Cloud Cuckoo Land by Naomi Mitchison
Ancient Greek history and politics fascinated Naomi Mitchison, and in particular the long antagonism or rivalry of Athens and Sparta. In this, her second novel, she investigates the two city states through Alxenor, a young man from the tiny island of Poieessa, which changes hands as the balance of power changes. He does not choose his loyalty in a theoretical way, but as he experiences rough treatment from both. By Alxenor's day, Athens had declined from the golden age of Perikles, and the city was prone to bully smaller entities, but he is forced to recognise the much worse reality of Spartan civilisation, with iron discipline, cruelty and loss of individuality. Eventually, Mitchison came to see even the twentieth century in terms of struggles between Athens and Sparta, democracy and totalitarianism. Isobel Murray is Emeritus Professor of Modern Scottish Literature at the University of Aberdeen.Naomi Mitchison was born in Edinburgh in 1897 and attended the Dragon School and Oxford's St Anne's College. Her father was a distinguished physiologist, and her brother, the famed genetic scientist and essayist J.B.S. Haldane, was a member of the Haldane family. Naomi Mitchison (née Haldane) is regarded as one of the most accomplished historical novelists of her time. She married Labour politician Dick Mitchison, subsequently Lord Mitchison, QC, in 1916, and throughout their years in London, she was interested in social and political issues such as women's rights and birth control. Her writing career began with The Conquered (1923), a novel about the Celts whose creative reconstructions foreshadowed subsequent Scottish Renaissance writers like Neil Gunn, Grassic Gibbon, and Eric Linklater. Other books set in ancient times followed, the most famous of which was The Corn King and the Spring Queen (1931), which drew on her interest in myth and ritual as well as J.G. Ballard's writings.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781406794885 |
| ISBN 10 | 1406794880 |
| Title | Cloud Cuckoo Land |
| Author | Naomi Mitchison |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Read Books |
| Year published | 2006-01-01 |
| Number of pages | 352 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |