Introductory Note: The Thousand and One Nights
Introductory note on The Thousand and One Nights (Volume 16, Harvard Classics)

Introductory note on The Thousand and One Nights (Volume 16, Harvard Classics)
A handsome young man was seen to eat only with his left hand, which was contrary to the customs of Arabia. The youth, when urged, told why he used only his left hand, and revealed a story of love and adventure and the lover's need for gold - all happening in ancient Cairo. (Volume 16, Harvard Classics)
Introductory note on John Stuart Mill (Volume 25, Harvard Classics)
John Stuart Mill – one of the greatest intellects in England – tells how his father educated him. At the early age of three years he began the study of Greek, and at twelve started writing a book of his own. (Volume 25, Harvard Classics) James Mill, father of John Stuart Mill, died June 23, 1836.
Introductory note on Pliny the Younger (Volume 9, Harvard Classics)
Pliny, who lived in the first century after Christ, tells of a ghost who dragged his jangling chains through a house in Athens and so terrified the inmates that they fled panic-stricken. But the ghost met his equal. (Volume 9, Harvard Classics)
Introductory note on John Ruskin (Volume 28, Harvard Classics)
Why gossip with lesser persons when you might be talking to queens and kings? Just how we may get to talk to queens and kings, Ruskin delightfully points out and escorts us to the very doors of the audience chamber. (Volume 28, Harvard Classics)
Introductory note on Charles Darwin (#2) (Volume 29, Harvard Classics)
Galapagos Islands are the home of fearless birds, to which horses, cows, and men are only roosting places. Darwin saw the South Pacific when few travelers knew that wonderland. (Volume 29, Harvard Classics)
Introductory note on William Harrison (Volume 35, Harvard Classics)
A writer of Elizabethan times said that no other country had as many dogs as England. Once Henry VII ordered all mastiffs to be hung because they "durst presume to fight against the lion," England's regal beast. (Volume 35, Harvard Classics)
Introductory note on Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (Volume 17, Harvard Classics)
Cinderella inspires all alike – the artist's brush, the author's pen, the child's fancy. To-day she is a living, vital character to be seen on stage and screen. No one ever forgets her lightning change. (Volume 17, Harvard Classics)
Introductory note on John Eliot (Volume 43, Harvard Classics)
John Eliot put his life at the mercy of the redmen to get them to listen to his preachings. He wrote vividly about his settlements of Christian Indians. Now villages and Indians have disappeared. Only his story remains. (Volume 43, Harvard Classics) John Eliot holds Indian prayer meeting June 17, 1670.
Introductory note on Lord Byron (Wikipedia)
The inaccessible mountain tops were ever venerated as the haunts of all mysteries. Manfred, hero of Byron's play, seeks upon the high Alps the aid of spirits, specters, and goblins. What unearthly adventures await him! (Volume 18, Harvard Classics) Byron publishes "Manfred," June 16, 1817.
Introductory note on Jean Froissart (Volume 35, Harvard Classics)
Led by Wat Tyler in 1381, great troops of villagers and rustics marched on London - laid siege to the Tower – sacked the apartments of the King and murdered his ministers. Froissart gives first-hand information of this rebellion. (Volume 35, Harvard Classics) Wat Tyler's Rebellion suppressed June 15, 1381.
Introductory note on Socrates and Plato (Volume 2, Harvard Classics)
Socrates unceasingly strove for beauty, truth, and perfection. Sentenced to death on a false charge, he refused to escape from the death cell, even when opportunity was offered. (Volume 2, Harvard Classics)
Introductory note on Plutarch (Volume 12, Harvard Classics)
Athenians gave Aristides the title of "The Just." Later they wanted to banish him. One voter wanted Aristides banished merely because he was weary of hearing him called "The Just." (Volume 12, Harvard Classics)
Introductory note on The Bhagavad-Gita (Volume 45, Harvard Classics)
Two armies of ancient India were about to engage in a momentous battle. Arjuna, heroic leader of the Pandu hosts, foreseeing great slaughter, hesitates. He implores the divine Vishnu to intervene. The conversation of the warrior and the god is a gem of Hindu literature. (Volume 45, Harvard Classics)
Introductory note on Edmund Spenser (Wikipedia)
To commemorate his marriage to the beautiful Elizabeth, Spenser wrote one of the most enchanting nuptial hymns. (Volume 40, Harvard Classics) Edmund Spenser married Elizabeth Boyle, June 11, 1594.
Introductory note on Sophocles (Volume 8, Harvard Classics)
King Œdipus of Thebes as a babe was abandoned on Mount Cithæron to die. Years after he was thought dead he returns to Thebes and unknowingly slays his father, marries his mother – and thus fulfills the word of the oracle. (Volume 8, Harvard Classics)