The second book in Banks' "Vampire Huntress Legends". Published by St. Martins Press in 2004.
So excited to read it.. will keep you "posted" lol
<3
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Book number 12 ...
L.A Banks. The Awakening
The second book in Banks' "Vampire Huntress Legends". Published by St. Martins Press in 2004.
So excited to read it.. will keep you "posted" lol
<3
The second book in Banks' "Vampire Huntress Legends". Published by St. Martins Press in 2004.
So excited to read it.. will keep you "posted" lol
<3
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Book number 11 finished :)
I just finished reading L.A Banks Minion but I thought you would like to know what the premise of the novel is... no spoilers I promise!
This is the first novel in Banks' wonderfully creative action-packed series. Here, we meet Damali Richards- the millennium born Neteru who just wants to have a normal young life and rock the musical world as a spoken-word artist. Damali posses all of the 6 extrasensory specialties plus a 7th one which is only held by a Neteru: - by Ancient Egyptian or Kemetian translation; God's divine powers latent within humans.. divine ways. (www.vampirehuntress.com). A Neteru is only created once every thousand years and Damali Richards is the only one to date to span two millennia.
She is aided and guarded by the Warriors of Light (W of L), a group of specially chosen guardians of the Light, working for the Divine Supreme Court to keep the evil legions at bay on the "gray zone" which is earth (heaven is the white or light zone, and hell or below ground is the black zone) and to protect the humans. Each Neteru is aided by a special set of guardians who are given higher sensory abilities and the task to train, teach, guide and protect the Neteru until their coming of age.
The Neteru guardian team made up of; Marlene Stone- the Mother-Seer, Shabazz- tactical (heightened sensory, can feel spirits/entities), Big Mike-Audio (hears what the spirits whisper), Rider-Olfactory (aka "the nose", smells trouble), Jose-Olfactory and taste, JL-Tactical (and weapons developer), Dan-W of L assistant and PR (becomes teams peacekeeper).
We also meet Carlos Rivera- a young successful drug lord/nightclub owner from the old block. He and Damali had been together in their late teen years (Damali was 15 and Carlos was 18 when they met) and still have a "thing going on" for each other. Carlo's life is dangerously on the edge and his faith wavers but he's holding on to his love for Damali.
L.A Banks packs a powerful punch with this opening novel and I automatically fell in love with each and every character.. even with Fallon Nuit- Master Vampire and main nemesis of the Warrior of Light both on the demonic level and the music world level (Fallon Nuit owns the label Blood Music who are in competition with Warriors of Light's music label.
The series starts off with a bang and I'm so excited to keep reading! So onward to the next book...
<3
This is the first novel in Banks' wonderfully creative action-packed series. Here, we meet Damali Richards- the millennium born Neteru who just wants to have a normal young life and rock the musical world as a spoken-word artist. Damali posses all of the 6 extrasensory specialties plus a 7th one which is only held by a Neteru: - by Ancient Egyptian or Kemetian translation; God's divine powers latent within humans.. divine ways. (www.vampirehuntress.com). A Neteru is only created once every thousand years and Damali Richards is the only one to date to span two millennia.
She is aided and guarded by the Warriors of Light (W of L), a group of specially chosen guardians of the Light, working for the Divine Supreme Court to keep the evil legions at bay on the "gray zone" which is earth (heaven is the white or light zone, and hell or below ground is the black zone) and to protect the humans. Each Neteru is aided by a special set of guardians who are given higher sensory abilities and the task to train, teach, guide and protect the Neteru until their coming of age.
The Neteru guardian team made up of; Marlene Stone- the Mother-Seer, Shabazz- tactical (heightened sensory, can feel spirits/entities), Big Mike-Audio (hears what the spirits whisper), Rider-Olfactory (aka "the nose", smells trouble), Jose-Olfactory and taste, JL-Tactical (and weapons developer), Dan-W of L assistant and PR (becomes teams peacekeeper).
We also meet Carlos Rivera- a young successful drug lord/nightclub owner from the old block. He and Damali had been together in their late teen years (Damali was 15 and Carlos was 18 when they met) and still have a "thing going on" for each other. Carlo's life is dangerously on the edge and his faith wavers but he's holding on to his love for Damali.
L.A Banks packs a powerful punch with this opening novel and I automatically fell in love with each and every character.. even with Fallon Nuit- Master Vampire and main nemesis of the Warrior of Light both on the demonic level and the music world level (Fallon Nuit owns the label Blood Music who are in competition with Warriors of Light's music label.
The series starts off with a bang and I'm so excited to keep reading! So onward to the next book...
The Awakening - L.A Banks
<3
Monday, February 18, 2013
Next book...
I've begun reading the first book in one of my all time favourite book series...
Minion
-L.A Banks
It is from Banks' Vampire Huntress Legends series and begins the 12 book long epic.
I will be posting again with pics and synopsis etc very soon so keep your eyes open...
That's all for now :)
<3
Saturday, February 16, 2013
A summing- up: Oscar Wilde's TPDG...
I'd like to spend a quick post discussing some of what I've learned about Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.
One of the main concepts from the novel have to do with the discussion and obsession with Youth, both on the part of the protagonist and with the supporting characters, for instance:
Early on in the novel, Lord Henry Wotton discusses the appeal of regaining one's youth with the Duchess of Harley. She asks him, "Lord Henry, I wish you would tell me how to become young again" and he thoughtfully replies "Can you remember any great error that you committed in your early days, Duchess? [...] Then commit them over again". It is Lord Henry's understanding that "To get back one's youth, one has merely to repeat one's follies" (Wilde 37). So it seems here that Lord Henry- who we know is an aesthete- associates youth with the mistakes one makes and the freedom perhaps or ready ability to make errors and to live in reckless abandon. Where as "nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes" (Wilde 38). Interestingly, at the end of the novel Lord Henry states that "The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young" (Wilde 182). This quote can be found to mean that in our advanced years, others will see us as old, whereas in our minds and hearts we see ourselves as young but with experience from a life longer lived. So that instead of viewing oneself as useless, decrepit and worthless ( as young people might view old people), one understands ones self to be merely chronologically gifted, challenged and wonderful.
Through the character of Lord Henry, Wilde seems to be acknowledging that one specific folly of youth is allowing yourself to be lead astray by those around you- as we see in regards to Dorian's life after he begins following all of the "advice" that Henry gives him. Dorian takes on a life of secrecy, passionate reckless abandon and the gaining of pleasure based on Lord Henry's theory about the senses: "Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul"(Wilde 21 ,155). Dorian adopts these words as a sort of mantra for his ridiculous behaviours but in the end, they end up being the cause of the black spot on his once pure soul and for the scarred and misshapen form that takes over his portrait.
Once Dorian realizes the impact of his prayer that fateful day in Basil Hallward's studio, it is too late because the portrait has begun to change and show the inner workings of his decrepit soul and he is terrified. Therein, it is no surprise to the reader to see that when Dorian and Henry begin to discuss pleasure and the importance of individualism and the pangs of being rich, Dorian contrives to fight against and ultimately publicly shut down Henry's theories; "I am changed, and the mere touch of Sibyl Vane's hand makes me forget you and all your wrong, fascinating, poisonous, delightful theories" (Wilde 67). Here, Dorian Gray is beginning to fight for what his [only yet slightly skewed] conscience assures him is correct. He begins to gain some maturity in not allowing himself to be completely controlled by what Henry describes of the world and decrees as "proper comportment" . For example, on pages 67-68, Dorian has just described his love for and secret engagement to Sibyl Vane (a poor actress who's art fascinates Dorian into what he assumes to be "love") and his desire to be in harmony with another and to be "good", but Lord Henry simply laughs it off stating (in true Lord Henry fashion) "One's own life- that is the important thing" (Wilde 68). It is this selfish sentiment that intrigues Dorian and propels him towards distrusting his own judgement and embracing the sensuous and terribly decadent lifestyle that Henry hangs in front of him.
Furthering the destruction of his soul is Lord Henry's views on women and marriage, which influence Dorian to being disappointed with Sibyl Vane when she shows him that she is real rather than showing him her "art". On learning that Sibyl has committed suicide, Lord Henry reminds Dorian that "you said to me that Sibyl Vane represented to you all the heroines of romance [...]/ She has played her last part and you must think of her lonely death in the tawdry dressing-room simply as a strange lurid fragment from some Jacobean tragedy, as a wonderful scene [...]/ The girl never really lived and so she has never really died./Mourn for Ophelia...Cordelia..but don't waste your tears for Sibyl Vane. She was less real than they are"(Wilde 88-89). It is at this integral moment in the novel, where Dorian decides to make the attaining of pleasure his life's sole purpose.
One has to consider the wonderful curiosity that lies within this novel and its principal characters, and how exquisite life back in pre-19th century London must have been! But, as we can read in the introduction written by Joseph Bristow found at the beginning of the book, Oscar Wilde met with a lot of discord and negativity with regards to the moral value of his novel. Wilde himself was forced to defend his work in a letter written to the St. James Gazette to explain how the novel imparts a moral of some kind, and claiming that "if his novel contained a moral it was this: All excess, as well as all renunciation, brings its own punishment" (intro xxii). Bristow tells us in the introduction that, in order to prove his point, Wilde made the following observations about the three main characters:
Wilde's words suggest that only those readers who banish from their minds that works should be judged either moral or immoral will grasp the terrible truth that The Picture of Dorian Gray represents. His letter also encourages us to think that, in each case, Basil Hallward, Dorian Gray, and Lord Henry remain incomplete because none of them strikes a balance between indulgence and restraint. (Intro xxiii).
AS you can see -if you've actually read this far- I've got an obsession with this text, maybe it's because like Lord Henry, I find myself very curious about "sins that I could not imagine experiencing" or maybe I find myself strangely attracted to the beauty of Dorian Gray in his vanity or Lord Henry in his fascinating cynicism... OR maybe I'm just into the Gothic and the creepy and the sensual that is found in 18th century British literature. I hope I didn't spoil the ending for anyone, though I tried my best not to spell it out in anyway, and I hope that my two posts on this novel will propel some of you to go out and find it at your local library or bookstore or borrow it off your friend! If you know me personally and you can't live without reading this book right now, feel free to contact me and i might consider lending it out.. maybe. None the less, I hope you do try to read it and not just look up the various cinematic versions that exist now. Although I am rather intrigued to see the black and white version from the 50's with Angela Lansbury as Sibyl Vane...
Thanks for coming along with me on this journey and I hope you continue on and find out what novel I will be reading next! Hope I didn't bore you with my rantings, but even if I did- please don't hesitate to comment or e-mail, I'd love to know what you think!
In the mean time, I'm going to cross off Wilde's amazing novel from my list and pick another novel off my shelf :)
<3
One of the main concepts from the novel have to do with the discussion and obsession with Youth, both on the part of the protagonist and with the supporting characters, for instance:
Early on in the novel, Lord Henry Wotton discusses the appeal of regaining one's youth with the Duchess of Harley. She asks him, "Lord Henry, I wish you would tell me how to become young again" and he thoughtfully replies "Can you remember any great error that you committed in your early days, Duchess? [...] Then commit them over again". It is Lord Henry's understanding that "To get back one's youth, one has merely to repeat one's follies" (Wilde 37). So it seems here that Lord Henry- who we know is an aesthete- associates youth with the mistakes one makes and the freedom perhaps or ready ability to make errors and to live in reckless abandon. Where as "nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes" (Wilde 38). Interestingly, at the end of the novel Lord Henry states that "The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young" (Wilde 182). This quote can be found to mean that in our advanced years, others will see us as old, whereas in our minds and hearts we see ourselves as young but with experience from a life longer lived. So that instead of viewing oneself as useless, decrepit and worthless ( as young people might view old people), one understands ones self to be merely chronologically gifted, challenged and wonderful.
Through the character of Lord Henry, Wilde seems to be acknowledging that one specific folly of youth is allowing yourself to be lead astray by those around you- as we see in regards to Dorian's life after he begins following all of the "advice" that Henry gives him. Dorian takes on a life of secrecy, passionate reckless abandon and the gaining of pleasure based on Lord Henry's theory about the senses: "Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul"(Wilde 21 ,155). Dorian adopts these words as a sort of mantra for his ridiculous behaviours but in the end, they end up being the cause of the black spot on his once pure soul and for the scarred and misshapen form that takes over his portrait.
Once Dorian realizes the impact of his prayer that fateful day in Basil Hallward's studio, it is too late because the portrait has begun to change and show the inner workings of his decrepit soul and he is terrified. Therein, it is no surprise to the reader to see that when Dorian and Henry begin to discuss pleasure and the importance of individualism and the pangs of being rich, Dorian contrives to fight against and ultimately publicly shut down Henry's theories; "I am changed, and the mere touch of Sibyl Vane's hand makes me forget you and all your wrong, fascinating, poisonous, delightful theories" (Wilde 67). Here, Dorian Gray is beginning to fight for what his [only yet slightly skewed] conscience assures him is correct. He begins to gain some maturity in not allowing himself to be completely controlled by what Henry describes of the world and decrees as "proper comportment" . For example, on pages 67-68, Dorian has just described his love for and secret engagement to Sibyl Vane (a poor actress who's art fascinates Dorian into what he assumes to be "love") and his desire to be in harmony with another and to be "good", but Lord Henry simply laughs it off stating (in true Lord Henry fashion) "One's own life- that is the important thing" (Wilde 68). It is this selfish sentiment that intrigues Dorian and propels him towards distrusting his own judgement and embracing the sensuous and terribly decadent lifestyle that Henry hangs in front of him.
Furthering the destruction of his soul is Lord Henry's views on women and marriage, which influence Dorian to being disappointed with Sibyl Vane when she shows him that she is real rather than showing him her "art". On learning that Sibyl has committed suicide, Lord Henry reminds Dorian that "you said to me that Sibyl Vane represented to you all the heroines of romance [...]/ She has played her last part and you must think of her lonely death in the tawdry dressing-room simply as a strange lurid fragment from some Jacobean tragedy, as a wonderful scene [...]/ The girl never really lived and so she has never really died./Mourn for Ophelia...Cordelia..but don't waste your tears for Sibyl Vane. She was less real than they are"(Wilde 88-89). It is at this integral moment in the novel, where Dorian decides to make the attaining of pleasure his life's sole purpose.
One has to consider the wonderful curiosity that lies within this novel and its principal characters, and how exquisite life back in pre-19th century London must have been! But, as we can read in the introduction written by Joseph Bristow found at the beginning of the book, Oscar Wilde met with a lot of discord and negativity with regards to the moral value of his novel. Wilde himself was forced to defend his work in a letter written to the St. James Gazette to explain how the novel imparts a moral of some kind, and claiming that "if his novel contained a moral it was this: All excess, as well as all renunciation, brings its own punishment" (intro xxii). Bristow tells us in the introduction that, in order to prove his point, Wilde made the following observations about the three main characters:
- "The painter, Basil Hallward, worshipping physical beauty far too much, as most painters do, dies by the hand of one in whose soul he has created a monstrous and absurd vanity. Dorian Gray, having led a life of mere sensation and pleasure, tries to kill conscience. Lord Henry Wotton seeks to be merely the spectator of life. he finds that those who reject the battle are more deeply wounded than those who take part in it. Yes; there is a terribly moral in DORIAN GRAY- a moral which the prurient will not be able to find in it, but which will be revealed to all whose minds are healthy. Is this an artistic error? I fear it is. It is the only error in the book."
Wilde's words suggest that only those readers who banish from their minds that works should be judged either moral or immoral will grasp the terrible truth that The Picture of Dorian Gray represents. His letter also encourages us to think that, in each case, Basil Hallward, Dorian Gray, and Lord Henry remain incomplete because none of them strikes a balance between indulgence and restraint. (Intro xxiii).
AS you can see -if you've actually read this far- I've got an obsession with this text, maybe it's because like Lord Henry, I find myself very curious about "sins that I could not imagine experiencing" or maybe I find myself strangely attracted to the beauty of Dorian Gray in his vanity or Lord Henry in his fascinating cynicism... OR maybe I'm just into the Gothic and the creepy and the sensual that is found in 18th century British literature. I hope I didn't spoil the ending for anyone, though I tried my best not to spell it out in anyway, and I hope that my two posts on this novel will propel some of you to go out and find it at your local library or bookstore or borrow it off your friend! If you know me personally and you can't live without reading this book right now, feel free to contact me and i might consider lending it out.. maybe. None the less, I hope you do try to read it and not just look up the various cinematic versions that exist now. Although I am rather intrigued to see the black and white version from the 50's with Angela Lansbury as Sibyl Vane...
Thanks for coming along with me on this journey and I hope you continue on and find out what novel I will be reading next! Hope I didn't bore you with my rantings, but even if I did- please don't hesitate to comment or e-mail, I'd love to know what you think!
In the mean time, I'm going to cross off Wilde's amazing novel from my list and pick another novel off my shelf :)
<3
Friday, February 8, 2013
Brace Yourselves... Book Number 10 is...
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
One of my all time favourite 18th century British novels, first published in 1890 in the July issue of the popular Lippincott's Monthly Magazine- a well-established American literary periodical.
This was Dublin born Oscar Wilde's only novel and made a very controversial impact in the literature of the time. In the late 1880's, this American magazine hoped to increase it's share of an expanding transatlantic market by going to London to meet with a small number of talented literary men who had recently come into the British public's eye. These included Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling and of course, Oscar Wilde. Each of these literary talents created a substantial work that would be added to a list of shorter contributions (poems, reviews etc) that was aimed to broaden the magazine's appeal to audiences in both America and Britain.
-(the above info is taken from the Introduction by Joseph Bristow that appears in the Oxford World Classics edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oxford UP: 2006)-
I've only just begun to read it, but already i'm 20 pages in and hanging on every word. Thanks to the genius of the Oxford World Classics, there is substantial information and explanatory notes included in this edition which I've have found to be very useful both in my first reading of the text during my undergrad and again now in my current re-reading of this text. Editor Joseph Bristow fore-warns readers at the beginning of the introduction that "Readers who do not wish to learn details of the plot will prefer to treat the Introduction as an Afterword" which is just a fancy way of saying "Beware of Spoilers"!! *hehe* But I really suggest that whoever owns this edition of Wilde's novel DO read the Introduction... It really will help you understand and consider and think about the characters and events that occur.
At the novels beginning we encounter the painter Basil Hallward- who in the intro is cited as "a lonely, romantic single man" and Lord Henry Wotton "a married, very dandyish aesthete" who are exchanging words in the painter's London studio about an unfinished portrait of "a young man of extraordinary personal beauty" (Wilde 5). Both of these men seem to be a little older than the subject of Basil's portrait but are still in their own youths and belong to what the late Victorian's called 'Society'- the upper crust who either held titles or commanded professional wealth. In their own ways, both characters have become quite taken with the subject of the painting but for two very different reasons. Basil Hallward has a romantic attraction to Dorian, while Lord Henry considers Dorian as an 'interesting study' or ' a scientific analysis of the passions' (intro xiii).
Now, the language from this time period can prove a bit difficult for most contemporary readers so I will try my best to clarify a few of the words that I have used so far:
- The description of Lord Henry as a "dandyish aesthete":
- i) A dandy (also known as a beau or gallant) is a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance, refined language, and leisurely hobbies, pursued with the appearance of nonchalance in a cult of Self. Historically, especially in late 18th- and early 19th-century Britain, a dandy, who was self-made, often strove to imitate an aristocratic lifestyle despite coming from a middle-class background.
- DANDY; "dude, n. U.S. A name given in ridicule to a man affecting an exaggerated fastidiousness in dress, speech, and deportment, and very particular about what is æsthetically ‘good form’; hence, extended to an exquisite, a dandy, ‘a swell’." ( Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press. 1989)
- ii) An æsthete; One who professes a special appreciation of what is beautiful, and endeavors to carry his ideas of beauty into practical manifestation.Cf. ÆSTHETIC.
- An æsthete; A person who is appreciative of and sensitive to art and beauty. Originating from the late 19th century. (Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press)
Does that help a little??
Now that we understand what kind of a person Lord Henry Wotton is and why he might be so interested in young Dorian and his responses to fresh sensations and novel ideas that Lord Henry tempts him to imagine. Which is exactly what Basil Hallward is concerned with when he tries to avoid introducing Lord Henry to him; When he submits to acquainting one with the other, Basil implores Henry (or Harry- as Basil familiarly calls him) saying "He has a simple and a beautiful nature... Don't spoil him. Don't try to influence him..." (Wilde 16). Basil knows that Lord Henry's "[i]nfluence would be bad" and begs him "[not to] take away from me the one person who gives to my art whatever charm it possesses: my life as an artist depends on him" (16). He goes so far as to say "Mind, Happy, I trust you" (16). In these first scenes, Basil is providing the reader with a foreshadowing of Lord Henry's influence over Dorian later to come, but dear reader, it is a most wondrous journey into the next pages of this novel to see for ones self what really becomes of young Dorian Gray.
The novels back cover begins with the following quote; "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it". We will only understand what this means from reading to the end and seeing the outcome... and I can't wait to get there!!!
NB**The original 1890 publication was in 13 chapters, while the 1891 re-published version included 7 new chapters, making it a much longer (20 chapter) novel**
I can't wait to keep reading this wonderful novel and I intend to have it completed by Sunday night. This edition is 188 pages in length, if you're interested :)
 |
| "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it" |
Onward ..... Read!!
<3
Friday, February 1, 2013
For Curiosity Sake...
In case you were wondering exactly how many fairy tales make up this Complete Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales book.. Here's a list of all the titles:
The Frog Prince
The Cat who Married a Mouse
Fairy Tell True
The Youth who Could Not Shiver and Shake
The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids
Faithful John
The Good Bargain
The Wonderful Fiddler
The Twelve Brothers
The Rogue's Holiday
The Enchanted Stag
Hansel and Grethel
Rapunzel
The Three Little Men in the Woods
The Brave Little Tailor
The Fisherman and his Wife
Cinderella
The Riddle
The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage
The Widow's Two Daughters
The Seven Ravens
Little Red Riding-Hood
The Town Musicians
The Singing Bone
The Three Golden Hairs
The Lady-Bird and the Fly
The Maiden Without Hands
The Three Languages
The Clever Elfe
The Tailor's Three Sons
Little Thumb
The Wedding of Widow Fox
The shoemaker and the Elves
The Maiden' Visit
The Changeling
The Three Spinning Fairies
The Robber Bridegroom
The Troublesome Visitors
The Wonderful Glass
Old Sultan and His Friends
The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood
Birdie and Her Friend
King Roughbeard
Snow-white and the Seven Dwarfs
The Fortune Seekers
Rumpelstiltskin
The Shepherd's Flower
The Golden Bird
The Twin Brothers
The Queen Bee
The Princess in Disguise
The Bride's Venture
Florinda and Yoringal
The father's Legacies
The Boasting Wolf
The Fox and the Cat
The Lost Son
The Flase Bride
The Young Giant
Thumbling's Travels
The Golden Goose
The Wonderful Travellers
Clever Grethel
The Old Grandfather's Corner
The Water Sprite
The Cock's Funeral
Brother Frolick's Adventures
The Gold Children
The Fox and the Geese
The Fairy's Two Gifts
The Lion's Castle
The Man in the Bear's Skin
The Kind of the Birds
The Magic Fiddle
The Kind of the Golden Mountain
The Golden Castle of Stromberg
The Peasant's Clever Daughter
The Silver Axe
Clever People
The Miller's Boy and His Cat
The Good-Tempered Tailor
The Hatchet and the Flail
The Blue Light
The seven Wise Men
The Fearless Prince
The Wonderful Plan
The Enchanted Tree
The Four Clever Brother's
One Eye, Two Eyes, Three Eyes.
The Fox and the Horse
The Dancing Shoes
The Drummer
The Royal Turnip
White and Black
Iron Hans
Mountain Sesima
the Three Feathers
the Wolf and the Fox
The Three Trades
The Dragon's Grandmother
The Iron Chest
the Lamb and the Fish
The Ass's Skin
Snow-White and the Red-rose
The Water of Life
The Tailor and the Bear
The Sparrow and His young Ones
The Coffin of Glass
The Water-Sprite of the Lake
The Young Count's Reward
The Avaricious Blacksmith
Idleness and Industry
The Shower of Gold
The Spindle, the Needle, and the Shuttle
The Rich Man's Grave
the Twelve Idlers
The Shepherd Boy and the King
Doctor Know-All
The Hare and the Hedgehog
The Three Tasks
The King of the Birds
The Robber's Cave
The House in the Wood
Princess Maleen
The Crystal Ball
The Twelve Windows
Discreet Hans
Godfather Death
The Old Witch
The Feather Bird
The Six Swans
The Almond Trees
The Dog and the Sparrow
The Little Farmer
Catherine and Frederick
The Rogue and his Master
The Fox and Godmother wolf
The Rabbit's Bride
Hans in Luck
Hans Married
The Dwarfs
Old Hildebrand
The Three Birds
The Sweet Soup
The Faithful Beasts
The Three Army Surgeons
Three Little Tales About Toads
Hans the Hedgehog
The Child's Grave
The Two King's Children
The Three Journeymen
Ferdinand the Faithful and Ferdinand the Unfaithful
The Bright sun Brings On the Day
The Idle Spinner
The Three Black Princesses
The Six Servants
Fair Catherine and Pif-Paf Poltrie
Going Out A-Travelling
The Maid of Brakel
Knoist and His Three Sons
The Undutiful Son
Lazy Harry
The Family Servants
The Old Griffin
The Old Beggar Woman
The Three Sluggards
The Hen-Roost
Love and Sorrow to Share
Lean Betty
The Bride-Choosing
The Stolen Farthings
The Sole
The Duration of Life
The Bittern and the Hoopoe
Misfortune
The Owl
The Nail
Death's Messengers
Master Cobblersawl
A Tale of Schlauraffenland
A Puzzling Tale
The Poor Boy in the Grave
The Giant and the Tailor
The Master-Thief
The Robber and His Sons
Wise Hans
The Countryman and the Evil Spirit
The Ears of Wheat
Old Rinkrank
The Boots Made of Buffalo Leather
The Golden Key
The Tailor in Olympus
The Devil's Sooty Brother
The Willful Child
The Old man Made Young Again
The Lord's Animals and The Devil's
The Peasant in Heaven
Eve's Various Children
The Crumbs on the Table
The Moon
The Lying Tale
THE CHILDREN'S LEGENDS
The Legend of Saint Joseph in the Forest
Humility and Poverty Lead to Heaven
The Three Green Twigs
The Old Widow
The Rose
The Twelve Apostles
God's Food
Our Lady's Little Glass
The Heavenly Wedding
The Hazel-Branch
Now that you've read through them- or skimmed to the bottom- I can tell you that there are exactly 211 fairy tales!!!
Unless I can't count right now, in which case there might be 210 or 212... *giggles* I'm so not recounting so you be the judge ;)
Hope you enjoyed reading along with me.. If you have any questions regarding the Brothers Grimm and their Fairy Tales, don't hesitate to comment or send me an e-mail!!!
<3
The Frog Prince
The Cat who Married a Mouse
Fairy Tell True
The Youth who Could Not Shiver and Shake
The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids
Faithful John
The Good Bargain
The Wonderful Fiddler
The Twelve Brothers
The Rogue's Holiday
The Enchanted Stag
Hansel and Grethel
Rapunzel
The Three Little Men in the Woods
The Brave Little Tailor
The Fisherman and his Wife
Cinderella
The Riddle
The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage
The Widow's Two Daughters
The Seven Ravens
Little Red Riding-Hood
The Town Musicians
The Singing Bone
The Three Golden Hairs
The Lady-Bird and the Fly
The Maiden Without Hands
The Three Languages
The Clever Elfe
The Tailor's Three Sons
Little Thumb
The Wedding of Widow Fox
The shoemaker and the Elves
The Maiden' Visit
The Changeling
The Three Spinning Fairies
The Robber Bridegroom
The Troublesome Visitors
The Wonderful Glass
Old Sultan and His Friends
The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood
Birdie and Her Friend
King Roughbeard
Snow-white and the Seven Dwarfs
The Fortune Seekers
Rumpelstiltskin
The Shepherd's Flower
The Golden Bird
The Twin Brothers
The Queen Bee
The Princess in Disguise
The Bride's Venture
Florinda and Yoringal
The father's Legacies
The Boasting Wolf
The Fox and the Cat
The Lost Son
The Flase Bride
The Young Giant
Thumbling's Travels
The Golden Goose
The Wonderful Travellers
Clever Grethel
The Old Grandfather's Corner
The Water Sprite
The Cock's Funeral
Brother Frolick's Adventures
The Gold Children
The Fox and the Geese
The Fairy's Two Gifts
The Lion's Castle
The Man in the Bear's Skin
The Kind of the Birds
The Magic Fiddle
The Kind of the Golden Mountain
The Golden Castle of Stromberg
The Peasant's Clever Daughter
The Silver Axe
Clever People
The Miller's Boy and His Cat
The Good-Tempered Tailor
The Hatchet and the Flail
The Blue Light
The seven Wise Men
The Fearless Prince
The Wonderful Plan
The Enchanted Tree
The Four Clever Brother's
One Eye, Two Eyes, Three Eyes.
The Fox and the Horse
The Dancing Shoes
The Drummer
The Royal Turnip
White and Black
Iron Hans
Mountain Sesima
the Three Feathers
the Wolf and the Fox
The Three Trades
The Dragon's Grandmother
The Iron Chest
the Lamb and the Fish
The Ass's Skin
Snow-White and the Red-rose
The Water of Life
The Tailor and the Bear
The Sparrow and His young Ones
The Coffin of Glass
The Water-Sprite of the Lake
The Young Count's Reward
The Avaricious Blacksmith
Idleness and Industry
The Shower of Gold
The Spindle, the Needle, and the Shuttle
The Rich Man's Grave
the Twelve Idlers
The Shepherd Boy and the King
Doctor Know-All
The Hare and the Hedgehog
The Three Tasks
The King of the Birds
The Robber's Cave
The House in the Wood
Princess Maleen
The Crystal Ball
The Twelve Windows
Discreet Hans
Godfather Death
The Old Witch
The Feather Bird
The Six Swans
The Almond Trees
The Dog and the Sparrow
The Little Farmer
Catherine and Frederick
The Rogue and his Master
The Fox and Godmother wolf
The Rabbit's Bride
Hans in Luck
Hans Married
The Dwarfs
Old Hildebrand
The Three Birds
The Sweet Soup
The Faithful Beasts
The Three Army Surgeons
Three Little Tales About Toads
Hans the Hedgehog
The Child's Grave
The Two King's Children
The Three Journeymen
Ferdinand the Faithful and Ferdinand the Unfaithful
The Bright sun Brings On the Day
The Idle Spinner
The Three Black Princesses
The Six Servants
Fair Catherine and Pif-Paf Poltrie
Going Out A-Travelling
The Maid of Brakel
Knoist and His Three Sons
The Undutiful Son
Lazy Harry
The Family Servants
The Old Griffin
The Old Beggar Woman
The Three Sluggards
The Hen-Roost
Love and Sorrow to Share
Lean Betty
The Bride-Choosing
The Stolen Farthings
The Sole
The Duration of Life
The Bittern and the Hoopoe
Misfortune
The Owl
The Nail
Death's Messengers
Master Cobblersawl
A Tale of Schlauraffenland
A Puzzling Tale
The Poor Boy in the Grave
The Giant and the Tailor
The Master-Thief
The Robber and His Sons
Wise Hans
The Countryman and the Evil Spirit
The Ears of Wheat
Old Rinkrank
The Boots Made of Buffalo Leather
The Golden Key
The Tailor in Olympus
The Devil's Sooty Brother
The Willful Child
The Old man Made Young Again
The Lord's Animals and The Devil's
The Peasant in Heaven
Eve's Various Children
The Crumbs on the Table
The Moon
The Lying Tale
THE CHILDREN'S LEGENDS
The Legend of Saint Joseph in the Forest
Humility and Poverty Lead to Heaven
The Three Green Twigs
The Old Widow
The Rose
The Twelve Apostles
God's Food
Our Lady's Little Glass
The Heavenly Wedding
The Hazel-Branch
Now that you've read through them- or skimmed to the bottom- I can tell you that there are exactly 211 fairy tales!!!
Unless I can't count right now, in which case there might be 210 or 212... *giggles* I'm so not recounting so you be the judge ;)
Hope you enjoyed reading along with me.. If you have any questions regarding the Brothers Grimm and their Fairy Tales, don't hesitate to comment or send me an e-mail!!!
<3
Book Number 9 Complete... Finally!
At 5:30pm today, February 1, 2013 I officially finished reading The Complete Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales!
I can't believe that it took me just over two months to read through 680 pages!!! What's even worse is that this text was split up into short fairy tales... just imagining how long it will take me to read the Tolstoy novel that's on my shelf is giving me shivers :(
But I can't let myself be brought down by depressing thoughts, and mere assumptions at that- I'm going to be more diligent with my reading now that there is no holiday to distract me. Yes, Easter is coming up, with Lent before it but it isn't as stressful a time as Christmas, that's for certain. So I continue on happily, celebrating my successes and toasting my achievements up to this point with my "Keep Calm and Carry On" bookmark in one hand and a mug of delicious tea in the other!
Now, while reading through the last half of this book, I realized some common consistencies and occurrences with regards to theme, names, situations, lessons...
-Most men in the fairy tales are named Hans or Frederick and often times are given the title of "faithful" or "unfaithful".
- Most women are either just referred to as "the Maiden", "the Princess", "the Queen", "The Old Woman", "The witch", "the sorceress".
- Every other story has someone who possesses or comes into contact with magic, wizardry, sorcery, enchantments, potions...
- Men, young or old, peasants or princes, "simple" (dumb) or "clever" (intelligent) often either do some good deed and are rewarded from the King with the princess for a wife OR come into some bad circumstance and have to complete multiple (typically 3-5) ridiculous tasks in order to get out... This also happens when someone goes to save the captured maiden or princess. Regardless of the circumstance, these tasks often cannot be completed without the assistance of people, animals or objects who can use magic or have magical properties.
- The land of Germany is riddled with large glass mountains which kings often lose their daughters into, or princes/peasants have to walk over to gain riches or fame or freedom etc.
-Foxes are always helping people, and outsmarting every other animal..
-Princes often get turned into: foxes, horses, stags, bears, barrels, or wardrobes and only have their enchantments broken by other princes by aiding them in their flights or fights.
-Women who are worth anything must be: industrious (useful in the home, kitchen, field, farm etc), beautiful, smart/clever and be able to spin ridiculous amounts of flax into thread. And a woman who is found to be lazy, regardless of her social status or beauty is often chucked aside for the millers industrious agreeable daughter... Cuz, who wants a lazy wife?
-Couples, both royal and common often are unable to have children, but come to receive some miracle from God, a bird, an oak or almond or walnut tree, a witch, enchantress or dwarf and then either die in childbirth, or have their children taken away from them when the child turns 10 or 12 by whoever/whatever gave the child to them.
- There is this ridiculous obsession with brides being lost, stolen, forgotten, cheated; weddings have been interrupted, stopped, a false bride given instead of the real bride by an evil or avaricious step-mother, or queen etc. Or weddings completely stopped on behalf of the real bride asking to uncover the false bride and having three dresses which she pulls out of a walnut or almond shell.
-The bride who loses her husband when he goes back home, often has to hire herself out to work while she waits for him to come back/remember her or until she can get him back from the usually inferior looking and acting "false" bride..
-Princesses often fall ill, or die, or won't be given in marriage, or are stolen away or sent away when very young on account of evil parents, step-parents, witches, sorceresses etc.
-In every third story, someone dies a gruesome death. People get hung from the gallows, dismembered, eaten by dragons;animals;or other people, burnt on a pyre, stuffed into an oven, locked underground or drowned in water.
-Parents of dead children are always visited by the child's ghost form until they fulfill whatever it is the child didn't complete while alive, or don't stop grieving.
- The good are rewarded with all manner of wealth, and the wicked, lazy, greedy etc. punished.
- All young peasant boys must leave their fathers to "find their way" or "find their fortune" or "learn a trade"..
-Discharged soldiers are a common occurrence and often help other travelers or journeymen along the way, or regain honor and riches by helping a king or kingdom etc.
-People always get lost in the forest and can't get out without someone to show them the way, and in turn they have to give something of value to an animal or a magical person.
-Family ties are so so important; brothers and sisters, brothers with brothers, parents to lost children, parents to disfigured children, sisters with sisters, respecting your grandparents... Or else you'll lose any of the following: your sight, your use of limbs, your gold, your wife, your daughter, your son, your life etc.
- the character "Death" is constantly around in the town and both aids and hinders people on their journeys and tasks. Furthermore, Death appears under various names and forms such as: "the UnNamed One", "the Evil One", "the Dark One", an old man, a handsome count-looking man, a small little bearded man.
-Dwarves and Giants, dragons, spirits and ghouls, Sprites and goblins are also there to help the journeyer, haunting castles, lakes, trees, living in caves and mountains with gold and jewels, stealing princesses and young maidens or older women with children.
-Robbers are everywhere, stealing your wife, your child, your goat, your gold..
-People get eaten, burnt to death, stolen, taken captive and tortured, beaten, killed; have their heads, arms, hearts etc cut off or out and put back on/in magically.
Altogether, I found the Complete Brothers Grimm a wonderfully enchanting, horrifyingly gruesome, terrifyingly exciting read and I hope to read it again some day in the future with my spouse and children. And I hope you will also make the effort to journey into their magical, lyrical world!!
*sigh* I'm almost sad that its over... Thought you might enjoy seeing a few more shots of my beloved monster book!
So I'm closing the 2012 chapter of my bookshelf challenge and Now turning over a new leaf for 2013. Onto another book... which one which one??
<3
I can't believe that it took me just over two months to read through 680 pages!!! What's even worse is that this text was split up into short fairy tales... just imagining how long it will take me to read the Tolstoy novel that's on my shelf is giving me shivers :(
But I can't let myself be brought down by depressing thoughts, and mere assumptions at that- I'm going to be more diligent with my reading now that there is no holiday to distract me. Yes, Easter is coming up, with Lent before it but it isn't as stressful a time as Christmas, that's for certain. So I continue on happily, celebrating my successes and toasting my achievements up to this point with my "Keep Calm and Carry On" bookmark in one hand and a mug of delicious tea in the other!
Now, while reading through the last half of this book, I realized some common consistencies and occurrences with regards to theme, names, situations, lessons...
-Most men in the fairy tales are named Hans or Frederick and often times are given the title of "faithful" or "unfaithful".
- Most women are either just referred to as "the Maiden", "the Princess", "the Queen", "The Old Woman", "The witch", "the sorceress".
- Every other story has someone who possesses or comes into contact with magic, wizardry, sorcery, enchantments, potions...
- Men, young or old, peasants or princes, "simple" (dumb) or "clever" (intelligent) often either do some good deed and are rewarded from the King with the princess for a wife OR come into some bad circumstance and have to complete multiple (typically 3-5) ridiculous tasks in order to get out... This also happens when someone goes to save the captured maiden or princess. Regardless of the circumstance, these tasks often cannot be completed without the assistance of people, animals or objects who can use magic or have magical properties.
- The land of Germany is riddled with large glass mountains which kings often lose their daughters into, or princes/peasants have to walk over to gain riches or fame or freedom etc.
-Foxes are always helping people, and outsmarting every other animal..
-Princes often get turned into: foxes, horses, stags, bears, barrels, or wardrobes and only have their enchantments broken by other princes by aiding them in their flights or fights.
-Women who are worth anything must be: industrious (useful in the home, kitchen, field, farm etc), beautiful, smart/clever and be able to spin ridiculous amounts of flax into thread. And a woman who is found to be lazy, regardless of her social status or beauty is often chucked aside for the millers industrious agreeable daughter... Cuz, who wants a lazy wife?
-Couples, both royal and common often are unable to have children, but come to receive some miracle from God, a bird, an oak or almond or walnut tree, a witch, enchantress or dwarf and then either die in childbirth, or have their children taken away from them when the child turns 10 or 12 by whoever/whatever gave the child to them.
- There is this ridiculous obsession with brides being lost, stolen, forgotten, cheated; weddings have been interrupted, stopped, a false bride given instead of the real bride by an evil or avaricious step-mother, or queen etc. Or weddings completely stopped on behalf of the real bride asking to uncover the false bride and having three dresses which she pulls out of a walnut or almond shell.
-The bride who loses her husband when he goes back home, often has to hire herself out to work while she waits for him to come back/remember her or until she can get him back from the usually inferior looking and acting "false" bride..
-Princesses often fall ill, or die, or won't be given in marriage, or are stolen away or sent away when very young on account of evil parents, step-parents, witches, sorceresses etc.
-In every third story, someone dies a gruesome death. People get hung from the gallows, dismembered, eaten by dragons;animals;or other people, burnt on a pyre, stuffed into an oven, locked underground or drowned in water.
-Parents of dead children are always visited by the child's ghost form until they fulfill whatever it is the child didn't complete while alive, or don't stop grieving.
- The good are rewarded with all manner of wealth, and the wicked, lazy, greedy etc. punished.
- All young peasant boys must leave their fathers to "find their way" or "find their fortune" or "learn a trade"..
-Discharged soldiers are a common occurrence and often help other travelers or journeymen along the way, or regain honor and riches by helping a king or kingdom etc.
-People always get lost in the forest and can't get out without someone to show them the way, and in turn they have to give something of value to an animal or a magical person.
-Family ties are so so important; brothers and sisters, brothers with brothers, parents to lost children, parents to disfigured children, sisters with sisters, respecting your grandparents... Or else you'll lose any of the following: your sight, your use of limbs, your gold, your wife, your daughter, your son, your life etc.
- the character "Death" is constantly around in the town and both aids and hinders people on their journeys and tasks. Furthermore, Death appears under various names and forms such as: "the UnNamed One", "the Evil One", "the Dark One", an old man, a handsome count-looking man, a small little bearded man.
-Dwarves and Giants, dragons, spirits and ghouls, Sprites and goblins are also there to help the journeyer, haunting castles, lakes, trees, living in caves and mountains with gold and jewels, stealing princesses and young maidens or older women with children.
-Robbers are everywhere, stealing your wife, your child, your goat, your gold..
-People get eaten, burnt to death, stolen, taken captive and tortured, beaten, killed; have their heads, arms, hearts etc cut off or out and put back on/in magically.
Altogether, I found the Complete Brothers Grimm a wonderfully enchanting, horrifyingly gruesome, terrifyingly exciting read and I hope to read it again some day in the future with my spouse and children. And I hope you will also make the effort to journey into their magical, lyrical world!!
*sigh* I'm almost sad that its over... Thought you might enjoy seeing a few more shots of my beloved monster book!
 |
| Fancy inside cover and title page.. ooooo! |
 |
| First image and Cover Title page with my last tea cup of this book! |
 |
| Love my white china tea cup :) |
 |
| Final two pages of Index... Whoa! |
 |
| The last page, number 680 |
So I'm closing the 2012 chapter of my bookshelf challenge and Now turning over a new leaf for 2013. Onto another book... which one which one??
<3
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