Publisher: Interactive Media
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is one of the best known examples of Persian poetry. Although commercially unsuccessful at first, FitzGerald's work was popularised from 1861 onward by Whitley Stokes, and the work came to be greatly admired by the Pre-Raphaelites in England.
This remarkable debut collection from Geraldine Clarksoncontains the uncontainable; wondrous, spellbound and daring poems, happy to roam from South American monasteries to the shorelines of memory. These bold, often witty and always hawk-eyed poems survey matters of faith, tragedy and womanhood. Elaborate, skilful and formally audacious, Clarkson is a poet of extraordinary and kaleidoscopic vision; her writing always richly riotous with detail, her poems possessing the singular ability to move from the maelstrom of feeling to the stilled moment with an assured, quick elegance. "The speaker of these poems is endlessly morphable and endlessly verbal; she can say anything and beguile us into listening: put our screens down and really listen and come to life again in the garden of her diction, her memory, her weird unassailable vision." – Kathleen Ossip "... one of the finest contemporary practitioners of the prose poem. A mind-rattling, heart-shaking debut." – A.B. JacksonShow book
Letitia Elizabeth Landon was born on 14 August 1802 in Chelsea, London. A precocious child she had her first poem published is 1820 using the single ‘L’ as her marker. The following year her first volume appeared and sold well. She published a further two poems that same year with just the initials ‘L.E.L.” It provided the basis for much intrigue. She became the chief reviewer of the Gazette and published her second collection, The Improvisatrice, in 1824. By 1826, rumours began to circulate that she had had affairs. For several years they continued to circulate until she broke off an engagement when her betrothed, upon further investigation, found them to be unfounded. Her words reflect the lack of trust she felt “The mere suspicion is dreadful as death”. On June 7th 1838 she married George Maclean, initially in secret, and a month later they sailed to Cape Coast. However the marriage proved to be short lived as on October 15th Letitia was found dead, a bottle of prussic acid in her hand. Her reputation as a poet diminished until fairly recently; her work felt to be simplistic and too simply constructed. However when put into context it is more rightly seen as working on many levels and meanings as was needed for those more moral times.Show book
At the age of twenty-six (at the height of the Great War in Europe), the religious pilgrim and maverick Kurata Hyakuzo wrote a profoundly philosophical play called "The Priest & His Disciples" ("Shukke to sono deshi"). This stage play is based on the life and teachings of the 13th century Buddhist priest Shinran (1173-1263) and quickly became immensely popular. Shinran, the historical founder of the True Pure Land School of Buddhism (Jodo Shinshu), encounters the poor family of Hino Saemon and his wife Okane, and converses with them about how to live in circumstances of change and turmoil and hardship. Most of the ideas represented as Shinran's are really Kurata's own philosophies, an amalgam of Eastern and Western ideas adapted by his own iconoclastic spirit to the tumultuous times of early twentieth-century Japan. - Summary by Expatriate
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He wants herso he’ll wed her!Maisie Burns is a nice girl, with little experience of the world. But that doesn’t stop tycoon Blaine Morosini from wanting her! Maisie doesn’t see the effect she has on the enigmatic Italianshe thinks she’s far too plain for a man like him to notice her. But the longer they spend together, the more their mutual attraction grows. Though Blaine once thought he didn’t do commitment, now he realizes that if he’s to have Maisie he’ll have to put his playboy past behind him and make her his wife!Show book
A cutting-edge monologue that throws light on the experience of a teenager in contemporary Britain, from one of the country's most exciting young playwrights. It's four in the morning and Leah is waiting for her boyfriend to call. Over the course of a single night she tells us what it's like to be fourteen, fearless and full of love. But everything isn't what it seems, and as the sun comes up, Leah begins to unpick the true nature of her relationship. Bird was first presented by Root Theatre and Echo, on a tour of the UK, in 2014. This edition also features two other hard-hitting and distinctive monologues for young female actors – Gypsy Girl and Where I'm From.Show book
This is a charming book on Art History for children (and everyone else). Each chapter focuses on a great painting, reproduced in color in the original text. The authors explain the story behind the paintings, as well as the life, times, and techniques of the artists. You may find downloadable versions of all sixteen paintings at http://www.archive.org/details/Book_of_Art_Illustrations_lv, and you can easily do a google search for the other artworks mentioned in the book. (Summary by Kara)Show book
