Madman. America’s dark genius. Who was Edgar Allan Poe, and why have his bizarre and fascinating works resonated with readers so strongly? Through these 10 lectures, you will delve into the darkness of Poe’s most nightmarish stories, including “The Tell-Tale Heart”, “The Pit and the Pendulum”, and “The Fall of the House of Usher”. You’ll also learn how he invented the detective story and explored themes of love and loss in such poems as “Ulalume” and “Annabel Lee”. And you’ll discover how Poe employed symbolism, imagery, rhythm and rhyme, irony and paradox, repetition, simile, and foreshadowing to create a unique body of work that has enthralled readers and influenced writers for more than 150 years. But our fascination with Poe is only partly his provocative, often disturbing literature. He is widely known for living an unconventional and tortured life - a life filled with loss, poverty, neglect, and self-destruction. So, in addition to the scope of his work, you’ll get captivating insights into the man himself: his tragic life and the inner workings of his curious mind. Plagued with more than his fair share of illness, conflict, misery, and death through most of his existence, Poe also notoriously exhibited bizarre behaviors that frequently undermined his quest for literary fame. Your professor, Mark Canada, draws on his own research into Poe’s psychology, including some insights from modern brain science, to understand why Poe acted and wrote as he did. Unpack the works, the life, and the mind of Edgar Allen Poe to discover what makes him a uniquely haunting author to this day.

    In his fourteenth collection of poems, Pulitzer Prize winner Stephen Dunn reveals his concerns, ranging from meditations on salvation and time to the difficulties and pleasures of loving in this "already brutal century." In language that Gerald Stern has called "unbearably fearless and beautiful," Dunn continues to probe the elusive in the lives we live.

    Loath to draw negative publicity to the school, a bastion of European wealth and glamour, officials quickly dismiss the incident as an accident, but questions remain: Was it a suicide attempt? Or was Cressida pushed? It was no secret that she had a selfish streak and had earned as many enemies as allies in her tenure at the school. For her best friend, scholarship student Kersti Kuusk, the lingering questions surrounding Cressida's fall continue to nag long after she leaves the Lycée.Kersti marries and becomes a bestselling writer, but never stops wondering about Cressida's obsession with the Helvetian Society—a secret club banned years before their arrival at the school—and a pair of its members who were expelled. When Kersti is invited as a guest to the Lycée's 100th Anniversary, she begins probing the cover-up, unearthing a frightening underbelly of lies and abuse at the prestigious establishment. And in one portentous moment, Kersti makes a decision that will connect her to Cressida forever and raise the stakes dangerously high in her own desire to solve the mystery and redeem her past.An unputdownable read as clever as it is compelling, The Finishing School offers a riveting glimpse into a privileged, rarefied world in which nothing is as it appears.

    Nora, at first, recounts nothing that Effie really wants to hear--like who her real father was. Effie tells various versions of her life at college, where in fact she lives in a lethargic relationship with Bob, a student who never goes to lectures, seldom gets out of bed, and to whom Klingons are as real as Spaniards and Germans.But as mother and daughter spin their tales, strange things are happening around them. Is Effie being followed? Is someone killing the old people? And where is the mysterious yellow dog?In a brilliant comic narrative which explores the nonsensical power of language and meaning, Kate Atkinson has created another magical masterpiece.

    S. Eliot's letters lies at the heart of this emotionally charged novel—a story of marriage and madness, of faith and desire, of jazz-age New York and Europe in the shadow of the Holocaust.

    He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, as well as his major prose work Biographia Literaria."

    Depicting his wife, Eugenie, as the Lady of Shallot, it's a mesmerising portrait that has come to embody the spirit of the school itself. But now, eighty years after it was created, the 'Lady Window' is due for restoration. The task falls to former alumna Juno McKay. She's restoring it with the help of her friend, Christine Webb, an art historian who is researching the window for her thesis. Christine seems to have discovered some new evidence that suggests that Clare, not her sister Eugenie, was the subject for the 'Lady Window'. But before Christine can discuss her findings with Juno, she's found dead in a boating accident that eerily echoes that fate of the Lady of Shallot. But did she drown or was it something more sinister? As Juno starts to make her own investigations into just how Christine died, she learns more about Augustus Penrose and his family. The 'Lady Window' was not the only thing the Penroses' bequeathed to the world. Madness and deception also form part of their legacy-

    

    Each was a defence and elaboration of his short satirical poem The Angry Hive, 1705. The version of the Fable of 1723 and 1732 are the fullest defences of his early paradox that social benefit is the unintended consequence of personal vice. It is an argument that is generally held to lie behind Adam Smith's doctrine of the 'hidden hand' of economic development.

    The idea that his foray into meth production was not merely a dalliance with darkness, but was actually a full-blown awakening intrigued us. And most of all, the idea that we came to have no respect for the protagonist of our favorite show utterly fascinated us.We couldn’t look away.Breaking Down Breaking Bad attempts to poke into the dark corners of Walter White’s mind, explore the traits that make this show special, and revels in the joy of what is arguably the best drama ever to appear on television. In doing so, it also peels back the layers of what makes characters like Jesse Pinkman tick, explores why we were so drawn to characters like Gus Fring and Mike Ehrmantraut, and relives some of the greatest moments of this already legendary show.Because the show may be gone, but the conversation about it certainly isn’t.Eric San Juan is the coauthor of A Year of Hitchcock (Scarecrow Press 2009) and Hitchcock’s Villains (Scarecrow Press 2013), as well as Geek Wisdom (Quirk Books 2011) and other books. Before Breaking Bad came along, he thought Deadwood was the greatest thing since sliced bread. He still thinks it’s pretty damn good.

    Who is he? And why would anybody kill him? Faukon Abbey CID officers, DI Greene and DC Ford and their friend Carter, a journalist at Abbey Chronicle uncover all hidden tragedies, murder being just one. They uncover what really happens behind the old town elegant facades - where evil crimes go unseen and unreported because they don't happen to people like us - - Or do they? And what happens when we find out? A tale of hidden secrets brought to light - about what happens when Pandora's box is opened, and revenge is unleashed.'

     Summer 1959. When murder comes to the garden party of the Reverend George Sixpence, the curmudgeonly Inspector Leslie Dykeman and the irascible Sergeant Stanley Shapes are despatched from Banbury police station to apprehend the killer. Arriving at the splendid Victorian vicarage, Dykeman and Shapes find a group of suspects riddled with envy, bitterness and contempt for one another. As the two policemen struggle to uncover meaningful clues and Dykeman finds himself distracted by the arrival of pathologist Dr Sheila Delph, the killer stalks their next victim. This is one game the two policemen cannot afford to lose, but it seems as if the killer is out-playing them at every turn and it begins to look like there will be only one winner. The Hide and Seek Murders is the first in a classic murder mystery series set in the Oxfordshire town of Banbury in the early 1960s by British author Ben Westerham. If you like classic murder mysteries with a touch of romance and a streak of humour, then you’ll love these. Buy The Hide and Seek Murders now to find out for yourself if the two policemen will be able to up their own game and stop death from visiting the vicarage for a second time.

    Like in every culture, Chinese folktales too have been instrumental in passing on Chinese tradition, beliefs, customs and values from one generation to the next.Chinese folklore consists of fables, legends, mythology tales and historical accounts. Magical creatures, demons, mythical animals, malicious step-mothers and witty and valiant protagonists take you through the common themes of the triumph of cleverness and wisdom.This collection of Chinese folktales includes the well-known tale of the 'Valiant Shu Lang', the woman who dressed herself as a man to join the military, 'The Laughing Monks' who taught the path to a contentted life throguh the only language they knew - laughter, and 'The Great Discovery', the tale of how a phenix led a young couple to a treasure they later discover to be salt.

    Does the killing have some bizarre link to Cornwall’s past?A Cornish Revenge is the first in the Loveday Ross Mystery Series.These others, also currently available as eBooks on Amazon are A Cornish Kidnapping and A Cornish Vengeance.Book Description:A bleak Cornish clifftop strewn with the derelict remains of old tin mines.It seems to magazine editor, Loveday Ross, an odd place for an art class, but then her artist friend, Lawrence Kemp, had been acting strangely recently.As her camera clicks, taking pictures for the article she’s planning, a grim sight emerges from the receding tide far below.It’s the body of a man!He’s been tied hand and foot into the shingle cove - deliberately left to drown!But why has the discovery made Lawrence so edgy?And why are his students, Kit Armitage and Abbie Grainger, so affected by the killing?Detective Inspector Sam Kitto doesn’t appreciate finding a journalist at the murder scene, and Loveday isn't happy being a suspect.

     However, unbeknown to Sandra, the inclusion of her husband’s mother and his maiden aunt in the three week holiday meant that not all family members would be happy to just idle away time. For a recent unsolved murder in Pentrillick would intrigue the two not-so-young ladies, and after examining the facts, they would feel duty-bound to see if they could help bring about a satisfactory conclusion to the mystery. The Chocolate Box Holiday is the first in a new light-hearted series of books set in Pentrillick on the south coast of Cornwall.