“During those last weeks of the Bishop’s life he thought very little about death; it was the Past he was leaving. The future would take care of itself.” Death Comes for the Archbishop does not have a surprise ending. It has long been my favorite Willa Cather novel. Having just been to Santa Fe, it seemed like a good time to reread it. A note on the location. Willa Cather is a novelist who immediately evokes a location; she seems like a novelist of a place. That place is the Great Plains. … [Read more...] about The Shelter of this Red Rock
Great Books
The Joy of Cymbeline
“The play has many just sentiments, some natural dialogue, and some pleasing scenes, but they are obtained at the expense of much incongruity. To remark the folly of the fiction, the absurdity of the conduct, the confusion of the names, and manners of different times, and the impossibility of the events in any system of life, were to waste criticism upon unresisting imbecility, upon faults too evident for detection, and too gross for aggravation.” That is Samuel Johnson discussing William … [Read more...] about The Joy of Cymbeline
Dante’s Road Trip: Inferno
O Supreme Wisdom, what great art you showIn Heaven, on earth, and in the evil worldAnd what true justice does your power dispense! O Dante, what great art you showIn Paradise, Purgatory and the InfernoAnd what true delight does your power dispense! T. S. Eliot once noted that “Shakespeare and Dante divide the world between them. There is no third.” It is hard to argue with him. There have been more commentaries written on Dante’s Divine Comedy than on any other book except the Bible. That … [Read more...] about Dante’s Road Trip: Inferno
The Black Dwarf Reviewed by the Author
“’Pass on your way,’ reiterated the object of their curiosity; ‘the breath of your human bodies poisons the air around me, the sound of your human voices goes through my ears like sharp bodkins.’” That is how we meet the star of Walter Scott’s The Black Dwarf. It is one of the dwarf’s less misanthropic utterances. He has a dark heart indeed. Walter Scott is curiously neglected these days, having once been more popular that Jane Austen. His earliest works are tales of Scotland around the … [Read more...] about The Black Dwarf Reviewed by the Author
Becoming a Link in a Chain
You will never write anything that is of even remotely the same caliber as what Shakespeare or Austen or Dickens wrote. You just are not that good. Is that an insult?I also will never write even a single paragraph which could bear comparison to anything in Shakespeare. Is your instinct to tell me I shouldn’t think that about myself? One of the strange byproducts of all of us being raised and told we can be whatever we want to be is that we get a warped idea of greatness. Pick a random kid … [Read more...] about Becoming a Link in a Chain
How to Build a Happy Family
“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy it its own way.” I’ve never seen a study of this, but I suspect that is one of the top five most recognizable opening lines in literature. Anna Karenina could indeed be retitled: “Tolstoy’s reflection on what makes us happy.” Come to think of it, though, maybe it is more properly Tolstoy’s views on what makes us unhappy. The difference between those two ways of thinking of the matter is rather large. Is your default state being … [Read more...] about How to Build a Happy Family