Browse by category
The Metamorphosis & Other Stories by Franz Kafka
Category: Philosophy and Religion | Series: Wordsworth Classics of World Literature
This selection of Kafka's shorter prose writings includes one of the few works published during his lifetime: the harrowing story of Gregor Samsa's overnight transformation into a verminous insect, his record of the effect of this sudden metamorphosis on himself and the reaction of his family. It convey ...Show more
The Nightingale by Joy Cowley
Category: Picture Books | Series: World Classics Ser.
Recreated from the Hans Christian Andersen story, The Nightingale tells the tale of a nightingale's singing voice. It is so beautiful that it even warms the heart of Death itself. Sure to move the hearts of readers, the book is beautifully illustrated featuring Chinese backgrounds.
The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
Category: Classic Fiction | Series: Wordsworth Classics of World Literature
A grain in the balance will determine which individual shall live and which shall die...'. Darwin's theory of natural selection issued a profound challenge to orthodox thought and belief: no being or species has been specifically created; all are locked into a pitiless struggle for existence, with extin ...Show more
The Pied Piper of Hamelin by The Brothers Grimm
Category: Classics | Series: World Classics
The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
Category: Classic Fiction | Series: Wordsworth Classics of World Literature
John Bunyan was variously a tinker, soldier, Baptist minister, prisoner and writer of outstanding narrative genius which reached its apotheosis in this, his greatest work. It is an allegory of the Christian life of true brilliance and is presented as a dream which describes the pilgrimage of the hero - ...Show more
The Plays by Christopher Marlowe
Category: Classic | Series: Wordsworth Classics of World Literature
Tamburlaine the Great - I and II, Dr Faustus (A Text and B Text) The Jew of Malta, Edward II, The Massacre at Paris, Dido Queen of Carthage. With Introductions by Emma Smith. If Shakespeare had died at the age Marlowe died, there would have been no question that Marlowe was the leading figure in English ...Show more
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
Category: Classic | Series: Wordsworth Classics of World Literature
The Prophet represents the acme of Kahlil Gibran's achievement. Writing in English, Gibran adopted the tone and cadence of King James I's Bible, fusing his personalised Christian philosophy with a spirit and oriental wisdom that derives from the richly mixed influences of his native Lebanon. His languag ...Show more
The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Category: Wordsworth | Series: Classics of World Literature
With an Introduction by Derek Matravers. In The Social Contract Rousseau (1712-1778) argues for the preservation of individual freedom in political society. An individual can only be free under the law, he says, by voluntarily embracing that law as his own. Hence, being free in society requires each of ...Show more
The Three Little Pigs by Joseph Jacobs; Joy Cowley (retold)
Category: Picture Books | Series: World Classics
The Three Little Pigs is a fable about three pigs who build three houses of different materials. A big bad wolf blows down the first two pigs' houses, made of straw and wood respectively, but is unable to destroy the third pig's house, made of bricks.
The Trial by Franz Kafka
Category: Classic | Series: Wordsworth Classics of World Literature
When people use the adjective 'Kafkaesque', it is The Trial they have in mind - the nightmarish world of Joseph K., where the rules are hidden from even the highest officials, and any help there may be comes from unexpected sources. K. is never told what he is on trial for, and when he says he is innoce ...Show more
The Ubu Plays by JARRY ALFRED
Category: Performing Arts Drama Plays | Series: World Classics
A re-issue of three plays that ushered in the great age of absurdist theatre There was a riot at the first performance of Ubu Roi on 10 December 1896, when Firmin Gemier, playing Ubu, strode to the footlights and roared: "Merde!" at the audience, and theatre would never be the same again. Ubu became a f ...Show more
Three Theban Plays by Sophocles
Category: Classic | Series: Classics of World Literature Ser.
Features three plays which are not about fate and irony, but are about character, choice and consequence. In "Antigone", a woman defies human law. "Oedipus the Tyrant" is the story of a ruler destroyed by the qualities which made him ruler in the first place. In "Oedipus at Colonus", the aged king achie ...Show more