The Ring of Truth

A magnificent book by a famous author on perhaps the greatest of all musical works

Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung is one of the greatest works of art created in modern times, and has fascinated critics and devotees for over a century and a half. The Ring of Truth is an exploration of the drama, music, symbolism and philosophy of the Ring from a writer whose knowledge and understanding of the Western musical tradition are the equal of his capacities as a philosopher. Scruton shows how, through musical connections and brilliant dramatic strokes, Wagner is able to express truths about the human condition which few other artists have been able to convey so convincingly. For Wagner, writes Scruton, the task of art is to ‘show us freedom in its immediate, contingent, human form, reminding us of what it means to us. Even if we live in a world from which gods and heroes have disappeared we can, by imagining them, dramatize the deep truths of our condition and renew our faith in what we are.’

Author Biography

Sir Roger Scruton was a writer and philosopher who held positions at the universities of London, Oxford, Boston and St Andrews and who wrote widely on art, architecture, music and aesthetics. His books include his now classic Short History of Modern Philosophy (1981), The Aesthetics of Music (1997), Death-Devoted Heart- Sex and the Sacred in Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde (2004) and The Ring of Truth- The Wisdom of Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung (2016). He was a fellow of the British Academy and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.