Thursday, April 23, 2009

Works alluded to in Monte Cristo (Part 1)

I'm now half way through The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. I have been compiling a list of works mentioned throughout the book thus far. I'm sure there is more, but these are the ones that stood out to me and that caught my interest. I will break it up into parts. I hope this interests others out there as well. These are all going on my to-read list! ;)

Arabian Nights: Tales from One Thousand and One Nights

Throughout the book the Count of Monte Cristo is either called by a character or two from this book or hinted that he belongs in the book. He called himself Sinbad the Sailor for a time.

Caesar: Alexandrian War. African War. Spanish War

Mentioned in his conversation with M. Villefort regarding chemistry and health.


By The Abbe in the Chateau D’if

Thucydides
Xenophon
Plutarch
Shakespear
Spinoza



Thucydides (Thoukydídēs)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thucydides

A Greek historian and author of the History of the Peloponnesian War, which recounts the 5th century B.C. war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 B.C. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of "scientific history" due to his strict standards of evidence-gathering and analysis in terms of cause and effect without reference to intervention by the gods, as outlined in his introduction to his work.

Quotations

• "But, the bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it."[42]
• "The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must."[43]
• "It is a general rule of human nature that people despise those who treat them well, and look up to those who make no concessions."[44]
• "War takes away the easy supply of daily wants, and so proves a rough master, that brings most men's characters to a level with their fortunes."[45]
• "The cause of all these evils was the lust for power arising from greed and ambition; and from these passions proceeded the violence of parties once engaged in contention."[46

Books
The History of the Peloponnesian War (English)


Plutarch

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutarch

Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus[1] (Greek: Μέστριος Πλούταρχος), c. AD 46 – 120 — commonly known in English as Plutarch — was a Roman (of Greek ethnicity) historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist.[2] Plutarch was born to a prominent family in Chaeronea, Boeotia, a town about twenty miles east of Delphi. His known works consist of the Parallel Lives and the Moralia.

Books

The Fall of the Roman Republic: Six Lives (Penguin Classics)
Lives of Noble Grecians and Romans (Modern Library Series, Vol. 1)
On Sparta (Penguin Classics)
The Age of Alexander: Nine Greek Lives (Penguin Classics, L286)
Alexander the Great
Selected Lives (Wordsworth Classics of World Literature)
The Rise and Fall of Athens: Nine Greek Lives
Roman Lives: A Selection of Eight Lives (Oxford World's Classics)
Greek Lives (Oxford World's Classics)
Essays by Plutarch
Plutarch Themistocles (Bryn Mawr Greek Commentaries)
Moralia
Plutarch's Advice to the Bride and Groom and A Consolation to His Wife: English Translations, Commentary, Interpretive Essays, and Bibliography
Themistocles

Spinoza

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baruch_Spinoza

A Dutch philosopher of Portuguese Jewish origin. Revealing considerable scientific aptitude, the breadth and importance of Spinoza's work was not fully realized until years after his death. Today, he is considered one of the great rationalists of 17th-century philosophy, laying the groundwork for the 18th century Enlightenment and modern biblical criticism.

Books

• ca. 1660. Korte Verhandeling van God, de mensch en deszelvs welstand (Short Treatise on God, Man and His Well-Being).[15].
• 1662. Tractatus de Intellectus Emendatione (On the Improvement of the Understanding). 1663. Principia philosophiae cartesianae (Principles of Cartesian Philosophy, translated by Samuel Shirley).
• Gallica.
• 1670. Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (A Theologico-Political Treatise)
• 1677. Ethics (Penguin Classics)
• 1677. Hebrew Grammar.

No comments: