NCW Libraries

He journeyed farther than his near contemporary Marco Polo, though Muslim scholar Ibn Battuta is barely remembered at all compared to that legendary traveler. But Battuta's story is just as fascinating, as this 1829 translation of his diaries, by British Orientalist Rev. Samuel Lee, demonstrates. Embarking on what would eventually be a 27-year pilgrimage, Battuta traveled through East Africa, the Middle East, India, China, and beyond, bringing him...

"If this is the best of possible worlds, what then are the others?" - CANDIDE Candide is a French satire first published in 1759 by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment. It is the absurdly melodramatic story of a young man, Candide, living a sheltered life who clings desperately to "the best of all possible worlds," one which is abruptly interrupted by a series of painfully disillusioning events that set him off on a wide-ranging journey....

Written in the 6th century, The Consolation of Philosophy is the best-known--and most profound--work of the Christian theologian and philosopher St. Boethius. He composed this great work while he was unjustly imprisoned, directly before his unlawful execution. Consequently, The Consolation--which takes the form of a dialogue between Boethius and 'Lady Philosophy'--discusses a variety of important and weighty issues including ethics, the nature of...

A lively dialogue between a foreign philosopher and a powerful statesman, Plato's Laws reflects the essence of the philosopher's reasoning on political theory and practice. It also embodies his mature and more practical ideas about a utopian republic. Plato's discourse ranges from everyday issues of criminal and matrimonial law to wider considerations involving the existence of the gods, the nature of the soul, and the problem of evil. This translation...

"The first-ever illustrated account of Captain James Cook's epic eighteenth-century voyages, complete with excerpts from his vivid journals. This is history's greatest adventure story. In 1766, the Royal Society chose prodigal mapmaker and navigator James Cook to lead a South Pacific voyage. His orders were to chart the path of Venus across the sun. That task completed, his ship, the HMS Endeavour, continued to comb the southern hemisphere for the...

Written by Teresa of Avila in the 1570s as a guide for her fellow nuns on how to pray. She includes the three prerequisites for the prayer-filled life and contemplation, gives maxims for the practice of prayer, and explores each word or phrase in the Lord's Prayer.

Widely recognized as a classic of northern-exploration literature, A Journey to the Northern Ocean is Samuel Hearne's story of his three-year trek to seek a trade route across the Barrens in the Northwest Territories. Hearne was a superb reporter, from his anguished description of the massacre of helpless Eskimos by his Indian companions to his meticulous records of wildlife, flora and Indian manners and customs. As esteemed author Ken McGoogan points...

First publication of manuscript in the British Museum and comparison with Mackenzie's published account of 1801; editor himself canoed down the Mackenzie River in 1965.