Best Sellers Throughout History, Part 1

Whatever its literary merits, bestsellers must catch the imagination of the reading public in spectacular ways, though a work may not be a bestseller in its own day.  Historical bestsellers are fascinating because they provide a window on changing tastes and values. In this course, we read bestsellers from different periods and discuss their impact on society. These include selections from the Psalms and the poetry of the Sufi mystic, Rumi—spiritual bestsellers; selections from Virgil’s Aeneid—a Roman bestseller; Voltaire’s Candide—a bestseller from the Age of Enlightenment which enjoyed great success and great scandal in its own day; Baudelaire’s Flowers of Evil—a vilified bestseller and now a classic; as well as Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People and Benjamin Spock’s The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care—cultural bestsellers. All these works have captured readers throughout the ages and our age is no exception.