The Boys' Book of Famous Rulers

The great rulers for young readers, from Agamemnon and Cyrus through Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and Alfred to Richard the Lionheart, Robert Bruce, Philip II, Gustavus Adolphus, Louis XIV, Peter the Great, Frederick the Great and Napoleon — each life told as a single story, with the dates at the head of the chapter. Lydia Hoyt Farmer wrote a shelf of such books for American children in the 1880s. She is drawn to the moment when a ruler first gives an order and it is obeyed, which is a good instinct for the subject. Its 63 original illustrations have been carefully restored and coloured for this edition.