Love is ubiquitous, if complicated. Weve put together this quirky, delightful collection in recognition that we're all moved by somethings or someones in different ways. Whether the results are tragic or funny, bittersweet or whimsical, stern or tender, they cast new light onto the infinite varieties and subtlest nuances of that unique, incomparable phenomenon we call love. Helen Harrison will leave you perusing your options more closely with Men-U, while Shannon Fitts shares her full-fron...

Our culture attempts to separate competing ideological factions by denying relationships between multiple perspectives and influences outside of one’s own narrow interpretive community. The distinguished essayists in this volume find Daniel R. Schwarz’s pluralistic, self-questioning approach to what he calls “reading texts and reading lives” quite relevant to the current historical moment and political situation. A legendary scholar of modernist literature, Schwarz’s critical principles ar...

Gilgamesh, King of Uruk, and his companion Enkidu are the only heroes to have survived from the ancient literature of Babylon, immortalized in this epic poem that dates back to the 3rd millennium BC. Together they journey to the Spring of Youth, defeat the Bull of Heaven and slay the monster Humbaba. When Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh's grief and fear of death are such that they lead him to undertake a quest for eternal life. A timeless tale of morality, tragedy and pure adventure, The Epic of Gi...

A physician with a particular interest in psychological disorders and satirist, Mandeville published versions of his notorious Fable of the Bees from 1714 to 1732. Each was a defence and elaboration of his short satirical poem The Angry Hive, 1705. The version of the Fable of 1723 and 1732 are the fullest defences of his early paradox that social benefit is the unintended consequence of personal vice. It is an argument that is generally held to lie behind Adam Sm...

The Caucasus has an extremely rich folk literature, almost unknown among English speakers, which includes myths, legends, magical tales, anecdotes and proverbs. The one hundred and one legends included in this book reflect the cultures of fourteen different ethnic groups - their dynamism and the matters that concerned them: survival against external dangers, the risk of starvation and the persistence of the family or clan as a coordinated group. Descended from an oral tradition, much of th...

In this unforgettable book, Arthur Waley brings together a number of his articles, poems and translations. Included in this collection are pieces on the eighth-century Chinese poet Ts’ên Shên and the great Chinese prose writer, Han Yü, as well as some of Waley’s original poems and stories. But the most compelling is ‘The Secret History of the Mongols’, consisting of long extracts from a thirteenth-century Chinese saga. Written in vivid, elegant prose, it recounts fantastic tales of epic ba...

Fruit-Gathering is a collection of 86 short poems by Rabindranath Tagore. First published in 1916, the book contains theme of the relationship between God and man, the atom and the cosmos. Tagore uses fruits and flowers to symbolise his spiritual and moral values towards the love for the creator.Rabindranath Tagore (7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali short-story writer, poet, musician, composer, playwright, essayist and painter from India who was instrumental in transforming ...

The comparative study of the literatures of Ireland and Scotland has emerged as a distinct and buoyant field in recent years. This collection of new essays offers the first sustained comparison of modern Irish and Scottish poetry, featuring close readings of texts within broad historical and political contextualisation. Playing on influences, crossovers, connections, disconnections and differences, the 'affinities' and 'opposites' traced in this book cross both Irish and Scottish poetry in...

The centuries have changed little in this art,The subjects are still the same.—Kenneth RexrothWhy poetry? What is poetry and why do people write it and read it? Why, as Dana Levin has written, "this urge to making a scrapbook of stars"?Every poet, by accident or design, has responded to "Why poetry" by writing a poem about poetry (an ars poetica). Whether these poems focus on the personal, political, or philosophical, each recognizes that our world is more complicate...

The Spoon Knife Anthology collects the work of over 25 authors, including Autonomous Press partners, disability studies scholars, established prose and poetry artists, and emerging storytellers from a variety of backgrounds. Together, these writers deliver a series of meditations on compliance and consent that are simultaneously intimate and alienating."This jewel of a collection had me crying, laughing in parts, and becoming outraged. I hope that everyone in the care-...

This collection of stirring verses gathers into a single volume previously unpublished poems primarily concerned with musings about the author’s Christian faith–a faith which is neither facile nor sentimental–a faith which is less concerned with abstract doctrine than with living out the Gospel in every day living and in how one relates to the variety of people one encounters. Topics include family life, human nature, politics, an earnest faith and a variety of poignant situations. These ...

I will never forget the responses from my children when I announced that they would have to start memorizing poetry..."Poetry!" spat the boy."Memorize?" quavered the girl....and each wore a look reminiscent of one who is chewing tin foil.Four years later, I would love to say that they have embraced poetry and that I have to fight off their constant pleas to learn more, more, more...but that would be a lie. I can, however, truthfully tell you that memorizing poet...