Join us this summer!
@Oxford. Amherst. Stanford. Dublin.
Discover Great Art & Literature Together. Engage in Lively Discussion.
Have you ever wished you could share an evening with Shakepeare, dine with Dali, or talk with Toni Morrison? Now is your chance to join the great conversations of world literature and art.
Great Books Online offers adults the opportunity to explore timeless works and humanity’s biggest ideas through exciting, expertly led seminars. And you can do it all in a friendly, supportive atmosphere of fun and discovery.
Classical Explorations - Starting April 20
Is Absalom, Absalom! the greatest American novel? Faulkner thought it might be. The Nobel Prize Committee weighed it along with The Sound and the Fury and awarded him the Prize for Literature. The literary world came ablaze in the 1930s as Absalom, Absalom! and Gone with the Wind caught American imagination and awakened the world’s curiosity about the South.
Dive into this great American classic with us! Travel back in time to William Faulkner’s imaginary Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, before, during, and after the Civil War. Unravel the tangled memories of its residents to explore the South’s relationship to its own history in Absalom, Absalom!. Multiple narrators jumping through time add layers of richness to this fascinating tale of a quest for power and position. Absalom, Absalom! is a powerful exploration of human passions, family, power, race, social hierarchy, and the South.
This series will be led by longtime Great Books Academic Directors Noah Rosenblum, JD.
Noah Rosenblum earned his JD from Yale Law School and is pursuing his Ph.D. in intellectual history at Columbia University. Noah is the recipient of a Javits Fellowship from the US Department of Education, a Seigel Fellowship from the Consortium for Intellectual and Cultural History, and is a former Yale Law School Legal History Fellow. He is a graduate of Harvard and Deep Springs College.
Everybody has a story. Everyday people telling their stories, modern memoir, is more important now that ever. With the loss of the art of letter writing, it is these stories that will connect us with each other and future generations. With the use of writing prompts and workshopping, students will develop the skills necessary to plot out and create their own memoir.
Led by Academic Director Jonathan Volk, a teacher of creative writing at University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
| Course | Day & Time | Grades | Dates |
| Classical Explorations | Eastern | ||
| Six-Week Session | Tuesdays at 8:00pm | ADULT | April 20 - May 25 |
Connect with Readers & Thinkers from Across the Globe.
Live, weekly classes put you in touch with the best thinking and writing from throughout history.
Small-group seminars and workshops cultivate intellectual community and build meaningful connections among peers.
Enjoy Programs that Challenge and Enrich. Learn Alongside World-Class Faculty.
All classes are led by our distinguished faculty of Academic Directors. These skilled professors and scholars hail from world-class institutions across the globe. Masters of Socratic pedagogy known as Shared Inquiry, they have been inspiring a love of literature in our students for nearly 20 years.
Join us for shared inquiry sessions that provide the exciting, literary exploration. Call/text us at 203-612-9470 to register today!
2021 Sessions in Progress
As Herman Melville writes in Moby-Dick, There is a "sweet mystery about this sea, whose gently awful stirrings seem to speak of some hidden soul beneath.”
Sweet Mysteries of the Deep: Water and the Sea of our Imagining will probe the depths of literature by exploring what water has historically signified to the human imagination. And we will consider how writers have made use of water and sea in their work—as a battleground, as an abyss, and as an historical archive. Text selections will include works by William Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Derek Walcott, Hector Tobar, and others!
This series will be co-led by longtime Great Books Academic Directors Dr. Amos Rothschild and Max Suechting.
Dr. Amos Rothchild is the Associate Professor of English at St. Thomas Aquinas College. He is a graduate of Yale University, Fordham University, and Boston University.
Max Suechting is a doctoral candidate in Stanford University’s Program in Modern Thought & Literature. He is a graduate of Amherst College.
GBO Classical Explorations - Feb. 23
Dubliners: Live from Dublin and led by a native Dubliner! Join us to read and discuss James Joyce's timeless work in this six week program. Explore the most famous and iconic stories of Dublin and meet the bars, theatres, and streets that make these stories come alive. Students will be expected to read an approximately 30-page section of the novel for each class meeting and prepare a minimum of two discussion questions.
Led by Academic Director Sam Ford, a performer, teacher, scholar of Irish literature, native Dubliner, and ultimate tour guide to Irish culture.
Classical Explorations Quick Facts:
Join us for a six-week investigation into When Dreams Become Reality. Explore how imagination and dreams help shape how we see the world and give voice to what we might try to do within it. Our shared inquiry methodology enables you to simply show up, read expertly-chosen selections of literature together, and learn deeply through Socratic-style discussion. Readings include works by Elizabeth Bishop, Delmore Schwartz, Jorge Luis Borges, and others.
Led by Dr. Ilan Stavans and Noah Rosenblum, JD. Read more about these longtime Great Books Academic Directors below.
GBO Seminar Series Quick Facts:
Sam Ford will lead the Classic Explorations: The Dubliners on Feb. 23.
Sam Ford
Sam Ford is a writer, performer, and teacher with a passion for Dublin literature, history, and culture. A native Dubliner, he received his MSc in Urban Studies from University College London and his BA from Trinity College Dublin. The ultimate tour guide to Dubin, Sam has worked with severl great Dublin institutions including the James Joyce Centre and International Literature Festival Dublin. He has performed at the Abbey, the Peacock, the Samuel Beckett, and several other prominent Irish theaters.
Jonathan Volk will lead the Writer's Workshop this spring.
Jonathan Volk received his MFA at the University of Massachusetts MFA Program for Poets & Writers, where he also teaches creative writing. He has work published in Black Warrior Review, DIAGRAM, Caketrain and elsewhere. His honors include the Harvey Swados Prize in Fiction and a nomination for the Pushcart Prize
Great Books Online is excited to announce that two of our most distinguished professors, Dr. Ilan Stavans & Noah Rosenblum JD, are leading our seminar series exclusively for adults, currently in progress.
Dr. Ilan Stavans is Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities, Latin American and Latino Cultures at Amherst College, host of NPR’s In Contrast, and publisher of Restless Books, devoted to world literature in translation. Celebrated by the The New York Times as one of the foremost authorities on Latino literature and culture, Dr. Stavans is the recipient of many awards and honors including the Guggenheim Fellowship. His work, translated into a dozen languages, has been adapted into stage and film.
Noah Rosenblum earned his JD from Yale Law School and is pursuing his Ph.D. in intellectual history at Columbia University. Noah is the recipient of a Javits Fellowship from the US Department of Education, a Seigel Fellowship from the Consortium for Intellectual and Cultural History, and is a former Yale Law School Legal History Fellow. He is a graduate of Harvard and Deep Springs College.
Share With Friends
Everything is better when shared. Please spread the word to your friends, colleagues, and fellow booklovers, and register today!
Please make use of our Concierge Service.
Call/text us at 203-612-9470 and we will be happy to enroll you.
When you call us, you will find out about special offers and how to bring a friend to an upcoming session!
Or enroll online here:
Registration Form for Adults
