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Civil Disobedience and Other Essays is a collection of some of Henry David Thoreau's most important essays. Contained in this volume are the following essays: Civil Disobedience, Natural History of Massachusetts, A Walk to Wachusett, The Landlord, A Winter Walk, The Succession of Forest Trees, Walking, Autumnal Tints, Wild Apples, Night and Moonlight, Aulus Persius Flaccus, Herald of Freedom, Life Without Principle, Paradise (to be) Regained, A Plea for John Brown, The Last Days of John Brown, After the Death of John Brown, The Service, Slavery in Massachusetts, and Wendell Phillips Before Concord Lyceum.

This is the final work of American author Herman Melville (1819-1891), discovered amongst his papers three decades after his death and published in Raymond Weaver's 1924 edition of "The Collected Works of Melville." The emergence of what some consider to be Melville's masterpiece sparked a revived interest in the forgotten writer, despite the complex and incomplete nature of the manuscript. This is the first of many attempts to piece together and refine the sometimes illegible text, which included questionable additions and omissions made by Melville's wife after his death. The story stemmed from Melville's interest in an 1888 article called "The Mutiny on the Somers," concerning three sailors who in 1842 had been convicted of mutiny. Billy Budd is a navy sailor accused of mutiny by a fellow officer, and immediately strikes his accuser dead, followed quickly by a trial, conviction and execution. The novel presents several different versions of the events, organized by Weaver into twenty-six chapters including the omitted "Daniel Orme" chapter.

"The Awakening" is the story of Edna Pontellier, an attractive twenty-eight year old woman who is a wife and mother of two sons living in the Creole south in the late 19th century. Edna finds herself trapped in her life as a wife and a mother and feels unable to express her passionate sensuality within the confines of her marriage. She seeks a spiritual and sexual awakening through an affair with a younger man during one summer while her husband is away. Liberated by this experience she sends her children away and is determined to live a more independent and self-determined life. However this new found independence also becomes her downfall as her actions are looked down upon by the members of her society in the late 19th century south. "The Awakening" is a classic modern example of the tragic hero. It illustrates the confines of late 19th century America for women and the beginning of an era of changing social attitudes towards the role of women in society. Chopin's novel was meet with great criticism when it was first published and essentially ended her literary career. The reaction to its publication is indicative of the social attitude towards greater independence and freedom for women at the time. At the same time the novel was a harbinger of the greater independence that was soon to come for women in America. Also contained within this volume is a collection of eight shorter works by the author.

This comprehensive volume of all of Twain's shorter works is representative of his vast humor and wit. "The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain" includes the following tales: The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, The Story of the Bad Little Boy, Cannibalism in the Cars, A Day at Niagara, Legend of the Capitoline Venus, Journalism in Tennessee, A Curious Dream, The Facts in the Great Beef Contract, How I Edited an Agricultural Paper, A Medieval Romance, My Watch, Political Economy, Science vs. Luck, The Story of the Good Little Boy, Buck Fanshaw's Funeral, The Story of the Old Ram, Tom Quartz, A Trial, The Trials of Simon Erickson, A True Story, Experience of the McWilliamses with Membranous Croup, Some Learned Fables for Good Old Boys and Girls, The Canvasser's Tale, The Loves of Alonzo Fitz Clarence and Rosannah Ethelton, Edward Mills and George Benton: A Tale, The Man Who Put Up at Gadsby's, Mrs. McWilliams and the Lightning, What Stumped the Bluejays, A Curious Experience, The Invalid's Story, The McWilliamses and the Burglar Alarm, The Stolen White Elephant, A Burning Brand, A Dying Man's Confession, The Professor's Yarn, A Ghost Story, Luck, Playing Courier, The Californian's Tale, The Diary of Adam and Eve, The Esquimau Maiden's Romance, Is He Living or Is He Dead?, The 1,000,000 Bank-Note, Cecil Rhodes and the Shark, The Joke That Made Ed's Fortune, A Story Without an End, The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, The Death Disk, Two Little Tales, The Belated Russian Passport, A Double-Barreled Detective Story, The Five Boons of Life, Was It Heaven? Or Hell?, A Dog's Tale, The $30,000 Bequest, A Horse's Tale, Hunting the Deceitful Turkey, Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven, A Fable, and The Mysterious Stranger. Nearly 500 pages of classic tales by one of America's most loved authors.

John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) was a British economist whose theories had a profound impact on twentieth century history and economic practice. Born and raised in Cambridge, England to highly successful, intelligent parents John and Florence Keynes, he attended Eton and King's College, Cambridge where he joined the intellectual group called "The Apostles" with the likes of Leonard and Virginia Woolf, E. M. Forster and Bertrand Russell. After attending the Paris Peace Conference as economic advisor to Prime Minister Lloyd George, Keynes resigned from a prominent position in the Treasury and published "The Economic Consequences of the Peace" (1919), a stinging indictment of the Versailles Treaty. Keynes expressed his opposition to the political practices that were taking place, and the work gained him instant notoriety. The impact of this, and other, works on economic method, theory and policy led to what is now termed the "Keynesian Revolution" of the twentieth century, and helped shape modern macroeconomics.

Set at the end of the American Civil War, From the Earth to the Moon is a forward-looking tale of space adventure. With no other pressing assignments the Baltimore Gun Club, at the urging of its President, Impey Barbicane, decides to build a gun large enough to propel a projectile from the Earth to the Moon. With a wager being placed on the outcome and the mission being elevated to a "manned" mission, a space race to the Moon begins.

"The Aeneid" is considered by some to be one of the most important epic poems of all time. The story is as much one of the great epic hero, Aeneas, as it is of the foundation of the great Roman Empire. Aeneas, a Trojan Prince who escapes following the fall of troy, travels with others to Italy to lay the foundations for what would become the great Roman Empire. Virgil's Aeneid is a story of great adventure, of war, of love, and of the exploits of a great epic hero. In the work Virgil makes commentary on the state of Rome during the Rule of Augustus. It was a time that had been previously ravaged by civil wars and with the reign of Augustus order and peace had begun to be restored. That order had a price though. Many of the freedoms of the old Roman Republic had been lost under the new Imperialistic Rome. This loss of freedom and the debate over the virtues of a Republican Rome versus an Imperialistic Rome was central to Virgil's time and is interwoven throughout the poetic narrative of "The Aeneid." Virgil's work forms the historical foundation for the argument of the empire over the republic as the best form of government.