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Antonio, a wealthy and popular merchant, is in financial difficulty. He approaches a Jewish money lender, Shylock, who agrees to provide 3000 ducats, with a very curious bond – a pound of the merchant’s flesh, to be levied if Antonio fails to make a timely repayment. Feeling confident that his argosies will arrive in time to cover the debt, Antonio agrees to this bizarre transaction.

Duke Vincentino, the ruler of Vienna, fears that under his mild sovereignty, the people may have become lazy and lax. He decides to “go over cover” in the disguise of a monk and appoint his deputy, Angelo, who is a reputed paragon of virtue, as temporary ruler. On assuming power, Angelo inaugurates draconian provisions regarding sexual propriety. One of the first victims of this new regime is young Claudio, who has impregnated his lover Juliet, and is accordingly sentenced to death.

In As You Like It, a wicked Duke expels his virtuous brother, the lawful ruler, from his domains. The banished Duke takes refuge with his followers in the Forest of Arden, where they live as free a life as did Robin Hood and his merry men.

Amongst all the figures in the history of Western art forms, Beethoven is one of the most radical and influential. Not only did he produce some of the most celebrated and recognizable music of all time, but his influence dramatically accelerated the development of musical composition. He was instrumental in raising the status of the composer from that of a court servant to one of an independent artist.

William Wordsworth belonged to a chosen band of poets for whom poetry was a priesthood, displayed in his unerring devotion to his art. He nourished his unique poetic gift by daily intimacy with Nature. It is Wordworth’s peculiar achievement to reveal the impulses at work behind the outward beauty of Nature, and to manifest its sustaining influence upon the spirit of man.

Persuasion was the last novel completed by Jane Austen and was first published posthumously in December, 1817. The story represents an interesting configuration of Austen’s characteristic narrative patterns. The heroine, Anne Eliot, is something of an old maid—she is twenty-seven years old, still single and is considered by family and friends to have lost her youthful beauty. Several years earlier, her engagement to Captain Frederick Wentworth had been broken off, due to the insistence of her family that the Captain lacked the wealth and status needed for a suitable husband.

Alexander Pope was fiercely critical of writers whom he considered to have little talent and whom he liked to nominate as dunces. His most encyclopedic examination of these apostles of dullness is the Dunciad, a long satirical saga first published in a three-book version in 1728. A variorium edition followed shortly afterwards in 1729. In 1742, Pope added a fourth book, and a new, complete edition was published in 1743.

Thomas Troward (1847-1916) was a divisional Judge in British-administered India. In his retirement, he became well known as a lecturer on metaphysical subjects and developed a unique New Thought philosophy, which he discussed in a number of books. The Law and the Word was published posthumously in 1917. The book explores the power of the word as the fundamental element in manifestation. Troward held the word to be the expression of the immutable law of creation and supports his claim with extensive citations from the Bible.

Ebenezer Mac Crotchet, Esq., who has a mixed Scottish and Jewish parentage, has inherited some sterling qualities but is determined to destroy, as much as possible, all vestiges of his extraction. His villa has become a resort for literary and scientific men, with the result that the author easily provides himself with enough characters to introduce his favourite remarks on a wide range of topics, including Ancient Greek, transcendentalism, contagion, education, political economy, and meteorology.

Unlike most of Peacock's novels, The Misfortunes of Elphin has a distinct plot, built around the adventures of prominent figures of Arthurian legend, like Taliesin, the bard, the princes Elphin, and Seithenyn and King Arthur himself. The drama comes to a satisfactory resolution when Arthur's wife, Gwenyvar, who has been kidnapped by the ambitious King Melvas, is restored to her husband, after some skilful negotiation by Seithenyn and a cunning abbot.

Unlike Peacock's other novels, Maid Marian has a substantial plot, based on the romantic legend of Robin Hood. As is usual with Peacock, the violence is presented in a rather humorous fashion and the characters indulge lavishly in eating and drinking. Beneath the veneer of this well-known and innocuous narrative, Peacock finds ample opportunity to satirize the foibles of church and secular government.

The melodramatic romance by Goethe The Sorrows of the Young Werther, the story of a troubled aesthete who kills himself for love, was first published in 1774 and has since become one of the staples of German literature. Such extravagant productions lend themselves readily to parody and naturally attracted the attention of skilled satirists like Thomas Love Peacock.

Headlong Hall was the first of his seven novels, all of which display the same structure. There is a faint semblance of a plot, which is merely a device to bring together a bunch of voluble eccentrics, who converse on a wide range of topical issues. Headlong Hall is the rural seat of the ebullient Squire Headlong, who invites a number of philosophers, a clergyman, a musician, a novelist, and a phrenologist, to dine with him and share their views.

Shakespeare’s history plays fall into two categories: political dramas and propagandistic pageants. The second category is comprised of the two plays in this presentation, Henry V and Henry VIII.

Horses and horse racing have been staple themes in classic Australian fiction, and feature prominently in the works of iconic authors like Henry Lawson and “Banjo” Paterson. In this collection of six stories, Rolf Boldrewood provides vivid pictures of the days when horses and horse-drawn transport were intimately involved in daily life in both city and country.

Pope's mastery of the heroic couplet and his perceptive wit are apparent in the many epigrams and epitaphs that he composed. The subjects of these snippets of verse are widely varied, ranging from encomiums to great celebrities like Sir Isaac Newton to witty soupçons, like that attached to the collar of a dog that the poet gave to Prince George (later King George II).

These four poems, which deal with ethical issues, were collated and published in 1751 by William Warburton, seven years after Pope's death.

William Wordsworth composed hundreds of sonnets, among which are some of his best-known poems. The sonnet form particularly suited Wordsworth, enabling the poet to encapsulate the beauties of mundane life in language of appealing directness and simplicity. This recording contains 122 poems, ranging across many decades of Wordsworth’s writing career.

The four canonical gospels contain little information about the childhood of Jesus. To provide details of this period, a number of infancy gospels were composed in the second century, the text of this recording being one of the most notable. In this book, the sketchy infancy narrative of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke is embellished in great detail. The events of Jesus’ boyhood days, richly garnished with tales of miraculous feats and the occasional visitation of punishment on unfortunate delinquents, are also described.

The Martians, finding the resources on their own planet dwindling dramatically, decided to invade and colonize Earth. They land in England and quickly establish control through their vastly superior military technology. The narrative focuses on the wanderings and deliberations of the narrator as he wanders around the country seeking refuge from the remorseless invaders. Two of the most significant characters he encounters are a curate and an artilleryman, neither of whom has an effective approach to dealing with the crisis.