Christine Norvell

Booker T. Washington’s Compromise

Booker T. Washington indeed might have sought reconciliation between white and black, but his call was truly to his own race alone to educate themselves and to work hard to improve mind and character. Does that make Washington a lesser advocate for racial equality, a less successful one?

Truth in Story: Lois Lowry and “Gathering Blue”

Tales and stories are an elementary wonder because they touch the nerve of the ancient instinct of astonishment. Wonder and astonishment can prepare our minds and hearts to receive truth just as soil receives seed; one such truth-bearer is Lois Lowry’s Gathering Blue…

The Humanity of Huck Finn

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...

Home and Hearth: A Cautionary Christmas With Washington Irving

In the 1820s, Washington Irving was credited with inspiring the romantic revival of Christmas in America. His Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Gentleman relayed sentimental tales of the British holiday with all its romance and traditions. The...

Five Affordable Shops for Bibliophiles

Christmas gift recommendations are one thing, but what if I took you shopping for all things bookish? In the space of half-an-hour, we can visit five unique shops and spend as little or as much as we like without even buying a book. 1.

John of Salisbury and the Ideal Scholar

Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords our readers the opportunity to join Christine Norvell as she considers the model of scholarly endeavor embodied by John of...

Tether to the Past: Willa Cather’s “Song of the Lark”

Though land and setting seem rarely featured in Willa Cather’s The Song of the Lark, they do comprise an unusual role, one that grows towards the past instead of the future. Cather...

To Tell a Tale With Washington Irving

Storytelling shaped Washington Irving and his life as much as he shaped it. Irving describes how from boyhood he rambled about the countryside and “made myself familiar with all its places famous in history or fable. I knew...

Five Great Classical Pieces for Cello

Having played the cello for more than thirty years, I am often asked what I would recommend for listeners, especially for those who aren’t necessarily concertgoers. As a cellist, it’s hard to categorize what to listen to. Some...

Top 10 Poetry Books for Graduates

Here is an array of poetry that just might fit your needs as you consider presents for any type of graduate... I have a privileged position. I really do. The graduating class at our small high school...

Melville and Hawthorne on Good, Evil, & Human Nature

Fiction often clarifies our thinking about moral quandaries, distilling muddy waters into clear ones and dissecting our common human experience. The stories of Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne do just this. In the scope of American literature,...

Willa Cather: The Land Is Alive

Majesty, beauty, ferocity, personality—all these traits typify the settings Willa Cather employs in her writings. More lush and alive than I could have imagined, these fullest of descriptions drew me to her work. When I first read

Hedonism in Ernest Hemingway’s “A Farewell to Arms”

What was Ernest Hemingway illustrating about the emptiness of the generation in which he lived when he wrote A Farewell to Arms in 1929? If we unthinkingly pursue pleasure and live for nothing except ourselves, what are we left with?...

“The Great Gatsby” and the Demoralized Man

F. Scott Fitzgerald likened Jay Gatsby’s disillusionment and lack of purpose to that of the American people during the Roaring Twenties, those said to be in pursuit of the American Dream and materialistic success, ever reaching towards that green light, thinking the Dream would and will save...