Charlotte F. OttenRezensionen

Rating: 3.5 of 5

Status updates -

5/29/2012, page 11: Slow progress only because fiction TBR pile keeps calling my name.

6/11/2012, page 53: Medical cases and diagnoses = drugs seem to be primary treatment and "cure." How common lycanthropes were in the past and how often Satan was blamed.

6/12/2012, page 336: Detailed collection of cases, reports and essays. Enjoyed Otten's summaries at the beginning of each section. Particularly interesting were Section IV - Critical Essays and Section V - Myths and Legends. Would like to buy a copy of this one.

6/12/2012, page 337: If I could break out my highlighter here's one I would:

"As a long line of thinkers from Aristotle to Sir Philip Sidney have observed, history is tied 'to the particular truth of things, and not to the general reason of things' (Sidney, The Defence of Poesie). Because myth transcends historical events, it can give penetrating insights into all human life... (p. 225)."

With very little, if any original writing, this anthology reads more like a hardbound coursepack than a study. This may have had some value in 1986, but the same work could be accomplished now with a decent website, which, moreover, could ask advanced students to provide their own translation of the Walter Scott-meets-Malory-meets-Joseph Smith archaized translation of the Latin Arthur and Gorlagon. If ever a translation needed to be updated, this is it.

One of Virago's many themed poetry collections, this one is not simply filled with women's experience of birth but also includes the male perspective, which is refreshing!