Introduces young readers to the fascinating and exciting world of Greek mythology. "The Iliad" tells of the long, long siege of Troy which ends when the Greeks win the war using a wooden horse. Odysseus is one of the Greek warriors and "The Odyssey" describes his amazing adventures on his voyage home from the Trojan War.

Gibbon's masterpiece, which narrates the history of the Roman Empire from the second century A.D. to its collapse in the west in the fifth century and in the east in the fifteenth century, is widely considered the greatest work of history ever written. This abridgment retains the scope of the original, but in a compass equivalent to a long novel. Casual readers now have access to the full sweep of Gibbon's narrative, while instructors and students...

First published in 1776, The Wealth of Nations is the foundation of modern economic thought and remains the single most important account of the rise of, and the principles behind, modern capitalism.

An elaborate parody written by the French Renaissance humanist, writer, Greek scholar, and physician Francois Rabelais, "Gargantua and Pantagruel" is a comic blend of energetic realism and carnival fantasy. First published in1532, "Gargantua and Pantagruel" relates the fantastical tales of its titular characters, Gargantua, a giant who becomes a sophisticated and cultured Christian knight, and his son Pantagruel, also a giant, who grows into a learned...

First published in 1871 and considered his other great book alongside "The Origin of Species," Darwin's "The Descent of Man" is a work that continues the scientist's theories on evolution. Divided into three parts, this book's purpose, as given in the introduction, is to consider whether or not man is descended from a pre-existing form, his manner of development, and the value of the differences between human races. Darwin goes on to systematically...

aA masterpiece of storytelling, this epic saga pits Ahab, a brooding and fanatical sea captain, against the great white whale that crippled him. In telling the tale of Ahab's passion for revenge and the fateful voyage that ensued, Melville produced far more than the narrative of a hair-raising journey; Moby-Dick is a tale for the ages that sounds the deepest depths of the human soul. Interspersed with graphic sketches of life aboard a whaling vessel,...

Of the complex, richly rewarding masterworks he wrote in the last decade of his life, Little Dorrit is the book in which Charles Dickens most fully unleashed his indignation at the fallen state of mid-Victorian society. Crammed with persons and incidents in whose recreation nothing is accidental or spurious, containing, in its picture of the Circumlocution Office, the most witheringly exact satire of a bureaucracy we possess, Little Dorrit is a stunning...

Need to seize a country? Have enemies you must destroy? In this handbook for despots and tyrants, the Renaissance statesman Machiavelli sets forth how to accomplish this and more, while avoiding the awkwardness of becoming generally hated and despised. "Men ought either to be well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot; therefore the injury that is to be done to a man ought to be...

A continuation of the gradual collapse of the Roman rule looking East, to the weakness of the Byzantine state, the spread of Islam, and the crusades.