Whilst on a mission up the Volga, a representative of the ruler of Baghdad meets a Viking chieftain who has been summoned back to Scandinavia by his besieged relatives. The two men journey together northwards to engage in mortal combat with the dark, hairy brutes who threaten to empty the land.

In The Canterbury Tales , Chaucer created one of the great touchstones of English literature, a masterly collection of chivalric romances, moral allegories and low farce. This version of the text has been translated into modern English by Nevill Coghill.

Addresses developments in literary studies, including 'the growth of a kind of anti-theory', and the idea that literary theory has been institutionalized.

Provides careful annotation of the text, detailed guidance to critical comment, and introductory material setting the poem - The Faerie Queene - in its historical and literary context. This book also includes additional original material, which includes a chronology, a letter to Raleigh, commendatory verses, and dedicatory sonnets.

Ambrosio, the worthy superior of the Capuchins of Madrid, falls to the temptations of Matilda, a fiend-inspired wanton who, disguised as a boy, has entered his monastery as a novice. Ambrosio then falls in love with one of his penitents and finally kills her in order to escape detection. However, he is discovered and sentenced to death.

This anthology of critical writing ranges from Gorgias and Plato to Sigmund Freud and Mikhail Bakhtin. Each of the 147 contributions has a headnote introducing the writer and making connections to other critics, theorists and movements. An introduction surveys the history of theory and criticism.