In this thought-provoking and playful short story collection, David Foster Wallace nudges at the boundaries of fiction with inimitable wit and seductive intelligence.Wallace's stories present a world where the bizarre and the banal are interwoven and where hideous men appear in many guises. Among the stories are 'The Depressed Person,' a dazzling and blackly humorous portrayal of a woman's mental state; 'Adult World,' which reveals a woman's agonized consideration ...

John Calvin's Treatise on Relics is a lucid and unsparing Reformation critique of the cult of saints' remains and sacred objects in late medieval Christianity. Written with forensic precision, satirical force, and a lawyerly appetite for evidence, the work catalogs alleged relics—fragments of the True Cross, saints' bones, holy garments—and exposes their contradictions, duplications, and theological dangers. Its style combines polemic with moral seriousness, placing it within the broader P...