The Ring

by John Updike (Adapter), Warren Chappell (Illustrator), Richard Wagner (Music)

Classic children's story.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

John Hoyer Updike was an American writer. Updike's most famous work is his Rabbit series (Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Rabbit Is Rich; Rabbit At Rest; and Rabbit Remembered). Rabbit is Rich and Rabbit at Rest both won Pulitzer Prizes for Updike. Describing his subject as "the American small town, Protestant middle class," Updike is well known for his careful craftsmanship and prolific writing, having published 22 novels and more than a dozen short story collections as well as poetry, literary criticism and children's books. Hundreds of his stories, reviews, and poems have appeared in The New Yorker since the 1950s. His works often explore sex, faith, and death, and their inter-relationships.

He died of lung cancer at age 76.

Reviews

[Ana-Catrina · Rating 5 out of 5]

So glad I read this to my kids, I finally understand the Nibelungenring story...

[Nic Rowan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much better than The Magic Flute. There’s a lot of material here, and Updike does a fair job of condensing it to the essentials.

The ending is terse (fitting a whole opera into two sentences), but I rather like it: “Siegfried and Brunhilda knew joy in one another, but did not live happily forever after. No human beings do.”