Poetry Books

Book SynopsisArguably Brecht''s greatest play, A Life of Galileo charts the seventeenth century scientist''s extraordinary fight with the church over his assertion that the earth orbits the sun.The figure of Galileo, whose heretical' discoveries about the solar system brought him to the attention of the Inquisition, is one of Brecht's more human and complex creations. Temporarily silenced by the Inquisition's threat of torture, and forced to abjure his theories publicly, Galileo continues to work in private, eventually smuggling his work out of the country.Brecht''s beautiful depiction of the explosive struggle between scientific discovery and religious fundamentalism is captured masterfully in this new translation by RSC writer-in-residence, Mark Ravenhill.Trade ReviewRavenhill has more to say, and says it more refreshingly and wittily, than any other playwright of his generation * Time Out *There are few stage authors writing more interestingly than Mark Ravenhill . . . He is . . . a searing, intelligent, disturbing sociologist with a talent for satirical dialogue and a flair for sexual sensationalism. * Financial Times *The real pleasure of ... Mark Ravenhill's slimmed-down translation lies in the absolute clarity with which [he] put[s] Brecht's masterpiece before us ... the real joy lies in seeing Brecht's timeless debate about scientific morality rendered with such pellucid swiftness. -- Michael Billington * Guardian *Lively and ultimately moving ... Ravenhill’s nifty and highly theatrical script, which pares down Brecht’s sometimes interminable speeches while retaining their essence -- Charles Spencer * Telegraph *A sharp new adaptation by Mark Ravenhill that emphasises the dark comedy and diversely rich theatrical inventiveness in a piece that Brecht kept revising -- Paul Taylor * Independent *

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Book SynopsisThe only difference between me and the people judging me is they weren't smart enough to do what we did.One of the most infamous scandals in financial history becomes a theatrical epic. At once a case study and an allegory, the play charts the notorious rise and fall of Enron and its founding partners Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, who became the most vilified figure from the financial scandal of the century.' This Student Edition features expert and helpful annotation, including a scene-by-scene summary, a detailed commentary on the dramatic, social and political context, and on the themes, characters, language and structure of the play, as well as a list of suggested reading and questions for further study and a review of performance history.Mixing classical tragedy with savage comedy, Enron follows a group of flawed men and women in a narrative of greed and loss which reviews the tumultuous 1990s and casts a new light on the financial turmoil in which the Trade ReviewCaryl Churchill’s Serious Money skewered the 1980s; Prebble’s Enron knifes the Noughties. * Sunday Times *

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Book SynopsisWe''ve stood up - we''ve lain down - we''ve concentrated. We''ve sat interminably while that tiresome old woman recited extremely unflattering verses at us. We''re endured five séances - we''ve watched her fling herself in and out of trances until we''re dizzy, and at the end of it all we find ourselves exactly where we were at the beginning.Researching for his new novel, Charles Condomine invites the implausible medium Madame Arcati to his house for a séance. Whilst consumed in a trance, Madame Arcati unwittingly summons the ghost of Charles''s dead wife, Elvira. Appearing only to Charles, Elvira soon makes a play to reclaim her husband, much to the chagrin of Charles''s new wife, Ruth. One husband, two feuding wives and a whisper of mischief in the air - who will win in Coward''s unworldly comedy?Written in 1941, Blithe Spirit remained the longest-running comedy in the history of the British theatre for three decades thereafter. Dealing with relationshipsTrade ReviewThe wide-set eyes flash, the fingers fly like knitting needles, the teeth bulge and the cheeks quiver to comic effect. It is like being in a pre-war Lagonda and watching the old dashboard dials dance into life. This play . . . holds up well when played in a properly blithe spirit. * Daily Mail *. . . one of Noel Coward's most inventive comedies . . . It is a comedy that still startles and delights. Coward wrote it in the darkest days of the Second World War and in the circumstances its determinedly frivolous attitude to morality seems downright heroic. * Daily Telegraph *As Coward liked to say, what's so wrong with mere entertainment? * Sunday Times *. . . Noel Coward's eternal comedy classic. * Jewish Chronicle *Table of ContentsPlay text

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Book SynopsisGold Medal Winner for Poetry and Special Honours Award for Best of Anthology at the 2020 Nautilus Book Awards. One language is falling silent every two weeks. Half of the 7,000 languages spoken in the world today will be lost by the end of this century. With the loss of these languages, we also lose the unique poetic traditions of their speakers and writers.Poems from the Edge of Extinction gathers together 50 poems in languages from around the world that have been identified as endangered; it is a celebration of our linguistic diversity and a reminder of our commonalities and the fundamental role verbal art plays in human life around the world. With poems by influential, award-winning poets such as US poet laureate Joy Harjo, Hawad, Valzhyna Mort, and Jackie Kay, this anthology offers a unique insight into both languages and poetry, taking the reader on an emotional, life-affirming journey into the culture of these beautiful languages.EaTrade ReviewThrilling - and moving too. The cumulative effect is a celebration of the brotherhood of peoples. Grandparents, home, grief, fear, pride, anger - all this and more is yet another reminder that 'this place', the world, is indeed 'beautiful' and it's only the passionate sharing of thoughts and feelings that can keep it that way. * Daily Mail *Share[s] folklore, songs and a richness of world views with a vivacity that heightens their collective call to protect the planet's linguistic, and cultural, ecosystem * Financial Times *

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Book SynopsisA memoir about love and loss, fatherhood and masculinity, class and belonging.

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Book SynopsisWritten specifically for GCSE students by academics in the field, the Methuen Drama GCSE Student Editions provide in-depth explanatory material alongside the play texts frequently studied at Key Stage 4. Whether for use in the classroom or independent study, these editions offer a fully comprehensive and lightly glossed play text with accompanying notes specifically directed towards readers of this age, which unravel essential topics and challenge all students to delve further into literary analysis. In Simon Stephens''s multi-award-winning stage adaptation of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, based on Mark Haddon''s novel, Christopher''s investigation into the death of the neighbour''s dog tears his world apart and confronts him with the struggle to survive when everything feels foreign.In addition to some on-page explanatory notes and the play text itself, this edition contains sub-headed analyses of themes, characters, context and dramatic devices, as well asTrade ReviewTrue to the original novel, Simon Stephens's version drips with ideas * Evening Standard *Table of ContentsConcise critical commentary, focusing upon key speeches/events; language; dramatic technique Expanded sections on theme, dramatic technique, characterisation and context Close reading of selected passages Press reviews including up-to-date reviews Words of actors and directors who have been involved in the play Playwrights' own words (annotated) Short extracts from critical writings on the playwright Extensive activities involving other works by the playwright

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Book SynopsisThis study will enable readers to gain clearer understanding of the life and major works of Seamus Heaney. It considers literary influences on Heaney, ranging from English poets such as Wordsworth, Hughes, and Auden to Irish poets such as Kavanagh and Yeats to world poets such as Virgil and Dante.

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Book SynopsisThis book presents a comparative study of the history, performances and politics of the FTP by drawing and exposing further links between American modernism and its European counterparts.

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Book SynopsisPoetry in the Mind is the first book-length cognitive analysis focused entirely on 21st century poetic texts and their conceptual effects. Addressing central poetic notions or features of poetic style from an innovative cognitive perspective, the book sheds new light on established ideas about poetic creativity and language.

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Book SynopsisThe first study to consider how Whiteness pervades and is challenged in contemporary British and US Absurdist poetry.

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Book SynopsisPresents Shakespeare's theatre as a powerful forum for shaping our capacity for virtue

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Book SynopsisAlice Walker, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning modern classic, The Color Purple, returns with a poetry collection that is both playfully imaginative and intensely moving. In Taking the Arrow Out of the Heart, Alice Walker examines our troubled times, while also chronicling a life well-lived. From poems of painful self-inquiry, to celebrating the simple beauty of everyday life, Walker offers us a window into her magical, at times difficult, and liberating world of activism, love, hope and, above all, gratitude. Whether she''s urging us to preserve an urban paradise or behold exploring the necessity of beauty to the spirit, Walker demonstrates that she remains a revolutionary poet and an inspiration to generations of fans.Trade ReviewShe is one of the most gifted writers in her countryThe Color Purple is a work to stand beside literature for any time and any place. It needs no category other than the fact that it is superb

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Book Synopsis''Tread softly because you tread on my dreams'' is one of the most well-known and repeated lines of poetry ever written. Less haunting, but still so relevant: ''Life is a long preparation for something that never happens.''W B Yeats was one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. Winner of a Nobel prize, he was also a political figure, and, as is evident from his earlier work, fascinated by Irish folklore and the occult. He was also deeply affected by the First World War and the Anglo-Irish and Irish civil wars. It is a testament to the greatness of Yeats'' poetry that he attempts to bear witness to these emotional and historical forces.This perfectly pitched collection includes some of the greatest poetry of the 20th century.

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Book Synopsis'A woman can make an average man great, and a great man average' Robert BurnsThe very best from Scotland's finest lyrical poet.

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Book Synopsis'No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings' William BlakeThe best of William Blake's poems in a beautiful new gift edition

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Book SynopsisPoems of love and battle by Arabia's legendary warrior From the sixth-century highlands of Najd in the Arabian peninsula, on the eve of the advent of Islam, come the strident cries of a legendary warrior and poet. The black outcast son of an Arab father and an Ethiopian slave mother, ''Antarah ibn Shaddad struggled to win the recognition of his father and tribe. He defied social norms and, despite his outcast status, loyally defended his people. ''Antarah captured his tumultuous life in uncompromising poetry that combines flashes of tenderness with blood-curdling violence. His war songs are testaments to his life-long battle to win the recognition of his people and the hand of ''Ablah, the free-born woman he loved but who was denied him by her family. War Songs presents the poetry attributed to ''Antarah and includes a selection of poems taken from the later Epic of ''Antar, a popular story-cycle that continues to captivate and charm Arab audiences toTrade ReviewAn unmistakable voice...What is perhaps most beautiful about War Songs is how 'Antarah hints at tenderness beneath the violence, defending slaughter for a cause and remaining faithful to tribe and family, even in the face of death. * Marginalia (Los Angeles Review of Books) *The Library of Arabic Literature has another landmark success with this so-called untranslatable poet...Sixth-century Arabia may be 'strange,' but the years of struggle on the part of this scholar-writer and his poet collaborator have given the general reader a visceral insight into this world in compelling, beautiful poetry. * Times Literary Supplement *Beautifully accomplished by James E. Montgomery in collaboration with fellow scholar-translator, Richard Sieburth...Dynamic, fully cinematic translations that effect ‘the transfer of energy’ essential to literary translation...An exciting addition to the LAL corpus. * IASA Bulletin *War Songs is a well-presented collection, with useful supplementary material, from the introductory matter to the appendices. * The Complete Review *Presented in modern form, the translations are as clear and unexpected as ʿAntarah’s original verse. The volume’s comprehensive introduction to the life, poetry and lore of ʿAntarah, along with scholarly accounts of him and his works, provide an insightful portrayal of an enduring literary legend. * Aramco World *

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Book SynopsisA brand new edition of the smash-hit play, now a wildly popular CBC TV series. Mr. Kim is a first-generation Korean immigrant and the proud owner of Kim's Convenience, a variety store located in the heart of downtown Toronto's Regent Park neighbourhood. As the neighbourhood quickly gentrifies, Mr. Kim is offered a generous sum of money to sell enough to allow him and his wife to finally retire. But Kim's Convenience is more than just his livelihood it is his legacy. As Mr. Kim tries desperately, and hilariously, to convince his daughter Janet, a budding photographer, to take over the store, his wife sneaks out to meet their estranged son Jung, who has not seen or spoken to his father in sixteen years and who has now become a father himself. Wholly original, hysterically funny, and deeply moving, Kim's Convenience tells the story of one Korean family struggling to face the future amidst the bitter memories of their past.

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Book SynopsisMine Mine Mine is a personal narration of Uhuru Portia Phalafala’s family’s experience of the migrant labor system brought on by the gold mining industry in Johannesburg, South Africa. Using geopoetics to map geopolitics, Phalafala follows the death of her grandfather during a historic juncture in 2018, when a silicosis class action lawsuit against the mining industry in South Africa was settled in favor of the miners. Phalafala ties the catastrophic effects of gold mining on the miners and the environment in Johannesburg to the destruction of Black lives, the institution of the Black family, and Black sociality. Her epic poem addresses racial capitalism, bringing together histories of the transatlantic and trans-Indian slave trades, of plantation economies, and of mining and prison-industrial complexes. As inheritor of the migrant labor lineage, she uses her experience to explore how Black women carry intergenerational trauma of racial capitalism in their bodies and intersects the personal and national, continental and diasporic narration of this history within a critical race framework.Trade Review“In Mine Mine Mine Uhuru Portia Phalafala pulls off a small miracle of craft: an intimate poem and yet also an epic. In the tradition of composers like Zim Ngqawana and poets like Okot p’Bitek, this work is personal narrative, a musical composition, an operatic libretto, simultaneously original and yet drawing from the lineage of griots, inyosis, and imbongis, with perfect play between soloist and chorus. An incredible book that spans self, history, and unknown dimensions, part spirit and part human.”—Chris Abani, author of Smoking the Bible and The Secret History of Las Vegas“History lies in our bodies, Uhuru Phalafala shows in Mine Mine Mine. Her words are insistent, alive, as necessary as breathing. She draws in startling depth the two worlds her grandparents lived in, her grandmother as one of millions of ‘widows with living husbands’ and her grandfather, banished to the city of men whose families are forbidden from living with them, and who descend each day to the subterranean country whose gold they gather and whose dust they breathe in and carry in their lungs. Refusing his death sentence by breathing, Phalafala addresses her grandfather directly, always in the present tense, noting how he and his comrades are made ‘animal’ by mining and apartheid. Her words hail her grandfather, refuse the theft of him by golden death, diamond-sharp death, death in the womb of the earth and death above the surface. The charge of Mine Mine Mine is to possess the self against the theft of the body by the underground cities and their mass graves a mile down, their gold dust carried in bodies that are a treasure to those they never see except at Christmas and at the end to die, coughing. Phalafala writes a new history, tenderly filling in what was lost, the births and generations missed during the long absences, bearing witness to the links from the Atlantic and Indian Ocean slave trades to the dust of the mines, tracing centuries of history in one body breathing.”—Gabeba Baderoon, author of The History of Intimacy and A Hundred Silences“Mine Mine Mine grabs my heart by its throat and tells it who it is. . . . The breadth of Phalafala’s twelve-year academic devotion to the study of words is evident in the precision with which she wields her tremendous sonic and literary gifts. The mind’s ear hears the repetitive machinery of the mines. It connects to the sharp edge that Blackness gave birth to in the city. Phalafala guides the reader across the complex contours of womanhood, the embodiment of the land in Setswana, and mourns a lost cyclical relationship to both. Canons of Black feminist memory, music, and pan-African influences converge in a treatise so tight the only word that can crown this elegant elegy is ‘truth.’”—Lebogang Mashile, award-winning poet and performer“These poems exist as a single aching narrative that traces the poetics of memory and geography and the sheer weight of them is both brutal and beautiful—like history itself. There are stanzas that are impossible to forget. . . . It is a rare gift, this—to be able to say the hardest things in the most difficult of ways, to be unyielding and unbowed and to be unashamed. It is a wonder to behold, this way of writing that weaves time and place and joy; that notes what has been lost and revels in what might yet come. . . . This work is a catalogue of loss but it is also a tally of what we have gained. It maps the past just as surely as it marks out the terrain of our future. It is a beginning, a way of doing anew what has always been done. This work is indeed a way to ‘sing our resurrection.’”—Sisonke Msimang, author of Always Another Country: A Memoir of Exile and Home and The Resurrection of Winnie MandelaTable of Contents Part 1. Mine: A Litany of Loss Movement 1. Lekarapa Movement 2. Moletelo Movement 3. Makgolwa Movement 4. Black Rage in Swallow Movement 5. Ancestral Suite Movement 6. Lefa la ntate Coda. Unburied Part 2. State of Mine: Deeds Notes

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Book SynopsisGiven that the Surrealists were initially met with widespread incomprehension, mercilessly ridiculed, and treated as madmen, it is remarkable that more than one hundred years on we still feel the vitality and continued popularity of the movement today. As Willard Bohn demonstrates, Surrealism was not just a French phenomenon but one that eventually encompassed much of the world. Concentrating on the movement's theory and practice, this extraordinarily broad-ranging book documents the spread of Surrealism throughout the western hemisphere and examines keys texts, critical responses, and significant writers. The latter include three extraordinarily talented individuals who were eventually awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature (Andre Breton, Pablo Neruda, and Octavio Paz). Like their Surrealist colleagues, they strove to free human beings from their unconscious chains so that they could realize their true potential. One Hundred Years of Surrealist Poetry explores not only the birthTrade ReviewOne Hundred Years of Surrealist Poetry is at once an anthology and a beautifully accessible handbook, providing guidance, insights and information on essential aspects of surrealist theory and practise. From automatic writing and objective chance to mad love and black humour, the topics explored are exemplified by astonishing poems and oneiric prose from French, Hispanic and Portuguese writers, all translated by Willard Bohn with characteristic flair and empathy. * Peter Read, Professor Emeritus of Modern French Literature and Visual Arts, University of Kent, UK and author of Picasso and Apollinaire The Persistence of Memory (2008) *With his characteristic clarity, as well as formidable aesthetic and linguistic breadth, Bohn has produced a major work for serious students and scholars of Surrealism. Using important examples from many different cultural and theoretical sources, he offers new, wide-ranging perspectives on the origins and later history of the movement throughout the world. He also presents close readings of several key texts, many of which incorporate, and often surpass, analyses published by some of the most influential critics (Riffaterre, Bonnet, Balakian, Jenny, Caws, Murat ) who have worked on these often mysterious, enigmatic works. I highly recommend it, therefore, to anyone working in comparative literature, art history, even film studies, thanks to his explanations of surrealist images in a variety of art forms. * Stamos Metzidakis, Professor Emeritus of French and Comparative Literature, Washington University in Saint Louis, USA *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. André Breton and Automatic Writing 2. Revisiting the Surrealist Image 3. Paul Eluard and Surrealist Love 4. Surrealism and the Poetic Act 5. José María Hinojosa and Early Spanish Surrealism 6. Federico García Lorca 7. J. V. Foix and Catalan Surrealism 8. Portuguese Experiments with Surrealism 9. Octavio Paz 10. South American Surrealists Coda Acknowledgments Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisWhen Peter Porter died in 2010 his reputation as one of the greatest Australian poets had long been settled. Chorale at the Crossing gathers together the work Porter completed after the publication of his widely-praised final collection Better than God, and shows a remarkable and capacious mind - apparently furnished with half the contents of Western culture - still working at full tilt, despite the imminence of his own passing. Chorale at the Crossing contains love poems, comic excursions, and meditations on art, death, music and nature, all written with Porter's phenomenal technical facility and immense good humour. Chorale at the Crossing is the last word from one of our wisest and most compassionate poets - and is, quite simply, necessary reading.

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Book SynopsisShortlisted for the Poetry Pigott Prize in association with Listowel Writers’ WeekThrough four highly acclaimed collections, Colette Bryce has steadily consolidated her position as one of the most important of the younger generation of Irish poets. Possessed of a preternaturally acute ear and eye, Bryce is the recorder and observer of tense times: perhaps no contemporary poet has better mapped the fault-lines of nation and family, of love and tribal loyalty, of landscape and border. In all this, Bryce again and again declares the primacy of song as a redemptive practice, and a glorious end in itself: no voice is more accurately pitched or effortlessly musical. Selected Poems draws together the best of her poetry from The Heel of Bernadette to The Whole & Rain-domed Universe, winner of the Ewart-Biggs Award, and is a marvellous introduction to the range and sweep of Bryce’s work.Trade Review[Bryce's] poems, sensitive as the needle that registers some distant earth tremor, are delicately poised . . . Bryce's vision is questing, disquieting, dark . . . as she seeks out the truths of life and love that transform the human heart * The Times *

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Book SynopsisA single book-length poem, The River in the Sky sees Clive James face up to his final moments of life with all the wisdom, lightly-worn erudition and good humour that defined his extraordinary career.Close to death for a number of years, Clive James wrote about the experience in a series of deeply moving poems. In this volume, we find him in ill health but high spirits. Though his body found him bound to his Cambridge home, his mind was free to roam. On a grand tour of 'the fragile treasures of his life', James is animated by powerful recollections. He presents a flowing stream of vivid images, moving from emotionally resonant personal moments, such as listening to jazz records with his future wife, to unforgettable encounters with all kinds of culture: Beethoven's Ninth Symphony sits alongside 'YouTube's vast cosmopolis'. James shares his passions with enormous generosity, making brilliant, original connections and fearlessly tackling the biggest questions: the meaning of life and how to live it. In the end, what emerges from this autobiographical epic is a soaring work of exceptional depth and feeling.'The River in the Sky is superb, an epic lament, written in late life, filled with exact and moving observations about life and culture' – New York TimesClive James (1939–2019) was a broadcaster, critic, poet, memoirist and novelist. His acclaimed poetry includes the collection Sentenced to Life and a translation of Dante's The Divine Comedy, both Sunday Times bestsellers. His passion for and knowledge of poetry are distilled in his book of criticism on the subject, Poetry Notebook, and, written in the last year of his life, his personal annotated anthology of favourite poems, The Fire Of Joy. Praise for Clive James:'He will be seen, I think, as one of the most important and influential writers of our time' – Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times'Wise, witty, terrifying, unflinching and extraordinarily alive' – A.S. Byatt, critic and author of Possession: A Romance'Clive James is a true poet' – Peter Porter, London Review of BooksTrade ReviewClive James’s book-length poem The River in the Sky is superb, an epic lament, written in late life, filled with exact and moving observations about life and culture. “If my ashes end up in an hour-glass,” he wrote, “I can go on working.” -- Dwight Garner * New York Times *A collection of intellectual agility, playfulness and high jinks -- Kate Kellaway * Observer, Poetry Books of the Year, 2018 *This ranging poem moves like a river, dawdling sometimes then opening out into its full force. Clive James is gathering a life full of event, people, humour and remorse, books and writing: all now present in the copiousness of memory. It is a book written in the knowledge that death is coming near. It feels, and communicates, the pleasures of being alive in your one inimitable life. -- Gillian BeerClive James delivered another book-length poem from the abyss, The River in the Sky, defying death again while revealing himself to be one of the most vital poets writing in English. -- Christopher Merrill * Paris Review *

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Book Synopsis‘Enchanting’ - Simon Russell Beale ‘Remarkable’ - James Shapiro‘Wonderful . . . compulsively readable’ - Nicholas HytnerWhy do the collected works of an Elizabethan writer continue to speak to us as if they were written yesterday?When Robert McCrum began his recovery from a life-changing stroke, described in My Year Off, he discovered that the only words that made sense to him were snatches of Shakespeare. Unable to travel or move as he used to, McCrum found the First Folio became his ‘book of life’, an endless source of inspiration through which he could embark on ‘journeys of the mind’, and see a reflection of our own disrupted times.An acclaimed writer and journalist, McCrum has spent the last twenty-five years immersed in Shakespeare’s work, on stage and on the page. During this prolonged exploration, Shakespeare’s poetry and plays, so vivid and contemporary, have become his guide and consolation. In Shakespearean he asks: Why is it that we always return to Shakespeare, particularly in times of acute crisis and dislocation? What is the key to his hold on our imagination? And why do the collected works of an Elizabethan writer continue to speak to us as if they were written yesterday?Shakespearean is a rich, brilliant and superbly drawn portrait of an extraordinary artist, one of the greatest writers who ever lived. Through an enthralling narrative, ranging widely in time and space, McCrum seeks to understand Shakespeare within his historical context while also exploring the secrets of literary inspiration, and examining the nature of creativity itself. Witty and insightful, he makes a passionate and deeply personal case that Shakespeare’s words and ideas are not just enduring in their relevance – they are nothing less than the eternal key to our shared humanity.Trade ReviewShakespearean is a remarkable book, an illuminating and personal journey that takes us to the heart of Shakespeare’s art and influence. From his account of the plays’ quintessential Englishness to his exploration of what he shrewdly terms their 'negligent ambiguity,' McCrum’s insights are hard-earned and deeply rewarding -- James ShapiroI can’t think of anything better than listening to Robert McCrum talk about Shakespeare. And this enchanting book is the next best thing - like a gentle chat with a genuine expert. -- Sir Simon Russell BealeRobert McCrum beautifully connects Shakespeare to ourselves in a way I’ve not come across before. I love his curiosity. He seems to live each day as if he’s talked to Shakespeare on the phone that morning. So far, it's the best thing that has happened during lockdown.' -- Michael Grandage, Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse, 2002-2012Shakespearean is a brilliant, wise, elegant and profoundly moving book . . . Beautifully written, inspired and inspiring: a captivating portrait of Shakespeare and ourselves -- Joanna Kavenna, author of The Ice MuseumIf you ever had any doubts about the relevance of Shakespeare to the modern world, read this book! -- Henry Marsh, author of Do No HarmWonderful and inexhaustibly fascinating -- Richard EyreWonderful . . . a beautiful personal testament to why Shakespeare continues to matter so much. It is crammed with original insights, and springs equally from a deep knowledge of Shakespeare’s own world and a totally persuasive conviction that his plays speak to our own world, and our own selves, as cogently as they did to the Elizabethans. It is compulsively readable and I loved every page of it. -- Nicholas Hytner, theatre directorReading Shakespearean was a joy . . . by far the most accessible and erudite contemporary critique evoking with wit and profound insight that conscious (and subconscious) acknowledgement of the degrees to which Shakespeare‘s work continues to influence our cultural and political lives. It is also an essential entertaining book for anyone who like me shares a love of the great man’s plays and sonnets. -- Don Boyd, film directorMcCrum writes brilliantly about writing . . . there is much here to stir the blood * The Times *Engaging and animated . . . McCrum guides us rather like someone walking through a gallery . . . McCrum's Shakespeare for "times of disruption" is a welcome participant in the contemporary conversation -- Rowan Williams, New Statesman'Excellent . . . the winning combination of McCrum's own insights and sparkling language lifts Shakespearean to the must-read list . . . an ambitious and exhilarating ride * Daily Mail *A beguiling mix of memoir, literary criticism and biography * iNews *

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Book SynopsisPoet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy and her friends across the country offer poems in praise of the magic of reading. In Off the Shelf: A Celebration of Bookshops in Verse, Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy has commissioned a selection of the UK's most loved and lauded poets to each write a poem in celebration of books and bookshops - the worlds they hold, the freedoms they promise, and the memories they evoke. From a basement of forgotten books to the shelves of a cramped Welsh arcade, from the poetry corner of the local bookstore to the last bookshop standing in a post-apocalyptic world, these are poems that pay tribute to all the places that house the stories we treasure.With poems from Carol Ann Duffy, Scottish Makar Jackie Kay, National Poet of Wales Gillian Clarke, as well as Clive James, Michael Longley, Don Paterson, Patience Agbabi and many more, this beautiful anthology is a heart-warming reminder of how books nourish us, save us, and inspire us.

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Book SynopsisThe Gardener (1915) is a collection of poems by Rabindranath Tagore. Translated into English by Tagore and dedicated to Irish poet W. B. Yeats, The Gardener is a collection of earlier poems republished following his ascension to international fame with the 1912 Nobel Prize in Literature. When Yeats discovered Tagore’s work in translation, he felt an intense kinship with a man whose work was similarly grounded in spirituality and opposition to the British Empire. For the Irish poet, Tagore’s poems were at once deeply personal and essentially universal, like a secret kept by all and shared regardless. Whether or not we admit it, his words never fail to remind us: to be human is to be vulnerable. “In the morning I cast my net into the sea. I dragged up from the dark abyss things of strange aspect and strange beauty—some shone like a smile, some glistened like tears, and some were flushed like the cheeks of a bride. […] Then the whole night through I flung them one by one into the street. In the morning travellers came; they picked them up and carried them into far countries.” In his landmark collection Gitanjali, Tagore explored the realm of the spirit, paring down language to its clearest, purest form. In The Gardener, he gives expression to more worldly themes. Here, he is a fisherman, a restless wanderer, a servant and queen, an observer of life in all forms. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Rabindranath Tagore’s The Gardener is a classic of Indian literature reimagined for modern readers.

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Book SynopsisThe Rape of the Lock (1906) is an epic poem by English literary icon Alexander Pope. Known for his caustic wit and satirical outlook as much as he was for his formal expertise, Pope is arguably the most important English poet of the eighteenth century. His work influenced such figures as William Wordsworth, Samuel Johnson, and Jonathan Swift. Drawing on his immense knowledge of ancient Greek and Latin literature, Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock is a mock epic which captures the essence of classical divinity and poetry while illuminating the absurdity and stupidity of English aristocratic life. The poem centers on a Baron’s obsession with the hair of the beautiful socialite Belinda. Although her hair is protected by divine Sylphs, the Baron eventually succeeds, using a pair of scissors to snip off a lock of Belinda’s hair. This throws the world of the poem into chaos—Belinda is outraged, and the divine creatures which move invisibly between worlds try their best to restore order to the universe. The poem culminates with a battle between Belinda and the Baron, mimicking the heroism and warfare of the best of Homer while casting a critical eye on the values of England’s elite. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

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Book SynopsisA hybrid of Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience that brings poetry, philosophy and spirituality into an all-inclusive text that’s both accessible and enlightening. These selections have an easy-to-follow format that allows readers to smoothly transition from one book to the next. Blake’s writing consists of two parts: one focusing on “innocence” and the other on “experience.” They each feature a group of poems that fit their respective themes. Songs of Innocence highlights the peaceful naiveté of youth, while Songs of Experience emphasizes the loss of purity due to outside influence. Considered one of the greatest British artists to ever live, William Blake’s work is revered by critics and scholars. His illustrative style captivates the reader’s imagination keeping them interested and engaged. Songs of Innocence and of Experience is an essential sampling of his literary contributions and a worthy addition to any poetry collection. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Songs of Innocence and of Experience is both modern and readable.

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Book SynopsisUncle Vanya (1898) is a four-act play by Russian short story writer and playwright Anton Chekhov. It was first performed at the Moscow Art Theatre in 1899, directed by acclaimed actor Konstantin Stanislavski—who also played the role of Astrov. Reviews were lukewarm at first, but as the play continued to run, Uncle Vanya gained both popularity and critical prowess, and has since become one of the most influential dramas ever produced. When retired Professor Aleksandr Serebryakov and his young second wife Yelena arrive at their country estate, they disrupt the mundanity and relative boredom of provincial life for its inhabitants. While the elderly Serebryakov enjoys life in the city, Sonya, his daughter, and Vanya, his first wife’s brother, remain at the estate to manage its daily upkeep. Vanya, whose only companion is Mikhail Astrov, a doctor dissatisfied with his life and role in the rural community, regrets his failure to become a man of letters, and blames Serebryakov for saddling him with responsibility for the estate. He also loves the beautiful Yelena and wishes he had realized it before she married his brother-in-law. Meanwhile, Sonya secretly loves Astrov, but fears he thinks of her as only a friend. As Serebryakov’s decision to sell the estate in order to increase his income is revealed, Vanya—incensed by years of disappointment and disrespect, as well as his by own mother’s idolization of the Professor—reaches his breaking point, bringing the play to its startling, powerful conclusion. Uncle Vanya is a masterful drama that illuminates the intersecting obligations of family while dissecting the bitterness and ambition which so often define the relationships of men. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya is a classic of Russian literature reimagined for modern readers.

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Book SynopsisWhile traveling to a wedding, a young man is pulled into the eventful narrative of the Ancient Mariner who is compelled to share his story. It’s a miraculous tale about guilt, humanity and one’s capacity to change. The Ancient Mariner notices a young man traveling to a nearby wedding. He abruptly interrupts his journey and starts sharing a story about his time at sea. He details its humble beginnings and the tumultuous events that followed. As the young man listens, he’s taken aback by the story and the man’s fight for survival. The Ancient Mariner faced hunger, thirst and eventually death before making a realization that would change the course of his life forever. Rime of the Ancient Mariner is one of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s most famous works. Initially published in 1798, it’s had a lasting impact on literature and pop culture, including music and film. It’s a brilliant tale of morality that examines a character’s actions and the inevitable consequences. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Rime of the Ancient Mariner is both modern and readable.

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Book SynopsisThe Wind Among the Reeds (1899) is a collection of poems and plays by W.B. Yeats. Containing many of the poet’s early important works, The Wind Among the Reeds provides a rich sampling of Yeats’ poems, illuminating his influence on the Celtic Twilight, a late-nineteenth century movement to revive the myths and traditions of Ancient Ireland, while charting his developing sense of the poet’s place in history and a changing world. “The Song of Wandering Aengus” dramatizes aesthetic and romantic longing. The poem follows a man with “a fire…in [his] head” who peels “a hazel wand,” hooks it with a berry, and catches himself “a little silver trout.” Satisfied, he returns home to light a fire and cook himself a meal of fresh fish when, suddenly, the trout transforms into “a glimmering girl / With apple blossom in her hair.” Haunted by her beauty, Aengus wanders the “hollow lands and hilly lands” in search of the girl, leaving his home and forsaking the promise of hard-earned comfort for the hope and hunger of vision . “The Song of the Old Mother,” a deceptively simple lyric reminiscent of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience, is a brief meditation on the life of an elderly domestic worker. Rising at dawn, she ensures that “the seed of the fire flicker and glow,” preparing the home for the day ahead while “the young lie long and dream in their bed” with no sense of the nature of work. The Wind Among the Reeds, Yeats’ third collection of poems, introduces some of the poet’s most enduring characters and personas, including Michael Robartes and Red Hanrahan, who dramatize for poet and reader the moods and minds which move a creative spirit. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of W.B. Yeats’s The Wind Among the Reeds is a classic of Irish literature reimagined for modern readers.

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Book SynopsisNorth of Boston (1914) is a collection of poems by American poet Robert Frost. Following the success of Frost’s debut, A Boy’s Will (1913), North of Boston was published in London to enthusiastic reviews from both Ezra Pound and W.B. Yeats. His success abroad quickly translated to critical acclaim in the United States, and Frost would eventually be recognized as a leading American poet. “Mending Wall” takes place in spring, as the people emerge from their homes to assess the damage done by the long, dark winter. Observing that parts of the stone wall on the edge of his property have fallen, the poet joins his neighbor “to walk the line / And set the wall between us once again.” Although he feels they “do not need the wall,” his neighbor insists that “’Good fences make good neighbours,’” continuing down the line to reinforce the space between them. A meditation on humanity, civilization, and democracy, “Mending Wall” is an iconic and frequently anthologized poem. In “After Apple-Picking,” as fall gives over to winter, the poet remembers in dreams how the “Magnified apples appear and disappear, / Stem end and blossom end” as he climbs the ladder into the heart of the tree. Both a symbol for life and a metaphor for the poetic act, apple picking leaves the poet “overtired / Of the great harvest [he himself] desired”, awaiting sleep as he describes “its coming on,” wondering what, if anything, it will bring. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Robert Frost’s North of Boston is a classic of American literature reimagined for modern readers.

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Book SynopsisNora Helmer is a dutiful young wife and mother of three children whose attempt to secure her family’s future may ultimately lead to its destruction. Ibsen’s play explores female identity and independence in a male dominated society. The Helmer family consists of Torvald and Nora, as well as three children: Ivar, Bobby and Emmy. From the outside, they appear to live a happy and idyllic life. Yet, a secret from Nora’s past threatens to destroy everything she loves. One of Torvald’s employees blackmails Nora, hoping she can influence her husband in the workplace. When she doesn’t succeed, Torvald is informed of her misdeeds. This leads to a life-changing confrontation that forces Nora to reevaluate her marriage and desire for a family. A Doll's House a one of Ibsen’s most forward-thinking plays. It was deemed scandalous for its depiction of a wife who prioritizes her own well-being over others. It’s an insightful examination of how gender roles dominated nineteenth century Europe. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of A Doll’s House is both modern and readable.

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Book SynopsisEllida Wangel grew up loving the sea, but she eventually moved away and married a doctor instead of the sailor who originally stole her heart. This has put a strain on her relationship with her husband and his two daughters, from his previous marriage. Ellida Wangel is the second wife of widower, Dr. Edvard Wangel. She is the stepmother to his daughters, Bolette and Hilde, who prefer to keep their distance. The family dynamic is often cold as the marriage is more about convenience than love. Ellida spent her formative years near the sea and has always yearned to return to it. But her life and responsibilities have kept her away. When a former lover reappears, he attempts to convince Ellida to leave her husband and travel abroad. She is forced to choose between the family she knows and the future she desires. The Lady from the Sea examines the trappings of what appears to be a happy marriage. Despite a stable husband and two children, the wife is unfulfilled. She must look inside herself to discover what truly matters in her heart. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of The Lady from the Sea is both modern and readable.

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Book SynopsisThe Burning Wheel (1916) is a collection of poems by English author Aldous Huxley. Published when the poet was only twenty-two, The Burning Wheel captures the mind of an artist at its earliest fertile stage, enthralled with a world either blooming with change or wilting with all-out war. Although Huxley is known foremost as a novelist, his poetry exhibits a mastery of language and an uncommon sense of the music inherent to words. “The Burning Wheel” opens the collection with a kaleidoscopic vision of life and creation, illuminating the poet’s debt to the French Symbolists. “Weary of its own turning,” the burning wheel slows for a moment’s rest. This wheel, both machine and pure, wild flame, is the poet compelled to create, the mind that “[w]akes from the sleep of its quiet brightness / And burns with a darkening passion and pain.” In “Quotidian Vision,” Huxley returns to earth to remark: “There is a sadness in the street / And sullenly the folk I meet / Droop their heads as they walk along.” In these simple, rhyming couplets, the poet channels the verse and vision of William Blake to see, despite the “mist of cold and muffling grey,” a “dead world move for him once more / With beauty for its living core.” The Burning Wheel is a compelling collection from an artist whose poetry is no less remarkable for having gone mostly unnoticed. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Aldous Huxley’s The Burning Wheel is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

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Book SynopsisProserpine and Midas (1820) is a collection of plays by Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Combining Mary’s blank verse and Percy’s lyric poems, the Shelleys offer two groundbreaking retellings of classical myth. Together, the plays illuminate the working relationship of a husband and wife who helped define Romanticism, highlighting their individual talents in the process. While Proserpine was published in 1832 in The Winter’s Wreath, a London periodical, Mary Shelley was unable to find a publisher for Midas, which remained unprinted until the twentieth century. Ceres, the goddess of agriculture, leaves her daughter Proserpine in the care of two trusted nymphs. While the women are out picking flowers, Proserpine is kidnapped by Pluto, the dreaded lord of the underworld. Distraught, Ceres laments the loss of her beloved girl and appeals to Jove for assistance. Proserpine is a retelling of an ancient myth which remains mostly faithful to its source while emphasizing the feminist qualities of its tragic content. In Midas, the wild god Pan is defeated in a musical competition by Apollo, god of the sun. Determined to claim victory, he arranges a new contest with King Midas as judge. Although his power on earth is unmatched by any human, Midas soon learns that to play at divinity one risks reaping the greatest of sorrows. Proserpine and Midas is a masterful take on two of ancient Greece’s central myths. Using their talents for narrative and song, the Shelleys adapt these well-known stories for the nineteenth century and beyond, showcasing their sociopolitical significance in a world defined by the democratic ideals of the Greeks. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Proserpine and Midas is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

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Book SynopsisHelen of Troy and Other Poems (1911) is a poetry collection by Sara Teasdale. The poet’s second collection, published several years before she was awarded the 1918 Pulitzer Prize, is a masterful collection of lyric poems meditating on life, romance, and the natural world. Somber and celebratory, symbolic and grounded in experience, Helen of Troy and Other Poems revels in the mystery of existence itself. “Wild flight on flight against the fading dawn / The flames' red wings soar upward duskily. / This is the funeral pyre and Troy is dead / That sparkled so the day I saw it first, / And darkened slowly after. I am she / Who loves all beauty—yet I wither it.” As Troy burns, Teasdale imagines an impassioned monologue given from the ramparts by the infamous Helen, whose faithlessness in marriage was the catalyst for war in Homer’s Iliad. Although she is often seen as a minor character, more an object of male desire than an autonomous subject in her own right, Teasdale refuses to follow the template passed down by generations of poets—mostly men. Her Helen is meditative and intelligent, capable of immense sorrow and full-throated rage alike: “Men’s lives shall waste with longing after me, / For I shall be the sum of their desire, / The whole of beauty, never seen again.” While acknowledging her role in Troy’s destruction, Helen is a tragic figure in Teasdale’s poem, a woman who never asked for beauty, let alone for the troubles that beauty brought down on the world. Containing monologue poems from such figures as Sappho, Beatrice, and Guenevere, alongside a series of love poems and finely-crafted sonnets, Helen of Troy and Other Poems is a brilliant collection by a gifted American poet. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Sara Teasdale’s Helen of Troy and Other Poems is a classic work of American poetry reimagined for modern readers.

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Book SynopsisFlame and Shadow (1920) is a poetry collection by Sara Teasdale. The poet’s fifth collection, published two years after she won the 1918 Pulitzer Prize, is a masterful collection of lyric poems meditating on life, death, and the natural world. Somber and celebratory, symbolic and grounded in experience, Flame and Shadow revels in the mystery of existence itself. “What do I care, in the dreams and the languor of spring, / That my songs do not show me at all?” Content to depict the rhythms of nature, the songs of birds, and “the silver light after a storm,” Teasdale’s poetry dissolves the poet’s ego in order to access a deeper well of creative energy: “For my mind is proud and strong enough to be silent, / It is my heart that makes my songs, not I.” In “There Will Come Soft Rains,” a poem born from a decade of war and widespread disease, Teasdale imagines a posthuman world where beauty and harmony continue despite our disappearance: “Robins will wear their feathery fire / Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire; And not one will know of the war…” For Teasdale, a poet who merges an abiding affection for flora and fauna with a critical distance from human affairs, the belief in the life of the world, with or without us, is enough. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Sara Teasdale’s Flame and Shadow is a classic work of American poetry reimagined for modern readers.

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Book SynopsisSongs of Jamaica (1912) is a poetry collection by Claude McKay. Published before the poet left Jamaica for the United States, Songs of Jamaica is a pioneering collection of verse written in Jamaican Patois, the first of its kind. As a committed leftist, McKay was a keen observer of the Black experience in the Caribbean, the American South, and later in New York, where he gained a reputation during the Harlem Renaissance for celebrating the resilience and cultural achievement of the African American community while lamenting the poverty and violence they faced every day. “Quashie to Buccra,” the opening poem, frames this schism in terms of labor, as one class labors to fulfill the desires of another: “You tas’e petater an’ you say it sweet, / But you no know how hard we wuk fe it; / You want a basketful fe quattiewut, / ‘Cause you no know how ‘tiff de bush fe cut.” Addressing himself to a white audience, he exposes the schism inherent to colonial society between white and black, rich and poor. Advising his white reader to question their privileged consumption, dependent as it is on the subjugation of Jamaica’s black community, McKay warns that “hardship always melt away / Wheneber it comes roun’ to reapin’ day.” This revolutionary sentiment carries throughout Songs of Jamaica, finding an echo in the brilliant poem “Whe’ fe do?” Addressed to his own people, McKay offers hope for a brighter future to come: “We needn’ fold we han’ an’ cry, / Nor vex we heart wid groan and sigh; / De best we can do is fe try / To fight de despair drawin’ night: / Den we might conquer by an’ by— / Dat we might do.” With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Claude McKay’s Songs of Jamaica is a classic of Jamaican literature reimagined for modern readers.

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Book SynopsisLONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR POETRY ?A powerful meditation on Blackness, beauty, faith, and the force of law, from the beloved award-winning author of Digest and Air TrafficElegant, profound, and intoxicating?Spectral Evidence, Gregory Pardlo?s first major collection of poetry after winning the Pulitzer Prize for Digest, moves fluidly among considerations of the pro-wrestler Owen Hart; Tituba, the only Black woman to be accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials; MOVE, the movement and militant separatist group famous for its violent stand-offs with the Philadelphia Police Department (?flames rose like orchids . . . / blocks lay open like egg cartons?); and more.At times cerebral and at other times warm, inviting and deeply personal, Spectral Evidence compels us to consider how we think about devotion, beauty and art; about the criminalization and death of Black bodies; about justice?and about how these have been inscribed into our present, our history, and the Western canon: ?If I could be / the forensic dreamer / . . . / . . . my art would be a mortician?s / paints.?

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Book Synopsis“life is not something that can be experienced on a deadline.”amanda lovelace, the bestselling & award-winning author of the “women are some kind of magic” poetry series, presents unlock your storybook heart, the third & final installment in her feminist poetry series, “you are your own fairy tale.” this is a collection about being so caught up in the fable that is perfectionism that you miss out on your own life. be honest: when was the last time you stopped to take in the everyday enchantment all around you?

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Book SynopsisA revised and expanded edition of the bestselling Explorations of a Cosmic Soul. Align your soul and spirit with this beautiful collection of poetry straight from the author’s heart. Written by Allie Michelle, this edition includes her author notes that convey the energy she experienced when writing these poems. Inspiring and powerful, Allie's words will sweep you off your feet delivering the message that YOU are a cosmic being.

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