War and Peace is a novel by Leo Tolstoy, published in 1869, after portions of a previous version were serialized from 1865–1867 in The Russian Messenger. It chronicles the epic story of the French invasion of Russia, of the events leading up to it and the reactions of five major aristocratic families within Russian society during the Napoleonic Era.
This extensively researched book argues that the development of a libertarian culture was an indispensable component of the rise of the West. The roots of the West's intellectual and artistic creativity should be traced back to the aristocratic warlike culture of Indo-European speakers.
Valerius isn't a popular Dark-Hunter-he's a Roman, which means that the largely Greek Hunters have a major grudge against him and his civilization for superceding them. To make things worse, he's very conscious of his aristocratic background and breeding. So it serves him right when he runs into Tabitha Devereaux.
The Culture Wars of the Late Renaissance - Skeptics, Libertines and Opera
In the summer of 1591 students from the University of Padua attacked the local Jesuit college and successfully appealed to the Venetian Senate to intervene on behalf of the university. When the Jesuits were expelled from the Venetian dominion a few years later, religious censorship was virtually eliminated. The result was a remarkable era of cultural innovation that promoted free inquiry in the face of philosophical and theological orthodoxy, advocated libertine morals, critiqued the tyranny of aristocratic fathers over their daughters, and expanded the theatrical potential of grand opera.
Critical essays reflecting a variety of schools of criticism - Notes on the contributing critics, a chronology of the author's life, and an index - An introductory essay by Harold Bloom.
The first major novel by William Faulkner, published in 1929. The novel is set in Faulkner's fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Miss., in the early 20th century. It describes the decay and fall of the aristocratic Compson family, and, implicitly, of an entire social order, from four different points of view.
