A Signet classic

Dead Souls is a socially critical black comedy. Set in Russia before the emancipation of serfs in 1861, the "dead souls" are dead serfs still being counted by landowners as property, as well as referring to the landowners' morality. Through surreal and often dark comedy, Gogol criticizes Russian society after the Napoleonic Wars. He intended to also offer solutions to the problems he satirized, but died before he ever completed the second part of what was intended to be a trilogy. The work famously ends mid-sentence.

The story of the romance between a Navajo boy and girl.

Forty-nine fairy tales by the Danish author whose name is synonomous with stories for children and adults.

Jane Addams's narrative of life in an immigrant urban neighborhood provides students with an introduction to the issues of the Progressive era and the tenets of social activism. This new teaching edition reduces Addams's original text by about 35 percent, trimming illustrative detail to focus on the ideological underpinnings of the original work. The author sketches a brief biographical portrait of Addams, outlines the decisions and convictions that led her to found Hull-House, and includes a vivid picture of turn-of-the-century Chicago. Related documents include a description of life at Hull-House from the perspective of an immigrant who frequented it, an early review of Hull-House, and perspectives from other reformers.

For contents, see Author Catalog.

The Master of Irony. Readers the world over recognize O. Henry as the best short story writer of the early twentieth century. Widely known as a master of irony, O. Henry also displays here dazzling wordplay and a wry combination of pathos and humor.

Contains: [Pride and Prejudice]( [Wuthering Heights]( Silas Marner

Here are some of Tolstoy's extraordinary short stories, from -The Death of Ivan Ilyich—in a masterly new translation-to -The Raid,- -The Wood-felling,- -Three Deaths,- -Polikushka,- -After the Ball,- and -The Forged Coupon,- all gripping and eloquent lessons on two of Tolstoy's most persistent themes: life and death. More experimental than his novels, Tolstoy's stories are essential reading for anyone interested in his development as one of the major writers and thinkers of his time. As Ivan Ilyich lies dying he begins to re-evaluate his life, searching for meaning that will make sense of his sufferings. In "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" and the other works in this volume, Tolstoy conjures characters who, tested to the limit, reveal glorious and unexpected reserves of courage, or baseness of a near inhuman kind. Two vivid parables and "The Forged Coupon", a tale of criminality, explore class relations after the emancipation of the serfs in 1861 and the connection between an ethical life and worldly issues. In "Master and Workman" Tolstoy creates one of his most gripping dramas about human relationships put to the test in an extreme situation. "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" is an existential masterpiece, a biting satire that recounts with extraordinary power the final illness and death of a bourgeois lawyer. In his Introduction Andrew Kahn explores Tolstoy's moral concerns and the stylistic features of these late stories, sensitively translated by Nicolas Pasternak Slater. - Back cover.

Published in 1882, Whitman's uniquely revealing impressions of the people, places, and events of his time, principally the Civil War era and its aftermath, offer a rare excursion into the mind and heart of one of America's greatest poets. His intimate observations and reflections have profoundly deepened understanding of 19th-century American life.

The Cossacks (Russian: Казаки [Kazaki]) is a short novel by Leo Tolstoy, published in 1863 in the popular literary magazine The Russian Messenger. It was originally called Young Manhood. Both Ivan Turgenev and the Nobel prize-winning Russian writer Ivan Bunin gave the work great praise, with Turgenev calling it his favourite work by Tolstoy. Tolstoy began work on the story in August 1853. In August 1857, after having reread the Iliad, he vowed to completely rewrite The Cossacks. In February 1862, after having lost badly at cards he finished the novel to help pay his debts. The novel was published in 1863, the same year his first child was born. Source: Wikipedia

Contains: [The Awakening]Wiser than a god. A point at issue! A shameful affair. Miss McEnders. At the 'Cadian Ball. [Désirée's Baby]Madame Celestin's divorce. A lady of Bayou St. John. La belle Zoraïde. A respectable woman. [The Story of an Hour]Regret. The kiss. Athénaïse. [A Pair of Silk Stockings]The storm. Charlie. : :

"Won't you stay a little longer?" the hostess asked while she held the girl's hand and smiled. "It's too early for every one to go - it's too absurd." Mrs. Churchley inclined her head to one side and looked gracious; she flourished about her face, in a vaguely protecting sheltering way, an enormous fan of red feathers. Everything in her composition, for Adela Chart, was enormous. She had big eyes, big teeth, big shoulders, big hands, big rings and bracelets, big jewels of every sort and many of them.

Theodor Storm's novella is a gripping dramatization of the bloody reckonings that lie beneath the surface of civilization.

This unique volume brings together four of Moliere's greatest verse comedies covering the best years of his prolific writing career. Actor, director, and playwright, Moliere (1622-73) was one of the finest and most influential French dramatists, adept at portraying human foibles and puncturing pomposity. The School for Wives was his first great success; Tartuffe, condemned and banned for five years, his most controversial play. The Misanthrope is his acknowledged masterpiece, and The Clever Women his last, and perhaps best-constructed, verse piece. In addition this collection includes a spirited attack on his enemies and a defense of his theater, in the form of two sparkling short plays, The School for Wives Criticized and The Impromptu at Versailles.

"The Underdogs is the first great novel about the first great revolution of the twentieth century. Demetrio Macías, a poor, illiterate Indian, must join the rebels to save his family. Courageous and charismatic, he earns a generalship in Pancho Villa's army, only to become discouraged with the cause after it becomes hopelessly factionalized. At once a spare, moving depiction of the limits of political idealism, an authentic representation of Mexico's peasant life, and a timeless portrait of revolution, The Underdogs is an iconic novel of the Latin American experience and a powerful novel about the disillusionment of war."--The publisher.

Contains: - Love's Labour's Lost - Merry Wives of Windsor - Two Gentlemen of Verona