Book picks similar to
Translations from the Chinese, by Arthur Waley
poetry
china
non-fiction
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The Library of Greek Mythology
Apollodorus
Apollodorus' Library has been used as a source book by classicists from the time of its compilation in the 1st-2nd century AD to the present, influencing writers from antiquity to Robert Graves. It provides a complete history of Greek myth, telling the story of each of the great families of heroic mythology, and the various adventures associated with the main heroes and heroines, from Jason and Perseus to Heracles and Helen of Troy. As a primary source for Greek myth, as a reference work, and as an indication of how the Greeks themselves viewed their mythical traditions, the Library is indispensable to anyone who has an interest in classical mythology. Robin Hard's accessible and fluent translation is supplemented by comprehensive notes, a map and full genealogical tables. The introduction gives a detailed account of the Library's sources and situates it within the fascinating narrative traditions of Greek mythology.
Greek Tragedies, Volume 1: Aeschylus: Agamemnon, Prometheus Bound; Sophocles: Oedipus the King, Antigone; Euripides: Hippolytus
David Grene - 1960
Over the years these authoritative, critically acclaimed editions have been the preferred choice of more than three million readers for personal libraries and individual study as well as for classroom use.
Bali: Heaven and Hell
Phil Jarratt - 2014
Bali: Heaven and Hellis a tale begging to be told - a story of survival in the face of genocide, natural disaster, terrorism, cultural imperialism and corruption on a grand scale. Go behind the smiling face presented to generations of tourists and expats with Phil Jarratt, the award-winning author of over 20 books including Surfing Australia: A Complete History of Surfboard Riding in Australia and That Summer at Boomerang. Phil has first-hand experience of the glorious island at the morning of the world, having spent the past 40 years falling in and out of love with our favourite holiday destination.Jarratt weaves a page-turning story of treachery, deceit, debauchery and wholesale slaughter, set against the idyllic backdrop of a paradise on Earth, then cleverly segues into a modern-day tale of jaw-dropping surf, karma, sexual abandon, and a fusion of East and West that created the modern tourist hot spot.David Hill, Chairman, National Geographic Channels US
Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine, 1958-1962
Yang Jisheng - 2008
One of the greatest tragedies of the twentieth century, the famine is poorly understood, and in China is still euphemistically referred to as "the three years of natural disaster."As a journalist with privileged access to official and unofficial sources, Yang Jisheng spent twenty years piecing together the events that led to mass nationwide starvation, including the death of his own father. Finding no natural causes, Yang attributes responsibility for the deaths to China's totalitarian system and the refusal of officials at every level to value human life over ideology and self-interest.
The Complete Poems
Catullus
He is also a satirical and epigrammatic writer who savagely consoles with laughter. Carmina captures in English both the mordant, scathing wit and also the concise tenderness, the famous love for reluctant Lesbia who is made present in these new versions. A range of English metres and rhymes evoke the epigrammatic power of the many modes and moods of this most engaging, erotic and influential of the Latin poets. He left a mark on Horace, Virgil, Ovid and on the lyric and epigrammatic traditions of all the languages of Europe. Of Len Krisak's Horace translations, Frederic Raphael said, ‘[He] enables us both to enjoy a fresh voice and to hear (and see), very distinctly, what lies behind and within his unintimidated rescripts’. Again in Carmina he works his precise magic.
The Letters of the Younger Pliny
Pliny the Younger
This Penguin Classics edition is translated with an introduction by Betty Radice.A prominent lawyer and administrator, Pliny was also a prolific letter-writer, who numbered among his correspondents such eminent figures as Tacitus, Suetonius and the Emperor Trajan, as well as a wide circle of friends and family. His lively and very personal letters address an astonishing range of topics, from a deeply moving account of his uncle's death in the eruption that engulfed Pompeii, to observations on the early Christians - 'a desperate sort of cult carried to extravagant lengths' - from descriptions of everyday life in Rome, with its scandals and court cases, to Pliny's life in the country.Betty Radice's definitive edition was the forst complete modern translation of Pliny's letters. In her introduction she examines the shrewd, tolerant and occasionally pompous man who emerges from these letters.Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus (c. 61-113), better known as Pliny the Younger, and nephew of Pliny the Elder, was born in Como, Italy. Beginning his career at the bar when he was eighteen, Pliny managed to emerge unscathed from Domitian's 'reign of terror', even being appointed an official at the treasury. In 103 he was awarded a priesthood in recognition of his distinguished public service, and was prominent in several major prosecutions. His nine books of personal letters were selected by Pliny himself and published during his lifetime, while his official correspondence with Trajan was published as a tenth book after his death and contains a celebrated exchange of letters on the early Christians.If you enjoyed The Letters of the Younger Pliny, you might like Tacitus' The Annals of Imperial Rome, also available in Penguin Classics.
The Concubine's Daughter
Pai Kit Fai - 2009
Lotus Feet. He would give his daughter the dainty feet of a courtesan. This would enhance her beauty and her price, making her future shine like a new coin. He smiled to himself, pouring fresh tea. And it would stop her from running away…When the young concubine of an old farmer in rural China gives birth to a daughter called Li-Xia, or “Beautiful One,” the child seems destined to become a concubine herself. Li refuses to submit to her fate, outwitting her father’s orders to bind her feet and escaping the silk farm with an English sea captain. Li takes her first steps toward fulfilling her mother’s dreams of becoming a scholar — but her final triumph must be left to her daughter, Su Sing, “Little Star,” in a journey that will take her from remote mountain refuges to the perils of Hong Kong on the eve of World War II.
Madame Butterfly
Giacomo Puccini - 1904
Stationed in Nagasaki, Lieutenant Pinkerton acquires his wife as casually as his house -- both leased for 99 years, with the option to cancel at any time. After their honeymoon, Pinkerton departs, promising to return. But for three long years, Cho-Cho-San awaits, and when he finally does return, he brings his new American wife -- and finds he has a son by Cho-Cho-San. This picture book adaptation of the tragic libretto features haunting paintings that evoke the opera's exotic setting and emotional resonance, creating a captivating, cultured introduction for young readers.
Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō
Yoshida Kenkō
As Emperor Go-Daigo fended off a challenge from the usurping Hojo family, and Japan stood at the brink of a dark political era, Kenkō held fast to his Buddhist beliefs and took refuge in the pleasures of solitude. Written between 1330 and 1332, Essays in Idleness reflects the congenial priest's thoughts on a variety of subjects. His brief writings, some no more than a few sentences long and ranging in focus from politics and ethics to nature and mythology, mark the crystallization of a distinct Japanese principle: that beauty is to be celebrated, though it will ultimately perish. Through his appreciation of the world around him and his keen understanding of historical events, Kenkō conveys the essence of Buddhist philosophy and its subtle teachings for all readers. Insisting on the uncertainty of this world, Kenkō asks that we waste no time in following the way of Buddha.In this fresh edition, Donald Keene's critically acclaimed translation is joined by a new preface, in which Keene himself looks back at the ripples created by Kenkō's musings, especially for modern readers.
Six Centuries of Great Poetry: A Stunning Collection of Classic British Poems from Chaucer to Yeats
Robert Penn Warren - 1992
It is the finest anthology of lyric poetry ever published."Truth" by Geoffrey Chaucer"Ophelia's Song" by William Shakespeare"The Canonization" by John Donne"To Heaven" by Ben Jonson"Ode on Solitude" by Alexander Pope"The Tyger" by William Blake"The Solitary Reaper" by William Wordsworth"Ode to a Nightingale" by John Keats"God's Grandeur" by Gerard Manley Hopkins"Sailing to Byzantium" by William Butler Yeatsand more than ninety additional classic poems.
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume 2: The Romantic Period through the Twentieth Century
M.H. AbramsKatharine Eisaman Maus - 1962
Under the direction of Stephen Greenblatt, General Editor, the editors have reconsidered all aspects of the anthology to make it an even better teaching tool.
The Concubine's Children
Denise Chong - 1994
There’s Chan Sam, who left an "at home" wife in China to earn a living in "Gold Mountain"—North America. There’s May-ying, the wilful, seventeen-year-old concubine he bought, sight unseen, who labored in tea houses of west coast Chinatowns to support the family he would have in Canada, and the one he had in China. It was the concubine’s third daughter, the author’s mother, who unlocked the past for her daughter, whose curiosity about some old photographs ultimately reunited a family divided for most of the last century.
The Cloister and the Hearth
Charles Reade - 1861
The novel focuses on the story of a young scribe and illuminator named Gerard Eliason and his love for Margaret Brandt, daughter of a poor scholar. Interacting with them is a cast of vividly drawn characters and various historical personages. The overarching theme through all of their adventures is the conflict between man's obligations to family and to Church. Long considered a literary classic, it has been critically acclaimed as one of the greatest historical novels in English. Reade affected a medieval writing style and used much archaic language even for his nineteenth century readers.This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.