Akron Public Library

In the poems in this collection, Rudyard Kipling evokes stirring images and creates archetyples of British character at the height of the British Empire. Filled with character study, dramatic incidents and rousing language, the poems delineate the time, place, and ethos of British ascendancy as surely as a novel or history, yet they possess a timelessness and universality that lifts them above the purely temporal.

One of the greatest of the metaphysical poets, Andrew Marvell (1621–78) was also among the most eclectic. His lyrics, love poems, satires, and religious and political verse display a remarkable range of styles and ideas that make him one of the most interesting and rewarding poets to study. In addition to their complexity and intellectual rigor, Marvell's poems abound in captivating language and imagery. This collection includes such masterpieces...

The Elephant Man is based on the life of John Merrick, who lived in London during the latter part of the nineteenth century. A horribly deformed young man, a freak attraction in traveling side shows, is found abandoned and helpless and is admitted for observation to Whitechapel, a prestigious London hospital. Under the care of a famous young doctor who educates him and introduces him to London society, Merrick changes from a sensational object of...

Has any other love story become so enmeshed in our culture as the tragic story of Romeo and Juliet? In fair Verona the families of Montague and Capulet are locked in a long-standing, bitter blood feud when young Romeo Montague slips into a masquerade party at the Capulet's. During the dance he glimpses Juliet, the daughter of the house, and is struck by love at first sight. She returns his passion and they promise each other everlasting love notwithstanding...

This delightful collection includes the General Prologue plus three of the most popular tales: "The Knight's Tale," "The Miller's Prologue and Tale," and "The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale." Recast in modern English verse that captures the lively spirit of the originals.

Between 1935, when Murder in the Cathedral was first produced at the Canterbury Festival, and 1958, when The Elder Statesman opened at the Edinburgh Festival prior to engagements in London and New York, Eliot had given three other plays to the theater. His paramount concerns can be traced through all five works. They have been said to be closely related, marking stages in the development of a new and individual form of drama, in which the poet...

Tom Stoppard's stimulating, funny play Night and Day is set in a fictional African country, Kambawe, which is ruled by a leader not unlike Idi Amin. The nation is faced with a Soviet-backed revolution which quickly brings newsmen from around the world to cover the story. Using the characters Ruth; her husband, Geoffrey Carson, a mine owner; an Australian veteran reporter, Dick Wagner; and an idealistic young journalist, Jacob Milne, Stoppard pits...

In New Collected Poems, Berry reprints the nearly two hundred pieces in Collected Poems, along with the poems from his most recent collections--Entries, Given, and Leavings--to create an expanded collection, showcasing the work of a man heralded by The Baltimore Sun as "a sophisticated, philosophical poet in the line descending from Emerson and Thoreau . . . a major poet of our time." Wendell Berry is the author of over fifty works of poetry, fiction,...

On a hill overlooking the grey sea, in a house filled with the past, a woman gathers her ghosts for one night to hear their story retold. Born into the grotesque bustle of mid-twentieth century London she is drawn by her mother's past back to wild, coastal countryside in Ireland. Her own heritage is partly this and partly mystery which will never be solved. She has loved deeply and lives alone. On the night of her beloved only son's departure from...

The most famous book on politics ever written, The Prince remains as lively and shocking today as when it was written almost five hundred years ago. Initially denounced as a collection of sinister maxims and a recommendation of tyranny, it has more recently been defended as the first scientific treatment of politics as it is practiced rather than as it ought to be practiced. Harvey C. Mansfield's brilliant translation of this classic work, along with...