Where have these books been?? I read a New York Times review, occassioned by the reprints. I'm now finishing the second volume in hardcover, the only ones in the local library, and am gearing up to search for a set of reasonably priced hardcovers. To my 70-year-old already-assisted eyes, the reprints are not well printed--small, somewhat fuzzy type, narrow lines.

But what an amazing mind! Wrapping together in an unpretentious, readable style a collection of fascinating characters, fantasy, humor, lessons of history and predictions of the Middle East's never-to-end religious conflicts.