Author of , Hawthorne's five most famous short stories are discussed here. "Young Goodman Brown," "The Minister's Black Veil," "The Maypole of Merry Mount," "Rappaccini's Daughter," and "Roger Malvin's Burial" are reviewed.

Herman Melville, though possibly at his best as a poet, wrote what some consider to be the 19th century American epic—Moby Dick; In this volume of Bloom's Major Novelists, renowned critics analyze Moby Dick, as well as Pierre;

James Joyce is one of the most revered and influential writers of the 20th century. This Irishman transformed novelistic conventions through experimentation in language and narrative structure.

Classic Books Library presents this new beautiful edition of "Shakespeare's Sonnets" (1609). Featuring a specially commissioned new biography of William Shakespeare, it is a must for classical poetry enthusiasts and newcomers alike. Shakespeare's collection of 154 sonnets beautifully explore the age-old human themes of love and beauty, time and mortality, and contain some of the most revered lines in poetry such as, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's...

Bloom suggests that poetry became subjective after Wordsworth. This volume presents critical views on "The Prelude," "Tintern Abby," "Lyrical Ballads," and "The Ruined Cottage."

Written just after the Restoration period in England, Milton's blank verse epic, Paradise Lost, dramatized man's "fortunate fall" from grace and earned him a permanent place in the canon.

While his short stories and two autobiographies, The Big Sea and I Wonder as I Wander, remain very readable, the permanent fame of Langston Hughes is assured by his poetry.

Maya Angelou has been called a national institution and the people’s poet. It has been suggested that she has manifested an indomitable spirit and benign will in her most famous book, I Know Why the Caged Sings.

According to Bloom, John Keats is unique among all post-Shakespearean poets in that he offers an example of human life at its most wise and compassionate.