"Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales brings together an unforgettable group of pilgrims on their way to Canterbury, pilgrims who came from all ranks of society, from the crusading Knight and burly Miller to the worldly Monk and the famously lusty Wife of Bath. Their tales are as various as the tellers, including romance, bawdy comedy, beast fable, learned debate, parable, and Eastern adventure. The resulting collection gives us a set of characters so vivid...

"Together with A Lover's Complaint' and little-known alternative versions of four of the sonnets. Edited with an introduction by John Hollander. ... the most beautifully printed text available.'"--

"Before there was Winnie-the-Pooh, there was Mr. Edward Bear, a rotund teddy bear who was proud of his stature. Meet him and many other lovable characters in this verse collection that launched A. A. Milne's career as a children's author and led to the creation of his novels about Winnie-the-Pooh and Christopher Robin. Full of whimsy, humor, and imagination, these children's poems tell of visits to the zoo and Buckingham Palace, the romance between...

"Forty years ago, Steven Smith found a copy of a famous children's book by disgraced author Edith Twyford, its margins full of strange markings and annotations. Severely dyslexic and wanting to know more, he took it to his remedial English teacher Miss Iles, not realising the chain of events that he was setting in motion. Miss Iles became convinced that the book was the key to solving a puzzle, and that a message in secret code ran through all Twyford's...

The creation of the Oxford English Dictionary began in 1857, took seventy years to complete, drew from tens of thousands of brilliant minds, and organized the sprawling language into 414,825 precise definitions. But hidden within the rituals of its creation is a fascinating and mysterious story - a story of two remarkable men whose strange twenty-year relationship lies at the core of this historic undertaking. Professor James Murray, an astonishingly...

Literary scholar, professor, and poet J. Lesslie Hall is best known for his 1897 translation of the Old English epic poem "Beowulf." The story focuses on the titular character of Beowulf, a Scandinavian hero who comes to the aid of the Danes to save their land from a human-demon monster named Grendel. After defeating Grendel, Beowulf must then kill Grendel's mother. He returns to Scandinavia with more fame and accord and eventually becomes king. Then...

"The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in the year approximately 1603, and based on the short story Un Capitano Moro ("A Moorish Captain") by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565. This tightly constructed work revolves around four central characters: Othello, a Moorish general in the Venetian army; his beloved wife, Desdemona; his loyal lieutenant, Cassio;...

"Baudelaire's Fleurs du Mal, which in successive editions contained all of his published poems, has for over a hundred years now opened new vistas for man's imagination and quickened the sensibilities of poets everywhere. The greatest French Poet of the 19th century, Baudelaire was also the first truly modern poet, and his direct and indirect influence on the literature of our time has been immeasurable." "Selected Flowers of Evil contains 53 poems...

Is there a more enduring, legendary detective than Sherlock Holmes? This quintessential collection includes many of the famous cases that made the legendary Sherlock Holmes one of fiction's most popular creations. Set against the foggy backdrop of London and the English countryside, each story unravels an exciting new mystery, from mistaken identity and ominous omens to counterfeit currency and jewellery theft. Including 'A Scandal in Bohemia', 'The...

A collection of both previously unpublished works and classic essays includes discussions of recent cultural and political events, social networking, libraries, and the failure to address global warming. "Since she burst spectacularly into view with her debut novel, White Teeth, almost two decades ago, Zadie Smith has established herself not just as one of the world's preeminent fiction writers, but also as a brilliant and singular essayist. She...