The modern library

This series presents students with a library of outstanding plays, many of which are otherwise unobtainable, or available only in out-of-date or unannotated editions. The texts are newly edited, with modernized spelling and punctuation where appropriate; and there are scholarly introductions and annotation. Oscar Wilde was already one of the best-known literary figures in Britain when he was persuaded to turn his extraordinary talents to the theatre. Between 1891 and 1895 he produced a sequence of distinctive plays which spearheaded the dramatic renaissance of the 1890s, and retain their power today. The social comedies, Lady Windermere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance, and An Ideal Husband, offer a moving as well as witty dissection of society and its morals, with a sharp focus on sexual politics. By contrast, the experimental, symbolist Salome, written originally in French, was banned for public performance by the English censor. Wilde's final dramatic triumph was his 'trivial' comedy for serious people, The Importance of Being Earnest, arguably the greatest farcical comedy in English.

This work contains selections of the philosophy of George Santayana.

First published in 1908, The Old Wives' Tale affirms the integrity of ordinary lives as it tells the story of the Baines sisters—shy, retiring Constance and defiant, romantic Sophia—over the course of nearly half a century. Bennett traces the sisters' lives from childhood in their father's drapery shop in provincial Bursley, England, during the mid-Victorian era, through their married lives, to the modern industrial age, when they are reunited as old women. The setting moves from the Five Towns of Staffordshire to exotic and cosmopolitan Paris, while the action moves from the subdued domestic routine of the Baines household to the siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War.

32 stories: Metzengerstein The Duc L'Omelette MS. Fmrnd in a Bottle [Assignation]( [Berenice]( Morella Shadow [Silence — A Fable]( Ligeia [Fall of the House of Usher]( [William Wilson]( The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion The Man of the Crowd The Murders in the Rue Morgue [Island of the Fay]( A Descent into the Maelström Three Sundays in a Week [Eleonora]( The Oval Portrait [Masque of the Red Death]( [Pit and the Pendulum]( [Tell-tale Heart]( The Gold-Bug [Black Cat]( The Elk [Purloined Letter]( [Imp of the Perverse]( [Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar]( [Cask of Amontillado]( Hop-Frog [Von Kempelen and His Discovery]( The Light-House 42 poems: Tamerlane To ("I Saw on thy Bridal Day") A Dream Within a Dream A Dream The Happiest Day, the Happiest Hour The Lake: To Alone Sonnet—To Science Songs from A1 Aaraaf ("The Bowers To To the River Romance To — ("I heed Fairyland To Helen Lenore Israfei The City in the Sea The Sleeper The Valley of Unrest (first version) The Valley of Unrest (final version) The Coliseum To One in Paradise (in The Assignation, p. 80) Hymn Sonnet to Zante Bridal Ballad The Haunted Palace (in The Fall of the House of Usher, p. 122) Sonnet—Silence The Conqueror Worm (in Ligeia, p. 107) Dreamland [Raven]( Eulalie—A Song To M.L.S—- Ulalume To Helen For Annie Eldorado To My [Annabel Lee]( The Bells 11 essays: Watkins Tottle Hyperion Exordium Instinct vs Reason—A Black Cat R. W. Emerson Hazlitt, The Characters of Shakspeare Milton, Prme Works The Philosophy of Composition Hawthorne, Tales, etc. The Poetic Principle Marginalia (extracts)