The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar (2003) is a historical fiction novel detailing the fate of the Romanovs by Robert Alexander (a pen name for Robert Zimmerman). Although Alexander is American, he spent decades in Russia. He attended Leningrad State University and, afterward, ran various businesses in St. Petersburg. As such, he has personal experience with Russian culture. He wrote several historical fiction novels that take place during the Russian Revolution—including Rasputin’s... Read The Kitchen Boy Summary

The Lais of Marie de France is a collection of 12 romantic narratives—known as Breton Lais—composed in the late 12th century and credited to the French-English poet Marie de France. The lay or lai is a short tale of octosyllabic rhyming couplets which is generally 600–1000 lines long. It can be accompanied by music and is typical of Brittany, a Northern French region with strong Celtic influences. Themes of love, chivalry and the supernatural are... Read The Lais of Marie de France Summary

The Last Days of Socrates by Plato is a collection of four texts—Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, and Phaedo—about the trial and execution of Socrates. (Alternate titles for collection include The Trial and Death of Socrates.) These texts, believed to have been composed between 399 and 395 BCE, are considered founding works of Western philosophy that investigate piety, justice, and the immortality of the soul via Socrates’s defense speeches at his trial and his conversations with his... Read The Last Days of Socrates Summary

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The Letters of Abelard and Heloise tells the story of two 12th-century French scholars and lovers. The tragic ending of their love affair leads both to take religious vows, one entering a convent and the other, a monastery. Nearly a decade after their separation, the two reconnect and begin to correspond through letters. Their letters reveal that Abelard has found peace as a monk, even though he is constantly embroiled in charges of heresy on... Read The Letters Of Abelard And Heloise Summary

James Boswell’s The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) is often considered to be one of the finest pieces of biographical writing in the English language. Samuel Johnson was an English poet, essayist, and lexicographer who produced a pioneering and influential Dictionary of the English Language. However, he is less well-known today for his writings than as the biographical subject for Boswell, a lawyer from Scotland who first met Johnson in 1763. During their 21-year friendship... Read The Life of Samuel Johnson Summary

The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination, co-authored by Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, is a nonfiction scholarly text comprising 16 interconnected essays. Published in 1979, this lengthy volume is now widely considered a foundational text of feminist literary criticism. A second edition appeared in 2000 accompanied by a new Introduction by the authors that offers readers insight into Gilbert and Gubar’s decision to focus the work on... Read The Madwoman in the Attic Summary

The Magic Lantern is a 1989 work of narrative nonfiction by British historian Timothy Garton Ash. Garton Ash is a specialist in European studies with extensive experience writing about the history of Eastern Europe. The Magic Lantern is his third book on the region and followed several years of writing and reporting on Eastern European culture and politics under communism. He is currently Professor of European Studies in the University of Oxford, Isaiah Berlin Professorial... Read The Magic Lantern Summary

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The year is 1327. William of Baskerville, a Franciscan friar, and Adso of Melk, a young novice travelling under his protection, arrive at a wealthy Benedictine abbey somewhere in Italy on an important secret mission. A group of Franciscans has come under fire from Pope John XXII, who suspects them of heresy. The Holy Roman Emperor, Louis IV, has aligned himself with the Franciscans, and the abbey has been chosen as a neutral location for... Read The Name of the Rose Summary

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The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America (First Mariners Books edition 2017) by Andrés Reséndez, a Mexican historian working at the University of California Davis, won the 2017 Bancroft Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award. In this book, Reséndez dispels the myth that only African slaves faced enslavement in the Americas. He focuses on Indigenous slaves in the Caribbean, central and northern Mexico, and the American Southwest... Read The Other Slavery Summary

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Written and first performed in 472 BC, the ancient Greek tragedy The Persians by Aeschylus is the oldest extant example of the genre. Known as the father of Greek tragedy, Aeschylus was also a veteran of the Greco-Persian wars, on which The Persians is based. Because it depicts recent events, The Persians stands out from other plays of the genre, which for the most part focus on the distant past or mythological heroes. The approach was a... Read The Persians Summary

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