677 Dylan Thomas (with John Goodby) | Emily Brontë and the Search for Hope

Finnegans Wake is James Joyce's final and most complex work, written over a period of seventeen years. The novel is set in a dream world where the protagonist, Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker (HCE), and his family—wife Anna Livia Plurabelle (ALP) and their children Shem, Shaun, and Issy—undergo various transformations and identities. The book is known for its innovative use of language, combining elements from multiple languages and creating new words through portmanteaus and puns. It explores themes of identity, history, and the cyclical nature of life, drawing on Irish mythology, biblical narratives, and personal experiences. The novel's structure is circular, ending with the sentence that begins the book, creating a continuous loop.

Ulysses is a groundbreaking and complex modernist novel that chronicles the experiences of three Dubliners over a single day. The novel is loosely based on Homer's epic poem 'The Odyssey', with Leopold Bloom paralleling Odysseus, Stephen Dedalus paralleling Telemachus, and Molly Bloom paralleling Penelope. It explores themes such as antisemitism, human sexuality, British rule in Ireland, Catholicism, and Irish nationalism. The novel is known for its innovative use of language and narrative techniques, including stream-of-consciousness and multiple literary styles. It captures the essence of early 20th-century Dublin, providing a detailed snapshot of the city's social, political, and cultural landscape.

Written in the spring of 1819, 'Ode to a Nightingale' is one of John Keats' most famous odes. The poem delves into the speaker's deep meditation on time, death, beauty, and human suffering, inspired by the song of a nightingale. The speaker yearns to escape the sorrows of the world through various means, including alcohol, poetry, and even death, but ultimately realizes the impossibility of fully joining the nightingale's immortal realm. The poem contrasts the eternal, beautiful song of the nightingale with the mortal, suffering life of humans, highlighting the themes of creative expression, mortality, and the fleeting nature of human experience.

The Odyssey, attributed to Homer, is an ancient Greek epic poem that tells the story of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, and his ten-year journey home after the Trojan War. The poem explores Odysseus's encounters with various mythical creatures, divine interventions, and natural challenges. Upon his return to Ithaca, he must confront the suitors who have been vying for his wife Penelope's hand in marriage. With the help of his son Telemachus and the goddess Athena, Odysseus devises a plan to defeat the suitors and reclaim his throne. The poem is a reflection on human nature, loyalty, and the consequences of one's actions, and it remains a crucial component of ancient Greek literature and Western cultural heritage.

The book is divided into four parts. The first part addresses the world as representation, the second details the world as will, the third discusses art and beauty as the only way to transcend the painful human condition, and the fourth discusses ethics and the ascetic ideal. Schopenhauer argues that the will is the underlying reality of the world, beyond mere appearances, and that it is characterized by ceaseless striving and suffering.

Published in 1847, 'Wuthering Heights' is a novel that tells the story of the tumultuous relationship between Catherine Earnshaw and the foundling Heathcliff, whom her father brings home to Wuthering Heights. The narrative, framed by the visitor Lockwood and the housekeeper Nelly Dean, explores themes of love, revenge, and the cyclical nature of life. Heathcliff's bitter vengeance against those who wronged him drives the plot, which spans generations and delves into the dark, passionate, and often destructive aspects of human nature. The novel is renowned for its dramatic and poetic presentation, its unique structure, and its vivid depiction of the Yorkshire moors as a reflection of the characters' inner lives.

Under Milk Wood is a 1954 radio drama by Dylan Thomas, commissioned by the BBC. The play is set in the fictional village of Llareggub, which is modeled after real Welsh seaside towns like Laugharne and New Quay. It follows the lives of the village's eccentric characters over the course of a single day, delving into their dreams, interactions, and daily routines. The play is known for its unique style of dramatic prose, dense language, and the way it challenges conventional notions of theatre. It was Thomas's last completed work and has received critical acclaim for its characterization and poetic language.

This book brings together the original texts of all 1,775 poems that Emily Dickinson wrote. It is a distillation of the three-volume critical edition compiled by Thomas H. Johnson, published in 1955, which allowed readers to fully assess, understand, and appreciate Dickinson's extraordinary poetic genius for the first time. The poems are arranged chronologically and include Dickinson's original spelling, capitalization, and punctuation, providing a poetic biography of her thoughts and feelings.