What trait defines a hero? For Carlyle, it's absolute sincerity, firm belief in one's principles, and an inherent spark of the Divine. In this compelling series of lectures, delivered in 1840, Carlyle uses various examples of great men throughout history-divided into six categories and including Dante, Odin, Luther, and Napoleon, among others-to convey his notion of a hero.

Examines the fundamental principles of Zen Buddhism, discusses how to put these beliefs in practice in everyday life, and describes Zen customs and ceremonies.

This volume offers Alcott's semi-autobiographical 1873 novel.

Presents an experimental novel depicting a dream of world history, with characters from literature and history appearing and disappearing, written in a dream language that is a comical mixture of all the languages of Europe.

In this chronicle of a long-ago land on civilisation's brink, possibly in Africa or Asia, Gorgik the Liberator's slave revolt gathers toward its conclusion. A richly written novel of myth and literacy, Nevèrÿona tells how young Pryn, who can write in this largely pre-literate land, flees her mountain village on a dragon's back for Neveryon's capital port, Kolhari, to aid Gorgik's rebelllion. Now on the Bridge of Lost Desire, now in Madam Keyne's...

This tale, set during the Depression, tells about Francis Phelan and other inhabitants of skid row in Albany, New York. Ironweed, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, is the best-known of William Kennedy's three Albany-based novels. Francis Phelan, ex-ballplayer, part-time gravedigger, full-time drunk, has hit bottom. Years ago he left Albany in a hurry after killing a scab during a trolley workers' strike; he ran away again after accidentally - and fatally...

Twenty-three biographical essays on writers admired by the award-winning author of The Education of Oscar Fairfax. For Louis Auchincloss, life and letters are not two things but one. It therefore comes as no surprise that when he writes about writers, their lives are considered as closely as their works. He takes what today is a refreshingly unpopular position: that the artist and his art cannot be teased apart, that biography of criticism and criticism...

Presents a dramatization of the diary of Anne Frank, a thirteen-year-old Dutch-Jewish girl who recorded her thoughts and experiences while in hiding from the Nazis for two years before being discovered and taken to a concentration camp.

The great sixteenth-century poet vividly imagines the end of the First Crusade, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, and the taking of Jerusalem. This decidedly fictional 1581 account, influenced by Homer and Virgil as well as Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, is heavily seasoned with romance, intrigue, and sorcery. Tasso's poem inspired painters, playwrights, and librettists for centuries. Verse translation by Edward Fairfax.