Short offers the tradition and glorious present of these popular forms that stretch and defy genre. From 1500 to present, hundreds of pieces. Inventive, entertaining, and addictive.
This is an eloquent and accessible introduction to one of the most important writers of the twentieth century. This book provides biographical and contextual information, but more fundamentally, it also considers how we might think about an enduringly difficult and experimental novelist and playwright who often challenges the very concepts of meaning and interpretation. It deals with his life, intellectual and cultural background, plays, prose, and critical response and relates Beckett's work and vision to the culture and context from which he wrote.
Poets Before Homer: Collected Essays on Ancient Literature
"What is the most interesting and impressive sort of archaeological object from the ancient Near East? ... I would invite you to think about artifacts recovered by archaeology that are ... more insubstantial even than a lacy papyrus. I refer to things made of words. I am not thinking of texts, exactly, but to the building blocks of which literary texts are made, to traditional metaphors and similes, to traditional topics in poetry and prose, to the devices of form and content which were the stock in trade of poets.
Grisham's intricate, spellbinding sixth novel differs from his last few, it's his only book with first-person narration and his first since his debut to be set in a courtroom, but the trademark Grisham touches are in place. Rookie attorney Rudy Baylor is the customary David fighting a legal Goliath (here a multibillion-dollar insurance company), and the suspense builds with impeccable pacing despite workaday prose. When the modestly sized law firm that contracted for his future services unexpectedly merges with a tony Ivy League firm, Rudy finds himself without a job and bankrupt.
"The novel is steeped in complex personality studies, lyrical prose, and richly drawn depictions of Mr. Burke's beloved bayou country." (The New York Times) "With peerless naturalistic descriptions and lush, metaphysical imagery, Burke creates another challenging morality play for his flawed, everyman hero." (Publishers Weekly) "Everything that makes this series so compelling - the elegiac, seductively lyrical prose; the complex character of Robicheaux; the lovingly evoked bayou setting - is here in abundance....The fact remains that no serious reader of hard-boiled fiction should ever miss a moment of Dave Robicheaux in action." (Booklist)
