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| Additional Physical Format: | Online version: Denby, David, 1943- Great books. New York : Simon & Schuster, c1996 (OCoLC)604868841 |
|---|---|
| Named Person: | David Denby |
| Material Type: | Internet resource |
| Document Type: | Book, Internet Resource |
| All Authors / Contributors: |
David Denby |
| ISBN: | 0684809753 9780684809755 |
| OCLC Number: | 34704952 |
| Description: | 492 p. ; 25 cm. |
| Contents: | [1.] First semester: Homer I -- Sappho -- Interlude one: Plato I ; Homer II -- Interlude two: Plato II ; Sophocles ; Aristotle -- Interlude three: Aeschylus and Euripides -- Interlude four: Virgil ; The Old Testament ; The New Testament ; Augustine ; Machiavelli -- Interlude five: Hobbes and Locke ; Examination -- [2.] Second semester: Dante -- Boccaccio -- Hume and Kant -- Interlude six: Montaigne ; Rousseau ; Shakespeare ; Hegel ; Austen ; Marx and Mill ; Nietzsche -- Interlude seven: Beauvoir ; Conrad ; Woolf. |
| Responsibility: | David Denby. |
Abstract:
In Great Books, Denby lives the common adult fantasy of returning to school with some worldly knowledge and experience of life. A gifted story-teller, he leads us on a glorious tour - by turns eloquent, witty, and moving - through the works themselves and through his experiences as a middle-aged man among freshmen. He recounts his failures and triumphs as a reader and student (taking an exam led to a hilarious near-breakdown). He celebrates his rediscovery or new appreciation of such authors as Homer, Plato, the biblical writers, Augustine, Boccaccio, Hegel, Austen, Marx, Nietzsche, and Virginia Woolf. He re-creates the atmosphere of the classroom - the strategies used by a remarkable group of teachers and the strengths and weaknesses of media-age students as they grapple with these difficult, sometimes frightening works. And all year long he watches the students grow and his own life and memories break out of hiding.
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