Excerpt from Shepp's Giant Library: Eight Great Books in a Single Volume; An Unrivalled Compilation of the World's Best Literature, Music and Art The present work is the result of an earnest attempt to correct such ill conditions. How many are there, in these busy days, who can find time to read through the great masterpieces of fiction, the innumerable volumes of poetry, the sublime dramas of Shakespeare, the detailed history of the world? To do so would require that a man forsake all else and give his life up to this one task. Yet how dearly would every appreciative mind love to be stored with such intellectual treasures! And how desirable it is that such knowledge and entertainment should be placed within the reach of even the busiest man! It is confidently believed that it is thus placed in Shepp's Giant Library. With scholarly and reverential care, the best masterpieces of the world's literature have here been put into such compass as will make them universally accessible. They have not been dwarfed or mutilated. They have merely been freed from the superfluous wrap pings that shut in the kernel of essential truth from the reach of the average reader. Of every one the full spirit is preserved in all its vital force, and with it far more of the letter than one man in a thousand is ever able to master and remember from the unabridged work. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.