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Renowned for his satirical works, Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, 1622–1673) delighted in lampooning the social pretensions and conceits of 17th-century French society. In this 1664 verse comedy with serious overtones, Tartuffe, a penniless scoundrel and religious poseur, is invited by a gullible benefactor to live in his home.Imposing a rigidly puritanical regimen on the formerly happy household, Tartuffe wreaks havoc among family members. He breaks off the daughter's engagement, attempts to seduce the wife of his host, acquires his patron's property, and eventually resorts to blackmail and extortion. But ultimately, his schemes and malicious deeds lead to his own downfall.Attacked by the Church and twice suppressed, Tartuffe opened to packed houses in 1669. Teeming with lively humor and satirical plot devices, this timeless comedy by one of France's greatest and most influential playwrights is essential reading for students of theater and literature.
The Three Musketeers
With its rousing cry of «One for all, and all for one,» Alexandre Dumas's thrilling adventure novel has captivated generations of readers since its initial publication in 1844. Action, intrigue, and romance abound in this swashbuckling epic, which traces a country lad's path to the French court of the early 1600s and the glorious fraternity of the king's men, the Musketeers.A son of impoverished nobility, D'Artagnan arrives in Paris to find the Musketeers disbanded by the cunning Cardinal Richelieu, who hopes to seize power from the weak-willed Louis XIII. The daring and ambitious youth proves his mettle in the company of the famous Musketeers — Porthos, Athos, and Aramis — and joins them in a heroic struggle to defend the king and his lovely queen, Anne of Austria.Dumas transformed the concept of the historical novel by writing in a modern, conversational style. His accessible, fast-paced narratives combine real and fictional characters to recapture the events, manners, and mood of seventeenth-century France. Emerging in the chaotic aftermath of the Revolution, Dumas's novels provided his contemporaries with a welcome sense of identity and national pride. His most popular work, The Three Musketeers, continues to charm modern readers with its timeless tales of romantic valor.
Tales of Conjure and The Color Line
A pioneer in the development of fiction giving voice to the African-American experience, Charles Waddell Chesnutt (1858–1932) found literary success with his «conjure tales» — vignettes from black folk life, recounted partially in the vernacular — and later with his «stories of the color line,» which addressed more directly the problems of race in America.This outstanding, affordable volume presents a selection of the best of both conjure and color line tales. Ten stories include «The Goophered Grapevine,» widely considered Chesnutt's best work, «Po' Sandy,» «Sis' Becky's Pickaninny,» «The Doll,» «The Wife of His Youth,» «Dave's Neckliss,» «The Passing of Grandison,» "A Matter of Principle, «The Sheriff's Children,» and a wry look at the American intelligentsia, «Baxter's Procrustes.»Brimming with wit, charm, and insight, these stories testify to the qualities that have earned Chesnutt an enduring place in American literature and have made his fiction required reading for scholars and students of African-American history and culture. This edition features an informative Introduction by African-American literature expert Joan Sherman that provides valuable background information on Chesnutt and his work.
Swann's Way
A psychological self-portrait, a clear-eyed social study, and a profound meditation upon the artistic process, Marcel Proust's monumental, encyclopedic masterpiece A la recherché du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time) changed the course of 20th-century literature. Swann's Way, the first volume, introduces the novel's major themes and its unnamed narrator, an introspective man drawn, in his youth, to fashionable society, like the author himself. Through his narrator's consciousness, Proust offers readers a comprehensive portrait of the high society of Paris from the 1870s through the First World War.Swann's Way begins with the narrator's reminiscences of early childhood — including, famously, his evocative memory of eating a pastry called a madeleine — and his fascination with what seemed the separate worlds of his family's various neighbors and acquaintances. He then turns his focus to the wealthy connoisseur Charles Swann and his obsessive relationship with the vulgar but radiant courtesan Odette, chronicling in detail the milieu in which it is enacted and its unfortunate effects on him.Du côté de chez Swann first appeared in 1913. It is a bitingly satiric, often comic evocation of French society that addresses a range of philosophical questions about perception, memory, desire, art, family, and politics. On its own or as part of a larger work, it is a rich search for a reality that transcends the passage of time.
Sonnets from the Portuguese and Other Poems
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861), English poet and wife of the poet Robert Browning, is perhaps best known for her remarkable series of 44 love poems Sonnets from the Portuguese. Published in 1850, they were written by Mrs. Browning to her husband during the early years of their relationship. Their obvious sincerity, gentleness, and passion and the devotion and gratitude they express have made the poems popular favorites with generations of readers.Mrs. Browning, however, addressed a wide range of other concerns, and this rich selection also includes poems dealing with religion, art, social problems, and political events. Among such works included here are: «Cheerfulness Taught by Reason,» «A Curse for a Nation,» «The Forced Recruit,» «Grief,» «A Musical Instrument,» «The Cry of the Human,» and many others.
Three Great Plays
Winner of the Nobel Prize for literature and four Pulitzer prizes, Eugene O'Neill is generally acknowledged as America's greatest playwright. This volume includes three of the writer’s early, influential works:The Emperor Jones presents a forceful powerful psychological portrayal of brute power, fear, and madness as it traces events in the life of the self-proclaimed ruler of a West Indian island, who attempts to flee both his angry countrymen and personal demons.The Hairy Ape combines elements of class struggle and surreal tragedy as it explores the dehumanization of a crew member on a transatlantic liner.Anna Christie displays O'Neill's skills of character development as he focuses on the relationship of a sailor and his long-lost daughter, who reveals an unsavory secret about her past.Essential reading for students of theater and literature, this collection will appeal to anyone interested in the seminal work of a writer who became one of the most vital forces in the American theater.
Treasure Island
One of the most enduringly popular adventure tales, Treasure Island began in 1881 as a serialized adventure entitled «The Sea-Cook» in the periodical Young Folks. Completed during a stay at Davos, Switzerland, where Stevenson had gone for his health, it was published in 1883 in the form we know today.Set in the eighteenth century, Treasure Island spins a heady tale of piracy, a mysterious treasure map, and a host of sinister characters charged with diabolical intentions. Seen through the eyes of Jim Hawkins, the cabin boy of the Hispaniola, the action-packed adventure tells of a perilous sea journey across the Spanish Main, a mutiny led by the infamous Long John Silver, and a lethal scramble for buried treasure on an exotic isle.Rich in atmosphere and character, Treasure Island continues to mesmerize readers with its perceptive views of the changing nature of human motives.
The Theban Plays
The stirring tale of a legendary royal family's fall and ultimate redemption, the Theban trilogy endures as the crowning achievement of Greek drama. Sophocles' three-play cycle, chronicling Oedipus's search for the truth and its tragic results, remains essential reading for English and classical studies majors as well as for all students of Western civilization.Oedipus Rex unfolds amid a city in the relentless grip of a plague. When an oracle proclaims that only an act of vengeance will lift the curse from Thebes, King Oedipus vows to bring a murderer to justice. His quest engenders a series of keen dramatic ironies, culminating in the fulfillment of a dreaded prophecy. Oedipus at Colonus finds the former ruler in exile. Old and blind, he seeks a peaceful place to end his torment, but finds only challenges from his reluctant hosts and a summons back to Thebes from his warring sons. The trilogy concludes with Antigone, in which Oedipus's courageous daughter defies her tyrannical uncle in a provocative exploration of the demands of loyalty and duty.
This Side of Paradise
Fitzgerald's first novel, This Side of Paradise (1920) was an immediate, spectacular success and established his literary reputation. Perhaps the definitive novel of that «Lost Generation,» it tells the story of Amory Blaine, a handsome, wealthy Princeton student who halfheartedly involves himself in literary cults, «liberal» student activities, and a series of empty flirtations with young women. When he finally does fall truly in love, however, the young woman rejects him for another. After serving in France during the war, Blaine returns to embark on a career in advertising. Still young, but already cynical and world-weary, he exemplifies the young men and women of the '20s, described by Fitzgerald as «a generation grown up to find all gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken.»
The Song of Roland
The first and greatest of French literature's epics, this 11th-century tale of romance and heroism embodies all the power and majesty of its predecessors from other cultures. Its narrative framework echoes that of Greek and German myths, and it melds historic accounts from the Dark Ages of Europe with folklore from the Far East — along with the legends of the troubadours and stories from Virgil, Hebrew scriptures, and other sources.The timeless tale of the warrior Roland, nephew to Charlemagne and prince of the Holy Roman Empire, ranks high among the chansons de gest, or «songs of deeds.» Its first audience, most of whom were illiterate, actually heard The Song of Roland sung to them. This crystalline translation by Leonard Bacon does full lyric justice to the ancient oral tradition.Listeners of a thousand years ago were captivated by this patriotic and poetic story of valor, betrayal, and revenge, and this modern interpretation ensures that readers will continue to fall under its spell.