"In a warlike land of wind and sunlight, "ringed by a restless sea," live Rhaskos and Melisto, spiritual twins with little in common beyond the violent and mysterious forces that dictate their lives. A Thracian slave in a Greek household, Rhaskos is as common as clay, a stable boy worth less than a donkey, much less a horse. Wrenched from his mother at a tender age, he nurtures in secret, aided by Socrates, his passions for art and philosophy. Melisto...

In 1969 twelve-year-old Mimi and her family move to an all-white town in Vermont, where Mimi's mixed-race background and interest in "boyish" topics like astronomy make her feel like an outsider.

Excerpt: "Quixotic is his enterprise and hopeless his adventure is, who seeks for jocularities that haven't yet been said, The world has joked incessantly for over fifty centuries, And every joke that's possible has long ago been made. I started as a humourist with lots of mental fizziness, But humour is a drug which it's the fashion to abuse, For my stock-in-trade, my fixtures and the good-will of the business No reasonable offer I am likely to refuse....

A biographical novel tells the story of Cassius Clay, the determined boy who would one day become Muhammad Ali, one of the greatest boxers of all time.

Cuba has fought three wars for independence, and still she is not free. This history in verse creates a lyrical portrait of Cuba

"The Works of Edgar Allan Poe" is a captivating five-book series that immerses readers in the dark, intricate world of one of America's most iconic writers. This collection showcases Poe's mastery across various literary forms, from eerie short stories like "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Fall of the House of Usher" to his haunting poetry, including the renowned "The Raven." Poe's works delve into themes of the macabre, the mysterious, and the...

In the fourteenth century Geoffrey Chaucer, who served three kings as a customs official and special envoy, virtually invented English poetry. He did so by wedding the language of common speech to metrical verse, creating a medium that could accommodate tales of courtly romance, bawdy fabliaux, astute psychological portraiture, dramatic monologues, moral allegories, and its author’s astonishing learning in fields from philosophy to medicine...

Purgatorio, by Dante Alighieri, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics: • New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars • Biographies of the authors • Chronologies of contemporary...

    How can there be
    a little war?
    Are some deaths
    smaller than others,
    leaving mothers
    who weep
    a little less?
Cuba has fought three wars for independence, and still she is not free. Her people have been rounded up in reconcentration camps, where there is always...

Beowulf is one of the most universally studied of the English classics, and considered to be the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The title character is a warrior with superhuman strength who honors his king by performing glorious deeds, the first of which is to rescue the royal house of Denmark from two violent monsters. After killing them, he returns triumphantly and rules his people wisely as their King...