Written in the fourth century BCE by Greek philosopher and scientist Aristotle, Physics set out to define the principles and causes of change, movement, and motion. For 2,000 years ― until discoveries by Galileo, Newton, and other scientists &…
Political turmoil convulses 19th-century Russia, as Razumov, a young student preparing for a career in the czarist bureaucracy, unwittingly becomes embroiled in the assassination of a public official. Asked to spy on the family of the assassin-- his…
One of the most powerful and enduring of Greek tragedies, Medea centers on the myth of Jason, leader of the Argonauts, who has won the dragon-guarded treasure of the Golden Fleece with the help of the sorceress Medea. Having married Medea and father…
Plato hailed her as "the Tenth Muse," and 2,500 years later her voice remains dazzling as well as direct and honest. Sappho, a lyric poet from the Greek island of Lesbos, wrote verse that sings to both sexes of desire, rapture, and sorrow. Praised f…
A native of Scotland, Andrew Carnegie emigrated to Allegheny, Pennsylvania, in his youth and through voracious reading and personal initiative became one of the richest men in American history. His autobiography recounts the real-life, rags-to-riche…
Sixteen captivating stories by one of America's most popular storytellers. Included are such classics as "The Gift of the Magi," "The Last Leaf" and "The Ransom of Red Chief." Publisher's Note.
One of the most universally studied of the English classics, Beowulf is considered the finest heroic poem in Old English. Written ten centuries ago, it celebrates the character and exploits of Beowulf, a young nobleman of the Geats, a people of sout…
Born in Ohio in 1842, journalist, short-story writer and critic Ambrose Bierce developed into one of this country's most celebrated and cynical wits -- a merciless "American Swift" whose literary barbs were aimed at folly, self-delusion, politics, b…
"The most impressive satirist of his day." -- Time MagazineWith devastating satiric wit, this book examines the hollowness and falsity suggested by the term "conspicuous consumption" (coined by Veblen) and exposes the emptiness of many cherished sta…
Moving prose poems by great Bengali poet who won a Nobel Prize with his own translation of these moving works.
Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859) is a central figure of English Romanticism. CONFESSIONS OF AN ENGLISH OPIUM EATER, his best-known work, is an account of his early life and opium addiction. De Quincey lived his full three score years and ten. But few w…
The two years before he wrote Crime and Punishment (1866) had been bad ones for Dostoyevsky. His wife and brother had died; the magazine he and his brother had started, Epoch, collapsed under its load of debt; and he was threatened with debtor's pri…
Best known for the 1892 title story of this collection, a harrowing tale of a woman's descent into madness, Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote more than 200 other short stories. Seven of her finest are reprinted here. Written from a feminist perspective…
In the eleventh century Murasaki Shikibu, a lady in the Heian court of Japan, wrote the world's first novel. But The Tale of Genji is no mere artifact. It is, rather, a lively and astonishingly nuanced portrait of a refined society where every dalli…
One of the most important and popular American poets of the 20th century, e. e. cummings is best known for his brilliant and innovative verse and its distinctive lack of uppercase letters and conventional grammar. He was also a Cubist painter and a…
"It ranks with the greatest books ever written in the English language. As a narrative of war and adventure ... it is unsurpassable." -- Winston Churchill T. E. Lawrence's autobiographical tale, the basis for the film Lawrence of Arabia, offers a fi…
Originally published in 1918, this landmark collection of essays by the father of psychoanalysis represents one of Freud's most penetrating attempts to decipher the mysteries of human behavior. Its focus is the conflict between primitive feelings an…
A rousing success on the London and New York stages, a popular film, and a great musical hit ("My Fair Lady"), this brilliantly written play, with its irresistible theme of the emerging butterfly, is one of the most acclaimed comedies in the English…
Accused of political subversion as a young man, Fyodor Dostoyevsky was sentenced to four years of hard labor at a Siberian prison camp -- a horrifying experience from which he developed this astounding semi-autobiographical memoir of a man condemned…
A gem of German Romanticism, this literary landmark continues to enchant readers with its combination of poetic and fairy tale elements. The young hero of this unfinished experimental novel envisions a blue flower that represents desire, love, and t…
Austen's comedy of manners--one of the most popular novels of all time--features splendidly civilized sparring between the proud Mr. Darcy and the prejudiced Elizabeth Bennet as they play out their spirited courtship in a series of 18-century drawin…
One of the most prominent African-Americans of his time, James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) was a successful lawyer, educator, social reformer, songwriter, and critic. But it was as a poet and novelist that he achieved lasting fame. Among his most fam…
Born in a Virginia slave hut, Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) rose to become the most influential spokesman for African Americans of his day. In this eloquently written book, he describes events in a remarkable life that began in bondage and culmin…
Although Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) created a wide range of poetry, essays, and fairy tales (and one novel) in his brief, tragic life, he is perhaps best known as a dramatist. His witty, clever drama, populated by brilliant talkers skilled in the art o…
"I drew a breath, set my teeth, gripped the starting lever with both hands..." Have you ever dreamed about traveling through time? Here H. G. Wells leaps beyond the bounds of conventional imagination to tell the story of the Time Traveler, who pilot…
Among the masterpieces of world literature, this early verse drama by the celebrated Norwegian playwright humorously yet profoundly explores the virtues, vices, and follies common to all humanity as represented in the person of Peer Gynt, a charming…
Blessed with enormous talents and the energy and ambition to go with them, Franklin was a statesman, author, inventor, printer, and scientist. He helped draft the Declaration of Independence and later was involved in negotiating the peace treaty wit…
What does it mean to live an ethical life? For seventeenth-century philosopher Benedict de Spinoza, this question led to a doctrine in which God is present in all things and the human mind is part of God's infinite intellect. Spinoza regarded ethics…
Until the beginning of the twentieth century, most people considered dreams unworthy of serious consideration. Sigmund Freud, however, had noticed that they formed an active part in the analysis of his patients, and he gradually came to believe that…
The entire Greek world plunged into three decades of bloodshed in 431 B.C., when the ongoing friction between Athens and Sparta exploded into war. Ten years into the struggle, the Athenian general Thucydides was dismissed for a military failure that…
A landmark in the history of the novel, Oroonoko is among the earliest such works in the English language and its author, Aphra Behn, is often cited as the first professional woman writer. Originally published in 1688, the tale combines memoir, biog…
At the dawn of World War I, poet Siegfried Sassoon exchanged his pastoral pursuits of cricket, fox-hunting, and romantic verse for army life amid the muddy trenches of France. This collection of his epigrammatic and satirical poetry conveys the shoc…
The distinguished American civil rights leader, W. E. B. Du Bois first published these fiery essays, sketches, and poems individually nearly 80 years ago in the Atlantic, the Journal of Race Development, and other periodicals. Reflecting the author&…
Rich distillation of the timeless precepts of extremely influential Chinese philosopher and social theorist. Footnotes.
The Mississippi River and Mark Twain are practically synonymous in American culture. Known as "America's river," the popularity of Twain's steamboat and steamboat pilots on the ever-changing Mississippi has endured prominently over the years. Samuel…
A controversial figure in the history of race relations around the world, Marcus Garvey amazed his enemies as much as he dazzled his admirers. This anthology contains some of the African-American rights advocate's most noted writings and speeches, i…
First presented in 411 B.C., this ancient comedy concerns the efforts of Lysistrata, an Athenian woman, to persuade other women to join together in a strike against the men of Greece, denying them sex until they've agreed to put down their arms and…
A stowaway aboard the New England whaler Grampus, young Arthur Gordon Pym finds himself an unwilling passenger on an extraordinary voyage. Edgar Allan Poe's only novel, first published in 1838, recounts the incredible adventures and discoveries of P…
In his 1918 autobiographical essay, A Negro Poet Writes, Claude McKay (1889-1948), reveals much about the wellspring of his poetry. I am a black man, born in Jamaica, B.W.I., and have been living in America for the last years. It was the first time…
In common with much of his other writing, this work by the eminent English novelist and essayist E. M. Forster (1879-1970) displays an unusually perceptive view of British society in the early 20th century. Written in 1908, "A Room with a View" is a…
The originality, concentrated power and "fierce indignation" of his satirical writing have earned Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) a reputation as the greatest prose satirist in English language. Gulliver's Travels is, of course, his world-renowned master…
One of the best-known, most frequently performed of modern plays, A Doll's House richly displays the genius with which Henrik Ibsen pioneered modern, realistic prose drama. In the central character of Nora, Ibsen epitomized the human struggle agains…
When a gigantic stranger clad in green armor bursts in on the Round Table to issue a challenge, gallant Sir Gawain volunteers to do battle for his uncle, King Arthur. This edition presents the legendary tale in two forms: as a poem and in a prose tr…
