For each of Shakespeare's plays, provides an introduction, list of characters, plot summary, notes on reading the play, and notes on seeing the play. Also includes an introduction to Shakespeare and his time; a genre overview for each of the four types of play--history, comedy, tragedy, and romance; and overviews of selected non-dramatic poems.

Presents a selection of the poet's work with annotations providing background information to make the poems easier to understand, and offers critical material from many of Browning's contemporaries.

This volume offers students and book club members a handy and insight-filled guide to Morrison's works and their relation to current events and popular culture.
One of the few authors to attain both commercial success and literary acclaim, Toni Morrison, a longstanding member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, is widely read by high school students and general readers. Her books have been adapted into highly extolled films...

Essays examining Norman Rockwell's critical place in 20th-century American culture accompany 120 illustrations by the artist, including 80 in full color.

Edward Hopper's paintings are icons of American culture. His representations of gas stations, storefronts, cafeterias and hotel rooms embody the solitude of travel and adult life in the America of the thirties, forties and fifties. Because of the familiarity of his subject matter, Hopper has been pigeon-holed both historically, as an American realist, and thematically, as an artist of alienation. Mark Strand, recent poet laureate and writer of many...

Volume 5 Contents: Philosophy of Furniture--A Tale of Jerusalem--The Sphinx--Hop-Frog--The Man of the Crowd--Never Bet the Devil Your Head--Thou Art the Man--Why the Little Frenchman Wears his Hand in a Sling--Bon-Bon--Some Words with a Mummy--The Poetic Principle--Old English Poetry--[POEMS OF LATER LIFE]--The Raven--The Bells--Ulalume--To Helen--Annabel Lee--A Valentine--An Enigma--To my Mother--For Annie--To F--To Frances S. Osgood--Eldorado--Eulalie--A...

For François Truffaut, the lost secret of cinematic art is in the ability to generate emotion and reveal repressed fantasies through cinematic representation. Available in English for the first time, Anne Gillain's François Truffaut: The Lost Secret is considered by many to be the best book on the interpretation of Truffaut's films. Taking a psycho-biographical approach, Gillain shows how Truffaut's creative impulse was anchored in his personal...

In this pathbreaking new book, Mary P. Nichols challenges this, arguing that Allen's work, from Play It Again, Sam to Deconstructing Harry, is actually an attempt to explore and reconcile the tension between art and life.

"Whether you are new to the poetry and proses of Shakespeare, and in need of a guide through the complex plots and unfamiliar language, or looking for a fresh perspective on his much-loved plays and sonnets, this book will shed light on the work of one of world literature's greatest figures"--Page [4] of cover.

"This first book-length monograph on Terrence McNally shows how McNally's decades in the theater have both deepened and refined his thoughts on subjects like growing up gay in mannish, homophobic Texas, Shakespeare's legacy in contemporary drama, and the life-giving power of forgiveness"--