Art of Being Alive - Revisited (Annotated)

I found this book in an antique shop in Fremantle, Australia and picked it up, out of curiosity. When I flicked through the pages I was fascinated by the clarity and relevance of the few sentences I had read. I asked myself: "e;More than one hundred years ago they had already books about self-development?"e; I was so absorbed, I decided to buy the book. I continued reading and wondered who this person, who this author, was. I did some research and what I found fascinated me even more. For example, a book review of 1914 by Walter de la Mare, published by "e;The Times Literary Supplement,"e; states the following:"e;...fragments that remain rather than by the elixir they have wasted and the miracle it represents."e; Or this: "e;She heartily denounces the get-rich-quick method of financiering."e; For those inquisitive minds, the whole book review text is contained in the notes, see for yourself and you will find that it indeed makes an interesting read. Until I came across this book, somehow I had this belief that self-improvement and self-help books are a sign of our modern times. As this book is testimony, the whole subject of self-improvement goes back a long time and people had always tried to better themselves and even then already, wanted to improve their lives. I was also surprised to learn how little has changed in one hundred years. For example in the chapter, "e;Modern Marriage"e;, Ella Wheeler Wilcox writes: "e;WHY the contention, the separations, the ever-increasing ratio of divorces that follow the marriages of to-day? In short, what is the matter with the modern marriage?"e;There are many more examples how Ella's writing is still relevant here and now, therefore I decided it would be a loss if her thoughts were not exposed to other people who are interested in self-improvement and never have had the opportunity to read her thoughts on this subject.