An Introduction to Russian Poetry

Including examples from Russia's greatest poets, Michael Wachtel draws on three centuries of verse, from the beginnings of secular literature in the eighteenth century to the present day. The first part of his book is devoted to concepts such as versification, poetic language and tradition. In the second part he examines the ode, the elegy, love poetry, nature poetry and patriotic verse.

This book provides a balanced overview of Poe's career and writings, resisting the tendency of many scholars to sensationalise the more enigmatic aspects of his life. Benjamin F. Fisher outlines Poe's experiments with a wide range of literary forms and genres and offers analyses of the major works.

An Introduction to Nathaniel Hawthorn

As the author of The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne has been established as a major writer of the nineteenth century. This book outlines his life and writings in a clear and accessible style. Students of nineteenth-century American literature will find this a rewarding and engaging introduction to this remarkable writer.

This intriguing book explores love in all its forms and from many perspectives. The biological underpinnings of feelings are explored, including the interaction of brain, nervous system, hormones, and body chemistry. Love is considered as an evolutionary phenomenon with origins in animal behavior. According to Shakespeare, "The course of true love never did run smooth," and The Brain and Love indeed looks at love as a give-and-take process involving costs and benefits. This book describes attempts to classify, categorize, and measure the various components of love (as distinguished from passion).

Light, sound, taste, and smell shape our lives dramatically, but how does this happen? How can a faraway noise elicit a joyful memory or a cry? How can the smell of cookies take you back to early childhood? These powerful stimuli exist in our environment, yet remain neutral until our brain decodes the necessary information into meaningful senses. In other words, light is transformed into vision, and sound into hearing, by the brain and the brain only. Seeing, Hearing, and Smelling the World reveals the phenomena underlying our senses, with a brief discussion of what can go wrong.