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An Enemy of the People
by Henrik Ibsen
Part of the Dover Thrift Editions series
An Enemy of the People addresses the irrational tendencies of the masses, and the hypocritical and corrupt nature of the political system that they support. It is the story of one brave man's struggle to do the right thing and speak the truth in the face of extreme social intolerance.
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Civil War Stories
by Ambrose Bierce
Part of the Dover Thrift Editions series
Sixteen dark and vivid selections by a great satirist and short-story writer. "A Horseman in the Sky," "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," "Chickamauga," "A Son of the Gods," "What I Saw of Shiloh," "Four Days in Dixie," and 10 more. Masterly tales offer excellent examples of Bierce's dark pessimism and storytelling power.
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Selected Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins
by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Part of the Dover Thrift Editions series
Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889) was a Jesuit priest whose poetry combined an awareness of material sensuousness with the asceticism of religious devotion. His collected poems, published posthumously in 1918, exercised a profound influence on modern poetry. This volume features all of Hopkins's mature work, offering a sampler of the poet's striking originality, intellectual depth, and perceptive vision. Featured works include his well-known elegy, "The Wreck of the Deutschland," "God's Grandeur," "Hurrahing in Harvest," "The Windhover," "Pied Beauty," and "Carrion Comfort." Additional verses include "The Caged Skylark," "The Bugler's First Communion," "The Starlight Night," "The Silver Jubilee," "Henry Purcell," "Andromeda," and others.
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Selected Poems
by Walt Whitman
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In his unconventional verse, Walt Whitman spoke in a powerful, sensual, oratorical, and inspiring voice. His most famous work, Leaves of Grass, was a long-term project that the poet compared to the building of a cathedral or the slow growth of a tree. During his lifetime, from 1819 to 1892, it went through nine editions. Today it is regarded as a landmark of American literature. This volume contains 24 poems from Leaves of Grass, offering a generous sampling of Whitman's best and most representative verses. Featured works include "I Hear America Singing," "I Sing the Body Electric," "Song of the Open Road," "Out of Cradle Endlessly Rocking," "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd," and "O Captain! My Captain!"-all reprinted from an authoritative text.
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Orthodoxy
by G. K. Chesterton
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Orthodoxy, as G. K. Chesterton employs the term here, means "right opinion." In this, the masterpiece of his brilliant literary career, he applies the concept of correct reasoning to his acceptance of Christianity. Written in a down-to-earth and familiar style, he presents formal and scholarly arguments in the explanation and defense of the tenets underlying his faith.
Paradox and contradiction, Chesterton maintains, do not constitute barriers to belief; imagination and intuition are as relevant to the processes of thought and understanding as logic and rationality. "Whenever we feel there is something odd in Christian theology," he observes, "we shall generally find that there is something odd in the truth." He defines his insights with thought-provoking analogies, personal anecdotes, and engaging humor, making this century-old book a work of enduring charm and persuasion.
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The Gay Science
by Friedrich Nietzsche
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Although dour in appearance and formidable in reputation, Friedrich Nietzsche was an ardent practitioner of the art of poetry-known in twelfth-century Provençal as "the gay science." This extensive collection of prose and verse offers a sophisticated treatment of the philosophical themes and views central to his thinking, as well as the ideas that proved most influential to later philosophers.
Dating from the era when Nietzsche was at the peak of his intellectual powers, most of this book was written just before Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and the rest of it five years later, after Beyond Good and Evil. Zarathustra makes his first appearance in these pages, along with the author's well-known proclamation of the death of God. Readers will find this volume a wellspring for some of Nietzsche's most sustained and thought-provoking discussions of art and morality, knowledge and truth, the intellectual conscience, and the origin of logic, as well as the largest collection of Nietzsche's published poetry.
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Bulfinch's Medieval Mythology
by Thomas Bulfinch
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Here, in a dazzling panoply, are the legendary figures from the age of chivalry: King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Robin Hood, Richard the Lionhearted and his crusaders, and a host of other famous and lesser-known characters. This collection includes tales from Camelot, dramatic narratives from The Mabinogion, and stories of the noble warriors of English history. Bulfinch's skillful storytelling not only relates these ancient myths and legends but also discusses their roles in literature and art, with numerous allusions to poetry and paintings. Generations of children and adults have thrilled to these timeless tales, and young readers can find no better introduction to the enchantment of medieval myths and legends.
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Droll Stories
Selected Tales
by Honoré De Balzac
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These choice selections from Honoré de Balzac's Droll Stories offer a lively and lusty portrait of sixteenth-century French life and manners. Told in the tradition of Boccaccio, Chaucer, and Rabelais, they allegedly originated in manuscripts from the abbeys of Touraine. Originally published in three sets of ten tales in the 1830s, the stories abound in episodes of good-humored licentiousness that scandalized Balzac's contemporaries and continue to delight modern readers. French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) was a founder of realism in European literature. An inspiration to Proust, Dickens, Faulkner, Dostoyevsky, and countless others, Balzac wrote works that were hailed for their multifaceted characters and exquisite attention to detail. This edition's excellent translation was the first to make his Contes Drolatiques available to English-speaking readers.
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Selected Poems
by Claude McKay
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Jamaican-American poet Claude McKay (1889–1948) came to the U.S. in 1912 and became an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance. This inexpensive edition includes a representative sample of his Jamaican dialect verse, but concentrates on poems from Harlem Shadows (1922) and uncollected verse. Edited and with an introduction by Joan R. Sherman.
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Songs for the Open Road
Poems of Travel and Adventure
by Various Authors
Part of the Dover Thrift Editions series
Collection of more than 80 poems by 50 American and British masters celebrates travel, adventure and the many real and metaphorical journeys each of us take in the course of our lives. Works by Whitman, Byron, Millay, Sandburg, Service, Bliss Carman, Robert Louis Stevenson, Langston Hughes, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Shelley, Tennyson, Yeats, many others. Note.
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The Professor
by Charlotte Brontë
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Orphaned in his boyhood, William Crimsworth was sent to Eton by aristocratic relatives who withdrew their support when he declined to become a clergyman. After a disastrous attempt to join his estranged brother's business, William trades his Yorkshire clerkship for a teaching position at a Belgian boarding school. His loneliness is brightened by a beguiling headmistress, but her sensuous appeal complicates his attraction to a penniless girl who is both a student and teacher.
Although published posthumously, The Professor was written before Jane Eyre and Charlotte Brontë's other novels. Readers may recognize the book's autobiographical elements, which - like Villette - center on a love-starved English teacher at a Brussels school. In this case, however, the protagonist is a man, many of whose problems - workplace drudgery, social and romantic isolation - are similar to those of middle-class Victorian women. Brontë's moving portrayal of a social outsider's perspective adds interest to this showcase of her developing style and talent.
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Songs of Milarepa
by Milarepa
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A Buddhist holy man whose songs have been sung and studied since the twelfth century, Milarepa exchanged a life of sin and maliciousness for one of contemplation and love, eventually reaching-according to his disciples-the ultimate state of enlightenment. His thousands of extemporaneously composed songs communicate complex ideas in a simple, lucid style. This volume features the religious leader's best and most highly esteemed songs of love and compassion. Sure to inspire and provide reading pleasure to a wide audience. Considered by many of his followers to be another St. Francis, Milarepa exchanged a life of sin and maliciousness for one of contemplation and love, eventually reaching a state of enlightenment. His thousands of extemporaneously composed songs have been widely sung and studied since they were first recorded and disseminated centuries ago by his disciples. This volume features the best and most highly esteemed of the religious leader's songs of love and compassion that include lessons on the negative aspects of ambition and the importance of finding inner peace. In addition, he stresses the briefness of life: ". . . so apply yourself to meditation. Avoid doing evil, and acquire merit, to the best of your ability, even at the cost of life itself. In short: Act so that you have no cause to be ashamed of yourselves and hold fast to this rule."
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Message to the People
The Course of African Philosophy
by Marcus Garvey
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In 1937, Marcus Garvey, founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and one of the most controversial figures in the history of race relations, assembled his most trusted organizers to impart his life's lessons. For one month he instructed this elite student body - at its peak the largest international mass movement of African peoples - on topics ranging from universal knowledge and how to attain it to leadership, character, God, and the social system.
A crucial guide to the understanding of Garvey's philosophy and teachings, Message to the People features profound insights into the nascent days of the Civil Rights movement. This volume will prove an enlightening companion to students of African American and twentieth-century history.
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Slave Narratives of the Underground Railroad
by Christine Rudisel
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During the 1850s and 1860s more than 100,000 people escaped slavery in the American South by following the Underground Railroad, a complex network of secret routes and safe houses. This inexpensive compilation of firsthand accounts offers authentic insights into the Civil War era and African-American history with compelling narratives by Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and lesser-known refugees. Thirty selections include the story of Eliza Harris, "The Slave Woman Who Crossed the Ohio River on the Drifting Ice with Her Child in Her Arms," whose experience inspired a memorable scene in Uncle Tom's Cabin. Other accounts include that of Henry "Box" Brown, who hid in a crate mailed to Philadelphia abolitionists; Theophilus Collins's escape after "A Desperate, Bloody Struggle-Gun, Knife and Fire Shovel, Used by Infuriated Master"; excerpts from Harriet Jacobs's 1861 narrative, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl; and the remarkable flight of William and Ellen Craft, "Female Slave in Male Attire, Fleeing as a Planter, with Her Husband as Her Body Servant."
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The Professor's House
by Willa Cather
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This bittersweet tale begins when the successful Professor Godfrey St. Peter and his wife move into a comfortable new house. On the eve of the move, Godfrey analyzes his life, family, and friends: his two daughters' marriages have removed them from the home, and the loss of his most outstanding student (and once son-in-law to be) leaves him feeling without purpose. His desire to stay in his old study and cling to what used to be sparks deep introspection in a story that explores a mid-life crisis and family life in a 1920s Midwestern college town.
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Selected Writings and Speeches of Marcus Garvey
by Marcus Garvey
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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, including "Declaration of the Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World" and "Africa for the Africans."
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Short Stories
by Edith Wharton
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Described by literary critic Robert Morss Lovett as "a novelist of civilization, absorbed in the somewhat mechanical operations of civilization, absorbed in the somewhat mechanical operations of culture, preoccupied with the upper ('and inner') class," Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edith Wharton (1862-1937) also wrote superbly crafted works of short fiction. The seven stories in this excellent collection demonstrate the author's ability to create memorable tales on themes of love and marriage, divorce, the experience of the artist, high society and its workings and other topics. "Souls Belated," a tragedy of mores, focuses on characters overcome by the demands of convention, while "The Pelican" and "The Muse's Tragedy" both present women whose realities differ from their public personae. "Expiation" is a satiric, revealing story about the publishing industry, featuring a writer determined to increase the sales of her first novel. In "The Dilettante," a young man who prides himself on his ability to manipulate women must face ironic consequences when he introduces his fiancée to his supposed lover. "Xingu" is a witty satire on the intellectual pretensions of a group of rich women, while "The Other Two" presents a darkly humorous look at the consequences of divorce. Gathered in this inexpensive volume, these stories provide an excellent sampling of Wharton's masterly efforts in the short story genre, a form of fiction she felt especially suited to her talents and one that enabled her to achieve a focused and intimate realism.
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Short Story Masterpieces by American Women Writers
by Clarence C. Strowbridge
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Fourteen short works of fiction by noteworthy American women authors offer entrancing tales of redemption, betrayal, tradition, and rebellion. Dating from the nineteenth to twenty-first centuries, these narratives range in mood from "Heat," Joyce Carol Oates's chilling tale of murder, to "Why I Live at the P.O.," Eudora Welty's comic monologue in the Southern Gothic tradition. Other contributors include Flannery O'Connor, Kate Chopin, and Edna Ferber as well as lesser-known, newly rediscovered writers. Edith Wharton examines the issue of divorce and remarriage in "The Other Two," and Willa Cather explores life among Greenwich Village artists at the turn of the twentieth century in "Coming, Aphrodite!" Stories with modern settings include Alice Walker's "Everyday Use," an insightful look at the role of heritage in African-American culture, and Louise Erdrich's "The Shawl," a meditation on memory and the transformation of old stories into new ones. Together, the tales offer a revealing panorama of perspectives on women's ongoing struggles for dignity and self-sufficiency.
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The Use and Abuse of History
by Friedrich Nietzsche
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"While life needs the services of history, it must just as clearly be comprehended that an excess measure of history will do harm to the living," declares Friedrich Nietzsche in this cautionary polemic. The iconoclastic philosopher warns us about the dangers of an uncritical devotion to the study of the past, which leads to destructive and limiting
results - particularly in cases where long-ago events are exploited for nationalistic purposes.
Nietzsche proposes three approaches to times gone by: the monumental, focusing on examples of human greatness; the antiquarian, involving immersion in a bygone period; and the critical, rejecting the old in favor of the new. He examines the pros and cons of each concept, favoring how the ancient Greeks looked at things, which balanced a consciousness of yesteryear with contemporary intellectual, cultural, and political sensibilities. Nietzsche's emphasis on history as a dynamic, living culture rather than the subject of detached scholarship is certain to resonate with modern readers.
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The Logic of the Moral Sciences
by John Stuart Mill
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John Stuart Mill (1806—73) was the most influential English philosopher of the nineteenth century. His vast intellectual output covered a range of subjects - traditional philosophy and logic, economics, political science - and included this work, a founding document in the area now known as social science.
In The Logic of the Moral Sciences, Mill applied his considerable talents to examining how the study of human behavior, society, and history could be established on a rational, philosophical basis. The philosopher maintains that casual empiricism and direct experiment are not applicable to the study of complex social phenomena. Instead, "empirical laws," drawn from historical generalizations, must be derivable from a deductive science of human nature. Mills' insights and approaches have remained relevant in the century and a half since this treatise's publication. This volume will prove of vital interest to historians of philosophy and the social sciences as well as to undergraduate social science majors.
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Off on a Comet!
by Jules Verne
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Nearly a century before space travel captured the imaginations of science-fiction writers and readers, Jules Verne envisioned an incident in which a comet impact in the vicinity of Gibraltar sends a piece of the Earth on a two-year trip around the solar system. Thirty-six unsuspecting individuals of various nationalities are swept away by the collision. The tension builds as they struggle to understand what has happened and to cope with their new environment. The involuntary travelers are forced to put aside their differences to survive in an increasingly frigid atmosphere and to try to find their way home.
Verne's passion for travel and his interest in space exploration are reflected in this rollicking adventure, which is further elevated by his gift for creating a dramatic narrative and realistic personalities. This edition of Off on a Comet! features illustrations from the original French publication that complement the author's droll observations of his contemporaries' superstitions and foibles.
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The World Crisis, Volume I
1911-1914
by Sir Winston Churchill
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Best known as the Prime Minister who guided Britain through World War II, Winston Churchill also played an active role in the preceding war, during which he served as his country's First Lord of the Admiralty and the leader of its aerial defense. After masterminding the disastrous Gallipoli campaign, he resigned from the government and sought to rehabilitate his reputation by serving with the army on the Western Front. Before and after World War I, Churchill wrote several books that remain popular with students and historians.
Written with his customary flair and enriched by his firsthand knowledge of events, Churchill's The World Crisis series remains the greatest history of World War I. This unabridged first volume vividly recounts the status of the world's nations at the war's outbreak, It traces the international tensions over the Balkan states that triggered the conflict as well as the arms race between the British and German navies.
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The King of Elfland's Daughter
by Lord Dunsany
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One of the most influential and acclaimed works in all of fantasy literature, this captivating tale is the forerunner of modern sword and sorcery novels. It tells of a young lord's quest through a supernatural world in search of a fairy princess bride, recounting the lovers' romance, separation, and reunion. Rich in metaphor, vivid in imagery, the lyrical storytelling evokes a sense of innocent wonder. Its fans range from W. B. Yeats, who wrote that Dunsany "had transfigured with beauty the common sights of the world," to Arthur C. Clarke, who felt that the novel helped elevate the author to "one of the greatest writers of this century."
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Sons and Lovers
by David Herbert 'D. H.' Lawrence
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Torn between his passion for two women and his abiding attachment to his mother, young Paul Morel struggles with his desire to please everyone ― particularly himself. Lawrence's highly autobiographical novel unfolds against the backdrop of his native Nottinghamshire coal fields, amidst a working-class family dominated by a brutish father and a loving but overbearing mother. Lushly descriptive passages range from celebrations of natural beauty and sensual pleasures to searing indictments of the social blight engendered by industrialism. Essential reading for any study of 20th-century literature. Unabridged reprint of the classic 1913 edition.
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In Our Time
by Ernest Hemingway
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Hemingway made his North American literary debut in 1925 with In Our Time, his first collection of short stories and vignettes. Widely praised at the time for what later would be considered the author's hallmark style-uncomplicated, precise language with an eye for realism-the stories' themes of alienation, loss, and grief continue the work Hemingway began earlier in his career. Includes two of his best-known Nick Adams stories: "Indian Camp" and "Big Two-Hearted River."
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Selected Poems
by John Dryden
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The leading English literary figure of the latter half of the 17th century, John Dryden (1631-1700) wrote dramas and critical works, but his reputation stands on his mastery of verse, in particular the heroic couplet. Encompassing political, religious, philosophic, and artistic issues, Dryden's poetry offers rich evidence of his social consciousness. "Annus Mirabilis," a celebration of the tumultuous events of 1666, casts the catastrophic effects of war, plague, and London's Great Fire as a providential gesture, from which the nation would arise, phoenix-like, to greater heights. Other selections in this volume include his great satires "Absalom and Achitophel" and "Mac Flecknoe," along with "Song from Marriage à la Mode," "To the Memory of Mr. Oldham," "A Song for St. Cecilia's Day," "Epigram on Milton," and "Alexander's Feast." Dover original selection of poems from standard texts. New Publisher's Note.
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My Inventions and Other Writing and Lectures
by Nikola Tesla
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This volume presents one of the richest and most comprehensive collections of writings by Nikolai Tesla, a founding figure of the modern electrical power industry and long-time rival of Thomas Edison. Included is Tesla's autobiography, My Inventions, and the lengthy philosophical essay "The Problem of Increasing Human Energy: With Special Reference to the Harnessing of the Sun's Energy," as well as a series of lectures: "A New System of Alternate Current Motors and Transformers," "On Electricity," and more.
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Selected Poems
by Thomas Hardy
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Widely known as the author of such classic novels as The Return of the Native and Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) was also a great poet. His lyricism, subtlety, depth, and variety have earned him a significant place in the ranks of modern English poets. This modestly priced volume contains seventy of Hardy's finest poems, including "The Darkling Thrush," "Hap," "The Ruined Maid," "The Convergence of the Twain," "I Look Into My Glass," "Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave?" and many others. These remarkable poems offer ample evidence of Hardy's intense perception and his peculiar power to express deep emotion. They also reflect his distinctive style, which fuses a reliance on traditional stanza formats and rhyme with a unique diction and imaginative power.
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Selected Poems
by Emily Dickinson
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Over 100 best-known, best-loved poems by one of America's foremost poets, reprinted from authoritative early editions. "The Snake," "Hope," "The Chariot," many more, display unflinching honesty, psychological penetration, and technical adventurousness that have delighted and impressed generations of poetry lovers. No comparable edition at this price. Index of first lines.
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Selected Letters
by Jane Austen
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One of England's most popular novelists, Jane Austen wrote about life amid the gentry of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In her fiction, Austen analyzed and satirized her world, particularly the expectations and duties of women in an unequal society. She was also a prolific correspondent, and her intimate, gossipy letters to family and friends offer unique insights into her life and work.
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Sir Arthur Conan Doyle The Dover Reader
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
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Knighted for his service as a field doctor during the Boer War, Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) is best remembered as the creator of Sherlock Holmes. In addition to his ever-popular tales of the Baker Street sleuth, Conan Doyle wrote many works of history and science fiction, as well as plays, poetry, and stories that reflected his interest in the occult. This anthology offers an excellent selection of tales from throughout the Scottish author's career. Sherlock Holmes's adventures include the novels The Hound of the Baskervilles and A Study in Scarlet, plus the stories "The Final Problem" and "A Scandal in Bohemia." The Lost World introduces the dinosaur-hunting Professor Challenger, and a duo of supernatural thrillers features "The Ring of Thoth" and "The Los Amigos Fiasco."
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She Stoops to Conquer
by Oliver Goldsmith
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Charming satire of the sentimental comedies of the day has entertained audiences since 1773. A young lady poses as a serving girl to win the heart of a young gentleman too shy to court ladies of his own class. Many delightful deceits, hilarious turns of plot must be played out before the play concludes happily. Notes.
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The Poems of Rupert Brooke
by Rupert Brooke
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The poetry of Rupert Brooke (1887-1915) remains memorable for its charming lyrical quality and the way in which his sonnets perfectly recapture the mood of England at the start of World War I. This volume reprints his complete oeuvre, from the early lyric poems to those written shortly before his premature death: "The Old Vicarage, Grantchester," "Tiare Tahiti," "The Great Lover," "The Dead," "The Soldier," and many others.
Brooke enlisted in the Royal Navy at the outbreak of the war in 1914 and entered the literary scene early the following year, when two of his sonnets ("The Dead" and "The Soldier") appeared in London's Times Literary Supplement.
The 27-year-old poet died shortly afterward aboard a ship bound for Gallipoli. His 1914 and Other Poems was published immediately afterward to wide acclaim. Brooke remains among Britain's best-loved cultural figures, and his works evoke the tranquility of prewar life and the ideals of heroic self-sacrifice.
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Great Speeches by Frederick Douglass
by Frederick Douglass
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Author, abolitionist, political activist, and philosopher, Frederick Douglass was a pivotal figure in the decades of struggle leading up to the Civil War and the Reconstruction era. This inexpensive compilation of his speeches adds vital detail to the portrait of a great historical figure.
Featured addresses include "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" which was delivered on July 5, 1852, more than ten years before the Emancipation Proclamation. "Had I the ability, and could reach the nation's ear, I would, today, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke," Douglass assured his listeners, "For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake." Other eloquent and dramatic orations include "Self-Made Men," first delivered in 1859, which defines the principles behind individual success, and "The Church and Prejudice," delivered at the Plymouth County Anti-Slavery Society in 1841.
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Infamous Speeches
From Robespierre to Osama bin Laden
by Bob Blaisdell
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This anthology comprises some of history's most hateful public addresses, consisting of speeches invoking racism, genocide, anti-Semitism, terrorism, and other extreme views. Selections range from an oration by Robespierre during the Reign of Terror that followed the French Revolution to Osama bin Laden's threats related to the terrorist actions of 9/11. Additional speeches include Andrew Jackson's Seventh Annual Message to Congress in 1835, promoting the Indian Removal Act; Jefferson Davis' 1861 announcement of Southern secession; and Joseph R. McCarthy's "Wheeling" speech of 1950, in which the senator claimed knowledge of Communist loyalists within the U. S. government. Other speakers include Hitler, Mussolini, Mao Tse-Tung, and Stalin. Each speech features a brief introduction that places it in historical context.
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Tom Jones
by Henry Fielding
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When Squire Allworthy returns from London to discover a sleeping baby of unknown parentage in his bed, Tom Jones makes its rollicking start toward a picaresque journey across eighteenth-century England. Its foundling hero, having grown to young manhood and developed a passion for the girl next door, finds himself banished from the squire's country estate by the contrivance of a romantic rival. Lusty, good-hearted Tom is thus compelled to seek his fortune far from home and, ultimately, in the company of soldiers, thieves, whores, and other vividly drawn characters.
One of the first and most influential novels, Tom Jones was an instant sensation upon its publication in 1749. Henry Fielding's masterpiece of wit, written in a mock-epic style that parallels Tom's adventures with episodes from classical mythology, offers an exuberant panorama of eighteenth-century life. Beloved for its bawdy humor and adroit social commentary, the novel has been adapted many times for stage and screen and ranks among English literature's greatest comedies.
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Selected Letters of Abigail and John Adams
by John Adams
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"America's first power couple," John and Abigail Adams enjoyed a relationship of mutual respect and affection. Their exchange of more than 1,000 letters - from their 1762 courtship to the end of John's political career in 1801 - covers topics ranging from politics and military strategy to household matters and family health. "An extraordinarily personal view of our country's founding." - The New York Times.
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A John Brown Reader
by John Brown
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This original collection gathers a remarkably diverse body of literature about John Brown, the strident anti-slavery leader. Besides a selection of letters by the abolitionist himself, the book includes a significant excerpt from W. E. B. Du Bois's biography, John Brown, addresses by Frederick Douglass, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau, poetry by Louisa May Alcott and Herman Melville, and much more.
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Selected Poems
by Paul Laurence Dunbar
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Dubbed the "Poet Laureate of the Negro race" by Booker T. Washington, Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) is best known for his lively dialect poems. In addition to his dialect verse, however, Dunbar also wrote fine poems in standard English that captured many elements of the black experience in America. This volume contains a representative cross-section of both types of verse, including "Ode to Ethiopia," "Worn Out," "Not They Who Soar," "When Malindy Sings," "We Wear the Mask," "Little Brown Baby," "Dinah Kneading Dough," "The Haunted Oak," "Black Samson of Brandywine" and many more. A rich amalgam of lyrics encompassing patriotism, a celebration of rural life and homey pleasures, anger at the inequalities accorded his race, and faith in ultimate justice, this collection affords readers an excellent opportunity to enjoy the distinctive voice and poetic technique of one of the most beloved and widely read African-American poets.
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Herman Melville
by Herman Melville
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Despite the early success of his tales of adventure in the South Seas, Herman Melville (1819–1891) suffered a reversal of fortunes with the 1851 publication of Moby-Dick. The great epic, now recognized as a masterpiece, was scorned by an uncomprehending nineteenth-century audience. Melville's preoccupation with metaphysical and philosophical issues and his use of symbols and archetypes foreshadowed elements of latter-day literature, and modern readers rejoice in his groundbreaking explorations of timeless questions. Along with excerpts from Moby-Dick, this anthology presents the complete text of Melville's classic of travel and adventure literature, Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life. Additional features include the short stories "Bartleby the Scrivener," "The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids," and "The Encantadas or Enchanted Isles."
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Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and Other Puritan Sermons
by Jonathan Edwards
Part of the Dover Thrift Editions series
A sermon preached by Jonathan Edwards to his Enfield, Connecticut, congregation in July 1741, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" is particularly noted for its vivid descriptions of the torments of Hell and mankind's natural depravity. At the same time, it was also an appeal to man's need for salvation and a reminder of the agonies that awaited the unreformed. Coming during the height of the Great Awakening--a period of religious fervor in the first half of the eighteenth century--the homily was at once regarded by many as the greatest ever given on American soil and vehemently attacked by others as puritanical "fire and brimstone." One thing seems certain: it made a lasting impact on American Christianity. Accompanying this landmark document are sermons by nine other influential Puritans of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, among them Thomas Shepard's "The Parable of the Ten Virgins," Cotton Mather's "An Hortatory and Necessary Address," John Cotton's "The Way of Life," as well as sermons by John Winthrop, Increase Mather, Jonathan Mayhew, Thomas Hooker, Peter Bulkeley, and Samuel Willard. Enlightening and thought-provoking, the volume will serve as primary source material in many American history and literature courses.
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Zadig and Other Stories
by Voltaire
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Best known as the author of the satirical novel Candide, Voltaire also wrote other highly regarded works of philosophical fiction. With the title tale of this original collection of short stories, the author addresses the social and political problems of his own day in an ancient Babylonian setting. First published in 1747, "Zadig" makes no attempt at historical accuracy. Instead, its thinly veiled references to contemporary issues challenge eighteenth-century religious orthodoxy by portraying life's vicissitudes as the product of destiny rather than individual choices.
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Selected Writings
by Alexander Hamilton
Part of the Dover Thrift Editions series
This concise collection of the Founding Father's public and private writings provides an introduction to his life, personality, political career, and influence on the early history of the United States. Contents include Hamilton's political essays, selections from the Federalist Papers, First Report on the Public Credit and Report on a National Bank, and personal correspondence with his wife, friends, and political colleagues.
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Lady Susan, Sanditon and The Watsons
by Jane Austen
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This volume presents three of Jane Austen's smaller works, treating readers to the author's timeless observations on life and love in nineteenth-century England. In Lady Susan, a beautiful and flirtatious widow seeks an advantageous second marriage for herself while attempting to push her daughter into a dismal match. Through a series of crafty maneuvers, Susan pursues her schemes by filling her calendar with invitations for extended visits with unsuspecting relatives and acquaintances. Characters are revealed and suspense builds as the plot unfolds through a series of letters.
The beloved author also left behind two tantalizing unfinished novels. The Watsons takes place in a familiar domestic milieu, in which a spirited heroine finds her marriage opportunities narrowed by poverty and pride. Sanditon ventures into new territory amid hypochondriacs and speculators at a seaside resort. More than literary curiosities, these stories are worthy of reading for pleasure as well as for study.
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The Most Dangerous Game and Other Stories of Adventure
by Richard Connell
Part of the Dover Thrift Editions series
Readers seeking exotic locales and nonstop pulse-pounding thrills will love this collection of six classic adventure stories, beginning with The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell, one of the best-known short stories, about a hunt designed for very specific prey. Other timeless tales include To Build a Fire by Jack London, The Caballero's Way by O. Henry, The Seed from the Sepulchre by Clark Ashton Smith, Alone in Shark Waters by John Kruse, and The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling.
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Female Abolitionists
by Various Authors
Part of the Dover Thrift Editions series
A Dover Original, this collection of essays, letters, poems, and speeches by the bold women who joined the abolitionist movement of the nineteenth century will educate and inspire all who are interested in this era of American history. The collection includes the work of 26 remarkable women whose efforts, at great risk to their own safety, became instrumental in fighting slavery, including Phillis Wheatley, Sojourner Truth, Mary Prince, Sarah Mapps Douglass, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lydia Maria Child, Harriet Tubman, Angelina and Sarah Grimké, and more.
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Saint Joan
A Chronicle Play in Six Scenes and an Epilogue
by George Bernard Shaw
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Hailed by T. S. Eliot as "a dramatic delight," George Bernard Shaw's only tragedy traces the life of the peasant girl who led French troops to victory over the English in the Hundred Years' War. An avid socialist, Shaw regarded his writing as a vehicle for promoting his political and humanitarian views and exposing hypocrisy. With Saint Joan, he reached the height of his fame, and it was this play that led to his Nobel Prize in Literature for 1925.
In the six centuries since her martyrdom, Joan of Arc has inspired artists, musicians, and writers. Shaw's heroine is unlike any previous interpretation - not a witch, saint, or madwoman but a pre-feminist icon, possessed of innate intelligence and leadership qualities that challenge the authority of church and state. She is also a real human being, warm and sincere, whose flaws include an obstinacy that leads to her undoing. This edition includes a substantial, informative Preface by the author.
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Suspiria de Profundis
by Thomas De Quincey
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A legal and readily available painkiller in the nineteenth century, laudanum was a source of both pleasure and pain for author Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859). After achieving overnight success with Confessions of an English Opium Eater, an impassioned account of his struggles with addiction, the author wrote the hypnotic prose poems of Suspiria de Profundis ("Sighs from the Depths"). Like Confessions, these short essays combined drug-induced visions with thought-provoking reflections on the nature of dreams, memory, and imagination.
With these books, De Quincey inaugurated the genre of addiction literature, a tradition furthered by Charles Baudelaire, William S. Burroughs, and a growing number of modern writers. Suspiria de Profundis continues to influence contemporary artists with the best known of its psychological fantasies, "Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow," which centers on myths related to the Roman goddess of childbirth and was the source for the classic 1977 horror film Suspiria and its 2018 remake.