New Releases by Stephen Greenblatt

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction • Winner of the National Book Award • New York Times Bestseller • A Kirkus Reviews "Best Book of the 21st Century (So Far)" Renowned scholar Stephen Greenblatt brings the past to vivid life in what is at once a supreme work of scholarship, a literary page-turner, and a thrilling testament to the power of the written word. In the winter of 1417, a short, genial, cannily alert man in his late thirties plucked a very old manuscript off a dusty shelf in a remote monastery, saw with excitement what he had discovered, and ordered that it be copied. He was Poggio Bracciolini, the greatest book hunter of the Renaissance. His discovery, Lucretius’ ancient poem On the Nature of Things, had been almost entirely lost to history for more than a thousand years. It was a beautiful poem of the most dangerous ideas: that the universe functions without the aid of gods, that religious fear is damaging to human life, that pleasure and virtue are not opposites but intertwined, and that matter is made up of very small material particles in eternal motion, randomly colliding and swerving in new directions. Its return to circulation changed the course of history. The poem’s vision would shape the thought of Galileo and Freud, Darwin and Einstein, and—in the hands of Thomas Jefferson—leave its trace on the Declaration of Independence. From the gardens of the ancient philosophers to the dark chambers of monastic scriptoria during the Middle Ages to the cynical, competitive court of a corrupt and dangerous pope, Greenblatt brings Poggio’s search and discovery to life in a way that deepens our understanding of the world we live in now. “An intellectually invigorating, nonfiction version of a Dan Brown–like mystery-in-the-archives thriller.” —Boston Globe

Nel 1417, in un''epoca in cui per impadronirsi di un testo antico si poteva rubare o uccidere, l''umanista Poggio Bracciolini scoprì in un monastero tedesco l''unica copia sopravvissuta del poema filosofico di Lucrezio, De rerum natura. Oggi Il manoscritto racconta l''impatto delle idee di Lucrezio - intorno agli atomi, agli dèi e alla loro assenza, alla felicità umana - su artisti e pensatori come Botticelli e Giordano Bruno, Montaigne e Shakespeare, Freud e Einstein. Con il passo e la felicità del narratore Greenblatt dimostra in queste pagine appassionanti che i grandi libri cambiano la storia del mondo. Collana I sestanti diretta da Paolo Mieli

Renaissance Self-Fashioning is a study of sixteenth-century life and literature that spawned a new era of scholarly inquiry. Stephen Greenblatt examines the structure of selfhood as evidenced in major literary figures of the English Renaissance—More, Tyndale, Wyatt, Spenser, Marlowe, and Shakespeare—and finds that in the early modern period new questions surrounding the nature of identity heavily influenced the literature of the era. Now a classic text in literary studies, Renaissance Self-Fashioning continues to be of interest to students of the Renaissance, English literature, and the new historicist tradition, and this new edition includes a preface by the author on the book''s creation and influence. "No one who has read [Greenblatt''s] accounts of More, Tyndale, Wyatt, and others can fail to be moved, as well as enlightened, by an interpretive mode which is as humane and sympathetic as it is analytical. These portraits are poignantly, subtly, and minutely rendered in a beautifully lucid prose alive in every sentence to the ambivalences and complexities of its subjects."—Harry Berger Jr., University of California, Santa Cruz

Stephen Greenblatt, professor de Harvard e um dos acadêmicos mais respeitados do mundo, construiu neste livro tanto uma obra historiográfica inovadora como narrou a história incrível de uma descoberta, em que um manuscrito retirado de mil anos de esquecimento mudou o curso do pensamento humano e tornou possível o mundo tal como o conhecemos hoje. Segundo o poeta romano Lucrécio, tudo o que existe é fruto de algo que ele chama de virada - um pequeno desvio que tira as coisas de sua trajetória natural para criar o novo. Em uma colisão aleatória de diferentes moléculas, surge a vida; com uma mutação genética espontânea, cria-se uma nova espécie. Caso esses pontos de inflexão fossem visíveis e determináveis, certamente um deles remontaria a janeiro de 1417, quando o caçador de livros Poggio Bracciolini resgatou das prateleiras de uma biblioteca monástica a obra-prima de Lucrécio, o poema Da natureza, até então dado como perdido. Era um belo poema contendo as ideias mais perigosas: que o universo funciona sem o auxílio dos deuses, que o medo religioso está destruindo a vida humana, que prazer evirtude não são opostos, mas que estão interligados. Bracciolini, porém, não tinha como adivinhar a reviravolta que estava por vir. Típico homem de seu tempo, era secretário de um papa corrupto e testemunha de excomunhões arbitrárias e execuções sumárias de hereges na fogueira. Seu fascínio pelos textos antigos parecia antes estilístico que ideológico. Este livro conta sua história, e mostra como sua descoberta deu origem ao que hoje chamamos de modernidade. Este e-book não contém as imagens presentes na edição impressa.

This print pack containsThis print pack contains This print pack contains Norton Anthology of English Literature 9E Volume F 20th Century + Age of Innocence NCE + Lord Jim 2E NCE.

With the elegance and verve for which he is well known, Greenblatt, author of the bestselling "Will in the World," shows that Shakespeare was strikingly averse to such absolutes as scripture, monarch, and God, and constantly probed the possibility of freedom from them.

Cultural Mobility offers a model for understanding the patterns of meaning that human societies create. It has emerged under the very distinguished editorial guidance of Stephen Greenblatt and represents a new way of thinking about culture and cultures with which scholars in many disciplines will need to engage.

En aquest volum es presenten dues mirades sobre les anomenades obres històriques de William Shakespeare. D''una banda, Bales invisibles, de Stephen Greenblatt, presenta un model interpretatiu que permet una lectura original d''Enric IV i Enric V, en la qual s''examinen els mecanismes de subversió i contenció del poder en les obres i en la societat de Shakespeare. I de l''altra, Art i ideologia, de Salvador Oliva, defensa els valors estètics del text i posa sota judici les aproximacions ideològiques de la literatura i l''art en general quan aquestes volen ser definitòries del valor de l''obra. El valor, segons Oliva, neix i es constitueix bàsicament a partir de la forma. El llibre ofereix una mirada complementària i polièdrica al servei del lector i del coneixement de l''obra de William Shakespeare.

The exhibit by Pippa Skotnes is comprised of two "bone books" made of horse skeletons and covered in hand-written texts, burnished in gold leaf and shod in silver shoes. Through themes of sacrifice and redemption, the artist explores relic and archive in the context of writing and language, and considers the interchange between text and textuality, the visible and the invisible world.

Marvelous Possessions is a study of the ways in which Europeans of the late Middle Ages and the early modern period represented non-European peoples and took possession of their lands, in particular the New World. In a series of innovative readings of travel narratives, judicial documents, and official reports, Stephen Greenblatt shows that the experience of the marvelous, central to both art and philosophy, was cunningly yoked by Columbus and others to the service of colonial appropriation. He argues that the traditional symbolic actions and legal rituals through which European sovereignty was asserted were strained to the breaking point by the unprecedented nature of the discovery of the New World. But the book also shows that the experience of the marvelous is not necessarily an agent of empire: in writers as different as Herodotus, Jean de Léry, and Montaigne—and notably in Mandeville''s Travels, the most popular travel book of the Middle Ages—wonder is a sign of a remarkably tolerant recognition of cultural difference. Marvelous Possession is not only a collection of the odd and exotic through which Stephen Greenblatt powerfully conveys a sense of the marvelous, but also a highly original extension of his thinking on a subject that has occupied him throughout his career. The book reaches back to the ancient Greeks and forward to the present to ask how it is possible, in a time of disorientation, hatred of the other, and possessiveness, to keep the capacity for wonder from being poisoned? "A marvellous book. It is also a compelling and a powerful one. Nothing so original has ever been written on European responses to ''The wonder of the New World.''"—Anthony Pagden, Times Literary Supplement "By far the most intellectually gripping and penetrating discussion of the relationship between intruders and natives is provided by Stephen Greenblatt''s Marvelous Possessions."—Simon Schama, The New Republic "For the most engaging and illuminating perspective of all, read Marvelous Possessions."—Laura Shapiro, Newsweek

Lauded on publication in 1997 as the essential Shakespeare for a new generation, The Norton Shakespeare has become a bestseller. The text is based on the Oxford Edition, which brings readers closer to Shakespeare''s plays as they were first acted than was ever before possible. This Second Edition introduces new scholarship and editorial features that invite readers afresh to Shakespeare''s plays and poems. Stephen Greenblatt''s dazzling introduction, updated for this edition, creates a window into the culture of early modern England; Shakespeare''s life in the theater; and the businesses of printing, publishing, and textual editing. The works themselves are enhanced with lively introductions, also updated, as well as ample glosses, annotations, a textual note, and new annotated bibliographies and filmographies. Andrew Gurr''s essay, "The Shakespearean Stage"; a new timeline; new maps; a glossary of theater and printing terms; contextual documents; and redesigned genealogies provide additional help for readers.

Upon publication in 1997, The Norton Shakespeare set a new standard for teaching editions of Shakespeare''s complete works.

Upon publication in 1997, The Norton Shakespeare set a new standard for teaching editions of Shakespeare''s complete works.

Learning to Curse is a wide ranging collection of essays that uses Marxist, psychoanalytic and historical perspectives to explore the art of the Renaissance

Read by millions of students over seven editions, The Norton Anthology of English Literature remains the most trusted undergraduate survey of English literature available and one of the most successful college texts ever published.

Stephen Greenblatt is one of the most influential practitioners of new historicism. This Reader makes available in one volume Greenblatt''s most important writings on culture, Renaissance studies, and Shakespeare. It also features occasional pieces on subjects as diverse as story-telling and miracles, demonstrating the range of his cultural interests. Taken together, the texts collected here dispel the idea that new historicism is antithetical to literary and aesthetic value.

A portrait of Elizabethan England and how it contributed to the making of William Shakespeare discusses how he moved to London lacking money, connections, and a formal education and rose to became his age''s foremost playwright.

Stephen Greenblatt sets out to explain his longtime fascination with the ghost of Hamlet''s father, and his daring and ultimately gratifying journey takes him through surprising intellectual territory. It yields an extraordinary account of the rise and fall of Purgatory as both a belief and a lucrative institution--as well as a capacious new reading of the power of Hamlet. In the mid-sixteenth century, English authorities abruptly changed the relationship between the living and dead. Declaring that Purgatory was a false "poem," they abolished the institutions and banned the practices that Christians relied on to ease the passage to Heaven for themselves and their dead loved ones. Greenblatt explores the fantastic adventure narratives, ghost stories, pilgrimages, and imagery by which a belief in a grisly "prison house of souls" had been shaped and reinforced in the Middle Ages. He probes the psychological benefits as well as the high costs of this belief and of its demolition. With the doctrine of Purgatory and the elaborate practices that grew up around it, the church had provided a powerful method of negotiating with the dead. The Protestant attack on Purgatory destroyed this method for most people in England, but it did not eradicate the longings and fears that Catholic doctrine had for centuries focused and exploited. In his strikingly original interpretation, Greenblatt argues that the human desires to commune with, assist, and be rid of the dead were transformed by Shakespeare--consummate conjurer that he was--into the substance of several of his plays, above all the weirdly powerful Hamlet. Thus, the space of Purgatory became the stage haunted by literature''s most famous ghost. This book constitutes an extraordinary feat that could have been accomplished by only Stephen Greenblatt. It is at once a deeply satisfying reading of medieval religion, an innovative interpretation of the apparitions that trouble Shakespeare''s tragic heroes, and an exploration of how a culture can be inhabited by its own spectral leftovers.