Download or read book The Ocean of Story, Vol. 8 of 10 written by Somadeva Bhatta Penze and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-07 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Ocean of Story, Vol. 8 of 10: Being C. H. Tawney's Translation of Somadeva's Katha Sarit Sagara (or Ocean of Streams of Story) It is a high honour but also something of an embarrassment to an amateur to be invited to figure among the distinguished specialists who have contributed introductions to the previous volumes of this great edition, in which Mr Penzer's learning continues to enliven and illuminate fold after sinuous fold of one of the world's great story-books. My friend Professor Rand not long ago delighted a large audience by denning a specialist as "the man who knows more and more about less and less," and it is certainly the experience of one whose special studies lie mainly in another direction that it is not easy to keep abreast of the increasing literature of his hobbies. Nor perhaps does the eighth volume particularly lend itself to an introduction by a student of marchen. It is a good deal taken up with what may rather be called epic themes of the warfare of gods and supernatural beings, which are interesting mainly from the literary point of view. How differently, it strikes the reader, would either Homer, Milton or Wagner have managed these contests, and to Western taste how marred is the interest of the Indian narrative by Oriental hyperbole and the too convenient recourse to magical powers and reincarnations for resolving tragic knots. This contrast indeed raises not uninteresting matters of literary aesthetic. I can remember suffering similar disillusionment when as a boy I stumbled upon Ellis's Specimens of the Early English Romances and learned how magical sources of prowess could blunt the edge of heroic exploits. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."