The Light of Asia
Edwin Arnold
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Description
Edwin Arnold published The Light of Asia in 1879, an epic poem telling the Buddha's life in Miltonic blank verse. The sheltered prince Siddhartha, raised behind palace walls, encounters age, sickness, death, and a wandering ascetic: the four sights that drive his search. Enlightenment under the bodhi tree forms the climax.
Arnold's poem sold hundreds of thousands of copies and introduced the Victorian world to Buddhism more effectively than any scholarly treatise of its day. He presents the Buddha with Christian-era reverence, a framing modern readers will notice. As a cultural event, The Light of Asia genuinely lit a path for Western interest in Asia's religions.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Edwin Arnold |
|---|---|
| COLLECTION | BOOKS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 195 KB |
| LICENSE | Project Gutenberg License |
| RIGHTS | PUBLIC DOMAIN |
| SOURCE | Project Gutenberg |