Tragedy
The Kreutzer Sonata
Publication of The Kreutzer Sonata in 1889 was a significant intellectual event worldwide. Censored in Russia, it set off an explosive debat…
Electra
Electra (the Unmated One) is eaten up with hatred of her mother Clytemnestra and stepfather Aegisthus for their murder of her father Agamemn…
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is Shakespeare's famous tragedy of two "star-crossed lovers" from rival houses. Romeo and Juliet meet at a party …
Richard II
Richard II is a historical tragedy by William Shakespeare that delves into the complexities of power, kingship, and the nature of authority.…
The Cherry Orchard
The Cherry Orchard is Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's last play. It premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre 17 January 1904 in a production d…
The Return of the Native
Like all of Hardy's work, The Return of the Native (1878) is passionate and controversial, with themes and sympathies beyond what a good Vic…
Samson Agonistes
“The Sun to me is darkAnd silent as the Moon,When she deserts the nightHid in her vacant interlunar cave.”Milton composes his last extended …
Michael Kohlhaas
Michael Kohlhaas is a powerful novella that explores the depths of justice and the human spirit through the story of a horse dealer in 16th-…
Julius Caesar
When Julius Caesar returns to Rome from conquering the Gauls, Cassius and his friends are worried that he will try to seize power and make h…
Medea
Euripides' tragedy focuses on the disintegration of the relationship between Jason, the hero who captured the Golden Fleece, and Medea, the …
The Wild Duck
The Wild Duck (1884) (original Norwegian title: Vildanden) is by many considered Ibsen's finest work, and it is certainly the most complex. …
Hamlet
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatizes the revenge…
The Iliad
The Iliad, together with the Odyssey, is one of two ancient Greek epic poems traditionally attributed to Homer. The poem is commonly dated t…
Oedipus at Colonus
This is the second installment in Sophocles's Theban Plays that chronicles the tragic fates of Oedipus and his family. After fulfilling the…
Prometheus Bound
"Prometheus Bound" is the only complete tragedy of the Prometheia trilogy, traditionally assumed to be the work of Aeschylus. Jupi…
Saint Augustin
What, indeed, is more romantic than this wandering life of rhetorician and student that the youthful Augustin led, from Thagaste to Carthage…
The Mayor of Casterbridge
The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) is a tragic novel by English author Thomas Hardy subtitled, "The Life and Death of a Man of Character&…
Farewell Love!
This tragic love story begins by meeting the passionate Anna Acquaviva who is willing to leave her position in society to elope with her lov…
Titus Andronicus
Titus Andronicus may be Shakespeare's earliest tragedy; it is believed to have been written in the early 1590s. It depicts a Roman general w…
The Jew of Malta
Christopher “Kit” Marlowe (baptised 26 February 1564 – 30 May 1593) was an English dramatist, poet, and translator of the Elizabethan era. T…