Stories from Wagner

Before there were superhero films or fantasy novels, there were these stories: tales of gods wrestling with destiny, heroes making bargains with the underworld, and a gold ring that could bend the world to one person's will. J. Walker McSpadden gathered the great operas of Richard Wagner and recast them for young readers, preserving the thunder and magic of the original myths while trimming nothing of their power. This collection sweeps from the depths of the Rhine River, where mischievous daughters guard a treasure that could rule the world, to the tragic lovers Tristan and Isolde, to the knight Parsifal seeking the Holy Grail. Here heroes battle dwarves and giants, love ends in ruin, and redemption comes only to those willing to sacrifice everything. McSpadden writes with a storyteller's instinct for wonder, making these dense operatic legends feel like the fireside tales they once were. A century later, these retellings still possess that rare magic: they make the most ambitious operatic cycle in Western art feel intimate, urgent, and impossibly fun to read.