The Outcry was a play written by Henry James in 1909, near the end of his most productive stage. He had written a number of plays, which had been performed to less than enthusiastic audiences, although they had garnered some critical acclaim. American producer Charles Frohman asked James to write a play for the 1909 London repertory season and he would be one of a group of distinguished writers such as Shaw and Maugham. The play was written but not performed. It was delayed due to the death of King Edward VII and ultimately not performed until after the death of Henry James himself. In the meantime, James decided to transform it into a novel. It was published in 1911 and was the last completed novel to be published before James' death. The plot of The Outcry concerned a group of wealthy Americans who were using their money to buy up British art collections. The play had an overtone of comedy to it, despite the serious veneer. Lord Theign, who has an impressive art gallery of old masters, has been driven into debt by the waywardness of his older daughter, Kitty Imber. He turns to the idea of selling off some of the masterpieces to an American collector, Breckinridge Bender.

The idiot of the title is the protagonist of the novel, Prince Myshkin. He is a simple, honest man who has not had the benefit of education or a high level of intelligence, but his character is good and he lives by Christian values. At the beginning of the novel Myshkin is returning to St. Petersburg from Switzerland, where he has been under medical treatment for epilepsy. On the train home he meets two people who will play a part in his life. The first of this two is Parfyon Rogozhin, a young man of questionable character. The second person is Lebedev, a government official. When Myshkin arrives in St. Petersburg he moves out into society and meets Nastasya Fillipnova, who Rogozhin is obsessed with. Myshkin is considered an idiot by the St. Petersburg society because he is inarticulate and often stammers when he tries to talk to people.

Crime and Punishment is told in the third person, with the narrator being omniscient. The protagonist is former student Romion Romanovich Raskolnikov a down-and-out and somewhat unbalanced individual who lives in a tiny garret at the top of a St. Petersburg apartment building. He is contemplating a crime to prove to himself that all human beings are capable of committing crimes of the most heinous sort. Events lead up to his murdering a pawnbroker named Alyona Ivanovna who he believes the world will be better off without. He believes the immorality of her death will be offset by the good he can do with the proceeds of his crime.

The Brothers Karamazov is a novel of realism and tells a dynastic story. It explores life and what it means through the use of a dysfunctional family, the Karamazovs. The family is headed by Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov, a cruel landowner, who has neglected and emotionally abuses his three sons. The eldest son, Dmitry, is in competition with his father over the same woman, although he is engaged to another. The same son has given up his inheritance in order to have money immediately, but suspects his father is cheating him financially.

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, is a tragedy about two teenagers who fall in love. Both are dead by the play’s end. The play is set in Verona, Italy during the Renaissance. The plot is driven by the feud between two families, the Capulets and the Montagues. The play begins by introducing the rivalry through a brawl that is taking place amongst the servants of the two families. Romeo, son of Lord Montague, overhears that Lord Capulet is going to be hosting a ball. Romeo decides that he will attend, uninvited. He goes to the ball with his friends Mercutio and Benvolio. Romeo meets the lovely Juliet Capulet and they fall in love. Later on Romeo visits Juliet and stands under her balcony – they exchange vows of love. Romeo asks Friar Laurence to marry them – the Friar agrees in the hope that it will end the families’ feud. This annotated edition includes a biography and critical essay.

Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina is the story of a woman, Anna, wife of Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin. She is an apparently happily married matron of the Russian upper class. The novel begins with her attempt to smooth the troubled waters of her brother’s adulterous affair. Due to circumstances surrounding this situation she ends up in an adulterous affair of her own with a wealthy army officer, Count Vronsky. The novel is about the choices people make and the consequences of their actions in a society of strict social rules, hypocrisies and prejudices. Tolstoy weaves a story of great intricacy with a myriad of characters that move the action forward. Anna’s actions as a married woman involved in an extramarital affair eventually lead her to be outcast from her own society. She goes into an emotional decline and in time, commits suicide. The novel has a subplot about a young woman named Kitty who is courted by both Count Vronsky and a landowner, Konstantin Dmitrich Levin. She prefers Vronsky, but when she finds out about his affair with Anna, she is devastated and turns to Levin for comfort, and marries him. Their situation is a positive note in the novel - they enjoy a contented marriage. This annotated edition includes a biography and critical essay.

This book celebrates the career of the eminent historian of the British Empire John M. MacKenzie, who pioneered the examination of the impact of the Empire on metropolitan culture. It is structured around three areas: the cultural impact of empire, 'Four-Nations' history, and global and transnational perspectives. These essays demonstrate MacKenzie’s influence but also interrogate his legacy for the study of imperial history, not only for Britain and the nations of Britain but also in comparative and transnational context. Written by seventeen historians from around the world, its subjects range from Jumbomania in Victorian Britain to popular imperial fiction, the East India Company, the ironic imperial revivalism of the 1960s, Scotland and Ireland and the empire, to transnational Chartism and Belgian colonialism. The essays are framed by three evaluations of what will be known as 'the MacKenzian moment' in the study of imperialism.