Man selects only for his own good: Nature only for that of the being which she tends. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, a path-breaking scientific work by British naturalist Charles Darwin was first published in 1859. This book laid the foundations for modern evolutionary biology. In it, Darwin asserts that plant and animal life evolved from earlier forms through a process called natural selection. As a naturalist aboard the H.M.S. Beagle (1831–1836) Darwin conducted his observation and research in the Galápagos Islands, off the coast of South America. He recorded data on various species found there and these observations helped him formulate his theory about the mystery of the origin of species. The Theory of Evolution broke new ground by explaining the origin of species through descent from common ancestors, not by a divine power. On the Origin of Species covers a wide range of subjects, including the principles of mutation, variation, natural selection, evolution, amongst others. This seminal work has influenced many disciplines of study such as anthropology, the Classics, and religious studies.


Charles robert Darwin (1809–1882) was a British naturalist and biologist. He is well-known for his theory of evolution and his understanding of the process of natural selection. In 1859, he published his path-breaking book, On the Origin of Species. Darwin was born in the town of Shrewsbury, England. His father, Dr. R.W. Darwin, was a medical doctor, and his grandfather, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, was a botanist. His mother, Susanna, died when he was eight years old. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh and Christ’s College in Cambridge. His father hoped he would become a medical doctor or a parson, but he preferred to study Natural History. At Christ’s College, botany professor John Stevens Henslow became young Darwin’s mentor. Professor Henslow recommended him for a naturalist’s position aboard the HMS Beagle, which was slated to take a five-year survey trip around the world. On 27 December 1831, the HMS Beagle set out with Darwin aboard. During this voyage, Darwin collected a variety of natural specimens. His observations led him to formulate the seminal theory of evolution.

Homer’s Iliad is one of the greatest literary works of antiquity. This epic poem, consisting of 24 books that correspond to the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet, grapples with the crucial final phase of the Trojan war and its ramifications.The warrior hero Achilles, son of Peleus (a mortal) and Thetis (a sea goddess), is the central figure of The Iliad. Given a choice, Achilles bravely embraces a short and glorious life in war over a long life lacking heroic glory. The Iliad depicts the Trojan war as not just a battle between the Greeks and the non-Greeks, the gods are both keen watchers and active participants in the unfolding conflict.While exploring the themes of love, friendship, honour, fate, will in this magnificent epic, Homer masterfully dissects the darkest human impulses and lays bare the horrors of war.


The Greek poet Homer is believed to have been born sometime between the 12th and 8th centuries BC somewhere along the coast of Asia Minor. Though very little is known about this enigmatic figure, he is renowned for his epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey. The Iliad tells the tale of the siege of Troy, the Trojan war, and Paris’ kidnapping of Helen – the world’s most beautiful woman. The Odyssey, set in the period after the fall of Troy, traces the trajectory of the life and exploits of the Greek hero, Odysseus. The Iliad has a strictly formal structure while The Odyssey adopts a more colloquial style. Both epics are laden with startling insights into early human society and human nature.

“Her reputation for reading a great deal hung about her like the cloudy envelope of a goddess in an epic.
” The Portrait of a Lady, a novel by well-known American writer, Henry James (1843—1916), was penned in the first stage of his prolific career. Born and brought up in America, James became a naturalized English citizen in 1915. The Portrait of a Lady was published in three volumes in 1881. The story revolves around Isabel Archer, a young, impoverished, and vivacious American woman who journeys to Europe to broaden her horizons. In England, Isobel immerses herself in the cultural scene with gusto and is pursued by many suitors. She finally chooses the reclusive Gilbert Osmond as her husband.
James expertly examines the American national character in The Portrait of a Lady. As in his other memorable works, he grapples with the theme of the clash of the innocence and joy of life of the New World with the cynicism and wisdom of the Old World in this classic.

Henry James, born on 15 April 1843, was an American writer. An avid reader since childhood, James was deeply interested in understanding different cultures. Till the age of 12, he was educated by private tutors. Thereafter, he studied at different schools in Paris, Geneva, and Bonn. In 1862, he sought admission in Harvard Law School. However, he soon withdrew to focus on his writing.
Over nearly 51 years, he wrote 20 novels, 112 short stories, and 12 plays. Amongst his notable works are The American (1877), The Tragic Muse (1890), The Awkward Age (1899), and The Golden Bowl (1904). He also wrote several reviews, stories, and articles for
The Atlantic Monthly and The North American Review.
His works have been translated into several languages. Known as the torch bearer of the 20th-century “stream-of-consciousness” movement, James passed away in London on
28 February 1916.

“A woman has to live her life, or live to repent not having lived it.”
Lady Chatterley’s Lover, a novel by celebrated English writer D.H. Lawrence, was first published in a limited English-language edition in Italy (1928) and in Paris (1929). In England, an expurgated version was published in 1932. The full text was published in 1959 in New York and in 1960 in London. Following its publication, the novel became the subject of a widely publicised obscenity trial in which Lawrence was accused of using taboo sexual terms.
Sons and Lovers tells the story of Constance (Connie) Chatterley who is married to Sir Clifford, a rich landowner who is paralyzed from the waist down. He is a bookish man, absorbed in his reading and in the running of his estate. Connie has an affair with the playwright Michaelis who lets her down. Her passions are then awakened by Oliver Mellors, the estate’s gamekeeper. In his landmark novel, Lawrence exhorts
men and women to break free of industrialized society’s constraints and follow the natural course of passion.

D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) was an English writer and poet. In his writing he grappled mainly with the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation. Lawrence’s works explore issues such as sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity, and instinct. His well-known books include Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow, Women in Love, and Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
Lawrence’s opinions earned him many enemies and he had to suffer official persecution, censorship, and misrepresentation of his creative work throughout the second half of his life, much of which he spent in voluntary exile. At the time of his death, his public reputation was that of a pornographer who had squandered his gifts. E.M. Forster, in an obituary notice, challenged this view, describing him as “the greatest imaginative novelist of our generation.” The respected literary critic F. R. Leavis also praised his artistic integrity and moral seriousness.

Polish-born English novelist Joseph Conrad’s powerful and controversial novella, Heart of Darkness, was first published in serialized form in 1899 in Blackwoods Magazine. Set mainly in the Belgian Congo, the novella explores the debilitating impact of colonization on the colonizer and the colonized. The unreliable narrator of the story, English sailor Charles Marlow is hired by a Belgian company to captain a steamer in the newly established Congo Free State. Intrigued by rumours about another company employee named Kurtz, who is said to be posted in the interior, Marlow sails upriver in search of him. During the journey and in his encounter with Kurtz, Marlow gets to see the “barren darkness” of men’s hearts and the horror and brutality colonizers have unleashed on the African heartland. Many post-colonial writers such as Chinua Achebe have criticized the racist overtones of Conrad’s portrayal of African culture and society. The novella also inspired Francis Ford Copolla’s epic Vietnam war film, Apocalypse Now (1979).

Polish-British novelist and short story writer Joseph Conrad was born in a Russian-ruled province of Poland (in present-day Ukraine) in 1857. Both his parents were politically active in the Polish independence movement. As a result, the family was exiled to northern Russia in 1863. Conrad was orphaned at 11 and sent to live with his relatives. He joined the French merchant marines at 16. At 21, he joined a British ship and went on to work for the British merchant marines for ten years. During this stint, he became a naturalised British citizen and travelled to Asia, Africa, Australia, and India. His voyage to the Congo (then a Belgian colony) in 1890 sparked his powerful novella, Heart of Darkness (1899).
Conrad’s well-known novels include Nostromo (1904), The Secret Agent (1907), Under Western Eyes (1911), and Victory (1915). He is the author of several insightful short stories that showcase his intensely personal vision and remarkable writing skills. Conrad retired from the marines due to ill health and died of a heart attack in England in 1924.

The strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack.
British writer Rudyard Kipling’s beloved classic The Jungle Book (1894) and The Second Jungle Book (1895) mainly feature animals. These stories were first published in magazines from 1893 to 1894, accompanied by illustrations, some created by Kipling’s father, John Lockwood Kipling.
The central character of The Jungle Book is a little boy or “man cub” named Mowgli who is raised in the jungle by a pack of wolves. Kipling gifts the readers a memorable cast of characters, which includes Baloo the bear and Shere Khan the tiger who play a major role in Mowgli’s life. Mowgli’s stay in the jungle and his journey to the village reveal the laws of the natural world and the complicated machinery of the man-made one.
Packed with fun and adventure as well as insightful moral lessons, The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book remain favourites of both children and adults all over the world.

British writer Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) was born in Mumbai, India and educated in England. He returned to India in 1882 to live with his parents. Kipling’s experiences during his stay in India inspired him to write and publish several short stories. These were featured in his collection titled Plain Tales From the Hills (1888), which became very popular in England. Kipling also published a second collection of short stories titled Wee Willie Winkie (1888), and American Notes (1891), which featured his first impressions of America. Amongst Kipling’s bestselling books are The Jungle Book (1894) and The Second Jungle Book (1895). The prolific author was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907 for “originality of imagination, virility of ideas, and remarkable talent for narration” which characterise his creations.

The lonely one offers his hand too quickly to whomever he
encounters.
Thus Spake Zarathustra by German thinker and writer
Friedrich Nietzsche is a path-breaking philosophical
novel, crafted in four parts. It features the fictitious
travels and speeches of Zarathustra – whose namesake
is the founder of Zoroastrianism. Nietzsche creates his
own version of Zarathustra in the book, overturning
accepted conventions and questioning traditional
notions of morality.
The first three parts of this seminal work were first
published separately, and later published in a single
volume in 1887. The fourth part remained inaccessible
to the public at large after Nietzsche wrote it in 1885.
It was in March 1892 that the four parts were printed
as a single volume. The four parts delve into concepts
such as the ‘eternal recurrence of the same,’ the parable
on the ‘death of God,’ morality, and the ‘prophecy’ of
the Übermensch. Thus Spake Zarathustra is considered to
be Nietzsche’s magnum opus.

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844–1900) was a notable German philosopher who remains one of the most influential modern thinkers. He is renowned for writing on the concept of the “Superman”, the end of religion in a modern society as well as his exploration of the concepts of good and evil. Some of his major philosophical works are Thus Spake Zarathustra (1883), The Antichrist (1885) and Twilight of the Idols (1889). Many major thinkers of the 20th century such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Sigmund Freud and Albert Camus, among others, were deeply influenced by Nietzsche’s ideas.
After his death, the misappropriation of his works by the Nazi Party in the 30s and 40s of the last century to further their fascist activities resulted in a negative reputation for generations whereas Nietzsche himself was steadfastly against anti-Semitism.
Nietzsche died on 25 August 1900, aged 55.

Franz Kafka’s short stories—shocking, complex, intriguing, and unsettling—show him at the height of his writing prowess. Kafka takes on universal themes such as guilt, isolation, alienation, self-expression, cruelty, judgement, shame, sin, and redemption in them. Hovering between dream and reality, his dark and brilliantly crafted stories are populated by both humans and animals. They are intense, enigmatic, filled with generous doses of irony and horror that inspire the reader to search for meaning in the world’s maze. This collection features an impressive clutch of his short stories including In ‘The Penal Colony’, ‘The Hunger Artist’, ‘The Metamorphosis’, ‘The Burrow’, ‘The Judgment’, ‘Before the Law’, ‘A Country Doctor’, and ‘ The Great Wall of China’. ‘ The Penal Colony’ is seeped in the dehumanising horror of WWI and it mixes the dazzle of modern technological advances with the barbarism of archaic, absolute law. ‘The Metamorphosis’ in which the alienated hero turns into an insect is an exquisite study of the human condition. The characters in Kafka’s stories are hunted and haunted, wandering in a world governed by forces beyond their control.

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) was born into a German-speaking Jewish family in Prague, Bohemia (now in the Czech Republic). His father was a middle-class businessman, an extremely domineering parent who disapproved of Kafka’s fondness for literature. His mother Julie was better educated than his father. Kafka obtained the degree of Doctor of Law in 1906 and worked for a year as a law clerk for the civil and criminal courts. From 1908–1922, he worked with the Worker’s Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia. His influential works (originally written in the German) such as the novels The Trial (1925) in which a man is charged with an unnamed offence, and The Metamorphosis (1915) in which the hero is transformed into an insect, mirror the alienation and anxiety experienced by many in the 20th century. Kafka allowed very few of his writings to be published while he was alive. Most of his critically lauded novels and stories appeared in print only after his death. He became an important figure of German and world literature when his close friend and literary executor, Max Brod, refused to destroy his novels, diaries and letters upon his death, as was instructed by Kafka.