Ancient Epic (Blackwell Introductions to the Classical World)

Written primarily for scholars and students, Ancient Epic is nonetheless  a thoroughly enjoyable and informative read for those who know little about the old human stories that undergird our Western literature and culture. The introduction provided a beautiful overview of how these six epics related to each other and how they can have high meaning for us today. King has a way of describing the people and events that makes them identifiable and memorable. I was surprised to find myself reading the book as I read a mystery--turning pages to find out what happened next. A good read!

Gardens: An Essay on the Human Condition

Drawing from sources religious, literary and scholarly, Italian literature professor Harrison examines the human quest for happiness through centuries of gardens and gardeners, both real and fictional: "For millennia and throughout world cultures, our predecessors conceived of human happiness in its perfected state as a garden existence." Gardens have provided education, creative expression and sanctuary throughout time, yet are "by nature impermanent creations that only rarely leave behind evidence of their existence."

The Phantom Heroine: Ghosts and Gender in Seventheenth-century Chinese Literature

The "phantom heroine"--in particular the fantasy of her resurrection through sex with a living man--is one of the most striking features of traditional Chinese literature. Even today the hypersexual female ghost continues to be a source of fascination in East Asian media, much like the sexually predatory vampire in American and European movies, TV, and novels. But while vampires can be of either gender, erotic Chinese ghosts are almost exclusively female. The significance of this gender asymmetry in Chinese literary history is the subject of Judith Zeitlin's elegantly written and meticulously researched new book.

Surrealism Against The Current: Tracts and Declarations

Bringing together many Surrealist texts that have never previously been available in English, this collection is an essential guide for anyone who wishes to understand the Surrealist movement. Including a wealth of original works, it traces its development in the words of the Surrealists themselves, offering a definitive expression of Surrealism as a collective movement. It shows the extent of Surrealist positions and interests and shows how, having become a major cultural phenomenon of the twentieth century, the issues it has raised remain central to current debates.

The Rough Guide to Classic Novels

It is hard to identify what is most valuable about Simon Mason's Rough Guide to Classic Novels. It is, first and foremost, an astonishingly comprehensive guide to the very best in world literature, as ready to celebrate a quirky modern novel as it is to extol the virtues of a masterpiece of the past. It is also an extremely utilitarian resource: if you want to identify and track down one of the great books (which may be familiar to you only by reputation), the chances are good that it will be within these 370-odd pages (though, at times, the highly personal (even eccentric) choice of novels will surprise -- and give pause to -- some readers).