Classics Books

Book SynopsisThe Afrofuturist plot of Pauline E. Hopkins's Of One Blood (1902-03) weaves together a lost African city, bigamy, incest, murder, ancient prophecies, a thwarted leopard attack, racial passing, baby switching, mesmerism, and hauntings—both literal ghost hauntings and metaphoric hauntings from the sins of slavery. The Broadview Edition offers for the first time annotations and appendices that contextualize the novel in relation to magazines, Black feminism, travels to Africa, racial discourses, scientific and medical debates, and musical culture. The edition's introduction surveys current debates about Hopkins's textual borrowings of from other contemporary writings, and the appendices provide extensive materials on the novel's cultural, musical, and political contexts.Trade Review“Broadview’s edition of Pauline E. Hopkins’s Of One Blood identifies and contextualizes Hopkins’s wide-ranging and varied inspirations, sources, and allusions in a manner that helps readers trace and understand how she employed her craft to perform ‘historical recovery in the service of racial justice.’ Eurie Dahn and Brian Sweeney’s brilliant introduction and meticulously researched notes bring Hopkins’s voice to life and illuminate her position as one of the foremost African American intellectuals of the early twentieth century. The breadth and depth of primary contemporaneous sources that Dahn and Sweeney have assembled raise the bar for scholarly editions.” — Alisha Knight, Washington College“Dahn and Sweeney’s edition of Hopkins’s Of One Blood; or, The Hidden Self strongly grounds the novel in the context of its publication in the Colored American Magazine and of relevant contemporaneous texts and ideas. Its wealth of background and archival material and meticulous elucidation of many of Hopkins’s textual ‘borrowings’ provide multiple inroads for the study of the novel and a tremendous resource for students, instructors, and scholars.” — Julie Fiorelli, Loyola University ChicagoTable of ContentsAppendix A: Pauline Hopkins and the Colored American Magazine 1. From “Rise of the Black Republic: Miss Pauline E. Hopkins Lectures at Tremont Temple,” Boston Post (18 Oct 1889) 2. “Pauline E. Hopkins,” Colored American Magazine (January 1901) 3. From Pauline E. Hopkins, Dedication and Preface to Contending Forces (1900) 4. From “Editorial and Publishers’ Announcements,” Colored American Magazine (May 1900) 5. From R. S. Elliott, “The Story of Our Magazine,” Colored American Magazine (May 1901) 6. “Powerful Serial Stories,” from “Announcement for 1902,” Colored American Magazine (November 1901) 7. Cover, Colored American Magazine (March 1903) 8. “An Interesting Publication,” Colored American newspaper (4 April 1903) 9. Synopsis of Chapters I to XXIII of Of One Blood, Colored American Magazine (November 1903) 10. Crane and Co. Cosmetics Advertisement, Colored American Magazine (March 1903) 11. From “Editorial and Publishers’ Announcements,” Colored American Magazine (October 1903) 12. From “Editorial and Publishers’ Announcements,” Colored American Magazine (March 1903) 13. “Editorial and Publisher’s Announcements,” Colored American Magazine, (May-June 1903) 14. From Pauline E. Hopkins, “How a New York Newspaper Man Entertained a Number of Colored Ladies and Gentlemen at Dinner in the Revere House, Boston, and How the Colored American League was Started,” Colored American Magazine (March 1904) 15. From Pauline E. Hopkins, Letter to William Monroe Trotter (16 April 1905) 16. From “Publishers’ Announcements,” Colored American Magazine (November 1904) 17. From “The Colored Magazine in America,” Crisis (November 1912) Appendix B: Black Feminist Activism 1. From Pauline E. Hopkins, “Famous Women of the Negro Race: IV. Some Literary Workers,” Colored American Magazine (March 1902) 2. From Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, “Address of Josephine St. P. Ruffin, President of Conference” (1902) 3. From Victoria Earle Matthews, “The Value of Race Literature” (1895) 4. From Ida B. Wells, Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases (1892) 5. From Anna Julia Cooper, “The Status of Woman in America” (1892) Appendix C: “Of One Blood” 1. From Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) 2. Acts of the Apostles 17.16-33 (King James Bible) 3. From Frederick Douglass, “The Claims of the Negro, Ethnologically Considered” (1854) 4. From Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself (1861) 5. From W.E.B. Du Bois, “Of Our Spiritual Strivings,” The Souls of Black Folk (1903) 6. From Francis Marion Crawford, Casa Braccio (1894) 7. From Pauline E. Hopkins (as J. Shirley Shadrach), “Furnace Blasts: II. Black or White?—Which Should Be the Young Afro-American’s Choice in Marriage?” Colored American Magazine (March 1903) Appendix D: Hopkins’s Africa 1. From John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book Four (1667, 1674) 2. From John Hartley Coombs, editor, Dr. Livingstone’s 17 Years’ Explorations and Adventures in the Wilds of Africa (1857) 3. From A.F. Jacassy, “African Studies: I. Tripoli of Barbary,” Scribner’s Magazine (January 1890) 4. From Noel Ruthven, “In the Claws,” Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly (January 1884) 5. From N. Robinson, “The Colossal Statues of Egypt and Asia,” Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly (January 1884) 6. From G.A. Hoskins, Travels in Ethiopia, Above the Second Cataract of the Nile(1835) 7. From Pauline E. Hopkins, “Famous Women of the Negro Race. VII. Educators (Continued),” Colored American Magazine (June 1902) 8. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, “Ethiopia” (1854) 9. From H. Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure (1886-87) 10. Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt, “The Black Princess” (1872) 11. From W.E.B. Du Bois, “To the Nations of the World” (25 July 1900) 12. From Pauline E. Hopkins, A Primer of Facts Pertaining to the Early Greatness of the African Race and the Possibility of Restoration by its Descendants—with Epilogue (1905) Appendix E: Mesmerism, Spiritualism, and Professional Medicine 1. From William James, “The Hidden Self,” Scribner’s Magazine (March 1890) 2. Pauline E. Hopkins, “The Mystery Within Us,” Colored American Magazine (May 1900) 3. From Emma Hardinge Britten, “The Improvvisatore, or Torn Leaves from Life History” (1861) 4. From “The Haunted Voice,” Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly (December 1884) 5. From J.P.F. Deleuze, Practical Instruction in Animal Magnetism (1837) 6. From The History and Philosophy of Animal Magnetism, with Practical Instructions for the Exercise of This Power, by a Practical Magnetizer (1843) 7. “Discovers the Secret of Life: Indiana Physician Asserts It Is Volatile Magnetism, Which Exists in the Air,” Boston Daily Globe (29 September 1902) 8. From W. E. B. Du Bois, editor, The College-Bred Negro: Report of a Social Study Made Under the Direction of Atlanta University (1900) 9. Abraham Flexner, “The Medical Education of the Negro” (1910) Appendix F: Musical Culture 1. From Pauline E. Hopkins, “Famous Women of the Negro Race: I. Phenomenal Vocalists,” Colored American Magazine (November 1901) 2. From Theodore Drury, “The Negro in Classic Music; or, Leading Opera, Oratorio and Concert Singers,” Colored American Magazine (September 1902) 3. Advertisement for Theodore Drury Opera Company’s Aida, Colored American Magazine (March 1903) 4. Poster for Fisk University Jubilee Singers Concert (c. 1885) 5. “Go Down, Moses,” from The Story of the Jubilee Singers; with Their Songs, 5th edition (1876) 6. From Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself (1845) 7. From W.E.B. Du Bois, “Of the Sorrow Songs,” The Souls of Black Folk (1903) 8. From James Weldon Johnson, “Preface,” The Book of American Negro Poetry (1922)

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Book SynopsisIllustrated prose translation of the epic poem with pedagogical apparatus for make reading this important work a joy. The text is complete with an introductory essay, glossary, and an appendix detailing the tabulation of the gods. Notes throughout the text provide help in following the narrative framework of the epic. Features include - Mythology and mythological references are noted throughout the book and an extensive glossary of names helps the reader follow the complicated genealogies. - A comprehensive introduction provides comparison of the poem with the Iliad and the Odyssey as well as a general framework for the epic to help the student follow the narrative flow of the work. - Unlike a poetic translation, Caldwell''s work focuses on the story, the myth and the literary context, making this modern new translation on that is easy for the average student to follow and maximum help in understanding.

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Book SynopsisThis complete verse translation of Ovid''s classical work is illustrated with extensive notes and an index and glossary. To help the reader contend with Ovid''s frequent leaps both ahead and back in time, the principle episodes are listed at the beginning of each book and the subsections and digressions marked with indentations. Some footnotes also refer to mythological material Ovid has derived from Greek epic or drama or, occasionally, from later sources. Specific authors referred to in these notes are briefly identified in the index and glossary

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Book SynopsisGreek poet Hesiod took many lines of thought and knowledge - myth, fable, personal experience, practical understanding - and wove them into one great whole. He did as much with the origins of the Greek gods in the Theogony, and then did the same in creating his manual of moral and practical advice, Works and Days. Here, Stephanie Nelson's translation of Works and Days is paired with Richard S. Caldwell's take on the Theogony. Along with introductory essays, these comprehensible versions of Hesiod's two best-known poems make it easy for readers to see why Hesiod's writings continue to resound through the ages.

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Book SynopsisThis translation by Tom Simone provides a text that is close to Dante's meter and style as is possible using modern English. In such a way a student gets a feel for the structure and impact of the original, and it could also provide an easy segue to the original Italian. Simone provides an extensive introduction, ample footnotes for references that may not be clear to the reader, and each Canto provides a prose overview of the poetry to follow, all designed to provide the modern student with access to this important work.

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Book SynopsisSeemingly the simplest of stories—a passing anecdote of village life— Rock Crystal opens up into a tale of almost unendurable suspense. This jewel-like novella by the writer that Thomas Mann praised as 'one of the most extraordinary, the most enigmatic, the most secretly daring and the most strangely gripping narrators in world literature' is among the most unusual, moving, and memorable of Christmas stories. Two children—Conrad and his little sister, Sanna—set out from their village high up in the Alps to visit their grandparents in the neighboring valley. It is the day before Christmas but the weather is mild, though of course night falls early in December and the children are warned not to linger. The grandparents welcome the children with presents and pack them off with kisses. Then snow begins to fall, ever more thickly and steadily. Undaunted, the children press on, only to take a wrong turn. The snow rises higher and higher, time passes: it is deep night when the sky clears and Conrad and Sanna discover themselves out on a glacier, terrifying and beautiful, the heart of the void. Adalbert Stifter''s rapt and enigmatic tale, beautifully translated by Elizabeth Mayer and Marianne Moore, explores what can be found between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day—or on any night of the year.

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Book SynopsisIn his Introduction, MacKenzie discusses Flaubert's life, the writing of Madame Bovary, the world in which the novel is set, and its publication and reception. Footnotes, a bibliography, and a chronology are also provided.Trade ReviewAfter his beautiful translation of Baudelaire's Paris Spleen, Raymond N. MacKenzie now offers us a fresh, superb version of Madame Bovary by Flaubert. Impeccably transparent, this new translation captures the original's careful, precise language and admirably conveys the small-mindedness of nineteenth-century provincial French towns. MacKenzie's tour de force transports the reader to Yonville and compels him to look at Emma with Flaubert's calm, disenchanted eyes. --Thomas Pavel, Gordon J. Laing Distinguished Service Professor, University of ChicagoRaymond N. MacKenzie's fresh and faithful translation of Madame Bovary will enable a new generation of readers to discover the wonderful complexities of Flaubert's sardonic presentation of the yawning gulf between a woman's expectations of life and the realities she finds in nineteenth-century provincial France. By capturing the rhythms of the original French, and adopting a vocabulary which is neither too contemporary nor too dated, MacKenzie gives his readers the opportunity to enter into the heart of one of the great classics of world literature. --Rosemary Lloyd, Rudy Professor of French, Emerita, Indiana University

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Book SynopsisIn his Introduction, MacKenzie discusses Flaubert's life, the writing of Madame Bovary, the world in which the novel is set, and its publication and reception. Footnotes, a bibliography, and a chronology are also provided.Trade ReviewAfter his beautiful translation of Baudelaire's Paris Spleen, Raymond N. MacKenzie now offers us a fresh, superb version of Madame Bovary by Flaubert. Impeccably transparent, this new translation captures the original's careful, precise language and admirably conveys the small-mindedness of nineteenth-century provincial French towns. MacKenzie's tour de force transports the reader to Yonville and compels him to look at Emma with Flaubert's calm, disenchanted eyes. --Thomas Pavel, Gordon J. Laing Distinguished Service Professor, University of ChicagoRaymond N. MacKenzie's fresh and faithful translation of Madame Bovary will enable a new generation of readers to discover the wonderful complexities of Flaubert's sardonic presentation of the yawning gulf between a woman's expectations of life and the realities she finds in nineteenth-century provincial France. By capturing the rhythms of the original French, and adopting a vocabulary which is neither too contemporary nor too dated, MacKenzie gives his readers the opportunity to enter into the heart of one of the great classics of world literature. --Rosemary Lloyd, Rudy Professor of French, Emerita, Indiana University

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Book SynopsisHere in one convenient volume are the two earliest examples of the ancient Greek novel.Trade ReviewSince these texts first found their way into the mainstream of Classics instruction twenty years ago, the need for new translations has become obvious, not only because of the textual and theoretical advances made in the interim, but because of demand for examining them in broader contexts. For both surveys of Greek and Roman literature and courses on the history of prose fiction, that demand has now been elegantly met. Trzaskoma's translation, based on greatly improved Greek texts, shows a sophisticated appreciation of the range in vocabulary and tone within Chariton, and similarities and differences in style between Chariton and Xenophon become easily apparent. Chariton may be a naïve romance by some classifications, but the text's intertextual dimensions, described in a helpful introduction that avoids prescribing how to interpret these texts, are now made much clearer. The copious annotations not only provide topical references but also mark the wide range of literary allusions and parallels. From every angle these texts have received a detailed rethinking. The Chariton and Xenophon I thought I knew have become much richer and more compelling texts. Any student of the ancient novel, and any teacher wanting to create more students of the ancient novel, needs to read this book. --Joel C. Relihan, Professor of Classics, Wheaton College (Norton, Mass.)I enjoyed this edition very much--the translations are readable while maintaining a strong sense of the originals. The introduction materials are informative and accessible making this text suitable for undergraduate teaching. I also appreciate the formatting—with cultural information and allusions to other authors in footnote and more technical information on the manuscript in endnote. A helpful bibliography is also included. --Kristen Day, Augustana CollegeAccurate and fresh translations of the two earliest Greek novels. . . . A keen textual critic himself, Trzaskoma has published a number of contributions on the novels, offering improvements to the text and identifying additional allusions to classical authors. He includes endnotes to both translations detailing his own conjectures and differences with Reardon and Sullivan, all of which bespeaks a complete reexamination of the texts in preparation for his translations. Although . . . designed for undergraduate courses where these novels will be read by Greekless students, every effort has been made to provide as much information about difficulties in the texts as possible, so these translations will be useful to those interested in the Greek text as well. An unpretentious introduction that will be very appropriate and useful to students reading ancient novels for the first time covers judiciously the major issues relevant to getting started with these stories. . . . It is valuable to read [these two novels] together, and this new text will make that easy and inexpensive to do. --Stephen A. Nimis, Miami University, in The Bryn Mawr Classical Review

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Book SynopsisThe Essential Metamorphoses, Stanley Lombardo's abridgment of his translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, preserves the epic frame of the poem as a whole while offering the best-known tales in a rendering remarkable for its clarity, wit, and vigor. While making no pretense of offering an experience comparable to that of reading the whole of Ovid’s self-styled history from the world's first origins down to my own time, this practical and judicious selection of myths at the heart of Roman mythology and literature yet manages to relate many of the most fascinating episodes in that world-historical march toward the Age of Augustus--and is accompanied by an Introduction that deftly sets them in their cosmological, theological, and Augustan contexts.

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Book SynopsisThe Essential Metamorphoses, Stanley Lombardo's abridgment of his translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, preserves the epic frame of the poem as a whole while offering the best-known tales in a rendering remarkable for its clarity, wit, and vigor. While making no pretense of offering an experience comparable to that of reading the whole of Ovid’s self-styled history from the world's first origins down to my own time, this practical and judicious selection of myths at the heart of Roman mythology and literature yet manages to relate many of the most fascinating episodes in that world-historical march toward the Age of Augustus--and is accompanied by an Introduction that deftly sets them in their cosmological, theological, and Augustan contexts.

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Book SynopsisCoal mines have become rare, but the miners of Germinal are immortal. This new edition of the novel, with a translation by Raymond MacKenzie, is an exquisite tribute to their work, their misery and their eventual revolt. In his introduction, David Baguley--one of the most respected authorities on the work of Zola--brilliantly illuminates the genetic, historical and aesthetic aspects of the novel. His lucid, sensitive and critical gaze highlights the real secrets of the work: its underlying anthropological and social investigation, the dark power of the tragic imagination and the brightness of symbolic and mythic intuitions. --Henri Mitterand, Professor Emeritus, Columbia UniversityTrade ReviewRaymond MacKenzie's elegant new translation of Emile Zola’s Germinal captures the diction of the novel's colorful characters and the restrained voice of a naturalist narrator. David Baguley’s introduction analyzes Zola’s personal background, his literary and scientific influences, and the historical circumstances of French workers in the 1860s as well as a spectrum of political acts and deeds in the 1880s when the novel was written. These features plus Zola’s notes on the town of Anzin that he studied prior to writing the novel, make this the edition of choice for course adoptions in history and literature. --Stephen Kern, Humanities Distinguished Professor, Department of History, Ohio State University

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Book SynopsisCoal mines have become rare, but the miners of Germinal are immortal. This new edition of the novel, with a translation by Raymond MacKenzie, is an exquisite tribute to their work, their misery and their eventual revolt. In his introduction, David Baguley--one of the most respected authorities on the work of Zola--brilliantly illuminates the genetic, historical and aesthetic aspects of the novel. His lucid, sensitive and critical gaze highlights the real secrets of the work: its underlying anthropological and social investigation, the dark power of the tragic imagination and the brightness of symbolic and mythic intuitions. --Henri Mitterand, Professor Emeritus, Columbia UniversityTrade ReviewRaymond MacKenzie's elegant new translation of Emile Zola’s Germinal captures the diction of the novel's colorful characters and the restrained voice of a naturalist narrator. David Baguley’s introduction analyzes Zola’s personal background, his literary and scientific influences, and the historical circumstances of French workers in the 1860s as well as a spectrum of political acts and deeds in the 1880s when the novel was written. These features plus Zola’s notes on the town of Anzin that he studied prior to writing the novel, make this the edition of choice for course adoptions in history and literature. --Stephen Kern, Humanities Distinguished Professor, Department of History, Ohio State University

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Book SynopsisThe first English language translation of Bedier's classic work in nearly seventy years, this volume is the only edition that provides ancillary materials to help the reader understand the history of the legend and Bedier's method in creating his classic retelling.Trade ReviewThis edition stands out because it is not a reworking of Belloc's version but a translation of Bedier's actual text. Gone are archaic spellings (The Little Fakry Bell becomes "The Enchanted Bell") and abstruse terms (the Tintagel Minster now reads as the church at Tintagel). Gallagher provides a brief, informative introduction, useful glossaries of proper names and specialized terms, and five well-selected texts about the Tristan legend, including a haunting scene Bedier composed but chose not to use. Beautifully written, this modern English translation proves once again that the love of Tristan and Iseut endures beyond all limits of time and space. Summing up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above. --C. B. Kerr, Vassar College, in CHOICEA labor of love, like all of his work, Edward J. Gallagher's engaging new translation of Joseph Bedier's celebrated romance is the sparkling centerpiece of a volume that features an enlightening and erudite introduction, a selective bibliography, Bedier's prefatory note, and two glossaries. A most welcome appendix includes English translations of Gaston Paris' original preface, two articles by Bedier, Adolph Brisson's early review of the romance, and—as a final surprise—Bedier's previously unpublished Hall of Images scene. Gallagher generously offers in one handy volume an inestimable boon to scholars, teachers, and students, who now have at their fingertips the resources to appreciate fully Bedier's signal accomplishment. --Joan Tasker Grimbert, Ordinary Professor of French and Medieval Studies, Catholic University of America[This] slim paperback introduces non-specialists to the medieval French Tristan and Iseut stories in clear, modern prose. The lucid and engaging translation, with its helpful introduction and appended articles, is an excellent introduction to the beloved romance as well as a welcome tool for teaching it to undergraduates. --Tracy Adams, University of Auckland, in H-France Review

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Book Synopsis"An elegant, precise, and accessible modern-English rendering of the two best examples of the early modern picaresque genre: the paradigmatic Lazarillo de Tormes and Quevedo's mordant El Buscón . Frye's translations are triumphant, capturing the cadence of popular early modern speech while remaining faithful to the original texts; his notes illuminate the diverse contexts in which the texts were written. Frye gives careful attention throughout to the historical background that propelled these two parallel but different monuments of Golden Age Spanish literature." --Teofilo Ruiz, UCLATrade Review"A delightful new version of two of the best picaresque novels ever written. Rising admirably to the challenges posed by these texts, Frye uses modern American idioms to bridge the gap between Golden Age Spain and our times; the resulting translations are lively and readable. He manages to capture, in modern English, all of the humor of The Grifter's many puns and wordplays while retaining a feel for the original flavor of the work... He should also be congratulated for his fine rendering of verses into English. [Frye's] comprehensive Introduction takes up the culture of Castile in the sixteenth century; his illuminating analysis of Lazarillo de Tormes and The Grifter (El Buscón) will be of great use to those approaching these funny, poignant, and fascinating tales for the first time." --Frederick A. de Armas, University of Chicago

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Book SynopsisThis brisk retelling of Le Morte D'Arthur highlights the narrative drive, humor, and poignancy of Sir Thomas Malory’s original while updating his fifteenth-century English and selectively pruning over-elaborate passages that can try the patience of modern readers. The result is an adaptation that readers can enjoy as a fresh approach to Malory's sprawling masterpiece. The book's most famous episodes--the sword in the stone, the cataclysmic final battle--are all here, while lesser-known key episodes stand forth with new brightness and clarity. The text is accompanied by an up-to-date bibliography, including websites and video resources, and a descriptive index keyed--like the retelling itself--to the book and chapter divisions of William Caxton's first printed edition of 1485.Trade Review"I've just finished reading Joseph Glaser's Le Morte D'Arthur. I'm very pleased with it: the introduction is helpful without becoming an extended essay, the suggested reading seems solid and diverse, and the index is VERY useful, even for someone who has read Malory before. At last, a reader can keep all the knights and ladies straight! A fine entry point to a grand text, and when I next have an occasion to teach a course involving chivalry, I'll plan to use this very affordable edition." —Craig Caldwell, Department of History, Appalachian State University"A highly readable, reduced, and modernized Malory. . . . The effective condensation of a seemingly uncontainable network of narratives is an impressive feat. . . . Glaser's storylines are distinct, not dense, his dialogue is concise, not digressive, and his language is unassuming, not luxuriant. While these features do not match most readers' impressions of Malory's style, his Arthurian tales of adventure, love, death, and betrayal are all here for a new readership to relish. "[T]his new narrative brings the intersections of plot lines to the fore, helping readers to see the larger structural connections between seemingly disparate episodes and themes. With some of the density removed, readers can more readily see storylines that often get submerged, such as the ongoing feud between the families of King Pellinor and King Lot that starts, stops, and reignites across multiple books. Glaser even appends a detailed index of characters and important objects that includes short descriptions of their appearances in sequence throughout the text. This index is exceedingly helpful because it highlights unifying themes and character development as well as clearly demonstrates that the main character of the Morte is Lancelot, not Arthur. Whereas Arthur's index entry is approximately a page and a half long, Tristram's is two pages, and Lancelot's is close to three. The index also reveals amusing repetitions and contradictions, including two dead Colgrevaunces and five Elaines." —Alex Mueller, University of Massachusetts, Boston, in The Medieval Review"Glaser's project of modernizing and condensing Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur is refreshingly successful. Both an extremely accessible introduction to the text for beginners and a handy reference tool for experts, the compact volume can easily be enjoyed by all modern readers." —Rachel Levinson-Emley, University of California, Santa Barbara, in Comitatus"Preserves most of the original and provides a simplified reduction for the bewildering array of plot lines and characters who wind in, and out, and often back in again to the narrative thread. Hackett Publishing Company and Joseph Glaser have provided an aesthetically appealing, serviceable, and inexpensive addition to the Malory shelf.” —Katherine Haynes, Aquinas College Nashville, in Sixteenth Century Journal

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Book Synopsis"Michael Harney's translation of Cervantes's Novelas ejemplares is the most authoritative and accurate rendering of Cervantes's classic tales to date and promises to be the translation against which future translations will be measured. Harney skillfully portrays the nuanced and complex world of the Exemplary Novellas in a translation that is faithful to the letter and spirit of the original. An erudite and informative Introduction presents a general overview of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spain, the life of Cervantes, and a detailed analysis of the Exemplary Novellas. Before each story, Harney provides a brief synopsis, an analysis of the novella’s themes, motifs, and generic affinities, and a bibliography for further reading. In addition, numerous footnotes complement the background information Harney provides in the Introduction and prior to each novella." —Michael J. McGrath, Georgia Southern UniversityTrade Review"Harney maintains the richness of language and the narrative flavor of the assortment of tales, admirable in their range and power of allusion. Cervantes captures much of the spirit of his age, and Harney's eminently readable translation conveys the essence of the original material. The general Introduction and brief commentaries on each text are clear and useful, as are the generous notes that students and instructors should appreciate." —Edward H. Friedman, Vanderbilt University

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Book Synopsis"In this new edition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, David Wootton's Introduction gives the reader both a clear and gripping account of the biographical circumstances that led to the novel’s writing and the most striking and original interpretations of its central themes and of the intellectual and cultural influences on them. Offering a new account of the complex history of its composition, and drawing upon his deep knowledge of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century scientific debates, Wootton reveals the ways in which the origins of Shelley’s novel are inextricably linked to conceptions of the origins of life itself. We have here a transformative reading of one of the world’s best-known stories."—Laura Marcus, Goldsmiths’ Professor of English Literature and Fellow of New College, University of OxfordTrade Review"A superb edition of Shelley's troubling masterpiece, with lucid explanatory notes and rich contextual material on the biographical, cultural, and scientific background to the text. Wootton’s Introduction is a tour de force of revisionist scholarship, and his bold new arguments about Frankenstein's reworking of Promethean myth, its engagement with Romantic-era science, and the sources and significance of its arctic frame-tale will set the agenda for future debate." —Thomas Keymer, Chancellor Henry N. R. Jackman University Professor of English, University of Toronto"David Wootton, the editor of a splendid new edition of Frankenstein that includes a rich variety of relevant texts, prefers to focus on the contribution made to the novel by Mary's reading of contemporary articles on travel (the book’s first narrator, Robert Walton, is bound for the North Pole, which he describes as 'the favourite dream of my early years'). Wootton’s magisterial introduction grants equal significance to the earnest discussions about generating life that took place in 1816 at Lord Byron’s lakeside villa in Switzerland, where Frankenstein was conceived." —Miranda Seymour, in The New York Review of Books"Wootton’s new edition presents Shelley's Frankenstein in a vivid new light. Informed by his immense erudition in the histories of both science and political thought, his brilliantly lucid Introduction pieces together the book’s complex and sometimes conflicting elements, and proposes several new interpretations. Generously annotated throughout, and with a judicious selection of related writings and contemporary reviews, this will be the go-to text for all students of the novel." —Seamus Perry, Professor of English Literature and Fellow of Balliol College, University of Oxford

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Book Synopsis"In this new edition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, David Wootton's Introduction gives the reader both a clear and gripping account of the biographical circumstances that led to the novel’s writing and the most striking and original interpretations of its central themes and of the intellectual and cultural influences on them. Offering a new account of the complex history of its composition, and drawing upon his deep knowledge of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century scientific debates, Wootton reveals the ways in which the origins of Shelley’s novel are inextricably linked to conceptions of the origins of life itself. We have here a transformative reading of one of the world’s best-known stories."—Laura Marcus, Goldsmiths’ Professor of English Literature and Fellow of New College, University of OxfordTrade Review"A superb edition of Shelley's troubling masterpiece, with lucid explanatory notes and rich contextual material on the biographical, cultural, and scientific background to the text. Wootton’s Introduction is a tour de force of revisionist scholarship, and his bold new arguments about Frankenstein's reworking of Promethean myth, its engagement with Romantic-era science, and the sources and significance of its arctic frame-tale will set the agenda for future debate." —Thomas Keymer, Chancellor Henry N. R. Jackman University Professor of English, University of Toronto"Wootton’s new edition presents Shelley's Frankenstein in a vivid new light. Informed by his immense erudition in the histories of both science and political thought, his brilliantly lucid Introduction pieces together the book’s complex and sometimes conflicting elements, and proposes several new interpretations. Generously annotated throughout, and with a judicious selection of related writings and contemporary reviews, this will be the go-to text for all students of the novel." —Seamus Perry, Professor of English Literature and Fellow of Balliol College, University of Oxford

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Book SynopsisAristophanes's classic send-up of rivalry within the ultra-competitive world of fifth-century Athenian theatre wins a new lease on life in this fresh line-for-line translation by Peter Meineck. Premiered in 2021 by Aquila Theatre and accompanied here by Meineck’s notes and wide-ranging Introduction, this Frogs offers the best view yet of a high-stakes afterlife contest between two of Athens's late great playwrights. Both are undisputed masters of tragedy. But only one can win and return to save the city.Trade Review"Peter Meineck draws on his vast experience as both theatre producer and classical scholar in this lively and thoroughly contemporary translation of Aristophanes's rambunctious but heady Frogs. In highlighting Aristophanes's own concern for spectacle, stage action, and musicality, Meineck offers flexible guidance not only for modern producers of this comedy but also for readers eager to visualize an Aristophanic play in its original setting and to marvel at its enduring comic brilliance." —Ralph M. Rosen, Vartan Gregorian Professor of the Humanities and Classical Studies, University of Pennsylvania"Meineck's edition of Frogs is a fantastic resource for students, teachers, and anyone interested in ancient theatre. His Introduction skillfully condenses an impressive amount of information about ancient history, myth, and theatre, contextualizing the play in a clear and accessible manner. His crisp and modern translation imaginatively brings the text and music of Aristophanes to life for today’s audiences." —Rosa Andújar, Deputy Director of Liberal Arts and Lecturer in Liberal Arts, King’s College London"Peter Meineck’s new translation of Aristophanes' Frogs offers expert and funny solutions to [the many challenges of translating this play], and he shines most brightly when it comes to the comic playwright’s particularly hard-to-tackle choral odes and monody, as he rewrites Aristophanes' lyrics to tunes by AC/DC, Wu-Tang Clan, and Bruce Springsteen. While reading Meineck's latest translation, I had YouTube open the entire time, tapping my feet to 'Thunder Struck,' 'Triumph,' and 'The Rising.' . . . Meineck's primary objective, as always, is creating a translation that can be performed (he is founder of Aquila, a theater company that is known for original music, among other things), and his most recent offering, with its attention to music, stands out from other translations of Frogs, because Meineck represents the different musical styles of Aeschylus and Euripides in creative and modern ways. . . . Meineck's Frogs provoked such a rousing discussion in my grad-level class that I look forward to assigning it in my undergraduate classes as well. So, grab a copy of Meineck's Frogs, open YouTube, and soon you will be humming Europe's 'The Final Countdown,' but with a slight twist, after Meineck, as 'the final smackdown'." —Laurialan Reitzammer, University of Colorado at Boulder, in Bryn Mawr Classical Review "[T]he introduction contains all a student or teacher would need to fully understand the play. Firstly, the reader is provided with a clear and concise historical and cultural background to the play spread over 15 pages. This also includes sub-divided information on all the conventions of Old Comedy including festivals, the theatre building, masks, costumes, props, music and staging. Secondly, Meineck provides the reader with a 36-page character information list. . . . I found this to be a really useful resource for students of all abilities in my classes. . . . For those . . . who would like to start their exploration into Greek comedy, or for those more seasoned readers looking for an interesting take on the work of Aristophanes, this is a worthwhile read." —Ben Greenley, in Journal of Classics Teaching

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Book SynopsisA handful of fragments is all that remains of the writings of Menippus, the third-century BCE provocateur of the Greek Cynic movement. The Western literary tradition knows him through Lucian, the Greek satirist who lived and worked four hundred years later. Included in this book are Joel Relihan’s lively English translations of Lucian’s three reanimations of Menippus—fantastic narratives and comic dialogues set in heaven and hell: Menippus; or, The Consultation of the Corpses Icaromenippus; or, A Man above the Clouds The Colloquies of the Corpses (Dialogues of the Dead) For the first time in over fifty years, these works are assembled in a unified format to tell a particular story: Lucian’s evolving understanding of the philosophical and literary potential of the person, productions, and purposes of Menippus. Not only is it time to give Lucian’s Menippus a fresh look and a thorough reevaluation, but also to consider how Lucian’s imitations and innovations adumbrate, illuminate, and complicate the history of that enigmatic genre, Menippean satire.Trade Review“Professor Relihan’s translations of Lucian’s Menippus works are the best I know of in English. The notes, Introduction, and Afterword are models of concision and clarity. This volume will be enormously useful to anyone interested in Lucian, Menippus, or ‘Menippean satire’.” —R. Bracht Branham, Emory University

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisJane Austen is without question, one of England's most enduring and skilled novelists. With her wit, social precision, and unerring ability to create some of literature's most charismatic and believable heroines, she mesmerises her readers as much today as when her novels were first published. Whether it is her sharp, ironic gaze at the Gothic genre invoked by the adventures of Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey; the diffident and much put-upon Fanny Price struggling to cope with her emotions in Mansfield Park; her delightfully paced comedy of manners and the machinations of the sisters Elinor and Marianne in Sense and Sensibility; the quiet strength of Anne Elliot in Persuasion succeeding in a world designed to subjugate her very existence; and Emma - 'a heroine whom no one but myself will like' teased Austen - yet another irresistible character on fire with imagination and foresight. Indeed not unlike her renowned creator. Jane Austen is as sure-footed in her steps through society's whirlpools of convention and prosaic mores as she is in her sometimes restrained but ever precise and enduring prose.Table of ContentsSense and Sensibility Pride and Prejudice Mansfield Park Emma Northanger Abbey Persuasion Lady Susan

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Book SynopsisRecently graduated from Oxford University, idealistic and headstrong Jeremy Ashland obtains a job teaching English at a language school in the Casablanca of the 1960s. Determined to be accepted as an enlightened foreigner at a time when Moroccan society is emerging from the trauma of colonialism, he plunges dangerously into local and expatriate circles. 'Mauresque' is also the story of Jeremy’s forbidden love for an upper-class Moroccan girl with revolutionary aspirations – a relationship that mirrors the tensions between Moroccans themselves in their search for a new nationhood. Evocative, stylistic and wide-ranging, Mauresque immerses the reader in a world of clandestine relationships, political intrigue, drug smuggling, murder and sorcery.

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Book SynopsisCarlos is the talented heir to a notable family in fin-de-siecle Lisbon. He aspires to serve his fellow man in his chosen profession of medicine, in the arts and in politics. But he enters a society affected by powerful international influences - French intellectual developments, English trading practices - that trouble and frustrate him and in the end he is reduced to a kind of spiritual helplessness. Carlos' good intentions decline, amiably, into dilettantism; his passionate love affair itself begins to suffer a devastating constraint. "The Maias" tells a compelling story of characters whose lives become as real and engrossing as any in Flaubert, Balzac or Dickens. This is his masterpiece, a novel of intellectual depth, historical compassion and great wit. Hailed as a masterpiece in the Paris of Flaubert, Balzac and Zola, this remains Eca's most popular novel.

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Book SynopsisNovel is based on the traditional Ukrainian folk song "Oi, ne khody Hrytsiu".

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Book SynopsisSandor Esterhazy is descended from a long line of talented pianists, but has no desire to play. So, one snowy afternoon, he promises his soul to the devil in exchange for a life of his own choosing. Afterwards, he laughs it off as a joke, but that night the devil arrives dragging someone - or something - with him.Trade Review'Like a beautiful melody played on the very edge of hearing, The Piano Room demands your attention while remaining elusive. Utterly captivating' —Lynda Clark, author of 'Dreaming in Quantum and Other Stories'; 'A dark and beautifully written tale, seeped in music, yearning and breathless intrigue' —Edward Vass, author of 'Milton in Purgatory'

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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