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The Iliad by Homer is an epic of poem over 15,000 lines that recounts the conflict between Agamemnon, the man of power, and Achilles, the genius of war, over a period of several weeks. Their contretemps is set within the larger tale of the ten year Trojan War, and is told in flashbacks and flash-forwards; by the end the poem has told a more or less complete story of the war. No television min-series has anything on this epic poem. The story is utterly human and has resonated down the centuries. There’s the ugly man of power, selfish, greedy, entitled and obsessed. There’s the young, beautiful star, burdened with greatness and by the false power of a man without merit. The authentic versus the phony - the same old story. The Iliad was composed sometime between 760 and 710 B.C., and together with The Odyssey is considered the first great work of western literature. “Composed” is the correct word because The Iliad was passed down by oral tradition. The teacher recited it, the students repeated it and memorized it – all of it. There’s a story, apocryphal or not, that around 700 B.C., a virtual riot broke out when some upstart in the Academy proposed to write it all down, because the older, wiser men believed transcription would destroy the Greek facility for memorization, not to mention the silencing of the sound of the poetry itself. This reading returns this epic to the manner of presentation in force at the time. (Summary by Michael Hogan)

Grimm's Fairy Tales is a collection of German fairy tales first published by brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in 1812 under the title Children's and Household Tales. The collection appeared at a time when the Romantic movement of the early 19th century revived an interest in traditional folk stories. At the same time native folklore was seen as an important part of an emerging German national identity as the political system changed from a group of 200 principalities to a single state some sixty years later. At first the collection was thought to be unsuitable for children due to subject matter and the level of scholarly detail. Changes were made through the years with each edition to remove sexual references; violence, however, was seldom reduced and sometime increased. The collection grew from 86 stories in the first edition to a total of 211 tales in the seventh edition, which appeared in 1857. A smaller edition of 50 titles for child readers called Kleine Ausgabe was released in 1825 and went through ten editions from 1825 to 1858. The work of the brothers inspired others to do similar work in their own cultures in Russia, England, Norway, and elsewhere. The tales have been translated into over 100 languages and have inspired numerous film, television, and theatrical treatments. This collection includes 63 of the best known tales, including classics such as "The Frog Prince", "Rapunzel", "Hansel and Gretel", "Tom Thumb", "Rumplestiltskin", "Sleeping Beauty" and "Snow White".

In 1854 John Stuart Mill began a short essay on the relationship of authority and liberty. Five years later he published On Liberty, a treatise that remains one of the most articulate and influential works on the subject. The central idea is that an individual should be free to pursue his own interests so long as the resulting action does not harm the interests of others. He defines three basic liberties: freedom of thought, emotion and expression; freedom to pursue one’s tastes, however vulgar or immoral; and freedom to associate with others. He proposes three reasons to justify resistance to government actions: if private agents can perform an action better than government; if the action benefits the agents even when the government is qualified; and, if the action adds to the power of government so that it becomes over-reaching or creates dependency in its subjects. The last chapter defines two maxims: “first, that the individual is not accountable to society for his actions, in so far as these concern the interests of no person but himself”, and “that for such actions as are prejudicial to the interests of others, the individual is accountable, and may be subjected either to social or to legal punishment, if society is of opinion that the one or the other is requisite for its protection”. The book was immensely popular when published and continues to appeal due to its lucid analysis, accessible prose and compelling model of society. To this day a copy of the book is held by the president of the British Liberal Party as a symbol of office.

The image is popular and general: A young man sits under an apple tree. An apple falls, strikes him and sets him on a course to receive those epiphanies, eureka moments, in which he deduces how the physical world works. The young man was Isaac Newton and the consequent laws are known as Newtonian physics. Move ahead two hundred years and the second image, though less well known, is of another young man with unruly hair, sitting on a hillside in Germany not far from the patent office where he worked. There Albert Einstein received his own epiphany, followed by several eureka moments, from which he deduced those laws of physics, now termed the Theory of Relativity, a theory that superseded Newton’s 200 year old theories of mechanics, and, in no small part, ushered in the Modern Era. The Theory of Relativity, is actually comprised of two theories: special relativity and general relativity. The concepts introduced in these two theories are three-fold: (1) The measurement of certain quantities is dependent upon the speed of the observer; (2) Space and time (“spacetime”) should be considered in relation to one another; and (3) The speed of light is, nonetheless, an absolute constant, invariant and the same for all observers. In any construct that allows for the relative nature of relationships, the observer must seek out the sole constant on which all relationships depend for their accurate expression. Einstein found it in the speed of light, and from that constant looked anew at the behavior of the smallest elements of matter (Special Relativity, 1905), as well as the projected behavior of an infinite cosmos (General Relativity, 1916). (Summary by Michael Hogan)

Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos is a masterpiece of 18th century literature. An epistolary novel consisting of four volumes of letters written by and to the various characters, it was viewed as scandalous when it was first published in 1782 for its frank and pitiless exploration of seduction, revenge and malice. The story centers on the rivalry of two aristocrats, Marquise de Merteuil and Vicomte de Valmont, who use seduction to manipulate and humiliate others. Merteuil seeks to corrupt the virtuous young Cecile de Volanges, while Valmont has his sights on seducing the married Mme de Tourvel. Spite and revenge drive each to pursue the object of the other’s desire, the rivalry escalates to war, and the two duel to settle the score. One dies, and damage, guilt and suffering inhabits the lives of the survivors. Les Liaisons dangereuses is thought by some to have been a depiction of the perversions of the decadent French aristocracy just prior to the French Revolution, and it easy to imagine in hindsight the revolution being inspired by the damnable behavior of the amoral libertines. There is another perspective, however, that sees the book as a morality tale of sorts that shows how the wages of sin give rise to dishonor, disfigurement and death, and it is worth noting that the book was widely distributed and enjoyed by the conservative nobles of the Ancien Regime in spite of its scandalous reputation.

After his retirement from the Marine Corps in the early 1930's, General Smedley D. Butler embarked on a national lecture tour, where he gave his speech about how commercial interests benefit from war. The speech was well received and he wrote an expanded version of it, which was published as War Is A Racket. The work was published by Reader's Digest as a condensed book supplement, which added to its popularity. The book consists of five chapters. The first chapter cites telling statistics: 21,000 people became millionaires and billionaires during the war; 4 million men served; the growth of national debt by a factor of 25 from 1898 to 1918. The second chapter details the level of profits made by many major U.S. corporations made in the years preceding World War I and compares them to the significantly greater profits made from and during the war. The third chapter lays bare the ways in which the costs are borne by the public, with particular focus on humiliating deductions from the pay of soldiers. Chapter four sets forth three simple methods to limit wars: insist that everyone in the war economy earn the same income as that of the soldiers; conduct a vote to decide whether or not to go to war and limit the voters to those who would serve; limit appropriations and activities to strictly defensive measures. The final chapter shows the futility of arms limitations negotiations and makes it plain that only total disarmament will break the back of the beast.

The Chorus Girl and Other Stories is a collection of 11 short stories and My Life, one of Chekhov’s five novellas. Nine of the stories were written in 1886 and 1887 when Chekhov was in his twenties. “At a Country House” and “Rothschild’s Fiddle” were written in 1894 and “My Life” was published in 1896. Three of these stories – “The Chorus Girl”, “Rothschild’s Fiddle”, and “A Gentleman Friend” - are consistently ranked among the Chekhov’s best. Throughout we see Chekhov’s ability to quickly set the scene, sketch portraits of the characters, and set events in their natural motions. Often a character has a change of heart or circumstances that lead to a surprise twist. One imagines that Chekhov’s training as a physician is put to good use in the service of literature, as he proceeds to diagnose the ailments of character and dissect the anatomy of human relationships with a the deft hand of a surgeon.

In addition to his considerable gifts as a poet, William Butler Yeats had a deep and lifelong interest in Irish folklore, and in The Celtic Twilight he collects tales told by friends, neighbors and acquaintances that venture into the realm of the mystical and magical. The title refers to the pre-dawn hours when Druid rituals were performed. These words from Yeats’ introduction give a good sense of his purpose in plucking this “handful of dreams”. "I have desired, like every artist, to create a little world out of the beautiful, pleasant, and significant things of this marred and clumsy world, and to show in a vision something of the face of Ireland to any of my own people who would look where I bid them. I have therefore written down accurately and candidly much that I have heard and seen, and, except by way of commentary, nothing that I have merely imagined. I have, however, been at no pains to separate my own beliefs from those of the peasantry, but have rather let my men and women, dhouls and faeries, go their way unoffended or defended by any argument of mine. The things a man has heard and seen are threads of life, and if he pull them carefully from the confused distaff of memory, any who will can weave them into whatever garments of belief please them best. I too have woven my garment like another, but I shall try to keep warm in it, and shall be well content if it do not unbecome me."

When Henry David Thoreau, transcendentalist and friend of Emerson, retreated to Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts, he stripped himself of every unnecessary object and distraction and chose to live deliberately. He sought to examine the nature of Life itself, something so dear, precious, imminent and yet so often elusive to so many. There may be no time more in need of the teachings of Thoreau’s Walden than today. In the age of instant information and big data we are bombarded with enormous amounts of facts, figures and stories from every corner of the world, both pertinent and superfluous, and left to our own devices to process the information. We become so tied to our screens and so enmeshed in the flow that we risk mistaking the virtual for the real. And our lives remain stubbornly, undeniably real, however we may wish to represent them virtually. Thoreau would counsel a pause and advise a closer examination, never blinking at the sacrifices necessary, never blinking in the face of Life itself, and never confusing the atoms of data or the molecules of information for the elements of knowledge and wisdom. (Summary by Michael Hogan) On the Duty of Civil Disobedience was first published in 1849 as Resistance To Civil Government. The central idea is that individuals should not permit government to overrule their consciences, and that there is a duty to refuse to acquiesce when governments seek to make them agents of injustice. Originally motivated by disgust with slavery and the Mexican-American War, the essay became popular during the Sixties as a justification for demonstrations against the Vietnam War.

The Lady with the Dog and Other Stories is a collection of seven short stories. The title story, Chekhov’s most famous, describes an affair between two unhappily married people who meet by chance at the seaside resort of Yalta while vacationing alone. The affair becomes a love that endures after each returns home and leads to clandestine meetings and the inevitable heartbreak that comes from distance, lengthy absences and the impossibility of leaving their established lives. In “An Upheaval” a young governess suffers the indignity of having her room searched in her absence by the lady of the house. “A Doctor’s Visit” centers on an inner connection that develops between a doctor and the young heiress he has been called to examine that goes unexpressed. “Ionitch” also charts the evolution of a missed romantic opportunity between a young doctor with a promising future and a coquettish young woman from an artistic family. “The Head of the Family” is a wealthy, pompous ass who drinks and gambles and bullies anyone without the good sense to stay as far away as possible, most notably his young son. “Volodya” displays the emotional distress of a conflicted, frustrated teenage being raised in awkward surroundings by a vain single mother. “The Husband” portrays a mean-spirited, ill-humored tax collector who meanly spirits his wife away from a dance with a visiting regiment for having too much fun. As always, Chekhov portrays real life in all its wonder and horrors, its plainness and mystery, with the telling details and revealing remarks, without judging, for all to see.

White Fang is a sequel and companion novel to The Call of Wild and in many ways a thematic mirror. Where the first book dealt with a domesticated dog embracing his wildness, here White Fang, a hybrid wolf-dog born, gradually overcomes the harsh “survival of the fittest” circumstances in the wilds of the Yukon Territory during the Klondike Gold Rush and becomes domesticated. Much of the story is told from White Fang’s perspective. He is the only survivor in his litter of five; the others die from hunger. His father, One Eye, is killed trying to steal food from a lynx for the cub. His mother, Kiche, kills the lynx but is seriously injured. The two meet a Native American, Grey Beaver, who recognizes Kiche as his brother’s vagrant wolf dog and adopts the two, but White Fang is persecuted by the other dogs and his mother is sold off. He grows up a callous, savage, solitary, and deadly fighter. At age five a drunken Grey Beaver sells him to an evil dog-fighter, where he defeats all comers until he is nearly brought down by a bulldog. He is rescued by a rich, young gold-hunter, who slowly tames him and brings him home to California from the Yukon, where he performs a heroic feat and settles into a tranquil existence. The book was an immediate worldwide success on release in 1906 and has been popular ever since, especially with younger readers. It has been translated into 89 languages and often adapted for film and television.

The Tragedy of Macbeth dramatizes the consequences of the naked lust for power and political position. It is also about the devious workings of the mind: its willingness to believe and fulfill a prophecy, to see what it wants to see and overlook what it needs to overlook, and how the power of guilt and fear of retribution can lead to paranoia and desperate actions to remedy a consumptive insecurity. We see Macbeth first as a hero, a general who has defeated an uprising by traitors and is rewarded by a grateful king with the title and property of one of the conspirators. The reward had been mysteriously forecast by The Three Witches he and colleague Banquo encountered, along with the prediction of his eventual kingship. He shares the prophecy with Lady Macbeth, who convinces him to fulfill the destiny immediately by scheming to kill King Duncan in his sleep and pin it on his chamberlains. They proceed and guilt, remorse, paranoia take over. Macbeth becomes a vicious tyrant, ruthlessly eliminating threats from rivals real and imagined. Lady Macbeth, wracked with guilt, sleepwalks, washing her hands and babbling her regrets before taking her own life. Macbeth seeks comfort in the further prophecies of the Three Witches but misinterprets their meanings and inevitably falls victim to the campaign of his avenging enemies Malcolm and Macduff. Double, double, toil and trouble, indeed.