
The Modern Scholar: The Art of Reading
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Narrated by:
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Professor Joseph Luzzi
About this listen
Esteemed professor Joseph Luzzi addresses the place of classic literature in the modern world with this riveting series of lectures. Advocating “the art of reading” as a way to answer essential questions of day-to-day life, Luzzi delves into the works of such literary titans as Plato, Shakespeare, and Virginia Woolf. By doing so, he tackles such age-old questions as “How do we fall in love?” and “How do we confront evil?”
Download the accompanying reference guide.©2011 Joseph Luzzi (P)2011 Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
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The Modern Scholar: Alexander of Macedonia
- The World Conquered
- By: Prof. Robin Lane Fox
- Narrated by: Robin Lane Fox
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Alexander the Great is the most famous king and conqueror known in the ancient world. In his lifetime, he was given honors equal to those of the gods. After his death, he became a legend and the “Alexander Romance” became the best-selling fiction of the medieval world.
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The Modern Scholar
- Ideas that Shaped Mankind
- By: Professor Felipe Fernandez-Armesto
- Narrated by: Felipe Fernandez-Armesto
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Ideas That Shaped Mankind flows from internationally respected historian Felipe Fernández-Armesto's views on the notion that man's capacity to produce ideas in itself brings about sweeping changes in the world. This ability, seen most profoundly in individual, startling moments of genius - or equally startling moments of chance - is what separates humans from the animals and allows humans to re-imagine the world in ever more complex designs.
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The Giants of Irish Literature
- Wilde, Yeats, Joyce and Beckett - The Modern Scholar
- By: Professor George O'Brien
- Narrated by: George O'Brien
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Oscar Wilde, W.B. Yeats, James Joyce, and Samuel Beckett: These four masters of Irish literature created works of startling innovation and unparalleled literary merit. Renowned professor George O'Brien provides the biographical background of these authors and an analysis of their greatest works. In these lectures, O'Brien discusses the very qualities that set these works apart and the "Irishness" that characterizes each of them.
-
-
Great IF You've Recently Read the Works Discussed
- By Here-and-faraway on 01-16-11
-
The Italians before Italy: Conflict and Competition in the Mediterranean
- By: Kenneth R. Bartlett, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Kenneth R. Bartlett
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Take a riveting tour of the Italian peninsula, from the glittering canals of Venice to the lavish papal apartments and ancient ruins of Rome. In these 24 lectures, Professor Bartlett traces the development of the Italian city-states of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, showing how the modern nation of Italy was forged out of the rivalries, allegiances, and traditions of a vibrant and diverse people.
-
-
A useful survey, just what I wanted
- By Adeliese Baumann on 11-07-16
By: Kenneth R. Bartlett, and others
What listeners say about The Modern Scholar: The Art of Reading
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- Jay
- 05-26-13
Not bad, but a misleading title
I'm not going to finish reading this, at least not until i finish many of the other things on my list, because i feel the title is misleading. I've listened to about half of it in full, and i've skimmed through the rest of it, enough to be confident in what i write here.
Luzzi's audio course claims to be about the art of reading, but in the very first lecture, he admits that one of his primary aims is to expose readers to his favorite works, and, he hopes, inspire them to read them themselves. There is nothing essentially wrong or dishonest about that in itself - practically every book or audio course i've read or listened to has the same aim, to a greater or lesser degree. Where the misleading nature comes in is that, in this case, Luzzi's aim is an Italian Nationalist aim, in that just about every example he uses to illustrate his points come from Italian authors. Even Italian cinema seems to come up more often than all non-Italian authors combined. (Excepting Homer and Virgil)
Dante seems to come up numerous times in every single lecture, and there have been no less than three references to Vittorio Alfieri, an author that Luzzi admits that few of his listeners outside of Italy will even have heard of. In fact, I think a more appropriate title for this course, to this point, would be "The impact of Dante on later Italian literature" - very few substantive changes would need to be included in order to make this title change.
Had that been the title, my rating would have been higher - Luzzi has a good voice for reading these books, and his knowledge of the subject matter is clearly top notch. Then again, had that been the title, i likely wouldn't have purchased this book in the first place.
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