Worldly Wisdom: Great Books and the Meanings of Life

Published by Frederic C. Beil Publisher, 2008, hsrdcover, index, 554 p-ages, condition: as new.

The author engagingly explores some fifty classic works (mainly but not exclusively from the West) to elucidate their contents and draw out ideas valuable for understanding human life in this world and for living that life well. Worldly Wisdom has a distinctly humanistic slant, with a suggestion of a thinker's self-help book.

Sometimes the conversation about being a secular humanist and agnostic turns toward ethics and questions like "why be good?" Or, without God, questions like life's meaning and purpose. In supporting Torrey House Press we go by the philosophy that literature creates culture. Here James Sloan Allen examines 50 classic works and how they teach us to live life well.

And the summaries beat Cliff Notes or Wikipedia all to hell.

Worldly Wisdom: Great Books and the Meaning of Life is really a down-to-earth read. The author takes about fifty classics from philosophy, literature, criticism and history to draw out some of the major themes of the human experience. There may be those who question the classics he uses, the ones he omits and the conclusions he draws, but I think he does a credible job of depicting who we are, what we value and how we think.