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De Profundis is a letter written by Oscar Wilde during his imprisonment. In the letter Wilde considers events leading to his conviction and discusses his spiritual development in prison and identification with Jesus Christ, whom he characterises as a romantic, individualist artist.

The Ballad of Reading Gaol was written in exile in France. The poem narrates the execution of Wooldridge; it moves from an objective story-telling to symbolic identification with the prisoners as a whole, highlighting the brutalisation of the punishment that all convicts share.

Rapunzel is one of the fifty three European fairy tales featured in this volume of Grim’s tales. The tale’s best known line: ‘Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your golden hair’ is now an idiom of popular culture.

At the beginning a misconception must be removed from the path. Many people, if not most, look on literary taste as an elegant accomplishment, by acquiring which they will complete themselves, and make themselves finally fit as members of a correct society. They are secretly ashamed of their ignorance...

Diary of a Madman is one of Gogol's greatest stories. The tale follows the life of a minor civil servant during the repressive era of Nicholas I. Following the format of a diary, the story shows the descent of the protagonist, Poprishchin, into insanity. Diary of a Madman, the only one of Gogol's works...

Mrs. Dalloway introduced them, saying you will like him. The conversation began some minutes before anything was said, for both Mr. Serle and Miss Arming looked at the sky and in both of their minds the sky went on pouring its meaning though very differently, until the presence of Mr. Serle by her side...

It was Cicero's custom in the opportunities of his leisure to take some friends with him into the country, where, instead of amusing themselves with idle sports or feasts, their diversions were wholly speculative, tending to improve the mind and enlarge the understanding. In this manner he now spent...

Strepsiades complains to the audience that he is too worried about household debts to get any sleep – his aristocratic wife has encouraged their son's expensive interest in horses. Strepsiades, having thought up a plan to get out of debt, wakes the youth gently and pleads with him to do something...

Often the hearts of men and women are stirred, as likewise they are soothed in their sorrows more by example than by words. And therefore, because I too I have known some consolation from speech had with one who was a witness thereof, am I now minded to write of the sufferings which have sprung out of...

For Epicurus, the purpose of philosophy was to attain the happy, tranquil life, characterized by peace and freedom from fear, the absence of pain, and by living a self-sufficient life surrounded by friends. He taught that pleasure and pain are the measures of what is good and evil; death is the end of...

Micromegas, an inhabitant of one of the planets that orbits Sirius. His home world is 21.6 million times greater in circumference than the Earth. Micromegas stands 23 miles tall. When he is almost 450 years old, approaching the end of his infancy, Micromegas writes a scientific book examining the insects on his planet, which at 30 m are too small to be detected by ordinary microscopes.

Though carefully educated in medicine and surgery, I have never practised either. The study of each continues, nevertheless, to interest me profoundly. Neither idleness nor caprice caused my secession from the honourable calling which I had just entered. The cause was a very trifling scratch inflicted...

Some of the happiest memories of childhood often come from memorable magical tales. Rediscover this magic with this collection of fairy tales and stories. This volume includes Little Red Riding-Hood, The Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault, The Looking Glass, Her Husband by Anton Chekhov, The Gift of The Magi by O. Henry.

The Laws are discussed by three representatives of Athens, Crete, and Sparta. The Athenian, as might be expected, is the protagonist or chief speaker, while the second place is assigned to the Cretan, who, as one of the leaders of a new colony, has a special interest in the conversation. At least four-fifths...