Inspired by The Decameron and its dark and satirical novellas, Boccaccio in the Berkshires chronicles the foibles of seven women and three men, all in their twenties, who meet in an online chat room for asymptomatic pandemic survivors. They have all endured the deaths of loved ones and decide to shelter together for fourteen days in an Italianate mansion in the Berkshires, offered to the group rent-free. The vacant but furnished villa provides a luxurious, yet bizarre, setting for members of the chat room, who leave their homes in different cities around the United States. Over the course of their stay, they bond together in unexpected ways as they tell each other stories, ranging from the personal to the ludicrous, at times riffing on the absurdity of Boccaccio’s tales. A terrible storm fractures the group and forces the characters to come to terms with their own lives as they pursue love, faith, and the truth that medieval history ultimately reveals.

Melville's allusions to works of art embellish his poems and novels. In this study, his use of the art analogy as a literary technique is traced, along with the influence of his predecessors and comtemporaries and how his sense of form was instructed by design in works of art.

In 'Now It Can Be Told,' Philip Gibbs offers a candid and unvarnished portrait of World War I, which stands out in stark contrast to the sanitized versions that were permissible under wartime censorship. Gibbs masterfully employs a rich, journalistic prose style that captures the harrowing experiences and untold stories of soldiers on the Western Front. His work is not only a literary accomplishment but also a piece of historical journalism that has significantly contributed to the contemporary understanding of the Great War. Within the literary context, his narrative breaks free from the constraints of his time, providing a raw and essential account of the true costs of conflict. Philip Gibbs, an esteemed war correspondent, bore witness to the atrocities of the First World War, through which he experienced the indelible traumas and heroism of the battlefield firsthand. This direct exposure to the horrors of war informed his reflective and compassionate approach in documenting the lives of soldiers and civilians affected by the conflict. Gibbs's narrative is fuelled by an urgency to reveal the truths that wartime censorship had suppressed, a testament to his commitment to journalistic integrity and transparency. The book comes highly recommended for readers with an interest in military history, journalism, and the literature of war. Gibbs's 'Now It Can Be Told' transcends its own era to resonate with contemporary audiences seeking a deeper understanding of the human condition amidst the chaos of war. It is an essential read for anyone who wishes to grasp the reality of warfare beyond the romanticism and valor often depicted, unveiling the courage, tragedy, and sometimes the mundanity, of life on the front lines.

AConcord Floral is a one-million-square-foot abandoned greenhouse and a refuge for neighbourhood kids; a place all to themselves in which to dream, dare, and come of age. But hidden there is a secret no one wants to confront, and when two friends stumble upon it they set off an unstoppable chain of events, from shadows in parking lots to phone calls from the grave. It's time for the teens of Concord Floral to start talking.

"Revealed here is an unknown Melville, the autodidact who made himself a poet and who brilliantly constructed a personal aesthetic credo. Dispelling baseless claims that Melville had a quarrel with fiction after Moby-Dick (or Pierre) and that he did not, in 1860, complete a book he called Poems, Parker offers new evidence of the full trajectory of Melville's career in all its glory and frustration."--BOOK JACKET.

The magazine of the Library of Congress.

Henry James called Fanny Kemble's autobiography "one of the most animated autobiographies in the language." Born into the first family of the British stage, Fanny Kemble was one of the most famous woman writers of the English-speaking world, a best-selling author on both sides of the Atlantic. In addition to her essays, poetry, plays, and a novel, Kemble published six works of memoir, eleven volumes in all, covering her life, which began in the first decade of the nineteenth century and ended in the last. Her autobiographical writings are compelling evidence of Kemble's wit and talent, and they also offer a dazzling overview of her transatlantic world. Kemble kept up a running commentary in letters and diaries on the great issues of her day. The selections here provide a narrative thread tracing her intellectual development-especially her views on women and slavery. She is famous for her identification with abolitionism, and many excerpts reveal her passionate views on the subject. The selections show a life full of personal tragedy as well as professional achievements. An elegant introduction provides a context for appreciating Kemble's remarkable life and achievements, and the excerpts from her journals allow her, once again, to speak for herself.

Early in July 1997, scholars from around the world met in Volos, Greece, to discuss the work of American writer and international traveler Herman Melville. Offering insights into Melville the man and Melville the artist, the papers presented at this conference reflected a variety of interdisciplinary, international, and intergenerational perspectives. With the participation of esteemed Melville critics and many young scholars gaining recognition for their innovative and incisive work in the area of Melville studies, this unique conference afforded all who attended an overview of current approaches to Melville and detailed thermatic examinations of his specific works and themes.

Shandygaff; A number of most agreeable Inquirendoes upon Life & Letters, interspersed with Short Stories & Skits, the whole most Diverting to the Reader, is a classical and a rare book, that has been considered important throughout the human history, and so that this work is never forgotten we at Alpha Editions have made efforts in its preservation by republishing this book in a modern format for present and future generations. This whole book has been reformatted, retyped and redesigned. These books are not made of scanned copies of their original work, and hence their text is clear and readable. This remarkable volume falls within the genres of Language and Literatures American and Canadian literature