If you’ve ever dreamt of becoming King Arthur and pulling a real Excalibur from stone, you may have your chance. Though it may cost you your hands.
In the outskirts of Siena, Italy, there is a 900-year-old sword buried in solid rock. However, a mythical king never touched this sword’s grip. This blade actually belonged to St. Galgano Guidotti.
Born in 1148 to an illiterate feudal lord, Guidotti would become a wealthy knight. Though he was skilled in the art of war, he was also profoundly arrogant, violent, and only concerned with worldly pleasures.
Then, something changed in Guidotti. The affluent nobleman is said to have had visions of the Archangel Michael, the warrior saint. One of these visions supposedly led him to the Twelve Apostles on the hill of what is now known as Rotonda di Montesiepi.
It is here that Michael suggested that Guidotti should give up his life of wealth and dedicate his existence to God instead. Guidotti snickered at the Archangel’s request and stated that the task would be as difficult as splitting a stone. To prove his point, the knight thrust his sword into a rock and, to his surprise, cut through it like butter.
Sometime after, while on horseback, he wandered to a hilltop much like the one he had seen in this dream. He was so struck that by the sight that he decided to plant a cross. However, without a cross or any wood handy, he unsheathed his sword plunged it into a stone, where it has remained ever since.
After his death one year later in 1185, Pope Lucius III would declare him a saint and the Montesiepi Chapel would be built around the legendary, yet very real “sword in the stone.”
Throughout time, many have tried to play King Arthur and extract the medieval sword, yet all have failed. In fact, to prove a point, on display at the chapel are the mummified hands of an unfortunate thief. It is said that this would-be robber was actually an assassin sent by the devil himself and that he was eaten by wolves who were friends of Guidotti.
Now, you may think that this sounds like a bunch hogwash and that the sword was probably just planted by the church as a tourist attraction. You may be right. Yet, if you believe this theory you’d have to commend the church for one of oldest tourist traps in history.
Recent tests on the sword’s style and metal have found that is consistent with the late 1100s to early 1200s. These same tests provided radar analysis of a cavity beneath the stone, which is thought to be a burial recess, possibly containing the knight’s body.
Oh, and those mummified hands? They’ve also been tested and dated back to the 12th century as well. So, while, it’s impossible to verify the entire legend of the real sword in the stone, it’s safe to say that the story does match up with the timeline of Saint Galgano Guidotti.
New Jersey, USA,- The research study presented here is a very detailed and meticulous description of almost all major aspects of the global Internet Literature market. It digs deep into market dynamics including growth drivers,challenges,restraints,trends and opportunities. Market participants can use research studies to strengthen their grip on the global Internet Literature market by gaining a sound understanding of market competition, regional growth,Internet Literature market segmentation, and various cost structures. This report provides an accurate market outlook with respect to average annual,market size by value and volume,and Internet Literature products market share. It also provides carefully calculated and verified market figures related to,but not limited to,revenue,production, consumption, gross margin and price.
As part of the Global economic outlook,this report illuminates current and future market scenarios for Internet Literature products to consider when planning business strategies. In addition, the manufacturer’s pricing strategy is analyzed, raw materials and other costs are thoroughly analyzed. The regional assessment of the global Internet Literature products market includes a wide range of assessments of top markets such as North America,Europe,China,India and India. All of the segments,applications,products,or geographical categories are analyzed on the basis of important factors, that is, the number of them.
In addition to a dashboard view of the vendor landscape and important company profiles,medical disposable market competition analysis provides an encyclopedic examination of the market structure. The company’s stock analysis included in the study helps players improve their business tactics and compete well with key market participants in the medical disposable industry. The strength map prepared by our analysts allows you to get a quick view of the presence of several players in the global medical disposable market. The report also provides a footprint matrix of key players in the global medical disposable market. It dives deep into growth strategies,sales footprints,production footprints,product and application portfolios of prominent names in the medical disposable industry.
The major players covered in Internet Literature Markets:
Internet Literature Market Breakdown by Type:
Internet Literature Market breakdown by application:
As part of our quantitative analysis, we have provided regional market forecasts by type and application, market sales forecasts and estimates by type, application and region by 2030, and global sales and production forecasts and estimates for Internet Literature by 2030. For the qualitative analysis, we focused on political and regulatory scenarios, component benchmarking, technology landscape, important market topics as well as industry landscape and trends.
We have also focused on technological lead, profitability, company size, company valuation in relation to the industry and analysis of products and applications in relation to market growth and market share.
Internet Literature Market Report Scope
REPORT ATTRIBUTE | DETAILS |
---|---|
Market size available for years | 2022 – 2030 |
Base year considered | 2021 |
Historical data | 2018 – 2021 |
Forecast Period | 2022 – 2030 |
Quantitative units | Revenue in USD million and CAGR from 2022 to 2030 |
Segments Covered | Types, Applications, End-Users, and more. |
Report Coverage | Revenue Forecast, Company Ranking, Competitive Landscape, Growth Factors, and Trends |
Regional Scope | North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East and Africa |
Customization scope | Free report customization (equivalent up to 8 analysts working days) with purchase. Addition or alteration to country, regional & segment scope. |
Pricing and purchase options | Avail of customized purchase options to meet your exact research needs. Explore purchase options |
Regional market analysis Internet Literature can be represented as follows:
This part of the report assesses key regional and country-level markets on the basis of market size by type and application, key players, and market forecast.
The base of geography, the world market of Internet Literature has segmented as follows:
Like several classics penned during the golden age of children’s literature, The Wind in the Willows was written with a particular child in mind.
Alastair Grahame was four years old when his father Kenneth — then a secretary at the Bank of England — began inventing bedtime stories about the reckless ruffian, Mr Toad, and his long-suffering friends: Badger, Rat, and Mole.
Alastair, born premature and partially blind, was nicknamed “Mouse”. Small, squinty, and beset by health problems, he was bullied at school. His rapture in the fantastic was later confirmed by his nurse, who recalled hearing Kenneth “up in the night-nursery, telling Master Mouse some ditty or other about a toad”.
The Wind in the Willows evolved from Alastair’s bedtime tales into a series of letters Grahame later sent his son while on holiday in Littlehampton. In the story, a quartet of anthropomorphised male animals wander freely in a pastoral land of leisure and pleasure — closely resembling the waterside haven of Cookham Dean where Grahame himself grew up.
In peaceful retreat from “The Wide World”, Rat, Mole, Badger, and Toad spend their days chatting, philosophising, pottering, and ruminating on the latest fashions and fads. But when the daredevil, Toad, takes up motoring, he becomes entranced by wild fantasies of the road. His concerned friends must intervene to restrain his whims, teaching him “to be a sensible toad”.
Unlike Toad’s recuperative ending, however, Alastair’s story did not end happily. In the spring of 1920, while a student at Oxford, he downed a glass of port before taking a late night stroll. The next morning, railway workers found his decapitated body on tracks near the university. An inquest determined his death a likely suicide but out of respect for his father, it was recorded as an accident.
Kenneth Grahame, by all accounts, never recovered from the loss of his only child. He became increasingly reclusive, eventually abandoning writing altogether.
In his will, he gifted the original manuscript of Willows to the Bodleian Library, along with the copyrights and all his royalties. Upon his death in 1932, he was buried in Oxford next to his first reader, Mouse.
Biographical readings are a staple in children’s literature, and the criticism surrounding The Wind in the Willows is no exception. First published in 1908 — the same year as Anne of Green Gables and Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz — the novel was initially titled The Mole and the Water-Rat. After back and forth correspondence with Grahame, his publisher Sir Algernon Methuen wrote to say he had settled on The Wind in the Willows because of its “charming and wet sound”.
Today, one of the mysteries surrounding the novel is the meaning of the title. The word “willows” does not appear anywhere in the book; the single form “willow” appears just twice.
When Willows was first released in Britain it was marketed as an allegory — “a fantastic and whimsical satire upon life”, featuring a cast of woodland and riverside creatures who were closer to an Edwardian gentlemen’s club than a crowd of animals. Indeed, the adventures structuring the novel are the meanderings of old English chaps nostalgic for another time.
The four friends, though different in disposition, are bound by their “divine discontent and longing”.
Restless enough to be easily bewitched, they are rich enough to fill their days with long picnics and strolls. Most chapters are sequenced in chronological order, but the action revolves around different types of wandering – pottering around the garden, messing about in boats, rambling along country lanes.
A Pulitzer prize-winning novel about the Holocaust has topped Amazon’s best-seller’s list after a school board in Tennessee banned it.
The graphic novel Maus: A Survivor’s Tale depicts how the author’s parents survived Auschwitz during the Holocaust.
Board members voted in favour of banning the novel because it contained swear words and a naked illustration.
But now The Complete Maus, which includes all volumes, is a best-seller.
Other editions are topping Amazon sub-categories, including Comics & Graphic Novels.
Six million Jewish people died in the Holocaust – Nazi Germany’s campaign to eradicate Europe’s Jewish population.
Author Art Spiegelman’s parents were Polish Jews who were sent to Nazi concentration camps during World War Two.
His novel, which features hand-drawn illustrations of mice as Jews and cats as Nazis, won a number of literary awards in 1992.
The book’s renewed popularity came earlier this month after the McMinn County Board of Education removed it from the curriculum.
Board members said that they felt the inclusion of swear words in the graphic novel were inappropriate for the eighth grade curriculum.
In the meeting’s minutes, the director of schools, Lee Parkinson, was quoted as having said: “There is some rough, objectionable language in this book.”
Members also objected to a cartoon that featured “nakedness” in a drawing of a mouse.
Initially, Mr Parkinson argued that redacting the swear words was the best course of action.
But citing copyright concerns, the board eventually decided to ban the teaching of the novel altogether.
Some board members did back the novel’s inclusion in the curriculum.
In an interview with CNBC the author of the novel, Mr Spiegelman, said he was “baffled” by the decision and called it an “Orwellian” course of action.
He told The New York Times that he agreed that some of the imagery was disturbing. “But you know what? It’s disturbing history,” he said.
The move to ban the novel comes amid a national debate over the curriculum in US public schools. Parents, teachers and school administrators have been grappling with how to teach race, discrimination and inequality in the classroom.
An exhibition based on classic children’s book The Tiger Who Came to Tea is due to open.
The show, based on Judith Kerr’s beloved illustrated story – first published in 1968 – will run at Leicestershire’s Charnwood Museum until 5 March.
It will feature illustrations from the collection of Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children’s Books.
Organisers described it as a “unique opportunity”.
The exhibition will feature a reproduction of scenes from the story, such as the kitchen belonging to the book’s main character, Sophie, where the Tiger wreaks havoc by eating all the food in the cupboards, drinking all the water in the taps and, notoriously, swigging all of Daddy’s beer.
There will be a 4ft (1.2m) cuddly tiger, dressing up, puzzles and games.
The exhibition also explores the childhood of Judith Kerr, who died in 2019 aged 95, and her experiences of having to escape Germany as Hitler came to power.
She and her family were refugees in Switzerland and then France, before finally settling in London in 1936.
Councillor Christine Radford, Leicestershire County Council cabinet member for heritage, leisure and arts, said: “The Tiger Who Came to Tea has been a great favourite with children and adults alike in the more than 50 years since it was published.
“It’s great that Charnwood Museum is able to play host to this wonderful exhibition, celebrating the story and hopefully introducing it to even more readers.”
Gillian Rennie, head of exhibitions at Seven Stories, which is based in Newcastle upon Tyne, said: “We’re honoured to be the custodian of Judith Kerr’s archive and privileged to be curator of an exhibition that celebrates her remarkable life and her outstanding contribution to children’s literature.
“Visitors to Charnwood Museum will be treated to a unique opportunity to see reproductions of Judith’s precious artwork, which shows how, through a lifetime of looking and drawing, her stories have become part of our nation’s childhood.”
Organisers say there is no requirement to book to attend the free exhibition at the museum, which is open from 10:00 – 15:00 GMT, Wednesday to Saturday.
So what to read now? We’ve asked some of our best-loved authors and writers to give ES Magazine their recommended reading for Londoners in self-isolation.
Nick Hornby, author of Fever Pitch
LONESOME DOVE, by Larry McMurty
‘Larry McMurtry’s great western novel seems to me to have everything you need for right now: it’s long, absorbing, thrilling, it has fantastic characters you care deeply about and most important of all, it recognises that life is fragile and risky, and that the world is a dangerous place. I wish I hadn’t read it so recently, but that might not stop me from reading it again.’
Nick Hornby’s new novel Just Like You is out on 17 September
Elizabeth Gilbert, author of City of Girls
THE SUMMER BOOK, by Tove Jansson
‘A transporting, delightful, not-well-known-enough novel about a young girl and her grandmother, spending their summer together on a tiny, remote island in the Gulf of Finland. This is the most brilliant story of childhood I’ve ever read — charming without being sentimental, and full of a truly holy understanding about the wonders and terrors of nature and the deep friendships that can exist between wise older women and wild young children.’
Fatima Bhutto, author of The Runaways
THE SHAPELESS UNEASE, by Samantha Harvey
‘I wish I had saved The Shapeless Unease to read in isolation but Samantha Harvey’s book about insomnia, time, death and so many unknowable things is a blessing to have in lonely times. It is a profound and stunning book but funny, too. I’ve got a galley proof of Ben Ehrenreich’s Desert Notebooks, which comes out in July, but we may still be in lockdown then so pre-order it now.’
Amrou Al-Kadhi, author of Unicorn
STANDARD DEVIATION, by Katherine Heiny
‘I’d like to say we should all use this isolation period to finally get to grips with War & Peace, but the book I would recommend in a heartbeat is Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny. It is without fail the funniest book I have ever read — I even cuddled it in my sleep I was so attached to it — and manages to make you chuckle with laughter whilst crying at the most tender, human moments. It’s original, at points surreal and at points uproarious, and if ever you needed a comfort read, this book is it.’
Olivia Sudjic, author of Exposure and Sympathy
THE UNDYING, by Anne Boyer
‘It’s a memoir of survival and a celebration of love, care, and all the things — life and art and books — that persist despite illness.’
Otegha Uwagba, author of Little Black Book
STEAL AS MUCH AS YOU CAN, by Nathalie Olah
‘This razor-sharp polemic exploring class, taste and culture, is one of the most insightful analyses of the British class system I’ve read in years.’
Laura Whateley, author of Money: A Users Guide
SALT, FAT, ACID, HEAT, by Samin Nosrat and/or THE FLAVOUR THESAURUS, by Niki Segnit
‘I have dozens of pristine cookbooks taunting me from my kitchen; now I actually have time to open them. There’s something soothing about reading a cookbook cover to cover. One of best for this is Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, as much of a beautifully illustrated science lesson in how to cook well — and why restaurant food tastes so much better (butter) — as it is a recipe book. I also love The Flavour Thesaurus, by Niki Segnit, which explains how certain combinations — anchovy and cauliflower, or chocolate and bacon — work together. Inspiration for figuring out what to do with the random tins left in my cupboard.’
Raven Smith, author of Raven Smith’s Trivial Pursuits
THE HUNGOVER GAMES, by Sophie Heawood
‘I’m binge-reading Sophie Heawood’s The Hungover Games, reminiscing on a simpler time when you could live out your personal chaos abroad in the fresh air. I’m in desperate need of the forthcoming André Leon Talley memoir to soothe my isolation.’
Hadley Freeman, author of House Of Glass
THE MITFORD GIRLS, by Mary S Lovell
‘Of course, the Mitford sisters wrote many books themselves — Nancy, most famously, as any of her novels would be a delicious read on a long afternoon of self-isolation. But for a proper tub-thumping dynastic drama, one that will last you a good while even if you gulp it down, you cannot beat Mary S Lovell’s The Mitford Girls. Lovell conveys their individual glamour without ever getting starry-eyed about it and she brings clear-eyed clarity to how one family produced a communist, a Nazi-supporter, a fascist, a duchess and a seminal novelist among a group of sisters. A completely irresistible book and one that sparked my lifelong obsession with the Mitfords specifically, and biographies generally.’
Helena Lee, founder of the platform East Side Voices
STARLING DAYS, by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan
‘It’s an illuminating, enlightening tale about the human condition that centres on Mina, a classicist from New York who tries to navigate the circumstantial loneliness of living in London without her husband.’
Michael Donkor, author of Hold
THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD, by Zora Neale Hurston
‘Set in the 1920s in the Deep South, it follows the life of a complicated, young African-American woman Janie Crawford as she struggles to find love, understanding and a means of self expression in a hostile world. Hurston’s beautiful prose shimmers with wisdom and insight, and in its depiction of Janie’s trials and triumphs, the novel is a towering testament to the resilience of the human spirit. Exactly what we need right now.’
Polly Samson, author of Theatre for Dreamers
I REMEMBER NOTHING, by Nora Ephron
‘At times like these I like to read first person accounts of everyday life, so recommend I Remember Nothing by Nora Ephron. When we’re cut off and lonely it’s nice to have people talking in that humorous anecdotal way that makes you feel less solitary.’
Nikita Lalwani, author of You People, out on 2 April
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP, by John Irving
‘This is really a manifesto for love between humans. We encounter all the shape-shifting forms of eros: romantic, parental, filial and friend-love. ‘I have nothing but sympathy for how people behave,’ says Garp, in one of his many almost-wise moments, ‘and nothing but laughter with which to console them.’ The book is full of false endings because it tells us that life can be long; there is often more down the line, and even after the most apocalyptic moments in our personal histories we will probably have to live on a bit more. In that sense it is surely perfect for current self-isolation. The best part about this book is that it is an example of how art imitates life imitating art imitating life. Go float your nerd boat on that one. Yeah! Go GARP!’
Natasha Lunn, founder of Conversations on Love newsletter
TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS, by Cheryl Strayed
‘I’ve been dipping back into Tiny Beautiful Things, a beautiful collection of agony aunt columns by Cheryl Strayed (aka Dear Sugar). Funny, profound and moving, this book is a balm for tough times, and reading it will remind you to fall back in love with the life you’ve got.’
Mishal Husain, author of The Skills: How To Win At Work
SONG OF ACHILLES, by Madeline Miller
‘In these times, even the next road feels adventurous, but a book that takes you to another age is a proper escape from isolation. Here, the beautiful writing envelops you in the world of the Greek heroes and the great love of Achilles and Patroclus.’
Kiley Reid, author of Such a Fun Age
THE HISTORY OF LOVE, by Nicole Krauss
‘This is one of those novels that makes you miss your train stop, and I say that from experience. It’s a beautiful story about two very different but intertwined lives, and it’s told with depth, heart, and humour.’
Elif Shafak, author of 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World
PATRICK MELROSE NOVELS, by Edward St Aubyn
‘I think this is the perfect time to read Edward St Aubyn’s Patrick Melrose novels, all five of them. You might have watched it on TV or read parts of it before, but now that we are all self-isolating it is a great time to go the full journey, not only to witness a family’s extraordinary story through traumas across generations, but to understand better both the loneliness of the human mind and the amazing resilience of the human spirit.’
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