A guide to classical learning helps readers fill in the holes in their education as it looks at great works of fiction, autobiography, history, poetry, drama, and other genres and provides annotated listings of suggested readings. An engaging, accessible guide to educating yourself in the classical tradition. Acknowledgments 9(4) PART I BEGINNING: PREPARING FOR CLASSICAL EDUCATION Chapter 1 Training Your Own Mind: The Classical Education You Never Had 13(11) Chapter 2 Wrestling with Books: The Act of Reading 24(10) Chapter 3 Keeping the Journal: A Written Record of New Ideas 34(7) Chapter 4 Starting to Read: Final Preparations 41(16) PART II READING: JUMPING INTO THE GREAT CONVERSATION Chapter 5 The Story of People: Reading through History with the Novel 57(57) Chapter 6 The Story of Me: Autobiography and Memoir 114(49) Chapter 7 The Story of the Past: The Tales of Historians (and Politicians) 163(77) Chapter 8 The World Stage: Reading through History with Drama 240(67) Chapter 9 History Refracted: The Poets and Their Poems 307(98) Permissions 405(2) Index 407