Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on the 16th October 1854 in Dublin Ireland. The son of Dublin intellectuals Oscar proved himself an outstanding classicist at Dublin, then at Oxford. With his education complete Wilde moved to London and its fashionable cultural and social circles. With his biting wit, flamboyant dress, and glittering conversation, Wilde became one of the most well-known personalities of his day. His only novel, The Picture...

First published serially in magazines beginning in 1915 and then as a complete novel in 1919, "Lad: A Dog" is the beloved tale of the perfect dog by Albert Payson Terhune, the American journalist, dog breeder, and novelist. Lad, the central character of the tale, is a Rough Collie dog who lives with his Master, Mistress, and mate, Lady, at their home called the Place. Lad, who was based on Terhune's real life pet Rough Collie, is a loyal and brave...

First published in 1927, E. M. Forster's "Aspects of the Novel" compiles a series of lectures given to Trinity College at the University of Cambridge in that same year. By utilizing examples from other classic works Forster puts forward a standard theory on the writing of fictional prose. The book takes turns tackling the issues of story and plot, character, fantasy, prophecy, pattern and rhythm in the writing of novels; the elements which Forster...

Why is it that men, and not women, have always had power, wealth, and fame? Woolf cites the two keys to freedom: fixed income and one's own room. Foreword by Mary Gordon.

"Researchers from scholars to the general public will find this reference source an excellent starting place to find definitions, summaries, authors, artists, and regional and historical overviews of fairy tales, past and present."--"Outstanding Reference Sources," American Libraries, May 2001.

Presents the original text of Shakespeare's play side by side with a modern version, with marginal notes and explanations and full descriptions of each character.

A nostalgic and unflinchingly funny celebration of the horror fiction boom of the 1970's and 1980's, complete with story summaries and artist and author profiles.

A companion book to the acclaimed PBS series by the team who wrote The Civil War and Baseball furnishes a lavish photographic essay that celebrates the contributions of such artists as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and John Coltrane.

History of jazz that explains what jazz is, where it came from, and who created it and why, all within the broader context of American life and culture. Emphasizing its African American roots, Jazz traces the history of the music over the last hundred years. From ragtime and blues to the international craze for swing, from the heated protests of the avant-garde to the radical diversity of today's artists, Jazz describes the travails and triumphs of...