The Devil's Dictionary

by Ambrose Bierce

ABASEMENT, n. A decent and customary mental attitude in the presence of wealth of power.

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

by Benjamin Franklin

"It seems I am too much of an American," said Franklin sadly to an English friend.

King Lear

by William Shakespeare

1.1 King Lear, intending to divide his power and kingdom among his three daughters, demands public professions of their ...

A Midsummer Night's Dream

by William Shakespeare

Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour

American notes

by Charles Dickens, Diana C. Archibald

I SHALL never forget the one-fourth serious and three-fourths comical astonishment, with which, on the morning of the th...

Life on the Mississippi

by Mark Twain

The Mississippi is well worth reading about.

Candide

by Voltaire

Chapitre I. Comment candide fut élevé dans un beau château, et comment il fut chassé d'icelui. Il y avait en Vestp...

The Merchant of Venice

by William Shakespeare

Antonio. In sooth I know not why I am so sad.

A Christmas Carol

by Charles Dickens, Groth

MOST PEOPLE in the publishing and education industries agree that there are some books that everyone should read.

The Federalist, or, The New Constitution

by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison

AFTER an unequivocal experience of the inefficacy of the subsisting federal government, you are called upon to deliberat...

The Hunting of the Snark

by Lewis Carroll

Freakonomics

by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner

Anyone living in the United States in the early 1990s and paying even a whisper of attention to the nightly news or a da...

A short history of nearly everything

by Bill Bryson

Rolling with Darice

by Darice Clark

Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow

by Jerome Klapka Jérôme

Now, this is a subject on which I flatter myself I really am au fait.

Notes from a small island

by Bill Bryson

There are certain idiosyncratic notions that you quietly come to accept when you live for a long time in Britain.

Down Under (In a Sunburned Country)

by Bill Bryson

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim

by David Sedaris

When my family first moved to North Carolina, we lived in a rented house three blocks from the school where I would begi...

Me Talk Pretty One Day

by David Sedaris

ANYONE WHO WATCHES EVEN THE SLIGHTEST amount of TV is familiar with the scene: An agent knocks on the door of some seemi...

The Body

by Bill Bryson