“The Art of War”, by Sun Tzu, edited and with a forward by James Clavell

96 pages, Delacorte Press, ISBN-13: 978-0385292160

The Art of War by Sun Tzu is a concise treatise packed with wisdom, and countless reams of scholarly research has been generated in the millennia since Sun Tzu wrote this masterpiece. I bought this particular edition way back in ’83 when I was just getting into history; having also recently watched the TV miniseries “Shogun” fed my appetite for all things Japanese, as well, so buying a version of the ancient Chinese classic, edited by the Shogun-guy, seemed perfect. It was years – years – before I realized that this edition of The Art of War is, in fact, a kind of Cliff Notes version of the book and not the complete book itself; furthermore, this edition seems to jam all of Sun Tzu’s research into a bunch of inline notes into the text itself, and it is virtually impossible to distinguish what he wrote contrasted against what Clavell wrote. It’s not that the research is bad, it’s just impossible to read through. When I was 11, all of this was fine; I mean, how did I know that Sun Tzu wrote a hell of a lot more about war than he did in this work? I thought that all he knew of the subject was distilled into a succinct 96 pages-or-so. But, jaded adult that I now am, I can only say do not waste your time with this thing; go hither and find the full text as there must be scores available all over.