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  At Swim-Two-Birds - A Novel

  Flann O'Brien

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  An indolent college student creates a chaotic fictional world in this classic of Irish literature: “A marvel of imagination, language, and humor” (New Republic).   In this comic masterpiece, our unnamed narrator—a student at University College, Dublin, who spends more time drinking and working on his novel than attending classes—creates a character, a pub owner named Trellis, who himself is devoted mainly to writing and sleeping. Soon Trellis is collaborating with an author of cowboy romances, and from there unspools a brilliantly unpredictable adventure that James Joyce himself called “a really funny book.”   “’Tis the odd joke of modern Irish literature—of the three novelists in its holy trinity, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett and Flann O’Brien, the easiest and most accessible of the lot is O’Brien. . . . Flann O’Brien was too much his own man, Ireland’s man, to speak in any but his own tongue.” —The Washington Post   “As with Scott Fitzgerald, there is a brilliant ease in [O’Brien’s] prose, a poignant grace glimmering off every page.” —John Updike   “One of the best books of our century.” —Graham Greene  

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  Macbeth

  William Shakespeare, SBP Editors

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  Shakespeare's Macbeth is one of the greatest tragic dramas the world has known. Macbeth himself, a brave warrior, is fatally impelled by supernatural forces, by his proud wife, and by his own burgeoning ambition.
  The play is set in Scotland. Returning from battle with his companion Banquo, the nobleman Macbeth meets a group of witches. They predict that Macbeth will first become thane (baron) of Cawdor and then king of Scotland. Urged on by Lady Macbeth, his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan. But Duncan's sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, escape. Macbeth then seizes the throne of Scotland. But Macbeth has no peace. In a bid to prevent Banquo's descendants from becoming kings according to the witches' prophecy, Macbeth arranges for him to be murdered, along with his son Fleance. Macbeth's men kill Banquo, but Fleance escapes. Haunted by Banquo's ghost, Macbeth seeks counsel from the witches. They tell him to beware of Macduff, another Scottish nobleman. Macbeth is now hardened to killing. He orders the murder of Macduff's wife and children. By contrast, Lady Macbeth, who had encouraged her husband to embark upon his path of slaughter, goes mad with guilt and dies. Macduff's army attacks Macbeth's forces. Macduff meets Macbeth in single combat and kills him. Malcolm, Duncan's son, is then proclaimed king of Scotland. 
  ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 
  William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the 'Bard of Avon' (or simply "The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 37 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language. 
  Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. Scholars believe that he died on his fifty-second birthday, coinciding with St George’s Day. At the age of 18 he married Anne Hathaway, who bore him three children: Susanna, twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592 he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of the playing company the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later. 
  Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1590 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the sixteenth century. Next he wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608. He was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the nineteenth century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians hero-worshipped Shakespeare. In the twentieth century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are consistently performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.

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  The Third Policeman - A Novel

  Flann O'Brien

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  One man wants to publish, so another must perish, in this darkly witty philosophical novel by “a spectacularly gifted comic writer” (Newsweek).  The Third Policeman follows a narrator who is obsessed with the work of a scientist and philosopher named de Selby (who believes that Earth is not round but sausage-shaped)—and has finally completed what he believes is the definitive text on the subject. But, broke and desperate for money to get his scholarly masterpiece published, he winds up committing robbery—and murder.   From here, this remarkably imaginative dark comedy proceeds into a world of riddles, contradictions, and questions about the nature of eternity as our narrator meets some policemen with an obsession of their own (specifically, bicycles), and engages in an extended conversation with his dead victim—and his own soul, which he nicknames Joe.   By the celebrated Irish author praised by James Joyce as “a real writer, with the true comic spirit,” The Third Policeman is an incomparable work of fiction.   “’Tis the odd joke of modern Irish literature—of the three novelists in its holy trinity, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett and Flann O’Brien, the easiest and most accessible of the lot is O’Brien. . . . Flann O’Brien was too much his own man, Ireland’s man, to speak in any but his own tongue.” —The Washington Post  

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  Selected Short Stories of Nietzsche

  Friedrich Nietzsche

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  The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche became one of the most influential thinkers of the nineteenth century. Nietzsche's utterance 'God is dead', his insistence that the meaning of life is to be found in purely human terms, and his doctrine of the Superman and the will to power were all later seized upon and unrecognisably twisted by, among others, Nazi intellectuals. The works of Friedrich Nietzsche have fascinated readers around the world ever since the publication of his first book more than a hundred years ago.

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  Brighton Rock

  Graham Greene

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  A teenage sociopath rises to power in Britain’s criminal underworld in this “brilliant and uncompromising” thriller (The New York Times).   Seventeen-year-old Pinkie Brown, raised amid the casual violence and corruption in the dire prewar Brighton slums, has left his final judgment in the hands of God. On the streets, impelled by his own twisted moral doctrine, he leads a motley pack of gangsters whose sleazy little rackets have most recently erupted in the murder of an informant. Pinkie’s attempts to cover their tracks have led him into the bed of a timid and lovestruck young waitress named Rose—his new wife, the key witness to his crimes, and, should she live long enough, his alibi. But loitering in the shadows is another woman, Ida Arnold—an avenging angel determined to do right by Pinkie’s latest victim.   Adapted for film in both 1948 and 2010 and for the stage as both a drama and musical, and serving as an inspiration to such disparate artists as Morrissey, John Barry, and Queen, “this bleak, seething and anarchic novel still resonate[s]” (The Guardian).  

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  The Children of Jocasta

  Natalie Haynes

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  Thebes is a city in mourning, still reeling from a devastating attack of plague that invaded every home and left the survivors devastated and fearful. This is the Thebes that Jocasta has known her entire life, a city ruled by a king-her husband-to-be. 
    
  Jocasta struggles through this miserable marriage until she is unexpectedly widowed-now free to choose her next husband, she selects the handsome, youthful Oedipus. When whispers emerge of an unbearable scandal, the very society that once lent Jocasta its support seems determined to destroy her. 
    
  Ismene is a girl in mourning, longing for the golden days of her youth-days spent lolling in the courtyard garden, reading and reveling in her parents' happiness and love. Now she is an orphan, and the target of a murder plot, attacked within the very walls of the palace. As the deadly political competition swirls around her, she must uncover the root of the plot - and reveal the truth of the curse that has consumed her family. 
    
  The novel is based on Oedipus Tyrannus and Antigone, two of Classical Greece's most compelling tragedies. Told in intersecting narratives, this feminist reimagining of Sophocles' classic plays brings life and voice to the women who were too often forced to the background of their own stories. It is compulsively entertaining fiction that recasts these familiar stories for the twenty-first century reader.

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