LITMIR.BIZ

While I was beseeching Our Lord today…I began to think of the soul as if it were a castle made of a single diamond or of very clear crystal, in which there are many rooms, just as in Heaven there are many mansions. — St. Teresa of AvilaA masterpiece of spiritual literature, this sixteenth-century work was inspired by a mystical vision that came upon the revered St. Teresa of Avila, one of the most gifted and beloved religious figures in history. St. Teresa's vision was of a luminous crystal castle composed of seven chambers, or «mansions,» each representing a different stage in the development of the soul.In her most important and widely read book, St. Teresa describes how, upon entering the castle through prayer and meditation, the human spirit experiences humility, detachment, suffering, and, ultimately, self-knowledge, as it roams from room to room. As the soul progresses further toward the center of the castle, it comes closer to achieving ineffable and perfect peace, and, finally, a divine communion with God. A set of rare and beautiful teachings for people of all faiths desirous of divine guidance, this meticulous modern translation by E. Allison Peers breathes contemporary life into a religious classic.

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Never give all the heart, for loveWill hardly seem worth thinking ofTo passionate women if it seemCertain, and they never dreamThat it fades out from kiss to kiss;For everything that's lovely isBut a brief, dreamy, kind delight. — W. B. YeatsDown through the millennia the emotion of love has inspired countless poets to great heights of lyrical expression. In this volume readers can sample more than 150 great love poems by English and American poets. Spanning over four centuries of literary creation in the service of amour, the works include a selection of Shakespeare's sonnets, John Donne's «The Ecstasy,» William Blake's «The Garden of Love,» Robert Burns's «The Banks o'Doon» and «John Anderson My Jo,» Lord Byron's «She Walks in Beauty,» Edgar Allan Poe's «Annabel Lee,» Robert Browning's «Meeting at Night,» as well as works by W. B. Yeats, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, John Keats, Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, John Milton, Richard Lovelace, Sir John Suckling, Matthew Arnold, A. E. Housman, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Robert Frost.

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"TheArabian Nights is more generally loved than Shakespeare," wrote Robert Louis Stevenson. «No human face or voice greets us among [this] crowd of kings and genies, sorcerers and beggar men. Adventure on the most naked terms, furnishes forth the entertainment and is found enough.»The best-known versions of these ancient Middle Eastern tales are those translated by the Victorian English explorer and writer, Richard F. Burton. Arabic in origin, they are also known as A Thousand and One Nights — a collection of fairy tales, romances, legends, and exotic adventures told by Scheherazade to entertain her husband, the king, who customarily executed his wives after a single night. Scheherazade cleverly began a story each night but withheld the ending until the following evening, thereby managing to stave off disaster.This original selection includes six of the most famous tales. «Sinbad the Seaman and Sinbad the Landsman» is the story of a merchant who survives seven perilous voyages and acquires great wealth; «Aladdin, or the Wonderful Lamp» relates the remarkable adventures of a «graceless» youth and his miraculous lamp; «Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves» is the exciting narrative of a poor woodcutter who gains access to great treasures by entering a secret cave. Also here are «The Fisherman and the Jinni,» «Judar and His Brethren,» and «Khalifah the Fisherman of Baghdad.»These enchanting tales have captured the imaginations of readers for generations. Their magical world, teeming with giants, magnificent palaces, and beautiful princesses will thrill new audiences.

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From the colonial-era poets to such twentieth-century writers as Marianne Moore and Sylvia Plath, this inspiring anthology offers a retrospective of more than three centuries of poems by American women. Over 200 selections embrace a wide range of themes and motifs: meditations on the meaning of existence, celebrations of life's joys, appreciations of the natural world, and many more."To My Dear and Loving Husband," written by America's first poet of note, Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672), appears here, along with "On Imagination," by Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784), America's first great black woman poet. Selections also include more than a dozen beloved works by Emily Dickinson as well as masterly verses by Hilda Doolittle, Gwendolyn Brooks, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Amy Lowell, Emma Lazarus, and numerous lesser-known authors.A superb introduction to America's women poets, this engaging collection offers an inexpensive and rewarding resource for students, teachers, and all lovers of fine poetry.

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Remarkable for their eloquence, depth of feeling, and oratorical mastery, these 82 compelling speeches encompass five centuries of Indian encounters with nonindigenous people. Beginning with a 1540 refusal by a Timucua chief to parley with Hernando de Soto («With such a people I want no peace»), the collection extends to the 20th-century address of activist Russell Means to the United Nations affiliates and members of the Human Rights Commission («We are people who love in the belly of the monster»).Other memorable orations include Powhatan's «Why should you destroy us, who have provided you with food?» (1609); Red Jacket's «We like our religion, and do not want another» (1811); Osceola's «I love my home, and will not go from it» (1834); Red Cloud's «The Great Spirit made us both» (1870); Chief Joseph's «I will fight no more forever» (1877); Sitting Bull's «The life my people want is a life of freedom» (1882); and many more. Other notable speakers represented here include Tecumseh, Seattle, Geronimo, and Crazy Horse, as well as many lesser-known leaders.Graced by forceful metaphors and vivid imagery expressing emotions that range from the utmost indignation to the deepest sorrow, these addresses are deeply moving documents that offer a window into the hearts and minds of Native Americans as they struggled against the overwhelming tide of European and American encroachment. This inexpensive edition, with informative notes about each speech and orator, will prove indispensable to anyone interested in Native American history and culture.

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Written in response to a book on the origins of morality by his erstwhile friend Paul Rée, the three essays comprising The Genealogy of Morals — all three advancing the critique of Christian morality set forth in Beyond Good and Evil — are among Nietzsche's most sustained and cohesive work.In the first essay — starting from a linguistic analysis of words such as «good,» «bad,» and «evil» — Nietzsche sets up a contrast between what he calls «master» morality and «slave» morality and shows how strength and action have often been replaced by passivity and nihilism. The next essay, looking into the origins of guilt and punishment, shows how the concept of justice was born — and how internalization of this concept led to the development of what people called «the soul.» In the third essay, Nietzsche dissects the meaning of ascetic ideals.It is not Nietzsche's intention to reject ascetic ideals, «slave» morality, or internalized values out of hand; his main concern is to show that culture and morality, rather than being eternal verities, are human-made. Whether or not you agree with all of his conclusions, his writing is of such clarity and brilliance that you will find reading The Genealogy of Morals nothing short of exhilarating.

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One of the most powerfully moving and evocative forms of poetry, the sonnet has been popular for more than 450 years. Unlike many other poetic genres, the sonnet has never gone out of fashion and its popularity today remains unabated.This collection contains a rich selection of over 170 English and American sonnets by more than 70 poets, from the Renaissance to the 20th century. Included are great sonnets by the greatest poets. All have been carefully chosen for distinction in style or substance or both.Included are such masterpieces of the form as: «Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?» by Shakespeare; «Death Be Not Proud» by Donne; «On His Blindness» by Milton; «The World Is Too Much with Us» by Wordsworth; «Ozymandias» by Shelley; «On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer» by Keats; «How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways» by E. Browning; «Acquainted with the Night» by Frost; «Euclid Alone Has Looked on Beauty Bare» by Millay; and poems by Spenser, Sidney, Burns, Blake, Byron, Longfellow, Tennyson, Poe, Swinburne, Wilde, E. A. Robinson, Dunbar, MacLeish, and many more.In this inexpensive treasury, lovers of poetry can study and savor the ways in which a host of great poets used the versatile sonnet form to express everything from the «light conceits of love» to the most profound meditations.Includes two selections from the Common Core State Standards Initiative: «The New Colossus» and «Ozymandias.»

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One of the foremost dramatists of the 19th century, Russian author Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) created a body of work noted for its realistic dialogue and keen insights into human relationships. This collection of five one-act plays — in the celebrated Constance Garnett translations — shows Chekhov at his witty best.The Anniversary takes a lively look behind the frenetic scenes at a bank: a man overburdened with errands from friends and family gives a nearly maddened but ludicrous account of his chores and obligations in An Unwilling Martyr; and The Wedding depicts scenes from a wedding reception in which the mother of the bride assumes affected airs and deals with quarrelsome guests. In The Bear, a virtuous, spirited widow is pressed to repay a debt and ends up receiving an offer of marriage. The Proposal depicts the trauma of a would-be suitor who winds up in a wrangle over property.Theater lovers, students of drama and literature, and other readers, as well as amateur and professional groups performing these popular works, will welcome this convenient, inexpensive collection of comic gems by one of the masters of modern drama.

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Among the country's greatest artistic contributions, 20th-century Russian literature was revolutionary in its approach to realism, injecting characters with human weaknesses familiar to all. It also provided fodder for other such important concepts as existentialism and even passive resistance, which was rooted in the works of Tolstoy, and practiced resistance, which was rooted in the works of Tolstoy and practiced successfully by Gandhi and Martin Luther King. The 12 powerful short stories in this collection are excellent examples of writing by the foremost authors from Russia's Golden Age of Literature.Included are «The Queen of Spades» by Alexander Pushkin; «The Overcoat» by Nikolai Gogol; «The District Doctor» by Ivan S. Turgenev; «White Nights» by Fyodor Dostoyevsky; «How Much Land Does a Man Need?» by Leo Tolstoy; «The Clothesmender» by Nicholay Leskov; «The Signal» by Vsevolod M. Garshin; «The Lady with the Toy Dog» by Anton Chekhov; «The White Mother» by Theodor Sologub"; «Twenty-Six Men and a Girl» by Maxim Gorky; «The Outrage — A True Story» by Alexander Kuprin; and «Lazarus» by Laonid Andreyev.Ideal for students of Russian literature, this magnificent collection will appeal to a wide audience.

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Tracing the struggle for freedom and civil rights across two centuries, this anthology comprises speeches by Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, W. E. B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King, Jr., and other influential figures in the history of African-American culture and politics.The collection begins with Henry Highland Garnet's 1843 «An Address to the Slaves of the United States of America,» followed by Jermain Wesley Loguen's «I Am a Fugitive Slave,» the famous «Ain't I a Woman?» speech by Sojourner Truth, and Frederick Douglass's immortal «What, to the Slave, Is the Fourth of July?» Subsequent orators include John Sweat Rock, John M. Langston, James T. Rapier, Alexander Crummell, Booker T. Washington, Mary Church Terrell, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Francis J. Grimké, Marcus Garvey, and Mary McLeod Bethune. Martin Luther King, Jr.,'s «I Have a Dream» speech appears here, along with Malcolm X's «The Ballot or The Bullet,» Shirley Chisholm's «The Black Woman in Contemporary America,» «The Constitution: A Living Document» by Thurgood Marshall, and Barack Obama's «Knox College Commencement Address.»

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