Literary History & Criticism

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.

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

Historian, lifelong reader, and bestselling author of Don’t Know Much About History Kenneth C. Davis provides a delightful, inspiring, and idea-rich selection of fifty-two of the best, most important short nonfiction works of all time—from Plato to Michael Pollan and Dante to Joan Didion.

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....

Celebrated, iconic, and indispensable, Joan Didion’s first work of nonfiction, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, is considered a watershed moment in American writing. First published in 1968, the collection was critically praised as one of the “best prose written in this country.”

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....

The acclaimed author of Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts introduces us to the extraordinary keepers and companions of medieval manuscripts over a thousand years of history...

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

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....

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.

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....

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

In this brilliant selection of essays, the award-winning author of The Handmaid's Tale offers her funny, erudite, endlessly curious, and uncannily prescient take on everything from whether or not The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopia to the importance of how to define granola....

An electrifying new study that investigates the challenges of the Bard's inconsistencies and flaws, and focuses on revealing - not resolving - the ambiguities of the plays and their changing topicality....

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....

The Iliad is the world’s greatest epic poem. Its beauty and profound bleakness are intensely moving, but great questions remain: Where, how, and when was it composed and why does it endure? Robin Lane Fox addresses these questions, drawing on a lifelong love and engagement with the poem....

Jia Tolentino is a peerless voice of her generation, tackling the conflicts, contradictions, and sea changes that define us and our time....

In Why We Love (and Hate) Twilight, Sarah Elizabeth Gallagher unpacks the cultural obsession with Bella Swan, Edward Cullen, and the supernatural love story that redefined YA literature and pop culture forever.

Take a deep dive into the real-world history and mythology that inspired the world of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time. Origins of The Wheel of Time will provide exciting knowledge and insights to both new and longtime fans....

Sir Ian McKellen, fresh from his performance as Gandalf in Lord of the Rings, is Prospero, and heads a strong cast in Shakespeare’s last great play....

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....

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....

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?

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

In The Truth and Beauty, Andrew Klavan explored how the work of great poets helps illuminate the truth of the gospels. Now, the award-winning screenwriter and crime novelist turns his attention to the dark side of human nature to discover how we might find joy and beauty in the world while still being clear-eyed about the evil found in it. The Kingdom of Cain looks at three murders in history—including the first murder, Cain's killing of his brother, Abel—and at the art created from imaginative engagement with those horrific events by artists ranging from Fyodor Dostoevsky to Alfred Hitchcock.

In the six lectures of The Great Gatsby at 100, you will join Sheila Liming of Champlain College to revisit the context and culture of the Roaring ‘20s, which inspired the story of the mysterious Jay Gatsby and his disastrous pursuit of Daisy Buchanan. As you’ll discover, while Gatsby is framed as a love story, it’s also a story of the American experience, revealing the unspoken rules of wealth and class and the false promises of self-made success in a world of Old Money privilege.

Why does the Twilight saga continue to inspire both passionate fandom and heated critique? In Why We Love (and Hate) Twilight, Sarah Elizabeth Gallagher unpacks the cultural obsession with Bella Swan, Edward Cullen, and the supernatural love story that redefined YA literature and pop culture forever.

Leaving no headstone unturned, Sacha Coward will take you on a wild ride through the night from ancient Greece to the main stage of RuPaul's Drag Race, visiting cross-dressing pirates, radical fairies, and the graves of the 'queerly departed' along the way. Queer communities have often sought refuge in the shadows, found kinship in the in-between, and created safe spaces in underworlds; but these forgotten narratives tell stories of remarkable resilience that deserve to be heard.

The Oxford Handbook of Lord Byron offers the latest in critical thinking about the poet that defined the Romantic era across Europe and beyond. The volume presents forty-four groundbreaking essays that enable listeners to assess Lord Byron's central position in Romantic traditions and his profound and far-reaching influence on British, European, and world culture.

When Heather Christle realizes that she, her mother, and Virginia Woolf share a traumatic history, she begins to rewrite and intertwine each of their stories, in search of a more hopeful narrative and a future she can live with. Wide-ranging and prismatic, the fruit of an insatiably curious, delightfully brilliant mind, In the Rhododendrons is part memoir, part biography of Virginia Woolf, part reckoning with the things we cannot change and the ways we can completely transform, if we dare.

Leaving behind a wife and three young children in Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare moved to London for its thrilling theater scene, where everyone mixed freely across ages, classes, and ranks. It was through their mutual passion for the theater that the handsome twenty-seven-year-old playwright first met and fell deeply in love with the effeminate seventeen-year-old earl who beguiled men and women alike and avowed that 'desire and pleasure [should] sometimes triumph over reason.'

For the quiet moments, the lingering feelings, and everything in between… Pages & Poems: A Life in Poetry is a tender and timeless collection of poems that invites you to pause, reflect, and reconnect with what matters most. Written by Jacque Crutcher—a mother, grandmother, and lifelong writer—this collection captures decades of heartfelt reflection through verses that feel like home. With gentle wisdom and a sincere voice, these poems explore the everyday beauty of life: childhood memories, motherhood, faith, family, aging, and the strength found in love and loss. Each page is a ...

"Recuerdo la mañana en que conocí a Octavio Paz. Fue el 11 de marzo de 1976, en el Panteón Jardín, cuando un grupo de amigos despedíamos al gran ensayista Daniel Cosío Villegas [...] Me acerqué a él para proponerle la publicación en su revista Plural de un ensayo mío sobre el ilustre liberal recién desaparecido. Días después, mi nombre apareció junto al suyo, pero nunca sospeché que ese vínculo sería permanente."

"Evil is not something superhuman, it's something less than human." — Agatha Christie, author, on the nature of malevolence. Following the chilling success of Encounters with Evil: 101 True & Terrifying Stories, Gemma Jade returns with Encounters with Evil: Vol 2, plunging readers deeper into the shadowy realms where the paranormal and the malevolent collide. This gripping collection unveils a new array of true, spine-chilling accounts that peel back the veil between our world and the unknown, revealing terrors that linger in the dark corners of reality. Join Gemma Jade, a physical medium...

Anthony Trollope is among the best-loved novelists in the English language. This Very Short Introduction will place Trollope's work in the context of his life and times, drawing on recent scholarship to illuminate his central interests and literary strategies. The major series of novels (the six novels located in the fictional Barsetshire, and the six Palliser novels) are explored alongside the novels set in Ireland, his travel writing, and his less well-known fiction.

A truly significant discovery, Walt Whitman’s Manly Health and Training is an entertaining health manifesto that sheds new light on one of America’s major nineteenth-century authors. In the fall of 1858, a thirteen-part essay series appeared in the New York Atlas, under the title Manly Health and Training. This nearly 47,000-word journalistic effort, written by Walt Whitman under his pen name “Mose Velsor,” was lost for more than 150 years, buried in just a handful of library archives, until its recent unexpected discovery.

Scholar of the macabre Dorothy Scarborough provides us with the first comprehensive overview of supernatural fiction in literary history, a book originally written as her dissertation for her Ph.D. at Columbia University, and later so universally praised that it was published widely in print.

Dive into the heart of Japanese wisdom with this powerful 3-in-1 audiobook. Explore Ikigai to find your life’s purpose, master Kaizen to fuel continuous improvement, and embrace Hansei to lead with deep reflection and self-awareness. Perfect for anyone seeking personal growth, productivity, and authentic leadership, this audiobook offers timeless strategies for living and leading with clarity, purpose, and resilience.

Shakespeare’s plays and poems remain as beloved in the twenty-first century as they were in the sixteenth. For all the years between us, the world he inhabited was much like our own—afflicted by political turmoil, divisiveness, war, extreme weather, recurrent plagues, the fouling of natural resources on which everyone relied, and discrimination against people who were different. The bard’s remedy for these troubles was to offer respite and inspiration to his audience through his writing.

Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl is more than a historical document—it is a timeless exploration of the human spirit, capturing resilience, hope, and the complexities of identity in the face of unimaginable adversity. This in-depth analysis examines Anne’s personal journey during her two years in hiding, revealing the universal struggles of adolescence, the moral implications of war, and the enduring power of her words. Through her vivid reflections, Anne grapples with themes of self-discovery, family dynamics, and the search for meaning in a world torn apart by hatred and intolerance.

Se l'impressione che abbiamo degli uomini è che siano potenti, arroganti, violenti, egoisti e famelici, allora, di questi uomini, ve ne sarà traccia anche nelle opere chiave della nostra letteratura, quelle che hanno in qualche modo contribuito a consolidare una certa idea di maschio. A partire dalle fondamenta, dalla settima novella dell'ottava giornata del Decameron, in cui Boccaccio mette in scena la spietata vendetta del giovane scolaro Rinieri, che sbeffeggiato e rifiutato da una avvenente vedova la punisce facendo in modo che non possa piú vantare la propria avvenenza.

Hier sind es die Kinder selber, die eine lebendige Märchenhandlung aufführen und die Geschichte von Tamino und Papageno auf der Suche nach Weisheit und Glück erfrischend neu erzählen. So entstand ein spannendes, kurzweiliges und aufwändig produziertes Hörspiel, das Kinder auf spielerische Weise an klassische Musik heranführt und gleichzeit beim Zuhören fesseln und zum Nachspielen animieren kann.

В человеке заложена тяга к пугающему, она пустила глубокие корни в культуру, однако свою зловещую пляску смерти в художественной литературе и кино хоррор начал как одно из последствий Первой мировой войны — катаклизма, которого в истории человечества еще не бывало, — показывает У. Скотт Пулл.

Gli amanti: pastelli è una raccolta di racconti di Matilde Serao, pubblicata nel 1894. L'opera si compone di dodici "pastelli", ritratti letterari che esplorano le sfumature dell'amore e delle relazioni umane. Tra i racconti inclusi vi sono "L'imperfetto amante (Nino Stresa)", "Il perfetto amante (Massimo Dias)" e "Il viale degli oleandri (Mario Felice)". Serao, con la sua prosa evocativa, dipinge personaggi complessi e situazioni sentimentali variegate, offrendo al lettore un'analisi profonda delle dinamiche amorose dell'epoca.