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Posted by Glenn A. Knight on February 22, 19102 at 16:20:29:
The "great books" is certainly not a category confined to the "Great Books of the Western World" set, copyrighted by Encyclopedia Brittanica. There are a lot of great books outside that set.
Nevertheless, the set (and I speak here of the 1952 edition in 54 volumes) does include a lot of undeniably great books, in readable editions. I do not own a set, but I have acquired volumes 6, 26, 34, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 43, 44, and 45. And I have (so far) read volumes 6 _Herodotus/Thucydides_, 37 _Fielding_, 38 _Montesquieu/Rousseau_, and 40 _Gibbon I_. I am now reading Volume 41, _Gibbon II_.
But I have also found good translations and editions of the books in the remaining volumes, and have been able to read a number of them. For example, I have the Modern Library edition of Adam Smith's _Wealth of Nations_ (Volume 39 of the GBWW), and read that version. I picked up the Modern Library edition of Herman Melville's _Moby _ from my public library (Volume 48), and read that.
Penguin Clics are wonderful sources. I have read the Robert F*a*gles translations of the _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_ in Penguin, which covers Volume 4 of the GBWW. I have found plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes in Penguin and Signet Clics, and have read most of them. Penguin carries many of Plato's works. The Modern Library has two good-sized volumes of key works of Aristotle. Plutarch and Tacitus are available in Penguin. I am reading Dante in a prose translation from Rinehart, and I recently read Chaucer in the Penguin Clics edition. And the Folger Library Shakespeare series from Washington Square Press has given me about 24 of Shakespeare's plays. I have Cervantes' _Don Quixote_ (Volume 29 of the GBWW) in the Signet Clics Paperback, in which I also have Tolstoy's _War and Peace_ (Volume 51).
I just want to point out that reading great books, whether in the GBWW series or in other editions, or in the form of books which were omitted from that series, is rewarding and enjoyable. And editions new and old, and all sorts of translations, are available at your bookstore (new or old) and your library.