Schedule of Books for 2024

 Schedule of Books for 2024

January 26, 2024

Daniel Deronda, by George Eliot

February 23, 2024

The Tale of Genji, by Lady Murasaki

(Chapters 1 through 17)

March 29, 2024

Black Prince, by Iris Murdoch

April 26, 2024

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Anonymous 

May 31, 2024

Julius Caesar, by Shakespeare

June 28, 2024

Three selections from Essays, by Michel de Montaigne

Of Cannibals 

Of Friendship

Of The Education of Children

July 26, 2024

Democracy in America, by A. de Toqueville

(first half) 

August 30, 2024

Democracy in America, by A. de Toqueville 

(second half)

September 27, 2024

The Clouds, by Aristophanes

October 25, 2024

The Mabinogion  Anonymous

December 6, 2024

Book of Revelation, by John of Patmos (from New Testament)

December 13, 2024

Select books for 2025

December 1 & 8, 2023—Book of Job from the Bible

Great Books KC will meet two times yet this year: December 1, 2023 & December 8, 2023. You are invited to send your suggestions for next year's book schedule to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com. Please note link below for categories to be filled.

Meeting Content, Dec. 1, 2023: — 7 PM
We will discuss the Book of Job from the Bible

Meeting Content, Dec. 8, 2023: — 7 PM
We will create the schedule of books for 2024. 
Suggestions of books may be sent to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com.
Please note the following links to assist in plans for preparing the 2023 schedule:
G.B. KC Categories of Books 
G.B. KC What Makes a Great Book 
G.B. KC History of Previous Books 

Meeting Dates & Time:
Dates: December 1, 2023 & December 8, 2023
Time: 7:00 pm
Zoom on-line meeting
    —an email with link to join will be sent prior to meeting.

    — the link is sent to a limited mailing list of frequent attenders.    

    —requests to be added to email list to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com. 

Description of Discussion Topic:

The Book of Job is a book found in the "Writings" section of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and the first of the Poetic Books in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. Scholars generally agree that it was written between the 7th and 4th centuries BCE. It addresses theodicy (why God permits evil in the world) through the experiences of the eponymous protagonist. Job is a wealthy and God-fearing man with a comfortable life and a large family. God asks Satan for his opinion of Job's piety. When Satan states that Job would turn away from God if he were rendered penniless, without his family, and materially uncomfortable, God allows him to do so to prove Satan wrong.

October 27, 2023—Epic of Gilgamesh

 The next meeting of Great Books KC will be October 27, 2023.          We will discuss the Epic of Gilgamesh

Meeting Date & Time:
Date: October 27, 2023
Time: 7:00 pm

 Zoom On-Line Meeting:
— an email with link to join will be sent prior to meeting.
— the link is sent to a limited mailing list of frequent attenders.
— request mailing list addition, send to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com.

About the Epic:

The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia. The epic is regarded as foundational work in religion and the tradition of heroic sagas, with Gilgamesh forming the prototype for later heroes like Heracles (Hercules), and the epic itself serving as an influence for Homeric epics.

September 29, 2023— Antigone, by Sophocles

The next meeting of Great Books KC will be September 29, 2023.             We will discuss the play, Antigone, by Sophocles.

Meeting Date & Time:
Date: September 29, 2023
Time: 7:00 pm

 Zoom On-Line Meeting:
— an email with link to join will be sent prior to meeting.
— the link is sent to a limited mailing list of frequent attenders.
— request mailing list addition, send to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com.

About the Play:

Antigone is an Athenian tragedy written by Sophocles in (or before) 441 BC and first performed at the Festival of Dionysus of the same year. It is thought to be the second oldest surviving play of Sophocles, preceded by Ajax, which was written around the same period. The play is one of a triad of tragedies known as the three Theban plays, following Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus. Even though the events in Antigone occur last in the order of events depicted in the plays, Sophocles wrote Antigone first. The story expands on the Theban legend that predates it, and it picks up where Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes ends. The play is named after the main protagonist Antigone.

August 25, 2023—Captain Brasbound's Conversion, by George Bernard Shaw

The next meeting of Great Books KC will be August 25, 2023.        We will discuss the play, Captain Brasbound's Conversion, by George Bernard Shaw

Meeting Date & Time:
Date: August 25, 2023
Time: 7:00 pm

 Zoom On-Line Meeting:
— an email with link to join will be sent prior to meeting.
— the link is sent to a limited mailing list of frequent attenders.
— request mailing list addition, send to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com.

About the Play:
Captain Brasbound's Conversion was first published in Shaw's 1901 collection Three Plays for Puritans (together with Caesar and Cleopatra and The Devil's Disciple). The first American production of the play starred Ellen Terry in 1907. The play explores the relationship between the law, justice, revenge and forgiveness. 

July 28, 2023—Caesar and Cleopatra, by George Bernard Shaw

The next meeting of Great Books KC will be July 28, 2023. 

We will discuss the play, Caesar and Cleopatra, by George Bernard Shaw

Meeting Date & Time:
Date: July 28, 2023
Time: 7:00 pm

 Zoom On-Line Meeting:
— an email with link to join will be sent prior to meeting.
— the link is sent to a limited mailing list of frequent attenders.
— request mailing list addition, send to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com.

About the Play:

Caesar and Cleopatra is a play written in 1898 by George Bernard Shawthat depicts a fictionalized account of the relationship between Julius Caesar and Cleopatra. It was first published in 1901 in a collection of three plays with the title Three Plays for Puritans with the two other plays being Captain Brassbound's Conversion and The Devil's Disciple. It was first performed in a single staged reading at Newcastle upon Tyne on March 15, 1899, to secure the copyright. The play was produced in New York in 1906 and in London at the Savoy Theatre in 1907. 

June 30, 2023—The Devil's Disciple, by George Bernard Shaw

The next meeting of Great Books KC will be June 30, 2023. We will discuss the play, The Devil's Disciple, by George Bernard Shaw

Meeting Date & Time:

Date: June 30, 2023

Time: 7:00 pm

 Zoom On-Line Meeting:

— an email with link to join will be sent prior to meeting.

— the link is sent to a limited mailing list of frequent attenders.

— request mailing list addition, send to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com.

About the Play:

The Devil's Disciple is an 1897 play written by Irish dramatist George Bernard Shaw. The play is Shaw's eighth, and after Richard Mansfield's original 1897 American production it was his first financial success, which helped to affirm his career as a playwright. 

May 26, 2023—MacBeth, by William Shakespeare

 The next meeting of Great Books KC will be May 26, 2023.  We will discuss MacBeth, by William Shakespeare.  

Meeting Date & Time:

Date: May 26, 2023

Time: 7:00 pm

 Zoom On-Line Meeting:

— an email with link to join will be sent prior to meeting.

— the link is sent to a limited mailing list of frequent attenders.

— request mailing list addition, send to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com.

About the Play:

Macbeth is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power. Of all the plays that Shakespeare wrote during the reign of James I, Macbeth most clearly reflects his relationship with King James, patron of Shakespeare's acting company. It was first published in the Folio of 1623, possibly from a prompt book, and is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy.

April 28, 2023—Sunday Morning and other poems, by Wallace Stevens

The next meeting of Great Books KC will be April 28, 2023.  We will discuss Sunday Morning and other poems, by Wallace Stevens. 

Poems to Read:

A PDF file with twelve poems by Wallace Stevens will be sent by email if requested to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com.

Listen to Poems by Wallace Stevens:

The following link is to a YouTube video where Bernard Norcott will read one poem per day by Wallace Stevens during the month of April.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLY_zQyI9Te6JZjIRcKi7nAi_NhKbwWIC-

Meeting Date & Time:
Date: April 28, 2023
Time: 7:00 pm

 Zoom On-Line Meeting:
 — an email with link to join will be sent prior to meeting.
 — the link is sent to a limited mailing list of frequent attenders.
 — request mailing list addition, send to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com.

About the Author and Poem:

Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was an American modernist poet. The poem titled "Sunday Morning" was included with other poems first published in 1923 in a book titled Harmonium. 

March 31, 2023—To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf

 The next meeting of Great Books KC will be March 31, 2023.  We will discuss To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf.

Meeting Date & Time:
Date: March 31, 2023
Time: 7:00 pm

 Zoom On-Line Meeting:
 — an email with link to join will be sent prior to meeting.
 — the link is sent to a limited mailing list of frequent attenders.
 — request mailing list addition, send to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com.

Description of Book:

To the Lighthouse is a 1927 novel by Virginia Woolf. The novel centres on the Ramsay family and their visits to the Isle of Skye in Scotland between 1910 and 1920.

Following and extending the tradition of modernist novelists like Marcel Proust and James Joyce, the plot of To the Lighthouse is secondary to its philosophical introspection. Cited as a key example of the literary technique of multiple focalization, the novel includes little dialogue and almost no direct action; most of it is written as thoughts and observations. To the Lighthouse is made up of three powerfully charged visions into the life of the Ramsay family, living in a summer house off the rocky coast of Scotland. There's maternal Mrs. Ramsay, the highbrow Mr. Ramsay, their eight children, and assorted holiday guests. From Mr. Ramsay's seemingly trivial postponement of a visit to a nearby lighthouse, Virginia Woolf examines tensions and allegiances and shows that the small joys and quiet tragedies of everyday life could go on forever. The novel recalls childhood emotions and highlights adult relationships. Among the book's many tropes and themes are those of loss, subjectivity, the nature of art and the problem of perception.

Feb. 24, 2023— Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad

The next meeting of Great Books KC will be February 24, 2023.  We will discuss Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad.

Meeting Date & Time:
Date: February 24, 2023
Time: 7:00 pm

 Zoom On-Line Meeting:
 — an email with link to join will be sent prior to meeting.
 — the link is sent to a limited mailing list of frequent attenders.
 — request mailing list addition, send to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com.

Description of Book:
Hear of Darkness is (1899) is a novella by Polish-Englishnovelist Joseph Conrad in which the sailor Charles Marlow tells his listeners the story of his assignment as steamer captain for a Belgian company in the African interior. The novel is widely regarded as a critique of European colonial rule in Africa, whilst also examining the themes of power dynamics and morality. Although Conrad does not name the river on which most of the narrative takes place, at the time of writing the Congo Free State, the location of the large and economically important Congo River, was a private colony of Belgium's King Leopold II. Marlow is given a text by Kurtz, an ivory trader working on a trading station far up the river, who has "gone native" and is the object of Marlow's expedition.

Jan. 27, 2023—Journey to the End of the Night, by Louis-Ferdinand Céline

 The next meeting of Great Books KC will be January 27, 2023.  We will discuss Journey to the End of the Night, by Louis-Ferdinand Céline.

Meeting Date & Time:
Date: January 27, 2023
Time: 7:00 pm

 Zoom On-Line Meeting:
 — an email with link to join will be sent prior to meeting.
 — the link is sent to a limited mailing list of frequent attenders.
 — request mailing list addition, send to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com.

Description of Book:

Journey to the End of the Night is the first novel by Louis-Ferdinand Céline. This semi-autobiographical work follows the adventures of Ferdinand Bardamu in the World War I, colonial Africa, the United States and the poor suburbs of Paris where he works as a doctor.

The novel won the Prix Renaudot in 1932 but divided critics due to the author's pessimistic depiction of the human condition and his innovative writing style based on working class speech, slang and neologisms. It is now widely considered to be one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.