NOTICE: (Updated March 5, 2010)

Beginning December 19, 2009, Books 'N Border Collies will be posting but only intermittently while I pursue personal goals. I plan to share some reading I'm doing, but there will be no reviews. I will, however, be sharing my exploration of vegetarian cooking and the cookbooks and websites I use to educate myself. I hope you enjoy it!

Lezlie



Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Classic Novels: Meeting The Challenge of Great Literature


Remember the cool Teaching Company courses I received as a birthday gift? After much reflection, I decided the best place to start is with Classic Novels: Meeting The Challenge of Great Literature. I haven't listened to any of the lectures yet, but I have started on the first book, Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe. In case you're curious, here is the reading list for this course:


Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne
Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
Pere Goriot by Honoré de Balzac
Wuthering Heights by Emily Emily Brontë
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
The Trial by Franz Kafka
Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust
Ulysses by James Joyce
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez


I have my work cut out for me! I've only read two of them already -- Moby Dick and War & Peace (my thoughts on W&P) -- so I've got a lot of good stuff to look forward to. It's going to take me some time to work through this course as I do intend to read each book before listening to the lecture, with the exception of Proust. I've read Swann's Way (my thoughts), but I will try to maybe read the second volume in the series before the lecture. I won't try to read all seven. I think that would make me cranky. I do want to read them all eventually, just not back-to-back. And I'm scared to death of Ulysses. I see a heavily annotated edition of that book in my future! :-) This is going to be way too much fun!!!



13 comments:

Anonymous said...

That looks like a really interesting course. I'm actually a bit jealous! You're reading some of my favorites (and some of my least favorites, incidentally) and I bet the lectures will be fascinating. I hope you'll let us know what you think as you go along!

Lezlie said...

Meghan ~ I will definitely do that. I'm excited to get started! There are a few here that I'm intimidated by, but knowing I'll be listening to lectures on them helps me to fear them less. :-) Which ones are some of your favorites?

Lezlie

Anonymous said...

Wow, you're going to be busy!

Kara said...

It sounds so interesting!!! So glad you are embarking on something that you really love to do. I hope once I finish school and job gets settled in - I can grab some of those classics and dig in!!! LOL.

Lezlie said...

Bermudaonion ~ And happily so! :-)

Kara ~ I hope you can to! I'm having so much fun with all of this!

Lezlie

Darlene said...

That's quite the reading list. I've read Moll Flanders and really liked it. Others read Wuthering Heights, Madame Bovary, As I Lay Dying and One Hundred Years of Solitude. I really want to read WAr and Peace one day--it's on my shelf. Surprisingly enough I've not read Moby Dick. lol.

Happy Reading---you'll be busy.

Terri B. said...

Wow! What a list! Enjoy your class :o)

Lezlie said...

Dar ~ You're way ahead of me! :-) I loved War & Peace, and Moby Dick I liked reading, but there were chunks that made my mind wander.

Terri ~ Thank you! I think I will!

Lezlie

Anonymous said...

Hey, I'm kind of jealous too! You will share what you've learned, won't you?

Danielle said...

I would love to try one of their lecture series. What a great reading list--I look forward to hearing all about the books and the lectures!!

Lezlie said...

Chartroose ~ I will. That will be a big part of the fun!

Danielle ~ I hope you have a chance to try them sometime. I've have learned so much interesting stuff from the courses I've listened to. One of my favorites was The History of Ancient Egypt. The professor was Bob Brier, the first person to make a mummy in modern times using actual ancient techinques. National Geographic did a story on it called "Mr. Mummy."

Lezlie

Ladytink_534 said...

I haven't read any of those except Ulysses (I think). I did however attempt to read Moby Dick & Wuthering Heights a few years ago. I might retry the latter but the former was too dense for me.

Lezlie said...

Ladytink ~ You read Ulysses? Do I need to be scared of that one? I've been looking at books of annotations thinking I should pick one up. I liked Moby Dick a lot, but it isn't one I run around recommending to people. It can be a snoozer.

Lezlie