The criteria for inclusion in this anthology are quite straightforward : the poems have to approach that superior and very rare level of excellence and poetic power epitomised by Wordsworth’s sublime Tintern Abbey, by Coleridge’s epic The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and by François Villon’s immortal La Ballade des Pendus ; they have to maintain their exceptional level of excellence throughout, from start to end ; they have to be of a length whereby they can be memorised by the average (…)
Articles les plus récents
-
An anthology of great English poems
31 janvier 2006, par Ray -
"I Love Awfully Bad Writing", by James Clarke
30 novembre 2005, par James ClarkI LOVE AWFULLY BAD WRITING
I love awfully bad writing. Indeed I can say (with all due modesty) that I am quite good at it myself. This might explain why I am fascinated by the annual Bulwyer-Lytton Fiction Contest for the worst opening to a novel.
Every year since 1984 San Jose State University has been offering generous prizes to those who compose the worst introductory paragraphs to imagined novels.
This year marks the 21st year of the contest which was inspired by Edward George (…) -
"A Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling", by Mark Twain
13 mai 2005, par Mark TwainAn interesting contribution to the debate about spelling reform, from the author of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. A PLAN FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF ENGLISH SPELLING
For example, in Year 1 that useless letter “c” would be dropped to be replased either by “k” or “s”, and likewise “x” would no longer be part of the alphabet. The onle kase in which “c” would be retained would be the “ch” formation, which will be dealt with later.
Year 2 might reform “w” spelling, so that “which” and “one” (…) -
Overview by author of all the texts on this site
10 mai 2005, par RayShowing the number of texts of each category of all of the 105 authors whose works grace this site.
-
E-books available on this site
1er mai 2005, par RayAll of the 325 e-books that are available for downloading on this site are listed here in alphabetical order by author and title.
They are all in the standard ePub format, used by all the leading e-book readers and applications, notably Kindle [1] and Kobo. N° AUTHOR_________________________ TITLE______________________________________________________ GENRE_________ SECTION_______ 1 Nelson Algren A Selection of Nelson Aldren’s Best Short Stories anthology Stories 2 Nelson Algren The (…) -
Translations done specially for this site
1er janvier 2005, par RayAll of the 499 translations into English on this site [1] are of texts free of copyright in the USA, Great Britain, Europe and elsewhere.
As translations are themselves subject to the 70-year rule – an author’s works are free of copyright 70 years after the last day of the year of their death – we have undertaken ourselves 220 translations of major French, German and Russian texts [2] to enable them to be available on this site in on-line and e-book formats for English-language readers (…) -
About this site
31 décembre 2004, par RayWelcome to Prospero’s Isle, a site designed to make great works of world literature available in English in on-line and e-book formats, free of charge and free of publicity.
Centred on outstanding stories by the great writers whose works in this format have best passed the test of time in our opinion (Chekhov, Maupassant, Jack London and Stefan Zweig, as well as A.E. van Vogt in the science-fiction domain and Arthur Conan Doyle in the crime-fiction domain), the site also contains a great (…)