RASSELAS is a provocative fable about "the choice of life." Bored by the endless contentment of "the happy valley" in which he has been brought up, Prince Rasselas escapes with his sister. The rove the world searching for the secret of happiness and striving to find the ideal way to live. Repeatedly the pleasures they glimpse dissolve on closer acquaintance, and the great men they admire prove to be flawed. Where, then, are happiness and purpose to be found?

Alcott's wealth of allusion to other writers, such as Charlotte Bronte, Margaret Fuller, and, especially, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and of recurring motifs such as textiles, texts, and theatricals reveals her consistent subversion of conventional values for women.

A compelling new account of Wollstonecraft as incisive critic of the material, moral, and psychological conditions of commercial modernity.

Jeffrey Meyers tells the extraordinary story of Samuel Johnson one of the most illustrious figures of English literary tradition. Johnson was famous as a poet, novelist, biographer, essayist, critic, editor, lexicographer, conversationalist and larger than life personality. After nine years of work Johnson's, 'A dictionary of the English Language, was published in 1755. He overcame great adversity to achieve success. 'The Struggle' is a masterful portrait of a brilliant and tormented figure.