Sent Before My Time is an exploration of the workings of a neo natal intensive care unit from a child psychotherapist's point of view. It examines the relationships between the babies, the parents and the staff.

What do Sir Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, and Buddha have in common? They were all born prematurely. Tiny, weak, and brain-damaged, they very nearly didn't survive. But, just about pulling-through, they went on to change the world. And so did Rousseau, Goethe, and Moses, despite being born tiny and many months early. In Sent Before Their Time, Edward Dutton, who was born 3 months early himself, explores the massive and disproportionately high impact that people born prematurely or with low birth weight have had on world history. He shows that the mental characteristics caused by being born prematurely - being a 'preemie' - are precisely those that have always been associated with the heights of genius and of spell-binding charisma. And Dutton, whose analysis includes an eye-opening account of his own preemie childhood, presents an evolutionary theory for preterm birth, arguing that under the harsh Darwinian conditions that existed before the Industrial Revolution, the group with the optimum number of surviving preterm children - and, therefore, geniuses and inspiring people - would have been better able to win wars against other groups and, thus, triumph in the battle of Darwinian selection.

Among the most enduring poetry of all time, William Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets address such eternal themes as love, beauty, honesty, and the passage of time. Written primarily in four-line stanzas and iambic pentameter, Shakespeare’s sonnets are now recognized as marking the beginning of modern love poetry. The sonnets have been translated into all major written languages and are frequently used at romantic celebrations. Known as “The Bard of Avon,” William Shakespeare is arguably the greatest English-language writer known. Enormously popular during his life, Shakespeare’s works continue to resonate more than three centuries after his death, as has his influence on theatre and literature. Shakespeare’s innovative use of character, language, and experimentation with romance as tragedy served as a foundation for later playwrights and dramatists, and some of his most famous lines of dialogue have become part of everyday speech. HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.

The final novel of one of America’s most beloved writers—a tale of degeneration, corruption, and spiritual crisis A Penguin Classic In awarding John Steinbeck the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Nobel committee stated that with The Winter of Our Discontent, he had “resumed his position as an independent expounder of the truth, with an unbiased instinct for what is genuinely American.” Ethan Allen Hawley, the protagonist of Steinbeck’s last novel, works as a clerk in a grocery store that his family once owned. With Ethan no longer a member of Long Island’s aristocratic class, his wife is restless, and his teenage children are hungry for the tantalizing material comforts he cannot provide. Then one day, in a moment of moral crisis, Ethan decides to take a holiday from his own scrupulous standards. Set in Steinbeck’s contemporary 1960 America, the novel explores the tenuous line between private and public honesty, and today ranks alongside his most acclaimed works of penetrating insight into the American condition. This Penguin Classics edition features an introduction and notes by leading Steinbeck scholar Susan Shillinglaw. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.