Robin Field

The Shepherd of the Hills is the classic story of the stranger who takes the Old Trail deep into the Ozark Mountains, many miles from civilization. His appearance signals intellect and culture, yet his countenance is marked by grief and disappointment. What is his purpose in taking on the lowly work of tending local sheep? And how is it that he befriends these simple hill folk, despite his coming from the world beyond the ridges? Mystery and romance...

Though it tells the stories of the defeated, Prometheus Bound and Other Plays features four tragedies that depict both unfortunate demises and the essence of the fighting human spirit. The Suppliants, the first play of the collection, follows the daughters of Danaus as they flee from the loveless marriages that had been forced upon them. The Persians, perhaps the oldest surviving play in existence, portrays the defeat of the Persian King Xeroxes....

Pierre: or, The Ambiguities (1852) is a novel by American writer Herman Melville. Published the year after Moby-Dick-a critical and commercial failure-Pierre: or, The Ambiguities is a psychological novel in the tradition of Gothic fiction. Melville struggled to find a publisher who would pay him in advance for the book, and its appearance prompted widespread ridicule and condemnation in the press, with some critics claiming that Melville himself had...

Published in 1875, this generous collection of sixty-three sketches and short stories includes the classic "The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," as well as other standouts like "To Raise Poultry," "How the Author Was Sold in Newark," and "My Bloody Massacre."

The most hilarious, charming, and entertaining of Mark Twain's later works, The Diaries of Adam and Eve collects in one volume "Extracts from Adam's Diary," first published in 1904, and "Eve's Diary," published in 1906 after Olivia Clemens's death. Ultimately an endearing love story, the diaries record the couple's initial ambivalence toward each other. While Adam observes that Eve "has such a rage for explaining," she muses, "He talks very little....

The year is 29 C.E., and Jerusalem chafes under the Roman Empire's oppressive rule. A badly scorched body is found behind the Veil of the Holy of Holies - the Temple's inner sanctum, the most sacred space on earth for the Jews. No one except the high priest may enter this place and he only on the Day of Atonement. This is no casual violation, and the authorities are in an uproar. Gamaliel, the rabban of the Sanhedrin, is the ranking rabbi in all of...

Mark Twain's semi-autobiographical travel memoir, "Roughing It" was written between 1870-1871 and subsequently published in 1872. Billed as a prequel to "Innocents Abroad", in which Twain details his travels aboard a pleasure cruise through Europe and the Holy Land in 1867, "Roughing It" conversely documents Twain's early days in the old wild west between the years 1861-1867. Employing his characteristically humoristic wit and flare for regional dialect,...

Plato's dialogue in the Symposium, which has as its topic the subject of love, explores the idea of love as a means of ascent to contemplation of the Divine. For Plato, generally, to love other human beings is to direct one's mind to love of Divinity. One proceeds from recognition of another's beauty to appreciation of Beauty as it exists apart from any individual, to consideration of Divinity, the source of Beauty, to love of Divinity. Influential,...

"Perrault's Fairy Tales" is a wonderful collection of some true classics of children's literature. Perrault (1628 – 1703) was among the first writers to bring magical children's stories into the literary mainstream, proving to his original seventeenth century readers that such works were important, enjoyable, as well as thought-provoking. They remain as popular today, as they were then. He is responsible for such famous works as "Cinderella," "Little...