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The BOOK OF VIRTUES | 
| Author: William J. Bennett
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $22.00
Buy Used: $2.49
You Save: $19.51 (89%)
New (38) Used (84) Collectible (4) from $2.49
Rating:  52 reviews
Sales Rank: 29021
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 832
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 8.7 x 5.8 x 2.1
ISBN: 0684835770
Dewey Decimal Number: 808.8038
EAN: 9780684835778
ASIN: 0684835770
Publication Date: September 5, 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: a spot of white out inside, typical reading wear
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Product Description
Responsibility. Courage. Compassion. Honesty. Friendship. Persistence. Faith. Everyone recognizes these traits as essentials of good character. In order for our children to develop such traits, we have to offer them examples of good and bad, right and wrong. And the best places to find them are in great works of literature and exemplary stories from history. William J. Bennett has collected hundreds of stories in The Book of Virtues, an instructive and inspiring anthology that will help children understand and develop character -- and help adults teach them. From the Bible to American history, from Greek mythology to English poetry, from fairy tales to modern fiction, these stories are a rich mine of moral literacy, a reliable moral reference point that will help anchor our children and ourselves in our culture, our history, and our traditions -- the sources of the ideals by which we wish to live our lives. Complete with instructive introductions and notes, The Book of Virtues is a book the whole family can read and enjoy -- and learn from -- together.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 47 more reviews...
 what life is about December 10, 2008
This book will make you a better person. THe first chapter has stories teaching self-discipline. I haven't got farther than that yet, but I love it thus far! Great for children AND adults. What America needs today.
A Timeless Book for All Ages September 29, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book makes the point that virtue in both public and private affairs is becoming rare today. Vice does seem to be in its ascendancy. "Old fashioned" virtues such as faithfulness, loyalty and purity are mocked today, but vices like greed and selfishness seem to be promoted everywhere.
Maybe we have taken Aquinas' deadly sins and turned them into our virtues. We all know the old list: sloth, gluttony, envy, and so on. For example, modern advertising has institutionalized the sin of covetousness.
Therefore, it is very refreshing to find a book that unashamedly promotes virtue. William Bennett has put together a plethora of stories, poems, and adages that promote virtue. Many of the stories that the over-50s would have grown up with, but that many young people today would never have heard of, are put together in this great collection.
10 virtues are covered: self-discipline; responsibility; compassion; friendship; work; courage; perseverance; loyalty; honesty; and faith. For each one there are a number of stories, essays and poems included, and these hit home the moral of each particular virtue. In the section on courage, for example, one finds such classics as Jack and the Beanstalk, David and Goliath, Chicken Little, Ulysses and Cyclops, Hansel and Gretel, William Tell, and the "Liberty or Death" speech of Patrick Henry.
This volume serves not just as a guide to great works of moral education, but also to the great works of literature. The range of authors and sources is very impressive: Plato, the Brothers Grimm, Shakespeare, Mark Twain, the Bible, Robert Frost, C.S. Lewis, Abraham Lincoln, Longfellow, and so on.
When reading these great stories, we improve our cultural literacy, and we refine our moral senses. Having been exposed to great writers, to great literature, and to great moral truths is a powerful combination. Young people as well as old will be motivated and inspired to live a more virtuous life after reading or re-reading these moral stories. In this age that promotes vice and that mocks virtue, an anthology such as this serves as a needed corrective.
The Book of Virtues--Well Named August 4, 2008
The Book of Virtues by Wm J Bennentt is a collection of fiction and non-fiction stories, each with a moral attached. Before you run back to the crime flicks and sexy, steamy fare on TV, take another look. You know how good it feels to take a cool shower on a hot day? Well .....Virtues by Bennett is a mini-bath for the soul. I like the fact that these tales are not just for children; after all, we big kids need reminders to love our neighbors,do good. do the RIGHT thing, etc. And don't let the author's rather conservative views scare you off! These stories just hold timeless truths you've known since you were little. You've just forgotten.
Diane A Schute New to New Jersey
A book for all parents/mentors March 10, 2008
Every parent and grandparent, every mentor, every Sunday school teacher, every educator should a copy of this book. This should be taught to our children.
Best way to get the point across February 3, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am 54 years old and was raised in a way that the poetry and stories mean something to me because of the era in which I was raised. Purity was prized, discipline by spanking was administered and appreciated in time because the alternative was much worse, which created self-discipline in most things. Honesty, responsibility, compassion, courage and faith have been lost in the last twenty years with the "me" generations getting everything they want with instant gratification. The children of today are about to come crashing down hard with the realities of life without virtues. It isn't easy. Nothing is free, and Bennett has compiled a tasteful way of learning some of the lessons without experiencing them personally, which I can tell you, my generation has experienced in spades. Sure, he could have put other stories in that could have expressed it differently, but these were the stories that moved him most, and when we write our "Book of Virtues" we can add the stories that mean the most to us. Reading the "American Book of Poetry" is where it started. Keep up the reading. Keep up the digging and striving for the virtues listed in the book. America needs people of virtue, people of honesty, even people of faith, because right now, the selfish "Gen-X" generation and their children are about to get our nation blown up by the very arrogance the British had that said we know better because of who we are and what we know. Sadly, they know nothing. They have no true hardship or challenges that forge the steel in their spines. Most can't even throw a punch, because violence has been bred out of them. Well, wake up, people, the world is violent, the world is harsh and tough, and without the virtues of self-discipline, faith and courage, they won't have the perseverance to survive.
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