Classic Essays

Is karma just another word for fate? Is karma subject to time? Do animals have karma? These are just some of the questions posed in this collection of seven short essays by Theosophist writer William Q. Judge, while exploring the topic of karma. The essays are: "Karma", "Aphorisms on Karma", "Karma in the Desatir", "Thoughts on Karma", "Men Karmic Agents", "Is Karma Only Punishment?" and "Is Poverty Bad Karma?"

A simple writing style coupled with almost prophetic content characterize George Orwell's works. Orwell's most famous pieces include the satirical novel Animal Farm and dystopian masterpiece 1984. His colorful autobiographical novel Down and Out in Paris and London is also an unforgettable read. Throughout his writings, Orwell accurately and scathingly criticized totalitarianism while supporting democratic socialism.

Harper Lee remains a landmark figure in the American canon—thanks to Scout, Jem, Atticus, and the other indelible characters in To Kill a Mockingbird; as well as for the darker, late-’50s version of small-town Alabama that emerged in Go Set a Watchman, her only other novel, published in 2015 after its rediscovery. Less remembered, until now, however, is Harper Lee the dogged young writer, who crafted stories in hopes of magazine publication; Lee the lively New Yorker, Alabamian, and friend to Truman Capote; and the Lee who peppered the pages of McCall’s and Vogue with thoughtful essays.

"Nothing more strangely indicates an enormous and silent evil of modern society than the extraordinary use which is made nowadays of the word orthodox. In former days the heretic was proud of not being a heretic. It was the kingdoms of the world and the police and the judges who were heretics. He was orthodox. He had no pride in having rebelled against them; they had rebelled against him. The armies with their cruel security, the kings with their cold faces, the decorous processes of State, the reasonable processes of law - all these like sheep had gone astray...."

한중록은 혜경궁 홍씨가 사도세자와 결혼하여 뒤주에 갇혀 죽을 때까지의 비극적인 역사 사건을 그린 수필집이다. 초등학생들이 이해할 수 있도록 다소 어려운 궁중 용어를 쉬운 단어로 고르는 대신 정확하게 알게 하기 위해 그대로 쓰고 상세한 주석으로 이해를 높이고 있다. 또한, 책 후반에 사도세자의 죽음에 얽힌 임오화변에 대해 기술된 역사와 한중록의 내용과의 다른 점을 비교하게 하였다. 역사가들 사이에서도 설왕설래하는 비극의 역사 속 미스터리를 푸는 것도 또 하나의 재미를 줄 것이다.

For Isaiah Berlin, there is a fundamental distinction in mankind: those who are fascinated by the infinite variety of things - foxes - and those who relate everything to a central all-embracing system - hedgehogs. It can be applied to the greatest creative minds: Dante, Ibsen and Proust are hedgehogs, while Shakespeare, Aristotle and Joyce are foxes. Yet when Berlin reaches the case of Tolstoy, he finds a fox by nature, but a hedgehog by conviction.

Delve into the satirical and thought-provoking world of "Christian Science" by Mark Twain, a collection of essays and writings that offer a humorous yet critical examination of Christian Science and its founder, Mary Baker Eddy. This audiobook presents Twain's signature wit and incisive commentary as he explores the tenets of Christian Science, its practices, and its impact on society.

Hear some of the greatest American essays ever written! This unabridged collection covers a multitude of subjects, including philosophy, politics, turkeys, and dogs.

In 1915, Puerto Rican activist Luisa Capetillo was arrested and acquitted for being the first woman to wear men's trousers publicly. While this act of gender-nonconforming rebellion elevated her to feminist icon status in modern pop culture, it also overshadowed the significant contributions she made to the women's movement and anarchist labor movements of the early 20th century - both in her native Puerto Rico and in the migrant labor belt in the eastern United States.

Confessions of a Book Lover was first published in 1922, and even though it is nearly a century old, it is a delightful rummage through a lifetime of reading. We have abbreviated the original with those sections we found most engaging.

Ob Kleinkindlyrik oder Nonsensklassiker, ob Lyrik-Parodien oder hehre Dichtkunst: Robert Gernhardt führt in seiner berühmten Poetikvorlesung durch die Höhen und Tiefen der Kunst, Gedichte zu schreiben. Und darin geht es zu, wie in jedem durchschnittlichen Haus: im Kinderzimmer sitzen Peter Rühmkorf und H. M. Enzensberger und spielen und singen.

This story is actually a daily account of a naturalist's years of observing and writing about zoological and insect life on her estate. It takes place in the late 1890s at The Grove, Stanmore, in England, Mrs. Brightwen's very beautiful and secluded estate. Here, there were woods and shrubberies, a lake, and a large garden that offered a field for Mrs. Brightwen's zoological and insect observations. It was not, however, until her 60th year that she began to be a writer.

In this brilliant collection, the follow-up to her New York Times best seller Reading Like a Writer, the distinguished novelist, literary critic, and essayist celebrates the pleasures of reading and pays homage to the works and writers she admires above all others. In an age defined by hyper-connectivity and constant stimulation, Francine Prose makes a compelling case for the solitary act of reading and the great enjoyment it brings. Inspiring and illuminating, What to Read and Why includes selections culled from Prose’s previous essays, reviews, and introductions.

Die schönsten Kurzgeschichten aus aller Welt. Kurz, knackig, auf den Punkt...

Wer Karl Kraus im Literaturbetrieb des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts kannte, verehrte oder verabscheute ihn - Gleichgültigkeit löste er jedenfalls nicht aus. Mit nur 25 Jahren gründete Kraus in Wien die Zeitschrift Die Fackel, mit der 1899 seine steile Karriere als Journalist und Kritiker, Dramatiker und Satiriker begann. Bis zu seinem Tod im Jahr 1936 galt er als scharfzüngigster Beobachter des kulturellen und politischen Zeitgeschehens. Seine Worte richteten sich gegen die Verlotterung der Sprache, gegen Phrasendrescher und Kriegstreiber, gegen Korruption und Heuchelei.

Washington Irving (1783-1859) was a short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat. The short story "The Devil and Tom Walker" is about a miserly man who makes a deal with the devil. Irving’s fictional character Diedrich Knickerbocker is a Dutch-American historian and narrator of "The Conspiracy of the Cocked Hats" and the “golden age” of Wouter van Twiller, the Dutch Governor of New Amsterdam.

Emerson's ideas are alive and well and very much with us today. Consider that Emerson, now an establishment figure, was a rebel in his time. He could find no relevance in established religion. But, unlike others, he set out to reform it. Many of his ideas now seem obvious and as American as apple pie.

In 1845 Henry David Thoreau, one of the principal New England Transcendentalists, left the town for the country. Beside the lake of Walden, he built himself a log cabin and returned to nature, to observe and reflect, while surviving on $8 a year. From this experience emerged one of the great classics of American literature, a deeply personal reaction against the commercialism and materialism that he saw as the main impulses of mid-19th century America.

Florence Farr was an actress, writer, and first-wave feminist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as an active member of the British occult community who regularly worked with her male counterparts in the fields of esoterica, being an initiate of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Collected here are seven of her magical essays: "Magic of a Symbol", "On the Play of the Image-Maker", "The Tetrad or Structure of the Mind", "Egyptian Use of Symbols", "The Philosophy Called Vedanta", "On the Kabbalah", and "The Rosicrucians and the Alchemists".

The work opens with Serenus asking Seneca for counsel, and this request for help takes the form of a medical consultation. Serenus explains that he feels agitated and in a state of unstable immobility, "As if I were on a boat that doesn't move forward and is tossed about." Seneca uses the dialogue to address an issue that cropped up many times in his life: the desire for a life of contemplation and the need for active political engagement. Seneca argues that the goal of a tranquil mind can be achieved by being flexible and seeking a middle way between the two extremes.