Project Gutenberg

Anna Karenina tells of the doomed love affair between the sensuous and rebellious Anna and the dashing officer, Count Vronsky. Tragedy unfolds as Anna rejects her passionless marriage and must endure the hypocrisies of society. Set against a vast and richly textured canvas of nineteenth-century Russia, the novel's seven major characters create a dynamic imbalance, playing out the contrasts of city and country life and all the variations on love and...

A modern verse translation of Homer's epic poem "The Odyssey," which recounts the experiences of Odysseus during his return from the Trojan War. Includes an introduction and notes.

"Accompany a band of merry medieval pilgrims as they make their way-on motorcycles, of course-to Canterbury. Meeting at the Tabard Inn, the travelers, including a battle-worn knight, a sweetly pretentious prioress, the bawdy Wife of Bath, and an emaciated scholar-clerk, come up with a plan to pass time on the journey to Thomas à Becket's shrine by telling stories. The twenty-four tales, which range from high romance set in ancient Greece to low comedy...

Presents a newly edited text of William Shakespeare's "King Lear," along with detailed notes and performance annotations, introduction by Harold Bloom, commentaries by various writers including Charles Dickens, Leo Tolstoy, and John Keats, plot summary, biography, and literary criticism.

A miser learns the true meaning of Christmas when three ghostly visitors review his past and foretell his future. The story of Ebenezer Scrooge opens on a Christmas Eve as cold as Scrooge's own heart. That night, he receives three ghostly visitors: the terrifying spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come. Each takes him on a heart-stopping journey, yielding glimpses of Tiny Tim and Bob Cratchit, the horrifying spectres of Want and Ignorance,...