Life Lessons from Literature: Wisdom from 100 Classic Works

Book review by Deane Barker • • tags: literature, reading, books • 1 min read •
An image of the cover of the book "Life Lessons from Literature: Wisdom from 100 Classic Works"

This is a very light, fun book that profiles 100 famous works from history and why they matter – what larger life lesson can we draw from them.

Each work is given a quick summary of both the plot and the lesson. For example, here’s Crime and Punishment (a book I did not care for, incidentally):

Synopsis: A penniless former student plans and commits what he regards as a justifiable murder as a means of demonstrating his intellectual and moral superiority over others

Life Lesson: The rationalization of morality and ethics is futile as it does not reflect the complexity of the human mind nor address emotional concepts such as guilt, responsibility, and justice.

This is followed by a few paragraphs of discussion.

Again, this is a light book. It doesn’t go too deep on anything – it has to get through 100 titles, remember. I kept it next to my reading chair, and I read a few entries a day for about a month.

It did expose me to a lot of titles I had heard about, but didn’t know exactly what they involved. It’s best considered as a survey of historic literature.

Also, the book is beautiful. It’s a little hardback with a colorful cover – not a dust jacket; the design is printed on the hardback directly. It would be great small book to put on a coffee table.

(Also, read this instead of the awfully pompous The 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written.)

Book Info

Author
Joseph Piercy
Year
Pages
192
Acquired
  • I have read this book. According to my records, I completed it on .
  • A hardcover copy of this book is currently in my home library.

Here are some notes I took on the acquisition of this book:

Picked it up in Hatchard’s in St. Pancras station while taking a video of the book tower for my friend Peggy.

Links to this – Apposite February 24, 2024
This one comes from the root of “posit” which means “to assert.” This is also where we get “position” from, as a position is essentially an “assertion of place.” The prefix is not the Greek “a” (which would mean “opposite”) but rather the Latin “ad,” which means “toward.”
Links to this – Prosaic November 21, 2023
This is another word for “prose” as opposed to something more artistic like poetry or art.
Links from this – Crime and Punishment August 10, 2023
I know this is a classic, but I didn’t really enjoy it. It’s the story of an idiot who commits a murder. And when I say “idiot,” that’s not flippant – he’s written that way. The character is a failed student living in Saint Petersburg in the 19th century (I think it was called “Petrograd” back...
Links from this – The 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written April 8, 2021
I didn’t love this book. Note that the author is claiming the 100 “most influential” books, not the best (which is subjective anyway). I got annoyed with the arrogance of the author. He writes with a palpable disdain for anything he doesn’t like, particularly religion. (I mean, we get it – you’re...