New Classics

Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime. Shakespeare's use of his poetic dramatic structure, especially effects such as switching between comedy and tragedy to heighten tension, his expansion of minor characters, and his use of subplots to embellish the story, has been praised as an early sign of his dramatic skill.

In The Merchant of Venice, the path to marriage is hazardous. To win Portia, Bassanio must pass a test prescribed by her father's will, choosing correctly among three caskets or chests. If he fails, he may never marry at all. Bassanio and Portia also face a magnificent villain, the moneylender Shylock. Portia is most remembered for her disguise as a lawyer, Balthazar, especially the speech in which she urges Shylock to show mercy that "[D]roppeth as the gentle rain from heaven". Please note: This audiobook is in Russian.

Shakespeare's Sonnets cover themes such as the passage of time, love, beauty, and mortality. The first 17 poems, traditionally called the procreation sonnets, are addressed to a young man urging him to marry and have children in order to immortalize his beauty by passing it to the next generation. Other sonnets brood upon loneliness, death, and the transience of life; seem to criticize the young man for preferring a rival poet; and more. Please note: This audiobook is in Russian.

Ein sinnlicher Hörweg durch die inneren und äußeren Pflanzungen von Goethes frühen Garten in Weimar...

Am 5. Juni 1799 brechen Alexander von Humboldt und sein Begleiter zu ihrer Expedition auf...

Composed around 1294 in Italian, the Vita Nuova tells the story of Dante's encounters with and love for Beatrice, culminating in her early death and its effect upon him. Utilizing and developing the conventions of courtly love, in a mixture of prose and verse, Dante deepens the emotional content of the genre, while pointing the way towards the intellectual and spiritual journey of the Divine Comedy.

La nueva Atlántida de Francis Bacon, es una novela utópica, un proyecto inacabado de la razón social, política y científica que nos muestra la aventura de una tripulación, quienes después de naufragar, ya con las esperanzas rotas y cansados de implorar a Dios, llegan a la isla de Bensalem, ejemplo de comunidad, donde de la mano de la ciencia, reina la armonía y la felicidad. Bacon, bajo la apariencia de una historia real, nos muestra una sociedad ficticia donde La Casa de Salomón, sustituto imaginario de la comunidad científica, es, pues, la protagonista de esta obra.

Dubrovsky is a young nobleman whose land is confiscated by a greedy and powerful aristocrat, Kirila Petrovitch Troekurov. Determined to get justice one way or another, Dubrovsky gathers a band of serfs and goes on the rampage, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. Along the way, Dubrovsky falls in love with Masha, Troekurov's daughter, and lets his guard down, with tragic results. Please note: This audiobook is in Russian.

The "Viy" is a monstrous creation of popular fancy. It is the name which the inhabitants of Little Russia give to the king of the gnomes, whose eyelashes reach to the ground. The following story is a specimen of such folklore. Please note: This audiobook is in Russian.

We face a crisis of sexuality. During the last few years, we have witnessed an unprecedented breakdown of traditions and mores concerning sexuality and the family. Countries across the West have suddenly and seemingly irrevocably instituted same-sex marriage; a former athlete has won awards for publicly changing gender; and no one seems to know what restroom to use any more. What used to be taboo and frowned upon has become normal and even encouraged. What used to be normal and sought after is now viewed as unnecessary and possibly harmful.

Following our hugely successful adaptation of the stories of the Old Testament, here is a re-telling of the essential story of the New Testament. From the birth of Jesus, to his resurrection and his ascension into heaven, we tell a tale of miracles, tragic loss and ultimately of happiness and glory.

A Christmas Carol is Charles Dickens's classic tale of the redemption of Ebenezer Scrooge. In this all-new full-cast dramatization, we re-live the iconic story where the mean old businessman is visited by the spirits of Christmases past, present and future. With a cast of eleven actors performing the well-known roles of everyone from Jacob Marley to Tiny Tim, this fresh production breathes new life into a much-loved seasonal favourite.

This book includes: "Rothschild's Violin", "The Man in a Case", "A Conversation of a Drunk with a Sober Imp", "Life in Questions and Exclamations".

The plot of Poor Liza – the seduction by a young nobleman of a girl of lower social origins – was among the most conventional in European sentimentalism. What is characteristic of Karamzin's treatment of it is the subordination of the element of social conflict to the ethical problem and the avoidance of a completely negative character in the young man, Erast.

Pushkin began writing his first major work, Ruslan and Ludmila (1820), a kind of fairy story in verse, in 1817. It was based on Russian folktales told by his old nurse Arina Rodionovna. "On seashore far a green oak towers/ And to it with a gold chain bound/ A learned cat whiles away the hours/ By walking slowly round and round. To right he walks, and sings a ditty; To left he walks, and tells a tale...." Please note: This audiobook is in Russian.

The Tinderbox is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen about a soldier who acquires a magic tinderbox capable of summoning three powerful dogs to do his bidding. When the soldier has one of the dogs transport a sleeping princess to his room, he is sentenced to death but cunningly summons the dogs to save his life. The tinderbox - a box to kindle a flame - is the equivalent of the wonderful lamp, the witch is the evil magician, and the dogs with swirling eyes take the place of the two genies of the lamps.

Ocherk Moj Pushkin - ne literaturovedcheskaya rabota. Eto skoree psihologicheskij etyud, popytka voskresit i vosproizvesti detskoe vospriyatie pushkinskogo tvorchestva, kotoroe - pri vsej naivnosti etogo vospriyatiya - okazyvalos' pervoj, na vsyu zhizn' neizgladimoj shkoloj ne tol'ko poticheskih vpechatlenij, no i nravstvennyh ponyatij.

The Queen of Spades stands at the peak of Pushkin's achievement in prose writing. The story was popular with the general reading public at the time, particularly for its striking plot. The story opens with a number of young officers conversing after a card game. One of them, Narumov, wonders why his grandmother, who possesses the secret of winning at the game of faro, never plays. Please note: This audiobook is in Russian.

The novel opens with a picture of morals and manners of the French society of the first quarter of the 18th century; with the Negro's life in Paris, his success in French society, and his love affair with a French countess. But "summoned both by Peter and by his own vague sense of duty" Ibrahim returns to Russia. The following chapters, full of historical color and antiquarianism, sketch the different strata of the Russian society. Please note: This audiobook is in Russian.

Leskov's story is a dramatic portrayal of the amoral, ambiguous, elemental force of sexual passion, as intense in its heat as in its coldness. In stylistic directness and narrative concentration, it is unique among his works. He wrote it while visiting relatives in Kiev, where he was given space in the university's punishment room. He later described how his hair stood on end as he worked on it alone in that unlikely place and swore he would never describe such horrors again.