- Hardcover: 880 pages
- Publisher: Modern Library; Modern library ed edition (Mar 23 1993)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0679600469
- ISBN-13: 978-0679600466
- Product Dimensions: 20.6 x 14 x 3.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 816 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #941,782 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Book Description
For almost a century and a half, Bulfinch's Mythology has been the text by which the great tales of the gods and goddesses, Greek and Roman antiquity; Scandinavian, Celtic, and Oriental fables and myths; and the age of chivalry have been known.
The stories are divided into three sections: The Age of Fable or Stories of Gods and Heroes (first published in 1855); The Age of Chivalry (1858), which contains King Arthur and His Knights, The Mabinogeon, and The Knights of English History; and Legends of Charlemagne or Romance of the Middle Ages (1863). For the Greek myths, Bulfinch drew on Ovid and Virgil, and for the sagas of the north, from Mallet's Northern Antiquities. He provides lively versions of the myths of Zeus and Hera, Venus and Adonis, Daphne and Apollo, and their cohorts on Mount Olympus; the love story of Pygmalion and Galatea; the legends of the Trojan War and the epic wanderings of Ulysses and Aeneas; the joys of Valhalla and the furies of Thor; and the tales of Beowulf and Robin Hood.
The tales are eminently readable. As Bulfinch wrote, "Without a knowledge of mythology much of the elegant literature of our own language cannot be understood and appreciated. . . . Our book is an attempt to solve this problem, by telling the stories of mythology in such a manner as to make them a source of amusement."
Thomas Bulfinch, in his day job, was a clerk in the Merchant's Bank of Boston, an undemanding position that afforded him ample leisure time in which to pursue his other interests. In addition to serving as secretary of the Boston Society of Natural History, he thoroughly researched the myths and legends and copiously cross-referenced them with literature and art. As such, the myths are an indispensable guide to the cultural values of the nineteenth century; however, it is the vigor of the stories themselves that returns generation after generation to Bulfinch.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
The stories are divided into three sections: The Age of Fable or Stories of Gods and Heroes (first published in 1855); The Age of Chivalry (1858), which contains King Arthur and His Knights, The Mabinogeon, and The Knights of English History; and Legends of Charlemagne or Romance of the Middle Ages (1863). For the Greek myths, Bulfinch drew on Ovid and Virgil, and for the sagas of the north, from Mallet's Northern Antiquities. He provides lively versions of the myths of Zeus and Hera, Venus and Adonis, Daphne and Apollo, and their cohorts on Mount Olympus; the love story of Pygmalion and Galatea; the legends of the Trojan War and the epic wanderings of Ulysses and Aeneas; the joys of Valhalla and the furies of Thor; and the tales of Beowulf and Robin Hood.
The tales are eminently readable. As Bulfinch wrote, "Without a knowledge of mythology much of the elegant literature of our own language cannot be understood and appreciated. . . . Our book is an attempt to solve this problem, by telling the stories of mythology in such a manner as to make them a source of amusement."
Thomas Bulfinch, in his day job, was a clerk in the Merchant's Bank of Boston, an undemanding position that afforded him ample leisure time in which to pursue his other interests. In addition to serving as secretary of the Boston Society of Natural History, he thoroughly researched the myths and legends and copiously cross-referenced them with literature and art. As such, the myths are an indispensable guide to the cultural values of the nineteenth century; however, it is the vigor of the stories themselves that returns generation after generation to Bulfinch.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
From the Publisher
This book is in Electronic Paperback Format. If you view this book on any of the computer systems below, it will look like a book. Simple to run, no program to install. Just put the CD in your CDROM drive and start reading. The simple easy to use interface is child tested at pre-school levels.
Windows 3.11, Windows/95, Windows/98, OS/2 and MacIntosh and Linux with Windows Emulation.
Includes Quiet Vision's Dynamic Index. the abilty to build a index for any set of characters or words.
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First Sentence
THE religions of ancient Greece and Rome are extinct. Read the first page
THE religions of ancient Greece and Rome are extinct. Read the first page
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
can't quite replace it,
By
This review is from: Bulfinch's Mythology (Paperback)
It is an anthology of mythology I often use simply to look up the major myths, because it's easy to find things in Bulfinch. If I knew of a modern alternative which filled the same role as well, I might rank Bulfinch a 3. It's a fairly good reference for Greek, Roman and Arthurian legends. He pretty much paraphrases e.g. Virgil's Aeneid and Ovid's Metamorphisis. He also provides the basic Egyptian and Viking myths. But anything East of the Levant is given very short shrift, probably because at the time this was written, those myths were not so available in the West.There's no question he loved these stories, but I can't say I'm left with the feeling that he has been truly struck by the Myth, that the Myth has truly destabilized him the way it has Frazer, Jung or Joseph Campbell. And no doubt this collection would not have been published at all at that time were he not willing to leave out significant facts that the book might be readable by well-bred ladies. Any castrations are left out or (worse) revised. Cronos was deposed. Theseus slays the Minotaur, but the part about how the Minotaur came to be in the first place is omitted. Attis comes across as a romantic story. You find neither the factual story behind it as laid out by Heroditus nor any intimation about the nature of the fantastical cult which arose around it as described in Frazer. At the same time, although most major bookstores now have whole sections devoted to mythology, and hundreds of anthologies have come out, I've never quite found anything that takes the place of Bulfinch, and so I keep it on my shelf.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Must Have,
By AntiochAndy "antiochandy" (Antioch, CA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Bulfinch's Mythology (Paperback)
BULFINCH'S MYTHOLOGY is THE classic introduction to ancient and medieval myths. In three volume's, Thomas Bulfinch recounted and referenced classical stories of Graeco-Roman gods and heroes, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Norse and Hindu mythology, the Arthurian legends, Robin Hood, the Mabinogeon, and the tales of Chalemagne and his paladins. All three volumes are combined here in a single book. Besides making great reading on their own, these tales, and the values and ideals that they illustrate, are at the very heart of western literature and culture. Shakespeare, Milton, and most of the other icons of English literature drew on them repeatedly. The modern fantasy genre has its origins in this material. Tolkien was inspired by it. They are "must" reading for anyone who aspires to be considered "educated".There are just a couple of negatives here. The particular edition I have has a lot of typographical errors in it. There were such things as a sentence beginning "She..." when clearly it should have begun "The...", for example. Further, one can find fuller retellings of specific stories in other places. These are minor points, however. Bulfinch is still the classic introduction and source for mythological tales. Plus, as I said, it's great fun. Most people can profit from Bulfinch. Fantasy fans should especially love it.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mythology from paper to polygons.,
By Reinier Martinez (Miami, FL United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable/The Legend of Charlemagne/The Age of Chivalry (School & Library Binding)
This book is a most buy . This book was used by Ensemble Studios from Microsoft to create the game Age of Mythology (AOM). What else can I say? if any of you are fan of the Age of Empires series then you'll know what I'm talking about. :)
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