Thackeray: The Sentimental Cynicchronicles British novelist William Thackerays ambivalent attitudes toward society and traces his conduct during the major crises of his life in terms of those attitudes. Lambert Ennis examines the emotional tensions in Thackerays life and the impact they had in his work. In so doing, he illustrates...
Tristan und Isolde (Tristan and Iseult) remains one of the most popular romances ever written. Although the tale was believed to have originated in Germany, bards in France and Britain composed their own versions of the story, a tale of adultery, betrayal, mistaken identity, and thwarted love. In The Tristan...
In Southern Nilotic History,Christopher Ehret reconstructs the history of the Southern Nilotic speaking peoples of East Africa, from their earliest origins to the beginning of the colonial period. As a history, the book is a remarkable tour de force. Using mainly linguistic evidence, the author locates populations, moves them around,...
Alan C. Dessens Johnsons Moral Comedy asks the question about the character of Ben Jonsons comedies: were they sentimental or were they didactic and moralistic comedies? Dessens groundbreaking text remains significant for its contribution to early conversations about Jonsonian comedy, as well as its contribution to the practice of ethical...
In Yeatss Shakespeare,thefirst full-length study of Yeatss interest in Shakespeare, Rupin W. Desai explores how Shakespearean works influenced Yeatss poetry and mythological drama. Exploring Shakespeares sonnets and Yeatss poetry, Desai illustrates the deep degree to which Yeats identifies with Shakespeare, even to the extent of including some of Shakespeares heroes...
Africa South presents a history and description of southern Africa from the arrival of Europeans until the creation of the Republic of South Africa in 1961. Harm J. de Blij provides a portrait of the landscape and the internal policies and struggles within the region. The work serves as a...
In Scandinavian Elements of Finnegans Wake, Dounia Bunis Christiani addresses herself to an enormous task: examining the significance of Scandinavian history, literature, and languages for the composition of James Joyces masterwork. Whereas critical studies of Joyce tend to fall into two categoriesthose exploring the philosophical grounding of his works and...
William Warners Syrinx, or a Sevenfold History, may be the first English novel. Unlike others of the time, though, Warner wrote a realistic novel whose ancestors include the adventure stories of Alexandrine romance, and focus not on the tales of an aristocratic class but on the lives of middle-class individuals....
Ruth M. Amess The Fulfillment of Scriptures approaches Langlands key medieval text, Piers Plowman, using critical literary methods developed in interdisciplinary programs that explore the intersections of religion and literature. Ames draws on the history of the development of Christian doctrine as she explores the ways that the allegory of...
The richness, variety, and complexity of the culture of the Hausa city-states are illustrated in microcosm in Glossary of Hausa Music and Its Social Contexts, in which several hundred Hausa terms for music are collected. David W. Ames and Anthony V. King concentrate on the kingdoms of Zaria and Katsina,...