Author: Ngai, Pun; File Type: epub []

Author: Andrew Bridgeford File Type: mobi For more than nine hundred years the Bayeux Tapestry--one of the worlds greatest historical documents and artistic achievements--has preserved the story of one of historys greatest dramas the Norman Conquest of England, culminating in the death of King Harold at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Historians have held for centuries that the majestic tapestry--almost 300 feet in length--trumpets the glory of William the Conqueror and the victorious Normans. But is this true? In1066,Andrew Bridgeford reveals a very different story that reinterprets and recasts the most decisive year in English history. Reading the tapestry as if it were a written text, examining each scene with fresh eyes, Bridgeford discovers a wealth of new information subversively and ingeniously encoded in the threads, which appears to undermine the Norman point of view while presenting a secret tale undetected for centuries--an account of the final years of Anglo-Saxon England quite different from the Norman version of events. In the midst of it all is a mysterious French nobleman--Count Eustace II of Boulogne, descended from Charlemagne--whose own claim to the English throne rivaled Duke Williams. While building his case, Bridgeford brings to life the turbulent eleventh century in western Europe, a world of ambitious warrior bishops, court dwarfs, ruthless knights, and powerful women.1066offers readers a rare surprise--a book that reconsiders a long-accepted masterpiece and chain of events--and sheds new light on a pivotal chapter in English history. A gripping yarn . . . An exciting account of the tapestrys busy drama and engaging realism.--The Daily Telegraph A highly readable and haunting book.--Daily Mail Bridgeford marshals the battalions of his argument with analytical force, lucidity, and panache.--The Sunday Times(London) The Bayeux Tapestry, in the French town of Bayeux, draws half a million visitors a year. For more than 900 years it has been kept--and sometimes concealed--in several places around the town. The story of the Norman invasion of England in 1066 is set out in this masterpiece, recounting the Battle of Hastings, culminating in a victory for William the Conqueror and the death of King Harold. Although barely half a metre wide, the tapestry is about 70 metres long, embroidered on a plain linen background in wools of red, yellow, gray, green, and blue. Here are men feasting on birds, drinking from ivory horns, hunting, going to church, and loading provisions onto a ship. Bridgeford posits the quest of [his] book is to unravel the millennial mysteries of the work, to investigate the true origin and meaning of it, to understand more about the characters who are named in it, and to gain a new insight into some of the darkest events of the Norman Conquest. The result is a fascinating study.--Booklist Definitely not the Norman version. The Battle of Hastings, in 1066, when the last Anglo-Saxon king, Harold, was defeated by William the Conqueror, is one of the worlds most commented-upon battles, partly because its effects (the fusion of French and Anglo-Saxon into English, for example) ramify to this day--and partly because it was illustrated by the near-contemporary Bayeux Tapestry, a masterpiece of Medieval art. What is there new to add to the library of references? Bridgeford attempts to overturn at least two old verities about the battle. According to the author, close observation of the Bayeux Tapestry reveals that it is not a work of Norman propaganda that popular myth would have us believe, but a covert, subtle, and substantial record of the English version of events. He makes a very strong case by comparing real Norman propaganda, wh

Author: Jason Lawrence File Type: pdf This interdisciplinary study examines the literary, artistic and biographical afterlives in England of the great sixteenth-century Italian poet Torquato Tasso, from before his death to the end of the nineteenth century. Focusing on the lasting impact of his once famous poem Gerusalemme liberata across a spectrum of arts, it aims to stimulate a revival of interest in a neglected poetic masterpiece and its author, some fifty years after the last account of the poet in English. The influence of Tassos poem is traced and analysed in the literary works of Spenser, Milton, Shakespeare and Daniel, and consideration is also given to its impact on the visual and musical arts in England, in works by Van Dyck, Poussin and Handel. A second strand focuses on English responses to Tassos troubled life in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, exemplified in Byrons memorable impersonation of the poets voice in The Lament of Tasso. **

Author: Margaret Larkin File Type: epub Abul-Tayyib al-Mutanabbi (915-965) is often regarded as the greatest of the classical Arab poets, with his work occupying a unique position at the heart of Arab culture. Born the son of a water-carrier in Kufah, Iraq, al-Mutanabbi lived a tumultuous life spent in court employment writing panegyrics for his many patrons, and in periods of imprisonment and exile - the latter a consequence of his revolutionary activities and provocative personality.This concise and yet enthralling study analyzes the main features of al-Mutanabbis writing in the context of the diverse stages of his life and career. Including an invaluable and Highly accessible presentation of the rich tradition of poetry and Arab culture that al-Mutanabbi inherited, and of which he would become a central figurehead, this is a well researched and inviting look at the great poet and the mystique that has surrounded both him and his work.