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ONE OF THE FEW COMPLETE AND UNABRIDGED EDITIONS OF PLUTARCH'S LIVES--all fifty biographies, and eighteen comparisons."To be ignorant of the lives of the most celebrated men of antiquity is to continue in a state of childhood all our days." Plutarch"I would rather excel in the knowledge of what is excellent than in the extent of my power or possessions." Plutarch "Silence at the proper season is wisdom, and better than any speech." Plutarch "To make no mistakes is not in the power of man; but from their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future." Plutarch "It is part of a good man to do great and noble deeds, though he risk everything." Plutarch Plutarch's Lives is a brilliant collection of biographies by one of the greatest biographers and moralists of all time. By comparing a famous Roman with a famous Greek, Plutarch intended to provide model patterns of behaviour and to encourage mutual respect between Greeks and Romans. There are fifty biographies of famous soldiers, legislators, orators, and statesmen, and an additional eighteen comparisons. The form of Plutarch's Lives was new; he outlined the birth, youth, achievements, and death of his characters, followed by a formal comparison. The Lives display formidable learning and research. Plutarch is essentially a moralist whose aim is to edify the reader; destiny follows from character, which he illustrates by anecdotes. Plutarch (AD 46 -119 ) was a philosopher, teacher, and biographer, whose writing strongly influenced the evolution of the essay, the biography, and historical writing in Europe from the 16th to the 19th century, especially the work of Michel de Montaigne and William Shakespeare. He lived mostly in Greece, where he was a local magistrate, though he was a Roman citizen who knew the Emperors Trajan and Hadrian.

W. C. Hazlitt says of Montaigne--"he was without being aware of it, the leader of a new school in letters and morals" and "the first modern man." He has been universally admired in his time and since. In his essays, Montaigne "has the courage to say as an author what he feels as a man", and as such is the forerunner to modern literary non-fiction, and he remains the most accessible and relevant renaissance author. This edition contains Montaigne''s complete essays, and a collection of letters.

The largely self-educated H. G. Wells was a man of wide interests and considerable intellect, which he employs in "A Short History of the World". This edition contains all 208 original illustrations, and in addition Wells' reflections on his first two visits to the Soviet Union, including meetings with Gorky and Lenin.

Henry Fielding writes some of the earliest and perhaps the greatest English novels. In 'The History of Tom Jones', the hero is an orphan, brought up by Mr Allworthy on his country estate, until Tom is banished to make his own fortune in London. Fielding chats wittily and with poignantly across the two and a half centuries between him and the reader. Fielding pauses the action and explains with humour what he is doing, why he has developed the characters in this way, or explains what a novel is and how it differs from a play. It is astonishing to find the author chatting to the reader in this way and for it to feel so relevant. Fielding's first full-length novel, 'Joseph Andrews' is both high-brow and extremely funny. Each of the many characters are endearing as they go about their lives. Again, the story is frequently interrupted by an imperfect narrator, with hilarious results and there are several very amusing tangents and essays. Fielding satirizes almost every part of the world around him: doctors, the legal system, priests and the upper class. Even though the book was written in eighteenth century England, some of the observations are hilarious because they are still accurate today. Shamela is a brilliant parody of Samuel Richardson's Pamela, in which a morally upstanding servant girl resists the sexual advances of her master and is eventually 'rewarded' with marriage. Fielding's novel has a far more wily, strong-willed and sexually honest heroine. She uses mock bashfulness and reserve as her means of winning herself a rich spouse.

The Ohio River Trilogy is based upon historical events in the lives of Zane Grey's ancestors. Betty Zane was Zane Grey's first book and he published it using money from his wife's family. The novels are all set in the late 1700s during the movement of the frontier to the Ohio River Valley. Betty Zane was a resilient frontier woman who was beautiful, talented and skilled, and she more than held her own in a man's world. She was also in love and there is plenty of romance in this trilogy. However, the frontier was wild, harsh and challenging. The novels detail the skirmishes and bloodthirsty warfare that was waged between the Native Americans and the settlers. Zane Grey doesn't hide the cruelty and hatred felt so strongly on both sides. The trilogy offers a fascinating historical insight into the formation of the United States as well as a great read that will keep you intrigued and delighted.

His life was more colourful than the most far-fetched tale. Enjoy this edition of his memoires, complete and unabridged in a single volume.What can be said about Casanova? Writer, seducer, poet, socialite, philosopher, friend of royalty, Mozart and Voltaire, wit, playwright, lover of life, man on the run. His life was more colourful than the most far-fetched tale and he was a lover and seducer as well as loved and seduced himself. His memoires run to several volumes of gripping narrative, being considered to be the most authentic source of the European social customs of the Eighteenth Century. Enjoy this edition of his memoires, complete and unabridged in a single volume.