The Merchant of Venice is an intriguing drama of love, greed, and revenge. At its heart, the play contrasts the characters of the maddened and vengeful Shylock, a Venetian moneylender, with the gracious, level-headed Portia, a wealthy young woman besieged by suitors. At the play's climax, Shylock insists on the enforcement of a binding contract that will cost the life of the merchant Antonio - inciting Portia to mount a memorable defense. In this...

A classic tale from George Eliot, author of Middlemarch... Silas Marner is a modest weaver accused of stealing the congregation's funds. The thief may really be Silas' best friend, William Dane, who has framed him but Silas is found guilty none-the-less. His fiancé abandons Silas and later marries William Dane. And so, it is with a broken heart, that Silas leaves his home and heads south. He lives as a recluse hoarding gold from his earnings. That...

Presents the original text of Shakespeare's play side by side with a modern version, with marginal notes and explanations and full descriptions of each character.

"The Works of Rudyard Kipling: One Volume Edition" is an extensive collection that showcases the early works of the celebrated British author, Rudyard Kipling. Best known for iconic creations like "The Jungle Book," "Kim," and the "Just So Stories," Kipling's broader oeuvre, often overshadowed, is rich with detailed depictions of colonial India and acute observations of the British Empire's complex social and political fabric. This anthology...

Few novelists have ever attempted so broad a canvas as George Eliot in her masterpiece, Middlemarch. Portraying every level of social life in a provincial Midlands town called Middlemarch, she interweaves several intensely dramatic stories of love and death, betrayal and reconciliation, into one of the finest pictures of nineteenth-century England ever created. Its acute psychological penetration also makes it an exceptionally modern work, particularly...

Presents the original text of Shakespeare's play side by side with a modern version, with marginal notes and explanations and full descriptions of each character.

A collection of critical essays on Hardy, his novels, and poems with a chronology of events in the author's life.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

One of the great Shakespearean tragedies, Macbeth is a dark and bloody drama of ambition, murder, guilt, and revenge. Prompted by the prophecies of three mysterious witches and goaded by his ambitious wife, the Scottish thane Macbeth murders Duncan, King of Scotland, in order to succeed him on the throne. This foul deed soon entangles the conscience-stricken nobleman in a web of treachery, deceit, and more murders, which ultimately spells his doom....

Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and, along with Hamlet, is one of his most frequently performed plays. Today, the title characters are regarded as archetypal young lovers. Romeo and Juliet belongs to a tradition of tragic romances stretching...