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The title novella in this collection of stories from literary master Leo Tolstoy, The Kreutzer Sonata, unleashed a firestorm of controversy upon its original publication. The story seeks to unpack the complex relationship between sex and love, and in it, Tolstoy makes a number of arguments about intimacy that were considered shocking in the context of nineteenth-century morals and mores. This collection is a wonderful introduction to Tolstoy's work for new readers

J. R. Seeley (1834–1895) was Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge. He was concerned that classics and the study of the distant past were far too dominant at the university, and believed that the academic study of contemporary history could provide a moral and intellectual foundation for modern political life. The Expansion of England, first published in 1883 and based on his lectures, was his most successful book, remaining in print for over seventy years. He believed that the purpose of the study of history was to see patterns and tendencies which could be used to make predictions about the future. Foreseeing the rise of America and Russia as world powers, he wanted to ensure that the British Empire retained its position of dominance in the twentieth century, which he saw as its destiny. His clear arguments, and skill in writing often-quoted epigrams, ensured the book's continued popularity

The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. Volumes 66 and 67 of the series, edited by E. M Thompson and first published in 1883, contain the bulk of the diary of Richard Cocks (c.1565–1624), supplemented by a selection of letters. Cocks was the head of a trading post established in Japan by the British East India Company from its foundation in 1613 until 1622, when it went out of business. His diary describes Japanese society and culture in the early seventeenth century, as well as the activities of British merchants there