(Ebook) JavaScript Design Patterns by Hugo Di

Francescoinstall download

https://ebooknice.com/product/javascript-design-patterns-56190208

Download more ebook instantly today at https://ebooknice.com

 Instant digital products (PDF, ePub, MOBI) ready for you
Download now and discover formats that fit your needs...

Start reading on any device today!

(Ebook) MASTERING JAVASCRIPT DESIGN PATTERNS: create scalable and reliable

applications with advanced Javascript design patterns using reliable code by Tomas
Corral Cosas ISBN 9781788627580, 178862758X

https://ebooknice.com/product/mastering-javascript-design-patterns-create-
scalable-and-reliable-applications-with-advanced-javascript-design-patterns-
using-reliable-code-9992610

ebooknice.com

(Ebook) Mastering JavaScript Design Patterns by Simon Timms ISBN 9781785882166,

1785882163

https://ebooknice.com/product/mastering-javascript-design-patterns-6724550

ebooknice.com

(Ebook) Learning JavaScript Design Patterns by Adnan Osmani ISBN 9781098139872,

1098139879

https://ebooknice.com/product/learning-javascript-design-patterns-56633862

ebooknice.com

(Ebook) Learning JavaScript Design Patterns by Addy Osmani ISBN 9781098139872,

1098139879

https://ebooknice.com/product/learning-javascript-design-patterns-49002748

ebooknice.com
(Ebook) Learning JavaScript Design Patterns by Addy Osmani ISBN 9781449331818,
1449331815

https://ebooknice.com/product/learning-javascript-design-patterns-2561268

ebooknice.com

(Ebook) JavaScript Patterns: Build Better Applications with Coding and Design
Patterns by Stefanov, Stoyan ISBN 9780596806750, 0596806752

https://ebooknice.com/product/javascript-patterns-build-better-applications-
with-coding-and-design-patterns-55886614

ebooknice.com

(Ebook) Pro JavaScript Design Patterns by Ross Harmes; Dustin Diaz ISBN
9781590599082, 159059908X

https://ebooknice.com/product/pro-javascript-design-patterns-34822960

ebooknice.com

(Ebook) Learning JavaScript Design Patterns, 2nd Edition by Addy Osmani ISBN
9781098139865, 1098139860

https://ebooknice.com/product/learning-javascript-design-patterns-2nd-
edition-47549710

ebooknice.com

(Ebook) Pro Javascript Design Patterns by Ross Harmes, Dustin Diaz ISBN
9781590599082, 9781430204954, 159059908X, 1430204958

https://ebooknice.com/product/pro-javascript-design-patterns-43150420

ebooknice.com
JavaScript Design Patterns
Copyright © 2024 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher,
except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information
presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or
implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing or its dealers and distributors, will be held liable for
any damages caused or alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and
products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot
guarantee the accuracy of this information.

Group Product Manager: Rohit Rajkumar

Publishing Product Manager: Kushal Dave

Senior Content Development Editor: Feza Shaikh

Technical Editor: Simran Udasi

Copy Editor: Safis Editing

Project Coordinator: Aishwarya Mohan

Indexer: Subalakshmi Govindhan

Production Designer: Jyoti Kadam

Marketing Coordinators: Nivedita Pandey and Anamika Singh

First published: March 2024

Production reference: 1150224

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Grosvenor House

11 St Paul’s Square

Birmingham

B3 1RB, UK

ISBN 978-1-80461-227-9

www.packtpub.com
To my wife, Amalia, for being my first supporter in all my endeavors. To my daughter, Zoë, for
making me want to show that the impossible sometimes is.
 – Hugo Di Francesco

Contributors

About the author

Hugo Di Francesco is a software engineer who has worked extensively with JavaScript. He holds an
MEng degree in mathematical computation from University College London (UCL). He has used
JavaScript across the stack to create scalable and performant platforms at companies such as Canon
and Elsevier, and in industries such as print on demand and mindfulness. He is currently tackling
problems in the travel industry at Eurostar with Node.js, TypeScript, React, and Kubernetes, while
running the eponymous Code with Hugo website. Outside of work, he is an international fencer, in
the pursuit of which he trains and competes across the globe.
 I want to thank all the people who have supported me in my life and writing journey,
particularly my wife Amalia, and my family.

About the reviewers

Dr. Murugavel, a distinguished and versatile educator in the realms of computer science engineering
and information technology. With over 13 years of enriching experience at renowned universities and
an additional 8+ years dedicated to the dynamic field of data analytics, Dr. Murugavel stands as a
beacon of expertise at the intersection of academia and technology.

His journey is marked by successive achievements, particularly in handling core subjects and
programming languages, with a keen emphasis on practical knowledge. As a mentor and guide for
major projects, Dr. Murugavel actively engages in groundbreaking research within his specialized
field. His commitment to bridging theory and application has made him a valuable resource for
students and researchers alike.

His technical proficiency extends across a spectrum of disciplines. He is well-versed in full stack web
development, SQL, data analytics, Python, and BI tools, showcasing theoretical knowledge and a
hands-on understanding of these technologies. His extensive portfolio includes the development of
numerous applications using JSP, ASP, and ASP.NET, reflecting his prowess in both frontend and
backend development.

In the realm of databases, he demonstrates versatility across MS-SQL Server, MySQL, MongoDB,
Django, MS Access, Oracle, and FoxPro. His proficiency in various Integrated Development
Environments (IDEs) and tools such as Anaconda, Visual Studio, GitHub, JBuilder, JCreator,
MATLAB, Sublime 3, and Adobe Dreamweaver further solidifies his standing in the technological
landscape.

In the realm of data science and Business Intelligence (BI) tools, his skills are extensive,
encompassing PowerBI, DAX, VBA Macros for Excel, SSAS, and SSIS. His ability to harness these
tools illuminates the path to insightful data analysis and visualization.

Shubham Thakur, a dynamic senior software engineer (A3 grade) at EPAM, specializes in
technologies such as JavaScript, Angular, Next.js, Node, MySQL, MongoDB, AWS Cloud, and IoT.
His expertise in these domains has significantly contributed to his project successes. He expresses
deep gratitude to Priya for her unwavering love and to his brother, Yash, for his constant support.
Shubham also acknowledges the profound impact of his mentors, Avnish Aggarwal, Yogesh
Dhandekar, and Amit Jain, whose guidance has been instrumental in shaping his professional
journey. Their mentorship has not only honed his technical skills but also enriched his approach to
complex problem-solving in the tech industry.
Table of Contents

Preface
Part 1: Design Patterns

Working with Creational Design Patterns

What are creational design patterns?
Implementing the prototype pattern in JavaScript
Implementation
A use case
The singleton pattern with eager and lazy initialization in
JavaScript
Implementation
Use cases
Improvements with the “class singleton” pattern
A singleton without class fields using ES module behavior
The factory pattern in JavaScript
Implementation
Use cases
Improvements with modern JavaScript
Summary

Implementing Structural Design Patterns

Technical requirements
What are structural design patterns?
Implementing the Proxy pattern with Proxy and Reflect
A redaction proxy implementation
Use cases
Improving the proxy pattern in JavaScript with the Proxy and
Reflect global objects
Decorator in JavaScript
Implementation
Use cases
Improvements/limitations
Flyweight in JavaScript
Implementation
Use cases
Improvements/limitations
Adapter in JavaScript
Use cases
Improvements/limitations
Summary

Leveraging Behavioral Design Patterns

Technical requirements
What are behavioral design patterns?
The observer pattern in JavaScript
Implementation
Use cases of the observer pattern
Limitations and improvements
State and strategy in JavaScript and a simplified approach
Implementation
Use cases of the state and strategy patterns
Limitations and improvements
Visitor in JavaScript
Implementation
Use cases of the visitor pattern
Summary
Part 2: Architecture and UI Patterns

Exploring Reactive View Library Patterns

Technical requirements
What are reactive view library patterns?
The render prop pattern
Use cases
Implementation/example
Limitations
The higher-order component pattern
Implementation/example
Use cases
Limitations
The hooks pattern
An implementation/example
Use cases
Limitations
The provider pattern
Use case – the prop drilling problem
An implementation/example
Limitations
Summary

Rendering Strategies and Page Hydration

Technical requirements
Client and server rendering with React
Client-side rendering in React
Server rendering in React
Trade-offs between client and server rendering
Static rendering with Next.js
Automatic static generation
Static generation with a third-party data source
Static generation with dynamic paths
Page hydration strategies
Common React rehydration issues
React streaming server-side rendering
Summary

Micro Frontends, Zones, and Islands Architectures

Technical requirements
An overview of micro frontends
Key benefits
“Classic” micro frontend patterns
Other concerns in a micro frontend world
Composing applications with Next.js “zones”
Root app
Adding a /search app
Adding /checkout app
The benefits/supporting team scaling
The drawbacks of Next.js zones
Scaling performance-sensitive pages with the “islands”
architecture
Islands setup with is-land
Product island
Cart island
A related products island
Scaling with a team – bundling islands
Drawbacks
Summary
Part 3: Performance and Security Patterns

Asynchronous Programming Performance Patterns

Technical requirements
Controlling sequential asynchronous operations with
async/await and Promises
Parallel asynchronous operation patterns
Asynchronous cancellation and timeouts with AbortController
Throttling, debouncing, and batching asynchronous operations
Summary

Event-Driven Programming Patterns

Technical requirements
Optimizing event listeners through event delegation
Patterns for secure frame/native WebView bridge messaging
Event listener performance antipatterns
Summary

Maximizing Performance – Lazy Loading and Code

Splitting
Technical requirements
Dynamic imports and code splitting with Vite
Route-based code splitting and bundling
Loading JavaScript on element visibility and interaction
Summary

10

Asset Loading Strategies and Executing Code off the

Main Thread
Technical requirements
Asset loading optimization – async, defer, preconnect, preload,
and prefetch
Using Next.js Script’s strategy option to optimize asset loading
Loading and running scripts in a worker thread
Summary

Index

Other Books You May Enjoy

Preface
Welcome! JavaScript design patterns are techniques that allow us to write more robust, scalable, and
extensible applications in JavaScript. JavaScript is the main programming language available in web
browsers and is one of the most popular programming languages with support beyond browsers.

Design patterns are solutions to common problems that can be reused. The most-written-about design
patterns come from the world of object-oriented programming.

JavaScript’s attributes as a lightweight, multi-paradigm, dynamic, single-threaded language give it

different strengths and weaknesses to other mainstream programming languages. It’s common for
software engineers to use JavaScript in addition to being well versed in a different programming
language. JavaScript’s different gearing means that implementing design patterns verbatim can lead
to non-idiomatic and under-performing JavaScript applications.

There are many resources on JavaScript and design patterns, but this book provides a cohesive and
comprehensive view of design patterns in modern (ECMAScript 6+) JavaScript with real-world
examples of how to deploy them in a professional setting. In addition to this complete library of
patterns to apply to projects, this book also provides an overview of how to structure different parts
of an application to deliver high performance at scale.

In this book, you will be provided with up-to-date guidance through the world of modern JavaScript
patterns based on nine years of experience building and deploying JavaScript and React applications
at scale at companies such as Elsevier, Canon, and Eurostar, delivering multiple system evolutions,
performance projects, and a next-generation frontend application architecture.
Who this book is for
This book is for developers and software architects who want to leverage JavaScript and the web
platform to increase productivity, software quality, and the performance of their applications.

Familiarity with software design patterns would be a plus but is not required.

The three main challenges faced by developers and architects who are the target audience of this
content are as follows:
They are familiar with programming concepts but not how to effectively implement them in JavaScript

They want to structure JavaScript code and applications in a way that is maintainable and extensible

They want to deliver more performance to the users of their JavaScript applications
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Working with Creational Design Patterns, covers creational design patterns, which help to
organize object creation. We’ll look at implementing the prototype, singleton, and factory patterns in
JavaScript.

Chapter 2, Implementing Structural Design Patterns, looks at structural design patterns, which help
to organize relationships between entities. We’ll implement the proxy, decorator, flyweight, and
adapter patterns in JavaScript.

Chapter 3, Leveraging Behavioral Design Patterns, delves into behavioral design patterns, which
help to organize communication between objects. We’ll learn about the observer, state, strategy, and
visitor patterns in JavaScript.

Chapter 4, Exploring Reactive View Library Patterns, explores reactive view libraries, such as React,
which have taken over the JavaScript application landscape. With these libraries come new patterns
to explore, implement, and contrast.

Chapter 5, Rendering Strategies and Page Hydration, takes a look at optimizing page performance,
which is a key concern nowadays. It’s a concern both for improving the on-page conversion of
customers and search engine optimization, since search engines such as Google take core web vitals
into account.

Chapter 6, Micro Frontends, Zones, and Islands Architectures, explores micro frontends. Akin to the
microservices movement in the service tier, micro frontends are designed to split a large surface area
into smaller chunks that can be worked on and delivered at higher velocity.

Chapter 7, Asynchronous Programming Performance Patterns, looks at how JavaScript’s single-

threaded event-loop-based concurrency model is one of its greatest strengths but is often
misunderstood or under-leveraged in performance-sensitive situations. Writing asynchronous-
handling code in JavaScript in a performant and extensible manner is key to delivering a smooth user
experience at scale.

Chapter 8, Event-Driven Programming Patterns, explores how event-driven programming in

JavaScript is of paramount importance in security-sensitive applications as it is a way to pass
information from and to different web contexts. Event-driven applications can often be optimized to
enable better performance and scalability.

Chapter 9, Maximizing Performance – Lazy Loading and Code Splitting, deals with how, in order to
maximize the performance of a JavaScript application, reducing the amount of unused JavaScript
being loaded and interpreted is key. The techniques that can be brought to bear on this problem are
called lazy loading and code splitting.

Chapter 10, Asset-Loading Strategies and Executing Code off the Main Thread, looks at how there
are situations in the lifecycle of an application where loading more JavaScript or assets is inevitable.
You will learn about asset-loading optimizations in the specific case of JavaScript, as well as other
web resources, and finally how to execute JavaScript off the main browser thread.

To get the most out of this book

You will need to have prior experience with JavaScript and developing for the web. Some of the
more advanced topics in the book will be of interest to developers with intermediate experience in
building for the web with JavaScript.

Software/hardware covered in the book Operating system requirements

Node.js 20+ Windows, macOS, or Linux

NPM v8+ Windows, macOS, or Linux

ECMAScript 6+ Windows, macOS, or Linux

React v16+ Windows, macOS, or Linux

Next.js Windows, macOS, or Linux

If you are using the digital version of this book, we advise you to type the code yourself or
access the code from the book’s GitHub repository (a link is available in the next section).
Doing so will help you avoid any potential errors related to the copying and pasting of code.

Download the example code files

You can download the example code files for this book from GitHub at
https://github.com/PacktPublishing/JavaScript-Design-Patterns. If there’s an update to the code, it
will be updated in the GitHub repository.

We also have other code bundles from our rich catalog of books and videos available at
https://github.com/PacktPublishing/. Check them out!
Conventions used
There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

Code in text: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file
extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: “ In order
to make the code easier to follow, we’ll switch on the lowercased version of tagName.”

A block of code is set as follows:

<script>
// handle receiving messages from iframe -> parent
const allowedMessageOrigins = ['http://127.0.0.1:8000'];
window.addEventListener('message', (event) => {
if (!allowedMessageOrigins.includes(event.origin)) {
console.warn(
`Dropping message due to non-allowlisted origin ${event.origin}`,
event,
);
return;
}
// no change to the rest of the message handler
});
</script>

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For instance, words
in menus or dialog boxes appear in bold. Here is an example: “When opening the select, things seem
to work ok, we’re seeing the Fruit: prefix for all the options.”

TIPS OR IMPORTANT NOTES

Appear like this.

Get in touch
Feedback from our readers is always welcome.

General feedback: If you have questions about any aspect of this book, email us at
[email protected] and mention the book title in the subject of your message.

Errata: Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do
happen. If you have found a mistake in this book, we would be grateful if you would report this to us.
Please visit www.packtpub.com/support/errata and fill in the form.

Piracy: If you come across any illegal copies of our works in any form on the internet, we would be
grateful if you would provide us with the location address or website name. Please contact us at
[email protected] with a link to the material.
If you are interested in becoming an author: If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you
are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, please visit authors.packtpub.com.

Share Your Thoughts

Once you’ve read JavaScript Design Patterns, we’d love to hear your thoughts! Please click here to
go straight to the Amazon review pagefor this book and share your feedback.

Your review is important to us and the tech community and will help us make sure we’re delivering
excellent quality content.

Download a free PDF copy of this book

Thanks for purchasing this book!

Do you like to read on the go but are unable to carry your print books everywhere?

Is your eBook purchase not compatible with the device of your choice?

Don’t worry, now with every Packt book you get a DRM-free PDF version of that book at no cost.

Read anywhere, any place, on any device. Search, copy, and paste code from your favorite technical
books directly into your application.

The perks don’t stop there, you can get exclusive access to discounts, newsletters, and great free
content in your inbox daily

Follow these simple steps to get the benefits:

1. Scan the QR code or visit the link below

https://packt.link/free-ebook/978-1-80461-227-9

2. Submit your proof of purchase

3. That’s it! We’ll send your free PDF and other benefits to your email directly
Part 1:Design Patterns
In this part, you will get an overview of design patterns and how they can be implemented effectively
in modern JavaScript. You will learn how and when to implement creational, structural, and
behavioral design patterns in the “classical” object-oriented way and how modern JavaScript features
can be used to make this implementation more idiomatic to the language. Finally, you’ll see real-
world examples of design patterns being applied in the JavaScript ecosystem, thereby learning how to
recognize them.

This part has the following chapters:

Chapter 1, Working with Creational Design Patterns

Chapter 2, Implementing Structural Design Patterns

Chapter 3, Leveraging Behavioral Design Patterns

1

Working with Creational Design Patterns

JavaScript design patterns are techniques that allow us to write more robust, scalable, and extensible
applications in JavaScript. JavaScript is a very popular programming language, in part due to its
place as a way to deliver interactive functionality on web pages. The other reason for its popularity is
JavaScript’s lightweight, dynamic, multi-paradigm nature, which means that design patterns from
other ecosystems can be adapted to take advantage of JavaScript’s strengths. JavaScript’s specific
strengths and weaknesses can also inform new patterns specific to the language and the contexts in
which it’s used.

Creational design patterns give structure to object creation, which enables the development of
systems and applications where different modules, classes, and objects don’t need to know how to
create instances of each other. The design patterns most relevant to JavaScript – the prototype,
singleton, and factory patterns – will be explored, as well as situations where they’re helpful and how
to implement them in an idiomatic fashion.

We’ll cover the following topics in this chapter:

A comprehensive definition of creational design patterns and definitions for the prototype, singleton, and factory patterns

Multiple implementations of the prototype pattern and its use cases

An implementation of the singleton design pattern, eager and lazy initialization, use cases for singleton, and what a singleton
pattern in modern JavaScript looks like

How to implement the factory pattern using classes, a modern JavaScript alternative, and use cases

By the end of this chapter, you’ll be able to identify when a creational design pattern is useful and
make an informed decision on which of its multiple implementations to use, ranging from a more
idiomatic JavaScript form to a classical form.

What are creational design patterns?

Creational design patterns handle object creation. They allow a consumer to create object instances
without knowing the details of how to instantiate the object. Since, in object-oriented languages,
instantiation of objects is limited to a class’s constructor, allowing object instances to be created
without calling the constructor is useful to reduce noise and tight coupling between the consumer and
the class being instantiated.
In JavaScript, there’s ambiguity when we discuss “object creation,” since JavaScript’s multi-
paradigm nature means we can create objects without a class or a constructor. For example, in
JavaScript this is an object creation using an object literal – const config = { forceUpdate: true }.

In fact, modern idiomatic JavaScript tends to lean more toward procedural and function paradigms
than object orientation. This means that creational design patterns may have to be adapted to be fully
useful in JavaScript.

In summary, creational design patterns are useful in object-oriented JavaScript, since they hide
instantiation details from consumers, which keeps coupling low, thereby allowing better module
separation.

In the next section, we’ll encounter our first creational design pattern – the prototype design pattern.

Implementing the prototype pattern in JavaScript

Let’s start with a definition of the prototype pattern first.

The prototype design pattern allows us to create an instance based on another existing instance (our
prototype).

In more formal terms, a prototype class exposes a clone() method. Consuming code, instead of
calling new SomeClass, will call new SomeClassPrototype(someClassInstance).clone(). This method
call will return a new SomeClass instance with all the values copied from someClassInstance.

Implementation
Let’s imagine a scenario where we’re building a chessboard. There are two key types of squares –
white and black. In addition to this information, each square contains information such as its row,
file, and which piece sits atop it.

A BoardSquare class constructor might look like the following:

class BoardSquare {
constructor(color, row, file, startingPiece) {
this.color = color;
this.row = row;
this.file = file;
}
}

A set of useful methods on BoardSquare might be occupySquare and clearSquare, as follows:

class BoardSquare {
// no change to the rest of the class
occupySquare(piece) {
 this.piece = piece;
}
clearSquare() {
this.piece = null;
}
}

Instantiating BoardSquare is quite cumbersome, due to all its properties:

const whiteSquare = new BoardSquare('white');

const whiteSquareTwo = new BoardSquare('white');
// ...
const whiteSquareLast = new BoardSquare('white');

Note the repetition of arguments being passed to new BoardSquare, which will cause issues if we want
to change all board squares to black. We would need to change the parameter passed to each call of
BoardSquare is one by one for each new BoardSquare call. This can be quite error-prone; all it takes is
one hard-to-find mistake in the color value to cause a bug:

const blackSquare = new BoardSquare('black');

const blackSquareTwo = new BoardSquare('black');
// ...
const blackSquareLast = new BoardSquare('black');

Implementing our instantiation logic using a classical prototype looks as follows. We need a
BoardSquarePrototype class; its constructor takes a prototype property, which it stores on the
instance. BoardSquarePrototype exposes a clone() method that takes no arguments and returns a
BoardSquare instance, with all the properties of prototype copied onto it:

class BoardSquarePrototype {
constructor(prototype) {
this.prototype = prototype;
}
clone() {
const boardSquare = new BoardSquare();
boardSquare.color = this.prototype.color;
boardSquare.row = this.prototype.row;
boardSquare.file = this.prototype.file;
return boardSquare;
}
}

Using BoardSquarePrototype requires the following steps:

1. First, we want an instance of BoardSquare to initialize – in this case, with 'white'. It will then be passed as the
prototype property during the BoardSquarePrototype constructor call:

const whiteSquare = new BoardSquare('white');

const whiteSquarePrototype = new BoardSquarePrototype
(whiteSquare);

2. We can then use whiteSquarePrototype with .clone() to create our copies of whiteSquare. Note that color is
copied over but each call to clone() returns a new instance.

const whiteSquareTwo = whiteSquarePrototype.clone();

Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
 In the old times Death was a feverish sleep,
In which men walked. The other world was cold
And thinly-peopled, so life’s emigrants
Came back to mingle with the crowds of earth:
But now great cities are transplanted thither,
Memphis, and Babylon, and either Thebes,
And Priam’s towery town with its one beech.
The dead are most and merriest: so be sure
There will be no more haunting, till their towns
Are full to the garret; then they’ll shut their gates,
To keep the living out, and perhaps leave
A dead or two between both kingdoms.

T. L. Beddoes (Death’s Jest-Book, III, 3).

This is one of the queer fancies in a curious poem.

Every ship is a romantic object, except that we sail in. Embark and
the romance quits our vessel, and hangs on every other sail in the
horizon.
Emerson (Essay on Experience).

De vitiis nostris scalam nobis facimus, si vitia ipsa calcamus.

(We make for ourselves a ladder of our vices, when we tread
under foot the vices themselves.)
St. Augustine (De Ascensione).
 I held it truth, with him who sings
To one clear harp in divers tones,
That men may rise on stepping-stones
Of their dead selves to higher things.

Tennyson (In Memoriam).

Saint Augustine! well hast thou said,

That of our vices we can frame
A ladder, if we will but tread
Beneath our feet each deed of shame!

Longfellow (The Ladder of St. Augustine).

The trials that beset you,

The sorrows ye endure,
The manifold temptations
That death alone can cure,

What are they but His jewels

Of right celestial worth?
What are they but the ladder
Set up to Heav’n on earth?

J. M. Neale (O Happy Band of Pilgrims).

 I can bear it no longer—this diabolical invention of gentility, which
kills natural kindliness and honest friendship. Proper pride, indeed!
Rank and precedence, forsooth! The table of ranks and degrees is a
lie, and should be flung into the fire. Organize rank and precedence!
That was well for the masters of ceremonies of former ages. Come
forward, some great marshal, and organize Equality in society.
Thackeray (Book of Snobs).

Earth gets its price for what Earth gives us;

The beggar is taxed for a corner to die in,
The priest hath his fee who comes and shrives us,
We bargain for the graves we lie in;
At the devil’s booth are all things sold,
Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold;
For a cap and bells our lives we pay,
Bubbles we buy with a whole soul’s tasking:
’Tis heaven alone that is given away,
’Tis only God may be had for the asking.

J. R. Lowell (The Vision of Sir Launfal).

... The too susceptible Tupman, who, to the wisdom and

experience of maturer years, superadded the enthusiasm and ardour
of a boy, in the most interesting and pardonable of human
weaknesses, love. Time and feeding had expanded that once
romantic form; the black silk waistcoat had become more and more
developed; inch by inch had the gold watch-chain beneath it
disappeared from within the range of Tupman’s vision; and gradually
had the capacious chin encroached upon the borders of the white
cravat; but the soul of Tupman had known no change.
Charles Dickens (Pickwick Papers).

The globe has been circumnavigated, but no man ever yet has;
you may survey a kingdom and note the result in maps, but all the
savants in the world could not produce a reliable map of the poorest
human personality. And the worst of all this is, that love and
friendship may be the outcome of a certain condition of knowledge;
increase the knowledge, and love and friendship beat their wings
and go. Every man’s road in life is marked by the graves of his
personal likings. Intimacy is frequently the road to indifference; and
marriage a parricide.
Alexander Smith (The Importance of a Man to Himself).

I think sometimes how good it were had I some one by me to

listen when I am tempted to read a passage aloud. Yes, but is there
any mortal in the whole world upon whom I could invariably depend
for sympathetic understanding—nay, who would even generally be at
one with me in my appreciation? Such harmony of intelligences is
the rarest thing. All through life we long for it ... and, after all, we
learn that the vision is illusory. To every man is it decreed: Thou
shalt live alone.
George Gissing (The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft).

ISOLATION
 Yes! in the sea of life enisled,
With echoing straits between us thrown,
Dotting the shoreless watery wild,
We mortal millions live alone.
The islands feel the enclasping flow,
And then their endless bounds they know.

But when the moon their hollows lights,

And they are swept by balms of spring,
And in their glens, on starry nights,
The nightingales divinely sing;
And lovely notes, from shore to shore,
Across the sounds and channels pour—

Oh! then a longing like despair

Is to their farthest caverns sent;
For surely once, they feel, we were
Parts of a single continent!
Now round us spreads the watery plain—
Oh might our marges meet again!

Who ordered, that their longing’s fire

Should be, as soon as kindled, cooled?
Who renders vain their deep desire?
A God, a God their severance ruled!
And bade betwixt their shores to be
The unplumb’d, salt, estranging sea.

Matthew Arnold.

This fine poem is one of a series called “Switzerland,” which was written as the
result of Arnold’s meeting and falling in love with a lady at Berne. The poem
immediately preceding it in the series is entitled “Isolation: To Marguerite,” while
this is called “To Marguerite, Continued” but as it is now quoted separately, it is
better entitled “Isolation.”
 In the preceding poems the lady has lost her affection while her lover is still
devoted; and this leads to the subject of our isolation from each other in our inner
lives. In the second verse the poet describes the moments when we most crave
for love, sympathy, and mutual spiritual understanding and union.
For an interesting fact connected with this poem, see next quotation and note.

(Thackeray has been describing how husband, wife, mother, son—

each of the inmates of a household—is interested in his or her own
separate world and looking at the same things from a different point
of view.) How lonely we are in the world! You and your wife have
pressed the same pillow for forty years and fancy yourselves united:
pshaw! does she cry out when you have the gout, or do you lie
awake when she has the tooth-ache?... As for your wife—O
philosophic reader, answer and say, Do you tell her all? Ah, sir, a
distinct universe walks about under your hat and under mine—all
things in nature are different to each—the woman we look at has
not the same features, the dish we eat from has not the same taste
to the one and the other—you and I are but a pair of infinite
isolations, with some fellow-islands a little more or less near to us.
Thackeray (Pendennis, ch. XVI).

The similarity between this passage and the preceding poem, written at about
the same time, is very curious. Arnold’s poem appeared in 1852 but was
composed ten years earlier, while Pendennis was published in monthly parts in
1849-50. Therefore, neither author would consciously know at the time what the
other had written.
The incident is probably an illustration of the mysterious way in which minds
influence one another and create the spirit of the particular age. There is, I
believe, a Chinese proverb to the effect that we are more the product of our age
than of our parents. This permeating quality of thought and feeling is, no doubt,
the explanation why the highest art and literature, though often unappreciated at
the time, become ultimately recognized. It appears not to be sufficiently taken into
account in other directions. For instance, it is repeatedly stated that Blake,
because of the limited circulation of his poems, exercised no influence on the
Romantic Revival—see for example The Cambridge History of English Literature,
Vol. XI, 201. Yet we know that his work was known to and appreciated by
Wordsworth, Coleridge, Lamb, Southey, and Hayley. (Although little regarded now,
Hayley’s fame was then so great that he was offered and refused the poet-
laureateship. He appears to be the one man who was an intimate friend of both
Blake and Cowper.) While a very long period went by before Blake’s poems
became generally known, their influence may well have been very great,
permeating unconsciously through other minds. See reference on p. 194 to the
similar case of Fitzgerald’s “Omar Khayyam.”
Even if a poem were read by only one person, it might conceivably influence a
generation of authors. Suppose, if that had been possible, a page of Swinburne’s
“Tristram of Lyonesse” or F. W. H. Myers’ “Implicit Promise” (both quoted
elsewhere) had been read by Pope or Dryden; how the monotonous heroic couplet
of their time might have been transformed!

A child was playing on a summer strand

That fringed the wavelets of a sunny sea;
The mother looked in love. “Now build,” said she,
“Your splendid golden castles where you stand;
But when the wave has beaten all to sand,
You must go home.” “Ah, not so soon,” said he.

And now the night has darkened out his glee,

And sad-eyed Grief has grasped him by the hand.
No more the years shall find him free and wild
And madly merry as a bright brave bird:
For earth has nothing like the home he craves
And pauseless Time is beating bitter waves
On all his palaces. He waits the word
Away beyond the blue, “Come home, my child.”

R. Hodgson, 1879.
 An impromptu written when the mother and child incident happened and not
revised.

Humanity is neither a love for the whole human race, nor a love
for each individual of it, but a love for the race, or for the ideal of
man, in each individual. In other and less pedantic words, he who is
truly humane considers every human being as such interesting and
important, and without waiting to criticize each individual specimen,
pays in advance to all alike the tribute of good wishes and
sympathy.... If some human beings are abject and contemptible, if it
be incredible to us that they can have any high dignity or destiny, do
we regard them from so great a height as Christ? Are we likely to be
more pained by their faults and deficiencies than he was? Is our
standard higher than his? And yet he associated by preference with
these meanest of the race; no contempt for them did he ever
express, no suspicion that they might be less dear than the best and
wisest to the common Father, no doubt that they were naturally
capable of rising to a moral elevation like his own. There is nothing
of which a man may be prouder than of this; it is the most hopeful
and redeeming fact in history; it is precisely what was wanting to
raise the love of man as man to enthusiasm. An eternal glory has
been shed upon the human race by the love Christ bore to it.
Sir J. R. Seeley (Ecce Homo).
 On parent knees, a naked, new-born child,
Weeping thou sat’st while all around thee smiled:
So live, that sinking to thy life’s last sleep
Calm thou mayst smile, while all around thee weep.

Sir William Jones (1746-1794) (From the Persian).

Can the earth where the harrow is driven

The sheaf of the furrow foresee?
Or thou guess the harvest for heaven
When iron has entered in thee?

Author not traced.

This was quoted by Lord Lytton in an essay on The Influence of Love upon
Literature and Real Life.

These pearls of thought in Persian gulfs were bred,

Each softly lucent as a rounded moon;
The diver, Omar, plucked them from their bed,
Fitzgerald strung them on an English thread.

J. R. Lowell (On Omar Khayyam).

 It is hard for us to live up to our own eloquence, and keep pace
with our winged words, while we are treading the solid earth and are
liable to heavy dining.
George Eliot (Daniel Deronda).

So, then, as darkness had no beginning, neither will it ever have

an end. So, then, is it eternal. The negation of aught else, is its
affirmation. Where the light cannot come, there abideth the
darkness. The light doth but hollow a mine out of the infinite
extension of the darkness. And ever upon the steps of the light
treadeth the darkness; yea, springeth in fountains and wells amidst
it, from the secret channels of its mighty sea. Truly, man is but a
passing flame, moving unquietly amid the surrounding rest of night;
without which he yet could not be, and whereof he is in part
compounded.
G. MacDonald (Phantastes).

In the story an ogre is reading this passage from a book. Phantastes is

MacDonald’s finest work.
 There, on the fields around,
All men shall till the ground,
Corn shall wave yellow, and bright rivers stream;
Daily, at set of sun,
All, when their work is done,
Shall watch the heavens yearn down and the strange starlight
gleam.

R. Buchanan (The City of Man).

This is the poet’s vision of the city of the future, and will be interesting to the
allotment-holders in English cities to-day.

Dear dead women, with such hair, too—what’s become of all the
gold
Used to hang and brush their bosoms? I feel chilly and grown
old.

R. Browning (A Toccata of Galuppi’s).

 Quand on n’a pas ce que l’on aime,
Il faut aimer ce que l’on a.

(When you have not what you love

You must love what you have.)

Thomas Corneille (L’Inconnu).

At last methought that I had wandered far

In an old wood: fresh-washed in coolest dew
The maiden splendours of the morning star
Shook in the steadfast blue....

At length I saw a lady within call,

Stiller than chiselled marble, standing there;
A daughter of the gods, divinely tall,
And most divinely fair.

...

I turning saw, throned on a flowery rise,

One sitting on a crimson scarf unrolled;
A queen, with swarthy cheeks and bold black eyes,
Brow-bound with burning gold....

“I died a Queen. The Roman soldier found

Me lying dead, my crown about my brows,
A name for ever!—lying robed and crowned,
Worthy a Roman spouse.”

Tennyson (A Dream of Fair Women).

 Helen of Troy and Cleopatra—but, as Peacock mentioned in Gryll Grange,
Cleopatra was of pure Greek descent and could not have been a “swarthy” lady.

One pond of water gleams;

... the trees bend
O’er it as wild men watch a sleeping girl.

R. Browning (Pauline).

I met a lady in the meads,

Full beautiful, a faery’s child;
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.

I set her on my pacing steed,

And nothing else saw all day long;
For sideways would she lean, and sing
A faery’s song.

Keats (La Belle Dame sans Merci).

 He put the hawthorn twigs apart,
And yet saw no more wondrous thing
Than seven white swans, who on wide wing
Went circling round, till one by one
They dropped the dewy grass upon.

W. Morris (The Earthly Paradise, the Land East of the Sun).

Quoth Christabel.—So let it be!

And, as the lady bade, did she.
Her gentle limbs did she undress
And lay down in her loveliness.

S. T. Coleridge (Christabel)

The six quotations above are word-pictures (see note p. 85).

It is a mistake into which spiritually-minded men have fallen, that

God is apprehended and known by a special faculty. The fact is that
every faculty is serviceable in this noble work. We reach the Divine
through our aesthetic faculties when our soul is stirred by a grand
burst of music, or by the contemplation of a magnificent landscape.
We reach the Divine through our purely intellectual faculties, when,
by true reasoning, founded on sound observation, we master any
great law by which God governs the world. We reach the Divine
through our emotional nature when pure grief or pure love, holy
longing, unselfish hope, righteous indignation, elevate us above the
prosaic level of customary equanimity, and help us to realize the
incomparable beauty of holiness.

Just as the weeping Magdalene[32] stood bewailing the loss of

what even to her was only sacred clay, all unconscious that her
Saviour had been given back to her without seeing corruption, in a
glorified and eternal form, not dead, but alive for evermore, whom
she could love with ever increasing ardour of devotion: so, we say,
there are not a few in our time whose lot it is to wring their hands
over the grave of lost ideas, which they loved and their fathers
loved, but for which God himself is substituting ideas nobler and
better far, which earlier ages failed to grasp only because they were
not in circumstances to feel their higher worth.

One cannot demonstrate on any physical or visible basis whatever,

that it is a nobler thing to suffer injustice than to commit it, that
truth-speaking is honourable, forgiveness of injuries magnanimous,
and loving self-sacrifice for others sublime. Honour, purity, humility,
reverence, tenderness, courtesy, patience, these things cannot be
weighed on physical scales, cannot be handled or touched, or
melted or frozen in any mechanical or chemical laboratory. They
belong to a different order of realities from acids and vapours: they
are denizens of what, for want of any more definite or accurate
expression, we are accustomed to call the spiritual world.

One can see how religion should, to a young person, be

associated with repressive and prohibitive laws. Youth is the time for
the luxuriating of newborn, and, therefore, delicious vital forces. But
its very luxuriance is disorderly, and religion cannot coexist with
disorder. Therefore, that which is so continually warning the young
against impulse, and passion, and irregularity, ought not to be too
greatly displeased if it should, by and by, come to be regarded by
the young as a synonym for mere repressive force, and, therefore,
as an unpleasant and unpopular thing. I believe, too, that there is no
exception to the uniformity of the experience, that all young
countries adopt freer systems of religion, and divest religious bodies
more completely of all political and properly coercive power than
older countries. It is all an illustration of the same thing. Young life,
which most needs regulation, most dislikes it.[33]

As the genius of the bard is in the poem, as the wisdom of the

legislator is in the law, as the skill of the mechanician is in the
engine, as the soul of the musician is in the harmony and melody, as
the words of a man’s lips issue from the inner world of his mental
and spiritual character—so every work of God, and conspicuously
man, as the noblest of God’s works, may truly be said to shadow
forth a portion of the mind of God.

We talk of creation as a past thing. But the truth is, creation is

eternal. Creation never ceases. Every time the clouds drop in rain,
every time the waters freeze into new ice, every time the juices of
nature gather into another violet, every time a new wail of life is
heard upon a mother’s breast, every time you breathe another sigh,
or shed another tear, there is God as truly present in His miraculous
creative capacity as on the day when He said, “Let there be light,”
and there was light.
P. S. Menzies (Sermons).
 Apart from their intrinsic value, the above extracts are given because this book
of sermons is of special interest to Australians and because it has passed into
oblivion. There are very few copies in existence.
Menzies came from Glasgow to Scots Church, Melbourne, in 1868 and died at
the early age of thirty-four in 1874. At the Glasgow University he had been largely
influenced mentally and spiritually by Principal Caird.
The sermons published in this book were selected by his widow after his death.
Although not revised by their gifted young author, the fine thoughts expressed in
chaste and beautiful language remind one of James Martineau.

Our sweet illusions are half of them conscious illusions—like

effects of colour that we know to be made up of tinsel, broken glass,
and rags.
George Eliot (The Lifted Veil).

My Galligaskins that have long withstood

The Winter’s Fury, and incroaching Frosts,
By Time subdued, (what will not Time subdue!)
An horrid Chasm disclose, with Orifice
Wide, discontinuous.

John Phillips (1676-1709) (The Splendid Shilling).

Galligaskins, trunk-hose. “The Splendid Shilling” is a famous parody on Milton.

 We would not pray that sorrow ne’er may shed
Her dews along the pathway they must tread;
The sweetest flowers would never bloom at all,
If no least rain of tears did ever fall.

Gerald Massey (Via Crucis, Via Lucis).

But his wings will not rest and his feet will not stay for us;
Morning is here in the joy of its might;
With his breath has he sweetened a night and a day for us;
Now let him pass and the myrtles make way for us;
Love can but last in us here at his height
For a day and a night.

Swinburne (At Parting).

That element of tragedy which lies in the very fact of frequency,

has not yet wrought itself into the coarse emotion of mankind; and
perhaps our frames could hardly bear much of it. If we had a keen
vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing
the grass grow and the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of
that roar which lies on the other side of silence. As it is, the quickest
of us walk about well wadded with stupidity.
George Eliot (Middlemarch).

In the story Dorothea has found her husband to be a man of narrow mind and
unsympathetic nature. Such a disillusionment after marriage frequently happens,
and we are not deeply moved by what is not unusual, although it may mean a real
life-tragedy. Ruskin says “God gives the disposition to every healthy human mind
in some degree to pass over or even harden itself against evil things, else the
suffering would be too great to be borne” (Modern Painters v., xix., 32). Only thus
could we have lived through the horrors of the present war.
George Eliot’s analogy between intensity of the emotions and acuteness of the
senses reminds one of Pope’s lines (“Essay on Man,” Ep. I.) where he says life
would be insupportable, if we had the acute hearing, smell and other senses of
insects and other animals; we should

Die of a rose in aromatic pain.

Man that passes by

So like to God, so like the beasts that die.

W. Morris (The Earthly Paradise).

 There shall never be one lost good! What was, shall live as
before;
The evil is null, is nought, is silence implying sound;
What was good shall be good, with, for evil, so much good
more;
On the earth the broken arcs; in the heaven a perfect round.

All we have willed or hoped or dreamed of good shall exist;

Not in semblance, but itself; no beauty, nor good, nor power,
Whose voice has gone forth, but each survives for the melodist
When eternity affirms the conception of an hour.
The high that proved too high, the heroic for earth too hard,
The passion that left the ground to lose itself in the sky,
Are music sent up to God by the lover and the bard;
Enough that He heard it once: we shall hear it by and bye.

R. Browning (Abt Vogler).

Abt—or Abbé—Georg Joseph Vogler, 1749-1814, a German organist and

composer, is probably chosen by Browning because, although an important
musician, his compositions have perished. In this fine poem Vogler has been
extemporizing, and his inspired music has lifted him in ecstasy to heaven. The
sounds are his slaves who have built palaces of music, as in the Arab legends
angels and demons built magic structures for Solomon. He grieves that this
wonderful music should apparently have vanished for ever; but is comforted by
the thought that no good thing, no fine aspiration, no great effort or noble impulse
can really die, but must exist for ever in the mind of God.
If Browning had known the evidence now afforded scientifically by hypnotism
and otherwise, he might have come to the conclusion that all our thoughts and
feelings, both good and bad, are recorded deep down in our own consciousness.
Moreover, the existence of thought-transference leads to the somewhat dreadful
suggestion that this record of all our inmost thoughts and feelings may possibly
become open to the inspection of every one.
The quotation reminds one of Wordsworth’s sonnet on the “Inside of King’s
College Chapel, Cambridge.”
 Where music dwells
Lingering—and wandering on as loth to die;
Like thoughts whose very sweetness yieldeth proof
That they were born for immortality.

... Had I painted the whole,

Why, there it had stood, to see, nor the process so wonder-
worth;
Had I written the same, made verse—still, effect proceeds from
cause,
Ye know why the forms are fair, ye hear how the tale is told;
It is all triumphant art, but art in obedience to laws,
Painter and poet are proud in the artist-list enrolled:—

But here is the finger of God, a flash of the will that can,
Existent behind all laws, that made them and, lo, they are!
And I know not if, save in this, such gift be allowed to man,
That out of three sounds he frame, not a fourth sound, but a
star.
Consider it well: each tone of our scale in itself is nought;
It is everywhere in the world—loud, soft, and all is said:
Give it to me to use! I mix it with two in my thought:
And, there! Ye have heard and seen: consider and bow the
head!

Robert Browning (Abt Vogler).

See the preceding note. The poet says that Painting and Poetry are “art in
obedience to laws,” but the musician exerts a higher creative will akin to that of
God. The painter has before him the pictures he reproduces, the poet borrows his
imagery from visible things and has apt words in which to express his thoughts:
the musician has nothing visible, nothing outside his own soul, to assist him, and
can use only the meaningless sounds which we hear everywhere around us. By
combining, however, three of those empty sounds (in a chord) he evolves a fourth
sound, which so transcends all that other arts can do in expressing emotion that
Browning compares it to a “star.”
But this expresses only part of the poet’s meaning. In using this tremendous
comparison to a star, as also in enthroning music supreme above art and poetry,
he means that it transcends their loftiest flights and rises above our world to the
heavens above. In the earlier part of the poem the “pinnacled glory” built by the
slaves of sound at the bidding of the musician’s soul is based “broad on the roots
of things” and ascends until it “attains to heaven.”
F. W. H. Myers, in “The Renewal of Youth,” has a passage on music. His theme is
that while music (as in Mozart’s operas) may express human passion, it also (as in
Beethoven) rises to greater heights and appears to voice the emotions of a world
beyond our senses. In the lines I have italicized in the following passage he no
doubt refers to Browning’s line, “That out of three sounds he frame, not a fourth
sound, but a star!”—the “star” meaning that music ascends to a higher world than
our own:—

... Music is a creature bound,

A voice not ours, the imprisoned soul of sound,—
Who fain would bend down hither and find her part
In the strong passion of a hero’s heart,
Or one great hour constrains herself to sing
Pastoral peace and waters wandering;—
Then hark how on a chord she is rapt and flown
To that true world thou seest not nor hast known,
Nor speech of thine can her strange thought unfold,
The bars’ wild beat, and ripple of running gold.

Not only does Browning unselfishly assert that the sister-art is superior to his
own, but he goes further, and doubts if music is not the greatest of all man’s gifts.
I do not discuss either contention—leaving musicians to rejoice in the tribute of a
great poet.
 Although a gem be cast away,
And lie obscured in heaps of clay,
Its precious worth is still the same;
Although vile dust be whirled to heaven,
To it no dignity is given,
Still base as when from earth it came.

Sadi (L. S. Costello’s translation).

Death closes all: but something ere the end,

Some work of noble note, may yet be done....
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Tennyson (Ulysses).
 Jenny kissed me when we met,
Jumping from the chair she sat in;
Time, you thief, who love to get
Sweets into your list, put that in!
Say I’m weary, say I’m sad.
Say that health and wealth have missed me,
Say I’m growing old, but add
Jenny kissed me.

Leigh Hunt.

“Jenny” was Mrs. Carlyle.

 A gracious spirit o’er this earth presides
And o’er the heart of man: invisibly
It comes, to works of unreproved delight
And tendency benign, directing those
Who care not, know not, think not what they do.
The tales that charm away the wakeful night
In Araby; romances; legends penned
For solace by dim light of monkish lamps;
Fictions, for ladies of their love, devised
By youthful squires; adventures endless, spun
By the dismantled warrior in old age,
Out of the bowels of those very schemes
In which his youth did first extravagate;
These spread like day, and something in the shape
Of these will live till man shall be no more.
Dumb yearnings, hidden appetites, are ours,
And they must have their food. Our childhood sits,
Our simple childhood, sits upon a throne
That hath more power than all the elements.

Wordsworth (The Prelude, Bk. V.)

The world is so inconveniently constituted, that the vague

consciousness of being a fine fellow is no guarantee of success in
any line of business.
George Eliot (Brother Jacob).
 Wasted, weary,—wherefore stay
Wrestling thus with earth and clay!
From the body pass away!—
Hark! the mass is singing.

From thee doff thy mortal weed,

Mary Mother be thy speed,
Saints to help thee at thy need!
Hark! the knell is ringing.

Fear not snow-drift driving past,

Sleet, or hail, or levin blast;
Soon the shroud shall lap thee fast,
And the sleep be on thee cast
That shall know no waking.

Haste thee, haste thee to be gone,

Earth flits past, and time draws on,—
Gasp thy gasp, and groan thy groan,
Day is near the breaking.

Sir Walter Scott.

From Guy Mannering. Scott says it is a prayer or spell, which was used in
Scotland or Northern England to speed the passage of a parting spirit, like the
tolling of a bell in Catholic days.
Welcome to our website – the ideal destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. With a mission to inspire endlessly, we offer a
vast collection of books, ranging from classic literary works to
specialized publications, self-development books, and children's
literature. Each book is a new journey of discovery, expanding
knowledge and enriching the soul of the reade

Our website is not just a platform for buying books, but a bridge
connecting readers to the timeless values of culture and wisdom. With
an elegant, user-friendly interface and an intelligent search system,
we are committed to providing a quick and convenient shopping
experience. Additionally, our special promotions and home delivery
services ensure that you save time and fully enjoy the joy of reading.

Let us accompany you on the journey of exploring knowledge and

personal growth!

ebooknice.com