Arguing that their characters are as strong and their plots as complex as any dreamt up by the great novelists, Tom McCarthy asks a simple question: is Tintin literature?"

    Yet the literary landscape of this dynamic part of the world has been bound together not by borders and nationalities, but by a common experience of Western imperialism. Keenly aware of the collected scars left by a legacy of colonial rule, the acclaimed writer Reza Aslan, with a team of four regional editors and seventy-seven translators, cogently demonstrates with Tablet and Pen how literature can, in fact, be used to form identity and serve as an extraordinary chronicle of the disrupted histories of the region.Acting with Words Without Borders, which fosters international exchange through translation and publication of the world’s finest literature, Aslan has purposefully situated this volume in the twentieth century, beyond the familiar confines of the Ottoman past, believing that the writers who have emerged in the last hundred years have not received their full due. This monumental collection, therefore, of nearly two hundred pieces, including short stories, novels, memoirs, essays and works of drama—many of them presented in English for the first time—features translated works from Arabic, Persian, Urdu, and Turkish. Organized chronologically, the volume spans a century of literature—from the famed Arab poet Khalil Gibran to the Nobel laureates Naguib Mahfouz and Orhan Pamuk, from the great Syrian-Lebanese poet Adonis to the grand dame of Urdu fiction, Ismat Chughtai—connected by the extraordinarily rich tradition of resplendent cultures that have been all too often ignored by the Western canon.By shifting America’s perception of the Middle Eastern world away from religion and politics, Tablet and Pen evokes the splendors of a region through the voices of its writers and poets, whose literature tells an urgent and liberating story. With a wealth of contextual information that places the writing within the historical, political, and cultural breadth of the region, Tablet Pen is transcendent, a book to be devoured as a single sustained narrative, from the first page to the last. Creating a vital bridge between two estranged cultures, "this is that rare anthology: cohesive, affecting, and informing" (Publishers Weekly).

    Due to the incompetence of Edward II's government, the north is virtually overrun by the Scots, while an invasion fleet is massing across the channel, led by Edward's estranged queen, Isabella, the 'She-Wolf of France'. The first book in the Folville's Law series follows the adventures of Sir John Swale, knight of Cumberland, as he investigates a murder that threatens to bring disaster to Edward's failing kingdom. Along the way he clashes with Eustace Folville and James Coterel, two of the most notorious and brutal outlaws in England. As the death toll mounts, it remains to be seen who will survive and who will perish in the savage game of war and politics. 'Folville's Law (I): Invasion' is a new edition of the first part of the John Swale Chronicles.

    The myths surrounding his reign have been recounted in endless tales. This collection includes thirteen of the best-loved legends of the man and his Knights of the Round Table.Bewitching stories, related by one of the world's great storytellers, tell of how the young Arthur pulled a sword from a stone to become king; his meeting with the Lady of the Lake and acquisition of the mighty sword Excalibur; gatherings at the Round table; the death of Merlin; how the mysterious sorceress Morgan Le Fay attempted to kill Arthur; the quest for the Holy Grail; the romance of Lancelot and Guenevere, Arthur's wife; the passing of King Arthur, and more.Magnificent engravings appear throughout the text, further enhancing this splendid introduction to Camelot and its enchanting lore.These stories have inspired numerous film adaptations, including the 2017 release King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, directed by Guy Ritchie and starring Charlie Hunnam, Jude Law, Eric Bana, Djimon Hounsou, and Annabelle Wallis.

    This rollicking adventure begins with a shipwreck on an island where notable characters of literature, history, and folklore coexist — Hamlet and Oedipus, Don Quixote and Doctor Faustus, Becky Sharp and Daniel Boone. From carousing with Robin Hood to crossing swords with the Green Knight and stealing a ride on Huck Finn's raft, our traveler, A. Clarence Shandon, undertakes a whirlwind tour of the classics. And just as the truths of great stories ennoble those who take them to heart, a selfish and cynical drifter is transformed into the gallant knight known as Silverlock.

    Illustrated with visual artifacts of the period. With the long-awaited publication of this book, we have for the first time in any modern literary form one of the most vital and important of ancient myths: that of Inanna, the world's first goddess of recorded history and the beloved deity of the ancient Sumerians.The stories and hymns of Inanna (known to the Semites as Ishtar) are inscribed on clay tablets which date back to 2,000 B.C. Over the past forty years, these cuneiform tablets have gradually been restored and deciphered by a small group of international scholars. In this groundbreaking book, Samuel Noah Kramer, the preeminent living expert on Sumer, and Diane Wolkstein, a gifted storyteller and folklorist, have retranslated, ordered, and combined the fragmented pieces of the Cycle of Inanna into a unified whole that presents for the first time an authentic portrait of the goddess from her adolescence to her completed womanhood and godship. We see Inanna in all her aspects: as girl, lover, wife, seeker, decision maker, ruler; we witness the Queen of Heaven and Earth as the voluptuous center and source of all fertile power and the unequaled goddess of love.Illustrated throughout with cylinder seals and other artifacts of the period, the beautifully rendered images guide the reader through Inanna's realm on a journey parallel to the one evoked by the text. And the carefully wrought commentaries providing an historical overview, textual interpretations, and aannotations on the art at once explicate and amplify the power, wonder, and mystery embedded in these ancient tales.Inanna--the world's first love story, two thousand years older than the Bible--is tender, erotic, frightening, and compassionate. It is a compelling myth that is timely in its rediscovery."A great masterpiece of universal literature."--Mircea Eliade

    This is a collection of Scottish fairy tales, folk tales and legends, which have been passed on from generation to generation, and have been brought together in this one volume.

     In 1241, Mongols from central Asia conquered most of east Europe and quickly killed more than one hundred thousand knights and soldiers in Russia, Poland, and Hungary. In addition, the invaders laid waste to the land like no earlier force in history; no standing army in Europe met the challenge of this unfamiliar, lethal threat. Gregory IX, pope, understood the threat but died in 1241 amid a conflict with Frederick II, holy Roman emperor. Innocent IV succeeded as pope in 1243 and took refuge in Lyon. While preparing for the first council of Lyon, the pope put together a team of missionaries to go in 1245 to the great khan of the Mongols with the secret mission of gathering appropriate intelligence to bring back. Giovanni Carpini, a Franciscan friar, fulfilled exactly that mission. He traveled to the Mongol capital of Karakorum, gathered the information, wrote it in Latin, and presented it to the pope. He also carried the reply in Persian of Güyük Khan, then reigning as supreme khan of the Mongols, back to the pope. This book presents the report of the friar. Although the Mongols vanquished the Tatars circa 1206, people in west Europe, including the popes and the author, continued to call the inhabitants of the former Tatar domains as Tatars, not Mongols, hence the name of this book. People, however, neither published nor widely disseminated his extensive report. Erik Hildinger first translated this book into English and published it, perhaps still of a kind in the world. A few decades after Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, Marco Polo traveled beyond Karakorum and visited China.

    This bilingual edition, a parallel text in Old French and English, is based on a reexamination of the Old French manuscript, and makes Silence available to specialists and students in various fields of literature and women's studies.     The Roman de Silence, an Arthurian romance of the thirteenth century, tells of a girl raised as a boy, equally accomplished as a minstrel and knight, whose final task, the capture of Merlin, leads to her unmasking.

    Jones questions the accepted view of the Knight as a paragon of Christian chivalry, and argues that he is in fact no more than a professional mercenary who has spent his life in the service of petty despots and tyrants around the world. This edition includes astonishing new evidence from Jones, who argues that the character of the Knight was actually based on Sir John Hawkwood (d.1394), a marauding English freebooter and mercenary who pillaged his way across northern Italy during the 14th century, running protection rackets on the Italian Dukes and creating a vast fortune in the process.

    However, when a charming man asks for her hand in marriage, she is hesitant to turn a new page in her life. Having heard the whispers about the man's missing fiancée, she can't help but wonder whether she could ever be anything but second best for him. Once they finally meet, the desire that sparks between them is undeniable, but there will soon be clouds on the horizon... Will Alice be able to finally satisfy the burning passion she holds for him, or will this romance be doomed forever?The last thing Silas Wilmington expected after the unforeseen disappearance of his fiancée, was another tempting woman by his side. Tired of being haunted by his tormented past, he chooses to accept his inevitable fate with a heavy heart. But little did he know that the beautiful and seductive Alice was about to start a fire inside him... After having mourned his great love for a long time, he could have never imagined that romance could be on the cards for him again. Will Silas eventually let his wounds heal and surrender to Alice's charm?Just when they start unfolding their growing feelings, someone who holds the key to Sila's broken heart appears and everything is about to crash down. Will their newly fledged passion endure a quick death, as the wounds from the past are still bleeding? Or will they survive to meet the passionate future they could have together?"Everything a Lady Craves" is a historical romance novel of approximately 80,000 words. No cheating, no cliffhangers, and a guaranteed happily ever after.

    The only surviving Greek epic to bridge the gap between Homer and late antiquity, this epic poem is the crowning literary achievement of the Ptolemaic court at Alexandria, written by Appolonius of Rhodes in the third century BC. Appollonius explores many of the fundamental aspects of life in a highly original way: love, deceit, heroism, human ignorance of the divine, and the limits of science, and offers a gripping and sometimes disturbing tale in the process. This major new prose translation combines readability with accuracy and an attention to detail that will appeal to general readers and classicists alike.

    But when it comes to saving her family’s estate, there is nothing she’s not willing to do. Even if that means offering her soul to a fiend on a silver platter.His rogue years are well behind him, yet nobody trusts the newly appointed Laird of Cord, Ragnall McAvoy. In order to inherit his father’s wealth and help his clan, he must first marry. So, when a woman he once knew comes looking desperately for a husband to save her family, he proposes a deal: get married, but not fall in love.Struggling to stick to the deal and not give in to their feelings, Adriana and Ragnall fight not only each other but their own selves as well. But Ragnall’s past has remained dormant for too long. And now it’s ready to come back and claim what it rightfully owns: Ragnall.

    Yu's four-volume translation of Hsi-yu Chi, one of the most beloved classics of Chinese literature. The fantastic tale recounts the sixteen-year pilgrimage of the monk Hsüan-tsang (596-664), one of China's most illustrious religious heroes, who journeyed to India with four animal disciples in quest of Buddhist scriptures. For nearly a thousand years, his exploits were celebrated and embellished in various accounts, culminating in the hundred-chapter Journey to the West, which combines religious allegory with romance, fantasy, humor, and satire.

    Rich with magic and achingly beautiful, they speak of a land of heroic battles, intense love and warrior ideals, in which the otherworld is explored and men mingle freely with the gods. From the vivid adventures of the great Celtic hero Cu Chulaind, to the stunning 'Exile of the Sons of Uisliu' - a tale of treachery, honour and romance - these are masterpieces of passion and vitality, and form the foundation for the Irish literary tradition: a mythic legacy that was a powerful influence on the work of Yeats, Synge and Joyce.