"Many good things are provided for our instruction and delight in this handsome volume. Chief among them perhaps, and most keenly wanted in a collection of this sort . . . are sanity and wit." The Romanic Review

"A most interesting literary history of the Don Juan theme with the plays or works themselves serving as illustrations. Professor Mandel's general introduction and his shorter introductions and commentaries throughout the book are solid, wise, and engaging." Robert E. Taylor, Renaissance News

"This anthology is exhaustive and informative, expertly...

Fundamentals of the Art of Poetry takes the reader on a journey that sets out with a consideration of the various arts humankind has created, and then focuses on the special art of poetry: what poetry is, what it does and must do in order to 'succeed' for whom it does what it does, and, in detail, how it goes about doing what it tries to do. Twenty-two chapters deal with subjects like 'The Constituencies for Art', 'What Meaning Means', 'Acceptable and Unacceptable Propositions', 'The Right Word in the Right Place', 'The Sounds that Matter in Poetry', 'Energetic Metaphor: the Major Figure'...

Otherwise Fables is the first complete collection of Oscar Mandel's fiction, including the Gobble-Up Stories and the novellas The History of Sigismund, Prince of Poland, and Chi Po and the Sorcerer. As witty as Sedaris and as profound as Calderon, Mandel's little moral tales are full of unexpected points, deep lessons, ethical ambiguity, and dry wit. Slyly subversive tales of magicians, princes, and animals will delight readers young and old with intellectually sophisticated examples of philosophical allegory and...