The daughter of a wealthy railway magnate, Paula Power inherits De Stancy Castle, an ancient castle in need of modernization. She commissions George Somerset, a young architect, to undertake the work. Somerset falls in love with Paula but she, the Laodicean of the title, is torn between his admiration and that of Captain De Stancy, whose old-world romanticism contrasts with Somerset's forward-looking attitude. Paula's vacillation, however, is not only romantic. Her ambiguity regarding religion, politics and social progress is a reflection of the author's own. This new Penguin Classics edition of Hardy's text contains an introduction and notes that illuminate and clarify these themes, and draws parallels between the text and the author's life and views.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Thomas Hardy, was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, especially William Wordsworth. Charles Dickens was another important influence. Like Dickens, he was highly critical of much in Victorian society, though Hardy focused more on a declining rural society.

While Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life and regarded himself primarily as a poet, his first collection was not published until 1898. Initially, therefore, he gained fame as the author of novels, including Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895). Hardy's poetry, though prolific, was not as well received during his lifetime. It was rediscovered in the 1950s, when Hardy's poetry had a significant influence on the Movement poets of the 1950s and 1960s, including Philip Larkin.

Most of his fictional works – initially published as serials in magazines – were set in the semi-fictional region of Wessex. They explored tragic characters struggling against their passions and social circumstances. Hardy's Wessex is based on the medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom and eventually came to include the counties of Dorset, Wiltshire, Somerset, Devon, Hampshire and much of Berkshire, in southwest and south central England.
Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A unique self-help book in poetic form! 

A Lover in the Land of Hell: A Collection of Spiritually Enlightening Poetry for Personal and Planetary Transformation and Growth is an entertaining, yet deep thought provoking, new age instruction manual for positive self transformation and thus world transformation. From birth to death the reader is taken on a journey exemplifying the bitter realities of our present day planet earth and steps we can all take to help create positive change. 

The poems are simple, easy to read and rhythmic in style. Influenced by jazz and hip hop music, the poems may be classified as spoken word poetry as they take on a whole new energy when read out loud. The poetry topics aim to raise awareness about social issues and injustices of the day. 

Topics include self image issues, politics, homelessness, planet earth, women's empowerment, compassion for animals, health, diet, money, meditation, law of attraction, gratitude, love, death, God, the devil, consciousness and spirituality. 

Overall, A Lover in the Land of Hell is an inspiring, motivational, eye opening and empowering book which will help guide the reader towards making positive changes in their own life and amplify healing on all levels, thus contributing to a more peaceful, compassionate and abundant world! In order to truly create significant changes on this planet we must first change ourselves!

Based on an 1839 boat trip Thoreau took with his brother from Concord, Massachusetts, to Concord, New Hampshire, and back, this classic of American literature is not only a vivid narrative of that journey, it is also a collection of thought-provoking observations on such diverse topics as poetry, literature, and philosophy, Native American and Puritan histories of New England, friendship, sacred Eastern writings, traditional Christianity, and much more.

Written, like Walden, while Thoreau lived at Walden Pond, and published in 1849, A Week (his first book) shares many themes with Walden, published in 1854. Both dramatize the process of self-renewal in nature and resolutely rail against the official culture and politics of the "trivial Nineteenth Century." Blending keen observation with a wealth of perceptive and informed reflections, Thoreau develops a continuous and lyrical dialogue between the past and present, as particular scenes on shore trigger reflections on the region's history and legends.　

Originally conceived as a travel book, A Week eventually became much more — one of the most intellectually ambitious works of 19th-century America, and a requiem for Thoreau's brother John, who died from a sudden illness in 1842.

Of Thoreau and this work, Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "H. D. Thoreau is a great man in Concord, a man of original genius and character. I think it is a book of wonderful merit, which is to go far and last long."

A single issue, back copy, of American Scholar.

The American Scholar is the venerable but lively quarterly magazine of public affairs, literature, science, history, and culture published by the Phi Beta Kappa Society since 1932. In recent years the magazine has won four National Magazine Awards, the industry's highest honor, and many of its essays and articles have been selected for the yearly Best American anthologies.

In 2006, The American Scholar began to publish fiction by such writers as Alice Munro, Ann Beattie, Steven Millhauser, Dennis McFarland, Louis Begley, and David Leavitt. Essays, articles, criticism, and poetry have been mainstays of the magazine for 75 years.

Inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous speech, The American Scholar, delivered to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard College in 1837, the magazine aspires to Emerson's ideals of independent thinking, self-knowledge, and a commitment to the affairs of the world as well as to books, history, and science.

A single issue, back copy, of American Scholar.

The American Scholar is the venerable but lively quarterly magazine of public affairs, literature, science, history, and culture published by the Phi Beta Kappa Society since 1932. In recent years the magazine has won four National Magazine Awards, the industry's highest honor, and many of its essays and articles have been selected for the yearly Best American anthologies.

In 2006, The American Scholar began to publish fiction by such writers as Alice Munro, Ann Beattie, Steven Millhauser, Dennis McFarland, Louis Begley, and David Leavitt. Essays, articles, criticism, and poetry have been mainstays of the magazine for 75 years.

Inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous speech, The American Scholar, delivered to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard College in 1837, the magazine aspires to Emerson's ideals of independent thinking, self-knowledge, and a commitment to the affairs of the world as well as to books, history, and science.

A single issue, back copy, of American Scholar.

The American Scholar is the venerable but lively quarterly magazine of public affairs, literature, science, history, and culture published by the Phi Beta Kappa Society since 1932. In recent years the magazine has won four National Magazine Awards, the industry's highest honor, and many of its essays and articles have been selected for the yearly Best American anthologies.

In 2006, The American Scholar began to publish fiction by such writers as Alice Munro, Ann Beattie, Steven Millhauser, Dennis McFarland, Louis Begley, and David Leavitt. Essays, articles, criticism, and poetry have been mainstays of the magazine for 75 years.

Inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous speech, The American Scholar, delivered to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard College in 1837, the magazine aspires to Emerson's ideals of independent thinking, self-knowledge, and a commitment to the affairs of the world as well as to books, history, and science.

A single issue, back copy, of American Scholar.

The American Scholar is the venerable but lively quarterly magazine of public affairs, literature, science, history, and culture published by the Phi Beta Kappa Society since 1932. In recent years the magazine has won four National Magazine Awards, the industry's highest honor, and many of its essays and articles have been selected for the yearly Best American anthologies.

In 2006, The American Scholar began to publish fiction by such writers as Alice Munro, Ann Beattie, Steven Millhauser, Dennis McFarland, Louis Begley, and David Leavitt. Essays, articles, criticism, and poetry have been mainstays of the magazine for 75 years.

Inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous speech, The American Scholar, delivered to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard College in 1837, the magazine aspires to Emerson's ideals of independent thinking, self-knowledge, and a commitment to the affairs of the world as well as to books, history, and science.

A single issue, back copy, of American Scholar.

The American Scholar is the venerable but lively quarterly magazine of public affairs, literature, science, history, and culture published by the Phi Beta Kappa Society since 1932. In recent years the magazine has won four National Magazine Awards, the industry's highest honor, and many of its essays and articles have been selected for the yearly Best American anthologies.

In 2006, The American Scholar began to publish fiction by such writers as Alice Munro, Ann Beattie, Steven Millhauser, Dennis McFarland, Louis Begley, and David Leavitt. Essays, articles, criticism, and poetry have been mainstays of the magazine for 75 years.

Inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous speech, The American Scholar, delivered to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard College in 1837, the magazine aspires to Emerson's ideals of independent thinking, self-knowledge, and a commitment to the affairs of the world as well as to books, history, and science.

A single issue, back copy, of American Scholar.

The American Scholar is the venerable but lively quarterly magazine of public affairs, literature, science, history, and culture published by the Phi Beta Kappa Society since 1932. In recent years the magazine has won four National Magazine Awards, the industry's highest honor, and many of its essays and articles have been selected for the yearly Best American anthologies.

In 2006, The American Scholar began to publish fiction by such writers as Alice Munro, Ann Beattie, Steven Millhauser, Dennis McFarland, Louis Begley, and David Leavitt. Essays, articles, criticism, and poetry have been mainstays of the magazine for 75 years.

Inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous speech, The American Scholar, delivered to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard College in 1837, the magazine aspires to Emerson's ideals of independent thinking, self-knowledge, and a commitment to the affairs of the world as well as to books, history, and science.

A single issue, back copy, of American Scholar.

The American Scholar is the venerable but lively quarterly magazine of public affairs, literature, science, history, and culture published by the Phi Beta Kappa Society since 1932. In recent years the magazine has won four National Magazine Awards, the industry's highest honor, and many of its essays and articles have been selected for the yearly Best American anthologies.

In 2006, The American Scholar began to publish fiction by such writers as Alice Munro, Ann Beattie, Steven Millhauser, Dennis McFarland, Louis Begley, and David Leavitt. Essays, articles, criticism, and poetry have been mainstays of the magazine for 75 years.

Inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous speech, The American Scholar, delivered to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard College in 1837, the magazine aspires to Emerson's ideals of independent thinking, self-knowledge, and a commitment to the affairs of the world as well as to books, history, and science.

A single issue, back copy, of American Scholar.

The American Scholar is the venerable but lively quarterly magazine of public affairs, literature, science, history, and culture published by the Phi Beta Kappa Society since 1932. In recent years the magazine has won four National Magazine Awards, the industry's highest honor, and many of its essays and articles have been selected for the yearly Best American anthologies.

In 2006, The American Scholar began to publish fiction by such writers as Alice Munro, Ann Beattie, Steven Millhauser, Dennis McFarland, Louis Begley, and David Leavitt. Essays, articles, criticism, and poetry have been mainstays of the magazine for 75 years.

Inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous speech, The American Scholar, delivered to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard College in 1837, the magazine aspires to Emerson's ideals of independent thinking, self-knowledge, and a commitment to the affairs of the world as well as to books, history, and science.

A single issue, back copy, of American Scholar.

The American Scholar is the venerable but lively quarterly magazine of public affairs, literature, science, history, and culture published by the Phi Beta Kappa Society since 1932. In recent years the magazine has won four National Magazine Awards, the industry's highest honor, and many of its essays and articles have been selected for the yearly Best American anthologies.

In 2006, The American Scholar began to publish fiction by such writers as Alice Munro, Ann Beattie, Steven Millhauser, Dennis McFarland, Louis Begley, and David Leavitt. Essays, articles, criticism, and poetry have been mainstays of the magazine for 75 years.

Inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous speech, The American Scholar, delivered to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard College in 1837, the magazine aspires to Emerson's ideals of independent thinking, self-knowledge, and a commitment to the affairs of the world as well as to books, history, and science.

A single issue, back copy, of American Scholar.

The American Scholar is the venerable but lively quarterly magazine of public affairs, literature, science, history, and culture published by the Phi Beta Kappa Society since 1932. In recent years the magazine has won four National Magazine Awards, the industry's highest honor, and many of its essays and articles have been selected for the yearly Best American anthologies.

In 2006, The American Scholar began to publish fiction by such writers as Alice Munro, Ann Beattie, Steven Millhauser, Dennis McFarland, Louis Begley, and David Leavitt. Essays, articles, criticism, and poetry have been mainstays of the magazine for 75 years.

Inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous speech, The American Scholar, delivered to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard College in 1837, the magazine aspires to Emerson's ideals of independent thinking, self-knowledge, and a commitment to the affairs of the world as well as to books, history, and science.

A single issue, back copy, of American Scholar.

The American Scholar is the venerable but lively quarterly magazine of public affairs, literature, science, history, and culture published by the Phi Beta Kappa Society since 1932. In recent years the magazine has won four National Magazine Awards, the industry's highest honor, and many of its essays and articles have been selected for the yearly Best American anthologies.

In 2006, The American Scholar began to publish fiction by such writers as Alice Munro, Ann Beattie, Steven Millhauser, Dennis McFarland, Louis Begley, and David Leavitt. Essays, articles, criticism, and poetry have been mainstays of the magazine for 75 years.

Inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous speech, The American Scholar, delivered to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard College in 1837, the magazine aspires to Emerson's ideals of independent thinking, self-knowledge, and a commitment to the affairs of the world as well as to books, history, and science.

A single issue, back copy, of American Scholar.

The American Scholar is the venerable but lively quarterly magazine of public affairs, literature, science, history, and culture published by the Phi Beta Kappa Society since 1932. In recent years the magazine has won four National Magazine Awards, the industry's highest honor, and many of its essays and articles have been selected for the yearly Best American anthologies.

In 2006, The American Scholar began to publish fiction by such writers as Alice Munro, Ann Beattie, Steven Millhauser, Dennis McFarland, Louis Begley, and David Leavitt. Essays, articles, criticism, and poetry have been mainstays of the magazine for 75 years.

Inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous speech, The American Scholar, delivered to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard College in 1837, the magazine aspires to Emerson's ideals of independent thinking, self-knowledge, and a commitment to the affairs of the world as well as to books, history, and science.

A single issue, back copy, of American Scholar.

The American Scholar is the venerable but lively quarterly magazine of public affairs, literature, science, history, and culture published by the Phi Beta Kappa Society since 1932. In recent years the magazine has won four National Magazine Awards, the industry's highest honor, and many of its essays and articles have been selected for the yearly Best American anthologies.

In 2006, The American Scholar began to publish fiction by such writers as Alice Munro, Ann Beattie, Steven Millhauser, Dennis McFarland, Louis Begley, and David Leavitt. Essays, articles, criticism, and poetry have been mainstays of the magazine for 75 years.

Inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous speech, The American Scholar, delivered to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard College in 1837, the magazine aspires to Emerson's ideals of independent thinking, self-knowledge, and a commitment to the affairs of the world as well as to books, history, and science.

A single issue, back copy, of American Scholar.

The American Scholar is the venerable but lively quarterly magazine of public affairs, literature, science, history, and culture published by the Phi Beta Kappa Society since 1932. In recent years the magazine has won four National Magazine Awards, the industry's highest honor, and many of its essays and articles have been selected for the yearly Best American anthologies.

In 2006, The American Scholar began to publish fiction by such writers as Alice Munro, Ann Beattie, Steven Millhauser, Dennis McFarland, Louis Begley, and David Leavitt. Essays, articles, criticism, and poetry have been mainstays of the magazine for 75 years.

Inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous speech, The American Scholar, delivered to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard College in 1837, the magazine aspires to Emerson's ideals of independent thinking, self-knowledge, and a commitment to the affairs of the world as well as to books, history, and science.

A single issue, back copy, of American Scholar.

The American Scholar is the venerable but lively quarterly magazine of public affairs, literature, science, history, and culture published by the Phi Beta Kappa Society since 1932. In recent years the magazine has won four National Magazine Awards, the industry's highest honor, and many of its essays and articles have been selected for the yearly Best American anthologies.

In 2006, The American Scholar began to publish fiction by such writers as Alice Munro, Ann Beattie, Steven Millhauser, Dennis McFarland, Louis Begley, and David Leavitt. Essays, articles, criticism, and poetry have been mainstays of the magazine for 75 years.

Inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous speech, The American Scholar, delivered to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard College in 1837, the magazine aspires to Emerson's ideals of independent thinking, self-knowledge, and a commitment to the affairs of the world as well as to books, history, and science.

A single issue, back copy, of American Scholar.

The American Scholar is the venerable but lively quarterly magazine of public affairs, literature, science, history, and culture published by the Phi Beta Kappa Society since 1932. In recent years the magazine has won four National Magazine Awards, the industry's highest honor, and many of its essays and articles have been selected for the yearly Best American anthologies.

In 2006, The American Scholar began to publish fiction by such writers as Alice Munro, Ann Beattie, Steven Millhauser, Dennis McFarland, Louis Begley, and David Leavitt. Essays, articles, criticism, and poetry have been mainstays of the magazine for 75 years.

Inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous speech, The American Scholar, delivered to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard College in 1837, the magazine aspires to Emerson's ideals of independent thinking, self-knowledge, and a commitment to the affairs of the world as well as to books, history, and science.

A single issue, back copy, of American Scholar.

The American Scholar is the venerable but lively quarterly magazine of public affairs, literature, science, history, and culture published by the Phi Beta Kappa Society since 1932. In recent years the magazine has won four National Magazine Awards, the industry's highest honor, and many of its essays and articles have been selected for the yearly Best American anthologies.

In 2006, The American Scholar began to publish fiction by such writers as Alice Munro, Ann Beattie, Steven Millhauser, Dennis McFarland, Louis Begley, and David Leavitt. Essays, articles, criticism, and poetry have been mainstays of the magazine for 75 years.

Inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous speech, The American Scholar, delivered to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard College in 1837, the magazine aspires to Emerson's ideals of independent thinking, self-knowledge, and a commitment to the affairs of the world as well as to books, history, and science.

A single issue, back copy, of American Scholar.

The American Scholar is the venerable but lively quarterly magazine of public affairs, literature, science, history, and culture published by the Phi Beta Kappa Society since 1932. In recent years the magazine has won four National Magazine Awards, the industry's highest honor, and many of its essays and articles have been selected for the yearly Best American anthologies.

In 2006, The American Scholar began to publish fiction by such writers as Alice Munro, Ann Beattie, Steven Millhauser, Dennis McFarland, Louis Begley, and David Leavitt. Essays, articles, criticism, and poetry have been mainstays of the magazine for 75 years.

Inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous speech, The American Scholar, delivered to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard College in 1837, the magazine aspires to Emerson's ideals of independent thinking, self-knowledge, and a commitment to the affairs of the world as well as to books, history, and science.

A single issue, back copy, of American Scholar.

The American Scholar is the venerable but lively quarterly magazine of public affairs, literature, science, history, and culture published by the Phi Beta Kappa Society since 1932. In recent years the magazine has won four National Magazine Awards, the industry's highest honor, and many of its essays and articles have been selected for the yearly Best American anthologies.

In 2006, The American Scholar began to publish fiction by such writers as Alice Munro, Ann Beattie, Steven Millhauser, Dennis McFarland, Louis Begley, and David Leavitt. Essays, articles, criticism, and poetry have been mainstays of the magazine for 75 years.

Inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous speech, The American Scholar, delivered to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard College in 1837, the magazine aspires to Emerson's ideals of independent thinking, self-knowledge, and a commitment to the affairs of the world as well as to books, history, and science.

A single issue, back copy, of American Scholar.

The American Scholar is the venerable but lively quarterly magazine of public affairs, literature, science, history, and culture published by the Phi Beta Kappa Society since 1932. In recent years the magazine has won four National Magazine Awards, the industry's highest honor, and many of its essays and articles have been selected for the yearly Best American anthologies.

In 2006, The American Scholar began to publish fiction by such writers as Alice Munro, Ann Beattie, Steven Millhauser, Dennis McFarland, Louis Begley, and David Leavitt. Essays, articles, criticism, and poetry have been mainstays of the magazine for 75 years.

Inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous speech, The American Scholar, delivered to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard College in 1837, the magazine aspires to Emerson's ideals of independent thinking, self-knowledge, and a commitment to the affairs of the world as well as to books, history, and science.

The Booker Prize-winning author of The Handmaid’s Tale writes her first graphic novel, a cat-centric all-ages New York Times bestselling adventure.

On a dark night, young genetic engineer Strig Feleedus is accidentally mutated by his own experiment and merges with the DNA of a cat and an owl. What follows is a humorous, action-driven, pulp-inspired superhero adventure-- with a lot of cat puns.

Lauded novelist Margaret Atwood and acclaimed artist Johnnie Christmas collaborate on one of the most highly anticipated comic book and literary events of the year!

Published in over thirty-five countries, Margaret Atwood is one of the most important living writers of our day and is the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays. Her work has won the Man Booker Prize, the Giller Prize, Premio Mondello, and more. Angel Catbird is her first graphic novel series.

Atwood's The Blind Assassin was named one of Time magazine's 100 best English-language novels published since 1923 and her recent MaddAddam Trilogy is currently being adapted into an HBO television show by Darren Aronofsky

The cat-centric adventure continues, in the all-ages follow-up to The Handmaid’s Tale author Margaret Atwood's debut graphic novel. Genetic engineer Strig Feleedus, also known as Angel Catbird, and his band of half-cats head to Castle Catula to seek allies as the war between cats and rats escalates.

Margaret Atwood, the respected, worldwide best-selling novelist, and acclaimed artist Johnnie Christmas continue their action-packed adventure!

Atwood's The Blind Assassin was named one of Time magazine's 100 best English-language novels published since 1923 and her recent MaddAddam Trilogy is currently being adapted into an HBO television show by Darren Aronofsky

Published in over thirty-five countries, Margaret Atwood is one of the most important living writers of our day and is the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays. Her work has won the Man Booker Prize, the Giller Prize, Premio Mondello, and more. Angel Catbird is her first graphic novel series.

The Booker Prize-winning author of The Handmaid’s Tale pens a conclusion to the dramatic, hilarious, and heartwarming Angel Catbird trilogy. 

It's all-out war in the madcap culmination of Angel Catbird's superhero saga. The evil Rat army is aiming for world domination, and only a ragtag gang of half-cats stands in their way. 

Margaret Atwood is one of the most important living writers of our day. She has been recognized internationally for her work through awards and honorary degrees. 

 Atwood, whose work has been published in over thirty-five countries, is the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays, and has won the Man Booker Prize, the Giller Prize, Premio Mondello, and more. 

Asimov's Science Fiction August 2011

Novelettes

• The End of the Line, Robert Silverberg
• Corn Teeth, Malanie Tem
• Paradise is a Walled Garden, Lisa Goldstein

Short Stories

• Watch Bees, Philip Brewer
• For I Have Lain Me Down on the Stone of Loneliness and I'll Not be Back Again, Michael Swanwick
• We Were Wonder Scouts, Zachary Jernigan

Poetry

• Bribing Karma, Danny Adams
• The Music of Nessie, Bruce Boston

Departments

• Editorial—The 20th Dell Magazine Awards, Sheila Williams
• Reflections—Earth is the Strangest Planet, Robert Silverberg
• On the Net—Writing Lessons, James Patrick Kelly
• Next Issue
• On Books, Peter Heck
• The SF Conventional Calendar, Erwin S. Strauss

Betting on the Muse is a combination of hilarious poetry and stories. Charles Bukowski writes about the real life of a working man and all that comes with it.

Charles Bukowski is one of America's best-known contemporary writers of poetry and prose, and, many would claim, its most influential and imitated poet. He was born in Andernach, Germany, and raised in Los Angeles, where he lived for fifty years. He published his first story in 1944, when he was twenty-four, and began writing poetry at the age of thirty-five. He died in San Pedro, California, on March 9, 1994, at the age of seventy-three, shortly after completing his last novel, Pulp (1994).

Brilliant short stories and a novella by the author of Moby-Dick

"Billy Budd, Sailor," a classic confrontation between good and evil, is the story of an innocent young man unable to defend himself from wrongful accusations. Other selections include "Bartleby," "The Piazza," "The Encantadas," "The Bell-Tower," "Benito Cereno," "The Paradise of Bachelors," and "The Tartarus of Maids."

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

LXII

I read the primrose and the sea

and remember nothing

I read Arcturus and the snow

and remember nothing

I read the green and white book of spring

and remember nothing

I read the hatred in a man’s eye

Lord, I remember nothing.

Scorn spat at me and spoke

I remember it not

The river was frozen round the ship

I remember it not

I found a secret message in a blade of grass

and it is forgotten

I called my lovers by their sweet names

they are all forgotten.

Where are my lovers now?

buried in me.

The blades of grass, the ships, the scorners?

here in me

The haters in the spring, snow and Arcturus?

here in me

The primrose and the sea?

here in me.

I know what humans know

no less no more

I know how the summer breaks

on Neptune’s shore

I know how winter freezes

the Milky Way

My heart’s home is in Limbo

and there I stay.

Praise Limbo, heart, and praise

forgetfulness

We know what the tiger knows

no more no less

We know what the primrose thinks

and think it too

We walk when the snail walks

across the dew.

I was a rash man in my time

but now I am still

I spoke with god’s voice once

now I am still

Evil made my right hand strong

which now is still

Wisdom gave me pride once,

but it is still.

Lie down poor heart at last

and have your rest

Remember to forget

and have your rest

Think of yourself as once you were

at your best

And then lie down alone

and have your rest.

These things are as time weaves them

on his loom

Forgot, forgetting, we survive not

mortal bloom

Let us give thanks, to space,

for a little room

Space is our face and time our death

two poles of doom

Come dance around the compass

pointing north

Before, face downward, frozen,

we go forth.

LXIII

Thus systole addressed diastole,—

The heart contracting, with its grief of burden,

To the lax heart, with grief of burden gone.

Thus star to dead leaf speaks; thus cliff to sea;

And thus the spider, on a summer’s day,

To the bright thistledown, trapped in the web.

No language leaps this chasm like a lightning:

Here is no message of assuagement, blown

From Ecuador to Greenland; here is only

A trumpet blast, that calls dead men to arms;

The granite’s pity for the cloud; the whisper

Of time to space. 

Poet, short story writer, critic and novelist, Conrad Aiken (1889-1973) has been called the most metaphysical, the most learned, and the most modern of poets. With writing that reflects an intense interest in psychological, philosophical, and scientific issues, Aiken remains a unique influence upon modern writers and critics today. In his lifetime, Aiken received many awards including the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1930 and the National Book Award for Poetry in 1954. He served as the Consultant in Poetry at the Library of Congress from 1950-1952.

Selected Poems contains Aiken's own choice of the best and most representative of his poems, spanning more than forty years of his work. Harold Bloom has contributed a new Foreword to reintroduce Aiken to a new generation of readers. The inclusion of several pivotal poems from previous editions broadens the scope of the work to represent Aiken's legacy.

The #1 New York Times bestselling tale of addiction—the first in the Crank trilogy—from master poet Ellen Hopkins.

Life was good 

before I 

met 

 the monster.

 After, 

 life 

 was great, 

 At 

 least 

 for a little while. 

Kristina Snow is the perfect daughter: gifted high school junior, quiet, never any trouble.

Then, Kristina meets the monster: crank. And what begins as a wild, ecstatic ride turns into a struggle through hell for her mind, her soul—her life.

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver presents a personal selection of her best work in this definitive collection spanning more than five decades of her esteemed literary career.

“It’s as if the poet herself has sidled beside the reader and pointed us to the poems she considers most worthy of deep consideration.” — Chicago Tribune

Throughout her celebrated career, Mary Oliver has touched countless readers with her brilliantly crafted verse, expounding on her love for the physical world and the powerful bonds between all living things. Identified as "far and away, this country's best selling poet" by Dwight Garner, she now returns with a stunning and definitive collection of her writing from the last fifty years.

“In Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver (Penguin), one of our most beloved writers offers both the best of her work and a spiritual road map of sorts. Spanning more than 50 years and featuring more than 200 poems, the collection shows Oliver, in the early years, turning away from grief and finding in nature a "vast, incredible gift." Over time, as she carefully observes and records, Oliver extols the beauty and complexity around her and reminds us of the interconnectedness of living. She also asks important questions, such as "have you ever dared to be happy/ ... have you ever dared to pray," and "Tell me, what it is you plan to do/ with your one wild and precious life?" Those lines resonate as much today as when she first penned them decades ago. No matter where one starts reading, Devotions offers much to love, from Oliver's exuberant dog poems to selections from the Pulitzer Prize-winning American Primitive, and Dream Work, one of her exceptional collections. Perhaps more important, the luminous writing provides respite from our crazy world and demonstrates how mindfulness can define and transform a life, moment by moment, poem by poem.” —The Washington Post

Carefully curated, these 200 plus poems feature Oliver's work from her very first book of poetry, No Voyage and Other Poems, published in 1963 at the age of 28, through her most recent collection, Felicity, published in 2015. This timeless volume, arranged by Oliver herself, showcases the beloved poet at her edifying best. Within these pages, she provides us with an extraordinary and invaluable collection of her passionate, perceptive, and much-treasured observations of the natural world.

About the Author

Born in a small town in Ohio, Mary Oliver published her first book of poetry in 1963 at the age of 28. Over the course of her long career, she has received numerous awards. Her fourth book, American Primitive, won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1984. She has led workshops and held residencies at various colleges and universities, including Bennington College, where she held the Catharine Osgood Foster Chair for Distinguished Teaching. Oliver currently lives in Florida.