Emerson's essays on six great men, from Plato to Napoleon, as embodiments of human possibility. A study of genius and its uses.
Books mentioned in Representative Men (24)
Aesop's Fables by Aesop: “Vedas, Aesop's Fables, Pilpay, Arabian Nights, Cid, Iliad, Robin Hood, Scottish Minstrelsy, are not the work of single men.”
Robin Hood: “Vedas, Aesop's Fables, Pilpay, Arabian Nights, Cid, Iliad, Robin Hood, Scottish Minstrelsy, are not the work of single men.”
The Essays by Michel de Montaigne: “A single odd volume of Cotton's translation of the Essays remained to me from my father's library, when a boy.”
Conjugial Love by Emanuel Swedenborg: “In the "Conjugal Love," he has unfolded the science of marriage. Of this book, one would say, that, with the highest elements, it has failed of success.”
The Animal Kingdom by Emanuel Swedenborg: “The "Animal Kingdom" is a book of wonderful merits. It was written with the highest end,--to put science and the soul, long estranged from each other”
The Economy of the Animal Kingdom by Emanuel Swedenborg: “the "Economy of the Animal Kingdom" is one of those books which, by the sustained dignity of thinking, is an honor to the human race.”
Italian Journey by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “His "Daily and Yearly Journal," his "Italian Travels," his "Campaign in France" and the historical part of his "Theory of Colors," have the same interest.”
A Thousand and One Nights: “Vedas, Aesop's Fables, Pilpay, Arabian Nights, Cid, Iliad, Robin Hood, Scottish Minstrelsy, are not the work of single men.”
Campaign in France by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “His "Daily and Yearly Journal," his "Italian Travels," his "Campaign in France" and the historical part of his "Theory of Colors," have the same interest.”
The Soul's Errand by Walter Raleigh: “His politics are those of the "Soul's Errand" of Sir Walter Raleigh”
Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer: “the Romaunt of the Rose is only judicious translation from William of Lorris and John of Meun: Troilus and Creseide, from Lollius of Urbino”
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare: “It is but a Twelfth Night, or Midsummer-Night's Dream, or a Winter Evening's Tale: what signifies another picture more or less?”
Faust, Part Two by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “The Helena, or the second part of Faust, is a philosophy of literature set in poetry”
Day and Year Papers by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “His "Daily and Yearly Journal," his "Italian Travels," his "Campaign in France" and the historical part of his "Theory of Colors," have the same interest.”
The Republic by Plato: “He says, in the Republic, "Such a genius as philosophers must of necessity have, is wont but seldom, in all its parts, to meet in one man”
Daedalus Hyperboreus by Emanuel Swedenborg: “He published, in 1716, his Daedalus Hyperboreus, and, from this time, for the next thirty years, was employed in the composition and publication of his scientific works.”
Gorboduc (Ferrex and Porrex) by Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton: “from Ferrex and Porrex, and Gammer Gurton's Needle, down to the possession of the stage by the very pieces which Shakspeare altered”
Henry VI by William Shakespeare: “Malone's laborious computations in regard to the First, Second, and Third parts of Henry VI., in which, "out of 6043 lines”
Military Memoirs by Théodore Séruzier: “Seruzier, a colonel of artillery, gives, in his "Military Memoirs," the following sketch of a scene after the battle of Austerlitz.”
The Romaunt of the Rose by Geoffrey Chaucer: “the Romaunt of the Rose is only judicious translation from William of Lorris and John of Meun: Troilus and Creseide, from Lollius of Urbino”
The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border by Walter Scott: “Vedas, Aesop's Fables, Pilpay, Arabian Nights, Cid, Iliad, Robin Hood, Scottish Minstrelsy, are not the work of single men.”
Theory of Colours by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “His "Daily and Yearly Journal," his "Italian Travels," his "Campaign in France" and the historical part of his "Theory of Colors," have the same interest.”
Timaeus and Phaedrus by Plato: “poetry has never soared higher than in the Timaeus and the Phaedrus.”
Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “Wilhelm Meister is a novel in every sense, the first of its kind, called by its admirers the only delineation of modern society”