Love of literature keeps them reading--and debating.

The 28 people who crowded into Ed Hall’s living room in Rolling Hills Estates last Sunday evening came to talk about war.

“What are the insignificant restrictions limiting acts of war?” asked Hall, a retired Air Force colonel who had been commissioned as a discussion leader.

About 20 minutes later, Gail Andrews, the group’s other leader, posed her own question: “Who or what controls the objectives of war?”

So began the monthly meeting of the peninsula’s Great Books club founded 35 years ago by Vi Graham, now retired from a career as a teacher and social worker. Every month, the group, mostly composed of peninsula residents, gathers in a member’s home to debate the works of such literary and philosophical luminaries as Aeschylus, Chaucer, Freud, Homer and Machiavelli.

Last Sunday, the discussion focused on the writings of the 19th-Century Prussian army officer and war strategist Karl von Clausewitz. Even Graham, dedicated as she is to reading the masters, conceded that Von Clausewitz--and other authors that the club sometimes tackles--are far from her favorites.

“Some of these are so dry,” she said before the group had convened for the meeting. “But then we will get a good one like Henry James and ‘The Beast in the Jungle.’ ”

Graham’s club is believed to be one of the oldest stemming from the Chicago-based Great Books Foundation, which was founded in 1947 by philosopher Mortimer Adler and educator Robert Hutchins. By establishing Great Books reading groups, the two hoped to expose large numbers of people to the ageless issues and ideas of civilization.

Sondra Burchfield, who coordinates the foundation’s Adult Great Books program--another foundation reading program is geared toward youngsters--said that during the 1950s more than 10,000 Great Books reading groups existed around the country.

Now, however, the number has dwindled to about 2,000. One reason may be that the foundation itself in recent years has focused its energies on its program for younger readers, which involves more than 800,000 youngsters across the country, Burchfield said.

“The adult program was sort of put on the back burner and left to function by itself with no one coordinating it,” she said.

Graham, who lives in Rolling Hills Estates, said she decided to form her own Great Books club after she moved from Pasadena to the South Bay. Although the group’s membership varies, it has a loyal core of perhaps 15 to 20 people, she said.

Many of the loyalists have participated in the club for years, but Graham said the group is by no means “a senior citizens’ outfit.” Indeed, two daughters of one of the club’s first members now belong.

Graham is a little hard-pressed to explain why the club, which initially held its meetings in a savings and loan in Redondo Beach, has flourished for so long. But, she said, members “have a sense of commitment. And, of course, it is an unusual program in this world of TV and all the other jazz out there.”

Ethel Allen said she and her husband, Raymond, decided to join the club about a decade ago. Retired, and with their children grown, the two realized they now had time to read the books they previously did not have time to read, she said.

“I think everyone craves some intellectual stimulation,” she said.

The group follows the foundation’s guidelines, which call for a leader or two co-leaders to guide discussion sessions and encourage participants to develop their opinions of a particular book. The latter, according to Burchfield, is central to the philosophy of the Great Books Foundation.

“There is no one authority,” she said. “There is no one correct interpretation of, say, Shakespeare.”

Hall said that during the monthly meetings, discussions among members never become antagonistic, although they can become heated. And on Sunday, Hall, owing to his military background, spoke forcefully on his own interpretations of war. At one point, discussion grew pointed when the group ventured from Von Clausewitz to the 20th Century and Vietnam.

No one, however, seemed to disagree with Bob Bloomfield, a 25-year group member, when he offered his opinion as to what Von Clausewitz seemed to be driving at in his writings.

“If you want to win a war, you can’t be kind to your enemy,” Bloomfield said. “You have to go all out and kill them. His morality was (that) you beat the devil out of your enemy.”

With Von Clausewitz behind them, the group has now moved on to James. In March, it will be Aeschylus, then Homer and Maimonides. In April, some of the group’s members plan to join members of other Great Book clubs scattered throughout Southern California for a Great Books Weekend at Highland Springs Resort near Palm Springs.

There, works by Austen, Freud and Chaucer will be talked about. Allen said some Great Book club members have attended the annual weekend retreats for 30 years straight. Because everyone who attends shares a love for literature, there are never any problems making new friends.

“It doesn’t matter what table you sit down at,” she said. “You have a lot to talk about to break the ice.”