Chaucer
Ackroyd's Brief Lives
Written by Peter Ackroyd

Format: Hardcover, 208 pages
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
On Sale: January 18, 2005
Price: $19.95
ISBN: 978-0-385-50797-4 (0-385-50797-6)

In the first in a new series of brief biographies, historian and novelist Peter Ackroyd brilliantly evokes the medieval world of England and provides an incomparable introduction to the great poet’s works.

Geoffrey Chaucer, who died in 1400, lived a surprisingly eventful life. He served with the Duke of Clarence and... Read more >

Shakespeare
The Biography
Written by Peter Ackroyd

Format: Trade Paperback, 592 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: November 14, 2006
Price: $18.95
ISBN: 978-1-4000-7598-0 (1-4000-7598-X)

Drawing on an exceptional combination of skills as literary biographer, novelist, and chronicler of London history, Peter Ackroyd surely re-creates the world that shaped Shakespeare--and brings the playwright himself into unusually vivid focus. With characteristic narrative panache, Ackroyd immerses us in sixteenth-century Stratford and the rural landscape–the industry, the animals, even... Read more >

Emma

Written by Jane Austen

Format: Hardcover, 552 pages
Publisher: Everyman's Library
On Sale: November 26, 1991
Price: $20.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-40581-8 (0-679-40581-X)

Introduction by Marilyn Butler

Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her. So begins Jane Austen's comic masterpiece Emma. In... Read more >

Mansfield Park

Written by Jane Austen

Format: Hardcover, 536 pages
Publisher: Everyman's Library
On Sale: June 2, 1992
Price: $26.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-41269-4 (0-679-41269-7)

Introduction by Peter Conrad


Through Fanny Price, the heroine of Mansfield Park, Jane Austen views the social mores of her day and contemplates human nature itself. A shy and sweet-tempered girl adopted by wealthy relations, Fanny is an outsider looking in on an unfamiliar, and often inhospitable, world. But Fanny eventually wins... Read more >

Religio Medici and Urne-Buriall

Written by Sir Thomas Browne
Edited by Stephen Greenblatt and Ramie Targoff

Format: Trade Paperback, 224 pages
Publisher: NYRB Classics
On Sale: August 7, 2012
Price: $14.95
ISBN: 978-1-59017-488-3 (1-59017-488-7)

Sir Thomas Browne is one of the supreme stylists of the English language: a coiner of words and spinner of phrases of a near Shakespearean fecundity; the wielder of a weird and wonderful erudition; an inquiring spirit in the mold of Montaigne. Browne was an inspiration to Samuel Taylor Coleridge and... Read more >

The Pilgrim's Progress and Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners

Written by John Bunyan

Format: Trade Paperback, 400 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: April 13, 2004
Price: $13.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-72568-5 (0-375-72568-7)

A Vintage Spiritual Classic

Now available together in a single volume, these two classics were written by seventeenth-century England’s most famous prisoner of conscience, Baptist John Bunyan (1628–1688). Imprisoned for twelve years for his preaching, he wrote first a dramatic allegory of Christian life and followed it with the compelling story of... Read more >

The Canterbury Tales

Written by Geoffrey Chaucer
Translated by Burton Raffel
Introduction by John Miles Foley

Format: Hardcover, 672 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: November 18, 2008
Price: $36.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-64355-5 (0-679-64355-9)

Despite the importance of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, the continual evolution of the English language has rendered his words unfamiliar to many. This new translation by Burton Raffel—most famous for his popular translation of Beowulf—brings Chaucer's poetry back to life for the modern reader, retaining Chaucer's celebrated wit and insight.

Lively... Read more >

Fanny Hill
or, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure
Written by John Cleland
Introduction by Gary Gautier

Format: Trade Paperback, 288 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: September 11, 2001
Price: $11.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-75808-9 (0-375-75808-9)

Fanny Hill, shrouded in controversy for most of its more than 250-year life, and banned from publication in the United States until 1966, was once considered immoral and without literary merit, even earning its author a jail sentence for obscenity.

The tale of a naïve young prostitute in bawdy eighteenth-century London who... Read more >

A Journal of the Plague Year

Written by Daniel Defoe
Introduction by Jason Goodwin

Format: Trade Paperback, 272 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: November 13, 2001
Price: $9.95
ISBN: 978-0-375-75789-1 (0-375-75789-9)

Defoe's account of the bubonic plague that swept London in 1665 remains as vivid as it is harrowing. Based on Defoe's own childhood memories and prodigious research, A Journal of the Plague Year walks the line between fiction, history, and reportage. In meticulous and unsentimental detail it renders the daily life... Read more >

Moll Flanders

Written by Daniel Defoe
Introduction by Virginia Woolf

Format: Trade Paperback, 368 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: June 11, 2002
Price: $11.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-76010-5 (0-375-76010-5)

Written in a time when criminal biographies enjoyed great success, Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders details the life of the irresistible Moll and her struggles through poverty and sin in search of property and power. Born in Newgate Prison to a picaresque mother, Moll propels herself through marriages, periods of success and... Read more >

Moll Flanders

Written by Daniel Defoe

Format: Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: Bantam Classics
On Sale: January 1, 1989
Price: $4.95
ISBN: 978-0-553-21328-7 (0-553-21328-8)

Daniel Defoe's extraordinary chronicle of a determined young girl's courageous rise from her poverty-stricken beginnings in 17th century England to a position of prosperous respectability. Read more >

Robinson Crusoe
The Graphic Novel
Written by Daniel Defoe
Adapted by Dan Johnson
Illustrated by Naresh Kumar

Format: Trade Paperback, 72 pages
Publisher: Campfire
On Sale: July 27, 2010
Price: $9.99
ISBN: 978-93-80028-20-0 (93-80028-20-2)

Robinson Crusoe is not content with his life in England. He is bored and wants to see more of the world. His curiosity convinces him to leave his homeland and travel abroad.

Without telling his parents, young Robinson sets off on a voyage of discovery. During the years that follow he... Read more >

Robinson Crusoe

Written by Daniel Defoe
Introduction by Virginia Woolf

Format: Trade Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: June 12, 2001
Price: $7.95
ISBN: 978-0-375-75732-7 (0-375-75732-5)

Daniel Defoe relates the tale of an English sailor marooned on a desert island for nearly three decades. An ordinary man struggling to survive in extraordinary circumstances, Robinson Crusoe wrestles with fate and the nature of God. This edition features maps. Read more >

Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions and Death's Duel
With the Life of Dr. John Donne by Izaak Walton
Written by John Donne
Preface by Andrew Motion

Format: Trade Paperback, 272 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: December 7, 1999
Price: $13.95
ISBN: 978-0-375-70548-9 (0-375-70548-1)

A Vintage Spiritual Classic

At the age of 43, John Donne abandoned the youthful concerns of his poetry, took Anglican orders, and sought a life of spiritual devotion, bringing his poetic gift to the examination of universal truths. Eight years later, in 1623, battered by fever and tremendous loss, he composed Devotions... Read more >

Tom Jones

Written by Henry Fielding
Edited by Fredson Bowers
Introduction by Martin C. Battestin

Format: Trade Paperback, 1024 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: September 10, 2002
Price: $12.00
ISBN: 978-0-8129-6607-7 (0-8129-6607-4)

Tom, a foundling, is discovered one evening by the benevolent Squire Allworthy and his sister Bridget and brought up as a son in their household; when his sexual escapades and general misbehavior lead them to banish him, he sets out in search of both his fortune and his true identity. Amorous... Read more >

Shakespeare After All

Written by Marjorie Garber

Format: Trade Paperback, 1008 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: September 20, 2005
Price: $22.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-72214-8 (0-385-72214-1)

Winner of the CHRISTIAN GAUSS AWARD for Literary Scholarship

A brilliant and companionable tour through all thirty-eight plays, Shakespeare After All is the perfect introduction to the bard by one of the country’s foremost authorities on his life and work. Drawing on her hugely popular lecture courses at Yale and Harvard over... Read more >

The Age of Shakespeare

Written by Frank Kermode

Format: Trade Paperback, 240 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: May 10, 2005
Price: $14.00
ISBN: 978-0-8129-7433-1 (0-8129-7433-6)

In The Age of Shakespeare, Frank Kermode uses the history and culture of the Elizabethan era to enlighten us about William Shakespeare and his poetry and plays. Opening with the big picture of the religious and dynastic events that defined England in the age of the Tudors, Kermode takes the reader... Read more >

The Duchess of Malfi
Seven Masterpieces of Jacobean Drama
Edited by Frank Kermode

Format: Trade Paperback, 688 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: May 10, 2005
Price: $17.95
ISBN: 978-0-679-64243-5 (0-679-64243-9)

The lyrical, bloodthirsty tragedies and witty urban comedies in this original collection were first performed during the reign of King James I (1603—25). Though nearly four centuries old, they display surprisingly modern sensibilities regarding sex, violence, morality, and honor. Brilliantly introduced and annotated by Frank Kermode, britain’s most distinguished scholar of... Read more >

The Monk

Written by Matthew Lewis
Introduction by Hugh Thomas

Format: Trade Paperback, 400 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: April 9, 2002
Price: $23.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-75916-1 (0-375-75916-6)

When Matthew Lewis’s The Monk was published in 1796, readers were shocked by this gripping and horrific novel. Lewis’s story, which drove the House of Commons—of which he was a member—to deem him licentious and perverse, follows the abbot Ambrosio as he is tempted into a world of incest, murder, and... Read more >

Marvell: Poems

Written by Andrew Marvell

Format: Hardcover, 256 pages
Publisher: Everyman's Library
On Sale: June 15, 2004
Price: $12.50
ISBN: 978-1-4000-4252-4 (1-4000-4252-6)

Andrew Marvell was one of the chief wits and satirists of his time as well as a passionate defender of individual liberty. Today, however, he is known chiefly for his brilliant lyric poetry, which includes "The Garden," "The Definition of Love," "Bermudas," "To His Coy Mistress," and the "Horatian Ode" to... Read more >

In the Beginning
The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture
Written by Alister McGrath

Format: Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: February 19, 2002
Price: $15.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-72216-2 (0-385-72216-8)

Renowned scholar Alister McGrath recounts the complicated history of the King James Bible and its impact with grace and simplicity.

The King James Bible has enriched the English language and Western culture more than any other single work. In the Beginning explores the forces–as political as they were theological–that led to... Read more >

The Complete Poetry and Essential Prose of John Milton

Written by John Milton
Edited by William Kerrigan, John Rumrich and Stephen M. Fallon

Format: Hardcover, 1408 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: November 13, 2007
Price: $55.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-64253-4 (0-679-64253-6)

“In this landmark edition, teachers will discover a powerful ally in bringing the excitement of Milton's poetry and prose to new generations of students. In the clarity of its overall conception, its thoroughness, and its never-faltering attention to literary and historical detail, the Modern Library Milton promises to serve almost as... Read more >

The Complete Poetry of John Milton

Written by John Milton
Edited by John T. Shawcross

Format: Trade Paperback, 672 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: July 6, 1971
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-0-385-02351-1 (0-385-02351-0)

The first complete annotated edition of Milton's poetry available in a one-volume paperback. The text is established from original sources, with collations of all known manuscripts, chronology and verbal variants recorded. Works in Latin, Greek and Italian are included with new literal translations. Read more >

The Essential Prose of John Milton

Written by John Milton
Edited by William Kerrigan, John Rumrich and Stephen M. Fallon

Format: Trade Paperback, 592 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: March 12, 2013
Price: $18.00
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8372-2 (0-8129-8372-6)

Edited by William Kerrigan, John Rumrich, and Stephen M. Fallon

The legendary author of Paradise Lost and other poems was also a superb and provocative prose writer. Culled from Modern Library’s definitive The Complete Poetry and Essential Prose of John Milton, this indispensable collection, authoritatively annotated and updated for this new volume... Read more >

Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes, and the Complete Shorter Poems

Written by John Milton
Edited by William Kerrigan, John Rumrich and Stephen M. Fallon

Format: Trade Paperback, 448 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: December 4, 2012
Price: $18.00
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8371-5 (0-8129-8371-8)

Derived from the Modern Library’s esteemed The Complete Poetry and Essential Prose of John Milton, this new volume, extensively revised and updated by its editors, contains Milton’s two late masterpieces, the brief epic Paradise Regained and the tragic drama Samson Agonistes. Age after age, these works have inspired new controversy and... Read more >