The City of Dreadful Night


James Thomson - 1874
    A gothic epic. Decadence and horror in late 19th Century urban life from the 'poet of doom'.

A Modern Instance


William Dean Howells - 1882
    R. Osgood & Co. The novel is about the deterioration of a once loving marriage under the influence of capitalistic greed. It is the first American novel by a canonical author to seriously consider divorce as a realistic outcome of marriage.

A Defence of Poetry and Other Essays


Percy Bysshe Shelley - 2001
    His major works were long visionary poems including, Alastor, The Revolt of Islam, Prometheus Unbound and the unfinished The Triumph of Life. Shelley was a strong advocate for social justice for the 'lower classes'. He witnessed many of the mistreatments occurring in the domestication and slaughtering of animals and he became a fighter for the rights of all living things. This collection contains On Love, On Life in a Future State, On the Punishment of Death Speculations, On Metaphysics Speculations, On Morals on the Literature, the Arts and the Manners of the Athenians, On the Symposium, or Preface to the Banquet of Plato, and A Defence of Poetry.

An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent


John Henry Newman - 1870
    First written over a century ago, the Grammar of Assent speaks as powerfully to us today as it did to its first readers. Because of the informal, non-technical character of Newman's work, it still retains its immediacy as an invaluable guide to the nature of religious belief. An introduction by Nicholas Lash reviews the background of the Grammar, highlights its principal themes, and evaluates its philosophical originality.

Les Chimères


Gérard de Nerval - 1854
    Bilingual Edition. Translated from the French by William Stone. A precursor of the symbolists and the surreallists, Gerard de Nerval has fascinated many major literary figures, including Proust and Breton, Eliot and Apollinaire, Michaux and Leiris. The great sonnet cycle, in its marvellous combination of spell, quest and dream, continues to fascinate writers, readers and that special category of writerly readers, translators. Menard's translator is the gifted young poet William Stone, who explains his work in a strongly worded essay: "like a partly submerged crocodile, with one amber eye half open, the foreign line sits, waiting for the anxious translator to make a move."

Poems by G. K. Chesterton


G.K. Chesterton - 1980
    A delightful collection worthy of a place atop any bookshelf, this compendium is a veritable must-have for fans of Chesterton's work, and is one not to be missed by the discerning collector. The poems contained herein include: 'To Edmund Clerihew Bentley', 'To Hilaire Belloc', 'To M.E.W., Lepanto', 'The March of the Black Mountain', 'Blessed are the Peacemakers', 'The Wife of Flanders', 'The Crusader Returns from Captivity', 'Glencoe', 'Love's Trappist', and many more. Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874 1936) was an English writer, philosopher, theologian, poet, orator, dramatist, journalist, literary and art critic, biographer, and Christian apologist, often referred to as the "prince of paradox." We are republishing this vintage work in a modern, affordable edition complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author."

The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan


W.S. Gilbert - 1926
    Gilbert's verses for Sullivan's music are the most fastidiously turned and inventively rhymed in all lyric comedy. As the Savoy Operas enter their second century on a swell of renewed popularity, Gilbert's reputation as the supreme wordsmith of light opera remains secure. Complete and authentic, these are the librettos on which modern performances and recordings are based. Scattered among the songs are over seventy of the amusing, quirky pictures Gilbert drew to illustrate them. A chronology prepared for this edition sketches the authors' lives and careers. This is a book that no lover of Gilbert and Sullivan, musical comedy, or indeed the English theater will want to be without.

The Myths of Greece and Rome


Hélène A. Guerber - 1893
    

Collected Essays and Poems


Henry David Thoreau - 1920
    In his poems, he gave voice to his private sentiments and spiritual aspirations in the plain style of New England speech. Now, The Library of America brings together these indispensable works in one authoritative volume.Spanning his entire career, the 27 essays gathered here vary in style from the ambling rhythm of "Natural History of Massachusetts" and "A Winter Walk" to the concentrated moral outrage of "Slavery in Massachusetts" and "A Plea for Captain John Brown". Included are "Civil Disobedience", Thoreau's great exploration of the conflict between individual conscience and state power that continues to influence political thinkers and activists; "Walking", a meditation on wildness and civilization; and "Life Without Principle", a passionate critique of American materialism and conformity. Also here are literary essays, including pieces on Homer, Chaucer, and Carlyle; the travel essay "A Yankee in Canada"; the three speeches in defense of John Brown; and essays such as "Autumnal Tints", "Wild Fruits", and "Huckleberries" that explore natural phenomena around Concord.Seven poems are published here for the first time, and others are presented in new, previously unpublished versions based on Thoreau's manuscripts.

Counter-Statement


Kenneth Burke - 1953
    For this new paperback edition, Mr. Burke continues his "curve of development" in an Addendum which surveys the course of his though in subsequent books (up to the publication of his Collected Poems, 1915 - 1967) and work-in-progress.

Emperor and Galilean


Henrik Ibsen - 1873
    He saw it as the cornerstone of his entire dramatic output. This book will be my masterpiece, he declared. He had completed the two great poetic dramas, Brand and Peer Gynt and was about to embark on the Cycle of twelve modern plays, beginning with Pillars of Society and concluding with When We Dead Awaken which were to establish his unrivaled international fame. While the plays of the Realist Cycle are well known, Emperor and Galilean still awaits discovery by modern readers, actors and directors. The major Shakespearean scholar, G. Wilson Knight has written of the play, it is certainly the greatest dramatic document of its century..it is stageworthy...(it is) conceived dramatically, even theatrically... under a spectacular production the result could be triumphant. Dramatizing the tragic career of Julian the Apostate, the play presents Western Civilzation itself at a most crucial point. It is indispensable for understanding the later plays: themes, situations, and characters from Emperor and Galilean continually reappear in the modern realist plays.

The Collected Writings Of Ambrose Bierce


Ambrose Bierce - 1946
    The Devil's Dictionary, Can Such Things Be? Negligible Tales, and more.

Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold


Stephen Fry - 2017
    Fry transforms the adventures of Zeus and the Olympians into emotionally resonant and deeply funny stories, without losing any of their original wonder.This stunning book features classical artwork inspired by the myths, as well as learned notes from the author. Each adventure is infused with Fry's distinctive wit, voice, and writing style. Connoisseurs of the Greek myths will appreciate this fresh-yet-reverential interpretation, while newcomers will feel welcome. Retellings brim with humor and emotion and offer rich cultural contextCelebrating the thrills, grandeur, and unabashed fun of the Greek myths, Mythos breathes life into ancient tales—from Pandora's box to Prometheus's fire.This gorgeous volume invites you to explore a captivating world with the brilliant storyteller Stephen Fry as your guide.

The Kellys and the O'Kellys


Anthony Trollope - 1848
    Lady Selina was not in her premiSre jeunesse, and, in manner, face, and disposition, was something like her father: she was not, therefore, very charming; but his faults were softened down in her; and what was pretence in him, was, to a certain degree, real in her. She had a most exaggerated conception of her own station and dignity, and of what was due to her, and expected from her. Because her rank enabled her to walk out of a room before other women, she fancied herself better than them, and entitled to be thought better.

The Age of Fable


Thomas Bulfinch - 1855
    The so-called divinities of Olympus have not a single worshipper among living men. They belong now not to the department of theology, but to those of literature and taste. There they still hold their place, and will continue to hold it, for they are too closely connected with the finest productions of poetry and art, both ancient and modern, to pass into oblivion.