"I am a sick man ... I am a spiteful man," a nameless voice cries out. And so, from underground, emerge the passionate confessions of a suffering man; the painful self-examination of a tormented soul; the bristling scorn of a lonely individual who has become one of the greatest antiheroes in all literature. In 1864, just prior to the years in which he wrote his greatest novels-Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Possessed, and The Brothers Karamazov-Fyodor...

William Strunk, Jr., a professor of English literature at Cornell University, penned "The Elements of Style" in 1918 as a guide for his students in the proper use of grammar and composition. The book served as an invaluable resource for writers for decades and was revised in 1959 by author E.B. White. (The resulting manuscript, with White's revisions, would become an even bigger sensation, selling over ten million copies.) Presented here is the...

Cinderella is one of the most popular fairy tales of all time. The story of a humble girl persecuted by her stepmother and stepsisters, who is transformed into a beautiful princess, has had a magnetic effect for centuries on the imagination of children and adults alike. The character of Cinderella - personifying contrary fates - as well as the complex relationships within her family, the myth of the fairy, the perfect Prince Charming and the symbolism...

Justice, mortality, mercy in Vienna, dichotomy between corruption and purity. Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall. Mercy and virtue prevail, as the play does not end tragically, with virtues such as compassion and forgiveness being exercised at the end of the production. This edition of 'Measure for Measure' is an adaptation of Shakespeare's eponymous drama, narrated in plain modern English, capturing the very essence and key elements of the...

Cymbeline, the Roman Empire's vassal king of Britain, once had two sons, Guiderius and Arvirargus, but they were stolen twenty years earlier as infants by an exiled traitor named Belarius. Cymbeline now discovers that his only child left, his daughter Imogen, has secretly married her lover Posthumus Leonatus, an otherwise honourable man of Cymbeline's court. This edition of ' Cymbeline' is an adaptation of Shakespeare's eponymous drama, narrated in...

Published in 1867, Thérèse Raquin is the novel which established Zola's reputation as a writer who forensically explored the darker side of human nature. Thérèse is a half Algerian orphan, brought up in provincial France by her aunt and married off to her sickly cousin Camille. His ambition takes the three of them to Paris, where they set up home in the dank and dingy backstreets that run down to the Seine. The relentless tedium of life for Thérèse...

A blistering rebuke of religious hypocrisy, Elmer Gantry is the story of a charismatic and manipulative social climber who rises to power within his church, despite his insincerity. Though he preaches against immorality and temptation, Reverend Dr Elmer Gantry can't seem to give up his own vices, and he leaves a trail of broken people behind him in his pursuit of pleasure and power, betraying anybody and doing anything to get ahead. Published in 1927,...

Die Erzählung schildert die tragische Geschichte des psychisch erkrankten Sturm-und-Drang-Dichters Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz. Mit einer innovativen Erzähltechnik ermöglicht Georg Büchner dem Leser ein Miterleben des Wahns, der als nachvollziehbare Reaktion auf die Umgebung erscheint. Aus Sicht des psychisch Kranken konnte Büchner auch Zweifel an Gott formulieren, ohne sich angreifbar zu machen.

"Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheueren Ungeziefer verwandelt." So beginnt Kafkas wohl bekannteste Geschichte. Das Ungeheuerliche wird detailliert und sachlich, fast im Stile eines nüchternen Tatsachenberichts geschrieben. Die emotional regungslose Art der Erzählung und die Unfassbarkeit des Inhalts des Erzählten bilden einen scharfen Kontrast, welcher dem Unmöglichen die...