Literature: history and criticism Books

Book SynopsisBOOK BUDDIES: DON'T TALK TO ME WHILE I'M READING is a celebration of all things bookworm-from the sweet to the snarky, including puns, quotes, and other delights. A playful illustration of an owl in a library represents knowledge is power, with an accompanying bookmark that says, "Owl save your place!" Another spread includes ten of the best first lines in novels-from Pride and Prejudice to "Call me Ishmael"-with an accompanying bookmark "don't judge a book by its cover-it's what's inside that counts." Another illustrates that feeling when:-you miss your subway stop reading-you're late because you were finishing a chapter-you don't know where the day went because you spent all of it readingwith an encouraging bookmark to finish "just one more chapter!"

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Book SynopsisThe publication of The Broadview Anthology of Seventeenth-Century Verse and Prose is a literary event; this comprehensive volume is the first anthology of the period to reflect the breadth of seventeenth-century studies in recent decades. Over one hundred writers are included, from John Chamberlain at the beginning of the century to Elisabeth Singer Rowe at its end. There are generous selections from the work of all major writers, and a representation of the work of virtually every writer of significance. The work of women writers figures prominently, with extensive selections not only from canonical writers such as Behn and Bradstreet, but also from other writers (such as Katherine Philips and Margaret Cavendish) who have been receiving considerable scholarly attention in recent years.The anthology is broadly inclusive, with writing from America as well as from the British Isles. Memoirs, letters, political texts, travel writing, prophetic literature, street ballads, and pamphlet literature are all here, as is a full representation of the literary poetry and prose of the period, including the poetry of Jonson; the prose of Bacon; the metaphysical poetry of Donne, Herbert, Marvell, and others; the lyric verse of Herrick; and substantial selections from the poetry and prose of Milton and Dryden. (While Samson Agonistes is included in its entirety, Milton’s epic poems have been excluded, in order to allow space for other works not so readily accessible elsewhere.)The editors have included complete works wherever possible. A headnote by the editors introduces each author, and each selection has been newly annotated.Trade ReviewPraise for The Broadview Anthology of Seventeenth-Century Verse and Prose:“There are many good things to be said about The Broadview Anthology of Seventeenth-Century Verse and Prose—not least that it comes to help relieve a quarter-of-a-century’s dearth of decent anthologies, that it covers the whole century, and that it includes a number of women writers…This ambitious and thoughtful anthology deserves a large audience.” — Tom Clayton, Regents Professor of English, University of MinnesotaTable of ContentsMARY SIDNEY HERBERT, COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE The Psalms of David Psalm 52 Quid Gloriaris?Psalm 58 Si Vere UtiquePsalm 74 Ut Quid, DeusPsalm 120 Ad Dominum MICHAEL DRAYTONTo the Virginian VoyageTo the Cambro-Britons, and their Harp, his Ballad of AgincourtSonnet 61THOMAS CAMPIONfrom A Book of AirsLet him that will be free and keep his heart from careFollow your Saint, follow with accents sweetfrom Two Books of AirsSweet, exclude me not, nor be dividedAs by the streams of Babylonfrom The Third Book of AirsIf Love loves truth, then women do not lovefrom The Fourth Book of AirsThere is a garden in her faceHENRY WOTTONOn his Mistress, the Queen of BohemiaThe Character of a Happy LifeUpon the Death of Sir Albert Morton’s WifeOn a Bank as I Sat a-Fishing: A Description of the SpringDe MorteAEMILIA LANYER Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum (excerpts)To All Virtuous Ladies in GeneralThe Author’s Dream to the Lady MarySalve Deus Rex Judaorum (excerpts)The Description of Cooke-hamJOHN DONNE Songs and Sonnets The ApparitionThe FleaThe Good-MorrowLove’s Alchemy The IndifferentThe AnniversaryThe Sun RisingThe CanonizationConfined LoveAir and AngelsTwicknam GardenA Valediction: of WeepingThe EcstasyFarewell to LoveA Valediction: forbidding MourningA Nocturnal upon S. Lucy’s Day being the shortest dayThe Relic Elegies Elegy VIElegy VIIElegy VIII The ComparisonElegy IX The AutumnalElegy XIX To His Mistress Going to BedElegy [XVIII] Love’s Progress Satires Satire III Divine PoemsHoly Sonnets VIVIIIXXXIXIIXIIIXIVXV Holy Sonnets from the Westmoreland MS XVIIXVIIIXIXGood Friday, 1613. Riding WestwardA Hymn to Christ, at the Author’s last going into GermanyA Hymn to God my God, in my sicknessA Hymn to God the Father BEN JONSONTo the ReaderTo AlchemistsOn Something that Walks SomewhereTo William CamdenOn My First DaughterOn My First SonOn Lucy, Countess of BedfordTo Sir Henry SavileTo Sir Thomas RoeTo the SameInviting a Friend to SupperTo PenshurstTo HeavenSong To CeliaHer TriumphAn Epistle to Master John SeldenAn Epistle Answering to One that Asked to be Sealed of the Tribe of BenAn Ode. To HimselfTo the Immortal Memory and Friendship of that Noble Pair, Sir Lucius Gary and Sir H. MorisonThe Praises of a Country LifeOn The New Inn Ode. To HimselfTo the Memory of My Beloved, The Author, Mr William ShakespeareClerimont’s SongA Vision of BeautyRICHARD CORBETTUpon an Unhandsome Gentlewoman, who made Love unto himThe Fairies Farewell: Or God-a-Mercy WillThe Distracted PuritanEDWARD, LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURYAn Ode upon a Question moved, Whether Love should continue for ever?LADY MARY WROTH Pamphilia to Amphilanthus 1 When night’s black mantle could most darkness prove8 Love, leave to urge, thou know’st thou hast the hand13 Cloyed with the torments of a tedious night15 Dear famish not what you yourself gave food16 Am I thus conquered? Have I lost the powers22 Come darkest night, becoming sorrow best25 Like to the Indians, scorched with the sun26 When everyone to pleasing pastime hies39 Take heed mine eyes, how you your looks do cast40 False hope which feeds but to destroy, and spill48 If ever Love had force in human breast?Song 74 Love, a child, is ever crying,A Crown of Sonnets Dedicated to Love 77 In this strange labyrinth, how shall I turn?78 Is to leave all, and take the thread of Love79 His flames are joys, his bands true lovers’ might80 And be in his brave court a glorious light81 And burn, yet burning you will love the smart82 He may our prophet, and our tutor prove83 How blest be they then, who his favours prove84 He that shuns love doth love himself the less85 But where they may return with honour’s grace86 Be from the Court of Love, and Reason torn87 Unprofitably pleasing, and unsound88 Be given to him who triumphs in his right89 Free from all fogs but shining fair, and clear90 Except my heart which you bestowed before103 My muse, now happy, lay thy self to rest WILLIAM BROWNEOn the Countess Dowager of PembrokeROBERT HERRICKTo the Most Illustrious, and Most Hopeful Prince, Charles, Prince of WalesThe Argument of his BookWhen he would have his verses readThe Difference Betwixt Kings and SubjectsUpon the Loss of His MistressesCherry-RipeTo the King and Queen,Upon Their Unhappy DistancesDelight In DisorderDuty to TyrantsTo DianemeCorinna’s Going A MayingTo live merrily, and to trust to Good VersesTo the Virgins, To make much of TimeThe Hock-cart, or Harvest home:To Anthea, who may command him anythingTo MeadowsUpon Prudence Baldwin her sicknessOn himselfCasualtiesTo DaffodilsMatins, or morning PrayerEvensongThe Bracelet to JuliaThe Departure of the Good DaemonThe Power in the PeopleTo His BookShame, no StatistFresh Cheese and CreamHis Winding-SheetHis Prayer to Ben. JonsonAn Ode for himMy BenThe bad season makes the Poet sadHis return to LondonHis Grange, Or Private WealthUpon Julia’s ClothesA Thanksgiving to God, for his HouseHis Litany, to the Holy SpiritFRANCIS QUARLESEmblem III (from Book III)Emblem VII (from Book III)Epigram III (from Book IV)Eclogue VIIIHENRY KINGAn Exequy to his Matchless never to be forgotten FriendUpon the Death of my ever Desired Friend Dr Donne Dean of Paul’sSic VitaGEORGE HERBERTThe AltarRedemptionEaster WingsAffliction (I)Prayer (I)Jordan (I)The H. Scriptures IThe H. Scriptures IIChurch-monumentsThe WindowsDenialVanity (I)VirtueThe Pearl. Matth. 13:45ManLifeJordan (II)The QuipProvidenceParadiseThe PilgrimageThe CollarThe PulleyThe FlowerAaronThe ElixirLove (III)L’EnvoyTHOMAS CAREWA deposition from LoveDisdain returnedTo SaxhamA RaptureTo Ben JonsonAn Elegy Upon the Death of the Dean of Pauls, Dr. John DonneTo a Lady that desired I would love herA SongThe second RaptureIn praise of his MistressJAMES SHIRLEY“The glories of our blood and state”RACHEL SPEGHTThe DreamTHOMAS RANDOLPHThe Second Epode of Horace TranslatedAn Elegy upon the Lady Venetia DigbyUpon his PictureAn Ode to Master Anthony Stafford, to hasten him into the CountryAn Answer to Master Ben. Jonson’s OdeOn the Death of a NightingaleA Pastoral CourtshipWILLIAM HABINGTONNox nocti indicat ScientiamEDMUND WALLEROn a GirdleGo, Lovely Rose!Upon His Majesty’s Repairing of Paul’sOn St. James’s Park, As Lately Improved by His MajestyOf the last verses in the bookJOHN MILTONOn the Morning of Christ’s NativityL’AllegroII PenserosoLycidasSonnet 7Sonnet 12 On the detraction which followed upon my writing certain treatisesSonnet 18 On the Late Massacre in PiedmontSonnet 19On the New Forcers of Conscience under the Long ParliamentSonnet 15 On the Lord General Fairfax at the Siege of ColchesterSamson Agonistes SIR JOHN SUCKLINGTo the ReaderSongA Ballad. Upon a WeddingThe Constant LoverA Barley-breakSonnet ISonnet IISonnet IIIThe WitsA CandleGERHARD WINSTANLEYThe Diggers’ SongANNE BRADSTREETThe PrologueA Dialogue between Old England and New Concerning their Present TroublesThe Flesh and the SpiritThe Author to Her BookTo My Dear and Loving HusbandAnotherIn Memory of my Dear Grandchild Elizabeth BradstreetSome Verses upon the Burning of Our House, July 10th, 1666RICHARD CRASHAWWishes. To his (supposed) MistressSaint Mary Magdalene or The WeeperA Hymn to the Name and Honour of the Admirable Saint TeresaJOHN CLEVELANDThe King’s DisguiseThe Rebel ScotEpitaph on the Earl of StraffordThe General EclipseSAMUEL BUTLER Hudibras (excerpts)ROWLAND WATKYNSTo the ReaderThe AnabaptistUpon the mournful death of our late Soveraign Lord Charles the first, King of England, &cThe Common PeopleThe holy SepulchreThe new illiterate Lay-TeachersSIR JOHN DENHAMCooper’s HillRICHARD LOVELACETo Lucasta, Going to the WarsThe GrasshopperTo Lucasta. From PrisonTo my Worthy Friend Mr. Peter LillyTo Althea, From PrisonThe AntTo a Lady with child that asked an Old ShirtABRAHAM COWLEYThe WishThe GrasshopperThe Innocent 111On the Death of Mr. CrashawTo Mr. HobbesBrutusTo the Royal SocietySors VirgilianaOf SolitudeALEXANDER BROMEThe Levellers rantThe New-CourtierThe Saints’ EncouragementA Satire on the RebellionLUCY HUTCHINSON“All Sorts of Men”ANDREW MARVELLFlecknoe, an English Priest at RomeThe CoronetThe GalleryThe Definition of LoveTo His Coy MistressAn Horatian Ode Upon Cromwell’s Return From IrelandThe Picture of Little T.C. in a Prospect of FlowersThe Nymph Complaining for the Death of Her FawnUpon the Hill and Grove at BilbroughUpon Appleton HouseThe GardenOn a Drop of DewA Dialogue between the Soul and BodyThe Mower against GardensDamon the MowerThe Mower to the Glow-wormsThe Mower’s SongThe Character of HollandBermudasThe First Anniversary of the Government under His Highness the Lord ProtectorOn Mr. Milton’s "Paradise Lost"HENRY VAUGHANA RhapsodyUpon a Cloak Lent Him by Mr. J. RidsleyRegenerationThe Retreat“Joy of my life! while left me here”The Morning-Watch“And do they so?”“I walked the other day”“They are all gone into the world of light!”Cock-CrowingThe KnotThe NightThe BookTo His BooksMARGARET CAVENDISH, DUCHESS OF NEWCASTLEThe Poetress’s Hasty ResolutionA Discourse of BeastsThe Hunting of the HareThe Pastime of the Queen of the Fairies, when she comes upon earth out of the centerHer Descending Down“I Language want”JOHN DRYDEN Annus MirabilisAbsalom and AchitophelMac FlecknoeReligio Laid or A Layman’s Faith (excerpt)A Song for St Cecilia’s Day, 1687To the Memory of Mr. OldhamJuvenal’s Sixth Satire (excerpts)The Empress MessalinaThe learned wifeThe gaudy gossipJuvenal’s Tenth Satire (excerpt)SejanusThe Secular Masque KATHERINE PHILIPSUpon the Double Murder of K. Charles I in Answer to a Libelous Copy of Rimes by Vavasour PowellOn the Numerous Access of the English to wait upon the King in FlandersOn the 3 of September, 1651Friendship’s Mystery, To My Dearest LucasiaA Retired Friendship, To ArdeliaWiston VaultTo My Excellent Lucasia, On Our FriendshipA Country LifeOrinda to Lucasia parting October 1661 at LondonOrinda Upon Little Hector PhilipsOrinda to LucasiaA Married StatePHILO-PHILIPPATo the Excellent OrindaTHOMAS TRAHERNEWonderInnocenceThe PreparativeThe InstructionThe DemonstrationThe AnticipationCHARLES SACKVILLE, EARL OF DORSETMy OpinionSIR CHARLES SEDLEYYoung Coridon and PhillisAPHRA BEHNSong “I Led my Silvia to a Grove”The Golden Age. A Paraphrase on a Translation out of FrenchSong “Love Armed”On a Juniper Tree, Cut Down to Make BusksThe DisappointmentOn the Death of the late Earl of RochesterA Pindaric on the Death of our Late SovereignTo the fair ClarindaJOHN WILMOT, EARL OF ROCHESTERSongUpon His Leaving His MistressA Satire Against Reason and MankindThe Disabled DebaucheeSongThe Imperfect EnjoymentA Ramble in St. James’s ParkA Song of a Young Lady to her Ancient LoverSignior DildoImpromptu on Charles IIELINOR JAMESAn Injured Prince Vindicated, or, A Scurrilous and Detracting Pamphlet AnsweredTHOMAS WHARTONLilli BurleroJANE BARKERAn Invitation to my Friends at CambridgeA Virgin LifeThe Prospect of a Landscape, Beginning with a GroveTo My Young LoverTo My Friends Against PoetryJOHN OLDHAMAn Imitation of HoraceUpon a BooksellerANNE KILLIGREWA Farewell to Worldly JoysThe Complaint of a LoverOn a Picture Painted by Herself, Representing Two Nymphs of Diana’sUpon the Saying that my Verses were Made by AnotherThe DiscontentCloris’ Charms Dissolved by EudoraJOHN TUTCHINThe ForeignersELIZABETH SINGER ROWE "PHILOMELA"Platonic LoveA Poetical Question concerning the Jacobites, sent to the AtheniansThe Athenians’ AnswerA Pindaric, to the Athenian SocietyTo CelindaThe Reply to Mr.——A MISCELLANYBALLADSTom o’ BedlamA sweet and pleasant Sonnet, entitled: My mind to me a kingdom isDitties Lamentation for the cruelty of this ageThe King’s Last Farewell to the WorldThe Royal Health to the Rising SunA Looking-Glass for Men and MaidsNo ring, no WeddingPOEMS ON THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAMUpon the Duke of BuckinghamEpitaph on the Duke of BuckinghamEpitaphCOURT SATIRE (1682)INDEXESINDEX OF FIRST LINESINDEX OF AUTHORS AND TITLES

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Book SynopsisHas Tanya finally done it...!? The cushy office desk job assignment she's been waiting for at the Military University is finally hers to enjoy. That is...until there's a hiccup in her assignment!

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Book SynopsisMendelsohn takes the classical costumes off figures like Virgil and Sappho, Homer and Horace He writes about things so clearly they come to feel like some of the most important things you have ever been told.' Sebastian BarryOver the past three decades, Daniel Mendelsohn's essays and reviews have earned him a reputation as our most irresistible literary critic' (New York Times). This striking new collection exemplifies the way in which Mendelsohn a classicist by training uses the classics as a lens to think about urgent contemporary debates.There is much to surprise here. Mendelsohn invokes the automatons featured in Homer's epics to help explain the AI films Ex Machina and Her, and perceives how Ted Hughes sought redemption by translating a play of Euripides (the bad boy of Athens') about a wayward husband whose wife returns from the dead. There are essays on Sappho's sexuality and the feminism of Game of Thrones; on how Virgil's Aeneid prefigures post-World War II history and why Trade Review Praise for The Bad Boy of Athens ‘Mendelsohn takes the classical costumes off figures like Virgil and Sappho, Homer and Horace … He writes about things so clearly they come to feel like some of the most important things you have ever been told.’ Sebastian Barry ‘Captivating …His is a vast intellect spanning centuries and genres with ease.’ BBC Culture “Mendelsohn's points are always passionately argued. He strikes the perfect balance between learned and playful … One fascinating essay after another from one of America's best critics.” Kirkus, starred review Praise for Daniel Mendelsohn ‘A scrumptious stylist … He writes better movie criticism than most movie critics, better theatre criticism than most theatre critics and better literary criticism than just about anyone’ Guardian ‘A brilliant storyteller, influenced by the Greek masters he so admires’ The Times ‘Mendelsohn is now, and has been for some time, the finest critic alive … [The essays] proceed from an unparalleled understanding of the Greek and Roman roots of storytelling, which he braids into reviews with a subtlety and patience that is beautiful to behold … A supremely entertaining book’ Toronto Star ‘Mendelsohn … is a gifted and entertaining writer. His prose is gorgeous and lyrical and his subjects are smartly considered and freshly revealed’ Vanity Fair ‘Absolutely vital in both senses of the word – required reading for anyone interested in dissecting culture’ The Daily Beast ‘A joy from start to finish … A wonderfully eclectic set of musings on the state of contemporary culture and the enduring riches of classical literature’ Publishers Weekly

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Book SynopsisA searing testament to poetry’s power to define and defy injustice, from iconic writer-activist Serhiy ZhadanTrade Review“Zhadan yokes the pedestrian everyday life of eastern Ukraine with the invisible orders of existence, and is spiritually attuned to a deep understanding of the forced transience and fragility of buildings and social orders in the post-Soviet east.”—Oluwaseun Olayiwola, The Guardian“[Zhadan] focuses on gaps: in language, between people, between the living and the dead. This void, this ‘silence,’ is returned to so many times that it becomes a character in itself.”—Ella Creamer, The Guardian, “Five of the Best Recent Books from Ukraine”“These words blaze across the page like missiles aiming at the fourth dimension: What if someone spoke a sentence / That could stir the sonic field of death? In the eternal battle between Orpheus and Morpheus, a great poet’s verbal imagination is always his sharpest weapon, his impenetrable shield. In his face-off with memory and time, Zhadan is certain to prevail.”—Askold Melnyczuk “A classic of modern Ukrainian poetry.”—Gary Shteyngart “When Zhadan says ‘speak now,’ he is getting at all the ways that speaking matters: from the trenches in Ukraine that he’s known to the memories of Ukrainians that he carries. The urging to speak vibrates through these pages, as if the saying it is always an homage to those who have tasked the poet to sing, while alongside him they go about the business of loving or working or cajoling light out of suffering so that we all might ‘have enough stories to brave through winter.’”—Reginald Dwayne Betts “Serhiy Zhadan’s poetry allows the pain and bravery of those who can only speak through his poems to be heard. Today, in the context of war, his words resonate deeply, offering a powerful and moving journey through the human experience.”—Yevgenia Belorusets “Zhadan is a poet, rock star, and activist whose verse is rooted in his native Eastern Ukraine. He draws metaphors from daily life that in turn become the subjects of his poems, and Tkacz and Phipps have brought these images to life in an English that does justice to Zhadan’s urgent messages about life, war, and love.”—Amelia Glaser “This is the sound of War. Zhadan, reporting from the frontlines in Kharkiv, where words are bullets and voices are heard from the dead. From Ilya Kaminsky’s brilliant foreword to the last drops of blood on the book’s final pages, How Fire Descends is a book on fire. Poetry from bunkers, bomb shelters and graves—poetry from the depths.”—Bob Holman

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Book SynopsisThe argument that this book presents is that narrative and visual representations of death can be read as symptoms of our culture and because the feminine body is culturally constructed as the superlative site of other and not me, culture uses art to dream the deaths of beautiful women. -- .Trade ReviewAside from the originality - or fearful finality - of its arguments, the book will be invaluable as an introduction to the use of psychoanalysis in the interpretation of cultural texts' - New Statesman & Society'Death faces a similar taboo in our century to the one that sex suffered in the last...Bronfen addresses an important silence in contemporary culture.' - The TImes -- .Table of ContentsPart 1 Death - the epitome of tropes: preparation for an autopsy; the lady vanishes; violence of representation - representation of violence. Part 2 From animate body to inanimate text: the "most" poetic topic; deathbed scenes; bodies on display; the lady is a portrait; noli me videre; case study - wife to Mr Rossetti - Elizabeth Siddall (1829-1862). Part 3 Strategies of translation, mitigation and exchange: sacrificing extremity; femininity - missing in action; close encounters of a fatal kind. Part 4 Stabilizing the ambivalence of repetition: the speculated woman; rigour has set in - the wasted bride; necromancy, or closing the crack in the gravestone; risk resemblances; spectral stories; the dead beloved as muse; case study - Henry's sister - Alice James (1848-1892). Part 5 Conclusion - aporias of resistance: from muse to creatrix - Snow White unbound.

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Book SynopsisA deluxe hardcover edition of one of James Baldwin?s most admired works, exploring what it means to be Black in America and his own search for identityPart of the Beacon Classics series Originally published in 1955, James Baldwin''s timeless and moving essays on life in Harlem, the protest novel, movies, and African Americans abroad inaugurated him as one of the leading interpreters of the dramatic social changes erupting in the United States in the 20th century. Through a mix of autobiographical and analytical essays, Baldwin delivers honest and raw revelations about what it means to be Black in America, specifically pre-Civil Rights Movement, and how, he himself, came to understand the nation.Writing as an artist, activist, and social critic, Baldwin examines everything from the significance of the protest novel to the motives and circumstances of the many Black expatriates of the time, from his home in ?The Harlem Ghetto? to a sobering ?Journey to Atlanta.? He was one of the few writing on race at the time who addressed the issue with a powerful mixture of outrage at the gross physical and political violence against Black citizens and measured understanding of their oppressors, which helped awaken a white audience to the injustices under their noses.For fans of Baldwin''s well-known works or those new to Baldwin altogether, this celebrated essay collection showcases his extraordinary writing, revolutionary analyses, and prophetic insight into American culture and politics.

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Book SynopsisA book for students, teachers, and scholars; this is an Internet guide written for those who love and study literature. It includes pieces on navigating literary sites, plagiarism, and the implications of the Internet for literary studies.Trade Review"Recommended for graduate and undergraduate faculty and students in literature courses." -- ChoiceTable of ContentsIntroduction, Acknowledgments, CHAPTER 1: The Internet as a Whole, CHAPTER 2: Searching the Internet, CHAPTER 3: Kinds of Literary Websites, CHAPTER 4: Literary Guide to the Internet: A Bibliography, CHAPTER 5: Literary Guide to the Internet: A Bibliography (Continued), CHAPTER 6: Evaluation of Sites, CHAPTER 7: The Internet and Teaching, CHAPTER 8: Literary Texts and Literary Careers in the Electronic Age, CHAPTER 9: Literature and the Internet: Theoretical and Political Considerations, Works Cited, Index

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Book SynopsisIn lucid, elegant poems, Forever contemplates love against the pressing question of mortality after a diagnosis of cancerTrade Review"The poems in Forever wash over you like waves, lift you up and set you down back at the beginning of your life. Some of the people are familiar; the landscape is beautifully strange. You pick up your favorite book and start reading it again, but fo" -- Rob Schlegel"Magnificent. At once elemental—Freud might say "oceanic"—in its psychic vista, yet particular as one man’s life, loves, and losses, Forever is a wrenchingly personal account of memory, sorrow, and profound beauty, rendered in lyric poetry. It is also James Longenbach’s finest book, wrought of remarkable paradoxes—to be so precise, so spare, yet to be so inclusive, so elegant—where mortality shadows every erotic or tender gesture. That such existential breadth of vision comes at our moments of deepest crisis is—let me be clear—never a given. But it is, in Forever, Longenbach’s gift." -- David Baker"The lyric poems of James Longenbach’s Forever devastate, for they enact with such precision the very problem they pronounce: that the pleasure of the language we read can, like memory, only approach the lives we actually live. Line by line, the poems’ likelihood to narrate, repeat, or gorgeously veer describes what it is to love and simultaneously feel oneself inside the grandiosity of time." -- Sally Keith"In the pages of this tender, immediate, sharp book, you can find something our world has made nearly impossible: language freed of lies that nevertheless consoles. James Longenbach turns his cry outward, as if toward a friend in a future he won’t see, sur" -- Katie Peterson"The lyric poems of James Longenbach’s Forever devastate, for they enact with such precision the very problem they pronounce: that the pleasure of the language we read can, like memory, only approach the lives we actually live. Line by line, the poems’ likelihood to narrate, repeat, or gorgeously veer describes what it is to love and simultaneously feel oneself inside the grandiosity of time." -- Sally Keith

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Book SynopsisLondon: An Illustrated Literary Companion, compiled by Rosemary Gray, captures the varying moods of the great city over recent centuries, through diary entries, with quotations, poems, essays and extracts from great works written in its honour. It is beautifully illustrated with drawings and engravings from distinguished artists, including Gustave Doré, George Cruikshank, James McNeill Whistler and Hugh Thomson, and contains contemporary prints and photographs.Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.

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Book SynopsisA History of Ecology and Environmentalism in Spanish American Literature undertakes a comprehensive ecocritical examination of the region’s literature from the foundational texts of the nineteenth century to the most recent fiction. The book begins with a consideration of the way in which Argentine Domingo Faustino Sarmiento’s views of nature through the lens of the categories of “civilization” and “barbarity” from Facundo (1845) are systematically challenged and revised in the rest of the century. Subsequently, this book develops the argument that a vital part of the cultural critique and aesthetic innovations of Spanish American modernismo involve an ecological challenge to deepening discourses of untamed development from Europe and the United States. In other chapters, many of the well-established titles of regional and indigenista literature are contrasted to counter-traditions within those genres that express aspects of environmental justice, “deep ecology,” the relational role of emotion in nature protectionism and conservationism, even the rights of non-human nature. Finally, the concluding chapters find that the articulation of ecological advocacy in recent fiction is both more explicit than what came before but also impacts the formal elements of literature in unique ways. Textual conventions such as language, imagery, focalization, narrative sequence, metafiction, satire, and parody represent innovations of form that proceed directly from the ethical advocacy of environmentalism. The book concludes with comments about what must follow as a result of the analysis including the revision of canon, the development of literary criticism from novel approaches such as critical animal studies, and the advent of a critical dialogue within the bounds of Spanish American environmentalist literature. A History of Ecology and Environmentalism in Spanish American Literature attempts to develop a sense of the way in which ecological ideas have developed over time in the literature, particularly the way in which many Spanish American texts anticipate several of the ecological discourses that have recently become so central to global culture, current environmentalist thought, and the future of humankind.Trade Review[R]eaders will find that DeVries possesses a thorough understanding of ecological criticism and environmentalism, exemplified by the book's introduction, where he establishes the theoretical framework for his study. For the benefit of those readers who do not have advanced proficiency in reading Spanish he provides an English translation of all Spanish quotations, including definitions of commonly employed Spanish American cultural and literary terminology. Readers who are unacquainted with Spanish American literature, beyond internationally known giants such as Gabriel García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, or Pablo Neruda, will appreciate the sweeping scope of the author's work. DeVries has managed to deal in a cohesive fashion with a two-hundred year period—the post-independence literary production of the nineteen countries of the western hemisphere in which Spanish is an official language—unfolding 'the tradition of an ecological literature from Mexico to Patagonia and from Puerto Rico to Easter Island'. Those who are already familiar with Spanish American literature will value his insights into ecocriticism as well as his examination of the canon from a fresh perspective. As is the case with most groundbreaking studies, DeVries's work suggests myriad possibilities for future scholarship. * ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Part One: Foundations, Aesthetics, Ecology One: Foundations of Environment: Literary Political Ecologies of 19th Century Southern Cone Literature Two: Foundations from Topography: Literary Political Ecologies of 19th Century Andean, Amazonian, Caribbean, and Central American Literature Three: Green Modernism Part Two: Land, People, Ecology Four: Swallowed: Environmentalism in the Spanish American novela de la selva Five: Other Lands: Ecology in the Spanish American novela de la tierra Six: Ruin: The Precedents of Ecological Destruction in Early and Canonical indigenista Novels Seven: Indigenous Land: Place, then Space Part Three: Literature, Environmentalism, Ecology Eight: Nature after the “Boom”: Ecology and Environmentalism in Late 20th Century Spanish American Fiction Nine: Eco-Satire: Green Humor, Contaminated Imagery, and Environmental Language in Recent Spanish American Fiction Ten: Paradise Trashed: Utopian and Dystopian Ecological Scenarios in Gioconda Belli’s Waslala and Fernando Raga’s Gaia Trilogy Conclusions Bibliography Index About the Author

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Book SynopsisAn award-winning account of Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz’s most controversial novel and the fierce debates that it provoked Naguib Mahfouz’s novel Children of the Alley has been in the spotlight since it was first published in Egypt in 1959. It has been at times banned and at others allowed, sold sometimes under the counter and sometimes openly on the street, often pirated and only recently legally reprinted. It has inspired anxiety among the secular authorities, rage within the religious right, and a drawing of battle lines among Arab intellectuals and writers. It dogged Mahfouz like a curse throughout the remainder of his career, led to his attempted assassination, and sparked a public debate that continues to this day, even after the author’s death in 2006. It is Egypt’s iconic novel, in whose mirror millions have seen themselves, their society, and even the universe, some finding truth, others blasphemy.In this award-winning account, Mohamed Shoair traces the story of Mahfouz’s novel as a cultural and political object, from its first publication to the present via Mahfouz’s award of the Nobel prize for literature in 1988 and the attempt on his life in 1994. He presents the arguments that swirled about the novel and the wide cast of Egyptian figures, from state actors to secular intellectuals and Islamists, who took part in them. He also contextualizes the interactions among the principal characters, interactions that have done much to shape the country’s present.Extensively researched and written in a lucid, accessible style, The Story of the Banned Book is both a gripping work of investigative journalism and a window onto some of the fiercest debates around culture and religion to have taken place in Egyptian society over the past half-century.Trade Review“The Story of the Banned Book is highly researched investigative journalism at its best. . . . This is a fascinating study of the intricate dynamics of the intersectionality of the political, religious, social, and cultural life in modern Egypt.” —Arab Studies Quarterly“[A] forensic literary investigation. . . . Like any good detective—and Shoair is an exceptional one—he presents the reader with a fluent intellectual thriller, a cross-over book that will interest scholars of Arabic literature and intellectual historians as much as it will delight the general reader for whom it is mostly addressed. . . . The Story of the Banned Book is not only a literary and intellectual achievement, but also a methodological triumph.” —Yoav Di-Capua, The Journal of North African Studies"A thrilling thread on Naguib Mahfouz, literary rivalries, and Egyptian politics as they stood in the mid 20th century, pulled through the needle’s eye of the story of a single novel."— M. Lynx Qualey, ArabLit Quarterly"It is rare that one book documenting the life of another book sheds so much light on the literature, politics, religious feuds, and even cinematic trends of a couple of generations"—Peter Theroux, Middle East Quarterly“Diving deep into the various interpretations and defenses of Mahfouz's most famous novel . . . Shoair's investigation is a fascinating insight into the lack of literary freedom in Egypt at the time.” —Amelia Smith, Middle East Monitor"Readers invested in the ongoing debates about book banning will find this to be a worthy resource."—Publishers Weekly“The plot is more compelling than most literature I have read.” —Elliott Colla, Georgetown University"[E]xcellent and thought-provoking"—David Tresilian, Al-Ahram Weekly“The joy of this book is its evocation of time and place, and the way it seeks out what may be absent or forgotten from the stances of intellectuals. However Shoair does not recount gossip; rather, his concern is verifiable knowledge.” —al-Quds al-‘Arabi"A study of literary censorship and of the fight between artistic expression and religious and political authority in Egypt from the 1950s through today."—BULAQ“Outstanding” —al-Ahram“Shoair digs into the passion of how this iconic novel was written”—Donia Kamal, author of Cigarette Number Seven"Shoair’s meticulous, forensic account of the fierce controversies and confrontations provoked by the publication and censorship of Mahfouz’s notorious novel takes the reader on a page-turning journey through the labyrinth of postcolonial Egypt’s fraught and high-stakes cultural politics and offers nuanced critical insight into the author's work. A perfect marriage of literary and cultural history, and investigative journalism, and masterfully translated by Humphrey Davies, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding an entire era of modern Egyptian history and its place in contemporary global politics."—Samah Selim, Rutgers University

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Book SynopsisFind creative inspiration in this fascinating rummage through the wastebaskets, secret diaries, and abandoned files of 20 literary superstars.

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Book Synopsis'Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.' The prophetic words of Galadriel, addressed to Frodo as he prepared to travel from Lothlorien to Mordor to destroy the One Ring, are just as pertinent to J R R Tolkien's own fiction. For decades, hobbits and the other fantastical creatures of Middle-earth have captured the imaginations of a fiercely loyal tribe of readers, all enhanced by the immense success of Peter Jackson's films: first 'The Lord of the Rings', and now his new 'The Hobbit'. But for all Tolkien's global fame and the familiarity of modern culture with Gandalf, Bilbo, Frodo and Sam, the sources of the great mythmaker's own myth-making have been neglected. Mark Atherton here explores the chief influences on Tolkien's work: his boyhood in the West Midlands; the landscapes and seascapes which shaped his mythologies; his experiences in World War I; his interest in Scandinavian myth; his friendships, especially with the other Oxford-based Inklings; and the relevance of his themes, especially ecological themes, to the present-day. There and Back Again offers a unique guide to the varied inspirations behind Tolkien's life and work, and sheds new light on how a legend is born.Trade Review"When J R R Tolkien died in 1973, his friend and academic colleague C S Lewis praised his 'unique insight at once into the language of poetry and into the poetry of language'. Generations of readers have responded to the power, precision, and delicacy of J R R Tolkien's linguistic imagination. This absorbing new study of The Hobbit brings a philologist's eye to that work's creation, structure, and expression, positioning it within the broader development of Tolkien's professional thinking about philology and the evolving mythography of his creative writings. Mark Atherton, himself what Tolkien calls 'a scholar of gramarye', imaginatively shows how Tolkien's academic interests in philology, linguistic-aesthetic and in reconstructive philology spilled over into the crucible of his own mythography, and was catalysed by the alchemy of his own reading in myths and contemporary fairy stories by writers such as William Morris, Edward Thomas, Francis Thompson and Robert Graves. This book gives them new ways of appreciating the interplay between his narratives and the linguistic enchantment of their imaginative world. Atherton's insights bring to mind Tolkien's own comment: 'How those old words smite one out of the dark antiquity!' " Vincent Gillespie, J R R Tolkien Professor of English Literature and Language, University of Oxford 'Mark Atherton's treatment of one of the most famous books of the twentieth century is timely and welcome. On the face of it, The Hobbit appears an engaging fantasy adventure for young readers; but, as it later transpired, Mr Bilbo Baggins' exploits "there and back again" were simply a prelude to the apocalyptic drama that was to unfold in The Lord the Rings. One reason for the enduring appeal of both of these works is that J R R Tolkien imbued his tales of a fictional realm with resonances of ancient themes and universal truths. In this detailed exploration, Mark Atherton provides the reader with a comprehensive understanding of the many origins, influences and inspirations - biographical, historical, geographical and literary - that, combined with a unique imagination, resulted in the crafting of a new mythology.' Brian Sibley, author of The "Lord of the Rings: The Making of the Movie Trilogy" and of "Peter Jackson: A Film-maker's Journey"" "There and Back Again" is essential reading for all Tolkien fans - and also for anyone interested more broadly in medievalism, or the ways in which later writers have responded to the culture of the Middle Ages. Mark Atherton is that ideal combination: a reader and critic deeply appreciative of Tolkien's literary artistry, his imaginative scope and his linguistic invention, who is also, like Tolkien himself, a distinguished scholar of medieval language and literature. In this highly readable and accessible study, Atherton brings his own scholarship to bear on Tolkien's sources for The Hobbit, and in the process illuminates the whole of Tolkien's remarkable oeuvre." Heather O'Donoghue, Vigfusson Rausing Reader in Ancient Icelandic Literature & Antiquities, University of OxfordTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Abbreviations Acknowledgements Part One : Shaping the plot Part Two : Making the mythology Part Three: Finding the Words Epilogue Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIdeas in Profile: Small Introductions to Big Topics At the heart of criticism lies one question: What do you think of it? Every time we comment on an artefact, whether a poem, a play, a painting, a novel or a piano concerto, we are acting as critics, making our own judgements and interpretations. Among the most fundamental of human intellectual activities, criticism offers a starting point for many of our journeys towards understanding. Focusing particularly on stories, plays and poems, Criticism traces the central concepts and controversies in criticism, from Plato to Derrida, and from Romanticism to the death of the author. In the process, it reflects on criticism itself, the possibilities and options that confront casual readers, as well as reviewers, members of reading groups, students and teachers of English. How far do we make conscious choices about how and what we read (or view)? What do we conventionally look for in fiction? And what might we look for if we went beyond the conventional?

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

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Book SynopsisA groundbreaking study of the development of form in eighteenth-century aestheticsTrade ReviewShortlisted for the Oscar Kenshur Book Prize, sponsored by the Indiana Center for Eighteenth-Century StudiesFinalist for the Susanne K. Langer Award for Outstanding Scholarship in the Ecology of Symbolic Form, sponsored by the Media Ecology Association“Original and important, and of very complete scholarship, this book covers many discussions of eighteenth-century aesthetics with a highly unusual stress on craft and practice as they relate to aesthetics.”—John Bender, Stanford University“In this brilliant study of Hogarth and Kant, Zitin shows that they developed a notion of form as the expression of the perceptual activity of abstraction on the part of both artist and spectator that is applicable to literary as well as visual art.”—Paul Guyer, author of A History of Modern Aesthetics“This dazzling history of aesthetic theory pursues the consequences of Hogarth’s practical formalism for literary study with spellbinding patience and impeccable logic in beautiful prose.”—Marcie Frank, author of The Novel Stage: Narrative Form from the Restoration to Jane Austen“Zitin offers an ambitious and persuasive account of what she calls ‘practical formalism.’ Equally insightful about a range of eighteenth-century accounts of beauty and contemporary theoretical debates, Zitin’s is a stunningly accomplished book.”—Frances Ferguson, University of Chicago

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Book SynopsisA quarter of a century on from its original publication, Literary Theory: An Introduction still conjures the subversion, excitement and exoticism that characterized theory through the 1960s and 70s, when it posed an unprecedented challenge to the literary establishment. Eagleton has added a new preface to this anniversary edition to address more recent developments in literary studies, including what he describes as the growth of a kind of anti-theory, and the idea that literary theory has been institutionalized. Insightful and enlightening, Literary Theory: An Introduction remains the essential guide to the field. 25th Anniversary Edition of Terry Eagleton's classic introduction to literary theory First published in 1983, and revised in 1996 to include material on developments in feminist and cultural theory Has served as an inspiration to generations of students and teachers Trade Review"Before Literary Theory, there had been no textbooks for English. There had been guides to particular authors, and even periods, but no single one book that could claim to be "essential reading".... Eagleton's book—which clearly understands the discipline and institutions of English—offered this." (Times Literary Supplement, April 2009) "This book shaped the reception of theory in Britain for a generation." (Times Higher Education Supplement) Praise for the First Edition of Literary Theory “Literary Theory has the kind of racy readability that one associates more often with English critics who have set their faces resolutely against theory ... It's not just a brilliant polemical essay, it's also a remarkable feat of condensation, explication, and synthesis ... Stimulating and entertaining.” (Sunday Times) “This concise and lucid volume offers a satisfying survey of all the major theories, from structuralism in the 1960s to deconstruction today, that have made academic criticism both intriguing and off-putting to the outsider.” (New York Times Book Review) “A polemical, amusing and very informative introduction ... indispensable.” (Jonathan Culler) "The best handbook to those arcane ics and isms, both for academy members and for any civilians who, having heard the distant roar of professorial cannons, might wonder what the skirmishing is about." (Voice Literary Supplement) Table of ContentsPreface to the Anniversary Edition. Preface to the Second Edition. Preface to the First Edition. Introduction: What is Literature?. 1. The Rise of English. 2. Phenomenology, Hermeneutics, Reception Theory. 3. Structuralism and Semiotics. 4. Post-Structuralism. 5. Psychoanalysis. Conclusion: Political Criticism. Afterword. Notes. Bibliography. Index

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Viii A Note On The Texts Ix Preface To The Third Edition X Introduction 1 Brief Lives 13 Chronology 22 Maps 31 Anonymous 33 The Noble Triumphant Coronation Of Queen Anne, Wife Unto The Most Noble King Henry The VIII Richard Mulcaster 43 The Queen’s Majesty’s Passage George Gascoigne 61 The Princely Pleasures At The Court At Kenilworth Sir Philip Sidney 89 The Lady Of May Thomas Kyd 99 The Spanish Tragedy John Lyly 149 Gallathea Anonymous 187 The Tragical History Of Thomas Of Woodstock Christopher Marlowe 243 The Tragical History Of D. Faustus Anonymous 277 Arden Of Faversham Christopher Marlowe 321 The Troublesome Reign And Lamentable Death Of Edward The Second George Peele 375 The Old Wives’ Tale Mary Sidney, Countess Of Pembroke 401 The Tragedy Of Antony Thomas Dekker 441 The Shoemakers’ Holiday John Marston 485 The Malcontent Anthony Munday 543 The Triumphs Of Re-United Britannia Thomas Heywood 557 A Woman Killed With Kindness Francis Beaumont 597 The Knight Of The Burning Pestle Ben Jonson 647 Volpone Or The Fox Ben Jonson 717 The Masque Of Queens Ben Jonson 735 Epiocene, Or The Silent Woman Thomas Middleton 815 A Chaste Maid In Cheapside Elizabeth Cary 863 The Tragedy Of Mariam John Webster 905 The Duchess Of Malfi Anonymous 967 The Barriers William Rowley, Thomas Deckker, And John Ford 977 The Witch Of Edmonton Thomas Middleton And William Rowley 1033 The Changeling John Ford 1081 ’Tis Pity She’s A Whore Margaret Cavendish 1129 The Convent Of Pleasure: A Comedy Index 1157

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Book Synopsis“The annotations are useful, particularly for references to biblical and other literary allusions. [The contexts] section is essential to alerting students to the many subtexts/contexts of the story.” —Maria Carrig, Carthage College

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Book SynopsisLa Marr Jurelle Bruce ponders the presence of “madness” in black literature, music, and performance since the early twentieth century, showing how artist ranging from Kendrick Lamar and Lauryn Hill to Nina Simone and Dave Chappelle activate madness as content, form, aesthetic, strategy, philosophy, and energy in an enduring black radical tradition.Trade Review“This lyrical and profound tour de force explores the intersection of race and derailment, or ‘madness as methodology.’ We know that the traumatic discordance of slavery's enduring legacy manifests as both private sorrow and public health emergency. Yet that unyielding stress is sometimes also the forge of a radical black creativity vividly exceeding the shapeshifting states of un-Reason into which raced and nonnormative bodies are too relentlessly imagined and compressed. La Marr Jurelle Bruce has given a gift in this powerful recontextualization of black creative ‘madness’ as liberatory demand for expressive life—to wit, an aesthetic practice by which, ultimately, ‘what is stolen is returned, and what is unwritten is at last inscribed.’” -- Patricia J. Williams, columnist for "Diary of a Mad Law Professor" in The Nation"The sheer range of academic discourses that Bruce engages—from disability studies and psychoanalysis to affect theory and black studies—is impressive enough. What Bruce does within their intersections, however, is create a kind of poetics of black madness—a way of looking that is itself a way a making; or maybe it’s the converse—a way of making that is itself a way of looking. . . I can’t predict the future, but it’s so obvious to me that scholars will long be grateful for Bruce’s expansive imagination and the careful attention paid to radical black creativity in this wildly astute and socially and emotionally conscious work." -- Dawn Lundy Martin * 4Columns *"Bruce’s deft and thoughtful touch invites readers to dream loudly among a compendium of radical Black artists that few others would think about collectively. With subjects that range from early-twentieth-century jazz cornet player Buddy Bolden to contemporary rapper and composer Lauryn Hill (and many in between), Bruce’s archive reflects the mindful mayhem at the center of his methodology. . . . Bruce’s work closes with [this] imperative direction: 'Now let go.' But letting go of a book that feels both so present and so prescient may prove impossible." -- Omari Weekes * Bookforum *"In La Marr Jurelle Bruce’s How to Go Mad Without Losing Your Mind, we find ourselves in a dance with the mad. . . . [The] book is an analysis of praxis, a snap, a click, a break, an opening, a closing, the middle, the beyond, the here, the now, the then, and the there." -- Michael Cordov * E3W Review of Books *"A paradigm-shaping book for future scholarship around mental difference. Bruce’s book not only helps announce the emergence of [mad studies] but significantly advances the analytic, cultural, historical, and theoretical sophistication of mad scholarship...As a result, How to Go Mad is a must-read for those of us engaged in the intersectional politics and scholarship of difference." -- Bradley E. Lewis * Journal of Medical Humanities *"Bruce articulates understandings of madness that encompass the lived experiences of Black, queer, and disabled people, putting forth a 'mad methodology' that capsizes dominant notions of social, political, economic normalcy, and ethics, and invites, for me, a new possibility of Afrofuturistic imagining. . . . [A] dynamic critical analysis of madcrazyBlackness that spans genre, medium, and epoch." -- Victoria R. Collins * Electric Literature *"This melodic volume explores relationships between the surreal, impossible conditions (and conditions of impossibility) experienced by Black people and our radical, imaginative 'mad Black creativity.' Showing us 'lessons [we can] learn from those who make homeland in wasteland' as blueprints for freedom dreaming, Bruce picks apart the self-obscuring cultural and political forces that shape understandings of madness to disempower, disenfranchise, and control Black life and Being...It is ratchet. It is unruly. It is gorgeous." -- Kia Darling-Hammond * Nonprofit Quarterly *"With a Walt Whitman-style expansiveness, Bruce wraps his arms around a multitude of creative genres and Black artists and then pulls us into his project of 'radical compassion' with mad subjects. Bruce’s writing is both critical and compelling, analytical and yet intimate. . . . How to Go Mad without Losing Your Mind invites readers to sit with madness for a while, to explore its radical liberatory potential, and to become mad methodologists with radical compassion. Hold tight. Let go. And let this book take you there.” -- Elizabeth Donaldson * Disability Studies Quarterly *"How to Go Mad is a love story, a potent reflection on a few of the many Black creative minds who have innovated art forms and fashioned the trajectory of history, while having their 'sanity' called into question by normative, white, anti-Black, anti-Mad audiences and institutions." -- Liz Miller * Lateral *“How to Go Mad will undoubtedly influence conversations in black studies, science and technology studies, disability studies, and other fields. It is a lyrical, nuanced model of how radical care produces new approaches beyond the rehearsal of pathology.” -- Jacob Hood * Catalyst *"If we imagine Black studies to be a space of creativity where Black scholars break from disciplinary strictures and form, then this text is an exemplary practice...The writing is evocative and accessible for any of us who have felt searing rage and those whose waking hours are haunted by madness." -- Hugo ka Canham * The Black Scholar *"One cannot read this work without also assembling its madness with the mad blue notes of Buddy Bolden, the crazy blues of Bessie Smith, the 'good at' madness of Ntozake Shange’s Hyacinthe, the maddening black genius of Ms. Lauryn Hill, the unruly madness of Kanye West, or the 'mad real world' of Dave Chappelle. Bruce is not simply using these creative artists as case studies of madness dipped in black, but is presenting a terrain where the expanse of madness and blackness can only be read together—in this push and push, the fracture of Reason is revealed." -- Dana Francisco Miranda * Blog of the APA *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix 1. Mad Is a Place 1 2. "He Blew His Brains Out through the Trumpet": Buddy Bolden and the Impossible Sound of Madness 36 Interlude. "No Wiggles in the Dark of Her Soul": Black Madness, Metaphor, and "Murder!" 71 3. The Blood-Stained Bed 79 4. A Portrait of the Artist as a Mad Black Woman 110 5. "The People inside My Head, Too": Ms. Lauryn Hill Sings Truth to Power in the Key of Madness 139 6. The Joker's Wild but That Nigga's Crazy: Dave Chappelle Laughs until It Hurts 172 7. Songs in Madtime: Black Music, Madness, and Metaphysical Syncopation 201 Afterword. The Nutty Professor (A Confession) 231 Notes 239 Bibliography 303 Index 333

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Book Synopsis''I relished every page This is the best book on Jane Austen I have ever read'Spectator''Compelling a delightful and engrossing book Byrne's passion is nothing if not persuasive'Sunday TimesWas Jane Austen a woman of prim manners and genteel calm? Or someone who behaved outrageously, filled with sharp wit and wild comedy?Looking afresh at adaptations of Austen's work from the BBC's Pride and Prejudice to Emma Thompson's Sense and Sensibility and the wildly successful Clueless bestselling biographer Paula Byrne presents a bold new portrait of Austen as you've never seen her before.A definitive and pioneering study of a wholly neglected aspect of Austen's art'' Michael Caines, TLSEntertaining and engaging'Literary Review..[Previously published as The Genius of Jane Austen]Trade Review‘I relished every page … Byrne’s knowledge of everything Austen wrote has an enviable thoroughness and perception which is rare among Austen scholars and which illuminates the whole of her text. I am tempted to say this is the best book on Jane Austen I have ever read.’ Paul Johnson, The Spectator ‘A definitive and pioneering study of a wholly neglected aspect of Austen’s art’ Michael Caines, Times Literary Supplement ‘A fascinating analysis that marries meticulous historical research with critical imagination and flair’ The Historical Journal

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Book SynopsisYork Notes Advanced offer a fresh and accessible approach to English Literature. This market-leading series has been completely updated to meet the needs of today's A-level and undergraduate students. Written by established literature experts, York Notes Advanced intorduce students to more sophisticated analysis, a range of critical perspectives and wider contexts.Table of Contents Study methods Introduction to the text Summaries with critical notes Themes and techniques Textual analysis of key passages Author biography Historical and literary background Modern and historical critical approaches Chronology Glossary of literary terms

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Book SynopsisTable of Contents - Intro ¿ How to Study a Play, Novel- Author Profile ¿ Historical timeline, context with dates, author life, works , historical events.- Map/family tree/character tree- Summaries (numbered summaries for every scene)- Commentary ¿ covering themes, characters, language analysis, style- exam questions end of each section- Answers to Checkpoints and exam questions- Exam questions with annotated model answers (D grade ¿ B grade)- Coursework assignments/resources/top marks/advice- Key Quotations ¿ how to use them.- Glossary/Literary terms- Timeline of events- Other titles in the Series

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Book Synopsis“A perfect volume to initiate majors into the discipline and delight of carefully examining presumptions, priorities, language, and structures of both primary and secondary texts.” —Stephen R. Honeygosky, University of Pittsburgh

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Book SynopsisAcknowledged as a masterpiece of materialist criticism, this book delves into the complex ways economic reality shapes the imagination. Surveying two hundred years of history and English literature – from George Eliot to George Orwell – Williams provides insights into the social and economic forces that have shaped British culture and society. Provocative and revolutionary in its day, this work overturned conventional thinking about the development of a common British mentality.Trade ReviewHe was the foremost political thinker of his generation in Britain who in his most formidable books, Culture And Society, The Long Revolution and The Country And The Town, redrew the map of our cultural history, and elsewhere made heroic interventions in the main political debates of his time * Guardian *For those who read English in the '60s, it was common to revere Williams as both a rock of integrity and a pathfinder for new ways of seeing culture, communication, class and democracy * Independent *Brave, intelligent, and disciplined...a most impressive work -- C. P. SnowPenetrating, lucid, objective, and also honestly engaged...the best reasoned plea that I have read for a common culture -- Angus WilsonBrilliantly intelligent...a good critic and also an original thinker -- Stuart Hampshire

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Book SynopsisAn incisive, thought-provoking, and timely meditation, at once panoramic and synoptic, on American literature for an age of xenophobia, heightened nationalism, and economic disparity. The distinguished cultural critic Ilan Stavans explores the nation''s identity through the prism of its books, from the indigenous past to the early settlers, the colonial period, the age of independence, its ascendance as a global power, and its shallow, fracturing response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The central motives that make the United States a flawed experiment--its celebration of do-it-yourself individualism, its purported exceptionalism, and its constitutional government based on checks and balances--are explored through canonical works like Mark Twain''s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Walt Whitman''s Leaves of Grass, Emily Dickinson''s poetry, F. Scott Fitzgerald''s The Great Gatsby, the work of Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Toni Morrison, and immigrant voices such as those of AméTrade ReviewIt constitutes a rich sample of texts and genres that can inspire whoever reads it to pull the thread and delve into the themes that Stavans points out. * Teresa Requena Pelegrí, Escola de Llibreria *At its core [What is American Literature?] is a compelling thought about the tension between protest and assimilation: the way American literature simultaneously propels change, and manufactures consent... * Alicia Rix, Times Literary Supplement *Stavans brings all his passion and experiences as a prolific and versatile writer, commentator, publisher, anthologist, and academic to bear on this heady reconsideration of American literature... [a] speedy, veering, catch-all book of pronouncements and provocations, upended assumptions and unexpected associations... * Donna Seaman, Booklist *Table of ContentsPreface: American Carnage 1: The Ambition of Origins 2: Hucks R' Us 3: Language and Authority 4: Surviving Democracy Epilogue: The Second American Civil War: A Reckoning

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Book SynopsisDaniel Albright investigates musical phenomena through the lens of monism, the philosophical belief that things that appear to be two are actually one. Trade Review"This is vintage Albright, a work of original, engaging criticism shot through with interpretive flair and sparkling erudition. This is criticism born of boundless sympathy and enthusiasm, not just of deep understanding."-- "Stephen Hinton, Stanford University" "Music's Monisms celebrates the power of music to transcend the oppositions of verbal language and, indeed, of everyday life. Albright presents brilliantly original readings of major works in twentieth-century music. He takes on some of the most imposing figures in music history with a wonderfully humane, and wonderfully personal, touch."-- "Arman Schwartz, King's College London"

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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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Book SynopsisA history of modern Jewish literature that explores our enduring attachment to the book as an objectTrade ReviewFinalist for the 2023 Jordan Schnitzer Book Award, sponsored by AJS“A bold, often surprising, and luminous study that enhances our perception.”—Ranen Omer-Sherman, University of Louisville“Original and finely instructive, this work leads us to see something new and illuminating about the very modality of literature.”—Robert Alter, author of The Art of Biblical Narrative“Whether reading the poignant details of memory books and graphic novels or analyzing small magazines and visual images in modern Jewish literature, Barbara Mann offers insight into the ways publications work as cultural objects in this vivid contribution to the material history of literature.”—Johanna Drucker, author of Iliazd: A Meta-Biography of a Modernist“At once erudite, evocative, and intellectually exciting, this extraordinary book incites us to think in new ways about materiality and literature. This beautifully written and infinitely rewarding book resists a quick reading, demanding careful attentiveness from the first word to the last.”—Leora Auslander, University of Chicago

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Book SynopsisShakespeare''s Sonnets are as important and vital today as they were when first published four hundred years ago. Perhaps no collection of verse before or since has so captured the imagination of readers and lovers; certainly no poem has come under such intense critical scrutiny, and presented the reader with such a bewildering number of alternative interpretations. In this illuminating and often irreverent guide, Don Paterson offers a fresh and direct approach to the Sonnets, asking what they can still mean to the twenty-first century reader.In a series of fascinating and highly entertaining commentaries placed alongside the poems themselves, Don Paterson discusses the meaning, technique, hidden structure and feverish narrative of the Sonnets, as well as the difficulties they present for the modern reader. Most importantly, however, he looks at what they tell us about William Shakespeare the lover - and what they might still tell us about ourselves.

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Book SynopsisA Daily Telegraph, Times, Evening Standard, TLS and Spectator Book of the Year.Winner of the Hawthornden Prize.Edward Lear is well-loved for his nonsenses', from joyous limericks to great love songs, and for his wonderful natural history paintings, landscapes and travel writing. But although Lear belongs to the age of Darwin and Dickens, his genius for the absurd and his dazzling word-play make him a very modern spirit. He was also a man of great simplicity and charm children loved him yet his humour masked epilepsy, depression and loneliness. Jenny Uglow's beautifully illustrated biography brings us his swooping moods, passionate friendships and restless travels. Above all it shows how this uniquely gifted man lived all his life on the boundaries of disciplines and desires an exile of the heart.

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