The Decameron, Volume 1  |
| Giovanni Boccaccio (1313 - 1375) |
The Decameron is a collection of 100 very readable novellas finished in 1353. It is known for its bawdy tales that span the spectrum from erotic to tragic. The tales are told by a party of ten fleeing the black plague, on each of 10 days they each tell a tale on a particular theme. The stories remain compelling for the modern reader while providing a unique window into medieval life. |
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| The Essays of Montaigne - Complete |
| Michel Montaigne (1533 - 1592) |
Essays was first published in 1580. In it Montaigne essentially invented the literary form of the essay, a short subjective treatment of a given topic. Montaigne's stated goal in his book is to describe man, and especially himself, with utter frankness. The modernity of thought in Montaigne's essays, coupled with their sustained popularity, made them arguably the most prominent work in French philosophy until the Enlightenment. Their influence over French education and culture is still strong. |
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| The Inspector-General |
| Nikolai V. Gogol (1809 - 1852) |
The Inspector-General is a satirical masterpiece portraying greed, stupidity, and the endemic corruption of power in tsarist Russia. It caused such uproar when published in 1836 that only the personal intervention of Tsar Nicholas I allowed it to be staged. Although it used the forms, elements, and premises of plays written before, it marks the beginning of a new tradition. Widely adapted. Seemingly the clear inspiration for the hotel inspector episode of the TV series, Fawlty Towers. |
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| The Man in the Iron Mask |
| Alexandre Dumas (1802 - 1870) |
More Musketeering adventure! This time the musketeers are in conflict over the man in the iron mask who is thought to be King Louis XIV's twin brother, isolated as an infant and now held prisoner in the Bastille for the last 18 years. The throne of France is threatened as he escapes to seek revenge. Will The Three Musketeers manage to fight and save their country this time in their final saga? |
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| The Praise of Folly |
| Desiderius Erasmus (1466 - 1536) |
The Praise of Folly is considered one of the most influential works of literature in Western civilization and one of the catalysts of the Protestant Reformation. It starts as a piece of virtuoso foolery but then moves into some darker orations praising self-deception and madness. Published in 1511, Folly's influence echoed down the subsequent centuries and in part spawned the art of adoxography, the praise of worthless subjects. |
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| The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam |
| Omar Khayyam (1048 - 1131) |
This is Edward Fitzgerald's poetic version. As a work of English literature, it was a high point of the 19th century. As a work of accurate line-by-line translation of Omar Khayyam's quatrains, it is noted more for freedom than for fidelity. This collection of four line poems have provided later authors with a rich source of titles and allusions; "The Moving Finger writes: and, having writ, Moves on: ...", "A book of verse, a jug of wine, and thou....". |
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| The Time Machine |
| H. G. Wells (1866 - 1946) |
Journey forward into time, to 802,701 A.D. into a peaceful land of four feet tall humans who call themselves the Eloi. These happy, simple people know no disease, poverty, war, or wanton destruction. They have no need for technology or any more improvements to their lives. The Time Traveller discovers that these people are in fact descendants of man, the remainder of what was a once-great culture. Are they living the ideal life? Or is their peace and happiness the downside of an unimaginative culture? |
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