Great Books Audiobook By David Denby cover art

Great Books

My Adventures with Homer, Rousseau, Woolf, and Other Indestructible Writers of the Western World

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

Great Books

By: David Denby
Narrated by: Edward Asner
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $18.17

Buy for $18.17

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel
At the age of 48, film critic David Denby returned to his alma mater, Columbia University, to re-experience the core humanities courses he had taken as a freshman 30 years before. Facing the question of what he really knows, Denby re-examines the besieged Western classics, ranging from Homer, Sappho, and Sophocles to Dante, Nietzsche, and Woolf. What relevance do the writers and thinkers of the past have to our current life? The answer surprised Denby and will surprise and enlighten his listeners. Great Books is a fascinating look at the crisis of literature in the late 20th century, mixing personal reflection, criticism, and the story of one man's effort "to create a self."©1996 by David Denby (P)1997 by Audio Literature Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literary History & Criticism Philosophy Fiction Classics Socialism Capitalism

People who viewed this also viewed...

Lit Up Audiobook By David Denby cover art
Lit Up By: David Denby
All stars
Most relevant  
Read the hard copy. Denby's book is enlightening in full, and deserves an unabridged reading. Pick this one up if it's ever free, or just a couple of bucks. It's still quite enjoyable.

Unfortunately and unnecessarily abridged.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I have given numerous copies of this book to friends and family.
Dancing through Western Civ, Lit, with enormous humor, wisdom, astute observation of youthful students, self reflection, pedagogical strategy observations... Rich brew!

Superb, wise, great fun. Treat yourself!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I would strongly recommend reading this book rather than listening to it. I loved this book when I read it and was looking forward to listening to it. It was a huge disappointment as an audiobook (this is the first book that this has happened with and it is difficult to pin-point why - it is partly the narrator but not exclusively).

Read this book, don't listen to it

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I have loved the book, but was so disappointed that the audible has changed the sequence of chapters, omitted chapters and seriously abridged parts. I've never experienced this before. One star rating at most.

Disappointed

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.