The Moral Wisdom of “Tanglewood Tales”

By |2021-04-09T12:03:17-05:00March 6th, 2015|Categories: Myth, Wisdom|Tags: |

In the Tanglewood Tales Nathaniel Hawthorne retells famous classical myths with imaginative charm that captures the universality and moral wisdom of the stories. Hawthorne’s lively, fresh retelling of six famous myths—“The Minotaur,” “The Pygmies,” “The Dragon’s Teeth,” “Circe’s Palace,” “The Pomegranate Seeds,” and “The Golden Fleece”—captures the essence of great stories that always possess, in Chesterton’s words, [...]

Matchmaking and Imagined Sentiments: Jane Austen’s Emma

By |2018-11-21T14:41:11-06:00January 15th, 2013|Categories: Jane Austen, Marriage|Tags: , |

What do matchmakers know that eludes the common man? What does the common man know that escapes the matchmakers? Austen’s novel Emma shows that true romance originates from equality of social background and education, compatibility of temperaments, similarity of moral ideals and manners, natural attraction based on reason and feeling, and mutual admiration. Matchmaking ignores [...]

Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”: A Book of Love & Marriage

By |2018-10-16T00:20:02-05:00August 26th, 2012|Categories: Books, Jane Austen, Marriage|Tags: , |

Jane Austen’s genius comprehends the subject of marriage and the book of love in all its intricacy, practicality, goodness, and mystery. Her novels center on the importance of marriage as one of life’s most important choices and life’s greatest source of happiness—“all the best blessings of existence” to use a phrase from Emma. In Emma [...]

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