miserables exploration supernatural peloponnesian

books:

Lust for life: A novel of Vincent van Gogh (The Modern Library of the world's best books)

46 reviews
Irving Stone

The Modern library, 1962

Living for Lust
I should have read this biography sooner. I used to be in love with his paintings, and even fantasized that IF I were to travel back in time, I would've married him -- all this BEFORE I read this book. After I read it I found out that there was one such infatuated woman (Margot), and also a tragic unrequited love story that led him to religion and then to painting. Anyone who is creative will ...

I Will Bear Witness 1942-1945: A Diary of the Nazi Years

30 reviews
Victor Klemperer

Modern Library, 2001

The most compelling book I have ever read
Because my friends all know what a book-hound I am, people often ask me what my all-time favorite book is. Admittedly the answer to this would change over time, but, at present, "I Will Bear Witness" is the one that first pops into my mind. I found this very personal account of the days and nights of a German Jewish man--an inoffensive and formerly rather conservative German nationalist ...

Les Miserables (Modern Library)

43 reviews
Victor Hugo

Modern Library, 1992

We should be better for reading it...
... but this was the most popular book, read by soldiers, North and South, during our Civil War. We should be better for hearing democracy in Beethoven, piety in Bach, compassion in Mozart -- and perhaps we do, one person at a time, but I fear we are always running out of time. I read this book thirty years ago, over two winters, setting it down midway in March 1977 I believe. I had heard a ...

The Count of Monte Cristo (Modern Library)

382 reviews
Alexandre Dumas père

Modern Library, 1996

The 2nd best book ever!
except for the Bible, this is the best. It is the full and undiluted version from the first english translation. read it, learn it,live it. j

The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Modern Library Series)

63 reviews

Modern Library, 1993

The triumph of common sense
In an age when architects and planners were spouting all kinds of brave-new-world nonsense (or mindlessly absorbing it, or even worse - building it), Jacobs burst onto the scene with an incredible dose of sanity mixed with common sense and wisdom, carefully observing the urban environment and drawing a host of remarkably sensible conclusions. For some reason we architects seem always at risk of ...

Basic Writings of Nietzsche

34 reviews
Friedrich Nietzsche

Modern Library, 1977

Kaufmann Translations with all Footnotes
The Birth of Tragedy-75 Aphorism-Beyond Good and Evil-The Genealogy of Morals (3 Essays)-The Case of Wagner-Interpretations/commentaries A great collection, though a strange chronological leap from BOT to BGE. Right for the price and a great review of the later published books of FN. All of Kaufmann's footnotes are maintained. You'll at least want to have had read The Gay Science before coming ...

I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 1933-1941 (Modern Library Paperbacks)

46 reviews
Victor Klemperer

Modern Library, 1999

Heartbreaking and essential book
A must read for all those who are compelled to understand the insanity of Nazi Germany. The evil is in the details as these journals so devastatingly reveal. Sometimes necessary to read only a few pages at a time as the devastation and slowly increasing helplessness of this man's life is revealed. A critical historical document.

In Search of Lost Time, Vol. II: Within a Budding Grove (Modern Library Classics)

23 reviews
Marcel Proust

Modern Library, 1998

PROUST: NEED ONE SAY MORE?
This is a great copy of Vol. 2 of A la recherche du temps perdu [In Search of Lost Time] or [Delving into Things Past]. Each volume in the septrology may be read individually as an independent novel. This is, of course, the very best translation available in English; probably the very best that will ever be available in English: certainly the next best thing to reading the original French. ...

Stars in Their Courses : The Gettysburg Campaign, June-July 1863

37 reviews
Shelby Foote

Modern Library, 1994

A Perfect Balance
Shelby Foote's Stars in Their Courses provides the perfect balance to Bruce Catton's Gettysburg: The Final Fury. While Catton's history unfolds largly from the Union perspective, Foote walks the reader through the same battle from the Confederate perspective. I appreciate Foote's professional attitude. He is careful not to assign undue blame or indulge in excessive "what ifs". Instead he ...

The Killer Angels: A Novel of the Civil War (Modern Library)

18 reviews
Michael Shaara

Modern Library, 2004

The Three Days that Decided the War.
I had been always interested in Americas' Civil War and had read some excellent books on the subject such as A Brotherhood Of Valor: The Common Soldiers Of The Stonewall Brigade C S A And The Iron Brigade U S A, Through Blood and Fire at Gettysburg and Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (Oxford History of the United States) but "The Killer Angels" is a very special one. Late Michael ...

It Happened in Boston? (20th Century Rediscoveries)

18 reviews
Russell H. Greenan

Modern Library, 2003

Now You Get It ...
In spite of its literary brilliance and its narrative genius, there will be people who won't like Boston?. I don't say this as a lofty proclamation or to cast aspersions on those folks. Consider a five-star restaurant's most expensive and well-touted fresh salmon entree. It may, in fact, be a meal of the highest quality and finest ingredients, but, hey, some people just don't like fish. ...

The Brendan Voyage (Modern Library Exploration)

18 reviews
Tim Severin

Modern Library, 2000

A Great Adventure Story
Tim Severin has organised several voyages in part to prove that ancient peoples could travel far greater distances than previously thought. In this story he builds a traditional leather boat or 'curragh' to show that monks could have sailed from Ireland to Newfoundland around the seventh century. There is an ancient book called the 'Navagatio' (one old copy is in the British Library) which St ...

The Peloponnesian war (Modern library college editions)

14 reviews
Thucydides

Modern Library, 1951

Get the Real Story
No book has kept me up at night or occupied my thoughts in the past decade more than Thucydides. The story told here is stunningly and disturbingly relevant for any American. Sparta vs Athens seems an allegory for the conflict between traditional America, of our first hundred years or so, and modern, progressive America from about 1900 onward. Its no allegory of course, and the realization ...

In Search of Lost Time: Proust 6-pack (Proust Complete)

14 reviews
Marcel Proust

Modern Library, 2003

On reading Proust.
I've just finished reading The Search for Lost Time and I'd like to share a few thoughts. First, commit to reading the whole thing, all seven volumes, all million+ words. However if the commitment frightens you (as it should) first read Swann's Love, the middle part of the first volume. Second, if you commit don't be afraid to take a break and leave the book aside. I began reading it ...

At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America (Modern Library Paperbacks)

21 reviews
Philip Dray

Modern Library, 2003

One word - outstanding.
Quite possibly the best, most well-researched book I've ever read. A smooth read, impeccable use of historical sources, and a clear narrative account of the most tragic era in American history. For scholars who research or teach in the area of social control, legal, and extra-legal punishment, you *cannot* have a full grasp of the topic unless you read Dray's work. A fine work of history...the ...

Great tales of terror and the supernatural

22 reviews
Herbert Alvin Wise

Modern Library, 1972

Essential -- the roots of modern short horror fiction
This book is, quite simply, the best collection of 19th and early-20th century short fiction of the dark variety in existence. First published in the 1940s, this single (albeit fat) volume is a goldmine of the roots of modern horror, a great way to see where today's horror heavyweights got their inspiration and influence. Some authors whose stories appear within: Bierce, Blackwood, Dickens, ...

Topper (Modern Library)

16 reviews
Thorne Smith

Modern Library, 1999

A Humour Standard
'Topper' is best known perhaps from the Cary Grant movie version. It's a good movie but I like the book even better. The characters delight, particularly in terms of Cosmo's retaining his decorum, in the warmth of Marion's dead-but-still-sexy presence. Anyone who enjoys humourous novels has to put this one on their reading list. Few recent humour novels are as funny as this classic from decades ...

The Collected Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe

14 reviews
Edgar Allan Poe

Modern Library, 1977

Fantastic Poe!
Poe is one of the best horror writers ever to have lived. I have read all of his works. Some of his best stories are The Fall of the House of Usher, The Masque of Red Death, The Black Cat, The Cask of Amontaiado, The Pit and the Pendelum, and The Tell-Tale Heart. His great poems include-The Raven and The Bells. Poe is a fantastic author, and his creepy tales of the dark side of life should be ...

Lost Illusions

16 reviews
HonorÃ© de Balzac

Modern Library, 1985

Balzac at his best
I love Balzac. At his best he soars above the rest of French literature and here he is definitely at his finest. Easy to see why Proust thought him the best, at his best. Vautrin/Collyn is at his most sinister and attractive. If you haven't read Balzac before, this is the best to start with.

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