Showing titles in Ancient, Classical & Medieval Literature

"Le bateau ivre" regroupe les poésies de Rimbaud écrits entre 1869 - il est alors âgé de 15 ans - et 1873. Il s'agit de textes en vers, assez courts, que l'auteur a présentés aux éditeurs ou aux écrivains parnassiens.

Il Canzoniere di Francesco Petrarca è uno dei capolavori della poesia di tutti i tempi, rappresentando la linfa vitale per tutta la storia letteraria dell’occidente. L’antologia propone una sostanziosa scelta di rime capaci ancora oggi di parlarci con immutata, universale intensità.

Beware the gossips! Lady Sneerwell and her hireling, Snake, are certainly up to no good in this timeless send-up of hypocritical manners. Thanks to their scandal-mongering, the comely Lady Teazle must fend off the slanderous barbs that have caught the ear of her elderly husband - as well as every other gossip in London! What follows is a torrent of mistaken identities and sex-crazed scheming in which the upper classes have never looked so low class.

Award-winning drama from SmartPass. The play is unabridged, with guided description to set the scene and fill in visual moments.

Sappho was a female poet who was well known in ancient Greece and Rome for her lyrical poetry. She was most famous for her poems involving women who loved women, and it is from her name that sapphic, a term referring to sexual relations between women, originated. This is a compendium of her surviving work, a collection of 54 fragments translated by Henry de Vere Stacpoole.

Legends tell of an unknown, hidden country where King Solomon's treasure is secreted. Many have searched for Solomon's diamonds and have never returned from their mysterious journey. Sir Henry Curtis' brother was lost on just such an adventure. Now, with a secret map, a regal guide, and the aid of Allan Quatermain, the renowned safari hunter, a group of three Englishmen journey to a secret land of witch doctors, warriors, and ancient mysteries.

The multi-award winning SmartPass full-cast, unabridged performance with comprehensive commentary and analysis for any student to fully understand and appreciate the play.

One of the most important books on William Shakespeare, this superb biography is both authoritative and extremely readable. It is the first modern biography of Shakespeare since the Victorian Age to pay full attention to his life and times, to his works, and to the numerous and subtle connections among them.

"The Iliad" tells the epic story of the war of Troy and its ten-year siege, bloody battles and great heroes. The mighty warrior Achilles, whose mother held him by the heel while immerging him in the river Styx to make him invulnerable, his brave companion Patroclus, kings and gods compete alike for the glory of ancient Greece, which is still resonating today.

Euripides' classic tragedy in a new verse translation and a new, full cast audio production. After Troy fell to the Greeks, Andromache, the wife of the slain Trojan king Hector, was taken as prize and given to Achilles' son Neoptolemus as his concubine. He treated her kindly, and in the fullness of time she bore him a son. But Neoptolemus went on to take as his wife Hermione, the daughter of Menelaus, but she could bear him no children. Enraged with jealousy, Hermione plots the death of Andromache.

William Shakespeare is of course England's greatest play right and revered the World over. The Merchant of Venice is a masterly tale and is on a par with many of his other works. In his creation of Venice Shakespeare revels in his characters and story. Perhaps best well known for the creation of the character Shylock in a world of money lending the play has survived admirably down the years. This play is performed by a quite magnificent cast and in the lead role of Shylock we have Michael Redgrave.

"Eugène Onéguine, le roman en vers de Pouchkine, est le plus grand livre jamais écrit en russe. Le traduire aura été le travail de ma vie. J'ai voulu en conserver une voix vivante, en demandant à ma mère, Daredjan, qui m'a transmis la langue et le connaît par cœur, de dire le texte russe. Ce n'est pas une lecture d'artiste, (les plus grands acteurs russes ont enregistré 'leur' Onéguine), c'est le témoignage d'une lecture familiale, de la façon dont ce roman, - dont ce poème - peut vivre, au jour le jour, dans le cœur de chaque Russe."

Angela Lansbury plays Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with matters of upbringing, marriage, moral rightness and education in her aristocratic society.

The multi-award winning SmartPass full-cast, unabridged performance with comprehensive commentary and analysis for any student to fully understand and appreciate the play.

The Iliad. Join Achilles at the Gates of Troy as he slays Hector to Avenge the death of Patroclus. Here is a story of love and war, hope and despair, and honor and glory. The recent major motion picture Helen of Troy starring Brad Pitt proves that this epic is as relevant today as it was twenty five hundred years ago when it was first written. So journey back to the Trojan War with Homer and relive the grandest adventure of all times. The Odyssey.

When sleep was at its deepest, night at its blackest, up from the mist-filled marsh came Grendel stalking. Thus begins the battle between good and evil, for lying in wait and anxious to challenge the ogre Grendel is a young man, strong-willed and fire-hearted. This man is Beowulf, whose heroic dragon-slaying deeds were sung in the courts of Anglo-Saxon England more than a thousand years ago.

Aristotle's Poetics is best known for its definitions and analyses of tragedy and comedy, but it also applies to truth and beauty as they are manifested in the other arts. In our age, when the natural and social sciences have dominated the quest for truth, it is helpful to consider why Aristotle claimed poetry is more philosophical and more significant than history. Like so many other works by Aristotle, the Poetics has dominated the way we have thought about all forms of dramatic performance in Europe and America ever since.

This drama follows the myth of Iphigenia at Aulis, where she is subject to human sacrifice by her father Agamemnon. He draws her and Clytemnestra, her mother, thither with a promise of marriage to Achilles. The necessities of sacrifice are both in dialogue and in choral poetry weighed and judged. This play concludes either in an epiphany of wisdom or of violence. A form for tragedy in English, distinguished by seven scenes of dialogue and seven choral performances, is established in this play.

Surviving the Trojan War was just the beginning of the adventure for Odysseus. What lay ahead was a journey home that would last for years as he encountered gods and monsters before finally returning home - only to face the greatest threat to his happiness of all. This translation of Homer's classic tale captures all the timeless excitement and gripping drama that have made it a favorite for centuries.

Paradise Lost is one of the most brilliant works of poetry ever written in the English language. With ease and grace, John Milton's words paint a picture of the fall of man, epically layering his words with all the innocence and treachery that such a fantastic tale deserves. Through Milton's words we witness the downfall of Adam and Eve as well as the epic battle between good and evil.