Literary History & Criticism

In the rigid theocracy of Salem, Massachusetts, rumors that women are practicing witchcraft galvanize the town....

Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a modern American classic....

An intellectual detective story, this history audiobook directs probing questions at orthodox history, presenting disturbing new evidence that historians have tried - but failed - to explain....

All Souls fans have been captivated from the start by the many sources of inspiration Harkness draws on in her novels. Here, with her signature historian's touch, she offers an encyclopedic look at the series, complete with synopses, character bios, maps, recipes, and more....

Mythology succeeds like no other audiobook in bringing to life for the modern listener the Greek, Roman, and Norse myths and legends that are the keystone of Western culture....

For the last 20 years, George Saunders has been teaching a class on the Russian short story to his MFA students at Syracuse University. In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, he shares a version of that class with us....

A brilliant investigation into the motivations and methods, Dumbledore dives between the lines of the Harry Potter books to create a portrait of the controversial Headmaster....

Often, there is much more going on in a novel or poem than is readily visible on the surface....

This CliffsNotes study guide on J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye supplements the original literary work....

Short Stories in Spanish for Beginners has been written especially for students from beginner to intermediate level, designed to give a sense of achievement, a feeling of progress and, most importantly, enjoyment....

A collection of three medieval English poems, translated by Tolkien for the modern-day reader and containing romance, tragedy, love, sex and honour....

William Shakespeare, the most celebrated poet in the English language, left behind nearly a million words of text, but his biography has long been a thicket of wild supposition....

For generations, the book of Genesis has been treated by scholars as a collection of documents by various hands, expressing different factional interests, with borrowings from other ancient literatures that mark the text as derivative....

Writing guides are often full of 'tips' and 'tricks' either too broad to be useful, so specific they don't apply, or frustratingly vague. The On Writing and Worldbuilding series is here to change that.

When Walt Whitman self-published "Leaves of Grass" in 1855, he rocked the literary world and forever changed the course of poetry....

Volume 2 of the Nobel Prize-winner’s towering masterpiece: the story of Solzhenitsyn's entrance into the Soviet prison camps, where he would remain for nearly a decade. Features a new foreword by Anne Applebaum....

One of William Faulkner’s finest novels, As I Lay Dying, originally published in 1930, remains a captivating and stylistically innovative work. The story revolves around a grim yet darkly humorous pilgrimage, as Addie Bundren’s family sets out to fulfill her last wish....

Maya Angelou, one of the best-loved authors of our time, shares the wisdom of a remarkable life in this best-selling spiritual classic....

Poet and essayist Cathy Park Hong fearlessly and provocatively blends memoir, cultural criticism, and history to expose fresh truths about racialized consciousness in America. Part memoir and part cultural criticism, this collection is vulnerable, humorous, and provocative....

From breakout stand-up comedian Iliza Shlesinger comes a subversively funny collection of essays and observations on a confident woman's approach to friendship, singlehood, and relationships....

With passion and wit, Mary Oliver skillfully imparts expertise from her long, celebrated career as a disguised poet....

Published posthumously in 1964, A Moveable Feast remains one of Ernest Hemingway's most beloved works....

Batman is one of the most compelling characters to come from the Golden Age of Comics, and interest in his story has only increased since his first appearance in 1939. Why does this superhero without superpowers fascinate us? What does that fascination say about us?

A new investigation from Dr Mark Aldridge, exploring a lifetime of Agatha Christie’s Miss Jane Marple.

Notes of a Native Son inaugurated Baldwin as one of the leading interpreters of the dramatic social changes erupting in the United States in the 20th century, and many of his observations have proven almost prophetic....

Most people think genres are simply categories on Netflix or Amazon that provide a helpful guide to making entertainment choices. Most people are wrong. Genre stories aren’t just a small subset of the films, video games, TV shows, and books that people consume. They are the all-stars of the entertainment world, comprising the vast majority of popular stories worldwide. That’s why businesses—movie studios, production companies, video game studios, and publishing houses—buy and sell them. Legendary writing teacher John Truby provides a guide to understanding the major genres of the story world.

While the popular image of the Victorian world is one of stiff formality and old-fashioned values, it was an incredibly transformative time for many people who sought better protections, fairer wages, and greater freedom. And this included an increasingly popular and successful fight for animal welfare. Prior to the 19th century, the mistreatment of animals was rarely questioned, and sports like bullbaiting and dogfighting were common. So, what brought the plight of exploited and suffering animals to the attention of activists, politicians, and the public at large?

In Agatha Christie’s Marple: Expert on Wickedness, ‘Agathologist’ Dr Mark Aldridge looks at nearly a century of St Mary Mead’s most famous resident and uses his own detective skills to uncover new information about Miss Jane Marple’s appearances on page, stage, screen and beyond. Drawing on a range of material, some of which is newly discovered and previously unpublished, this book explores everything about Miss Marple, from her origins in a series of short stories penned by Christie, to the recent bestselling HarperCollins collection Marple: Twelve New Stories.

Tracing a loose arc from Edwidge Danticat’s childhood to the COVID-19 pandemic and recent events in Haiti, the essays gathered in We’re Alone include personal narrative, reportage, and tributes to mentors and heroes such as Toni Morrison, Paule Marshall, Gabriel García Márquez, and James Baldwin that explore several abiding themes: environmental catastrophe, the traumas of colonialism, motherhood, and the complexities of resilience.

Poetry, our most ancient form of prayer, is a necessary medicine for our times: a companion through difficulty; a guide when we are lost; a salve when we are wounded; and a conduit to an inner source of joy, freedom, and insight. Through poetry, the unspeakable can be spoken, the unendurable endured, and the miraculous shared. Whether you are a lover of poetry or have yet to discover its power, Rosen offers a new way to experience a poem.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky's final novel, considered to be the culmination of his life's work, "The Brothers Karamazov" is the story of the murder of Father Karamazov, whose four sons are all to some degree complicit in the crime. Within the context of this crime story evolves a brilliant philosophical debate of religion, reason, liberty, and the nature of guilt in society. Considered by Sigmund Freud as "The most magnificent novel ever written", the excellent translation of Constance Garnett is presented here in this edition of "The Brothers Karamazov".

Like many people the world over, Viv Groskop wishes she was a little more French. A writer, comedian, and journalist, Groskop studied the language obsessively starting at age eleven, and spent every vacation in France, desperate to escape her Englishness and to have some French chic rub off on her. In Au Revoir, Tristesse, Groskop mixes literary history and memoir to explore how the classics of French literature can infuse our lives with joie de vivre and teach us how to say goodbye to sadness.

John Clellon Holmes met Jack Kerouac on a hot New York City weekend in 1948, and until the end of Kerouac's life they were—in Holmes's words—"Brother Souls." Late one night as they sat talking, Kerouac spontaneously created the term "Beat Generation" to describe this new attitude they felt stirring around them. Brother-Souls: John Clellon Holmes, Jack Kerouac, and the Beat Generation is the remarkable chronicle of this cornerstone friendship and the life of John Clellon Holmes.

In this unusual biography Krystal gives us not only the peripatetic and turbulent life of a cultural icon but also the intellectual sweep of a period in history that created our modern America. Some Unfinished Chaos delivers a nuanced portrait of a man whose various sides embodied the trends, passions, and pursuits of the imperfect society that both glorified and dismissed him.

Through turbulent times, stories keep us afloat. Books, particularly, console and guide us, feed our souls and open our eyes to worlds, possibilities and experiences we have never considered before. Many of us have been self-medicating with books for years without identifying the practice as ‘bibliotherapy’. Celebrate the positive impact books can have on our lives with this collection of carefully curated suggestions for each life stage.

A fusion of travel literature and cultural criticism investigating the dark history of the US and exploring how past horrors – from witch trials to slavery and genocide – continue to haunt the national consciousness. Haunted States is a unique guidebook that explores the dark, often horrifying, history of the US. Based on the author’s journey across the United States in summer 2022, it explores locations connected to Gothic fiction and film, tracking the relationship between the American landscapes and the various forms of fictional horror the nation has produced over the centuries.

Explore the unsettling world of weird narrative with this first volume of Lectures on Weird Fiction. This collection features the first ten transcribed and revised lectures originally delivered live and published individually.

Uncover the magic of ancient Greek mythology with Ancient Greek Mythology: Reimagined Timeless Tales of Greek Deities! This captivating collection offers a fresh and entertaining twist on classic tales, retelling stories of gods, goddesses, and heroes in a way that will leave you on the edge of your seat, eager to know more.

Obligatorischer Absatz: Karl Kraus gilt als einer der bedeutendsten Aphoristiker deutscher Sprache. Ob berühmte Schriftsteller oder die Presse - nichts und niemand wurde von der Kritik seiner Feder verschont. Bekannte Künstler wie Stefan Zweig, Georg Trakl, Thomas Mann und andere zollten ihm Respekt, aber die Zahl seiner Feinde in Kunst und Gesellschaft war enorm. Als Vorleser hinterließ er aufgrund seiner Sprachgewalt und Persönlichkeit angeblich einen äußerst außergewöhnlichen Eindruck. Freier Text: Karl Kraus könnte als Fleisch gewordener ironischer Spiegel oder als Echo der Wahrhaftigkeit einer Gesellschaft beschrieben werden, in welcher die tagtägliche Informationsmüllflut und der Aberwitz des Alltags eine Normalität suggerieren, welche in ihrem Wahnwitz längst grotesker als jede Fiktion erscheint.

Ya seas un entusiasta de Shakespeare, un estudiante de literatura o alguien simplemente cautivado por el poder del lenguaje, “Shakespeare en Metáforas” ofrece una nueva perspectiva sobre cómo la maestría metafórica de Shakespeare moldea su legado. Sumérgete y redescubre al Bardo bajo una luz que nunca antes habías visto.