Edward Hodnett

[from front/back book flaps of cover] In these days, when most of us who are employed work only 40 of the 168 hours in a week and look ahead to several years of leisure after retirement, the occupations of the cultivated mind are the only steadfast defense against the perils of boredom and of frittering away the best portion of our lives in unsubstantial and unproductive pursuits. THE CULTIVATED MIND EDWARD HODNETT This book holds out to the reader three chief qualities to be attained: a desire for understanding, a capacity for discrimination, and a central concern for mankind. They are the stuff of the cultivated mind. Without them there is no real satisfaction to be found in our daily encounter with living. These qualities are best achieved, says Edward Hodnett, through a continuing knowledge of science, literature, and the arts. Dr. Hodnett opens the way to an appreciation of the major figures and major works in each field through a series of explorations -- into biography with Plutarch and Strachey; the scientific vision with Newton, Darwin, Pasteur; the human predicament in the works of Homer, Cervantes, Dostoyevsky, Faulkner; life as reflected on the stage of the Elizabethans or O'Neill; and music, the immortal discourse of a Bach or Beethoven. Introducing the reader to the creative minds who have become the great teachers - companions who are warm, lively, sympathetic, inspiring - Dr. Hodnett makes the way to individual growth a rich and lively intellectual experience.

A discussion of the influence of Dante upon 20th century culture, and the publication of The Inferno of Dante, translated by Robert Pinsky, illustrated by Michael Mazur, and published by Farrar, Strauss & Giroux in 1994.