“When I say this book is a love story, I mean it is about things that cannot be gotten over—like this world, and some of the people in it.” In 1819, the poet John Keats wrote six poems that would become known as the Great Odes. Some of them—“Ode to a Nightingale,” “To Autumn”—are among the most celebrated poems in the English language. Anahid Nersessian here collects and elucidates each of the odes and offers a meditative, personal essay in response to each, revealing why these poems still have so much to say to us, especially in a time of ongoing political crisis. Her Keats is an unflinching antagonist of modern life—of capitalism, of the British Empire, of the destruction of the planet—as well as a passionate idealist for whom every poem is a love poem. The book emerges from Nersessian’s lifelong attachment to Keats’s poetry; but more, it “is a love story: between me and Keats, and not just Keats.” Drawing on experiences from her own life, Nersessian celebrates Keats even as she grieves him and counts her own losses—and Nersessian, like Keats, has a passionate awareness of the reality of human suffering, but also a willingness to explore the possibility that the world, at least, could still be saved. Intimate and speculative, this brilliant mix of the poetic and the personal will find its home among the numerous fans of Keats’s enduring work.

Readers who appear to be lost in a storyworld, members of theatre or cinema audiences who are moved to tears while watching a performance, beholders of paintings who are absorbed by the representations in front of them, players of computer games entranced by the fictional worlds in which they interactively participate – all of these mental states of imaginative immersion are variants of ‘aesthetic illusion’, as long as the recipients, although thus immersed, are still residually aware that they are experiencing not real life but life-like representations created by artefacts. Aesthetic illusion is one of the most forceful effects of reception processes in representational media and thus constitutes a powerful allurement to expose ourselves, again and again to, e.g., printed stories, pictures and films, be they factual or fictional. In contrast to traditional discussions of this phenomenon, which tend to focus on one medium or genre from one discipline only, the present volume explores aesthetic illusion, as well as its reverse side, the breaking of illusion, from a highly innovative multidisciplinary and transmedial perspective. The essays assembled stem from disciplines that range from literary theory to art history and include contributions on drama, lyric poetry, the visual arts, photography, architecture, instrumental music and computer games, as well as reflections on the cognitive foundations of aesthetic illusion from an evolutionary perspective. The contributions to individual media and aspects of aesthetic illusion are prefaced by a detailed theoretical introduction. Owing to its transmedial and multidisciplinary scope, the volume will be relevant to students and scholars from a wide variety of fields: cultural history at large, intermediality and media studies, as well as, more particularly, literary studies, music, film, and art history.

DigiCat presents to you this unique collection, designed and formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. Les Misérables (Victor Hugo) The Call of the Wild (Jack London) Walden (Henry David Thoreau) Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy) War and Peace (Leo Tolstoy) Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoevsky) Art of War (Sun Tzu) Dead Souls (Nikolai Gogol) Don Quixote (Miguel de Cervantes) Dona Perfecta (Benito Pérez Galdós) A Doll's House (Henrik Ibsen) Gitanjali (Rabindranath Tagore) The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes (Anonymous) Life is a Dream (Pedro Calderon de la Barca) The Divine Comedy (Dante) Decameron (Giovanni Boccaccio) The Prince (Machiavelli) Arabian Nights Hamlet (Shakespeare) Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare) Robinson Crusoe (Daniel Defoe) Pride & Prejudice (Jane Austen) Frankenstein (Mary Shelley) Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë) Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë) Great Expectations (Charles Dickens) Ulysses (James Joyce) Pygmalion (George Bernard Shaw) Ivanhoe (Sir Walter Scott) Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson) Peter and Wendy (J. M. Barrie) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain) Moby-Dick (Herman Melville) Little Women (Louisa May Alcott) Leaves of Grass (Walt Whitman) The Raven (Edgar Allan Poe) Anne of Green Gables (L. M. Montgomery) Iliad & Odyssey (Homer) The Republic (Plato) Faust, a Tragedy (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) Siddhartha (Herman Hesse) Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Friedrich Nietzsche) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Jules Verne) Journey to the Centre of the Earth (Jules Verne) The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Victor Hugo) The Flowers of Evil (Charles Baudelaire) The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas) The Poison Tree (Bankim Chandra Chatterjee) Shakuntala (Kalidasa) Rámáyan of Válmíki...

Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc (1580-1637) was, during his lifetime, one of Europe's most famous men. A friend of Pope Urban VIII and Galileo, of Peter-Paul Rubens and Hugo Grotius, of Tommaso Campanella and Marin Mersenne, Peiresc played an important role in the intellectual culture of his time. This book is the first study in English of this extraordinary man, as well as a vivid portrait of his whole circle. Looking through the lens of Peiresc's life, Peter N. Miller brings into focus the early-seventeenth-century world of learning--its people, places, and ideas. Drawing on the extensive Peiresc archive (more than 50,000 pieces of paper), Miller brilliantly evokes the lives of antiquaries, philosophers, theologians, and politicians of Peiresc's day, only some of whom remain known today. He explores the age in which Peiresc's toleration and sociability, his political action and cosmopolitanism, and his serious scholarship without dogmatism were identified as a set of virtues and practices by which to live. Peiresc's notion of scholarship as a moral exercise, the sweep of his interests, and the cross-Continental reach of his intellectual life show with new clarity what it meant to be a man of learning during the decades around 1600.

Reproduction of the original.

The Everlasting Masterpieces of World Literature in One Edition unfurls an exquisite tapestry of the human experience, presenting an unparalleled collection that spans genres, cultures, and centuries. This anthology embraces the diversity of the human condition through the lenses of legendary figures whose works have shaped the contours of global literature. From the tragic depths of Dostoyevsky to the whimsical landscapes of Lewis Carroll, and the sharp social observations of Jane Austen, this compilation does more than merely traverse the literary spectrum; it celebrates the rich complexity of life itself. Highlighting texts that have become the cornerstones of cultural dialogues, such as Shakespeares plays and the philosophical musings of Plato, the collection offers an expansive narrative journey through time and thought. The contributory roster reads like a veritable who's who of literary giants. Each author, from the epic tales of Homer to the existential enquiries of Nietzsche, brings a distinct voice to the anthology, informed by their unique historical, cultural, and philosophical contexts. Their collective works, harmoniously aligned, serve not only as a testament to their individual genius but also reflect the broader literary movements and cultural shifts they inspired or navigated. This anthology thus stands not only as a compendium of individual achievements but as a vibrant mosaic of the collective human spirit, capturing the essence of various eras, from the Renaissance's rebirth to the introspective Modernists. This anthology is recommended for anyone with a passion for literature, history, or philosophy. The Everlasting Masterpieces of World Literature in One Edition transcends the ordinary, offering readers a singular opportunity to engage with the minds of those who have profoundly influenced our understanding of the world. It invites an exploration of myriad perspectives, styles, and themes, fostering a dialogue between epochs and ideas. Engaging with this collection promises not only an enrichment of knowledge but an invitation to witness the eternal dialogue of humanity expressed through the art of storytelling.