The Trickster Revisited: Deception as a Motif in the Pentateuch explores the use of deception in the Pentateuch and uncovers a new understanding of the trickster's function in the Hebrew Bible. While traditional readings often «whitewash the biblical characters, exonerating them of any wrongdoing, modern scholars often explain these tales as significant at some earlier point in Israelite tradition. But this study asks the question: what role does the trickster have in the later pentateuchal setting? Considering the work of Victor Turner and the mythic function of the trickster, The Trickster Revisited explores the connections between tricksters, the rite de passage pattern, marginalization, and liminality. Marginalized individuals and communities often find trickster tales significant, therefore trickster stories often follow a similar literary pattern. After tracing this pattern throughout the Pentateuch, specifically the patriarchal narratives and Moses' interaction with Pharaoh in the Exodus, the book discusses the meaning these stories had for the canonizers of the Pentateuch. The author argues that in the Exile and post-exilic period, as the canon was forming, the trickster was the perfect manifestation of Israel's self-perception. The cognitive dissonance of prophetic words of hope and grandeur, in light of a meager socio-economic and political reality, caused the nation to identify itself as the trickster. In this way, Israel could explain its lowly state as a temporary (but still significant) «betwixt and between, on the threshold of a rise in status, i.e. the great imminent kingdom predicted by the prophets.

This is an economic, social and cultural analysis of the nature and variety of production and consumption activities in households in the counties of Kent and Cornwall. It yields important new insights on the transition to capitalism in England.

Fifteen years after the suspicious death of the McCully's eldest son, "That Twisted Monument," the pear tree from which seven year old William "fell," remains a centrifuge for rumor, suspicion, and terror on the Newport estate of Au Beau Verger. Unfortunately for Sarah, a somewhat timid 16 year old maid, fresh from Canada, and Native Newporter Paul, Sarah's co-worker, this fenced off arboreal oddity has also become a gnawing fixation. When circumstance and temptation cross paths one fateful evening, Sarah and Paul discover the true depth of the horrors waiting for them inside the iron rails. Trapped together, forced to play roles in someone else's nightmares, and hunted in their dreams by the dead boy, the entire fabric of their reality threatens to unravel; now, if they can only live long enough to go completely mad.

Through the supernatural gifts of five orphaned sisters, a gateway to the gods has emerged from a clearing in the deep forests of the Middle Lands and, with it, a priestess clan of holy terror and unmatchable progress. The Gateway tells the interconnecting stories of two of their descendants, Seers caught in a struggle for meaning, change, and survival amid unceasing clashes of ambition, prejudice, and animal desire. When Moishays' mother conceals the signs of his gift from The Clan on the day of his birth, he becomes the first male seer in over three centuries. The beloved pawn of his spirit mentor, Guide, a personal threat to the Queen whose clan he hopes to join, and an object of infatuation to one love sick Clan Daughter, Moishays must choose between becoming what he hopes to be or emerging into the man he is meant to be. When Bretnay's caravan is waylaid by barbarians, neither her gift of "sight," her position as heiress apparent, nor her naive vision of reality provide the emotional tools needed to deal with the horrors of the Outland. Injured, betrayed, bereft, far from her spirit mentor, Bretnay strives to find strength in her darker nature, striving to meet brutality with cunning, without losing herself in the process.

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone

A compilation of poetry that addresses complex issues related to self, relationship, and world matters, in rhymed format that preserves raw emotion, while simultaneously adhering to well-respected, age-old, artistic- poetic forms.

This is an economic, social and cultural analysis of the nature of production and consumption activities in households in the counties of Kent and Cornwall. It yields important new insights on the transition to capitalism in England.