Not the first book about the Ring by Wagner, not even in Dutch. Still Bruls made a very nice book about it. The little book is divided in three parts. In the first part you get the story behind the Ring in the form of a tale which is very nicely done. Then you can read about how Wagner composed his Ring and what happened to it after Wagner died. In the last part Bruls analyses both the story as the music. All through the book Bruls proves himself well-acquinted with German mythology, Wagners philosophy and that of his time and the time and music in general. Highly informative both for newbies and the more advanced readers and as well as when you know the opera and when you don’t.