The advent of the written word and the attendant transformation of language and literature sparked the development of new forms of expression and copious literary devices. Such instruments of poetry and prose can finesse turns of phrase, render the foreign familiar, or simply texture plot lines. The literary terms surveyed in these fascinating volumes describe the content, structure, and characteristics of some of the worlds most celebrated bodies of verse and drama, fiction and nonfiction. Sidebars spotlight some of the modern and traditional writers and works that have enriched discourse and communication.

Narratives come in many forms, fall into many genres, and tell the stories of an endless assortment of characters. Despite recurring themes and conceits in works from around the world, each story—from biography to science fiction—is singular and designed to elicit a distinct emotional response from its readers. The rhetorical tools and literary styles that have helped reinvent the art and study of storytelling over time are surveyed in this captivating volume.

Verse and drama have provided outlets for emotive expression and the creative impulse for centuries. Poignant, inspiring, and thought-provoking, plays and poems spoken or written in any language help reinterpret reality and evoke some of humanity’s most profound truths. The terms culled in this volume describe many of the most potent elements of language—those that venture beyond the realm of prose and invoke the power of cadence, lyricism, and drama to recount all aspects of the human condition.

WINNER OF THE WHITBREAD PRIZE AND SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE. John Fuller's first novel opens with the arrival of church agent Vane on a remote Welsh island where he is to investigate the disappearance of pilgrims visiting its sacred well. While Vane looks for clues and corpses the local Abbot seaches for the location of the soul. Magical and poetic, Flying to Nowhere awakens our secret hopes and fears and our need to believe in miracles.

Discusses the literary concepts and terms used in poetry and dramatic literature, including the different styles of poetry and drama, and each style's origins.

Today the classics of the western canon, written by the proverbial ''dead white men,'' are cannon fodder in the culture wars. But in the 1950s and 1960s, they were a pop culture phenomenon. The Great Books of Western Civilization, fifty-four volumes chosen by intellectuals at the University of Chicago, began as an educational movement, and evolved into a successful marketing idea. Why did a million American households buy books by Hippocrates and Nicomachus from door-to-door salesmen? And how and why did the great books fall out of fashion? In A Great Idea at the Time Alex Beam explores the Great Books mania, in an entertaining and strangely poignant portrait of American popular culture on the threshold of the television age. Populated with memorable characters, A Great Idea at the Time will leave readers asking themselves: Have I read Lucretius's De Rerum Natura lately? If not, why not?

Originally published in 1926, this volume contains the full text of The Testament of Cresseid by Scottish poet Robert Henryson.