Howard Fast's bestselling historical novel about a man who was a voice of the people and a prophet of democracy Thomas Paine's voice rang in the ears of eighteenth-century revolutionaries from America to France to England. He was friend to luminaries such as Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and William Wordsworth. His pamphlets extolling democracy sold in the millions. Yet he died a forgotten man, isolated by his rough manners, idealistic zeal, and...

The bestselling novel of financial speculation in the Progressive Era from the author of McTeague. Curtis Jadwin had to compete with other suitors to secure his wife's hand in marriage, but after a year of marital bliss, he finds himself captivated by another: the high-stakes competition at the Chicago Board of Trade. At first merely dabbling in wheat speculation, Jadwin soon becomes obsessed with making deals and the roaring excitement of the trading...

The two plays collected in this volume represent Genet's first attempts to analyze the mores of a bourgeois society he had previously been content simply to vilify. In The Maids, two domestic workers, deeply resentful of their inferior social position, try to revenge themselves against society by destroying their employer. When their attempt to betray their mistress's lover to the police fails and they are in danger of being found out, they dream...