Glittering essays by the Renaissance master of the form, exploring contradictions in human thoughts and actions.
One of the most famous Canterbury Tales casts a satirical eye over and marriage in the Medieval Age.
Dark, nightmarish sea stories and poems inspired by Melville's adventures around the world's oceans in a whaler
Two rollicking tales of scoundrels and ne'er-do-wells from the Sketches by Boz that launched Dicken's career
The great nineteenth-century German thinker's musings on self-deceit, superstition, art and ambition
Dreamlike, poignant verse on passion, torment and resplendent landscapes from one of the first Romantic poets
Bawdy tales of pimps, cuckolds, lovers and clever women from the fourteenth-century Florentine masterpiece The Decameron
Enduring myths of vengeful gods and tragically flawed mortals from ancient Rome's great poet.
Vanity and creeping loneliness permeate these three short stories by the modern master of the form
Ancient Greek myths from The Odyssey telling of battles with deadly beasts and a beautiful enchantress