Much Ado About Nothing William Shakespeare A favorite on stage and in classrooms, Much Ado About Nothing presents two contrasting love stories: the impulsive romance between Hero and Claudio, threatened by deception from the scheming Don John, and the witty,…
The Merchant of Venice William Shakespeare In The Merchant of Venice, the path to marriage is hazardous. To win Portia, Bassanio must pass a test prescribed by her father’s will, choosing correctly among three caskets or chests. If he fails,…
Henry IV, Part One William Shakespeare Henry IV, Part 1, sometimes titled 1 Henry IV, is a history play by William Shakespeare, chronicling part of the reign of King Henry IV from the battle at Homildon Hill late in 1402…
A Midsummer Night’s Dream William Shakespeare In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare stages the workings of love. Theseus and Hippolyta, about to marry, are figures from mythology. In the woods outside Theseus’s Athens, two young men and two young women…
Hamlet William Shakespeare In this quintessential Shakespeare tragedy, a young prince’s halting pursuit of revenge for the murder of his father unfolds in a series of highly charged confrontations that have held audiences spellbound for nearly four centuries. Those fateful…
King Lear William Shakespeare King Lear tells the tale of a King in pre-Roman Britain. Lear transfers his holdings and power to two of his three daughters after the two profess their affection for him. His third daughter refuses to…
Whistler Ann Patchett When Daphne Fuller and her husband Jonathan visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, they notice an older, white-haired gentleman following them. The man turns out to be Eddie Triplett, her former stepfather, who had been married to…
Steppenwolf Hermann Hesse Harry Haller is a sad and lonely figure, a reclusive intellectual for whom life holds no joy. He struggles to reconcile the wild primeval wolf and the rational man within himself without surrendering to the bourgeois values…
The Bean Trees Barbara Kingsolver It is the charming, engrossing tale of rural Kentucky native Taylor Greer, who only wants to get away from her roots and avoid getting pregnant. She succeeds, but inherits a three-year-old Native American girl named…
Life & Death & Giants Ron Rindo Gabriel Fisher was born an orphan, weighing eighteen pounds and measuring twenty-seven inches long. No one in Lakota, Wisconsin, knows what to make of him. He walks at eight months, communicates with animals,…