Literary studies: c 1600 to c 1800 Books

Book SynopsisArgues that Restoration playwrights recognized and exploited the tension between print and performance inherent to all drama. By repeatedly and systematically manipulating this tension, these authors’ works sought to court the reader while at the same time also challenging emergent concepts of ‘literature’.Table of Contents Introduction 1. Of Heirs and "Bold Purloiner[s]": Shadwell's Alternative Models of Literary Inheritance in The Lancashire Withces and The Squire of Alsatia 2. "Can my Imagination feel?": Reading, Theatricality, and the Mind-Body Problem in Aphra Behn's The Lucky Chance and The Emperor of the Moon 3. Textual Timelessness, Performative Time: Posterity in Congreve's Love for Love and The Way of the World 4. "Take this sad Ballad, which I bought at Fair": Pastoral Performance and Print Capitalism in John Gay's The What D'Ye Call It and The Beggar's Opera Conclusion

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Book SynopsisIn The Perraults, Oded Rabinovitch takes the fascinating eponymous literary and scientific family as an entry point into the complex and rapidly changing world of early modern France. Today, the Perraults are best remembered for their canonical fairy tales, such as Cinderella and Puss in Boots, most often attributed to Charles Perrault, one of the brothers. While the writing of fairy tales may seem a frivolous enterprise, it was, in fact, linked to the cultural revolution of the seventeenth century, which paved the way for the scientific revolution, the rise of national literatures, and the early Enlightenment. Rabinovitch argues that kinship networks played a crucial, yet unexamined, role in shaping the cultural and intellectual ferment of the day, which in turn shaped kinship and the social history of the family.Through skillful reconstruction of the Perraults' careers and networks, Rabinovitch portrays the world of letters as a means of social mobility. He complicatTrade Review[Rabinovitch's] Examination of the Perrault family provides the means to gain a deeper understanding of notions of authorship, the role of the royal court, and family power dynamics. * Choice *Watching the progress of the Perraults as it is described here is fascinating. With considerable economy but with much significant detail, the author has rebuilt the web of networks that made a remarkable literary family. The astute use of documents is a strong point of the book, along with Rabinovitch's imaginative use of fairy tales to support his cogent argument about the pervasive importance of kinship. * H-France *Oded Rabinovitch shows here, perhaps better than anyone before him, the complexities and importance of kinship in seventeenth-century France. * H-France Review *This is a remarkable book: beautifully written, deeply learned, extensively researched and documented, it is packed with fresh insights that change our understanding of intellectual production and social history in the early modern world. * European History Quarterly *The Perraults is a dense, subtle, and ambitious book, which should be of interest to all students of 'letters' (in the broadest sense) in ancien régime France. * American Historical Review *One of the marks of an innovative and successful monograph is that not only do we think about a familiar subject in an altogether new way when we put it down, we wonder how its insights had not appeared obvious to us before. Oded Rabinovitch's new book does precisely this, offering a stimulating model for future research into literary and scientific life in the early modern period. * The Journal of Modern History *[A] major study, offering an excellent model of how to combine historical and literary research by situating literary production in precise political and social contexts. * History *An excellent analysis of one family's fortunes that connects Paris with Versailles and the countryside as well as a variety of cultural fields including literature, science, architecture, and finance. * Sixteenth Century Journal *Table of ContentsList of Figures Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Cast of Characters Introduction 1. Representing a Family of Letters: Images of Authorship (1650–1750) 2. Finance and Mobility: Pierre Ascendant (1600–1660) 3. The Perraults in the Countryside: Viry and Literary Sociability (1650–1680) 4. Failure in Finance and the Rise of Charles Perrault (1660–1680) 5. The Perraults and Versailles: Mediating Grandeur (1660–1700) 6. Claude Perrault and the Mechanics of Animals: Family and Scientific Institutions (1660–1690) Epilogue (1690–1730) Appendix Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe Visionary Queen affirms Marguerite de Navarre’s status not only as a political figure, author, or proponent of nonschismatic reform but also as a visionary. In her life and writings, the queen of Navarre dissected the injustices that her society and its institutions perpetuated against women. We also see evidence that she used her literary texts, especially the Heptaméron, as an exploratory space in which to generate a creative vision for institutional reform. The Heptaméron’s approach to reform emerges from statistical analysis of the text’s seventy-two tales, which reveals new insights into trends within the work, including the different categories of wrongdoing by male, institutional representatives from the Church and aristocracy, as well as the varying responses to injustice that characters in the tales employ as they pursue reform. Throughout its chapters, The Visionary Queen foregrounds the trope of the labyrinth, a potent symbol in early modern Europe that encapsulated both the fallen world and redemption, two themes that underlie Marguerite's project of reform.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction. Marguerite de Navarre: The Visionary Queen Part I: Labyrinthine Motifs in Marguerite’s Era, Endeavors, and Spiritual Outlook 1. The Labyrinth as Structure and Symbol: From Experience to Writing in the Medieval and Early Modern Contexts 2. From the Labyrinth, a Vision: Competing Influences on Marguerite’s Religious, Political, and Creative Endeavors 3. “We Walk by Faith, Not by Sight”: Exegesis, Pilgrimage, and Labyrinthine Connections in the Reformation Part II: The Heptaméron as Textual Labyrinth 4. Into the Labyrinth: Mirroring Sin, Prompting Reform 5. Down Tortuous Paths: Exploring Approaches to Justice and Reform 6. Above the Labyrinth: A Higher Vision for Reforming the Self and Society Conclusion. The Empirical Reader at Labyrinth’s End: Responding to Marguerite’s Vision Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisRichly researched and engagingly written, Political Affairs of the Heart traces the emergence of female sentimental travel writing in late eighteenth-century Britain, and posits its centrality to women’s engagement with national and gender politics. This study examines four travel narratives written by women between 1774 and 1795, convincingly arguing that they effectively deploy the discourse of sensibility to engage with debates around Britain’s national identity during the French and American Revolutions. Van Netten Blimke contends that Laurence Sterne’s A Sentimental Journey (1768)—which first introduced sentimental discourse to the travelogue—facilitated women’s gradual inclusion into this previously male-dominated genre, effectively paving the way for women to influence the country’s sociopolitical transformation. These four previously understudied works successfully combine eyewitness authority with the language of sensibility to mount impassioned interventions in their nation’s perception and practice of revolutionary politics, at a time when its national identity was most in flux.Trade Review"Richly researched and elegantly argued, Political Affairs of the Heart recovers the complex contemporary resonances of eighteenth-century sentimental travel writing and demonstrates emphatically how women used the form to make a variety of interventions in political and moral debate."— Carl Thompson, author of The Suffering Traveller and the Romantic Imagination "Van Netten Blimke reveals the many ways in which women travel writers used the language and tropes of sensibility as they explored the lessons of the world-changing events of the French and American Revolutions. Her lively study will be of interest to anyone working in the eighteenth century as it excavates the complex intellectual milieus represented in these widely underrated books."— Katherine Turner, editor of A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy "In Van Netten Blimke’s impressively researched study, four writers from across the political spectrum use sentimental travel to intervene in debates about colonialism, war, and national or imperial identity, significantly advancing our understanding of women writers’ strategies for navigating gender constraints in a literary genre that women had just recently entered." — Elizabeth Bohls, coeditor of Travel Writing 1700-1830: An AnthologyTable of ContentsIntroduction: Critical Contexts: Eighteenth-Century Women’s Travel Writing Part One: Mobile Feelings: Mapping the Sentimental Traveler 1 “Altogether of a Different Cast”: The Development of the Sentimental Traveler Part Two: Divided Sympathies: Female Sentimental Travel Writers and the American Revolution 2 “I Am Sure You Will Share My Feelings”: Janet Schaw’s Journal of a Lady of Quality, Imperial Desire, and the American Revolution 3 The Ties That Bind: Sentimentalizing Colonialism in A Journey to the Highlands of Scotland Part Three: Sensibility in Distress: Female Sentimental Travel Writers and the French Revolution 4 Revitalizing Sensibility: Mary Morgan’s Defense of Emotional Engagement in A Tour to Milford Haven 5 “A Renovation of Existence”: Helen Maria Williams’s A Tour in Switzerland and the Renewal of Political Vision Epilogue: “An Affair of the Heart” Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisA collection of essays from feminist critics, each of which explores the history of the English novel, literature's place in cultural debate and women's studies. They begin with the fictions of the late 17th century and end with Maria Edgeworth and Jane Austen.Trade ReviewIn her preface, Backscheider makes high claims for this collection as the fruit of several lifetimes' feminist rereading of 18th-century fiction. These claims turn out to be justified by a truly extraordinary book. Choice These are valuable essays. Those who are interested in eighteenth-century English women, whether or not they are literary scholars, will find much to interest and stimulate them in this book. -- Barbara Brandon Schnorrenberg Albion Written to illustrate the maturity of a discipline, the essays in Revising Women demonstrate that women writers used fiction to participate in debates taking place in the public sphere. -- Nora Nachumi JASNA News The project that has engaged Paula Backscheider, one of the most prolific and prominent scholars in the field of eighteenth-century studies, is one that I believe is both heroic and potentially enduring: to reconcile the sort of thick description she favors-historical-biographical narratives that take full advantage of extant archive material and reveal richly detailed portraits of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century British culture-with the lessons learned and opportunities afforded by recent literary theory. -- Richard C. Taylor NWSA Journal 2003 These essays reinforce the need to reevaluate female authorship of the eighteenth century. -- Rikki Noel-Williams Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature 2003Table of ContentsContents: The Novel's Gendered Space, Paula R. Backscheider * The Rise of Gender as Political Category, Paula R. Backscheider * Renegotiating the Gothic, Betty Rizzo * My Art Belongs to Daddy? Thomas Day, Maria Edgeworth, and the Pre-Texts of Belinda: Women Writers and Patriachal Authority Mitzi Myers * Jane Austen and the Culture of Circulating Libraries: The Construction of Female Literacy, Barbara M. Benedict

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Book SynopsisNo Fear Shakespeare gives you the complete text of Romeo and Juliet on the left-hand page, side-by-side with an easy-to-understand translation on the right. Each No Fear Shakespeare contains: The complete text of the original play A line-by-line translation that puts Shakespeare into everyday language A complete list of characters with descriptions Plenty of helpful commentary. The famous tale of star-crossed lovers.

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Book SynopsisFrom Tudor to Stuart: The Regime Change from Elizabeth I to James I tells the story of the troubled accession of England''s first Scottish king and the transition from the age of the Tudors to the age of the Stuarts at the dawn of the seventeenth century.From Tudor to Stuart: The Regime Change from Elizabeth I to James I tells the story of the dramatic accession and first decade of the reign of James I and the transition from the Elizabethan to the Jacobean era, using a huge range of sources, from state papers and letters to drama, masques, poetry, and a host of material objects.The Virgin Queen was a hard act to follow for a Scottish newcomer who faced a host of problems in his first years as king: not only the ghost of his predecessor and her legacy but also unrest in Ireland, serious questions about his legitimacy on the English throne, and even plots to remove him (most famously the Gunpowder Plot of 1605). Contrary to traditional assumptions, James''s accession was by no means a s

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Book SynopsisProvides a complete and annotated translation of the famous "Chin P'ing Mei", an anonymous sixteenth-century Chinese novel that focuses on the domestic life of Hsi-men Ch'ing, a corrupt, upwardly mobile merchant in a provincial town, who maintains a harem of six wives and concubines.Trade ReviewOne of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 1994 "[A] book of manners for the debauched. Its readers in the late Ming period likely hid it under their bedcovers."--Amy Tan, New York Times Book Review "[I]t is time to remind ourselves that The Plum in the Golden Vase is not just about sex, whether the numerous descriptions of sexual acts throughout the novel be viewed as titillating, harshly realistic, or, in Mr. Roy's words, intended 'to express in the most powerful metaphor available to him the author's contempt for the sort of persons who indulge in them.' The novel is a sprawling panorama of life and times in urban China, allegedly set safely in the Sung dynasty, but transparently contemporary to the author's late sixteenth-century world, as scores of internal references demonstrate. The eight hundred or so men, women, and children who appear in the book cover a breath-taking variety of human types, and encompass pretty much every imaginable mood and genre--from sadism to tenderness, from light humor to philosophical musings, from acute social commentary to outrageous satire."--Jonathan Spence, New York Review of Books "David Tod Roy enters with zest into the spirit and the letter of the original, quite surpassing ... other earlier versions."--Paul St. John Mackintosh, Literary Review "Reading Roy's translation is a remarkable experience."--Robert Chatain, Chicago Tribune Review of Books "What Roy has already accomplished [in this volume] is enough to establish his translation as definitive... A tremendous achievement."--Charles Horner, CommentaryTable of Contents*Frontmatter, pg. i*Contents, pg. vii*List of Illustrations, pg. xi*Acknowledgments, pg. xiii*Introduction, pg. xvii*Cast of Characters, pg. xlix*Preface to the Chin P'ing Mei tz'u-hua, pg. 1*Preface to the Chin P'ing Mei, pg. 6*Colophon, pg. 7*Four Lyrics to the Tune "Burning Incense", pg. 8*Lyrics on the Four Vices to the Tune "Partridge Sky", pg. 10*CHAPTER 1. Wu Sung Fights a Tiger on Ching-yang Ridge; P'an Chin-lien Disdains Her Mate and Plays the Coquette, pg. 12*CHAPTER 2. Beneath the Blind Hsi-men Ch'ing Meets Chin-lien; Inspired by Greed Dame Wang Speaks of Romance, pg. 43*CHAPTER 3. Dame Wang Proposes a Ten-part Plan for "Garnering the Glow" Hsi-men Ch'ing Flirts with Chin-lien in the Teahouse, pg. 62*CHAPTER 4. The Hussy Commits Adultery behind Wu the Elder's Back; Yun-ko in His Anger Raises a Rumpus in the Teashop, pg. 82*CHAPTER 5. Yun-ko Lends a Hand by Cursing Dame Wang; The Hussy Administers Poison to Wu the Elder, pg. 96*CHAPTER 6. Hsi-men Ch'ing Suborns Ho the Ninth; Dame Wang Fetches Wine and Encounters a Downpour, pg. 111*CHAPTER 7. Auntie Hsueh Proposes a Match with Meng Yu-lou; Aunt Yang Angrily Curses Chang the Fourth, pg. 125*CHAPTER 8. All Night Long P'an Chin-lien Yearns for Hsi-men Ch'ing; During the Tablet-burning Monks Overhear Sounds of Venery, pg. 147*CHAPTER 9. Hsi-men Ch'ing Conspires to Marry P'an Chin-lien; Captain Wu Mistakenly Assaults Li Wai-ch'uan, pg. 170*CHAPTER 10. Wu the Second Is Condemned to Exile in Meng-chou; Hsi-men and His Harem Revel in the Hibiscus Pavilion, pg. 188*CHAPTER 11. P'an Chin-lien Instigates the Beating of Sun Hsueh-o Hsi-men Ch'ing Decides to Deflower Li Kuei-chieh, pg. 205*CHAPTER 12. P'an Chin-lien Suffers Ignominy for Adultery with a Servant; Stargazer Liu Purveys Black Magic in Pursuit of Gain, pg. 224*CHAPTER 13. Li P'ing-erh Makes a Secret Tryst over the Garden Wall; The Maid Ying-ch'un Peeks through a Crack and Gets an Eyeful, pg. 253*CHAPTER 14. Hua Tzu-hsu Succumbs to Chagrin and Loses His Life; Li P'ing-erh Invites Seduction and Attends a Party, pg. 274*CHAPTER 15. Beauties Enjoy the Sights in the Lantern-viewing Belvedere; Hangers-on Abet Debauchery in the Verdant Spring Bordello, pg. 298*CHAPTER 16. Hsi-men Ch'ing Is Inspired by Greed to Contemplate Matrimony; Ying Po-chueh Steals a March in Anticipation of the Ceremony, pg. 316*CHAPTER 17. Censor Yu-wen Impeaches Commander Yang; Li P'ing-erh Takes Chiang Chu-shan as Mate, pg. 337*CHAPTER 18. Lai-pao Takes Care of Things in the Eastern Capital; Ch'en Ching-chi Supervises the Work in the Flower Garden, pg. 356*CHAPTER 19. Snake-in-the-grass Shakes Down Chiang Chu-shan; Li P'ing-erh's Feelings Touch Hsi-men Ch'ing, pg. 376*CHAPTER 20. Meng Yu-lou High-mindedly Intercedes with Wu Yueh-niang; Hsi-men Ch'ing Wreaks Havoc in the Verdant Spring Bordello, pg. 401*APPENDIX I. Translator's Commentary on the Prologue, pg. 429*APPENDIX II. Translations of Supplementary Material, pg. 437*NOTES, pg. 449*BIBLIOGRAPHY, pg. 543*INDEX, pg. 573

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Book SynopsisProvides an annotated translation of the famous "Chin P'ing Mei", an anonymous sixteenth-century Chinese novel that focuses on the domestic life of His-men Ch'ing, a corrupt, upwardly mobile merchant who maintains a harem of six wives and concubines.Trade Review"[A] book of manners for the debauched. Its readers in the late Ming period likely hid it under their bedcovers."--Amy Tan, New York Times Book Review Praise for the previous volumes: "[I]t is time to remind ourselves that The Plum in the Golden Vase is not just about sex, whether the numerous descriptions of sexual acts throughout the novel be viewed as titillating, harshly realistic, or, in Mr. Roy's words, intended 'to express in the most powerful metaphor available to him the author's contempt for the sort of persons who indulge in them.' The novel is a sprawling panorama of life and times in urban China, allegedly set safely in the Sung dynasty, but transparently contemporary to the author's late sixteenth-century world, as scores of internal references demonstrate. The eight hundred or so men, women, and children who appear in the book cover a breath-taking variety of human types, and encompass pretty much every imaginable mood and genre--from sadism to tenderness, from light humor to philosophical musings, from acute social commentary to outrageous satire."--Jonathan Spence, New York Review of Books "Clearly David Roy is the greatest scholar-translator in the field of premodern vernacular Chinese fiction... The puns and various other kinds of word plays that abound in the Chin P'ing Mei are so difficult to translate that I can't help 'slapping the table in amazement' each time I see evidence of Roy's masterful rendition of them... I recommend this book, in the strongest possible terms, to anyone interested in the novel form in general, in Chinese literature in particular, or in the translation of Chinese literature."--Shuhui Yang, Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, and Reviews "Racy, colloquial, and robustly scatalogical, [this translation] could only have been done now, when our literary language has finally shed its Victorian values. David Tod Roy enters with zest into the spirit and the letter of the original, quite surpassing ... earlier versions."--Paul St. John Mackintosh, Literary Review "Reading Roy's translation is a remarkable experience."--Robert Chatain, Chicago Tribune Review of Books "[B]y virtue of both Roy's decision to translate the cihua version of the novel, and his manner of doing so, we have here an invaluable insight into the material and popular literary world of the late-Ming that will serve as a wonderful resource for students of the various aspects of this fascinating and rapidly changing period of late imperial Chinese history for many years to come."--Duncan Campbell, New Zealand Journal of Asian StudiesTable of ContentsLIST OF I LLUSTRATIONS ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi CAST OF CHARACTERS xiii CHAPTER 41: Hsi-men Ch'ing Forms a Marriage Alliance with Ch'iao Hung; P'an Chin-lien Engages in a Quarrel with Li P'ing-erh 1 CHAPTER 42: APowerful Family Blocks Its Gate in Order to Enjoy Fireworks; Distinguished Guests in a High Chamber Appreciate the Lanterns 19 CHAPTER 43: Because of the Missing Gold Hsi-men Ch'ing Curses Chin-lien; As a Result of the Betrothal Yueh-niang Meets Madame Ch'iao 40 CHAPTER 44: Wu Yueh-niang Detains Li Kuei-chieh Overnight; Hsi-men Ch'ing Drunkenly Interrogates Hsia-hua 65 CHAPTER 45: Li Kuei-chieh Requests the Retention of Hsia-hua; Wu Yueh-niang in a Fit of Anger Curses at Tai-an 81 CHAPTER 46: Rain and Snow Interrupt a Walk during the Lantern Festival; Wife and Concubines Laughingly Consult the Tortoise Oracle 97 CHAPTER 47: Wang Liu-erh Peddles Influence in Pursuit of Profit; Hsi-men Ch'ing Accepts a Bribe and Subverts the Law 129 CHAPTER 48: Investigating Censor Tseng Impeaches the Judicial Commissioners; Grand Preceptor Ts'ai Submits a Memorial Regarding Seven Matters 147 CHAPTER 49: Hsi-men Ch'ing Welcomes Investigating Censor Sung Ch'iao-nien; In the Temple of Eternal Felicity He Encounters an Indian Monk 171 CHAPTER 50: Ch'in-t'ung Eavesdrops on the Joys of Lovemaking; Tai-an Enjoys a Pleasing Ramble in Butterfly Lane 203 CHAPTER 51: Yueh-niang Listens to the Exposition Of The Diamond Sutra; Li Kuei-chieh Seeks Refuge in the Hsi-men Ch'ing Household 221 CHAPTER 52: Ying Po-chueh Intrudes on a Spring Beauty in the Grotto; P'an Chin-lien Inspects a Mushroom in the Flower Garden 255 CHAPTER 53: Wu Yueh-niang Engages in Coition in Quest of Male Progeny; Li P'ing-erh Fulfills a Vow in Order to Safeguard Her Son 289 CHAPTER 54: Ying Po-chueh Convenes His Friends in a Suburban Garden; Jen Hou-ch'i Diagnoses an Illness for a Powerful Family 320 CHAPTER 55: Hsi-men Ch'ing Observes a Birthday in the Eastern Capital; Squire Miao from Yang-chou Sends a Present of Singing Boys 346 CHAPTER 56: Hsi-men Ch'ing Assists Ch'ang Shih-chieh; Ying Po-chueh Recommends Licentiate Shui 374 CHAPTER 57: Abbot Tao Solicits Funds to Repair the Temple of Eternal Felicity; Nun Hsueh Enjoins Paying for the Distribution of the Dharan Sutra 394 CHAPTER 58: Inspired by a Fit of Jealousy Chin-lien Beats Ch'iu-chu; Begging Cured Pork the Mirror Polisher Tells a Sob Story 420 CHAPTER 59: Hsi-men Ch'ing Dashes "Snow Lion" to Death; Li P'ing-erh Cries Out in Pain for Kuan-ko 453 CHAPTER 60: Li P'ing-erh Becomes Ill Because of Suppressed Anger; Hsi-men Ch'ing's Silk Goods Store Opens for Business 489 NOTES 507 BIBLIOGRAPHY 639 INDEX 673

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisExamines how mechanisms of change and conversions harrowed and transformed early modern people and their worlds.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisSuzanne Curchod (173794) married Jacques Necker (17321804), later the finance minister of Louis XVI, in 1764; their daughter was Madame de Staël. This biography, written by a descendant, the comte d'Haussonville, and published in 1882, describes her life and her brilliant salon in pre-Revolutionary France.Table of Contents1. Madame Necker's journal; 2. The girlhood and early years of Germaine Necker; 3. The marriage; 4. M. Necker's first term of office life; 5. The General Control Office; 6. The salon in the Rue Bergère; 7. M. Necker a second time in office; 8. The history of Coppet; 9. Coppet during the Revolution; 10. Madame Necker's last years; Index.

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Book SynopsisProvides an annotated translation of the famous Chin P'ing Mei, an anonymous sixteenth-century Chinese novel that focuses on the domestic life of His-men Ch'ing, a corrupt, upwardly mobile merchant in a provincial town, who maintains a harem of six wives and concubines.Trade Review"[A] book of manners for the debauched. Its readers in the late Ming period likely hid it under their bedcovers."--Amy Tan, New York Times Book Review Praise for Volume 1: "[I]t is time to remind ourselves that The Plum in the Golden Vase is not just about sex, whether the numerous descriptions of sexual acts throughout the novel be viewed as titillating, harshly realistic, or, in Mr. Roy's words, intended 'to express in the most powerful metaphor available to him the author's contempt for the sort of persons who indulge in them.' The novel is a sprawling panorama of life and times in urban China, allegedly set safely in the Sung dynasty, but transparently contemporary to the author's late sixteenth-century world, as scores of internal references demonstrate. The eight hundred or so men, women, and children who appear in the book cover a breath-taking variety of human types, and encompass pretty much every imaginable mood and genre--from sadism to tenderness, from light humor to philosophical musings, from acute social commentary to outrageous satire."--Jonathan Spence, New York Review of Books Praise for Volume 1: "Racy, colloquial, and robustly scatalogical, [this translation] could only have been done now, when our literary language has finally shed its Victorian values. David Tod Roy enters with zest into the spirit and the letter of the original, quite surpassing ... earlier versions."--Paul St. John Mackintosh, Literary Review Praise for Volume 1: "Reading Roy's translation is a remarkable experience."--Robert Chatain, Chicago Tribune Review of BooksTable of ContentsLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xiii CAST OF CHARACTERS xv CHAPTER 21 Wu Yueh-niang Sweeps Snow in Order to Brew Tea; Ying Po-chueh Runs Errands on Behalf of Flowers 3 CHAPTER 22 Hsi-men Ch'ing Secretly Seduces Lai-wang's Wife; Ch'un-mei Self-righteously Denounces Li Ming 30 CHAPTER 23 Yu-hsiao Acts as Lookout by Yueh-niang's Chamber; Chin-lien Eavesdrops outside Hidden Spring Grotto 43 CHAPTER 24 Ching-chi Flirts with a Beauty on the Lantern Festival; Hui-hsiang Angrily Hurls Abuse at Lai-wang's Wife 62 CHAPTER 25 Hsueh-o Secretly Divulges the Love Affair; Lai-wang Drunkenly Vilifies Hsi-men Ch'ing 80 CHAPTER 26 Lai-wang Is Sent under Penal Escort to Hsu-chou; Sung Hui-lien Is Shamed into Committing Suicide 100 CHAPTER 27 Li P'ing-erh Communicates a Secret in the Kingfisher Pavilion; P'an Chin-lien Engages in a Drunken Orgy under the Grape Arbor 127 CHAPTER 28 Ch'en Ching-chi Teases Chin-lien a out a Shoe; Hsi-men Ch'ing Angrily Beats Little Iron Rod 150 CHAPTER 29 Immortal Wu Physiognomizes the Exalted and the Humble; P'an Chin-lien Enjoys a Midday Battle in the Bathtub 166 CHAPTER 30 Lai-pao Escorts the Shipment of Birthday Gifts; Hsi-men Ch'ing Begets a Son and Gains an Office 194 CHAPTER 31 Ch'in-t'ung Conceals a Flagon after Spying on Yu-hsiao; Hsi-men Ch'ing Holds a Feast and Drinks Celebratory Wine 214 CHAPTER 32 Li Kuei-chieh Adopts a Mother and Is Accepted as a Daughter; Ying Po-chueh Cracks Jokes and Dances Attendance on Success 242 CHAPTER 33 Ch'en Ching-chi Loses His Keys and Is Distrained to Sing; Han Tao-kuo Liberates His Wife to Compete for Admiration 261 CHAPTER 34 Shu-t'ung Relies upon His Favor to Broker Affairs; P'ing-an Harbors Resentment and Wags His Tongue 282 CHAPTER 35 Harboring Resentment Hsi-men Ch'ing Punishes P'ing-an; Playing a Female Role Shu-t'ung Entertains Hangers-on 309 CHAPTER 36 Chai Ch'ien Sends a Letter Asking for a Young Girl; Hsi-men Ch'ing Patronizes Principal Graduate Ts'ai 345 CHAPTER 37 Old Mother Feng Urges the Marriage of Han Ai-chieh; Hsi-men Ch'ing Espouses Wang Liu-erh as a Mistress 360 CHAPTER 38 Hsi-men Ch'ing Su jects Trickster Han to the Third Degree; P'an Chin-lien on a Snowy Evening Toys with Her P'i-p'a 382 CHAPTER 39 Hsi-men Ch'ing Holds Chiao Rites at the Temple of the Jade Emperor; Wu Yueh-niang Listens to Buddhist Nuns Reciting Their Sacred Texts 404 CHAPTER 40 Holding Her Boy in Her Arms Li P'ing-erh Curries Favor; Dressing Up as a Maidservant Chin-lien Courts Affection 438 APPENDIX Translations of Supplementary Material 453 NOTES 473 BIBLIOGRAPHY 577 INDEX 605

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Book SynopsisThis is the first book in English on the seventeenth-century Chinese masterpiece Liaozhai's Records of the Strange (Liaozhai zhiyi) by Pu Songling, a collection of nearly five hundred fantastic tales and anecdotes written in Classical Chinese.Trade Review"It is good to see a whole book devoted to the Liaozhai in English, that gives it as serious a study as it deserves: an informative and fascinating account of the background and world that produced it."—Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society"Zeitlin's book may be described as a study of the Liaozhai tales in their cultural and intercultural context. She analyzes selected tales in relation to three topics or themes—obsession, gender dislocation, and dream. . . . The central theme of each chapter is enhanced by the inclusion of a network of related topics to cover a wide range of ramifications, such that the narration forms a richly patterned discourse. The book provides both learned description of these selected cultural contexts and an extremely subtle and brilliant reading of some of the most intriguing classical tales ever written in Chinese, all couched in Zeitlin's graceful and poised prose. . . . Her extraordinary sensibility, her in-depth engagement with the texts, indeed may serve as a model for the reading of Chinese texts in general."—Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies

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Book SynopsisAn innovative cultural history of the most influential, most frequently translated and most imitated novel in the world.Trade Review"This enjoyable book, a fast and fun read, informs us deeply about [Don Quixote]. As such, it is a model work of criticism. It sends us back to the original work, eager and informed and moved to reread it or read it for the first time." -- Tim Redman - Dallas Morning News "A combination of celebration, meditation, and quest, Stavans's book is bound to please el Quijote's devoted readers and win new fans." -- Publishers Weekly "Bold, imaginative, and deeply learned... Stavans, one of our most gifted scholars of Hispanic literature, has arrived to narrate the tale of how modernity was birthed amid the whirl of windmills and all those chasing them." -- Henry Louis Gates Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, Harvard University "Stavans brings infections enthusiasm and penetrating scholarship to this lively investigation of a grand novel and its readers." -- Kirkus Reviews "If, like me, you live with the guilt of not having read Don Quixote of La Mancha, this delightful romp will inspire you to act. It is a splendid work of historiography that looks at the knight's influence on just about everything-including the Muppets. Ilan Stavans delivers another keen-eyed, delightful tour de force." -- Barry Moser, illustrator of The Pennyroyal Caxton Bible "Ilan Stavans, like Cervantes, tells stories of errantry: of his own travels with and through the book, of El Quijote's journey across and around the world, of the characters' voyages through the imaginations of creators and re-creators. The result is as engaging, funny, readable, and illuminating as the book it's about: an idiosyncratic yet amazingly comprehensive companion, which all readers of El Quijote will want." -- Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, author of Millennium: A History of Our Last Thousand Years and 1492: The Year the World Began "A masterly history of Don Quixote that approaches the book from multiple angles: literary, historical, cultural, linguistic, and personal. Ilan Stavans has given us a compelling, readable, and often humorous portrait of the book and its author." -- Laila Lalami, author of The Moor's Account "In this sparkling narrative, Ilan Stavans takes us on an exploration of a novel he reveres... A fascinating, deeply enjoyable read." -- Jon Lee Anderson, author of Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life "The impression is of abundant intelligence poured into a vessel whose aim is not tidy scholarship but joyous insight. Book lovers will relish this expansive and generous tome." -- Library Journal "Expertly connects Cervantes' satire of then-popular novels of chivalry to the political climate of the time... The combination of cultural analysis, textual examination, and enthusiastic commentary makes for an excellent primer to celebrate this momentous anniversary [of Quixote's publication.]" -- Booklist

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Book SynopsisThe Life of William Shakespeare is a fascinating and wide-ranging exploration of Shakespeare's life and works focusing on oftern neglected literary and historical contexts: what Shakespeare read, who he worked with as an author and an actor, and how these various collaborations may have affected his writing.Trade Review“Two of the Mighty dead have been brought back to life in exemplary fashion: Shakespeare in Lois Potter’s The Life of William Shakespeare: A Critical Biography, which very cleverly uses expert theatre-knowledge as a way of making her enigmatic subject seem plausibly substantial; and Keats in Nicholas Roe’s John Keats: A New Life, which puts the poet properly in his place.” (The Guardian, 24 November 2012) “This study will have wide appeal to readers who wish to expand their appreciation of the works of William Shakespeare. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.” (Choice, 1 November 2012) “A richly suggestive, undogmatic book in which Lois Potter ranges across the entire canon and the period that helped produce it.” (Around the Globe, 1 October 2012) “Lois Potter’s Life of William Shakespeare, ranks with the most distinguished examples of its kind … Her achievement lies in her catholicity, her simultaneous commitment to matters personal, historical, theatrical, literary, cultural. She exhibits an absolute command of the available facts, a lifetime’s acquaintance with the works gained in teaching and playgoing, an unparalleled familiarity with theatrical history from 1567 to the present, and a talent for connecting the fictional and the actual.” (Times Literary Supplement, 10 August 2012)Table of ContentsList of Illustrations vi Preface and Acknowledgments vii List of Abbreviations x The Shakespeare Family Tree xii 1 “Born into the World”: 1564–1571 1 2 “Nemo SibiNascitur”: 1571–1578 21 3 “Hic et Ubique”: 1578–1588 40 4 “This Man’s Art and That Man’s Scope”: 1588–1592 64 5 “Tigers’ Hearts”: 1592–1593 86 6 “The Dangerous Year”: 1593–1594 106 7 “Our Usual Manager of Mirth”: 1594–1595 134 8 “The Strong’st and Surest Way to Get”: Histories, 1595–1596 162 9 “When Love Speaks”: Tragedy and Comedy, 1595–1596 181 10 “You Had a Father; Let Your Son Say So”: 1596–1598 201 11 “Unworthy Scaffold”: 1598–1599 231 12 “These Words Are Not Mine”: 1599–1601 258 13 “Looking Before and After”: 1600–1603 277 14 “This Most Balmy Time”: 1603–1605 300 15 “Past the Size of Dreaming”: 1606–1609 330 16 “Like an Old Tale”: 1609–1611 360 17 “The Second Burden”: 1612–1616 384 18 “In the Mouths of Men”: 1616 and After 414 Bibliography 443 Index 475

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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 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 SynopsisThis second edition of Macbeth offers a thorough reconsideration of one of Shakespeare's most popular plays. Edited and introduced by A. R. Braunmuller, this edition features a new introductory section on recent productions of the play, including cinematic versions by Kurosawa and Roman Polanski.Trade Review'This updated edition of Macbeth reveals thorough research, it is conscientiously annotated, and it appears a superb tool for researchers and students involved in Shakespeare scholarship.' Year's Work in English StudiesTable of ContentsIntroduction: Macbeth in legend, Macbeth in history; Macbeth in the mind; Macbeth in performance; Macbeth in the mind and in performance; Recent performances and adaptations; Note on the text; List of characters; The play; Supplementary notes; Textual analysis; Appendixes: 1. Casting Macbeth; 2. Additional text and music; 3. Relineation of the Folio; Reading list.

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Book SynopsisThe text, with few departures, is that of the First Quarto (1598) edition of the play.Table of ContentsPreface A Note on the Text Abbreviated Genealogy of the Mortimers and the House of Lancaster The Text of 1 Henry IV Contexts and Sources COMPOSITION AND PUBLICATION Excerpt from the 1598 Quarto ONE PLAY OR TWO? Harold Jenkins – The Structural Problem in Shakespeare’s “Henry the Fourth” Paul Yachnin – History, Theatricality, and the “Structural Problem” in the Henry IV Plays FALSTAFF OR OLDCASTLE? Gary Taylor – The Fortunes of Oldcastle David Scott Kastan – [Reforming Falstaff] ORIGINS Peter Saccio – [Shakespearean History and the Reign of Henry IV] Edward Hall – Henry, Prince of Wales Raphael Holinshed – Elizabeth and the Uniting of the Two Houses Anonymous – An Homilee against disobedience and wylful rebellion Raphael Holinshed – The Chronicles of England Samuel Daniel – The Ciuile Wars The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth Criticism John Dryden – The Composition of a Character Samuel Johnson – [Falstaff] Elizabeth Montagu – [Hal, Falstaff, and Taste] Maurice Morgann – An Essay on the Dramatic Character of Sir John Falstaff John Dover Wilson – The Falstaff Myth Arthur C. Sprague – Gadshill Revisited E.M.W. Tillyard – The Second Tetralogy Henry Ansagar Kelly – [Providence and Progaganda] Graham Holderness – [Tillyard, History, and Ideology] Sigurd Burckhardt – [Symmetry and Disorder] John Wilders – [Knowledge and Misjudgement] Stephen Greenblatt – [Theater and Power] Scott McMillin – [Performing 1 Henry IV] David Scott Kastan – “The King Hath Many Marching in His Coats,” or, What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? C. L. Barber – [Mingling Kings and Clowns] Michael Bristol – [The Battle of Carnival and Lent] Samuel Crowl – [Welles and Falstaff] Patricia Parker – [Fat Lady Falstaff] Coppélia Kahn – [Masculine Identities] Gus Van Sant – [My Own Private Idaho] Susan Wiseman – [Shakespeare in Idaho] Jean E. Howard and Phyllis Rackin – [Gender and Nation] Christopher Highley – [Defining the Nation] Barbara Hodgdon – [Endings] Selected Bibliography

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Book SynopsisMichael Pennington's solo show about Shakespeare, Sweet William, has been acclaimed throughout Europe and in the US as a unique blend of showmanship and scholarship. In this book, he deepens his exploration of Shakespeare's life and work - and the connection between the two - that lies at its heart. It is illuminated throughout by the unrivalled insights into the plays that Pennington has gained from the twenty thousand hours he has spent working on them as a leading actor, an artistic director and a director - and as the author of three previous books on individual Shakespeare plays. With practical analysis, wonderfully detailed and entertaining interpretations of characters and scenes, and vivid reflections on Shakespeare's theatre and ours, the result is a masterclass of the most enjoyable kind for theatregoers, professionals, students and anyone interested in Shakespeare. This book was published in hardback as Sweet William: Twenty Thousand Hours With Shakespeare. 'A brilliant and intimate insider's guide to Shakespeare from one of our greatest classical actors' Gregory Doran 'Michael Pennington is a great Shakespearian actor who writes with the authority of an academic. His book analyses the plays, the characters and the playwright's life. It will intrigue, entertain and challenge students, actors and their audiences' Ian McKellen 'Rich and informative, and something that will be mined for many years to come by anyone interested in Shakespeare and in British theatre' Professor James Shapiro 'Shakespeare comes wonderfully to life in Michael's beautifully written book' Rupert Everett 'Irresistibly readable' Peter Brook Trade Review'Pennington's blend of scholarship and practical experience gives him an edge over critics with a purely academic knowledge... It's like chatting to an immensely knowledgeable and entertaining actor in The Dirty Duck at Stratford: a raconteur full of theatrical anecdotes, waspish asides, and provocative insights' * Drama magazine *'I can't remember when I learned so much from a single volume as I have from Michael Pennington's engaging, absorbing, congenial, informative new book Sweet William... Sometimes he's anecdotal, often lyrical, always thoughtful and occasionally laugh-aloud funny. Pennington's book is a must-read for anyone interested in Shakespeare from almost any angle - actor, drama student, teacher, director, technician, literature student or audience member' * The Stage *'The most important and best set of original Shakespeare essays that I have read in over thirty years... Pennington is blessed with an ideal combination of talents and experiences... a wonderful book' * Speaking English *

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Book SynopsisThe Philosopher's English King offers a close reading of the Henriad, presenting Shakespeare's teaching on political authority and contributing to the burgeoning scholarship on Shakespeare as a political thinker. This book on Shakespeare's Henriad studies the tetralogy as a work of political thought. Leon Harold Craig, author of two previous volumes on Shakespeare's political thought, argues that the four plays present Shakespeare'steaching on the problem of legitimacy, or who has the right to rule -- one of the perennial questions of political philosophy. Offering original interpretations of each of the plays, Craig discusses the demise of divine right inRichard II, political upheaval and disputed rule in Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, and the attempt to reestablish legitimacy on a new basis in Henry V. While focusing especially on the plays' various interpretive puzzles,Craig shows how the four plays constitute one narrative, culminating in the rule of England's most famous warrior king, Henry V, whose brilliant achievements were undone by ill fortune. Craig concludes with an epilogue on what might have been had Henry lived to consolidate his conquest of France and unify it with England under a single crown. Supported by a wealth of scholarship, both historical and critical, The Philosopher's English King makes a major contribution to the burgeoning scholarship on Shakespeare as a political thinker, providing further evidence for why the poet deserves to be recognized as a philosopher in his own right. Leon Harold Craig is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Alberta.Trade ReviewI consider this one of the best books ever written on Shakespeare's Henriad. The level of scholarship is second to none. Each chapter is as good as the next. The book is never uneven, and Craig's passion for his subject matter and his desire to share his knowledge with his readers is evident throughout. Not only does one gain many valuable insights into these plays, we are also encouraged to read Shakespeare philosophically, as I am certain Shakespeare wished to be read. * VOEGELINVIEW *Supported by the author's learned command of the relevant English history, this analysis not only serves as a comprehensive overview of the plays' events but also shows how paying attention to even the most minute details and minor characters can shed light on Shakespeare's central figures and plot lines. Highly recommended. * CHOICE *Dissenting from Craig requires the disputant's exercising his utmost capacities for philosophical reflection. . . . Because Craig rightly conceives the philosophic poet. * REVIEW OF POLITICS *In The Philosopher's English King Leon Craig once again proves the value of taking Shakespeare seriously as a political thinker. Drawing parallels with important political philosophers, such as Plato, Machiavelli, and Hobbes, Craig illumines some of the darker corners of Shakespeare's history plays and offers a comprehensive interpretation of the tough-minded teaching on kingship they embody. -- Paul A. Cantor, University of VirginiaTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Prologue Begins the Woefullest Division: The Tragic Reign of King Richard II A Punishing of Mistreadings: The Turbulent Reign of King Henry IV Proceeds The Noble Change Long Purposed: The Turbulent Reign of King Henry IV Concludes A Curious Mirror of Christian Kings: The Brief Glorious Reign of King Henry V An Alternative Epilogue: Imagining What Might Have Been Notes Bibliography Index of Names

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Book SynopsisWritten by a team of leading international scholars, The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and War illuminates the ways Shakespeare''s works provide a rich and imaginative resource for thinking about the topic of war. Contributors explore the multiplicity of conflicting perspectives his dramas offer: war depicted from chivalric, masculine, nationalistic, and imperial perspectives; war depicted as a source of great excitement and as a theater of honor; war depicted from realistic or skeptical perspectives that expose the butchery, suffering, illness, famine, degradation, and havoc it causes. The essays in this volume examine the representations and rhetoric of war throughout Shakespeare''s plays, as well as the modern history of the war plays on stage, in film, and in propaganda. This book offers fresh perspectives on Shakespeare''s multifaceted representations of the complexities of early modern warfare, while at the same time illuminating why his perspectives on war and its consequences continue to matter now and in the future.Trade Review'The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and War is much more than an overview of a field or guide to an area and performs valuable intellectual work in bringing together diverse perspectives on a subject that embarrasses as well as attracts readers, many of whom want a straightforward understanding of a complicated subject that will inevitably resist mastery.' Andrew Hadfield, Times Literary SupplementTable of Contents1. Beyond shallow and silence: war in the age of Shakespeare Paul E. J. Hammer; 2. Just war theory and Shakespeare Franziska Quabeck; 3. Shakespeare on civil and dynastic wars David Bevington; 4. Foreign war Claire McEachern; 5. War and the classical world Maggie Kilgour; 6. 'The question of these wars': Shakespeare, warfare, and the chronicles David Scott Kastan; 7. Instrumentalizing anger: warfare and disposition in the Henriad Gail Kern Paster; 8. War and Eros David Schalkwyk; 9. Shakespeare's language and the Rhetoric of war Lynne Magnusson; 10. Staging Shakespeare's wars in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries Michael Hattaway; 11. Reading Shakespeare's wars on film: ideology and montage Gregory Semenza; 12. Shakespeare and World War II Garrett A. Sullivan Jr; 13. Henry V and the pleasures of war Paul Stevens; 14. Macbeth and Trauma Willy Maley; 15. Coriolanus and the use of power Catherine M. S. Alexander.

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Book SynopsisShakespeare and London: A Dictionary is a topographical reference book of all the London locations, allusions and colloquial terms mentioned in Shakespeare's complete works. For many years critics have argued that Shakespeare did not engage with the city in which he lived, however London''s topography and life is present in all his work, in its language, its locations and its characters. This dictionary offers a concise and fascinating insight into the city''s impact on the Shakespearean imagination and provides readers with a wide-ranging guide to early modern London, its contemporary meanings and the ways in which Shakespeare employs these throughout the canon.Table of ContentsList of Figures Acknowledgements Series Editor's Preface List of Abbreviations List of Headwords Introduction A-Z Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThis book is about a mad king and a mad duke. With original and iconoclastic readings, Richard van Oort pioneers the reading of Shakespeare as an ethical thinker of the "originary scene," the scene in which humans became conscious of themselves as symbol-using moral and narrative beings. Taking King Lear and Measure for Measure as case studies, van Oort shows how the minimal concept of an anthropological scene of origin—the "originary hypothesis"—provides the basis for a new understanding of every aspect of the plays, from the psychology of the characters to the ethical and dialogical conflicts upon which the drama is based. The result is a gripping commentary on the plays. Why does Lear abdicate and go mad? Why does Edgar torture his father with non-recognition? Why does Lucio accuse the Duke in Measure for Measure of madness and lechery, and why does Isabella remain silent at the end? In approaching these and other questions from the perspective of the originary hypothesis, van Oort helps us to see the ethical predicament of the plays, and, in the process, makes Shakespeare new again.Trade Review"This is criticism of the highest order, whose long, careful readings of King Lear and Measure for Measure are in dialogue with the finest readers of Shakespeare for the past century." —Blair Hoxby, Stanford University"A rigorous yet highly readable attempt to understand Shakespeare and neoclassical drama in general in new terms, Shakespeare's Mad Men demonstrates in admirable detail the analytical power of generative anthropology wielded by a powerful intelligence."—Eric Gans, University of California, Los Angeles"Attentive to both the ruses of bad faith and the truths disclosed by Shakespeare's language, van Oort addresses our human predicament as symbol-making creatures whose search for love is troubled by the ceaseless drive for mastery."—Julia Reinhard Lupton, University of California, Irvine"van Oort's reading is nothing less than a stunning provocation."—Amir Khan, Shakespeare Quarterly"[R]eaders... will find value and pleasure in van Oort's compelling readings, and his clear style makes complex concepts pleasingly accessible."—Molly G. Yarp, Times Literary Supplement"Eminently readable, Shakespeare's Man Men attempts to engage and explain the larger questions the plays raise, particularly why characters behave the way they do and make the choices they do. The readings are original and offer exciting ways to engage with the plays. Highly recommended."—K. J. Wetmore Jr., CHOICETable of ContentsIntroduction 1. The King's Last Potlatch 2. The Judge, the Duke, His Wife, and Her Lover Conclusion

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Book SynopsisThe Renaissance, scholars have long argued, was a period beset by the loss of philosophical certainty. In Possible Knowledge, Debapriya Sarkar argues for the pivotal role of literature—what early moderns termed poesie—in the dynamic intellectual culture of this era of profound incertitude. Revealing how problems of epistemology are inextricable from questions of literary form, Sarkar offers a defense of poiesis, or literary making, as a vital philosophical endeavor. Working across a range of genres, Sarkar theorizes “possible knowledge” as an intellectual paradigm crafted in and through literary form. Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century writers such as Spenser, Bacon, Shakespeare, Cavendish, and Milton marshalled the capacious concept of the “possible,” defined by Philip Sidney as what “may be and should be,” to construct new theories of physical and metaphysical reality. These early modern thinkers mobilized the imaginative habits of thought constitutive to major genres of literary writing—including epic, tragedy, romance, lyric, and utopia—in order to produce knowledge divorced from historical truth and empirical fact by envisioning states of being untethered from “nature” or reality. Approaching imaginative modes such as hypothesis, conjecture, prediction, and counterfactuals as instruments of possible knowledge, Sarkar exposes how the speculative allure of the “possible” lurks within scientific experiment, induction, and theories of probability. In showing how early modern literary writing sought to grapple with the challenge of forging knowledge in an uncertain, perhaps even incomprehensible world, Possible Knowledge also highlights its most audacious intellectual ambition: its claim that while natural philosophy, or what we today term science, might explain the physical world, literature could remake reality. Enacting a history of ideas that centers literary studies, Possible Knowledge suggests that what we have termed a history of science might ultimately be a history of the imagination.Trade Review"This pathbreaking book will be at the vanguard of a new movement in literature and science studies." * Jenny C. Mann, New York University *"An ambitious, brilliant, and genuinely original account of the constitutive relationship between poesy and science in early modernity." * Vin Nardizzi, University of British Columbia *"This important book provides compelling evidence that early modern literature in the age of the new science helped readers develop sophisticated forms of knowing about what existed in the world, and, more crucially, what might possibly come to be." * Mary Thomas Crane, Boston College *

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Book SynopsisThe rise of celebrity stage actresses in the long eighteenth century created a class of women who worked in the public sphere while facing considerable scrutiny about their offstage lives. Such powerful celebrity women used the cultural and affective significance of their reproductive bodies to leverage audience support and interest to advance their careers, and eighteenth-century London patent theatres even capitalized on their pregnancies. Carrying All Before Her uses the reproductive histories of six celebrity women (Susanna Mountfort Verbruggen, Anne Oldfield, Susannah Cibber, George Anne Bellamy, Sarah Siddons, and Dorothy Jordan) to demonstrate that pregnancy affected celebrity identity, impacted audience reception and interpretation of performance, changed company repertory and altered company hierarchy, influenced the development and performance of new plays, and had substantial economic consequences for both women and the companies for which they worked. Deepening the fields of celebrity, theatre, and women's studies, as well as social and medical histories, Phillips reveals an untapped history whose relevance and impact persists today.Trade Review"Phillips's most significant contribution is her move to focus on the gravid body and its realities as well as significance(s), something both earlier histories of actresses and cultural histories of maternity have shied away from. The book's dialogues and echoes across and between different case studies – and with our own time – are significant for eighteenth-century, celebrity, and theatre studies."— Elaine McGirr, editor of Stage Mothers: Women, Work, and the Theater, 1660-1830Table of ContentsFigures Acknowledgments Introduction 1 Inheriting Greatness: Susanna Mountfort Verbruggen and Anne Oldfield 2 Pregnant Sensibility: Susannah Cibber and George Anne Bellamy 3 Conceiving Genius: Sarah Siddons 4 Prolific Muse: Dorothy Jordan Conclusion: Celebrity Pregnancy, Then and Now Appendix: Birth and Christening Dates Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisCoriolanus is perhaps the most brilliant political play ever written. Set in Ancient Rome, it remains a gripping psychological study of the relationship between personality and politics. The introduction to this new edition considers Shakespeare''s adaptation of his historical material (Plutarch''s Lives) in relation to the social and political conditions in London and Stratford at the time of the play''s composition, also offering new evidence that it was written in 1608. Professor Parker examines the play''s history and particularly its staging at the Blackfriars theatre, where it was probably the first of Shakespeare''s plays to be presented and for which it may have been written. A thorough commentary pays special attention to the needs of actors and directors. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the mostTrade Review'Stanley Wells' OUP Complete Works of Shakespeare is now eight years old and has spawned a new Oxford Shakespeare which appears now in splendidly affordable volumes in that nonpareil of libraries of good reading The World's Classics.' The Oxford Times * English Studies Offprint from vol.77 Number 1, January 1996 *

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Book SynopsisHenry V, the climax of Shakespeare''s sequence of English history plays, is an inspiring, often comic celebration of a young warrior-king. But it is also a study of the costly exhilarations of war, and of the penalties as well as the glories of human greatness.Introducing this brilliantly innovative edition, Gary Taylor shows how Shakespeare shaped his historical material, examines controversial critical interpretations, discusses the play''s fluctuating fortunes in performance, and analyses the range and variety of Shakespeare''s characterization. The first Folio text is radically rethought, making original use of the First Quarto (1600). ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to c

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Book SynopsisTrade Review`authoritatively tackles one of the most textually troubling plays' Sunday Times'Stanley Wells' OUP Complete Works of Shakespeare is now eight years old and has spawned a new Oxford Shakespeare which appears now in splendidly affordable volumes in that nonpareil of libraries of good reading The World's Classics.' The Oxford Times

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Book SynopsisIn his Discourses (1755), Rousseau argues that inequalities of rank, wealth, and power are the inevitable result of the civilizing process. If inequality is intolerable - and Rousseau shows with unparalledled eloquence how it robs us not only of our material but also of our psychological independence - then how can we recover the peaceful self-sufficiency of life in the state of nature? We cannot return to a simpler time, but measuring the costs of progress may help us to imagine alternatives to the corruption and oppressive conformity of modern society. Rousseau''s sweeping account of humanity''s social and political development epitomizes the innovative boldness of the Englightment, and it is one of the most provocative and influential works of the eighteenth century. This new translation includes all Rousseau''s own notes, and Patrick Coleman''s introduction builds on recent key scholarship, considering particularly the relationship between political and aesthetic thought. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

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Book SynopsisPart of the "Heinemenn Advanced Shakespeare" series of plays for A Level students, this version of "Hamlet" includes notes which should bridge the gap between GCSE and A Level, and space for students' own annotation. The text includes activities and assignments after each act.

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Book SynopsisThe Taming of the Shrew is unique among Shakespeare's plays and is a perennial and compelling success in the theatre. Its reception is marked, however, by ongoing polarized debate over the meaning and worth of the play. This edition disengages Shakespeare's exuberant and disturbing marital farce from the tangled history of its reception. It views the two sixteenth-century Shrew plays as textually independent but theatrically interdependent and so includes the full text of The Taming of A Shrew in an appendix. While the Introduction and Commentary focus on the critical and theatrical debate surrounding the play, the original and comprehensive editing of the playtext makes available a 'different' Shrew, more open to the reader's interpretation than is usually the case. Barbara Hodgdon is a distinguished feminist scholar whose reading of the play offers a stimulating array of ideas and questions about this enduringly popular yet challenging comedy.Trade Review'a spry, supple introduction to the play...Hodgson's performance history is particularly impressive: closely aligned to the breadth of critical readings, but suggesting the comedy's challenges and even, its charms.' * Plays International (February 2011) *'Barbara Hodgdon is a distinguished feminist scholar whose reading of the play offers a stimulating array of ideas and questions about this enduringly popular yet challenging comedy.' * Sardines Magazine (Autumn 2010) *

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Book SynopsisDavid Scott Kastan lucidly explores the remarkable richness and the ambitious design of King Henry IV Part 1 and shows how these complicate any easy sense of what kind of play it is. Conventionally regarded as a history play, much of it is in fact conspicuously invented fiction, and Kastan argues that the non-historical, comic plot does not simply parody the historical action but by its existence raises questions about the very nature of history. The full and engaging introduction devotes extensive discussion to the play's language, indicating how its insistent economic vocabulary provides texture for the social concerns of the play and focuses attention on the central relationship between value and political authority.Trade Review'It is the superbly generous girth of Shakespeare's Henry IV plays that makes them so remarkable' * Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph, 15.07.10 *'Shakespeare's story of a troubled usurper, a rebel age, a dissolute prince and his Falstaff.' * Libby Purves, The Times, 16.07.10 *'This is Shakespeare's masterpeice where diseaeses are turned to commodity, the hostess is eaten out of house and home, citizens are urged to construe the time to their neccessities, and white hairs ill become a fool and jester.' * Michael Coveney, Independent, 16.07.10 *

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Book SynopsisAnd now I will unclaspe a Secret booke, And to your quicke conceyving Discontents, Ille reade you Matter, deepe and dangerous As full of peril and adventurous Spirit...- William Shakespeare, "King Henry IV", Part I. Whilst Shakespeare's genius is universally recognized, there is a hidden, secretive side to his work that is little known: the fact that he made use of a mysterious code that figures widely in the esoteric literature of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. The Bard of Avon was a master of such encoding, and his methods were continued, in the Folio of 1623 and in his various memorials, by those who had known him. However, Shakespeare was not the inventor of this code. Among the many arcane authors who made use of it before him was Michel Nostradamus, the famous French prophet and savant. As David Ovason reveals, many leading esoteric writers - alchemists, occultists and Rosicrucians - contributed to this 'Secret booke'. Among the more outstanding English literary figures who used the code were the mysterious adviser to Elizabeth I, John Dee, the turbulent author of "The Alchemist, Ben Jonson", and the more classically-minded Edmund Spenser, whose poem "The Faerie Queene" is the best-known esoteric work of the period. "Shakespeare's Secret Booke" reveals many other literary figures who together form a remarkable underground literary movement, including the most influential esotericist of the period, Jacob Boehme, and alchemists such as the English polymath Robert Fludd. Another was Shakespeare's contemporary, the youthful Johann Valentin Andreae, credited as author of "The Chymical Wedding" - a Rosicrucian work replete with sophisticated examples of encoding. The fact that all these writers used the same or similar encoding points to a secret teaching designed to be recognized by initiates. Ovason explores and, for the first time, reveals what Shakespeare alluded to as 'a Secret booke'.Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter One The Secret Number Hamlet and ghosts - The Sonnets - The Tempest - Authors of the Secret booke - George Sandys - Four encoded portraits - Abraham Cowley - Love's Labour's Lost - William Blake - Robert Fludd - The two cupids Chapter Two Shakespeare's Curse Stone Shakespeare's tomb - Washington Irving - Ben Jonson - Francis Bacon - The curse-stone code - Samuel Ireland - The code unravelled Chapter Three Some Rosicrucian WorkS Ethan Allen Hitchcock - Shakespeare's tomb code - Liber M Mysterium Magnum - D.L.S. - Magica - Khunrath's Amphitheatrum - The Mystic Rose - The Phoenix, or Hermes Bird - Flaming Rose - Robert Fludd - Tabula Smaragdina - Atalanta fugiens Chapter Four The Sacred Monas of John Dee John Dee - Monas Hieroglyphica - John Milton - The Alchemist of Jonson - Alpha, Omega and Crux - Daniel Mylius - Saint Luke and Saint Matthew - Two Children - Michelangelo Chapter Five The Rosicrucian Code The Rosicrucian Temple of Schweighardt - Johann Valentin Andreae - Ezechiel Foxcroft - The Chymical Wedding - Pearls before swine - The Fifth Day - Naked Venus - The encoded script above the Venus - The Tree and the Fruit - The code within a code - Atman, Buddhi and Manas - Fludd's diagram of the secret Ternary - The Paracelsian Three Principles - Salt - Sulphur - Mercury - A Rosicrucian diagram of the secret Ternary Chapter Six Nostradamus his Codes Nostradamus - Propheties - First two quatrains - Iamblichus - Language of the Birds - Michael Maier - Jocus Severus - Quatrain 3:3 - The Battle of Lepanto - Pierre l'Estoile - Urbanus VIII - Bees - A 33-encoded quatrain Chapter Seven The Ego in Strife: Law & Boehme Portrait of Jacob Boehme - William Law - The Clavis - An Illustration of the Deep - Thomas Heywood - Michelangelo's Creation of Adam - Charles Bovelles - Das Auge and the A - Reincarnation diagram - Der Weeg zu Christo - Vesica Piscis Conclusion Picture section

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Book SynopsisFirst Published in 2002. This is a collection of essays and commentary on some of Shakespeareâs Sonnets looking at the areas of symbolism, time and eternity, integration and their expansion and moves onto the metaphysical poem of the Phoenix and the Turtle and considers if it has the same love as celebrated in the Sonnets.Table of ContentsPart 1 The Sonnets; Chapter 1 Facts and Problems; Chapter 2 The Integration Pattern; Chapter 3 Symbolism; Chapter 4 Time and Eternity; Chapter 5 The Expansion; Chapter 6 Conclusion; Part 2 Phoenix and Turtle; Chapter 7 Preliminary Remarks; Chapter 8 Love’s Martyr; Chapter 9 The Poetical Essays; Chapter 10 Shakespeare’s Poem; Chapter 11 Other Poets;

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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