Haunts of the Black Masseur
By:Charles Sprawson
Published on 2012-08-29 by Pantheon
In a masterful work of cultural history, Charles Sprawson, himself an obsessional swimmer and fluent diver, explores the meaning that different cultures have attached to water, and the search for the springs of classical antiquity. In nineteenth-century England bathing was thought to be an instrument of social and moral reform, while in Germany and America swimming came to signify escape. For the Japanese the swimmer became an expression of samurai pride and nationalism. Sprawson gives is fascinating glimpses of the great swimming heroes: Byron leaping dramatically into the surf at Shelley’s beach funeral; Rupert Brooke swimming naked with Virginia Woolf, the dark water “smelling of mint and mud”; Hart Crane swallow-diving to his death in the Bay of Mexico; Edgar Allan Poe’s lone and mysterious river-swims; Leander, Webb, Weissmuller, and a host of others. Informed by the literature of Swinburne, Goethe, Scott Fitzgerald, and Yukio Mishima; the films of Riefenstahl and Vigo; the Hollywood “swimming musicals” of the 1930s; and delving in and out of Olympic history, Haunts of the Black Masseur is an enthralling assessment of man—body submerged, self-absorbed. It is quite simply the best celebration of swimming ever written, even as it explores aspects of culture in a heretofore unimagined way.
This Book was ranked at 15 by Google Books for keyword pond lake river sea.
Book ID of Haunts of the Black Masseur's Books is _hydadop_TQC, Book which was written byCharles Sprawsonhave ETAG "FGHpS5pqs24"
Book which was published by Pantheon since 2012-08-29 have ISBNs, ISBN 13 Code is 9780307823649 and ISBN 10 Code is 0307823644
Reading Mode in Text Status is true and Reading Mode in Image Status is false
Book which have "320 Pages" is Printed at BOOK under CategorySports and Recreation
This Book was rated by Raters and have average rate at ""
This eBook Maturity (Adult Book) status is NOT_MATURE
Book was written in en
eBook Version Availability Status at PDF is falseand in ePub is true
Book Preview
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar