Spindle and Bow - Hardcover

Longstreth, Bevis

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1898113602 ISBN 13: 9781898113607

Publisher: Laurence King Publishing, 2005

Synopsis

"Spindle and Bow", a first novel by Bevis Longstreth, tells a story of love, adventure and the transcendent power of art at the dawning of civilization. Set in the 5th Century BCE, this human drama spans some 3,000 miles, from the ancient city of Sardis at the western edge of the Persian Empire close to the Aegean Sea in Turkey, to the village of Pazyryk, a Scythian village in the Altai Mountains of southwestern Siberia. There is a factual element to the story. When in 1949 a Scythian royal tomb was opened at Pazyryk in the Altai Mountains in the heart of Central Asia, Russian archeologists discovered the frozen and mummified remains of a man and a woman. Nearby was a sophisticated knotted pile carpet in nearly perfect, condition preserved by the freezing conditions in the tomb. Popularly known as the Pazyryk Carpet, it now hangs in St. Petersburg at the Hermitage Museum. Recognized as a towering achievement in art and weaving, the Pazyryk Carpet, which has been scientifically dated to the 5th-4th century BCE, remains unsurpassed by textiles of later eras. Yet there is no scholarly agreement on the who, why and where of its weaving, nor on the connection of this great work of art to the couple in the tomb. "Spindle and Bow" supplies an imaginative answer to these questions. Rachel, a young Jewish weaver growing up in Sardis, is a craftswoman of consummate skill. Her accomplishments attract the attention of Cyrus the Younger, Satrap for the western region of the Achaemenid Empire, and brother of Artaxerxes, King of Kings. Amid the opulence of the Sardian Court, where Rachel weaves in the royal workshop, she meets Targitus, a Scythian prince come from Central Asia to learn the Sardians' closely kept secrets of gold purification. What unfolds is the imagined, yet strongly plausible story of Rachel and Targitus, who are thrown together by chance and become deeply attracted to one another despite powerful centrifugal forces arising from their vastly different cultures. Through the braiding together of two lives, the story tells of how the oldest pile carpet in existence came to be woven.

About this title

About the Author:

A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School, Bevis Longstreth is a retired partner with the law firm Debevoise & Plimpton. He practiced in the firm's New York office for twenty years until President Ronald Reagan appointed him sixtieth commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1981. In 1984, he retired from the SEC and returned to Debevoise, where he practiced corporate, finance, banking and securities law until 1993. A former adjunct professor at Columbia University Law School, he has been a frequent speaker on various securities and corporate law topics and has served on several banking, investment and finance boards and committees. A periodic blogger for the Huffington Post, he has written two other historical novels, Return of the Shade and Boats Against the Current, as well as a book on law reform entitled Modern Investment Management and the Prudent Man Rule. For more information, please visit www.bevislongstreth.com

About this edition

• Publisher: Laurence King Publishing
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1898113602
• ISBN 13: 9781898113607
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288