In this exciting novel set during the French Revolution, Charles Dickens expresses sympathy for the downtrodden poor and their outrage at the self-indulgent aristocracy. But Dickens is no friend of the vengeful mob that storms the Bastille and cheers the guillotine. As with all of his stories, hi...

Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is, according to many critics and fond readers, the great American novel. Full of vibrant American characters, intriguing regional dialects and folkways, and down-home good humor, it also hits Americans in one of their greatest and on-going sore spots: ...

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is one of the most influential and controversial novels of the nineteenth century; it is also one of the most misunderstood and misinterpreted. It has been vivisected critically by latter-day Victor Frankensteins who have transformed the meanings emergent from the nove...

Arguably Shakespeare's finest and most important play, Hamlet is one of the most misunderstood masterpieces of world literature. "To be or not to be" may be the question, but the answer has eluded many generations of critics. What does it mean "to be?" And is everything as it seems to be? These a...

One of the finest novels ever written, Jane Eyre is also one of the most misunderstood masterpieces of world literature. Whereas most modern teaching of the text misreads or misinterprets Charlotte Brontë’s devout and profoundly ingrained Christian faith and intentions, this critical edition emph...

Though a staple in high school English classes, Julius Caesar is not a simple play. Seemingly irreconcilable forces are at work: fate and free will, the changeableness and stubbornness of ambitious men, the demands of public service and the desire for private gain. Drawn from history as recorded ...

What are two sisters of uncertain fortunes to do when the death of their father exiles their family to live in the countryside of southwestern England? Why, fall in love, of course! Through her deft unraveling of the dramatically different romantic fates of Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, Jane Aust...

One of the most popular of Shakespeare's plays, King Lear is also one of the most thought-provoking. The play turns on the practical ramifications of the words of Christ that we should render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and unto God that which is God's. When confronted with the demand that...

Jane Austen is arguably the finest female novelist who ever lived, and Pride and Prejudice is perhaps the finest, at least certainly the most popular, of her novels. An undoubted classic of world literature, its profound Christian morality is all too often missed or wilfully overlooked by today's...

The Merchant of Venice is probably the most controversial of all Shakespeare's plays. It is also one of the least understood. Is it a comedy or a tragedy? What is the meaning behind the test of the caskets? Who is the real villain of the trial scene? Is Shylock simply vicious and venomous, or is ...

In true Faustian Tradition, The Picture of Dorian Gray tells the tale of a young man who sells his soul to the devil in return for youthful immortality, only to discover that the devil's bargain is no bargain at all. "What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" Wh...

Wuthering Heights is one of the classic novels of nineteenth century romanticism. As a major work of modern literature it retains its controversial status. What was Emily Brontë's intention? Were her intentions iconoclastic? Were they feminist? Were they Christian or post-Christian? Who are the h...

Very few people know that Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) wrote a major work on Joan of Arc. Still fewer know that he considered it not only his most important, but also his best work. He spent twelve years in research and many months in France doing archival work and then made several attempts until...