Persuasion was the last novel completed by Jane Austen and was first published posthumously in December, 1817.The story represents an interesting configuration of Austen’s characteristic narrative patterns. The heroine, Anne Eliot, is something of an old maid—she is twenty-seven years old, still single and is considered by family and friends to have lost her youthful beauty. Several years earlier, her engagement to Captain Frederick Wentworth had been broken off, due to th...

Christmases everywhere should be filled with gifts and good cheer. But in Australia, Christmas may also feature fires, snakes, droughts, injuries, epic journeys, and all kinds of challenges for children and adults alike. This is a collection of short stories by well-known Australian author, Mary Grant Bruce (1878–1958). It combines the stories previously published as “Australian Christmas Yarns Volumes I & II”, with the addition of three previously unreleased stories. You can almost hear t...

This is sequel to another volume by Andy Blunden, The Capital/Logic Debate. In this audiobook the author provides a systematic presentation of the Hegelian structure of the three volumes of Capital. It is shown that Capital contains three distinct layers of structure, originating from Marx’s reading of Hegel’s Logic and his Philosophy of Right. Capital reflects Marx’s critique of the Political Economists, his unique appropriation of eco...

Neither the date nor the authorship of the Dhammapada is known, but there is conclusive evidence that this monument of the Buddhist canon existed well before the Christian era. Many scholars agree in ascribing its utterances to Buddha himself, while others are of the opinion that it is a compilation made by Buddhist monks from various sources.This classic religious text focuses on practical morality, which, if practiced earnestly and diligently, will lead the practitioner to Nirvan...

This collection of 59 short poems consists of verses, some of them incomplete, which remained unpublished at the time of Shelley’s death. Some of them have become the best known of Shelley’s shorter works.The poems were collated and edited by Mary Shelley, who also wrote an introduction to the collection, which contains some biographical material and commentary on the poems.

First published in 1847, Jane Eyre was the most popular of the novels composed by the Brontë sisters. The narrative bristles with energy and passionate conviction, and was the first English-language novel written from the perspective of a child.Jane is an orphan, raised in the household of an unsympathetic aunt, who shows great favor to her own children—but not to Jane. Jane is soon sent to a boarding school, presided over by the harsh and tyrannical Mr. Brocklehurst. She ...

First published in 1813, Pride and Prejudice is the most polished of Jane Austen’s novels, with a humorous and upbeat mood. It was written at a time when the author’s narrative powers were fully developed and the story flows with an ease that conceals the skill of its construction.The plot line follows the sequence of a love relationship apprehended, misunderstood, and finally realized, which has since become a standard format of the romcom genre. However, Austen complicat...

Few of Emily Dickinson’s poems were published in her lifetime. Her posthumous fame is largely due to the efforts of her editors and supporters Thomas W. Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd.In the foreword to this second collection, published in 1891, Mabel Loomis Todd wrote: “The eagerness with which the first volume of Emily Dickinson’s poems has been read shows very clearly that all our alleged modern artificiality does not prevent a prompt appreciation of the qualities of directness...

Paul Carus (1852-1919) was a scholar, translator and researcher into comparative religion. He was a prolific author, producing works on philosophy, mathematics and science as well as translations of major Chinese and Japanese spiritual classics.Carus was a pioneer in the promotion of inter-religious dialogue, and was a speaker at the World Parliament of Religions held in Chicago, in 1893.Although he refused to ally himself with a specific religious denomination, Carus had a...

Measure for Measure is one of darkest of Shakespeare’s comedies. Written in about 1603 and first performed in 1604, it immediately preceded the composition of the major tragedies Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth.Duke Vincentino, the ruler of Vienna, fears that under his mild sovereignty, the people may have become lazy and lax. He decides to “go over cover” in the disguise of a monk and appoint his deputy, Angelo, who is a reputed paragon of virtu...

In this entertaining pamphlet, the author, who was an expert on the artistic traditions of China and Japan, examines the effect of Zen Buddhism on popular culture. He provides a perceptive thumbnail view of the development of Buddhism in the Far East, and engaging portraits of its luminary figures.

Together with William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats, George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788–1824) was one of the most iconic literary figures of the early Romantic movement. His verse covers a wide range of genres, including large scale narrative poems, sonnets, and satirical quips. Byron led a most adventurous life, which included many romantic affairs and he died fighting in the Greek War of Independence.There were two major i...