The blind energies and defiant acts that bring an ambitiousmanto power can also destroy him. This is the theme thatThomas Hardyexplores through his greatest and mosttragic hero: MichaelHenchard, the driven grain merchant of Casterbridge. From hisdrunken sale of his wife and baby at a county fair to hissubjugation of a farming village, Henchard's life is an epicattempt to bring the world to heel as he hides, even from himself,all vestiges of emotionalvulnerability. Combining the suspense of amystery with the poetry of the most powerful English novels, TheMavyor of Casterbridge is a masterpiece of psychological insightand profound tragedy.
"What makes his work great is that it can be felt andunderstood...by anybody," said Leo Tolstoy of Chekhov's plays,which express life through subtle construction, everyday dialogue,and an electrically charged atmosphere.
"My greatest thought in living is Heathcliff. If all elseperished, and he remained, I should still continue to be... Nelly,I "am" Heathcliff He's always, always in my mind: not as apleasure... but as my own being." "Wuthering Heights" is the onlynovel of Emily Bronte, who died a year after its publication, atthe age of thirty. A brooding Yorkshire tale of a love that isstronger than death, it is also a fierce vision of metaphysicalpassion, in which heaven and hell, nature and society, arepowerfully juxtaposed. Unique, mystical, with a timeless appeal, ithas become a classic of English literature.
Key Features: Study methods Introduction to the text Summaries with critical notes Themes and techniques Textual analysis of key passages Author biography Historical and literary background Modern and historical critical approaches Chronology Glossary of literary terms --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Volume two in a collection of tales representing distinctivegenres- from fairy tales to erotica-revealing the customs andsocieties in the medieval Middle East, as told by the mythicSheherazade.
This translation of Nobel Laureate Thomas Mann's work includeshis masterpiece, "Death in Venice," plus six of the author's shortstories: "Tristan," "Tonio Kroger," "Man and Dog: An Idyll," "Hourof Hardship," "Tobias Mindernickel," and "The Child Prodigy."
Flamboyant and controversial, Oscar Wilde was a dazzlingpersonality, a master of wit, and a dramatic genius whose sparklingcomedies contain some of the most brilliant dialogue ever writtenfor the English stage. Here in one volume are his immensely popularnovel, The Picture of Dorian Gray; his last literary work, “TheBallad of Reading Gaol,” a product of his own prison experience;and four complete plays: Lady Windermere’s Fan, his first dramaticsuccess, An Ideal Husband, which pokes fun at conventionalmorality, The Importance of Being Earnest, his finest comedy, andSalomé, a portrait of uncontrollable love originally written inFrench and faithfully translated by Richard Ellmann. Every selection appears in its entirety–a marvelous collection ofoutstanding works by the incomparable Oscar Wilde, who’s been aptlycalled “a lord of language” by Max Beerbohm.
This 19th-century author created "some of the most colorful andhaunting fiction of his century" ( Kirkus Reviews ). And withhis special blend of comedy, social commentary, and fantasy, hepaved the way for Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky.
Turgenev's masterpiece about the conflict between generations isas fresh, outspoken, and exciting today as it was in when it wasfirst published in 1862. The controversial portrait of Bazarov, theenergetic, cynical, and self-assured `nihilist' who repudiates theromanticism of his elders, shook Russian society. Indeed the imageof humanity liberated by science from age-old conformities andprejudices is one that can threaten establishments of any politicalor religious persuasion, and is especially potent in the modernera. This new translation, specially commissioned for the World'sClassics, is the first to draw on Turgenev's working manu*,which only came to light in 1988. --This text refers to an outof print or unavailable edition of this title.
This novel's unsentimental evocation of childhood in theEnglish countryside stands as an enduring triumph; but equallymemorable are its portrayal of a narrow, tradition-bound society,its striking, superbly drawn heroine, Maggie Tulliver, and itsdramatic unfolding of tragic human destiny.
Known as a "feast of language," this is one of the bard'searliest comedies, in which four bachelors who have dedicatedthemselves to chastity and scholarly pursuits soon encounter thewomen of their dreams.
在线阅读本书 During the French Revolution's reign of terror, the mysteriousScarlet Pimpernel rescues helpless men, women, and children fromtheir doom in this unique, wonderfully colorful adventureclassic.
The master storyteller-in short form Famous for his novels, Hawthorne was first a short story writer.This collection includes his most powerful and penetrating stories,including "Young Goodman Brown" and "The Minister's BlackVeil."
The full texts of the seven extant plays of Sophocles with PaulRoche's revised and updated translations of the Oedipus cycle, andall-new translations of the remaining plays.
A classic by a Russian master Prince Myshkin, the idiot, is analmost comically innocent Christ figure in a land of sinners, onewhose faith in beauty contrasts sharply with that of hissociety's.
Clym Yeobright returns from Paris to the village of his birth,inspired to improve the life of its men and women. But his plansare upset when he falls in love with a beautiful, darklydiscontented girl, Eustacia Vye, who longs to escape from herprovincial surroundings.
The debut of an American original. Here is the accomplished first novel that catapulted F. ScottFitzgerald to literary fame-at the age of 23. It follows theeducation-intellectual, spiritual, and sexual-of young AmoryBlaine.
Includes: The Tempest - A Midsummer Night's Dream - The Winter's Tale - Much Ado About Nothing - AsYou Like It - Cymbeline - The Two Gentlemen ofVerona - The Merchant of Venice - King Lear - Macbeth - All's Well that Ends Well - The Tamingof the Shrew - The Comedy of Errors - Measure forMeasure - Twelfth Night - Timon of Athens - Romeo and Juliet - Hamlet - Othello - Pericles
A classic tour of the wild west In 1861, young Mark Twain found himself adrift as a tenderfoot inthe Wild West—and Roughing It is his hilarious record of histravels come to life with his inimitable mixture of reporting,social satire, and rollicking tall tales.