Two non-fiction classics which are "literature" & meant for the layman

First is "The Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith. Though it is the founding work of Capitalism, it is surprisingly humane & says that to serve our best interest, we should necessarily serve others' needs. So benevolence is the best way to serve our self-interest.

This tome is divided into five chapters.

1. Division of Labour (Specialisation)
2. Nature & Use of Capital
3. Different Wealth in different nations
4. Systems of Political Economy
5. Revenue of the Nations

Surprisingly, the book written in 1776, before the Industrial Revolution, remains in essence, as valid in the 21st Century as the most famous book on Economy.

The second book is Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species." This was the first work to present an alternative view of creation to the Bible. Another unique point is the same idea occurred to Alfred Russel Wallace also. In 2015, it was voted by scholars as the most influential book on mankind.

This is divided into chapters like Sporting plants & blue pigeons, Drawing borders between species, The Struggle for Life, Survival of the fittest, The Horse's Stripes, Difficulties in this theory, Instinct, Rules & Mules, Reading the rocks, The Rise & Fall of Species, The Geography of Life, What living things share & This view of Life.

Though these works were written for the non-specialist, they are overly long with numerous examples, rendering them difficult of access to the present day reader, which is a pity. The purpose of the present write-up is to celebrate the advent of popular, condensed (& in the case of "Origin", illustrated) editions of these two classics, pointing out how relevant they are & bringing them to a wider readership.