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    The King of the Golden River or the Black Brothers A Legend of Stiria.
    The King of the Golden River or the Black Brothers A Legend of Stiria.
    The King of the Golden River or the Black Brothers A Legend of Stiria.
    Ebook89 pages49 minutes

    The King of the Golden River or the Black Brothers A Legend of Stiria.

    By Richard Doyle and John Ruskin

    4/5

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateJan 1, 1973
    The King of the Golden River or the Black Brothers A Legend of Stiria.
    Author

    Richard Doyle

    Richard Doyle is an old-school SF fan who began writing seriously in 2001. He has a Diploma in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia and collaborated on a book in 2006. He has had poems published in the UK poetry magazines Orbis and Sarasvati and  is a regular member of the Bristol Stanza Poetry Group. His debut pamphlet The death of the sentence was published in 2020. Two of his poems appear in the Bristol Stanza pamphlet The Weather Indoors (2021).

    Read more from Richard Doyle

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    Reviews for The King of the Golden River or the Black Brothers A Legend of Stiria.

    4/5

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    • 3/5
      *JOHN RUSKIN, 'The King of the Golden River'

      This is the only work of fiction that the prolific and multi-talented Ruskin wrote. However, it manages to encapsulate a great many of the ideals that we think of today, when we think of Ruskin. It has the emphasis on 'Christian' mercy and charity, generosity over greed, and, to an almost distracting degree, the love of the beauties of nature. Indeed, the main 'message' of the tale is that natural bounty is what should be valued more than gold.

      The piece wraps its morals in the tale of a young boy and his two cruel and greedy brothers. When a generous act leads to the youngest brother being granted the secret of 'how to turn a river to gold,' he confides in his siblings - but their lack of charity leads to their demise; leaving the reward for the sorely put-upon but unfailingly upstanding hero.
    • 4/5
      (Read previously as part of a collection - am noting here because I only now have found out who Ruskin actually is, and I want to keep track of what I've read by him.)
    • 4/5
      While written pretty much in the style of a fairy tale---with lots more descriptions of scenery---it feels more like a lesson on the value of kindness (and physical appearance) than a fairy tale. In other words, a story meant to instruct rather than one told for the fun of it. I was disappointed. There are three brothers; the first two are mean and ugly and dark and the third is young and kind and blond and handsome.SPOILER: The brothers live in an idyllic valley, where Hans and Schwartz become filthy rich by treating their employees badly and charging excessive amounts for their crops when people are desperate and starving. Gluck's kindness is to wind and river spirits is rewarded, Hans and Schwartz turn into black stones because they fail in their quests by letting others die of thirst. We learn that holy water can become unholy if it is not used mercifully. It seems the brothers are Catholic(?) because there are holy water and good and bad priests and going to mass. The introduction, however, states that Ruskin was raised to become a minister by his Scottish parents.The introduction gives a brief biography of Ruskin. An interesting comment is made about thirty million British books destroyed in the blitz in 1941: Ruskin's other book for children was one of the first to appear in color for sixpence.
    • 3/5
      A fairytale in traditional form with two bad brothers and a good brother and a warning against greed. As a child, I thought it was all right but rather heavily didactic. I am ashamed to say I think it is the only work of Ruskin I have ever read. My father was (among other things) a real Ruskin scholar who taught him in Victorian lit classes --a student recalled his asking an exam question "What would Ruskin have thought of the new (drably utilitarian) university administration building. My mother persuaded my father to write the article on King of the Golden River for the NCTE anthology on children's literature --one of his very few published articles. (He always said anything he could write, someone else could write just as well.)
    • 5/5
      I really really liked this very short story :D

      Southwest Wind, Esquire reminds me of Gandalf, and of that witch that ask for help to the prince in The Beauty and The Beast
    • 3/5
      First written in 1842, and published in 1851, this original fairytale by the nineteenth-century art critic John Ruskin takes as its inspiration the classic folkloric trope of three brothers who all embark upon the same quest. Not surprisingly, the three meet very different fates when they attempt to take advantage of a proposition made by the magical King of the Golden River.Although similar in structure to many traditional folktales I have read, Ruskin's tale has the unmistakable flavor of the nineteenth-century morality tale, perhaps explaining why I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would... My edition of this classic original fairy tale is illustrated with color plates by Arthur Rackham, and was published in 1932.
    • 3/5
      I often don't like the early Victorian fairy tales as they are often long-winded versions of things that are best told in a fairly compressed form. I was about to give up on this one when the descriptions of the scenery got longish, but then I saw how he was using his artistic and Romantic sensibilities, and I actually found the rest of the tale quite interesting. I would have expected children to be asleep somewhere after page 2, but another review posted here says not.
    • 4/5
      The title of the first chapter is "How the Agricultural System of the Black Brothers was Interfered with by the Southwest Wind, Esquire" and so I wasn't sure how well this title would be received by Ashlyn. She loved it! She couldn't put it down and kept wanting to read more and more. I truly expected groaning or complaining and instead she said it was and awesome book. I am going to have to read it now just so I can understand why she enjoyed it so much.
    • 5/5
      A most excellent children's story, brainashing the little ones most delightfully with the idea that meanness and selfishness brings hell, and kindness brigns its own rewards. There is just NOTHING about this work not to like, but that's not surprising when you remember that RFuskin was Aereric's firt naturalist novelist
    • 3/5
      Not a bad moral tale, but the words were too uncommon for easy understanding by younger children.Gluck meekly obeys his brothers commands, is beaten by them when he doesn't, but still has a good heart. His brothers are turned to stone when they try to take shortcuts to gold and ignore pleas for help.

    Book preview

    The King of the Golden River or the Black Brothers A Legend of Stiria. - Richard Doyle

    The Project Gutenberg EBook of The King of the Golden River or the Black

    Brothers, by John Ruskin

    This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

    almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

    re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

    with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

    Title: The King of the Golden River or the Black Brothers

    A Legend of Stiria.

    Author: John Ruskin

    Illustrator: Richard Doyle

    Release Date: September 8, 2010 [EBook #33673]

    Language: English

    *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE KING OF THE GOLDEN RIVER ***

    Produced by Chris Curnow, Johnnie Hollowell and the Online

    Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This

    file was produced from images generously made available

    by The Internet Archive)

    A Legend of Stiria.

    BY JOHN RUSKIN, M.A.

    ILLUSTRATED BY RICHARD DOYLE.

    BOSTON:

    PUBLISHED BY GINN & COMPANY.

    1885.

    ADVERTISEMENT.

    The Publishers think it due to the Author of this Fairy Tale, to state the circumstances under which it appears.

    THE KING OF THE GOLDEN RIVER was written in 1841, at the request of a very young lady, and solely for her amusement, without any idea of publication. It has since remained in the possession of a friend, to whose suggestion, and the passive assent of the Author, the Publishers are indebted for the opportunity of printing it.

    The Illustrations, by Mr. Richard Doyle, will, it is hoped, be found to embody the Author's ideas with characteristic spirit.

    LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

    DESIGNED AND DRAWN ON WOOD BY RICHARD DOYLE

    THE KING OF THE GOLDEN RIVER;

    OR,

    THE BLACK BROTHERS.

    CHAPTER I.

    HOW THE AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM OF THE BLACK BROTHERS WAS INTERFERED WITH BY SOUTH-WEST WIND, ESQUIRE

    In a secluded and mountainous

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