Ramayana

Author	Richard Wagner
ISBN	0393008673

Richard Wagner's vast Der Ring des Nibelungen cycle comprises four full-length operas (Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried and Gotterdammerung) and is arguably the most extraordinary achievement in the history of opera. His own libretto to the operas, translated by Andrew Porter, is an intricate...

Author	Xun Lu
ISBN	0824813170

This collection of short stories by Lu Xun, commonly considered one of the greatest writers in 20th-century China and often referred to as the father of modern Chinese literature, includes the celebrated short story, "A Madman's Diary". This short story is considered to be one of the first and most...

Author

Kālidāsa

Abhijñānashākuntala = Abhignana sakuntalam = Shakuntala: A sanskrit drama by kalidas, Kālidāsa
Devanagari: अभिज्ञानशाकुन्तलम् – Abhijñānashākuntala, Shakuntala, also known as The Recognition of Shakuntala, The Sign of Shakuntala,...

Author	Li Bai
ISBN	0140442723

Li Po (AD 701-62) and Tu Fu (AD 712-70) were devoted friends who are traditionally considered to be among China's greatest poets. Li Po, a legendary carouser, was an itinerant poet whose writing, often dream poems or spirit-journeys, soars to sublime heights in its descriptions of natural scenes and...

Author	Wendy Doniger
ISBN	0140449892

The earliest of the four Hindu religious scriptures known as the Vedas, and the first extensive composition to survive in any Indo-European language, the Rig Veda is a collection of over 1000 individual Sanskrit hymns. A work of intricate beauty, it provides a unique insight into early Indian mythology,...

Author	C. Rajagopalachari
ISBN	8172763689

Originally published in the year 1951, the huge popularity of the book has resulted in the book being re-printed several times. Centuries ago, it was proclaimed of the Mahabharata: "What is not in it, is nowhere." But even now, we can use the same words about it. He who knows it not, knows not the heights...

Author	Anonymous
ISBN	0060969598

The theme of The Book of Job is nothing less than human suffering and the transcendence of it: it pulses with moral energy, outrage, and spiritual insight.

Now, The Book of Job has been rendered into English by the eminent translator and scholar Stephen Mitchell, whose versions of Rilke, Israeli...

Author

Saadi

The Orchard: The Bostan Of Saadi Of Shiraz, Saadi
Bustan ("Būstān") is a book of poetry by the Persian poet Saadi, completed in 1257. Saadi's first work, and its title means "the orchard". The book contains the fruits of Saadi's long experience and his judgements upon life, and is illustrated...

Author	Vishnu Sharma
ISBN	8171670652

Panchatantra, is perhaps the oldest collection of Indian Fables still surviving. It is written around 200BC by the great Hindu Scholar Pandit Vishnu Sharma. Panchatantra means "the five books". It is a "Nitishastra" which means book of wise conduct in life. The book is written in the form of simple...

Author	Chikamatsu Monzaemon
ISBN	0231111010

Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1725) wrote some 130 plays, chiefly for the puppet theater, many of which are still performed today by puppet operators and Kabuki actors. Chikamatsu is thought to have written the first major tragedies about the common man. This edition of four of his most important plays...

Author	Wang Wei
ISBN	0811216187

Wang Wei (701-761 C.E.) is often spoken of, with his contemporaries Li Po and Tu Fu, as one of the three greatest poets in China's 3,000-year poetic tradition. Of the three, Wang was the consummate master of the short imagistic landscape poem that came to typify classical Chinese poetry. He developed...

Author	Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng
ISBN	1596544643

The fullest translation of Jin Ping Mei available in English. This edition was derived from the Egerton translation, minus the Latin, with a few euphemisms thrown in, but is considerably more complete than the Olympia Press version most Westerners are familiar with. Given the fine academic tradition...

Author	Luo Guanzhong
ISBN	0804843937

This exciting new translation will appeal to modern readers who find the twists and turns of Game of Thrones so compelling.

The Three Kingdoms is an epic Chinese novel written over six centuries ago. It recounts in vivid historical detail the turbulent years at the close of the Han Dynasty,...

Author	Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa
ISBN	0226568229

R.K. Narayan’s abridged, prose version of India’s national epic, The Mahabharata, is concise, fast paced, well written, and – unfortunately – passionless. Narayan has excised nearly everything not directly related to the Pandavas (Yudhistira, Bhima, Arjuna, and Nakula and Sahadeva)...

Author	Giacomo Leopardi
ISBN	0374235031

A New York Times Notable Book for 2011

Giacomo Leopardi is Italy's greatest modern poet, the first European writer to portray and examine the self in a way that feels familiar to us today. A great classical scholar and patriot, he explored metaphysical loneliness in entirely original ways....

Author	Mansur al-Hallaj
ISBN	9799373034

Mansur al-Hallaj, died 0919, was born near Shiraz on 0858, and tortured and executed in Baghdad for declaring: "I am the Truth (An-al Haq)." Much has been written about his famous (and infamous) statement, but few of his powerful, often mysteries and always deeply conscious and spiritual poems in Arabic...

Author	Sima Qian
ISBN	0231081693

Das Geschichtswerk des antiken China

Das "Shi Ji", hier als "Records of the Grand Historian" präsentiert, ist mit die wichtigste Quelle für Informationen über das antike China vor und während der Han-Dynastie. Ganz gemäß dem Temperament der konfuzianischen Chinesen mit ihrer Vergangenheitsfixierung...

Author	Nyoman S. Pendit
ISBN	9792203524

Epos Mahabharata yang secara lengkap diceritakan kembali ini memuat riwayat wangsa Bharata, dari nenek moyang yang menurunkan mereka, masa kecil hingga masa dewasa Pandawa dan Kaurawa, pecahnya perang Bharatayudha, sampai Pandawa moksa, naik ke Indraloka. Dari epos India yang sangat terkenal...

Author	Johann Peter Eckermann
ISBN	0306808811

It is a delightful book. I cannot help giving this book full five stars (This feels weird, though, to give such books stars).

I like every page of the book. Right at the beginning, Eckermann writes about his impoverished childhood and his realization that he is gifted.

Later in the Book,...

Author

Maria Fairweather

In her lifetime it was widely said that there were three political powers in Europe—Britain, Russia, and Madame de Stäel. Byron described her as "the first female writer of this, perhaps of any age," Germaine de Stäel was certainly the most remarkable woman of her time and she remains unique—both...

Author	Assia Djebar
ISBN	0435086227

Isma and Hajila are both wives of the same man, but they are not rivals.

Isma - older, vibrant, passionate, emancipated - is in stark contrast to the passive, cloistered Hajila. In alternating chapters, Isma tells her own story in the first person, and then Hajila's in the second person. She...

Author	David R. Kinsley
ISBN	0520063392

As a Hindu, I'm always on the lookout for books explaining the complexities of the world's oldest religion. Usually, I've been disappointed, as most of the material I find consist either of children's picture books or essays dry enough to cure insomnia.

But Kinsley's book was a delight, even...