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In 1849/50, Charles Dickens published David Copperfield, one of his most celebrated novels. The story of the small orphan boy who finds his way into bourgeois society despite all obstacles is among the best-known works of world literature. But David Copperfield is not merely a gripping story — it is also a kind of literary guide to middle-class conduct. We illustrate this with three examples. Part 1 addresses the choice of a marriage partner.

From the curriculum of medieval monastic schools to the basic knowledge of every Italian Renaissance painter: Euclid and his works have many facets. Without him and his theory of optics, the central perspective might never have been discovered.

What associations do we have when we speak of 'indigenous peoples'? A life in harmony with nature? A fulfilling sense of community in the village? Precarious conditions under the constant threat of annihilation? All of these are prejudices. That ambition, egotism, and abuse of power existed even among 'indigenous peoples' is illustrated by the novel written by the Mosotho Thomas Mokopu Mofolo. It remains to this day the most significant piece of prose written in the Sesotho language.

The writer Arnold Bennett, little known today, was among the highest-paid authors of his time. He had just one handicap: he was shy. What problems that brings for a man who must live in the public eye was described by Bennett in his novel 'Buried Alive.'

Conrad Gessner owes his reputation above all to his 'Book of Animals.' In it he compiled for the first time all the animals known to science of the day in a kind of encyclopaedia. But there was still a long road ahead to modern zoology.