本书作为我社“*经典英语文库”第14辑中的一种，精选法国著名作家维克多·雨果的经典作品《悲惨世界 （五卷之第五卷）》（前四卷已出）。作品讲述了主人公土伦苦刑犯冉·阿让（Jean Valjean）的个人经历，并融了法国的历史、革命、战争、道德哲学、法律、正义、宗教信仰。《悲惨世界》以冉·阿让出狱后的种种经历贯穿全书，深刻反映了时代的问题。雨果在作品中融了从拿破仑在滑铁卢的失败到反对“七月王朝”的人民起义这一阶段的历史，反映了当时的社会生活和政治状况。作品不仅描述了获释犯人冉·阿让和流浪妇女芳汀的不幸生活以及芳汀的私生女柯赛特的悲惨遭遇，而且揭示了当时社会中勤劳善良的劳动人民却受歧视和压迫的不公平命运。雨果还在作品中揭露了当时残酷不公的法典和秩序，猛烈抨了那种人们饿死可以而偷面包却要坐牢的社会制度，谴责了那些安于现状和铁石心肠的市民在面对处于困境中的他人时的那种袖手旁观的冷漠态度。

本书作为我社“经典英语文库”第15辑中的一种，精选法国十九世纪著名作家大仲马所作长篇小说《十年以后》。本书是《三个火枪手》的续集。为“达塔尼昂浪漫三部曲”之一。三部曲的故事发展到《十年以后》一书中的阶段，个中的场景已不再是三十年前的刀光剑影、血雨腥风，取而代之的是法王路易十四挥金如土、宫闱暧昧、官场明争暗斗以及贵妇人之间争风吃醋等情节。其中，柔弱质朴、胆小怕事的路易丝·德拉瓦利埃小姐如何一步步被设局沦落为路易十四情妇的经过，为下来《路易丝·德拉瓦利埃》的展做足了铺垫。

本书作为我社“经典英语文库”第15辑中的一种，精选由英国著名作家弗吉尼亚·伍尔芙的经典作品《雅各的房间》。作品讲述了一位年轻人短暂的一生。海边的童年、剑桥求学、独立成长、与不同女性的情感、到法国及希腊游学、及后丧生于次世界大战中。此书通常被认为是伍尔夫在文学创新方面次较大规模的探索和实验，是她创作过程中的一个转折，是她尝试用意识流手法创作的一个端。这本小说时间背景设置在英格兰，始于雅各的童年。

本书作为我社“经典英语文库”第15辑中的一种，精选由英国著名作家D. H. 劳伦斯的作品《无意识幻想曲》。D.H.劳伦斯被称为“英国文学伟大的人物之一”，长期以来受到大家的广泛关注。与任意时期任何国家的作家相比，劳伦斯有一极其鲜明，他的写作形式相当广泛，包括小说，短篇故事诗，意大利和俄国文学的英译，新建文学评论，社会评论，编史心理学笔记游记，他的游记覆盖了以上诸多的写作形式本书是其在心理学方面的代表作。

本书作为我社“经典英语文库”第15辑中的一种，精选俄国著名剧作家和短篇小说大师契诃夫的短篇小说。其以语言精练、准确见长，善于透过生活的表层行探索，将人物隐蔽的动机揭露得淋漓尽致。他的优秀剧本和短篇小说没有复杂的情节和清晰的解答，集中讲述一些貌似平凡琐碎的故事，创造出一种特别的，有时可以称之为令人难以忘怀的或是抒情味极浓的艺术氛围。他采用简洁的写作技巧避免炫耀文学手段，被认为是19世纪末俄国现实主义文学流派的杰出代表。

“事情并不简单，而是错综复杂的。如果它咬了布朗宁先生，那是因为他也咬了她。仇恨并非只是仇恨；仇恨也可以是爱。” 弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫为诗人伊丽莎白·巴雷特·勃朗宁（Elizabeth Barrett Browning）的西班牙猎犬所著的传记，令人愉悦，探讨了作为人类以及作为狗的意义。

本书作为我社“经典英语文库”第15辑中的一种，精选由英国著名作家D.H劳伦斯劳伦斯创作的长篇小说《虹》。本书通过一家三代人的遭遇，描述了工业革命给传统的乡村带来的巨大变化，同时以巨大的热情和深度，探索有关性的心理问题。代人的生活带有田园诗的色彩，同时也预示古老文明即将结束。第二代人精神的苦闷和呆滞的目光，是令人窒息的工业化社会的好注解。第三代人的探索具有积极的社会意义，表达了人们要冲破狭窄的生活圈子，渴望一种自然和谐的生活。

本书作为我社“经典英语文库”第15辑中的一种，精选由英国著名作家弗吉尼亚·伍尔芙的经典作品《夜与日》。故事发生在爱德华七世时期的伦敦，将两位女主人公——凯瑟琳·希尔伯里和玛丽·达切特的日常生活和浪漫情怀行了对比，探讨了爱情、婚姻、幸福和成功之间的关系。故事有四位主人公：凯瑟琳·希尔伯里，玛丽·达切特，拉尔夫·德纳姆，和威廉·罗德尼，他们苦苦探索人生，追求爱情的真谛，找寻真正的自我。《夜与日》提到了妇女的参政权、爱情和婚姻是否可以共存、婚姻是否是幸福的前提等问题。贯穿全书的主题有星空、泰晤士河和切恩道。

For many of us DH Lawrence was a schoolboy hero. Who can forget sniggering in class at the mention of Women In Love or Lady Chatterley's Lover? Lawrence was a talented if nomadic writer whose novels were passionately received, suppressed at times and generally at odds with Establishment values. This of course did not deter him. At his death in 1930 at the young age of 44 he was more often thought of as a pornographer but in the ensuing years he has come to be more rightly regarded as one of the most imaginative writers these shores have produced. As well as his novels and of course his poetry - he wrote in excess of 800 of them he was also a very talented playwright. These works have not been given quite the attention they deserve. Here we publish 'The Merry-Go-Round'.

Alfred Tennyson was born on August 6th, 1809, in Somersby, Lincolnshire, the fourth of twelve children. Most of Tennyson's early education was under the direction of his father, although he did spend four unhappy years at a nearby grammar school. He left home in 1827 to join his elder brothers at Trinity College, Cambridge, more to escape his father than a desire for serious academic work. At Trinity he was living for the first time among young men of his own age who knew little of his problems. He was delighted to make new friends; he was handsome, intelligent, humorous, a gifted impersonator and soon at the center of those interested in poetry and conversation. That same year, he and his brother Charles published Poems by Two Brothers. Although the poems in the book were of teenage quality, they attracted the attention of the "e;Apostles,"e; a select undergraduate literary club led by Arthur Hallam. The "e;Apostles"e; provided Tennyson with friendship and confidence. Hallam and Tennyson became the best of friends; they toured Europe together in 1830 and again in 1832. Hallam's sudden death in 1833 greatly affected the young poet. The long elegy In Memoriam and many of Tennyson's other poems are tributes to Hallam. In 1830, Tennyson published Poems, Chiefly Lyrical and in 1832 he published a second volume entitled simply Poems. Some reviewers condemned these books as "e;affected"e; and "e;obscure."e; Tennyson, stung by the reviews, would not publish another book for nine years. In 1836, he became engaged to Emily Sellwood. When he lost his inheritance on a failed investment in 1840, the engagement was cancelled. In 1842, however, Tennyson's Poems [in two volumes] was a tremendous critical and popular success. In 1850, with the publication of In Memoriam, Tennyson's reputation was pre-eminent. He was also selected as Poet Laureate in succession to Wordsworth and, to complete a wonderful year, he married Emily Sellwood. At the age of 41, Tennyson had established himself as the most popular poet of the Victorian era. The money from his poetry [at times exceeding 10,000 pounds per year] allowed him to purchase a home in the country and to write in relative seclusion. His appearance-a large and bearded man, he regularly wore a cloak and a broad brimmed hat-enhanced his notoriety. In 1859, Tennyson published the first poems of Idylls of the Kings, which sold more than 10,000 copies in a fortnight. In 1884, he accepted a peerage, becoming Alfred Lord Tennyson. On October 6th, 1892, an hour or so after midnight, surrounded by his family, he died at Aldworth. It is said that the moonlight was streaming through the window and Tennyson himself was holding open a volume of Shakespeare. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.

In this volume we venture to the East. To met a writer who speaks a common language of love and mysticism which continues to convey valuable insights into universal themes in contemporary society. Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) who was a gifted Bengali Renaissance man, distinguishing himself as a philosopher, social and political reformer and a popular author in all literary genres. He was instrumental in an increased freedom for the press and influenced Gandhi and the founders of modern India. He composed hundreds of songs which are still sung today as they include the Indian and Bangladeshi national anthems. His prolific literary life has left a legacy of quality novels, essays, poems and in this volume one of his plays. He earned the distinction of being the first Asian writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. Many of his poems are also available as an audiobook from our sister company Portable Poetry as well as ebooks of stories and essays. Many samples are at our youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/PortablePoetry?feature=mhee The full volume of poems can be purchased from iTunes, Amazon and other digital stores. Among our readers are Shyama Perera and Ghizela Rowe

schylus is often regarded as the father of Greek tragedy; he moved play writing from the simple interaction of a single character and a chorus to one where many characters interact and thereby create more dynamic and dramatic situations. schylus, was the son of Euphorion, and a scion of a Eupatrid or noble family. He was born at Eleusis 525 B.C., or, as the Greeks calculated time, in the fourth year of the 63rd Olympiad. He first worked at a vineyard and whilst there claimed to have been visited by Dionysis in a dream and told to turn his attention to the tragic art. It was a dream that would deliver a rich and incredible legacy through his writing talents. His earliest tragedy, composed when he was twenty-six years of age, failed to win the fabled Dionysia, (a revered festival of theatre) and it was not until fifteen years later that he gained this victory in 484BC going on to win it again in 472 BC (for The Persians), 467 BC (for Seven Against Thebes) and 463 BC (for The Suppliants). schylus was also known for his military skills and was ready to fight in defence of Athens whenever the call was made. He and his brother, Cynegeirus, fought against Darius's invading Persian army at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE and, although the Greeks won against overwhelming odds, Cynegeirus died in the battle, which had a naturally had a profound effect on schylus. He made several visits to the important Greek city of Syracuse in Sicily at the invitation of the tyrant Hieron, and it is thought that he also travelled extensively in the region of Thrace. His writing continued to be the envy of others. With the series of plays of which Seven Against Thebes was a part, his supremacy was undisputed. He was the "e;father of tragedy."e; schylus made many changes to dramatic form. The importance of the chorus was demoted and a second added to give prominence to the dialogue and making that interchange the leading feature of the play. He removed all deeds of bloodshed from the public view, and in their place provided various spectacular elements, improving the costumes, making the masks more expressive and convenient, and probably adopting the cothurnus to increase the stature of the performers. Finally, he established the custom of contending for the prize with trilogies, an inter-connecting set of three independent dramas. The closing years of the life of schylus were mainly spent in Sicily, which he had first visited soon after his defeat at the Dionysia by Sophocles. schylus returned to Athens to produce his Orestean trilogy, probably the finest of his works, although the Eumenides, the last of the three plays, revealed so openly his aristocratic tendencies that he became extremely unpopular, and returned to Sicily for the last time in 458 BCE and it was there that he died, while visiting the city of Gela in 456 or 455 BCE.

Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was born on 31st March 1809 in present day Ukraine which was then the Russian Cossack village of Sorochyntsi. Nikolai's parents were relatively affluent; his mother's family were Polish landowners and his father, who wrote poetry in Ukrainian and Russian, was a descendant of Ukrainian Cossacks. Nikolai had a good education and started writing as a teenager whilst still at school although did consider becoming an actor due to his formidable talent at mimicry. On leaving school he went to St Petersburg but found it hard getting any work either in the civil service or as an actor. He self published a romantic poem but it was critically savaged to the extent that he swore never to write poetry again and also considered emigrating to the US. Fortunately, he persevered with his writing and produced a series of stories about his home in Ukraine in a colloquial and whimsical style that captured many literary admirers including the esteemed poet Pushkin. Nikolai was eventually able to abandon his work teaching and produced powerful books brilliantly and savagely satirising the inequities of the Russian system and its corrupt bureaucracy. His creative talents declined in later years and he became heavily influenced by a sadistic fanatical priest and died semi insane on 4th March 1852. He remains the father of Russian realism as evidenced here by his classic 'Dead Souls'

Eugene Gladstone O'Neill was born on October 16, 1888 in a hotel bedroom in what is now Times Square, New York. Much of his childhood was spent in the comfort of books at boarding schools whilst his actor father was on the road and his Mother contended with her own demons. He spent only a year at University - Princeton - and various reasons have been given for his departure. However whatever his background and education denied or added to his development it is agreed amongst all that he was a playwright of the first rank and possibly America's greatest. His introduction of realism into American drama was instrumental in its development and paved a path for many talents thereafter. Of course his winning of both the Pulitzer Prize (4 times) and the Nobel Prize are indicative of his status. His more famous and later works do side with the disillusionment and personal tragedy of those on the fringes of society but continue to build upon ideas and structures he incorporated in his early one act plays. Eugene O'Neill suffered from various health problems, mainly depression and alcoholism. In the last decade he also faced a Parkinson's like tremor in his hands which made writing increasingly difficult. But out of such difficulties came plays of the calibre of The Iceman Cometh, Long Day's Journey Into Night, and A Moon for the Misbegotten. Eugene O'Neill died in Room 401 of the Sheraton Hotel on Bay State Road in Boston, on November 27, 1953, at the age of 65. As he was dying, he whispered his last words: "e;I knew it. I knew it. Born in a hotel room and died in a hotel room."e;

Henrik Ibsen (20th March, 1828 - 23rd May, 1906) is often referred to as the father of realism and ranked just below Shakespeare as Europe's greatest ever playwright especially as his plays are performed most frequently throughout the world after Shakespeare's. Ibsen was Norwegian and although set his plays in Norway, he wrote them in Danish and lived most of his professional life in Italy and Germany. His affect on the theatre is still evident today and shapes the distinction of plays being art as opposed to entertainment since he broke down all previous traditions and explored issues, developed characterisation, revealed uncomfortable truths, challenged assumptions and brokedown facades in ourselves as well as society. These factors are clearly demonstrated in Enemy of the People, a story of a man, Dr Stockman, who shows great courage in doing the right thing in the face of extreme social pressure and intolerance. He has been involved in developing medicinal baths in his small coastal community in Norway which have proved a profitable and successful tourist attraction. However, he finds out that waste products are contaminating the water and resulting in serious illnesses for some of the tourists. He sends his detailed report to the authorities and finds that not only are they unwilling to take any action but the townspeople brand him a lunatic. He finds himself marginalised and realises that in matters of right and wrong, the individual is superior to the masses. He says: "e;A minority may be right; a majority is always wrong."e; This remarkable play is seen as Ibsen's denunciation of the masses and a scathing indictment on community and democracy. It is surprisingly relevant with our contemporary concerns of both the environment and whistleblowers and definitely worth a read.

If ever a writer needed an introduction Arthur Conan Doyle would not be considered that man. After all, Sherlock Holmes is perhaps the foremost literary detective of any age. Add to this canon his stories of science fiction and his poems, his historical novels, his plays, his political campaigning, his efforts in establishing a Court of Appeal and there is little room for anything else. Except he was also an exceptional writer of short stories of the horrific and macabre. Something very different from what you might expect. Born in Arthur Conan Doyle was born on 22 May 1859 at 11 Picardy Place, Edinburgh, Scotland. From 1876 - 1881 he studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh following which he was employed as a doctor on the Greenland whaler Hope of Peterhead in 1880 and, after his graduation, as a ship's surgeon on the SS Mayumba during a voyage to the West African coast in 1881. Arriving in Portsmouth in June of that year with less than GBP10 (GBP700 today) to his name, he set up a medical practice at 1 Bush Villas in Elm Grove, Southsea. The practice was initially not very successful. While waiting for patients, Conan Doyle again began writing stories and composed his first novel The Mystery of Cloomber. Although he continued to study and practice medicine his career was now firmly set as a writer. And thereafter great works continued to pour out of him.

Thomas Middleton was born in London in April 1580 and baptised on 18th April. Middleton was aged only five when his father died. His mother remarried but this unfortunately fell apart into a fifteen year legal dispute regarding the inheritance due Thomas and his younger sister. By the time he left Oxford, at the turn of the Century, Middleton had and published Microcynicon: Six Snarling Satirese which was denounced by the Archbishop of Canterbury and publicly burned. In the early years of the 17th century, Middleton wrote topical pamphlets. One - Penniless Parliament of Threadbare Poets was reprinted several times and the subject of a parliamentary inquiry. These early years writing plays continued to attract controversy. His writing partnership with Thomas Dekker brought him into conflict with Ben Jonson and George Chapman in the so-called War of the Theatres. His finest work with Dekker was undoubtedly The Roaring Girl, a biography of the notorious Mary Frith. In the 1610s, Middleton began another playwriting partnership, this time with the actor William Rowley, producing another slew of plays including Wit at Several Weapons and A Fair Quarrel. The ever adaptable Middleton seemed at ease working with others or by himself. His solo writing credits include the comic masterpiece, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, in 1613. In 1620 he was officially appointed as chronologer of the City of London, a post he held until his death. The 1620s saw the production of his and Rowley's tragedy, and continual favourite, The Changeling, and of several other tragicomedies. However in 1624, he reached a peak of notoriety when his dramatic allegory A Game at Chess was staged by the King's Men. Though Middleton's approach was strongly patriotic, the Privy Council silenced the play after only nine performances at the Globe theatre, having received a complaint from the Spanish ambassador. What happened next is a mystery. It is the last play recorded as having being written by Middleton. Thomas Middleton died at his home at Newington Butts in Southwark in the summer of 1627, and was buried on July 4th, in St Mary's churchyard which today survives as a public park in Elephant and Castle.

John Dryden was born on August 9th, 1631 in the village rectory of Aldwincle near Thrapston in Northamptonshire. As a boy Dryden lived in the nearby village of Titchmarsh, Northamptonshire. In 1644 he was sent to Westminster School as a King's Scholar. Dryden obtained his BA in 1654, graduating top of the list for Trinity College, Cambridge that year. Returning to London during The Protectorate, Dryden now obtained work with Cromwell's Secretary of State, John Thurloe. At Cromwell's funeral on 23 November 1658 Dryden was in the company of the Puritan poets John Milton and Andrew Marvell. The setting was to be a sea change in English history. From Republic to Monarchy and from one set of lauded poets to what would soon become the Age of Dryden. The start began later that year when Dryden published the first of his great poems, Heroic Stanzas (1658), a eulogy on Cromwell's death. With the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 Dryden celebrated in verse with Astraea Redux, an authentic royalist panegyric. With the re-opening of the theatres after the Puritan ban, Dryden began to also write plays. His first play, The Wild Gallant, appeared in 1663 but was not successful. From 1668 on he was contracted to produce three plays a year for the King's Company, in which he became a shareholder. During the 1660s and '70s, theatrical writing was his main source of income. In 1667, he published Annus Mirabilis, a lengthy historical poem which described the English defeat of the Dutch naval fleet and the Great Fire of London in 1666. It established him as the pre-eminent poet of his generation, and was crucial in his attaining the posts of Poet Laureate (1668) and then historiographer royal (1670). This was truly the Age of Dryden, he was the foremost English Literary figure in Poetry, Plays, translations and other forms. In 1694 he began work on what would be his most ambitious and defining work as translator, The Works of Virgil (1697), which was published by subscription. It was a national event. John Dryden died on May 12th, 1700, and was initially buried in St. Anne's cemetery in Soho, before being exhumed and reburied in Westminster Abbey ten days later.

John Fletcher was born in December, 1579 in Rye, Sussex. He was baptised on December 20th. As can be imagined details of much of his life and career have not survived and, accordingly, only a very brief indication of his life and works can be given. Young Fletcher appears at the very young age of eleven to have entered Corpus Christi College at Cambridge University in 1591. There are no records that he ever took a degree but there is some small evidence that he was being prepared for a career in the church. However what is clear is that this was soon abandoned as he joined the stream of people who would leave University and decamp to the more bohemian life of commercial theatre in London. The upbringing of the now teenage Fletcher and his seven siblings now passed to his paternal uncle, the poet and minor official Giles Fletcher. Giles, who had the patronage of the Earl of Essex may have been a liability rather than an advantage to the young Fletcher. With Essex involved in the failed rebellion against Elizabeth Giles was also tainted. By 1606 John Fletcher appears to have equipped himself with the talents to become a playwright. Initially this appears to have been for the Children of the Queen's Revels, then performing at the Blackfriars Theatre. Fletcher's early career was marked by one significant failure; The Faithful Shepherdess, his adaptation of Giovanni Battista Guarini's Il Pastor Fido, which was performed by the Blackfriars Children in 1608. By 1609, however, he had found his stride. With his collaborator John Beaumont, he wrote Philaster, which became a hit for the King's Men and began a profitable association between Fletcher and that company. Philaster appears also to have begun a trend for tragicomedy. By the middle of the 1610s, Fletcher's plays had achieved a popularity that rivalled Shakespeare's and cemented the pre-eminence of the King's Men in Jacobean London. After his frequent early collaborator John Beaumont's early death in 1616, Fletcher continued working, both singly and in collaboration, until his own death in 1625. By that time, he had produced, or had been credited with, close to fifty plays.

Henry Fielding was born at Sharpham Park, near Glastonbury, in Somerset on April 22nd 1707. His early years were spent on his parents' farm in Dorset before being educated at Eton. An early romance ended disastrously and with it his removal to London and the beginnings of a glittering literary career; he published his first play, at age 21, in 1728. He was prolific, sometimes writing six plays a year, but he did like to poke fun at the authorities. His plays were thought to be the final straw for the authorities in their attempts to bring in a new law. In 1737 The Theatrical Licensing Act was passed. At a stroke political satire was almost impossible. Fielding was rendered mute. Any playwright who was viewed with suspicion by the Government now found an audience difficult to find and therefore Theatre owners now toed the Government line. Fielding was practical with the circumstances and ironically stopped writing to once again take up his career in the practice of law and became a barrister after studying at Middle Temple. By this time he had married Charlotte Craddock, his first wife, and they would go on to have five children. Charlotte died in 1744 but was immortalised as the heroine in both Tom Jones and Amelia. Fielding was put out by the success of Samuel Richardson's Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded. His reaction was to spur him into writing a novel. In 1741 his first novel was published; the successful Shamela, an anonymous parody of Richardson's novel. Undoubtedly the masterpiece of Fielding's career was the novel Tom Jones, published in 1749. It is a wonderfully and carefully constructed picaresque novel following the convoluted and hilarious tale of how a foundling came into a fortune. Fielding was a consistent anti-Jacobite and a keen supporter of the Church of England. This led to him now being richly rewarded with the position of London's Chief Magistrate. Fielding continued to write and his career both literary and professional continued to climb. In 1749 he joined with his younger half-brother John, to help found what was the nascent forerunner to a London police force, the Bow Street Runners. Fielding's ardent commitment to the cause of justice in the 1750s unfortunately coincided with a rapid deterioration in his health. Such was his decline that in the summer of 1754 he travelled, with Mary and his daughter, to Portugal in search of a cure. Gout, asthma, dropsy and other afflictions forced him to use crutches. His health continued to fail alarmingly. Henry Fielding died in Lisbon two months later on October 8th, 1754.

The Professor is Charlotte Bronte's first novel, even though it was only published posthumously. The novel's protagonist and first-person narrator is the orphan William Crimsworth, a young educated man who rejects the career of a clergyman proposed by his adoptive uncle. He first decides to work as a clerk for his wealthy brother who owns a mill in the north of the country. However, his brother's jealousy of his superior education and intelligence eventually pushes him to quit the job and travel to Brussels where he is hired as a professor of English at a girls' school. In Brussels, he falls in love with a younger colleague, Frances Henri, yet he has to endure the wickedness of the Catholic headmistress, Mr. Reuter. Coveting their nascent love, the latter ends up dismissing Frances from her school and hiding her whereabouts from William. The professor leaves the establishment and luckily comes across her beloved in a graveyard. Thanks to a new job with a very high wage, the couple are eventually allowed to open their own school, marry and have a child. The narrative closes as they succeed in making a little fortune and decide to settle in the English countryside.