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Kingwalks: Paths of Glory

Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2023 8:12 pm
by 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/




____________________________________________RE_Kingwalks_FrontCover_sm.jpg
Kingwalks: Paths of Glory, Yasser Seirawan & Bruce Harper, Russell Enterprises, Inc. (20 Jun. 2021), ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1949859386
____________________________________________RE_Kingwalks_FrontCover_sm.jpg (87.92 KiB) Viewed 1908 times

Re: Kingwalks: Paths of Glory

Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2023 9:00 pm
by 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? :D

Re: Kingwalks: Paths of Glory

Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2023 10:56 pm
by Richard James
Christopher Kreuzer wrote: ↑
Wed Apr 12, 2023 9:00 pm
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? :D
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.

Re: Kingwalks: Paths of Glory

Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2023 9:38 am
by 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

Re: Kingwalks: Paths of Glory

Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2023 12:14 pm
by Richard James
Christopher Kreuzer wrote: ↑
Thu Apr 13, 2023 9:38 am
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.