Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children of All Ages [Paperback]

If readers are to come to Shakespeare and to Chekhov, to Henry James and to Jane Austen, then they are best prepared if they have read Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear, Robert Louis Stevenson and Rudyard Kipling, writes Harold Bloom in his introduction to this enchanting and much-needed anthology of exceptional stories and poems selected to inspire a lifelong love of reading. As television, video games, and the Internet threaten to distract young people from the solitary pleasures of reading, Bloom presents a volume that will amuse, challenge, and beguile readers with its myriad voices and subjects.
Here are old favorites by beloved writers of children's literature, as well as exciting rediscoveries and wonderful works penned by writers better known for their adult classics, such as Herman Melville, Leo Tolstoy, Edith Wharton, and Walt Whitman. Encompassing the natural world and the supernatural; childhood, romance, and death; pets, wild animals, and goblins; mystery, adventure, and humor; the selections reflect the passion and erudition of our most revered literary critic. Arranged by season,Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children of All Agesis a must-have anthology, sure to delight readers young and old for years to come.Harold Bloomis Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University and Berg Professor of English at New York University. He has written more than twenty books, includingThe Western Canon, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human,andHow to Read and Why.He is a MacArthur Prize fellow, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the recipient of many awards, including the Academy's Gold Medal for Criticism. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut, and New York City.Contents

Introduction

Book I....Spring

The Human Seasons John Keats

The Song of the Four Winds Thomas Love Peacock

The Wind and The Rain William Shakespeare

The Ass Eating Thistles Aesop