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Hamlet is commonly, regarded as one of the greatest plays ever written. Drawing on Danish chronicles and the Elizabethan vogue for revenge tragedy, Shakespeare created a play that is at once a philosophic treatise, a family drama, and a supernatural thriller. In the wake of his father's death, Prince Hamlet finds that his Uncle Claudius has swiftly taken the throne and married his mother, Queen Gertrude. The ghost of the dead king then, appears and...
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Chance (1914) was the first of Conrad's novels to bring him popular success and it holds a unique place among his works. It tells the story of Flora de Barral, a vulnerable and abandoned young girl who is "like a beggar, without a right to anything but compassion." After her bankrupt father is imprisoned, she learns the harsh fact that a woman in her position "has no resources but in herself." Her only means of action is to be what she is. Flora's...
3) The waves
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Tracing the lives of a group of friends, this novel follows their development from childhood to youth and middle age. Separately and together, they query the relationship of past to present, and the meaning of life itself.
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Mikhail Lermontov's pioneering psychological novel, "A Hero of Our Time", is probably his most impactful work, one which influenced the works of other great Russian authors such as Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy. The novel's narrative is the story of Pechorin a young officer in the army whose story is told in five non-chronological parts. Drawing upon his own experiences in the military, Lermontov creates a fascinating anti-hero in Pechorin, a man who is...
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The Devil's Dictionary (1906) is a work of satire by Ambrose Bierce. Although he is commonly remembered for his chilling short stories on the experiences of Civil War soldiers, Bierce was recognized in his day as a leading journalist and humorist who spent decades ruffling feathers and drawing laughter with his witty opinion columns, poems, and definitions. Toward the end of his career, he decided to compile these satirical definitions into a book,...
7) Pericles
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Likely written around 1607 or 1608 and attributed at least in part to Shakespeare, "Pericles, Prince of Tyre" is an adventure-filled play that follows the extended sailing journeys of a young prince. Pericles, a young prince from Phoenicia, is forced to flee Antioch when he correctly guesses a riddle that reveals the incestuous activity of King Antiochus. Unable to stay at home in Tyre because of Antiochus' vengeance, he sails away and ends up shipwrecked...
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Great poetry can indeed outlast stone and the glory of princes, and the English poetic tradition is perhaps the richest in the world. This ebook tells the story of that tradition through its towering figures — Spenser and Shakespeare, Milton and Dryden, Wordsworth and Tennyson, Whitman, Dickinson and Eliot — and through scores of other poets. Clear and accessible, blending criticism with imagination and illustrated with scores of quotations, this...
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Helen Vendler is A. Kingsley Porter University Professor of English at Harvard University. Her most recent books include Poets Thinking: Pope, Whitman, Dickinson, Yeats; Coming of Age As a Poet: Milton, Keats, Eliot, Plath; and Seamus Heaney. Her reviews of contemporary poetry and criticism have appeared in the New York Review of Books, the New Yorker, the New Republic, and other publications.
When a poet addresses a living person--whether friend...
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"Robert Pinsky, Winner of PEN/Voelcker Career-Achievement Award for Poetry" Robert Pinsky, who served as Poet Laureate of the United States, 1997-2000, is the author of many books, including: Jersey Rain, Americans' Favorite Poems, Poems to Read, The Sounds of Poetry, The Handbook of Heartbreak, The Inferno of Dante: A New Verse Translation, among others, and three works published by Princeton: An Explanation of America; The Situation of Poetry; and...
11) Simply Eliot
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Though he was born in St. Louis, Missouri and attended Harvard University, at the age of 26, Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888–1965) emigrated to England, where he lived and worked for the rest of his life. Influenced equally by his formative years in the New World and his experiences in London during and after World War I, Eliot strove to reconcile a variety of conflicting ideas while trapped in an unhappy marriage-a struggle that gave rise to some of...
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The king of Thebes is a tyrant but his young relatives, Palamon and Arcite, defend him anyway. The two noble kinsmen find their loyalty rewarded with imprisonment when they end up on the losing side of a battle with the great hero, Theseus of Athens. From the window of their jail they observe Emilia, the sister-in-law of their conqueror, whose stunning beauty shatters their vow of eternal brotherhood. Now the former friends must find a way to evade...
13) 1984: a novel
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Appears on these lists
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Portrays a terrifying vision of life in the future when a totalitarian government, considered a "Negative Utopia," watches over all citizens and directs all activities, becoming more powerful as time goes by.
14) Salome
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When the prophet Jokanaan is brought to the attention of the princess Salomé, he rebukes her interest, which causes her to make a brutal declaration.
Oscar Wilde's one-act tragedy explores the repercussions of her horrifying decision.
Originally composed in French in 1892, Salomé is a controversial tale full of cruelty and retribution. Wilde expands on the Biblical story of John the Baptist, whom was captured and beheaded by Herod Antipas....
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German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche was one the most controversial figures of the 19th century. His evocative writings on religion, morality, culture, philosophy, and science were often polemic attacks against the established views of his time. First published in 1872, "The Birth of Tragedy" is the author's classic work on dramatic theory. It was the author's first published work in which he exhibited his enthusiasm for the dramatic works of Aeschylus...
16) Tao te ching
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"Epigrammatic, enigmatic, intensely poetic, the Tao Te Ching is the mystical, spiritual soul of Taoism, one of the three great religions (along with Confucianism and Buddhism) of ancient China. The Tao is usually translated as 'the way' or 'the path,' but it is better understood as a universal life force that flows around and through all things. The Tao Te Ching teaches us that happiness is found in becoming one with the Tao, which enables us to live...
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We were helping a friend study for the contestant quiz of the Jeopardy! Game show when we realized we had accumulated enough material to help out almost anyone. A student, game show contestant, or curious reader. And it's all formatted in a quick and easy way that game show watchers enjoy.
You'll love the diversity of this little study guide! It covers the most famous books, authors, poems (and nursery rhymes) of all time. From Aeschylus to Zane Grey,...
18) Eugene Onegin
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Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) was a Russian-American writer known for his unique blend of erudition and playfulness. His novels in English include Lolita, Pale Fire, and Ada. He also wrote poetry, short stories, translations from Russian, and a memoir, Speak, Memory. Brian Boyd is professor of literature at the University of Auckland. He is the author of Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian Years and Vladimir Nabokov: The American Years (both Princeton)....
19) Books for living
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"For Will Schwalbe, reading is a way to entertain himself but also to make sense of the world, to become a better person, and to find the answers to the big (and small) questions about how to live his life. In this delightful celebration of reading, Schwalbe invites us along on his quest for books that speak to the specific challenges of living in our modern world, with all its noise and distractions.'"--
20) New Grub Street
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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...
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