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Invitation to the Classics

Louise Cowan and Os Guinness (the editors of Invitation to the Classics) stress the idea that "the classics" are not "the canon." The canon is the collection of books comprising the Holy Bible, while the classics are no more and no less than those books providing the foundation of the Western literary tradition, a tradition which we are to keep in perspective by studying and enjoying without worshiping as some do.

This is basically a textbook for adults and older students who want to broaden their knowledge and their understanding. The authors are literate, but also explicitly Christian, and they address all the questions commonly raised in opposition to reading secular literature. Perhaps the most compelling answer to these objections is the idea that Christians have a responsibility to read the classics in order to renew their imagination, their credibility, and their willingness to believe.

If this sounds a bit mystical, the editors are unapologetic. Classic literature isn't simply a rigidly rational collection of propositions in book form; rather, it's a body of work that reveals human nature in all its poverty and glory and wickedness and humility, that shows rather than tells, and that strikes at the root of matters in a way our dry empiricism cannot.

Reading the classics makes us better people, but only if we read them to be improved and not simply as part of an academic program or for what entertainment they may offer. Invitation to the Classics helps you read them properly by providing background information, author bios, and literary analysis of the great works of the West, including theology, philosophy, drama, poetry, and novels.

Difficult works aren't avoided here; in fact, they're embraced. The classics should be hard to read: if their role is to help us explore reality and truth, their content will adapt itself to the weight and sobriety of the task. That's not to say all classic literature is brainy and complicated, just that those works that are shouldn't be skipped over. Reading well is a skill that must be developed, and as one assembles the necessary tools, he or she becomes better equipped for interpreting and wrestling with hard texts.

Invitation to the Classics offers those tools, and shows how each work either supports or contradicts a Christian worldview. The first chapters introduce the concept of "classics," the art and importance of reading them, and the proper Christian attitude toward them (avoiding unwonted admiration or consumerist greed). Chapters are short, and there are many contributors, so the book never gets dull or repetitive.

After the introductory chapters, readers are confronted with dozens of chapters covering important authors, genres, and works, and though each chapter is short, there is far more information here than you'd get in any high school or college course. Not only is there a wealth of information and guidance in the text itself, students are expected to use these introductions as segues to reading the classics themselves.

Not that anyone can read every selection they find here: at least, not in a few semesters, or even a few years (though reading the entirety of Invitation to the Classics is doable and encouraged). Reading all these books isn't the important part; learning to engage texts, to learn from them, and to use the experience for self-improvement is what matters.

We've listed the titles you'll find referenced in this guide below. Whether you want to start with the most well-known, or a personal favorite from school days, or simply to go through them chronologically as the book does, is of little consequence as long as you invest in reading the great books of the past and thinking about them as a Christian. Invitation to the Classics will help you do just that.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he is a husband and father, teaches adult Sunday school in his Presbyterian congregation, and likes weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.
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Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain
from Penguin Classics
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$9.00
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Oxford World's Classics
by Mark Twain, edited with an introduction and notes by Emory Elliott
2008 Reissue from Oxford University
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Aeneid
by Virgil, translated by Robert Fitzgerald
from Vintage Classics
Ancient Literature/Epic Poetry for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$16.00
Aeschylus II: The Oresteia
The Complete Greek Tragedies
by Aeschylus (translation by Richmond Lattimore)
3rd edition from University of Chicago
Ancient Greek Tragedy for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$14.00
Bacchae and Other Plays
Penguin Classics
by Euripides (translation by John Davies)
from Penguin Classics
Ancient Tragedy for 11th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$12.00
Bacchae and Other Plays
Penguin Classics
by Euripides (translation by Phillip Vellacott)
from Penguin Classics
Ancient Tragedy for 11th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$13.00
Beowulf
by Anonymous (translation by Frederick Rebsamen)
from HarperCollins
Medieval Poetic Epic for 8th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$9.99 $6.00 (3 in stock)
Beowulf
by Anonymous (translation by Seamus Heaney)
from W. W. Norton and Co.
Medieval Poetic Epic for 8th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$15.95 $9.50 (2 in stock)
Beowulf
by Anonymous, translated by Seamus Heaney
from W. W. Norton and Co.
Medieval Poetic Epic for 9th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$24.95
Canterbury Tales
Penguin Classics
by Geoffrey Chaucer (edited by Nevill Coghill)
from Penguin Classics
Medieval Poetry for 8th-12th grade
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$11.00
Canterbury Tales
by Geoffrey Chaucer, translated by David Wright
from Oxford University
for 9th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$8.95
Complete English Poems of John Donne
Penguin Classics
by John Donne
from Penguin Classics
Lyrical Poetry for 9th-Adult
in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN)
$21.00
Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
by Emily Dickinson
from Little, Brown & Company
for 7th-Adult
in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN)
$23.99
Complete Poems of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
from Penguin Classics
for 9th-Adult
in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN)
Complete Poetry of George Herbert
Penguin Classics
by George Herbert, edited by John Drury & Victoria Moul
from Penguin Classics
Lyrical Poetry for 11th-Adult
in 17th Century Literature (Location: LIT4-17)
$22.00
Democracy in America
Penguin Classics
by Alexis De Tocqueville
from Penguin Classics
American Government for 11th-12th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$16.00
Democracy in America
by Alexis De Tocqueville
from Harper Perennial
American Government for 11th-12th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$22.99
Divine Comedy - Dorothy Sayers trilogy
Penguin Classics
by Dante Alighieri, translated by Dorothy Sayers and Barbara Reynolds
from Penguin Putnam
Medieval Allegory/Poetic Epic for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$42.50
Divine Comedy I
Penguin Classics
by Dante Alighieri, translated by Dorothy Sayers
from Penguin Classics
Medieval Allegory/Poetic Epic for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$16.00
Divine Comedy II
Penguin Classics
by Dante Alighieri, translated by Dorothy Sayers
from Penguin Classics
Medieval Allegory/Poetic Epic for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$17.00
Divine Comedy III
Penguin Classics
by Dante Alighieri, translated by Dorothy Sayers & Barbara Reynolds
from Penguin Classics
Medieval Allegory/Poetic Epic for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$17.00
Dubliners
by James Joyce
from Oxford University
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.95
Dubliners
by James Joyce
from Oxford University
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.95
Fear and Trembling
by Soren Kierkegaard
Reprint from Penguin Putnam
for 11th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Four Plays by Aristophanes
by Aristophanes
from Meridian Book
for 11th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$16.00
Four Quartets
by T. S. Eliot
from Harcourt
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.99
Go Down, Moses
by William Faulkner
from Vintage Classics
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$13.95
Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens
from Penguin Classics
Realistic Fiction for 10th-12th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$11.00
Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift
from Oxford University
Satire/Social Commentary for 9th-Adult
in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18)
$7.95
Heart of Darkness
by Joseph Conrad
from Modern Library
Realistic Modern Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$12.00
Histories
Penguin Classics
by Herodotus (translation by Aubrey De Sélincourt)
from Penguin Classics
Historical Non-Fiction for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$13.00
Histories
Penguin Classics
by Herodotus (translation by Robin Waterfield)
from Oxford University
Historical Non-Fiction for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$10.95 $6.00 (1 in stock)
Histories
Penguin Classics
by Herodotus (translation by David Grene)
from University of Chicago
Historical Non-Fiction for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$16.00
History of Rasselas
by Samuel Johnson
from Oxford University
in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18)
$8.95
History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia
by Samuel Johnson
from Dover Publications
for 10th-Adult
in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18)
$6.95
Iliad
by Homer (translation by Robert Fagles)
from Penguin Putnam
for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$20.00
Iliad
by Homer (translation by Robert Fagles)
from Penguin Putnam
for 11th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$18.00
Iliad & Odyssey
by Homer (translation by Robert Fagles)
from Penguin Putnam
for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
Iliad of Homer
by Homer (translation by Richmond Lattimore)
from University of Chicago
Ancient Literature/Epic Poetry for 9th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$15.00
Institutes of Christian Religion (abridged)
by John Calvin
from Baker Books
for 10th-12th grade
in Reformed Theology (Location: XTH-REF)
$24.00 $12.00 (1 in stock)
Institutes of the Christian Religion
by John Calvin, translated by Ford Lewis Battles, edited by John McNeill
from Westminster John Knox Press
Theology for 11th-Adult
in Renaissance & Reformation Literature (Location: LIT3-REN)
$90.00
Invitation to the Classics
by Louise Cowan & Os Guinness
from Baker Books
for 11th-Adult
in Recommended Book Lists (Location: LIR-REC)
Major Works of Gerard Manley Hopkins
by Gerard Manley Hopkins
from Oxford University
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$15.95
Major Works of William Wordsworth
by William Wordsworth
from Oxford University
for 9th-Adult
in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN)
$18.95
Moby-Dick
by Herman Melville
from Penguin Putnam
Realistic Nautical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$16.00
Odyssey
by Homer (translation by Robert Fitzgerald)
from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Ancient Literature/Epic Poetry for 9th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$19.00
Odyssey
by Homer (translation by Robert Fagles)
from Penguin Putnam
for 11th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$20.00
Odyssey
by Homer (translation by Robert Fagles)
from Penguin Putnam
for 11th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$17.00
Odyssey of Homer
by Homer (translation by Richmond Lattimore)
from HarperCollins
Ancient Literature/Epic Poetry for 9th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$18.99
Oedipus Cycle
by Sophocles (translation by Dudley Fitts & Robert Fitzgerald)
from Harcourt
Ancient Tragedy for 9th-12th grade
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$15.99 $9.50 (1 in stock)
Paradise Lost
Penguin Classics
by John Milton
2003 Revised from Penguin Classics
Epic Poetry for 10th-Adult
in 17th Century Literature (Location: LIT4-17)
$12.00
Pensees
Penguin Classics
by Blaise Pascal
from Penguin Putnam
Philosophy/Religion for 10th-Adult
in 17th Century Literature (Location: LIT4-17)
$13.00
Pilgrim's Progress
by John Bunyan
from Oxford University
Christian Prose Epic/Allegory for 10th-Adult
in 17th Century Literature (Location: LIT4-17)
$9.95
Pilgrim's Progress
by John Bunyan
from Penguin Classics
Christian Prose Epic/Allegory for 10th-Adult
in 17th Century Literature (Location: LIT4-17)
$11.00
Poetry of Robert Frost
by Robert Frost
2nd edition from Holt McDougal
for 9th-Adult
in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN)
$26.99
Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen
from Oxford University
Romantic Realistic Fiction for 8th-12th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Prince, The
Penguin Classics
by Niccolò Machiavelli
from Penguin Classics
Political Philosophy for 11th-Adult
in Renaissance & Reformation Literature (Location: LIT3-REN)
$8.00
Prince, The
by Niccolò Machiavelli (translation by Harvey C. Mansfield)
from University of Chicago
Political Philosophy for 11th-Adult
in Renaissance & Reformation Literature (Location: LIT3-REN)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Scarlet Letter
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
from Vintage Books
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Scarlet Letter
Dover Thrift Editions
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
from Ignatius Press
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Screwtape Letters
by C. S. Lewis
from HarperCollins
Allegory/Religion for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$17.99
Self-Reliance and Essays on the Nature of Man
Copper Lodge Library
by Ralph Waldo Emerson, annotated by Stephanie B. Meter
from Classical Conversations
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$14.00
Shorter Summa
by Peter Kreeft
from Ignatius Press
for 9th grade-Adult
in Philosophy (Location: XWV-PHI)
$5.60 (1 in stock)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight / Pearl / Sir Orfeo
by Anonymous, J. R. R. Tolkien (Translator)
from Mariner Books
Medieval Fairy Tale/Poetry for 8th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$18.99
Snakebite Letters
by Peter Kreeft
2nd edition from Ignatius Press
for 9th grade-Adult
in Philosophy (Location: XWV-PHI)
Sophocles I
The Complete Greek Tragedies
by Sophocles (translation/editing by David Grene & Richmond Lattimore)
3rd edition from University of Chicago
Ancient Tragedy for 9th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$14.00
Sophocles I (old)
The Complete Greek Tragedies
by Sophocles (translation/editing by David Grene & Richmond Lattimore)
2nd edition from University of Chicago
Ancient Tragedy for 9th-Adult
in Clearance: Literature (Location: ZCLE-LIT)
$6.00
Twilight of the Idols & The Antichrist
by Friedrich Nietzsche
from Dover Publications
for 11th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$7.95
Utopia
Penguin Classics
by Thomas More
from Penguin Classics
Utopian/Dystopian literature for 10th-Adult
in Renaissance & Reformation Literature (Location: LIT3-REN)
$12.00
Yeats Reader
by W. B. Yeats
from Charles Scribner's Sons
for 10th-Adult
in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN)
$22.00
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