Good Books for Men

Plato's The Republic is widely acknowledged as the cornerstone of Western philosophy.

Presented in the form of a dialogue between Socrates and three different interlocutors, it is an inquiry into the notion of a perfect community and the ideal individual within it. During the conversation other questions are raised: what is goodness; what is reality; what is knowledge? The Republic also addresses the purpose of education and the role of both women and men as "guardians" of the people. With remarkable lucidity and deft use of allegory, Plato arrives at a depiction of a state bound by harmony and ruled by "philosopher kings."

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

From his perspective in Renaissance Italy, Machiavelli's aim in this classic work was to resolve conflict with the ruling prince, Lorenzo de Medici. Machiavelli based his insights on the way people really are rather than an ideal of how they should be. 3 cassettes.

This carefully annotated selection features the main analysis of the operation of an economic system, the introductory chapter of the great attack on mercantilism, and portions of the analysis of the functions of the state-Books I, IV, and V. Edited by George J. Stigler, this useful volume includes an introduction and a bibliography.

One of the greatest novels ever written is presented in a brilliant new translation. 4 cassettes.

Described by the Chicago Tribune as "a classic," The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt stands as one of the greatest biographies of our time. The publication of The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt on September 14th, 2001 marks the 100th anniversary of Theodore Roosevelt becoming president.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Introduction by Jeffrey Eugenides
 
Written in his distinctively dazzling manner, Oscar Wilde's story of a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty is the author's most popular work. The tale of Dorian Gray's moral disintegration caused a scandal when it first appeared in 1890, but though Wilde was attacked for the novel's corrupting influence, he responded that there is, in fact, “a terrible moral in Dorian Gray.” Just a few years later, the book and the aesthetic/moral dilemma it presented became issues in the trials occasioned by Wilde's homosexual liaisons, which resulted in his imprisonment. Of Dorian Gray's relationship to autobiography, Wilde noted in a letter, “Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be—in other ages, perhaps.”

First published in 1903, The Call of the Wild is regarded as Jack London's masterpiece. Based on London's experiences as a gold prospector in the Canadian wilderness and his ideas about nature and the struggle for existence, The Call of the Wild is a tale about unbreakable spirit and the fight for survival in the frozen Alaskan Klondike.

The seventy-fifth edition of the self-help classic with vintage Dale Carnegie recordings and a bonus digital copy of the complete audiobook!

YOU CAN GO AFTER THE JOB YOU WANT…AND GET IT!

YOU CAN TAKE THE JOB YOU HAVE…AND IMPROVE IT!

YOU CAN TAKE ANY SITUATION YOU'RE IN…AND MAKE IT WORK FOR YOU!

For 75 years, the rock-solid, time-tested advice in Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People has carried thousands of now-famous people up the ladder of success in their business and personal lives.

With this truly phenomenal audio, you'll learn:

• The six ways to make people like you

• The twelve ways to win people to your way of thinking

• The nine ways to change people without arousing resentment

And much, much more! Plus, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of this landmark book, this audio collector's edition also includes an iPod-ready mp3 copy of the complete audiobook, plus vintage recordings of Dale Carnegie sharing his timeless wisdom in his own voice!

THERE IS ROOM AT THE TOP, WHEN YOU KNOW…HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE

Billy Pilgrim travels through time to relive parts of his life. 2 cassettes.

FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. Huxley's classic prophetic novel describes the socialized horrors of a futuristic utopia devoid of individual freedom.

The Great Gatsby celebrates a "heightened sensibility to the promises of life," an American capacity for hope that remains unsullied even by the falsity of what it pursues. Feel the texture of Fitzgerald's language as master reader Alexander Scourby, with cool precision, unfolds the mystery of Jay Gatsby. Gatsby embodies the nave American notion that it is possible to invent oneself and persuade the world to accept that definition. The novel that epitomizes the glamour and recklessness, promise and despair of the Jazz Age is a true classic of American literature. Complete and unabridged. 3 cassettes.

Anyone who has read J.D. Salinger's New Yorker stories ? particularly A Perfect Day for Bananafish, Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut, The Laughing Man, and For Esme ? With Love and Squalor, will not be surprised by the fact that his first novel is fully of children. The hero-narrator of THE CATCHER IN THE RYE is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days. The boy himself is at once too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story. Perhaps the safest thing we can say about Holden is that he was born in the world not just strongly attracted to beauty but, almost, hopelessly impaled on it. There are many voices in this novel: children's voices, adult voices, underground voices-but Holden's voice is the most eloquent of all. Transcending his own vernacular, yet remaining marvelously faithful to it, he issues a perfectly articulated cry of mixed pain and pleasure. However, like most lovers and clowns and poets of the higher orders, he keeps most of the pain to, and for, himself. The pleasure he gives away, or sets aside, with all his heart. It is there for the reader who can handle it to keep.