Drawing on Charles Dickens's own, often difficult childhood, to create a compelling story of personal success, David Copperfield is edited with an introduction and notes by Jeremy Tambling in Penguin Classics. David Copperfield is the story of a young man's adventures on his journey from an unhappy and impoverished childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist. Among the gloriously vivid cast of characters he encounters are...

'The Tempest' has long been regarded as Shakespeare's swan-song, though recent chronologies suggest he went on to compose 'Henry VIII' and 'The Two Noble Kinsmen' after. In its first publication (in the First Folio of 1623), 'The Tempest' appears in the 'Comedies' section. In modern criticism, it is more likely to be described as a 'late play' (written towards the end of what we perceive to be Shakespeare's writing career, c. 1607-13) or a 'romance'...

Contains facsimile reproduction of the "title-page of the genuine edition of 1600. The photograph is made from the Elizabethan club copy."Includes bibliographical references (p. 92) and index.

One night on the heath, the brave and respected general Macbeth encounters three witches who foretell that he will become king of Scotland. At first skeptical, he’s urged on by the ruthless, single-minded ambitions of Lady Macbeth, who suffers none of her husband’s doubt. But seeing the prophecy through to the bloody end leads them both spiralling into paranoia, tyranny, madness, and murder. This shocking tragedy - a violent caution to those...

Presents the original text of Shakespeare's play side by side with a modern version, with discussion questions, role-playing scenarios, and other study activities. Marc Antony comes "to bury Caesar, not to praise him," and his funeral oration unleashes a power struggle among the Roman Empire's mightiest generals and statesmen. Books in this new, illustrated series present complete texts of Shakespeare's plays. However, the lines are set up so students...

Bibliography: p. 131.

"The Prince" is the most controversial book about winning power - and holding on to it - ever written. Machiavelli's tough-minded, pragmatic argument that sometimes it is necessary to abandon ethics to succeed made his name notorious. Yet his book has been read by strategists, politicians and business people ever since as the ultimate guide to realpolitik. How can a leader be strong and decisive, yet still inspire loyalty in his followers? How do...

Presents a guide to Shakespeare's "Othello", including text and audio from various productions and preformances that provide a context for the play and it characters.

These playful verses by a celebrated poet have delighted readers and cat lovers around the world ever since they were gathered for publication in 1939. As Valerie Eliot has pointed out, there are a number of references to cats in T. S. Eliot's work, but it was to his godchildren, particularly Tom Faber and Alison Tandy, in the 1930s, that he first revealed himself as "Old Possum" and for whom he composed his poems.

One of the great Shakespearean tragedies, Macbeth is a dark and bloody drama of ambition, murder, guilt and revenge. Prompted by the prophecies of three mysterious witches and goaded by his ambitious wife, the Scottish thane Macbeth murders Duncan, King of Scotland, in order to succeed him on the throne. This foul deed soon entangles the conscience-stricken nobleman in a web of treachery, deceit and more murders that ultimately spells his doom.