Adopted at more than 1,000 colleges and universities, Bedford/St. Martin's innovative "Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism" series has introduced more than a quarter of a million students to literary theory and earned enthusiastic praise nationwide. Along with an authoritative text of a major literary work, each volume presents critical essays, selected or prepared especially for students, that approach the work from several contemporary critical perspectives, such as gender criticism and cultural studies. Each essay is accompanied by an introduction (with bibliography) to the history, prin... View More...
This work is a guide to the reading of Dante's great poem, intended for the use of students and laymen, particularly those who are approaching the Inferno for the first time. While carefully pointing out the uniqueness, tone, and color of each of Dante's thirty-four cantos, Fowlie never loses sight of the continuity of the poet's discourse. Each canto is related thematically to others, and the rich web of symbols is displayed and disentangled as the poem's unity, patterns, and structures are revealed. What particularly distinguishes Wallace Fowlie's reading of the Inferno is his emphasis on bo... View More...
"Get your "A" in gear They're today's most popular study guides-with everything you need to succeed in school. Written by Harvard students for students, since its inception "SparkNotes(TM) has developed a loyal community of dedicated users and become a major education brand. Consumer demand has been so strong that the guides have expanded to over 150 titles. "SparkNotes'(TM) motto is "Smarter, Better, Faster because: - They feature the most current ideas and themes, written by experts.- They're easier to understand, because the same people who use them have also written them.- The clear writi... View More...
Of all the romantic obsessions in novelist Lisa St Aubin de Teran's life, the search for a castle occupied her the longest--until she saw the magnificent Villa Orsola deep in the Umbrian hills. Only after eagerly signing the ownership papers did she and her husband, painter Robbie Duff-Scott, discover they were the owners of a vast ruin lacking windowpanes, parts of the roof, and other essentials. A Valley in Italy recounts its restoration in the grand style of impossible house and the charms of bohemian family life. It also offers a rare portrait of the life of a. Italian village, where "all ... View More...
Of all the romantic obsessions in novelist Lisa St. Aubin de Teran's life, the search for a castle occupied her the longest -- until she saw the magnificent Villa Orsola deep in the Umbrian hills. In A Valley in Italy, she chronicles the restoration of the severely run-down villa to its former grandeur and captures the sights and sounds of life in an Italian village. View More...
This comprehensive list of allusions found in James Joyce's modern classic, Ulysses, is in itself a classic and is a feat of literary scholarship of unprecedented magnitude. In brief, this book is a copiously annotated list of Joyce's allusions in such areas as literature, philosophy, theology, history, and the fine arts. So awesome an undertaking would not have been possible without the prior work of such persons as Stuart Gilbert, Joseph Prescott, William York Tindall, M.J.C. Hodgart, Mabel Worthington, and many others. But the present list is more than a compilation of previously discovered... View More...
E. M. Forster's guide sparkles with wit and insight for contemporary writers and readers. With lively language and excerpts from well-known classics, Forster (author of A Passage to India, Howards End, and A Room With a View) takes on the seven elements vital to a novel: story, people, plot, fantasy, prophecy, pattern, and rhythm. He not only defines and explains such terms as "round" versus "flat" characters (and why both are needed for an effective novel), but also provides examples of writing from such literary greats as Dickens and Austen. Forster's original commentary illuminates and ent... View More...
The] contradictions in Bronte] s] life are not only fully chronicled by Lyndall Gordon s splendid new biography, but also gracefully explicated to give the reader a vivid and emotionally detailed portrait of the novelist and her work. . . . Gordon] chooses to use her imaginative sympathies honed to precision with earlier biographies of Virginia Woolf and T. S. Eliot to delineate her subject s rich interior life. Michiko Kakutani, New York Times" View More...
In "Chaucer and the Subject of History," a leading medievalist provides us with a compelling vision of the shape and direction of Geoffrey Chaucer's entire career. Chaucer's interest in individuality was strikingly modern. At the same time he was profoundly aware of the pressures on individuality exerted by the past and by society--by history. This tension between the subject and history is Patterson's topic. He begins by showing how Chaucer's understanding of history as a subject for poetry--a world to be represented and a cultural force affecting human action--began to take shape in his poe... View More...
Although he was an acute literary critic, a voluminous contributor to Blackwood's and other journals, and a perceptive writer on history, biography, and economics, Thomas de Quincey (1785-1859) is best known for his Confessions of an English Opium Eater.First published in installments in the London Magazine in 1821, the work recounts De Quincey's early years as a precocious student of Greek, his flight from grammar school and subsequent adventures among the outcasts and prostitutes of London, studies at Oxford University and his introduction to opium in 1804 (he hoped that taking the drug woul... View More...
REA's MAXnotes for Dante's The Divine Comedy I: Inferno MAXnotes offer a fresh look at masterpieces of literature, presented in a lively and interesting fashion. Written by literary experts who currently teach the subject, MAXnotes will enhance your understanding and enjoyment of the work. MAXnotes are designed to stimulate independent thought about the literary work by raising various issues and thought-provoking ideas and questions. MAXnotes cover the essentials of what one should know about each work, including an overall summary, character lists, an explanation and discussion of the plot,... View More...
'This is the second volume of a formidable enterprise, and part of a series of publications by the same author that may entitle him to the position as the leading scholar of the Bloomsbury Group...Rosenbaum has managed to write with freshness and insight about Forster's novels, no matter how much they have been analyzed before...The next volume will deal with the effect of that exhibition upon the Group's writing and much more, I am sure, of its early literary history. The work is eagerly awaited.' - Peter Stanksy, English Literature in Transition 1880-1920 Edwardian Bloomsbury is a continuati... View More...
A survey of prose, poetry, and drama from the Restoration to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Treats major authors in depth but also includes lesser but important writers to give a completer picture of the century. View More...
Designed to be compatible with virtually every standard textbook in their subject field, Barron's EZ-101 Study Keys give you a valuable overview of your college-level course. Classroom-style notes emphasize important facts, remind you what you need to remember for term papers and exams, and help guide you through the complexities of lectures and textbooks. This volume covers 100 key topics, titles, and authors, from Beowulf to the modern era. View More...
The Falashas, who are the most isolated and most ancient Jewish community extant, have preserved their own religious writings through the centuries. This book offers a cross section of their sacred literature, translated for the first time into English from Ethiopic sources. In addition, the translator provides a detailed description of the life and mores of the Falashas, based on his personal experience and observation during a prolonged stay in their community."An excellent, unique, and fascinating volume...an illuminating view of the range of Falasha sacred literature, all freshly rendered ... View More...
