Literary History & Criticism

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....

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

Dive into the timeless tales of gods and heroes in this bestselling A-to-Z encyclopedia detailing classic myths and legends—perfect for curious listeners and academics alike.

In The Kingdom of Cain, crime novelist, screenwriter, and cultural critic Andrew Klavan explores how artists' imaginative engagement with the evil of murder in film and literature can point us to ways of living honestly, beautifully, and even joyfully in a dark world.

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

While books can be enjoyed for their basic stories, there are often deeper literary meanings beneath the surface. How to Read Literature Like a Professor helps us to discover those hidden truths by looking at literature with the practiced analytical eye—and the literary codes—of a college professor.

The poems of the Poetic Edda have waited a long time for a modern English translation that would do them justice. Here it is at last (Odin be praised!). These amazing texts from a 13th-century Icelandic manuscript are of huge historical, mythological, and literary importance....

Esteemed translator and best-selling author Stephen Mitchell energizes a heroic tale so old it predates Homer's Iliad by more than a millennium....

The Willie Lynch Letter and the Making of a Slave is a study of slave making....

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....

Like a seasoned sportscaster, Fish marvels at the adeptness of finely crafted sentences and breaks them down into digestible morsels, giving listeners an instant play-by-play....

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....

This collection of writings from revered Native Americans offers timeless, meaningful lessons on living and learning....

Legendary writing teacher and author of The Anatomy of Story John Truby provides a guide to understanding the major genres of the story world.

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

In Thomas Ligotti's first nonfiction outing, an examination of the meaning (or meaninglessness) of life through an insightful, unsparing argument that proves the greatest horrors are not the products of our imagination but instead are found in reality.

Agatha Christie is renowned for her captivating plots and creative ways of killing off ill-fated victims. And what better way to add intrigue to a story than poison? This is a compelling exploration of Christie’s use of poisons and her extensive chemical knowledge.

From rare book dealer and guest star of the hit show Pawn Stars comes an enthralling literary adventure that introduces listeners to the women writers who inspired Jane Austen—and investigates why their books have disappeared from our shelves.

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?

Joan Didion is revealed at last in this “vivid, engrossing” (Vogue), and outrageously provocative dual biography “that reads like a propulsive novel” (Oprah Daily) revealing the mutual attractions—and antagonisms—of Didion and her fellow literary titan, Eve Babitz.

LIVE recordings of new, previously unreleased David Sedaris stories....

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....

Short Stories in French 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....

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....

Every Thursday morning for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a bold and inspired teacher named Azar Nafisi secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read....

Afrofuturism is a cultural movement that seeks to explore and transform the experience of the African diaspora. Stretching across multiple art forms and genres, the movement taps into the limitless potential of creativity and the imagination to envision Black liberation through stories, music, architecture, fashion, music, and so much more.

A debut essay collection by the inimitable cultural critic Maris Kreizman—an introspective, searing account of the life experiences that have pushed this former “good Democrat” even further to the political left.

In Too Good to Be Altogether Lost, Wilder expert Pamela Smith Hill dives back into the Little House books, closely examining Wilder's text, her characters, and their stories. Hill reveals that these gritty, emotionally complex novels depict a realistic coming of age for a girl in the American West. This realism in Wilder's novels, once perceived as a fatal flaw, can lead to essential discussions not only about the past but about the present—and the underlying racism young people encounter when reading today.

Dating in New Orleans is my nightmare. I've had so many bad dates I’ve lost count. Then I meet a guy who’s gorgeous, charming, and kind of turns me on. He actually knows how to hold a conversation and is as sarcastic as I am. After three great dates and a spectacular night in bed, I catch him drinking someone in a dark alley. Yeah. He was too good to be true. It's a nightmare. Julian Deveraux is a vampire. Of course he is. I didn't even believe vampires existed until now. And apparently, I’m not just any woman—my blood activated due to him, and it's rare, addictive, and dangerously ...

Microdascism was created because all other religions required a God, usually manmade, and a go-between. Microdascism asserts that one should think for oneself and form one's school of thought (or belief system) based on accumulated wisdom, self-knowledge, experiences, and intuition. That's the truth. As human beings, we are powerful and our imagination drives us. We, as individuals, are special, unique and one of a kind. There are simply no two identical people. It is ridiculous to be allowed to be programmed to believe that slave-owners are the founders of religion because God said so. It ...

One minute I was living my life. The next? Kidnapped by fae and told my blood might end the world. No pressure. Now I’m stuck in a magical flower kingdom with talking trees, suspicious royals, and once they let him in, a dangerously handsome vampire who’d burn the world for me. (Julian, obviously.) The good news? I’m not alone.The bad? My newly activated power is terrifying, an evil queen wants to snatch me like a shiny prize, and my blood is basically a cursed VIP ticket to the apocalypse. But hey, at least I have Azriel, a moody fae warrior who acts like my bodyguard but teases me ...

No one knows whether Homer was a real person, but there is no doubt that the epic poems assembled under his name are foundations of Western literature. The Iliad and the Odyssey—with their tales of the Trojan War, Achilles, Odysseus and Penelope, the Cyclops, the beautiful Helen of Troy, and the petulant gods—have inspired us for over two and a half millennia and influenced writers from Plato to Virgil, Pope to Joyce, and Dante to Margaret Atwood.

The Forgotten Melody is a fictional short story of Liam, a gifted musician. His rise to fame led him down a path of pride and selfishness. This path caused him to abandon his loving wife and young daughter. Yet, fate intervenes when a song he had composed long ago but never published unexpectedly brings them back together. This forgotten melody is brimming with emotion. It carries the echoes of a love he had once cherished. It becomes the bridge that mends their fractured bond. Liam is overcome with remorse and a longing to make amends. With patience and effort, he and his daughter ...

Mary Claire Kendall grapples with Hemingway's faith and does so commendably. She doesn't explain him or explain him away, but she does get us closer to his Catholic heart. Those wishing to listen to the heart of Hemingway will relish this book.

A single bowl of tea. A sharpened blade. Only one can decide the fate of a nation. Japan, 1590. Warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi, wary that quiet ceremony is blunting his edge, orders his fiercest captain, Katō Masanobu, to ride south and silence Sen no Rikyū — the tea master whose tranquil art has captured the warlord’s soul. The command is brutal and clear: remove the spell, whatever the cost. Yet when steel meets steam in a moss-lined tearoom, assassin and target lock eyes across a whisked-green horizon and discover that honor can flow like water, reshaping even the hardest sword. What ...

The Oxford Handbook of George Orwell offers a wide-ranging reconsideration of Orwell's life and work, focusing on the extensive connections between his novels, essays, diaries, columns, letters, and reviews. Sections on Orwell's professional activities, his main literary influences, his politics, his intellectual fixations, his literary contemporaries, and his legacies structure the book, which moves thematically and topically through the full scope of his output.

The Hippocratic Oath: A Tale of Attraction and Discord between Doctors and the Inevitable Outcome to Both is a play in three acts that exolores moral dilemmas, hypocrisy and incompetence in the medical profession.

Agatha Christie is renowned for her captivating plots and creative ways of killing off ill-fated victims. And what better way to add intrigue to a story than poison? The surreptitious ways they can be administered and the characteristic symptoms they produce make these killer chemicals the ideal method of murder in a ‘whodunit’. Christie perfected the use of poisons in her plots; her deft and varied use of toxic substances is one of her great strengths as a writer. But how is it that some compounds prove so fatal, and in such tiny amounts?

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The collected poems and drama of Bill Stone. In a varied career. Bill has been: a boxer, soldier, seaman, publican and international security operative. As for other professional activities, he comments, ‘I’d have to shoot you if I told you.’From schooldays when he created and edited a school magazine, Bill has had a continued interest in writing and has been in several war zones including the Algerian War of Independence in Oran, 1962, witnessing the ending of hostilities; Iran, witnessing the demise of the Shah in the 1970s and the return of Ayatollah Khomeini from exile in Paris; ...

At the turn of the twentieth century, sleep began to be seen not merely as a passive state but as an active, dynamic process crucial to our understanding of consciousness and identity. In Sleep Works, cultural historian and literary scholar Sebastian P. Klinger explores the intriguing connections between scientific inquiry and literary expression during an era when sleep was both a scientific mystery and a cultural fascination.

In her dedication Safia Elhillo writes, “The January Children are the generation born in Sudan under British occupation, where children were assigned birth years by height, all given the birth date January 1.” What follows is a deeply personal collection of poems that describe the experience of navigating the postcolonial world as a stranger in one’s own land. The January Children depicts displacement and longing while also questioning accepted truths about geography, history, nationhood, and home.

The definitive tour guide for anyone looking to retrace the steps, physically or virtually, of Arthur Conan Doyle during his time in Devon and see the places that inspired the Sherlock Holmes stories. The book features a comprehensive tour map with GPS co-ordinates for around thirty key sites. Arthur Conan Doyle is best remembered for writing sixty tales that feature his legendary detective, Sherlock Holmes. Between 1882 and 1923, Doyle visited Devon on no fewer than ten occasions and he resided there for some four months in total.

In seinen frühesten Veröffentlichungen hat Rudolf Steiner den Versuch unternommen, aus den naturwissenschaftlichen Schriften Goethes diejenigen epistemologischen und wissenschaftstheoretischen Prinzipien herauszuarbeiten, die den Goethe'schen Arbeiten auf diesem Feld unausgesprochen zugrunde liegen. Im Lichte der Steiner'schen Deutung erscheinen Goethes Beiträge zur Naturwissenschaft als zukunftweisende Ansätze eines wissenschaftsmethodisch und philosophisch fundierten und zugleich tief spirituellen Zugangs zum Verständnis des Lebendigen.

In this engaging episode of Little Women Podcast, Niina and Emily delve deep into the thought-provoking chapter "Vanity Fair" from Louisa May Alcott's classic novel Little Women. Join them as they explore Meg's transformative experience at the ball, where she’s swept into the dazzling world of wealth and glamour. As the rich girls dress her up in their finest attire, Meg is faced with an internal conflict that challenges her values and ambitions.