Other books that might interest you

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  The Ghosts of Piccadilly

  G. S. Street

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  Nothing spooky or supernatural, but a very personal gathering of gossip, letters, and fragments of biography of famous people who have lived in Piccadilly (in London, England) ... and of some of the buildings, now long gone."If any part of any city deserves a book to itself, it is Piccadilly. We shall stand before some house in the hours when the traffic is stilled, and I shall tell of its history, of the men and women who dwelt there, and talked and loved and gambled and lived and died. I shall follow the lines of my temperament and tastes rather than those of completeness and impartiality: it is likely that I shall be voluble about Byron and reticent about Macaulay."(From the preface)

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  The Whitby Rebels

  Bea Roberts

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  In Whitby Harbour, in the summer of 1991, something extraordinary happened. A humble pleasure boat set sail for the Arctic, crewed by misfits, pensioners and the vicar for Egton and Grosmont.
  This motley crew was assembled for a daring mission: to erect a plaque honouring the legendary Whitby whaler and explorer Captain William Scoresby Senior on a volcanic island hundreds of miles north of Iceland. The boat was illegal, the crew untrained and the plan... unhinged.
  A joyful, (mostly) true story of British eccentricity and determination, Bea Roberts's play The Whitby Rebels premiered at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, in 2024, directed by Paul Robinson.

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  Who Can Be Happy and Free in...

  Nikolai Nekrasov

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  Who Can Be Happy and Free in Russia? by Nikolai Nekrasov is one of the most powerful and socially significant works of Russian literature. Written during the nineteenth century, this remarkable narrative poem explores the struggles, hopes, and everyday realities of ordinary people living in a rapidly changing Russian society.
  
  The story begins with a simple yet profound question: who truly lives happily and freely in Russia? Determined to find the answer, a group of peasants sets out on a long journey across the countryside. As they travel from village to village, they meet individuals from many walks of life—landowners, priests, soldiers, laborers, and peasants—each offering their own perspective on happiness, freedom, and hardship.
  
  Through these encounters, the travelers discover that life in Russia is filled with contradictions. While some possess wealth or power, they often lack peace or fulfillment. Meanwhile, the working people who labor tirelessly for survival struggle under poverty and social injustice. Nekrasov uses these stories to reveal the deep inequalities and challenges faced by the Russian people during a period marked by social transformation and the aftermath of serfdom.
  
  The poem paints a vivid portrait of rural life, capturing the voices, traditions, and resilience of the peasantry. Nekrasov's writing blends powerful storytelling with lyrical expression, giving dignity and emotional depth to characters whose lives are shaped by hardship, hope, and perseverance.
  
  At its heart, the work is both a journey and a search for truth. The travelers' quest becomes a reflection on the nature of happiness and freedom within a society struggling with inequality and change. Along the way, Nekrasov explores themes such as social justice, dignity, hardship, moral courage, and the enduring spirit of ordinary people.
  
  Renowned for its emotional intensity and its commitment to portraying the lives of the common people, Who Can Be Happy and Free in Russia? stands as a landmark of Russian poetic literature. The work remains a compelling and thought-provoking exploration of society, asking questions that continue to resonate across generations.
  
  Through its powerful voices and unforgettable journey, Nekrasov's masterpiece invites readers to reflect on the true meaning of freedom, dignity, and happiness in the lives of individuals and nations alike.

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  Short Poetry Collection 058

  Various

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  LibriVox's Short Poetry Collection 058: a collection of 20 public-domain poems.

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  Modern Poetry - Poems

  Diane Seuss

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  Diane Seuss's signature voice—audacious in its honesty, virtuosic in its artistry, outsider in its attitude—has become one of the most original in contemporary poetry. Her latest collection takes its title, Modern Poetry, from the first textbook Seuss encountered as a child and the first poetry course she took in college, as an enrapt but ill-equipped student, one who felt poetry was beyond her reach. Many of the poems make use of the forms and terms of musical and poetic craft—ballad, fugue, aria, refrain, coda—and contend with the works of writers overrepresented in textbooks and anthologies and those too often underrepresented. Seuss provides a moving account of her picaresque years and their uncertainties, and in the process, she enters the realm between Modernism and Romanticism, between romance and objectivity, with Keats as ghost, lover, and interlocutor. 
   
   
   
  In poems of rangy curiosity, sharp humor, and illuminating self-scrutiny, Modern Poetry investigates our time's deep isolation and divisiveness and asks: What can poetry be now? Do poems still have the capacity to mean? "It seems wrong / to curl now within the confines / of a poem," Seuss writes. "You can't hide / from what you made / inside what you made." What she finds there, finally, is a surprising but unmistakable love.

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  The Bad Bear Tavern

  Leo Augliera

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  This is the story of Marco, a journalist who has lost his way after his wife was raped and then her suicide. Desperation and the desire for change take him to environments far from his world. He finds himself, almost unwittingly, frequenting the slums of his city and a low-class dive, The Bad Bear Tavern, where he meets a neglected humanity living on the edge of legality, made up largely of non-EU citizens. Among them, one person stands out: Igor, a cultured Hungarian who has experienced terrible events in the Middle East, where he fought as a contractor and as a volunteer alongside the Kurds against ISIS. Marco is fascinated by his personality, but he will discover something that will unsettle him and worsen his existential crisis.

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