Античная литература
794 кн.
"The Sonnets" of William Shakespeare are a collection of 154 loosely connected 14 line poems. Considered by many to be among some of the greatest love poetry ever written much debate surrounds the context of the poetry. It has been suggested that the work may be semi-autobiographical but no real evidence firmly supports this notion. Regardless of their context, «The Sonnets» can be appreciated individually or as a whole as examples of William Shakespeare's true literary genius.
| Автор | Уильям Шекспир |
The beginning of Shakespeare's 'First Tetralogy,' which includes two other plays about King Henry VI and one on Richard III, it is so named because it was written in 1588, among some of the Bard's earliest works. This first history play in the cycle commences just after the death of Henry V, when England is at war with France. Across the Channel, Sir John Talbot battles Joan of Arc, or 'La Pucelle,' while the dissention that leads to the War of the Roses begins in...
| Автор | Уильям Шекспир |
One of the few known plays of Sophocles, the great Greek tragedian, «The Trachinian Maidens» or «The Trachiniae» gives an insightful account of the wife of Hercules. Her name is Deianeira, and she struggles with the neglect she and her family suffer from the frequent and lengthy adventures of Hercules. When she discovers that her husband has laid siege to a city just to obtain the beautiful Iole, Deianeira is determined to create a charm that will cause Hercules to love none more than her. The...
| Автор | Sophocles |
Euripides (480 BC-406 BC) is revered as one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, and produced the largest body of extant work by any ancient playwright. These three provided the canon of Greek tragedy and thereby lay the foundation of Western theatre. Euripides' works are characterized by their moral ambiguity, plots of intrigue, and a separate character (usually a deity) who introduces the play with an explanatory prologue. «Heracles» was...
| Автор | Euripides |
The second play in Shakespeare's 'First Tetralogy,' this work continues the fictionalized account of King Henry VI's reign. It commences with the marriage of Henry VI with the French noblewoman Margaret of Anjou, whose influence in court is challenged by Duke Humphrey, the King's Protector. There is a large amount of aristocratic subversion in this play, in which the good Duke Humphrey is fatally ensnared. Richard, the Duke of York, emerges with a claim to the throne,...
| Автор | Уильям Шекспир |
Euripides turned to playwriting at a young age, achieving his first victory in the dramatic competitions of the Athenian City Dionysia in 441 b.c.e. He would be awarded this honor three more times in his life, and once more posthumously. His plays are often ironic, pessimistic, and display radical rejection of classical decorum and rules. Together with Aeschylus and Sophocles, Euripides would provide the canon of Greek tragedy and thereby lay the foundation of Western theatre. «The Phoenician...
| Автор | Euripides |
Perhaps the greatest of the Greek tragedians, Aeschylus wrote 90 plays, but only seven have survived complete. Among them is this classic trilogy dealing with the bloody history of the House of Atreus.In Agamemnon, the warrior who defeated Troy returns to Argos and is murdered by his wife Clytemnestra for sacrificing their daughter Iphigenia before the start of the Trojan War. In The Libation-Bearers, Orestes, Agamemnon’s son, avenges his father by murdering his mother. In The Furies,...
| Автор | Aeschylus |
Widely accepted as Shakespeare’s earliest tragedy, “Titus Andronicus” is the bloody story of a Roman general engaged in terrible revenge with the Queen of the Goths, Tamora. The play begins with Titus returning to Rome after ten years of fighting. He brings with him the defeated Tamora, Queen of the Goths, and her sons. Titus sacrifices one of Tamora’s sons to avenge the sons he lost in the war, which begins a cycle of revenge in which Tamora and her lover, Aaron the Moor, plot and scheme...
| Автор | Уильям Шекспир |
One of the last tragedies written by William Shakespeare, “Coriolanus” is the story of the legendary 5th century BC Roman general Caius Martius, later given the honorary name Coriolanus. Based largely on the biographical accounts of Plutarch and Livy, the play opens amongst riots over grain in which Coriolanus’ contempt for the plebeians of Rome is exhibited. The general is drawn away from the riots to battle with the Volscian army. Following the conquest of the Volscian city of Corioli, he...
| Автор | Уильям Шекспир |
Greek playwright, Aristophanes, lived during the 5th and 4th century BC and is considered one of the principal authors of the Greek classical period. Of the nearly thirty plays he wrote during his career, eleven are extant. Amongst the most famous of these is “Lysistrata,” a comedy which focuses on the women of Greece whose husbands have left for the Peloponnesian War. The women do not care about the conflict as much as they care about missing their husbands. Its titular character, Lysistrata,...
| Автор | Aristophanes |
Originally published in the First Folio of 1623, “Measure for Measure” is William Shakespeare’s play which was likely written sometime in 1603 or 1604. The play begins with Vincentio, the Duke of Vienna, who leaves the government in charge of the authoritarian justice, Angelo, when he departs the city on a diplomatic mission. Lord Angelo believes that there is too much debauchery in the city and seeks to more strictly enforce laws against certain sexual activities. The story centers on Claudio...
| Автор | Уильям Шекспир |
The first play in William Shakespeare’s tetralogy of plays which also includes “Henry IV, Part 1”, “Henry IV, Part 2”, and “Henry V”, “Richard II” is believed to have been written around 1595. A history play, the drama concerns the last two years of the life of King Richard II of England, spanning the years 1398 to 1400. The drama begins with a dispute between Richard’s cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, who would later become King Henry IV, and Thomas de Mowbray, first Duke of Norfolk. Henry has...
| Автор | Уильям Шекспир |
One of Shakespeare’s early comedies and most ornately intellectual plays, “Love’s Labour’s Lost” is a mental adventure in hilarity and wit. First published in 1598, the play is filled with lexical puns, literary allusions, and shifting poetic forms, a rich example of the Bard’s linguistic mastery. The play opens with King Phillip of Naverre announcing that the men of his court will devote the coming years to ascetic studies and to reduce distractions, no women will be allowed into the court for...
| Автор | Уильям Шекспир |
Lucius Annaeus Seneca (ca. 4 BCE – 65 AD), known commonly as Seneca, was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman and dramatist of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He is most noted for developing a new type of drama, the Senecan tragedy, which differed greatly from Greek tragedy. While the Greek tragedies were expansive and periodic, Senecan tragedies are more succinct and balanced. In Senecan tragedy, characters do not undergo much change, there is little or no catharsis in the end, and violence...
| Автор | Seneca |
Greek playwright Aristophanes spins wonderful stories combining politics, satire, and classic Greek gods in this collection of «Lysistrata and Other Plays.» «Lysistrata» focuses on the women of Greece whose husbands leave for the Peloponnesian War. The women do not care about the war as much as they care about missing their husbands; Lysistrata also insists that men rarely listen to women's reasoning and exclude their opinions on matters of the state. In retaliation, the women of Greece...
| Автор | Aristophanes |
During her career popular children's writer Edith Nesbit collaborated on over sixty books of fiction for children. In «The Children's Shakespeare» she turns her attention to a series of interpretations of William Shakespeare's works. These retellings of Shakespeare's plays are written in a way that can be easily understood by and entertaining to young readers. «Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare» includes retellings of the following plays: «Romeo and Juliet,» «The Tempest,»...
| Автор | Эдит Несбит |
"Золотой осел" – наиболее известный из дошедших до нас античных романов. Молодой грек по имени Лукий, путешествуя по Фессалии, знакомится с могущественной колдуньей. Герой подсматривает за превращениями колдуньи и сам пытается превратиться в птицу. Но произошла ошибка… Лука становится ослом, сохранив при этом человеческий разум. В образе осла герой имеет возможность наблюдать самые интимные сцены человеческой жизни. В остросатирической форме показаны жрецы-шарлатаны. В комически-бытовых тонах...
| Автор | Луций Апулей |
Марк Туллий Цицерон, названный современниками отцом Отечества, был в полной мере достоин так именоваться. Убежденный сторонник республики, человек, использовавший свои блестящие ораторские способности для защиты закона (и правды, как он ее понимал), Цицерон оставил огромное литературное наследие – труды по истории, философии, праву и, конечно же, речи. Его произведения дают представление не только о взглядах автора, но и о целой эпохе. В этой аудиокниге представлены несколько речей Цицерона,...
| Автор | Марк Цицерон |
Sang Thong: A Dance-Drama from Thailand, a beloved treasure of Thailand's classical theater is now available for the first time in English.Composed by King Rama II and his court poets early in the 19th century, this captivating dance-drama blends ribald humor, sharp observation, and graceful poetry. Its incidents are based on age-old Asian legends and on vigorous folk-traditions of the Thai countryside, where King Rama II had been raised as a commoner before his father ascended the throne....
| Автор | King Rama II |
Merriment abounds in these beloved comedies by the Bard, in forms that range from magical mischief to rollicking farce. Five of Shakespeare's most popular comedies appear here, in one convenient and economical volume. Contents include:Much Ado About Nothing, in which a betrothed couple set a lover's trap for a confirmed bachelor and his sharp-tongued sparring partnerTwelfth Night; or What You Will, the tale of a shipwrecked maiden who disguises herself as a boy and assists a duke in...
| Автор | Уильям Шекспир |
Among the most studied, read, and admired works in world literature, Shakespeare's histories are unmatched for their dramatic brilliance, beauty of language, and profundity of thought. This convenient and affordable volume — ideal for students and lovers of literature — features four of the playwright's greatest historical works:Henry IV, Part 1 masterfully combines comedy and historic events in fifteenth-century England while chronicling the rebellion within...
| Автор | Уильям Шекспир |
Comedy, tragedy, and history — this anthology presents a trio of Shakespeare's most frequently studied and performed works. Each represents one of the playwright's primary genres, and together they run the gamut of the Elizabethan theater experience, from lighthearted romance to star-crossed passion to ruthless ambition: A Midsummer Night's Dream, a celebration of the imaginative powers of love, replete with mischievous fairies, mistaken identities, and magical...
| Автор | Уильям Шекспир |
In Greek legend, Prometheus was the Titan who, against the will of Zeus, stole fire from the gods for the benefit of man. His terrible punishment by Zeus, and his continuing defiance of Zeus in the face of that punishment, remain universal symbols of man's vulnerability in any struggle with the gods.In the epic drama Prometheus Bound, Aeschylus (c. 525–456 BC), first of the three great Greek tragic poets, re-creates this legendary conflict between rebellious subject and vengeful...
| Автор | Aeschylus |
A tightly constructed drama which is regarded as one of the William Shakespeare’s finest; “Othello” is the story of its titular character, a Moorish general in the Venetian army. Othello secretly marries Desdemona, the daughter of Venetian senator Brabantio, who disapproves of the union. The marriage draws the contempt of Roderigo, a wealthy gentleman of low moral character who is in love with Desdemona and has asked her father for her hand in marriage. Iago is an ensign under the command of...
| Автор | Уильям Шекспир |