This short, 150 page book serves a potent punch of drink. The mastermind behind my favorite history collection - his 11 volume History of Civilization - in this book lays down a series of "best of" lists, including the top 10 poets of all time, the top 12 dates of all time and the 100 most educational books of all time.
And all of it is written in Durant's gorgeous prose. As with Durrell in my most recent post, Durant's writing reads so beautifully that it only could have been written with great tenacity, skill and ardor.
At some point I will need to use the lists from this book to create new reading lists. I already added the philosopher poet Lucretius' De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of things) to my near term reading list based solely on Durant's inclusion of him as a top 10 poet of all time. I don't know if it was my euphoric experience while reading Durant's bio on Lucretius, or his citations from De Rerum that touched me so greatly, and so out of the blue.
I will gladly make that temporary jump to ancient Rome (from my current focus on ancient Greece) to explore Lucretius. Just one more reason to thank Durant for his vast contributions to literature.
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