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Ralph Waldo Emerson is best known as being a leader of the transcendentalist movement, a philosophy that emerged in the mid 19th century in New England. Transcendentalism was a general protest against established society and culture at the time that sought an ideal spiritual state that 'transcends' the physical and empirical and is only realized through the individual's intuition, rather than through the doctrines of established religions. In ...

What begins as a middle-aged country gentleman absorbed with novels of chivalry deliberately evolves into a tale of purely imaginative knight-errantry in this highly influential work of the Spanish Golden Age. This first of modern novels was written in the experimental episodic form, allowing Don Quixote and his 'squire' Sancho Panza to go on quests that just as often as not land them in trouble or earn them the incredulity of those fully enga...

On Christian Teaching" or "On Christian Doctrine" is a classic religious exposition by Saint Augustine of Hippo which includes four books that discuss how to interpret and teach the Holy Scriptures. This work is a basic outgrowth of Augustine's early frustrations with interpreting the Scriptures. In interpreting the Scriptures one must decide whether a literal or an allegorical interpretation is most appropriate and Augustine discusses this ma...

In this sequel to Jerome K. Jerome's most famous work "Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)" we have a reunion of the three companions from the first book, minus the dog, who are setting out on a bicycle tour through the Black Forest of Germany. Written near the end of the Victorian bicycle craze in which bicycles became a common fixture amongst the middle-class for recreational purposes, "Three Men on the Bummel" is a masterfully h...

First performed in 1921 with Romans calling out 'Madhouse!' from the audience, "Six Characters in Search of an Author" has remained the most famous and innovative of Pirandello's plays. Often labeled a satirical tragicomedy, this play initiated the anti-illusionism movement of the early twentieth century, rejecting realism in favor of a more symbolic, dreamlike quality. When an acting company's rehearsal is interrupted by six family members wh...

First written in 1486 by zealous Inquisitors of the Catholic Church, "The Witch Hammer" came to be the witch-hunting handbook of the fifteenth century. Its main purpose was to refute doubts of the existence of witchcraft, though it proceeds to prove women more susceptible than men, as well as to outline procedures that allowed law enforcers to discover and convict witches. Because of the papal bull acknowledging the validity of this previously...

The Downfall (La Débâcle)" is Émile Zola's 1892 novel, the penultimate in the Rougon-Macquart series, which is a story set against the background of the Franco-Prussian War, the Battle of Sedan and the Paris Commune, events that led to the end of the reign of Napoléon III and the Second French Empire in 1870. The novel follows Jean Macquart, a corporal in the French army corps, as they are driven back by the Prussians deeper and deeper into Fr...

Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, better known as Pliny the Younger was a lawyer, author, and magistrate of Ancient Rome. Born of the equestrian rank, the lower of the two Roman aristocratic orders, Pliny would ascend to the higher rank, the senatorial order, by being elected Quaestor in his late twenties. The nephew of Pliny the Elder, Pliny the Younger would have correspondence with numerous important Roman figures throughout his lifetime, i...

H. A. Geuerber's "The Myths of the Norsemen" is a classic collection of stories retold from Norse mythology. Beginning with the Norse myth of creation and following through the sagas of more than twenty gods, heroes and villains, "The Myths of the Norsemen" recounts the rich mythological tradition of the Norse people. Of the more familiar characters in this collection one might immediately recognize the stories of Odin and Thor. These stories ...

The Inferno", Henri Barbusse's 1908 novel, is a brilliant examination of the philosophy of solipsism, which is the idea that knowledge outside of one's own mind is essentially unobtainable. Solipsism conjectures that the external world and the minds of other people can never be known to truly exist. The narrative follows an unnamed man who by cutting a hole in his room gains a view to the outside world. He voyeuristically bears witness to the ...

Born in 1572 in London England, John Donne was an English Jacobean poet of exceptional skill, whose poetry was known for its vibrancy of language and inventiveness of metaphor. While Donne was well educated and his poetic talents considerable he struggled for much of his life to provide for his family. Having published only two volumes during his lifetime, he was not a professional poet. Despite this his legacy on the world of poetry is a sign...

In this collection we find two of Cicero's philosophical treatises, "On Friendship" and "On Old Age". In Cicero's treatise on friendship we learn of his belief that true friendship with someone is derived from complete honesty, truth and trust. Cicero placed a high value upon friendship and saw it as a relationship of mutual benefit in which friends do things for each other without expectation of repayment. In a related philosophical writing o...

Cicero placed a high value on the importance of mastering the skill of rhetoric, which is the art of using language as a means to persuade. Such a skill was important especially in the practice of law and politics, of which he did both. In the "Treatise of Rhetorical Invention" Cicero outlines his theories on rhetoric in this early composition. In "Topics" we find an exposition of the tools that an orator may avail himself of in crafting a con...

An epic endeavor by a man genuinely enamored of his native Rome, Livy's "The History of Rome" was originally written in 142 books spanning the entire history of the Roman people up to Livy's day in the time of Augustus in the first century BC. While this Roman historian's monumental undertaking took most of his life, only 35 books still survive today. Livy begins with Aeneas' landing on Italy and the myth of Romulus and Remus' founding of Rome...

An epic endeavor by a man genuinely enamored of his native Rome, Livy's "The History of Rome" was originally written in 142 books spanning the entire history of the Roman people up to Livy's day in the time of Augustus in the first century BC. While this Roman historian's monumental undertaking took most of his life, only 35 books still survive today. Livy begins with Aeneas' landing on Italy and the myth of Romulus and Remus' founding of Rome...

Two late dialogues of Plato designed to be part of a trilogy that the philosopher did not finish, "Timaeus" and "Critias" utilize a few select men to theorize on the natural world and to tell a story of the lost city of Atlantis. "Timaeus" is a treatise, written in Socratic dialogue form in 360 BC, that speculates on the nature of the physical world, the purpose of the universe, properties of the universe, the creation of the world soul, the e...

An epic endeavor by a man genuinely enamored of his native Rome, Livy's "The History of Rome" was originally written in 142 books spanning the entire history of the Roman people up to Livy's day in the time of Augustus in the first century BC. While this Roman historian's monumental undertaking took most of his life, only 35 books still survive today. Livy begins with Aeneas' landing on Italy and the myth of Romulus and Remus' founding of Rome...

One of the middle or transitional dialogues of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, "Gorgias" is one of his more important writings. Plato contrasts the rhetorician and the philosopher, whose differing specialties are persuasion and refutation, respectively. The famous foreign rhetorician Gorgias has been drawn to Athens and its intellectual sophistication and is the initial reason for the discussion. However, as Plato delves into arguments bo...

Notes on the State of Virginia" was the only full-length book by Thomas Jefferson published during his lifetime. Having been first published anonymously in a private printing in Paris in 1784, "Notes on the State of Virginia" was later made available to the general public in a 1787 printing in England. Considered one of the most important American books published before the turn of the 19th century, the book deals extensively with important po...

Widely considered the most famous work of the professional soldier and writer Xenophon, "Anabasis" is a true tale of dangerous adventure in ancient Greece. Though advised not to join the army of 10, 000 by his friend Socrates, Xenophon does set out with Cyrus the Great in that man's attempt to gain the empire of Persia from his brother. When this leader is killed in battle, however, the army loses cause and direction, and the result is a 'marc...