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John Senior The Thousand Good Books List PDF
John Senior The Thousand Good Books List PDF
John Senior The Thousand Good Books List PDF
The “Great Books” movement of the Anyone working in any art or science
last generation has not failed so much at college, whether in the so-called
as fizzled, not because of any defect in “pure” or the practical arts and
the books—“the best that has been sciences will discover he has a made a
thought and said,” in Matthew quantum leap when he gets even a
Arnold’s phrase—but like good small amount of cultural ground
champagne in plastic bottles they under him—he will grow up like an
went flat. To change the figure, the undernourished plant suddenly
seeds are good but the cultural soil fertilized and watered.
has been depleted; the seminal ideas
of Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, St. Of course the distinction between
Thomas, only properly grow in an “great” and “good” is not
imaginative ground saturated with absolute. “Great” implies a certain
fables, fairy tales, stories, rhymes, magnitude; one might say War and
adventures, which have developed Peace or Les Miserables are great
into the thousand books of Grimm, because of their length, or The
Andersen, Stevenson, Dickens, Scott, Critique of Pure Reason its
Dumas and the rest. Western difficulty. Great books call for
tradition, taking all that was best of philosophical reflection; whereas
the Greco-Roman world into herself good books are popular, appealing
has given us the thousand good books especially to the imagination. But
as a preparation for the great ones and obviously some writers are both and
for all the studies in the arts and their works may be read more than
sciences, without which such studies once from the different points of view
are inhumane. The brutal athlete and – this is true of Shakespeare and
the foppish aesthete suffer vices Cervantes, for example.
opposed to the virtue of what
Newman called “the gentleman.”
It is commonly agreed also that both undoubtedly authors of some
“great” and “good” can only be judged importance inadvertently left out—
from a certain distance. but this is a sufficient work-
Contemporary works can be sheet. Everyone will find more than
appreciated and enjoyed but not very enough that he hasn’t read; and
properly judged, and just as a everything on this list is by common
principle must stand outside what consent part of the ordinary cultural
follows from it (as a point to a line), so matter essential for an English-
a cultural standard must be speaking person to grow in.
established from some time at least as
distant as our grandparents’. For us Remember that the point of view
today the cut-off point is World War I throughout a course of studies such as
before which cars and the electric this is that of the amateur—the
light had not yet come to dominate ordinary person who loves and enjoys
our lives and the experience of nature what he loves—not of the expert in
had not been distorted by speed and critical, historical or textual
the destruction of shadows. There is a technology.
serious question—with arguments on
both sides surely—as to whether there The books have been divided
one takes in that dispute, it is certainly into the stages of life corresponding to
true that we cannot understand the the classical “ages” of man and in
What follows is not a complete because sight is the first of the senses
list: almost all the authors have and especially powerful in early years,
the ones given; and there are illustrated by artists working in the
cultural tradition we are studying Randolph Caldecott, Kate Greenaway,
both as an introduction to art and as Walter Crane, Gustave Dore, George
part of the imaginative experience of Cruikshank, “Phiz”, Gordon Browne,
the book. This is not to disparage Beatrix Potter, Sir John Tenniel,
contemporary artists any more than Arthur Rackham, Howard Pyle, N.C.
the tradition itself disparages Wyeth, and many others.
contemporary experiment—quite the
contrary, one of the fruits of such a The rule of thumb is to find a
course should be the encouragement nineteenth-century edition or one of
of good writing and drawing. A the facsimiles which (though not as
standard must never be taken as a sharp in the printing) are currently
restrictive straitjacket but rather as a available at moderate prices. What
teacher and model for follows is an incomplete work-sheet of
achievement. Book illustration unedited notes which may serve as a
reached its perfection in the rough guide.
nineteenth century in the work of
SENIOR’S INCOMPLETE LIFE-LONG READING LIST
THE NURSERY (Ages 2 – 7)
Literary experience begins for very young children with someone reading aloud
while they look at the pictures. But they can begin to read the simplest stories
which they already love at an early age.
MUSIC
Avoiding extremes of difficult and light—neither Bach nor Debussy—the
distinction between “great” and good is blurred. The student should listen to one
work only for at least a week, going over and over the separate movements or acts
until the repeated themes are recognized as they recur. It is better to know a very
few works very well than to run over vast amounts. The following is a good order
for neophytes:
Beethoven. Violin Concerto.
Beethoven. Pastoral Symphony.
Verdi. Rigoletto.
With an opera, read the entire libretto in English, then take only a single scene
and play it through several times trying to follow the words in Italian (or French
or German) with an understanding of their meaning. Having gone through the
whole opera scene by scene, pick out great moments – arias, duets, etc. It is good
to have two recordings, one of the complete work, another of the highlights.
Puccini. La Boheme
Mozart. Clarinet Concerto or Oboe Concerto; Jupiter Symphony; Piano music
(especially as played by Gieserking)
Beethoven. Seventh Symphony.
Brahms. Fourth Symphony.
Chopin:. Selections.
(Most important: Students should attend live concerts).
ART
The Kenneth Clark series Civilisation. Clark published a book with illustrations
and the text of the series. And most important, visits to museums and galleries.