Stoneman, Richard – The Bell Bookshop https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk Henley-on-Thames Tue, 31 Oct 2023 16:26:15 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/cropped-Bell-Background-Blue-32x32.png Stoneman, Richard – The Bell Bookshop https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk 32 32 Alexander the Great https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/alexander-the-great-3/ Tue, 13 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/?post_type=product&p=27998 In his brief life, Alexander the Great gained fame as the military genius who conquered the known world. After death, his legend only increased.
 
Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) precipitated immense historical change in the Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds. But the resonance his legend achieved over the next two millennia stretched even farther-across foreign cultures, religious traditions, and distant nations.
 
This engaging and handsomely illustrated book for the first time gathers together hundreds of the colorful Alexander legends that have been told and retold around the globe. Richard Stoneman, a foremost expert on the Alexander myths, introduces us first to the historical Alexander and then to the Alexander of legend, an unparalleled mythic icon who came to represent the heroic ideal in cultures from Egypt to Iceland, from Britain to Malaya.
 
Alexander came to embody the concerns of Hellenistic man; he fueled Roman ideas on tyranny and kingship; he was a talisman for fourth-century pagans and a hero of chivalry in the early Middle Ages. He appears in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic writings, frequently as a prophet of God. Whether battling winged foxes or meeting with the Amazons, descending to the underworld or inventing the world’s first diving bell, Alexander inspired as a hero, even a god. Stoneman traces Alexander’s influence in ancient literature and folklore and in later literatures of east and west. His book provides the definitive account of the legends of Alexander the Great-a powerful leader in life and an even more powerful figure in the history of literature and ideas.

]]> Alexander the Great https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/alexander-the-great-2/ Fri, 21 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/alexander-the-great-2/ Accompanying the British Library’s exhibit, the first ever exhibition on the storytelling around Alexander the Great, the King of Macedon, this book charts the evolution of a legend that continues to captivate audiences today.

Alexander the Great acceded to the throne at the age of 20, as king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. By his death in 323 BC, he had created one of the largest empires in the world-but myth proved more powerful than historical truth, and Alexander’s life remains lost in legend. These stories permeate western and eastern cultures and religions, and have endured for more than 2,000 years.

Even now, Alexander continues to appeal to new generations and his image persists today in film, theatre, literature, and even video games. This book explores the stories that began shortly after Alexander’s mysterious death, and that by the Middle Ages had developed into a narrative of Alexander as the all-conquering hero who fought mythical beasts and explored the unknown using submarines and flying chariots.

The incredible legends of Alexander the Great are brought to life here with exquisite original illustrations in books and manuscripts from around the globe.

]]>