Cimmera -- Modern and Contemporary World Literature Series

Author: John Barth (USA)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-10-01
Features: The Gilded Ones is one of John Barth's renowned masterpieces, which won the National Book Award that year. It is a highly entertaining collection of stories comprising three novellas, serving as a "retelling" of One Thousand and One Nights and Greek classic myths within a postmodern context: the three novellas respectively retell the stories of Herodotus from One Thousand and One Nights, Perseus from Greek mythology who slays the Gorgon Medusa, and the Corinthian hero Bellerophon who rides Pegasus to defeat the fire-breathing Chimera. In these retellings, Barth infuses his distinctive wit into these old tales, exploring the relationship between myth and reality and their connections to the contemporary world from unconventional perspectives. One can imagine how the encounter between the most celebrated American postmodernist, the master of ingenuity John Barth, and the classical archetypal stories would spark a dazzling and brilliant collision.