¡¡To love, and bear; to hope till Hope creates¡¡From its own wreck the thing it contemplates.¡¡Percy Bysshe Shelley,¡¡Prometheus Unbound¡¡Prologue¡¡False Angels¡¡¡¡JERUSALEM¡¡The wound was their path.¡¡Nathan Lee Swift sat strapped in the belly of the cargo helicopter with a dozen assorted archangels, looking down upon what little remained. The earthquake was visible mostly by what was no longer visible. Cities and villages had simply vanished in puffs of dust. Even his ruins were gone. The map had gone blank.¡¡The air was hot. It was summer. There was no horizon. The sands stretched into haze. He felt chained to the giant beside him, his former professor David Ochs. He had not wanted to leave, now he¡¡

LITTLE NOVELSby Wilkie CollinsMRS. ZANT AND THE GHOST.I.THE course of this narrative describes the return of a disembodied spirit to earth, and leads the reader on new and strange ground.Not in the obscurity of midnight, but in the searching light of day, did the supernatural influence assert itself. Neither revealed by a vision, nor announced by a voice, it reached mortal knowledge through the sense which is least easily self-deceived: the sense that feels.The record of this event will of necessity produce conflicting impressions. It will raise, in some minds, the doubt which reason asserts; it will invigorate, in other minds, the hope which faith justifies; and it will leave the terrible ¡¡

THE ILIADby Homertranslated by Samuel ButlerBOOK ISing, O goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that broughtcountless ills upon the Achaeans. Many a brave soul did it sendhurrying down to Hades, and many a hero did it yield a prey to dogsand vultures, for so were the counsels of Jove fulfilled from theday on which the son of Atreus, king of men, and great Achilles, firstfell out with one another.And which of the gods was it that set them on to quarrel? It was theson of Jove and Leto; for he was angry with the king and sent apestilence upon the host to plague the people, because the son of...¡¡

Desperate Remediesby Thomas HardyCONTENTSPREFATORY NOTEI. THE EVENTS OF THIRTY YEARSII. THE EVENTS OF A FORTNIGHTIII. THE EVENTS OF EIGHT DAYSIV. THE EVENTS OF ONE DAYV. THE EVENTS OF ONE DAYVI. THE EVENTS OF TWELVE HOURSVII. THE EVENTS OF EIGHTEEN DAYSVIII. THE EVENTS OF EIGHTEEN DAYSIX. THE EVENTS OF TEN WEEKSX. THE EVENTS OF A DAY AND NIGHTXI. THE EVENTS OF FIVE DAYSXII. THE EVENTS OF TEN MONTHSXIII. THE EVENTS OF ONE DAYXIV. THE EVENTS OF FIVE WEEKSXV. THE EVENTS OF THREE WEEKSXVI. THE EVENTS OF ONE WEEKXVII. THE EVENTS OF ONE DAYXVIII. THE EVENTS OF THREE DAYSXIX. THE EVENTS OF A DAY AND NIGHT...¡¡

The Dwelling Place of Lighby Winston Churchill1917VOLUME 1.CHAPTER IIn this modern industrial civilization of which we are sometimes wont to boast,a certain glacier-like process may be observed. The bewildered, the helplessand there are manyare torn from the parent rock, crushed, rolled smooth, andleft stranded in strange places. Thus was Edward Bumpus severed and rolledfrom the ancestral ledge, from the firm granite of seemingly stable and lastingthings, into shifting shale; surrounded by fragments of cliffs from distantlands he had never seen. Thus, at five and fifty, he found himself gate-keeperof the leviathan Chippering Mill in the city of Hampton....¡¡

The Hand of Ethelbertaby Thomas HardyPREFACEThis somewhat frivolous narrative was produced as an interludebetween stories of a more sober design, and it was given the sub-title of a comedy to indicatethough not quite accuratelythe aimof the performance. A high degree of probability was not attemptedin the arrangement of the incidents, and there was expected of thereader a certain lightness of mood, which should inform him with agood-natured willingness to accept the production in the spirit inwhich it was offered. The characters themselves, however, weremeant to be consistent and human.On its first appearance the novel suffered, perhaps deservedly, for...¡¡

ADVERTISEMENTThe first idea of this Romance was suggested by the story of theSanton Barsisa, related in The Guardian.The Bleeding Nun is atradition still credited in many parts of Germany; and I havebeen told that the ruins of the Castle of Lauenstein, which Sheis supposed to haunt, may yet be seen upon the borders ofThuringia.The Water-King, from the third to the twelfth stanza,is the fragment of an original Danish BalladAnd Belerma andDurandarte is translated from some stanzas to be found in acollection of old Spanish poetry, which contains also the popularsong of Gayferos and Melesindra, mentioned in Don Quixote.Ihave now made a full avowal of all the plagiarisms of which I am...¡¡

The Queen of Heartsby Wilkie CollinsLETTER OF DEDICATION.-TOEMILE FORGUES.-AT a time when French readers were altogether unaware of theexistence of any books of my writing, a critical examination ofmy novels appeared under your signature in the _Revue des DeuxMoudes_. I read that article, at the time of its appearance, withsincere pleasure and sincere gratitude to the writer, and I havehonestly done my best to profit by it ever since.At a later period, when arrangements were made for thepublication of my novels in Paris, you kindly undertook, at somesacrifice of your own convenience, to give the first of theseries"The Dead Secret"the great advantage of being rendered...¡¡

A LaodiceanA STORY OF TO-DAYby Thomas HardyCONTENTS.PREFACE CHAPTERSBOOK THE FIRST. GEORGE SOMERSET. I - XV.BOOK THE SECOND. DARE AND HAVILL. I - VII.BOOK THE THIRD. DE STANCY. I - XI.BOOK THE FOURTH. SOMERSET, DARE, AND DE STANCY. I - V.BOOK THE FIFTH. DE STANCY AND PAULA. I - XIV.BOOK THE SIXTH. PAULA. I - V.PREFACEThe changing of the old order in country manors and mansionsmay be slow or sudden, may have many issues romantic orotherwise, its romantic issues being not necessarilyrestricted to a change back to the original order; though this...¡¡

¡¡¡¡John Dean. Henry Kissinger. Adolph Hitler. Caryl Chessman. Jeb Magruder. Napoleon. Talleyrand. Disraeli. Robert Zimmerman, also known as Bob Dylan. Locke. Charlton Heston. Errol Flynn. The Ayatollah Khomeini. Gandhi. Charles Olson. Charles Colson. A Victorian Gentleman. Dr. X.¡¡¡¡Most people also believe that God has written a Book, or Books, telling what He did and why-at least to a degree-He did those things, and since most of these people also believe that humans were made in the image of God, then He also may be regarded as a person. . . or, mare properly, as a Person.¡¡¡¡Here are some people who have not written books, telling what they did. . . and what they saw:¡¡¡¡The man who buried Hit¡¡

¡¡IT NOT only is my pleasure to announce to you this morning our discovery of this marvelous storehouse containing, among other things, a monumental collection of manuscripts inscribed on ridulian crystal paper, but I also take pride in giving you our arguments for the authenticity of our discoveries, to tell you why we believe we have uncovered the original journals of Leto II, the God Emperor.¡¡First, let me recall to you the historical treasure which we all know by the name of The Stolen Journals, those volumes of known antiquity which over the centuries have been so valuable in helping us to understand our ancestors. As you all know, The Stolen Journals were deciphered by the Spacing Guil¡¡

Ernest HemingwayWith a variety of themes and moods, dynamic action scenes andunexpectedlya rich and ribald sense of humor, ISLANDS IN THE STREAM tells a story closely resembling Hemingway¡¦s life.¡@Thomas Hudson is ¡§a good painter.¡¨ His solitary life of artistic self-discipline on the lush Caribbean island of Bimini is interrupted by a visit from his three lively sons. In a thrilling descriptive scene, David, the middle boy, shows his courage when attacked by a shark and his endurance while fighting a thousand-pound swordfish. It is an initiation into manhood.¡@Years later, Hudson is in Cuba mourning the death of his oldest son. A chance encounter with his first wife renews their passionate co¡¡