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The stirring tale of a legendary royal family's fall and ultimate redemption, the Theban trilogy endures as the crowning achievement of Greek drama. Sophocles' three-play cycle, chronicling Oedipus's search for the truth and its tragic results, remains essential reading.Oedipus Rex unfolds amid a city in the relentless grip of a plague. When an oracle proclaims that only an act of vengeance will lift the curse from Thebes, King Oedipus vows to bring a murderer to justice. His quest engenders a series of keen dramatic ironies, culminating in the fulfillment of a dreaded prophecy. Oedipus at Colonus finds the former ruler in exile. Old and blind, he seeks a peaceful place to end his torment, but finds only challenges from his reluctant hosts and a summons back to Thebes from his warring sons. The trilogy concludes with Antigone, in which Oedipus's courageous daughter defies her tyrannical uncle in a provocative exploration of the demands of loyalty and duty.

In the early nineteenth century, a French sociologist and political scientist undertook a seven-month journey throughout the newly formed United States. Alexis de Tocqueville surveyed the young nation's religious, political, and economic character and reported his findings in two volumes, published in 1835 and 1840. Two centuries later, Democracy in America remains among the most astute and influential surveys of American politics and society. de Tocqueville focuses on why republican representative democracy prevailed in the United States, tracing its success from the state of equality established by the early Puritan settlers through the American Revolution and adoption of the Constitution. His speculations on the future of democracy offer prescient, thought-provoking reading, and his classic work remains a touchstone for modern thinkers on government. This edition is based on the earliest approved translation, which has served as the standard version for over a century and comes closest to reflecting the author's insights as perceived by his contemporaries. www.doverpublications.com

A shape-shifting grifter boards a Mississippi riverboat to expose the pretenses, hypocrisies, and self-delusions of his fellow passengers. Melville's comic allegory challenges the optimism and materialism of mid-nineteenth century America.

Popular and oft-anthologized selections include "All in green went my love riding," "in Just-," "Tumbling-hair," "O sweet spontaneous," "Buffalo Bill's," and "the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls."

Romeo and Juliet was the first drama in English to confer full tragic dignity on the agonies of youthful love. The lyricism that enshrines their death-marked devotion has made the lovers legendary in every language that possesses a literature.

Delightful collection includes the General Prologue plus three of the most popular tales: "The Knight's Tale," "The Miller's Prologue and Tale," and "The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale." In modern English.

Plato's "Dialogues" rank among Western civilization's most important and influential philosophical works. These 6 selections of his major works explore a broad range of enduringly relevant issues. Authoritative Jowett translations.

The vitality and variety of London's experiences during his brief life are reflected in these 13 gripping tales of adventure, including "A Piece of Steak," "The Mexican," "The Law of Life," and 10 others.

These excerpts from works of philosophy and religion, history and drama, fiction, poetry, and other genres introduce the many facets of medieval literature. The anthology opens with chapters from The Confessions of St. Augustine, the first Western biography and a model for Christian writers throughout the Middle Ages. Book One of Boethius' The Consolation of Philosophy follows, along with selections from the Venerable Bede's The Ecclesiastical History of the English People and the Old English epic poem, Beowulf.Other selections include The Story of My Misfortunes by Peter Abélard; Medieval Lays and Legends of Marie de France; The Lady of the Fountain and The Dream of Rhonabwy from Lady Charlotte E. Guest's The Mabinogion; three stories from Boccaccio's Decameron; The Reeve's Tale, The Cook's Tale, and The Lawyer's Tale from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales; Book One of Thomas à Kempis' The Imitation of Christ; and the anonymous fifteenth-century morality play Everyman.www.doverpublications.com

These three tales reflect the master storyteller's experiences as a merchant seaman: "An Outpost of Progress," a precursor to "Heart of Darkness"; "A Smile of Fortune"; and "An Anarchist."

Excellent new English translations of title story (considered by many critics Kafka's most perfect work), plus "The Judgment," "In the Penal Colony," "A Country Doctor," and "A Report to an Academy." A selection of the Common Core State Standards Initiative.

The first of Grey's bestselling westerns, this tale of adventure and romance tells of a proud young heroine who stands alone against the villains who rustle and stampede her cattle -- until a stranger rides into town.

Dickens' grandest, most virtuosic achievement, Bleak House combines two tales: the story of wealthy Lady Dedlock, recounted in the third person, and that of penniless Esther Summerson, told in her own words. The haughty noblewoman and the orphan are connected by the court case Jarndyce and Jarndyce, a tangle of disputed wills and disrupted inheritance that has tied up the High Court of Chancery for decades. Inspired by an actual court case that dragged on for more than 50 years, Dickens drew upon his own experiences as a law clerk and plaintiff to enliven his novel, which remains utterly contemporary in its portrait of a system invested in making business for itself at the expense of its plaintiffs. In addition to its complex and compelling portrayal of the English judiciary, Bleak House is also a brilliant detective story in which a police officer, Inspector Bucket, uncovers a richly plotted tale of secrets, murder, and mystery. www.doverpublications.com

From the famous speeches against Catiline to those in defiance of Marc Anthony that would seal the orator's doom, this collection presents remarkable examples of rhetoric from the ancient Roman politician's illustrious career.

Tragicomic drama of love, wealth and justice revolves around a Venetian moneylender's bargain with a young merchant for "a pound of flesh." Includes explanatory footnotes.

This dark psychological drama depicts the evil machinations of a ruthless, nihilistic heroine. Readers will discover an exploration of the nature of evil and the tragedy that lies in human frailty.

Fourteen timeless tales of terror include chilling classics from Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe, H. P. Lovecraft, Arthur Machen, Ambrose Bierce, Izumi Kyoka, Algernon Blackwood, and more.