Is it possible to publish an anthology of mystery stories without including Joyce Carol Oates? Apparently not, as series editor Otto Penzler says in his foreword to this outstanding compendium: "She has appeared in six of the seven annual volumes.... Nobody makes it into these books based on their fame or popularity, and she is no different. It is about the work, and she simply will not be denied." Oates's "The Skull," a richly mordant, Poe-ish tale of a forensic scientist obsessed with the head bones of a murder victim, might not be the best of the 20 stories, but it's certainly right up there.
Myths & Legends retells the stories central to every culture that have been passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years. Coverage extends from the well-known tales of the Ancient Greeks, which hold the key to the origin of such phrases as "Achille's heel," to the lesser-known, but richly colorful, myths of the Americas and the East.
Elegant representations of nature, explicitly the four seasons, fill a wide range of Japanese genres and media—from poetry and screen painting to tea ceremony, flower arrangement, and annual observances. Haruo Shirane shows, for the first time, how, when, and why this occurred and explicates the richly encoded social, religious, and political meanings these representations embodied.
Dartmouth's Professor James A. W. Heffernan maps the brilliance, passion, humanity, and humor of James Joyce's modern Odyssey in this 24-lecture series. Joyce's great novel Ulysses is a big, richly imagined, and intricately organized book with a huge reputation.
