Roger L. Weston's Books

Death-Devoted Heart

Sex and the Sacred in Wagner's Tristan and Isolde

By: Roger Scruton

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Death-Devoted Heart

Sex and the Sacred in Wagner's Tristan and Isolde

By: Roger Scruton

A tale of forbidden love and inevitable death, the medieval legend of Tristan and Isolde recounts the story of two lovers unknowingly drinking a magic potion and ultimately dying in one another's arms. While critics have lauded Wagner's Tristan and Isolde for the originality and subtlety of the music, they have denounced the drama as a "mere trifle"--a rendering of Wagner's forbidden love for Matilde Wesendonck, the wife of a banker who supported him during his exile in Switzerland. Death-Devoted Heart explodes this established interpretation, proving the drama to be more than just a sublimation of the composer's love for Wesendonck or a wistful romantic dream. Scruton boldly attests that Tristan and Isolde has profound religious meaning and remains as relevant today as it was to Wagner's contemporaries. He also offers keen insight into the nature of erotic love, the sacred qualities of human passion, and the peculiar place of the erotic in our culture. His argument touches on the nature of tragedy, the significance of ritual sacrifice, and the meaning of redemption, providing a fresh interpretation of Wagner's masterpiece. Roger Scruton has written an original and provocative account of Wagner's music drama, which blends philosophy, criticism, and musicology in order to show the work's importance in the twenty-first century.

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Page Count

248

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0199986983

ISBN 13

9780199986989

The Domino Coincidence

By: Roger L. Weston

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The Domino Coincidence

By: Roger L. Weston

Things are seldom what they seem. Rory Calder, criminologist, lecturer, psychologist, and profiler from New Zealand, knows this better than most. Now, he must put his extensive experience to the test before obsession consumes him. Hes struggling to find sense in the deaths of his estranged wife, Serena, and their three children. The deeper he digs, however, the murkier the waters become. Rory knows there is more to the story than hes being told, as surely as he knows that he may be the only one who can see through the confusion to find the horrible truth that eludes him. Was it murder? Suicide? An accident? And why was Serena in Cornwall with their children in the first place? The truth is never what it seems or should be. Will he ever find it? As clarity finally begins to emerge, a mysterious phone call from a man who calls himself Moorhead changes the direction of Rorys investigation. Desperate and depressed, Rory returns to New Zealand, where three days of insanity await the exhausted investigator. After another call from Moorhead, Rory travels to a small seaside village and is surprised to finds his former colleague and lover, Detective Superintendent Marguriette Bronson. Hanging to his sanity by a thread, he will stop at nothing to understand this unbelievable whirlpool of events. Swirling around him are the signs of an emerging crime network involving espionage, drugs, diamonds, gold, even white slave trafficking. Is this all in his imagination? Who is pulling the stringsand why?

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Page Count

666

Publisher

iUniverse

Published Date

ISBN 10

1475962363

ISBN 13

9781475962369

How to Think Seriously about the Planet

The Case for an Environmental Conservatism

By: Roger Scruton

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How to Think Seriously about the Planet

The Case for an Environmental Conservatism

By: Roger Scruton

Roger Scruton here makes a plea to rescue environmental politics from the activist movements and to return them to the people. The book defends the legacy of home-building and practical reasoning with which ordinary human beings solve their environmental problems, and attacks the alarmism and hysteria that are being used to uproot these resources, while putting nothing coherent in their place.

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Page Count

464

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0199371245

ISBN 13

9780199371242

The Grail

From Celtic Myth to Christian Symbol

By: Roger Sherman Loomis

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The Grail

From Celtic Myth to Christian Symbol

By: Roger Sherman Loomis

The medieval legend of the Grail, a tale about the search for supreme mystical experience, has never ceased to intrigue writers and scholars by its wildly variegated forms: the settings have ranged from Britain to the Punjab to the Temple of Zeus at Dodona; the Grail itself has been described as the chalice used by Christ at the Last Supper, a stone with miraculous youth-preserving virtues, a vessel containing a man's head swimming in blood; the Grail has been kept in a castle by a beautiful damsel, seen floating through the air in Arthur's palace, and used as a talisman in the East to distinguish the chaste from the unchaste. In his classic exploration of the obscurities and contradictions in the major versions of this legend, Roger Sherman Loomis shows how the Grail, once a Celtic vessel of plenty, evolved into the Christian Grail with miraculous powers. Loomis bases his argument on historical examples involving the major motifs and characters in the legends, beginning with the Arthurian legend recounted in the 1180 French poem by Chrtien de Troyes. The principal texts fall into two classes: those that relate the adventures of the knights in King Arthur's time and those that account for the Grail's removal from the Holy Land to Britain. Written with verve and wit, Loomis's book builds suspense as he proceeds from one puzzle to the next in revealing the meaning behind the Grail and its legends.

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Page Count

311

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0691187193

ISBN 13

9780691187198

A Political Philosophy

Arguments for Conservatism

By: Roger Scruton

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A Political Philosophy

Arguments for Conservatism

By: Roger Scruton

Over the past twenty years, Roger Scruton has been developing a conservative view of human beings, society and culture. The tone of this book is positive and the arguments are recommendations with the aim of convincing the reader that rumours of the death of Western civilisation are greatly exaggerated. Much of our present self doubt, argues Scruton, is brought about by the Darwinian theory of evolution. Darwin encourages us to see human emotion as a reproductive strategy. This is a perspective which Scruton attacks vehemently especially in its modern proponents- Desmond Morris and Richard Dawkins. This the author believes undermines the belief in freedom and the moral imperatives that stem from it.

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Page Count

226

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1441161333

ISBN 13

9781441161338

The Development of Arthurian Romance

By: Roger Sherman Loomis

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The Development of Arthurian Romance

By: Roger Sherman Loomis

Stimulating and masterly study examines the evolution of the great mass of fiction surrounding the Arthurian legend in Western literature — from Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain and the collection of Welsh tales known as The Mabinogion, to Chrétien de Troyes' Arthurian stories, the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach, and such English masterpieces as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Le Morte d'Arthur. Painstakingly researched and brimming with scholarly insight, this highly readable and entertaining work will be a favorite with general audiences as well as scholars and students of the Arthurian legend.

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Page Count

201

Publisher

Courier Corporation

Published Date

ISBN 10

0486145522

ISBN 13

9780486145525

The Uses of Pessimism

And the Danger of False Hope

By: Roger Scruton

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The Uses of Pessimism

And the Danger of False Hope

By: Roger Scruton

Ranging widely over human history and culture, from ancient Greece to the current global economic downturn, Scruton makes a counterintuitive yet persuasive case that optimists and idealists -- with their ignorance about the truths of human nature and human society, and their naive hopes about what can be changed -- have wrought havoc for centuries. Scruton's argument is nuanced, however, and his preference for pessimism is not a dark view of human nature; rather his is a 'hopeful pessimism' which urges that instead of utopian efforts to reform human society or human nature, we focus on the only reform that we can truly master -- the improvement of ourselves through the cultivation of our better instincts. Written in Scruton's trademark style-- erudite, sweeping in scope across centuries and cultures, and unafraid to offend-- this book is sure to intrigue and provoke readers concerned with the state of Western culture, the nature of human beings, and the question of whether social progress is truly possible.

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Page Count

239

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0199798737

ISBN 13

9780199798735

Contemporary Literary Criticism

By: Roger Matuz

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Contemporary Literary Criticism

By: Roger Matuz

Entries include critical commentary, brief biographical information, a portrait when available, a list of principal works, and may also include a further reading section.

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Page Count

536

Publisher

Contemporary Literary Criticis

Published Date

ISBN 10

0810344319

ISBN 13

9780810344310

Understanding Music

Philosophy and Interpretation

By: Roger Scruton

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Understanding Music

Philosophy and Interpretation

By: Roger Scruton

Essays over het snijvlak tussen compositieleer, analyse, betekenisgeving en de relatie tussen taal en muziek.

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Page Count

506

Publisher

A&C Black

Published Date

ISBN 10

1847065066

ISBN 13

9781847065063

The Monopoly Conspiracy

By: Roger Weston

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The Monopoly Conspiracy

By: Roger Weston

The Monopoly Conspiracy is a psychological, mystery, thriller. It follows Intelligence Agent Cameron Walker in his efforts to destroy an International Cartel bent on the destabilisation of the worlds financial markets and to take over the control of the world's most powerful nations Governments.

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Page Count

518

Publisher

Lulu.com

Published Date

ISBN 10

0359214606

ISBN 13

9780359214600

Book's by Roger L. Weston

Death-Devoted Heart

Death-Devoted Heart

The Domino Coincidence

The Domino Coincidence

How to Think Seriously about the Planet

How to Think Seriously about the Planet

The Grail

The Grail

A Political Philosophy

A Political Philosophy

The Development of Arthurian Romance

The Development of Arthurian Romance

The Uses of Pessimism

The Uses of Pessimism

Contemporary Literary Criticism

Contemporary Literary Criticism

Understanding Music

Understanding Music

The Monopoly Conspiracy

The Monopoly Conspiracy

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