Ballad some of which were later set to music by Schubert. Later important examples of the poetic form included Rudyard Kipling's "Barrack-Room Ballads" (1892-6) and Oscar Wilde's "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" (1897). Victorian poet Christina Rossetti used ballad forms to explore spiritual and moral issues and to discuss the stereotypical treatment and representation of men and women's roles in society. In the 18th century ballad operas developed as a form of English stage entertainment, partly in opposition to the Italian domination of the London operatic scene. It consisted of racy and often satirical spoken (English) dialogue, interspersed with songs that
The Ballad of a Small Player by Tom Shone in "The New York Times". China scholar Paul French in the "Los Angeles Review of Books" wrote: "I'll come right out and say it... Osborne's novel is the best on contemporary China since Malraux's." The Ballad of a Small Player The Ballad of a Small Player is a 2014 novel by British writer Lawrence Osborne. Set in the gambling casinos of Macau, it follows the fortunes of an English con man who passes himself off as a runaway Lord. Part ghost story, part psychological thriller, it earned Osborne comparisons with Graham Greene and Dostoievsky. The novel was