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The Sorry Tale: A Story of the Time of Christ
Excerpt from The Sorry Tale: A Story of the Time of Christ
Upon still another evening she said: Look yel The side that flowed red doth weep fresh drops, e'en unto this day. Yea adayl And this shed of the tides (times) agone but bought of the then, and yet He, smiling, sheddeth ever, yea, ever. The every day seeth the weeped drops. Think ye then that this hand would set those drops gushed, or yet touch them that fell and be dust that they stir in their holy, athout (without) a tremor?
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Upon still another evening she said: Look yel The side that flowed red doth weep fresh drops, e'en unto this day. Yea adayl And this shed of the tides (times) agone but bought of the then, and yet He, smiling, sheddeth ever, yea, ever. The every day seeth the weeped drops. Think ye then that this hand would set those drops gushed, or yet touch them that fell and be dust that they stir in their holy, athout (without) a tremor?
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
653 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1976
17 people are currently reading
122 people want to read
About the author
Patience Worth
22 books5 followersA fictitious creation of Pearl Lenore Pollard Curran
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 4, 2022
This is not the easiest book to read but a very complicated and fascinating story with many unusual details not generally known. My edition is full of errors in printing but without a doubt, gripping. It will be difficult to get a well printed version but it is worth the aggravation. It is not for the person who wants a book to spoon feed the reader. Instead it takes time. I suggest reading this book slowly, taking in all the details. That will give you a full appreciation of it. By the way, the New York Times said it was written by a master writer and had high acclaim for the novel.
February 27, 2023
The author, Patience Worth, is supposed to have been a spirit who allegedly dictated many poems, stories, parables and actual novels through a Spirit Board, starting back in 1913, to a live person, Pearl Curran.
Fascinated, I ordered her 600-page book "The Sorry Tale: A Story of the Time of Christ". It is written in 17th century English with many ‘thous’,‘sayeths’, ‘knoweths,’ ‘nays’ and ‘yeas’ - so it starts off as a difficult read initially but as you push through you begin to understand this “new to you” language. For example, you learn that “going without the building” means going outside of the building, “list” means listening or hearing and “smite” or “smitten” means hurt, injured or diseased. Once you figure out what certain words mean then you begin to fully comprehend the story.
I will borrow an Amazon review, from a Judith A. Gauntt, as it suitably describes the general idea of the storyline:
“It is the story of the parallel lives of love [Jesus Christus] and hate [Hate/Hatte]; their birth aligned [both born in the lowest circumstance at the same time in Bethlehem] and how the population denied both their birthrights [one was the Son of God and the other the illegitimate son of Tiberius through a nobeled Greek mother] and how one stood strong and lifted up the people and the other weakened and cast fear on the people. Their lives touched periodically with the hate mocking love continually until they came together at the end . . .”
There are numerous characters, the primary ones being Theia, the mother of Hatte and also Simeon, Theia’s love. After being tossed out of Rome by Tiberius, Theia is full of rage for Rome and her anger becomes obsessive. As she becomes aware of the birth of Jesus, her heart fills with hope, if not desperation, that this Son of God shall protect them from the Roman scourge on the land and people.
Early in the story, Theia finds herself smitten with leprosy and leaves her friends and family to protect them. Hatte is heartbroken and devastated by his mother’s absence and he never quite recovers from this trauma. He also learns some of the truth as to why his mother named him “Hate/Hatte”, though he is never told who his real father is and he becomes obsessed with solving this mystery.
Theia has a good friend, Panda (a former Nubian slave) who is present through all of the story, trying to keep Hatte safe from harm from himself but also safe from the Jewish population and the ruling Romans.
Along the way Hatte befriends a learning disabled boy, named Aaron, who becomes Hatte’s constant companion throughout the story. I am not certain what significance the character, Aaron, brings to the story. Perhaps it is a metaphor for the mental instability of the character, Hatte - an instability that follows him throughout his life.
The author’s descriptions of this time in history (Judea – Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem), and the historic individuals of the time, are so compelling:
"And she stepped before the couch of Herod who lay sick, for this man was deep in taint of sin, and the limbs of him would bear him not. Yet the eyes of Herod shone lustful and the hand of Herod shook and he drank much and wallowed. And his beard was wet with many wettings that knew no washing away. Yea, and the locks of him had dropped in places from out his head. Yea, and the nails of his hands were broken and yellowed and sored about.
... And Herod drew him upon his elbow, and dragged his wasted limbs unto the floor of the palace and chattered laughter and watered much from out his lips.” What a great description, it is like I am there in front of the man.
There was also a scene where a Roman ‘killeth’ a Jew and disemboweled him right before my eyes - it was so disturbing, felt so real. I was disturbed by the scene but I was also captivated.
The storyline follows Theia, Simeon and Panda first and their struggle to immerse themselves in the Jewish community as cast outs from Rome and we discover some of the secrets that came with them from Rome. It then follows Hatte and his struggle with the heartbreak and misery that this life has given him and the bitterness that begins to grow as he witnesses the progression of Jesus as a prophet among the Jewish communities. The last section of the book carries on with the path that Jesus takes (the good) compared to the path that Hatte takes (evil). Both paths lead to the same place, however, as both Jesus and Hatte are “delivered” by the people to the Romans to be crucified – Jesus for being a false prophet and Hatte for being a thief. Indeed a “Sorry Tale”.
The book itself has been brought back into print because it is deemed to be culturally important. But be warned that is a reproduction of an original work, just simply scanned and reprinted with its original imperfections and the odd misnumbered pages and my copy had actual missing pages. The full work is available online though and any missing pages can be accessed and printed.
Despite the frustrations one might experience with the 17th century text, the length of the story and the compilation of the pages of text itself – this story is definitely a worthy read. A glimpse into Jerusalem during the time of Jesus AND the idea that it was written by a spirit – it is just too fascinating to ignore.
Fascinated, I ordered her 600-page book "The Sorry Tale: A Story of the Time of Christ". It is written in 17th century English with many ‘thous’,‘sayeths’, ‘knoweths,’ ‘nays’ and ‘yeas’ - so it starts off as a difficult read initially but as you push through you begin to understand this “new to you” language. For example, you learn that “going without the building” means going outside of the building, “list” means listening or hearing and “smite” or “smitten” means hurt, injured or diseased. Once you figure out what certain words mean then you begin to fully comprehend the story.
I will borrow an Amazon review, from a Judith A. Gauntt, as it suitably describes the general idea of the storyline:
“It is the story of the parallel lives of love [Jesus Christus] and hate [Hate/Hatte]; their birth aligned [both born in the lowest circumstance at the same time in Bethlehem] and how the population denied both their birthrights [one was the Son of God and the other the illegitimate son of Tiberius through a nobeled Greek mother] and how one stood strong and lifted up the people and the other weakened and cast fear on the people. Their lives touched periodically with the hate mocking love continually until they came together at the end . . .”
There are numerous characters, the primary ones being Theia, the mother of Hatte and also Simeon, Theia’s love. After being tossed out of Rome by Tiberius, Theia is full of rage for Rome and her anger becomes obsessive. As she becomes aware of the birth of Jesus, her heart fills with hope, if not desperation, that this Son of God shall protect them from the Roman scourge on the land and people.
Early in the story, Theia finds herself smitten with leprosy and leaves her friends and family to protect them. Hatte is heartbroken and devastated by his mother’s absence and he never quite recovers from this trauma. He also learns some of the truth as to why his mother named him “Hate/Hatte”, though he is never told who his real father is and he becomes obsessed with solving this mystery.
Theia has a good friend, Panda (a former Nubian slave) who is present through all of the story, trying to keep Hatte safe from harm from himself but also safe from the Jewish population and the ruling Romans.
Along the way Hatte befriends a learning disabled boy, named Aaron, who becomes Hatte’s constant companion throughout the story. I am not certain what significance the character, Aaron, brings to the story. Perhaps it is a metaphor for the mental instability of the character, Hatte - an instability that follows him throughout his life.
The author’s descriptions of this time in history (Judea – Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem), and the historic individuals of the time, are so compelling:
"And she stepped before the couch of Herod who lay sick, for this man was deep in taint of sin, and the limbs of him would bear him not. Yet the eyes of Herod shone lustful and the hand of Herod shook and he drank much and wallowed. And his beard was wet with many wettings that knew no washing away. Yea, and the locks of him had dropped in places from out his head. Yea, and the nails of his hands were broken and yellowed and sored about.
... And Herod drew him upon his elbow, and dragged his wasted limbs unto the floor of the palace and chattered laughter and watered much from out his lips.” What a great description, it is like I am there in front of the man.
There was also a scene where a Roman ‘killeth’ a Jew and disemboweled him right before my eyes - it was so disturbing, felt so real. I was disturbed by the scene but I was also captivated.
The storyline follows Theia, Simeon and Panda first and their struggle to immerse themselves in the Jewish community as cast outs from Rome and we discover some of the secrets that came with them from Rome. It then follows Hatte and his struggle with the heartbreak and misery that this life has given him and the bitterness that begins to grow as he witnesses the progression of Jesus as a prophet among the Jewish communities. The last section of the book carries on with the path that Jesus takes (the good) compared to the path that Hatte takes (evil). Both paths lead to the same place, however, as both Jesus and Hatte are “delivered” by the people to the Romans to be crucified – Jesus for being a false prophet and Hatte for being a thief. Indeed a “Sorry Tale”.
The book itself has been brought back into print because it is deemed to be culturally important. But be warned that is a reproduction of an original work, just simply scanned and reprinted with its original imperfections and the odd misnumbered pages and my copy had actual missing pages. The full work is available online though and any missing pages can be accessed and printed.
Despite the frustrations one might experience with the 17th century text, the length of the story and the compilation of the pages of text itself – this story is definitely a worthy read. A glimpse into Jerusalem during the time of Jesus AND the idea that it was written by a spirit – it is just too fascinating to ignore.
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February 23, 2022This is just a reminder, mainly for myself - this book was "dictated" by Patience Worth through Pearl Curran - by using a Ouija board. This was apparently a big deal in 1917.
If I can find this an actual review will eventually follow.
If I can find this an actual review will eventually follow.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews