Show HN: Alexandria, a New Way to Read the Classics(alexandria.wiki)

3 pointsby bobbyjgeorge12 เดือนที่ผ่านมา2 comments

Show HN: Alexandria, a New Way to Read the Classics

https://www.alexandria.wiki/

Alexandria is the first library where you can talk to a tutor — in the book itself — as you read.

Move at a contemplative pace in Lightning Mode, then ask Virgil — your Socratic guide — for context, questions, or counter-arguments.

Virgil blends the depth of the entire classics catalog with a pedagogy crafted by Professor Zohar Atkins and tailors every conversation to your interests.

Features:

• Lightning Mode — focus by reading one sentence at a time. • Virgil — an AI tutor that explains passages, challenges your thinking, follows your curiosity, and remembers what excites you. • Build and Share your Bookshelf — curate favorites, get smart recommendations, and send highlighted quotes to friends; social bookshelves turn passive libraries into shareable conversations. • Daily Sparks — one thought-provoking excerpt every morning, plus a guided conversation with Virgil. • 4,000+ Works — all the most iconic thinkers, from Plato and Sun Tzu to Nietzsche and Jane Austen, plus hidden gems for adventurous readers.

Our Mission: to inspire learning as a way of life.

Available on the App Store and coming soon to Google Play.

2 comments

jfengel12 เดือนที่ผ่านมา

Got Shakespeare? I'd be curious to see how well it handles some of the tricky lines I'm playing now.

(For some reason I'm finding Gloucester in King Lear oddly obscure. "The sea, with such a storm as his bare head/in hell-black night endured, would buoy up/and quench the stelled fires. All wrongs else subscribed/but I shall see the winged vengeance overtake such children." Stelled fire? Wrongs subscribed? I've got interpretations for those lines, but mostly I just live for that last line, which is awesome.)

Philosopheril12 เดือนที่ผ่านมา

I loved how my conversation about Lord Byron's Don Juan morphed into a discussion about the history of psychological realism. And I also learned, oddly, that William James, wrote in his letters about applying pragmatist lessons to fatherhood. I had no idea. Great conversations go to unexpected places. And AI is uniquely positioned to deliver on that.