Classic Novels: Meeting the Challenge of Great Literature

by Arnold Weinstein

36 lectures, 30 minutes per Meeting the Challenge of Great Literaure, Defoe - Moll Flanders, Sterne - Tristram Shandy, Laclos - Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Balzac - Pere Goriot, Bronte - Wuthering Heights, Melville - Moby Dick, Dickens - Bleak House, Flaubert - Madame Bovary, Tolstoy - War and Peace, Dostoevsky - The Brothers Karamazov, Conrad - Heart of Darkness, Mann - Death in Venice, Kafka - The Metamorphosis and The Trial, Proust - Remembrance of Things Past, Joyce - Ulysses, Woolf - To the Lighthouse, Faulkner - As I Lay Dying, Garcia Marquez - One Hundred Years of Solitude, and Ending the Course, Beginning in the World.

Genres: Nonfiction, Audiobook, Literature, Classics, Literary Criticism, Books About Books, Criticism

Paperback

First published December 31, 2007

About the author

Dr. Arnold Weinstein is the Edna and Richard Salomon Distinguished Professor at Brown University, where he has been teaching for over 35 years. He earned his undergraduate degree in Romance Languages from Princeton University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Harvard University. Among his many academic honors, research grants, and fellowships is the Younger Humanist Award from the National Endowment for the Humanities, a Fulbright Senior Lecturer Award as a visiting professor at Stockholm University, Brown University's award as best teacher in the humanities, Professeur InvitÈ in American Literature at the Ecole Normale SupÈrieure in Paris, and a Fellowship for University Professors from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Professor Weinstein is the author of many books, including Fictions of the Self: 1550ñ1800 (1981); Nobody's Home: Speech, Self, and Place in American Fiction from Hawthorne to DeLillo (1993); and A Scream Goes Through The House: What Literature Teaches Us About Life (2003). Northern Arts: The Breakthrough of Scandinavian Literature and Art from Ibsen to Bergman (Princeton University Press, 2008), was named one of the 25 Best Books of 2009 by The Atlantic. Professor Weinstein chaired the Advisory Council on Comparative Literature at Princeton University, is the sponsor of Swedish Studies at Brown, and is actively involved in the American Comparative Literature Association.

Reviews

[William Adam Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

3. 5 stars rounded up to four. I love classical literature, and I mostly enjoyed Professor Weinstein's course on American Literature, so I thought I'd give this a try. I have read six of the 19 novels discussed in this course, but I thought it would give me a good idea about which of the rest I would be most interested in. I know now that three lectures on "Remembrance of Things Past" and "Ulysses" exhausted my patience for these novels and that I'm not likely to devout myself to reading these long works. Too many other Great Courses, like the History of World Literature also sing the praises of these two novels, so maybe, I was a bit bored of hearing about them.

Professor Weinstein is well spoken and he usually has engaging things to say about each novel. Sometimes his speculation is a bit out there, so I didn't agree with everything that he said. This is much more concise than his History of American Literature, so in that sense, you might find it more palatable. There's no poetry included either, which is a plus for me. The lectures that intrigued me the most were the ones about Balzac's "Pere Goriot", Dickens's "Bleak House", and Flaubert's "Madame Bovary".

[Perry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ivy League Professor's Course on the Classics

You love books and majored in business or medicine or dropped out of school to become a multi-millionaire salesmen?

Now, you just wish you had paid more attention and that you would have taken that American or British Lit course instead of taking the easier route?

If so, or if you just love lit and don't care if you'd taken it in college or not, this is a perfect chance to listen to hours and hours of a mild-mannered but lively Ivy League (Brown) professor Arnold Weinstein searching the meaning and imparting his knowledge of many of the Classic Novels.

If you haven't read a lot of these novels, don't worry. For a few I hadn't read, Professor Weinstein inspired me to read these books and his teaching method doesn't require you to have read these to enjoy the course.

I'd definitely recommend the Professor Weinstein lit courses.

[Bettie]

Lecture Two Defoe—Moll Flanders✔
Lecture Three Strene - Tristram Shandy✔
Lecture Four Laclos—Les Liaisons Dangereuses✔
Lecture Five Laclos—Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Part 2✔
Lecture Six Balzac—Père Goriot✔
Lecture Seven Balzac—Père Goriot, Part 2✔

Resuming here Feb 2016:
Lecture Eight Brontë—Wuthering Heights✔
Lecture Nine Brontë—Wuthering Heights, Part 2✔
Lecture Ten Melville—Moby-Dick✔
Lecture Eleven Melville—Moby-Dick, Part 2✔
Lecture Twelve Dickens—Bleak House✔
Lecture Thirteen Dickens—Bleak House, Part 2
Lecture Fourteen Flaubert—Madame Bovary
Lecture Fifteen Flaubert—Madame Bovary, Part 2
Lecture Sixteen Tolstoy—War and Peace
Lecture Seventeen Tolstoy—War and Peace, Part 2
Lecture Eighteen Dostoevsky—The Brothers Karamazov
Lecture Nineteen Dostoevsky—The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2
Lecture Twenty Conrad—Heart of Darkness
Lecture Twenty-One Mann—Death in Venice
Lecture Twenty-Two Kafka—“The Metamorphosis”
Lecture Twenty-Three Kafka—The Trial
Lecture Twenty-Four Proust—Remembrance of Things Past
Lecture Twenty-Five Proust—Remembrance of Things Past, Part 2
Lecture Twenty-Six Proust—Remembrance of Things Past, Part 3
Lecture Twenty-Seven Joyce—Ulysses
Lecture Twenty-Eight Joyce—Ulysses, Part 2
Lecture Twenty-Nine Joyce—Ulysses, Part 3
Lecture Thirty Woolf—To the Lighthouse
Lecture Thirty-One Woolf—To the Lighthouse, Part 2
Lecture Thirty-Two Faulkner—As I Lay Dying
Lecture Thirty-Three Faulkner—As I Lay Dying, Part 2
Lecture Thirty-Four García Márquez—One Hundred Years of Solitude
Lecture Thirty-Five One Hundred Years of Solitude, Part 2

bildungsroman (German; “novel of character development”): Class of novel derived from German literature that deals with the formative years of the main character, whose moral and psychological development is depicted. It typically ends on a positive note, with the hero's foolish mistakes and painful disappointments behind him and a life of usefulness ahead. It grew out of folklore tales in which a dunce goes out into the world seeking adventure. One of the earliest novelistic developments of the theme, Johann W. von Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship (1795–96), remains a classic example.



4* History of Science 1700 - 1900
5* A History of England from the Tudors to the Stuarts
TR Secrets of Sleep
TR Turning Points in Modern History
TR Apocalypse
4* Myth in Human History
3* A History of Russia
CR Classic Novels: Meeting the Challenge of Great Literature
5* London
4* Re-thinking Our Past
4* The Vikings
5* Lost Worlds of South America
3* Rome and the Barbarians
TR Living the French Revolution and the Age of Napoleon
OH History of Science: Antiquity to 1700
TR Albert Einstein: Physicist, Philosopher, Humanitarian
TR Will to Power: The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche
5* From Monet To Van Gogh: A History Of Impressionism
5* History of the English language
TR The Late Middle Ages
3* Great American Music: Boadway Musicals
5* Classics of Russian Literature
5* Lost Worlds of South America
2* The Skeptic's Guide to the Great Books
2* Thomas Aquinas
3* Forensic History

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arnold Weinstein is my favorite lecturer in the Great Courses series. Every time I listen to him I feel transported back to my college days and find myself wishing I'd known enough to go to Brown. For lovers of great literature there could be no better experience. He makes me want to drop everything and read classics, both the ones I never read and the ones that I read but was too young to fully appreciate. Weinstein gets it, even says in this course that most of us read the classics too young when we have too many hormones and competing priorities to spend the time to understand them. Alas when many never become lifetime learners, those years may be their only exposure. I hope to pick up more than a few of the books discussed in this course. I know they'll be difficult so probably will find audio but the work will be worth it.

[Matthew Huff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my second course with Professor Weinstein, and I am delighted to say that his style and range in this lecture were even more remarkable. While a few themes carried over from his previous course, such as "exiting the human" and the general porousness of the human condition (ideas I imagine have become pet themes of his for all his years at Brown), Weinstein's vocabulary, erudition, accessibility, and depth are simply astounding in this series of lectures, engaging in the great writers such as Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Melville, Proust, Joyce, Woolf, Faulkner, Bronte, Conrad, Flaubert, and more. I highly recommend him as an instructor; he is brilliant.

With this course, I particular enjoyed his provocative and riveting discussions of Moby Dick (Melville), To the Lighthouse (Woolf), As I Lay Dying (Faulkner), and Wuthering Heights (Bronte). A tremendous course all around!

[Mack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this amazing span of lectures. Would highly recommend them to anyone interested in literature. Listening to the lectures is good. Dr. Weinstein always has something interesting and informative to say. To listen to him attentively is to observe a great mind in action.

[Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author speaks a lot about the joy of reading. To me, he failed to contrive it. Otherwise, interesting choice of works.

[Cb · Rating 3 out of 5]

A voyage through books and time and countries. We meet the authors along the way and explore the meaning of their works and their legacies. Books are kind of my favorite subject, so what a treat!

[Winona · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating analysis of many important books I never want to read.
Defoe, Moll Flanders
Sterne, Tristram Shandy
Laclos, Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Balzac, Pere Goriot
Flaubert, Madame Bovary
Melville, Moby-Dick
Dickens, Bleak House
Bronte, Wuthering Heights
Dostoevsky, Brothers Karamazov
Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Mann, Death in Venice
Kafka, The Trial
Kafka, Metamorphosis
Proust, Remembrance of Things Past
Joyce, Ulysses
Wolff, To the Lighthouse
Faulkner, As I Lay Dying
Gabriel Garcia Marquez,100 years of Solitude

War and Peace by Tolstoy is the only novel in the course that I've read and liked. I'm grateful to know what the others are about without having to experience them.
I might read To the Lighthouse

[Jerry Jares · Rating 5 out of 5]

After one Great Course* by this professor, I am excited to be listening to Dr. Arnold Weinstein again. He has such fascinating insights into the novels he discusses. Even with books I'd already read, I found fresh ways of looking at what the author was sharing with readers. Dr. Weinstein has even convinced me to try MOBY DICK again (no small trick). My favorite part of the first 12 lessons was concerning WUTHERING HEIGHTS. Each time I read this tome, I'm unsettled and have questions about the story. It seemed that Dr. Weinstein knew my questions because his hour-long discussion of this book (alone) was worth the price of admission.

Before this course, I'd read about half of the books studied here. I doubt that I would ever have picked up a Kafka book, but the two discussed in this course ("The Metamorphosis" and "The Trial") made me curious about reading his highly original stories. Dr. Weinstein gives interesting insights regarding why each novel was chosen for this course. I thoroughly enjoyed what he had to say.

* That course was: A Day's Read --- The Great Courses -- by Arnold Weinstein, Emily Allen, Grant L. Voth.

36 Lessons:
1) Meeting the Challenge of Great Literature
2) Defoe—Moll Flanders
3) Sterne—Tristram Shandy
4) Laclos—Les Liaisons Dangereuses
5) Laclos—Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Part 2
6) Balzac—Père Goriot
7) Balzac—Père Goriot, Part 2
8) Brontë—Wuthering Heights
9) Brontë—Wuthering Heights, Part 2
10) Melville—Moby-Dick
11) Melville—Moby-Dick, Part 2
12) Dickens—Bleak House

PART 2 of 3
13) Dickens—Bleak House, Part 2
14) Flaubert—Madame Bovary
15) Flaubert—Madame Bovary, Part 2
16) Tolstoy—War and Peace
17) Tolstoy—War and Peace, Part 2
18) Dostoevsky—The Brothers Karamazov
19) Dostoevsky—The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2
20) Conrad—Heart of Darkness
21) Mann—Death in Venice
22) Kafka—"The Metamorphosis"
23) Kafka—The Trial
24) Proust—Remembrance of Things Past

Part 3 of 3
25) Proust—Remembrance of Things Past, Part 2
26) Proust—Remembrance of Things Past, Part 3
27) Joyce—Ulysses
28) Joyce—Ulysses, Part 2
29) Joyce—Ulysses, Part 3
30) Woolf—To the Lighthouse
31) Woolf—To the Lighthouse, Part 2
32) Faulkner—As I Lay Dying
33) Faulkner—As I Lay Dying, Part 2
34) García Márquez—One Hundred Years of Solitude
35) One Hundred Years of Solitude, Part 2
36) Ending the Course, Beginning the World

[Constantia Munda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Main Points -
Great Prose Must -

1 – Have a Great Theme, 2 – Speaks across the ages, 3 - Have noble language, 4 - Speaks to the individual in a universal manner. 5 – Elevates – doesn’t depress,

2 – Keat’s “Negative Capability” or femininity - Shakespeare started it. Abstract paradoxes with no answer.

3 – Tristan Shandy , L. Sterne = digression, satire, free association, double entrende,

4 – Dangerous Liaisons , Lycos - – epistolary novel- immediacy and doubt, publishers preface say they must be fiction because so they display such evil.

5 – Wuthering Heights, E.Bronte, - uses a seer/ scribe form – outsiders tell the story. Love as torment. To not have it, to give it to another, to waste it, in the afterlife as love ghosts,

6 – Moby Dick, Melville – writes for Emerson’s “oversoul.” Written the same time as Scarlett Letter, Walden, Leaves, Frome!!! Domestic svenes transcend into metaphors. “A fast-fish” ‘Strike through the Mask of the whale.”

7 – Bleak House , Dickens – Little labor for his readers.

8 - The Trial, Kafka – arrested for nothing. Guilty because he thinks himself innocent. The Painter cons him, the priest tells him he is guilty, the lawyer promises a better lawyer who he Needs” but cannot find. Before the Law – like a dog.”

9 - Kafka - "Art is the ax that chops into our frozen sea."

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this series of lectures. Weinstein clearly loves what he does and loves these books. To be honest, I enjoyed many of his lectures more than the actual books he was lecturing about.

I get it. These classic novels are filled with terrific writing and big ideas. There are plenty of insights into the human condition. Still, those things are all well and good but they’re not the reason I read fiction. As long as there are compelling characters and a good story, adequate writing will do for me. As for the big ideas, I mostly read nonfiction for that stuff.

I ask myself three questions when I’m reading a novel. Do I care about these characters? Do I want to know what they do next and what becomes of them in the end? Did I enjoy the ride? Most of the great works of fiction discussed here really didn’t cut the mustard for me.

Nevertheless, I would highly recommend these lectures. I learned a lot.

[Scott Kirkland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Took me a long time to take this course. It includes some of the heaviest books in existence. But reading them all and taking this course was worth the effort. I listened to the lectures on the books I had already read, then I read each book and listened to the lecture right after I finished each of them. Then I listened to the whole course after I read the last topic.

I only wish there were more explanations and more analysis of certain books. 30 minutes is hardly enough time to discuss some of these novels.

[RAW · Rating 4 out of 5]

listened on Audible and the professor had a nice world view in his approach to The Great Books. Great overview on many a great book. Several I had read and many I hadn’t. Helped in evaluating some of the literature and thinking through cultural context and what biases are brought to a book. Also helped in better understanding where the author was coming from and what he might have been trying to convey or work through in his time of writing.

[John Curtice · Rating 1 out of 5]

I listen to a lot of this series and this was unfortunately the worst of them

He's pedantic around about half of the novels chosen - intentionally choosing lesser known works of more famous authors.

This would work if the listener had time to read the novels but it's impractical, not the format of this series, and just assumes far too much knowledge about obscure books. You're better off going to youtube and typing [Book Title] Explained

[Jquick99 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have an engineer’s brain, and really need someone like Professor Weinstein to spoon feed me as to NOT only what these books are about, but even explain what certain sentences mean.

And the Professor does a fantastic job of doing this. I almost want to read some of these books myself, then quickly realize, I certainly wouldn’t understand what hasn’t been explained to me.

[Michelle Mosley · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, the lectures were a bit of a mixed bag for me; some were really good, but others didn't really hold my interest. My lack of interest is mostly my own fault as most of the books he covers aren't anything I would ever want to read, but I'm still glad to have gone through this series and become acquainted with them.

[Don Heiman · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 2007 The Teaching Company released Brown University Professor Arnold Weinstein’s 36 lecture course “Classic Novels: Meeting the Challenge of Great Literature. The course reviews 18 classic novels spanning 250+ years from 1721 to 1967. Prof Weinstein defines a classic novel as “…texts that speak to us today, functioning as mirrors for us and our moment.” He says that these novels are storehouses of cultures and document important international social understandings. The course guidebook overviews each lecture and has a timeline of historic events from 1660 to 1991. The guidebook also has author profiles and it has annotated bibliographic reference notes for each of the 36 lectures. (P)

[Xdw · Rating 1 out of 5]

The only Great Courses offering I just haven't been able to finish. The speaker's affectation of using the longest possible word (or misusing) whenever possible is most annoying. As is his speaking in absolutes. His opinion is the only possible one.

[DL Link · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love Weinstein's lectures. Embarrassed to say I've only read 4 of the 18 books. Got some work to do!

[Moira-ji]

not my favorite, got to say

[Kate Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Listened to the Great Courses audio class, he's a wonderful lecturer.

[Jon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing.

[Brenden Gallagher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great summary of the great novels plus a helpful understanding of the importance and function of canon

[Myrtha · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Nicole Bergen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a good taster of some phenomenal books. Might even tempt me to read Faulkner.

[Ulee ☄︎ · Rating 3 out of 5]

No

[Marc Audet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Arnold Weinstein is passionate about literature. His lectures are clear and highly accessible. I have listened to him for years and I never tire of hearing him talk about the books that he clearly loves. At the end of this particular series, he leaves you with a simple and clear message, go out there and read some or all of these books. Although he offers no guarantees, he believes that these readings will add depth to your life, what he calls "dimensionality". I happened to be reading "Brothers Karamazov" over the past few months, and I found his two lectures on Dostoevsky insightful, giving me more encouragement to finish the book. At the very least, this course will introduce you to a wide range of novels, and you can make an informed decision as to what to read next.

[Susie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great in depth discussion of 10+ of the most revered and well known classics such as Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, Wuthering Heights, Ulysses, To the Lighthouse...
Each lecture is 30 minutes so I found them very easy to listen to, and often relished beca u send so much great information! Recommend!

[Booksy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very thorough, methodical and yet dry and non-enaging and non-inspiring way to describe the best (in the author's opinion) and most significant novels of our times.
I am not too sure that people who never read 'War and Peace" would dash to the library to borrow this amazing novel after listening to a dry and unimaginative description of the main characters in these lecture series. It's certainly a great resource for any student assessment writing and yet it comes nowhere near the calibre and talent of Harold Bloom's "How to Read and Why", which to me was and still is one of the stellar work of the literary criticism.