The complete online text of Droll Stories — Volume 1 by Honoré de Balzac.

Had Balzac been a less masterful novelist, the disreputably profligate fraud in him might have overwhelmed his artistry. Still, the other Balzac, the artist, is tainted by his well-earned reputation for what has been called artistic license or dishonesty...

The French novelist Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) was the first writer to use fiction to convey the total social scene prevailing within one country at a particular period in its history. Commonly regarded as the founder of social realism, he also...

The most successful reggae act of the last decade hasn't come from Jamaica, where the music started, but from Britain, where devotees took the music into a new sphere. Britain's UB40, hailing from the rugged working-class city of Birmingham, has become an arena headliner...

Rick Small is a free-lance writer living in Scituate. He can be reached via e-mail at small(at sign)globe.com. Tuesday at sundown, observant Jews will begin a daylong fast in commemoration of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It is the last and most...