"The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas is the ultimate novel of retribution. Based on a true story, it recounts the story of Edouard Dantes, his betrayal and imprisonment in the sinister Chateau d'If. Years later, Paris is intrigued by the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo, who bursts onto the Paris social scene with his millions. He encounters the three principal betrayers of Dantes who have prospered in the post-Napoleonic boom and, one by...

"Features a newly edited text of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Shakespeare's comedy of love, magic, and transformation; and provides an introduction, commentary, detailed notes, an account of the play as it would be performed in Shakespeare's theaters, and an essay on how to read Shakespeare's language."--

A young Algerian, Meursault, afflicted with a sort of aimless inertia, becomes embroiled in the petty intrigues of a local pimp and, somewhat inexplicably, ends up killing a man. Once he's imprisoned and eventually brought to trial, his crime, it becomes apparent, is not so much the arguably defensible murder he has committed as it is his deficient character. In the story of an ordinary man who unwittingly gets drawn into a senseless murder on a sun-drenched...

The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence, and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina and quiet heroism of one man's struggle for justice, in this Pulitzer Prize-winning classic that has been translated into more than 40 languages.

Presents the original text of Shakespeare's play side by side with a modern version, discusses the author and the theater of his time, and provides quizzes and other study activities.

An abridged version of Dicken's story of the orphan forced to practice thievery and live a life of crime in nineteenth-century London. Illustrated notes throughout the text explain the historical background of the story.

William Shakespeare, the most celebrated poet in the English language, left behind nearly a million words of text, but his biography has long been a thicket of supposition arranged around scant facts. With his trademark wit, Bill Bryson sorts through this colorful muddle to reveal the man himself. Bryson documents the efforts of earlier scholars, and, emulating the style of his travelogues, records episodes in his own research. He celebrates Shakespeare...

""Any story that starts will also end." As a writer, Ann Patchett knows what the outcome of her fiction will be. Life, however, often takes turns we do not see coming. Patchett ponders this truth in these wise essays that afford a fresh and intimate look into her mind and heart. At the center of These Precious Days is the title essay, a surprising and moving meditation on an unexpected friendship that explores "what it means to be seen, to find someone...

"One of the most important Christian books of the 20th century, C.S. Lewis?s classic, Mere Christianity, is now available in a beautiful keepsake edition 60 years after its original publication. A timeless and thought-provoking spiritual work from the author of The Chronicles of Narnia and The Screwtape Letters?one of the leading Christian writers and thinkers of our age?this beautifully illustrated anniversary edition includes a new foreword and...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Pulitzer Prize–winner Anna Quindlen offers wisdom, opinions, insights, and reflections about current events and modern life in this provocative and inspiring book.

“A tour de force for our time, [Loud and Clear] is equally as compelling as a look at public events as it is a reflection on being a woman and on motherhood.”—The Sunday Oklahoman
With...