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Tales from Shakespeare (Puffin Classics)
by Charles Lamb Mary LambWith an introduction by Dame Judi Dench.TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE is a perfect introduction to Shakespeare's greatest plays. Charles and Mary Lamb vividly bring to life the power of Hamlet and Othello, and the fun of As You Like It. They never lose the feel of Shakespeare's language and the tales are classic literature in their own right.
Tales from Shakespeare
by Charles and LambAs children, Charles and Mary Lamb took great delight in exploring their benefactor’s extensive library; as adults they began writing children’s books together that also appealed to all generations. In Tales of Shakespeare they wished to bring their favourite plays to life for children too young to read and appreciate Shakespeare’s work. This collection of twenty of Shakespeare’s stories begins with The Tempest, which explores themes of magic, power and reconciliation, and ends with Pericles, Prince of Tyre, an exotic play of love, loss and family ties. Between these two tales are twelve romances and comedies, all written by Mary, and six tragedies, all written by Charles. Each tale is told chronologically and retains much of Shakespeare’s lyricism, phrasing and rhythm. Together, they form a captivating and accessible introduction to the Bard’s work.
Tales from the Caribbean
by Trish CookeA collection of favourite tales gathered from the many different islands of the Caribbean, one of the world's richest sources of traditional storytelling. From the very first Kingfisher to Anansi the Spider Man, these lively retellings full of humour and pathos, are beautifully retold by Trish Cooke.The book includes endnotes with a glossary, additional information as well as ideas for activities that children can do to explore the stories further.
Tales from the Decameron
by Giovanni BoccaccioBawdy and moving, hilarious and reflective - these stories offer the very best of Boccaccio's Decameron in a brilliant, playful new translation.This hugely enjoyable volume collects the best stories of Boccaccio's masterwork in a fresh, accessible new translation by Peter Hainsworth. It includes such celebrated, thought-provoking tales as 'Isabella and the Pot of Basil' (famously adapted by Keats) and 'Patient Griselda' alongside many boisterous and daring stories featuring faithless wives, philandering priests and curious nuns.
Tales from the Thousand and One Nights
by William HarveySometimes known as the Arabian Nights, Tales from the Thousand and One Nights includes some of the world's best-loved tales, including such classics as Aladdin and 'Sindbad the Sailor' The tales told by Scheherazade over a thousand and one nights to delay her execution by the vengeful King Shahryar have become among the most popular in both Eastern and Western literature. From the epic adventures of 'Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp' to the farcical 'Young Woman and her Five Lovers' and the social criticism of 'The Tale of the Hunchback', the stories depict a fabulous world of all-powerful sorcerers, jinns imprisoned in bottles and enchanting princesses. But despite their imaginative extravagance, the Tales are also anchored to everyday life by their bawdiness and realism, providing a full and intimate record of medieval Eastern world.In this selection, N.J. Dawood presents the reader with an unexpurgated translation of the finest and best-known tales, preserving their spirited narrative style in lively modern English. In his introduction, he discusses their origins in the East and their differences from Classical Arabic literature, and examines English translations of the tales since the eighteenth century.
Tales of Ancient Egypt (Puffin Classics)
by Roger Lancelyn GreenMichael Rosen, Professor of Children's Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London, and bestselling author, poet and broadcaster, introduces these great myths and legends of Ancient Egypt.Travel back deep in time to Ancient Egypt and discover the great myths and legends of the Sun God, Amen-Ra; the love story of Osiris and Isis; the curse of the book of Thoth and many other captivating tales of magic, treasure and aventure from one of the oldest and most fascinating civilizations in the world.
Tales of Angria
by Charlotte BronteIn 1834, Charlotte Brontë and her brother Branwell created the imaginary kingdom of Angria in a series of tiny handmade books. Continuing their saga some years later, the five 'novelettes' in this volume were written by Charlotte when she was in her early twenties, and depict a aristocratic beau monde in witty, racy and ironic language. She creates an exotic, scandalous atmosphere of intrigue and destructive passions, with a cast ranging from the ageing rake Northangerland and his Byronic son-in-law Zamorna, King of Angria, to Mary Percy, Zamorna's lovesick wife, and Charles Townshend, the cynical, gossipy narrator. Together the tales provide a fascinating glimpse into the mind and creative processes of the young writer who was to become one of the world's great novelists.
Tales of Belkin and Other Prose Writings
by Alexander PushkinAlexander Pushkin was Russia's first true literary genius. Best known for his poetry, he also wrote sparkling prose that revealed his national culture with elegance and understated humour. Here, his gift for portraying the Russian people is fully revealed. The Tales of Belkin, his first prose masterpiece, presents a series of interlinked stories narrated by a good-hearted Russian squire - among them 'The Shot', in which a duel is revisited after many years, and the grotesque 'The Undertaker'. Elsewhere, works such as the novel-fragment Roslavlev and the Egyptian Nights, the tale of an Italian balladeer seeking an audience in St. Petersberg, demonstrate the wide range of Pushkin's fiction. A Journey to Arzrum, the final piece in this collection, offers an autobiographical account of Pushkin's own experiences in the 1829 war between Russia and Turkey, and remains one of the greatest of all pieces of journalistic adventure writing.
Tales of Hoffmann
by E.T.A. HoffmannThis selection of Hoffmann's finest short stories vividly demonstrates his intense imagination and preoccupation with the supernatural, placing him at the forefront of both surrealism and the modern horror genre. Suspense dominates tales such as Mademoiselle de Scudery, in which an apprentice goldsmith and a female novelist find themselves caught up in a series of jewel thefts and murders. In the sinister Sandman, a young man's sanity is tormented by fears about a mysterious chemist, while in The Choosing of a Bride a greedy father preys on the weaknesses of his daughter's suitors. Master of the bizarre, Hoffman creates a sinister and unsettling world combining love and madness, black humour and bewildering illusion.
The Tales of Ise
by Donald Keene and Peter MacMillan Peter MacmillanOne of the three seminal works of Japanese literature, this beautiful collection of poems and tales offers an unparalleled insight into ancient Japan.Along with the Tale of Genji and One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each, The Tales of Ise is considered one of the three most important works of Japanese literature. A poem-tale collection from the early Heian period, it contains many stories of amorous adventures, faithful friendship and travels in exile, framing the exquisite poems at the work's heart. The Tales of Ise has influenced waka, Noh, tales and diaries since the time it was written, and is still the source of endless inspiration in novels, poetry, manga and cartoons. This volume has been translated by Peter MacMillan and includes a preface by the renowned Japanologist Donald Keene.'MacMillan's Tales of Ise adds to the treasures of Japanese literature that can now be enjoyed in English translation. It is the most poetic translation of this work to date and establishes MacMillan as an outstanding translator of Japanese poetry' - Donald Keene
Tales of Mystery and Terror
by Edgar Allan PoeThirteen stories of horror, suspense and the supernatural. 'The Pit and the Pendulum', 'The Fall of the House of Usher' and 'The Black Cat' are just three of Edgar Allan Poe's most famous tales in this chilling collection.
Tales of the German Imagination from the Brothers Grimm to Ingeborg Bachmann
by Various'It was a very momentous day, the day on which I was to be slaughtered' Bringing together tales of melancholy and madness, nightmare and fantasy, this is a new collection of the most haunting German stories from the past 200 years. Ranging from the Romantics of the early nineteenth century to works of contemporary fiction, it includes Hoffmann's hallucinatory portrait of terror and insanity 'The Sandman'; Chamisso's influential black masterpiece 'Peter Schlemiel', where a man barters his own shadow; Kafka's chilling, disturbing satire 'In the Penal Colony'; the Dadaist surrealism of Kurt Schwitters' 'The Onion'; and Bachmann's modern fairy tale 'The Secrets of the Princess of Kagran'. Macabre, dreamlike and expressing deep unconscious fears, these stories are also spiked with unsettling humour, showing stylistic daring as well as giving insight into the darkest recesses of the human condition.Peter Wortsman's powerful translations are accompanied by brief overviews of the lives of each author, and an introduction discussing the notion of 'angst' and the stories' place in the context of German history.Translated, selected and edited with an introduction by Peter Wortsman
Tales of the Jazz Age (Collins Classics Ser. #Vol. 1)
by F. Scott Fitzgerald'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' sees a baby born in 1860 begin life as an old man and then age backwards. F. Scott Fitzgerald hinted at this kind of inversion when he called his era 'a generation grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken'. Perhaps nowhere in American fiction has this 'Lost Generation' been more vividly preserved than in Fitzgerald's short fiction. Spanning the early twentieth-century American landscape, this collection captures, with Fitzgerald's signature blend of enchantment and disillusionment, America during the Jazz Age.
Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange
by Anonymous AnonymousOn the shrouded corpse hung a tablet of green topaz with the inscription: 'I am Shaddad the Great. I conquered a thousand cities; a thousand white elephants were collected for me; I lived for a thousand years and my kingdom covered both east and west, but when death came to me nothing of all that I had gathered was of any avail. You who see me take heed: for Time is not to be trusted.'Dating from at least a millennium ago, these are the earliest known Arabic short stories, surviving in a single, ragged manuscript in a library in Istanbul. Some found their way into The Arabian Nights but most have never been read in English before. Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange has monsters, lost princes, jewels beyond price, a princess turned into a gazelle, sword-wielding statues and shocking reversals of fortune.
Tales of the Pacific (Penguin Modern Classics)
by Jack LondonIf you know London primarily through novels like WHITE FANG, these stories will provide a new perspective. Full of intriguing characters and snippets of pidgin, they also highlight London's concern with social issues.
Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad: The True Story of an Unlikely Friendship
by Bee Rowlatt May WitwitA London mum and Iraqi teacher should have nothing in common. Yet now, despite their differences, they're the firmest of friends . . . Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad by Bee Rowlatt and May Witwit is a touching and poignant portrait of an unlikely friendship.Would you brave gun-toting militias for a cut and blow dry?May's a tough-talking, hard-smoking, lecturer in English. She's also an Iraqi from a Sunni-Shi'ite background living in Baghdad, dodging bullets before breakfast, bargaining for high heels in bombed-out bazaars and battling through blockades to reach her class of Jane Austen-studying girls. Bee, on the other hand, is a London mum of three, busy fighting off PTA meetings and chicken pox, dealing with dead cats and generally juggling work and family while squabbling with her globe-trotting husband over the socks he leaves lying around the house.They should have nothing in common.But when a simple email brings them together, they discover a friendship that overcomes all their differences of culture, religion and age. Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad is the story of two women who share laughter and tears, and swap their confidences, dreams and fears. And, between the grenades, the gossip, the jokes and the secrets, they also hatch an ingenious plan to help May escape the bombings of Baghdad . . .Bee Rowlatt is a former show-girl turned BBC World Service journalist. A mother of three and would-be do-gooder, she can find keeping her career going while caring for her three daughters (and husband) pretty tough, even in leafy North London. May Witwit is an Iraqi expert in Chaucer and sender of emails depicting kittens in fancy dress. She is prepared to face every hazard imaginable to make that all-important hairdresser's appointment.
Talking About O'Dwyer
by C. K. SteadIn his new bachelor flat, too close to comfort to his former family home, Mike Newall, Oxford don and Wittgenstein scholar seeks to rebuild his life, but feels increasingly weighed down by the past.When Donovan O'Dwyer, his colleague and fellow expatriate New Zealander dies, Newall attends the funeral. Afterwards, Newall reveals to his old friend Bertie Winterstoke the secret that O'Dwyer carried with him to his grave. During the battle for Crete in the Second World War, a soldier in New Zealand's Maori battalion died in harrowing circumstances. Believing his commanding officer, O'Dwyer, was responsible for the death, the soldier's family placed a makutu, a Maori curse, on him.Winterstoke demands to be told all, and in the days that follow Newall obliges. But Newall's life and O'Dwyer's are curiously interconnected and Newall finds that he must interweave O'Dwyer's tale with his own - his childhood in New Zealand, his self imposed exile in Oxford, his marriage and divorce, the pilgrimage recently made to Croatia and the promise of a new beginning that this may hold. Gradually, through a series of entwined stories, beautifully told, reflecting on decades of war and of peace, on memory and its failures, and on language and its limitations, Mike Newall comes to see a way of laying the ghosts of O'Dwyer's - and his own - past to rest.
Talking Dead
by Neil RollinsonShortlisted for the 2015 Costa Poetry PrizeLike Neil Rollinson’s earlier books, Talking Dead is a refreshment of the senses: lifting the lid on the human condition in a heartfelt celebration of the act of being, whether in moments of love or mortality, sex or feasting.In the central sequence of the book – a meditation on the space between life and death – the dead speak of their final earthly moments with a liberating sense of fascination, and a luminous awe. Elsewhere we enjoy al fresco sex, astronomy via many pints in the Cat and Fiddle, and the deliverance of an Indian monsoon after weeks of thirst and drought. In ‘Christmas in Andalucia’ two lovers Skype each other achingly across hundreds of miles – ‘I am full of loss and longing,’ the poet says, ‘the heart is hewn from elm and oak and mistletoe.’As provocative, sensual and subversive as ever, these poems seek and find the numinous in the everyday: some element of ritual or wonder that transforms experience. Although the spectre of darkness is never far away, it is the spirit of pleasure that endures, and we discover to our delight, as D. H. Lawrence did, that the Dionysian finally prevails over the Apollonian.
Talking Dirty
by Carole McKenzie‘Women should be obscene and not heard’ – John Lennon‘The only unnatural act is that which you cannot perform' – Alfred Kinsey‘Fat people are brilliant in bed: if I’m sitting on top of you, who’s going to argue?' – Jo Brand‘What most women want is not a man who ties you to the bed but one who unstacks the dishes while you watch The Great British Bake Off’ – Harriet HarmanThroughout the centuries, talk of sex has proved irresistible, producing wide-ranging responses, contradictory remarks, denouncements and appraisals; something seen as harmless by one is often condemned as damnable by another.Whatever your sexual preferences, Talking Dirty is a hugely entertaining treasury of wit on this endlessly entertaining and controversial topic.
Talking Swing: The British Big Bands
by Sheila TracyFrom Palace to Palais, the musicians who played in the big bands tell their own stories, bringing to life an unforgettable era.Pre-war reminiscences give an insight into a never-to-be-forgotten era, when London's nightclubs were the haunts of the aristocracy and of royalty, and the Prince of Wales would jump at any opportunity to play drums with the resident band. The elegant world of top hat, white ties and tails has gone for ever, but in Talking Swing the musicians relive those nights when they played for as long as the customers wanted to dance - often into the early hours of the morning. Out of London, there were the variety tours, where the band was top of the bill and there wasn't an empty seat in the house.The problems faced by British musicians during the war years, when London's society bands continued to play throughout the Blitz, were enormous, and they are vividly portrayed in Talking Swing.Amongst those recalled are Ambrose, Jack Hylton, Geraldo, Ted Heath and Syd Lawrence, who took over when almost everyone else had packed it in and who kept on swinging against all odds. This was the golden age of the big bands, and the story of those days is told by the men and women who made the music.
Talking Turkeys
by Benjamin ZephaniahA reissue of TALKING TURKEYS by street poet Benjamin Zephaniah. Talking Turkeys is an unconventional collection of straight-talking poems about heroes, revolutions, racism, love and animal rights, among other subjects, that will entice many new readers to poetry. It is his very first ground-breaking children's poetry collection - playful, clever and provocative - this is performance poetry on the page at its very best.Benjamin Zephaniah was born in Birmingham and then spent some of his early years in Jamaica. He came to London when he was 22 and his first book of poetry for adults was published soon after. He appears regularly on radio and TV including a Desert Island Discs appearance, literary festivals, and has also taken part in plays and films. He is most well-known for his performance poetry with a political edge for both children and adults and gritty teenage fiction. His collections Talking Turkeys, Wicked World and Funky Chickens broke new ground in children's poetry. He is the only Rastafarian poet to be short-listed for the Chairs of Poetry for both Oxford and Cambridge University and has been listed in The Times' list of 50 greatest postwar writers. Benjamin now lives in Lincolnshire.
The Talmud: A Selection
by Norman SolomonThe Talmud is one of the most significant religious texts in the world, second only to the Bible in its importance to Judaism. As the Bible is the word of God, The Talmud applies that word to the lives of its followers. In a range of styles including commentary, parables, proverbs and anecdotes, it provides guidance on all aspects of everyday life from ownership to commerce to relationships. This selection of its most illuminating passages makes accessible the centuries of Jewish thought within The Talmud.Norman Solomon's clear translation from the Bavli (Babylonian) Talmud is accompanied by an introduction on its arrangement, social and historical background, reception and authors. This edition also includes appendixes of background information, a glossary, time line, maps and indexes.
Tamarind Stars: Sporting Heroes (Tamarind Stars)
by Ruth RedfordWhat does an Olympic champion eat for breakfast? How can you become the fastest runner in the world? At what age can you start training to be a boxer?Interesting facts, super secrets and never before seen photos of some of the best-known sporting heroes including boxer Amir Khan, runners Mo Farah and Christine Ohuruogu, basketball sensation Luol Deng and the gymnast Louis Smith.Look inside for tips on how to get into sports, where you can train, and how you too can become a sporting hero.
Tamed: Ten Species that Changed our World
by Alice Roberts**'A masterpiece of evocative scientific storytelling.' BRIAN COX****'Will appeal to fans of Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens'. Mail on Sunday **The extraordinary story of the species that became our allies.Dogs became our companionsWheat fed a booming populationCattle gave us meat and milkMaize fuelled the growth of empiresPotatoes brought us feast and famineChickens led us to wonder about tomorrowRice promised us a golden futureHorses gave us strength and speedApples travelled with usHUMANS TAMED THEM ALLFor hundreds of thousands of years, our ancestors depended on wild plants and animals to stay alive – until they began to tame them.Combining archaeology and cutting-edge genetics, Tamed tells the story of the greatest revolution in human history and reveals the fascinating origins of ten crucial domesticated species; and how they, in turn, transformed us. In a world creaking under the strain of human activity, Alice Roberts urges us to look again at our relationship with the natural world – and our huge influence upon it.AN ECONOMIST AND MAIL ON SUNDAY 'BOOK OF THE YEAR' 2017
Taming Jeremy
by Anne TourneyJeremy was holding Tia so close that his body was all but melting into hers. His Hands slid up to the bend in her waist. She was supposed to be keeping this guy under control, but he was the one guiding her body as she made her first brush stroke. He was the one making her feel like she'd start acting like a wild thing as soon as he let her go.Tia is an artist who dreams of painting the city with outrageously sexy murals. She has a job that she loves, working as an art therapist, and a new boyfriend who's giving her way more than her daily quota of time doing whatever she wants. The other half, she follows Mark's very explicit instructions. Tia thinks that her life is perfect- until she takes on a new project. Her roommate Noelle is desperate for help with her brother Jeremy. After dropping out of college, Jeremy needs guidance, supervision, and a place to live. Noelle thinks that Tia would be the perfect babysitter for a 22-year-old wild child. Suddenly she's caught in an erotic double-bind between Mark, the master of mind games, and Jeremy, the gifted and impulsive boy wonder.