Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter (Hinges of History)

Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter (Hinges of History)
Average customer rating:

Aegean Genesis

Another excellent entry in the Hinges of History series by Cahill

Greek History "Lite"

Sailing the Wine Dark Sea

HARD TO LISTEN TO

Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter (Hinges of History)
Thomas Cahill
Manufacturer: Anchor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Early Civilization | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books
Greece | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books
General | World | History | Subjects | Books
General | Greece | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
Greek & Roman | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels (Hinges of History)

Desire of the Everlasting Hills: The World Before and After Jesus

How the Irish Saved Civilization (Hinges of History)

Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of Feminism, Science, and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe

Jesus' Little Instruction Book

ASIN: 0385495544
Release Date: 2004-07-27

Book Description

In Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea, his fourth volume to explore “the hinges of history,” Thomas Cahill escorts the reader on another entertaining—and historically unassailable—journey through the landmarks of art and bloodshed that defined Greek culture nearly three millennia ago.

In the city-states of Athens and Sparta and throughout the Greek islands, honors could be won in making love and war, and lives were rife with contradictions. By developing the alphabet, the Greeks empowered the reader, demystified experience, and opened the way for civil discussion and experimentation—yet they kept slaves. The glorious verses of the Iliad recount a conflict in which rage and outrage spur men to action and suggest that their “bellicose society of gleaming metals and rattling weapons” is not so very distant from more recent campaigns of “shock and awe.” And, centuries before Zorba, Greece was a land where music, dance, and freely flowing wine were essential to the high life. Granting equal time to the sacred and the profane, Cahill rivets our attention to the legacies of an ancient and enduring worldview.

Customer Reviews:

Aegean Genesis.......2007-09-23

All of the books in Thomas Cahill's Hinges of History popular history series are engaging and occasionally irreverent. Sometimes, however, a book's title premise does end up seeming just a bit smaller than the number of pages allotted to it. In "Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea, Why the Greeks Matter," the reverse is true. The book's covers struggle to contain the ideas within. To paraphrase Peter Benchley: You're going to need a bigger book. Cahill doesn't though. Somehow he manages to fit much of the genesis of the long journey to who we are today within the book's 304 pages of text and appendices. The reader will find philosophy, theatre, history, sculpture and rhetoric, and many other Greek roots of Western civilization, all bubbling up in Mr. Cahill's happy cauldron.

After reading Edith Hamilton's classic popular history "The Greek Way," a person could legitimately feel that he or she has learned much through Ms. Hamilton's literate and well-reasoned presentation of ancient Greek thought and deed. On the other hand, when a reader finishes "Why the Greeks Matter," he or she may feel the need to rush out and devour Homer, Aeschylus, Pindar, Sappho and Plato. That same reader may also feel a compulsion to book a flight to Greece in order to be able to look up from a guide book and see the Parthenon atop the Acropolis or to sail the wine-dark sea in a ship of any hue.

The Greeks do matter, and Mr. Cahill makes a reader want to realize that truth.

Another excellent entry in the Hinges of History series by Cahill.......2007-08-23

Thomas Cahill is doing a great service in making the basic tenets of Western European history available, readable and enjoyable. After a few decades of trying so hard to right the wrongs of centuries and thereby turning the pendulum so far back, the study of history would seem to start and end with ANYTHING BUT "dead white males" which does a disservice to everybody. Cahill would remind us of the highlights of the shared cultural history for all of us who live in the Western world, no matter where our ancestors came from.
Picking apart, as some reviewers have done, that he doesn't delve into this or that major battle or expound on the importance of the trireme...that is exactly the type of dry academic history that drives off the reader who is wants a book to be interesting and to learn something new, not to pass a test. At this Cahill is excellent. I could quibble too, having my favorite time periods or persons skimmed over, but the idea is for these 5 books, the "Hinges of History" series (How the Irish Saved Civilization, The Gifts of the Jews, The Desire of the Everlasting Hills, the Mysteries of the Middle Ages) to be light and quickly read. This book on the Greeks gives us a quick look at their civilization, its arts, plays, (Homer rates a chapter unto himself as it should be, and in fact made me want to go read the translation by Fogle he quotes from extensively)...their warfare, recreation, philosophy, finally, how they "ended", when their they were conquered first by Alexander the Great and then by Rome, and then even further culturally extinguished by their absorption into Christianity which changed the uniqueness of what they were forever, for better or worse.
The Greeks invented democracy, not so little a thing when you think about it, and utilized it, really actually utilized it, for a long time. Eventually their political sytem too devolved into tyranny, and then they were conquered by outsiders, but for a brief time in all of the long history of the past in all of the planet, there was a small city-state which came up with this unbelievable idea, and put it into action. That, alone, would make them, as a people, memorable. Yes, they had slaves, and treated women badly (no worse than most ancient cultures and many modern ones however.)
Their democracy--actually, speaking only of Athen's and it's colonies for about 200 years: "Athens the world's firsts attempt at a democracy---a Greek word meaning "rule by the people"---still stands out as the most wildly participatory government in history. Never again would such a broadly based...model be attempted. And...it worked."
(Sparta, on the other hand,was "ruled by...a council of old men, was an airless, artless,nightmare of xenophobic military preparedness, the North Korea of its day.")
The Athenians idealized beauty, invented philosophical discussion, took mathematics and medicine from the ancient Egyptians and in the case of mathematics, kept on and on with it, tying it to philosophy and turning it something no longer earthbound, no longer just for the building of monuments for dead kings.
A worthwhile book, one that would hopefully introduce some people to the Greeks, reintroduce others, and perhaps help rehabilitate them again into our cultural legacy where they belong. Without them, none of us would be as we are, and probably be the worse for it.

Greek History "Lite".......2007-08-03

Actually I was enjoying the book most of the way through. Cahill writes well, without every drab detail that most history textbooks include. My disappointment started around chapter 7 "Greco-Roman Meets Judeo-Christian" where Cahill applauds separation of church and state. Worse, he takes it a step further and jumps on the Bush-bashing bandwagon, even specifically calling out Don Rumsfeld as an imperialist and criticizing the current administration for a "dismissive" approach to the UN. Perhaps the author hadn't noticed the UN is filled with dictators and deep corruption. Sorry Mr. Cahill, you just alienated half of your fan base.

Sailing the Wine Dark Sea.......2007-07-07

When I was a boy I was given a book on classical Greece. A childs book, it celebrated the virtues of Greece and passed by some of the less-glamorous characteristics.

Mr. Cahill writes a fascinating a highly understandable book about the heritage that we, who think of ourselves as Westerners, owe to the Greeks of the classical age. I avoid the term "ancient" when I discuss the Greeks of this period, as even though they are seperated from us by 2,400 years, they are not only like us in many ways, they ARE us. Unlike earlier cultures, the contentious and divisive Greeks are our progenitors. Mr. Cahill has written an excellent narrative regarding the debt that western culture owes to the political, social, artistic, and cultural inventions of the Greeks, both good and bad, and he does so in a lively and very thoughtful way.

This is probably not a book which will provide new information to the serious scholar, however it will cause almost any reader to stop and reflect on our heritage, where it cam from, and how it evolved.

HARD TO LISTEN TO.......2007-06-06

I find that with audio, if I am not happy at the end of the first cd, I move on to the next book... This is one of those. I learned little in the first cd, didnt learn anything about why the greeks mattered - maybe he is saving the interesting stuff for the last 4 cd,s.

Average customer rating:

Don't Read This Book. . .
Amazing, As Usual
Aubrey and Maturin in the Pacific and Andes of South America
Joint Review of All Aubrey-Maturin Books
Never look a llama in the eye . . .

The Wine-Dark Sea
Patrick O'Brian
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Sea Adventures | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

The Truelove
The Commodore (Aubrey-Maturin Series)
The Yellow Admiral (Aubrey-Maturin)
The Nutmeg of Consolation
The Hundred Days (Aubrey/Maturin Series)

ASIN: 0393312445

Amazon.com

In this installment of O'Brian's maritime epic, Captain Aubrey and the crew of the Surprise are pursuing an American privateer through the Great South Sea. As is his custom, O'Brian grabs your attention with the first, beautifully memorable sentence: "A purple ocean, vast under the sky and devoid of all visible life apart from two minute ships racing across its immensity." And he doesn't relinquish it until 260 pages later, by which point Jack Aubrey is delighted at the mere fact of being alive.

Book Description

Three Cassettes, 5 hrs. 15 min. abridged

Performance by Tim Pigott-Smith

Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin are back in the 16th installment in Patrick O'Brian's bestselling series.

At the outset of this adventure, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin pursue a heavy American privateer through the Great South Sea. Their ship, the Surprise, is now also a privateer, the better to escape diplomatic complications from Stephen's mission, which is to ignite the revolutionary tinder of South America. Jack will survive a desperate open-boat journey and come face to face with his illegitimate black son: Stephen, caught up in the aftermath of his failed coup, will flee for his life into the high, frozen wastes of the Andes: and Patrick O'Brian's brilliantly detailed narrative will reuinte them at last in a breathtaking chase through storm seas and icebergs south of Cape Horn.

Customer Reviews:

Don't Read This Book. . ........2007-08-02

. . .without first reading Truelove. Wine Dark Sea is the 16th
book in the Aubrey/Marturin series and as usual, the writing
is as rhythmic and sensual as the sea itself. O'Brian does his
usual great job of spiking the plot with layers of meaning and
twists and turns. He is also at his best in emphasizing the
'novel' part of his historical-novel niche.

If this is your first experience of the series though, you might
find the characters and motivations a bit hard to follow, especially
since so much groundwork was laid in Truelove. Some diehard
fans may be disappointed by transport of so much of the action
from the sea to the mountains.
Still any O'Brian is better than no O'Brian at all and this is one of
the best books in the series.

--Lynn Hoffman, author of bang BANG isbn 9781601640005

Amazing, As Usual.......2004-05-18

Wine-Dark Sea is the sixteenth in Patrick O'Brian's wonderful 20-part nautical series. It is also the final in a four-part mini-series, as volumes thirteen through sixteen are an ongoing circumnavigation of the world. In this installment, Aubrey and Maturin and the HMS Surprise finish their adventures in the Pacific, land in Peru and then round the Cape into the Atlantic on their way home to England. For fans of the naval wars, there are some good 'ol rip-roaring chase and battle scenes. The Maturin crowd will find their hero high in the Andes examining wildlife and carrying on his intelligence activities. A wonderful worthy addition to O'Brian's series.

Aubrey and Maturin in the Pacific and Andes of South America.......2004-01-28

"The Wine-Dark Sea" is the immediate precursor to "The Commodore", chronicling the final exploits in the Surprise's mission to the Pacific and the west coast of Spanish America. Aubrey chases a French privateer, the Franklin, commanded by a wealthy Frenchman, Dutourd, an early advocate of communism, that has seized several British merchantmen in the South Pacific. Imprisoned aboard Surprise, Dutourd tries to befriend both Aubrey and Maturin, but is rebuffed by both. Aubrey transfers him back to the Franklin, but Dutourd escapes and hides unseen aboard Surprise, which is taking Maturin to the West Coast of South America. There he will be reunited with Aubrey's illegimate African son, Sam Panda, a local Roman Catholic priest. Maturin tries to forment a revolt amongst some of the local clergy and military against the Spanish monarchy, but before the revolt can commence, he is warned by others that Dutourd has escaped from the Surprise. The revolt is cancelled. Maturin must undertake a perilous trek across the Andes, suffering severe frostbite, before he is reunited with his shipmates. Aboard Franklin, Aubrey leads his crew in a desperate struggle against a French pirate warship. This is yet another exciting installment in the Aubrey-Maturin series, and among the most suspenseful.

Joint Review of All Aubrey-Maturin Books.......2003-10-27

Some critics have referred to the Aubrey/Maturin books as one long novel united not only by their historical setting but also by the central plot element of the Aubrey/Maturin friendship. Having read these fine books over a period of several years, I decided to evaluate their cumulative integrity by reading them consecutively in order of publication over a period of a few weeks. This turned out to be a rewarding enterprise. For readers unfamiliar with these books, they describe the experiences of a Royal Navy officer and his close friend and traveling companion, a naval surgeon. The experiences cover a broad swath of the Napoleonic Wars and virtually the whole globe.
Rereading all the books confirmed that O'Brian is a superb writer and that his ability to evoke the past is outstanding. O'Brian has numerous gifts as a writer. He is the master of the long, careful description, and the short, telling episode. His ability to construct ingenious but creditable plots is first-rate, probably because he based much of the action of his books on actual events. For example, some of the episodes of Jack Aubrey's career are based on the life of the famous frigate captain, Lord Cochrane. O'Brian excels also in his depiction of characters. His ability to develop psychologically creditable characters through a combination of dialogue, comments by other characters, and description is tremendous. O'Brien's interest in psychology went well beyond normal character development, some books contain excellent case studies of anxiety, depression, and mania.
Reading O'Brien gives vivid view of the early 19th century. The historian Bernard Bailyn, writing of colonial America, stated once that the 18th century world was not only pre-industrial but also pre-humanitarian (paraphrase). This is true as well for the early 19th century depicted by O'Brien. The casual and invariable presence of violence, brutality, and death is a theme running through all the books. The constant threats to life are the product not only of natural forces beyond human control, particularly the weather and disease, but also of relative human indifference to suffering. There is nothing particularly romantic about the world O'Brien describes but it also a certain grim grandeur. O'Brien also shows the somewhat transitional nature of the early 19th century. The British Navy and its vessals were the apogee of what could be achieved by pre-industrial technology. This is true both of the technology itself and the social organization needed to produce and use the massive sailing vessals. Aubrey's navy is an organization reflecting its society; an order based on deference, rigid hierarchy, primitive notions of honor, favoritism, and very, very corrupt. At the same time, it was one of the largest and most effective bureaucracies in human history to that time. The nature of service exacted great penalities for failure in a particularly environment, and great success was rewarded greatly. In some ways, it was a ruthless meritocracy whose structure and success anticipates the great expansion of government power and capacity seen in the rest of the 19th century.
O'Brian is also the great writer about male friendship. There are important female characters in these books but since most of the action takes place at sea, male characters predominate. The friendship between Aubrey and Maturin is the central armature of the books and is a brilliant creation. The position of women in these books is ambiguous. There are sympathetic characters, notably Aubrey's long suffering wife. Other women figures, notably Maturin's wife, leave a less positive impression. On board ship, women tend to have a disruptive, even malign influence.
How did O'Brian manage to sustain his achievement over 20 books? Beyond his technical abilities as a writer and the instrinsic interest of the subject, O'Brien made a series of very intelligent choices. He has not one but two major protagonists. The contrasting but equally interesting figures of Aubrey and Maturin allowed O'Brien to a particularly rich opportunity to expose different facets of character development and to vary plots carefully. This is quite difficult and I'm not aware of any other writer who has been able to accomplish such sustained development of two major protagonists for such a prolonged period. O'Brian's use of his historical setting is very creative. The scenes and events in the books literally span the whole globe as Aubrey and Maturin encounter numerous cultures and societies. The naval setting allowed him also to introduce numerous new and interesting characters. O'Brian was able to make his stories attractive to many audiences. Several of these stories can be enjoyed as psychological novels, as adventure stories, as suspense novels, and even one as a legal thriller. O'Brian was also a very funny writer, successful at both broad, low humor, and sophisticated wit. Finally, O'Brian made efforts to link some of the books together. While a number are complete in themselves, others form components of extended, multi-book narratives. Desolation Island, Fortune of War, and The Surgeon's Mate are one such grouping. Treason's Harbor, The Far Side of the World, and The Reverse of the Medal are another. The Letter of Marque and the ensuing 4 books, centered around a circumnavigation, are another.
Though the average quality of the books is remarkably high, some are better than others. I suspect that different readers will have different favorites. I personally prefer some of the books with greater psychological elements. The first book, Master and Commander, is one of my favorites. The last 2 or 3, while good, are not as strong as earlier books. I suspect O'Brian's stream of invention was beginning to diminish. All can be read profitably as stand alone works though there is definitely something to be gained by reading in consecutive order.

Never look a llama in the eye . . ........2003-01-09

Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, having sailed off on a combination privateering and intelligence mission in the SURPRISE back in the twelfth novel in the saga, finally are nearly home again -- and this is installment number sixteen! It's hard to believe, too, that after so many volumes, with at least one circumnavigation and any number of roundings of Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope, we find Britain still embroiled in what we in the States refer to as the War of 1812. And what a journey this book narrates, from the witnessing of a new volcanic island and capture of a most irregular privateer in the mid-Pacific, to anxious flight through the Andes by mule and llama, to yet another encounter with ice-islands in the south Atlantic. Although the plotting seems thin at times and lacking in useful details, the narration is as adroit as ever, especially in the author's patented style of understatement. Not his best work by far, but very much worth reading.

Over the Wine-Dark Sea (Hellenistic Seafaring Adventure)

Average customer rating:

Entertaining
Nice story, interesting history, but annoying at times.
Sad comedown for a writer I used to enjoy
Not as 'vintage' as I had hoped for
Entertaining but kind of annoying

Over the Wine-Dark Sea (Hellenistic Seafaring Adventure)
H. N. Turteltaub
Manufacturer: Forge Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Sea Adventures | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0312876602

Book Description

In Rhodes, Menedemos is a young, daring sea captain; and scholarly, reserved Sostratos is his cousin. Now Menedemos and Sostratos plan their largest, most audacious trading voyage yet, which will take them from the shores of Asia Minor all the way to the coasts of faraway Italy, and to confrontations with the barbarians of an obscure town called Rome. Along the way they will buy and sell wine, silks, and evento the astonishment of allpeacocks.

Customer Reviews:

Entertaining.......2006-10-01

My wife bought this book for me brand new for fifty cents out of a bargain bin, so I wasn't expecting much. I was pleasantly surprised at how entertaining it was. The main characters are intelligent and humanly flawed. The plot centers on a sea voyage---no sword and sorcery here, only a fascinating and detailed glimpse into the "mundane" life of a merchant. A bit wordy in some places, it's obviously written by a guy who knows his history, but sometimes has a hard time working it into a story. If you don't mind skimming the unnecessary polis information and dialogue attribution to get to the good story parts, you'll find it a very entertaining read. It's good enough that I'm about to buy the sequel.

Pete

Nice story, interesting history, but annoying at times........2006-05-19

I just read this book and found it very enjoyable. A good read on the bus. There are, however, a couple of irritating points that I just have to get of my chest. By the end of the book, I was thinking that if I had to read the phrase "he tossed his head" one more time, I was going to scream! According to the author, this is definitely not the same as nodding one's head and everyone in the book seems to do it all the time. I also found the frequent insertion of unexplained Greek nouns somewhat annoying. As other reviewers have noted, there is no glossary and the context does not always help much. I also found the author's constant focus on the little arguments between the two main characters somewhat tiring. And frankly, the book needs more sex and violence! "Turtletaub" spent so much time writing about peafowl and their chicks that my eyes began to glaze over. Turtledove is nice writer, not a great one, but his books would make great movies and, in spite of my comments, I will probably read the other books in this series because they are pleasant diversions and I am interested in the ancient world

Sad comedown for a writer I used to enjoy.......2005-12-02

When he first began writing fiction a couple of decades ago, Harry Turtledove (who is Turteltaub in his everyday suit) was quite good. A Byzantine scholar, he showed a knack for straight historicals (especially the excellent _Justinian_) as well as alternate history yarns with an eastern Mediterranean setting. Then he hit the big time with _Guns of the South,_ and now he has way too many interminable series going at once, and his talent -- while considerable -- has turned out to be a finite quantity that's stretched too thin, the result being that he's now cranking out a great deal of very forgettable verbiage. This story of two young cousins in 310 B.C. on a trading voyage from Rhodes to the Greek colonies in Italy is a separate book (though it now appears to have spawned its own series, unfortunately), so I had hopes for it. And there's a lot of interesting sightseeing, but there sure isn't much narrative tension, and hardly any point to it all. This is Turtledove in "history teacher" mode: "See, the Dorics indicated assent by dipping the head rather than by nodding and dissent by tossing the head rather than shaking it, so I'll be sure to tell you every single time someone dips or tosses." He also insists on rendering place names in phonetic Greek-ified English, which makes the reader uncertain what ports the guys are stopping to trade at -- ignoring the fact that this book is, in fact, written in English, so why bother with that? The main characters also spend a lot of time explaining routine points of everyday life and ship operations to each other for the benefit of the reader -- an annoying device any creative writing student learns to avoid in his first semester. Maybe I'll just go back and reread some of his earlier books.

Not as 'vintage' as I had hoped for.......2004-10-21

Reading 'Over The Wine Dark Sea' was, to me, like whetting my appetite for a good ancient-Greece adventure story...the story is plotted out well, as far as pacing and continuity go, but overall I was left relatively flat by this tale.

Menedemos and Sostratos, like the 'Publisher's Weekly' review here on Amazon says, never rise above their station as opposites of one another before the tale concludes. Time and again, the author reminds the reader of the strengths and weaknesses of both, but fails to explore the reasons for the former, nor to deliver any real progression for the characters to overcome the latter.

While the author has obviously done significant research on the time period, and on the trade business of the classical Greeks, one would think that an author such as H.N. Turteltaub (also Harry Turteldove), with such a catalogue of works already generated would produce something a bit more indepth in making a genre-jump from his usual fare.

I found the business about the 'peafowl' to be far too dragged out overall, though it is the crown jewel of their trade voyage, and found myself rolling my eyes and skimming pages each time they were brought up again...as comic relief they work briefly, but the author relies on the squawking birds to 'entertain'a bit too often. There are also several references to a possible attack of pirates, and considering the solution employed by the cousins,...it's lively the first time, but when used more than once...it's simply repetitious.

For a reader looking for adventure-lite in the lives of the ancient Greeks...this will serve it's purpose...but for those wishing for more enlightenment and exploration into the era the story is set in, I would recommend other authors, such as Mary Renault, and Steven Pressfield.

However, I have also picked up 'The Gryphon's Skull', the next of the author's 'Hellenistic Seafaring Adventures' and have high hopes that perhaps like a fine wine...the tales improve with age.

Entertaining but kind of annoying.......2002-08-17

During the first third of this book, I kept checking to make sure it was written by the same author that wrote the sophisticated and dramatic "Justinian", a book that I loved. The two cousins, Sostratos and Menedemos, who are sent on a trading journey across the Aegean Sea seem very immature, continually arguing about insignificant matters, when it seems more realistic that they'd be concerned about guiding their ship and managing their crew. I was amazed that so much of the story focused on trading their cargo of peacocks, which the cousins continually argued and worried about as the peacocks ran around deck and bit the crew.

What I particularly noticed during the first third of the book was the author's unsophisticated writing style in his method of conveying the historical setting. In most historical fiction, you absorb the history through the action, but the two cousins were constantly discussing the ancient writers, describing the different ships, clothing and places, supposedly instructing one another, but it was obvious that their dialogue was meant to instruct the reader. It was an unskillful and unsubtle writing technique.

In spite of these annoyances, the story was entertaining enough to keep me reading as they confronted pirates, got into messes with merchants' wives in places they traded, skirmished with a sword-brandishing mercenary, and had other amusing adventures. There were no intensely violent scenarios, and they always escaped, mostly unscathed, so the mood of the book is pretty lighthearted. In spite of the immature bickering of the cousins, I enjoyed their adventures and was able to form a mental image of the the culture and sights of this early Greek period.

The Wine-Dark Sea (New York Review Books Classics)
Average customer rating:

Thirteen Exceptional Stories of Sicily

Exceptional Stories of Sicily

Exceptional Stories of Sicily

thinking about visiting Sicily?

The Wine-Dark Sea (New York Review Books Classics)
Leonardo Sciascia
Manufacturer: NYRB Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Italian | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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Midnight in Sicily

ASIN: 0940322536
Release Date: 2000-10-31

Amazon.com

A novelist, polemicist, occasional politician, and perennial nominee for the Nobel Prize, Leonardo Sciascia died in 1989. He left behind a formidable array of books, all of which revolve around the hallucinatory realities of Sicilian life. But the stories collected in The Wine-Dark Sea may be the best introduction to his work. They offer a kind of capsule history of Sicily, ranging through several hundred years and engaging the country's events from their exhilarating and terrible underside. A good comparison might be the naif's-eye view of Waterloo that Stendhal creates in The Charterhouse of Parma. (Sciascia recalls Stendhal in other ways, too; he shares the same adamant clarity, the same bone-dry wit, which may explain why he's always been a hard sell in the United States.)

These tales all have a certain riddling quality, whether they're recounting a nugget of Sicilian history or staging one of Sciascia's many comedies of ironic disillusionment. Included among the latter are "The Long Crossing," in which an assortment of Sicilian immigrants are disbursed of their life savings and put ashore not in the New World but back on their own island. There's also the superb title story, about the bottomless chasm separating Sicilians and outsiders, bridged only temporarily by a group of strangers traveling from Rome to Agrigento. "Philology," the closest thing to a classic Pirandellian exercise, lets us eavesdrop on two mafiosi cramming for an upcoming session with a Commission of Enquiry. The subject: how to answer the question "What is the Mafia?" They consult a battery of dictionaries, arguing about the merits of various definitions and etymologies. At the end, the superior of the two adds his own footnote to the scholarship:

And we know that the thing itself, the association, was already in existence by the fact (this is my addition) that the mafiosi imprisoned in the Vicaria issued a directive in 1860 addressed to their friends outside, advising them to behave well and not commit such crimes as theft, rape and murder that the Bourbons could use ... against the Garibaldi revolution.

This enlightened thug concludes his history lesson with a general point: "Culture, my friend, is a wonderful thing." So too is fiction, at least in Sciascia's hands. He offers little in the way of certainty, but his questions, posed with deadly accuracy, are worth the answers of a dozen other authors. --James Marcus

Book Description

Leonardo Sciascia was an outstanding and controversial presence in twentieth-century Italian literary and intellectual life. Writing about his native Sicily and its culture of secrecy and suspicion, Sciascia matched sympathy with skepticism, unflinching intelligence with a streetfighter's intransigent poise. Sciascia was particularly admired for his short stories, and The Wine-Dark Sea offers what he considered his best work in the genre: thirteen spare and trenchant miniatures that range in subject from village idiots to mafia dons, marital spats to American dreams. Here, in unforgettable form, Sciascia examines the contradictions—sometimes comic, sometimes deadly, and sometimes both—of Sicily's turbulent history and day-to-day life.

Customer Reviews:

Thirteen Exceptional Stories of Sicily.......2002-05-07

"The Wine-Dark Sea" is a collection of thirteen stories written by Leonardo Sciascia between 1959 and 1972. While less well know in the United States than some of his Italian contemporaries-I think here of Italo Calvino, Primo Levi, Umberto Eco-Sciascia enjoys a well deserved reputation in Italy as a writer of novels, stories and political commentary.

Sciascia was a Sicilian. This fact, more than any other, colors all of the stories in this collection. Each of these stories reflects, in some way, the particularities of Sicilian culture and society. There is, of course, the uneasy and often conflicting relationship that Sicily has had with the rest of Italy, particularly the northern part of that country. There is also the pervasive influence of the Mafia on Sicilian life, particularly the strong notions of honor and "omerta," the Mafia code of silence. And there is, finally, the interplay of the tightly knit Sicilian family, the Roman Catholic Church and the Italian state.

The best of the stories in this collection are marked by subdued irony, subtle wit and steely-clear insight into the idiosyncrasies that mark Sicilian life within the larger context of Italy.

In "A Matter of Conscience," a Sicilian lawyer traveling back home from Rome picks up a women's magazine on the train. He reads an anonymous letter to a priest, written by a woman from his hometown, asking for advice. The woman had an affair with a relative for six months, is tormented by her adultery and wants to know whether she should tell her husband. She relates that, "as a very devout person, I have confessed my fault on several different occasions." She then goes on-drawing the distinction between her Sicilian mores and those of the rest of Italy-as follows: "Every priest except one (but he was a northerner) has told me that if my repentance is sincere, and my love for my husband unchanged, then I must remain silent." From here, the story turns into a witty, ironic exploration of life in the lawyer's town as each of his colleagues becomes obsessed with the thought that he is the cuckold.

In "Mafia Western," a big town "on the border between the provinces of Palermo and Trapani" is embroiled in a bloody battle between two feuding mafia cells. It is at the time of World War I and, "the death-toll from assassination [is] comparable to the death-toll of its citizens falling at the front." In dry, matter-of-fact style, Sciascia relates this fictional tale, the interstices of his story relating the society within the society-the society of the mafiosi, the capo and the code of silence. Thus, a mother's son is killed and she knows his assassin. But she remains silent, picking up her son's body and bringing it back home. "The next morning she let it be know that her son died of a wound there upon his bed, but she knew neither where nor by whom he had been wounded. No word did she utter to the carabinieri about the man who might have killed him. But her friends understood-they knew-and they now set about very careful preparations."

In "Philology," two men that are to be called before the Commission of Enquiry investigating the activities of the mafia in Sicily engage in an ironic, witty discourse on the origin and meaning of the word "mafia". They are doing this in preparation for their interrogation, their dialogue a bit of dry, absurd humor that conflates the high intellectual pretension of philological discourse with the pragmatic, cold-blooded realities that underlie their preparations. As one of them says, "the fact is that everyone tries to establish the current meaning of the word before establishing its origin." After exploring possible Arabic and French origins of the word, and the deficiencies in education of the general public, who misunderstand the importance of etymology and meaning, he ultimately presents an ironically pragmatic, if high-sounding, statement of the meaning of the word "mafia": "Mafia implies a consciousness of self, an exaggerated concept of the power of the individual as sole arbiter of every conflict of interests or ideas; from this derives the inability to bear with the superiority, and even more, the authority of others. The mafioso expects respect and nearly always offers it. When crossed, he does not appeal to the law, public justice, but takes matters into his own hands and, should the remedy be beyond his own power, he will call on the assistance of like-minded friends."

"The Wine-Dark Sea," the longest of the stories in this collection, wonderfully depicts the cultural separation between Sicilians and other Italians. In this story, Bianchi, an engineer traveling to Sicily for the first time, shares a compartment with a Sicilian family and "a girl of about twenty-three" who is attached to the family "by ties of family, friendship or casual acquaintance." Over the course of their long train ride, Bianchi, if only briefly, manages to penetrate the seemingly deep cultural divide between him and the family, along the way also sharing a fleeting romantic connection with the young girl.

These are only some of the stories in this collection. There are others that are equally good. In particular, I think of "Demotion" (which provides a fascinating contrapuntal theme of Catholicism and Communism, Saint Filomena and Joseph Stalin) and "The Ransom" (which retells a popular Sicilian folk tale of familial duty, love and betrayal). With the exception of "Apocryphal Correspondence re Crowley," which, at best, is of nothing more than historical interest and utterly unremarkable, "The Wine-Dark Sea" is an exceptionally good collection of stories and a wonderful introduction to an Italian writer that, thus far, has been little read in the United States.

Exceptional Stories of Sicily.......2002-04-16

The best of the stories in this collection are marked by subdued irony, subtle wit and steely-clear insight into the idiosyncrasies that mark Sicilian life within the larger context of Italy.

Exceptional Stories of Sicily.......2001-11-01

The best of the stories in this collection are marked by subdued irony, subtle wit and steely-clear insight into the idiosyncrasies that mark Sicilian life within the larger context of Italy.

thinking about visiting Sicily?.......2001-04-01

Like Sicily itself, the short stories in The Wine Dark Sea connect the classical past with the quirky present of an island that was visited and changed by successive waves of conquerors and visitors. The stories evoke the uneasy relationship that Sicily has with the rest of Italy, the edginess of its residents' relationship with strngers. The stories are of uneven length and quality, and some are much more accomplished than others. They are tall on incident rather than on plot, and one wonders a bit whether something is lost in translation, as Sciascia is acclaimed in Sicily to a degree that seems disproportionate to some of these stories. He is no William Maxwell. But this is a good read for those wanting a sense of the tone of the place before a visit or the memory of it after one.

The Wine - Dark Sea Patrick O'brian Borders Unabridged Audiobook (Audio Cd) (#16 in the Aubrey/Maturin series)

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The Wine - Dark Sea Patrick O'brian Borders Unabridged Audiobook (Audio Cd) (#16 in the Aubrey/Maturin series)
Patrick O'Brian
Manufacturer: Borders and Recorded Book Unabridged
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

The Yellow Admiral (Aubrey-Maturin)

ASIN: 1419393251

Over The Wine-dark Sea - A Sea Adventure Of The Ancient World

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Over The Wine-dark Sea - A Sea Adventure Of The Ancient World
H. N. Turteltaub
Manufacturer: Forge/Tom Doherty Associates
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JZPRJA

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An opinion of a college student-
Unforgettable romance between an Amazon & the Merfolk King
Imaginative, provocative, and intrigueing, hard to put down.

Across a Wine-Dark Sea
Jessica Bryan
Manufacturer: Fanfare
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

General | Romance | Subjects | Books

General | Historical | Romance | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0553289810
Release Date: 1991-03-01

Customer Reviews:

An opinion of a college student-.......1999-11-28

After I read "Beneath a sapphire sea" I absolutely had to read the others in this unique series. However, This is certainly not up to "Sapphire sea." The story-telling is flat and too informative for a romance. There is definitely not enough character development. Also, Ms. Bryan hasn't learned the basic idea of telling a story in this---Show, don't tell. I want to see the characters actions, not read pages and pages of boring thoughts on the same idea. However, The subject was interesting and unique, and the characters do grow on you.

Unforgettable romance between an Amazon & the Merfolk King.......1998-06-15

This is one of the most fascinating and original books I've read in a long, long time. And even though it wasn't heavy on the romance and was more plot than character driven (my usual preference) I literally could not put it down.

Thalassa, born and raised as an Amazon warrior, is happy with her life. It isn't an easy one and her people are constantly at war with men but she is free. Fighting and protecting her sisters is what she lives for - until the day she is abducted by Dorian, King of the Merfolk, who sweeps her away to his world under the sea. She is furious and despises him immediately but tempers her rage when she realizes that her Goddess has ordained their match. Eventually this gentle God-like man with super human powers begins to tear down her defenses with kindness, fairness and patience and allows her to accept her fate and his love. But she never forgets her beloved Amazon sisters. And when she overhears that their lives are in danger she and Dorian risk everything to enter the battle.

Filled with historical and fantasy details that I've never before read about, I learned so many amazing things about the strong but doomed ancient tribe of woman warriors known as the Amazons and the mythical Merfolk who created a peaceful life under the sea. Interspersed with the fantasy elements are rich historical details of daily life and survival in those brutal times where women were little more than slaves. There were several sub-plots and secondary characters that were all equally riveting and I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. This book is brutal and heartbreaking and filled with three-dimensional characters. It's not light and it's not funny and it's not my typical reading material but if you find it do not pass it by, it is a truly incredible book. An unforgettable one.

Imaginative, provocative, and intrigueing, hard to put down........1998-03-12

Though I found this book in the romance section of the book store, it could easily have been listed as historical fiction. It is apparent from the beginning that the author has thoroughly researched the early Mediterranean cultures. Set in 1260 B.C., it is the story of Thalassa, a young Amazon warrior, and Dorian, King of the Merpeople. Ms. Bryan skillfully weaves historical facts with an imaginative, but convincing story of the Merpeople.

Thalassa, a fiecely independent Amazon warrior, was chosen by the Elders to be the mate for Dorian. Set against the backdrop of the struggle between the Greeks and the Amazons the story tells of Thalassa's struggle to accept the role of mate to Dorian. At first she resists becoming a "slavemate" to Dorian. After spending time with Dorian and the Merpeople, she is able to appreciate the respect they have for all living things. She eventually is faced with the choice of a future with the kind and honorable Dorian or as an Amazon warrior.

Customer Reviews:

Restrained, haunting tales.......2006-08-14

What the other reviewers say is true. Aickman's stories are painstakingly crafted, or at least appear that way, to maximize a feeling of subtle dread and darkness. There is rarely blood or death, but horror is always lurking, in these and other more poignant forms, just beyond the periphery. The titular story is indeed excellent, but I'm partial to the gloomier "The Trains", "Your Tiny Hand is Frozen" (which actually raised goosebumps once or twice), "Into the Wood", and "The Stains".

Highly recommended for horror enthusiasts and non-enthusiasts alike. These are just great stories!

Dazzling collection of the spooky and bizarre.......2001-07-11

'The Wine Dark Sea' is a fabulous collection by an unjustly neglected author. Robert Aickman writes stories unparalleled by any other writer. It's not hyperbole to call him the finest spooky story writer of the 20th century.

This particular collection, published several years after Aickman's death, gathers together several of his later stories. My favorite story is the eerie 'The Wine-Dark Sea' which tells the tale of a vacationer in Greece who, against the admonishments of his Greek hosts, takes a boat out to a deserted island. Once there he finds three exotic women who claim to be sorceresses. What follows is a magnificent story of magic, love, and betrayal. Quite simply one of the finest novellas I've ever read.

The rest of the stories in the collection are all fine reading, but none approaches the level of the title story. Of particular note is 'The Trains', the creepy story of two girls bumming through Europe who stumble across a mansion with a mysterious past.

As a previous reviewer noted, Aickman's stories aren't easy to read. You get the most out of an Aickman story if you go slowly, read every word, and occasionally re-read paragraphs. This method, combined with his lengthy stories, means that one story can take you up to an hour to read. It's a lengthy process, but the stories are worth it.

I'm only exaggerating a little when I say that it's a tragedy Aickman's stories are out-of-print. There was a very ..., complete collection released in the UK in 2000, but that doesn't help us Americans!

Challenging but worth the effort........2001-03-02

This is the only book entirely by Aikman I have, and it has given me enormous pleasure. The title story is my favourite, though "The Trains" (I think that's the title - book is not to hand)was delightfully unsettling. Aikman, similar to Blackwood, weaves an atmosphere that surrounds the reader all too snugly, making the impact of each occurrence in a tale similar to having the wind knocked gently out of oneself. I first met RA in an anthology of 'ghost' stories, his selection being "The Hospice". Not a true horror story per se, but discomfitting, with a lasting, lingering impression which is still with me. Based on that reading, I've been collecting what I can find of his since. Nothing personal, but with Stephan King hardcovers on the remainder tables (and everywhere else!), it is a shame that this master of the "strange story" should be allowed to go out of print! Find him if you can, and settle in for a memorable and probably disquieting reading experience.

Enjoy!

Truly Strange Stories.......2000-06-13

Robert Aickman's "strange stories" are far from the usual horror fare, and readers who prefer straightforward, no-nonsense spectres are well-advised to steer clear of Aickman's work. But if you are a fan of the beautifully-crafted supernatural stories of Henry James and/or Walter de la Mare, Aickman will be *essential* reading for you. At his best, his stories are small masterpieces of the uncanny that are all the more disturbing because it's often not entirely clear what has happened. *The Wine Dark Sea* is an excellent collection, which brings together a number of Aickman's most evocative tales. Try "The Inner Room" if you're skeptical--if it doesn't work for you, then Aickman may not be your cup of tea. Some of the stories in this volume are a bit uncharacteristically direct--"The Fetch and "Never Visit Venice" for example--but even they have layers of multiple meaning that make them very rich and rewarding reading. ...................... so don't give up on finding some of the stories of this great and sadly under-appreciated master of the supernatural story.

subtle and haunting.......1999-11-08

I strongly recommend the sadly hard-to-find fiction of Robert Aickman to ghost story aficionados, lovers of British literature, horror fiction readers willing to try something different and challenging, or just lovers of the short story form. Aickman's compelling, beautifully written, dreamlike stories are often puzzling, always atmospheric, and generally extremely memorable. The title story, a "strange story" (as the author liked to call his fiction) of a British tourist who journeys to a very strange Mediterranean island and meets three even stranger women, is typical of Aickman's bizarre, unsettling fiction. These stories are among his most accessible (although some readers will still undoubtedly find them opaque). If you are willing to risk being confused, Aickman's fiction is well worth your time. If you ever come across a copy of his first novel "The Late Breakfasters," which I don't believe has ever been published in this country, I would recommend that book perhaps even more highly.

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Booorrring!!!
Granddaughter of John D. Lee

The Wine-Dark Sea of Grass
Marilyn Brown
Manufacturer: Cedar Fort
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

They believed they had left their fears behind. They traveled over fifteen hundred miles to escape persecution, only to find their hard-won peace threatened by the U.S. Army, as well as their old enemies from Missouri.

What happened in the Mountain Meadows on that day in September of 1857 may never be fully understood, but author Marilyn Brown skillfully and sensitively evokes the layers of tragedy surrounding a people and place forever scarred by a brief moment in history.

After the horror of Haun's Mill and Carthage, they thought they had found peace in their small community in southern Utah. But the nightmare of the Mountain Meadows Massacre still lay ahead. And its shadow would haunt them for the rest of their lives.

-For Elizabeth, who lost her family during the westward trek and loved a man beyond her reach- and perhaps beyond heaven's as well.

-For Jacob, who knew he would love one particular woman forever.

-For John Lee, whose reluctant obedience would shadow his name, his life, and the lives of his descendants for generations to come.

Customer Reviews:

Booorrring!!!.......2004-07-27

I found this book quite boring and it took me a couple of months to finish it, because I didn't find it compelling enough to pick up consistently.

It seemed to rush through much of the story and the characters weren't developed as much as they could have been. I don't recommend this book. I found Red Water by Judith Freeman to be a much better read, with more fully developed characters.

Granddaughter of John D. Lee.......2002-03-03

John D. Lee is my Great-great-great Grandfather. I have read just about every piece of fiction and non-fiction on him and on the subject of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. I would have to say this is one of the few that makes any attempt to explain just what it was that made the Mormons attack that day. While it was surely a horrible tragedy, it was not simply a random act of violence. We must always keep in mind what a different place the US was then, violent and cruel and even good men did terrible things. My Grandfather was a good man and he was part of a terrible thing. This book goes a little way to explaining how and why and how he was also ultimately a victim of the Meadows himself.

Sailing the Wine-dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter

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Sailing the Wine-dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter

Manufacturer: doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000EA8VA2

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