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“On Fairy-stories”
J. R. R. Tolkien 1938 (The realm of Faërie is no frivolity, but a place of profound enchantment, offering glimpses into deep mysteries and addressing fundamental human desires.) “Lies, though breathed through silver”. It was September 1931. Little could J. R. R. Tolkien have guessed that this insult of myth, from the mouth of his […]
Hippolytus
(Ἱππολυτος) Euripides 429 BC (Disaster ensues when Phaedra falls for her stepson!) The gods will have their play, and we piteous humans must suffer in double jeopardy. First, vice will eventually bring destruction, and yet we are by nature weak and prone to vice. Second, everyone is subject to fate, which is not kinder to […]
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Arthur Conan Doyle 1902 (The scientific minds of Holmes and Watson are tested by howls on the moor, the legend of a fiery hell-hound, and a giant pawprint next to a dead nobleman.) A novel-length Sherlock Holmes mystery! The readers of the Strand Magazine must have been delighted. They must have vigorously discussed with each other […]
The Travels
(Il Milione) Marco Polo (with Rustichello of Pisa) 1299 (An Italian explorer treks fearlessly into the unknown East, and discovers astonishing cultures and kingdoms no European had ever seen). We are fortunate that Marco Polo lived long enough and expended the energy to record the greatest travels ever performed by any man to his time […]
The Romance of Tristan and Iseult
(Le Roman de Tristan et Iseut) Joseph Bédier 1900 (A knight and a lady pursue their magical love through bloodshed and sorrow.) When tales pass through centuries of retellings, they tend to become what of audio media we would call “overproduced”: too many interpreters have slanted the story their various ways, too many embellishments and […]
