Mark Twain Recommended Books

Benjamin Jowett's translations of Plato have long been classics in their own right. In this volume, Professor Hayden Pelliccia has revised Jowett's renderings of five key dialogues, giving us a modern Plato faithful to both Jowett's best features and Plato's own masterly style.Gathered here are many of Plato's liveliest and richest texts. Ion takes up the question of poetry and introduces the Socratic method. Protagoras discusses poetic interpretation and shows why cross-examination is the best way to get at the truth. Phaedrus takes on the nature of rhetoric, psychology, and love, as does the famous Symposium. Finally, Apology gives us Socrates' art of persuasion put to the ultimate test--defending his own life.Pelliccia's new Introduction to this volume clarifies its contents and addresses the challenges of translating Plato freshly and accurately. In its combination of accessibility and depth, Selected Dialogues of Plato is the ideal introduction to one of the key thinkers of all time.

Plutarch's Lives, written at the beginning of the second century A.D., is a social history of the ancient world by one of the greatest biographers and moralists of all time. In what is by far his most famous and influential work, Plutarch reveals the character and personality of his subjects and how they led ultimately to tragedy or victory. Richly anecdotal and full of detail, Volume I contains profiles and comparisons of Romulus and Theseus, Numa and Lycurgus, Fabius and Pericles, and many more powerful figures of ancient Greece and Rome. The present translation, originally published in 1683 in conjunction with a life of Plutarch by John Dryden, was revised in1864 by the poet and scholar Arthur Hugh Clough, whose notes and preface are also included in this edition. Publisher: Modern Library 2001 Author: Plutarch Translated by: John Dryden Volume: 1 Format: 816 pages, paperback ISBN: 9780375756764Theseus, Romulus, Lycurgus, Numa, Solon, Poplicola, Themistocles, Camillus, Pericles, Fabius, Alcibiadas, Coriolanes, Timoleon, Aemilius Paulus, Pelopidas, Marcellus, Aristides, Marcus Cato, Philopoemen, Flaminius, Pyrrhus, Caius Marius, Lysander, Sylla, Cimon, Lucullus, Nicias, Crassus

Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay

In Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson , one of the towering figures of English literature is revealed with unparalleled immediacy and originality, in a biography to which we owe much of our knowledge of the man himself. Through a series of richly detailed anecdotes, Johnson emerges as a sociable figure, vigorously engaging and fencing with great contemporaries such as Garrick, Goldsmith, Burney and Burke, and of course with Boswell himself. Yet anxieties and obsessions also darkened Johnson's private hours, and Boswell's attentiveness to every facet of Johnson's character makes this biography as moving as it is entertaining.In this entirely new and unabridged edition, David Womersley's introduction examines the motives behind Boswell's work, and the differences between the two men that drew them to each other. It also contains chronologies of Boswell and Johnson, appendices and comprehensive indexes, including biographical details.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Central figures in "The Matter of Britain," King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table still inspire many books and films today. Drawing on the legends of Camelot from French and English sources, Sir Thomas Malory compiled the drama of illicit love, the magic of sorcery, and the quest for the Holy Grail into a sordid and chivalrous tale that's been recounted for centuries. This beautiful leather-bound volume, with gilded edges and a ribbon bookmark so you never lose your place, will be a treasured edition of classic Arthurian folklore in any home library.

The book that established Thomas Carlyle’s reputation when first published in 1837, this spectacular historical masterpiece has since been accepted as the standard work on the subject. It combines a shrewd insight into character, a vivid realization of the picturesque, and a singular ability to bring the past to blazing life, making it a reading experience as thrilling as any novel. As John D. Rosenberg observes in his Introduction, The French Revolution is “one of the grand poems of [Carlyle’s] century, yet its poetry consists in being everywhere scrupulously rooted in historical fact.”This Modern Library Paperback Classics edition, complete and unabridged, is unavailable anywhere else.

Regarded as the preeminent prose satirist in the English language, Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) intended this masterpiece, as he once wrote Alexander Pope, to "vex the world rather than divert it." Savagely ironic, it portrays man as foolish at best, and at worst, not much more than an ape.The direct and unadorned narrative describes four remarkable journies of ship's surgeon Lemuel Gulliver, among them, one to the land of Lilliput, where six-inch-high inhabitants bicker over trivialities; and another to Brobdingnag, a land where giants reduce man to insignificance.Written with disarming simplicity and careful attention to detail, this classic is diverse in its appeal: for children, it remains an enchanting fantasy. For adults, it is a witty parody of political life in Swift's time and a scathing send-up of manners and morals in 18th-century England.

Hailed by The Washington Post as "a definitive synthesis of the best editions" and by The Times of London as "a monument to Shakespearean scholarship," The Oxford Shakespeare is the ultimate anthology of the Bard's work: the most authoritative edition of the plays and poems ever published.Now, almost two decades after the original volume, Oxford is proud to announce a thoroughly updated second edition, including for the first time the texts of The Reign of Edward III and Sir Thomas More, recognizing these two plays officially as authentic works by Shakespeare. This beautiful collection is the product of years of full-time research by a team of British and American scholars and represents the most thorough examination ever undertaken of the nature and authority of Shakespeare's work. The editors reconsidered every detail of the text in the light of modern scholarship and they thoroughly re-examined the earliest printed versions of the plays, firmly establishing the canon and chronological order of composition. All stage directions have been reconsidered in light of original staging, and many new directions for essential action have been added. This superb volume also features a brief introduction to each work as well as an illuminating General Introduction. Finally, the editors have added a wealth of secondary material, including an essay on language, a list of contemporary allusions to Shakespeare, an index of Shakespearean characters, a glossary, a consolidated bibliography, and an index of first lines of the Sonnets.Compiled by the world's leading authorities, packed with information, and attractively designed, The Oxford Shakespeare is the gold standard of Shakespearean anthologies.Table of ContentsIntroductionContemporary Allusions to ShakespeareCommendatory Poems and Prefaces (1599-1640)1. The Two Gentlemen of Verona2. The Taming of the Shrew3. The First Part of the Contention of the Two Famous Houses of York and Lancaster (2 Henry VI)4. The True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York and the Good King Henry the Sixth (3 Henry VI)5. The First Part of Henry the Sixth6. The Most Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus7. The Tragedy of King Richard the Third8. Venus and Adonis9. The Rape of Lucrece10. The Reign of King Edward the Third11. The Comedy of Errors12. Love's Labour's Lost13. Love's Labour's Won: A Brief Account14. The Tragedy of King Richard the Second15. The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet16. A Midsummer Night's Dream17. The Life and Death of King John18. The Comical History of The Merchant of Venice, or Otherwise Called the Jew of Venice19. The History of Henry the Fourth (1 Henry IV)20. The Merry Wives of Windsor21. The Second Part of Henry the Fourth (2 Henry IV)22. Much Ado About Nothing23. The Life of Henry the Fifth24. The Tragedy of Julius Caesar25. As You Like It26. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark27. Twelfth Night, or What You Will28. Troilus and Cressida29. Sonnets and 'A Lover's Complaint'30. Various Poems31. Sir Thomas More32. Measure for Measure33. The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice34. The Life of Timon of Athens35. The History of King Lear: The Quarto Text36. The Tragedy of Macbeth37. The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra38. All's Well That Ends Well39. Pericles, Prince of Tyre: A Reconstructed Text40. The Tragedy of Coriolanus41. The Winter's Tale42. The Tragedy of King Lear: The Folio Text43. Cymbeline, King of Britain44. The Tempest45. Cardenio: A Brief Account46. All Is True (Henry VIII)47. The Two Noble KinsmenSelect Glossary

The radiant climax to Dante's awe-inspiring epic, in a definitive new translationHaving plunged to the utmost depths of Hell and climbed Mount Purgatory in the first two parts of The Divine Comedy , Dante now ascends to Heaven, guided by his beloved Beatrice, to continue his search for God. As he progresses through the spheres of Paradise, he grows ever closer to experiencing divine love in the overwhelming presence of the deity. Examining eternal questions of faith, desire, and enlightenment, Dante exercised all of his learning and wit, wrath and tenderness in his creation of one of the greatest of all Christian allegories. This edition prints Robin Kirkpatrick's impressive new translation alongside Dante's original Italian.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

President Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) was one of the most esteemed individuals of the nineteenth century. His two-volume memoirs, sold door-to-door by former Union soldiers, have never gone out of print and were once as ubiquitous in American households as the Bible. Mark Twain, Gertrude Stein, Matthew Arnold, Henry James, and Edmund Wilson hailed these works as great literature, and Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush both credit Grant with influencing their own writing. Yet a judiciously annotated clarifying edition of these memoirs has never been produced until now.The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant is the first comprehensively annotated edition of Grant's memoirs, fully representing the great military leader's thoughts on his life and times through the end of the Civil War and his invaluable perspective on battlefield decision making. An introduction contextualizes Grant's life and significance, and lucid editorial commentary allows the president's voice and narrative to shine through. With annotations compiled by the editors of the Ulysses S. Grant Association's Presidential Library, this definitive edition enriches our understanding of the antebellum era, the Mexican War, and the Civil War. Grant provides insight into how rigorously these events tested America's democratic institutions and the cohesion of its social order.The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant preserves and extends a work of profound political, historical, and literary significance and serves as the gateway for modern readers of all backgrounds to an American classic.

Plutarch's Lives, written at the beginning of the second century A.D., is a brilliant social history of the ancient world by one of the greatest biographers and moralists of all time. In what is by far his most famous and influential work, Plutarch reveals the character and personality of his subjects and how they led ultimately to tragedy or victory. Richly anecdotal and full of detail, Volume I contains profiles and comparisons of Romulus and Theseus, Numa and Lycurgus, Fabius and Pericles, and many more powerful figures of ancient Greece and Rome.The present translation, originally published in 1683 in conjunction with a life of Plutarch by John Dryden, was revised in 1864 by the poet and scholar Arthur Hugh Clough, whose notes and preface are also included in this edition.

Robert Browning's poetic scope was broad, ranging from the beguiling magic of The Pied Piper of Hamelin to the epic book-length poem The Ring and the Book . This comprehensive selection includes over eighty of his shorter poems, amongst them his most famous and best-loved dramatic monologues, as well as the complete text of many of his longer poems. It contains three books from The Ring and the Book and Browning's critical writing, Essay on Shelley . This edition also selects generously from the love letters between Browning and Elizabeth Barrett, as well as from Browning's more general correspondence--letters that cast a unique light upon the poems themselves and poetry in general. The book represents a unique combination of Browning's poetry and prose chosen from the whole range of his career to give the essence of his work and thinking.About the For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Francis Parkman, Jr. (September 16, 1823 – November 8, 1893) was an American historian and author, best known of The Oregon Trail, and France and England in North America. The Works of Francis Parkman (with an active table of contents) contains 11 books, The Oregon Trail The Conspiracy of Pontiac and the Indian War after the Conquest of Canada Pioneers of France in the New World The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV Montcalm and Wolfe A Half Century of Conflict – Volume 1 & 2 France and England in North America, Part 3 Historic Handbook of the Northern Tour Vassall Morton

Although Tennyson (1809-1892) has often seemed to personify the Victorian Age, he was a poet before it began and his poems endure to speak clearly to this modern one. His mastery of a great variety of poetic forms and moods enables him to communicate such extremes of feeling as ‘calm despair and wild unrest’; rapturous love: ‘the soul of the rose went into my blood’; and noble resolve:…One equal temper of heroic hearts / Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will.

Defying his parents, Robinson Crusoe goes to sea. He is captured by pirates but escapes to Brazil. He makes a fortune using slave labor to grow tobacco and sugar. He sails to Africa to bring back more slaves but is shipwrecked on an uninhabited island. Everyone else is drowned. For over 20 years he lives alone. He learns to hunt and fish and make shelter. Then the cannibals arrive. Will this be the end of his adventure, or the chance to escape?