Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.Download Description
This work is designed as a supplement to the Adventures of Telemachus. It treats of the conduct and sufferings of Ulysses, the father of Telemachus. The picture which it exhibits is that of a brave man struggling with adversity; by a wise use of events, and with an inimitable presence of mind under difficulties, forcing out a way for himself through the severest trials to which human life can be exposed; with enemies natural and preternatural surrounding him on all sides. The agents in this tale, besides men and women, are giants, enchanters, sirens: things which denote external force or internal temptations, the twofold danger which a wise fortitude must expect to encounter in its course through this world. The fictions contained in it will be found to comprehend some of the most admired inventions of Grecian mythology. Please Note:This book is easy to read in true text, not scanned images that can sometimes be difficult to decipher.The Microsoft eBook has a contents page linked to the chapter headings for easy navigation. The Adobe eBook has bookmarks at chapter headings and is printable up to two full copies per year.Both versions are text searchable. ... Read more

Book Description
Charles Lamb, one of the most engaging personal essayists of all time, began publishing his unforgettable, entertaining Elia essays in the London Magazine in 1820; they were so immediately popular that a book-length collection was published in 1823. Inventing the persona of “Elia” allowed Lamb to be shockingly honest and to gain a playful distance for self-examination. The resulting essays touch upon a wide range of compelling subjects from the deliciously humorous “Dissertation upon Roast Pig” to the poignantly reflective “New Year's Eve.” Yet collectively they also comprise a fascinating personal memoir, veiled under the pseudonymous disguise of Elia. Now back in print with a new foreword by the distinguished personal essayist Phillip Lopate and with useful annotations, Essays of Elia will provide a delicious stylistic treat for all readers.

Reproducing Lamb's original edition for the first time since its publication in 1823, this facsimile begins with “The South-Sea House” and ends with “On the Acting of Munden” from the first series of twenty-eight essays, which range in tone from slyly humorous to compassionately wise; it also includes “By a Friend of the Late Elia,” which Lamb wrote in 1823 and later used as a preface to the 1833 edition. Psychologically and verbally brilliant, teeming with fascinating portraits, lively stories, and a dazzling prose style, Lamb's inspired essays are the work of an unparalleled genius whose profound influence has been acknowledged by essayists as different as E. B. White and Virginia Woolf. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
Includes: The Tempest - A Midsummer Night's Dream - The Winter's Tale - Much Ado About Nothing - As You Like It - Cymbeline - The Two Gentlemen of Verona - The Merchant of Venice - King Lear - Macbeth - All's Well that Ends Well - The Taming of the Shrew - The Comedy of Errors - Measure for Measure - Twelfth Night - Timon of Athens -Romeo and Juliet - Hamlet - Othello - Pericles ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Tales From Shakespeare: 20 of the plays retold in prose for children by the Lamb siblings
The Bard meets the Lambs. Charles and Mary Lamb wrote "Tales from Shakespeare" in 1807. The book retold twenty of the plays in prose being geared at children. Children who read the stories today would need to be very bright and advanced in their reading comprehension. Many of the sexual scenes and several of the subplots in these complex plays have been removed by Mary and Charles.
The Lambs were siblings who were plagued with mental problems throughout their sad lives. Mary stabbed her mother to death during an insane episode. The courts allowed her to live at home with her brother Charles who was a lowly clerk at the East India Office. Charles is famous for his essays though Mary wrote the majority of the play summaries in this classic book Mary wrote on 14 of the comedies and romances while Charles provided chapters on the tragedies of Hamlet, Othello, King Lear.
Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet and Timon of Athens.
The book is short but essential in giving the reading a quick review of the plays. It is easy to get lost in the complex plots and the Elizabethan language and poetry in the plays. This book makes it easy to understand the basic plots and characters in the tales. The book is an introduction to Shakespeare; it no way is it designed to replace the plays; the purpose is to whet the desire to read and see Shakespeare acted on the stage.
Even veteran Shakespearians such as your reviewer found delight in this small book. I will turn to it often to refresh my memory of who is who and what is going on in the Shakespearean universe. The Lambs' book is essential reading.
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Customer Reviews (1)

What to Read When You Have a Paper Due on Romantic Literature
This fresh and exciting critique belongs on the bookshelf of any student who has an interest in nineteenth-century British literature--or an interest in aesthetic-cultural issues. I had to write a paper on the art of Romantic prose and this book saved my sanity. The connections between Lamb's specific essays and those of other artists of his time and earlier periods is its best feature. Lamb was tapped in, clued in, but until now has never been psyched out (unless Monsman's earlier study of Lamb in 1984 was an anticipation). It's the work of an open-minded writer, a "reconceptualization" that spices up a difficult area with compact, free-flowing commentaries. A++ for sure. ... Read more