The Floating Press: 2252 books

Considered by critics to be one of the best tragedies of the English Renaissance, The Changeling was written by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley and first published in book form in 1653. Beatrice-Joanna is betrothed to Alonzo but in love with Alsemero. She convinces De Flores, who is in love with...

Samuel Taylor Coleridge said of Ben Jonson's The Alchemist that it had one out of the three most perfect plots in literature. This play, with its sharp portrayal of human folly, is considered by many to be Jonson's best comedy. First performed 1610, its popularity has endured to this day.

A collection of US inauguration speeches from Washington to Obama. At the beginning of a term each new President of the United States delivers their inauguration speech to the nation. Here in one volume are collected together the inauguration speeches of all of America's leaders. From George Washington's...

American essayist, philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882) lead Transcendentalism in the early nineteenth century and greatly influenced the later New Thought movement. Summing up his work, Emerson said that his primary principle was "the infinitude of the private man", and advised to...

On the Decay of the Art of Lying is a short essay by Mark Twain from 1885. In it he deplores that way man's "most faithful friend" is being used and indeed misused, declaring that "the wise thing is for us diligently to train ourselves to lie thoughtfully, judiciously; to lie with a good object,...

Famed Scottish theological writer and lecturer Henry Drummond helped spread the Evangelical movement in Europe. This volume collects many of Drummond's most beloved lectures and sermons -- a perfect on-the-go read for believers looking for inspiration.

Today, readers revere Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as a master of the detective fiction genre. However, he had a life-long interest in the occult and the supernatural which long predated his creation of Sherlock Holmes, and many of his fiction and non-fiction works deal with these topics. In The Parasite,...

Three Men in a Boat was meant to be a serious travel guide to the Thames, between Kingston and Oxford. Instead, it is one of the wittiest, funniest fictional jaunts down a river ever written. The three men are based on author Jerome and two of his friends. The dog "developed out of that area of inner consciousness which, in all Englishmen, contains an element of the dog."

Edward Lear (1812 - 1888) was an English writer of nonsense, the most famous piece of which is The Owl and the Pussycat. He is also credited with popularizing the limerick, though there was some speculation as to whether his patron, the Earl of Derby, simply used Lear as a pseudonym for his own writings....

Sonnets from the Portuguese is the collection of love poems written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning in the time leading up to her marriage to Robert Browning. Elizabeth hesitated in publishing the poems, as they were so personally revealing, but her husband persuaded her of their high worth. She decided...

Get a fascinating glimpse into the creative process with this inquiry into what makes artists "tick." The Mind of the Artist, by famed British poet, critic, and art scholar Laurence Binyon, presents a series of interview excerpts, quotes, and sayings from a broad cross-section of well-known sculptors...

This early travelogue gives readers a fascinating glimpse into European life and customs in the Renaissance and early modern periods. The book recounts author Albrecht Durer's travels in and observations of Italy and the Netherlands on the cusp of the sixteenth century.

The Kama Sutra is the famous historical Indian text on love-making. In prose and verse it discusses the building blocks of a good life, good marital conduct and the attainment of a lover. The largest part of the text is devoted to sexual practices, including foreplay, positions and technique.

Decades before books like The Secret hit the scene, a similar philosophy took hold in some circles of American and European thinkers and intellectuals. Known as Science of Mind, proponents of this school of thought set forth many of the same principles that some of today's most popular self-help gurus...