Rise And Fall Of Adam And Eve

Author: Stephen Greenblatt

Stock information

General Fields

  • : $37.99 AUD
  • : 9780099587224
  • : Penguin Random House
  • : Arrow
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  • : 0.321
  • : November 2018
  • : 198mm X 129mm
  • : United Kingdom
  • : 24.99
  • : September 2018
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  • : books

Special Fields

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  • : Stephen Greenblatt
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  • : Paperback
  • : 1809
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  • : English
  • : 222.1106
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  • : 368
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Barcode 9780099587224
9780099587224

Description

Selected as a book of the year 2017 by The Times and Sunday TimesWhat is it about Adam and Eve?s story that fascinates us? What does it tell us about how our species lives, dies, works or has sex?The mythic tale of Adam and Eve has shaped conceptions of human origins and destiny for centuries. Stemming from a few verses in an ancient book, it became not just the foundation of three major world faiths, but has evolved through art, philosophy and science to serve as the mirror in which we seem to glimpse the whole, long history of our fears and desires. In a quest that begins at the dawn of time, Stephen Greenblatt takes us from ancient Babylonia to the forests of east Africa. We meet evolutionary biologists and fossilised ancestors; we grapple with morality and marriage in Milton?s Paradise Lost; and we decide if the Fall is the unvarnished truth or fictional allegory.

Reviews

"A compelling, all-encompassing story of myth, theology and belief ... He delves deftly and lucidly into theology... Fascinating" -- Sam Leith * Spectator * "Thrilling ... a study of western disenchantment, of intellectual progress, of the fading powers of the myths of a simpler age. But it is a more complex study than that. It is also an ode to human creativity and to the powerful grip of narrative" -- Tim Whitmarsh * Guardian * "Fascinating" -- Christina Borg * Sunday Times * "Enthralling, thrilling... Along the way, there is an often hilarious account of scholastic efforts to rationalise the myth's illogic, and an array of entertaining heresies... What gives Greenblatt's "intellectual adventure" its tension and excitement is a sense of his own divided loyalties" -- Peter Conrad * Observer * "Erudite, wide-ranging, thought-provoking and elegantly fashioned" -- Darragh McManus * Irish Independent *