Showing titles in Literary History & Criticism

Short Stories in German for Beginners has been written especially for students from beginner to intermediate level, designed to give a sense of achievement, a feeling of progress and, most importantly, enjoyment! Mapped to A2-B1 on the Common European Framework of Reference, these eight captivating stories are designed to give you a sense of achievement and a feeling of progress as you listen. From science fiction to fantasy, to crime and thrillers, Short Stories in German for Beginners will make learning German easy and enjoyable. 

Harry Potter lives in a world that is both magical and historical. Hogwarts pupils ride an old-fashioned steam train to school, notes are taken on parchment with quill pens, and Muggle legends come to life in the form of werewolves, witches, and magical spells. This book is the first to explore the real history in which Harry's world is rooted. Did you know that bezoars and mandrakes were fashionable luxury items for centuries? Find out how Europeans first developed the potions, spells, and charms taught at Hogwarts, from Avada Kedavra to love charms.

New parts for thirty of Shakespeare's women, letting them speak their minds, written by famed stage and screen actress, Dame Harriet Walter DBE 'It is STUNNING and I simply sat and read it right through, and shall start again at once. I had no idea that she is such a sensationally fine poet...

Elegant, provocative and hugely entertaining, Kingsley Amis's memoirs are filled with anecdotes, experiences and portraits of famous friends, family, acquaintances (and a few eminent foes). From his childhood days to Oxford and army life, his travels abroad and his years as a successful novelist, Memoirs offers extraordinary insights into a unique literary life.

A podcast exploring Pratchett's Discworld one book at a time with city watcher @pjhart86 and tourist @andrewluke (Keep im spoiler-free pls!)

"Ikigai" is a Japanese term that refers to one's sense of purpose and meaning in life. The Ikigai Podcast explores the concept of ikigai and how individuals can discover and pursue their own ikigai. Listeners can expect to gain insight and inspiration from the diverse perspectives and experiences shared in the book, as well as practical tips and strategies for living a more purposeful and meaningful life. Welcome to Zlozie, the podcast channel that brings you audiobook summaries of the best self-help books out there.

New York Times bestselling author Alan Furst pens evocative and urbane novels of World War II espionage. Focusing on the European theater, Furst writes about ordinary people struggling to cope with the chaos of the world around them.

Homer's Iliad is the famous epic poem set among the tales of Troy. Its subject is the anger of the hero Achilles and its consequences for the warring Greeks and Trojans. Unlike other books on the Iliad, this one combines the detailed expertise of a historian with the sensitivity of a teacher of it as poetry. Lane Fox goes on to consider hallmarks of the poem, its values, implicit and explicit, its characters, its women, its gods and even its horses. He argues repeatedly for its beautiful observation and addresses its parallel use of what is, to us, the natural world.

Bestselling author and renowned professor Mary Karr offers a master class in the essential elements of great memoir—delivered with her signature wit, insight, and candor. Credited with sparking the current memoir explosion, Mary Karr’s The Liars’ Club spent more than a year at the top of...

Brought to you by Penguin. An English teacher's love letter to reading and the many ways literature can make us, and our lives, better. How can a Victorian poem help teenagers understand YouTube misogyny? Can Jane Eyre encourage us to speak out? What can Lady Macbeth teach us about empathy?...

Profiles, storytelling and insightful conversations, hosted by David Remnick.

In this beautifully written and brilliantly reasoned collection of essays, Ayn Rand throws new light on the nature of art and its purpose in human life. Once again, she demonstrates her bold originality and her refusal to let conventional ideas define her sense of the truth. Rand eloquently asserts that one cannot create art without infusing it with one's own value judgments and personal philosophy - even an attempt to withhold moral overtones only results in a deterministic or naturalistic message.

A new biography exploring J.R.R. Tolkien’s wartime experiences and their impact on his life and his writing of The Lord of The Rings. “To be caught in youth by 1914 was no less hideous an experience than in 1939 … by 1918 all but one of my close friends were dead.” So J.R.R. Tolkien...

As a woman used to traveling and living the high life in Bangkok, Leanne Shirtliffe recognized the constant fodder for humor while pregnant with twins in Asia's sin city. But in spite of deep-fried bug cuisine and nurses who cover newborn bassinets with plastic wrap, Shirtliffe manages to keep her babies alive for a year with help from a Coca-Cola deliveryman, several waitresses, and a bra factory. Then she and her husband return home to the isolation of North American suburbia.

This is a bi-monthly podcast featuring songs and stories from some lesser known fairy tales and folk stories. Stories which lean toward the grisly and unnerving, stories which might help us deal with the ogres and wicked step mothers in our own lives. You can support this podcast by buying Julia a cup of tea here https://ko-fi.com/voxchops xox

Grigori Aleksandrovich Pechorin is an enigma: arrogant, cocky, melancholic, brave, cynic, romantic, loner, socialite, soldier, free soul, and yet, victim of the world, he eludes definition and remains a mystery to those who know him. Just who is he? And what does he hope to achieve? Evolving from first person to third person, and then into a diary, A Hero of Our Time takes on a variety of forms to interrogate Pechorin's cryptic character and his unusual philosophy, providing breathtaking descriptions of the Caucasus along the way.

James Boswell forever changed the genre of biography when he painstakingly transformed a scholarly profusion of detail into a perceptive, lifelike portrait of Dr. Samuel Johnson. James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson reveals a man of outsized appetites and private vulnerabilities and is the source of much of what we know about one of the towering figures of English literature.

When rare books dealer Rebecca Romney found an emerald clothbound edition of Evelina by Frances Burney, she was happy to discover that she'd stumbled across a novel by one of Jane Austen's favourite authors. Inspired by the connection between the two writers, she returned to Austen's books with a new lens, picking out clues sprinkled throughout her works that pointed to the writers she had admired.

In this compelling, powerful book, highly respected writer and commentator Jack Holland sets out to answer a daunting question: How do you explain the oppression and brutalization of half the world's population by the other half, throughout history? The result takes the listener on an eye-opening journey through centuries, continents, and civilizations as it looks at both historical and contemporary attitudes to women.

Get your Tolkien every day by subscribing to Today’s Tolkien Times! Alan Sisto, host of the award-winning Prancing Pony Podcast and Rings of Power Wrap-up, hosts a new short-format daily podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever else you get your podcasts! Listeners get answers on Mailbag Mondays; discover more about the Professor on Tolkien Tuesdays; indulge your inner philologist on Word-nerd Wednesdays; learn more about the familiar stories of Middle-earth on Third Age Thursdays; hear from Tolkien fans around the world on Fandom Fridays; and dive deep into ...