Along with Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone forms part of the Oedipus cycle in which Sophocles dramatizes the tragic downfall of the house of Oedipus. The final chapter in the saga, this play follows Oedipus' daughter Antig...

"Oedipus the King" (or, "Oedipus Rex") is probably Sophocles' most famous work, first performed about 429 B. C. It should be required reading for every college Freshman. As had been prophesied, Oedipus unknowingly kills his father, Laius, a...

Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is a tale of two teenage "star-cross'd lovers" who fall in love despite the ongoing feud between their two families, the Montagues and the Capulets. Friar Lawrence, a Franciscan monk, hopes to reconcile the fe...

Hamlet, one of William Shakespeare's most popular plays, tells the story of a Danish prince haunted by the ghost of his murdered father who wants revenge against the brother (Hamlet's uncle) who poisoned him and married his wife. Hamlet tak...

In Macbeth, or "the Scottish play" as actors sometimes refer to it, William Shakespeare fictionalizes the historical account of King Macbeth, ruler of Scotland from 1040 until his death in 1057. In Shakespeare's drama, Macbeth is urged on b...

Considered one of Shakespeare's greatest plays, The Tragedy of King Lear is based on the life of King Leir, a legendary king of Britain who is said to have had the longest reign of all that line of monarchs at sixty years. In Shakespeare's...

Quite simply the greatest writer of all time, Shakespeare belongs on every bookshelf. You might be surprised by some of the stories you never knew.This complete and unabridged edition contains every word that Shakespeare wrote — all 37 trag...

Goethe's masterpiece and perhaps the greatest work in German literature, Faust has made the legendary German alchemist one of the central myths of the Western world. Here indeed is a monumental Faust, an audacious man boldly wagering with t...