I have the complete 51-book set of the Harvard CLassics (limited library edition). How many times I have read Beowulf, and forgot that what I was reading was hundreds and hundreds of years old. Additionally, there is something very, very different in the cognitive processes of following an argument or following a complex storyline, where many characters (depth of character included) come together in an ordered chaos of interactions. I take notes in notebooks corresponding to whole books, and I have them catalogued in my study; so there’s no need for me to write in texts in most cases. About a week ago I discovered your blog while comparing these two sets of classics. I suppose it is possible to figure that out by reading reviews on Amazon and other sites. 2) The Harvard Classics ARE still in print and a simple google search should illustrate this. This is an area that, especially, the Harvard Classics is strong in.

I just think that there isn’t enough continuity in this work to stand on its own, in a compilation like the GBWW, which leaves me wondering about the choice. Neither, the “the educated elite,” nor we, can change the influential nature and popularity of these works. Harvard Classics/Great Books of the Western World. Just a reminder, most of the stuff here is translated from other languages, and those translations are going to be severely dated compared to more modern editions of these works. Congratulations! Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. If you are interested in buying the complete set for $650, please email me at angela.shults@yahoo.com. Coup d’oeil, the list may appear significant, but, in reality, the overlap between the editions is miniscule. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. The reason is that the set presents such a wonderful blend of different aspects of literature. Great Books of the Western World I need not devote too much space reiterating what you could find through a Google search of “ Harvard Classics vs Great Books .” If you want a set of books that would look impressive on any shelf, I don’t think you’d go wrong either way. In the everyday, you may hear someone called a “Cassandra”; one of Freud’s complexes was called “Oedipal”; one Nobel Laureate and philosopher referred to “Sisyphus.”  Who were these folks, anyways? The Bacchae by Euripides. There are scientific treatises, classic literary fiction, poetry, spiritual texts, travelogues, biographies, and many others. I’m currently working my way through the Harvard Classics, writing a blog with my thoughts and some selected quotes from each volume. The old Franklin Library books were outstanding; curious how they couldn't make a go of it and the EP survived. Join LibraryThing to post.

This is, to my mind, precisely what people lack when we see them acting in absurd and destructive ways, regardless the destructiveness of scale, regardless of whether inflicted upon the self or upon society. If your setting is a subway, then they might not be ideal to read, since they are full-sized books. Do you believe the ‘great books’ (and I am aware of the overwhelming irony of my quoting this during this argument) to be ‘the best that has been thought and said’, as Matthew Arnold put it? Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. The additional pointed meted out by the bar graphs is that the GBWW put quite a bit of emphasis on theatre, though, I must interject, that these are largely Greek plays, which are philosophical. I'm looking to develop a solid ethical foundation as I pursue a career in line with my degree in International Relations. I got mine in a great format for my Kindle - I think from mobilereads.con. He uses English equivalents that might have made sense in 1870, but not now. Geschaftsführer: Dr. Andreas Schroeter, Dr. Thomas Schroeter, Patrick Uecker. a better translation and more complete than the smattering of Montaigne you get http://imgur.com/atCYYl4, [how to hotlink a URL containing parentheses](http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Harvard_Classics_(Bookshelf)), (put a backslash before the last parenthesis).

That is hard to say. ( Log Out /  The paper is too thin to stand up to regular use (including note-taking, where bleeding is an issue.) Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account.

EDIT: Some folks have been complaining that this isn't a direct link to the free books. User voting will count 50% towards final score. By the 1950's, the literary works included on such lists were called Great Books.

( Log Out /  2 comments. One of the things I like about the GBWW is that the committee members at Encyclopedia Britannica prided themselves on a project that refused excerpting. With respect to this sentiment, I have to look upon the intentions in compiling the GBWW and HC —digesting and chewing/swallowing/tasting— with approbation, whatever reservations one may have; and there will always be dissent, when it comes to the particulars of which works are compiled.

Each staff member submitted a list of their favorite books of all time, in (rough) order of preference. While I am the only one of my siblings to obtain a colelge degree, we are all familiar with Plato, Socrates and much more. Walter Kaufmann takes hold of some of Nietzsche most relevant, self-referential terminology, describing the philosopher’s writings as an “anarchy of atoms.”  If that is how one describes Nietzsche’s writings, then wouldn’t an editor seek out the most naturally occurring structure of the corpus? If you would like a special description to go along with your blog, just send me an email [marc@bab.la], Kind regards, [www.lexiophiles.com], bab.la GmbH | Baumwall 7 | 20459 Hamburg | Germany Thank you for sharing. A sufficiently observant American visiting England would notice so much, just by the way the English reserve every possible space in urban areas for greenery, and by the way their grocery stores are stocked —there is an evident, possibly subconscious, appeal to naturalism, in terms of respect for (and the room in their way of life made for) natural foods and natural settings. Both collections are a useful starting point for figuring out what might go into a

I don’t know —you tell me. If we are talking about an Harvard-level undergraduate education, then perhaps the incorporation of reasoning would be a nice addition, however out of ‘vogue’ that might be. I noticed you mentioned something about the online availability of the Great Books of the Western World. Im just wondering – I dont intend this to be construed as particularly critical. This topic is currently marked as "dormant"—the last message is more than 90 days old. Newspapers and periodicals often come in column format, and that’s probably because it’s easier to read. Finally, I would like to make a push in advocation of reading all of the Harvard Classics, not just selecting a few. To say that nothing in Mongolian literature —or Venezuelan, or African descent, or whomever’s literature— existed, ever, worth including in something like the HC is like saying that these cultures never had cream.

reading list of Western classics. -Each blog will have a one-sentence-description for the voting. You said that the Bible and Shakespeare were excluded from I could say much of the same about the Great Books of the Western World, but the Great Books are much more for the later-in-life crowd and scholars. Each book had a different 'set of clothes' (except that the three volumes of Shakespeare; Histories, Tragedies, and Comedies were in matching outfits like cute triplets). Though the Great Books Program is new, Benedictine College was founded in 1858 by two Benedictine monks and six students. However, I had no problem reading them at my home study, the library, or in a coffeehouse. 46 of the Harvard Classics.

I simply think that the works found in the Harvard Classics should be imposed at a younger age. Note: For folks particularly interested in the importance of a classical education, take a look at Jeffrey Brenzel’s lecture on the topic by clicking this sentence. Response to Pigliucci on Metaphysics and Interpretation of Data, A Superficial Reflection on Nagel’s “Mind and Cosmos”, Quo Vadis, Materialism? Alternatively, if you want to own the book and underline it and write notes in it, you might consider buying a good used copy of some other edition.

Britannica has added thousands of links into the Synopicon, so all you have to do is click on a reference listed and you’ll be directed to the text. In all of these respects, and many more, I think the HC is a wonderfully chosen compilation. The place that each of us occupies in a human tradition cannot go without consideration. I hope you feel I have given you a few good reasons to dig into the Harvard Classics and the Great Books of the Western World.