Search results for """ "Stories of the Olden Time""

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Book SynopsisPresents the Northwestern story with "The League of the Old Men" as an introduction to these action tales. This volume of stories presents action tales, in which it explores the theme of the bond between man and dog, and the character flaws revealed under the stresses of extreme isolation.Trade Review"Many of the stories included in this collection are printed for the first time in their original form. Maybe it's not worth panning for literary gold here, but the myth-making is compelling." --The Guardian, February 27, 1999

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Book SynopsisBrian Boyd explains why we tell stories and how our minds are shaped to understand them. After considering art as adaptation, Boyd examines Homer’s Odyssey and Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hears a Who! demonstrating how an evolutionary lens can offer new understanding and appreciation of specific works.Trade ReviewThis is an insightful, erudite, and thoroughly original work. Aside from illuminating the human love of fiction, it proves that consilience between the humanities and sciences can enrich both fields of knowledge. -- Steven Pinker, Harvard College Professor, Harvard University, and author of The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human NatureIntegrating a vast array of findings in the social and biological sciences and in the history of the arts, Boyd makes a compelling case for art as an adaptive human behavior. I can think of no similar work in contemporary literary theory; I have to go back to Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism for a work of comparable imaginative sweep and analytical precision. A monumental achievement. -- David Bordwell, University of Wisconsin-MadisonRich, intelligent and incredibly wide-ranging--from Zeus to Seuss, as one chapter title says--this book is indispensable reading for anyone who wants to think about the nature of fiction. Do we imagine that situating art within a theory of evolution must be reductive? Then we must consider, as Boyd suggests we do, the difference between solving a problem and picturing a chance of solving a problem--and imagine what it would be mean not to be able to do the second. -- Michael Wood, Princeton UniversityOn the Origin of Stories may have an impact far beyond academic circles...No one thinks on this scale anymore. Bent to the cultivation of shrinking plots of expertise, enlivened by the occasional boundary squabble, we are ill-accustomed to broad new theories even from Young Turks, let alone established critics. Ambition is in itself cause for celebration...Boyd's treatment is engrossing, as elegant in the writing as the reasoning. It offers a new insight into the question of why some works [of fiction] speak to audiences across cultures and generations...To look at a story as a naturalist looks at a leaf or a shell, not criticizing improvisations but marveling at its inventive beauty, is a refreshing experience...Whatever your opinion of Derrida, Boyd offers absolution to all lovers of fiction. Our childish taste for make-believe, it seems, is a little more serious than we thought. -- Laura Dietz * Times Literary Supplement *Brian Boyd's On the Origin of Stories, which presents itself as a work of "evocriticism," might well be a straw in the wind blowing contemporary criticism back from Culture to Nature. Given the rampant culturalism of much current literary work, which can see the natural only as an ideologically insidious "naturalizing," it is agreeable to read a work which discusses Homer cheek by jowl with allusions to dung beetles, the neocortex and cases of sexual harassment among pigeons. In sober evolutionary spirit, Boyd has no doubt that whatever more glamorous things human beings can get up to, they are in the first place natural material objects. He also insists in the teeth of postmodern orthodoxy that there is indeed a universal human nature; that culture is not unique to the human animal; and that there is a universally identifiable activity known as art. Nobody who is aware of the excesses of contemporary culturalism could doubt the subversive force of these platitudes. The word "natural," like the words "fact" and "truth," hardly ever turns up in such writings without being ceremoniously draped in scare quotes--and this in an ecological age. The point to Boyd's superbly erudite study is to offer an evolutionary theory of art...Brian Boyd has produced a challenging piece of critical theory, which might well herald the return to Nature of which cultural criticism is in such sore need. -- Terry Eagleton * London Review of Books *Like all the best stories, this one has a pleasing symmetry. It is a book in two parts, each illuminating the other. On one side stands evolutionary theory and its attempts to explain human nature. On the other is story itself, represented by two great works of fiction: Homer's Odyssey and Dr. Seuss's Horton Hears a Who!...[Boyd] has some novel and thought-provoking ideas, and his book covers an impressively wide terrain...What really matters, Boyd makes clear, is whether a story is worthy of our attention. On the Origin of Stories surely is. -- Kate Douglas * New Scientist *[Boyd's] highly intelligent, impressively learned and patiently elaborated theory of the origin of fiction and the other arts begins with the idea that art is cognitive play...Diffusion of Boyd's ideas might even, in our utilitarian and scientistic society, restore the prestige of the arts and humanities. -- William Deresiewicz * The Nation *Fascinating...Elaborate hypotheses like this one are themselves a kind of story, and Boyd tells his on a grand scale. His central arguments are prefaced by a substantial reprise of basic evolutionary theory--very useful if you're unfamiliar with it--and followed by two case studies, of Homer's Odyssey and the tales of Dr. Seuss. It is expert, though highly idiosyncratic, literary criticism..."Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive," Wordsworth wrote of the first, intoxicating years of the French Revolution. Reading [a] path-breaking book like [this], one feels something similar. -- George Scialabba * Boston Globe *This is a very important book--important in its own right, but also important as a marker for significant change in the academic study of the humanities. Basically, Boyd sees art as an adaptation, one that brings advantages in our struggle for survival and procreative success. He studies the ways in which stories focus attention (as play does) and foster collaboration and unity. This heightened form of play yields a heightened form of sociality, creates 'creativity,' refines and extends our cognitive skills, helps us to understand one another's thoughts, intentions and motives, see our world from multiple perspectives, explore possibilities and not just actualities, command attention, enjoy status and foster reciprocal altruism (among other things). Most interesting, I believe, is the fact that Boyd's position validates thousands of years of humanistic thought, from Aristotle to Horace, Sidney, Johnson, the Kant of the Critique of Pure Reason (though not perhaps the Kant of the Critique of Judgment) and the successful practice of the storyteller's art by a host of writers whose work has been not only substantive but widely popular. In short, Boyd's study of human nature, human behavior, human development and human artistic expression squares with what many of us have long believed and it does so with the leverage of contemporary, evolutionary science. -- Richard B. Schwartz, University of Missouri, ColumbiaBrian Boyd brilliantly makes the case for literature as necessary for the survival of humankind. Step by step, he builds his argument that we have evolved to engage in play and, in particular, in storytelling...Both Homer and Dr. Seuss must catch and hold our attention with their artistry, their universality, and their moral tone. Boyd forcefully and elegantly supports his view that art is not simply pleasurable for humans but crucial to our survival. -- Barbara Fisher * Boston Globe *A searching, free-wheeling book that sets forth a Darwinian view of narrative's place in human history. -- Robert Fulford * National Post *Masterful...[An] entrancing book...[Boyd] clearly invites comparison with Darwin's masterpiece. Like its namesake, Boyd's book is carefully constructed and constitutes, in Ernst Mayr's words, "one long argument."...While a number of evolutionary analyses of literature, fiction, myths, folklore, and art have appeared in the last 15 years or so, this one stands out for its accessibility and genuinely integrative approach, combined with a detailed analysis of two specific fictional works...Boyd covers an astonishing range of evolutionary concepts, human evolution, cognitive and developmental psychology, human ethology, anthropology, game theory and related topics. Having done research in several of these areas, I can attest that he has selected judiciously and described the science remarkably accurately and clearly...Unlike much of the early writings by promoters of simplistic Pleistocene EEA scenarios and typological human universals, Boyd explores detailed empirical observations and experiments, realizes that human variation is the engine of evolutionary change, but--and I view this as an essential strength--eschews a single-minded, or even primary, concern with adaptation...Boyd gets so much right! -- Gordon Burghardt, University of Tennessee * The Evolutionary Review *On the Origin of Stories is a fascinating book, even a necessary book. At its best, evocriticism can help to reorient the arts and humanities, renewing (or, in some benighted quarters, sparking) our appreciation for the creative works of human minds and hands, and leading humanists to take a fresh look at the rich evolutionary record. -- Michael Bérubé * New Scientist *Boyd's book will engage and excite readers for decades to come...Reading On the Origins of Stories, I was struck with the same excitement and enthusiasm I can only imagine the readers' of Darwin's text felt in 1859. Boyd's text is itself a seminal work synthesizing various literary theories upon an evolutionary framework strong enough to hold whatever stance from which the reader comes. Boyd illustrates this by applying evolutionary thinking to the works of Homer and Dr. Seuss alike...This amazing text allows us to see art from new vantage points that may, in fact, ensure its survival within our global culture...Brian Boyd elevates the writing of criticism to an art form by indeed considering the arousal and sustained engagement of his readers. On the Origin of Stories is itself a welcomed mutation in critical writing. Boyd carries his reader along an original odyssey into science, literature, human nature, the epic landscape of Ancient Greece and the tiny world of Whoville. Like Homer and Dr. Seuss, Boyd cares about his readers and wants us to find our way home to the text without sacrificing intellectual integrity and scholarly research. -- Christine Boyko-Head * arbuturian.com *[A] richly interesting and varied book. -- Lisa Gorton * Australian Book Review *Boyd has created a compelling, erudite, and thoroughly original work about the nature of humanistic expression in art and literature. Beautifully written and wide-ranging, the book delves into social science, evolutionary biology, art, and literature to create a comprehensive account of the evolutionary origins of art and storytelling. The author argues that art derives from play and is a humanistic adaptation, offering advantages for human survival. Storytelling, he contends, fosters cooperation, social cognition, and creativity...Apropos the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species, this book is a fitting tribute to Darwin. -- K. Wein * Choice *Boyd's understanding of human evolution thus leads him towards those features of literary texts that have always fascinated practical and humanist critics...Boyd alone provides us with a sophisticated literary analysis informed by an equally sophisticated understanding of human biology. Boyd demonstrates comprehensively that evolutionary literary theory is compatible with and can inform perceptive literary criticism. -- John Holmes * The British Society for Literature and Science *Table of Contents* Illustrations * Acknowledgments * Introduction: Animal, Human, Art, Story Book I: Evolution, Art, and Fiction Part 1 Evolution and Nature * Evolution and Human Nature? * Evolution, Adaptation, and Adapted Minds * The Evolution of Intelligence * The Evolution of Cooperation Part 2 Evolution and Art * Art as Adaptation? * Art as Cognitive Play * Art and Attention * From Tradition to Innovation Part 3 Evolution and Fiction * Art, Narrative, Fiction * Understanding and Recalling Events * Narrative: Representing Events * Fiction: Inventing Events * Fiction as Adaptation Book II: From Zeus to Seuss: Origins of Stories Part 4 Phylogeny: The Odyssey * Earning Attention (1): Natural Patterns: Character and Plot * Earning Attention (2): Open-Ended Patterns: Ironies of Structure * The Evolution of Intelligence (1): In the Here and Now * The Evolution of Intelligence (2): Beyond the Here and Now * The Evolution of Cooperation (1): Expanding the Circle * The Evolution of Cooperation (2): Punishment Part 5 Ontogeny: Horton Hears a Who! * Problems and Solutions: Working at Play * Levels of Explanation: Universal, Local, and Individual * Levels of Explanation: Individuality Again * Levels of Explanation: Particular * Meanings * Conclusion * Retrospect and Prospects: Evolution, Literature, Criticism * Afterword * Evolution, Art, Story, Purpose * Notes * Bibliography * Index

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Book SynopsisV. S. Pritchett, one our greatest short-story writers, has chosen forty-one stories written in the English language for this volume, producing a collection that successfully displays the wealth and variety of an art that spans some 200 years. Great Britain, America, and especially Eire have fine traditions of short-story writing that have developed from the time of Sir Walter Scott and Nathaniel Hawthorne, while in the last century the art was perfected by Ernest Hemingway, D. H. Lawrence, W. Somerset Maugham, John Updike, and V. S. Pritchett himself. The Irish contribution includes such masters as James Joyce, Frank O''Connor, and Liam O''Flaherty, and stories by Canadian, Indian, New Zealand, and Australian writers show the full range of invention and ability in a genre that continues to flourish.Trade ReviewReview from previous edition Look for this book at airport departure lounge bookshops and guarantee youself a good flight. * Evening Echo *Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION; REFERENCES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS; INDEX OF AUTHORS

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Book SynopsisToday's dynamic seniors will appreciate these 101 stories of inspiration, humor, and wisdom about life at a certain age.

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Book SynopsisThese eleven stories by Desmond Hogan, his first publication since Larks’ Eggs: New and Selected Stories (2005), collect newly minted shards of experience focused on the lives of the dreamers and marginalized who populate his imagined worlds. They range in time and place from France, Germany and Italy in the nineteenth century to Ireland of the 1950s and the present day. Their concerns are fragility and identity expressed through the outer semblances of dress and deportment, and inner realities of involuntary memory and the retrieval of shared pasts. Close observation of nature combines with psychological unveilings, much of it in the form of erotic reverie. This bricolage of melded history and a fragmented modernism renders truth-to-experience like no other contemporary voice.Trade Review“In an age of sound bite and cliche, Hogan sets the standard both in his use of language and his intensely individual vision. He demonstrates that, at its artistic best, the short story is as rich and demanding as poetry.” –The Irish Times “Hogan paints his picture with such tiny brushstrokes that the impression is not a narrative but a history, open-ended and amorphous, subject to change, but not boiled down into plot, character, beginning and end.” –Times Literary Supplement

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Book SynopsisFilled with dreams of pursuing a career as a poet, the young Alexander Aduev moves from the country to St Petersburg, where he takes up lodgings next to his uncle Pyotr, a shrewd and world-weary businessman. As his ideals are challenged by disappointment in the fields of love, friendship and poetical ambition, Alexander must decide whether to return to the homely values he has left behind or adapt to the ruthless rules and morals of city life. Told in the author's trademark humorous style and presented in a sparkling new translation by Stephen Pearl, The Same Old Story - Goncharov's first novel, preceding his masterpiece Oblomov by twelve years - is a study of lost illusions and rude spiritual awakening in the modern world.Trade ReviewGoncharov is ten heads above me in talent. -- Anton Chekhov That Stephen Pearl has been able to recreate such an authentic representation of the text that...evokes the epoch it was written in its diction and rhythm as well as being extremely "readable" for contemporary readers pronounces this translation to be an admirable accomplishment. * Bookish Ramblings * An entertaining and thought-provoking read. * Shiny New Books * This book made Goncharov famous in Russia. And from half a continent and three lifetimes away he can still make new readers laugh and gasp with recognition over timeless human foibles. The -- Nicholas Lezard * The Guardian * Reading The Same Old Story conveys the pleasure of an overheard conversation -- A.N. Wilson * The Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisFor millennia we have looked to the sun to provide us with light, food and warmth. Yet, in our attempts to increase the productivity of each hour, we have skewed our days and stretched them through the use of candles, electricity and LED bulbs, our faces glowing in the unnatural light of screens and electronic devices.Within the pages of this book lies the chance to reconnect with our primal life force through folklore, exploration of ancient cultures, myths, legends and tales of our past. By understanding the power of our ancient star through the wisdom of those who walked this land before us, we can hope to unplug ourselves from the synthetic glow that surrounds our lives and reconnect with the Stories of the Sun.

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Book SynopsisFrom the gold of the shaft graves of Mycenae to an undecorated Late Roman lekythos and facade statuary in Roman Ephesus, this volume presents a distinct insight into the always shifting meanings, values, and relational connections of things, exploring a diversity of concepts, contexts, and material elements from prehistory to today.

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Book Synopsis'An enchanting treasury of magical tales handed down through the ages. Infectious and soul-stirring, these are stories crying out to be shared.' - Ben Hoare, award winning wildlife journalist and nature nerdHave you heard the tale of Black Annis, the witch-demon that lurks beneath a Leicester housing estate? Do you know the legend of the Hunting of the Great Bear, or how the crow brought daylight? Why should you be careful to never insult the moon?Star stories and creature tales, good-old-fashioned ghost stories together with traditional narratives about how the night became kindle the fires of our imagination and deepen our acquaintance with the dark in this compendium of stories to tell out loud.Filtered through the wild imaginations and indigenous tongues of storytellers from all over the world, this collection is rewritten and re-presented here by a master storyteller from the UK, who has been spinning nocturnal narratives around the campfire for three decades. This is a delicious midnight feast of 'tales from the dark side’ to fascinate, terrify, enchant and inform about the night-time realm.Trade ReviewHere’s a companion volume to Chris Salisbury’s ‘Wild Nights Out’. These are wonderful stories to tell by firelight or under the stars, drawn from many cultures and exploring the mysteries of the night-time and all it holds. And they're retold by a storyteller who knows just what he’s doing, Chris has for many years made traditional tales a key part of his practice as an outdoor educator -- Hugh LuptonThese beautiful stories are a bundle of stars that light up not just the darkness of the night but the darkness within us, within our culture. -- Martin Shaw * Foreword *An enchanting treasury of magical tales handed down through the ages. Infectious and soul-stirring, these are stories crying out to be shared. -- Ben Hoare, award-winning wildlife journalist and nature nerdWith Chris Salisbury you are in safe, wise hands. This is the perfect companion to his essential 'Wild Nights Out', a glittering selection of tales to honour the collective consciousness of what held us and our ancestors together. -- Ashley Ramsden Founder of School of Storytelling (UK)A rich collection about the importance of a dark skies, cycles of the moon, and stories of the stars. These stories come from Chris's long relationship with the natural world and respect for traditional cultures. Enjoy them at bedtime, around the campfire and underneath the stars. -- Sally Pomme ClaytonThis book honours the richness of the dark hours, drawing together a constellation of stories that language the mystery, wonder, terror and necessity of night. A wonderful resource for any storyteller - the stories call to be spoken aloud in the company of others and the firelight. A vibrant legacy of a life lived in deep apprenticeship and companionship with the wild, Chris has created a guide rich in dreaming and practical knowledge. -- Dr Jo Blake, storyteller and theatre-makerWhat an absolute gem this book is. * Cotswold Life *

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Book SynopsisA unique collection of traditional stories about faeries, elves and goblins. Faeries, elves, goblins, leprechauns, brownies, spriggans and many other supernatural beings leap vividly off the page in this collection of haunting stories. Included are 25 stories drawing on folklore from the rich narrative heritage of Britain and Ireland. Marvel over ancient spells to summon faeries to your house, tremble at the shapeshifting powers of dangerous faery queens, lose yourself amongst the illusions of Faeryland and learn how to protect family members from the terrors of faery abduction. Interspersed with facts on faery folklore, these tales cover faery morals, elvish misdemeanours, the spells cast by goblins and the sightings of the creatures, as well as their dealings with mortals. With charming illustrations from favourite illustrators throughout, including Arthur Rackham, this book reminds us of the enduring appeal of folklore and mystery for all generations.

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Book SynopsisFor the first time, the complete stories of an American Chekhov, a master chronicler of tradition and transformation in the twentieth-century South

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Book SynopsisIn 1691, a Livonian peasant known as Old Thiess boldly announced before a district court that he was a werewolf. Yet far from being a diabolical monster, he insisted, he was one of the hounds of God, fierce guardians who battled sorcerers, witches, and even Satan to protect the fields, flocks, and humanitya baffling claim that attracted the notice of the judges then and still commands attention from historians today. In this book, eminent scholars Carlo Ginzburg and Bruce Lincoln offer a uniquely comparative look at the trial and startling testimony of Old Thiess. They present the first English translation of the trial transcript, in which the man's own voice can be heard, before turning to subsequent analyses of the event, which range from efforts to connect Old Thiess to shamanistic practices to the argument that he was reacting against cruel stereotypes of the Livonian werewolf a Germanic elite used to justify their rule over the Baltic peasantry. As Ginzburg and Lincoln debate t

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Book SynopsisThis collection of 41 Alaskan Indian tales includes wood engravings by Alaska artist Dale DeArmond. It features the exploits of the roguish Crow and the intrepid "Man Who Traveled Among All the Animals and People" and range from serious myths to slyly humorous misadventures.Trade Review"This is a book that can be appreciated on many levels: as an important archive of Native American oral literature; as a set of stories that can be enjoyed by a wide range of readers; as a source of ethnographic insight into the Dena people of interior Alaska; and as a culturally specific manifestation of the universal human desire to explain the world and provide it with moral and narrative drama." - Pacific Northwest Quarterly "My favorite book of the year is a handsome volume called Tales from the Dena. ... [This] is a brilliant and important new book." - Anchorage Daily News "A thoroughly enjoyable and very valuable contribution to the literature on Atha-baskans, particularly their oral literature... The stories themselves can continue to delight young and old alike from almost any culture." - Arctic "This handsome, appealing volume...is at present the most easily accessible collection of stories from the Dena. It includes raven myths, a cycle about an apparent culture hero's adventures on the Yukon, and humorous animal tales." - Choice "Frederica de Laguna, one of the few anthropologists still alive who was trained by Franz Boas himself, is an icon among ethnographers who worked in northwestern North America... [Tales from the Dena] is a superbly edited and produced collection, and is a tribute to the well-rounded and intense training in ethnographic recording which de Laguna and others of her generation had received." - Anthropos

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Book SynopsisIn this enchanting new book, one of the country’s most celebrated storytellers has gathered together traditional tales that have their roots in the cold and long, dark nights of midwinter.

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Book SynopsisThe Queen of Spades and Other Stories is a collection of short fiction showcasing Alexander Pushkin''s application of Romantic sensibilities to uncompromising studies of human frailty. This Penguin Classics edition is translated with an introduction by Rosemary Edwards.''The Queen of Spades'', one of Pushkin''s most popular and chilling short stories, tells of an inveterate card player who develops a dangerous obsession with the secret of an old lady''s luck, which he believes will bring him the wealth he craves. ''The Negro of Peter the Great'', a story based on the life Pushkin''s own great-grandfather, is a vivid depiction - and criticism - of both French and Russian society, while ''Dubrovsky'' is the Byronic tale of a dispossessed young officer. ''The Captain''s Daughter'' tells of a young man sent to military service - based on the actual events of the rebellion against Catherine II, it demonstrates Pushkin''s unparalleled skill at blending fiction and history.

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Book SynopsisThis is a collection of stories woven from the many accounts which exist of things the author did and experienced. Most of the stories have been inspired by the author''s various trips to Ladakh, Nepal and many places in India. This book takes us to a fantasy world where there are animals, insects, birds and trees that talk and behave like human beings. The stories are presented in an unusual but interesting style. As in Buddhist teachings, most of the characters mentioned in these stories are also animals. The book relates the journey of Buddhism from India to China, Japan and Tibet. The stories of the soul in this book elucidate the philosophy of reincarnation, which is the spiritual entrance to salvation, describe the eight sacred places of the Buddha and dispel myths about the Tibetan medical philosophy. Some of the stories are based on the Lotus Sutra and have been combined with Nepali traditions and culture. These stories provide a perfect blend of various rituals of Buddhism and its history.

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Book Synopsis Uncover the stories from one of the greatest-novelists of all time in this beautiful anthology of tales from Charles Dickens, rewritten and adapted in an accessible way for children. This book introduces children to eight of Dickens’ greatest works, accompanied by beautiful, colourful illustrations which breathes new life into these timeless classics. Includes favourites such as Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, and Great Expectations. A timeline at the back shows when each story was written, and gives facts about Dickens’ life. Revisit your favourite Dickens stories and introduce his legacy to next generation of readers with this beautiful first introduction to some of the greatest stories all time. Includes: Oliver Twist The Old Curiosity Shop David Copperfield Great Expectations Trade ReviewMcAllister’s versions of eight stories by Charles Dickens are both fresh and compelling. * The School Librarian *Table of ContentsOliver Twist The Old Curiosity Shop David Copperfield Great Expectations Hard Times A Christmas Carol Nicholas Nickleby A Tale of Two Cities Timeline About Charles Dickens

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Book SynopsisTake a romp through the long eighteenth-century in this collection of 25 short tales. Marvel at the Queen's Ass, gaze at the celestial heavens through the eyes of the past and be amazed by the equestrian feats of the Norwich Nymph. Journey to the debauched French court at Versailles, travel to Covent Garden and take your seat in a box at the theatre and, afterwards, join the mile-high club in a new-fangled hot air balloon. Meet actresses, whores and high-born ladies, politicians, inventors, royalty and criminals as we travel through the Georgian era in all its glorious and gruesome glory. In roughly chronological order, covering the reign of the four Georges, 1714-1830 and set within the framework of the main events of the era, these tales are accompanied by over 100 stunning colour illustrations.

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Book SynopsisThe Greatest Indian Stories Ever Told is a selection of some of the finestiterary short fiction written by Indian writers since the genre came into being in the country in theate nineteenth century. Including early masters of the form, contemporary stars, as well as brilliant writers who came of age in the twenty-first century, this anthology takes in its sweep stories from the various regions, languages, anditeratures of India. These authors are some of the most feted in the annals of Indianiterature and have, between them, won virtually every majoriterary prize on offerincluding the Nobel Prize foriterature, the Jnanpith Award, the Sahitya Akademi Award, and numerous state, national, and international honours.

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Book SynopsisFolk tales from Tudor times, new in paperback

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Book SynopsisThis wonderful collection of seasonal tales is the second volume drawn from Waldorf early childhood teachers around the USA. Many are original tales which spring from a teacher's imagination or are inspired by nature or a festival. Others are classic favourites which change over the years in the retelling but retain all the core elements.It is in the telling of a story that a story comes alive, and this anthology will be an inspiration for teachers and parents. Stories are organised into sections for spring and summer, autumn, winter and times when special care is needed.

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Book SynopsisThis concise volume introduces readers to the three main sections of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and to the biblical books found in each. It is organized around two primary stories: the story that scholars tell about the Old Testament and the story the literature itself tells. Concluding with a reconsideration of the Old Testament as more like poetry than a story, three main chapters cover: The Pentateuch (Torah) The Prophets (Nevi?im) The Writings (Ketuvim) With key summaries of what the parts of the Old Testament are all about, and including suggestions for further reading, this volume is an ideal introduction for students of and newcomers to the Old Testament.Trade Review‘An excellent introduction to the Old Testament! Strawn delightfully guides readers through both the content of the books in the Hebrew Bible and the most current questions in biblical scholarship. No background knowledge is presumed, and no other introduction to the Old Testament is as readable. Students and teachers alike will appreciate Strawn’s jargon-free and undogmatic discussion of debates among scholars, his humor and literary sensitivity with biblical prose and poetry, as well as his attention throughout to the diversity and complexity of issues that face all readers of biblical literature.’ — Davis Hankins, Appalachian State University, USA‘Brent A. Strawn’s The Old Testament: A Concise Introduction is a tour-de-force that provides an exceptional orientation to the "lay of the land" stretching before students as they set out to explore the texts of the Hebrew Bible. Strawn overviews the content of the Old Testament with a balance of detail, clarity, and wit, while also presenting an outstanding up-to-date primer to the long history of biblical interpretation that students will meet in the classroom. Strawn is an expert field guide who welcomes readers with unrivaled sensitivity and care for detail, and his book will inspire thoughtful, critical engagement with the biblical text for years to come, in both undergraduate and seminary settings.’ — Kelly J. Murphy, Central Michigan University, USA ‘Aimed at first-time readers of the Old Testament, Brent Strawn’s Concise Introduction is a highly readable, accessible, and reliable guide to the rich anthology of literatures that make up the Old Testament. Readers will come away from this book with a much deeper appreciation of the complexity, the sophistication, and the compelling nature of the Old Testament as an ancient but timeless word that proves timely for each new context and generation. Strawn helps us see how the Old Testament may be read paradoxically "as if" it were a grand, coherent story and "as if" it were unsettled, open-ended poetry, constantly sparking new questions and avenues of interpretation.’ — Dennis Olson, Princeton Theological Seminary, USATable of Contents1 The Story of the Old Testament and the Old Testament as Story 2 The Pentateuch (Torah) 3 The Prophets (Neviʾim) 4 The Writings (Ketuvim) 5 From Story to Song

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Book SynopsisThis collection - Walter Van Tilburg Clark's only published volume of short fiction - reflects both Clark's literary power and the major concerns of his novels: the interior and intuitive complexities of good and evil, and the fragile, intricate web that connects humankind to the rest of the natural world.

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF FC2’s CATHERINE DOCTOROW INNOVATIVE FICTION PRIZEA gathering of luminescent stories that illustrates how fraught and contingent the simplest of lives can be, and the often unexpected means available to each of us for our own salvation.The truths revealed and the lives upended in the 13 stories that make up Yannick Murphy’s By the Time You Read This are at once singularly foreign and uncannily familiar. A wife pens a series of suicide notes to her family that verge on the comic, hovering between the tyrannical and the absurd. A mother obsesses over what her child eats. A young girl left with caretakers in New York draws on her potent imagination with consequences in real life that are both liberating and disastrous. In a college application essay a young woman finally begins to make sense of the troubling vicissitudes of her existence. A young French girl departs for America with her reprehensible beau to find she’s as much a stranger to herself abroad as she was at home. As with her previous novels and story collections, Murphy’s keen rendering of these disparate, complex lives illuminate in ways both quiet and startling our capacity for deliverance and devastation through daring acts of self-invention.Trade Review“Darkly funny, brilliantly absurd, insightful, poignant, and often heartbreaking, the stories in Yannick Murphy’s career-spanning collection, By the Time You Read This, affirm her place among the best of our writers. Each is a wry, sparkling testimony to our struggles to connect in family, love, and friendship. Her narrators reach for ‘the speech of the heart,’ whether from the depths of a submarine, or in an extended suicide note. Like Rachel Cusk, Murphy has invented a language all her own.”- Kate Walbert, author of His Favorites and A Short History of Women;“Murphy’s canny collection (after This Is the Water) serves up an intriguing and illuminating mix of character studies. As always, Murphy’s cool, minimalist style is undeniably appealing.”- Publishers Weekly;“Rhythmic and razor sharp, Murphy’s writing deftly catches hold of the lives of her characters in a glance and then, before you know it, delicately reveals them in all their pain and wonder. Whether she’s talking about a young man struggling with life on a submarine, a woman on the verge of turning her life upside down, or a neighbor watching the same video of his wife over and over again, she cuts quickly and deeply to the heart of what it means to be human and yet, even after that surgery, her characters remain whole and astonishingly alive.”- Brian Evenson, author of Song for the Unraveling of the World;“A magic word is an elixir of happiness and there’s a rich little girl with a doll her size and an outsized dog who mothers kittens and a mother who jumps on a bed for fun- what’s not to like?- in these bewitching stories from the one and only Yannick Murphy! By the Time You Read This: read it soon.”- Christine Schutt, author of Pure Hollywood.

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Book SynopsisCornish tales of moor, coast and village, the result of a successful community projectTrade Review‘You don’t have to believe in magic – but it helps.’ -- Mark Camp

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Book SynopsisStephen-Paul Martin’s The Ace of Lightning is a series of interconnected stories focused on a turning point in Western history: the assassination in Sarajevo of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria which triggered World War I, and the mysterious circumstances that led Gavrilo Princip to shoot and kill the heir apparent to one of Europe’s most powerful empires.Far from being a conventional work of historical fiction, Martin’s collection asks readers to think about what truly constitutes history. What would the past look like if history was written under the influence of Mad Magazine and The Twilight Zone? What happens when the assassination in Sarajevo becomes “the assassination in Sarajevo,” when Gavrilo Princip becomes “Gavrilo Princip,” when the past and the present shape a textual future that looks suspiciously like a past that never was and a present that never is?Trade ReviewStephen-Paul Martin is a longtime, masterful postmodern storyteller, whose characters’ meditations often blend together with his narrators’ essay-like ruminations in unexpected, comic, recursive, explosive, and subtle ways. Delineating a sinister, deeply absurd world which has both annihilated the capacity for laughter and repeatedly, urgently demands it, The Ace of Lightning takes us inside historical necessity, where time is fluid and Martin’s comic imagination runs wonderfully rampant."" - Mel Freilicher, author of The Encyclopedia of Rebels and The Unmaking of Americans: 7 Lives

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Book SynopsisThis lively and entertaining collection of folk tales from the Scottish Borders is rich in stories both tall and true, ancient and more recent, dark and funny, fantastical and powerful.

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Book SynopsisCelebrating the traditional tales and wild places of mid and west Cornwall

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