Showing results by author "Mentor New York" in All Categories

This two volume work is the autobiography of Lord Cochrane, a naval captain of the Napoleonic period. His adventures are seminal to the development of naval fiction as a genre. Marryat sailed with Cochrane, while later writers borrowed incidents from this biography for their fictions. Most notable among these is Patrick O'Brian, three of whose novels have clear parallels to incidents in the life of Cochrane. This first volume covers Cochrane's earlier life, during which he is most active militarily. (Introduction by Timothy Ferguson)

The writings listed here represent books about Soren Kierkegaard. A fragment of his work, On the Dedication to "That Single Individual", has made it to the public domain. Who was Soren Kierkegaard? He was a Danish philosopher and religious author; b. Copenhagen May 6, 1813; d. there Nov. 11, 1855. His father, Michael, a clothing merchant, once cursed God when he was young. This one incident caused him so much distress that it affected him with a deep melancholy, which he transferred to poor Soren. Michael was an evil man. He tricked Soren into thinking that the whole world existed in his own ...

The Best Man by Grace Livingston Hill is a Christian romance novel that follows Cyril Gordon, a young, upright lawyer who unexpectedly becomes entangled in a thrilling mystery on the day of his best friend’s wedding. When the groom vanishes under suspicious circumstances, Cyril steps in to uncover the truth. In the process, he meets and falls for a beautiful, strong-willed woman who plays a crucial role in the unfolding drama. Through danger, deception, and divine providence, the story highlights faith, integrity, and love. As Cyril navigates unexpected twists, he ultimately finds both ...

This account of the life of St. Ignatius, dictated by himself to Father Gonzalez, is a most valuable record of the great Founder of the Society of Jesus. It, more than any other work, gives an insight into the spiritual life of St. Ignatius. Few works in ascetical literature, except the writings of St. Teresa and St. Augustine, impart such a knowledge of the soul.The saint in his narrative always refers to himself in the third person, and this mode of speech has here been retained. Many persons who have neither the time, nor, perhaps, the inclination, to read larger works, will read, we trust,...

This is the official report, published nearly 11 months after the first and only atomic bombings in history (to date), of a group of military physicians and engineers who accompanied the initial contingent of U.S. soldiers into the destroyed cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The report presents a clinical description of the devastation, loss of life and continued suffering of the survivors that resulted from the world's first and only atomic bombings, to date. The appendix is an eyewitness account, contrasting vividly with the dispassionate sang-froid of the report itself, written by a German ...

The Adventures of Buster Bear is another set of children’s stories by the conservationist, Thornton W. Burgess. Buster Bear has many adventures and misadventures as he meets the different characters in the Green Forest near the Laughing Brook. Along the way, we learn about the habits of Buster and his friends and we learn little lessons about life such as the importance of sharing, not stealing, making friends and not sticking one's head into tin pails. (Summary by John Lieder)

This is one of Nietzsche's early academic writings - a scholarly theory about Ancient Greek theatre, specifically tragedies. In a nutshell, this work theorizes about why (Greek) spectators enjoy watching actors in a long series of scenes that depict human suffering (i.e., tragedy). It is a curious question, especially at the time since scholars generally thought of the Greeks as "A race of men, well-fashioned, beautiful, envied, life-inspiring, like no other race hitherto" (per Nietzsche's introduction). What did they need tragedy for? The question itself, and the path Nietzsche takes to ...

This is the story of Peter Rabbit, a mischievous, but cautious, lagomorph who lives in the Green Meadows. Peter Rabbit begins his adventures with a quest for a new name, since his name is far too common for his taste. Having a new name is not quite what he thought it would be, however, and soon he is on to new exploits like outsmarting Reddy Fox and discovering where all his friends spend the winter. This tale co-stars Reddy Fox, Jerry Muskrat, Unc' Billy Possum, Jimmy Skunk, Ol' Mistah Buzzard, Bowser the Hound, and many more of Thornton W. Burgess' delightful characters. - Summary by Jill ...

James is the king's gardener and he deeply enjoys caring for and cultivating flowers. He teaches his daughter Mary many principles of godliness through the flowers. One day Mary is falsely accused of stealing, and the penalty is death. Through many trials and hardships, Mary learns of the goodness of God, the blessing of praying for her enemies, how to consider her trials as a joy, and true forgiveness. (Summary by Abigail Rasmussen)

In The Aeneid, the Trojan hero Aeneas flees the burning city of Troy, destined to found a new homeland in Italy. Throughout his journey, he faces numerous trials, including battles, storms, and encounters with gods. Aeneas’ love affair with Dido, queen of Carthage, ends tragically when he must leave her to fulfill his fate. Ultimately, Aeneas defeats the Italian tribes and lays the foundations for Rome. The epic explores duty, fate, sacrifice, and the founding of the Roman Empire. (Summary by Mentor New York)

The superb skill and dexterity of D.H. Lawrence, a writer who profoundly influenced the literature of the twentieth century, is very evident in this collection of poems conceived during the years of The Great War. Lawrence, living a semi-nomadic lifestyle in England throughout these years, seized the opportunity to write of events and their effects from an objective but by no means dispassionate perspective. Indeed the passion of Lawrence while attempting to understand the collective motivation of mankind in the name of wartime vengeance is very evident throughout this work, manifesting itself...

Alcestis, queen of Pherae, is one of the noblest heroines in all of Greek drama. Her husband Admetus is the supposedly virtuous king of Pherae who wins the friendship of the god Apollo. Apollo tricks the Eumenides into an agreement that when the time comes for Admetus to die, a willing substitute will be accepted in his place, allowing his friend to go on living. Admetus selfishly tries to persuade anyone to agree to be his substitute, even his own parents, but no one is willing to make that sacrifice; this disappointment and its tragic consequences embitter him, leading him ultimately to ...

In this late work, Shaw examines many contemporary issues under the broad rubric of evolution and then illustrates his opinions in five brief plays set in widely separated historical periods, beginning in the Garden of Eden and ending in the year 31,920 A.D. The unifying principle in this historical survey is the notion that the survival of humankind depends on increasing our lifespan to at least 300 years, a period permitting us to grow to maturity. The ultimate question that the mature cast of characters grapple with is what is to be the next significant step in evolution. Mere longevity ...

Twenty-four short stories by famous and not-so-famous British authors. (Summary by David Wales) Note: A shortened section 21 was replaced on Dec 30, 2014 with the full text.

Young naive sailor Billy Budd is impressed into military service with the British navy in the 1790s, framed for conspiracy to mutiny, summarily convicted in a drum-head court martial, and hanged. Billy Budd is the final published work by Herman Melville, discovered in his personal papers three decades after his death. (Summary by ScientificMethodist)

“THE BOOK THAT DORIAN GRAY LOVED AND THAT INSPIRED OSCAR WILDE”. Such is the enticing epigraph of one early translation of Huysmans’ cult novel of 1884, which is also routinely called the Bible of Decadence. Accurate descriptions, both, of this bizarre masterpiece which has reverberated ever since through high and popular culture.“Against Nature” (or in this version “Against The Grain”) explores to the furthest limit the life of the world-rejecting aesthete living a reclusive existence devoted entirely to artificial paradises of his own devising. This is no solemn tract, however:...

The Augsburg Confession is the first and most fundamental Confession of the Lutheran Church. It was composed for a public reading at the Diet of Augsburg on June 25, 1530. Although written by Melanchthon, it was presented as the official answer of the undersigned German princes to the summons of Emperor Charles V. Two copies were presented on the same day, one in German, the other in Latin. This work translates a conflation of the German and Latin texts and was prepared for the Concordia Triglotta of 1921. (Introduction by Jonathan Lange)

There's nothing that sly troublemaker Sammy Jay likes better than stealing corn - unless it's playing tricks on the other animals in the forest. Yet Chatterer the Red Squirrel would like to keep his corn, thank you very much, and while he's at it prove he is just as smart as Sammy Jay! Thornton Burgess takes us once again into the charming world of the Green Forest and Green Meadows in this delightful story. (Summary by Rachel)

Rodin has pronounced Rilke's essay the supreme interpretation of his work. (From the translators’ Preface) Auguste Rodin, 1840-1917, was a French sculptor. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past. He was schooled traditionally, took a craftsman-like approach to his work, and desired academic recognition, although he was never accepted into Paris's foremost school of art. Sculpturally, Rodin possessed a unique ability to model a complex, turbulent, deeply pocketed surface in clay. … Rodin… modeled the human ...

The Sager family, including seven children, set out on the Oregon trail in 1844. Accidents and disease made it a dangerous trip, and both parents died along the way. The orphans made it to the Whitman Mission in Walla Walla, Washington, but their lives were still in jeopardy. In 1847, members of the Cayuse tribe attacked the mission and killed the Whitmans and others living there. Catherine was among those who were taken as hostages, and she survived the massacre. She later wrote about these harrowing experiences in this memoir. (Summary by Carol Pelster)