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The Tragedy of Julius Caesar is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1599.

Macbeth is a tragedy by William Shakespeare; it is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power for its own sake.

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is a play by William Shakespeare. Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatizes the revenge Prince Hamlet exacts on his uncle Claudius for murdering King Hamlet, Claudius’s brother and Prince Hamlet’s father, and then succeeding to the throne and taking as his wife Gertrude, the old king’s widow and Prince Hamlet’s mother. The play vividly portrays both true and feigned madness – from overwhelming grief to seething rage and explores themes of treachery, revenge, and moral corruption. William Shakespeare (circa 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon.” His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

First published in the year 1894, noted American writer Mark Twain’s novel ‘The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson’ is set in the fictional Missouri frontier town of Dawson’s Landing on the banks of the Mississippi River in the first half of the 19th century.

Chor. Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life;
Whose misadventur’d piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love,
And the continuance of their parents’ rage,
Which, but their children’s end, naught could remove,
Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus’ is an Elizabethan tragedy by Christopher Marlowe, based on German stories about the title character Faust. It was first performed sometime between 1588 and Marlowe’s death in 1593. The powerful effect of early productions of the play is indicated by the legends that quickly accrued around them—that actual devils once appeared on the stage during a performance, “to the great amazement of both the actors and spectators”, a sight that was said to have driven some spectators mad.

The She-rab Dong-bu is an ethical treatise written by Nargarjuna. Although he is celebrated as one of the most subtle thinkers that Buddhism, and indeed the world, has ever produced, this work is fairly simple and intended for a broad audience. Particularly striking is the nearly rabid misogyny, a feature fully in keeping with the time and place of composition, but one that we might wish not to see in the writing of the grand formulator of the Madhyamika School of philosophy.

For encouraging the making of this book I am particularly grateful to Dr. John S. Owen, director of the Tanzania National Park, whose vision and dedication in a crucial time helped to save African wildlife for the future.
I thank Martha Gellhorn and Truman Capote for recommending me so generously to Dr. Owen, and also William Shawn of The New Yorker magazine for the unfailing support that has made my travels possible for years.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton was an English writer, philosopher, lay theologian, and literary and art critic.

“What’s your name?”

“Diggory Trevanock.”

The whole class exploded.

“Now, then,” said Mr. Blake, looking up from his mark-book with a broad grin on his own face—”now, then, there’s nothing to laugh at.—Look here,” he added, turning to the new boy, “how d’you spell it?”

Instead of being at all annoyed or disconcerted at the mirth of his class-mates, the youngster seemed rather to enjoy the joke, and immediately rattled out a semi-humorous reply to the master’s question,—

“D I G, dig; G O R Y, gory—Diggory: T R E, tre; VAN, van; O C K, ock—Trevanock.” Then turning round, he smiled complacently at the occupants of the desks behind, as much as to say: “There, I’ve done all I can to amuse you, and I hope you’re satisfied.”

Judged by common standards, the Troädes is far from a perfect play; it is scarcely even a good play. It is an intense study of one great situation, with little plot, little construction, little or no relief or variety. The only movement of the drama is a gradual extinguishing of all the familiar lights of human life, with, perhaps, at the end, a suggestion that in the utterness of night, when all fears of a possible worse thing are passed, there is in some sense peace and even glory. But the situation itself has at least this dramatic value, that it is different from what it seems.

Near Rattlesnake Creek, on the side of a little draw stood Canute’s shanty. North, east, south, stretched the level Nebraska plain of long rust-red grass that undulated constantly in the wind. To the west the ground was broken and rough, and a narrow strip of timber wound along the turbid, muddy little stream that had scarcely ambition enough to crawl over its black bottom. If it had not been for the few stunted cottonwoods and elms that grew along its banks, Canute would have shot himself years ago. The Norwegians are a timber-loving people, and if there is even a turtle pond with a few plum bushes around it they seem irresistibly drawn toward it.

The Turn of the Screw’, first published in 1898, is a novella written by Henry James, who was considered a master of creating best psychological fiction. It is a gothic novel, work of great horror, by one of the most acclaimed authors of the modern European literature.

It is a strong proof of the diffusive tendency of every thing in this country, that America never yet collected a fleet. Nothing is wanting to this display of power but the will. But a fleet requires only one commander, and a feeling is fast spreading in the country that we ought to be all commanders; unless the spirit of unconstitutional innovation, and usurpation, that is now so prevalent, at Washington, be controlled, we may expect to hear of proposals to send a committee of Congress to sea, in command of a squadron. We sincerely hope that their first experiment may be made on the coast of Africa.

Francesca Bassington sat in the drawing-room of her house in Blue Street, W., regaling herself and her estimable brother Henry with China tea and small cress sandwiches. The meal was of that elegant proportion which, while ministering sympathetically to the desires of the moment, is happily reminiscent of a satisfactory luncheon and blessedly expectant of an elaborate dinner to come.

In her younger days Francesca had been known as the beautiful Miss Greech; at forty, although much of the original beauty remained, she was just dear Francesca Bassington. No one would have dreamed of calling her sweet, but a good many people who scarcely knew her were punctilious about putting in the “dear.”

“…One day, while visiting a Buddhist convent on my route, I learned from a chief lama, that there existed in the archives of Lhassa, very ancient memoirs relating to the life of Jesus Christ and the occidental nations, and that certain great monasteries possessed old copies and translations of those chronicles. As it was little probable that I should make another journey into this country, I resolved to put off my return to Europe until a later date, and, cost what it might, either find those copies in the great convents or go to Lhassa–a journey which is far from being so dangerous and difficult as is generally supposed, involving only such perils as I was already accustomed to, and which would not make me hesitate at attempting it…” – An excerpt from the book

The Unseen Hand’ is a novel written in 1881 by American Congregationalist minister, lecturer and author of popular boy’s adventure books, Elijah Kellogg.
A vast majority of the noblest intellects of the race have ever held to the idea that,—“There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough hew them how we will.” By its influence they have been both consoled and strengthened under the pressures and in the exigencies of life. This principle, to a singular degree, assumes both form and development in the story of James Renfew, the Redemptioner.

t was early spring, the maples were but budding, the birds newly come and restless, the sky more gray than blue, and the air still sharp with a tang of frost. Jamestown’s streets, however, looked both bright and busy.
Groups of children went to school, hurrying out to the street, and looking this way and that for a companion. A mother came to a gate with a little girl, and pointing now to right, now to left, seemed to give her directions which way to go. The little girl started bravely. She wore a pink cap, and carried a new school-bag. “Hurry on!” a girl called to her, and she advanced uncertainly. A hesitating dignity born of the new school-bag forbade a decided run; her friend’s haste forbade her to linger. They met and passed on together.
An old man, with ophthalmia, feeling his way with a stick and muttering to himself with loose lips, went by. Two brothers crossed the street together, one swinging along easily, smoking a pipe, and carrying an axe over his shoulder; the other advancing with that spasmodic appearance of haste which seems the only gait to which crutches can be compelled.

The Valley of Fear’ is the fourth and final Sherlock Holmes novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is loosely based on the characters Molly Maguires and Pinkerton agent James McParland.

The present novel ‘The Valley of Silent Men’ by the famous American action-adventure writer and conservationist James Oliver Curwood was first published in the year 1920.

The present children’s novel ‘The Valley of the Moon’ by Jack London was first published in the year 1913. The valley where it is set is located north of the San Francisco Bay Area in Sonoma County, California where Jack London was a resident; he built his ranch in Glen Ellen.

My thanks for help in writing these lectures are due to Edwin D. Starbuck, of Stanford University, who made over to me his large collection of manuscript material; to Henry W. Rankin, of East Northfield, a friend unseen but proved, to whom I owe precious information; to Theodore Flournoy, of Geneva, to Canning Schiller, of Oxford, and to my colleague Benjamin Rand, for documents; to my colleague Dickinson S. Miller, and to my friends, Thomas Wren Ward, of New York, and Wincenty Lutoslawski, late of Cracow, for important suggestions and advice. Finally, to conversations with the lamented Thomas Davidson and to the use of his books, at Glenmore, above Keene Valley, I owe more obligations than I can well express.

First published in the year 1922, famous English writer Margery Williams Bianco’s book ‘The Velveteen Rabbit’ is a fully illustrated children’s book which chronicles the story of a stuffed rabbit and his desire to become real, through the love of his owner.

One of Susan Glaspell’s most popular plays, and one of the first works of American expressionist theatrical art.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton was an English writer, philosopher, lay theologian, and literary and art critic.

In The Victorious Attitude Marden explains that we need a good attitude to be successful in any endeavor. Controlling our mind and our thoughts is the key to success. We must remember that we all have to undergo challenges and obstacles on our path.

It was towards the end of a very hot summer, and all the human population of that crowded square of the great city had spent the first half of the night in the streets. Either that, or in leaning halfway out of their windows to get a breath of fresh air.

Now that sunrise was again so near at hand, however, and the breeze from the sea had done so much to make the world more comfortable to live in, the closely-built “hotels” and tenement houses were all asleep.

The former were mostly of the sort that sell lager beer and other things in the basement, and the latter were just the kind of places in which men and women ought not to live.

First published in the year 1859, the present historical novel ‘The Virginians’ by William Thackeray tells the story of Henry Esmond’s twin grandsons, George and Henry Warrington. Henry’s romantic entanglements with an older woman lead up to his taking a commission in the British army and fighting under the command of General Wolfe at the capture of Quebec. On the outbreak of the American War of Independence he takes the revolutionary side. George, who is also a British officer, thereupon resigns his commission rather than take up arms against his brother. (courtesy: wikipedia)

The Visioning, Susan Glaspell’s second novel, tells about Katie Jones, a young woman who lives in the comfortable world she knows with a charming circle of friends.

In “The New Revelation” the first dawn of the coming change has been described. In “The Vital Message” the sun has risen higher, and one sees more clearly and broadly what our new relations with the Unseen may be. As I look into the future of the human race I am reminded of how once, from amid the bleak chaos of rock and snow at the head of an Alpine pass, I looked down upon the far stretching view of Lombardy, shimmering in the sunshine and extending in one splendid panorama of blue lakes and green rolling hills until it melted into the golden haze which draped the far horizon. Such a promised land is at our very feet which, when we attain it, will make our present civilisation seem barren and uncouth. Already our vanguard is well over the pass. Nothing can now prevent us from reaching that wonderful land which stretches so clearly before those eyes which are opened to see it.