Synopsis: The real Timon of Athens lived there in the fifth century BCE, making him a contemporary of Socrates and Pericles. Shakespeare presents Timon as a figure who suffers such profound disillusionment that he becomes a misanthrope, or man-hater. This makes him a more interesting character than the caricature he had become to Shakespeare’s contemporaries, for whom “Timonist” was a slang term for an unsociable man.

Shakespeare’s play includes the wealthy, magnificent, and extravagantly generous figure of Timon before his transformation. Timon expects that, having received as gifts all that he owned, his friends will be equally generous to him.

Once his creditors clamor for repayment, Timon finds that his idealization of friendship is an illusion. He repudiates his friends, abandons Athens, and retreats to the woods. Yet his misanthropy arises from the destruction of an admirable illusion, from which his subsequent hatred can never be entirely disentangled.

The authoritative edition of Timon of Athens from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers, includes:

-Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play
-Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play
-Scene-by-scene plot summaries
-A key to the play’s famous lines and phrases
-An introduction to reading Shakespeare’s language
-An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play
-Fresh images from the Folger Shakespeare Library’s vast holdings of rare books
-An annotated guide to further reading

Essay by Coppélia Kahn

The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is home to the world’s largest collection of Shakespeare’s printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs. For more information, visit Folger.edu.

Synopsis: Do not wander in the deeps where the Shriker's shadow creeps.
When he rises from beneath. Beware the sharpness of his teeth.

For over 300 years, a monster known as the Shriker has roamed Shalem Wood, terrorizing the villagers who live on its edges and slaughtering those unfortunate enough to wander on to his path. The people of Noor have lived in fear for so long that most of them have forgotten that once upon a time the Shriker was just a loyal dog, until the day when he was cruelly betrayed by his master and cursed to live a bloodthirsty life, always seeking revenge for the fate his owner dealt him. But Miles and Hanna Ferrell have not forgotten where the Shriker came from--how could they? It was their ancestor who betrayed the dog...

A tale of terror and magic that channels Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Beast of Noor tells the story of two siblings determined to set their family free and break the curse of the Shriker or die trying.

Synopsis: Tradition, Honor, Excellence...and secrets so dark they're almost invisible

Fifteen-year-old Reed Brennan wins a scholarship to Easton Academy -- the golden ticket away from her pill-popping mother and run-of-the-mill suburban life. But when she arrives on the beautiful, tradition-steeped campus of Easton, everyone is just a bit more sophisticated, a bit more gorgeous, and a lot wealthier than she ever thought possible. Reed realizes that even though she has been accepted to Easton, Easton has not accepted her. She feels like she's on the outside, looking in.

Until she meets the Billings Girls.

They are the most beautiful, intelligent, and intensely confident girls on campus. And they know it. They hold all the power in a world where power is fleeting but means everything. Reed vows to do whatever it takes to be accepted into their inner circle.

Reed uses every part of herself -- the good, the bad, the beautiful -- to get closer to the Billings Girls. She quickly discovers that inside their secret parties and mountains of attitude, hanging in their designer clothing-packed closets the Billings Girls have skeletons. And they'll do anything to keep their secrets private.

Synopsis: Eighteen-year-old Sam has always been jealous of his younger brother, Humphrey, the famous "wonder child" pianist. But now that Humphrey is fifteen, the one-time child prodigy isn't able to get any more bookings. Sam's mother refuses to accept that Humphrey's career is over and devises a scheme to recapture his fame: Sam will compose "new works" by a long dead gypsy composer, and they will tell the world that the composer is dictating the music to Humphrey from the grave. The scheme is a wild success--until some ghostly occurrences convince Sam that the spirit of the dead composer has actually taken over Humphrey's fingers. Have Sam and his family unleashed a force from beyond the grave?

Synopsis: When her British uncle and cousin flee London during World War II and come to live in her family's farmhouse in Virginia, Margaret Ann is unhappy with having to share a room and having her life disrupted by a relative she hardly knows, but when Margaret Ann's brother goes off to the Pacific to fight, the cousins bond in ways neither ever expected.

Synopsis: Slacker Evan Macalister receives an anonymous call warning him that his father's partner, Jim Richmond, has smuggled live smallpox virus into Europe and is planning to sell it to a terrorist group--and kill Evan's father to cover his tracks--so with his best friend Ruben and new girlfriend Erika in tow, Evan jets off to Europe to save the day. By the author of Finding Lubchenko.