"Benedick and Beatrice are engaged in a "merry war"; they both talk a mile a minute and proclaim their scorn for love, marriage, and each other. In contrast, Claudio and Hero are sweet young people who are rendered practically speechless by their love for one another. By means of "noting" (which sounds the same as "nothing," and which is gossip, rumour, and overhearing), Benedick and Beatrice are tricked into confessing their love for each other,...

Background information about Shakespeare, Elizabethan theater, and the text accompany his play about unrequited love and mistaken identity.

A famous legend surrounding the creation of Anna Karenina tells us that Tolstoy began writing a cautionary tale about adultery and ended up by falling in love with his magnificent heroine. It is rare to find a reader of the book who doesn't experience the same kind of emotional upheaval: Anna Karenina is filled with major and minor characters who exist in their own right and fully embody their mid-nineteenth-century Russian milieu, but it still belongs...

Close friends Valentine and Proteus become rivals for the hand of Silvia, daughter of the Duke of Milan, who has promised her to the foolish coward Thurio. Proteus has Valentine banished, but Silvia escapes to the forest to join him. Proteus follows with Julia, who dotes on him. After a confrontation, the Duke eventually allows Valentine and Silvia to wed, and Proteus marries Julia.

This charming comedy is an artful send-up of the literary conventions of Goldsmith's time--the pastoral scene, the artificial romance, the stoic bravery of the hero--culminating in a highly improbable denouement.

Newly revised, here is Shakepeare's dramatic play about two stars-crossed lovers, "Romeo & Juliet". It features a new Introduction by Sylvan Barnet, former Chairman of the English Department at Tufts University, an updated bibliography, suggested references, and stage and film history.

Presents the original text of Shakespeare's play side by side with a modern version, with marginal notes and explanations and full descriptions of each character.