Great books of the western world 2nd edition, compared to the first edition
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- Опубликовано: 6 фев 2025
- When Britannica issued a new edition of the Great Books of the Western World in 1990, they made a lot of changes. Let's discover the differences: cuts, additions, and new translations. Note: I skipped over a few of the English language authors like Shakespeare and Milton.
Like the video? Buy me a coffee! ko-fi.com/esch...
Apparently, I skipped over Virgil! James Rhoades translated the 1952 1st edition, C. Day Lewis the 1990 second edition of Virgil's poems.
26:10 The 20th century additions, none of which were part of the first set.
31:48 Recap of major changes between sets.
The following sites cover changes to the contents:
Baquet's Guide to the World's Classics: www.theworldsc...
Comparison of Two Editions of the Great Books of the Western World, a web page by Alan Nicoll: www.angelfire....
Bureau of Public Secrets, Table of Contents, GBWW, 2nd edition: www.bopsecrets...
Hey Jim! First off, AMAZING INFO!! I’ve always been curious about the differences, and I’m so glad you took the time to dive into the kind of detail I appreciate.
Second, while I could comment on a few things, I wanted to highlight the improvement in St. Augustine’s Confessions. As an Orthodox Christian, I read this book every year during Great Lent. The Pusey translation is the most flowery English I’ve ever come across-only some Shakespeare plays rival it (in my experience). While I have Confessions in my GB set, I don't enjoy reading it. Because of that, I found the Penguin edition, translated by Pine-Coffin, to be the easiest to just pick up and read. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Pine-Coffin translation made it into the second edition. Granted, I snagged a solid, barely-used first edition of the Great Books for $300 on eBay, but after seeing your video, I definitely see the value in the second edition.
That’s all for now-thanks for sharing this!
Thanks so much for the comments! Good to know that the St. Augustine is a more readable translation. If memory serves, I first read Confessions in a Signet classic mass market paperback edition, and I don't recall the translator. GBWW made some good swaps for the second edition.
I think the coffee table book is worth owning. I have two copies of it. It contains an "Author to Author" index and and "Author to Idea" index. I own the first edition, and two sets of the second edition. Another thing in the first edition that was removed in the second edition was in volume 3 (Syntopicon Vol II) and it was about 80 pages titled "The Principles and Methods of Syntopical Construction" The First edition had over 32,300 Pages and the Second had over 37,800 pages Thanks for making this video, I enjoyed it very much.
Thanks for the info and advice! Did they preserve Hutchins’ original essay or edit it?
@@greatbooksbigideas Are you speaking about the Great Conversation? I am pretty sure it was edited, but I have not actually verified that. I read the 1st edition volume 1 "The great Conversation", but have not read that part of the coffee table book. One minor improvement that I did to one of my second edition sets, was to add a ribbon book mark. I did it in a non destructive way.
@@detronbrian Yes, that is the essay I wondered about.
Thank you for this! I have the older, original set and was curious as to what the differences were. This was a lovely video indicating the changes in translators and additional material from the 20th century that I may want to add to my list of future reading.
Glad it was helpful!
Quite a few of the additions to the 1990 set are in the yearbooks (The Great Ideas Today) They range from 1961 to 1998. Like the sets, the older years are easier to get your hands on, but if you buy online there is a good chance they will send you the wrong year. The good news is that the yearbooks sell for very cheap and it is not too much of a loss if you get a wrong year. I almost have a full set. Each of the volumes starts with a discussion on some kind of social issue, sometimes still relevant, sometimes dated, and sometimes comically dated. Then they do a broad overview of science, literature, philosophy, etc for the year, once again ranging from still relevant to comically dated. After that there is some kind of article about one of the Great Books or their writers. Finally there are several additions of the Great Books.
Thanks for the info! Yes, I have a complete set of The Great Ideas Today, and they're terrific. I'll be covering them on the channel soon.
I’m late to the party, but comparing to the list of contents for the second edition given at wikipedia, “quite a few” may be an exaggeration. Only 6 of 47 selections from volumes 55-60 appear in the index for The Great Ideas Today; an additional 5 of 24 selections appearing in the changed earlier volumes also appear in these annuals. This is not a reason not to recommend them. I have (or will soon have) all but two volumes of The Great Ideas Today, which I find interesting even beyond their addenda to main set. I will, however, continue to hope someday to acquire certain of the second edition volumes to supplement the partial first edition set I’ve only recently cobbled together. (To be honest, I never understood any purpose to the GBWW set when so many other editions of the works in it are available elsewhere - until I stumbled onto the Syntopicon in my first tentative library ventures after the pandemic and realized that its interesting reading approach can only be applied if one has the actual volumes it indexes!).
Thanks for a great overview! I’d love a physical set, incredible how they managed to fit such huge books like Middlemarch, War & Peace etc in! They’re hard to get here though in Ireland, so I went the digital way, Internet Archive has downloadable pdfs (and epub, but they’re bad), so at least I can highlight and take notes. It’s the first edition though, so seeing this was great to fill in the blanks! 😊
Thanks! Yes, I've heard from a few overseas viewers who say that these sets weren't widely available. I guess it was mostly an American venture. I want to do a video soon talking about the format of the books. Opinions vary a lot on that. It IS incredible how much shelf space is saved! Cheers.
I have the original set that you have, I bought it back in 2009 off someone online, I have seen a new set of the second edition on eBay selling for 1500.00. I would love to acquire it but I would probably end up divorced since I have over 2000 books in my library and my wife is fed up with so many books😳
I got very lucky with the 2nd edition set about 12 years ago. Found a 90% complete set on craigslist for $80. It took a few years and a lot of patience to acquire the missing volumes from eBay, Amazon, ABEbooks at decent price points. Who knows, you might get lucky too! One option that might keep your wife happy is to just fill in selected volumes from the 2nd edition. Thanks for the comment!
I have the first edition
I also have the Great Books Program, Gateway to the Great Books and all the Great Ideas Today which is the yearbook. I keep saying I'm going to get the 2nd edition but I haven't gotten around to it. I also have all the Harvard Classics
Cool. How do you like the Harvard Classics compared to the GBWW?
@greatbooksbigideas I think they compliment each other very well. The GB is a little more philosophical and has more science and mathematics while the HC is more focused on literature and though it has some science it doesn't have any mathematics. The HC also has more excerpts rather than complete works although the complete works it does have are presented more closely to the original imo for example the GB will have more prose translations compared to the HC which has more verse
Greetings, professor! I hope you are well, and immersed in a great book of ancient lineage.
I, being a newcomer to your stream, thank you, first of all for enhancing my own journey through the Great Books. In a recent stream you commented on the binding, paper, double-columned pages and typography of the set. I would like to make three comments: the double column is used in Bibles, even in modern translations, and is, due to the smaller font size, easier to read. You observed that a single column line would be hard to follow. I certainly agree; perhaps that is why a Yad Torah is used?
Also, first edition is printed after the war, and paper of the thickness used may reflect the advances of using better quality, i.e. ingredients, less softwood pulp, which turns yellow all by itself. Too much tannin in it does that. Higher cotton content makes whiter, better lasting paper. Hence, some paper, even in hardcovers, published in 1980s, '90s, turns brow, brittle and awful imo.
Last comment, Jim, is about the typeface and its designer. Mr. Ruzicka was a very prolific, gifted graphic artist. I am a Czech Canadian, and can confidently correct your pronounciation of his name: R-oo-zhi-chka. It is a diminutive of the flower rose.
Just little things, without, I hope, causing any offence or perturbation.
With thanks,
I am linguistically yours, and remain your follower, Jaroslav.
Hello and thanks for the comments. Thanks also for the correction. I should issue a standing apology for any/all mispronounced names on this channel!
I think I like the second edition better than the first edition. Love the increased representation of the sciences.
Hi are the translations of Virgil different?
Did I skip Virgil? My apologies! Yes, they are different. James Rhoades translated the 1952 1st edition, C. Day Lewis the 1990 second edition.
@@greatbooksbigideashow kind of you. Thx for your time and generous reply Sir.
"The Confessions of St. Augustine" was translated by R. S. Pine Coffin? Did I hear that correctly?
Yup! I did a double take myself!
It's RICHMOND Lattimore, BTW. Sorry I couldn't resist. Opinions differ on translations of Homer. Some thought that the Samuel Butler translation is easier for newcomers. Others thought that Richmond Lattimore is more authentic but not so easy to get through. You takes your chances.
Sorry about that! Thanks for the correction.
@@greatbooksbigideas Jim, becoming curious, I looked up the entry on Richmond Lattimore in Wikipedia. He made many translations, notably of the Athenian playwrights, Homer, and Pindar, but also the entire New Testament. He taught at Bryn Mawr from 1934-1971, with time out for WW II service. Oh, and I forgot that he published two volumes of poetry, and that he found time for many community and family engagements. It really was an exemplary life.
I had no idea he translated the New Testament. Wow.
@@greatbooksbigideas Jim, have you ever thought of writing a series of capsule biographies? For example, Richmond Lattimore as far as I know has neverhad a biography. The archives on him are over at Bryn Wawr and as far as I can tell, they're very proud of him.
@@JamesAdams-ev6fc Nice idea. Probably more work than I could take on right. now, but I might approach Bryn Mawr and see if somebody wants to talk about Lattimore. I'd like to weave in interviews eventually. Lots of plans for next year.
Hold the phone - no Milton - paradise Lost ? No crime and punishment ? No pascal Pensees?
Paradise Lost IS in the 2nd edition, as is Pascal Pensees. No Crime and Punishment, alas!
First women authors took this long to join the club?! Madness:)
Many reasons. Some political, Some psychological, Some social. Some Arrogant beasts considered women as inferior. And the rest you know. But i have my personal reflections on this. I think women are better at reading: opinions and people, emotions and thought then writing their own ones. But men are better at producing opinions and emotions and writing them. Man, more precisely in ancient times, were more active and commanding; women were more passive and loving. But this seems to be changing in modern times. Still, it is your choice. What do you prefer: Majesty or beauty. Majesty appreciates and depreciates; Beauty sits silent and demands contemplation. The author is Majestic as the word author suggests Authority, but the reader receives the wisdom.
Who needs them? They should make a female version for the ladies and the male feminists.😂