaughton's 'Reading and Writing Chinese' remains a very useful guide for learners attempting to acquire literacy in Chinese. It comprises two sections, the first listing some 1,062 elementary* characters with its stroke order, Mandarin pronunciation and meaning, as well as a few compound words using the character and the simplified version of the character if it exists. The second section comprises the remainder of the characters in the official list of 2,000 basic characters promulgated by the Chinese government, and gives much the same information as the first section, save the stroke order (which the learner should already be conversant with after learning the first section) and the… Read more
