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"It's no disgrace to be poor," observed Sholom Aleichem, "but it's no great honor, either." "Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city," remarked George Burns, while Marc Chagall noted that "Art is the unceasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers and never succeeding." These and many more classic examples of Jewish wit and wisdom  sometimes hilarious, frequently profound, almost always incisive  enliven the pages of this entertaining and practical little volume.Some 500 aphorisms include observations and remarks from statesmen, writers, artist, philosophers, jurists, musicians, and celebrities  from the prophets of the Old Testament, the Talmud, and Maimonides to Joey Adams, Barbra Streisand, and Woody Allen. Here also are memorable quotes from Louis Brandeis, Martin Buber, Fanny Brice, Heinrich Heine, Sam Goldwyn, Golda Meir, Karl Marx, Groucho Marx, Herman Mankiewicz, Albert Einstein, and many others.Arranged alphabetically by author, these thought-provoking pronouncements will not only serve as a handy resource for speech writers and public speakers but will also amuse and inspire all readers.

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One of the most distinguished critics and innovative authors of the twentieth century, Virginia Woolf published two novels before this collection appeared in 1921. However, it was these early stories that first earned her a reputation as a writer with "the liveliest imagination and most delicate style of her time." Influenced by Joyce, Proust, and the theories of William James, Bergson, and Freud, she strove to write a new fiction that emphasized the continuous flow of consciousness, time's passage as both a series of sequential moments and a longer flow of years and centuries, and the essential indefinability of character.Readers can discover these and other aspects of her influential style in the eight stories collected here, among them a delightful, feminist put-down of the male intellect in "A Society" and a brilliant and sensitive portrayal of nature in "Kew Gardens." Also included are "An Unwritten Novel," "The String Quartet," "A Haunted House," "Blue & Green," "The Mark on the Wall," and the title story.In recent years, Woolf's fiction, feminism, and high-minded sensibilities have earned her an ever-growing audience of readers. This splendid collection offers those readers not only the inestimable pleasures of the stories themselves, but an excellent entree into the larger body of Woolf's work.

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Here is Oscar Wilde's most brilliant tour de force, a witty and buoyant comedy of manners that has delighted millions in countless productions since its first performance in London's St. James' Theatre on February 14, 1895. The Importance of Being Earnest is celebrated not only for the lighthearted ingenuity of its plot, but for its inspired dialogue, rich with scintillating epigrams still savored by all who enjoy artful conversation.From the play's effervescent beginnings in Algernon Moncrieff's London flat to its hilarious denouement in the drawing room of Jack Worthing's country manor in Hertfordshire, this comic masterpiece keeps audiences breathlessly anticipating a new bon mot or a fresh twist of plot moment to moment.

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Renowned as the author of such popular adventure stories as Kidnapped and Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson also wrote gripping tales of terror and the supernatural. Stevenson's considerable gifts as a teller of tales shine brightly in this choice collection of three of his best short stories. The Gothic tale of "The Body Snatcher" concerns a young medical student's dealings with grave robbers who provide corpses to dissect and study  a practice that takes on increasingly sinister dimensions. Swirling seas, dangerous reefs, and inhospitable islanders provide the grim backdrop for a tale of greed, lunacy, and unbridled fear in "The Merry Men," the name given by the inhabitants of Aros to the fearsome breakers that pound their tiny Scottish isle. "The Bottle Imp"  an intricately told tale of love and adventure, avarice and envy, and good and evil  centers on a magical bottle that provides its owner with all he desires, but at a great cost. This exceptional collection of tales will thrill admirers of the author's craft as well as aficionados of classic horror stories.

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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

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Former slave, impassioned abolitionist, brilliant writer, newspaper editor and eloquent orator whose speeches fired the abolitionist cause, Frederick Douglass (18181895) led an astounding life. Physical abuse, deprivation and tragedy plagued his early years, yet with his tenacious character and relentless pursuit of self-education, he would overcome these obstacles to become a leading spokesman for his people. In this, the first and most frequently read of his three autobiographies, Douglass provides graphic descriptions of his childhood and horrifying experiences as a slave as well as a harrowing record of his dramatic escape to the North and eventual freedom. Published in 1845 to quell doubts about his origins  since few slaves of that period could write  the Narrative is admired today for its extraordinary passion, sensitive and vivid descriptions and storytelling power. It belongs in the library of anyone interested in African-American history and the life of one of the country's most courageous and influential champions of civil rights.

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This delightful and entertaining collection includes scores of quotations, sayings, and speculations about motherhood  from the Roman poet Virgil and St. Augustine to movie-maker Mack Sennett and comedienne Phyllis Diller. Shakespeare is quoted, as are Euripides, Thomas Alva Edison, Abraham Lincoln, Oscar Wilde, Napoleon, Edna Ferber, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Gloria Vanderbilt, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and many other writers, statesmen, celebrities, biblical figures, movie stars, and others.Theres solid advice from Abigail Van Buren ("If you want your children to turn out well, spend twice as much time with them, and half as much money."), profound utterings by President Theodore Roosevelt ("Into a woman's keep is committed the destiny of the generations to come."), as well as tongue-in-cheek comments from American humorist Will Rogers ("I doubt if a charging elephant or rhino is as determined or hard to check as a socially ambitious mother.")A wonderful little time for browsing, this book will also serve as a handy reference.

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Philosopher, naturalist, poet and rugged individualist, Henry David Thoreau (18171862) has inspired generations of readers to think for themselves, to follow the dictates of their own conscience and to make an art of their lives. This representative sampling of his thought includes five of his most frequently cited and read essays: "Civil Disobedience," his most powerful and influential political essay, exalts the law of conscience over civil law. "Life without Principle" distills the essence of Thoreau's philosophy of self-reliance and individualism. "Slavery in Massachusetts" is a searing attack on government condonation of slavery. "A Plea for Captain John Brown" is an eloquent defense of the radical abolitionist, while "Walking" celebrates the joys of that activity and pleads for conservation of the earth's wild places. The latter essay is recognized as one of the pioneer documents in the conservation and national park movement in America.

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"Liberty and union, now and forever, one and inseparable."  Daniel Webster."How dear to all good hearts is their fatherland."  Voltaire."Men love their country, not because it is great, but because it is their own."  Seneca.More than 400 other memorable quotations  mostly related to the love and earnest support of one's country  fill the pages of this little book. Expressed over the ages by poets, novelists, playwrights, statesmen, military leaders, philosophers, and other figures of note, these sometimes witty, sometimes cynical, and often provocative sayings have been alphabetically arranged by the author.A handy volume for students, teachers, speechwriters, and public speakers, this thought-provoking collection will appeal to a wide audience.

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Over 400 quotations, some more familiar than others, but all thoughtfully and precisely expressed. Includes such timeless observations as "A true friend is one soul in two bodies" (Aristotle) and "Friendship is like money, easier made than kept" (Samuel Butler). Also, thought-provoking reflections by Socrates, Confucius, Mark Twain, Dorothy Parker, Ambrose Bierce, and many others.

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A boundless source of consolation and intellectual stimulation and one of the central texts of Judaism, the Talmud is not only a great compilation of ancient wisdom concerning law, religion, history, ethics, metaphysics, and folklore; it is also a treasure trove of aphorism, maxims, and witty sayings, including:Adversity is the true school of mind.Avoid anger and thou wilt not sin.Too many captains sink the ship.The noblest of all charities is in enabling the poor to earn a livelihood.Dignity does not consist in a silk dress.There are over 500 other proverbs and adages come together in this delightful collection, arranged under 143 headings such as adversity, ancestry, anger, business, charity, death, friendship, home life, honesty, immortality, labor, love, money, and truth. In addition to its sheer entertainment value, The Wisdom of the Talmud also provides important insights into Jewish ethics, folklore, and theology. Indispensable for writers, journalists, and public speakers, this rich selection will also delight general readers with its ageless appeal.

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Perhaps the most popular of all of Shakespeare's comedies, A Midsummer Night's Dream humorously celebrates the vagaries of love. The approaching wedding festivities of Theseus, Duke of Athens, and his bride-to-be, Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, are delightfully crisscrossed with in-again, off-again romances of two young pairs of Athenian lovers; a fateful rivalry between the King and Queen of the Fairies; and the theatrical aspirations of a bumbling troupe of Athenian laborers. It all ends happily in wedding-night revelry complete with a play-within-a-play presented by the laborers to the ecstatic amusement of all. This edition, complete with explanatory footnotes, is reprinted from a standard British edition.

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One of the best-known, most frequently performed of modern plays, A Doll's House richly displays the genius with which Henrik Ibsen pioneered modern, realistic prose drama. In the central character of Nora, Ibsen epitomized the human struggle against the humiliating constraints of social conformity. Nora's ultimate rejection of a smothering marriage and life in "a doll's house" shocked theatergoers of the late 1800s and opened new horizons for playwrights and their audiences.But daring social themes are only one aspect of Ibsen's power as a dramatist. A Doll's House shows as well his gifts for creating realistic dialogue, a suspenseful flow of events and, above all, psychologically penetrating characterizations that make the struggles of his dramatic personages utterly convincing. Here is a deeply absorbing play as readable as it is eminently playable, reprinted from an authoritative translation.

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Considered by many the greatest of the classic Greek tragedies, Oedipus Rex is Sophocles' finest play and a work of extraordinary power and resonance. Aristotle considered it a masterpiece of dramatic construction and refers to it frequently in the Poetics.In presenting the story of King Oedipus and the tragedy that ensues when he discovers he has inadvertently killed his father and married his mother, the play exhibits near-perfect harmony of character and action. Moreover, the masterly use of dramatic irony greatly intensifies the impact of the agonizing events and emotions experienced by Oedipus and the other characters in the play. Now these and many other facets of this towering tragedy may be studied and appreciated in Dover's attractive inexpensive edition of one of the great landmarks of Western drama.

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First performed about 1805, King Lear is one of the most relentlessly bleak of Shakespeare's tragedies. Probably written between Othello and Macbeth, when the playwright was at the peak of his tragic power, Lear's themes of filial ingratitude, injustice, and the meaninglessness of life in a seemingly indifferent universe are explored with unsurpassed power and depth.The plot concerns a monarch betrayed by his daughters, robbed of his kingdom, descending into madness. Greed, treachery, and cruelty are rife and the denouement of the play is both brutal and heartbreaking. In fact, so troubling is its vision of man's life that, until the mid-19th century, the play was performed most often with a non-Shakespearean happy ending, with Lear back on his throne and Cordelia, the daughter nearest his heart, happily married to the noble Edgar. But there is a dark magnificence to Shakespeare's original vision of the Lear story, and the play is performed today essentially as he wrote it, uncompromised by later "improvements." King Lear is reprinted here from an authoritative British edition, complete with explanatory footnotes.

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Much Ado About Nothing is one of Shakespeare's most imaginative and exuberant comedies, contrasting two pairs of lovers in a witty and suspenseful battle of the sexes. Attracted to each other, the maddeningly skeptical Beatrice and Benedick are dead-locked in a lively war of words until their friends hatch a plot to unite them. The mutually devoted Hero and Claudio, on the other hand, all too quickly fall victim to a malicious plot to part them. Near-fatal complications ensue, but with the help of the hilarious Constable Dogberry and his confederates, the lovers are ultimately united.First presented in 1598, Much Ado About Nothing is one of Shakespeare's last comedies. Its darker undercurrents foreshadow the playwright's growing concern with the frailties of human character that would dominate his late tragedies. But in its clever turns of plot, vivacious displays of wit, jovial conversations, and charming songs, this merry comedy is among Shakespeare's most artistic creations.

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A rough-and-tumble farce centered around a lively battle of the sexes, The Taming of the Shrew brims with action and bawdy humor. The unconventional romance between a lusty fortune-hunter and a bitter shrew unfolds to the accompaniment of witty, fast-paced dialogue and physical humor in this excellent introduction to Shakespearean comedy.The freebooter Petruchio arrives in Padua to hear of Katharina, a beautiful heiress whose waspish rants and caustic personality have repelled all attempts at courtship. Professing to admire a woman of spirit, Petruchio immediately sets about his wooing. The initial encounter between "Kate" and her wily suitor is spiked with impassioned exchanges of blows as well as jests. After a madcap wedding ceremony, the still-protesting Kate is whisked away to be "killed with kindness" and reborn as a loving wife.One of the Bard's earliest and most popular plays, The Taming of the Shrew is rife with subplots involving his customary devices of disguise and mistaken identity. The vivid language, studded with elaborate puns, is an engaging complement to the play's slapstick humor. Reprinted complete and unabridged in this inexpensive edition, The Taming of the Shrew will delight any reader with its wonderful wordplay and rollicking good spirits.

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Focusing on popular verse from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this treasury of great American poems offers a taste of the nation's rich poetic legacy. Selected for both popularity and literary quality, the compilation includes Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," Walt Whitman's "I Hear America Singing," and Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Concord Hymn," as well as poems by Langston Hughes, Emily Dickinson, T. S. Eliot, Marianne Moore, and many other notables. Chosen by the non-profit organization American Poetry & Literacy Project, these much-loved verses include 13 selections from the Common Core State Standards Initiative: "Casey at the Bat," "Fog," "The New Colossus," "Chicago," "I, Too, Sing America," "O Captain! My Captain!," "Paul Revere's Ride," "The Road Not Taken," "The Raven," "Because I Could Not Stop for Death," "Mending Wall," "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," and "The River Merchant's Wife: A Letter."

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Shakespeare, Poe, Tennyson, Whitman, Dickinson, Wordsworth, Yeats, Frost and More

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Here are some of the most-loved poems in the English language, chosen not merely for their popularity, but for their literary quality as well. Dating from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, these splendid poems remain evergreen in their capacity to engage our minds and refresh our spirits. Among them are Marlowe: "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love"; Shakespeare: "Sonnet XVIII" ("Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"); Donne: "Holy Sonnet X" ("Death, be not proud"); Marvell: "To His Coy Mistress"; Wordsworth: "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud"; Shelley: "Ode to the West Wind"; Longfellow: "The Children's Hour"; Poe: "The Raven"; Tennyson: "The Charge of the Light Brigade"; Whitman: "O Captain! My Captain!"; Dickinson: "This Is My Letter to the World"; Yeats: "When You Are Old"; Frost: "The Road Not Taken"; Millay: "First Fig."Works by many other poets  Milton, Blake, Burns, Coleridge, Byron, Keats, Emerson, the Brownings, Hardy, Housman, Kipling, Pound, and Auden among them  are included in this treasury, a perfect companion for quiet moments of reflection.

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First presented in 411 B.C., this ancient comedy concerns the efforts of Lysistrata, an Athenian woman, to persuade other women to join together in a strike against the men of Greece, denying them sex until they've agreed to put down their arms and end the disastrous wars between Athens and Sparta. When the strike begins, and the men respond, the comedic battle of the sexes that ensues makes this spirited play one of the most enjoyable of the classics. In it, Aristophanes employs a mixture of shrewd logic and raffish humor that fully exploits the rich comic potential of the story and its underlying antiwar sentiment. Always a favorite of audiences, Lysistrata, because of its pointed feminist sympathies, is studied and performed today more than ever.

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The Greek myths have intrigued countless generations of readers with their exciting tales of adventure, calamity, and conquest. This entertaining collection  excellently retold for young audiences by Bob Blaisdell  invites children to relive the memorable experiences of familiar characters from Greek mythology.Taken directly from the writings of Homer, Hesiod, Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides, and other ancient storytellers, the myths recount the stirring and imaginative tales of Pandora's box, Prometheus, the dreaded Cyclops, the labors of the mighty Hercules, the captivating stories of Narcissus and Echo, Aphrodite and Eros, Daedalus and Icarus, Hades and Persephone, and many more.Set in large, easy-to-read type and enhanced by six full-page black-and-white illustrations, these enduring fables from the fountainhead of Western civilization will thrill and delight new generations of adventure-seekers.