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The Gossamer Years
by Edward SeidenstickerKagero Nikki, translated here as The Gossamer Years, belongs to the same period as the celebrated Tale of Genji. This frank autobiography diary reveals two tempestuous decades of the author's unhappy marriage and her growing indignation at rival wives and mistresses. To impetuous to be satisfied as a subsidiary wife, this beautiful noblewoman of the Heian dynasty protests the marriage system of her time in one of Japanese literature's earliest attempts to portray difficult elements of the predominant social hierarchy. A classic work of early Japanese prose, The Gossamer Years offers a timeless and intimate glimpse into the culture of ancient Japan.
Gossip from the Forest: A Novel
by Thomas KeneallyA gripping reimagining of the drama, ego, intrigue, and madness at work during the World War I armistice negotiations In November 1918, after four long years of murderous conflict, six men gather in a railroad car in a secluded forest outside Paris, France, to negotiate an end to World War I. A pacifist, left-leaning diplomat with no military knowledge or experience, Matthias Erzberger has been selected by the German high command to represent their surrendering nation, for reasons as baffling to him as to anyone. He is joined by France's aging, vindictive Marshal Foch and Britain's unbending Admiral Wemyss in an attempt to bring peace to a war-torn world. In these claustrophobic quarters the future is to be decided by men driven by ego, prejudice, fear, exhaustion, vengeance, delusion, and, in Erzberger's case, conscience. But the well-meaning diplomat's futile efforts to secure lenient surrender terms will have devastating consequences for Europe, the Fatherland, and Erzberger himself. Renowned for his enthralling fictional accounts of historical events, award-winning author of Schindler's List Thomas Keneally once again brings the heart-stopping human drama of history to life, as he brilliantly envisions the earth-shattering events that transpired in the forest of Compiègne, setting the stage for the Treaty of Versailles and the rise of the Third Reich.
Gossip Men: J. Edgar Hoover, Joe McCarthy, Roy Cohn, and the Politics of Insinuation
by Christopher M. EliazJ. Edgar Hoover, Joseph McCarthy, and Roy Cohn were titanic figures in midcentury America, wielding national power in government and the legal system through intimidation and insinuation. Hoover’s FBI thrived on secrecy, threats, and illegal surveillance, while McCarthy and Cohn will forever be associated with the infamous anticommunist smear campaign of the early 1950s, which culminated in McCarthy’s public disgrace during televised Senate hearings. In Gossip Men, Christopher M. Elias takes a probing look at these tarnished figures to reveal a host of startling new connections among gender, sexuality, and national security in twentieth-century American politics. Elias illustrates how these three men solidified their power through the skillful use of deliberately misleading techniques like implication, hyperbole, and photographic manipulation. Just as provocatively, he shows that the American people of the 1950s were particularly primed to accept these coded threats because they were already familiar with such tactics from widely popular gossip magazines. By using gossip as a lens to examine profound issues of state security and institutional power, Elias thoroughly transforms our understanding of the development of modern American political culture.
Got 'Em, Got 'Em, Need 'Em: A Fan's Guide to Collecting the Top 100 Sports Cards of All Time
by Stephen Laroche Jon WaldmanFor over a hundred years, kids of all ages have enjoyed the thrill of collecting sports cards. Whether it was souvenirs from their parents&’ cigarette packs, pieces that came in bubble gum packages, or the modern dazzlers, the simple formula of pictures and text on cardboard have been a part of North American society for over a century.Now, take a look back at one of the most popular hobbies in history with Got &’Em, Got &’Em, Need &’Em. Covering baseball, basketball, football, hockey, boxing, and golf, this unique book offers a look at the greatest sports cards ever produced, including the players and personalities involved. Relive the days gone by with some of the industry&’s most well-known experts as we count down the best from the business.Plus, as a special bonus, take a look at the best innovations, the worst blunders, and a special tribute to the hobby&’s boom era in the 1990s.
Got 'Em, Got 'Em, Need 'Em: A Fan's Guide to Collecting the Top 100 Sports Cards of All Time
by Stephen Laroche Jon WaldmanFor over a hundred years, kids of all ages have enjoyed the thrill of collecting sports cards. Whether it was souvenirs from their parents&’ cigarette packs, pieces that came in bubble gum packages, or the modern dazzlers, the simple formula of pictures and text on cardboard have been a part of North American society for over a century.Now, take a look back at one of the most popular hobbies in history with Got &’Em, Got &’Em, Need &’Em. Covering baseball, basketball, football, hockey, boxing, and golf, this unique book offers a look at the greatest sports cards ever produced, including the players and personalities involved. Relive the days gone by with some of the industry&’s most well-known experts as we count down the best from the business.Plus, as a special bonus, take a look at the best innovations, the worst blunders, and a special tribute to the hobby&’s boom era in the 1990s.
Got to Be Something Here: The Rise of the Minneapolis Sound
by Andrea SwenssonBeginning in the year of Prince’s birth, 1958, with the recording of Minnesota’s first R&B record by a North Minneapolis band called the Big Ms, Got to Be Something Here traces the rise of that distinctive sound through two generations of political upheaval, rebellion, and artistic passion.Funk and soul become a lens for exploring three decades of Minneapolis and St. Paul history as longtime music journalist Andrea Swensson takes us through the neighborhoods and venues, and the lives and times, that produced the Minneapolis Sound. Visit the Near North neighborhood where soul artist Wee Willie Walker, recording engineer David Hersk, and the Big Ms first put the Minneapolis Sound on record. Across the Mississippi River in the historic Rondo district of St. Paul, the gospel-meets-R&B groups the Exciters and the Amazers take hold of a community that will soon be all but erased by the construction of I-94. From King Solomon’s Mines to the Flame, from The Way in Near North to the First Avenue stage (then known as Sam’s) where Prince would make a triumphant hometown return in 1981, Swensson traces the journeys of black artists who were hard-pressed to find venues and outlets for their music, struggling to cross the color line as they honed their sound. And through it all, there’s the music: blistering, sweltering, relentless funk, soul, and R&B from artists like Maurice McKinnies, Haze, Prophets of Peace, and The Family, who refused to be categorized and whose boundary-shattering approach set the stage for a young Prince Rogers Nelson and his peers Morris Day, André Cymone, Jimmy Jam, and Terry Lewis to launch their careers, and the Minneapolis Sound, into the stratosphere. A visit to Prince’s Paisley Park and a conversation with the artist provide a rare glimpse into his world and an intimate sense of his relationship to his legacy and the music he and his friends crafted in their youth.
Got War?: A Doonesbury Book (Doonesbury #23)
by G. B. Trudeau"Rear Admiral Steve Kunkle, commander of the carrier strike force, grimaced at a Doonesbury comic strip from the Japan Times. It showed a Navy pilot thinking 'Oops!'" As Doonesbury shifts to a wartime footing, the strip's major players find themselves pre-positioned for the coming cakewalk. Weekend warrior B.D. leaves the Fighting Swooshes of Walden in the care of acting Coach Boopstein, returning to the sands of Kuwait as Camp Blowback's Public Affairs Officer. Among his charges: Roland Hedley, veteran of a grueling combat training program designed to keep media folk from getting capped. Offshore, the irrepressible Morale Officer Lieutenant. Tripler goes live ("Good MORNING, regime-changers!") to lift the shipbound spirits of his pre-swarthy charges, while offstage, Viceroy-in-Waiting Duke prepares to answer empire's call. Stateside, Mike takes up a flanking position on the sofa to log some serious CNN time, while the Reverend Sloan girds his loins for peace: "Look for us on TV-we'll be a million strong." Marching to the beat of a different cause, Zonker's old surfing mentor tries to enlist Z in a desperate fight to liberate Left Coastal access. Protests Zonk, "What can I do? I am but one dude!" Meanwhile, Jeff Redfern is but one CIA intern, yet he manages to launch a Predator drone and, using basic Nintendo training, knock out an Al-Q ammo dump. Also taking a hit, Trent Lott, busted for giving props to segregation. "I was trying to say I was down with the hood!" he backpedals, realizing too late that Mr. James Crow has finally left the house.With Alex declaring eco-jihad on SUVs, and Elmont launching a daily assault on coherence as on-line blogger "Jenny McTagart, Girl Pirate," it's hard to see a peaceful world ahead. But Jimmy Thudpucker can. Waging war on the recording industry, he and other filesharers have a vision of ultimate change de regime: "The suits die off, and Pepperland will be free again."
Got Your Number: The Greatest Sports Legends and the Numbers They Own
by Mike GreenbergESPN personality (Get Up and #Greeny) and New York Times bestselling author Mike Greenberg partners with mega-producer Hembo to settle once and for all which legends flat-out own which numbers. In short essays certain to provoke debate between and amongst all generations, Greeny uses his lifetime of sports knowledge to spin yarns of the legends among the legends and tell you why some have claimed their spot in the top 100 of all time. <p><p>Sports and numbers go hand in hand. Sports and loud, assertive debate? Even better. Cheering on, agonizing over, and being in plain awe of your favorite players has left you with a deep and intricate memory of their greatness, not to mention well-honed arguments as to why your favorites are really the best. In arenas, in front of your TV, and in bars, you’ve debated friends and strangers alike. You’ve joyfully mocked your friends’ (sometimes laughable) favorites. You’ve spouted accomplishments, statistics: Yours won six titles, batted .350 in the clutch, or generated 82% of their team’s scoring. <p><p>But not all numbers are created equal. Some are accomplishments. Others are identity. Looming large over any image you have of an athlete: the number on their jersey. Numbers often provide the most visceral parts of any sports legend’s identity. They are what people remember—worldwide. Jordan, Jeter, Brady—to fans, they are as much their number as they are anything else. Sure, 1 through 100 might seem like a large range, but fierce competition across the ages has blessed only a lucky few to claim one of these as their own. For some, the victors may not be so obvious. That’s why Greeny’s here to help. <p><p>Ascend into discussion, fans of all stripes. Come away enlightened. Or maybe a little enraged. Either way, you are sure to be occasionally surprised—and endlessly entertained. Whatever your sport, welcome to the place where all the arguments are finally decided, once and for all.
Goth: A History
by Lol TolhurstThe co-founder of The Cure and author of Cured delivers a fascinating deep dive into the dark romanticism of Goth music, a misunderstood genre and culture. GOTH is an entertaining and engaging historical memoir, and a journey through Goth music and culture, exploring creative giants like The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bauhaus, Joy Division, and many more great bands that offered a place of refuge for the misfits of the &‘80s and ever since. Written by Lol Tolhurst, co-founder of The Cure, this book offers a riveting retrospective of the genre&’s iconic movers and shakers, infused with stories from Tolhurst&’s personal trove of memories, as well as anecdotes about the musicians, magicians, and artists who made it all happen—the people, places, and things that made Goth an inevitable and enduring movement. Starting with the Origins of Goth, Tolhurst explores early art and literature that inspired the genre and looks into the work of T.S Eliot, Edgar Allan Poe, Sylvia Plath, and Albert Camus, among others. He also outlines the path of Gothic Forebears and shows how many musicians played in punk bands before transitioning into Goth endeavors. Next, he introduces readers to the &“Architects of Darkness&”—Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, and The Cure—the Godfathers of Goth who established the genre's roots. Following these early bands, Tolhurst discusses a group he calls the &“Spiritual Alchemists,&” consisting of bands like Depeche Mode, Cocteau Twins, and more, who helped the darkness expand into the culture. He also tracks the expansion of the genre overseas, from England to New York, Los Angeles, and beyond. Gothic fashion was an important part of the movement as well, and Tolhurst discusses the clothing that accompanied and complemented the music. Finally, Tolhurst examines the legacy of Goth music, and shows how its influence can still be seen to this day across music, film, TV, visual arts, social media, and more. As thoughtful and thorough as it is utterly bewitching, GOTH is a timeless testament to why Goth matters—and why it always will.
Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898
by Edwin G. Burrows Mike WallaceWinner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for History.
Gotham Baseball: New York's All-Time Team (Sports Ser.)
by Mark C Healey&“The Big Apple&’s greatest squad . . . Selecting either a Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Giants, New York Yankees or New York Mets player for each position.&” —Long Island Herald Baseball may be the great American pastime, but in New York, it is a religion. Names like Ruth, Mays, Gehrig, Wright and Robinson live in the hearts and minds of New York fans like apostles. From the street corner to the subway car, debates about which Yankee, Giant, Dodger or Met is better than another have raged on for more than one hundred years. Now, the best of the best are chosen for each position as New York&’s all-time greatest team is imagined. Shoo-ins like the Babe and Jackie have their stories told with a fresh perspective. The compelling case for Mike Piazza, not Yogi Berra, as catcher is sure to spark arguments. Sportswriter Mark Healey crafts the Gotham baseball team through captivating tales of the legends of the New York game. &“One of the best Baseball Teams books of all time.&” —BookAuthority &“Many a sportswriter in a column and many a baseball fan in a New York City sports bar have tried to say that their guys were the best; but what if you could put the greatest in Gotham&’s rich baseball history—the very, very best—on one team? . . . Mark C. Healey endeavors to do just that—and start a few more arguments along the way.&” —Queens Chronicle
Gotham Unbound
by Ted SteinbergThis is the story of the monumental struggle between New York and the natural world. From Henry Hudson's discovery of Mannahatta to Hurricane Sandy, Gotham Unbound is Ted Steinberg's sweeping ecological history of one of the most man-made spots on earth.Here is a tale of "the world with us"--lots of us--a groundbreaking book that recounts the four-century history of how hundreds of square miles of open marshlands became home to six percent of the nation's population. Steinberg vividly brings a vanished New York back to life. You will see the metropolitan area anew, not just as a dense urban goliath but as an estuary once home to miles of oyster reefs, wolves, whales, and blueberry bog thickets. That world gave way to an onslaught managed by thousands, from Governor John Montgomerie, who turned water into land, and John Randel, who imposed a grid on Manhattan, to Robert Moses, Charles Urstadt, Donald Trump, and Michael Bloomberg. This book is a powerful account of the relentless development that New Yorkers wrought as they plunged headfirst into the floodplain and transformed untold amounts of salt marsh and shellfish beds into a land jam-packed with people, asphalt and steel, and the reeds and gulls that thrive among them. With metropolitan areas across the globe on a collision course with rising seas, Gotham Unbound is a penetrating history that helps explain how one of the most important cities in the world wound up in such a perilous situation.
Gothia: Muerte en Barcinona
by Santiago CastellanosUna novela que nos cuenta un momento crucial de la historia de la Península. Barcinona, actual Barcelona, año 415. Clodia, una dama de la aristocracia, vive con gran intensidad tanto su amor a la Historia y a los libros como su odio a la sociedad patriarcal romana y al triunfo del cristianismo. Lucha por sus libertades, se recluye en su biblioteca, vive romances y disfruta del sexo más allá de su odioso esposo Minicio. Todo eso le permite respirar en la asfixiante mediocridad de un entorno lleno de hipocresía y recelos. Es en ese ambiente de fiestas y falsas apariencias donde irrumpen los godos, que se asientan por primera vez en Hispania, alterando el orden marcado por Roma. Mientras los poderosos locales intentan sobrevivir al cambio de época y los líderes godos hacen frente a sus rivalidades, una serie de muertes dentro de los muros de Barcinona, entre ellas la del rey Ataúlfo, inquieta cada vez más a sus habitantes. Corren tiempos convulsos y cualquiera puede ser el asesino. El choque entre romanos y godos, el ansia de libertad de Clodia, el ascenso del cristianismo y las intrigas de poder introducen al lector en este fascinante thriller histórico que es, al mismo tiempo, un gran fresco literario sobre la ambición y las traiciones.
The Gothic and the Everyday: Living Gothic (The Palgrave Gothic Series)
by Gill PartingtonThe Gothic and the Everyday aims to regenerate interest in the Gothic within the experiential contexts of history, folklore, and tradition. By using the term 'living', this book recalls a collection of experiences that constructs the everyday in its social, cultural, and imaginary incarnations
Gothic Animals: Uncanny Otherness and the Animal With-Out (Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature)
by Melissa Edmundson Ruth HeholtThis book begins with the assumption that the presence of non-human creatures causes an always-already uncanny rift in human assumptions about reality. Exploring the dark side of animal nature and the ‘otherness’ of animals as viewed by humans, and employing cutting-edge theory on non-human animals, eco-criticism, literary and cultural theory, this book takes the Gothic genre into new territory. After the dissemination of Darwin’s theories of evolution, nineteenth-century fiction quickly picked up on the idea of the ‘animal within’. Here, the fear explored was of an unruly, defiant, degenerate and entirely amoral animality lying (mostly) dormant within all of us. However, non-humans and humans have other sorts of encounters, too, and even before Darwin, humans have often had an uneasy relationship with animals, which, as Donna Haraway puts it, have a way of ‘looking back’ at us. In this book, the focus is not on the ‘animal within’ but rather on the animal ‘with-out’: other and entirely incomprehensible.
Gothic Arches, Latin Crosses
by Ryan K. SmithCrosses, candles, choir vestments, sanctuary flowers, and stained glass are common church features found in nearly all mainline denominations of American Christianity today. Most Protestant churchgoers would be surprised to learn, however, that at one time these elements were viewed with suspicion as foreign implements associated strictly with the Roman Catholic Church. Blending history with the study of material culture, Ryan K. Smith sheds light on the ironic convergence of anti-Catholicism and the Gothic Revival movement in nineteenth-century America.Smith finds the source for both movements in the sudden rise of Roman Catholicism after 1820, when it began to grow from a tiny minority into the country's largest single religious body. Its growth triggered a corresponding rise in anti-Catholic activities, as activists representing every major Protestant denomination attacked "popery" through the pulpit, the press, and politics. At the same time, Catholic worship increasingly attracted young, genteel observers around the country. Its art and its tangible access to the sacred meshed well with the era's romanticism and market-based materialism.Smith argues that these tensions led Protestant churches to break with tradition and adopt recognizably Latin art. He shows how architectural and artistic features became tools through which Protestants adapted to America's new commercialization while simultaneously defusing the potent Catholic "threat." The results presented a colorful new religious landscape, but they also illustrated the durability of traditional religious boundaries.
Gothic Architecture: 158 Plates from the Brandons' Treatise, 1847
by Raphael Brandon J. Arthur BrandonThis comprehensive study of Gothic architecture traces the distinctively beautiful elements of Gothic style through the medieval churches of Europe. Gathered from a rare two-volume Victorian classic, over 700 meticulously rendered details and illustrations display every intricate aspect of Western culture's most magnificent ecclesiastical structures, including London's Westminster Abbey Church. The only edition of these antique architectural plates in print, this splendid book is a one-of-a-kind source of authentic Gothic design.In page after fascinating page, this rich retrospective features the finest examples of medieval masonwork, woodwork, and metalwork dating back to the thirteenth century. Explore the soaring Gothic characteristics of vaulted ceilings, arched windows, flying buttresses, pointed spires, ornamental filials, and decorative panels, plus doorways, moldings, roofing, porches, door hinges, and other elaborate architectural elements.Filled with fascinating insights into the creation of Gothic-style churches and cathedrals, this sweeping survey also provides lively observations of the medieval period.
Gothic Architecture and Sexuality in the Circle of Horace Walpole (G - Reference, Information And Interdisciplinary Subjects Ser.)
by Matthew M. ReeveGothic Architecture and Sexuality in the Circle of Horace Walpole shows that the Gothic style in architecture and the decorative arts and the tradition of medievalist research associated with Horace Walpole (1717–1797) and his circle cannot be understood independently of their own homoerotic culture. Centered around Walpole’s Gothic villa at Strawberry Hill in Twickenham, Walpole and his "Strawberry Committee" of male friends, designers, and dilettantes invigorated an extraordinary new mode of Gothic design and disseminated it in their own commissions at Old Windsor and Donnington Grove in Berkshire, Lee Priory in Kent, the Vyne in Hampshire, and other sites. Matthew M. Reeve argues that the new "third sex" of homoerotically inclined men and the new "modern styles" that they promoted—including the Gothic style and chinoiserie—were interrelated movements that shaped English modernity. The Gothic style offered the possibility of an alternate aesthetic and gendered order, a queer reversal of the dominant Palladian style of the period. Many of the houses built by Walpole and his circle were understood by commentators to be manifestations of a new queer aesthetic, and in describing them they offered the earliest critiques of what would be called a "queer architecture." Exposing the role of sexual coteries in the shaping of eighteenth-century English architecture, this book offers a profound and eloquent revision to our understanding of the origins of the Gothic Revival and to medievalism itself. It will be welcomed by architectural historians as well as scholars of medievalism and specialists in queer studies.
Gothic Architecture and Sexuality in the Circle of Horace Walpole
by Matthew M. ReeveGothic Architecture and Sexuality in the Circle of Horace Walpole shows that the Gothic style in architecture and the decorative arts and the tradition of medievalist research associated with Horace Walpole (1717–1797) and his circle cannot be understood independently of their own homoerotic culture. Centered around Walpole’s Gothic villa at Strawberry Hill in Twickenham, Walpole and his “Strawberry Committee” of male friends, designers, and dilettantes invigorated an extraordinary new mode of Gothic design and disseminated it in their own commissions at Old Windsor and Donnington Grove in Berkshire, Lee Priory in Kent, the Vyne in Hampshire, and other sites. Matthew M. Reeve argues that the new “third sex” of homoerotically inclined men and the new “modern styles” that they promoted—including the Gothic style and chinoiserie—were interrelated movements that shaped English modernity. The Gothic style offered the possibility of an alternate aesthetic and gendered order, a queer reversal of the dominant Palladian style of the period. Many of the houses built by Walpole and his circle were understood by commentators to be manifestations of a new queer aesthetic, and in describing them they offered the earliest critiques of what would be called a “queer architecture.” Exposing the role of sexual coteries in the shaping of eighteenth-century English architecture, this book offers a profound and eloquent revision to our understanding of the origins of the Gothic Revival and to medievalism itself. It will be welcomed by architectural historians as well as scholars of medievalism and specialists in queer studies.
Gothic Art 1140-c1450: Sources And Documents
by Teresa G. FrischAn anthology offering a chronological assessment of a whole range of technical documents on art written by and for clerks, laymen, churchmen, lawyers, city magistrates, and guilds, this text reveals differences in milieu, customs, resources and psychology during different periods. First Published in 1971 by Prentice Hall.
The Gothic Cathedral: Origins of Gothic Architecture and the Medieval Concept of Order - Expanded Edition (Bollingen Series (General) #640)
by Otto Georg Von SimsonThe description for this book, The Gothic Cathedral: Origins of Gothic Architecture and the Medieval Concept of Order, will be forthcoming.
Gothic Cinema: Eine Einführung (Genrediskurse)
by Katharina ReinMit Gothic Cinema schließt sich eine Lücke im deutschsprachigen Filmdiskurs: Erstmalig beleuchtet der Band einen bislang wenig diskutierten Filmzusammenhang. Er betrachtet das Gothic Cinema als als eine Form inoffizieller Historiographie, die einen Blick nicht nur auf die Geschichte des Films und seiner Technik, sondern auch auf Moralvorstellungen, Geschlechterverhältnisse, kollektive Ängste oder ästhetische Strömungen zulässt. Auf eine Abgrenzung und Bestimmung des Begriffs und der zentralen Elemente des Gothic folgt ein umfassender historischer Überblick von 1896 bis zur heutigen Zeit. Drei ausführliche Analysen einzelner Gothic-Filme und Fernsehserien nach 2015 runden die Betrachtung ab. Die untersuchten Beispiele sind einerseits repräsentativ im Hinblick auf typische Elemente, Motive oder Topoi und weisen andererseits Besonderheiten und Brüche auf, die sich für eine kultur- und medienwissenschaftliche Untersuchung als fruchtbar erweisen.
Gothic Cinema: An introduction
by Katharina ReinGothic Cinema closes a gap in German-language film discourse: for the first time, the volume sheds light on a hitherto little-discussed film context. It considers Gothic Cinema as a form of unofficial historiography that allows a look not only at the history of film and its technique, but also at moral concepts, gender relations, collective fears or aesthetic currents. A delimitation and definition of the term and the central elements of the Gothic are followed by a comprehensive historical overview from 1896 to the present day. Three in-depth analyses of individual post-2015 gothic films and television series round out the review. On the one hand, the examples examined are representative in terms of typical elements, motifs or topoi, and on the other hand, they exhibit peculiarities and breaks that prove fruitful for a cultural and media studies investigation.
Gothic Classics: The Castle of Otranto and The Old English Baron (Haunted Library Horror Classics)
by Horace Walpole Clara ReeveManfred, the lord of the castle of Otranto, has long lived in dread of an ancient prophecy: it's foretold that when his family line ends, the true owner of the castle will appear and claim it. In a desperate bid to keep the castle, Manfred plans to coerce a young woman named Isabella into marrying him.Isabella refuses to yield to Manfred's reprehensible plan. But once she escapes into the depths of the castle, it becomes clear that Manfred isn't the only threat. As Isabelle loses herself in the seemingly endless hallways below, voices reverberate from the walls and specters wander through the dungeons. Otranto appears to be alive, and it's seeking revenge for the sins of the past.
The Gothic Enterprise: A Guide to Understanding the Medieval Cathedral
by Robert A. ScottThe great Gothic cathedrals of Europe are among the most astonishing achievements of Western culture. Evoking feelings of awe and humility, they make us want to understand what inspired the people who had the audacity to build them. This engrossing book surveys an era that has fired the historical imagination for centuries. In it Robert A. Scott explores why medieval people built Gothic cathedrals, how they built them, what conception of the divine lay behind their creation, and how religious and secular leaders used cathedrals for social and political purposes. As a traveler's companion or a rich source of knowledge for the armchair enthusiast, The Gothic Enterprise helps us understand how ordinary people managed such tremendous feats of physical and creative energy at a time when technology was rudimentary, famine and disease were rampant, the climate was often harsh, and communal life was unstable and incessantly violent. While most books about Gothic cathedrals focus on a particular building or on the cathedrals of a specific region, The Gothic Enterprise considers the idea of the cathedral as a humanly created space. Scott discusses why an impoverished people would commit so many social and personal resources to building something so physically stupendous and what this says about their ideas of the sacred, especially the vital role they ascribed to the divine as a protector against the dangers of everyday life. Scott's narrative offers a wealth of fascinating details concerning daily life during medieval times. The author describes the difficulties master-builders faced in scheduling construction that wouldn't be completed during their own lifetimes, how they managed without adequate numeric systems or paper on which to make detailed drawings, and how climate, natural disasters, wars, variations in the hours of daylight throughout the year, and the celebration of holy days affected the pace and timing of work. Scott also explains such things as the role of relics, the quarrying and transporting of stone, and the incessant conflict cathedral-building projects caused within their communities. Finally, by drawing comparisons between Gothic cathedrals and other monumental building projects, such as Stonehenge, Scott expands our understanding of the human impulses that shape our landscape.