A retelling of the medieval poem about a group of travelers on a pilgrimage to Canterbury and the tales they tell each other. With their astonishing diversity of tone and subject matter, The Canterbury Tales have become one of the touchstones of medieval literature. Translated here into modern English, these tales of a motley crowd of pilgrims drawn from all walks of life-from knight to nun, miller to monk-reveal a picture of English life in the fourteenth...

Booker T. Washington believed that every man and woman deserved a chance, regardless of their skin color. This classic work of literature relays the story of a man born into slavery who, once freed, pursued education and racial equality. Originally published in 1901, the new edition of Booker T. Washington's autobiography features a foreword from media personality and advocate for the advancement of African Americans, Mychal Massie. In his story,...

Presents the original text of Shakespeare's play side by side with a modern version, discusses the author and the theater of his time, and provides quizzes and other study activities.

To the Lighthouse is a 1927 novel by Virginia Woolf. The novel centres on the Ramsay family and their visits to the Isle of Skye in Scotland between 1910 and 1920. Following and extending the tradition of modernist novelists like Marcel Proust and James Joyce, the plot of To the Lighthouse is secondary to its philosophical introspection. Cited as a key example of the literary technique of multiple focalization, the novel includes little dialogue...

In this founding work in the literature of black protest, Du Bois eloquently affirms that it is beneath the dignity of a human being to beg for those rights that belong inherently to all mankind. He also charges that the strategy of accommodation to white supremacy would only serve to perpetuate black oppression.

"Those who want slavery should have the grace to name it by its proper name." -Ayn Rand In a dark, terrifying, and backwards future, people have no names and are taught never to think of themselves. Everything is subordinate to the all-powerful World Council. Individualism is illegal; as is love not authorized by the World Council. Just using the word "I" is a transgression punishable by death. Fear of innovation and change has stifled humanity...

Ibsen's best-known play displays his genius for realistic prose drama. An expression of women's rights, the play climaxes when the central character, Nora, rejects a smothering marriage and life in "a doll's house."