Great Books: My Adventures With Homer, Rousseau, Woolf, and Other Indestructible Writers of the Western World

At the age of 48, film critic David Denby decided to return to Columbia University and re-take the courses he took as a student in 1961: Literature, Humanities and Contemporary Civilization. He celebrates his rediscovery of authors such as Homer, Plato, Hegel, Austen, Marx, Nietzsche, and Virginia Woolf. He recreates the atmosphere of the classroom--the strategies used by a remarkable group of teachers and the strengths and weaknesses of media-age students as they grapple with these difficult, sometimes frightening works. All year long he watches the students grow and his own life and memories break out of hiding. 4 cassettes.

Ed Asner gives a passionate, riveting performance. His commitment to the subject seems as strong and personal as the author's. Together they tell how Denby, at the age of 48, rediscovered the vital relevance of the beleaguered canon of Great Books. Unfortunately, Asner lapses into a growly condescension that clashes with the author's unpretentious first-person narrative. The clash blunts the book's point. Nonetheless, soldiers in today's culture wars will not only learn from this tape, but will gain strength for the next battle. Y.R. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine