Classic Style

Dispute over land and kingdom may lie at the heart of this story of war between cousins - the Pandavas and the Kouravas - but the Mahabharata is about conflicts of dharma. These conflicts are immense and various, singular and commonplace. Throughout the epic, characters face them with no clear indications of what is right and what is wrong; there are no absolute answers. Thus every possible human emotion features in the Mahabharata, the reason the epic continues to hold sway over our imagination.

Dispute over land and kingdom may lie at the heart of this story of war between cousins - the Pandavas and the Kouravas - but the Mahabharata is about conflicts of dharma. These conflicts are immense and various, singular and commonplace. Throughout the epic, characters face them with no clear indications of what is right and what is wrong; there are no absolute answers. Thus every possible human emotion features in the Mahabharata, the reason the epic continues to hold sway over our imagination.

Having spent ten years fighting in the Trojan War, Odysseus embarks on his journey back to Ithica. To get there he must deceive a giant Cyclops, face Poseidon’s wrath, escape cannibalism, defeat the witch-goddess Circe, skirt the land of the Sirens, sail between a six-headed monster and a raging whirlpool, and escape captivity on the island of Calypso. But perhaps his biggest threat is his prolonged absence from home, as 108 suitors are vying for his wife’s hand in marriage.

Mark Redfield narrates from a specially prepared text for performance by Dickens himself, and performs all of your favorite characters, in this beloved Christmas tale of forgiveness and redemption. Since 1843, “A Christmas Carol” has delighted millions around the globe and has come to embody the spirit of Christmas for all who have been touched by its magic.

Jenny Lewis relocates Gilgamesh to its earlier, oral roots in a Sumerian society where men and women were more equal, the reigning deity of Gilgamesh’s city, Uruk, was female (Inanna), only women were allowed to brew beer and keep taverns and women had their own language - emesal. With this shift of emphasis, Lewis captures the powerful allure of the world’s oldest poem and gives it a fresh dynamic while creating a fast-paced narrative for a new generation of listeners.

Steeped in history, culture and traditions, London remains one of the largest and most populous cities on the planet. Small wonder then, that some of history's greatest poets have been inspired by it.

"Drum prüfe, wer sich ewig bindet, ob sich das Herz zum Herzen findet!" Das berühmte Zitat ist nur einer von vielen wortgewaltigen Versen aus Schillers Balladen-Großwerk "Das Lied von der Glocke". Mit Christian Rode hat die imposante Dichtung einen würdigen Meister der Sprecherkunst gefunden.

Eine der Klassiker aus der Feder von Friedrich Schiller. "Sieh da! Sieh da, Timotheus, die Kraniche des Ibykus!" Schillers Rache-Ballade in der Interpretation von Mathieu Carrière. Ein Erlebnis.

"Drum prüfe, wer sich ewig bindet, ob sich das Herz zum Herzen findet!" Das berühmte Zitat ist nur einer von vielen wortgewaltigen Versen aus Schillers Balladen-Großwerk "Das Lied von der Glocke". Mit Ulrich Matthes hat die imposante Dichtung einen würdigen Meister der Sprecherkunst gefunden.

La Ilíada es una epopeya griega, atribuida tradicionalmente a Homero. Compuesta en hexámetros dactílicos, consta de 15 693 versos y su trama radica en la cólera de Aquiles.​ Narra los acontecimientos ocurridos durante 51 días en el décimo y último año de la guerra de Troya. Tanto la Ilíada como la Odisea fueron consideradas por los griegos de la época clásica y por las generaciones posteriores como las composiciones más importantes en la literatura de la Antigua Grecia y fueron utilizadas como fundamentos de la pedagogía griega.

"Ex Oblivione" is a prose poem by American horror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft, written in late 1920 or early 1921 and first published in The United Amateur in March 1921, under the pseudonym Ward Phillips. It is written in first person and tells of the dreams of a presumably dying man. In his dreams, the man is walking through a valley and encounters a vine-covered wall with a locked bronze gate therein. He longs to know what lies beyond the gate.

The Witch of Atlas is a poetic narrative, written in 1820 and published posthumously in 1824. The witch is the daughter of the Pleiades, the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione. The plot is built around her adventures, during which she creates an androgynous creature, Hermaphroditus, who is both the companion of and the servant to the witch. She plays a series of pranks upon mankind, with the ultimate aim of revealing the essential foolishness of oppression and conflict and enabling the realization of a final Utopia.

In seiner berühmten Dichtung durchschreitet Dante das Jenseits: von der Hölle über das Fegefeuer bis hin zum Paradies. An der Seite des römischen Dichters Vergil und seiner Jugendliebe Beatrice begegnet er auf seiner Reise Sündern und Gerechten, spricht mit den Seelen berühmter Verstorbener und ist am Ende dem Sinn des Lebens ganz nah. Dante Alighieri, geboren 1265 in Florenz, schuf mit seiner "Göttlichen Komödie" nicht nur die erste herausragende Dichtung in italienischer Sprache, sondern zugleich eines der bedeutendsten Werke der abendländischen Literatur.

"Витязь в тигровой шкуре" - эпическая поэма грузинского поэта Шота Руставели, написанная в XII веке.

Spoon River Anthology is a collection of poems that describe life - and death - in a small town. Each poem is a monologue delivered by a resident of Spoon River, describing events in their lives, and the circumstances that led to their occasionally untimely end. Edgar Lee Masters wrote this theatrical masterpiece to highlight the typical small town. The fascinating characters and realistic imagery make it easy to see why this is an American classic.

Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy. So begins Robert Fagles' magnificent translation of the Odyssey, which Jasper Griffin in The New York Times Review of Books hails as "a distinguished achievement." If the Iliad is the world's greatest war epic, then the Odyssey is literature's grandest evocation of everyman's journey though life.

Die Liebesgöttin Venus (Spitteler verwendet im Titel den römischen Namen Venus, in der Ballade selbst dann den griechischen Namen Aphrodite) taucht auf einem schwarzen Hengst aus einem See hervor, reitet ins Land und einem Gebirge entgegen.

Eine große Empfehlung für alle, die sich schon mit dem komplizierten Thema der Liebe auseinandergesetzt haben. Die Liebe ist eines der beliebtesten Themen der Weltliteratur. Ein Meister dieses Genres war Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. In seiner schönen, bildhaften Sprache berührte er damals wie heute das Herz vieler Menschen. Goethes schönste Liebesgedichte werden mitfühlend vorgelesen von Maren Eggert und Werner Wölbern.

"L'Atlàntida" de Verdaguer s'estructura en deu cants en quartets de versos alexandrins amb rima consonàntica alternant, precedits d'una "Introducció" i seguits per una "Conclusió", ambdues en sextets de versos decasíl·labs. Aquesta estructura formal, que es correspon, com veurem, amb el contingut argumental, es trencada sovint amb la inclusió d'altres esquemes mètrics. Un jove mariner genovès anomenat Crostòfor Colom, únic supervivent d'un naufragi, arriba a la costa atlàntica d'Andalusia.

This poetic exploration of the subject of love was composed in Italy 1821, and published anonymously, as the poet wished its circulation to be restricted to the "esoteric few." The title means "concerning or about a little soul", the subject, in this case, being Shelley's inamorata of the time, Countess Teresa (designated "Emily" in the poem) Viviani, a young woman who was immured in the Convent of Saint Anna by her father. Shelley had had a number of contacts with her by letter and in person.