The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve

Stephen Greenblatt tells the life history of the account of the first man and the first woman - central to all three of the world's monotheistic religions and the object of innumerable representations by painters, sculptors and poets - which was the dominant story of the human race for thousands of years.

The most influential story in Western cultural history, the biblical account of Adam and Eve is now treated either as the sacred possession of the faithful or as the butt of secular jokes. Here, acclaimed scholar Stephen Greenblatt explores it with profound appreciation for its cultural and psychological power as literature. From the birth of the Hebrew Bible to the awe-inspiring contributions of Augustine, Duerer, and Milton in bringing Adam and Eve to vivid life, Greenblatt unpacks the story's many interpretations and consequences over time. Rich allegory, vicious misogyny, deep moral insight, narrow literalism, and some of the greatest triumphs of art and literature: all can be counted as children of our "first" parents.

Autorentext

Stephen Greenblatt is Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. He has written extensively on English Renaissance literature and acts as general editor of The Norton Anthology of English Literature and The Norton Shakespeare. He is the author of fourteen books, including The Swerve, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, and Will in the World, a Pulitzer Prize finalist.