Classics

«جميع الحيوانات متساوية، لكن بعض الحيوانات أكثر مساواة من غيرها». تستولي الحيوانات المُجهَدة التي أُسيئت معاملتها على مزرعة. وبمثالية متقدة وشعارات مثيرة للحماسة، تنطلق لإنشاء جنة من التقدم والعدالة والمساواة. وهكذا يُمهَّد المسرح لواحدة من أبلغ الخرافات الساخرة التي كُتبت على الإطلاق — حكاية خرافية حادة كالموسى للبالغين تسجل التطور من ثورة ضد الطغيان إلى شمولية لا تقل فظاعة. عندما نُشرت «مزرعة الحيوانات» لأول مرة، كان يُنظر إلى روسيا الستالينية بوصفها هدفها. أما اليوم، فمن الواضح بصورة مدمرة أنه أينما ومتى ما تعرضت الحرية للهجوم، وتحت أي راية كان ذلك، فإن الوضوح القاطع والكوميديا الضارية لتحفة جورج أورويل لا يزالان يحملان معنى ورسالة شديدَي الجِدّة.

V Romeovi a Julii Shakespeare vytváří násilný svět, v němž se do sebe zamilují dva mladí lidé. Nejde jen o to, že jejich rodiny jejich vztah neschvalují; Montekové a Kapuletové vedou krvavou rodovou válku. V tomto prostředí plném smrti se cesta od lásky na první pohled až k závěrečnému spojení milenců ve smrti zdá téměř nevyhnutelná. Přesto se tato hra zasazená do mimořádného světa stala ztělesněním příběhu mladé lásky. Částečně díky svému vytříbenému jazyku je snadné vnímat ji, jako by pojednávala o všech mladých milencích.

لقد جاء عام 1984 ومضى، لكن رؤية جورج أورويل النبوئية الكابوسية التي صاغها عام 1949 للعالم الذي كنا نصير إليه تبدو اليوم أكثر راهنية من أي وقت مضى. لا تزال «1984» الكلاسيكية الحديثة العظيمة في أدب «اليوتوبيا السلبية» — رواية أصيلة على نحو مدهش ومقلقة، تخلق عالماً خيالياً مقنعاً تماماً، من الجملة الأولى إلى الكلمات الأربع الأخيرة. ولا يستطيع أحد إنكار سطوة الرواية على مخيلات أجيال كاملة، أو قوة تحذيراتها — وهي قوة يبدو أنها تزداد، لا تضعف، مع مرور الزمن.

Oscar Wilde’s only novel is the dreamlike story of a young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty. In this celebrated work Wilde forged a devastating portrait of the effects of evil and debauchery on a young aesthete in late-19th-century England. Combining elements of the Gothic horror novel and decadent French fiction, the book centers on a striking premise: As Dorian Gray sinks into a life of crime and gross sensuality, his body retains perfect youth and vigor while his recently painted portrait grows day by day into a hideous record of evil, which he must keep hidden from the world. For over a century, this mesmerizing tale of horror and suspense has enjoyed wide popularity. It ranks as one of Wilde's most important creations and among the classic achievements of its kind.

Barrie created Peter Pan in stories he told to the sons of his friend Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, with whom he had forged a special relationship. Mrs Llewelyn Davies' death from cancer came within a few years after the death of her husband. Barrie was named as coguardian of the boys \& unofficially adopted them. The character's name comes from two sources: Peter Llewelyn Davies, one of the boys, \& Pan, the mischievous Greek god of the woodlands. It's also been suggested that the inspiration for the character was Barrie's elder brother David, whose death in a skating accident at 13 deeply affected their mother. According to Andrew Birkin, author of J.M. Barrie \& the Lost Boys, the death was 'a catastrophe beyond belief, \& one from which she never fully recovered. If Margaret Ogilvy drew a measure of comfort from the notion that David, in dying a boy, would remain a boy for ever, Barrie drew inspiration. The Peter Pan character 1st appeared in print in the 1902 novel The Little White Bird, written for adults, a fictionalised version of Barrie's relationship with the Llewelyn Davies children. The character was next used in the very successful stage play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up that premiered in London on 12/27/04\. In 1906, the portion of The Little White Bird which featured Peter was published as the book Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, with illustrations by Arthur Rackham. Barrie then adapted the play into the 1911 novel Peter \& Wendy\-\-often now published simply as Peter Pan. The original draft of the play was entitled simply Anon: A Play. Barrie's working titles for it included The Great White Father \& Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Hated Mothers. Producer Charles Frohman disliked the title on the manuscript, in answer to which Barrie reportedly suggested The Boy Who Couldn't Grow Up.

Als gefeierter Bestseller und internationale Sensation führt Patrick Süskinds klassischer Roman erschreckend vor Augen, was geschieht, wenn sich ein Mann seiner größten Leidenschaft – seinem Geruchssinn – hingibt und dies zum Mord führt. In den Elendsvierteln des Frankreichs des 18. Jahrhunderts wird Jean-Baptiste Grenouille mit einer erhabenen Gabe geboren: einem absoluten Geruchssinn. Als Junge lebt er dafür, die Gerüche von Paris zu entschlüsseln, und geht bei einem angesehenen Parfümeur in die Lehre, der ihn in der alten Kunst des Mischens kostbarer Öle und Kräuter unterweist. Doch Grenouilles Genie genügt sich damit nicht, und er wird davon besessen, die Gerüche von Gegenständen wie Messingtürklinken und frisch geschnittenem Holz einzufangen. Dann erhascht er eines Tages eine Spur eines Duftes, die ihn auf eine immer furchterregendere Suche nach der Schaffung des „ultimativen Parfums“ treiben wird – dem Duft einer schönen jungen Jungfrau. Mit schillernder erzählerischer Brillanz erzählt, ist Das Parfum eine beklemmend kraftvolle Geschichte von Mord und sinnlicher Verderbtheit.

A vicious fifteen-year-old droog is the central character of this 1963 classic. In Anthony Burgess' nightmare vision of the future, where criminals take over after dark, the story is told by the central character, Alex, who talks in a brutal invented slang that brilliantly renders his and his friends' social pathology. A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil, and the meaning of human freedom. And when the state undertakes to reform Alex to "redeem" him, the novel asks, "At what cost?" This edition includes the controversial last chapter not published in the first edition and Burgess' introduction "A Clockwork Orange Resucked."

It started when she was served a soft drink laced with LSD in a dangerous party game. Within months, she was hooked, trapped in a downward spiral that took her from her comfortable home and loving family to the mean streets of an unforgiving city. It was a journey that would rob her of her innocence, her youth \-\- and ultimately her life. Read her diary. Enter her world. You will never forget her.

Arguably Patricia Highsmith's finest, The Price of Salt is the story of Therese Belivet, a stage designer trapped in a department-store day job, whose salvation arrives one day in the form of Carol Aird, an alluring suburban housewife in the throes of a divorce. They fall in love and set out across the United States, pursued by a private investigator who eventually blackmails Carol into a choice between her daughter and her lover. With this reissue, The Price of Salt may finally be recognized as a major twentieth-century American novel.

Brace yourself, America, for Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting—the novel and the film that became the cult sensations of Britain. Trainspotting is the hilarious, appalling, riveting, bestselling, and altogether masterful first novel that launched the spectacular career of Irvine Welsh. It is an authentic, unrelenting, and strangely exhilarating group portrait of blasted lives in Edinburgh—as unforgettable a clutch of junkies, rude boys, and nutters as readers will ever encounter.

Tento mimořádný historický francouzský gotický román, zasazený do středověké Paříže pod dvě věže její největší stavby a vrcholného symbolu, katedrály Notre-Dame, je strašidelným dramatem Quasimoda, postiženého zvoníka od Notre-Dame, který se snaží postavit svému opatrovníkovi Claudu Frollovi, jenž je zaujatý vůči lidem s postižením a chce rovněž spáchat genocidu pařížského romského obyvatelstva. Román byl označen za klíčový text francouzské literatury[1] a byl více než tucetkrát zfilmován, kromě četných televizních a divadelních adaptací, jako je němý film z roku 1923 s Lonem Chaneym, zvukový film z roku 1939 s Charlesem Laughtonem a animovaný film společnosti Disney z roku 1996 s Tomem Hulcem (oba v roli Quasimoda). Román usiloval o zachování hodnot francouzské kultury v období velkých změn, které vedly ke zničení mnoha francouzských gotických staveb. Učinil z pařížské Notre-Dame národní ikonu a posloužil jako katalyzátor obnoveného zájmu o restaurování gotické formy.

Rosalia de Castro (1837-1885) is considered the founder of modern Galician literature. She wrote three major books of poetry: two in Galician, Galician Songs and New Leaves, and one in Spanish, On the Banks of the Sar. Nourished by the popular songs the author heard around her, Galician Songs was first published in 1863 and dedicated on 17 May, the date that a hundred years later, in 1963, would become and has remained Galician Literature Day, when the work of a particular Galician author is celebrated. Galician Songs marks the first full publication of any of Rosalia de Castro's books of poetry in English and is accompanied by a translator's introduction that argues for the importance and contemporaneity of the author's work and poetics, not just in Galician, but in English.

A product of the golden age of Spanish drama, Life Is a Dream (La vida es sueño) is the masterpiece of Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600–1681), a contemporary of Lope de Vega and one of Spain's greatest literary figures. Acclaimed for his superb dramatic instincts and philosophical seriousness as well as his extraordinary imagination, Calderón exercised his best qualities in this allegorical play, an exploration of the mysteries of human destiny, the illusory nature of earthly existence, and the struggle between predestination and free will. The story revolves around the moral dilemmas of a Polish prince, unjustly imprisoned by his suspicious father. Against a background of revolution, Calderón builds a dramatic edifice of outstanding theatricality, rich in symbolism and metaphor, expressed in magnificent poetry. This excellent new English translation is absolutely complete, and as close and direct as possible. Ample footnotes and an informative introductory Publisher's Note enhance the value of its modest price.

Jsou Vánoce a Holden Caulfield byl právě vyloučen z další školy... Prchá před podvodníky z Pencey Prep a bloudí po New Yorku, kde hledá útěchu v prchavých setkáních — tlachá s cizinci v laciných hotelích, osaměle se potuluje po Central Parku, nechá se zbít pasáky a setkává se s bývalými přítelkyněmi, které ho srážejí. Město je krásné i strašné, se vší svou neonovou osamělostí a omšelou okázalostí, se směsicí pocitu možností a prázdnoty. Holden jím prochází jako duch a stále myslí na svou malou sestru Phoebe, jediného člověka, který mu skutečně rozumí, i na své odhodlání uniknout pokrytcům a najít život s opravdovým smyslem. Kdo chytá v žitě je klasika literatury o dospívání — elegie teenageřské odcizenosti, zachycující hluboce lidskou potřebu spojení a matoucí pocit ztráty, když necháváme dětství za sebou. Klasický román J. D. Salingera (1919–2010) o dospívající úzkosti a vzpouře byl poprvé vydán v roce 1951. Román byl zařazen na seznam 100 nejlepších anglicky psaných románů vydaných od roku 1923, který časopis Time sestavil v roce 2005. Modern Library a jeho čtenáři jej označili za jeden ze 100 nejlepších anglicky psaných románů 20. století. Kvůli častému používání vulgarismů a zobrazení sexuality byl často napadán u soudu a v 50. a 60. letech byl románem, který chtěl číst každý dospívající chlapec.

„Nachdem ich mein Werk vollendet hatte, war die Schönheit des Traums verschwunden, und atemloses Entsetzen und Ekel erfüllten mein Herz …“ Besessen davon, das Leben selbst zu erschaffen, plündert Victor Frankenstein Friedhöfe, um das Material für die Gestaltung eines neuen Wesens zu beschaffen, das er mit Elektrizität zum Leben erweckt. Doch seine misslungene Kreatur, von Frankenstein zurückgewiesen und jeder menschlichen Gemeinschaft beraubt, macht sich daran, ihren Schöpfer und alles, was ihm lieb ist, zu vernichten. Mary Shelleys schaurige gotische Erzählung entstand, als sie erst achtzehn Jahre alt war und mit ihrem Geliebten Percy Shelley nahe Byrons Villa am Genfersee lebte. Sie sollte zum berühmtesten Werk der Horrorliteratur der Welt werden und bleibt eine erschütternde Untersuchung der Grenzen menschlicher Schöpferkraft. Dieser Band basiert auf der dritten Ausgabe von 1831 und enthält alle Überarbeitungen, die Mary Shelley an ihrer Geschichte vornahm, sowie ihre Einleitung von 1831 und Percy Bysshe Shelleys Vorwort zur ersten Ausgabe. Diese revidierte Ausgabe enthält als Anhänge eine Auswahl von Gegenüberstellungen der Texte von 1818 und 1831 sowie „Ein Fragment“ von Lord Byron und Dr. John Polidoris „Der Vampyr: Eine Erzählung“.

انبثقت تحفة روبرت لويس ستيفنسون عن ازدواجية الخير والشر في طبيعة الإنسان من أحلك أغوار لاوعيه، خلال كابوس أيقظته منه زوجته بعدما نبهتها صرخاته. وبعد أكثر من مئة عام، لم تفقد هذه الحكاية عن الدكتور جيكل الوديع والعقار الذي يطلق العنان لشخصيته الداخلية الشريرة — السيد هايد البغيض المشوّه — شيئًا من قدرتها على الصدم. ويروي سردها الواقعي على طراز تقارير الشرطة، بصورة تقشعر لها الأبدان، يأس جيكل فيما يكتسب هايد السيطرة على روحه، ويمنح صوتًا لمخاوفنا نحن من العنف والشر الكامنين في داخلنا. كُتبت قبل أن يسمّي فرويد الأنا والهو، وتُظهر كلاسيكية ستيفنسون الخالدة فهمًا لافتًا للصراعات الداخلية للشخصية، ولا تزال مادة مرعبة على نحو لا يُقاوم لأشد كوابيسنا سوءًا.

Since his debut in 1955, Tom Ripley has evolved into the ultimate bad boy sociopath, influencing countless novelists and filmmakers. In this first novel, we are introduced to suave, handsome Tom Ripley: a young striver, newly arrived in the heady world of Manhattan in the 1950s. A product of a broken home, branded a "sissy" by his dismissive Aunt Dottie, Ripley becomes enamored of the moneyed world of his new friend, Dickie Greenleaf. This fondness turns obsessive when Ripley is sent to Italy to bring back his libertine pal but grows enraged by Dickie's ambivalent feelings for Marge, a charming American dilettante. A dark reworking of Henry James' The Ambassadors, The Talented Mr. Ripley—is up to his tricks in a '90s film and also Rene Clement's '60s film, Purple Noon.

The brilliant, bestselling, landmark novel that tells the story of the Buendia family, and chronicles the irreconcilable conflict between the desire for solitude and the need for love—in rich, imaginative prose that has come to define an entire genre known as "magical realism."

A Room of One's Own is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf. First published on the 24th of October, 1929, the essay was based on a series of lectures she delivered at Newnham College and Girton College, two women's colleges at Cambridge University in October 1928. While this extended essay in fact employs a fictional narrator and narrative to explore women both as writers and characters in fiction, the manuscript for the delivery of the series of lectures, titled Women and Fiction, and hence the essay, are considered nonfiction. The essay is seen as a feminist text, and is noted in its argument for both a literal and figural space for women writers within a literary tradition dominated by patriarchy.

In Hermann Hesse's Beneath the Wheel or The Prodigy, Hans Giebenrath lives among the dull and respectable townsfolk of a sleepy Black Forest village. When he is discovered to be an exceptionally gifted student, the entire community presses him onto a path of serious scholarship. Hans dutifully follows the regimen of tireless study and endless examinations, his success rewarded only with more crushing assignments. When Hans befriends a rebellious young poet, he begins to imagine other possibilities outside the narrowly circumscribed world of the academy. Finally sent home after a nervous breakdown, Hans is revived by nature and romance, and vows never to return to the gray conformity of the academic system.

In an isolated castle deep in the Austrian forest, Laura leads a solitary life with only her ailing father for company. Until one moonlit night, a horse-drawn carriage crashes into view, carrying an unexpected guest – the beautiful Carmilla. So begins a feverish friendship between Laura and her mysterious, entrancing companion. But as Carmilla becomes increasingly strange and volatile, prone to eerie nocturnal wanderings, Laura finds herself tormented by nightmares and growing weaker by the day… Pre-dating Dracula by twenty-six years, Carmilla is the original vampire story, steeped in sexual tension and gothic romance.

Among Shakespeare's plays, "Hamlet" is considered by many his masterpiece. Among actors, the role of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, is considered the jewel in the crown of a triumphant theatrical career. Now Kenneth Branagh plays the leading role and co-directs a brillant ensemble performance. Three generations of legendary leading actors, many of whom first assembled for the Oscar-winning film "Henry V", gather here to perform the rarely heard complete version of the play. This clear, subtly nuanced, stunning dramatization, presented by The Renaissance Theatre Company in association with "Bbc" Broadcasting, features such luminaries as Sir John Gielgud, Derek Jacobi, Emma Thompson and Christopher Ravenscroft. It combines a full cast with stirring music and sound effects to bring this magnificent Shakespearen classic vividly to life. Revealing new riches with each listening, this production of "Hamlet" is an invaluable aid for students, teachers and all true lovers of Shakespeare - a recording to be treasured for decades to come.

Spain has produced two books that changed world literature: Don Quixote and Lazarillo de Tormes, the first picaresque novel ever written and the inspired precursor to works as various as Vanity Fair and Huckleberry Finn. Banned by the Spanish Inquisition after publication in 1554, Lazarillo was soon translated throughout Europe, where it was widely copied. The book is a favorite to this day for its vigorous colloquial style and the earthy realism with which it exposes human hypocrisy. The bastard son of a prostitute, Lazarillo goes to work for a blind beggar, who beats and starves him, while teaching him some very useful dirty tricks. The boy then drifts in and out of the service of a succession of masters, each vividly sketched and together revealing the corrupt world of imperial Spain. Its miseries are made all the more apparent by the candor and surprising good cheer with which young Lazarillo recounts his ever more curious fate. This version of Lazarillo, by the prizewinning poet and translator W.S. Merwin, brings out the wonderful vitality and humor of this universal masterwork.

No food, no water, no government, no obligation, no order. Discover a chillingly powerful and prescient dystopian vision from one of Europe's greatest writers. A driver waiting at the traffic lights goes blind. An ophthalmologist tries to diagnose his distinctive white blindness, but is affected before he can read the textbooks. It becomes a contagion, spreading throughout the city. Trying to stem the epidemic, the authorities herd the afflicted into a mental asylum where the wards are terrorised by blind thugs. And when fire destroys the asylum, the inmates burst forth and the last links with a supposedly civilised society are snapped. This is not anarchy, this is blindness. ‘Saramago repeatedly undertakes to unite the pressing demands of the present with an unfolding vision of the future. This is his most apocalyptic, and most optimistic, version of that project yet’ Independent

Una història de dues ciutats és la gran novel·la històrica de Charles Dickens, ambientada en els violents trasbalsos de la Revolució Francesa. La més famosa i potser la més popular de les seves obres, condensa un esdeveniment d'una complexitat immensa a l'escala d'una història familiar, amb un repartiment de personatges que inclou una ogressa assedegada de sang i un antiheroi tan versemblantment defectuós com qualsevol de la ficció moderna. Tot i ser la menys típica de les novel·les de l'autor, Una història de dues ciutats encara posa en relleu molts dels seus temes perdurables: l'empresonament, la injustícia, l'anarquia social, la resurrecció i la renúncia que afavoreix la renovació.

François-Marie Arouet (1694-1778), better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, essayist, deist and philosopher known for his wit, philosophical sport, and defense of civil liberties, including freedom of religion. He was an outspoken supporter of social reform despite strict censorship laws and harsh penalties for those who broke them. A satirical polemicist, he frequently made use of his works to criticize Christian Church dogma and the French institutions of his day. Many of his works and ideas would influence important thinkers of both the American and French Revolutions, an honour that he would share with other political theorists such as John Locke and Thomas Hobbes. In general criticism and miscellaneous writing, Voltaire's writing was comparable to his other works. Almost all of his more substantive works, whether in verse or prose, are preceded by prefaces of one sort or another, which are models of his caustic yet conversational tone. He wrote Letters on England (1733), Zadig; or, The Book of Fate (1747), Candide (1759) and Philosophical Dictionary (1764).

في «كائن لا تُحتمل خفته»، يروي ميلان كونديرا قصة امرأة شابة تحب رجلاً ممزقاً بين حبه لها ونزعته التي لا تُصلح إلى ملاحقة النساء، وإحدى عشيقاته وحبيبها المتواضع الوفي. تقارن هذه الرواية الرائعة بين أمكنة متباعدة جغرافياً، وتأملات لامعة ومرحة، وتنوّع في الأساليب، لتحتل مكانتها بوصفها ربما الإنجاز الأبرز لأحد أعظم كتّاب العالم حقاً.

Brave New World is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, inhabited by genetically modified citizens and an intelligence-based social hierarchy, the novel anticipates huge scientific advancements in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation and classical conditioning that are combined to make a dystopian society which is challenged by only a single individual: the story's protagonist.

The story revolves around two seemingly homeless men simply waiting for someone—or something—named Godot. Vladimir and Estragon wait near a tree, inhabiting a drama spun of their own consciousness. The result is a comical wordplay of poetry, dreamscapes, and nonsense, which has been interpreted as mankind’s inexhaustible search for meaning. Beckett’s language pioneered an expressionistic minimalism that captured the existential post-World War II Europe. His play remains one of the most magical and beautiful allegories of our time.

In this lively comedy of love and money in sixteenth-century Venice, Bassanio wants to impress the wealthy heiress Portia but lacks the necessary funds. He turns to his merchant friend, Antonio, who is forced to borrow from Shylock, a Jewish moneylender. When Antonio's business falters, repayment becomes impossible—and by the terms of the loan agreement, Shylock is able to demand a pound of Antonio's flesh. Portia cleverly intervenes, and all ends well (except of course for Shylock).

Δημοσιευμένο το 1942 από τον Γάλλο συγγραφέα Αλμπέρ Καμί, το «Ο ξένος» θεωρείται εδώ και καιρό κλασικό έργο της λογοτεχνίας του εικοστού αιώνα. Η Le Monde το κατατάσσει στην πρώτη θέση της λίστας της «Τα 100 βιβλία του αιώνα». Μέσα από αυτή την ιστορία ενός συνηθισμένου ανθρώπου που, άθελά του, εμπλέκεται σε έναν παράλογο φόνο σε μια ηλιόλουστη αλγερινή παραλία, ο Καμί εξερευνά αυτό που αποκάλεσε «τη γυμνότητα του ανθρώπου απέναντι στο παράλογο».

Life wasn't easy for Celie. But she knew how to survive, needing little to get by. Then her husband's lover, a flamboyant blues singer, barreled into her world and gave Celie the courage to ask for more - to laugh, to play, and finally - to love.

LA FUNDACIÓN es una de las obras de Buero Vallejo que han alcanzado mayor éxito de público y crítica, tanto por el dramatismo de su trama argumental como por la novedad de los procedimientos técnicos utilizados. Presentada como una fábula, plantea al lector-espectador un choque entre realidad y ficción, que se resuelve paulatinamente a favor de la verdad. Cuando, identificados con el protagonista de la obra, creemos que nos encontramos cómodamente instalados en una Fundación, descubrimos que estamos en una cárcel. Es el reflejo de nuestro mundo y de nuestra sociedad. Introducción y propuestas de trabajo de La fundación a cargo de Raquel Velázquez

It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a "haunting"; Theodora, the lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers—and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.

Virginia Woolf's Orlando 'The longest and most charming love letter in literature', playfully constructs the figure of Orlando as the fictional embodiment of Woolf's close friend and lover, Vita Sackville-West. Spanning three centuries, the novel opens as Orlando, a young nobleman in Elizabeth's England, awaits a visit from the Queen and traces his experience with first love as England under James I lies locked in the embrace of the Great Frost. At the midpoint of the novel, Orlando, now an ambassador in Constantinople, awakes to find that he is now a woman, and the novel indulges in farce and irony to consider the roles of women in the 18th and 19th centuries. As the novel ends in 1928, a year consonant with full suffrage for women. Orlando, now a wife and mother, stands poised at the brink of a future that holds new hope and promise for women.

В дневника си носителят на Нобелова награда Джон Стайнбек нарича „На изток от рая“ „първата книга“ и наистина тя притежава първичната сила и простота на мита. Развиващ се сред плодородните земеделски земи на калифорнийската долина Салинас, този мащабен и често жесток роман проследява преплетените съдби на две семейства — Траск и Хамилтън, — чиито поколения безпомощно пресъздават грехопадението на Адам и Ева и отровното съперничество между Каин и Авел. Адам Траск идва в Калифорния от Изтока, за да обработва земя и да отгледа семейството си върху новата плодородна земя. Но раждането на близнаците му, Кал и Арън, довежда съпругата му до ръба на лудостта и Адам остава сам да отгледа момчетата си до зряла възраст. Едното момче процъфтява, подхранвано от любовта на всички около него; другото израства в самота, обгърнато от загадъчен мрак. Публикуван за първи път през 1952 г., „На изток от рая“ е творбата, в която Стайнбек създава най-завладяващите си герои и изследва най-трайните си теми: загадката на идентичността, необяснимостта на любовта и убийствените последици от липсата ѝ. Шедьовър от по-късните години на Стайнбек, „На изток от рая“ е силен и изключително амбициозен роман, който едновременно е семейна сага и съвременен преразказ на Книгата Битие.

The first complete, annotated English Translation of Mikhail Bulgakov's comic masterpiece. An audacious revision of the stories of Faust and Pontius Pilate, The Master and Margarita is recognized as one of the essential classics of modern Russian literature. The novel's vision of Soviet life in the 1930s is so ferociously accurate that it could not be published during its author's lifetime and appeared only in a censored edition in the 1960s. Its truths are so enduring that its language has become part of the common Russian speech. One hot spring, the devil arrives in Moscow, accompanied by a retinue that includes a beautiful naked witch and an immense talking black cat with a fondness for chess and vodka. The visitors quickly wreak havoc in a city that refuses to believe in either God or Satan. But they also bring peace to two unhappy Muscovites: one is the Master, a writer pilloried for daring to write a novel about Christ and Pontius Pilate; the other is Margarita, who loves the Master so deeply that she is willing literally to go to hell for him. What ensues is a novel of inexhaustible energy, humor, and philosophical depth, a work whose nuances emerge for the first time in Diana Burgin's and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor's splendid English version.

Od svého okamžitého úspěchu v roce 1813 zůstává Pýcha a předsudek jedním z nejoblíbenějších románů v anglickém jazyce. Jane Austenová toto skvělé dílo nazvala „svým vlastním milovaným dítětem“ a jeho živou hrdinku Elizabeth Bennetovou „tak okouzlující bytostí, jaká se kdy objevila v tisku“. Romantický střet mezi svéhlavou Elizabeth a jejím hrdým nápadníkem, panem Darcym, je skvělou ukázkou vytříbeného slovního souboje. A zářivý vtip Jane Austenové jiskří, když její postavy tančí jemnou čtverylku flirtování a intrik, což z této knihy činí nejskvělejší komedii mravů regentské Anglie.

Generationen junger und alter, männlicher und weiblicher Leser haben sich in die March-Schwestern aus Louisa May Alcotts beliebtestem und dauerhaftestem Roman, „Betty und ihre Schwestern“, verliebt. Da sind die talentierte Wildfangin und angehende Schriftstellerin Jo, die tragisch gebrechliche Beth, die schöne Meg und die romantische, verwöhnte Amy, vereint in ihrer Hingabe füreinander und ihrem Kampf ums Überleben in Neuengland während des Bürgerkriegs. Es ist kein Geheimnis, dass Alcott „Betty und ihre Schwestern“ auf ihr eigenes frühes Leben stützte. Während ihr Vater, der freidenkende Reformer und Abolitionist Bronson Alcott, mit so bedeutenden männlichen Autoren wie Emerson, Thoreau und Hawthorne verkehrte, verdiente Louisa ihren Lebensunterhalt für sich und ihre Schwestern mit „Frauenarbeit“, darunter Nähen, Wäschewaschen und Arbeit als Hausangestellte. Doch schon bald entdeckte sie, dass sie mit Schreiben mehr Geld verdienen konnte. „Betty und ihre Schwestern“ brachte ihr dauerhaften Ruhm und Wohlstand, und weit davon entfernt, das von ihrem Verleger gewünschte „Mädchenbuch“ zu sein, erkundet der Roman so zeitlose Themen wie Liebe und Tod, Krieg und Frieden, den Konflikt zwischen persönlichem Ehrgeiz und familiären Verpflichtungen sowie den Zusammenprall der Kulturen Europas und Amerikas.

Heralded as Virginia Woolf's greatest novel, this is a vivid portrait of a single day in a woman's life. When we meet her, Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway is preoccupied with the last-minute details of party preparation while in her mind she is something much more than a perfect society hostess. As she readies her house, she is flooded with remembrances of faraway times. And, met with the realities of the present, Clarissa reexamines the choices that brought her there, hesitantly looking ahead to the unfamiliar work of growing old.

Eines Nachts begegnet der tapfere und angesehene Feldherr Macbeth in der Heide drei Hexen, die ihm prophezeien, dass er König von Schottland werden wird. Zunächst skeptisch, wird er von den skrupellosen, zielstrebigen Ambitionen Lady Macbeths angetrieben, die keinen Zweifel ihres Mannes teilt. Doch die Prophezeiung bis zu ihrem blutigen Ende zu erfüllen, führt beide in einen Strudel aus Paranoia, Tyrannei, Wahnsinn und Mord. Diese erschütternde Tragödie – eine gewaltsame Warnung an jene, die Macht um ihrer selbst willen suchen – ist bis heute eines von Shakespeares beliebtesten und einflussreichsten Meisterwerken.

Dostoevsky’s most revolutionary novel, Notes from Underground marks the dividing line between nineteenth- and twentieth-century fiction, and between the visions of self each century embodied. One of the most remarkable characters in literature, the unnamed narrator is a former official who has defiantly withdrawn into an underground existence. In complete retreat from society, he scrawls a passionate, obsessive, self-contradictory narrative that serves as a devastating attack on social utopianism and an assertion of man’s essentially irrational nature. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, whose Dostoevsky translations have become the standard, give us a brilliantly faithful edition of this classic novel, conveying all the tragedy and tormented comedy of the original.

As a dense yellow fog swirls through the streets of London, a deep melancholy has descended on Sherlock Holmes, who sits in a cocaine-induced haze at 221B Baker Street. His mood is only lifted by a visit from a beautiful but distressed young woman - Mary Morstan, whose father vanished ten years before. Four years later she began to receive an exquisite gift every year: a large, lustrous pearl. Now she has had an intriguing invitation to meet her unknown benefactor and urges Holmes and Watson to accompany her. And in the ensuing investigation - which involves a wronged woman, a stolen hoard of Indian treasure, a wooden-legged ruffian, a helpful dog and a love affair - even the jaded Holmes is moved to exclaim, 'Isn't it gorgeous!' —back cover

John Milton's Paradise Lost is one of the greatest epic poems in the English language. It tells the story of the Fall of Man, a tale of immense drama and excitement, of rebellion and treachery, of innocence pitted against corruption, in which God and Satan fight a bitter battle for control of mankind's destiny. The struggle rages across three worlds - heaven, hell, and earth - as Satan and his band of rebel angels plot their revenge against God. At the center of the conflict are Adam and Eve, who are motivated by all too human temptations but whose ultimate downfall is unyielding love. Marked by Milton's characteristic erudition, Paradise Lost is a work epic both in scale and, notoriously, in ambition. For nearly 350 years, it has held generation upon generation of audiences in rapt attention, and its profound influence can be seen in almost every corner of Western culture.

Another cover edition for this ISBN One of the most passionate and heartfelt novels ever written, Wuthering Heights tells of the relationship between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, the orphan boy her father adopted and brought to Wuthering Heights when they were children. While Catherine forms a deep attachment to Heathcliff, her brother Hindley despises him as a rival. Heathcliff becomes torn between love for Catherine and the rage and humiliation he suffers. Finally he can stand it no longer and, in the violence of a summer storm, leaves the Heights for three years. During his absence Catherine has married, but her tormented heart belongs eternally to Heathcliff who is now prepared to exact his tyrannical revenge. With its freedom from social convention and its unparalleled emotional intensity, Wuthering Heights is a highly original and deeply tragic work.

The Plague is a novel by Albert Camus, published in 1947. It tells the story from the point of view of a narrator of a plague sweeping the French Algerian city of Oran. The narrator remains unknown until the start of the last chapter, chapter 5 of part 5. The novel presents a snapshot of life in Oran as seen through the author's distinctive absurdist point of view. The book tells a gripping tale of human unrelieved horror, of survival and resilience, and of the ways in which humankind confronts death, The Plague is at once a masterfully crafted novel, eloquently understated and epic in scope, and a parable of ageless moral resonance, profoundly relevant to our times. In Oran, a coastal town in North Africa, the plague begins as a series of portents, unheeded by the people. It gradually becomes an omnipresent reality, obliterating all traces of the past and driving its victims to almost unearthly extremes of suffering, madness, and compassion. The Plague is considered an existentialist classic despite Camus' objection to the label. The novel stresses the powerlessness of the individual characters to affect their destinies. The narrative tone is similar to Kafka's, especially in The Trial, whose individual sentences potentially have multiple meanings; the material often pointedly resonating as stark allegory of phenomenal consciousness and the human condition.

A rich and unforgettable tragic-comic novel of sexual intrigue and political scheming in nineteenth-century Spain, The House of Ulloa fully deserves to be recognised as one of the great novels of the age. The House of Ulloa follows pure and pious Father Julián Alvarez, who is sent to a remote country estate to put the affairs of the marquis, an irresponsible libertine, in order. When he discovers moral decadence, cruelty and corruption at his new home, Julián's well-meaning but ineffectual attempts to prevent the fall of the House of Ulloa end in tragedy. Combining gothic elements with humour and social satire, The House of Ulloa is the finest achievement of Emilia Pardo Bazán, a prolific writer, feminist, traveller and intellectual, and one of the most dynamic figures of her time.

Gilbert Markham is deeply intrigued by Helen Graham, a beautiful and secretive young woman who has moved into nearby Wildfell Hall with her young son. He is quick to offer Helen his friendship, but when her reclusive behaviour becomes the subject of local gossip and speculation, Gilbert begins to wonder whether his trust in her has been misplaced. It is only when she allows Gilbert to read her diary that the truth is revealed and the shocking details of the disastrous marriage she has left behind emerge. Told with great immediacy, combined with wit and irony, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is a powerful depiction of a woman's fight for domestic independence and creative freedom.

La marquesa de Merteuil i el vescomte de Valmont, els experts més consumats de tot París en l’art de la seducció, tramen venjar-se del comte de Gercourt pervertint Cécile Volanges, una noieta ignorant, promesa per la seva mare a casar-se amb el comte. Cécile, però, està molt enamorada del jove Danceny, passerell com ella en les qüestions amatòries. Tot i que al principi no està per orgues, entestat a conquistar la inabastable presidenta de Tourvel, una dona casada i devota, exemple de virtut en els cercles aristocràtics que tots comparteixen, Valmont acaba participant en el joc. Aleshores l’engany, la dissimulació, la immoralitat i la depravació més descarnada no tenen aturador fins que s’aconsegueixen els objectius ―per bé que les conseqüències poden ser funestes―, com podeu descobrir en aquesta gran fita de la novel·la llibertina.

"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again..." Ancient, beautiful Manderley, between the rose garden and the sea, is the county's showpiece. Rebecca made it so - even a year after her death, Rebecca's influence still rules there. How can Maxim de Winter's shy new bride ever fill her place or escape her vital shadow? A shadow that grows longer and darker as the brief summer fades, until, in a moment of climatic revelations, it threatens to eclipse Manderley and its inhabitants completely...

Alain Robbe-Grillet is internationally hailed as the chief spokesman for the noveau roman and one of the great novelists of the twentieth century. The Erasers, his first novel, reads like a detective story but is primarily concerned with weaving and then probing a complete mixture of fact and fantasy. The narrative spans the twenty-four-hour period following a series of eight murders in eight days, presumably the work of a terrorist group. After the ninth murder, the investigation is then turned over to a police agent, who may in fact be the assassin. Both an engrossing mystery and a sinister deconstruction of reality, The Erasers intrigues and unnerves with equal force as it pull us along to its ominous conclusion.

Diagnosed by her physician husband with a “temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency” after the birth of her child, a woman is urged to rest for the summer in an old colonial mansion. Forbidden from doing work of any kind, she spends her days in the house’s former nursery, with its barred windows, scratched floor, and peeling yellow wallpaper. In a private journal, the woman records her growing obsession with the “horrid” wallpaper. Its strange pattern mutates in the moonlight, revealing what appears to be a human figure in the design. With nothing else to occupy her mind, the woman resolves to unlock the mystery of the wallpaper. Her quest, however, leads not to the truth, but into the darkest depths of madness. A condemnation of the patriarchy, The Yellow Wallpaper explores with terrifying economy the oppression, grave misunderstanding, and willful dismissal of women in late nineteenth\-century society. First published in January 1892 in The New England Magazine. Excerpt: Out of another I get a lovely view of the bay and a little private wharf belonging to the estate. There is a beautiful shaded lane that runs down there from the house. I always fancy I see people walking in these numerous paths and arbors, but John has cautioned me not to give way to fancy in the least. He says that with my imaginative power and habit of story\-making a nervous weakness like mine is sure to lead to all manner of excited fancies, and that I ought to use my will and good sense to check the tendency. So I try.

A wickedly clever satire uses comic inversions to offer telling insights into the nature of man and society. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read. Gulliver's Travels describes the four voyages of Lemuel Gulliver, a ship's surgeon. In Lilliput he discovers a world in miniature; towering over the people and their city, he is able to view their society from the viewpoint of a god. However, in Brobdingnag, a land of giants, tiny Gulliver himself comes under observation, exhibited as a curiosity at markets and fairs. In Laputa, a flying island, he encounters a society of speculators and projectors who have lost all grip on everyday reality; while they plan and calculate, their country lies in ruins. Gulliver's final voyage takes him to the land of the Houyhnhnms, gentle horses whom he quickly comes to admire - in contrast to the Yahoos, filthy bestial creatures who bear a disturbing resemblance to humans. This text, based on the first edition of 1726, reproduces all the original illustrations and includes an introduction by Robert Demaria, Jr, which discusses the ways Gulliver's Travels has been interpreted since its first publication. Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) was born in Dublin. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

You can find an alternative cover edition for this ISBN here and here. When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula with the purchase of a London house, he makes a series of horrific discoveries about his client. Soon afterwards, various bizarre incidents unfold in England: an apparently unmanned ship is wrecked off the coast of Whitby; a young woman discovers strange puncture marks on her neck; and the inmate of a lunatic asylum raves about the 'Master' and his imminent arrival. In Dracula, Bram Stoker created one of the great masterpieces of the horror genre, brilliantly evoking a nightmare world of vampires and vampire hunters and also illuminating the dark corners of Victorian sexuality and desire. This Norton Critical Edition includes a rich selection of background and source materials in three areas: Contexts includes probable inspirations for Dracula in the earlier works of James Malcolm Rymer and Emily Gerard. Also included are a discussion of Stoker's working notes for the novel and "Dracula's Guest," the original opening chapter to Dracula. Reviews and Reactions reprints five early reviews of the novel. "Dramatic and Film Variations" focuses on theater and film adaptations of Dracula, two indications of the novel's unwavering appeal. David J. Skal, Gregory A. Waller, and Nina Auerbach offer their varied perspectives. Checklists of both dramatic and film adaptations are included. Criticism collects seven theoretical interpretations of Dracula by Phyllis A. Roth, Carol A. Senf, Franco Moretti, Christopher Craft, Bram Dijkstra, Stephen D. Arata, and Talia Schaffer. A Chronology and a Selected Bibliography are included.

Persuasion is Jane Austen's last completed novel. She began it soon after she had finished Emma, completing it in August 1816. She died, aged 41, in 1817; Persuasion was published in December that year (but dated 1818). Persuasion is linked to Northanger Abbey not only by the fact that the two books were originally bound up in one volume and published together, but also because both stories are set partly in Bath, a fashionable city with which Austen was well acquainted, having lived there from 1801 to 1805. Besides the theme of persuasion, the novel evokes other topics, such as the Royal Navy, in which two of Jane Austen's brothers ultimately rose to the rank of admiral. As in Northanger Abbey, the superficial social life of Bath-well known to Austen, who spent several relatively unhappy and unproductive years there-is portrayed extensively and serves as a setting for the second half of the book. In many respects Persuasion marks a break with Austen's previous works, both in the more biting, even irritable satire directed at some of the novel's characters and in the regretful, resigned outlook of its otherwise admirable heroine, Anne Elliot, in the first part of the story. Against this is set the energy and appeal of the Royal Navy, which symbolises for Anne and the reader the possibility of a more outgoing, engaged, and fulfilling life, and it is this worldview which triumphs for the most part at the end of the novel.

First published in 1905, The House of Mirth shocked the New York society it so deftly chronicles, portraying the moral, social and economic restraints on a woman who dared to claim the privileges of marriage without assuming the responsibilities. Lily Bart, beautiful, witty and sophisticated, is accepted by 'old money' and courted by the growing tribe of nouveaux riches. But as she nears thirty, her foothold becomes precarious; a poor girl with expensive tastes, she needs a husband to preserve her social standing, and to maintain her in the luxury she has come to expect. Whilst many have sought her, something - fastidiousness or integrity- prevents her from making a 'suitable' match.

A classic tale of love and morals in Puritan New England. The Scarlet Lettter is set in 1850s Puritan Boston and tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an affair and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. Throughout the book, Hawthorne explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt. This book is required reading in many high school and college English courses and is an American classic by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

When first published in 1899, The Awakening shocked readers with its honest treatment of female marital infidelity. Audiences accustomed to the pieties of late Victorian romantic fiction were taken aback by Chopin's daring portrayal of a woman trapped in a stifling marriage, who seeks and finds passionate physical love outside the confines of her domestic situation. Aside from its unusually frank treatment of a then-controversial subject, the novel is widely admired today for its literary qualities. Edmund Wilson characterized it as a work "quite uninhibited and beautifully written, which anticipates D. H. Lawrence in its treatment of infidelity." Although the theme of marital infidelity no longer shocks, few novels have plumbed the psychology of a woman involved in an illicit relationship with the perception, artistry, and honesty that Kate Chopin brought to The Awakening.

يروي فتى من بلدة على نهر المسيسيبي في القرن التاسع عشر مغامراته أثناء سفره نزولًا عبر النهر مع عبد هارب، حيث يلتقي بعائلة متورطة في ثأر، ومحتالين يتظاهران بأنهما من أفراد العائلة المالكة، وعمة توم سوير التي تظنه تومًا.

The newest edition is here. Another alternate cover can be found here. Emma Woodhouse is one of Austen's most captivating and vivid characters. Beautiful, spoilt, vain and irrepressibly witty, Emma organizes the lives of the inhabitants of her sleepy little village and plays matchmaker with devastating effect.

First published in French as a serial in 1909, The Phantom of the Opera is a riveting story that revolves around the young, Swedish Christine Daaé. Her father, a famous musician, dies, and she is raised in the Paris Opera House with his dying promise of a protective angel of music to guide her. After a time at the opera house, she begins hearing a voice, who eventually teaches her how to sing beautifully. All goes well until Christine's childhood friend Raoul comes to visit his parents, who are patrons of the opera, and he sees Christine when she begins successfully singing on the stage. The voice, who is the deformed, murderous 'ghost' of the opera house named Erik, however, grows violent in his terrible jealousy, until Christine suddenly disappears. The phantom is in love, but it can only spell disaster. Leroux's work, with characters ranging from the spoiled prima donna Carlotta to the mysterious Persian from Erik's past, has been immortalized by memorable adaptations. Despite this, it remains a remarkable piece of Gothic horror literature in and of itself, deeper and darker than any version that follows.

A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse. Set against the looming horrors of the battlefield - the weary, demoralized men marching in the rain during the German attack on Caporetto; the profound struggle between loyalty and desertion—this gripping, semiautobiographical work captures the harsh realities of war and the pain of lovers caught in its inexorable sweep. Ernest Hemingway famously said that he rewrote his ending to A Farewell to Arms thirty-nine times to get the words right.

Alternate editions can be found here and here. A gothic masterpiece of tempestuous passions and dark secrets, Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre is edited with an introduction and notes by Stevie Davis in Penguin Classics. Charlotte Brontë tells the story of orphaned Jane Eyre, who grows up in the home of her heartless aunt, enduring loneliness and cruelty. This troubled childhood strengthens Jane's natural independence and spirit - which prove necessary when she finds employment as a governess to the young ward of Byronic, brooding Mr Rochester. As her feelings for Rochester develop, Jane gradually uncovers Thornfield Hall's terrible secret, forcing her to make a choice. Should she stay with Rochester and live with the consequences, or follow her convictions - even if it means leaving the man she loves? A novel of intense power and intrigue, Jane Eyre dazzled readers with its passionate depiction of a woman's search for equality and freedom.

Fair and long-legged, independent and articulate, Janie Crawford sets out to be her own person—no mean feat for a black woman in the '30s. Janie's quest for identity takes her through three marriages and into a journey back to her roots.

Vor dem Hintergrund des französischen Kolonialvietnams enthüllt Der Liebhaber die Intimitäten und Verwicklungen einer heimlichen Romanze zwischen einem heranwachsenden Mädchen aus einer finanziell angeschlagenen französischen Familie und einem älteren, wohlhabenden chinesisch-vietnamesischen Mann.

Carson McCullers’ prodigious first novel was published to instant acclaim when she was just twenty-three. Set in a small town in the middle of the deep South, it is the story of John Singer, a lonely deaf-mute, and a disparate group of people who are drawn towards his kind, sympathetic nature. The owner of the café where Singer eats every day, a young girl desperate to grow up, an angry drunkard, a frustrated black doctor: each pours their heart out to Singer, their silent confidant, and he in turn changes their disenchanted lives in ways they could never imagine.

Alternate Cover/publisher Edition ISBN 0743482832 (ISBN13: 9780743482837) Each edition includes: • Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play • Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play • Scene-by-scene plot summaries • A key to famous lines and phrases • An introduction to reading Shakespeare's language • An essay by an outstanding scholar providing a modern perspective on the play • Illustrations from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books

A classic of Mexican modern literature about a haunted village. As one enters Juan Rulfo's legendary novel, one follows a dusty road to a town of death. Time shifts from one consciousness to another in a hypnotic flow of dreams, desires, and memories, a world of ghosts dominated by the figure of Pedro Páramo - lover, overlord, murderer. Rulfo's extraordinary mix of sensory images, violent passions, and unfathomable mysteries has been a profound influence on a whole generation of Latin American writers, including Carlos Fuentes, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Gabriel García Márquez. To read Pedro Páramo today is as overwhelming an experience as when it was first published in Mexico back in 1955.

Heart of Darkness, a novel by Joseph Conrad, was originally a three-part series in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899. It is a story within a story, following a character named Charlie Marlow, who recounts his adventure to a group of men onboard an anchored ship. The story told is of his early life as a ferry boat captain. Although his job was to transport ivory downriver, Charlie develops an interest in investing an ivory procurement agent, Kurtz, who is employed by the government. Preceded by his reputation as a brilliant emissary of progress, Kurtz has now established himself as a god among the natives in “one of the darkest places on earth.” Marlow suspects something else of Kurtz: he has gone mad. A reflection on corruptive European colonialism and a journey into the nightmare psyche of one of the corrupted, Heart of Darkness is considered one of the most influential works ever written.

'He now saw himself stained with the most loathed and monstrous sins, the object of universal execration ... doomed to perish in tortures the most severe' Shocking, erotic and violent, The Monk is the story of Ambrosio, torn between his spiritual vows and the temptations of physical pleasure. His internal battle leads to sexual obsession, rape and murder, yet this book also contains knowing parody of its own excesses as well as social comedy. Written by Matthew Lewis when he was only nineteen, it was a ground-breaking novel in the Gothic Horror genre and spawned hundreds of imitators, drawn in by its mixture of bloodshed, sex and scandal.

Our first meeting with Sherlock Holmes. And John Watson's too! The young doctor is astonished by Holmes' many idiosyncrasies, including his talents on the violin. But it's not long before Sherlock Holmes, with Watson in tow, is working with Scotland Yard investigating the murder of two Americans whose deaths have some mysterious connection to sinister groups gathering power in both Britain and America. Here's where it all began, 'A Study in Scarlet.' Meet Sherlock Holmes, one of the world's leading consulting detectives - fictional of course!

The Oxford School Shakespeare has become the preferred introduction to the literary legacy of the greatest playwright in the English language. This exclusive collection of the Bard's best works has been designed specifically for readers new to Shakespeare's rich literary legacy. Each play is presented complete and unabridged, in large print. Every book is well illustrated, and starts with a commentary and character summary. Scene synopses and character summaries clarify confusing plots, while incisive essays explore the historical context and Shakespeare's sources. Each book ends with a complete list of Shakespeare's plays and a brief chronology of the Bard's life. The detailed explanatory notes are written clearly and positioned right next to the text—no more squinting at microscopic footnotes or flipping pages back and forth in search of endnotes! The new edition of the series features new covers and new illustrations, including both new drawings and photos from recent productions of Shakespeare's plays around the globe. In addition, the notes and the introductory material have been completely revised in line with new research and in order to make them clearer and more accessible. Finally, the entire text has been redesigned and reset to enhance readability. The new edition achieves the feat of unprecedented clarity of presentation without any cuts to the original text or the detailed explanations.