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.
From the incredible wizadry of Merlin to the passion of SirLancelot, these tales of Arthur and his knights offer epicadventures with the supernatural as well as timeless battles without own humanity.
After King Shahryar had his wife killed for cheating, he beganto corrupt-then kill-one virgin a night, as revenge on womankind.Then he meets Scheherazade, who, night after night, saves her ownlife by telling him fantastical tales of genies, wishes, terror,and passion.
"In Rouse's pages, Soctrates' strength of mind, his dedicationto the philosophical truth, are borne in on the modern reader withsomething of the power that impressed and disturbed the ancientGreeks."--Time "There has been no adequate translation of Plato sinceJowett...and I think Rouse has done it." --Dudley Fitts * Rouse is one of the world's most respected classical scholars--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.
Oscar Wilde took London by storm with his first comedy, Lady Windermere's Fan. The combination of dazzling wit, subtle social criticism, sumptuous settings and the theme of a guilty secret proved a winner, both here and in his next three plays, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband, and his undisputed masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest. This volume includes all Wilde's plays from his early tragedy Vera to the controversial Salome and the little known fragments, La Sainte Courtisane and A Florentine Tragedy. The edition affords a rare chance to see Wilde's best known work in the context of his entire dramatic output, and to appreciate plays which have hitherto received scant critical attention.
An essential collection of the most noteworthy essays and poems of Ralph Waldo Emerson, a leading architect of the Transcendentalist movement, which championed self-reliance, individualism, and personal potential. THIS ENRICHED CLASSIC EDITION INCLUDES: A concise introduction that gives the reader important background information A chronology of the author's life and work A timeline of significant events that provides the book's historical context An outline of key themes to guide the reader's own interpretations Detailed explanatory notes Critical analysis and modern perspectives on the work Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader's experience Simon & Schuster Enriched Classics offer readers affordable editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and insightful commentary. The scholarship provided in Enriched Classics enables readers to appreciate, understand,
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.
Volume two in a collection of tales representing distinctivegenres- from fairy tales to erotica-revealing the customs andsocieties in the medieval Middle East, as told by the mythicSheherazade.
One of the most famous travel books ever written by anAmerican, here is an irreverent and incisive commentary on the "NewBarbarians'" encounter with the Old World. Twain's hilarious satireimpales with sharp wit both the chauvinist and thecosmopolitan.
One of Shakespeare's most thought-provoking comedies in whichhigh-born Lord Bertram learns humility and the true worth of hiswife.
Variety called John Pierson the"guru of independent film."Why?Perhaps because he wrote Spike Leea$10,000 check to finish She's Cotta Have it,and sold Michael moore's documentary Roger&Me to Warnet Brothers for$3 mill.Moore's it's because he helped make"slacker"a houshold word with richard Linklater's 1991 film,has seen over 1.000 debut features,and unlike most inde pendent film companies,managed not to lose his shirt while backing the movies he supported.In short he's been at the epicenter of the tumultuous last decade that changed independent film forever and launched a new generation of hilarious,ambitlous,talented,and sometimes whackek filmmakers. In Spike,Mike,Slackerk&Dyker John Pierson uses his own experience to tell the unvarnished truth about the importance of timing and marketing the personal and professional politics of filmfinancing;creating a sensation on the film festival circuit;the dark side of overnitht success;and the anatomy of deals that get films to a theater somewhere near you. Sp
andquot; My intention is to portray a truly beautifulsoul.andquot; -- Dostoevsky Despite the harsh circumstancesbesetting his own life -- object poverty, incessant gambling, thedeath of his firstborn child -- Dostoevsky produced a secondmasterpiece, The Idiot, just two years after completing Crime andPunishment. In it, a saintly man, Prince Myshkin, is thrust intothe heart of a society more concerned with wealth, power and sexualconquest than with the ideals of Christianity. Myshkin soon findshimself at the center of a violent love triangle in which anotorious woman and a beautiful young girl become rivals for hisaffections. Extortion, scandal and murder follow, testing Myshkin'smoral feelings as Dostoevsky searches through the wreckage left byhuman misery to find andquot; man in man.andquot; The Idiot is aquintessentially Russian novel, one that penetrates the complexpsyche of the Russian people. andquot; They call me a psychologist,andquot; wrote Dostoevsky. andquot; That is not true. I'm only arealist in
Beowulf is not folk-song,but belongs to a much more conscious and devepoped stage of art than the popular.The exploits narrted in the poem belong to the life of Germanic peoples before they crossed the North Sea,and the least one of the characters can be identified whith a historical personage.Simple almple almost to bareness in style,withour subtlety or high imageination,the Song of Roland is yet not without grandeur;and its patriotic ardor gives it a place as the earliest of the truly national poems of the modern world,Of the lrish epic tales,The Destruction of DA Derga's Hostel is a specimen of remarkable beauty and power.The primitive nature of the story is shown by the fact that the plot turns upon the disasters that follow on the violation of tabus,or prohibitions often with a supernatural sanction,by the mostrous nature of many of the warrious,and by the utter absence of any attempt of rationalize or explain the beliefs implede or the marvels related in it.The powers and achievements of the heroes are
In the CliffsComplete guides, the play′s complete text and aglossary appear side–by–side with coordinating numbered lines tohelp you understand unusual words and phrasing. You′ll also findall the commentary and resources of a standard CliffsNotes forLiterature.
Based on the life of her brother, this unforgettable bookchronicles the life and times of Jacob Flanders-and remains animportant work in the development of the novel form, and a shiningexample of Woolf's genius and literary daring.
I'his edition brings together Shakespeare’S incomparable sonnetsand his major long poems，Venus and Adonis，The Rape of Lucrece，and The Phoenix and the Turtle among them．Shakespeare came tomaturity during the peak of the influence of the sonnet--an Italianimport--on English Doets．And few would doubt he iS the greatestsonneteer the English language has ever produced．In their day boththe light Venus and Adonis and the more tragic Rape of Lucrece werepopularsuccef；ses，delightingboththeEarlofSouthamptontowhomthey were dedicated and the public at large．In an era in which playswere not treated seriously,it Was these long poents--now consideredrelatively minor--that first gave Shakespeare claim to being animportant poet．
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
The master storyteller-in short form Famous for his novels, Hawthorne was first a short story writer.This collection includes his most powerful and penetrating stories,including "Young Goodman Brown" and "The Minister's BlackVeil."
With dramatic eloquence, this story of the French Revolutionbrings to life a time of terror and treason, and a starving peoplerising in frenzy and hate to overthrow a corrupt and decadentregime.
在线阅读本书 Spirited, beautiful young American Isabel Archer journeys to Europeto, in modern terms, "find herself." But what she finds there mayprove to be her undoing, especially when an infinitelysophisticated lady plots against her.
A robust and bawdy battle of the sexes, this ever popularcomedy captivates audiences with outrageous humor as Katharina, theshrew, engages in a contest of wills–and love–with her bridegroom,Petruchio. Their boisterous conflict is set off against a moreconventional romantic plot involving the wooing of Katharina’slovely and compliant sister, Bianca. Rich with the psychologicalthemes of identity and transformation, the play is quintessentiallylighthearted, filled with visual gags, witty repartee, andunmatched theatrical brilliance from Petruchio’s demand, “Kiss me,Kate!” to the final spectacle of the wedding feast. 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 th
This superb new translation of "Death in Venice" and six otherstories by Thomas Mann is a tour de force, sure to establish itselfas the definitive text for English-speaking readers. The sevenstories in this collection represent the early part of Mann'sliterary career, beginning with work he produced in 1896 at the ageof 21, and culminating in his most celebrated novella, "Death inVenice" (1912). Although Mann continued working until the end ofhis life in 1955, he despaired of ever matching the quality of hisearly writing. In these stories, Mann began to grapple with themesthat were to recur throughout his work. In the first piece, "LittleHerr Friedemann," as in "Death in Venice," a character's carefullystructured way of life is suddenly and unexpectedly threatened bysexual passion. In "Gladius Dei," puritanical intellect clasheswith beauty. In "Tristan," Mann presents an ironic and comicalaccount of tension between an artist and bourgeois society. Allseven of these stories are accomplished and memorable, but
