Lincoln's connection to black history may go much further than his role in slavery. In the 2001 book 'Black People and Their Place in History', historian Leroy Vaughn, alleges that Lincoln’s father was African American and his mother had Ethiopian ethnicity, both of which may have explained his “very dark skin and coarse hair.” The fact is his rivals campaigned using propaganda that depicted Lincoln as “Abraham Africanus the First,” an African man.It is claimed that Abraham Lincoln, who be...

Here is a charming collection of stories, mostly set in New England in the 1800s, that depict how Christmas was celebrated then.Seems that Christmas was not always a tree with dozens, if not hundreds, of gifts spread around the tree. Consumerism not being then what it is today, the gift might simply be a letter from a long-missing loved one, or simply the return through a blizzard of a husband who had left only hours ago on a mission of mercy. The relief of the anxiety of waiting f...

One of the great Victorian novels by an author at the height of his powers, Vanity Fair follows the fortunes of the calculating, upwardly-mobile Becky Sharp and her gentle, good-hearted friend Amelia Sedley as they leave their boarding school and embark upon their lives in Vanity Fair the social-climbing, wealth-obsessed world of Regency England in the time of the Napoleonic Wars. William Makepeace Thackeray was a British novelist, author, and illustrator. He is known for his satirical wor...

An outbreak of plague in London forces a gentleman, Lovewit, to flee temporarily to the country, leaving his house under the sole charge of his butler, Jeremy. Jeremy uses the opportunity given to him to use the house as the headquarters for fraudulent acts. He transforms himself into 'Captain Face', and enlists the aid of Subtle, a fellow conman and Dol Common, a prostitute. In The Alchemist, Jonson unashamedly satirizes the follies, vanities and vices of mankind, most notably greed-induc...

"The government claimed they had recovered a UFO — they had a press release about it, No other government in the world has said 'We have a spacecraft,' and then the next day there's another press release that says, 'Never mind, it was just a weather balloon',"Ben Smith, former CIA operativeIn 1947, something crashed outside of Roswell, New Mexico and was brought to Roswell Army Air Field by Army officers. Since then, there have been many a discussion about what exactly the object was. That...

First published in 1850, David Copperfield begins with avid the tragedy of David's brother dying when David is just a boy. After this episode, he is sent by his step-father to work in London for a wine merchant. When conditions worsen he decides to run away and embarks on a journey by foot from London to Dover. On his arrival, he finds his eccentric aunt, Betsey Trotwood who becomes his new guardian. Being witness to the formation of David's character is quite fascinating. David begins as ...

Arguably the greatest literary masterpiece, War and Peace is an amazing blend of philosophy, history, spirituality, and love told through two families, the Rostovs and the Bolkonskys. The Rostovs personify the Russian spirit. Count Rostov, a generous, kind spendthrift, can deny his family nothing. His countess is a warm, loving, overindulged woman. These characteristics are reflected in their children, while the austere Bolkonskys are duty-bound. As normal human beings do, the three main c...

“I would always rather be happy than dignified.”“There is no happiness like that of being loved by your fellow-creatures, and feeling that your presence is an addition to their comfort.”From Jane EyreJane Eyre is a novel by English writer Charlotte Brontë, published under the pen name "Currer Bell", on October 16, 1847, by Smith, Elder & Co. of London. The first American edition was published the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York. Jane Eyre is a Bildungsroman that follows the...

The Narrow Corner is a novel by the British writer W. Somerset Maugham, published by William Heinemann in 1932. A quote from Meditations, iii 10, by Marcus Aurelius, introduces the work: "Short, therefore, is man's life, and narrow is the corner of the earth wherein he dwells." In the story, set "a good many years ago" in what is now Indonesia, a young Australian, cruising the islands after his involvement in a murder in Sydney, has a passionate affair on an island which causes a further t...

“I hope I know my own unworthiness, and that I hate and despise myself and all my fellow creatures as every practicable Christian should.” ...“I have broken where I should have bent, and have mused and brooded, when my spirit should have mixed with all God's great creation.Barnaby Rudge is a historical novel by British novelist Charles Dickens. Barnaby Rudge was one of two novels (the other was The Old Curiosity Shop) Dickens published in his short-lived (18401841) weekly serial Master Hum...

Joseph Conrad was a Polish-British writer regarded as one of the greatest novelists to write in the English language. He came to be regarded a master prose stylist who brought a non-English sensibility into English literature. He wrote stories and novels, many with a nautical setting, that depict trials of the human spirit in the midst of what he saw as an impassive, inscrutable universe.Conrad is considered a literary impressionist by some and an early modernist by others, though his work...

Twice-Told Tales is a short story collection in two volumes by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The first was published in the spring of 1837, and the second in 1842. The stories had all been previously published in magazines and annuals, hence the name.Hawthorne was an American novelist, dark romantic, and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associated with that town. Hawthorne entered Bowdoin Co...