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From a world of daisies as big as moons and of mountainous green hillocks Michael Fane came by some unrealized method of transport to the thin red house, that as yet for his mind could not claim an individual existence amid the uniformity of a long line of fellows. His arrival coincided with a confusion of furniture, with the tramp of men backwards and forwards from a cavernous vehicle very dry and dusty. He found himself continually being lifted out of the way of washstands and skeleton chests of drawers. He was invited to sit down and keep quiet, and almost in the same breath to walk about and avoid hindrance. Finally, Nurse led him up many resonant stairs to the night-nursery which at pre...
Sinister Street is a novel about growing up, and concerns two children, Michael Fane and his sister Stella have throught their young life. Both of them are born out of wedlock, something which was frowned upon at the time, but from rich parents. The novel had several sequels, which continue until Michael Fane's marriage.
The first of a two-volume series, Sinister Street, Volume One is a heavily autobiographical account of a young man, Michael Fane, who is the privileged but illegitimate child of a wealthy father. This volume presents an account of Michael's family background, his childhood and his prep school career.
The long twelfth century, from the seizure of the throne by Alexius I Comnenus in 1081, to the sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204, is a period recognized as fostering the most brilliant cultural development in Byzantine history, especially in its literary production. It was a time of intense creativity as well as of rising tensions, and one for which literary approaches are a lively area in current scholarship. This study focuses on the prose dialogues in Greek from this period—of very varying kinds—and on what they can tell us about the society and culture of an era when western Europe was itself developing a new culture of schools, universities, and scholars. Yet it was also the period in which Byzantium felt the fateful impact of the Crusades, which ended with the momentous sack of Constantinople in 1204. Despite revisionist attempts to play down the extent of this disaster, it was a blow from which, arguably, the Byzantines never fully recovered.
Urban Religion is an emerging research field cutting across various social science disciplines, all of them dealing with “lived religion” in contemporary and (mainly) global cities. It describes the reciprocal formation and mutual influence of religion and urbanity in both their material and ideational dimensions. However, this approach, if duly historicized, can be also fruitfully applied to antiquity. Aim of the volume is the analysis of the entanglement of religious communication and city life during an arc of time that is characterised by dramatic and even contradicting developments. Bringing together textual analyses and archaelogical case studies in a comparative perspective, the volume zooms in on the historical context of the advanced imperial and late antique Mediterranean space (2nd–8th centuries CE).
This book offers a comprehensive study into the perceptions of ancient and medieval Iran in the Byzantine empire, exploring the effects of Persian culture upon Byzantine intellectualism, society and culture. Byzantine Ideas of Persia, 650-1461 focusses on the enduring position of ancient Persia in Byzantine cultural memory, encompassing both in the 'religious' and the 'secular' significance. By analysing a wide range of historical sources – from church literature to belles-lettres – this book examines the intricate relationship between ancient Persia and Byzantine cultural memory, as well as the integration and function of Persian motifs in the Byzantine mentality. Additionally, the auth...
This volume places the satirical works of the Middle Byzantine period in a wider political and socio-cultural context, exploring not only their various forms but also their functions and meanings. The volume is divided into four parts. The first part provides the backgrounds of the authors and texts discussed in the volume. The second concerns the manifold functions and appearances of Byzantine satirical texts. Part three offers detailed analyses of three largely unexplored texts (the Charidemos, the Philopatris, and the Anacharsis). The last section moves from the individual texts to the larger picture of satirical modes in Middle Byzantium. Contributors are Baukje van den Berg, Floris Bernard, Stavroula Constantinou, Eric Cullhed, Janek Kucharski, Markéta Kulhánková, Paul Magdalino, Henry Maguire, Przemysław Marciniak, Charis Messis, Ingela Nilsson, Emilie van Opstall, Panagiotis Roilos, and Nikos Zagklas. See inside the book.
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Makes the study of medieval Greek historical writing accessible by providing fundamental orientation and information.