Various Readers

Planning a school or amateur Shakespeare production? The best way to experience the plays is to perform them, but getting started can be a challenge: The complete plays are too long and complex, while scene selections or simplified language are too limited. "The 30-Minute Shakespeare" is a new series of abridgements that tell the "story" of each play from start to finish while keeping the beauty of Shakespeare's language intact. Specific stage directions...

First performed in 1895, "An Ideal Husband" is Oscar Wilde's classic and much-loved comedic drama. The play tells the story of an up-and-coming politician, Sir Robert Chiltern, who tries to hide his secret past from his judgmental wife and the blackmail scheme he is forced to participate in to keep that secret quiet. Lady Chiltern has a very particular idea of what makes the "ideal husband" which leaves her with little tolerance for Sir Robert's all...

Jim, a young British seaman, becomes first mate on the Patna, a ship full of pilgrims travelling to Mecca for the Hadj. When the ship starts rapidly taking on water and disaster seems imminent, Jim joins his captain and other crew members in abandoning the ship and its passengers. A few days later, they are picked up by a British ship. However, the Patna and its passengers are later also saved, and the reprehensible actions of the crew are exposed....

During her prolific career, popular English children's writer Edith Nesbit wrote or collaborated on over sixty books of fiction for children in her illustrious literary career. In "Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare" first published as "The Children's Shakespeare" in 1897, she turns her attention to a series of interpretations of several of William Shakespeare's best-known comedies and dramas. These retellings of many of Shakespeare's plays are written...

""A triumphant general returns to Rome from a war against the Goths and descends into a vicious circle of revenge by refusing to show mercy to his conquered enemy. Blood begets more blood in Titus Andronicus, a fictional drama drawn from a tale by Ovid. Shakespeare styled this early play in the manner of a "revenge tragedy," a genre rooted in classical theater and enormously successful with Elizabethan audiences. Enacting grotesque incidents of rape,...

Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince and Other Stories(1888) is an inscrutable, magical fairy tale collection that has filled readers of all ages with joy and wonder. Each story explores profound truths of love, morality, and suffering; yet there is a poignant beauty that shines through each of these remarkable and timeless tales. The opening story, "The Happy Prince" is set in a town full of suffering, where a little sparrow who had been abandoned by...

Believed to have been written in 1591, William Shakespeare's "Richard III" is one of the bards first plays, the first installment in a tetralogy of plays which includes "Henry IV, Part I," "Henry IV, Part II," and "Henry V." One of the longest of Shakespeare's plays and consequently rarely performed unabridged, "Richard III" is the story of the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of King Richard III of England. The play begins with...

When a mysterious houseboat appears on the river Styx, it brings an influx of famous souls who begin to flock towards the new favored location. A Houseboat on the Styx is a series of different stories that tie into one exciting narrative. Charon is a mythological character who navigates the Styx river under the guidance of Hades. The water acts as a border between the living world and the afterlife. As a ferryman, Charon transports deceased souls...

Immerse yourself in the timeless poetic epic of "Paradise Lost" by John Milton, a masterpiece of English literature. This epic poem transports you to the heart of a cosmic struggle between good and evil, exploring themes of the fall of man, redemption, and the quest for meaning. Follow the fate of Satan, cast out of paradise and determined to corrupt humanity, as well as that of Adam and Eve, the first humans faced with temptation and the loss of...

Running away is the only option. Benito's father, Xavier, had been in Iraq for more than a year. When he returns, Benito's family life is not the same. Xavier suffers from PTSD-post-traumatic stress disorder-and yells constantly. He causes such a scene at a school function that Benny is embarrassed to go to back to Southside High. Benny can't handle seeing his dad so crazy, so he decides to run away. Will Benny find a new life? Or will he learn...