"When all the ties that bind the heart are unloosened, then a mortal becomes immortal." The Upanishads, the earliest of which were composed in Sanskrit between 800 and 400 BCE by sages and poets, form part of the Vedas -- the sacred and ancient scriptures that are the basis of the Hindu religion. Each Upanishad, or lesson, takes up a theme ranging from the attainment of spiritual bliss to karma and rebirth, and collectively they are meditations on...
Barchester Towers, published in 1857, is the sequel to Trollope’sThe Warden and continues the story of the clerical doings in the fictional cathedral town of Barchester.
As this novel opens, the old Bishop of Barchester lies dying, and there is considerable doubt as to who will replace
René Descartes was a central figure in the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century. In his Discourse on method he outlined the contrast between mathematics and experimental sciences, and the extent to which each one can achieve certainty. Drawing on his own work in geometry, optics, astronomy, and physiology, Descartes developed the hypothetical method that characterizes modern science, and this soon came to replace the traditional techniques...
James Joyce is his own best interlocutor: 'My intention was to write a chapter of the moral history of my country and I chose Dublin for the scene because that city seemed to me the centre of paralysis. I have tried to present it to the indifferent public under four of its aspects: childhood, adolescence, maturity and public life. The stories are arranged in this order. I have written it for the most part in a style of scrupulous meanness and with...
This sprawling and often brutal novel, set in the rich farmlands of California's Salinas Valley, follows the intertwined destinies of two families--the Trasks' and the Hamilton's--whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel. The story of two brothers, Aron is a clean-cut model student, engaged to be married, the pride of his hardworking father. Cal is a rebellious loner, sternly rejected...
"Published shortly after his death in 1677, Ethics is undoubtedly Spinoza?s greatest work: a fully cohesive philosophical system that strives to provide a coherent picture of reality and to comprehend the meaning of an ethical life. Following a logical step-by-step format, it defines in turn the nature of God, the mind, human bondage to the emotions, and the power of understanding, moving from a consideration of the eternal to speculate upon humanity's...
"In 922 AD, an Arab envoy from Baghdad named Ibn Fadlan encountered a party of Viking traders on the upper reaches of the Volga River. In his subsequent report on his mission he gave a meticulous and astonishingly objective description of Viking customs, dress, table manners, religion and sexual practices, as well as the only eyewitness account ever written of a Viking ship cremation. Between the ninth and fourteenth centuries, Arab travellers such...
Orphaned Jane Eyre endures an unhappy childhood, hated by her aunt and cousins and then sent to comfortless Lowood School. But life there improves and Jane stays on as a teacher, though she still longs for love and friendship. At Mr. Rochester's house, where she goes to work as a governess, she hopes she might have found them.
A complete, vivid picture of France at the beginning of the nineteenth century with unforgettable descriptions of the Paris sewers, the battle of Waterloo and the fighting at the barricades during the July Revolution.
"Beginning with the creation of the world and ending with the deification of Augustus, Ovid interweaves many of the best-known myths and legends of Ancient Greece and Rome, including Daedalus and Icarus, Pyramus and Thisbe, Pygmalion, Perseus and Andromeda, and the fall of Troy"-- provided by publisher.
Story of two restless young men in the late 1940s who cross and recross America, encountering parties, girls, drugs, loneliness and their own dreams along the way.
During one of his several adventurous voyages in the seventeenth century, an Englishman becomes the sole survivor of a shipwreck and lives for nearly thirty years on a desert island before being rescued
"Marianne Dashwood wears her heart on her sleeve, and when she falls in love with the dashing but unsuitable John Willoughby she ignores her sister Elinor's warning that her behaviour leaves her open to gossip. Meanwhile, Elinor is struggling to conceal her own romantic disappointment."--Page 4 of cover.
In Tales of Shakespeare, Charles and Mary Lamb wished to bring the plays to life in a form which would encourage young readers to enjoy Shakespeare--Cover p. [4].
Introduces Harry Trellman, an aging businessman and lifelong outsider whose forty years of longing for an interior decorator is fulfilled, thanks to a billionaire friend.
"The classic boyhood adventure tale, updated with a new introduction by noted Mark Twain scholar R. Kent Rasmussen In recent years, neither the persistent effort to "clean up" the racial epithets in Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn nor its consistent use in the classroom have diminished, highlighting the novel's wide-ranging influence and its continued importance in American society. An incomparable adventure story, it is a vignette of...
