Due to overwhelming interest we are launching a full second set of Reading the Greats Salons in an alternate timeslot! Claim your spot here.

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Sophocles, Homer, Plato, Machiavelli, Descartes, Wollstonecraft, Woolf, Brecht.

Join a 15-month adventure, and get a basic knowledge of the Western canon of literature...

“A classic does not necessarily teach us anything we did not know before. In a classic, we sometimes discover something we have always known (or thought we knew), but without knowing that this author said it first, or at least is associated with it in a special way. And this, too, is a surprise that gives a lot of pleasure, such as we always gain from the discovery of an origin, a relationship, an affinity.” - Italo Calvino

Over the course of 15 Salons, ii Hosts Tommy Collison and David McDougall will be discussing some of the most iconic works in the Western canon and their relevance to our lives today.

Each Salon will pair a discussion topic with significant works from the Western canon. Our goal is to give attendees a shared experience reading and discussing history’s iconic and influential texts. We hope to foster interesting conversations about how the “big ideas” of Western thought have shaped the modern world.

These Salons are designed as freeform discussions rather than panels. Audience members should expect to unmute themselves—questions, comments and discussion points are welcome (even if you haven’t read the book!)

In the same way that people who say that something has “vanished into thin air” are quoting Shakespeare (whether they know it or not), you might be surprised at how much of this is already familiar. :-)

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You are invited but not required to do some or all of the readings in advance. We have suggested a longer primary reading and shorter/lighter ancillary readings. On occasion, we’ll mention other longer works that you might come up in the discussion.

We expect (and hope!) that you'll find the Salon engaging and rewarding even with little to no familiarity of books under discussion.

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All Salons in the Reading the Greats series will be held on the first Sunday of each month (one exception: the second Sunday in January), at 2:30pm NYC time and 7:30pm London time.

With your series ticket you will be able to attend all 15 Salons:

Let Me First Do Some Great Thing: The Iliad - 10 January 2021
Good Lives Are Made So By Discipline: Antigone - 7 February 2021
The Business of Dying: The Last Days of Socrates - 7 March 2021
That Was One Good King: Beowulf - 4 April 2021
The Town and the City: The Canterbury Tales - 2 May 2021
The Wages of Sin: Inferno - 6 June 2021
Better to Be Feared Than Loved: The Prince - 4 July 2021
Doubt is the Origin of Wisdom: Meditations on First Philosophy - 1 August 2021
Is This a Dagger Which I See before Me?: Shakespeare - 5 September 2021
Beware for I Am Fearless: Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus - 3 October 2021
Liberty, Tradition, and the State: Reflections on the Revolution in France - 7 November 2021
Bourgeois Moralities: Pride and Prejudice - 5 December 2021
Selling and Surviving: Mother Courage and Her Children - 9 January 2022
Parties to Cover the Silence: Mrs. Dalloway - 6 February 2022
At War with Eastasia: Brave New World vs 1984 - 6 March 2022

More information: interintellect.com/thegreats

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Time zones:

11:30 am in San Francisco
2:30 pm in New York
7:30 pm in London
8:30 pm in Paris
10:30/11:30 pm in Dubai

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Why not add the ii Calendar to your calendar?

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For each of the Salons in this series, we award one participant free entry and send them a physical copy of the main reading as a gift - via the Interintellect Book Fund. Please apply at hello@interintellect.com.

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You will be sent a Zoom link before the event, when bookings close.

Find our online code of conduct here.

We have many more cool Interintellect events coming up - see here.

Reading the Greats: An Introduction to the Western Canon(Jan '21- March'22)