Why Studying Mark Twain Is Essential To Understanding America Today
‘The young love hardly anything better than to laugh. And if they do love something more than that, they love to learn more than that. If you read Mark Twain, you get to do both at the same time.’
Podcast: Walker Percy’s Faith And Crisis Of Self-Knowledge
Jennifer A. Frey, assistant philosophy professor, discusses understanding the struggles, novels, and desires of Southern writer Walker Percy.
Why ‘Mansfield Park’ Was Jane Austen’s Best Novel
Modern readers aren’t quite as interested in a tale where virtue is rewarded and vice punished, but it’s her best regardless.
How Jane Austen Pulled Off A Feat Of Genius In ‘Northanger Abbey’
In her satirical take on Gothic fiction, Austen pokes fun at some of the overwrought conventions prevalent at the time, but is careful not to condemn the genre as a whole.
Jane Austen Explains Why Real Life Is More Mysterious Than Fiction
Throughout ‘Northanger Abbey,’ Jane Austen explains why an untempered imagination can be misleading, and why real life is more mysterious than fiction.
Jane Austen’s ‘Northanger Abbey’ Illustrates Why Manners Matter
Jane Austen finds value in the social conventions of her day throughout the pages of ‘Northanger Abbey,’ because manners do matter.
Reading The Great Books Well Should Transcend Moralism
Karen Swallow Prior’s ‘On Reading Well’ offers some excellent advice for drawing moral lessons from literature, but sometimes great art proves so ambiguous that drawing pat conclusions is difficult.
Why Jane Austen Made An Ordinary Girl The Heroine Of ‘Northanger Abbey’
A woman doesn’t need to be impossibly beautiful or virtuous in order to overcome challenges like a protagonist in a novel.
How Jane Austen’s ‘Northanger Abbey’ Reveals Her Satirical Genius
Reading ‘Northanger Abbey’ is essential to understanding Jane Austen’s use of satire throughout the entire canon of her books.
Remembering Nobel Prize Winner V.S. Naipaul, A Brilliant Defender Of Humane Values
With the death of the Nobel Prize winning author, we’ve lost a great writer who both valued civilization, and saw the world as it is, not how he wished it to be.
Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Relative On Librarians’ Dismissal Of Her Work: ‘Trying To Rewrite’ History
Brian Miller’s great-grandmother was sisters with Laura’s mother, and Miller met Laura as a child. Wilder’s demotion by the top library association ‘felt like a knife in the back,’ he says.
How Philip Roth Weaponized The Idea Of Art Imitating Life
With Philip Roth’s death, American letters lost an icon who had as much to say about grand universal themes as he did his personal and Jewish identity.
How Tom Wolfe Reinvented Journalism And The Great American Novel
Tom Wolfe set a new standard in both the world of fiction and nonfiction, and with his passing, all we’re left with are pipsqueak visionaries.
Tom Wolfe Was America’s Carnival Barker
Tom Wolfe, the journalist and novelist who died yesterday at 88, was our enthusiastic guide to the raucous and colorful spectacle that is America.
Lionel Shriver Discusses Writing Novels, Censorship, And Social Media
Writer and journalist Lionel Shriver discusses her new collection of short stories and what inspired her on this episode of The Federalist Radio Hour.
No, Fairy Tales Are Not Morally ‘Ambiguous,’ And That’s Why They’re Worthwhile
We would be remiss if we scratched out the peaks and valleys of human experience inside fairy tales. Not only would it be highly inaccurate, it would not inspire us to anything.
How ‘Uncultured Multiculturalism’ Unravels The Problems Of Retelling Tolkien’s Tales
J.R.R. Tolkien’s tales of Middle-earth remain as beloved as ever. Yet, as our superficial culture rushes to absorb and adapt his work, it continually fails to understand the themes that make his work meaningful.
Why This Classic ‘Guide To Intelligent Reading’ Should Be On Your Book List
In fewer than 350 pages, Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren will more than likely transform the way you read and argue—for the better.
Instagram Sloganeer Rupi Kaur Shakes Up Poetry World With Wild Popularity
Instagram ‘poet’ Rupi Kaur outsold Homer this past year. The trite writer began self-published, but has since hit the big time.
How Dante Can Help You Become A Better Reader And Thinker This Year
Following the sage wisdom of Dante Alighieri, communicated through his imagined catechism of Thomas Aquinas, will greatly improve our reading and debating in 2018.
EXCLUSIVE: Twitter Suspends U.S. Border Chief For Celebrating Wall’s Protection From Illegal AliensTwitter suspended U.S. Customs and Border Protection (Ccontinue reading >- These 12 Graphs Show Mask Mandates Do Nothing To Stop COVIDNo matter how strictly mask laws are enforced nor the lcontinue reading >
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