"Joseph, a footman in eighteenth-century England, must protect his virtue from the advances of several women, including Lady Booby, and Betty, a chambermaid." *** "With 'Shamala,' published in 1741, Fielding set about exposing by brilliant parody the more vulnerable aspects of Samuel Richardson's phenomenally successful 'Pamela.' In the following year he offered, quite deliberately, his own alternative conception of art and purpose of the novel: 'Joseph...

Offers selections from the Slave Narrative Collection recorded by the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938.

"A revealing portrait of the hypocrisy and superficiality of high society, George Eliot's final novel also offers a rare contemporary view of Jewish life in Victorian Britain. Daniel Deronda traces the intertwined lives of two markedly different characters: spirited, selfish Gwendolen Harleth, who maintains her social position and secures her family's future by entering a loveless and increasingly destructive marriage; and compassionate Daniel, whose...

Inspired by transcendentalism, Whitman's immortal collection includes some of the greatest poems of modern times, including his masterpiece "Song of Myself." Shattering standard conventions of symbolism and allegory, it stands as an unabashed celebration of body and nature.

The intrigues of such aptly named characters as Lady Sneerwell, Sir Joseph Surface, Lady Candour, and Sir Benjamin Backbite have amused theater audiences for more than two centuries. They are the invention of the Irish-born playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and they unfold, collide, and backfire hilariously in his masterpiece, The School for Scandal, a play still considered by many  the best comedy of manners in English.
It is a...

Knighted for his service as a field doctor during the Boer War, Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) is best remembered as the creator of Sherlock Holmes. In addition to his ever-popular tales of the Baker Street sleuth, Conan Doyle wrote many works of history and science fiction, as well as plays, poetry, and stories that reflected his interest in the occult.
This anthology offers an excellent selection of tales from throughout the Scottish author's...