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Published in England in 1853, this social novel by Elizabeth Gaskell received controversial reviews among readers of the Victorian era because of its candid portrayal of the «fallen woman.» Ruth Hilton, an orphaned young seamstress, falls prey to the wiles of the young, wealthy and bored Henry Bellingham. The affair is short-lived when Ruth, carrying Bellingham's unborn child, is abandoned and left unemployed, homeless, and utterly without hope. She is saved by the minister, Thurstan Benson, who takes pity on Ruth and her illegitimate child, and helps to establish for her a respectable place in society. Upon the unforeseen return of Bellingham, the young mother must make a decision: to retain her personal pride and endure the chastisement of her community, or to succumb once again to Bellingham's advances. One of the first works to explore the social stigmas of the «fallen woman» in the context of 19th Century England, «Ruth» has remained a socially impactful work in literary history.
The History of the Peloponnesian War
Commonly acknowledged as one of the earliest written accounts of history, this classic work of Thucydides chronicles the war between Athens and Sparta during the fifth century B.C. While dispassionately and accurately reporting the events of this ancient Greek war in a strict chronology, Thucydides includes the causes of the conflict, descriptions of battlefield strategy, political opinions, and all other aspects of the war in brilliant detail with the tactful insights of an intellectual and observant eyewitness. Himself an Athenian general who served in the war, Thucydides relates the invasions, treacheries, plagues, amazing speeches, ambitions, virtues, and emotions of the conflict between two of Greece's most dominant city-states in a work that has the feel of a tragic drama. Though in part an analysis of war policy, «The History» is also a dramatic account of the rise and fall of Athens by an Athenian man. As such, it has the ring of historical warning that has sounded over two thousand years, continuing for modern military, politics, and international relations an ageless admonition.
Julius Caesar
William Shakespeare's «Julius Caesar» is the first of three Roman history plays that Shakespeare would write. Closely based on actual events as chronicled in Plutarch's «Lives», it is the story of the tragic downfall of Julius Caesar and of those who conspire against him. At the beginning of the play it is feared that Julius Caesar wishes to make himself the King and thus dictator of Rome. From this fear a plan to kill him is hatched. Some of Shakespeare's most memorable lines can be found here in what is considered by many to be one of the greatest tragedies ever written.
Can you forgive her?
The first novel of Trollope's six-work Palliser series, also known as the Parliamentary Novels, «Can You Forgive Her?» revolves primarily around the young Alice Vavasor, a woman who cannot decide which of two men to marry. While the respectable gentleman John Grey seems the wiser choice, his lack of ambition pales to her virulent and aspiring cousin George. She alternately accepts and rejects each man, only increasing the confusion she feels concerning her emotions. Trollope's protagonist is most certainly breaching the moral code of the Victorian era, which he relates in a revealing description of the social sphere of his time. While Alice feels guilt for her indecision and wavering commitments, she is juxtaposed with the Lady Glencora, an affluent woman who sets her passion for a worthless man aside to marry the wealthy and successful politician Plantagenet Palliser. This character appears in every work of the series and provides a theme of English politics that binds the Parliamentary Novels together.
The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man
"The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man" is James Weldon's Johnson fictional account of a light-skinned mulatto who can pass for white. The anonymous narrator is the son of a black mother and a white father living in the early part of the 20th century in the rural south, the urban north and in Europe. The novel masterfully explores the complexity of race relations between whites and blacks in America and the search for racial identity by one of mixed ethnicity.
The Shadowy Waters
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) was an instrumental figure in the «Irish Literary Revival» of the 20th Century that redefined Irish writing. His father's love of reading aloud exposed Yeats early on to William Shakespeare, the Romantic poets and the pre-Raphaelites, and developed an interest in Irish myths and folklore. He was a complex man, who struggled between beliefs in the strange and supernatural, and scorn for modern science. He was intrigued by the idea of mysticism, yet had little regard for Christianity. He spent much of his life seeking out a philosophical system to resolve the conflict he felt between his nature and life. «The Shadowy Waters» was a play that Yeats began writing as a boy, possibly as early as 1885, and spent years reshaping and revising until its final acting version in 1906, which was performed at the Abbey Theatre.
The Collected Works of Aphra Behn (Volume 3 of 6)
Aphra Behn (1640-1689) is historically recognized as the first woman to make a living through writing; her plays, novels, poems and pamphlets have met with fresh notoriety since the 20th Century. Her work was particularly significant to a group of contemporary writers known as The Female Wits, as well as to later feminist writers like Virginia Woolf. Stories of comedy and intrigue, complete with and masks, mistaken identities, visual deceptions, and complicated love triangles reflect Behn's remarkable life experiences: her conservative upbringing, her political support of the Tories, her recruitment as a political spy for Charles II, and later speculation of her bisexuality. Behn once wrote that she had led a «life dedicated to pleasure and poetry.» This third volume of Behn's collected works includes «The Town-Fop,» «The False Count,» «The Lucky Chance,» «The Forc'd Marriage,» «The Emperor and the Moon,» and critical and explanatory notes for the reader.
Anna Karenina
Perhaps one of the greatest novels ever written, «Anna Karenina» follows the self-destructive path of a beautiful, popular, and sensual Russian aristocrat. The lovely Anna seems set in a respectable marriage with the powerful statesman Karenin, yet their lack of passion breeds the discontent she fully faces upon meeting the elegant and affluent officer Count Vronsky. Soon convinced that allowing herself to deeply love this man will enable her to find the meaning and truth of her life, Anna defies the conventions of Russian society and leaves her husband and children for her lover. Tolstoy juxtaposes this ill-fated couple with the melancholy Levin and his new wife Kitty. Levin is also searching for the fulfillment and happiness in his life, and he ultimately finds a happiness that Anna's love does not. A portrait of marriage and infidelity in imperial Russia, «Anna Karenina» explores love, life, and the depths of the human soul in a tale as illuminating as it is tragic.
Captain Scott's Last Expedition (Journals)
Captain Robert F. Scott's famed expedition to the South Pole from 1910-1912 propelled him in the international spotlight. Scott quickly ascended the ranks in the Royal Navy, becoming a master. His harrowing journey to Antarctica is presented in these journals with unprecedented realism and lucidity. The toils, the troubles, and the successes are brought to life through Scott's pen. His journals create a vivid narrative of his Terra Nova trek—the scientific findings, the nautical strategy, the social dynamics are all recounted in colorful prose. Though Scott's journey ended in tragedy, the inspiring expedition made him a national hero.
Notes From Underground and The Double
A predecessor to such monumental works as «Crime and Punishment» and «The Brothers Karamazov», «Notes From Underground» represents a turning point in Dostoyevsky's writing towards the more political side. In this work we follow the unnamed narrator of the story, who disillusioned by the oppression and corruption of the society in which he lives withdraws from that society into the underground. A dark and politically charged novel, «Notes From Underground» shows Dostoyevsky at his best. In Dostoyevsky's «The Double» we see an intense psychological study of its main character Yakov Petrovich Golyadkin, a government clerk who becomes obsessed with the idea that a fellow clerk has taken over his identity. «Notes From Underground» and «The Double» are two of Dostoyevsky's more popular shorter works, which exhibit the author's uncanny ability to portray the darker side of the human psyche.