New Classics

Aristotle's Poetics is best known for its definitions and analyses of tragedy and comedy, but it also applies to truth and beauty as they are manifested in the other arts. In our age, when the natural and social sciences have dominated the quest for truth, it is helpful to consider why Aristotle claimed poetry is more philosophical and more significant than history. Like so many other works by Aristotle, the Poetics has dominated the way we have thought about all forms of dramatic performance in Europe and America ever since.

In his inspiring book, Believe in Yourself, Dr. Joseph Murphy shows you can make your life more rewarding and productive simply by embracing the power of believing. As you repeat the word success to yourself and do it with faith and conviction, your subconscious mind will accept it and you will find the success you seek. In Believe in Yourself, Murphy shows you the science of imagination in a vivid, intensely practical way as he illustrates his points with wonderful stories about how inventors, writers, artists, and entrepreneurs have used this power to reach the heights.

Miyamoto Musashi was a Japanese swordsman and ronin (masterless samurai). Musashi died in 1645 of what was most likely thoracic cancer. He remained undefeated, having fought 61 duels. His work "The Book of Five Rings" is a treatise on his unique style of swordsmanship. Musashi also practiced other arts such as painting, poetry, and carpentry, and believed to be profoundly releated at the level of mastery.

A towering figure in the pantheon of twentieth-century literature, Thomas Mann has often been perceived as a dry and forbidding writer—"the starched collar," as Bertolt Brecht once called him. But in fact, his fiction is lively, humane, sometimes hilarious. In these fresh renderings of his best short work, award-winning translator Damion Searls casts new light on this underappreciated aspect of Mann's genius.

This insightful look into one of mankind's favorite artists traces the magic and melancholy of Vincent Van Gogh. Out of Vincent's letters to his brother Theo, as collected by Irving Stone, we have selected an exciting and sensitive series of quotations. The quotations in My Life and Love Are One revolve around three themes - love, art, and turmoil. Centered around emotion and creation, Vincent's writing and philosophy is as expressive as his art.

'Classic Politics' is written in free verse poetry. It describes the changes in political models from a natural and existential model of politics to a totalitarian and duplicitous model of politics. Through strategies of reductionism the grandmasters can control the 'economic will' over the 'common will' and therefore the monies and resources of the land over the people through Legalism and authoritarianism. Each model of classical politics shows their own rules of representation. The World model is defined in this book.

Originally published in 1903, this classic masterpiece, written as a series of thoughtful essays, reflects the central truth which is the foundation of all modern success works: “As we think, so we become.” This fundamental truth, which some have called "The Secret" or the "Law of Attraction", was clearly and convincingly argued for the first time in James Allen's masterpiece, As a Man Thinketh. Allen reveals how our thoughts shape our character, and manifest themselves in our finances, health, appearance, and environment.

From the Introduction: The hand of eternal progress is brushing the cobwebs from the corridors of time and is again revealing to the human race the mysteries of being. As there is "nothing new under the sun", the searchlight of Truth is bringing to light only what has been known to the few in all generations. The time has now come when the few must become the many. The whole world, from the least to the greatest, must know the Truth, so that man may understand the great laws that govern his life.

The origins, history and authorship of Beowulf are shrouded in uncertainty. This heroic epic probably began, as most do, with a wandering troubadour strumming a stringed instrument, sitting before a hearth-fire, and singing the verses to a spellbound audience arrayed before him. Beowulf is a rousing adventure story, filled with intrepid heroes, monsters and fire-breathing dragons, which can be listened to for the sheer enjoyment of the tale.

We are all classicists - we come into touch with the classics on a daily basis: in our culture, politics, medicine, architecture, language, and literature. What are the true roots of these influences, however, and how do our interpretations of these aspects of the classics differ from their original reality?

Something has awakened in the land of Tul. In this third installment of the Moonrise saga, characters new and familiar collide in the aftermath of the great Crucible disaster that has pushed the northern realms to the brink of chaos. A mutineered ship captain finds a desperate woman lost at sea. An incognito Wolf sentinel reunites with an old friend. A tribune uncovers a dark and insidious plot pointing to the very top of the Ehlronian military. And an Eskan noblewoman navigates the Diamond Court and the dark politics lurking therein. The pieces are moving and the board will soon be set. ...

Written in alternating prose and poetry, La Vita Nuova is a profound reflection on the nature of love, devoted to Dante's muse Beatrice. Following Beatrice's death in 1290, Dante became obsessed with the young Florentine woman, whom he only ever knew from a distance. He believed his love for her was a form of divine love and saw her as an image of salvation itself - a theme that is later explored in his masterpiece The Divine Comedy, where she guides him through heaven.

Emily is growing up as a talented, unique person with great insight, wit, and imagination, and conveying it in poetry and her diary.

Prince Myshkin returns to Russia from an asylum in Switzerland. As he becomes embroiled in the frantic amatory and financial intrigues that center around a cast of brilliantly realized characters and that ultimately lead to tragedy, he emerges as a unique combination of the Christian ideal of perfection and Dostoevsky's own views, afflictions, and manners. His serene selflessness is contrasted with the worldly qualities of every other character in the novel.

Love breaks all the rules. Even those of the afterlife. Adele Monroe, recently widowed, loves her new home by the sea. At least until the overbearing, cantankerous spirit of the home’s former owner, a sea captain, makes himself known. The two must set a course for peaceful cohabitation, and Adele soon finds herself caring deeply for the unseen mariner. But how long can she carry on this association before the demands of the living force her to choose between life as she knows it and something far more mysterious? A retelling of R.A. Dick’s timeless classic, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, this...

Composed around 1294 in Italian, the Vita Nuova tells the story of Dante's encounters with and love for Beatrice, culminating in her early death and its effect upon him. Utilizing and developing the conventions of courtly love, in a mixture of prose and verse, Dante deepens the emotional content of the genre, while pointing the way towards the intellectual and spiritual journey of the Divine Comedy.

It was now just five short years after George Bailey had his first miraculous meeting with a saving angel in Bedford Falls, and a new Bailey had come into town with his own great challenge that needed a miraculous solution! It was a wonderful life indeed when John Bailey and Anabelle Smith first came to be that otherwise perfect “match made in Heaven” shortly after they first met at the traditional New Year’s Eve Dance of Bedford Falls. It seemed so perfect, when Anabelle tragically died, and then far more surprisingly returned on that very next Christmas saying that she had come back...

In From Ritual to Romance, medievalist Jessie L. Weston proposes a radical understanding of the Holy Grail legends. She argues that ancient pagan rituals, brought to England by the Romans, were secretly kept alive through the tales of King Arthur and his Knights.

Ralph Waldo Trine’s In Tune with the Infinite is one of the most significant works of mind power ever published. When the book first appeared in 1897, few Americans had heard terms like law of attraction, higher power, or positive thinking - Trine introduced these themes and others into mainstream life, teaching millions how to tap the creative faculties of higher thought. Now, historian Mitch Horowitz condenses and reintroduces Trine’s masterwork for a new generation.

I never thought I'd be the kind of guy to obsess over a woman, but then I saw her behind the candy shop counter. Her bright blonde hair, sparkling blue eyes, and bubbly personality make everyone around her smile. I know she’s out of my league, but I can't help myself. So, I start watching her every move. I guess you could say I’m stalking her. But I can’t help it because Emily is my obsession, and somehow I’ve got to make her mine.