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Representative Men: Seven Lectures
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Representative Men: Seven Lectures Paperback - 2004

by Ralph Waldo Emerson; Introduction by Brenda Wineapple

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Summary

From the book:IT IS NATURAL to believe in great men. If the companions of our childhood should turn out to be heroes, and their condition regal it would not surprise us. All mythology opens with demigods, and the circumstance is high and poetic; that is, their genius is paramount. In the legends of the Gautama, the first men ate the earth and found it deliciously sweet. Nature seems to exist for the excellent. The world is upheld by the veracity of good men: they make the earth wholesome. They who lived with them found life glad and nutritious. Life is sweet and tolerable only in our belief in such society; and, actually or ideally, we manage to live with superiors. We call our children and our lands by their names. Their names are wrought into the verbs of language, their works and effigies are in our houses, and every circumstance of the day recalls an anecdote of them.

Reader reviews for Representative Men: Seven Lectures

From the publisher

Introduction by Brenda Wineapple

In 1845 Ralph Waldo Emerson began a series of lectures and writings in which he limned six figures who embodied the principles and aspirations of a still-young American republic. Emerson offers timeless meditations on the value of individual greatness, reconnecting readers with the everyday virtues of his "Representative Men" Plato, in whose writings are contained "the culture of nations"; Emanuel Swedenborg, a "rich discoverer" who strove to unite the scientific and spiritual planes; Michel de Montaigne, "the frankest and honestest of all writers"; William Shakespeare, who "wrote the text of modern life"; Napoleon Bonaparte, who had the "virtues and vices" of common men writ large; and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who "in conversation, in calamity...finds new materials."

This Modern Library Paperback Classic reflects the author's corrections for an 1876 reprinting.

Details

  • Title Representative Men: Seven Lectures
  • Author Ralph Waldo Emerson; Introduction by Brenda Wineapple
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition Modern Library P
  • Pages 192
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Modern Library
  • Publication date 2004-06-08
  • ISBN 9780812970050 / 0812970055
  • Weight 0.36 lbs (0.16 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.02 x 5.24 x 0.43 in (20.37 x 13.31 x 1.09 cm)
  • Category Literature - Classics / Criticism
  • Library of Congress Catalogue Number 2003070632
  • Dewey Decimal Code B

Media reviews

“The most important work done in prose.”
—Matthew Arnold

About the author

RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1803?--1882) was a renowned lecturer and writer, whose ideas on philosophy, religion, and literature influenced many writers, including Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman. After an undergraduate career at Harvard, he studied at Harvard Divinity School and became an ordained minister, continuing a long line of ministers in his family. He traveled widely and lectured, and became well known for his publications Essays and Nature.

About the Introducer
BRENDA WINEAPPLE is the author of Hawthorne: A Life and Sister Brother: Gertrude and Leo Stein. She has twice a fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities. She lives in New York City.

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Representative Men: Seven Lectures
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Representative Men: Seven Lectures

by Ralph Waldo Emerson

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9780812970050 / 0812970055
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Representative Men : Seven Lectures

Representative Men : Seven Lectures

by Rizzoli Staff; Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Random House Publishing Group, 2004. Paperback. Good. Disclaimer:A copy that has been read, but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact. The spine may show signs of wear. Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include previous owner inscriptions. At ThriftBooks, our motto is: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed.
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Representative Men: Seven Lectures (Modern Library Classics)
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Representative Men: Seven Lectures (Modern Library Classics)

by Emerson, Ralph Waldo

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paperback. Good. Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items. May be an ex-library book.
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