Episode 47: The Great Divorce, Preface & Ch. 1

Episode 47: The Great Divorce, Preface & Ch. 1

On The Literary Life podcast today, Cindy Rollins, Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks begin their series on The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis. Today you are going to get a crash-course in Medievalism through Lewis’ story, and we hope you will enjoy this book as much as our hosts do. Angelina kicks off the discussion even while sharing her commonplace quote, sharing some information about the epigraph and front matter. She gives us some historical context, both for where this books comes in Lewis’ own timeline, as well as some ideas of the journey of the soul and medieval dream literature.

Thomas gives some background on Prudentius and his allegorical work The Psychomachia. Angelina goes into some comparisons between The Great Divorce and Dante’s Divine Comedy. Thomas talks about Nathanial Hawthorne’s short story The Celestial Railroad as a satire of Pilgrim’s Progress. Also, if you haven’t read and listened to E. M. Forster’s Celestial Omnibus, see Episode 17. As they get into discussing the Preface, Thomas give us some information on William Blake. We will be back next week with a discussion on Chapters 2-6.

Listen to The Literary Life: Commonplace Quotes:

We do not obtain the most precious gifts by going in search of them but by waiting for them. Man cannot discover them by his own powers and if he sets out to seek for them he will find in their place counterfeits of which he will be unable to discern the falsity.

Simone Weil

No, there is no escape. There is no heaven with a little of hell in it–no plan to retain this of that of the devil in our hearts or our pockets. Out Satan must go, every hair and feather.

George MacDonald

A poet is not a man who says “look at me”, but rather a man who points at something and says “look at that.”

C. S. Lewis MCMXIV

by Philip Larkin

Those long uneven lines
Standing as patiently
As if they were stretched outside
The Oval or Villa Park,
The crowns of hats, the sun
On moustached archaic faces
Grinning as if it were all
An August Bank Holiday lark;

And the shut shops, the bleached
Established names on the sunblinds,
The farthings and sovereigns,
And dark-clothed children at play
Called after kings and queens,
The tin advertisements
For cocoa and twist, and the pubs
Wide open all day–

And the countryside not caring:
The place names all hazed over
With flowering grasses, and fields
Shadowing Domesday lines
Under wheat’s restless silence;
The differently-dressed servants
With tiny rooms in huge houses,
The dust behind limousines;

Never such innocence,
Never before or since,
As changed itself to past
Without a word–the men
Leaving the gardens tidy,
The thousands of marriages,
Lasting a little while longer:
Never such innocence again.

Book List:

Amazon affiliate links are used in this content.

The Princess and Curdie by George MacDonald

The Personal Heresy by C. S. Lewis and E. M. Tillyard

The Aeneid by Virgil

The Divine Comedy by Dante

Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan

The Holy War by John Bunyan

Ourselves by Charlotte Mason

A Preface to Paradise Lost by C. S. Lewis

The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake

Paradise Lost by John Milton

Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett

That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis

The Weight of Glory by C. S. Lewis

Thanks to Our Sponsor:

This episode is brought to you by New College Franklin. We want to encourage you to check out their 2020 Spring Preview Days happening online via Zoom conferencing.

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 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 Apr 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 Apr 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 Apr 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 Apr 201939min

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