The Great Books: A Journey through 2,500 Years of the West's Classic Literature

by Anthony O'Hear

Hardcover, 2009

Status

Available

Call number

011.73

Collection

Publication

Intercollegiate Studies Institute (2009), Edition: 2, Hardcover, 400 pages

Description

Anthony O'Hear presents a personal tour of the most impressive, influential and era-defining books mankind has ever produced. "Paradise Lost", "The Canterbury Tales", "Don Quixote": great literature can be read by anyone, with a little help. Anthony O'Hear leads the way with this captivating journey through two-and-a-half millennia of books as dark, powerful, erotic, thrilling, politically astute and awe-inspiring as any modern bestseller. We begin with Homer, whose poems of epic struggle have made him the father of Western literature. After Greek tragedy, Plato, and Virgil's "Aeneid" comes Ovid, whose encyclopaedic "Metamorphoses" is an inexhaustible source for European art and literature. Via St Augustine we reach Dante, the author of "The Divine Comedy", a sublime, terrifying tour through "Hell", "Purgatory" and an ecstatic vision of "Paradise". Chaucer, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Milton, Pascal, Racine and finally Goethe complete the cast list. In each case, O'Hear patiently draws out themes, focuses on key passages and explains why they are important. Personal, passionate, painstakingly researched and beautifully illustrated, this is a grand work of reference. But it is also a narrative history shot through with a love of literature, and a deeply-held belief in its power to shape everyone's world.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member jwhenderson
This book provides an exceptional overview of some of the classic "great books" that everyone should read. I found it was a useful adjunct to reading the classics themselves in that it helped to highlight the main points in each book.

Language

Original language

English

Physical description

400 p.; 9.1 inches

ISBN

1933859784 / 9781933859781
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