This adaptation of Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, titled The Life and Death of Doctor Faustus Made into a Farce, is a comedic reinterpretation of Marlowe’s tragic play, written by William Mountfort. The farce, first performed in 1683, takes the original's somber exploration of ambition and damnation and reimagines it in a lighter, more humorous context. Mountfort's version alters the serious themes of the original play, using slapstick comedy, satire, and exaggerated characters to p...

This volume contains complete works by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Christopher Marlowe, William Mountfort, H. B. Cotterill, and Arthur Davison Ficke, all on the same theme of a pact with the devil. Included are the following complete works: Faust, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (commonly known as Wolfgang Goethe), which is the most famous of the Faustian plays. The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe, which is the seminal work that influenced G...

The play is based on a true story of a medieval scientist (alchimist) whose methods of research were considered magic. The story was so much exagerated by every generation that in 1587, as the original "Faustus" book appeared, it maintained that its primary character Faust has established an alliance with the devil himself, that it was the absolute evil that helped him making his discoveries. The Englishman Christopher Marlowe was the first to write a play based on "The trag...

Love's Labour's Lost is one of William Shakespeare's early comedies, believed to have been written in the mid-1590s for a performance at the Inns of Court before Queen Elizabeth I. It follows the King of Navarre and his three companions as they attempt to forswear the company of women for three years of study and fasting, and their subsequent infatuation with the Princess of Aquitaine and her ladies. In an untraditional ending for a comedy, the play closes with the death of the Princess's ...

The best of John Donne's poemsJohn Donne (1572-1631) was born into a Catholic family and studied law before sailing with Essex to attack Cadiz in 1596. He was appointed secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton, the Lord Keeper (later Lord Chancellor), in 1598, but forfeited his worldly prospects when he secretly married Ann More, Lady Egerton's niece, in 1601; he was dismissed by Egerton and briefly imprisoned. The next twelve years or so were passed in poverty, without reg...

In "Coleridge's Ancient Mariner and Select Poems," Samuel Taylor Coleridge captivates readers with his masterful use of vivid imagery and lyrical beauty, showcasing the complexities of human emotion and nature. The titular poem, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," explores themes of guilt, redemption, and the profound connection between humanity and the natural world through its haunting narrative and innovative structure. Coleridge's penchant for the supernatural and philosophical is evide...

A curated selection of the poems, plays, and works of fiction that Cassandra Clare quotes from in the Shadowhunter Chronicles. Liv Spencer highlights the specific text used in each volume of The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices, with selections from Hamlet, A Tale of Two Cities, Tennyson, Dante, and many more! This is the free companion reader to Navigating the Shadow World: The Unofficial Guide to Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments

In this foundational classic play, Christopher Marlowe beautifully retells the legend of Doctor Faustus in a masterful combination of verse and prose. The celebrated moral of the play is about how excessive ambition and unlimited lust for knowledge and power lead to self-destruction and damnation. The protagonist in the story is a talented lower-class man who is obsessed with the study of sciences and the secrets of life. His excessive academic ambition and his reliance solely on logic and re...

"Dr. Faustus" is Christopher Marlowe's version of the famous legend of a doctor who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power. Originally published in 1600 this drama is based on an earlier anonymous German work (c. 1587) which has influenced many subsequent works including Goethe's more comprehensive "Faust" (c. 1808) and the contemporary "Doktor Faustus" (c. 1947) by Thomas Mann. The legend of Faust, reportedly based on a true person, is the origin of one of the mos...

Oxford School Shakespeare is an acclaimed edition especially designed for students, with accessible on-page notes and explanatory illustrations, clear background information, and rigorous but accessible scholarly credentials. A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of the most popular texts for study by secondary students the world over. This edition includes illustrations, preliminary notes, reading lists (including websites) and classroom notes.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's "Faust; a Tragedy, Translated from the German of Goethe" is an ambitious exploration of ambition, desire, and the human spirit, encapsulated in the character of Dr. Faust, a scholar who, dissatisfied with the limits of knowledge, makes a pact with the devil, Mephistopheles. Goethe's poetic mastery is complemented by a complex interplay of philosophical discourse and vivid imagery, intertwining elements of Romanticism and Enlightenment thought. This work not onl...