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Angels & Saints

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( 166 ratings, 23 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Angels & Saints explores the rich history and mythology of angels, tracing their origins, nature, and roles across centuries of Western theology. Eliot Weinberger skillfully weaves a lyrical meditation on these celestial beings, then shifts focus to the saints, presenting vivid and playful biographies that illuminate their earthly lives. Accompanying the narrative are intricate grid poems by the Benedictine monk Hrabanus Maurus, offering a unique artistic dimension to this profound exploration.
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Format: Hardback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book is ideal for readers interested in theology, spirituality, religious history, and literary explorations of sacred figures. It appeals to those seeking a thoughtful and artistic meditation on angels and saints supported by historical scholarship.

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A gorgeously illustrated co-publication with Christine Burgin by โ€œone of the worldโ€™s great essayistsโ€ (The New York Times). With a guide to the illustrations by Mary Wellesley.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description
Angels have soared through Western culture and consciousness from Biblical to contemporary times. But what do we really know about these celestial beings? Where do they come from, what are they made of, how do they communicate and perceive? The celebrated essayist Eliot Weinberger has mined and deconstructed, resurrected and distilled centuries of theology into an awe-inspiring exploration of the heavenly host.
From a litany of angelic voices, Weinberger's lyrical meditation then turns to the earthly counterparts, the saints, their lives retold in a series of vibrant and playful capsule biographies, followed by a glimpse of the afterlife.
Threaded throughout Angels & Saints are the glorious illuminated grid poems by the eighteenth-century Benedictine monk Hrabanus Maurus. These astonishingly complex, proto-"concrete" poems are untangled in a lucid afterword by the medieval scholar and historian Mary Wellesley.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780811229869

Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 01 September 2020

Country: United States

Imprint: New Directions Publishing Corporation

Contributors:

  • Notes by Mary Wellesley

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 20.0mm

Width: 173.0mm

Height: 231.0mm

Weight: 484g

Pages: 160

About the Author

Eliot Weinbergerโ€™s books of literary essays include Karmic Traces, An Elemental Thing, The Ghosts of Birds, and Angels & Saints. His political writings are collected in What I Heard About Iraq and What Happened Here: Bush Chronicles. The author of a study of Chinese poetry translation, 19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei, he is a translator of the poetry of Bei Dao and the editor of The New Directions Anthology of Classical Chinese Poetry. He was formerly the general editor of the series Calligrams: Writings from and on China and the literary editor of the Murty Classical Library of India. Among his many translations of Latin American poetry and prose are The Poems of Octavio Paz, Pazโ€™s In Light of India, Vicente Huidobroโ€™s Altazor, Xavier Villaurrutiaโ€™s Nostalgia for Death, and Jorge Luis Borgesโ€™ Seven Nights and Selected Non-Fictions. He has been publishing with New Directions since 1975. Dr. Mary Wellesley is a Research Affiliate at the British Library whose research focuses on medieval manuscripts. She writes and reviews widely, her work regularly appearing in the London Review of Books, Daily Telegraph, Times Literary Supplement, among other publications. Her book, Hidden Hands: Manuscripts That Made Us is forthcoming.

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