Introduction by Mary Oliver Commentary by Henry James, Robert Frost, Matthew Arnold, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Henry David Thoreau The definitive collection of Emerson's major speeches, essays, and poetry, The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson chronicles the life's work of a true "American Scholar." As one of the architects of the transcendentalist movement, Emerson embraced a philosophy that championed the individual, emphasized independent thought, and prized "the splendid labyrinth of one's own perceptions." More than any writer of his time, he forged...
Introduction by Mary Oliver Commentary by Henry James, Robert Frost, Matthew Arnold, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Henry David Thoreau ...
The first novel published by an African American, Clotel takes up the story, in circulation at the time, that Thomas Jefferson fathered an illegitimate mulatto daughter who was sold into slavery. Powerfully reimagining this story, and weaving together a variety of contemporary source materials, Brown fills the novel with daring escapes and encounters, as well as searing depictions of the American slave trade. An innovative and challenging work of literary invention, Clotel is receiving much renewed attention today. William Wells Brown, though born into slavery, escaped to become one of...
The first novel published by an African American, Clotel takes up the story, in circulation at the time, that Thomas Jefferson fathered an illegitimat...
Introduction by Anna Quindlen Commentary by Margaret Oliphant, George Saintsbury, Mark Twain, A. C. Bradley, Walter A. Raleigh, and Virginia Woolf -It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.- So begins Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen's witty comedy of manners--one of the most popular novels of all time--that features splendidly civilized sparring between the proud Mr. Darcy and the prejudiced Elizabeth Bennet as they play out their spirited courtship in a series of...
Introduction by Anna Quindlen Commentary by Margaret Oliphant, George Saintsbury, Mark Twain, A. C. Bradley, Walter A. Raleigh, and Virg...
Introduction by Elizabeth Hardwick Illustrations by Rockwell Kent First published in 1851, Herman Melville's masterpiece is, in Elizabeth Hardwick's words, -the greatest novel in American literature.- The saga of Captain Ahab and his monomaniacal pursuit of the white whale remains a peerless adventure story but one full of mythic grandeur, poetic majesty, and symbolic power. Filtered through the consciousness of the novel's narrator, Ishmael, Moby-Dick draws us into a universe full of fascinating characters and stories, from the noble cannibal Queequeg to the...
Introduction by Elizabeth Hardwick Illustrations by Rockwell Kent First published in 1851, Herman Melville's masterpiece is, ...
One of the most accomplished and prominent novels of the Victorian era, Middlemarch is an unsurpassed portrait of nineteenth-century English provincial life. Dorothea Brooke is a young woman of fervent ideals who yearns to effect social change yet faces resistance from the society she inhabits. In this epic in a small landscape, Eliot's large cast of precisely delineated characters and the rich tapestry of their stories result in a wise, compassionate, and astute vision of human nature. As Virginia Woolf declared, George Eliot "was one of the first English novelists to discover that...
One of the most accomplished and prominent novels of the Victorian era, Middlemarch is an unsurpassed portrait of nineteenth-century English pr...
Introduction by Diane Johnson Commentary by G. K. Chesterton, Virginia Woolf, Elizabeth Rigby, George Saintsbury, and Anthony Trollope Initially published under the pseudonym Currer Bell in 1847, Charlotte Bronte s "Jane Eyre" erupted onto the English literary scene, immediately winning the devotion of many of the world s most renowned writers, including William Makepeace Thackeray, who declared it a work of great genius. Widely regarded as a revolutionary novel, Bronte s masterpiece introduced the world to a radical new type of heroine, one whose defiant virtue and moral courage...
Introduction by Diane Johnson Commentary by G. K. Chesterton, Virginia Woolf, Elizabeth Rigby, George Saintsbury, and Anthony Trollope Initia...
Introduction by Kaye Gibbons Edited and with notes by Nina Baym Commentary by Elizabeth Blackwell, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and from "The Picayune's Creole Cook Book" " " "The Awakening "shocked turn-of-the-century readers with its forthright treatment of sex and suicide. Departing from literary convention, Kate Chopin failed to condemn her heroine's desire for an affair with the son of a Louisiana resort owner whom she meets on vacation. The power of sensuality, the delusion of ecstatic love, and the solitude that accompanies the trappings of middle-...
Introduction by Kaye Gibbons Edited and with notes by Nina Baym Commentary by Elizabeth Blackwell, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Charlotte Perkins...
Introduction by Robert Reich Commentary by R. H. Campbell and A. S. Skinner Adam Smith's masterpiece, first published in 1776, is the foundation of modern economic thought and remains the single most important account of the rise of, and the principles behind, modern capitalism. Written in clear and incisive prose, The Wealth of Nations articulates the concepts indispensable to an understanding of contemporary society; and Robert Reich's Introduction both clarifies Smith's analyses and illuminates his overall relevance to the world in which we live....
Introduction by Robert Reich Commentary by R. H. Campbell and A. S. Skinner Adam Smith's masterpiece, first publish...
