--- product_id: 20125091 title: "The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had" price: "£38.50" currency: GBP in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/20125091-the-well-educated-mind-a-guide-to-the-classical-education store_origin: GB region: United Kingdom --- # The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had **Price:** £38.50 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had - **How much does it cost?** £38.50 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.co.uk](https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/20125091-the-well-educated-mind-a-guide-to-the-classical-education) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description The enduring and engaging guide to educating yourself in the classical tradition. Have you lost the art of reading for pleasure? Are there books you know you should read but haven’t because they seem too daunting? In The Well-Educated Mind , Susan Wise Bauer provides a welcome and encouraging antidote to the distractions of our age, electronic and otherwise. Newly expanded and updated to include standout works from the twenty-first century as well as essential readings in science (from the earliest works of Hippocrates to the discovery of the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs), The Well-Educated Mind offers brief, entertaining histories of six literary genres―fiction, autobiography, history, drama, poetry, and science―accompanied by detailed instructions on how to read each type. The annotated lists at the end of each chapter―ranging from Cervantes to Cormac McCarthy, Herodotus to Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Aristotle to Stephen Hawking―preview recommended reading and encourage readers to make vital connections between ancient traditions and contemporary writing. The Well-Educated Mind reassures those readers who worry that they read too slowly or with below-average comprehension. If you can understand a daily newspaper, there’s no reason you can’t read and enjoy Shakespeare’s sonnets or Jane Eyre. But no one should attempt to read the “Great Books” without a guide and a plan. Bauer will show you how to allocate time to reading on a regular basis; how to master difficult arguments; how to make personal and literary judgments about what you read; how to appreciate the resonant links among texts within a genre―what does Anna Karenina owe to Madame Bovary ?―and also between genres. In her best-selling work on home education, The Well-Trained Mind , the author provided a road map of classical education for parents wishing to home-school their children; that book is now the premier resource for home-schoolers. In The Well-Educated Mind , Bauer takes the same elements and techniques and adapts them to the use of adult readers who want both enjoyment and self-improvement from the time they spend reading. Followed carefully, her advice will restore and expand the pleasure of the written word. Review: There's more than there appears to be - Don’t let the spine fool you—Susan Wise Bauer has mastered the art of optical illusions. The Well-Educated Mind is jam-packed with information. Clear reading lists and down-to-earth guidance turn centuries of great books into an accessible roadmap for any self-taught reader. Review: Great Guide for Self-Education - Ms. Bauer certainly knows the material and she has designed a very thorough and intensive study program for those that want to obtain a classical education without spending the money and time to obtain one through a traditional brick-and-mortar graduate program. To be successful in the program that she lays out you must have a reading partner who is willing to do all the reading, journal his or her reactions, answer all the questions for each book, and meet with you to discuss. It's a commitment for you and your study buddy, but one that is well worth it. My only complaint is that Ms. Bauer details the study plan in several places throughout the introductory chapters and each time there are either new elements or some that seem to conflict with what she stated previously. I found it helpful to type up a document that combined and resolved some of the aforementioned issues and that listed the steps in an easy to follow format. That being said, I would still recommend this book to anyone that is serious about obtaining a classical education. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #63,373 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #3 in Literary Bibliographies & Indexes #4 in Education Bibliographies & Indexes #23 in Adult & Continuing Education (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 367 Reviews | ## Images ![The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61ndUpLXLgL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ There's more than there appears to be *by J***T on May 19, 2025* Don’t let the spine fool you—Susan Wise Bauer has mastered the art of optical illusions. The Well-Educated Mind is jam-packed with information. Clear reading lists and down-to-earth guidance turn centuries of great books into an accessible roadmap for any self-taught reader. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Great Guide for Self-Education *by W***? on October 15, 2020* Ms. Bauer certainly knows the material and she has designed a very thorough and intensive study program for those that want to obtain a classical education without spending the money and time to obtain one through a traditional brick-and-mortar graduate program. To be successful in the program that she lays out you must have a reading partner who is willing to do all the reading, journal his or her reactions, answer all the questions for each book, and meet with you to discuss. It's a commitment for you and your study buddy, but one that is well worth it. My only complaint is that Ms. Bauer details the study plan in several places throughout the introductory chapters and each time there are either new elements or some that seem to conflict with what she stated previously. I found it helpful to type up a document that combined and resolved some of the aforementioned issues and that listed the steps in an easy to follow format. That being said, I would still recommend this book to anyone that is serious about obtaining a classical education. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ It's never too late. *by K***E on January 29, 2016* The Well-Educated Mind does a wonderful job of explaining how to go about reading with a purpose in an approachable and non-pretentious way. And by books, I mean not just any books, but some of The Great Books (key impressive music); which to some like myself, may be slightly intimidating if you are a decade (or two) out of university. (And never got around to reading any of these books while in said university). The author's approach is very straight forward, but her writing is anything but dry. She gives practical ways to break the books (which are addressed by genre in different chapters) into digestible chunks which make tackling these works perhaps more approachable than they are without a class syllabus, facilitator, or general plan. I am happy to have found this book and would definitely recommend for anyone looking to expand their horizons and library with some of the "greats". It's never too late to read! ## Frequently Bought Together - The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had - The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome - The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/20125091-the-well-educated-mind-a-guide-to-the-classical-education](https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/20125091-the-well-educated-mind-a-guide-to-the-classical-education) --- *Product available on Desertcart United Kingdom* *Store origin: GB* *Last updated: 2026-06-30*