Jacques Barzun

Jacques Barzun (1907–2012) was professor of history at Columbia University and the author of many books, including the bestselling From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present; Simple and Direct; The Energies of Art; and The House of Intellect. From the celebrated cultural historian and bestselling author, a provocative history of the evolution of our ideas about art since the early nineteenth century In this...

Sherlock Holmes and the faithful Dr. Watson are featured here in a series of twelve of their earliest cases. They include A Scandal in Bohemia where, uniquely, Holmes is outwitted - by a beautiful woman; The Red-Headed League, which begins with a bizarre newspaper advertisement for red-haired men; and The Adventure of the Speckled Band, in which the great detective traces a sinister whistling sound to its lethal source. First published month by month...

Gulliver's Travels tells of the fantastic voyages of Lemuel Gulliver, an Englishman and ship's surgeon, who travels to the "several remote nations of the world." In the beginning, he becomes shipwrecked in the land of Lilliput, where the distressed inhabitants are only six inches tall. His second voyage takes him to Brobdingnag, where lives a race of giants. At Glubdubdrib, the Island of Sorcerers, he speaks with great men of the past and learns from...

Drawing from the works of influential figures in art and literature, the author traces the development of romanticism from classicism and the emergence of the modern ego.