Other books that might interest you

• 

  The Life of Mark Akenside - The...

  Barbara C. Morden

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Mark Akenside (1721–1770) was a medical doctor and literary man whose influence on the history of ideas was profound.
  Born the son of a butcher in Newcastle Upon Tyne in 1721 Mark Akenside was awarded a degree in medicine from Edinburgh and Leyden Universities. He settled in London in 1743 where he was successful both as a doctor and in medical research. Above all, he was the author of The Pleasures of Imagination1744, an epic length poem in blank verse which broke many conventions of the time, exploring ideas about human perception and the natural world.
  Akenside had a European reputation and became a national celebrity. He was a major influence on first- and second-generation Romantic poets such as Wordsworth, Keats, Coleridge, etc. He also made an impact on the development of landscape painting in the early 19th century through his influence on J.M.W. Turner.
  This book examines these issues, as well as the controversy and speculation about Akenside's relationship with his origins, his sexuality, and changing political affiliations in a period of economic crisis and great social change.

  Show book

• 

  Christmas Short Works Collection...

  Various Various

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  This multilingual Christmas Short Works Collection for 2010 contains public domain short stories, essays, poems and scripture passages recorded by a variety of LibriVox members in English, German and Portuguese.

  Show book

• 

  The Flowers of Evil

  Charles Baudelaire

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Loneliness, temptation, the fragility of man in a soulless new age . . . The controversial, banned masterpiece from the nineteenth-century French poet.   Sparking scandal in France, declared “an outrage to public morals” and “an offense to religious morals” by the Ministry of the Interior, The Flowers of Evil plunged Charles Baudelaire into a controversy that his public image never quite overcame. Nevertheless, the collection has since been lauded as a landmark in literary history and its writer extolled as the first modern poet.   With themes of love, world-weariness, beauty, and death, The Flowers of Evil juxtaposes the sublime with the commonplace. In the section titled “Parisian Scenes” are some of Baudelaire’s greatest poems—“The Swan,” “The Little Old Women,” and “The Seven Old Men”—which give readers an unsentimental view of the City of Light and of a bleak urban existence. As the Wall Street Journal proclaimed, “There is a sense in these angry, eructating late fragments of a man fully releasing himself to what he called ‘the joy of downward descent.’ And where Baudelaire went, modernity tended to follow.”  “The essence of a genius.” —The Guardian  “The profound originality of Charles Baudelaire is to represent powerfully and essentially modern man.” —Paul Verlaine

  Show book

• 

  Sonia Flew

  Melinda Lopez

  • 0
  • 1
  • 0

  A powerful story of love and sacrifice that The Boston Globe calls an "extraordinary achievement by an emerging playwright."  Sonia, a Cuban exiled during Castro's rise to power, is forced to relive her tumultuous childhood when her only son enlists in the military following 9/11.  Using humor and sensitivity, SONIA FLEW paints a lyrical portrait of two families in two countries over a 40-year span.  An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Philip Casnoff, Hector Elizondo, James Martinez, Rachel Nicks, Isabelle Ortega and Elizabeth Pena.

  Show book

• 

  Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head...

  Liz Lochhead

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  A modern classic about the bitter rivalry between Mary, Queen of Scots, and her cousin and fellow ruler, Elizabeth I of England - retold by Scotland's most popular playwright.
  'Once upon a time, there were twa queens on the wan green island, and the wan green island was split inty twa kingdoms. But no equal kingdoms...'
  Mary and Elizabeth are two women with much in common, but more that sets them apart.
  Following the death of her husband, the Dauphin of France, the beautiful, and staunchly Catholic Mary Stuart has returned from France to rule Scotland, a country she neither knows nor understands. Ill-prepared to rule in her own right, Mary has failed to learn what her protestant cousin, Elizabeth Tudor, knows only too well - that a queen must rule with her head, not her heart.
  All too soon the stage is set for a deadly endgame in which there can only be one winner and one queen on the one green island.
  'A triumph' the characterisations never slide over into caricature but are full-bodied, subtle, humorous and virile' Time Out

  Show book

• 

  Henry VI Part 2

  William Shakespeare

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Henry VI, Part 2 or The Second Part of Henry the Sixth (often written as 2 Henry VI) is a history play by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1591, and set during the lifetime of King Henry VI of England. Whereas 1 Henry VI deals primarily with the loss of England's French territories and the political machinations leading up to the Wars of the Roses, and 3 Henry VI deals with the horrors of that conflict, 2 Henry VI focuses on the King's inability to quell the bickering of his nobles, the death of his trusted adviser Duke Humphrey of Gloucester, the rise of the Duke of York and the inevitability of armed conflict. As such, the play culminates with the opening battle of the War, the First Battle of St Albans. Henry VI may be viewed as a study in insurrection, which moves from the private and personal jostlings in the court in Part 1 to outright civil war in Part 3. In Part 2 the discord between prominent state officials, notably Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, spreads to the common people, fomenting an abortive rebellion, lead by the rascally Kentishman, Jack Cade. With the death of Humphrey, the period of regency for the naive Henry effectively comes to an end, and the unworldly monarch is helplessly exposed to the interminable strife between the factions of the houses of York and of Lancaster. The structure of the play differs from the other two parts in that there is a central rustic idyll (Act 4), populated by clownish characters, which recalls the idyllic centrepieces of comedies like A Midsummer Night's Dream and As You Like It. The plays with the effective deposition of Henry, who is later re-installed as king in Part 3 by the influential Earl of Warwick. Henry VI, Part 2 has the largest cast of all Shakespeare's plays, and is seen by many critics as the best of the Henry VI trilogy.

  Show book