The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963

The pinnacle of classical drama in Greece, the three-part, 2,500-year-old Oedipus cycle remains a touchstone of Western culture. Near perfect technically, the plays feature headstrong heroes, intense plots, and breathtaking imagery that have influenced generations of artists, philosophers, and statesmen. These fresh, historically faithful renditions by renowned translator Peter Constantine bring new life to civilization`s most meaningful dramas

In the year 1792, Sir Percy and Lady Marguerite Blakeney are the darlings of British society - he is known as one of the wealthiest men in England and dimwit; she is a French, a stunning former actress, and "the cleverest woman in Europe."

The first great American man of letters, Washington Irving became an international celebrity almost overnight upon publication of The Sketch-Book in 1820, which included the short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle". These tales remain his two most popular works

English officer and gentlemen Harry Feversham has wealth, social position, a beautiful feancee, Ethne Eustace, and a brotherly bond with three close friends. But he also harbors a dark secret. Though he is expected to continue his family`s proud tradition of military service, he cannot forget the shameful stories he heard as a child: tales of men who shirked their duty and disgraced themeselves in battle

Edith Wharton`s dark view of society, the somber economics of marriage, and the powerlessness of the unwedded woman at the turn of the twentieth century emerge dramatically in the tragic novel The House of Mirth

Set in the 1740s just as the French and Indian wars have begun, the novel opens as Natty Bumppo - known as Deerslayer - and his friend Hurry Harry travel to Tom Hutter`s house in upstate New York. Hurry plans to marry Tom`s beautiful daughter Judith, while Deerslayer has come to help his close friend Chingachgook save his bride-to-be, Wah-ta-Wah, from the Huron Indians. When war breaks out, and Hurry and Tom are captured by Indians, Deerslayer must go on his first warpath to rescue them

Considered the most important poem of the twentieth century, T.S. Eliot`s The Waste Land is an oblique and fascinating view of the hopelessness and confusion of purpose in modern Western civilization

Greed, treachery, mesmerism, and murder are just some of the bricks Hawthorne uses to build The House of the Seven Gables. Generations before the present story begins, wealthy Colonel Pyncheon covets Matthew Maule’s land. When Maule is hanged for witchcraft, he puts a curse on the Colonel—and all his descendants. Now the menacing Judge Pyncheon continues the family tradition of hiding cruelty under a dazzling smile, while his scowling niece, Hepzibah, and half-mad nephew, Clifford, are reduced to poverty by his machinations. But the younger generation, embodied in their distant cousin Phoebe, becomes a ray of hope penetrating the dark house

At a much lower price than comparable anthologies, the Fifth Edition provides 18 extraordinary plays, with a strong representation of historical periods and minority and women playwrights. The Introduction focuses on the study of drama as both a literary genre and a performing art; also provided are expanded introductions to the plays, an updated select bibliography, and a new filmography