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Added: 15.05.2015, 14:40

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Of all the "historical" biographies of Napoleon, the one most often forgotten but one which played an important part in the creation of the Napoleonic legend was Sir Walter Scott's nine-volume 'Life of Napoleon Buonaparte'.

Review:

Of all the "historical" biographies of Napoleon, the one most often forgotten but one which played an important part in the creation of the Napoleonic legend was Sir Walter Scott's nine-volume 'Life of Napoleon Buonaparte'.
 
After his success as a writer of fiction (who can forget Ivanhoe or Quentin Durward, not to mention Waverley, Rob Roy and theBride of Lammermoor, famously made into an opera by Donizetti?), Scott (1771-1832) was approached in May 1825 by the publisher Archibald Constable  to write a book of history. Constable's idea was to publish a series of cheap books for the middle classes, under the title "Constable's Miscellany", and Scott's (initially four-volume) "Napoleon" was to be one of the first titles. Publication of the work was promised in June of the same year, whetting the reading public's appetite. But in 1826 Constable's business was forced to close and Scott (whose affairs were often linked to those to his publishers) declared bankruptcy as a result. Compounding his (and indeed his wife's) misfortunes, in May of 1826 Scott's wife died. In the period of financial and emotional instability, Scott soldiered on. And though he was assisted in his research, he also undertook some himself, visiting London and Paris in the October of 1826 (the British government gave him special access to papers relating to the St Helena episode). Wellington was said to have provided Scott with a first-hand account of Napoleon's Russian Campaign.

Scott then returned to Scotland to compile his notes, completing the nine-volume, supposedly one-million-word opus magnum on 7 June, 1827, with volume one coming out in the same month, published jointly by Cadell in Edinburgh and Longman's in London (the latter had offered 10,500 guineas to publish the work). 
French interest was naturally immediate, and the Parisian book dealers Treuttel et Wurtz took charge of the publication of the English-language version on the continent and for the French translation, which appeared in the same year as the English-language version. Translations into German and Spanish were soon to follow.
 

[Frontispiece, 1827 French edition]

Frontispiece, 1827 French edition

The work was to be received coolly on both sides of the channel, for diametrically opposed reasons. Walter Scott proclaimed his own impartiality, but as a result was criticised in Britain by Torys for his positive attitude towards the fallen emperor notably with respect to his military genius, his mastery of administration and his impressive legacy to France (the national system of education, greatly improved communications, and the Code Napoléon). However his negative comments on the emperor his overweaning ambition and his blind egotism) alienated to a certain extent part of his French readership. As for its literary qualities, some criticised his works 'poetry', other his wordy language. Yet others were to note that Scott's knowledge of the subject was extremely superficial.
 
In France, one issue was to cause particular excitation, namely the conflict between Scott and Napoleon's companion in exile, General Gaspard Gourgaud, a disagreement which nearly ended in a duel (Gourgaud was renowned for his fiery temper). The quarrel was caused by the pages in Scott's book which dealt which Gourgaud's departure from Saint Helena. Having had access to British-government papers on the Saint Helena incident, Scott affirmed that Gourgaud on Saint Helena had wanted to return to his family in Europe, that he was tired of his poor relations with Grand-maréchal Bertrand, and that he had informed Hudson Lowe, governor on Saint Helena, and later the British government directly, of projects to rescue Napoleon from the island but of Napoleon's desire to remain prisoner. 

French journalists took Gourgaud's side, as did Napoleon's other companions in exile, Bertrand et Montholon (Scott had in fact succeeded in uniting them where Napoleon had failed!). The actual duel however did not take place (Gourgaud would have had to got to Scotland) so the conflict became a war of words. Whilst Gourgaud was successfully represented as a martyr, the doubt had nevertheless been shed, and recent publications on the Saint Helena incident have revealed that Gourgaud was in fact consumed with rancour at Napoleon, Bertrand and the general atmosphere on Saint Helena and did indeed allow himself certain indiscretions and betrayed certain secrets.

Another figure unhappy at the treatment of the Saint Helena episode was Hudson Lowe himself. He considered Scott's treatment of him outrageous, particularly the implication that a little more indulgence on Lowe's part might not have gone amiss; indeed it might even have helped. But Scott had taken such great care with the passage where he presents the Napoleon/Lowe differential that Lowe could not take Scott to court.

Despite the author's claims to impartiality, modern scholarship still sees Scott's biography portraying Napoleon unrelentingly in an unfavourable light. It has on the other hand remained, because of Scott's fame, as an important stage in the creation of the Napoleonic legend.

http://www.napoleon.org/en/reading_room/articles/files/napopages_scott.asp

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Added: 15.05.2015, 14:37

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Of all the "historical" biographies of Napoleon, the one most often forgotten but one which played an important part in the creation of the Napoleonic legend was Sir Walter Scott's nine-volume 'Life of Napoleon Buonaparte'.

Review:

Of all the "historical" biographies of Napoleon, the one most often forgotten but one which played an important part in the creation of the Napoleonic legend was Sir Walter Scott's nine-volume 'Life of Napoleon Buonaparte'.
 
After his success as a writer of fiction (who can forget Ivanhoe or Quentin Durward, not to mention Waverley, Rob Roy and theBride of Lammermoor, famously made into an opera by Donizetti?), Scott (1771-1832) was approached in May 1825 by the publisher Archibald Constable  to write a book of history. Constable's idea was to publish a series of cheap books for the middle classes, under the title "Constable's Miscellany", and Scott's (initially four-volume) "Napoleon" was to be one of the first titles. Publication of the work was promised in June of the same year, whetting the reading public's appetite. But in 1826 Constable's business was forced to close and Scott (whose affairs were often linked to those to his publishers) declared bankruptcy as a result. Compounding his (and indeed his wife's) misfortunes, in May of 1826 Scott's wife died. In the period of financial and emotional instability, Scott soldiered on. And though he was assisted in his research, he also undertook some himself, visiting London and Paris in the October of 1826 (the British government gave him special access to papers relating to the St Helena episode). Wellington was said to have provided Scott with a first-hand account of Napoleon's Russian Campaign.

Scott then returned to Scotland to compile his notes, completing the nine-volume, supposedly one-million-word opus magnum on 7 June, 1827, with volume one coming out in the same month, published jointly by Cadell in Edinburgh and Longman's in London (the latter had offered 10,500 guineas to publish the work). 
French interest was naturally immediate, and the Parisian book dealers Treuttel et Wurtz took charge of the publication of the English-language version on the continent and for the French translation, which appeared in the same year as the English-language version. Translations into German and Spanish were soon to follow.
 

[Frontispiece, 1827 French edition]

Frontispiece, 1827 French edition

The work was to be received coolly on both sides of the channel, for diametrically opposed reasons. Walter Scott proclaimed his own impartiality, but as a result was criticised in Britain by Torys for his positive attitude towards the fallen emperor notably with respect to his military genius, his mastery of administration and his impressive legacy to France (the national system of education, greatly improved communications, and the Code Napoléon). However his negative comments on the emperor his overweaning ambition and his blind egotism) alienated to a certain extent part of his French readership. As for its literary qualities, some criticised his works 'poetry', other his wordy language. Yet others were to note that Scott's knowledge of the subject was extremely superficial.
 
In France, one issue was to cause particular excitation, namely the conflict between Scott and Napoleon's companion in exile, General Gaspard Gourgaud, a disagreement which nearly ended in a duel (Gourgaud was renowned for his fiery temper). The quarrel was caused by the pages in Scott's book which dealt which Gourgaud's departure from Saint Helena. Having had access to British-government papers on the Saint Helena incident, Scott affirmed that Gourgaud on Saint Helena had wanted to return to his family in Europe, that he was tired of his poor relations with Grand-maréchal Bertrand, and that he had informed Hudson Lowe, governor on Saint Helena, and later the British government directly, of projects to rescue Napoleon from the island but of Napoleon's desire to remain prisoner. 

French journalists took Gourgaud's side, as did Napoleon's other companions in exile, Bertrand et Montholon (Scott had in fact succeeded in uniting them where Napoleon had failed!). The actual duel however did not take place (Gourgaud would have had to got to Scotland) so the conflict became a war of words. Whilst Gourgaud was successfully represented as a martyr, the doubt had nevertheless been shed, and recent publications on the Saint Helena incident have revealed that Gourgaud was in fact consumed with rancour at Napoleon, Bertrand and the general atmosphere on Saint Helena and did indeed allow himself certain indiscretions and betrayed certain secrets.

Another figure unhappy at the treatment of the Saint Helena episode was Hudson Lowe himself. He considered Scott's treatment of him outrageous, particularly the implication that a little more indulgence on Lowe's part might not have gone amiss; indeed it might even have helped. But Scott had taken such great care with the passage where he presents the Napoleon/Lowe differential that Lowe could not take Scott to court.

Despite the author's claims to impartiality, modern scholarship still sees Scott's biography portraying Napoleon unrelentingly in an unfavourable light. It has on the other hand remained, because of Scott's fame, as an important stage in the creation of the Napoleonic legend.

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Added: 15.05.2015, 14:36

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Of all the "historical" biographies of Napoleon, the one most often forgotten but one which played an important part in the creation of the Napoleonic legend was Sir Walter Scott's nine-volume 'Life of Napoleon Buonaparte'.

Review:

Of all the "historical" biographies of Napoleon, the one most often forgotten but one which played an important part in the creation of the Napoleonic legend was Sir Walter Scott's nine-volume 'Life of Napoleon Buonaparte'.
 
After his success as a writer of fiction (who can forget Ivanhoe or Quentin Durward, not to mention Waverley, Rob Roy and theBride of Lammermoor, famously made into an opera by Donizetti?), Scott (1771-1832) was approached in May 1825 by the publisher Archibald Constable  to write a book of history. Constable's idea was to publish a series of cheap books for the middle classes, under the title "Constable's Miscellany", and Scott's (initially four-volume) "Napoleon" was to be one of the first titles. Publication of the work was promised in June of the same year, whetting the reading public's appetite. But in 1826 Constable's business was forced to close and Scott (whose affairs were often linked to those to his publishers) declared bankruptcy as a result. Compounding his (and indeed his wife's) misfortunes, in May of 1826 Scott's wife died. In the period of financial and emotional instability, Scott soldiered on. And though he was assisted in his research, he also undertook some himself, visiting London and Paris in the October of 1826 (the British government gave him special access to papers relating to the St Helena episode). Wellington was said to have provided Scott with a first-hand account of Napoleon's Russian Campaign.

Scott then returned to Scotland to compile his notes, completing the nine-volume, supposedly one-million-word opus magnum on 7 June, 1827, with volume one coming out in the same month, published jointly by Cadell in Edinburgh and Longman's in London (the latter had offered 10,500 guineas to publish the work). 
French interest was naturally immediate, and the Parisian book dealers Treuttel et Wurtz took charge of the publication of the English-language version on the continent and for the French translation, which appeared in the same year as the English-language version. Translations into German and Spanish were soon to follow.
 

[Frontispiece, 1827 French edition]

Frontispiece, 1827 French edition

The work was to be received coolly on both sides of the channel, for diametrically opposed reasons. Walter Scott proclaimed his own impartiality, but as a result was criticised in Britain by Torys for his positive attitude towards the fallen emperor notably with respect to his military genius, his mastery of administration and his impressive legacy to France (the national system of education, greatly improved communications, and the Code Napoléon). However his negative comments on the emperor his overweaning ambition and his blind egotism) alienated to a certain extent part of his French readership. As for its literary qualities, some criticised his works 'poetry', other his wordy language. Yet others were to note that Scott's knowledge of the subject was extremely superficial.
 
In France, one issue was to cause particular excitation, namely the conflict between Scott and Napoleon's companion in exile, General Gaspard Gourgaud, a disagreement which nearly ended in a duel (Gourgaud was renowned for his fiery temper). The quarrel was caused by the pages in Scott's book which dealt which Gourgaud's departure from Saint Helena. Having had access to British-government papers on the Saint Helena incident, Scott affirmed that Gourgaud on Saint Helena had wanted to return to his family in Europe, that he was tired of his poor relations with Grand-maréchal Bertrand, and that he had informed Hudson Lowe, governor on Saint Helena, and later the British government directly, of projects to rescue Napoleon from the island but of Napoleon's desire to remain prisoner. 

French journalists took Gourgaud's side, as did Napoleon's other companions in exile, Bertrand et Montholon (Scott had in fact succeeded in uniting them where Napoleon had failed!). The actual duel however did not take place (Gourgaud would have had to got to Scotland) so the conflict became a war of words. Whilst Gourgaud was successfully represented as a martyr, the doubt had nevertheless been shed, and recent publications on the Saint Helena incident have revealed that Gourgaud was in fact consumed with rancour at Napoleon, Bertrand and the general atmosphere on Saint Helena and did indeed allow himself certain indiscretions and betrayed certain secrets.

Another figure unhappy at the treatment of the Saint Helena episode was Hudson Lowe himself. He considered Scott's treatment of him outrageous, particularly the implication that a little more indulgence on Lowe's part might not have gone amiss; indeed it might even have helped. But Scott had taken such great care with the passage where he presents the Napoleon/Lowe differential that Lowe could not take Scott to court.

Despite the author's claims to impartiality, modern scholarship still sees Scott's biography portraying Napoleon unrelentingly in an unfavourable light. It has on the other hand remained, because of Scott's fame, as an important stage in the creation of the Napoleonic legend.

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Added: 12.03.2015, 23:39

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Richard III is a historical play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1592. It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England. The play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified as such. Occasionally, however, as in the quarto edition, it is termed a tragedy. Richard III concludes Shakespeare's first tetralogy (also containingHenry VI parts 1–3).

It is the second longest play in the canon after Hamlet, and is the longest of the First Folio, whose version of Hamlet is shorter than its Quarto counterpart. The play is rarely performed unabridged; often, certain peripheral characters are removed entirely. In such instances extra lines are often invented or added from elsewhere in the sequence to establish the nature of characters' relationships. A further reason for abridgment is that Shakespeare assumed that his audiences would be familiar with the Henry VI plays, and frequently made indirect references to events in them, such as Richard's murder of Henry VI or the defeat of Henry's queen,Margaret.

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Added: 12.03.2015, 23:31

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The Critique of Judgment, often called the Third Critique, does not have as clear a focus as the first two critiques. In broad outline, Kant sets about examining our faculty of judgment, which leads him down a number of divergent paths. While theCritique of Judgment deals with matters related to science and teleology, it is most remembered for what Kant has to say about aesthetics.

Kant calls aesthetic judgments “judgments of taste” and remarks that, though they are based in an individual’s subjective feelings, they also claim universal validity. Our feelings about beauty differ from our feelings about pleasure and moral goodness in that they are disinterested. We seek to possess pleasurable objects, and we seek to promote moral goodness, but we simply appreciate beauty without feeling driven to find some use for it. Judgments of taste are universal because they are disinterested: our individual wants and needs do not come into play when appreciating beauty, so our aesthetic response applies universally. Aesthetic pleasure comes from the free play between the imagination and understanding when perceiving an object.

Kant distinguishes the beautiful from the sublime. While the appeal of beautiful objects is immediately apparent, the sublime holds an air of mystery and ineffability. While a Greek statue or a pretty flower is beautiful, the movement of storm clouds or a massive building is sublime: they are, in a sense, too great to get our heads around. Kant argues that our sense of the sublime is connected with our faculty of reason, which has ideas of absolute totality and absolute freedom. While storm clouds or a massive building might stretch our minds, they are nothing compared with reason’s ideas of absolute totality and freedom. Apprehending sublime objects puts us in touch with these ideas of reason, so that sublimity resides not in sublime objects but in reason itself.

In a second part of the book, Kant wrestles with the concept of teleology, the idea that something has an end, or purpose. Teleology falls somewhere between science and theology, and Kant argues that the concept is useful in scientific work even though we would be wrong to assume that teleological principles are actually at work in nature.

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Added: 25.02.2015, 20:50

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The portrait of Tacitus' father-in-law, Agricola, is a eulogistic description of the career of the famous governor of Roman Britain, and it contains the first detailed account of the British Isles. In the Germania Tacitus examines the life and customs of the war-like German tribes, often comparing them favourably with the decadence of Imperial Rome. Hailed as a ' golden book ', the Germania is certainly the best of its kind in antiquity. 

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Added: 25.02.2015, 20:31

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From 1901 to 1917 Hodous labored as a missionary under the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) in Foochow, during which time he also carried out careful studies on Buddhismand the Chinese folk religion. 

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Added: 25.02.2015, 20:27

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Denis Stone, a naive young poet, is invited to stay at Crome, a country house renowned for its gatherings of 'bright young things'. His hosts, Henry Wimbush and his exotic wife Priscilla, are joined by a party of colourful guests whose intrigues and opinions ensure Denis's stay is a memorable one. First published in 1921, Crome Yellow was Aldous Huxley's much-acclaimed debut novel.

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Added: 22.09.2024, 18:43

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"Morals" (Moralia) is a diverse collection of essays, dialogues, and treatises that offer insight into various aspects of ethics, philosophy, religion, politics, and cultural practices in the ancient world.

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Added: 12.02.2015, 00:32

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Collected Papers on Analytical Psychology is a comprehensive collection of works by the renowned Swiss psychotherapist and psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung. The book is a compilation of his papers on analytical psychology, a field of study that focuses on the exploration of the unconscious mind and its influence on human behavior. The book is divided into two parts. The first part provides an overview of Jung's theories and concepts, including his ideas on the collective unconscious, archetypes, and the process of individuation. The second part consists of case studies and essays on various topics such as dream analysis, the role of religion in psychological therapy, and the psychological aspects of alchemy. Throughout the book, Jung emphasizes the importance of understanding the unconscious mind in order to achieve psychological balance and personal growth. He also explores the relationship between the individual and society, and the role of spirituality and mythology in shaping human experience. Overall, Collected Papers on Analytical Psychology is a seminal work in the field of psychology and a valuable resource for anyone interested in the study of the human psyche.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

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ISBN: 978-0-393-24067-2
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Added: 04.02.2015, 16:56

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A lively and fascinating narrative history about the birth of the modern world.

Beginning in the heady days just after the First Crusade, this volume—the third in the series that began with The History of the Ancient World and The History of the Medieval World—chronicles the contradictions of a world in transition.

Popes continue to preach crusade, but the hope of a Christian empire comes to a bloody end at the walls of Constantinople. Aristotelian logic and Greek rationality blossom while the Inquisition gathers strength. As kings and emperors continue to insist on their divine rights, ordinary people all over the world seize power: the lingayats of India, the Jacquerie of France, the Red Turbans of China, and the peasants of England.

New threats appear, as the Ottomans emerge from a tiny Turkish village and the Mongols ride out of the East to set the world on fire. New currencies are forged, new weapons invented, and world-changing catastrophes alter the landscape: the Little Ice Age and the Great Famine kill millions; the Black Death, millions more. In the chaos of these epoch-making events, our own world begins to take shape.

Impressively researched and brilliantly told, The History of the Renaissance World offers not just the names, dates, and facts but the memorable characters who illuminate the years between 1100 and 1453—years that marked a sea change in mankind’s perception of the world.

22 illustrations, 96 maps

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Added: 28.01.2015, 17:18

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In this brilliantly written popular account, the foremost Platonist examines Aristotle's theories, historical background, influence, and present-day application. Dr. Taylor covers the Greek philosopher's thoughts on classification of the sciences; scientific method; formal logic; induction; theory of knowledge; the four causes; motion and its eternity; God; terrestrial bodies; and much more.

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Added: 15.01.2015, 12:31

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Born in Scotland, Alexander Dunlop Lindsay was a teacher of philosophy at a number of universities in England in the early 1900s. This brief commentary on Kant's philosophy is a work that focuses solely on some of the main ideas Kant put forth in the three Critiques. Although not comprehensive, the narrative style of this volume makes it a pleasant read and will be a valuable "break-in" point (or introduction to) the complex philosophy of Immanuel Kant.

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Added: 15.01.2015, 11:39

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I am Buffalo Bill's horse. I have spent my life under his saddle - with him in it, too, and he is good for two hundred pounds, without his clothes; and there is no telling how much he does weigh when he is out on the war-path and has his batteries belted on. He is over six feet, is young, hasn't an ounce of waste flesh, is straight, graceful, springy in his motions, quick as a cat, and has a handsome face, and black hair dangling down on his shoulders, and is beautiful to look at; and nobody is braver than he is, and nobody is stronger, except myself. Yes, a person that doubts that he is fine to see should see him in his beaded buck-skins, on my back and his rifle peeping above his shoulder, chasing a hostile trail, with me going like the wind and his hair streaming out behind from the shelter of his broad slouch. Yes, he is a sight to look at then - and I'm part of it myself. I am his favorite horse, out of dozens. Big as he is, I have carried him eighty-one miles between nightfall and sunrise on the scout; and I am good for fifty, day in and day out, and all the time. I am not large, but I am built on a business basis. I have carried him thousands and thousands of miles on scout duty for the army, and there's not a gorge, nor a pass, nor a valley, nor a fort, nor a trading post, nor a buffalo-range in the whole sweep of the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains that we don't know as well as we know the bugle-calls. He is Chief of Scouts to the Army of the Frontier, and it makes us very important. In such a position as I hold in the military service one needs to be of good family and possess an education much above the common to be worthy of the place. I am the best-educated horseoutside of the hippodrome, every-body says, and the best-mannered. It may be so, it is not for me to say; modesty is the best policy, I think. Buffalo Bill taught me the most of what I know, my mother taught me much, and I taught myself the rest. Lay a row of moccasins before me - Pawnee, Sioux, Shoshone, Cheyenne, Blackfoot, and as many other tribes as you please - and I can name the tribe every moccasin belongs to by the make of it. Name it in horse-talk, and could do it in American if I had speech.

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Added: 15.01.2015, 11:13

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The present work is based on the admirable catalogue prepared in 1898 at the instigation of Queen Maria Cristina by the Conde de Valencia de San Juan.

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Added: 15.01.2015, 11:04

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Though Aldous Huxley is primarily remembered for his novels, and to a lesser extent his essays, he began his writing career as a poet. While a student at Balliol College at Oxford, having been exempted from military service due to extremely poor eyesight, he was involved in several student poetry magazines. In September 1916 his first book of poetry, "The Burning Wheel", appeared.

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Added: 15.01.2015, 10:51

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No landlord is my friend and brother, no chambermaid loves me, no waiter worships me, no boots admires and envies me. No round of beef or tongue or ham is expressly cooked for me, no pigeon-pie is especially made for me, no hotel-advertisement is personally addressed to me, no hotel-room tapestried with great-coats and railway wrappers is set apart for me, no house of public entertainment in the United Kingdom greatly cares for my opinion of its brandy or sherry.

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Added: 15.01.2015, 10:50

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Charles Dickens is considered one of the greatest English authors of all time. Dickens often used the pen name Boz. Much of his work first appeared in periodicals and magazines in serialized form. Unlike many writers of his time Dickens wrote the entire novel before serializing it. He made frequent use of the cliffhanger to keep the public interested. Dickens talks of the joys of a quiet a Sunday afternoon and the pleasure derived from a day off for the working classes. The pampered aristocrat, whose life is one continued round of licentious pleasures and sensual gratifications; or the gloomy enthusiast, who detests the cheerful amusements he can never enjoy, and envies the healthy feelings he can never know, and who would put down the one and suppress the other, until he made the minds of his fellow-beings as besotted and distorted as his own; --neither of these men can by possibility form an adequate notion of what Sunday really is to those whose lives are spent in sedentary or laborious occupations, and who are accustomed to look forward to it through their whole existence, as their only day of rest from toil, and innocent enjoyment.

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Added: 31.12.2014, 10:45

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It was once said of Shakespeare that the great mind that conceived the tragedies of "Hamlet," "Macbeth," etc., would have lost its reason if it had not found vent in the sparkling humor of such comedies as "The Merry Wives of Windsor" and "The Comedy of Errors." The great strain on the min of Abraham Lincoln produced by four years of civil war might likewise have overcome his reason had it not found vent in the yarns and stories he constantly told. No more fun-loving or humor-loving man than Abraham Lincoln ever lived. He enjoyed a joke even when it was on himself, and probably, while he got his greatest enjoyment from telling stories, he had a keen appreciation of the humor in those that were told him.

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Added: 31.12.2014, 10:40

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The seventeenth-century writer Sir Thomas Browne declared that Sir John Mandeville was "the greatest liar of all time." The travel book attributed to Mandeville, which first appeared around 1371, was certainly one of the most popular books of the late Middle Ages (hundreds of medieval manuscript copies of it have survived to the present day), and it was definitely filled with bizarre fabrications. But Browne's assessment of Mandeville's character is undermined by the fact that Mandeville probably never existed.

The Travels of Sir John Mandeville described the travels of an English knight who left England around 1322 and journeyed throughout Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Persia, and Turkey. The stories that Mandeville returned with were fantastic, by any measure. He told of islands whose inhabitants had the bodies of humans but the heads of dogs, of a tribe whose only source of nourishment was the smell of apples, of a people the size of pygmies whose mouths were so small that they had to suck all their food through reeds, and of a race of one-eyed giants who ate only raw fish and raw meat. All of this fantasy was interwoven with other geographical descriptions that were perfectly accurate.

The authorship of Mandeville's Travels remains unknown. Historians cannot decide whether the author was French or English, though they agree that the book was originally composed in French. The character of Mandeville, as already indicated, was almost certainly fictitious. The name might have been adapted from an earlier French romance titled Mandevie that also involved a hero who embarked on an imaginary journey.

It is not clear how seriously medieval readers took Mandeville's stories. It is tempting to think that they must have recognized them as works of fiction, but it can be a mistake to project too much modern skepticism onto the medieval world. Medieval culture made sense of the world by viewing it through the lens of religious imagery and fantastic legends. So in this respect the book did offer a truth, of a kind, though not one that modern readers are likely to grasp.

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Added: 25.09.2024, 13:29

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The Case of Wagner is a book written by Friedrich Nietzsche that was first published in 1888. It has been dubbed "A Musician's Dilemma" and is also known as The Wagner Case in English. Friedrich Nietzsche's "Nietzsche contra Wagner" is a critical essay made of repeated portions from his previous works. It was composed during his final year of lucidity (1888-1889), although it was not published until 1895, six years following his mental breakdown. In this little piece, Nietzsche explains why he broke company with his former idol and friend, Richard Wagner. Wagner's opinions are attacked by Nietzsche, who expresses disillusionment and unhappiness with Wagner's life choices (such as his conversion to Christianity, perceived as a sign of weakness). Nietzsche assesses Wagner's tonal, musical, and aesthetic theory.

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Added: 04.12.2014, 00:01

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More perhaps than any other country in Europe, Greece owes its charm to the traditions of a remote past. It has no lack of fine scenery, and there is much that is interesting in its modern life; but what chiefly distinguishes it from other countries is the rich and beautiful mythology which is reflected in its poetry, its art, and its philosophy, and was to a large extent the inspiration of its glorious history.
It will not be expected that any attempt should be made in these pages to give an adequate account of the artistic and architectural creations which, even in their ruins, form the chief attraction of the country. For detailed information on these matters, the reader must be left to consult such guide-books as Baedeker and Murray, or works specially devoted to archæology or art. The object of the present writer will be attained if he succeed in providing a congenial intellectual atmosphere for the scenes and objects to be presented by the artist. For this purpose it will be necessary, among other things, to recall many of the ancient legends, as well as the historical events associated with the places referred to. The history cannot be understood apart from the mythology, for the latter is a key to the religious faith as well as to the patriotic sentiment of the nation.
Opinions may differ as to the right interpretation of many of the myths, but whatever explanation we may be disposed to give of them, whether we regard them as allegorical, semi-historical, or purely poetical, they are generally full of human interest, and they were very dear to the Greeks as the embodiment of their earliest thoughts and cherished memories. Embalmed in their poetry, consecrated by their temples, and signalised by many other monuments, the Greek mythology formed for centuries the chief intellectual wealth of the nation. Even when history and philosophy had begun to make their influence felt, the old stories, dramatised by the tragic poets, still continued to fill the imagination and to occupy the attention of all classes of the people. Though Plato had a good deal to say against some of them from an ethical point of view, he did not propose in his ideal Republic to do away with them altogether, he only wished them to be so corrected and purified as to promote the interests of a sound morality and a reasonable theology.
An important feature of Greek mythology was its close connection with the received genealogies. These nearly always terminated, at the upper end, in a god or a hero, after whom a family or a group of families was named, with the curious result, to our modern
mind, that the shorter the pedigree the more honour it conferred upon its living representative. The public genealogies were thus an incentive both to the piety and the pride of the more influential classes, and they help to account for the reverence in which the ancient mythology was so long held by such an enlightened nation as the Greeks.
With the exception of Palestine, there is probably no country that can compare with Greece for the influence it has exerted on the life and thought of the world, in proportion to its size and population. In area it was never so large as Scotland, and its population, which is now under two millions and a half, was probably never much greater.

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Added: 26.11.2014, 18:06

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Added: 26.11.2014, 18:02

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Added: 26.11.2014, 17:57

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Added: 26.11.2014, 17:54

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Added: 23.11.2014, 18:28

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In den 'Aphorismen zur Lebensweisheit' hat Schopenhauers philosophischer Stil, der auf Prägnanz und unmittelbare Verständlichkeit zielt, seine Vollendung erreicht. Auf der Grundlage seines weltanschaulichen Pessimismus entwirft er hier eine Lehre des glücklichen Lebens, die zeigt, wie man in einer denkbar schlechten Welt 'erträglich' leben kann.

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Added: 25.09.2024, 13:19

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Perpetual Peace is an important essay by Immanuel Kant from 1795 which was originally published as Project for a Perpetual Peace. The original concept of perpetual peace is for peace to be a permanent fixture over a certain specific area or location. In modern times, the concept of world peace directly stems from this original idea of a perpetual peace. In this writing of Kant, he argues in favor of civil constitutions with Republican forms of government, world citizenship, free states, the abolishment of standing armies and for states not being able to use force to interfere with the constitutions or governments of another given state. This is an important work for those studying the idea of world peace and those interested in the writings of Immanuel Kant.

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Added: 17.11.2014, 20:38

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Added: 13.11.2014, 01:35

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Criminal Psychology is a book written by Hans Gross. It is widely considered to be one of the top 100 greatest books of all time. This great novel will surely attract a whole new generation of readers. For many, Criminal Psychology is required reading for various courses and curriculums. And for others who simply enjoy reading timeless pieces of classic literature, this gem by Hans Gross is highly recommended. Published by Quill Pen Classics and beautifully produced, Criminal Psychology would make an ideal gift and it should be a part of everyone's personal library.