Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 16

This sixteenth volume of Charles Dudley Warner's ambitious anthology functions as a literary time capsule, gathering centuries of human thought into a single accessible collection. The volume opens with Aulus Gellius's Attic Nights, a delightful Roman grab-bag of philosophy, scandalous Senate gossip, and Vestal Virgin lore, setting the eclectic tone that follows. Readers encounter the moral fables of the Gesta Romanorum, snippets of ancient Mesopotamian epic (the Theogony, the Flood story, the Flight of Etana), and the tortured correspondence of Abelard and Heloise rendered in Thomas Davidson's careful translations. The Adams family makes appearances through personal letters and speeches, including John Quincy Adams's soaring Fourth of July oration on America's mission. Joseph Addison's essays on Sir Roger de Coverley bring eighteenth-century English wit, while selections from Gibbon anchor the historical offerings. The effect is of walking through a Victorian parlor library where every page promises discovery. What makes this volume remarkable is its democratic faith that ordinary readers deserve access to the world's finest minds, from forgotten Roman senators to Enlightenment wits.