This detailed analysis of one of the most brutal periods of religious persecution ever recorded is a must-read for history buffs of all stripes. Author Henry Charles Lea lends detail and dimension to the historical record, providing a turn-by-turn recounting of events along with deeper insight into the motives and psychology of the persecutors and persecuted.

Liza of Lambeth was W. Somerset Maugham's first novel, which he wrote while working as a doctor at a hospital in Lambeth, then a working class district of London. It depicts the short life and death of Liza Kemp, an 18-year-old factory worker who lives together with her aging mother in the fictional Vere Street off Westminster Bridge Road (real) in Lambeth. All in all, it gives the reader an interesting insight into the everyday lives of working class Londoners at the end of the nineteenth...

Like the best of Mary Roberts Rinehart's novels, A Poor Wise Man combines a number of literary elements -- romance, intrigue, and mystery -- which unfold against the backdrop of war and political unrest. Fans of historical romance and classic mystery will enjoy this read.

Prolific author and political activist Upton Sinclair throws the upheaval of the early twentieth century into sharp relief in 100%: The Story of a Patriot. In a matter of instants, a bomb blast transmutes Peter Gudge's entire existence into chaos, and in the resulting pandemonium, he's forced to reexamine all of his values and beliefs.

A Treatise of Human Nature, first published between 1739 and 1740, is a philosophical text by the Scottish philosopher David Hume. The work contains three books: "Of the Understanding", "Of the Passions" and "Of Morals". Written by Hume when he was 26, it is considered by many to be Hume's best work and one of the most important books in philosophy's history.

This classic sci-fi tale is sure to send chills up your spine, especially if you're under the age of 20. One night, an unusual object lights up the sky, and soon afterwards, a local high school teacher begins noticing that the town's teenagers are behaving oddly. Could there be a connection between the two events?

With the memoir A Padre in France, Irish clergyman James Owen Hannay (who used the pseudonym "George A. Birmingham") takes a break from the humorous political satires that were his typical stock in trade. Still, Hannay's characteristic wit and lighthearted take on life shine through in this firsthand account of his stint as a chaplain during World War I.

Though best known for his work in the picaresque romp Tom Jones, the eighteenth-century novelist Henry Fielding explored many literary genres, including the English domestic dramas popularized by luminaries such as Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters. If you love domestic tales that leave you laughing and crying -- often on the same page -- add Amelia to your must-read list.

In this emotionally engaging and richly detailed multi-generational epic, author Gertrude Atherton uses her own family history as a lens through which to trace the evolution of the fictional Randolph family, from their roots in England to their eventual ascendance to power and prestige in the rough-and-tumble pioneer era of California.

Anna Christie is a play in four acts, which won O'Neill the 1922 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Anna makes contact with the father she has not seen since her infancy, and he takes her on board his coal barge. There she falls in love with a man they rescue from a shipwreck, but trouble arises when she tells them she has been working as a prostitute.

Historian, critic, and horticulturist Francis Parkman was renowned for his analytical acuity and narrative skill. In A Half Century of Conflict: France and England in North America, Volume 1, Parkman dissects and explains the tumult that surrounded the birth of the United States. This book is regarded as one of the highest literary achievements in nineteenth-century historical writing.

Regarded by many as the first major historian, Herodotus was a Greek scholar and traveler who set down his impressions of foreign countries and his analysis of wars and other significant events in a relatively straightforward, journalistic manner. This volume contains Herodotus' views on Egypt. For centuries, some of the the author's claims about Egypt were regarded as far-fetched, but evidence has recently come to light that supports some of his long-doubted account.