Other books that might interest you

• 

  The Fall of the Nibelungs

  Margaret Armour

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The Nibelungenlied (Middle High German: Der Nibelunge liet or Der Nibelunge nôt), translated as The Fall of the Nibelungs, is an epic poem written around 1200 in Middle High German. Its anonymous poet was likely from the region of Passau. The Nibelungenlied is based on an oral tradition of Germanic heroic legend that has some of its origin in historic events and individuals of the 5th and 6th centuries and that spread throughout almost all of Germanic-speaking Europe. Parallels to the German poem from Scandinavia are found especially in the heroic lays of the Poetic Edda and in the Völsunga saga.The poem is split into two parts: in the first part, Siegfried comes to Worms to acquire the hand of the Burgundian princess Kriemhild from her brother King Gunther. Gunther agrees to let Siegfried marry Kriemhild if Siegfried helps Gunther acquire the warrior-queen Brünhild as his wife. Siegfried does this and marries Kriemhild; however Brünhild and Kriemhild become rivals, leading eventually to Siegfried's murder by the Burgundian vassal Hagen with Gunther's involvement. In the second part, the widow Kriemhild is married to Etzel, king of the Huns. She later invites her brother and his court to visit Etzel's kingdom intending to kill Hagen. Her revenge results in the death of all the Burgundians who came to Etzel's court as well as the destruction of Etzel's kingdom and the death of Kriemhild herself.The Nibelungenlied was the first heroic epic put into writing in Germany, helping to found a larger genre of written heroic poetry. The poem's tragedy appears to have bothered its medieval audience, and very early on a sequel was written, the Nibelungenklage, which made the tragedy less final. The poem was forgotten after around 1500, but was rediscovered in 1755. Dubbed the "German Iliad", the Nibelungenlied began a new life as the German national epic. The poem was appropriated for nationalist purposes and was heavily used in anti-democratic, reactionary, and Nazi propaganda before and during the Second World War. Its legacy today is most visible in Richard Wagner's operatic cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, which, however, is mostly based on Old Norse sources. In 2009, the three main manuscripts of the Nibelungenlied were inscribed in UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in recognition of their historical significance. It has been called "one of the most impressive, and certainly the most powerful, of the German epics of the Middle Ages".

  Show book

• 

  Martin Eden

  Jack London

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The phrase ‘this book will change your life’ has become one of the clichés of the publishing world but ‘Martin Eden’ is certainly a novel that merits that observation. 
  Set in turn of the century San Francisco, Jack London’s semi-autobiographical narrative tells of working class sailor Eden’s struggle to elevate himself to a level of society wherein, he believes, resides the intellect and culture he craves. One of the reasons for this endeavour is Ruth Morse, with whom he has fallen in love, and whose bourgeois family make a union between them impossible until he obtains an equality of wealth and status. 
  However, Martin’s inexorable and painful quest changes him and he is as uncompromising in his new found beliefs as London is in his telling of the tale. Success comes at the price of disillusion and when the publishers and middle-class are finally at his feet Martin already begrudges them. Having achieved his ambition by appreciation and comprehension of  the works of evolutionist Herbert Spencer, Martin is now at the mercy of one of the tenets of this creed: "the survival of the fittest." Tasting the fruit of the tree the successful writer has nothing but contempt for the values of the class he has reached and is unfit for his place. Can he turn back despite the fact he has not only lost his faith in God but also his belief in his fellow men?

  Show book

• 

  Valley of Fear The - A Sherlock...

  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The Valley of Fear is the fourth and final Sherlock Holmes novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is loosely based on the Molly Maguires and Pinkerton agent James McParland. The story was first published in the Strand Magazine between September 1914 and May 1915. The first book edition was copyrighted in 1914, and it was first published by George H. Doran Company in New York on 27 February 1915, and illustrated by Arthur I. Keller.The novel starts with Sherlock Holmes receiving a cipher message from Fred Porlock, a pseudonymous agent of Professor Moriarty. After Porlock sends the message, however, he changes his mind for fear of Moriarty's discovering that he is a traitor. He decides not to send the key to the cipher, but he sends Holmes a note telling of this decision.

  Show book

• 

  A Dream of Life

  D H Lawrence

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  'A Dream of Life', is unfinished but there is enough extant to let us know where Lawrence was going in this story. He begins by looking back and bemoaning what has become of his generation, under the thumb of women and lacking the spark of his father's mining friends. Then in a scene reminiscent of 'Pilgrim's Progress' he travels forward in time and sees his village in the distant future. The people are living in an idealised commune but do they have the spark of life?

  Show book

• 

  His Last Bow

  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1887, Sherlock Holmes was a brilliant London-based consulting detective, famous for his intellectual prowess and powers of deductive reasoning. His Last Bow is the fourth of Doyle's Sherlock Holmes short story collections and features eight mysterious tales: "The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge," "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box," "The Adventure of the Red Circle," "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans," "The Adventure of the Dying Detective," "The Disappearance of Lady Francis Carfax," "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot," and the title story, "His Last Bow." It is in this last story that Holmes emerges from a retirement of beekeeping to stop the spy Baron Von Bork from disclosing secret English documents at the approach of World War I.

  Show book

• 

  A Study In Scarlet Sherlock Holmes

  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  A Study in Scarlet is an 1887 detective novel written by Arthur Conan Doyle. The story marks the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, who would become the most famous detective duo in popular fiction. The book's title derives from a speech given by Holmes, a consulting detective, to his friend and chronicler Watson on the nature of his work, in which he describes the story's murder investigation as his "study in scarlet": "There's the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it."Produced by Devin LawerenceEdited by Macc KayProduction executive Avalon GiulianoICON Intern Eden GiulianoMusic By AudioNautix With Their Kind Permission©2020 Eden Garret Giuliano (P) Eden Garret GiulianoGeoffrey Giuliano is the author of over thirty internationally bestselling biographies, including the London Sunday Times bestseller Blackbird: The Life and Times of Paul McCartney and Dark Horse: The Private Life of George Harrison. He can be heard on the Westwood One Radio Network and has written and produced over seven hundred original spoken-word albums and video documentaries on various aspects of popular culture. He is also a well known movie actor.

  Show book