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Episode 151: The Literary Life Podcast Reading Challenge 2023
13 december 2022 · 1 uur 42 min
This week on The Literary Life podcast our hosts introduce the 2023 Reading Challenge! Angelina, Cindy and Thomas are excited to share with you about all the categories on this year's Literary Life Bingo Reading Challenge! You can download your own copy of the challenge here, as well as check out our past reading challenges. Scroll down in the show notes to see a list of the links and books mentioned in this episode. You can use the hashtag #LitLifeBingo on social media so we can all see what everyone is reading in 2023! Lees meer
Don't forget to shop the House of Humane Letters Christmas Sale now through the end of the year.
The Literary Life Back to School online conference recordings are also on sale at Morning Time for Moms right now.
Commonplace Quotes:
Much that we call Victorian is known to us only because the Victorians laughed at it.
George Malcolm Young, from Portrait of an Age
I think that beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will or sense them. The least we can do is try to be there.
Annie Dillard, from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Reading is to the mind as exercise is to the body.
Joseph Addison
Thunderstorms
by William H. Davies
My mind has thunderstorms, That brood for heavy hours: Until they rain me words, My thoughts are drooping flowers And sulking, silent birds. Yet come, dark thunderstorms, And brood your heavy hours; For when you rain me words, My thoughts are dancing flowers And joyful singing birds.
Book and Link List:
Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie
Episode 14: "The Adventures of a Shilling" by Joseph Addison
Episode 3: The Importance of Detective Fiction
Episode 16: "Why I Write" by George Orwell
Reading Challenge Downloads
The Letters of Jane Austen by Jane Austen
Abigail Adams: Letters ed. by Edith Gelles
The Letters of Dorothy Osborne to William Temple ed. by G. C. Moore Smith
Few Eggs and No Oranges by Vere Hodgson
Letters to an American Lady by C. S. Lewis
Letters of C. S. Lewis by C. S. Lewis
Letter…
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Episode 150: "Dracula" by Bram Stoker, Ch. 18-End
6 december 2022 · 1 uur 49 min
On The Literary Life podcast this week, Angelina, Cindy and Thomas are back to wrap up their series on Bram Stoker's Dracula. They open with their commonplace quotes then begin diving into the major plot points and the connections being made. Angelina and Cindy discuss what happens to Mina, especially in relation to the idea of the New Woman versus the Angel in the House. Thomas and Angelina talk about Dracula's background and his connection with Satan seen more clearly here at the end of the book. They all share thoughts on the Christian images that are increasingly brought out as the story line progresses. Lees meer
Head over to the HouseofHumaneLetters.com so you don't miss out on their Christmas sale. Kelly Cumbee will also be teaching a course on The Chronicles of Narnia and medieval cosmology in February, and registration is now open.
Now is the time to get your copy of Hallelujah: Cultivating Advent Traditions with Handel's Messiah in time for celebrating Advent with your family. You can also get a recording of the Advent to Remember webinar at MorningTimeforMoms.com.
Commonplace Quotes:
Rumor is a pipe
Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures,
And of so easy and so plain a stop
That the blunt monster with uncounted heads,
The still-discordant wav'ring multitude,
Can play upon it.William Shakespeare, from Henry IV, Part 2
There is the double tragedy of the prophet–he must speak out so that he makes men dislike him, and he must be content to believe that he is making no impression whatsoever.
Ronald Knox
Be wary of all earnestness.
John D. MacDonald
Fairy tales, then, are not responsible for producing in children fear, or any of the shapes of fear; fairy tales do not give the child the idea of the evil or the ugly; that is in the child already, because it is in the world already. Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon i…
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Episode 149: "Dracula" by Bram Stoker, Ch. 12-17
22 november 2022 · 1 uur 15 min
Our hosts are back on The Literary Life podcast today to continue our series on Bram Stoker's Dracula. This week we are covering chapters 12-17, and in the introduction to this episode, Angelina, Cindy and Thomas discuss the purpose of the Gothic novel in reorienting us to realize there is more to the world than the physical and empirical. As they cover the plot in these chapters, other ideas shared are the effective blending of modern technology with ancient wisdom in fighting evil, the many mythological and fairy tale elements in this story, the contrast between the true woman and the false woman, the parallels to Paradise Lost, and so much more. Lees meer
Sign up for the mailing list at HouseofHumaneLetters.com so you don't miss out on the upcoming Christmas sale. Kelly Cumbee will also be teaching a course on The Chronicles of Narnia and medieval cosmology in February, and registration is now open.
Now is the time to get your copy of Hallelujah: Cultivating Advent Traditions with Handel's Messiah in time for celebrating Advent with your family. You can also get a recording of the Advent to Remember webinar at MorningTimeforMoms.com.
Commonplace Quotes:
He was one of that not uncommon sort of men who, when they want something, must believe that they are right in wanting it.
Milton Waldman
Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night
Sailed off in a wooden shoe–
Sailed on a river of crystal light,
Into a sea of dew.
"Where are you going, and what do you wish?"
The old moon asked of the three.
"We have come to fish for the herring fish
That live in this beautiful sea;
Nets of silver and gold have we!"
Said Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod.Eugene Field, from "Wynkin, Blynken, and Nod"
During the period when the forces of Christianity were nearly spent and materialism had dislodged spiritual values, the Gothic novelists planned their novels with an awareness of the Deity and the consciousness of a just fate. The villains learn in due course that the wages of sin is death.
Devendra Va…
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Episode 148: "Dracula" by Bram Stoker, Ch. 8-11
15 november 2022 · 1 uur 3 min
Welcome back to The Literary Life podcast today and our series on Bram Stoker's Dracula. This week Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins, and Thomas Banks cover chapters 8-11 of the book. Angelina explains both the "New Woman" and "Angel in the House" ideas of the Victorian era and makes some observations about Dr. Seward's interactions with Renfield in contrast to the nuns ministrations to Jonathan Harker. We are also introduced to Dr. Van Helsing in this section of the book as the foil for Dracula, and we quickly learn that he is more than just a medical man. Our hosts discuss Stoker's own medical knowledge and both the historical and metaphorical context of the blood transfusion procedures in these chapters. Lees meer
Thomas will be offering a webinar on Henry VIII and his times, which you can register for at HouseofHumaneLetters.com. Kelly Cumbee will also be teaching a course on The Chronicles of Narnia and medieval cosmology in February, and registration is now open.
Now is the time to get your copy of Hallelujah: Cultivating Advent Traditions with Handel's Messiah in time for celebrating Advent with your family. You can also get a recording of the Advent to Remember webinar at MorningTimeforMoms.com.
Commonplace Quotes:
Once the imagination has been awakened, it is procreative. Through it we can give more than we were given, say more than we had to say. This is a beautiful double proposition, that art enlarges our repertoire for being, and that it further enables a giving onwards of that enriched utterance, that broadened perception.
Lewis Hyde
The passions are more powerful than the gods. If the gods speak, which they seldom do, the passions drown their voices.
Walter Savage Lander
The gods love blood.
Leconte de Lisle
What can the world be to him who lives for thought, if there be no supreme and perfect Thought? None but such poor struggles after thought as he finds in himself? Take the eternal Thought from the heart of things, no longer can any beauty be real,…
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Episode 147: "Dracula" by Bram Stoker, Ch. 3-7
8 november 2022 · 1 uur 21 min
On The Literary Life Podcast this week, our hosts continue with part 2 of their series on Bram Stoker's Dracula. After sharing their commonplace quotes, Angelina, Cindy and Thomas begin discussing how to properly read Dracula and other books written in this tradition. (Hint: It's not the Freudian or psychoanalytical approach!) Angelina argues that Bram Stoker was trying, among other things, to reintroduce the traditional forms and metaphors into the modern era. Thomas shares the dark etymology of the name Dracula and how that relates to the image of Satan in this character. Cindy brings up Jonathan's memory of Mina when he is in his darkest moments and the power of love against evil. Lees meer
Now is the time to get your copy of Hallelujah: Cultivating Advent Traditions with Handel's Messiah in time for celebrating Advent with your family. You can also get a recording of the Advent to Remember webinar at MorningTimeforMoms.com.
Thomas will be offering a webinar on Henry VIII and his times, which you can register for at HouseofHumaneLetters.com. Kelly Cumbee will also be teaching a course on The Chronicles of Narnia and medieval cosmology in February, and registration is now open.
Commonplace Quotes:
I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.
Samuel Johnson
For, indeed, a change was coming upon the world, the meaning and direction of which even still is hidden from us, a change from era to era. The paths trodden by the footsteps of ages were broken up; old things were passing away, and the faith and the life of ten centuries were dissolving like a dream. Chivalry was dying; the abbey and the castle were soon together to crumble into ruins; and all the forms desires, beliefs, convictions of the old world were passing away, never to return. A new continent had risen up beyond the western sea. The floor of heaven, inlaid with stars, had sunk back into an infinite abyss of immeasurable space; and the firm earth itself, unfixed from its foun…
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Episode 146: Introduction to "Dracula" by Bram Stoker, Ch. 1 & 2
1 november 2022 · 1 uur 28 min
On this week's episode of The Literary Life Podcast, Angelina Stanford is joined as always by Thomas Banks and Cindy Rollins for the opening of their series on Bram Stoker's Dracula. Today our hosts focus on the background and historical context for this piece of literature, as well as going over the highlights of the first two chapters. They talk about the question of the role of the monster in literature in modernity versus its historical interpretation. Understanding the form of the Gothic novel and the time period in which this book was written are important aspects of approaching Dracula. Lees meer
Keep listening next week for more about how to read this book. We will be covering chapters 3-7.
Get the latest news from House of Humane Letters by signing up for their e-newsletter today!
Commonplace Quotes:
And yet, unless my senses deceive me, the old centuries had, and have, powers of their own which mere modernity cannot kill.
Bram Stoker
That children should have the peace of God as a necessary condition of growth is a practical question. If we believe it is their right, not to be acquired by merit nor lost by demerit, we shall take less upon ourselves and understand that it is not we who pasture the young souls. The managing mother who interferes with every hour and every occupation of her child's life, all because it is her duty, would tend to disappear. She would see with some amusement why it is that the rather lazy, self-indulgent mother, is often blessed with very good children. She, too, will let her children be, not because she is lazy, but being dutiful, she sees that, give children opportunity and elbow room, and they are likely to become natural persons, neither cranks nor prigs. And here is the hope for society–children so brought up are hardly likely to become managing persons in their turn, inclined to intrude upon the lives of others and be rather intolerable in whatever relation.
Charlotte Mason
Men of science spend much time and effort in the a…
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Episode 145: The Medieval Mind of C. S. Lewis: A Conversation with Jason M. Baxter
18 oktober 2022 · 1 uur 16 min
On The Literary Life Podcast this week, our hosts Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins, and Thomas Banks sit down for a special conversation with Jason Baxter, author of The Medieval Mind of C. S. Lewis. Jason is a speaker, writer, and college professor who writes primarily on medieval thought and is especially interested in Lewis' ideas. You can find out more about him and his books at JasonMBaxter.com. Lees meer
Our hosts and Jason discuss a wide range of ideas, including the values of literature, the sacramental view of reality, why it is important to understand medieval thought, the "problem" of paganism in Lewis' writings, and how to approach reading ancient and medieval literature.
Be back next week when we will begin digging into Bram Stoker's Dracula together and learning more about this late Victorian Gothic novel. It's not what you might think!
Get the latest news from House of Humane Letters by signing up for their e-newsletter today!
Commonplace Quotes:
My part has been merely that of Walter Scott's Old Mortality, who busied himself in clearing the moss, and bringing back to light the words, on the gravestones of the dead who seemed to him to have served humanity. This needs to be done and redone, generation after generation, in a world where there persists always a strong tendency to read newer writers, not because they are better, but because they are newer. The moss grows fast, and ceaselessly.
F. L. Lucas
It is the memory of time that makes us old; remembering eternity makes us young again.
Statford Caldecott
It is my settled conviction that in order to read old Western literature aright, you must suspend most of the responses and unlearn most of the habits you have acquired in reading modern literature.
C. S. Lewis, from "De Descriptione Temporum"
What then is the good of–what is even the defense for–occupying our hearts with stories of what never happened and entering vicariously into feeling which we should try to avoid in our own person?…The neares…
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Episode 144: "Hard Times" by Charles Dickens, Bk. 3, Ch. 4-End
11 oktober 2022 · 1 uur 36 min
On this week's episode of The Literary Life Podcast, our hosts wrap up their series on Hard Times by Charles Dickens. Angelina opens the conversation about the book by highlighting Dickens' masterful ability to tie up all the loose ends in his stories. They cover not only the major plot points here at the end of the book, but talk about the craft of Dickens and continue to teach us how to read this type of story. We see each character's full arc and the positive changes that come when people choose repentance versus the fate of those who remain stubbornly on the road to destruction. Lees meer
Join us next time for a special conversation with Jason Baxter, author of The Medieval Mind of C. S. Lewis.
After that, we will be digging into Bram Stoker's Dracula together and learning more about this late Victorian Gothic novel. It's not what you might think!
Head over to MorningTimeforMoms.com to get signed up for Dawn Duran's webinar on "A Reasoned Patriotism," taking place later this week!
Get the latest news from House of Humane Letters by signing up for their e-newsletter today!
Commonplace Quotes:
It is not the business of poetry to go about distributing tracts.
Andrew Lang
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing people of very ordinary literary ability that they could write excellent continuations of The Screwtape Letters.
Fred Sanders
In the Bible, the opposite of Sin, with a capital 'S,' is not virtue – it's faith: faith in a God who draws all to himself in his resurrection.
Robert Farrar Capon
Reviewers who have not had time to reread Milton have failed for the most part to digest your criticism of him, but it is a reasonable hope that of those who heard you in Oxford, many will understand henceforward that when the old poets made some virtue their theme they were not teaching but adoring, and that what we take for the didactic is often the enchanted.
C. S. Lewis
Say not the Struggle nought Availeth
by Arthur Hugh Clough
Say not the struggle…
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Episode 143: "Hard Times" by Charles Dickens, Bk. 3, Ch. 1-3
4 oktober 2022 · 1 uur 35 min
On The Literary Life this week our hosts cover the next section of Hard Times by Charles Dickens. Angelina opens the conversation highlighting the structure of the book and the storytelling devices Dickens uses in this book. Cindy talks about the failure of educational systems in general, and the confrontation between Louisa and her father. Thomas shares a little about Jeremy Bentham and his utilitarian economic theory in relation to Hard Times. One of the main points they discuss in today's episode is the importance of motherhood and the quiet work that goes on in the family unit. Lees meer
Head over to MorningTimeforMoms.com to get signed up for Dawn Duran's webinar on "A Reasoned Patriotism."
Commonplace Quotes:
Persuasion enters like a sunbeam, quietly and without violence.
Jeremy Taylor
To me the greatness of the story, the horror of the story, and the threat to humanity the story portrays lie in the fact that Frankenstein has usurped the power, not of God, but of women. He has made a man without a mother. His science has eliminated the principle of femininity from the creation of human life.
Through the miracle of science a woman can now medicate her body so that men may use it for pleasure without consequence or attachment.
Andrew Klavan
In the first place, we naturally wish to help the students in studying those parts of the subject where we have most help to give and they need help most. On recent and contemporary literature their need is least and out help least. They ought to understand it better than we, and if they do not then there is something radically wrong either with them or with the literature. But I need not labour the point. There is an intrinsic absurdity in making current literature a subject of academic study, and the student who wants a tutor's assistance in reading the works of his own contemporaries might as well ask for a nurse's assistance in blowing his own nose.
C. S. Lewis, from "Our English Syllabus"
Death and the Lady
by Mary Eli…
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Episode 142: "Hard Times" by Charles Dickens, Book 2, Ch. 6-9
27 september 2022 · 1 uur 39 min
Welcome back to The Literary Life this week and the continuation of our series on Hard Times by Charles Dickens. After some autumnal chit-chat, our hosts Angelina, Cindy, and Thomas dive into the plot of the end of Book 2. They open discussing Stephen's fate and Tom Gradgrind's destructive, devouring nature. They highlight Mrs. Sparsit and her similarities to a harpy and other imagery surrounding her denoting evil. Some other ideas discussed are good intentions with bad results, the concept of the fallen woman in Victorian times, Louisa's homecoming and confession, and the failure of a formula in imparting virtue. Lees meer
Head over to MorningTimeforMoms.com to get signed up for Dawn Duran's webinar on "A Reasoned Patriotism."
Commonplace Quotes:
Beware of the superficial knowledge of cold facts. Beware of sinful ratiocination, for it kills the heart, and when heart and mind have died in a man, there art cannot dwell.
Caspar David Friedrich
I don't think they are noticeably worse at reading or writing than they were all those decades ago, though they're less likely to have a lot of experience with the standard academic essay (introduction, three major points, conclusion) — which I do not see as a major deficiency. That kind of essay was never more than a highly imperfect tool for teaching students how to read carefully and write about what they have read, and, frankly, I believe that over the years I have come up with some better ones.
Alan Jacobs, from Snakes and Ladders
The hours of unsponsored, uninspected, perhaps even forbidden, reading, the ramblings, and the "long, long thoughts" in which those of luckier generations first discovered literature and nature and themselves are a thing of the past.
C. S. Lewis, from "Lilies that Fester"
A Daughter of Eve
by Christina Rossetti
A fool I was to sleep at noon,
And wake when night is chilly
Beneath the comfortless cold moon;
A fool to pluck my rose too soon,
A fool to snap my lily.My garden-plot I have not kept;
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Episode 141: "Hard Times" by Charles Dickens, Book 2, Ch. 1-5
20 september 2022 · 1 uur 12 min
The Literary Life Podcast's new episode this week continues our series on Hard Times by Charles Dickens. After Angelina ties up a few loose ends from Book 1, Thomas leads us into Book 2 and introduces us to Mr. Harthouse. Cindy highlights the dangers of not allowing children learn self-government as illustrated in the character of Tom Gradgrind. They then look again at Stephen Blackpool and his position as the martyr in the story. Our hosts also discuss Dickens' focus on demonstrating the problems facing people in his day, not moralizing or trying to present solutions. Lees meer
Head over to MorningTimeforMoms.com to get signed up for Dawn Duran's webinar on "A Reasoned Patriotism."
You can also get the replay of Angelina's mini-class on The Taming of the Shrew at houseofhumaneletters.com.
Commonplace Quotes:
It is ill for a country, Gentlemen – I fear we must acknowledge it – when her destiny passes into the guidance of professors.
Arthur Quiller-Couch, from "Studies in Literature"
It is the old story. Utilitarian education is profoundly immoral in that it defrauds a child of the associations which should give him intellectual atmosphere.
Charlotte Mason
That evil may spring from the imagination, as from everything except the perfect love of God cannot be denied. But infinitely worse evils would be the result of its absence. Selfishness, avarice, sensuality, cruelty, would flourish tenfold; and the power of Satan would be well established ere some children had begun to choose. Those who would quell the apparently lawless tossing of the spirit, called the youthful imagination, would suppress all that is to grow out of it. They fear the enthusiasm they never felt; and instead of cherishing this divine thing, instead of giving it room and air for healthful growth, they would crush and confine it–with but one result of their victorious endeavors–imposthume, fever, and corruption. And the disastrous consequences would soon appear in the intellect likewise which they wors…
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Episode 140: "Hard Times" by Charles Dickens, Book 1, Ch. 11-16
13 september 2022 · 1 uur 22 min
Today on The Literary Life Podcast, our hosts continue their series on Charles Dickens' Hard Times. Angelina, Cindy and Thomas open the conversation with their commonplace quotes, which all lead into the discussion of Hard Times. They start out highlighting once again the fairytale and allegory aspects of this story, including the setting of Coketown. Together they talk about the two sides of Sissy Jupe's education, along with the situations and portrayals of the other key characters in this section. A large part of the discussions centers around the ideas of input and output versus sowing and reaping. Lees meer
Purchase the recordings of our 2022 Back to School Conference at MorningTimeforMoms.com. That is also where you can get signed up for Dawn Duran's webinar on "A Reasoned Patriotism."
You can also get the replay of Angelina's mini-class on The Taming of the Shrew at houseofhumaneletters.com.
Commonplace Quotes:
The ways of authorship are dusty and stony, and the stones are only too handy for throwing at the few that, deservedly or undeservedly, have made a name.
Andrew Lang, from "How to Fail in Literature"
To taboo knowledge is not to secure innocence. We must remember that ignorance is not innocence, and also that ignorance is the parent of insatiable curiosity.
Charlotte Mason
Early in 1851, Dickens suggested in Household Words that a second exhibition be held of "England's sins and negligences." When he finally went to the Crystal Palace, he described it as "terrible duffery." He wrote in July 1851, "I find I am used up by the exhibition. I don't say there is nothing in it. There is too much. I have only been twice. So many things bewildered me. I have a natural horror of sights, and the fusion of so many sights in one has not decreased it. I'm not sure that I have seen anything but the fountain and perhaps the Amazon. It is a dreadful thing to be obliged to be false, but when anyone says, 'Have you seen…?' I say, 'Yes', because if I don't he'll explain it…
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Episode 139: "Hard Times" by Charles Dickens, Bk. 1, Ch. 1-10
6 september 2022 · 1 uur 48 min
On this week's episode of The Literary Life, we begin our fall series on Charles Dickens' Hard Times. Angelina, Cindy and Thomas start out the book chat by covering some of the differences between this book and other novels of his, as well as how to approach Dickens in general. They also discuss misrepresentations of Dickens as a social reformer, the allegorical and fairy tale elements of his works, and what keys to look for as you read through Hard Times. Thomas talks about Utilitarianism in educational reform, and Cindy highlights the ideas of Charlotte Mason in connection with Victorian times. Angelina brings out the references to imagination in these first chapters and the danger of distorting the child's imagination. Lees meer
Purchase the recordings of our 2022 Back to School Conference at MorningTimeforMoms.com. That is also where you can get signed up for Dawn Duran's webinar on "A Reasoned Patriotism."
You can also get the replay of Thomas' webinar on Evelyn Waugh or register for Angelina's mini-class on The Taming of the Shrew at houseofhumaneletters.com.
Commonplace Quotes:
But already the Utilitarian citadel had been more heavily bombarded on the other side by and lonely and unlettered man of genius. The rise of Dickens is like the rising of a vast mob. This is not only because his tales are indeed as crowded and populous as towns: for truly it was not so much that Dickens appeared as that as hundred Dickens characters appeared.
G. K. Chesterton, from The Victorian Age in Literature
The first qualification for judging any piece of workmanship from a corkscrew to a cathedral is to know what it is–what it was intended to do and how it is meant to be used.
C. S. Lewis, from A Preface to Paradise Lost
Never be without a really good book on hand. If you find yourself sinking to a dull, commonplace level, with nothing particular to say, the reason is probably that you are not reading, and therefore, not thinking.
Charlotte Mason, as quoted by Essex Cholmondele…
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Episode 138: In Search of the Austen Adaptation: Sense and Sensibility
2 augustus 2022 · 1 uur 49 min
Today on The Literary Life Podcast we bring you another fun episode in our "In Search of the Austen Adaptation" series. Hosts Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins and Thomas Banks are joined by resident film aficionado, Atlee Northmore to discuss film adaptations on Sense and Sensibility. The conversation opens by revisiting the question of what makes a good adaptation of a book when translating it for the screen. They talk about the challenges of showing modern audiences the characters and situations as Jane Austen meant them to be understood. Atlee gives a brief overview of the lesser known film adaptations, as well as a more in depth discussion of the 1995 and 2008 versions. You can access the PDF he created with links to watch here. Lees meer
You are not too late to join in this year's Back to School Online Conference! Go to MorningTimeforMoms.com to register and get in on the great talks, always live or later!
Commonplace Quotes:
Sound principles that are old may easily be laid on the shelf and forgotten, unless in each successive generation a few industrious people can be found who will take the trouble to draw them forth from the storehouse.
Thomas Ruper, as quoted by Karen Glass
His senile fury was not exhausted by endless repetition.
Eric Linklater
'Remember, no one is made up of one fault, everyone is much greater than all his faults,' and then she would add with a smile: 'I find it much easier to put up with people's faults than with their virtues!'
Charlotte Mason, as quoted by Essex Cholmondeley
The great abstract nouns of the classical English moralists are unblushingly and uncompromisingly used: good sense, courage, contentment, fortitude, some duty neglected, some failing indulged, impropriety, indelicacy, generous candor, blameable distrust, just humiliation, vanity, folly, ignorance, reason. These are the concepts by which Jane Austen grasps the world. In her we still breathe the air of the Rambler and Idler. All is hard, clear, definable; by some mode…
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Episode 137: Why Pastors Should Read Fiction
26 juli 2022 · 1 uur 56 min
This week on The Literary Life podcast with Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins and Thomas Banks, we have a very special episode for you. Our hosts are joined by guests Dan Bunting and Anthony Dodgers, both of whom are pastors, for a discussion on why pastors should read fiction books. Dan is also host of the the Reading the Psalms podcast. Angelina starts off the conversation by asking why these men would prioritize taking literature classes. Anthony shares about his own literary life journey and how rediscovering literature has helped him personally. Dan talks about the book club that he and a couple of his pastor friends have and what kinds of books they read together. They discuss many other deep topics and crucial questions that we hope will be encouraging and thought-provoking to everyone who listens to and shares this episode. Lees meer
Join us for the 2022 Back to School Conference, "Education: Myths and Legends" happening live online this August 1st-6th. Our special guest speakers will be Lynn Bruce and Caitlin Beauchamp, along with our hosts Cindy Rollins, Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks. Learn more and register today at Morning Time for Moms.
Commonplace Quotes:
If education is beaten by training, civilization dies.
C. S. Lewis, from "Our English Syllabus"
How am I a hog and me both?
Flannery O'Connor
He who has done his best for his own time has lived for all times.
Freidrich Schiller
Whoever wants to become a Christian, must first become a poet.
St. Porphyrios of Kafsokalivia
It is hard to have patience with those Jeremiahs, in press or pulpit, who warn us that we are "relapsing into paganism". It might be rather fun if we were. It would be pleasant to see some future Prime Minister trying to kill a large and lively milk-white bull in Westminster Hall. But we shan't. What lurks behind such idle prophecies, if they are anything but careless language, is the false idea that the historical process allows mere reversal; that Europe can come out of Christi…
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Episode 136: Two for '22 Reading Challenge Check-In
19 juli 2022 · 1 uur 41 min
This week on The Literary Life podcast our hosts give an update on their progress with the "Two for '22" Literary Life Reading Challenge. Angelina, Cindy and Thomas share their commonplace quotes, then begin going over each category and talking about their progress and the various books they have chosen so far. Scroll down in the show notes for all the book titles mentioned and affiliate links to them on Amazon. Lees meer
Download the adult reading challenge PDF here, and the kids' reading challenge PDF here. The Literary Life Commonplace Books published by Blue Sky Daisies are always available for purchase, as well!
Join us for the 2022 Back to School Conference, "Education: Myths and Legends" happening live online this August 1st-6th. Our special guest speakers will be Lynn Bruce and Caitlin Beauchamp, along with our hosts Cindy Rollins, Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks. Learn more and register today at Morning Time for Moms.
Check out Episode 3: The Importance of the Detective Novel.
Commonplace Quotes:
Nobody seems great to his dwarf.
Par Lagerkvist
What is true of nature is also true of freedom. The half-baked Rousseau-ism in which most of us have been brought up has given us a subconscious notion that the free act is the untrained act. But of course, freedom has nothing to do with the lack of training. We are not free to move until we have learned ot walk. We are not free to express ourselves musically until we have learned music. We are not capable of free thought unless we can think. Similarly, free speech cannot have anything to do with the mumbling and grousing of the ego. Free speech is cultivated and precise speech, which means that there are far too many people who are neither capable of it nor would know if they had lost it. A group of individuals who retain the power and desire of genuine communication is a society. An aggregate of egos is a mob.
Northrop Frye
He had had a choice, after all. The army had been keen to keep him, even with half his leg…
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Episode 135: The Literary Life of Jone Rose
12 juli 2022 · 1 uur 29 min
Welcome back to this long awaited return of The Literary Life podcast and a new "Literary Life of…" interview episode with Angelina, Cindy and their guest Jone Rose. Jone is a "super-fan" of the podcast and is a homeschool mom living in North Carolina. Today Angelina starts off the interview asking about Jone's childhood reading life and school experience. Jone shares how her own adult literary education didn't start until after she had been homeschooling her own children for several years. In addition to discussing the redemption of Jone's own education, they talk about what her reading life looks like now, how narration helps make connections and increase understanding, asking better questions, and so much more! Lees meer
Join us for the 2022 Back to School Conference, "Education: Myths and Legends" happening live online this August 1st-6th. Our special guest speakers will be Lynn Bruce and Caitlin Beauchamp, along with our hosts Cindy Rollins, Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks. Learn more and register today at Morning Time for Moms.
Commonplace Quotes:
Surely this great writer would provide me with a definitive definition which showed me all the answers. He didn't, and I was naive to expect him to. Generally, what is more important than getting watertight answers is learning to ask the right questions.
Madeleine L'Engle
Stories are able to help us to become more whole, to become named; and naming is one of the impulses behind all art, to give a name to the cosmos we see, despite all the chaos.
Madeleine L'Engle
I am inclined to think that her work is in danger of being overlaid by too many interpreters and the simplicity of her message needs preserving.
Essex Cholmondeley
from Ode: Intimations of Immortality
by William Wordsworth
Though nothing can bring back the hour Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower; We will grieve not, rather find Strength in what remains behind; In the primal sympathy Which having been must ever be; In the soothing thoughts…
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Episode 134: "The Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Grahame, Part 4
7 juni 2022 · 1 uur 15 min
In this week's episode of The Literary Life, our hosts wrap up their series on The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. Angelina, Thomas and Cindy talk about these final chapters of the book, covering some key ideas such as the siren song of the Sea Rat, Toad's inability to see himself rightly, the echoes of Homer's Odyssey, examples of bad discussion questions, and what makes this such a lasting book. Lees meer
It's not too late to join Cindy's Summer Discipleship group! Head over the MorningTimeforMoms.com to register.
Thomas will be teaching an introductory course on Russian Literature in July 2022. Learn more and register at houseofhumaneletters.com.
Commonplace Quotes:
Secrets had an immense attraction for him, because he never could keep one.
Kenneth Grahame
It is a reasonable hope that those who heard you in Oxford, many will understand henceforth that when the old poets made some virtue their theme, they were not teaching, but adoring, and that which we take for the didactic is often the enchanted.
C. S. Lewis
A childhood without books–that would be no childhood. That would be like being shut out from the enchanted place where you can go and find the rarest kind of joy.
Astrid Lindgren
Mr. Toad's Song
by Kenneth Grahame
The world has held great Heroes,
As history-books have showed;
But never a name to go down to fame
Compared with that of Toad!The clever men at Oxford
Know all that there is to be knowed.
But they none of them knew one half as much
As intelligent Mr. Toad!The animals sat in the Ark and cried,
Their tears in torrents flowed.
Who was it said, " There's land ahead " ?
Encouraging Mr. Toad!The Army all saluted
As they marched along the road.
Was it the King? Or Kitchener?
No. It was Mr. Toad!The Queen and her Ladies-in-waiting
Sat at the window and sewed.
She cried, " Look! who's that handsome man? "
They answered, " Mr. Toad. "Book List:
Preface to Paradise Lost by C. S. Lewis
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
Seacrow Isla…
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Episode 133: "The Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Grahame, Part 3
31 mei 2022 · 1 uur 21 min
On The Literary Life podcast this week, our hosts are joined in their discussion of The Wind in the Willows by Kelly Cumbee. Angelina, Cindy, Thomas and Kelly talk about chapters 7-8, focusing special attention on a section of this book that presents a potential problem for some readers. Angelina opens with background on the Enlightenment and Romanticism, the concept of "the Numinous," and the popularity of the Pan character in Edwardian times. Thomas gives us a classical picture of who Pan was in mythology. Kelly then speaks to the Medieval understanding of the figure of Pan and the pastoral tradition along with their connections with Christ. They also address concerns over neo-paganism in relation to this book. If you want more discussion on mythology in literature, tune in to Episode 60: Why Read Pagan Myths. Lees meer
Cindy's 2022 Morning Time for Moms Summer Discipleship group is now open for registration. The theme this year is "Laughter and Lament." Head over to morningtimeformoms.com to find out more and sign up!
Thomas will be teaching an introductory course on Russian Literature in July 2022. Learn more about his classes, as well as Kelly Cumbee's classes, and register at houseofhumaneletters.com.
Commonplace Quotes:
Dictionaries are like watches. The worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.
Samuel Johnson
"Here I am, sitting at a little oak table where in old times possibly some fair lady sat to pen, with much thought and many blushes, her ill-spelt love letter, and writing in my diary in shorthand all that has happened since I closed it last. It is the nineteenth century up-to-date with a vengeance. And yet, unless my senses deceive me, the old centuries had, and have, powers of their own which mere 'modernity' cannot kill."
Bram Stoker
This malady of unbelief, again, is common to serious minds, educated to examine all things before they know the things they criticise by the slow, sure process of assimilating ideas. If …
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Episode 132: "The Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Grahame, Part 2
24 mei 2022 · 1 uur 38 min
Today on The Literary Life podcast, our hosts continue their discussion of The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. Angelina, Cindy and Thomas kick off the book discussion by clarifying some confusion over the definition of a picaresque novel. They share some thoughts on the how stories communicate to us in a unique way that cannot easily be expressed in any other way. Other ideas brought up in this episode are the following: the home as a refuge from the world, the centrality of food and drink, friendship with an addict, the problem of trying to use books to teach virtue, and more! Lees meer
Cindy's 2022 Morning Time for Moms Summer Discipleship group is now open for registration. The theme this year is "Laughter and Lament." Head over to morningtimeformoms.com to find out more and sign up!
Thomas will be teaching a webinar on Napoleon Bonaparte later this month, as well as an introductory course on Russian Literature in July 2022. Learn more and register at houseofhumaneletters.com.
Commonplace Quotes:
A work of art speaks a truth we can't speak outright: the truth of the human experience. Love, joy, grief, guilt, beauty–no words can communicate these. We can only represent them in stories and pictures and songs. Art is the way we speak the meaning of our lives.
Andrew Klavan
He is led more by his ears than his understanding, taking the sound of words for their true sense…His ill-luck is not so much in being a fool, as in being put to such pains to express it to the world, for what in others is natural, in him (with much ado) is artificial.
Thomas Overbury, in "A Mere Scholar"
Granted that the average man may live for seventy years, it is a fallacy to assume that his life from sixty to seventy is more important than his life from five to fifteen. Children are not merely people: they are the only really living people that have been left to us in an over-weary world. Any normal child will instinctively to agree with your own American poet, Walt Whitman, when he sa…
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Episode 131: "The Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Grahame, Part 1
17 mei 2022 · 1 uur 40 min
Grahame. Angelina, Thomas and Cindy set out to introduce this book in its historical and literary context, as well as address a few of the challenges people may have on their first reading of The Wind in the Willows. They also discuss some other pertinent topics such as Edwardian cultural concerns, the form of this novel, the rebirth images in the opening chapters, and the echoes of this book in other literature. Lees meer
Cindy's 2022 Morning Time for Moms Summer Discipleship group is now open for registration. The theme this year is "Laughter and Lament." Head over to morningtimeformoms.com to find out more and sign up!
Thomas will be teaching a webinar on Napoleon Bonaparte later this month, as well as an introductory course on Russian Literature in July 2022. Learn more and register at houseofhumaneletters.com.
Commonplace Quotes:
There is no vice so simple but assumes/ Some mark of virtue on his outward parts.
William Shakespeare, from The Merchant of Venice
A boat will not answer to the rudder unless it is in motion. The poet can work upon us only as long as we are kept on the move.
C. S. Lewis, from his Preface to Paradise Lost
One does not argue about The Wind in the Willows. The young man gives it to the girl with whom he is in love, and, if she does not like it, asks her to return his letters. The older man tries it on his nephew, and alters his will accordingly. The book is a test of character. We can't criticize it, because it is criticizing us. But I must give you one word of warning. When you sit down to it, don't be so ridiculous as to suppose that you are sitting in judgement on my taste, or on the art of Kenneth Grahame. You are merely sitting in judgment on yourself. You may be worth: I don't know, but it is you who are on trial.
A. A. Milne
Sonnet to the River Otter
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Dear native brook! wild streamlet of the West!
How many various-fated years have passed,
What happy and what mournful hours, since last
I skimmed the smoo… -
Episode 130: "The Enchanted April" Film Adaptations
3 mei 2022 · 1 uur 37 min
Our Literary Life podcast hosts are back this week, along with Atlee Northmore, to wrap up their discussion of The Enchanted April with some thoughts on the various film adaptations of this enchanting book. After expanding on their commonplace quotes, Angelina, Cindy, Thomas and Atlee start the film talk with the "dreadful" 1935 RKO version. Then they move on to dig in to how Enchanted April was and brought to the big screen in 1991 and why it worked so well as an adaptation of the novel. Lees meer
Our next book will be The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham, starting May 17th, so be sure to join us for that as well!
Cindy's 2022 Morning Time for Moms Summer Discipleship group is now open for registration. The theme this year is "Laughter and Lament." Head over to morningtimeformoms.com to find out more and sign up!
Thomas will be teaching an introductory course on Russian Literature in July 2022. Learn more and register at houseofhumaneletters.com.
Commonplace Quotes:
No matter how much experience we may gather in life, we can never in life get the dimension of experience that the imagination gives us. Only the arts and sciences can do that; and of these, only literature gives us the whole sweep and range of human imagination as it sees itself. It seems to be very difficult for many people to understand the reality and intensity of literary experience.
Northrop Frye
Education is always an individual endeavor. In terms of a future renewal, much of it will depend on a commitment to individualism, something that has been much maligned in recent years. We hear so much trendy, tedious talk about how bad individualism is and how we need to think in terms of "the group." The problem is that the group usually offers conformity, not genuine community.
Morris Berman
And yet, we are still being taught that fairy tales and myths are to be discarded as soon as we are old enough to understand "reality." I received a disturbed and angry letter from a young mother who told me t…
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Episode 129: "The Enchanted April" by Elizabeth von Arnim, Ch. 12-22
26 april 2022 · 1 uur 32 min
This week on The Literary Life podcatst, Angelina, Cindy and Thomas continue their discussion of The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim, on chapters 12-22. Angelina and Thomas begin the conversation sharing some thoughts on modern literature and why we don't hear of modern authors like Elizabeth von Arnim among "the academy." Cindy tells us what stood out to her most in the second half of the book and the surprising turns von Arnim takes in the storyline. Angelina and Thomas also talk about the types of books they enjoy, and Cindy brings up the longings and fears of the various characters. The metaphors and fairy tale concepts found in this book are, of course, major topics of the conversation. Lees meer
Return next week when we will discuss the film versions of The Enchanted April. Our next book will be The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham, starting in May, so be sure to join us for that as well!
Cindy's 2022 Morning Time for Moms Summer Discipleship group is now open for registration. The theme this year is "Laughter and Lament." Head over to morningtimeformoms.com to find out more and sign up!
Thomas will be teaching an introductory course on Russian Literature in July 2022. Learn more and register at houseofhumaneletters.com.
Commonplace Quotes:
Keeping up with the Joneses was a full time job with my mother and father. It was not until many years later when I lived alone that I realized how much cheaper it was to drag the Joneses down to my level.
Quentin Crisp
Here is a matter which sometimes causes uneasiness to parents: they are appalled when they think of the casual circumstances and chance people that may have a lasting effect upon their children's characters. But their part is, perhaps, to exercise ordinary prudence and not over-much direction. They have no means of knowing what will reach a child; whether the evil which blows his way may not incline him to good, or whether the too-insistent good may not predispose him to evil. Perhaps the forces of…
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Episode 128: "The Enchanted April" by Elizabeth von Arnim, Ch. 1-11
19 april 2022 · 1 uur 39 min
Welcome back to The Literary Life podcast with Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins and Thomas Banks. This week our hosts begin their discussion of The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim, covering chapters 1-11. Thomas gives some interesting biographical information about von Arnim, and Angelina shares some perspective on appreciating the art and the life of artist. Cindy highlights the fact that we see only caricatures of the women in England, and it isn't until they get to Italy that we begin to see their real selves. Angelina also points out that all the women are on identity quests in this story. Angelina unpacks some of the metaphors in this book and the Dante-esque images, in addition to the key place beauty has in the story. Lees meer
Commonplace Quotes:
Whoso maintains that I am humbled now
(Who await the Awful Day) is still a liar;
I hope to meet my Maker brow to brow
And find my own is higher.
Frances Cornford, "Epitaph for a Book Reviewer"
"(The) sufferer is by definition a customer."
Wendell Berry, from The Art of the Commonplace
Beauty will save the world.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Sonnet 98
by William Shakespeare
From you have I been absent in the spring, When proud-pied April, dressed in all his trim, Hath put a spirit of youth in everything, That heavy Saturn laughed and leaped with him. Yet nor the lays of birds, nor the sweet smell Of different flowers in odour and in hue, Could make me any summer's story tell, Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew: Nor did I wonder at the lily's white, Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose; They were but sweet, but figures of delight Drawn after you, – you pattern of all those. Yet seem'd it winter still, and, you away, As with your shadow I with these did play.
Book List:
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
Support The Literary Life:
Become a patron of The Literary Life podcast as part of the "Friends and Fellows Community" on Patreon, and get some amazing bonus content! Thanks for your s…
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Episode 127: The Literary Life of Kay Pelham
29 maart 2022 · 1 uur 46 min
On The Literary Life podcast today, our hosts are bringing you another "Literary Life Of" interview episode. This week's guest is Kay Pelham, a lifelong reader, veteran homeschooling mother, and accomplished pianist. After sharing their commonplace quotes, Angelina, Cindy and Kay dig into their conversation about the journey of Kay's reading life. She shares a little about her family of story-tellers and readers, her personal reading versus school studies, and how her reading life changed as a young adult. Kay also talks about how she came to homeschool using Charlotte Mason's philosophy. The discussion turns to Kay's self-education journey as an older adult and she gives encouragement for anyone coming to this later in life. You can read Kay's own thoughts on books and more at KayPelham.com. Lees meer
Join us this spring for our next Literary Life Conference "The Battle Over Children's Literature" featuring special guest speaker Vigen Guroian. The live online conference will take place April 7-9, 2022, and you can go to HouseofHumaneLetters.com for more information.
Commonplace Quotes:
When children come to school, they can read and speak. When they leave school they can do neither the one nor the other.
Arthur Burrell, from "Recitation, the Children's Art" in The Parent's Review
It is my settled conviction that in order to read Old Western Literature aright, you must suspend most of the responses and unlearn most of the habits you have acquired in reading modern literature.
C. S. Lewis
Mythology is the embryo of literature and the arts, not of science, and no form of art has anything to do with making direct statements about nature, mistaken or correct. Similarly, as science does not grow out of mythology, so it can never replace mythology. Mythology is recreated by the poets in each generation, while science goes its own way.
Northrup Frye
Mozart
by Maurice Baring
The sunshine, and the grace of falling rain,
The fluttering daffodil, the lilt of bees,
The blosso… -
Episode 126: "The Abolition of Man" by C. S. Lewis, Ch. 3
22 maart 2022 · 1 uur 42 min
On today's episode of The Literary Life, our hosts wrap up their series on The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis. Angelina kicks off today's conversation about chapter 3 with more exploration and clarification of the concept of "the Tao." Cindy talks about the importance of respect for the past and how much we have lost by letting go of that. Thomas highlights the fact that so many education theorists were men who never had reared children and the difference that a mother's experience makes. One of the main themes of this discussion is the state of education and Lewis' prescient insight into our current cultural climate. Lewis also goes beyond criticizing scientism by laying out his vision for good science. Lees meer
We will be back next week with a "Literary Life of…" interview with a surprise guest. After that we will take a short break for the conference, and return in April with a read along of The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim.
Join us this spring for our next Literary Life Conference "The Battle Over Children's Literature" featuring special guest speaker Vigen Guroian. The live online conference will take place April 7-9, 2022, and you can go to HouseofHumaneLetters.com for more information.
Commonplace Quotes:
Only in destroying I find ease for my relentless thoughts.
Satan in Paradise Lost, by John Milton
…the fact that the story does not turn on children, and does not foster that self-consciousness, the dawn of which in the child is, perhaps, the individual "Fall of Man."
Charlotte Mason
The physical sciences, good and innocent in themselves, had already begun to be warped, had been subtly maneuvered in a certain direction. Despair of objective truth had been increasingly insinuated into the scientists; indifference to it, and a concentration upon mere power, had been the result.
C. S. Lewis, in That Hideous Strength
Who Has Seen the Wind?
by Christina Rossetti
Who has seen the wind? Neither I nor you: But when the leaves hang trembling, The wind …
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Episode 125: "The Abolition of Man" by C. S. Lewis, Ch. 2
15 maart 2022 · 1 uur 27 min
On The Literary Life podcast this week, Angelina, Cindy and Thomas continue their series of discussions on The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis. They open the conversation with their commonplace quotes and give us a working definition of debunking. You can also read a fantastic post on debunking from Kelly Cumbee's blog here. Other topics of this conversation include "the tao," objective reality, utilitarianism, finding wisdom, and how this book speaks to our current culture. Lees meer
Kelly Cumbee will be teaching a webinar on The Tempest by William Shakespeare this Thursday, March 17, 2022 at 5pm Eastern, so head over to HouseofHumaneLetters.com to register today.
Join us this spring for our next Literary Life Conference "The Battle Over Children's Literature" featuring special guest speaker Vigen Guroian. The live online conference will take place April 7-9, 2022, and you can go to HouseofHumaneLetters.com for more information.
Commonplace Quotes:
An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy.
A Scottish proverb, as quoted by Joseph Addison
"Well, at any rate there's no Humbug here. We haven't let anyone take us in. The Dwarfs are for the Dwarfs."
"You see," said Aslan. "They will not let us help them. They have chosen cunning instead of belief. Their prison is only in their own minds yet they are in that prison; and so afraid of being taken in that they cannot be taken out."
C. S. Lewis
Do not remove the ancient landmark which your fathers have set.
Proverbs 22:28 (NKJV)
Inexpensive Progress
by John Betjeman
Encase your legs in nylons, Bestride your hills with pylons O age without a soul; Away with gentle willows And all the elmy billows That through your valleys roll. Let's say goodbye to hedges And roads with grassy edges And winding country lanes; Let all things travel faster Where motor car is master Till only Speed remains. Destroy the ancient inn-signs But strew the roads with tin signs 'Keep Left,' 'M4,' 'Keep Out!' Command, instruction, warning, Repet…
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Episode 124: "The Abolition of Man" by C. S. Lewis, Ch. 1
8 maart 2022 · 1 uur 46 min
On The Literary Life podcast this week, our hosts begin a much-anticipated series on The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis. Angelina, Thomas, and Cindy share their commonplace quotes to open the discussion, then they give some background on this particular work. They talk about the ideas behind the "new criticism" approach to literature and why it is so problematic. Angelina and Thomas expand on the significance of the concept of the sublime. Cindy shares some thoughts on learning to identify and to produce good writing. Angelina helps us connect Lewis' points about ordo amoris with our current day dilemmas. Other topics touched on in their conversation are the nature of objective reality, the tripartite soul, the medieval view of Reason, debunking the ideal of honor, and so much more. Lees meer
Join us this spring for our next Literary Life Conference "The Battle Over Children's Literature" featuring special guest speaker Vigen Guroian. The live online conference will take place April 7-9, 2022, and you can go to HouseofHumaneLetters.com for more information.
Commonplace Quotes:
The modern state exists not to protect our rights but to do us good or make us good–anyway, to do something to us or make us something. Hence the new name "leaders" for those who were once "rulers." We are less their subjects than their wards, pupils, or domestic animals. There is nothing left of which we can say to them, "Mind your own business." Our whole lives are their business.
C. S. Lewis, from "Is Progress Possible?"
It is good for a professional to be reminded that his professionalism is only a husk, that the real person must remain an amateur, a lover of the work.
May Sarton
In truth, he wished to command the respect at once of courtiers and of philosophers, to be admired for attaining high dignities, and to be at the same time respected for despising them.
Thomas Macaualy
Duty Surviving Self-Love, The Only Sure Friend Of Declining Life. A Soliloquy
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Uncha…
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Episode 123: In Search of the Austen Adaptation – Emma
22 februari 2022 · 1 uur 54 min
Our hosts are back on The Literary Life podcast this week with another fun episode in our series "In Search of the Austen Adaptation." In this episode, Angelina, Cindy, and Thomas are joined again by Atlee Northmore to discuss the several film versions of Jane Austen's Emma. To start the conversation, Angelina highlights the challenges of adapting Emma to film. Atlee outlines the major film adaptations of Emma. Then they discuss the ups and downs of the various adaptations, as well as casting, personal favorites and production choices. Lees meer
Join us this spring for our next Literary Life Conference "The Battle Over Children's Literature" featuring special guest speaker Vigen Guroian. The live online conference will take place April 7-9, 2022, and you can go to HouseofHumaneLetters.com for more information.
Commonplace Quotes:
In all our literary experience there are two kinds of response. There is the direct experience of the world itself, while we're reading a book or seeing a play, especially for the first time. This experience is uncritical, or rather pre-critical, so it's not infallible. If our experience is limited, we can be roused to enthusiasm or carried away by something that we can later see to have been second-rate or even phony. Then there is the conscious, critical response we make after we've finished reading or left the theatre, where we compare what we've experienced with other things of the same kind, and form a judgment of value and proportion on it. This critical response, with practice, gradually makes our pre-critical responses more sensitive and accurate, or improves our taste, as we say. But behind our responses to our literary experience as a whole, as a total possession.
Northrup Frye
Reason thus with life:
If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing
That none but fools would keep.
William Shakespeare
A boat will not answer to the rudder unless it is in motion; the poet can work upon us only as long as we are kept on the move.
C. S. Lewis
The…
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Episode 122: The Literary Life of Timilyn Downey
15 februari 2022 · 1 uur 32 min
This week on The Literary Life podcast, we are bringing you another Literary Life of interview episode. This week's guest is Timilyn Downey, and together with hosts Angelina Stanford and Cindy Rollins dig into how Timilyn became a lifelong reader. Timilyn shares about the incredibly literary childhood education that she had without even realizing it at the time. She also tells the story of her trip to London during college, then goes into how she used a literary approach in her teaching career. Timilyn also describes her journey to homeschooling and the role that God's grace clearly played in where she is now. Lees meer
Join us this spring for our next Literary Life Conference "The Battle Over Children's Literature" featuring special guest speaker Vigen Guroian. The live online conference will take place April 7-9, 2022, and you can go to HouseofHumaneLetters.com for more information.
Commonplace Quotes:
The founding of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was not as programmatic or formal as its name suggests, but rather evolved out of a series of pub discussions and informal get-togethers.
Carolyn Weber
Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.
Charles MacKay
On a Saturday afternoon in winter, when nose and fingers might be pinched enough to give an added relish to the anticipation of tea and fireside, and the whole week-end's reading lay ahead, I suppose I reached as much happiness as is ever to be reached on earth.
C. S. Lewis
from "Among School Children"
by William Butler Yeats
VII Both nuns and mothers worship images, But those the candles light are not as those That animate a mother's reveries, But keep a marble or a bronze repose. And yet they too break hearts—O Presences That passion, piety or affection knows, And that all heavenly glory symbolise— O self-born mockers of man's enterprise; VIII Labour is blossoming or dancing where The body is not bruised to ple…
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Episode 121: "A Midsummer Night's Dream", Acts 4 and 5
8 februari 2022 · 1 uur 21 min
On The Literary Life podcast this week, we will wrap up our series on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Our hosts, Angelina, Cindy and Thomas walk through the last two acts of the play, sharing their thoughts on the structure and ideas presented here. Angelina talks about why she thinks Shakespeare resolves the different conflicts the way he does. They discuss the importance of the play within the play, the fairy tale atmosphere, and the unreality of time and space. Cindy and Angelina both bring up plot points that feel slightly problematic to them. Angelina highlights the theme of harmonizing discord and bringing order from disorder. Lees meer
On February 8th, Angelina will be offering a webinar on Jonathan Swift: Enemy of the Enlightenment. Check it out at HouseofHumaneLetters.com.
Join us this spring for our next Literary Life Conference "The Battle Over Children's Literature" featuring special guest speaker Vigen Guroian. The live online conference will take place April 7-9, 2022, and you can go to HouseofHumaneLetters.com for more information.
Commonplace Quotes:
Revolutionaries always hang their best friends.
Christopher Hollis
It is easy to forget that the man who writes a good love sonnet needs not only be enamored of a woman, but also to be enamored of the sonnet.
C. S. Lewis
For the end of imagination is harmony. A right imagination, being the reflex of the creation, will fall in with the divine order of things as the highest form of its own operation; "will tune its instrument here at the door" to the divine harmonies within; will be content alone with growth towards the divine idea, which includes all that is beautiful in the imperfect imagination of men; will know that every deviation from that growth is downward; and will therefore send the man forth from its loftiest representations to do the commonest duty of the most wearisome calling in a hearty and hopeful spirit. This is the work of the right imagination; and towards this work every imagina…
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Episode 120: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act III
1 februari 2022 · 1 uur 13 min
Today on The Literary Life podcast, we continue our series on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream with coverage of Act 3. Angelina talks about the pacing of this act and the importance of the characters' madcap, lunatic behavior. She also highlight's Shakespeare's wrestling with the relationship between the imagination and art and reality. Thomas highlights the structure of the play as reflecting a dreamlike state. Cindy shares some of her thoughts on being concerned about making sure our children know what is real and pretend. Lees meer
On February 8th, Angelina will be offering a webinar on Jonathan Swift: Enemy of the Enlightenment. Check it out at HouseofHumaneLetters.com.
Join us this spring for our next Literary Life Conference "The Battle Over Children's Literature" featuring special guest speaker Vigen Guroian. The live online conference will take place April 7-9, 2022, and you can go to HouseofHumaneLetters.com for more information.
Commonplace Quotes:
The most insipid, ridiculous play that I ever saw in my life.
Samuel Pepys, describing "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in his diary
Or the lovely one about the Bishop of Exeter, who was giving the prizes at a girls' school. They did a performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and the poor man stood up afterwards and made a speech and said [piping voice]: 'I was very interested in your delightful performance, and among other things I was very interested in seeing for the first time in my life a female Bottom.'
C. S. Lewis in a conversation with Kingsley Amis and Brian Aldiss
Still, if Homer's Achilles isn't the real Achilles, he isn't unreal either. Unrealities don't seem so full of life after three thousand years as Homer's Achilles does. This is the kind of problem we have to tackle next–the fact that what we meet in literature is neither real nor unreal. We have two words, imaginary, meaning unreal, and imaginative, meaning what the writer produces, and they mean entirely different things.
Northrop Frye
A …
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Episode 119: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Acts I and II
25 januari 2022 · 1 uur 32 min
Welcome back to The Literary Life podcast and our series on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. After kicking off the episode with their commonplace quotes, Angelina, Cindy and Thomas start digging into the play itself. Thomas brings up the importance of the timing of this story being midsummer. Angelina gives a little background into the names and characters in this play as well as some of the major ideas we can be looking for in the story. Lees meer
In February Angelina will be offering a webinar on Jonathan Swift: Enemy of the Enlightenment. Check it out at HouseofHumaneLetters.com.
Join us this spring for our next Literary Life Conference "The Battle Over Children's Literature" featuring special guest speaker Vigen Guroian. The live online conference will take place April 7-9, 2022, and you can go to HouseofHumaneLetters.com for more information.
Commonplace Quotes:
Cousin Swift, you will never be a poet.
John Dryden, in a letter to Jonathan Swift
It would be difficult indeed to define wherein lay the peculiar truth of the phrase "merrie England", though some conception of it is quite necessary to the comprehension of A Midsummer Night's Dream. In some cases at least, it may be said to lie in this, that the English of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, unlike the England of today, could conceive of the idea of a merry supernaturalism.
G. K. Chesterton
And yet, there are people who say that Shakespeare always means, "just what he says." He thinks that to find over and under meanings in Shakespeare's plays is to take unwarranted liberties with them, is like a man who holds the word "spring" must refer only to a particular period of the year, and could not possibly mean birth, or youth or hope. He is a man who has never associated anything with anything else. He is a man without metaphors, and such a man is no man at all, let alone a poet.
Harold Goddard
Advice to Lovers
by Robert Graves
I knew an old man at a Fair Who made it his twice-yearly task To cla…
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Episode 118: An Intro to Shakespeare and "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
18 januari 2022 · 1 uur 20 min
Welcome to this new season of The Literary Life podcast! This week we bring you an introduction both to William Shakespeare and his play A Midsummer Night's Dream. Hosts Angelina, Cindy and Thomas seek to give new Shakespeare readers a place from which to jump into his work and more experienced readers eyes to see more layers in his stories. Cindy begins with some perspective on how to start cultivating a love for Shakespeare. Angelina shares her "hot take" on whether you should read the play or watch the play. They suggest some books for further digging into Shakespeare's works, and Angelina gives an overview of the format of his comedies. Thomas goes into some detail about Roman comedy. Lees meer
Next week we will be back with a discussion of Acts I and II of the play. Also, if you would like to join the free live read-along over at HouseofHumaneLetters.com.
Join us this spring for our next Literary Life Conference "The Battle Over Children's Literature" featuring special guest speaker Vigen Guroian. The live online conference will take place April 7-9, 2022, and you can go to HouseofHumaneLetters.com for more information.
Commonplace Quotes:
If certain tendencies within our civilization were to proceed unchecked, they would rapidly take us towards a society which, like that of a prison, would be both completely introverted and completely without privacy. The last stand of privacy has always been, traditionally, the inner mind….It is quite possible, however, for communications media, especially the newer electronic ones, to break down the associative structures of the inner mind and replace them by the prefabricated structures of the media . A society entirely controlled by their slogans and exhortations would be introverted because nobody would be saying anything: there would only be echo, and Echo was the mistress of Narcissus….the triumph of communication is the death of communication: where communication forms a total environment, there is nothing to be communicate…
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Episode 117: Our 2021 Literary Life Reading Wrap-up
14 december 2021 · 1 uur 25 min
On this week's episode of The Literary Life podcast, Angelina, Cindy and Thomas share a wrap up of their year in reading–their favorite books of the year, their most hated books read in 2021, and how they each did with covering the categories of the #LitLife192021 Reading Challenge. They also talk a little about how they will be approaching their reading for next year. Lees meer
Download the Two for '22 adult reading challenge PDF here, and the kids' reading challenge PDF here.
The Literary Life Commonplace Books published by Blue Sky Daisies are back with new covers for 2022! Also, check out the Christmas sale at HouseofHumaneLetters.com!
Coming up on The Literary Life podcast in the new year, we have Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream coming up in January and after that, Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis. Then we will be reading The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim and Charles Dickens' Hard Times later in the year. Our children's classic novel this year will be The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.
Commonplace Quotes:
Literature's world is a concrete human world of immediate experience. The poet uses images and objects and sensations much more than he uses abstract ideas. The novelist is concerned with telling stories, not with working out arguments.
Northrop Frye
The moon is the only one of the heavenly bodies that, whilst rising resplendently like the other luminaries, nevertheless changes and waxes and wanes as we do.
Malcolm Guite
I almost think that the same skin
For one without has two or three within.
Lord Byron, from "Don Juan"
The Poetry of Shakespeare
by George Meredith
Picture some Isle smiling green 'mid the white-foaming ocean; –
Full of old woods, leafy wisdoms, and frolicsome fays;
Passions and pageants; sweet love singing bird-like above it;
Life in all shapes, aims, and fates, is there warm'd by one great
human heart.Book List:
Hallelujah: Cultivating Advent Traditions with Handel's Messiah by Cindy Rollins
The Educated Ima…
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Episode 116: The "Two for '22" Literary Life Reading Challenge
7 december 2021 · 1 uur 11 min
"Two for '22" Literary Life Reading Challenge! This coming year Angelina, Cindy and Thomas are challenging us to read books in 11 categories, but choose 2 books in each category, with a bit of a twist. In today's episode they briefly go over each category and give a few examples of books would fit into those categories. They also take us through the Kids' "Two for '22" Reading Challenge topics. Next time we will be back with a wrap-up episode for our 19 for 2022 Reading Challenge. Lees meer
The Literary Life Commonplace Books published by Blue Sky Daisies are back with new covers for 2022!
Coming up on The Literary Life podcast in the new year, we have Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dreamcoming up in January and after that, Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis. Then we will be reading The Enchanted Aprilby Elizabeth von Arnim and Charles Dickens' Hard Times later in the year. Our children's classic novel this year will be The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.
Commonplace Quotes:
The artist must be in his work as God is in creation, invisible and all-powerful. One must sense him everywhere, but not see him.
Gustave Flaubert
There reigns thro' all the blank verse poems such a perpetual trick of moralizing every thing–which is very well, occasionally–but never to see or describe any interesting appearance in nature, without connecting it by dim analogies with the moral world, proves faintness of Impression. Nature has her proper interest; and he will know what it is, who believes and feels, that everything has a Life of its own, and that we are all one Life.
Malcolm Guite
The principle behind modern methods of reading is stated in the form: if there is to be a meaning, it shall be ours.
C. S. Lewis
There is No Frigate Like a Book
by Emily Dickinson
There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us Lands away
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing Poetry –
This Traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of Toll –
How frugal is the Chariot
That bears the Human Soul … -
Episode 115: In Search of the Austen Adaptation – Pride and Prejudice
30 november 2021 · 2 uur 11 min
This week on The Literary Life podcast we have a fun episode for you to kick off a fun series of episodes that will come up from time to time, "In Search of the Austen Adaptation." This week our hosts Angelina, Cindy and Thomas are joined by Atlee Northmore, and together they are debating which film version of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is the best. Atlee shares some of the history of the Pride and Prejudice adaptations that were made for TV and film. Angelina highlights different ideas of what makes a good film adaptation of a book. Cindy brings up the importance of the casting, and Angelina talks about why she still feels like no film has gotten Mr. Darcy right. She also talks about the difficulty of embodying the virtues that Jane Austen gives her characters. Our hosts critique each major movies from over the decades, sharing what they like and dislike about each one. Lees meer
Click here to download the PDF Atlee created for all the Pride and Prejudice film adaptations.
Commonplace Quotes:
If we cannot get the better of life, at any rate, we can be so free as to laugh at it.
Desmond MacCarthy
Jane Austen is thus a mistress of much deeper emotion than appears upon the surface. She stimulates us to supply what is not there. What she offers is, apparently a trifle, yet is composed of something that expands in the reader's mind and endows with the most enduring form of life scenes which are outwardly trivial.
Virginia Woolf
The most extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children.
G. K. Chesterton
Never judge a book by its movie.
Anonymous
False Though She Be
by William Congreve
FALSE though she be to me and love, I'll ne'er pursue revenge; For still the charmer I approve, Though I deplore her change. In hours of bliss we oft have met: They could not always last; And though the present I regret, I'm grateful for the past.
Book List:
The Common Reader by Virginia Woolf
Support The Literary Life:
Bec…
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Episode 114: The Literary Life of Dr. Carolyn Weber
23 november 2021 · 1 uur 27 min
This week on The Literary Life podcast, we are excited to bring you a much anticipated interview with Dr. Carolyn Weber, author of the popular memoir, Surprised by Oxford. She is also currently a professor at New College Franklin. To keep up with Carolyn, visit carolynweber.com or follow her on Facebook. Angelina and Cindy kick off the conversation by asking Carolyn about her childhood and how she came to love reading. They talk about her experience in school education and whether that differed from her personal reading life. Carolyn talks about her love of teaching and her immersive literary education experience at Oxford. She also expands on the way that reading the Bible for the first time opened her eyes to so many more of the truths in the literature she had read. Lees meer
Commonplace Quotes:
Unexpectedly, it was Oxford that taught me it was okay to be both feminine and smart, that intelligence was, as a friend put it, a "woman's best cosmetic."
Carolyn Weber
I'm like an addict when it comes to books. Compelled to read, understand, savor, wrangle with, be moved by, learn to live from these silent companions who speak so loudly. Surely some language must have a word for such a "book junkie"?
Carolyn Weber
We must not, that is, try to behave as though the Fall had never occurred nor yet say that the Fall was a Good Thing in itself. But we may redeem the Fall by a creative act.
Dorothy Sayers
Batter my heart, three-person'd God
by John Donne
Batter my heart, three-person'd God, for you As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend; That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new. I, like an usurp'd town to another due, Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end; Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend, But is captiv'd, and proves weak or untrue. Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov'd fain, But am betroth'd unto your enemy; Divorce me, untie or break that knot again, Take me to you, imprison me, for I, Ex…
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Episode 113: "Mansfield Park" by Jane Austen, Vol. 3, Ch. 9-17
16 november 2021 · 1 uur 35 min
Welcome to the final episode in our series covering Mansfield Park by Jane Austen here on The Literary Life podcast. Angelina, Cindy and Thomas dive right into the book chat today in order to cover as much as possible as they wrap up Fanny Price's story. Angelina brings out the parallels to Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene. Cindy talks about how Julia and Maria's upbringing is instructive for parents. Another topic is how, in a way, the characters continue their roles from "Lover's Vows" in real life unless they repent. Our hosts also highlight Fanny's journey toward finding a home throughout this story. Lees meer
Get in on the Western Films and Fiction webinar on November 22nd with Thomas and James Banks! Register here to join in! Also, check out the House of Humane Letters newsletter to get in on the read-a-long of Shakespeare's The Tempest.
To view the schedule for upcoming episodes, see our Upcoming Events page. Also, if you want to join our members-only forum off Facebook, check out our Patreon page to learn more!
Commonplace Quotes:
To educate means to help the human soul enter into the totality of the real.
Luigi Giussani, from the forward to Beauty for Truth's Sake
The man who is endowed with logical astuteness is very apt to keep himself in practice by taking up indefensible positions for the fun of defending them.
G. M. Young
Information can thrill, but only once.
Wendell Berry
Amoretti Sonnet XXII
by Edmund Spenser
This holy season, fit to fast and pray, Men to devotion ought to be inclin'd: Therefore I likewise on so holy day, For my sweet saint some service fit will find. Her temple fair is built within my mind, In which her glorious image placed is, On which my thoughts do day and night attend, Like sacred priests that never think amiss. There I to her as th' author of my bliss, Will build an altar to appease her ire: And on the same my heart will sacrifice, Burning in flames of pure and chaste desire: The which vouchsafe, O goddess, to accept, Amongs…
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Episode 112: "Mansfield Park" by Jane Austen, Vol. 3, Ch. 1-8
9 november 2021 · 1 uur 23 min
Welcome back for another installment in our series covering Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. Angelina, Cindy and Thomas share their commonplace quotes which leads them into discussing Fanny's character in contrast to the heroine of a gothic novel. They talk about what makes a good marriage in the Regency period and Jane Austen's own personal life, as well as the contrast between the household of Sir Thomas compared to Fanny's own family home. Lees meer
Get in on the Western Films and Fiction webinar on November 22nd with Thomas and James Banks! Register here to join in! Also, check out the House of Humane Letters newsletter to stay in the know about our upcoming read-a-long of Shakespeare's The Tempest.
To view the schedule for the episodes in this series, see our Upcoming Events page. Also, if you want to join our members-only forum off Facebook, check out our Patreon page to learn more!
Commonplace Quotes:
Fear the man who says he knows how things should be. He doesn't
Alexander Galich
Things were easier for us. We were brought up on stories with happy endings and on the Prayer Book.
C. S. Lewis
One of the most dangerous of literary ventures is the little, shy, unimportant heroine whom none of the other characters value. The danger is that your readers may agree with the other characters. Something must be put into the heroine to make us feel that the other characters are wrong, that she contains the depths they never dreamed of. That is why Charlotte Brontë would have succeeded better with Fanny Price. To be sure, she would have ruined everything else in the book; Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram and Mrs. Norris would have been distorted from credible types of pompous dullness, lazy vapidity and vulgar egoism into fiends complete with horns, tails and rhetoric. But through Fanny there would have blown a storm of passion which made sure that we at least would never think her insignificant.
C. S. Lewis
Something Nasty in the Bookshop
by Kingsley Amis
Between the Garden…
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Episode 111: "Mansfield Park" by Jane Austen, Vol. 2, Ch. 6-13
2 november 2021 · 1 uur 16 min
On The Literary Life Podcast this week, Angelina, Cindy and Thomas are back to discuss the next several chapters of Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. They pick back up with the continuation of the Cinderella theme in these chapters, and much of the conversation centers around the Crawfords and their ambitions and schemes. Once again, Fanny is demonstrated to be the embodiment of temperance. Lees meer
Get in on the Western Films and Fiction webinar on November 22nd with Thomas and James Banks! Register here to join in!
To view the schedule for the episodes in this series, see our Upcoming Events page. Also, if you want to join our members-only forum off Facebook, check out our Patreon page to learn more!
Commonplace Quotes:
Lewis learnt that focusing on the state of his own mind was precisely the wrong way to obtain the imaginative pleasures that he had been seeking for ten years and more.
Michael Ward
Through seas of knowledge we our course advance,
Discov'ring still new worlds of ignorance;
And these discov'ries make us all confess
That sublunary science is but guess;
Matters of fact to man are only known,
And what seems more is mere opinion;
The standers-by see clearly this event;
All parties say they're sure, yet all dissent;
With their new light our bold inspectors press,
Like Ham, to show their fathers' nakedness,
By who example after ages may
Discover we more naked are than they.Sir John Denham, "The Progress of Learning"
The Inklings is now really very well provided, with Fox as chaplain, you as army, Barfield as lawyer, Havard as doctor–almost all the estates, except of course, anyone who could actually produce a single necessity of life: a loaf, a boot, or a hut.
C. S. Lewis
Sly Thoughts
by Coventry Patmore
"I saw him kiss your cheek!"—"T'is true."
"O Modesty!"—"'T was strictly kept:
He thought me asleep; at least, I knew
He thought I thought he thought I slept."Book List:
Hallelujah: Cultivating Advent Traditions with Handel's Messiah by Cindy Rollins
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Episode 110: "The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe
26 oktober 2021 · 1 uur 37 min
On this special Halloween episode of The Literary Life, Angelina (Harriet Vane), Cindy (Professor MacGonagall), and Thomas (Lord Peter Wimsey), talk about Edgar Allan Poe's tale, "The Masque of the Red Death." If you are a Patron, you can watch this episode and see our hosts in their costumes as they discuss the story! Lees meer
Angelina begins the chat with a little background on Edgar Allan Poe and his thoughts on the imagination and why he wrote the way he did, as well as connections with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Thomas points out the connection between this story and Boccaccio's Decameron. Highlights of the discussion include Poe's use of medieval motifs, the imagery and symbolism in Poe's writing, the modern person's avoidance of considering death, and Poe's idea of life as a play within a play.
Get in on the Western Films and Fiction webinar on November 22nd with Thomas and James Banks! Register here to join in!
Next week we will continue our series on Mansfield Park. To view the schedule for the episodes in the series, see our Upcoming Events page. Also, if you want to join our members-only forum off Facebook, check out our Patreon page to learn more!
Commonplace Quotes:
I am more concerned by what "the Bomb" is doing already. One meets young people who make the threat of it a reason for poisoning every pleasure and evading every duty in the present. Didn't they know that, bomb or no bomb, all men die, many in horrible ways? There is no good moping and sulking about it.
C. S. Lewis
There are certain evil men who would be less dangerous if there were not some scrap of virtue in them.
La Rochefoucauld
This handmaiden (poesy) is not forbidden to moralize in her own fashion. She is not forbidden to depict but to reason and preach of virtue.
Edgar Allan Poe, from his review of Longfellow's Ballads
Sonnet – To Science
by Edgar Allan Poe
Science! true daughter of Old Time thou art!
Who alterest all things with thy peering eyes.
Why preyest thou thus upon the poe… -
Episode 109: "Mansfield Park" by Jane Austen, Vol. 2, Ch. 1-5
19 oktober 2021 · 1 uur 38 min
On The Literary Life Podcast this week, Angelina, Cindy and Thomas are continuing their series on Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. This is the third episode in the series. They open their discussion talking about the virtue of temperance and how Fanny Price embodies temperance. In looking at the plot and the reaction of various characters to Sir Thomas' return, they bring out more of Fanny's virtues in contrast to the vices of other players in this section. Other themes highlighted in this section are the harp as a symbol of harmony, the problem of self-focus, the qualities of nature, and the Cinderella story parallels Austen is playing with. Lees meer
Get in on the Western Films and Fiction webinar on November 22nd with Thomas and James Banks! Register here to join in!
To view the schedule for the episodes in this series, see our Upcoming Events page. Also, if you want to join our members-only forum off Facebook, check out our Patreon page to learn more!
Commonplace Quotes:
He had a head to contrive, a tongue to persuade, and a hand to execute any mischief.
Edward Hyde
Here, again, I would urge that appreciation is not a voluntary offering, but a debt we owe, and a debt we must acquire the means to pay by patient and humble study. In this, as in all the labours of the conscience seeking for instruction, we are enriched by our efforts; but self-culture should not be our object. Let us approach Art with the modest intention to pay a debt that we owe in learning to appreciate. So shall we escape the irritating ways of the connoisseur!
Charlotte Mason
The temperate man is so well-ordered that he does not feel the temptations of passion or desire. There is a difficulty about temperance, too, since it is a virtue that consists chiefly of not doing things. The liveliness of action and imagery must occur chiefly among its opponents, and we know what is liable to happen in this situation, even when there is no doubt about where our moral sympathy should lie. We have seen it in …
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Episode 108: "Mansfield Park" by Jane Austen, Vol. 1, Ch. 10-18
12 oktober 2021 · 1 uur 26 min
Today on The Literary Life, we continue our conversation on Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. Angelina, Cindy and Thomas share their commonplace quotes, then dive into the book chat, beginning with some commentary on Fanny's education in contrast to that of the Bertram sisters. They also talk about the concepts of restraint, temptation, and boundaries and how we see these ideas play out in the various characters. Angelina points out how Fanny is the fixed moral center throughout this whole section. She also talks about the play within the novel and how Austen's use of this form reflects Shakespeare. We hope that the discussion opens up new levels of understanding for you as you read this novel along with us! Lees meer
To view the schedule for the episodes in this series, see our Upcoming Events page. Also, if you want to join our members-only forum off Facebook, check out our Patreon page to learn more!
Listen to The Literary Life:
Commonplace Quotes:
I entirely agree that it's no good trying to coerce or argue artists into giving what they haven't got. Either they burst into tears, or go sullen, or–if they are hearty extraverts–they cheerfully turn out fifteen new versions, each worse than the last. Actors too. They're the most kittle cattle of the lot.
Dorothy Sayers, in a letter to C. S. Lewis
While affording some secrets of the way of the will to young people, we should perhaps beware of presenting the ideas of self-knowledge, self-reverence, and self-control. All adequate education must be outward bound, and the mind which is concentrated on self-emolument, even though it be the emolument of all the virtues, misses the higher and the simpler secrets of life. Duty and service are the sufficient motives for the arduous training of the will that the child goes through with little consciousness.
Charlotte Mason
She is almost a Jane Austen heroine condemned to a Charlotte Brontë situation. We do not even believe in what Jane Austen tells us of her good looks; whenever we…
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Episode 107: "Mansfield Park" by Jane Austen, Vol. 1, Ch. 1-9
5 oktober 2021 · 1 uur 29 min
Welcome back to The Literary Life podcast with Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins and Thomas Banks. Today our hosts embark on a new series of discussions as we read through Jane Austen's Mansfield Park together. To view the schedule for the episodes in this series, see our Upcoming Events page. Lees meer
Our hosts open the conversation with their first experience with this book and some thoughts on why people may struggle with Mansfield Park more than any other Austen novel. Angelina highlights the similarities some people note between Austen and Shakespeare and how this book illustrates that point. Thomas responds to criticisms that Fanny is a "prig." Cindy brings up the importance of place in this book thematically. Other ideas they discuss in this episode are moving from blindness to sight, the importance of triangles in this book, and appearances versus reality.
Commonplace Quotes:
Many come to wish their tower a well…
W. H. Auden, from "The Quest"
Sadly, we do not have a Christian culture today that easily discriminates between a person of spiritual depth and a person of raw talent. Like the wheat and the tares of Jesus' parable, they can be difficult to distinguish. The result is that more than a few people can be fooled into thinking they are being influenced by a spiritual giant when, in fact, they are being manipulated by a dwarf.
Gordon MacDonald
Would you think I was joking if I said that you can put a clock back, and that if the clock is wrong it is often a very sensible thing to do? But I would rather get away from that whole idea of clocks. We all want to progress. But progress mean getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man… If you look at the present state of the big mistake. We are on th…
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Episode 106: "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" Part 2
14 september 2021 · 1 uur 11 min
This week on The Literary Life Podcast, our hosts are continuing their discussion of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. If you missed last week's episode, you will want to go back and catch Part 1 here. Angelina kicks of the book chat with a look at the format of the story and how it keeps us in suspense. Thomas brings up the idea of forbidden knowledge found in this book and the similarities between it and Frankenstein. Some other topics covered in this episode include the dangers of dehumanizing victims of crime, the nature of sin and addiction, the Renaissance idea of the well-ordered man, and the mythic qualities of this story. Lees meer
Be sure to check out Thomas' class on The French Revolution and other fall webinars at House of Humane Letters. Don't forget to check out our sister podcast, The Well Read Poem, as well as Cindy's new podcast, The New Mason Jar! We will be back here on The Literary Life in two weeks with our first in a series of episodes on Jane Austen's Mansfield Park.
Commonplace Quotes:
One beautiful starry-skied evening, we two stood next to each other at a window, and I, a young man of about twenty-two who had just eaten well and had good coffee, enthused about the stars and called them the abode of the blessed. But the master grumbled to himself: "The stars, hum! hum! The stars are only a gleaming leprosy in the sky."
Heinrich Heine
It is a mistake, perhaps, to think that, to do one thing well, we must just do and think about that and nothing else all the time. It is our business to know all we can and to spend a part of our lives in increasing our knowledge of Nature and Art, of Literature and Man, of the Past and the Present. That is one way in which we become greater persons, and the more a person is, the better he will do whatever piece of special work falls to his share. Let us have, like Leonardo, a spirit 'invariably royal and magnanimous.'
Charlotte Mason
The poet's job is not to tell you what happe…
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Episode 105: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by R. L. Stevenson, Part 1
7 september 2021 · 1 uur 17 min
Welcome to today's episode of The Literary Life Podcast! Today our hosts Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins and Thomas Banks explore Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. After their commonplace quote discussion, each cohost shares some personal thoughts on Robert Louis Stevenson. Be aware that this episode will contain some spoilers, though we will not spoil the full ending. Thomas shares some biographical information about R. L. Stevenson. Angelina points out the mythic quality of this story and the enduring cultural references inspired by Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. She and Thomas also discuss some of the differences between early and late Victorian writers. They also begin digging into the first section of the book. Lees meer
Join us again next week for the second part of this discussion. The fall schedule for the podcast will be posted soon on our Upcoming Events page for those who want to know what we will be reading and talking about on the podcast next!
Don't forget to check out our sister podcast, The Well Read Poem, as well as Cindy's new podcast, The New Mason Jar!
Commonplace Quotes:
I would rather (said he) have the rod to be the general terrour to all, to make them learn, than tell a child, if you do thus, or thus, you will be more esteemed than your brothers or sisters. The rod produces an effect which terminates in itself. A child is afraid of being whipped, and gets his task, and there's an end on't; whereas, by exciting emulation and comparisons of superiority, you lay the foundation of lasting mischief; you make brothers and sisters hate each other.
Samuel Johnson, as quoted by James Boswell
Do not talk about Shakespeare's mistakes: they are probably your own
G. M. Young
The most influential books, and the truest in their influence, are works of fiction. They do not pin the reader to a dogma, which he must afterwards discover to be inexact; they do not teach him a lesson, which he must afterwards unlearn… They disengage u…
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Episode 104: Witches, Wizards, and Magic, Oh My!!
31 augustus 2021 · 1 uur 19 min
Welcome to this week's episode of The Literary Life Podcast! Today our hosts Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins and Thomas Banks tackle the tough questions so many people ask about reading stories dealing with magic. First off, Angelina affirms the need to discernment and the desire to steer clear of that which would be a stumbling block for our children. Cindy shares a little about her own concern when her children were very young. Then they set the groundwork by defining some terms and considering the kinds of questions we need to ask, beginning with Scripture and the church fathers. Be sure to listen to the end when Angelina, Cindy and Thomas suggest some criteria for evaluating magic elements in books before handing them to their students. Lees meer
Come back next week when we will explore Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Don't forget to check out our sister podcast, The Well Read Poem, as well as Cindy's new podcast, The New Mason Jar!
Commonplace Quotes:
I am not conscious of having ever bought a book from a motive of ostentation.
Edward Gibbon
There is no language and no knowledge without symbol and metaphor. Two consequences arise from this: one is that we require imagination both to make and to interpret symbols, and the other is that symbols themselves beckon us through language to that which is beyond language. In other words, symbols are energized between the two poles (as Coleridge would say) of immanence and transcendence.
Malcolm Guite
Incidentally, we do not know of a single healthy and powerful book used to educate people (and that includes the Bible) in which such delicate matters do not actually appear to an even greater extent. Proper usage sees no evil here, but finds, as an attractive saying has it, a document of our hearts. Children can read the stars without fear, while others, so superstition has it, insult angels by doing the same thing.
Wilhelm Grimm
The Queen Mab Speech
by William Shakespeare
O, then …
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Episode 103: "The Rocking Horse Winner" by D. H. Lawrence
24 augustus 2021 · 1 uur 14 min
We are back this week on The Literary Life with the final another episode in our 2021 Summer Short Story series, a discussion of D. H. Lawrence's "The Rocking Horse Winner." After sharing their commonplace quotes, Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins and Thomas Banks begin the literary chat with some background information on the writer D. H. Lawrence. Cindy talks about her reaction to this story and the running thread of bitterness underlying throughout. Angelina highlights the significance of the cultural climate of the 1920s in this story. As the story unfolds, we see magical and fairy tale elements, as well as some significant symbols, including the rocking horse. Lees meer
Come back next week for an important episode on magic in literature and how to approach books with magical elements. Following that, we will explore Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Don't forget to check out our sister podcast, The Well Read Poem, as well as Cindy's new podcast, The New Mason Jar!
Commonplace Quotes:
Rather than being restricted to the simple material they can read on their own, young children need to listen to their teachers read more complex books aloud and engage in discussions about what they've heard—and, depending on their age, write about it.
At the same time, teaching disconnected comprehension skills boosts neither comprehension nor reading scores. It's just empty calories. In effect, kids are clamoring for broccoli and spinach while adults insist on a steady diet of donuts.Natalie Wexler
Our proper bliss depends on what we blame.
Alexander Pope, "Essay on Man"
Never trust the artist. Trust the tale. The proper function of a critic is to save the tale from the artist who created it.
D. H. Lawrence
The Wooden Horse of Myth
by Oscar Williams
The wooden horse of myth stands on the air arching a traitorous neck on roofed mankind: the clocks are eyeballs round with mock despair hunting in sanguine skylines of the mind: and cherub faces…
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Episode 102: The Literary Life of Atlee Northmore
3 augustus 2021 · 1 uur 20 min
On The Literary Life podcast this week, Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins and Thomas Banks are chatting with their indispensable assistant, Atlee Northmore, about his literary life. Atlee shares what it was like for him growing up in a family that supported reading and kept books around at all time. He talks about his school years and both his positive and negative memories of reading for school. Talking about college, Atlee tells about wanting to be a film maker and his experience studying writing screen plays. He shares how college and life circumstances temporarily dampened his love for story, but taking classes with Angelina and listening to the podcast has brought it all back. Lees meer
Also, if you are listening to this episode on the day it drops, you are not too late to sign up and join our 2021 Back to School online conference with special guest James Daniels! Get all the info and register at morningtimeformoms.com!
On August 5th, Cindy Rollins' New Mason Jar podcast will be officially launching, so head over to thenewmasonjar.com to learn more and subscribe!
Commonplace Quotes:
One's life is more formed, I sometimes think, by books than by human beings: it is out of books one learns about love and pain at second hand. Even if we have the happy chance to fall in love, it is because we have been conditioned by what we have read, and if I had never known love at all, perhaps it was because my father's library had not contained the right books.
Graham Greene
…there is also a sort of wild fairy interest in them, which makes me think them fully better adapted to awaken the imagination and soften the heart of childhood than the good-boy stories which have been in later years composed for them.
Sir Walter Scott, from German Popular Stories
Information can thrill, but only once.
Wendell Berry
All suffices reckoned rightly:
Spring shall bloom where now the ice is,
Roses make the bramble sightly,
And the quickening sun shine brightly,
And the latter wind blow lig…