May: Great Books in a Year
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| Date | Reading | Talk about it | Done |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 1 Day 121 | Confessions, Augustine of Hippo (part 2 of 2) Read: Book X to Gratias Tibi Domine · grades 10–12 Parent note: demanding; best with guidance | How does Augustine's grief for his friend differ from his grief for Monica? | ☐ |
| May 2 Day 122 | On Christian Doctrine, Augustine of Hippo (part 1 of 2) Read: Opening to Chapter 3.--How Pronunciation Serves to Remove Ambiguity. Different · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Why does Augustine compare our life to travellers returning to their homeland? | ☐ |
| May 3 Day 123 | On Christian Doctrine, Augustine of Hippo (part 2 of 2) Read: Chapter 4.--How Ambiguities May Be Solved. to Chapter 31.--Apology for the Length of the Work. · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Why is a loving misreading not a lie, according to Augustine? | ☐ |
| May 4 Day 124 | City of God, Augustine of Hippo (part 1 of 3) Read: He Rebukes The Shamelessness Of Those Who Cast Up To The to In This Book Augustine Teaches That The Good Angels Wish God · grades 11–12 Parent note: long; best read in excerpts Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Does this comfort or excuse political loss? | ☐ |
| May 5 Day 125 | City of God, Augustine of Hippo (part 2 of 3) Read: BOOK ELEVENTH. ARGUMENT. to In This Book The History Of The City Of God Is Traced During The · grades 11–12 Parent note: long; best read in excerpts Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | What does a society’s love reveal? | ☐ |
| May 6 Day 126 | City of God, Augustine of Hippo (part 3 of 3) Read: Augustine Traces The Parallel Courses Of The Earthly And Heavenly to Edited By The · grades 11–12 Parent note: long; best read in excerpts Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | How does Augustine define moral injury? | ☐ |
| May 7 Day 127 | The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri (part 1 of 2) Read: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Inferno to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Purgatorio (part 2) · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Where does The Divine Comedy reward patient attention? | ☐ |
| May 8 Day 128 | The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri (part 2 of 2) Read: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Purgatorio (part 3) to Appendix · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | What kind of disorder is most dangerous in The Divine Comedy? | ☐ |
| May 9 Day 129 | Troilus and Criseyde, Geoffrey Chaucer (part 1 of 2) Read: Troilus And Criseyde to BOOK III. Incipit prohemium tercii libri. · grades 11–12 Parent note: sexual content; Middle English Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | How does Troilus's body reveal love before he can speak it? | ☐ |
| May 10 Day 130 | Troilus and Criseyde, Geoffrey Chaucer (part 2 of 2) Read: BOOK IV. Incipit Prohemium Liber Quartus. to BOOK V. Incipit Liber Quintus. · grades 11–12 Parent note: sexual content; Middle English Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Is Pandarus comic, predatory or both? | ☐ |
| May 11 Day 131 | The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer (part 1 of 2) Read: Preface to The Clerk’s Tale · grades 9–12 Parent note: bawdy tales; use selections | Which pilgrims live up to their callings, and which do not? | ☐ |
| May 12 Day 132 | The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer (part 2 of 2) Read: The Merchant’s Tale to End of the Tales · grades 9–12 Parent note: bawdy tales; use selections | Why does Arcite die despite winning? | ☐ |
| May 13 Day 133 | Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin (part 1 of 3) Read: Opening to CHAPTER 15. · grades 11–12 Parent note: long systematic theology; read in selected chapters Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Why does Calvin say it is hard to decide which of the two kinds of knowledge comes first? | ☐ |
| May 14 Day 134 | Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin (part 2 of 3) Read: CHAPTER 16. to CHAPTER 25. OF THE LAST RESURRECTION. · grades 11–12 Parent note: long systematic theology; read in selected chapters Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | What evidence from Genesis does Calvin give for his claim about the human mind? | ☐ |
| May 15 Day 135 | Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin (part 3 of 3) Read: BOOK FOURTH. OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH to CHAPTER 20. OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. · grades 11–12 Parent note: long systematic theology; read in selected chapters Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | What does Calvin conclude from the claim that we belong to God rather than to ourselves? | ☐ |
| May 16 Day 136 | The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli (part 1 of 2) Read: The Man And His Works Dedication The Prince to Concerning The Way In Which Princes Should Keep Faith · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Is Machiavelli rejecting morality or redefining what political goodness is? | ☐ |
| May 17 Day 137 | The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli (part 2 of 2) Read: That One Should Avoid Being Despised And Hated to The Life Of Castruccio Castracani Of Lucca Written By Nicolo Machiavelli · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Why does the order and timing of harms and benefits change how they are felt? | ☐ |
| May 18 Day 138 | Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes (part 1 of 2) Read: Ecclesiastical And Civill to A Common-Wealth · grades 11–12 Parent note: best read in excerpts Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Is Hobbes's state of nature a historical claim, a thought experiment, or a description of civil war? | ☐ |
| May 19 Day 139 | Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes (part 2 of 2) Read: Of A Christian Common-Wealth to To Whom It Accreweth · grades 11–12 Parent note: best read in excerpts Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | How does Hobbes link individual madness with the 'roaring' of a seditious multitude? | ☐ |
| May 20 Day 140 | Gargantua and Pantagruel, François Rabelais (part 1 of 2) Read: Opening to Chapter 3.XXIV. How Panurge consulteth with Epistemon. · grades 11–12 Parent note: Mature content: bawdy and scatological humour. Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | What does Gargantua learn from the sophisters, and why does it make him worse? | ☐ |
| May 21 Day 141 | Gargantua and Pantagruel, François Rabelais (part 2 of 2) Read: Chapter 3.XXV. How Panurge consulteth with Herr Trippa. to Chapter 5.XLVII. · grades 11–12 Parent note: Mature content: bawdy and scatological humour. Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | How do Picrochole's counsellors feed his ambition in the council scene? | ☐ |
| May 22 Day 142 | The Praise of Folly, Desiderius Erasmus Read: Full Text to Full Text (part 3) · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Pick one claim from Folly's praise of self-love and decide whether Erasmus means it straight, ironically, or both ways. | ☐ |
| May 23 Day 143 | Essays, Michel de Montaigne (part 1 of 3) Read: The Life Of Montaigne to A Custom Of The Isle Of Cea · grades 11–12 Parent note: frank content; best in selections Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Why does Montaigne think a private life is as instructive as a public one? | ☐ |
| May 24 Day 144 | Essays, Michel de Montaigne (part 2 of 3) Read: Chapter IV to CHAPTER XXXVII. OF THE RESEMBLANCE OF CHILDREN TO THEIR FATHERS · grades 11–12 Parent note: frank content; best in selections Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | How does 'Of Cannibals' reverse the meaning of the word barbarous? | ☐ |
| May 25 Day 145 | Essays, Michel de Montaigne (part 3 of 3) Read: CHAPTER I. OF PROFIT AND HONESTY to CHAPTER XIII. OF EXPERIENCE (part 2) · grades 11–12 Parent note: frank content; best in selections Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | What experiences might explain Montaigne's change of mind about preparing for death? | ☐ |
| May 26 Day 146 | The Two Gentlemen of Verona, William Shakespeare Read: Opening to ACT V. SCENE I. Milan. An abbey · grades 9–12 | Trace Proteus's steps from the soliloquy in 2.6 to the forest in 5.4. At which point could he most easily have turned back? | ☐ |
| May 27 Day 147 | Henry VI, Part 1, William Shakespeare Read: Opening to ACT V. SCENE I. London. The Palace. · grades 10–12 | Read York's and Somerset's speeches in Act 4, Scenes 3 and 4. Which of them has the better case, and does it matter? | ☐ |
| May 28 Day 148 | Henry VI, Part 2, William Shakespeare Read: Opening to ACT V. SCENE I. Fields between Dartford and Blackheath · grades 10–12 | What evidence does Gloucester give for his innocence in Act 3, Scene 1, and why does it not save him? | ☐ |
| May 29 Day 149 | Henry VI, Part 3, William Shakespeare Read: Opening to ACT V. SCENE I. Coventry · grades 10–12 | Examine Richard's argument in Act 1, Scene 2. Is it sound? What would follow if it were true? | ☐ |
| May 30 Day 150 | Love's Labour's Lost, William Shakespeare Read: Opening to ACT V. SCENE I. The King of Navarre’s park · grades 9–12 Parent note: Dense wordplay and Latin tags; use a glossed edition and read the comic scenes aloud. | What does the King hope to gain by the academe, according to his opening speech about fame and "cormorant devouring time"? | ☐ |
| May 31 Day 151 | Richard II, William Shakespeare Read: Opening to ACT V. SCENE I. London. A street leading to the Tower. · grades 10–12 | Gaunt refuses to avenge Gloucester and leaves the quarrel to heaven. Is that patience, piety or a failure of justice? | ☐ |