Historical Mysteries [Hardcover]

Andrew Lang (Author), 1stWorld Library (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 30, 2007

The aim of this book is to prove that the Homeric Epics, as wholes, and apart from passages gravely suspected in antiquity, present a perfectly harmonious picture of the entire life and civilisation of one single age. The faint variations in the design are not greater than such as mark every moment of culture, for in all there is some movement; in all, cases are modified by circumstances. If our contention be true, it will follow that the poems themselves, as wholes, are the product of a single age, not a mosaic of the work of several changeful centuries. This must be the case-if the life drawn is harmonious, the picture must be the work of a single epoch-for it is not in the nature of early uncritical times that later poets should adhere, or even try to adhere, to the minute details of law, custom, opinion, dress, weapons, houses, and so on, as presented in earlier lays or sagas on the same set of subjects. Even less are poets in uncritical times inclined to "archaise," either by attempting to draw fancy pictures of the manners of the past, or by making researches in graves, or among old votive offerings in temples, for the purpose of "preserving local colour." The idea of such archaising is peculiar to modern times.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Andrew Lang was an English critic and general writer, born at Selkirk, Scotland in 1844. He was educated at St. Andrews University and at Balliol College, Oxford. He contributed largely to periodical literature, writing sometimes light papers on current topis, and sometimes masterly essays on French literature, on scientific subjects, and on comparative mythology. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 248 pages
• Publisher: 1st World Library - Literary Society (December 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 142189789X
• ISBN-13: 978-1421897899
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,959,091 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Folklorist puts new face on old mysteries., August 19, 2010

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Anne Wingate (Salt Lake City) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Historical Mysteries (Kindle Edition)

Andrew Lang, better known for a rainbow of fairy tales, has gotten out and dusted off some of the most puzzling of historical European mysteries. The book, written apparently in 1904, sparkles with wit and bristles with historical research. An unexpected winner.

51 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Unsolved Mysteries of Scottish History, August 25, 2009

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T. Simons (Columbia, SC United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Historical Mysteries (Kindle Edition)

Best known for his [Color] Fairy Books, Andrew Lang was also a poet, historian, and scholar. This is a book of his history -- more specifically, it's a book of educated speculation on the truth behind various historical oddities, primarily oddities of Scottish and French history. Most of the mysteries involve assassinations, royalty, or nobility, but a few involve the common folk as well. The second to last chapter, "The Mystery of the Kirks", explains what the actual differences are between various scottish presbyterian sects. The chapter "The Case of Allan Breck" concerns the "Appin Murder", and may be of interest to fans of Robert Louis Stevenson's novel _Kidnapped._

A number of these (Saint-Germain, for example, or the Appin Murder) have been the subject of much writing since Lang's time and more developed studies exist elsewhere; others, however, like the Case of Elizabeth Canning or the Gowrie Plot, are fairly esoteric historical trivia, and may be of some real interest to the student of odd history.

The table of contents is as follows:

The Case of Elizabeth Canning
The Murder of Escovedo
The Campden Mystery
The Case of Allan Breck
The Cardinal's Necklace
The Mystery of Kaspar Hauser, the Child of Europe
The Gowrie Conspiracy
The Strange Case of Daniel Douglas Home
The Case of Captain Green
Queen Oglethorpe
The Chevalier D'Eon
Saint-Germain the Deathless
The Mystery of the Kirks
The End of Jean de la Motte

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Charming historical stories, June 17, 2011

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It's My Life (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Historical Mysteries (Illustrated) (Kindle Edition)

The stories are written in the charming style familiar to me from stories by my great-aunts' youth. The pacing isn't always as fast as we're now used to, but it's fun to read if you're into history.

My one gripe is that the scan clean-up is inconsistent. Most parts are perfect, but there are sections where it's distractingly littered with random consonants, mainly an accented "r", and run-on words. There have been a few places where I'm unsure if the entire sentence is there. Apparently one of the volunteers wasn't as good at this as the others.