Great Book - Contemporary Reading of Western Classics

Author: Deng Bi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-09-01
Features: This book takes readers from the Bible to Machiavelli, then to Boccaccio, and finally to Nietzsche, making it a delightful read for anyone who loves literature. I couldn’t put it down the moment I started reading. It’s one of the most interesting books I’ve ever read, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to continue exploring literature. The book offers a captivating narrative about the literary world, and no matter what your questions about literature are, you’ll find the answers here. – Philanthropist Brooke Astor
A brilliant and talented individual who had immersed himself in the new media era for three decades felt he had only “opinions lacking principles and instincts lacking belief.” He needed to be reeducated, so he turned back to reading classic works he hadn’t touched since adulthood. In this book, filled with engaging insights and reflections, he shares his year of reading experiences, inspiring both himself and readers to regain vitality and revitalize their spiritual lives. I feel I owe Columbia University and Deng Bi a tuition fee. – Governor Mario Cuomo
Colleges are filled with trained individuals who can write about writing, but Deng Bi can write about reading—such a skill is rare, and he further enhances it with sincerity, humility, and a consistently sharp and relentless intellect. Deng Bi may be the most perceptive and enthusiastic person in the Western world. His casual, conversational style makes reading this emotional education a pleasure. – Cultural scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Going back to college to read great literary works may not sound like the stuff of adventure stories, but Mr. Deng Bi’s work is just that. The book is filled with passionate observations about literature and society, offering the thrill of exploration and discovery. It’s a magnificent book. – Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy Kidder
At 48, film critic Deng Bi grew tired of the fragmented life of modern media and made the bold decision to return to school, rejoining young adults in their late teens to reread the works of Homer, Plato, Kant, Nietzsche, Machiavelli, Montaigne, and Austen, Conrad, Woolf, and others. This book is the third encounter between the 1990s’ frustrated middle class, university freshmen, and timeless classics. These foundations of Western culture, built over two millennia, now fall upon the eyes of the new millennium’s new humans and middle-aged individuals in midlife, becoming a new field ripe for reinterpretation.
Deng Bi boldly casts off the curse of “political correctness” and approaches these classics from the perspective of a social being, a husband, and a father, to explore what new impact they bring to our secular lives in the electronic age. This is an adventurous journey that is sometimes perilous, sometimes tranquil, and sometimes full of surprises.