Contains The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice and Twelfth Night.

A novel which deals with a decadent New England family and Holgrave, who rents a room in their seven-gabled house.

The long–awaited sequel to The Mask of Zorro––the blockbuster film that grossed more than $230 million worldwide––is coming in September 2005. . .and we've got the adult novelisation! In the early 19th century Don Diego de la Vega championed the people of Mexico against the tyranny of Spanish rule as the masked swordsman and hero Zorro. Twenty years later an orphan named Alejandro, whom Don Diego trained as a boy, becomes Don Diego's successor, serving up a similar brand of freedom and justice in California, reuniting Don Diego with his long lost daughter Elena and marrying the beautiful young woman . At last, in this riveting novelisation of the latest Zorro film from Sony Pictures and Zorro Productions Inc., the mantel is about to be passed again! Alejandro and Elena's marriage is suffering from the strain of Alejandro's work. They're on the very brink of divorce when Elena finds herself central to a Pinkerton sting operation that threatens to expose Zorro's true identity and risk Ale

Little Dorrit is a classic tale of imprisonment,both literal and metaphorical,while Dickens' working title for the novel,Nobody's Fault,highlights its concern with personal responsibility In private and public life.Dickens' childhood experiences inform the vivid scenes in Marshalsea debtor's prison,while his adult perceptions of governmental failures shape his satirical picture of the Circumlocution Office.The novel's range of characters-the honest,the crooked,the selfish and the self-denying - offers a portrait of a society about whose values Dickens had profound doubts. Little Dorrit is indisputably one of Dickens' finest works written at the height of his powers.George Bernard Shaw called it 'a masterpiece among masterpieces',a verdict shared by the novel's many admirers.

Little Women is the heartwarming story of the March family that has thrilled generations of readers. It is the story of four sisters--Jo, Meg, Amy and Beth-- and of the courage, humor and ingenuity they display to survive poverty and the absence of their father during the Civil War.

Unusually for Dickens, Hard Times is set, not in London, but in the imaginary mid-Victorian Northern industrial town of Coketown with its blackened factories, downtrodden workers and polluted environment. This is the soulless domain of the strict utilitarian Thomas Gradgrind and the heartless factory owner Josiah Bounderby. However human joy is not excluded thanks to 'Mr Sleary's Horse-Riding' circus, a gin-soaked and hilarious troupe of open-hearted and affectionate people who act as an antidote to all the drudgery and misery endured by the ordinary citizens of Coketown. Macaulay attacked Hard Times for its 'sullen socialism',but 20th-century critics such as George Bernard Shaw and F.R.Leavis have praised this book in the highest terms,while readers the world over have found inspiration and enjoyment from what is both Dickens' shorted completed novel and also one of his important statements on Victorian society.

Collins was a master craftsman, whom many modern mystery-mongers might imitate to their profit.Dorothy L. Sayers

Published in 1813, Pride and Prejudice announced the arrival of the comedy of manners, a welcome change from the stiff, moralistic novels of the past. In recounting the courtship of the witty, indpendent Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy--the handsome bachelor whose arrogant pride Elizabeth regards as a fatal flaw--Austen illuminates, with subtle humor, the prejudices of society as a whole. 作者简介： Though the domain of Jane Austen's novels was as circumscribes as her life, her caustic wit and keen observation made her the equal of the greatest novelists in any language. Born the seventh child of the rector of Steventon, Hampshire, on December 16, 1775, she was educated mainly at home. At an early age she began writing sketches and satires of popular novels for her family's entertainment. As a clergyman's daughter from a well-connected family, she had ample opportunity to study the habits of the middle class, the gentry, and the aristocracy. At twenty-one, she began a novel called "First Impressi

With an Introduction by Pat Righelato，University of Reading The child of parents who divorce， remarry and then embark on adulterous affairs， Maisie Farange survives by her intelligence and spirit。For all its sombre theme of childhood innocence exposed to a corrupted adult world， this novel is one of James’s comic masterpieces。The outrageous behaviour of the characters on the seedy fringes of the English upper class is conveyed with wit and relish。 The dual perspective of a sophisticated narrator richly appreciative of the absurdities of the adult sexual merry-go-round and the candid vision of Maisie， ’rebounding’ from one parent to another like a ’shuttlecock’，together create an ’associational magic’。 Strangely， unexpectedly，from so much that is tawdry，comes a tale of moral energy and subtlety。James’s foresight was in understanding the modernity of his subject，which is even more relevant today in the twenty-first century。

Wuthering Heights is a wild，passionate story of the intense and almost demonic love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff，a foundling adopted by Catherine's father. After Mr Earnshaw's death，Heathcliff is bullied and humiliated by Catherine's brother Hindley and， wrongly believing that his love for Catherine is not reciprocated，leaves Wuthering Heights，only to return years later as a wealthy and polished man. He proceeds to exact a terrible revenge for his former miseries. The action of the story is chaotic and unremittingly violent, but the accomplished handling of a complex structure，the evocative de*ions of the lonely moorland setting and the poetic grandeur of vision combine to make this unique novel a masterpiece of English literature.

This fiercely comic second novel stands in marked contrast to its genial predecessor,THE PICKWICK PAPERS.Set against London's seedy back streef slums,OLIVER TWIST is the saga of a workhouse orphan capfured and fhrust info a fhieves'den,where some of Dickens's most depraved villains preside:the incorrigeble Artful Dodger,the murderous bully Sikes,and the terrible Fagin,that treacherous ringleader whose grinning knavery threatens to send them all to the "ghastly gallows."Yet ft the heart of this drama is the orphan Oliver,whose unsullied goodness leads him at last to salvation.

The widely acclaimed Oxford School Shakespeare series offers students the perfect introduction to Shakespeare's plays. THE TEMPEST, probably written around 1611, dramatizes Prospero's plight to escape banishment to a lonely island by his brother Antonio.

This edition contains Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking Glass. It is illustrated throughout by Sir John Tenniel, whose drawings for the books add so much to the enjoyment of them. Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, the Red Queen and the White Rabbit all make their appearances, and are now familiar figures in writing, conversation and idiom. So too, are Carroll's delightful verses such as The Walrus and the Carpenter and the inspired jargon of that masterly Wordsworthian parody, The Jabberwocky.

This volume presents the Latin text, with an Introduction and full commentary, of Book XIII of the Roman poet Ovid's long work Metamorphoses. It discusses in detail Ovid's treatment of his sources and sets out the ways in which he has adapted earlier literature as material for his novel enterprise. Guidance is offered on points of language and style, and the Introduction treats in general terms the themes of metamorphosis and the structure of the poem as a whole. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From its first publication in 1719, Robinson Crusoe has been printed in over 700 editions. It has inspired almost every conceivable kind of imitation and variation, and been the subject of plays, opera, cartoons, and computer games. The character of Crusoe has entered the consciousness of each succeeding generation as readers add their own interpretation to the adventures so thrillingly 'recorded' by Defoe. Praised by eminent figures such as Coleridge, Rousseau and Wordsworth, this perennially popular book was cited by Karl Marx in Das Kapital to illustrate economic theory. However it is readers of all ages over the last 280 years who have given Robinson Crusoe its abiding position as a classic tale of adventure.

Nicholas Nickleby,a gentleman's son fallen upon hard times,must set out to make his way in the world.Along the way various older,money-grubbing villains attempt to injure him.Eventually,with the assistance of kind patrons,he and his family achieve economic security and a happy home.Sounds rather trite,doesn't it? Not with characters written by Dickens(Hard Times,Audio Reviews,LJ 5/1/98).Schoolmaster Squeers would make a fine poster boy for child abusers.Ralph Nickleby's initial desire to injure Nicholas gradually develops into a full-blown obsession.Then there are the kind Cheeryble brothers,the gentle,much-abused Smike,and a host of other friends who provide comic relief.Martin Jarvis does an outstanding job of reading this book.His ingenues sound young(a frequent problem area for male readers)while his villains are deliciously evil.The only problems are with the abridgment.In several places,choppy editing has left brief,disconnected scenes and/or character cameos without relevance to the abridged tale.Still

With an Introduction and Notes by Dr Keith Carabine,University of Kent at Canterbury Crime and Punishment is one of the greatest and most readable novels ever written.From the beginning we are locked into the frenzied consciousness of Raskolnikov who,against his better instincts,is inexorably drawn to commit a brutal double murder. From that moment on,we share his conflicting feelings of self-loathing and pride,of contempt for and need of others,and of terrible despair and hope of redemption:and,in a remarkable transformation of the detective novel,we follow his agonised efforts to probe and confront both his own motives for,and the consequences of,his crime. The result is a tragic novel built out of a series of supremely dramatic scenes that illuminate the eternal conflicts at the heart of human existence:most especially our desire for self-expression and self-fulfilment,as against the constraints of morality and human laws;and our agonised awareness of the world's harsh injustices a

The novel follows the life of its eponymous heroine ,Moll Flanders,through its many vicissitudes which include her early seduction, careers in crime and prostitution, conviction for theft and transportation to the plantations of Virginia, and her ultimate redemption and prosperity in the New World. Moll Flanders was one of the first social novels to be published in English and draws heavily on Defoe's experience of the topography and social conditions prevailing in the London of the late 17th centurv.

The Return of the Native is widely recognized as the most representative of Hardy’s Wessex novels. He evokes the dismal presence and menacing beauty of Egdon Heath - reaching out to touch the lives and fate of all who dwell on it. The central figure is Clym Yeobright, the returning’native’,and the story tells of his love for the beautiful but capricious Eustacia Vye. As the narrative unfolds and character after character is driven to self-destruction the presence of the Heath becomes all-embracing, while Clym becomes a travelling preacher in an attempt to assuage his guilt.