Herodotus was hailed as “The Father of History” by Cicero; To me, he might as well be the Father of Humanism. The Histories is a magnificent epic which excels in scope, structure, richness of content, intricacy and theatrical grandeur. The main theme is the Persian Wars, i.e., the conflicts between the Persian Empire and Greek nations, culminating in the invasion of Greece by Xerxes I; the underlying theme is the […]
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“Iliad” by Homer
Great War Epic Imagine camping on a beach on a start-lit night, and as you’re sitting around the camp fire, Homer tells a story of a great war that happened on the very same shore a long, long time ago. There were warriors as numerous as the stars in the heaven and grains of sand on the beach, but the majority of them were doomed to die because of the […]
Read more“War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy
It took me at least three attempts and more than a year’s time to finish “War and Peace”, and I’m certainly glad that I finally did. A True of Work of Art Like a good farmer who sows the seeds, cultivates, waters, and patiently waits for the crops to mature, Tolstoy lets his characters develop slowly, giving vivid descriptions of their external and internal lives as they unfold. “War and […]
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