|
|
Post by robkuntz on Aug 28, 2016 12:23:59 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin Pete on Aug 28, 2016 13:22:29 GMT -5
Hey Rob,
Thank you for bringing that too our attention. The Havard Classics are fantastic reading and are a great source of inspiration. Just curious, what is your favorite(s)?
|
|
|
|
Post by robkuntz on Aug 28, 2016 14:02:45 GMT -5
Too many, and I never finished a greater percentage of them. But I seemed to be drawn to the essays in particular, at least then. And more philosophical works. The fiction I had less interest in, although I sampled Burton's A 1000 and one Nights, etc. I seemed to be interested, then, in ideas. Thanks for asking. And do enjoy!
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin Pete on Aug 28, 2016 17:28:32 GMT -5
I had a few particular favorites that I have re-read a number of times over the years. Interesting the prospective it brings to read things 20, 30, 40 and even 50 years after the original reading.
A few I like:
Volume 4 - Milton, Complete Poems in English
Volume 6 - Robert Burns, Poems and Songs
Volume 15 - Pilgrim's Progress, Donne and Herbert, Walton
Volume 16 - The Thousand and One Nights
Volume 17 - Folk-Lore and Fable: Aesop, Grimm, Andersen
Volume 22 - Homer, The Odyssey
Volume 40 - English Poetry I
Volume 41 - English Poetry II
Volume 42 - English Poetry III
Also in regard to the essays in Volume 27, for instance, there is an Essay by Leigh Hunt titled "Deaths of Little Children" and another titled "On the Realities of the Imagination" that I am rather fond of.
|
|
|
|
Post by robkuntz on Aug 28, 2016 18:02:32 GMT -5
Great Picks too!
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin Pete on Aug 28, 2016 18:05:55 GMT -5
Thank you! I also started reading them about 8 or 9 years old and " The Pilgrim's Progress" was the first one that I read and " The Thousand and One Nights" was the second. |
|
|
|
Post by hengest on Jul 25, 2021 18:47:28 GMT -5
Also in regard to the essays in Volume 27, for instance, there is an Essay by Leigh Hunt titled "Deaths of Little Children" and another titled " On the Realities of the Imagination" that I am rather fond of. I have been meaning to read this for years, probably since I saw this thread, and I keep forgetting. I am going to do so right now! |
|
|
|
Post by hengest on Jul 25, 2021 22:08:26 GMT -5
Leigh Hunt's essay "On the Realities of Imagination," mentioned above by our former Admin The Perilous Dreamer , is excellent. It starts like this: I suppose that at the time when this essay was written (over a hundred years ago, it seems, although I can't find an exact year for it), there was a habit in public discourse of dismissing certain things as 'imaginary'. This essay has the tone of an extended reply to a phrase or notion often used in public discourse, a kind of long slapdown to a notion that bothers the author. After an extended and worthwhile dismissal of the notion that there is a practical difference between the things conventionally called imaginary and all the 'real' things, Hunt goes on to list and describe these imaginary things, or at least those that we have improved access to through the works of poets. The essay overall is definitely worth the trouble. I am sure I will be recommending it and sending it to more than one contact from outside this forum. It can be found in Volume 27 of Harvard Classics, available as a legal free download here (this is a download link for Volume 27), printed page 289 within that volume (this is just a restatement of the information already available above on this thread, plus the page number). One quibble (and it is truly a quibble, as I do not think Hunt means what his sentence might seem to mean out of its context here): ("point of productiveness" here seems to mean "degree of fruitfulness, degree to which it gives something") Hunt focuses on verbal art here, poetry, and I cannot argue with him, but this creative faculty is not limited to verbal art but is present in many other areas of human endeavor (prose, visual arts, music, dance, RPGs...). But speaking of the sentence quoted above, I want to say also that the "country clown" may experience the tree as deeply as a poet, although we don't "benefit" in the same way if his experience isn't preserved in art in some form. But the unlettered country fellow may still, through actions or through untaught verbal ability, communicate something about his world (and the tree) in a way that is not trivial to those who have ears to hear it. John Clare, agricultural laborer and excellent poet, is the proof of what I say above, if any proof is needed. To my taste and understanding he is second to no one in creative power but also knows the rural landscape better than most better-known poets. It may take a bit to get used to him but it is entirely worth it if you are into exploring the imagination. Just one example, the first half of his poem "The Fairey Rings": (It goes on and gets better.) This is almost a perfect illustration of what Hunt discusses at length in prose: the explicit sensory input (seeing a "fairy ring" of mushrooms) blending with the 'imagined' but real experience of seeing their footprints, hearing them, and later, seeing their halls and palaces... (Hunt lived from 1784 to 1859, Clare from 1793 to 1864, so significant overlap, but I know of no evidence that either read the other. Worth looking into.) (Have an exalt for the recommendation, The Perilous Dreamer , and one for you too, robkuntz , for starting the thread.) |
|
|
|
Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jul 26, 2021 0:13:21 GMT -5
They are great books and I encourage you ( hengest and everyone else) to read them all over the next many years. I am very fond of the poetry. |
|
|
|
Post by hengest on Aug 1, 2021 10:59:26 GMT -5
They are great books and I encourage you ( hengest and everyone else) to read them all over the next many years. I am very fond of the poetry. Who in particular? |
|
|
|
Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Aug 1, 2021 11:32:58 GMT -5
They are great books and I encourage you ( hengest and everyone else) to read them all over the next many years. I am very fond of the poetry. Who in particular? See my 2016 post ruinsofmurkhill.proboards.com/post/8564 I like Milton and Burns and the other three volumes listed I like a ton of it too. I will make a list later on of specific poets. |
|
|
|
Post by hengest on Aug 1, 2021 11:34:32 GMT -5
Huh, it says that link can't be found.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Aug 1, 2021 12:20:02 GMT -5
Huh, it says that link can't be found. Try it now, it is the post further up on Aug 26, 2016. |
|
