October 30, 2026—"De Officiis," by Cicero

The next meeting of Great Books KC will be October 30, 2026. 
We will discuss De Officiis, by Cicero

 Meeting Date & Time:
• Date: October 30, 2026 
• Time 7:00 pm

Hybrid Zoom & In-Person Meeting:
• In-person meeting, Little Conference Room, Plaza Branch Library
• Zoom link sent to mailing list on day of meeting
• Request mailing list addition, send to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com

About the Play:
De Officiis (On Duties, On Obligations, or On Moral Responsibilities) is a 44 BC treatise by Marcus Tullius Cicero divided into three books, in which Cicero expounds his conception of the best way to live, behave, and observe moral obligations. The posthumously published work discusses what is honorable (Book I), what is to one's advantage (Book II), and what to do when the honorable and private gain apparently conflict (Book III). For the first two books Cicero was dependent on the Stoic philosopher Panaetius, but wrote more independently for the third book.

Regarding Available Translations: (from Bernard Norcott)

Translations of De Officiis (On Duties) by Marcus Tullius Cicero

I do not know of the quality of any of the translations except that of Walter Miller (which is a good translation).

M.T. Griffin and M.E. Atkins, Cicero: On Duties, 1991.

P.G. Walsh, On Obligations, 2001

Walter Miller, On Duties, 1913

Benjamin Patrick Newton, Marcus Tullius Cicero: On Duties, 2016

Raphael Woolf, On Moral Ends, 2023

One translation to avoid – not because it’s not good.  It’s very good.  But it’s incomplete and that’s the Penguin translation done by Michael Grant.  The title of the book is Selected Works, and the work contains selections from several of Cicero’s philosophical works, and the selection from On Duties is only the final third of the text.  

You can find Miller’s translation at the Perseus website (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu), and also on the Lacus Curtius site (out of University of Chicago) (https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cicero/de_Officiis/home.html) and on the Project Gutenberg site: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/47001

The work was composed in Cicero’s final year.  Caesar had been assassinated, the Civil War was going on.  Cicero’s political career was largely over, and so he retired to compose this treatise for his son.  The work was published posthumously.  The work was a standard for schoolboys (Cicero's Latin is exemplary), and the work, consequently had a large readership up to the start of the 20^th c.  It was, consequently, influential. 

September 25, 2026—Long Day's Journey into Night, by Eugene O’Neil

The next meeting of Great Books KC will be September 25, 2026. 

We will discuss the play, Long Day's Journey into Night, by Eugene O’Neil.  

Meeting Date & Time:
• Date: September 25, 2026 
• Time 7:00 pm

Hybrid Zoom & In-Person Meeting:
• In-person meeting, Little Conference Room, Plaza Branch Library
• Zoom link sent to mailing list on day of meeting
• Request mailing list addition, send to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com

About the Play:
Long Day's Journey into Night is a play in four acts written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill in 1939–1941 and first published posthumously in 1956. It is widely regarded as his magnum opus and one of the great American plays of the 20th century. O'Neill received the 1957 Pulitzer Prize for Drama posthumously for Long Day's Journey into Night. The work is openly autobiographical in nature. The "long day" in the title refers to the setting of the play, which takes place during one day.
LINK to 1962 movie adaptation (via YouTube)

August 28, 2026—The Way We Live Now, by Anthony Trollope

 The next meeting of Great Books KC will be August 28, 2026. We will discuss the book, The Way We Live Now, by Anthony Trollope. Our discussion will cover all 100 chapters.

 

Meeting Date & Time:

• Date: August 28, 2026 

• Time 7:00 pm

Hybrid Zoom & In-Person Meeting:

• In-person meeting, Little Conference Room, Plaza Branch Library

• Zoom link sent to mailing list on day of meeting

• Request mailing list addition, send to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com

About the Book:

The Way We Live Now is a satirical and political novel by Anthony Trollope, published in London in 1875 after first appearing in serialised form. It is one of the last significant Victorian novels to have been published in monthly parts. The novel is one of Trollope's longest, comprising 100 chapters, and is particularly rich in sub-plot. It was inspired by the financial scandals of the early 1870s; Trollope had just returned to England from abroad, and was appalled by the greed and dishonesty those scandals exposed. This novel was his rebuke. It dramatized how such greed and dishonesty pervaded the commercial, political, moral, and intellectual life of that era.

Helpful Links:

1.  The two-part BBC mini-series, available on YouTube:
      (see this link to part 1 The Way We Live Now - Mini Series - Part 1 of 2 - (2001)
2.  Novelist Alex Preston's lecture to the Trollope Society
       The Way We Live Now Today - Trollope Society

July 31, 2026—The Way We Live Now, by Anthony Trollope

The next meeting of Great Books KC will be July 31, 2026. We will discuss the first 67 chapters of the book, The Way We Live Now, by Anthony Trollope. We will cover the rest of the book in our August meeting.   

 

Meeting Date & Time:

• Date: July 31, 2026 

• Time 7:00 pm

Hybrid Zoom & In-Person Meeting:

• In-person meeting, Little Conference Room, Plaza Branch Library

• Zoom link sent to mailing list on day of meeting

• Request mailing list addition, send to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com

About the Book:

The Way We Live Now is a satirical and political novel by Anthony Trollope, published in London in 1875 after first appearing in serialised form. It is one of the last significant Victorian novels to have been published in monthly parts. The novel is one of Trollope's longest, comprising 100 chapters, and is particularly rich in sub-plot. It was inspired by the financial scandals of the early 1870s; Trollope had just returned to England from abroad, and was appalled by the greed and dishonesty those scandals exposed. This novel was his rebuke. It dramatized how such greed and dishonesty pervaded the commercial, political, moral, and intellectual life of that era.

June 26, 2026—The Way We Live Now, by Trollope (Chp.1-34)

The next meeting of Great Books KC will be June 26, 2026. We will discuss the first 34 chapters of the book, The Way We Live Now, by Anthony Trollope. We will cover the rest of the book in our July and August meetings.  

 

Meeting Date & Time:

• Date: June 26, 2026 

• Time 7:00 pm

Hybrid Zoom & In-Person Meeting:

• In-person meeting, Little Conference Room, Plaza Branch Library

• Zoom link sent to mailing list on day of meeting

• Request mailing list addition, send to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com

About the Book:

The Way We Live Now is a satirical and political novel by Anthony Trollope, published in London in 1875 after first appearing in serialised form. It is one of the last significant Victorian novels to have been published in monthly parts. The novel is one of Trollope's longest, comprising 100 chapters, and is particularly rich in sub-plot. It was inspired by the financial scandals of the early 1870s; Trollope had just returned to England from abroad, and was appalled by the greed and dishonesty those scandals exposed. This novel was his rebuke. It dramatized how such greed and dishonesty pervaded the commercial, political, moral, and intellectual life of that era.

 

May 29, 2026—Coriolanus, by William Shakespeare

The next meeting of Great Books KC will be May 29, 2026.  

We will discuss the play, Coriolanus, by William Shakespeare.  

Meeting Date & Time:
• Date: May 29, 2026 
• Time 7:00 pm

Hybrid Zoom & In-Person Meeting:
• In-person meeting, Little Conference Room, Plaza Branch Library
• Zoom link sent to mailing list on day of meeting
• Request mailing list addition, send to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com

Link to Join Zoom Meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87382736944?pwd=EMtsVOSL0jYSaZ9wBhfwWaUqMXcj9F.1

About the Play:
Coriolanus is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1605 and 1608. The play is based on the life of the legendary Roman leader Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus. Shakespeare worked on it during the same years he wrote Antony and Cleopatra, making them his last two tragedies. Coriolanus is the name given to a Roman general after his military feats against the Volscians at Corioli. Following his success, others encourage Coriolanus to pursue the consulship, but his disdain for the plebeians and mutual hostility with the tribunes lead to his banishment from Rome. In exile, he presents himself to the Volscians, then leads them against Rome. After his mother persuades him to make peace instead of destroying Rome, he is killed by his previous Volscian allies. 

Pale Fire, by Nabokov--April 24, 2026

The next meeting of Great Books KC will be April 24, 2026.   

We will discuss the book, Pale Fire, by Vladimir Nabokov.  

Meeting Date & Time:

• Date: April 24, 2026 

• Time 7:00 pm

Hybrid Zoom & In-Person Meeting:

• In-person meeting, Little Conference Room, Plaza Branch Library

• Zoom link sent to mailing list on day of meeting

• Request mailing list addition, send to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com

About the Book: 

Pale Fire is a novel presented as a 999-line poem titled "Pale Fire", written by the fictional poet John Shade, with a foreword, lengthy commentary, and index written by Shade's neighbor and academic colleague, Charles Kinbote. Together these elements form a narrative in which both fictional authors are central characters. Nabokov wrote Pale Fire in 1960–61, after the success of Lolita had made him financially independent, allowing him to retire from teaching and return to Europe. Nabokov began writing the novel in Nice and completed it in Montreux, Switzerland.

March 27, 2026 — Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen

The next meeting of Great Books KC will be March 27, 2026.   

We will discuss the book, Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen.

Meeting Date & Time:

• Date: March 27, 2026 

• Time 7:00 pm

Hybrid Zoom & In-Person Meeting:

• In-person meeting, Little Conference Room, Plaza Branch Library

• Zoom link sent to mailing list on day of meeting

• Request mailing list addition, send to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com

About the Book: 

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen was published in 1813 (but written about twenty years earlier when the author was approximately twenty years old). A novel of manners, it follows the character development of Elizabeth Bennet, the protagonist of the book, who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness. 

Feb. 27, 2026— Tokyo Express, by Seichō Matsumoto

The next meeting of Great Books KC will be February 27, 2026.   

We will discuss the book,Tokyo Express, by Matsumoto

Meeting Date & Time:
• Date: February 27, 2026 
• Time 7:00 pm

Hybrid Zoom & In-Person Meeting:
• In-person meeting, Little Conference Room, Plaza Branch Library
• Zoom link sent to mailing list on day of meeting
• Request mailing list addition, send to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com

About the Book: 

Tokyo Express, original title Ten to Sen (Ponts & Lines), is a 1958 Japanese mystery novel by Seichō Matsumoto. It is considered a masterpiece of the "social realism” mystery genre, and is known for its intricate plot that unravels a supposed lovers' suicide to reveal a major government corruption scandal. The story follows two detectives who use meticulous analysis of train timetables and other details to connect seemingly unrelated "points" and disprove the official theory, highlighting post-war Japanese society and its complexities. 

Jan 30, 2026—Sorrows of Young Werter, by Goethe

The next meeting of Great Books KC will be January 30, 2026.   

We will discuss the book, Sorrows of Young Werter, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Meeting Date & Time:
• Date: January 30, 2026 
• Time 7:00 pm

Hybrid Zoom & In-Person Meeting:
• In-person meeting, Little Conference Room, Plaza Branch Library
• Zoom link sent to mailing list on day of meeting
• Request mailing list addition, send to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com

About the Book: 

The Sorrows of Young Werther is a 1774 epistolary novel by Johann Wolfgang Goethe, which appeared as a revised edition in 1787. This work placed Goethe among the foremost international literary celebrities and was among the best known of his works. It was one of the main novels in the Sturm und Drang period in German literature, and influenced the later Romantic movement.