Harvard Classics

Introductory note on The Thousand and One Nights (Volume 16, Harvard Classics)

A handsome young man was seen to eat only with his left hand, which was contrary to the customs of Arabia. The youth, when urged, told why he used only his left hand, and revealed a story of love and adventure and the lover's need for gold - all happening in ancient Cairo. (Volume 16, Harvard Classics)

Introductory note on John Stuart Mill (Volume 25, Harvard Classics)

John Stuart Mill – one of the greatest intellects in England – tells how his father educated him. At the early age of three years he began the study of Greek, and at twelve started writing a book of his own. (Volume 25, Harvard Classics)

James Mill, father of John Stuart Mill, died June 23, 1836.

Introductory note on Pliny the Younger (Volume 9, Harvard Classics)

Pliny, who lived in the first century after Christ, tells of a ghost who dragged his jangling chains through a house in Athens and so terrified the inmates that they fled panic-stricken. But the ghost met his equal. (Volume 9, Harvard Classics)

Introductory note on John Ruskin (Volume 28, Harvard Classics)

Why gossip with lesser persons when you might be talking to queens and kings? Just how we may get to talk to queens and kings, Ruskin delightfully points out and escorts us to the very doors of the audience chamber. (Volume 28, Harvard Classics)

Introductory note on Charles Darwin (#2) (Volume 29, Harvard Classics)

Galapagos Islands are the home of fearless birds, to which horses, cows, and men are only roosting places. Darwin saw the South Pacific when few travelers knew that wonderland. (Volume 29, Harvard Classics)