Why does Mark's Jesus speak in parables? Why does Plato's Socrates make bad arguments? Why are Beckett's novels so inscrutable? And why don't stage magicians even pretend to summon spirits anymore? In a series of captivating chapters on Mark, Plato, Beckett, Mallarmé, and Chaucer, Joshua Landy not only answers these questions but explains why they are worth asking in the first place.
Witty and approachable, How to Do Things with Fictions challenges the widespread assumption that literary texts must be informative or morally improving in order to be of any real benefit.

You Can't Read This: Forbidden Books, Lost Writing, Mistranslations, and Codes

Wherever people can read, there are stories about the magic, mystery, and power of what they read. Val Ross presents a history of reading that is, in fact, the story of the monumental, on-going struggle to read. From Enheduanna, daughter of Sargon the Great, the world’s oldest signed author to Empress Shotoku of Japan who in 764 ordered the printing of one million Buddhist prayers; from the story of Hulagu, Ghengis Khan’s nasty brother who destroyed the library of Baghdad to Bowdler and the censorship of Shakespeare, there have been barriers to reading ranging from the physical to the economical, social, and political.

The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage, 2015 Edition

For anyone who writes--short stories or business plans, book reports or news articles--knotty choices of spelling, grammar, punctuation and meaning lurk in every line: Lay or lie? Who or whom? That or which? Is Band-Aid still a trademark? It's enough to send you in search of a Martini. (Or is that a martini?) Now everyone can find answers to these and thousands of other questions in the handy alphabetical guide used by the writers and editors of the world's most authoritative news organization.

Words Words Words. A History and Anthology of Literatures in English; From the Beginnings to the 18th Century

This is a literature-in-English textbook for high school and university students. It aims to guide students to a well-informed appreciation of literary texts in English and encourages them to relate works of literature to their own world. Ample historical, biographical and critical material is provided: with historical, social and literary context sections for each chapter, and a series of critical texts, often presenting the author in his/her own words.

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Myths and Tragedies in their Ancient Greek Contexts

This work brings together eleven of Richard Buxton's studies of Greek mythology and Greek tragedy, focusing especially on the interrelationship between the two, and their importance to the Greeks themselves.