Description
What can you do, when nothing can be done? What was once a glorious, thriving kingdom is now a place of despair and dereliction. An aged king and queen cling to the ghosts of memories, to the remnants of their court. Until the young prince and his sister decide they must restore and revive their home as best they can. For more than a century, A Tale Without a Name has been one of Greece's best-loved stories, combining the timeless rhythms of a fairy tale with a satirical account of a state fallen into chaos. This playful, wise fable is enchanting for readers of any age, as meaningful and moving now as when it was first written.
About the Author
Penelope S. Delta (1874-1941) was a Greek writer born in Alexandria, Egypt. An author, educationist and philanthropist, and a central figure in Greek cultural life in her time, she could easily have walked out of a novel by E.M. Forster, Marcel Proust or Henry James. Delta wrote several children's books, memoirs and historical works. She took her own life in April 1941, the day the Nazis entered Athens. Mika Provata-Carlone is a researcher, writer, translator and illustrator. She is interested in lives and stories, real or invented, the Nachleben of the classics, cultural memory, and encounters between people and traditions across space and time. As a child, she took ballet lessons in Delta's home in Kifissia, Athens.
Reviews
Delta cleverly adapts the conventions of the European fairy tale with sharp satire worthy of Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift... very funny... It is a book that members of the current Irish Government should read... this book, after more than a century, continues to speak to all ages -- Eileen Battersby * Irish Times *
Constantly intrigues and excites... Like Animal Farm ... thirty or so years later, it's a political tract in thin but compelling disguise * Books for Keeps *
A stark warning for modern times ... It is a simple story, ... but for all that it still works as a political allegory. ... An utterly beautiful object, which is to be expected from Pushkin Press. It is a tactile thing, with small but gorgeous illustrations carefully placed throughout * Vulpes Libris *
Delta's humanity and passion grip her readers, as does her almost frontal engagement with tragedy, adversity, injustice, prejudice, loss and human pain. Each of her books teaches us our own better humanity in ways that stay branded in the memory. A Tale Without a Name is unique and different. In A Tale Without a Name Delta seeks to provide a new story for any state, nation or person in the grips of folly, dissolution, misery, despair. ... She reverts to the most fundamental principles of storytelling: that it should speak the voice of a human community, any human community, anywhere, at any point in time. That it should give expression to its experience, to its hopes, fears, frustrations, hardships, tragedies, to its dreams, its simple human yearnings. That it should create, belong to, a tradition of understanding. That it should somehow reaffirm the faith that life is possible. That it is desirable. That it is both ours, and much larger than ourselves. A Tale Without a Name is fantastical, fabulist, only in its craft. In its meaning, in the power it can inspire and convey, it is a paradigm deeply rooted in human reality and in real human needs. She gives us a parable, highly enjoyable, intriguing, well-wrought, simple enough for us to make the connections. -- Mika Provata-Carlone (ie the translator & illustrator, so use sparingly or not at all) * Bookanista *
A Tale Without a Name presents complex political ideas in a deceptively simple style. * Madame Bibi Lophile Recommends *
Book Information
ISBN 9781805332107
Author Penelope Delta
Format Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint Pushkin Press Classics
Publisher Pushkin Press
About the Author
Penelope S. Delta (1874-1941) was a Greek writer born in Alexandria, Egypt. An author, educationist and philanthropist, and a central figure in Greek cultural life in her time, she could easily have walked out of a novel by E.M. Forster, Marcel Proust or Henry James. Delta wrote several children's books, memoirs and historical works. She took her own life in April 1941, the day the Nazis entered Athens. Mika Provata-Carlone is a researcher, writer, translator and illustrator. She is interested in lives and stories, real or invented, the Nachleben of the classics, cultural memory, and encounters between people and traditions across space and time. As a child, she took ballet lessons in Delta's home in Kifissia, Athens.
Reviews
Delta cleverly adapts the conventions of the European fairy tale with sharp satire worthy of Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift... very funny... It is a book that members of the current Irish Government should read... this book, after more than a century, continues to speak to all ages -- Eileen Battersby * Irish Times *
Constantly intrigues and excites... Like Animal Farm ... thirty or so years later, it's a political tract in thin but compelling disguise * Books for Keeps *
A stark warning for modern times ... It is a simple story, ... but for all that it still works as a political allegory. ... An utterly beautiful object, which is to be expected from Pushkin Press. It is a tactile thing, with small but gorgeous illustrations carefully placed throughout * Vulpes Libris *
Delta's humanity and passion grip her readers, as does her almost frontal engagement with tragedy, adversity, injustice, prejudice, loss and human pain. Each of her books teaches us our own better humanity in ways that stay branded in the memory. A Tale Without a Name is unique and different. In A Tale Without a Name Delta seeks to provide a new story for any state, nation or person in the grips of folly, dissolution, misery, despair. ... She reverts to the most fundamental principles of storytelling: that it should speak the voice of a human community, any human community, anywhere, at any point in time. That it should give expression to its experience, to its hopes, fears, frustrations, hardships, tragedies, to its dreams, its simple human yearnings. That it should create, belong to, a tradition of understanding. That it should somehow reaffirm the faith that life is possible. That it is desirable. That it is both ours, and much larger than ourselves. A Tale Without a Name is fantastical, fabulist, only in its craft. In its meaning, in the power it can inspire and convey, it is a paradigm deeply rooted in human reality and in real human needs. She gives us a parable, highly enjoyable, intriguing, well-wrought, simple enough for us to make the connections. -- Mika Provata-Carlone (ie the translator & illustrator, so use sparingly or not at all) * Bookanista *
A Tale Without a Name presents complex political ideas in a deceptively simple style. * Madame Bibi Lophile Recommends *
Book Information
ISBN 9781805332107
Author Penelope Delta
Format Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint Pushkin Press Classics
Publisher Pushkin Press
