My Classical Re-Education

May 15, 2012 at 6:21 pm (Education) (books, classics, history, lists, literature, Susan Wise Bauer, The Well Educated Mind)

As some of you may know, I am a sucker for the classics. I’m also a sucker for lists. In addition to that, I plan to homeschool my daughter. What better books for me then are those of Susan Wise Bauer?

“Using the techniques and systems of classical education, this new guide will give you greater pleasure in what you read, and greater understanding of it.” – from Susan Wise Bauer’s The Well-Educated Mind

I am a college graduate who has had the pleasure of working for a bookstore for some years now and doesn’t want my “education” to end with a Bachelor’s degree in Business. I want to go through Bauer’s list while I pay off my student loans before going back to school. Bauers covers five genres worth of lists of books that people need to read to be fully and classically educated. Many of these a lot of us have already read, and many of these we’ve always heard referenced and talked about reading but have never actually done it.

Lately, in the blog world, I’ve been coming across a Classics Challenge, and was reminded of the fact that there may be others out there who would like access to this list and discussions where other people are reading these books.

For the last few years I have been leisurely strolling through her list provided in The Well Educated Mind: The Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had. Because I’ve been reading through it in order at a snail’s pace, I’m still in the first list of books – novels. (The other lists are included in the Shelfari group: http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions.)

I am also the admin of a Shelfari Discussion Group called Classical Re-Education and I post reviews and commentary on my reading in that group, links for each book discussion are provided. Of course, I also share my reviews here on my blog.

Cervantes – Don Quixote

http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/89445/Don-Quixote—Cervantes

Bunyan – Pilgrim’s Progress

http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/90600/Pilgrim-s-Progress—Bunyan

Swift – Gulliver’s Travels

http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/91884/Gulliver-s-Travels—Swift

Austen – Pride and Prejudice

http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/96506/Pride-Prejudice—Jane-Austen

Dickens – Oliver Twist

http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/98621/Oliver-Twist—Charles-Dickens

Bronte – Jane Eyre

http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/102210/Jane-Eyre—Charlotte-Bronte

Hawthorne – The Scarlet Letter

http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/104538/The-Scarlet-Letter—Nathaniel-Hawthorne

Melville – Moby Dick

http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/105905/Moby-Dick—Melville

Stowe – Uncle Tom’s Cabin

http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/121736/Uncle-Tom-s-Cabin—Stowe

Flaubert – Madame Bovary

http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/148024/Madame-Bovary—Flaubert

Dostoyevsky – Crime and Punishment

http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/165633/Crime-and-Punishment—Dostoyevsky

Tolstoy – Anna Karenina

http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/212374/Anna-Karenina—Tolstoy

Hardy – The Return of the Native

http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/233628/The-Return-of-the-Native—Thomas-Hardy

James – The Portrait of a Lady

http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/239963/Portrait-of-a-Lady—James

Twain – Huckleberry Finn

http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/319203/Huckleberry-Finn—Mark-Twain

Crane – Red Badge of Courage

http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/319206/Red-Badge-of-Courage—Crane

Conrad – Heart of Darkness

http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/324295/Heart-of-Darkness—Conrad

Wharton – House of Mirth

http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/324297/House-of-Mirth—Wharton

Fitzgerald – The Great Gatsby

http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/324292/The-Great-Gatsby—Fitzgerald

Woolf – Mrs. Dalloway

http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/420041/Mrs-Dalloway—Virginia-Woolf

Kafka – The Trial

http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/435148/The-Trial—Kafka

Wright – Native Son

http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/443717/Native-Son—Wright

Camus – The Stranger

Orwell – 1984

Ellison – Invisible Man

https://anakalianwhims.wordpress.com/2012/09/03/blasted-book-bouncing/

Bellow – Sieze the Day

Garcia Marquez – One Hundred Years of Solitude

Calvino – If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler

Morrison – Song of Solomon

Delillo – White Noise

Byatt – Possession

https://anakalianwhims.wordpress.com/2012/11/04/the-ultimate-possession-a-book-by-byatt/

As you can see, I just recently finished Kafka’s The Trial and will soon be starting The Native Son. I’d love for others to join me.

Have you read any of these lately? Which were your favorites? What would you add to the list if your goal was to walk people through the History of the Novel, as Bauer’s has done?

P.S. Susan Wise Bauer will be lecturing at the Texas Home School Coalition Southwest Convention The Woodlands, Texas, Thursday-Saturday August 2-4.

4 Comments

Jillian ♣ said,

May 18, 2012 at 10:40 pm

I’m currently reading this book too. 🙂

Reply
Krystal Wight Armstrong said,

February 14, 2013 at 5:13 am

This is fascinating and I’ll have to revisit this book/list(s). For years I’ve been telling my mother-in-law (a literary teacher at classical private schools) that I’ve been wanting to do just this, be fully educated in all those books I should have read but missed in my education as a nomadic child. This sounds like just the thing, Thank You!

Reply
- Anakalian Whims said,
  
  February 14, 2013 at 5:40 am
  
  I’m working on the Autobiographies and Memoirs list this year. Thanks for reminding me that I need to post the list.
  
  Reply
My Classical Re-Education Part 2 « Anakalian Whims said,

February 14, 2013 at 5:57 am

[…] PART TWO of The Well-Educated Mind […]

Reply

Anakalian Whims