Digital Commons Network^™

Memoirs Of The Foreign Legion, Maurice Magnus, D.H. Lawrence

Zea E-Books Collection

Maurice Magnus was 39 years old when he enlisted in the French Foreign Legion to join the fight against Germany in World War I. Magnus was an American expatriot living in Rome—a theatrical agent, tutor, newspaper correspondent, writer, editor, and literary entrepreneur. He soon discovered his error—the Legion he found consisted largely of German exiles, prison-avoiding felons, and contemptuous French officers. Magnus spent about six weeks training in North Africa before a transfer to southern France provided the opportunity to desert and flee back to Italy. The Memoirs recounts his brief disenchanted tenure as a Legionnaire. After his military service …

An Adopted Husband [Sono Omokage], Futabatei Shimei, Buhachiro Mitsui, Gregg M. Sinclair

Zea E-Books Collection

This novel by Futabatei Shimei (1864–1909) falls squarely within the traditions of Naturalism in literature. Reminiscent of Theordore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie or Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome, it presents characters in the grip of forces they cannot resist or control. Tetsuya is a Professor of Economics and Finance who has accepted an adoption-marriage to pay the costs of his education. Now he finds himself miserable with his neglectful wife Toki-ko, and attracted to her illegitimate half-sister Sayo-ko, who cannot help herself from returning his affections. Enmeshed by their emotions, hemmed in by convention, tormented by guilt and remorse, the lovers careen …

Kokoro: Hints And Echoes Of Japanese Inner Life, Lafcadio Hearn, Koizumi Yakumo

Zea E-Books Collection

The works of Lafcadio Hearn (Koizumi Yakumo) played a critical role in introducing his adopted Japan to a worldwide audience. In Kokoro: Hints and Echoes of Japanese Inner Life, he writes, “The papers composing this volume treat of the inner rather than of the outer life of Japan, — for which reason they have been grouped under the title Kokoro (heart). This word signifies also mind, in the emotional sense; spirit; courage; resolve; sentiment; affection; and inner meaning, — just as we say in English, ‘the heart of things.’” After centuries of isolation Meiji-era Japan was forced to adjust …

Botchan, Natsume Sōseke, Yasotaro Morri , Trans.

Zea E-Books Collection

This English translation of 坊っちゃん (1906) was published in Tokyo by Ogawa Seibundo in 1918. It is a first-person narrative of a young man’s two-month tenure as assistant mathematics teacher at a provincial middle school in 1890s Japan. A native son of Tokyo, with all its traits and prejudices, he finds life in a narrow country town unappealing — with its dull and mischievous students, scheming faculty, bland diets, stifling rules, and gossipy inhabitants. Impulsive, combative, committed to strict ideals of honesty, honor, and justice, he is quickly enmeshed in the strategems of the head teacher, “Red Shirt.” His sufferings …

An Arrow Against Profane And Promiscuous Dancing. Drawn Out Of The Quiver Of The Scriptures. [1686], Increase Mather, Paul Royster , Ed.

Zea E-Books Collection

"The unchast Touches and Gesticulations used by Dancers, have a palpable tendency to that which is evil."

When a dancing master arrived in Boston in 1685 and offered lessons and classes for both sexes during times normally reserved for church meetings, the Puritan ministers went to court to suppress the practice. Increase Mather (1639-1723) took the leading part, writing and publishing this tract, which compiles arguments and precedents for the prohibition of “Gynecandrical Dancing, [i.e.] Mixt or Promiscuous Dancing, viz. of Men and Women … together.” These justifications were certainly shared with the court, which found the dancing …

Resilient Russian Women In The 1920s & 1930s, Marcelline Hutton

Zea E-Books Collection

The stories of Russian educated women, peasants, prisoners, workers, wives, and mothers of the 1920s and 1930s show how work, marriage, family, religion, and even patriotism helped sustain them during harsh times.

The Russian Revolution launched an economic and social upheaval that released peasant women from the control of traditional extended families. It promised urban women equality and created opportunities for employment and higher education. Yet, the revolution did little to eliminate Russian patriarchal culture, which continued to undermine women’s social, sexual, economic, and political conditions. Divorce and abortion became more widespread, but birth control remained limited, and sexual liberation …

Nous Avons Survécu. Enfin Je Parle, Leon Malmed

Zea E-Books Collection

"Nous avons survécu. Enfin je parle" est l'histoire vraie, rédigée en français, de deux jeunes enfants, Rachel et Léon, dont le sort était scellé par le destin et la folie des hommes. Rachel et Léon étaient juifs, à une époque où cette simple appartenance était synonyme d'oppression, d'arrestation, de déportation et de mort. Dimanche 19 Juillet 1942, à cinq heures, on frappe à la porte, les policiers français viennent arrêter leurs parents, Srul et Chana Malmed. Rachel et Léon ont respectivement 9 et 4 ans. Chana et Srul Malmed se lamentent: Que va-t'on faire de nos enfants? Henri et Suzanne …

The Wedding Night, Ida C. Craddock, Paul Royster , Editor

Zea E-Books in American Studies

Ida Craddock took her own life in October 1902, rather than face the 5-year federal prison term she seemed certain to receive following her conviction for distributing this work through the U.S. Mail. It is a short (24-page) pamphlet addressed to young women and men about to embark on a sexual relationship and an honest and frank effort to alleviate the ignorance which both sexes often brought to the marriage union. Craddock's discussion of the "sexual act" stressed that empathy and consideration for one's partner were the vital elements for an enduring marriage. Craddock neither shrank from the description of …

The Printer's Grammar, John Smith

Zea E-Books in American Studies

Containing a Concise History of the Origin of Printing; Also an examination of the Superficies, Gradation, and Properties of the Different Sizes of Types cast by Letter Founders; Various Tables of Calculation; Models of Letter Cases; Schemes for Casting off Copy and Imposing; and many other Requisites for attaining a perfect Knowledge both in the Theory and Practice of the Art of Printing. With Directions to Authors, Compilers, &c. How to Prepare Copy, and to Correct their own Proofs. Chiefly collected from [John] Smith's Edition. To which are added Directions for Pressmen, &c. The whole calculated for the Service of …

The Constitutions Of The Free-Masons, James Anderson, Benjamin Franklin

Zea E-Books in American Studies

This is an online electronic edition of the the first Masonic book printed in America, which was produced in Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin in 1734, and was a reprint of a work by James Anderson (who is identified as the author in an appendix) printed in London in 1723. This is the seminal work of American Masonry, edited and published by one of the founding fathers, and of great importance to the development of colonial society and the formation of the Republic. The work contains a 40-page history of Masonry: from Adam to the reign of King George I, including, …

A Brief Recognition Of New-Englands Errand Into The Wilderness, Samuel Danforth

Zea E-Books in American Studies

Samuel Danforth’s election sermon of 1670 is a classic example of the New England jeremiad. Addressed to the assembled delegates on the occasion of the election of officers for the Massachusetts General Court, it asks the very pointed question: “What is it that distinguisheth New-England from other Colonies and Plantations in America?” The answer, of course, is that the Puritan colonies (Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven) were founded for the pursuit of religious ends by the reformed Protestant churches of England:

“You have solemnly professed before God, Angels and Men, that the Cause of your leaving your Country, Kindred …