Cleo’s Comments (group member since Apr 12, 2016)

Cleo’s comments from the Reading Classics, Chronologically Through the Ages group.

Great questions, Elizabeth and not easily answered but I do have a few thoughts. I'm heading off to work but I'll try to get back and answer as soon as I can! :-)

Gini wrote: "I read a little of that one, and I may add that into the mix. It's a bit heavier. ..."

That's a good observation. It is. I read it when I felt I understood Bauer's framework.

On first observation, I felt some of her choices odd but I must admit after I read through the biographies, some of them she chose were excellent and I never would have chosen them myself.

I'm trying to read more poetry as well. I can't wait to get to that section. In the meantime, I've added some poetry to my Deal Me In Challenge (see message 22 Diamonds) Poetry is very underrated but I think it's helps us to communicate better and to understand life better among other things ....

That's great that it's helping you, Gini! I also liked Mortimer J. Adler's How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading. It not only helped my analytical reading but also gave me a greater appreciation and respect for the authors themselves.

Thanks for this, Elizabeth. It would be interesting to read them chronologically.

Thanks, Sandy. I was conservative with my Goodreads goal but not so much with my challenges. I'm feeling positive but we'll see .... :-)

TBR Challenge(s) 2019

1. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
2. The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
3. Phantastes by George MacDonald

2019 Shakespeare Challenge

January to April (comedy):
May to August (history):
September to December (tragedy):

2019 Chunkster Challenge

1.

Christian Greats Challenge 2019

1) A Book on Early Church History

2) A Book About a Prominent Christian Who Was Born Between 500 A.D & 1900

3) A Christian Allegory

4) A Book on Apologetics

5) A Philosophical Book by a Christian Author

6) A Missionary Biography or A Biography of a Prominent Christian: The True Saint Nicholas: Why He Matters to Christmas by William J. Bennett

7) A Seasonal Book

8) A Novel with a Christian Theme

9) A Good Old Detective or Mystery Novel

10) A Substitute

Deal-Me-In Challenge 2019 (thanks to Sandy for the template!)

Week ending January 6th: An Apology for Idlers by Robert Louis Stevenson

DEAL ME IN Challenge 2019

Short Stories

♣️ A ~ Signs and Symbols – Vladimir Nabakov
♣️ 2 ~ Cabbages and Kings – O’Henry
♣️ 3 ~ Love – Leo Tolstoy
♣️ 4 ~ The Queen of Spades – Alexander Pushkin
♣️ 5 ~ The Yellow Wallpaper – Charlotte Gilman
♣️ 6 ~ The Story of A Farm Girl – Guy Maupassant
♣️ 7 ~ The Birds – Anton Chekhov
♣️ 8 ~ The Hammer of God (Father Brown) – G.K. Chesterton
♣️ 9 ~ The Diary of a Madman – Guy Maupassant
♣️ 10 ~ Doubtful Happiness – Guy Maupassant
♣️ J ~ The Unpresentable Appearance of Colonel Crane – G.K. Chesterton
♣️ Q ~ The Honest Thief – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
♣️ K ~ The Mark on the Wall – Virginia Woolf
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Essays

♠️ A ~ A Midsummer Night’s Dream – G.K. Chesterton
♠️ 2 ~ On A Faithful Friend – Virginia Woolf
♠️ 3 ~ A Note on Jane Austen – C.S. Lewis
♠️ 4 ~ In Defence of Literacy – Wendell Berry
♠️ 5 ~ The Tyranny of Bad Journalism – G.K. Chesterton
♠️ 6 ~ The Hotel of a Total Stranger – E.B. White
♠️ 7 ~ Sex, Economy, Freedom and Community – Wendell Berry
♠️ 8 ~ Sense – C.S. Lewis
♠️ 9 ~ An Apology for Idlers – Robert Louis Stevenson
♠️ 10 ~ Reflections on Gandhi – George Orwell
♠️ J ~ The End of the World – G.K. Chesterton
♠️ Q ~ Self-Reliance – Ralph Waldo Emerson
♠️ K ~ On Going A Journey – William Hazlitt
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Poetry

♦️ A ~ Phoenix and the Turtle – William Shakespeare
♦️ 2 ~ From Milton [Jerusalem] – William Blake
♦️ 3 ~ Ode to the West Wind – Percy Bysshe Shelley
♦️ 4 ~ A Sea Dirge – Lewis Carroll
♦️ 5 ~ To A Mouse – Robert Burns
♦️ 6 ~ Gesang Der Geister Über Den Wassern – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
♦️ 7 ~ Ode III – Fray Luis de León
♦️ 8 ~ Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night – Dylan Thomas
♦️ 9 ~ It Is A Beauteous Evening – William Wordsworth
♦️ 10 ~ Love Sonnet XIII – Pablo Neruda
♦️ J ~ The Mad Gardener’s Song – Lewis Carroll
♦️ Q ~ Resolution and Independence – William Wordsworth
♦️ K ~ Sonnet XXIII – Garcilaso de la Vega
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Children's Novels

♥️ A ~ City of the Golden House – Madeleine Polland
♥️ 2 ~ Sprig of Broom – Barbara Willard
♥️ 3 ~ Teddy’s Button – Amy Lefeuvre
♥️ 4 ~ Just David – Eleanor H. Porter
♥️ 5 ~ Beyond the Desert Gate – Mary Ray
♥️ 6 ~ A Triumph for Flavius – Caroline Dale Snedecker
♥️ 7 ~ The Story of the Treasure Seekers – E. Nesbit
♥️ 8 ~ Detectives in Togas – Henry Winterfeld
♥️ 9 ~ Shadow Hawk – Andre Norton
♥️ 10 ~ The Spartan – Caroline Dale Snedecker
♥️ J ~ Three Greek Children – Alfred J. Church
♥️ Q ~ Red Sails to Capri – Ann Weil
♥️ K ~ The Bronze Bow – Elizabeth George Speare
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Picture Book Reading Challenge 2019

January 2019

1.

Newbery Reading Challenge 2019

1.

52 Books in 52 Weeks

1. The True Saint Nicholas: Why He Matters to Christmasby William J. Bennett
2. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
3. The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
4. The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie
5. Phantastes by George MacDonald
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Back To The Classics Challenge 2019

(Listing books which are planned)

19th Century Classic: Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson or The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo
20th Century Classic: Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Classic by a Female Author: The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot or Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
Classic In Translation: The Stranger by Albert Camus
Classic Comedy: Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais or The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne
Classic Tragedy Novel: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (✔)
A Very Long Classic: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Classic Novella: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn
Classic From The Americas: Moby-Dick or, The Whale by Herman Melville
Classic From Africa, Asia or Oceania: The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield
Classic From A Place You’ve Lived: Roughing It in the Bush (Canada) by Susanna Moodie
Classic Play: Ajax by Sophocles

Time to celebrate the new blog and put up some challenges!~

Sorry Kendra, I missed your comment until now. I think it's ridiculous as a Christian to discount Platonic though. The more you read about Plato and the more classics you read in general, you can see how his thought is woven through the ages. You even see it all through C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia. I found this online:

"Platonism is part of the vital structure of Christian theology . . . . [If people would read Plotinus, who worked to reconcile Platonism with Scripture,] they would understand better the real continuity between the old culture and the new religion, and they might realize the utter impossibility of excising Platonism from Christianity without tearing Christianity to pieces. The Galilean Gospel, as it proceeded from the lips of Jesus, was doubtless unaffected by Greek philosophy . . . . But [early Christianity] from its very beginning was formed by a confluence of Jewish and Hellenic religious ideas.” ~ Dean Inge, Professor of Divinity

Dante apparently displayed a good knowledge of Aristotelian thought as did St. Thomas Aquinas.

You can't separate Christianity from these early Greek philosophies and I believe it's only recently that Christians try to do so. To deny the obvious connection seems rather pointless.

Gini, this site is doing a chapter a day read-along of Don Quixote It might be beneficial to join or even follow. He didLes Misérables last year (I missed it ... so sad).

Hi Gini! Welcome! Have you not read any of the book? Are you planning to start with the novels? Whatever section you're starting with, I'd read her introduction to it and then whatever she's written for the novel you're reading. It should only take an evening. Are you planning to write notes? If so, you could write as you read. It's all a personal preference. I'd already read Adler's How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading so I did a cursory read of sections of Bauer's as I needed to. But someone else might approach it differently. And if you want to jump right in, that works too! Hope that helps!

I, too, am still wading through City of God. I'd suggest that we set a schedule to help each other get through it but I'm reading the unabridged version so it probably wouldn't make sense. Me too with Lives from Plutarch!! I love it but I haven't been able to find the time for it. Too many other books and distractions!

Good for you for finishing The Republic. I still have to complete that one. Such a slow read if one wants to try to understand it.

I hope you get to History of the Peloponnesian War in 2019. It was one that I really enjoyed.

You did a great job! Happy reading in 2019!