(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) A famous legend surrounding thecreation of "Anna Karenina" tells us that Tolstoy began writing acautionary tale about adultery and ended up falling in love withhis magnificent heroine. It is rare to find a reader of the bookwho doesn't experience the same kind of emotional upheaval. AnnaKarenina is filled with major and minor characters who exist intheir own right and fully embody their mid-nineteenth-centuryRussian milieu, but it still belongs entirely to the woman whosename it bears, whose portrait is one of the truest ever made by awriter. Translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude

Published to coincide with the centenary of Tolstoy's death,here is an exciting new edition of one of the great literary worksof world literature. Tolstoy's epic masterpiece captures withunprecedented immediacy the broad sweep of life during theNapoleonic wars and the brutal invasion of Russia. Balls andsoirées, the burning of Moscow, the intrigues of statesmen andgenerals, scenes of violent battles, the quiet moments of everydaylife--all in a work whose extraordinary imaginative power has neverbeen surpassed. The Maudes' translation of Tolstoy's epicmasterpiece has long been considered the best English version, andnow for the first time it has been revised to bring it fully intoline with modern approaches to the text. French passages arerestored, Anglicization of Russian names removed, and outmodedexpressions updated. A new introduction by Amy Mandelker considersthe novel's literary and historical context, the nature of thework, and Tolstoy's artistic and philosophical aims. New, expandednotes provid

These three masterworks placed the great seventeenth-centuryEnglish poet Milton beside Shakespeare, Dante, Homer, andVirgil in the pantheon of world literature. A monumental achievement,Parudise Lost is the epic poem about the magnificent Lucifer, whose failed rebellion against Heaven's tyranny casts him into thedarkness of Hell and leads to man's fall from grace. SamsonAgonistes, the greatest English drama modeled on the Greekclassics, depicts blinded, once-mighty Samson regaining his strength as God's champion and delivering his people-whilede-stroying himself and his captors. And "Lycidas" is animmortal elegy on lost hopes and the nature of fate. Written in a grandstyle of superb power, these works display a majesty of lan- guage, a sublime wealth of detail, and the unmistakable genius ofone of literature's greatest minds.

Almayer’s Folly, Joseph Conrad’s first novel, is a tale ofpersonal tragedy as well as a broader meditation on the evils ofcolonialism. Set in the lush jungle of Borneo in the late 1800s, ittells of the Dutch merchant Kaspar Almayer, whose dreams of richesfor his beloved daughter, Nina, collapse under the weight of hisown greed and prejudice. Nadine Gordimer writes in herIntroduction, “Conrad’s writing is lifelong questioning . . . Whatwas ‘Almayer’s Folly’? The pretentious house never lived in? Hisobsession with gold? His obsessive love for his daughter, whoseprogenitors, the Malay race, he despised? All three?” Conradestablished in Almayer’s Folly the themes of betrayal, isolation,and colonialism that he would explore throughout the rest of hislife and work.

The "Guermantes Way," in this the third volume of "In Searchof Lost Time," refers to the path that leads to the Duc and Duchessde Guermantes's chateau near Combray. It also represents thenarrator's passage into the rarefied "social kaleidoscope" of theGuermantes's Paris salon, an important intellectual playground forParisian society, where he becomes a party to the wit and mannersof the Guermantes's drawing room. Here he encounters nobles,officers, socialites, and assorted consorts, including Robert deSaint Loup and his prostitute mistress Rachel, the Baron deCharlus, and the Prince de Borodino. For this authoritativeEnglish-language edition, D. J. Enright has revised the lateTerence Kilmartin's acclaimed reworking of C. K. Scott Moncrieff'stranslation to take into account the new definitive French editionsof "A la recherche du temps perdu" (the final volume of these neweditions was published by the Bibliotheque de la Pleiade in1989).

Inspired by the long-standing affair between Frieda, Lawrence'sGerman wife, and an Italian peasant who eventually became her thirdhusband, Lady Chatterley's Lover is the story of ConstanceChatterley, who, while trapped in an unhappy marriage to anaristocratic mine owner whose war wounds have left him paralyzedand impotent, has an affair with Mellors, the gamekeeper. FrankKermode calls the book Lawrence's "great achievement" and Anais Nindescribes it as "artistically . . . his best novel." This ModernLibrary Paperback Classics edition includes the tran* of thejudge's decision in the famous 1959 obscenity trial that allowedthe novel to be published in the United States.

Hailed as one of Joseph Conrad's finest literary achievements,this is the story of a young man unwittingly caught in thepolitical turmoil of pre-Revolutionary czarist Russia. A grippingnovel that ultimately questions our capacity for moral strength andthe depths of human integrity. This new edition includes commentaryand a reading group guide.

As a student in college, David Kepesh styles himself " a rakeamong scholars, a scholar among rakes." Little does he realize howprophetic this motto will be-- or how damning. For as Philip Rothfollows Kepesh from the domesticity of childhood into the vastwilderness of erotic possibility, from a me nage a trois in Londonto the throes of loneliness in New York, he creates a supremelyintelligent, affecting, and often hilarious novel about the dilemmaof pleasure: where we seek it; why we flee it; and how we struggleto make a truce between dignity and desire.

The translations, created through a fresh approach to theNorwegian original in tandem with a keen sense of Ibsen'stheatricallity and playability, have all been tested and refined inproductions at professional theaters. The translators have paid particular attention to threeaspects of Ibsen's technique: his wit and humor, his "supertext" -the web of rich allusions and references that he weaves in andaround his dialogue - and the bold theatricallity of the plays. Theresult is an Ibsen that sounds contemporary without being slangy orcolloquial - an Ibsen of strong ideas but also living characters -and surprisingly different from the image of the cold, forbidding"scold of the North" that we often associate with this giantwriter. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

In 1895 Hardy's final novel, the great tale of JudetheObscure, sent shock waves of indignationrolling across VictorianEngland. Hardy haddared to write frankly about sexuality andtoindict the institutions of marriage, education,and religion. Buthe had, in fact, created a deeplymoral work. The stonemason JudeFawley is adreamer; his is a tragedy of unfulfilled aims.With histantalizing cousin Sue Bridehead, thelast and most extraordinary ofHardy's heroines,Jude takes on the world--and discovers,tragically,its brutal indifference.The most powerful expression ofHardy's philosophy,and a profound exploration of man'sessentialloneliness, Jude the Obscure is a great and beautifulbook."His style touches sublimity." --T. S. Eliot

In a small Pennsylvania town in the late 1940s, schoolteacherGeorge Caldwell yearns to find some meaning in his life. Alone withhis teenage son for three days in a blizzard, Caldwell sees his songrow and change as he himself begins to lost touch with his life.Interwoven with the myth of Chiron, the noblest centaur, and hisown relationship to Prometheus, The Centaur one of John Updike'smost brilliant and unusual novels.

First published in 1919, "Within a Budding Grove" was awardedthe Prix Goncourt, bringing the author immediate fame. In thissecond volume of "In Search of Lost Time," the narrator turns fromthe childhood reminiscences of "Swann's Way" to memories of hisadolescence. Having gradually become indifferent to Swann'sdaughter Gilberte, the narrator visits the seaside resort of Balbecwith his grandmother and meets a new object ofattention--Albertine, "a girl with brilliant, laughing eyes andplump, matt cheeks." For this authoritative English-languageedition, D. J. Enright has revised the late Terence Kilmartin'sacclaimed reworking of C. K. Scott Moncrieff's translation to takeinto account the new definitive French editions of "A la recherchedu temps perdu" (the final volume of these new editions waspublished by the Bibliotheque de la Pleiade in 1989).

Magic, love spells, and an enchanted wood provide thematerials for one of Shakespeare’s most delightful comedies. Whenfour young lovers, fleeing the Athenian law and their ownmismatched rivalries, take to the forest of Athens, their livesbecome entangled with a feud between the King and Queen of theFairies. Some Athenian tradesmen, rehearsing a play for theforthcoming wedding of Duke Theseus and his bride, Hippolyta,unintentionally add to the hilarity. The result is a marvelousmix-up of desire and enchantment, merriment and farce, all touchedby Shakespeare’s inimitable vision of the intriguing relationshipbetween art and life, dreams and the waking world.

Twenty-two-year-old Karla is thrilled to be hired as anentertainer on the Sound of Music cruise ship where the rum punchis 80 percent Kool-Aid, the ice sculp- tures are plastic, and her"fake it till you make it" M.O. seems adventuresome. Karla is lessthrilled when her new boyfriend, Jack, suggests that they form asinging duo on land, but by now faking enthusiasm has become a wayof life. She and Jack buy backing tracks, crib lyrics from theradio, and embark on a not-as-glamorous-as-it-should-be careerperforming in the luxury hotel bars of the Middle East and China.But after a thousand and one nights on the road, Karla and Jackfind themselves struggling to keep their act both personal andprofessional together. Funny, fast-paced, and incisive, A Thousandand One Nights captures the performances, large and small, we useto make it through life.

An exciting new edition of the complete works of Shakespearewith these features: Illustrated with photographs from New YorkShakespeare Festival productions, vivid readable readableintroductions for each play by noted scholar David Bevington, alively personal foreword by Joseph Papp, an insightful essay on theplay in performance, modern spelling and pronunciation, up-to-dateannotated bibliographies, and convenient listing of keypassages.

The masterpiece of Joseph Conrad's later years, theautobiographical short novel "The Shadow-Line "depicts a young manat a crossroads in his life, facing a desperate crisis that marksthe "shadow-line" between youth and maturity. This brief butintense story is a dramatically fictionalized account of Conrad'sfirst command as a young sea captain trapped aboard a becalmed,fever-wracked, and seemingly haunted ship. With no wind in sightand his crew disabled by malaria, the narrator discovers that themedicine necessary to save the sick men is missing and its absencehas been deliberately concealed. Meanwhile, his increasinglyfrightened first mate is convinced that the malignant ghost of theprevious captain has cursed them. Suspenseful, atmospheric, anddeceptively simple, Conrad's tale of the sea reflects the complexthemes of his most famous novels, "Lord Jim "and "Heart ofDarkness. "

The adventures of Mowgli, a man-child raised by wolves in thejungle, have captured the imaginations not just of children, but ofall readers, for generations.

CLASSICS are more than books that have stood the test of time.They are stories that impart timeless themes, that containuniversal truths, and that provide rich literary experiences yearalter year and generation after generation. However, many classicsmay he inaccessible to contemporary readers. Obsolete words,outmoded expressions, difficult sentence construction, andunfamiliar settings can place classics out of reach of manystudents, especially those with special needs. Unabridged audiobookversions can help bridge the gap between works of literature andthe students in your classrooms.

Graced with the splendid illustrations executed by HelenPaterson for the first edition of the novel, this specialCollector's Edition of Far from the Madding Crowd also featureshandwritten letters and drawings by Hardy, as well as rare andintimate portraits of the author and his first wife, Emma. Here,too, readers are granted a fascinating and touching glimpse of howtwo great imaginative writers interact with one another: Thisedition reproduces the handwritten pages from Virginia Woolf'sdiary in which she recounts her now-famous visit with the very agedThomas Hardy at his home, Max Gate, in 1926.

"It is, quite simply, Updike's best novel yet." NEWSWEEK Adeftly satirical portrait of life and love in a suburban town asonly Updike can paint it. "From the Paperback edition."

This is one of Shakespeare’s darkest comedies, for theromantic story of a young man, Bassanio, who has squandered hisfortune and must borrow money to woo the wealthy lady he loves isset against the more disturbing story of the Jewish moneylenderShylock and his demand for the “pound of flesh” owed him by theVenetian merchant, Antonio. Here pathos and farce combine withmoral complexity and romantic entanglement to display theextraordinary power and range of Shakespeare at his best. Each Edition Includes: ? Comprehensive explanatory notes ? Vivid introductions and the most up-to-date scholarship ? Clear, modernized spelling and punctuation, enablingcontemporary readers to understand the Elizabethan English ? Completely updated, detailed bibliographies and performancehistories ? An interpretive essay on film adaptations of the play, alongwith an extensive filmography