Penguin classics

Selections cover Celtic hero-tales and adventure stories, nature writings, love poetry, epigrams, magic, humor, satire, bardic poetry, elegies, religion.

In Tom Holland' s vibrant translation, one of the great masterpieces of Western history springs to life. Herodotus of Halicarnassus- hailed by Cicero as the “Father of History”- composed his histories around 440 BC. The earliest surviving work of nonfiction, The Histories works its way from the Trojan War through an epic account of the war between the Persian empire and the Greek city-states in the fifth century BC, recording landmark events that...

Presents a translation of thirteenth-century Venetian explorer Marco Polo's account of his travels throughout China, India, Persia, and other places.

"Augustine's fourth-century spiritual autobiography is not only a major document in the history of Christianity and a classic of Roman Africa, it also marks a vital moment in the history of Western culture. As Augustine recounts his life, he probes the great themes that others were to explore after him - faith, time, truth, identity, and self-knowledge - with a degree of detail unmatched in ancient literature. Illustrated with vivid portraits of friends,...

The three plays in this volume demonstrate different sides of Henrik Ibsen's genius, but all deal with themes of alienation from society and the breaking down of convention. A Doll's House (1879) portrays a woman questioning her duty to her husband and seeking to escape the stifling confines of her marriage-a theme that shocked contemporary audiences and established Ibsen's name outside Scandinavia. In The League of Youth (1869), his first prose drama,...

Considered by many to be the most important work on Alexander the Great, Arrian's "The Campaigns of Alexander" or "The Anabasis of Alexander" is an accurate and thorough account of the Macedonian conqueror's military exploits. Arrian of Nicomedia was a Roman historian, public figure, military commander, and well-acclaimed philosopher of the 2nd century. As a youth, he studied under Epictetus, and later strove in his literary works to emulate the great...