Kingwalks: Paths of Glory

[John Upham]

Richard James has reviewed


Kingwalks: Paths of Glory

by Bruce Harper & Yasser Seirawan

from Russell Enterprises

http://britishchessnews.com/2023/04/12/ ... -of-glory/

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[Christopher Kreuzer]

I could help but notice this:

"there’s a short list of sources (four chess books/series and two Tolkien books)"

Was wondering what the Tolkien books were used for?

[Richard James]

I could help but notice this:

"there’s a short list of sources (four chess books/series and two Tolkien books)"

Was wondering what the Tolkien books were used for?

I thought you might be interested!

The authors quote the first sentences as good ways to start a book, but they couldn't use them for this book as they'd already been taken.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Will have to work out (guess) which books now!

The subtitle "Paths of Glory" has at least three antecedents. The most famous is probably the 1957 Stanley Kubrick film, then the book it is based on (published 1935 by Humphrey Cobb), both about events in World War I.

There are other less well-known examples such as the Jeffery Archer novel about Everest (2009). The 1917 painting by Christopher Nevinson was famously censored for showing dead bodies and exhibited in 1918 with the artist putting a censored strip across it.

Both the 1935 novel and the 1917 painting are quoting from Thomas Gray's poem 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' (1751) with the line:

"The paths of glory lead but to the grave".

Do the authors of the book make any allusions based on their use of this phrase, or is it just a throwaway reference? I think the phrase is used in other contexts as well, including a WWI poetry anthology:

https://archive.org/details/pathsofglorycoll00lloy

[Richard James]

Will have to work out (guess) which books now!

The subtitle "Paths of Glory" has at least three antecedents. The most famous is probably the 1957 Stanley Kubrick film, then the book it is based on (published 1935 by Humphrey Cobb), both about events in World War I.

There are other less well-known examples such as the Jeffery Archer novel about Everest (2009). The 1917 painting by Christopher Nevinson was famously censored for showing dead bodies and exhibited in 1918 with the artist putting a censored strip across it.

Both the 1935 novel and the 1917 painting are quoting from Thomas Gray's poem 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' (1751) with the line:

"The paths of glory lead but to the grave".

Do the authors of the book make any allusions based on their use of this phrase, or is it just a throwaway reference? I think the phrase is used in other contexts as well, including a WWI poetry anthology:

https://archive.org/details/pathsofglorycoll00lloy

Hans Ree's Foreword mentions the Kubrick film, so this may have been the authors' inspiration.

The two Tolkien books are those you'd expect.