Other books that might interest you

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  The Heart of It - As You Like It...

  Elizabeth McNamer

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  As You Like It and A Midsummer Night' s Dream are two comedies by William Shakespeare that have been entertaining audiences for centuries. Both have been adapted to radio and film and continue to be taught in high schools and universities. But as with most of Shakespeare' s works, modern audiences sometimes need some help absorbing elements of both plays.
  In a series of lectures, literary scholar Elizabeth McNamer provides engaging insights into these two Shakespeare classics. Dr. McNamer begins with a focus on the love story of Orlando and Rosalind and how As You Like It spoofs conventional literary themes of love. McNamer then focuses on the themes of jealousy, imagination, patriarchy, and the many difficulties of love in A Midsummer Night' s Dream. While these lectures are grounded in scholarly research, they are also accessible for contemporary audiences, helping them appreciate more fully these two great theatrical works.

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  Cool Air - From their pens to...

  HP Lovecraft

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  Howard Phillips Lovecraft is among the greatest American masters of fantasy and the supernatural.  
  Born in 1890, a native of Providence, Rhode Island, his health was uncertain from childhood and he led a sheltered early life. His semi-invalidism enabled him to read omnivorously, and as a shy imaginative child he began to invent what would in his adult life become a whole macabre fantastic world of his own, peopled by creatures out of his own weird imagination.  
  As an adult he was retiring, almost a recluse. Tall, thin and pale, but with bright alert eyes, he was much given to wandering his native city in the dark hours of the night, and he became a devoted student of its antiquities.  
  Although he began to write early he had nothing published until he was in his twenties. He set many of his stories around the imaginary town of Arkham, and invented an entire mythology of his own, its core being the demoniac cult of Cthulhu, based on the lore or legend that the world was at one time inhabited by another race who, in practising black magic, lost their foothold or were expelled, yet live on outside, ever ready to take possession of this earth again. 
  Since his early death in 1937 his stories have continued to attract attention and praise from an ever-growing audience.

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  Top 10 Short Stories The - The...

  George Eliot

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  Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart.  A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere. 
   
  In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?  
   
  The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme.  Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature. 
   
  Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made.  If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something. 
   
  In this Century England assembles more of the world’s territories, people and materials for her own Empire.  The arts also flourish with names in this volume that are bywords for talent beyond the reach of almost all other writers.  An ever hungry audience demands yet more and more. 
   
  1 - The Top 10 - The 19th Century - The English - An Introduction 
  2 - The Lifted Veil - Part 1 by George Eliot 
  3 - The Lifted Veil - Part 2 by George Eliot 
  4 - The Signalman by Charles Dickens 
  5 - The Man Who Would Be King - Part 1 by Rudyard Kipling 
  6 - The Man Who Would Be King - Part 2 by Rudyard Kipling 
  7 - The Magic Shop by H G Wells 
  8 - The Withered Arm by Thomas Hardy 
  9 - The Old Nurse's Story by Elizabeth Gaskell 
  10 - A Little Dinner At Timmin's by William Makepeace Thackeray 
  11 - Father Giles of Ballymoy by Anthony Trollope 
  12 - Lost Hearts by M R James 
  13 - A Terribly Strange Bed by Wilkie Collins

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  Hills and the Sea

  Hilaire Belloc

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  In Hills and the Sea , Hilaire Belloc offers a lyrical celebration of the natural world, blending travel writing, philosophy, and personal reflection. With vivid prose and deep emotional resonance, he explores the spiritual and intellectual significance of landscapes—particularly the rolling hills and vast sea that symbolize freedom, permanence, and the divine order of creation. Drawing from his walks across southern England and reflections on the English Channel, Belloc meditates on history, faith, and man’s connection to place. Rooted in his Catholic worldview and love for tradition, the essays convey a profound sense of wonder and reverence for the beauty and meaning embedded in the natural world. A timeless work for lovers of nature, travel, and thoughtful contemplation.

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  The Quest of Iranon

  H.P. Lovecraft

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  The Quest of Iranon by H. P. Lovecraft is a haunting fantasy short story that follows the wandering minstrel Iranon on his search for the lost city of Aira—a place of beauty, memory, and dreams. Blending melancholic lyricism with Lovecraft’s signature dreamlike style, the tale explores themes of youth, longing, disillusionment, and the ephemeral nature of beauty. Perfect for fans of classic fantasy and dark, poetic storytelling, this story lingers as a meditation on the elusive search for belonging and the bittersweet pull of nostalgia.

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  Mrs Dalloway

  Virginia Woolf

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  First published in 1925, set 'one Wednesday in mid-June', Mrs Dalloway charts the lives of several characters across a day in London. While Clarissa Dalloway goes about preparing for a high-society party she is to host that evening, pondering on her childhood and marriage, nearby Septimus Warren Smith, a First World War veteran, is plagued with memories of the war and of his friend who never returned.
  Weaving a multitude of voices and eras into one, dressed in the most beautiful of language, Mrs Dalloway has earned its reputation as one of the most iconic novels of the twentieth century and great successes of Modernist fiction.
  This edition also contains 'Mrs Dalloway in Bond Street', the short story upon which the novel is modelled.

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