Zoo animals from polar bear to walrus make their distinctive sounds for each other, while children imitate the sounds for the zookeeper. Includes note to parents and teachers, and related activities.

This revealing romp through proper society follows three different women who dare to defy Victorian standards. Can You Forgive Her? comically intertwines the stories of three very independent-minded women who each desires to decide her own fate in a world where love comes second to obedience and familial expectations set them apart from their peers. First and foremost is the spirited Alice Vavasor, whose indecision and repeated rejections of two...

Richard Blackmore (1825-1900) was a minor historical novelist whose works have been somewhat overlooked by the reading masses, but whose talent for characterization and setting rank his words among the finest of nineteenth-century English literature. "Lorna Doone," Blackmore's acknowledged masterpiece, attained belated popularity a little more than a year after its publication. Rumors began that the novel was about the recent marriage of the marquis...

Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and along with Hamlet, is one of his most frequently performed plays.

Utopia (1516) is a work of political satire by Thomas More. Published in Latin while More was serving as Privy Counsellor under King Henry VIII, the text is stylized as a true account of a new civilization discovered in the New World by traveler Raphael Hythlodaeus. While there have been varying interpretations of Utopia over the centuries, it is most consistently regarded as a work of political philosophy in the tradition of Plato's Republic that...

The disregard of a dying woman's bequest, a girl's attempt to help an impoverished clerk, and the marriage of an idealist and a materialist intersect at an estate called Howards End. There, the lives of three families become entangled. The Wilcoxes, who own the estate, are a wealthy family who made their fortune in the American colonies. The Schlegel siblings-Margaret, Helen, and Tibby-are lively socialites whose spirited and active lifestyles are...

In Edmond Rostand's beloved 1897 stage play "Cyrano De Bergerac", the titular soldier-poet is hopelessly in love with Roxane, the most beautiful woman in all of Paris. Believing he has no chance with her because of his extremely large nose, he agrees to write love letters on behalf of the slow-witted Christian, who also pines for Roxane. Rostand's work is a fictionalization of the real life novelist Cyrano De Bergerac, who in addition to being a novelist...

All's Well That Ends Well (1607) is a comedy by William Shakespeare. All's Well That Ends Well was likely inspired by the tale of Giletta di Narbona from Boccaccio's Decameron. Unpopular during Shakespeare's lifetime, the play remains one of his least staged works to this day. Despite this, scholars praise All's Well That Ends Well for its moral ambiguity. "The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together, our virtues would be proud...

This early work by Henry James was originally published in 1877 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. Henry James was born in New York City in 1843. One of thirteen children, James had an unorthodox early education, switching between schools, private tutors and private reading.. James published his first story, 'A Tragedy of Error', in the Continental Monthly in 1864, when he was twenty years old. In 1876, he emigrated...

"We are such stuff as dreams are made on…" While the language of William Shakespeare's plays can make them challenging for some readers, their plots are filled with fantastical, almost fairytale-like plot devices-misunderstandings involving identical twins, magical forests, ghosts and witches, and foolish kings-that make them irresistible to almost any reader. This gorgeous new edition of Charles and Mary Lamb's beloved book collects...