Author: Herman Pleij
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 023152921X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 553
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Book Description
Imagine a dreamland where roasted pigs wander about with knives in their backs to make carving easy, where grilled geese fly directly into one's mouth, where cooked fish jump out of the water and land at one's feet. The weather is always mild, the wine flows freely, sex is readily available, and all people enjoy eternal youth. Such is Cockaigne. Portrayed in legend, oral history, and art, this imaginary land became the most pervasive collective dream of medieval times-an earthly paradise that served to counter the suffering and frustration of daily existence and to allay anxieties about an increasingly elusive heavenly paradise. Illustrated with extraordinary artwork from the Middle Ages, Herman Pleij's Dreaming of Cockaigne is a spirited account of this lost paradise and the world that brought it to life. Pleij takes three important texts as his starting points for an inspired of the panorama of ideas, dreams, popular religion, and literary and artistic creation present in the late Middle Ages. What emerges is a well-defined picture of the era, furnished with a wealth of detail from all of Europe, as well as Asia and America. Pleij draws upon his thorough knowledge of medieval European literature, art, history, and folklore to describe the fantasies that fed the tales of Cockaigne and their connections to the central obsessions of medieval life.
Author: Matilde Serao
Publisher: Good Press
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 378
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Book Description
The Land of Cockayne is an impactful Italian fiction based on the passion for gambling and the sinful effect of the national lottery in Naples on all the classes of society. The lottery proves to be fun but ultimately a curse for the Marquis of Formosa, Gaetano, the glove-maker, Carmela, the factory girl, and her bold lover Raffaele. Cesare, a rich pastry maker, loses everything he has in the hope of obtaining money from the lottery for a new journey. The Marquis is a wreck and is ready to sacrifice his weak daughter, Lady Bianca, to his awful passion. A medium he and his friends take advice from about gambling makes him believe that Bianca's virtue may call on the spirits to indicate the lucky numbers. The Marquis ruins her health and happiness, trying to push the powerless, frail girl to see ghosts. The novel covers many significant events that follow in a way that will move the reader. The story presents incredibly the details on Naples, its people, and their never-ending desire to get rich through gambling, no matter the consequences.
Author: Jeffrey Lewis
Publisher: Haus Publishing
ISBN: 1913368173
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 173
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Book Description
A novel written as a sharp parable of American society, addressing love, purpose, discrimination, and poverty. In Jeffrey Lewis’s novel, the Land of Cockaigne, once an old medieval peasants’ vision of a sensual paradise on earth, is reimagined as a plot on the coast of Maine. In efforts to assuage their grief over their son’s death and to make meaning of his life, Walter Rath and Catherine Gray build what they hope will be a version of paradise for a group of young men from the Bronx. As Walter and Catherine work to reinvent this land, formerly a summer resort, the surrounding town of Sneeds Harbor proves resistant. The residents’ well-meaning doubts lead to well-hidden threats, and the Raths’ marriage unravels as Walter loses faith in democracy. Meanwhile, the Bronx boys, who have only ever known the city, try to navigate this new land that is completely alien to them. Written as a parable of contemporary American society, Land of Cockaigne is by turns furious, funny, subversive, tragic, and horrifying. Faced with the question of what to do amid disastrous times, Walter Rath offers a clue: Love is an action, not a feeling. Once you go down this path of faith, there is much to be done.
Author: Matilde Serao
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 278
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Book Description
Author: Pieter Bruegel
Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art
ISBN: 0870999915
Category : Art, Flemish
Languages : en
Pages : 337
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Book Description
Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525/30-1569) was a remarkable draftsman and designer of prints as well as a great painter. His independent drawings and designs for engravings and etchings, which were carried out by the leading printmakers of his day, have fascinated scholars and the general public alike since they were created. They have recently been the subject of research that has given rise to a reevaluation of the parameters of Bruegel's oeuvre. The new scholarship has been brought to bear in the texts of the present volume, which accompanies a major exhibition of 140 of Bruegel's prints and drawings to be shown at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, from May to August 2001 and at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, from September to December 2001. An international group of experts discusses the new Bruegel who has emerged from recent studies, in essays on the artist's life, his contributions as a draftsman and as a printmaker, the survival of his art, and his relationship to the humanism of his day. They also illuminate his genius in entries on all the works in the exhibition. Every work is illustrated and rich comparative illustrations are included. Provenances an
Author: Steve Cockayne
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 0356505855
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 319
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Book Description
In the secluded house, an invisible presence watches over Victor Lazarus as he carries out the instructions of an unknown benefactor ... In the village, Rusty Brown encounters a strange girl who tells him a secret that will haunt his dreams and lure him to the dark underworld of the city ... In the city, Leonardo Pegasus tinkers with the Multiple Empathy Engine - a bizarre contraption of his own invention that enables the user to see the whole world without going anywhere ... An old man, a young boy and a magician. Three tales beautifully intertwine to create a wonderfully original story of magic and mystery, of secret pasts and forbidden futures - of wanderers and islanders. Look out for more information about this book and others at www.orbitbooks.co.uk
Author: Piero Boitani
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521311496
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 326
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Book Description
In this detailed study of English narrative verse the author describes and analyses the undisputed masterpieces of narrative (such as the works of the Gawain poet, Langland, Gower and Chaucer), as well as anonymous romances and specimens of religious and comic narrative which form the background to more well-known poems.
Author: Oswald Cockayne
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 3752592389
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 518
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Book Description
Reprint of the original, first published in 1864. Being a Collection of Documents Illustrating the history of science in this country before the Norman conquest.
Author: Graham Bennett
Publisher: SAF Publishing Ltd
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 454
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Book Description
The definitive biography of Soft Machine, whose pivotal role shaped progressive-rock and pioneered jazz-rock fusion.
Author: Paul Morris
Publisher: Universal-Publishers
ISBN: 1581123639
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 127
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Book Description
This thesis, examining the Treatise of Garcia of Toledo, explores the connection between the legend of Cockaigne and its connection with the powerful monastic foundation of Cluny. The Treatise was written as a condemnation of Cluniac influence in 11th and 12th century Spain.
