Episode 290: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, Ch. 9-21

This week on The Literary Life, Angelina, Cindy and Thomas dive in to Act 4 of Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale. We are excited to announce a new online conference coming on March 13-14, 2020. Our theme will be Re-enchanting the World: The Legacy of the Inklings. Our keynote speaker is Inklings scholar, Joseph Pearce. Go to Angelina and Thomas’ new website HouseofHumaneLetters.com for all the info and to register. This act is jam packed with action and important plot points, but Cindy points out the connection between the shepherd and his son and the tale that Mamillius was telling Hermoine in an earlier act. Angelina brings up the juxtaposition of winter and spring in this play. She also talks about how Shakespeare departs from Aristotle’s “rules” for unity of time and place in playwriting. This act is all about redeeming what was lost, and it is also full of disguises. Thomas explains the connection between Perdita and Flora. Our hosts discuss the wedding customs of Shakespeare’s day as well as the festivities we see in this play. Thomas gives us a little overview of the myth of Persephone and how A Winter’s Tale alludes to this myth. Angelina also highlights the importance of the kiss in the fairy tale. Cindy encourages us to read and re-read because there is such depth in Shakespeare that we can never get to the bottom of it all. We are also invited to look for the mirrors of the characters and action in this act to things that happen in the first three acts. Angelina also instructs us on the two classic fairy tale story patterns and how A Winter’s Tale follows both of those patterns. The Winter’s Tale Show Schedule: February 25: Act V March: Live Q&A for Patreon Fellows Commonplace Quotes: She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways She dwelt among the untrodden ways Beside the springs of Dove, A Maid whom there were none to praise And very few to love: A violet by a mossy stone Half hidden from the eye! —Fair as a star, when only one Is shining in the sky. She lived unknown, and few could know When Lucy ceased to be; But she is in her grave, and, oh, The difference to me! William Wordsworth In the 12th-century Church of San Clemente in Rome, the brilliant mosaic apse over the main altar presents us with a view of reality that is both Cosmic and Eucharistic. The central image is of the crucified Christ, mildly accepting his suffering and death, his face full of peace. But spiraling forth from the foot of the cross, where it is watered by the blood of Christ, a stupendous acanthus bush curls outward and upward, encircling nearly a hundred separate images. The spiraling branches of the acanthus embrace even two pagan Roman gods, Baby Jupiter, formerly king of the gods, and Baby Neptune, formerly king of the deep, who rides a slippery looking dolphin. Even the ancient pagans have been redeemed, and their mythologies are usable by us. Thomas Cahill Whatever happens will be for the worse, and therefore it is in our interest that as little should happen as possible. Lord Salisbury You Ask My Why, Tho’ Ill at Ease by Alfred, Lord Tennyson You ask me, why, tho’ ill at ease, Within this region I subsist, Whose spirits falter in the mist, And languish for the purple seas. It is the land that freemen till, That sober-suited Freedom chose, The land, where girt with friends or foes A man may speak the thing he will; A land of settled government, A land of just and old renown, Where Freedom slowly broadens down From precedent to precedent: Where faction seldom gathers head, But by degrees to fullness wrought, The strength of some diffusive thought Hath time and space to work and spread. Should banded unions persecute Opinion, and induce a time When single thought is civil crime, And individual freedom mute; Tho’ Power should make from land to land The name of Britain trebly great— Tho’ every channel of the State Should fill and choke with golden sand— Yet waft me from the harbour-mouth, Wild wind! I seek a warmer sky, And I will see before I die The palms and temples of the South. Book List: Mysteries of the Middle Ages by Thomas Cahill Shakespeare After All by Marjorie Garber Pandosto by Robert Greene   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

18 Feb 20201h 16min

On The Literary Life podcast today, we join our hosts Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins and Thomas Banks to discuss Act 3 of The Winter's Tale by Williams Shakespeare. Before jumping into Shakespeare, though, our hosts are excited to announce a new online conference coming on March 13-14, 2020. Our theme will be Re-enchanting the World: The Legacy of the Inklings. Our keynote speaker is Inklings scholar, Joseph Pearce. Go to Angelina and Thomas' new website HouseofHumaneLetters.com for all the info and to register. After catching us up on the plot, Angelina asks Thomas to explain a little about the Oracles and Apollo and how they relate to this play. He also talks about the parallel between this play and the historical events surrounding Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Our hosts also bring out the importance of a legitimate heir to the throne in a monarchy. The idea of the consequence of an out of control imagination continue to be crucial in this act. They also talk about the sudden change in Leontes’ feelings and his repentance at the end of Act 3. Angelina points out that the structure of the play tells us that all this death and grief is not the climax of the story. Cindy brings up the Russian feel present in A Winter’s Tale. Thomas explores the characters of the shepherds and rustics in Shakespeare’s plays. They discuss the fairy elements as well as the gospel elements of the baby and the gold being found by the shepherds. Commonplace Quotes: “I think it was The Times Literary Supplement–and it had left me depressed. What struck me so forcibly, and not for the first time, was that a new book on any subject-history, philosophy, science, religion, or what have you–is always dealt with by a specialist in that subject. This may be fairest from the author’s point of view, but it conveys a disagreeable impression of watertight compartments… It wasn’t that people can think at once confidently and oppositely about almost anything that matters-though that, too, can sometimes be a sobering reflection. It wasn’t that they disagreed. I wished they did. What was biting me was the fact that these minds never met at all.” Owen Barfield Our Ford himself did a great deal to shift the emphasis from truth and beauty to comfort and happiness. Mass production demanded the shift. Universal happiness keeps the wheels steadily turning; truth and beauty can't. Aldous Huxley A professor is someone who talks in someone else’s sleep. W. H. Auden The Winter’s Tale Show Schedule: February 18: Act IV February 25: Act V March: Live Q&A for Patreon Fellows Paradise by George Herbert I BLESSE thee, Lord, because I G R O W Among thy trees, which in a R O W To thee both fruit and order O W. What open force, or hidden C H A R M Can blast my fruit, or bring me H A R M While the inclosure is thine A R M? Inclose me still for fear I S T A R T. Be to me rather sharp and T A R T, Than let me want thy hand and A R T. When thou dost greater judgements S P A R E, And with thy knife but prune and P A R E, Ev’n fruitful trees more fruitfull A R E. Such sharpness shows the sweetest F R E N D: Such cuttings rather heal than R E N D: And such beginnings touch their E N D. Book List: (Amazon Affiliate Links) Further Up and Further In by Joseph Pearce Tolkien: Man and Myth by Joseph Pearce The Discarded Image by C. S. Lewis Worlds Apart by Owen Barfield The Two Cultures by C. P. Snow Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Wolf Hall Series by Hillary Mantel Silas Marner by George Eliot 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

11 Feb 20201h 13min

This week on The Literary Life, our hosts Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins and Thomas Banks are back to discuss Act 2 of The Winter’s Tale by Williams Shakespeare. After sharing their commonplace quotes, they begin with a brief recap of the plot. They highlight the story begun by Mamillius upon the entrance of Leontes in Act 2, Scene 1. Angelina explores the concept of Leontes as a tragic hero. Our hosts also get into the ideas of constancy versus inconstancy, lunacy and the Renaissance view of women as changeable. Shakespeare, on the other hand, portrays a man as the one who is changeable and the woman as constant. As we continue through this act, our hosts highlight Leontes’ illness and how it infects Mamillius. They also talk about Paulina as a sort of foil for Leontes, as well as her strength of character in the face of the king’s unreasonable behavior. Cindy points out the unthinkable nature of Leontes’ desire to burn his own wife and child. The Winter’s Tale Show Schedule: February 11: Act III February 18: Act IV February 25: Act V March: Live Q&A for Patreon Fellows Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold, then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him. I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking. When the rooms were warm, he’d call, and slowly I would rise and dress, fearing the chronic angers of that house, Speaking indifferently to him, who had driven out the cold and polished my good shoes as well. What did I know, what did I know of love’s austere and lonely offices? Robert Hayden, “Those Winter Sundays” from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden, edited by Frederick Glaysher. Copyright ©1966 by Robert Hayden. Book List: Amazon Affiliate Links Range by David Epstein There Was a Man Dwelt by a Churchyard by M. R. James Chanticleer and the Fox by Barbara Cooney The Aethiopica by Heliodorus 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: Find Angelina at  https://angelinastanford.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

4 Feb 20201h 10min

On today’s episode of The Literary Life podcast, Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins and Thomas Banks talk about Act 1 of The Winter’s Tale by Williams Shakespeare. After sharing their commonplace quotes, our hosts begin by discussing the form of nearly ever Shakespeare play. They discuss the “problem” of the combination of tragic and comedic elements in this play. Other themes discussed are the presence of so many doubles in the characters, the way Shakespeare uses the setting, and how the kings represent their entire kingdoms. Cindy goes on to point out the way Leontes accepts the idea he has about Hermoine and Polixenes and runs with it. Angelina expounds on the way that people in Shakespeare’s time thought about having properly ordered mind versus one that is disordered. She and Thomas also highlight the way the Renaissance person saw disorder in the individual as connected to disorder in the universe. To close, Cindy also points out the way Shakespeare “plays” with words, so be watching for that as we read on! The Winter’s Tale Show Schedule: February 4: Act II February 11: Act III February 18: Act IV February 25: Act V March: Live Q&A for Patreon Fellows Love Is Not All by Edna St. Vincent Milay Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain; Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink And rise and sink and rise and sink again; Love can not fill the thickened lung with breath, Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone; Yet many a man is making friends with death Even as I speak, for lack of love alone. It well may be that in a difficult hour, Pinned down by pain and moaning for release, Or nagged by want past resolution’s power, I might be driven to sell your love for peace, Or trade the memory of this night for food. It well may be. I do not think I would. Book List: (Amazon Affiliate links) A Dish of Orts by George MacDonald Range by David Epstein The Meaning of Shakespeare, Vol. 2 by Harold Goddard The Personal Heresy by C. S. Lewis and E. M. Tillyard The Elizabethan World Picture by E. M. Tillyard 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: Find Angelina at  https://angelinastanford.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

28 Jan 20201h 13min

Welcome to our first episode on Shakespeare’s play A Winter’s Tale. Hosts Angelina Stanford and Cindy Rollins start off with some ideas of how to approach a Shakespeare play, especially if you feel new or intimidated by Shakespeare. Angelina talks about the use of poetry and prose in these plays, as well as the different types of plays within Shakespeare’s body of work. She also discusses the history and development of drama from the time of the Greeks to the Renaissance. James Banks joins the podcasts again to lend his perspective to our study of Shakespeare. He recommends the Oxford, Norton and Riverside editions for reading Shakespeare. He also encourages people to see screen adaptations, audio versions and, of course, watching a live play when possible. James also talks a little about the challenge of the older English language and how to deal with that as you read and listen. Our hosts also take a look at the culture and history surrounding Shakespeare and his theatre company. The Winter’s Tale Show Schedule: January 28: Act I February 4: Act II February 11: Act III February 18: Act IV February 25: Act V March: Live Q&A for Patreon Fellows In Memory of Yeats by W. H. Auden Earth, receive an honoured guest: William Yeats is laid to rest. Let the Irish vessel lie Emptied of its poetry. In the nightmare of the dark All the dogs of Europe bark, And the living nations wait, Each sequestered in its hate; Intellectual disgrace Stares from every human face, And the seas of pity lie Locked and frozen in each eye. Follow, poet, follow right To the bottom of the night, With your unconstraining voice Still persuade us to rejoice; With the farming of a verse Make a vineyard of the curse, Sing of human unsuccess In a rapture of distress; In the deserts of the heart Let the healing fountain start, In the prison of his days Teach the free man how to praise. Book List: (Amazon Affiliate Links) Home Education by Charlotte Mason A Christmas Dream and How it Came True by Louisa May Alcott Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare by E. Nesbit Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser The Old Arcadia by Philip Sidney The Re-write (film) Shakespeare: a Critical Study of His Mind and Art by Edward Dowden Characters of Shakespeare’s Plays by William Hazlitt Shakespeare Wars by Ron Rosenbaum 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: Find Angelina at  https://angelinastanford.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

21 Jan 20201h 33min

On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Angelina and Cindy interview James Banks. James is a civil servant, veteran, teacher, former academic and writer living in Austin, Texas. Prior to moving to the Lone Star State, he studied Renaissance Literature and taught at the University of Rochester. But it was only after leaving the academy that he rediscovered his passion for Shakespeare, Spenser, Chaucer and all things literary. His essays and reviews have appeared in The Weekly Standard, the Literati Quarterly, the Intercollegiate Review and elsewhere, but he is best known for being the brother of Thomas Banks and brother-in-law of Angelina Stanford. James talks about his childhood relationships with books and stories, and the massive leap he took from not being able to read to being a reader. He tells about his desire to be a teacher and his undergraduate experience. He also elaborates on how he came to his love of Shakespeare and Renaissance literature. James tells why he ended up leaving academia and how he rediscovered his love of literature. He also gives some examples of how he reads so much and makes the most of his time. The Cross of Snow by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow In the long, sleepless watches of the night,    A gentle face — the face of one long dead —    Looks at me from the wall, where round its head    The night-lamp casts a halo of pale light. Here in this room she died; and soul more white    Never through martyrdom of fire was led    To its repose; nor can in books be read    The legend of a life more benedight. There is a mountain in the distant West    That, sun-defying, in its deep ravines    Displays a cross of snow upon its side. Such is the cross I wear upon my breast    These eighteen years, through all the changing scenes    And seasons, changeless since the day she died. Book List: (Amazon Affiliate Links) Big Wonderful Thing by Stephen Harrigan John Buchan by His Wife and Friends by Susan Tweedsmuir The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey Good Things Out of Nazareth: Uncollected Letters of Flannery O’Connor and Friends The Shooting Party by Anton Chekhov The Sword of Honour Trilogy by Evelyn Waugh Cultural Amnesia by Clive James Pat Conroy The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare The Meaning of Shakespeare, Vol. 2 by Harold Goddard Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe Silas Marner by George Eliot The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne The Last of the Mohicans by James Fennimore Cooper Anne Bradstreet Eudora Welty The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare P. G. Wodehouse The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll On the Edge by Edward St. Aubyn War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy Oedipus Rex by Sophocles The Adventures of Ibn Battuta by Ibn Battuta The Aeneid by Virgil Selected Non-fictions by Jorge Luis Borges The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco Upcoming Book Discussions: Check the “Upcoming Book Discussions” tab to see what is coming your way on the podcast in 2020! 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: Find Angelina at  https://angelinastanford.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/ 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

14 Jan 20201h 35min

In this last episode of 2019, our Literary Life podcast hosts chat all about their past year in books, as well as what they hope to read in the coming year. Cindy, Angelina and Thomas begin by sharing some commonplace quotes from books they read in 2019. They discuss their strategies for planning their reading goals and how they curate their "to be read" lists. Each host also share some highlights from their year in books. Angelina then introduces The Literary Life Podcast 20 for 2020 Reading Challenge. She talks about how to approach this reading challenge. Then our hosts talk a little about each category in the challenge and give some of their possible book picks for 2020. Cindy mentions a list of Shakespeare's plays in chronological order. She also has a list of "Books for Cultivating Honorable Boys." Thanks to Our Sponsor: Located in beautiful Franklin Tennessee, New College Franklin is a four year Christian Liberal Arts college dedicated to excellent academics and discipling relationships among students and faculty. We seek to enrich and disciple students intellectually, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, to guide them to wisdom and a life of service to God, neighbors, and creation In Memoriam by Alfred, Lord Tennyson Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,    The flying cloud, the frosty light:    The year is dying in the night; Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. Ring out the old, ring in the new,    Ring, happy bells, across the snow:    The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true. Ring out the grief that saps the mind    For those that here we see no more;    Ring out the feud of rich and poor, Ring in redress to all mankind. Ring out a slowly dying cause,    And ancient forms of party strife;    Ring in the nobler modes of life, With sweeter manners, purer laws. Ring out the want, the care, the sin,    The faithless coldness of the times;    Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes But ring the fuller minstrel in. Ring out false pride in place and blood,    The civic slander and the spite;    Ring in the love of truth and right, Ring in the common love of good. Ring out old shapes of foul disease;    Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;    Ring out the thousand wars of old, Ring in the thousand years of peace. Ring in the valiant man and free,    The larger heart, the kindlier hand;    Ring out the darkness of the land, Ring in the Christ that is to be. Book List: (Affiliate links are used in this content.) Winter Hours by Mary Oliver Rules for the Dance by Mary Oliver Characters of Shakespeare’s Plays by William Hazlitt The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain The Faerie Queen by Edmund Spenser Miracles by C. S. Lewis Kristen Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset Letters from Father Christmas by J. R. Tolkein Leaf by Niggle by J. R. Tolkein Time and Chance by Sharon Kay Penman Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev The Home of the Gentry by Ivan Turgenev The Killer and the Slain by Hugh Walpole Trent’s Last Case by E. C. Bentley Excellent Women by Barbara Pym The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg The Constant Nymph by Margaret Kennedy The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham The Crane Wife by Sumiko Yagawa Susan Hill P. D. James Crow Lake by Mary Lawson Wendell Berry Rules of Civility by Amor Towles The White Company by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Oedipus Rex by Sophocles The Bacchae by Euripides Prince Albert by A. N. Wilson Marie Antoinette by Hilaire Belloc Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L’Engle How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster A Little History of Literature by John Sutherland How the Heather Looks by Joan Bodger Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone Silence by Shusako Endo Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari Till We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis Moby Dick by Herman Melville Paradise Regained by John Milton Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathon Swift Candide by Voltaire The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis Lyrical Ballads by Coleridge and Wordsworth The Hundredfold by Anthony Esolen Motherland by Sally Thomas The Autobiograhy of a Cad by A. G. Macdonell Elizabeth Goudge Miss Read Ellis Peters Edith Pargeter George Eliot Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte The Oxford Book of Essays How to Travel with a Salmon by Umberto Eco The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck The Crucible by Arthur Miller Savage Messiah by Jim Proser Becoming by Michelle Obama Abigail by Magda Szabo 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: Find Angelina at  https://angelinastanford.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/ 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

31 Dec 20191h 42min

On today’s episode of The Literary Life, Angelina and Cindy interview Caitlin Bruce Beauchamp. In addition to being a 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. Listen to The Literary Life: 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: (Affiliate links are used in this content.) The Reading Life by C. S. Lewis Poetics by Aristotle The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes Moby Dick by Herman Melville An Experiment in Criticism by C. S. Lewis 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 Middlemarch by George Eliot (the Audible version read by Juliet Stevenson) 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 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: Find Angelina at  https://angelinastanford.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/ 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

24 Dec 20191h 20min