Written in China more than 2,000 years ago, Sun Tzu's classic The Art of War is the first known study of the planning and conduct of military operations. These terse, aphoristic essays are unsurpassed in comprehensiveness and depth of understanding, examining not only battlefield maneuvers, but also relevant economic, political, and psychological factors. Indeed, the precepts outlined by Sun Tzu can be applied outside the realm of military theory....

"Ghalib: Selections from His Urdu Poetry and Prose is an accessible and wide-ranging introduction to the preeminent Indian Urdu-language poet, Mirza Asadullah Khan "Ghalib" (1797-1869). Ghalib remains one of the most popular and influential Urdu-language poets. He also wrote in Persian. Beginning with a critical introduction, which introduces Ghalib and his work to non-specialists, Frances Pritchett and Owen Cornwall then present a selection of Ghazals--the...

"A Couple of Soles is a classic comedic romance by the seventeenth-century playwright Li Yu. Tan Chuyu, a poor young scholar, falls in love with the beautiful actress Liu Miaogu. He joins her family's acting troupe, and, in plays within the play, romance ensues. After Liu's family attempts to marry her off to a local country squire, she performs a famous scene in which a heroine drowns herself-and then jumps off the stage into a river, followed by...

One of the great classics of Japanese literature, The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon is by far our most detailed source of factual material on life in eleventh-century Japan at the height of Heian culture.