Tragedy Plays

The war at Troy did not end when the city fell. For the Greeks who sailed home, and the women they carried off as slaves, the worst was still to come — and it is the tragedians, not Homer, who tell that story. Twenty-five centuries ago, in the open-air theater on the slope of the Athenian Acropolis, three poets created an art form that has never been surpassed. Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides took the old stories of gods and heroes — the house of Atreus, the fall of Troy, the curse of Oedipus, the fury of Medea — and turned them into something the world had never seen: tragedy. ...

The Complete Original Works of William Shakespeare is a monumental archive of the human soul. For over four hundred years, these works have been the gold standard of storytelling, influencing everything from high art to modern cinema.

This annotated edition includes: • A 16,000-word critical study of Sophocles and tragedy • All seven surviving plays — everything that came down to us • The complete Theban cycle: Oedipus the King, Colonus, Antigone • A life of Sophocles (c. 497–406 BCE) • The Campbell verse translation, public domain worldwide A king hunts the murderer whose crime has plagued his city, swearing to bring him to justice — and discovers, scene by scene, that the man he is hunting is himself. Oedipus the King is the play on which Aristotle built the theory of tragedy, the play Freud reached for...

This annotated edition includes: • A 16,000-word critical study of Aeschylus and the birth of tragedy • The complete Oresteia — the only surviving Greek trilogy • All seven surviving plays, including Prometheus Bound • A life of Aeschylus (c. 525–456 BCE), the soldier of Marathon • The Plumptre verse translation, public domain worldwide Before Aeschylus, there was no drama. One actor faced a chorus, and nothing could happen. He added a second — and with two figures who could disagree, tragedy, and all theatre after it, was born. Aeschylus is the oldest of the great ...

This annotated edition includes: • A 16,000-word critical study of Aeschylus and the birth of tragedy • The complete Oresteia — the only surviving Greek trilogy • All seven surviving plays, including Prometheus Bound • A life of Aeschylus (c. 525–456 BCE), the soldier of Marathon • The Plumptre verse translation, public domain worldwide Before Aeschylus, there was no drama. One actor faced a chorus, and nothing could happen. He added a second — and with two figures who could disagree, tragedy, and the whole of theatre after it, was born. Aeschylus is the oldest of the great ...

FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY The World’s Leading Center for Shakespeare Studies The Folger Shakespeare Library, home to the world’s largest Shakespeare collection, brings Macbeth to life with this new full-length, full-cast dramatic recording of its definitive Folger Edition. Macbeth, one of...

This annotated edition of Othello includes: • A 16,000-word critical study, "Begot Upon Itself" • A Note on the Text: the 1622 Quarto and the 1623 Folio • On the Willow Song, present in only one early text • A full life of Shakespeare — and the thin record behind it • The complete tragedy, the restored oaths and all A great general, newly married and newly happy, is destroyed in five acts by a man who will not say why he did it. Othello is the most intimate and the most unbearable of the tragedies, because its engine is not fate or ambition but a single man's malice with no ...

Was it pure chance that he had run into her so soon? Philip had never believed in destiny, and his father had believed in nothing but his own genius. And yet… From the moment recent Oxford graduate Philip takes the helm of a new marine life institute in Palm Beach, his presence revives old...

Medea is a tragedy written by the Stoic philosopher Seneca the Younger. It depicts the tragic conclusion of the marriage between the leader of the Jason, the leader of the Argonauts, and Medea, the most infamous and fierce woman in antiquity. This translation rendered Seneca's Latin in modern English which is readable to the 21st century yet reflects the gravity of the play. This edition also includes the following: a preface with a brief introduction to the play and brief reflections on the themes of the play; and explanatory footnotes for classical references within the text.

This annotated edition of Hamlet includes: • A 16,000-word critical study, "Frighted With False Fire" • A Note on the Text naming which early text each passage comes from • A full life of Shakespeare — and the thin record behind the legend • The complete, unabridged received text: all five acts • On the three Hamlets of 1603, 1604, and 1623 — and why they differ There is no such object as Hamlet. There are three early printed texts, they disagree, and the play everyone knows is a hybrid of two of them, stitched together by editors in the eighteenth century. No version ...

This annotated edition of Romeo and Juliet includes: • A 15,000-word critical study, "A Lightning Before Death" • A full life of Shakespeare — and the thin record behind the legend • A Note on the Text: collated word-by-word against the 1599 Quarto • The complete, unabridged play: Prologue, Chorus, all five acts • On Queen Mab, the Nurse, and a heroine aged thirteen There is no reading Romeo and Juliet for the first time. The play arrives pre-digested, pre-quoted, pre-parodied — a balcony, a vial, two names that stopped being names long ago and became a unit of measurement. It...

This annotated edition of Macbeth includes: • A 16,000-word critical study, "The Future in the Instant" • A Note on the Text: the 1623 Folio, and the Middleton question • On the Hecate scenes — Shakespeare's hand, or another's? • A full life of Shakespeare — and the thin record behind it • The complete play: the shortest and fastest of the tragedies A soldier meets three witches on a heath, and by nightfall a king lies dead in his imagination long before the knife is in his hand. Macbeth is the most interior of the tragedies, and the most terrifying, because almost everything ...

A selection of Euripides’ renowned Greek tragedies, adapted for BBC Radio Acclaimed by Aristotle as ‘the most tragic of the poets’, Euripides was one of the pre-eminent playwrights of 5th century Athens. Included here are seven of his masterpieces: powerful, shocking tales of passion...

A year inside Ivy League Football, unveiling the heart and soul of college football’s oldest teams as they compete amidst a rapidly changing collegiate sports world—from an award-winning, bestselling author. "A reminder that Ivy football is the American Beauty Rose of the fall sport...

This annotated edition of King Lear includes: • A 16,000-word critical study, "An O Without a Figure" • A Note on the Text: the two Lears, and why this is neither • On the mock trial and the scenes that exist in only one text • A full life of Shakespeare — and the thin record behind it • The complete received tragedy, all five acts An old king asks his three daughters how much they love him, believes the two who lie, and banishes the one who tells the truth. Everything after is the ruin. King Lear is the bleakest and largest of the tragedies — a play that strips a king to ...

Inspired by the mythic house of Thebes, Sophocles’s defining Greek tragedies follow the fates that befall three doomed generations.

In 1599, the most complete version of the play that would become the most celebrated love story in Western literature was published. Less than two hundred years later, the actor and producer David Garrick rewrote the ending of Romeo and Juliet for the English stage, an altered version that would dominate performances of the play for decades, shaping part of the popular memory of how the story ends. This book presents a faithful reconstruction of The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, for readers who wish to discover or revisit the play exactly as Shakespeare wrote it.

Brought to you by Penguin. THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2024 WINNER OF THE BOLLINGER EVERYMAN WODEHOUSE PRIZE FOR COMIC FICTION 2024 SHORTLISTED FOR THE NERO AWARD FOR DEBUT FICTION 2024 LONGLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE LONGLISTED FOR THE DYLAN...

This prose adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet includes: Complete retelling of the tragedy as a novel (18,700 words) Original afterword on the art and tradition of adapting Shakespeare Author biography of William Shakespeare Adapter biography with translation credentials A king is murdered by his brother. The dead man's son discovers the truth — and cannot act on it. Between the knowing and the doing, a kingdom falls. Hamlet is the most performed, most studied, and most quoted play in the English language. It is also one of the most difficult to actually read. Shakespeare wrote for actors,...

Full-cast productions of Seneca’s most famous tragedies, plus letters from the Roman philosopher read by Paul Scofield Stoic philosopher and playwright Lucius Annaeus Seneca lived through the reigns of Caligula and Claudius, and was tutor and adviser to Nero, before his untimely suicide in...