Here Petronius brilliantly brings to life the courtesans, legacy-hunters, pompous professors and dissolute priestesses of the age and, above all, Trimalchio, the archetypal self-made millionaire whose pretentious vulgarity on an insanely grand scale makes him one of the great comic characters in literature. Seneca's The Apocolocyntosis, a malicious skit on the deification of Claudius the Clod', was designed by the author to ingratiate himself with Nero, who was Claudius' successor. Together, the two provide a powerful insight into a darkly fascinating period of Roman history.For this edition Professor Sullivan has updated his translation & his literary & historical introductions in the light of the latest research. He's included all Petronius' surviving verse.Petroneus:Introduction --The authorship and date of The Satyricon --The extent of the work and the plot --The literary qualities of the Satyricon --On the text and translation --The Satyricon --Puteoli --Dinner with Trimalchio --Eumolpus --The road to Croton --Croton --The fragments and the poems --List of characters --Notes on the Satyricon --Notes on the fragments and poems --Seneca:Introduction --The authorship and date of the Apocolocyntosis --The place of the work in Seneca's writings --The literary qualities of the Apocolocyntosis --On the text and translation --The Apocolocyntosis of the divine Claudius --Notes on the Apocolocyntosis

    Homer's poems occupy, as Adam Nicolson writes "a third space" in the way we relate to the past: not as memory, which lasts no more than three generations, nor as the objective accounts of history, but as epic, invented after memory but before history, poetry which aims "to bind the wounds that time inflicts."The Homeric poems are among the oldest stories we have, drawing on deep roots in the Eurasian steppes beyond the Black Sea, but emerging at a time around 2000 B.C. when the people who would become the Greeks came south and both clashed and fused with the more sophisticated inhabitants of the Eastern Mediterranean.The poems, which ask the eternal questions about the individual and the community, honor and service, love and war, tell us how we became who we are.

    In this volume, Kreeft uses three Socratic dialogues to introduce students to philosophy, especially Plato's Apology, which Kreeft calls the "Magna Carta of philosophy."

    In the spring of 399 BCE, Socrates stood trial in his native Athens. The court was packed, and after being found guilty by his peers, Socrates died by drinking a cup of the poison hemlock, a defining moment in ancient civilization. Yet time has transmuted the facts into a fable. Aware of these myths, Robin Waterfield has examined the actual Greek sources and presents a new Socrates, not an atheist or the guru of a weird sect, but a deeply moral thinker whose convictions stood in stark relief to those of his former disciple, Alcibiades, the hawkish and self-serving military leader. Refusing to surrender his beliefs even in the face of death, Socrates, as Waterfield reveals, was determined to save a country that was tearing itself apart, one in moral decline. Why Socrates Died is not only a powerful revisionist book but also a work whose insights translate clearly from ancient Athens to modern America.

    Taking his own spiritual journey as a starting point, Professor Ayoub explores all aspects of Islam; from the Qur'an and Islamic law to the epic poetry of the Sufis; from the spread of Islam worldwide to reform movements in the US and Europe.

    56-ca. 120) became an orator, married in 77 Julius Agricola's daughter before Agricola went to Britain, was quaestor in 81 or 82, a senator under the Flavians & a praetor in 88. After four years' absence he experienced the terrors of Domitian's last years & turned to historical writing. He was a consul in 97. Close friend of the younger Pliny, they successfully prosecuted Marius Priscus. Works: (i) Life & Character of Agricola, written 97/8, interesting because of Agricola's career in Britain. (ii) Germania (98/9), an important description of the geography, anthropology, products, institutions, social life of the German tribes as known to the Romans. (iii) Dialogue on Oratory of unknown date; a lively conversation about the decline of oratory & education. (iv) Histories (probably issued in parts from 105 onwards), a work originally consisting of at least 12 books covering the period 69-96, but only I-IV & part of V survive, dealing in detail with the dramatic years 69-70. (v) Annals, originally covering the period 14-68 (Tiberius, Gaius, Claudius, Nero) & published between 115-ca. 120. Of at least 16 books, there survive I-IV (covering 14-28); a bit of V & all VI (31-37); part of XI (from 47); XII-XV & part of XVI (to 66). Tacitus is renowned for his development of a pregnant concise style, character study & psychological analysis, & for the often terrible story which he brilliantly tells. As a historian of the early Roman empire he is paramount. The Loeb Classical Library edition is in five volumes.

    A biography of the Afro-American scientist whose agricultural research revolutionized the economy of the South.

    This American celebrity married the prince of Monaco at the age of 26 and left Hollywood behind to become a monarch. Who was Grace Kelly? Was she an American icon? Was she the much-needed life support of an antiquated royal family? Was she just a trendsetter who got lucky or was the character of Grace Kelly something that biographers, historians, and paparazzi all missed entirely? Conspiracy theorists and gossip column veterans seemed to have had a field day ever since Kelly's car ran off the side of a cliff and led to her untimely demise. But greater than any Hollywood cliff-hanger, the life of Grace Kelly demands our attention and respect. Inside you will read about... - Early Modeling Career - Parental Problems - Work with Hitchcock - To Catch a Prince - Princess or Prisoner And much more! So, let us move beyond the many years of hype and hyperbole. Come along with us as we explore the true-life story of an American princess; come along with us as we come to grips with the life of Grace Kelly.

    But how about Alex Rodriguez, Jeter's teammate, former American League MVP, and probable future Hall of Famer? Many would argue he's even better than Jeter. And what about Jeter's seemingly unassailable status as one of the greatest Yankees of all time? Such discussions highlight one of the great joys of being a baseball fan: arguing over who's really great and who falls just short, who doesn't get the respect he deserves and who gets too much. In other words, who's overrated and who's underrated. In The Stark Truth, baseball analyst, writer, and researcher Jayson Stark of ESPN considers the entire history of professional baseball and picks the most overblown and underappreciated players in the history of the game. His results, based on extensive research using both traditional and more modern methods of evaluating baseball players and performance, are provocative, entertaining, and go a long way toward settling many of baseball's most persistent debates. No book can hope to settle every baseball argument, but The Stark Truth: The Most Overrated and Underrated Players in Baseball History takes one of baseball's most enduring debates and provides some compelling and stunning clarity.

    Socrates was undeniably one of the greatest thinkers of all time, yet he wrote nothing. Throughout his life, and indeed until his very last moment alive, Socrates fully embodied his philosophy in thought and deed. It is through the story of his life that we can fully grasp his powerful actions and ideas.In his highly acclaimed style, historian Paul Johnson masterfully disentangles centuries of scarce sources to offer a riveting account of a homely but charismatic middle-class man living in Athens in the fifth century b.c., and how what this man thought still shapes the way we decide how to act, and how we fathom the notion of body and soul. Johnson provides a compelling picture of the city and people Socrates reciprocally delighted in, as well as many enlightening and intimate analyses of specific aspects of his personality. Enchantingly portraying "the sheer power of Socrates's mind, and its unique combination of steel, subtlety, and frivolity," Paul Johnson captures the vast and intriguing life of a man who did nothing less than supply the basic apparatus of the human mind.

    In "Reminiscences," the first of five pieces, she focuses on the death of her mother, "the greatest disaster that could happen," and its effect on her father, the demanding Victorian patriarch. Three of the papers were composed to be read to the Memoir Club, a postwar regrouping of Bloomsbury, which exacted absolute candor of its members."A Sketch of the Past" is the longest and most significant of the pieces, giving an account of Virginia Woolf's early years in the family household at 22 Hyde Park Gate. A recently discovered manuscript belonging to this memoir has provided material that further illuminates her relationship to her father, Leslie Stephen, who played a crucial role in her development as an individual and as a writer.

    Hollingdale with an introduction by Michael Tanner in Penguin Classics.Beyond Good and Evil confirmed Nietzsche's position as the towering European philosopher of his age. The work dramatically rejects the tradition of Western thought with its notions of truth and God, good and evil. Nietzsche demonstrates that the Christian world is steeped in a false piety and infected with a 'slave morality'. With wit and energy, he turns from this critique to a philosophy that celebrates the present and demands that the individual imposes their own 'will to power' upon the world.This edition includes a commentary on the text by the translator and Michael Tanner's introduction, which explains some of the more abstract passages in Beyond Good and Evil.Frederich Nietzsche (1844-1900) became the chair of classical philology at Basel University at the age of 24 until his bad health forced him to retire in 1879. He divorced himself from society until his final collapse in 1899 when he became insane. A powerfully original thinker, Nietzsche's influence on subsequent writers, such as George Bernard Shaw, D.H. Lawrence, Thomas Mann and Jean-Paul Sartre, was considerable.If you enjoyed Beyond Good and Evil you might like Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, also available in Penguin Classics."One of the greatest books of a very great thinker." —Michael Tanner

    In Confessions of a Subprime Lender: An Insider's Tale of Greed, Fraud, and Ignorance, he reveals the truth about how the subprime lending business spiraled out of control, pushed home prices to unsustainable levels, and turned unqualified applicants into qualified borrowers through creative financing. Learn about the ways the mortgage industry can be fixed with his twenty suggestions for critical change.

    Their hits, including Golden Brown, No More Heroes and Always The Sun, were written against a background of spectacular success, dismal failure, drug dependency, financial ruin, infighting and misfortune. Understandably, the band have been loath to reveal the true meaning behind their songs, instead revelling in the mystery and confusion they created. As a response to David Buckley's one-sided biography of the band (No Mercy, Hodder & Stoughton, 1997), Hugh Cornwell, founding member and songwriter, is determined to set the record straight, displace the myths and explain for the first time the real stories behind The Stranglers, his departure and the origins of all their songs.

    Fry transforms the adventures of Zeus and the Olympians into emotionally resonant and deeply funny stories, without losing any of their original wonder.This stunning book features classical artwork inspired by the myths, as well as learned notes from the author. Each adventure is infused with Fry's distinctive wit, voice, and writing style. Connoisseurs of the Greek myths will appreciate this fresh-yet-reverential interpretation, while newcomers will feel welcome. Retellings brim with humor and emotion and offer rich cultural contextCelebrating the thrills, grandeur, and unabashed fun of the Greek myths, Mythos breathes life into ancient tales—from Pandora's box to Prometheus's fire.This gorgeous volume invites you to explore a captivating world with the brilliant storyteller Stephen Fry as your guide.