War and Peace charts the history of the French invasion of Russia, through the stories of five Russian aristocratic families. War and Peace is well known as being one of the longest novels ever written and a central work of world literature.

The Art of War is an ancient Chinese military treatise by Sun Tzu, a high-ranking military general, strategist and tactician. Each chapter is devoted to one aspect of warfare. It is commonly thought of as a definitive work on military strategy.

Rodion Raskolnikov kills an unscrupulous pawnbroker for her cash, defending his actions by arguing that with the pawnbroker's money he can perform good deeds to counterbalance the crime, while ridding the world of a vermin.

Leviathan ranks as a classic work on statecraft comparable to Machiavelli's The Prince. It concerns the structure of society and legitimate government, and is one of the most influential examples of social contract theory.

Anna Komnene describes the political and military history of the Byzantine Empire during the reign of her father, Emperor Alexios I. The text documents the Crusades and the conflicting perceptions of East and West in the early 12th century.

The story follows the adventures of Don Quixote, who decides to set out to revive chivalry, undo wrongs, and bring justice to the world. He recruits a farmer, Sancho Panza, as his squire and imagines that he is living out a knightly story.