The Humanity of Huck Finn

By |2024-02-17T17:29:52-06:00February 17th, 2024|Categories: Books, Christine Norvell, Fiction, Literature, Mark Twain, Senior Contributors, Timeless Essays, Virtue, Wisdom|

Huckleberry Finn is no hero, though he does symbolize the American conscience at the time Mark Twain wrote, or at least the conscience Twain hoped for. Yes, "Huckleberry Finn" is a coming-of-age tale and a social criticism and satire, but it also asks crucial questions: Who actually changes? What type of American will change? Huckleberry [...]

The Eve of the Eve: A Christmas Story

By |2023-12-23T14:36:14-06:00December 22nd, 2023|Categories: Christmas, Culture, Fiction, Joseph Mussomeli, Senior Contributors, Timeless Essays|

It was still dark outside when the boy awakened and his thoughts immediately turned to the gifts that would be awaiting him under the tree downstairs. This year, like every other year he could recall, the tree was a little too tall for the ceiling and leaned precariously toward the fireplace opening. In his younger [...]

Jane Austen Forever!

By |2023-12-15T18:08:48-06:00December 15th, 2023|Categories: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Books, Classics, Culture, Education, Fiction, Jane Austen, Literature, Television, Timeless Essays|

Pick up a Jane Austen novel, and you will discover that behind the long gowns and country dances, people in her era struggled with the same weaknesses we struggle with today. Well-written stories like Austen’s bring to life the human drama that is played out in every age, in every heart. I’ve been reading Jane [...]

The World Spins On: “The Value of Herman Melville”

By |2023-11-13T22:43:06-06:00November 13th, 2023|Categories: Fiction, Great Books, Herman Melville, Imagination, Literature, Timeless Essays|

The quest to write the Great American Novel has long been the American literary equivalent of the quest for the Holy Grail. Among the perennial roster of contenders for this legendary status, there is a strong case to be made for “Moby-Dick.” With the generosity of a patient teacher, Geoffrey Stanborn makes that case in “The Value [...]

A Night of Kirk Ghost Stories at the Dead Philosophers Society

By |2023-10-29T14:59:06-05:00October 29th, 2023|Categories: Audio/Video, Fiction, Timeless Essays|Tags: |

The first talk by Russell Kirk biographer, James Person, tells of horror, terror, and the frightful kidnapping of Russell Kirk's wife. Harry Veryser, who was Russell Kirk's 'roommate' when Kirk taught at Hillsdale College, tells of the ghosts, séances, exorcisms, and fiery deaths on Piety Hill, the ancestral home of Russell Kirk. In the keynote [...]

The Haunting of America: Russell Kirk’s Ghostly Fiction

By |2023-10-29T08:15:41-05:00October 27th, 2023|Categories: Ancestral Shadows, Fiction, Imagination, Literature, Mystery, Russell Kirk, Timeless Essays|

The ghost story was the perfect vehicle for Russell Kirk to extend his own sense of awe-filled wonder to a wider audience. He was keenly aware of the need for romance and mystery in everyday life—and how hard it was to achieve it in America. He created for his readers one of those places in [...]

Tolkien’s “The Children of Húrin”

By |2023-09-10T12:53:29-05:00September 10th, 2023|Categories: Books, Bradley J. Birzer, Fiction, Imagination, J.R.R. Tolkien, Literature, Senior Contributors, Timeless Essays, Tolkien Series|

How does one account for J.R.R. Tolkien’s seeming ability to live inside of mythology? He read it, he translated it, and he absorbed it. After all these grand things, he rewrote it. Yet, no matter how deeply he delved into the profound and pervasive paganisms of pre-Christian cultures, he never lost his ability to baptize [...]

Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”: Faith Triumphant

By |2023-05-25T17:03:36-05:00May 25th, 2023|Categories: Death, Faith, Fiction, Literature, Timeless Essays, Tradition|

It can be dangerous to depict evil. Accuracy might require getting too close to things best kept at bay. J.R.R. Tolkien once cautioned his friend, C.S. Lewis, concerning Mr. Lewis’ skill in depicting evil. Anyone familiar with Uncle Screwtape or Perelandra’s Un-man will know to what Mr. Tolkien alluded. There is an uncanny comprehension of [...]

“The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” as a Fable of Modern America

By |2023-05-16T14:02:40-05:00May 16th, 2023|Categories: Books, Economics, Fiction, History, Mark Malvasi, Senior Contributors, Timeless Essays|

Literary scholars have long interpreted “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” as a fable of populism, but it is more than that: It is a celebration of consumer culture as the the very meaning of America, this bright and shining land where men and women are happy to deceive themselves into believing a fairy tale, which, [...]

“The Chemist of Catania”

By |2023-04-20T17:13:31-05:00April 20th, 2023|Categories: Books, Catholicism, Dwight Longenecker, Fiction, Senior Contributors|

A good Catholic novel is true to life, and one of the most difficult truths is that some very bad people may continue in their evil—never in this life finding the repentance that might make for a happy ending. Fr. Alexander Lucie-Smith's "The Chemist of Catania" is such a Catholic novel, showing us truth, but [...]

Myths versus Novels

By |2023-05-21T11:28:40-05:00April 11th, 2023|Categories: E.B., Eva Brann, Fiction, Literature, Myth, Senior Contributors, St. John's College, Timeless Essays, Virginia Woolf|

Although myths and novels belong to different categories, they are alike in being the venues of human figures who are not presented as images of actually existent, “real-world” people. They have their being in a specific work of art, a drama or a narrative, such as the “Oresteia,” or a novel, such as Edith Wharton’s [...]

Guy Crouchback: Evelyn Waugh’s Hosea

By |2023-03-14T10:24:34-05:00March 13th, 2023|Categories: Dwight Longenecker, Evelyn Waugh, Fiction, Literature, Senior Contributors|

In Evelyn Waugh’s "Sword of Honor" trilogy, the character Guy Crouchback has married a glamorous, but promiscuous woman. In doing so, he echoes the heroism of Hosea, who pictures God’s own faithfulness to his promiscuous people. The true sword of honor is not military glory, but Guy’s noble action of forgiveness. To illuminate and inspire [...]

Utopian Fantasies vs. Real Happiness in Samuel Johnson’s “Rasselas”

By |2023-02-27T14:28:53-06:00February 27th, 2023|Categories: Culture, Fiction, Happiness, Jonathan Swift, Literature, Mitchell Kalpakgian, Timeless Essays|

In Samuel Johnson’s novel “Rasselas,” the eponymous character discovers that happiness does not derive from a beautiful place, luxurious palace, or constant entertainment, but depends upon a composed state of mind in possession of truth. Throughout the eighteenth century, novel theories of happiness and utopian ideas of perfect societies gained respectability and popularity. The exploration [...]

How Edgar Allan Poe Ensured That Gothic Stories Will Never Die

By |2024-01-14T20:11:42-06:00January 18th, 2023|Categories: Christine Norvell, Edgar Allan Poe, Fiction, Imagination, Literature, Senior Contributors, Timeless Essays|

At the same time that writers were bringing depth of character to the gothic setting in the 19th century, Edgar Allan Poe revitalized the genre in mid-century America. Suddenly Tales of Horror had a distinctly American flair and a surprising psychological depth. This nuance captivated readers then and still does today. Two hundred and fifty [...]

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