"The Genius" is an absorbing work by Margaret Horton Potter, an American novelist specializing in historical fiction. Excerpt "It was not strange, then, that the affair of New Year's night had become the sensation of the season. For on this night Prince Gregoriev had vowed a triumph over the massed society of the Mother City. He intended to accomplish now what his wedding with a daughter of one of the oldest and most honored families had failed to do: what no use of his unscrupulous power could force, what all Moscow society, for once banded unanimously together, had sworn he should never accomplish—enter their ranks, the ranks of the old nobility of the Empire."

Reprint of the original, first published in 1856.

Genius. With hints of madness and mystery, moral license and visionary force, the word suggests an almost otherworldly power: the power to create, to divine the secrets of the universe, even to destroy. Yet the notion of genius has been diluted in recent times. Today, rock stars, football coaches, and entrepreneurs are labeled 'geniuses,' and the word is applied so widely that it has obscured the sense of special election and superhuman authority that long accompanied it. As acclaimed historian Darrin M. McMahon explains, the concept of genius has roots in antiquity, when men of prodigious insight were thought to possess -- or to be possessed by -- demons and gods. Adapted in the centuries that followed and applied to a variety of religious figures, including prophets, apostles, sorcerers, and saints, abiding notions of transcendent human power were invoked at the time of the Renaissance to explain the miraculous creativity of men like Leonardo and Michelangelo. Yet it was only in the eighteenth century that the genius was truly born, idolized as a new model of the highest human type. Assuming prominence in figures as varied as Newton and Napoleon, the modern genius emerged in tension with a growing belief in human equality. Contesting the notion that all are created equal, geniuses served to dramatize the exception of extraordinary individuals not governed by ordinary laws. The phenomenon of genius drew scientific scrutiny and extensive public commentary into the 20th century, but it also drew religious and political longings that could be abused. In the genius cult of the Nazis and the outpouring of reverence for the redemptive figure of Einstein, genius achieved both its apotheosis and its Armageddon. The first comprehensive history of this elusive concept, Divine Fury follows the fortunes of genius and geniuses through the ages down to the present day, showing how -- despite its many permutations and recent democratization -- genius remains a potent force in our lives, reflecting modern needs, hopes, and fears.

"I think this book is kind of malleable. I've never really wanted to put it away and be done with it forever -- the second I first 'finished' it, I wanted to dig back in and change everything around. So I'm looking forward to getting back into the text, and straightening and focusing and deleting. Most of all, I'm thrilled that Vintage will be letting me include all the cool chase scenes, previously censored." -- Dave Eggers The literary sensation of the year, a book that redefines both family and narrative for the twenty-first century. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is the moving memoir of a college senior who, in the space of five weeks, loses both of his parents to cancer and inherits his seven-year-old brother. Here is an exhilarating debut that manages to be simultaneously hilarious and wildly inventive as well as a deeply heartfelt story of the love that holds a family together. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is an instant classic that will be read in paperback for decades to come. PAPERBACK EDITION -- 15% MORE STAGGERING - Eggers has written 15,000 additional words for the Vintage Canada edition, including an entirely new appendix.

Who are the men and women drawn from all civilizations and historical epochs that have made the most original and long-lasting contributions to human progress? How can we, in concise and human terms, delineate the various achievements of the most important religious founders, philosophers, artists, prophets, scientists, mathematicians, leaders, and architects? A fitting pursuit for these distracting and confusing times would be a careful examination of the geniuses whose achievements are so original and creative that they are woven into the very fabric of our civilization. The goal of this book is not merely a study of the past. It also raises questions about the goal of human life and its amazing creative potentialities. If these achievements of ancient or recent times were possible in the conditions of isolation and hostility by the surrounding world, what even greater achievements are possible in the future? Is there something in these geniuses’ lives and works that we can apply to our present dilemmas? It’s certainly worth a closer look at the greatest geniuses in all of history.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is considered the greatest German literary figure of the modern era. He was a German writer and statesman. His works include: four novels; epic and lyric poetry; prose and verse dramas; memoirs; an autobiography; literary and aesthetic criticism; and treatises on botany, anatomy, and colour. This collection includes the following: The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship (1794) Elective Affinities (1809) Wilhelm Meister’s Journeyman Years (1821) The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily (1795) A Tale (1797) The Good Women (1797) The Wayward Lover (1768) The Fellow Culprits (1769) Goetz von Berlichingen (1773) Clavigo (1774) Egmont (1788) The Brother and Sister (1776) Stella (1776) Iphigenia in Tauris (1779) Torquato Tasso (1790) The Natural Daughter (1803) Faust: Part One (1808) Faust: Part Two (1832) The Poems of Goethe Reynard the Fox (1794) The Siege of Mainz (1793) Theory of Colours (1810) Introduction to ‘The Propyläen’ (1798) Winckelmann and His Age (1805) The Travel Writing Letters from Switzerland and Travels in Italy (1816) The Criticism Goethe the Writer by Ralph Waldo Emerson Goethe by C. E. Vaughan Goethe by John Cowper Powys Goethe’s Faust by George Santayana Shakespeare and Goethe by David Masson Goethe’s Theory of Colors by John Tyndall Extracts of Correspondence by Sir Walter Scott The Autobiography Truth and Fiction Relating to My Life (1811) The Biographies Conversations with Goethe (1836) by Johann Peter Eckermann The Life of Goethe by Calvin Thomas (1886) Life of Johann Wolfgang Goethe by James Sime (1888)