The Classic Fairy Tales


Maria Tatar - 1998
    The Classic Fairy Tales focuses on six tale types: "Little Red Riding Hood," "Beauty and the Beast," "Snow White," "Cinderella," "Bluebeard," and "Hansel and Gretel," and presents multicultural variants and sophisticated literary rescriptings. Also reprinted are tales by Hans Christian Andersen and Oscar Wilde."Criticism" gathers twelve essays that interpret aspects of fairy tales, including their social origins, historical evolution, psychological drama, gender issues, and national identities.A Selected Bibliography is included.

A Slip of the Keyboard: Collected Non-Fiction


Terry Pratchett - 2014
    A Slip of the Keyboard brings together for the first time the finest examples of Pratchett's non fiction writing, both serious and surreal: from musings on mushrooms to what it means to be a writer (and why banana daiquiris are so important); from memories of Granny Pratchett to speculation about Gandalf's love life, and passionate defences of the causes dear to him.With all the humour and humanity that have made his novels so enduringly popular, this collection brings Pratchett out from behind the scenes of the Discworld to speak for himself - man and boy, bibliophile and computer geek, champion of hats, orang-utans and Dignity in Dying.

Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow


Jerome K. Jerome - 1886
    This book wouldn't elevate a cow. I cannot conscientiously recommend it for any useful purposes whatever. All I can suggest is that when you get tired of reading 'the best hundred books, ' you may take this up for half an hour. It will be a change." (from the Preface to "Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow by Jerome Jerome)

The Portable Conrad


Joseph Conrad - 1947
    This revised edition of The Portable Conrad features the best known and most enduring of Conrad's works, including The Secret Agent, Heart of Darkness, and The Nigger of the "Narcissus," as well as shorter tales like "Amy Forster" and "The Secret Sharer," a selection of letters, and his observations on the sinking of the Titanic.

The Complete Poems


Walt Whitman - 1902
    A collection of astonishing originality and intensity, it spoke of politics, sexual emancipation, and what it meant to be an American. From the joyful “Song of Myself” and “I Sing the Body Electric” to the elegiac “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” Whitman’s art fuses oratory, journalism, and song in a vivid celebration of humanity. Containing all Whitman’s known poetic work, this edition reprints the final, or “deathbed,” edition of Leaves of Grass (1891–92). Earlier versions of many poems are also given, including the 1855 “Song of Myself.”Features a completely new—and fuller—introduction discussing the development of Whitman's poetic career, his influence on later American poets, and his impact on the American cultural sensibilityIncludes chronology, updated suggestions for further reading, and extensive notes

Notes of a Native Son


James Baldwin - 1955
    His impassioned essays on life in Harlem, the protest novel, movies, and African Americans abroad are as powerful today as when they were first written.--back cover

Tree and Leaf: Includes Mythopoeia and The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth


J.R.R. Tolkien - 1964
    Tolkien's imagination and the breadth of his talent as a creator of fantastic fiction.

Ninety-Nine Novels: The Best in English Since 1939


Anthony Burgess - 1984
    

Self-Reliance


Ralph Waldo Emerson - 1841
    Excerpted from Essays, First Series.

Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters


Annie Dillard - 1982
    Here, in this compelling assembly of writings, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Dillard explores the world of natural facts and human meanings.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's Tales


Nathaniel Hawthorne - 1837
    Chorley, James Russell Lowell, and Henry James The collection of recent criticism displays a considerable range of approaches, including essays by Q. D. Leavis, John P. McWilliams, Jr., Frederick C. Crews, Michael J. Colacurcio, Jorge Luis Borges, Sharon Cameron, Robert B. Heilman, Nina Baym, Leo Marx, and John W. Wright A Chronology of Hawthorne's life and a Selected Bibliography are included.

By-Line: Selected Articles and Dispatches of Four Decades


Ernest Hemingway - 1967
    s/t: Selected Articles & Dispatches of Four DecadesSpanning the years from 1920 to 1956, this priceless collection of pieces written by Hemingway ranges from articles for the "Toronto Star" and the Hearst newspapers to popular magazines such as "Esquire, Collier's" and "Look", and includes Hemingway's vivid eyewitness accounts of the Spanish Civil War and World War II.

Classical Literary Criticism


Penelope Murray - 2000
    In Ion, Plato examines the god-like power of poets to evoke feelings such as pleasure or fear, yet he went on to attack this manipulation of emotions and banished poets from his ideal Republic. Aristotle defends the value of art in his Poetics, and his analysis of tragedy has influenced generations of critics from the Renaissance onwards. In the Art of Poetry, Horace promotes a style of poetic craftsmanship rooted in wisdom, ethical insight and decorum, while Longinus’ On the Sublime explores the nature of inspiration in poetry and prose. This edition of these landmarks texts includes an introduction by Penelope Murray, which discusses the literary background since Homer and sets the work of each critic in context. It also includes suggestions for further reading, a chronology and explanatory notes. Table Of Contents: Table of contents Introduction 1. Homer and the Early Greek Poets 2. Aristophanes 3. Gorgias and the Sophists 4. Plato 5. Aristotle 6. The Alexandrians 7. Horace 8. Longinus 9. Epilogue Further Reading Literary Chronology Plato Ion Republic 2 Republic 3 Republic 10 Aristotle Poetics Horace The Art of Poetry Longinus On the Sublime Notes

Guys and Dolls


Damon Runyon - 1932
    Take in the atmosphere of the Great White Way in its heyday at a little speakeasy called Good Time Charley's. Here are thirty-two of Damon Runyon's best-loved, most "Runyonesque" stories, each woven around the mobsmen, chorus girls, gamblers, and racetrack hustlers of the Broadway he knew and loved. Runyon captures with an acute eye and ear the colorful lives and language of a bygone era, one that lives on in our imagination—and on stage.

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions


Edwin A. Abbott - 1884
    The work of English clergyman, educator and Shakespearean scholar Edwin A. Abbott (1838-1926), it describes the journeys of A. Square [sic – ed.], a mathematician and resident of the two-dimensional Flatland, where women-thin, straight lines-are the lowliest of shapes, and where men may have any number of sides, depending on their social status.Through strange occurrences that bring him into contact with a host of geometric forms, Square has adventures in Spaceland (three dimensions), Lineland (one dimension) and Pointland (no dimensions) and ultimately entertains thoughts of visiting a land of four dimensions—a revolutionary idea for which he is returned to his two-dimensional world. Charmingly illustrated by the author, Flatland is not only fascinating reading, it is still a first-rate fictional introduction to the concept of the multiple dimensions of space. "Instructive, entertaining, and stimulating to the imagination." — Mathematics Teacher.