The Floating Press: 2252 books

Set against the backdrop of the Peninsular War, Balzac's novella "Juana" focuses on a storied family of French courtesans who have achieved legendary status. For many generations, the women have lived outside of the bounds of polite society, eschewing the familial involvement of men and maintaining a matrilineal tradition. But with the birth of a little girl named Juana, everything changes.

Today, French writer Honore de Balzac is best remembered for The Human Comedy, a sprawling story cycle in which he attempted -- and some would argue, succeeded -- to capture the ebb and flow of everyday life in nineteenth-century Europe. But Balzac was an intrepid literary experimenter, and his prolific...

In this entrancing collection, author Grace James brings together an array of Japanese folk tales and fairy tales, all rendered in exquisitely lyrical language. If you're fascinated by the folk traditions of different world cultures, be sure to add The Moon Maiden to your list.

Seventeenth-century English poet Robert Herrick made his own unique mark in the genre of lyric poetry by returning to the themes and styles of long-past eras. This wide-ranging collection encompasses his finest work, including the poem "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time," which includes the famous first line, "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may."

Recognized as one of the most prominent statesmen of the twentieth century, Winston Churchill was also an important political thinker whose views helped shape the course of the Western world. In this volume of collected speeches, Churchill describes the emergence of liberalism and lays out a succinct and compellng case against it.

In this charming series of children's tales from Laura Lee Hope, the toys who live in a toy store gather together for fun and shenanigans at night after the customers and store clerks have all gone home. One night, the toys plan an exciting race -- but their fun comes to a sudden end when a mishap stops the contest.

As an early pioneer in the now-well-established genre of creative nonfiction, author Anne Manning used the known facts of the lives of historical personages as the canvas upon which she created a compelling narrative. In these two works, Manning brings to life the remarkable existences first of Mary...

Irish-American playwright Eugene O'Neill is credited with altering the trajectory of American drama in the early twentieth century by focusing on the lives of working-class people and using language that more closely echoed everyday vernacular. The Straw is an account of a man who falls in love while in quarantine, being treated for tuberculosis.

This engaging and good-humored collection of essays brings together an array of early twentieth-century literary luminaries to comment on the concepts of censorship and prohibition in general, and more specifically, on the ban of alcohol sales in the United States during the period. Chock-full of penetrating...

Russian-born Helena Blavatsky was a fascinating figure who is best remembered as the creator of the spiritual tradition known as Theosophy. She undertook (and successfully completed) the ambitious task of synthesizing the whole of the world's religious traditions and distilling the timeless wisdom contained...

Autosuggestion is a type of therapy that calls on techniques such as hypnotism. Subjects use autosuggestion on themselves with the aim of curing bad habits, inculcating positive ones, boosting willpower, and even assuaging the symptoms of physical health problems. This practical treatise represents one...

The principles of economics may not seem like the most likely topic for a volume of poetry, but English writer Harry Graham pulls this feat off with aplomb in the collection of light verse, Fiscal Ballads. Assuming the voices of a number of residents of a rural village, Graham humorously illustrates concepts such as taxation, supply and demand, and financial risk.

Lost phone numbers, missed appointments, forgotten birthdays, blown deadlines -- how much of the stress in your life can be traced back to faulty memory? In The Trained Memory, famed mentalist Warren Hilton shows readers how to sharpen their focus, cognitive processes, and power of recall with a series of straightforward, simple memory exercises.

Fans of Jane Austen's work will love this gripping novel from Eliza Fenwick, an early feminist thinker who was friends with Mary Shelley and several other important writers of the era. Secresy follows the unusual friendship between Caroline Ashburn and Sibella Valmont, both of whom have been negatively impacted by the constraints society places on women.