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.

The life of William Shakespeare, arguably the most significant figure in the Western literary canon, is relatively unknown. Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1565, possibly on the 23rd April, St. George's Day, and baptised there on 26th April. Little is known of his education and the first firm facts to his life relate to his marriage, aged 18, to Anne Hathaway, who was 26 and from the nearby village of Shottery. Anne gave birth to their first son six months later. Shakespeare's first play, The Comedy of Errors began a procession of real heavyweights that were to emanate from his pen in a career of just over twenty years in which 37 plays were written and his reputation forever established. This early skill was recognised by many and by 1594 the Lord Chamberlain's Men were performing his works. With the advantage of Shakespeare's progressive writing they rapidly became London's leading company of players, affording him more exposure and, following the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, a royal patent by the new king, James I, at which point they changed their name to the King's Men. By 1598, and despite efforts to pirate his work, Shakespeare's name was well known and had become a selling point in its own right on title pages. No plays are attributed to Shakespeare after 1613, and the last few plays he wrote before this time were in collaboration with other writers, one of whom is likely to be John Fletcher who succeeded him as the house playwright for the King's Men. William Shakespeare died two months later on April 23rd, 1616, survived by his wife, two daughters and a legacy of writing that none have since yet eclipsed.

John Galsworthy was born at Kingston Upon Thames in Surrey, England, on August 14th 1867 to a wealthy and well established family. His schooling was at Harrow and New College, Oxford before training as a barrister and being called to the bar in 1890. However, Law was not attractive to him and he travelled abroad becoming great friends with the novelist Joseph Conrad, then a first mate on a sailing ship. In 1895 Galsworthy began an affair with Ada Nemesis Pearson Cooper, the wife of his cousin Major Arthur Galsworthy. The affair was kept a secret for 10 years till she at last divorced and they married on 23rd September 1905. Galsworthy first published in 1897 with a collection of short stories entitled "e;The Four Winds"e;. For the next 7 years he published these and all works under his pen name John Sinjohn. It was only upon the death of his father and the publication of "e;The Island Pharisees"e; in 1904 that he published as John Galsworthy. His first play, The Silver Box in 1906 was a success and was followed by "e;The Man of Property"e; later that same year and was the first in the Forsyte trilogy. Whilst today he is far more well know as a Nobel Prize winning novelist then he was considered a playwright dealing with social issues and the class system. Here we publish Villa Rubein, a very fine story that captures Galsworthy's unique narrative and take on life of the time. He is now far better known for his novels, particularly The Forsyte Saga, his trilogy about the eponymous family of the same name. These books, as with many of his other works, deal with social class, upper-middle class lives in particular. Although always sympathetic to his characters, he reveals their insular, snobbish, and somewhat greedy attitudes and suffocating moral codes. He is now viewed as one of the first from the Edwardian era to challenge some of the ideals of society depicted in the literature of Victorian England. In his writings he campaigns for a variety of causes, including prison reform, women's rights, animal welfare, and the opposition of censorship as well as a recurring theme of an unhappy marriage from the women's side. During World War I he worked in a hospital in France as an orderly after being passed over for military service. He was appointed to the Order of Merit in 1929, after earlier turning down a knighthood, and awarded the Nobel Prize in 1932 though he was too ill to attend. John Galsworthy died from a brain tumour at his London home, Grove Lodge, Hampstead on January 31st 1933. In accordance with his will he was cremated at Woking with his ashes then being scattered over the South Downs from an aeroplane.

Robert Jephson was born in Ireland in 1736, the son of Archdeacon John Jephson. His education was at Ryder's grammar school and then the Reverend Roger Ford's school before he was admitted to Trinity College, Dublin in 1751. He left without a degree.Jephson now joined the British Army with a commission in the 73rd Regiment of Foot. Among his postings was one to the Caribbean. He left, for health reasons and retired with the rank of Captain.An appointment was offered as master of the horse to the lord-lieutenant of Ireland. Whilst in this office he wrote and had published, in the Mercury newspaper, a collection of articles that defended the lord-lieutenant's administration. These were later published in book form as 'The Bachelor', or 'Speculations of Jeoffry Wagstaffe'. Jepson held the office under twelve successive viceroys and gained a pension of GBP300, which was later doubled.He entered the Irish House of Commons in 1773 and sat for St Johnstown (County Longford) until 1776. Between 1777 and 1783, he served as Member of Parliament for Old Leighlin and thereafter represented Granard from 1783 to 1790In 1775 he added playwright, dramatist and poet to his military and political career strands. His plays gathered much interest. Among them his tragedy 'Braganza' was successfully performed at Drury Lane in 1775, 'Conspiracy' in 1796, 'The Law of Lombardy' in 1779, and 'The Count of Narbonne' (adapted from Horace Walpole's 'The Castle of Otranto') at Covent Garden in 1781. In 1788 he published 'Extempore Ludicrous Miltonic Verses' and, in 1794, the heroic poem 'Roman Portraits', and 'The Confessions of Jacques Baptiste Couteau', a satire on the excesses of the French Revolution. Robert Jephson died at Blackrock, near Dublin, on the 31st of May 1803.

Edgar Rice Burroughs was born on September 1, 1875, in Chicago, Illinois. His early career was unremarkable. After failing to enter West Point he enlisted in the 7th Calvary but was discharged after heart problems were diagnosed. A series of short term jobs gave no indication as to a career path but finally, in 1911, married and with two young children, he turned his hand to writing. He aimed his works squarely at the very popular pulp serial magazines. His first effort 'Under The Moons Of Mars' ran in Munsey's Magazine in 1912 under the pseudonym Norman Bean. With its success he began writing full time. A continuing theme of his work was to develop series so that each character had ample opportunities to return in sequels. John Carter was in the Mars series and there was another on Venus and one on Pellucidar among others. But perhaps the best known is Tarzan. Indeed Burroughs wanted so much to capitalise upon the brand that he introduced a syndicated Tarzan comic strip, movies and merchandise. He purchased a large ranch north of Los Angeles, California, which he named "e;Tarzana."e; The surrounding communities outside the ranch voted in 1927 to adopt the name as their own. By 1932 Burroughs set up his own company to print his own books. Here we publish 'The Monster Men' a tale that shows just what Burroughs can do when his talents and craft are unleashed.

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.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky was born on 11th November 1821.He was introduced to literature very early. At age three, it was heroic sagas, fairy tales and legends. At four his mother used the Bible to teach him to read and write. His immersion in literature was wide and varied. His imagination, he later recalled, was brought to life by his parents' nightly readings.On 27th September 1837 tragedy struck. Dostoyevsky's mother died of tuberculosis.Dostoyevsky and his brother were now enrolled at the Nikolayev Military Engineering Institute, their academic studies abandoned for military careers. Dostoyevsky disliked the academy, his interests were drawing and architecture.His father died on 16th June 1839 and perhaps triggered Dostoyevsky's epilepsy. However, he continued his studies, passed his exams and obtained the rank of engineer cadet.Dostoyevsky's first completed work was a translation of Honore de Balzac's novel Eugenie Grandet, published in 1843. It was not successful. He believed his financial difficulties could be overcome by writing his own novel. The result was 'Poor Folk', published in 1846, and a commercial success.His next novel, 'The Double', appeared in January 1846. Dostoyevsky now became immersed in socialism. However, 'The Double' received bad reviews and he now had more frequent seizures. With debts mounting he joined the utopian socialist Betekov circle, which helped him to survive. When that dissolved he joined the Petrashevsky Circle, which proposed social reforms. The Petrashevsky Circle was then denounced and Dostoyevsky accused of reading and distributing banned works. Arrests took place in late April 1849 and its members sentenced to death by firing squad. The Tsar commuted the sentence to four years of exile with hard labour in Siberia.His writings on these prison experiences, 'The House of the Dead' were published in 1861.In Saint Petersburg that September he promised his editor he would deliver 'The Gambler', a novella on gambling addiction, by November, although work had yet to begin. It was completed in a mere 26 days.Other works followed but a different approach helped immensely. In 1873 'Demons' was published by the "e;Dostoyevsky Publishing Company"e;. Only payment in cash was accepted and the bookshop was the family apartment. It sold around 3,000 copies.However, Dostoyevsky's health continued to decline, and in March 1877 he had four epileptic seizures. In August 1879 he was diagnosed with early-stage pulmonary emphysema. He was told it could be managed, but not cured.On 26th January 1881 Dostoyevsky suffered a pulmonary haemorrhage. After the second the doctors gave a poor prognosis. A third haemorrhage followed shortly afterwards.Fyodor Dostoyevsky died on 9th February, 1881.

Victor Marie Hugo was born on 26th February 1802 and is revered as the greatest of all French writers. A poet, novelist, dramatist and painter he was a passionate supporter of Republicanism and made a notable contribution to the politics of his Country.His life was paralleled by the immense political and social movements of the 19th Century. When he was two Napoleon was proclaimed Emperor but before he was eighteen the Bourbon Monarchy was restored.It was only with his Mother's death in 1821 that he felt confident enough to marry Adele Foucher, a relationship he had kept secret from his mother. Their first child was born inside a year but died in infancy. Leopoldine was born the following year, followed by three further siblings.Hugo published his first novel the year following year, Han d'Islande, (1823). Three years later his second, Bug-Jargal (1826).Between 1829 and 1840 he would publish five further volumes of poetry solidifying his reputation as one of the greatest elegiac and lyric poets of his time. His reputation was growing not only in France but across Europe.In 1841 he was elected to the Academie Francaise, cementing his position in the world of French arts and letters. Hugo also now began to turn his attention to an involvement in French politics.Elevated to the peerage by King Louis-Philippe in 1841 he spoke eloquently and at length against the death penalty and social injustice as well as passionately in favour of freedom of the press and self-government for Poland.When Napoleon III seized power in 1851, and established an anti-parliamentary constitution, Hugo openly declared him a traitor to France and began a long exile, based mainly in Guernsey.In exile, Hugo published his famous political pamphlets; Napoleon le Petit and Histoire d'un crime. Although the pamphlets were banned in France, they nonetheless made a strong impact there. His exile also seemed to have a creative impetus. He composed or published some of his greatest work including Les Miserables, and three widely honoured collections of poetry (Les Chatiments, 1853; Les Contemplations, 1856; and La Legende des siecles, 1859).In 1870 the Third Republic was established and Hugo finally returned home, where he was elected to the National Assembly and the Senate. That same year War erupted between France and Prussia and the French were badly beaten.With the end of the War Hugo began his campaign for a great valuation and protection for the rights of artists and copyright. He was a founding member of the Association Litteraire et Artistique Internationale, which led to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.Victor Hugo's death on 22nd May 1885, at the age of 83, generated intense nation-wide mourning. Revered not only as a towering figure in literature, he was a statesman who had helped to shape the Third Republic and democracy in France.Index of ContentsDRAMATIS PERSONESMERALDAACT ISCENE-The Court of MiraclesSCENE ISCENE IISCENE IIIACT IISCENE.-The Square of Greve SCENE ISCENE IISCENE IIISCENE IVACT IIISCENE.-The Front Yard of a TavernSCENE ISCENE IISCENE IIIACT IVSCENE.-A PrisonSCENE ISCENE IISCENE IIISCENE IVVICTOR HUGO - A SHORT BIOGRAPHYVICTOR HUGO - A CONCISE BIBLIOGRAPHY

John Galsworthy was born at Kingston Upon Thames in Surrey, England, on August 14th 1867 to a wealthy and well established family. His schooling was at Harrow and New College, Oxford before training as a barrister and being called to the bar in 1890. However, Law was not attractive to him and he travelled abroad becoming great friends with the novelist Joseph Conrad, then a first mate on a sailing ship. In 1895 Galsworthy began an affair with Ada Nemesis Pearson Cooper, the wife of his cousin Major Arthur Galsworthy. The affair was kept a secret for 10 years till she at last divorced and they married on 23rd September 1905. Galsworthy first published in 1897 with a collection of short stories entitled "e;The Four Winds"e;. For the next 7 years he published these and all works under his pen name John Sinjohn. It was only upon the death of his father and the publication of "e;The Island Pharisees"e; in 1904 that he published as John Galsworthy. His first play, The Silver Box in 1906 was a success and was followed by "e;The Man of Property"e; later that same year and was the first in the Forsyte trilogy. Whilst today he is far more well know as a Nobel Prize winning novelist then he was considered a playwright dealing with social issues and the class system. Here we publish Villa Rubein, a very fine story that captures Galsworthy's unique narrative and take on life of the time. He is now far better known for his novels, particularly The Forsyte Saga, his trilogy about the eponymous family of the same name. These books, as with many of his other works, deal with social class, upper-middle class lives in particular. Although always sympathetic to his characters, he reveals their insular, snobbish, and somewhat greedy attitudes and suffocating moral codes. He is now viewed as one of the first from the Edwardian era to challenge some of the ideals of society depicted in the literature of Victorian England. In his writings he campaigns for a variety of causes, including prison reform, women's rights, animal welfare, and the opposition of censorship as well as a recurring theme of an unhappy marriage from the women's side. During World War I he worked in a hospital in France as an orderly after being passed over for military service. He was appointed to the Order of Merit in 1929, after earlier turning down a knighthood, and awarded the Nobel Prize in 1932 though he was too ill to attend. John Galsworthy died from a brain tumour at his London home, Grove Lodge, Hampstead on January 31st 1933. In accordance with his will he was cremated at Woking with his ashes then being scattered over the South Downs from an aeroplane.

划时代的不朽巨著·与达尔文的《物种起源》、哥白尼的《天体运行论》并称为导致人类思想革命的三大经典著作·标志着精神分析体系的正式建立，影响了二十世纪人类文明的发展

本书作为我社“*经典英语文库”第14辑中的一种，精选由俄国著名作家伊凡·屠格涅夫的经典作品《父与子》。小说反映了农奴制改革前夕民主主义阵营和自由主义阵营之间的尖锐的思想斗争。主人公巴扎罗夫是一个激的民主主义者，他具有坚强的性格和埋头工作的习惯。在政治上，他反对农奴制度，批判贵族自由主义，否定贵族的生活准则；在哲学上，他是个唯物主义者，重视实践，提倡实用科学。

·英国*杰出的乡土小说家、诗人哈代的代表作·抨了维多利亚时代的道德观念及婚姻制度，具有深远的历史意义

本书作为我社“经典英语文库”第15辑中的一种，精选由英国著名女作家阿加莎·克里斯蒂的作品《首相绑架案》。本书又译作《波洛探案集》。阿加莎·克里斯蒂于1923年发表了一系列以波洛和黑斯廷斯为主角的短篇故事，连载于英国《The Sketch》杂志，次年选编了14篇，集结成她的个短篇小说集《首相绑架案》。如果说柯南道尔创了侦探小说的个黄金时代，那么克里斯蒂则是世界侦探小说史上的第二个黄金时代的代表人物。

本书作为我社“*经典英语文库”第14辑中的一种，精选由俄国著名作家F. 陀思妥耶夫斯基的经典作品《白痴》。作品对农奴制改革后俄国上层社会作了广泛的描绘，涉及复杂的心理和道德问题。表达了世界本是就是无法用理性去量化的，甚至是超越人的想象的。人无可探知、无法实现的都是不需要去思考的，去思考且去实践的人都是“白痴”这一深刻见解。

·被公认为研究法国大革命的经典之作·通过对大量史实的分析，揭示了旧制度与大革命的内在联系·wqs

这是艾略特较成熟的一部作品，也被许多批评家认为是她的代表作。小说塑造了约一百五十个"圆型"或"扁平"人物，并将他们安排在错综复杂的社会关系中，再现了一个完整的社会结构。由于作家的成功塑造，展现在读者面前的这组人物群像，既栩栩如生，又有小说人物的独特艺术魅力；读者仿佛能看见他们，听见他们说话，感受到他们的生活状态，但同时又能感觉到他们那来自艺术世界的特殊韵味。

·首位诺贝尔文学奖女作家代表作·融文艺性、知识性、科学性于一体·全瑞典学童的***课外读物

本书作为我社“*经典英语文库”第14辑中的一种，精选由法国著名作家巴尔扎克的经典作品《欧也妮·葛朗台》。作品收录于《人间喜剧》，叙述了一个金钱毁灭人性和造成家庭悲剧的故事，围绕欧也妮的爱情悲剧这一中心事件，以葛朗台家庭内专制所掀起的阵阵波澜、家庭外银行家和公证人两户之间的明争暗斗和欧也妮对夏尔·葛朗台倾心相爱而查理背信弃义的痛苦的人世遭遇三条相互交织的情节线索连串小说。

本书作为我社“*经典英语文库”第14辑中的一种，精选由英国著名哲学家罗素的经典著作《自由之路》。本书较好地体现了罗素的社会关怀风格和正义、良知、壑智、温情、多姿多彩的博大胸襟。在书中，作者凭借他丰富的政冶的现实社会中，体现超越相对的人生自由，他首先从历史的角度简要地考察了一下壮大过程，继而对它们行批判地分析，虽然其中没有哪一派是尽善尽美的，可它们都对未来社会的蓝图贡献了自己的力量，读《自由之路》，可使广大读者了解自己的根本意义。

媒体有言：坊间流传一种说法，日本曾经有过3个人先后翻译《芬尼根的守灵夜》，*个失踪了，第二个神经出了毛病，第三个才*终翻译完…… 毫无疑问，爱尔兰作家詹姆斯·乔伊斯的《芬尼根的守灵夜》是英语中*难读的作品之一，它采用了意识流的写作风格，穿插着隐晦的笑话和语言实验。 这本书错综复杂，以至于在出版八十年后，人们仍然对其情节，甚至是否存在情节，都未达成共识。人物塑造也同样如此，评论家们至今仍不确定书中是否有主要人物。 《芬尼根的守灵夜》*初几乎完全是负面评价，甚至作者身边的人也持这种看法，一些人认为这本书只是个笑话，一些人则仅仅认为它难以理解。据说，赫伯特·乔治·威尔斯曾写信给乔伊斯问道：“这个乔伊斯究竟是谁？他竟然要求我花费我生命中仅剩的几千小时，才能真正理解他的怪癖、奇思妙想和灵光闪现？” 然而，它独特的风格引发了人们对它的研究和分析——这似乎是乔伊斯早有预谋的。他曾经说过，只有通过使它变得晦涩难懂，从而需要研究，他才能确保它会长期存在。 在2025年的上海书展上，这本书终于有了全译的中文版——足足有2300页之多。现在，我们提供它的一个英文版，或许可以对照看看，看看自己真的读懂了吗？读不懂当然没有关系，毕竟99.99%的人可能都读不懂！

告别碎片式阅读，从阅读经典开始。“最经典英语文库”系列丛书(14辑)共12册：《梦的解析》《悲惨世界（五卷之第五卷）》《尼尔斯骑鹅旅行记》《欧也妮·葛朗台》《白痴》《父与子》《一千零一夜（第二卷）》《神秘岛》《旧制度与法国大革命》《远航》《自由之路》《无名的裘德》。