Every work,
annotated.
You get the whole passage, in its own words, plus a note in the margin that explains what it's doing. Nothing is abridged.
See which of these became films →The Count of Monte Cristo
Alexandre Dumas · 1844
A man returns from prison with a fortune and a list.
Crime and Punishment
Fyodor Dostoevsky · 1866
A student commits a murder to prove a theory, then has to live inside it.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Arthur Conan Doyle · 1892
Twelve cases, one method: observe, then reason backwards.
The Scarlet Letter
Nathaniel Hawthorne · 1850
A letter of shame becomes the only honest thing in the town.
The Divine Comedy
Dante Alighieri · 1321
A guided tour of the afterlife, written with the poet's enemies in the right places.
Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad · 1899
A river journey inward, told by a man on a boat on the Thames.
The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck · 1939
A family drives west into a promise that has been sold already.
Animal Farm
George Orwell · 1945
A revolution that becomes a management problem, then a dictatorship.
To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee · 1960
A trial seen from the height of a child's eyes.
A Game of Thrones
George R. R. Martin · 1996
Everyone has a claim, and the claims do not agree.
The Cask of Amontillado
Edgar Allan Poe · 1846
A man takes his enemy down to the cellar to taste a wine that does not exist.