The Kalevala is the national epic of Karelia and Finland and one of the most significant works of Finnish literature. Today's modern version was compiled in the 19th century by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology. The epic tells the story about the Creation of Earth, describing the controversies and retaliatory voyages between the peoples of the land of Kalevala called Väinölä and the land of Pohjola and their various...

Excerpt: "I began these memoirs when about twenty-five years old, having from youth kept a diary of some sort, which perhaps from habit made me think of recording my inner and secret life. When I began it, I had scarcely read a baudy book, none of which excepting "Fanny Hill" appeared to me to be truthful, that did, and it does so still; the others telling of recherche eroticisms, or of inordinate copulative powers, of the strange twists, tricks,...

Kipling's tales of Mowgli and his exciting life in the Indian jungle have been loved by children and adults alike ever since their publication in 1895. Mowgli the 'man-cub' must learn to fend for himself against terrible foes like Shere Khan the tiger, but he can always call upon his friends Baloo the Bear, Bagheera the Black Panther and Kaa the Rock Python from whom he learns the Law of the Jungle.