Charles Burney (1726–1814), the music historian, is best remembered for his General History of Music and the accounts of his musical tours in Europe. He was a friend of Samuel Johnson and David Garrick, corresponded with Diderot and Haydn and was made Fellow of the Royal Society in 1773. Although he was a music teacher by profession, it was his writings on music which brought him widespread recognition. Following publication of the General History, he began his memoirs but did not complete them. It is likely that he intended his daughter, the novelist Fanny Burney, to publish the memoirs...

The Devils of Loudun is a 1952 non-fiction novel by Aldous Huxley. It is a historical narrative of supposed demonic possession, religious fanaticism, sexual repression, and mass hysteria that occurred in seventeenth-century France surrounding unexplained events that took place in the small town of Loudun. It centers on Roman Catholic priest Urbain Grandier and an entire convent of Ursuline nuns, who allegedly became possessed by demons after Grandier made a pact with Satan. The events led to several public exorcisms as well as executions by burning....

The New York Times Bestseller Amoral, cunning, ruthless, and instructive, The 48 Laws of Power is the definitive manual for anyone interested in gaining, observing, or defending against ultimate control. In the book that People magazine proclaimed “beguiling” and “fascinating,” Robert Greene and Joost Elffers have distilled three thousand years of the history of power into 48 essential laws by drawing from the philosophies of Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, and Carl Von Clausewitz and also from the lives of figures ranging from Henry Kissinger to P.T. Barnum. Some laws teach the need for prudence...

Married by Morning continues Lisa Kleypas's Hathaways beloved series set in Victorian London. For two years, Catherine Marks has been a paid companion to the Hathaway sisters—a pleasant position, with one caveat. Her charges' older brother, Leo Hathaway, is thoroughly exasperating. Cat can hardly believe that their constant arguing could mask a mutual attraction. But when one quarrel ends in a sudden kiss, Cat is shocked at her powerful response—and even more so when Leo proposes a dangerous liaison. Leo must marry and produce an heir within a year to save his family home. Catherine's...

The Water Dancer is a great novel with a classy story that keeps you on the edge from the very beginning till the last line. Ta-Nehisi Coates is the author of this beautiful novel. This author has a very clear idea of how to write a great story and engage the reader in a great environment. This novel reflects the great writing skills of the author. The characters of the novel are chosen very beautifully and executed in tremendous way....

The entire Greek world plunged into three decades of bloodshed in 431 B.C., when the ongoing friction between Athens and Sparta exploded into war. Ten years into the struggle, the Athenian general Thucydides was dismissed for a military failure that led to a triumph for posterity: the former general retired to write an account of the war, resulting in one of the world's great history books. Thucydides' chronicle of the disastrous 27-year conflict between the Greek city-states resonates with tales of heroism and villainy, deeds of courage and desperation, and the eternal folly of human...

Antiquities of the Jews (Latin: Antiquitates Iudaicae; Greek: Ἰουδαϊκὴ ἀρχαιολογία, Ioudaikē archaiologia) is a 20-volume historiographical work, written in Greek, by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus in the 13th year of the reign of Roman emperor Flavius Domitian which was around AD 93 or 94. Antiquities of the Jews contains an account of history of the Jewish people for Josephus' gentile patrons. In the first ten volumes, Josephus follows the events of the historical books of the Hebrew Bible beginning with the creation of Adam and Eve. The second ten volumes continues the history of...

At birth, the leader’s daughter received the name Amonut, but among her relatives she was known as Matoaka. Pocahontas was the nickname given to her by her father. In the language of her people, this meant something like “prankster” or “playful child”. About 30 local communities, united by language and culture, were subordinate to the leader Paukhatan, all together they formed the Pouhatan tribe. Pocahontas first saw Europeans, probably in 1607 or in 1608, these were colonists from Jamestown, an English settlement in Virginia. One of the directors in this colony was the same captain John...

A terrible anti-utopian pamphlet by Daniel Defoe, which shocked the contemporaries of the writer - and shocking even modern readers with his cold, almost ironic objectivity. The victims of the "black death" that fell upon England could be counted in the hundreds of thousands. However, the story of one person who survived the "Plague Year" affects us much more than dry numbers......

“A series of reckless, but sincere articles,” as Chesterton defined “Heretics” in “Orthodoxy” (by the way, this most famous treatise was written in response to the accusation that even Chesterton criticizes different philosophies in “Heretics”, but does not give his own) . A collection of Chesterton's essays on people whom he considered modern heretics. The book is directed against the most dangerous ideas of our time. By the way, "Heretics" is the first of the famous Chesterton's apologetic treatises....

Joseph Rudyard Kipling is a famous writer, great poet and short story writer, the first Englishman to receive a Nobel Prize in literature. Perhaps, rarely did anyone have such a successful literary fate: Kipling's works were enthusiastically accepted by critics, royalties turned out to be record-breaking, four collected works were published during the author's lifetime - this is a truly unique case....

May 24, 1819 in the family of Edward, the Duke of Kent, and Victoria, Princess Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeldskaya, a daughter named Alexandrina Victoria was born. After 18 years, she will ascend to the British throne and become Queen Victoria. Victoria's 63-year reign — one of the longest in history — has become perhaps the most successful for Britain: this small island nation will be the most powerful and developed country in the world, an empire that “the sun never sets over”....

The included stories belong to different periods of the writer's work, but are united by a common theme - India at the end of the 19th century, the life of the local population and the British colonialists, their difficult relationships....

Thomas Payne's Political Brochure, Common Sense, was an extremely influential document of the Revolutionary era. Since it was written and reasoned in a style that is easy to understand, the brochure has become extremely popular. He fired up revolutionary lights and supplied intelligent ammunition to revolutionaries throughout the colony. Study one of the most significant political writings in American history and find out the main arguments that Payne presented in his work....

Vikings - Scandinavian sailors of the early Middle Ages, in the VIII - XI centuries they made sea voyages from Vinland to Biarmia and from the Caspian to North Africa. Most of them were free peasants who lived on the territory of modern Sweden, Denmark and Norway, who were pushed beyond the borders of their native countries by overpopulation and thirst for easy money. By religion - the vast majority of pagans. Used their battle axes for both melee and throwing. Also, they had not only ordinary spears, but also lighter ones - throwing ones. Swedish Vikings, as a rule, traveled east and...