Best Asian Literary History & Criticism

Essential functions and situations, and simple sentence patterns.

In seventeenth-century Japan, the wandering poet Basho developed haiku, a seventeen-syllable poetic form now perhaps the most widely written type of poetry in the world. Absolutely no prior interest in poetry is necessary to take from Hirshfield's essay the inspiration to drop everything, walk out in to the wide world, open your eyes, and find out for yourself that "even the briefest form of poetry can have a wing-span of immeasurable breadth."

Full of information on the various aspects of Buddhism, meditation, yoga, and more, Buddhism stands apart as a concise and practical guide to infusing your life with its many teachings. What Buddhism is and what its teachings are The core concepts of Buddhism: karma, suffering, nirvana, and reincarnation The practice and benefits of yoga The four noble truths Practices, treasures, and poisons of Buddhism How to practice the five precepts of Buddhism How to practice mindfulness in order to reduce stress and anxiety And much, much more! Plus it provides great information on the different types of schools. I recommend this book to anyone who is curious about Buddhism and mindfulness."

Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more. Raymond Dawson, Emeritus Fellow, Wadham College, Oxford.

Full of information on the various aspects of Buddhism, meditation, yoga, and more, Buddhism stands apart as a concise and practical guide to infusing your life with its many teachings. What Buddhism is and what its teachings are The core concepts of Buddhism: karma, suffering, nirvana, and reincarnation The practice and benefits of yoga The four noble truths Practices, treasures, and poisons of Buddhism How to practice the five precepts of Buddhism How to practice mindfulness in order to reduce stress and anxiety And much, much more! Plus it provides great information on the different types of schools. I recommend this book to anyone who is curious about Buddhism and mindfulness."

Lady Shonagon was an erstwhile rival of Lady Murasaki, whose novel, The Tale of Genji , fictionalized the elite world Lady Shonagon so eloquently relates. The Pillow Book is one of the three most important works of its kind in Japanese literature, and Professor Morris has given it handsome treatment. The liveliest and most endearing of Heian writers, and the one who gives the most intimate and vivid picture of life at court.... Its denizens emerge as real and never-to-be-forgotten people.... Morris belongs to the literary rather than the literal school of translators, and his talents are shown here at their best. Shonagon comes through vividly.... [Morris] has given us for the first time in full a delightful and fascinating book which is also a work of notable scholarship.

Writing some twelve hundred years later, the Ming author Luo Guanzhong drew on histories, dramas, and poems portraying the crisis to fashion a sophisticated, compelling narrative that has become the Chinese national epic. "By the measure of sheer density of history and drama, all other historical novels suffer by comparison to "Three Kingdoms, the great epic of the Chinese literary tradition.

“The division's expendables.” That's what one division commander called the 1/9th Cavalry Blue platoons during the Vietnam War. My first reaction was that Brennan's War was a work of fiction--no one in Vietnam was involved in enemy contact for such a long period of time. "...the reader sees bloody combat amid lavishly beautiful surroundings--a juxtaposition so constant it begins to seem natural rather than sadly ironic."

Gilgamesh is considered one of the masterpieces of world literature, but until now there has not been a version that is a superlative literary text in its own right. Inscribed on stone tablets a thousand years before the Iliad and the Bible and found in fragments, Gilgamesh describes the journey of the king of the city of Uruk in what is now Iraq.At the start, Gilgamesh is a young giant with gigantic wealth, power and beauty—and a boundless arrogance that leads him to oppress his people. He does not become immortal in the way he thinks he wants to be, but he is able to embrace what is.Relying on existing translations (and in places where there are gaps, on his own imagination), Mitchell seeks language that is as swift and strong as the story itself. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

"On what slender threads do life and fortune hang" Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantes is confined to the grim fortress of If. "Dumas was... a summit of art.

The Brothers Karamasov is a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, and an exploration of erotic rivalry in a series of triangular love affairs involving the “wicked and sentimental” Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov and his three sons―the impulsive and sensual Dmitri; the coldly rational Ivan; and the healthy, red-cheeked young novice Alyosha. It returns to us a work we thought we knew, subtly altered and so made new again.” ― Donald Fanger, Washington Post Book World. “It may well be that Dostoevsky's [world], with all its resourceful energies of life and language, is only now--and through the medium of this translation--beginning to come home to the English-speaking reader.” ― John Bayley, The New York Review of Books. “Heartily recommended to any reader who wishes to come as close to Dostoevsky's Russian as it is possible.” ― Joseph Frank, Princeton University.

Editors Margaret Anne Doody, Mary Doody Jones, and Wendy Barry provide a richly illustrated, completely revised text, along with hundreds of notes describing the real-life characters and settings Anne encounters, the autobiographical connections between Anne and Maud Montgomery, and the book's astonishing range of literary, biblical, and mythological references. Margaret Anne Doody supplies a comprehensive introduction, which situates the novel in its literary and social contexts, explores those aspects of Montgomery's life most relevant to the story, examines revisions in the manuscripts, and provides an overall sense of both the impulses that drove Montgomery to write Anne of Green. Gables and the larger concerns it dramatizes so compellingly. Also included are scholarly essays on the history of the Celtic settlers on Prince Edward Island, orphanages and children, education, gardens and plants, home life, food preparation and cookery (including contemporary recipes), music and elocution, and literary allusion and quotations in Anne of Green Gables.

In generous excerpts from dozens of letters, Winter describes teaching and living with her pupils, her relationships with fellow teachers, and her encounters with Hawaiian royalty (in particular Kawaiaha'o enjoyed the patronage of Queen Lili'uokalani, whose adopted daughter was enrolled as a pupil) and members of influential missionary families, as well as ordinary citizens. Sandra E. Bonura lives in Southern California and teaches in higher education.

The renowned biblical scholar, author of The Misunderstood Jew , and general editor for The Jewish Annotated New Testament interweaves history and spiritual analysis to explore Jesus’ most popular teaching parables, exposing their misinterpretations and making them lively and relevant for modern readers. In this wonderfully readable book, not only could Jesus spin a yarn, he could challenge whole world views in the process.” ( Dr. Ben Witherington, III, Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies, Asbury Theological Seminary ). With her characteristic wit and learned, iconoclastic imagination, Levine presses readers of the parables-especially Christian readers-to question their assumptions, curb their biases, and read Jesus’s words afresh with ancient eyes. A perfect introduction for the merely curious, but even passionate readers who have lived with these stories for decades will find their eyes and hearts opened by Levine’s provocative insights.” ( Mark Allan Powell, editor of the HarperCollins Bible Dictionary ). It wittily and carefully and thoroughly and relentlessly rips the parables from our ‘all knowing’ hands and un-domesticates them and gives them back to us in a form which Jesus himself doubtlessly intended.” ( Jim West, Zwinglius Redivivus ).

A Goodreads Choice Awards nominee. David Sedaris tells all in a book that is, literally, a lifetime in the making For forty years, David Sedaris has kept a diary in which he records everything that captures his attention-overheard comments, salacious gossip, soap opera plot twists, secrets confided by total strangers. These are the three stages that all artists - with some variation - go through in their careers...So it's encouraging to read 25 years of David Sedaris's diaries, and not just because he manages to defeat Bloat. But through all 25 years of "Theft by Finding" - of soap opera addictions and spider feeding, family kookiness (Sedaris notes the day Charles Addams dies; it feels like the passing of a baton) and language lessons - Sedaris's developing voice is the lifeline that pulls him through the murk." Yet David Sedaris has somehow pulled it off...with eviscerating wit and radiant humanity...Fans will no doubt delight in the entries that will turn into Sedaris's most beloved essays." "Sedaris fans will thrill to this opportunity to poke around in the writer's personal diaries, which he has faithfully kept for four decades and used as raw material for his hilarious nonfiction as well as his performances." "Sedaris' diaries are the wellspring for his cuttingly funny autobiographical essays, and he now presents a mesmerizing volume of deftly edited passages...Sedaris is caustically witty about his bad habits and artistic floundering...A candid, socially incisive, and sharply amusing chronicle of the evolution of an arresting comedic artist." "A David Sedaris book is always a welcome addition to any personal library - his hilarity, his self-deprecation, his compassion for (and amusement with) the human condition, and his clear joy at making his readers laugh out loud are all what make a David Sedaris book great.

This enriching collection of his works includes more than 150 of his stories, prose poems, verse, parables, and autobiographical essays. General Press is proud to bring together, for the first time in ebook form, all of Gibran’s works into a single collection. Kahlil Gibran was a Lebanese-American artist, poet, and writer, born in 1883 in Lebanon and died in New York in 1931. As a young man he emigrated with his family to the United States where he studied art and began his literary career. His romantic style was at the heart of a renaissance in modern Arabic literature, especially prose poetry, breaking away from the classical school. In his early teens, the artistry of Gibran's drawings caught the eye of his teachers and he was introduced to the avant-garde Boston artist, photographer, and publisher Fred Holland Day, who encouraged and supported Gibran in his creative endeavors. He is chiefly known in the English-speaking world for his 1923 book 'The Prophet', an early example of inspirational fiction including a series of philosophical essays written in poetic English prose. "[Kahlil Gibran] speaks about fundamental things--those which are, or should be, a part of every human life--love, giving, food and drink, work, sorrow and joy, children, clothes and housing, buying and selling, crime and punishment, freedom, reason and passion, self-knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, good and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion and death . Like most wisdom, most of what he has to tell is ancient, the possession of all men who have thought much and hard about fundamental things . To many he is a genius whose philosophical and prophetic style convey important messages about life and humanity in a simple, yet beautifully eloquent manner, that are as fresh and meaningful in today's world as when they were first written.

El cuento hispánico: A Graded Literary Anthology , Eighth Edition, is designed for intermediate college Spanish reading courses. John F. Garanigo is Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures at Washinton University in St. Louis, where he has taught since receiving the Ph.