Publisher: Charles River Editors
Geoffrey Chaucer is widely considered to be the greatest poet of the Middle Ages and is often called The Father of English Literature. Chaucer’s most famous work is the Canterbury Tales which helped popularize the dialect of the English language. This edition of The Assembly of Fowls includes a table of contents.
The Mysterious Stranger is a novel attempted by the American author Mark Twain. He worked on it intermittently from 1897 through 1908. Twain wrote multiple versions of the story; each involves a supernatural character called "Satan" or "No. 44". All the versions remained unfinished (with the debatable exception of the last one, No. 44, the Mysterious Stranger).In 1590, three boys, Theodor, Seppi, and Nikolaus, live relatively happy simple lives in a remote Austrian village called Eseldorf (German for "Assville" or "Donkeytown"). The story is narrated by Theodor, the village organist's son. Other local characters include Father Peter, his niece Marget, and the astrologer.Show book
Hamlet was written between 1597 and 1600, just after the death of Shakespeare’s only son, Hamlet, one of twins, who died aged 11 in 1596. Despite scholarly argument that this was mere coincidence, it is impossible to believe that a writer as sensitive as Shakespeare would not be questioning the reason for the life and death of his son during those years.This production contends that Hamlet was to a large degree shaped by the answers to those questions. In the drama a lot of advice is given by fathers to sons; the significance of life and death and the nature of man is examined; the qualities needed to make a well-rounded man fit for his adult role in the world are formulated.The play is full of lines such as ‘to thine own self be true,’ ‘conscience doth make cowards of us all,’ or ‘give me the man that is not passions slave,’ It is clear that Shakespeare was reflecting on his own moral code which he would have passed on to his son had he lived, teaching him that life has a purpose and he must be resolute in finding purpose in his own life.Hamlet is a lesson in how to surmount the perils of adolescence, to navigate that rite of passage to maturity. Young people should study the play - it is an education which has a particular relevance for them. The adolescent Hamlet does indeed mature and achieve resolution, yet he is destroyed. In that lies the tragedy.Public Domain (P)2014 Assembled StoriesShow book
Playwright/performer Charlayne Woodard is a force of nature, and in The Night Watcher she finds a new way to explore her “mother” nature. Woodard describes her life as half of a childless couple, finding herself mysteriously drawn to second-hand parenting. With wisdom and wit, Woodward’s acclaimed one-woman show strikes a chord for the longing of motherhood.Written and performed by Charlayne Woodard. Directed by Stuart K. Robinson. Recorded by L.A. Theatre Works before a live audience.Show book
A realistic and emotional look at a woman who falls into the grips of insanity written by the iconic American writer Sylvia Plath “It is this perfectly wrought prose and the freshness of Plath’s voice in The Bell Jar that make this book enduring in its appeal.” — USA Today The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under—maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into Esther’s breakdown with such intensity that Esther’s neuroses become completely real and even rational, as probable and accessible an experience as going to the movies. Such deep penetration into the dark and harrowing corners of the psyche is an extraordinary accomplishment and has made The Bell Jar a haunting American classic.Show book
Robert Louis Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. Born and educated in Edinburgh, Stevenson suffered from serious bronchial trouble for much of his life, but continued to write prolifically and travel widely in defiance of his poor health. As a young man, he mixed in London literary circles, receiving encouragement from Andrew Lang, Edmund Gosse, Leslie Stephen and W. E. Henley, the last of whom may have provided the model for Long John Silver in Treasure Island.MY FIRST BOOK: 'TREASURE ISLAND': It was far indeed from being my first book, for I am not a novelist alone. But I am well aware that my paymaster, the Great Public, regards what else I have written with indifference, if not aversion; if it call upon me at all, it calls on me in the familiar and indelible character.Show book
The Discarded Image paints a lucid picture of the medieval world view, providing the historical and cultural background to the literature of the middle ages and renaissance. It describes the 'image' discarded by later years as 'the medieval synthesis itself, the whole organization of their theology, science and history into a single, complex, harmonious mental model of the universe'. This, Lewis's last book, has been hailed as 'the final memorial to the work of a great scholar and teacher and a wise and noble mind'.Show book
