The Great Books by Anthony O'hear

The Great Books by Anthony O'hear

Anyone Can Read the Great Books . . . with a Little Help

An illuminating, learned, well-written, and entertaining survey of the giants of world literature. Busy people, and especially the young, will be grateful for this useful and concise introduction. --Paul Johnson Not simply a grand work of reference, The Great Books is a captivating journey through two-and-a-half millennia of the great Western tradition. The eminent British philosopher Anthony O'Hear is our capable tour guide, taking readers on an exhilarating tour through 2,500 years of books as powerful, thrilling, erotic, politically astute, and awe-inspiring as any modern bestseller. The Great Booksis a fascinating narrative that encompasses history, myth, art, music, theater, and more. O'Hear sweeps us along from Homer's Iliad to Goethe's Faust, covering much ground in between. In Homer's poems of epic struggle we discover not only the fascination and pleasure we can derive, but also why these works became the fountainhead of Western literature. From Greek tragedy we feel the power of the ancient myths, while from Plato's Death of Socrates we see what may have killed off the tragic spirit. In Virgil's Aeneid we ponder the close connections to--and puzzling contrasts with--Homer; in Dante's terrifying and sublime Divine Comedy we encounter Virgil once again, this time as mentor and guide through Hell; and in Milton's phantasmagoric Paradise Lost we find the Christian story given epic shape and power. And of course, in Shakespeare we experience the great dramatist's particular and incomparable genius. There is much more beyond--from Ovid and Augustine to Chaucer and Cervantes, Pascal and Racine. The Great Books is a spirited and enlightening guide to the great works of the Western tradition, shot through with a love of literature and the author's deeply held belief in its power to enrich and enliven everyone's world.

Anthony O'Hear is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Buckingham, UK. From 1994-2019 he was Director of the Royal Institute of Philosophy and Editor of Philosophy, its academic journal. He is the author of many books and articles on philosophy, including Karl Popper (1980), What Philosophy Is (1984), The Element of Fire (1988), Introduction to the Philosophy of Science (1989), Beyond Evolution (1997), Philosophy in the New Century (2001) and The Landscape of Humanity (2008). Picturing the Apocalypse (2015), co-authored with Natasha O'Hear, won the ACE/Mercers prize in 2017 as the best book internationally on art and religion. Anthony O'Hear was appointed OBE in 2018.

SKU	Nicht verfügbar
ISBN 13	9781610170260
ISBN 10	1610170261
Titel	The Great Books
Autor	Anthony O'hear
Buchzustand	Nicht verfügbar
Bindungsart	Paperback
Verlag	ISI Books
Erscheinungsjahr	2011-09-30
Seitenanzahl	400
Hinweis auf dem Einband	Die Abbildung des Buches dient nur Illustrationszwecken, die tatsächliche Bindung, das Cover und die Auflage können sich davon unterscheiden.
Hinweis	Nicht verfügbar