A library for the price of a book.
Let me know if you'd like a second copy of the same CD/DVD for free.
Free "ebook of the week"
If you would like a free book, to check out what it's like to read books on your computer screen, send email to seltzer@samizdat.com and ask for our "ebook of the week." We'll send you a complete book as an email text attachment. And, if you like, we can add you to our list to receive a new free ebook by email each week, on Tuesday. Suggestions welcome.
5/13/2008 -- This week's selection consists of Samuel Pepys Diary and Robert Louis Stevenson's essay about it, from "Familiar Studies of Men and Books", both of which are on our British Literature 3-CD set. The Diary dates from the reign of Charles II, after the fall of Cromwell, and includes the plague and fire that devastated London. Pepys was an important functionary in the Naval department, and was responsible for some important decisions that led to Britain's command of the seas. His diary is unique for its candor -- written in code and not deciphered until many years later. It's a seventeenth century version of The Truman Show or EdTV -- "real life" exposed to public view.
5/6/2008 -- "Toilers of the Sea" by Victor Hugo, together with essays from Robert Louis Stevenson's "Familiar Studies of Men and Books". P
4/29/2008 -- THE YOUNGER EDDA: also called SNORRE'S EDDA, OR THE PROSE EDDA
4/22/2008 -- Another Norse saga -- "Burnt Njal" or "Njal's Saga".
4/15/2008 -- Continuing our series of Norse sagas, this week's ebook of the week is the Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson. Next week I plan the Younger Edda. Then, if you aren't sick of sagas by then, Njal's Saga, followed by Erik the Red's Saga, and maybe even The Death of Balder. Then back to Robert Louis Stevenson for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, followed by The Black Arrow. Then on to the Chinese classic The Red Chamber, then the Spanish classic The Cid.
4/8/2008 -- This week's book is "The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs" by William Morris.
4/1/2008 -- Betty Bandy suggested Norse sagas, and I'll be sending out a few of those over the next few weeks. For starters here's Thomas Carlyle's retelling of tales about the Early Kings of Norway.
3/25/2008 -- Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson
3/18/2008 -- Catriona or David Balfour by Robert Louis Stevenson (sequel to Kidnapped), plus The Forme of Currie, a cook book compiled, about A.D. 1390, by the Master-Cooks of King RICHARD II.
3/11/2008 -- Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
3/4/2008 -- This week's ebook of the week is "Island Nights' Entertainments" by Robert Louis Stevenson. That includes "The Beach of Falesa", "The Bottle Imp", and "The Isle of Voices".
2/26/2008 -- This week's offering is based on a suggestion from Betty Bandy -- "readers who like the Hogg book would also be interested in Wieland by Charles Brockden Brown and in Stevenson's Markheim." According to Wikipedia " Wieland or The Transformation: An American Tale is a Gothic novel by Charles Brockden Brown, first published in 1798... It recounts the terrifying story of how Theodore Wieland is driven to madness and murder by a malign ventriloquist called Carwin." "Markheim is a short story by Robert Louis Stevenson usually found in the collection The Merry Men and Other Tales and Fables (1887). It was first published in 1885 in The Broken Shaft: Tales of Mid-Ocean... The story opens in an antique store, where the proprietor (called a "dealer") is complaining that his customer, a shifty man named Markheim, is bothering him on Christmas day.
2/19/2008 -- Thanks to a suggestion from Betty Bandy, this week's ebook is "The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner" by James Hogg, a contemporary and fellow countryman of Sir Walter Scott.
First published in 1824, according to Wikipedia, this novel was "considered in turn a Gothic novel, a psychological case study of an unreliable narrator, and an examination of totalitarian thought." It is "the ultimately unclassifiable novel, set in a pseudo-Christian world of angels, devils, and demonic possession. ... It has received wide acclaim for its probing quest into the nature of religious fanaticism and Calvinist predestination. It is written in a mixture of Scots and English, with Scots mainly appearing in dialogue. On the surface, this novel is a simple tale of a young man who encounters a shape-shifting devil, an early manifestation of a doppelganger, and the various misadventures that follow."
2/12/2008 -- Poems and Songs by Robert Burns
2/5/2008 -- Rob Roy, another Sir Walter Scott novel.
1/29/2008 -- The Antiquary, another of Sir Walter Scott's Waverley novels.
1/22/2008 -- This week's ebook is Guy Mannering, the second of Sir Walter Scott's "Waverley novels".
1/15/2008 -- As a change of pace, after so many Dumas books, this week's selection is Waverley, the first of the Waverley novels by Sir Walter Scott (a contemporary of Dumas). The Waverley novels were probably the biggest best sellers of the 19th century. Please let me know if you'd like me to send out more of them.
1/8/2008 -- The sixth and last of the six Musketeers novels -- "The Man in the Iron Mask" -- plus an essay with the same title from Dumas' collection of historical gossip "Celebrated Crimes". In the essay, Dumas discusses the history and rumors behind the story.
1/1/2008 -- "Louise de la Valliere" by Dumas, the fifth of the six Musketeers books.
12/25/2007 -- Continuing our Three Musketeers series, this week's ebook of the week is "Ten Years Later".
12/18/2007 -- This week's free ebook of the week is the "Vicomte de Bragelonne" by Alexandre Dumas, the third of the six Three Musketeers books, (in which, of course, the fourth musketeer is the main character :-)
12/11/2007 -- This week's ebook of the week is "Twenty Years After" by Alexandre Dumas, the second of the six Three Musketeers books. FYI -- you can see a brief review of mine about that series at www.samizdat.com/isyn/dumas.html I'll send out the Vicomte de Bragelone next week.
12/4/2007 -- This week's ebook of the week is "The Three Musketeers" by Alexandre Dumas. That's the first and best known of a series of six novels -- o The Three Musketeers (covering 1625-1628) o Twenty Years After (covering 1648-49) o The Vicomte de Bragelonne (covering 1660) o Ten Years Later (covering 1660-1661) o Louise de la Valliere (covering 1661) o The Man in the Iron Mask (covering 1661-1673) Please let me know if you'd like me to send out the rest of the series, over the coming weeks. By the way, D'Artagnan, the fourth and most important musketeer is based on an historical figure, who was eventually promoted to commander of the musketeers. You can read about him at Wikipedia
11/28/2007 -- This week's free ebook is The Forty-Five Guardsmen by Dumas, the third (but self-contained) novel of an historical novel trilogy covering the period of the Huguenot conflicts (from the St. Bartholemew's Day Massacre up to the accession of Henry IV (of Navarre). One of the main characters of that trilogy is Marguerite de Navarre (nicknamed "Margot") (1553-1615), the great-niece of the author of The Heptameron. The Marguerite de Navarre was the granddaughter of King Francis I of France, the wife of King Henry IV (of Navarre and France), and the sister of three other kinds of France.
11/21/2007 -- Part 5 of The Heptameron.
11/14/2007 -- Part 4 of The Heptameron.
11/7/2007 -- Part 3 of The Heptameron.
10/30/2007 -- This week's free ebook is part 2 of The Heptameron by Marguerite de Navarre.
10/23/2007 -- As a followup to the Decameron, this week's free ebook is part 1 of The Heptameron by Marguerite de Navarre. Sister of King Francis I of France and husband of King Henri II of Navarre, she lived 1492-1549. According to Wikipedia, literary scholar Samuel Putnam called her "the first modern woman". The Heptameron is a framed collection of stories in the tradition of The Decameron. (seven days [hept] instead of ten; apparently she intended 100 stories/10 days, but died only having completed 72). I plan to send out the other four parts in future weeks.
And as a bonus, I'm also including "The Cook's Decameron: A Study In Taste, Containing Over Two Hundred Recipes For Italian Dishes" By Mrs. W. G. Waters.
10/16/2007 -- This week's ebook of the week is volume 2 of Boccaccio's Decameron (followup to volume 1 last week).
I am tempted to send out next The Hemptameron by Marguerite de Navarre (in five parts). Sister of King Francis I of France and husband of King Henri II of Navarre, she lived 1492-1549. According to Wikipedia, literary scholar Samuel Putnam called her "the first modern woman". The Heptameron is a framed collection of stories in the tradition of The Decameron. (seven days [hept] instead of ten; apparently she intended 100 stories/10 days, but died only having completed 72).
10/9/2007 -- This week's ebook of the week is volume 1 of The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375). (See Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Boccaccio). If there's sufficient interest, I'll send out the second and last volume next week.
The Decameron is a framed story collection. Having fled the city during the plague, friends gather at a country estate and, over the course of ten days, pass the time by telling one another stories, some of which today would be R-rated. (I remember, as a teenager, reading it in a Victorian edition that, much to my dismay, left the raciest of the stories untranslated...)
I'm prompted to send out this one because I just finished reading "Ten Days in the Hills", the latest novel by Pulitzer-winner (and DVD-collection customer) Jane Smiley. That novel is meant to hearken back to Boccaccio, with a group of family and friends isolated for ten days from contemporary concerns (like the Iraq War). You can see my brief review at http://www.samizdat.com/isyn/tendays.html or at my blog http://www.samizdat.com/blog/
The Boccaccio appears on several of our CDs -- World Literature, Italian, Short Stories, and Medieval/Renaissance.
10/2/2007 -- Thanks to a suggestion from Ken Wilson, this week's free ebook is "Saved from the Sea, by W.H.G. Kingston." He notes that this is "a fairly well written tale which took place off the African coast. I have it as an audio book and it is quite informative."
9/25/2007 -- Today, in belated honor of the Jewish holidays, I'm sending out as our free ebook of the week "For the Temple" by G.A. Henty (an historical novel about the fall of Jerusalem) and "Coningsby" by Benjamin Disraeli, a gifted novelist and a statesman/politician of such extraordinary talent that he became head of the Consrvative Party and prime minister of England, despite the strong prejudice against the Jewish people in that place and time.
9/18/2007 -- "Dombey and Son" by Charles Dickens
9/11/2007 -- This week I'm sending out two books (a symptom of indecision): King -- of the Khyber Rifles by Talbot Mundy and On the Irrawaddy a Story of the First Burmese War by G.A. Henty
I had previously promised the Khyber Rifles as part of a series of books set in Afghanistan. I'll soon be adding that one to our American Lit, British Lit, and Historical Novels CDs. (Mundy was born in London, and immigrated to the US before he started publishing).
I chose On the Irrawaddy because of the recent flare up of protests in Burma/Myanamar, and remembering messages from a subscriber to this list who until recently was a teacher in Myanamar, and also because I'm a fan of Henty. That book appears on our British Literature, Historical Novels, and G.A. Henty CDs.
9/4/2007 -- Suggested by Ken Wilson, this week's free ebook of the week is The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile And Explorations of the Nile Sources by Samuel White Baker.
8/28/2007 -- This week's ebook is "Kim" by Rudyard Kipling.
8/21/2007 -- This week's ebook is "For Name and Fame or Through Afghan Passes" by G.A. Henty. Author of nearly a hundred historical novels, Henty knows how to tell a good story. (I'll soon be adding that book to British Literature, Historical Novels, and G.A. Henty CDs.
I picked this one because I'm in an Afghan mood, having recently read The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. (You might want to check my review of Splendid Suns at my blog http://www.samizdat.com/blog/?p=222
8/14/2007 -- Suggested by Professor DPM Weerakkody in Sri Lanka, this week's ebook of the week is "Five Lectures on Blindness by Kate M. Foley. (FYI -- I just added that book to our Blindness CD http://samizdat.stores.yahoo.net/blindness.html )
8/7/2007 -- This week's ebook of the week, "The Consolation of Philosophy" by Boethius is the last of our current series of philosophy books (inspired by Alain de Boton's recent "The Consolations of Philosophy").
This book inspired my Fuzzy Thought #2 -- Getting Personal
Sometimes �inspiration� isn�t a matter of stimulating new ideas, so much as confirming and clarifying thoughts you had before. In my eclectic reading, I stumble upon a passage that feels �right� not as a discovery of something totally unexpected, but rather as a clear and cogent expression of what I already believed, but hadn�t paid enough attention to.
Such was the case recently with a passage from Boethius. Who reads sixth century Latin philosophers? Well, sending out a �free ebook of the week� motivates me to be on the look out for little known/little appreciated works from long ago. In prison, awaiting execution at the random whim of King Theodoric of Italy, Boethius tries to make sense of life. Infinity, eternity, and chance reduce everything we might do to total insignficance. Those thoughts didn�t strike me as new � rather his starting point toward religious faith, seemed very similar to the world view of Ecclesiastes or of Camus in �The Myth of Sisyphus�, and from which Camus went in a totally different direction, valuing the heroism of continuing to live and do what you feel is �right� even if you believe life is meaningless.
But at this stage of my life (having passed 60), that starting point triggered another kind of response. The endeavor to try to understand the nature of everything is unending. That�s just another aspect of infinity/eternity � no single breakthrough, no individual contribution matters in the long run, because the process of discovery never ends. There�s never a moment when �THE ANSWER� is found. Every answer gives rise to new questions, which lead to new insights.
Yes, part of why we exist (presuming there is a �why�) must be to participate in some way in such overall human endeavors � trying to make the world a better place than we found it, trying to advance knowledge, or trying to help those who might some day do so.
But another very important role (one which becomes all the more important the older we get) is personal � striving to make personal sense of the world that we live in and our role in it. I will never understand the absolute nature of anything, but I can arrive at a personal undersanding � building context through reading and experience, making personal mind maps to help me recognize interrelationships and potential directions, arriving at personal answers to the �big questions�, answers that help me deal with day-to-day reality and arrive at a sense of fulfillment, so the ordinary tasks and challenges of life make sense to me in a self-built context.
From this personal perspective, infinity and eternity are positive, not negative. Every moment in time is the middle of all of time. And every point in space is in the middle of all of space. I, just like everyone else who has ever lived, stand at the center of the universe. Truth and meaning aren�t outside somewhere to be discovered. Rather one of your goals should be to build and find truth and meaning, in the fabric and context of your life. In practical terms, this means that I need not read and strive to understand the works of every major philosopher and scientist and novelist. Rather (after having sampled widely) I read particular authors because their perspective and style feel right to me. Their thoughts make sense to me and stimulte similar follow-on thoughts of my own.
Yes, learning is important, but not in the sense of struggling through everything written by the great names, in hopes of catching a glimmer of what they discovered; but rather in the sense of a very personal quest, following your natural path toward an understanding of what really matters to you.
Please send me email if you have a comment/reaction or if you�d like me to add you to an email distribution list for such thoughts. I post these thoughts and responses to them at my blog at http://www.samizdat.com/blog and at the Web page http://www.samizdat.com/fuzzy.html
7/31/2007 -- Continuing our philosophy series, this week's book is Human Nature by Schopenhauer.
7/24/2007 -- Continuing our philosophoy series, this week's book of "On Benefits" by Seneca.
7/17/2007 -- Continuing our series of philosophy books, this week's free ebook of the week is volume 2 of The Essays of Montaigne. Montaigne (1533-1592) lived a century before the Three Musketeers and Louis XIV, during a time of bloody conflict between Protestants and Catholics in France. He wrote his essays during a ten year period of self-imposed isolation (from age 38 to 48). According to the brief bio in Wikipedia, "Montaigne's stated goal is to describe man, and especially himself, with utter frankness. He finds the great variety and volatility of human nature to be its most basic features. He describes his own poor memory, his ability to solve problems and mediate conflicts without truly getting emotionally involved, his disdain for man's pursuit of lasting fame..."
(This French work is also a token acknowledgement of the recent July 14 Celebration).
7/10/2007 -- This week's free ebook of the week is "Beyond Good and Evil" by Nietzsche. This is the second in a series of philosophy books I'll be sending out, based on the subject matter in Alain de Botton's "Consolations of Philosophy". (Plato's "Symposium" last week and in coming weeks "On Benefits" by Seneca, "Essays" volume 1 by Montaigne, and "On Human Nature" by Schopenhauer. Then I'll send the book that he based his title on -- "The Consolation of Philosophy" by Boethius.)
7/3/2007 -- This week's free ebook of the week is The Symposium by Plato (the Jowett translation). That's the dialogue where he explains true love in terms of your need to find your "other half".
For the next few weeks, I'm going to take my clues from a recent book "The Consolations of Philosophy" by Alain de Botton. He has a unique style, looking at little-read texts in a low-key sensible way and extracting intriguing and helpful advice. An alternative title for that book might be "All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Plato and Epicurus and Seneca and Nietzsche and Schopenhauer and Montaigne".
So this week I'm sending out a Plato, over the next few weeks I'll send: "On Benefits" by Seneca, "Essays" volume 1 by Montaigne, "On Human Nature" by Schopenhauer, and "Beyond Good and Evil" by Nietzsche. (I don't yet have an Epicurus text.) Then I'll send the book that he based his title on -- "The Consolation of Philosophy" by Boethius.
6/26/2007 -- This week's ebook of the week is my translation (from the Russian) of "With the Armies of Menelik II" by Alexander Bulatovich. This is a unique and detailed first-hand account of Ethiopia in 1896-98 -- at the change of an era -- by a Russian officer with remarkable understanding for the many varied people who lived there and keen insight into their destiny. It was published a few years ago by Red Sea Press, together with my translation of another Bulatovich book as a single volume entitled "Ethiopia Through Russian Eyes."
Emperor Menelik of Ethiopia was contending with France and England, trying to conquer new territory in central Africa. Bulatovich chanced on an opportunity to accompany one of Menelik's armies into land and among peoples that had previously been unknown by Europeans.
This book appears together with 145 books other books (history and fiction) and 16 Library of Congress Country Studies on our Africa CD (which I just updated, adding 50 books). You can see the complete table of contents of that CD at http://samizdat.stores.yahoo.net/africa.html
6/19/2007 -- This week's ebook of the week is The Three Lieutenants by William Henry Giles Kingston (1814 - 1880). I just updated our Children's Book CD, adding 454 books, for a total of 1531 books. The new version includes many adventure and historical novels (of the ilk of Treasure Island) by Kingston and such other British authors as Fenn, Marryat, and Collingwood. If enough of you are interested, I could send out a sequel to this book -- The Three Admirals -- week. Also, if enough of you express interest, I could make new CDs dedicated to each of those authors. You can see the complete table of contents of the Children's Book CD at http://samizdat.stores.yahoo.net/chilbookcd.html
6/12/2007 -- This week's book is "The Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing: a manual of ready reference covering especially such information of everyday use as is often hardest to find when most needed", first published in 1911. Some of the info might still be of practical use; other items (such as matters of etiquette), are fun and informative because they show how much has changed since then, and how much hasn't.
For current practical answers to questions your kids keep asking or that may have been nagging you for years, try the Web site How Stuff Works
6/5/2007 -- This week's book is Jefferson Davis' account of the American Civil War -- "The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government". I'll soon be adding this book to our Non-Fiction, US History, and Civil War CDs.
5/29/2007 -- Thanks to a suggestion from Willard Guerrero, this week's ebook The Grizzly King : a Romance of the Wild by James Oliver Curwood.
5/22/2007 -- Thanks to suggestions from Michael Bowman-Jones and Andrew Falk, this week's ebook is "Hosts of the Air", a World War I historical novel by Joseph Altsheler.
5/15/2007 -- Thanks to a suggestion from Michael Bowman-Jones, this week's ebook is "The Alaskan" by James Oliver Curwood. It appears on several of our CDs:
American West http://samizdat.stores.yahoo.net/amwesinfican.html
American Literature http://samizdat.stores.yahoo.net/amlitcd.html
Canada http://samizdat.stores.yahoo.net/canlitandhis.html
Historical Novels http://samizdat.stores.yahoo.net/historical.html and
Old Midwest http://samizdat.stores.yahoo.net/midwest.html
5/8/2007 -- Eureka, a prose poem by Edgar Allan Poe. The first I heard of it was in "Parallel Worlds" by Macho Kaka ("professor of theoretical physics at the City University of New York and cofounder of string field theory", p. 28:
"Similarly, one might suppose that the farther a star is, the fainter it is. This is true, but this also cannot be the answer. If we look at a portion of the night sky, the very distant stars are indeed faint, but there are also more stars the farther you look. These two effects would exactly cancel in a uniform universe, leaving the night sky white. (This is because the intensity of starlight decreases as the square of the distance, which is canceled by the fact that the number of stars goes up as the square of the distance.)
"Oddly enough, the first person in history to solve the paradox as the American mystery writer Edgar Allan Poe, who had a long-term interest in astronomy. Just before he died, he published many of his observations in a rambling, philosophical poem called Eureka: A Prose Poem. In a remarkable passage, he wrote:
"'Were the succession of stars endless, then the background of the sky would present us an uniform luminosity, like that displayed by the Galaxy -- since there could be absolutely no point, in all that background, at which would not exist a star. The only mode, therefore, in which, under such a state of affairs, we could comprehend the voids which our telescopes find in innumerable directions, would be by supposing that the distance of the invisible background [is] so immense that no ray from it has yet been able to reach us at all.'
"He concluded by noting that the idea 'is by far too beautiful not to possess Truth as its essentiality.'
"This is the key to the correct answer. The universe is not infinitely old. There was a Genesis. There is a finite cutoff to the light that reaches our eye. Light from the most distant stars has not yet had time to reach us. cosmologist Edward Harrison, who was the first to discover that Poe had solved Lobbers' paradox, has written, 'When I first read Poe's words I was astounded: How could a poet, at best an amateur scientist, have perceived the right explanation 40 years ago when in our colleges the wrong explanation... is still being taught.'"
5/1/2007 -- Thanks to Betty Bandy, this week's book is Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson. Penny Golden seconded that recommendation, saying, " I couldn't put Ramona down. I read it in journalism class--a braille book; and the poor teacher thought I was being so studious. I just loved that book."
4/24/2007 -- At the request of Betty Bandy, this week's selection is another book by Gertrude Atherton -- Rezanov. Apparently, this novel is a better example of her writing skill, and, like most of her work, is set in California.
4/17/2007 -- "What Dreams May Come" by Gertrude Atherton. When I first saw the title of this book, I thought of the Robin Williams movie of the same name and presumed that the movie was based on the book. But no. The title is a quote from "Hamlet's soliloquy in Act 3, scene 1 ("To be, or not to be..."), namely, "For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil." Atherton's novel has nothing to do with the movie.
I was checking out Atherton because she appeared in a character in a recently published historical mystery ("Ambrose Bierce and the Trey of Pearls" by Oakley Hall), in which she and Ambrose Bierce are reporters/columnists for a San Francisco newspaper.
Keep in mind that this novel is not great literature. It's a period piece, a ghost story that has potential far greater than the sometimes disappointing book. But I find the mistakes and unexpected twists intriguing. And I hope you will enjoy it as well.
Gertrude Atherton lived 1857-1948. This was her first novel, published in 1888. You can read her bio at Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Atherton
If the book were rewritten and published today, the blurb on the back cover would probably read "A young man falls in love with his fianc�e's grandmother's ghost."
4/10/2007 -- As requested, here is a collection of all the Mowgli stories by Rudyard Kipling. These come from The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book where they are mixed in with a variety of other animal-related stories (including ones about seals and Eskimos near the North Pole). The original books appear on our Rudyard Kipling CD as well as British Literature
4/3/2007 -- For lover's of language and irony -- The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce. (If you like that, you might want to try a series of recently published mystery stories by Oakley Hall, set in San Francisco at the end of the 19th century, with Ambrose Bierce as the central figure (in the role of reporter/detective.) For instance, "Ambrose Bierce and the Trey of Pearls" and "Ambrose Bierce and the Ace of Shoots". They're not great literature, but they are a fun read (with brief excerpts from The Devil's Dictionary as epigraphs at the beginnings of chapters.)
3/27/2007 -- This week we honor Longfellow�s 200th birthday (as suggested by Shelley Rhodes) with Evangeline and Hiawatha. Longfellow�s works appear on our American Lit 2-CD set as well as Poetry
3/20/2007 -- In honor of St. Patrick's Day, today's selection is: "The High Deeds of Finn and Other Bardic Romances of Ancient Ireland" edited by T. W. Rolleston, and "A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden on Their Parents or Country and for Making them Beneficial to the Public" by Jonathan Swift (1729) (Both appear on our Irish CD)
3/13/2007 -- In remembrance of the Ides of March, this week's selection consists of the biographies of Julius Caesar by Plutarch (from his "Lives") and Seutonius (from "The Twelve Caesars"), together with Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar".
3/6/2007 -- As a follow-up to last week's selection (suggested by Kathy Hester), this week we're sending out the sequel "The Pursuit of the House-Boat" by John Kendrick Bangs.
If you have enjoyed these two satires, you might also like the classic model of this genre "Dialogues of the Dead" by Lucian of Samosata (which appears on our World Literature and Ancient World CDs in volume 1 of his works). In a similar vein, I'd recommend the Riverworld series of scifi novels by Phillip Jose Farmer. Don't judge his work based on the botched made-for-tv movie. The first volume is great fun; the others are less so, but still enjoyable. And you might also want to check chapters 10 and 11 of my book "The Lizard of Oz", written long before I had read Bangs or Lucian or Farmer. You can read or listen to (if you have RealPlayer) those for free online at http://www.samizdat.com/liz/liz11.html and http://www.samizdat.com/liz/liz11.html
2/27/2007 -- Thanks to a suggestion from Kathy Hester, this week's selection is A House-Boat on the Styx by John Kendrick Bangs. Kathy notes, "I think most readers will really enjoy that book. It is delightful."
Bangs (1862-1922) was an American satirist. According to Wikipedia he was the "creator of modern Bangsian fantasy, the school of fantasy writing that sets the plot wholly or partially in the afterlife." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kendrick_Bangs
2/20/2007 -- Today's ebook is Chapter 21 of The Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution Interspersed with Biographical, Political, and Moral Observations by Mercy Otis Warren, originally published in 1805. I typed the text of the entire 1317-page book and have posted it on the web (http://www.samizdat.com/warren )as well as including it on our US History http://samizdat.stores.yahoo.net/ushistory.html and American Revolution CDs http://samizdat.stores.yahoo.net/amrevandearr.html .
This chapter highlights the brilliance of Washington -- tricking Sir Henry Clinton into believing that the rebel forces were preparing to attack New York City, when in fact, Washington's army was making the long march to Virginia, where he took Cornwallis by surprise.
Basically, Washington lost every battle he fought, except this one decisive one.
2/13/2007 -- For Valentine's Day, my wife suggested "Pride and Prejudice"; but you all probably read that long ago. So instead, I decided to send "Daphnis and Chloe" by Longus, which was written around 200 AD. It's been a long time since I read it, and the details have faded. But I remember it as a delightful tale of young love. I hope you enjoy it.
2/6/2007 -- For this week's selection, I return to Kipling, with his Second Jungle Book. The tales from the original Jungle Book have been disneyfied to the point that it's hard to appreciate the original (the cartoon images keep getting in the way). But these stories still feel "new."
1/30/2007 -- Continuing our "copyright liberation" celebration, for this week I'm sending the play "Six Characters in Search of an Author" by Pirandello, another author who died in 1936. (I'll be adding this to our World Literature, Italian, and Drama CDs in the next round of updates).
1/23/2007 -- Continuing our "copyright liberation" celebration, for this week I'm sending a collection of short stories by Gorky (Twenty-Six and One and Other Stories).
1/16/2007 -- Continuing our "copyright liberation" celebration, for this week I'm sending two short books of poetry by A.E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad and Last Poems. (He lived in England and died in 1936; hence his works just entered the public domain). I'll soon be adding these to our British Literature and Poetry CDs.
1/9/2007 -- Continuing our copyright liberation celebration, this week's free ebook is G.K. Chesterton's "The Innocence of Father Brown", together with the final part of Richard Burton's Arabian Nights.
1/2/2007 -- In celebration of Rudyard Kipling's copyright liberation, this week's free ebook is his novel "The Light that Failed", a little known book of his I chanced upon and enjoyed many years ago. I'm also including the long short story "The Man Who Would Be King" (you may remember the 1975 movie starring Sean Connery, Michael Caine, and Christopher Plummer). I remember that one from a creative writing class with Robert Penn Warren. He typically spent the beginning of class reading a story aloud. After reading and discussing this one, he concluded something to the effect that to become a god, first you must truly become a man. It was that discussion that I had in mind when I decided on the titles of my trilogy of books about Russian officer/explorer/monk Alexander Bulatovich -- The Name of Hero, The Name of Man, and The Name of God. Hero was published a long, long time ago, and I still haven't finished the other two (finally finishing them is my number one New Year's resolution). If you are curious you can read Hero online at http://www.samizdat.com/readers.html#name Also, the fifth "supplemental volume" of Richard Burton's Arabian Nights.
12/26/2006 -- The sociology classic "The Theory of the Leisure Class" by Veblen. Also, the fourth "supplemental volume" of Richard Burton's Arabian Nights.
12/19/2006 -- Little-known Christmas stories by Louisa May Alcott: "A Country Christmas" and "The Abbott's Ghost or Maurice Treherne's Temptation" (which she wrote under the pen name of A.M. Barnard). Also, the third "supplemental volume" of Richard Burton's Arabian Nights.
12/12/2006 -- Four Christas short stories by Henry Van Dyke: "The First Christmas Tree", "The Lost Word", " The Spirit of Christmas", and "The Story of the Other Wise Man". Also, the second "supplemental volume" of Richard Burton's Arabian Nights.
12/5/2006 -- I want to finish up the Richard Burton Arabian Nights, because I got so many requests for the whole thing. But it has been too long since I sent anything else out. So this week, in addition to the first "supplemental" Arabian Nights volume (five more to go after this), I'm sending a couple of Christmas stories that I suspect few of you have ever read: "The Christmas Tree and the Wedding" by Dostoyevksy, and "The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus" by Frank Baum (author of The Wizard of Oz).
11/28/2006 -- Volume 10 of Burton's Arabian Nights.
11/21/2006 -- Volume 9 of Burton's Arabian Nights.
11/14/2006 -- Volume 8 of Burton's Arabian Nights.
11/7/2006 -- Volume 7 of Burton's Arabian Nights.
10/31/2006 -- Volume 6 of Burton's Arabian Nights.
10/24/2006 -- Volume 5 of Burton's Arabian Nights.
10/17/2006 -- Volume 4 of Burton's Arabian Nights.
10/10/2006 -- Volume 3 of Burton's Arabian Nights.
10/3/2006 -- Volume 2 of Richard Burton's Arabian Nights.
9/26/2006 -- This week's free ebook is volume 1 of Richard Burton's monumental translation of the 1001 Arabian Nights. Burton's complete Arabian Nights appears on several of our CDs -- Richard Burton and Victorian Books of Exploration, The Middle East, and World Literature.
9/19/2006 -- At the suggestion of Betty Bandy, this week's ebook is the two volumes of "Personal Narratives of a Pilgrimage to Al Madinah and Meccah" by Richard Burton. (I'm planning to send out volume 1 of Burton's translation of the "Arabian Nights" Those books appear on our Middle East CD and also Richard Burton and Victorian Books of Exploration
9/12/2006 -- Due to an overwhelming number of requests, this week's offering is volume 2 of Wars of the Jews.
9/5/2006 -- As a followup to our series of Middle East country studies, this week's ebook of the week is the first volume of Wars of the Jews by Josephus.
8/29/2006 -- We concluded our Middle East series with Iran: a Country Study
8/22/2006 -- We continued our Middle East series wtih Israel: a Country Study
8/15/2006 -- We continued our Middle East series with Afghanistan: a Country Study.
8/8/2006 -- Because many of you liked last week's selection -- Lebanon: a Country Study -- I decided to continue in the same vein, with Iraq this week and Afghanistan next week. Iraq was published by Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress, based on research completed in May 1988. It provides historical background to help you better understand the events of today. This Country Study appears on our Middle East CD as well as on our World Reference CD.
8/1/2006 -- Thanks to a suggestion from Michael Bowman-Jones, this week's selection is "Lebanon: a Country Study", compiled by the Frederal Research Division of the Library of Congress in 1987. This book provides background to help you understand complex conflicts that keep flaring up again and again... This Country Study appears on our Middle East CD as well as on our World Reference CD.
7/25/2006 -- In honor of Pirates of the Carribean II (which is great fun) and on the suggestion of Betty Bandy (thanks again), this week's selection is: The Life, Adventures, and Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton by Daniel Defoe and The Book of Pirates by Howard Pyle. Defoe appears on our British Literature CD set, and Pyle appears on our Children's Book CD.
7/18/2006 -- Thanks again to Betty Bandy, this week's selection is two collections of stories about the Napoleonnic Wars by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (best known as the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories) -- The Adventures of Gerard and Exploits of Brigadier Gerard. If you happen to be a Doyle fan, don't miss "Arthur and George" a recent best-seller by Julian Barnes.
7/11/2006 -- Thanks again to Betty Bandy, for the 14th of July (Bastille Day), our selection is -- Carlyle's French Revolution volume 1 and Dicken's Tale of Two Cities.
7/4/2006 -- Thanks to numerous helpful suggestions from Betty Bandy, for the Fourth of July our selection is -- The Declaration of Independence Articles of Confederation Burke's Speech on Conciliation with America The Life of General Francis Marion (The "Swamp Fox") by Mason Weems and four chapters from The Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution by Mercy Otis Warren Chapt 9 -- which covers the writing and signing of the Declaration of Independence Chapter 21 -- the Battle of Yorktown (as you've never seen it described before) Chapters 30 and 31 -- the conclusion
I'm a fan of Mercy Otis Warren. Her history, written shortly after the Revolution, wasn't published until about 1805 and was never widely circulated. The only printed copies you can find in libraries today are in the old Black Forest script, which is very hard to read and impossible to scan. I typed the whole thing in (over 1000 pages) and posted it on my Web site a few years ago and now include it in my American Revolution CD, US History CD, and Non-Fiction CD-set. I also typed in and posted her plays and other related writings http://www.samizdat.com/warren/
6/27/2006 -- I can't think of a better warm-up to the Fourth of July than Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass.
6/20/2006 -- Thanks to a suggestion from Penny Golden, this week's free ebook is The Belgian Cook Book edited by Mrs. Brian Luck, and originally published in 1915. Penny explains, "I found one of your books just such fun and so practical, though it's older than the hills. It's the belgian cookbook on the cookbooks CD --what a fun book to read; and for the cook who has a little flair, she or he could adapt those old recipes to today's home. Very interesting and, if you're like me, you just gain the pounds reading about good potato or cheese or mushroom or veal recipes."
6/13/2006 -- This week�s free ebook of the week is �Inca Land: Exploration in the Highlands of Peru� by Hiram Bingham. Bingham was the archaelogist credited with the discovery of the Incan ruins at Machu Picchu. He is purported to be a model for the movie character Indiana Jones.
6/6/2006 -- This week's ebook of the week, the Lizard of Oz, was written by me, and published back in 1973. Unlike the other books I send out, this one is still protected by copyright. And it is a Word document, as opposed to our usual plain text files. You can see the illustrations at ttp://www.samizdat.com/lizard/frog.htm and you can hear a RealAudio version of it at http://www.samizdat.com/liz
5/30/2006 -- I'm now reading/enjoying Matthew Pearl's new novel "The Poe Shadow" in which the characters try to unravel the mystery of Poe's death. (I loved his first novel The Dante Club, and hence pre-ordered the new one from Amazon). So this week's ebook of the week is volume 1 of the works of Edgar Allan Poe (the Raven Edition). This includes:
5/23/2006 -- This week's ebook of the week, suggested by Penny Golden, is "A Man from Glengarry" by Ralph Connor, sequel to Glengarry School Days" which I sent out a couple weeks ago. It appears on our Canadian CD.
5/16/2006 -- This week's ebook is "Winesburg Ohio" by Sherwood Anderson, a classic set of interrelated short stories. You probably read excerpts in anthologies back in high school. Now you can check out how it works as a whole.
5/9/2006 -- Thanks to a suggestion from Penny Golden, this week's selection is "Glengarry Schooldays: a Story of the Early Days in Glengarry" by Ralph Connor, from our Canadian CD.
5/2/2006 -- The second and final volume of Le Mort Darthur by Sir Thomas Malory, in English.
4/24/2006 -- Thanks to a suggestion from Wafa Ramadan, this week's ebook of the week is volume 1 of Le Mort Darthur: Sir Thomas Malory's Book of King Arthur and of his Noble Knights of the Round Table (in English). If enough of you express interest, I send the second and final volume next week. FYI -- if you are in an Arthurian mood, try the extraordinary current best seller "Arthur and George" by Julian Barnes. (That's "Arthur" in the generalized sense of someone with a chivalric bent, but primarily in the sense of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes stories). You can see my review of that book at http://www.samizdat.com/isyn/arthurandgeorge.html or at my blog (Blogging About Books) at http;//www.samizdat.com/blog
4/17/2006 -- This week's free ebook is "Secret Chambers and Hiding-Places: Historic, Romantic, and Legendary Stories and Traditions about Hiding-Holes, Secret Champters, Etc. by Allan Flea (from our Non-Fiction 2-CD set). As a change of pace after a lot of well-known classics, this is a bizarre collection of tales that very few (if any) of you would have ever heard of.
The contents includes: * A Great Deviser of "Priest's Holes" Hindlip Hall Priest-Hunting at Braddocks The Gunpowder Plot-Conspirators Harvington, Ufton, and Ingatestone Cmpton Winyates, Salford Prior, Sawston, Oxburgh, Parham, Paxhill, Etc. King-Hunting: Boscobel, Moseley, Trent, and Heale Cavalier-Hunting, Etc. James II's Escapes Mystgerious Rooms, Deadly Pits, Etc. Hiding-Places in Jacobite Dwellings and in Scottish Castles and Mansions Concealed Doros, Subterranean Passages, Etc. Miniature Hiding-Holes for Valuables, Etc. Hiding-Places of Smugglers and Thieves The Scottish Hiding-Places of Prince Charles Edward
4/11/2006 -- This week's book is Wordsworth's autobiographical poem The Prelude, from volume 3 of the Complete Works of Wordsworth. This appears on our British Lit 2-CD set as well as our Poetry CD.
4/4/2006 -- This week�s selection is an excerpt from the Midrash, a medieval Hebrew work. I picked it because of two intriguing sentences:�The Torah was to God, when he created the world, what the plan is to an architect when he erects a building.� which, for me, resonates interestingly with the opening lines of the Gospel According to John � �In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.� and �The nose is the most important feature in man�s face, so much so that there is no legal identification of man, in Jewish law, without the identification of the nose.�which, for me, gives new meaning to Gogol�s short story �The Nose�, which describes the bizarre reactions of a man who wakes up without a nose. The book �Medieval Hebrew, featuring the Midrash and medieval collections of Jewish Biblical lore and legend� appears on our Religion CD, our Jewish Religion CD�, and also our �Medieval/Renaissance� CD.
3/28/2006 -- Thanks to a suggestion from Ivan Cribb (in Australia), this week�s free ebook is a series of excerpts from Tolstoy�s War and Peace. These chapters and epilogues could stand on their own as �Tolstoy�s theory of history�. Of the few people who read this great book (probably the greatest novel ever written), still fewer read these chapters. They in no way affect the plot, so you could easily skip them. But to me they are the most important part of the book � provocative ruminations on why hundreds of thousands of men marched from one end of Europe to another.
The excerpts include: Book 9 chapter 1, Book 10 chapter 1, Book 11 chapters 1 and 2, Book 13 chapter 1, Book 14 chapters 1 and 2, First Epilogue chapters 1 to 4, and Second Epilogue�If you want me to send this selection to you by email, just send me email at seltzer@samizdat.com
If you like this, then run out and buy and read �Guns, Germs, and Steel� by Jared Diamond � a totally different approach to the same major question: how did the history of the world wind up in its present shape?
3/21/2006 -- This week's selection, "The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus" is quite short. It's a bizarre excerpt from volume 3 of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, a work so long that few ever read it, and hence many fascinating nuggets, like this one are missed. If you know of any novels or movies based on this legend, please let me know.
3/14/2006 -- This week's selection is another Irish book, in honor of St. Patrick's Day -- Ghostly Tales by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873), volume 1 -- Schalken the Painter (1851) and An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street (1853). This book appears on our Irish CD, on our British Literature 2-CD set, and also on our Detective/Mystery/Crime/Horror CD.
3/7/2006 -- Since so many readers let me know that they enjoyed last week's Greek and Roman Ghost Stories, and because St. Patrick's Day is coming up soon, this week's book is "True Irish Ghost Stories" by St. John Seymour. It appears on our Irish CD and also on our Detective/Mystery/Horror CD and our British Literature 2-CD set.
2/28/2006 -- This week's book is a bizarre and interesting item that I just chanced upon -- GREEK AND ROMAN GHOST STORIES by LACY COLLISON-MORLEY. It Includes chapters on: THE POWER OF THE DEAD TO RETURN TO EARTH THE BELIEF IN GHOSTS IN GREECE AND ROME STORIES OF HAUNTING NECROMANCY VISIONS OF THE DEAD IN SLEEP APPARITIONS OF THE DEAD WARNING APPARITIONS Next week, in honor of St. Patrick's Day, I plan to send an Irish book.
2/21/2006 -- Thanks to a suggestion from Bruce Blanchard, this week's ebook (in honor of Black History Month), is The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.
2/14/2006 -- This week, in honor of Valentine's Day, we are sending two texts: The Golden Ass by Apuleius (which includes "Cupid and Psyche") and "Sonnets from the Portuguese" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Apuleius appears on our World Literature CD and also our Ancient World CD. Elizabeth Barrett Browning appears on our British Literature 2-CD set and on our Poetry CD and also on our Browning CD
2/7/2006 --This week's free ebook is Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey. I was prompted to pick this classic western because one of the characters in "The Brooklyn Follies" by Paul Auster was reading it, and I loved the Auster book (almost as much as I loved his "Illusions").
1/31/2006 -- This week's ebook is Montaigne's Essays, volume 1 (of 10). A contemporary of Nostradamus and of Shakespeare, Montaigne (1533-1592) eloquently pondered the meaning of life, the universe, and everything, often using classical sources for examples and inspiration. (This book appears on our Non-Fiction and Essays CDs). According to Wikepedia (http://www.wikipedia.org), "Friedrich Nietzsche was moved to judge of Montaigne: 'That such a man wrote has truly augmented the joy of living on this Earth.'"
To put this work in historical and philosophical context, check Alain de Botton's recent and brilliant "The Consolations of Philosophy" (published by Pantheon Books).
And please visit my new blog at http://www.samizdat.com/blog and post your reactions to this book and related matters by posting comments there. If there is enough interest, that blog could become a center for book discussion, like a library reading group.
FYI -- The rights to my book Web Business Bootcamp recently reverted to me from Wiley. So I have posted the complete text of that book on the Web. You can read it at http://www.samizdat.com/bootcamp.html and can discuss it at that same blog of mine.
(If you haven't "blogged" before, have no fear. I'm new to it, too; and it's ridiculously easy. The word is short for "Web log." It's just a Web page consisting of relatively short items, which gets frequently updated with new material, and where readers can easily add their reactions. It's a Web space to come back to again and again, like a favorite TV show you tune in often. I try to post at least one new item a day. The main topics are books, Internet business, and "off-the-wall" ideas of mine.)
1/24/2006 -- Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge.
1/17/2006 -- This week's free ebook is Emerson's Essays First Series. This includes History, Self-Reliance, Comensation, Spiritual Laws, Love, Friendship, Prudence, Heroism, The Over-Soul, Circles, Intellect, and Art.
For me, Emerson's prose has a hypnotic quallity -- what he says sounds so good, so authoritative, that I'm inclined to suspend disbelief, as if I were reading a poem, like Wordsworth's Prelude, as if all I wanted was to catch a glimpse of this eternal oneness that the author believes so fervently in.
William James, whose works we sampled for the last two weeks, was certainly influenced by Emerson; but headed in a different direction. James took a no-nonsense practical look at the world around him, and had great faith in common sense. James rejected Emerson's mystic oneness of all things, for an everyday matter-of-fact plurallism. But to me their approaches seem not irreconcilable opposites but rather two sides of the same coin.
FYI -- I just started a blog at http://www.samizdat.com/blog "Blogging About Books". Each week I'll start an item for that week's book, so you can leave your comments/share your reactions there. Please join in the discussion.
1/10/2006 -- I'm in a William James mood again this week. In "Varieties of Religious Experience" James starts from the fact that most of mankind believes in some form of God. From his no-nonsense practical perspective -- part philosophy, part psychology -- he examines the tangible evidence of religious belief, in all its forms, rather than getting tangled up in abstract questions about the existence and nature of God.
1/3/2006 -- This week's ebook, "Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking" by William James (brother of Henry James) is one of my favorite books. Today's specialist philosophers who tend to focus on questions that seem to have little or no relationship to everyday life and tend to write in a precise academic style that is dull and uninspiring, when it can be understood at all. James was a generalist. He was as much a psychologist (in a broad sense) as he was a philosopher. He didn't hestitate to write about God and religion and the meaning of life, as well as matters related to physics and the nature of being. His arguments are often based on "common sense" and are often very readable and understandable and applicable to everyday life. And his style has a lot more in common with Emerson's essays than with Hegel or Kant. (He seems to enjoy debunking the systems and deflating the pretensions of the classic German philososphers.)
12/27/2005 -- As a change of pace, this week's ebook is a reference book (that appears on our Reference Book CD) -- Bartlett's Familiar Quotations.
12/20/2005 -- Ten Days that Shook the World, a first hand account of the opening days of the Russian Revolution in St. Petersburg/Petrograd/Leningrad. Warren Beatty based his movie "Reds" on this book. Reed, a reporter, captures the immediacy, the excitement of the moment.
12/13/2005 -- Christmas Entertainments by Alice Kellogg. Here's a Victorian collection of Christmas songs and activities to get you in the holiday mood. It appears on our Christmas CD, which I just updated http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/christmas.html
12/6/2005 -- An early Hanukkah treat, suggested by Betty Bandy, this week's free ebook is "The Guide for the Perplexed", by Moses Maimonides (1135-1204), purportedly "the most influential Jewish thinker since the Moses of the Bible or Torah" (http://mosesmaimonides.com/) This version was translated from Arabic to English by M. Friedlander.
11/29/2005 -- Suggested by Mukesh Shamar, this week's free ebook is the 17th century political science classic Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes. While the Romantics and their precursors (a hundred years later) believed in that man in his natural state is good and noble, Hobbes (writing during the English Civil War and Cromwell Interregnum) believed that force and government are needed to maintain law and order and prevent chaos. (I ought to reread that now myself, in light of events in Iraq).This book appears on our Non-Fiction 2-CD set, which I just updated, and which now contains 2604 books.
11/22/2005 -- Thanks to a suggestion from Betty Bandy, this week's "free ebook" is a collection of texts related to Thanksgiving. A Brief History of the United States by Barnes and Company; First Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1676; The May Flower and Her Log by Azel Ames; The Mayflower Compact; The Women Who Came on the mayflower by Annie Russiel Marble. These texts appear on our Non-Fiction 2-CD set (which I am now updating), and also on our US History CD.
11/15/2005 -- This week's free ebook of the week is "Medieval Hebrew, featuring Midrash and medieval collections of Jewish biblical lore and legend." If you take the time to read, you'll uncover numerous nuggets of wisdom, that resonate interestingly with Christian beliefs and traditions. This book appears on our Religion CD, which I just updated today, and which now contains 589 books, about all the major religions of the world. See http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/religioncd.html for details.
11/8/2005 -- Thanks to Betty Bandy, who has sent some excellent suggestions, this week's ebook selection is a set of belated Halloween texts: Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow; Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales (volume 1 of 5) and Carmilla; and Keats' vampire poem "Lamia".
11/1/2005 -- Today our free ebook is Goethe's Faust, Part 1, translated by Charles Brooks. The relationship of parts 1 and 2 of Faust reminds me of the relationship of the beginning and the end of 2001: a Space Odessey. The beginning is a clear and interesting story and readily engages you. The end is more ambitious, provcative, complex and metaphysical. Nor surprisingly, Part 1 of Faust is read and enjoyed far more often than Part 2; and Part 2 is the favorite of graduate students.
This translation, plus one by Bayard Taylor, plus both Parts 1 and 2 in German appear on our World Literature CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/worlitcd.html>/a>, and our German CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/german.html, and our Goethe CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/goethe.html. I don't have Part 2 in English translation. If you would like Faust in the original German, please let me know by email and I'll send it to you.
10/25/2005 -- This week's free ebook is Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe. This is the play with the famous line "Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships". (If I hear back from enough of you that you'd like it, I'll do Goethe's Faust next week.) Dr. Faustus appears on our recently expanded "Shakespeare, his sources, and his contemporaries" http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/shakespeare.html as well as Drama http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/drama1.html and British Literature http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/britlitcd.html
10/18/2005 -- One of our subscribers, Bruce Alexander, suggested more Twain -- Letters from the Earth, in particular. Unfortunately, that book is still under copyright, having been published (posthumously, or posthumorously as Twain would have said) in 1952. So instead, I'm sending out a collection of other Twain books as this week's ebook of the week: The Mysterious Stranger and Other Stories, The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories, and Pudd'nhead Wilson (which includes an early use of fingerprints to solve a crime). These books appear on our American Literature CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/amlitcd.html with 1313 books and also on Mark Twain http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/twain.html
10/11/2005 -- This week's free ebook is Biographia Literaria by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. There's something magical about his Kublai Khan, as if it were a window to a hidden world inside us. Coleridge's rambling biography includes his ruminations on all matters of interest to him. This book appears in our British Literature 2-CD set http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/britlitcd.html and also in Poetry http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/poetry.html
10/4/2005 -- The History of Herodotus, translated by G.C. Macaulay. You may remember the frequent references to Herodotus in the 1996 movie The English Patient (with Ralph Fienes and Juliette Binoche) and in the book on which that was based, by Michael Ondaatje. This is not only the oldest history book to have survived (perhaps the first written), it is also the oldest travel book. One might even say that it is the oldest amateur anthropology book as well. For me, his descriptions of the places and culures of his time are far more fascinating than his account of the wars between Greece and Persia.
9/28/2005 -- This week's free ebook is The Gold Bag by Carolyn Wells, A Mystery/Detective novel (recommended by Ken Wilson). Wells (1862-1942) was born in Rahway, NJ, where she worked as a librarian before she became a professional writer. She published 170 books. The Gold Bag appears on our Detective/Mystery/Crime/Horror CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/detmyscriman.html
9/20/2005 -- This week's free ebook (suggested by Bruce Blanchard) is "The Tao Teh King or the Tao and its Characteristics" by Lao-Tse, translated by James Legge. This book appears on our Religion CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/religioncd.html and also on East Asia http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/eastasia.html and also on Philosophy http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/philosophy.html
As a bonus, I'm also including a short piece entitled "San Francisco During the Eventful Days of April, 1906" by James B. Stetson, personal recollections of the San Francisco earthquake, which remind me a bit of the New Orleans disaster. That book appears on Non-Fiction http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/nonfictioncd.html US History http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/ushistory.html and California http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/california.html
9/13/2005 -- Ths week's ebook is Captain Bligh's version of the Mutiny on the Bounty. (His survived to tell the tale). "A Voyage to the South Sea by William Bligh. "A voyage undertaken by command of His Majesty for the purpose of conveying the bread-fruit tree to the West Indies, in His Majesty's Ship the Bounty, Commanded by Lieutenant William Bligh, including an account of the mutiny on board the said ship, and the subsequent voyage of part of the crew in the ship's boat from Tofoa, one of the Friendly Islands, to Timor, a Dutch settlement in the East Indies." First published in 1792. This book appears on our Non-Fiction CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/nonfictioncd.html
9/6/2005 -- This week's free ebook is "In Time of Emergency: a Citizen's Handbook on Nuclear Attack and National Disaster" -- from the days when America had a Civil Defense organization that focused on public preparedness for disasters of all kinds. That's one of the books just added to the Non-Fiction CD set, which now contains 2490 books, and sells for just $29. You can see the details (including the complete table of contents) at http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/nonfictioncd.html
8/30/2005 -- This week's book is "Une Vie, a Piece of String, and Other Stories" by Guy de Maupassant, translated to English by McMaster, Henderson, and others.
Maupassant is a master of the short story, often using ironic first person narrative, having the narrator unintentionally reveal him or herself. You come to know his characters well and believe in their reality in just a few pages. And he often provides a surprising twist. With Joyce and Chekhov you might read a story (even a very good one) and miss the point, and have to reread it. Maupassant is more in the vein of Poe -- the climax will never slip by unnoticed. These are stories to be told and heard and enjoyed.
This book appears on our World Literature CD (along with 1536 other books, including one monstrous "book", far too long to email, with all 180 of Maupassant's stories, in English), You can see details of that CD (which sells for $29) at http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/worlitcd.html
As an experiment, I'm offering a $5 discount on that CD for "free ebook" readers. Just order from our online store at http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/worlitcd.html and in the order form, enter the coupon code "maupassant". This offer is good until next Tuesday, Sept. 6. If enough people show an interest, I'll make similar discount offers in future weeks.
8/23/2005 -- This week's ebook includes The Kreutzer Sonata, Ivan the Fool, A Lost Opportunity, Polikushka, and The Candle, by Leo Tolstoy. It appears on our World Literature CD, which I recently updated (and which now contains 1537 books) http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/worlit.html and also on our Tolstoy CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/tolstoy.html
8/16/2005 -- Having just returned from vacation in the Southwest, I picked Roughing It by Mark Twain as this week's ebook. That's an autobiographical piece, recounting Twain's journey to Nevada and what he found/learned there, during the silver-rush days.
We often get caught up in the hype about how fast things change these days, and forget that folks in the mid-19-hundreds had to deal with change that was at least as radical and fast. The famed Pony Express only lasted six months. The completion of the transcontinental rail line vastly reduced the time, cost, and trouble of travelling from one coast to the other. (Hundreds of Mormons answering Brigham Young's call walked 1400 miles all the way from Iowa to Salt Lake City, pushing wheelbarrows and pushing handcarts, and the very next year the train was available, making such hardship totally unnecessary). In a few short decades the American west went from wild lands controlled by Native Americans and explored by a handful of hunters, trappers, and adventurers, to the home of farmers and ranchers (with the Native Americans contained and controlled and guarded in reservations). Not to mention the revolution in man's image of himself with the theory of evolution.
Twain was keenly aware of how fast the world was changing. (That's his main theme in Life on the Mississippi, as well). In Roughing It he recounts the damage to the environment done by prospectors and miners; he tells of the ghost towns; he laments how much of nature as been lost, never to return. As is usual in Twain's autobiographical fiction, the writing is uneven, with brilliant memorable passages buried among pages you might just as well skip. Give it a try, and if you haven't been there before, consider making a trip to the Southwest.
FYI -- I just posted a travelogue of my trip at http://www.samizdat.com/southwest.html And I'll be adding that to our Southwest CD, which also includes Roughing It. http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/sw.html
8/9/2005 (sent out late due to vacation) -- Plato's Republic, translated by Jowett. Probably Plato's best-known work, The Republic includes his vision of the ideal state (modelled to some degree on Sparta), and his myth of the cave. It appears on several of our CDs: Non-Fiction, Philosophy, and Ancient World.
8/2/2005 (sent out late due to vacation) -- Uncle Remus His Songs and His Sayings by Joel Chandler Harris. I thought you might enjoy comparing this original (about Br'er Rabbit and his friends and enemies) with the Disney version (Song of the South). It appears on our Children's Book CD.
7/26/2005 (posted late due to vacation) -- Another suggestion by Ken Wilson -- "The Diary of a U-Boat Commander by Anonymous", which is included in our Ships and Sea CD and also our War CD.
7/19/2005 -- Suggested by Ken Wilson, this week's free ebook is "The Hoosier Schoolmaster: a story of backwoods life", a novel by Edward Eggleston (1837-1902). This book is included in our American Literature CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/amlitcd.html
7/12/2005 -- This week's free ebook is "Naturalist on the River Amazons" by Henry Walter Bates (1825-1892). I was totally unaware of this gem (which appears on Non-Fiction and also on our Evolution CD). I first learned of it yesterday when reading 'Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo' by Sean Carroll, a recent hardcover book that explains for the non-scientist the latest developments in biology (a set of insights and discoveries that go beyond RNA/DNA, just as that breakthrough went beyond Darwin). Unfortunately, that book suffers from Scientific American syndrome -- great beginning, stimulating your appetite to the point that you will make the time to read it through to the end; but soon rocketing beyond the background of the typical reader, so the further you read the less you understand; and you are left in the end with appetite even stronger, but frustrated and lost. But at least I could enjoy the historical interludes along the way, such as in chapter 8, when Carroll introduces Bates, "After eleven years in the Amerazon, having collected 14,712 different animal speicies (8000 of which were new to science), his body wracked by tropical disease, poor nutrition, and prolonged exposure ot sun and heat, and having endured robbery, abandonment by servants, and other deprivations, Henry Walter Bates left the jungle for England in June 1859. His timing was fortuante -- in just a few months Darwin's 'The Origin of Species' would appear... Bates received great encouragement form Darwin, especially to write and publish a narrative of his travels. Not only did Bates draw upon Darwin's views, but Darwin even reviewed, edited, and wrote an 'appeciation' for the one book Bates produced in his entire career, 'Naturalist on the River Amazons' (1863). Darwin had predicted it to be a great sucess and he was right, for Bates's writing proved to be superior to either Darwin or his original companion in the Amazon, Alfred Russel Wallace. Bates's book is till a terrific read today."
For our Evolution CD see http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/1evolution.html
For our Non-Fiction 2-CD set see Non-Fiction 2-CD set see http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/chilbookcd.html (which I'm updating now -- should finish by Thursday), and also on our Baum CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/baum.html
If you are curious, you might also want to check my book The Lizard of Oz,a satiric fantasy intended for adults as well as children: "When an elementary class sets out on a quest to save the world from disenchantment, their adventures reveal paradoxes of the human mind and ways of awakening the magic within us." This Lizard is online as both text and as audio (RealAudio, with my voice) at http://www.samizdat.com/liz I'd be happy to send that by email as a plain-text file to anyone who requests it. You can also buy it on CD with other children's stories of mine at http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/lizofoznowan.html or as a printed book (with illustrations) at http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/lizardofoz.html
6/28/2005 -- In case you are planning an outdoor vacation this summer, this week's ebook is "Steep Trails: California-Utah-Nevada-Washington-Oregon-The Grand Canyon" by John Muir, from our Classic Travel CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/travel.html
6/21/2005 -- This week's ebook is THE LIFE, CRIME, AND CAPTURE OF JOHN WILKES BOOTH, WITH A FULL SKETCH OF THE Conspiracy of which he was the Leader, AND THE PURSUIT, TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF HIS ACCOMPLICES. BY GEORGE ALFRED TOWNSEND, A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT. It appears on our Civil War CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/civilwar.html as well as US History http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/ushistory.html and Non-Fiction http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/nonfictioncd.html
6/14/2005 -- This week's ebook of the week is ENGLISH TRAVELLERS OF THE RENAISSANCE BY CLARE HOWARD The chapter titles are: THE BEGINNINGS OF TRAVEL FOR CULTURE THE HIGH PURPOSE OF THE ELIZABETHAN TRAVELLER SOME CYNICAL ASPERSIONS UPON THE BENEFITS OF TRAVEL PERILS FOR PROTESTANT TRAVELLERS THE INFLUENCE OF THE FRENCH ACADEMIES THE GRAND TOUR THE DECADENCE OF THE GRAND TOUR You can find this book on our CD "Time Travel: Classic Travel and Tourism Books", which I am now updating. You can see the current contents at http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/travel.html
6/7/2005 -- This week's free ebook of the week is The Great English Short-Story Writers, Volume 1, 1910, which inicludes: APPARITION OF MRS. VEAL. By Daniel Defoe (1661-1731) THE MYSTERIOUS BRIDE. By James Hogg (1770-1835) THE DEVIL AND TOM WALKER. By Washington Irving (1783-1859) DR. HEIDEGGER'S EXPERIMENT. By Nathaniel Hawthorne (1807-1864) THE PURLOINED LETTER. By Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) RAB AND HIS FRIENDS. By Dr. John Brown (1810-1882) THE BOOTS AT THE HOLLY-TREE INN. By Charles Dickens (1812-1870) A STORY OF SEVEN DEVILS. By Frank R. Stockton. (1834-1902) A DOG'S TALE. By Mark Twain (1835) THE OUTCASTS OF POKER FLAT. By Bret Harte (1839-1902) THE THREE STRANGERS. By Thomas Hardy (1840) JULIA BRIDE. By Henry James (1843) A LODGING FOR THE NIGHT. By Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) It appears on our Short Story CD, which I updated today.
5/31/2005 -- This week's ebook is A Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) (wife of the essayist William Godwin and mother of Mary Shelley [who was wife of the poety Percy Bysshe Shelley and author of Frankenstein). It appears on our 18th Century CD, also British Literature, and Women
5/24/2005 -- This week's free ebook is "The Chemical History of a Candle" by Faraday. I just saw a reference to it in "Wittgenstein's Poker" by Edmonds and Eidinow, an intriguing account of a confrontation in 1946 between the philosophers Wittgenstein and Popper. The authors note that Faraday's book was one of Wittgenstein's favorites "an illustration of fine popular science."
"The Chemical History of a Candle" appears on our Non-Fiction CD and also on Victorican Science and Technology.
5/17/2005 -- Because of the popularity of last week's selection (Things to Make), we're doing The Boy Mechanic Volume 1 this week. "700 THINGS FOR BOYS TO DO, HOW TO CONSTRUCT WIRELESS OUTFITS, BOATS, CAMP EQUIPMENT, AERIAL GLIDERS, KITES, SELF-PROPELLED VEHICLES ENGINES, MOTORS, ELECTRICAL APPARATUS, CAMERAS AND HUNDREDS OF OTHER THINGS WHICH DELIGHT EVERY BOY". It's one of the books from our Children's Book CD (which contains 678 books). We sent out the plain text version by email. There is also a .pdf version with illustrations, which is too large to send by email; but which we include on our Children's Book CD.
5/10/2005 -- This week's book is "Things to Make" by Archibald Williams, with detailed instructions for building such things as a ladder, a poultry house, a bicycle shed, cabinets, telegaphic apparatus, an electric alarm clock, model steam turbines, quick-boiling kettles, pumps, kites, and paper gliders. We sent out the plain text version by email. There is also a .pdf version with illustrations, which is too large to send by email; but which we include on our Children's Book CD.
5/3/2005 -- Elizabethan Demonology by Thomas Spalding, 1880.
4/26/2005 -- This week's ebook of the week is "The Discovery of Witches: in answer to severall queries, lately delivered to the judges of the asssize for the county of Norfolk" by Matthew Hopkings, Witch-finder, 1647. This will be one of the books that I'll be adding to our Occult CD in the next update (in the next day or two). http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/occult.html
4/19/2005 -- This week's free ebook is The Prince of India (1893) by Lew Wallace (1827-1905). During the Civil War, Wallace served in the Union army and rose to the rank of major general. He was a member of the court that tried those accused of conspiring to assinate Lincoln. 1878-1881 he was governor of New Mexico Territory, and 1881-1885 he was ambassador to Turkey (the Ottoman Empire). His best-known novel is Ben-Hur (1880), which, along with The Prince of India, is included in our American Literature CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/amlitcd.html
4/12/2005 -- This week's ebook of the week is the best known novel by George Sand ((pseudonym of Lucile Amandine Aurore Dupin, the Baronne Dudevant) (1804-1876) -- a woman who today is probably better known for her life style and personal adventures than for her books. This version of Mauprat is in English translation. It appears on our George Sand CD, together with 43 other books by her, and 4 books about her. (NB -- most of the books on the CD are in the original French). It also appears on on our World Literature CD and our French CD and our CD of books by and about women
Next week's book will be The Prince of Inida, a wild adventure tale by Lew Wallace (author of Ben-Hur, and sometime governor of wild-west territory and ambassador to the Ottoman Empire).
4/5/2005 -- This week's book is a classic collection of detective stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. This book, along with other Sherlock Holmes stories, appears on our Detective/Mystery/Crime/Horror CD
3/29/2005 -- This week's ebook was suggested by Kurt Yount, who writes:
"In the International Miscellany October 1, 1850 there is a really interesting examination of Poe. It presents a lot of biographical and literary fragmens that I for one didn't know existed and it makes me wonder if somewhere there is more information, not poems or stories, that could be scanned in the future. This is very fascinating stuff to me, since I think I have read all his stories, but I don't care much for the poetry. Anyway, just something I ran into looking through those magazines on your disk. Also a couple issues before that there was something on Margaret Fuller, whose name is familiar, but on whom Gutenberg apparently has nothing."
That issue of the International Miscellany (volume 1, number 3) appears on our American Literature CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/amlitcd.html (in the Periodicals folder), and also on our new Edgar Allan Poe CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/poe.html. In addition, I'll be adding it to our Magazine CD ("When Dickens Was News") http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/magazines.html at the next update (in about a month).
As for Margaret Fuller (Ossoli), her two-volume volume memoirs appear on our Brook Farm CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/brookfarm.html (She was a Brook Farm participant and figures prominently in Nathaniel Hawthorne's Blithedale Romance, a novel about Brook Farm.)
3/22/2005 -- Yesterdays with Authors by James T. Fields, (husband of Annie Fields from our 3/1 selection). James Fields was a Boston publisher (Ticknor Fields) and also editor of the Atlantic Monthly. He "discovered" Nathaniel Hawthorne. It appears on our Fields CD (a Theme CD)
3/15/2005 -- Tales of Old Japan by Lord Redesdale, from our World Literature CD.
3/1/2005 -- This week's ebook (thanks to a recommendation from Mark Schorr) is Authors and Friends by Annie Fields. This book contains bios of Lonfellow, Emerson, Holmes, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Celia Thacter, Whittier, Tennyson, and Lady Tennyson, based largely on personal experience and acquaintance. It appears on our American Literature CD and also on our Fields CD (a Theme CD).
2/22/2005 -- This week's ebook of the week is "Inspector General" a play by Nikolai Gogol. You may remember the 1949 movie based on it, starring Danny Kaye. Or perhaps you read Nabokov's amazing book about Gogol (a New Directions paperback). Or perhaps you read the recent best seller The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, which tells the story of an Indian boy named after the Russian author.
This play appears on several of our Countries of the Former Soviet Union, Cold War, Drama, World Literature, and World Literature in English. But if you love Russian literature and/or Gogol, you really should read Gogol's Art by Laszlo Tikos on the CD of that name, together with works by Gogol and other Russian greats.
2/15/2005 -- Shakespeare's Mid-Summer Night's Dream, for Valentine's and also to help forget about the snow and ice.
2/8/2005 -- With a major snow storm about to hit New England today, and baseball's spring training just a few weeks away, it seems appropriate to celebrate spring with Ivan Turgenev's "Torrents of Spring." And with Valentine's day just a few days away, I feels right to celebrate with Turgenev's "First Love." It so happens that those two novellas, plus a third -- Mumu -- are all in the same file, which appears on our World Literature CD, which I am now updating, adding another 200+ books. I hope to finish that today. Think spring. Think summer. Enjoy.
2/1/2005 -- Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser, which appears on our American Literature CD.
1/25/2005 -- Thanks to a suggestion from Penny Golden, this week's free ebook is A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain. That book appears on our American Literature and Mark Twain CDs.
1/18/2005 --At the suggestion of Patty Nash, this week's ebook consists of two novels by Edith Wharton. Patty wrote: "As we have finished reading Ethan Frome, I would also recommend SUMMER and GLIMPSES OF THE MOON, also by Edith Wharton. Her descriptions of nature and location are beautiful, and she keeps you thinking and feeling long after you have finished her books, and they are definitely worth reading again." Those books appear on our American Lit CD and also on our Edith Wharton CD and our Women CD.
1/11/2005 -- This week's free ebook consists of two short works by Gustave Flaubert -- "A Simple Soul" and "Herodias" -- both in English translation. These appear on our World Literature CD and also our French CD.
1/4/2005 -- This week's ebook, suggested by Kurt Yount, is Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. Kurt says, "I have been rereading Ethan Frome which I last read years ago... This is a relatively short piece, but it is really worth reading again. It is emotionally naked, but understated. I was not especially impressed by Age Of Innocence, but this piece is different, it is not artificial. Anybody who read it before when you were single, go back and re-read it as a married man. You will see it through different eyes." This book appears on our American Lit CD and also our Edith Wharton CD.
12/28/2004 -- At the request of Ken Wilson, this week's free ebook is Bram Stoker's Dracula. As a bonus, I'm also including another Bram Stoker novel "Lair of the White Worm." Both appear on our Detective/Mystery/Crime/Horror CD. See http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/detmyscriman.html for details.
12/21/2004 -- This week's free ebook consists of a novel (Dickens' Christmas Carol) and a short story (The Gift of the Magi). While everyone has probably seen several different movies of A Christmas Carol dozens or even hundreds of times, few of us have read the book. As for "Magi", it's simply a delightful feel-good Christmas story. Both appear on our Christmas CD, which was just reviewed in Large Print Reviews at http://www.largeprintreviews.com/xmascd.html
12/14/2004 -- Suggested by Bill Gaughan, this week's free ebook of the week is "Narrative of the Captivity and REsotration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson" by Mary White Rowlandson. Bill noted "Saturday evening I also heard a program from the series from New Hampshire Public Radio called "Storylines New England". This program dealt with two perspectives of King Philip's War. One was from the book by the puritan Mary Rowlandson... Here is a description of the program from the website... 'a page-turning best-seller about her 10-week ordeal during the Indian War of 1675-76 (King Philip's War).'"
12/7/2004 -- This week's ebook is "What Men Live By and Other Tales" by Leo Tolstoy. This book appears on our World Literature CD.
11/30/2004 -- This week's ebook is volume 1 of A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, compiled by James Richardson and first published in 1897. This volume includes basic documents of the early days of the Republic (begining with the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederaton, and Constitution), and just about all official documents and speeches of George Washington as president, including his Farewell Address. This book (and succeeding volumes in that series) is found on our US History CD and also our American Revolution CD.
11/23/2004 -- This week's ebook consists of two documents: -- the relatively short LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF CALAMITY JANE BY HERSELF, which appears on several of our CDs: Non-Fiction Women, West, and Biography. -- the book length AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BUFFALO BIll. (which appears on Non-Fiction, West, and Biography).
11/16/2004 -- This week's free ebook of the week consists of a short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" and a utopian/feminist novel "Herland" both by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935). "The Yellow Wallpaper" appears on our Short Story CD (which I just updated, adding 992 stories, including this one), American Literature, and Detective/Mystery/Horror. "Herland" appears on American Literature.
11/9/2004 -- In honor of Thanksgiving, this week's ebook is a cook book from shortly after the American Revolution -- "American Cookery or the Art of Dressing Viands, Fish, Poultry and Vegetables, and the Best Modes of Making Pastes, Puffs, Pies, Tarts, Puddings, Custard and Preserves, and All Kinds of Cakes, from the Imperial Plumb to Plain Cake. Adapted to This Country, and All Grades of Life" by Amelia Simmons "an American orphan", 1796. That book is available on our Cook Book CD.
10/25/2004 -- This week's ebook is "Schoolmistress and other stories" by Anton Chekhov. That book appears on our World Literature and our Short Story CDs.
10/18/2004 -- This week's free ebook of the week includes the transcript of the last Kerry-Bush debate (from Oct. 13), plus The Story of My Life by Helen Keller and the poem "Song of the Stone Wall" by Helen Keller. The Helen Keller pieces appear on our American Literature CD which includes 992 books and sells for $29.
10/11/2004 -- Attached are two "books" -- The transcript of the second Bush-Kerry debate, and fragments from "Ossian" one of the greatest literary frauds of all time. In the 1760's James MacPherson published in several volumes what he purported to be translations of a legendary third-century Scottish poet named "Ossian". Ossian became extremely popular and inspired other poets for nearly a hundred years. As explained in the introduction to this first collection of Ossian "fragments", they were actually the work of MacPherson. It is truly bizarre that a work deemed great when considered the work of a third century poet is deemed mediocre and not worthy of study when considered the work of a relative contemporary. Judge for yourself... This Ossian text appears on our British Literature 2-CD set, which includes 1856 books and sells for $29.
10/4/2004 -- Following up on suggestions received from several of you, this week's "ebook" consists of two files -- one the transcript of last week's Bush-Kerry debate and the other the transcript of last night's Edwards-Cheney debate. If you are interested in the historical context of US History, you might want to check our US History CD, with 305 books, which sells for $19.
9/28/2004 -- Of course, you all know the story of Robinson Crusoe (though few have actually read the book). But who among you knows the Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (1660-1731), this week's ebook of the week. ((Yes, even in 1700 sequels of popular stories were considered sure-fire money-makers.) We have this book plus seven other books by Defoe on our 2-CD British Literature collection, which sells for $29. I could also put those books on a "Great Authors" CD (selling for $12), if there's demand. Please let me know if you are interested.
9/21/2004 -- This week's ebook is The Lion of the North by G.A. Henty, an excellent historical novel, set during the 30 Years War.
Since you have a hotmail address, I'm presuming you might have problems with an attachment, so I'm embedding the book in the body of the email message, at the end. If you'd like to receive your free weekly ebooks as attachments in the future, please let me know and I'll put you on the other list.
Henty has a remarkable technique for making you feel present at that time. And the circumstances of this novel are extraordinary -- a young Scottish mercenary in the army of King Adolphus Gustavus of Sweden. I always wondered how Sweden suddenly became a major conquering power. It turns out that most of his soldiers were mercenaries, and they were mainly paid for by allies.
If you like this one, you might also want to try his "sequel" Won by the Sword. In Won by the Sword, the fictitious characters are different (another young soldier to identify with), but the historical situation continues. At this stage of the 30 Years War, King Louis XIV has come out of hiding, as the major supporter of the "Protestant" armies fighting against the Holy Roman Emperor. Things had gotten very mixed up -- so the whole concept of a religious war (Protestant vs. Catholic) has become bogus. It's simply a power struggle.
If these whet your appetite for more information about the 30 Years War, consider reading Schiller's History of the 30 Years War on our Non-Fiction 2-CD set. Or check out what Will Durant has to say about it in his Story of Civilization (which we don't have on CD). This war, little-known by Americans today, in the early 17th century totally devastated the territory that later became Germany. In terms of human suffering it seems to have been far more terrible than WWI and WWII. According to Durant, starvation became so acute in some areas, that when criminals were hung, the crowd of spectators immediately tore down the bodies and devoured them, raw. And starvaton became so widespread toward the end, that a victorious "Protestant" army, rather than attack the enemy, suddenly invaded an allied state and pillaged there, simply to cope with the extreme hunger of the troops.
Both the Henty books are found on our British Literature 2-CD set, on our War CD, and also on our G.A. Henty CD.
9/14/2004 -- At the request of one of our customers, this week's book is The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope.
9/7/2004 -- This week's book is MEMOIRS OF JACQUES CASANOVA de SEINGALT 1725-1798 TO PARIS AND PRISON, Volume 2e--UNDER THE LEADS, which recounts Casanova's imprisionment in Venice and his escape. It's probably the most entertaining part of his voluminous memoirs (all of which appear on our World Literature CD). Keep in mind that Casanova is a storyteller, not an historian. Presume that this tale was told and retold hundreds of times over many years before, as an old man, he put it on paper. But as with the rest of his Memoirs, expect, too, interesting insights into the everyday life of a professional gambler, con artist, and man of leisure in 18th century Europe.
8/31/2004 -- "Is Mars Habitable? a Critical Examination of Professor Percival Lowell's Book 'Mars and Its Canals', with an Alternative Explanation" by Alfred Russel Wallace. Published in 1907, this book refuted the contention that the "canals" of Mars were constructed by intelligent beings. Wallace as a rival of Darwin's, who developed a theory of evolution in parallel with Darwin and before Darwin made his conclusions public. This book appears on our Non-Fiction CD set.
8/24/2004 -- Prompted by another request from Bill Gaughan, I checked for books that describe the ancient Olympic Games. The closest I could come was Athens by Bulwer-Lytton (who also wrote the historical novel The Last Days of Pompeii). It appears on our Non-Fiction and Ancient World CDs.
8/17/2004 -- This week's (actually last week's) book, Tom Swift and his Photo Telephone was suggested by Bill Gaughan. He explains: "In this modern age of cell phones and digital cameras and scanners, and even cell phones that can now send images to another cell phone, Tom Swift and his Photo Telephone is a look into the future of today from back in the 19 teens; science fiction of yesteryear becoming today's electronic gadgets." You can find that book and dozens of other Tom Swift books (by Victor Appleton) on our Children's Book CD.
8/10/2004 -- This week's free ebook is THE SOTWEED FACTOR or A VOYAGE TO MARYLAND(3), A SATYR By Ebenezer Cook, originally published in 1707. A "sotweed factor" is a merchant who deals in tobacco. This poem was the basis for John Barth's novel of the same name. It appears on our British Literature CD set.
8/3/2004 -- This week's ebook is a poem about biology, originaly published in 1788 -- The Botanic Garden by Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles Darwin) (1731-1802). Based on intuition, it seems to foreshadow some of the principles that Charles later supported with scientific evidence. You can find this book in our 2-CD Non-Fiction set (in the Biology section)
7/27/2004 -- This week's ebook, The Malay Archipelago (in two volumes) was written by Alfred Wallace, rival to Darwin for credit for the theory of evolution. For details on their rivalry, along with fascinating insights into evolution on islands and related matters, see The Song of the Dodo by David Quammen (a recent printed book).
The Malay Archipelago appears on our Non-Fiction 2-CD set, as well as Victorian Science and also Richard Burton's Arabian Nights and Victorian Books of Exploration and Travel.
7/14/2004 -- This week's ebook, The Voyage of the Beagle, is Darwin's autobiographical account of the voyage around the world (starting in 1832) on which he got his inspiration for and gathered his evidence for the theory of evolution. (Cf. the recent movie Master and Commander with Russell Crowe, which covered much of the same territory 30 years earlier, with a ship's surgeon interested in the same kind of natural phenomena as Darwin (especially in the Galapogos Islands).
Next week, I'll send the two volumes of the Malay Archipelago by Alfred Wallace, Darwin's rival. Wallace came up with a very similar theory at about the same time, and got very little recognition.
Both those works are available on our Non-fiction 2-CD set and also on Victorian Science.
7/7/2004 -- Ozma of Oz by Frank Baum, one of about a dozen sequels to The Wizard of Oz. In this one the main character, a young boy discovers that he is really a girl/princess under the spell of a wicked witch.
6/29/2004 -- This week's ebook, Persuasion, was first published after the death of the author, Jane Austen. I recently read "The Jane Austen Book Club" by Karen Joy Fowler, a current best seller, and an excellent novel about novels, in which you enjoy a good story and at the same time get reintroduced to the works of a great novelist from the past. You can also view the entire text of Persuasion in AbookReader format at http://www.samizdat.com/persuasion.htm This book appears in plain text form on our Jane Austen CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/austen.html and also on our British Literature and Women CDs.
6/22/2004 -- This week's ebook of the week is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I was prompted to choose this well-known but little-read classic because I recently read two of Jasper Fforde's intriguing and amusing scifi/alternate-world spoofs -- "The Eyre Affair" and "Lost in a Good Book", in which human beings can become characters is novels and characters in novels can move into the "real" world and pretend to be human beings. You can also view it in AbookReader format at http://www.samizdat.com/janeeyre.htm (NB -- we have a Bronte Sisters CD with this book and other works by and about Charlotte and her sisters Emily and Anne, with all the books in both plain text and AbookReader format).
6/15/2004 -- This week's ebook, The Guns of Bull Run, is the first book of Joseph Altsheler's Civil War series of historical novels. Before I began making CDs, I had never heard of Altsheler. But I got numerous requests for his works, and our CD, with 12 of his novels, is now one of our most popular. I just added our new AbookReader format to all those novels (in addition to the usual plain text, as in the attachment). You can also view this entire book in AbookReader format at http://www.samizdat.com/gunsofbullrun.htm
6/8/2004 -- In his best-known work, The Prince, Machiavelli presumes that the ends justify the means, and provides a handbook for would-be dictators, in the hope some unscrupulous leader in the mold of Cesare Borgia (the Pope's son) would conquer all of Italy, finally uniting it. In the Discourses, this week's free ebook selection, we see another side of Machiavelli. Here through detailed anecdotal commentaries on the first 10 books of Livy's History of Rome, with frequent comparisons to what was contemporary history in about 1500, Machiavelli derives principles of human behavior that could help guide the decisions of a wise and just ruler or military leader. This book appears on our Non-Fiction 2-CD set and also on Italian.
All our books are available in plain text form. We are also beginning to provide select books in an alternative format -- AbookReader. You can read this same book in that format at http://www.samizdat.com/discourses.htm You don't need to download or install any software to use AbookReader. Just use a recent version (5 or 6) of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser.
The AbookReader version makes it easy for you to read. The plain text version makes it easy for you to copy, edit, print, and generate voice or braille output.
You can view other samples of ours in this format at http://www.samizdat.com/hamlet.htm and http://www.samizdat.com/bodmin.htm
6/1/2004 -- Trips to the Moon by Lucian, written in the second century AD, consists of selections from several of Lucian's satirical works (such as "The True History"). The introduction indicates that this "account of a trip to the moon...must have been enjoyed by Rabelais, which suggested to Cyrano de Bergerac his Voyages to the Moon and to the Sun, and insensibly contributed, perhaps, directly or through Bergerac, to the conception of Gulliver's Travels." (Yes, Cyrano de Bergerac, whose nose was made famous by Rostand's play about him, was also an author.)
5/25/2004 -- Atlantis: The Antediluvian World by Ignatius Donnelly purports to solve the mystery of Atlantis by creatively tying together myths and legends from around the world. At times it is very convincing (like The Da Vinci Code) -- enough so that it's likely to motivate you to read many other books to try to distinguish between gossip that's thousands of years old and credible science. In any case it's a fun and provocative read. (FYI -- the author ran for vice president on the Green Back ticket back in the 1880s.) If you read nothing else, check the beginning of the first chapter where the author lays out the 11 propositions that he intends to demonstrate. This book appears on our 2-CD Non-Fiction set (under Anthropology and Myths).
5/18/2004 -- From Ritual to Romance by Jessie Weston might interest you in a variety of ways. I first came across it in the footnotes to T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland." It pieces together legend, myth, religion, esoteric knowledge, and history in interesting ways, providing insights into the stories of the Holy Grail (cf. Indiana Jones and the Crusade for the Holy Grail), medieval heresies (cf. Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code). And its main thrust is explanining the origins of our concept of romantic love.
5/11/2004 -- "Martin Guerre", like the last two ebooks of the week, is an extract from Alexandre Dumas' multi-volume Celebrated Crimes. This is the "true" story that served as the basis for two great movies: Le Retour de Martin Guerre starring Gerard Depardieu, and Sommersby starring Jody Foster and Richard Gere.
5/4/2004 -- "The Man in the Iron Mask", extracted from Alexandre Dumas' multi-volume history "Celebrated Crimes". This is an "historical essay", a different work from his novel of the same name, which is part of his Three Musketeers Saga. A delightful blend of rumor and history.
4/27/2004 -- Extracted from Alexandre Dumas' multi-volume history "Celebrated Crimes" (which appears on our World Literature CD, as well as French, and Dumas), "The Borgias" provides lots of nasty and fascinating details about Cesare Borgia (the model for Machiavelli's model ruthless dictator in The Prince), his father Pope Alexander VI, and his beloved sister Lucrezia (world champion poisoner); if you enjoy Dumas, you'd also enjoy Club Dumas, a recent novel by Arturo Perez-Reverte.
4/20/2004 -- "Taras Bulba and Other Tales" by Nikolai Gogol. This choice was prompted by my reading the current best seller "The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, in which a boy born to Indian parents is given the name Gogol, because of his father's obsession with the Russian author and other special circumstances. The story "The Cloak" which is frequently mentioned in "The Namesake" is included in this story collection. This book and other works of Gogol appear on our Gogol CD, a "books in context" CD which is built around the contemporary work of literary criticism, "Gogol's Art: a Search for Identity" by Laszlo Tikos.
4/13/2004 -- The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes (a character in Matthew Pearl's The Dante Club)
4/6/2004 Longfellow's translation of Dante's Divine Comedy. This translation project of Longfellow's is at the heart of the best-selling literary mystery "The Dante Club" by Matthew Pearl, a book which I highly recommend.
3/31/2004 -- The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, from the Meditations of Anne Catherine Emmerich, an obscure 19th century book that reportedly was a major inspiration for Mel Gibson's controversial movie. The following week, (because I'm now reading and greatly enjoying the literary mystery "The Dante Club" by Matthew Pearl.
3/24/2004 -- The Whole History of Grandfather's Chair or True Stories from New England History, 1620-1808 by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
3/17/2004 -- The Awakening and Other Stories by Kate Chopin.
3/10/2004 -- Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne.
3/3/2004 -- The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Stories by Bret Harte.
5/13/2008 -- This week's selection consists of Samuel Pepys Diary and Robert Louis Stevenson's essay about it, from "Familiar Studies of Men and Books", both of which are on our British Literature 3-CD set. The Diary dates from the reign of Charles II, after the fall of Cromwell, and includes the plague and fire that devastated London. Pepys was an important functionary in the Naval department, and was responsible for some important decisions that led to Britain's command of the seas. His diary is unique for its candor -- written in code and not deciphered until many years later. It's a seventeenth century version of The Truman Show or EdTV -- "real life" exposed to public view.
5/6/2008 -- "Toilers of the Sea" by Victor Hugo, together with essays from Robert Louis Stevenson's "Familiar Studies of Men and Books". P
4/29/2008 -- THE YOUNGER EDDA: also called SNORRE'S EDDA, OR THE PROSE EDDA
4/22/2008 -- Another Norse saga -- "Burnt Njal" or "Njal's Saga".
4/15/2008 -- Continuing our series of Norse sagas, this week's ebook of the week is the Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson. Next week I plan the Younger Edda. Then, if you aren't sick of sagas by then, Njal's Saga, followed by Erik the Red's Saga, and maybe even The Death of Balder. Then back to Robert Louis Stevenson for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, followed by The Black Arrow. Then on to the Chinese classic The Red Chamber, then the Spanish classic The Cid.
4/8/2008 -- This week's book is "The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs" by William Morris.
4/1/2008 -- Betty Bandy suggested Norse sagas, and I'll be sending out a few of those over the next few weeks. For starters here's Thomas Carlyle's retelling of tales about the Early Kings of Norway.
3/25/2008 -- Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson
3/18/2008 -- Catriona or David Balfour by Robert Louis Stevenson (sequel to Kidnapped), plus The Forme of Currie, a cook book compiled, about A.D. 1390, by the Master-Cooks of King RICHARD II.
3/11/2008 -- Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
3/4/2008 -- This week's ebook of the week is "Island Nights' Entertainments" by Robert Louis Stevenson. That includes "The Beach of Falesa", "The Bottle Imp", and "The Isle of Voices".
2/26/2008 -- This week's offering is based on a suggestion from Betty Bandy -- "readers who like the Hogg book would also be interested in Wieland by Charles Brockden Brown and in Stevenson's Markheim." According to Wikipedia " Wieland or The Transformation: An American Tale is a Gothic novel by Charles Brockden Brown, first published in 1798... It recounts the terrifying story of how Theodore Wieland is driven to madness and murder by a malign ventriloquist called Carwin." "Markheim is a short story by Robert Louis Stevenson usually found in the collection The Merry Men and Other Tales and Fables (1887). It was first published in 1885 in The Broken Shaft: Tales of Mid-Ocean... The story opens in an antique store, where the proprietor (called a "dealer") is complaining that his customer, a shifty man named Markheim, is bothering him on Christmas day.
2/19/2008 -- Thanks to a suggestion from Betty Bandy, this week's ebook is "The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner" by James Hogg, a contemporary and fellow countryman of Sir Walter Scott.
First published in 1824, according to Wikipedia, this novel was "considered in turn a Gothic novel, a psychological case study of an unreliable narrator, and an examination of totalitarian thought." It is "the ultimately unclassifiable novel, set in a pseudo-Christian world of angels, devils, and demonic possession. ... It has received wide acclaim for its probing quest into the nature of religious fanaticism and Calvinist predestination. It is written in a mixture of Scots and English, with Scots mainly appearing in dialogue. On the surface, this novel is a simple tale of a young man who encounters a shape-shifting devil, an early manifestation of a doppelganger, and the various misadventures that follow."
2/12/2008 -- Poems and Songs by Robert Burns
2/5/2008 -- Rob Roy, another Sir Walter Scott novel.
1/29/2008 -- The Antiquary, another of Sir Walter Scott's Waverley novels.
1/22/2008 -- This week's ebook is Guy Mannering, the second of Sir Walter Scott's "Waverley novels".
1/15/2008 -- As a change of pace, after so many Dumas books, this week's selection is Waverley, the first of the Waverley novels by Sir Walter Scott (a contemporary of Dumas). The Waverley novels were probably the biggest best sellers of the 19th century. Please let me know if you'd like me to send out more of them.
1/8/2008 -- The sixth and last of the six Musketeers novels -- "The Man in the Iron Mask" -- plus an essay with the same title from Dumas' collection of historical gossip "Celebrated Crimes". In the essay, Dumas discusses the history and rumors behind the story.
1/1/2008 -- "Louise de la Valliere" by Dumas, the fifth of the six Musketeers books.
12/25/2007 -- Continuing our Three Musketeers series, this week's ebook of the week is "Ten Years Later".
12/18/2007 -- This week's free ebook of the week is the "Vicomte de Bragelonne" by Alexandre Dumas, the third of the six Three Musketeers books, (in which, of course, the fourth musketeer is the main character :-)
12/11/2007 -- This week's ebook of the week is "Twenty Years After" by Alexandre Dumas, the second of the six Three Musketeers books. FYI -- you can see a brief review of mine about that series at www.samizdat.com/isyn/dumas.html I'll send out the Vicomte de Bragelone next week.
12/4/2007 -- This week's ebook of the week is "The Three Musketeers" by Alexandre Dumas. That's the first and best known of a series of six novels -- o The Three Musketeers (covering 1625-1628) o Twenty Years After (covering 1648-49) o The Vicomte de Bragelonne (covering 1660) o Ten Years Later (covering 1660-1661) o Louise de la Valliere (covering 1661) o The Man in the Iron Mask (covering 1661-1673) Please let me know if you'd like me to send out the rest of the series, over the coming weeks. By the way, D'Artagnan, the fourth and most important musketeer is based on an historical figure, who was eventually promoted to commander of the musketeers. You can read about him at Wikipedia
11/28/2007 -- This week's free ebook is The Forty-Five Guardsmen by Dumas, the third (but self-contained) novel of an historical novel trilogy covering the period of the Huguenot conflicts (from the St. Bartholemew's Day Massacre up to the accession of Henry IV (of Navarre). One of the main characters of that trilogy is Marguerite de Navarre (nicknamed "Margot") (1553-1615), the great-niece of the author of The Heptameron. The Marguerite de Navarre was the granddaughter of King Francis I of France, the wife of King Henry IV (of Navarre and France), and the sister of three other kinds of France.
11/21/2007 -- Part 5 of The Heptameron.
11/14/2007 -- Part 4 of The Heptameron.
11/7/2007 -- Part 3 of The Heptameron.
10/30/2007 -- This week's free ebook is part 2 of The Heptameron by Marguerite de Navarre.
10/23/2007 -- As a followup to the Decameron, this week's free ebook is part 1 of The Heptameron by Marguerite de Navarre. Sister of King Francis I of France and husband of King Henri II of Navarre, she lived 1492-1549. According to Wikipedia, literary scholar Samuel Putnam called her "the first modern woman". The Heptameron is a framed collection of stories in the tradition of The Decameron. (seven days [hept] instead of ten; apparently she intended 100 stories/10 days, but died only having completed 72). I plan to send out the other four parts in future weeks.
And as a bonus, I'm also including "The Cook's Decameron: A Study In Taste, Containing Over Two Hundred Recipes For Italian Dishes" By Mrs. W. G. Waters.
10/16/2007 -- This week's ebook of the week is volume 2 of Boccaccio's Decameron (followup to volume 1 last week).
I am tempted to send out next The Hemptameron by Marguerite de Navarre (in five parts). Sister of King Francis I of France and husband of King Henri II of Navarre, she lived 1492-1549. According to Wikipedia, literary scholar Samuel Putnam called her "the first modern woman". The Heptameron is a framed collection of stories in the tradition of The Decameron. (seven days [hept] instead of ten; apparently she intended 100 stories/10 days, but died only having completed 72).
10/9/2007 -- This week's ebook of the week is volume 1 of The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375). (See Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Boccaccio). If there's sufficient interest, I'll send out the second and last volume next week.
The Decameron is a framed story collection. Having fled the city during the plague, friends gather at a country estate and, over the course of ten days, pass the time by telling one another stories, some of which today would be R-rated. (I remember, as a teenager, reading it in a Victorian edition that, much to my dismay, left the raciest of the stories untranslated...)
I'm prompted to send out this one because I just finished reading "Ten Days in the Hills", the latest novel by Pulitzer-winner (and DVD-collection customer) Jane Smiley. That novel is meant to hearken back to Boccaccio, with a group of family and friends isolated for ten days from contemporary concerns (like the Iraq War). You can see my brief review at http://www.samizdat.com/isyn/tendays.html or at my blog http://www.samizdat.com/blog/
The Boccaccio appears on several of our CDs -- World Literature, Italian, Short Stories, and Medieval/Renaissance.
10/2/2007 -- Thanks to a suggestion from Ken Wilson, this week's free ebook is "Saved from the Sea, by W.H.G. Kingston." He notes that this is "a fairly well written tale which took place off the African coast. I have it as an audio book and it is quite informative."
9/25/2007 -- Today, in belated honor of the Jewish holidays, I'm sending out as our free ebook of the week "For the Temple" by G.A. Henty (an historical novel about the fall of Jerusalem) and "Coningsby" by Benjamin Disraeli, a gifted novelist and a statesman/politician of such extraordinary talent that he became head of the Consrvative Party and prime minister of England, despite the strong prejudice against the Jewish people in that place and time.
9/18/2007 -- "Dombey and Son" by Charles Dickens
9/11/2007 -- This week I'm sending out two books (a symptom of indecision): King -- of the Khyber Rifles by Talbot Mundy and On the Irrawaddy a Story of the First Burmese War by G.A. Henty
I had previously promised the Khyber Rifles as part of a series of books set in Afghanistan. I'll soon be adding that one to our American Lit, British Lit, and Historical Novels CDs. (Mundy was born in London, and immigrated to the US before he started publishing).
I chose On the Irrawaddy because of the recent flare up of protests in Burma/Myanamar, and remembering messages from a subscriber to this list who until recently was a teacher in Myanamar, and also because I'm a fan of Henty. That book appears on our British Literature, Historical Novels, and G.A. Henty CDs.
9/4/2007 -- Suggested by Ken Wilson, this week's free ebook of the week is The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile And Explorations of the Nile Sources by Samuel White Baker.
8/28/2007 -- This week's ebook is "Kim" by Rudyard Kipling.
8/21/2007 -- This week's ebook is "For Name and Fame or Through Afghan Passes" by G.A. Henty. Author of nearly a hundred historical novels, Henty knows how to tell a good story. (I'll soon be adding that book to British Literature, Historical Novels, and G.A. Henty CDs.
I picked this one because I'm in an Afghan mood, having recently read The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. (You might want to check my review of Splendid Suns at my blog http://www.samizdat.com/blog/?p=222
8/14/2007 -- Suggested by Professor DPM Weerakkody in Sri Lanka, this week's ebook of the week is "Five Lectures on Blindness by Kate M. Foley. (FYI -- I just added that book to our Blindness CD http://samizdat.stores.yahoo.net/blindness.html )
8/7/2007 -- This week's ebook of the week, "The Consolation of Philosophy" by Boethius is the last of our current series of philosophy books (inspired by Alain de Boton's recent "The Consolations of Philosophy").
This book inspired my Fuzzy Thought #2 -- Getting Personal
Sometimes �inspiration� isn�t a matter of stimulating new ideas, so much as confirming and clarifying thoughts you had before. In my eclectic reading, I stumble upon a passage that feels �right� not as a discovery of something totally unexpected, but rather as a clear and cogent expression of what I already believed, but hadn�t paid enough attention to.
Such was the case recently with a passage from Boethius. Who reads sixth century Latin philosophers? Well, sending out a �free ebook of the week� motivates me to be on the look out for little known/little appreciated works from long ago. In prison, awaiting execution at the random whim of King Theodoric of Italy, Boethius tries to make sense of life. Infinity, eternity, and chance reduce everything we might do to total insignficance. Those thoughts didn�t strike me as new � rather his starting point toward religious faith, seemed very similar to the world view of Ecclesiastes or of Camus in �The Myth of Sisyphus�, and from which Camus went in a totally different direction, valuing the heroism of continuing to live and do what you feel is �right� even if you believe life is meaningless.
But at this stage of my life (having passed 60), that starting point triggered another kind of response. The endeavor to try to understand the nature of everything is unending. That�s just another aspect of infinity/eternity � no single breakthrough, no individual contribution matters in the long run, because the process of discovery never ends. There�s never a moment when �THE ANSWER� is found. Every answer gives rise to new questions, which lead to new insights.
Yes, part of why we exist (presuming there is a �why�) must be to participate in some way in such overall human endeavors � trying to make the world a better place than we found it, trying to advance knowledge, or trying to help those who might some day do so.
But another very important role (one which becomes all the more important the older we get) is personal � striving to make personal sense of the world that we live in and our role in it. I will never understand the absolute nature of anything, but I can arrive at a personal undersanding � building context through reading and experience, making personal mind maps to help me recognize interrelationships and potential directions, arriving at personal answers to the �big questions�, answers that help me deal with day-to-day reality and arrive at a sense of fulfillment, so the ordinary tasks and challenges of life make sense to me in a self-built context.
From this personal perspective, infinity and eternity are positive, not negative. Every moment in time is the middle of all of time. And every point in space is in the middle of all of space. I, just like everyone else who has ever lived, stand at the center of the universe. Truth and meaning aren�t outside somewhere to be discovered. Rather one of your goals should be to build and find truth and meaning, in the fabric and context of your life. In practical terms, this means that I need not read and strive to understand the works of every major philosopher and scientist and novelist. Rather (after having sampled widely) I read particular authors because their perspective and style feel right to me. Their thoughts make sense to me and stimulte similar follow-on thoughts of my own.
Yes, learning is important, but not in the sense of struggling through everything written by the great names, in hopes of catching a glimmer of what they discovered; but rather in the sense of a very personal quest, following your natural path toward an understanding of what really matters to you.
Please send me email if you have a comment/reaction or if you�d like me to add you to an email distribution list for such thoughts. I post these thoughts and responses to them at my blog at http://www.samizdat.com/blog and at the Web page http://www.samizdat.com/fuzzy.html
7/31/2007 -- Continuing our philosophy series, this week's book is Human Nature by Schopenhauer.
7/24/2007 -- Continuing our philosophoy series, this week's book of "On Benefits" by Seneca.
7/17/2007 -- Continuing our series of philosophy books, this week's free ebook of the week is volume 2 of The Essays of Montaigne. Montaigne (1533-1592) lived a century before the Three Musketeers and Louis XIV, during a time of bloody conflict between Protestants and Catholics in France. He wrote his essays during a ten year period of self-imposed isolation (from age 38 to 48). According to the brief bio in Wikipedia, "Montaigne's stated goal is to describe man, and especially himself, with utter frankness. He finds the great variety and volatility of human nature to be its most basic features. He describes his own poor memory, his ability to solve problems and mediate conflicts without truly getting emotionally involved, his disdain for man's pursuit of lasting fame..."
(This French work is also a token acknowledgement of the recent July 14 Celebration).
7/10/2007 -- This week's free ebook of the week is "Beyond Good and Evil" by Nietzsche. This is the second in a series of philosophy books I'll be sending out, based on the subject matter in Alain de Botton's "Consolations of Philosophy". (Plato's "Symposium" last week and in coming weeks "On Benefits" by Seneca, "Essays" volume 1 by Montaigne, and "On Human Nature" by Schopenhauer. Then I'll send the book that he based his title on -- "The Consolation of Philosophy" by Boethius.)
7/3/2007 -- This week's free ebook of the week is The Symposium by Plato (the Jowett translation). That's the dialogue where he explains true love in terms of your need to find your "other half".
For the next few weeks, I'm going to take my clues from a recent book "The Consolations of Philosophy" by Alain de Botton. He has a unique style, looking at little-read texts in a low-key sensible way and extracting intriguing and helpful advice. An alternative title for that book might be "All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Plato and Epicurus and Seneca and Nietzsche and Schopenhauer and Montaigne".
So this week I'm sending out a Plato, over the next few weeks I'll send: "On Benefits" by Seneca, "Essays" volume 1 by Montaigne, "On Human Nature" by Schopenhauer, and "Beyond Good and Evil" by Nietzsche. (I don't yet have an Epicurus text.) Then I'll send the book that he based his title on -- "The Consolation of Philosophy" by Boethius.
6/26/2007 -- This week's ebook of the week is my translation (from the Russian) of "With the Armies of Menelik II" by Alexander Bulatovich. This is a unique and detailed first-hand account of Ethiopia in 1896-98 -- at the change of an era -- by a Russian officer with remarkable understanding for the many varied people who lived there and keen insight into their destiny. It was published a few years ago by Red Sea Press, together with my translation of another Bulatovich book as a single volume entitled "Ethiopia Through Russian Eyes."
Emperor Menelik of Ethiopia was contending with France and England, trying to conquer new territory in central Africa. Bulatovich chanced on an opportunity to accompany one of Menelik's armies into land and among peoples that had previously been unknown by Europeans.
This book appears together with 145 books other books (history and fiction) and 16 Library of Congress Country Studies on our Africa CD (which I just updated, adding 50 books). You can see the complete table of contents of that CD at http://samizdat.stores.yahoo.net/africa.html
6/19/2007 -- This week's ebook of the week is The Three Lieutenants by William Henry Giles Kingston (1814 - 1880). I just updated our Children's Book CD, adding 454 books, for a total of 1531 books. The new version includes many adventure and historical novels (of the ilk of Treasure Island) by Kingston and such other British authors as Fenn, Marryat, and Collingwood. If enough of you are interested, I could send out a sequel to this book -- The Three Admirals -- week. Also, if enough of you express interest, I could make new CDs dedicated to each of those authors. You can see the complete table of contents of the Children's Book CD at http://samizdat.stores.yahoo.net/chilbookcd.html
6/12/2007 -- This week's book is "The Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing: a manual of ready reference covering especially such information of everyday use as is often hardest to find when most needed", first published in 1911. Some of the info might still be of practical use; other items (such as matters of etiquette), are fun and informative because they show how much has changed since then, and how much hasn't.
For current practical answers to questions your kids keep asking or that may have been nagging you for years, try the Web site How Stuff Works
6/5/2007 -- This week's book is Jefferson Davis' account of the American Civil War -- "The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government". I'll soon be adding this book to our Non-Fiction, US History, and Civil War CDs.
5/29/2007 -- Thanks to a suggestion from Willard Guerrero, this week's ebook The Grizzly King : a Romance of the Wild by James Oliver Curwood.
5/22/2007 -- Thanks to suggestions from Michael Bowman-Jones and Andrew Falk, this week's ebook is "Hosts of the Air", a World War I historical novel by Joseph Altsheler.
5/15/2007 -- Thanks to a suggestion from Michael Bowman-Jones, this week's ebook is "The Alaskan" by James Oliver Curwood. It appears on several of our CDs:
American West http://samizdat.stores.yahoo.net/amwesinfican.html
American Literature http://samizdat.stores.yahoo.net/amlitcd.html
Canada http://samizdat.stores.yahoo.net/canlitandhis.html
Historical Novels http://samizdat.stores.yahoo.net/historical.html and
Old Midwest http://samizdat.stores.yahoo.net/midwest.html
5/8/2007 -- Eureka, a prose poem by Edgar Allan Poe. The first I heard of it was in "Parallel Worlds" by Macho Kaka ("professor of theoretical physics at the City University of New York and cofounder of string field theory", p. 28:
"Similarly, one might suppose that the farther a star is, the fainter it is. This is true, but this also cannot be the answer. If we look at a portion of the night sky, the very distant stars are indeed faint, but there are also more stars the farther you look. These two effects would exactly cancel in a uniform universe, leaving the night sky white. (This is because the intensity of starlight decreases as the square of the distance, which is canceled by the fact that the number of stars goes up as the square of the distance.)
"Oddly enough, the first person in history to solve the paradox as the American mystery writer Edgar Allan Poe, who had a long-term interest in astronomy. Just before he died, he published many of his observations in a rambling, philosophical poem called Eureka: A Prose Poem. In a remarkable passage, he wrote:
"'Were the succession of stars endless, then the background of the sky would present us an uniform luminosity, like that displayed by the Galaxy -- since there could be absolutely no point, in all that background, at which would not exist a star. The only mode, therefore, in which, under such a state of affairs, we could comprehend the voids which our telescopes find in innumerable directions, would be by supposing that the distance of the invisible background [is] so immense that no ray from it has yet been able to reach us at all.'
"He concluded by noting that the idea 'is by far too beautiful not to possess Truth as its essentiality.'
"This is the key to the correct answer. The universe is not infinitely old. There was a Genesis. There is a finite cutoff to the light that reaches our eye. Light from the most distant stars has not yet had time to reach us. cosmologist Edward Harrison, who was the first to discover that Poe had solved Lobbers' paradox, has written, 'When I first read Poe's words I was astounded: How could a poet, at best an amateur scientist, have perceived the right explanation 40 years ago when in our colleges the wrong explanation... is still being taught.'"
5/1/2007 -- Thanks to Betty Bandy, this week's book is Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson. Penny Golden seconded that recommendation, saying, " I couldn't put Ramona down. I read it in journalism class--a braille book; and the poor teacher thought I was being so studious. I just loved that book."
4/24/2007 -- At the request of Betty Bandy, this week's selection is another book by Gertrude Atherton -- Rezanov. Apparently, this novel is a better example of her writing skill, and, like most of her work, is set in California.
4/17/2007 -- "What Dreams May Come" by Gertrude Atherton. When I first saw the title of this book, I thought of the Robin Williams movie of the same name and presumed that the movie was based on the book. But no. The title is a quote from "Hamlet's soliloquy in Act 3, scene 1 ("To be, or not to be..."), namely, "For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil." Atherton's novel has nothing to do with the movie.
I was checking out Atherton because she appeared in a character in a recently published historical mystery ("Ambrose Bierce and the Trey of Pearls" by Oakley Hall), in which she and Ambrose Bierce are reporters/columnists for a San Francisco newspaper.
Keep in mind that this novel is not great literature. It's a period piece, a ghost story that has potential far greater than the sometimes disappointing book. But I find the mistakes and unexpected twists intriguing. And I hope you will enjoy it as well.
Gertrude Atherton lived 1857-1948. This was her first novel, published in 1888. You can read her bio at Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Atherton
If the book were rewritten and published today, the blurb on the back cover would probably read "A young man falls in love with his fianc�e's grandmother's ghost."
4/10/2007 -- As requested, here is a collection of all the Mowgli stories by Rudyard Kipling. These come from The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book where they are mixed in with a variety of other animal-related stories (including ones about seals and Eskimos near the North Pole). The original books appear on our Rudyard Kipling CD as well as British Literature
4/3/2007 -- For lover's of language and irony -- The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce. (If you like that, you might want to try a series of recently published mystery stories by Oakley Hall, set in San Francisco at the end of the 19th century, with Ambrose Bierce as the central figure (in the role of reporter/detective.) For instance, "Ambrose Bierce and the Trey of Pearls" and "Ambrose Bierce and the Ace of Shoots". They're not great literature, but they are a fun read (with brief excerpts from The Devil's Dictionary as epigraphs at the beginnings of chapters.)
3/27/2007 -- This week we honor Longfellow�s 200th birthday (as suggested by Shelley Rhodes) with Evangeline and Hiawatha. Longfellow�s works appear on our American Lit 2-CD set as well as Poetry
3/20/2007 -- In honor of St. Patrick's Day, today's selection is: "The High Deeds of Finn and Other Bardic Romances of Ancient Ireland" edited by T. W. Rolleston, and "A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden on Their Parents or Country and for Making them Beneficial to the Public" by Jonathan Swift (1729) (Both appear on our Irish CD)
3/13/2007 -- In remembrance of the Ides of March, this week's selection consists of the biographies of Julius Caesar by Plutarch (from his "Lives") and Seutonius (from "The Twelve Caesars"), together with Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar".
3/6/2007 -- As a follow-up to last week's selection (suggested by Kathy Hester), this week we're sending out the sequel "The Pursuit of the House-Boat" by John Kendrick Bangs.
If you have enjoyed these two satires, you might also like the classic model of this genre "Dialogues of the Dead" by Lucian of Samosata (which appears on our World Literature and Ancient World CDs in volume 1 of his works). In a similar vein, I'd recommend the Riverworld series of scifi novels by Phillip Jose Farmer. Don't judge his work based on the botched made-for-tv movie. The first volume is great fun; the others are less so, but still enjoyable. And you might also want to check chapters 10 and 11 of my book "The Lizard of Oz", written long before I had read Bangs or Lucian or Farmer. You can read or listen to (if you have RealPlayer) those for free online at http://www.samizdat.com/liz/liz11.html and http://www.samizdat.com/liz/liz11.html
2/27/2007 -- Thanks to a suggestion from Kathy Hester, this week's selection is A House-Boat on the Styx by John Kendrick Bangs. Kathy notes, "I think most readers will really enjoy that book. It is delightful."
Bangs (1862-1922) was an American satirist. According to Wikipedia he was the "creator of modern Bangsian fantasy, the school of fantasy writing that sets the plot wholly or partially in the afterlife." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kendrick_Bangs
2/20/2007 -- Today's ebook is Chapter 21 of The Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution Interspersed with Biographical, Political, and Moral Observations by Mercy Otis Warren, originally published in 1805. I typed the text of the entire 1317-page book and have posted it on the web (http://www.samizdat.com/warren )as well as including it on our US History http://samizdat.stores.yahoo.net/ushistory.html and American Revolution CDs http://samizdat.stores.yahoo.net/amrevandearr.html .
This chapter highlights the brilliance of Washington -- tricking Sir Henry Clinton into believing that the rebel forces were preparing to attack New York City, when in fact, Washington's army was making the long march to Virginia, where he took Cornwallis by surprise.
Basically, Washington lost every battle he fought, except this one decisive one.
2/13/2007 -- For Valentine's Day, my wife suggested "Pride and Prejudice"; but you all probably read that long ago. So instead, I decided to send "Daphnis and Chloe" by Longus, which was written around 200 AD. It's been a long time since I read it, and the details have faded. But I remember it as a delightful tale of young love. I hope you enjoy it.
2/6/2007 -- For this week's selection, I return to Kipling, with his Second Jungle Book. The tales from the original Jungle Book have been disneyfied to the point that it's hard to appreciate the original (the cartoon images keep getting in the way). But these stories still feel "new."
1/30/2007 -- Continuing our "copyright liberation" celebration, for this week I'm sending the play "Six Characters in Search of an Author" by Pirandello, another author who died in 1936. (I'll be adding this to our World Literature, Italian, and Drama CDs in the next round of updates).
1/23/2007 -- Continuing our "copyright liberation" celebration, for this week I'm sending a collection of short stories by Gorky (Twenty-Six and One and Other Stories).
1/16/2007 -- Continuing our "copyright liberation" celebration, for this week I'm sending two short books of poetry by A.E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad and Last Poems. (He lived in England and died in 1936; hence his works just entered the public domain). I'll soon be adding these to our British Literature and Poetry CDs.
1/9/2007 -- Continuing our copyright liberation celebration, this week's free ebook is G.K. Chesterton's "The Innocence of Father Brown", together with the final part of Richard Burton's Arabian Nights.
1/2/2007 -- In celebration of Rudyard Kipling's copyright liberation, this week's free ebook is his novel "The Light that Failed", a little known book of his I chanced upon and enjoyed many years ago. I'm also including the long short story "The Man Who Would Be King" (you may remember the 1975 movie starring Sean Connery, Michael Caine, and Christopher Plummer). I remember that one from a creative writing class with Robert Penn Warren. He typically spent the beginning of class reading a story aloud. After reading and discussing this one, he concluded something to the effect that to become a god, first you must truly become a man. It was that discussion that I had in mind when I decided on the titles of my trilogy of books about Russian officer/explorer/monk Alexander Bulatovich -- The Name of Hero, The Name of Man, and The Name of God. Hero was published a long, long time ago, and I still haven't finished the other two (finally finishing them is my number one New Year's resolution). If you are curious you can read Hero online at http://www.samizdat.com/readers.html#name Also, the fifth "supplemental volume" of Richard Burton's Arabian Nights.
12/26/2006 -- The sociology classic "The Theory of the Leisure Class" by Veblen. Also, the fourth "supplemental volume" of Richard Burton's Arabian Nights.
12/19/2006 -- Little-known Christmas stories by Louisa May Alcott: "A Country Christmas" and "The Abbott's Ghost or Maurice Treherne's Temptation" (which she wrote under the pen name of A.M. Barnard). Also, the third "supplemental volume" of Richard Burton's Arabian Nights.
12/12/2006 -- Four Christas short stories by Henry Van Dyke: "The First Christmas Tree", "The Lost Word", " The Spirit of Christmas", and "The Story of the Other Wise Man". Also, the second "supplemental volume" of Richard Burton's Arabian Nights.
12/5/2006 -- I want to finish up the Richard Burton Arabian Nights, because I got so many requests for the whole thing. But it has been too long since I sent anything else out. So this week, in addition to the first "supplemental" Arabian Nights volume (five more to go after this), I'm sending a couple of Christmas stories that I suspect few of you have ever read: "The Christmas Tree and the Wedding" by Dostoyevksy, and "The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus" by Frank Baum (author of The Wizard of Oz).
11/28/2006 -- Volume 10 of Burton's Arabian Nights.
11/21/2006 -- Volume 9 of Burton's Arabian Nights.
11/14/2006 -- Volume 8 of Burton's Arabian Nights.
11/7/2006 -- Volume 7 of Burton's Arabian Nights.
10/31/2006 -- Volume 6 of Burton's Arabian Nights.
10/24/2006 -- Volume 5 of Burton's Arabian Nights.
10/17/2006 -- Volume 4 of Burton's Arabian Nights.
10/10/2006 -- Volume 3 of Burton's Arabian Nights.
10/3/2006 -- Volume 2 of Richard Burton's Arabian Nights.
9/26/2006 -- This week's free ebook is volume 1 of Richard Burton's monumental translation of the 1001 Arabian Nights. Burton's complete Arabian Nights appears on several of our CDs -- Richard Burton and Victorian Books of Exploration, The Middle East, and World Literature.
9/19/2006 -- At the suggestion of Betty Bandy, this week's ebook is the two volumes of "Personal Narratives of a Pilgrimage to Al Madinah and Meccah" by Richard Burton. (I'm planning to send out volume 1 of Burton's translation of the "Arabian Nights" Those books appear on our Middle East CD and also Richard Burton and Victorian Books of Exploration
9/12/2006 -- Due to an overwhelming number of requests, this week's offering is volume 2 of Wars of the Jews.
9/5/2006 -- As a followup to our series of Middle East country studies, this week's ebook of the week is the first volume of Wars of the Jews by Josephus.
8/29/2006 -- We concluded our Middle East series with Iran: a Country Study
8/22/2006 -- We continued our Middle East series wtih Israel: a Country Study
8/15/2006 -- We continued our Middle East series with Afghanistan: a Country Study.
8/8/2006 -- Because many of you liked last week's selection -- Lebanon: a Country Study -- I decided to continue in the same vein, with Iraq this week and Afghanistan next week. Iraq was published by Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress, based on research completed in May 1988. It provides historical background to help you better understand the events of today. This Country Study appears on our Middle East CD as well as on our World Reference CD.
8/1/2006 -- Thanks to a suggestion from Michael Bowman-Jones, this week's selection is "Lebanon: a Country Study", compiled by the Frederal Research Division of the Library of Congress in 1987. This book provides background to help you understand complex conflicts that keep flaring up again and again... This Country Study appears on our Middle East CD as well as on our World Reference CD.
7/25/2006 -- In honor of Pirates of the Carribean II (which is great fun) and on the suggestion of Betty Bandy (thanks again), this week's selection is: The Life, Adventures, and Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton by Daniel Defoe and The Book of Pirates by Howard Pyle. Defoe appears on our British Literature CD set, and Pyle appears on our Children's Book CD.
7/18/2006 -- Thanks again to Betty Bandy, this week's selection is two collections of stories about the Napoleonnic Wars by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (best known as the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories) -- The Adventures of Gerard and Exploits of Brigadier Gerard. If you happen to be a Doyle fan, don't miss "Arthur and George" a recent best-seller by Julian Barnes.
7/11/2006 -- Thanks again to Betty Bandy, for the 14th of July (Bastille Day), our selection is -- Carlyle's French Revolution volume 1 and Dicken's Tale of Two Cities.
7/4/2006 -- Thanks to numerous helpful suggestions from Betty Bandy, for the Fourth of July our selection is -- The Declaration of Independence Articles of Confederation Burke's Speech on Conciliation with America The Life of General Francis Marion (The "Swamp Fox") by Mason Weems and four chapters from The Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution by Mercy Otis Warren Chapt 9 -- which covers the writing and signing of the Declaration of Independence Chapter 21 -- the Battle of Yorktown (as you've never seen it described before) Chapters 30 and 31 -- the conclusion
I'm a fan of Mercy Otis Warren. Her history, written shortly after the Revolution, wasn't published until about 1805 and was never widely circulated. The only printed copies you can find in libraries today are in the old Black Forest script, which is very hard to read and impossible to scan. I typed the whole thing in (over 1000 pages) and posted it on my Web site a few years ago and now include it in my American Revolution CD, US History CD, and Non-Fiction CD-set. I also typed in and posted her plays and other related writings http://www.samizdat.com/warren/
6/27/2006 -- I can't think of a better warm-up to the Fourth of July than Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass.
6/20/2006 -- Thanks to a suggestion from Penny Golden, this week's free ebook is The Belgian Cook Book edited by Mrs. Brian Luck, and originally published in 1915. Penny explains, "I found one of your books just such fun and so practical, though it's older than the hills. It's the belgian cookbook on the cookbooks CD --what a fun book to read; and for the cook who has a little flair, she or he could adapt those old recipes to today's home. Very interesting and, if you're like me, you just gain the pounds reading about good potato or cheese or mushroom or veal recipes."
6/13/2006 -- This week�s free ebook of the week is �Inca Land: Exploration in the Highlands of Peru� by Hiram Bingham. Bingham was the archaelogist credited with the discovery of the Incan ruins at Machu Picchu. He is purported to be a model for the movie character Indiana Jones.
6/6/2006 -- This week's ebook of the week, the Lizard of Oz, was written by me, and published back in 1973. Unlike the other books I send out, this one is still protected by copyright. And it is a Word document, as opposed to our usual plain text files. You can see the illustrations at ttp://www.samizdat.com/lizard/frog.htm and you can hear a RealAudio version of it at http://www.samizdat.com/liz
5/30/2006 -- I'm now reading/enjoying Matthew Pearl's new novel "The Poe Shadow" in which the characters try to unravel the mystery of Poe's death. (I loved his first novel The Dante Club, and hence pre-ordered the new one from Amazon). So this week's ebook of the week is volume 1 of the works of Edgar Allan Poe (the Raven Edition). This includes:
- Edgar Allan Poe, An Appreciation
- Life of Poe, by James Russell Lowell
- Death of Poe, by N. P. Willis
- The Unparalled Adventures of One Hans Pfall
- The Gold Bug
- Four Beasts in One
- The Murders in the Rue Morgue
- The Mystery of Marie Rog�t
- The Balloon Hoax
- MS. Found in a Bottle
- The Oval Portrait
5/23/2006 -- This week's ebook of the week, suggested by Penny Golden, is "A Man from Glengarry" by Ralph Connor, sequel to Glengarry School Days" which I sent out a couple weeks ago. It appears on our Canadian CD.
5/16/2006 -- This week's ebook is "Winesburg Ohio" by Sherwood Anderson, a classic set of interrelated short stories. You probably read excerpts in anthologies back in high school. Now you can check out how it works as a whole.
5/9/2006 -- Thanks to a suggestion from Penny Golden, this week's selection is "Glengarry Schooldays: a Story of the Early Days in Glengarry" by Ralph Connor, from our Canadian CD.
5/2/2006 -- The second and final volume of Le Mort Darthur by Sir Thomas Malory, in English.
4/24/2006 -- Thanks to a suggestion from Wafa Ramadan, this week's ebook of the week is volume 1 of Le Mort Darthur: Sir Thomas Malory's Book of King Arthur and of his Noble Knights of the Round Table (in English). If enough of you express interest, I send the second and final volume next week. FYI -- if you are in an Arthurian mood, try the extraordinary current best seller "Arthur and George" by Julian Barnes. (That's "Arthur" in the generalized sense of someone with a chivalric bent, but primarily in the sense of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes stories). You can see my review of that book at http://www.samizdat.com/isyn/arthurandgeorge.html or at my blog (Blogging About Books) at http;//www.samizdat.com/blog
4/17/2006 -- This week's free ebook is "Secret Chambers and Hiding-Places: Historic, Romantic, and Legendary Stories and Traditions about Hiding-Holes, Secret Champters, Etc. by Allan Flea (from our Non-Fiction 2-CD set). As a change of pace after a lot of well-known classics, this is a bizarre collection of tales that very few (if any) of you would have ever heard of.
The contents includes: * A Great Deviser of "Priest's Holes" Hindlip Hall Priest-Hunting at Braddocks The Gunpowder Plot-Conspirators Harvington, Ufton, and Ingatestone Cmpton Winyates, Salford Prior, Sawston, Oxburgh, Parham, Paxhill, Etc. King-Hunting: Boscobel, Moseley, Trent, and Heale Cavalier-Hunting, Etc. James II's Escapes Mystgerious Rooms, Deadly Pits, Etc. Hiding-Places in Jacobite Dwellings and in Scottish Castles and Mansions Concealed Doros, Subterranean Passages, Etc. Miniature Hiding-Holes for Valuables, Etc. Hiding-Places of Smugglers and Thieves The Scottish Hiding-Places of Prince Charles Edward
4/11/2006 -- This week's book is Wordsworth's autobiographical poem The Prelude, from volume 3 of the Complete Works of Wordsworth. This appears on our British Lit 2-CD set as well as our Poetry CD.
4/4/2006 -- This week�s selection is an excerpt from the Midrash, a medieval Hebrew work. I picked it because of two intriguing sentences:�The Torah was to God, when he created the world, what the plan is to an architect when he erects a building.� which, for me, resonates interestingly with the opening lines of the Gospel According to John � �In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.� and �The nose is the most important feature in man�s face, so much so that there is no legal identification of man, in Jewish law, without the identification of the nose.�which, for me, gives new meaning to Gogol�s short story �The Nose�, which describes the bizarre reactions of a man who wakes up without a nose. The book �Medieval Hebrew, featuring the Midrash and medieval collections of Jewish Biblical lore and legend� appears on our Religion CD, our Jewish Religion CD�, and also our �Medieval/Renaissance� CD.
3/28/2006 -- Thanks to a suggestion from Ivan Cribb (in Australia), this week�s free ebook is a series of excerpts from Tolstoy�s War and Peace. These chapters and epilogues could stand on their own as �Tolstoy�s theory of history�. Of the few people who read this great book (probably the greatest novel ever written), still fewer read these chapters. They in no way affect the plot, so you could easily skip them. But to me they are the most important part of the book � provocative ruminations on why hundreds of thousands of men marched from one end of Europe to another.
The excerpts include: Book 9 chapter 1, Book 10 chapter 1, Book 11 chapters 1 and 2, Book 13 chapter 1, Book 14 chapters 1 and 2, First Epilogue chapters 1 to 4, and Second Epilogue�If you want me to send this selection to you by email, just send me email at seltzer@samizdat.com
If you like this, then run out and buy and read �Guns, Germs, and Steel� by Jared Diamond � a totally different approach to the same major question: how did the history of the world wind up in its present shape?
3/21/2006 -- This week's selection, "The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus" is quite short. It's a bizarre excerpt from volume 3 of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, a work so long that few ever read it, and hence many fascinating nuggets, like this one are missed. If you know of any novels or movies based on this legend, please let me know.
3/14/2006 -- This week's selection is another Irish book, in honor of St. Patrick's Day -- Ghostly Tales by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873), volume 1 -- Schalken the Painter (1851) and An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street (1853). This book appears on our Irish CD, on our British Literature 2-CD set, and also on our Detective/Mystery/Crime/Horror CD.
3/7/2006 -- Since so many readers let me know that they enjoyed last week's Greek and Roman Ghost Stories, and because St. Patrick's Day is coming up soon, this week's book is "True Irish Ghost Stories" by St. John Seymour. It appears on our Irish CD and also on our Detective/Mystery/Horror CD and our British Literature 2-CD set.
2/28/2006 -- This week's book is a bizarre and interesting item that I just chanced upon -- GREEK AND ROMAN GHOST STORIES by LACY COLLISON-MORLEY. It Includes chapters on: THE POWER OF THE DEAD TO RETURN TO EARTH THE BELIEF IN GHOSTS IN GREECE AND ROME STORIES OF HAUNTING NECROMANCY VISIONS OF THE DEAD IN SLEEP APPARITIONS OF THE DEAD WARNING APPARITIONS Next week, in honor of St. Patrick's Day, I plan to send an Irish book.
2/21/2006 -- Thanks to a suggestion from Bruce Blanchard, this week's ebook (in honor of Black History Month), is The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.
2/14/2006 -- This week, in honor of Valentine's Day, we are sending two texts: The Golden Ass by Apuleius (which includes "Cupid and Psyche") and "Sonnets from the Portuguese" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Apuleius appears on our World Literature CD and also our Ancient World CD. Elizabeth Barrett Browning appears on our British Literature 2-CD set and on our Poetry CD and also on our Browning CD
2/7/2006 --This week's free ebook is Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey. I was prompted to pick this classic western because one of the characters in "The Brooklyn Follies" by Paul Auster was reading it, and I loved the Auster book (almost as much as I loved his "Illusions").
1/31/2006 -- This week's ebook is Montaigne's Essays, volume 1 (of 10). A contemporary of Nostradamus and of Shakespeare, Montaigne (1533-1592) eloquently pondered the meaning of life, the universe, and everything, often using classical sources for examples and inspiration. (This book appears on our Non-Fiction and Essays CDs). According to Wikepedia (http://www.wikipedia.org), "Friedrich Nietzsche was moved to judge of Montaigne: 'That such a man wrote has truly augmented the joy of living on this Earth.'"
To put this work in historical and philosophical context, check Alain de Botton's recent and brilliant "The Consolations of Philosophy" (published by Pantheon Books).
And please visit my new blog at http://www.samizdat.com/blog and post your reactions to this book and related matters by posting comments there. If there is enough interest, that blog could become a center for book discussion, like a library reading group.
FYI -- The rights to my book Web Business Bootcamp recently reverted to me from Wiley. So I have posted the complete text of that book on the Web. You can read it at http://www.samizdat.com/bootcamp.html and can discuss it at that same blog of mine.
(If you haven't "blogged" before, have no fear. I'm new to it, too; and it's ridiculously easy. The word is short for "Web log." It's just a Web page consisting of relatively short items, which gets frequently updated with new material, and where readers can easily add their reactions. It's a Web space to come back to again and again, like a favorite TV show you tune in often. I try to post at least one new item a day. The main topics are books, Internet business, and "off-the-wall" ideas of mine.)
1/24/2006 -- Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge.
1/17/2006 -- This week's free ebook is Emerson's Essays First Series. This includes History, Self-Reliance, Comensation, Spiritual Laws, Love, Friendship, Prudence, Heroism, The Over-Soul, Circles, Intellect, and Art.
For me, Emerson's prose has a hypnotic quallity -- what he says sounds so good, so authoritative, that I'm inclined to suspend disbelief, as if I were reading a poem, like Wordsworth's Prelude, as if all I wanted was to catch a glimpse of this eternal oneness that the author believes so fervently in.
William James, whose works we sampled for the last two weeks, was certainly influenced by Emerson; but headed in a different direction. James took a no-nonsense practical look at the world around him, and had great faith in common sense. James rejected Emerson's mystic oneness of all things, for an everyday matter-of-fact plurallism. But to me their approaches seem not irreconcilable opposites but rather two sides of the same coin.
FYI -- I just started a blog at http://www.samizdat.com/blog "Blogging About Books". Each week I'll start an item for that week's book, so you can leave your comments/share your reactions there. Please join in the discussion.
1/10/2006 -- I'm in a William James mood again this week. In "Varieties of Religious Experience" James starts from the fact that most of mankind believes in some form of God. From his no-nonsense practical perspective -- part philosophy, part psychology -- he examines the tangible evidence of religious belief, in all its forms, rather than getting tangled up in abstract questions about the existence and nature of God.
1/3/2006 -- This week's ebook, "Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking" by William James (brother of Henry James) is one of my favorite books. Today's specialist philosophers who tend to focus on questions that seem to have little or no relationship to everyday life and tend to write in a precise academic style that is dull and uninspiring, when it can be understood at all. James was a generalist. He was as much a psychologist (in a broad sense) as he was a philosopher. He didn't hestitate to write about God and religion and the meaning of life, as well as matters related to physics and the nature of being. His arguments are often based on "common sense" and are often very readable and understandable and applicable to everyday life. And his style has a lot more in common with Emerson's essays than with Hegel or Kant. (He seems to enjoy debunking the systems and deflating the pretensions of the classic German philososphers.)
12/27/2005 -- As a change of pace, this week's ebook is a reference book (that appears on our Reference Book CD) -- Bartlett's Familiar Quotations.
12/20/2005 -- Ten Days that Shook the World, a first hand account of the opening days of the Russian Revolution in St. Petersburg/Petrograd/Leningrad. Warren Beatty based his movie "Reds" on this book. Reed, a reporter, captures the immediacy, the excitement of the moment.
12/13/2005 -- Christmas Entertainments by Alice Kellogg. Here's a Victorian collection of Christmas songs and activities to get you in the holiday mood. It appears on our Christmas CD, which I just updated http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/christmas.html
12/6/2005 -- An early Hanukkah treat, suggested by Betty Bandy, this week's free ebook is "The Guide for the Perplexed", by Moses Maimonides (1135-1204), purportedly "the most influential Jewish thinker since the Moses of the Bible or Torah" (http://mosesmaimonides.com/) This version was translated from Arabic to English by M. Friedlander.
11/29/2005 -- Suggested by Mukesh Shamar, this week's free ebook is the 17th century political science classic Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes. While the Romantics and their precursors (a hundred years later) believed in that man in his natural state is good and noble, Hobbes (writing during the English Civil War and Cromwell Interregnum) believed that force and government are needed to maintain law and order and prevent chaos. (I ought to reread that now myself, in light of events in Iraq).This book appears on our Non-Fiction 2-CD set, which I just updated, and which now contains 2604 books.
11/22/2005 -- Thanks to a suggestion from Betty Bandy, this week's "free ebook" is a collection of texts related to Thanksgiving. A Brief History of the United States by Barnes and Company; First Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1676; The May Flower and Her Log by Azel Ames; The Mayflower Compact; The Women Who Came on the mayflower by Annie Russiel Marble. These texts appear on our Non-Fiction 2-CD set (which I am now updating), and also on our US History CD.
11/15/2005 -- This week's free ebook of the week is "Medieval Hebrew, featuring Midrash and medieval collections of Jewish biblical lore and legend." If you take the time to read, you'll uncover numerous nuggets of wisdom, that resonate interestingly with Christian beliefs and traditions. This book appears on our Religion CD, which I just updated today, and which now contains 589 books, about all the major religions of the world. See http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/religioncd.html for details.
11/8/2005 -- Thanks to Betty Bandy, who has sent some excellent suggestions, this week's ebook selection is a set of belated Halloween texts: Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow; Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales (volume 1 of 5) and Carmilla; and Keats' vampire poem "Lamia".
11/1/2005 -- Today our free ebook is Goethe's Faust, Part 1, translated by Charles Brooks. The relationship of parts 1 and 2 of Faust reminds me of the relationship of the beginning and the end of 2001: a Space Odessey. The beginning is a clear and interesting story and readily engages you. The end is more ambitious, provcative, complex and metaphysical. Nor surprisingly, Part 1 of Faust is read and enjoyed far more often than Part 2; and Part 2 is the favorite of graduate students.
This translation, plus one by Bayard Taylor, plus both Parts 1 and 2 in German appear on our World Literature CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/worlitcd.html>/a>, and our German CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/german.html, and our Goethe CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/goethe.html. I don't have Part 2 in English translation. If you would like Faust in the original German, please let me know by email and I'll send it to you.
10/25/2005 -- This week's free ebook is Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe. This is the play with the famous line "Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships". (If I hear back from enough of you that you'd like it, I'll do Goethe's Faust next week.) Dr. Faustus appears on our recently expanded "Shakespeare, his sources, and his contemporaries" http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/shakespeare.html as well as Drama http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/drama1.html and British Literature http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/britlitcd.html
10/18/2005 -- One of our subscribers, Bruce Alexander, suggested more Twain -- Letters from the Earth, in particular. Unfortunately, that book is still under copyright, having been published (posthumously, or posthumorously as Twain would have said) in 1952. So instead, I'm sending out a collection of other Twain books as this week's ebook of the week: The Mysterious Stranger and Other Stories, The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories, and Pudd'nhead Wilson (which includes an early use of fingerprints to solve a crime). These books appear on our American Literature CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/amlitcd.html with 1313 books and also on Mark Twain http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/twain.html
10/11/2005 -- This week's free ebook is Biographia Literaria by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. There's something magical about his Kublai Khan, as if it were a window to a hidden world inside us. Coleridge's rambling biography includes his ruminations on all matters of interest to him. This book appears in our British Literature 2-CD set http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/britlitcd.html and also in Poetry http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/poetry.html
10/4/2005 -- The History of Herodotus, translated by G.C. Macaulay. You may remember the frequent references to Herodotus in the 1996 movie The English Patient (with Ralph Fienes and Juliette Binoche) and in the book on which that was based, by Michael Ondaatje. This is not only the oldest history book to have survived (perhaps the first written), it is also the oldest travel book. One might even say that it is the oldest amateur anthropology book as well. For me, his descriptions of the places and culures of his time are far more fascinating than his account of the wars between Greece and Persia.
9/28/2005 -- This week's free ebook is The Gold Bag by Carolyn Wells, A Mystery/Detective novel (recommended by Ken Wilson). Wells (1862-1942) was born in Rahway, NJ, where she worked as a librarian before she became a professional writer. She published 170 books. The Gold Bag appears on our Detective/Mystery/Crime/Horror CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/detmyscriman.html
9/20/2005 -- This week's free ebook (suggested by Bruce Blanchard) is "The Tao Teh King or the Tao and its Characteristics" by Lao-Tse, translated by James Legge. This book appears on our Religion CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/religioncd.html and also on East Asia http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/eastasia.html and also on Philosophy http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/philosophy.html
As a bonus, I'm also including a short piece entitled "San Francisco During the Eventful Days of April, 1906" by James B. Stetson, personal recollections of the San Francisco earthquake, which remind me a bit of the New Orleans disaster. That book appears on Non-Fiction http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/nonfictioncd.html US History http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/ushistory.html and California http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/california.html
9/13/2005 -- Ths week's ebook is Captain Bligh's version of the Mutiny on the Bounty. (His survived to tell the tale). "A Voyage to the South Sea by William Bligh. "A voyage undertaken by command of His Majesty for the purpose of conveying the bread-fruit tree to the West Indies, in His Majesty's Ship the Bounty, Commanded by Lieutenant William Bligh, including an account of the mutiny on board the said ship, and the subsequent voyage of part of the crew in the ship's boat from Tofoa, one of the Friendly Islands, to Timor, a Dutch settlement in the East Indies." First published in 1792. This book appears on our Non-Fiction CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/nonfictioncd.html
9/6/2005 -- This week's free ebook is "In Time of Emergency: a Citizen's Handbook on Nuclear Attack and National Disaster" -- from the days when America had a Civil Defense organization that focused on public preparedness for disasters of all kinds. That's one of the books just added to the Non-Fiction CD set, which now contains 2490 books, and sells for just $29. You can see the details (including the complete table of contents) at http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/nonfictioncd.html
8/30/2005 -- This week's book is "Une Vie, a Piece of String, and Other Stories" by Guy de Maupassant, translated to English by McMaster, Henderson, and others.
Maupassant is a master of the short story, often using ironic first person narrative, having the narrator unintentionally reveal him or herself. You come to know his characters well and believe in their reality in just a few pages. And he often provides a surprising twist. With Joyce and Chekhov you might read a story (even a very good one) and miss the point, and have to reread it. Maupassant is more in the vein of Poe -- the climax will never slip by unnoticed. These are stories to be told and heard and enjoyed.
This book appears on our World Literature CD (along with 1536 other books, including one monstrous "book", far too long to email, with all 180 of Maupassant's stories, in English), You can see details of that CD (which sells for $29) at http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/worlitcd.html
As an experiment, I'm offering a $5 discount on that CD for "free ebook" readers. Just order from our online store at http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/worlitcd.html and in the order form, enter the coupon code "maupassant". This offer is good until next Tuesday, Sept. 6. If enough people show an interest, I'll make similar discount offers in future weeks.
8/23/2005 -- This week's ebook includes The Kreutzer Sonata, Ivan the Fool, A Lost Opportunity, Polikushka, and The Candle, by Leo Tolstoy. It appears on our World Literature CD, which I recently updated (and which now contains 1537 books) http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/worlit.html and also on our Tolstoy CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/tolstoy.html
8/16/2005 -- Having just returned from vacation in the Southwest, I picked Roughing It by Mark Twain as this week's ebook. That's an autobiographical piece, recounting Twain's journey to Nevada and what he found/learned there, during the silver-rush days.
We often get caught up in the hype about how fast things change these days, and forget that folks in the mid-19-hundreds had to deal with change that was at least as radical and fast. The famed Pony Express only lasted six months. The completion of the transcontinental rail line vastly reduced the time, cost, and trouble of travelling from one coast to the other. (Hundreds of Mormons answering Brigham Young's call walked 1400 miles all the way from Iowa to Salt Lake City, pushing wheelbarrows and pushing handcarts, and the very next year the train was available, making such hardship totally unnecessary). In a few short decades the American west went from wild lands controlled by Native Americans and explored by a handful of hunters, trappers, and adventurers, to the home of farmers and ranchers (with the Native Americans contained and controlled and guarded in reservations). Not to mention the revolution in man's image of himself with the theory of evolution.
Twain was keenly aware of how fast the world was changing. (That's his main theme in Life on the Mississippi, as well). In Roughing It he recounts the damage to the environment done by prospectors and miners; he tells of the ghost towns; he laments how much of nature as been lost, never to return. As is usual in Twain's autobiographical fiction, the writing is uneven, with brilliant memorable passages buried among pages you might just as well skip. Give it a try, and if you haven't been there before, consider making a trip to the Southwest.
FYI -- I just posted a travelogue of my trip at http://www.samizdat.com/southwest.html And I'll be adding that to our Southwest CD, which also includes Roughing It. http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/sw.html
8/9/2005 (sent out late due to vacation) -- Plato's Republic, translated by Jowett. Probably Plato's best-known work, The Republic includes his vision of the ideal state (modelled to some degree on Sparta), and his myth of the cave. It appears on several of our CDs: Non-Fiction, Philosophy, and Ancient World.
8/2/2005 (sent out late due to vacation) -- Uncle Remus His Songs and His Sayings by Joel Chandler Harris. I thought you might enjoy comparing this original (about Br'er Rabbit and his friends and enemies) with the Disney version (Song of the South). It appears on our Children's Book CD.
7/26/2005 (posted late due to vacation) -- Another suggestion by Ken Wilson -- "The Diary of a U-Boat Commander by Anonymous", which is included in our Ships and Sea CD and also our War CD.
7/19/2005 -- Suggested by Ken Wilson, this week's free ebook is "The Hoosier Schoolmaster: a story of backwoods life", a novel by Edward Eggleston (1837-1902). This book is included in our American Literature CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/amlitcd.html
7/12/2005 -- This week's free ebook is "Naturalist on the River Amazons" by Henry Walter Bates (1825-1892). I was totally unaware of this gem (which appears on Non-Fiction and also on our Evolution CD). I first learned of it yesterday when reading 'Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo' by Sean Carroll, a recent hardcover book that explains for the non-scientist the latest developments in biology (a set of insights and discoveries that go beyond RNA/DNA, just as that breakthrough went beyond Darwin). Unfortunately, that book suffers from Scientific American syndrome -- great beginning, stimulating your appetite to the point that you will make the time to read it through to the end; but soon rocketing beyond the background of the typical reader, so the further you read the less you understand; and you are left in the end with appetite even stronger, but frustrated and lost. But at least I could enjoy the historical interludes along the way, such as in chapter 8, when Carroll introduces Bates, "After eleven years in the Amerazon, having collected 14,712 different animal speicies (8000 of which were new to science), his body wracked by tropical disease, poor nutrition, and prolonged exposure ot sun and heat, and having endured robbery, abandonment by servants, and other deprivations, Henry Walter Bates left the jungle for England in June 1859. His timing was fortuante -- in just a few months Darwin's 'The Origin of Species' would appear... Bates received great encouragement form Darwin, especially to write and publish a narrative of his travels. Not only did Bates draw upon Darwin's views, but Darwin even reviewed, edited, and wrote an 'appeciation' for the one book Bates produced in his entire career, 'Naturalist on the River Amazons' (1863). Darwin had predicted it to be a great sucess and he was right, for Bates's writing proved to be superior to either Darwin or his original companion in the Amazon, Alfred Russel Wallace. Bates's book is till a terrific read today."
For our Evolution CD see http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/1evolution.html
For our Non-Fiction 2-CD set see Non-Fiction 2-CD set see http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/chilbookcd.html (which I'm updating now -- should finish by Thursday), and also on our Baum CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/baum.html
If you are curious, you might also want to check my book The Lizard of Oz,a satiric fantasy intended for adults as well as children: "When an elementary class sets out on a quest to save the world from disenchantment, their adventures reveal paradoxes of the human mind and ways of awakening the magic within us." This Lizard is online as both text and as audio (RealAudio, with my voice) at http://www.samizdat.com/liz I'd be happy to send that by email as a plain-text file to anyone who requests it. You can also buy it on CD with other children's stories of mine at http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/lizofoznowan.html or as a printed book (with illustrations) at http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/lizardofoz.html
6/28/2005 -- In case you are planning an outdoor vacation this summer, this week's ebook is "Steep Trails: California-Utah-Nevada-Washington-Oregon-The Grand Canyon" by John Muir, from our Classic Travel CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/travel.html
6/21/2005 -- This week's ebook is THE LIFE, CRIME, AND CAPTURE OF JOHN WILKES BOOTH, WITH A FULL SKETCH OF THE Conspiracy of which he was the Leader, AND THE PURSUIT, TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF HIS ACCOMPLICES. BY GEORGE ALFRED TOWNSEND, A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT. It appears on our Civil War CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/civilwar.html as well as US History http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/ushistory.html and Non-Fiction http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/nonfictioncd.html
6/14/2005 -- This week's ebook of the week is ENGLISH TRAVELLERS OF THE RENAISSANCE BY CLARE HOWARD The chapter titles are: THE BEGINNINGS OF TRAVEL FOR CULTURE THE HIGH PURPOSE OF THE ELIZABETHAN TRAVELLER SOME CYNICAL ASPERSIONS UPON THE BENEFITS OF TRAVEL PERILS FOR PROTESTANT TRAVELLERS THE INFLUENCE OF THE FRENCH ACADEMIES THE GRAND TOUR THE DECADENCE OF THE GRAND TOUR You can find this book on our CD "Time Travel: Classic Travel and Tourism Books", which I am now updating. You can see the current contents at http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/travel.html
6/7/2005 -- This week's free ebook of the week is The Great English Short-Story Writers, Volume 1, 1910, which inicludes: APPARITION OF MRS. VEAL. By Daniel Defoe (1661-1731) THE MYSTERIOUS BRIDE. By James Hogg (1770-1835) THE DEVIL AND TOM WALKER. By Washington Irving (1783-1859) DR. HEIDEGGER'S EXPERIMENT. By Nathaniel Hawthorne (1807-1864) THE PURLOINED LETTER. By Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) RAB AND HIS FRIENDS. By Dr. John Brown (1810-1882) THE BOOTS AT THE HOLLY-TREE INN. By Charles Dickens (1812-1870) A STORY OF SEVEN DEVILS. By Frank R. Stockton. (1834-1902) A DOG'S TALE. By Mark Twain (1835) THE OUTCASTS OF POKER FLAT. By Bret Harte (1839-1902) THE THREE STRANGERS. By Thomas Hardy (1840) JULIA BRIDE. By Henry James (1843) A LODGING FOR THE NIGHT. By Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) It appears on our Short Story CD, which I updated today.
5/31/2005 -- This week's ebook is A Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) (wife of the essayist William Godwin and mother of Mary Shelley [who was wife of the poety Percy Bysshe Shelley and author of Frankenstein). It appears on our 18th Century CD, also British Literature, and Women
5/24/2005 -- This week's free ebook is "The Chemical History of a Candle" by Faraday. I just saw a reference to it in "Wittgenstein's Poker" by Edmonds and Eidinow, an intriguing account of a confrontation in 1946 between the philosophers Wittgenstein and Popper. The authors note that Faraday's book was one of Wittgenstein's favorites "an illustration of fine popular science."
"The Chemical History of a Candle" appears on our Non-Fiction CD and also on Victorican Science and Technology.
5/17/2005 -- Because of the popularity of last week's selection (Things to Make), we're doing The Boy Mechanic Volume 1 this week. "700 THINGS FOR BOYS TO DO, HOW TO CONSTRUCT WIRELESS OUTFITS, BOATS, CAMP EQUIPMENT, AERIAL GLIDERS, KITES, SELF-PROPELLED VEHICLES ENGINES, MOTORS, ELECTRICAL APPARATUS, CAMERAS AND HUNDREDS OF OTHER THINGS WHICH DELIGHT EVERY BOY". It's one of the books from our Children's Book CD (which contains 678 books). We sent out the plain text version by email. There is also a .pdf version with illustrations, which is too large to send by email; but which we include on our Children's Book CD.
5/10/2005 -- This week's book is "Things to Make" by Archibald Williams, with detailed instructions for building such things as a ladder, a poultry house, a bicycle shed, cabinets, telegaphic apparatus, an electric alarm clock, model steam turbines, quick-boiling kettles, pumps, kites, and paper gliders. We sent out the plain text version by email. There is also a .pdf version with illustrations, which is too large to send by email; but which we include on our Children's Book CD.
5/3/2005 -- Elizabethan Demonology by Thomas Spalding, 1880.
4/26/2005 -- This week's ebook of the week is "The Discovery of Witches: in answer to severall queries, lately delivered to the judges of the asssize for the county of Norfolk" by Matthew Hopkings, Witch-finder, 1647. This will be one of the books that I'll be adding to our Occult CD in the next update (in the next day or two). http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/occult.html
4/19/2005 -- This week's free ebook is The Prince of India (1893) by Lew Wallace (1827-1905). During the Civil War, Wallace served in the Union army and rose to the rank of major general. He was a member of the court that tried those accused of conspiring to assinate Lincoln. 1878-1881 he was governor of New Mexico Territory, and 1881-1885 he was ambassador to Turkey (the Ottoman Empire). His best-known novel is Ben-Hur (1880), which, along with The Prince of India, is included in our American Literature CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/amlitcd.html
4/12/2005 -- This week's ebook of the week is the best known novel by George Sand ((pseudonym of Lucile Amandine Aurore Dupin, the Baronne Dudevant) (1804-1876) -- a woman who today is probably better known for her life style and personal adventures than for her books. This version of Mauprat is in English translation. It appears on our George Sand CD, together with 43 other books by her, and 4 books about her. (NB -- most of the books on the CD are in the original French). It also appears on on our World Literature CD and our French CD and our CD of books by and about women
Next week's book will be The Prince of Inida, a wild adventure tale by Lew Wallace (author of Ben-Hur, and sometime governor of wild-west territory and ambassador to the Ottoman Empire).
4/5/2005 -- This week's book is a classic collection of detective stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. This book, along with other Sherlock Holmes stories, appears on our Detective/Mystery/Crime/Horror CD
3/29/2005 -- This week's ebook was suggested by Kurt Yount, who writes:
"In the International Miscellany October 1, 1850 there is a really interesting examination of Poe. It presents a lot of biographical and literary fragmens that I for one didn't know existed and it makes me wonder if somewhere there is more information, not poems or stories, that could be scanned in the future. This is very fascinating stuff to me, since I think I have read all his stories, but I don't care much for the poetry. Anyway, just something I ran into looking through those magazines on your disk. Also a couple issues before that there was something on Margaret Fuller, whose name is familiar, but on whom Gutenberg apparently has nothing."
That issue of the International Miscellany (volume 1, number 3) appears on our American Literature CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/amlitcd.html (in the Periodicals folder), and also on our new Edgar Allan Poe CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/poe.html. In addition, I'll be adding it to our Magazine CD ("When Dickens Was News") http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/magazines.html at the next update (in about a month).
As for Margaret Fuller (Ossoli), her two-volume volume memoirs appear on our Brook Farm CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/brookfarm.html (She was a Brook Farm participant and figures prominently in Nathaniel Hawthorne's Blithedale Romance, a novel about Brook Farm.)
3/22/2005 -- Yesterdays with Authors by James T. Fields, (husband of Annie Fields from our 3/1 selection). James Fields was a Boston publisher (Ticknor Fields) and also editor of the Atlantic Monthly. He "discovered" Nathaniel Hawthorne. It appears on our Fields CD (a Theme CD)
3/15/2005 -- Tales of Old Japan by Lord Redesdale, from our World Literature CD.
3/1/2005 -- This week's ebook (thanks to a recommendation from Mark Schorr) is Authors and Friends by Annie Fields. This book contains bios of Lonfellow, Emerson, Holmes, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Celia Thacter, Whittier, Tennyson, and Lady Tennyson, based largely on personal experience and acquaintance. It appears on our American Literature CD and also on our Fields CD (a Theme CD).
2/22/2005 -- This week's ebook of the week is "Inspector General" a play by Nikolai Gogol. You may remember the 1949 movie based on it, starring Danny Kaye. Or perhaps you read Nabokov's amazing book about Gogol (a New Directions paperback). Or perhaps you read the recent best seller The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, which tells the story of an Indian boy named after the Russian author.
This play appears on several of our Countries of the Former Soviet Union, Cold War, Drama, World Literature, and World Literature in English. But if you love Russian literature and/or Gogol, you really should read Gogol's Art by Laszlo Tikos on the CD of that name, together with works by Gogol and other Russian greats.
2/15/2005 -- Shakespeare's Mid-Summer Night's Dream, for Valentine's and also to help forget about the snow and ice.
2/8/2005 -- With a major snow storm about to hit New England today, and baseball's spring training just a few weeks away, it seems appropriate to celebrate spring with Ivan Turgenev's "Torrents of Spring." And with Valentine's day just a few days away, I feels right to celebrate with Turgenev's "First Love." It so happens that those two novellas, plus a third -- Mumu -- are all in the same file, which appears on our World Literature CD, which I am now updating, adding another 200+ books. I hope to finish that today. Think spring. Think summer. Enjoy.
2/1/2005 -- Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser, which appears on our American Literature CD.
1/25/2005 -- Thanks to a suggestion from Penny Golden, this week's free ebook is A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain. That book appears on our American Literature and Mark Twain CDs.
1/18/2005 --At the suggestion of Patty Nash, this week's ebook consists of two novels by Edith Wharton. Patty wrote: "As we have finished reading Ethan Frome, I would also recommend SUMMER and GLIMPSES OF THE MOON, also by Edith Wharton. Her descriptions of nature and location are beautiful, and she keeps you thinking and feeling long after you have finished her books, and they are definitely worth reading again." Those books appear on our American Lit CD and also on our Edith Wharton CD and our Women CD.
1/11/2005 -- This week's free ebook consists of two short works by Gustave Flaubert -- "A Simple Soul" and "Herodias" -- both in English translation. These appear on our World Literature CD and also our French CD.
1/4/2005 -- This week's ebook, suggested by Kurt Yount, is Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. Kurt says, "I have been rereading Ethan Frome which I last read years ago... This is a relatively short piece, but it is really worth reading again. It is emotionally naked, but understated. I was not especially impressed by Age Of Innocence, but this piece is different, it is not artificial. Anybody who read it before when you were single, go back and re-read it as a married man. You will see it through different eyes." This book appears on our American Lit CD and also our Edith Wharton CD.
12/28/2004 -- At the request of Ken Wilson, this week's free ebook is Bram Stoker's Dracula. As a bonus, I'm also including another Bram Stoker novel "Lair of the White Worm." Both appear on our Detective/Mystery/Crime/Horror CD. See http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/detmyscriman.html for details.
12/21/2004 -- This week's free ebook consists of a novel (Dickens' Christmas Carol) and a short story (The Gift of the Magi). While everyone has probably seen several different movies of A Christmas Carol dozens or even hundreds of times, few of us have read the book. As for "Magi", it's simply a delightful feel-good Christmas story. Both appear on our Christmas CD, which was just reviewed in Large Print Reviews at http://www.largeprintreviews.com/xmascd.html
12/14/2004 -- Suggested by Bill Gaughan, this week's free ebook of the week is "Narrative of the Captivity and REsotration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson" by Mary White Rowlandson. Bill noted "Saturday evening I also heard a program from the series from New Hampshire Public Radio called "Storylines New England". This program dealt with two perspectives of King Philip's War. One was from the book by the puritan Mary Rowlandson... Here is a description of the program from the website... 'a page-turning best-seller about her 10-week ordeal during the Indian War of 1675-76 (King Philip's War).'"
12/7/2004 -- This week's ebook is "What Men Live By and Other Tales" by Leo Tolstoy. This book appears on our World Literature CD.
11/30/2004 -- This week's ebook is volume 1 of A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, compiled by James Richardson and first published in 1897. This volume includes basic documents of the early days of the Republic (begining with the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederaton, and Constitution), and just about all official documents and speeches of George Washington as president, including his Farewell Address. This book (and succeeding volumes in that series) is found on our US History CD and also our American Revolution CD.
11/23/2004 -- This week's ebook consists of two documents: -- the relatively short LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF CALAMITY JANE BY HERSELF, which appears on several of our CDs: Non-Fiction Women, West, and Biography. -- the book length AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BUFFALO BIll. (which appears on Non-Fiction, West, and Biography).
11/16/2004 -- This week's free ebook of the week consists of a short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" and a utopian/feminist novel "Herland" both by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935). "The Yellow Wallpaper" appears on our Short Story CD (which I just updated, adding 992 stories, including this one), American Literature, and Detective/Mystery/Horror. "Herland" appears on American Literature.
11/9/2004 -- In honor of Thanksgiving, this week's ebook is a cook book from shortly after the American Revolution -- "American Cookery or the Art of Dressing Viands, Fish, Poultry and Vegetables, and the Best Modes of Making Pastes, Puffs, Pies, Tarts, Puddings, Custard and Preserves, and All Kinds of Cakes, from the Imperial Plumb to Plain Cake. Adapted to This Country, and All Grades of Life" by Amelia Simmons "an American orphan", 1796. That book is available on our Cook Book CD.
10/25/2004 -- This week's ebook is "Schoolmistress and other stories" by Anton Chekhov. That book appears on our World Literature and our Short Story CDs.
10/18/2004 -- This week's free ebook of the week includes the transcript of the last Kerry-Bush debate (from Oct. 13), plus The Story of My Life by Helen Keller and the poem "Song of the Stone Wall" by Helen Keller. The Helen Keller pieces appear on our American Literature CD which includes 992 books and sells for $29.
10/11/2004 -- Attached are two "books" -- The transcript of the second Bush-Kerry debate, and fragments from "Ossian" one of the greatest literary frauds of all time. In the 1760's James MacPherson published in several volumes what he purported to be translations of a legendary third-century Scottish poet named "Ossian". Ossian became extremely popular and inspired other poets for nearly a hundred years. As explained in the introduction to this first collection of Ossian "fragments", they were actually the work of MacPherson. It is truly bizarre that a work deemed great when considered the work of a third century poet is deemed mediocre and not worthy of study when considered the work of a relative contemporary. Judge for yourself... This Ossian text appears on our British Literature 2-CD set, which includes 1856 books and sells for $29.
10/4/2004 -- Following up on suggestions received from several of you, this week's "ebook" consists of two files -- one the transcript of last week's Bush-Kerry debate and the other the transcript of last night's Edwards-Cheney debate. If you are interested in the historical context of US History, you might want to check our US History CD, with 305 books, which sells for $19.
9/28/2004 -- Of course, you all know the story of Robinson Crusoe (though few have actually read the book). But who among you knows the Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (1660-1731), this week's ebook of the week. ((Yes, even in 1700 sequels of popular stories were considered sure-fire money-makers.) We have this book plus seven other books by Defoe on our 2-CD British Literature collection, which sells for $29. I could also put those books on a "Great Authors" CD (selling for $12), if there's demand. Please let me know if you are interested.
9/21/2004 -- This week's ebook is The Lion of the North by G.A. Henty, an excellent historical novel, set during the 30 Years War.
Since you have a hotmail address, I'm presuming you might have problems with an attachment, so I'm embedding the book in the body of the email message, at the end. If you'd like to receive your free weekly ebooks as attachments in the future, please let me know and I'll put you on the other list.
Henty has a remarkable technique for making you feel present at that time. And the circumstances of this novel are extraordinary -- a young Scottish mercenary in the army of King Adolphus Gustavus of Sweden. I always wondered how Sweden suddenly became a major conquering power. It turns out that most of his soldiers were mercenaries, and they were mainly paid for by allies.
If you like this one, you might also want to try his "sequel" Won by the Sword. In Won by the Sword, the fictitious characters are different (another young soldier to identify with), but the historical situation continues. At this stage of the 30 Years War, King Louis XIV has come out of hiding, as the major supporter of the "Protestant" armies fighting against the Holy Roman Emperor. Things had gotten very mixed up -- so the whole concept of a religious war (Protestant vs. Catholic) has become bogus. It's simply a power struggle.
If these whet your appetite for more information about the 30 Years War, consider reading Schiller's History of the 30 Years War on our Non-Fiction 2-CD set. Or check out what Will Durant has to say about it in his Story of Civilization (which we don't have on CD). This war, little-known by Americans today, in the early 17th century totally devastated the territory that later became Germany. In terms of human suffering it seems to have been far more terrible than WWI and WWII. According to Durant, starvation became so acute in some areas, that when criminals were hung, the crowd of spectators immediately tore down the bodies and devoured them, raw. And starvaton became so widespread toward the end, that a victorious "Protestant" army, rather than attack the enemy, suddenly invaded an allied state and pillaged there, simply to cope with the extreme hunger of the troops.
Both the Henty books are found on our British Literature 2-CD set, on our War CD, and also on our G.A. Henty CD.
9/14/2004 -- At the request of one of our customers, this week's book is The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope.
9/7/2004 -- This week's book is MEMOIRS OF JACQUES CASANOVA de SEINGALT 1725-1798 TO PARIS AND PRISON, Volume 2e--UNDER THE LEADS, which recounts Casanova's imprisionment in Venice and his escape. It's probably the most entertaining part of his voluminous memoirs (all of which appear on our World Literature CD). Keep in mind that Casanova is a storyteller, not an historian. Presume that this tale was told and retold hundreds of times over many years before, as an old man, he put it on paper. But as with the rest of his Memoirs, expect, too, interesting insights into the everyday life of a professional gambler, con artist, and man of leisure in 18th century Europe.
8/31/2004 -- "Is Mars Habitable? a Critical Examination of Professor Percival Lowell's Book 'Mars and Its Canals', with an Alternative Explanation" by Alfred Russel Wallace. Published in 1907, this book refuted the contention that the "canals" of Mars were constructed by intelligent beings. Wallace as a rival of Darwin's, who developed a theory of evolution in parallel with Darwin and before Darwin made his conclusions public. This book appears on our Non-Fiction CD set.
8/24/2004 -- Prompted by another request from Bill Gaughan, I checked for books that describe the ancient Olympic Games. The closest I could come was Athens by Bulwer-Lytton (who also wrote the historical novel The Last Days of Pompeii). It appears on our Non-Fiction and Ancient World CDs.
8/17/2004 -- This week's (actually last week's) book, Tom Swift and his Photo Telephone was suggested by Bill Gaughan. He explains: "In this modern age of cell phones and digital cameras and scanners, and even cell phones that can now send images to another cell phone, Tom Swift and his Photo Telephone is a look into the future of today from back in the 19 teens; science fiction of yesteryear becoming today's electronic gadgets." You can find that book and dozens of other Tom Swift books (by Victor Appleton) on our Children's Book CD.
8/10/2004 -- This week's free ebook is THE SOTWEED FACTOR or A VOYAGE TO MARYLAND(3), A SATYR By Ebenezer Cook, originally published in 1707. A "sotweed factor" is a merchant who deals in tobacco. This poem was the basis for John Barth's novel of the same name. It appears on our British Literature CD set.
8/3/2004 -- This week's ebook is a poem about biology, originaly published in 1788 -- The Botanic Garden by Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles Darwin) (1731-1802). Based on intuition, it seems to foreshadow some of the principles that Charles later supported with scientific evidence. You can find this book in our 2-CD Non-Fiction set (in the Biology section)
7/27/2004 -- This week's ebook, The Malay Archipelago (in two volumes) was written by Alfred Wallace, rival to Darwin for credit for the theory of evolution. For details on their rivalry, along with fascinating insights into evolution on islands and related matters, see The Song of the Dodo by David Quammen (a recent printed book).
The Malay Archipelago appears on our Non-Fiction 2-CD set, as well as Victorian Science and also Richard Burton's Arabian Nights and Victorian Books of Exploration and Travel.
7/14/2004 -- This week's ebook, The Voyage of the Beagle, is Darwin's autobiographical account of the voyage around the world (starting in 1832) on which he got his inspiration for and gathered his evidence for the theory of evolution. (Cf. the recent movie Master and Commander with Russell Crowe, which covered much of the same territory 30 years earlier, with a ship's surgeon interested in the same kind of natural phenomena as Darwin (especially in the Galapogos Islands).
Next week, I'll send the two volumes of the Malay Archipelago by Alfred Wallace, Darwin's rival. Wallace came up with a very similar theory at about the same time, and got very little recognition.
Both those works are available on our Non-fiction 2-CD set and also on Victorian Science.
7/7/2004 -- Ozma of Oz by Frank Baum, one of about a dozen sequels to The Wizard of Oz. In this one the main character, a young boy discovers that he is really a girl/princess under the spell of a wicked witch.
6/29/2004 -- This week's ebook, Persuasion, was first published after the death of the author, Jane Austen. I recently read "The Jane Austen Book Club" by Karen Joy Fowler, a current best seller, and an excellent novel about novels, in which you enjoy a good story and at the same time get reintroduced to the works of a great novelist from the past. You can also view the entire text of Persuasion in AbookReader format at http://www.samizdat.com/persuasion.htm This book appears in plain text form on our Jane Austen CD http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/austen.html and also on our British Literature and Women CDs.
6/22/2004 -- This week's ebook of the week is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I was prompted to choose this well-known but little-read classic because I recently read two of Jasper Fforde's intriguing and amusing scifi/alternate-world spoofs -- "The Eyre Affair" and "Lost in a Good Book", in which human beings can become characters is novels and characters in novels can move into the "real" world and pretend to be human beings. You can also view it in AbookReader format at http://www.samizdat.com/janeeyre.htm (NB -- we have a Bronte Sisters CD with this book and other works by and about Charlotte and her sisters Emily and Anne, with all the books in both plain text and AbookReader format).
6/15/2004 -- This week's ebook, The Guns of Bull Run, is the first book of Joseph Altsheler's Civil War series of historical novels. Before I began making CDs, I had never heard of Altsheler. But I got numerous requests for his works, and our CD, with 12 of his novels, is now one of our most popular. I just added our new AbookReader format to all those novels (in addition to the usual plain text, as in the attachment). You can also view this entire book in AbookReader format at http://www.samizdat.com/gunsofbullrun.htm
6/8/2004 -- In his best-known work, The Prince, Machiavelli presumes that the ends justify the means, and provides a handbook for would-be dictators, in the hope some unscrupulous leader in the mold of Cesare Borgia (the Pope's son) would conquer all of Italy, finally uniting it. In the Discourses, this week's free ebook selection, we see another side of Machiavelli. Here through detailed anecdotal commentaries on the first 10 books of Livy's History of Rome, with frequent comparisons to what was contemporary history in about 1500, Machiavelli derives principles of human behavior that could help guide the decisions of a wise and just ruler or military leader. This book appears on our Non-Fiction 2-CD set and also on Italian.
All our books are available in plain text form. We are also beginning to provide select books in an alternative format -- AbookReader. You can read this same book in that format at http://www.samizdat.com/discourses.htm You don't need to download or install any software to use AbookReader. Just use a recent version (5 or 6) of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser.
The AbookReader version makes it easy for you to read. The plain text version makes it easy for you to copy, edit, print, and generate voice or braille output.
You can view other samples of ours in this format at http://www.samizdat.com/hamlet.htm and http://www.samizdat.com/bodmin.htm
6/1/2004 -- Trips to the Moon by Lucian, written in the second century AD, consists of selections from several of Lucian's satirical works (such as "The True History"). The introduction indicates that this "account of a trip to the moon...must have been enjoyed by Rabelais, which suggested to Cyrano de Bergerac his Voyages to the Moon and to the Sun, and insensibly contributed, perhaps, directly or through Bergerac, to the conception of Gulliver's Travels." (Yes, Cyrano de Bergerac, whose nose was made famous by Rostand's play about him, was also an author.)
5/25/2004 -- Atlantis: The Antediluvian World by Ignatius Donnelly purports to solve the mystery of Atlantis by creatively tying together myths and legends from around the world. At times it is very convincing (like The Da Vinci Code) -- enough so that it's likely to motivate you to read many other books to try to distinguish between gossip that's thousands of years old and credible science. In any case it's a fun and provocative read. (FYI -- the author ran for vice president on the Green Back ticket back in the 1880s.) If you read nothing else, check the beginning of the first chapter where the author lays out the 11 propositions that he intends to demonstrate. This book appears on our 2-CD Non-Fiction set (under Anthropology and Myths).
5/18/2004 -- From Ritual to Romance by Jessie Weston might interest you in a variety of ways. I first came across it in the footnotes to T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland." It pieces together legend, myth, religion, esoteric knowledge, and history in interesting ways, providing insights into the stories of the Holy Grail (cf. Indiana Jones and the Crusade for the Holy Grail), medieval heresies (cf. Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code). And its main thrust is explanining the origins of our concept of romantic love.
5/11/2004 -- "Martin Guerre", like the last two ebooks of the week, is an extract from Alexandre Dumas' multi-volume Celebrated Crimes. This is the "true" story that served as the basis for two great movies: Le Retour de Martin Guerre starring Gerard Depardieu, and Sommersby starring Jody Foster and Richard Gere.
5/4/2004 -- "The Man in the Iron Mask", extracted from Alexandre Dumas' multi-volume history "Celebrated Crimes". This is an "historical essay", a different work from his novel of the same name, which is part of his Three Musketeers Saga. A delightful blend of rumor and history.
4/27/2004 -- Extracted from Alexandre Dumas' multi-volume history "Celebrated Crimes" (which appears on our World Literature CD, as well as French, and Dumas), "The Borgias" provides lots of nasty and fascinating details about Cesare Borgia (the model for Machiavelli's model ruthless dictator in The Prince), his father Pope Alexander VI, and his beloved sister Lucrezia (world champion poisoner); if you enjoy Dumas, you'd also enjoy Club Dumas, a recent novel by Arturo Perez-Reverte.
4/20/2004 -- "Taras Bulba and Other Tales" by Nikolai Gogol. This choice was prompted by my reading the current best seller "The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, in which a boy born to Indian parents is given the name Gogol, because of his father's obsession with the Russian author and other special circumstances. The story "The Cloak" which is frequently mentioned in "The Namesake" is included in this story collection. This book and other works of Gogol appear on our Gogol CD, a "books in context" CD which is built around the contemporary work of literary criticism, "Gogol's Art: a Search for Identity" by Laszlo Tikos.
4/13/2004 -- The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes (a character in Matthew Pearl's The Dante Club)
4/6/2004 Longfellow's translation of Dante's Divine Comedy. This translation project of Longfellow's is at the heart of the best-selling literary mystery "The Dante Club" by Matthew Pearl, a book which I highly recommend.
3/31/2004 -- The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, from the Meditations of Anne Catherine Emmerich, an obscure 19th century book that reportedly was a major inspiration for Mel Gibson's controversial movie. The following week, (because I'm now reading and greatly enjoying the literary mystery "The Dante Club" by Matthew Pearl.
3/24/2004 -- The Whole History of Grandfather's Chair or True Stories from New England History, 1620-1808 by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
3/17/2004 -- The Awakening and Other Stories by Kate Chopin.
3/10/2004 -- Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne.
3/3/2004 -- The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Stories by Bret Harte.
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