April 26, 2024—Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

The next meeting of Great Books KC will be April 26, 2024.         

We will discuss Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, by Anonymous.  

Meeting Date & Time:
Date: April 26, 2024
Time: 7:00 pm

 Hybrid Zoom/In-Person Meeting:
— Attendance in person Plaza Branch Lib., Small Meeting Room.
— Zoom attendance, link sent to mailing list.
— Request mailing list addition, send to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com

About the Book:

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century chivalric romance in Middle English alliterative verse. The author is unknown; the title was given centuries later. It is one of the best-known Arthurian stories, with its plot combining two types of folk motifs: the beheading game, and the exchange of winnings. Written in stanzas of alliterative verse, each of which ends in a rhyming bob and wheel, it draws on Welsh, Irish, and English stories, as well as the French chivalric tradition. It is an important example of a chivalric romance, which typically involves a hero who goes on a quest which tests his prowess.

Translations (Recommendations by Bernard Norcott-Mahany):

Simon Armitage, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Marie Boroff.  

There are audiobooks of the Armitage translation and of the Tolkien (read by Terry Jones of Monty Python fame).  The Armitage audiobook also has the Middle English text as well, so you can get a better sense of how the work might have sounded.  

The Black Prince—March 29, 2024

The next meeting of Great Books KC will be March 29, 2024.         We will discuss The Black Prince, by Iris Murdoch.  

Meeting Date & Time:
Date: March 29, 2024
Time: 7:00 pm

 Hybrid Zoom/In-Person Meeting:
— Attendance in person Plaza Branch Lib., Small Meeting Room.
— Zoom attendance, link sent Friday morning to mailing list.

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

About the Book:
The Black Prince is Iris Murdoch's 15th novel, first published in 1973. The name of the novel alludes mainly to Hamlet. The Black Prince is remarkable for the structure of its narrative, consisting of a central story bookended by forewords and post-scripts by characters within it. It largely consists of the description of a period in the later life of the main character.

The Tale of Genji, by Murasaki Shikibu

The next meeting of Great Books KC will be February 23, 2024.          We will discuss Chapters 1 through 17 of The Tale of Genji, by Murasaki Shikibu.  

Meeting Date & Time:

Date: February 23, 2024
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 Book:

The Tale of Genji is a classic work of Japanese literature written in the early 11th century by the noblewoman, poet, and lady-in-waiting Murasaki Shikibu. The work is a unique depiction of the lifestyles of high courtiers during the Heian period. The work recounts the life of Hikaru Genji who is the son of an ancient Japanese emperor (known to readers as Emperor Kiritsubo) and a low-ranking concubine called Kiritsubo Consort. For political reasons, the emperor removes Genji from the line of succession, demoting him to a commoner by giving him the surname Minamoto, and he pursues a career as an imperial officer. The tale concentrates on Genji's romantic life and describes the customs of the aristocratic society of the time. It may be Japan's first novel, the first psychological novel, and the first novel still to be considered a classic particularly in the context of Japanese literature.

January 26, 2024—Daniel Deronda, by George Eliot

The next meeting of Great Books KC will be January 26, 2024.          We will discuss the Daniel Deronda, by George Eliot.

Meeting Date & Time:
Date: January 26, 2024
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:

Daniel Deronda by George Eliot was first published in eight parts (books) February to September 1876. It was the last novel she completed and the only one set in the Victorian society of her day. The work's mixture of social satire and moral searching, along with its sympathetic rendering of Jewish proto-Zionistideas, has made it the controversial final statement of one of the most renowned Victorian novelists.