First edition | |
Author | Gene Wolfe |
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Cover artist | David Palladini |
Genre | historical fiction |
Publisher | Follett |
Publication date | 1976 |
Media type | |
ISBN | 0-695-80667-X |
The Devil in a Forest is a short novel by American writer Gene Wolfe about the conflict between Christianity and an earlier Pagan religion in Europe during the Middle Ages. [1] [2] The hero of the story, Mark, is an adolescent, an orphan, and the apprentice to a weaver very near a small holy Christian shrine. The shrine is within the King's Forest, and the very small village where he lives is on the edge of the forest. During the course of the novel the village is occupied by both a brutal squad of the King's foresters, and a mob of the pagan charcoal burners who eke out a living in the forest. [2]
Gene Rodman Wolfe was an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He was noted for his dense, allusive prose as well as the strong influence of his Catholic faith. He was a prolific short-story writer and novelist and won many science fiction and fantasy literary awards.
Wolfe explains, in an author's note, that the novel was inspired by a stanza of the traditional Christmas carol "Good King Wencelas". [1] He describes the novel as an attempt to imagine what peasant life was like.
A Christmas carol is a carol whose lyrics are on the theme of Christmas, and which is traditionally sung on Christmas itself or during the surrounding holiday season. Christmas carols may be regarded as a subset of the broader category of Christmas music.
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"The Devil and Daniel Webster" is a short story by Stephen Vincent Benét. Benet's story centers on a New Hampshire farmer who sells his soul to the devil and is defended by Daniel Webster, a fictional version of the famous 19th century American statesman, lawyer and orator. The narrative includes direct references to factual events in the life of Webster and his family.
On the city of God against the pagans, often called The City of God, is a book of Christian philosophy written in Latin by Augustine of Hippo in the early 5th century AD. The book was in response to allegations that Christianity brought about the decline of Rome and is considered one of Augustine's most important works, standing alongside The Confessions, The Enchiridion, On Christian Doctrine, and On the Trinity. As a work of one of the most influential Church Fathers, The City of God is a cornerstone of Western thought, expounding on many profound questions of theology, such as the suffering of the righteous, the existence of evil, the conflict between free will and divine omniscience, and the doctrine of original sin.
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The Book of the New Sun is a series of four science fantasy novels, a 1983 collection of essays, and a 1987 sequel, all written by American author Gene Wolfe. It inaugurated the so-called "Solar Cycle" that Wolfe continued after 1987 by setting other multi-volume works in the same universe.
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The Bonfire of the Vanities is a 1990 American satirical black comedy film directed and produced by Brian De Palma. The screenplay, written by Michael Cristofer, was adapted from the best-selling novel of the same name by Tom Wolfe. The film, which was a critical and commercial flop, stars Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis, Melanie Griffith, and Kim Cattrall. The original music score was composed by Dave Grusin.
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Please Pass the Guilt is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, published by the Viking Press in 1973. Unusually for a Nero Wolfe story, which mostly take place very near the time of publication, this novel is set in 1969, though it was originally published in 1973.
The Bone Forest is a collection of fantasy short stories by British writer Robert Holdstock, published in 1991 (UK) and 1992 (US). It opens with a novella of the same name, followed by seven short stories. The novella is a prequel to the entire Mythago Wood cycle. According to the author it was written "to fill in the background and back-story to Mythago Wood" at the request of a screenwriter who was working on a planned movie version of Mythago Wood.
The English idiom "don't judge a book by its cover" is a metaphorical phrase that means one shouldn't prejudge the worth or value of something by its outward appearance alone. For example, "That man may look very small and insignificant, but don't judge a book by its cover – he's a very powerful man in his circle".
The Finkler Question is a 2010 novel written by British author Howard Jacobson. The novel won the Man Booker Prize.
Operation Ares is a science fiction novel by American writer Gene Wolfe, published as a paperback original by Berkley Books in 1970. It was his first novel. While no later editions were issued in the United States, a hardcover edition was released in the UK market by Dobson Books in 1977, followed by a Fontana paperback in 1978. The title is sometimes rendered Operation ARES.
Peace is a psychological fantasy/ghost story novel by American writer Gene Wolfe, published in 1975. It is the story of a man from a small Midwestern town in the early to mid-20th century, Alden Dennis Weer, who narrates various memories from different parts of his life, including his childhood, early adulthood, and middle to old age.
The Wolf Gift is the thirty-first novel by Gothic writer Anne Rice, published in February 2012 by Random House. The novel tells the tale of Reuben Golding, a well to do journalist at the fictional San Francisco Observer who is attacked by and turned into a werewolf. He spends the duration of the story fleeing the authorities, the media, and DNA analysts.
This is a list of works by Gene Wolfe, an American author of science fiction and fantasy, with a career spanning six decades.
The back cover refers to "the endless struggle between Good and Evil," fantasy's central conflict, and lists the Barrow man, "the awesome spirit of a long-dead but still-worshipped warrior," as a main character. Actually, the Barrow Man appears only in a dream, the demarcation between good and evil is not tidily drawn, and nothing fantastic occurs in The Devil in a Forest. The novel is, instead, an adolescent novel, a historical novel, and a mystery that points out of the past into the future, toward The Book of the New Sun.
You know the phrase "You can't judge a book by its cover?" Well, sometimes you can't judge a book by the publisher's blurb on the back, either. Gene Wolfe's The Devil in a Forest proves the point well. This is not to say that the story you get is not good -- far from it, it is a very good story even if it is a bit dark. It is just not what the back promises you are getting.