Серия книг «Signet Classics» — 229 книг

“Perhaps it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions all one’s life.”

Kate Chopin was enjoying wide popularity as a writer, mainly of short stories, when her second novel, The Awakening, was published to widespread criticism of its immorality. A wake-up call to women all over the country, this landmark novel of early American feminism tells of a Louisiana wife who discovers the strength of her own sexuality and tries to wrench it from the hands of a patriarchal society. And just as Edna Pontellier is ostracized for trying to master her own sexual fate, so did Chopin’s reputation suffer after she wrote this book. Today The Awakening is considered a masterpiece and, along with Chopin’s short stories, has set a standard for younger generations of women who have learned to value their independence and authenticity.

Edited and with an Introduction by Barbara H. Solomon and with a New Afterword by Roxane Gay.

“Perhaps it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions all one’s life.”

Kate Chopin was enjoying wide popularity as a writer,…

Published here alongside their evocative original illustrations, these fairy tales by the celebrated playwright and poet include "The Happy Prince and Other Tales" and "A House of Pomegranates. " Revised reissue.

Published here alongside their evocative original illustrations, these fairy tales by the celebrated playwright and poet include "The Happy Prince and Other Tales" and "A House of…

This epic of urban life tells of small- town heroine Carrie Meeber, adrift in an indifferent Chicago. Setting out, she has nothing but a few dollars and an unspoiled beauty. Hers is a story of struggle— from sweatshop to stage success—and of the love she inspires in an older, married man whose obsession with her threatens to destroy him.

This epic of urban life tells of small- town heroine Carrie Meeber, adrift in an indifferent Chicago. Setting out, she has nothing but a few dollars and an unspoiled beauty. Hers…

"An American Tragedy" is the story of Clyde Griffiths, who spends his life in the desperate pursuit of success. On a deeper, more profound level, it is the masterful portrayal of the society whose values both shape Clyde's ambitions and seal his fate; it is an unsurpassed depiction of the harsh realities of American life and of the dark side of the American dream. Extraordinary in scope and power, vivid in its sense of wholesale human waste, unceasing in its rich compassion, "An American Tragedy" stands as Theodore Dreiser's supreme achievement.

"An American Tragedy" is the story of Clyde Griffiths, who spends his life in the desperate pursuit of success. On a deeper, more profound level, it is the masterful portrayal of…

In its vast scope, this book presents the continuum of Western philosophy. Ranging from ancient Greece to nineteenth-century America, it traces the history of our civilization through the seminal works of its most influential thinkers. Each philosopher in this volume made intellectual history; each created a revolution in ideas; each reaffirmed man’s view of himself as a sentient being capable of creating order out of the baffling contradictions of existence. And the most powerful reflections and speculations of each are represented here.
Plato: Apology, Crito and the Death of Socrates, from Phado

Aristotle: Poetics

St. Ansem: The ontological Proof of St. Ansem, from Proslogium

St. Thomas Aquinas: St. Thomas’ Proofs of God’s Existence, from the Summa Theologica

René Descartes: Meditations on the First Philosophy

David Hume: An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding

Immanuel Kant: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics

John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism

William James: The Will to Believe

In its vast scope, this book presents the continuum of Western philosophy. Ranging from ancient Greece to nineteenth-century America, it traces the history of our civilization…

The quintessential novel from England's most beloved novelist, David Copperfield is the story of a young man's adventures on his journey from an unhappy and impoverished childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful author.

The quintessential novel from England's most beloved novelist, David Copperfield is the story of a young man's adventures on his journey from an unhappy and impoverished childhood…

Red brick, machinery, and smoke-darkened chimneys. Reason, facts, and statistics. This is the world of Coke-town, the depressed mill town that is the setting for one of Charles Dickens's most powerful and unforgettable novels.
Schoolmaster Thomas Gradgrind lives to impose his version of education: feeding the mind while starving the soul and spirit. Inflexible and unyielding, he places conformity above curiosity, and logic over sentiment, only to have his philosophy warp and destroy the lives of his own family.
HARD TIMES is Dickens's scathing portrait of Victorian industrial society and its misapplied utilitarian philosophy. And Thomas Gradgrind is one of his most memorable characters. Filled with the details and wonders of small-town life, Hard Times is also a daring novel of ideas - and ultimately, a celebration of love, hope, and the limitless possibilities of the imagination.

Red brick, machinery, and smoke-darkened chimneys. Reason, facts, and statistics. This is the world of Coke-town, the depressed mill town that is the setting for one of Charles…

Set in the years leading up to and culminating in Napoleon's disastrous Russian invasion, this classic novel focuses upon an entire society torn by conflict and change. Here is humanity in all its innocence and corruption, wisdom and folly, painful defeats and enduring triumphs. Here is the seemingly effortless artistry of a master. Here, finally, is a view of history and personal destiny that is perpetually modern.

Set in the years leading up to and culminating in Napoleon's disastrous Russian invasion, this classic novel focuses upon an entire society torn by conflict and change. Here is…

Two sisters of opposing temperaments who share the pangs of tragic love provide the theme for Jane Austen's dramatically human narrative. Their mutual suffering brings a closer understanding between the two sisters - and true love finally triumphs when sense gives way to sensibility and sensibility gives way to sense.
With an afterword by Mary Balogh.

Two sisters of opposing temperaments who share the pangs of tragic love provide the theme for Jane Austen's dramatically human narrative. Their mutual suffering brings a closer…

An exciting new edition of the complete works of Shakespeare with these features: Illustrated with photographs from New York Shakespeare Festival productions, vivid readable readable introductions for each play by noted scholar David Bevington, a lively personal foreword by Joseph Papp, an insightful essay on the play in performance, modern spelling and pronunciation, up-to-date annotated bibliographies, and convenient listing of key passages.

An exciting new edition of the complete works of Shakespeare with these features: Illustrated with photographs from New York Shakespeare Festival productions, vivid readable…

The Newly Revised Signet Classic Shakespeare Series.
The work of the world's greatest dramatist edited by outstanding scholars.
An extensive overview of Shakespeare's life, world, and sonnets by the general editor of the Signet Classic Shakespeare series, Sylvan Barnet, Tufts University Special introduction to THE SONNETS, by W.H.Auden Facsimilies of the 1609 quarto edition of THE SONNETS Textual Note, including a facsimilie showing a variant form of one sonnet Literary criticism by William Empson, Hallett Smith, Winifred M.T.Nowottny, and Helen Vendler Text, notes, and commentaries printed in the clearest, most readable type Up-to-date list of recommended readings.

The Newly Revised Signet Classic Shakespeare Series.
The work of the world's greatest dramatist edited by outstanding scholars.
An extensive overview of Shakespeare's life,…

Impressed into service aboard the seal-hunting Van Weyden becomes an unwilling participant board drama. With a wary eye, he watches the captain, Wolf Larsen, an enigma who can abandon the open water, then return to reading the moral philosophers. One of the best sea novels ever written, The Sea-Wolf tells of mutiny, shipwreck, and a desperate confrontation.

Impressed into service aboard the seal-hunting Van Weyden becomes an unwilling participant board drama. With a wary eye, he watches the captain, Wolf Larsen, an enigma who can…

They are the fearful images that have stalked humanity's nightmares for centuries, supernatural creatures that feast on flesh and haunt the soul, macabre and uncanny beings that frighten and fascinate the imagination.
VAMPIRES, ZOMBIES, WEREWOLVES, AND GHOSTS collects classic stories from literary masters inspired by folklore and mythology who dared to explore the darker side of human nature and crafted tales that defied convention, stirred up controversy, and gave life to a storytelling genre that has endured for generations.

They are the fearful images that have stalked humanity's nightmares for centuries, supernatural creatures that feast on flesh and haunt the soul, macabre and uncanny beings that…

Mansfield Park is named for the magnificent, idyllic estate that is home to the wealthy Bertram family and that serves as a powerful symbol of English tradition and stability. The novel's heroine, Fanny Price - a "poor relation" living with the Bertrams - is acutely conscious of her inferior status and yet she dares to love their son Edmund - from afar. With five marriageable young people on the premises, the peace at Mansfield cannot last. Courtships, entertainments, and intrigues throw the place into turmoil, and Fanny finds herself unwillingly competing with a dazzlingly witty and lovely rival. As Margaret Drabble points out in her incisive Introduction, the house becomes "full of the energies of discord - sibling rivalry, greed, ambition, illicit sexual passion, and vanity", and the novel grows ever more engrossing right up to Mansfield's final scandal and the satisfying conclusion. Unique in its moral design and its brilliant interplay of the forces of tradition and change, Mansfield Park was the first novel of Jane Austen's maturity, and the first in which the author turned her unerring eye on the concerns of English society at a time of great upheaval.

Mansfield Park is named for the magnificent, idyllic estate that is home to the wealthy Bertram family and that serves as a powerful symbol of English tradition and stability. The…

A fashionable young man sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty in Oscar Wilde’s fascinating gothic tale.

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde’s only full-length novel, is the enduringly eerie story of a naïve and irresistible young man lured by decadent Lord Henry Wotton into a life of depravity. Though Dorian is steeped in sin, his face remains perfect, unlined as years pass—while only his portrait, locked away, reveals the blackness of his soul. This timeless tale of Gothic horror and fable, reveling in the unabashed hedonism and cynical wit of its characters, epitomizes Wilde’s literary revolt against the proprieties of the Victorian era.

Sharing this volume with The Picture of Dorian Gray are Wilde’s clever and sophisticated story “Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime” and two of his delicate fairy tales, “The Happy Prince” and “The Birthday of the Infanta.”

A fashionable young man sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty in Oscar Wilde’s fascinating gothic tale.

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde’s only full-length novel,…

This is one of Shakespeare's darkest comedies, for the romantic story of a young man, Bassanio, who has squandered his fortune and must borrow money to woo the wealthy lady he loves is set against the more disturbing story of the Jewish moneylender Shylock and his demand for the "pound of flesh" owed him by the Venetian merchant, Antonio. Here pathos and farce combine with moral complexity and romantic entanglement to display the extraordinary power and range of Shakespeare at his best.

This is one of Shakespeare's darkest comedies, for the romantic story of a young man, Bassanio, who has squandered his fortune and must borrow money to woo the wealthy lady he…

Oscar Wilde's infamous wit, taste for scandal, and gift for revealing the hypocrisies of fashionable society are on display here in this collection of his finest plays. A genius both of and ahead of his time, he built his craft on the eternal questions of right and wrong - with pithy dialogue as fresh today as when it was written.

In addition to Wilde's five major plays, this Signet Classics edition contains:
- Two interviews with the playwright at the peak of his career, in which Wilde discusses his work - and his critics.
- Some of his most brilliant critical writing, in which he discusses the nature of art in terms that anticipate much of today's literary theory.
- An appendix that restores valuable lines that appeared in the original text of The Importance of Being Earnest.

Oscar Wilde's infamous wit, taste for scandal, and gift for revealing the hypocrisies of fashionable society are on display here in this collection of his finest plays. A genius…

While Geoffrey Chaucer composed several magnificent works of poetry, his reputation as "the father of English literature" rests mainly on The Canterbury Tales, a group of stories told by assorted pilgrims en route to the shrine of Thomas ? Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. From the mirthful and bawdy to the profoundly moral, the tales, taken in their entirety, reflect not only the manners and mores of medieval England, but indeed, the full comic and tragic dimensions of the human condition. Considered the greatest collection of narrative poems in English literature, The Canterbury Tales was composed in the Middle English of Chaucer's day, possibly to be read aloud at the court of Richard II. However, their grandeur, humor, and relevance are timeless, as readers of this authoritative edition will discover.

While Geoffrey Chaucer composed several magnificent works of poetry, his reputation as "the father of English literature" rests mainly on The Canterbury Tales, a group of stories…

The most sprightly and satirical of Austen's novels, NORTHANGER ABBEY was written when the author was herself in her early twenties, and takes for its heroine seventeen-year-old Catherine Morland, a spirited young woman preoccupied with the pleasures of dressing, dancing, and reading sensational novels. But when she visits Northanger Abbey, the ancestral home of handsome Henry Tilney, Catherine's taste in books comes back to haunt her. The rambling house, full of locked doors, and the family's mysterious history give rise to delightfully dreadful suspicions, and finally only Catherine's sweet nature and good humor triumph over her susceptibility. A sly commentary on the power of literature as well as a cautionary tale about the perils of naivete, NORTHANGER ABBEY is a fresh and funny tale of one young woman receiving, as Margaret Drabble reveals in her illuminating Introduction, "intensive instruction in the ways of the world."

The most sprightly and satirical of Austen's novels, NORTHANGER ABBEY was written when the author was herself in her early twenties, and takes for its heroine seventeen-year-old…

Humans and gods wrestling with towering emotions. Men lighting to the death amid devastation and destruction. Perhaps the Western world's first and best storyteller. Homer draws the reader in with bated breath. His masterful tale contains some of the most famous episodes in all of literature: the curse on the prophet Cassandra; the siege of Troy; the battle between Hector and Achilles; the fate of Helen, whose face launched a thousand ships. To this day, the heroism and adventure of THE ILIAD have remained unmatched in song and story.
In his "plain English" translation, W H.D. Rouse makes a point to keep the language as colloquial as Homer's original was, never pedantic, high-flown, or cliched. In fact, it is the nearest contemporary English equivalent to the epic Homer's audience heard at their banquets.

Humans and gods wrestling with towering emotions. Men lighting to the death amid devastation and destruction. Perhaps the Western world's first and best storyteller. Homer draws…