Lysistrata and Other Plays centers a disgruntled woman whose attempt to end a war takes the battle from an open field to the soldier's bedroom. Wives from both camps deny their husbands basic affection in an effort to quell the violence. Set during the Peloponnesian War, the women of Greece, led by Lysistrata, create a plan to stifle the conflict between Athens and Sparta. Together, they agree to stage a sex strike, refusing to sleep with their husbands...

The "Sophist" is a Platonic dialogue from the philosopher's late period, most likely written in 360 BC. Its main theme is to identify what a sophist is and how a sophist differs from a philosopher and statesman. Because each seems distinguished by a particular form of knowledge, the dialogue continues some of the lines of inquiry pursued in the epistemological dialogue, Theaetetus, which is said to have taken place the day before. Because the Sophist...

The second in a series of three comedies, 'Peace', along with 'The Acharnians' and 'Lysistrata', called for an end to the Peloponnesian war. The 'Peace' was brought out four years after 'The Acharnians' (422 B.C.), when the war had already lasted ten years. The leading motive is the same as in the former play-the intense desire of the less excitable and more moderate-minded citizens for relief from the miseries of war.

This is the first of the series of three Comedies-'The Acharnians,' 'Peace' and 'Lysistrata'-produced at intervals of years, the sixth, tenth and twenty-first of the Peloponnesian War, and impressing on the Athenian people the miseries and disasters due to it and to the scoundrels who by their selfish and reckless policy had provoked it, the consequent ruin of industry and, above all, agriculture, and the urgency of asking Peace.-From the introduction...

FRANKENSTEIN; OR, THE MODERN PROMETHEUS (ANNOTATED EDITION) - BY MARY SHELLEY "Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus" by Mary Shelley follows the story of Victor Frankenstein, a scientist who becomes obsessed with creating life. He successfully animates a creature from assembled body parts, but horrified by his creation, he abandons it. The creature, intelligent and sensitive, seeks acceptance but faces rejection and isolation. This leads him...

The philosophy of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius can be found in a collection of personal writings known as the Meditations. These reflect the influence of Stoicism and, in particular, the philosophy of Epictetus, the Stoic. The Meditations may be read as a series of practical philosophical exercises, following Epictetus' three topics of study, designed to digest and put into practice philosophical theory. Central to these exercises is a concern...

Themes: Adapted Classics, Low Level Classics, William Shakespeare, Fiction, Tween, Teen, Young Adult, Hi-Lo, Hi-Lo Books, Hi-Lo Solutions, High-Low Books, Hi-Low Books, ELL, EL, ESL, Struggling Learner, Struggling Reader, Special Education, SPED, Newcomers, Reading, Learning, Education, Educational, Educational Books. Timeless Shakespeare-designed for the struggling reader and adapted to retain the integrity of the original play. These classic plays...

Step into the enchanting world of "The Enchanted April" by Elizabeth von Arnim, a captivating novel that whisks readers away to the sunny shores of Italy. Set in the 1920s, the story follows the transformative journey of four diverse women who embark on a shared holiday to escape their mundane lives.
Lottie Wilkins and Rose Arbuthnot, two dissatisfied Englishwomen, discover an advertisement for a month-long rental of an Italian castle. Eager for...

In Paradise Lost, Milton produced a poem of epic scale, conjuring up a vast, awe-inspiring cosmos ranging across huge tracts of space and time. And yet, in putting a charismatic Satan and naked Adam and Eve at the center of this story, he also created an intensely human tragedy on the Fall of Man. Written when Milton was in his fifties blind, bitterly disappointed by the Restoration, and briefly in danger of execution, Paradise Lost's apparent ambivalence...

Literary scholar, professor, and poet J. Lesslie Hall is best known for his 1897 translation of the Old English epic poem "Beowulf." The story focuses on the titular character of Beowulf, a Scandinavian hero who comes to the aid of the Danes to save their land from a human-demon monster named Grendel. After defeating Grendel, Beowulf must then kill Grendel's mother. He returns to Scandinavia with more fame and accord and eventually becomes king. Then...