Theater Classics

This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller’s masterpiece with a new introduction; critical essays and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos; and much more. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The...

In the1930s and '40s, Black Mask was the single most important magazine for the modern mystery field. Here writers such as Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Earl Stanley Gardner reshaped the established view of mystery fiction, creating the "hard-boiled" private eye. Now this series resurrects from those pages the toughest of tough detectives in sonic dramatizations from the award-winning Hollywood Theater of the Ear.

Treasure Island: A Telling for the New World is an eight-hour audio mini-series, based on the classic by R.L. Stevenson. The adaptation resets the story in the Bayous of Louisiana, the Port of New Orleans, and the Caribbean in 1828. This fully dramatized production stars the voices of Keith...

Includes an introduction written and read by Jesmyn Ward, a foreword written and read by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s granddaughter, Eleanor Lanahan, and an afterword written and read by Professor James L. W. West III The only edition of the beloved classic that is authorized by Fitzgerald’s family...

This program is read by the authors (David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker), Laura Orrico and Joe Praino, with special appearances by an all-star cast of comedy giants, including the film's stars, Julie Hagerty and Robert Hays, as well as Beau Bridges, Barry Diller, Michael Eisner, Peter...

Bloomsbury presents Cocktails with George and Martha by Philip Gefter, read by Alexa Morden. "Smart and entertaining . . . Gefter shows why Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? hit the ‘60s like a torpedo." —NPR, Fresh Air "Delicious." —New York Times Book Review The behind-the-scenes story...

More than four hundred years ago, a play by Tirso de Molina introduced Spanish audiences to a young nobleman from Seville who would, in time, become synonymous with seduction in Western literature. The Don Juan most people know today, however, is not the one the playwright created, but a later version, shaped by centuries of reinterpretation, among them the romantic ladies' man and the libertine driven by passion. The Legend of Don Juan restores the original character: an heir to the Tenorio name, driven by the conviction that time would always work in his favor, that a promise made at the ...

Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution now forms the basis for all the life sciences, but it ignited widespread controversy upon its 1859 publication. The idea that humans and animals might have evolved from a common source came as a shock to readers at the time, and people struggle with the implications of Darwin’s theory to this day. But Darwin foresaw this resistance and argued his case with extensive examples and rigorous logic - and his theory continues to push us toward a deeper understanding of life on Earth.

In the treasured follow-up to Little Women, Jo March returns as a mother of two sons and schoolmaster to twelve orphans. Now Jo Bhaer, literature’s beloved heroine has transformed Plumfield, the decorous New England estate of the March sisters’ youth, into a progressive school. During the coming year, newcomer Nat Blake joins the other restless, rascally seedlings as they grow under the tutelage of an equally spirited woman who extols the virtues of self-expression. 

Ten years ago, Mary Morstan’s father, an officer in an Indian regiment, vanished. Four years later, elegant pearls began to arrive, six in total, and now she holds an invitation to meet her mysterious anonymous benefactor. As Miss Morstan shares this peculiar tale with Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, she urges the detectives to accompany her. Her only clues to her father’s disappearance: a map of a fortress with the names of four strangers and an assertion that she’s been dreadfully wronged.

In the dead gray cold of Starkfield, Massachusetts, farmer Ethan Frome is struggling to scrape out a living. His duties are to his wife, Zeena - an ungrateful, soul-sick hypochondriac as frigid as the New England winter. When Zeena’s cousin Mattie arrives to help with the farm, the ethereal, gentle-natured beauty brings a light and a fugitive affection into Ethan’s life. Yet for Ethan and Mattie, daring to be happy - and together - will have its consequences. 

Bloomsbury presents Crescendo by Jane Healey, read by Celeste Dring and Joe Jameson. A piano virtuoso and his twin sister become rivals for a new spotlight—the adoration of a mysterious French patron—during the hot Parisian summer of 1957. “An enthralling literary symphony of ambition...

Are you ready to laugh? Are you ready to make the world laugh? HEY KIDS! Use this book to create laughs with friends. Put on a show, start a club at school or simply get together with friends. Dozens of games and variations will keep you playing for years. Like Eggo waffles, no two shows will ever be the same! PARENTS! Give the gift of laughter. Get the whole family playing together. recommended for ages 8 & up. Great for all adult fun too! THEATER PROS! Don't let these crazy times stifle your fun and creativity. Get online and play! Start a class. Put on a show. TEACHERS! Use this book as ...

First performed in a hit off-off-Broadway production, and soon to be a film starring Sigourney Weaver and Anthony LaPaglia, The Guys is a timeless drama about the surprising truths people can discover in ordinary lives, and the connections we make with others and ourselves in times of tragedy...

George Webber, a first-time author, writes a book that makes frequent references to his home town of Libya Hill. The book is a success, except in Libya Hill, where the residents believe that it paints an extremely distorted portrait of their town. They send Webber menacing letters, including death threats.

Step into the world of Renaissance drama where comedy, passion, power, and romance take center stage in London’s playhouses. Get a closeup view of the emerging middle class and their penchant for murder, mayhem, and revenge in this snapshot of Elizabethan theater and its contemporary audience. Ripley illuminates the women featured in works by William Shakespeare and his contemporaries as these playwrights sometimes ridicule, but often admire feminine entrepreneurial spirit and intelligence. Come along and embrace the pastimes produced by Renaissance culture to discover how early modern ...

The 1925 New York edition of Ernest Hemingway’s In Our Time trails readers through the years before, during, and after World War I. The collection’s first two stories, “Indian Camp” and “The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife,” introduce Hemingway’s semiautobiographical character Nick Adams as a child. In total, seven stories portray the young man’s coming of age. All fourteen, including interspersed vignettes, embody the themes that Hemingway would return to throughout his career: alienation, grief, loss, and separation, as well as the regenerative powers of nature.

Noh For over six centuries, Noh has stood as one of the most refined and mysterious dramatic traditions in the world. Emerging in medieval Japan, Noh theatre blends poetry, music, ritual movement, and symbolic masks to create performances that unfold more like living dreams than conventional stories. Each gesture carries meaning, each silence holds weight, and each mask reveals a hidden layer of human emotion. Noh offers an accessible introduction to this profound artistic tradition, exploring how the stage became a place where the spiritual and human worlds meet. Through its slow and ...

Bequeathed a rare diamond by her late uncle, heiress Rachel Verinder has no idea it was stolen from an Indian temple or that it has a cursed history. When the diamond disappears on her eighteenth birthday, multiple suspects - including Rachel’s suitor, Franklin Blake - are implicated in its theft. Determined to prove his innocence, Franklin begins his own investigation. Did one of his fellow Englishmen steal the jewel? Or was it whisked back to India? The case, which unfolds through multiple narratives, takes startling twists and turns in pursuit of the truth.

Charming, rich, and clever, heiress Emma Woodhouse has no need for an occupation - or a husband. Still, she considers herself quite skilled at matchmaking. Although her dear friend Mr. Knightley advises against it, there is nothing that she enjoys more than entangling herself in the romantic lives of others. But when one of her well-intentioned plans goes awry - as Mr. Knightley rightly predicted - Emma must face the consequences of her meddling.