Jesus of Nazareth and other writings

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Near the end of his life, Richard Wagner oversaw the publication of his collected writings, offering insight into his thoughts on art and politics from his youth to his later successes. After his death, admirers uncovered numerous writings he had forgotten, misplaced, or omitted from his collected works. This volume, part of an eight-volume reprint by the University of Nebraska Press, gathers the most significant of these pieces. The title work, "Jesus of Nazareth," written in 1848 or 1849 during a time of revolutionary upheaval in Europe, reflects Wagner's revolutionary ideals, inspired by Jesus and the early Church. He viewed Jesus as a revolutionary leader, paralleling his own struggles against authority. The opening piece, "Siegfried’s Death," a poem from 1848, set the stage for his renowned operatic cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen. While portions of the poem were later integrated into the fourth Ring opera, Gotterdammerung, the differences highlight Wagner's evolving ideas. Additionally, essays Wagner published in journals but excluded from his collected works reveal key aspects of his revolutionary activities. His pro-revolutionary essay, "The Revolution," for instance, would have likely upset the wealthy patrons he later courted. This edition includes the complete text of volume 8 from the 1899 translation of Wagner's works published for the London Wagner Society.