This is just one of the many books in this series. Each book is in the point of view of a boy who survives each historical event that has ever taken place. It detailed what happened in an age appropriate way which captures all students attention and keeps them wanting to read more. 

My CT from last semester read these books to her class every day. I would love to have the collection and read them to my class and discuss each historical event before or after we read. I love how it is told by a little boy to help get younger children to understand what happened. 

Lexile: 590L

The poems from Sea Garden were accessible enough, but quite soon, in the selection from The God, my smart-phone was commissioned to check the Greek references. Euridyce in particular is only intelligible if the relevant myth is familiar, but once explained the poem stands out as clever and touching. By the time I reached Translations, in addition to searching out internet resources, I had excavated an elderly copy of the Oxford Book of Greek Verse in Translation (only recently it nearly left home for Oxfam) from the dustier part of my bookshelves, browsing both books in tandem.

I especially appreciated this blog, by “BriefPoems”, https://briefpoems.wordpress.com/2017/02/25/windfalls-fragments-of-sappho/
which discusses the challenge of translating the fragments of poetry left to us from Sappho, born some 2600 years ago in 650 BCE. The Catholic Church twice tried to burn all of her writings – in 380 CE and 1073CE. Books were handwritten and scarce in those days so it was actually feasible to remove all trace and we know a large amount is lost forever. Yet here she is today and when I found Sappho in my book of Greek Verse I was especially impressed by this little poem:

Forgotten

Dead shalt thou lie; and nought
Be told of thee or thought,
For thou hast plucked not of the Muses' tree:
And even in Hades' halls
Amidst thy fellow-thralls
No friendly shade thy shade shall company!

This is Hardy’s translation of Sappho and what the BriefPoems blog brings home is that another poet would produce quite a different interpretation of the identical Greek language original. As presented here, “Forgotten” is a poem by Hardy, inspired by a fragment from Sappho. What Sappho herself may have intended is absolutely conjectural and yet we have her writing to demonstrate that she was a poet and I am confident we can interpret this poem to affirm that one thing Sappho did hope for was to be remembered through and in her poetry, which in turn suggests that Hardy’s translation is a successful one; Sappho’s own project is thus victorious over Time and its vicissitudes.

There is nothing more engaging than the epics and plays brought down to us from the ancient Greeks, and H.D. has replicated this style to great effect, but the Oxford Book makes clear that what we retain of Greek poetry is often fragmentary or in the form of mere epigrams. Restoring such material requires a creative effort to capture an insight or meaning and present this in a form that is honest and also beautiful.

This challenge seems to have fascinated H.D. She takes every creative and artistic liberty allowed to her in order to establish in an entirely new work something fundamental about the Greek original. In Nossis [pp155-157], for example, she has taken quite a brief and poignant fragment and rendered this as a sixteen line poem embedded in one of her own that covers three long pages. Perhaps my favourite poem so far by H.D. is Heliodora, in which another fragment is translated but then placed as one element within her own truly beautiful invention, which is available here: https://allpoetry.com/Heliodora

What comes from all this is the suggestion that H.D.’s poems are not instantly accessible but they are not that difficult to tackle in this age of smartphones and search engines. With a modest investment, the rewards are plentiful, since her poetry is beautiful in its writing and in its sentiments. But if, with H.D.’s example in mind, you come across a copy of the Oxford Book of Greek Verse in Translation, snap it up at once; it is surprisingly wonderful in itself, and at the same time may provoke you to consider how the translations you find there might have been different.

The poems from Sea Garden were accessible enough, but quite soon, in the selection from The God, my smart-phone was commissioned to check the Greek references. Euridyce in particular is only intelligible if the relevant myth is familiar, but once explained the poem stands out as clever and touching. By the time I reached Translations, in addition to searching out internet resources, I had excavated an elderly copy of the Oxford Book of Greek Verse in Translation (only recently it nearly left home for Oxfam) from the dustier part of my bookshelves, browsing both books in tandem.

I especially appreciated this blog, by “BriefPoems”, https://briefpoems.wordpress.com/2017/02/25/windfalls-fragments-of-sappho/
which discusses the challenge of translating the fragments of poetry left to us from Sappho, born some 2600 years ago in 650 BCE. The Catholic Church twice tried to burn all of her writings – in 380 CE and 1073CE. Books were handwritten and scarce in those days so it was actually feasible to remove all trace and we know a large amount is lost forever. Yet here she is today and when I found Sappho in my book of Greek Verse I was especially impressed by this little poem:

Forgotten

Dead shalt thou lie; and nought
Be told of thee or thought,
For thou hast plucked not of the Muses' tree:
And even in Hades' halls
Amidst thy fellow-thralls
No friendly shade thy shade shall company!

This is Hardy’s translation of Sappho and what the BriefPoems blog brings home is that another poet would produce quite a different interpretation of the identical Greek language original. As presented here, “Forgotten” is a poem by Hardy, inspired by a fragment from Sappho. What Sappho herself may have intended is absolutely conjectural and yet we have her writing to demonstrate that she was a poet and I am confident we can interpret this poem to affirm that one thing Sappho did hope for was to be remembered through and in her poetry, which in turn suggests that Hardy’s translation is a successful one; Sappho’s own project is thus victorious over Time and its vicissitudes.

There is nothing more engaging than the epics and plays brought down to us from the ancient Greeks, and H.D. has replicated this style to great effect, but the Oxford Book makes clear that what we retain of Greek poetry is often fragmentary or in the form of mere epigrams. Restoring such material requires a creative effort to capture an insight or meaning and present this in a form that is honest and also beautiful.

This challenge seems to have fascinated H.D. She takes every creative and artistic liberty allowed to her in order to establish in an entirely new work something fundamental about the Greek original. In Nossis [pp155-157], for example, she has taken quite a brief and poignant fragment and rendered this as a sixteen line poem embedded in one of her own that covers three long pages. Perhaps my favourite poem so far by H.D. is Heliodora, in which another fragment is translated but then placed as one element within her own truly beautiful invention, which is available here: https://allpoetry.com/Heliodora

What comes from all this is the suggestion that H.D.’s poems are not instantly accessible but they are not that difficult to tackle in this age of smartphones and search engines. With a modest investment, the rewards are plentiful, since her poetry is beautiful in its writing and in its sentiments. But if, with H.D.’s example in mind, you come across a copy of the Oxford Book of Greek Verse in Translation, snap it up at once; it is surprisingly wonderful in itself, and at the same time may provoke you to consider how the translations you find there might have been different.

Der Kreis der Rabenvögel: Roman - Kate M...

Beschreibung

 

1912: England.
Connie Gifford lebt gemeinsam mit ihrem Vater, den sie einfach nur Gifford nennt, zurückgezogen in einer kleinen Ortschaft in Sussex. Mit ihrem Geschäft als Tierpräperatoren können sie sich gerade so durchschlagen. Als Connie eines Tages eine tote Frau in den Sümpfen hinter ihrem Haus findet und sie Bekanntschaft mit Harry Doyle macht, kehren nach und nach verschwunden geglaubte Erinnerungsfetzen aus ihrer Kindheit zurück.

 

Seit einem Unfall kann sich Connie nicht mehr an ihre Vergangenheit erinnern und ihr Vater weigert sich eisern ihr von den Vorfällen zu erzählen. Doch nun wird Connie von den schrecklichen Ereignissen eingeholt und muss nach dem Verschwinden ihres Vaters auch noch um sein Leben bangen.

 

Meine Meinung

 

Das mysteriöse in Grau- und Schwarztönen gehaltene Cover, ja man könnte es sogar ein Gothic-Cover nennen, zeigt eine Frau mit einem Rabenvogel. Gleich auf den ersten Blick hat mich der neue Roman „Der Kreis der Rabenvögel“ von Kate Mosse angesprochen. Vor allem da das wunderschöne Cover die Verheißung auf eine gruselige und spannende Geschichte in mir erwachen ließ und ich solche Geschichten sehr liebe!

 

„Der Kreis der Rabenvögel“ ist wunderbar mystisch und eignet sich super für gruselige Lesestunden. Außerdem bringt der Roman einen bezaubernden Retro-Charme mit sich, der den Leser bis zum Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts reisen lässt. Droschken füllen die Straßen und Bedienstete erledigen die anfallenden Tätigkeiten im Haushalt. Die Charaktere wirken vor diesem Hintergrund alles andere als angestaubt, denn Connie ist eine starke Frau die sich um ihren Vater sorgt und den Betrieb am laufen hält.

 

Sehr spannend finde ich das Geheimnis das sich von Beginn an um die Hauptprotagonistin Connie Gifford rankt, und dessen Auflösung man erst nach und nach auf die Spur kommt. Mir hat es auf jeden Fall eine große Freude bereitet die „Miss Marple“ zu spielen und kräftig mitzurätseln.

 

Dann ist da noch der Künstler Harry Doyle, der eher durch Zufall mit Connie Bekanntschaft macht. Schnell wird klar, dass es zwischen den vermeintlich Unbekannten zumindest eine Verbindung der Väter geben muss. Gemeinsam stellen sich Connie und Harry der Vergangenheit.

 

Kate Mosse hat meine Erwartungen an das Buch auf jeden Fall erfüllt. Es wird eine mitreisende und sehr mysteriöse Geschichte vor einem tollem Setting mit einzigartigen Charakteren geboten. Zwischen den Kapiteln stößt man auf Auszüge aus einem Werk der Kunst der Taxidermie, welche der Geschichte zusätzlich Authentizität verleihen.

 

Über die Autorin

 

Kate Mosse, eine der Initiatorinnen des Baileys Women’s Prize For Fiction (vormals Orange Prize), arbeitet für Rundfunk und Fernsehen. Für BBC Four moderiert sie eine wöchentliche Sendung, in der Autoren und ihre Bücher vorgestellt werden. Kate Mosse hat Romane und Sachbücher geschrieben, vor ihrer Arbeit für Rundfunk und Fernsehen war sie stellvertretende Intendantin des Chichester Festival Theatre in West Sussex. Sie ist Mitglied der Royal Society of Arts. Mit ihrem Mann und ihren beiden Kindern lebt sie in West Sussex und in Carcassonne. Ihr erster Roman „Das verlorene Labyrinth“ wurde ein Weltbestseller. Es folgten die Romane „Die achte Karte“, „Wintergeister“ und „Die Frauen von Carcassonne“. (Quelle: Droemer Knaur Verlag)

 

Fazit

 

Kate Mosse versteht es eine starke Frauenfigur vor dem schaurigen Setting des 20. Jahrhundert Englands in Szene zu setzen. Spannungs- und Gruselmomente garantiert!