"Music" is the first work ever published by Gibran, having been released in Arabic in 1905. It is an elaborate, lyrical hymn to the most widespread art, the one that has always moved people all over the world. In addition to the universality of music itself, as well as the praise given to it by the Lebanese author, the references to specific "modes" (maqamat) of Arabo-Persian music are of particular interest to enthusiasts of the genre.

"The Madman" is, in turn, the first book that Gibran wrote and published directly in English, in 1918, and remains one of his most well-known and widely read works to this day. Building on a long tradition of Arabic literature that reaches back to Al-Saadi, Gibran offers a collection of short prose (and some poetic) texts, parables, which at first glance resemble the familiar stories of the East that are passed down from generation to generation and embody folk wisdom. However, by adopting this motif, Gibran here adopts the perspective of the madman, the outcast, ultimately the rebel against the shackles of convention. His madman can and chooses to see the world from his own unique perspective, but pays a high price as he is led into isolation. Nevertheless, he continues to shout - "madman" in a mad world - with bitter irony to all of us: "Eat, drink, sleep, cover your nakedness and feel tired at the appointed moment. Work, play, sing, dance, and quietly fall into bed when the clock shows the appointed hour. Love according to an established order, enjoy the best of yourself according to a predetermined idea... Just imagine the predetermined, work for the reward, satisfy yourself with the pleasure of living, suffer with dignity; and then empty the cup so you can fill it again tomorrow..." - as in the chillingly modern concluding text of the collection ("The Perfect World")