The bestselling tale of Romanov intrigue from the author of"The Kitchen Boy" Book groups and historical fiction buffs havemade Robert Alexanderas two previous novels word-of-mouth favoritesand national bestsellers. Set against a backdrop of ImperialRussiaas twilight, "The Romanov Bride" has the same enduringappeal. The Grand Duchess Elisavyetaas story begins like a fairytaleaa German princess renowned for her beauty and kind heartmarries the Grand Duke Sergei of Russia and enters the Romanovaslavish court. Her husband, however, rules his wife as he doesMoscowawith a cold, hard fist. And, after a peaceful demonstrationbecomes a bloodbath, the fires of the revolution link Elisavyetaasdestiny to that of Pavelaa young Bolshevikaforever.

Sparkling with mischief, jumping with youthful adventure, MarkTwain's Tom Sawyer is one of the most splendid re-creations ofchildhood in all of literature. It is a lighthearted romp, full ofhumor and warmth. It shares with its sequel, Huckleberry Finn, notonly a set of unforgettable characters--Tom, Huck, Aunt Polly andothers--but a profound understanding of humanity as well. Throughsuch hilarious scenes as the famous fence-whitewashing incident,Twain gives a portrait--perceptive yet tender--of a humanityrendered foolish by his own aspirations and obsessions. Written asmuch for adults as for young boys and girls, Tom Sawyer is the workof a master storyteller performing in his shirt sleeves, using hisbest talents to everyone's delight.

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.

Book De*ion This farce follows SirJohn Falstaff--of the Henry IV plays--as he tries to woo twowealthy married women in this classic comedy. Includes specialIntroductions to the play by Green, a comprehensive stage historyof the play, and much more. Revised reissue. Book Dimension length: (cm)16.8 width:(cm)10.4

Shakespeare became famous as a dazzling poet before most peopleeven knew that he wrote plays. His sonnets are the Englishlanguage's most extraordinary anatomy of love in all itsdimensions-desire and despair, longing and loss, adoration anddisgust. To read them is to confront morality and eternity in thesame breath. Produced under the editorial supervision of JonathanBate and Eric Rasmussen, two of today's most accomplishedShakespearean scholars, The Sonnets and Other Poems includes all ofShakespeare's sonnets, the long narrative poems "Venus and Adonis"and "The Rape of Lucrece," and several other shorter works.Incorporating definitive texts and authoritative notes from WilliamShakespeare: Complete Works, this unique volume also includes anexpanded Introduction by Jonathan Bate that places the poems inliterary and historical context and illuminates their relationshipto Shakespeare's dramatic writing. Also featured are key factsabout the individual selections; an index of the first lines of thesonnets; a chron

Newlyweds Jennifer and Matt really love each other. They never lived together before they were married-and so both were shocked to learn all the little things that go with living with one's spouse. Who knew that in his family, Saturdays were for tackling chores, while in her family Saturdays were for sleeping late? Now, two nice people from nice families are finding out that they do everything differently-and suddenly, they're in the ring with gloves on! Week by week, the fights take both of them by surprise-they never meant to be the kind of couple that acts this way. Simultaneously, though, Jennifer and Matt are building something strong, knocking down old walls of habit and finding the strong foundation of a love that will see them through.This is one year in a marriage-the beginning of a lifetime.

Robert Prentice has spent all his life attempting to escape hismother's stifling presence. His mother, Alice, for her part,struggles with her own demons as she attempts to realize her dreamsof prosperity and success as a sculptor. As Robert goes off tofight in Europe, hoping to become his own man, Richard Yatesportrays a soldier in the depths of war striving to live up to hisheroic ideals. With haunting clarity, Yates crafts an unforgettableportrait of two people who cannot help but hope for more even aslife challenges them both.

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) Though James Joyce began thesestories of Dublin life in 1904 when he was twenty-two and completedthem in 1907, their unconventional themes and language led torepeated rejections by publishers and delayed publication until1914. In the century since, his story "The Dead" has come to beseen as one of the most powerful evocations of human loss andlonging that the English language possesses; all the other storiesin "Dubliners" are as beautifully turned and as greatly admired.They remind us once again that James Joyce was not only modernism'schief innovator but also one of its most intimate and poeticwriters. In this edition the text has been revised in keeping withJoyce's wishes, and the original versions of "The Sisters,""Eveline," and "After the Race" have been made available in anappendix, along with Joyce's suppressed preface to the 1914 editionof "Dubliners."

Published a year before her death at the age of thirty, EmilyBront?'s only novel is set in the wild, bleak Yorkshire Moors.Depicting the relationship of Cathy and Heathcliff, WutheringHeights creates a world of its own, conceived with an instinct forpoetry and for the dark depths of human psychology. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Pauline Nestor New Preface by Lucasta Miller

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.

FROM THE WORLD FAMOUS ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY, THE FIRSTAUTHORITATIVE, MODERNIZED, AND CORRECTED EDITION OF SHAKESPEARE’SFIRST FOLIO IN THREE CENTURIES. Skillfully assembled by Shakespeare’s fellow actors in 1623,the First Folio was the original Complete Works. It is arguably themost important literary work in the English language. But startingwith Nicholas Rowe in 1709 and continuing to the present day,Shakespeare editors have mixed Folio and Quarto texts, graduallycorrupting the original Complete Works with errors and conflatedtextual variations. Now Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen, two of today’s mostaccomplished Shakespearean scholars, have edited the First Folio asa complete book, resulting in a definitive Complete Works for thetwenty-first century. Combining innovative scholarship with brilliant commentary andtextual analysis that emphasizes performance history and values,this landmark edition will be indispensable to students, theaterprofessionals, and general readers alik

One of the last plays Shakespeare penned on his own, TheWinter’s Tale is a transcendent work of death and rebirth,exploring irrational sexual jealousy, the redemptive world ofnature, and the magical power of art. Under the editorial supervision of Jonathan Bate and EricRasmussen, two of today’s most accomplished Shakespearean scholars,this Modern Library series incorporates definitive texts andauthoritative notes from William Shakespeare: Complete Works. Eachplay includes an Introduction as well as an overview ofShakespeare’s theatrical career; commentary on past and currentproductions based on interviews with leading directors, actors, anddesigners; scene-by-scene analysis; key facts about the work; achronology of Shakespeare’s life and times; and black-and-whiteillustrations. Ideal for students, theater professionals, and general readers,these modern and accessible editions from the Royal ShakespeareCompany set a new standard in Shakespearean literature for thetwenty-first century

To Build A Fire and Other Stories is the mostcomprehensive and wide-ranging collection of Jack London's shortstories available in paperback. This superb volume brings togethertwenty-five of London's finest, including a dozen of his greatKlondike stories, vivid tales of the Far North were ruggedindividuals, such as the Malemute Kid face the violence of man andnature during the Gold Rush Days. Also included are shortmasterpieces from his later writing, plus six stories unavailablein any ot her paperback edition. Here, along with London's famouswilderness adventures and fireband desperadoes, are portraits ofthe working man, the immigrant, and the exotic outcast: charactersrepresenting the entire span of the author's prolific imaginativecareer, in tales that have been acclaimed throughout the world assome of the most thrilling short stories ever written.

No dramatist has ever seen with more frightening clarity intothe heart and mind of a murderer than has Shakespeare in thiscompelling tragedy of evil. Taunted into asserting his“masculinity” by his ambitious wife, Macbeth chooses to embrace theWeird Sisters’ prophecy and kill his king–and thus, seals his owndoom. Fast-moving and bloody, this drama has the extraordinaryenergy that derives from a brilliant plot replete with treacheryand murder, and from Shakespeare’s compelling portrait of theultimate battle between a mind and its own guilt.

On the 150th anniversary of its publication, a new edition ofthe nature classic First published in 1854, Henry David Thoreau'sgroundbreaking book has influenced generations of readers andcontinues to inspire and inform anyone with an open mind and a loveof nature. With Bill McKibben providing a newly revisedIntroduction and helpful annotations that place Thoreau firmly inhis role as cultural and spiritual seer, this beautiful edition ofWalden for the new millennium is more accessible and relevant thanever. " Thoreau] says so many pithy and brilliant things, andoffers so many piquant, and, we may add, so many just, comments onsociety as it is, that this book is well worth the reading, bothfor its actual contents and its suggestive capacity." --A. P.Peabody, North American Review, 1854 " Walden] still seems to methe best youth's companion yet written by an American, for itcarries a solemn warning against the loss of one's valuables, itadvances a good argument for traveling light and trying newadventures,

The Transposed Heads A Legend of India by Thomas Mann"The story of The TransposedHeads is at once the quintessence and the reductio ad absurdum ofall love triangles." Lionel Trilling "The transposed Heads is altogether delightfnl, worthyof rank with Tonio Kr6ger or Death in Venice. It iscertainly the most charming of Mann's works. His irony hasnever been more biting; it has never been more tender. Mannhas never shown greater insight into love, nor greater kindnesstoward humanity. The sustained lightness of tone leaves asingleness of impression perhaps impossible to attain inlonger works of tiction The Transposed Heads is, inshort, a restatement in parable form of Mann's intransigentfaith in the human intellect. It is also a rich and subtleanalysis of the psychology of friendship and love." Curtis Bradord in The Sewanee Review A Vintage Book Coverdesign by Paul Rand

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) Introduction by CatherinePeters A panoramic satire of English society during the NapoleonicWars, Vanity Fair is William Makepeace Thackeray's masterpiece. Atits center is one of the most unforgettable characters innineteenth-century literature: the enthralling Becky Sharp, acharmingly ruthless social climber who is determined to leavebehind her humble origins, no matter the cost. Her more gentlefriend Amelia, by contrast, only cares for Captain George Osborne,despite his selfishness and her family's disapproval. As both womenmove within the flamboyant milieu of Regency England, the politicalturmoil of the era is matched by the scheming Becky's sensationalrise--and its unforeseen aftermath. Based in part upon Thackeray'sown love for the wife of a friend, Vanity Fair portrays thehypocrisy and corruption of high society and the dangers ofunrestrained ambition with epic brilliance and scathing wit.

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) In his first and still mostwidely read novel, James Joyce makes a strange peace with thetraditional narrative of a young man's self-discovery by respectingits substance while exploding its form, thereby inaugurating aliterary revolution. Published in 1916 when Joyce was al?ready atwork on "Ulysses," "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" isexactly what its title says and much more. In an exuberantlyin?ventive masterpiece of subjectivity, Joyce portrays his alterego, Stephen Dedalus, growing up in Dublin and struggling throughreligious and sexual guilt toward an aesthetic awak?ening. In parta vivid picture of Joyce's own youthful evolution into one of thetwentieth century's greatest writers, it is also a moment in theintellectual history of an age.