In my late twenties, I used to carry in my wallet a list of books that I wanted to own. I was a waiter back then, with a young family and little in the way of expendable income to be spent on books. I lived near Houston, so I was blessed with many quality used book stores. In order to avoid impulse buys, I would consult my list prior to making a purchase, to be sure that I was spending my meager book budget wisely. One day while out running errands with my then-toddler son in tow, I noticed a small handwritten sign along a busy thoroughfare pointing passersby into a neighborhood for an estate sale. Being a nice day and older neighborhood I enjoyed visiting, I followed the signs to the sale. Inside, I found a pair of middle-aged sisters administering an estate sale of their recently-deceased father's home. He must've been an avid reader, as he had a considerable library in a spare bedroom. That is where I saw, for the first time, the Great Books of the Western World. Somehow I had never heard of the set, and was astounded to discover that nearly two-thirds the books on my list were present within the set. I don't remember the price being asked, only that is was well above my cash-in-pocket budget, and that is was set on a scale such that the price that day was the highest, and the price on the last day of the sale was the lowest. One of the sisters noticed my young son and I examining the set, and took interest in our interest. She told me that she doubted very much that they would remain until the last day of the sale, as a dealer had already been by and made note. She noticed my list ad asked to see it. Looking it over, with eyebrows raised, she said she wouldn't have taken me for that kind of reader. She sighed, looked at my son, and said that her Dad would've wanted me to have the set. She said I could have it for whatever amount I could afford today. I had only my weekly grocery budget with me ($80), which if memory serves was approximately half of the asking price on the lowest price day of the sale. She said she'd take $60, so I'd at least have something with which to buy food for my son. That price even included the ten-volume Gateway to the Great Books series. I gratefully agreed and loaded the books on a blanket in the bed of my two-door pickup truck; my son's car seat left no room in the cab for so many books. I drove them home, unloaded them in such a way that my wife wouldn't see them when she first walked in the door, and spent the rest of the day finding things to sell so we could get back to running errands and figuring out how I'd explain to my wife how I'd spent our grocery money. I think of the woman, her father, and the family history she shared with me as we spoke that day. Mostly, I think of her (and her father's) investment in me every time I grab one of those books off my shelves.
Thank you, your story was incredibly heart-warming. I would hope that someday, if my descendants choose not to retain my library, they are as kind-hearted as the woman who generously sold you the collection for a pittance; we should all be so dedicated to ensuring future generations have access to mankind's collective knowledge.
I recently discovered your channel and have become addicted to your videos. Like many people, I’ve long felt that I should be reading more classic literature and philosophy and your videos have provided the inspiration and direction I needed. Only a week or two after watching this one, I visited a local half-priced bookstore and spied the full collection up on the top of a book case. I went back today and bought them all for just $200! They are lined up beautifully on my shelves and I look forward to years of engagement with them. Thanks for what you do and keep it up!
Thank you, Layne :) I really appreciate your kind words, and I'm so happy to have a great lover of literature like yourself watching! Congratulations on snagging a full set for just $200! That's a bargain for a such a wealth of knowledge all on one shelf! Happy reading :)
I graduated fro St John’s before you were born, Ben, and this was pretty much the curriculum decided upon at the University of Chicago by Stringfellow Barr and Scott Buchanan. They were still alive, at the time, and the story was that Mortimer Adler had no money so all the translations are the ones he didn’t,t have to pay for. The synopticon is so awesome to have with the set! Often they get separated… it was Mortimer Adler’s contribution. We never used the books in this set if we could afford to buy the better translations. Our tutors used to say that Germans themselves learned English order to read the Kemp Smith translation of Kant, so you can see this problem. Maybe not so much with literature though, Ben, and I am a new 2023 member of your book club and I am so happy to be learning from you and the side trips are everything thank you so much!
I HAVE this set!!! A friend of mine passed away and his secretary was about to give away this set of books from his office!! I barely had space for the set, but I loved them. They now feel like the presence of my dear friend. Now, with your endorsement, I love them more.
Thank you for generously sharing your love of grest literature. Your RUclips lectures are a boon to the elderly who want to conttinue their bookish learning. Invaluable.
Wonderful introduction. As a graduate of the “Great Books Program “ at St. John’s College, NM, in 1990, I had the pleasure of seeing Dr. Adler give his annual lecture at the Annapolis campus. (St. John’s College has two campuses.) He always stressed the importance of rereading the Great Books. He was so inspiring. I find myself returning to the Greek authors, especially The Odyssey. Thank you for sharing this video.
My husband bought a slightly used set 62 years ago for $250, which included the original publisher's bookcase that was specifically designed for it and the supplemental 10 volume set of The Great Ideas Program. We were devastated when all of it was destroyed by a flood in 2007. I've been on the hunt since then for replacements in near new condition. Your set sounds outstanding. They are beautiful and you are indeed incredibly fortunate to have them.
I bought these when first married for my future children. They were $500 in 1969. My son who is 50 years old has them. Quite an expenditure at the time. They were sold by a door to door salesman working his way thru college. Great memories.
I get in trouble for mine! One day my wife got home from work earlier than me (for once), and sitting inside the gate was a hip high pile of Amazon orders! It must have accumulated at the post office and then they stacked them up on delivery. She took a phone photo and put it on FB, asking our friends “who thinks he has a problem?… “ Its an addiction that I hope never to lose.
I'm still making my way through the Great Ideas Program which is a sort of guided reading that they had that went along with the books. Ten books each with fifteen readings with each book having one specific topic that the readings focus on. Thus far I have found it to be highly rewarding.
I own both The Great Books and The Harvard Classics. I think it essential to point out that Robert Maynard Hutchins and Mortimer Adler presumed that before embarking into the plan, the reader should be intimately familiar with both Old and New Testaments of the Bible, and that is why the Bible is not included but essential and foundational to the conversation. Today that presumption would usually be futile.
Charles Eliot excluded the Bible from Harvard Classics as well because every home probably already had one. Interestingly, Sir John Lubbock, who originated the classic collection idea with 'Lubbock's One Hundred Books', included both the Bible and the Koran in his.
Great observations! Jordan Peterson now says that the Bible undergirds all subsequent works in our tradition: that it is foundational. Unfortunately rationalism, humanism, materialism and scientism seek to extract the Bible from the Great Discussion.
Marvelous session! Your enthusiasm is very infectious, to my great benefit. Thank you for your exceptional work. You are a blessing in my life and continued education (I am over 70 years old) - you have really delivered.
Benjamin, I have been watching your videos since February, stumbling upon your Dorian Gray video. And I wanted to say that i am thankful for your content. Your passion and love for literature quite literally jumps through the screen and it is infectious. I hope to someday join the hardcore literature club! Quick question: does it matter at what point one joins?
Aw, thank you so much, Jocey. I really appreciate your kind words :) As for the book club, it doesn't matter when one joins. You can join and jump into the fun whenever is best for you! And we would really love to have you reading along with us! 😊
My parents had this set when I was young. It all looked very difficult. About 10 years ago, my sister sent me the entire set (my parents had died). Half of them were lost in the mail. I got someone's dental impression! The post would do nothing about it. Then after getting a divorce, I was left with all the bills to pay. So I had to sell the remaining parts of the set, along with many other books, furniture, etc. I think these books are amazing. I'm going to see if they are in my public library.......Your set looks beautiful! On a slightly more positive area, a company in Chicago produced "Junior Great Books". Selected sort story readings for elementary grade students. Teachers and students would read and have a dialogue about the readings. It was brilliant! Of course, the series did not fit into the test mindset of schools, so the books were eventually abandoned and thrown out! Criminal.
What a coincidence that I was researching about the greatest books of the western cannon then you just uploaded this very video! Thank you for this vlog, Benjamin!
Me and my mates all just bought this set. I bought this exact set and LOVE it. We have a junto class where we discuss and debate all the great works of the western world including theology, philosophy, politics, war, the spiritual, human behavior and psychology. I treasure and adore this group of people and they have blessed and enhanced my life immensely as we all have been motivated to read more.
Ben, this is another great video. Your love and passion for great literature has ignited my own soul with a hunger for it. Thank you and PS... could you do more videos on poetry?
On another note, given you mentioned Adler and speed reading, I highly recommend getting a copy of a DVD of Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren discussing their "How to Read a Book". Its kind of a 1970s video dialouge of the book and they go through various books and the different kinds of reading appropriate for each. It's funny in places, because Adler and Van Doren were really two contrasting characters. Adler was a scrappy, touchy man while Van Doren's more privileged background and upbringing shines though in his nonchalant, sprettzauran style.
Congratulations on the beautiful collection! Thank you so much for sharing these with us, Ben. Those illustrations in Darwin are so gorgeous! Looking forward to hearing more about all that you find when deeply exploring these editions. Makes me so happy to see that the blocks found a spot too :)
Thank you, Michelle :) And I think the blocks look amazing - I had to have them facing out. Proust, Shakespeare, McCarthy, and Melville keeping me company! Thank you so much again :)
Love it, Benjamin! I'm a crazy collector of Great Books sets (Harvard Classics, Appleton's Great Books, World's Great Classics, The Universal Anthology etc.) and am working on a website to publish all the reading guides attached to these sets. Once it's built, I'd love to share it with you and hear your thoughts. :)
Would you be able to identify which printing a certain set is? I have a full set of the linen bound books in which the bindings and covers are color coded and the author is in gold/black. Basically the inverse to Ben's set here.
Last year I picked up two big boxes full of books for five bucks at a library book sale. When I got them home I realized it was the full 54-volume set of the tan 1952 edition of this set. I'm sure they previously looked great on some professor's bookshelf but I doubt they'd ever been opened. In working through some of these books I discovered I was ill equipped for difficult, serious reading. I'm discovering that I have to re-learn how I read in order to make sense of many of these books. The Mortimer Adler book was useful but the hard work remains of internalizing a productive reading process. Thanks for all the great work on this channel, Benjamin. This is the internet at its best.
Wow! What an exciting thing to discover, Derek :) I really love the tan edition of this set. Beautiful volumes. It sounds like you're bringing yourself fully to these works so you'll definitely have some rewards in store! And thank you so much for the kind words. I really appreciate you being here and watching!
That you for this review/tour/pep talk! Your enthusiasm gives me enthusiasm to finally start with these books that my parents bought decades ago. My dilemma is that I also have "The Harvard Classics," and my copies were printed in 1919. They are wonderful things to cradle in my hands, and I very much want to read those, also. At some point I will have to decide. Thanks again.
Your set is gorgeous, indeed. As a “disciple” of the Great Books, I have the 60 volume/2nd edition set, including nearly all of MJA’s books. I think the study of these books and their great ideas should be included in the American public school curriculum. The knowledge and critical thinking skills these books cultivate are intrinsically valuable and necessary for the health of democratic societies. I enjoyed your presentation of the great books set and your overview of its significance and ways to approach it.
Great video. This inspires me to get serious about reading (at least some) of the volumes in this set. I got a set (1952 pressing) of these at an estate sale recently for $15. It is missing the volume on Freud but I think I can live with that. 😆
I have that exact set as well as the encyclopedia that was part of the combination set. I got them from a used bookstore that was going out of business. Most of the buyers were owners of other used bookshops looking for special or collector level books and were disinterested in this set. I got the whole thing for a song. My set is in excellent condition but not as nice as yours. Yours look to be in absolute mint condition.
Very nice - sounds like you got yourself a great deal. I got my vintage Shakespeare set from a secondhand bookstore for very little. Absolutely adore visiting them and seeing what bargains I can find. My Great Books set has a couple of unnoticeable dings here and there, but other than that I'd say they're quite close to mint... ready for me to ruin them :)
When I got my first job out of school, the first two substantial things I bought were a) a set of Encyclopaedia Britannica, and b) the Great Books series. The former I eventually gave to my nephew. The latter I have transported half way around the world with me and will stay with me to the grave, continually enriching my life. (P.S. "*Decline* and Fall...." Easy slip. :) )
Hii Ben, it is immensely inspiring to feel your passion and admiration for literature and liberal self -help education. It motivates everyone to rekindle and nourish one's passion for reading literature. Congratulation on gifting yourself great books as I wish to purchase a set of books.
Great set! I have the set with 6 more volumes. Similar to you, I also have many of these works in different editions, be it Everyman, Oxford World Classics, etc., but it is a nice set to have if one can acquire it. The same goes for a nice older Encyclopedia set and a nice dictionary. I know that today with the internet people don't think they need those anymore, but I do not agree.
I'm glad to have come across this video; I've been eyeing this set for my granddaughter as I am slowly trying to build a legitimate home library to include good literature and reference manuals. Your video has convinced me this is a worthwhile investment and a bonus book idea from Mortimer Adler. Cheers!
From 1961 to 1997, they published a fascinating annual called The Great IdeasTodaty. All of the volumes included "additions' to the great books library. essays on recent developments in the arts and sciences, and, often, reviews of great books.
I am just about to finish all of Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica on Librivox while on long walks. Which took nearly 2 years. Thomas Aquinus is one of the few authors to whose work was shortened in The Great Book series. So I'm glad I did it through Librivox. My legs are stronger too from the long walks
I appreciated hearing your enthusiasm for this great collection. I have had a set for about 15 years and have read only a few of them. I plan on starting Moby-Dick as my first book for the Hardcore Literature Book Club and am contemplating using the GBWW edition. Normally I have no hesitancy about writing in my books, but I have not marked in any of the GBWW volumes and I am reluctant to mark up such a beautiful set. On the other hand, it's probably what Adler had in mind, and I can imagine him telling me to jump right in and mark it up. What do you think? Will you be writing in your collection?
Thank you, Nick. It's great to hear you're starting with Moby Dick, my favourite novel, for your Book Club read - we're so happy to have you reading with us! As for the GBWW edition, is this the two-volume Franklin Library set with Rockwell Kent illustrations? Absolutely gorgeous edition. I would beg you not to write in this set! At least, I know I definitely wouldn't. I have some beautiful Moby Dick editions myself and have kept them clean, preferring to use my old cheap Wordsworth Classics paperback for my "work" copy. I recall Adler saying something similar in interview. I think if he had a beautiful set, he would have a separate document/journal for his notes. I'll have to double-check that, but that would be my advice - procure a cheap paperback version for marginalia :)
@@BenjaminMcEvoy Thanks for your thoughts, Ben. No, my edition is not the Franklin Mint edition, it is volume 48 of the Great Books Books of the Western World. My wife gave the entire set to me for my 40th birthday. They are a second-hand set but the interiors and bindings are in great shape. The spines are a bit faded, but it is still a beautiful set. Not as new-looking as yours, from what I can see from your video, but still very nice. I go back and forth between leaving the set unwritten-in, so that my children or grandchildren can eventually inherit them and read them on their own without the distraction of my annotations, versus marking them with my thoughts as a different kind of legacy. I would love to have had a book that my grandfather or grandmother annotated as a legacy of their thoughts and feelings. In any case, I will continue to wrangle with this dilemma, and so for now I have ordered the Wordsworth paperback edition of Moby-Dick and it should arrive tomorrow!
Hey Ben, I have the full set as well, but I'm having trouble determining which printing it is. Can you tell me how you determined which printing your set is?
I bought my set in the early 90s, with the encyclopedia set. It cost a small fortune. They are beautiful, well made books. I still have all of those 2 sets. It's old, but the historical content is still intact, to that publishing date.
Do you have any thoughts about the second edition of the set? These seem more plentiful, at least in my experience, and are what i was thinking of collecting.
Awesome video and a presentation of the Great Books Benjamin! Congrats on a beautiful books set indeed, it looks brand new! I believe this black set was released in ‘84 and is somewhat updated from the original sets published by Encyclopaedia Brittanica in ‘52. I think there were only around 1800 or so produced with the first two being given as gifts to Elizabeth II and Harry Truman. I was lucky enough to get my hands on one of these sets (a tan one) a few years ago in Australia. I’m elated by their mere presence in my office and also have them in the background of my videos. It came with the original purchase docs from ‘64 and with a Family Reading plan. Adler envisioned that these are to be enjoyed by the family in an attempt to provide them with a liberal education that will equip them (as the foundational unit of society) with the capacity to preserve a liberal (in the classic sense) and a free society. If only more were acquainted with them and better.. incorporate them into their lives, or live them as you say. Acquiring these books does nothing but the establishment of property rights over them. The act of purchase is simply the prelude to possession, full ownership exists when you make something a part of yourself. It is then of central importance that we are conscious and deliberate in the ideas and beliefs we take under our dominion for they become us, and we become what they produce.
And definitely Galileo. Keep up the great work. Thank you for sharing your incredible and wonderful and inspiring insight. Much love to you your friends and family again thank you.
Hi Benjamin! Thanks for the content, been watching/listening for a few months now, great stuff! I have a random question: I’ve been looking for a decent print or Summa Theologica. What do you think of the one in this collection? Is the text single/double/triple column? Do you think the translation is good or do you recommend another? Thanks!
I also just finished _Moby Dick_ . People I've known in the past have told me that it is boring and that there are pages and pages of "filler" and not enough about the actual hunt of Moby Dick. I think they never caught on to the fact that at least half the book is not about the actual story of hunting the whale, but about whaling in general and the life of a whaler. The book goes into great detail about everything associated with the whaling experience from the church services before they sail to the dangers (though possibly exaggerated in the case of Moby Dick) associated with whaling. Would you agree?
@@DATo_DATonian I think Melville used the whalers as an example of a lost pioneering age, his respect and admiration for men of all races and creeds willing to put their lives at risk is evident in every page. His attention to detail and descriptions of the many processes, was a deliberate act to emphasise that point: I see it as a right of passage; the reader must undertake the challenge to absorb the many descriptions of the minutiae of the whaling industry to understand Melville's homage to such men. Its Biblical and historical references, along with its Shakespearean language only added to the enjoyment of a classic masterpiece. I'd read it again; no problem; as long as I have my dictionary at hand.
@@DATo_DATonian it’s, I learned that as well when criticising this book, an encyclopaedic novel. I liked many passages, many passages were a bit heavy, overall I liked the emotion of curiosity and can-do it transported to me, but it wouldn’t put it as one of my favoured, as the stylistic wasn’t to my taste…but I read direct after Tolstoy’s War&Peace, so maybe this wasn’t optimal
I want to purchase the Great Books of the Western World by Adler but I'm confused on the total number of volumes (54 or 60 volume set). Also, I only want the mathematics and natural science books in the set. Which color is for those authors only? Where is the best place to purchase such a set? My local libraries don't have this selection and won't order them to the library!
I have that set of books. I grew up with that set in my house. Mine was printed in about 1962. My grandfather brought it to my childhood, along with a set of the encyclopedia. I'm missing one book, #?...Hmmm. I'm checking....
Hi Ben I'm interested in taking part in your amazing book club but know I'm late to the party, and will never manage to read everything with the other commitments in my life. I know you say people can start anywhere but how do I select? I don't want to do something feeling like I'm permanently on a backburner. While a chronological approach is calling me, I would just get further and further behind. Any advice would be gratefully received - thank you.
Hi Cathy :) That’s so great to hear you’re interested in joining the book club. You would be very warmly welcomed, and we would love to have you reading with us! My recommendation for readers with a lot of life commitments like yourself is to get started with the current Big Read and follow along live at the pace that best suits you. If you find you still have room/time for more literature, I would recommend choosing one of the books from the back-catalogue too. Our current Big Read is Moby Dick, but we will be starting our next one very soon, which is Blood Meridian. For a back-catalogue read, what kind of book would you personally be most excited to read? Without knowing your taste, I’m inclined to suggest either Anna Karenina or Wuthering Heights. An alternative recommendation would be to get started with Shakespeare. Whilst the plays are difficult, they are much quicker to get through than some of the big books and they’re foundational to a good understanding of literature. We currently have a really nice group conversation going on inside as we make our way through Shakespeare’s masterpieces. Many of the members have just read Hamlet, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet for the first time and absolutely loved the experience!
I am actually very thrilled to hear of your interest in learning science and math, and I am very interested in what you approach is going to be. I am 24 and had a rough start to education. I did fine in school, but was never pushed academically and never really saw the value in learning, it was simply something I need to get through. I find that I am almost frustrated with myself, like here's all this time that I've lost leveling up characters in video games or binging Netflix. I'm grateful to have found a love of learning regardless. I'm currently preparing myself to apply to university for physics. I honestly am not sure if I will get far, but if I can learn even something then I'll be happy. I am also considering throughing some philosophy along with it. Anyways so many things I want to learn about, so little time! Cheers.
I've read the Great Books so I know how difficult they can be so I recommend 2 books for people who struggle with science and math before reading them and they are The Intelligent Man's Guide to Science by Isaac Asimov and Mathematics For the Nonmathematician by Morris Kline. While some things have changed they are both still quite informative because they address the fundamentals of their subjects
Congrats Ben, beautiful collection. It's been kind of a dream of mine to go back in time and attend St John's College (specifically the Santa Fe campus - what a place to be to read the great books and get a liberal education with fellow students and tutors!). I have always thought of the Great Books as the next best thing. So you have got St John's on your shelf right there, minus the fellow students - but that's what we are here for :)
You mentioned Homer and an upcoming video. I am curious as to your recommended translations? What is your opinion of the Fitzgerald translation for The Iliad?
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From the state of conservation of the books, I thought you had acquired them new. I even searched the video description hoping to find the link to where you bought it.
Thanks for this video! That's a very nice gift someone gave you. Of course, every work in the set is worth reading, but many, perhaps more than half, are not what are generally considered today to be the best English translation. So, if you are going to read only one translation of a work, or if you haven't previously read any translation of the work, you would be better served to look elsewhere. That said, the translations of the mathematical and scientific works are presumably fine, and the guides to topics in all the works and suggestions of ways to pursue these through all the works could be very helpful and enlightening. For the best experience and most enlightenment, pursue this adventure with some reputable guides to editions and translations. such as the latest edition of *The New Lifetime Reading Plan* by Fadiman and Major and other sources of this nature.
Last part of my research titles of great books are Aeschylus plays , Sophocles plays herodotus history of Persian wars Thucydides history Peloponnesian wars , Hippocrates works , Euclid elements Lucretius the way things are Mortimer j . A dier iconoclastic progenitor of great books and great books of western world leads students ponder fundamental questions through great texts from classical antiquity to modernity from homer to aquinas from Dante to Dostoevsky. Studying great books is so important and provides opportunities not only to increase our knowledge but also to improve our judgment thank you we appreciate your efforts as foreigners subscribers as overseas students i wise for your channel more success and progress coming foreigners from around world stay safe blessed good luck to you your dearest ones
So fun to be part of the amazing history of great literature, which is really the amazing history of man and God. We just got a similar set but I think I need to get secondhand versions to actually read becuz I don’t want to mess up the beautiful set.
This series is good as a list of books to read, but I'd read the Oxford Classics edition of them for the best scholarly commentary. For some of them, other editions might be better, for example for Shakespeare, the Arden edition is likely better. But everyone should do their own research.
My favorite writer is John McPhee followed by Michael Lewis. In college I would have said Richard Brautigan, later I would have said Lewis Thomas. I have read Catch-22 and The Great Gatsby and the Iliad as well as The Jungle and read Huck Finn while in elementary school.
I have quite a few, John :) The ones that immediately leap to mind are Tolkien's translation of Beowulf, George Eliot's Middlemarch, The Arabian Nights, and quite a few more. I'll do a video at some point!
I received a set of Great Books in the late 50s or early 60s. One of my grandmother’s welfare clients had been buying them. They were in original boxes in the garage where he lived and were left to her when he died. She wasn’t a reader; I was. The early set wasn’t great quality - paper was see through thin and bindings tended to crack and fray. Following the plan, I began with Apology and certainly read Greek plays, epics, Life of Samuel Johnson, Moby Dick, War and Peace, Shakespeare, other Plato and Aristotle early on through high school. Although I never finished Gibbon, I think I read most of the volumes except Galen, helped by a choir course of Euclid, Ptolemy, Apollonius, Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, and Newton, Darwin, and covering all the philosophers as well as the literature. I don’t recommend their editions because of the translations and small print (I’m old now), but I would suggest beginning with Book I of Euclid (Heath) and maybe a book on proof by Stilwell. These can be paired with Aristotle’s Logic, Plato’s Meno, and maybe a more modern mathematical logic. Darwin might be coupled with some related Aristotle, but also should include Double Helix, Schrodinger’s What is Life? and maybe something recent like Song of the Cell. The Ptolemy-Copernicus-Kepler cycle is complemented by Thomas Kuhn.
I had a set of these, but the type was so small and the double column didn't work for me. I found more up to date paperback versions that were more readable. They are pretty though.
I looked up this set on the internet and found out it was worth 2.5 lakh (I live in India). I am 16 and started classics recently. 2.5 lakhs is like 1/3 of my father's annual salary. My father earns mediocre income but I hope that I will be able to buy this and Harvard classics when I grow up.
Also, .in 1962 or 1963, they published a wonderful ten-volume anthology, designed for really, really smart, high school students called The Gateway To The Great Books.
Bought my set with the Britannica encyclopedia in 1992, I think. I bought it with the intent that my son use it for school reports, which he did, before google destroyed their business. I've read and enjoyed Einstein, which was worth reading, along with unfinished starts of many other volumes. Yup, definitely no speed reading.
Good question! I have no idea how many books are referenced in a "platform-free" manner (perhaps I should explain that. In software engineering a program that is "platform-free" can be run on many different operating systems; likewise, since many of the Syntopicon's references are unique to the set it isn't very platform-free). One exception, and there may be others, is Spinoza's Ethics which is referenced by parts, definitions, proofs, etc. He fashioned his book after Euclid's Elements but his subject matter is a branch of philosophy. A good example of the "Great Conversation's" cross-disciplinary adventuresomeness. My own adventure with an electronic edition of the Syntopicon is described in my comment to Detron Phillips below. I recently ordered a CD version of the GBWW set issued by Encyclopedia Britannica. I wonder if it will be as advertised? Wouldn't it be a brilliant idea to hyperlink the Syntopicon to the set? One can even imagine a website in which an orgy of hyperlinks would manifest the Great Conversation!
@@molocious Thank you for your detailed answer! I wish it really were platform-free. If I try to import the entire physical set, shipping will probably kill me...
@@annamattos8627 Hah! Yes. Although I've seen offers of free shipping for the set at Abebooks or dBay. Another option, although this may take a very long time, is to by the set one or two books at a time as one of the commenters did from Goodwill! Clean copies can be had cheaply a book at a time.
The set is amazing, but the lack of the material from the middle ages, or the Bible for that matter, shows some bias in the selections. I hope to get a full set one day though, very useful.
@@BenjaminMcEvoy thanks! I've heard of some people over here buying the books separately (i.e. not the GBOTWW editions). Obviously not as aesthetic - but perhaps also handy.
I bought my first edition set on ebay a few years back for a couple hundred, then found the introductory set, and then started to pick up the additional books that came in the second edition only, one by one. I keep checking back as people keep listing new sets and individual volumes. All of my have been in very good to pristine condition. Good hunting people.
My natural tendency is towards order but I have found that I tend to acheive more when I embrace some controlled disorder. If my desk is tidy then I know there is something wrong. They look amazing but not for me. Recently became worried that all my comments are full of 'I'.
Hi Ben, I just came across your channel a few days ago and love your enthusiastic and inspiring presentations. As a child I loved reading but when we moved from Australia to Austria I just didn’t enjoy it as much in the German language. When I picked it up again I bought a collection of Nobel prize winning works which I actually never got around to reading much. Then when I decided to return to Australia I gave them away. I’m retired now and read a lot so I’m wondering whether to go for the Classics systematically (which I’ve always wanted to do it) or go for the Nobel prize literature. What are your thoughts? Thanks kindly 🌅
Does your book club discuss how you do marginalia? Examples to give people an idea of what they might use. Thank you, your channel is inspiring during a very ugly time for me personally. :)
I have been seeing those volumes since I was a kid. The color coding of the volumes always baffled me, so thanks for clearing that up. As someone who came to the classics via paper backs, WC looked clunky and difficult to manage. I could never tote a World's Classic volume of Melville to school like I did my Bantam Classics edition. Am I correct in believing Uncle Mort and Co. engineered those books to be read by adults at home in a comfy chair after dinner?
You would be right in believing correctly that the World's Classics were not the types of books you brought with you in your back pocket, to read on a train. When it came to portability, a Kindle or paperbacks would be the best bet. Paperbacks are also the perfect form of books to allow to be roughed up by time and by care and to write into them as well. The more expensive hardcovers are more for reading in a comfy chair after dinner.
Some of these books, like Euclid Elements or Newtons Principia, are going to be completely unintelligible to most people. These are just math proofs and they are so complicated because they use the ancient technique of using triangles to do proofs. So don’t expect to read through those as it’s not prose.
In my late twenties, I used to carry in my wallet a list of books that I wanted to own. I was a waiter back then, with a young family and little in the way of expendable income to be spent on books. I lived near Houston, so I was blessed with many quality used book stores. In order to avoid impulse buys, I would consult my list prior to making a purchase, to be sure that I was spending my meager book budget wisely. One day while out running errands with my then-toddler son in tow, I noticed a small handwritten sign along a busy thoroughfare pointing passersby into a neighborhood for an estate sale. Being a nice day and older neighborhood I enjoyed visiting, I followed the signs to the sale. Inside, I found a pair of middle-aged sisters administering an estate sale of their recently-deceased father's home. He must've been an avid reader, as he had a considerable library in a spare bedroom. That is where I saw, for the first time, the Great Books of the Western World. Somehow I had never heard of the set, and was astounded to discover that nearly two-thirds the books on my list were present within the set. I don't remember the price being asked, only that is was well above my cash-in-pocket budget, and that is was set on a scale such that the price that day was the highest, and the price on the last day of the sale was the lowest. One of the sisters noticed my young son and I examining the set, and took interest in our interest. She told me that she doubted very much that they would remain until the last day of the sale, as a dealer had already been by and made note. She noticed my list ad asked to see it. Looking it over, with eyebrows raised, she said she wouldn't have taken me for that kind of reader. She sighed, looked at my son, and said that her Dad would've wanted me to have the set. She said I could have it for whatever amount I could afford today. I had only my weekly grocery budget with me ($80), which if memory serves was approximately half of the asking price on the lowest price day of the sale. She said she'd take $60, so I'd at least have something with which to buy food for my son. That price even included the ten-volume Gateway to the Great Books series. I gratefully agreed and loaded the books on a blanket in the bed of my two-door pickup truck; my son's car seat left no room in the cab for so many books. I drove them home, unloaded them in such a way that my wife wouldn't see them when she first walked in the door, and spent the rest of the day finding things to sell so we could get back to running errands and figuring out how I'd explain to my wife how I'd spent our grocery money. I think of the woman, her father, and the family history she shared with me as we spoke that day. Mostly, I think of her (and her father's) investment in me every time I grab one of those books off my shelves.
Did your family recover financially?
@@jquezi No they starved he's writing this from beyond the grave, tragic really :(
Thank you, your story was incredibly heart-warming. I would hope that someday, if my descendants choose not to retain my library, they are as kind-hearted as the woman who generously sold you the collection for a pittance; we should all be so dedicated to ensuring future generations have access to mankind's collective knowledge.
That's fabulous. We carry books and memories like that our whole lives.
Your story brought me, some random individual somewhere on this planet, to tears. Thanks for sharing it :)
I recently discovered your channel and have become addicted to your videos. Like many people, I’ve long felt that I should be reading more classic literature and philosophy and your videos have provided the inspiration and direction I needed. Only a week or two after watching this one, I visited a local half-priced bookstore and spied the full collection up on the top of a book case. I went back today and bought them all for just $200! They are lined up beautifully on my shelves and I look forward to years of engagement with them. Thanks for what you do and keep it up!
Thank you, Layne :) I really appreciate your kind words, and I'm so happy to have a great lover of literature like yourself watching! Congratulations on snagging a full set for just $200! That's a bargain for a such a wealth of knowledge all on one shelf! Happy reading :)
That's a great buy!
I graduated fro St John’s before you were born, Ben, and this was pretty much the curriculum decided upon at the University of Chicago by Stringfellow Barr and Scott Buchanan. They were still alive, at the time, and the story was that Mortimer Adler had no money so all the translations are the ones he didn’t,t have to pay for. The synopticon is so awesome to have with the set! Often they get separated… it was Mortimer Adler’s contribution.
We never used the books in this set if we could afford to buy the better translations. Our tutors used to say that Germans themselves learned English order to read the Kemp Smith translation of Kant, so you can see this problem. Maybe not so much with literature though, Ben, and I am a new 2023 member of your book club and I am so happy to be learning from you and the side trips are everything thank you so much!
I HAVE this set!!! A friend of mine passed away and his secretary was about to give away this set of books from his office!! I barely had space for the set, but I loved them. They now feel like the presence of my dear friend. Now, with your endorsement, I love them more.
"Too many books, too little time"
Dude! You are an inspiration. Thank you , Sir.
Thank you, good sir! :)
I've read the entire series as well as all the Harvard Classics. It took me 30 years but I did it
Thank you for generously sharing your love of grest literature. Your RUclips lectures are a boon to the elderly who want to conttinue their bookish learning. Invaluable.
Thank you so much, Anne. I really appreciate that, and am I'm so happy you're here :)
Wonderful introduction. As a graduate of the “Great Books Program “ at St. John’s College, NM, in 1990, I had the pleasure of seeing Dr. Adler give his annual lecture at the Annapolis campus. (St. John’s College has two campuses.) He always stressed the importance of rereading the Great Books. He was so inspiring. I find myself returning to the Greek authors, especially The Odyssey. Thank you for sharing this video.
Thank you so much, Danilo. How incredible that you got to listen to Dr. Adler's lecture firsthand. I'm so envious :)
My husband bought a slightly used set 62 years ago for $250, which included the original publisher's bookcase that was specifically designed for it and the supplemental 10 volume set of The Great Ideas Program. We were devastated when all of it was destroyed by a flood in 2007. I've been on the hunt since then for replacements in near new condition. Your set sounds outstanding. They are beautiful and you are indeed incredibly fortunate to have them.
62 years ago?????
I bought these when first married for my future children. They were $500 in 1969. My son who is 50 years old has them. Quite an expenditure at the time. They were sold by a door to door salesman working his way thru college. Great memories.
the joy in your approach is contagious. my great books are about 6 feet from me. i'm gonna start today.
Wow!! Thank you so much! You have made my day! Happy reading, my friend, you can do it ☺️
Brilliant video! What a gorgeous collection. Thank you for justifying my book buying addiction
Thank you, Kat :) Anytime! More than happy to help you justify your addiction :)
I get in trouble for mine! One day my wife got home from work earlier than me (for once), and sitting inside the gate was a hip high pile of Amazon orders! It must have accumulated at the post office and then they stacked them up on delivery. She took a phone photo and put it on FB, asking our friends “who thinks he has a problem?… “ Its an addiction that I hope never to lose.
I'm still making my way through the Great Ideas Program which is a sort of guided reading that they had that went along with the books. Ten books each with fifteen readings with each book having one specific topic that the readings focus on. Thus far I have found it to be highly rewarding.
I own both The Great Books and The Harvard Classics. I think it essential to point out that Robert Maynard Hutchins and Mortimer Adler presumed that before embarking into the plan, the reader should be intimately familiar with both Old and New Testaments of the Bible, and that is why the Bible is not included but essential and foundational to the conversation. Today that presumption would usually be futile.
Charles Eliot excluded the Bible from Harvard Classics as well because every home probably already had one. Interestingly, Sir John Lubbock, who originated the classic collection idea with 'Lubbock's One Hundred Books', included both the Bible and the Koran in his.
Great observations! Jordan Peterson now says that the Bible undergirds all subsequent works in our tradition: that it is foundational. Unfortunately rationalism, humanism, materialism and scientism seek to extract the Bible from the Great Discussion.
So do I and I've read them all. It took me 30 years but I did it
Marvelous session! Your enthusiasm is very infectious, to my great benefit. Thank you for your exceptional work. You are a blessing in my life and continued education (I am over 70 years old) - you have really delivered.
Benjamin, I have been watching your videos since February, stumbling upon your Dorian Gray video. And I wanted to say that i am thankful for your content. Your passion and love for literature quite literally jumps through the screen and it is infectious. I hope to someday join the hardcore literature club! Quick question: does it matter at what point one joins?
Aw, thank you so much, Jocey. I really appreciate your kind words :) As for the book club, it doesn't matter when one joins. You can join and jump into the fun whenever is best for you! And we would really love to have you reading along with us! 😊
My parents had this set when I was young. It all looked very difficult. About 10 years ago, my sister sent me the entire set (my parents had died). Half of them were lost in the mail. I got someone's dental impression! The post would do nothing about it. Then after getting a divorce, I was left with all the bills to pay. So I had to sell the remaining parts of the set, along with many other books, furniture, etc. I think these books are amazing. I'm going to see if they are in my public library.......Your set looks beautiful! On a slightly more positive area, a company in Chicago produced "Junior Great Books". Selected sort story readings for elementary grade students. Teachers and students would read and have a dialogue about the readings. It was brilliant! Of course, the series did not fit into the test mindset of schools, so the books were eventually abandoned and thrown out! Criminal.
What a coincidence that I was researching about the greatest books of the western cannon then you just uploaded this very video! Thank you for this vlog, Benjamin!
Serendipity woking its magic, Santino :)
Me and my mates all just bought this set. I bought this exact set and LOVE it. We have a junto class where we discuss and debate all the great works of the western world including theology, philosophy, politics, war, the spiritual, human behavior and psychology. I treasure and adore this group of people and they have blessed and enhanced my life immensely as we all have been motivated to read more.
Ben, this is another great video. Your love and passion for great literature has ignited my own soul with a hunger for it. Thank you and PS... could you do more videos on poetry?
Thank you, Terry :) I'm so happy to hear that! And, yes, absolutely - more poetry appreciation definitely on the way :)
On another note, given you mentioned Adler and speed reading, I highly recommend getting a copy of a DVD of Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren discussing their "How to Read a Book". Its kind of a 1970s video dialouge of the book and they go through various books and the different kinds of reading appropriate for each. It's funny in places, because Adler and Van Doren were really two contrasting characters. Adler was a scrappy, touchy man while Van Doren's more privileged background and upbringing shines though in his nonchalant, sprettzauran style.
Congratulations on the beautiful collection! Thank you so much for sharing these with us, Ben. Those illustrations in Darwin are so gorgeous! Looking forward to hearing more about all that you find when deeply exploring these editions. Makes me so happy to see that the blocks found a spot too :)
Thank you, Michelle :) And I think the blocks look amazing - I had to have them facing out. Proust, Shakespeare, McCarthy, and Melville keeping me company! Thank you so much again :)
Love it, Benjamin! I'm a crazy collector of Great Books sets (Harvard Classics, Appleton's Great Books, World's Great Classics, The Universal Anthology etc.) and am working on a website to publish all the reading guides attached to these sets. Once it's built, I'd love to share it with you and hear your thoughts. :)
Wow! That's such a cool collection to have :) And nice project - I'd be very keen to see that!
Id love to hear more about the website when you get it up and running!
I am also very interested and would love to know when your website is active!
Would you be able to identify which printing a certain set is? I have a full set of the linen bound books in which the bindings and covers are color coded and the author is in gold/black. Basically the inverse to Ben's set here.
I love to be apart of that.
Last year I picked up two big boxes full of books for five bucks at a library book sale. When I got them home I realized it was the full 54-volume set of the tan 1952 edition of this set. I'm sure they previously looked great on some professor's bookshelf but I doubt they'd ever been opened.
In working through some of these books I discovered I was ill equipped for difficult, serious reading. I'm discovering that I have to re-learn how I read in order to make sense of many of these books. The Mortimer Adler book was useful but the hard work remains of internalizing a productive reading process.
Thanks for all the great work on this channel, Benjamin. This is the internet at its best.
Wow! What an exciting thing to discover, Derek :) I really love the tan edition of this set. Beautiful volumes. It sounds like you're bringing yourself fully to these works so you'll definitely have some rewards in store! And thank you so much for the kind words. I really appreciate you being here and watching!
That you for this review/tour/pep talk! Your enthusiasm gives me enthusiasm to finally start with these books that my parents bought decades ago. My dilemma is that I also have "The Harvard Classics," and my copies were printed in 1919. They are wonderful things to cradle in my hands, and I very much want to read those, also. At some point I will have to decide. Thanks again.
Your set is gorgeous, indeed. As a “disciple” of the Great Books, I have the 60 volume/2nd edition set, including nearly all of MJA’s books.
I think the study of these books and their great ideas should be included in the American public school curriculum.
The knowledge and critical thinking skills these books cultivate are intrinsically valuable and necessary for the health of democratic societies.
I enjoyed your presentation of the great books set and your overview of its significance and ways to approach it.
Great video. This inspires me to get serious about reading (at least some) of the volumes in this set. I got a set (1952 pressing) of these at an estate sale recently for $15. It is missing the volume on Freud but I think I can live with that. 😆
I have that exact set as well as the encyclopedia that was part of the combination set. I got them from a used bookstore that was going out of business. Most of the buyers were owners of other used bookshops looking for special or collector level books and were disinterested in this set. I got the whole thing for a song. My set is in excellent condition but not as nice as yours. Yours look to be in absolute mint condition.
Very nice - sounds like you got yourself a great deal. I got my vintage Shakespeare set from a secondhand bookstore for very little. Absolutely adore visiting them and seeing what bargains I can find. My Great Books set has a couple of unnoticeable dings here and there, but other than that I'd say they're quite close to mint... ready for me to ruin them :)
When I got my first job out of school, the first two substantial things I bought were a) a set of Encyclopaedia Britannica, and b) the Great Books series. The former I eventually gave to my nephew. The latter I have transported half way around the world with me and will stay with me to the grave, continually enriching my life. (P.S. "*Decline* and Fall...." Easy slip. :) )
Benjamin well Done! Presently Focused. Keep Calm
And Carry On! Love 💗 the quality of these books 📚
Hii Ben, it is immensely inspiring to feel your passion and admiration for literature and liberal self -help education. It motivates everyone to rekindle and nourish one's passion for reading literature. Congratulation on gifting yourself great books as I wish to purchase a set of books.
Great set! I have the set with 6 more volumes. Similar to you, I also have many of these works in different editions, be it Everyman, Oxford World Classics, etc., but it is a nice set to have if one can acquire it. The same goes for a nice older Encyclopedia set and a nice dictionary. I know that today with the internet people don't think they need those anymore, but I do not agree.
I'm glad to have come across this video; I've been eyeing this set for my granddaughter as I am slowly trying to build a legitimate home library to include good literature and reference manuals. Your video has convinced me this is a worthwhile investment and a bonus book idea from Mortimer Adler. Cheers!
I actually love poetry and adventures (romantics are preferred) but I love to read your new book of reading techniques!
Happy valentines day! ❤❤
That is so wonderful to hear, Shyamal! And thank you very much! Wishing you very Happy Valentines Day too ❤️🙏
Benjamin you are such an interesting speaker. You don’t need background music.
From 1961 to 1997, they published a fascinating annual called The Great IdeasTodaty. All of the volumes included "additions' to the great books library. essays on recent developments in the arts and sciences, and, often, reviews of great books.
I have all the Great Ideas Today
I am just about to finish all of Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica on Librivox while on long walks. Which took nearly 2 years.
Thomas Aquinus is one of the few authors to whose work was shortened in The Great Book series. So I'm glad I did it through Librivox. My legs are stronger too from the long walks
Wow. I’m jealous. I’ve been reading it-very slowly because can’t do more than a very small bit at a time. Maybe audio is the way to go.
@@PatMcAnn For sure.
By far the best video to summarize this set. Thank you for taking the time and effort, this has catapulted me to start digging in.
Hi Ben. Is it best to start off with the Great Books or the Harvard Classics? I’m UK based if that helps. Thanks
I appreciated hearing your enthusiasm for this great collection. I have had a set for about 15 years and have read only a few of them. I plan on starting Moby-Dick as my first book for the Hardcore Literature Book Club and am contemplating using the GBWW edition. Normally I have no hesitancy about writing in my books, but I have not marked in any of the GBWW volumes and I am reluctant to mark up such a beautiful set. On the other hand, it's probably what Adler had in mind, and I can imagine him telling me to jump right in and mark it up. What do you think? Will you be writing in your collection?
Thank you, Nick. It's great to hear you're starting with Moby Dick, my favourite novel, for your Book Club read - we're so happy to have you reading with us! As for the GBWW edition, is this the two-volume Franklin Library set with Rockwell Kent illustrations? Absolutely gorgeous edition. I would beg you not to write in this set! At least, I know I definitely wouldn't. I have some beautiful Moby Dick editions myself and have kept them clean, preferring to use my old cheap Wordsworth Classics paperback for my "work" copy. I recall Adler saying something similar in interview. I think if he had a beautiful set, he would have a separate document/journal for his notes. I'll have to double-check that, but that would be my advice - procure a cheap paperback version for marginalia :)
@@BenjaminMcEvoy Thanks for your thoughts, Ben. No, my edition is not the Franklin Mint edition, it is volume 48 of the Great Books Books of the Western World. My wife gave the entire set to me for my 40th birthday. They are a second-hand set but the interiors and bindings are in great shape. The spines are a bit faded, but it is still a beautiful set. Not as new-looking as yours, from what I can see from your video, but still very nice. I go back and forth between leaving the set unwritten-in, so that my children or grandchildren can eventually inherit them and read them on their own without the distraction of my annotations, versus marking them with my thoughts as a different kind of legacy. I would love to have had a book that my grandfather or grandmother annotated as a legacy of their thoughts and feelings. In any case, I will continue to wrangle with this dilemma, and so for now I have ordered the Wordsworth paperback edition of Moby-Dick and it should arrive tomorrow!
Hey Ben, I have the full set as well, but I'm having trouble determining which printing it is. Can you tell me how you determined which printing your set is?
I bought my set in the early 90s, with the encyclopedia set. It cost a small fortune. They are beautiful, well made books.
I still have all of those 2 sets. It's old, but the historical content is still intact, to that publishing date.
Do you have any thoughts about the second edition of the set? These seem more plentiful, at least in my experience, and are what i was thinking of collecting.
Awesome video and a presentation of the Great Books Benjamin! Congrats on a beautiful books set indeed, it looks brand new! I believe this black set was released in ‘84 and is somewhat updated from the original sets published by Encyclopaedia Brittanica in ‘52. I think there were only around 1800 or so produced with the first two being given as gifts to Elizabeth II and Harry Truman.
I was lucky enough to get my hands on one of these sets (a tan one) a few years ago in Australia. I’m elated by their mere presence in my office and also have them in the background of my videos. It came with the original purchase docs from ‘64 and with a Family Reading plan. Adler envisioned that these are to be enjoyed by the family in an attempt to provide them with a liberal education that will equip them (as the foundational unit of society) with the capacity to preserve a liberal (in the classic sense) and a free society.
If only more were acquainted with them and better.. incorporate them into their lives, or live them as you say. Acquiring these books does nothing but the establishment of property rights over them. The act of purchase is simply the prelude to possession, full ownership exists when you make something a part of yourself.
It is then of central importance that we are conscious and deliberate in the ideas and beliefs we take under our dominion for they become us, and we become what they produce.
Ben, I have just discovered your channel and I have become addicted.😊
Thank you so much :) I'm so happy you're here!
@@BenjaminMcEvoy thank you. I wish I was as intelligent as you are.
And definitely Galileo. Keep up the great work. Thank you for sharing your incredible and wonderful and inspiring insight. Much love to you your friends and family again thank you.
I've been really getting in to the Greeks lately so I'm excited for that Homer video. Hope you take on the tragedies some time.
Nice one :) I feel compelled to put out a podcast on Prometheus Bound very soon - incredible work!
Hi Benjamin! Thanks for the content, been watching/listening for a few months now, great stuff!
I have a random question: I’ve been looking for a decent print or Summa Theologica. What do you think of the one in this collection? Is the text single/double/triple column? Do you think the translation is good or do you recommend another? Thanks!
I have just finished reading Moby Dick, another masterpiece, I would have never have thought of reading if it had not been for your channel.
That's amazing, Keith! I'm so happy to hear that :) Nice one on making it through 'The Whale'!
I also just finished _Moby Dick_ . People I've known in the past have told me that it is boring and that there are pages and pages of "filler" and not enough about the actual hunt of Moby Dick. I think they never caught on to the fact that at least half the book is not about the actual story of hunting the whale, but about whaling in general and the life of a whaler. The book goes into great detail about everything associated with the whaling experience from the church services before they sail to the dangers (though possibly exaggerated in the case of Moby Dick) associated with whaling. Would you agree?
@@DATo_DATonian I think Melville used the whalers as an example of a lost pioneering age, his respect and admiration for men of all races and creeds willing to put their lives at risk is evident in every page. His attention to detail and descriptions of the many processes, was a deliberate act to emphasise that point: I see it as a right of passage; the reader must undertake the challenge to absorb the many descriptions of the minutiae of the whaling industry to understand Melville's homage to such men. Its Biblical and historical references, along with its Shakespearean language only added to the enjoyment of a classic masterpiece. I'd read it again; no problem; as long as I have my dictionary at hand.
@@DATo_DATonian it’s, I learned that as well when criticising this book, an encyclopaedic novel. I liked many passages, many passages were a bit heavy, overall I liked the emotion of curiosity and can-do it transported to me, but it wouldn’t put it as one of my favoured, as the stylistic wasn’t to my taste…but I read direct after Tolstoy’s War&Peace, so maybe this wasn’t optimal
Beautiful black books! I have the brown/colored editions, I love them
I want to purchase the Great Books of the Western World by Adler but I'm confused on the total number of volumes (54 or 60 volume set). Also, I only want the mathematics and natural science books in the set. Which color is for those authors only? Where is the best place to purchase such a set? My local libraries don't have this selection and won't order them to the library!
I have that set of books. I grew up with that set in my house. Mine was printed in about 1962. My grandfather brought it to my childhood, along with a set of the encyclopedia. I'm missing one book, #?...Hmmm. I'm checking....
Another great video; thank you. You always remind me of another great author that I haven’t yet tackled.
Thank you, Ross :) That makes me so happy to hear!
Hi Ben
I'm interested in taking part in your amazing book club but know I'm late to the party, and will never manage to read everything with the other commitments in my life. I know you say people can start anywhere but how do I select? I don't want to do something feeling like I'm permanently on a backburner. While a chronological approach is calling me, I would just get further and further behind. Any advice would be gratefully received - thank you.
Hi Cathy :) That’s so great to hear you’re interested in joining the book club. You would be very warmly welcomed, and we would love to have you reading with us! My recommendation for readers with a lot of life commitments like yourself is to get started with the current Big Read and follow along live at the pace that best suits you. If you find you still have room/time for more literature, I would recommend choosing one of the books from the back-catalogue too. Our current Big Read is Moby Dick, but we will be starting our next one very soon, which is Blood Meridian. For a back-catalogue read, what kind of book would you personally be most excited to read? Without knowing your taste, I’m inclined to suggest either Anna Karenina or Wuthering Heights. An alternative recommendation would be to get started with Shakespeare. Whilst the plays are difficult, they are much quicker to get through than some of the big books and they’re foundational to a good understanding of literature. We currently have a really nice group conversation going on inside as we make our way through Shakespeare’s masterpieces. Many of the members have just read Hamlet, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet for the first time and absolutely loved the experience!
Amazing video. You’re literally improving the world.
Wow the collection is so beautiful!
Where did you order your set from? Amazon?
I am actually very thrilled to hear of your interest in learning science and math, and I am very interested in what you approach is going to be.
I am 24 and had a rough start to education. I did fine in school, but was never pushed academically and never really saw the value in learning, it was simply something I need to get through.
I find that I am almost frustrated with myself, like here's all this time that I've lost leveling up characters in video games or binging Netflix.
I'm grateful to have found a love of learning regardless. I'm currently preparing myself to apply to university for physics. I honestly am not sure if I will get far, but if I can learn even something then I'll be happy. I am also considering throughing some philosophy along with it.
Anyways so many things I want to learn about, so little time! Cheers.
I've read the Great Books so I know how difficult they can be so I recommend 2 books for people who struggle with science and math before reading them and they are The Intelligent Man's Guide to Science by Isaac Asimov and Mathematics For the Nonmathematician by Morris Kline. While some things have changed they are both still quite informative because they address the fundamentals of their subjects
This guy deserves at least 5 million subs
Aw, thank you so much! You have made my day 🙏❤️
Congrats Ben, beautiful collection. It's been kind of a dream of mine to go back in time and attend St John's College (specifically the Santa Fe campus - what a place to be to read the great books and get a liberal education with fellow students and tutors!). I have always thought of the Great Books as the next best thing. So you have got St John's on your shelf right there, minus the fellow students - but that's what we are here for :)
You mentioned Homer and an upcoming video. I am curious as to your recommended translations? What is your opinion of the Fitzgerald translation for The Iliad?
From the state of conservation of the books, I thought you had acquired them new. I even searched the video description hoping to find the link to where you bought it.
Missing #10, Hippocretes/ Galen. I have had these people of these books all my life.
Thanks for this video! That's a very nice gift someone gave you. Of course, every work in the set is worth reading, but many, perhaps more than half, are not what are generally considered today to be the best English translation. So, if you are going to read only one translation of a work, or if you haven't previously read any translation of the work, you would be better served to look elsewhere. That said, the translations of the mathematical and scientific works are presumably fine, and the guides to topics in all the works and suggestions of ways to pursue these through all the works could be very helpful and enlightening. For the best experience and most enlightenment, pursue this adventure with some reputable guides to editions and translations. such as the latest edition of *The New Lifetime Reading Plan* by Fadiman and Major and other sources of this nature.
This set is very famous here in Brazil, nowadays, actually I have the brown versin, but not complete yet.
Last part of my research titles of great books are Aeschylus plays , Sophocles plays herodotus history of Persian wars Thucydides history Peloponnesian wars , Hippocrates works , Euclid elements Lucretius the way things are Mortimer j . A dier iconoclastic progenitor of great books and great books of western world leads students ponder fundamental questions through great texts from classical antiquity to modernity from homer to aquinas from Dante to Dostoevsky. Studying great books is so important and provides opportunities not only to increase our knowledge but also to improve our judgment thank you we appreciate your efforts as foreigners subscribers as overseas students i wise for your channel more success and progress coming foreigners from around world stay safe blessed good luck to you your dearest ones
Could you please talk about comparing the Great Books of the Western World to the Harvard Classics?😀
Can I get this on AUDIBLE? If so, who would be the best narrator?
So fun to be part of the amazing history of great literature, which is really the amazing history of man and God. We just got a similar set but I think I need to get secondhand versions to actually read becuz I don’t want to mess up the beautiful set.
This series is good as a list of books to read, but I'd read the Oxford Classics edition of them for the best scholarly commentary. For some of them, other editions might be better, for example for Shakespeare, the Arden edition is likely better. But everyone should do their own research.
I listen to all these greater writers on Librivox during long walks 🚶♀️ in nature. Which I highly recommend.
have and love the great books (same edition as yours), the harvard classics, and both the complete and compact oed - my desert island books...
My favorite writer is John McPhee followed by Michael Lewis. In college I would have said Richard Brautigan, later I would have said Lewis Thomas. I have read Catch-22 and The Great Gatsby and the Iliad as well as The Jungle and read Huck Finn while in elementary school.
Hi Benjamin do you own any classic books from the folio society?
I have quite a few, John :) The ones that immediately leap to mind are Tolkien's translation of Beowulf, George Eliot's Middlemarch, The Arabian Nights, and quite a few more. I'll do a video at some point!
@@BenjaminMcEvoy Yes sounds great Benjamin, will look out for it
I received a set of Great Books in the late 50s or early 60s. One of my grandmother’s welfare clients had been buying them. They were in original boxes in the garage where he lived and were left to her when he died. She wasn’t a reader; I was.
The early set wasn’t great quality - paper was see through thin and bindings tended to crack and fray.
Following the plan, I began with Apology and certainly read Greek plays, epics, Life of Samuel Johnson, Moby Dick, War and Peace, Shakespeare, other Plato and Aristotle early on through high school.
Although I never finished Gibbon, I think I read most of the volumes except Galen, helped by a choir course of Euclid, Ptolemy, Apollonius, Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, and Newton, Darwin, and covering all the philosophers as well as the literature.
I don’t recommend their editions because of the translations and small print (I’m old now), but I would suggest beginning with Book I of Euclid (Heath) and maybe a book on proof by Stilwell. These can be paired with Aristotle’s Logic, Plato’s Meno, and maybe a more modern mathematical logic.
Darwin might be coupled with some related Aristotle, but also should include Double Helix, Schrodinger’s What is Life? and maybe something recent like Song of the Cell.
The Ptolemy-Copernicus-Kepler cycle is complemented by Thomas Kuhn.
I had a set of these, but the type was so small and the double column didn't work for me. I found more up to date paperback versions that were more readable. They are pretty though.
Reading Mortimer right now
I looked up this set on the internet and found out it was worth 2.5 lakh (I live in India). I am 16 and started classics recently. 2.5 lakhs is like 1/3 of my father's annual salary. My father earns mediocre income but I hope that I will be able to buy this and Harvard classics when I grow up.
You sound so passionate about literature. Do you teach?
Also, .in 1962 or 1963, they published a wonderful ten-volume anthology, designed for really, really smart, high school students called The Gateway To The Great Books.
Bought my set with the Britannica encyclopedia in 1992, I think. I bought it with the intent that my son use it for school reports, which he did, before google destroyed their business.
I've read and enjoyed Einstein, which was worth reading, along with unfinished starts of many other volumes.
Yup, definitely no speed reading.
Nice that they will be read now.
Thoroughly read :)
Hello Benjamine, I hope you do a review about The Divine Comedy , thanks
It's certainly in the pipeline!
Have you ever read or spoken about any of the books on mimetic theory written by Rene Girard?
For Plato, the symposium, I need around 15 minutes for one page. I wouldn’t be able to speed read through it, like some modern prose
15 minutes per page definitely sounds about right to me! Sounds like you're doing deep work, Khadim :) Nice one!
Is it possible to get just the first three volumes? Is the Syntopicon useful if one doesn't own the entire set?
thats hard to find, but you will seem them individually from time to time
Good question! I have no idea how many books are referenced in a "platform-free" manner (perhaps I should explain that. In software engineering a program that is "platform-free" can be run on many different operating systems; likewise, since many of the Syntopicon's references are unique to the set it isn't very platform-free). One exception, and there may be others, is Spinoza's Ethics which is referenced by parts, definitions, proofs, etc. He fashioned his book after Euclid's Elements but his subject matter is a branch of philosophy. A good example of the "Great Conversation's" cross-disciplinary adventuresomeness. My own adventure with an electronic edition of the Syntopicon is described in my comment to Detron Phillips below. I recently ordered a CD version of the GBWW set issued by Encyclopedia Britannica. I wonder if it will be as advertised? Wouldn't it be a brilliant idea to hyperlink the Syntopicon to the set? One can even imagine a website in which an orgy of hyperlinks would manifest the Great Conversation!
@@molocious Thank you for your detailed answer! I wish it really were platform-free. If I try to import the entire physical set, shipping will probably kill me...
@@annamattos8627 Hah! Yes. Although I've seen offers of free shipping for the set at Abebooks or dBay. Another option, although this may take a very long time, is to by the set one or two books at a time as one of the commenters did from Goodwill! Clean copies can be had cheaply a book at a time.
The set is amazing, but the lack of the material from the middle ages, or the Bible for that matter, shows some bias in the selections. I hope to get a full set one day though, very useful.
Every set printed added books and deleted some books. Mortimer Adler was a Genius for the Ages.
I am from India how can I buy it? Can anyone help.
Hey any tips on how common these are in the UK / Ireland? I'm interested in buying the full set from somewhere.
I'm not sure - mine were from overseas/the US :)
@@BenjaminMcEvoy thanks! I've heard of some people over here buying the books separately (i.e. not the GBOTWW editions). Obviously not as aesthetic - but perhaps also handy.
I bought my first edition set on ebay a few years back for a couple hundred, then found the introductory set, and then started to pick up the additional books that came in the second edition only, one by one. I keep checking back as people keep listing new sets and individual volumes. All of my have been in very good to pristine condition. Good hunting people.
My natural tendency is towards order but I have found that I tend to acheive more when I embrace some controlled disorder. If my desk is tidy then I know there is something wrong. They look amazing but not for me. Recently became worried that all my comments are full of 'I'.
Hi Ben, I just came across your channel a few days ago and love your enthusiastic and inspiring presentations. As a child I loved reading but when we moved from Australia to Austria I just didn’t enjoy it as much in the German language. When I picked it up again I bought a collection of Nobel prize winning works which I actually never got around to reading much. Then when I decided to return to Australia I gave them away. I’m retired now and read a lot so I’m wondering whether to go for the Classics systematically (which I’ve always wanted to do it) or go for the Nobel prize literature. What are your thoughts? Thanks kindly 🌅
Please don't forget Joseph Conrad's works... great video
Hi, I would love for you to comment some of William Faulkner's books. Gracias
Does your book club discuss how you do marginalia? Examples to give people an idea of what they might use. Thank you, your channel is inspiring during a very ugly time for me personally. :)
How much did you buy this for?
I completed mine at $1.99 each at Goodwill whenever available.
I have been seeing those volumes since I was a kid. The color coding of the volumes always baffled me, so thanks for clearing that up.
As someone who came to the classics via paper backs, WC looked clunky and difficult to manage. I could never tote a World's Classic volume of Melville to school like I did my Bantam Classics edition.
Am I correct in believing Uncle Mort and Co. engineered those books to be read by adults at home in a comfy chair after dinner?
You would be right in believing correctly that the World's Classics were not the types of books you brought with you in your back pocket, to read on a train. When it came to portability, a Kindle or paperbacks would be the best bet. Paperbacks are also the perfect form of books to allow to be roughed up by time and by care and to write into them as well. The more expensive hardcovers are more for reading in a comfy chair after dinner.
Some of these books, like Euclid Elements or Newtons Principia, are going to be completely unintelligible to most people. These are just math proofs and they are so complicated because they use the ancient technique of using triangles to do proofs. So don’t expect to read through those as it’s not prose.
Good point
"We must embrace a slower pace."
Indeed we must, my friend :)
@@BenjaminMcEvoy As someone who gets anxious when a book takes me more than a certain amount of days, this is advice that really strikes me.
*stares at bookshelf in awe*