A collection of free and open primary texts in digital formats for the study of early world literature in English translation. Multiple English translations are provided for comparison and study, as well as open secondary and supplemental resources.

In this class we will practice skills in reading, analyzing, and writing about fiction, poetry and drama from a select sampling of 20th Century American Literature. Through class discussion, close reading, and extensive writing practice, this course seeks to develop critical and analytical skills, preparing students for more advanced academic work.

From consumer products to space-age technologies, chemistry affects our daily lives. In this course, students will learn the structure of matter and how it behaves under various conditions in order to better understand the chemical world. Designed for students with little or no chemistry background. Laboratory activities extend lecture concepts and introduce students to the experimental process. This course is designed for a face-to-face mode of instruction using online resources. Course content is divided into units. Each unit may include text readings, laboratory preparation, study questions, thought-provoking discussions, written assignments, learning activities, and group projects.

From consumer products to space-age technologies, chemistry affects our daily lives. In this course, students will learn the structure of matter and how it behaves under various conditions in order to better understand the chemical world. Designed for students with little or no chemistry background. Laboratory activities extend lecture concepts and introduce students to the experimental process. This course is designed for a face-to-face mode of instruction using online resources. Course content is divided into units. Each unit may include text readings, laboratory preparation, study questions, thought-provoking discussions, written assignments, learning activities, and group projects.

Prof. Warner and Prof. Ballaster begin their conversation with Antoine Galland's translation into French from Arabic of the 'Alf Layla wa-Layla' as the first two volumes of 'Les Mille et Une Nuit' in the first decade of eighteenth century. The twelve-volume text that became known in the English-speaking world as 'The Arabian Nights Entertainments' was woven together from manuscript and verbal sources as well as added to with apparently invented tales by Antoine Galland himself. Warner and Ballaster open their discussion by considering whether Galland's tales provide a better window on the French salon culture of the early eighteenth century than Islamic empire medieval or modern. This audio recording is part the Interviews on Great Writers series presented by Oxford University Podcasts.

When she published Oroonoko in 1688, Aphra Behn created one of the foundational myths of her period and of the century that followed. The story of the noble African prince tricked into slavery resonated powerfully with people in the English-speaking world for generations. This was even the case for those who never read Behn’s book. Behn’s work was adapted into a play entitled Oroonoko: A Tragedy by Thomas Southerne in 1695, and that version of the story–one that differs in key ways from Behn’s original–was one of the mainstays of the theater in Britain into the nineteenth century. Oroonoko was, like Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe or Jonathan Swift’s Lemuel Gulliver, a character who was introduced in a work of fiction in the decades around 1700 who would go on to have a long life outside the pages of the work in which he originally appeared.

ePub version of text The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice by William Shakepeare, 1564-1616.

From Catullus to Horace, the tradition of Latin erotic poetry produced works of literature which are still read throughout the world. Ovid’s Amores, written in the first century BC, is arguably the best-known and most popular collection in this tradition.
Born in 43 BC, Ovid was educated in Rome in preparation for a career in public services before finding his calling as a poet. He may have begun writing his Amores as early as 25 BC. Although influenced by poets such as Catullus, Ovid demonstrates a much greater awareness of the funny side of love than any of his predecessors. The Amores is a collection of romantic poems centered on the poet’s own complicated love life: he is involved with a woman, Corinna, who is sometimes unobtainable, sometimes compliant, and often difficult and domineering. Whether as a literary trope, or perhaps merely as a human response to the problems of love in the real world, the principal focus of these poems is the poet himself, and his failures, foolishness, and delusions.
By the time he was in his forties, Ovid was Rome’s most important living poet; his Metamorphoses, a kaleidoscopic epic poem about love and hatred among the gods and mortals, is one of the most admired and influential books of all time. In AD 8, Ovid was exiled by Augustus to Romania, for reasons that remain obscure. He died there in AD 17.
The Amores were originally published in five books, but reissued around 1 AD in their current three-book form. This edition of the first book of the collection contains the complete Latin text of Book 1, along with commentary, notes and full vocabulary. Both entertaining and thought-provoking, this book will provide an invaluable aid to students of Latin and general readers alike.

This book contains embedded audio files of the original text read aloud by Aleksandra Szypowska.

This extract from Ovid's 'Theban History' recounts the confrontation of Pentheus, king of Thebes, with his divine cousin, Bacchus, the god of wine. Notwithstanding the warnings of the seer Tiresias and the cautionary tale of a character Acoetes (perhaps Bacchus in disguise), who tells of how the god once transformed a group of blasphemous sailors into dolphins, Pentheus refuses to acknowledge the divinity of Bacchus or allow his worship at Thebes. Enraged, yet curious to witness the orgiastic rites of the nascent cult, Pentheus conceals himself in a grove on Mt. Cithaeron near the locus of the ceremonies. But in the course of the rites he is spotted by the female participants who rush upon him in a delusional frenzy, his mother and sisters in the vanguard, and tear him limb from limb.
The episode abounds in themes of abiding interest, not least the clash between the authoritarian personality of Pentheus, who embodies 'law and order', masculine prowess, and the martial ethos of his city, and Bacchus, a somewhat effeminate god of orgiastic excess, who revels in the delusional and the deceptive, the transgression of boundaries, and the blurring of gender distinctions.
This course book offers a wide-ranging introduction, the original Latin text, study aids with vocabulary, and an extensive commentary. Designed to stretch and stimulate readers, Gildenhard and Zissos's incisive commentary will be of particular interest to students of Latin at AS and undergraduate level. It extends beyond detailed linguistic analysis to encourage critical engagement with Ovid's poetry and discussion of the most recent scholarly thought.

This site provides resources on many facets of writing. While focused on the needs of students, the site has useful information for any writer who feels the need for improvement. In addition to the hyperlinked material, there is a list of reference books, a discussion forum, and a chat room.

Acclaimed author of His Dark Materials Philip Pullman is interviewed by Margaret Kean on his new book, his influences and his method for writing stories. This podcast is part of the Literature, Art and Oxford series from Oxford University.

Although virtually unknown during her life, this visionary New England poet is now praised as one of America's most original writers. The Big Read Readers Guide deepens your exploration with biography, timelines, and historical information. We hope these educational materials allow you to have fun with your students while introducing them to the work of a great American poet.

Professor Elleke Boehmer notes the distinct lack of women writers on the Post/Colonial Writing page of the Great Writers website, and explores why this is the case. She draws attention to the phenomenon of double colonization and, taking Scottish/South African author Zoe Wicomb as an example, looks at the marketing and publishing industries to discuss why postcolonial women writers are less well-known than their male counterparts. This audio recording is part the Interviews on Great Writers series presented by Oxford University Podcasts.

This concise and highly accessible textbook outlines the principles and techniques of storytelling. It is intended as a high-school and college-level introduction to the central concepts of narrative theory – concepts that will aid students in developing their competence not only in analysing and interpreting short stories and novels, but also in writing them.

This textbook prioritises clarity over intricacy of theory, equipping its readers with the necessary tools to embark on further study of literature, literary theory and creative writing. Building on a ‘semiotic model of narrative,’ it is structured around the key elements of narratological theory, with chapters on plot, setting, characterisation, and narration, as well as on language and theme – elements which are underrepresented in existing textbooks on narrative theory. The chapter on language constitutes essential reading for those students unfamiliar with rhetoric, while the chapter on theme draws together significant perspectives from contemporary critical theory (including feminism and postcolonialism).

This textbook is engaging and easily navigable, with key concepts highlighted and clearly explained, both in the text and in a full glossary located at the end of the book. Throughout the textbook the reader is aided by diagrams, images, quotes from prominent theorists, and instructive examples from classical and popular short stories and novels (such as Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Franz Kafka’s ‘The Metamorphosis,’ J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter, or Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, amongst many others).

Prose Fiction: An Introduction to the Semiotics of Narrative can either be incorporated as the main textbook into a wider syllabus on narrative theory and creative writing, or it can be used as a supplementary reference book for readers interested in narrative fiction. The textbook is a must-read for beginning students of narratology, especially those with no or limited prior experience in this area. It is of especial relevance to English and Humanities major students in Asia, for whom it was conceived and written.

Book review publications (Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly) and social cataloguing websites (GoodReads, LibraryThing) categorize the books they review into genres. Fiction and Nonfiction are the broadest categories. The more specialized categories include Mystery, Children's Books, and Poetry. This public domain anthology includes a range of books in these various genres for novice critics to practice the reviewer's craft.

This short work of fiction has been one of Johnson’s most popular and widely-read since its first, anonymous publication in 1759. It has been reprinted again and again over the last two and a half centuries. It seems a fair guess that over that time more people have read this book than have read any of Johnson’s other works, with the possible exception of the Dictionary of the English Language (1755); even there, very few will have read the Dictionary from cover to cover in the way that readers are invited to enjoy this short and very readable work. Originally called by Johnson “The Choice of Life,” it was first published as The Prince of Abissinia. Today, this book is better known as Rasselas; the evolution of the title is a story of its own, which will be discussed later in this introduction.

Dr Catherine Brown, English Faculty, Oxford, gives a lecture exploring the nature of realism in verbal and visual art. This podcast is part of the Literature, Art and Oxford series from Oxford University.

ePub version of text The life and death of King Richard the Second by William Shakepeare, 1564-1616.

ePub version of text The Tragedy of Richard the Third: with the Landing of Earle Richmond, and the Battell at Bosworth Field by William Shakepeare, 1564-1616.