When Alice follows a rabbit down its rabbit hole, she enters a fantastical new world full of strange and nonsensical creatures. There Alice stumbles from one predicament to the next-- drinking potions that make her shrink and grow, inviting herself to a tea party with the Mad Hatter, speaking to a disappearing Cheshire Cat, and playing croquet with a Queen of Hearts who is a little too eager to behead her opponents--as life in Wonderland gets curiouser...

"The King of the Golden River," which Ruskin wrote in 1841 (it was not published until 1851) for nineteen-year-old Euphenia Chalmers Gray, whom he married in 1848. The story is set in the ancient country of Stiria, in a beautiful and fertile valley called Treasure Valley, owned by brothers Schwartz, Hans and Gluck. When the cruel Hans and Schwartz turn an important stranger away from their home, the valley turns to desert, leaving them penniless and...

"A terrible storm drowned all his shipmates and left him marooned on a deserted island. Forced to overcome despair, doubt, and self-pity, he struggles to create a life for himself in the wilderness. From practically nothing, Crusoe painstakingly learns how to make pottery, grow crops, domesticate livestock, and build a house. His many adventures are recounted including a fierce battle with cannibals and his rescue of Friday, the man who becomes...

Shakespeare's popular comedy of love and mistaken identity is accompanied by a section on reading Shakespeare's language, information on Shakespeare's life and theater, explanatory notes, annotated reading lists, and an essay.--