New chronology and further reading; Tony Tanner's originalintroduction reinstated Edited with an introduction by Kathryn Sutherland.

According to Mohammed, the one true religion was revealed to five great prophets before him - Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus. But each time their message was ignored and people chose to worship false gods instead. As the last and greatest prophet of the one and only God, it was his task to abolish all idolatry. For many years his mission seemed hopeless. As long as he remained in Mecca, he made few converts and had to endure dangers and persecution. But when the city of Medina offered him sanctuary, his small band of followers rapidly multiplied. Mohammed now led his armies out to do battle in the desert, spreading his religion at the point of the sword. This later part of his life, as told by Washington Irving, is as much about military conquest as spiritual teaching. For us today, the consequences are still unfolding: reason to reflect on the extraordinary career of one individual who joined conviction, resoluteness, courage and self-mastery in the pursuit of a religious vision.

These three masterworks placed the great seventeenth-centuryEnglish poet Milton beside Shakespeare, Dante, Homer, andVirgil in the pantheon of world literature. A monumental achievement,Parudise Lost is the epic poem about the magnificent Lucifer, whose failed rebellion against Heaven's tyranny casts him into thedarkness of Hell and leads to man's fall from grace. SamsonAgonistes, the greatest English drama modeled on the Greekclassics, depicts blinded, once-mighty Samson regaining his strength as God's champion and delivering his people-whilede-stroying himself and his captors. And "Lycidas" is animmortal elegy on lost hopes and the nature of fate. Written in a grandstyle of superb power, these works display a majesty of lan- guage, a sublime wealth of detail, and the unmistakable genius ofone of literature's greatest minds.

Anton Chekhov's popularity in the west is without parallel for aforeign writer. He has been absorbed into our culture, and acceptedas one of our own. His plays lend themselves easily to the stage,calling for actors with intelligence and common sense rather than adramatic voice or histrionic skills. He takes from everyday lifethemes of frustration which apply to us all - the difficulty ofcarving out a happy existence, the problems of love, the fading ofhope, the universal feeling that time passes and we never quite getthings right. This seems pessimistic, and yet Chekhov claimed hewas writing comedy. Readers, actors and directors must decide forthemselves which way to play these pieces. They are full ofsadness, but a sadness described as the darkness of the last hourbefore the dawn . Whether tragic or comic, however, they are worksof the first importance. The Cherry Orchard has been described asthe best play since Shakespeare , Three Sisters as the best play inthe world .

酒店之夜，既不孤独，亦无陪伴，深夜寂静。本书讲述了一对学生恋人的故事。保罗是一个学生，为了维持生计，在一家宾馆中做夜间保安。他被租住在313号房间的年轻女子阿米莉娅给迷住了。关于她的一切都是谜：她去了哪里？又做了什么？四周流传着许许多多关于她的流言。后来，他们相爱了。有一天，阿米莉娅突然消失了。听说阿米莉娅为了找到她的母亲，去了萨拉热窝，她试图在那里找到她的身世与那场内战之间的联系。为了爱情，放弃安定的生活，背井离乡？还是选择遗忘，等待下一段感情？保罗经过反复思量，最终踏上了寻找阿米莉娅的路。