Shakespeare’s greatest achievement in nondramatic verse washis collection of 154 magnificent sonnets that portray a tumultuousworld of love, rivalry, and conflict among a poet, an aristocraticyoung man, a rival poet, and a mysterious “dark lady.” Moreprofound than other Elizabethan sonnet sequences and neversurpassed as archetypes of the form, these poems explore almostevery imaginable emotional complexity related to love andfriendship. Some poems are dark, bitter, and self-hating, othersexpress idealism with unmatchable eloquence–and all are ofquintessential beauty, part of the world’s great literaryheritage. In addition to his sonnets, Shakespeare published two long poemsearly in his career: Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece.Immediately popular in Shakespeare’s time, they display a richnessthat can also reward us with insights into the powerful imagery ofhis plays. Rounding out this volume are two minor poems, “A Lover’sComplaint” and “The Phoenix and Turtle,”
Capturing the grandeur of a gracious, splendid Europe ofwealth and Old World sensibilities, this glorious, complex novelhas become a touchstone for a great writer’s entire literaryachievement. From the opening pages, when the high-spiritedAmerican girl Isabel Archer arrives at the English manorGardencourt, James’s luminous, superbly crafted prose creates anatmosphere of intensity, expectation, and incomparablebeauty. Isabel, who has been taken abroad by an eccentric aunt to fulfillher potential, attracts the passions of a British aristocrat and abrash American, as well as the secret adoration of her invalidcousin, Ralph Touchett. But her vulnerability and innocence leadher not to love but to a fatal entrapment in intrigue, deception,and betrayal. This brilliant interior drama of the forming of awoman’s consciousness makes The Portrait of a Lady a masterpiece ofJames’s middle years.
As the citizens of Venice compete for advantageousmarriages, wealth, and status, a moneylender is intent on deadlyrevenge. Mistrust and resentment thrive in Shakespeare’s darkcomedy. 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 read a story by Henry James is to enter a world--a rich,perfectly crafted domain of vivid language and splendid, complexcharacters. Devious children, sparring lovers, capricious Americangirls, obtuse bachelors, sibylline spinsters and charming Europeanspopulate these five fascinating Nouvelles --works which representthe author in both his early and late phases. From the apparitionsof evil that haunt the governess in The Turn Of The Screw to thestartling self-scrutiny of an egotistical man in The Beast In TheJungle, the mysterious tumings of human behavior are skillfully andcoolly observed--proving Henry James to be a master ofpsychological insight as well as one of the finest stylists ofmodern English literature.
Set in a topsy-turvy world like a holiday revel, this comedydevises a romantic plot around separated twins, misplaced passions,and mistaken identity. Juxtaposed to it is the satirical story of aself-deluded steward who dreams of becoming “Count Malvolio” onlyto receive his comeuppance at the hands of the merrymakers hewishes to suppress. The two plots combine to create a farce touchedwith melancholy, mixed throughout with seductively beautifulexplorations on the themes of love and time, and the play ends, notwith laughter, but with a clown’s sad song. 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
在线阅读本书 An immensely popular bestseller upon its publication in 1905, The House of Mirth was Edith Wharton’s first great novel.Set among the elegant brownstones of New York City and opulentcountry houses like gracious Bellomont on the Hudson, the novelcreates a satiric portrayal of what Wharton herself called “asociety of irresponsible pleasure-seekers” with a precisioncomparable to that of Proust. And her brilliant and complexcharacterization of the doomed Lily Bart, whose stunning beauty anddependence on marriage for economic survival reduce her to adecorative object, becomes an incisive commentary on the nature andstatus of women in that society. From her tragic attraction tobachelor lawyer Lawrence Selden to her desperate relationship withsocial-climbing Rosedale, Lily is all too much a product of theworld indicated by the title, a phrase taken from Ecclesiastes:“The heart of fools is in the house of mirth.” For it is Lily’svery specialness that threatens the elegance and f
From its spectacular opening–the astonishing scene in whichdrunken Michael Henchard sells his wife and daughter to a passingsailor at a county fair–to the breathtaking series of discoveriesat its conclusion, The Mayor of Casterbridge claims a unique placeamong Thomas Hardy’s finest and most powerful novels. Rooted in an actual case of wife-selling in earlynineteenth-century England, the story build into an awesomeSophoclean drama of guilt and revenge, in which the strong, willfulHenchard rises to a position of wealth and power–only to suffer amost bitter downfall. Proud, obsessed, ultimately committed to hisown destruction, Henchard is, as Albert Guerard has said, “Hardy’sLord Jim…his only tragic hero and one of the greatest tragic heroesin all fiction.
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.
With his family’s claim to the throne uncertain, Henry seeksto secure his position by turning the country’s attention abroad.But when his outnumbered army is trapped at Agincourt, disasterseems inevitable. Shakespeare probes notions of leadership andpower in this iconic depiction of England’s charismatic warriorking. 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 edition
For deft plotting, riotous inventiveness, unforgettablecharacters, and language that brilliantly captures the livelyrhythms of American speech, no American writer comes close to MarkTwain. This sparkling anthology covers the entire span of Twain'sinimitable yarn-spinning, from his early broad comedy to the bitingsatire of his later years. Every one of his sixty stories is here:ranging from the frontier humor of "The Celebrated Jumping Frog ofCalaveras County," to the bitter vision of humankind in "The ManThat Corrupted Hadleyburg," to the delightful hilarity of "Is HeLiving or Is He Dead?" Surging with Twain's ebullient wit andpenetrating insight into the follies of human nature, this volumeis a vibrant summation of the career of-in the words of H. L.Mencken-"the father of our national literature."
Comedy in five acts by William Shakespeare, performed in1598-99 and printed in a quarto edition from the author's fairpapers in 1600. The play takes an ancient theme--that of a womanfalsely accused of unfaithfulness--to brilliant comedic heights.Claudio is deceived by his jealous cousin into believing that hislover, Hero, is unfaithful--a plot unveiled by the bumblingconstables Dogberry and Verges. Meanwhile, Beatrice and Benedickhave "a kind of merry war" between them, matching wits in cleverrepartee that anticipates other playfully teasing literary couples.Each is tricked into believing that the other is in love, whichallows the true affection between them to grow. Both couples areunited at the end, after Hero's simulated resurrection from thedead. In this play Shakespeare eschewed devices of obvious magic ordisguise of sex, which he employed in other comedies; the wit andambiguity of the dialogue and the exquisite pacing of the actionsustain the play, which remains popular in repertory. -- TheMerria
In The Tragedy of King Richard III, Shakespeare chronicles the rise and fall of one of history’s most repellent, and the theater’s most mesmerizing, figures. This Norton Critical Edition of Richard III is based on the First Quarto (1597) edition of the play with interpolations from the First Folio (1623). The play is accompanied by a preface, explanatory annotations, A Note on the Text, a list of Textual Variants, and eighteen illustrations of seminal scenes from major dramatic productions and film versions of the play. “Contexts” provides readers with the sources and analogues that informed Shakespeare’s composition of Richard III. These include excerpts from Robert Fabyan’s New Chronicles of England and France, Thomas More’s The History of King Richard III, Edward Hall’s The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancaster and York, A Mirror for Magistrates, and The True Tragedy of Richard III. A selection from Colley Cibber’s eighteenth-century adaptation records the compr
From the author who gave us THE SCARLET LETTER and THE HOUSEOF THE SEVEN GABLES, here is a comprehensive selection of hisbest short stories, including: Endicott and the Red Cross Young Goodman Brown Earth's Holocaust Ethan Brand My Kinsman, Major Molineux And more!
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.
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
Ranked among the classic novels of the English language andthe inspiration for several unforgettable movies, this early workof H. G. Wells was greeted in 1896 by howls of protest fromreviewers, who found it horrifying and blasphemous. They wanted toknow more about the wondrous possibilities of science shown in hisfirst book, "The Time Machine, "not its potential for misuse andterror. In "The Island of Dr. Moreau" a shipwrecked gentleman namedEdward Prendick, stranded on a Pacific island lorded over by thenotorious Dr. Moreau, confronts dark secrets, strange creatures,and a reason to run for his life. While this riveting tale wasintended to be a commentary on evolution, divine creation, and thetension between human nature and culture, modern readers familiarwith genetic engineering will marvel at Wells's prediction of theethical issues raised by producing "smarter" human beings orbringing back extinct species. These levels of interpretation add arichness to Prendick's adventures on Dr. Moreau's island o
Before the huge crowd that packed the cathedral square, LaEsmeralda stood between two executioners. Suddenly Quasimodo, thehunchback of Notre Dame, rushed at the executioners and felled themwith his enormous fists. He snatched the gypsy girl in one arm andran with her into the church. A moment later he appeared at the topof the bell tower. Holding the girl above his head, he showed hertriumphantly to all of Paris while his thunderous voice roaredsavagely to the sky: "Sanctuary Sanctuary Sanctuary " Set amid theriot, intrigue, and pageantry of medieval Paris, Victor Hugo'smasterful tale of heroism and adventure has been a perennialfavorite since its first publication in 1831 and remains one of themost thrilling stories of all time.
在线阅读本书 The magnificent, timeless drama is the world's most famous tale of"star-crossed lovers." The young, unshakable love of Juliet andRomeo defies the feud that divides their families—the Capulets andMontagues—as their desperate need to be together, their secretmeetings, and finally their concealed marriage drive them towardtragedy. A masterwork that has long captured the hearts ofaudiences, this romantic tragedy has become part of the literaryheritage of all peoples in all nations.
Considered by some to be her finest work, Edith Wharton's Summer created a sensation when first published in 1917, as it was one of the first novels to deal honestly with a young woman's sexual awakening. Summer is the story of Charity Royall, a child of mountain moonshiners adopted by a family in a poor New England town, who has a passionate love affair with Lucius Harney, an educated man from the city. Wharton broke the conventions of women's romantic fiction by making Charity a thoroughly independent modern woman—in touch with her emotions and sexuality, yet kept from love and the larger world she craves by the overwhelming pressures of heredity and society. Praised for its realism and honesty by such writers as Joseph Conrad and Henry James and compared to Flaubert's Madame Bovary, Summer remains as fresh and powerful a novel today as when it was first written.
A triumphantly patriotic play that also casts a critical eyeat war and warriors, this great epic drama depicts a charismaticruler in a time of national struggle. The young King Henry’svictory over the French despite overwhelming odds creates aspectacle of action, color, and thundering battles. Whether thewarrior-king is urging his men “Once more unto the breach, dearfriends,” or wooing Katharine of France, Henry is magnificentlyadapted to the role he must play in England’s greatness. Henry Vrepresents the culmination of Shakespeare’s art as a writer ofhistorical drama. 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
A pair of twins are separated by a shipwreck, each believing theother has drowned. A lovesick duke woos a countess deep in mourningfor her brother, while her rowdy household plots the downfall ofher puritanical steward. Disguise, confusion, and mistaken identityfollow in Shakespeare’s great comedy of love in all itsmanifestations. 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 fro
Book De*ion In this striking tragedy of political conflict, Shakespeare turnsto the ancient Roman world and to the famous assassination ofJulius Caesar by his republican opponents. The play is one oftumultuous rivalry, of prophetic warnings–“Beware the ides ofMarch”–and of moving public oratory, “Friends, Romans, countrymen!”Ironies abound and most of all for Brutus, whose fate it is tolearn that his idealistic motives for joining the conspiracyagainst a would-be dictator are not enough to sustain the movementonce Caesar is dead. Each Edition Includes: * Comprehensive explanatory notes * Vivid introductions and the most up-to-date scholarship * Clear, modernized spelling and punctuation, enabling contemporaryreaders to understand the Elizabethan English * Completely updated, detailed bibliographies and performancehistories * An interpretive essay on film adaptations of the play, along withan extensive filmography Synopsis: In this striking tragedy of political conflict, Shakespeare turnsto the
These two history plays—one written in the early days ofShakespeare’s career and one at the very end—are alike in thecomplexity of their political vision. King John probes thenature of good and evil as self-interest and ruthless ambitionproceed unchecked while an unpopular ruler wages a brutal fight tokeep his throne. Henry VIII is a sumptuous spectacle of pompand ceremony, as well as an exploration of the mysterious ways inwhich the rise and fall from power of individuals led ultimately toEngland’s destiny as a Protestant nation.
