The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-03-17
BOOK NEWS
AND GOSSIP
THE UNEASY CHAIR

IHE UNEASY CHAIR
"THE BEST TWENTY-FIVE BOOKS,
WITH WHICH EVERY WELL IN.
FORMED NAN SHOULD BE FAMIL-
R."--Since The Uneasy Chair opened
it's Readers Question Box 1t has been
receiving evidences that the ''box'' meets
"a long-felt want" BY tho same evil
dences it has become aware that it is to
receive some large orders. One of these
In hand is request for list of tho
best twenty-five books with which every
well-informed man should be familiar y
The Chair frankly makes answer that
it Is "stumped." It is inclined to believe
that there are not twenty-five such
books. BY that it means that there
are not twenty five certain books
that 1t Is absolutely necessary to
read in order to be we'll informed. For
example, if it should be said that a list
OF the best twenty-five books should in
clude Goethe's Faust answer could be
made that a man might be very well in
formed and yet never have looked be-
| tween the covers of q copy Of the book.
And so it might be said of "Don Quixote"
or Essays of Ella" or lies Miserables."
Yet any Of these or all Of them would, in
The Chairs opinion, add greatly to the
mental and spiritual store of a thoughtful
reader. But that is not to say that equal
gains might not be made in other direc-
| tiCns. p.
But one wishing to under stand the spirit
of the civilization of today, and tho influ-
ences which have made it what it Is.
could not omit degree of familiarity with
the Bible. not only as a great moral in
fiuence, but as work Of history and liter
ature Because Of it's, greatness in in
tluence and insight into the heart of things
including life itself, one also must know
a good deal about SHAKESPEARE Without any
intention to be funny" The Chair would
add the dictionary, not for its guidance
as a spelling-book and defner of words,
but as a treasury of information ever
ready to be drawn upon by those well
enough informed to know how to use il
properly.
Then. one might jump back to Homer's
| "Iliad." thence to "Plutarch's Lives, ~
Dante's 'Divine Comedy" the plays OF
Moliere or Racine, Chaucer's Canterbury
Tales" Mltons poems, Burns po-
ems, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Longfellow
Aesop's fables, Robinson Crusoe," Glib.
bon's Rome" Motley's Dutch Republic
Green's History of the English People,
Carlyle's French Revolution" Elmer.
sons essays, Scott's 'Ivanhoe,'' Dickens
''Pickwick Papers or David Copper.
field" Thackerays Vanity Fair" Jane
Austen's pride and Prejudice" George
Eliot's adam Bede,'' Dumas Monte
Cristo,' Hawthorne's "scarlet Letter.
Robert Browning's poems--and where shall
one stop in the good things one would
like to. read and be helped by reading
| Yet, how many are absolutely essential tt
being well informed?'
In all the books named there is not on,
on philosophy, not one on scientific re-
search. Yet, those are subjects that tn,
we'll informed must know something Of
The truth of the matter is, one, in max
ing up list of best books, must ask tn
question, best for what? But for the fielt
of literature as a reflection Of life, tn
books named above are classics, all o
much worth to any man, The list as i
stands, however, would doubtless suit few
tastes and for varying purposes woul'
have to be greatly modified and modern
ized. Any bookstore, however. can di
rect inquirers to lists more comprehensive
than the above which will serve better a
Il working bases for those who want to di
intoGthe best that literature affords. ! Z
CONSTANTINE AS ONE OF THl
WORLDS HERoEs.-John B. Firth
some time scholar of Queens college, Ok
ford, and ,author of Augustus Cesar,
etc, is authoNsgaf the latest addition t.
the Heroes 81 file Nations series, Con
stantIne Ethe Great. The book is one t.
4 attract& the lover Of Impartial history o
Rome inEthe fourth century AID. 4 Of Con
stantine's character the author. says:
Constantine prone to superstition. He wa
grossly material in his religious views and hi
own worldly success remained still in his eye
the crownipg proof CT the Christian verities. Blu
the sincerity of his convictions is none the les
apparent, and even the atrocious crimes wit
: which he sullied his fair name cannot rob hin
of the name of Christian.
| q. Z. Putnams Sons, New York.
. ST Al not