The Literary Life Podcast

Today on The Literary Life podcast, we bring you another episode from the "Best of" series vault, our discussion of J. R. R. Tolkien's essay "On Fairy Stories". Tune in again over the next two weeks as we continue the conversation with Tolkien's short story Leaf by Niggle. If you missed the 2020 Back to School conference that Cindy introduced in this episode, you can still get the recording at MorningTimeforMoms.com. Angelina sets the stage for this discussion by orienting us to the context for the essay by Tolkien as a critique of what is considered a fairy story. She points out the difference between cautionary tales like those by Charles Perrault and the German folk and fairy tales collected by the Grimm Brothers. Our hosts highlight Tolkien's definition of true fairy stories, ones that take place in the "perilous realm" and involve a journey element. He critiques Andrew Lang as including many stories as fairy tale that are not truly fairy stories. They also discuss topics from the essay including sub-creation, magic and spells, suspension of disbelief, and children's responses to fairy stories. Commonplace Quotes: One should forgive one's enemies, but only after they are hanged. Heinrich Heine The German folk soul can again express itself. These flames do not only illuminate the final end of the old era. They also light up the new. Never before have the young men had so good a right to clean up the debris of the past. If the old men do not understand what is going on, let them grasp that we young men have gone and done it. The old goes up in flames. The new shall be fashioned from the flame of our hearts. Joseph Goebbles Human beings are not human doings. Nigel Goodwin Into My Heart an Air That Kills by A. E. Houseman Into my heart an air that kills From yon far country blows; What are those far remembered hills, What spires, what towns are those? That is the land of lost content, I see it shining plain, The happy highways where I went And cannot go again. Book List: When Books Went to War by Molly Guptill Manning Culture Care by Makoto Fujimura Roger Lancelyn Green Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum David Copperfield by Charles Dickens The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare Bandersnatch by Diana Pavlac Glyer The Company They Keep by Diana Pavlac Glyer Surprised by Joy by C. S. Lewis Til We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis Phantastes by George MacDonald 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 support! Connect with Us: You can find Angelina and Thomas at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/ Find Cindy at morningtimeformoms.com, on Instagram @cindyordoamoris and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/. Check out Cindy's own Patreon page also! Follow The Literary Life on Instagram, and jump into our private Facebook group, The Literary Life Discussion Group, and let's get the book talk going! http://bit.ly/literarylifeFB

On The Literary Life podcast today we are pleased to bring you a special episode focusing on the importance of a good translation when reading works originally written in other languages. Angelina, Cindy and Thomas are joined for this conversation by Dr. Anne Phillips, who has a BA in Latin and Greek and a Doctorate in Classical Studies and teaches Latin at the House of Humane Letters. They start out with the question of basic principles for determining what makes a good translation. Angelina brings up C. S. Lewis' review of Fitzgerald's translation of The Odyssey and the principles he sets forth. Anne shares her experience with reading classic works in their original languages and how much richer and more enjoyable it is for her. Another topic they cover is the challenge of translating poetry. Angelina, Thomas, and Anne both share some of their least liked translations of classical Greek and Latin works, as well as some recommendations for better translations. They also talk about finding good translations of Old English and Middle English works. Thomas is also teaching a webinar along with Michael Williams on the modern poets W. H. Auden and T. S. Eliot on September 28th. You can now register at House of Humane Letters. Commonplace Quotes: He had the successful portrait painters essential gift and saw men, with few exceptions, as they liked to see themselves. C. V. Wedgwood In my opinion value-judgements in literature should not be hurried. It does a student little good to be told that A is better than B, especially if he prefers B at the time. He has to feel values for himself, and should follow his individual rhythm in doing so. In the meantime, he can read almost anything in any order, just as he can eat mixtures of food that would have his elders reaching for the baking soda. A sensible teaching or librarian can soon learn how to give guidance to a youth's reading that allows for undeveloped taste and still doesn't turn him into a gourmet or a dyspeptic before his time. Northrop Frye A good translation is one that lets Homer sing. Thomas Banks There is a sense in which everything is untranslatable. A man may write what is as good or even better than the original, but from the nature of the case it cannot be precisely the same thing. There are even moments when one feels it is something of a desecration to translate at all, but that is surely over-scrupulous, a weakness which, if all had yielded to it, would certainly have left the world poorer. Walter Headlam Ode 5, Book 1: To Pyrrha by Horace, trans. by John Milton What slender youth, bedew'd with liquid odors, Courts thee on roses in some pleasant cave, Pyrrha? For whom bind'st thou In wreaths thy golden hair, Plain in thy neatness? O how oft shall he Of faith and changed gods complain, and seas Rough with black winds, and storms Unwonted shall admire! Who now enjoys thee credulous, all gold, Who, always vacant, always amiable Hopes thee, of flattering gales Unmindful. Hapless they To whom thou untried seem'st fair. Me, in my vow'd Picture, the sacred wall declares to have hung My dank and dropping weeds To the stern god of sea. Books Mentioned: Velvet Studies by C. V. Wedgwood The Educated Imagination by Northrop Frye The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler The Children's Homer by Padraic Colum The Odyssey trans. by Richmond Lattimore The Iliad trans. by Richmond Lattimore The Aeneid trans. by Sarah Ruden A. E. Stallings Surprised by Joy by C. S. Lewis Beowulf trans. by Burton Raffel Sir Gawain and the Green Knight trans. by Burton Raffel Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary by J. R. R. Tolkien The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, trans. by Burton Raffel The Landmark Heroditus trans. by Andrea L. Purvis The Landmark Thucydides trans. by Richard Crawley The Landmark Xenophon trans. by John Marincola 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 support! Connect with Us: You can find Angelina and Thomas at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/ Find Cindy at morningtimeformoms.com, on Instagram @cindyordoamoris and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/. Check out Cindy's own Patreon page also! Follow The Literary Life on Instagram, and jump into our private Facebook group, The Literary Life Discussion Group, and let's get the book talk going! http://bit.ly/literarylifeFB

This week on The Literary Life podcast, we wrap up our discussion of The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton. After sharing their commonplace quotes, Angelina, Cindy and Thomas dive right in to the last section and share their various thoughts on finishing this book. Angelina and Thomas talk about some of Chesterton's thoughts on Impressionism in the arts. Cindy and Thomas make some connections with the old rhyme about "Monday's Child." They talk about more of the allegorical elements that are clearly spelled out by Chesterton, as well as many other relations they make to other stories, including the one great story. Be sure to join us next week when we have a special episode about why translation matters with Dr. Anne Phillips! Angelina is teaching a class on How to Read Beowulf August 28-September 1, 2023. Get in on this mini-class at House of Humane Letters. Thomas is also teaching a webinar along with Michael Williams on the modern poets W. H. Auden and T. S. Eliot on September 28th. You can now register at House of Humane Letters. Commonplace Quotes: Almost everywhere and almost invariably the man who has sought a cryptogram in a great masterpiece has been highly exhilarated, logically justified, morally excited, and entirely wrong. But it is all detail; and detail by itself means madness. The very definition of a lunatic is a man who has taken details out of their real atmosphere. The truth is, I fear, that madness has a great advantage over sanity. Sanity is always careless. Madness is always careful. G. K. Chesterton, from The Soul of Wit Looking for an author's life in his books is vulgar anyhow, and can be most misleading. L. P. Hartley, from A Perfect Woman Perhaps it is not worthwhile to try to kill heresies which so rapidly kill themselves, and the cult of suicide committed suicide some time ago. But it should not wish it supposed as some think I have supposed, that in resisting the heresy of pessimism, I have implied the equally morbid and diseased insanity of optimism. I was not then considering whether anything is really evil but whether is really evil, and in relation to the latter nightmare, it does still seem to me relevant to say that nightmares are not true and that in them even the faces of friends may appear as the faces of fiends. I tried to turn this notion of resistance to a nightmare into a topsy-turvy tale about a man who fancied himself alone among enemies and found that each of the enemies was, in fact, on his own side and in his own solitude. G. K. Chesterton, on The Man Who Was Thursday The End of the World by Dana Gioia "We're going," they said, "to the end of the world." So they stopped the car where the river curled, And we scrambled down beneath the bridge On the gravel track of a narrow ridge. We tramped for miles on a wooded walk Where dog-hobble grew on its twisted stalk. Then we stopped to rest on the pine-needle floor While two ospreys watched from an oak by the shore. We came to a bend, where the river grew wide And green mountains rose on the opposite side. My guides moved back. I stood alone, As the current streaked over smooth flat stone. Shelf by stone shelf the river fell. The white water goosetailed with eddying swell. Faster and louder the current dropped Till it reached a cliff, and the trail stopped. I stood at the edge where the mist ascended, My journey done where the world ended. I looked downstream. There was nothing but sky, The sound of the water, and the water's reply. "The End of the World" from Interrogations at Noon. Copyright © 2001 by Dana Gioia. Reprinted for educational purposes only. Books Mentioned: W. Summerset Maugham The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare The Human Beast by Emile Zola Theodore Dreiser Jack London On the Place of Gilbert Chesterton in English Letters by Hilaire Belloc Napoleon of Notting Hill by G. K. Chesterton 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 support! Connect with Us: You can find Angelina and Thomas at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/ Find Cindy at morningtimeformoms.com, on Instagram @cindyordoamoris and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/. Check out Cindy's own Patreon page also! Follow The Literary Life on Instagram, and jump into our private Facebook group, The Literary Life Discussion Group, and let's get the book talk going! http://bit.ly/literarylifeFB

On the Literary Life podcast this week Angelina, Cindy and Thomas continue their series on G. K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday. Before diving into the plot of these chapters, our hosts discuss the similarities and differences between Chesterton and Kafka's works of fiction. Thomas gives some historical context on anarchy as well as assassinations in the time period of this book. Angelina points out the Dante-esque language in this section, as well as the continuing themes of chivalry. Cindy highlights the character of Sunday and how he looms large, quite literally, over everyone's imaginations in the story. Some other thoughts our hosts discuss include modernity's mindset as it relates to the atmosphere of this story, the idea of the underdog fighting against all odds, and the humorous moments that break some of the tension. Be sure to come back next week when we wrap up our series on The Man Who Was Thursday. If you missed our 2023 Back to School Conference when it was live, you can still go back and view the recordings when you purchase access to the conference at MorningTimeforMom.com. Angelina is teaching a class on How to Read Beowulf at the end of August 2023. Get in on this mini-class at House of Humane Letters. Thomas is also teaching a webinar along with Michael Williams on the modern poets W. H. Auden and T. S. Eliot on September 28th. You can now register at House of Humane Letters. Commonplace Quotes: It's important, too, that everything that has a story, such as a myth, should be read or listened to purely as a story. Many people grow up without really understanding the difference between imaginative and discursive writing. On the rare occasions when they encounter poems or even pictures, they treat them exactly as though they were intended to be pieces of more or less disguised information. Their questions are all based on this assumption: "What is he trying to get across?" "What am I supposed to get out of it?" "Why doesn't someone explain it to me?" "Why couldn't he have written it in a different way so that I could understand him?" The art of listening to story is a basic training for the imagination. Northrop Frye, The Educated Imagination The biographer is there to explain rather than to judge. To get a clear view of a man we do not need to be told if his actions were good…but how and why he came to do them. Lord David Cecil, "Modern Biography" Or read again The Man Who Was Thursday. Compare it with another good writer, Kafka. Is the difference simply that the one is 'dated' and the other contemporary? Or is it rather that while both give a powerful picture of the loneliness and bewilderment which each one of us encounters in his (apparently) single-handed struggle with the universe, Chesterton, attributing to the universe a more complicated disguise, and admitting the exhilaration as well as the terror of the struggle, has got in rather more, is more balanced: in that sense, more classical, more permanent? C. S. Lewis, "Period Criticism" Selection from Paradise Lost, Book 1 by John Milton Innumerable force of Spirits arm'd That durst dislike his reign, and me preferring, His utmost power with adverse power oppos'd In dubious Battel on the Plains of Heav'n, And shook his throne. What though the field be lost? All is not lost; the unconquerable Will, And study of revenge, immortal hate, And courage never to submit or yield: And what is else not to be overcome? Books Mentioned: The Oxford Book of Christian Verse ed. by Lord David Cecil On Stories by C. S. Lewis The Trial by Franz Kafka The Castle by Franz Kafka Day of the Assassins by Michael Burleigh The Defendant by G. K. Chesterton The Song of Roland trans. by Dorothy L. Sayers Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy King Lear by William Shakespeare The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster 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 support! Connect with Us: You can find Angelina and Thomas at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/ Find Cindy at morningtimeformoms.com, on Instagram @cindyordoamoris and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/. Check out Cindy's own Patreon page also! Follow The Literary Life on Instagram, and jump into our private Facebook group, The Literary Life Discussion Group, and let's get the book talk going! http://bit.ly/literarylifeFB

Welcome back to the Literary Life podcast this week and our new series on G. K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday. Angelina, Cindy, and Thomas open with their commonplace quotes, as usual, then proceed to setting up the background for this book and the man Chesterton himself. Thomas also shares Chesterton's poem to E. C. Bentley that opens this book and gives a brief explication of the poem. Following this, our hosts recap each chapter in the first section. Angelina makes several connections to Paradise Lost in this section, as well as pointing out the romantic and chivalric quest elements in the story. Cindy highlights the fact that we also have the fair maiden character here. Join us again next week when we will cover chapters 5-10 as events become even more strange. If you missed our 2023 Back to School Conference when it was live, you can still go back and view the recordings when you purchase access to the conference at MorningTimeforMom.com. Angelina is teaching a class on How to Read Beowulf at the end of August 2023. Get in on this mini-class at House of Humane Letters. Thomas is also teaching a webinar along with Michael Williams on the modern poets W. H. Auden and T. S. Eliot on September 28th. You can now register at House of Humane Letters. Commonplace Quotes: Had her mother been somebody else's mother she would perhaps have admired her unreservedly. L. P. Hartley, A Perfect Woman When a child is reading, he should not be teased with questions as to the meaning of what he has read, the signification of this word or that; what is annoying to older people is equally annoying to children. Charlotte Mason And there is…Mooreeffoc, or Chestertonian Fantasy. Mooreeffoc is a fantastic word, but it could be seen written up in every town in this land. It is Coffeeroom, view from the inside through a glass door, as it was seen by Dickens on a dark London day; and it was used by Chesterton to denote the queerness of things that have become trite, when they are seen suddenly from a new angle. J. R. R. Tolkien, "On Fairy Stories" GKC by Walter de la Mare Knight of the Holy Ghost, he goes his way, Wisdom his motley, Truth his loving jest; The mills of Satan keep his lance in play, Pity and innocence his heart at rest. Books Mentioned: The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad John Le Carre Graham Greene Oscar Wilde Franz Kafka John Buchan Thursday Next Series by Jasper Fforde Trent's Last Case by E. C. Bentley 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 support! Connect with Us: You can find Angelina and Thomas at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/ Find Cindy at morningtimeformoms.com, on Instagram @cindyordoamoris and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/. Check out Cindy's own Patreon page also! Follow The Literary Life on Instagram, and jump into our private Facebook group, The Literary Life Discussion Group, and let's get the book talk going! http://bit.ly/literarylifeFB

This week on The Literary Life podcast we have a fun "Best of" Series episode for you from our collection of "In Search of the Austen Adaptation" podcasts! On this episode 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. 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: 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 support! Connect with Us: You can find Angelina and Thomas at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/ Find Cindy at morningtimeformoms.com, on Instagram @cindyordoamoris and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/. Check out Cindy's own Patreon page also! Follow The Literary Life on Instagram, and jump into our private Facebook group, The Literary Life Discussion Group, and let's get the book talk going! http://bit.ly/literarylifeFB

On today's "Best of The Literary Life" episode, Angelina and Cindy interview Caitlin Bruce Beauchamp. In addition to being an AmblesideOnline homeschool graduate and a lover of the humanities, Caitlin is a busy wife and a mother of young children. In their conversation, Angelina, Cindy and Caitlin dive into the deep end from the start, discussing the purpose of beauty. They talk about Caitlin's early reading life and how she came to love books. She shares how she had to learn some humility in her reading life as an adult. Angelina asks Caitlin how she finds the time to keep up her reading life amidst the responsibilities of mothering. Cindy and Caitlin talk about the importance of feeding your mind with other people's ideas instead of taking the road to self-pity. The ladies discuss the timing of reading certain books to children and the great joy of watching children blossom as they listen to the right kinds of stories. Caitlin shares some of the books she reads to get out of a slump, as well as some other favorites and current reads. Commonplace Quotes: In his memoir Suprised by Joy Lewis described his ideal daily routine to be reading and writing from nine until one and again from five until seven, with breaks for meals, walking, or tea-time. Apart from those six hours of study every day, he also enjoyed light reading over meals or in the evening hours. All in all, Lewis' preferred schedule seemed to include seven or eight hours of reading per day! David C. Downing and Michael G. Maudlin, in the preface to The Reading Life To be seeking always after the useful does not become free and exalted souls. Aristotle The years to come – this is a promise – will grant you ample time to try the difficult steps in the empire of thought where you seek for the shining proofs you think you must have. But nothing you ever understand will be sweeter, or more binding, than this deepest affinity between your eyes and the world. The flock thickens over the roiling, salt brightness. Listen, maybe such devotion, in which one holds the world in the clasp of attention, isn't the perfect prayer, but it must be close, for the sorrow, whose name is doubt, is thus subdued, and not through the weaponry of reason, but of pure submission. Tell me, what else could beauty be for? And now the tide is at its very crown, the white birds sprinkle down, gathering up the loose silver, rising as if weightless. It isn't instruction, or a parable. It isn't for any vanity or ambition except for the one aloud, to stay alive. It's only a nimble frolic over the waves. And you find, for hours, you cannot even remember the questions that weigh so in your mind. Mary Oliver, selection from "Terns" In the Bleak Midwinter by Christina Rossetti In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone; Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow, In the bleak midwinter, long ago. Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain; Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign. In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ. Enough for Him, whom cherubim, worship night and day, Breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay; Enough for Him, whom angels fall before, The ox and ass and camel which adore. Angels and archangels may have gathered there, Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air; But His mother only, in her maiden bliss, Worshiped the beloved with a kiss. What can I give Him, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb; If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part; Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart. Book List: The Reading Life by C. S. Lewis Poetics by Aristotle The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes Hamlet by William Shakespeare Moby Dick by Herman Melville An Experiment in Criticism by C. S. Lewis A Lantern in Her Hand by Bess Streeter Aldrich Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder The Happy Hollisters by Jerry West Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace Stories from The Faerie Queen by Jeanie Lang Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky Silence by Shusako Endo Emily of New Moon by L. M. Montgomery Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher Middlemarch by George Eliot (the Audible version read by Juliet Stevenson) Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers Light in August by William Faulkner The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner The Wild Places by Robert MacFarlane Landmarks by Robert MacFarlane Elizabeth Goudge Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry Plainsong by Kent Haruf 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 support! Connect with Us: You can find Angelina and Thomas at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/ Find Cindy at morningtimeformoms.com, on Instagram @cindyordoamoris and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/. Check out Cindy's own Patreon page also! Follow The Literary Life on Instagram, and jump into our private Facebook group, The Literary Life Discussion Group, and let's get the book talk going! http://bit.ly/literarylifeFB

On The Literary Life podcast today, our hosts Angelina, Cindy and Thomas sit down for a chat with twin sisters Addison and Ella Hornstra. Together they have been given a literary home education, and this fall they will continue that journey at New College Franklin. Angelina introduces the Hornstra ladies and she and Thomas tell a little bit about having them as students. Cindy also shares how she met the Hornstra family. Then they dig into the girls' reading journeys from the beginning of their learning to read all the way to their current reading lives. Some of the topics that come up in this conversation are: reading content beyond your understanding, owning your reading life, the problem with using the wrong approach to literature, the dangers of modern education for uniquely gifted students, the power of just reading well, and so much more. Come explore, with seasoned moms, the things that stand the test of time in our homeschools at this year's Literary Life Back to School Online Conference. In addition to our hosts, Donna-Jean Breckenridge and a panel of home educating parents and their adult children, will be bringing encouragement and insight to help you on your homeschool journey. This year's conference will be live online on August 2-5, with recordings available for those who cannot join live. Commonplace Quotes: It is bad to spend too many hours over either a microscope or telescope or in gazing fixedly at some one distance range. The eyes need change of focus, and so does the imagination. There has been in modern Europe a shocking riot in misuse of the imagination. The remedy is to learn to use it. But the same kind of people who would like to bandage a child's eyes lest it should learn to squint like to bandage the imagination lest it should wear itself out by squinting. Mary Everest Boole Away from the immense, cloistered in our own concepts, we may scorn and revile everything. But standing between earth and sky, we are silenced by the sight. Abraham Heschel In nature, the bird who gets up earliest catches the most worms, but in book collecting, the prizes fall to birds who know worms when they see them. Michael Sadlier The madman, of all men, lives most in a world of his own. E. J. Oliver Symbols are the nature speech of the soul, a language older and more universal than words. Edmund Spenser Sonnet XIX: On His Blindness by John Milton When I consider how my light is spent, Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, And that one Talent which is death to hide Lodged with me useless, though my Soul more bent To serve therewith my Maker, and present My true account, lest he returning chide; "Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?" I fondly ask. But patience, to prevent That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need Either man's work or his own gifts; who best Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed And post o'er Land and Ocean without rest: They also serve who only stand and wait." Books Mentioned: The Philosophy and Fun of Algebra by Mary Everest Boole Thunder in the Soul by Abraham Heschel A Gentle Madness by Nicholas Basbanes Coventry Patmore by E. J. Oliver The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë Beatrix Potter Mistmantle Chronicles by M. I. McAllister Redwall Series by Brian Jacques Poppy Series by Avi The Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White Ralph Mouse Series by Beverley Cleary The Cat of Bubastes by G. A. Henty In Freedom's Cause by G. A. Henty Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy Les Miserables by Victor Hugo Gene Stratton Porter The Chronicles of Prydain Series by Lloyd Alexander Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson Phantastes by George MacDonald The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton 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 support! Connect with Us: You can find Angelina and Thomas at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/ Find Cindy at morningtimeformoms.com, on Instagram @cindyordoamoris and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/. Check out Cindy's own Patreon page also! Follow The Literary Life on Instagram, and jump into our private Facebook group, The Literary Life Discussion Group, and let's get the book talk going! http://bit.ly/literarylifeFB

Welcome back to The Literary Life Podcast and the final episode in our series on Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped. This week, Angelina, Cindy, and Thomas open with a discussion of the difference between Jacobites and Whigs and how that contrast is played out in this story. Angelina and Cindy compare the characters of David Balfour and Jim Hawkins of Treasure Island and how they display honor. Angelina addresses moralizing stories versus making a moral observation of a story. Thomas gives a summary of the last several chapters of Kidnapped and makes some comment on the lawyer Rankeillor. They highlight more of the epic romance elements found in this book, as well. Check out our Upcoming Events page to see the schedule for the rest of the summer and into fall. Join us for the 5th Annual Back to School Conference with your hosts, along with special guest speaker Donna-Jean Breckenridge this August 2-5, 2023. Learn more and register at morningtimeformoms.com. Commonplace Quotes: But in these days we are forced even against our will to judge everything, even plays, morally. A crowd of artists and aesthetes have declared in this age that art is immoral; but the fact plainly and obviously remains that there never was a time in the history of the world when art was so moral. If there be a fault in the popular criticism of the day, it is that it is far too much so. G. K. Chesterton, The Soul of Wit Man is by nature so dissatisfied an animal that he must always be acclaiming something that he fondly believes to be new. Charles Petrie, The Four Georges But though the thing is to be criticised (and admired) strictly as an adventure story, there are sidelights of interest about it considered as a historical novel. It carries on a rather curiously balanced critical attitude, partly inherited from the attitude of Sir Walter Scott, the paradox of being intellectually on the side of the Whigs and morally on the side of the Jacobites. G. K. Chesterton, Robert Louis Stevenson Scotland's Winter by Edwin Muir Now the ice lays its smooth claws on the sill, The sun looks from the hill Helmed in his winter casket, And sweeps his arctic sword across the sky. The water at the mill Sounds more hoarse and dull. The miller's daughter walking by With frozen fingers soldered to her basket Seems to be knocking Upon a hundred leagues of floor With her light heels, and mocking Percy and Douglas dead, And Bruce on his burial bed, Where he lies white as may With wars and leprosy, And all the kings before This land was kingless, And all the singers before This land was songless, This land that with its dead and living waits the Judgement Day. But they, the powerless dead, Listening can hear no more Than a hard tapping on the floor A little overhead Of common heels that do not know Whence they come or where they go And are content With their poor frozen life and shallow banishment. Books Mentioned: The History of Tom Jones by Henry Fielding David Balfour/Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson 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 support! Connect with Us: You can find Angelina and Thomas at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/ Find Cindy at morningtimeformoms.com, on Instagram @cindyordoamoris and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/. Check out Cindy's own Patreon page also! Follow The Literary Life on Instagram, and jump into our private Facebook group, The Literary Life Discussion Group, and let's get the book talk going! http://bit.ly/literarylifeFB

This week on The Literary Life Podcast, Angelina, Thomas, and Cindy continue their discussion of Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped, covering chapters 7-18. After sharing their commonplace quotes, Thomas opens the conversation with a brief synopsis of chapter 7. Angelina notes the increase in danger and violence in this section of the book, and our hosts talk about the roguish character of Alan Breck. They make many comparisons between Kidnapped and Treasure Island and highlight the other-world atmosphere Stevenson creates while staying in the real world. Cindy mentions some of the conflict between the Campbells and MacDonalds, and Thomas fleshes out a little more of this aspect of Scottish history. Join us for the 5th Annual Back to School Conference with your hosts, along with special guest speaker Donna-Jean Breckenridge this August 2-5, 2023. Learn more and register at morningtimeformoms.com. Commonplace Quotes: Mr. Roger Lancelyn Green, writing in English not long ago, remarked that the reading of Rider Haggard had been to many a sort of religious experience. To some people this will have seemed simply grotesque. I myself would strongly disagree with it if 'religious' is taken to mean 'Christian.' And even if we take it in a sub-Christian sense, it would have been safer to say that such people had first met in Haggard's romances elements which they would meet again in religious experience if they ever came to have any. But I think Mr. Green is very much nearer the mark than those who assume that no one has ever read the romances except in order to be thrilled by hair-breadth escapes. If he had said simply that something which the educated receive from poetry can reach the masses through stories of adventure, and almost in no other way, then I think he would have been right. C. S. Lewis The conception which unites the whole varied work of Stevenson was that romance, or the vision of the possibilities of things, was far more important than mere occurrences: that one was the soul of our life, the other the body, and that the soul was the precious thing. G. K. Chesterton, from Varied Types What do you usually do when you are shut up in a secret room, with no chance of getting out for hours? As for me, I always say poetry to myself. It is one of the uses of poetry–one says it to oneself in distressing circumstances of that kind, or when one has to wait at railway stations, or when one cannot get to sleep at night. You will find poetry most useful for this purpose. So learn plenty of it, and be sure it is the best kind, because this is most useful as well as most agreeable. E. Nesbit, from The House of Arden A Selection from Rob Roy's Grave by William Wordsworth Thou, although with some wild thoughts Wild Chieftain of a savage Clan! Hadst this to boast of; thou didst love The liberty of man. And, had it been thy lot to live With us who now behold the light, Thou would'st have nobly stirred thyself, And battled for the Right. For thou wert still the poor man's stay, The poor man's heart, the poor man's hand; And all the oppressed, who wanted strength, Had thine at their command. Books Mentioned: Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard The History of Tom Jones by Henry Fielding The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame 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 support! Connect with Us: You can find Angelina and Thomas at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/ Find Cindy at morningtimeformoms.com, on Instagram @cindyordoamoris and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/. Check out Cindy's own Patreon page also! Follow The Literary Life on Instagram, and jump into our private Facebook group, The Literary Life Discussion Group, and let's get the book talk going! http://bit.ly/literarylifeFB