Book excerpt: Popular American essayist, novelist, and journalist CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER (1829-1900) was renowned for the warmth and intimacy of his writing, which encompassed travelogue, biography and autobiography, fiction, and more, and influenced entire generations of his fellow writers. Here, the prolific writer turned editor for his final grand work, a splendid survey of global literature, classic and modern, and it's not too much to suggest that if his friend and colleague Mark Twain-who stole Warner's quip about how "everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it"-had assembled this set, it would still be hailed today as one of the great achievements of the book world. Highlights from Volume 31 include: . the histories of James Ford Rhodes . the fiction of Samuel Richardson . the writing of Anne Thackeray Ritchie . the maxims of La Rochefoucauld . the Roman poets of the Later Empire . the poetry of Pierre Ronsard . the writings of Theodore Roosevelt . the poetry of Christina Georgina Rossetti and Dante Gabriel Rossetti . the philosophy of Jean Jacques Rousseau . and much, much more.