Ilumina Public Library: El Paso County's All-Digital Library

The Iliad is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the Odyssey, the poem is divided into 24 books and was written in dactylic hexameter. It contains 15,693 lines in its most widely accepted version. Set towards the end of the Trojan War, a ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Mycenaean Greek states, the poem depicts...

Poeta en Nueva York reúne poesías de indudable inspiración surrealista. Son, sin embargo, bastante más lúgubres que la mayor parte de los poemas de los otros libros de Lorca. Escrito entre 1929-1930 en Nueva York, durante la residencia de Federico García Lorca como estudiante en la Universidad de Columbia, este libro se publicó póstumamente en 1940. García Lorca es testigo de la Nueva York que sufre por la pobreza tras el crack de 1929. Escribe...

Written in 1884 and first performed in 1885, "The Wild Duck", by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, is the first modern tragicomedy to be embraced by critics and audiences alike. The play, titled "Vilanden" in its original Norwegian, is widely considered one of Ibsen's most well-written plays. The story centers around the secrets and dramas of the Ekdal family, who live a dysfunctional life in purposeful denial of the many skeletons that lurk in their...

Idylls of the King (1859-1885) is a cycle of narrative poems by British poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Written while Tennyson was serving as Poet Laureate, Idylls of the King reworks the medieval Arthurian legend in blank verse and with an elegiac tone. Based on Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur and the early British Mabinogion manuscripts, Tennyson's work connects an ancient tradition to the reign and ideals of Queen Victoria. "The Coming of Arthur"...

Gerald Arbuthnot receives a promotion from Lord Illingworth, a worldly politician who has a sordid history of women, one of whom is Gerald's widowed mother. When their connection is revealed, the young man questions his past, present and future aspirations. A Woman of No Importance opens with a high-class party featuring a group of society's most illustrious citizens. In the midst of the event, Gerald Arbuthnot enters and announces his new position...

Ellida Wangel grew up loving the sea, but she eventually moved away and married a doctor instead of the sailor who originally stole her heart. This has put a strain on her relationship with her husband and his two daughters, from his previous marriage. Ellida Wangel is the second wife of widower, Dr. Edvard Wangel. She is the stepmother to his daughters, Bolette and Hilde, who prefer to keep their distance. The family dynamic is often cold as the...

El propio Federico García Lorca, profundo conocedor de la historia del cante jondo, supo referirlo en una conferencia suya y vaticinar algunas de las intenciones de su Poema del cante jondo: "El "cante jondo" se acerca al triunfo del pájaro y a las músicas naturales del chopo y la ola; es simple a fuerza de vejez y de estilización. Es, pues, un rarísimo ejemplar de canto primitivo, el más viejo de toda Europa, donde la ruina histórica, el...

One of George Bernard Shaw's most performed and studied plays, "Arms and the Man" is a classic example of Shaw's comedic wit. First produced in 1894, the play is set during the Serbo-Bulgarian war and tells the story of Raina Petkoff, a young Bulgarian woman, who is engaged to Sergius, a soldier away at war whom she idolizes. While both her father and fiancé are away fighting, Raina, at home with her mother, has a very innocent and romantic idea...

First performed in 1773, "She Stoops to Conquer" is the timeless comedic drama by Anglo-Irish author Oliver Goldsmith. The play depicts the story of Charles Marlow, a wealthy young man who is promised in marriage to a woman, Kate Hardcastle that he has never met. While he is eager to meet her and is travelling to her home with his friend, George Hastings, Charles is quite shy in the company of women of wealth. He prefers those of a lower class and...

Performed as early as 1611 and published in the "First Folio" in 1623, Shakespeare's "Cymbeline" weaves an elaborate tale of palatial envy and power in Ancient Britain. Cymbeline, King of Britain, commands that his lovely young daughter Imogen marry Cloten, the violent and callous son of the current Queen by her former husband. With her heart already promised to the poor yet heroic Posthumus, Imogen refuses. Disgusted at the prospect of his daughter...