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Marie L. McLaughlin delivers a memorable selection of Native American stories infused with folklore and oral traditions passed on from one generation to the next. This book features vivid stories with larger-than-life characters and unforgettable adventures.
Myths and Legends of the Sioux is a collection of vast stories rooted in indigenous culture. The tales are striking and memorable, featuring both human and animal protagonists. In one story,...
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In 1905, after suffering a relapse and spending a few months at The Hartford Retreat, Clifford Whittingham Beers elected to write a book about his experiences living with mental illness and being subject to cruel treatment and physical abuse while being institutionalized.
Titled, A Mind That Found Itself, the 1908 autobiography told the story of a young man who had suffered a life full of personal tragedy, leading to feelings of intense anxiety, paranoia...
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Wrestling with the disease of alcoholism for most of his life, Jack London tells all in his autobiography John Barleycorn. Beginning with a discussion of the prohibition movement and its effects, London explores the ways that alcohol affects daily life in the Victorian era. Because there were not many forms of affordable entertainment or reliable communication, bars were the perfect spot for social activity. People were able to sit and drink, enjoying...
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The Waste Land is a long poem by T. S. Eliot. It is widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central text in Modernist poetry. Published in 1922, the 434-line poem first appeared in the United Kingdom in the October issue of The Criterion and in the United States in the November issue of The Dial. It was published in book form in December 1922. Among its famous phrases are "April is the cruelest month", "I will...
5) Passing
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Clare Kendry, a beautiful light-skinned African American woman married to a white man who is unaware of her heritage, long ago cut all ties to her past, but a reunion with a childhood friend forces her to confront her lies.
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In 1872, Isabella Bird, daughter of a clergyman, set off alone to the Antipodes and found she had embarked on a life of adventurous travel. In 1873, wearing Hawaiian riding dress, she rode her horse through the American Wild West, a terrain only newly opened to pioneer settlement. The letters that make up this volume were first published in 1879. They tell of magnificent, unspoiled landscapes and abundant wildlife, of encounters with rattlesnakes,...
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The Devil's Dictionary (1906) is a work of satire by Ambrose Bierce. Although he is commonly remembered for his chilling short stories on the experiences of Civil War soldiers, Bierce was recognized in his day as a leading journalist and humorist who spent decades ruffling feathers and drawing laughter with his witty opinion columns, poems, and definitions. Toward the end of his career, he decided to compile these satirical definitions into a book,...
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The lives and changing fortunes of three generations of a once-powerful and socially prominent family are chronicled in this vivid tale of the corrupting influence of greed and materialism. As the rapidly turning wheels of industry and commerce overtake old ways in th eearly twentieth century and change the definitions of ambition, success, and loyalty, the prominence and prestige of the Amberson family irreversibly changes as well.
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Troilus and Criseyde (c.1385) is an epic poem written by English poet Geoffrey Chaucer. Composed in Middle English, Troilus and Criseyde is the story of two lovers forced apart by the Greek siege of Troy. Often considered Chaucer's finest work for its structural consistency and completeness, the poem adapts Homer's Iliad and other ancient sources which expand on its tradition to tell a Christian moral tale about the importance of faith and the sacred...
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Tremendous Trifles is comprised of 39 chapters, each functioning as their own essay or story. With whimsical, light-hearted prose, vivid figurative language, and unparalleled insight, Chesterton covers a variety of philosophical principles of everyday life. Chesterton often used ordinary events and objects to explain deeper matters. Using relatable and accessible examples, Tremendous Trifles also test biases and preconceived ideas, specifically in...
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A poet lives for more than three centuries, becomes a woman, and ages only twenty years in this classic fantastical work by the author of Mrs. Dalloway.
Orlando begins their story as a melancholy sixteen-year-old nobleman and poet who spends their days in the court of Queen Elizabeth I, who takes a shine to them. Love, passion, and heartbreak guide Orlando's life through two more kings. In their thirties, Orlando becomes an ambassador to Turkey...
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Presents Mark Twain's authentic and unsuppressed voice, brimming with humor, ideas, and opinions, and speaking clearly from the grave as he intended.
"I've struck it!" Mark Twain wrote in a 1904 letter to a friend. "And I will give it away to you. You will never know how much enjoyment you have lost until you get to dictating your autobiography." Thus, after dozens of false starts and hundreds of pages, Twain embarked on his "Final (and Right) Plan"...
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American Indian Stories (1921) is a collection of stories and essays from Yankton Dakota writer Zitkála-Šá. Published while Zitkála-Šá was at the height of her career as an artist and activist, American Indian Stories collects the author's personal experiences, the legends and stories passed down through Sioux oral tradition, and her own reflections on the mistreatment of American Indians nationwide.
In "My Mother," Zitkála-Šá remembers...
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The Defeat of Youth and Other Poems (1918) is a collection of poems by English author Aldous Huxley. Although Huxley is known foremost as a novelist, his poetry exhibits a mastery of language and an uncommon sense of the music inherent to words. The Defeat of Youth and Other Poems is his third poetry collection.
"The Defeat of Youth" is a moving sonnet sequence on the passage of innocence to experience, on familiar transformation of love into lust....
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With satire, adventure, and imagination, Phantasmagoria and Other Poems explores subjects such as the supernatural, love, friendship, and nature. Featuring sixteen of Lewis Carroll's poems, Phantasmagoria and Other Poems has something to appeal to everyone. Among this collection is A Sea Dirge, in which the speaker, equipped with evocative figurative language, explains their contempt for the sea. In Echoes, a young girl discloses her encounter with...
17) Gitanjali
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When W.B. Yeats discovered Rabindranath Tagore's work in translation, he felt an intense kinship with a man, whose work was similarly grounded in spirituality and opposition to the British Empire. For the Irish poet, Tagore's poems were at once deeply personal and essentially universal, like a secret kept by all and shared regardless: "I have carried the manuscript of these translations about with me for days, reading it in railway trains, or on the...
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Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773) is the first book of poetry published by an African American author. Written while Wheatley was a slave in Boston, the collection was published in England. Regarded for her mastery of classical poetic form, Phillis Wheatley earned praise from Voltaire and George Washington. Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral has long been the subject of scholarly work on the history of African American...
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This vintage book contains a collection of forty-nine essays written by Gilbert Keith Chesterton that deal with the various societal problems of his day. A fascinating and arguably timeless social inquiry, "What's Wrong with the World?" tackles such subjects as role of women in society, education, socialism, capitalism, the family unit, and much more. This volume is highly recommended for those with an interest in early-twentieth century English society...
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The People of the Abyss (1903) is a work of nonfiction by American writer Jack London. Written after the author spent three months living in London's poverty-stricken East End, The People of the Abyss bears witness to the difficulties faced by hundreds and thousands of people every day in one of the wealthiest nations on earth. Inspired by Friedrich Engels's The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845) and Jacob Riis's How the Other Half Lives,...