Books Ive acquired during college and graduate school
Explore my curated collection of books acquired during college and graduate school—essential reads for students, academics, and lifelong learners in various disciplines.
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Narn i Chîn Húrin
by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
A fantasy adventure saga set in the early days of Middle-Earth features humans and elves, dwarves and dragons, orcs and dark sorcerers clashing in an epic battle between good and evil.
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The Silmarillion
by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
Published posthumously in 1977 to international acclaim, Tolkien's oldest tale of Middle-earth is now available in this revised and expanded volume. This new illustrated edition of "The Silmarillion," containing 48 stunning color paintings by Ted Nasmith, is the most sumptuous ever published.
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The Canterbury Tales
by Geoffrey Chaucer
Nevill Coghill’s masterly and vivid modern English verse translation with all the vigor and poetry of Chaucer’s fourteenth-century Middle English A Penguin Classic In The Canterbury Tales Chaucer created one of the great touchstones of English literature, a masterly collection of chivalric romances, moral allegories and low farce. A story-telling competition between a group of pilgrims from all walks of life is the occasion for a series of tales that range from the Knight’s account of courtly love and the ebullient Wife of Bath’s Arthurian legend, to the ribald anecdotes of the Miller and the Cook. Rich and diverse, The Canterbury Tales offer us an unrivalled glimpse into the life and mind of medieval England. For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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The Epic of Gilgamesh
A great king, strong as the stars in Heaven. Enkidu, a wild and mighty hero, is created by the gods to challenge the arrogant King Gilgamesh. But instead of killing each other, the two become friends. Travelling together to the Cedar Forest, they fight and slay the evil monster Humbaba. But when Enkidu is killed, his death haunts and breaks the mighty Gilgamesh. Terrified of mortality, he resolves to find the secret of eternal life...
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Unfinished Tales
by J.R.R. Tolkien
An extraordinary discovery is waiting for you on these pages. Mythic lore and forgotten legends unearthed by Christopher Tolkien from his father's archives unveil never-before-told stories of the three ages of ancient Middle-earth. THE FIRST AGE Young lord Turin fled from Morgoth’s forces, wandering in disguise as an outlaw until he could avenge his people against the evil that had razed his home. But Turin lived under the curse of a hateful dragon—and the lord’s secret identity hid more than he knew. THE SECOND AGE Prince Aldarion’s heart belonged to Erendis, but his passion lay with the ocean, and the great ships that sailed beyond the sight of the land. But no man could serve two mistresses—and no mortal’s love could withstand the lure of the sea. THE THIRD AGE The great warrior Isildur escaped with the One Ring, cut from the Dark Lord Sauron’s hand, to hide it from Evil’s grasp. But Isildur would learn the burden of a ringbearer—and of its temptation and despair.
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Madness and Civilization
by Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault examines the archeology of madness in the West from 1500 to 1800 - from the late Middle Ages, when insanity was still considered part of everyday life and fools and lunatics walked the streets freely, to the time when such people began to be considered a threat, asylums were first built, and walls were erected between the "insane" and the rest of humanity.
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The Divine Comedy
by Dante Alighieri
The Divine Comedy, translated by Allen Mandelbaum, begins in a shadowed forest on Good Friday in the year 1300. It proceeds on a journey that, in its intense recreation of the depths and the heights of human experience, has become the key with which Western civilization has sought to unlock the mystery of its own identity. Mandelbaum's astonishingly Dantean translation, which captures so much of the life of the original, renders whole for us the masterpiece of that genius whom our greatest poets have recognized as a central model for all poets. This Everyman's edition-containing in one volume all three cantos, Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso-includes an introduction by Nobel Prize--winning poet Eugenio Montale, a chronology, notes, and a bibliography. Also included are forty-two drawings selected from Botticelli's marvelous late-fifteenth-century series of illustrations. (Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)
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Libra
by Don DeLillo
In this powerful, eerily convincing fictional speculation on the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Don DeLillo chronicles Lee Harvey Oswald's odyssey from troubled teenager to a man of precarious stability who imagines himself an agent of history. When history presents itself in the form of two disgruntled CIA operatives who decide that an unsuccessful attempt on the life of the president will galvanize the nation against communism, the scales are irrevocably tipped.