Edna Pontellier has everything that a woman and mother should want - two wonderful sons, a husband, and good financial fortune. But still, she feels like something may be missing. While vacationing with her family, she meets a young man who shows affection and opens her mind to adventure and freedom. Edna’s desire for freedom and independence begins to fester in her heart, and she finds that she is increasingly disenchanted with the responsibilities...

Blast off with "From the Earth to the Moon," a visionary science fiction masterpiece from the iconic Jules Verne. This groundbreaking novel spins an extraordinary tale of the daring Baltimore Gun Club, a post-Civil War society of weapons enthusiasts, who devise an audacious plan to catapult a spaceship to the moon. In the era before actual lunar expeditions, Verne astonishingly predicts technological advancements and the thrill of space exploration,...

Believed to have been written in 1591, William Shakespeare's "Richard III" is one of the bards first plays, the first installment in a tetralogy of plays which includes "Henry IV, Part I," "Henry IV, Part II," and "Henry V." One of the longest of Shakespeare's plays and consequently rarely performed unabridged, "Richard III" is the story of the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of King Richard III of England. The play begins with...

"Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe is a powerful and groundbreaking novel that played a pivotal role in shaping American history. Published in 1852, the book provides a stark depiction of the brutal realities of slavery in the United States. The story revolves around the life of Uncle Tom, an enduring and compassionate African American slave, and the various characters he encounters through his life of servitude. Stowe's narrative vividly...

The Genius of the Bard of Avon, in Lyric Form. Besides his notorious plays, William Shakespeare wrote many poems throughout his life, including 154 sonnets plus many lyric descriptions from the Greek and Roman mythology like Venus and Adonis or The Rape of Lucrece. In all of them, the Bard of Avon twisted and bent the rules of the Old English language creating a unique and stupendous lyric masterpiece that awe us to this day.

While guiding a small party of English settlers to the protection of a fort during the French and Indian War, Hawkeye, a frontier scout, and his two Indian friends, struggle against the evils of Uncas who desires a white maiden for his wife.

Believed to have been written in 1599, William Shakespeare's "Henry V" forms the final installment of a tetralogy of plays, which includes "Richard II", "Henry IV, Part I", and "Henry IV, Part II". The play focuses on the events surrounding the Battle of Agincourt during the Hundred Years' War. Henry, who is introduced in the earlier plays as a wild and undisciplined youth, has now come of age and ascended to the thrown following the death of his...

"King Lear, one of Shakespeare's darkest and most savage plays, tells the story of the foolish and purblind Lear, who divides his kingdom, as he does his affections, according to vanity and whim. Lear's failure as a father engulfs himself and his world in turmoil and tragedy." "Eminent linguist and translator Burton Raffel offers generous help with vocabulary, pronunciation, and prosody and provides alternative readings of phrases and lines. His on-page...

A retelling of Dickens's story of the orphan forced to practice thievery and live a life of crime in nineteenth-century London. Illustrated notes throughout the text explain the historical background of the story.

"This third edition of Othello offers a completely new introduction by Christina Luckyj, providing readers with a nuanced understanding of early modern theatre and culture, and demonstrating how careful attention to Shakespeare's language, staging and dramaturgy can open up fresh interpretations of the play. Tracing critical and performance trends up to the present day, Luckyj shows how the drama taps into contemporary cultural paradoxes surrounding...