MAJOR BOOKS WE'LL STUDY
Term 1: Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles
Edition: Literary Touchstone Edition (must be this edition)
Publisher: Prestwick House, Inc. (June 1, 2005)
ISBN-10: 580495931
Oedipus Rex has never been surpassed for the raw and terrible power with which its hero struggles to answer the eternal question, "Who am I?" The play, a story of a king who--acting entirely in ignorance--kills his father and marries his mother, unfolds with shattering power; we are helplessly carried along with Oedipus towards the final, horrific truth. This vibrant, new translation invites its readers to lose themselves in the unfolding of this tragic tale--as suspenseful as a detective mystery, yet with an outcome long ago determined by Fate. (Amazon review)
Term 2: Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card
Publisher: Tor Science Fiction
ISBN-10: 0812550706
This science fiction novel, introduces students to Ender Wiggin, a 6 year old whose brilliance for military strategy requires him to spend his childhood preparing for the day he will lead a space fleet against an invading alien force. Ender’s sophisticated intellect is matched only by his highly-tuned ability to emphathize, and he recoils at the violence he must do to save the world from annihilation.
Term 3: The Chosen, by Chaim Potok
Publisher: Fawcett
ISBN-10: 0449213447
In 1940s Brooklyn, New York, an accident throws Reuven Malther and Danny Saunders together. Despite their differences (Reuven is a Modern Orthodox Jew with an intellectual, Zionist father; Danny is the brilliant son and rightful heir to a Hasidic rebbe), the young men form a deep, if unlikely, friendship. Together they negotiate adolescence, family conflicts, loss, love, and the journey to adulthood. (Amazon review)
Term 4: Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
Publisher: Del Rey
ISBN-10: 0345342968
In this classic, frightening vision of the future, firemen don't put out fires--they start them in order to burn books. Bradbury's vividly painted society holds up the appearance of happiness as the highest goal--a place where trivial information is good, and knowledge and ideas are bad. Guy Montag, hordes a secret cache of books. After fleeing to avoid arrest, Montag winds up joining an outlaw band of scholars who keep the contents of books in their heads, waiting for the time society will once again need the wisdom of literature. (Amazon review)