Author: Therese Radic Publisher: Springer ISBN: 1349086703 Category : Music Languages : en Pages : 244
Book Description
A biography of the world-famous opera singer Dame Nellie Melba, this book provides fresh insights into her character and motivations. It describes her childhood in Australia, her studies in Paris, her rise to fame and the fascination which she inspired up to the time of the mysterious illness which caused her death. Melba is presented as a shrewd, self-made woman, financially and personally independent. She managed her greatest asset - her voice - and her earnings cleverly so that the voice lasted the distance of a long and strenuous career, and her investments enabled her to enjoy life on a grand scale. She dictated the terms of her own life and rose to unsurpassed heights in her chosen profession. The book's large format enables the main text to be supplemented by lengthy footnotes running down the outside margins, providing additional historical and anecdotal information.
Author: Montague Summers Publisher: Courier Corporation ISBN: 0486121046 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 372
Book Description
Riveting study of vampirism in Europe — from vampires in Greek and Roman lore to their presence in Saxon England, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Russia, Romania, Bulgaria, and even modern Greece.
Author: Iain G. C. Hutchison Publisher: Birlinn Ltd ISBN: 1788854306 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 360
Book Description
In this way it provides an illuminating perspective and serves as a corrective to both Scoto-centric and Anglo-centric interpretations of events. Previous studies have tended to concentrate on the resources of the main record repositories in London and Edinburgh, and, while these collections are indispensable for any interpretation of the period, they do tend to highlight two types of politics more than others - the political operations of the great landed estates and the 'high politics' of the front benchers - and they are not always fully representative of all parts of Scotland. This book therefore has paid attention to a wide variety of source material in private hands and in local record centres to redress the balance and provide a more balanced picture. This scholarly but very readable study will appeal to all those with an interest in the political history of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Author: Neil Baldwin Publisher: PublicAffairs ISBN: 1610392698 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 397
Book Description
Meticulously pieced together from personal experiences that come with years of travel, an extensive knowledge of the historic and scholarly works, and a deep appreciation of Latin American art and culture—both ancient and modern—critically-acclaimed biographer Neil Baldwin has created a mosaic of words and images retelling the myth of the Plumed Serpent (or Quetzalcóatl) as it has evolved through the millennia. He has also created an essential guidebook for the armchair traveller and passionate tourist alike. Only a few hours by air from the United States are the mysteries and hauntingly beautiful ruins of Mexico. Among the vines intertwined in the frail latticework of crumbling palaces, spiraling geometric motifs covering vast walls that sink beneath the jungle, and nearly vertical temple steps leading hundreds of feet to a dizzying view of sky and earth, images of Quetzalcóatl abound. The fanged, bug-eyed feathered serpent thrusts his malevolent, sneering head from the pyramid at Teotihuacán; he swims in a river of rock around the temple at Xochicalco; and at Chichén Itzá, serpent and jaguar dance on a trail of stone, their embrace spawning a monstrous snake with clawed forefeet. Depicted as part man, snake, and bird, the Plumed Serpent is the earliest known creation myth from Mesoamerica, the region spanning Mexico and most of Central America. He embodies good and evil, sky and earth, feast and famine—the duality of life itself. Steep, massive temples were built in his honor at Teotihuacán, the vast city of ruins near today’s Mexico City, and at Chichén Itzá in northern Yucatán, the intricate complex that includes the famed ballcourt. Moctezuma, the ruler of the Aztecs, mistook Hernán Cortéz and the invasion of the Spanish in 1519 for the return of Quetzalcóatl. The Catholic Church with its army of Franciscan monks adapted his legend to introduce the indigenous people to Catholicism. The myth enhanced Emiliano Zapata’s stature as a latter-day Quetzalcóatl during the Mexican Revolution. Diego Rivera and the modern muralists invoked his image to include indigenous themes in their state-sponsored art. And Quetzalcóatl inspired English author D. H. Lawrence to write a new “American novel.” These and many other tales are recounted in the words and images of Neil Baldwin’s Legends of the Plumed Serpent. Whether sharing a moment of reflection among the breathtaking ruins, delving into the historic role of Quetzalcóatl during the Spanish Conquest, or tracing the themes of revolution and rebirth in the art of Rivera, Orozco, and Siqueiros, Neil Baldwin’s enlightening prose captures the imagination. Accompanied by numerous illustrations—many photographs taken by the author, and others painstakingly researched and gathered over the past decade—Legends of the Plumed Serpent is a true labor of love.
Author: Therese Radic
Author: Montague Summers
Author: Chicago (Ill.) Department of Health
Author: Georgios Chumnos
Author: Iain G. C. Hutchison
Author: Neil Baldwin
Author: Geōrgios Choumnos
Author: Galit Hasan-Rokem
Author: 
Author: Waterways Experiment Station (U.S.)