I have been reading The Good Books: A Journey By way of 2500 Years of the West's Classic Literature and Books That Changed the Planet: The 50 Most Influential Books in Human History mainly because I am hunting for books to read to create my course Readers are Leaders. This post is a critique as properly as a reflection on the performs covered in The Terrific Books.
First I struggled though reading The Fantastic Books by Anthony O'Hear, and believed it was dry and also academic. I decided to take a closer appear at my feelings and prejudices toward The Excellent Books and found that I was merely tired of reading about Greek and Roman tragedies, which are the initial couple of books that are covered. I was too tired and wary of all the war imagery and "gods" with bigger-than-life egos, behaving extremely badly. Following acknowledging my feelings, I got into The Good Books and began to appreciate the encounter.
In The Terrific Books, Anthony O'Hear offers detailed summaries of the books he covers and I am questioning if he is not performing a disservice to the reader. With so a lot strong details offered to you, why would you want to read these classics? He goes from chapter to chapter and you are proper there with him. You as well get a deal with on the context of the book, and what was going on in society though it was written. Although I was reading about Dante's Divine Comedy, I passed By means of the Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise, I was correct there with him on the journey.
I too noticed with those Excellent performs of literature that O'Hear discussed, the authors usually constructed on the functions of other individuals, equivalent to the way innovators and Wonderful thinkers who changed the Globe, constructed on the performs of other individuals. The Aeneid by Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro) is Homer's Odyssey, except he reverses the outcome of the Trojan War. Shakespeare's The Tempest mentions Virgil and Ovid. And some of the characters in Divine Comedy are The Who's Who in the Bible, and it too mentions a lot of of the classics: Ovid's Metamorphoses, The Aeneid, Homer's The OdysseyI. And Virgil is at Dante's side as guide and mentor though he goes into the Inferno (hell). From Divine Comedy you recognize that Dante is quite knowledgeable and discovered about the classics, the Bible and modern functions back in his time. And this is correct for quite a few of the authors whose performs are covered in The Fantastic Books. Have all the Excellent operates of literature been written currently?
Working with the operates of other folks raised an exciting challenge. Back in these days, there weren't copyright laws, or they weren't as strict as they are now, and that was pretty instrumental in furthering society, not simply in literature, but too in the inventions that we now take for granted. Though we use the operates of other people, what's thought of fair use? What about mash-ups, the course of action exactly where artists pull from the functions of other people to develop a thing new? Are copyright laws here to shield us, or are they stopping us from leaping forward and innovating and developing on what is been carried out prior to? What if somebody utilized your work and produced one thing substantially much better, and in the approach gave you credit, would you be okay with that? There are very no simple answers to those difficult concerns, but they are worth considering about.
The functions covered by the author contain:
- Homer: The Iliad, The Odyssey
- Greek Tragedy
- Aeschylus'
- Sophocles' Theban Plays: Antigone
- Euripides: The Bacchae
- Plato and the Death of Socrates
- Virgil: The Aeneid
- Ovid: Metamorphoses
- St. Augustine: Confessions
- Dante: The Divine Comedy - Inferno, Purgatory, Paradise
- Chaucer: Canterbury Tales
- Cervantes: Don Quixote
- Milton: Paradise Lost
- Pascal: Pensées
- Racine: Phèdre
- Goethe: Faust - Element One particular, Aspect Two
I did not read several of those classics in university since I did not main in English Literature, so I missed out on the discussions. But, the Terrific Functions is a Good substitute due to the fact it assists to further your understanding of the book. Even so there is constantly a danger though you rely on 1 supply, 1 person's frame of reference, that is why I have been reading other books of this sort.
Even though I believed that The Excellent Books by Anthony O'Hear was as well extended, the time was properly spent reading it mainly because it furthered my understanding of the Terrific books described. Right after the reality, I realized that it tends to make a Fantastic reference book. I propose The Fantastic Books from the Iliad and the Odyssey to Goethe's Faust: A Journey Via 2500 Years of the West's Classic Literature and Books That Changed the Globe.
Avil Beckford, Chief Invisible Mentor, writer and researcher with over 15 years of encounter, is the published author of Tales of Persons Who Get It and its companion workbook Journey to Having It. Subscribe to the Invisible Mentor Weblog http://theinvisiblementor.com for Excellent interviews of thriving Men and women, book testimonials, how-tos, articles and strategies to mentor oneself and ignite your hidden genius. Discover the Sources. Web page for totally free white papers, presentations and an e-book.
No comments:
Post a Comment