In a distant, timeless place, a mysterious prophet walks the sands. At the moment of his departure, he wishes to offer the people gifts but possesses nothing. The people gather round, each asks a question of the heart, and the man's wisdom is his gift. It is Gibran's gift to us, as well, for Gibran's prophet is rivaled in his wisdom only by the founders of the world's great religions. On the most basic topics--marriage, children, friendship, work, pleasure--his words have a power and lucidity that in another era would surely have provoked the description "divinely inspired." Free of dogma, free of power structures and metaphysics, consider these poetic, moving aphorisms a 20th-century supplement to all sacred traditions--as millions of other readers already have.

Widely hailed on its first publication in 1951, the Complete Works of William Shakespeare edited by Professor Peter Alexander has long been established as one of the most authoritative editions of Shakespeare's works. Now completely reset in a reader-friendly format, it continues to provide a reliable and straightforward text for the reader. This updated edition includes a brief biography of Shakespeare by Germaine Greer and an introduction to his theater by Anthony Burgess; new introductions to the plays and poems written by a team from Glasgow University; an essay on the significance of the Alexander text; a glossary with 2,500 words and phrases; and line numbering that relates to standard concordances.