World Literature Sample Masterpieces (Summary)

1
Introduction
A masterpiece refers to a creation that has
been given much critical praise, especially one that is
considered the greatest work of a person's career or to a
work of outstanding creativity, skill, or workmanship. On
the literature, it is the highest recognition that a literary
work can receive. It possesses universality, artistry,
permanence and uniqueness. It can stimulate thoughts
from its intellectual value and may lead to mold the
moral and emotional aspect.
Samples of the great masterpieces in the world
are God Sees The Truth But Waits by Leo Tolstoys, King
Lear by William Shakespeare, El Cid – The Heroism of
Rodrigo de Vivar from Spain, Oedipus Rex by Sophocles,
Of a Promise Kept by Lafcadio Hearn, Don Juan and Don
Juan Tenorio by Tirso de Molina, Communist Manifesto
by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, and the most popular
and one my favorite is Don Quixote by Miguel de
Cervantes.
These also includes the long lasting Holy
Qu’ran of Muslims and The Holy Bible of Christians.

2
God Sees The Truth But Waits ……………………….3
King Lear …………………………………………………..…..9
Rodrigo de Vivar - El Cid ………………………………14
Don Quixote ………………………………………………..18
Impossible Dream ………………………………………..28
Oedipus Rex …………………..…………………………….29
Of a Promise Kept ………………………………………..33
Don Juan………………………………………………………41
The Lost Diary of Don Juan……………………………45
Communist Manifesto………………………………….46
Holy Qu’ran…………………………………………………..52
The Holy Bible .………………………………………….…54
Table of Contents

4
Once there lived a young merchant named
Ivan Dmitri Aksenov with his family in the land of
Vladimir, who in his younger days lived life to the
fullest by experiencing all the material things world
has to offer. Until he got married.
One summer, he planned to go to Nizhny
fair but his wife warned him that she had a bad
dream of her husband-- she dreamt about Ivan that
he returned from the town with hair of grey. Ivan
laughed as if he doesn't care and went on the fair.
He travelled half way and met a merchant,
whom he spent the night drinking tea with and
shared an adjoining room in the inn. Since Aksenov is
not used of sleeping for long hours he decided to
wake up and continued his journey.
Along the way of his journey, two soldiers in
a troika stopped him, and began asking questions, for
the merchant he met halfway on his travel was found
dead. Since all evidences of the crime are pointing
Aksenov guilty he was imprisoned.

5
Learning the sad fate of Aksenov, his wife
remembered her dream about Aksenov and was
worried and even considered the thought of her
husband being guilty. The thought made Aksenov even
sadder.
26 years in prison made Aksenov a well-
grounded and God-fearing man. In spite the fact that
his family has completely forgotten him, he still serves
as a “Grandpa” to the other prisoners. Then came a
new prisoner named Makar Semyonich.
After months of knowing each other,
Aksenov discovered that Makar is the one who killed
the merchant whom he was told he murdered. He was
furious with what he found out but didn't speak or
uttered a word about it.
Until one night, Aksenov heard some earth
rolling under where the prisoners were sleeping. He
went out and saw Makar. Makar told him not to tell a
word about what he had witnessed or else he will kill
him.
When they were led out to work, a soldier
noticed a prisoner took of some earth off his boots.
The soldier searched for escaping plans and found the
tunnel.

6
Then, they asked each of them who knew
about this but they denied for they knew they will be
killed before the one who did it as Makar warned them.
Finally, the governor asked Ivan for he knew he was a
just man. But then Ivan said it wasn't his right or his
will but God's to tell such name.
Night fell and Makar went to Ivan. He thanked
him and felt sorry for what he had done to him a long
time ago that made Ivan suffer for all this years. He
sobbed as well as Ivan and said that the Lord will forgive
you. Makar said that he will confess to the governor so
that Ivan would be sent free--back to his home.
Ivan did not want to go out of prison for he
has no family neither home to back to; rather, he waited
for his last hour to come.
In spite of what they've talked about, Makar
Semyonich confessed his guilt. But when the order for
Ivan Dmitri Aksenov's release came, he was already
dead.

7
This, I think, it means that sometimes, God
waits before delivering his justice, not because he wants
to hurt you but because he has a plan for you. Everything
in life has a purpose. Maybe the most appropriate
punishment that the criminal deserves, and the most
appropriate compensation that the victim deserves, can
be awarded only in the destined period of time.
One of the essential gist on this story is the
impact to one’s morality. We are not omniscient in this
world. Sometimes we have to be cautious on everything
we need to do. Life is undying struggle but since God is
the omnipotent and omnipresent, we should not worry a
lot. He has plans for us.
Things may happened if it is fated for you. All
we have to do is to trust in him, love and serve him and
most of all, have faith in him.
Since man is created by God, still there is a
piece of kindness planted into in his heart. Those seed of
kindness will still grow, if it is being watered with a bit of
kindness too.

9
Lear, the aging king of Britain, decides to step
down from the throne and divide his kingdom evenly among
his three daughters. First, however, he puts his daughters
through a test, asking each to tell him how much she loves
him. Goneril and Regan, Lear’s older daughters, give their
father flattering answers. But Cordelia, Lear’s youngest and
favorite daughter, remains silent, saying that she has no
words to describe how much she loves her father. Lear flies
into a rage and disowns Cordelia. The king of France, who
has courted Cordelia, says that he still wants to marry her
even without her land, and she accompanies him to France
without her father’s blessing.
Lear quickly learns that he made a bad decision.
Goneril and Regan swiftly begin to undermine the little
authority that Lear still holds. Unable to believe that his
beloved daughters are betraying him, Lear slowly goes
insane. He flees his daughters’ houses to wander on a heath
during a great thunderstorm, accompanied by his Fool and
by Kent, a loyal nobleman in disguise.
Meanwhile, an elderly nobleman named
Gloucester also experiences family problems. His illegitimate
son, Edmund, tricks him into believing that his legitimate
son, Edgar, is trying to kill him. Fleeing the manhunt that his
father has set for him, Edgar disguises himself as a crazy
beggar and calls himself “Poor Tom.” Like Lear, he heads out
onto the heat.

10
When the loyal Gloucester realizes that Lear’s
daughters have turned against their father, he decides to
help Lear in spite of the danger. Regan and her husband,
Cornwall, discover him helping Lear, accuse him of treason,
blind him, and turn him out to wander the countryside. He
ends up being led by his disguised son, Edgar, toward the
city of Dover, where Lear has also been brought.
In Dover, a French army lands as part of an
invasion led by Cordelia in an effort to save her father.
Edmund apparently becomes romantically entangled with
both Regan and Goneril, whose husband, Albany, is
increasingly sympathetic to Lear’s cause. Goneril and
Edmund conspire to kill Albany.
The despairing Gloucester tries to commit
suicide, but Edgar saves him by pulling the strange trick of
leading him off an imaginary cliff. Meanwhile, the English
troops reach Dover, and the English, led by Edmund, defeat
the Cordelia-led French. Lear and Cordelia are captured. In
the climactic scene, Edgar duels with and kills Edmund; we
learn of the death of Gloucester; Goneril poisons Regan out
of jealousy over Edmund and then kills herself when her
treachery is revealed to Albany; Edmund’s betrayal of
Cordelia leads to her needless execution in prison; and Lear
finally dies out of grief at Cordelia’s passing. Albany, Edgar,
and the elderly Kent are left to take care of the country
under a cloud of sorrow and regret.

11
The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain
a mythological pre-Roman Celtic king. It was written
between 1603 and 1606 and later revised. Shakespeare's
earlier version, The True Chronicle of the History of the
Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters, was
published in quarto (bookbinding) in 1608. The Tragedy of
King Lear, a more theatrical version, was included in the
1623 First Folio (A collections of his 36 plays).
Multiple plays has been performed with these
story and was often revised with a happy ending for
audiences who disliked its dark and depressing tone, but
since the 19th century Shakespeare's original version has
been regarded as one of his supreme achievements.
If you're looking for the moral hero, yes it is
Cordelia takes the honor. She sacrifices everything and
transcends the typical female role, exhibiting honor,
loyalty, respect, love, and truth. Her decision not to
participate in the scenario, and the manipulation of her
father by her sisters speaks louder about who she is as a
person. Unfortunately, her father considers it a test which
she fails and yet, she is the daughter who gave up her life
to save his father.

12
King Lear, Lear himself, suffering from the tragic
flaw of a prideful and self-righteous nature, learns to see
the world through new eyes, even as he suffers the
consequences of his actions in the opening act of the
play.
Themes are usually more useful than morals but
one could say, that don't believe all the promises or words
of others by simply looking at their face value. Look
beyond the superficial to see the real person beneath the
words. So, Lear preferred to hear the empty compliments
of Goneril and Regan rather than to see the true love of
his daughter Cordelia. Now, he understands that clothes
and position, ultimately do not make the man, but on
how we interact in the world as if they do.
So, the overall message, for me, is to look
beyond the surface -- the title, job, sex or rank of a person
to see what is in their heart. To not be too quick to listen
to the easy words someone might speak, but to take care
to watch how they behave before judging them or their
actions.

13
"God Sees the Truth, But Waits“ is one of the
best short story by Russian author Leo Tolstoy that first
published in 1872.
It was adapted into television series Katha
Sagar (A Sea of Stories), a popular Indian television series
that aired on DD National in 1986. The series was directed
by Shyam Benegal along with many renowned directors.
The series featured a collection of stories by world famous
short story writers such as Guy de Maupassant,
Rabindranath Tagore, Leo Tolstoy, O. Henry, Anton Chekov
and many more.
It was also adapted into a CBS Radio Mystery
Theatre program, All Things Are Possible (1978) directed by
Himan Brown , an American producer of radio program.
English translations were also published under
titles "The Confessed Crime" and "Exiled to Siberia".
The theme of the story was the eventual triumph
of truth over falsehood. It was taken in the form of parable
of forgiveness.

15
On the eleventh-century Spain is divided into
Christian kingdoms and Moorish (Morons from
Morroco) strongholds. The young Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar
dubbed El Cid by his followers, vows to see his country
at peace, free from the invader. Vigorously brave and
resourceful. The noble knight hates bloodshed and
faces treason charges at court for the clemency shown
to some emirs.
His accuser, Gomez, father of his fiancée,
killed his father where in he actually saw the event. To
be just, he killed Chimene’s father as well. Chimene,
saw what happened and avowed the dismissal of her
marriage to Rodrigo. She enters a convent.
On King Ferdinand's death, his kingdom is
divided among his two children. Sancho challenges the
decision and imprisons Alfonso, who is released by the
Cid. Sancho assassinated by his brother. Alfonso now
claims that throne, too, and exiles Rodrigo.
Chimene realizes the nobility of Rodrigo and
joins him. They in a place who is very far from the
kingdom. Rodrigo and Chimene had two daughters.

16
Years had past and the Spain is being
defeated by the Morons. Knights of King Alfonso
approached Rodrigo to help them beating the Moorish
population. Rodrigo refuses at first but on realization of
the consequences, he decided to comeback and leave
Chimene to the convent with their two children.
When he goes into battle against Ben Yussef.
The years pass, Rodrigo becomes a revered warrior, but
refuses to aid Alfonso, preferring his own strategy. He
lays siege to Valencia, catapulting food into its starving
garrison. When the Valencians kill their evil ruler, Al
Kadir, they offer the crown to the Cid. He sends it to
Alfonso, who rushes, hysterically gratified, to his side.
But fatedly the Cid has been hit by a stray
arrow during the last war attack. He ask his soldier to
call his family from the convent to be with him.
Attended by Chimene, he hides the wound from his
men and prepares a final bid to drive the Moors from
Spain.
Finally their troop was able to defeat the
Morons that leads them to back off because of
Rodrigo.

17
Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (1043–1099) was
a Castilian nobleman and military leader in
medieval Spain. He was called El Cid (the Lord) by
the Moors and El Campeador (the Champion)
by Christians. He is the national hero of Spain. He was
born in Vivar del Cid, a town near the city of Burgos.
This epic story tells about fighting for your
honor. Values of humility, responsibility, loyalty,
sincerity, just, respectful, faithful, courage, forgiving
and being good was the whole content of his great
story.
Rodrigo’s heroic deeds is considered the
beating heart of the Christianity during medieval
period. He offered his own life for the sake of being
pious to his beliefs. A man of all time, a person of
dignity and principles.

19
Alonso Quixano is a Hidalgo, a low ranking
Spanish person of nobility. He is about 50 years old and
he lives in a settlement near the La Mancha region in
Spain towards the beginning of the 17th century. He
loves reading stories about knights and fantastic stories
about chivalry, princesses, magicians, enchanted
castles… In fact, he is so involved with these fantasies
that he slowly starts to lose touch with reality and begins
to believe that he is one of these fiction heroes.
Alonso finds some old armor and prepares an
old horse from the stable which he names Rocinante.
The knight decides he needs to have a maiden, so, in his
imagination he converts a young villager named Aldonza
Lorenzo, who he was once in love with, into the lovely
Lady Dulcinea del Toboso. As for himself, he bestows the
name Don Quixote because it rhymes with the name of
the famous knight “Lanzarote”, also known as Lancelot.
So, the new knight sets off on an adventure with a
ridiculous new costume and the hope of committing
heroic deeds. However, it will not take long for
misunderstandings to occur between the real world and
the fantasy world of Don Quixote.

20
Dulcinea rejected Don Quixote in regards of his
love to her but he swear not to give up.
In one scene, Don Quixote arrives to an inn,
which he believes to be a castle, and demands that the
innkeeper dub him the noble title of “knight”. Later, he
comes upon a young shepherd whose master has tied to
a tree and frees. Next, Don Quixote is insulted by some
merchants who he promptly attacks. The merchants give
Don Quixote a brutal beating and leave him on the side
of the road where he is found by a peasant and
delivered home.
Don Quixote convinces his neighbor, Sancho
Panza, to be his squire by promising him riches, fame
and the governorship of an island. Sancho, unlike Don
Quixote, is a practical albeit ignorant man. Little by little
he is seduced by the wild dreams of his new master.
Together, they sneak away in the early dawn and their
famous adventures begin.
The duo quickly come upon large windmills
which Don Quixote believes to be ferocious giants and
thus attacks.

21
The pair continues on to live many other exciting
adventures when Don Quixote attacks a flock of sheep
believing it to be an army, when his horse Rocinante
pursues some mares, when he has a sword duel with a
Biscayan, frees some inmates that then attack him, finds a
barber basin which he believes to be a magical helmet and
many other comical situations that occur in an inn.
Later, the outrageous knight decides to move to
a mountain top in order to show his penance and earn the
love of his imaginary maiden. His two best friends, a priest
and a barber, are forced to trick him into a cage in order to
bring him back to his settlement.
In the second part of the famous Don Quixote of La
Mancha novel, published 10 years later, Don Quixote
departs on another adventure with Sancho. This part of
the novel is more critically acclaimed by critics because the
protagonist, treated with more respect by the author, is
successful in some of his endeavors and becomes a more
reflexive and self conscious character. Sancho, on the other
hand, becomes more of a dreamer. The second part of Don
Quixote of La Mancha is written under the assumption
that all of the characters have already read the first part of
the novel and are thus familiar with both Don Quixote
and Sancho. As a result, the people they meet will try to
take advantage of the pair.

22
A Duke and Duchess encounter Don Quixote
and Sancho and decide to invite them to their palace for
amusement and practical jokes. For example, they tell
Don Quixote that Dulcinea is under Merlin's spell to put
him through a series of tests. They also deceive Sancho
into lashing himself, believing that it will release the
maiden from the spell. The Duke later gives Sancho a
false governorship and Sancho proves to be a wise and
practical ruler, however this is also a deceptive prank that
leads to humiliation.
Don Quixote is forced to lay down his arms and
abandon his acts of chivalry for a period of one year
when he is conquered in a battle with the Knight of the
White Moon. The conditions were agreed upon before
the battle with the knight, who was really to one of Don
Quixote's friends dressed in a costume. Defeated, they
start their journey home
Don Quixote retires in the countryside and
eventually falls sick. He recovers his full sanity and,
despite Sancho's encouragement to restore his faith in
fantasy, takes back the name of Alonso Quixano and the
former adventurer called Don Quixote is no more. In his
place, Alonso Quixano apologizes for all the craziness and
any harm that he may have caused before passing away.

23
One of the greatest fictional works in the late
16th century by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.
Published in two volumes, in 1605 and 1615. Don
Quixote is considered the most influential work of
literature from the Spanish Golden Age and the entire
Spanish literary canon.
As a founding work of modern Western
literature, and one of the earliest canonical novels, it
regularly appears high on lists of the greatest works of
fiction ever published. It has a major influence on the
literary community, as evidenced by direct references in
Alexander Dumas’s “The Three Musketeers”
(1844) and Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn” (1884). In 2002 list , Don Quixote was
cited as the "best literary work ever written“.
Quixote has served as an important thematic
source not only in literature but also in much of art and
music, inspiring works by Pablo Picasso and Richard
Strauss.

24
The contrasts between the tall, thin, fancy-
struck, and idealistic Quixote and the fat, squat,
world-weary Panza is a motif echoed ever since the
book’s publication.Don Quixote's imaginings are the
butt of outrageous and cruel practical jokes in the
novel. The character of Don Quixote became so well
known in its time that the word quixotic (which
means indulging in unrealistic and impractical
idealism) was quickly adopted by many languages.
When it was first published, Don
Quixote was usually interpreted as a comic novel.
After the French Revolution, it was popular in part due
to its central ethic that individuals can be right while
society is quite wrong and seen as disenchanting—not
comic at all.
Many critics came to view the work as a
tragedy in which Don Quixote's innate idealism and
nobility are viewed by the world as insane, and are
defeated and rendered useless by common reality. By
the 20th century the novel had come to occupy a
canonical space as one of the foundations of modern
literature.

25
The novel was an immediate success. In total,
the novel is believed to have sold more than 10 million
copies worldwide in 1611. Now a days, it is common
knowledge that Don Quixote has sold over 500 million
copies, and in fact, that number is conservative. It is
often regarded as the second best selling book behind
only the Bible, and at least conceded as the greatest
selling work of fiction of all time, without out a close
second. This book has been a best seller for 400+ years,
it continues to sell quite well.
Don Quixote is one of the best literary
masterpiece of the world.
It teaches us to have a vision in life. We will be
lead by that through imagination. Don Quixote was not
just dreaming about those characters but he firmly
believed in them and visualised them to be so. In his
mind, the reality is less what others thought they were,
but what he himself imagined and believe them to be.
In the same way, good leaders need to go
beyond the ordinary and to have the vision and moral
courage to pursue something that is unconventional.
This the first step to be great.

26
T he second virtue is commitment and here
there is a need for one to be committed to one's own
will, committed to beauty (or the purity of one's own
goals), and a dogged persistence. Here, it is important
to disregard to some extent the law of consequences in
the world, and to have a deeply rooted sense of self that
goes beyond the externalities of one's world.
Commitment can come in the form of a strong
stick-to-itiveness to whatever one believes strongly in,
and to bring honors to that cause. It means that one
should have a road map that one sticks to, and energy
and passion to keep going down that cause even when
hard times.
Finally, and probably most important, it is vital
to have joy in one's pursuit. A sense of humors and an
ability to laugh off life's failures and get over them is
vital. Despite being ridiculed, attacked and scorned,
Don Quixote never gave up on his end goals. He found
joy in engagement and being involved in the action,
struggle and injuries of pursuit. There is also a constant
sense of affirmation and true enjoyment in what he
does.

27
I was deeply inspired by these simple
lessons of what Don Quixote posses. Yes, it would be a
foolish act to embrace Don Quixote's principles whole-
heartedly without considering their consequence, but
there is a lot of truth in this life we need to face.
We have to look beyond the aspect of being
quixotic. Life is unending march that we need to face
and conquer.
No wonder that through the inspiring story
of Don Quixote, a song composer Mitch Leigh with
lyricists Joe Darion made the song "The Impossible
Dream (The Quest)" which have been popular song
from the 1965 Broadway musical Man of La Mancha
and also featured in the 1972 film. It was awarded the
Contemporary Classics Award from the Songwriter’s
Hall of Fame.

28
To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go
To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star
This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No matter how far
To fight for the right
Without question or pause
To be willing to march into Hell
For a heavenly cause
And I know if I'll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to my rest
And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star
"The Impossible Dream"
from MAN OF LA MANCHA (1972)
music by Mitch Leigh and lyrics by Joe Darion

30
King Oedipus, aware that a terrible curse has
been fallen Thebes. So he sends his brother-in-law
Creon, to seek for the advice of Apollo. Creon informs
Oedipus that the curse will be lifted if the murderer of
Laius, the former king, is found and prosecuted. Laius
was murdered many years ago at the crossroads.
Oedipus dedicates himself to the discovery
and prosecution of Laius’s murderer. Oedipus subjects
a series of unwilling citizens to questioning, including a
blind prophet. Teiresias, the blind prophet, informs
Oedipus that Oedipus himself killed Laius. This news
really bothers Oedipus, but his wife Jocasta tells him
not to believe in prophets—they've been wrong
before. As an example, she tells Oedipus about how
she and King Laius had a son who was prophesied to
kill Laius and sleep with her. Well, she and Laius had
the child killed, so obviously that prophecy did not
come true, right?
Jocasta's story doesn't comfort Oedipus. As a
child, an old man told Oedipus that he was adopted,
and that he would eventually kill his biological father
and sleep with his biological mother.

31
Not to mention, Oedipus once killed a
man at a crossroads, which sounds a lot like the way
Lauis died.
Jocasta urges Oedipus not to look into the
past any further, but he stubbornly ignores her.
Oedipus goes on to question a messenger and the
shepherd. Both of whom have information about
how Oedipus was abandoned as an infant and
adopted by a new family.
In a moment of insight, Jocasta realizes
that she is Oedipus’s mother and that Laius was his
father. Horrified at what has happened, she kills
herself. Shortly thereafter, Oedipus, too, realizes
that he was Laius’s murder and that he’s been
married to (and having children with) his mother. In
horror and despair, he gouges his eyes out and
immediately exiled from Thebes.

32
The Latin title Oedipus Rex, is an Athenian
tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed 429
BC. It was the second of Sophocles's three Theban plays
to be produced, but it comes first in the internal
chronology, followed by Oedipus at Colonus and
then Antigone.
The play is an example of a classic tragedy,
noticeably containing an emphasis on how Oedipus's
own faults contribute to the tragic hero’s downfall, as
opposed to having fate be the sole cause. Over the
centuries, Oedipus Rex has come to be regarded by
many as the Greek tragedy par excellence.
Fate is a theme that often occurs in Greek
writing, tragedies in particular. The idea that attempting
to avoid an oracle is the very thing which brings it about
is a common motif in many Greek myths, and similarities
to Oedipus can for example be seen in the myth of the
birth of Persues.
The intellectual value you can perfectly adapt
to this is the reality of destiny. You cannot run from your
fate if it is destined for you.

34
"I shall return in the early autumn," said Akana
Soyemon several hundred years ago, when bidding
goodbye to his brother by adoption, young Hasebe
Samon. The time was spring, and the place was the
village of Kato in the province of Harima. Akana was an
Izumo samurai, and he wanted to visit his birthplace.
Hasebe said, "Your Izumo, the Country of the
Eight-Cloud Rising, is very distant. Perhaps it will
therefore be difficult for you to promise to return here
upon any particular day. But, if we were to know the
exact day, we should feel happier. We could then
prepare a feast of welcome and we could watch at the
gateway for your coming.”
"Why, as for that," responded Akana, "I have
been so much accustomed to travel that I can usually tell
beforehand how long it will take me to reach a place;
and I can safely promise you to be here upon a particular
day. Suppose we say the day of the festival Choyo?"
"That is the ninth day of the ninth month," said Hasebe;
"then the chrysanthemums will be in bloom, and we can
go together to look at them. How pleasant! . . .

35
So you promise to come back on the ninth day
of the ninth month?“ … "On the ninth day of the ninth
month," repeated Akana, smiling while saying farewell.
Then he strode away from the village of Kato in the
province of Harima, and Hasebe Samon and the mother of
Hasebe looked after him with tears in their eyes.
Swiftly the months went by and the autumn
came, the season of chrysanthemums. And early upon the
morning of the ninth day of the ninth month Hasebe
prepared to welcome his adopted brother. He made ready
a feast of good things, bought wine, decorated the guest-
room, and filled the vases of the alcove with
chrysanthemums of two colors. Then his mother, watching
him, and said: "The province of Izumo, my son, is more
than one hundred miles from this place; and the journey
hence over the mountains is difficult and weary. You
cannot be sure that Akana will be able to come today.
Would it not be better, before you take all this trouble, to
wait for his coming?" Hasebe made an answer — "Akana
promised to be here today. He could not break a promise!
And if he were to see us beginning to make preparation
after his arrival, he would know that we had doubted his
word and we should be put into shame."

36
In the morning many travellers passed through
the village, some of them samurai. Hasebe, watching
each one that came, more than once imagined that he
saw Akana approaching. The temple bells sounded the
hour of midday and Akana did not yet appear. Through
the afternoon he also watched and waited in vain. The
sun set came and still there was no sign of Akana seen.
Nevertheless Hasebe remained at the gate,
gazing down the road. Later his mother went to him, and
said: "The mind of a man, my son, — as our proverb
declares — may change as quickly as the sky of autumn.
But your chrysanthemum flowers will still be fresh
tomorrow. Better sleep now and in the morning you can
watch again for Akana, if you wish." "Rest well, mother,"
replied Hasebe — "but I still believe that he will come."
Then the mother went to her own room and Hasebe
lingered at the gate.
The village slept but the silence was broken
only by the noise of a little brook, and by the far-away
barking of peasants' dogs. Hasébé still waited and waited
until he saw the thin moon sink behind the neighboring
hills. Then at last he began to doubt and to fear. Just as
he was about to reenter the house, he perceived in the
distance a tall man approaching, very lightly and quickly;
and in the next moment he recognized Akana.

37
"Oh!" Hasebe cried springing to meet him. "I
have been waiting for you from the morning until now! . . .
So you really did keep your promise after all. . . . But you
must be tired, poor brother! Come in, everything is ready
for you.“
He guided Akana to the place of honor in the
guest room, and hastened to trim the lights, which were
burning low. "Mother," continued Hasebe, “ she felt a little
tired this evening, and she has already gone to bed but I
shall awaken her presently." Akana shook his head, and
made a little gesture of disapproval. "As you will, brother,"
said by Hasebe and he set warm food and wine before the
traveller.
Akana did not touch the food or the wine, but
remained motionless and silent for a short time. Then, he
speaks in a whisper. "Now I must tell you how it happened
that I came this late. When I returned to Izumo I found
that the people had almost forgotten the kindness of our
former ruler, the good Lord Enya, and were seeking the
favor of the usurper Tsunéhisa, who had possessed
himself of the Tonda Castle. But I had to visit my cousin,
Akana Tanji, though he had accepted service under
Tsunéhisa, and was living, as a retainer, within the castle
grounds. He persuaded me to present myself before
Tsunéhisa.

38
I yielded chiefly in order to observe the
character of the new ruler, whose face I had never seen.
He is a skilled soldier, and of great courage, but he is
cunning and cruel. I found it necessary to let him know
that I could never enter into his service. After I left his
presence he ordered my cousin to detain me to keep me
confined within the house. I protested that I had
promised to return to Harima upon the ninth day of the
ninth month, but I was refused permission to go. I then
hoped to escape from the castle at night; but I was
constantly watched; and until to-day I could find no way
to fulfill my promise. . . .“
"Until to-day!" exclaimed by Hasebe in
bewilderment. “The castle is more than a hundred miles
from here!”
"Yes,“ Akana replied "and no living man can
travel on foot a hundred miles in one day. But I felt that, if
I did not keep my promise, you could not think well of me
and I remembered the ancient proverb, ”Tama yoku ichi
nichi ni sen ri wo yuku” [The soul of a man can journey a
thousand miles in a day]. Fortunately I had been allowed
to keep my sword and through this, only was I able to
come to you… Be good to our mother."

39
With these words he stood up and instantly
disappeared. Then Hasebe knew that Akana had
killed himself in order to fulfill the promise.
At earliest dawn Hasebe Samon set out for
the Castle Tonda, in the province of Izumo. Reaching
Matsué, he there learned that, on the night of the
ninth day of the ninth month, Akana Soyemon had
performed harakiri in the house of Akana Tanji, in the
grounds of the castle. Then Hasebe went to the house
of Akana Tanji, and reproached Akana Tanji for the
treachery done, and slew him in the midst of his
family, and escaped without hurt. And when the Lord
Tsunéhisa had heard the story, he gave commands
that Hasebe should not be pursued. For, although an
unscrupulous and cruel man himself, the Lord
Tsunéhisa could respect the love of truth in others,
and could admire the friendship and the courage of
Hasebe Samon.

40
Numerous version of translations and story
variation was influenced by this Japanese folktale.
Literally and figuratively, the story gives us the dense
value of uttering promises. That those promises are
made not to be broken.
Now a days, promises can be associated with
divinity. That even God made promises to Abraham in
the Bible. It is a commitment by someone to do a
declaration assuring that one will or will not do
something. It can also mean a capacity for good,
similar to a value that is to be realized in the near
future.
There are many types of promises like
solemn promises, such as marriage vows or military
oaths. An oath and affirmation can be a promise too
but one special kind is the vow.
Whatever promises we commit, the most
important is for us to act accordingly on what is
expected from what you had promised.

42
Don Juan is known as “The Seducer of
Seville” , a womanizer man from Spain. He
possesses a constant sense of humor that woman
would easily fall.
He seduced a girl from a noble family.
When her father grew angry, he sought revenge,
but was killed by Don Juan. Soon afterward, Don
Juan is joined for dinner by the ghost of the slain
man, who then warns Don Juan of his impending
death. Instead of repenting for his past
transgressions, Don Juan refuses and it is eternally
damned. He is very known for his libertinism.
He is not bothered about the future. All
he know is that he needs to survive for today and
fulfill all want he want on the present. He was not
also bothered about his past. His life seems to be
worthless because he do not commit love to any
woman.

43
The character of Don Juan first appeared in
the Spanish drama "El burlador de Sevilla," which
translates to "The Seducer of Seville," by Tirso de
Molina, in 1630. The legend Tirso’s tragedy, Don Juan
became a universal character, as familiar as Don
Quixote, Hamlet and Faust. Subsequently, he became
the hero-villain of plays, novels, and poems. His legend
was assured enduring popularity later immortalized in
Mozart's opera "Don Giovanni," written in Italy 1787.
Through this famous character of hyper
sexuality (Spanish slang), multiple poems, stories and
theartre plays were created. Although the various
iterations of the Don Juan myth show some variation,
the basic storyline remains the same.
Starting with Tirso's work, Don Juan is
portrayed as a wealthy, seductive libertine who devotes
his life to seducing women, taking great pride in his
ability to seduce women of all ages and stations in life.
His life is also punctuated with violence and gambling,
and in many interpretations (Tirso, Espronceda,
Zorrilla), he kills Don Gonzalo, the father of a girl he has
seduced, Doña Ana.

44
This leads to the famous last supper scene,
whereby Don Juan invites the dead father to dinner.
The ending of Don Juan depends on which
version of the legend one is reading. Tirso's original
play was meant as religious parable against Don
Juan's sinful ways, and ends with his death, having
been denied salvation by God.
In French they have the translations of Don
Juan into Dom Juan which is the last part in Molière's
hypocrisy trilogy that also includes The School for
Wives and Tartuff. It was first performed on February
15, 1660 in the Pailais Royal Theatre.
Other authors and playwrights would
interpret the ending in their own fashion.
Espronceda's Don Felix walks into hell and to his
death of his own volition, whereas Zorrilla's Don Juan
asks for and receives, a divine pardon. The figure of
Don Juan has inspired many modern interpretations.
Its intellectual, moral and spiritual gist were
presented on different styles according to different
interpretations.

45
One of the authors Douglas Carlton Abrams
wrote THE LOST DIARY OF DON JUAN. This is a magical
novel that captures the secret life of the world's most
famous lover, Don Juan. The story goes into detail about
how Don Juan is raised as Juan Tenorio and abandoned
in a convent. As being raised by nuns, Juan learns to
love and worship all women, maybe a little much. Juan
really wants no more in his life than to be a priest, but
then he does the unforgivable—he has a love affair with
a nun.
This causes Juan to leave the church forever,
and the only home he has ever known. He is recruited
by the mysterious Marquis de la Mota, who teaches
Juan to become the world's greatest libertine and
seducer of women. From here, it seems that Don Juan's
mastery of passion becomes the epitome of his life...
possibly a terrible thing in the age of repression.
However, Don Juan's search for personal pleasure and
gratification carry over to our modern age and has
earned the man a reputation that will never be lived
down. In this story, a diary is kept that compels Don
Juan to confess everything and all of his irresistible
claims to love.

47
The words on the pamphlet is about a contrary.
They argue that all changes in the shape of society, in
political institutions, in history itself, are driven by a
process of collective struggle on the part of groups of
people with similar economic situations in order to realize
their material or economic interests.
These struggles, occurring throughout history
from ancient Rome through the Middle Ages to the present
day, have been struggles of economically subordinate
classes against economically dominant classes who
opposed their economic interests—slaves against masters,
serfs against landlords, and so on. The modern
industrialized world has been shaped by one such
subordinate class—the bourgeoisie, or merchant class—in
its struggle against the aristocratic elite of feudal society.
Through world exploration, the discovery of raw materials
and metals, and the opening of commercial markets across
the globe, the bourgeoisie, whose livelihood is
accumulation, grew wealthier and politically emboldened
against the feudal order, which it eventually managed to
sweep away through struggle and revolution.
The bourgeoisie have risen to the status of
dominant class in the modern industrial world, shaping
political institutions and society according to its own
interests.

48
Far from doing away with class struggle, this
once subordinate class, now dominant, has replaced
one class struggle with another.
The bourgeoisie is the most spectacular force
in history to date. The merchants’ zeal for accumulation
has led them to conquer the globe, forcing everyone
everywhere to adopt the capitalist mode of production.
The bourgeois view, which sees the world as one big
market for exchange, has fundamentally altered all
aspects of society, even the family, destroying
traditional ways of life and rural civilizations and
creating enormous cities in their place. Under
industrialization, the means of production and exchange
that drive this process of expansion and change have
created a new subordinate urban class whose fate is
vitally tied to that of the bourgeoisie. This class is the
industrial proletariat, or modern working class. These
workers have been uprooted by the expansion of
capitalism and forced to sell their labor to the
bourgeoisie, a fact that offends them to the core of
their existence as they recall those workers of earlier
ages who owned and sold what they created. Modern
industrial workers are exploited by the bourgeoisie and
forced to compete with one another for ever-shrinking
wages as the means of production grow more
sophisticated.

49
The factory is the arena for the formation of a
class struggle that will spill over into society at large.
Modern industrial workers will come to recognize their
exploitation at the hands of the bourgeoisie. Although the
economic system forces them to compete with one another
for ever shrinking wages, through common association on
the factory floor they will overcome the divisions between
themselves, realize their common fate, and begin to engage
in a collective effort to protect their economic interests
against the bourgeoisie. The workers will form collectivities
and gradually take their demands to the political sphere as
a force to be reckoned with.
Meanwhile, the workers will be joined by an ever-
increasing number of the lower middle class whose
entrepreneurial livelihoods are being destroyed by the
growth of huge factories owned by a shrinking number of
superrich industrial elites.
Gradually, all of society will be drawn to one or
the other side of the struggle. Like the bourgeoisie before
them, the proletariat and their allies will act together in the
interests of realizing their economic aims. They will move to
sweep aside the bourgeoisie and its institutions, which
stand in the way of this realization. The bourgeoisie,
through its established mode of production, produces the
seeds of its own destruction: the working class.

50
Political theorists Karl Marx and his coauthor,
Friedrich Engels, begin The Communist Manifesto with
the famous and provocative statement that the “history
of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class
struggle.” It has since been recognized as one of the
world's most influential political manuscripts. This also
the founding documents of Communism.
It was written late 1847 and first published
February 1848. It was also serialized at around the same
time in a German-language London newspaper,
the Deutsche Londoner Zeitung. The first English
translation was produced by Helen Macfarlane in 1850,
and the book was first published in the United States by
Stephen Pearl Andrew. The Manifesto went through a
number of editions from 1872 to 1890; notable new
prefaces were written by Marx and Engels for the 1872
German edition, the 1882 Russian edition, the 1883
French edition, and the 1888 English edition. The 1910
edition, translated by Samuel Moore with the assistance
of Engels, has been the most commonly used English
text translation.

51
The influence of the Manifesto is long and
comprehensive. It is being used to shape the world. In
the century and a half since its publication, it has been
judged not only as a uniquely influential document in the
theory and practice of revolutionary movements but
also as a work of history, as economic, political, and
cultural analysis and prophecy.
The Manifesto has been judged as an account
of past, manipulator of the present, and guide for our
future. This Manifesto has been unique and critically
scrutinized by intellectual people.
It has also a big influence to education as per
indicated on the Section Two of this Manifesto regarding
the Proletarians and Communists. “ There must be a
free education for children in public schools.” About
how to run the government regarding the taxations, land
reforms, capitalism, monopoly and population
management. That is why this Manifesto is associated in
the born of social movements and powerful political
parties.

53
The Quran is the central religious text of
Islam religion of] It is widely regarded as the finest piece
of literature in Arabic Language. They consider Quran
to be the only book that has been protected by God
from distortion or corruption. Muslims believe that the
Quran was verbally revealed from God to
Muhammad through the an Angel Gabriel, gradually
over a period of approximately 23 years, beginning on
22 December 609 CE when Muhammad was 40, and
concluding in 632 CE, the year of his death. Shortly after
Muhammad's death, the Quran was collected by his
companions using written Quranic materials and
everything that had been memorized of the Quran.
It is totally undoubtful to be influential for the
49 Muslim countries in the world which approximately
over 1.6 billion or about 23.4% of the world’s
population in 2010.
Most primarily, their lifestyle and cultural
beliefs molds the community and even the society in
which they belong.

55
The Bible is widely considered to be the
best selling and most influential book of all time. It
has estimated annual sales of 100 million copies and
has been a major influence on literature and history,
especially in the West where it was the first mass-
printed book. It came from a Latin word “Biblia
Sacra” which means holy book.
Most of the contemporary literature and
art works was derived from the values and context
of the holy bible. Paintings , artistic plays, stories and
parables, and even dramatic imaginations of written
works.
It already endures the test of time. It is
considered the eternal reference of truth regardless
of the religious affiliations. It heals the wound of
humanity and truly it is considered the best of all
masterpieces of the world.

Literatu
re
of the
WorldAvigail G. Maximo
BSE-Filipino

World Literature Sample Masterpieces (Summary)

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World Literature Sample Masterpieces (Summary)