October: Great Books in a Year
Print this page for the fridge or a binder. Your grade-level choice applies when printing too; choose "Show all grades" to print every day. ← September · November → · Print
| Date | Reading | Talk about it | Done |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 1 Day 274 | Cousin Betty, Honoré de Balzac (part 2 of 2) Read: Full Text (part 6) to Full Text (part 10) · grades 11–12 Parent note: Parent note: adultery, seduction and revenge are central; for mature students. Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Trace the path from Hulot's spending on Valérie to his uncle's suicide and his brother's death. | ☐ |
| October 2 Day 275 | Emma, Jane Austen (part 1 of 2) Read: Opening to CHAPTER X · grades 9–12 | Why does Emma misread Mr. Elton so completely in Volume I? | ☐ |
| October 3 Day 276 | Emma, Jane Austen (part 2 of 2) Read: CHAPTER XI to CHAPTER XIX · grades 9–12 | Why does Mr. Knightley stress Miss Bates's poverty and her long acquaintance with Emma? | ☐ |
| October 4 Day 277 | Middlemarch, George Eliot (part 1 of 2) Read: Opening to CHAPTER XLII. · grades 11–12 Parent note: long, demanding prose Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Why does Eliot begin with Saint Teresa and end with unvisited tombs? | ☐ |
| October 5 Day 278 | Middlemarch, George Eliot (part 2 of 2) Read: CHAPTER XLIII. to CHAPTER LXXXVI. · grades 11–12 Parent note: long, demanding prose Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | What does Dorothea expect from marrying Casaubon, and what does she find in Rome? | ☐ |
| October 6 Day 279 | Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens (part 1 of 2) Read: Opening to CHAPTER 35. What was behind Mr Pancks on Little Dorrit’s Hand · grades 9–12 | Why does Dr Haggage call the Marshalsea 'freedom'? What is true and false in his claim? | ☐ |
| October 7 Day 280 | Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens (part 2 of 2) Read: CHAPTER 36. The Marshalsea becomes an Orphan to CHAPTER 34. Gone · grades 9–12 | Why does the narrator say the Office was early in learning 'HOW NOT TO DO IT'? What does the Office actually gain by inaction? | ☐ |
| October 8 Day 281 | Moby-Dick, Herman Melville (part 1 of 2) Read: Etymology to Chapter 59: Squid · grades 9–12 Parent note: long; demanding prose | What arguments does Starbuck make against the hunt in Chapter 36 and Chapter 135? | ☐ |
| October 9 Day 282 | Moby-Dick, Herman Melville (part 2 of 2) Read: Chapter 60: The Line to Epilogue · grades 9–12 Parent note: long; demanding prose | What changes Ishmael's opinion of Queequeg in the first chapters? | ☐ |
| October 10 Day 283 | Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain (part 1 of 2) Read: Opening to CHAPTER XXI. · grades 9–12 Parent note: racial slurs; needs historical context | Why does Huck feel better after writing the letter to Miss Watson, and why does he tear it up? | ☐ |
| October 11 Day 284 | Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain (part 2 of 2) Read: CHAPTER XXII. to CHAPTER THE LAST · grades 9–12 Parent note: racial slurs; needs historical context | What does Jim say to Huck after the trick in the fog, and why does it change Huck? | ☐ |
| October 12 Day 285 | On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin (part 1 of 2) Read: John Murray, Albemarle Street. to Chapter VIII. Hybridism. · grades 10–12 Parent note: best read in excerpts | Where does On the Origin of Species reward patient attention? | ☐ |
| October 13 Day 286 | On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin (part 2 of 2) Read: Chapter IX. On The Imperfection Of The Geological Record. to Index. · grades 10–12 Parent note: best read in excerpts | What kind of disorder is most dangerous in On the Origin of Species? | ☐ |
| October 14 Day 287 | The Descent of Man, Charles Darwin (part 1 of 2) Read: Preface to the Second Edition to Chapter XII: Secondary Sexual Characters of Fishes, Amphibians, and Reptiles · grades 11–12 Parent note: best read in excerpts Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Which term in The Descent of Man most resists a modern equivalent? | ☐ |
| October 15 Day 288 | The Descent of Man, Charles Darwin (part 2 of 2) Read: Chapter XIII: Secondary Sexual Characters of Birds to Chapter XXI: General a Summary and Conclusion (part 3) · grades 11–12 Parent note: best read in excerpts Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | What kind of evidence is most persuasive in this work? | ☐ |
| October 16 Day 289 | The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels Read: I. Bourgeois And Proletarians to Iv. Position Of The Communists In Relation To The Various Existing Opposition Parties · grades 11–12 Parent note: best with guidance Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Where does The Communist Manifesto reward patient attention? | ☐ |
| October 17 Day 290 | Capital, Volume I, Karl Marx (part 1 of 3) Read: Editor's Note To The First American Edition to Chapter XIV: Division of labour and manufacture · grades 11–12 Parent note: Long, abstract and polemical; best read in selections with guidance. Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | How does Marx distinguish labour from labour-power? | ☐ |
| October 18 Day 291 | Capital, Volume I, Karl Marx (part 2 of 3) Read: Chapter XV: Machinery and modern industry to Chapter XXV: The general law of capitalist accumulation (part 2) · grades 11–12 Parent note: Long, abstract and polemical; best read in selections with guidance. Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | What do the factory inspectors' reports reveal about working conditions? | ☐ |
| October 19 Day 292 | Capital, Volume I, Karl Marx (part 3 of 3) Read: Chapter XXV: The general law of capitalist accumulation (part 3) to Chapter XXXIII: The modern theory of colonisation (part 7) · grades 11–12 Parent note: Long, abstract and polemical; best read in selections with guidance. Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | What does Marx mean by the fetishism of commodities? | ☐ |
| October 20 Day 293 | War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy (part 1 of 3) Read: Opening to CHAPTER XX · grades 10–12 | How does Prince Andrew's view of Napoleon change on the field of Austerlitz? | ☐ |
| October 21 Day 294 | War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy (part 2 of 3) Read: CHAPTER XXI to CHAPTER XXXVI · grades 10–12 | What does Pierre learn from Bazdéev, and why is it not enough? | ☐ |
| October 22 Day 295 | War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy (part 3 of 3) Read: CHAPTER XXXVII to CHAPTER XII · grades 10–12 | Why is Natásha drawn to Anatole at the opera and afterward? | ☐ |
| October 23 Day 296 | A Doll's House and Other Plays, Henrik Ibsen (part 1 of 2) Read: The Collected Works Of Henrik Ibsen Volume VII to The Guests. · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | What is 'the wonderful thing' Nora hopes for, and why does its failure end the marriage? | ☐ |
| October 24 Day 297 | A Doll's House and Other Plays, Henrik Ibsen (part 2 of 2) Read: Gregers Werle. to Other Voices. · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | What are the 'ghosts' of the title? | ☐ |
| October 25 Day 298 | The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky (part 1 of 2) Read: Part I to Chapter III. · grades 11–12 Parent note: long; demanding novel Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Where does The Brothers Karamazov reward patient attention? | ☐ |
| October 26 Day 299 | The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky (part 2 of 2) Read: Chapter IV. to The End Footnotes · grades 11–12 Parent note: long; demanding novel Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | What kind of disorder is most dangerous in The Brothers Karamazov? | ☐ |
| October 27 Day 300 | Hedda Gabler, The Master Builder and The Wild Duck, Henrik Ibsen (part 1 of 2) Read: Opening to ACT SECOND. · grades 11–12 Parent note: Two of the plays end in suicide. Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | List the reasons Gregers gives for telling Hjalmar. Which of them concern Hjalmar's good and which concern Gregers's own conscience? | ☐ |
| October 28 Day 301 | Hedda Gabler, The Master Builder and The Wild Duck, Henrik Ibsen (part 2 of 2) Read: ACT THIRD. to ACT V. · grades 11–12 Parent note: Two of the plays end in suicide. Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | What does Hedda fear most: scandal, dullness, or being ruled by someone else? Find a scene for each. | ☐ |
| October 29 Day 302 | The Principles of Psychology, William James (part 1 of 2) Read: New York Henry Holt And Company to CHAPTER X. THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SELF. · grades Adult/Advanced Parent note: research text Recommended for grades Adult/Advanced; read it first or together. | What does James mean by the 'transitive parts' of thought, and why are they hard to observe? | ☐ |
| October 30 Day 303 | The Principles of Psychology, William James (part 2 of 2) Read: The Mutations Of The Self to Exact Measurements Of Memory · grades Adult/Advanced Parent note: research text Recommended for grades Adult/Advanced; read it first or together. | Is James right that 'every smallest stroke of virtue or of vice leaves its never so little scar'? | ☐ |
| October 31 Day 304 | Studies on Hysteria, Josef Breuer and Sigmund Freud Read: The summary, argument and lessons on the library page · grades Adult/Advanced Parent note: research text Recommended for grades Adult/Advanced; read it first or together. Under copyright: the library page has a summary and guide, not the full text. | Which term in Studies on Hysteria most resists a modern equivalent? | ☐ |