"Plants, borders, and various horticultural paraphernalia make surprisingly frequent appearances in mystery plots. In this wide-ranging survey of classic and contemporary murder fiction, Marta looks at the detectives, motives, methods, opportunities, and writers that have used the garden as their point of departure. The result is a diverting and eye-opening study that deepens our appreciation of the great crime fiction writers while illuminating the...

"Columbia professor and cultural historian Jeremy Dauber takes readers to the startling origins of the horror genre in the United States, from the lingering influence of the European Gothic to the enslaved insurrection tales and the apocryphal chronicles of colonial settlers kidnapped by Native Americans"-- Provided by publisher.

"Few contemporary writers ask the questions about faith, morality, and God that Christian Wiman does, and even fewer--perhaps none--do so with his urgency and eloquence. Wiman, an award-winning poet and the author of My Bright Abyss, lays the motion of his mind on the page in this genre-defying work, an indivisible blend of poetry, criticism, theology, and searing memoir. As Marilynne Robinson wrote, "[Wiman's] poetry and his scholarship have a purifying...

When the prophet Jokanaan is brought to the attention of the princess Salomé, he rebukes her interest, which causes her to make a brutal declaration. Oscar Wilde's one-act tragedy explores the repercussions of her horrifying decision. Originally composed in French in 1892, Salomé is a controversial tale full of cruelty and retribution. Wilde expands on the Biblical story of John the Baptist, whom was captured and beheaded by Herod Antipas....

"Homer's Iliad is the famous epic poem set among the tales of Troy. Its subject is the anger of the hero Achilles and the dreadful consequences for the warring Greeks and Trojans. It was composed more than 2,600 years ago but still transfixes us with its account of loss and battle, love and revenge, guided throughout by the active presence of the gods. Its beauty and profound bleakness are intensely moving, but great questions remain: Where, how,...

"A delightful romp through the Shakespeare authorship question, exploring how doubting that William Shakespeare wrote the plays attributed to him became an act of blasphemy... and who the Bard might really be"-- Provided by publisher.

Chance (1914) was the first of Conrad's novels to bring him popular success and it holds a unique place among his works. It tells the story of Flora de Barral, a vulnerable and abandoned young girl who is "like a beggar, without a right to anything but compassion." After her bankrupt father is imprisoned, she learns the harsh fact that a woman in her position "has no resources but in herself." Her only means of action is to be what she is. Flora's...

In 1958, Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita was published in the United States to immediate controversy and bestsellerdom. More than sixty years later, this phenomenal novel generates as much buzz as it did when originally published. Central to countless issues at the forefront of our national discourse-- art and politics, race and whiteness, gender and power, sexual trauma--Lolita lives on, in an afterlife as blinding as a supernova. With original contributions...

"A Hero of Our Time" by Mikhail Lermontov, translated by Marr Murray and J. H. Wisdom, is a timeless classic of Russian literature that delves into the complexities of human nature, love, and the pursuit of meaning in a world marked by moral ambiguity and existential angst. Set against the stunning backdrop of the Caucasus Mountains, the novel follows the life of Pechorin, a young Russian officer whose enigmatic personality and reckless behavior...