Long before the association with "Weird Tales" magazine and H.P. Lovecraft that led to his enduring fame, Clark Ashton Smith was a well-regarded regional poet whose tastes ran to the romantic and the fantastic.
This collection of poems -- originally published in 1918 -- presents some of his best early work.
Note: This digital edition includes the ePub and Mobi (Kindle)... [click here for more]
In these three librettos, Philippe Quinault turns from classical opera to medieval legends--Renaud and Armida, Amadis and Oriana, and Angelica and Roland--exploring the tensions between love and glory. As usual, the dramatist relates his stories deftly with classic simplicity. In these adaptions of traditional medieval stories of romance, enchantment, monsters, and magic, either the heroine (Armida... [click here for more]
In 1828 a young man in rags appeared in the German city of Nurnberg, saying that he'd been kept isolated in a dungeon all of his life.
Was he the bastard offshoot of some noble or royal family, secreted away to preserve the honor of the house? Within a few months he was dead under mysterious circumstances, his mystery still unsolved.
CASPER HAUSER uses the uproar caused by Hauser's emergence to... [click here for more]
Émile Augier presents the story of SAPPHO, another tragedy set in classical times, full of betrayal and self-sacrifice.
Ancient Greek drama had much in common with modern opera, emphasizing story lines that have been simplified to focus very tightly on particular emotional themes. The freshness and charm of this French dramatization is remarkable.
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Henri de Lagardere, the best swordsman in France, suddenly finds himself duty-bound to protect the baby female heir of a murdered friend--a girl who matures into a beautiful woman who will one day inherit a princely fortune--a girl with whom Henri falls madly in love. But his affection is hopeless: the difference in their ages and stations in life precludes any permanent liaison. One by one, over the... [click here for more]