North Carolina Books

Don Carlo Gesualdo (1560 - 1613) was rich, artistic, and - as the second son of a noble Neapolitan family - free to indulge his passion for music. But disaster struck: his brother died, and it was decreed that he must carry on the line. The bride found for him - Donna Maria d'Avalos - was his cousin, and the greatest beauty in town. Older and more experienced, she had already sent two husbands to their graves -one of them according to rumor, from "an excess of connubial bliss". Don Carlo, (who may have been gay) fathered a son, whereupon he his interest wandered elsewhere to music and to hunting. One day his uncle divulged to him that his attention starved wife was enjoying a brazen affair with the handsome Duke of Andria, and that whenever possible they would "invite each other to battle on the fields of love". Alerted to the fact that Don Carlo knew about the affair, the Duke tried to persuade Donna Maria to end the affair, but she proclaimed she would sooner die. Thus was the scene set for Don Carlo's historic act.

One day in October of 1590 Don Carlo surreptitiously disabled his locks, then accounced that he would set out on a hunt only to creep back in the still of night with his henchmen. The chronicles go into salacious detail about what happened next: About the night-dress Donna Maria asked to be put out on the bed, about the maid posted as sentinel, and the sudden commotion as Don Carlo and his men broke down the doors to find the pair "in flagrante delicto di fragrante peccato", exhausted and asleep after their love-making. There were shots and multiple sword-thrusts, with Don Carlo unable convince himself the job was done until he had cut his victims to ribbons, and had personally skewered his wife to the floor, repeating to himself "I do not believe she is dead". He dragged the bodies out onto the stairs, along with a notice explaining why he'd killed them, for all the town came to gape at next morning. The Duke was still clad in a woman's night-dress, while his lover's "wounds were all in her belly, and especially in those parts which ought to be kept honest".

Neapolitans were riveted, with as many taking the lovers' side as that of their murderer. All the local poets were spurred into song, including the great Torquato Tasso, whose friendship with the protagonists inspried his tear-drenched sonnet "On the Death of Two Most Noble Lovers". Don Carlo's nobility ensured there was no trial, and he quietly withdrew to Ferrara, where he remarried, but only to find himself "assailed and afflicted by a vast horde of demons which gave him no peace unless twelve young men, whom he kept specially for the purpose, were to beat him violently three times a day, during which operation he was wont to smile joyfully."

Don Carlo built a private chapel, completed in 1592. Inside hung a painting depicting the Virgin Mary and saints all pointing to the sinner, Don Carlo, while the fires of purgatory burnt below - out of which angels pull the figures of a man and a woman. Could these be the murdered lovers before which Don Carlo implored forgiveness? His music certainly becomes filled with an obession with themes of guilt, sin, pity, and death - even the joy of love being mixed with a fascination with pain: 'dolorosa gioia', such 'joyous pain' being a typical outburst.

Never has there been a composer with a more macabre background than this, nor yet so muscially so obsessionally fascinating.

Stravinsky began his famous foreword to Glenn Watkins' biography of Gesualdo with the words "musicians may yet save Gesualdo from musicologist, but certainly the latter have had the best of it until now". Watkins makes a wonderful companion through the vertigo inducing chromatic spirals leading into the strange, visionary world of this dark genius. The entire book makes gripping reading not merely for the dark details of his biography but for the profound insights into late Renaissance to early Baroque period in which he dwelled.

So truth indeed is stranger than fiction.

Ghazali and the Poetics of Imagination is an eloquent tour de force that argues for the contemporary engagement and revitalization of the Islamic tradition through the reconciliatory hermeneutical strategy of al-Ghazali. Professor Moosa's extensive training in traditional Islamic scholarship as well as his fluency in the Western intellectual tradition allows him to address many challenges currently confronting the intellectual and spiritual interpretation of Islam with an original and powerful voice. As such, Ghazali is a quest for an emancipatory knowledge that is equally weighted by both esoteric and exoteric epistemologies. Highlighting al-Ghazali's liminal discursivity, Professor Moosa skillfully argues for a Muslim subjectivity that allows for multiple perspectives in order to embrace new paradigms that are simultaneously loyal to tradition and temporally appropriate. Far from apologetic, Ghazali is a dynamic and creative attempt to critically engage traditional Islam in the contemporary language of the Western academy. Although Moosa often offers provocations aimed at the entrenched forms of the tradition, he never loses sight of either its ethical imperative or its revelatory authenticity. In this sense Ghazali is far more than a rhetorical analysis; it is a continuation of the intellectual tradition of al-Ghazali and an interpretation of his rhetorical strategy of Islamic revitalization in the Technical Age.

Ghosts and Legends of the Carolina Coasts, Terrance Zepke's latest in her best-selling series of ghost tales books, is, if possible, her best yet. She's evidently been poking around in some spooky places, because she's stirred-up more lively ghosts for us to love, pity, fear and, yes -always- chill to, in these twenty-eight tales and legends from her beloved North and South Carolina shores.

Included throughout the book, and almost rivaling the actual tales, are bountiful historical facts; explicit directions (and the occasional warning) for visiting the ghost sites and museums; numerous websites to send us off on our own myriad ghost-searches; and intriguing, atmospheric illustrations setting the stage for each haunting tale. In other words, there is something fascinating for everyone, whether you are a ghost tale buff, travel enthusiast, or just curious to find out what this popular "ghost-craze" is all about. You'll be hooked, I guarantee it!

All I can say is that this sequel was everything I could have hoped for; readers of Angel Doll will embrace this book as well.

I enjoy these authors and like this series. If you haven't read their book Dead as a Scone don't miss it as that series is my favorite by them.

Cy & Jeannie Martin give you a crash course in the history and practice of gold mining in the western U.S. (including Alaska), Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia. Sections of the book include: Chronology of Gold in America; How to Pan for Gold; Tales of Gold Rushes; Directory of Old Mining Camps; Glossary; and a Selected Bibliography. Numerous B& W photos and drawings are included. 160 pages.

I really enjoy this series and found Gone to Glory to be a great addition to it. The characters were warm and believable, and the story took some unexpected twists. Although the plot deals with things like con men, financial fraud and murder, another part of the story deals with the undercover investigator's gradual change. The ending was very satisfying. I highly recommend Gone to Glory.

I was luck enough to find a copy of this book in print and found it to be very well written and very informative. It shows a whole new sphere of life in Salem, NC.

This was a great look back into North Carolina's famous past within politics. Its look into the life of Governor O. Max Gardner was amazing and really high-lighted his real genious in building the Southern Democratic Party starting in the 1920's. After reading this book, you almost feel as if you are part of the story.

While some in the Civil War community complain of "Chamberlain fatigue," it is difficult to gripe about this marvelous new collection of postwar correspondence from one of the most articulate officers on either side of the conflict.

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain survived the Civil War - including a horrible wound at Petersburg - to become one of Maine's most prominent citizens. His postwar career included four terms as governor of Maine, a stint as president of Bowdoin College, numerous business enterprises, and perhaps most importantly, many years as a writer and lecturer on his Civil War experiences.

The correspondence included by editor Jeremiah Goulka covers nearly every aspect of Chamberlain's personal and professional life. Chamberlain's heartfelt letters to his family, especially those to his wife Fannie, reveal him to be a loving, thoughtful husband and father. His relationship with Fannie, stormy and difficult though it was for many years, survived numerous crises until Fannie's death in 1905.

Chamberlain's Civil War experiences transformed him, and his separation from the army often left him feeling restless. In 1870, Chamberlain wrote to the King of Prussia and offered his services in Prussia's war with France. In 1898, Chamberlain contacted the Secretary of War to volunteer for the Spanish-American War. Even with all his postwar positions and projects, Chamberlain never quite filled the space in his soul left empty by the end of the Civil War.

Critics of Chamberlain, in his lifetime and in our own time, claim that he inflated his role at Little Round Top in an attempt to horde the glory of that important engagement. At least one letter included in this volume refutes this criticism. In a January 1910 letter to Union veteran and author Oliver W. Norton, Chamberlain says of his brigade commander, Strong Vincent, "He was a noble man, and I have not known an abler commander in his grade. Nothing could exceed his skill and energy in taking the position on Little Round Top and the confidence he inspired in his subordinates. To this the result of the fight on the left at Round Top is very largely due [emphasis added]."

The correspondence also clarifies an often incorrectly reported fact concerning the July 1913 fiftieth anniversary reunion at Gettysburg. Chamberlain, while he visited Gettysburg in May as a member of the planning commission, did not attend the July reunion. Chamberlain's doctor strongly urged him not to go due to his declining health, and he stayed behind in Maine.

Rather than being castigated for his prolific eloquence, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain deserves the timeless thanks of everyone who studies the Civil War. Jeremiah Goulka deserves thanks as well, for his skillful editing, and for giving us a deeper understanding of a genuine American hero.