Category: mythology

Second only to Paris … 700 years ago, that is

by Nick Owchar, posted in Books, Dante, fantasy, Myth - Dante, mythology, Poetry, Prue Shaw, Reading, W.W. Norton

Well, we wouldn't have Shakespeare's sonnets if plague hadn't closed all the London theaters; we wouldn't have Henry James' novels (a mixed blessing) if he'd struck gold as a playwright; and we definitely wouldn't have Dante's "Comedy" if the poet hadn't been driven out of Florence. In other words, misfortune's often been the handmaiden to … Continue reading Second only to Paris … 700 years ago, that is

You didn’t get rid of that book, did you?

by Nick Owchar, posted in Book reviews, Books, Elizabeth Wayland Barber, Myth -- nonfiction, Myth general, mythology, Ukraine, W.W. Norton

Yes, I nearly did. Elizabeth Wayland Barber's The Dancing Goddesses: Folklore, Archaeology, and the Origins of European Dance (W.W. Norton) almost escaped my home. It wasn't any fault on the book's part--on mine. Have you done this before? I hadn't picked it up since it was published early last year, and as I went about … Continue reading You didn’t get rid of that book, did you?