The Cherry Orchard is one of the best known plays by the prolific Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov. It has been translated into practically all languages and is part of the classic repertoire of all world stages. Chekhov is known for his art of subtlety, humour, stream of consciousness technique, and fine balance which is often difficult to get right. Chekhov described the play as a comedy, with some elements of farce, though Stanislavski treated it as a tragedy. Since its first production, directors have contended with its dual nature. The play concerns an aristocratic Russian landowner who returns to her family estate just before it is auctioned to pay the mortgage. Unresponsive to offers to save the estate, she allows its sale to the son of a former serf. The story presents themes of cultural futility – both the futile attempts of the aristocracy to maintain its status and of the bourgeoisie to find meaning in its newfound materialism. It dramatises the rise of the middle class after the abolition of serfdom in the mid-19th century and the decline of the power of the aristocracy.

Three Sisters was written for the Moscow Art Theatre and was directed by Staniskavski himself on first opening. The play is often included in Chekhov's list of four outstanding plays and part of the classic repertoire of many world theatres. The play follows Chekhovian tradition of subtle character development and humour which often makes it a challenge for both performers and directors.

KING CHARLES THE FIRST was born in Scotland. It may perhaps surprise the reader that an English king should be born in Scotland. The explanation is this:??They who have read the history of Mary Queen of Scots, will remember that it was the great end and aim of her life to unite the crowns of England and Scotland in her own family. Queen Elizabeth was then Queen of England. She lived and died unmarried. Queen Mary and a young man named Lord Darnley were the next heirs. It was uncertain which of the two had the strongest claim. To prevent a dispute, by uniting these claims, Mary made Darnley her husband. ??They had it son, who, after the death of his father and mother, was acknowledged to be the heir to the English throne, whenever Elizabeth's life should end. In the meantime he remained King of Scotland. His name was James. He married a princess of Denmark; and his child, who afterward was King Charles the First of England, was born before he left his native realm.

Adam Smith's masterpiece, first published in 1776, is the foundation of modern economic thought and remains the single most important account of the rise of, and the principles behind, modern capitalism. Written in clear and incisive prose, The Wealth of Nations articulates the concepts indispensable to an understanding of contemporary society.

The Federalist Papers are a series of 85 articles advocating the ratification of the United States Constitution. Seventy-seven of the essays were published serially in The Independent Journal and The New York Packet between October 1787 and August 1788. A compilation of these and eight others, called The Federalist, was published in 1788 by J. and A. McLean. The Federalist Papers serve as a primary source for interpretation of the Constitution, as they outline the philosophy and motivation of the proposed system of government. The authors of the Federalist Papers wanted to both influence the vote in favor of ratification and shape future interpretations of the Constitution. According to historian Richard B. Morris, they are an "incomparable exposition of the Constitution, a classic in political science unsurpassed in both breadth and depth by the product of any later American writer."

Cei ce sus?in c? tr?im ?ntr-o er? a comunic?rii par s? confunde dezvoltarea telecomunica?iilor cu progresul comunic?rii interumane. Nu este c?tu?i de pu?in sigur c? suntem ast?zi mai capabili dec?t ?n trecut de solidaritate afectiv? cu semenii, de ?mp?rt??ire de tr?iri intime, de prietenie ?i dragoste. Poate chiar dimpotriv?. Ceea ce ?inea ?n trecut de normalitatea vie?ii de fiecare zi ?i, ca atare, nu mobiliza ?n mod special aten?ia celor implica?i, a devenit ast?zi obiect de analiz? tocmai pentru c? nu se mai produce spontan, ci necesit? un efort con?tient, inclusiv de natura teoretic-investigativ?.Cunoa?terea principiilor ?i a mecanismelor comunic?rii interpersonale a devenit indispensabil? pentru ameliorarea raporturilor dintre oameni ?i a ?ncetat s? mai fie numai o problem? a speciali?tilor. Dac? ?n trecut oamenii comunicau spontan, ?n felul ?n care f?cea proza ?burghezul gentilom“, ast?zi suntem tot mai mult ?n situa?ia unui domn Jourdain care, pentru a se apropia de semenii s?i, are nevoie de un ghid. Acestui imperativ ?ncearc? s?-i r?spund?, ?n felul s?u, ?i lucrarea de fa??.

Cartea t?n?rului universitar Mihai-Bogdan Marian consacrat? analizei conflictelor interna?ionale este o invita?ie la luciditate, la reflec?ie autonom?, dezinhibat?, la cercetare aplicat?, f?r? prejudec??i ?i partizanate apriorice. Autorul este un analist pentru care exerci?iul ?n sine al disec?rii cauzelor ?i ?mprejur?rilor ce favorizeaz? apari?ia ?i acutizarea conflictelor interna?ionale nu este unul fortuit sau gratuit. Ideea sa tutelar? este c? orice astfel de conflict poate fi pre?nt?mpinat. Iar dac?, fatalmente, el s-a declan?at ?i s-a dezvoltat, sc?p?nd poate de sub control, poate fi dezamorsat, factorii angrena?i ?n acest proces av?nd la ?ndem?n? algoritmi ?i proceduri standard care nu trebuie s? fac? obiectul unei ac?iuni in extremis, care s? justifice de fapt prin e?ec escaladarea ?n continuare a conflictului ca atare. (Mihai Milca)

The period included in the reigns of Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian, was remarkable for two memorable events in the annals of ecclesiastical history; the first persecution of the Christian Church by the sixth Roman sovereign, and the dissolution of the Jewish polity by Titus. The destruction of Jerusalem was stupendous, not only as an act of divine wrath, but as being the proximate cause of the dispersion of a whole nation, upon which a long series of sorrow, spoliation, and oppression lighted, in consequence of the curse the Jews had invoked, when in reply to the remonstrances of Pilate they had cried out, “His blood be upon us and our children.” The church below, represented in Scripture as a type of the heavenly Jerusalem above, and having its seat then in the doomed city, was not to continue there, lest the native Jews composing it should gather round them a people of their own nation, in a place destined to remain desolate till the time when the dispersed of Israel should be converted, and rebuild their city and temple. The city bearing the ancient name of Jerusalem does not indeed occupy the same site, being built round the sacred spot where the garden once stood, in which a mortal sepulchre received the lifeless form of the Saviour of the world. But happier times seem dawning on the dispersed of Judea. Our own days have seen the foundations of a Jewish Christian church laid in Jerusalem; our Queen Victoria and the King of Prussia united to commence a work of love, thereby fulfilling in part the promise made to the Jews of old, “And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and queens thy nursing mothers.” To those readers who feel interested in the dispersed of Israel and Judea, these pages may afford, perhaps, information on an important subject as well as amusement.

THE Mesopotamian civilization shares with the Egyptian civilization the honour of being one of the two earliest civilizations in the world, and although M. J. de Morgan’s excavations at Susa the ruined capital of ancient Elam, have brought to light the elements of an advanced civilization which perhaps even antedates that of Mesopotamia, it must be remembered that the Sumerians who, so far as our present knowledge goes, were the first to introduce the arts of life and all that they bring with them, into the low-lying valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, probably themselves emigrated from the Elamite plateau on the east of the Tigris; at all events the Sumerians expressed both “mountain” and “country” by the same writing-sign, the two apparently being synonymous from their point of view; in support of this theory of a mountain-home for the Sumerians, we may perhaps further explain the temple-towers, the characteristic feature of most of the religious edifices in Mesopotamia, as a conscious or unconscious imitation in bricks and mortar of the hills and ridges of their native-land, due to an innate aversion to the dead-level monotony of the Babylonian plain, while it is also a significant fact that in the earliest period Shamash the Sun-god is represented with one foot resting on a mountain, or else standing between two mountains. However this may be, the history of the Elamites was intimately wrapped up with that of the dwellers on the other side of the Tigris, from the earliest times down to the sack of Susa by Ashur-bani-pal, king of Assyria, in the seventh century. Both peoples adopted the cuneiform system of writing, so-called owing to the wedge-shaped formation of the characters, the wedges being due to the material used in later times for all writing purposes—the clay of their native soil—: both spoke an agglutinative, as opposed to an inflexional language like our own, and both inherited a similar culture. A further, and in its way a more convincing argument in support of the mountain-origin theory is afforded by the early art of the Sumerians. On the most primitive seal cylinders1 we find trees and animals whose home is in the mountains, and which certainly were not native to the low-lying plain of Babylonia. The cypress and the cedar-tree are only found in mountainous districts, but a tree which must be identified with one or the other of them is represented on the early seal cylinders; it is of course true that ancient Sumerian rulers fetched cedar wood from the mountains for their building operations, and therefore the presence of such a tree on cylinder seals merely argues a certain acquaintance with the tree, but Ceteris paribus it is more reasonable to suppose that the material earthly objects depicted, were those with which the people were entirely familiar and not those with which they were merely casually acquainted. Again, on the early cylinders the mountain bull, known as the Bison bonasus, assumes the r?le played in later times by the lowland water-buffalo. This occurs with such persistent regularity that the inference that the home of the Sumerians in those days was in the mountains is almost inevitable. Again, as Ward points out, the composite man-bull Ea-bani, the companion of Gilgamesh, has always the body of a bison, never that of a buffalo. So too the frequent occurrence of the ibex, the oryx, and the deer with branching horns, all argues in the same direction, for the natural home of all these animals lay in the mountains.

Apariia n 1948 a primei reviste romneti n exil, la Paris, intitulat de creatorii ei, Virgil Ierunca i Mircea Eliade, Luceafrul“, a venit dup ce tvlugul sovietic reuise s anihileze n ar Romnia politic, iar pe cea spiritual parial, ducnd, dup cum spunea Julien Benda, la trdarea crturarilor. Reacia la aceast stare a venit, aa dup cum era i firesc, din partea unor intelectuali exilai i cu precdere a lui Virgil Ierunca, unul dintre cei doi componeni a ceea ce putem denumi instituia Lovinescu – Ierunca“. Acest cuplu a tiut s prezerve valorile romneti i nu numai pe cele spirituale, s anime, s conving, s scoat din inerie pe acei intelectuali romni exilai care i cutau menirea n acea lume care, pe atunci, nu oferea, ca mai trziu, linitea interioar att de necesar creaiei. Ierunca a fost deseori cel care l-a mpins pe Mircea Eliade s nu rmn ancorat ntr-o literatur de mrturii, ci ntr-o via activ de creaie, de cutri. Volumul de fa, care ne restituie“ Luceafrul“, se datoreaz meritului deosebit al autorilor Mihaela Albu i Dan Anghelescu.Studiul efectuat cu ntreaga dragoste i acribie a cercetatorului ne dezvluie, cu rafinament, ndeosebi o cunoatere aprofundat a simirilor celor care, cu 60 de ani n urm, nu abdicaser de la datorie. Impresioneaz nu numai relatarea faptic, dar i bogia cu care cei doi autori pun n relaie imensul lor bagaj cultural cu ceea ce au produs cu o jumtate de secol n urm autorii Luceafrului“.“ (Dinu Zamfirescu)

AS you open this book you will probably ask, "What is a golden deed?"?Let me tell you. It is the doing of something for somebody else doing it without thought of self, without thought of reward, fearlessly, heroically, and because it is a duty.??Such a deed is possible to you, to me, to everybody. It is frequently performed without forethought or definite intention. It is the spontaneous manifestation of nobility, somewhere, of mind or heart. It may consist merely in the doing of some kind and helpful service at home or at school. It may be an unexpected test of heroism a warning of danger, a saving of somebody's life. It may be an act of benevolence, or a series of such acts, world-wide in application and results.??This little volume is only a book of samples. Here are specimens of golden deeds of various kinds and of different degrees of merit, ranging from the unpremeditated saving of a railroad train to the great humanitarian movement which carries blessings to all mankind. To attempt to tell of every such deed, or of every one that is eminently worthy, would fill a multitude of books. ??The, examples which I have chosen are such only as have occurred on American soil, or have been performed by Americans, thus distinguishing the volume from Miss Charlotte Yonge's "Book of Golden Deeds," published for English readers fifty years ago. While some of these narratives may have the appearance of romance, yet they are all believed to be true, and in most cases the real name of the hero, or of the lover of humanity, is given.??Instances of doing and daring have always a fascination for young people, and when to these is added the idea of a noble underlying motive the lessons taught by them cannot fail to be beneficial. ?

Descent Into Hell is a novel written by Charles Williams, first published in 1937. Williams is less well known than his fellow Inklings, such as C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. Like some of them, however, he wrote a series of novels which combine elements of fantasy fiction and Christian symbolism. Forgoing the detective fiction style of most of his earlier supernatural novels, most of the story's action is spiritual or psychological in nature. It fits the "theological thriller" description sometimes given to his works. For this reason Descent was initially rejected by publishers, though T. S. Eliot's publishing house Faber and Faberwould eventually pick up the novel, as Eliot admired Williams's work, and, though he did not like Descent Into Hell as well as the earlier novels, desired to see it printed.SHORT SUMMARY: The action takes place in Battle Hill, outside London, amidst the townspeople's staging of a new play by Peter Stanhope. The hill seems to reside at the crux of time, as characters from the past appear, and perhaps at a doorway to the beyond, as characters are alternately summoned heavenwards or descend into hell. Pauline Anstruther, the heroine of the novel, lives in fear of meeting her own doppelganger, which has appeared to her throughout her life. But Stanhope, in an action central to the author's own theology, takes the burden of her fears upon himself—Williams called this The Doctrine of Substituted Love—and enables Pauline, at long last, to face her true self. Williams drew this idea from the biblical verse, "Ye shall bear one another's burdens" And so Stanhope does take the weight, with no surreptitious motive, in the most affecting scene in the novel. And Pauline, liberated, is able to accept truth.On the other hand, Lawrence Wentworth, a local historian, finding his desire for Adela Hunt to be unrequited, falls in love instead with a spirit form of Adela, which seems to represent a kind of extreme self-love on his part. As he isolates himself more and more with this insubstantial figure, and dreams of descending a silver rope into a dark pit, Wentworth begins the descent into Hell.HARROWING of HELL: "Christ in Limbo" and "Descent into Hell" redirect here. For the novel by Charles Williams, see Descent into Hell (novel). For the 8th-century Anglo-Saxon liturgical play, see Harrowing of Hell (drama).

Strepsiades complains to the audience that he is too worried about household debts to get any sleep – his aristocratic wife has encouraged their son's expensive interest in horses. Strepsiades, having thought up a plan to get out of debt, wakes the youth gently and pleads with him to do something for him. Pheidippides at first agrees to do as he's asked then changes his mind when he learns that his father wants to enroll him in The Thinkery, a school for wastrels and bums that no self-respecting, athletic young man dares to be associated with.

Uncle Vanya is different from Chekhov's other major plays as it is essentially an extensive reworking of his own other play published a decade earlier, The Wood Demon. By elucidating the specific changes Chekhov made during the revision process—these include reducing the cast-list from almost two dozen down to nine, changing the climactic suicide of The Wood Demon into the famous failed homicide of Uncle Vanya, and altering the original happy ending into a more problematic.

When Oedipus, King of Thebes, realized he had married his own mother and had two sons and two daughters with her, he blinded himself and cursed his sons to divide their kingdom by the sword. The two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, in order to avoid bloodshed, agreed to rule Thebes in alternate years. After the first year, Eteocles refused to step down, leading Polynices to raise an army of Argives captained by the eponymous Seven to take Thebes by force. This is where Aeschylus' tragedy starts.

The play begins with a strange scene—a large net has been spread over a house, the entry is barricaded and two slaves are sleeping in the street outside. A third man is positioned at the top of an exterior wall with a view into the inner courtyard but he too is asleep. The two slaves wake and we learn from their banter that they are keeping guard over a 'monster'. The man asleep above them is their master and the monster is his father—he has an unusual disease.

The protagonist, Dikaiopolis, miraculously obtains a private peace treaty with The Spartans and he enjoys the benefits of peace in spite of opposition from some of his fellow Athenians.

Trygaeus, a middle-aged Athenian, miraculously brings about a peaceful end to the Peloponnesian War, thereby earning the gratitude of farmers while bankrupting various tradesmen who had profited from the hostilities. He celebrates his triumph by marrying Harvest, a companion of Festival and Peace, all of whom he has liberated from a celestial prison.

Volumul de fa?? reune?te portretele sclipitoare ale celor mai ilustre favorite. Apropiate puterii, exercit?ndu??i influen?a adesea ?ntr?o manier? clandestin?, ele alc?tuiesc un galant cortegiu de femei c?rora importan?i b?rba?i de stat le datoreaz? mult. Ce este o favorit?? Cuv?ntul, ne?ndoielnic originar din italian?, se refer? la o femeie care ?se bucur? de favorurile" unei persoane de rang foarte ?nalt. Spre deosebire de o amant?, favorita nu se mul?ume?te s? fie obiectul unei pasiuni amoroase, fie aceasta efemer? ori durabil?. Ea are putere, exercit? influen?? politic?, economic? sau artistic?; ob?ine rezultate, fericite sau dezastruoase. Fie c? e iubit? de popula?ie, tolerat? sau detestat?, nimic nu se face ?i nu se desface f?r? ea. Muzele prezentate de autor ?n acest periplu prin istoria Europei au jucat toate un rol propor?ional cu influen?a exercitat? asupra monarhului, prin?ului mo?tenitor, regelui sau ?mp?ratului l?ng? care s-au aflat, fie el c?s?torit, v?duv sau celibatar: Agnes Sorel, Diana de Poitiers, Gabrielle d’Estrées, Louise de La Valliere, marchiza de Montespan, doamna de Maintenon, surorile de Nesle, marchiza de Pompadour, doamna du Barry, Zoé du Cayla, Lol Montez, Miss Howard, Katia Dolgorukova, Blanche Delacroix, Magda Lupescu ?i Wallis Simpson. Optsprezece portrete de femei care au influen?at cursul istoriei. ?n bine ?i ?n r?u.?

n vara anului 1914, cea mai mare parte a Europei s-a prbuit ntr-un rzboi att de catastrofal nct a zdruncinat politica i nsui sistemul de credine al continentului ntr-un mod fundamental. Dezastrul i-a nspimntat pe supravieuitori i a ocat o civilizaie care i asumase total rolul de model pentru restul lumii. Totul s-a prbuit ntr-un haos de o slbticie aflat dincolo de orice termen de comparaie. n 1939, europenii aveau s nceap un al doilea conflict care a reuit s fie chiar i mai teribil – un rzboi n care uciderea civililor a ocupat scena central i care a culminat cu Holocaustul. Drumul spre iadne spune aceast poveste cu nelegere, fler i originalitate. Kershaw reia evenimentele ntr-o naraiune fascinant, dar abordeaz i problemele cele mai dificile pe care le ridic aceste ntmplri din trecut – ce au nsemnat ele pentru europenii care le-au declanat i care le-au trit i ce nseamn pentru noi. Istorie la dimensiuni epice... ar trebui s figureze n lista lecturilor obligatorii. –The New York Times Ne aflm n prezena unui istoric emerit.– Spectator Magistral.– The Economist

Cititorul va redescoperi, citind aceast? carte, istoriile, uneori-adeseori, scandaloase ale celebrelor cupluri bucure?tene, inclusiv c?teva din pove?tile de dragoste care s-au legat ?ntre domni?ele noastre ?i str?inii ajun?i la Bucure?ti, fie ?n calitate de diploma?i, fie de militari. Nu lipsesc din aceste pagini nici arti?tii din galeria ?aman?ilor magnifici“ ai Bucure?tilor de odinioar?. Un exemplu este povestea rivalit??ii Eminescu – Caragiale ?n ceea ce-o prive?te pe Veronica Micle sau povestea dublei pasiuni a arhitectului Alexandru Orascu – pentru so?ia sa Elena Marcovici ?i pentru ora?ul natal pe care visa s?-l ridice din cenu?? ?i ruine. Un Bucure?ti al Afroditei ?i al lui Eros (cum ?i mergea vestea ?nca din veacul fanariot, potrivit calug?rului grec Daponte), nu era de ?nchipuit f?r? evocarea vestitelor baluri din palatul ?u?u ?i nici f?r? evocarea cuplului Grigore ?i Irina ?u?u, arbitri ai elegan?ei, ospitalit??ii ?i curtoaziei specifice secolului al XIX-lea.