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Published in 1766 'The Vicar of Wakefield' was Oliver Goldsmith's only novel. It was thought to have been sold to the publisher for £60 on Oliver Goldsmith's behalf by Dr Johnson to enable Goldsmith to pay off outstanding rent and to release himself from his landlady's arrest. It is the story of the family of Dr Primrose, a benevolent vicar, and follows them through their fall from fortune and their ultimate rise again. The story provides insight into family life and circumstances in the mid 18th century and the plot has many aspects of a pantomime like quality: Impersonation, deception, an aristocratic villain and the abduction of a beautiful heroine. Goldsmith himself dissipated his savings on gambling whilst a student at Trinity College Dublin and subsequently travelled in Europe sustaining himself by playing the flute and disputing doctrinal matters in monasteries and universities. Later he worked as an apothecary's assistant, a doctor and a school usher (experiences shared in this story by Dr Primrose's son). (Summary by Martin Clifton)...

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Literature

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Scenes of Clerical Life, which appeared in book form in 1858 (after serial publication in the previous year), was the first published fiction by George Eliot, the pen name for Mary Anne Evans. It consists of three novellas based on the lives of country clergymen and their communities. These characters interest Eliot not for their theology — she had abandoned conventional Christian belief — but for their humanity. In these stories, we find the earliest signs of the narrative voice, the humanism, and the realism that would make George Eliot one of the greatest novelists of the 1800s. (Introduction by Bruce Pirie)...

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Literature

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Micha Josef Berdyczewski (surname also written Berdichevsky) was a Ukrainian-born writer of Hebrew, a journalist, and a scholar. He appealed for the Jews to change their way of thinking, freeing themselves from dogmas ruling the Jewish religion, tradition and history, but is also known for his work with pre-modern Jewish myths and legends. He wrote in Hebrew, Yiddish and German and has been described as the first Hebrew writer living in Berlin to be revered in the world of German letters. The book is supposed to be about Miriam, a young Jewish girl living in Eastern Europe toward the end of the 19th century. She tries to find her way between the old, frozen religious society and the new confusing winds of enlightenment. But in fact, the author draws a wide sketch of Jewish life in that period, by shortly focusing on a large array of characters and events populating the world of Miriam, and thus the real hero of the book is the Shtetl, the small Jewish town of Eastern Europe until the Holocaust. Berdichevski inadvertently created in this work a memorial to a lost rich civilization. (Summary by Wikipedia and Omri Lernau)...

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Literature

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Introduction: Near seven years ago, a short while before his death in 1844, John Sterling committed the care of his literary Character and printed Writings to two friends, Archdeacon Hare and myself. His estimate of the bequest was far from overweening; to few men could the small sum-total of his activities in this world seem more inconsiderable than, in those last solemn days, it did to him. He had burnt much; found much unworthy; looking steadfastly into the silent continents of Death and Eternity, a brave man?s judgments about his own sorry work in the field of Time are not apt to be too lenient. But, in fine, here was some portion of his work which the world had already got hold of, and which he could not burn. This too, since it was not to be abolished and annihilated, but must still for some time live and act, he wished to be wisely settled, as the rest had been. And so it was left in charge to us, the survivors, to do for it what we judged fittest, if indeed doing nothing did not seem the fittest to us. This message, communicated after his decease, was naturally a sacred one to Mr. Hare and me....

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Excerpt: How Sir Launcelot came to a chapel, where he found dead, in a white shirt, a man of religion, of an hundred winter old. When the hermit had kept Sir Launcelot three days, the hermit gat him an horse, an helm, and a sword. And then he departed about the hour of noon. And then he saw a little house. And when he came near he saw a chapel, and there beside he saw an old man that was clothed all in white full richly; and then Sir Launcelot said: God save you. God keep you, said the good man, and make you a good knight. Then Sir Launcelot alighted and entered into the chapel, and there he saw an old man dead, in a white shirt of passing fine cloth....

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An anthology of Buddhist scriptures, appropriate as an introduction to its vast literature, or as a sampler for those who want to better understand Buddhism. The selections in this anthology are primarily from the Theravada school of Buddhism.(Summary by Leon Mire)...

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Religion, Literature

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Excerpt: To Maria, may your name, that of one whose portrait is the noblest ornament of this work, lie on its opening pages like a branch of sacred box, taken from an unknown tree, but sanctified by religion, and kept ever fresh and green by pious hands to bless the house....

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Excerpt: Chapter 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother -- 2. To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ -- 3. We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you -- 4. Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints....

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Der Großinquisitor ist eine Erzählung aus dem Roman Die Brüder Karamasow. Die Handlung spielt im 16. Jahrhundert, in Sevilla. Jesus, auf die Erde zurückgekehrt, wird von einem greisen Großinquisitor verhaftet und soll auf dem Scheiterhaufen verbrannt werden. (Introduction by Al-Kadi)...

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Literature, Religion

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“Mr. Benson sees the world, four or five generations hence, free at last from all minor quarrels, and ranged against itself in two camps, Humanitarianism for those who believe in no divinity but that of man, Catholicism for those who believe in no divinity but that of God.” This apocalyptic novel from the early 1900's is sometimes deemed one of the first modern dystopias. (Summary from an original London Times review and Wikipedia)...

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Fiction, Literature, Science fiction, Religion

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This is James Joyce's first novel, the semi-autobiographical story of a young Irish boy who struggles with family, country, and religion to become an artist and a man. (Summary by Peter Bobbe)...

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Literature

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Stendhal - a German pen-name for a French writer who hated the English. Contemporary to some of the great names of French literature like Balzac and Flaubert, Stendhal is quite often considered a writer that doesn't seem to fit a defined genre. Some say he's a Romantic, others that he's a Modernist and that Le Rouge et Le Noir is the first modern novel. On one point they are all agreed: the novel is a masterpiece that shows a young theology student - Julien Sorel - intelligent, handsome and who is determined to rise above his humble peasant origins. Stendhal presents the reader with a satirical plot that will involve you in passions, intrigues, last-minute reversals and, mostly, the hypocrisy by which society operates. (Summary by sailormoon)...

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Literature

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Excerpt: The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Volume One.

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Contents PREFACE.......................................................................................................................................... 7 PREFACE BY MRS. SHELLEY TO FIRST COLLECTED EDITION, 1839. ......................... 16 POSTSCRIPT IN SECOND EDITION OF 1839. ........................................................................ 21 PREFACE BY MRS. SHELLEY. TO THE VOLUME OF POSTHUMOUS POEMS PUBLISHED IN 1824......................................................................................................................... 22 THE DAEMON OF THE WORLD. .............................................................................................. 26 ALASTOR: OR, THE SPIRIT OF SOLITUDE. .......................................................................... 39 NOTE ON ALASTOR, BY MRS. SHELLEY. ......................................................................................................... 54 THE REVOLT OF ISLAM. ............................................................................................................ 56 AUTHOR?S PREFACE................................................................

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Excerpt: We sailed from Peru, where we had continued by the space of one whole year, for China and Japan, by the South Sea, taking with us victuals for twelve months; and had good winds from the east, though soft and weak, for five months? space and more. But then the wind came about, and settled in the west for many days, so as we could make little or no way, and were sometimes in purpose to turn back. But then again there arose strong and great winds from the south, with a point east; which carried us up, for all that we could do, toward the north: by which time our victuals failed us, though we had made good spare of them....

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The Gospel According to John, commonly referred to as the Gospel of John or simply John, is an account of the public ministry of Jesus. It begins with the witness and affirmation by John the Baptist and concludes with the death, burial, Resurrection, and post-Resurrection appearances of Jesus. This account is fourth of the canonical gospels, after the synoptics Matthew, Mark and Luke....

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Ancient Texts, Literature, Religion

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The Book of Job is one of the books of the Hebrew Bible. It relates the story of Job, his trials at the hands of Satan, his theological discussions with friends on the origins and nature of his suffering, his challenge to God, and finally a response from God. The Book itself comprises a didactic poem set in a prose framing device and has been called the most profound and literary work of the entire Old Testament. The Book itself and its numerous exegeses are attempts to address the problem of evil....

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Religion, Literature

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Excerpt: Chapter 1. Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God -- 2. In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin?s captivity -- 3. The word of the LORD came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the LORD was there upon him -- 4. And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the color of amber, out of the midst of the fire....

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Inspired by Jane Eyre, Dinah Maria Craik's 1850 novel, Olive, was one of the first to feature a disabled central character. 'Slightly deformed' from birth, Olive believes that she will never be able to marry like other women, so she devotes her life to her art, her mother, and above all, her religion. It takes a dark secret from the past and a new, fascinating acquaintance, to make her realize what her life could be. (Summary by Arielle Lipshaw)...

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Fiction, Literature

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Excerpt: Chapter 1. The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin -- 2. To whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign -- 3. It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month -- 4. Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying -- 5. Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations -- 6. Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child....

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Excerpt: Chapter 1. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God -- 2. As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee -- 3. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight -- 4. John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins -- 5. And there went out unto him all the land of Judaea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins....