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.
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
(Book Jacket Status: Not Jacketed) If William Shakespeare hadnever written a single play, if his reputation rested entirely uponthe substantial and sterling body of nondramatic verse he leftbehind, he would still hold the position he does in the hierarchyof world literature. The strikingly modern ?sonnets-intimate,baroque, and expansive at once; the invigorating narratives drawnfrom classical subjects; and the flawless lyricism represented by apoem like "The Phoenix and the Turtle"-permanently deepen ourunderstanding of the multiplicity and extravagant energy of ourgreatest poet.
(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) Shakespeare's four greatesttragedies were written in a remarkably short period of time,between 1598 and 1606. "Hamlet," "Othello," "Macbeth," and "KingLear" are each so singular an achievement that any rereading ofthem reinforces the awe and almost idolatrous worship that thismost uncanny of the world's great writers invariably inspires. Inthese four plays, Shakespeare engages the problem that is centralto tragedy and crucial to any human community--the problem ofviolence and revenge--on an unprecedented scale. No other literarytexts have been more instrumental in deepening our knowledge ofourselves as individuals and as a civilization. This authoritativeedition of the plays is supplemented with footnotes,bibliographies, a detailed chronology of Shakespeare's life andtimes, and a substantial introduction in which Tony Tannerdiscusses each play individually while setting each in context.
If there ever has been a groundbreaking edition that likewisereturns the reader to the original Shakespeare text, it will be theApplause Folio Texts. If there has ever been an accessible versionof the Folio, it is this edition, set for the first time in modernfonts. The Folio is the source of all other editions. The Foliotext forces us to re-examine the assumptions and prejudices whichhave encumbered over four hundred years of scholarship andperformance. Notes refer the reader to subsequent editorialinterventions, and offer the reader a multiplicity ofinterpretations. Notes also advise the reader on variations betweenFolios and Quartos. The heavy mascara of four centuries ofShakespearean glossing has by now glossed over the originalcountenance of Shakespeare's work. Never has there been a Folioavailable in modern reading fonts. While other complete Folioeditions continue to trade simply on the facsimile appearance ofthe Elizabethan "look," none of them is easily and practicallyutilized in general Shakespeare
(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) Naguib Mahfouz's magnificentepic trilogy of colonial Egypt appears here in one volume for thefirst time. The Nobel Prize--winning writer's masterwork is theengrossing story of a Muslim family in Cairo during Britain'soccupation of Egypt in the early decades of the twentieth century.The novels of "The Cairo Trilogy" trace three generations of thefamily of tyrannical patriarch Al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad, whorules his household with a strict hand while living a secret lifeof self-indulgence. "Palace Walk" introduces us to his gentle,oppressed wife, Amina, his cloistered daughters, Aisha and Khadija,and his three sons-the tragic and idealistic Fahmy, the dissolutehedonist Yasin, and the soul-searching intellectual Kamal.Al-Sayyid Ahmad's rebellious children struggle to move beyond hisdomination in "Palace of Desire," as the world around them opens tothe currents of modernity and political and domestic turmoilbrought by the 1920s. "Sugar Street" brings Mahfouz's vividtapestr
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.
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.
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.
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
An exciting new edition of the complete works of Shakespearewith these features: Illustrated with photographs from NewYork Shakespeare 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.
Though this great tragedy of unsurpassed intensity and emotionis played out against Renaissance splendor, its story of the doomedmarriage of a Venetian senator’s daughter, Desdemona, to a Moorishgeneral, Othello, is especially relevant to modern audiences. Thedifferences in race and background create an initial tension thatallows the horrifyingly envious villain Iago methodically topromote the “green-eyed monster” jealousy, until, in one of themost deeply moving scenes in theatrical history, the noble Moordestroys the woman he loves–only to discover too late that she wasinnocent. 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 fi
Jude Fawley is a bright but impoverished stonemason who aspiresto attend university and become a scholar. H is failure to fulfillthe expectations of the two women he loves points to his finaltragedy. Concerned with the destructive conventions of marriage andthe English class system, Jude the Obscure is a raging indictmentof Victorian society; the censure of this insightful book wasalmost without precedent in the history of English literature.
The early masterpiece of V. S. Naipaul’s brilliant career, AHouse for Mr. Biswas is an unforgettable story inspired byNaipaul's father that has been hailed as one of the twentiethcentury's finest novels. In his forty-six short years, Mr. Mohun Biswas has been fightingagainst destiny to achieve some semblance of independence, only toface a lifetime of calamity. Shuttled from one residence to anotherafter the drowning death of his father, for which he isinadvertently responsible, Mr. Biswas yearns for a place he cancall home. But when he marries into the domineering Tulsi family onwhom he indignantly becomes dependent, Mr. Biswas embarks on anarduous–and endless–struggle to weaken their hold over him andpurchase a house of his own. A heartrending, dark comedy ofmanners, A House for Mr. Biswas masterfully evokes a man’s questfor autonomy against an emblematic post-colonial canvas.
This 19th-century author created "some of the most colorful andhaunting fiction of his century" ( Kirkus Reviews ). And withhis special blend of comedy, social commentary, and fantasy, hepaved the way for Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky.
To Build A Fire and Other Stories is the mostcomprehensive and wide-ranging collection of Jack London's shortstories available in paperback. This superb volume brings togethertwenty-five of London's finest, including a dozen of his greatKlondike stories, vivid tales of the Far North were ruggedindividuals, such as the Malemute Kid face the violence of man andnature during the Gold Rush Days. Also included are shortmasterpieces from his later writing, plus six stories unavailablein any ot her paperback edition. Here, along with London's famouswilderness adventures and fireband desperadoes, are portraits ofthe working man, the immigrant, and the exotic outcast: charactersrepresenting the entire span of the author's prolific imaginativecareer, in tales that have been acclaimed throughout the world assome of the most thrilling short stories ever written.
In this classic collision of the New World with Old Europe,James weaves a fable of thwarted desire that shifts between comedy,tragedy, romance, and melodrama.
Vintage Readers are a perfect introduction to some of thegreatest modern writers presented in attractive, accessiblepaperback editions. “It was Nabokov’s gift to bring paradise wherever he alighted.”—John Updike, The New York Review of Books Novelist, poet, critic, translator, and, above all, a peerlessimaginer, Vladimir Nabokov was arguably the most dazzling prosestylist of the twentieth century. In novels like Lolita, Pale Fire,and Ada, or Ardor, he turned language into an instrument ofecstasy. Vintage Nabokov includes sections 1-10 of his most famous andcontroversial novel, Lolita; the stories “The Return of Chorb,”“The Aurelian,” “A Forgotten Poet,” “Time and Ebb,” “Signs andSymbols,” “The Vane Sisters,” and “Lance”; and chapter 12 from hismemoir Speak, Memory.
The dramatic concluding months of The Wars of the Rosesprovide the setting for Shakespeare’s incomparable saga of powerand intrigue. 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: CompleteWorks. Each play includes an Introduction as well as anoverview of Shakespeare’s theatrical career; commentary on past andcurrent productions based on interviews with leading directors,actors, and designers; scene-by-scene analysis; key facts about thework; a chronology of Shakespeare’s life and times; andblack-and-white illustrations. Ideal for students, theater professionals, and general readers,these modern and accessible editions set a new standard inShakespearean literature for the twenty-first century.
