Other books that might interest you

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  Elegiac Sonnets and Other Poems

  Charlotte Turner Smith

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  Charlotte Turner Smith (1749 – 1806) was an English poet and novelist. She initiated a revival of the English sonnet, helped establish the conventions of Gothic fiction, and wrote political novels of sensibility.It was in 1784, in debtor's prison with her husband Benjamin, that she wrote and published her first work, Elegiac Sonnets. The work achieved instant success, allowing Charlotte to pay for their release from prison. Smith's sonnets helped initiate a revival of the form and granted an aura of respectability to her later novels.Stuart Curran, the editor of Smith's poems, has written that Smith is "the first poet in England whom in retrospect we would call Romantic". She helped shape the "patterns of thought and conventions of style" for the period. Romantic poet William Wordsworth was the most affected by her works. He said of Smith in the 1830s that she was "a lady to whom English verse is under greater obligations than are likely to be either acknowledged or remembered". By the second half of the nineteenth century, however, Smith was largely forgotten.

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  Thon Man Molière (NHB Modern Plays)

  Liz Lochhead

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  Welcome to Paris at the time of Louis XIV. Come backstage and meet the King's theatre company – a troupe of grandes dames, old hams, ingénues and, of course, their leading man, author of their dramas and cause of all their troubles... thon man Molière.
  Under constant threat of debtors' prison, in big bother with church and state and – worst of all – disastrously in love, Molière writes brilliant, scurrilous comedies inspired by a desperate life. But telling the truth is a dangerous business and his latest drama could be the death of him…
  Liz Lochhead's play Thon Man Molière was first performed at the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh in 2016, in a production starring Jimmy Chisholm and Siobhan Redmond.
  'I was so moved by this play, which surprised me, as I had expected a knockabout comedy. Don't get me wrong, it was funny. But I hadn't expected the tenderness and emotional complexity. The bond – eternal, exasperated, essential – between Molière and Madeleine is the core of the piece, but all of these characters seem every bit as human and deep and strange and needy as theatre people always are.' David Greig

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  A Waiter Made of Glass - Stories...

  Verlyn Flieger

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  Award-winning author Verlyn Flieger takes readers through a series of insightful short stories exploring tragic aspects of human nature. A few of the tales are dark, others a bit lighter, but all celebrate the creativity of storytelling. The second part of the book is a collection of new poetry unearthing the wonders of language, the mundane, and grief and mourning as part of life—the dark spot within the light. Death is the inevitable, inescapable result of mortality, and grief is the price the living pay for that condition. Readers are invited to join in the journey, take some comfort in the knowledge of shared darkness, and know that even within the dark moments, there is always at least a speck of splintered light.

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  Deirdre of the Sorrows - A...

  J. M. Synge

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  Come and join me as we rediscover one of the greatest myths to come out of the Emerald Isle: "Deirdre of the Sorrows," adapted for the stage by J.M. Synge. 
  Deirdre, a woman of immeasurable beauty, is betrothed/condemned to the King of Ulster, Conchubar. But in true mythological fashion, there is a prophecy which prevents this--a prophecy that tells of her falling in love with another man, of heroes being banished in her name, of multiple wars waged for her honor. Loyalty, familial ties, and unadulterated love will be strained and broken, with only one question remaining: Who will be left to admire the beauty and sorrow of life?

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  Poetry Hour The - Volume 14

  John Donne, William Shakespeare,...

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  Poetry is often cited as our greatest use of words.  The English language has well over a million of them and poets down the ages seem, at times, to make use of every single one.  But often they use them in simple ways to describe anything and everything from landscapes to all aspects of the human condition.  Poems can evoke within us an individual response that takes us by surprise; that opens our ears and eyes to very personal feelings. 
   
  Forget the idea of classic poetry being somehow dull and boring and best kept to children’s textbooks. It still has life, vibrancy and relevance to our lives today.  
   
  Where to start? How to do that? Poetry can be difficult. We’ve put together some very eclectic Poetry Hours, with a broad range of poets and themes, to entice you and seduce you with all manner of temptations.   
   
  In this hour we introduce poets of the quality and breadth of John Donne and Jane Austen as well as themes on November, The Female Poet, Westminster Memorials and more. 
   
  All of them are from Portable Poetry, a dedicated poetry publisher. We believe that poetry should be a part of our everyday lives, uplifting the soul & reaching the parts that other arts can’t.  Our range of audiobooks and ebooks cover volumes on some of our greatest poets to anthologies of seasons, months, places and a wide range of themes.  Portable Poetry can found at iTunes, Audible, the digital music section on Amazon and most other digital stores.  
   
  This audio book is also duplicated in print as an ebook. Same title. Same words. Perhaps a different experience. But with Amazon’s whispersync you can pick up and put down on any device – start on audio, continue in print and any which way after that.   
   
  Portable poetry – Let us join you for the journey. 
   
   
  The Poetry Hour – Volume 14 - An Introduction 
  John Donne – An Introduction 
  Death Be Not Proud by John Donne 
  The Good Morrow by John Donne 
  The Expiration by John Donne 
  A Valediction Forbidding Mourning by John Donne 
  Westminster Memorials – An Introduction 
  Longing by Matthew Arnold 
  London by William Blake 
  Heaven by Rupert Brooke 
  Apostasy by Charlotte Bronte 
  When We Two Parted by Lord Byron 
  He That is Down Needs Fear No Fall by John Bunyan 
  Turtle Soup by Lewis Carroll 
  A Thought For A Lonely Death Bed by Elizabeth Barrett Browning 
  November 
  November by Thomas hood 
  November by Amy Lowell 
  November by John Payne 
  A November Night by Sara Teasdale 
  At Day Close In November by Thomas Hardy 
  The Poetry of William Shakespeare - An Introduction 
  If Music Be the Food of Love, from Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare 
  How Like A Winter Hath My Absence Been (Sonnet 97) by William Shakespeare 
  Shall I Compare Thee to A Summers Day (Sonnet 18) by William Shakespeare 
  The Witches Spell by William Shakespeare 
  Full Fathom Five by William Shakespeare 
  No Longer Mourn For Me by William Shakespeare 
  Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare  
  The Female Poet – An Introduction. Volume 2 
  No Coward Soul is Mine by Emily Bronte  
  If Thou Must Love Me Let It Be For Nought by Elizabeth Barrett Browning  
  If Infinite Worlds, Infinite Centres by Margaret Cavendish  
  Isabella Valancy Crawford – We Parted in Silence 
  When My Love Did What I Would Not, What I Would Not by Mary Elizabeth Coleridge  
  I’m Ceded – I’ve Stopped Being Theirs by Emily Dickenson  
  Ah, Silly Pug by Queen Elizabeth I  
  Sweet Evenings Come and Go Love by George Eliot  
  The Poets of 19th Century America. An Introduction – Volume 2 
  Heaven is What I Cannot Reach by Emily Dickinson  
  Knee Deep in June by James Whitcomb Riley <

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  Lucy Kirkwood Plays: One (NHB...

  Lucy Kirkwood

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  Since her debut in 2008, Lucy Kirkwood has firmly established herself as a leading playwright of her generation, the writer of a series of savagely funny, highly intelligent and beautifully observed plays that tackle the pressing issues of our times.
  This collection, with an introduction by the author, brings together five of her plays, starting with the wild and riotously funny farce, Tinderbox (Bush Theatre, 2008), a disturbing vision of a dystopian future where England is dissolving into the sea, realised with 'off-kilter imaginative flair' (The Times).
  Written for Clean Break theatre company, it felt empty when the heart went at first but it is alright now (Arcola Theatre, 2009; winner of the John Whiting Award) is a devastating report from the hidden world of Eastern European women trafficked to London to work in the sex industry.
  The previously unpublished small hours (Hampstead Theatre, 2011), a collaboration with Ed Hime, directed by Katie Mitchell, is an intimate dissection of the claustrophobic world of a new mother struggling to cope on her own.
  The sharply satirical NSFW (Royal Court, 2012) is a 'richly absorbing and inventive' (Telegraph) look at power games, privacy and gender politics in the media.
  The volume concludes with Chimerica (Almeida Theatre and West End, 2013), a gripping and provocative examination of the shifting balance of power between East and West. Winner of multiple awards, including the Olivier and Critics' Circle Awards for Best New Play, the Evening Standard Best Play Award and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Chimerica is 'gloriously rich and mind-expanding' (Guardian), and a 'tremendously bold piece of writing' (Evening Standard).

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