James published this work of collected literary criticism in 1914, with the individual pieces drawn from the preceding two decades. James discusses Robert Louis Stevenson, Gustave Flaubert, George Sand, and others. It is on these essays, as well as the introductions to his own collected works, that James's reputation as one of the most acute literary critics of his era rests.

Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung contains the wild and brilliant writings of Lester Bangs-the most outrageous and popular rock critic of the 1970s-edited and with an introduction by the reigning dean of rock critics, Greil Marcus. "By turns insightful and hilarious, these collected essays by the late, legendary Banks constantly astound."

This is Woolf's first and most popular volume of essays. This collection has more than twenty-five selections, including such important statements as "Modern Fiction" and "The Modern Essay."

"Some pieces of music survive; most fall into oblivion. What gives the ten masterpieces selected for this book their extraordinary vitality? In this magisterial volume, Harvey Sachs, author of the highly acclaimed biography Toscanini, takes readers into the heart of ten great works of classical music-works that have endured because they were created by composers who had a genius for drawing music out of their deepest wellsprings. These masters-Mozart...

"Outsider musicians can be the product of damaged DNA, alien abduction, drug fry, demonic possession, or simply sheer obliviousness. This book profiles dozens of outsider musicians, both prominent and obscure-figures such as The Shaggs, Syd Barrett, Tiny Tim, Jandek, Captain Beefheart, Daniel Johnston, Harry Partch, and The Legendary Stardust Cowboy-and presents their strange life stories along with photographs, interviews, cartoons, and discographies....

"Children's Literature charts the makings of the Western literary imagination from Aesop's fables to Mother Goose, from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to Peter Pan, from Where the Wild Things Are to Harry Potter. Seth Lerer here explores the iconic books, ancient and contemporary alike, that have forged a lifelong love of literature in young readers during their formative years. Along the way, Lerer also looks at the changing environments of family...

Presents the original text of Shakespeare's play side by side with a modern version, with marginal notes and explanations and full descriptions of each character.

Music Is History combines Questlove's deep musical expertise with his curiosity about history, examining America over the past fifty years. Focusing on the years 1971 to the present, Questlove finds the hidden connections in the American tapes- try, whether investigating how the blaxploitation era reshaped Black identity or considering the way disco took an assembly-line approach to Black genius. And these critical inquiries are complemented by his...

We are all classicists-we come into touch with the classics on a daily basis: in our culture, politics, medicine, architecture, language, and literature. What are the true roots of these influences, however, and how do our interpretations of these aspects of the classics differ from their original reality? This introduction to the classics begins with a visit to the British Museum to view the frieze which once decorated the Apollo Temple a Bassae....