ELT & Literary Studies Books

Book SynopsisBukowski's unmistakable charisma - an ex-down-and-outer who wrote of booze and loneliness in maverick, confident free verse - made him one of the world's most popular poets long before he died in 1994. More than a decade later, death has not slowed his production. This collection is selected from an archive of verse that the author left to be published after his death. It includes poems of love and sex, advice to so-called losers (as he once was) to have confidence in themselves (as he did), gambling laments and humbling poems accepting his own imminent ultimate full stop.Trade ReviewThe thing about Bukowski is, when you read what he has to say, he's right. * * Sean Penn * *We all knew Bukowski was a tough guy, but who would have guessed that even the grave could not shut him up? * * Billy Collins * *Full of sad, hilarious lamentation and schadenfreude. As usual, not for the kiddies. But for the adults, God, yes. * * Booklist * *In an age of conformity Bukowski wrote about the people nobody wanted to be: the ugly, the selfish, the lonely, the mad. * * Observer * *A laureate of American low life. * * Time * *

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Book Synopsis"Train to Pakistan" explores religious hate during Partition through a Sikh-Muslim love story in Mano Majra. Communal tensions escalate, leading to violence and betrayal. Juggut Singh and Iqbal face false accusations amidst chaos and a tragic evacuation attempt.

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Book SynopsisSince The Paris Review was founded in 1953, it has given us invaluable conversations with the greatest writers of our age, vivid self-portraits that are themselves works of finely-crafted literature. The magazine has spoken with most of the world's leading novelists, poets and playwrights, and the interviews themselves have come to be recognised as classic words of literature in their own right. The series as a whole is indispensable for all writers and readers.This new volume in the series builds on the success and acclaim of the first two editions. The interviews:Ralph Ellison (1955)Georges Simenon (1955)Isak Dineson (1956)Evelyn Waugh (1963)William Carlos Williams (1964)Harold Pinter (1966)John Cheever (1976)Joyce Carol Oates (1978)Jean Rhys (1979)Raymond Carver (1983)Chinua Achebe (1994)Ted Hughes (1995)Jan Morris (1997)Martin Amis (1998)Salman Rushdie (2005)Norman Mailer (2007)Trade ReviewIndispensable reading for anybody interested in how writers work and why writing continues to work. * * Daily Telegraph * *If you want to get acquainted with your favourite writer, you could go to a reading or a book-signing. But to really know them, you should read a Paris Review interview. * * The Times * *I have been fascinated by the Paris Review interviews for as long as I can remember. Taken together they form perhaps the finest available inquiry into the 'how' of literature, in many ways a more interesting question than 'why'. * * Salman Rushdie * *For writing nerds, this is nirvana. -- Colin Waters * * Sunday Herald * *Anyone with the slightest pretension a literary life needs to read this collection. * * The London Paper * *this second collection [The Paris Review Interviews vol. 2] of the magazine's interviews with writers is rich in delight. -- Steven Poole * * Guardian * *...much like its predecessor is a bull's-eye...this is a bible both for readers and writers, the insider gossip for those who are truly passionate about their prose [vol. 2]. -- Francesca Segal * * Observer * *I have read all the copies of The Paris Review and like the interviews very much. They will make a good book when collected and that will be very good for the Review. * * Ernest Hemingway * *The Paris Review is the finest literary magazine of the moment, a great contradiction of the prevailing gloom over the status of literature in contemporary life, and its arrival in these islands is an event that calls for loud hurrahs. * * John Banville * *The distinguished reputation of The Paris Review's long-standing series of interviews with writers is upheld in this volume. * * Daily Telegraph * *

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Book SynopsisThe Post-Vulgate Cycle reworks the Vulgate Cycle from the end of The Story of Merlin. The sequel opens with Arthur's unwitting incest with his sister, and his establishment, with Merlin's help, of his title to the kingdom. The story of the events leading up to the Dolorous Blow is then recounted, as well as its consequences. A sequence of adventures follows, largely involving Gawain and his brothers; Lancelot appears only at the end of the continuation, as does Perceval, whose story concludes the romance. For a full description of the Post-Vulgate Cycle see the blurb for the complete set.

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Book SynopsisFocusing on the most recent triad of Italian poetic genius--Umberto Saba, Giuseppe Ungaretti, and Eugenio Montale--Joseph Cary guides us through the first few decades of twentieth-century Italy.

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Book SynopsisWilliam Somerset Maugham was born in 1874 and lived in Paris until he was ten. He was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and at Heidelberg University. He spent some time at St. Thomas' Hospital with the idea of practising medicine, but the success of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, published in 1897, won him over to literature. Of Human Bondage, the first of his masterpieces, came out in 1915, and with the publication in 1919 of The Moon and Sixpence his reputation as a novelist was established. At the same time his fame as a successful playwright and writer was being consolidated with acclaimed productions of various plays and the publication of several short story collections. His other works include travel books, essays, criticism and the autobiographical The Summing Up and A Writer's Notebook. In 1927 Somerset Maugham settled in the South of France and lived there until his death in 1965Trade ReviewThe modern writer who has influenced me most -- George OrwellA brilliant entertainer * New York Times *

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Book SynopsisSexual desire has long played a key role in Western judgments about the value of Arab civilization. This title reveals the history of how Arabs represented their own sexual desires. It assembles a compendium of Arabic writing to chart the changes in Arab sexual attitudes and their links to Arab notions of cultural heritage and civilization.Trade Review"A pioneering work on a very timely yet frustratingly neglected topic.... I know of no other study that can even begin to compare with the detail and scope of [this] work." - Khaled El-Rouayheb, Middle East Report "In Desiring Arabs, Edward Said's disciple Joseph A. Massad corroborates his mentor's thesis that orientalist writing was racist and dehumanizing.... Massad brilliantly goes on to trace the legacy of this racist, internalized, orientalist discourse up to the present." - Financial Times"

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Book SynopsisSituating literature and anthropology in mutual interrogation, Miller's...book actually performs what so many of us only call for. Nowhere have all the crucial issues been brought together with the sort of critical sophistication it displays. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. . . . a superb cross-disciplinary analysis. Y. Mudimbe

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Book SynopsisExamining a variety of works, from revenge plays to Shakespeare's first history tetralogy and beyond, the author explores how this title not only exposed the faultlines of society on stage but also provoked playgoers in the audience to acknowledge all the differences they shared with one another.Trade Review"The Reformation of Emotions in the Age of Shakespeare is a powerful and provocative meditation on the innovative cultural forms and emotional processes that emerged from the violent affective dislocations of memory, identity, and community of the English Reformation. Mullaney addresses issues of wide interest among scholars of early modern literature and culture through evocative readings of both familiar and unfamiliar plays that are consistently surprising, insightful, and original." (William N. West, Northwestern University)

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Book SynopsisTo the extent that she is popularly known, Katherine Parr (1512-48) is the woman who survived King Henry VIII as his sixth and last wife. The author assembles the four publications attributed to her - Psalms or Prayers, Prayers or Meditations, The Lamentation of a Sinner, and a compilation of prayers and Biblical excerpts written in her hand.Trade Review"Here we have one of Henry VIII's queens-the one who survived him-in her own words, making laws as regent of England, writing confessional prayers or short childish notes as a little girl.... Katherine Parr is one of the lesser known of Henry's wives, far from the dramatic triangle of Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn, but this collection of her writings will remind historians that Parr was an extraordinary woman of letters and passions." (Los Angeles Times) "A testament to a remarkable woman, whose learning and character speak powerfully to us across the centuries." (Literary Review)"

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Book SynopsisPersian literature is the jewel in the crown of Persian culture. It has profoundly influenced the literatures of Ottoman Turkey, Muslim India and Turkic Central Asia and been a source of inspiration for Goethe, Emerson, Matthew Arnold and Jorge Luis Borges among others. Yet Persian literature has never received the attention it truly deserves."A History of Persian Literature" answers this need and offers a new, comprehensive and detailed history of its subject. This 18-volume, authoritative survey reflects the stature and significance of Persian literature as the single most important accomplishment of the Iranian experience. It includes extensive, revealing examples with contributions by prominent scholars who bring a fresh critical approach to bear on this important topic.The first volume offers an indispensable entree to Persian literature's long and rich history, examining themes and subjects that are common to many fields of Persian literary study. This invaluable introduction to the subject heralds a definitive and ground-breaking new series.Table of ContentsForeword Chapter 1: Classical Persia n Literature as a Tradition (J. T. P. de Bruijn) 1. Preliminary Remarks 2. Documentation 3. The Birth of a Tradition 4. Writers, Poets, Minstrels and Patrons Writers Poets Minstrels Patronage Alternatives to Court Poetry 5. Religious Inspiration 6. The Transmission of Literature 7. The Individuality of the Writer and the Poet 8. Views on Poetry CHAPTER 2: THE OR IGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF LITER ARY PERS IAN (J. Perry) 1. The Fall of Middle Persian and the Rise of Persian 2. The Language Arena, ca. 570-900 3. Pârsi and Dari 4. Arabic and Persian: A Fortunate Conjunction 5. Building a Literary Language 6. Expansion and Standardization 7. Classical Persian Chap er 3: the history of literature (W. Hanaway) Chap ter 4: Prosody : mete r and rhyme (B. Utas) 1. Meter in Persian Poetry 2. Rhyme in Persian Poetry 3. The Pre-Islamic Prosodic Heritage 4. Khalil’s Analysis of Arabic Metrics 5. The Persian Version of the aruz System 6. Scansion 7. Caesura 8. Pitch and Stress 9. Special Features of Persian Rhyme and Verse Forms 10. The robâ’i and the Prosody of Folk Poetry 11. The Role of Meter and Rhyme in PersianPoetical Genres Chapter 5: Traditional Literary Theory: The Arabic Backg round (G. J. Van Gelder) . . . . 1. Arabic Theory and Persian Literature 2. Origins and Early Developments 3. The Scholastic Study of balâgha 4. From Arabic Legacy to Persian Theory 5. The Deficiencies of Arabic Theory Chapter 6: Persian Rhetoric: Elme badi ’and elme bayân (N. Chalisova) 1. The Persian Theory of Rhetoric Embellishment 2. Râduyâni’s Tarjomân al-balâgha 3. Vatvât’s Hadâ’eq al-sehr 4. Shamse Qeys’ Mo’jam 5. The qaside-ye masnu’ 6. Commentaries of the Hadâ’eq 7. Hoseyni’s Badâye’ al-sanâye’ 8. Postclassical Treatises 9. Concluding Remarks Chapter 7: Poetic Imagery (R. Zipoli) Inventory of Persian Poetic Imagery The Natural World Animals Plants and Flowers Precious Substances The Sky, Planets, Stars, and Constellations Other Natural Elements Colors The Measurement of Time The Human World The Body Other Bodily Components Actions and Emotions The Social Context Life at Court War Feasting Games Hunting Fabrics and clothes Perfumes and cosmetics Wounds and medicine Various objects Writing Numbers Characters Places around the Court Countries and Peoples The Cultural Tradition Islam Characters and Motifs Mentioned in the Qor’an Other Characters from the Qor’an Other Characters and Motifs from Islamic Culture Ritual Elements Ancient Persian Traditions Flouting Islamic Values Chapter 8: Genres of Court Literature J. Meisami) Introduction 2. Panegyric and Related Types of Poetry 3. “Informal” Lyrics 4. History 5. Epic and Romance 6. Wisdom Literature; Mirrors for Princes 7. Didactic, Religious and Philosophical Poetry and Prose 8. Epistolography and Works on Style 9. Satire and Humorous Writing 10. Conclusion Chapter 9: Genres of Religious Literature N. Pourjavady) 1. Commentaries on the Qor’an and Stories of the Prophets 2. Manuals 3. Short Works on Mystical States and Stages nd on Spiritual Conduct 4. Hagiographies 5. Sermons 6. Allegories 7. Treatises on Love 8. Didactic and Theoretical Works in Prose 9. Didactic Mathnavis Chapter 10: Ri ddles (G. Windfuhr) 1. Pre-Islamic Period 2. The Islamic Period 3. Loghaz and mo’ammâ 4. Indigenous Tradition and Scholarship 5. Modern Scholarship 6. The Theory of the mo’ammâ 7. Hesabe abjad 8. Târikh 9. The Gnostic-Mystical Factor Appendix Chapter 11: Pre-Islamic Iranian and Indian Influences on Persian Literature (F. de Blois) . 1. Kalile and Demne 2. The Book of Kings 3. The Book of Sendbâd 4. Belawhar and Budhâsaf 5. Vis and Râmin 6. The Letter of Tansar Chapter 12: Hell enistic Influences in Classical Persia n L

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Book SynopsisThe short story has been integral to the development of Caribbean literature, and continues to offer possibilities for invention and reinvigoration. As the most comprehensive study of its kind, this important and timely volume explores the significance of the short story form to Caribbean cultural production across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The twenty original essays collected here offer a unique set of inquiries and insights into the historical, cultural and stylistic characteristics of Caribbean short story writing. The book draws together diverse critical perspectives from established and emerging scholars, including Shirley Chew, Alison Donnell, James Procter, Raymond Ramcharitar and Elaine Savory. Essays cover the publishing histories of specific islands; intersections of the local, global and diasporic; treatments of race and gender; language, orality and genre; and cultural contexts from tourism to calypso to cricket.Mark McWatt is the recently retired Professor of West Indian literature at UWI, Cave Hill. He is joint editor of the Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse(2005).The EditorsDr Lucy Evans is Lecturer in Postcolonial Literature at the University of Leicester. She has published a number of articles on Caribbean and black British writing, and is currently completing a monograph entitled Communities in Contemporary Caribbean Short Stories.Emma Smith has a PhD in narrative theory and contemporary fiction from the University of Leeds. She has lectured in post/colonial literature and history at Leeds and Leeds Metropolitan universities and currently works on the editorial team at Peepal Tree.

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Trade Review"Mr. Bloch, professor of mathematics at Wheaton College, has woven an elegant, ingenious, scholarly interpretation of Borges's text that contradicts the disingenuous 'unimaginable' of his title."--New York Sun "For the reader of Borges, some of Bloch's observations may offer a useful new way of engaging with the themes of the fiction." -- American Scientist "You need no advanced mathematics to understand 'The Library of Babel' but chances are good that if you like the story, you'll enjoy Professor Bloch's excursions." -- Mathematical Association of America Review "Given Borges' well-known affection for mathematics, this exploration of the story through the eyes of a humanistic mathematician makes a unique and important contribution to the body of Borgesian criticism. Bloch not only illuminates one of the great short stories of modern literature, but also exposes the reader - including those more inclined to the literary world - to many intriguing and entrancing mathematical ideas."--Mathematical ReviewsTable of ContentsPreface ; Introduction ; Combinatorics: Contemplating Variations of the 23 Letter ; Topology and Cosmology: The Universe (Which Others Call the Library) ; Information Theory: Cataloging the Collection ; Geometry and Graph Theory: Ambiguity and Access ; Real Analysis: The Book of Sand ; More Combinatorics: Disorderings into Order ; A Homomorphism: Structure into Meaning ; Critical Points ; Openings ; Acknowledgements ; Appendix IThe Logos of Logarithms ; Appendix IIFlat-Out Disoriented ; Appendix IIIPeeling the 3-Sphere ; Appendix IVA Labyrinth, not a Maze ; Appendix VAn Example of the Ars Combinatoria ; Bibliography

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Book SynopsisOn Writing Short Stories, Second Edition, explores the art and craft of writing short fiction by bringing together nine original essays by professional writers and thirty-three examples of short fiction. The first section features original essays by well-known authors--including Francine Prose, Joyce Carol Oates, and Andre Dubus--that guide students through the process of writing. Focusing on the characteristics and craft of the short story and its writer, these essays take students from the workshopping process all the way through to the experience of working with agents and publishers. The second part of the text is an anthology of stories--many referred to in the essays--that give students dynamic examples of technique brought to life.In this second edition, author-editor Tom Bailey brings the text up-to-date with new and revised essays, alongside classic pieces by Robert Coles and Frank Conroy and a foreword by Tobias Wolff.New to This Edition* Includes new and revised essays: Two Table of ContentsForeword by Tobias Wolff ; Preface ; Contributors ; Part One: On Writing Short Stories ; Francine Prose, What Makes a Short Story ; Joyce Carol Oates, Reading as a Writer: The Artist as Craftsman ; Tom Bailey, Character, Plot, Setting and Time, Metaphor, and Voice ; The Voice of Desire: Character ; The Why? Behind the Power of Plot: Shaping the Short Story ; The Lesser Angels of Fiction: Setting and Time ; "The Connectedness of All Living Things": Metaphor ; The Writer's Signature: Voice ; Frank Conroy, The Writer's Workshop ; Antonya Nelson. Whose Story Is It? The Anonymous Workshop ; Robert Boswell After the Workshop: Transitional Drafts ; Andre Dubus, The Habit of Writing. ; Robert Cole, Why Write? Taking on the World ; C. Michael Curtis, Publishers and Publishing ; Part Two: Short Stories ; Guy de Maupassant, The String ; Anton Chekhov, The Lady with the Pet Dog ; James Joyce, Eveline ; Yukio Mishima, Patriotism ; Ernest Hemingway, Hills Like White Elephants ; Tillie Olsen, I Stand Here Ironing ; William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily ; John Steinbeck, The Chrysanthemums ; Cynthia Ozick, The Shawl ; Flannery O'Connor, Everything That Rises Must Converge ; John Updike, A & P ; Margaret Atwood, Happy Endings ; Joyce Carol Oates, Heat ; Raymond Carver, Cathedral ; Mark Helprin, North Light ; Jayne Anne Phillips, Wedding Picture, Cheers, Stripper, and The Powder of the Angles, and I'm Yours ; Ron Hansen, Wickedness ; David Leavitt, Braids ; Jumpha Lahiri, A Temporary Matter ; Tom Franklin, Alaska ; Junot Diaz, Nilda ; Rick Bass, The Fireman ; Tom Bailey, Snow Dreams ; Susan Perabo, The Payoff ; Robert Boswell, The Darkness of Love ; ZZ Packer, Brownies ; Andre Dubus, A Father's Story ; Antonya Nelson, Dick ; Susan Mino, Lust ; Tobias Wolff, Bullet in the Brain

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Book SynopsisThe fairy tales collected by the brothers Grimm are among the best known and most widely-read stories in western literature. In recent years commentators such as Bruno Bettelheim have, usually from a psychological perspective, pondered the underlying meaning of the stories, why children are so enthralled by them, and what effect they have on the developing child. In this book, Ronald Murphy takes five of the best-known tales (Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty) and shows that the Grimms saw them as Christian fables. Murphy examines the arguments of previous interpreters of the tales, and demonstrates how they missed the Grimms'' intention. His own readings of the five so-called magical tales reveal them as the beautiful and inspiring documents of faith that the Grimms meant them to be. Offering an entirely new perspective on these often-analyzed tales, Murphy''s book will appeal to those concerned with the moral and religious educatioTrade ReviewMurphy had done the Brothers Grimm a great service ... But he has done more than that. He has brought home to us the essentially hospitable nature of the stories ... admirable. The TabletMurphy has added several dazzling layers of meaning to the tales. * First Things *

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Book SynopsisI.B.Tauris in association with the Iran Heritage Foundation Iran's rich cultural heritage has been shaped over many centuries by its rich and eventful history. This impressive book, which assembles contributions by some of the world's most eminent historians, art historians and other scholars of the Iranian world, explores the history of the country through the prism of Persian literature, art and culture. The result is a seminal work which illuminates important, yet largely neglected, aspects of Medieval and Early Modern Iran and the Middle East. Its scope, from the era of Ferdowsi, Iran's national epic poet and the author of the Shahnameh to the period of the Mongols, Timurids, Safavids, Zands and Qajars, examines the interaction between mythology, history, historiography, poetry, painting and craftwork in the long narrative of the Persianate experience. As such, Ferdowsi, the Mongols and the History of Iran is essential reading and a reference point for students and scholars of Iranian history, Persian literature and the arts of the Islamic World.Table of Contents1. Charles Melville and Persian Pembroke. Miguel Kuczynski STUDIES ON HISTORY AND HISTORIOGRAPHY Iran and the Ancient World 2. On the Epithets of Two Sasanian Kings in the Mujmal al-Tawarikh wa-l-Qisas. Touraj Daryaee 3. The Changing Face of an Iranian Sacred Place: The Takht-i Sulayman. Josef Wiesehöfer 4. Legitimating Greece. Lynette Mitchell History and Historiography in the Early Islamic East 5. Between Persian Legend and Samanid Orthodoxy: Accounts about Gayumarth in Bal‘ami’s Tarikhnama. Maria Subtelny 6. Recent Contributions to the History of the Early Ghaznavids and Seljuqs. Edmund Bosworth 7. Idris ‘Imad al-Din and Medieval Ismaili Historiography. Farhad Daftary 8. The Kimiya-yi sa‘adat (The Alchemy of Happiness) of al-Ghazali: A Misunderstood Work? Carole Hillenbrand 9. ‘Help Me If You Can!’ An Analysis of a Letter Sent by the Last Seljuq Sultan of Kirman David Durand-Guédy 10. Imad al-Din al-Isfahani’s Nusrat al-fatra, Seljuq Politics and Ayyubid Origins. A.C.S. Peacock 11. The Rise and Fall of a Tyrant in Seljuq Anatolia: Sa‘d al-Din Köpek’s Reign of Terror, 1237-8. Sara Nur Y?ld?z Mongol Iran and its neighbours 12. ‘It is as if their aim were the extermination of the species’: The Mongol Devastation in Western Asia in the First Half of the Thirteenth Century. Peter Jackson 13. Juvayni’s Historical Consciousness. Beatrice Forbes Manz 14. Persian and Non-Persian Historical Writing in the Mongol Empire. David Morgan 15. Ruling from Tents: Some Remarks on Women’s Ordos in Ilkhanid Iran. Bruno de Nicola 16. Mamluks, Franks and Mongols: A Necessary but Impossible Triangle. Reuven Amitai 17. Protecting Private Property vs. Negotiating Political Authority: Nur al-Din b. Jaja and his Endowments in Thirteenth-Century Anatolia. Judith Pfeiffer Nomads, Rulers and Historians after the Mongols 18. The Mongol Puppet Lords and the Qarawnas. Michele Bernardini 19. Remarks on Steppe Nomads and Merchants. Thomas T. Allsen 20. Loyalty, Betrayal and Retribution: Biktash Khan, Ya‘qub Khan and Shah ‘Abbas I’s Strategy in Establishing Control over Kirman, Yazd and Fars. Rudi Matthee 21. Reading Safavid and Mughal Chronicles: Kingly Virtues and Early Modern Persianate Historiography. Sholeh A. Quinn British views of Qajar Iran 22. Sir John Malcolm and the Idea of Iran. Ali M. Ansari 23. Edward Granville Browne amongst the Qalandars. Jan Just Witkam STUDIES ON PERSIAN LITERATURE Literary Culture in the Persianate world 24. From Zulaykha to Zuleika Dobson: The Femme Fatale and her Ordeals in Persian Literature and Beyond. Firuza Abdullaeva 25. A Pictorial Aetiology of Ferdowsi as a Transcendent Poet. Olga Davidson 26. The Armenian Poet Frik and his Verses on Arghun Khan and Bugha. Theo van Lint 27. An Epic for Shah ‘Abbas. Gabrielle van den Berg The Theory and Practice of Persian verse 28. A Note on Form and Substance in Classical Persian Poetry. Homa Katouzian 29. Stringing Replica Pearls: Translations of Persian Verse into Verse. Barbara Brend PERSIAN AND ISLAMIC ART Aspects of Religion 30. The Prophet Muhammad’s Footprint. Christiane Gruber 31. Non-Islamic Faiths in the Edinburgh Biruni Manuscript. Robert Hillenbrand 32. A Tale of Two Minbars: Woodwork in Egypt and Syria on the Eve of the Ayyubids. Bernard O’Kane The Arts of the Book 33. Illuminating Shah Tahmasp’s Shahnameh. Sheila Canby 34. Rethinking Persian Painting: The Silsila of Sultan Muhammad. Layla S. Diba 35. Composite Figures in the Hadiqat al-haqiqa wa Shari‘at al-tariqa of Sana’i. Francis Richard 36. A Medieval Representation of Kay Khusraw’s jam-i giti namay. Marianna Shreve Simpson 37. The ?uraqqa‘ Album of the Zand period (PNS 383) in the National Library of Russia. Olga Vasilyeva and Olga Yastrebova 38. Interrogating Marks in a Persian Painting from Fifteenth-Century Herat: A Note. Barbara Bre

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Book SynopsisConsiders the intellectual renaissance at the close of the 17th century that caused the shift in the portrayals and perceptions of mountains in prose and poetry, from ugly protuberances to glorious heights. Examines various writers from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, and traces both the causesTable of ContentsForeword by William CrononPrefaceIntroductionThe Literary HeritageThe Tehological DilemmaNew PhilosophyThe Geological DilemmaA Sacred Theory of the EarthThe Burnet ControversyThe Aesthetics of the InfiniteA New Descriptive PoetryEpilogueIndex

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Book SynopsisThe first major collection of poetry written in English by the flabbergasting and flamboyant Baroness Elsa, “the first American Dada.”As a neurasthenic, kleptomaniac, man-chasing proto-punk poet and artist, the Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven left in her wake a ripple that is becoming a rip—one hundred years after she exploded onto the New York art scene. As an agent provocateur within New York's modernist revolution, “the first American Dada” not only dressed and behaved with purposeful outrageousness, but she set an example that went well beyond the eccentric divas of the twenty-first century, including her conceptual descendant, Lady Gaga.Her delirious verse flabbergasted New Yorkers as much as her flamboyant persona. As a poet, she was profane and playfully obscene, imagining a farting God, and transforming her contemporary Marcel Duchamp into M'ars (my arse). With its ragged edges and atonal rhythms, her poetry echoes the noise

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Book SynopsisAnne Carson was born in Canada and teaches ancient Greek for a living. Her awards and honours include the Lannan Award, the Pushcart Prize, the Griffin Trust Award for Excellence in Poetry, the T.S. Eliot Prize, a Guggenheim fellowship, and the MacArthur Genius' Award.Trade ReviewAnne Carson is a daring, learned, unsettling writer. Both in poetry and in prose (and the nimble mixtures of both that are characteristic of her work) she offers and upholds exceptional pleasures and standards. A unique figure in the North American literary landscape and not nearly as well known as she should be -- Susan SontagAnne Carson's poems are like notes made in their pristine urgency, as fresh and bright as a series of sudden remarks... A real poet whose poems are unfailingly memorable... [whose] powers of invention are apparently infinite -- Guy DavenportAnne Carson is a new and brilliant talent making her English debut with this volume -- Peter PorterShe is a rare talent - brilliant and full of wit, passionate and also deeply moving. Her long poem 'The Glass Essay' is oen of the best of our time -- Michael Ondaatje

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Book SynopsisSurprising though it may seem, this is the first full-scale scholarly commentary in English on Virgil''s Eclogues. Written between about 42 and 35 BC, these ten short pastorals are among the best known poems in Latin literature. They have inspired numerous poets - Sidney, Ronsard, and others - and at the same time have held enduring fascination among scholars for their sophistaicated and allusive blend of Theocritean idyll and contemporary Roman history. Professor Clausen''s commentary will provide a comprehensive guide to the poems and the considerable scholarship surrounding them, and should be indispensable to all serious students of Virgil''s poetry. Special attention is paid throughout the commentary to the important question of Virgil''s use of Theocritus and other Hellenistic poets, with translations provided of all Greek passages. There are many new and illuminating observations on Virgil''s poetic style and vocabulary, often with reference to his Latin predecessors: Lucretius,Trade Reviewhas been long awaited and has much to offer. On matters of Latinity and details of interpretation he is clear and cogent; particularly welcome is the use made of Plautus and Lucretius...The book shows a feeling for poetry and nature that makes it a worthy companion to Mynors's Georgics. * R.G.M.Nisbet, Corpus Christi College, Oxford *Clausen does indeed supplement existing commentaries in some valuable ways, and serious Vergilian scholars will certainly want to avail themselves of this new resource. * The Classical Journal *This is a full and scholarly commentary of the old-fashioned kind (in the best sense of the word!), in fact "surprisingly, the first full scale scholarly eommentary in English on the Eclogues"....This is certainly an important and necessary book for the teacher and university student.. * JACT review *

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Book SynopsisOffers translations of Euripides' "Medea", "The Children of Heracles", "Andromache", and "Iphigenia among the Taurians", fragments of lost plays by Aeschylus, and the surviving portion of Sophocles' "The Trackers". In this title, introductions for each play offer information about its first production, plot, and reception in antiquity and beyond.

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Book SynopsisIn his Pulitzer prize-winning 1993 book Lincoln at Gettysburg, Garry Wills showed how the Gettysburg Address revolutionized the conception of modern America. In Witches and Jesuits, Wills again focuses on a single document to open up a window on an entire society. He begins with a simple question: If Macbeth is such a great tragedy, why do performances of it so often fail? After all, the stage history of Macbeth is so riddled with disasters that it has created a legendary curse on the drama. Superstitious actors try to evade the curse by referring to Macbeth only as the Scottish play, but production after production continues to soar in its opening scenes, only to sputter towards anticlimax in the later acts. By critical consensus there seems to have been only one entirely successful modern performance of the play, Laurence Olivier''s in 1955, and even Olivier twisted his ankle on opening night. But Olivier''s ankle notwithstanding, Wills maintains that the fault lies not in ShakespearTrade ReviewA lively and provocative read... makes `Macbeth' come alive as a play. * New York Times *

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Book SynopsisColm Tóibín's Lady Gregory's Toothbrush is a beautiful insight into the life of outspoken Irishwoman, Augusta Gregory.A remarkable figure in Celtic history, she was married to an MP and land-owner, yet retained an unprecedented independence of both thought and deed, actively championing causes close to her heart. At once conservative and radical in her beliefs, she saw no conflict in idealizing and mythologizing the Irish peasantry, for example, while her landlord husband introduced legislation that would, in part, lead to the widespread misery, poverty and starvation of the Great Famine. Nevertheless, as founder of the Abbey Theatre, an outspoken opponent of censorship, and mentor, muse, and mother-figure to W. B. Yeats, Augusta Gregory played a pivotal role in shaping Irish literary and dramatic history. Moreover, despite her parents’ early predictions of spinsterhood, she was no matronly figure, engaging in a passionate affair while Trade ReviewBiographical portraits are too often nowadays smudged in a surfeit of words . . . this one is a brilliant illumination. * Spectator *

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Book Synopsis'Queer: A Graphic History Could Totally Change the Way You Think About Sex and Gender' ViceActivist-academic Meg-John Barker and cartoonist Jules Scheele illuminate the histories of queer thought and LGBTQ+ action in this groundbreaking non-fiction graphic novel.From identity politics and gender roles to privilege and exclusion, Queer explores how we came to view sex, gender and sexuality in the ways that we do; how these ideas get tangled up with our culture and our understanding of biology, psychology and sexology; and how these views have been disputed and challenged.Along the way we look at key landmarks which shift our perspective of what's 'normal' - Alfred Kinsey's view of sexuality as a spectrum, Judith Butler's view of gendered behaviour as a performance, the play Wicked, or moments in Casino Royale when we're invited to view James Bond with the kind of desiring gaze usually directed at female bodies in mainstream media.Presented in a brilliantly engaging and witty style, this is a unique portrait of the universe of queer thinking.Trade ReviewCould totally change the way you think about sex and gender ... an utterly un-dusty tome that questions everything from the way we categorise our sexual desire to the foundations of happiness. -- VICEThis hopeful and welcoming attitude should encourage readers to queer their own lives in whatever ways feel right. -- Publishers WeeklyYanks the jargon of Foucault, Butler and a who's who of philosophers down from the clouds and into simple, clear messages -- Sydney Morning HeraldA concise, precise and beautifully illustrated introduction. -- Kieron GillenA playful, graphic analysis of the paradox that is queer theory - opens our hearts as much as it engages our minds. -- Kate BornsteinWith their inspired synthesis of words and imagery, MJ Barker and Jules Scheele take us beyond binaries to show us the richness of queer as a critique, as a verb and as an approach to life itself. -- Jane Czyzselska, DIVAExceptionally informative ... an invaluable and illuminating resource -- The BeatSucceeds in opening its rarefied subject matter to non-academic audiences and disrupting assumptions and preconceptions about gender and sexuality, not to mention race, class, and the idea of "normal." -- Library JournalUnexpected, extraordinary wit and erudition ... Aha moments come one right after another. One small step for queer theory, this project will leap the layman far down the path of tolerance and understanding. -- Foreword ReviewOne of the most enjoyable aspects of this book is the charm of Jules Scheele's understated, accessible illustrations ... The book holds a great amount of respect for this pantheon of theorists, even when problematizing some of their views, and the art communicates that respect effectively. -- Rain TaxiFresh interpretations and clever illustrations help bring new life to academic constructs and an understanding of the intersection of biology, psychology, and modern culture. -- Washington BladeStudents everywhere rejoice! For we have an explanation of queer theory that is simple, comprehensive, critical and inclusive ... as well as having popular culture references to make the ideas stick. -- Katherine Hubbard, University of Surrey

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Book SynopsisFor thirty years, the Oxford C.S. Lewis Society has met weekly in the medieval colleges of the University of Oxford. During that time, it has hosted as speakers nearly all those still living who were associated with the Inklings--the Oxford literary circle led by C.S. Lewis--, as well as authors and thinkers of a prominence that nears Lewis''s own.C.S. Lewis and His Circle offers the reader a chance to join this unique group. Roger White has worked with Society past-presidents Brendan and Judith Wolfe to select the best unpublished talks, which are here made available to the public for the first time. They exemplify the best of traditional academic essays, thoughtful memoirs, and informal reminiscences about C.S. Lewis and his circle. The reader will re-imagine Lewis''s Cosmic Trilogy with former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams; read philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe''s final word on Lewis''s arguments for Christianity; hear the Reverend Peter Bide''s memories of marrying Lewis and Joy Davidman in an Oxford hospital; and learn about Lewis''s Narnia Chronicles from his former secretary.Representing the finest of both personal and scholarly engagement with C.S. Lewis and the Inklings, the talks collected here set a new tone for engagement with this iconic Oxford literary circle--a tone close to Lewis''s own Oxford-bred sharpness and wryness, seasoned with good humor and genuine affection for C.S. Lewis and his circle.Trade ReviewThe quality of the essays is, as you would expect in the context, very high and yet each of them remains accessible to the reader. * Methodist Recorder *You need not be a dedicated Lewis fan to enjoy this collection, though such will welcome it; there is much to interest the general reader and, perhaps, to introduce themes from Lewis' life and work to those who might not expect to find or like them. * The Tablet *rich and varied collection * Theology *It is difficult to say which essays, which memoirs, are most enjoyable * Weekly Standard *C. S. Lewis and His Circle is strongest as a collective memoir and will appeal to those looking for a picture of the man from those who knew him well. Certainly, Narnia enthusiasts will find something here albeit hidden behind texts they might not find as appealing to start with * Concatenation *... this welcome collection ... will have an important place in Lewis studies. * The Glass *incisive essays ... C.S. Lewis and His Circle offers something for every reader * Touchstone *Table of ContentsForeword, Gregory & Suzanne Wolfe (Founders of the Oxford C. S. Lewis Society) ; Preface, Roger White, Judith Wolfe, and Brendan Wolfe ; Author Biographies ; Part I. Essays ; Philosophy & Theology ; C. S. Lewis, Defender of the Faith, Alister McGrath (Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion, University of Oxford) ; C. S. Lewis' Rewrite of Chapter III of 'Miracles', Elizabeth Anscombe (Leading twentieth-century philosopher) ; C. S. Lewis and the Limits of Reason, Stephen Logan (Musician, poet; Principal Supervisor in English, Clare College, Cambridge) ; Sacramentalism in C. S. Lewis and Charles Williams, Kallistos Ware (Metropolitan Bishop of Diocleia; Spalding Lecturer in Eastern Orthodox Studies (Emeritus), University of Oxford) ; Charles Williams and the Problem of Evil, Paul Fiddes (Professor of Systematic Theology, Oxford University) ; Literature ; 'That Hideous Strength': A Reassessment, Rowan Williams (Baron Williams of Oystermouth, Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, previously 104th Archbishop of Canterbury) ; Yearning for a Far Off Country, Malcolm Guite (Poet, singer-songwriter; Chaplain at Girton College, Cambridge) ; W. H. Auden and the Inklings, Michael Piret (Dean of Divinity, Magdalen College, Oxford) ; The Lewis Diaries: C. S. Lewis and the English Faculty in the 1920's, Thomas Shippey (Walter J. Ong Chair of Humanities (Emeritus), Saint Louis University) ; It All Began with a Picture: The Making of C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia, Walter Hooper (Editor and biographer of C. S. Lewis; literary advisor to the C. S. Lewis Estate) ; II. Memoirs ; Memories of C. S. Lewis by his Family and Friends ; The Lewis Family, Joan Murphy (A Lewis Family Cousin) ; Recollections of Lewis, George Sayer (Former student, friend, and biographer of C. S. Lewis) ; Lewis as a Parishioner, Ronald Head (Formerly Vicar of Holy Trinity Church Headington Quarry, where C. S. Lewis attended) ; Marrying C. S. Lewis, Peter Bide (Friend and priest of C. S. Lewis, officiate of Lewis's marriage to Joy Davidman) ; Memories of the Socratic Club, Stella Aldwinckle (Founder of the Oxford Socratic Club) ; Memories of the Inklings ; The Inklings, Walter Hooper (Editor and biographer of C. S. Lewis; literary advisor to the C. S. Lewis Estate) ; Lewis and/or Barfield, Owen Barfield (Friend of C. S. Lewis, Inklings member, solicitor, philosopher, poet) ; Brothers and Friends: The Diaries of W. H. Lewis, John Wain (Friend of C. S. Lewis, Inklings member, poet, novelist) ; Nevill Coghill and Lewis: Two Irishmen at Oxford, John Wain (Friend of C. S. Lewis, Inklings member, poet, novelist) ; Afterword,A Brief History of the Oxford C. S. Lewis Society Michael Ward (Senior Member of the Oxford C. S. Lewis Society) ; Index

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Book Synopsis''Oh! Monsieur is Persian? That''s most extraordinary! How can someone be Persian?''Two Persian travellers, Usbek and Rica, arrive in Paris just before the death of Louis XIV and in time to witness the hedonism and financial crash of the Regency. In their letters home they report on visits to the theatre and scientific societies, and observe the manners and flirtations of polite society, the structures of power and the hypocrisy of religion. Irony and bitter satire mark their comparison of East and West and their quest for understanding. Unsettling news from Persia concerning the female world of the harem intrudes on their new identities and provides a suspenseful plot of erotic jealousy and passion.This pioneering epistolary novel and work of travel-writing opened the world of the West to its oriental visitors and the Orient to its Western readers. This is the first English translation based on the original text, revealing this lively work as Montesquieu first intended. ABOUT THE SERI

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Book SynopsisThis edition offers a new translation of a selection of the Buddha's most important sayings reflecting the full variety of material: biography of the Buddha, narrative, myth, short sayings, philosophical discourse, instruction on morality, meditation, and the spiritual life. It provides an excellent introduction to Buddhist scripture.Trade ReviewRupert Gethin's 'Sayings of the Buddha' [is] translated with an eye toward readability. * Buddhaharma *This short volume is...a resource for teachers and students, and anyone interested in early Buddhist literature. * Buddhaharma *

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Book SynopsisA new edition issued in paperback of the critically acclaimed biography of Charles Sanders Peirce.Trade Review[P]eirce himself displayed both logical brilliance and serious moral weaknesses, as Brent's narrative so vividly illustrates. This is one of the central, tragic paradoxes of Peirce's life and thought, and Joseph Brent has done a superb job of exposing and exploring it.15.3 Sept. 1994 * American Journal of Theology and Philosophy *Peirce (1839, 1914) is America's most creative, dominant, and original philosopher. Yet the first book-length biography of the founder of pragmatism was not published until 75 years after his death: Elisabeth Walther's Charles Sanders Peirce: Leben und Werk (Baden—Baden, 1989). Now we have the first American biography, and a superb book it is. The 35 years Brent expended in making this biography have seasoned and enriched his definitive production. (The telling of Peirce's story, like his life, has been fraught with malversation. Some day the story of telling his story will be told.) Here, the facts of Peirce's life are integrated into the systematization that he hoped would for a long time to come [influence] the entire work of human reason. From fields as diverse and powerful as semiotics, metaphysics, epistemology, aesthetics, ethics, psychology, linguistics, geology, philosophy of science, mathematics, and religion, these effects are being acknowledged. The role of Peirce's life in the chronological development of his ideas structures this narrative and gives an expositional argument for a solid interpretation of his philosophy as a single architectonic system. Five chapters of the biography cover in chronological order 75 years of Peirce's life. The sixth and last, a brilliant essay The Wasp in the Bottle, could alone make this work a masterpiece. Indiana University Press is also publishing a complete edition, Writings of Charles S. Peirce (1982— ; v.1, CH, Feb'83). Six volumes are published of 30 expected. (The project, this year, is in a struggle for continued support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.) From the published volumes, IUP has now issued the first of a projected two—volume sampler: The Essential Peirce, containing 25 well—edited, important works written by Peirce from 1867 to 1893, with an excellent introduction by Nathan Houser, associate editor of the Peirce Edition project. From Harvard University Press comes Peirce's Cambridge Conference Lectures of 1898, Reasoning and the Logic of Things. The text, taken from the Houghton Library collections for the purpose of a study edition, is without the critical editorial work of the IUP editions. The 50 pages of comment by Hilary Putnam are of interest in themselves; the 160 pages of Peirce's eight lectures are demonstrations of the authority and originality of his thought. Here is a generally accessible and complete account of Peirce's mature work constructed by Peirce himself in order to introduce his philosophy to nonspecialists. This book in an undergraduate library would make Peirce's philosophy intelligible independently of philosophy courses and philosophy teachers. Each of these books is well published and contains effective notes and an adequate index. This reviewer's highest recommendation is for Brent's biography, which should be in every college and university library in America. The next priority is Reasoning and the Logic of Things, a new and valuable addition to Peirce primary sources presently available. Libraries not subscribing to the complete Writings. . .should certainly order The Essential Peirce.September 1993 -- K. J. Dykeman * Fairfield University *

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Book SynopsisThis . . . is a brilliant work. Choice[Sternberg] has written a very important book, both for his comprehensiveness and for the clearly-avowed faith stance from which he understands and interprets the strategies of the biblical narratives. . . . a superb overview . . . Theological Studies . . . rated very highly indeed. It is a book to read and then reread. Modern Language Review . . . Sternberg has accomplished an enormous task, enriching our understanding of the theoretical basis of biblical narrative and giving us insight into a remarkable number of particular texts. Journal of the American Academy of Religion . . . an important book for those who seek to take the Bible seriously as a literary work because it shows, more clearly and emphatically than any book I know, that the Bible is a serious literary worka text manifesting a highly sophisticated and successful narrative poetics. Adele Berlin, ProoftextsTrade Review"This ... is a brilliant work." Choice "[Sternberg] has written a very important book, both for his comprehensiveness and for the clearly-avowed faith stance from which he understands and interprets the strategies of the biblical narratives... a superb overview ... " Theological Studies " ... rated very highly indeed. It is a book to read and then reread." Modern Language Review " ... Sternberg has accomplished an enormous task, enriching our understanding of the theoretical basis of biblical narrative and giving us insight into a remarkable number of particular texts." Journal of the American Academy of Religion " ... an important book for those who seek to take the Bible seriously as a literary work because it shows, more clearly and emphatically than any book I know, that the Bible is a serious literary work - a text manifesting a highly sophisticated and successful narrative poetics." Adele Berlin, ProoftextsTable of ContentsPreface1. Literary Text, Literary Approach: Getting the Questions StraightDiscourse and SourceFiction and HistoryForm and DoctrineThe Drama of Reading2. Narrative Models3. Ideology of Narration and Narration of Ideology Omniscience Charged and Monopolized: The Epistemological RevolutionThe Omnipotence Effect: Control Claimed and Disclaimed4. Viewpoints and InterpretationsPoint of View and Its Biblical ConfigurationThe Wooing of RebekahPositions and Discrepancies EstablishedThe Movement form Divergence to Convergence of PerspectivesNew Tensions and Final Resolution5. The Play of PerspectivesNarrator vs. GodNarrator and Reader vs. God and Characters Spheres of CommunicationThree Reading PositionsFrom Plot to PerspectiveFrom Ignorance to KnowledgePrivilege and Performance6. Gaps, Ambiquity and the Reading ProcessThe Literary Work as a System of GapsThe Story of David and Bathsheba: On the Narrator's Reticence and OmissionsThe Ironic ExpositionWhat Is the King Doing in the City?Uriah the Hittite Recalled to JerusalemDoes Uriah Know about His Wife's Doings? The Twofold HypothesisWhat Does David Think That Uriah Thinks? The Three-Way HypothesisHow Joab Fails to Carry Out David's OrderThe Analogy to the Story of Abimelech and the WomanOn Mutually Exclusive Systems of Gap-Filling: Turning the Screws of Henry James and Others7. Between the Truth and the Whole TruthFoolproof Composition in AmbiguityThe Relevance of AbsenceTemporary and Permanent GappingThe Echoing InterrogativeOpposition in JuxtapositionCoherence Threatened and FortifiedNorms and Their ViolationsFrom Gapping to Closure: The Functions of Ambiguity8. Temporal Discontinuity, Narrative Interest, and the Emergence of MeaningSuspense and the Dynamics of ProspectionThe Pros and Cons of Suspense in the BibleModes of Shaping the Narrative FutureDarkness in Light, or: Zigzagging toward Sisera's EndCuriosity and the Dynamics of RetrospectionJoseph and His Brothers: Making Sense of the PastSurprise and the Dynamics of Recognition9. Proleptic PortraitsCharacter and Characterization: From Divine to HumanWhy the Truth about Character Does Not SufficeThe Art of the Proleptic EpithetEpithets and the Rule of Forward-looking Exposition10. Going from Surface to DepthCharacter as Action, Character in ActionThe Composition of Character and the Limits of Metonymic InferenceOld Age in GenesisGood Looks in Samuel11. The Structure of Repetition: Strategies of Informational RedundancySimilarity Patterns and the Structure of RepetitionFormulaic Convention or Functional Principle?Constant and Variable FactorsVerbatim RepetitionRepetition with Variation: Forms and Functions of DevianceRepetition and Communication: Pharah's DreamBasic Axes and Natural CombinationsFrom Natural to Functional CombinationsDeliberate Variation: (Figural) Rhetoric within (Narratorial) RhetoricGeneric Transformation into ParablePermutations and Some ComplicationsRepetition and Narrative Art: Some General Consequences12. The Art of PersusionPersuading in the Court of ConscienceDelicate Balance in the Rape of DinahThe Rhetorical Repertoire13. Ideology, Rhetoric, PoeticsJustifying the Ways of God to Man: Saul's RejectionDancing in ChainsDialogue as Pressure, Variations as JudgmentConvergence with Belated Discovery: Rhetorical OverkillNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisThis National Book Critics Circle Award is “an entrancing attempt to catch what falls between: the irreducibly personal, messy, even embarrassing ways reading and living bleed into each other, which neither literary criticism nor autobiography ever quite acknowledges (The New York Times). “Stories, both my own and those I’ve taken to heart, make up whoever it is that I’ve become,” Peter Orner writes in this collection of essays about reading, writing, and living. Orner reads and writes everywhere he finds himself: a hospital cafeteria, a coffee shop in Albania, or a crowded bus in Haiti. The result is a book of unlearned meditations that stumbles into memoir.Among the many writers Orner addresses are Isaac Babel and Zora Neale Hurston, both of whom told their truths and were silenced; Franz Kafka, who professed loneliness but craved connection; Robert Walser, who spent the last twenty-three years of his life in a Swiss insane asylum, working at being crazy; and Juan Rulfo, who practiced the difficult art of silence. Virginia Woolf, Eudora Welty, Yasunari Kawabata, Saul Bellow, Mavis Gallant, John Edgar Wideman, William Trevor, and Václav Havel make appearances, as well as the poet Herbert Morris--about whom almost nothing is known.An elegy for an eccentric late father, and the end of a marriage, Am I Alone Here? is also a celebration of the possibility of renewal. At once personal and panoramic, this book will inspire readers to return to the essential stories of their own lives.

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Book SynopsisThis is one of the wisest books I've read in years...--New York Times Book Review No writer I know of comes close to even trying to articulate the weird magic of poetry as Ruefle does. She acknowledges and celebrates in the odd mystery and mysticism of the act--the fact that poetry must both guard and reveal, hint at and pull back...Also, and maybe most crucially, Ruefle's work is never once stuffy or overdone: she writes this stuff with a level of seriousness-as-play that's vital and welcome, that doesn't make writing poetry sound anything but wild, strange, life-enlargening fun. -The Kenyon Review Profound, unpredictable, charming, and outright funny...These informal talks have far more staying power and verve than most of their kind. Readers may come away dazzled, as well as amused...--Publishers Weekly This is a book not just for poets but for anyone interested in the human heart, the inner-life, the breath exhaling a completion of an idea that will make you feel changed in some way. This is a desert island book. --Matthew Dickman The accomplished poet is humorous and self-deprecating in this collection of illuminating essays on poetry, aesthetics and literature...- -San Francisco Examiner Over the course of fifteen years, Mary Ruefle delivered a lecture every six months to a group of poetry graduate students. Collected here for the first time, these lectures include "Poetry and the Moon," "Someone Reading a Book Is a Sign of Order in the World," and "Lectures I Will Never Give." Intellectually virtuosic, instructive, and experiential, Madness, Rack, and Honey resists definition, demanding instead an utter--and utterly pleasurable--immersion. Finalist for the 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award. Mary Ruefle has published more than a dozen books of poetry, prose, and erasures. She lives in Vermont.Table of ContentsTABLE OF CONTENTS On Beginnings Poetry and The Moon On Sentimentality On Theme On Secrets: Eight Beginnings, Two Ends On Fear Madness, Rack and Honey My Emily Dickinson Introduction To Lecture on Books So You Want To Write A Book? Someone Reading A Book Is A Sign Of Order In The World Remarks on Letters Kangaroo Beach I Remember, I Remember Introduction To Reading Great Poems Of The Past Twenty-Two Short Lectures Lectures I Will Never Give

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Book SynopsisNew York Times Bestseller“Both deeper and more democratic than The Elements of Style” —Adam Haslett, Financial Times“A guided tour through some of the most beautiful, arresting sentences in the English language.” —SlateIn this entertaining and erudite gem, world-class professor and New York Times columnist Stanley Fish offers both sentence craft and sentence pleasure, skills invaluable to any writer (or reader). Like a seasoned sportscaster, Fish marvels at the adeptness of finely crafted sentences and breaks them down into digestible morsels, giving readers an instant play-by-play. Drawing on a wide range of great writers, from Philip Roth to Antonin Scalia to Jane Austen, How to Write a Sentence is much more than a writing manual—it is a spirited love letter to the written word, and a key to understanding how great writing works. It is a book that will stand the test of time.Trade Review"Both deeper and more democratic than The Elements of Style." -- Financial Times "A guided tour through some of the most beautiful, arresting sentences in the English language." -- Slate "[Fish] shares his connoisseurship of the elegant sentence." -- The New Yorker "Stanley Fish just might be America's most famous professor." -- BookPage "How to Write a Sentence is a compendium of syntactic gems-light reading for geeks." -- New York magazine "How to Write a Sentence isn't merely a prescriptive guide to the craft of writing but a rich and layered exploration of language as an evolving cultural organism. It belongs not on the shelf of your home library but in your brain's most deep-seated amphibian sensemaking underbelly." -- Maria Popova, Brain Pickings "[Fish's] approach is genially experiential-a lifelong reader's engagement whose amatory enthusiasm is an attempt to overthrow Strunk & White's infamous insistences on grammar by rote." -- New York Observer "In this small feast of a book Stanley Fish displays his love of the English sentence. His connoisseurship is broad and deep, his examples are often breathtaking, and his analyses of how the masterpieces achieve their effects are acute and compelling." -- New Republic "A sentence is, in John Donne's words, 'a little world made cunningly,' writes Fish. He'll teach you the art." -- People "This splendid little volume describes how the shape of a sentence controls its meaning." -- Boston Globe "Like a long periodic sentence, this book rumbles along, gathers steam, shifts gears, and packs a wallop." -- Roy Blount Jr. "Language lovers will flock to this homage to great writing." -- Booklist "Fish is a personable and insightful guide with wide-ranging erudition and a lack of pretension." -- National Post "For both aspiring writer and eager reader, Fish's insights into sentence construction and care are instructional, even inspirational." -- The Huffington Post "If you love language you'll find something interesting, if not fascinating, in [How to Write a Sentence]." -- CBSNews.com "[A] slender but potent volume. Fish, a distinguished law professor and literary theorist, is the anti-Strunk & White." -- The Globe and Mail "You'd get your money's worth from the quotations alone...if you give this book the attention it so clearly deserves, you will be well rewarded." -- Washington Times "The fun comes from the examples cited throughout: John Updike, Jane Austen...all are cited throughout." -- Washington Post "How to Write a Sentence is the first step on the journey to the Promised Land of good writing." -- Saudi Gazette "How to Write a Sentence is a must read for aspiring writers and anyone who wants to deepen their appreciation of literature. If extraordinary sentences are like sports plays, Fish is the Vin Scully of great writing." -- Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein, authors of "They Say/I Say" "Coming up with all-or-nothing arguments is simply what Fish does; and, in a sense, one of his most important contributions to the study of literature is that temperament...Whether people like Fish or not, though, they tend to find him fascinating." -- The New Yorker

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Book SynopsisHistory books typically show Vancouver as a pioneer city built on forestry, fisheries, and tourism, but behind the snow-capped mountains and rain forests, the Vancouver of the first half of the 20th century was a seething mass of corruption. The top job at the Vancouver Police Department was a revolving door with the average tenure for a police chief of just four years. In those early years, Detective Joe Ricci's beat was the opium dens and gambling joints of Chinatown, while LurancyHarris-the first female cop in Canada-patrolled the high-end brothels of Alexander Street. Later, proceeds from rum running produced some of the city's iconic buildings, cops became robbers, and the city reeled from a series of unsolved murders. But Vancouver is more than bookies, brothels, and bootleggers-the city also produced legendary women, world-class entertainers and ground-breaking architecture. Sensational Vancouver is a fully illustrated popular history book about Vancouver's famous and infamous, the ordinary and the extraordinary, filtered through the houses in which they lived. Sensational Vancouver covers legendary women including Elsie MacGill, Phyllis Munday, Nellie Yip Quong and Joy Kogawa; high-end brothels, unsolved murders, and the homes and buildings of artists, architects and entertainers including Frederick Varley, Arthur Erickson, Bryan Adams, and Michael Bublé. Includes a Walking Tour map of historic Strathcona and Chinatown. Praise for At Home with History: "You might call her the Sherlock Holmes of home history. Lazarus's stories bring Vancouver's past back to life." -the Outlook "A mix of old black-and-white street-scene photos, jovial stories, and unique neighbourhood profiles, the book crushes the idea that Vancouver is a city without history." -The Georgia Straight "exceptional incidents in ordinary houses and ordinary people in exceptional houses." -The Vancouver Sun "Lazarus reveals the hidden stories of a number of Vancouver's heritage homes, setting each within the larger context of its neighbourhood bootleggers rub shoulders with financiers, prostitutes with police, murderers with mayors." -The Vancouver Courier

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Book SynopsisThe seminal biography of a great poet, novelist and sacred figure in English writing, Thomas Hardy, from bestselling author Clare Tomalin. ''An extraordinary story, beautifully told. Tomalin is the most empathetic of biographers'' Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday Paradox ruled Thomas Hardy''s life. His birth was almost his death; he became one of the great Victorian novelists and reinvented himself as one of the twentieth-century''s greatest poets; he was an unhappy husband and a desolate widower; he wrote bitter attacks on the English class system yet prized the friendship of aristocrats. In the hands of Whitbread Award-winning biographer Claire Tomalin, author of the bestselling Charles Dickens: A Life and The Invisible Woman, Thomas Hardy comes vividly alive. ''Another triumph for a biographer who goes from strength to strength'' Melvyn Bragg, Guardian, Books of the Year ''Tomalin provides an

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Book SynopsisWhen Tessa de Loo saw Albania for the first time, no foreigners were allowed to enter. Filled with a great curiosity, longing, and a sense of wonderment by this isolated land, de Loo gazed toward the mountains that stood like 'the backs of patiently waiting elephants' across the water from Corfu. Inspired by the famous Thomas Phillips portrait of Lord Byron in Albanian national costume, and enthralled by the image of Lord Byron since her teenage years, she sets about exploring not only his physical journey, but attempts to understand his inner one as well. de Loo stole her way in and found a country suffering the hardships of post-communist reality and the constant and sometimes fractious clash between tradition and modernity. In the tradition of Bruce Chatwin, de Loo, the award-winning author of "The Twins," has written a fascinating travelogue and a very personal reassessment of the a formative chapter in Lord Byron's short life.Trade Review'[One notes] the seriousness and humour with which De Loo laces her contribution to superior travel literature... She gives her report in the form of letters to Byron (My dear friend, My dearest George) alternated with chapters where she recounts Byron's journey. However euphoric De Loo's report is not too affected, it stays lively and informative... is a book of contrasts, surprises and disappointments, written cheerfully and with eye for details.' Vrij Nederland

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Book SynopsisMacbeth is one of Shakespeare's most performed and studied tragedies. This major new Arden edition offers students detailed on-page commentary notes highlighting meaning and theatrical ideas and themes, as well as an illustrated, lengthy introduction setting the play in its historical, theatrical and critical context and outlining the recent debates about Middleton's possible co-authorship of some scenes. A comprehensive and informative edition ideal for students and teachers seeking to explore the play in depth, whether in the classroom or on the stage.Trade ReviewThis is a splendid edition: it incorporates the most recent modern scholarship ... and it does so within a compass and format that is both readable and usable. -- Neil Rhodes, University of St. Andrews, UK * Around the Globe *A much needed third series edition of Macbeth, which provides the reader with a breath of fresh scholarship after over 30 years. * Jarrod DePrado, Sacred Heart University, USA *Table of ContentsPreface List of Illustrations Introduction Macbeth Appendices Further Reading Index

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Book SynopsisSet in the months before the outbreak of the Great War and in print for almost 100 years The Thirty-Nine Steps is John Buchan's most popular novel. This timely look at the book - what inspired it, its themes and metaphors - and at its author - how much of John Buchan's own self and experiences are in it - will greatly enhance the reader's enjoyment.Trade Review' ... It doesn't matter how many times you have read "The Thirty-Nine Steps", this book will allow you to see it through fresh eyes and appreciate it even more deeply.' Undiscovered ScotlandTable of ContentsIntroduction - The man who lived / London, and the man who died / Galloway and the Borders / Upper Tweedale / The living hill country / The Scots in the modern world / South Africa and secret societies / Disguise and disappearance / Converging on the sea / Further reading and summaries of the Buchan novels.

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Book Synopsis'The power of Shakespeare lies in his evidently conscious knowledge, skill and understanding of how to work with the alchemical potential in the human soul in the crafting of his plays. Each play is made as an exquisitely unique transformative device for the education of the soul."Books carry on conversations across the thresholds of time and space', writes Josie Alwyn in her introduction. This book is the fruit of her 'conversation' with Brien Masters - a collaboration that began more than twenty years ago, when she was learning to be a Waldorf teacher. They open their discussions with the broader theme of the role and 'mission' of drama in human development, before focusing on the central topic: the potential for metamorphosis inherent in Shakespeare's plays. This creative, birth-giving, transformative essence of Shakespeare - the esoteric core of his work - is vitally important to our times, they suggest, and contributes to the ongoing cultural education of the human soul.Published to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, Educating the Soul offers an overview of Shakespeare's journey as a playwright in the context of evolving human consciousness. The heart of the book features nine essays on Shakespeare's most performed plays. Just as the middle act of a Shakespearian drama gives a point of transformation, so these essays represent the central, unfolding dialogue that took place between the writers as the book developed. This section is followed by an in-depth study of Hamlet, that sees the story as a learning process, deeply strengthened by the primary character's own education and changing consciousness. Finally, the book explores the theme of transformation through The Tempest and in relation to the archetypal 'tree of life'. Accessible to all, the motifs of the various chapters in this book are woven lightly together, enabling the reader to follow the contents in sequence, or to dip in and pick up the threads at any point.

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisThis handy guide places The Stranger, one of the seminal texts of existentialism and twentieth-century literature in general, in the context of French and French-Algerian history and culture. This second edition boasts a revised guide to further reading and a new chapter on Camus and the Algerian War.Table of ContentsPreface; Chronology; 1. Contexts; 2. The Stranger; 3. Early Camus and Sartre; 4. Camus and the Algerian War; 5. Why and how we read The Stranger: a guide to further reading.

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Book SynopsisThe Rhetoric of Identity in Isocrates provides an interpretation of an important, but largely neglected and disregarded, fourth-century Athenian author to show how he uses writing to provide a model of political engagement which is distinct from his own contemporaries' (especially Plato's) and from our own notions of political involvement.Trade Review"Students of ancient rhetoric will be very glad that there is now a monograph on Isocrates in English....They will find the book interesting and suggestive...." Bryn Mawr Classical Review"The Rhetoric of Identity in Isocrates strengthens our understanding of the process by which Isocrates created his literary ethos and the necessity for such a rhetorical display." Rhetoric ReviewTable of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Isocrates and logos politikos; 2. The unities of discourse; 3. The politics of the small voice; 4. Isocrates in his own write; 5. The pedagogical contract; 6. The politics of discipleship; Brief afterword; Appendix 1. Isocrates and Gorgias; Appendix 2. Concerning the chariot-team.

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