Cultivated Soul

Great Books for ordinary readers seeking a serious liberal education | UChicago Graham School alum

[Cultivated Soul @CultivatedBooks]

You haven’t begun a serious education
until you’ve read the Great Books.

[Cultivated Soul @CultivatedBooks]

@TeddyRookBook Beautiful.

[Cultivated Soul @CultivatedBooks]

📚Tonight’s Stack: Who Should Rule?

Follow the conversation.

Republic, Plato
⬇️
Politics, Aristotle
⬇️
Lives, Plutarch
⬇️
On the Republic, Cicero
⬇️
The City of God, Augustine
⬇️
On Kingship, Aquinas
⬇️
The Prince, Machiavelli
⬇️
Leviathan, Hobbes
⬇️
Second Treatises of Government, Locke
⬇️
The Social Contract, Rousseau

tolle lege

[Cultivated Soul @CultivatedBooks]

@longlistedapp Yes! That’s a huge problem

[Cultivated Soul @CultivatedBooks]

Everyone thinks shopping for the Great
Books is straightforward.

It isn’t.

Here’s what I found when I went looking
for 4 Great Books at my local Barnes &
Noble bookstore.

[Cultivated Soul @CultivatedBooks]

@booksoftitans I’ve seen you post about this. This is the model! I wish more bookstores did this.

[Cultivated Soul @CultivatedBooks]

@thebiblioblonde You’re probably right.

[Cultivated Soul @CultivatedBooks]

@HanburyBrown Happy reading!

[Cultivated Soul @CultivatedBooks]

Sunday is a great day to pick up and read some Durant.📚

[BookLab by Bjorn @poorbjorn]

The invention of writing almost created civilization with its power to transfer knowledge and accumulate science.

”History begins with writing.” - Will Durant, The Story of Civilization

[Cultivated Soul @CultivatedBooks]

@Airout12 You’re welcome ☺️

[Cultivated Soul @CultivatedBooks]

@tradaesthetic1 Absolutely 👍

[Cultivated Soul @CultivatedBooks]

@thebiblioblonde I know! Why is that? Unless they don’t want us to find them… 🤔

[Cultivated Soul @CultivatedBooks]

@poorbjorn Fine. I’ll go read my Durants. 😅

[Cultivated Soul @CultivatedBooks]

@brothersreading @edwardjohncraig @theancientlang Wow, that’s impressive.

Thanks for the recommendations .

We are using Homeric Greek.

[Cultivated Soul @CultivatedBooks]

I bought another two translations
because apparently six copies of
The Iliad wasn't enough.

Lattimore and Pope.

[Cultivated Soul @CultivatedBooks]

There are more than 60 English translations
of The Odyssey.

So which one should you read?

Here’s how six major translations differ.

1. Robert Fagles
Reads like a novel. A common classroom choice.

2. Richmond Lattimore
The scholar's translation. Closest to the Greek.

3. Robert Fitzgerald
The most literary. Formal, musical, and long a
standard in American classrooms.

4. Stanley Lombardo
Closer to how the poem would be read aloud.
Popular for performance and teaching.

5. Emily Wilson
Plain and direct. Written in iambic pentameter.

6. Alexander Pope
The great historical translation. Written in heroic couplets, ornate, elevated, and far less literal
than the others.

Which translation would you choose?

[Cultivated Soul @CultivatedBooks]

@brothersreading @edwardjohncraig @theancientlang What text are you using?

I'm taking an Intro to Greek course at the University of Chicago this fall. It's a twice a week time commitment. Should be good.

[Cultivated Soul @CultivatedBooks]

@HOUmanReporter Yes, it's frustrating. Project Gutenberg is great, unless you want a hard copy of the book. Standard Ebooks tend to look nicer. Btw, love the reference!

[Cultivated Soul @CultivatedBooks]

@brothersreading @edwardjohncraig Nice!

[Cultivated Soul @CultivatedBooks]

Some of the selections are The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The Fall of the House of Usher, Bartleby, the Scrivener, To Build a Fire, The Gift of the Magi, Hills Like White Elephants, and A Rose for Emily.

[Cultivated Soul @CultivatedBooks]

A very good mail day.

@RomanRoadsPress sent me their
Odyssey translation, along with a
few other books and bookmarks.

Plenty of reading ahead!

[Cultivated Soul @CultivatedBooks]

That’s awesome. Hoping to start the Iliad in Greek this fall.

[Cultivated Soul @CultivatedBooks]

@MDMeiser Yes! He’s in the queue.