The Myths -

Viktor Pelevin

Canongate Books Ltd

2006

0 páginas

0m

ISBN-13: 9781841959474

Collects together the first six books in the bestselling, critically acclaimed Myths series in paperback, in a beautiful boxset:

A Short History of Myth by Karen Armstrong

Karen Armstrong's concise yet compelling investigation into the history of myth takes us from the Palaeolithic period and the mythology of the hunters right up to the 'Great Western Transformation' of the last 500 years.
She shows us that the history of myth is the history of humanity, and our stories and beliefs, our curiosity and attempts to understand the world, link us to our ancestors and each other. Myths help us make sense of the universe, and of ourselves. Armstrong's characteristically insightful and eloquent book serves as a brilliant and thought-provoking introduction to myth in the broadest sense - and why we dismiss it only at our peril.

The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood

For Penelope, wife of Odysseus, maintaining a kingdom while her husband was off fighting the Trojan war was not a simple business. Already aggrieved that he had been lured away due to the shocking behaviour of her beautiful cousin Helen, Penelope must bring up her wayward son, face down scandalous rumours and keep over a hundred lustful, greedy and bloodthirsty suitors at bay...
And then, when Odysseus finally returns and slaughters the murderous suitors, he brutally hangs Penelope's twelve beloved maids. What were his motives? And what was Penelope really up to?

Weight by Jeanette Winterson

In Greek mythology, Atlas, a member of the original race called Titans, is punished for leading a rebellion against the new deities, the Olympians. Atlas, guardian of the Garden of Hesperides and its golden apples of life, is forced to bear the weight of the heavens for eternity. When Heracles is tasked with stealing these apples he seeks out Atlas, offering to shoulder the world temporarily if the Titan will bring him the fruit. Knowing that Heracles is the only person with the strength to take his burden, Atlas agrees and an uneasy partnership is born.

The Helmet of Horror by Victor Pelevin

When Ariadne helped Theseus escape the MInotaur's labyrinth with the aid of a ball of thread, she led the way for the bewildered victims of a twenty-first century minotaur. Trapped in an endless maze of Internet chatrooms, a group of mystified strangers find themselves assigned obscure aliases and commanded by the Helmet of Horror, the Minotaur himself. As they fumble their way back to reality through a mesmerising world of abundant information but little knowledge, we are forced to wonder - can technology itself be anything more than a myth?

Lion's Honey by David Grossman

In Lion's Honey, award-winning writer David Grossman takes on one of the most vivid and controversial characters in the Bible. Revisiting Samson's famous battle with the lion, his many women and his betrayal by them all, including the only one he ever loved. Grossman gives us a provocative new take on the story and its climax, Samson's final act of death, brining down a temple on himself and three thousand Philistines.
In exhilarating and lucid prose, Grossman reveals the journey of a single, lonely and tortured soul who never found a true home in the world, who was uncomfortable in his very body and who, some might say, was the precursor of today's suicide bombers.

Dream Angus by Alexander McCall Smith

If he's in the right mood, divine Angus might grant you sight of your true love in a dream; you might even fall in love with him, but he'll never love you back. He's too busy making mischief, stealing the palace of the gods from his father, turning his enemies into pigs etc ; until he is trapped by his own romantic games and falls for an unattainable woman, doomed to seek her forever.
In twentieth-century Scotland, Angus's troubled alter ego searches for his true family and identity; a psychotherapist who helps people understand their dreams, his life seems to parallel that of his mythic namesake, until we ask, could they be one and the same?