The Experience of Literature: A Reader with Commentaries is an anthology of short stories and poems, divided into four parts, and edited in 1967 by Lionel Trilling of Columbia University. Published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 67-15654.

Part 1: Drama

Sophocles

Sophocles

Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides...

, Oedipus Rex

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

, The Tragedy of King Lear

Henrik Ibsen

Henrik Ibsen

Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...

, The Wild Duck

Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...

, The Three Sisters

George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...

, The Doctor's Dilemma

Luigi Pirandello

Luigi Pirandello

Luigi Pirandello was an Italian dramatist, novelist, and short story writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1934, for his "bold and brilliant renovation of the drama and the stage." Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written...

, Six Characters in Search of an Author: A Comedy in the Making

William Butler Yates, Purgatory

Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...

, Galileo

Part 2: Fiction

Nathaniel Hawthorn, My Kinsman, Major Molineux

Herman Melville, Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street

Plus 20 more stories.

Part 3: Poetry

• Lydicus
• Dover Beach
• Ode to a Nightinggale
• To His Coy Mistress
• Ode to the West Wind

Plus many more poems

Part 4: Poetry for Further Reading

Contains over 200 poems