Catalog Search Results
Author
Series
Formats
Description
The first volume of Decline and Fall was published in 1776, and by the time the final volume appeared in 1787, Gibbon had produced an exhaustive, million-and-a-half-word account of a 'revolution, which shall ever be remembered and is still felt by the nations of the earth'.
This panoramic work, covering 13 centuries from 180 A.D. to the fall of Constantinople in 1453, has been described as 'a bridge that carries one from the ancient world to the...
Author
Series
Formats
Description
War and Peace is a vast epic centred on Napoleons war with Russia. While it expresses Tolstoys view that history is an inexorable process which man cannot influence, he peoples his great novel with a cast of over five hundred characters. Three of these, the artless and delightful Natasha Rostov, the world-weary Prince Andrew Bolkonsky and the idealistic Pierre Bezukhov illustrate Tolstoys philosophy in this novel of unquestioned mastery.
Author
Series
Great books of the Western World volume 39
Description
The Wealth of Nations is a powerhouse of knowledge that was first published in 1776. Adam Smith was an astute Scottish professor of moral philosophy, and he expounded the revolutionary doctrine of his time to economic liberalism.
The importance of the book was almost immediately recognized by his peers who admired his thought and progressive ideas.
The Wealth of Nations is comprised of five volumes/books in one. Perfect for class study or improving...
Author
Series
Description
The wayward traveler -- Lemuel Gulliver -- ends up on a series of bizarrely populated islands. First he is a giant among little people, but then sees the situation reversed when he's surrounded by giants twelve times his size. Next he finds himself in the clouds, in a society of devoted but ultimately hapless mathematicians. Lastly, his journey brings him to an island where incredibly noble horses must deal with a race of uncouth, reviled ape-men:...
Author
Series
Appears on list
Formats
Description
"This convenient single-volume edition contains all three parts of Dante's 14th-century poem; Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso; in an acclaimed translation by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Combining classical and Christian history as well as medieval politics and religion, this trilogy of sublime verse is among Western civilization's most important artistic works and essential reading for students of literature and history. Dante's allegory...
9) The Prince
Author
Series
Description
The most famous book on politics ever written, The Prince remains as lively and shocking today as when it was written almost five hundred years ago. Initially denounced as a collection of sinister maxims and a recommendation of tyranny, it has more recently been defended as the first scientific treatment of politics as it is practiced rather than as it ought to be practiced. Harvey C. Mansfield's brilliant translation of this classic work, along with...
Author
Series
Description
The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky's crowning achievement, is a tale of patricide & family rivalry that embodies the moral & spiritual dissolution of an entire society (Russia in the 1870s). It created a national furor comparable only to the excitement stirred by the publication, in 1866, of Crime & Punishment. To Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov captured the quintessence of Russian character in all its exaltation, compassion, & profligacy. Significantly,...
Author
Series
Description
Tom, a foundling, is discovered one evening by the benevolent Squire Allworthy and his sister Bridget and brought up as a son in their household; when his sexual escapades and general misbehavior lead them to banish him, he sets out in search of both his fortune and his true identity. Amorous, high-spirited, and filled with what Fielding called the glorious lust of doing good, but with a tendency toward dissolution, Tom Jones is one of the first characters...
12) Faust
Author
Description
This deluxe hardcover edition is the most sumptuous version ever of the story of the philosopher who sells his soul to the devil for knowledge and power. Harry Clarke's dark artistic vision is perfectly suited to Goethe's masterpiece. Twenty-one plates, eight of them color, complement the text, along with black-and-white drawings and endpapers.
Author
Series
Great books of the Western world volume 29
Description
The adventures of a middle-aged Spanish hidalgo who, under the influence of chivalric romances, sets out under the assumed name of Don Quixote to revive the chivalric tradition and improve the world. He is accompanied in his quest by his down-to-earth squire, Sancho Panza.
Author
Description
The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel is a pentalogy of novels written in the 16th century by François Rabelais, telling the adventures of two giants, Gargantua and his son Pantagruel. The work is written in an amusing, extravagant, and satirical vein; features much erudition, vulgarity, and wordplay; and is regularly compared with the works of William Shakespeare and James Joyce. Rabelais was a polyglot, and the work introduced "a great number...