Charles William EliotBesprekingen

A useful introduction to all the listed works of medieval literature. later, on, i reread all of them in better edited versions.½

This is volume 18 of the Harvard Classics series, Modern English Drama.
All for Love, by John Dryden
The School for Scandal, by Richard Brinsley Sheridan
She Stoops to Conquer, by Oliver Goldsmith
The Cenci, by Percy Bysshe Shelley
A Blot in the 'Scutcheon, by Robert Browning
Manfred, by Lord Byron

7/8/22

As usual, the edition listed is a more recent one than the one that I just added the bk cover image to but they're both reissues of the same bk. The cover I added is from the Harvard Classics edition published by P. F. Collier & Son Corporation. This was probably the 1st philosophy bk I ever read. I remember reading it while I was a research volunteer for the University of Maryland hospital in downtown Baltimore. I might've been 21. My memories of it are more vividly associated w/ that circumstance than they are w/ its contents. I was the freak in the study who was composing a piece called "d composition" & reading classic philosophy. One of my roomies seemed to be fascinated by me. Somehow, from observing this intellectual behavior of mine, he concluded that I was some sort of hard-core orgy participant or something? He was a gigolo. After I was out of the hospital, he & I stayed in touch. I invited him to a party, he arrived w/ a friend in tow w/ a camera - both practically w/ their tongues lolling out. Their disappoinment at finding this a fairly tame painter's party was all too clear. Where's the orgy?

But back to the bk: Marcus Aurelius was the one who made the most impression on me. An emperor who was abstinent & tried to be fair? Or was the editor of the series trying to perpetuate ruling class myths that an elite university like Harvard was all too happy to use as a PR smokescreen for its own agenda? Hard to say in retrospect, but I doubt that I'll read Aurelius again to reform an opinion. I give it 4 stars anyway just b/c the whole experience of reading such a thing was important to me at that time in my life.

Nice collection. It is missing the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. The first document in human history banning slavery.

450 pages on a minor French princess - originally from Savoy - and who died at the age of 26 - might see like a bit much, but this is also a biography of Marie Adelaide's husband, the Duc de Bourgogne, and really also a history of the court of Louis XIV during the period 1695-1712 - the era of the War of the Spanish Succession. The book is mostly well-written and quite interesting. The author follows the Flemish military campaigns of the Duc de Bourgogne with as much diligence and detail that he uses in describing the intrigues and machinations of the byzantine world of Versailles.

I've tried, not I haven't been able to find out _anything_ about the author, Charles W. Elliott. This seems to have been to his only publication, and it's not at all clear how he came to be interested in the subject - I'd be interested to find out.

Just finished 365 straight days of reading from The Harvard Classics! I sampled a little of everything from each of the 49 volumes. My reading style must be much different from the early 1900's because the "15 minutes a day" suggested by the curated Reading Guide was often an hour or more for me.

Very interesting set of correspondence by Cicero. Intriguing and pivotal in order to understand the man behind the politics-- or, just maybe, the politics behind the man.

I thought these essays were claptrap when I had to read some of them in school. Now forty years later my opinion is confirmed. One can see how appropriate is Mr. Emerson's best known quotation ("Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds"). "English Traits" (one of the more readable of the pieces in this collection) is one of the most inconsistent works I've ever come across. But Emerson is not all harmlessly quaint. I don't see how anybody familiar with the history of the 20th century can read "Self Reliance", his most famous and once popular essay, without a shudder.

After reading the first volume of President Eliot's Five Foot Shelf, I'm afraid I really do wonder about the President's mindset. It's not that these works of Mr. Franklin, Mr. Woolman and Mr. Penn are not worth reading--they certainly are, and in the cases of Mr. Woolman and Mr. Penn, in parts "inspiring". But all three raise more questions than they provide answers. I read Franklin in high school and remembered mostly his table or scheme for self-improvement, which to a high school boy seemed rather absurd. This time, though, I found more sympathy for old Ben and noticed what I had not seen before, his humorous touches.

But why in the world would these be chosen as the first volume of Mr. Eliot's ambitious effort? Was he serious? If so, what was his point?

The Introductory Note: "No part of a book is so intimate as the Preface". Well, thought I, that is just ridiculous. But it goes on to spell out why, and reveals that it is in the Preface the author is "suddenly seen face to face". And indeed, this volume exposes exactly this view.

Contents:

PROLOGUE AND EPILOGUES TO THE RECUYELL OF THE HISTORIES OF TROY, by William Caxton
Epilogue to DICTES AND SAYINGS OF THE PHILOSOPHERS, by William Caxton
Prologue to GOLDEN LEGEND, by William Caxton
Prologue to CATON, by William Caxton
Epilogue to AESOP, by William Caxton
Proem to CHAUCER'S CANTERBURY TALES, by William Caxton
Prologue to MALORY'S KING ARTHUR, by William Caxton
Prologue to VIRGIL'S ENEYDOS, by William Caxton

Dedication of The INSTITUTES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, by John Calvin, translated by John Allen

Dedication of The REVOLUTIONS OF THE HEAVENLY BODIES, by Nicolaus Copernicus

Preface to THE HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION IN SCOTLAND, by John Knox

Prefatory letter to Sir Walter Raleigh on THE FAERIE QUEENE, by Edmund Spenser

Preface to THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD, by Sir Walter Raleigh

PROOEMIUM, EPISTLE DEDICATORY, PREFACE, AND PLAN OF THE INSTAURATIO MAGNA, ETC., by Francis Bacon, translation edited by J. Spedding

Preface to THE NOVUM ORGANUM, by Francis Bacon

Preface to THE FIRST FOLIO EDITION OF SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS, by Heminge and Condell

Preface to THE PHILOSOPHIAE NATURALIS PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA, by Sir Isaac Newton, translated by Andrew Motte

Preface to FABLES, ANCIENT AND MODERN, by John Dryden

Preface to JOSEPH ANDREWS, by Henry Fielding

Preface to THE ENGLISH DICTIONARY, by Samuel Johnson

Preface to SHAKESPEARE, by Samuel Johnson

INTRODUCTION TO THE PROPYLÄEN, by J.W. Von Goethe

PREFACES TO VARIOUS VOLUMES OF POEMS, by William Wordsworth

APPENDIX TO LYRICAL BALLADS, by William Wordsworth
ESSAY SUPPLEMENTARY TO PREFACE, by William Wordsworth

Preface to CROMWELL, by Victor Hugo

Preface to LEAVES OF GRASS, by Walt Whitman

Introduction to THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE, by H.A. Taine

In the Taine preface, we find his brilliant summary of his method of "historicist criticism". He describes the three-pronged contextual study of human productions: Aspects of (1) race/peoples, (2) milieu/setting, (3) epoch/moment.

In the "monuments of history" -- books and art -- he finds "the two most potent motors of human transformation", namely nature and constraint." He shows how their insensible operation brings religious and literary productions to full light. In his study of English literature, including religious contributions and genre, he explains how "the barbarous Saxon became the Englishman of the present day".

Includes "The Over-Soul" (1841, written before Nietzsche was even born--1844).

"Man is a stream whose source is hidden. Always our being is descending into us from we know not whence." [133] "When I watch that flowing river...I see that I am a pensioner, not a cause but a surprised spectator of this ethereal water." [134]

Includes the text of American historical documents from 1000 to 1904; including The voyages to Vinland (c. 1000), The Letter of Columbus to Luis de Sant Angel announcing his discovery (1493), Amerigo Vespucci's Account of his first voyage (1497), John Cabot's discovery of North America (1497), First Charter of Virgina (1606), The Mayflower Compact (1620), and more.

Excellent source of how 3 of our founding fathers thought inspite of and free from modern bias.

This book was a slow read, and I haven't read all of the series, but I did enjoy reading this a great deal as I learned a lot about people and things I hadn't known much about before. It was a good change from all the fiction I tend to read, and I think it's a great idea to read at least one volume of the Harvard Classics for all serious readers. My goal was to read the entire set of Harvard Classics, but I got bogged down somewhere in the second one and my try again when my kids are older.

I only read the selection of Froissart's Chronicle, after reading the exquisite historical fiction book [b:The Ill-Made Knight|13550502|The Ill-Made Knight|Christian Cameron|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1377004653s/13550502.jpg|19117307] I was very curious to approach the work of Froissart about medieval warfare. Very interesting and highly educative, the language of this edition is a bit archaic and remembering all the names of the characters a nightmarish task, but it is, in my opinion, a must-read to better understand the workings, the culture and the men behind the events of the earlier stages of the Hundred Years War.

The Tragedy of Faust

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust is a tragic play in two parts: Faust. Der Tragödie erster Teil (translated as: Faust: The First Part of the Tragedy) and Faust. Der Tragödie zweiter Teil (Faust: The Second Part of the Tragedy). Although rarely staged in its entirety, it is the play with the largest audience numbers on German-language stages. Faust is Goethe's most famous work and considered by many to be one of the greatest works of German literature.

Goethe completed a preliminary version of Part One in 1806. The 1808 publication was followed by the revised 1828–29 edition, which was the last to be edited by Goethe himself. Prior to these appeared a partial printing in 1790 of Faust, a Fragment.

The earliest forms of the work, known as the Urfaust, were developed between 1772 and 1775; however, the details of that development are not entirely clear. Urfaust has twenty-two scenes, one in prose, two largely prose and the remaining 1,441 lines in rhymed verse. The manuscript is lost, but a copy was discovered in 1886.

Goethe finished writing Faust Part Two in 1831. In contrast to Faust Part One, the focus here is no longer on the soul of Faust, which has been sold to the devil, but rather on social phenomena such as psychology, history and politics, in addition to mystical and philosophical topics. The second part formed the principal occupation of Goethe's last years. It appeared only posthumously in 1832.

The Tragical History Of Doctor Faustus
The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, commonly referred to simply as Doctor Faustus, is a play by Christopher Marlowe, based on the German story Faust, in which a man sells his soul to the devil for power, experience, pleasure and knowledge. Doctor Faustus was first published in 1604, eleven years after Marlowe's death and at least 10 years after the first performance of the play. It is the most controversial Elizabethan play outside of Shakespeare, with few critics coming to any agreement as to the date or the nature of the text.

Egmont
Egmont is a play by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, which he completed in 1788. Its dramaturgical structure, like that of his earlier 'Storm and Stress' play Götz von Berlichingen (1773), is heavily influenced by Shakespearean tragedy. In contrast to the earlier work, the portrait in Egmont of the downfall of a man who trusts in the goodness of those around him appears to mark a shift away from 'Storm and Stress' values.

Hermann and Dorothea
Hermann and Dorothea is an epic poem, an idyll, written by German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe between 1796 and 1797, and was to some extent suggested by Johann Heinrich Voss's Luise, an idyll in hexameters, which was first published in 1782-84. Goethe's work is set around 1792 at the beginning of the French Revolutionary Wars, when French forces under General Custine invaded and briefly occupied parts of the Palatinate. The hexameters of the nine cantos are at times irregular.

The first volume of the set are the introductory lectures in each of the topics of the series. It provides an insight into the view of knowledge and learning of the time. Literary materials are thus made available to many ambitious women and men whose education was cut short since they had to contribute to their family finances or who had to support themselves. They could however cultivate themselves with pleasurable daily reading (p. 5).

If I were going to submerge myself in poetry, I wouldn't dive deep into this book. A couple things caught my attention but many were misses for me. I will say that the first one I read was my favorite of. How'd I bump into gold within this mine? Just picked out the title I liked the most.

Burke's comments on the contemporary French Revolution were important, however, they were confusing and mixed up with his fairly novel (at the time) concept of the importance of "property rights" to liberty. While brilliant, it is nonsense.

So is his defense of the English colonials in America based on their "antient" [his repeated word, which I think he made up?] rights as Englishmen. Just nonsense, but he just could never get himself to recognize that all people -- not just those of "the nobility"--are not only entitled to liberty but are collectively the source of all authority.

Wikipedia has done a great bio of him, and now I realize that "conservatives" have misled us in appropriating him as one of theirs. He is not. Not only did he almost get hung for his support of the American Revolution, but he also savaged the British East India Company and its "CEO". His peers thought him a "liberal". Lord Acton named him as one of the three great liberals -- see also Gladstone, Thos B Macaulay.

The Wiki article has quoted from his other work and in those he is genuinely eloquent. In addition, although it appears he began as a paid pigeon, he matured into an independent voice of genuine principle, with unequaled eloquence.

Of course, the effect of Burke's remonstrations against the most extreme forms of "Leftist" expressions was to embolden the Right. In effect, the British joined with the entire ancien regime in attacking the upstarts in France and went to a war. The war only forced the French people to defend themselves, which they did with unity and zeal they would not otherwise have exerted. The French managed to win the war in their "people's defense" against the entire "nobility" of Europe. But this of course, pushed them into the nasty little embrace of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Burke could not seem to focus on what the constitutes a "danger" to Liberty.

I got this for the John Woolman Journal. It is a wonderful story of his spiritual journey in the 18th century. It is amazingly relevant for today, and I see myself experiencing the very same conflicts and resolutions of those struggles. He lived from 1720 to 1772 in the colonies, was of the Quaker persuasion and after becoming aware of the evils of slavery, led in the fight to end it among Quakers and, thereby, elsewhere. Really good writing.

The books that started it all for me - I started a vigorous campaign of self-education when I was in freshman year of high-school by reading all of these. It took well over a year, but I managed to get through them all, and I learned so much because of them. I regularly return to my favorites. Has some obvious gaps, but then, doesn't anyone's reading?

The high rating here is partly due to my sentimental attachment to them and as the start of my long journey into reading.

a very good read, highly recommended

This set of books was the first thing I bought for myself with my first paycheck when I got out of college. I don't know who posted this picture of the cover, but it looks the same as mine. I've looked in antique stores ever since and have never seen a complete set of the same issue. I've read pieces from various volumes, but have yet to make my way through the whole thing!

Truly delightful prose fictions, mild, very mild romances here and there.