San Antonio College Library

Not all readers in ancient Greece whiled away the hours with Homer, Plato, or Sophocles - at least, not always. Many enjoyed light reading, such as can be found in the pages of this lively anthology. Various types of popular writing - novels, short stories, books of jokes or fables, fortune-telling handbooks - trace their origins to the ancient Mediterranean. In fact, some of this literature was so successful that it remained in circulation for centuries,...

To many observers, folklore and book culture might appear to be opposites. Folklore, after all, involves orally circulated stories and traditions while book culture is concerned with the transmission of written texts. However, as Kevin J. Hayes points out, there are many instances where the two intersect, and exploring those intersections is the purpose of this fascinating and provocative study. Hayes shows that the acquisition of knowledge and the...

"Dove states that the purpose of this book is 'to develop a theoretical base for a critical approach to the interpretation of the formula story.' Such an approach should take into account the relationship between author and reader that determines such tacit agreements as the two axioms of formula fiction, the reader-knowledge convention, and the signals that pass between author and reader. Specifically, the chief concern of this book will be the criticism/interpretation...

"A sequence of stories traces the transition of the detective tale from one of involved complexity and ingenious solutions, to the simple, more direct modern story as reflected by the influence of the pulp fiction of the [nineteen] twenties and thirties."--Back cover.

In The Great Detectives, Otto Penzler puts twenty-six masters of contemporary detective fiction on the stand and leads them through an extraordinary series of revelations about the private and professional lives of their sleuths.