Timeless classics and modern masterpieces that challenge, inspire, and leave a lasting impact. Ideal for thought-provoking discussions.
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin, 1771-1790
150 pp. (varies by publisher)
February 2010
All the bio-pics you've ever seen from Hollywood—Walk the Line, Ray, Man On the Moon? Well, you can thank Ben Franklin—he invented the format, along with the Franklin stove, bifocals, and the lightning rod.
You know the pattern—the rise from obscure beginnings, through hard work and adversity, to ultimate success. Horatio Alger's rags-to-riches? Alger followed the narrative arc laid out by Franklin. Not only is Franklin himself an American original, so is his autobiography.
A Separate Peace
John Knowles, 1959
208 pp.
January 2010
As a comping-of-age story, I wanted to recommend Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint. (Notice how I seem to be recommending it anyway.) One of the great C-of-A novels of modern America, it manages to be side-splittingly funny and tender at the same time—but so focused on the male member and bathroom humor that many find it offensive. (Others' sensibilities are more finely tuned than mine...so now you know.)
Instead, I offer John Knowles's A Separate Peace, a beautiful rendering of youth, war (within and without), and hard-gained self-knowledge. Published in 1959, A Separate Peace has maintained its power to move us for 50 years.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Edward Albee, 1961
272pp.
December 2009
Rough stuff, maybe more than you've a mind for. But if you're up to it, Edward Albee's dramatic masterpiece can be bracing, to say the least, as well as powerful and illuminating. It's marriage at its absolute worst...yet, perhaps strangely, at its best. You be the judge.
George and Martha, a middle-aged college professor and his wife go at each other tooth-and-claw. They're at home, having returned from a party earlier in the evening. It's already 2:00 a.m. when Nick and Honey arrive; a young couple new to the campus, they've stopped on their way home at Martha's invitation.
The Woman in White
Wilkie Collins, 1859-60
720 pp.
November 2009
One of the earliest detective novels, The Woman in White was a sensation when published over 140 years ago—and, in fact, it helped establish the sub-genre of the "sensation" novel, wildly popular in the 1860's in England.
Walter Hartright (get the names, here) falls in love with his art student Laura Fairlie—and she with him. Yet Laura is engaged to, and soon marries, Percival Glyde, a man older than she and a titled baron.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Muriel Spark, 1961
127 pp.
October 2009
While I'm not sure this is truly one of literature's "great works," it has nonetheless endured for 50 years, inspiring stage and film productions along the way. The reason lies in its heroine, Miss Jean Brodie, who intrigues, infuriates and always captivates readers.
Miss Brodie is a born teacher. She refuses to follow prescribed curricula, preferring instead to enliven her lessons with stories and class trips. Education, she believes, is not stuffing young minds with facts but drawing out what's already in them, enlarging and polishing their innate curiosity and imagination.