A financial thriller based on the Panic of 1907 by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Jungle In 1907 the stock market crashed as a result of the manipulations of a group of powerful, wealthy, and unscrupulous men. The repercussions were felt across the nation, taking a devastating toll on thousands of small investors and hardworking Americans. The Moneychangers, written a century before the term "too big to fail" became part of the national...

In the classical tale "The Satyricon", Petronius Arbiter makes a strong, yet humorous, statement about the social life of ancient Rome. Rather than telling the story of Encolpius and his companions heroically, which was the typical approach of other writings of classical antiquity, Petronius chose to show the true life and vernacular of the Roman lower and middle class through satire and comedy. Narrator Encolpius, a former gladiator, goes on adventures...

One of Dostoyevsky's most famous novels, this 1872 work utilizes five main characters and their philosophical ideas to describe the political chaos of Imperial Russia in the nineteenth century. Based on an actual event involving the murder of a revolutionary by his comrades, this novel depicts a band of ruthless radicals attempting to incite revolt in their small, rural community. At the center of "Demons" lies Dostoyevsky's desire to protest the...

This autobiographical novel, published in 1911, follows the relationship of Thyrsis, a writer struggling to reconcile his literary aspirations with commercial success, and Corydon, his tempestuous love interest. Written with a frankness that shocked reviewers of the day, Love's Pilgrimage is a provocative chronicle of the embattled and ultimately doomed relationship that the author shared with his first wife.

Gilbert Pinfold is a reclusive Catholic novelist suffering from acute inertia. In an attempt to defeat insomnia he has been imbibing an unappetizing cocktail of bromide, chloral, and creme de menthe. He books a passage on the SS Caliban and, as it cruises towards Ceylon, rapidly slips into madness. Almost as soon as the gangplank lifts, Pinfold hears sounds coming out of the ceiling of his cabin: wild jazz bands, barking dogs, and loud revival meetings....

The Satirical and Bitter Side of Mark Twain. "Man is made of dirt, I saw him made. I am not made of dirt. Man is a museum of diseases, a home of impurities, he comes today and is gone tomorrow, he begins as dirt and departs as stench. I am of the aristocracy of the Imperishables. And man has the Moral Sense. You understand? He has the Moral Sense. That would seem to be difference enough between us, all by itself." The Mysterious Stranger and Other...

"Written deliberately to increase the circulation of Dickens's weekly magazine, Household Words, Hard Times was a huge and instantaneous success upon publication in 1854. Yet this novel is not the cheerful celebration of Victorian life one might have expected from the beloved author of The Pickwick Papers and The Old Curiosity Shop. Compressed, stark, allegorical, it is a bitter exposé of capitalist exploitation during the industrial revolution-and...

"Although loneliness is a quality that we all must endure (sometimes even while we are with someone), in every instance of it that I can think of, there is always an intervening event that rips you up in the end, apprehensively targets the tedium at first and crescendoes into an aggressive stranglehold of the heart. And I'll willfully let that happen again, but it's unpredictable when it will occur." Aiming to find the man that no longer resides...

A successful Italian doctor's idyllic life is shattered by shameful accusations in a novel by the Campiello Prize-winning author of The Worst Intentions. In a sprawling villa on the outskirts of Rome, the internationally revered pediatric oncologist Leo Pontecorvo and his family have gathered for dinner. For these exemplary members of Italy's upper middle-class, the scene is perfect in every way-until a horrifying accusation airs on the evening news...

Unwillingness to work when there is nothing in it for them is common to Filipinos and Americans, for Thomas Jefferson admitted that extravagance and indolence were the chief faults of his countrymen. Laborsaving machinery has made the fruits of Americans' labors in their land of abundance afford a luxury in living not elsewhere existing. But, the Filipino, in his rich and not over-populated home, shutting out, as we do, oriental cheap labor, may employ...