The Story of an African Farm (1883) marks an early appearance in fiction of Victorian society's emerging New Woman. The novel follows the spiritual quests of Lyndall and Waldo, who each struggle again
This focused text is directed consistently towards teaching students to write their own arguments so as to better understand their own thoughts and present them to others in a clear written form. The
Written in 1890, at the close of William Morris’s most intense period of political activism, News from Nowhere is a compelling articulation of his mature views on art, work, community, family, and the
Desmond is a political novel about the French Revolution. It is Charlotte Smitha??s only epistolary work, and it is her most politically radical piece. Written in response to Edmund Burkea??s Reflecti
Joseph Andrews, first published in 1742, is in part a parody of Samuel Richardson's Pamela. But whereas Richardson's novel is marked by the virtues of female chastity and the triumph of steadfast mora
Eliza Haywood (1693-1756) was on of the most successful writers of her time; indeed, the two most popular English novels in the early eighteenth-century were Robinson Crusoe and Haywood's first novel,
In the introduction to this new edition, David Bevington explores some key dilemmas and puzzles in this most famous of Shakespeare’s tragedies. What is the role of providence in a work with pagan sour
The first publisher of Tender Buttons described the book’s effect on readers as “something like terror, there are no known precedents to cling to.” Written in pencil in a small notebook and barely rev
In 1848 and again in 1849, Henry David Thoreau delivered a lecture in Concord, Massachusetts on “the relationship of the individual to the state.” The essay now known as Civil Disobedience is a signif
One of the first animal viewpoint novels published in North America, Margaret Marshall Saunders’s Beautiful Joe tells the story of an abused dog and his rescue by a humane family. The novel, based on
Book History has emerged as one of the most exciting new interdisciplinary fields of study in the humanities. By focusing on the production, circulation, and reception of the book in all its forms, it
Robinson Crusoe is one of the most famous literary characters in history, and his story has spawned hundreds of retellings. Inspired by the life of Alexander Selkirk, a sailor who lived for several ye
Twelfth Night has seldom been off the stage since Shakespeare's day. It has been performed for its romantic high comedy and its boisterous low comedy; with an emphasis on farce or on autumnal melancho
This book traces the development of political thought from the pre-Socratic tradition of ancient Greece through to the classical schools of Athens and Rome. The key ideas of central texts such as Plat
In 1918, when Henry Blake Fuller was 62 years old, he completed the manuscript of a novel, Bertram Cope's Year. Though Fuller was well known as an accomplished realist and had published twelve previou
Robinson Crusoe is one of the most famous literary characters in history, and his story has spawned hundreds of retellings. Inspired by the life of Alexander Selkirk, a sailor who lived for several ye
Yes, But How Do You Know? is an invitation to think philosophically through the use of sceptical ideas. Hetherington challenges our complacency and asks us to reconsider what we think we know. How muc
The essays are designed to provide a cross-section of current efforts to reconstruct and engage with the views of major figures of the early modern period. Among the topics are Descartes' ontology of
The Second Mrs. Tanqueray was the theatrical sensation of the London stage in 1893. It established Pinero as the leading English dramatist of serious social issues, and created a star out of Mrs. Patr
This 1818 novel is set in a former abbey whose owner, Christopher Glowry, is host to visitors who enjoy his hospitality and engage in endless debate. Among these guests are figures recognizable to Pea
First published in 1893, when Stephen Crane was only twenty-one years old, Maggie is the harrowing tale of a young woman’s fall into prostitution and destitution in New York City's notorious Bowery sl
Kim tells the story of Kimball O'Hara, an orphaned Irish boy growing up in late nineteenth-century India, and his quest for identity as he strives to reconcile his Western inheritance with the Indian
"Three-Fingered Jack," the protagonist of this 1800 novel, is based on the escaped slave and Jamaican folk hero Jack Mansong, who was believed to have gained his strength from the Afro-Caribbean relig
L.M. Findlay's elegant new translation is a work of textual and historical scholarship. Few books have had as much of an impact on modern history as The Communist Manifesto. Since it was first publish
Harrington (1817) is the personal narrative of a recovering anti-Semite, a young man whose phobia of Jews is instilled in early childhood and who must unlearn his irrational prejudice when he falls in
Though disparaged by literary critics of her day, Marie Corelli was one of the most popular novelists of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. Wormwood (1890) is a lurid tale of unrequited love, b
For the first time in over a century, this edition makes available the work of the most important Jewish writer in early and mid-Victorian Britain. Grace Aguilar (1816-1847) broke new literary ground
Old English literary history is sketchy, even more so with poetry where there is little internal evidence of place, date, occasion, or author. And there is a paucity of surviving verse about 31,000 ex
Mary Barton first appeared in 1848, and has since become one of the best known novels on the 'condition of England', part of a nineteenth-century British trend to understand the enormous cultural, eco
Jane Eyre, the story of a young girl and her passage into adulthood, was an immediate commercial success at the time of its original publication in 1847. Its representation of the underside of domesti
Mary Robinson's work has begun again to assume a central place in discussions of Romanticism. A writer of the 1790'sa??a decade which saw the birth of Romanticism, revolution, and enormous popular en
Increasingly Aphra Behn—the first woman professional writer—is also regarded as one of the most important writers of the 17th century. The Rover, her most famous and most accomplished play, is in many
Haywood's novel is the story of the beautiful Princess Eovaai. Groomed for the throne by her father, who teaches her Lockean notions of liberty, she is overthrown, enmeshed in civil war, and then magi
David Garrick, the leading actor of his time, was also one of its most accomplished dramatists, and The Clandestine Marriage is perhaps his finest play. Its story centres on the household of a wealthy
Heart of Darkness is based upon Joseph Conrad’s own experience in the Congo; “it is,” as he remarks in his 1916 author’s note to Youth: A Narrative and Two Other Stories, “experience pushed a little (
The Middle English romance of Richard Coeur de Lion transforms the historical Richard I of England—a Frenchman by upbringing, who spent only four months of his reign in England, and who once joked tha
When Parliament sought to raise funds through the passing of the Stamp Act in 1765 they did not anticipate the protests and staunch opposition to the new law which would ensue in the colonies. Though
The editors have selected 33 of the 100 tales, including at least two from each of the ten days of storytelling. Included as well are Boccaccio’s general introduction and conclusion to the work, as we
Kant’s landmark essay, “On Perpetual Peace,” is as timely, relevant, and inspiring today as when it was first written over 200 years ago. In it, we find a forward-looking vision of a world respectful
Daniel Defoe’s fifth novel, Colonel Jack is the supposed autobiography of an English gentleman who begins life as a child of the London streets. He and his two brothers (both also named Jack) are brou
