The Taming of the Shrew (1592) is a comedy by William Shakespeare. Written between 1590 and 1592, The Taming of the Shrew is one of Shakespeare's earliest works. Frequently critiqued by scholars for its demeaning portrayal of Katherina and for Petruchio's violence, the play has also been considered as an ironic treatment of the inequality experienced by women in marriage. The Taming of the Shrew has served as source material for countless film and...

Love's Labours Lost - William Shakespeare - Love's Labour's Lost is one of William Shakespeare's early comedies, believed to have been written in the mid-1590s for a performance at the Inns of Court before Queen Elizabeth I. It follows the King of Navarre and his three companions as they attempt to forswear the company of women for three years of study and fasting, and their subsequent infatuation with the Princess of Aquitaine and her ladies. In...

"Othello" by William Shakespeare is a captivating tale of love, jealousy, and the destructive power of deceit. Set against the backdrop of Venice, this timeless tragedy follows the noble Moorish general Othello as he falls deeply in love with the beautiful Desdemona. However, their happiness is short-lived as the ensign Iago, consumed by jealousy and ambition, begins to manipulate Othello into believing that Desdemona has been unfaithful. What unfolds...

Critical and historical notes accompany this comedy of fairies, star-crossed lovers, and workmen trying to put on a wedding celebration play.

Antony and Cleopatra (1607) is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. Inspired by Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Lives-a series of biographies on influential figures of the ancient world-Shakespeare wrote Antony and Cleopatra sometime between 1599 and 1601. Often considered a sequel of sorts to his earlier play Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra has served as source material for countless film and television adaptations. "Let Rome in Tiber melt,...

The second play in Shakespeare's "War of the Roses Tetralogy", this work continues Shakespeare's account of King Henry VI's reign. It commences with the marriage of Henry VI with the French noblewoman Margaret of Anjou, whose influence in court is, challenged by Duke Humphrey, the King's Protector. There is a large amount of aristocratic subversion in this play, in which the good Duke Humphrey is fatally, ensnared. Richard, the Duke of York, emerges...

Ibsen's best-known play displays his genius for realistic prose drama. An expression of women's rights, the play climaxes when the central character, Nora, rejects a smothering marriage and life in "a doll's house."

"A blistering character study and an examination of the American melting pot and the judicial system that keeps it in check, Twelve Angry Men holds at its core a deeply patriotic belief in the U.S. legal system. The story's focal point, known only as Juror Eight, is at first the sole holdout in an 11-1 guilty vote. Eight sets his sights not on proving the other jurors wrong but rather on getting them to look at the situation in a clear-eyed way not...

First published in 1852, "The Blithedale Romance" is the third of Nathaniel Hawthorne's romantic novels. Set in the utopian communal farm called Blithedale in the 1840's, the novel tells the story of four inhabitants of the commune: Hollingsworth, a misogynist philanthropist obsessed with turning Blithedale into a colony for the reformation of criminals; Zenobia, a passionate feminist; Priscilla, a mysterious lady with a hidden agenda who turns out...

"Poignant . . . Powerful . . . Beautifully captures the threshold experience of the new immigrant, where the past is not yet a memory." -The New York Times Book Review Acclaimed writer Julia Alvarez's beloved first novel gives voice to four sisters as they grow up in two cultures. The García sisters-Carla, Sandra, Yolanda, and Sofía-and their family must flee their home in the Dominican Republic after their father's role in an attempt...