Title: Great Books
First published: 1996
Description: In Great Books, Denby lives the common adult fantasy of returning to school with some worldly knowledge and experience of life. A gifted story-teller, he leads us on a glorious tour - by turns eloquent, witty, and moving - through the works themselves and through his experiences as a middle-aged man among freshmen. He recounts his failures and triumphs as a reader and student (taking an exam led to a hilarious near-breakdown).

He celebrates his rediscovery or new appreciation of such authors as Homer, Plato, the biblical writers, Augustine, Boccaccio, Hegel, Austen, Marx, Nietzsche, and Virginia Woolf. He re-creates the atmosphere of the classroom - the strategies used by a remarkable group of teachers and the strengths and weaknesses of media-age students as they grapple with these difficult, sometimes frightening works. And all year long he watches the students grow and his own life and memories break out of hiding.
Subjects: Books and reading, Civilization, Western, Humanities, Literature, Study and teaching (Higher), Western Civilization, Littérature, Civilisation occidentale, Étude et enseignement (supérieur), Livres et lecture, Sources, History, Literature, bibliography, Literature, history and criticism
Places: United States
People: David Denby
LC classification: CB245 .D44 1996