Parzival

by Wolfram von Eschenbach

Overview

Parzival, an Arthurian romance completed by Wolfram von Eschenbach in the first years of the thirteenth century, is one of the foremost works of German literature and a classic that can stand with the great masterpieces of the world. The most important aspects of human existence, worldly and spiritual, are presented in strikingly modern terms against the panorama of battles and tournaments and Parzival's long search for the Grail. The world of knighthood, of love and loyalty and human endeavor despite the cruelty and suffering of life, is constantly mingling with the world of the Grail, affirming the inherent unity between man's temporal condition and his quest for something beyond human existence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781420966367
Publisher:	Digireads.com Publishing
Publication date:	02/10/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Wolfram von Eschenbach was the greatest of the medieval German narrative poets. Very little is known about his life, but it is generally accepted that he belonged to a Bavarian family of the lower nobility, that he may have served a Franconian lord, and that for the better part of his creative period he enjoyed the patronage of the great medieval German Maecenas Hermann I, landgrave of Thuringia. He probably died between 1220 and 1230.

Editorial Reviews

This prose translation of one of the earliest of the Grail stories is a corker of a medieval romance, and narrator Leighton Pugh makes the most of its tension and occasional flashes of humor and emotion. Listeners should be prepared for some surprises. The Grail itself, for example, is a stone, not a cup, and has nothing to do with Jesus. By the time the legends reached Malory, who wrote LE MORTE D'ARTHUR, they had evolved considerably. Pugh uses a range of voices and accents to differentiate characters, but the text gives him little help; not until the Renaissance, for the most part, did the people in stories start becoming more than symbols. The one exception here is Eschenbach, who pops in occasionally as himself. D.M.H. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2021 - AudioFile

This prose translation of one of the earliest of the Grail stories is a corker of a medieval romance, and narrator Leighton Pugh makes the most of its tension and occasional flashes of humor and emotion. Listeners should be prepared for some surprises. The Grail itself, for example, is a stone, not a cup, and has nothing to do with Jesus. By the time the legends reached Malory, who wrote LE MORTE D'ARTHUR, they had evolved considerably. Pugh uses a range of voices and accents to differentiate characters, but the text gives him little help; not until the Renaissance, for the most part, did the people in stories start becoming more than symbols. The one exception here is Eschenbach, who pops in occasionally as himself. D.M.H. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2021 - AudioFile