Bringing together for the first time all the available evidence for the origination and development of the concept of Arcadia, from the Homeric period to the early Roman Empire, this book brings to light a treasure-trove of evidence, both well-known and obscure or fragmentary, filling a significant gap in the scholarly bibliography.

Greek Literature and the Ideal contends that the development of Greek literature was motivated by the need to endow political geography with a sense of purposeful structure. Alexander Kirichenko argues that Greek literature was a crucial factor in the cultural production of space, and Greek geography a crucial factor in the production of literary meaning. The book focuses on the idealizing images that Greek literature created of three spatial patterns of power distribution: a decentralized network of aristocratically governed communities (Archaic Greece); a democratic city controlling an empire (Classical Athens); and a microcosm of Greek culture located on foreign soil, ruled by quasi-divine royals, and populated by immigrants (Ptolemaic Alexandria). Kirichenko draws connections between the formation of these idealizing images and the emergence of such literary modes of meaning making as the authoritative communication of the truth, the dialogic encouragement to search for the truth on one's own, and the abandonment of transcendental goals for the sake of cultural memory and/or aesthetic pleasure. Readings of such canonical Greek authors as Homer, Hesiod, the tragedians, Thucydides, Plato, Callimachus, and Theocritus show that the pragmatics of Greek literature (the sum total of the ideological, cognitive, and emotional effects that it seeks to produce) is, in essence, always a pragmatics of space: there is a strong correlation between the historically conditioned patterns of political geography and the changing mechanisms whereby Greek literature enabled its recipients to make sense of their world.

This interdisciplinary volume explains the phenomenon of nationalism in nineteenth-century Europe through the prism of Graeco-Roman antiquity. Through a series of case studies covering a broad range of source material, it demonstrates the different purposes the heritage of the classical world was put to during a turbulent period in European history. Contributors include classicists, historians, archaeologists, art historians and others.

It would be enough to recommend this astonishing, 45-volume set, first published in 1896, if it were merely a wonderfully massive compilation of the world's best writings from the world's best authors up until the advent of the 20th century. But A Library of the World's Best Literature is so much more than that. For this marvelous collection represents the evolution of human thought-the evolution of human civilization, even-as seen through the mind of one of the most important, if sadly almost forgotten, literary figures of the 19th century.Popular American essayist, novelist, and journalist CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER (1829-1900) was renowned for the warmth and intimacy of his writing, which encompassed travelogue, biography and autobiography, fiction, and more, and influenced entire generations of his fellow writers. Here, the prolific writer turned editor for his final grand work, a splendid survey of global literature, classic and modern, and it's not too much to suggest that if his friend and colleague Mark Twain-who stole Warner's quip about how "everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it"-had assembled this set, it would still be hailed today as one of the great achievements of the book world.And so it still deserves to be. Arranged not chronologically but alphabetically, mostly under the names of authors but in some cases of literatures or special subjects-such as Icelandic literature or Arthurian legend-this set is no dry reference work. These eminently browsable volumes-available through Cosimo for the first time in decades in both paperback and hardcover editions-are meant to be read and enjoyed by anyone who loves the written word.Volume 45 features more synopses of notable works-from Adam Bede by George Eliot to Zury; The Meanest Man in Spring County by Joseph Kirkland-including many not previously referenced in the set but highlighted as well worth a serious reader's time and attention.This volume also includes a General Index to the 45-volume set.