In this series, we discuss literature and especially the Catholic influence on American Literature - especially in honor of the 250th Anniversary of the Nation.
Our first class discusses the importance of literature and also gives various recommendations of great book lists -- Catholic authors, American authors, and a list of the great books that should be read.
Listen online [here]!
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Catholic Literature of the USA
The Catholic Influence on American Literature
Session 1, Introduction and the Importance of Literature
Don’t read good books, or else you won’t have time for the great books! (Fr Raymond Nyquist)
I. Course Outline
May 19th - Introduction, and the Importance of Great Literature
May 26th - Catholic Themes in Non-Catholic American authors: Henry James and Willa Cather
June 2nd - Popular Lapsed-Catholic American Authors: Ernest Hemingway, F Scott Fitzgerald, and Cormac McCarthy
June 9th - Profoundly Catholic American Authors: Flannery O’Connor, Walker Percy, Walter Miller jr, “Michael Kent”
June 26th - Spiritual Writers of the USA: Archbishop Fulton Sheen, Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, Walter Ciszek
II. Why is good literature important for Catholics?
From “The National Catholic Register,” A Novel Idea: Seminarians Read Literature as Prep for Priesthood, 15 August 2024
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When Carter Anderson started seminary formation two years ago, he likely knew that hitting the books would be on the agenda.
But what the Diocese of Helena, Montana, seminarian might not have known at the time was that, in addition to sacred Scripture and theological texts, works of fiction would also play an important part in his preparation for the priesthood.
In particular, Anderson cites the impact of reading Georges Bernanos’ The Diary of a Country Priest in his first year of formation at St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. … “It was a deep insight into the heart of the spiritual life,” Anderson told the Register.
“The task of believers, and of priests in particular, is precisely to ‘touch’ the hearts of others, so that they may be opened to the messages of the Lord Jesus,” wrote Pope Francis. “In this great task, the contribution that literature and poetry can offer is of incomparable value.” Pope Francis lamented that “a sufficient grounding in literature” is not a standard part of priestly formation.
“Literature gives you an entry point into the human experience that philosophy and theology don’t,” explained Father Rossotti, a member of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Charles Borromeo. “Reading literature is like encountering the person through experience.”
In this way, reading literature can be good preparation for encountering others in ministry, said Father Rossotti.
“I want my students to see that everyone is waiting for Jesus,” explained the priest. “But we need to be able to detect that desire.”
“Through literature, you can get to know a people” explained Father Contuzzi. “You get to know the human soul and human history, which is also fundamental for facing the present and the people to whom we are sent.”
At Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, seminarians in the propaedeutic stage are encouraged to read literature as a way of “forming their sentiments and sympathies,” explained Father Daniel Hanley.
“Good art can form the desires toward an ordered good,” said Father Hanley, who coordinates the propaedeutic stage at the Mount and said that literature is part of the educative process of teaching “someone what they ought to love.”
Additional benefits of reading literature, he said, include helping the seminarian grow in the “imaginative capacity to express himself,” which is important for effective preaching, and also to become culturally educated.
The Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, priest explained that good fiction need not be “explicitly theocentric,” nor does it necessarily need to be written by Catholics.
“Good literature can form the sentiments because it is grounded in the truth about the human person, creation in the cosmos, and the basic truth about God and his goodness,” Father Hanley told the Register.
For instance, Father Hanley said that Charles Dickens’ stories help the reader “like the things you ought to like and not like the things you shouldn’t,” while Jane Austen’s novels are “essentially about people discovering a properly ordered attraction.”
“It does seem that literature can heal us in some way,” said Flynn, who is currently reading and discussing J.R.R. Tolkien’s TheLord of the Rings with other seminarians. ”It puts us into contact with something very human and life-giving and joyful.”
And two years removed from the course and his encounter with Bernanos’ country priest, Anderson says that he has maintained a daily habit of reading literature, which “continues to be instrumental in my relationship to Our Lord and others.”
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III. Is there such a thing as “Catholic literature”?
For literature to be Catholic, it is not enough for it to be written by a Catholic nor for it to have Catholic themes. Indeed, neither of these are necessarily required - though it would be assumed that most Catholic literature would be written by a Catholic or at least by an author deeply influenced by Catholic thought. This Catholic influence must provide a Catholic vision, a Catholic worldview which guides and informs the literary work.
Some themes of the Catholic vision are: It will be incarnational; it will be sacramental; it will deal with sin and redemption; it will present communion of peoples on earth and perhaps with the saints in heaven or with people of previous generations; it will recognize that there are mysteries beyond human understanding; it will present the interior life; and more or less consciously it will reflect upon the power of grace.
Catholic literature cannot be merely a work of apologetics or of doctrine. It must not be preachy. Flannery O’Connor notes: “The very term ‘Catholic novel’ is, of course, suspect, and people who are conscious of its complications don't use it except in quotation marks.” Muriel Spark, a novelist who happens to be Catholic, goes so far as to claim that “there’s no such thing as a Catholic novel, unless it’s a piece of propaganda.”
From an essay by Fr C John McCloskey III (Newman and the Importance of Catholic Literature, published online at “The Catholic Thing” 13 November 2014)
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Blessed John Henry Newman, in his lectures to the students at the Catholic university that he founded in Dublin in the mid-1800s (later published as The Idea of the University), he discusses the meaning and purpose of Catholic literature. And he draws very interesting distinctions – and lessons from them:
When a “Catholic Literature in the English tongue” is spoken of as a desideratum, no reasonable person will mean by “Catholic works” much more than the “works of Catholics.” The phrase does not mean a religious literature. “Religious Literature” indeed would mean much more than “the Literature of religious men;” it means over and above this, that the subject-matter of the Literature is religious; but by “Catholic Literature” is not to be understood a literature which treats exclusively or primarily of Catholic matters, of Catholic doctrine, controversy, history, persons, or politics; but it includes all subjects of literature whatever, treated as a Catholic would treat them, and as he only can treat them.
Newman was clearly trying to stake out a particular kind of writing that would not be the usual apologetics or spiritual works or theology. In his day, he could assume most people would understand what he was getting at:
“Why it is important to have them treated by Catholics hardly need be explained here. For it is evident that, if by a Catholic Literature were meant nothing more or less than a religious literature, its writers would be mainly ecclesiastics; just as writers on Law are mainly lawyers, and writers on Medicine are mainly physicians or surgeons.”
The point has a bearing far beyond what might apply in professional groups or academic disciplines: “if this be so, a Catholic Literature is no object special to a University, unless a University is to be considered identical with a Seminary or a Theological School.”
For Newman, the importance of literature stems from our very nature and God-given powers as human beings, especially language:
“if by means of words the secrets of the heart are brought to light, pain of soul is relieved, hidden grief is carried off, sympathy conveyed, counsel imparted, experience recorded, and wisdom perpetuated,—if by great authors the many are drawn up into unity, national character is fixed, a people speaks, the past and the future, the East and the West are brought into communication with each other,—if such men are, in a word, the spokesmen and prophets of the human family,—it will not answer to make light of Literature or to neglect its study; rather we may be sure that, in proportion as we master it in whatever language, and imbibe its spirit, we shall ourselves become in our own measure the ministers of like benefits to others, be they many or few, be they in the obscurer or the more distinguished walks of life,—who are united to us by social ties, and are within the sphere of our personal influence.”
So if you want to get a flying start into Catholic literature, you won’t go wrong here: St. Augustine, Dante, Pascal, Manzoni, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Sigrid Undset, Bernanos, Tolkien, Walker Percy, Flannery O’Connor, Sienkiewicz, Calderon de la Barca, Hilaire Belloc, Fr. Ronald Knox, Fr. Robert Hugh Benson, G.K. Chesterton, Shakespeare, Edwin O’Connor, Ralph McInerny, Fr. Thomas Merton. And there are dozens upon dozens more for you to encounter.
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IV. Some recommended works of Catholic literature (not limited to the USA, and not necessarily truly great classics but still very good)
Catholic authors to read:
Robert Hugh Benson, A catholic priest and convert from Anglicanism. His book “Lord of the World” has been recommended by all the recent popes. His other two most important novels are “Dawn of All” (a companion to “Lord of the World”) and “Come Rack! Come Rope!). His short stories (including ghost stories) are also very good.
Georges Bernanaos, Not nearly so well known as he should be! “The Diary of a Country Priest” is a classic.
Willa Cather (non-Catholic), Though not Catholic, many of her books are based on Catholic characters and have strongly Catholic themes.
GK Chesterton, Although mostly known for his semi-academic works like “Orthodoxy” and “The Everlasting Man” and also for his essays, he has a number of pleasing novels. Although not perhaps true classics, they are very pleasing and have deep spiritual insight. See the list below.
T.S. Eliot (non-Catholic), Although a convert from atheism to the Anglican Church, Eliot was extremely influential on many Catholic authors and especially upon Evelyn Waugh. His writing career took off in England, but he is originally from St Louis, MO in the USA.
Rumer Godden, A Catholic convert and British author of the mid 1900s. Her novel “In This House of Brede” explores the vocation to religious life. Other notable works include “Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy” and “Black Narcissus.”
Graham Greene, A challenging author who uses flawed and imperfect characters (often with fairly scandalous events and situations) to reflect upon the Catholic faith and spirituality. See the list below, but start with “The Power the Glory,” then move on to “The End of the Affair” and the others.
Gerard Manley Hopkins, Catholic convert and priest whose poetry is sublime.
“Michael Kent,” A pseudonym adopted by the female author and Catholic convert Beatrice Bradshaw Brown to publish “The Mass of Brother Michel” in 1942 in Wisconsin. A good book of American Catholic literature.
Gertrud von Le Fort, whose “The Song at the Scaffold” inspired Bernanos to write a movie script which was transformed into the classic opera/play about the Carmelite saints.
C.S. Lewis (non-Catholic), Perhaps most famous for his “Chronicles of Narnia,” also worth reading are his Sci-fi series. He also has many apologetic works which are not listed below but are worth reading.
George MacDonald (non-Catholic), His writings converted CS Lewis and greatly influenced him. Especially valuable are his children' s fantasy stories, see the list below.
Francois Mauriac, He should be much more well known. An amazing Catholic author.
Walter Miller jr, His “A Canticle for Leibowitz” is an interesting futuristic novel about religious life.
Michael O’Brien, The Canadian Catholic most well known for “Fr Elijah” and others in that series.
Flannery O’Connor, One of the best short story authors of all time and one of the greatest writers of the USA. A devout Catholic, and Fr Ryan’s favorite.
Walker Percy, Another Catholic author from the American south. His books are a bit strange and absurdly comedic at times. An important author for any American Catholic.
Henryk Sienkiewicz, His book “Quo Vadis” is one of the best historical novels of the early Church. A must read for all Catholics. Original polish.
J.R.R. Tolkien, “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy as well as “The Hobbit” are well known and immensely popular. Middle Earth brings forward a Catholic Vision of life and history, and these fantasy novels will eventually be considered true classics.
Mark Twain (non-Catholic), Though an atheist, his book on Joan of Arc is one of the best saint stories Fr Ryan has ever read. Highly recommended!
Sigrid Undset, This Norwegian author and Catholic convert should be much more well known. Her Kirstin Lavrandatter trilogy is most profound and a must read.
Abraham Verghese (non-Catholic), The Ethiopian-American author of Indian descent whose Orthodox upbringing has many similarities to the Catholic vision. “The Covenant of Water” may become a modern classic. As a doctor, his writing is filled with medical details and terminology without being a burden.
Lew Wallace (non-Catholic), Though he was not Catholic and seems to have not practiced in any organized Christian denomination, “Ben-Hur” has been consistently praised and recommended by the Popes.
Evelyn Waugh, Perhaps the most elegant and beautiful English prose writer, his novels are permeated by the Catholic world view. “Brideshead Revisited” is a must read.
Charles Williams (non-Catholic), the third and oddest member of the “Inklings” together with Tolkien and Lewis. His writings focus on the supernatural and the strange.
Louis De Wohl, a Catholic convert who wrote numerous saint stories.
A good resource for a beginning appreciation of poetry: “Poems Every Catholic Should Know” and also “Poems Every Child Should Know,” both by Joseph Pearce and sold through TAN Books for around $30.
Fr Ryan’s list of most under-valued or forgotten books and authors for Catholic readers in the USA (largely because these names are known in Europe but not so much in America):
Robert Hugh Benson, Georges Bernanos, Francois Mauriac, Henryk Sienkiewicz, Sigrid Undset.
Most important profoundly Catholic fiction authors from the USA:
Flannery O’Connor and Walker Percy.
Some of the books that most surprised Fr Ryan as having profound spiritual depth:
Dracula by Bram Stoker; Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe; Joan of Arc by Mark Twain; Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.
V. Some of the works that may qualify as “The Great American Novel”
To my mind, the “Great American Novel” would both have to be written by an American and be set largely in America, and then would further have to use themes from American life to reflect upon the deepest truths of the human person and reality in a way which can transcend time and place. (This is why Hemingway and Henry James don’t make the list, for example. Additionally, because E.A. Poe only wrote one novel, he also isn’t listed even though his writing is some of the most important for American literature.)
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. Set in the American south and appropriate even for older children, this classic ponders many of the key themes of our Nation.
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald. A critique of the “American dream” and secular high life of New York.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. Though a children’s novel, it reflects upon the meaning of life and happiness through the adventures of boys in the American south. Some of the most pleasant and clever writing!
Moby Dick, by Herman Melville. Perhaps one of the most misunderstood classics, it is a novel filled with comedy while also looking into the terrible depths of the angry soul. This book uses whaling to reflect upon the human condition.
The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck. Set in the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, few books bring forth so many emotions from the reader.
The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner. Perhaps one of the most difficult novels to follow and understand, this story of characters from the American south is Fr Ryan’s favorite novel and many consider it a “Great American Novel.”
Other candidates include: The Scarlet Letter, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, The Red Badge of Courage, The Catcher in the Rye, and most recently Blood Meridian.
Some of the most important authors of American Literature:
Willa Cather, William Faulkner, F Scott Fitzgerald, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ernest Hemingway, Henry James, Harper Lee, Herman Melville, Flannery O’Connor, Edgar Alan Poe, John Steinbeck, Mark Twain.
Fr Ryan’s big five are: Faulkner, Hemingway, Poe, Steinbeck, and Twain.
VI. Fr Ryan’s recommended list of great fiction novels (not complete)
Note, This list does not include most classics that predate the modern novel (Homer, the Greek plays, etc), nor does it include the many great non-fiction works of literature, nor does it include much poetry or plays; but it is a list of recommended reading for modern novels. We include also in this list, some children’s literature.
(Key: *for books that are “top shelf” classics; ^for children' s books; `for books that are particularly important as American classics; “for books that are Catholic classics - some books will have multiple labels and many will have no label)
Richard Adams - ^Watership Down
Aesop - *^Aesop’s Fables
Louisa May Alcott - ^Little Women
Dante Alghieri - *“The Divine Comedy
Jane Austen - *Pride and Prejudice; *Sense and Sensibility; *Persuasion; Emma
J.M. Barrie - ^Peter Pan
Robert Hugh Benson - “Lord of the World; “Come Rack! Come Rope!; “The Dawn of All
Georges Bernanos - “The Diary of a Country Priest; “Under the Sun of Satan
Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451; Something Wicked This Way Comes
Charlotte Bronte - *Jane Eyre
Anne Bronte - The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Emily Bronte - *Wuthering Heights
Mikhail Bulgakov - The Master and Margarita
Francis Hodgson Burnett - ^The Secret Garden
Samuel Butler - The Way of All Flesh
Alber Camus - The Stranger
Lewis Carroll - ^Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Willa Cather - *`“My Antonia; `“Death Comes for the Archbishop; O Pioneers!
Miguel Cervantes - *“Don Quixote
Geoffrey Chaucer - *“The Canterbury Tales
GK Chesterton - “The Man Who was Thursday; “The Ball and the Cross; The Flying Inn; The Napoleon of Notting Hill; “The Father Brown Stories; “Biographies of St Thomas Aquinas and St Francis of Assisi
Wilkie Collins - The Woman in White
Carlo Collodi - ^Pinocchio
Joseph Conrad - *Heart of Darkness; Lord Jim
James Fenimore Cooper - `The Last of the Mohicans
Steven Crane - *`The Red Badge of Courage
Roald Dahl - ^James and the Giant Peach; ^Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; and other children’s books
Daniel Defoe - *Robinson Crusoe
Charles Dickens - *^A Christmas Carol; *Great Expectations; *A Tale of Two Cities; *David Copperfield; probably all of Dicken’s novels should be read
Fyodor Dostoyevsky - *Brother Karamazov; *Crime and Punishment; The Idiot; The Possessed
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - The Hound of Bakersvilles; The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Alexander Dumas - *“The Count of Monte Cristo; “The Three Musketeers
George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) - Middlemarch
William Faulkner - *`Light in August; *`The Sound and the Fury; `Absalom, Absalom!
F Scott Fitzgerald - *`The Great Gatsby
Gustave Flaubert - *Madame Bovary
E.M. Forster - A Room with a View; A Passage to India
William Golding - Lord of the Flies
Kenneth Grahame - ^The Wind in the Willows
Graham Greene - The Quiet American; The Heart of the Matter; “The Power and the Glory; The Comedians; “The End of the Affair; Brighton Rock
Grimm Brothers - *^Grimm’s Fairy Tales
Nathaniel Hawthorne - *`The Scarlet Letter; The House of the Seven Gables
Ernest Hemingway - *`For Whom the Bell Tolls; *`The Old Man and the Sea; *`A Farewell to Arms; The Sun Also Rises
O Henry - `The Four Million (short story collection)
Gerard Manley Hopkins - “All his poetry
Victor Hugo - *“The Hunchback of Notre Dame; *Les Miserables
Aldous Huxley - Brave New World
Washington Irving - `The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Henry James - *The Turn of the Screw; *`The Portrait of a Lady; What Maisie Knew; *`The Wings of the Dove; *`The Golden Bowl; The Ambassadors
James Joyce - *“Ulysses; Finnegans Wake; *“A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Franz Kafka - *The Metamorphosis
Rudyard Kimpling - *^Just So Stories; *^The Jungle Book; ^Captains Courageous
Harper Lee - *`To Kill a Mockingbird
Madeleine L’Engle - ^A Wrinkle in Time (and the other four books in the series)
CS Lewis - *^“The Chronicles of Narnia (The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe; and the other six books in the series); “The Sci-fi Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet; Perelandra; That Hideous Strength); “The Screwtape Letters; The Great Divorce; Till We Have Faces
Jack London - ^`The Call of the Wild
George MacDonald - ^The Princess and the Goblin; ^The Princess and Curdie; ^At the Back of the North Wind; ^Lilith; ^Phantastes
Alessandro Manzoni - “The Betrothed
Gabriel Garcia Marquez - *One Hundred Years of Solitude; Love in the Time of Cholera
Francois Mauriac - “Viper’s Tangle
Daphne du Maurier - Rebecca; Short Story Collections
Cormac McCarthy - `The Road; *`“Blood Meridian; Suttree
Larry McMurtry - `Lonesome Dove
Herman Melville - *`Moby Dick
Walter M Miller, Jr - “A Canticle for Leibowitz
A.A. Milne - *^Winnie-the-Pooh
Lucy Maud Montgomery - ^Anne of Green Gables
Toni Morrison - “Beloved
Flannery O’Connor - `“The Violent Bear it Away; `“Wise Blood; *`“Short Stories
George Orwell - Animal Farm; *1984
Boris Pasternak - Doctor Zhivago
Walker Percy - `“The Moviegoer; `“Love in the Ruins; The Second Coming; The Last Gentleman; Lancelot; The Thanatos Syndrome
Edgar Allan Poe - *`All of Poe’s fiction should be read: The Narrative of Gordon Pym; Short Stories (not just the scary stories, but also his sci-fi and detective stories!); poems
Beatrix Potter - ^The Tale of Peter Rabbit and other stories
Howard Pyle - ^The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood; ^The Story of King Arthur and his Knights
Antoine de Saint-Exupery - *^The Little Prince
J.D. Salinger - *`Catcher in the Rye
Sir Walter Scott - *Ivanhoe
William Shakespeare - *All of his plays and sonnets, of course
Mary Shelley - *Frankenstein
Henryk Sienkiewicz - “Quo Vadis
Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn - One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Johanna Spyri - ^Heidi
John Steinbeck - *`Of Mice and Men; `East of Eden; *`The Grapes of Wrath; `The Pearl; `The Red Pony
Stendhal - The Red and the Black
Robert Louis Stevenson - *The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde; ^Treasure Island
Bram Stoker - *“Dracula
Harriet Beecher Stowe - *`Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Jonathan Swift - *Gulliver’s Travels
J.R.R. Tolkien - *^“The Hobbit; *^“The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (The Fellowship of the Ring; The Two Towers; The Return of the King)
Leo Tolstoy - *The Death of Ivan Ilyitch; What Men Live By, and Other Stories; *War and Peace; *Anna Karenina
Anthony Trollope - The Chronicles of Bersetshire Series
Mark Twain - *^`The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; ^`The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; Tom Sawyer Abroad by Huck Finn; “Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc
Sigrid Undset - *“Kristin Lavransdatter (trilogy); “Catherine of Siena
Jules Verne - *^Around the World in Eighty Days; *Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea; A Journey into the Interior of the Earth
Lew Wallace - “Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
Evelyn Waugh - *“Brideshead Revisited; “A Handful of Dust; Helena
HG Wells - *The Time Machine; *War of the Worlds; The Island of Doctor Moreau; The Invisible Man
Edith Wharton - *`The Age of Innocence; The House of Mirth
E.B. White - *^`Charlotte’s Web; ^Stuart Little; ^The Trumpet of the Swan
Oscar Wilde - *The Picture of Dorian Gray
Laura Ingalls Wilder - ^`Little House on the Prairie
Charles Williams - All Hallows’ Eve
Louis De Wohl - The Spear; Various short books on different saints
PG Woodhouse - *^My Man Jeeves; other selections of Jeeves and Wooster
Virginia Woolf - Mrs Dalloway; To The Lighthouse
Johann David Wyss - ^The Swiss Family Robinson
VI. Ways of approaching the classics and all good literature
A. Some classics that will help to appreciate all literature:
The Bible is the foundation of all great western literature. It must be read and reflected upon continuously.
Familiarity with Homer, and most especially the Odyssey. Also, some basic knowledge of Greek and Roman mythology, and some of the Greek plays.
Aesop’s Fables influence all of western literature (you will enjoy the Chronicles of Narnia even more when recognizing the many Fables present therein). Furthermore, Grimm’s Fairy Tales must be read.
Know something of the classics of the Church Fathers and medieval theologians - St Augustine’s Confessions, and a basic knowledge of the theology of St Thomas Aquinas and Catholic doctrine. Some understanding of the differences between Catholic and Protestant belief.
To be familiar with the Canterbury Tales of Chaucer and with Don Quixote by Cervantes - as these contend for the title of the first novel of the western world.
Shakespeare is a sine qua non. Familiarity with the histories, comedies, and especially tragedies - as well as a little exposure to his sonnets. In particular, Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, King Lear, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, Henry V, and others.
Truly great literature roots itself in the context of the western literary canon. A classic book will somehow build upon the themes of the classics that came before. Furthermore, a great book reminds us how much we have enjoyed the other great books, makes us want to return to the older classics, and leads us to look forward to the next great books on our list.
However, you can begin to enjoy the classics straight away! It is not necessary to have read and understood all these foundational writings - because they have already permeated our view of the world and western thought. As you read more of the foundational classics, you will appreciate other great works of literature even more - but you will also realize that literature is as vast and as deep as the ocean. The water’s fine, jump in!
B. Outside of the inspired Scriptures, the greatest book ever written is the three volume Divine Comedy. This work is the greatest not only because it is the best story, but also because it teaches us what makes a work to be a great classic. Dante builds upon the pagan and Christian foundation of western literature, has compelling characters with significant development, and uses the most particular experiences to reflect upon the universal truths.
C. Don’t read the classics as classics, read them as books. Far too often, people are afraid to read the classics or they assume that the classics will be boring. If we start by thinking that a book will be difficult or boring, we will find ourselves struggling greatly. However, many of the classics are very easy to read, and some are even surprisingly humorous. I was amazed to find that Moby Dick is full of comedic elements! Also, the Hunchback of Notre Dame is Victor Hugo's “love letter” to the architecture of Paris, not just a long book.
D. Don't judge a book by it's cover, and also don't judge it by the first 100 pages. Some of the classics take time to get into, but once you enter the world of the book, you will be able to enjoy it and understand much more. At the same time, don't force yourself to read a book if it really isn't working for you, you can always come back to it next year or the year after.
E. Great books don’t “make a point” or have “a meaning.” When reading a classic, understand that the meaning or point of the story cannot be pared down to a simple phrase or even a paragraph. The meaning or point of a great book cannot be said in any simpler or shorter manner than it has been - it’s the whole book.
Flannery O’Connor: “When you can state the theme of a story, when you can separate it from the story itself, then you can be sure the story is not a very good one. The meaning of a story has to be embodied in it, has to be made concrete in it. A story is a way to say something that can’t be said any other way, and it takes every word in the story to say what the meaning is. You tell a story because a statement would be inadequate. When anybody asks what a story is about, the only proper thing is to tell him to read the story. The meaning of fiction is not abstract meaning but experienced meaning, and the purpose of making statements about the meaning of a story is only to help you experience that meaning more fully.”
F. Reread the classics again and again! If a book is worth reading, it's worth rereading! Although it is nice to read a lot of books, and there are so many classics to read; it is often more enjoyable to make a handful of books your “dear friends” - get to know them well, and come to know yourself more deeply through those classic books that most powerfully speak to you.
G. If you like to read with a real book in print, read books in print. If you like to read e-books, read with a Kindle. If you like to listen to audiobooks, listen to books on audio. But remember, no matter how you are reading a book you have to pay attention! Audiobooks require more energy and focus than printed books, there's no loop-hole or easy way to get through a book. Anyways, you are supposed to be enjoying the classics, not just rushing through them! (Still, I do find that listening to audiobooks at a little above 1x speed often facilitates comprehension.)
H. Although many of the “great books” lists today are infected with liberalism and modernism, it is important to pay attention to reliable “great books” lists. There is a reason why these books are considered classics and have been read and taught at the high school and college level for decades/centuries. It is ok to enjoy merely good books, but don’t let good books spoil your taste for the great books!
I. A few contemporary authors: Thomas Pynchon, Salman Rushdie, Don DeLillo, Abraham Verghese, Amor Towles, Toni Morisson.
A couple Montana authors: Norman Maclean, Ivan Doig.