A Bold Stroke for a Husband by Hannah Cowley is an 18th-century comedic play centered on love, deception, and female agency. The story follows Olivia, a strong-willed woman determined to marry the man she loves, Colonel Bellville, despite her overprotective father, Don Cæsar, who wants her to wed the wealthy but foolish Don Julio. Olivia…
Amoretti by Edmund Spenser is a collection of 89 sonnets celebrating the poet’s courtship and eventual marriage to Elizabeth Boyle. Written in the Petrarchan tradition, the sonnets chronicle themes of love, longing, and devotion, blending passionate desire with spiritual reverence. Spenser portrays love as both a trial and a source of transcendent joy, often drawing…
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a short story by Washington Irving set in a quiet, eerie village called Sleepy Hollow, located near the Tappan Zee River in New York. The story follows the adventures of Ichabod Crane, a superstitious and lanky schoolteacher from Connecticut who comes to the village to work and hopefully improve…
