2014 Great Books Bracket – Elite 8

And so the end draws near. We – those of us who have voted – have narrowed down our list of sixty-four Great Books to just eight. Still standing are Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, both of which won their round of sixteen matchups easily, Plato’s Republic, which narrowly (51% of the vote) escaped the pesky Beowulf, Virgil’s Aeneid, and four books from Christendom: Augustine’s Confessions, Thomas à Kempis’ Imitation of Christ, Dante’s Divine Comedy, and Milton’s Paradise Lost.

That leaves these four fantastic Elite Eight matchups: The Iliad vs The Aeneid, The Imitation of Christ vs The Divine Comedy, The Odyssey vs The Confessions, and Paradise Lost vs The Republic.

Click here to see the updated bracket.

And click here to vote.

For those interested, here’s the more detailed breakdown of the Sweet Sixteen:

REGION A

(1) Iliad (88%) vs 5 Nicomachean Ethics (12%)
(2) Aeneid (77%) vs 6 Antigone (23%)

REGION B

(1) Odyssey (71%) vs 4 Centerbury Tales (29%)
(3) Augustine’s Confessions (70%) vs On the Incarnation (30%)

REGION C

(8) Imitation of Christ (58%) vs (5) Rule of St. Benedict (42%)
(2) Divine Comedy (75%) vs (3) Summa Theologica (25%)

REGION D

(4) Paradise Lost (65%) vs (8) Herodotus Histories (35%)
(2) Republic (51%) vs (11) Beowulf (49%)