Valentine and Proteus are devoted comrades ― until they travel to Milan and meet Silvia, the Duke's ravishing daughter. Torn between the bonds of friendship and the lure of romance, the two gentlemen are further bedeviled by Proteus's prior commitment to Julia, his hometown sweetheart, and the Duke's disdain for Valentine. Thus the stage is set for a comic spree involving a daring escape into a forest, capture by outlaws, and the antics of a...

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...

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...

He was an ordained minister, renowned orator, and beloved author and poet whose ideas on nature, philosophy, and religion influenced authors such as Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman. Through his writings, Emerson ardently professed the importance of being an individual, resisting the comfort of conformity, and creating an art of living in harmony with nature. This soul-satisfying anthology of twelve favorite essays is a treasure.
In the title...

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."

Critical writing could scarcely be more admirable than this, pronounced the New York Times in its review of this 1921 classic of literary criticism. This immensely influential text examines such authors as Tolstoy, Flaubert, Thackeray, and James, with an eye toward the form rather than the content of storytelling.

An Essay on Comedy and the Uses of the Comic Spirit is the most extensive work on the nineteenth century comic genre. It was initially presented as Meredith's first and only public lecture in London in 1877, and published separately as a book in 1897. In it, Meredith defines comedy as a "humour of the mind," not prevalent in the British society of his day, which he saw as fraught with "Unreason and Sentimentalism." The work had a strong influence...

In his preface to this 1917 guide to gathering, handling, and writing news stories, the author notes that the purpose of his work is to give aspiring reporters practical guidance for their duties and performance as journalists. Spencer's book is interesting from an historical point of view, but it also provides close analyses of all types of stories-analysis that could be applicable to any good news reporting today.

This 1915 collection of literary essays reflects the author's conviction that such essays should ideally convey to readers the impact of an author or work of fiction upon the critic: no more and no less. The artists covered include Rabelais, Dante, Shakespeare, Milton, Dickens, Nietzsche, Hardy, Poe, and Whitman, among other greats.

From his perch as editor of the Atlantic Monthly, author, editor, and literary critic William Dean Howells discussed his theories of realism in literature in his column, "The Editor's Study." Highly influential, this collection of Howells's essays and ideas is an invaluable resource for any reader or student with a passion for literature.