Episode 45: "The Importance of Being Earnest" Act 2

Episode 45: "The Importance of Being Earnest" Act 2

On today’s episode of The Literary Life podcast, Cindy, Thomas and Angelina cover Act 2 of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest. Angelina is excited to share her research on the connection between the work of Oscar Wilde and P. G. Wodehouse. Cindy brings up Booth Tarkington’s Penrod books as another example of witty, humorous literature. Thomas points out the importance of cultural lens for appreciating humor in art. They also talk about all the puns that Wilde gives his characters in this play.

Angelina discusses the reformed rake motif in Victorian literature and how Wilde plays with this theme. Thomas gives a little background on the mentions of lending libraries and the three-volume novel. Cindy talks about the parallels between the Victorians’ high view of earnestness and our modern valuation of transparency. Angelina contrasts Oscar Wilde and his contemporary Thomas Hardy in the way that Wilde handles heavy topics with a light touch. They all agree that Wilde has an almost Shakespearean plot in complexity and manages to pull it all together at the end.

Listen to The Literary Life: Commonplace Quotes:

About the lack of religious education: of course you must be grieved, but remember how much religious education has exactly the opposite effect to that which was intended, how many hard atheists come from pious homes. May we not hope, with God’s mercy, that a similarly opposite effect may be produced in her case? Parents are not Providence: their bad intentions may be frustrated as their good ones.

C. S. Lewis

It is faintly amusing when one reads about society lapsing back into paganism. I, for one, would think it rather a picturesque incident if the Prime Minister were to sacrifice an ox in the temple of Venus.

C. S. Lewis

Hell is a state of mind – ye never said a truer word. And every state of mind, left to itself, every shutting up of the creature within the dungeon of its own mind – is, in the end, Hell. But Heaven is not a state of mind. Heaven is reality itself. All that is fully real is Heavenly. For all that can be shaken will be shaken and only the unshakeable remains.

C. S. Lewis Ye Meaner Beauties

by Sir Henry Wotton

Ye meaner beauties of the night,
That poorly satisfy our eyes
More by your number than your light;
Ye common people of the skies,
What are you when the sun shall rise?

Ye curious chanters of the wood,
That warble forth Dame Nature’s lays,
Thinking your voices understood
By your weak accents; what’s your praise
When Philomel her voice shall raise?

Ye violets that first appear,
By your pure purple mantles known,
Like the proud virgins of the year,
As if the spring were all your own;
What are you when the rose is blown?

So, when my mistress shall be seen
In form and beauty of her mind,
By virtue first, then choice, a queen,
Tell me, if she were not design’d
Th’ eclipse and glory of her kind?

Book List:

(Amazon affiliate links are used in this content.)

Letters to an American Lady by C. S. Lewis

The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewi

Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens

Pamela by Samuel Richardson

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Tom Jones by Henry Fielding

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Psmith, Journalist by P. G. Wodehouse

An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde

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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 https://cindyrollins.net, 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

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Episode 4: "Gaudy Night" Chapters 1-3

Episode 4: "Gaudy Night" Chapters 1-3

Today’s Book List: (affiliate links) Gaudy Night, Strong Poison, Clouds of Witness, Unnatural Death, Five Red Herrings, Murder Must Advertise, The Nine Tailors, and The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy Sayers Seeking God by Esther de Waal and Kathleen Norris The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis Essays by Dorothy Sayers: Are Women Human?, The Mind of the Maker,  and Letters to a Diminished Church   Connect with us! Find Angelina at  https://angelinastanford.com and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/ Find Cindy at https://cindyrollins.net and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/   Jump into our private Facebook group, The Literary Life Discussion Group, and let’s get the book talk going! http://bit.ly/literarylifeFB   Today’s poem: A Slice of Wedding Cake by Robert Graves   Why have such scores of lovely, gifted girls Married impossible men? Simple self-sacrifice may be ruled out, And missionary endeavour, nine times out of ten.   Repeat 'impossible men': not merely rustic, Foul-tempered or depraved (Dramatic foils chosen to show the world How well women behave, and always have behaved).   Impossible men: idle, illiterate, Self-pitying, dirty, sly, For whose appearance even in City parks Excuses must be made to casual passers-by.   Has God's supply of tolerable husbands Fallen, in fact, so low? Or do I always over-value woman At the expense of man? Do I? It might be so.

22 Huhti 20191h 6min

Episode 3: The Importance of the Detective Novel

Episode 3: The Importance of the Detective Novel

Today’s Book List: (affiliate links) The World’s Last Night and Lilies That Fester by C.S. Lewis The Five Red Herrings, Murder Must Advertise, and Gaudy Night by Dorothy L Sayers Nancy Drew #45: The Spider Sapphire Mystery by Carolyn Keene The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle The Footsteps at the Lock by Ronald Knox Multiple novels by Agatha Christie Murders in the Rue Morgue and The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe The Moonstone and The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins The Albert Campion series by Margery Allingham The Roderick Alleyn series by Ngaio Marsh The Flavia de Luce series by Allen Bradley The Inspector Appleby Mystery series by Michael Innes The Daughter of Time and Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey Murder Fantastical by Patricia Moyes The Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling) Multiple novels by Alexander McCall Smith Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series by Laurie King The Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny Brave New World by David Archer The Chronicles of Brother Cadfael series by Ellis Peters The Adam Dalgliesh Series by P.D. James   Connect with us! Find Angelina at  https://angelinastanford.com and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/ Find Cindy at https://cindyrollins.net and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/   Jump into our private Facebook group, The Literary Life Discussion Group, and let’s get the book talk going! http://bit.ly/literarylifeFB   Today’s poem: The Listeners by Walter De La Mare   ‘Is there anybody there?’ said the Traveller,      Knocking on the moonlit door; And his horse in the silence champed the grasses      Of the forest’s ferny floor: And a bird flew up out of the turret,      Above the Traveller’s head: And he smote upon the door again a second time;      ‘Is there anybody there?’ he said. But no one descended to the Traveller;      No head from the leaf-fringed sill Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes,      Where he stood perplexed and still. But only a host of phantom listeners      That dwelt in the lone house then Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight      To that voice from the world of men: Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair,      That goes down to the empty hall, Hearkening in an air stirred and shaken      By the lonely Traveller’s call. And he felt in his heart their strangeness,      Their stillness answering his cry, While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,      ’Neath the starred and leafy sky; For he suddenly smote on the door, even      Louder, and lifted his head:— ‘Tell them I came, and no one answered,      That I kept my word,’ he said. Never the least stir made the listeners,      Though every word he spake Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house      From the one man left awake: Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,      And the sound of iron on stone, And how the silence surged softly backward,      When the plunging hoofs were gone.

22 Huhti 20191h 2min

The Interview Episode

The Interview Episode

Today’s Book List: (affiliate links) One Writer’s Beginnings by Eudora Welty Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art by Madeleine L’Engle The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis Fairacre and Thrush Green series by Miss Read Arabian Nights Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Legends of King Arthur Series by Rosemary Sutcliff The Jeeves and Wooster series by P.G. Wodehouse The Lord Peter novels and Are Women Human? Dorothy Sayers   Connect with us! Find Angelina at  houseofhumaneletters.com and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/ Find Cindy at morningtimeformoms.com and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/CindyRollinsWriter   Jump into our private Facebook group, The Literary Life Discussion Group, and let’s get the book talk going! http://bit.ly/literarylifeFB   Today’s poem: If I Could Tell You by W.H. Auden   Time will say nothing but I told you so, Time only knows the price we have to pay; If I could tell you I would let you know.   If we should weep when clowns put on their show, If we should stumble when musicians play, Time will say nothing but I told you so.   There are no fortunes to be told, although, Because I love you more than I can say, If I could tell you I would let you know.   The winds must come from somewhere when they blow, There must be reasons why the leaves decay; Time will say nothing but I told you so.   Perhaps the roses really want to grow, The vision seriously intends to stay; If I could tell you I would let you know.   Suppose the lions all get up and go, And all the brooks and soldiers run away; Will Time say nothing but I told you so? If I could tell you I would let you know.

21 Huhti 201954min

What is the Literary Life?

What is the Literary Life?

Today's Book List: (affiliate links) An Experiment in Criticism by C.S. Lewis The Children’s Homer, The Golden Fleece, The Stone of Victory, and other Tales by Padraic Colum For the Children’s Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay Mutliple novels by Elizabeth Gaskell Leisure: The Basis of Culture by Joseph Pieper Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers   Find out more about our sponsor, New College Franklin at https://newcollegefranklin.org/   Connect with us! Find Angelina at  https://angelinastanford.com and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/ Find Cindy at https://cindyrollins.net and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/   Jump into our private Facebook group, The Literary Life Discussion Group, and let’s get the book talk going! http://bit.ly/literarylifeFB   Today’s poem: The Truisms by Louis MacNeice   His father gave him a box of truisms Shaped like a coffin, then his father died; The truisms remained on the mantlepiece As wooden as the play box they had been packed in Or that his father skulked inside.   Then he left home, left the truisms behind him Still on the mantlepiece, met love, met war, Sordor, disappointment, defeat, betrayal, Till through disbeliefs he arrived at a house He could not remember seeing before.   And he walked straight in; it was where he had come from And something told him the way to behave. He raised his hand and blessed his home; The truisms flew and perched on his shoulders And a tall tree sprouted from his father’s grave.

21 Huhti 201939min

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