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Dr. Faustus
by Christopher Marlowe
A man's tragic descent to damnation, as he sells his soul to the devil for power and knowledge.
The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, commonly referred to simply as Doctor Faustus, is an Elizabethan tragedy by Christopher Marlowe, based on German stories about the title ... (Goodreads)
Othello
by William Shakespeare
A tale of jealousy, manipulation, and tragedy, as one man's descent into madness leads to disastrous consequences.
In Othello, Shakespeare creates a powerful drama of a marriage that begins with fascination (between the exotic Moor Othello and the Venetian lady Desdemona), with elopement, and with intense mutual ... (Goodreads)
The Cask of Amontillado - an Edgar Allan Poe Short Story
by Edgar Allan Poe
A tale of revenge and retribution, forcibly trapping a foe in a ghoulish crypt.
The story's narrator, Montresor, tells an unspecified person, who knows him very well, of the day he took his revenge on Fortunato (Italian for "the fortunate one"), a fellow nobleman. Angry over ... (Wikipedia)
As You Like It
by William Shakespeare
A romantic comedy about love, disguise, and mistaken identity in the Forest of Arden.
Readers and audiences have long greeted As You Like It with delight. Its characters are brilliant conversationalists, including the princesses Rosalind and Celia and their Fool, Touchstone. Soon ... (Goodreads)
Shakespeare's Sonnets
by William Shakespeare
A collection of poems exploring love, life, mortality, and beauty.
The Arden Shakespeare has long been acclaimed as the established scholarly edition of Shakespeare's work. Now being totally reedited for the third time, Arden editions offer the very best in ... (Goodreads)
Bleak House
by Charles Dickens
A social commentary on the English legal system, exploring themes of inequality, injustice and corruption.
Bleak House opens in the twilight of foggy London, where fog grips the city most densely in the Court of Chancery. The obscure case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, in which an inheritance is gradually ... (Goodreads)
Paradise Lost
by John Milton
Epic poem of the Fall of Man, exploring the depths of human nature and the consequences of sin.
John Milton's Paradise Lost is one of the greatest epic poems in the English language. It tells the story of the Fall of Man, a tale of immense drama and excitement, of rebellion and treachery, of ... (Goodreads)
The Importance of Being Earnest
by Oscar Wilde
A lighthearted comedy of manners, full of witty dialogue and satirizing Victorian society.
Oscar Wilde's madcap farce about mistaken identities, secret engagements, and lovers entanglements still delights readers more than a century after its 1895 publication and premiere performance. The ... (Goodreads)
The Monk
by Matthew Gregory Lewis
A young monk's descent into moral corruption and his struggle to redeem himself.
The Monk has two main plotlines. The first concerns the corruption and downfall of the monk Ambrosio, and his interactions with the demon in disguise Matilda and the virtuous maiden Antonia. The ... (Wikipedia)
The Decameron
by Giovanni Boccaccio
A collection of tales of love, adventure, and comedy set in medieval Florence.
The Decameron (c.1351) is an entertaining series of one hundred stories written in the wake of the Black Death. The stories are told in a country villa outside the city of Florence by ten young noble ... (Goodreads)
Hard Times
by Charles Dickens
A grim tale of a Victorian industrial city, highlighting its struggles of poverty, injustice and strife.
"My satire is against those who see figures and averages, and nothing else," proclaimed Charles Dickens in explaining the theme of this classic novel. Published in 1854, the story concerns one Thomas ... (Goodreads)
Ariel
by Sylvia Plath
A collection of raw and intense poems that explore themes of death, femininity, and personal struggle.
Sylvia Plath's celebrated collection. When Sylvia Plath died, she not only left behind a prolific life but also her unpublished literary masterpiece, Ariel . Her husband, Ted Hughes, brought the ... (Goodreads)
Cotillion
by Georgette Heyer
A romantic comedy of manners, as an unsuspecting young woman navigates a world of intrigue.
Heroine Kitty Charing has been brought up in rural isolation by her rich and eccentric guardian, Matthew Penicuik (pronounced PENNY-cook), whom she calls Uncle Matthew. Uncle Matthew makes the ... (Wikipedia)
Leaves of Grass
by Walt Whitman
An exploration of the relationship between the individual and the divine, viewed through the lens of nature and its rhythms.
A collection of quintessentially American poems, the seminal work of one of the most influential writers of the nineteenth century. ... (Goodreads)
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
by Angela Carter
A collection of subversive, darkly fantastical tales exploring the power of femininity.
Angela Carter was a storytelling sorceress, the literary godmother of Neil Gaiman, David Mitchell, Audrey Niffenegger, J. K. Rowling, Kelly Link, and other contemporary masters of supernatural ... (Goodreads)
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
by Ambrose Bierce
A man is about to be hanged, but escapes and experiences a surreal journey before his inevitable fate.
The condemned man stands on a bridge, his hands bound behind his back. A noose is tied around his neck. In a moment he will meet his fate: DEATH BY HANGING. There is no escape. Or is there? Find out ... (Goodreads)
The Sorrows of Young Werther
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
A young man's struggle to reconcile his intense emotions with the realities of society.
This is Goethe's first novel, published in 1774. Written in diary form, it tells the tale of an unhappy, passionate young man hopelessly in love with Charlotte, the wife of a friend - a man who he ... (Goodreads)
Seconds
by Bryan Lee O'Malley
A woman's journey of self-improvement, with the help of a mysterious restaurant with magical powers.
Katie is the founding owner of a popular restaurant named Seconds. Katie inhabits a room in Seconds and is woken up one night by a mysterious, white-haired girl named Lis, who gives Katie a notepad, ... (Wikipedia)
Middlemarch
by George Eliot
A grand narrative of life in a small English town, exploring the lives of its inhabitants.
Middlemarch centres on the lives of residents of Middlemarch, a fictitious Midlands town, from 1829 onwards – the years up to the 1832 Reform Act . The narrative is variably considered to consist of ... (Wikipedia)
Hamlet: Screenplay, Introduction And Film Diary
by Kenneth Branagh
A reimagined version of Shakespeare's classic play, told through film.
Often credited with creating a popular movie audience for Shakespeare, Kenneth Branagh has wanted for many years to bring to the screen the complete, full-length version of Hamlet , Shakespeare's ... (Goodreads)
Collected Poems, 1909-1962
by T.S. Eliot
Exploration of the complexities of life and the human condition, through innovative and experimental verse.
There is no more authoritative collection of the poetry that Eliot himself wished to preserve than this volume, published two years before his death in 1965., Poet, dramatist, critic, and editor, T. ... (Barnes & Noble)
Songs of Innocence and of Experience
by William Blake
A poetic collection exploring the duality of human nature, innocence and experience.
Songs of Innocence and of Experience, is an collection of poems by William Blake., Note:, For a complete Table of Contents of the included poems, see the 'Questions' section below. This book appeared ... (Goodreads)
To the Lighthouse
by Virginia Woolf
Exploration of the complexities of human relationships and family life.
The novel is set in the Ramsays' summer home in the Hebrides , on the Isle of Skye . The section begins with Mrs Ramsay assuring her son James that they should be able to visit the lighthouse on the ... (Wikipedia)
The Sound and the Fury
by William Faulkner
Tragic story of the decline of a southern family, exploring the human condition.
The first section of the novel is narrated by Benjamin "Benjy" Compson, a source of shame to the family due to his diminished mental capacity; the only characters who show genuine care for him are ... (Wikipedia)
Gulliver's Travels: Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.
by Jonathan Swift
A fanciful journey to lands of tiny people, giant people, talking horses, and other strange creatures.
The travel begins with a short preamble in which Lemuel Gulliver gives a brief outline of his life and history before his voyages. During his first voyage, Gulliver is washed ashore after a shipwreck ... (Wikipedia)
Sleeping Murder
by Agatha Christie
A young woman discovers she has a connection to a murder that happened years ago and must solve the mystery before becoming the next victim.
Newlywed Gwenda Reed travels ahead of her husband to find a home for them on the south coast of England. In a short time, she finds and buys Hillside, a large old house that feels just like home. She ... (Wikipedia)
Le Morte d'Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table
by Thomas Malory
Epic tale of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, their chivalrous adventures and ultimate demise.
Ο Αρθούρος, ο Λάνσελοτ, ο Μέρλιν, η βασίλισσα Γκουίνεβιαρ, το Εξκάλιμπερ, η Κυρά της Λίμνης, ο Τρίστραμ και η Ιζόλδη, οι μονομαχίες, οι ηρωισμοί, οι δολοπλοκίες, η γενναιότητα - και φυσικά η ... (Goodreads)
Moll Flanders
by Daniel Defoe
A woman's story of survival and redemption, confronting the harsh realities of life in 18th century England.
Moll's mother is a convict in Newgate Prison in London who is given a reprieve by " pleading her belly ," a reference to the custom of staying the executions of pregnant criminals. Her mother is ... (Wikipedia)
The Castle of Otranto
by Horace Walpole
A dark gothic tale of romance and horror, featuring a cursed Italian castle.
First published pseudonymously in 1764, The Castle of Otranto purported to be a translation of an Italian story of the time of the crusades. In it Walpole attempted, as he declared in the Preface to ... (Goodreads)
