The man we encounter in Ferdinand Dugue's 1857 play is not the bland Shakespeare of history, about whose personal life we know so little. No, this is the playwright we would liked to have known: poet, romantic, hero . . . a larger-than-life figure cutting a swath through sixteenth-century England.

Building on the few known facts of Shakespeare's life -- his unhappy marriage, his friendship with Essex, his favor with Queen Elizabeth I -- Dugue has constructed a remarkably believable portrait of the man who might been been.

A first-rate historical drama translated for the very first...

In the early 1800s, young British aristocrat Aubrey travels through Italy and Greece with the mercurial and fantastic Lord Ruthven. Later, when Ruthven returns from the dead to prey on his sister, Aubrey realizes that the enigmatic stranger is a vampire.

The implacable Lord Ruthven returns in a new, horror-filled story where the deadliest vampire of all comes face-to-face with an even more fearsome enemy--a female ghoul of great necromantic powers.

Arshne Lupin has stolen the Sultan Diamond under the nose of the French Police and Sherlock Holmes has sworn to recover the stone and arrest his rival - all in less than a week! This 1910 French stage play pitting France's notorious Gentleman Burglar against England's Great Detective has never before been translated into English! This edition also includes an original Sherlock Holmes play by renowned playwright and translator Frank J. Morlock.

A rare 1826 French play by master fantasist Charles Nodier revisits the legend of Frankenstein, recasting the legendary scientist as a sorcerer and his Monster as a mute killer from Hell. The Hunchback of Notre-Dame was adapted and rewritten by Victor Hugo himself into a stage play that throws new light on the classic tragedy. These two never-before-translated masterpieces are supplemented by an all-new story by translator Frank J. Morlock (Lord Ruthven), in which the Frankenstein Monster travels back in time to save Quasimodo, but does not count on the intervention of - Dracula! Three tales...

This collection of seven original plays features the Great Detective's encounters with none other than Fanttmas, the French Lord of Terror, Count Dracula, Father Brown, Theodore Roosevelt and more.

New York, 1910. A mysterious criminal mastermind stages a daring escape from the courtroom where he is being tried, after having been arrested by Nick Carter, and challenges the world-famous detective to a contest of wits: Will the mysterious "Mr. Melvil" succeed in kidnapping the rich heiress, Helen Dodler, despite all the resources of Nick Carter and his men? This never before translated play, initially performed at the Theatre de l'Ambigu-Comique in Paris in 1910, was penned by two prolific French vaudeville writers, who had the extraordinary idea to Nick Carter against a villain just as...

As with many of his French contemporaries, Alfred de Vigny (1797-1863) enjoyed the challenge of reworking William Shakespeare's classic plays for a modern audience. "Shylock" (1830) eliminates many of the comic elements of the master's original and focuses on the darker themes of racial prejudice and the relationship between Jew and gentile. The result is another stunning resurrection and reinterpretation of a dramatic masterwork.

Translated for the very first time into English

Since retiring from the legal profession, FRANK J. MORLOCK has translated over a hundred plays from...

Anthony is injured saving a beautiful girl--but can he win her love? The best-known play by French historical novelist Alexandre Dumas, translated for the first time into English.

A mysterious criminal known as Fantomas terrorizes London. Only Sherlock Holmes believes in his existence, but Fantomas murders the great detective in circumstances that point suspicion at an innocent man.