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Classics of Literature — page 7
434 public-domain classics of literature books, summarised. Page 7 of 10.
The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. VIII (of X) - Continental Europe II
Unknown
A vast, panoramic journey through European thought and narrative showcases how centuries of diverse writers tackled statecraft, morality, and artistic creation.
The Persian Literature, Comprising The Shah Nameh, The Rubaiyat, The Divan, and The Gulistan, Volume 2
Sadi
A wandering sage gathers a lifetime of travel and quiet reflection into a tapestry of moral tales, sharp aphorisms, and verse.
The Colloquies of Erasmus, Volume I
Desiderius Erasmus
Wit cuts through dogma faster than anger, turning the everyday conversations of sixteenth-century Europe into a quiet revolution of common sense.
The Remains of Hesiod the Ascræan, Including the Shield of Hercules: Translated into English rhyme and blank verse
Hesiod
Labor and order shape survival under fickle gods.
The Story of Burnt Njal: The Great Icelandic Tribune, Jurist, and Counsellor
Dasent, George Webbe, Sir
Blood feuds, legal brilliance, and relentless vengeance collide in a land governed entirely by code and iron.
A history of criticism and literary taste in Europe from the earliest texts to the present day. Volume 2 (of 3), From the Renaissance to the decline of eighteenth century orthodoxy
George Saintsbury
Across three centuries of European thought, readers continuously wrestled with a single question: should modern literature follow ancient rules, or create its own?
The collected works of Henrik Ibsen, Vol. 08 (of 11)
Henrik Ibsen
When truth is treated as a crime and illusions are kept alive like pet birds in an attic, survival requires choosing between comfortable lies and devastating honesty.
The Satyricon
Petronius Arbiter
A sprawling, chaotic tapestry of Roman life, this narrative wanders through the underbelly of an empire obsessed with excess, legacy, and the pursuit of fleeting, sensory pleasure. It captures a world where social standing is a performance and survival is a game of wits.
Theocritus, Bion and Moschus, Rendered into English Prose
Theocritus
This collection gathers the foundational voices of Greek pastoral poetry, capturing the fleeting joys of the natural world and the sharp, enduring ache of unrequited love. It preserves the rhythmic pulse of a lost, sun-drenched Mediterranean antiquity.
The Impostures of Scapin
Molière
HOOK A clever servant plays a high-stakes game of manipulation to unite two pairs of young lovers, hoodwinking their stingy fathers through sheer wit and audacity.
Essays of Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
The Essays of Michel de Montaigne serve as a mirror for the human condition, inviting readers to examine the intricate, often contradictory landscape of their own minds through the intimate, candid reflections of one man.
The Harvard Classics, Volume 49, Epic and Saga: With Introductions And Notes
Unknown
The tragedy of the loyal warrior and the inevitable decline of a golden age are captured here with stark, elemental power. These ancient accounts trace the weight of honor, the bitterness of betrayal, and the unraveling of kingdoms.
The Argonautica
Rhodius Apollonius
The quest for the Golden Fleece serves as a foundational blueprint for the adventure epic, blending the grand scale of myth with an unexpectedly intimate focus on human vulnerability. This sprawling narrative follows a band of heroes on a perilous journey across the known world, testing their resolve against…
The Queen Of Spades
Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin
HOOK A calculated, cold-blooded obsession with a supernatural gambling secret drives a young officer toward ruin, proving that the price of fate is often far higher than gold.
The Captivi and the Mostellaria
Titus Maccius Plautus
The stakes of life and loss shift like sand in these two comedies, where clever servants navigate the whims of fathers and the folly of sons.
The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. VII (of X)—Continental Europe I
Unknown
This collection gathers the voices of Continental Europe across a millennium, offering a panoramic view of the intellectual and historical shifts that shaped the Western spirit. It serves as a curated museum of prose, where the sacred gives way to the secular, and the epic yields to the intimate.
Æsop's Fables
Aesop
These ancient stories distill human experience into brief, sharp encounters between animals and gods, proving that the most profound wisdom often speaks in the voices of the humble, the clever, and the beastly.
Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age, Vol. 3 of 3: I. Agorè: Polities of the Homeric Age. II. Ilios: Trojans and Greeks Compared. III. Thalassa: The Outer Geography. IV. Aoidos: Some Points of the Poetry of Homer
W. E. (William Ewart) Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone examines the political structures, geography, and poetic artistry of the Homeric epics to demonstrate that Homer's world is an independent, historically coherent, and self-contained field of study.
Claudian, volume 1 (of 2): With an English translation by Maurice Platnauer
Claudius Claudianus
A world on the brink of collapse finds its last defense not in ancient gods, but in the fierce political poetry of a court insider.
Highways of Canadian Literature
J. D. (John Daniel) Logan
An ambitious history tracks how a young Dominion forged a distinct cultural identity through the pens of its original poets, satirists, and storytellers.
The counterfeiters
André Gide
Boundaries dissolve when secret parentage, illegitimate desire, and literary ambitions collide across the drawing rooms and alleys of early twentieth-century Paris, forcing a tightly knit circle of young men and their families to confront their most carefully guarded lies.
The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, Part 20
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
The mind of a dreamer often clashes with the grit of reality, but in the case of a certain aging hidalgo, that clash becomes a lifelong, wandering quest to restore a lost age of heroism.
Remedia Amoris
Ovid
In this manual of emotional detachment, the poet who once taught the world how to fall in love now offers a clinical, darkly witty guide on how to fall out of it. It serves as a practical, if cynical, medical chart for the lovelorn.
The Relation of the Hrólfs Saga Kraka and the Bjarkarímur to Beowulf: A Contribution To The History Of Saga Development In England And The
Oscar Ludvig Olson
This scholarly investigation dissects the intricate literary threads connecting the legendary Germanic hero Beowulf to the Scandinavian figures of the Hrólfs Saga Kraka and the Bjarkarímur. It offers a technical, rigorous exploration of how motifs of monsters, swords, and exiled princes migrated across medieval…
The story of the Iliad
Homer
This foundational legend of the Trojan War captures the brutal intersection of human pride and divine intervention, following the shifting fortunes of heroes and gods during the final days of a ten-year siege.
The Characters of Theophrastus: A Translation, with Introduction
Theophrastus
A mirror held up to human folly, these ancient sketches capture the timeless, irritating, and often hilarious quirks of character that remain stubbornly unchanged after more than two millennia.
The Age of Tennyson
Hugh Walker
This comprehensive literary history captures the intellectual ferment of mid-nineteenth-century England, tracing the evolution of its most prominent poets, novelists, and thinkers.
An English Garner: Ingatherings from Our History and Literature (8 of 8)
Unknown
This collection offers a mosaic of historical accounts, personal narratives, and Elizabethan verse, capturing the texture of English life through the eyes of those who lived it. It is a vital repository for anyone seeking to touch the pulse of a transformative, often turbulent, era.
The Lay of the Cid
R. Selden (Robert Selden) Rose
This is the foundational epic of Spain, capturing the life of a legendary warrior who rises from unjust exile to forge his own destiny. It is a stirring, rhythmic portrait of loyalty, military prowess, and the endurance of honor.
Essays of Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
The ultimate guide to the self, these meditations offer a mirror to the human condition, inviting readers to examine their own contradictions through the lens of a mind that is as restless as it is honest.
Personae
Ezra Pound
HOOK Through the voices of ancient ghosts and forgotten wanderers, these verses reclaim the raw, untamed spirit of poetry from the stifling grip of modern lethargy.
The Satires, Epistles, and Art of Poetry of Horace
Horace
Wisdom arrives when we trade the reckless ambition of youth for a quiet place in the countryside and a well-curated shelf.
Claudian, volume 2 (of 2): With an English translation by Maurice Platnauer
Claudius Claudianus
Majestic panegyrics and glowing mythologies capture the final twilight of classical Rome, celebrating imperial victories while painting vivid pictures of ancient gods.
The Odes and Carmen Saeculare of Horace
Horace
A delicate, rigorous verse translation captures the quiet ironies, domestic warmth, and public duties of Rome’s most celebrated lyric voice.
The Age of Dryden
Richard Garnett
This literary survey examines the vibrant, turbulent decades following the 1660 Restoration. It maps a pivotal era of transformation in English letters, defined by the rise of modern prose and the dominance of John Dryden.
Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation: With Modifications To Obsolete Language By Monica Stevens
More, Thomas, Saint
When the world turns dark and your own courage falters, how do you find the strength to remain steadfast? This profound meditation offers a path through the deepest valleys of human fear and uncertainty.
The Arabian Nights, Volume I of IV
Antoine Galland
A collection of frame-stories and nested legends, these tales unfold within a single, desperate night of storytelling to delay an inevitable execution.
Book of illustrations
Sophocles
The House of Atreus collapses under the weight of ancient blood-feuds, where every act of vengeance only sows the seeds of the next generation's ruin. These foundational dramas trace how divine law and human justice struggle to break a cycle of endless, inherited violence.
Special Method in the Reading of Complete English Classics: In the Grades of the Common School
Charles A. (Charles Alexander) McMurry
A transformative vision of public education replaces fragmented text excerpts with complete, unbroken works of classic literature to shape the minds and character of children.
The History of Don Quixote, Volume 1, Part 13
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Delusion meets devotion as a foolish knight mistakes a simple inn for a fortress, while an inner tale of misplaced trust shatters a quiet Italian home.
Specimens of Greek Tragedy
Sophocles
A god bound to a cliff, a king undone by a riddle, a sister choosing divine law over human decree—these verse extracts capture the sharpest agonies of classical Greek drama.
The Divine Comedy by Dante, Illustrated, Hell, Volume 02
Dante Alighieri
A living man journeys guided through the dark doorway of the damned, discovering that the ultimate punishment for a wasted life is getting exactly what one chose.
The History of Don Quixote, Volume 1, Part 07
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
A delusional country gentleman dons rusty armor to revive chivalry, dragging an illiterate peasant along as his squire into a world of ordinary Spaniards who answer his high-minded delusions with beatings, robbery, and plain common sense.
The Divine Comedy by Dante, Illustrated, Paradise, Volume 3
Dante Alighieri
A traveler ascends through the planetary spheres of heaven, guided by love, until human speech fails before the blinding, unified light of the cosmos.
The Rhesus of Euripides
Euripides
A legendary Thracian king arrives to save Troy, only to meet a swift and bloody end in the dark of a single, fateful night. This intense drama explores the collision between heroic ambition and the cold reality of war.
The Divine Comedy by Dante, Illustrated, Paradise, Volume 1
Dante Alighieri
The final reach of a monumental journey, this epic poem ascends through the celestial spheres, charting a pilgrim’s transformation from mortal confusion to divine clarity. It remains a cornerstone of world literature for its sheer ambition, weaving theological inquiry with the intimate, radiant wonder of a soul…
Essays of Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
HOOK A candid exploration of the human condition, this work navigates the messy, contradictory reality of aging, desire, and the art of living with oneself.
The Divine Comedy, Volume 3, Paradise
Dante Alighieri
A soul ascends through the celestial spheres, moving from the moon to the blinding center of light, in search of ultimate truth. This final movement of the epic journey captures the architecture of divine love.