Download or read book Bigger than Ben Hur written by Barbara Ryan and published by Syracuse University Press. This book was released on 2016-01-21 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1880, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ became a best-seller. The popular novel spawned an 1899 stage adaptation, reaching audiences of over 10 million, and two highly successful film adaptations. For over a century, it has become a ubiquitous pop cultural presence, representing a deeply powerful story and monumental experience for some and a defining work of bad taste and false piety for others. The first and only collection of essays on this pivotal cultural icon, Bigger Than “Ben-Hur” addresses Lew Wallace’s beloved classic to explore its polarizing effect and to expand the contexts within which it can be studied. In the essays gathered here, scholars approach Ben-Hur from multiple directions—religious and secular, literary, theatrical, and cinematic—to understand not just one story in varied formats but also what they term the “Ben-Hur tradition.” Drawing from a wide range of disciplines, contributions include the rise of the Protestant novel in the United States; relationships between and among religion, spectacle, and consumerism; the “New Woman” in early Hollywood; and a “wish list” for future adaptations, among others. Together, these essays explore how this remarkably fluid story of faith, love, and revenge has remained relevant to audiences across the globe for over 130 years.
Download or read book Blockbusters of Victorian Theater 1850 1910 written by Paul Fryer and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2023-11-15 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited collection of essays details a wide-ranging selection of some of the most sensationally successful theatre productions of the long Victorian era, the real "blockbusters" of the age. Ranging from the world of operetta and music hall to spectacular drama and sensational melodrama, the productions included provide the reader with definitive proof that the phenomenon of the "smash hit" show is not restricted to modern Broadway. This is a world that encompassed the ground-breaking stage technology of Ben Hur, the wide political impact of Uncle Tom's Cabin and the sheer creative originality of L'Enfant Prodigue. Supporting the "star" system, productions featured some of the greatest names of the period - Sir Henry Irving, Sir Johnston Forbes Robertson, James O'Neill and Dion Boucicault. This was the very dawning of a new media age, which saw many of the productions transfer to the new world of silent cinema for the very first time
Download or read book Rewriting the Ancient World written by Lisa Maurice and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2017-07-03 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rewriting the Ancient World looks at how and why the ancient world, including not only the Greeks and Romans, but also Jews and Christians, has been rewritten in popular fictions of the modern world. The fascination that ancient society holds for later periods in the Western world is as noticeable in popular fiction as it is in other media, for there is a vast body of work either set in, or interacting with, classical models, themes and societies. These works of popular fiction encompass a very wide range of society, and the examination of the interaction between these books and the world of classics provides a fascinating study of both popular culture and example of classical reception.
Download or read book Chronicling Ben Hur s Climb 1880 1924 written by Barbara Ryan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-04-29 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1880, Lew Wallace’s Ben-Hur is one of the best-selling novels of all time. Employing analytical strategies from the fields of literature, fan studies, reception history, and media research, Barbara Ryan traces Ben-Hur’s popularity from 1880 to 1924. She analyzes fan mail as well as a wide range of manuscript and print sources, using as her starting place two letters in which admirers declared that they would rather be the author of Ben-Hur than to be President of the United States. Ryan’s discussion of the novel in terms of its contemporary fandom makes it possible for her to dispel misconceptions about the novel’s audience which include assumptions about its popularity with all Christians. She makes fascinating connections between Ben-Hur, slavery discourse, and the changing nature of U.S. politics to challenge critics who assume that Wallace consciously used a sure-fire formula. By shedding light on attempts to squash the novel’s popularity, Ryan examines dramatizations of Ben-Hur by amateurs and on Broadway. Her in-depth reception history of Ben-Hur’s incarnations in print and on stage establishes the novel’s importance for understanding nineteenth-century U.S. literature, politics, and culture.
Download or read book T T Clark Companion to the Bible and Film written by Richard Walsh and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-06-28 with total page 517 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first decades of the twenty-first century saw a resurgence of the biblical epic film, such as Noah and Exodus: Gods and Kings, which was in turn accompanied by a growth of biblical film criticism. This companion surveys that field of study by framing it in light of significant and recent biblical films as well as the voices of key biblical film critics. Non-Hollywood and seemingly “non-biblical” films also come under investigation. The contributors concentrate on three points: “context”, focusing on the 'Bible in' specific film genres and cultural situations; “theory”, applying theory from both religion and film studies, with an eye to their possible intersections; and “recent and significant texts”, reflecting on which texts and themes have been most important in 'biblical film' and which are currently at the fore. Exploring cinema across the globe, and accompanied by extended introductory essays for each of the three sections, this companion is an important resource for scholars in both film and biblical reception.
Download or read book The Bible onscreen in the new millennium written by Wickham Clayton and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2020-01-17 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The remarkable commercial success of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ in 2004 came as a surprise to the Hollywood establishment, particularly considering the film’s failure to find production funding through a major studio. Since then the Biblical epic, long thought dead in terms of mainstream marketability, has become a viable product. This collection examines the new wave of the genre, which includes such varied examples as Darren Aronofsky’s Noah (2014) and Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014), along with the telenovelas of Latin America. Such texts follow previous traditions while appearing distinct both stylistically and thematically from the Biblical epic in its prime, making academic consideration timely and relevant. Featuring contributions from such scholars as Mikel J. Koven, Andrew B. R. Elliott and Martin Stollery, and a preface from Adele Reinhartz, the book will be of interest to students and scholars of film, television and religion.
Download or read book The Two Frank Thrings written by Peter Fitzpatrick and published by Monash University Publishing. This book was released on 2012-08-01 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: They shared a name, of course, and their physical resemblance was startling. And both Frank Thrings were huge figures in the landscape of twentieth-century Australian theatre and film. But in many ways they could hardly have been more different. Frank Thring the father (1882–1936) began his career as a sideshow conjuror, and he wheeled, dealed and occasionally married his way into becoming the legendary ‘F.T.’ — impresario, speculator and owner of Efftee Films, Australia’s first ‘talkies’ studio. He built for himself an image of grand patriarchal respectability, a sizeable fortune, and all the makings of a dynasty. Frank Thring the son (1926–1994) squandered the fortune and derailed the dynasty in the course of creating his own persona — a unique presence that could make most stages and foyers seem small. He won fame playing tyrants in togas in Hollywood blockbusters, then, suddenly, came home to Melbourne to play perhaps his finest role — that of Frank Thring, actor and personality extraordinaire. Central to this role was that Frank the son was unapologetically and outrageously gay. Peter Fitzpatrick’s compelling dual biography tells the story of two remarkable characters. It’s a kind of detective story, following the tracks of two men who did all they could to cover their tracks, and to conceal ‘the self’: Frank the father used secrecy and sleight-of-hand as strategies for self-protection; Frank the son masked a thoroughly reclusive personality with flamboyant self-parody. It’s also the tale of a lost relationship — and of the power a father may have had, even over a son who hardly knew him.
Download or read book The 1950s written by James S. Olson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2018-10-01 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume serves as an invaluable guide to key political, social, and cultural concepts of the 1950s. This volume covers the entire decade of the 1950s, from the uneasy peace following World War II to the beginnings of cultural discontent that would explode in the 1960s. It highlights key historical, social, and cultural elements of the period, including the Cold War and perceived communist threat; the birth of the middle class and establishment of consumer culture; the emergence of the civil rights movement; and the normalization of youth rebellion and rock and roll. An introduction presents the historical themes of the period, and an alphabetical encyclopedic entries relating to period-specific themes comprises the core reference material in the book. The book also contains a range of primary documents with introductions and a sample Documents Based Essay Question. Other features are a list of "Top Tips" for answering Documents Based Essay Questions, a thematically tagged chronology, and a list of specific learning objectives readers can use to gauge their working knowledge and understanding of the period.
Download or read book Christmas Past written by Thomas Ruys Smith and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2021-09-15 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the modern celebration of Christmas took shape across the nineteenth century, American writers gave it new meaning in the pages of countless books and magazines. Now, for the first time, this rich anthology brings together some of the most significant of those seasonal stories to retell a forgotten tale of Christmases past. From the authors who helped define a national literary culture, to the popular sentimentalists who negotiated Christmas’s position at the center of family life, to the realists who looked to reshape American letters in the wake of the Civil War, and beyond: all varieties of American writers turned to Christmas as an inevitable and potent subject during this deeply formative period in the history of American literature. In Christmas Past, Thomas Ruys Smith brings together a diverse range of voices to showcase the many ways in which Christmas was imagined across the nineteenth century, offering images that echo down to the present. The introduction that frames the anthology provides a new literary history of Christmas, contextualizing the selections and making clear the links both between them and to the wider trajectory of American literature.
Download or read book Captivity written by György Spiró and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-11-03 with total page 864 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This translation originally copyrighted in 2010.
Download or read book The Dan Taylor Series books 1 5 written by Rachel Amphlett and published by Saxon Publishing. This book was released on 2017-06-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Get books 1-5 of the Dan Taylor series in this action-packed box set! Twenty-first century threats need a twenty-first century hero. Meet Dan Taylor. The Dan Taylor series takes the reader under cover with a group of men tasked by the British secret service to protect the country's energy supplies - whatever it takes. This action-packed collection includes the first three books in the best-selling Dan Taylor series. International settings and colourful characters bring the world of modern counter-terrorism and cyber security to life, exploring complex technology while providing an adrenalin-fuelled reading experience. With plots ripped straight out of today's news, and often exposing a security threat that is shocking in its simplicity and potential impact, this is an enduring espionage series that has readers hooked from page one. 'Be prepared for some extra time on your hands - you won't want to put this down!' ~ San Francisco Book Review ‘Spy thrillers with well-developed complex characters’ ~ Manhattan Book Review THE LEGACY DEVICE The British Army left Iraq in 2009 after a six-year campaign alongside coalition forces. What they left behind has remained a closely guarded secret – until now. Royal Engineer EOD operator Dan Taylor is on his last tour of duty when he is caught up in a conspiracy that will have consequences reaching far beyond the country’s war-torn borders. With no choice but to follow orders, Dan realises that the legacy he and his commanding officer leave behind will have an unimaginable impact on the future of Iraq, and that of the British secret service. But first, he has to survive the mission WHITE GOLD A troubled past. A murdered friend. A bomb that will change the face of terrorism. When Sarah Edgewater's ex-husband is murdered by a wealthy organisation hell-bent on protecting their assets, she turns to Dan Taylor: geologist, ex-soldier, and lost cause. Plunged into a global quest for answers, Dan and Sarah aren't just chasing the truth - they're chasing a bomb that, if detonated, will change the future of alternative energy research and the centre of England's capital forever... UNDER FIRE An explosion rocks a Qatari natural gas facility... a luxury cruise liner capsizes in the Mediterranean...and someone has stolen a submarine... Are the events connected? Dan Taylor doesn't believe in coincidences - all he has to do is convince his superiors they are next in the terrorists' line of fire. As Britain enters its worst winter on record, Dan must elude capture to ensure the country's energy resources are protected. At all costs. In an action-packed adventure, from the Middle East through the Mediterranean to London, Dan and his team are on a quest which will test every choice he makes.Assisted by the exotic Antonia Almasi, Dan realises he faces an adversary far greater than he ever imagined, and not everyone is going to survive. THREE LIVES DOWN Dan Taylor has survived two attempts on his life. The rest of his team are missing, and now a terrorist group has stolen a radioactive isotope from a top secret government project. Can Dan survive long enough to prevent a nuclear disaster on British soil? With the Prime Minister determined to re-negotiate the country's place in the European Union, and deals being struck behind closed doors, Dan stumbles across a plot that will shake the country to its core. If his mission fails, his enemies will overthrow the British government, and Dan will be a wanted man. If he wants to succeed, he'll have to sacrifice everything... BEHIND THE WIRE Dan Taylor is trying to keep a low profile when an old friend contacts the Energy Protection Group seeking his help. The man’s daughter is alone in North Africa, and her life is in grave danger. Thrust back into active duty, Dan soon realises that getting Anna to safety is only half his problem. The forensic accountant holds the key to preventing Western Sahara from descending into chaos, and exposing the puppet masters behind an imminentcoup d’etat. With a group of militants in pursuit and willing to do anything to stop him, Dan must draw on old survival skills and luck to make his way across the desert landscape and ensure Anna and the evidence she has in her possession reach safety. Behind the wire lies a secret – a secret that people will kill to protect. military, action, suspense, thriller, mystery, British, Australia, London, Robert Ludlum, thriller series, mystery series, espionage, spies, assassin, thriller and suspense, vigilante justice, crime, action packed, FBI agents, hard-boiled, suspense, suspense series, tech, techno, technology, crime, financial, murder, theft, death, justice, deadly, gun, killer, sniper, shot, deadly, crime fiction, crime novel, kidnapping, serial killers, heist, series, women's fiction, detective, conspiracy, political, terrorism, contemporary, genre fiction, cyber, cyber terrorism, terrorism, cyber warfare, spy novels, spy books, spy series, British spy book series, British spy books, espionage books, espionage book series, action and adventure books, thriller books, crime fiction, crime fiction books, fast paced books
Download or read book The Legacy Device a Dan Taylor short story written by Rachel Amphlett and published by Saxon Publishing. This book was released on 2016-03 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As a prequel to the bestselling first full length novel White Gold, The Legacy Device provides an action-packed introduction to the Dan Taylor series. The British Army left Iraq in 2009 after a six-year campaign alongside coalition forces. What they left behind has remained a closely guarded secret – until now. Royal Engineer EOD operator Dan Taylor is on his last tour of duty when he is caught up in a conspiracy that will have consequences reaching far beyond the country’s war-torn borders. With no choice but to follow orders, Dan realises that the legacy he and his commanding officer leave behind will have an unimaginable impact on the future of Iraq, and that of the British secret service. But first, he has to survive the mission. TOPICS: spy novels, spy books, spy series, British spy book series, British spy books, espionage books, espionage book series, action and adventure books, thriller books, crime fiction, crime fiction books, fast paced books Praise for the Dan Taylor series: ‘Be prepared for some extra time on your hands – you won’t want to put this down’ ~ San Francisco Book Review ‘Rachel Amphlett has given us Dan Taylor and a series that is headed to the top of the class’ ~ Readers Favourites ‘Spy thrillers with well-developed complex characters’ ~ Manhattan Book Review ‘I’m not sure whether Rachel has some sort of inside line to what’s going on in the UK and the wider world, but her stories are scarily current’ ~ Goodreads
Download or read book The Silents of Jesus in the Cinema 1897 1927 written by David Shepherd and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-31 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While Jesus has attracted the sporadic interest of film-makers since the epics of the Sixties, it is often forgotten that between the advent of motion pictures in the 1890s and the close of the "silent" era at the end of the 1920s, some of the longest, most expensive and most watched films on both sides of the Atlantic were focused on the Life and Passion of the Christ. Drawing upon rarely seen archival footage and the work of both the era’s most important directors (e.g. Alice Guy, Ferdinand Zecca, Sidney Olcott, D.W. Griffith, Carl Dreyer, and C.B. DeMille) and others who have been all but forgotten, this collection of essays offers a representative survey of the Silents of Jesus, illustrating the ways in which the earliest films and those which followed were influenced by a multiplicity of factors. Written by leading scholars in biblical and early film studies this collection explores the ways in which the Silents of Jesus were shaped not only by the performing and visual arts of the nineteenth century and the technological challenges and opportunities of a new medium and industry, but also by the artistic, theological and ideological predilections of studios and directors, and the expectations of audiences as the genre evolved. Taken together, the essays collected here offer a seminal treatment of the genesis and early evolution of the cinematic Jesus.
Download or read book A Temple Not Made with Hands written by Mikeal C. Parsons and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2018-05-11 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays is a Festschrift for Naymond Keathley, honoring his many contributions to Baylor as Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, as Senior Vice-Provost, as Interim Director of the Center for International Education, as Interim Chair of the Religion Department, as Professor, and as Director of Undergraduate Studies. He also served as president of the Southwest Region of the NABPR and was a long-time member of the Society of Biblical Literature. The authors of the essays include Naymond's friends, colleagues, and students. All of the essays are (broadly) in biblical studies and biblical reception, including essays exploring the intersection between biblical studies and popular culture. Most of the essays take up various New Testament texts.
Download or read book A Companion to Ancient Greece and Rome on Screen written by Arthur J. Pomeroy and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2017-06-01 with total page 568 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive treatment of the Classical World in film and television, A Companion to Ancient Greece and Rome on Screen closely examines the films and TV shows centered on Greek and Roman cultures and explores the tension between pagan and Christian worlds. Written by a team of experts in their fields, this work considers productions that discuss social settings as reflections of their times and as indicative of the technical advances in production and the economics of film and television. Productions included are a mix of Hollywood and European spanning from the silent film era though modern day television series, and topics discussed include Hollywood politics in film, soundtrack and sound design, high art and low art, European art cinemas, and the ancient world as comedy. Written for students of film and television as well as those interested in studies of ancient Rome and Greece, A Companion to Ancient Greece and Rome on Screen provides comprehensive, current thinking on how the depiction of Ancient Greece and Rome on screen has developed over the past century. It reviews how films of the ancient world mirrored shifting attitudes towards Christianity, the impact of changing techniques in film production, and fascinating explorations of science fiction and technical fantasy in the ancient world on popular TV shows like Star Trek, Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, and Dr. Who.
Download or read book Eighty Odd Years in Hollywood written by John Meredyth Lucas and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-11-18 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Meredyth Lucas, son of silent screen star and screenwriter Bess Meredyth (Ben-Hur, The Sea Beast, When a Man Loves, Don Juan) and stepson of renowned Hungarian-born director Michael Curtiz (Casablanca, Mildred Pierce, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Life with Father), came of age in Hollywood during the 1930s. Lucas went on to an impressive career of his own as a writer-producer-director. He made films with Hal Wallis, Ross Hunter, Walt Disney, and others, and he wrote, produced, and directed such classic television series as Mannix, The Fugitive and Star Trek. Completed shortly before his death in 2002, Lucas' memoir is filled with never-before-told recollections of many Hollywood greats and features previously unpublished photographs. With Lucas, we go behind the scenes, onto the studio lots and into the parties with family friends John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Errol Flynn and Jack Warner, to name just a few. It's a boy's-eye-view of Hollywood in a time of glamour, decadence, and the golden years of filmmaking.
Download or read book The Real and the Sacred written by Jefferson J. A. Gatrall and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2014-11-13 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The figure of Jesus appears as a character in dozens of nineteenth-century novels, including works by Balzac, Flaubert, Dickens, Dostoevsky, and others. The Real and the Sacred focuses in particular on two fiction genres: the Jesus redivivus tale and the Jesus novel. In the former, Christ makes surprise visits to earth, from rural Flanders (Balzac) and Muscovy (Turgenev) to the bustling streets of Paris (Flaubert), Seville (Dostoevsky), Berlin, and Boston. In the latter, the historical Jesus wanders through the picturesque towns and plains of first-century Galilee and Judea, attracting followers and enemies. In short, authors subjected Christ, the second person of the Christian trinity, to the realist norms of secular fiction. Thus the Jesus of nineteenth-century fiction was both situated within a specific time and place, whether ancient or modern, and positioned before the gaze of increasingly daring literary portraitists. The highest artistic challenge for authors was to paint, using mere words, a faithful picture of Jesus in all his humanity. The incongruity of a sacred figure inhabiting secular literary forms nevertheless tested the limits of modern realist style no less than the doctrine of Christ’s divinity. The international “quest of the historical Jesus” has been amply documented within the context of nineteenth-century biblical scholarship. Yet there has been no broad-based comparative study devoted to the depiction of Jesus in prose fiction over the same time period. The Real and the Sacred offers a comprehensive survey of this body of fiction, examining both the range of its Christ types and the varying formal means through which these types were represented. The nineteenth century—despite forecasts of God's death at the time—not only revived older Christ types but also witnessed the rise of new ones, including le Christ proletaire, the Mormon Christ, the Buddhist Christ, and the Tolstoyan Christ. Novelists played a crucial role in the invention and popularization of the historical Jesus in particular, one of modernity's major figures. These pioneering works of fiction, written by authors of diverse religious and national backgrounds, laid the formal groundwork for an enduring fascination with the historical Jesus in later fiction and film, from Mikhail Bulgakov's Master and Margarita to Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. The book is enhanced by a gallery of illustrations of the historical Jesus as depicted by nineteenth-century artists.