Classic English Literature For Teens

This favorite book for children, based on the author's own youthful experiences, describes the family life of the Marches in a small New England community. Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy are raised in genteel poverty by their loving mother, Marmee, while their father serves as a chaplain during the Civil War. The story explores their domestic adventures, their attempts to increase the family's income, their friendship with the neighboring Laurence family, and their later love affairs and destinies as women.

Treasure Island is a tale of pirates, treasure, and shipwreck. When young Jim Hawkins finds a packet in Captain Flint's sea chest, he could not know that the map inside it would lead him to unimaginable treasure. Shipping as cabin boy on the Hispaniola, he sails with Squire Trelawney, Captain Smollett, Dr. Livesey, the sinister Long John Silver and a frightening crew to Treasure Island. There, mutiny, murder and mayhem lead to a thrilling climax.

Pollyanna, an expert at her favorite "Glad Game" of always looking at the bright side in her numerous trials, is one of the most popular and enduring characters in all of children's literature.

A new entry in the superb, visually striking, and innovative series for young people. Children, parents, librarians, educators, and critics will all be delighted to have another engrossing retelling of one of Shakespeare's plays. A young woman's elopement with a dark-skinned foreigner. An evil manipulator, dead set on bloody revenge. A noble warrior, fatally consumed by jealousy. Shakespeare's play about the Moor who "loved not wisely but too well," comes to life in this intensely thrilling retelling.

Lewis Carroll's enduring tale begins with Alice chasing the White Rabbit down a rabbit hole, where she encounters a world of delightfully eccentric characters like the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, the Cheshire Cat, the Mock Turtle, and the Queen of Hearts. Throughout her fantastic journeys, Alice retains her reason, humor, and sense of justice.

John and Lorraine happen to be passing by the Pigman’s abandoned house when they receive the shock of their lives: someone or something is watching them from the upstairs window. Convinced this is a sign from beyond the grave, John and Lorraine decide they have been given a chance to make up for what happened to the Pigman. Can they make things right once and for all?

You are probably familiar with the popularized versions of Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, but have you ever heard the original, unabridged stories by Washington Irving? The skillfully written and colorful original tales have much more meaning and depth. In Rip Van Winkle Irving makes a profound social comment about the changes then happening in America.

Watch as the curtains open and the opera begins. The seven operatic stories in this beautiful collection are each proceeded by an introduction about the origins of the story. There are also extensive notes about opera houses, behind-the-scenes terminology, famous opera houses and composers, and more.

Andrew Lang drew upon his classical learning to recreate the Greek myths for children. He follows Ulysses from his boyhood, thorugh the Trojan Wars, to his voyage to seek the son of Achilles. The story of Helen of Troy, and the Trojan Horse, is told with the pace of a modern adventure. Lang's collection of retold myths includes Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece, and recounts the lives and heroic deeds of two other major figures: Theseus, who slew the Minotaur; and Perseus, who freed the princess Andromeda as one of his many tests, with the helo of the gorgon's head. Perseus, Andromeda, and her parents, Cephus and Cassiopeia, are remembered in the constellations of the summer sky. Not only will theres tales bring to life for children of all ages the quest for good and the struggle against eveil embodied in the myths, they also reveal the roots of characters referenced throughout Western litereature from Shakespeare's time to the present day. In the true spirit of adventure, Lang dedicated his book to H. Rider Haggard.

Five years after Anne Shirley came to the town of Avonlea, she feels (a little) more grown up, but she's still the same skinny, red-headed orphan Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert took in. After putting her dream of attending Redmond College on hold so she can help Marilla with the farm, Anne doubts she has many adventures ahead of her. But even in plain old Avonlea, her life proves to be anything but ordinary.

Written in classic Alcott style, we see how the boys struggle to overcome their many flaws, in the end learning life's lessons the hard way. Just as the March girls did, each boy must learn to deal with death, love, heartbreak, and the consequences of their actions. Audiences will feel pain and joy alongside each young man as he completes his life journey and fulfills his dreams in this classic conclusion to one of America's most beloved series.

It is an INVASION! H. G. Wells' classic story of Martians invading an unsuspecting and unprepared world continues to thrill and terrify listeners around the world. Following strange explosions on the surface of Mars, metallic cylinders crash in the English countryside - objects that carry hideous aliens possessed of deadly weapons and a rabid hunger for human flesh. No army can stop these monstrous hordes, no weapons can harm them - a terrified humanity watches helpless as cities are reduced to cinders and ash. There is no hope...here is no future...our world is lost - unlessa?S

After Aleyna witnessed the cruel deaths of her family, she was put to sleep by Ezralon the unicorn. He has been keeping her safe, hidden in the forest, until her true prince could come and rescue her. While Aleyna is protected in the forest, her spirit walks the halls of her ruined, deserted castle in a dream-like existence, believing everything is still perfect. However, she is halted in this state - almost as if time were frozen - until the prince awakens her.

In this classic story, first published in 1906, a false accusation places the father in jail, leaving his wife and three children on their own. Circumstances force mother and the children to leave their ideal life in London to live near a train station in a rustic cottage. As the good natured children work to rescue their father, they befriend and help others along the way.

Prince Alexander has been turned into a werewolf and has one year to find someone to love the beast and break the spell, or he will be a wolf forever. He has nearly given up achieving the impossible, knowing no girl would ever fall in love with such a monster. Just when he is about to abdicate the throne to his cousin, he meets Cecelia Hammerstein-Smythe, while a wolf, and begins to hope for the first time in months.

"The Bet" is one of Chekov's most anthologized stories. A rich banker makes a bet with a poor artist that he cannot voluntarily stay imprisoned for a long period of time. The result of the bet is quite different than either man could have supposed.

Lyrical yet unsentimental, The Midwife's Apprentice won the coveted 1996 Newbery Medal. Filled with striking characters, it paints unforgettable pictures of village life in the Middle Ages, the midwife's craft, and a very remarkable girl's growing independence and pride.

As half-angel Willow battles her parasitic otherworldly kin, romance and tension heat up to a climactic series finale. In the devastated remains of the world, millions now live in Edens provided by the angels that have all but enslaved the human race. As mastermind Raziel's stranglehold on humanity tightens, Willow, Alex, and the rest of the team race to recruit new Angel Killers and form a line of defense. But then a shattering revelation sends Alex on a doomed journey, leaving Willow and Seb hanging in the balance.

First published in 1902, Heart of Darkness has clearly earned its place in literary history. The story is based on Conrad’s personal experiences in Central Africa and closely parallels many of the events that occurred while he worked his way up the Congo River, and back, on a steam wheeler. Those events inspired him to create characters and a story line that deals with the early greedy exploitation of the Congo by the Europeans, in this case, through the ivory trade.

For a century Bram Stoker's Dracula has reigned supreme as the undisputed masterpiece of horror writing. We have all grown up under the shadow of the elegant Count, at once an attractive, brutal, and erotic creature of the night. A skilled and imaginative cast, including Brian Cox as Van Helsing and Heathcote Williams as Dracula, brings this classic horror story to life!