"An updated edition of a classic African American autobiography, with new supplementary materials. The preeminent American slave narrative first published in 1845, Frederick Douglass's Narrative powerfully details the life of the abolitionist from his birth into slavery to his escape to the North in 1838. Douglass tells how he endured the daily physical and spiritual brutalities of his owners and drivers, how he learned to read and write, and how...

A tale of family secrets and the damaging corruption of the British legal system from the author of Great Expectations and Oliver Twist. In Bleak House, Charles Dickens not only pries apart the stultifying and ponderous conduct and contracts of British moneyed society, but also takes specific aim at an English judicial system in desperate need of modernization and reform. Featuring the voice of Esther Summerson-Dickens's only female narrator-the story...

Overview: This story of a proud rural beauty and the three men who court her is the novel that first made Thomas Hardy famous. Despite the violent ends of several of its major characters, Far from the Madding Crowd is the sunniest and least brooding of Hardy's great novels. The strong-minded Bathsheba Everdene-and the devoted shepherd, obsessed farmer, and dashing soldier who vie for her favor-move through a beautifully realized late nineteenth-century...

While inebriated, Michael Henchard sells his wife and daughter to a sailor. When he realizes the horror of what he has done, he vows to change his life through hard work and fierce ambition, but his past and his guilt still haunt him.

Presents seventeenth-century British poet John Milton's classic epic poems "Paradise Lost" and "Paradise Regained," along with a scholarly introduction, a Milton chronology, and a selected bibliography.

Set in ancient Britain, the story of a king (Cymbeline), his daughter Imogen and his two lost sons Guiderius and Arviragus.

"In this striking tragedy of political conflict, Shakespeare turns to the ancient Roman world and to the famous assassination of Julius Caesar by his republican opponents. The play is one of tumultuous rivalry, of prophetic warnings-'Beware the ides of March'-and of moving public oratory-'Friends, Romans, countrymen!' Ironies abound and most of all for Brutus, whose fate it is to learn that his idealistic motives for joining the conspiracy against...

"The world's leading center for Shakespeare studies. Each edition includes: - Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play -Scene-by-scene plot summaries -A key to the play&;s famous lines and phrases -An introduction to reading Shakespeare&;s language -An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective -An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play -Fresh images...

Prospero, the deposed Duke of Milan, uses his skill at controlling natural forces to cause the shipwreck of his old opponents, forcing them to seek refuge on the island where he and his daughter Miranda have been living in exile, and setting the stage for Miranda to fall in love with Ferdinand, the prince of Naples. Includes explanatory notes, plot summaries, critical essay, and illustrations.

"Beautiful, clever, rich--and single--Emma Woodhouse is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage. Nothing, however, delights her more than interfering in the romantic lives of others. But when she ignores the warnings of her good friend Mr. Knightley and attempts to arrange a suitable match for her protegee, Harriet Smith, her carefully laid plans soon unravel and have consequences that she never expected. With...