Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring Anthony Trollope is among the best-loved novelists in the English ......more
Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring This Very Short Introduction introduces the life, work, and influe......more
’How many fond fools serve mad jealousy!’ The Comedy of Errors is one of Shakespeare’s most farcical plays, with not one......more
’Cry "havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war’ Set against the backdrop of a nation breaking out into civil war, Julius Cae......more
’I see a man’s life is a tedious one.’ Set in Ancient Britain, Cymbeline is a tragedy of deceit, disguise, banishment, a......more
’Men’s evil manners live in brass, their virtues We write in water.’ Henry VIII or All is True is Shakespeare’s retellin......more
’Vengeance is in my heart, death in my hand, Blood and revenge are hammering in my head.’ In Shakespeare’s first tragedy......more
’For God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground, And tell sad stories of the death of kings’ Crowned as a child, Richard II ......more
Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring In 432 BCE the powerful city-state of Sparta on the peninsula of t......more
Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring The epic is an ancient and universal form of artistic expression. ......more
’Struck dead by an angel of God! Yet the angel must hang!’ Outwardly a compelling narrative of events aboard a British m......more
’If our love is a sin, then heaven must be full of such tender and selfless sinning as ours.’ The Well of Loneliness is ......more
Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring J.R.R. Tolkien was the author of two of the most extraordinary, mo......more
Art for art’s sake is a vile catchword, but I confess it appeals to me’ Gentleman by day and thief by night, A. J. Raffl......more
’I spring from the pages into your arms’ Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass stands as one of the most influential and innova......more
’No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be an heroine.’ Northanger A......more
Sylvia Plath is one of the most influential and iconic American writers of the twentieth century, popular with academic ......more
The history of travel writing goes back thousands of years. Long practised in several different cultures and languages a......more
’The wind is rising!... Let us try to live!’ One of the preeminent intellectuals of modern French culture, Valéry is wid......more
The Glass Door is an adaptation of Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen. In this version (in three acts), the play has been shor......more
BOOK BUDDIES: FEARLESS WOMEN WRITERS is an homage to feminist icons in the literary world. Quotes, bios, fun facts, and ......more
This remarkable collection pays tribute to the timeless poetry of legendary wordsmiths, presenting the brilliance of ico......more
A warrior leader and builder of many temples, the Pharaoh Ramses II was the greatest ruler of his Age. Regarded as the g......more
Cleopatra was more than just the famous lover in a Shakespeare play, she was a powerful leader, protecting the heritage ......more
’At three in the morning I crept out of Carlsbad, they wouldn’t have let me go if I hadn’t. I wasn’t going to be stopped......more
’Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?’ Dark and violent, Macbeth is a restless, haunting e......more
’We that are true lovers run into strange capers.’ Four centuries after its publication in the Folio, As You Like It’s c......more
’What is honour? A word. What is in that word ’honour’? What is that ’honour’? Air.’ A history play that combines a comi......more
’Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.’ Can one life be measured against another? Can a woman’s body be measured ag......more
’How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world That has such people in’t!’ Performed variously as escapist fantasy, celebr......more
’A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life’ This edition provides a clear and accessible introduction to Shakespeare......more
’Here will be an old abusing of God’s patience and the King’s English.’ The Merry Wives of Windsor is the only Shakespea......more
100 years after Proust’s death, In Search of Lost Time remains one of the greatest works in World Literature. At 3,000 p......more
Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring Fyodor Dostoevsky became the writer best known for his treatment o......more
b’It was raining as it only rains in Normandy, as though great gouts of water were being sprayed by some angry, giant ha......more
’No matter which way you look at us, you’ll find that we’re in all respects; Remarkably wasp-like in our habits, in ever......more
In defense of the poetic, Pascal Quignard pens an impassioned reply to von Hofmannsthal’s despondent Lord Chandos In 190......more
The essential lecture delivered by the 2023 Nobel Laureate in Literature, published for the first time in a collectible ......more
’Few travelled in these days, for, thanks to the advance of science, the earth was exactly alike all over. Rapid interco......more