Odysseus--soldier, sailor, trickster, and everyman--is one of the most recognizable characters in world literature. His arduous, ten-year journey home after the Trojan War, the subject of Homer's Odyssey, is the most accessible tale to survive from ancient Greece, and its impact is still felt today across many different cultures. This lively free verse translation, from one of today's leading Homeric scholars, preserves the clarity and simplicity...

Completely re-edited, the New Folger Library edition of Shakespeare's plays puts readers in touch with current ways of thinking about Shakespeare. Each freshly edited text is based directly on what the editors consider the best early printed version of the play.

One of the greatest of Shakespeare's tragedies, Othello tells the story of a Moorish general in command of the armed forces of Venice who earns the enmity of his ensign Iago by passing him over for a promotion. Partly for revenge and partly out of pure evil, Iago plots to convince Othello that Desdemona, his wife, has been unfaithful to him. Iago succeeds in his evil aims only too well, for the enraged Othello murders Desdemona. When Othello later...

"In this family history, Fate and the gods decree that each generation will repeat the crimes and endure the suffering of their forebears. When Agamemnon is murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra, their son Orestes must avenge his father's death. Only Orestes' appeal to the goddess Athena saves him from his mother's Furies, breaking the bloody chain; together gods and humans inaugurate a way of just conduct that will ensure stable families and a strong...

"Theaetetus" is a dialogue by Plato from his middle period, written sometime around 369 BC. It is widely considered to be one of his best works and remains a significant contribution to the philosophy of knowledge. The work is framed as a dialogue between Socrates and a promising, but humble, young geometry student named Theaetetus. In one of the most well-known scenes in Plato's dialogues, Socrates discusses his method for eliciting thoughtful discussion...

Written more than two thousand years ago and one of Western literature's indisputable masterpieces, the Aeneid is the Roman “answer” to Homer's epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. The latter celebrate Greek civilization through the stories of Greek victory in the Trojan War and the exploits of Odysseus. Vergil's Aeneid sings the triumph of Roman culture, transforming Troy's tragedy into a step on the path toward the founding of Rome by the descendants...

Tells the story of a poor orphan's adventures in the criminal underworld of mid-nineteenth-century London.

The four tragedies collected in this volume all focus on a central character, once powerful, brought down by betrayal, jealousy, guilt and hatred. The first playwright to depict suffering without a reference to gods, Euripides (484 - 407 BC) made his characters speak in human terms and face the consequences of their actions.