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Written in the aftermath of hostile criticism of Ghosts, Ibsen's three plays all deal with the moral courage needed to tell the truth. They are peopled not by symbolic figures and abstract concepts, but by complex individuals pitted against, or part of, a society that Ibsen felt was morally abhorrent and claustrophobically provincial.

W. E. B. Du Bois was a public intellectual, sociologist, and activist on behalf of the African American community. He profoundly shaped black political culture in the United States through his founding role in the NAACP, as well as internationally through the Pan-African movement. Du Bois's sociological and historical research on African-American communities and culture broke ground in many areas, including the history of the post-Civil War Reconstruction period. Du Bois was also a prolific author of novels, autobiographical accounts, innumerable editorials and journalistic pieces, and several works of history. "e;Herein lie buried many things which if read with patience may show the strange meaning of being black here in the dawning of the Twentieth Century."e;More than one hundred years after its first publication in 1903, The Souls of Black Folk remains possibly the most important book ever penned by a black American. This collection of previously published essays and one short story, on topics varying from history to sociology to music to religion, expounds on the African American condition and life behind the "e;Veil,"e; the world outside of the white experience in America. This important collection holds a mirror up to the face of black America, revealing its complete form, slavery, Jim Crow, and all. With a series introduction by editor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and an introduction by Arnold Rampersad, this edition is essential for anyone interested in African American history.

The Lives of the Caesars include the biographies of Julius Caesar and the eleven subsequent emperors: Augustus, Tiberius, Gaius Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitelius, Vespasian, Titus, Domitian. The format and style of Suetonius' Lives of the Caesars was to set the tone for biography throughout western literature - his work remains vibrant to the modern reader. This edition features a thoroughly researched and incisive introduction, afresh and accurate translation, and thoroughly researched and detailed notes.

News from Nowhere is the best-known prose work of Willam Morris. Set in London and the Thames Valley in the twenty-second century, these 'Chapters from a Utopian Romance' draw upon the work of John Ruskin and Karl Marx to describe a decentralized and humane socialist future.

This authoritative edition was formerly published in the acclaimed Oxford Authors series under the general editorship fo Frank Kermode. It brings together a unique combination of Keats's poetry and prose - all the major poems complemented by a generous selection of Keats's letters - to give the essence of his work and thinking.

This is a new translation into contemporary English of one of the greatest poems of the English Middle Ages. Piers Plowman remains of enduring interest for its vivid picture of the whole life of medieval society, for its deeply imaginative religious vision, and for its passionate concern to see justice and truth prevail in our world.A. V. C. Schmidt's translation of the B-text is provided with an Introduction and extensive Notes which place the work in its contemporary setting and offer a full interpretative commentary on the poem.

The story of the wooden puppet who learns goodness and becomes a real boy is famous the world over, and has been familiar in English for over a century. From the moment Joseph the carpenter carves a puppet that can walk and talk, this wildly inventive fantasy takes Pinocchio through countless adventures, in the course of which his nose grows whenever he tells a lie, he is turned into a donkey, and is swallowed by a dogfish, before he gains real happiness. This new translation does full justice to the vibrancy and wit of Collodi's original. Far more sophisticated, funny, and hard-hitting than the many abridged versions (and the sentimentalized film) of the story would suggest, Ann Lawson Lucas's translation captures the complexity of Collodi's word-play, slapstick humour, and immediacy of dialogue. An adult reader will recognize social and political satire, and the invaluable introduction and notes illuminate the cultural traditions on which Collodi drew.

A unique anthology of Kipling's war stories and poems, from the frontier wars of empire to the Boer War and the First World War.

The Tale of Sinuhe, from c.1875 BC, has been acclaimed as the supreme masterpiece of Ancient Egyptian poetry, a perfect fusion of monumental, dramatic, and lyrical styles, and a passionate probing of its culture's ideals and anxieties. This anthology contains all the substantial surviving works from the golden age of Egyptian fictional literature. Composed by an anonymous author in the form of a funerary autobiography the Tale tells how the courtier Sinuhe flees Egypt at the death of his king. Other works from the Middle Kingdom (c.1940-1640 BC) include a poetic dialogue between a man and his soul on the problem of suffering and death, a teaching about the nature of wisdom spoken by the ghost of the assassinated King Amenemhat I, and a series of light-hearted tales of wonder from the court of the builder of the Great Pyramid. These new translations draw on recent and innovative advances in Egyptology, and together with contextualizing introductions and notes to each work provide for the first time a literary reading of these ambiguous and fascinating poems to enable the modern reader to experience them as much as their original audience did, three thousand years ago.

Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic shocker introduced Count Dracula to the world. He plans to wreak havoc on London, and only a small band of men and women, led by Professor Van Helsing, can defeat him. Dracula is the most famous of vampire stories, and remains a rattling good read. This edition includes the companion piece, 'Dracula's Guest'.

Set during the Napoleonic wars, Vanity Fair follows Becky Sharp as she cuts a swathe through Regency society. War, money, and national identity are the themes of Thackeray's great satirical novel, as it exposes a world on the make. In Becky, Thackeray created one of the most memorable female characters in Victorian fiction.

Julian of Norwich is one of the subtlest writers and profoundest thinkers of the Middle Ages, and the earliest woman writer in English. Her Revelations describe a loving and merciful God and a positive vision of humanity. This sensitive new translation conveys the poise and serenity of her style, and includes the two versions of her text.

This new, parallel-text prose translation of a generous selection of Martial's witty and satiric epigrams pulls no punches and matches the boldness of the originals. They bring Imperial Rome vividly to life. The edition establishes Martial's originality as a literary author and includes a full introduction and notes.

Lizzie Eustace's determination to hold on to a fabulous diamond necklace entangles her in a web of deceit that involves her cousin and his fiancee in a story that is part sensation fiction, part detective novel, part political satire and part romance. Hugely engaging, the novel is also a highly revealing study of Victorian Britain.

A group of pilgrims entertain each other with stories on their way to Canterbury in a poem whose characters, from the Knight to the Wife of Bath, are as vivid as their tales. This new edition of David Wright's acclaimed translation includes a new critical introduction and invaluable notes by a leading Chaucer scholar.

One of the greatest artistic works of the twentieth century, Finnegans Wake is both an outrageous epic and a wildly inventive comedy that rewards its readers with never-ending layers of meaning. This edition helps readers get past its reputation for difficulty in order to enjoy its astonishing originality and imaginative achievement.

With The Beggar's Opera (1728), Gay invented the ballad opera. It is here published for the first time with its sequel, Polly, in which Macheath and Polly Peachum are transplanted to the West Indies. Together the plays offer a scathing and ebullient portrait of a society in which statesmen and outlaws are impossible to tell apart.

The Passions of the Soul is Descartes's greatest contribution to the understanding of the union of mind and body. It discusses the emotions and their place in human life. This volume also includes both sides of the correspondence with Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia, crucial to the genesis of the work, and Part I of The Principles of Philosophy.

This original and distinctive verse translation of four of Sophocles' plays conveys the vitality of his poetry and the vigour of the plays as performed showpieces, encouraging the reader to relish the sound of the spoken verse and the potential for song within the lyrics.

With his first glimpse of Madame Arnoux, Frederic Moreau is convinced he has found his romantic destiny, but he is caught up in the revolution of 1848 and the attractions of three other women. Flaubert's portrait of an idealist in a disenchanted world influenced later modernists, and is here newly translated.

Frank Gresham needs to marry for money if he is to save his impoverished family estate. But he loves the doctor's penniless niece, and faces a terrible dilemma. Doctor Thorne, now adapted for ITV by Julian Fellowes.

Artemidorus' The Interpretation of Dreams(Oneirocritica) is the richest and most vivid pre-Freudian account of dream interpretation. The work is fascinating for what it reveals about ancient life, culture, and beliefs, and attitudes to the dominant power of Imperial Rome.

In AD 70 the city of Jerusalem was destroyed by Roman forces after a 6 month siege, the world-famous temple burnt to the ground. This was the disastrous outcome of a Jewish revolt against Roman domination beginning in AD 66 with high hopes and early success, but soon became mired in factional conflict, at its most extreme within Jerusalem itself.

The Island of Doctor Moreau is the account of Edward Prendick, an English gentleman who finds himself shipwrecked and an unwelcomed guest on the Pacific island of one Doctor Moreau. There, Prendick discovers Moreau is performing horrific experiments, using vivisection to craft animals into human beings.