Publisher: Nick Hern Books
A short play from the author of The Weir. A Jesuit priest, sent to investigate a 'miracle' in his home town, re-encounters the woman who loved him thirty years before.
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was born on 1st April 1809 to a father, descended from Ukrainian Cossacks and a mother with a military background in the Ukrainian town of Sorochyntsi, then part of the Russian Empire and rich in Cossack traditions and folklore. His father wrote poetry and plays which the young Gogol helped stage at his uncle’s home theatre. This helped ignite in him a love of literature and blossomed when he attended, what is now, the Nizhyn Gogol State University at the age of 12. Here he participated in school theatre productions and refined his mastery of his native Ukrainian and also the Russian of his Imperial masters. In 1828 he went to St Petersburg and unsuccessfully tried to begin a career as an actor after finding that with no money and no connections the civil service was barred to him. Embezzling money from his mother he embarked on a trip to Germany. When the money ran out, he returned to St Petersburg but the experiences were used in a series of stories he contributed to periodicals. These tales were steeped in his childhood memories of the Ukrainian landscape and peasantry enlivened with the supernatural of its folklore woven with realistic events of the day. He wrote in Russian in a whimsical, colloquial style with a smattering of Ukrainian words and phrases that provided an authenticity. Eight stories were published as ‘Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka’. Seemingly all at once fame and fortune arrived. Gogol was hailed by his contemporaries, including Pushkin, as a pre-eminent writer of Russian literature. His success continued with his brilliant plays ‘The Inspector General’ and the comedy ‘The Marriage for the Theatre’, both being highly acclaimed. In 1834 he became Professor of Medieval History at the University of St. Petersburg but with little academic or teacher training, failed to adequately fulfil many of his duties and soon resigned this post. With no obligations and using his earnings from his writing, which now included the impressionistic and immortal ‘Dead Souls’, Gogol travelled around Europe, spending the most time in Rome where he studied art, read Italian literature and developed a passion for opera. In the 1840s Gogol became preoccupied with a need to purify his soul and embarked on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. In tandem he fell under the influence of a strict and austere spiritual ascetic who persuaded him to observe strict fasts that, allied with his depression and deteriorating health, contributed to his death on 21st April 1852 at the age of only 43. In ‘Old Fashioned Land Owners’ Gogol describes a peaceful setting and a peaceful couple who have grown old together. But foreboding makes an entrance and life is now a series of cruel twists that breaks everything.Show book
There are rather few masters of horror writing out of the many who write horror. HP Lovecraft has achieved fame because his work is of a standard of excellence that few if any can rival. Here we concentrate on his poems that show a different side of his nature at times but allow him to use his macabre tastes to enrich his lines and ideas with the shiver of the night. Born in 1890 in Providence, Rhode Island he was a prodigious youth but a sickly one. Raised mainly by his Grandfather and Aunts at 14 he contemplated suicide on the death of his grandfather and the crushing financial blow that brought to himself and his mother. A set of literary spats in a newspaper brought him attention away from his poetry writings. But until the last decade of his life the works for which we is so well know did not arrive. That last decade, writing again in Providence was prolific but with little income his life downgraded rented house by rented house and in 1936, often malnourished he was diagnosed with cancer and succumbed to it the following year.Show book
Hollywood is indelibly printed in our minds as the ‘go-to’ place for entertainment and has been for decades. When there really did seem to be more stars in Hollywood than in Heaven Hollywood Stage had them performing films as radio plays – on the sponsors dime of course. Classic films now become audiobooks with many featuring the original stars from way back when. Here's Madame Butterfly starring Cary Grant & Grace Moore.Show book
A hypnotic noir thriller set in a beguiling world of dream, danger and fantasy. Stepping out of her home, away from her husband, Chris goes looking for help. Waiting in the darkness are other men. Men who want to listen. Nice men. Men who want all sorts of things. Selma Dimitrijević's play Night Time was first staged at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in 2007. 'Unfolds like a thriller, gradually offering hints and clues in a language that twitches and shivers with possibility' - Guardian 'A chilling, sobering and unsettling debut' - Scotland on SundayShow book
William Collins Books and Decca Records are proud to present ARGO Classics, a historic catalogue of classic prose and verse read by some of the world’s most renowned voices. Originally released as vinyl records, these expertly remastered stories are now available to download for the first time. ‘The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.’ Shakespeare's political thriller tells the story of the conspiracy against Caesar, his assassination and the defeat of his conspirators. Jealous conspirators convince Caesar's friend Brutus to join their assassination plot against Caesar. To stop Caesar from gaining too much power, Brutus and the conspirators kill him on the Ides of March. Mark Antony drives the conspirators out of Rome and fights them in a battle. Brutus and his friend Cassius lose and kill themselves, leaving Antony to rule in Rome. All of the Shakespeare plays within the ARGO Classics catalogue are performed by the Marlowe Dramatic Society and Professional Players. The Marlowe was founded in 1907 with a mission to focus on effective delivery of verse, respect the integrity of texts, and rescue neglected plays by Shakespeare’s contemporaries and the less performed plays of Shakespeare himself. The Marlowe has performed annually at Cambridge Arts Theatre since its opening in 1936 and continues to produce some of the finest actors of their generations. Thurston Dart, Professor of Music at London University and a Fellow of Jesus College Cambridge, directed the music for this production. The full cast includes: John Wilders; George Rylands; Anthony White; Clive Swift; John Dover Wilson; Donald Beves; John Barton; Anthony Jacobs; Tony Church; Roger Prior; Denys Robertson; Michael Jaffe; Gary Watson; Roderick Cook;John Arnott; David Buck; John Arnott; Noel Annan; David Buck; Gary Watsom; Julian Pettifer; John Bird; John Arnott; Chris Renard; Chris Renard; Mark Griffiths; Clive Swift; Wendy Gifford; Dorothy Mulcahy. The theatre production, short in duration but rich in content, showcases the best of European dramatic arts. The performing skills of the actors are truly commendable. For fans of Richard Parsons (GCSE English Shakespeare Text Guide), and Arthur Miller (Incident at Vichy).Show book
Jenny Nixon uses bold phrasing and syntax to record a life lived in and around Sydney s bohemian culture and lesbian and gay communities from the 1970s to the present. Her poetry is atmospheric, immediate and celebrates awareness gained, while honorouring the losses and counting the costs, including deaths of family friends and muses taken by age, AIDS or addictions. Although mainly narrative in style, Nixon s work doesn t shy away from political protest. It cuts close to the bone, and uses the language of the everyday in what is an accessible and moving collection. This collection will appeal to readers who like contemporary, no-nonsense poetry that isn t afraid of tackling the big issues.Show book
