Read Zorba the Greek

Socrates on justice, the philosopher-king and the cave; the book Western philosophy replies to.

Aristotle on virtue as a habit and happiness as an activity; the golden mean.

Three brothers, a murdered father and the Grand Inquisitor; Dostoevsky's last novel.

Seven years in a Davos sanatorium arguing about Europe before 1914.

Harry Haller, half man and half wolf, and the Magic Theatre; Hesse's midlife crisis.

Meursault shoots an Arab on a beach because of the sun; Camus in a hundred pages.

Oran quarantined, Dr Rieux at work; Camus's novel of the Occupation and every epidemic since.

Roquentin in a Normandy town discovers that existence is absurd, starting with a chestnut root.