The Whole Five Feet: What the Great Books Taught Me About Life, Death, and Pretty Much Everthing Else

Synopsis

This unique memoir of reading the classics to find strength and wisdom &“makes an elegant case for literature as an everyday companion&” (The New York Times Book Review). While undergoing a series of personal and family crises, Christopher R. Beha discovered that his grandmother had used the Harvard Classics—the renowned &“five foot shelf&” of great world literature compiled in the early twentieth century by Charles William Eliot—to educate herself during the Great Depression. He decided to follow her example and turn to this series of great books for answers—and recounts the experience here in a smart, big-hearted, and inspirational mix of memoir and intellectual excursion that &“deftly illustrates how books can save one&’s life&” (Helen Schulman). &“As he grapples with the death of his beloved grandmother, a debilitating bout with Lyme disease and other major and minor calamities, Beha finds that writers as diverse as Wordsworth, Pascal, Kant and Mill had been there before, and that the results of their struggles to find meaning in life could inform his own.&” —The Seattle Times &“An important book [and] a sheer blast to read.&” —Heidi Julavits

Copyright:

2009

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

Book Size:

272 Pages

ISBN-13:

9780802199904

Related ISBNs:

9780802144850

Publisher:

Grove Atlantic

Date of Addition:

09/15/23

Copyrighted By:

Christopher R. Beha

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

Nonfiction, Biographies and Memoirs, Literature and Fiction, Language Arts

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.