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Midsummer Night’s Dream
Edited, Introduced and Annotated by Cedric Watts, M.A., Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of English, University of Sussex Its lyricism, comedy (both broad and subtle) and magical transformations have long made A Midsummer Night’s Dream one of the most popular of Shakespeare’s works. The supernatural and the mundane, the illusory and the substantial, are all shimmeringly blended…. Read More
Merchant of Venice
Edited, introduced and annotated by Cedric Watts, M.A., Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of English, University of Sussex The Merchant of Venice is one of Shakespeare’s most popular comedies, but it remains deeply controversial. The text may seem anti-Semitic; yet repeatedly, in performance, it has revealed a contrasting nature. Shylock, though vanquished in the law-court, often triumphs in the theatre…. Read More
100 Selected Stories
With a new Introduction by Cedric Watts, M.A., Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of English, University of Sussex This selection of a hundred of O. Henry’s succinct tales displays the range, humour and humanity of a perennially popular short-story writer. Here Henry gives a richly colourful and exuberantly entertaining panorama of social life, ranging from thieves to… Read More
Barnaby Rudge
Illustrations by Hablot K. Browne (Phiz) and George Cattermole, with a new Introduction by Cedric Watts, M.A., Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of English, University of Sussex. This vivid historical and political novel by Dickens is centred on the infamous ‘No Popery’ riots, instigated by Lord George Gordon, which terrorised London in 1780. Dickens’ targets are prejudice,… Read More
Christmas Books
With illustrations by Edward Landseer, Daniel Maclise, Clarkson Stanfield, Frank Stone, Richard Doyle, John Leech and John Tenniel, and with a new Introduction by Cedric Watts, M.A., Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of English, University of Sussex. In these five long stories, written specifically for Christmas, Dickens combines his concern for social ills with the myths and… Read More
Best Short Stories
With a new Introduction by Cedric Watts, M.A., Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of English, University of Sussex. Guy de Maupassant was a master of the short story. This collection displays his lively diversity, with tales that vary in theme and tone, ranging from tragedy and satire to comedy and farce. In a lucidly direct style, he… Read More
Antony and Cleopatra
Edited, introduced and annotated by Cedric Watts, B.A., Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of English, University of Sussex. Antony and Cleopatra is one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies: a spectacular, widely-ranging drama of love and war, passion and politics. Antony is divided between the responsibilities of imperial power and the intensities of his sexual relationship with Cleopatra. She,… Read More
Casebook of Sherlock Holmes & His Last Bow
With a new Introduction by David Stuart Davies. ‘Surely no man would take up my profession if it were not that danger attracts him.’ In The Casebook, you can read the final twelve stories that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about his brilliant detective. They are perhaps the most unusual and the darkest that he… Read More
Complete Richard Hannay Stories
Major General Sir Richard Hannay is the fictional secret agent created by writer and diplomat John Buchan, who was himself an Intelligence officer during the First World War. The strong and silent type, combining the dour temperament of the Scot with the stiff upper lip of the Englishman, Hannay is pre-eminent among early spy-thriller heroes…. Read More