Best English Literature Books of 2025

James Joyce's Ulysses is considered one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century. This new edition - published to celebrate the book's first publication - helps readers to understand the pleasures of this monumental work and to grapple with its challenges. Copiously equipped with maps, photographs, and explanatory footnotes, it provides a vivid and illuminating context for the experiences of Leopold Bloom, Stephen Dedalus, and Molly Bloom, as well as Joyce's many other Dublin characters, on June 16, 1904. Featuring a facsimile of the historic 1922 Shakespeare and Company text, this version also includes Joyce's own errata as well as references to amendments made in later editions. Each of the eighteen chapters of Ulysses is introduced by a leading Joyce scholar. These richly informative pieces discuss the novel's plot and allusions, while also explaining crucial questions that have puzzled and tantalized readers over the last hundred years.

The "Hermetica" is a collection of mystical texts written in late antiquity and attributed to the mythical figure, Hermes Trismegistus. This new translation by Professor Copenhaver is the only reliable English version based on authentic texts, and his introduction and notes make it an essential resource for scholars. The book is a valuable addition to the study of Gnosticism, Greco-Roman religion, and philosophy. It provides a comprehensive introduction that ties together dynastic, social and philosophical history, and a detailed commentary that is fully abreast of contemporary research. Overall, it is a remarkably useful edition that will serve as a focal point and catalyst in understanding the Hermetic treatises.

The Cambridge School Shakespeare's edition of Romeo and Juliet is a must-have for any classroom. This new edition features an improved, larger format, and extensive rewrites and expansions, making it easier for students to engage with Shakespeare's world. The book also includes rich, exciting color photos of performances of Romeo and Juliet from around the world, and extensive essay-writing guidance for both Romeo and Juliet and Shakespeare. This book is an excellent resource for teachers and students alike, and its thematically organized classroom activities are sure to make Shakespeare's plays accessible and creative for all.

Paradise Lost remains as challenging and relevant today as it was in the turbulent intellectual and political environment in which it was written. This edition aims to bring the poem as fully alive to a modern reader as it would have been to Milton's contemporaries. It provides a newly edited text of the 1674 edition of the poem--the last of Milton's lifetime--with carefully modernized spelling and punctuation. Marginal glosses define unfamiliar words, and extensive annotations at the foot of the page clarify Milton's syntax and poetics, and explore the range of literary, biblical, and political allusions that point to his major concerns. David Kastan's lively Introduction considers the central interpretative issues raised by the poem, demonstrating how thoroughly it engaged the most vital--and contested--issues of Milton's time, and which reveal themselves as no less vital, and perhaps no less contested, today.The edition also includes an essay on the text, a chronology of major events in Milton's life, and a selected bibliography, as well as the first known biography of Milton, written by Edward Phillips in 1694.

The Cambridge School Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing is an extensively rewritten and expanded edition of the original play. The new design and full-color classroom activities, along with the 'Stagecraft', 'Write about it', 'Language in the play', 'Characters', and 'Themes' features, make it an accessible and creative way for students to connect with Shakespeare's imaginative world. The extended glossaries and endnotes offer easy reference and essay-writing guidance. The book also includes rich, exciting color photos of performances of 'Much Ado about Nothing' from around the world. This book is a must-read for any student looking to appreciate Shakespeare's work in a new, interactive way.

This ground-breaking book, "All the Sonnets of Shakespeare" is a must-read for Shakespeare enthusiasts, scholars, and students alike. The book assembles all of Shakespeare's sonnets in their probable order of composition, with explanatory notes and modern English paraphrases of every poem. The introduction provides new insights into why and how Shakespeare wrote the sonnets, debunking long-established biographical myths about them. Beautifully printed and elegantly presented, this volume presents a genuinely new way of looking at these familiar works. Edmondson and Wells have breathed new life into our engagement with Shakespeare's poetic output and a revised understanding of the man, his motives, and his responses to creative challenges.

The First Folio of Shakespeare: The Norton Facsimile is a full-size photographic facsimile of one of the essential books of English literature and culture, the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays. The Norton Facsimile offers the latest, most corrected state of pages known to vary from copy to copy because of correction at press. It also introduced a standard system of reference, "through line numbering." The meticulous work of the great Folio scholar Charlton Hinman made possible by the extensive Folger Library Collection established The Norton Facsimile as an indispensable volume for book collectors and serious readers of Shakespeare.

The Oxford Shakespeare. The Complete Works (Oxford World's Classics) (Oxford Shakespeare S) is a comprehensive and concise edition of William Shakespeare's complete works. The book features well-written editorial material, a user-friendly layout, and impeccable scholarship. It also includes a foreword, list of contents, general introduction, essay on language, contemporary allusions to Shakespeare, glossary, consolidated bibliography, and index of first lines of Sonnets. The book is an excellent resource for anyone interested in Shakespeare's works and is a must-have for scholars and students alike.

The CliffsComplete Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is a comprehensive guide that presents the complete text of the play alongside a glossary, commentary, and resources. The guide offers insight into the play's rich themes and drama, making it easier for readers to understand unusual words and phrasing. The book also features a summary and insightful commentary for each act, a character map that graphically illustrates the relationships among the characters, review questions, a quiz, discussion guide, and activity ideas. This guide is a valuable resource for anyone studying Shakespeare's famous tragedy and offers a unique learning experience.

Ian Smith's "Black Shakespeare: Reading and Misreading Race" is an urgent interdisciplinary work that addresses the influence of systemic whiteness on the interpretation of Shakespeare's plays. Through a series of subtle and revelatory readings, Smith demonstrates how racial illiteracy inhibits critical practice and provides a necessary anti-racist alternative that will transform the way you read Shakespeare. Persuasively argued and deeply ethically engaged throughout, this book offers a deep and incisive analysis of individual plays, including Othello, The Merchant of Venice, and Hamlet. It is a must-read for those interested in British and Irish literary criticism books.