Belonging in the company of the works of Homer and Virgil, The Inferno is a moving human drama, a journey through thetorment of Hell, an expression of the Middle Ages, and a protestagainst the ways in which men have thwarted the divine plan.
Around the World in Eighty Days (1873) relates the hair-raising journey made as a wager by the Victorian gentleman Phileas Fogg, who succeeds - but only just! - in circling the globe within eighty days. The dour Fogg's obsession with his timetable is complemented by the dynamism and versatility of his French manservant, Passepartout, whose talent for getting into scrapes brings colour and suspense to the race against time. Five Weeks in a Balloon (1863) was Verne's first novel. It documents an apocryphal jaunt across the continent of Africa in a hydrogen balloon designed by the omniscient, imperturbable and ever capable Dr Fergusson, the prototype of the Vernian adventurer.
In Aristophanes’ most popular play, sex is a powerful agent ofreconciliation. As war ravages ancient Greece, a band of women, ledby Lysistrata, promise to deny their husbands all sex until theystop fighting. And the battle of the sexes begins
Grade 9 Up-William Shakespeare’s comedy of disguised and deceptive love is entertainingly brought to listeners on these high-quality audiocassettes。Using the complete text from the New Cambridge Shakespeare text， the production presents a full cast of accomplished Shakespearean actors and actresses who skillfully convey the emotion and meaning， confusion and humor of this popular play。When twins Sebastian and Viola are shipwrecked and separated off the coast of Illyria， each believes the other is dead。Viola disguises herself as a boy， becomes a page of Duke Orsinio， and falls in love with him。The Duke is hopelessly in love with Olivia， but she is in the process of mourning her brother’s death and becomes infatuated with Viola as she/he delivers messages for the Duke。When Sebastian shows up， Olivia confuses him with the Duke’s page （Olivia） and marries the astonished young man。All is cleared up eventually when Viola and Sebatian meet and recognize each other。In the midst o
The Wordsworth Classics Shakespeare Series presents a newly-edited sequence of William Shakespeares works.The textual editing takes account of recent scholarship while giving the material a careful reappraisal. King Lear has been widely acclaimed as Shakespeares most powerful tragedy. Elemental and passionate, it encompasses the horrific and the heart-rending. Love and hate, loyalty and treachery, cruelty and self-sacrifice: all these contend in a tempestuous drama which has become an enduring classic of the worlds literature. In the theatre and on screen King Lear continues to challenge and enthral. This Wordsworth edition of King Lear provides a comprehensive, integrated text of the play.
Widely regarded as the first modern novel, Miguel de Cervantes's literary masterwork chronicles the exploits of noble knight-errant Don Quixote of la Mancha and his squire, Sancho Panza, as they travel throughout sixteenth-century Spain seeking glory and grand adventure.
Lawrence's finest, most mature novel initially met with disgust and incomprehension. In the love affairs of two sisters, Ursula with Rupert, and Gudrun with Gerald,critics could only see a sorry tale of sexual depravity and philosophical obscurity. Women in Love is, however, a profound response to a whole cultural crisis. The 'progress' of the modern industrialised world had led to the carnage of the First World War. What, then, did it mean to call ourselves 'human'? On what grounds could we place ourselves above and beyond the animal world? What are the definitive forms of our relationships - love, marriage,family, friendship - really worth? And how might they be otherwise? Without directly referring to the war, Women in Love explores these questions with restless energy. As a sequel to The Rainbow, the novel develops experimental techniques which made Lawrence one of the most important writers of the Modernist movement.
With an Introduction and Notes by Adam Roberts， Royal Holloway， University of London The product of more than a decade’s continuous work （1598-1611），Chapman’s translation of Homer’s great poem of war is a magnificent testimony to the power of the Iliad。In muscular，onward-rolling verse Chapman retells the story of Achilles， the great warrior，and his terrible wrath before the walls of besieged Troy，and the destruction it wreaks on both Greeks and Trojans。 Chapman regarded the translation of this epic， and of Homer’s Odyssey （also available in Wordsworth Editions） as his life’s work， and dedicated himself to capturing the ’soul’ of the poem。
Jack London's adventure masterpiece is not only a vivid account of the Klondike gold rush and North American Indian life, but it is also an intriguing study of the effects different environments have on an individual. Celebrate the centennial anniversary of the classic tale of a wolf-dog who endures great cruelty before he comes to know human kindness.
Macbeth is one of Shakespeares greatest tragedies: a drama of crime and punishment, of temptation, guilt, remorse and retribution. The portrayals of Macbeth himself and his wife are memorably persuasive in the rendition of the psychology of ambition,rationalised treachery and eventual disillusionment. Repeatedly the rich and often sinuously complex verse gives general resonance to the particular situation, so that some of the speechesprovide enduring epitomes of states of being which many of us,intermittently, may experience. Inner division, pangs of conscience, the sense of being ambushed by events, and desperatedefiance: they are there; but so too is a vitality of expression and enactment which offsets the plays sombre atmosphere.
