Program Books

The Gender-Sensitive Edition offers gender-inclusive renderings where appropriate and gendered renderings when called for historically and linguistically, incorporating the best of contemporary research into Israelite history and religion, literary studies, philology, linguistics, and the social sciences to offer a faithful and accurate translation. References to persons are gender sensitive yet consistent with ancient gender norms, and the translation strives for inclusive language when referring broadly to people, ancestors, and humankind. References to God are typically gender neutral and generally avoid grammatically masculine pronouns and labels, with careful examination of each context yielding the most appropriate rendering. To enable the tetragrammaton (God's four-letter name) to be encountered as a name and without masculine connotations, the edition typically translates it as "God" (in small capitals) rather than "the Lord."

Revising the venerable JPS translation, the Gender-Sensitive Edition empowers readers to experience Scripture with all the power of the original Hebrew. It is sure to become the new Bible translation of choice for readers who embrace biblical scholarship with reverence for tradition, and for communities and individuals who adopt an inclusive, egalitarian perspective in today's world.

Shakespeare's King Lear challenges us with the magnitude, intensity, and sheer duration of the pain that it represents. Its figures harden their hearts, engage in violence, or try to alleviate the suffering of others. Lear himself rages until his sanity cracks. What, then, keeps bringing us back to King Lear? For all the force of its language, King Lear is almost equally powerful when translated, suggesting that it is the story, in large part, that draws us to the play.

The play tells us about families struggling between greed and cruelty, on the one hand, and support and consolation, on the other. Emotions are extreme, magnified to gigantic proportions. We also see old age portrayed in all its vulnerability, pride, and, perhaps, wisdom--one reason this most devastating of Shakespeare's tragedies is also perhaps his most moving.

This edition 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 Susan Snyder

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.

"The most densely annotated, richly illustrated, and user friendly edition" of the greatest classical work of history ever written (Daniel Mendelsohn, The New Yorker)--from the editor of the widely praised The Landmark Thucydides.

Cicero called Herodotus "the father of history," and his only work, The Histories, is considered the first true piece of historical writing in Western literature. With lucid prose, Herodotus's account of the rise of the Persian Empire and its dramatic war with the Greek city sates set a standard for narrative nonfiction that continues to this day. Illustrated, annotated, and filled with maps--with an introduction by Rosalind Thomas, twenty-one appendices written by scholars at the top of their fields, and a new translation by Andrea L. Purvis--The Landmark Herodotus is a stunning edition.

Written during the turmoil of the English Civil War, Leviathan is an ambitious and highly original work of political philosophy. Claiming that man's essential nature is competitive and selfish, Hobbes formulates the case for a powerful sovereign--or "Leviathan"--to enforce peace and the law, substituting security for the anarchic freedom he believed human beings would otherwise experience. This worldview shocked many of Hobbes's contemporaries, and his work was publicly burnt for sedition and blasphemy when it was first published. But in his rejection of Aristotle's view of man as a naturally social being, and in his painstaking analysis of the ways in which society can and should function, Hobbes opened up a whole new world of political science.

Based on the original 1651 text, this edition incorporates Hobbes's own corrections, while also retaining the original spelling and punctuation, to read with vividness and clarity.

Penguin Classics is the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, representing a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Designed to meet the needs of both student and scholar, this edition of Leviathan offers a brilliant introduction by Edwin Curley, modernized spelling and punctuation of the text, and the inclusion, along with historical and interpretive notes, of the most significant variants between the English version of 1651 and the Latin version of 1668. A glossary of seventeenth-century English terms, and indexes of persons, subjects, and scriptural passages help make this the most thoughtfully conceived edition of Leviathan available.