Don Quixote is the most famous work in the history of Spanish literature. It was written by Cervantes in the sixteenth century and is primarily a mockery of the culture that existed in Spain in Cervantes’ time period. Cervantes wanted to shine a light on the absurd glorification of chivalry and anachronistic reverence for medieval values. Cervantes' disdain, and muted, vexed respect for, chivalric cultural values can be found in the most lasting image of the work, and one of the most lasting images in all of literature, that of Don Quixote riding valiantly into battle against a windmill.

Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness was published in 1899 and is one of the most influential works in the English language. The book deals with European ideals of what constitutes barbarism and the right to call oneself “civilized” by exploring the harsh reality of European imperialism on the African continent. Conrad is sharply critical of the racial motivations behind European imperialism.

The majority of the Renaissance took place in Italy, as intellectuals from all over Europe flocked to booming cultural centers receiving vast amounts of wealth and support from patrons of the arts and sciences. Florence in particular had undergone a public revitalization of classical Greek studies that focused on poetry, mathematics, science, and art during the rule of the prominent and scholarly Medici family. 

Wilfred Owen's poetry, including his celebrated Dulce et Decorum Est, railed against the horrors of the First World War and helped give a voice to a generation destroyed by violence. John Keats was a 19th century Romantic poet. Jack Kerouac was a mid-century poet and novelist, and a prominent member of the Beat movement. Michel de Montaigne was 16th century French writer widely credited with inventing the modern form of the essay. Philip Larkin is a poet of the mid-20th century.

Shelley's generation was disillusioned with the values of the Enlightenment that touted reason above all else. She and other Romantics believed that feeling and emotion were important, too. Her work did not discuss improving the lives of workers, nor did it encourage further alchemical studies. 

The Globe was a quintessential part of London during the time of William Shakespeare. It opened in 1599 and closed in 1642.

Mary Wollstonecraft was the mother of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, and was a philosopher and feminist. The poet Percy Bysshe Shelley was her husband and may have partially contributed to (although this claim has come under serious doubt recently), but was not the primary author of, Frankenstein. George Gordon Byron, or Lord Byron, was a contemporary poet associated with the Shelleys. The author was Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.

Sir Thomas More wrote the book Utopia (1516) during the reign of Henry VIII. In More's Utopia he dealt with the idea of a society where there was uniformity is all things - religion, government, punishment, etc. 

In Dr. Faustus (1592), a German doctor whose name inspires the play, is influenced to participate in the Dark arts selling his soul to the devil. The work was adapted from a storied German Folk tale, but Marlowe's retelling was, until Goethe's adaptation in the 18th century, the dominant cultural appropriation of the tale.

In the Merchant of Venice (1605), which takes place in, you guessed it Venice, features a character named Shylock who is a Jewish Moneylender. Bassanio, a venetian noble needs to borrow money in order to woo the woman he loves so he is sent to Shylock by a merchant friend, Antonio. Instead of requiring payment of interest on the loan, Shylock requires that Antonio, as guarantor on the loan, to give a pound of flesh if Bassanio does not pay back the money.