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“These papers were originally published as prefaces to the separate books of Dickens in one of the most extensive of those cheap libraries of the classics which are one of the real improvements of recent times. Thus they were harmless, being diluted by, or rather drowned in Dickens. My scrap of theory was a mere dry biscuit to be taken with the grand tawny port of great English comedy; and by most people it was not taken at all--like the biscuit.Nevertheless the essays were not in intention so aimless as they appear in fact. I had a general notion of what needed saying about Dickens to the new generation, though probably I did not say it. I will make another attempt to do so in this prologue, and, possibly fail again. (Summary by G. K. Chesterton)...

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Essay/Short nonfiction, Literature

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The Spanish Tragedy, or Hieronimo is Mad Again is an Elizabethan tragedy written by Thomas Kyd between 1582 and 1592. Highly popular and influential in its time, The Spanish Tragedy established a new genre in English theatre, the revenge play or revenge tragedy. Its plot contains several violent murders and includes as one of its characters a personification of Revenge. The Spanish Tragedy was often referred to (or parodied) in works written by other Elizabethan playwrights, including William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and Christopher Marlowe. Many elements of The Spanish Tragedy, such as the play-within-a-play used to trap a murderer and a ghost intent on vengeance, appear in Shakespeare's Hamlet. (Thomas Kyd is frequently proposed as the author of the hypothetical Ur-Hamlet that may have been one of Shakespeare's primary sources for Hamlet.)(Summary by Wikipedia)...

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Fiction, Literature, Myths/Legends, Play, Romance, Tragedy

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Modeste Mignon, a young provincial woman of romantic temperament, imagines herself to be in love with the famous Parisian poet Melchior de Canalis. However, he is not moved by her attentions. He invites his secretary Ernest de la Brière to deal with the matter. Ernest answers Modeste's letters in his name and acts as her lover, disguised as Canalis. The scene changes dramatically when Ernest discoveres that Modest is, in fact, a rich heiress. Would he be able to win her heart despite his lie? (Summary by Wikipedia, revised by Stav Nisser.)...

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Fiction, Literature, Romance

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Excerpt: Preface to the Second Edition. The first edition of this tale was put forth without explaining the old fable on which it was founded--a fable recurring again and again in fairy myths, though not traceable in the classic world till a very late period, when it appeared among the tales of Apuleius, of the province of Africa, sometimes called the earliest novelist. There are, however, fragments of the same story in the popular tales of all countries, so that it is probable that Apuleius availed himself of an early form of one of these. They are to be found from India to Scandinavia, adapted to the manners and fancy of every country in turn, Beauty and the Beast and the Black Bull of Norroway are the most familiar forms of the tale, and it seemed to me one of those legends of such universal property that it was quite fair to put it into 18th century English costume....

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Introduction: The poems of Emily Dickinson, published in a series of three volumes at various intervals after her death in 1886, and in a volume entitled The Single Hound, published in 1914, with the addition of a few before omitted, are here collected in a final complete edition. In them and in her Life and Letters, recently presented in one inclusive volume, lives all of Emily Dickinson--for the outward circumstance matters little, nor is this the place for discussion as to whether fate ordained her or she ordained her own foreordination....

Table of Contents Details
Contents Introduction ..................................................................................... 4 Part One Life .................................................................................... 7 Part Two Nature ............................................................................ 80 Part Three Love ...........................................................................144 Part Four Time and Eternity....................................................176 Part Five The Single Hound .....................................................251 Index of First Lines.....................................................................327...

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Briefe (Epistolae) von Horaz (65 - 8 v. Chr.) Übersetzt von Johann Heinrich Voß (1751-1826), Veröffentlichung dieser Ausgabe 1893 Horaz, eigentlich Quintus Horatius Flaccus, ist neben Vergil einer der bedeutendsten römischen Dichter der „Augusteischen Zeit. Da die Oden nicht den erhofften Erfolg brachten, ließ Horaz ab 20 v. Chr. von der Lyrik ab und widmete sich dem ersten Buch der Epistulae („Episteln“). Zusammengesetzt aus 20 Briefgedichten in Hexametern, legte Horaz in diesem Buch seine Lebensphilosophie dar. Im zweiten Buch der „Epistulae“ ab 13 v. Chr. betätigte sich Horaz als Literaturkritiker. (Zusammenfassung von Wikipedia)...

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Literature, Poetry

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Hermann und Dorothea von Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832), veröffentlicht 1797. Hermann und Dorothea ist ein Epos in neun Gesängen von Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Die Gesänge tragen die Namen der antiken griechischen Musen. Ein Treck deutscher Flüchtlinge zieht, den Feind auf den Fersen, ostwärts, überquert den Rhein und nähert sich dem Ort der Handlung im Sommer kurz vor der Getreideernte. Dieser Ort ist eine rechtsrheinische Kleinstadt. Während seiner Teilnahme an der Kampagne in Frankreich hatte Goethe 1792 die Flucht linksrheinischer Deutscher nach Osten miterlebt. (Zusammenfassung von Wikipedia)...

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Literature, Poetry

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Achilleis von Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832), entstanden 1797–99, veröffentlicht 1808. Als Goethe an dem Epos in Hexametern Hermann und Dorothea arbeitete, studierte er Homer in der Übersetzung von Johann Heinrich Voß. Dabei kam er darauf, dass zwischen dem Ende der Ilias und dem Anfang der Äneis noch ein episches Gedicht inneliegt. Er hat eine Achilleis in 8 Gesängen zu schreiben begonnen, hat das Projekt jedoch bereits nach der Fertigstellung des ersten Gesanges aufgegeben. (Zusammenfassung von Wikipedia)...

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Literature, Poetry

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Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend; a highly successful scholar, but also dissatisfied with his life, and so makes a deal with the devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust is a tragic play in two parts. It is Goethe's most famous work and considered by many to be one of the greatest works of German literature. This first part of Faust is not divided into acts, but is structured as a sequence of scenes in a variety of settings. After a dedicatory poem and a prelude in the theatre, the actual plot begins with a prologue in Heaven and Scene 1 in Faust's study. (Summary modified from Wikipedia)...

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Literature, Play, Tragedy, Myths/Legends

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Camilla is Frances Burney's third novel. It became very popular upon its publication in 1796. Jane Austen referred to it, among other novels, in her novel Northanger Abbey:“'And what are you reading, Miss — ?' 'Oh! It is only a novel!' replies the young lady, while she lays down her book with affected indifference, or momentary shame. 'It is only Cecilia, or Camilla, or Belinda'; or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best–chosen language.This is the story of Camilla, her beloved but selfish brother Lionel, her sisters Eugenia and Lavinia, and their extremely beautiful but thoughtless cousin Indiana on the months proceeding their marriages. Camilla is deeply in love with Edgar and he loves her back. However, on the advice of a friend, decides to make sure that she is free of fault. She has the luck to find herself in lot of uncomplimentary and comic situations which doesn't make Edgar's wish easy. Meanwhile, Camilla, ...

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Fiction, Literature, Romance

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Irritated and drunken, an itinerant farm-worker sells his wife and child to a stranger. Thus begins The Mayor of Casterbridge, set in rural and small-town England in the mid-1800s. In the original subtitle, Hardy called this the story of a man of character, and the central character, Michael Henchard, is one of English fiction's greatest creations. Henchard is deeply developed as a realistic character, but also larger-than-life in the manner of a Greek or Shakespearean tragic hero — huge in his determination and huge in his failings. The novel deals with the struggles between individual will, the hold of the past, and the relentless control of circumstances in a changing society. (Summary by Bruce Pirie)...

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Fiction, Literature, Tragedy

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Excerpt: Some portions of this Introduction have been taken from the Athenaeum Press Selections from De Quincey; many of the notes have also been transferred from that volume. A number of the new notes I owe to a review of the Selections by Dr. Lane Cooper, of Cornell University. I wish also to thank for many favors the Committee and officers of the Glasgow University Library....

Table of Contents Details
Contents PREFACE.......................................................................................................................................... 4 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 5 I. LIFE .......................................................................................................................................................................... 5 II. CRITICAL REMARKS ......................................................................................................................................... 7 III. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE............................................................................................................................ 11 THE ENGLISH MAIL-COACH....................................................................13 SECTION I?THE GLORY OF MOTION .................................................................................. 13 GOING DOWN WITH VICTORY................................................................................................ 30 SECTION II?THE VISION OF ...

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Excerpt: The United Force of the younger generation has been brought upon me to record, with the aid of diaries and letters, the circumstances connected with Chantry House and my two dear elder brothers. Once this could not have been done without more pain than I could brook, but the lapse of time heals wounds, brings compensations, and, when the heart has ceased from aching and yearning, makes the memory of what once filled it a treasure to be brought forward with joy and thankfulness. Nor would it be well that some of those mentioned in the coming narrative should be wholly forgotten, and their place know them no more....

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Epoden (Iambi) und Oden (Carmina) von Horaz (65 - 8 v. Chr.) Übersetzt von Johann Heinrich Voß (1751-1826), Veröffentlichung dieser Ausgabe 1893 Horaz, eigentlich Quintus Horatius Flaccus, ist neben Vergil einer der bedeutendsten römischen Dichter der „Augusteischen Zeit. Epoden Als Epoden werden die 17 Gedichte eines schmalen Buches bezeichnet. Epoden deshalb, weil jeweils ein Langvers mit einem refrainartigen Kurzvers abwechselt. Oden (23 - 13 v. Chr.) Horaz schrieb vier Lyrikbücher, die „Carmina“, die insgesamt 104 Gedichte enthalten. Themen sind wie schon bei den Griechen vor allem Liebe und Politik, aber auch Freundschaft, Alltäglichkeiten des Lebens und Fragen aus der Philosophie. (Zusammenfassung von Wikipedia) Diese gutenberg.spiegel.de Ausgabe führt den saekularischen Festgesang gesondert auf, nicht in den Oden....

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Literature, Poetry

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This is volume 3 of 4. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (or, more briefly, Tristram Shandy ) is a novel by Laurence Sterne. It was published in nine volumes, the first two appearing in 1759, and seven others following over the next 10 years. It was not always held in high esteem by other writers (Samuel Johnson responded that, Nothing odd can last), but its bawdy humour was popular with London society, and it has come to be seen as one of the greatest comic novels in English, as well as a forerunner for many modern narrative devices. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Fiction, Literature

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volunteers bring you 7 recordings of Adlestrop by Edward Thomas. This was the Weekly Poetry project for September 20th, 2009.

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Poetry, Literature, Nature, Travel

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Excerpt: Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas de Quincey.

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Excerpt: Part I, Chapter 1; HAPPY families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Everything was in confusion in the Oblonskys? house. The wife had discovered that the husband was carrying on an intrigue with a French girl, who had been a governess in their family, and she had announced to her husband that she could not go on living in the same house with him. This position of affairs had now lasted three days, and not only the husband and wife themselves, but all the members of their family and household, were painfully conscious of it. Every person in the house felt that there was no sense in their living together, and that the stray people brought together by chance in any inn had more in common with one another than they, the members of the family and household of the Oblonskys. The wife did not leave her own room, the husband had not been at home for three days. The children ran wild all over the house; the English governess quarreled with the housekeeper, and wrote to a friend asking her to look out for a new situation for her; the man-cook had walked of the day before just at dinner-time; the kitchen-m...

Table of Contents Details
Table of Contents: Part I 1 -- Chapter 1, 1 -- Chapter 2, 3 -- Chapter 3, 6 -- Chapter 4, 9 -- Chapter 5, 13 -- Chapter 6, 20 -- Chapter 7, 23 -- Chapter 8, 24 -- Chapter 9, 27 -- Chapter 10, 32 -- Chapter 11, 38 -- Chapter 12, 42 -- Chapter 13, 45 -- Chapter 14, 47 -- Chapter 15, 52 -- Chapter 16, 54 -- Chapter 17, 56 -- Chapter 18, 59 -- Chapter 19, 63 -- Chapter 20, 68 -- Chapter 21, 71 -- Chapter 22, 73 -- Chapter 23, 77 -- Chapter 24, 80 -- Chapter 25, 83 -- Chapter 26, 88...

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Frederick Elliot is a student at early 20th century Cambridge, a university that seems like paradise to him, amongst bright if cynical companions, when he receives a visit from two friends, an engaged young woman, Agnes Pembroke, and her older brother, Herbert. The Pembrokes are Rickie’s only friends from home. An orphan who grew up living with cousins, he was sent to a public (boarding) school where he was shunned and bullied because of his lame foot, an inherited weakness, and frail body. Agnes, as it happens, is engaged to Gerald, now in the army, who was one of the sturdy youths who bullied Rickie at school. Rickie is not brilliant at argument, but he is intensely responsive to poetry and art, and is accepted within a circle of philosophical and intellectual fellow-students led by a brilliant but especially cynical aspiring philosopher, Stuart Ansell, who refuses, when he is introduced to her, even to acknowledge that Agnes exists. (from Wikipedia)...

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Literature

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George Sand (the pen name of Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin 1804-1876) is famous for flaunting the convertions of behaviour expected of women of her standing in France at the time and for her numerous romantic liaisons including her long standing affair with Frederic Chopin. The Devil’s Pool (published in 1846 as La Mare au Diable) is one of several short pastoral novels drawn from her childhood experiences in the rural French region of Berri. It tells the story of a young widower, Germain, who, at the insistence of his father-in-law, sets out to remarry so that he will have someone to help raise his three young children. (Summary by the reader)...

Excerpt Details
Literature