As a young Florentine envoy to the courts of France and the Italian principalities, Niccol Machiavelli (1469-1527) was able to observe firsthand the lives of people strongly united under one powerful ruler. His fascination with that political rarity…
Often ranked as the greatest of Plato's many remarkable writings, this celebrated philosophical work of the fourth century B.C. contemplates the elements of an ideal state, serving as the forerunner for such other classics of political thought as Ci…
One of Shakespeare's most popular and accessible plays, Romeo and Juliet tells the story of two star-crossed lovers and the unhappy fate that befell them as a result of a long and bitter feud between their families. The play contains some of Shakesp…
Caustic and hilarious, Candide has ranked as one of the world's great satires since its first publication in 1759. It concerns the adventures of the youthful Candide, disciple of Dr. Pangloss, who was himself a disciple of Leibniz. In the course of…
Here is Oscar Wilde's most brilliant tour de force, a witty and buoyant comedy of manners that has delighted millions in countless productions since its first performance in London's St. James' Theatre on February 14, 1895. The Importance of Being E…
The heart asks pleasure first, And then, excuse from pain; And then, those little anodynes That deaden suffering; And then, to go to sleep; And then, if it should be The will of its Inquisitor, The liberty to die. Generally considered among the grea…
In 1864, just prior to the years in which he wrote his greatest novels -- Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Possessed and The Brothers Karamazov -- Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) penned the darkly fascinating Notes from the Underground. Its namel…
In this celebrated work, his only novel, Wilde forged a devastating portrait of the effects of evil and debauchery on a young aesthete in late-19th-century England. Combining elements of the Gothic horror novel and decadent French fiction, the book…
This masterpiece of science (and mathematical) fiction is a delightfully unique and highly entertaining satire that has charmed readers for more than 100 years. The work of English clergyman, educator and Shakespearean scholar Edwin A. Abbott (1838-…
See 'Bhagavad Gita'.
Hailed by The New York Times as "a compelling dystopian look at paranoia from one of the most unique and perceptive writers of our time," this brief, captivating novel offers a cautionary tale. The story unfolds within a society in which all traces…
One of science's great unsung heroes, Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) was a prophet of the electronic age. His research laid much of the groundwork for modern electrical and communication systems, and his impressive accomplishments include development of t…
A highly distilled form of Japanese poetry, haiku consist of 17 syllables, usually divided among three lines. This unique collection spans over 400 years (1488-1902) of haiku history by the greatest masters: Basho, Issa, Shiki and many more, in tran…
In September of 1884, Robert Louis Stevenson, then in his mid-thirties, moved with his family to Bournemouth, a resort on the southern coast of England, where in the brief span of 23 months he revised A Child's Garden of Verses and wrote the novels…
Widely recognized as one of literature's most gripping ghost stories, this classic tale of moral degradation concerns the sinister transformation of two innocent children into flagrant liars and hypocrites. The story begins when a governess arrives…
After kicking open the doors to twentieth-century philosophy in Thus Spake Zarathustra, Friedrich Nietzsche refined his ideal of the superman with the 1886 publication of Beyond Good and Evil. Conventional morality is a sign of slavery, Nietzsche m…
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…
The world's most famous detective uses his celebrated skills of deduction in A Study in Scarlet, the tale that introduces Dr. John Watson. Recently discharged from the military, Watson takes a room with an amazing young man -- the arrogant crime exp…
The Hound of the Baskervilles is one of master mystery writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most accomplished stories. Sherlock Holmes and his companion Dr. Watson confront one of their most difficult cases ever: is there truly a curse on the old Basker…
"All men by nature are actuated with the desire of knowledge," declared Aristotle. The philosopher's works are foundational to the history of science, and his treatise on metaphysics, or "first philosophy," is divided into sections of previous philo…
Although Polish by birth, Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) is regarded as one of the greatest writers in English, and Heart of Darkness, first published in 1902, is considered by many his "most famous, finest, and most enigmatic story." -- Encyclopaedia B…
All human behaviors and traits, according to this 1923 study, derive from the complicated interactions of three elements of the psyche: the id, the ego, and the superego. One of Sigmund Freud's most insightful works on the topic of the subconscious,…
Philosopher, naturalist, poet and rugged individualist, Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) has inspired generations of readers to think for themselves, to follow the dictates of their own conscience and to make an art of their lives. This representativ…
One of the world's most famous and influential books, Meditations, by the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 121-180), incorporates the stoic precepts he used to cope with his life as a warrior and administrator of an empire. Ascending to the impe…
An excellent reference for anyone who wants a better understanding of the Constitution, this compilation of eighty-five articles explains and defends the ideals behind the highest form of law in the United States. The essays were written and publish…
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…
The masterpiece of G. K. Chesterton's distinguished literary career, this treatise mounts a defense of Christianity. The author employs the term "orthodoxy" as a synonym for "right opinion," and he applies the concept of correct reasoning to his for…
"I die the King's good servant, but God's first," declared Sir Thomas More from the scaffold upon his 1535 execution for treason. Condemned to death for his refusal to acknowledge Henry VIII as the Supreme Head of the Church of England, More spent h…
Tao (the Way) is one of the most profound and influential of the world's spiritual traditions, and the Tao Te Ching (The Book of the Way and Its Virtue) has left its imprint on Far Eastern philosophy, art, and literature for over two thousand years.…
The true story of an individual's struggle for self-identity, self-preservation, and freedom, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl remains among the few extant slave narratives written by a woman. This autobiographical account chronicles the remark…
Former slave, impassioned abolitionist, brilliant writer, newspaper editor and eloquent orator whose speeches fired the abolitionist cause, Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) led an astounding life. Physical abuse, deprivation and tragedy plagued his ea…
Delightfully humorous account of a feminist utopia in which three male explorers stumble upon an all-female society isolated in a distant part of the earth. Early 20th-century vehicle for Gilman’s then-unconventional views of male-female behav…
Celebrated novella of a middle-aged German writer's tormented passion for a Polish youth met on holiday in Venice, and its tragic consequences. Powerful evocation of the mysterious forces of death and disintegration in the midst of existence, and th…
Among the most influential philosophers of modern times, Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) declared in this classic study that Greek tragedy achieved greatness through a fusion of elements of Apollonian restraint and control with Dionysian components…
Although dour in appearance and formidable in reputation, Friedrich Nietzsche was an ardent practitioner of the art of poetry--known in twelfth-century Proven al as "the gay science." This extensive collection of prose and verse offers a sophisticat…
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…
Over 100 of Rumi's finest lyrics, including "The Marriage of True Minds," "The Children of Light," "The Man Who Looked Back on His Way to Hell," "The Ascending Soul," "The Pear-Tree of Illusion," "The Riddles of God," and many more. "In some of thes…
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…
Nature was a form of religion for naturalist, essayist, and early environmentalist Henry David Thoreau (1817-62). In communing with the natural world, he wished to "live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and ... learn what it…
"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…
An important and often-quoted literary figure, the English poet Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) wrote some of the most beautiful and voluptuous poetry in the English language. Like Emily Dickinson, she lived in self-imposed isolation, writing of God…
A treasury of Frost's most expressive verse. In addition to the title poem: "An Old Man's Winter Night," "In the Home Stretch," "Meeting and Passing," "Putting in the Seed," many more. All complete and unabridged.
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…
Presented here are all four chapters of Mill's essay written in 1861, which addresses the legal subordination of women as manifested in their exclusion from the political process and their lack of any rights within marriage. Principally considered i…
