Book Description Review “Each sentence is a struck match…[Nylan’s] translation is insightful and alert.” – Dwight Garner, New York Times“I consumed Professor Nylan’s edition of The Art of War in one sitting! Sun Tzu has been so often translated that we run the risk of forgetting just how gripping and remarkable his little book is. The most impressive thing about the Nylan translation is its total lack of complacency―it’s the sharpest and most uncompromising English-language rendition of this book I’ve ever read.” – Steve Donoghue, managing editor, Open Letters Monthly“Michael Nylan’s translation is marvelous. The pithiness of certain parts of the text, its aphoristic quality, presents an exceptionally difficult challenge. Because Nylan has a deep understanding of the social and cultural milieu that produced Sun Tzu’s treatise, she has created an English-language version that is accessible while retaining the literary beauty of the original. Her introduction and supporting materials are very helpful to the reader, and I would expect that this version will become the standard one in the field.” – Dennis Washburn, translator of The Tale of Genji“Michael Nylan’s masterful translation of The Art of War brings historical depth to our understanding of the classic and also illuminates its broad significance for our world today.” – Waiy-yee Li, professor of Chinese literature, Harvard University Read more About the Author Michael Nylan is a professor of early Chinese history at the University of California, Berkeley. Her books include The Five “Confucian” Classics, China’s Early Empires, Analects: A Norton Critical Edition, The Canon of Supreme Mystery, Exemplary Figures, and Documents Classic. Read more Customers Review: Just received the book. No where in the description does it say it is a shortened version of the book. I feel like I was ripped off
This is a ~15 page “summary” of the book. Ordered this thinking it was the full text because it doesn’t say otherwise in the description.
I want to tell future readers of this book in this way. I read it first when I was 14 or 15. I thought it was a book on how to smartly fight a war. Then I re-read it when I was 28 and it occurred to me that it may be an instruction book on how to navigate an honorable life. Years passed and I recently found it at the bottom of a box in my closet. I read it again at age 56. I realized it has more to offer. If you read this book, you will actively have to replace Sun Tzus’ ancient terms and placement of hierarchy and apply them to modern situations and people. Family, bosses, neighbors, employees and the list goes on. It is my belief that this “manual” can help solve minor and major disruptions in life if used correctly. It is a book meant for good.
NOT THE FULL TEXT….these are the cliff notes……product page sucks.
Looks like someone printed a PDF I could have found for free online. The book is too wide and tall and the layout, indentation, and general typography are awful.
This is ABSOLUTELY AWFUL. It should say PUBLIC DOMAIN as it is like a copy from someone who took notes off of someone who took notes who took notes off someone who doesn’t even write in the English language! It is woefully abridged (to the max) looks like it was not edited or proofread and I loathe it. AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL
This is a great edition of a classic work. Sun Tzu is read by a lot of different people for a lot of different reasons. I frankly detest the idea of reading this for the purposes of excelling in interoffice politics or as a means of defeating your business competition. It is a military manual and ideally will be read as a way of understanding ancient Chinese military strategy. It is a wonderful guide for understanding the nature of warfare and for how modern combat resembles or differs from the combat of two millennia ago. Regardless of one’s motives for reading this, it is a fascinating work and Sun Tzu an equally fascinating writer. He means to lay out practical rules that will assist you – assuming that you are the leader of an army – in formulating sound strategy and in avoiding unforced errors. He writes about, for instance, the nine different kinds of campaigns and the different approaches demanded by each. On light terrain, for instance, you should travel quickly, but on rough terrain, you should engage in plunder. Why? Well, the great virtue of light terrain – i.e., terrain that it is easy to travel on – is the ease of travel. Therefore, move quickly while you can. Difficult terrain will keep you from traveling quickly; you therefore should scramble for all of the food and necessities that you can find, because you are not going to make good time and you could easily run out of food. Most of the book consists of pithy little reflections like that. Most are intensely commonsensical, even if they are not something you would instantly grasp.The book, as with all Everyman’s Classics, features great front matter. As with all such books, you get a list of recommended reading materials and a Chronology. You also get a list of ancient Chinese dynasties. There is an introduction by the book’s translator and a foreword by US General David H. Petraeus, whose name will be familiar to anyone who has followed the news the past decade. The Eleven Traditional Commentaries is included at the back and there are a number of notes by the translator to ease the understanding of the text. All in all, this is one of the best editions of the work that I have seen, equaled only by the Oxford University Press edition, which previously was the sole first rate non-business edition.This edition is part of a somewhat new tradition on the part of Everyman’s Library. For a long time Everyman’s primarily reprinted translations that were either in the public domain or whose copyright was held by Random House. This meant that most translations came from the nineteenth century. More recently, however, Everyman’s has been doing original translations with all original front matter and back matter. As a result, their volumes have begun to take on a degree of scholarly relevance that they didn’t previously possess. This tremendously enhances the value of a line of publications that has already been among my favorites. Let me put it bluntly: if Everyman’s publishes an edition of a book, that is almost always the edition I would prefer to read. For example, while there are annotated editions of Jane Austen that I prefer to read if I’m trying to glean every possible bit of meaning from the text, if I just want to enjoy PRIDE AND PREJUDICE as a narrative, as a text, then you can’t beat Everyman’s Library. There is definitely no series of books that are more pleasant to read. The paper is gorgeous: a rich, heavy stock paper that is yellow and does not reflect light, which makes reading easy on the eye. And I love the cloth used to wrap each cover, pale olive green in this case, with a lovely dustjacket with a representation of Sun Tzu on the front. Just very close to the perfect book. I also own a lot of Library of America volumes and I never like reading those volumes like I enjoy reading an Everyman’s Library.In short, there are, in my opinion two editions of Sun Tzu worth owning, this one and the edition by Oxford. But I think that this one might get the nod, given that it is more recent, more attractive, and better produced.
It’s a teeny tiny book. U can read it in no time. Talks about 8 chapters or something close to that. Lots of additional details from the author regarding the translation and the life of señor Sun. It’s s lot of what today might be considered normal or basic military tactics and principles. Standard reading in some military circles. |
7180 reviews