Presents Shakespeare's tragedy about Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet, two young people from noble Veronese houses whose love for one another is doomed by the long-standing feud between their families; and includes textual notes, a scene-by-scene analysis, an overview of Shakespeare's life and career, and more.

"The Anthropocene is the current geological age, in which human activity has profoundly shaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his groundbreaking podcast, John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet-from the QWERTY keyboard and Staphylococcus aureus to the Taco Bell breakfast menu-on a five-star scale. John Green's gift for storytelling shines throughout this artfully...

"The beloved New York Times bestselling author reflects on home, family, friendships and writing in this deeply personal collection of essays"-- ""Any story that starts will also end." As a writer, Ann Patchett knows what the outcome of her fiction will be. Life, however, often takes turns we do not see coming. Patchett ponders this truth in these wise essays that afford a fresh and intimate look into her mind and heart. At the center of These Precious...

One of the greatest plays of all time, the compelling tragedy of the tormented young prince of Denmark continues to capture the imaginations of modern audiences worldwide. Confronted with evidence that his uncle murdered his father, and with his mother's infidelity, Hamlet must find a means of reconciling his longing for oblivion with his duty as avenger. The ghost, Hamlet's feigned madness, Ophelia's death and burial, the play within a play, the...

The inspiring story of a son and his dying mother, who form a "book club" that brings them together as her life comes to a close.

In a unique 1869 take on Greek mythology, the influential Victorian-Edwardian sage considers the myth of the goddess Athena. Ruskin asks us to consider Athena-"in the heavens, the earth, and the heart"-as a vital force in the material world channeled by those leading virtuous lives and also as "the directress of the imagination and will."

Hawthorne is a book of literary criticism by Henry James published in 1879. The book was an insightful study of James' great predecessor, Nathaniel Hawthorne. James gave extended consideration to each of Hawthorne's novels and a selection of his short stories. He also reviewed Hawthorne's life and some of his nonfiction. The book became somewhat controversial for a famous section where James enumerated the items of novelistic interest he thought were...

This pamphlet was written as a philosophical commentary on Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. Shaw believed that most people could not understand the drama, and wanted to bring them the knowledge of the adepts who see in the operas the "whole tragedy of human history and the whole horror of the dilemmas from which the world is shrinking today."

One of Shakespeare's love comedies, Much Ado About Nothing comes with an overview of Shakespeare's life, world, and theater, along with other background information.

New Grub Street (1891) is a novel by George Gissing. Inspired by his own struggles as a working writer and unhappily married man, Gissing crafts a tale of talent, ambition, and the strain placed on romance by financial need. New Grub Street poses important questions about convention in Victorian England while proving surprisingly relevant for our own times. In 18th century London, Grub Street was where the desperate writer went once their dreams of...