The goddess Folly gives a speech, praising herself and explaining how much humanity benefits from her services, from politicians to philosophers, aristocrats, schoolteachers, poets, lawyers, theologians, monarchs and the clergy. At the same time, her discourse provides a satire of Erasmus's world, poking fun at false pedantry and the aberrations of Christianity. Woven throughout her monologue, a thread of irony calls into question the goddess's own words, in which ambiguities, allusions and interpretations collide in a way that makes Praise of Folly enduringly fascinating.
The goddess Folly gives a speech, praising herself and explaining how much humanity benefits from her services, from politicians to philosophers, aris...
Originally published in Italy in 1928, and unavailable in Britain until 1960, when it was the subject of an infamous obscenity trial, 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' is now regarded as one of the pivotal novels of the 20th century. Lawrence's determination to explore every aspect - sexual, social, psychological - of Lady Chatterley's adulterous liaison with the gamekeeper Oliver Mellors makes for a profound meditation on the human condition, the forces of nature and the social constraints that people struggle to overcome.
Originally published in Italy in 1928, and unavailable in Britain until 1960, when it was the subject of an infamous obscenity trial, 'Lady Chatterley...
When the world-weary dandy Eugene Onegin moves from St Petersburg to take up residence in the country estate he has inherited, he strikes up an unlikely friendship with his neighbour, the poet Vladimir Lensky. Coldly rejecting the amorous advances of Tatyana and cynically courting her sister Olga - Lensky's fiancee - Onegin finds himself dragged into a tragedy of his own making.
Eugene Onegin - presented here in a sparkling translation by Roger Clarke, along with extensive notes and commentary - was the founding text of modern Russian literature, marking a clean break from the...
When the world-weary dandy Eugene Onegin moves from St Petersburg to take up residence in the country estate he has inherited, he strikes up an unl...
Presented here with extra material about the author's life and works, notes and bibliographic information, The Mill on the Floss is one of literature's finest evocations of childhood and adolescence.
Presented here with extra material about the author's life and works, notes and bibliographic information, The Mill on the Floss is one of literature'...
Presented in a new annotated edition accompanied with extra material, The Awakening is widely seen as a landmark of early feminism and a precursor of American modernism.
Presented in a new annotated edition accompanied with extra material, The Awakening is widely seen as a landmark of early feminism and a precursor of ...
