MORE Teaching Co. courses---any recommendations on these?

[Michelle in MO]

Really, someone please shoot me before I buy any more of these! I know they go on sale frequently, but this catalog intrigued me. (If I stick around another year, they'll still be there!)

Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition--2nd Edition (with Elizabeth Vandiver, Thomas Noble, Ronald Herzman, Susan Sage Heinzelman, and James Heffernan)

William Shakespeare: Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies (with Peter Saccio)

The English Novel (with Timothy Spurgin)

The Iliad of Homer (Vandiver)
The Odyssey of Homer (Vandiver)

This one intrigued me:

Books That Have Made History: Books That Can Change Your Life (J. Rufus Fears)

How would Books That Have Made History: Books That Can Change Your Life compare with Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition? Which one is a better course, overall?

Thanks!

[Cedarmom]

We listened to the Homer lecture by Vandiver. It was fascinating. It greatly enriched our study. I plan on getting the one on Illiad when we do that book.

Cedarmom

[Jane in NC]

Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition--2nd Edition (with Elizabeth Vandiver, Thomas Noble, Ronald Herzman, Susan Sage Heinzelman, and James Heffernan)

...

The Iliad of Homer (Vandiver)
The Odyssey of Homer (Vandiver)



Hi Michelle,

We are most fortunate because the public library has a number of TC CDs or DVDs which I can borrow for three weeks at a time and renew. We have listened to some of Vandiver's lectures in the Great Authors series and all of Noble's. Herzman is terrific (with William Cook) in the Dante series, so I suspect his contribution in this series would also be worthwhile.

Although we did not listen to either the Iliad or Odyssey lectures by Vandiver, we greatly benefitted from her Aeneid series.

My most recent library loan is the TC series on Hinduism by Mark Muesse. We haven't listened to it yet since we haven't finished the Royal Shakespeare's recording of Antony and Cleopatra.

(Confession: my local library does not have these wonderful materials. The library in the next county does, however, so I pay $30 a year for my card. It is worth every penny!)

Jane

[Michelle in MO]

courses; I'm sure they carry many of them. Our small town public library is rather dull for my girls right now! We really could use a bigger library; we are the county seat in our county, but that all has to come from the "city fathers" (and mothers). They don't see the need, yet. My girls commented that we have a better library at home than the public library!:laugh:

At any rate, I'll save your comments, because I'd like to understand more about the great literature myself. If I end up going back to school, I think that would be my chosen area of focus. (I'd really like to study Latin more, but in our community I'd be in a school of one! Ha!)

Thank you for your input!

[Barb F. PA in AZ]

Really, someone please shoot me before I buy any more of these! I know they go on sale frequently, but this catalog intrigued me. (If I stick around another year, they'll still be there!)

Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition--2nd Edition (with Elizabeth Vandiver, Thomas Noble, Ronald Herzman, Susan Sage Heinzelman, and James Heffernan)

William Shakespeare: Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies (with Peter Saccio)

The English Novel (with Timothy Spurgin)

The Iliad of Homer (Vandiver)
The Odyssey of Homer (Vandiver)

This one intrigued me:

Books That Have Made History: Books That Can Change Your Life (J. Rufus Fears)

How would Books That Have Made History: Books That Can Change Your Life compare with Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition? Which one is a better course, overall?

Thanks!

Well, I'm familiar with all of these professors except for Timothy Spurgin. I have to say that Vandiver and Fears are my two favorite professors. There are others who are absolutely excellent (Peter Saccio is one), but these two not only teach, they fully capture your attention. Some courses can be exhausting to sit through even though you are enjoying the learning, but Vandiver and Fears perform their courses. They draw you in like storytellers. I think your best money would be spent on them. We own the Shakespeare lectures and we enjoyed them very much. We have them on audio, but since he actually has performances threaded throughout, I would rather have had the DVD's, I think.

Barb

[Hilary]

Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition--2nd Edition (with Elizabeth Vandiver, Thomas Noble, Ronald Herzman, Susan Sage Heinzelman, and James Heffernan)

The Iliad of Homer (Vandiver)
The Odyssey of Homer (Vandiver)



My older son and I have been listening to "Great Authors" since the beginning of the school year and we're up to Goethe (the last lecture by Susan Sage Heinzelman) ... so I can comment on the whole series exxcept for James Heffernan.

Overall, this has been an excellent series, although with only one lecture per author (Dante and Chaucer being the exceptions), the professor can't do much except skim the surface. Elizabeth Vandiver is one of our favorite profs. We've done The Iliad and Odyssey with her as well as Classical Mythology (really top-notch!). We had Thomas Noble for Western Civilization 1, and he's also an excellent lecturer, I think. I've done Dante and Confessions of St. Augustine with Ron Herzman and he is good ... although I think I like it better when he does the team-teaching approach. Susan Sage Heinzelman is very erudite and speaks without notes (this always impresses me ... Dr. Noble does it too) ... however, I've discovered that the neoclassical writers are not particularly my cup of tea. Maybe it's because we often watch these in the late afternoon, but I find myself dozing off toward the end of the lecture :001_smile:

I guess the problem with any survey course is that you don't get into much depth on any particular work. One lecture on The Iliad is naturally going to be less illuminating than a series of twelve. I think the greatest value it's had for my son is the systematic examination of the whole Western literary tradition. He's familiar with some of these authors, but hasn't ever had such a comprehensive view. And although I haven't required him to read any of the books discussed, he just finished reading the Inferno on his own, so I guess the course has whetted his appetite for at least some of these works. And, conversely, I don't think either of us is going to be reading Romance of the Rose anytime in the near future. :lol: (Although I must say that Dr. Noble's lecture on this work was one of the funniest we've heard in quite some time.)

[schmittgirlz]

We have enjoyed several teaching company lectures, but my girls really liked both the Iliad and the Odyssey by Elizabeth Van Diver!

HTH!

Clare

[nestof3]

Books That Have Made History: Books That Can Change Your Life (J. Rufus Fears)

I have not seen this one, but my son watched the Churchill teaching, and he said this man is his favorite teacher so far.

[Michelle in MO]

I guess the problem with any survey course is that you don't get into much depth on any particular work. One lecture on The Iliad is naturally going to be less illuminating than a series of twelve. I think the greatest value it's had for my son is the systematic examination of the whole Western literary tradition. He's familiar with some of these authors, but hasn't ever had such a comprehensive view. And although I haven't required him to read any of the books discussed, he just finished reading the Inferno on his own, so I guess the course has whetted his appetite for at least some of these works. And, conversely, I don't think either of us is going to be reading Romance of the Rose anytime in the near future. :lol: (Although I must say that Dr. Noble's lecture on this work was one of the funniest we've heard in quite some time.)

I would like a survey course, but I also wondered about this one as far as the level of depth. I'll have to keep watching the catalogues, because there would definitely be certain novels/types of literature about which I would like a more in-depth study.

Thank you!

[Anne/Ankara]

We have enjoyed the Great Authors and the Books that Made History series-- they are both excellent, very interesting and informative. Of course, even with 30 minutes on a topic, the lectures are not too detailed, but offer a very nice supplement to literature study. Both series are highly recommended!

[Basketmaker Amy]

Books That Have Made History: Books That Can Change Your Life (J. Rufus Fears) is on sale now...until April 10th. I've been thinking about getting it.

[NancyL]

I also purchase the History of World literature, but haven't watched it yet. I really like the Geology one, and there is a NEW Earth Science one out on sale right now. I am tempted because I feel that Earth science topics are going to be important in the future.

[Jane in NC]

I have better things to do than to persuade you to send your money to The Teaching Company, but I must tell you about Peter Saccio since you asked about his Shakespearian lectures previously.

The wonderful, wonderful public library in the adjacent county (to which I pay $30 annually for my card) had the Saccio Comedies, Histories, Tragedies set sitting on the shelf. We really don't have time to listen to all of it, but with Richard II and Henry IV on the horizon, I thought that we could just listen to the relevant part of the series.

My son was pretty wiped after the ACT test yesterday, but as we drove home we began listening to Professor Saccio who had us in the palm of his hand. My son had to pause the disk several times to discuss Saccio's ideas on the Theory of Kingship in his first lecture on Richard II. It was captivating!

Jane

[Michelle in MO]

things to do! I did listen to one of his series and thoroughly enjoyed them! I'm fairly easily persuaded to listen to others, too!

I think what I'm looking for, since I may possibly go back to school for a Master's in Lit. (if possible and practical), are in-depth studies of literature. Some of the courses are surveys, and some are more in-depth. A survey would be good, but I would love to study Shakespeare in-depth, Jane Austen too, and others.

No arm-twisting needed here!!!

:iagree:

[JFS in IL]

William Shakespeare: Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies (with Peter Saccio)

I LOVE this course - Prof. Saccio obviously both knows and loves his topic, and is an exceptional lecturer. This course is worth every penny!

[In The Great White North]

Do you think Saccio's Shakespeare talks would be OK for an 11 year old?

We have a lot of driving this summer, so I'm looking for something ds(16) and dd(11) will listen to. And this is at our library!

TIA