Lees Dumb Books
Discover the Lees Dumb Books collection—a curated reading list exploring wit, intellect, and literary depth. Featuring Seamus Heaney's *Beowulf*, John Gardner's *Grendel*, and Hermann Hesse's *Demian*, this list pairs classic poetry with thought-provoking fiction for smart, unconventional readers.
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Beowulf
by Seamus Heaney
Presents a new translation of the Anglo-Saxon epic chronicling the heroic adventures of Beowulf, the Scandinavian warrior who saves his people from the ravages of the monster Grendel and Grendel's mother.
Book
Grendel
by John Gardner
This classic and much lauded retelling of Beowulf follows the monster Grendel as he learns about humans and fights the war at the center of the Anglo Saxon classic epic. "An extraordinary achievement."—New York Times The first and most terrifying monster in English literature, from the great early epic Beowulf, tells his own side of the story in this frequently banned book. This is the novel William Gass called "one of the finest of our contemporary fictions."
