Showing titles in Ancient, Classical & Medieval Literature

Fresh off his victory at The Battle of Lodi, Napoleon is planning to enjoy his lunch when a lieutenant arrives with the bad news that the dispatches he had been carrying were stolen. Infuriated, Napoleon threatens him with being court-martialed unless he can recover them. A woman appears who claims to know about the theft. Unconvinced of her story, Napoleon and the woman enter into a battle of wits in true Shaw style. Will the conqueror of worlds end up conquered by a woman?

Controversy and hidden pasts are suddenly and painfully exposed as wealthy widow Mrs Alving prepares to open a new orphanage in memory of her husband. Her treasured son Oswald’s return from Paris and her relationship with old friend Pastor Manders are no longer the source of joy they once were, as secrets are turned into a frightening and desperate reality.

One of the most important books on William Shakespeare, this superb biography is both authoritative and extremely readable. It is the first modern biography of Shakespeare since the Victorian Age to pay full attention to his life and times, to his works, and to the numerous and subtle connections among them.

"The Iliad" tells the epic story of the war of Troy and its ten-year siege, bloody battles and great heroes. The mighty warrior Achilles, whose mother held him by the heel while immerging him in the river Styx to make him invulnerable, his brave companion Patroclus, kings and gods compete alike for the glory of ancient Greece, which is still resonating today.

In 17th-century Sicily, a clever valet named Mascarille tries to help his boss, Lélie, win the girl of his dreams – only to find that Lélie is a monumental dunce who ruins every one of his intricate schemes. Undaunted, Mascarille invents progressively wilder plots, only to see his best-laid plans go very awry in Molière’s The Bungler, translated by Richard Wilbur.

The Oresteia is a tragedy in three parts written by Aeschylus in the fifth century BCE. After a decade of warfare, Troy had fallen and Agamemnon, King of Mycenae, returned home. His wife, Queen Clytemnestra, had him killed to avenge the sacrifice of her daughter Iphigenia, to obtain the crown and to marry her lover Aegisthus. This murder leads to further bloodshed when their son Orestes in turn kills Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. The trilogy consists of Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Eumenides.

The initials stand for Rossum's Universal Robots. This Czech play, first produced in 1921, introduced the word "robot" into the world lexicon. The Rossum factory robots are so human that a well-meaning beauty travels to R.U.R.'s island headquarters to liberate them. She ends up fomenting more revolution than the human race can handle.

The Apology of Socrates, written by Plato, is a Socratic dialogue of the speech of legal self-defense which Socrates spoke at his trial for impiety and corruption in 399 BC. Specifically, the Apology of Socrates is a defense against the charges of "corrupting the youth" and "not believing in the gods in whom the city believes, but in other daimonia that are novel" to Athens.

The Illiad dates back to the 8th century BC and is Homer's epic precursor to The Odyssey. Set during the Trojan War, it tells of battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles.

Surviving the Trojan War was just the beginning of the adventure for Odysseus. What lay ahead was a journey home that would last for years as he encountered gods and monsters before finally returning home - only to face the greatest threat to his happiness of all. This translation of Homer's classic tale captures all the timeless excitement and gripping drama that have made it a favorite for centuries.

El Kybalión es un documento que contiene el conjunto de enseñanzas de la filosofía hermética, también conocidos como los siete principios del hermetismo. Escrito en los albores del siglo XX, su autoría se debe a un grupo anónimo de personas autodenominados Los tres Iniciados, aunque las bases del hermetismo se atribuyen a un alquimista de algunas logias ocultistas llamado “Hermes Trismegisto”, cuya existencia pudo haber transcurrido en Egipto antes de la época de los faraones.

Narrated in Middle English by J.B. Bessinger, Jr.

Marcus Aurelius was the Roman emperor from 161 to AD 180, and during that time, he kept several collections of journals that contained personal notes, militaristic strategy, and ideas on Stoic philosophy. While unlikely that he ever intended to publicly publish these journals, there is no real official title, so most often "Meditations" is used because of his in depth writings on philosophy. These journals give an introspective look at how and why Marcus Aurelius' operated as an emperor.

Parzival is a romantic poem written by Wolfram von Eschenbach in Middle High German. Regarded as one of the masterpieces of the Middle Ages, the romance was the most popular vernacular verse narrative in medieval Germany. Dated to the first quarter of the 13th century, the poem tells the story of the Arthurian hero Parzival and his quest for the Holy Grail. The most notable elements of the work are an emphasis on the importance of humility, compassion, and sympathy. Richard Wagner based his famous opera Parsifal on Parzival.

The secret of their identities has fueled debate for hundreds of years: Who are the nameless nobleman and the dark-haired mistress? And what did they do to inspire the creation of more than 150 deeply intimate poems? Whether William Shakespeare's sonnets are pure fiction or the lingering echo of an autobiographical account, this exquisitely written collection defied traditional love poem conventions to explore the many layers of romance, the dangers of lust, and the nuances of beauty.

Paradise Lost is one of the most brilliant works of poetry ever written in the English language. With ease and grace, John Milton's words paint a picture of the fall of man, epically layering his words with all the innocence and treachery that such a fantastic tale deserves. Through Milton's words we witness the downfall of Adam and Eve as well as the epic battle between good and evil.

In this time-honored story of horror, a ghost is thought to be the cause of the discomfort of performers in the Paris Opera House. Then the beautiful star disappears.

The story of the orphan Pip, writing his life from his early days of childhood until adulthood and trying to be a gentleman along the way is without doubt one of Dicken's greatest works.

Christopher Marlowe's play about a man who sells his soul to the devil is not only one of the first of many works to explore this theme but also one of the most startling. Eschewing the usual division of the drama into acts, it presents the story of Faustus' fall in a series of apparently disconnected scenes. However, the integrity of the drama is maintained by the remorseless unraveling of Faustus' fortunes as he approaches his inevitable damnation.

This epic of the booming 20s captures the relentless culture of American business. A classic novel about conformity in small town America - celebrated for its comic tone, statire, and vivid dialogue. L.A. Theatre Works, then a fledgling radio theatre company, completed Babbitt in 1989. This production was so well received that L.A. Theatre Works has since become the world's premiere radio theatre company.