A lonely old man in early nineteenth-century London hits upon the idea of inviting acquaintances over to read their manuscripts together. The friends gather one night a week between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., and with the formation of their fictional literary club, Charles Dickens launched Master Humphrey's Clock, a weekly periodical that he published from 1840 to 1841. Recounted with the author's customary flair for humor and pathos, the tales range from...

Ideal for classroom use, this anthology also provides a valuable tool for preparing or performing public speeches. Twenty of the world's most influential and stirring public lectures include Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, and Patrick Henry's "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!" oration. Additional speeches include Pericles' fifth-century BC funeral oration, George Washington's 1784 resignation speech, Martin...

"Born a free man in New York State in 1808, Solomon Northup was kidnapped in Washington, D.C., in 1841. He spent the next twelve harrowing years of his life as a slave on a Louisiana cotton plantation. During this time he was frequently abused and often afraid for his life. After regaining his freedom in 1853, Northup decided to publish this gripping autobiographical account of his captivity. As an educated man, Northup was able to present an exceptionally...

Transcribed from the original Mayan hieroglyphs, the Popol Vuh relates the mythology and history of the Kiché people of the Guatemalan Highlands of Central America. As is often the case with ancient texts, the Popol Vuh's significance lies in the scarcity of early accounts of Mesoamerican cultures, largely due to the purging of documents by the Spanish conquistadors. Today there remains no document of greater importance to the study of pre-Columbian...

The King of Elfland's Daughter (1924). Having established himself as a bestselling author of short fiction, Dunsany published The King of Elfland's Daughter, his second novel. Recognized as a pioneering author of fantasy and science fiction, Dunsany is a man whose work, in the words of H. P. Lovecraft, remains "unexcelled in the sorcery of crystalline singing prose, and supreme in the creation of a gorgeous and languorous world of incandescently exotic...