Showing titles in Ancient, Classical & Medieval Literature

Combined for great value! The multi award-winning SmartPass study guide with and without commentary options. This is a full-cast, unabridged performance with comprehensive commentary and analysis for any student to fully understand and appreciate the play. Peel away the layers of Priestley's complex drama to appreciate this powerful warning, wrapped up in the genre of a gripping detective story, and truly understand that "We don't live alone. We are members of one body."

A short section from Milton's epic poem, expressing how much sweeter the world is when you are with the one you love, read by Jenny Agutter.

The Waste Land is a poem by T. S. Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. Published in 1922, the 434-line poem first appeared in the United Kingdom in the October issue of Eliot's The Criterion and in the United States in the November issue of The Dial. It was published in book form in December 1922. Eliot's poem loosely follows the legend of the Holy Grail and the Fisher King combined with vignettes of contemporary British society.

Agamemnon is the first part of the Oresteia trilogy by the Greek playwright Aeschylus. Each of the plays that form part of The Oresteia can stand alone, but they perfectly complement one other in a longer narrative. Agamemnon provides the seed of all the themes that are explored in part two, The Libation Bearers, and three, The Eumenides.

Have you ever heard the sounds of Hell? Felt the darkness and the ice? Tasted the burnt air on your tongue? Dante’s Inferno will give you a flavor of the wretchedness of sin that you will never forget. The images and action that bring you down into the very center of judgment and consequence, into that eternal realm of woe, will stick to the ribcages of your mind, and change the way you see the world, the devil, and your own flesh.

Gripping tales that abound with fantastic characters and astonishing twists and turns, Greek myths confront what it means to be mortal in a world of powerful forces beyond human control. Little wonder that they continue to fascinate readers thousands of years after they were first told. Gods and Mortals is a major new telling of ancient Greek myths by one of the world's preeminent experts.

Twelfth Night, nowadays one of Shakespeare's best-loved and most-admired comedies, was not always so regarded: Samuel Pepys saw the play three times in the 1660s and judged it 'silly'. Modern audiences, critics, and directors seem better attuned to its delicate counter pointing of romance and realism....

A bloody revolt by a North African prince and a plot to seize control of Rome are the subjects of two short masterpieces of ancient history by the illustrious Roman chronicler, Sallust. He could not have chosen two more dramatic episodes in the long history of this city.

Oedipus Rex is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed about 429 BC (noted classicist Gilbert Murray, translator of this version of the play, rendered the title as Oedipus, King of Thebes). It tells the story of Oedipus, a man who becomes the king of Thebes, whilst in the process unwittingly fulfilling a prophecy that he would kill his father Laius and marry his mother Jocasta. The play is an example of classic tragedy, notably containing an emphasis upon how Oedipus's own faults contribute to his downfall.

The Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso (Ovid) is best known for his epic poem Metamorphoses, a collection of myths and legends from Ancient Greece and Rome. His works continue to be widely read and admired, and he is regarded as one of the most significant poets of ancient Rome. Ovid’s love poems are both brilliant and evocative. In Amores, the romantic mysteriousness of elegiac love-poetry is exploded by his witty and ironic treatment of the form. Ars Amatoria and Remedia Amoris both lay down the rules for the game of love, which both sexes can play.

A passage of diverse heroics and distant perseverance in quest of the Golden Fleece is with transcendent narrative and canonic rhythm in the Argonautica recounted. Jason and the Argonauts, sailing from Iolcos on the Argo, pass into the Euxine, or Black Sea, on their voyage to Colchis at the eastern end of the sea. F L Light's translation re-embodies the motive energy of metric Apollonius in this epic of golden probation in endurance and dispatch.

For years, the Greeks have lain siege to the walls of Troy, the final act in the greatest war the ancient world has ever seen. Rivers of blood have been shed in the fight, but it takes one man to end the conflict: the brilliant strategist Ulysses, who defeats the Trojans with a simple trick - a wooden horse with an army inside. Victorious, Ulysses and his men prepare to make the long trip home to Ithaca. It will be an odyssey to remember.

In the beginning, the world is spoken into existence with one word: “Earth.” There are no inhabitants, and no sun—only the broad sky, silent sea, and sovereign Framer and Shaper. Then come the twin heroes Hunahpu and Xbalanque. Wielding blowguns, they begin a journey to hell and back, ready to confront the folly of false deities as well as death itself, in service to the world and to humanity. This is the story of the Mayan Popol Vuh, “the book of the woven mat,” one of the only epics indigenous to the Americas.

The Divine Comedy is a narrative poem by Dante Alighieri that describes the the pilgrim Dante’s travels through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Paradise (Paradiso). This trio of books, or cantiche, is one example of the number three as a theme throughout the work. Each book consists of 33 cantos, which—added to an introductory canto—totals 100. Each cantica follows a pattern of nine phases plus one for a total of ten: nine circles of hell plus Lucifer, nine rings of Mount Purgatory plus the garden of Eden, nine celestial bodies of Paradise followed by the Empyrean essence of God.

The secret of their identities has fueled debate for hundreds of years: Who are the nameless nobleman and the dark-haired mistress? And what did they do to inspire the creation of more than 150 deeply intimate poems? Whether William Shakespeare's sonnets are pure fiction or the lingering echo of an autobiographical account, this exquisitely written collection defied traditional love poem conventions to explore the many layers of romance, the dangers of lust, and the nuances of beauty.

The Odyssey is an epic poem, written by the ancient Greek philosopher Homer, and considered to be the second oldest piece of western literature still in existence. Scholars believe it was written at the end of the eighth century BC. Still heavily used in schools because of its unique literary makeup and historical value, the poems follow Greek hero Odysseus, as he journeys home after the 10-year long Trojan War. His journey home takes another 10 years, and Odysseus encounters many obstacles.

This is a story from the Canterbury Tales I: Modern Verse Translation collection. Chaucer's greatest work, written towards the end of the fourteenth century, paints a brilliant picture of medieval life, society and values. The stories range from the romantic, courtly idealism of "The Knight's Tale" to the joyous bawdy of the Miller's; all are told with a freshness and vigor in this modern verse translation that make them a delight to hear.

"Les Métamorphoses sont composées au début de l'ère chrétienne par le poète latin Ovide, juste avant sa relégation sur les rives de la mer Noire. Ce recueil est constitué d'une multitude de courts récits inspirés des mythologies, des épopées et des tragédies grecques et romaines. Un livre-monde, tour à tour édifiant, galant et burlesque dont la voix inspirée de Michel Vuillermoz, sociétaire de la Comédie-Française, révèle l'esprit et les saveurs." Claude Colombini Frémeaux

The Lower Depths, also titled At the Bottom, is a 1902 play by the Russian author and playwright Maxim Gorky (1868-1936). This work portrays a group of wretched, impoverished outcasts living in a shelter near the Volga River. They play cards and tell stories, and are briefly uplifted by a new resident called Luca who gives them hope. When he goes off, the illusion of hope collapses, and the result is murder and suicide.

Francesco Petrarch’s Canzoniere (translated in English as ‘Scattered Rhymes’) is a collection of 14th century poems famed for their exploration of love, grief, spirituality and nature. Peter Thornton's accessible new translation brings Petrarch to the 21st century in direct, rhymed, English verse - for academics and poetry enthusiasts alike.