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Moved to honour a form of relation often subordinated to romantic and familial ties, and to explore a part of her own history, Hélène Giannecchini pieces together an alternative genealogy of queer ancestors. In searching and sensitive prose, she sifts the past to bring existences deemed 'marginal' into communion with each other, traces of which may remain only in memory and archival fragments.

Why do we read literature and how do we judge it? C. S. Lewis' classic An Experiment in Criticism springs from the conviction that literature exists for the joy of the reader and that books should be judged by the kind of reading they invite. He argues that "good reading", like moral action or religious experience, involves surrender to the work in hand and a process of entering fully into the opinions of others: "in reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself."

Oliver Twist is the well-loved tale of an orphan, who starts life in a workhouse and finds himself embroiled in London's criminal underworld, before being saved by a kind gentleman who knows something of his surprising family history. A satire and social commentary as well as a page-turning yarn, full of grit, wit, and some of the most memorable characters in English Literature. The second published serialised novel by Charles Dickens, The British Library remarks that "it has proven to be one of the best-loved novels in the history of literature".

The Oxford Inklings tells the story of the friendships, mutual influence, and common purpose of the Inklings - the literary circle which congregated around C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Meeting in pubs or Lewis' college rooms, they included an influential array of literary figures. They were, claimed poet and novelist John Wain, bent on 'the task of redirecting the whole current of contemporary art and life'. Tolkien and Lewis expert Colin Duriez unpacks the Inklings' origins, relationships, and the nature of their collaboration.

Have you ever been to a King Lear performance with the impression of not having understood everything? It's normal. Shakespeare's plays are the most beautiful of the theatrical repertoire, but you cannot go to a Shakespeare play if you do not have a minimum prepared this show: understand the issues, characters, context, cultural or historical references is indispensable. The same is true if you intend to read a play by William Shakespeare: our summaries will help you better understand what you have read.

Greed is the story of Kurt Janisch, an ambitious but frustrated country policeman, and the lonely women he seduces. It is a thriller set amid the mountains and small towns of southern Austria, where the investigation of a dead girl's body in a lake leads to the discovery of more than a single crime. In her signature style, Jelinek chronicles the exploitative nature of relations between men and women, and the cruelties of everyday life.

Gifted playwright George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan is based on the life and trials of Joan of Arc whose canonisation occurred shortly before he wrote this play. Based on both substantial information of her life in Medieval France and records of her trial, Shaw characterizes this unique woman caught between the forces of the Church and law in this classic production with a strong cast supporting Siobhan McKenna's fine interpretation of this tragic heroine.

John Keats' letters paint an unforgettably vivid and moving picture of the richly productive but also tragic final years of the poet's life. As he ponders on the nature of the writer's craft, he must first confront his brother's death from tuberculosis and then the imminent prospect of his own, tormented by the fear that he will not live to consummate his relationship with Fanny Brawne.

One of the most controversial Russian novels ever written, Fathers and Sons dramatizes the volcanic social conflicts that divided Russia just before the revolution, pitting peasants against masters, traditionalists against intellectuals, and fathers against sons. It is also a timeless depiction of the ongoing clash between generations.

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Chaucer's 'Troilus and Criseyde' by poet and writer Lavinia Greenlaw. One of the great works of English literature, this powerful, compelling story explores love from its first tentative beginnings through to passionate sensuality and eventual tragic...

From 1938 to 1969 the fictional crime novelist and detective Paul Temple, together with his Fleet Street journalist wife Steve, solved case after case in one of BBC radio’s most popular series. When young drama student Mary Dreisler is found murdered in her flat, her father instantly sends...

Beowulf is considered the finest heroic poem in Old English. It celebrates the character and exploits of Beowulf, a young nobleman and warrior, as he proves his superhuman strength and endurance. He also represents the ideal lord and vassal, rewarding his men generously and accomplishing glorious deeds to honor his king.

Throughout Proust's life, nine of his short stories remained unseen - the writer never spoke of them. Why did he choose not to publish them along with the others? One possible answer is that he was developing his themes in preparation for his masterpiece, In Search of Lost Time; another is that the stories were too audacious - too near to life - for the censorious society of the time. In these stories, published here for the first time, we find an intimate picture of a young author full of darkness and melancholy, longing to reveal his true self to the world.

Dans cet essai publié en 1915, Freud analyse, d’un point de vue psychanalytique, le bouleversement moral et psychique provoqué par la guerre. Il y aborde la désillusion causée par la guerre et notre rapport à la mort, en soulignant la permanence chez l'homme de pulsions destructrices.

Die Novelle von Thomas Mann entstand 1906, wurde aber erst 1921 veröffentlicht und persifliert Richard Wagners Musikdrama Die Walküre, indem sie die snobistische Selbstverliebtheit und inzestuöse Beziehung des reichen, jüdischen Zwillingspaars Siegmund und Sieglind beschreibt. Der Titel spielt auf eine Stelle in der Walküre an, in der Siegmund seine Zwillingsschwester Sieglinde mit den Worten „Braut und Schwester bist du dem Bruder / so blühe denn, Wälsungenblut" zum Inzest (und Ehebruch) auffordert.

Als Elsa im Sommer 1949 in Island ankommt, ist sie eine von vielen. Dennoch entsteht zwischen Grassodenhaus, leuchtenden Wiesen und endlosem Meer ein Zusammenleben, das sich Elsa irgendwann nicht mehr vom Leibe halten kann. Allein ihre Anwesenheit verändert die Dynamik auf dem Hof – besonders die der Bauernsöhne. Es gibt Erwartungen, ausgesprochene und unausgesprochene.

„Cine se scoală de dimineață departe ajunge. Proverbe și zicători românești” este un audiobook de referință dedicat înțelepciunii populare românești, reunind o amplă selecție de proverbe românești și zicători tradiționale care reflectă experiența de viață, valorile morale și spiritul practic al culturii române. Această colecție audio oferă acces direct la folclorul românesc autentic, exprimat în formule concise, memorabile și profund semnificative.

In this streamlined, lightly modernized version of an ancient legend, Cupid, the eternal God of Love, himself falls in love with the human Psyche. The tale can be enjoyed at many levels: as an exciting adventure, a romantic love story, a mystical parable of humanity’s quest for union with the divine, an expression of the troubled Irish political situation in the early nineteenth century, and for the unfailing beauty and musicality of its verse.

Together with William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats, George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788–1824) was one of the most iconic literary figures of the early Romantic movement. His verse covers a wide range of genres, including large scale narrative poems, sonnets, and satirical quips. Byron led a most adventurous life, which included many romantic affairs and he died fighting in the Greek War of Independence.

Antonin Suburre est bijoutier à Brioude. Au cours d'un braquage dans sa boutique, il abat l'un des voleurs, un jeune homme du nom de Chamseddine. Condamné pour homicide, Suburre découvre, en prison, l'œuvre du sociologue Pierre Bourdieu et l'opposition entre dominants et dominés qui fonde sa pensée.