by Nick Tosches (1985)
Celebrating the dark origins of our most American music, Country reveals a wild shadowland of history that encompasses blackface minstrels and yodeling cowboys; honky-tonk hell and rockabilly heaven; medieval myth and musical miscegenation; sex, drugs, murder; and rays of fierce illumination on Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, and others, famous and forgotten, whose demonology is America's own. Profusely and superbly illustrated, Country stands as one of the most brilliant explorations of American musical culture ever written.
Patricia Pogal
This book examines the origin of the medieval Spanish concept of light and the poetic function which luminous imagery serves. It concludes with an investigation of the traditional element (radiance) in the balladry of three Spanish poets: Lope de Vega, the Duque de Rivas, and Federico García Lorca.
M. I. Ebbutt
"As the nineteenth century gave way to the twentieth, a number of books appeared in English dealing with the romantic and fascinating world of myth and legend. Among the few that went on to become minor classics of that genre was M. I. Ebbutt's Hero Myths and Legends of the British Race." "The nine stories selected from the 1910 edition of Ebbutt's book have been reset in a modern typeface, but retaining every detail - content, spelling and orthography - in order to keep the flavour of the time and the nature of Ebbutt's writing. In editing and selecting the stories for inclusion in this version, John Matthews has written an introductory essay to each, providing the background, context and relevant historical or mythological origins of the tales. He also draws on his considerable expertise and knowledge of the subject to provide an overall Introduction to this edition, designed to bring the stories to a new audience worldwide." "As well as the original stories, a selection of the original illustrations has also been included to show the pictorial style used at the time. These have been supplemented by new colour plates, specially painted for this edition by artist and illustrator Peter Komarnyckyj."--BOOK JACKET.
Eric Jager
Why was the story of Adam, Eve, and the Serpent so important to medieval literary culture? Eric Jager argues that during the Middle Ages the story of the Fall was incorporated into a comprehensive myth about language. Drawing on a wide range of texts, Jager shows how patristic and medieval authors used the Fall to confront practical and theoretical problems in many areas of life and thought - including education, hermeneutics, rhetoric, feudal politics, and gender relations. Jager explores the Fall's meaning for clergy and laity, nobles and commoners, men and women. Among the works Jager discusses are texts by Ambrose, Augustine, the early Christian poet Avitus, and scholastic authors; Old English biblical epics; Middle English spiritual writings; French courtesy books; and the poetry of Dante and Chaucer. Examples from the visual arts are included as well. Jager links medieval interpretations of the Fall to underlying cultural anxieties about the ambiguity of the sign, the instability of oral tradition, the pleasure of the text, and the many rhetorical guises of the tempter's voice. He also assesses the modern and postmodern legacy of the Fall, showing how this myth continues to embody central ideas concerning language . The Tempter's Voice will be essential reading for scholars and students in such fields as medieval studies, literary theory, gender theory, comparative literature, cultural history, and the history of religion.
Evan S. Connell
"The Crusades have begun. Wave upon wave of Christian pilgrims rush to assault the growing power of Moslems in the Holy Lands. Battles will continue for the next two hundred years. Every able man becomes a soldier of the Cross. When a man is prevented by old age or ill health, he sends his son. Women, too, join to fight alongside their husbands and fathers. Two centuries long, this common cause is the defining war of what was becoming the spirit of the Western world.". "The author has commented, "I think of this as a book about the Crusades, not an 'historical novel' - a term that suggests imaginary experiences and unlikely conversations. Monologues and dialogues in this book are paraphrased or condensed from those in medieval documents. Every meeting, every conversation, every triumph or defeat, no matter how small, was recorded centuries ago.""--BOOK JACKET.