Search results for ""alma""

While at a party organized by the local landowner for the officers of his brigade, the shy and awkward Ryabovich is suddenly kissed by an unknown woman in a dark room. This unexpected, electrifying encounter, which he relives in his mind day after day, marks a turning point for Ryabovich, showing him that everything in life – joy, sorrow, hope – is equally pointless and subject to chance. One of Chekhov’s most admired stories, ‘The Kiss’ is joined in this volume by six other celebrated tales in a new translation by Hugh Aplin: ‘The Lady with the Little Dog’, ‘Ward Six’, ‘The Black Monk’, ‘The House with a Mezzanine’, ‘The Bishop’ and ‘Peasants’ – making this an indispensable collection for those wanting to discover Chekhov at his creative best.

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Emma is considered by many readers to be Jane Austen's crowning achievement, a timeless comedy of manners that lays bare the limits on women's autonomy in Regency England. The disparity between Emma Woodhouse's self-confidence and self-knowledge, and her determination to arrange marriages for her friends while avoiding one for herself, leads to a painful series of misunderstandings for everyone who suffers from her well-meaning altruism - and with Mr Knightley being the only person of her acquaintance who has the good sense to challenge her, Emma must eventually recognize her match in every sense. Long praised for its rich detail and perfect craftsmanship, Emma is one of those classic masterpieces that readers go back to again and again for its inexhaustible fund of humanity.

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A young Harvard graduate with bright prospects, Bill Frothington is invited on board a steamer hosting a high-school dance, where he meets and falls in love with the seventeen-year-old Mae. As the match is not considered socially advantageous enough, Bill moves on, marries and has a career, but he remains painfully nostalgic for that episode on the river. A poignant tale which touches on the themes of yearning and lost youth that are central to many of Fitzgerald’s novels and stories, ‘The Love Boat’ is here presented with other lesser-known pieces which he wrote in the 1920s and explore the many facets of his creative talents.

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Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, the author of one of the most poignant and enduringly popular novels of the twentieth century, left only a few other pieces of fiction when he died prematurely at the age of sixty. Childhood Memories and Other Stories, here presented in a new translation by Stephen Parkin and including previously deleted passages and the unpublished fragment ‘Torretta’, collects all of Lampedusa’s extant shorter fiction and provides a revealing glimpse into the writer’s workshop and the background to the composition of his masterpiece. From the atmospheric recollections of the Palazzo Lampedusa and the Palazzo Filangeri Cutò at the turn of the twentieth century in ‘Childhood Memories’ to the delightful fable ‘The Siren’, from the gently humorous, bitter­sweet tones of ‘Joy and the Law’ to ‘The Blind Kittens’ – the first chapter of what was intended to be a sequel to The Leopard – this volume showcases Lampedusa’s unparalleled ob­ser­vational powers and narrative skills.

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Throughout his life Rudyard Kipling was fond of dogs, and while they featured prominently in early tales such as 'The Dog Hervey' and 'Garm - a Hostage', he later came up with the innovative idea of writing a story from the perspective of a dog, resulting in the hugely successful 'Thy Servant a Dog', narrated by an Aberdeen terrier named Boots. This collection, published in the author's lifetime, gathers Kipling's dog stories written throughout his career, providing a warm tribute to man's best friend and showcasing the lively storytelling talents of one of Britain's most enduringly popular writers.

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Inspired by Dostoevsky's own gambling addiction and written under pressure in order to pay off his creditors and retain his rights to his literary legacy, The Gambler is set in the casino of the fictional German spa town of Roulettenburg and follows the misfortunes of the young tutor Alexei Ivanovich. As he succumbs to the temptations of the roulette table, he finds himself engaged in a battle of wills with Polina, the woman he unrequitedly loves. With an unforgettable cast of fellow gamblers and figures from European high society, this darkly comic novel of greed and self-destruction reveals Dostoevsky at his satirical and psychological best.

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Set in the year after the 1929 crash and incorporating many autobiographical elements, ‘Babylon Revisited’ tells the story of the widower Charlie Wales, a reformed alcoholic and successful businessman returning to Paris to convince his in-laws to give him back the daughter he abandoned. As the old haunts of the city he used to carouse in seem more and more alien to him, he finds himself assailed by feelings of guilt and regret. Considered one of Fitzgerald’s finest and most poignant pieces of short fiction, 'Babylon Revisited’ is presented here with a selection of other tales published in the same period, such as ‘Crazy Sunday’ – an account of alcoholism and infidelity in Hollywood – which showcase the author at his creative best.

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Presented as a collection of confessional letters written by the eponymous protagonist, The Sorrows of Young Werther charts the emotional journey of a young man who, during a stay in a picturesque German village, falls in love with Lotte, a local woman engaged to another man. As he realizes that his passion is doomed to failure and constant pain, Werther contemplates taking the most drastic measures. Partly autobiographical, and the prototype for many later Romantic works in its depiction of the sensitive, tortured hero, Goethe's seminal classic is a timeless masterpiece of world literature.

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One of Stevenson's most famous and enduringly popular works, the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde describes the mysterious relationship between a respectable and affable doctor and his brutal associate. Set in the grimy streets of Victorian London, this tale of murder, split personality and obscure science, with its chilling final revelation, became an instant horror classic when it was first published in 1886, and has enthralled and terrified generations of readers ever since. This volume also contains seven other Gothic stories by Stevenson - such as 'The Body Snatchers', 'Markheim' and 'Olalla' - showcasing the author's mastery of the horror genre and his interest in both the otherworldly and the strange ways the human brain can distort reality.

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The Mudfog Papers, a collection of sketches by Dickens published in Bentley’s Miscellany between 1837 and 1838, describes the local politics of the fictional town of Mudfog – such as the delusions of grandeur of its mayor Nicholas Tulrumble and his disastrous attempts at putting on a public show – and the meetings of its Society for the Advancement of Everything, during which the town is overrun by illustrious scientists and professors conducting ostensibly pointless research. Written at the same time as Oliver Twist – indeed the serialized version of the novel referred to Mudfog as the protagonist’s home town – The Mudfog Papers lampoons all manner of journalistic and scientific writing of the time and showcases the young Dickens at his satirical best.

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At the end of an industrious political career in conflictriven Italy, the Florentine diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli composed his masterpiece The Prince, a classic study of power and politics, and a manual of ruthlessness for any ambitious ruler. Controversial in his own time, The Prince made Machiavelli's name a byword for manipulative scheming, and had an impact on such major figures as Napoleon and Frederick the Great. It contains principles as true today as when they were first written almost five centuries ago.

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The tale of Heathcliff and Cathy's ungovernable love and suffering, and the havoc that their passion wreaks on the families of the Earnshaws and the Lintons, shocked the book's first readers, with even Emily's sister Charlotte wondering whether it is right or advisable to create beings like Heathcliff . Replete with unforgettable characters and situations that have seared themselves into our literary consciousness, Emily Bronte's intense masterpiece is one of the most haunting love stories in the canon of English literature.

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Presented as a series of letters between the humble copying clerk Devushkin and a distant relative of his, the young Varenka, Poor People brings to the fore the underclass of St Petersburg, who live at the margins of society in the most appalling conditions and abject poverty. As Devushkin tries to help Varenka improve her plight by selling anything he can, he is reduced to even more desperate circumstances and seeks refuge in alcohol, looking on helplessly as the object of his impossible love is taken away from him. Introducing the first in a long line of underground characters, Poor People, Dostoevsky's first full-length work of fiction, is a poignant, tragi-comic tale which foreshadows the greatness of his later novels.

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Since it was first published in 1818, Mary Shelley's seminal novel has generated countless print, stage and screen adaptations, but none has ever matched the power and philosophical resonance of the original. Composed as part of a challenge with Byron and Shelley to conjure up the most terrifying ghost story, Frankenstein narrates the chilling tale of a being created by a bright young scientist and the catastrophic consequences that ensue. Considered by many to be the first science-fiction novel, the tragic tale of Victor Frankenstein and the tortured creation he rejects is a classic fable about the pursuit of knowledge, the nature of beauty and the monstrosity inherent to man.

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An unsuccessful writer and an inveterate alcoholic, Boris Alikhanov is running out of money and has recently divorced from his wife Tatyana, who intends to emigrate to the West with their daughter Masha. The prospect of a summer job as a tourist guide at the Pushkin Hills preserve offers him hope of bringing back some balance into his existence, but during his stay in the rural estate of Mikhaylovskoye, Alikhanov's life continues to unravel.

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Caught up in an oil spill, a dying seagull scrambles ashore to lay her final egg and lands on a balcony, where she meets Zorba, a big black cat from the port of Hamburg. The cat promises the seagull to look after the egg, not to eat the chick once it's hatched and - most difficult of all - to teach the baby gull to fly. Will Zorba and his feline friends honour the promise and give Lucky, the adopted little seagull, the strength to discover her true nature? A moving, uplifting and life-enhancing story with a strong environmental theme, Luis Sepulveda's instant children's classic has been a worldwide best-seller and is presented here with new drawings by acclaimed illustrator Satoshi Kitamura.

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Mademoiselle Charlotte, the new teacher, is not like the others: she wears a large hat and a crumpled dress that make her look like a scarecrow, and she talks to a rock. The children think she is crazy at first, but soon realize she makes school more fun than ever, getting them to measure the room with cooked spaghetti in maths class, telling fascinating stories about a gorilla and even taking the pupils on at football. The first book in Dominique Demers’s popular series, The New Teacher, brilliantly illustrated by Tony Ross, is an entertaining, imaginative and inspiring book that will make you wish you had a teacher just like Mademoiselle Charlotte.

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Toddler in tow, Bee Rowlatt embarks on an extraordinary journey in search of the life and legacy of the first celebrity feminist: Mary Wollstonecraft. From the wild coasts of Norway to a naked re-birthing in California, via the blood-soaked streets of revolutionary Paris, Bee learns what drove her hero on and what’s been won and lost over the centuries in the battle for equality. On this biographical treasure hunt she finds herself consulting a witch, a porn star, a quiet Norwegian archivist and the tenants of a blighted council estate in Leeds – getting much more than she bargained for. In her quest to find a new balance between careers and babies, Bee also discovers the importance of celebrating the radiant power of love in all our lives.

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When Francesco decides to embark on his first trip outside his native Italy, he leaves behind a difficult relationship with his father, the narrow vistas of a small provincial town and the stifling atmosphere of a country he feels has become degraded. All he brings with him are a change of clothes, a map of Europe and the desire to discover new places, new people and, perhaps, a new life. But a chance encounter in Munich takes him off course, on an incredible journey that will see him fall in love in Sweden, lose all his money in Amsterdam, sleep rough in the streets of London, win big in Monte Carlo and get caught up in an international imbroglio.

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When Sofia Behrs married Count Leo Tolstoy, the author of "War and Peace", husband and wife regularly exchanged diaries covering the years from 1862 to 1910. Sofia's life was not an easy one: she idealized her husband, but was tormented by him; even her many children were not an unmitigated blessing. In the background of her life was one of the most turbulent periods of Russian history: the transition from old feudal Russia to the three revolutions and three major international wars. Yet it is as Sofia Tolstoy's own life story, the study of one woman's private experience, that the diaries are most valuable and moving. They are a testament to a woman of tremendous vital energy and poetic sensibility who, in the face of provocation and suffering, continued to strive for the higher things in life and to remain indomitable. It contains a forward by Doris Lessing.

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A young woman, who works as a maid for a living, takes her charge out to play in a Parisian garden square. Sitting on a bench, she starts talking to a stranger, a travelling salesman, and their conversation gradually turns into an exchange of confidences, as she speaks of her desire for a more stable future and he of his feelings of rootlessness and disillusionment. As the afternoon wears on, the two sense an increasing connection between them. Understated and impressionistic, and consisting almost entirely of dialogue, The Garden Square is one of Marguerite Duras’s finest novels, which she also adapted for the stage.

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The Battle of Reichenfels has been fought and lost. The army is in flight. The enemy is expected to arrive in town at any moment. A soldier, carrying a parcel under his arm, is wandering through an unknown town. All the streets look the same, and he cannot remember the name of one where he was supposed to meet the man who had agreed to take the parcel. But he must deliver the parcel or at least get rid of it… A brilliant work from one of the finest exponents of the Nouveau Roman, In the Labyrinth showcases an inventive, hypnotic style which creates an uncanny atmosphere of déjà vu, yet undermines the reader’s expectations at every turn.

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In his most famous and perhaps most typical work, Robbe-Grillet explores his principal preoccupation: the meaning of reality. The novel is set on a tropical banana plantation, and the action is seen through the eyes of a narrator who never appears in person, never speaks and never acts. He is a point of observation, his personality only to be guessed at, watching every movement of the other characters’ actions as they flash like moving pictures across the distorting screen of a jealous mind. The result is one of the most important and influential books of our time, a completely integrated masterpiece that has already become a classic.

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During the German advance through Belgium into France in 1940, Captain de Reixach is shot dead by a sniper. Three witnesses, involved with him during his lifetime in different capacities – a distant relative, an orderly and a jockey who had an affair with his wife – remember him and help the reader piece together the realities behind the man and his death. A groundbreaking work, for which Claude Simon devised a prose technique mimicking the mind’s fluid thought processes, The Flanders Road is not only a masterpiece of stylistic innovation, but also a haunting portrayal – based on a real-life incident – of the chaos and savagery of war.

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According to many experts, China is already the largest economy on the planet – yet its relations with the rest of the world have deteriorated in recent years, and are now at an all-time low. Is this a passing phase caused by the shockwaves of the Covid pandemic and the personalities of leaders in China and in the USA, or are the current divergencies going to become wider and more entrenched, as China grows economically and develops technological leadership? Can the West learn from its past mistakes and engage successfully with China on many common interests, or are we on the verge of a new Cold War? In The Chinese Conundrum, Vince Cable – author of the Sunday Times number-one bestseller The Storm: The World Economic Crisis and What it Means – provides an answer to these and many other topical questions of global politics and economy, examining the long history of relationships between China and the West, as well as the change in attitudes on both sides of the divide, with a particular focus on the possible repercussions of the recent election of Joe Biden as president of the United States. The result is a gripping, insightful and accessible investigation into the intricacies of today’s economic and geopolitical situation.

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It is New Year’s Eve, and Nellie, the pretty daughter of a landowning general, is sitting in her room looking in the mirror. Although she is tired and her eyes are half closed, she is spellbound as the reflection in the looking glass dissolves into a sea of grey mist, in which she starts to discern the beloved features of her fiancé. As in a diorama, the scene keeps changing, and to the early snapshots of joyful marital life succeed other, more sinister images of care, sickness and bereavement, casting a long shadow onto the girl’s future. With ‘The Looking Glass’ Chekhov captured the very essence of the Russian soul. This short story, along with the others included in this collection, demonstrates why he is considered the absolute master of the genre.

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A delightful variation on the long tradition of bestiary writing, Jules Renard’s short verse and prose poems have captured the imagination of readers and artists since they were originally written in 1894, with Ravel famously setting five of them to music. Presented in a new version by acclaimed translator Richard Stokes, this sumptuously produced volume will captivate and enchant new generations of readers the world over.

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Hannah Karalis, a teenager living with her family in 1980s Notting Hill, becomes fascinated by her neighbour, Flora Dobbs, an enigmatic elderly woman who has clearly had an interesting past – but the improbable friendship that the two strike up is abruptly cut short by Flora’s sudden departure from the neighbourhood. Eighteen years later, Hannah is astonished to receive a black notebook, which sets her on a quest to discover the truth and to confront the ghosts of an unresolved past. A gripping and poignant tale of chance encounters, tangled lies and painful discoveries, Where to Find Me is an inspiring account of how to face and overcome the effects of loss and tragedy in our daily lives.

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When Maya and her family move to the countryside, strange things start to happen at night. Who is it that keeps tidying the house after everyone has gone to bed? While her parents don’t believe her, Maya knows that there is a mysterious creature living in their new home. This unwanted resident gets very upset when it realizes it won’t be getting the bowl of porridge it expects to receive in exchange for doing the housekeeping. As the furious creature wreaks havoc on the household, will Maya and her family find a way to resolve this situation, or will they have to leave their new home? A delightful story of magic and fantasy, Che Golden’s The Porridge Plot is also a touching portrayal of family life, which emphasizes the importance of love and togetherness.

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This major critical work by the great French novelist reveals Stendhal’s decisive role in the literary renaissance called Romanticism. Written sixteen years before ‘The Charterhouse of Parma’, it marked the beginning of his illustrious career and established him at the forefront of the French Romantic movement. The first part of ‘Racine and Shakespeare’ appeared as a pamphlet in 1823, when Waterloo was still bitterly alive in the French mind. In it, Stendhal vigorously championed the spontaneous vitality of Shakespeare while condemning the rigid imitators of Corneille and Racine. The second half of ‘Racine and Shakespeare’ appeared two years later in answer to a speech against Romanticism by the secretary of the Academie Francaise. It is a brilliant tour de force, an exchange of letters between an old classicist and a young Romanticiist, in which Stendhal defined Romanticism not only for his age but for all time.

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Gilbert’s libretti of the comic operas composed by Arthur Sullivan are hugely well known, and lines such as “let the punishment fit the crime” have entered the English lexicon – but his short stories also deserve to be rediscovered by the modern reader. This collection, carefully curated by the secretary of the W.S. Gilbert Society, brings together the best of these sharp, clever, comical tales – many of which are published here for the first time since their first appearance in ephemeral magazines – enriched with the author’s own illustrations. The stories feature many of the powerful motifs so associated with his work – fairies, elixirs, magic – and a wide variety of characters – from burglars to barristers and shopkeepers to gentlemen. This volume is shot through with the observational wit which drove Gilbert and Sullivan’s works to fame, and constitutes a hugely enjoyable companion for fans of the pair’s theatrical oeuvre.

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When the publishers of the Pickwick Papers, Chapman & Hall, brought out the anonymous ‘Sketches of Young Ladies’ in 1837, their resounding success prompted the twenty-six-year old Dickens to write, the following year, a companion piece, the ‘Sketches of Young Gentlemen’, followed two years later – to coincide with the engagement of Princess Victoria and Prince Albert – by the ‘Sketches of Young Couples’. First published in a single volume in 1843, and including the iconic original engravings by Phiz, these satirical portraits not only reveal the dazzling brilliance of young Dickens’s genius, but also offer a humorous glimpse into Victorian mores and attitudes.

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Although he is best known to the public as the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories and other pioneering works of detective fiction, Arthur Conan Doyle successfully contributed to other genres, such as historical fiction, as demonstrated by this collection he compiled in 1922. These vivid and enthralling stories – which take the reader to Roman Britain, ancient Carthage, Mecca at the time of the Prophet Muhammad and many other evocative settings – showcase the author’s knack for bringing to life diverse times and places and crafting enduring narratives. Tales of Long Ago is an entertaining and invaluable read for all those interested in this lesser-known facet of Conan Doyle’s writing.

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"This second volume of plays by Georg Kaiser contains five plays ranging from his early work through the time of his prolific maturity in the 1920s to his last period as an exile in Switzerland, where he died in 1945. David and Goliath is set in Denmark and deals with the power of money over men. The President, set in France, is ironical in tone and revolves around a lottery and, once again, the power of money. The Flight to Venice was written at the height of the Expressionist movement in 1922, and is one of the principal plays of the period. One Day in October is highly complex, using nineteenth-century French literary personalities to make points about literary creation and the relationship between art and life. The final play, The Raft of the Medusa, takes its title from Gericault’s painting, and concerns the regeneration of man overlaid with the pessimism of the European struggle."

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These Opera Guides are ideal com-panions to the opera. They provide stimulating introductory articles together with the complete text of each opera in English and the original. This famous opera ends, after the hero is dragged down to hell, with a warning that evil shall not go unpunished. ‘Hardly’, as Michael F. Robinson notes, ‘one’s usual idea of a “comic” subject!’ So this guide opens with a brief look at what is actually comic about it. David Wyn Jones gives an overall view of the score: he shows how the musical keys are arranged so that the dramatic momentum over two long acts is maintained and discusses orchestration and dramatic pacing in the most important scenes. Christopher Raeburn contributes a lively portrait of the ‘libertine librettist’ who, after his Vienna triumphs, was hounded out of London for his debts and eventually died in New York – ‘revered as the father of Italian studies in America’. The full original text is given, with a pointed modern translation.

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These Opera Guides are ideal com-panions to the opera. They provide stimulating introductory articles together with the complete text of each opera in English and the original. Italian opera expert William Ashbrook asks why this love story attracted new audiences to the opera house when it was first performed, and what gives this 'tragedy of fragile sentiment' such an enduring appeal. Neither subject nor score is conventional, yet the sound picture is bound together with a quickness and lightness of touch that the young composer learnt from the eighty-year-old Verdi, whose Falstaff was premiered while La boheme was being conceived. Joanna Richardson surveys the actual Bohemians who inspired, or at least unwittingly supplied the raw material for, Murger's book on which the story is based. Edward Greenfield and Nicholas John examine the subtleties of this best-loved of operas and the merits of a libretto which took Italy's best librettists over three years to finish.

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'See how the drama is turned into laughter,' comment the chorus, as they witness the destruction of a marriage and a friendship. Here Pierluigi Petrobelli shows how the irony woven into the tragedy (which strikes listeners today as so modern) results from the meeting of French and Italian operatic traditions. Is this really a ridiculous libretto irredeemably mangled by a censorship which demanded that Enlightenment Sweden had to become seventeenth-century Boston? Or is it Verdi's finest achievement, with its perfectly symmetrical drama and beautiful variety? Since it dates from a time when Verdi and his librettist were actively drafting an operatic treatment of King Lear, it is not surprising to find that Un ballo in maschera echoes some of the themes in Shakespeare's tragedy. Benedict Sarnaker analyses the extended love duet - the kernel of the score, and the pivot of the action. In a detailed study of the musical structure of the great Act Two finale, Harold Powers looks at the laughingA" chorus and at the quicksilver character of Oscar, unique in Verdi's work. Three detailed essays introduce one of the most debated classics in Italian opera.

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These Opera Guides are ideal companions to the opera. They provide stimulating introductory articles together with the complete text of each opera in English and the original. More than any other work in the operatic repertory, Parsifal demands a personal commitment and response. As the culmination of half a lifetime’s preoccupation with the issues of compassion and redemption, it has profound philosophical implications. As the ultimate example of Wagner’s idiom it is an extraordinary musical structure. The unique quality of the subject inspired a wholly original musical conception. Here are four very different essays designed, in their variety, to set you thinking about it what it means to you. The translation was commissioned for the first production by English National Opera in 1986. Contains: A Very Human Epic Mike Ashman Recapitulation of a Lifetime Dieter Borchmeyer Experiencing Music and Imagery in ‘Parsifal’ Robin Holloway ‘Parsifal’: Words and Music Carolyn Abbate Discussions into the Dramaturgy of ‘Parsifal’ Gerd Rienäcker Thematic Guide Lionel Friend ‘Parsifal’ poem by Richard Wagner ‘Parsifal’ English translation by Andrew Porter Discography Cathy Peterson Bibliography

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Rigoletto was first produced at the Teatro La Fenice, Venice, in 1851, and is generally seen as marking the beginning of Giuseppe Verdi’s extraordinary middle period. It was followed in quick succession by Il trovatore and La traviata, and even after the great success of these two works Verdi regarded it as his ‘best opera’ up to that time. Based on Victor Hugo’s play Le Roi s’amuse, which was banned after its premiere in Paris in 1832, the opera faced considerable difficulties with local censors before performance was permitted. In the story of the hunchbacked court jester and his beloved daughter, Verdi believed he had found “the greatest subject and perhaps the greatest drama of modern times”. The guide contains articles on the place of Rigoletto in Verdi’s oeuvre and the background to its composition, a detailed examination of its musical structure and a survey of its performance history including discussions of some of its most distinguished interpreters. A further article highlights aspects of the opera’s particularly Italian character. The guide also includes the full Italian libretto with English translation, sixteen pages of illustrations, a musical thematic guide, a bibliography and discography, and DVD and website guides. Contains: The Making of Rigoletto, Jonathan Keates The Music of Rigoletto, Roger Parker A Selective Performance History, George Hall Rigoletto: Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave after Victor Hugo’s play Le Roi s’amuse Rigoletto: English Translation by William Weaver

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In this Guide to Pelleas and Melisande, Maeterlinck's original play is reprinted in full, so that the opera lover can read the scenes that Debussy did not set to music. Hugh Macdonald's much praised English translation is published here for the first time, with an essay uncovering the musical roots of Pelleas and Melisande and illustrating its importance to the music of the twentieth century. Alain Raitt, author of several studies of Symbolist writers, evaluates Maeterlinck's status as a dramatist, and Roger Nichols analyses the score. Proust's short pastiche of the opera and Arthur Symons's review of the first English performances challenge us to come to terms with this eternally intriguing masterpiece.

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“A lyric comedy unlike any other”, wrote Verdi about his last opera. That the last work of a composer who was almost notorious for his preference for tragic and gloomy subjects should be a brilliant human comedy was and remains one of the wonders of music. Michael Rose considers its status in Italian comic opera tradition. Davis Cairns pours his enthusiasm for the piece into a detailed and illuminating musical analysis. Andrew Porter, whose translation almost matches Boito’s original libretto for elegance and wit, explains the challenges and risks of the undertaking in his fascinating introduction. Contents: Introduction, Nicholas John; ‘A Lyric Comedy Unlike Any Other’, Michael Rose; ‘Full of Nimble, Fiery and Delectable Shapes’, David Cairns; Translating ‘Falstaff’, Andrew Porter; Falstaff: Libretto by Arrigo Boito; Falstaff: English Translation by Andrew Porter

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After one of their own people repeatedly fails to live up to a pact with the Devil, a petty and morally bankrupt village community is plagued by a swarm of deadly black spiders. Using a complex narrative structure, Gotthelf's cautionary novella shrewdly dissects the iniquitous social dynamics of rural life.First published in 1842, The Black Spider displays its author's talent for dark satire and realism, as well as the visionary powers of his imagination.

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"After years of fierce battle, the Emperor Charlemagne’s army is finally on the brink of victory over the Saracens in Spain. Having proposed his stepfather Ganelon for the perilous task of serving as Charlemagne’s envoy in the negotiations over the surrender of the Saracen king Marsile, Count Roland gets a taste of his own medicine when, with peace secured, Ganelon suggests that Roland should lead the rearguard of the army on the difficult return journey over the mountain passes to France. Yet Marsile’s forces are massing, and Roland is unaware of just how deep Ganelon’s treachery runs. Probably written around three centuries after the events it describes, The Song of Roland is the earliest and finest example of the French chansons de geste – verse epics that celebrated heroic deeds and were sung or recited by wandering minstrels. Presented here along with the original Anglo-Norman French, this sparkling new translation by Anthony Mortimer offers the modern reader both an engrossing narrative and a compelling insight into the medieval value system."

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