Penguin Great Ideas series completed

Eliot Rosewater

I found this article tonight in The Guardian in which the editor of Penguin Books' series Great Ideas discusses the completion of the line.

The title list can be viewed on Penguin's website.

I haven't read any of the Great Ideas books directly, though I have read some of them in other forms; the four George Orwell essays are in my collection of his, for instance. My interest is tickled now, and I've already found a few I'd like to read: Cicero's Political Speeches, RLS's An Apology for Idlers, and Chinua Achebe's An Image of Africa, amongst others.

Does anyone recommenced any specific books from the series? Or, in a more general sense, does anyone have any "idea" books they'd recommend?

Denerick

I read Machiavelli, Paine, and Rousseau out of that list. I think its a travesty that Edmund Burkes 'Reflections on the Revolution in France' isn't included.

EDIT: Ah! There are five series! Unfortunately I can only tick Hobbes, Burke, Turner. And now I see that Burke is indeed there.

Excellent

Eliot Rosewater

Cheers for the heads-up - I've been meaning to read that one! The Great Ideas edition appears to be an edited down version. I think I'll get the full Penguin edition as it also contains a 70 page introduction.

It's a worthy note, to all, that the Great Ideas editions can be less cost-effective than other editions. They publish four Orwell essays in seperate books, costing nearly €20. For €3 cheaper you can get eight times as many essays in the Penguin Classics Essays edition.

Denerick

Get the copy with the introduction by Conor Cruise O'Brien. He also wrote a well regarded biography of him.

Eliot Rosewater

That's the Penguin Classics edition!

hatful

Advantages: The cover illustrations are lovely. The small number of pages encourage people to discover new ideas. They would probably be too intimidated by a massive tome. Nice idea for a present. Disadvantages: It's more expensive, in most cases you can buy the complete edition second hand for the same price as the tiny pamphlet(s). The binding is crap. No introduction and notes therefore no context.

Manach

That I've read 3/100 suggests I've spent too much time reading SciFi novels.

Denerick wrote: »

Get the copy with the introduction by Conor Cruise O'Brien. He also wrote a well regarded biography of him.

Whilst the O'Brien book was a good read, I perferred an earlier work "Edmund Burke: His Life and Opinions by Stanley Ayling"

Valmont

I read all of the first series bar one as I was given it as a present a few years ago. It's a really nice collection to have too, the covers are all beautifully designed. William Hazlitt's On the Pleasure of Hating was my favourite. Unfortunately my collection is no longer complete as I had The Social Contract in the front pocket of one of my hoodies as I threw it in the washing machine. I couldn't read the remains unfortunately.

Cannibal Ox

Eliot Rosewater wrote: »

My interest is tickled now, and I've already found a few I'd like to read: Cicero's Political Speeches, RLS's An Apology for Idlers, and Chinua Achebe's An Image of Africa, amongst others.

An Image of Africa (direct link to pdf!)
I'm not sure if that's the version they use, but it is worth reading, especially if you've read Heart of Darkness.

I've read a couple, and I like them, but I think I'd buy the "full" books or collections of essays instead, particularly because so many of them are philosophy books and it's nice to have an introduction built in for them. Also, some of mine have faded quite badly, which is a shame because they are quite nice looking.

I'd recommend these:
Hannah Arendt - Eichmann and the Holocaust
Immanuel Kant - An Answer to the Question What is Enlightenment
Walter Benjamin - The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
Frantz Fanon - Concerning Violence
John Stuart Mill - On Liberty
Some of which can probably be found as pdf's if you google them.