Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known popularly by his stage name Molière, is regarded as one of the masters of French comedic drama. When Molière began acting in Paris there were two well-established theatrical companies, those of the Hôtel de Bourgogne and the Marais. Joining these theatrical companies would have been impossible for a new member of the acting profession like Molière and thus he performed with traveling troupes of actors in the French...

One of George Bernard Shaw's most performed and studied plays, "Arms and the Man" is a classic example of Shaw's comedic wit. First produced in 1894, the play is set during the Serbo-Bulgarian war and tells the story of Raina Petkoff, a young Bulgarian woman, who is engaged to Sergius, a soldier away at war whom she idolizes. While both her father and fiancé are away fighting, Raina, at home with her mother, has a very innocent and romantic idea...

Idylls of the King (1859-1885) is a cycle of narrative poems by British poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Written while Tennyson was serving as Poet Laureate, Idylls of the King reworks the medieval Arthurian legend in blank verse and with an elegiac tone. Based on Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur and the early British Mabinogion manuscripts, Tennyson's work connects an ancient tradition to the reign and ideals of Queen Victoria. "The Coming of Arthur"...

The cycle of 55 sonnets that comprise Rainer Maria Rilke's "Sonnets to Orpheus" were written in a period of three weeks during 1922, a time which the poet himself described as a "savage creative storm." Inspired by the death of his daughter's friend, Wera Knoop, Rilke commenced to the production of "Sonnets to Orpheus", a work filled with mythological and biblical allusions. During the same burst of creative energy he set to working on the completion...

Ellida Wangel grew up loving the sea, but she eventually moved away and married a doctor instead of the sailor who originally stole her heart. This has put a strain on her relationship with her husband and his two daughters, from his previous marriage. Ellida Wangel is the second wife of widower, Dr. Edvard Wangel. She is the stepmother to his daughters, Bolette and Hilde, who prefer to keep their distance. The family dynamic is often cold as the...

"The definitive biography of the world's most popular novel. Putting a century of scholarship on one of the world's most enduring popular novels into accessible, narrative form, this new approach to a classic of world literature is written for a wide general readership. Packed full of information about the book's origins and later career on stage and screen, The Novel of the Century brings to life the extraordinary story of how Victor Hugo managed...

Poeta en Nueva York reúne poesías de indudable inspiración surrealista. Son, sin embargo, bastante más lúgubres que la mayor parte de los poemas de los otros libros de Lorca. Escrito entre 1929-1930 en Nueva York, durante la residencia de Federico García Lorca como estudiante en la Universidad de Columbia, este libro se publicó póstumamente en 1940. García Lorca es testigo de la Nueva York que sufre por la pobreza tras el crack de 1929. Escribe...

"Spring Awakening" is German playwright's Frank Wedekind's controversial and shocking drama of sexuality and repression. First performed in 1906 in Berlin, though written by Wedekind several years earlier, the play focuses on the lives on several adolescents coming of age in late nineteenth century Germany. Three teenage boys, Melchior, Moritz, and Wendl, and girls Wendla and Martha, struggle with abuse, a lack of information and acceptance, and their...

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812-1818) is a book length poem by British Romantic Lord Byron. Published in cantos, the narrative poem is arranged in four parts, each following the journey of Harold, a character based on Byron himself. Childe Harold's Pilgrimage established Byron's reputation as a leading poet of his era, laying the foundation for many of the elements of Romantic poetry-melancholy, sublime and beautiful landscapes, and a wandering hero-that...

"¿Por qué hay que leer Crimen y castigo ? Pues porque Crimen y castigo es el producto de un genio cuyo mundo gira entre la muerte y la locura, porque Dostoievski era un tío que retornaba vivo de aquellos tenebrosos mundos (sus ataques) directamente para escribir historias que también puedan ser devoradas por la juventud del siglo XXI. Y porque Fiódor Mijáilovich Dostoievski ha sido el escritor que ha compuesto los análisis psicológicos más...