Rating: 
Summary: "Great Books" is an okay book
Review: Denby's book is okay, not much more. His insights into the Great Books are limited, but his enthusiasm makes up for it. He's no Clifton Fadiman, certainly no Will Durant. He is a journalist and writes like one. It's worth the money but don't expect inspiration.
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable reading that rekindles old interests
Review: Denby's book rekindles old interests and memories that have been dorment for many years. Like Denby, many of us have forgotten the excitement of reading the "classics" and their importance in our early education. It is a particularly instructive at a time of increasing interest in the Western Canon and a rebirth of interest in the liberal education.
Rating:
Summary: anti-pc polemic or insightful read - you choose
Review: First off, I should admit that I'm of the age of the college students Denby studied with and not a Boomer. That's probably why I'm not as dismissive of polictical-correctness and believe that it has some positive benefits to today's education. I don't believe examining the classics through the eyes of today's students - as opposed to Columbia in the 1950's when the student body consisted of mainly Caucasian boys - is all that detrimental to the "great works" themselves. Perhaps the author would have been less likely to forget the books from his youth had they been discussed from a less-reverent viewpoint. I don't think reading should be a kind of therapy first and foremost. But I do think women, and other minorities do have the right to study their culture (however, "marginalized" or unimportant) it is considered in relation to "Western" one. At times, Denby seemed to imply political correctness was only some trendy fad and did not have any roots in real discontent. That was a mistake. Anyway, I do admire anyone who goes back and actually grapples with such authors as Hegel, Dante and Conrad, and has the humility to expose his struggles in a book. If I had a quarter for everyone who has said to me, "Someday, I'm gonna read the classics again..." but never actually did, I'd be rich. On a personal level, I did go back and read some of the books I'd missed in college, but not as many as I'd planned while reading "Great Books." Still, I would recommend that readers sample some of those classics themselves.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book!
Review: Frankly I'm puzzled by the many negative reviews of this book, since Denby is a wonderfully sane and balanced writer who writes extremely well. His idea of returning to Columbia to retake a course on the 'Great Books' was a masterstroke. The blow-by-blow account of his struggles with the set texts, and of the meaning (or lack of it) which he found in them; the wonderful portraits he gives us of his professors, both male and female, and their varied approaches and teaching styles, and of his fellow students and the conflicts and animosities which were always simmering beneath the surface (and which occasionally broke through); his interesting and even valuable insights into the texts (see for example his masterful account of Boccaccio's Decameron); and his genuine concern with social and cultural issues, and with the meaning that at least some of the Great Books can still have for us today - all these and more held my interest throughout. It's possible that feminists don't like some of the things he said, though what he says about feminists is true enough and may easily be confirmed by a reading of Camille Paglia. It's also possible that some readers may have been misled by the title of the book, and may have overlooked the 'My Adventures With' of the subtitle, words which ought to tell anyone that this is not so much a book about the 'Great Books' as about the author's highly invidual and personal response to them. But for me Denby's book was one of the more interesting books I've read for some time. I only wish I could find more like it. And his piece about Boccaccio should definitely not be missed. Briefly, Denby seems to find a pagan exuberance in Boccaccio, a frank and wholesome celebration of the flesh. In contrast to medieval Christianity's loathing of woman we find in Boccaccio what Denby beautifully describes as "a tribute to the deep-down lovableness of women" (p.249). And today, when so many women are being taught by anti-sex radical feminists to deny their own bodies and feelings, Boccaccio's celebration of the sexual avidity of the natural woman should come as a very welcome antidote. So why the hostility to Denby? Could it be partly because he pointed out that Boccaccio's is a scandalous book, a book that liberates, a book that returns us to "the paradise from which, long ago, we had been expelled" (p.248)?
Rating:
Summary: Denby's "Great Books" excites, as all Great Books should
Review: Having just completed Denby's "Great Books", I am both awed and excited. He manages to convey an excitement about reading and about what is being read that is too often missing from such books, and one finds oneself in a continual argument with the author, his peers, and with society's conceptions of the books. But most importantly, to read this book is to engage in an endless argument with yourself and about what you believe - not just belief about the books, but your beliefs in general. This continual questioning, the search to know more and feel more, is after all why we should read, and why Denby, whilst a little lightweight in some of his analysis, has indeed created a great book himself.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book about Great books!
Review: I am currently a returning college student (33 yrs old) who is not majoring in Literature therefore was never required to read many of the classic works of literature. I picked up Denby's book on a whim as I was strolling through a bookstore with the intention of reading parts of it someday when I was on a long vacation. I started to read the first chapter and was immediately compelled to finish the entire 496 pages even though I had not yet finished my reading assignments for class. More importantly, it introduced each of these classics, gave me have an idea of what I would be getting myself into by attempting to read them on my own, teased me with enough information to peak my curiosity without entirely giving the book away. I'm so glad the book caught my attention while I was browsing as I will now read some of these classics that I otherwise would not have.
Rating:
Summary: Lacking in depth
Review: I can see that the interest of the author is waning towards the end of the book. No doubt the beginning part of the book was interestingly written, the later parts appears to me to be a mediocre writting, due possibly to the impatience of the author to 'just finish that damn book' or perhaps the pressure from the publisher for a book too long in the making. I find this book rather superficial especially the renaisance philosophers. However, having said that it is still an interesting read and a good introduction on these great western writters. Should you seriously look for a good introduction to western philosphy, I would recommend Sophie's World and Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy.
Rating:
Summary: Become Passionate About Literature
Review: I can't overemphasize how much I enjoyed "Great Books". Mr. Denby mingles the human interactions amongst his classmates with the lessons he's learning from the works they're reading in an enjoyable and readable manner. He inspired me to re-read The Illiad and pick up Simone DeBeauvior for the first time. If you like to read, or are considering taking a literature class, pick up this book. You'll be inspired.
Rating:
Summary: Part Novel, Part Lit. Criticiscm, Part AutoBiography
Review: I can't tell you how great this book is. It made me want to go enroll in a Classics class myself. Denby has a great perspective on the works he reads. It's also fascinating to read about his time as a non-traditional college student. The Chapter on Simone de Beauvior is excellent!
Rating: 
Summary: A not so great book.
Review: I didn't read the book for the classics, I'm not much interested in them. But I was very interested in the experience of going back to university and if his real-world experiences / age would make a difference of how he perceives university education (both in form and content). We only get very little of this in the 5 page epilogue. I think that should have been the main focus of the bow. It's like the film critic forgot (or was unable to) to criticize (that is: evaluate, look for different perspective) and not just carbon copying his reading of books. The book is a very personal book, almost a diary. The author writes his personal thoughts about (some of) the books they are reading. We hear about the other students only when it's relevant for his reading/understanding, but nothing else. I thus don't get insight from reading Great Books, just a story, and very simple introduction to the books. The book didn't help me to become interested in Great Old Books, nor gave it me any understanding of them. It's nice talk for people already interested in them, and already knowing the stuff he writes, but he doesn't enable readers to learn. Every objection to the list of books by other students are dismissed without much thought. Every teacher is perfect (he surely doesn't criticize them). It's like it so important for him that the year back at university is his nirvana, that it disables him from seeing anything negative, from performing criticism. So I think the book is a tribute to the books of Great White Men, what he surely denies because that wouldn't be politically correct...
| 
