A collection of essays by American philosopher and writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, Representative Men explores the lives and works of some of history's most influential figures, including Plato, Shakespeare, and Napoleon. Drawing on his own keen insights and vast knowledge, Emerson offers a unique perspective on these thinkers and their legacies, and challenges readers to reconsider their own assumptions about greatness and achievement. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Representative Men is a collection of seven lectures by Ralph Waldo Emerson, published as a book of essays in 1850. The first essay discusses the role played by "great men" in society, and the remaining six each extol the virtues of one of six men deemed by Emerson to be great: Plato ("the Philosopher")Emanuel Swedenborg ("the Mystic")Michel de Montaigne ("the Skeptic")William Shakespeare ("the Poet")Napoleon ("the Man of the World")Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ("the Writer"

Representative Men is a collection of seven lectures by Ralph Waldo Emerson, published as a book of essays in 1850. The first essay discusses the role played by "great men" in society, and the remaining six each extoll the virtues of one of six men deemed by Emerson to be great:Plato ("the Philosopher")Emanuel Swedenborg ("the Mystic")Michel de Montaigne ("the Skeptic")William Shakespeare ("the Poet")Napoleon ("the Man of the World")Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ("the Writer")

"How good and sound and inviolable his innocency, that is never to seek, and never wrong, but speaks the pure sense of humanity on each occasion." -Ralph Waldo Emerson, Shakespeare Shakespeare, the Poet (1850) by Ralph Waldo Emerson is one of seven essays Emerson included in his book, Representative Men (also available from Cosimo Classics). Like the other figures in this collection, Shakespeare embodied, for Emerson, the essence of the qualities that accomplished poets possess. These were qualities Emerson felt are critical to a spiritually strong world.