Great Books Classics

Links to Great Books and classic literature, from the Epic of Gilgamesh to Toni Morrison

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Jun. 18 in the Classics: Iannis Xenakis' opera Oresteia, based on the eponymous trilogy of plays by Aeschylus, premieres in Ypsilanti, Michigan in 1966 at a Greek festival. Substantially lengthened revisions of the opera would premiere in 1987 and 1992. https://t.co/oI2L0l6ii5

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Jun. 17 in the Classics: The BBC Radio 4 program In Our Time broadcasts a discussion of the life and ideas of the 18th century historian Edward Gibbon, author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, in 2021. https://t.co/zyyo9gHEuT

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Jun. 16 in the Classics: The Off-Broadway musical The Prince and the Pauper - based on the Mark Twain novel, with music by Neil Berg - opens at Lamb's Theatre in Manhattan in 2002. It would have a successful 63 week run, closing the following August. https://t.co/0MHQftPTyG

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Jun. 15 in the Classics: Producer John Aglialoro's film rights to Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged were set to expire on this date in 2010 after 18 years of "development hell", but filming on the project began two days earlier, allowing him to retain the rights. https://t.co/08pVNDe0af

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Jun. 14 in the Classics: The animated musical fantasy film Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return (loosely based on the 1989 book Dorothy of Oz by L. Frank Baum's great-grandson) premieres at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France in 2013. https://t.co/C6QPyRXrQo

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Jun. 13 in the Classics: Alfred, Lord Tennyson marries his childhood friend Emily Sellwood at Shiplake, England, in 1850. They would have two sons - Hallam (who inherited his father's baronetcy upon his death in 1892) and Lionel. https://t.co/Z7Hd3R3PRE

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Jun. 12 in the Classics: Sergei Prokofiev's opera War and Peace, based on the novel by Leo Tolstoy, premieres at the Maly Theatre, Leningrad in 1946. The opera was nearly four hours long, with 13 scenes plus an overture and an epigraph. https://t.co/xkAriypNLR

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Jun. 11 in the Classics: The TLC documentary/biography program Great Books airs an episode on H.G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds in 1994. The episode also featured a discussion of the author's life by two of his biographers. https://t.co/oQJwAeVaeq

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Jun. 10 in the Classics: D.H. Lawrence's novel Women in Love is first published in the UK by Martin Secker in 1921. Methuen & Co. had planned to publish it, but backed out when Lawrence's earlier book The Rainbow was banned on obscenity charges. https://t.co/AkrRsU4opM

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Jun. 9 in the Classics: Sir Walter Scott writes Lady Abercorn in 1806 that he has "a grand work in contemplation … a Highland romance of Love Magic and War founded upon the manners of our mountaineers." This was the start of his poem The Lady of the Lake. https://t.co/HZIzJ1kKzh

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Jun. 8 in the Classics: George Orwell writes to Cyril Connolly from Spain in 1937: "I have seen wonderful things and at last really believe in Socialism, which I never did before." However, Orwell was staunchly anti-Soviet and anti-Communist. https://t.co/9wH8PK6KY1

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Jun. 7 in the Classics: The Merrie Melodies cartoon Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt first airs in 1941. It has Bugs Bunny reading the Longfellow poem The Song of Hiawatha out loud to himself when the real Hiawatha shows up looking to catch a rabbit for his dinner. https://t.co/Am4BQmc1ia

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Jun. 6 in the Classics: Arnold Schoenberg's three-act opera Moses und Aron (with a German libretto by the composer based on selected incidents from the Book of Exodus, chapters 3-32) premieres at the Zurich Opera House in 1957. https://t.co/NLcxo9RUgE

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Jun. 5 in the Classics: The BBC radio series Round the Horne broadcasts Moby Duck, a parody of Melville's Moby-Dick, in 1966. It has Ahab chasing a giant white Peking duck ("when it lays an egg in the China Seas there be tidal waves at Scarborough!"). https://t.co/52RiRIZvWU

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Jun. 4 in the Classics: Andrew O'Hehir's review of T.A. Shippey's book "J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century" is published in Salon in 2001. He especially highlighted the polarity of attitudes towards The Lord of the Rings. https://t.co/jQArqIj1S4

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Jun. 3 in the Classics: Anton Chekhov, terminally ill with tuberculosis, sets off with his wife Olga for the German spa town of Badenweiler in 1904. Though he would write to his sister that he was getting better, he died just two months later. https://t.co/VH6laDwvan

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Jun. 2 in the Classics: William Hazlitt's negative review of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem Kubla Khan is published in the Examiner in 1816. He did note the poem's aesthetic appeal: "Mr Coleridge can write better nonsense verse than any man in English." https://t.co/eTFWlGQn74

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Jun. 1 in the Classics: Broadcaster Leslie Mitchell, on the BBC Radio 4 program Desert Island Discs in 1974, selects a biography of Leonardo da Vinci as the book he would most like to have with him if marooned on a desert island. https://t.co/95uOau5AKw

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May 31 in the Classics: In a 1902 letter to William Blackwood, Joseph Conrad says the last pages of Heart of Darkness lock in the whole narrative and make it "something quite on another plane than an anecdote of a man who went mad in the Centre of Africa." https://t.co/VEJ2aOIkmB

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May 30 in the Classics: To commemorate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Marlowe's death, adaptations of his plays Dido, Queen of Carthage and The Massacre at Paris are broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 1993. https://t.co/P9v0gL2HnD