BOMC
I am reviving our Book of the Month in a less pedantic and exhaustive format. We'll put up a list of books in the probable order in which we shall take them up. I'll post an introduction. We can have as much or little commentary as readers wish to provide, though I do ask everyone who is reading one of the books to put up a brief comment to that effect.
At this point I am open to suggestions both as to titles and as to the order in which we take them up. I would like to do some of the Italian books before the Summer School that begins on Bastille Day,
I The books I am considering are:
Ben Jonson, The Alchemist
Machiavelli, The Prince and The History of Florence.
Douglas Young, Chasing an Ancient Greek (an amusing chatty narrative of his attempt to track down and collate the manuscripts of Theognis.
The poems of Solon and Theognis. This is less than 100 pp. of the ethical and political wisdom of ordinary Greeks, though Solon was, for his political achievements, an extraordinary man.
Villari's Life of Savonarola
Sophocles, Trachinian Women
Iliad, Books I-XII (the first half)
Tennyson Idyls of the King
A welcome idea. Good choices here; I would cast a vote -even Chicago-style, early and often – for Machiavelli’s works and Idylls of the King.
This is such a hard list to choose from. I’ll take whatever is decided. They are all so good. And as always, I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to participate.
Let us start with “The Prince,” then. I might add a book that I have started, Curzio Malaparte’s once famous account of WW II, Kaputt.