"Richard II marks, as this new and invigorating edition by Charles Forker demonstrates, an exciting advance in the development of Shakespeare's artistry. The play's unusual formality of structure and tone and the impressive eloquence of its style seem to express the mystique of kingship more emphatically than any of the earlier histories, while its subtle handling of the major action - the dethronement of an unsuitable anointed monarch by an illegitimate...

J.R.R. Tolkien claimed that he based the land of Middle Earth on a real place. The Real Middle Earth brings alive, for the first time, the very real civilization in which those who lived had a vision of life animated by beings beyond the material world. Magic was real to these people and they believed their universe was held together by an interlaced web of golden threads visible only to wizards. At its center was Middle Earth, a place peopled by...

A valuable guide to the Richards, Edwards and Henrys, Warwicks and Norfolks who parade across Shakespeare's pages and stages.

"This book surveys the poetic endeavour of John Keats and urges that his true poetry is uniquely constituted by being uttered through three artificial masks, rather than through the natural voice of his quotidian self." "Keats's great achievement, the book argues, can only be ascertained by means of a resuscitation of the defunct critical category of 'genius', as that informs his use of the masks. To validate this category, the volume is concerned...