Best of
Literature

1918

The Collected Poems of Wilfred Owen


Wilfred Owen - 1918
    By the time Owen was killed at the age of 25 at the Battle of Sambre, he had written what are considered to be the most important British poems of WWI. This definitive edition is based on manuscripts of Owen's papers in the British Museum and other archives.

Selected Poems


Alexandr Blok - 1918
    Trotsky wrote, `Certainly Blok is not one of us, but he came towards us. And that is what broke him.' Pasternak said, `He is as free as the wind.'

Hell Screen


Ryūnosuke Akutagawa - 1918
    Shaw

The Madman


Kahlil Gibran - 1918
    

The Spider's Thread


Ryūnosuke Akutagawa - 1918
    

The Last Days of Mankind


Karl Kraus - 1918
    Kraus began to write the play in 1915 and first published it as a series of special Fackel issues in 1919. Its epilogue, "Die letzte Nacht" ("The last night") had already been published in 1918 as a special issue.This edition was abridged and edited by Frederick Ungar. It contains an introduction by the editor and critical analysis by Franz H. Mautner.

The Penal Colony and Other Stories


Franz Kafka - 1918
    First published in 1948 by Schocken Books, this volume includes all the works Kafka intended for publication, and published during his lifetime (the only exception in The Stoker which serves as a first chapter for the novel Amerika). It also includes critical pieces by Kafka, "The First Long Train Journey" by Kafka and Brod (which was initially intended to be the first chapter of a book), and an Epilogue by Brod. This collection was translated by Willa and Edwin Muir.

The Children's Homer: The Adventures of Odysseus and the Tale of Troy


Padraic Colum - 1918
    And join Odysseus on his journey through murky waters, facing obstacles like the terrifying Scylla and whirring Charybdis, the beautiful enchantress Circe, and the land of the raging Cyclôpes. Using narrative threads from The Iliad and The Odyssey, Padraic Colum weaves a stunning adventure with all the drama and power that Homer intended.

The Story of Rolf & the Viking Bow


Allen French - 1918
    The book is set in Iceland in the days when Christianity has come to the island though the old customs still linger. Hiarandi, at the urging of his wife, does an unprecedented thing. He lights a signal fire on a dangerous point of his land, thereby challenging the accepted custom which places lucrative salvage at higher value than the saving of life. However, the life that is saved that night, in the end, causes his own death and the unjust outlawing of his son Rolf. Rolf's response to this injustice creates a suspenseful, thought-provoking tale difficult to put down. Ages 10 and up.

The Fugitive


Rabindranath Tagore - 1918
    He developed a following for his work in Bengali, but he became a worldwide sensation after the English translation of his poem Gitanjali caught the attention of W.B. Yeats. He toured the world and became known for his spiritual and artistic presence and global views that bridged the East and West. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913, the first non-Western writer to achieve such an honor. In addition to poetry, Tagore also wrote short stories, plays, novels, and essays, and many of his paintings hang in museums. He also founded a school, Visva Bharati, which combined Hindu and Western influences. Tagore loved music, and two of his songs became the national anthems for India and Bangladesh. The Fugitive is one example of his artistic powers: We came hither together, friend, and now at the cross-roads I stop to bid you farewell. Your path is wide and straight before you, but my call comes up by ways from the unknown. I shall follow wind and cloud; I shall follow the stars to where day breaks behind the hills; I shall follow lovers who, as they walk, twine their days into a wreath on a single thread of song, "I love."

Far Away and Long Ago


William H. Hudson - 1918
    For at some period of a man's life; at all events of some lives; in some rare state of the mind, it is all at once revealed to him as by a miracle that nothing is ever blotted out.

Short Stories


Theodore Dreiser - 1918
    Sherwood Anderson, introducing a collection of Dreiser stories, said of him: "If there is a modern movement in American prose writing, a movement toward greater courage and fidelity to life in writing, then Theodore Dreiser is the pioneer and the hero of the movement." Indeed, his bold example paved the way for a new generation of American writers.The five superb stories in this volume vividly attest to the sincerity and depth of Dreiser's gifts as a powerful and original storyteller. They are "Free," the story of a man trying, as his wife lies dying, to understand why he never found happiness in marriage; "The Second Choice" and "Married," two insightful tales of the complex relationships of men and women; "Nigger Jeff," a powerful, disturbing story of a lynching; and "The Lost Phœbe," a poignant tale of a man's search for a lost life partner.

The Man Who Lost Himself


Henry de Vere Stacpoole - 1918
    It should have only taken one week to secure the contract for his fledging business, but a different company won the bid. Victor has less than ten pounds in his pocket, he owes money to the hotel and he has no idea how he will pay for his return passage to the United States. Desperate and clueless he accidently meets his double in a crowded Hotel lounge. His lookalike, Mr. Rochester, gets him drunk and the next thing he knows is waking up in a posh bedroom and being called the Earl of Rochester. At first he thinks it is a practical joke and he plays along. But when the morning newspaper arrives, and he learns that the real Mr. Rochester has found dead under the name Victor Jones, things become interesting.

The Book of Words


Abay Qunanbayuli - 1918
    Abay's major work is The Book of Words (Kazakh: Қара Сөздер), a philosophic treatise and collection of poems where he encourages his fellow Kazakhs to embrace education, literacy, and good moral character in order to escape poverty, enslavement and corruption.

A MADMAN'S DIARY


Lu Xun - 1918
    It was one of the first and most influential modern works written in vernacular Chinese and would become a cornerstone of the New Culture Movement. It is the first story in Call to Arms, a collection of short stories by Lu Xun. The story was often referred to as "China's first modern short story".This book was selected as one of the 100 best books in history by the Bokklubben World Library. The diary form was inspired by Nikolai Gogol's short story "Diary of a Madman, " as was the idea of the madman who sees reality more clearly than those around him. The "madman" sees "cannibalism" both in his family and the village around him, and he then finds cannibalism in the Confucian classics which had long been credited with a humanistic concern for the mutual obligations of society, and thus for the superiority of Confucian civilization. The story was read as an ironic attack on traditional Chinese culture and a call for a New Culture.

A Madman's Diary 狂人日記


Lu Xun - 1918
    This short story is one of the first and most influential modern works written in vernacular Chinese and would become a cornerstone of the New Culture Movement. The story was often referred to as "China's first modern short story". This book is selected as one of The 100 Best Books of All Time. The diary form was inspired by Nikolai Gogol's short story "Diary of a Madman, " as was the idea of the madman who sees reality more clearly than those around him. The "madman" sees "cannibalism" both in his family and the village around him, and he then finds cannibalism in the Confucian classics which had long been credited with a humanistic concern for the mutual obligations of society, and thus for the superiority of Confucian civilization. The story was read as an ironic attack on traditional Chinese culture and a call for a New Culture.