Teresa of Avila was major figure of the Catholic Reformation - a prominent mystic, writer, and reformer. At age seven she ran away from home to 'find martyrdom amongst the Moors'. At twenty she joined the Carmelite nuns. She resolved to found a new convent based on the principal of absolute poverty and renunciation of property. This, and the three kinds of ritual flagellation used at services, disturbed the laity. Later, the Carmelites tried to suppress her movement. After Don Quixote this is Spain's mode widely read prose classic.

The Twelve Caesars is a set of twelve biographies: Julius Caesar and the first 11 emperors of the Roman Empire (Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, titus, and Domitian). The Twelve Caesars was very important after it was written in 121 CE and remains an important historical source. It was one of the major sources for Robert Graves' I Claudius and Claudius the God later adapted and dramatised by the BBC.

The Odyssey is one of the two major ancient Greek epic poems of Homer. The action takes place after Homer's Iliad and details the journey home of the Greek hero Odysseus (Ulysses). The journey takes years, in part due to the Gods' disagreements over his eventual fate, and it is only when he is finally home that his troubles really begin.

The Underground Railroad says of itself: "An authentic record of the wonderful hardships, hairbreadth escapes, and death struggles which mark the track from slavery to freedom in the United States." The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes helping African Americans escape to 'free states' or Canada. Between 1810 and 1850 the Railroad may have moved as many 100,000 people to freedom.

Publishers Weekly #1 Best Seller for 1900.

English soldier turned Virginia explorer unknowingly becomes entangled in royal intrigue when he makes a quick marriage. The author drives the plot through a series of adventures, each revealing more of the essential nature of the characters.

One Americas most popular historical novels and very hard to put down.

Sienkiewicz received the 1905 Nobel Price in Literature for his "outstanding merits as an epic writer".

The novel follows the developing love between a Christian woman and a Roman Patrician in the time of Nero. The romantic story arc is set against the conflict of the moral systems of the long established Roman Empire and the developing Christianity. Sienkiewicz uses this setting to explore morality and power, and his observations remain relevant today.

The novel is based on extensive historical research and gives a good view of life in those times.