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King Lear is one of William Shakespeare's greatest tragedies, believed to have been written between 1605 and 1606 and first performed shortly thereafter. Drawing from the ancient legend of Leir of Britain—a mythical pre-Roman king found in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (c. 1136)—Shakespeare transforms the story into a profound exploration of familial betrayal, ingratitude, madness, and the fragility of human nature. The play follows the aging King Lear as he impulsively divides his kingdom among his three daughters based on their flattery, disowning the honest Cordelia and unleashing a chain of deception, cruelty, and civil war involving parallel plots of filial treachery in the households of Lear and his nobleman Gloucester. Renowned for its raw emotional power, stormy imagery, and philosophical depth, King Lear probes themes of authority, justice, sight (both literal and metaphorical), and redemption amid suffering, cementing its place as one of the most harrowing and influential works in English literature.

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John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress from This World, to That Which Is to Come, a profound Christian allegory written in the form of a dream vision, was composed primarily during the author's imprisonment in Bedford jail from 1660 to 1672 (with possible completion in a later shorter stint around 1675) for refusing to cease unlicensed preaching under the restored monarchy's restrictions on nonconformist worship. First published in 1678, followed by a second part in 1684 focusing on the journey of Christian's wife Christiana and their children, the work follows the protagonist Christian's perilous pilgrimage from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City, encountering symbolic trials, temptations, and companions that vividly illustrate the Puritan understanding of the soul's path to salvation amid spiritual warfare and human frailty. Born in 1628 to a humble tinker family, Bunyan, a Baptist preacher deeply influenced by the Bible and his own intense conversion experience, crafted this enduring masterpiece in simple, vigorous prose accessible to common readers, making it one of the most widely read and translated books in English literature after the Bible, profoundly impacting generations of writers, theologians, and believers with its timeless depiction of faith's triumphs and struggles.

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Charles Dickens wrote and published A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas in December 1843, completing the manuscript in just six weeks. Prompted by urgent financial pressure and a deep anger at the widespread poverty he had recently witnessed (especially among children working in tin mines and the London poor), Dickens conceived the story as both a heartfelt plea for charity and a deliberate attack on the cold utilitarianism and political economy of the age. Self-financed and beautifully illustrated by John Leech, the small book appeared on 19 December, sold out its entire first printing of 6,000 copies by Christmas Eve, and quickly became a publishing phenomenon that has never since been out of print. Though it did not immediately solve Dickens’s money troubles (high production costs and piracy limited early profits), it permanently reshaped Christmas celebrations in Britain and America, reviving forgotten traditions, popularizing the phrase “Merry Christmas,” and establishing the template for the modern secular Christmas centered on family, feasting, generosity, and redemption.

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