Author |
Reich, Emil, 1854-1910 |
LoC No. |
62002220
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Title |
Nights with the Gods
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Note |
Reading ease score: 70.5 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read.
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Credits |
E-text prepared by Clarity, Graeme Mackreth, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org)
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Summary |
"Nights with the Gods" by Emil Reich is a philosophical exploration written in the early 20th century. The work imagines a series of meetings among ancient deities and heroes, who gather at night to discuss contemporary issues and ideas, reflecting on the state of modern society and culture, particularly focusing on England. The narrative blends elements of fiction with profound philosophical inquiries, primarily featuring Aristotle as he shares his experiences with modern scholars and their often humorous and critical takes on history and specialization. The opening of the narrative sets the stage for an assembly of gods, starting with Aristotle recounting his observations of modern academic life during a visit to a university in England. He humorously critiques the obsession with specialization and how modern historians approach knowledge. Through a series of anecdotes, he juxtaposes ancient and modern perspectives, laying bare the absurdities in contemporary scholarship, such as a professor's trivial focus on a specific year in history and the reduction of complex figures to mere constructs. This sets a tone of playful yet critical reflection, inviting readers to consider how enlightenment can be lost amid the complexity and narrow focus of modern intellectual pursuits. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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Language |
English |
LoC Class |
DA: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Great Britain, Ireland, Central Europe
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Subject |
Great Britain -- Civilization
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Category |
Text |
EBook-No. |
54715 |
Release Date |
May 13, 2017 |
Most Recently Updated |
Jun 13, 2020 |
Copyright Status |
Public domain in the USA. |
Downloads |
66 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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