"Originally published in 1971, Merle Miller On Being Different is a pioneering and thought-provoking book about being gay in America. Just two years after the Stonewall riots, Miller wrote an essay for the New York Times Magazine entitled 'What It Means To Be a Homosexual, ' in response to a homophobic article [published] in Harper Magazine. Miller's writing, described as 'the most widely read and discussed essay of the decade, ' along with an afterord...

Widely referred to as the "Father of History", Greek Historian Herodotus lived during the 5th century BC and "The Histories" is generally accepted as the first work of historical literature in Western Civilization. Departing from the ancient Homeric tradition of treating historical subjects as epically romantic figures, Herodotus instead approached his subjects with a systematic method of investigation. "The Histories" of Herodotus describe the important...

Marco Polo’s account of his journey throughout the East in the thirteenth century was one of the earliest European travel narratives, and it remains the most important. The merchant-traveler from Venice, the first to cross the entire continent of Asia, provided us with accurate descriptions of life in China, Tibet, India, and a hundred other lands, and recorded customs, natural history, strange sights, historical legends, and much more. From...

Little Nell Trent lives in the quiet gloom of the old curiosity shop with her ailing grandfather, for whom she cares with selfless devotion. But when they are unable to pay their debts to the stunted, lecherous and demonic money-lender Daniel Quilp, the shop is seized and they are forced to flee, thrown into a shadowy world in which there seems to be no safe haven. Dickens's portrayal of the innocent, tragic Nell made The Old Curiosity Shop an instant...

Julien Sorel, the handsome, ambitious son of a country carpenter in nineteenth-century France, understands that the only way to insinuate himself into Parisian society is through hypocrisy--a skill at which he excels until scandal brings his social climbing to a tragic end.

The Fountainhead is an unprecedented phenomenon in modern literature. Arguably the century's most challenging novel of ideas, The Fountainhead is the story of a gifted young architect, his violent battle with conventional standards, and his explosive love affair with the beautiful woman who struggles to defeat him. In his fight for success, he first discovers, then rejects, the seductive power of fame and money, finding that in the end, creative genius...

The classic account of moving from slavery to freedom, by the celebrated African-American educator and university founder. Booker T. Washington believed that every man and woman deserved a chance, regardless of their skin color. This classic work of literature, originally published in 1901, relays the story of a man born into slavery who, once freed, pursued education and racial equality. This new edition of Booker T. Washington's autobiography features...

Father Brown is an eccentric priest with his own particular way of dealing with crime. With his cherubic face and unworldly simplicity, his glasses and huge umbrella, Father Brown is one of the most unforgettable characters in literature.The Complete Father Brown Stories brings together all the stories featuring G. K. Chesterton's amateur sleuth--plus two additional cases, "The Donnington Affair" and "The Mask of Midas," that were discovered in Chesterton's...

Lawrence traces a circuitous journey through three generations--alternating voices of three generations of Brangwen women--from the Polish widow to her Brangwen husband, her daughter to another Brangwen, and eventually the "heiress" of Brangwen memories, Ursula. A novel about a journey towards the understanding of love.