Books published by publisher Aegypan

The books which have been written of late years about Japan have either been compiled from official records, or have contained the sketchy impressions of passing travelers. "The recent revolution in Japan has wrought changes social as well as political; and it may be that when, in addition to the advance which has already been made, railways and telegraphs shall have connected the principal points of the Land of Sunrise, the old Japanese, such as he was and had been for centuries when we found him eleven short years ago, will have become extinct". . . . -- Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford, Lord Redesdale, G.C.V.O., K.C.B. Formerly Second Secretary to the British Legation in Japan

Like all of Scott's historical fiction, this novel is an accurate and fascinating portrayal of the time in which it was set. From the author's introduction: "The present work completes a series of fictitious narratives, intended to illustrate the manners of Scotland at three different periods. Waverley embraced the age of our fathers, Guy Mannering that of our own youth, and The Antiquary refers to the last ten years of the eighteenth century."

It is written that after the Giants came to Tellura from the far stars, they abode a while, and looked upon the surface of the land, and found it wanting, and of evil omen. Therefore did they make men to live always in the air and in the sunlight, and in the light of the stars, that he would be reminded of them. And the Giants abode yet a while, and taught men to speak, and to write, and to weave, and to do many things which are needful to do, of which the writings speak. And thereafter they departed to the far stars, saying, Take this world as your own, and though we shall return, fear not, for it is yours.—THE BOOK OF LAWS

Phantastes's narrator turns twenty one. Part of his inheritance is his father's desk, with a hidden compartment containing a fairy who tells him he shall find the way into fairy land. The way starts in his room, and he meets is a girl who tells him "Trust the Oak. Trust the Oak, and the Elm, and the great Beech. Take care of the Birch, for though she is honest, she is too young not to be changeable. But shun the Ash and the Alder; for the Ash is an ogre, -- you will know him by his thick fingers; and the Alder will smother you with her web of hair, if you let her near you at night." This is wise advice.

Twain, aware of his reputation as a comic, asked that each installment appear anonymously so that readers will treat the piece seriously. Originally, this novel was published as a serialization in Harper's Magazine beginning in April 1895. Regardless, his authorship soon became known and the book edition published by Harper and Brothers in May 1896 credited Mark Twain.The novel is presented as a translation (by "Jean Francois Alden") of memoirs by Louis de Conte, a fictionalized version of Joan of Arc's page, Louis de Contes."I like Joan of Arc best of all my books; and it is the best; I know it perfectly well. And besides, it furnished me seven times the pleasure afforded me by any of the others; twelve years of preparation, and two years of writing. The others need no preparation and got none." -- Mark Twain

Written in 1906, BEFORE ADAM is a bit of a departure from London's other novels. Still an adventure novel, this one revolves around the dreams of a young boy, dreams that involve racial memories and the knowledge of his prior existence as a manlike creature named Big Tooth living in prehistoric times. "These are our ancestors, and their history is our history. Remember that as surely as we one day swung down out of the trees and walked upright, just as surely, on a far earlier day, did we crawl up out of the sea and achieve our first adventure on land."

The whimsical, sometimes melancholy stories, which often use nonsense language, were originally created for his own daughters. Gimme the Ax decided to let his children name themselves. "The first words they speak as soon as they learn to make words shall be their names," he said. "They shall name themselves." When the first boy came to the house of Gimme the Ax, he was named Please Gimme. When the first girl came she was named Ax Me No Questions. And both of the children had the shadows of valleys by night in their eyes and the lights of early morning, when the sun is coming up, on their foreheads. And the hair on top of their heads was a dark wild grass. And they loved to turn the doorknobs, open the doors, and run out to have the wind comb their hair and touch their eyes and put its six soft fingers on their foreheads.

Ransome says in a note at the beginning that the stories in this book are those that Russian peasants tell their children and each other. It was written for English children who play in deep lanes with wild roses above them in the high hedges, or by the small singing becks that dance down the grey fells at home.The tales include "Baba Yaga," the story of the famous witch who lived in a house that walked on chicken feet.Ransome says in his autobiography that the English listeners know nothing of the world that in Russia listeners and storytellers take for granted. So rather than direct translation he read all the variants of the story and rewrote them with Old Peter, Vanya and Maroosia rather than the Ogre, the Elf and the Imp.

A collection of King Arthur's adventures. Following his ascent to King of Britain to his death.The powerful lords rode up in their clanking armor and entered the church. There were so many of them that they quite filled the nave and side-aisles of the building. The Archbishop looked at their stern bronzed faces, their heavy beards, their broad shoulders and their glittering armor and prayed God to make the best man in the land king.*"She is the Lady of the Lake," says Merlin. "She lives in a rock in the middle of the lake. See, she is coming toward us. And look at what is rising beyond her from the water!" Arthur, wounded from his battle with the knight and holding the pieces of his broken sword, looks out onto the waters where Merlin points, and sees an arm clothed in pure white, holding a huge, cross-hilted sword, so brilliant that his eyes are dazzled. "'Take me,' the writing says, on one side of the sword," said Arthur when he takes the blade into his hands. "And 'Cast me away,' on the other. I'm glad to take the sword, but it saddens me to think of casting it away." Merlin's face grows sad, too. He knows what is to pass in the future -- and is well aware that when the time comes to cast the sword away, much evil will have befallen the young king at his side.

De la Mare described two distinct "types" of imagination – although "aspects" might be a better term: the childlike and the boylike. It was at the border between the two that Shakespeare, Dante, and the rest of the great poets lay. And so we let him have his say -- The Truants Ere my heart beats too coldly and faintly To remember sad things, yet be gay, I would sing a brief song of the world's little children Magic hath stolen away. The primroses scattered by April, the stars of the wide Milky Way, cannot outnumber the hosts of the children Magic hath stolen away. The buttercup green of the meadows, The snow of the blossoming may, lovelier are not than the legions of children Magic hath stolen away. The waves tossing surf in the moonbeam, The albatross lone on the spray, Alone know the tears wept in vain for the children Magic hath stolen away. In vain: for at hush of the evening, When the stars twinkle into the grey, Seems to echo the faraway calling of children Magic hath stolen away.