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.

Early Greek Myth is a much-needed handbook for scholars and others interested in the literary and artistic sources of archaic Greek myths--and the only one of its kind available in English. Timothy Gantz traces the development of each myth in narrative form and summarizes the written and visual evidence in which the specific details of the story appear. "Its accessible format, straightforward readability, and economical price should put it where it belongs, on the shelf of anyone who teaches mythology, at whatever level.

For years Dickens kept the story of his own childhood a secret. Yet it is a story worth telling. For it helps us remember how much we all might lose when a child's dreams don't come true . . . As a child, Dickens was forced to live on his own and work long hours in a rat-infested blacking factory. Readers will be drawn into the winding streets of London, where they will learn how Dickens got the inspiration for many of his characters. The 200th anniversary of Dickens's birth was February 7, 2012, and this tale of his little-known boyhood is the perfect way to introduce kids to the great author. This Booklist Best Children's Book of the Year is historical fiction at its ingenious best.

The Story of Alice: Lewis Carroll and the Secret History of Wonderland

The Story of Alice reveals Carroll as both an innovator and stodgy traditionalist, entrenched in habits and routines. He had a keen double interest in keeping things moving and keeping them just as they are (in Looking-Glass Land, Alice must run faster and faster to stay in one place).

Winner of American Philological Association: C.J. Goodwin Award of Merit 2005. Shortlisted for British Academy Book Prize 2005. Widely reviewed and celebrated in Hardcover on publication three years ago, ""The Myths of Rome"" will be published for the first time in paperback this autumn.This major re-evaluation of Roman history and its afterlife in western culture through the mediums of myth and art is fast becoming the standard popular account of the Roman story-world. It triumphantly redresses the popular perception of classical myth as a predominantly Greek invention; and builds a cohesive narrative from the mass of mythical and historical tales that cluster around the nexus of Rome.