Allan Dean Divinagracia COMK-2A June 12, 2019

Defintion of Great Books:

“Reading materials, relating to, or centered in certain classics of literature, philosophy,

history, and science that are believed to contain the basic ideas of western or other culture.”

(Merriam-Webster)

Own perspective:

A great book isn’t just something that has a cover in the front and the back part. A great

book is something more than just the number of its pages. For it to be great, for me every chapter

has to have life changing values and lessons contributing to one’s own ideals in life which serves

as the foundation of self-discovery before anything else. A great book must possess the ability to

be just at the right comprehensibility so that every part of it can be easily understood by its

readers. In addition, a great book must at least conform its legitimacy as a great book per se,

through the standards that the experts and professionals in book analysis settled.
Criteria for a Great Book

“According to Professor Fears, a great book has the following three essential qualities:

1. “Great theme. A great book is concerned with themes and issues of enduring

importance.”

1. The meaning of life

2. Truth
3. Duty and responsibility
4. Law, government, and social justice
5. Love, jealousy, and hate
6. Courage, honor, and ambition
7. Beauty
8. Nature
9. History and the past
10. Education
2. Noble language. Great books are written in noble language, language that elevates the

soul and ennobles the mind. It is not the specific language, say Latin or English that is

noble. Any language can be used in such a way that it conveys ideas and emotions

powerfully and memorably.

3. Universality. A great book is “a possession for all time” (Thucydides). It speaks across

the ages, reaching the hearts and minds of men and women far removed in time and space

from the era and circumstances in which it was composed. Thus, a great book

summarizes the enduring values and ideas of a great age and gives them as a legacy for

generations to come.”
Dean Jeffrey Brenzel’s Definition of a Great Book; Dean Jeffrey Brenzel’s 5 Criteria or

Marks of a Great Book

1. “So first, the work addresses permanent concerns about the human condition. From a

philosophical perspective, it has something to say about the way we should live. From a

literary perspective, it has something to say about imagining the possibilities for how we

could live and from a historical perspective it tells us how we have lived. That’s mark

number one of a classic.

2. Mark number two is that the work has been a game-changer. It has created profound

shifts in perspective and not only for its earliest readers, but for all the readers who came

later as well.

3. Mark number three is that the work has stimulated or informed or influenced many other

important works, whether directly or indirectly.

4. Mark number four is that many generations of the best readers and the most expert critics

have rated the work highly, one of the best or most important of its kind, even if those

experts and readers shared no other views than that and even if they violently disagreed

with the work.

5. Mark number five is that the work usually requires a strenuous effort to engage and

understand, but it also rewards the hard work strongly and in multiple fashions.”

(Beckford, 2014)
Sources:

Beckford, A. (2014). Retrieved June 13, 2019, from TheInvisibleMentor website:

https://theinvisiblementor.com/what-makes-a-book-great/

Merriam-Webster Dictionary