Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, volume 09


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(1.5 stars; 2 reviews)

The Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, is a work of enormous proportions. Setting out with the simple goal of offering "American households a mass of good reading", the editors drew from literature of all times and all kinds what they considered the best pieces of human writing, and compiled an ambitious collection of 45 volumes (with a 46th being an index-guide). Besides the selection and translation of a huge number of poems, letters, short stories and sections of books, the collection offers, before each chapter, a short essay about the author or subject in question. In many cases, chapters contemplate not one author, but certain groups of works, organized by nationality, subject or period; there is, thus, a chapter on Accadian-Babylonian literature, one on the Holy Grail, and one on Chansons, for example.

The result is a collection that holds the interest, for the variety of subjects and forms, but also as a means of first contact with such famous and important authors that many people have heard of, but never read, such as Abelard, Dante or Lord Byron. According to the editor Charles Dudley Warner, this collection "is not a library of reference only, but a library to be read."

This ninth volume contains chapters from "Chamisso" to "Collins". (Summary by Leni) (17 hr 56 min)

Chapters

Selected works by Adelbert von Chamisso 26:51 Read by Kathryn Phipps
Selected works by William Ellery Channing 24:48
Selected works by George Chapman 19:08 Read by Amy Koenig
Selected works by François René Auguste Châteaubriand 21:28 Read by Matt Bishop
Selected poems by Thomas Chatterton 24:40 Read by Amy Koenig
Geoffrey Chaucer by Thomas R. Lounsbury 38:12 Read by Jim Locke
Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer 16:10 Read by Foon
The Temples of Venus, Mars, and Diana, from The Knight's Tale, by Geoffrey Chau… 10:53 Read by Foon
The Passing of the Fairies and The Pardoner's Tale, by Geoffrey Chaucer 14:56 Read by KevinS
The Nun's Priest's Tale and Truth: Ballade of Good Counsel by Geoffrey Chaucer 33:23 Read by KHand
Selected poems, by André Chénier 25:00 Read by Rita Boutros
Selected works, by Victor Cherbuliez 47:05 Read by Rita Boutros
Selected works, by Lord Chesterfield 13:43 Read by Deon Gines
The Literature of China, by Robert K. Douglas 46:50 Read by Availle
Selected Maxims on Morals, Philosophy of Life, Character, Circumstances, etc. f… 19:47 Read by Availle
Rufus Choate, by Albert Stickney 29:22 Read by Deon Gines
Selected Addresses and Orations by Rufus Choate 40:00 Read by Chris Pyle
Selected works, by St. John Chrysostom 28:23 Read by Larry Wilson
Marcus Tullius Cicero by William Cranston Lawton 28:23 Read by Colleen McMahon
Of the Offices of Literature and Poetry, from The Oration for the Poet Archias,… 16:10 Read by Colleen McMahon
Selected excerpts from the Dialogues of Cicero 16:35 Read by Colleen McMahon
Selected epistles by Cicero 26:51 Read by Colleen McMahon
Cicero's Correspondents 17:30 Read by Kristine Bekere
The Dream of Scipio, by Cicero 25:42 Read by Kristine Bekere
Selected excerpt from The Poem of My Cid 33:29 Read by ToddHW
The Character of Lord Falkland, by the Earl of Clarendon 25:57 Read by Rita Boutros
Selected works, by Marcus A. H. Clarke 33:49 Read by Rita Boutros
Selected works by Matthias Claudius 13:15 Read by Deon Gines
Henry Clay, by John R. Procter 33:36 Read by Chris Pyle
Selected excerpts from Speeches by Henry Clay 21:48 Read by Chris Pyle
Hymn to Zeus, by Cleanthes 5:23 Read by Josh Kibbey
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain), by Charles Dudley Warner 9:47 Read by Deon Gines
Excerpts from Life on the Mississippi, by Mark Twain 41:43 Read by Matthew Bennett
An Expedition Against Ogres, from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, … 14:48 Read by ToddHW
The True Prince and the Feigned One, from The Prince and the Pauper, by Mark Tw… 17:00 Read by ToddHW
Arthur Hugh Clough, by Charles Eliot Norton 29:16 Read by Rita Boutros
Selected poems, by Arthur Hugh Clough 22:30 Read by ChadH94
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, by George E. Woodberry 41:19 Read by Rita Boutros
Selected poems, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge 33:11 Read by Larry Wilson
Selected poems, by William Collins 18:07 Read by Nemo
William Wilkie Collins, by Charles Dudley Warner 10:53 Read by Deon Gines
The Sleep-Walking, from The Moonstone, by William Wilkie Collins 36:43 Read by Deon Gines
Count Fosco, from The Woman in White, by William Wilkie Collins 21:46 Read by Deon Gines

Reviews

Not what it seems


(1.5 stars)

This is more an analysis and critique of major works of literature than the actual collection of those works. Poorly indexed, quite questionable in content because there are a lot of authors here mostly unknown to the average reader.