In this lucid and highly readable book, Peter France shows how hermits, from the Taoists and Ancient Greeks to the present day, have something vitally important to say to a society that fears solitude.

And, as Gordon Campbell shows, they live on in the art, literature, and drama of our own day - as well as in the figure of the modern-day garden gnome.

If you have ever wondered about how hermits live, or if you are an active participant in the eremitical life, then its time to make this ultimate resource guide part of your book collection.

A history of hermits and eremitism from antiquity to the present: Greco-Roman influences, early Christianity, hermits in medieval Europe and East Asia, decline in Western modernity, the rise of solitude, and rehabilitation of hermits.

Can a woman be a hermit? Who is not a hermit? In this third collection of poems by Laura Solomon, the Hermit embodies the complicated search for simplicity and shared solitude both at home and abroad.

A Hermit's Secret tells the story of a lifelong friendship that forms between a mysterious hermit and a high school boy.