An example of a list of books for the

SYMPOSIUM

at the John Elliott Classics Museum,
University of Tasmania, Sandy Bay,
on Friday, May 11, from 18.00.


   The theme of the symposium is: Which Books from the Last Millennium Deserve to Survive in This Millennium? Participants are asked to bring their own lists of twenty-five books published between 1001 and 2000 which particularly deserve to survive, and may be asked to argue in support of their selections.
   The web-site of The Guardian has a list of various lists of ten favourite books at http://books.guardian.co.uk/top10s/.

   Here is an example of a list of twenty-five by Informal:

      Anonymous [Snorri Sturlasson ?], Egil's Saga
      Jane Austen, Complete Novels---see below for a short, amusing epitome of Pride and Prejudice
      Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron
      Richard de Bury, Philobiblon*
      Italo Calvino, Our Ancestors
      Lewis Carroll, Complete Works
      Geoffrey Chaucer, Works
      Dante, Divine Comedy
      Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
      Homer, The Iliad---see below for a short, amusing epitome of this epic
      Konrad Lorenz, King Solomon's Ring
      Thomas Malory, Works edited by Eugene Vinaver
      Wolfgang Mozart and Lorenzo da Ponte, Le Nozze di Figaro
      Thomas Love Peacock, The Novels
      Plato, Symposium
      Monty Python, The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus: All the Words
      Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy
      Shakespeare, Works
      Giorgio Vasari, The Lives of the Artists
      Voltaire, Tales
      P.G. Wodehouse, The World of Psmith
      The Oxford Book of English Verse
      Corpus Poetarum Latinorum
      Oxford Book of Greek Verse
      Encyclopædia Britannica, XIth edition, or---since this is made of many volumes---,
      Cervantes, Don Quixote.


   Some more books which might also have been included:

   Ernle Bradford, The Great Siege
   Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White---see below for a short, amusing epitome of this novel
   Daniel Defoe, The Life and Strange Surprising Aventures of Robinson Crusoe
   Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby
   Arthur Conan Doyle, Complete Sherlock Holmes Stories
   Mrs Gaskell, Cranford
   Goethe, Faust I and II
   Robert Graves, Count Belisarius
   Homer, Odyssey
   Rudyard Kipling, Kim
   R.L. Stevenson, Kidnapped & Catriona
   J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
   Oscar Wilde, Complete Works
   Xenophon, Anabasis


From Chapter I ("That the treasure of wisdom is most to be found in books") of the Philobiblon of Richard de Bury (1287 - 1345), which he wrote in the year of his death:

In libris mortuos quasi vivos invenio; in libris futura praevideo; in libris re bellicae disponuntur; de libris prodeunt jura pacis. Omnia corrumpuntur et intabescunt in tempore; Saturnus quos generat devorare non cessat: omnem mundi gloriam operiret oblivio, nisi Deus mortalibus librorum remedia providisset.
[In books I find the dead as they are alive; in books I foresee future things; in books warlike matters are arranged; in books the laws of peace come forth. All things corrupt and decay in time; Saturn ceases not to devour those whom he generates: all the glories of the worls would pass into oblivion, had not God provided mortals a remedy in books.]

A scientific correspondent writes, on the passage above, that 'the scientist would have written "had not God provided to mortals the remedy of the last six issues of Nature for they far outweigh all of the 23,000 issues that went before".'


Some excerpts from How to Become Ridiculously Well-Read in One Evening: A Collection of Literary Encapsulations compiled and edited by E.O. Parrott (Penguin, 1985):-

            Pride and Prejudice
            (by Mary Holtby)

      'Marry well' is Bennet tenet: Bingley singly must remain
      Since classy Darcy (Lizzy-dizzy) thinks he's far too good for Jane.
      Rummy mummy, jaunty aunty, these would drag both gallants down---
      Plus the younger siblings' dribblings over officers in town.
      See the specious Wickham trick'em with his tales of birthright gloom,
      See how hideous Lydia's ruin looms before she gets her groom;
      Glassy Darcy saves the bacon, shaken out of former pride:
      Is he Lizzy's destined love, to shove her prejudice aside?
      Has she clout to flout that matron, patroness of priestly coz
      (He whose ludicrous proposing Rosings rules---like all he does)?
      Darcy oughter court her daughter, destined his through two decades . . .
      'Mulish, foolish girl, remember Pemberley's polluted shades!'
      Dare she share his great estate, or can't Aunt Catherine be defied?
      Yes! and ere their bells ring jingly, Bingley too shall claim his bride.

                        §

            The Iliad
            (by Paul Griffin)

      Agamemnon sailed to Troy,
      Following a naughty boy;
      Paris wanted to enjoy
         A holiday with flighty
      Helen, Menelaus' wife
      Cause of ten years' loss of life;
      Homer blamed her for the strife---
         Her and Aphrodite.

      Nine years later, all looked bleak;
      Achilles proved a sulky Greek,
      Wouldn't, in a fit of pique,
         Even cross Salamander.
      Agamemnon, somewhat shaken,
      Quickly tried to save his bacon
      And return the girl he'd taken
         From his best commander.

      'Late repentance isn't valid,'
      Said Achilles, and he dallied
      Till his friend, Patroclus, sallied
         Forth to join the battle;
      By Apollo he was chivvied,
      Then was killed; Achilles, livid,
      Rushing out from where he'd bivvy-ed,
         Slaughtered men like cattle.

      What he did then wasn't pretty:
      Three times around the Trojan city,
      Achilles, quite devoid of pity,
         Chased the valiant Hector,
      Killed him, and---O shameful deed!---
      Dragged his horse behind his steed,
      Denying him his urgent need---
         A funeral director.

      Priam, father of the dead,
      Came to visit him and said:
      'Mercy on my ancient head!
         I will pay a ransom.'
      Achilles, being much impressed,
      Freely granted his request,
      Thereby, as the world confessed,
         Acting very handsome.

                        §

            The Woman in White
            (by O. Banfield)

      Walter, a painter, returning one night,
      Was suddenly met by a woman in white,
      Escaped from a madhouse; she'd been put inside
      For knowing the past of Sir Percival Glyde.

      And then he met Marian, plain, with moustache,
      And her young sister, Laura, who lacked her panache,
      For, lovely and rich, she became the sad bride
      Of debt-ridden, wicked Sir Percival Glyde.

      Count Fosco then joined them in Blackwater Park;
      He was fond of white mice, but his background was dark;
      To share Laura's wealth he constantly sighed,
      And hatched a foul plot with Sir Percival Glyde.

      There were sudden departures and journeys by night,
      And Laura was switched for the Woman in White.
      The latter then very conveniently died,
      And was buried as 'Wife of Sir Percival Glyde.'

      Walter and Marian worked day and night
      To prove Laura wasn't the Woman in White.
      Sir Percival burned down a church on the side
      And proved he was neither a Sir nor a Glyde.

      Count Fosco was slain by the Mafia---alas!
      Ending up on a slab in the morgue behind glass.
      Walter gained his reward with fair Laura as bride---
      She'd grown sane at the death of Sir Percival Glyde.


symposium@thomaslovepeacock.net


the Thomas Love Peacock Society
the Later Latin Society