Plato's "Phaedrus" is a dialogue between Phaedrus and the great Greek philosopher Socrates. Phaedrus has been spending the morning with Lysias, the celebrated rhetorician, and is going to refresh himself by taking a walk outside the wall, when he is met by Socrates, who professes that he will not leave him until he has delivered up the speech with which Lysias has regaled him, and which he is carrying about in his mind, or more probably in a book...

"Maria Edgeworth's 1801 novel, Belinda, is an absorbing, sometimes provocative, tale of social and domestic life among the English aristocracy and gentry. The heroine of the title, only too conscious of being 'advertised' on the marriage market, grows in moral maturity as she seeks to balance self-fulfilment with achieving material success. Among those whom she encounters are the socialite Lady Delacour, whose brilliance and wit hide a tragic secret,...

First published in 1572, this epic poem, which is frequently compared to Virgil's "Aeneid", relates the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama's discovery of the maritime route to India by way of Cape of Good Hope. Composed of over 1100 stanzas in ten books, "The Lusiads" is to this day widely regarded as the most important literary work of the Portuguese language. This edition follows the translation of William Julius Mickle.