The Prose Of The World

The work which this author planned to call The Prose of the World, or Introduction to the Prose of the World, is unfinished. There is good reason to believe that he deliberately abandoned it and that, he had lived, he would not have completed it, at least in the form that he first outlined. Once finished, the book was to constitute the first section of a two-part work--the second would have had a more distinct metaphysical nature--whose aim was to offer us, as an extension of the Phenomenology of Perception, a theory of truth.

What were the possibilities of prose as a literary medium in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries? And how did it operate in the literary and social world? The Project of Prose in Early Modern Europe and the New World brings together ten essays by leading scholars of the literatures of England, Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, and the colonial Americas, to answer these questions in wide-ranging ways. Several of the essays shed light on landmark prose works of the period; some discuss what lesser-known writings reveal about the medium; others move between the literary and the non-literary to reflect on the medium's intersections with history, fiction, subjectivity, the state, science and other aspects of social and cultural life. Overall, this 1997 collection will provoke an international reconsideration of the remarkable visibility and diversity of the medium of prose in the early modern period.

This text contains 'The Prose Edda' - the wellspring of modern knowledge of Norse Mythology. From the dawn of the world's creation to its ultimate destruction, these enthralling Norse stories chronicle the victories and tragedies of both gods and men. Rich with picturesque poetry and human drama, these stories constitute a vivid pictures of the characters' personalities, intertwined with the comic and injurious results of passion and ambition. This text will appeal to those with an interest in Norse mythology and ancient legends in general, and would make for a worthy addition to any bookshelf. The chapters of this book include: 'Snorri Sturluson', 'Introduction', 'Prologue', 'Here Begins the Beguiling of Gylfi', and 'The Poesy of Skalds'. We are republishing this antiquarian book now in an affordable, modern edition - complete with a new biography of the author.

'Prose of the World' explores the global life of the banality of Empire. From late-colonial modernism to the present day, he looks at writers from all over the world to expose the everyday life of those abroad.

There are two prose dialogues in Old English, consisting together of some 109 questions and answers. These questions are related to the medieval Latin Joca Monachorum and Adrian and Epictus dialogues and deal with various and quite diverse topics. Some questions concern scripture and Christian tradition – 'How tall was Adam,' 'where did he get his name,' and 'what are the eight parts of which he was made.' Some questions are scientific or quasi-scientific – 'Where does the sun go at night,' 'what is the number of birds.' Others concern riddles or proverbial lore. Together they are the early medieval equivalent of the Guinness Book of Records, a gathering of odd facts and curious information designed to amuse and entertain. This edition from the British Library manuscripts provides translations of these dialogues, and, more important, traces the sources of these sometimes rather curious ideas. The book will be useful to specialists and students concerned with Old English and medieval literature in general. The texts themselves are of some importance and the illustrative material gathered here is relevant to a wide range of problems. Yet the book is also intended, as were the originals, to amuse and instruct a wider audience, a new age of curious readers.