Lang discussed literary subjects with the same humour and acidity that marked his criticism of fellow folklorists, in Books and Bookmen (1886).

To the Viscountess Wolseley -- Preface -- Elzevirs -- Ballade of the Real and Ideal -- Curiosities of Parish Registers -- The Rowfant Books -- To F. L. -- Some Japanese Bogie-books -- Ghosts in the Library -- Literary Forgeries -- Bibliomania in France -- Old French Title-pages -- A Bookman's Purgatory -- Ballade of the Unattainable -- Lady Book-lovers....

In Sappho’s Journal, the author brings the famous Greek poet Sappho back to life in a finely crafted novel that reveals her sense of beauty, her loves, her reflections, her inner world. Based on a careful study of ancient Greece and Sappho’s surviving fragments of poetry, Bartlett recreates Sappho in a lyrical account of the life, passion, fears, and faith of this remarkable woman whose intimate journal takes us back to 642 B.C. The book includes a Foreword by the well-known Sappho scholar and translator Willis Barnstone....

FOREWORD by Willis Barnstone xi PREFACE by Steven James Bartlett xiii SAPPHO’S JOURNAL 1 ABOUT THE AUTHOR 151 COLOPHON 153

AGAINST THE WAR follows the intertwined lives of four friends, rowing team mates, who graduate from college at the height of the Vietnam War and struggle to make decisions about the war and the military draft. Two become involved in the war, one as a combat pilot and one as a medic. The other two of the four friends, in trying to avoid the war, become involved in the “war on poverty,” the anti-war movement, and the counterculture that arises from the anti-war movement. In the course of the four and a half years covered in the novel, the four men also meet and court the women who become their eventual spouses. These women become part of the story as they position themselves with respect to the war and the women's liberation movement. In the course of this, also, the eight young people of the novel find themselves within an ever growing phenomenon involving thousands of American youths like themselves reacting to the same far-reaching dynamics of the counterculture and the war. "Menge's book reminds me of both Theodore Dreiser and John Dos Passos. It's a vast panorama with enormous attention to detail." David Willson, Vietnam War F...

234. Morris is relocated from Sam Neua to a Lao village From Sam Neua, the group that included prisoner of war James Morris headed southwest, so far as he could determine from occasional glimpses of the sun through the canopy of leaves above the road on which the caravan was traveling. Then the shield of leaves dropped away briefly and Morris saw that the wagon was moving along on a road about 400 feet above a town with narrow streets and Chinese-style pagoda roofs. Some of the buildings were demolished and others were in flame. “That is Sam Neua, the actual town,” the third passenger informed. “Where was the camp then?” “Place called Xanthon. Just a few miles away.” “The damage here is from bombing?” “Yes, American planes.” “You’re a soldier?” Morris asked. The man was an American, Morris had already decided, based on the easy informality that he had learned set Americans off from other English-speaking people overseas. “No, I’m a clergyman. Catholic priest.” “Is that so?” “Yes. I’ve been working up in the mountains north of Long Thiueu for about five years. My name is Leonard Blair.” “Well, pleased to meet you, Father....

PART I: UP AGAINST THE DRAFT 1. Steward brings his 1-A letter to the boat club 2. Brandt and Morris argue about the Vietnam war 3. O’Rourke steps in to bring the crew on task 4. Morris offers Steward a way out of the draft 5. Brandt asks about his dad’s experience in World War Two 6. Brandt struggles to accommodate to Mary Kass’s cultural interests 7. Brandt leaves Mary behind to avoid an audience discussion 8. Mary goes after Matt; they come upon Morris in uniform 9. Brandt rescues Morris in a fight with an antiwar demonstrator 10. Steward gets some heartfelt advice from Barbara Carpenter 11. Steward visits his draft board to ask about his status 12. Steward bores Mary’s sister, Ellen; she winds up with Morris 13. Matt and Mary discuss their relationship and make a commitment 14. VISTA trainee Brandt learns about social problems, meets Dennis Kelly 15. Steward starts Air Force ROTC camp with roommate Orin Brown 16. Steward gives the Air Force camp his sincere best effort 17. Steward “orientates” with Air Force social worker Gary Hansard 18. Brandt arrives at his assigned VISTA worksite in Crabtree, Kentucky 19. B...

Neither the name of Shakespeare nor that of Stratford appears directly in this short piece by James, and yet both are absolutely central to his plot. The story has to do with Mr. and Mrs. Gedge, tempted away from a dreary northern town library, which he runs, to become the wardens – caretakers and tour guides – of the house where the greatest writer of the English language was born, and in which he grew up. Or did he? There is, after all, a paucity of facts about His life (in James's text, that pronoun is always capitalized, as befits a deity) and only the slenderest of historical evidence about the existence of such a man. No matter; what is important is the myth of his life, and the myth needs to be cared for and fostered so that crowds upon crowds of tourists may come, and, with a proper reverence, worship at His Birthplace. And yet it is only myth, and the more he thinks of it, the unhappier poor honest Gedge becomes (to Mrs. Gedge, however, a job is a job, and too much speculation on reality might perhaps lead to dismissal). James himself was high skeptical about the Shakespeare question (who actually did write all those plays?...

An American heiress nicknamed the Manitou Princess (after her daddy's richest silver mine) is devastated to find that her fiancé only loves her money, so she does what anyone might do: she bolts for Europe, dons male attire and sets out on a walking tour of the Alps, passing as a teenage boy. Though professing hatred of all men, she soon falls in with a just-jilted English lord, aptly named Monty Lane, who is attempting to walk off a broken heart of his own. The Princess Passes presents the ups and downs of their alpine relationship through the unpenetrating eyes of Lord Lane. Why, he wonders, is he thus drawn to this beautiful youth? And has the boy a sister? Co-author Alice Livingston, of Poughkeepsie, New York, mentions in her memoirs that she sailed for Europe after a boyfriend tried to shoot her. In London she met literary editor Charles Williamson and began writing for the story magazines of media mogul Lord Northcliffe. At one point she found herself scribbling six serials simultaneously, on the income from which she and Williamson married. She later spun some of her husband's detailed descriptive notes made during their moto...

The Man Who Laughs is a novel by Victor Hugo, originally published in April 1869 under the French title L'Homme qui rit. Also published under the title By Order of the King....

Fiction

Growth of the Soil (Markens Grøde) is the novel by Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun which won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. The essential elements of this novel are expressed in the words of the English translator W.W. Worster in his footnote in December 1920: 'It is the life story of a man in the wilds, the genesis and gradual development of a homestead, the unit of humanity, in the unfilled, uncleared tracts that still remain in the Norwegian Highlands. It is an epic of earth; the history of a microcosm. Its dominant note is one of patient strength and simplicity; the mainstay of its working is the tacit, stern, yet loving alliance between Nature and the Man who faces her himself, trusting to himself and her for the physical means of life, and the spiritual contentment with life which she must grant if he be worthy. . .The story is epic in its magnitude, in its calm, steady progress and unhurrying rhythm, in its vast and intimate humanity. The author looks upon his characters with a great, all-tolerant sympathy, aloof yet kindly, as a god.'...

Fiction

“He had faith in his good fortune, in that power of attraction which he felt within him - a power so irresistible that all women yielded to it.” Though firmly set in 1880s Paris, Maupassant's gripping story of an amoral journalist on the make could, with only slight modifications of detail, be updated to the 1960s, to the Reagan-Thatcher years, or maybe to the present day. Anti-hero Georges Duroy is a down-at-heel ex-soldier of no particular talent. Good-looking but somewhat lacking in self-confidence, he discovers an ability to control and exploit women - whereupon his career in journalism takes off, fuelled by the corruption of colleagues and government arrivistes. He may be a provincial Don Juan, but he is neither accident-prone nor heading for a fall... A Hollywood screen adaptation is in preparation at the time of recording. (Summary by Martin Geeson)...

Fiction

American friends begin to summer in a beautiful French country house when WWI breaks out. They decide not to evacuate as the war encroaches. Their interactions are interwoven by the stories that they take turns telling after dinner each night to stimulate their nightly conversation and distract their thoughts from the war. (Summary by A.L. Gramour)...

Fiction

A few years before the great Civil War, a young English woman and her father, having left the security of their wagon train, are lost in the unforgiving Californian desert, looking in vain for the landmark that marks the short-cut across those last western mountains which would lead them to the home of an old friend. George Castlewood gives all the water and rations he has to his daughter, Erema, and dies just a short distance from help. Rescued by kind Sampson “Uncle Sam” Gundry, the family friend they had been seeking, Erema lives for a time at his saw mill. One day, one Mr. Goad, a bounty-hunter from England, arrives at the mill, offering $10,000 for proof of Lord Castlewood’s death and custody of his young daughter. Lord Castlewood had been accused of the crime of patricide 15 years earlier, escaped from jail and been on the lam ever since. Erema, believing her father’s innocence and determined to clear his good name, returns to England to discover the long-lost secrets of her family and the cloudy circumstances of the murder of her grandfather. Told by Erema herself, this is a grand story of mystery and the coming of age of an ...

Fiction

How to describe this book? In a word – savage. For those regular Le Queux mystery listeners, this book is a step in a different direction by the author. The book starts out like most Le Queux. Our hero, Richard Scarsmere, befriends an individual (Omar) at an English boarding school who turns out to be an African prince from a kingdom called Mo. Omar receives a visit from one of his mother’s trusted advisers. His mother, the Great White Queen, seeks him to return home immediately. Omar convinces Scarsmere to return to Africa with him since there is little opportunity awaiting him in London. What follows is a tale of deceit, treachery, barbarity, and mystery. (Summary by Tom Weiss)...

Adventure, Fiction, Mystery

Described by the author, best known for his King Solomon's Mines, as a tale of victorious faith, this story begins on a Sunday afternoon in an English church. Most of the book, though, is set in Africa, and the adventure story is as engaging as any of Haggard's African tales. What makes this one different is the religious question: What has happened to miracles in the church? Is there any power left in Jesus' promise, Whoso that believeth in me, the works that I do he shall do also, and whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do?...

Fiction, Adventure, Religion

Paul and Virginia was first published in 1787. The novel's title characters are very good friends since birth who fall in love, but sadly die when the ship Le Saint-Geran is wrecked. The story is set in the island of Mauritius under French rule, then named Île de France, which the author had visited. Written on the eve of the French Revolution, the novel is hailed as Bernardin's finest work. It records the fate of a child of nature corrupted by the false, artificial sentimentality that prevailed at the time among the upper classes of France.(Summary by Wikipedia)...

Fiction, Literature, Romance, Tragedy

Edgar Wallace, perhaps best known for creating King Kong, wrote dozens of novels. The Green Rust, his twelfth crime novel, is one of three books he published in 1919. It begins at the English home of the severely ill American millionaire, John Millinborn. With him are his best friend, Kitson, and a local doctor, the Dutch (or is he?) van Heerden. He is murdered in the first chapter, having just left his fortune to his niece, Oliva, whom he has never met. Before he dies, he asks Kitson to find and watch over Oliva. (Introduction by Kirsten Wever)...

Mystery, Fiction

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century Middle English alliterative romance outlining an adventure of Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur's Round Table. In the tale, Sir Gawain accepts a challenge from a mysterious warrior who is completely green, from his clothes and hair to his beard and skin. The Green Knight offers to allow anyone to strike him with his axe if the challenger will take a return blow in a year and a day. Gawain accepts, and beheads him in one blow, only to have the Green Knight stand up, pick up his head, and remind Gawain to meet him at the appointed time. The story of Gawain's struggle to meet the appointment and his adventures along the way demonstrate the spirit of chivalry and loyalty. (Wikipedia) This 20th Century rendering is by WA Neilson....

Fiction, Literature

Illegitimacy, false identity, and bankruptcy are the major elements of Sir Walter Scott's 1816 novel, The Antiquary. Set in the period of the French Revolution, the novel's hero, Lovel, struggles to gain repute and the hand of his beloved despite his uncertain parentage. During these pursuits, he befriends the title's antiquary, Johnathan Oldbuck, who finds Lovel a captive audience to his scholarly studies and a tragic likeness to his own disappointments in love. Readers will discover whether Lovel's acts of bravery and courage ultimately earn him the birth and fortunes of a nobleman. (Summary by S. Kovalchik)...

Fiction, Romance

The story follows the adventures of Sir Philip Harclay, who returns to medieval England to find that the castle seat and estate of his friend Lord Lovel have been usurped. A series of revelations, horrors and betrayals climax in a scene of single combat in which good battles evil for the return of the prize. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

Fiction, Historical Fiction, Horror/Ghost stories

Set in an English-Scottish border village during the waning days of the Napoleonic era, this adventure story introduces us to Jock Calder, whose quiet way of life is shattered when a mysterious stranger steps ashore near his home. The stranger changes forever the lives of Jock, his cousin Edie, and his best friend Jim, sending the young men into the jaws of the final battle to defeat The Great Shadow that threatens to devour the whole of Europe. Don't look for Sherlock Holmes in this well-written tale, but do expect a wonderful glimpse of life at the end of the Napoleonic era, including an exciting rendition of The Battle of Waterloo. (Introduction by Christine Dufour)...

Fiction, Adventure, Historical Fiction

Poems by Jan De Raeymaeker

The Butt --------- Don't forget the butt Do you feel sorry for it? Shake your head sadly at its down-trodden looks So abused, now frayed and thrown away But observe the lipstick on its collar It has felt the embrace of a woman Or some painted lips Has been ignited: set on fire with desire Has been loved – however briefly Has been longingly handled, touched: caressed Sucked on wantonly Pulled into a heaving chest It lies now, not looking the best: broken Its core crudely, publicly, exposed Its heart torn open Used and tarred, then discarded Look at that butt Feel your pity But remind yourself It has known more life and love than most in this city ...

TABLE OF CONTENTS Car conch 5 Canal, early morning 6 Wind and demon 7 The Butt 8 Playthings 9 History 11 Wet drive 12 Silhouette street 13 Hug 14 The key 15 Steeple 16 Love sleeps 17 Rush 18 Lost scobe 20 A miracle at Michaels 21 Delusion 22 Searching for words 23 Mawes 24 This face 25 She puzzled 26 Finding his fun 27 Olive 29 Street-sweeper 30 Fire waking 31 Collectables 32 Beating my boundaries 33 Coffee quiff 34 Bite 35 The sparkling raspberry 36 In search of sin 37 Beautiful Slant 38 Burning morning 39 Wait at the Tate 40 Stifled life 41 Knee pop 42 Miserable weather 43 Mate of fate 44 Old Dublin anew 45 A ma 47 Dublin city marathon 48 ...

A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is a novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. With well over 200 million copies sold, it is among the most famous works of fiction. The novel depicts the plight of the French peasantry demoralized by the French aristocracy in the years leading up to the revolution, the corresponding brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats in the early years of the revolution, and many unflattering social parallels with life in London during the same time period. It follows the lives of several protagonists through these events. The most notable are Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton. Darnay is a French once-aristocrat who falls victim to the indiscriminate wrath of the revolution despite his virtuous nature, and Carton is a dissipated British barrister who endeavours to redeem his ill-spent life out of his unrequited love for Darnay's wife, Lucie Manette....

Fiction, Historical Fiction, Literature