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Publius Terentius Afer (195/185-159 BC), better known in English as Terence, was a playwright of the Roman Republic of North African descent. His comedies were performed for the first time around 170-160 BC. A Roman senator, brought Terence to Rome as a slave, educated him and later on, impressed by his abilities, freed him. Terence apparently died young, probably in Greece or on his way back to Rome. All of the six plays Terence wrote have survived.His style offers a unique insight into the colloquial Latin of the classical era.

Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus (61 - ca. 112), better known as Pliny the Younger, was a lawyer, author, and magistrate of Ancient Rome.He wrote hundreds of letters, many of which still survive, that are regarded as a historical source for the time period. Some are addressed to reigning emperors or to notables such as the historian Tacitus. His letters to Trajan provide one of the only records we have of the relationship between the imperial office and provincial governors.Pliny was considered an honest and moderate man, consistent in his pursuit of suspected Christian members according to Roman law. He rose through a series of Imperial civil and military offices, the cursus honorum. This volume collates all his surviving letters and his Panegyric in praise of Trajan.

De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things) is a 1st-century BC didactic poem by the Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius with the goal of explaining Epicurean philosophy to a Roman audience. The poem, written in some 7,400 dactylic hexameters, is divided into six untitled books, and explores Epicurean physics through richly poetic language and metaphors. Lucretius presents the principles of atomism; the nature of the mind and soul; explanations of sensation and thought; the development of the world and its phenomena; and explains a variety of celestial and terrestrial phenomena. The universe described in the poem operates according to these physical principles, guided by fortuna, "chance," and not the divine intervention of the traditional Roman deities

Aristophanes (c. 446 BC - c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his 30 plays survive virtually complete. These, together with fragments of some of his other plays, provide the only real examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy, and they are used to define the genre. Also known as the Father of Comedy, Aristophanes has been said to recreate the life of ancient Athens more convincingly than any other author. His powers of ridicule were feared and acknowledged by influential contemporaries. This volume contains the original Greek text of two of his most famous works, Frogs and Wasps.

Aristophanes (c. 446 BC - c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his 30 plays survive virtually complete. These, together with fragments of some of his other plays, provide the only real examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy, and they are used to define the genre. Also known as the Father of Comedy, Aristophanes has been said to recreate the life of ancient Athens more convincingly than any other author. His powers of ridicule were feared and acknowledged by influential contemporaries. This volume contains the original Greek text of two of his most famous works, Clouds and Lysistrata.

Sanin is a novel by the Russian writer Mikhail Artsybashev. It was written at the peak of the various changes in Russian society such as nascent democratic movements, the first democratically-elected Duma, as well as the Russian Revolution of 1905. It was published and criticized in 1907, the year of one of the most horrific political reactions in Russian history. When Artsybashev emigrated to Poland after the Russian Revolution of 1917, he was condemned by the Soviet authorities and his books were banned from publication, only to be revealed afresh to readers in the 1990s.

Petersburg (1913, revised 1922) is the title of Andrei Bely's masterpiece, a Symbolist work that foreshadows Joyce's Modernist ambitions. For various reasons the novel never received much attention and was not translated into English until 1959 by John Cournos, over 45 years after it was written, after Joyce was already established as an important writer. It was regarded by Vladimir Nabokov as one of the four greatest "masterpieces of twentieth century prose."

Njáls saga is one of the sagas of Icelanders. The most prominent characters are the friends Njáll þorgeirsson, a lawyer and a sage, and Gunnarr Hámundarson, a formidable warrior. In the course of a feud, Gunnarr is exiled and must leave Iceland but as he rides away from his home he is struck by the beauty of the land and resolves to stay.This is the longest surviving saga and it is presented here in modern Icelandic orthography.

The Queen of Spades, Op. 68 is an opera in 3 acts (7 scenes) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to a Russian libretto by the composer's brother Modest Tchaikovsky, based on a short story of the same name by Alexander Pushkin. The premiere took place in 1890 in St. Petersburg, Russia The management of the Imperial Theatre offered a commission to Tchaikovsky to write an opera based on the plot sketch by Ivan Vsevolozhsky in 1887/88. After turning it down initially, Tchaikovsky accepted it in 1889. Toward the end of that year, he met with the theater's managers to discuss the material and sketch out some of the scenes. He completed the full score of the opera in Florence in only 44 days. Later on, working with the tenor who was to perform the lead character's part, he created two versions of Herman's aria in the seventh scene, using two different keys. The changes can be found in the proof sheets and inserts for the first and second editions of the printed version of the score. While composing the music, Tchaikovsky actively edited the libretto, changing some of the text and adding his own lyrics to two arias. (Wikipedia)

Janka Kupala (July 7 [O.S. June 25] 1882 - June 28, 1942) - was the pen name of Ivan Daminikavich Lutsevich who is considered one of the greatest Belarusian language writers of the 20th century. He is one of the very few writers to produce formal theatrical works in the language, which was considered by some to be inappropriate for such a formal genre. This volume contains two of his best known plays - Scattered Nest and The Locals.

The Master and Margarita is a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, written between 1928 and 1940 but unpublished in book form until 1967. It is woven around a visit by the Devil to the fervently atheistic Soviet Union. Many critics consider it to be one of the best novels of the 20th century, and the foremost of Soviet satires.

Laxdæla saga, written in the 13th century, tells of people in the Breiðafjörður area of Iceland from the late 9th century to the early 11th century. The saga particularly focuses on a love triangle between Guðrún Ósvífrsdóttir, Kjartan Ólafsson and Bolli þorleiksson. Kjartan and Bolli grow up together as close friends but the love they both have for Guðrún causes enmity between them and, in the end, their deaths.Second only to Njáls saga in the number of medieval manuscripts preserved, Laxdæla saga remains popular and appreciated for its poetic beauty and pathetic sentiment.

Hristo Botev (6 January 1848 [O.S. 25 December 1847] - 1 June [O.S. 20 May] 1876) was a Bulgarian poet and national revolutionary. He is widely considered by Bulgarians to be a symbolic historical figure and national hero. His poetry reflected the sentiments of the poor people, filled with revolutionary ideas, struggling for their freedom against both foreign and domestic tyrants.

Egils Saga, also known to scholars as Egla, is perhaps the best known of all the Icelandic sagas. It is a fast paced tale of action and adventure which has been reproduced here in modern Icelandic orthography

The Fatal Eggs is a science-fiction novella by Mikhail Bulgakov. It was written in 1924 and first published in 1925. The book became quite popular, but was much criticised by some Soviet critics as a satire of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the leadership of Soviet Russia. Indeed, there is a case to be made for Professor Persikov's identification with Vladimir Il'ich Lenin, as both of them can be said to have unleashed destruction on Russia.

Leonid Andreyev (21 August 1871 - September 12, 1919) was one of the key figures of the Russian Silver age of literature. He produced volumes of short stories before switching to play-writing later in life. He who gets slapped is a deeply serious play based around a circus troupe and has served as the inspiration for films in both Russia and the US.

The Cherry Orchard is the last play by Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. It opened at the Moscow Art Theatre on 17 January 1904 in a production directed by Constantin Stanislavski. The play concerns an aristocratic Russian woman and her family as they return to their family estate (which includes a large and well-known cherry orchard) just before it is auctioned to pay the mortgage. While presented with options to save the estate, the family essentially does nothing and the play ends with the sale of the estate to the son of a former serf; the family leaves to the sound of the cherry orchard being cut down

The Metamorphoses of Apuleius, which St. Augustine referred to as The Golden Ass (Asinus aureus), is the only ancient novel in Latin to survive in its entirety.The protagonist of the novel is called Lucius. At the end of the novel, he is revealed to be from Madaurus, the hometown of Apuleius himself. The plot revolves around the protagonist's curiosity (curiositas) and insatiable desire to see and practice magic. While trying to perform a spell to transform into a bird, he is accidentally transformed into an ass. This leads to a long journey, literal and metaphorical, filled with in-set tales. He finally finds salvation through the intervention of the goddess Isis, whose cult he joins.

Satyricon is a Latin work of fiction in a mixture of prose and poetry (prosimetrum). It is believed to have been written by Gaius Petronius. As with the Metamorphoses of Apuleius, classical scholars often describe it as a "Roman novel", without necessarily implying continuity with the modern literary form.The surviving portions of the text detail the misadventures of the narrator, Encolpius, and his lover, a handsome sixteen-year-old boy named Giton. Throughout the novel, Encolpius has a hard time keeping his lover faithful to him as he is constantly being enticed away by others. Encolpius's friend Ascyltus (who seems to have previously been in a relationship with Encolpius) is another major character.

During a steamboat trip between Stockholm and Lidköping, a sergeant named Albert falls in love with the glazier's daughter Sara Videbeck.But Sara insists that they live in an egalitarian marriage without a formal marriage ceremony and without shared property (today known as living apart together). Sara asks at the end of the book: Går allt detta an, Albert? (Is all this acceptable, Albert?) The answer is: Det går an (It is acceptable).The novel is primarily an attack on lifelong marriage as an institution and the inability of women to become financially independent. The book's social tendency aroused lively debate and "det-går-an literature" became a concept. One consequence however was that Almqvist was forced out of his post as rector at the New Elementary School, Stockholm.

Euripides(c. 480 - 406 BC) was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most. Of these, eighteen or nineteen have survived complete and there are also fragments, some substantial, of most of the other plays. More of his plays have survived intact than those of Aeschylus and Sophocles together, partly due to mere chance and partly because his popularity grew as theirs declined-he became, in the Hellenistic Age, a cornerstone of ancient literary education, along with Homer, Demosthenes and Menander. This volume contains the original texts of his two most famous works - Medea and The Bacchae.

We is a dystopian novel by Yevgeny Zamyatin completed in 1921. It was written in response to the author's personal experiences during the Russian revolution of 1905, the Russian revolution of 1917, his life in the Newcastle suburb of Jesmond, and his work in the Tyne shipyards during the First World War. It was on Tyneside that he observed the collectivization of labour on a large scale. We is set in the future. D-503 lives in the One State, an urban nation constructed almost entirely of glass, which allows the secret police/spies to inform on and supervise the public more easily. The structure of the state is analogous to the prison design concept developed by Jeremy Bentham commonly referred to as the Panopticon. Furthermore, life is organized to promote maximum productive efficiency along the lines of the system advocated by the hugely influential F.W. Taylor. People march in step with each other and wear identical clothing. There is no way of referring to people save by their given numbers. Males have odd numbers prefixed by consonants; females have even numbers prefixed by vowels.

Eugene Onegin, Op. 24, is an opera ("lyrical scenes") in 3 acts (7 scenes), composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto, organised by the composer and Konstantin Shilovsky, very closely follows certain passages in Alexander Pushkin's novel in verse, retaining much of his poetry. Shilovsky contributed M. Triquet's verses in Act 2, Scene 1, while Tchaikovsky wrote the words for Lensky's arioso in Act 1, Scene 1, and almost all of Prince Gremin's aria in Act 3, Scene 1.[1] Eugene Onegin is a well-known example of lyric opera, to which Tchaikovsky added music of a dramatic nature. The story concerns a selfish hero who lives to regret his blasé rejection of a young woman's love and his careless incitement of a fatal duel with his best friend. The opera was first performed in Moscow in 1879. There are several recordings of it, and it is regularly performed. The work's title refers to the protagonist.

Laulu tulipunaisesta kukasta on Suomen taiteen kultakauden kirjailijan Johannes Linnankosken tunnetuin teos. Vuonna 1905 julkaistu kirja on ensimmäisiä suomalaisia bestseller-kirjoja. Laulu tulipunaisesta kukasta pohjautuu Don Juanin taruun. Kirja kertoo nuoresta Olavi Koskelasta, joka riitautuu vanhempiensa kanssa ja pestautuu tukkilaisporukkaan. Matkan varrella hän hurmaa lukuisia naisia, jotka hän kuitenkin hylkää tukkilaisporukan jatkaessa matkaansa. Kirjan tapahtumat sijoittuvat Linnankosken nuoruuden maisemiin Askolaan Vakkolan kylään 1800-luvun loppupuolelle.

The protagonist, Ivan Flyagin, a bogatyr-type of a character has been "promised to God" by his mother but refused to join the monastery as a young man, ignoring all the "signs," allegedly pointing him the way. The rest of his life he sees as a "punishment" for this, and after all becomes a monk, driven though not by spiritual motives, but rather by poverty and having nowhere else to go.

The Histories of Herodotus is now considered as the founding work of history in Western literature. Written from the 450s to the 420s BC in the Ionic dialect of classical Greek, The Histories serves as a record of the ancient traditions, politics, geography, and clashes of various cultures that were known around the Mediterranean and Western Asia at that time. It is not an impartial record but it remains one of the West's most important sources regarding these affairs. Moreover, it established without precedent the genre and study of history in the Western world, although historical records and chronicles existed beforehand.

Drottningens juvelsmycke is a classic Swedish novel by Carl Jonas Love Almquist.It was the first original historical novel to be written in Sweden, and it features one of Swedish literature's most enduringly popular characters, the intersex Tintomara.The novel is set in 1792 and weaves the story of the beautiful but sexless androgyne Tintomara around the assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden, commonly nicknamed 'The Theatre King', on the stage of Stockholm's Royal Swedish Opera at a masked ball in 1792.

The novel tells the story of young and naïve European Socialist Vasily (Wilhelm) Rainer who comes to Russia to somehow apply his rootless, artificial ideas to the local reality. The action takes place in houses of state officials and merchants, in literary circles of Moscow and Saint Petersburgh, in editorial rooms, Polish revolutionaries' headquarters. Among those surrounding Rainer are some honest people (like Liza Bakhareva, another character who's been shown by Leskov with great sympathy), but in general the 'nihilist' community is being portrayed in the novel as a bunch of amoral crooks for whom high ideals serve as mere means to their own ends; such characters (Arapov, Beloyartsev, Zavulonov, Krasin) the author treated with open disgust.

Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District is an 1865 novel by Nikolai Leskov. It was originally published in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's magazine Epoch. Among its themes are the subordinate role expected from women in 19th-century European society, adultery, provincial life (thus drawing comparison with Flaubert's Madame Bovary) and the planning of murder by a woman, hence the title inspired by the Shakespearean character Lady Macbeth from his play Macbeth. The title also echoes the title of Turgenev's story Hamlet of the Shchigrovsky District (1859).

Leonid Nikolaievich Andreyev was a Russian playwright, novelist and short-story writer. He is one of the most talented and prolific representatives of the Silver Age period in Russian history. Andreyev's style combines elements of realist, naturalist and symbolist schools in literature. This volume includes some of his best-known short stories including: The Seven Who Were Hanged, The Wall, In the Fog, Abyss, The Red Laugh, Governor, The Shield, and Thought.